I went to Liverpool a few months ago working and invaded the “Chinese Quarter” I bought a bottle of Tianjin with not the slightest idea what it was. So……. Google is our friend & we like Lacto Fermenting….
Give it 3 weeks in a warmish dark place… This is probably so far from a traditional recipe and it’s possibly very un-cool. But I’ll bet it works. This is a sweet brine, which is a bit different for me. Also the Tomato Puree has Citric Acid added so I used Bicarb to kill it.
Ingredients:-
1 Swede, cut into thin strips
1 Tub of Tomato Puree
1 tsp of Sodium Bicarbonate
1 Onion, quartered
2 tbsp Chilli Flakes
2 tbsp Sugar
2 tbsp Salt
450ml Water
The water and salt need to be pretty rigid, as you want a 2% brine (Or over). Everything else can be cobbled!
Method:-
(1) Heat the Water, Salt and Sugar in a pan until both Salt & Sugar have dissolved.
(2) Set aside to cool to room temperature.
(3) Mix your Tomato Puree and Bicarb in a bowl and allow 20 minutes for the Bicarb to kill the Citric Acid.
(4) add everything to a Kilner type clip top jar and give it a good shake.
(5) After a day open to check it’s bubbling. If so it’s alive and working!
(5) Hide it at the back of a cupboard for 3 to 4 weeks.
(6) Enjoy!
We often post about meat. Our usual way of shopping is to find a low cost piece of meat in the reductions and build a meal around it. That's mostly my fault (Tony) as I'd make a very poor Vegetarian! But we don't often mention the vegetables specifically.
So Celeriac......
It's a sort of universal soldier for us at the moment. The local supermarket have them at £1 each and as they are priced per item you can get a very substantial chap for very little, weight for weight compared with other veg at the moment. OK they look quite unimpressive, knobbly, off white and are hard going to cut raw. But they are worth the effort. Another advantage is that unlike many root vegetables they don't discolour when you've cut them, so you can store a cut one in the fridge for days and come back to it.
We've enjoyed:-
Home made Celeriac Coleslaw – Just cut lumps and grate it with Carrots, Onions etc. and mix in Mayonnaise.
Carrot and Celeriac mash. Use the Celeriac instead of Swede.
Boiled Celeriac batons.
Roasted Celeriac.
Celeriac in casseroles and Hotpots
Yes this picture is another Sunday roast, but the star of this show were the Celeriac Chips.