Jalapeno Hare

After having success with a traditional kraut in January(retro actively named "The Krautfather"), it was time to venture out and try a kraut with some added ingredients. A few hours of drooling over the different krauts available out there later, and I settled on a roasted jalapeno kraut. In addition to the jalapenos(which I seeded and roasted in the oven), I added carrots, garlic, and a bit of ginger....because ginger makes everything better!

All of the vegetables I used were organic, and the cabbage was locally grown. Trying to determine the actual amount of each item to use is about as clear to me as extra minutes at the end of a soccer game. So instead of just staring blankly at the vegetables for hours I just guessed. I had 3 heads of green cabbage, and to make things easy on myself I went with two jalapenos, two carrots, and two garlic cloves per head of cabbage (that's 6 of each for those of you that struggled with word problems in math class). I'd like to say I had a similar system for the ginger, maybe a teaspoon per head or something, but I didn't think that one out and just grated a piece about the size of my thumb and called it a day. Sometimes laziness gets the best of me. For the salt, I went with the recommendation from the book Wild Fermentation of two tablespoons per five pounds of cabbage. That should have been easy, but when your ingredients weigh more than your kitchen scale will read, things get complicated. I did some rough estimating, and probably ended up with about 3-4 tablespoons of salt total in the end.

 

After 4 weeks on top of the fridge, the kraut was put into jars (7 to be exact), labeled, and handed out to friends and family. And the best news was, the Jalapeno Hare turned out delicious! It's got a mild to medium heat from the jalapenos and a nice kick from the garlic and ginger. Almost like a coleslaw when eaten alone, and a fantastic topping for sandwiches, hot dogs, and perogies, it turned into an all around winner!