TWO MID-WINTER IDEAS - Clay Coyote

So far it’s been a cold and snowy winter here in ‘ da Nort ‘ …so what better time to warm things up with a fantastic dinner with your friends …and a non-intensive project that will pay dividends all year.The first is one we wrote about last January at length, a cassoulet based dinner, and the second, making your own homemade vinegar.

The cassoulet (the pot you make it in is called a cassole) can be as complicated or simple as you wish. This is a traditional French bean “stew” which would have been made, over a series of days, as ingredients were acquired as parts of other meals.

There is ongoing argument over what is the most authentic, and we won’t get into that one. See an article in “Departures Magazine” where Sylvie Bigar has done her best to walk the middle ground. We have made Paula Wolfert’s recipe twice, once with simplifications, and then the full recipe including homemade sausage and duck confit. Doing it the full way made a big difference.

Paula swears the angle sided bowl that we make, also makes a big difference. Others use a pot more like our standard casserole. For other recipes. just Google “Cassoulet” and you’ll get a bunch. Once you get the basic idea, make up your own with what you have. Then invite some friends over, open a bottle of wine, some french bread and maybe a bit of salad and you’ll have an evening to remember.

WINE VINEGAR

The second project is even easier, but takes some time and patience. Make your own wine vinegar. A pottery crock, like the Clay Coyote Vinegar Crock is perfect, but you can do it in other containers if you want. First check out this Sunset Magazine article and this PDF file too.

I’d suggest starting with at least one bottle and then topping it off later with more. You can get a mother from Beer-Wine.com. Once you have one, that’s all you’ll need as you can keep a bit in a jar for your next batch. We’ve experimented with freezing it and that appears to work, just as it does for sourdough.

It’ll take about 10 weeks for your first batch of red wine vinegar and 16 to 20 for a white wine batch. You’ll never find a commercial product that comes close. Use it in making sauces, a bit in almost anything to enhance flavors. Pasturize it and you can store it forever and make herbal vinegars, too.

Your Clay Coyote crock comes with instructions and there are websites all over the ‘net if you search for “homemade vinegar”.