Shrubs and Drinking Vinegars

We went to the Austin Food and Wine festival in April.  The huge take away we came out with was a class on Shrubs and Drinking Vinegars.  So what is a Shrub or drinking vinegar?  These are basically a way to preserve fruits and vegetable in a liquid form.  They were used back in the days before electricity to preserve the fresh fruit.  These shrubs can be added to sparkling water to create a flavored soda.  They are also excellent mixers for cocktail and are currently the rage in the cocktail scene.  They couldn't be easier to make.   Basically equal parts of chopped and peeled fruit and vegetables, sugar and vinegar.  You can also add aromatics such as herbes and spices, lemon and orange peel to add flavor.

Here is the process:

Slice and cut into small piece 2 cups of leftover fruit (strawberries, peaches, berries, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes... you get the drift whatever you have an abundance of)  add equal amounts of sugars in a ceramic bowl.  Add any aromatics.  Cover and leave on the counter for 1-2 days.  The mixture will become very syrupy.  Then add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of vinegar (any kind except  distilled white viengar -  balsamics, apple cider, red or white wine will all work) .  At this point I usually put the whole bowl in the refrigerator because I have one, but in the old days I would assume they would have kept in in a cool place.  Let it sit for 3-7 days,  strain out the solids and stored in a jar.  Since it is a vinegar you can store in the pantry but I usually keep mine in the refrigerator.

Combinations I have tried so far:

Strawberry, black pepper and white balsamic
Beet, Orange peel, and apple cide vinegar
Carrot, Orange Peel, grated ginger and champagne vinegar.

Beet and Ginger Cosmo

1 part/oz Beet and Orange Shrub
2 parts/oz Vodka
1/2 part/oz ginger liquor such as Kings Ginger
sparking water to taste

Combine and pour over ice garnish with orange slice and candied ginger

So many Beets and Carrots

We have had a bumper crop of Beets and CArrots this year.  John planted a new carrot called the Atomic Reds.  These are a beautiful scarlet color and they are about 12-14 inches long.  We will definitely plant these again.  My favorate beet is the Cylikndras.  These are, as the name promises, more of a cylinder than an ball shaep.  This makes them much easier to peel and also slice to grill.

I tried a new take on the a roasted beet salad.  Since it is June and we now have the AC on in the house we try hard not to use the oven.  So I sliced up the beets and carrots along with some julienned red onion and placed them in a aluminum baking pan.  Added some olive oil and seasoning and then heated up our gas grill.
I placed the whole pan on the rack in the grill noting that the temp was about 350-400.  I baked them in the grill for 20 minutes stirring after 10.  It worked like a champ.

Roasted/grilled Beet and Carrot Salad

Grill or Roast (see above note)  2 large peeled and sliced beets and 2  peeled carrots sliced on the diagonal

and 1 small red onion julienned.

Dressing - 2 tbsp blood orange flavored olive oil ) if you do not have blood orange oilve oil use regular with a tsp of grated orange rind)

                2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar

                salt and pepper to tates

2 tbspn goat cheese

2 tbspn chopped mint

2 tbspn chopped roasted walnuts (optional)

Once roasted and cooled combine with dressing and top with goat cheese and mint and nuts.