A mix of apples in my old kitchen
Just enjoyed my first shrub — a sweet and sour fruit drink — at Street Eats in Northampton. It set me off on an adventure that I hope to pursue all year round, using seasonal produce. (Think strawberry shrub in the spring, pear shrub in right now.) This version includes fresh local apples and local ginger, a real find. It was adapted from a recipe on Food52, an excellent site. For more about Shrubs, see below.
Makes 1-1/2 cups (I tripled the recipe at home.)
1 very flavorful large apple, 2 small, grated or finely chopped
2 teaspoons finely chopped or grated ginger
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1-Add all the ingredients to a pint glass jar. Shake. Push down the solids into the vinegar with a spoon.
2-Sit in the refrigerator for 5 days. Strain, pressing firmly to extract all the tastiness from the apples.
3-Place the strained shrub in a clean jar in the fridge. (The flavor will mature over time.)
What do I do with my shrub?
Mix the resulting acidic concentrate with bubbly water to make a sweet-tart grown up soda, a dash of rum for a fine cocktail or water for a refreshing drink. (Try adding it to a salad dressing too, reinforcing its fruit base by adding fresh fruit in the salad itself.)
A little shrub info
Tasty shrubs are a sweet fermented drink, popular from colonial times until industrialized food came into fashion, but now coming back into vogue. Just add bubbly water to a concoction of your vinegar, sugar and seasonal fruit. Wait few days and strain. Use as above.
Concoct your own
Invent your own shrubs using whatever is on hand — blueberries in the summer, peaches in the summer, etc, mixing in herbs and spices if you see fit. Or try vegetables instead of fruit. (I saw a kale shrub on-line.) Vary vinegars to your taste, using cider vinegar, red wine vinegar or even balsamic. You can fool with sweeteners like honey or brown sugar. Let me know what you come up with. Here’s a helpful link.
Food ark shrub (link)
Shrubs are saved on the food ark slow food developed to help preserve the biodiversity and traditions of our foodways.
