We have a favorite, local, hole-in-the-wall, family-run, cash-only Mexican restaurant that we can literally walk to from our house. Open for longer than I’ve been alive, it features excellent salsa, pitchers of smooth margaritas and happy, tasty food. And they love my son and happily provide a warm tortilla for him to snack on/tear into a million little pieces, whenever we go.
And my favorite thing of all, maybe even outpacing the terrific chips and salsa, is the bowl of Escabeche they provide on every table. Mexican pickled vegetables, escabeche generally features carrots, radishes and onions pickled in a spicy brine. I love it. I will eat the whole bowl, often before my entree has arrived. This Cortido may soon take the place of that when dining at home . . . enjoy!
from Nourishing Traditions
1 cup carrots, grated
2 medium onions, quartered lengthwise and very finely sliced
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon salt
4 Tablespoons whey
In a large bowl mix all ingredients. Pound with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer for about 10 minutes to release juices. Place in 2 quart-sized wide-mouth mason jars and press down firmly until juices come to the top of the cabbage. The top of the cabbage mixture should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jars. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.
Serve with Mexican and Latin American food of all types. Also great with grilled meat.
*My little addition to the original recipe. Once I added the garlic, the mixture smelled “right” to me, beforehand, it was missing something. . . . feel free to decide if it is the right missing ingredient for you! Also, next time I’m adding radishes!
My first and biggest tip, if you have a food processor – use it! Using both the grating and slicing blades, I had all of the ingredients grated, shredded, sliced and minced in about two minutes.
Pour all of the ingredients in your largest bowl, mixing thoroughly before pounding away for ten minutes. I found that my hands were the best mixing tool available (I was just making a mess with that rubber spatula, flinging little bits of cabbage and carrot around my kitchen and not in the bowl) so I thoroughly tossed the ingredients using my fingers prior to pounding.
What worked best for me was using the marble pestle from my mortar and pestle set to mash and crunch. It has a good heft to it and fits perfectly in my hand to allow me to really press down and extrude the goodie out of the vegetables.
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I just tried this, thanks! I forgot the salt at first, and was frustrated that 15 minutes of pounding didn't emit ANY liquid. Obviously the salt is essential. Also forgot the garlic…. next time I should read it better! It looks gorgeous in the jars, though. My husband is going to be thrilled.
I just tried this, thanks! I forgot the salt at first, and was frustrated that 15 minutes of pounding didn't emit ANY liquid. Obviously the salt is essential. Also forgot the garlic…. next time I should read it better! It looks gorgeous in the jars, though. My husband is going to be thrilled.
Original comments from former blog:
Sarah said…
Does the store sell whey? Can I use Kefir as a substitute? I’m new to all this, but want to try lacto fermentation and the Mexican cabbage thing looks really good. Thanks for your help.
Sarah said…
Hi Sarah!
Thanks for reading!
Some health food stores sell whey, but it will not work as effectively in preserving this recipe as your homemade whey will and I do not recommend it. Besides, making whey is really, really easy and lasts for up to six months so if you are interested in lacto-fermentation, I highly recommend you make up a batch! In the recipe, my recipe and instruction for whey is linked to the word “whey” in the ingredient list. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Best,
Sarah
PS – We had the cortido recently and it was AWESOME! Definitely one we’ll be keeping in our fridge as a standby!
Anonymous said…
Those jars of Cortido are sooo beautiful. I can hardly wait to try it.
Donald Robertson said…
Can you substitute yogurt for the whey?
Thanks,
Julie
Sarah said…
Hi Julie!
Thanks for your question! No, you can not substitute yogurt for whey, but you can quickly and easily make whey from yogurt. Just click on the word “whey” in the ingredient list and you’ll go to a post with instructions for making whey out of yogurt.
If you prefer to do this dairy free, you can also substitute straight sea salt. Add about a tablespoon per cabbage (depending on the quantity of cortido you’re making) before you pound it. I’ve made regular sauerkraut this way recently and it works great and also creates a lacto-fermented treat.
I hope this helps!
Best,
Sarah
sarahkrzy said…
I just tried this, thanks! I forgot the salt at first, and was frustrated that 15 minutes of pounding didn’t emit ANY liquid. Obviously the salt is essential. Also forgot the garlic…. next time I should read it better! It looks gorgeous in the jars, though. My husband is going to be thrilled.
This was fun thanks! I had a huge cabbage sitting on the bench so googled lacto-fermented cabbage and found you. I added an extra couple of onions and big pile of excess carrots since I had so much cabbage. I ended up having to use my big stockpot lol but it was still so easy. I put the cabbage and salt in first while I put the carrots and onions through my processor and there was a large pool of liquid in there before I even mixed it all. It was an awesome introduction to cortido and to lacto-fermentation in general since I’ve only made one jar of sauerkraut (not looking like a hit at this point) and one jar of fermented salsa (I ate it out of the jar with a spoon it was so delicious (except when I got a whole chili in my mouth!!!)) so far – I’m a super-newbie (: now I’m off to trawl through the rest of your blog!