Tangy Curried Cauliflower

You can make these delicious and vibrantly yellow florets with a favorite store-bought curry powder, or create your own fresh mixture of curry spices. I have tried both techniques, and both resulting ferments are delicious. However, the depth lent by freshly toasted and ground spices is perceptible, and worth the time, IMO.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head of organic cauliflower (this will fit into 1 quart mason jar)

• 1 generous tablespoon of your favorite curry powder, or make your own blend! Here’s what I use:

• spices: 1 t teaspoon each of toasted cumin, coriander, fenugreek, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons of turmeric (plus anything else you might want). Put everything into a mortar and pestle and grind to a medium coarseness.

• 1 inch of fresh ginger root sliced into coins, 2 garlic cloves, sliced

• 2% brine (2 teaspoons in 2 C water)

• 1/4 cup of juice from any previous ferment (vegetables, sauerkraut, fermented pickles) - this is charmingly called “backslop”. This step is optional, but kicks the ferment into gear a little faster by adding a dose of microbes and acid.

Equipment:

glass mason jar and lid

mortar and pestle

cutting board and knife

skillet to toast spices

Technique:

• pull the cauliflower into small-medium-sized florets

• toast and grind your spices, or open your favorite jar of curry powder or paste

• slice ginger and garlic

• Put everything in the jar. You can be methodical, putting the spices in the bottom, then layering cauliflower followed by ginger and garlic, repeating up the jar, finishing with the cauliflower. Or just tumble everything in together. The ferment doesnt really care about order.

• Leave about 2 inches of clearance at the top, and then pour in the brine to almost cover the veggies.

• add your backslop to submerge your veggies. If you are not using a backslop, simply add more brine.

• put the lid on and turn it upside down a few times to shake it all up and distribute the spices.

• store the ferment in a safe spot, loosening the lid so it can expel CO2, one of the end-products of fermentation.

• taste in about 5-7 days, and when it is as tangy as you’d like it, tighten the lid and put it in the fridge.

These tangy morsels are great snacks, or served alongside a dal and rice. It’s a beautifully vibrant addition to a thali or regular dinner platter. Don’t discard the curry liquid! It’s great in soups than need some zing, or added to some olive oil to create a curry vinaigrette pre-loaded with acid, salt and probiotics!

Shish Taouk Turnips

Actually, you could use any radish’y root vegetable if you don’t have turnips hanging around. I tried this technique first on kohlrabi - I mean, honestly, what do you do when the CSA give you a kohlrabi the size of your head? You have to ferment, or you’ll never get through it.

Shish Taouk is a Lebanese spice mix. I use it here for the flavor, along with a beet to make it pink. If you’ve ever had shawarma or falafel with delicious tangy pink morsels tucked in under the tzatziki sauce, those might be the fermented vegetables you’re about to make.

Spice mix ingredients

Mix the following together in a small bowl. It makes extra, so you might use is as a dry rub, or add it to some oil/acid and marinate with it.

1 teaspoon each of paprika (regular or smoked - your call) and ground allspice

0.5 teaspoon cinnamon, ground ginger, oregano, white pepper (could use black, if so, use a little less), nutmeg, garlic powder

Other ingredients

1 bay leaf

3 garlic cloves sliced

3 small turnips

1-2 small beets

3% brine (2 teaspoons of salt dissolved in 2 cups of water, or 15 g salt in 500 ml water)

Method:

1) Slice turnips and beets into spears

2) put sliced garlic in the bottom of a pint jar and fill with upright vegetable spears. Slide the bay leaf down the side. Insert a few remaining spears in the middle to pack the veggies tightly, wedging them in so they cannot move. Once they start fermenting, the veggie spears will soften and the CO2 released during fermentation will float them if they are not packed in. The goal is to keep them submerged for the entire fermentation. If you have a fermentation weight, you could use it here, but that’s optional.

3) Fill the jar with brine to at leas an inch above the veggies, but also leaving about an inch at the top (less likely to spill that way). Loosely cover with a lid.

4) Put the jars on a plate in a room temperature spot out of the light, and allow to ferment for up to 3 weeks. Check them every day to make sure they are submerged. If something floats, create another vegetable stick or two - carrots are a good shapes - and wedge everything back down under the surface.

5) Enjoy your pink and delicious fermented vegetables with falafel and tzatziki, roasted chicken, tossed into salads or simply as a vibrantly-colored snack.

Curtido - a Salvadorean sauerkraut sibling

Curtido hails from El Salvador and may be made quickly with vinegar, but I prefer the fermented version for a more complex and probiotic condiment. It can also be used anywhere you use sauerkraut for a surprising flavor spin. Curtido on toast under sizzling melted cheese is heavenly!

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

2 carrots, grated

1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced

2 jalapeños, seeded and sliced (more or less to your taste)

1.5 T dried oregano (substitute fresh if you have it!)

salt

Equipment: chopping board and knife, large mixing bowl, jars and lids, measuring spoons, kitchen scale

Method:

Use the same method of salting, mixing and squashing, as for sauerkraut with the first 3 ingredients - click HERE.

Add the japaleño and oregano to the ‘krauted’ veggies and mix well.

Press into jars and submerge under the expressed liquid as per the Sauerkraut recipe. Don’t forget to label and date your jars, and check them every morning to keep the ferment submerged. Curtido can be eaten within 3 days but will become more tangy as the ferment progresses, so it’s up to you and the flavor you prefer. Once it has fermented to your liking, tighten the lid and refrigerate. Serve with pupusas or anywhere you might want a slightly spicy sauerkraut-style-twist.

Fermented Hot/Chill Sauce

Fermented peppers of all kinds are delicious. You can create your own signature blends of flavor and heat (or not) with a fermented pepper condiment that adds zest and zing to any dish. You might even add a drop of fermented hot sauce into a cocktail for an eye-opening beverage experience.

Ingredients and equipment:

6 peppers - I’ll keep it simple and use 6 jalapeños, but you can choose whichever peppers you desire. Mix and match once you have the basic technique down.

1/2 onion, (3 cloves of garlic (optional, but garlic a good good thing)

1/2 T peppercorns (black, or your choice)

3% brine (15 g salt + 500 ml water or 2 tsp salt + a pint of water)

shot (+/- 1/4 c) of previous fermentation liquid, sauerkraut juice or yogurt whey (optional, but gives the fermentation a boost, especially if you’ve grilled some of your peppers)

1-2 mason jars with shoulders, lids

1/2 inch thick slice round vegetable (turnip? daikon? wide carrot?) to wedge into the jar under the shoulders. or other submersion method like a ziplock filled with brine

blender (immersion blender, Vitamix whatever you’ve got), colander, bowl

apple cider vinegar (or another preferred vinegar)

cutting board, sharp knife

cookie sheet and broiler, or grill (if you wish to add a smoky quality to your sauce)

Method:

I like to ferment the peppers in chunks and then puree them once they are fermented. You could also ferment pre-puréed veggies, but it’s harder to keep the mash submerged and you’ll risk mold contamination.

1) To grill some or all of your peppers, broil or grill them whole until a bit charred on all sides. Remove from the oven until cool enough to handle, then remove the stem and seeds.

2) stem and chop all your peppers into chunks (with or without seeds - your choice). Slice the onions into 1/4 inch or thinner slices. cut garlic cloves in half.

3) Into your mason jar with shoulders, put the black peppercorns, followed by the onion slices, garlic and then the peppers. Add anything else you’d like (herbs? spices?), but put smaller items on the bottom so they don’t float and can be held down by the vegetable chunks. Leave at least 1-2 inches of space below the shoulder of the jar.

4) Pour in 3% brine to cover the vegetables to the shoulder level. Add a shot of liquid from a previous fermentation, especially if a lot of your peppers are grilled (= sterilized).

5) Wedge a large disc of turnip/carrot/radish under the jar’s shoulders to keep the veg submerged. Top up with more brine/fermentation liquid to cover the disc by at least 1 inch. The disc will be sacrificial, and composted once it’s done its job of keeping the peppers etc. underwater until the end of the fermentation period.

6) Ferment for a week or two in a cupboard. Put the jars on a tray - your ferment might bubble over a bit. Check it every morning to ensure the peppers are still submerged, push down on the disc to encourage the bubbles to fizz out, or slide a knife down the side. Another way of keeping the veggies underwater is to put a ziplock filled with brine on top of the ferment. The goal is to keep the fermenting vegetable mass anaerobic.

7) Taste a pepper every once in a while (you might have to rearrange the jar a bit to access one). Once it reaches the desired flavor, discard the top veggie disc, and drain your ferment through a colander into a bowl (save the liquid!)

8) In a food processor, put your drained fermented vegetables, 1/4 cup of the fermentation liquid and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (or a different vinegar) and whizz it up. This is where the mixture becomes your own. More or less vinegar? A little bit of sugar? Some fresh fruit?

9) Once you’ve blended your mash to your taste, you can leave it as a blend or you can strain the liquid out and package as drops (if you’ve chosen really fiery peppers, this might be the way to go).

10) This ferment will last almost indefinitely in the fridge, and they make great gifts.

I love fermented pepper sauce on eggs, fish tacos, drizzled on soups, mixed into a salad dressing, zinging up a stews, or even a drop into a cocktail - your imagination is the limit!

Date-Cheese-Nut bites

These delicious little bites encompass the sweet-salty-crunchy notes. Sort of like the prosciutto/melon idea, but compact and dense. They are quick to make and present elegantly on an appetizer or cheese platter, functioning well before or after a meal. I love taking these for snacks during outdoor activities like hiking or snowshoeing. They are individual compact non-messy energy bites that pack easily into a zippy for your trail lunch or snacking pleasure.

Ingredients: Dates, cheese (gorgonzola or feta), nuts (almonds walnuts, pecans)

Assembly: Cut a a slit along the long edge of a date, remove and discard the pit and open the date cavity. Cut some (1 tsp?) of your preferred cheese (salty feta or funky blue are my favorites) and stuff it into the cavity. Add a nice big walnut or two almonds (or nut of your choice; roasted salted pumpkin seeds?) and press the date back together again. I press it more firmly together if they are destined for the trail, less firmly for presentation on an appetizer or dessert platter. Done and delicious!

Fermented Pickles

What’s the difference between refrigerator pickles and lactofermented ones? Flavor and Probiotics! Also tannins, time, and a lot of culinary satisfaction.

Ingredients:

Cucumbers; I like to get the 12 oz package of tiny little cukes, but I have also used the 5-6 inch ones (4 -5 of those are around 12 oz). This will make about 2 pint jars of pickles. Fresher vegetables give you better pickles.

water (I use tap, but you could use bottled or distilled)

salt (I use plain white salt, but you can get fancy)

garlic cloves (4 or more, optional)

black peppercorns - a few shakes

fresh or dried herbs of your choice (dill, thyme, bay leaf)

vinegar (plain white, red wine, or apple cider)

liquid from a previous fermentation (sauerkraut, fermented veggies, yogurt whey, previously fermented pickles)

tannin provider* (bay leaf, oak leaf, grape leaf, black tea bag) Phenol-containing plant that will keep your cukes crisp.

Equipment:

2-3 pint jars and lids. I like the narrow mouthed jars more than the wide-mouthed ones - I can wedge the pickles in under the shoulders of the jar to keep them submerged. But really, whatever jar and lid you have is fine.

Instructions:

1) Wash your cukes, and trim about 1/4 inch off each end - focus on the blossom ends. Why? This end has enzymes in it that will cause your cukes to lose their crunch. Boo - floppy pickles are no fun. If using the larger cucumbers, quarter them, or cut them into whatever shapes you fancy (coins?) but be sure that they fit into the jar to leave about an inch of head room. Put your cukes in an ice water bath for 30-60 minutes to crispen them up.

2) Make 2 cups of 5% brine; 1.5 tablespoons of salt dissolved in 2 cups of water. If you wish to measure, 25 grams salt / 2 cups water (which is 500 ml). You could go lower to a 3.5% brine, which will give you a shorter ferment. It’s up to your taste preference.

3) In the bottom of each jar, put 2 whole cloves of garlic (or more!, or less), a few black peppercorns, the tannin choice and any fresh herbs. If I’m using an oak leaf, I will stand it up the side because it is so beautiful. If making a large batch in a 4 C mason jar, you could also cut a head of garlic in half and put it in for its beauty.

4) Put your cukes in the jar - I like them standing up and wedged in so they cannot float free. It’s important to keep them submerged to avoid air contact, which could result in surface fungus contamination.

5) Pour 3% brine into the jar until it’s 3/4 full. Add 1/4 c of vinegar and pour in a dollop of backslop (liquid from a previous fermentation). Top off with enough brine to ensure everything is submerged. If things insist on floating, you can get creative with submersion devices.

• I have used a bar or round of carrot or parsnip wedged below the shoulders of the jar, under the liquid’s surface.

• Crumple up a cabbage leaf and put it in the top of the brine. Some of it will stick out and contact the jar lid. If it gets wierd or fuzzy, pull it out, wipe off the upper inner surfaces of the jar, maybe top it up with some more brine and and put in a new crumped leaf. Keep fermenting!

• A clean stone (put it through the dishwasher) or fermentation weight that fits into the top of your jar will keep things underwater.

• A clean film of plastic on the top of the liquid might work, but for me, this was the least successful.

6) Label your jars with content and date, and put them in a dark cool place - I keep them in a cupboard under my counter.

7) Check your ferment every day to ensure submersion. This is really important - keep them under the liquid surface, otherwise mold might happen. If you do get a slight whitish film on top, blot with paper towel, wipe around the inside, change the lid, and top up with brine. You will not get all the mold spores, but you’ll hopefully keep the superficial fungus at bay until your preferred underwater ferment is complete. Putting the pickles in the fridge will slow all fermentation down to a crawl, so any fungus issue will disappear.

After a few days, do a taste test of part of a pickle. They are done when you like their flavor - for me, it takes about 7-10 days. If you want a tangier pickle, wait longer! If a longer wait vies you a softer pickle, next time try a higher % brine - go for 4/5%. Remember that cucumbers are mostly water, so that the brine becomes diluted when you add the veggies.

Celery salad with Dates and Almonds - crunchy, sweet and savory!

What do you do with a huge bunch of celery from your CSA? Make this delicious salad! It can be made vegan by the substitution of nutritional yeast for the parmesan cheese.

Ingredients:

• 8 long celery stalks, leaves separated & reserved, tough fibers peeled off with vegetable peeler, sliced on an angle in ¼-inch thick pieces. (Emma: I take the whole dang bunch, including the leaves and dice it all up finely. It seems to work and prep goes much faster.)

• 1/2 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped (marcona, blanched or raw almonds all work)

• 4 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped

• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 ½ lemons)

• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional. Emma: I bet curry powder would be delicious too!)

• Sea salt, to taste

• 2 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese shaved into shards or use a grated finely - about 1/3 cup (or 1/3 cup nutritional yeast)

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

Place celery in a bowl of ice water & soak for about 20 minutes to heighten crispness. Drain the celery and pat it dry with tea towel, then pile the celery into a medium serving bowl.

Toast the almonds, warm them in a medium skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until fragrant and toasted, about 5-7 minutes.  Watch out - they will burn easily if you are not paying attention. Transfer to a cutting board and chop with chef’s knife. (You can do this while celery is crisping).

To the bowl of drained celery, add chopped almonds, dates, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes and toss to combine. Add the cheese (nutritional yeast) and olive oil and toss gently. Taste and add more salt, pepper and/or red pepper flakes until you reach the balance of salty, spicy, tart and sweet that you desire. (Emma: I have also added a chopped green onion in here too - YUM!)

Serve at room temperature or chilled.  This salad keeps well, covered & chilled, for about 3 days. (Before serving, toss again & pour off some of the excess liquid)

Fermented Crisp and Sour Slaw

This salad is a tangy shredded vegetable ferment, tossed with a delicious vinaigrette - no goopy mayonnaise here. It’s a great side for grilled meats or fish, but can stand alone as a lovely lunch salad with a hunk of sourdough and a slice of crumbly blue cheese. The first part describes how to shred and ferment the vegetables. Part 2 describes how to drain and dress the vegetables for a final delicious Fermented Slaw.

Part 1 - Make the fermented vegetables

Ingredients: (can vary according to what you have in the fridge)

1 pound of green cabbage, sliced thinly (purple? broccoli? cauliflower? turnip?)

1 large onion, red or yellow, sliced thinly (I prefer red for the color, and don’t use a sweet onion - too sugary)

1 large green bell pepper, sliced thinly, (or use a mandolin)

1 large carrot (shredded on a cheese grater, large holes)

1/2 green apple, shredded on the same cheese grater (optional)

1/4 pound celeriac (celery root, shredded on a cheese grater, large holes) or 1 teaspoon celery seed

4 tsp salt (2% by weight, so you could also weigh all your veggies for a result in grams, then divide by 100 to get the grams of salt needed)

Equipment:

Chopping board, knife, (mandolin?), large mixing bowl, 2 quart mason jars with lids

Technique:

Mix the shredded vegetables with the salt in the mixing bowl. Massage well with your hands until the vegetables wilt a little and give off some liquid. Pack into the jars, pressing the vegetables underwater. Don’t add extra brine yet. The veggies will settle down over night and express more liquid, but if some still rise above the surface of the liquid the next morning, add more brine (1 Tbs/cup water) or some extra liquid from a previous ferment. Ferment 4-7 days, until the veggies are tangy. Inspect the veggies every morning, submerging then firmly. Taste them at day 4, and continue fermenting until they taste nicely sour. Then continue with part 2.

Part 2 - Construct the Slaw:

Make about 3/4 - 1 cup of vinaigrette. It can be your favorite recipe, or try the mixture suggested below by my friend Alex Lewin (Author of Real Food Fermentation, the book which has inspired many of my recipes).

Put the fermented vegetables in a colander in a large bowl and press out the juice. Reserve.

In another bowl, mix the pressed fermented veggies with half of the vinaigrette. Add more if needed to nicely moisten the veggies - don’t drown them. Put the mixture back in your jars and refrigerate.

Voilá! Fermented Slaw! Enjoy!

****

Alex’s Carolina-Style vinaigrette: 1/2 cup of juice pressed from the ferment, 1/4 C of honey, 6 Tablespoons of oil (sesame? olive? coconut? Your choice, or mix it up!) 2 teaspoons of dry mustard, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, freshly ground black pepper.

What to do with leftover fermentation juice? Mix with oil and spices and make salad dressing. Use as a salty-sour liquid condiment or addition to soup. Use it as a marinade. For your next vegetable ferment, use it to cover the vegetables instead of plain brine. It’s a source of probiotics, so you could also drink it as a tonic - watch out, it’s very salty!!

Fermented Potatoes

For some reason I didn’t think one could ferment potatoes because one doesn’t eat them raw. Then I challenged myself, did some research and lo and behold, lots of people are fermenting potatoes. So I thought I’d give it a try; total success! I tossed the fermented spuds in olive oil, salt and rosemary and roasted them. They were delicious, had an interesting tang and were chewy! Give it a try with any potato, including sweet potatoes.

Ingredients and Materials

3-4 potatoes of any kind or color

Brine; 2 tablespoons of salt dissolved in 2 cups of water

Sharp knife, cutting board and a glass jar with a lid. I used a regular quart-sized mason jar.

Technique

Cut the potatoes into any shape you desire - chunks or rounds, and fill your jar about 3/4 - 4/5 full. Pour the brine on top to cover by about an inch so the potatoes are submerged. They may float a little, push them down. If they stubbornly persist in floating, you can weight them down with a clean weight, some people pass a lovely stone through the dishwasher to have on hand for such eventualities.

Mold will eventually form on any vegetable that protrudes from the fermentation surface, so do pay attention to this detail. If mold does form, or a whitish scum forms on the surface of the liquid, not to worry. Rescue any floating weirdly-affected vegetable piece, wash it off if it’s still firm, and put it back in. Skim the surface, blot it with a paper towel and wipe around the top interior edge and surface of the jar to decrease the less-desirable microbe load. Give up on getting it all - you are vastly outnumbered, your job is to keep the majority underwater happy. The brine and increasing acidity will do the remaining work.

Put the jar of brined potatoes (lid on loosely to avoid large contaminants) in a cupboard out of direct sunlight. Examine it every morning, and push the vegetables underwater if things start to float. Remember that CO2 is being released during the fermentation and will create bouyancy.

Wait 3-4 days, then drain and rinse the potatoes, and use them as you would in any potato recipe. I roast them, put them in soup, etc.

Sweet, red and yellow potatoes in brine. And now we wait…

North African-style Fermented Lemons

A tajine just wouldn’t be a tajine without the signature flavor of preserved lemons. The tang and bite of this lovely fermented citrus perks up a lentil soup, and brings fabulous bright notes to a salad dressing, a sauce for earthy root vegetables, or add some olive oil and whiz it up with with a hand blender as a drizzle for fish… anywhere you want a lemonysaltyfunky zing. And it’s ridiculously easy to make. You could also use limes for a more South Asian approach to the ferment. Ensure you are using organic fruit, because the rind is an important part of the ferment - no pesticides please. When you are ready to eat them, quickly remove the pulp, rinse the rind and chop it up into whatever recipe you are using. The flavor will be retained the best when added at the end of cooking.

Ingredients:

5-6 organic lemons, washed and dried, room temperature. Thinner skinned lemons are recommended, but you may not have much of a choice - it shouldn’t matter too much.

Optional spices; whole black peppercorns, crushed red pepper, cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaf, coriander seeds

salt, coarse or fine

Materials:

a small (pint) mason jar with a lid

cutting board, sharp knife

Technique:

Cut 4 of the lemons in half equatorially, then quarter the halves almost all the way through. Try to extricate all the seeds without losing the juice (I do this over the jar).

Put a layer of salt at the bottom of the jar and scatter some peppercorns and any other spices on top. Smash a quartered half-lemon on top expelling as much juice as possible. Repeat with another half lemon. Add more salt, spices and another 2 lemon-halves. Continue, pushing the fruit under the expressed juice until you reach close to the top of the jar. Ideally, you’ll want an inch of head room at the top. Smash it all down firmly, but if the fruit is not covered, juice a remaining lemon and pour the juice on top.

Close the jar with a lid and put it in a room temperature cupboard out of the light. The next day, smash it all down under the liquid again. Repeat for a week or two until it stays under the liquid and happily ferments. It can stay at room temperature for a month up to a year, but once you are happy with the flavor, you can put it in the fridge to slow it down.

This version is a variation from Alex Lewin’s book Real Food Fermentation. Here’s another version of the recipe.

Lacto-fermented Vegetables

This is an easy and basic technique you can apply to almost any vegetable. Lacto-fermenting the vegetables turns them into a live probiotic food, preserves them so they don’t require refrigeration, and boosts their safety and nutritional value. The microbes add vitamin B12 and K, and pre-digests some of the fiber. The ‘lacto-’ part means that a lot of the fermentation is performed by the microbe species Lactobacillus, among many thousands of other species. The microbes in the ferment metabolize the plant sugars to release lactic acid and other delicious byproducts, resulting in a tangy funky umami-rich flavor profile.

Ingredients:

Choose one or some of the following to equal a pound of vegetables (more is fine, you’ll just be chopping for longer).

Radishes (any color - the black ones are very metal), Daikon radishes (the purple ones are are trippy), carrots (any color, so rich!), red peppers, turnips, rutabaga, onions (red, yellow, green), garlic cloves, ginger coins, Brussels sprouts, fennel, Kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (red or green), celery root, baby bok choi, green beans, cauliflower chunks, even leaves like kale, collards, spicy mustard can go in. Herbs and spices are delicious and fun to add, so collect any or all of the following: cumin, coriander, black peppercorns, red pepper flakes, fennel, rosemary, lemon or other citrus zest. You’ll make your own signature flavor ferment.

Materials and equipment:

Regular salt*, water, jars with lids (any size - I use mason or ball jars with plastic lids), a measuring cup and measuring spoons, maybe a kitchen scale, chopping board, big and small knife.

Technique:

1) Chop the vegetables. Get creative and make shapes (hearts, flowers, triangles, squares…) and pack the veggies into the jars. Either tumble them in or arrange them artfully. You can layer them with slices of onion, or throw in handfuls of whole spices. Leave at least 2 inches of headroom at the top of the jar.

2) Make 2% brine (1 T salt/cup water = approximately 2%*) and pour it in to cover the vegetables, or you can get fancy and use an online brine calculator. Optional; you can pour in a dollop of liquid from a previous fermentation - sauerkraut, fermented pickles, yogurt whey - if you wish to give your ferment a boost. Not necessary though, You’ll create an environment for the correct microbe populations to thrive, boom and bust setting the stage for the next wave of microbes.

3) Put a lid loosely on the veggies and put them in a cupboard at room temperature. Wait 4-5 days, resubmerging the veggies every morning - keep them underwater, the microbes need an anaerobic environment. Taste them - when they are tangy enough to your palate, tighten the lid and put them in the fridge. They will continue to ferment, but at a much slower rate than at room temperature.

Some of my favorite combinations:

• white daikon spears with black peppercorns and red pepper flakes - put a spicy fermented spear into a martini (gin, of course) as a savory addition replacing an olive!

• coins of variously colored winter radishes pack beautifully into a jar

• purple-topped turnip rounds with red onion slices, black peppercorns, coriander and green onion lengths - amazing on a salad or with a grilled entrée

• green cabbage sauerkraut with outrageous pink watermelon radish hearts or triangles along the sides make a lovely gift

• halved dark green Brussels sprouts with whole cumin, coriander and black peppercorn

There are so many possibilities! Let me know what you discover!

_____________________________

* Salt caveat: Salt (NaCl) is part of the environment you create to nurture the desired microbes and discourage the wrong ones (for example Clostridium Botulinum or E. Coli). If you are creating a ferment for a low-salt-person, you can decrease the brine concentration to 1% and add some sour/acidic cloudy liquid from a previous ferment - called “backslopping”. This immediately decreases the PH (increases acidity) and gives the desired microbe populations an advantage to out-compete undesirable competitors. Be assiduous about keeping the vegetables underwater, and monitor the ferment vigilantly. Your nose will tell you if anything is wrong.

In terms of food safety, fermented food is very safe. C. Botulinum and E. coli cannot survive in the low PH (acidic) environment rapidly created during the first phases of fermentation, such that the beneficials rapidly out-compete any competition.

turnips, celeriac and rutabagas from an overexuberant CSA share

Fermented Apple/Pear Chutney

I love the sweet-sour-funky bite of chutney. It’s great mixed into things, blending it onto sauces or dips, topping savory fish or grilled things, and generally adding an interesting flavor note. Upon exploration, I found; 1) cooked chutneys, 2) raw ones that need to be eaten more or less immediately, and then 3) fermented ones which introduce an even more interesting and complex flavor. To ferment a chutney, one must inoculate the fruit mixture with some sort of culture. I tried it with a fizzing and active kombucha. You can also use yogurt whey (the liquid expressed from the yogurt the day after you’ve taken a few spoonfuls out). My favorite way to eat this right now is to pile some chutney it on a piece of delicious homemade bread, top it with some sharp cheese and put the whole thing under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese is toasty and the fruity spices fragrant.

This recipe uses apples and pears, but you could vary the fruit mixture to your liking. My friend Alex uses peaches and plums, and more of a cinnamon/clove/peppercorn spice blend. You can truly make this your own combination. Because of the high sugar content of the ingredients, this ferment will move fast - keep an eye on it, and don’t tighten the lid until you put it in the fridge.

Chutney with kombucha as source of culture, and curry spices added for fun

Ingredients:

• 1 Granny Smith apple, diced small

• 1 ripe-but-not-overly-so Bartlett Pear, diced small

• 1 D’Anjou pear diced small

• 1/2 preserved lemon or lime, minced (optional, but amazing - I’m teaching a class on how to do this delicious thing)

• 3 tablespoons’ish of golden raisins or 6 chopped dates

Put into a bowl and toss to mix.

Add curry-inspired spices (all, most, or your favorite blend) , and culture

• Toast 1 teaspoon each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds until fragrant and put them with the fruit. Add 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of asafetida and ginger powder (or 1 inch of grated fresh ginger), a few grinds or more of black pepper, and the crushed contents of 3 green cardamom pods.

• Add 1/4 cup of active kombucha and mix everything together well.

Technique:

Mix it all up in a big bowl, and then smash and crush into a jar. You want expressed liquid to push up over the fruit. If it doesn’t quite cover, add a bit more kombucha. Date the jar, put a loose lid on it so CO2 can escape, and put the jar in a dark cupboard for 2-3 days. It should get a little fizzy. Smell and taste-test until it is tangy-sweet to your liking and then tighten the lid and put it in the fridge. Apparently you could even freeze it at this point (I would do that in plastic containers or zip-lock bags.)

This ferment that doesn't include salt, so if you are a low-salt person, or are cooking for someone with high blood pressure, this ferment will work well for you.

Tart-sweet colorful Apple Berry Crisp

You just cannot beat an apple crisp out of the oven, unless there are berries involved. Not only does it boost the cheerful color of the filling, it enhances the flavor with a delicious tartness that complements the sweet apples, and boosts the nutrition value with extra fiber and phytochemicals within the berries. its also simple as all get-out to make. You can make it completely gluten free by choosing almond or rice flour to add to the rolled oats. I use as many organic ingredients as possible.

ingredients:

(pre heat oven to 350F)

Filling:

3 - 4 local organic apples, washed, cored and coarsely chopped into approximately 1-inch pieces

1 C berries, fresh or thrown in frozen (my fave is blackberries, but I have recently discovered black raspberries, which is rocking my crisp world. Raspberries or blueberries, or an entire mix would be awesome)

Crisp topping:

1/4 C butter (melt in a saucepan) substitute some or all with coconut oil - vegan option!

1/2 C flour - you choose: I use a mix of brown rice and almond. I have also used chestnut, wheat, cornmeal, it doesn’t matter because you are not trying to make something that will hang together.

1 C rolled oats

2-3 T maple syrup

(additional add-ins: toasted walnut pieces, substitute honey for the maple syrup, get creative!)

Put it together:

• Toss the apples and berries together in a glass dish

• add the topping ingredients together in the saucepan with the melted butter and mix until combined

• put the crisp topping on top of the fruit and then put the glass dish into the oven

Bake for 40-60 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the top is toasty brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or yogurt or kefir.

Cold apple-berry crisp with kefir is an amazing breakfast. Just sayin’.

Smooth yet Spicy Pumpkin Pudding (or pie filling)

I love pumpkin pie, but I can’t make crust to save my life. I’ve tried. I give up.

But I won’t give up pumpkin pie, so I simply make the filling as a pudding, which according to me, is the best part anyway. Goes great with ice cream, or yogurt, or kefir, or simply by the luxurious spicy spoonful.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Ingredients:

1 can of pumpkin purée (or 2 C of baked and puréed winter squash; I love delicata, butternut or another rich deep-orange-fleshed variety)

1/4 C of maple syrup or honey (you could add more, I suppose…)

1 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1/2 t ground ginger (or go for more! I prefer 2 t of fresh zingy grated ginger root)

1/4 t ground cloves

1 t turmeric

1/8 t finely ground black pepper

1/8 t (or less - watch out, it’s strong) finely ground cardamom seeds. Do remove them from their pods (Optional spice, but a tiny hint adds such a fragrant exotic note.)

2 eggs (or 2 chia-eggs or 2 flax-eggs if you’re going vegan or just don’t have a dang egg around)

1 12 oz can of evaporated milk or coconut milk -> full fat, mixed up well

• Mix it all up together until smooth, and pour into a pyrex dish to about 1 inch deep. Put in oven. Check at 30 minutes by inserting a knife or skewer, and maybe turn the pan around. keep checking at 5-10 minute intervals - It’s done when the inserted knife/skewer comes out ungooey.

• Serve with your choice of toppings - whipped cream, ice cream, kefir, toasted pumpkin seeds or pecans, or simply all of the above.

• And then go for a post-Feast walk.
  

Chia or flax egg

What if you don’t have an egg? Or you want to make something for a vegan friend?

Here’s a super quick and easy egg substitute for use in baking cookies, muffins or quick breads. I use it in my pumpkin pudding (or a pumpkin pie filling). I rarely have eggs around and don’t want to go and buy a dozen if I only need one here or there.

I suggest you buy the seeds whole and grind them as you need them - they will last longer. As soon as you grind seeds, you expose the natural oils to the air and they will oxidize and become rancid faster. Keep the seeds in the fridge or freezer.

I prefer the more neutral flavor of the chia seeds in baking - the omega 3’s in the flax seeds are beneficial certainly, but tend to come across to me as a bit “fishy”, but that may just be me.

ingredients:

1 T chia or flax seeds, I grind them up a bit with a mortar and pestle, or a clean electric coffee grinder.

2.5 T water

Mix the two together in a small bowl and wait 5 minutes. It will become thick and gel-like. Use as you would an egg for most baking projects.

Caution: Best not to substitute too many eggs (1-2 max) because they won’t give the same stiffness or structure eggs would. Gluten provides structure to baked goods, so chia or flax eggs might be a double whammy in compromising form in gluten-free cooking.

Here is a site that has some decadent recipes that use chia or flax eggs, and here is the link to my pumpkin pudding recipe.

Lemon bars (well, more like rounds)

In this time of Covid19, if we are to gather and share food safely, then it will have to be individual servings, hence the use of muffin cups to hold the lemon “bars”. Also, a friend and I had just hiked and snacked our way along Blueberry Ridge (maps: https://goo.gl/maps/SsfsirtkLQsJY7qT7, trail head at the end of Brickett place - GO, it’s amazing). so I threw in some wild blueberries too. I’d also try adding raspberries or black raspberries.

There’s a crust and a filling. I reduced the amount of sugar in both because it was too high. Also, this is a very low grain dessert. There is coconut, tapioca flour, egg and lots of lemon. Oh, and bloobs.

Mix together the following in a bowl :

1T honey, plus the tip of a knife’s-worth of stevia (opt)

1/3 C coconut oil

1 egg

1 t vanilla

grated zest of 1 lemon

Then add and mix in well:

2/3 C coconut flour (I just took coconut shreds and pulsed them in my vitamix until coarse. It makes for a different lemon bar experience, chewier, less refined. I’m ok with that.)

1/4 C tapioca flour (probably any flour would do, really)

1/8 t sea salt

Put dollops of this mixture in muffin cups less than 1/2 the way up. bake at 350F for 10 minutes.

meanwhile, make the topping….

zest another lemon and then juice enough lemons (2-3?) to make 1/2 C juice - put juice and zest in bowl

add another 2T of honey and/or smidge of stevia (I like my lemon desserts to be tart, so if you prefer sweeter, you’ll have to add a bit more)

add 2 large eggs to the bowl and beat it all up together

add 1T tapioca flour and 1 T coconut flour/meal

Putting them together:

Once the crusts are firm, remove them for the oven, squash them down a bit, add a handful of blueberries on top. Them cover with filling to the top of the muffin cup. Reduce the heat to 325F and put the filled muffin cups back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. The topping might split, but you definitely want it to be firm when you take it out. Chill for a while or overnight. Bring back to room temp if you can wait that long. Serve with vanilla or coconut something, yogurt, ice cream, more fresh berries. Mmmmmm.

Gingerbread - not too sweet, ginger-zingy, gluten-free, or -ful

This recipe is adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe.

My adaptations: I reduced the amount of sugar (why add all that when you are putting in so much molasses?!) I added lots of freshly grated ginger instead of crystallized ginger (more zing, less diabetes), and used a combination of flours I had in the house. The cornmeal added a really nice texture. Instead of buttermilk (who has that lying around?) I used kefir (though I suppose one could make a similar argument). You could also use plain yogurt :)

Ingredients

• 2 cups (241g) flour. I used about 3/4 C white flour, then a mix of cornmeal, brown rice, buckwheat and potato in decreasing order to make up the rest of the 2 C.

• 2 T sugar (I think you could eliminate this completely. I will be experimenting with this)

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon each cloves and nutmeg* (I opened a cardamom pod and crushed the seeds inside instead of nutmeg, because, for some reason, I don’t like nutmeg)

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, melted (yep, all of it. don’t skimp.)

• 3/4 cup (255g) standard molasses (not blackstrap) (uh why? I used blackstrap. Worked fine -E.)

• 1/4 cup (57g) water or brewed/cooled coffee (I used water)

• 1 large egg (I never reliably have eggs around. I use a chia- or flax-egg.)

• 1 cup (227g) buttermilk (I used kefir, you could also use yogurt thinned with some water)

• 1/2 cup (92g) diced crystallized ginger, optional (I used 2 T freshly grated ginger root)

1) preheat the oven to 350F and mix the dry ingredients (flour to cloves) in a bowl

2) melt the butter in a saucepan, adde the molasses and grated ginger

3) add 1 to 2, mix to moisten

4) whisk the egg into the buttermilk variant of your choice, then add to the bowl, mix all together.

5) I put a dollop into 4 muffin cups, and pour the rest into a pre-buttered loaf pan. Put all into 350F oven.

6) Bake the muffins for 15 min (poke with a skewer to make sure they are done - skewer will come out clean)

7) Turn and then bake the loaf 15 minutes more, and poke the center with a skewer to see if it’s done.. Add time in 5 minute increments until the skewer comes out clean..

Yogurt

Yogurt is a simple dairy ferment that requires a constant temperature for 100F/45C. Once that part is managed, the rest is dead easy.

Ingredients:

1 Q dairy milk (cow, goat, etc.)

2 T starter culture (yogurt from a previous batch, preferably local organic - the CoOp or farmers market are great sources)

Equipment:

thermometer

saucepan

yogurt maker/ environment that will hold 110F/45C for over 4 hrs, and up to 8.

Method:

• Heat milk in the saucepan to 180F for 20 min. This sterilizes the milk so the culture you add has a head start.

• Cool the milk to 110F, stir in the starter culture and whisk to incorporate

• pour the cultured milk into the yogurt maker and set for 6-8 hours. Do not jiggle or disturb.

• refrigerate until chilled

Kefir

Kefir is a fermented milk beverage from the Caucasus.One of the quickest and easiest ferments to make and possibly one of the most biodiverse and healthy, it is also less well-known in North America. The history is fascinating.

Ingredients:

1 quart or 1 liter of dairy milk* (I prefer goat milk) I recently discovered that raw cow milk is not the best option here, to my surprise. The raw milk has its own microbiome which competes with the kefir microbes. Best to use pasteurized cow’s milk. I wonder if the goat milk I was using was pasteurized because I had no trouble making delicious kefir with it. Anyway, live and learn!

2-3 T activated milk kefir grains

Technique:

Put the milk in a mason jar with a lid, and kefir grains and shake well. Leave on your counter overnight for up to 24 hrs. Every time you go past, give it a shake - activate your inner mixologist.

In 12 - 24 hours, the milk will become a bit gluey. When you taste it, you will detect a sour tang and it might be a little effervescent. Strain the kefir grains out, and put the kefir back in the mason jar and into the fridge. It will continue to ferment slowly, and become more tangy and sour.

Storage:

Kefir grains can be stored in the fridge in some milk for up to 2 weeks. Store it in a slightly ajar jar, :D Feed it more milk after 2 weeks to keep the grains active.

For storage up to 2 months, store the grain in sugar water. Pour some water in to small jar and add a tablespoon of sugar, stir to dissolve, then add rinsed kefir grains. Keep the lid of the jar slightly open to allow air flow.

For longer storage up to 6 months, freeze or dry the grains. First, strain the kefir grains and rinse them with water.

1) To freeze, dry them for a few hours on a paper towel, then put them in a jar or ziplock bag with some powdered milk and put them in the freezer. Write the date on the bag.

2) To dry**, leave them to dry on a parchment paper or paper towel until completely dry. They’ll turn into yellow crusty bits. Tap and turn them around a bit to ensure consistent drying. Put dried grains into a plastic zip bag together with powdered milk. Put them into the fridge for up to 6 months. Date the bag.

To reconstitute after freezing or drying, Put them into a quart of milk and simply proceed as above. It might take a few cycles of feeding and straining before they revive and completely do their thing. Don’t give up!

* If you prefer other types of milk, try it with coconut milk, or other types of “milks” (almond, hemp etc.) but should be revitalized in dairy milk for 24 hours once every 3 batches otherwise they will perish. They really need the lactose. (Emma - Disclaimer, I have not tried non-dairy milks yet. I have also noticed a “lag” when I switch between milks from different species, for example, cow to goat. It just takes the grains a bit of extra time, maybe 12 more hours. At this point, I have one set of kefir grains for cow, and a different set for goat.)

** I’m conducting a drying experiment right now. So far - I rinsed the 2-d old grains in cool boiled (so fairly sterile), water and spread them out on parchment paper. I put a sieve over them to avoid any sort of flying contamination. Will report back on trajectory and success.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a fermented beverage that falls into the category of live probiotic food. The name “kombucha’ is actually a misnomer (not cha/tea made of kombu) but it has caught on, and is now entrenched in popular nomenclature. Kombucha has a deep history from the Orient, to Eastern Asia, Russia and into Europe. It’s basically fermented black tea  sweetened with sugar and cultured with a SCOBY. This is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. The green tea-honey version is called ‘Jun’, but its basically the same idea, and my current Kombucha culture came from a Jun that I then added to black tea and sugar.

Primary Fermentation

Ingredients:

8 C water (1/2 recipe: 4 C water)

2 teaspoons/10g of loose black tea, or 2 black*** tea bags. ***(what about decaf ? see note below) English breakfast, Oolong, or orange pekoe are great. You could also use green. (1/2 recipe; 1 teabag)

3/4 C sugar (any kind, doesn’t need to be special, I use plain ole’ white sugar) You could also use honey (use 2/3 the amount of honey - it’s sweeter) or maple syrup, or agave etc. It just cannot be fake - the microbes need real carbohydrates to metabolize! (1/2 recipe: 3/8 C sugar)

SCOBY plus some of it’s previous fermentation liquid - this is the source of the microbial culture

Equipment:

Large jar or bowl (that can hold 8 C/2 Liters/1 gallon, not metal) (1/2 recipe; 4 C quart jar)

clean tea towel and rubber band

______

Put the loose or bagged tea in a tea pot, and add boiling water - cover, steep (30 min - overnight), and then cool. Discard the tea bags or leaves.

Add brewed tea to the jar, add water to make up a total of 8 C and add 3/4 C sugar (or the 1/2 amounts) - dissolve. Put today’s date on the jar with a sharpie.

Add your SCOBY plus liquid to the diluted sweet tea. Cover with a tea towel and secure with a rubber band so nothing flies in, and wait 1-2 weeks.

I suggest tasting it every day so you get an idea of how it progresses. Using a clean spoon, dip out some of the liquid from underneath the newly-forming SCOBY. It will go from very sweet to slightly vinegary and fizzy on the tongue. How far you let it go is up to you. It will move faster in warmer months, and slower in cooler temperatures.

Secondary Fermentation

If you want to get fancy with flavors, you can take the liquid from the first batch (not the scoby), add more food (in the form of fruit sugar), and put it into corked vessels that will trap the CO2 and make a fizzier beverage.

Ingredients:

Liquid from the primary fermentation (leave about 2 inches of liquid in with the mother SCOBY)

Fruit juice (pasteurized or freshly squeezed/prepared) or pieces of clean fruit or berries, any combination

Equipment:

Clean funnel is useful for pouring kombucha from first batch into bottles without a big mess.

Clean corked bottles. I like the grolsch or swing armed ones, and I also like using old liquor bottles - they are so pretty with the colorful kombucha in it.

____

Put juice or fruit in the bottom of the bottles, and carefully pour some of the primary kombucha liquid on top. Leave a good 3-4 inches of space at the top of the bottles. Cork the bottles, put in a cupboard at room temperature and wait 2-6 days. Burp the bottles every day. I suggest you also taste them every day to get an idea of how fast they will move. If the primary ferment is quite sour, the secondary won’t need very much time, and could tip over into vinegar quickly, so keep an eye (taste bud?) on them. A new baby SCOBY will form in the secondary too, since it is from the same culture as the mother. You might want to remove that before refrigerating - up to you. I shake the bottle and then pour the kombucha through a strainer into a glass. This way I get the benefit of the liquid culture, but not the solids. Some folks simply consume them ( I just can’t… too slimy.)

Once you are happy with how they taste, move them to the fridge where they will slow down drastically, and be a more refreshing beverage. The cool thing about these is that they re-fizz themselves overnight due to the slow fermentation that still occurs in the corked bottles.

Kombucha may be consumed as-is, or used as mixers or soda replacers in cocktails or mocktails.

*** Remember that kombucha is a caffeinated beverage. Commercially decaffeinated teas can be treated with various chemicals like ethyl acetate or methylene chloride. If you wish to make a more decaf version, you can pre-steep the original black tea bags for 30 seconds to remove some of the caffeine - though sadly it actually turns out it doesn’t reduce the caffeine level that much. Drain off that water, and proceed as if that never happened. Remember to label everything with date started and whether it’s + or - caffeine. But again, DIY decaffeinating doesn’t remove that much caffeine. You could also use your SCOBY to make kombucha with a tisane/naturally decaffeinated tea, for example chamomile. But the SCOBY does prefer to be caffeinated, so every other batch REcaffeinate your mother SCOBY by doing a regular black tea brew.

My favorite flavors right now are: black raspberry, raspberry, lavender, ginger, peach, and lemon-rosemary. Basically what I have around the house with frozen berries or fruit from the summer. Other great flavors are pomegranate, sour cherry and blueberry, which I create by buying bottles of organic juice from the store. Once the juice is open, keep it refrigerated, or it will ferment, because everything ferments!! I pour the juice into ice cube trays so I can store small amounts in the freezer that I may then add to future secondary ferments.

Secondary Ferment flavors; Add about 1/4 C of liquid pasteurized juice, fresh squeezed juice, a few berries, to some lightly smashed fruit slices to a clean bottle 2/3 full of your strained primary ferment (once you are happy with the flavor and kick). This is where you can get very creative.

• pear-ginger

• toasted coriander and lime (toast and crush 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, add to bottle along with the juice of 1 lime) ** this one is delicious!

• blueberry (add 1/4 blueberry juice) or 1/4 C of smashed (washed) fresh or frozen blueberries

• tart cherry (add 1/4 tart cherry juice to the bottle)

• raspberry (add 6 cleaned raspberries -frozen OK- to the bottle. Be sure to check for mold on the raspberries, there’s always an evil one somewhere...)

• lemon-rosemary

• strawberry-sage

• rosa rugosa petals (beyond amazing - 5-6 flowers-worth of petals and it’s like you are drinking beautiful light roses. collect your rose petals away from roadways and other pollution sources. I like gathering them near beaches.)

If you forget about your flavored kombucha and it goes waaaaay too sour, then you have kombucha vinegar! Use it to make salad dressings or give soups or sauces a bright acid note. I forgot a raspberry secondary once, and made a (lot of) delicious raspberry vinaigrette.

Trouble shooting: how to get “fizz”:

The fizz is the “exhaled” carbon dioxide from the metabolic processes of the microbes. Just like us, they eat the sugar, which occur in 5- and 6- carbon chains, then break them apart into single carbon molecules. This process liberates and recaptures the stored energy between the carbon bonds. We also obtain energy from our food in this manner, and have a name for this process: metabolism. We eat foods which are made up of mixtures of fats, carbohydrates and proteins, break them apart and use them as building blocks to build and repair our bodies, and harvest the energy between the carbon bonds. We use oxygen to do it, and we exhale the most broken down and oxidized form of carbon; a single carbon atom with two oxygens attached, also known as carbon dioxide/CO2. The microbes do it in other ways, using water, but also end up releasing CO2. This is the fizz. Carbonation happens when you tighten the cap on the secondary fermentation so the released CO2 cannot escape from the vessel, and instead, dissolves into the liquid. Once your secondary fermentation has reached the flavor you like, tighten the cap, leave it at room temp for a few more hours for some more metabolism and CO2 release to occur and be captured in the closed vessel, and then refrigerate. Home made kombucha will never be as carbonated as many commercial brands because they are forcibly carbonated. Once you put your kombucha in the fridge, metabolism will continue, albeit at a very reduced rate. You might get discernible carbonation, or it might be too slow to really re-fizz. The microbes do go into a bit of hibernation. Another thing to check is if the lid of your bottle is air-tight.