Friday, May 30, 2014

FERMENTING




     I have recently become obsessed with fermenting vegetables.  I started by making Kimchi.  That stuff was the bomb!  I may post my recipe at some point.  Richard and i went through gallons of the stuff in a few months.  I had never had Kimchi until I made my own.  The next thing I made was Sauerkraut.  It was also delicious; better than any sauerkraut that I have ever had before.  I also started making Kombucha and we drink it regularly.  I have a 2 1/2 gallon jar that I keep loaded up with kombucha so we have it all the time.  I have made several kinds of pickles from spicy to mild with cucumbers, green beans, okra,       and all sorts of other vegetables.
     So, today I got the itch to go into the kitchen and make something.  I had some radishes that someone gave me straight from her garden, so I chopped those up. One jar has radishes, carrots, cauliflower, and garlic in a salt water brine.  I used a cabbage leaf to push the veggies under the level of the brine and covered it with a cheesecloth and a rubber band.  The other, smaller jar, has radishes, 1 jalapeno, and some garlic with salt water brine, pushed down with a cabbage leaf and covered with a cheese cloth.
     Also, I have a gallon of sauerkraut that is fermenting in my kitchen that I plan on taking to my family reunion next weekend.  I will post my "recipe" because it is literally the best sauerkraut I have ever tasted and it is so easy.
     First, I chop up 3 heads of cabbage (save the outer leaves).  After each head of cabbage is chopped, i sprinkle on a generous tablespoon or 2 of Pink Himalayan sea salt (amount of salt just depends on how big the cabbage is and I use my own discretion on that one).  Once all the cabbage is chopped and salted and in my huge fish shaped bowl, I mix it up and let it sit for several hours so that the salt has a chance to pull some juice out of the cabbage.  It has a bit of a coleslaw consistency at this point.  I sprinkle on a generous amount of mustard seed and celery seed and mix that up, then put it in my big jar and pound it down with a big wooden mallet (a rolling pin with only one handle would work great). After pounding it down, there will be quite a bit of liquid on the top.  I use a plastic tupperware lid to keep the veggies below the level of this liquid so that they won't spoil and put a jar of water on top of that to weigh it down.  They make special equipment for this, but I just work with what I have.  Cover it with a cheese cloth and let it sit out.
     There is no point at which this stuff is not edible, but I wait at least a week before tasting it.  I have found that it is best at about 10 days.  Everything I have fermented, with the exception of one batch of Kimchi that grew a bunch of KAHM yeast, has been great.  The benefits of fermented vegetables are immense and the flavor profiles intense.  Let me know if you have questions about getting started and let me know if you try any of my recipes.

It's been a long time

So much has gone on since the last time I posted anything on my personal blog.  I have taken up new hobbies, had another kid, learned to cook so many new recipes and make many many new crafts.  I need to share these things with the world, but I wouldn't know where to begin, so I'm going to leave this here and start with today on a new post.  Each time I start something or finish something that I think is going to be awesome, I'll try to post here.