Spontaneous Fermentation
I grew up eating a lot of sour and pickled foods but recently I’ve been experimenting (and falling in love) with making my own spontaneously or wild fermented foods and drinks! The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz and It’s Alive hosted by Brad Leone are huge inspirations! Do you see the tiny CO2 bubbles indicating all of the good stuff?
Raspberry Lemonade Ginger Beer - A delicious warm weather drink! I used a homemade ginger bug and mixed it with raspberry lemonade. The color was beautiful and it was not too sweet. Great to drink on its own or used as a mixer. I can’t wait to experiment with more flavors.
Jalapenos - I LOVE spicy food and peppers. These jalapenos are from my friend’s backyard and they are actually really spicy, so I took out most of the seeds and membrane and I made sure to wear gloves! I added whole cloves of garlic and some dill sprigs and let it ferment for two weeks.
Mead - I made a classic mead using just honey. My favorite mead was a persimmon, kiwi, and pear mead. I also made a mead using passionfruit but I scooped out the delicious insides - it didn’t really turn out, I’m guessing since there were any of the good yeasts from the outside of fruits - any advice?
Ginger Bug + Ginger Beer - I made a ginger bug using organic crystallized sugar (it was slightly brown in color but it worked vs white sugar). With the ginger bug I made a classic ginger beer, ginger beer spiced with cloves and cinnamon and orange, and a ginger beer using mint tea (not my favorite).
Sauerkraut - I cut up just half of this giant head of cabbage, three hot peppers, shredded carrots, dill, and three garlic cloves (probably too much, since it really started to smell). I also used core of the cabbage as a weight to keep my cabbage submerged.