The Essential Book of Fermentation (37 page)

3.
Lay a piece of paper towel over the jar mouth and screw down one of the canning bands.

4.
Set the jar in a kitchen cupboard or on the counter for 2 days, then refrigerate. Use within 1 month.

MamaKai’s Butternut Squash and Carrot Kraut

This recipe is from Angie Needels, director of MamaKai, a Berkeley business that offers ready-to-eat, probiotic-rich, nutritive-dense meals and snacks to growing families planning for their birth and postpartum. By having healthful meals on hand, these new mamas can better enjoy their newborns while maintaining vital health in caring for them. Visit and learn more at mamakai.org.

The quality of your ingredients is important in this and all recipes; for more nutrients in your produce, try to buy organic and from your local farmers’ market when possible.

Makes about 2 quarts

4 cups filtered or spring water

4 teaspoons sea salt

1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced with a mandoline

1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced with a mandoline

½ medium daikon radish, cut in half and thinly sliced with a mandoline

1 bunch carrots, grated

2 tablespoons grated fresh horseradish root

6 cloves garlic, mashed in a garlic press

2 tablespoons grated fresh unpeeled ginger

½ bunch cilantro, finely chopped

2 tablespoons dulse flakes

1 teaspoon chili paste

1.
Combine the water and salt in a large bowl and stir well to dissolve, making the brine starter.

2.
Fold the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl until they are well incorporated.

3.
Ladle the ingredients into either 1 large glass or ceramic fermentation container or mason jars of desired size. Smash the ingredients down into the vessel(s) and fill with brine. Smash down once more to make sure that water has seeped into all nooks and crannies and all veggies are below the water solution. If using a large fermentation crock or container, cover the contents with a plate topped with a weight (a smaller mason jar filled with water can be a great weight). If just using quart-or pint-size mason jars to ferment in, no weight is needed, but you should keep checking to make sure that the vegetables are submerged under the brine at all times.

4.
Cover and allow to ferment, opening and smashing down every 2 to 4 days or so. You’ll notice that your ferments will be very bubbly and vibrant in the first week or two (that’s how you know it’s working), but will slow down after that.

5.
Continue fermenting past this phase to allow the flavors to meld more, typically 4 to 6 weeks, and to get a very bright, sour, fermenty flavor. Stop the fermentation by placing the vessels in the fridge when the kraut tastes best to you.

Fermented Turnips

It couldn’t be simpler to make fermented turnips, but the rewards are a complex of the health benefits of all cabbage family vegetables, of which turnips are one, and excellent flavors. Use small white Tokyo Cross turnips if you can find or grow them. The Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley ferments them in a brine with added turmeric.

Makes about 1 quart

2 pounds organic turnips, trimmed and well scrubbed

1 tablespoon sea salt or pickling salt

1.
Grate the turnips into a large bowl.

2.
Sprinkle the salt onto the grated turnips and toss to combine well.

3.
Pack the grated, salted turnips into a wide-mouth quart canning jar and cover with filtered water, leaving enough space to make sure the turnips are kept submerged by putting a pint-size zip-top freezer bag filled with water on top of the brine.

Grate the turnips into a large bowl.

4.
Cover the jar top with a paper towel and a canning band and screw it down. Place it on a warm kitchen counter for 3 to 5 days, until bubbles are rising and visible.

5.
Taste the fermented turnips. If they’re to your liking, put a lid on the jar, screw it down tightly, and store in the fridge, finishing the turnips within 2 to 3 weeks.

Daikon with Turmeric, Fenugreek, and Cardamom

Another goodie from the Cultured Pickle Shop.

Follow the directions for
Fermented Turnips
, substituting daikon for the turnips and adding 1 teaspoon ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds, plus 8 to 10 cardamom seeds husked out of the pods for each quart of ferment.

Curtido

Folks in southern Mexico and Central America like a bit of this fermented vegetable mix with every meal. It’s the Latino version of coleslaw, sauerkraut, or kimchi, and it’s eaten as a side dish. A Salvadoran pupusa wouldn’t be complete if it weren’t served with curtido.

Makes 2 to 3 quarts

1 head cabbage, cored and shredded

1 cup grated carrots

2 medium yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon dried oregano or 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon sea salt or pickling salt

¼ cup whey (or substitute 1 more tablespoon salt)

1.
Place all the ingredients except the whey in a large bowl or stainless-steel pot.

2.
Pound with a wooden pounder for 10 minutes to release the vegetables’ juices.

3.
Place the vegetables in a wide-mouth container or crock. Add filtered water to just cover, then add the whey or the extra salt. Stir.

4.
Weigh the vegetables down with a plate on which a weight, such as a half gallon of water, is set. The vegetables must be submerged and kept away from air. Cover the container with a dish towel.

5.
Leave at room temperature for 3 to 5 days, removing any scum that rises to the surface of the liquid at each inspection. After the fermentation, place the curtido in the fridge, where it will keep for 2 to 3 months, improving with age. If the mixture turns gray or develops an off odor, discard it.

Gingered Carrots

There’s something about the flavor of ginger that augments the flavor of garden-fresh carrots. If you’re not growing your own, look for carrots with their tops on at the market. If the tops appear bright green, aromatic, and fresh, the carrots will be, too. The fermentation period helps these two disparate—but symbiotic—flavors to meld and mellow.

Makes 1 quart

4 cups tightly packed grated carrots