COUNTER CULTURE

     I was honoured to be invited to present a workshop on fermenting at Bridgewater's Up!Skilling Expo last weekend. My first instinct was to share my absolutely favourite recipe for Dill Pickled Cucumbers and Beans with everyone because they are so easy to make, and taste amazing! It's hard to believe that this very classic (and healthy) recipe and method for making pickles has virtually disappeared from our kitchen cultures. Good thing fermenting is experiencing a serious revival because I honestly can't imagine life without these babies.

Like I discuss in the video, fermented beans and cucumbers are a great way to preserve fresh vegetables from your garden, while at the same time making them more digestible and inoculating your system with beneficial probiotics. Amazing eh?!

DILL PICKLES AND BEANS

via Lacto-Fermentation

a couple of handfuls of fresh organic string beans, stems removed and/or

about 6-7 organic pickling cucumbers

3 Tbsp unrefined sea salt

fresh organic dill blossoms

fresh organic garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 Tbsp organic mustard seeds

5 cups filtered water

clean mason canning jars

Method: Place a dill blossom, a couple of cloves of garlic, and the mustard seeds in the jar. Then fit in as many cucumbers or green beans as you can. In a glass measuring bowl, dissolve the salt in the water and then pour over the vegetables, being sure to cover them completely. Screw on lids and place the jar on a plate or in a bowl to catch any potential overflow, and place on your counter or on top of your fridge for about 3 days. You'll know they are done fermenting when the brine becomes cloudy and the vegetables turn a darker shade of green. Store in a cool place like a cold cellar or refrigerator. Enjoy!

PRESERVING SUMMER

     My garden is a long way off from providing enough to actually feed my family, so I am very grateful for the experts at my local farmer's market who are light years ahead of us in terms of productivity. I was especially pleased to find some nice cabbages because we are all out of sauerkraut. The last time I made a batch was when I was filming this clip for my new course "How To Make The Switch To A Real Food Diet in 3 Simple Steps" which I am offering at the special price of $39 to readers of my blog.

SAUERKRAUT

5 pounds organic cabbage, grated

3 Tbsp sea salt

Method: Combine the salt and cabbage in a large bowl, toss well. Use a mallet or potato masher to pound the cabbage until juices start to be released. Press tightly into wide mouth mason jars. Use a small mason jar to weigh down the cabbage so it remains submerged with it's own brine. Leave at room temperature for 5-9 days or until sour. Cover and refrigerate.

PRINT RECIPE

30 Days of Real Meals- #5 Breakfast of Champions

We've been eating a lot more eggs since I've cut back on grains (not that you'd be able to tell that we've cut back since all my posts lately feature them!).  So, for breakfast I like to add a little flair to our plate by making crunchy salads.  I haven't gotten around to sprouting much these days, but luckily a vendor at the farmer's market sells lovely sunflower sprouts which we've really been enjoying lately.  Like this morning for instance, where I tossed them with (store bought) lacto-fermented turnips, carrot and avocado drizzled with a touch of umeboshi vinegar, flax, and olive oil.  Perfect next to a pair of our farm fresh eggs (thank goodness our young hens have begun to lay - it was hard to eat store bought eggs again).

EASY, PEASY LACTO-FERMENTED CARROTS

Hats off to Sally Fallon for really getting people interested in lacto-fermentation.  I love it, it's so easy, tastes great and is awesomely good for you too.  One of my favorite recipes from her book Nourishing Traditions is a really simple shredded carrot.  In the book Sally recommends adding fresh ginger, but to be honest, I think it tastes better without.  So, after harvesting the carrots out of our garden before we move to the new digs, I made a batch and thought I'd show you how I did it.  

LACTO-FERMENTED CARROTS

adapted from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions

4 cups grated organic carrots

1 Tbsp sea salt

4 Tbsp organic whey

Method:  Add the salt and whey to grated carrots.  Bash with a pestle until the juices start to ooze, then pack it into a glass jar.  Cover and let sit at room temperature for three days to ferment, then refrigerate. Keeps for at least 3 months.

KEEPING THE CROP

 

 Garden harvesting is in full swing, and each day finds me out in the garden and then into the kitchen to preserve the bounty.  To make things a little extra challenging this year, I must find ways to preserve the harvest that do not rely on freezer space.  We are moving in a few weeks and will be downsizing to one refrigerator.  In other words, we are going from a house with a deep freeze and two upright refrigerators/freezer units down to just one!  Day by day I am using up whatever we've had stored in these freezers, but I am starting to wonder how I am going to work with less freezer storage.  

     Our garden produces so much kale each summer that I usually blanch and then freeze it in Mason jars.  I did some of that this year, but I am also trying out a couple of new techniques.  The first idea I got from my sister who really loves kale.  I was over at her house one day and noticed she was juicing a lot of kale and then pouring the juice into an ice cube tray and freezing it so that she could use cubes of kale juice in her smoothies in the winter.  It's a great way to use up lots of kale and very little freezer space, which is perfect for me.

     I've also been giving my dehydrator a work out drying kale.  This way I can powder it and add it to whatever I like in the winter - popcorn, soups, smoothies, baby food - really the possibilities are endless.     

     I am also back into the lacto-fermentation groove.  The beets from the garden are now delicious lacto-fermented Pickled Beets.  The cabbages that barely survived a full out attack from some sort of caterpillar army managed to produce a nice large jar of Cortido once I cut off all the nasty bits and removed the critters still living in and on them.  The onions and fatty carrots Scott planted also made their way into the cortido, which was really exciting because pickling is so much more gratifying when you use vegetables from your very own garden.

     It was also high time I dug up the rest of the potatoes and figure out what to do with them until we are ready to eat them.  I had no idea you need to be very careful when you harvest potatoes.  Any little blemish or scratch on the surface of the potato could cause it to spoil and ruin the bunch when they are in cold storage.  Next year I will be extra careful not to stab them with the pitch fork when I dig them up, nor will I carelessly toss them into the basket.

     I had big plans to spend the afternoon packing, but when I got home from the market all I wanted to do was pickle and make immune boosting herbal remedies for the winter.  No one was home, so I went with it.  Besides, something had to be done with all the cucumbers growing in the garden.  Last week I made a batch of my favorite Cucumber Relish, and really wanted to use the rest to make my ultimate sweet sliced dill pickles that taste amazing on sandwiches.  

SWEET SLICED DILL PICKLES

Makes about 5-500ml jars

4 lb organic pickling cucumbers

6 medium sized organic onions

3 cups local honey

4 cups organic apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1/2 cup sea salt

5 cloves organic garlic

5 heads fresh organic dill

Method:  Slice cucumbers into 1/4" slices, and the onion into thin onion rings.  Set aside.  Combine honey, vinegar, water and salt in a large stainless steel saucepan, bring to a boil.  Add the onion and cucumbers to the liquid and return the mixture to a full boil.  

     Place 1 clove of garlic and 1 head of dill  in a hot jar.  Pack cucumber and onion slices to within 3/4" of top rim.  Add pickling liquid to cover cucumbers to within 1/2" of top rim.  Remove air bubbles, readjust head space and wipe jar rim.  Screw on lidd and place jar in canner.  Repeat.  Return water to boil and process for 10 minutes.

     My oldest son is starting Kindergarten this year, and so I've been getting him prepared for school - getting him a knapsack and clothes, organizing his lunch kit.  I am now starting to think about winter colds and him being exposed to so many children on a daily basis.  The whole family has started taking fermented cod liver oil to bump up our vitamin A & D, not to mention all that essential fatty acid goodness.  While at the health food store I was about to pick up a bottle of elderberry syrup when I suddenly remembered this post by a friend of mine over at Sparrow Tree who shared a simple homemade version.  Now I must admit to having fantasies of finding a spot nearby where wild elderberries grow so I could wildcraft and then make healing syrups, but I have yet to locate this special place.  So, until then I will use dried berries from the store.  This stuff is so delicious, I am pretty sure I won't have any trouble getting my son to take a spoonful of it every day to keep him healthy.  I think I am almost ready to send my little boy off into the world.  Sigh.

SAUERKRAUT AND OTHER FERMENTED YUMMINESS

I decided to go nuts at the Farmer's Market this week and buy loads of veggies to turn into lacto-fermented yumminess.  It is amazing the amount of veggies you can pack into a jar once they've been salted a bit.  So I spent the afternoon grated, chopping, peeling and smashing all that produce and they are now happily resting on the kitchen counter, busily fermenting their little hearts out......

LACTO-FERMENTED CARROTS

(adapted from "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin)

 http://astore.amazon.ca/prasada02-20?node=6&page=2

These carrots taste great in salads, with eggs, and on sandwiches.

4 cups grated organic carrots, loosely packed

3 tsp sea salt

Method:  In a bowl, mix the carrots and salt together.  Place in a Mason jar and press down with a wooden pounder.  There should be about an inch of space between the top of the carrots and the top of the jar.  Cover tightly and leave at room temperature about 2-3 days before transferring to cold storage.

SAUERKRAUT

Makes a half-gallon jar

3 1/2 pounds organic cabbage

1 tablespoon sea salt

You can add optional ingredients from the following list: 1 tsp caraway seed, peeled sliced garlic; washed, cored and sliced apples; peeled onions cut into eighths; dill seed; juniper berries; or other spices.

Wash cabbage and cut into thin shreds, with a kraut cutter, mandoline, food processor, or by hand with a knife.  Mix cabbage shreds with the salt in a large bowl and let stand for 15 minutes.  Then press the cabbage with your fist or a wooden stamper until the juice is flowing well.  It is important to crush the vegetables enough to create the juice.

Pack the juicy shreds into your jar in layers, interspersing the caraway and any other ingredients you are using.  Pack tightly enough that all the air is pressed out.  You should leave about two inches of space below the lid. If you don’t have enough, you can add a little brine: 1 tsp salt to one pint water.  Put the lid on and screw down, but not really tight.  Put the jar on a plate or pie tin, and keep in a dark corner of your kitchen for one week.  Then put in a cold place for another four weeks to mellow.  Sauerkraut keeps many months under proper storage conditions (provided you keep out of it that long).

Untraditional KIMCHEE

Makes a half-gallon jar

1 ½ pounds organic Napa cabbage

1 pound organic daikon radish

3 tablespoons sea salt

1 ½ tablespoons peeled and sliced organic garlic

6 organic scallions trimmed and sliced or ½ cup trimmed sliced leek 

2 tablespoons peeled and grated organic ginger

1-3 tablespoon fine quality medium Korean hot chile powder

1 teaspoon organic sugar

     Wash Napa cabbage and cut in half lengthwise.  Cut out the core, chop the rest in approximate 1.5” squares.  Peel daikon and slice ¼” thick.  In a large nonreactive bowl, mix 6 cups water and 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons salt. Then put in the radish and Napa, dunking them in the water.  Let stand 8-12 hours, dunking occasionally.          

At the end of this period, prepare the rest of the spices along with 1 teaspoon sea salt and 1 teaspoon sugar into a mixing bowl (a second bowl).  Scoop the vegetables out of the brine into the bowl with the spices, mix well.  Reserve the brine. 

Pack the vegetables reasonably tightly into your jar. Be sure to pour in any liquid left in the bottom of your mixing bowl.  Then fill the jar up to the neck with the reserved brine.  Cover jar loosely, put on a plate or pie tin, and keep in a dark place.  Kimchee takes from five to nine days to ferment, depending on the ambient temperature.  At five days, start tasting the brine with a clean spoon.  When it is sour enough to your taste, your kimchee is done.  Cap tightly and keep in a cold place.  It is ready to use at once, and will keep many months under refrigeration (or buried out in your yard if you live in Korea). 

STRAWBERRY KEFIR SMOOTHIE

     These past few mornings I've been drinking a delicious strawberry smoothie made with kefir.  Kefir is a lacto-fermented beverage that supplies beneficial probiotics, enzymes, minerals, rapid hydration, and enhanced digestion to people.  It is so easy to make too!  I have to yet built up a taste for drinking it straight up though, so I like to blend it into this delicious smoothie.  Kefir is even easier than yogurt to make, so don't be timid, try it!  Just stir in the cultured powder and let it sit on your counter.  

HOMEMADE KEFIR

1 litre organic whole cow or goat's milk (raw if you have access)

1 packet kefir starter

Pour the milk into a glass Mason jar.  Add kefir starter, screw on the lid and shake.  Set at room temperature (70-75*) for 12-48 hours, then transfer to the refrigerator.    Can last for several months in the refrigerator.  

STRAWBERRY KEFIR SMOOTHIE 

(adapted from "The Maker's Diet" by Jordan Rubin http://astore.amazon.ca/prasada02-20?node=6&page=2)

300 ml organic kefir or yogurt

1/2 Tbsp organic extra virgin coconut oil

1 Tbsp organic flaxseed or hemp oil

1 Tbsp unheated local honey

1 Tbsp organic hemp nuts

1 cup organic frozen or fresh strawberries

2 Tbsp organic goji berries

1 Tbsp organic greens powder

Method:  Blend all ingredients and enjoy.