What's Cookin'

Kimchi

So what has the Periphery been doing the past month? Fermenting food! This is what started us on our fermenting adventure, Kimchi. Pickled napa cabbage with hot pepper paste, diakon radish, carrots, green onions, garlic and fish sauce. I make mine a bit milder than normal, since I don't like getting the top of my head blown off with the gochugaru - powdered red chili peppers. Fermented in the crock for a couple weeks and cold packed in Mason jars. Another batch and we'll be ready to get through the winter in style.

Pounds O'Cabbage

This is regular green cabbage, a couple of volleyball sized heads. Don't let the size of the bowl fool you, it's enormous. This cabbage was destine to be sauerkraut. Yes, again with the pickled cabbage.
This batch had cabbage, carrots, some red onions, and spices. Just the basics.

Kraut in Crock

This is the kraut nestled in my 1.6 gallon crock. No, it is not a stoneware crock. It's a newfangled plastic and clay with vacuum lid. I'd like a stone crock, but they are expensive, and really hard to lift. This crock laughed at my meager pounds of cabbage, and it fermented away nicely for a few weeks. It even has a little plug in the inner liner so you can burp your ferment when needed. 

Sauerkraut

See that lonely little jar on the left? That's cabbage brine. 'Yuck' you say, why save that? Well, it had its use. I made fermented Red Onion Relish. Onions don't ferment on their own, so they need a little help. No pictures of the relish, because it disappeared too fast. Great on burgers and sandwiches. I'm going to make a new (bigger) batch this weekend. The little bit that's left now will go on the Labor Day grill meal.

Kombucha

That lovely jar of liquid is my fermented tea - Kombucha. Kombucha is a sweetened tea that is fermented with a SCOBY (a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). It's in its second stage, I fermented it, put the scoby to rest in its hotel, then added raspberries to the jar for a short second ferment. The SCOBY consumes over 90% of the sugar during fermentation, so it's good for diabetics.  It's got beneficial probiotics and acids. And it has some of the fizz of soda without the drawbacks of soda.

Scoby taking a nap with its brethren in a Mason jar hotel. 

Bottled Kombucha

My raspberry Kombucha safely tucked into bottles. Six sixteen ounce bottles. A few days further fermenting and into the fridge they went. Popped the top on one tonight, and it was wonderful. Light and fizzy tea with hints of raspberry. The next batch is already brewing. I think it will be pomegranate tea. What's next on the fermentation hit parade? As soon as the weather cools, sourdough bread. And in the future - Kefir. (Yogurt with a tang.)

What's cookin' in your neck of the woods?