Keep it Real

Tuesday Twister ~ July 6th

Lately I've really been concentrating on getting some type of fermented, highly probiotic and nutritious food along with each meal.  It's really not hard to do when I work on having a constant supply of lacto fermented vegetables, raw soft cheese, milk kefir, kombucha, and water kefir.  Here are a few examples.

This was absolutely delicious!  Soaked brown rice cooked in bone broth topped with sauteed various greens and radishes and pastured eggs cooked in coconut oil.  Along side it a serving of fermented kim chi pickles.  This was Tim's plate, and he wasn't super thrilled with the combo.  I had one egg, greens and a small bit of rice with the pickles.  I LOVED it and will make small portions for myself.  It's an easy breakfast when you have everything on hand.

 

Here's a grain free option.  This is a very usual breakfast for me.  Sauteed greens with an egg on top, side of purple lacto fermented cabbage, and some avocado.  Super delicious and filling.  Remember when going out to breakfast was a treat??  It really isn't anymore.  Not when I can make myself stuff like this at home. 
 

Dinner the other night.  Wild caught local salmon baked with coconut milk and fresh herbs, beets sauteed in butter and sea salt and a fresh greens salad with kefir ranch dressing.  Yum!

 

We also went berry picking last weekend.  I can't believe how fortunate we were to find a local organic strawberry farm!!  Strawberries are part of the dirty dozen I always feel guilty for buying the non organic ones, but they are just so hard to resist!  Well we didn't have to resist these at 1.50 per lb!  We picked 30 lbs and I brought them home to clean and freeze.

Next was cherries.  Oh cherries, how I love you so.  18 lbs.  I have several gallon bags in my freezer and I hope to get more in there before the short season is over.

This post is happily part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.  

  

On my counter

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to grow things?  I do.  I love it.  Always have.  Doesn't matter what it is - animals, plants, babies, food, anything living.  I've always had a fascination with anything living and changing.  'Indoor gardening' has fit in with that fascination quite well.

Here's what I have going at the moment.  From left to right.  

A half gallon of raw goat milk. This milk went straight from goat to cheese. No refrigeration, no heating.  Just bring it home warm and add the mesophilic culture and rennet.  Sits out until it has formed almost like jello, then I strain it through cheesecloth to separate the whey from the cheese.  It's really good and similar to cream cheese.  Fresh raw cheese!

The next half gallon jar is kombucha.  I've had this mother culture since last summer.  Over the winter I let it go months and months and ended up with a kombucha vinegar - which I really liked to use in dressings and as a soaking medium.  I didn't like the taste of kombucha so letting it turn to vinegar worked well for me.  Well, recently I decided to try it again and have found I like it better!  So I've been brewing it once a week and drinking a small glass every day.

The jar next to it is a second fermentation of water kefir.  I added a juiced orange (along with the pulp) and some fresh ginger pieces.  I've been playing around with different flavors and this one smells pretty good!  I'll strain it today or tomorrow and see how it tastes.

Ginger carrots - this is my first time trying this recipe.  Grated organic carrots, grated fresh ginger, whey, and sea salt. Mixed together and packed in a jar.  Let sit at room temp for a few days to ferment. They smell really good and I'm excited to try this.  Can you believe that I'm still eating vegetable ferments from last summer's harvest?  I'm the only one in the house that eats it and it's lasted me this long. Still tastes good!

Next to that is a new brew of water kefir.  When I started the second fermentation of the previous batch, I started a new one brewing.  These grains grow quickly!  I had to take some out and store them in the fridge.  I let it brew for a week to be sure the sugar is mostly eaten up.

And on the end I have pinto beans sprouting.  First I soaked them in whey and warm water for more than 12 hours.  Then I drained and rinsed them in a colander.  I keep them in this over a plate with a towel over the whole thing.  I rinse them twice a day.  They now have little sprouts coming out.  I think today I'll cook them in some of the bone broth I have left from the other day.  Then I'll either use them in a dish right away or freeze them in batches for later use.

On the liver front - still not satisfied with giving up on the liver pate.  So yesterday I made a batch of sourdough crepes and filled them with the pate, an herbed yogurt dressing and some lato fermented kraut.  Rolled them up and put in the fridge for easy grabbing.  I had two of them and they were tolerable!  I think it will help when I don't have to SEE the pate (which looks like something I wouldn't want to eat) and has melded flavors with the dressing and kraut.  Yeah, I'm stubborn.

 

Lacto Fermented Vegetables

A week or so ago I tried my hand at fermenting.  Seemed easy enough.  My below post shows my first jars of fermented cabbage.  Since then I have done sliced cucumbers, carrots, and more cabbage.  

This is what I prepared today.  sliced up a whole large cabbage, pounded it with sea salt and some whey.  Stuffed a jar full and made 

sure that it was fully submerged in the brine.  I still had cabbage left so I decided to make a spicy mix. I added sliced carrots, zucchini, parsley, red onion and 4 peppers.  2 Anaheim and 2 smaller spicier ones.  Stuffed that into a jar.

I feel like I'm kind of 'winging' it and not sure what is right or not.  So I have a few questions for those of you in the 'know'.  Help me if you can.

1) Is it ok to combine all ready refrigerated fermented veggies? My first batch I made a jar of plain cabbage and a jar of cabbage and other veggies.  When they were each half gone I combined them into one jar.

2) I peeled and sliced cucumbers, added sea salt and whey.  Three days later (sitting on the counter) it was mush.  Why?

3) Are you supposed to add whey to each jar or is it preferable to not add?

4) My whole baby cucumbers don't seem to be turning mushy.  Is there a trick to whole cucumbers?

5) I've made quite a bit - how long will all this last in the fridge?

Thanks for any help!  I'm having fun playing with all these ferments and would love to do more.   I think it's neat how the top of my fridge which was just recently home to 10 or so bottles of sugar free torani syrups are now home to fermented veggies!