I got the idea that I could share some photos on my fermenting I'm doing today. Things has been quite intense in my life lately and I've been a bit lazy on making jars with fermented veggies. Fact is that I feel how my mood starts getting drained if I skip eating fermented vegetables just for a few days. So I need to have some jars stashed in my fridge or bubbling in my cupboard to keep myself in a good mood.
So; here's some sharing along side my catching up, making some fresh jars of ferments. Don't see it as a recipe, just a spontanious sharing.
I ferment so much, and most of the time I'm just throwing veggies together on pure insiration. I even like to work with colors in the jars, and this became a juicy green jar, with some nice shiny red spots 😍
I've found that it's just perfect to start with zucchini. If you grate it on a grater and sprinkle just a liittle salt, you can easily work up a perfect brine by squeeze and kned it like a dough.
The salt make the zucchini to exude its liquid. And you'll have a beautiful deep green liquid for your fermentation. Full of healthy living bacteria and fresh nutrients.
Further in the bowl I've added baby spinach, broccoli, aspargus, some black peppercorns, some juniper berries, a little bit of fresh chili and some granted lemon peel. And here's a good thing to think of; If you find an exciting recipe with chili, know that the common use in differnt areas of the world differ. A jar of fermented veggies take some time before you can taste it properly. I learned from the misstake that just a few flakes of chili in a recipe, that was supposed to be placed on top of the brine to prevent bad bacteria-growth, resulted in that the ferment became so hot that someone in my extended family just coudn't eat it. 😄
Another tip that I thought I'd share is that the small flowers/buds on the tops on the broccoli have a tendency to float. So split the tops with your fingers, and don't cut with knife or scissors (that will cut the flowers off of "the branches") and also; split the tops well, since tops have a tendency to hold on to air bubbles in the brine. Broccoli is So delicious to ferment!!
One of my favourites right now!!
I always use the broccoli-stem as well. The stem can be cut in a bit bigger pieces.
Here's some more photos from the making of the first jar of today:
Granted lemon- or orange peel gives a delicious touch to a fermentation! Just grant the colored outer peel though, the white right underneath is not as tasty. When I use a lemon- or orange-peel like this, I use to make a ferment of the whole lemon/orange too (they get bad easily with it's outer peel granted off). I cut it in small pieces with the white skin and all, and ferment the lemon/orange pieces in salt brine in other smaller jars. They really are tasty snacks as fermented! The white part of the orange and lemon peel is btw very healthy! Among loads of healthy stuff it contains pectin, which can prevent cancer, reduce elevated cholesterol and suppress appetite, so make it a habit to eat the Whole lemons and oranges!
Fruit together with vegetables is not what I'd recommend. The sugars in the fruits speed up the fermentation so much that the vegetables don't have time to "reap" properly in the fermentation. But a few raisins or dates cut in pieces is something i use sometimes to deepen the taste!
So; When you feel you're done with adding different tastes, it's time for the "kneading".
Lift the wet veggies from the bottom and place it on top of the others and knead. Push and squeeze. Pick up from the wet bottom again and repeat until they all have started to seep liquid.
Now you can push the veggies down into the jar. Press well and fill the bottom of the jar. Like I said, this is no recipe, so I'm just giving tips here; I use to make a salt brine on gray salt. Warm as much water you think you need in a saucepan, make it "finger-warm" as we call it where I live, about 37 degrees C, or 98,6 F, and melt as much salt in it so it taste like tears. I've stopped to weigh and measure to get the perfect procetnage, I've learned the taste and trust my toungue 😎. Salt is used to kill off bad bacteria, but this amount ("tear-tasting" brine) of salt won't kill the beneficial bacteria which actually is stronger than the bad ones (thank god for that, huh 😄) Too little salt won't kill off "the bad ones" and too much salt and all bacteria will die and no fermentation will happen - So be careful when you springle salt, like I mentioned in the beginning, to get that first zucchini-brine, because that salt will of course be added to the brine in the jar. Too much salt is hard to change, but it's easy to add salt if you can taste that it has too little salt in it.
Pour some lukewarm brine over the veggies. Too hot can damage the living bacteria, but some warmth will kickstart the growth by the "good ones" while the "bad ones" is decimated by the salt. That'll mae the "good ones" take over and outnumber (and kick out) the "bad ones". Are you starting to feel like a farmer now, farming microbiome? 😉
Fill the jar and squeez continuously to pack as much veggies in the jar as possible and in the same time push out air bubbles. Make sure to use all the liquid in the bottom of your bowl, and fill up if needed with salt brine-water. Taste the brine while filling to make sure it coninues to have the right taste of salt.
When conceiling the jar I use a plastic lid (from an honey jar I use to buy), to push down the veggies to be below surface of the brine. You can use a small tied together plastic bag filled with water, or cabbage leaves, distilled stones, glass, or ceramics too if you don't wan't the plastic in your jar. The trick is to prevent the veggies to reach above the surface. It's importent that everything in the jar is below the surface, within the brine. Air contains bad bacteria, spores etc. that can start to grow on stuff above the surface.
For now I'm usig that plastic lid, and heres my full jar. I use a teastrainer to scoop out things floating on the surface.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE A JAR WITH AIR-RELEASING LID
There are many sorts on the market. I use a glass jar with metal brace. The rubber rings between the jar and lid, can be worn out, so after a while I use two rubber rings to prevent air from coming IN into the jar. Lids that are screwed on is not what I'd rekommend. The lid just get tighter and tighter the more preassure that is built up in the jar. Bacteria that is growing in a fermentation produce carbonation and this can be a such strong force that the glass jar can actually expload. But don't worry, it'll take much before it happens! But it actually did happen to me. I had forgotten a glassbottle with combucha with a screw cap in the cupboard for months, and it actually did expload! No one got hurt thankfully, but it created some terrible mess to clean up 😅.
Leave some space between the surface of the brine and the lid. My jars often leak when the "chaos" starts in the jar, it often bubbles through the rubber rings. But I've stopped to bother about it, I just place the jars i small bowls to collect the brine that comes out, to prevent a mess. And I'm feeling safe since it can't explode when the pressure obviously gets out!
I'm leaving the jar for 7 days in a dark cupboard. After that I'm placing the jar in the fridge. Mostly I start to eat it right away. But remeber that this is a preservation method, so don't worry so much about how long it will be ok in there in the fridge. If the jar is unopened, it can stay fresh for months. As long as it smells ok, tastes ok, isn't soft and slimy -it should be cruchy, you can likely eat it! I mean we didn't always have refrigeators during our human development here on earth, still we've got ourselves here, right?!
~ BEST OF LUCK ~
