Wednesday, February 21, 2018

They Are Fermenting

What is fermenting?  Well, several ideas are fermenting in my head. But there are four jars with ferments in my laundry room.  There is also some Kombucha fermenting in the hall closet.   Hmmm....I guess I am king of fermentation on my block!

A few days ago, I came across a recipe for Fermented Pickled Cranberries.  Once the season is over, I grab a few bags at the markdown price and freeze them.  Cranberries freeze beautifully -- there is no work to it.  When you are ready to use them, pull the bag out of the freezer, rinse them and let them thaw unless you are going to cook them.  These hung out in the refrigerator for a few days to thaw.   My recipe improvised a bit one that is linked above.  I didn't have honey, candied ginger slices, or an orange.  I used turbinado (raw) sugar in place of the honey, grated fresh (frozen) ginger, and dehydrated orange peel. I also put some lime juice in place of the orange juice.  They look really pretty sitting in the jar.
The small jar on top has water in it to weigh down the cranberries. This keeps them under the brine so that mold doesn't form.  The big jar is sitting in a bowl in case of overflow when the ferment bubbles.

Today I made kimchi which is basically the Korean version of sauerkraut.  It is much spicer -and in my opinion much tastier too.
I have three jars fermenting and one 2/3rd jar of fresh in the refrigerator.

Three jars fermenting.
I also ferment sauerkraut because I like it better than store-bought -and it is healthier. Another ferment I like to make is a quick ferment - yogurt. It takes about an hour to prepare (mostly waiting time) and approx 8-9 hours to ferment. It is so easy.

Have you ever tried making your own fermented foods?
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3 comments:

Jeanna said...

I'm trying to imagine what fermented pickled cranberries taste like. I love cranberry EVERYTHING but have never heard of this version. Have you had them before? Let us know how they taste.

The kimchi looks wonderful, too. How spicy is it? Can you regulate how spicy to make it?

You are making me hungry this morning.

A Left-Handed Quilter said...

Nope - never tried making my own fermented foods. I did try kimchi once - but it was a bit too spicy for me - so I'll gladly leave the brine/pickling/fermenting to someone who knows what he's doing - you - LOL. I'm one of those who is not quite sure why sour milk tastes bad while sour cream tastes good - haha - ;))

Marlene said...

The fermented pickled cranberries sound interesting! Not just wondering what they taste like, but also the whole process. Reminds me of a fermented "friendship cake" that made its rounds years ago. It was great fun to make -- the first few times, but then it got hard to give the starter away. Some said you could drink it, like liquor, but I wasn't brave enough to try it.

The very idea of soured, fermented cabbage has never appealed to me (though I haven't tried it) but I did make my own yogurt regularly several decades ago. I'm about to try it again now that I know how to make Greek yogurt, which is my favourite.