#fermented veggies

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We've been eating a lot of leafy greens here lately: collard greens, chard, and kale. So I've had a bunch of stems. I decided to try lacto-fermenting them, with the goal of turning them into condiments later.

The collard greens, I'll talk about more in a separate post. (I'm trying to make a substitute for Sichuanese ya cai.)

The chard stems turned the brine a pink/magenta colour, which permeated the green stems as well. I envison these stems getting coarsely minced into a chutney or relish, so added yellow mustard seed, black peppercorns, and bay leaf to the brine. (I considered using "classic" pickle spice, including allspice and cinnamon; but wasn't entirely sure what flavour profile I wanted the condiment to have, so opted for less.)

In retrospect, I should have added more bay leaf for tannins, as the stems didn't keep as crunchy as I'd hoped.

I tasted the stems after about a week. They tasted pleasantly beet-y! And I say this as someone who doesn't really like red beets!

Unfortunately, after about 2 weeks (and a few jar openings for taste-tests), the ferment developed kahm yeast. I poured off the surface growth, topped up the brine, and put the jar in the fridge.

Now that I have a "signature" sauerkraut recipe (green cabbage, carrots, carraway seed), I decided to try small variations on it.

I found garlic scapes at the farmer's market; I coarsely minced them and added them to the ferment. My partner said the layering reminded him of sand art from the 80s and 90s 😅

We started eating this on about Day 10-11, when it was still a little sweet.

Eating from the top, the garlic scapes were a subtle presence. It wasn't until a few days later, when I mixed up the whole batch, that I realised how strong the garlic flavour was!

Another lesson I learned: packing thick, distinct layers of veggies--or at least, carrots--makes for difficult untangling and mixing later. To uniformly distribute all the veggies, I had to spend quite a bit of time detangling the carrots. This would be easier in a huge vessel where I could freely mix everything, but that is a 1.9 L jar, and I don't have many vessels bigger than that!

I do enjoy the stratified appearance though--especially because I can then watch how the escaping gas disturbs the layers! So future ferments may include thin carrot-only layers.

This ferment developed a slightly cheesy flavour. I used to find this disturbing (you're cabbage, not cheese!), but now it's starting to grow on me!

Lacto-fermented patty pan squash with oregano and thyme.

This flavour combination turned out really well! Summer squash and oregano is a good combo. Adding one bird chili in the ferment was a good amount, adding a subtle amount of heat. The garlic (clove and scape) is also subtle.

The texture is really pleasant, too: lightly crunchy.

Kale Slaw & Fermented Veggies

3 Recipes, 1 Video

Kale Slaw: Massage kale with salt and olive oil. Add sliced carrots, shredded cabbage, celery, mushrooms, cucumber, avocado, broccoli, hummus, dijon mustard, safflower oil, flax seeds. Pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds.

Fermented Carrots:Slice carrots and fill a Mason jar. Mix 1 tablespoon of sea salt for every cup of water, cover your carrots, apply lid and let sit for 2 weeks in…

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