Columbus Day Weekend Fermentation Fun

This weekend was a 3day for us G-men so what better way to spend it than slaving in the kitchen!  Lately I've been on a fermentation kick so I wanted to try a few new things (and that was good enough reason to skip out on work after lunch on Friday to go to the grocery store).  My previous attempts ranged from really tasty to really tangy to really nasty.  Most of my recipes were based on either Nourishing Traditions by Sallon Fallon or The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates.  I find that NT uses too much salt, while BED doesn't use enough.  I like a pinch of sea salt to give it a little kick. 

Previous Experiments

Cortido- This called for using a pineapple vinegar brine.  The hubby loves dehydrated pineapple so we carved one up and I used the skin to make the vinegar.  I only let the skin sit for about 2 days submerged in water so it never really developed the vinegar smell.  After straining off the skin, I added some red cabbage, carrots, onion, mint, and a pinch of sea salt.  I let this sit for about a week before putting it in the fridge.  My favorite so far.

Broccoli Slaw/Parsley- This one was ok.  It's not as pretty as the cortido, but it has a nice tangy, almost puckering taste to it.  I used the pineapple vinegar once again and added some broccoli slaw (with carrots and small shreds of red cabbage) and a bunch of parsley.  This sat out for about 4 days before moving to the fridge.  I didn't add salt to the mix to try out the flavor.

Apple Cider Vinegar- Since the pineapple vinegar seemed to work really well, I decided to try some apple cider vinegar from a few apple peels.  It developed the vinegar smell a whole lot faster than the pineapple.  I think I'll save this one for medicinal purposes.

Preserved Tangerines- I think I let this one sit out too long (2-3 weeks) and it was just nasty.  It smelled really good though.

This Weekend's Fun

At the grocery store I picked up some carrots, broccoli, onions, red bell pepper, daikon radish, asian pear, mangoes, pineapple, papaya, limes, cilantro, yogurt, milk, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, beets, tomatillos, and cucumbers.  Here are the combinations I came up with:

Broccoli, carrots, onions, red bell pepper, cucumbers, pineapple vinegar.

(Left) Carrots, daikon radish, ginger, 2 plums that were hanging out on my counter all week, asian pear.  (Right) Carrots, red bell pepper, onions.  (Not shown) Daikon radish, asian pear, onions, ginger.  (Also not shown) Beets, salt, and whey.

The hubby loves when I make fruit salsa with coconut rice.  When I saw a similar recipe from NT, I had to try it.  I mixed mangoes, papaya, and pineapple with red onion, garlic, cilantro, homemade whey, jalepeno, and lime juice.  (Not shown) I used the yogurt and milk to make SCD compliant yogurt that was fermented for 24 hours at 105 degs to burn off all the lactose.  I used the extra yogurt to make some whey for the salsas and beet kvass.

I thought that was it for my experiments, but we decided to check out this 24 hour Korean-type Costco on Sunday and found these beauties.

I made 3 different batches of salsa.  One with tomatillos and red tomatoes.  One with all the colors. And one with just plain red tomatoes (that happened to be one of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had).  All were mixed with onions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime, garlic, and whey.

I tried the Beet Kvass this morning after sitting out for 4 days and it was still a little sweet for my taste.  I'll give it another couple of days before I move to the fridge.  I'll try the salsas tomorrow and will probably move all the rest after 7 days of sitting out.