Simple Japanese Pickles

Ingredients

1 cup Japanese vinegar

1 cup white sugar

2 tbsp salt

Optional: fresh ginger, diced

There are a number of popular vegetables that you can prepare for this simple pickle: cucumber, cabbage, turnips, radish, etc. The basic process is to clean and cut veggies into bite size pieces and salt them. The salting process will draw all the liquids from the vegetables to allow the pickling sauce to soak into your vegetables. Squeeze the excess water from the vegetables before soaking in your sauce. Let the vegetables sit in the sauce (covered) for 2-3 hours before serving.

(note: cucumbers and cabbage may be served within 30 minutes as it absorbs the pickling sauce faster.)

Pickled Mango

Ingredients

7 cups brown sugar
5 cups water
1 cup vinegar
Red food coloring (optional!)
1/2 cup Hawaiian salt
About two gallons of peeled and cut green mangoes. (Clean the inside cavity where the seed is, so it does not make the pickle bitter.)

Put ingredients into pot and cook until it boils.
Pack the cut pieces of mago into container (gallon or quart) and pour the hot sauce over the mango until it is almost full. Leave about 1 – 1/2 inches of space at the top. The mango will shrink and the moisture from the mango will fill the jar up with liquid.

Leave the pickled mango in the container, uncovered, and let it cool. After it is cooled, cover it with the lid and let stand over night. Refrigerate the next day.

The pickled mango is not “canned” so you have to keep it refrigerated (even before opening). It will last about 2 weeks in your refrigerator.

Fermented Vegetables

KICKER RED

Ingredients:

3 heads red cabbage, shredded
6 carrots, grated
3 inches fresh ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, chopped                                                                                                                     1 small chili pepper                                                                                                                            4-6 TB Hawaiian or Himalayan Sea Salt

COLORFUL KRAUT
3 heads green cabbage, shredded
2 beets, grated
3 carrots, grated
1 Fuji apple, grated                                                                                                                        4TB fresh Turmeric                                                                                                                        1/2 lemon, juiced                                                                                                                               4-6 TB Hawaiian or Himalayan Sea Salt

CARAWAY CUMIN KRAUT                                                                          4 heads green cabbage, shredded or other vegetables
3 TB Caraway Seed                                                                                                                             2 TB Cumin Seed                                                                                                                             1/2 lemon, juiced                                                                                                                               4-6 TB Hawaiian or Himalayan Sea Salt

Harvest Ferment

5lb of almost any vegetable you have… season and salt to your taste… experiment with whatever spices and flavors you like… juniper berries, seaweed, pickling spices ,lime juice, curry, turmeric,  etc

Tips

1 pound of vegetables = approx. 1 pint

Salts should be approx. 2-3 % of the mix

Ferment for 3 days to 3 years

Timing, temperature, and texture is up to your taste buds
Fermented vegetables can keep in your fridge for months. Like fine wine, they become even more delicious with time. You can pull one of these living salads out whenever you’re hungry and have some “fast food.

Process:

1. Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.
2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 5 pounds of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.
3. Add other vegetables.
4. Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.
5. Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.
6. Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.
7. Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won’t forget about it, but where it won’t be in anybody’s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.
8. Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mold appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mold as “scum,” but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavor turns less pleasant.
9. Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavor over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness!

Twisted Fermented Lemons

These preserved lemons are rich in lactic-acid producing bacteria, and they’re delicious – imparting a light, clean flavor to foods and sauces.   They make an excellent condiment.   After the fermentation process is complete, both the flesh and rind of the lemon become edible

To make a 1-gallon quantity of Twisted Feremented Lemons, you’ll need the following:

• Organic Meyer Lemons (best as they are sweeter and juicy)
• Celtic Sea Salt or Real Salt

Instructions:

1. Rinse and scrub the lemons well so as to remove any potential residue adhering to the lemon rind.
2. Slice the lemon as though you are going to quarter it, but leave all quarters connected on one end.
3. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the interior of the lemon, and place it in your jar.
4. When you’ve made a layer of lemons, sprinkle a teaspoon or two of salt over the top of the layer.
5. Smash the lemons down between each layer pounding them until the juice comes out
6. Continue cutting, salting, layering, salting and pounding down the lemons until your jar is full.
7. Add another layer of salt and pound the lemons until the juice of the lemons covers the fruit.
8. Cover your jar loosely to allow air to escape.
9. Leave the jar on the counter for 1 to 2 weeks to allow for fermentation.
10. Serve and enjoy!

The process of fermenting lemons imparts an earthy, smooth flavor to the fruit, adding a burst of flavor to many savory dishes. Lemons ferment for five days in a mixture of salt, water and natural juices. The process pickles the lemon and makes it possible to use the whole lemon in recipes. Fermented lemons are a staple in Moroccan cuisine and be enjoyed with any protein, couscous or rice. Fermented lemons can also replace standard lemons in recipes to add depth to the flavor.