Learning About Fermented Foods And The Recipe For Fermented Fruit Paste

A few months ago I attended a Cheese Making workshop and during the workshop the host touched on fermented foods.

Fermented foods are present in a number of cultures across the globe and even here in Australia there has been a resurgence.
Some examples of fermented foods are: Sour Dough, Miso, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, Kombucha Tea, Tempeh, Kefir, Cultured Butter and Liz over at Eight Acres has been making Beet Kvass.

In earlier times people preserved fruits and vegetables through the process of lacto-fermentation, using the lactic acid as the preservative that prevents the bad bacteria from growing.  These days most preserving is done using acetic acid.  Otherwise known as vinegar.
One of the advantages that lacto-fermentations has, over more modern forms of preserving, is that the lactobaacilli in the fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels.  It also adds good bacteria back into the stomach.

For me some variations of fermented food can be a bit challenging to the taste buds but his is a great recipe for a fermented fruit paste that I think everyone would enjoy.
I enjoy it with yoghurt and it also goes well on cereal and smeared on a slice of sour dough.

I have made a few people try it and only afterwards told them how it was made.  Most people have said that it was quite tasty and a bit fizzy.
Some people were generally interested and a few said they would not have tried it if I had told them first how it was made.
I think it is crazy because I know some of these people are quite happy to eat pseudo foods.  By this I mean  highly processed and overly packaged foods that have ingredients you have never heard of and more numbers that a maths book.  
But  they say they would not want to eat something like this as the are worried that is has been left out on the bench for nearly a week.

To make this recipe you will need some sour whey as this recipe is a lactic ferment (meaning that the lactic acid acts as the preservative and is what ferments the food).  Sour whey can come from yoghurt, kefired milk or from cottage cheese and will inoculate the new ferment with lactic bacteria.  Sweet whey is what you would get from making hard cheeses.  The whey is the watery liquid that separates off from the above foods.

Notes:

• I made mine using whey from my kefir so that is what I will refer to but the process is the same. 
• This recipe needs to be made in a container that a plate (or similar)can fit inside of as the mix needs to be weighed down.  I used an old yoghurt container and a saucer.  Then filled a tall narrow container with water to act as the weight.
• The amounts are approximate but the dates and prunes should form the bulk of the recipe.

Fermented Fruit Paste

1/2L Water

3 Tbls Sour Whey

750 gm Pitted Dates, cut in half

250 gm Pitted Prunes, cut in half

300 gm of Nuts and Seeds, nuts bigger than a peanut should be cut or crushed

100 gm of Firm Fruit cut finely, pineapple, rock melon, apple etc  (I used apple)

4Tbls Peeled and Grated Ginger

Prepare all of the fruit and nuts mix together to combine the different elements.
In a 4 litre bucket or container add water and enough salt so that the water tastes just a little salty.  Mix until mostly dissolved.  Add the whey and mix.

My Kefir where you can just make out the layer of clear whey
sitting on top of the kefired  milk

Add the fruit and nuts and mix breifly with the liquid.

Place your clean saucer or plate on top of the mix inside the bucket and press down firmly.  All of the ingredients need to be submerged underneath the liquid.

Weigh your saucer down with a large glass jar or similar filled with water.

Cover your ferment so that bugs cannot get in and leave to stand at room temperature for 5 days.

After 5 days the liquid is bubbly.

The liquid should have almost almost if not entirely disappeared..  Transfer to a glass jar and store in the fridge.  It is ready to eat.

My first batch is just about coming to the end so I will need to get another lot started this week.  It lasts a very long time in the fridge and I really reccomend you give it a try as it is a great way to get so more good bacteria into your system.

What fermented foods have you tried or do you enjoy?

Flooded In

All of that lovely rain we have been getting has now fully saturated the ground, and has been running off for the last 24 hours.  We have had now had over 150 mls of rain in the last 48 hours and it is possible that we will get up to another 200 mls before the weather front moves away.  There is also the chance of tornadoes as other parts of Queensland have experienced them as part of this weather system.

It appears that the last tank is full

The below photo was taken 2 hours ago and in the distance you can see the line of trees that mark the creek.  And on this side of them is where the creek has burst its bank.

This was an hour later:

And now this is the same view.

Within the hour I expect the water will be creeping closer to our house but it is very doubtful we would flood.

Across the road it looked like this 2 hours ago:

And now it looks like this:

We are creeping close to the level of flooding that we personally saw in the 2011 Queensland floods and at the rate we are going we might even pass them.

At least we still have power, phone and internet (for now) which we lost for a number of days last time.

From our house to the creek which is the tree line in the distance it is about 700m so as you can see there is a lot of water out there.  You will also note in the below photos we have diverted the water from our tanks to the street as the overflow will otherwise make our lawn a bigger soggy mess.

I hope where ever you are you are safe and dry and having a lovely weekend.

Friday Night Home Alone

Hubby has been away working for a few days and I have been holding down the fort at home.

It is finally raining here and so far we have had over 30 mls of rain in 2 days.  The plants and animals are loving it and you can almost heat the ground sighing with relief.  We still had plenty of water left in our tanks, as there is just the two of us and we have bore water for the toilet and laundry, but a few of our neighbours have run out and had to buy water.

The beautiful rainy weather, I am sure the paddocks will green up nicely after this .

Our sad brown lawn.  It is green along the front as we have been watering the hedge.
But if we had not gotten this rain we would have been  walking on dirt.

So on this rainy Friday night at home on my own what will I be doing?

I will be curled up on the couch with a cup of Chai tea and reading the latest edition of Grass Roots Magazine that arrive in my mailbox today.  Then I will be getting some sour dough on the go for the weekend.

Home alone really is a bit of a luxury and not looking too bad at all?

The Best Bean Salad In The World

I know it is a big claim but I love this salad for many reasons other than taste.  It is really just a pickled vegetable salad that is cheap and easy to make. You can just keep adding to it over a number of days which makes it great for events like Christmas. And you can even freeze it although it is not something I usually do as we are happy to eat it day after day till it is gone. You can use any vegetables that you have on hand or in season but I will give you the recipe as I like it.

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The Best Bean Salad In The World

500 gm Dried Beans or your choice (I like Lima and Borlotti)
3 Stalks of Celery sliced
500 gm Green Beans sliced
3 Onions finely chopped
1 Tin Corn Kernels drained or fresh if you have it
1 Capsicum diced
1 Carrot grated
1/4 Cauliflower broken into small florets
1/4 Broccoli broken into small florets
1 Handful of Mint chopped finely.

Dressing

1 1/2 Cups White Vinegar
1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
2 tsp Salt
1 Tbls Vegetable Oil

Bring all dressing ingredients to the boil the leave to cool.

Soak your beans overnight then drain, rinse and boil for 45 minutes.  Drain and cool.
Once the beans are cool add the rest of the ingredients and pour over the dressing.

Do you have a favourite salad recipe that you would like to share?

Cool Dinners For the Heat

It is still really hot here at the moment, between 35 and 42 degrees Celsius for the last 2 weeks.  So the idea of turning the oven on is not at all appealing.

We have been using the BBQ outside and eating lots of salads.  Tonight I used up some bits and pieces from the fridge to make fresh spring rolls with dipping sauce.

The sauce is actually clear but came out dark in the photo.

The spring rolls can be filled with any fresh vegetables, noodles and meat if you choose. And the dipping sauce is not just great for spring rolls but also goes well with things like Chicken Wings or Drumsticks and is great as a salad dressing on a Warm Thai Beef Salad.

Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

1/2 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Rice or Coconut Vinegar (use white if you cannot get these)
1/3 Cup Water
1 tsp Salt
2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled and Crushed
1/4 Cup Chopped Coriander
2 -6 Small Red Chillies, finely chopped (I use 4 and because of the sugar it is not that hot)

Combine sugar, vinegar, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil cooking until the sauce has reduced by half.  Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic, coriander and chillies.

What have you been eating lately?