I finally tore out my tomato plants this week and I'm using the last few green tomatoes and some homegrown chillies to make a lactofermented salsa.

Everything from the garden is diced along with some onion, garlic and some vine leaves I liberated from a neighbours garden. I'll let it bubble away for two or three weeks and see how they go.

He probado la masa madre y está rica. Lo primero que he notado es la acidez del ácido láctico, pero después aparece el sabor de la levadura, que realmente me ha recordado a la cerveza.
Esto va bien. A ver si el domingo me lío la manta a la cabeza y hago el primer intento de pan.
#fermenting #masaMadre #sourdough

Cookbook browsing today....

Fermented Vegetables, 10th Anniversary Edition, by Kirsten Shockey.

An excellent addition to any fermentation book collection.... always a pleasure and inspiring to browse.

What cookbook will you be browsing this weekend?

Worst grapes ever!

Some of the doomsday prepping I undertook in 2020 appears to have come good: here's our first harvest of olives. I would have liked to leave them on the tree longer, but the king parrots had other ideas.

Started another jar of home-grown garlic fermenting in our bees' glorious honey. The first jar disappeared very quickly! Delicious on sauteed mushrooms or drizzled on steamed brocollini.
#Beekeeping #Fermenting

Ha tardado, pero al fin está rezumando. Y yo que pensaba que había dejado suficiente espacio.
Me viene un poco mal porque justo hoy me voy de viaje y no tengo intención de llevármelo. Lo pondré sobre un plato y que haga lo que quiera.
#chucrut #sauerkraut #fermenting #rezumanding

do I have mutuals who have built or used a fermenter from domingoclub? I want to get in touch! #fermenting

Cómo mola la masa madre, cada día huele a una cosa distinta. Hoy tiene un tufo a alcaloide que creo que me voy a colocar.
No sé qué voy a hacer con ella, pero me lo estoy pasando pipa.
#masaMadre #sourdough #fermenting

Getting in a quick check of the ferments.

10th day for Okra - crisp, lost a little of its "fresh" taste, garlic is more prominent, and little more funky-fermented. Like a mature ferment now. I refrigerated it - a good benchmark for okra - 9 days for fresh and crisp, 10 days for mature and more prominent flavours.

Vinegar-in-the-making is on day 31 - it is now SOUR and TART, like real vinegar - a surprise when I tasted it. Another 3'ish weeks until it is "shelf-ready", whatever that means.

Quite happy with progress.

Este es el aspecto de mi masa madre tras 36 horas de fermentación (anoche se me olvidó refrescarla ). Creo que tiene buena pinta, pero no me convence su olor. No sé explicar a qué huele, pero no es lo que yo esperaba. ¿Alguien escapaz de describir a qué tiene que oler?
#masaMadre #fermenting #sourdough

So an update on the #fermenting bits.

https://aus.social/@LifeTimeCooking/114289077925097396

I have to post a link because mastoAU has suddenly restricted its posts to 500 char. Does not work for my food and garden posts.

So an update on the #fermenting bits.

The okra is going ok, ...... sort of. I am very curious about it. First, even tho I used unfiltered water it has been fermenting, so that is good. It is the second ferment where I accidentally didn't use filtered water and both are good.

But I noticed some of the slime came out into the brine. Very interesting. It looks less slimy now than it did, and I might take an okra out tomorrow and inspect. It has to be ready as there is no way the okra will not float once I remove one, and I am not faffing around trying to find a way to keep them under the brine in that small jar.

They do *look* good tho.

Vinegar-in-making is still doing its thing. It still tastes like sweet vinegar. Weeks to go yet.

I bought some nice, proper bottles with those metal-attached tops - ... clip lids ... for the vinegar when it finishes. Quite cute. I used one and transferred the Hawaiian Chilli Water into it, as it has a smaller top. Presumably I won't pour too much of it on my food now. It does look cute in the bottle tho.

I use the Hawaiian Chilli Water and also the Fermented Blender Rinsing Water from when I made a chilli paste quite a bit. Delicious drizzled over almost anything, and into rice with some herbs. Funky and spicy.

Considering another ferment for when the okra is finished. I read that fermented eggplant is #ChefKiss

What is next on the #fermenting agenda, I hear you ask? Now that the Vinegar-in-the-making is doing its thing very nicely, I thought I might try a new one.

Okra.

Yes, rinse, dry and trim okra without cutting into the interior, jam them into a jar as tight as you can, jam in some garlic and chillies (or your preferred flavours), add 3% (by weight of water) brine - about 8g salt to 250ml, but always check. Depending on your weather and preferred tastes, leave from 1 week to several. I read of one person who left it for 4 months. Not sure I am THAT game.

Burp every day or two if using an ordinary lid.

The recipe in #SandorKatz's #TheArtofFermentation has it fermenting for "several days". I quite like fresh ferments as it turns out, so it is likely to be under a week for me. Depending - the weather is quite chilly for a week, starting tomorrow.

Success does depend on one other factor. I wanted to try a ferment with our tap water again. The first one was excellent - chillies for a chilli sauce. To prove that wasn't a fluke I am using tap water again. We shall see.

Sometimes I forget that I have to use filtered water.

Did a large platter of roasted cauli and garlic cloves tonight to have with dinner. Drizzled with the fermented Hawaiian chilli water before the cauli and garlic went into the oven. You couldn't taste a lot of the chilli but wow you could taste the funky. Delicious. Tossed with home made nasturtium capers from last year.

#GrapeSaga #GrapesOfWrath #VinegarSaga

Ooo, oooo, ooooh! I gave the vinegar-in-the-making its daily stir, and this time tasted some. It has lost a lot of its sweetness and tastes ...... tart. A bit vinegary.

3 weeks since it started, another month or so to go for shelf-stable vinegar. Presumably. Different recipes differ