Time for a pop quiz. Your spouse opens the refrigerator door, takes something out and says to you, “It’s fermented.” What do you do:
- Take the object and throw it in the garbage
- Put on rubber cloves, take the object and throw it in the garbage
- Build a new kitchen
- Eat it
I don’t know why but for many people “fermented”: has a bad connotation. It’s such common problem that NPR had a show in 2012 called “Fermentation: When Food Goes Bad But Stays Good.”
Fact is, you are probably eating fermented food all day long: bread, pickles, beer, cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, even chocolate. And, yes, you morning coffee underwent a stage of fermentation as the beans progressed from coffed bush to your Starbucks cup.
In Fermented, Charlotte Pike offers what she calls “a beginner’s guide to making your own sourdough, yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi and more.” You both learn how to make these basic foods and then how to exploit them as components of complete dishes: from apps to desserts. For example, the picture at the bottom features a richer, creamer Middle Eastern yogurt called labneh in a Zucchini, Labneh, and Thyme Tart.
Charlotte is a UK-based food writer who covers the culinary and tourist scenes on her blog: charlotteskitchendiary. In Fermented, she really does target us fermentation beginners. The recipes are simple and direct to assemble. Fermentation can take some time, so there may be a wait of hours or days until your product is ready to bake, or graze on as an appetizer, or incorporate into a main course or dessert.
The six chapters in Fermented cover a solid range of fermented fare:
- Fruit and Vegetables
- Yogurt and Labneh
- Beans and Legumes
- Sourdough Baking
- Drinks
- Preserves
You’ll find multiple recipes for sauerkraut, of course, and its spicier cousin kimchi. Yogurts come plain and in flavors: Frozen Strawberry and Coconut Milk. Your homemade yogurt can be nibbled on in Mint and Cucumber Raita or slathered atop the Tandoori Style Chicken. There are even Sweet Yogurt Scones to enjoy.
The Beans and Legumes chapter suggests Homemade Miso Soup and very red looking Roasted Vegetables with a miso sauce that includes vinegar, soy sauce and honey. Or you can try Stir-Fried Chicken with Noodles and Black Bean Sauce, using your homemade Black Bean Sauce.
It’s clear that Charlotte has a passion for sourdough bread. That Sourdough Baking chapter offers a bevy of ideas:
Sourdough Bread
White Sourdough Bread
Rye Sourdough
Sourdough Saj from the Middle East
Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
Sourdough Christmas Cake
Sourdough Stollen
Spiced Apple Sourdough Crumble Cake
Sourdough Carrot Cake
Sourdough Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Muffins
Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
This chapter alone makes Fermented a book you want to consider for you kitchen. Charlotte attended the famed Irish cooking school at Ballymalloe and Ballymalloe founder Darina Allen calls this book, “clear, concise, and confidence boosting.” So, if you have craved sourdough bread but never dared on your own, surely here is the place to start.
Nestled next to some of those breads, you might add some of the Preserves: Spiced Pickled Peaches or Fermented Jalapenos. Add some cheese, or perhaps one of those yogurts earlier in the book, and you have the foundation for a fermented feast.
Fermentation turn out not to be a four-letter word. Fermented is the proof.
Oh, the answer to the quiz? Probably D. And you’ll probably enjoy it. I'll post the recipe for this tart later this week. Go for it.
