Fermenting Fantastic Food

Almost Paleo, Definitely Vegan, Sometimes Gluten-Free Cheese – Plus, A Giveaway

Raw beets with cashew cheese from Artisan Vegan Cheese

Rolled in herbs or straight from the mold, this fermented cashew cheese is extremely tasty!

If you don’t fall into one of the title groups, you may be getting ready to click away or throw stuff at me.  Stop!  Don’t do it.  You can’t hit me from there anyway and you’ll be glad you stayed.  I didn’t even put quotes around the word “cheese” in the title.  That’s because this stuff is good and it is fermented!  When I decided to do this basic cheese series a few months back, I went in search of an option that would work for my dairy-free readers of all stripes.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t optimistic, but I lucked out big time when I  found the book Artisan Vegan Cheese.   

I felt that author Miyoko Schinner was a bit of a kindred spirit because like me she entertains vegans and enjoys serving up a good cheeseboard for her dear friends.  Like Schinner, I’ve tasted other vegan “dairy” that falls totally flat.  Lemon juice and citric acid do not rise to the level of cheese acidified by the fermentation process, especially when you’re not acidifying dairy.  They don’t transform.  I like to experiment in my kitchen, and I’ve played with culturing different nut purées and nuts with water kefir and the ginger bug.  Both work, but both impart disjointed flavors that, to me, kind of ruin the experience.  Schinner’s brilliant idea, to use rejuvelac, is definitely one of the keys to her superior end product.

Molding cheese

This cheese, about to be unmolded

Cheese-making is a more time-consuming and finicky process than most of the topics I’ve written about here.  It requires lots of experimentation, failure and extras (rennet, lipase, cheese salt, cheese cloth, cheese molds, cultures, etc).  By that standard this cheese is very simple, but it is still a tad more labor-intensive than many of the other how-tos I have posted to date.  So look at this as a first step and as a great offering for any vegan or dairy-free friends who might be jonesin’ for that certain, decadent something that makes dairy cheeses so appealing to most.  Schinner has plenty of options for longer aging, achieving cheeses that melt and all of the qualities that we look for in dairy cheese.  I haven’t gotten there yet, but for the love of my vegan friends, I will.  Is this exactly dairy cheese?  No.  But is has all the complexity and tempting flavor that a ferment should and it is just really, really good.  My guess is that the omnivores will de devouring this at our next fête without stopping to ask whether or not it’s dairy.

Cashew cheese that mimics real cheese

Lying naked on the chives. I didn’t put my cheese cloth in my mold very evenly, so my cheese had lots of lines. It looked pretty cool actually, but I chose to roll it in chopped herbs anyway.

 Herbed goat cheese with beats (made from cashews

Cashew “Chèvre” Adapted from Artisan Vegan Cheese by Miyoko Schinner

Yield about 1 lb.  Takes a few days to soak and ferment.

I ended up with about a 1/2 pound of  chèvre, because we ate the unmolded, basic cheese before I could chevrify it.  After tasting the final product, I kind of regretted that.  A half pound is a great yield, but you could also easily double this if you have a particularly hungry vegan crowd coming your way.  I’d be surprised if a pound or two or three went to waste in your house.

Special equipment

  • Cheese mold (optional)

Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw cashews, soaked in 6 cups of filtered water overnight (up to 8 hours)
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup millet rejuvelac, or rejuvelac made with the grain of your choice (store-bought is fine, but GFers, beware.  It is often made with wheat in stores)
  • 1/2 t salt, plus a pinch
  • 1.5 T nutritional yeast
Cashews ready for soaking

Raw cashews ready to be soaked

How-to

  1. Drain water from your cashews.  You can soak them for fewer than 8 hours, if you like (Schinner recommends 3-8)
  2. Put your cashews and a small pinch of salt (more if you like) in your food processor.  Add a 1/4 c of rejuvelac and let it process for a solid two minutes.  Check consistency.  If it’s smooth and creamy, you’re good to go.  If it’s not, add a bit more rejuvelac and blend again.  If you have a Vitamix or other crazy, jet-engined blender, you can process for less time and use only a quarter cup of rejuvelac, total.  I don’t have one and mine was great, but I did have to use the full half cup of rejuvelac
  3. Once your mixture is entirely smooth and creamy (that can take several minutes of processing) scrape it into a non-reactive bowl, using a spatula.  I used a pyrex bowl, but glass is great too.  I would shy away from plastic since that could do some leaching, and unless you have truly stainless steel bowls, maybe go for class.  Lactic acid fermentation will be happening in the bowl!
  4. Cover the cheese and let it sit at room temperature, away from direct sunlight, for 3 days.  The top layer will get discolored and may harden.  That’s okay.  I didn’t have any surface mold, but if you get some, just skim it.  (This is cheese remember?  Mold happens.  Mold gets eaten.  Mold is delicious.)
  5. After 3 days, your cheese will have solidified a bit more.  You can enjoy it as a tangy snack as is or move on to bliss.
  6. Mix in your 1/2 t of salt and nutritional yeast by hand
  7. (optional) Line a cheese mold with cheese cloth (or plastic wrap, if you prefer) and pack your cheese into it.  You can also just roll it into a chèvre log or mold it in a glass.  You’re not draining liquid here, so the sky’s the limit for shaping it.
  8. Cover tightly and let it sit in your fridge for at least 6 hours to harden and take shape a bit.
  9. Unmold and serve!  I rolled mine in herbs and I think it looked lovely.

I bought Artisan Vegan Cheese and I liked it so much it occurred to me to ask the publisher if they would offer a copy to my readers.  They very kindly agreed.  So here’s how to get a free copy:

  1. Contest is open to residents of the continental United States.
  2. To enter, leave a comment telling me why you’d like to try making vegan cheese, or how it went if you already have (yes, it’s cool to say, “I’m vegan!” or, “I’m paleo!”)
  3. Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Thursday, June 20, 2013.
  4. One comment per person, please.  Additional entries can be made, for a maximum of three per person, by tweeting a link to this post with the hashtag #phickleferments, or by pinning it and posting a link to the pin in a separate comment before the contest ends. Tweets entries will be added as numbers to the random.org generator for consideration.

This post is part of a series on cheese.  We’ll do some how-tos for stuff you can reasonably make at home and visit some local spots around Philly for great cheese.  I’ll also share a few personal memories about cheese.  Of all the ferments I love, cheese is definitely the one to which I’m most viscerally connected.  I hope you enjoy my flights of sensory memory.

 

EDIT: A previous version of this post indicated that Ms. Schinner is not vegan.  It appears that was incorrect.  I sincerely apologize to the author for my error!  The correction has been made.  Thanks to Mylène for pointing out my error.

June 17, 2013
Posted in Ferment, Vegan | Tagged , , | Comments (53)

Rejuvelac – The Healthiest Ferment

Cloudy rejuvelac made from millet

Spent sprouts and a cloudy cuppa rejuvenation!

 

I was bold.  I said it.  I think rejuvelac is the healthiest ferment.  Or at least the most difficult to quibble with.  No added salt, no added sugar, phytic acid broken, full of our good friend the lactobacillus.  Nothing for anyone to complain about.  Right?  Please?  Seriously.

Now I’ll tell you the part that can sound less good depending on your hippie cred: rejuvelac is fermented grain sprout drink.  Mmmmmmmm.  But don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.  The flavor can range from citrusy to cheesy to straight up funk depending on the grain you use, the fermentation time and the number of “pressings” you get from your grains.  You can use a variety of grains to make rejuvelac.  Most recipes I’ve seen recommend rye, barley or wheat for rejuvelac.  I enjoy a ryejuvelac most, but that’s not what we’re fermenting here.  Here, I chose millet, for a few reasons.  First, I wanted to make this recipe gluten-free for friends who suffer from gluten-intolerance or celiac, or paleo friends.  Strictly speaking no grains are paleo, but most paleos I know will eat sprouted grain in small quantities, and in this case, you aren’t even eating the sprouted grains, just their probiotic juice.  Second, it has a little bit of a cheesy taste to it, which I normally don’t enjoy in my beverages, but is perfect for what we’re going to use it for on Monday. (That’s a surprise: I’m sure you haven’t guessed!)  Millet also sprouts relatively quickly, within 2 days, and I liked that, since in this case it’s going to be part of a several step process.

It’s pretty easy to make, and if you’re accustomed to sprouting, it’s extremely easy to make.  If you want rejuvelac for drinking, I would recommend subbing wheat, barley or rye for the millet in this recipe, but what do I know?  Maybe you’ll love the taste of millet sprout juice and want to stick with that!   My husband drinks it with pleasure.  You can definitely play around with other grains and see what you like.  I haven’t experimented too far beyond the four I listed, at least not successfully, but go nuts, and let me know what works for you!

Start with organic, whole grains.  Your fermenty friends here are, again, those old lactobacilli that live on the surface of the things that grow on the earth, including grains.

First, you have to sprout the grains.  That involves a process of soaking and draining and allowing air to circulate around your grains for a period of hours to days.  My millet sprouted in a little over a day but it could take longer.  I found this handy chart of soaking and sprouting times so that you can play around with abandon.  Use those as to give you a general idea.  They have not always sprouted exactly at the rates listed there for me, so hold out until you can see the little, white, telltale tails that tell you your sprout is ready to go!

 

Wheat berries being partially inverted for sprouting

The Sally Method – My personal preference.  This jar could actually stand to be propped a little higher.  Like maybe fold that cloth once more.

 

Full inversion of a jar to sprout grains

This is how you Sandor-sprout.  Also works fine.

 

The sprouting process requires a jar  with a lid and a wide-weave cloth.  I found a nifty metal-mesh jar cover for sprouting at my local natural foods store, Essene, and I actually liked it better than my old way of using a wide-weave cloth or doubled cheese cloth, but that way works too.  My no-equipment mantra stands: try it with the stuff you have lying around your house. If you like doing it and find it might be valuable to have a little screen for sprouting, then by all means, spend the $1.99 for the screen.

 

Sprouting grains for rejuvelac

This sprouting screen cost me a couple bucks. It’s not necessary for great sprouts! I just found it a little neater

 

Sprouting grains in a cheesecloth-covered jar

Sprouting with a veil of cheesecloth is one option

REJUVELAC

Adapted from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz

Yields a very full quart.  Can be halved to make a pint.

Equipment

  • Half-gallon jar , you can use other sizes for other quantities
  • Cloth, mesh, screen that will allow water out and air in, but prohibit bug entry

Ingredients

  • 2 cups millet or whole grain of your choice
  • Filtered Water

How-to

  1. Put your grains in the jar and fill jar with water. Let them soak on the counter overnight, covered.
  2. In the morning, dump out the water out, rinse the grains, dump again, and lay the jar at an angle, so that any remaining water leaks out, and air can flow in (see photos).*
  3. Rinse, dump and tilt at least once more that day.  Ideally as soon as you get home from work then again before bed.  You don’t want your grains to dry out, but you don’t want them sitting in water either.
  4. Do this until you see sprouts, little white tails, that are about the length of the grain itself.
  5. Then fill your half-gallon jar with water.
  6. Let it sit on the counter for 48 hours, away from sunlight.  The liquid will become cloudy and have a citrusy scent.
  7. Strain off the liquid.  That’s rejuvelac!  Add more water to the grains for second batch.  Just like rebrewing tea, you’ll get an entirely different flavor profile from the second batch.  You’ll want to give that a shorter soak time, about one day.
  8. Once I’ve strained off that second batch, I consider the grains spent. Batch 3 is much too funky for me, but according to Mr. Katz, some people dig it.
  9. Compost your sprouts.

*I’ve tried this two ways: completely inverting the jar over another container (Sandor) and slightly inverting it at an angle (Sally). I’ve had better results with the Sally, although I’m normally  more a Sandor-fan than a Sally-lady. Complete inversion was a little easier, though  Try both and see what works for you.

 

Sprouted Millet

See those tails? That means it sprouted.

June 14, 2013
Posted in Ferment | Comments (8)

Cows Outside – Cheese You’ll Want To Eat

Real, grass-fed cows

These cows are really grass fed. You know cuz they’re eating grass. Also, the oldest cow is 23 and she gave birth this year! And yes, you’re seeing what you think you’re seeing.  Look closer.  I’ll wait.

In my quest to make some cheese memories a little closer to home, I sought out nearby creameries that might let a couple of city kids take a look around.  I found two such places in New Jersey that required no appointments or special arrangements and are conveniently located between Philly and New York.  I’ll be sharing a bit about both of them, but today we’ll take a look at Bobolink Dairy and Bakehouse, a place with a fascinating and beautifully implemented philosophy about the lives of cows.

New Jersey dairy barn with a sun beam

That’s that blue sky I never get to see in the city. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

I love city life.  Tall buildings, bustling streets, people-watching and access to the arts are things that fulfill me.  That said, I don’t mind if I do have the occasional slice of big, blue sky, and our trip to Jersey was full of bucolic wonder.  If you aren’t from New Jersey, chances are you have a stereotype or two in your head.  Perhaps a factory spewing toxic clouds, a certain mafia boss, or debauched and clueless behavior happening on or near the beach of the Atlantic coast?  Well, I’m not from Jersey, but I did live there for a short while and work there for a long while and I can strongly attest to the stereotypes not holding much water.  Certainly, all of those things exist, but so much of the state is farmland and forest and other interesting landscapes that it makes a great escape when awe at skyscrapers gives way to anger at crowds, stench and claustrophobia.

Local cheese made seasonally from cow's milk

A slice of Bobolink Dairy’s Baudolino cheese. Made from the milk of contented cows.

Bobolink is a family operation located in Milford, NJ.  Mom bakes the bread and pop makes the cheese.  We did a tasting of the cheeses and breads, bought a lot of both and then went on a tour, led by Tobias, son of the baker and cheesemaker duo and Ambria, an intern farmer who helps tend the herd. It was pretty amazing, and not just because that blue sky can make an urbanite dizzy.

New Jersey Breads. Local grains and sourdoughs or levains

Inside the bakehouse. A variety of breads made from local grains. Some were even sourdoughs.

We followed the path that the cows themselves take to get to their grazing grounds.  Bobolink takes its mantra seriously, the cows never go inside.  They have a gully to protect them in the winter, formed by water runoff from the less than stellar agricultural practices of the farm’s previous owners.  There are multiple herds of cows, each set-up to let the cows live their most natural life.  There are old cows (no insult intended) who teach the young ones everything, from which grasses  are best to eat, to how to behave appropriately.  These cows have horns! I’m embarrassed to say that it didn’t occur to me to wonder why cows don’t have horns when we see them in photos and stuff.  Turns out they have them removed so that they don’t damage themselves,their neighbor cows or farm property when they’re kept in pens.  Since these ladies live outside, it’s important that they keep their horns for self defense against predators.

People walking up the cow trail at Bobolink Dairy

Underneath a dairy canopy where the sun barely filters down, the ground, is not so soft. It’s not so soft. That’s because cows walk on it every day to get to their protected gully.

All in all, the Bobolink philosophy is one that intends to let cows be cows.   Human intervention is minimal.  Cows are milked only once a day and when it’s time to give birth, they do it pretty independently.  The staff mentioned that it’s not uncommon to come to the fields in the morning and find new baby calves.  Once the babies are born, the elders teach them how to become adult cows.  Kinda seems like the way it should be, doesn’t it?

If you live near Milford, I highly recommend checking it out: It’s five bucks!  From Philly, it’s about an hour and 20 minute drive, no public transport available.  If you don’t live in the area, I highly recommend seeking out and supporting businesses that are trying to restore balance to our agricultural system.

Bobolink offers these tours year round on Saturdays and Sundays.  I was in no way compensated to recommend this.  Bobolink doesn’t know I exist, to my knowledge!  I truly respect their respect for the cow way of life.

Enjoy your lazy Sunday!

Cows grazing with man in foreground

My honey, charming the ladies

 

Cow's milk cheese made in New Jersey

Baudolino, again.  So moldy. So purdy.

 

This post is part of a series on cheese.  We’ll do some how-tos for stuff you can reasonably make at home and visit some local spots around Philly for great cheese.  I’ll also share a few personal memories about cheese.  Of all the ferments I love, cheese is definitely the one to which I’m most viscerally connected.  I hope you enjoy my flights of sensory memory.  Vegan and paleo readers: do not despair!  I’ll be featuring a how-to you can love this week!  And then we’re off cheese for a while, so most things’ll be for you too, as they always are.

June 9, 2013
Posted in Dairy | Comments (1)

Make Fresh Mozzarella From Curd Made With Care

Homemade mozzarella shaped

Fresh fior di latte, courtesy of Caputo Bros. curd and the Fair Food Farmstand.  Fingerprints are courtesy of me not getting it into the cool water bath soon enough. I think they add character.

In the early aughts,  I was inspired by a certain Mark Bittman’s wonderful tome How To Cook Everything to try my hand at making some simple homemade cheeses, like ricotta and mozzerella.  I knew they were acidified and not fermented, but honestly, I’m a purist about very few things so they passed my test, the does-it-taste-good?-Yes-then-you’re-doing-it-right test, with flying colors.  Having said that, I’ve now made a few batches of the real stuff and I’m not sure how soon I’ll be going back to my old method.  You do need access to a culture to make real mozzarella, but thanks to Philly’s Fair Food Farmstand, there is a simpler way.  We’ll do a how-to on from-scratch mozzarella somewhere down the line, but for now, we’re going to do it Caputo style.

Pennsylvania Cheesemakers Caputo Brothers are Italy-obsessed and Italy-trained and that definitely shows in their product.  These are people who get it.  They get their milk from the heirloom-breed, grass fed cows of local creamery Apple Valley, they have locavore dinners at their farm (sold out for the rest of eternity, from what I can tell) and they educate people on their process.  All things I love.  My current reason for loving them is the fermented curd they make from unhomogenized milk. They  freeze it immediately after production, and the result is that you can take home the curd and do the fun part of the mozzarella-making.  The Fair Food Farmstand, a not-for-profit very dear to my heart, gave me a pound of curd to play with, knowing that I was going to spend a bit of time playing with cheese this spring.  I’m eating the finished cheese right now. If you call me in the future and I have my mouth full, there’s a good chance it will be full of this.  You’ll probably want to have some of this on hand when those tomatoes start coming in.  Just a suggestion.  Also, I can’t lie to you, dear reader.  I ate some of the curd out of the container when it thawed, and that too was amazing.

As I mentioned, we’ll do the whole process here at a later time but for now, you get to learn about the gooey, fun part.  Caputo has very helpful videos on their site and you can learn how to do special stuff, like make your own burrata or stracciatella (the cheese, not the ice cream) from a straight-up pro.  They’re also teaching a class at Reading Terminal Market on July 11th at 6:30 and doing demos and (AHEM) tastings at the Fair Food Farmstand during the day before the class.  As you might know, I’m a big fan of in-person food education and this is definitely one I’m not going to miss.  Participants will get a pound of curd to take home and play with.

Fior di latte (mozzarella) from Caputo Brothers Curd

Cheese Curd for making your own mozzarella, called cagliata

You know the curd curd curd, the curd is actually called cagliata in this case

If you grew up with string cheese (or even if you’ve been making your own mozz at home, acid-style), prepare your taste buds.  This is a different story.  It’s tangy and complex and it feels like a cloud melting on your tongue.  This is a SUPER fun process.  One of the cooler things about this is that it’s frozen the moment it’s made, which means you can get it all year round from Fair Food* if you’re in Philly, which is a pretty awesome gift for locavores.

What you need

I lb gorgeous, fermented curd

3 c water

Up to 1 T kosher or sea salt

A thermometer

2 stainless steel bowls

Mozzarella under water before being formed

Ball of still lumpy, almost formed mozzarella getting warm in its bath. This reminds me of Minority Report. Actually this cheese might be a precog with ESP. It told me I was going to eat it with great pleasure.

How-to

1.  Let your curd defrost overnight in the fridge.  I got busy and left mine for a few extra days.  It worked great!

2. Heat 3-4 cups of water to 180-190 degrees.  Don’t boil it and don’t use water that’s hotter than that, you can destroy the curd.

3. While the water is heating, put a few cups of room temperature water in a bowl and keep it nearby.

4. Break up your curd into nickel-sized pieces.  My chunks weren’t perfect, but they came together well.  Don’t spend an hour doing this, and don’t make tiny pieces. Put pieces in a large bowl.

5. When the water is the right temperature, gently pour it over your curds.  I used about 2 cups to barely cover my curds, and reserved the rest of the water.  I poured directly from my tea kettle, which was helpful.

5. Let the curds sit in the warm water for a few seconds, then begin gently stirring them with a big wooden spoon, lightly pushing them together.  Once they’re kind of in a clump, you’re going to start using your clean hands.

6. The mozzarella stretching process is a little hard to describe, but I like to think of it as a fermentation-like practice, you are gently guiding a process which wants to happen.  So lightly pull at the warm cheese, allowing it to fold over onto itself.  I couldn’t take pics while doing this, so please check out the Caputo videos.  This process starts at 6:25 on the first video.  The goal is to get it shiny and free of lumps.

7. Mine got a little too hard to work, so I stuck it back in the bowl and pour a little more of my heated water over it.

8. I’ve made the little balls many times, and it’s fun!  But I wanted to see if my lack of artistic skills would allow me to make a different shape.  It wasn’t a complete success and I lost some of the sheen in doing this complicated deal, but whatevs, it was fun.  I was thinking of making play dough logs while I rolled this out, although this was much more supple.  When it got too long, I folded it over itself and started twisting it, as if one hand was revving a motorcycle and the other was braking.  When the twist got tight, it naturally curved, and I again folded it on itself and started twisting again.  If you want the lovely, smooth little bocconcini balls, you can learn a neat way to make them in the video linked above.

9. When you have the shape you want, put it into your bowl of room temp water.  That will set the shape and harden the cheese.  You can then wrap your cheese tightly and put it in the fridge.  Or you can eat the whole thing before it makes it to the fridge.  But I have certainly never met a couple who did that.  Nope.  Never did.

*So, Fair Food.  Fair Food is a local, not-for-profit organization dedicated to getting quality, local food into to the hands of city dwellers.  They connect local farmers to a market of hungry locavores who care about where their food comes from.  I’m pretty much in love with them.  They keep me sane in the winter and take a lot of the guess work out of knowing what’s good to eat.  I also think that the importance of their work cannot be overstated.  Most people live in cities, that’s just a fact.  And our messed up agricultural system will only be fixed through the efforts of organizations like Fair Food that see the big picture and implement innovative and intelligent solutions at ground-level.  I am really proud of the work that they do, and while I have no official affiliation with them, they did give me the cagliata (pronounced cal-YAH-tah) that I used to make this mozzarella for free.  They know I would never recommend anything that I didn’t believe in and I hope you do, too!

This post is part of a series on cheese.  We’ll do some how-tos for stuff you can reasonably make at home and visit some local spots around Philly for great cheese.  I’ll also share a few personal memories about cheese.  Of all the ferments I love, cheese is definitely the one to which I’m most viscerally connected.  I hope you enjoy my flights of sensory memory.  Vegan and paleo readers: do not despair!  I’ll be featuring a how-to you can love soon!

fior di latte caprese with thai basil

You call this caprese salad with fior di latte, hot house tomatoes and thai basil from my garden. I call it lunch.
June 6, 2013
Posted in Basics, Dairy | Comments (4)

Rhubarb Lactopickles for Spring!

Lactofermented spring rhubarb pickle on whey ricotta toast

Pinks and greens make this rhubarb pickle perfect for spring. How-to on the whey ricotta pictured coming next week!

I’m nowhere near done with cheese, but you have to put something on your cheese tray besides cheese, right?  And I don’t want you all to miss out on your spring pickles!  By the time I’m done with cheese, rhubarb and aspargus will be all gone until next year in Philly, so here you go: a simple, spring recipe.

If you regularly read this blog, you’ll know that I recommend pickles as an excellent fermentation starting point.  Why?  They are nearly foolproof if you know a few rules!  The first and most important trick is picking the right vegetables.  There are a few things I haven’t been able to get to work well, many others that work well with some tweaks, and a ton that work with very little effort.  The second key is submersion.  If your veggies are submerged under brine, that gives you the anaerobic conditions that are necessary for the LAB to thrive.  The third rule is temperature, room temp works great!  Get below 65ish degrees and we’re talking some serious sluggishness and potential that the bacteria never get kicking.  Above 80 or so, things might start to ferment too quickly, or it may get too hot for your LAB to start their happy processes.

So here’s one that’s super easy and popping up at the farmer’s markets all over town at the moment: rhubarb!  As always, with pickles, feel free to change out the seasonings for what you have on hand or what you prefer.  I actually think these rhubarb pickles would be great with nothing but salt.  The tangy, fruity notes of fresh rhubarb can stand alone!

I got these veggies at my local farmer’s market at Headhouse Square.  It is operated by the renowned Food Trust, a local organization dedicated to eradicating food deserts and educating kids on their food choices.  I’m pretty proud that they call Philly home and I’m grateful for the local bounty that they, and a couple other wonderful organizations to bring  into the city.

Easy to make tangy rhubarb pickles!

Pretty rhubarb pickles will have pink brine!

Rhubarb Pickles

yields about 1 quart of rhubarb pickles

fermentation time will be approximately 2 weeks

I usually make my single quart batches of pickles while I’m preparing another meal.  I already have the cutting board out, so it really adds no time to dinner prep and the payoff is pretty huge!

Ingredients

  • 5 relatively slender stalks (about 1 inch wide) of rhubarb, leaves removed, chopped into 1-inch pieces (the leaves are toxic, so seriously, don’t use them)
  • 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 stem green garlic, chopped into 1-inch pieces (sub 2, whole garlic cloves if you can’t get green garlic)
  • Room temperature brine (I make mine by stirring 1 T of salt into 2 c water until dissolved)

How-To

1.  Place all ingredients except brine into a 1 quart jar making sure that your bay leaf stays whole.  You may layer in your mustard seeds and bay leaf for visual effect, but I have not found that their position in the jar influences flavor

2. Pour brine into jar, ensuring that there is enough liquid in which to submerge your rhubarb

3. Use ghetto jar method or similar to submerge your veggies

4. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 2 weeks or until desired acidity is achieved

5.  Enjoy while they last!  These are the go-to jar for my husband at the moment

Top view of lacto fermented rhubarb pickles

Pink brine and green garlic gone pink!

May 30, 2013
Posted in Basics, Easy fermenting, Ferment, Vegan, Vegetarian | Comments (6)