Unlocking secrets of fermenting

Quick look: Ferment your own foods – from pickles and chutney to sauerkraut and kimchee – with this new, colorful and well-organized resource tailored for home cooks and small batches.

What’s inside: “By fermenting, you’ll unlock new, unimagined, complex, deep flavors. You’ll experience the unique flavor that comes from time and place with each delicious batch.”

So write the husband-and-wife writing and fermenting team from southern Oregon, where – according to their website – “they have cultivated a handmade life for the last 15 years.”

Kirsten K. and Christopher Shockey run Mellonia Farm, host classes on fermenting and maintain the blog www.fermentista.us. On the site, they write, “vegetables + salt + time = yum.”

In their new book, the couple share more than 120 healthful recipes for fermenting 64 different kinds of vegetables. Their detailed description of the process, trouble-shooting tips and basic as well as more creative recipes fill 376 pages.

The authors describe their method as “lacto-fermenting modest, humble vegetables by the oldest, most straight forward method: with salt (and sometimes water). As you explore the recipes, you’ll experience tang, zest, effervescence and pizzazz.”

The soft-bound book goes way beyond cabbage and cucumbers. It’s divided into four parts: fermentation fundamentals; basics like sauerkraut, condiments and kimchee; advanced fermentation from arugula to zucchini; and more than 80 additional recipes for what to do with all of the results. No meal – breakfast, lunch, dinner, to snacks, happy hour, even dessert – is left out.

This thorough guide would be helpful for beginners who want to make their trips to the farmers market last longer or gardeners who don’t want to waste any of their seasonal bounty. The tone is encouraging and easy-to-follow. There’s a safety checklist, primer on salts and discussion of types of fermentation vessels – from clay pots to glass jars.

There are recipes for fermented eggplant, escarole, fennel, garlic, leeks, mushrooms, onions, rhubarb, fruits and more. One section focuses on foraged foods like dandelions, nettles, ramps and watercress.

While “ferments” or “sauer” vegetables can be eaten right out of the jar, recipes offer more uses – such as cream cheese with fermented herb paste to spread on bagels, tempura and sushi made from pickled vegetables, kimchee latkes and Polish pickle soup. There are cocktails made with sauerkraut, kimchee and pickle brine as well as cranberry relish – and garnished with spears of fermented veggies. In the dessert department, look for Northwest Gingered Carrot Soup, Sauerkraut Coconut Macaroons, fermented rhubarb fool and more.

Many recipes are marked as raw, vegan and gluten-free or one or two of the three. Not all are accompanied by photographs, but the images that do appear are vibrant – full of eye-popping purples, oranges, pinks. Eight are included in “The Scum Gallery” in the back of the book, which helps newbie fermentors identify yeast, mold, foam and other interesting-looking parts of the process.

What’s not: The authors tell you that themselves on page 17. “It’s not about wine and cheese, beer and sourdough, kombucha and chocolate; these are the already well-known and sexy members of the fermented food club. It’s also not about pickling with vinegar or using starter cultures and whey.”

IPA Pickles

From “Fermenting Vegetables” by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey

20 pickling cucumbers

3 to 4 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons pickling spice (see note)

10 to 12 fresh or dried hop blossoms

1 gallon brine (3/4 cup unrefined sea salt to 1 gallon unchlorinated water)

Grape leaves (optional)

Scrub cucumbers in water. Trim stems and scrub off blossom ends as they contain an enzyme that will soften the pickles.

Lightly smash garlic cloves with the back of a knife, just enough to break them.

Pack cucumbers, incorporating the garlic, hop blossoms, spices and chilies as you go, into four wide-mouth quart jars or a 1-gallon jar or crock. Pour in enough brine to cover them. Tuck grape leaves, if using, or a piece of plastic wrap over the cucumbers. Cover jar loosely. Store any leftover brine in the fridge (it will keep for a week; discard thereafter and make a new batch, if needed).

Set aside on a baking sheet to ferment, somewhere nearby, out of direct sunlight, and cool, for three to six days. During the fermentation period, monitor the brine level and top off with reserved brine, if needed, to cover. You may see scum on top; it’s generally harmless.

The cucumbers begin a vibrant green – the colors look almost larger than life. As the cukes start to ferment, they turn a drab olive, the result of the acids interacting with chlorophyll. The brine will become cloudy as lactic acid is produced. In three to four days, you’ll have half sours; in about six days you’ll have full sours. Taste until the pickles as are sour as you’d like them to be.

When pickles are ready, cover with fresh grape leaves, if you have some, screw on the lids, and store in the refrigerator. These will keep, in the refrigerator, for one year.

Note: If desired, substitute pickling spice with 1 ½ tablespoons mustard seed, 1 ½ teaspoons whole black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon coriander seed, and 1 to 2 dried red chilies, such as cayennes.

Yield: 1 gallon

Brine Crackers

From “Fermenting Vegetables” by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey

3/4 pound flax seeds (a mix of brown and golden is nice)

1/4 pound almonds

1 quart fermented brine

Mix the seeds, nuts and brine in a bowl or container with a lid and soak for 12 hours, stirring occasionally if convenient.

In a food processor, blend the mixture to a uniform consistency, then spread evenly on dehydrator tray sheets for making fruit leathers. Don’t try spreading this on normal dehydrator screens unless you have great patience for cleaning tiny ironed-on seeds out of the mesh. The thinner you spread, the thinner the crisps. With practice, you can get the seeds so thinly spread that when they are finished you can break them up with your hands to the size you like. If you decide to leave them a bit thicker, the crisps will work better for dipping into spreads.

Dehydrate at or below 103 degrees.

Check the crackers after 10 to 12 hours. When they are mostly dry, flip them over to finish them evenly, another 1 to 2 hours.

Transfer to a cutting board and cut to desired size. Store in an airtight container. The crackers will keep fresh for several weeks.

Yield: 1 pound

The Pickle Back

From “Fermenting Vegetables” by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey

This is a way to drink your pickle juice if you are not ready for straight-no-chaser kraut shots – though sort of in reverse, as the pickle juice is the chaser. T.J. Lynch of the Rusty Knot, in Manhattan’s West Village, is credited with originating this drink.

2 ounces Irish whiskey (The Shockeys recommend Jameson.)

2 ounces fermented pickle brine

You need two shot glasses. The whiskey leads, followed closely by the brine.

Yield: 1 shot