report back - sandor katz lecture

he was great. a wealth of knowledge surrounding fermented foods... some of the points he made that i found interesting were...

1. almost all gourmet foods are fermented... cheese, olives, bread, alcohol, chocolate, coffee, etc...

2. fermentation arised as an art because it is the path of least resistance... food ferments!

3. fermentation was a necessity because 38 degree boxes are a new luxury... need to preserve.

4. the double meaning of the word culture is appropriate, fermentation has local flavor.

5. wild fermentation captures local bacteria. just like eating local honey helps local allergies.

6. our bodies are 90% other organisms, we need to maintain their balance to maintain ours.

7. our "disinfecting" culture actually makes us less safe by making resistant bacterias unnecessarily.

8. fermented foods make food more digestable and increase the available vitamins including B12 (earlier...)

he gave a very simple fermented vegetable recipe (which we've done... great!) which i will give here:

chop whatever vegetables you want (raw, although cooked do work). i'd recommend cabbage, carrot, pepper, garlic, crimini mushroom, green beans, romanesco (for looks), and some salt. he said that salt does prohibit certain (potentially beneficial) bacteria from forming, but that lactobacillus (a very necessary bacteria) actually likes salt. his ratio for salt is roughly 2.5% by weight... or just salt to taste. mix those veggies together, squeeze them to slightly break the cell walls down a bit, put in an open jar or crock, and press them down. if their own juices don't cover the veggies, add a bit of water. make sure there is cloth cover on it and just let it sit. it can sit for a long time, just keep pressing the veggies under the liquid. the water protects it from mold growth. if mold does form, skim it off. if you let it sit, the mycelium will penetrate the pickle and make the texture softer (that's desirable in some cultures). we let ours sit out for about a week before we put the top on and tossed it in the fridge, although much slower, longer ferments (especially in cooler climes) can go on and makes the flavor more complex. anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks to 3 months, to even 3 years can work, with some variation. this is hardly exhaustive, but feel free to ask any questions.

enjoy... foods with live cultures help us live!

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the phenominable snowball!

THE PHENOMINABLE SNOWBALL

this is not just some truffle, it is a multi-layered extravagance of confection... and it just happens to be vegan! mmm.

fresh grated coconut flesh from 1 coconut
1 cup smooth unsalted cashew butter
1 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup unrefined sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon grade b maple syrup
1 tablespoon grand marnier
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon anise extract
water

wherever possible, use organic ingredients, it tastes that much better. also, get fair trade chocolate and sugar if you can find it. child labor is a drag you don't want to mix with luxury.

1. mix the maple syrup, grand marnier, vanilla extract and anise extract. pour it over the cherries in a small bowl. if necessary, add a little water until the mixture almost covers the cherries, stir occasionally and let soak for as long as you can bear it. overnight is best.

2. to prepare the coconut, i used james patterson's excellent method from "what's a cook to do?": hammer a screwdriver into two of the soft round spots that appear near one end of the coconut and pour out the liquid (he says discard it, i say drink it... heavenly!). bake the coconut on a sheet pan in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. wrap the coconut in a towel and crack it in half with a hammer. use a screwdriver to pry the flesh out of each end. if the thin brown membrane adheres to the flesh, peel it off with a vegetable peeler. grate. the fresh stuff is so much more succulent and complex, don't get the dried. if you're going to make these, make them perfect!

3. melt the sugar in a small saucepan over medium low heat (no teflon... it's public record now that dupont lied about it's harmful effects. i know of a former dupont employee who says to NEVER feed food to kids cooked on teflon. yikes!).

4. when the sugar is melted, stir in the cashew butter and cocoa powder, and turn off the heat.

5. if there is still a lot of liquid left on the cherries, strain some out, but keep it.

6. stir in the cherries, adding the liquid as necessary to assimilate them. i used about 1 tablespoon. more might be fine, but too much could make the balls fall apart.

7. when the mixture is cool enough to touch, stir in the chocolate chips.

8. form the mixture into balls and roll in the coconut shreds. cool or eat warm... both are great.



by the way, i want to extend a warm welcome to everybody who came via tastespotting (a most excellent image blog of creative foods). please check out the rest of this blog. it's not just food, (in fact this is my first food post!) but i'll be sure to do more. my wife laura and i are big vegan and vegetarian foodies, and have produced a small cookbook. we were in a dialogue with ak press to create a vegan "joy of cooking", but while they are interested, they can't really advance us enough to cover the research costs, so we are trying to figure out other options.

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