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Naturally Fermented Ginger Ale

Last week, I wrote about the ginger bug I created – this is the starter for naturally fermented ginger ale. It’s made from ginger, sugar, and water, it ferments rather quickly – really, in a matter of days. I let mine ferment for about five days (I fed it twice during that time). The next thing to do was to make the ginger ale itself!

It’s a pretty simple process. I chose to make a half batch, since it’s essentially a test batch; I’ll often make smaller batches of something I make for the first time. I started by combining 3/4 cup organic sugar and a 1 inch knob of ginger root (grated) with four cups of water. I also set aside the juice of one lemon.

sugar lemon ginger for naturally fermented ginger ale

I put the water in a pot, grated the ginger into it (I prefer to use a microplane for this task), and added the sugar. I brought that to a boil and let it cook for 15 minutes, uncovered. Then I let it cool to room temperature.

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How To Make a Ginger Bug

ginger bug

I’ve expanded my fermentation repertoire to ginger beer/ale. I love ginger and have enjoyed ginger ale in the past. I don’t care for most commercial ginger ale because it contains high fructose corn syrup. No doubt there are artisanal ginger ales, though, which probably contain sugar in place of HFCS, which would be better. But I really want to learn to make it and determine the sugar content myself.

I’m using the recipe in Wild Fermentation. The way to start the process of ginger ale is to create a ginger bug. This is pretty easy at first glance – grated ginger root and sugar (2 tsp each) are combined with water (1 cup), stir to dissolve the sugar, cover the jar with layers of cheesecloth (I did five layers), then let it sit for a day or so to ferment. Fermentation is evident by bubbles forming on the top layer of the ginger-sugar-water mix.

So far, I’ve seen lots of bubbles. I’ve been feeding it ginger and sugar every other day or so to keep the fermentation up. This week I’ll take the next step toward making ginger ale – more on that later.

This is actually my second ginger bug – two fruit flies found their way into the first one I made. I had few layers of cheesecloth on top of the jar, but I guess they wiggled their way in. Gross.

Bottom photo is the grated ginger root (I grated it with a microplane) and organic sugar. The top photo has the water added to that. I used just tap water (perhaps not the best choice, but it’s what I had). I’m excited to see if it all works out!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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Strained Yogurt

strained yogurt in the morning

Sometimes I find myself with very runny yogurt. Like, watery runny – sometimes yogurt just does that. Non commercial yogurt can be kind of temperamental, and since there are no gums or stabilizers involved, consistency is not always guaranteed. Runny yogurt can also be the result of user error, or wonky cultures, or temperature fluctuations. There are a lot of variables.

Since I’ve been eating raw yogurt, I have gotten used to yogurt with a looser texture. But sometimes this texture is even too runny for me. Early on, I just got kind of bummed out and ate it anyway (a shame to waste a whole quart of it).

However, these days I recognize that really runny yogurt is an opportunity for a truly delicious solution: strained yogurt.

Strained yogurt is everywhere in my neighborhood. Living in the most intensely Greek part of Astoria, Queens, I am surrounded by Greek culture, including Greek food culture. Dishes like souvlaki, donner pork, galaktoboureko, and frappes appear on diner menus, and no one considers this odd or unusual. Most people I know have a container or two of Fage yogurt hanging out in their fridge.

A couple weekends ago, I got my hands on some raw yogurt that was really runny, so I automatically took out my straining setup and poured the yogurt in it. This setup consists of a tall plastic container and a strainer lined with three or four layers of cheesecloth that I set on top of it. I put the yogurt in the strainer, then place the container lid on top of everything. I set it in the fridge on the bottom shelf and put it out of my mind until the next morning. Continue reading “Strained Yogurt”

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Nourishing Pumpkin Bread

pumpkin bread

I feel pretty proud of this pumpkin bread. It has a wonderful tender crumb, is moist without being gummy, and the crust is crunchy without being obnoxious. It’s just sweet enough, and is full of healthy fats, not to mention sprouted flour (which digests as a vegetable).

The pumpkin is a puree I made over the winter, from an heirloom pumpkin that I roasted and processed through a ricer, then froze for a future use. While cleaning out my freezer last week, I found it in there and decided to defrost it and use it for… something (I wasn’t sure what exactly at the time). A day later it came to me: I could create a pumpkin bread recipe! One that had all the ingredients I wanted in it, and none that I didn’t.

Back around the holidays, I participated in a “secret santa” gift exchange, and received the Ratio book by Michael Ruhlman (my request). At the time, I wanted to start creating recipes – especially recipes that use unrefined sweeteners. I have found some recipes that I like but not that many. So, I thought the solution would be to create some of my own.

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Nourishing Nectarine Crisp

nectarine crisp

I love fruit crisps. They are a perfect alternative to the more complicated fruit pie – there’s still warm sweet fruit and spices involved, just with a delicious sweet topping instead of a more neutral pastry underneath.

I’ve been making fruit crisps for a long time. Usually I rely on the fruit crisp recipe from my favorite cookbook, Fields of Greens, by Annie Somerville. Somerville opened one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Greens. I first ate there when I was a practicing vegetarian – the food is amazing and the views are spectacular, looking out the big windows toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

Even meat-eating friends at that time loved Greens. No one felt like anything was missing.

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Socrates Greenmarket and Mexican Panzanella

greenmarket sign

A couple weekends ago, I visited the Socrates Greenmarket for the first time – what a great market! It’s small, but packs a punch in its offerings. There, you can find all sorts of vegetables, fruit, bread, honey, juice, and even duck.

Apart from wanting to check it out for personal reasons, I went there as part of a meetup event with the Traditional Community Kitchen, a Meetup group focused on real, whole, unprocessed and traditional foods (I’m a co-organizer with them). Members come from a wide range of backgrounds – from those that follow a Nourishing Traditions way of eating, to Paleo, to vegan and vegetarian. Our events are a lot of fun, and the meetup at the Greenmarket didn’t disappoint.

We met around 11am and proceeded to take a tour of the market with the market manager, Markella Los. She took us to each stand and talked a little bit about the farmers and the farm and what they had to offer. It was really interesting and so nice to have more insight into each market vendor.

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Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

naked tomatillos
Naked tomatillos

One of my favorite summer vegetables – apart from tomatoes – is the tomatillo. Tomatillos are those seemingly green tomatoes that grow with a papery husk around them… but they are not unripe green tomatoes at all! They are actually really different from tomatoes.

tomatillos from El Poblano Farm
With their husks on

They are in the nightshade family – just as tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants are – but resemble ground cherries more than tomatoes. They are more solid than tomatoes, sometimes a little sticky under their husk, full of tiny seeds and have a tangy taste. They are also very high in pectin, and that helps to thicken salsa verde. Some people like to eat them raw but I don’t care for them that way.

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