fermented – Harmonious Belly

January 31, 2012January 31, 2012

Beyond Kombucha

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Beyond Kombucha office and brewery. They are located right here in Astoria and are producing a lot of kombucha in their relatively small space. The visit was both educational and fun, plus I got to try some different flavors, all of which were delicious.

As I walked to their office from the train, I totally missed the entrance to the space! It’s actually located in the back of a parking lot in amongst a bunch of other small industrial spaces and warehouses; more specifically, the space is located below the Rent-a-Center in Astoria.

Once I figured out where they were exactly, with help from Liz (Beyond Kombucha’s Project Co-ordinator) on the phone and a couple of nice guys in the parking lot, I descended the stairs to the office. As I did, the aroma of kombucha hit me – that lovely sour smell I like so much. I met Liz and Spiro, the founder of the company, and Liz took me on a tour.

First, we visited the room containing the second fermentation vessel and the final vat for the kombucha ale, but we then realized it would be better to start where the kombucha itself was brewing. That room currently contains wooden barrels brewing vanilla rooibos tea as well as a “SCOBY farm” – lots of large jars containing SCOBYs. I have to admit, the idea of a SCOBY farm is pretty cool.

I love the look of the wooden vessels brewing the vanilla rooibos for the Mava Roka, Beyond Kombucha’s own kombucha ale. Yes, you heard that right! Beer!

I believe these are oak barrels in which they are brewing the vanilla rooibos.

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January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

An Afternoon of Fermented Foods

Last week, I went over to the my friend Denise’s home for a mid-afternoon snack and chat. Little did I know how awesome an afternoon it was going to be, full of fermented foods. We ate a number of kimchis, had some pancakes made with kimchi, and enjoyed a fermented soda. She did a great job making the fermented products, and got me all excited again about making ferments.

The first kimchi I tasted was a water kimchi. This is a lesser-known kimchi in the US (I’m really familiar with the cabbage kimchi), and is very light. She made it with primarily some kind of leafy green.

Next was a kimchi made from butternut squash. The squash was not cooked beforehand, but you’d never know it – the squash was soft but not without substance. It was a little sweet, a little savory. Really wonderful!

The final kimchi I tasted was the kind I’m used to – cabbage kimchi with ginger, garlic, hot peppers, etc, though not made with napa cabbage. It was very good. We used some of the juice in the mung bean pancakes.

Then I tasted a bit of this corn salsa she made back in the late summer. Wowza, it was delicious! I am going to make this next year.

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January 4, 2012

Food Lover’s Cleanse 2012, Day 1

As you may remember from last year, I did the two weeks of Bon Appetit’s Food Lover’s Cleanse – this is not one of those vinegar-cayenne-honey liquid cleanses, but is basically two weeks of eating real, whole foods after the abundance of fractured foods present at the holidays.

This year, I’m doing it again, though not as strictly as last year (it made lots of leftovers and was a little overwhelming). Plus I’ll change things up to be more compatible with NT ways of cooking. So with this in mind, I know 2012’s Food Lovers Cleanse is going to be a fun adventure.

In the tradition of being less strict, I didn’t start until Tuesday the 3rd. From the start I altered things. I chose for breakfast to do soaked oatmeal (rolled organic oats, since I don’t have any steel cut right now) with whole milk, grass-fed yogurt, and the last of the frozen blueberries from the summer. I also spiced it up with cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg.

I was sad to see the blueberries go, but dang they were tasty. I will definitely freeze blueberries again next year, and in bigger quantities. I’m currently eating a pasteurized whole milk yogurt from Trader Joe’s, since I ran out of raw yogurt; I’ll get some more of the raw stuff soon. This is a pretty decent commercial product, though. I like that it’s full fat and made from the milk of cows that eat grass.

For lunch I ate leftover Hoppin’ John from new years – leftovers are actually called “Skippin’ Jenny” (one day delayed for me). I had some roasted butternut squash with that, too.

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January 2, 2012January 2, 2012

Beyond Kombucha Haiku Contest

Win 30 days of
Beyond Kombucha for one
inspired haiku

One of my favorite discoveries from the travels on my current food path is fermented foods and beverages. I’ve found that I love all sorts of lacto fermented comestibles – sauerkraut, fermented beets, kimchi, kefir, yogurt. I also love kombucha, a fermented sweet tea with origins in China. It’s got a sweetness and tang, all wrapped up in a sparkly beverage.

I’ve made kombucha before, but got out of the practice, since I have some excellent sources of prepared kombucha. One of these sources is Beyond Kombucha, a company based right here in Astoria. I’m particularly fond of their hibiscus flavor, which has a nice fruitiness to it.

I was recently contacted by the people at Beyond Kombucha, who alerted me to haiku contest they’re running. Here’s more info:

Beyond Kombucha, in conjunction with the national 30 Day Drink Kombucha Challenge, is running a haiku contest starting tomorrow morning, Tuesday January 3rd and going through Friday, January 6th. Contestants can log onto our Facebook page to submit an original haiku on the theme of kombucha or tea.

The Grand Prize winner receives a 30 day supply of Beyond Kombucha (shipped anywhere in continental US) and a copy of their poem hand-written by label artist Christine Theofilatos. Runners up receive their poem written by Christine and a copy of our favorite office reading, “The Tea Enthusiasts Handbook” by lifetime tea-lovers Mary Lou and Robert Heiss. Winning poems may be featured on our new website or labels!

Such great prizes! So, put on your haiku helmet and find the perfect 5-7-5 as your entry. Please feel free to share your haiku masterpiece here in the comments, too (just for fun, no prizes are coming from my end).

Good luck, everyone!

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011

Naturally Fermented Ginger Ale – Update!

Today I opened up my fermented ginger ale to see how it turned out. Well… the good: delicious! I love the smooth flavor combination of ginger, lemon, and sweet. It’s really nice.

The (sort of) bad: not very sparkly. But there was a little carbonation, and when I shook the glass and listened to the liquid, I could hear the bubbles effervesce and pop. My thought is that more carbonation can be encouraged by putting it in a more airtight container, a kind of “second fermentation”.

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October 10, 2011October 9, 2011

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.

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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October 4, 2011October 11, 2011

How To Make a 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.