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.

water kimchi

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!

butternut kimchi

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.

cabbage kimchi

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.

fermented corn salsa

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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.

soaked oatmeal blueberries

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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