An Introduction to Fermented Foods: Getting to Know Your Bacteria

Fermented Jalapenos

A lot of people flinch when I tell them I eat bacteria. However those same people know that eating yogurt is good for them, especially if they're sick and have just taken a round of antibiotics. Whether you want to call it bacteria, probiotics, or pretend they don't exist while you're munching on some kimchi, there's an invisible world of creatures out there waiting to help or harm us.

For the longest time, we thought bacteria was bad and needed to be eliminated. For example, there was an attempt to eliminate helicobacter pylori since the 1980s because it can cause peptic ulcers and stomach cancers, and combined with science and an abundance of doctors, it has mostly been wiped out in this country.

 However, it also calms the immune system (so less allergies and asthma) and it regulates acid in the body so a person without h. pylori often suffers from acid reflux which can eventually lead to esophageal cancer. Perhaps most alarming of all, h. pylori also regulates an appetite hormone that tells you when you're full and when you should eat. It is speculated that we have so many problems eating today because of the lack of this bacteria.

I'm not suggesting we need to re-introduce h. pylori back into everyone's diets, as it can cause many devastating problems; however it's time to recognize that our gut bacteria has a huge affect on us, positive and negative, and being exposed to more bacteria at a younger age is the better option. Because we eat so many processed foods, we're essentially starving our gut. Many of our ailments, from autism and schizophrenia to cardiovascular disease and cancer are now being linked to inadequate a problem in our gut. Scientists are still studying it so most doctors aren't treating you with probiotics (though some are), but I can't see the downside.

Playing devil's advocate - let's say the link and early studies showing how bacteria work with us and against turn out to be wrong. How does eating and preserving foods harm us in anyway? I still love my yogurt, pickles, cheese, fish sauce - I love all my bacteria-laden foods, regardless of science.

While studying bacteria and our microbiome is a relatively new science, there is more than enough evidence out there to know that we need to begin making some radical changes in our diet and lifestyle. For some people that means letting their kids play in the dirt outside, and for others, those of us who are grown, with no children, and many prescriptions of antibiotics over our lifetime, that means turning our kitchens into a lab experiment.

Fermented Mustard

I started eating fermented foods for the bacteria. Bacteria live in and on us and outnumber us 10 to 1. We are not really human when you think about it or study it. If we ever develop the technology (or have advanced aliens drop in on us), we might be able to see completely new versions of ourselves, versions that might not necessarily even take us into account.

I decided I needed to start feeding the bacteria that I support, especially to help lower stress, anxiety, depression, and my general aches aches and pains - all things that are normal when you're approaching 30 and living in NYC.

When I read about what our bodies are capable of (with and without bacteria) and how dependent we are on bacteria (seeing as how we aren't even "human") and then in thinking how my body was struggling in the aforementioned ways, I felt that I needed more and better bacteria right away.

I briefly considered taking a probiotic in pill form, but that's generally a waste of money, as homemade is almost always better*. Anyway, I like being more hands on in my life so I started experimenting.

I have to say, while I don't always feel perfect, I think that has more to do with my environment and stress level than my diet. (Although when I feel absolutely terrible, I tend to reach towards take-out food, which only perpetuates the cycle.) A few weeks after I started adding fermented foods into my diet, I stopped craving take-out food and I only wanted to make my own version of everything. I found that snacking on fermented onions and peppers improved a stomach ache. Drinking a glass of kombucha made my stomach feel fuller. I started drinking milk kefir every day and instantly my mood got noticeably better. Milk kefir also works wonders as a moisturizer... but that's another post.

Fermented Hot Sauce

I don't want to turn this into ways fermented foods might have saved my life as there are plenty of those stories out there. Instead I want to present some facts on why bacteria is important and should be in your life. Because I'm not a doctor and have zero medical training, you should check out linked articles if you're interested. You should read Wild Fermentation and the The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz, which also has a lot of great articles. Michael Pollan's Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation has an excellent section on fermented foods - the whole book is about food and is a treasure.

Find out more. Our body is fascinating, especially because it isn't even ours.

This is just a very brief intro to bacteria and our bodies and will hopefully get everyone interested! Next week, I'm going to write about how easy it is to cultivate and grow bacteria - and how to know when it's unsafe to eat. Stay tuned!

*A recent study looked at 14 probiotic products on the market and found that only 1 of them contained what was stated on the label.

Read more:
Fermentation: Not Just Good for Your Gut, Good for Your Budget!
How To Know When Your Ferment Has Gone Bad (AKA Fermenting is Really Easy!)

Recipe: Cheesy Mexican Pasta

Sometimes I make kefir cheese, and I'm not really sure what to do with it. Sometimes it's too sour, sometimes it's too hard, and other time I don't have any herbs to mix with it - or bread, for that matter.

But then, sometimes, I stumble on brilliant websites that inspire me to create something fun and new!

When I make macaroni and cheese, I tend to favor the healthier versions... but if there isn't a ton of cheese, and if it's kefir cheese, well, I'm sure that's all right.

This is mostly made of fermented items. The sauce is added at the end to ensure a lot of the priobiotics (aka the good bacteria) survive and make it into your belly in one piece. Like my other fermented pasta sauce, the end result is warm enough to eat and enjoy - but nowhere near hot enough to burn your tongue. Just perfect!

Ingredients
bacon
pasta
8 oz kefir cheese (or cream cheese)
1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 fermented jalapenos, sliced
2-3 rings of fermented onions, sliced
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon of garlic paste
scallions

Preparation
Place bacon in the oven. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until desired level of crispiness.

Boil water - and cook your pasta.

While pasta and bacon are cooking, combine the kefir cheese, cheddar cheese, and sliced jalapenos in a bowl. Mix well.

If you're not using fermented foods, saute the onions, garlic, and peppers per normal. Once they're soft enough to eat, let them cool and add them to the cheese mixture.

Once pasta is finished, drain and divide into bowls. Spoon a mixture of the cheese sauce into the bowl. It will slowly melt over the pasta. Stir to distribute the cheese evenly. Add bacon, garlic paste, and scallions on top. Enjoy!

Recipe: Fermented Jalapeno and Cayenne Peppers

I think I've made my position known here before: I am not a huge fan of spicy foods.

However, I make a lot of spicy food anyway because the boyfriend loves it. I'm slowly learning to love it, as apparently spicy food is an acquired taste, but often that means I have a lot of spicy peppers left over and I certainly don't like to eat them. While I did make hot sauce so he could season his food appropriately, I found another great fermenting idea to satisfy us both.

I started doing this last year when I noticed a lot of jalapenos on sale at the farmer's market for $1. Obviously I'm not going to use the entire bag in a week, so I decided to ferment them in brine.

In addition to the health benefits for fermenting (which, coincidentally, is the reason I pass these out to nauseous people), the peppers become a little softer and are a great snack. They also become a little more mellow and not as spicy so I can use a bit more in my food.

Even though the spice factor has been taken down a notch or two, if you're not used to spicy foods, I do NOT recommend drinking the brine. You could probably mix it with alcohol for a fun drink though.

For this I used jalapeno peppers and cayenne peppers.

Ingredients
A decent amount of peppers - enough to fit in your jar
Salt
Water
Optional: Garlic, Onions, Pepper, any other spices

Preparation
The amount of salt to water depends on the size of your container. I usually make a 2% brine, which is 1 tablespoon per quart of filtered water.

I fill the quart jar about halfway and add a tablespoon of salt. Dissolve the salt.

Gently rinse your peppers. Slice however you like and place them in the jar.

Pack the peppers (and other optional spices and flavorings) in until the jar is full - leave about an inch of room at the top. If necessary, add more filtered water until all the peppers are covered.

Because vegetables have a tendency to float, add a weight of some kind. Some people use rocks, glass balls, a small glass, a plastic bag filled with water - anything to keep the vegetables from popping up. I wedged a long piece of pepper under the mouth of the jar to keep everything down on the jar on the left.

Wait about a week, depending on the temperature of your home. Taste the peppers and if you love them, stick them in the fridge to slow down the fermentation. Enjoy!

Recipe: Preserved Lemons and Limes

Even though I enjoy experimenting with different ferments, I felt a little strange about this one. For those that don't know, preserved lemons and limes are preserved in salt. Like most fermented foods, the color dulls and the liquid becomes cloudy.

But the peel also becomes softened. You can eat the peel.

As someone who finds the taste of lemons and limes to be a bit overwhelming, I thought about skipping this one.

But articles kept popping up about it. I saw a lovely article on NPR about preserved lemons and how they should be preserved. Phickle exclaimed that preserved lemons were gold and could be used in almost any dish, from Middle Eastern to Italian. But I think what really convinced me was when Food in Jars pureed the preserved lemons for a versatile lemon sauce.

Because while I don't make a lot of Middle Eastern cuisine or drink salty Thai lemonade, I could really use some lemon sauce on hand for recipes that call for lemon juice or lemon zest. Because I rarely have any on hand, and when I do buy lemons, I always end up wasting part of them.

So I headed down to the organic store to pick up some lemons. I decided to do limes while I was at it, which was a bad idea. It was snowing and freezing outside and while I was preparing the limes, I just really wanted to make guacamole and margaritas. (It should warm up soon, right?!)

Anyway, I highly recommend these! I finally tried the peel last night and it was surprisingly delicious. I don't know if I would munch on lemon peels as a snack, but I can definitely see myself slicing them and sticking them in pasta. I think at some point I'll blend everything into a paste, but for now I love the juice and the peels. I especially love that I have lemons and limes on hand now!

Of course you can use your preserved lemons anywhere you use regular lemons and lemon juice: in salad dressings, stews, dips, pastas, etc.

I wrote the recipe below for lemons, but it's the same for limes.

Ingredients
5 lemons, or however many will fit in your jar
1-3 more lemons, for the extra juice
Lots of sea salt

Preparation
Place about a tablespoon of sea salt in the bottom of your jar.

Clean your lemons.

Slice the tops and bottoms off of the lemons.

Take a knife and cut an X shape into them about 3/4 of the way down - however be careful not to cut through the lemon entirely. Everything should still be connected.

Liberally salt the exposed flesh of the lemon. Place the salted lemon into the jar.

(In theory you should remove the seeds, but I gave up after removing a few. I can easily pick around them.)

Take a wooden spoon and gently mash the lemon in the jar. You're trying to juice the salted lemon and also make room for other lemons.

Repeat the above process, cramming as many lemons into the jar as you can.

Once your jar is full, squeeze the juice of the remaining lemons into it. You want the lemon peels underneath the juice.

Place a lid on your jar. Shake it once a day - and  remember to push the peels back under the lemon juice.

Leave it out for about a month (shaking it daily). The juice will thicken and begin to look cloudy. The peels will begin to soften and lose their bright color.

You can leave it out at room temperature or place it in the fridge if you'd prefer. If you leave it out, just remember to make sure that the lemon peels are covered.

And enjoy! You have lots of lemons on hand for quite awhile!

Guess who has a sourdough starter!!

I recently acquired a sourdough starter from a friend, and by the highlight of my week.


I tried creating my own sourdough starter several times last summer, but consistently ended up killing the starter somehow around day 3. I convinced myself that I was not ready to begin caring for ferments daily and so I waited.

In the meantime I acquired milk kefir grains and they were so much work. They really do need constant (or at least daily) attention, but the result is wonderful tasting kefir so it's worth it. Perhaps sourdough starter would also be worth it?

And it really is!

For those who don't know, or those who are considering cutting out grains, sourdough can be a wonderful addition in your life. Here's a really quick summary:

Basically, sourdough starters contain natural yeasts (and not just one type of yeast like the packets in the supermarket), which is really important because the yeasts create enzymes to pre-digest the grain. Because it's also fermented, you get the bacteria in there eating the sugars and starches. The bacteria also activates that break down phytic acid, which is what makes eating grains so tough on your stomach. It also produces acetic acid, which creates the "sour" part of sourdough bread - which helps the bread store longer, preventing mold.*

So if your stomach hurts when you eat a sandwich or you're wondering if you should cut out gluten**, start making your own bread and the negative effects should go away. I'm not going into too many details just because there are SO many wonderful lists of benefits already out there (and linked below), but I will say it's really changed my life in such a great way.

So far, I've used my starter to make bread, pizza crust, pie crust, donuts, and I'm looking forward to continuing to experiment. While it does sometimes require a bit of planning ahead (for example, if you want to bake a loaf of bread you need to start the day before), it doesn't really require THAT much more planning than using store bought yeast and it tastes much better. Best of all, I don't have weird stomach cramps after eating that I normally get after munching on store bought bread.

(You can see my sourdough starter in the container in the top right - so easy to store!)

I use the basic no-knead sourdough loaf recipe from Breadtopia. It's really simple. Just mix and let it set. You're supposed to move it a bit - change the plastic wrap covering to a damp cloth and use fancy equipment like a bread proofer and a dutch oven.

I do not have the expensive equipment and it comes out great. I've also forgotten about it and not done any of the steps - just popped it in the oven after 24 hours, and it came out perfectly. A key step for me is pre-heating the oven to 500 degrees WITH some cast iron dish in there and then placing the bread in for its time. I can't remember if that's in the instructional video, but it works really well for me.

The pizza dough and donuts were all prepped and ready to go with only 10 minutes of resting. You can't argue with that! Plus, you know, they both tasted amazing. A lot of times you can't really even tell a difference, which is not always the case when you start using different flours (i.e. rice and wheat flours).

The best part is that if I only want to do one loaf a week, I just pop my starter in the fridge and let it rest. (If you leave it on the counter, you should feed it daily and, you know, use it daily.)

Do you have sourdough starter? Have you thought about getting one?

*Read more about the science behind sourdough starters at Simple Bites, Cookus Interruptus, and Real Food Forager.
**While some people with gluten sensitivities can eat and enjoy sourdough bread, you should do so under the care of a medical professional. Not because I said it might be okay.

Surprise Gardening When All Other Efforts Fail

I really want to grow plants here in the city. I don't get a ton of light so it's a bit difficult. I don't have roof access or a balcony. I'm not opposed to using the fire escape, but other people are... I also have cats so I can't have anything on the window sills. That leaves hanging pots and I have several in each window!

But nothing seems to grow. I've tried growing herbs from seeds. They tend to sprout and get about 2-3 inches tall. I feel like a proud mama and then... they die.

Thinking the problem was that I can't grow from seeds, I bought healthy looking plants. They lived a bit longer, but ultimately they died as well.

I can't say that nothing is growing in my apartment however. I have two accidental plants (and one bonsai tree that's taking over my hallway).

First up is my little lemon tree. I can't remember if this pot originally held a pepper plant or a bean plant, but regardless, it just had plant remains. One night I was chopping lemons and, on a whim, I decided to throw all of my lemon seeds into the pot.

I continued to water the pot, in case my original plant came back to life. It didn't. But! A week or two or three later, I checked and saw a bunch of tiny seedlings popping up from the lemon seeds!

(In case you're thinking of recreating this, I've heard that lemon seeds need damp soil to grow.)

I've been told lemon trees are bad luck and I should get rid of them, but I'm very proud of my little plants. I have no idea if they'll even produce fruit - but it made it through the winter in front of a cracked window so hopefully it will thrive this summer when it heats up.

Another surprise plant in my apartment was recently identified thanks to a friend. Again, I tend to water my empty pots in case a little seed suddenly decides to stop being dormant. And so this one did. As it was nowhere near anything I've planted, I was pretty stumped for a good while and because it turned such bright colors, I was momentarily afraid it was poisonous.

I think it's in the amaranth family and most likely a celosia. If it is a celosia, they can be used medicinally for worms, blood diseases, mouth sores, and eye problems. So. I've got that covered. The leaves are supposed to be very nutritious so I might try eating some since it just continues to grow.

Do you have any mystery plants? Any indoor gardening tips for the gardening-challenged?

Recipe: Spicy Brown Mustard from Scotch Ale

Mustard is a new friend of mine. Growing up I hated it - or at least I hated yellow mustard, which was really all that was offered to me since I was a child.

Recently I started to experiment with different types and I came to really love the spicy condiment. Then I started buying whole mustard seeds to flavor some of my ferments.

So of course the next step became to make and ferment my own mustard. I found a fun recipe for Spicy Stout Mustard over at Inspired Mama Musings. I modified based on ingredients I had on hand and I have to say that this is probably the best mustard I've ever had.

It's spicy. It's tangy. It's perfect on sandwiches. My only complaint is that it's so flavorful that if I put it on something plain and boring (like a turkey sandwich), it completely overtakes the flavor. But I think that just means I need to step up my sandwich game, right?

Ingredients
1.5 cups whole mustard seeds
6 ounces beer - I used Founders Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale
4 ounces balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp tumeric, nutmeg, cinnamon
2 whole cloves
1 tsp honey (raw if you have it)

Preparation
Combine your ingredients in a glass jar and stir.

Cover and place the jar in a dark place and sit until the mustard seeds have absorbed all the liquid, about 1-2 days.

In case you're not sure, my mustard seeds were actually spilling out of the top because there was no more room for them once they absorbed the liquid!

Place contents in a blender and process until smooth. Not all of your mustard seeds will blend perfectly, and that's okay. Because the seeds absorbed the liquid, they're soft.

After blending, store in the fridge for 6-8 months. Enjoy!