Fun with Fermentation: Kimchee & Saurkraut

Caro also passed on a kimchee recipe which was simple and delicious (and WAY cheaper than buying it at the store). The only recipe I hadn't made yet was the sauerkraut, and lo and behold Happy Girl was at the Maker Faire today and we made sauerkraut! Am done with the trifecta of fermented foods and am thinking of re-reading Wild Fermentation and starting on sourdough bread (now that I live in San Francisco, it seems required).

Kombucha recipe

My dear friend Caroline took a fermenting class at Happy Girl Kitchen in Oakland and gave me her recipes and the mother for the kombucha. I passed on some of the mother to two neighbors, one of whom came over with Meyer lemons from her garden (I love Palo Alto!) and told me about having kombucha as a kid in Russia. She said everyone made it and not to get too worried about getting sick or needing to use bottled water- dissuading my worries.

My first batch was great and took about 10 days. I'm on my second batch and a half (am using black tea) and recently read in a raw food cookbook that I can mix it with juice to make it taste more like the expensive ones I buy at Whole Foods.


Update- June 2015: We went to a kombucha bar- Urban Farm Fermentory- in Portland, Maine and tried some amazing kombuchas- apple, mint, ginger, blueberry, and knotweed (yes, Japanese knotweed- the weed we had growing in our backyard!) I asked the guy how they make theirs and the recipe is 2 parts black tea to 1 part green tea. For the ginger (my favorite), they press the ginger and add the ginger juice after the kombucha is made. Good to know.