vegan

beans, cultured, ferments, Gluten-free, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Cultured Beans

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

This is batch 4 of my attempts at cultured beans. The first batch was black beans made with the fermentation liquid from a hot sauce batch plus salt. It was yummy but too salty for my taste. The second batch was creamy creamy white beans that I made with salt and yogurt whey and they were yummy but I must have put a dirty spoon by accident or something because after they were finished and I scooped some, they grey fuzz so I trashed them. Batch three were garbanzos made with buttermilk whey—they were okay but I’m not a fan of the buttermilk whey. So I bought some powdered culture. This batch is cannelini with salt and culture. They taste great going into the jar.

They need the skins busted open. They don’t need to be mashed but they do need the skin broken so the culture can get in. These beans soaked a day then I boiled them with dried garlic and some fresh rosemary.

Smash them up with the culture—about 4 Tablespoons and 1 Tablespoon salt. I used Cutting Edge Culture at 1/8 tsp/4 Tbls water.

Pack into the jar and leave it out 3 days….and fingers crossed that we have some magic.

Day two—24 hours
Day 3 it puffed up.

And finally they are ready for fun! These are super creamy with a nice sour bite and no overwhelming salt flavor.

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Gluten free, Probiotic, Stuff I make, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Nabak Kimchi

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I haven’t made Nabak Kimchi aka Water Kimchi in like a decade…it’s more liquidy, less funky than your typical Napa kimchi you see around.

I started chopping the vegetables—I used daikon for the radish, carrot, green onion, napa cabbage, 1/2 an Asian pear, and garlic.

The daikon and Napa have been rubbed with salt

Added the other veggies to sit with the salt

Meanwhile I steep some gochugaru in a strainer in 10 cups of water and some salt.

Once wilted the veggies go into the jar. To be joined by the gochugaru “tea”

Where it sat for 4 nights and 3 days on the counter. To relocate to the fridge and get sampled.

I ended up using the following:

  • The inner yellowish leaves from one medium head of Napa cabbage
  • About a four-five inch slice of daikon cut into squares
  • 2 Tbl gochugaru
  • 1/2 Korean pear
  • 1 medium to large carrot
  • About an inch slice of ginger
  • 3-4 green onions
  • Garlic to taste 4-6 cloves
  • About 8 cups of water
  • 2Tbl salt to run the veggies and 2 Tbl for the water/gochugaru mixture

This experiment was inspired by this water kimchi recipe

This is definitely a repeat. It’s been years since I made this from scratch and I really enjoy it’s lightness.

The Lazy Gastronome

farmers market, Fun things I find to eat, Gluten free, Gluten-free, Ingredients, Vegetarian

Omg….bordeaux cherry balsamic

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

Holy crap?   My plan was to blog my whole dinner which was yummy but last we we hit the palm springs street fair and i bought the shit!

I previously bought cranberry walnut balsamic from the Farmers Daughter from hemet at the palm springs street fair….that rocked

But the cherry is ridiculous….and wordpress just put the pics in reverse order…..and im to tired to change it

Made at home

Lacto fermentation ?!?

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

okay…and we are off to lacto fermentation experiment number 1

I’ve made canned pickles like nobodies business but this lacto business is a whole new deal.   I’m trying it out with the help of Phat beets youth pickle company and their kit

  
I found these beautiful pickling cucumbers at Sprouts.

  
Pickling spice on the bottom and bay leaf (the recipe said to use and oak leaf or grape leaf for the tannins to help keep them crisp…I’m hoping the bay leaves work:-/?!  
I found this sea salt hanging about and I needed a NON iodized salt   
Hers the finished product (well finished for now)…I filled it with dasani as that was the only still water I had about.  Notice the bubbler air trap thingy in the lid.  That is filled with water as a trap for badness coming into my fermenting cucs.

 
Now we wait five days.

  
Day two: I’m not pleased that everything has floated up a bit … I think it’s supposed to stay submerged…I shook it but hey didn’t sink

So I opened it and shoved them down with a spoon

  

Next day

  
Tasted one.  Still crunchy. Extremely salty…not sure I can taste lactic acid pickle or just salt at this point.  Plus I kinda killed it with pickling spice.

Day three

  
Kids…the coriander is way over the top and a tad too much….but the saltiness is still high but oddly mellowed since yesterday.  I’m thinking tomorrow is when I will slow fermentation by adding them to the fridge…but we will see

  
Done!

A little scum today that I swept off….an interesting first try  

 
This arrived today to supplement the next attempts:-)

Restaurants

Anniversary lunch at Garden Wok

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

  
Chinese vegetarian with all faux meats.  We’ve been looking at this place for quite some time and came here today after the other veg Chinese place we wanted to try was closed permanently (owners retired and left a sign).

Some of the “meats” are made with gluten but the serve cook owner was very knowledgeable about what and how and what could be substituted

   
Yup…no liquor license:-(

 
Fresh seasoned cucumbers

   
“Chicken” with lemon sauce 

 
“Pork” with pickled Napa 

   
Flat rice noodles and veggies

 
Everything was good and for a change we were able to have Chinese which is really rare since the gluten sesame situation kicked in.