Part one:
Hot Sauce
Did you know that tabasco is a naturally fermented product aged in barrels? Yeah, me neither. Ever since I had my eyes opened to the ease of fermented foods and the excitement (and nervousness) they bring I've had my eyes on the Hot Sauce prize.
Due to a plentiful hot pepper producing fall I figured I should take advantage of the excess cayenne peppers and a few others to ferment some into a spicy goodness. As you might remember from part one I used some of my yogurt Whey as a starter for my earlier ferments. I've since learned that this actually isn't the most Ideal whey =) to do this, mostly because bacteria that like dairy, don't typically love vegetables as well, which makes sense to me. The ferments worked fine but I decided to attempt the more hair raising, natural ferment. AKA let a bowl full of peppers in water hang out for a few days until they have transformed into a fermented bowl full of peppers in water.
The ingredients: Bell Peppers, Hungarian Wax Peppers, Jalapenos, 3 Ghost Chilis, Kosher Salt, and natural airborne bacteria.
A bit of chopping got everything to hang out in the bowl better. All I did was add a bunch of Salt, water, and a lid to cover everything. The ferment took about 4-5 days. Once I saw a clear film over the mixture I knew that no more CO2 was being produced and it was time to blend.
First I separated the water from the peppers, this was quite the spicy mixture. I should have saved it for a future ferment, I'm still bummed I didn't.
Throw everything into the blender and turn everything into a nice liquid.
I found out I was left with all these great seeds! Everyone knows that the seeds are the spiciest part of the pepper so into the blender they went!
Next I blended seed juice into the main batch.
Lightly screw the lids on and refrigerate! Fortunately peppers have a natural anti-mold property so we should be able to enjoy these completely natural jars of food for many months.
Part Two:
Brussels Sprouts Sauerkraut. (Brusselskraut)
This year Laura and I were so excited about how good our brussels sprouts turned out last year that we thought we should plant even more than last year, 8 plants. Which, for two people is a bit on the heavy side. After stumbling across a recipe in our Preservation Kitchen book for this type of kraut early in the year I was pretty much counting down the days until I could ferment my own. My favorite part was substituting vinegar for time and you have basically the same thing.
Those few shorter ones were what was left on the stalks that we actually harvested from and ate in dozens of meals.
In hindsight (always 20-20) I have now come to the realization that Laura and I need to do three things next year. Wait a few weeks longer (depending on the weather) to harvest, Eat more if possible, and give away more to our friends/family. Destemming/chopping this many sprouts was absurd. My neck hurt from looking down for so long and my shoulders ached from old fashioned repetitive stress/chopping.
This is what the sprouts looked like after a couple of weeks outside in the cold, they are quite the cold hardy buggers.
Chopped, halved, and cleaned sprouts. The wine bottle is for perspective.
Four Jars of canned sprouts from the recipe in Preservation Kitchen.
Almost fermented sprouts. A few cayenne peppers for kick and mold prevention, bay leaves, other spices, cilantro, and a splash of "live" hot sauce to help things get started.
Another stainless lid I had around nearly fit perfect to weigh the sprouts down and keep them submerged. Submersion is key to a mold-less and successful ferment.
The looks of things after a week and a half. The ferment smelled very strongly throughout the house. Laura was not a fan. Without a doubt it smelled better than this disaster though.
You can see a ring of goo where the lid wasn't pressing the sprouts into the water. I scooped this out knowing that what was below was safe to eat, the goo was questionable though.
8 jars later we now have more Brusselskraut than any two people should have. It tastes alright, there is not a lot of crispiness, but the flavor is there. I think adding a bit of lemon juice/zest and maybe some other spices with heat it will be delicious. I think alone it could be great on a sandwich corned beef with cheese perhaps?
Part Three, Bonus!
Horseradish
I've learned one or two things since this post and have now better armed myself for my horseradish harvest. This isn't a ferment, which is why it's a bonus.
Number one, eye protection is a must.
Number two, so is a breathing apparatus. I used one of Laura's Scarves.
Number three, access to fresh air is completely necessary. In fact, it should probably be done outside.
Post harvest dig shot.
This bugger was the longest root of the year measuring somewhere beyond two feet. Which means I can expect a new plant to spring up next year somewhere beyond two feet away from the main root. Yay.
Cleaned up!
Chopped and ready to blend, this is the scariest part knowing that soon all of my pores will be excreting whatever they can.
Action shot with my eyes still functioning.
A pile of horseradish root reduced to painful gasses and delicious spreadable happiness. My eyes were actually sensitive to light after all of the grinding and scooping, Laura's eyes were actually tearing up and she was sitting two rooms away. The weirdest part to me was using my fingers to scrape out the root with no burning sensation at all, in fact, later I rubbed my eyes and almost wet myself knowing what a pepper would have done and I barely felt anything at all.
I didn't think about it this time around but should have added a splash of Vodka to the food processor to aid in my grinding. Oh well, Maybe this spring!
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