Hows my little fermentor part 2?

I've been a busy fermentor lately. Well, my neighborhood airborne bacteria have I guess, I just give them a place to eat.

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!

 Mmm, seed juice. Tasted sort of like a hot gritty tahini.

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!

Hows my little bookworm 2012 edition?

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz I love Audiobooks for long drives, generally I try and choose one that sounds like its exciting with the hopes that the excitement will keep me awake while I'm driving. This book was a fun adventure that reminded me of an expanded yet very different version of 1408. Every 38 years the residents of the Pendleton experience a shift in time, generally with disastrous results. Creatures literally crawl out of the woodwork, ghosts from the past walk and talk, and The One is orchestrating the death of his captives in time. There are plenty of residents and stories to follow throughout the story and they are all very different individuals which makes each of their perspectives interesting. There is also The One, a creepy and vile mystery that when he reveals his origins is either really corny or really clever, I personally liked it. If you're into the thriller/sci-fi genre this incredibly visual book is for you. I loved it.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin The second book in the Passage Series is fantastic. I doubt you remember my review from last year of the first book so quickly refresh yourself. Book two is like book one, the first half takes place in modern times, and when the part two begins, after having read the first book, it's not quite the shock as before. The world is still recovering and cowering from the outbreak, and people are surviving their day to day. This book is different and fresh, it is fantastically exciting from start to finish. Cronin keeps it going at a blazing pace right from the start. Several familiar characters reappear and some new and interesting lines are drawn from the past into the future. After book one ended I wasn't sure what direction the series would take, after book two it's pretty clear whats going to happen in book three, and I'm excited for the ride. This is another thrilling adventure novel, I've recommended The Passage to everyone I thought who would enjoy it and will continue recommending the series to anyone who enjoys fiction.

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson Book two in the Millenium series left me glad I listened to it as an audiobook. I thought it was an interesting story with a predictable ending. Larsson has a habit of going on about stuff that makes some long stretches relatively dry, then again mystery stories aren't always my thing either. As the story went I was pretty excited to learn more about the mystery of Lisabeth Salendar, but at the same time she no longer was this semi enigmatic creature as she was in the first one. The way the book ends is pretty satisfying but I'm not going to be reaching for book three quickly.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks  I'm a firm believer in being prepared for anything possible and if the dead are going to reanimate I figured I should have a leg up on the rest of my human competition, and my enemy. This is a really interesting (fiction) book giving the reader plenty of excellent well thought out pointers of how one should prepare themselves for and survive a zombie outbreak. He creates a fantastic virus called Solanum that is responsible for creating a zombie and goes on to how it's transferred, and what happens to a person when they are infected. After that the book talks about survival techniques, like what weapons to choose, best modes of transportation, fortresses to build or utilize, and of course the best (and only) way to destroy a zombie forever. This first half of the book is actually really interesting and full of convincing ideas for survival in such a situation. The second half of the book is sort of a let down, it is stories of recorded (fictional) zombie outbreaks in history, some of them were clever but they were short, scattered and vague (obviously since historical details are scant, or a government covered up something). Since I tend to think about things as I'm reading I had a tough time getting over this and moved through the second half pretty slowly. Although if you're into the whole zombie thing, I'm sure you would like it. I would recommend this book to anyone in for a laugh and looking a bit of survival knowledge.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Mockingjay was a very fitting end to the hunger games saga, there was all sorts of excitement, betrayal, twists, and love. A bit too much love for me though. I really enjoyed this book, there were a few parts that got a bit repetitive and drawn out, but as a whole I hated putting it down. By the time I reached the middle I had a good idea of how it would end, and when it ended, I got sad that there will be no more new books in the series. Good thing I've got the movies! I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes a good adventure now and then. They are quick and enjoyable reads for anyone.

 Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins Ever since reading the first book of this series I've been trying to figure out what book two would be about, in fact, I've asked a bunch of my friends who have read it and all I usually got was a long hmmm, well, I don't want to ruin it for you. After finally reading this book I understand what they meant about that. So I'm not really going to ruin any surprises for anyone. For fans of the first book this is a must read, I will warn though, this book is just a bridge to the third book, which is much easier to predict what it will be about. Catching Fire was really interesting and full of several twists, and a very abrupt ending. I'm very excited to read the third book of this series.

Maus by Art Spiegelman This book was fantastically different. I don't want to call it a graphic novel, because its more like a nicely bound comic book. It is an interesting story of survival of a Jew in Nazi Germany. The best part is the Jews are mice, the Nazi are cats, and everyone else is a pig. It is a captivating story of survival in this awful time to live and I enjoyed the story, but when I closed the book (there was definitely more story to tell) I didn't realize it was part one of two. Which for some reason I'm not excited about reading two books like this, but one is fine. If I had known it was in two parts I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. The drawings aren't very exciting and easy to skip over, just like this book.

Chasing the White Dog by Max Watman Chasing the White Dog was wisely recommended to me because of my interest in all things fermented. I have a special spot in my heart for whiskey (and how to make it) so I had I was very excited about this book. Its a really interesting documentary about moonshine, its history and where it stands now. It starts off talking about how the author made his own still and and attempted crafting his own white lightning. His forays into making moonshine sound a lot like how I would go about it full of disaster, caution, and humor. The historical parts are all really interesting, from George Washington to prohibition and onto modern moonshine cases. Of course a moonshine story isn't complete without a reference to Popcorn Sutton and NASCAR, both get some space in the book. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in prohibition, moonshine, or liquor production. I found it fascinating and I think most of my faithful readers would as well.

Hows my little Christmas Outtake?

Laura and I had fun with our Christmas cards this year.