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Dressings and Sauces

Cultured Sour Dough and Nourishing Traditions

How to Make Fire Cider

An immune-boosting -Prep Time30 mins-Steeping Time28 d

Ingredients

½ cup freshly peeled and grated ginger root
½ cup freshly grated horseradish root
1 medium onion chopped
10 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped
2 organic jalapeño peppers chopped
1 lemon zest and juice
2 Tablespoons dried rosemary leaves
1 Tablespoon turmeric powder or 2 Tablespoons freshly grated turmeric root
¼ teaspoon cayenne powder
organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar
¼ cup raw honey or to taste

Instructions

Add ginger, horseradish, onion, garlic, jalapeño peppers, lemon zest and juice, rosemary, turmeric and cayenne powder into quart-sized glass jar.
Pour apple cider vinegar in the jar until all the ingredients are fully covered and the vinegar reaches the top of the jar. You want to be sure all the ingredients are covered to prevent spoilage.
Use a piece of natural parchment paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal, or use a plastic lid if you have one.
Shake jar to combine all the ingredients and store in a dark, cool place for 4-6 weeks, remembering to shake the jar a few seconds every day.
After one month, use a mesh strainer or cheesecloth to strain out the solids, pouring the vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. This stuff is liquid gold! The solids can be used in a stir-fry or you can compost/discard them.
Add honey to the liquid and stir until incorporated.
Taste your fire cider and add more honey if needed until you reach your desired sweetness.
Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator or in a cold, dark place.
Drink 1-2 Tablespoons when needed.

Notes

Feel free to make this recipe your own with optional add-ins like cinnamon, orange and grapefruit.
Recipe inspired and adapted from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Nutrition

Kombucha

The activity of the bacterium is stopped because the bottling excludes the air, while the yeast continues to work the gas produced by the yeast's activities, is unable to escape. Thus an effervescent drink is produced. HINT some folks add one or two raisins, or a sliver of ginger, Stevia, or 1/4 tsp. fructose per quart, before bottling to sweeten and for a second fermentation. You may store your brew for years.

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2010/03/video-thursday-how-to-make-kombucha.html

Bottling. Pour the filtered kombucha tea into a clean plastic bottles or glass bottles (The industry standard for Glass Bottles and ferments are ones with a long narrow neck, to limit and control over-fermentation and for brown or colored glass to prevent harmful sunlight spoiling the ferment. Glass bottles and cappers and corkers are available form Beer and Wine Hobby shops) and fill to the brim and cap. Allow to mature for a few days or up to a year or more. The activity of the bacterium is stopped because the bottling excludes the air, while the yeast continues to work the gas produced by the yeast's activities, is unable to escape. Thus an effervescent drink is produced. HINT Some folks add one or two raisins, or a sliver of ginger, Stevia, or 1/4 tsp fructose per quart, before bottling to sweeten and for a second fermentation. You may store your brew for years.

Dairy: Cultured foods

Pima culture:

To make a new start:

Heat 1 cup milk to a scald and cool.

Add 2 tablespoons from a clean start, mix.

Sit on counter until thick (between 3 -8 hours depending on conditions)

Done if when you tip the jar it doesn’t move. Put in fridge

Then to make yogurt:

Using clean quart Mason jar put in 2 Tablespoons of clean start and fill jar with raw milk.

Mix well and leave out for 24 hours on counter. Then you have your yogurt and you can put it in fridge and enjoy.

Make sure to make a clean start every week, so start stays strong and healthy for good yogurt.

Dairy kefir:

Short answer:

1 quart:

Add: 1 TBS grains to the quart, keep the dairy 2 inches below the top.

Leave for 20 hours

Strain, take grains out and cover the grains with milk and either make more or store.

From Karen:

Take the kefir grain I gave you (it was in some raw milk to keep it happy) and place in a quart size jar (with the liquid it came in) and fill with raw milk.

Leave out on the counter for 24 hours (gets all the lactose out this way….you can do less time depending on what taste you like and if you’re not worried about all the lactose being eaten up)

Then remove the grain, put kefir in the fridge and use however you like.

Take the grain and place in another quart size jar and fill with raw milk right away…..repeat daily to keep grain “happy”, but if you need a small break because you’re not using that much kefir, place kefir grain in fridge with some raw milk (like you got it in the bag) for a couple days.

If the first batch doesn’t seem “right” (too liquid) it might be because your grain has been in the fridge too long and is shocked. Just remove it from the 1st batch of kefir and directly put it back in another quart size jar of raw milk and let it culture for 24 hours again

From NT:

2 cups fresh whole milk

½ cup quality cream (optional)

1 T kefir grains

Rinse grains with filtered water.

Have milk reach room temperature, add kefir grains, and place in warm place for 12 hours – 2 days.

Stir vigorously to distribute the grains. Every time you stir, taste the kefir, when it meets your tastes it is ready. Pour the kefir through a sieve. Either make more kefir, or prepare them for storage by rinsing them well and placing them in a small jar with about ½ cups filtered water. They may be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks or, in the freezer for several months.

Water kefir:

Side notes: unlike dairy kefir, water kefir likes to be stirred. Stir with a non-metal spoon.

Two helpful web pages;

1. http://kefirlady.com/

2. http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html - Scroll about 1/3 down the page to get to the water kefir.

For 2 gallons:

½ - 1 cup sugar – any kind of ‘cheap sugar’ i.e.: brown, white, but NOT raw honey. The ‘good bacteria’ in the honey will compete.

½ cup grains

2-4 dried cherries

Smash calcium tablet – about 1/3 – ½ calcium tablet or other form of calcium (A clean (boiled or scrubbed) eggshell in cheesecloth works ;)

Fill with filtered water. And shake or stir with a spoon to get the sugar up a bit.

Leave to ferment 1-2 days. 24-48 hours, until it tastes good.

Release the pressure 1 or 2 times per day if you don’t want it carbonated otherwise leave the lid intact so your kefir will turn out effervesant/carbonated. Consider the swing lids that are safer.

The jars can explode if the pressure is left to build up.

Take out the grains

Either start a new batch with the grains, or, put the grains in a jar covered with some of the kefir.

In order to keep the grains alive add sugar to the grains while in the fridge.

Add fruit and let it sit for 4-8 hours with a loose fitting lid.

Suggested add ins:

Lemon – add 1 slice to ½ a lemon.

Raisins – add a few. Adds flavor, but not necessary. Or add apricots or figs.

Ginger, fresh - add 2-3 slices, or a 6” piece sliced or processed in a food processor with a little water,

Do not allow the fruit to ‘mold’ or the entire drink will be ruined.

Then, after taking fruit out, bottle it tightly and let it sit for 4-6 hours to let it carbonate.

Whey and Cream Cheese:

Makes 5 cups whey and 2 cups cream cheese:

2 quarts milk, yogurt, Pima etc.

If using Pima milk or whole milk, kefir etc., let it stand for 1-2 days at room temp until the milk visibly separates into white curds and why. If you are using yogurt, no advance rep I required. You may use homemade yogurt or good quality commercial plan yogurt.

Line a large strainer set over a bowel with a clean dish towel. Pour the yogurt or separated milk, cover and let stand for several hours. (Longer for yogurt). Tie up the towel but be careful not to squeeze. Tie this sack to a wooden spoon and place across the top of a container to that more whey can drip out. Then the bag stops dripping, the cheese is ready.

Sour kraut

By Darcy: I use the NT recipe and crush each layer of thinly sliced cabbage into a large stainless bowl, while adding the required salt into each layer. Get the juices crushing out. Then add whey, toss, put into jars, tightly packed, cover with my garden rocks to weight it down, with lid, leave for 3-4 days. After 24 hours if not enough juice to fully cover kraut, add a little water.

Raw Sauerkraut:

1 large heard purple or green cabbage

1 T caraway seeds

1 T sea salt

4 T whey

Remove outer cabbage leave and reserve. Cut cabbage into chunks removing the hard inner core. Thinly slice the chunks of cabbage with a very sharp knife.

Place sliced cabbage and sea salt into a big bowl, toss, using a blunt object, pound the cabbage until the natural juices are released and the volume has reduced. This will take about 10 minutes.

Place the cabbage in a wide mouth jar, tear up the reserve red cabbage leaves and place atop, press down so juices rise above the leaves; hold down with a river rock or such.

Place jar in a cool spot, away from heat and light, let sit for 3-5 days, once it is tangy, fermented flavor and the slicing cabbage is translucent, remove the cabbage leaves atop, cover the jar with tight fitting lid and place in the refrigerator.

Pickled cucumbers:

4-5 pickling cukes

1 T mustard seeds

2 T fresh dill snipped

1T sea salt

4 T whey (or an additional Tb of salt)

1 cup filtered water

Combine all, liquid 1 inch below lid, set on counter for 3 days, transfer to refrigerator.

Bread and Butter (Sweet) Pickles

Yield: 2 quarts

Tips for making Bread and Butter Sweet Pickles

Use a mandolin or a food processor to make the cucumber slices and the job goes very quickly!

I had to slightly heat my honey/lemon mixture (on low as to not kill the good bacteria in the raw honey) to combine it and also get the salt to dissolve. Remove from heat, and test with finger before adding the whey. It should be just warm and not hot.

I also poured the liquid equally into the jars before packing the cucumbers to ensure that each jar had the same amount.

If you don’t have the spices, don’t worry! I didn’t have them but I decided to make the recipe anyway, and the pickles are wonderful. I will add the turmeric, celery seeds and mustard seed next time though.

Ingredients:

7 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers or gherkins
1 cup thinly sliced mild onion
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup whey (for casein/dairy free omit whey and use twice the salt)
1 cup raw honey or maple syrup
3 Tablespoons sea salt
1-2 Tablespoons whole celery seeds
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard seed

Preparation:

In a large bowl, mix cucumbers with onion and place in 2 quart-sized, wide mouthed mason jars, pressing down lightly with a pounder or meat hammer. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover. Keep the top of the liquid 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to the refrigerator.

Pickled beets:

12 med beets

1 T sea salt

4 T whey

1 cup water

Bake beets at 300 for 3 hours or till soft. Peel, cut into ¼ in julienne – do not grate – press beets into wide mouth jar, combine rest and pour over beets, adding more water if necessary to cover beets. Sit on counter for 3 days then put into fridge.

Sour kraut

Ketchup

Tomato Ketchup (Lacto-Fermented)
(Yields about 1 1/2 cups)

12 ounces organic tomato paste (no salt added)
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup whey* (or an additional 1/8 cup water)
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar; I prefer natural raw, organic for this recipe (i.e. Bragg's)
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard (dry mustard)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
pinch garlic powder
pinch onion powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt (to taste)
1/4-1/3 cup sweetener of your choice (agave syrup, honey, maple syrup, molasses, barley malt, or a combination of any of those.)

Note: This recipe is a basic guideline, so I suggest starting with 1 Tablespoon vinegar, and add more to your taste. (I use the full 2 Tablespoons.) You may prefer to add more sweetener if you like sweeter ketchup, and be sure to taste after you mix it, adjusting seasonings to your liking... the ketchup mellows as it ages.

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a non-reactive bowl (glass or enamel), and whisk together until completed blended. Pour or ladle sauce into clean, dry containers (I prefer glass). Cover and leave at room temperature for two days (to encourage fermentation.) After two days store in refrigerator.

Lacto fermented mustard:

Makes 2 cups:

1 ½ cups ground mustard

½ cup filtered water

2 T whey

2 tsp. Sea salt

Juice of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic (optional)

1 T honey (op)

Mix all will blended adding more water to desired consistency, place in pint sized jar, or, 2 8 oz. jars, with the top of mustard below lid by 1 inch, cover tightly and keep at room temp for 3 days before transferring to fridge.

Mayonnaise

Ingredients

1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. organic Dijon mustard
1 1/2 TBL lemon juice
1 Table liquid whey (optional - do not use powdered whey from the store)
1 cup expeller pressed sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil or a combination (olive oil makes a much stronger tasting mayo)
large pinch of sea salt

Instructions

Wash eggs, preferably locally produced and free range (organic store eggs ok in a pinch but do not use regular store eggs) in warm soapy water and dry well. Crack and place raw, washed egg and egg yolk in a food processor. Add Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt, and whey. Close the lid and pulse a few times to mix. Stream the oil of choice into the food processor via the small holes in the lid all the while pulsing the food processor to emulsify the oil with the other ingredients.

When all the oil has been emulsified, taste and add more lemon juice and sea salt if desired. Pulse once or twice to mix.

Use the mayo plain or add organic onion powder to taste to make a healthy ranch dressing!

The mayo will last about 2 weeks in the fridge if no liquid whey is added and a month or two if the whey is added. The mayo becomes firmer over time in the refrigerator.

Yogurt cheese: drain plain yogurt through four layers of cheese cloth.

Save whey for fermenting other foods.

Herbed spinach yogurt cheese dip:

Into 1 ½ cups yogurt cheese, mix 2 cloves garlic, ½ cup fresh basil, 2 tsp. oil, sea salt and 1 package frozen spinach, thawed and well drained. Mix well and serve with pita chips, torn bread and carrots.

Sour Dough:

Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Bread

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
teaspoon baking soda
teaspoon baking powder
teaspoon salt
teaspoons pumpkin spice
large eggs room temperature
cup coconut oil (or your favorite mild flavored oil)
cup sugar
cup unfed sourdough starter room temperature
teaspoon vanilla extract
cup canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
CANDIED PEPITA TOPPING
cup pepitas pumpkin seeds
teaspoon honey
teaspoon coconut oil or any mild flavored oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray (or butter and flour the pan).
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk to combine the ingredients and set aside. In a separate large bowl, combine the eggs and whisk well. Add the oil, sugar, starter and vanilla. Stir until it is all combined. Add the pumpkin and mix until incorporated. Use a spatula to get all the ingredients from the side of the bowl and combine them.
Transfer batter to prepared pan. Smooth the top and sprinkle the candied pepitas (pumpkin seeds) over the top (you could heat up the pumpkin seeds with the honey and oil in a skillet or microwaves for 10 seconds to melt the honey and help it combine easier). Bake for 55-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (every oven is different. We baked ours for about 65 minutes). If getting too brown, cover lightly with foil after 45 minutes. For the smaller pans bake for about 25-30 minutes.
Cool for 20 minutes, then slide out of pan and transfer to a cool rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes

Store the bread, wrapped tightly in plastic at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage. Use only pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. I find canned pumpkin more consistent for baking and personally don't use fresh pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin could be too wet for the bread and you won't get the same results.

All images and text ©Savoring Italy. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.

THIS PLAN ASSUMES THAT YOU ARE STORING TWICE AS MUCH STARTER AS I DO: 2/3 CUP OF FLOUR PLUS 1/2 CUP WATER.

DAY 1: (2 periods of work, no more than 20 minutes each)

APPROXIMATELY 10-20 MINUTES OF WORK ON DAY 1:

Refresh your storage starter: Add 1/2 CUP WATER + 2/3 CUP FLOUR to the starter in the jar. Put half back in the jar to keep in the fridge, and keep out half to build your bread.

First build: Add 1/2 CUP WATER + 2 CUPS FLOUR to the starter you kept out (total of 200 g water + 400 g flour)

Leave at room temp for 6-12 hours (Can then be refrigerated for several days if you aren't ready to use it for some reason)

Soaker: When you do the first build, also make your soaker. Combine 5 CUPS WATER with 10 1/2 CUPS FLOUR. Leave at room temp for 12-24 hours. (Can then be refrigerated for several days if you aren't ready to use it for some reason)

APPROXIMATELY 5-10 MINUTES OF WORK ON DAY 1:

Second build: Add 1 CUP WATER + 2 2/3 CUPS FLOUR to the starter.

Leave at room temp for 6-12 hours (Can then be refrigerated for several days if you aren't ready to use it for some reason)

DAY 2: (4 periods of work, no more than 10 minutes each)

APPROXIMATELY 10 MINUTES OF WORK ON DAY 2:

Make your final dough: Combine the Soaker and the Starter and add 7 tsp salt (2 Tbsp + 1 tsp). Knead in the mixer for about 3-5 minutes. Put in container to rise for 6-8 hours.

APPROXIMATELY 2 MINUTES OF WORK TWICE ON DAY 2:

Fold twice during the rising time, at approximately 2 hours and then 4 hours.

APPROXIMATELY 5-10 MINUTES OF WORK ON DAY 2. Shape the dough into 4 loaves. Each loaf will be just over 2 lbs. This size loaf can fit into a large loaf pan (9" x 5"). (You might make two loaves a bit smaller for the loaf pans, and then 2 a bit bigger that you make into "torpedo" shapes not in a pan. The 9" x 5" pan holds 2 lbs well.) This is the step where after shaping it I put it straight into the fridge for 12 - 18 hours. You can also shape it and leave it at room temp for about 4 hours.

DAY 2 or 3:

1 HOUR OVEN PREHEAT PLUS 30 - 40 MINTUES BAKING TIME. (If loaves were in fridge, take out during preheat time)

SOURDOUGH BREAD RECIPE

GRAMS

OUNCES

VOLUME

In your jar:

50 g water

1 3/4 oz water

1/4 c water

50 g flour

1 3/4 oz flour

1/3 c flour

Refresh:

Put the contents of the jar into and bowl and add:

50 g water

1 3/4 oz water

1/4 c water

50 g flour

1 3/4 oz flour

1/3 c flour

Return half of this to your jar to store for next time

Build:

To the starter still in the bowl add:

50 g flour

1 3/4 oz flour

1/3 c flour

Second Build:

To the starter in the bowl add:

50 g water

1 3/4 oz water

1/4 c water

(6 to 12 hours after 1st build)

100 g flour

3 1/2 oz flour

2/3 c flour

Soaker

In a separate bowl combine:

400 g flour

14 oz flour

2 1/2 c flour

(At time of first or second build)

308 g water

10 1/2 oz water

1 1/3 c water

Final Dough:

Combine the starter and the soaker and add:

12 g salt

1/2 oz salt

2 tsp salt

(6 to 12 hours after 2nd build)

Optional additional ingredients:

Commercial yeast (for faster rise)

3 - 12 g

1 - 4 tsp

Honey (for sweetness and faster rise)

10 - 40 g

.5 - 1.5 oz

2 - 5 tsp

Melted butter or oil (for softness and longer keeping)

10 - 14 g

.5 - 1 oz

2 - 3 tsp

Rising

Let dough rise for approximately 6 to 8 hours. Fold the dough twice during the rising time

Shaping & Final Rise

Shape dough into 1 or two loaves and let rise for 3 to 4 hours, or overnight in the fridge

Baking

Preheat the oven to 475 1 hour before baking

Remove refrigerated loaves from the fridge 1 hr before baking

Bake for 15 minutes with steam and 15 minutes w/out

Reduce temperature to 425 5 minutes after putting loaves in the oven.