Well Autumn has definitley arrived here in Tassie I love autumn it is my favorite season, I love the trees turning on thier show of assorted colors as they get ready to sleep for the winter from the brightest yellows through to the flame oranges to the richest port wine reds.
I love the crispness of the air and the gloreous bright blue skys of autumn, well when it isn’t ruined with smoke from burn offs every few days but I want go into that here.
Autumn always makes me reflect on death and the cycle of life and how fleeting and precious it is for all and I love the anticipation and the certainty of the great renewal in spring.
I want to share four recipes today, see the yummy meal below, yes it was as good as it looks so lets go through the recipes and I do hope you give these a go they are scrumptious!
So here in this picture I have a fermented broad bean flat bread with sprouted mung beans my very special seaweed chilly beans topped with fermented curry carrots served with spontaneous crab apple cider!
First I will go through the broad bean bread-
- 2 cups of rehydrated Broad Beans
- 1/2 cup dried Nettles (Urtica dioica)
- 2 cup Whole meals flour
- 1/2 cup Besan flour
- 1 cup Water kefir or kombucha
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of Pepper, Paprika and Cumin powder
- Extra water
I rehydrated the broad beans I dried from my garden last season over night I then boil them for about 6 minutes you want the skin loosened but the actual bean still firm not to soft you will have to experiment with this,doesn’t matter if you over cook it is just harder to skin them thats all, after they have cooled I pop the beans out of their skins I then cooked them for another 10 minutes or so until cooked, once cooled I added the salt and the kefir and squished it all through my fingers to mash it all up adding water until I get a smoothish sloppy batter, I then cover the the mixture up with a cloth and leave on the bench to ferment for about 5 days, stirring every day.
After this mixture is fermented I add the flours, spices, nettles and water to again make a smoothish sloppy batter I then ferment this for a further 3 days at least then I start to use it, I just cook this like a pancake and use as a bread to slop up other foods. My mixture sits in a crock next to my stove and I use everyday as I like until the mixture is gone doesn’t really matter how long I think it just gets better, I also keep adding flours, water or kefir to mine if I want to drag it out for longer.
Next to my special seaweed chilly beans, this is a more complicated time consuming recipe but it is so worth it I make enough to get me through the winter months.
- 3 cups Kidney beans
- 3 cups Black bean
- 2 cups Pearl barley
- 1/3 cup Hot chilly flakes
- 5 cups Seaweed
- 10 Onions
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 3 liters of home made Tomato Sauce
- 1 table spoon Olive oil
- 1 table spoon Salt and Pepper
- 2 cups home made fruit Vinegar
- Extra water
Soak the beans and barley for five days changing water everyday then cook until al dente so not to soft just remember there is still about 45 minutes of cooking to go.
Soak seaweed over night, I use three different types, I love seaweed! chop up to the size you like and put aside, grab the biggest pot you have and fry off the onion and garlic until translucent add the seaweed, chilly, salt, pepper and about 2 liters of water boil for about half an hour or until the liquid has reduced by about half. Add the tomato sauce, vinegar and beans and hard boil for 15 minutes.
I use my home made tomato sauce I blogged about this previously so go check out that recipe if you haven’t already.
Let cool a bit then bottle into hot bottles and water bath for about 30 minutes.
This is one of my favorite foods, I just open a bottle and keep in the fridge and use with everything it is so easy once it is made, so thats why I say make a big batch so you only have to do it once or twice a year.
Fermented curry carrots this is my first go at these and I love them and already have another bigger batch started, they will be on my to do regulary list for sure
- 1 kg Carrots
- 1 table Salt/brine
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seed powder
- 1 teaspoon ground Coriander seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon of Chilly powder
- Pepper to taste
Ok I used red carrots that I grew for the first time this year they look beautiful, so grate carrots add spices squish through your fingers, I love playing with my food! make a brine to your taste and add this to the carrots, push the carrot mixture into a large jar ideally you want about 2 cm of liquid above the carrots then weigh carrot down, I use pebbles you have to make sure all the bits of carrot are under the liquid cover with a cloth and let sit until it is to your taste of fermentation or as I say funkyness. Mine sat for about 3 weeks before I put in fridge to slow fermentation.
I take my pebbles out and stir every few days and repack just to get an even fermentation.
Last but not least the spontaneous crab apple cider I picked these gorgeous crab apples from down the road, I pick them every year and make this cider it is hard work as I have a crappy old juicer and at the end of the process you have little cider but it is so yummy it is totaly worth all the work.
This spontaneous cider is just that, spontaneous, all you do is juice the crab apples you can use other apples of course, put them in a crock or big pot and let spontaneously ferment into a mildly alcoholic cider, I just drink mine flat from the crock or jug I keep mine in but you could bottle and ferment a bit long to get some fizz happening all depends on what you like.
As it ferments it get a foam on top I skim this off in the mornings and stir the brew three times a day if you want it even more clarified you could strain it as well but I don’t mind it a bit cloudy, it naturally clears the longer it sits so if you want it clear after it is to the taste you like then let it sit for a few days without stirring and decant the clear top liquid off into another container and keep doing this until you are happy.
Well thats it for this one I hope you try some of these recipes and I will be blogging again soon as everything is ready and I’m flat out foraging and processing at present so until then cheers!
PruezFreeFoodFrenzy 