Wild Fermentation

Get Cultured! Free!

/ Ren

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“Born of necessity and waste-not-want not attitude, probiotic foods have nourished the human race for thousands of years and appear in one form or another in traditional cuisines cross-globally.  Fermented foods are rich in probiotics – those beneficial bacteria that keep our immune systems and digestive tracts running smoothly and healthfully.”

Get Cultured: Probiotic Foods from a Nourished Kitchen, the first of many e-books detailing tried-and-true nourishing recipes, Get Cultured details thirteen recipes from classics like pickled jalapeños and real sauerkraut to the exotic like Vietnamese preserved limes, green salsa and cortido.

Each recipe in Get Cultured focuses on nourishing pro-biotic, naturally fermented vegetables and all the recipes are dairy-free.

>>> Check it out at nourishedkitchen.com/get-cultured/

 

Pickled Red Onions (probiotic)

/ Ren

Love the idea of making and eating healthy, pro-biotic, homemade sauerkraut or kimchi, but not too crazy about the flavor, or just want to try something different?  You might like this super-easy, not-too-tart recipe for pickled red onions..

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Pickled Red Onions

(adapted from recipes by David Lebovitz and Sally Fallon)

3/4 cup organic white vinegar
1-1/2 tablespoons non-refined sugar
1 pinch of sea salt
1 bay leaf
5 whole allspice berries
5 whole cloves
1 dried chile pepper
1 large red onion, peeled, and thinly sliced into rings
2 tablespoons whey

Heat all ingredients except the onions and whey in a non-reactive pan until boiling.

Add the onions, reduce the heat to low and stir for 60 seconds.

Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Stir in 2 tablespoons whey, then transfer all to a glass jar, allowing at least 1 inch headroom.

Cover and let stand at room temperature for 48-72 hours before transferring to the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Serve as a condiment or side-dish- pickled red onions are particularly good with Mexican-style pork dishes.

Ready for more?  Try  10 Ways to Get More Probiotics (without Dairy)
at The Nourished Kitchen

Giveaway: Nourishing Traditions, Wild Fermentation

/ Ren

We have a winner!

Congratulations, Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship! Please send your shipping info to “ren AT ediblearia DOT com” and UPS should be ringing your doorbell in a couple of days.

Thank you all for participating, and be sure to check back soon for details on the next giveaway!

ps  I’d love to hear any ideas you might have for the next giveaway.  Thanks, everyone!

“Unfortunately, fermented foods have largely disappeared from the western diet, much to the detriment of our health and economy. For fermented foods are a powerful aid to digestion and a protection against disease; and because fermentation is, by nature, an artisanal process, the disappearance of fermented foods has hastened the centralization and industrialization of our food supply, to the detriment of small farms and local economies.“

So wrote Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions in the forward to Sandor Katz’ Wild Fermentation.

Fallon concludes by saying “Wild Fermentation represents not only an effort to bring back from oblivion these treasured processes, but also a road map to a better world, a world of healthy people and equitable economies, a world that especially values those iconoclastic, free-thinking individuals—so often labeled misfits—uniquely qualified to perform the alchemy of fermented foods.”

Fallon and Katz have both had a huge impact on the way that I  eat.  Indeed, it is their/your/our good old ways and modern science that underlay much of what I try to share here from day to day.  I know, some days are better than others, right?

OK, here’s the deal.  I feel strongly enough about the healing and nourishing power of traditional foods (that which Michael Pollan describes as food that our great grandmothers would recognize) that I’m going to send a copy of either Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions or Katz’ Wild Fermentation to one of you.  But first, you have to go on a little scavenger hunt.  Nothing too involved, but enough to let me know that your interest is sincere.  Cool?

To participate, just go spend some time looking around at either http://www.westonaprice.org/ or http://www.wildfermentation.com/, then come back here and tell me (using the comment section below) something that you want everyone to know about fermentation.  Dig around- there’s a lot of information out there!

I’ll choose one eligible entry at random, and ship the book to the winner at  any U.S. (only, sorry) address.  Contest ends in 1 week.

This post is part of the Real Food Wednesdays Blog Carnival