Fermented Food Adventures & Recipes
I always had trouble coming up with a name for these, like my Phokra and Phomato. A mix of the word pho and pickles – Phockles – (pronounced “Fuckles” since pho is pronounced “fuh”) just never sat right. This is my update: Phocumber! Sure, it sounds like Fuck Umber, but […]
Right now it is high season for eggplants in my garden. I mostly grill them to be on the healthy side, but I prefer the flavors and texture of tempura or panko-crusted fried eggplants, especially with a dip of ranch dressing mixed with my fermented sriracha sauce. Probably my favorite […]
Like mole, this sauce relies heavily on dried peppers. They can indeed be used in fermentation, but you need sources of fresh produce in there – I advise roughly 50% – in order to provide the healthy bacteria that makes fermentation possible. Although the sweetness of traditional mole comes in […]
As a kid growing up in south Florida surrounded by Jewish delis, my older brother introduced me early on to Dr. Brown’s sodas, including the unique “Cel-Ray” soda and I’ve enjoyed it since. This soda has been a staple in Jewish delicatessens for almost a hundred years, and was first […]
It’s the balm, yo! This ginger bug soda is delicious and refreshing on a hot summer day, but it might be even better as a mixer with my cucumber vodka and a touch of lemon balm syrup. This recipe just deals with making the ginger bug soda. Once you make […]
Infusing your vodka or other spirits with fruit, veggie, and/or herbal flavors is about as easy as placing it in your vodka for a week. Just make sure to strain it after. Each summer, I’m on a mission to make as many cucumber pickles as I can from my garden […]
Writing this post feels pretty cathartic for me. Although loading up a Reuben sandwich and frying it on a pan is pretty darn straightforward, this post is the culmination of many different pho-spiced Reuben components I developed over a month. If you want to see how I personally prepare & […]
Believe it or not, the mint family has over 6,000 species. Lemon balm is a part of this family, and like the many varieties of mint popular in the US, it grows rapidly and perennially in a wide range of conditions. For this reason, growing members of this family will […]
I’ve seen people get annoyed when you call a sauce “sriracha” and it deviates from simply red hot peppers, garlic, salt, sugar, and vinegar. Furthermore, sriracha is a raw sauce, so does fermenting it (and therefore eliminating the requirement of vinegar) also make it no longer sriracha? These are deep […]
When I came up with this vinegar (i.e. unfermented) pickle recipe, I had made fermented “phokra” several times. (That name is a no-brainer of course.) I love that stuff and plan to post a recipe at some point. Fermented foods are rich in probiotic bacteria and have tremendous flavor. On […]