October Fermentations
🍇 ➡️ 🍷When it's warm, it's time to ferment 🍞 ➡️ 🥖
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Hello Friends,
Gosh, it’s October! Though it doesn’t feel like it one bit. The leaves on some of my plants turned brown, but it’s due to the heat wave we’re experiencing again. So, instead of fighting the heat, I decided to work with it. I’m lacto-fermenting fruits and vegetables and cooking with sous vide. I’ve avoided the stove and oven as much as possible. I ate cold salads for lunch and dinner, nibbled cubes of cheese and thin shavings of membrillo for snacks, and ate plenty of ice cream.
One of my favorite new quick breakfasts is this toast. I smother a slice of toast with goat labneh (I get mine from Ralphs, but you can find it at a Middle Eastern store, too) in oil that I then layer with smoked salmon, thinly sliced cucumbers, za’atar from my friend and cookbook author Reem Kassis, fresh dill, and smoked salt. I’ve included a photo of the Tazah brand of goat labneh I buy to make it easy for you to find; I think it tastes much more memorable than the cow’s milk version with its characteristic lemony and grassy notes. Because it’s packed in oil and there’s less moisture, it’s a lot thicker and more like cream cheese than the runnier labneh you’ll often encounter at grocery stores. If you can’t find goat labneh, use the labneh you find. There’s no detailed recipe for this, but I linked to my video on Instagram above to give you a sense of how to put it together.
I’m off to finish off my fermentation experiments. Have a wonderful week!
xx
Nik
The theme this week is fermentation, and I’ve curated a small collection of some of my favorites for you to try.
Sous Vide Yogurt
Two crucial points to keep in mind when making yogurt. You MUST use yogurt that has live cultures; if they’re dead, the fermentation you seek will not occur. Second, temperature is critical; the first at 185F/85C is to help kill any harmful microbes. It also denatures milk proteins like the whey protein beta-lactoglobulin, allowing it to cling to the casein protein in milk. This helps form a better yogurt structure. One of the interesting things I learned recently is that sugar is added to yogurt not only for taste but also to help strengthen the structure of the yogurt. You can use glass canning jars or food-safe heat-proof containers to sous vide ferment the milk.
No-Knead Bread
Baker Jim Lahey is famous for his no-knead bread recipe, which I often use at home. The dough is very wet and tacky, so don’t be surprised; be gentle with it. I’ve included different ways to make the bread - Dutch oven, pizza stone/baking steel, and even a steam oven.
Dosa
Learning how to make a dosa remains my proudest achievement as a cook. As a kid in India, I’d either wait to be invited to friends’ homes who made dosa or go to a South Indian restaurant. My mother never made them because she didn’t learn how to and wasn’t interested. It does take some practice (I practiced to get the hang of it), and I won’t lie and tell you that you will get this right on the first try. My guide to dosa-making will get you there.
Sannas
Sannas are similar to idlis, but they’re not the same thing. They’re made by fermenting rice and coconut milk. My mother’s family makes them at Christmas, Easter, New Year’s, and any celebration. They’re used to sop up spicy sorpotel, but I cheat and eat it with vindaloo (chicken vindaloo). I know this might rile up some hardcore vindaloo-is-only-made-with-pork people, which I do admit is how both sorpotel and vindaloo are eaten in Goa, so I apologize in advance.