Better is Forgetting

 I am still reflecting on 2012. It always seems that January and February are full of extra alone time and contemplative, lamenting, even grumpy glances from every direction. It is filled with the freshness of the new year, of course, but especially for a New Englander like myself, there's a lot of feelings fermenting and changing about time's passing. We're just programmed to do this in the winter. The feelings come in different forms, all too familiar. I guess it's kinda like sauerkraut. A love hate relationship. Mostly love, and a little bit of hatred for loving it so much.

Recently, I found an article about 10 food trends for 2013. The piece should have been called "Forgotten Foods" or "How to Make the Most of it" or "Making Good Food Last" or better yet "Trends of Yore for 2013: Other Cultures do it Better." Besides the California soft-serve, I walked away from the article saying, "Duh," and immediately bought ingredients from the store to make sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut is everywhere. Ya know why? It's smart. It stores forever, its raw, and its full of vitamins. All the bad stuff is gone but the good stuff remains: the hard to digest sugars have been taken care of by the bacteria doing the fermenting, and the crunch crisp flavors stay, with the added bonus of some gut-loving bacteria that make your body function better than normal, not to mention some damn good flavor.

Hard to convince people to love sauerkraut. I'll start with some stories.

El Salvador. Never been there. I can only imagine its amazingness through the hundreds of pupusas I've consumed in the Bay. Walk into a authentic pupuseria and you are deep in a sleeping bag of chicharron, sweet plantains, and masa. Somewhere between literally and figuratively. And just like the cold breeze you get across your little face when camping, is the smell of something fresh and acidic, with a pinch of oregano and a wisp of fresh chile. If you don't smell it you are in the wrong place. Curtido is fermented cabbage to cut the delicious grease of meat and cheese and it is my favorite. I like to think that the warmth of the pupusa griddle and El Salvador itself speeds up the fermentation of the dish, and then more stuff just keeps getting added and added forever.

The same goes for Korea and Kimchi. Rich, salty, savory, super fatty flavors sliced with the crisp and spicy pickled Napa cabbage saturated in fresh pungencies. Nothing cuts pork fat like a tart, fresh, vegetable, full of flavor. A lot of cultures would agree with that. Sausages and kraut. I heard that in Korea and other countries, the most fermented treats come out for the most special occasions. I once heard a story about tofu packed in a crock and buried in the ground, only to be uncovered on a wedding day.... but that's another story.

And you'll find fermented cabbage in hundreds of iterations all over the globe. There is a reason for it. If I haven't convinced you yet, read this article about the benefits of fermentation, trying to ignore the characature photo on the left.

Now, if only we could get a little creative and move away from the jar or even baggie of while, soggy, salt-laden sauerkraut at the store.....

Here's my version of simple sauerkraut. Of course, I always add exciting things to make it, well, more exciting. Variations will follow.

Sauerkraut

5 pounds cabbage, white or purple
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sea salt or 2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon whey, drained from yogurt, OPTIONAL

Quarter and core the cabbage(s). Slice the cabbage into thin strips either by hand or with a food processor.  Put all the cabbage in a giant bowl and toss with salt. Cover with a towel and let sit for 1-4 hours on the counter. Just forget about it.

When you remember it exists, it's time start crushing it up by squeezing. Alternate crunching and squeezing with you hands and tossing. After 5 minutes, you'll notice the cabbage feels wet. If you want to make other additions, now would be the time.

          

In a super clean 1/2 gallon Mason jar, begin to pack the kraut. One handful at a time, pack the kraut tightly in the bottom of jar. Use your fist to press firmly after each additional handful. By the time its all in the jar, there will be a bit of liquid on top. This is what it is suposed to look like. You can also do two 

quart-sized jars, especially if you want to make different kinds.

Now for the weight. Sauerkraut is anaerobically fermented. That means that for the buggies to grow in a healthy way, it has to happen without oxygen. It is for this reason your cabbage has to be submerged under it's own juice. I find the perfect helper is a 22 ounce beer bottle. Try to find one with a flat bottom, so no air bubbles get trapped. Clean it really well. Make sure the rim of the jar is wiped clean from kraut pieces. Fill the beer bottle with water, cap it, and fit it inside the rim of the ball jar, on top of the cabbage. But the whole jar-bottle-apparatus to sit in a bowl in a cool darkish place. Cover it with a cloth or towel. Now walk away.

day 1: Ready to be forgotten!

It's safe to say you could now leave this for a week, never looking at it once. Sometimes I peek, sometimes I don't. The pictures here document some of the change you might see over the course of the week. You can let it sit for up to three weeks. My preference is a young kraut,so, one week. Sometimes if you add things that are slightly sweet to the mix, it seems to speed up the process. Worth noting.

After one week its done! Lots of color and flavor change! Ready to be cleaned, capped, and stuck in the fridge. This stuff is good for a long time. Mine never lasts more than a couple months. It is good on everything. Tacos! Fried rice! anything heavy and spicy. Meat. Fish. Cheesy things. Sausage. Beans. Rice. Avocados. Salads. Sandwiches. Eggs and toast. You name it, kraut belongs there.

These variations can be made by just throwing these in the mix!


Curtido:

Day 2: Juicy, a couple bubbles,  very distinct colors.

2 grated carrots
1 bunch chopped scallions or 1/2 onion thinly sliced
1 tablespoon dry oregano
2 sliced jalapeños

Mustardy:
1 tablespoon black or brown mustard seeds
1 bunch chopped scallions

Gingery:
a 2-3" piece of ginger, julienned
1 bunch scallions or a clove of garlic, chopped

Super Spicy:
3-5 jalapeños, or other hot chilis

Caraway:
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Day 3:Saliva-y Bubbles and distinct colors

Day 5: Brown Bubbles and stinky! Lots of purple juice

Day 7: Crusty bubbles and stinky! Uniform color.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless. You can
add most vegetables and spices to kraut and it will
do its thang. I only caution you to watch it carefully if you add sweets.... beets, onions, carrots, daikon, even hot peppers... they all have a bit of sugar, and so the fermentation seems to be slightly faster in those.

Cleaning the rim

Finally, if your kraut looks weird, smells particularly bad, or has blue and green stuff growing all over it, don't eat it. If you have any question at all, don't risk it. If fermentation and preserving is something you are serious about, I recommend these two bibles: Putting Food By and Wild Fermentation. These really go into the science of preservation and fermentation,
 which is quite relevant if you value survival.

Enjoy the kraut! Fermented foods are the answer to taming the wild-belly beast.