garlic Archives -

Fermented Fennel and Lemon Pickle

Posted by Lindsay on November 8, 2015

I love our weekly delivery of local fruits and vegetables from Saanich Organics, through their box program. As a consumer, I love that it’s an easy way to access healthy food… And I appreciate being able to support regional agriculture and contribute to the both the environmental and economic health of my community. I’m also a former employee of a couple of the farms involved, so I know from first hand experience that I’m buying high quality produce.

What don’t I like about receiving the box? Well, the way it works, I get what I get (and I don’t get upset). And frankly, I just am not a huge fan of some veg. I’ll eat them anyway, because most things can taste okay when roasted with a bit of olive oil, salt, and garlic (or scape salt!)… But would likely never go out of my way to buy endive or escarole.

Or, for that matter, fennel.

So sometimes, there are bits that linger in the fridge for a week or three. And if more of that vegetable shows up in the next box, it joins its friends, and eventually I have four wilting fennel bulbs.

What to do? Fermentation experimentation, of course! I liked the look of the first recipe that I found when searching online for what others have done with fermenting fennel, from MoonBrine Pickles in Portland, Oregon… So that’s what I’ve played with here. I didn’t have any celery or “nice” onions, but this pickle still tasted great when I was mixing it up… I can’t wait to see how it is in several weeks.

Fermented Fennel and Lemon Pickle

yields ~ 1.5 litres

473 g fennel bulbs (I had 2 small, 2 tiny)
273 g onion (1 medium)
1 lemon (medium, organic)
5 small garlic cloves
230 g carrots (3 medium)
1 tbsp black peppercorns
50 g coarse pickling salt*
approx. 2 cups water

Thinly slice the fennel, onion, lemon, and garlic. For the carrot, I decided to try out the wavy blade on a kitchen tool my parents brought me back from Vietnam; you could just thinly slice that too.

Add the salt and stir to combine. You’ll see that the salt dissolves a bit, and pulls juices out of the vegetables… Neat!

Pack loosely into a large jar or crock. I’m using a 1.9 L wide mouth canning jar.

Add water just to cover, put a solid lid on jar, and shake to distribute water and help the remaining salt to dissolve to make the brine. Turn upright and tap jar gently on a surface so that the vegetables settle.

Replace solid lid with airlock lid, or follow your preferred fermentation set-up.

I ended up needing 2 cups of water; you may need more or less, to ensure your vegetables are submerged. This isn’t as crucial if you’re using an airlock lid or fermenting in a Fido-style container, as the jar is sealed from outside bacteria/yeasts/air. However, if you’re doing a open ferment (ie. not sealed), it’s crucial you have enough brine so that when you add a weight, the vegetables are submerged below the surface.

Let ferment at room temperature for a few weeks. It’s pretty cold in my house most the time right now, so I’ll probably taste this in 3 weeks.

* I weighed all the vegetables and it came to around 1000 g. As I’ve problems with lemons turning mouldy in the past, I decided I’d like a stronger salt brine than I usually use, and went with 5%. Multiplying 1000 g by 0.05 gives me 50g of salt… And when I used a teaspoon to measure this out onto the scale, it turned out to be 8 teaspoons, which is exactly what the original MoonBrine recipe called for! Go figure.

Les fleurs d’ail salées (Salted Garlic Scapes)

Posted by Lindsay on June 10, 2015

I had heard of herbes salées, but never made it until last summer, when a recipe for this salted herb and vegetable condiment showed up in my email, as one to be tested for a cook book. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but diligently followed the instructions and then filled out my feedback form. I was working at a local organic farm a few days a week, so had access to plenty of extra imperfect produce… Grinding it up and mixing with salt seemed like as good an idea as any, for making use of what couldn’t be sold at the market.

That jar sat on the counter for a few days, then went into the fridge, and after a month or so I remembered it and sprinkled a bit of the mixture onto some mushrooms frying in olive oil, in place of regular salt.

Well.

Wow.

It was delicious. The flavours of the different herbs and vegetables had all melded, into a smooth but vibrant seasoning that complimented the mushrooms perfectly. I soon found that herbes salées was a fantastic addition to just about every savoury dish, especially the vegetarian fare that we eat most of the time at our house: Roasted vegetables, egg dishes, beans and rice, hearty soups. Even my spouse, who is often very (judiciously) wary of the jars of experimental foods that crowd our fridge, was seeking it out… That’s a win.

Unfortunately, I can’t share that recipe with you, as it’s not mine… Though of course I’ll tell you when the cookbook it’s in is published.

However! Since that first jar, I’ve made many versions of herbes salées, using a general rule of a 2:1 ratio by weight, of herbs/vegetables to salt.

Here is my latest, a tribute to one of my favourite seasonal treats, garlic scapes.

Les fleurs d’ail salées (Salted Garlic Scapes)

Yields ~3/4 cup

100g garlic scapes (I used 5 scapes)

50g coarse pickling salt

Slice scapes roughly, then run through a meat grinder or pulse in a food processor until finely minced.

Combine with salt and mix thoroughly with a spoon.

Pack into a clean jar, and cover with clean lid.

If your home is relatively cool, this will last a month or more on the counter; I keep mine in the fridge, as my place is rather hot these days. This recipe is simple to scale up! When I make larger batches, I store the jars in the basement, on the cold concrete floor.

What’s that jar? This is a Le Parfait brand, wire bail jar with a rubber seal (style/size: Terrine 200). I was lucky to find it a thrift store for a dollar, in like-new condition!