Cream of Kamut for Jim

Cream of Kamut cereal with 3 1/2 C. of water used in cooking.

Day before serving:


1 C. Kamut grains toasted at 350° for 15 minutes and cooled.
2 t. whey (optional)
2 C. water


Blend in standard blender until grains are broken and it is beginning to look cloudy.


Let sit on kitchen counter overnight.


Next morning for breakfast:


Add 1 1/2 to 2 C. more water.
1/2 t. salt


Cook in heavy bottomed saucepan until bubbling.  Let sit on warm burner for 10 minutes or so until you like the texture. 


Top with your favorite ingredients such as:


Raisins
Cream
Coconut Oil
Butter
Maple syrup
Almonds, chopped.


Tastes like cream of wheat which it actually is.  Kamut is an ancient wheat grain.


Jim might add cocoa too.  The taste is nutty and smooth.  There is no indication that you are eating a whole grain.  The bran becomes soft in the overnight soak and more digestible.

Fall Ferments

I spent an afternoon making fermented vegetables out of my purchases at the Farmers Market:

I began with Giardiniera.  That's the half gallon on the right.  It has cauliflower florets and stems, carrots, onions, red peppers, garlic, and mixed peppercorns. I salted the vegetables first to make them wilt a bit so they would be easier to pack into the jar.  I then added well water to cover them.  I put a little jar on top as a weight.  These are two days old and bubbling madly.  I had more than a half gallon, so I put the rest into the far left jar and put carrots on top of them.


The blue crock is from my friend, Melissa.  She hand threw this fermentation crock with a little reservoir for water around the rim to seal it and keep from air entering.  It works beautifully.  The half gallon in the center is nappa cabbage sliced with red peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, and hot pepper flakes.  I tossed these vegetables with 3 T salt and when I packed them in, they had made their own brine.


The jar just to the left is zucchini with carrots, onions, oregano, garlic, red peppers, and salted brine.


The back two are only carrots and garlic in brine.  I didn't have dill for them.


These will be so good when they are done and full of probiotics and lactic acid.  They will actually be "pickled" with their own generation of lactic acid and nicely sour.  There is no sugar in these.


The little jar is leftovers which will ferment just fine in their recycled jar.

Rhubarb Pickle

Lacto-Fermented Rhubarb

I was given some rhubarb tonight.  I don't usually use it because it requires so much sugar to make palatable.  Then I thought of lacto-fermenting it.  I diced it up, added sea salt, hot pepper flakes and onion.  I tasted it and it's deliciously sour and I can imagine eating it as a condiment with most all meats and fish.

Diced rhubarb to fill a quart jar....and a little more as it turns out.

2 T plus 2 t. unrefined sea salt

1/2 t. hot pepper flakes

1/2 Spanish onion

Stir all together, pack into a quart jar with a little more for a tiny jar, seal and wait.

I'll burp these morning and evening so that pressure doesn't build up too much.  I've never heard of using rhubarb in this way, so please wait until I report back to let you know if I was successful.

 Update: May 7- After 2 days of "fermentation", no bubbles have appeared and there is no pressure building.  Perhaps the rhubarb is so very acidic that that won't happen.

Update: May 11, This rhubarb did not actually ferment, although I have read about people using it to flavor kefir soda.  I did not add any whey which may have helped.  It is very tasty as a condiment, but since I made it, I've read that rhubarb isn't all that useful as a nutrient.  It's worth making a little in the spring I think.

Lacto-Fermented Carrots with Garlic and Dill

10 lbs. organic, peeled carrots yielded 3 half-gallon jars and 1 quart jar.  After I peeled and trimmed the ends, I cut them on the diagonal and put them in the jars along with dried dill weed and garlic cloves which I simply cut open but did not peel. I added 3 Tablespoons of unrefined sea salt to each half-gallon.  I filled each jar with well water, but you can use filtered tap water....the chlorine can be a problem so filter it out.  To cover, I put a metal canning type lid inside my plastic lids and screwed them on tight.  I'll "burp" them a couple of times in a day to release the pressure.  This lasts for about 4 days at this cool time of year.  After that, I refrigerate and hold on to them for a year or more depending on how fast we eat them.  I use them in salads, on top of rice stir fries and just to eat because they are so deliciously sour, tasty, and full  of pro-biotics.