A silver lining of the pandemic was having time to experiment with more fermented foods. I know that I wasn't alone in this endeavor as photos of sourdough bread started flooding my Facebook feed. The best part about making sourdough bread was that I was able to trade a scoby (from years of making homemade kombucha) for a sourdough starter with my friend Annie. I lovingly named the starter, "Hoochie Poochie" after the "hooch" (the liquid that collects on top of the starter if you let it sit). I then gave away part of my starter to my friend Nic, who went way down the sourdough rabbit hole and found this video which helped me make the perfect sourdough bread. 15 Mistakes Most Sourdough Bakers Make. Thank you, Nic! Here are some supplies you'll need to start baking your own bread:
- 1 large and 1 medium sized mixing bowls
- 1 banneton (proofing basket)
- 1 large mason jar or any glass jar with a lid
- Dutch oven
- wooden board
- razor blade
The video is long, so here are my notes in case you don't want to watch the entire thing.
Getting your starter active is key to making the perfect bread. I've now gotten my starter to the point where I can get it ready to make bread in a little over 24 hrs, but if you're just starting, you may need to feed your starter for a few days to get it active enough to bake with. Currently, I'm leaving my starter at room temperature. When I want to make bread, I'm feeding it first thing in the morning. To make it really simple, I get a half cup measuring cup and fill it 1/3 full with rye flour and 2/3 full with all-purpose flour. I add this to the starter, then add 1/2 cup of warm water. The next morning, around the same time, I feed and water it again (same as the day before). If you're trying to jump start a starter that's been sitting the fridge, initially, you may need to feed it twice a day. After I feed the starter on day 2, I put on a tight lid and let it sit for about 3 hrs. Then I do a float test. I take a spoonful of starter and throw it in a bowl of water. If it floats, that means it's ready to work.
Autolyse the flour: For one loaf, weigh out 50 grams of rye flour and 450 grams of all-purpose flour (I have tried using bread flour and I don't like the results as much). Add in 375 grams of water and mix everything together. Cover and let it sit for 45 minutes.
Add in the starter and salt: Add 100 grams of starter and 12 grams of salt. Fold in the starter and salt with clean hands. I've found that working the dough with your hands is the best way. You will be working the dough just to make sure the starter and salt are folded in as uniformly as possible. Cover and let sit for 30 mins.
Fold and stretch your dough: You will be repeating this step 3X. Wash your hands and pull up the dough from the the outside of the dough bal. Stretch it, shake it and fold it over to the opposite side. Keep doing this until you've done it to the entire dough ball. Might help to watch the video for this step. The thing I love about making sourdough is that you don't have to sit there and knead the dough for a long time. You're just pulling and stretching and letting it sit.
Let the dough go through it's first rising: After you've pulled and stretched 3X, cover the dough and let it sit for anywhere between 5-8 hours. You'll start to see bubbles forming under the surface of the dough. You can do a poke test to know when it's ready to shape into a loaf. If you poke the dough and it comes back slowly, leaving a small indentation, it's ready.
Shape the loaf: This part can be a little tricky when you first start because the dough is sticky. Take out a wooden board and use a fine sifter to add a dusting of flour to the surface of the board. Take your medium-sized mixing bowl and add a dusting of flour to the bowl. Flour your hands and transfer the dough to the floured board. Pull the dough outwards until it's a flat-ish long rectangle. Roll the dough up, tuck the sides in and place it in the floured bowl. The video might help with this step as well. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Final shaping of the loaf and second rising: Generously flour your banneton (proofing basket) and add a dusting of flour to your wooden board. Carefully place your dough onto the board and gently pull the dough out to make another long rectangle. It's important not to over-flour your dough at this step or it won't stay together. Take one side of the dough and tuck it into the opposite side. Keep repeating until you get to the bottom of the rectangle. Then gently roll the rectangle into a loaf, tucking the sides in and place the loaf into the banneton. Watching the video is also recommended for this step. Cover and let this sit overnight in the refrigerator to rise.
Baking the bread: Pre-heat the oven to 500F. After the oven has pre-heated, pre-heat a Dutch oven with the lid off for 45 minutes. Take the Dutch oven out of the oven. Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the banneton and carefully flip the banneton over to get the dough onto the parchment paper. With a razor blade, score the top of the loaf about 6 inches. Transfer the parchment paper with dough into the Dutch oven, put the lid on and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the lid, place a pan underneath the Dutch oven (to prevent the bottom of the bread from burning), lower the temperature to 450F and bake for another 30 minutes. If you have time, you can then turn the oven off, crack the oven door and let the bread sit for another 15 minutes. This results in a crackly crust. Wait about 30-60 minutes for your bread to cool before gobbling up the entire thing.
Grilled cheeses with pesto are a favorite for the kids. I love a slice slathered with vegan butter and raw honey.
Kombucha
There are a ton of purported benefits to drinking kombucha, so I've been brewing my own since the summer of 2016. The reason I remember the exact date is because my dear friend, Fran, gave me a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) for my birthday. I have since grown up and given away many a scoby. In the summertime, we always seem to run out before the next batch is ready. There's nothing more refreshing after a run than fresh mint from the garden, muddled with ice and kombucha poured over the top of it. Kombucha is so simple to make. If you don't have a person in your life who can give you a scoby, you can order one online or grow your own. If you're local, hit me up, I always feel badly throwing excess scoby into the compost.
To make your own kombucha, you'll need the following supplies:
- 1 gallon sized glass jar
- a pair of tongs
- quart sized measuring cup
- glass bottles for bottling
- bottle brush for cleaning bottles
- thermometer (optional)
First batch:
Make a batch of sweet tea: Boil half a gallon of water (2 quarts) and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Use a decent quality black tea. I like the Whole Foods 365 brand of black tea because it's tasty and it doesn't have extraneous paper packaging and doesn't have a string or tag on each tea bag. Add in 6 tea bags and let steep for 20 minutes.
Remove the tea bags with your tongs and add in 3/4 cup of sugar. Mix well and let the tea cool to 85F. If you don't have a thermometer, as long as the tea is warm to the touch it's ready. Just make sure you don't add hot tea to your scoby because you can kill it if it's too hot.
Wash your glass brewing jar with hot soapy water. For the first batch only, you will be adding 1/2 cup of vinegar to the batch to bring the pH down. Add your cooled sweet tea, scoby and vinegar to the glass jar and cover with a paper towel or dish towel. Do not use cheese cloth unless you want fruit flies galore.
Let the brew sit for anywhere from 7-10 days. If it's warm, fermentation will happen quicker and your kombucha may be ready in as little as 4 days. On day 4, you can start tasting your kombucha. It should be tart, vinegary and a little bubbly. Your first batch will have a somewhat harsh, vinegary taste because of the added vinegar. All subsequent batches will taste smoother. If it's really cold in your house, then it'll take longer than 10 days for your kombucha to be ready.
When you like the way the kombucha tastes, remove the scoby with tongs, save 2 cups of the kombucha and set it aside. Fill your kombucha into glass bottles. Make sure you wash your glass bottles with hot, soapy water. There's a seasonal ginger beer that Trader Joe's sells during the holidays and those bottles work great, but any glass bottles should work fine.
For all subsequent batches:
Make your sweet tea just as you did for the first batch.
When the tea has cooled down, pour the tea into the glass jar, along with the scoby and the 2 cups of kombucha you had set aside from the previous batch.
Let the brew sit for 4-10 days. Start tasting it at 4 days. Bottle it when you like it.
The scoby will keep growing over time. Eventually, it will form a thin skin and take the shape of the glass brewing jar and form layers as it keeps growing. You will have to trim it down every once in awhile, otherwise your brewing process will be very short. You can peel off layers and gift them to your friends who want to start making their own kombucha.
During the brewing process, things may look funky to you, but generally, all is good unless you start to see dark, fuzzy growth (mold). In those rare cases, you'll have to chuck the batch and start over. Don't be put off by the appearance of the kombucha. It should get cloudy and there will be "floaties". This is all normal.
4 out of 5 of us drink kombucha on the regular, so we make 5 quarts at a time (2 jars, 2 scobys)
Kimchi
I made kimchi for the first time this summer. It was so easy and the best part about kimchi is you can use it to make kimchi stew. I got some tips from Jin, member of the Billy Yang Running Community on Strava and I'm not an expert on kimchi, but I thought it was tasty! Traditional kimchi contains fish sauce. I used soy sauce instead.
You will need:
- 1 large head of Napa cabbage
- 1 large bowl
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 1 bunch of green onions
- 1/4 cup of salt
- 1/4 cup Korean chili powder
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 4 inches of ginger
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of miso paste
- a pair of gloves
Cut the Napa cabbage in half longways, core it and cut the cabbage into 2-3 inch squares. Place cabbage and carrots into a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Massage the salt into the cabbage. Fill the bowl with cold water until it covers the cabbage and let this soak for 1.5 hours.
Drain the cabbage and carrots and place into a large glass bowl
In a food processor, add the white parts of the green onions, garlic, ginger and miso paste and blend together. Add in the soy sauce and water as needed to make a pancake batter-like consistency.
Roughly chop the green parts of the green onions and add these to the cabbage and carrots. Pour the paste from the food processor over the cabbage, carrots and green onions and add in the chili powder. Massage the paste in with gloves on.
Pack everything super tightly into a glass canning jar. Add a two-piece lid, but don't screw the ring on tightly. Place the jar on a rimmed baking dish to catch any liquid that spills over. Let the kimchi ferment at room temperature for up to 72 hours until it's bubbly. Once a day, insert a clean utensil to release the air bubbles. When you think it has fermented enough, store in the fridge.
Spicy, tart, salty and delicious
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