Live Hummus with Fermented foods

This is how I make hummus. All the fermented things add natural probiotics to the diet and act as a natural preservative. I recognize you might not have all these things in the house, so feel free to substitute, and tell me what happens!

*Try this with white beans, black beans, fava beans, and other legumes.

Into a food processor, add:

• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic (I use pickeled garlic from making cucumber pickers)

Chop garlic with seasoning.

Add:

• 4 cups cooked or sprouted chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, that's two cans -
  SAVE THE WATER/cooking liquid, save a few chickpeas for garnish.
• About 1/16 (1"x1" piece) of a preserved lemon
• 1.5 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice (about half a small lemon)
• 1 Tablespoon live pickle juice (optional)

Blend until smooth.

Add:

• About 1/4 cup (2-3 oz) water from chickpeas
• 2 Tablespoons Tahini paste
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Garnish with with extra chickpeas, a drizzle of olive oil, and a little fresh, quality cumin or zaatar.

Chickpeas are high in fiber and iron, and have been shown to help regulate blood sugar. Hummus is an excellent way to turn some raw vegetables into a hearty snack.

"Live" Tahini with Preserved Lemon and Garlic

Healthy tehina/tahina/tachina/tahini dressing or dip or sauce

I make this dip most weeks. We dip bread in it on Sabbath and I use it as salad dressing during the week. It would also be excellent drizzled over eggplant.

I do all this with my stick blender, so you will want a tall cup that fits a stick blender.

You CAN do this by hand, but you will need to finely chop all the solids.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup tahini paste (I use Ethiopian or sprouted Tahini)
• 3/4 cup water (less for thicker dip)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1, 2, or 3 cloves of garlic - preferably fermented (I use the cloves that are left after we eat all the pickles. Fresh or frozen are fine, but adjust for the potency.)
• 1/8 of a preserved lemon, seeds removed
• juice from 1/4 lemon
• 1/4 tsp salt

* If you don't have preserved lemon, use the juice from half a lemon or more to taste and 1/2 tsp salt in place of 3 ingredients above.

Add all ingredients to cup. Blend or mix until tahini turns white and smooth.
Add

• 1 small bunch of parsley leaves, optional

If using a blender, pulse to chop parsley. You may want to keep a couple leaves for garnish.

Now here's the tough part: Transfer to a closed container without eating it all.

Sourdough Pita - Great Blog Swap PLUS Giveaway

Chef Alison of AliBabka

In honor of the first anniversary of the Kosher Connection I have been randomly assigned a fellow kosher blogger to be inspired by. It my my great pleasure to introduce my muse this week, AliBabka. The author is Chef Alison (Barnett) Gütwaks, is a recent graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in NY. It was important to her to get a well rounded culinary education and not limit herself to kosher culinary colleges. I enjoyed reading about the challenges she faced as a torah-observant Jew cooking in a non-kosher environment.

While reading through AliBabka in search of a recipe I would like to make my own, I enjoyed the creativity, wit, and professional experience that Chef Alison brings to the table. (No pun intended.)

Pita in a pan from AliBabka

In the post "Mo-Rockin In Your Kitchen", guest blogger Elisheva Avital writes about two Moroccan flat breads I have been wanting to try my hand at, pita and moufletta. With the easy access to fresh pita I enjoy in Israel, it's not often I find time to make my own, even if it is healthier and/or tastier. But I thought my blog was in need of both a sourdough entry and a pita recipe. In order to make the recipe my own, I converted her recipe to 90% Whole Wheat Sourdough Pita.

Raw Fermented Sriracha - Thai Chili Sauce

Did you know that eating capsaicin-containing foods like chili sauce releases endorphins? That means it makes you happy! More specifically, chilli peppers have been implicated as possibly relieving pain, suppressing appetite (thus aiding weight loss), and aiding the prevention of prostate cancer.

I wrote before about making a quick cooked Sriracha-style sauce. It is tasty, but lacks the probiotic benefits and complex flavor of a naturally fermented chili sauce. Though this fermented condiment can ripen for over two weeks, the actual man-hours is less than or equal to that of the "quick" cooked sauce that can be prepared in a day or two.

Bottled sriracha (pickles in background)

I'm a little obsessed with this sauce. I open it up just to smell it and bask in it's beauty. My sriracha is intensely red. It has a deep warm flavor without the eye-watering sharpness of its raw ingredients. The taste is complex, arriving in waves of fruity heat with a sense of savory indulgence.

First I'll tell you how I make it, then I'll tell you how I use it.

Rice paper wraps = Leftover Heaven

wraps with baby greens, roasted bell pepper, sprouted lentils, and fermented cauliflower

How did I not know about these before?? Now that I've become friendly with my local Asian grocer, I can finally ask, "What is this?" And boy have I learned a lot!  When I used to see rice paper wrappers, they looked like too much work for me. I assumed getting these plasticy looking sheets into an edible form must involve soaking, cooking, steaming, or some other processing. Not so!

1. Dip the rice paper sheet in water for about 5 seconds, then brush the sheet over a tea towel to remove excess water.
2. Lay the sheet, still rigid, on a plate or cutting board. The sheet will absorb the water and soften in the time it takes to fill it.
3. Pile your fillings  near one side and roll up like an egg roll, blintz, or burrito.

translucent wrap with wild mushrooms, wakame, and homemade kimchi-kraut

How to Make Kosher Dill Pickles

I'd like to tell you about the method I use to make naturally fermented cucumber pickles. The same technique can be used for many different fruits and vegetables by varying the spices and the time. If you read no further, this is what you need to know:

 A. Use an appropriate amount of salt. Too little and unwanted molds and bacteria can develop and the cucumbers will become soft. Too much and you will retard the growth of good yeasts and bacteria, the pickling will take an unnecessarily long time, be unpalatably salty, and the cucumbers could get too sour, or too soft before they're ever really tasty.
B. Keep everything submerged. As long as your cucumbers (or other veggies) are safely deep in the brine, you can skim off whatever scum forms on top.

[More Than] 10 Ways to Use Preserved Lemons

I made preserved lemons after coming across this video from DietEasily. The whole series is excellent!

I started selling some of the fermented foods I've been making (see current selection HERE). The pickles and Sauerkraut are flying off the shelf (ok, more like trickling of the half-shelf in my refrigerator.) But no one seems interested in these gorgeous organic preserved lemons I have! My friends want to know, "What do you do with them?" Well, I shall tell you!

There are three basic ways to use the preserved lemon:
A. Whole - Slice it, cut it in chunks, chop it, blend it. The whole thing is edible.
B. Just the rind - When I want a more subtle sparkle where the lemon will be eaten raw, I use my thumb to scrape off the pulp and the pith. Then I usually slice the rind into thin slivers.
C. Juice - The lemons are usually packed in lemon juice, which becomes salty and mildly fermented. To keep the lemons for as long as possible (without mold) they must stay submerged in this wonderful elixir or salt water. But there is usually some to spare.

I encourage you to use them raw as much as possible, in order to preserve all the beneficial microorganisms. Preserved lemons can replace lemon juice and salt in a recipe.

Probiotic Soda Recipes

Probiotic soda made from water kefir is an excellent way to stay hydrated and nourished all day!

If you missed my post What is Water Kefir? you probably want to check that out. Today I want to tell you how to make flavored soda from water kefir. In this post I will refer to the water kefir (a.k.a. tibicos) SCOBY as "grains." This term refers to the look of them, as in "grains of sand", they are in no way grains like wheat, barley, oats, rye, or spelt.



If you're starting from scratch, you will need to acquire water kefir grains. I ordered my grains from Keysands, which sells dehydrated and live grains. They have excellent, friendly customer service, so email them if you have questions. Follow their instructions to re-hydrate or revive your grains.
Now that you have a healthy batch of grains... Lets get started!

What is Water Kefir?

For video and recipes - CLICK HERE.

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to my new friend Tibicos, AKA Tibi, Sugar Kefir, Water Kefir, Japanese Water Chrystals, California Bees, Beer Seeds, and more. In past posts I've written about kefir, usually a yogurt-like drink made from milk, and kombucha, a fermented tea drink. Water kefir uses a similar process to make a unique fermented beverage full of probiotic goodness. Dispite the name, water kefir is a different organism from dairy kefir. 

What is Water Kefir Soda?
When sugar water is cultured with the water kefir SCOBY, the resulting liquid can be bottled with other flavors to become a slightly fizzy natural soda. It has tiny gentle bubbles like natural champagne  as opposed to the big bubbles that are artificially pumped into commercial soda pop.

How does it taste and smell?
I mix mine with juice, tea, ginger, vanilla sugar, or whatever else I want it to taste like. I would describe the taste as slightly sweet, earthy, and yeasty. The longer is ferments, the less sweet and more yeasty or sour it might taste. Eventually it will taste a little alcoholic or vinegary (though I've never had any that long.) Kelly compares it to a mild wine cooler.

Basic Sauerkraut - How it all began

The first food I purposely fermented was a plain sauerkraut. Just cabbage and salt. I didn't like it at first, but my 1.5 and 6 year old boys were big fans. Then either my taste matured or the kraut matured after another month in my fridge, and suddenly I couldn't get enough!

I apologize if you can’t run across the street to the local veggie stand/quickie mart and pick up a cabbage for about 50 US cents a pound. I know; we’re blessed. In your case, buying the cabbage might be the hardest part of the recipe. Honest, the rest is that easy.

picture taken from my window

You will need:

• ceramic crock or jar(s)
• cabbage
• non-iodized salt
• any other fruits, veggies, seaweed, or spices you want to add like:
  onions, apples, carrots, juniper berries, wakame, ginger, garlic...

Intro to Fermenting Vegetables

I have been absolutely obsessed with fermenting foods the last few weeks. My interest began as I read and heard reports on the multiple benefits of probiotics and the importance of a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut. It went beyond good digestion and better absorption of nutrients. Studies show better mood and brain function associated with healthy gut flora. Research suggests that 80% of the immune system may be in the gut, with probiotic-rich foods, like kimchi, offering serious illness preventing effects.

A study published in Nature found that, "Mice fed a strain of Lactobacillus rhamnosus were less anxious and produced fewer stress hormones than control animals."

I'm sold! But consuming effective amounts of probiotic tablets and yogurt can get very expensive. Multiply that times the six anxious, antibiotic ravaged guts in our household, and it is completely cost prohibitive. Then I remembered, I could culture my own probiotics! I've posted before about kombucha and kefir, but I was having trouble getting my hands on kosher kefir grains or a kombucha SCOBY. I discussed my interest with a friend, who told me she makes her own sauerkraut - and it's easy!

Kefir - Not Your Mamma's Yogurt

Kefir Starter Grains

Last week I told you how my mom's friend, Liz, taught her to make kombucha. Today I'll tell you haw my mom made kefir, a fermented milk* beverage. You can probably find kefir in the dairy section of your local health food store. But why buy it when it's so easy to make?

*Kefir can be made from animal (cow, goat, buffalo) milk, as well as coconut water and other vegan 'milk' (soy, rice, almond, etc.).

Add milk.

Compared with kombucha, kefir is incredibly fast to make, and kefir starter grains are comparably easier to acquire than a kombucha 'mother'. But unlike kombucha, we don't recommend you start your kefir and then go out of town for a few weeks! Dairy milk takes less than 24 hours to ferment; non-dairy liquids take closer to two days.

My mom found this kefir starter on the internet, but you can also get starter grains from any neighborly kefir maker. Liz started my mom out with some kefir starter grains in a clean glass jar. The grains look a little bit like the cauliflower or the curds in cottage cheese.

Are You My Mother?

I've been a little obsessed lately with the idea of naturally "cultured" or fermented foods and drinks, but I haven't actually made anything. I really enjoyed learning about the beer-making process; however, I think my husband would be too scared to even allow me to keep a little kimchi on the counter.

My mom, on the other hand, has been chomping on chia seeds, sprouting, and juicing her own wheat grass for some time now. We had both been reading a lot about the positive health effects of eating fermented foods that contain large numbers of probiotics. While I was piling extra sauerkraut on my falafel, my mom has been guzzling Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, and mixing her muesli with kefir, a fermented milk yogurt-type drink. (Check back next week to learn about kefir.)

My mom had been purchasing both of these products at her local health food market when her friend, Liz, offered to teach her how to make them. I sent her with strict instructions to take lots of pictures and give me the full report.

Homebrewing - Part 2: The Process, Amazing Hops, Useful links

This is the second post in our series on brewing beer at home, by special guest, award winning brewer Boaz Harel.  CLICK HERE to read Part 1: Why make your own beer?

One little piece of advice before you forge forth: Looking at all this stuff can be intimidating, and it's easy to get overwhelmed or feel like this is too complicated for you to do. It's not. Making beer is easy. Primitive stone age people did it 6000 years ago with clay pots and a bonfire, it it worked fine. The only difference now is that we've got much better equipment, and many more people to help you if you get stuck.

Using Wort Extract by Jason Pratt

In the Part 1 I discussed why you should brew your own beer at home. Now, I'm going to talk about the basic process of brewing, and try to tackle some of the common questions of new homebrewers. If you are familiar with the process (or are just impatient) you can skip to the links at the bottom of the post for more concrete instructions and resources for brewing at home. 

Let’s start with the most basic question: What does brewing involve, exactly? Well, simply put, when you brew you take the sugars and flavors from malted grain, mix it with water, boil, season to taste, cool, and ferment. See? It's simple! Now go brew!

Ok, so maybe it's not as simple as it sounds. To get the sugar out of the grain you have to rinse it out with water at specific temperatures for specific times, using the twin processes of "mashing" (soaking the grain) and "luthering" (rinsing the grain and filtering out the particles). Doing this at home means that you start with a bunch of dry grain and end up with a big pot's worth of grain-flavored sugar water, known as "wort." When you start your brewing from grain you are using "all-grain" brewing.

Homebrewing - Part 1: Why make your own beer? Guest Post

Boaz with Sam Adams Award

I am honored to introduce Boaz Harel, the first place winner for Pale Ale in the 2012 Sam Adams Longshot home brew competition in Israel, and author of the Three Cats Brewery Blog. Boaz is also married to  Maya, the author of the hilarious and informative blog How to Be Israeli. I first met Boaz and Maya when we were college students in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This October we both welcomed our first "Made in Israel" babies into the world. Congratulation Boaz and Maya!

Let's try a simple exercise. Go get yourself a glass of cola. Now look at the glass and ask yourself what's in it. Chances are you couldn't answer the question, and with soft drink companies being so cagey about their products (and for a reason - if you knew what was in it you'd probably never drink it) you'll probably never know. Now go get a glass of beer and the same question. What's in this? The answer to that question is just four words: water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. What's more, all the wonderful variety of beers in the world, from the black roasty Guinness, to the pale crisp Bud Light, is made from those same basic four ingredients. Water, Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast (and magic :) ).

Beers from Three Cats Brewery

In fact, beer is such a simple, easy, and natural beverage, that you can actually make it at home. In the second part of this post I'll show you how, but before we get into that, let's talk a little about what beer is, and why you should make it. 

Adventures in Sourdough PLUS Blog Award

I'm starting a sourdough starter... or trying to.  I have some very sour smelling batter, but no bubbles.  I may try another batch at the same time using Professor Calvel's Instructions.  He seems to know his stuff.  If you try starting some sourdough now, we can make bread and cookies together!

NEXT-DAY UPDATE:  I have bubbles!  My starter doesn't stink anymore.  I might be ready to bake with it.  However, I feel an obligation to disclose that I cheated.  Yesterday I stopped feeding my starter and in the evening I added the tiniest pinch of dairy-free probiotics and about 6 grains of dry store-bought yeast.  I thought it might speed along the process of balancing the bacteria and the yeast, which is necessary to get past stinky sour and onto good beer sour.  Now I'm going to fold laundry while watching the sourdough episode of the Frugal Gourmet (In 3 parts on YouTube).  In part 3 he says "Talk to the dough!...  Grandma never needed to see a shrink ... Grandmas talked to their dough."


This week I was nominated for the Stylish Blogger Award by Healthy Eating for Ordinary People.  I am honored that my baby blog has been recognized as a happening spot in the Blogosphere!

So now it's my turn.  In order to accept this award I must: