Adventures in Fermentation is my new blog series over at Sustainable Table. Apparently it was Twittered too (I’m not familiar) and placed on their RSS feed. I’ll be posting a fermentation adventure about once a month. Goal #1: Set Goals. Goal #2: Stick to Goals.

Throughout the Adventure I hope to cover:
Wild Fermented Pickles, Ginger Beer, Sauerkraut, Beer, Kombucha, Kefir, Kimchi, Bread, Olives, Miso and more! The next installment will speak more about fermentation in general, and perhaps provide a report back of an upcoming fermentation party I’ll be attending (I received the invite 3 months ago so I could ferment on my attendance).

I realize most of my readers are the quiet lurking type, but I would love to get some comments going about things you like to ferment, recipes you have, or funny fermenting stories.

The post is below, or head over to Sustainable Table to read it, and other great stories!

Welcome to the first installment of Adventures in Fermentation. In these postings we’ll explore the universe of fermented foods, happenings in the fermentation world, and delve into some recipes to try.

Fermented food and drink are not just wine, beer, and pickles! There is a whole universe of fermented foods to explore. In the next issue, I’ll talk more about what fermentation is exactly and its many positives, but until then, let’s jump right into something soft and cloudy: yogurt.

That’s right, yogurt is a fermented food (remember the term probiotic for the next posting). It is one of the simpler fermented foods to make, requires few supplies, and is something most of us are familiar enough with that you might be willing to try it.

Here’s a kicker that might get you making your own yogurt:
Yogurt on the market most of us are accustomed to has added thickeners (tapioca, citrus pulp, cornstarch, or other synthetic agents) added to make the end product a thick and even consistency (there are also a lot of sugars added). We sometimes also see “with probiotics” stamped on the container. Yogurt naturally is a probiotic food, so forget that claim. The real question is: Why eat all those extras if all you want is yogurt?

Yogurt that does not use thickeners, is much thinner, sometimes even lumpy. To make the consistency weightier, without thickeners, producers often drain the product losing a lot of whey in the process (which can be used to bake bread with). I have heard if you heat the milk to a higher temperature before adding culture you can thicken your yogurt further, but if you are using raw milk products, you run the risk of killing heat sensitive bacteria that makes milk digestible.

I enjoy homemade goat yogurt (made with goat milk) topped with granola, a scoop of homemade preserves, or simply as a yogurt beverage similar to kefir (another fermented food) full of all those great probiotics.

If you are interested in making your own yogurt, it is fairly simple. (read on for the details!)

You will need:
• raw milk or high quality organic milk
• yogurt cultures
• a large pot to heat the milk
• a cooking thermometer
• a glass jar to store your yogurt
• cheesecloth

If you have a friend with a batch of yogurt going, you can grab about 2 tablespoons of their finished yogurt per gallon of fresh milk to make your own yogurt. If not, I recommend purchasing cultures (both a thicker European culture or “tangy” culture) from New England Cheese Making Supplies.

The final yogurt recipe is dependent on the culture you use.

If you don’t want to bother with cultures, you can try using store-bought yogurt as your starter:

1/2 gallon organic (or raw) whole milk
1 cup organic yogurt

Heat the milk on medium-low heat in a saucepot to 165 F, do not bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow milk to cool to 110 F. Add yogurt, stir to incorporate, cover with a clean kitchen towel and secure with a rubber band or tie. Place in a warm location, undisturbed, overnight (inside a turned off oven works great). The next day, transfer to storage container and refrigerate. To thicken the yogurt, strain it through multiple layers of cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Reserve whey that drains for baking.

More ideas:
Use goat or sheep milk for other tangy yogurt creations
Sprinkle with cinnamon and a drizzle of honey

Yogurt is not just for breakfast or a snack! Try some of these ideas:
Blitz your yogurt with chickpeas or white beans for a delicious spread
Serve a dollop over grilled lamb
Use on your sandwich instead of mayo
Mix with garlic and a chipotle pepper and top a quesadilla
Add a dollop to soup
Use it in baked goods, or whip it with powdered sugar as icing
Make a fruit smoothie

Two recipes in two days? I must be going crazy. More likely, I have a few heavy weeks ahead of me and I thought this to be the perfect Valentine treat for you and your honey. Also, if your schedule is looking to be as hectic as mine (or you want to indulge in something that tastes like it took forever to make), this cake whips together in minutes, requires no dreaded cheesecake water bath baking, is light as a cloud, and as pure as heaven.

A while back I had an opportunity to purchase raw goat milk. Despite dreaming of a goat cheese-lavender-honey ice cream since summer, I made yogurt. But with this recipe today, I am one step closer to my ice cream dreams. Why? Because this recipe certifies that the effort for ice cream will be a delicious payback. If anyone out there wants to try ice cream and report back, by all means go for it!

A few weeks back I was flipping through my food magazines when a goat cheese cake got me thinking about my goat cheese ice cream dreams. While it’s too cold now for ice cream (okay, honestly, it is never too cold for ice cream), a little cheesecake might be just the thing to test my combination. With some newly engaged friends coming over for dinner I had a perfect excuse too.

So I set out altering the cheesecake to my own likings. I think further changes can be made to bring out more intense flavors, like the addition of lavender oil (is that food safe?) to the cake. And maybe the topping could go for a tablespoon of heavy cream just to thicken it slightly. I also tried to find chocolate wafers, but couldn’t. (And refused the advice of a local shopkeeper who recommended using vanilla wafers and blitzing it with chocolate syrup.) The lavender is subtle in the crust, the honey is just right and the goat cheese is not at all overpowering. The finished cake is not too sweet, so test the sweetness, or just drizzle extra honey over the top.

Honey Lavender Goat Cheese Cake
Makes 12 servings. Active Time= 20 minutes. Inactive Time= 2.5 hours.
Crust:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon organic lavender buds, no stems
8 ounces chocolate cookie (Recommended: Newman’s Organic Choco Alphabet Cookies)
Filling:
12 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream, cold
Topping:
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon organic lavender buds

1 buttered 9-inch springform pan.

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine butter, honey and lavender. Heat until everything is just melted together. Use a food processor to pulse cookies until grainy. Add butter combination to cookies and pulse until combined. Lavender will be mostly broken apart. Push into springform pan, refrigerate 30 min. Whip goat cheese, lemon juice, honey and salt until smooth. Add heavy cream, whip until thick. Pour into crust and smooth top using a spatula. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. For topping, just before serving, warm honey and lavender a few minutes to infuse. Drizzle over cake, straining and serve.

For the past few months, D and I built a mountain of squash by squirreling away our Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) deliveries. The thinking: we received little winter squash from our CSA last year due to a short harvest and would therefore savor every squash that crossed our path this year. (Last year consisted of many root vegetables because I refused to purchase any greens from the grocery making D quite ornery– For some reason he is unable to purchase these items unless he is told to do so and blames me.) As the squash rolled in (since October), D and I cautiously administered our provisions with a single rule: no squash until the depths of winter– unless rotting was otherwise visible.We appointed similar rulings to the tomatoes I canned: only 3 quarts per month from December to March. And corn: only 2 per month as long as we didn’t die after the first jar (that’s another story to come).

Our bounty grew so great that as fellow members of the CSA came into our home their eyes would pop: are you taking extra squash home? Not at all– we haven’t been eating it.

And then it overflowed.

You can understand that in a proper home this mountain would be no problem– a cool basement, garage or cellar would do the trick for storage. New York City is a different beast. Limited closet space already with a brawl underway between our tomatoes, corn, camping gear and vacuum, no basement, no garage. I piled our squash high in our largest wooden bowl (and then around it) on our dining room table (we’re lucky to have the space for a dining room table) creating a cubist-still-life-quasi-Jenga masterpiece of balance.

It was beautiful. Until rot entered.

First it hit an acorn squash. Just one, but my reaction was to cook up as many as possible to avoid an outbreak. I made a squash ravioli full of butter, nutmeg and sage. Eaten with such hunger no picture was secured.

Then a quick and basic soup with pretty much solely squash and chicken broth.

Another (deconstructed) ravioli followed. Eaten again with such gusto no picture was had. I say deconstructed because this time I was too lazy to stuff the ravioli so I cubed the squash, made linguini and tossed it all together.

The leftover deconstruction turned into a hash of sorts.

We turned to admire our slightly smaller mountain for a little more than a month. Squash no longer flowed beyond the confines of the bowl, but it remained that still life structure of sort.

So yesterday, with purpose to make the mountain more a mole hill, with an uncertain ending in mind, I roasted two butternut and the last two acorn squash. (I really was planning to keep the acorn squash for a coconut squash custard, bought all the ingredients, but was never in the mood.) I toyed with more ravioli, then with actually making squash-based noodles. I eventually grew hungry and settled on more soup.

The resulting dish wasn’t so much soup as a thick base that can go a step further. I think D was thinking this when he smelled the soup warming and whipped up some Basmati rice with saffron, pine nuts, raisins, and goji berries (a gift from my mom picked up at a recent food show)

I realize that most of my squash soup recipes contain some curry (because it’s a combination I love) and recently I’ve even added coconut milk. This recipe differs in the its final consistency- it’s much thicker. I also amped up the curry and D started tossing in ingredients as well. We used an ingredient called Coconut Smiles (another ingredient my mom sent me a while back). It’s simply dried coconut pieces, unsweetened. This ingredient is really what altered the consistency into more of a sauce because once blitzed, the coconut bits turn into a sort of coconut cream.

While we ate the dish as a soup last night and again for lunch, I can’t help but think slow roasting some lamb or chicken in it would be amazing, using it more as a sauce. This is why I am not calling it a soup. The ending is up to you. Blitzing it with some garbanzo or white beans as a spread would be delicious. Or simply heat some garbanzo beans in it for a great curry.

As an aside, when D’s rice was complete he excitedly created the rice domes while plating and dubbed the dish Utopia. Or maybe this is also a tribute to its many possibilities.

Curry Coconut Winter Squash
Serving size= 6. Active time= 20 minutes. Cook time= 30 minutes.
3-4 small-sized winter squash, roasted (acorn and small butternut are a good combination)
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
6 cloves garlic, lightly crush
1 tart apple (like granny smith), roughly chopped
1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 loose cup (about 5 ounces) dried, unsweetened coconut slices (alternatively, you can use 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes or even 1 can coconut cream)
1-1/2 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 thai orange hot pepper (or other hot pepper or pepper flakes)
1 whole clove
2 whole allspice
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
salt/ pepper to taste
cilantro for garnish (optional)

(Preheat oven to 400F. Slice squash in half, remove pulp and seeds, place skin up and roast until soft, aproximately 45 minutes. Allow to cool.)

Heat a stock pot over medium-high heat with olive oil. Add garlic, apple, onion and coconut. Saute for 4 minutes until onions are slighlty translucent. Add curry powder, coriander, hot pepper, clove and allspice, stir to coat evenly and saute 4 minutes more. Use a spoon to scoop out squash flesh and add to pot. Add chicken or vegetable broth, cover and bring to a boil. Carefully in batches puree the soup using a strong blender (the coconut will still be fairly firm) until a smooth, even texture is reached. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve as soup, sauce, spread, etc with rice, protein or both. Garnish with cilantro.

Note: D made the rice in the above picture. It is basmati rice with a pinch of saffron, toasted pine nuts (almonds would be delicious too), a handful of raisins and a few goji berries stired in when the rice was finished cooking. He seasoned it with salt and pepper (a sprinkle of ground cardamom would also be good).