November 2022
My brain is fizzing like the ferments, with so many ideas and things to try!
Our class with Theresa Keane of ‘Booch and Bia’ is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while. I met Theresa briefly at a talk recently and got to sample her delicious water kefir, and it had certainly whetted my appetite for this chance to delve into the world of fermentation with her.
Theresa starts by recommending some books. The Noma Guide to Fermentation and Sandor Katz’s The Art of Fermentation. These are on my Christmas list now. She talks about Koji, a Japanese fermentation using mould to ferment rice or starchy grains like barley. It can be used to make miso.
The marinating properties are fascinating. It can be used as an overnight marinade for larger cuts of meat and a short marinade for fish. It appears to firm up the meat or fish and keep it moist as well as providing sugar and salt seasoning. It got me thinking that this is just what the Christmas turkey needs, and I even found someone who had already given this a try, with what looks like appetising results. I’ll have to experiment with a chicken before I destroy the Christmas dinner for science. Additional uses of koji include flavour applications in dressings, pickles, sauces, baked items and surprisingly, ice cream bases.
Theresa also talks about Garums, an Italian ferment similar to asian fish sauce. Traditionally it’s made with fish guts and smaller whole fish. It was used as a seasoning to add salinity and umami to dishes and was so concentrated that only a few drops were needed. Commonly, garum was diluted in olive oil, wine, and vinegar to make sauces, or diluted with water for drinking. Noma chefs have been using koji to create garums with lots of different ingredients such as beef, chicken wings, various vegetables, smoked mushrooms, and egg whites. The fact that koji yields less salty garums is adds to the versatility and flavour profile of the products.
This process sounds like it could yield some very interesting results. It gets me thinking about how it might apply in the Irish context and if we had any similar ancient product on these shores. My husband’s grandfather is from Carrowtighe in County Mayo, and when he was still alive used to recall having barrels of salted cod in winter. As the winter wore on it would become increasingly rotten and it brought back a lot of bad memories for him of hard times and scarcity. He never liked preserved or canned fish as a result. This leads me to investigate some of our ancient Irish ferments, or what we know of them. Using a traditional ingredient, Sowans is a type of ancient Irish oat milk made from fermented oats. It is made using the starch on the inner husks of the grain after milling, whereby the husks are soaked in water for a few weeks, along with the oatmeal, and left to ferment. The resulting liquid is then separated. So oat milk isn’t just a hipster invention then, I can sleep easier putting a few drops in my coffee.
In Theresa’s class, I’ve made a note that Irish Dashi could be worth investigating, dashi being the Japanese soup stock made with seaweed that is used as the flavour base for many dishes. This method could be good with incorporating Irish seaweed into a dish, something I haven’t cracked yet in the kitchen. The time I put Irish kelp into a Japanese style stew was not appreciated. I’m also making a note that she suggests adding fresh ingredients like pineapple or apple to a sauerkraut or vegetable ferment for serving. This is something I’ve struggled with when it comes to ferments, too often simply using them as an accompaniment or condiment rather than incorporating them into a dish.
Another intriguing mention by Theresa is Oak Leaf wine, she tried some recently and found the flavour incredible. I’ve been reading a lot about oaks recently in Isabella Tree’s book Wilding and am hoping to plant some saplings in Kilkenny soon. I hadn’t considered a culinary application, but perhaps this is it. Unlike lots of other wines, Oak leaf wine doesn’t need a fermentation time of longer that 16 days, making this a very quick process in wine terms! Preparation time and bottling will only take a mere 40 minutes or so and standing time can be as little as 90 days.
On to shrubs, a fruit vinegar. This sounds like a wonderful use of a bumper crop of berries in the garden. I’m thinking of the mountains of redcurrants that are still sitting in my freezer from last year. We taste some pink elderberry Shrub vinegar Theresa has made and it’s great. We’re running out of time but get to finally taste the astonishing array of ferments Theresa has laid out for us. Some of the standout items are preserved egg yolks, gorgonzola butter and the seabuckthorn Kombucha.
It’s been the most interesting morning; my brain is fizzing like the ferments with so many ideas and things to try. Thank you, Theresa!
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