Musings from the Month of May
A fermented feast under a willow tree, mini sourdough pizzetas, kimchi pancakes + aesthetically pleasing lemon squeezers.
How was your month?
May the 4th is my mum’s birthday, or ‘May the 4th be with you’ as she loves to tell people. This year we celebrated her 66th. I rummaged up a fermented feast for some friends on the island and we sat and dined under the big willow tree in my grandma’s garden.
We pulled out a rickety wallpaper table from the garage and I draped it with a white sheet followed by an old lace curtain. Then I spent a happy afternoon making dips, salads and arranging pretty vegetables on some of the pretty platters I’ve collected from the charity shops in Jersey.
We sat down at 6pm and had a cheers to 66 years around the sun. It was our first taste of summer and alfresco dining for the season, and I’m currently dreaming up what to make for our next outdoor feast.
Other kitchen play delights for May included: saffron tepache; a nettle party; crispy, seedy sourdough pancakes eaten on the grass; strawberries and rhubarb bought from the farmers on the side of the road; kombucha drinks in the sun with apple cider vinegar and lemon; fermented garlic houmous; beetroot kvass; kimchi pancakes made with fermented rice flour and coconut milk; salads tossed with lacto-fermented radishes and onions; an experiment with sourdough focaccia and the best batch of lacto-fermented tomatoes I’ve ever made (more on this below).
Here’s a little dive into all the fermenting, books, substacks and food findings this month that are too good to keep to myself:
PEOPLE:
Ellie Bouhadana (@ellies.table)
Dreamy food and recipes from Melbourne based chef Ellie, I’ve been obsessing over her work for a while now and this month been loving following the launch of her new cookbook ~ it looks so thoughtfully put together and a real dive into her world of food. My copy is currently on the way and I can’t wait to try some of her delicious recipes.
“In her debut cookbook, Ellie shares recipes picked up through her travels through Italy as well as ones that have been handed down from generation to generation. Part recipe book, part journal, Ellie’s Table is an extension of Ellie’s food ethos and includes all the recipes close to her heart. We find her in her safta’s kitchen sharing their family’s Rugelach recipe, we travel to Italy and Ellie tells us the secret to the perfect Fried Zucchini – a recipe with roots deep in Rome’s Jewish community – and Ellie recounts cooking Moroccan dishes as a child with her doda (aunt) Melani and her dad. There’s a whole chapter on her infamous Focaccia and all the accompanying butters.
The chapters are structured in the same way that Ellie would serve her guests at a dinner party and invites her readers to do the same. We start with cold plates, then snacks, then the breads and whipped butters, followed by big plates, vegetables, pasta and finish with sweets.”
FOOD:
Mini sourdough ‘pizzetas’
Savoury buckwheat pancakes made from sourdough discard, covered with lacto-fermented tomato sauce (a sort of method below), nettle pesto and crumbled feta cheese.
Been making these all week. The perfect quick comfort snack.
~
Kimchi Panckaces
Made with a fermented rice flour and coconut milk batter, and a fresh batch of turmeric and dulse seaweed kimchi.
These have been a popular lunch round here for the last month. I don’t have an actual recipe as it’s all been done by roughly eye-balling the ingredients ~ the batter does need to be on the thick side to start with though, as the kimchi liquid will water it down quite a lot.
Let me know if you would like a proper recipe written down and I’ll start testing for you <3
~
Rhubarb Compote
I don’t think I’ve ever followed a specific recipe for rhubarb compote either… maybe this substack is turning into a series of confessions that I rarely follow recipes and make most things up as I go along.
Compote is another one I love to make by eye. I’ve seen recipes that add ginger, lemon peel or cinnamon to the mix, and sometimes like to add these too, but most of the time it’s simply rhubarb and honey. I like to add any extra flavours at the end, that will complement the dish the rhubarb is being served with.
I found out this month that the leaves and green parts of rhubarb are toxic. So, definitely chop those parts off, that’s a must. They can go straight into the compost.
A rough guide for rhubarb compote:
1. Wash the stalks & chop them into rough chunks taking off the green parts and leaves. Discard the green parts.
2. Place the chopped pieces in a pan on a medium heat with a spoonful of honey and keep stirring until it turns into a delightful mush, squashing any bigger bits every now and then with a wooden spoon.
3. Taste and add more honey if it needs sweetening.
4. Store in a kilner jar and eat within 3 days.
I have been loving rhubarb compote spooned onto banana sourdough pancakes and swirled into a chia seed pudding, made with goat milk kefir and sprinkled with with rose petals and cinnamon.
DRINK:
ACV, kombucha and lemon refresher.
This concoction has been so nice to sip whilst sat out in the sunshine ~ a little refresher with a kick for the middle of the day.
+ a good one to have before carbs to help reduce glucose spikes (a tip to thank to the glucose goddess for).
INGREDIENTS:
Glass Kombucha of your choice (homemade smokey Lapsang Souchong is my favourite at the moment)
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Lemon
RECIPE:
Add the apple cider vinegar to your glass of kombucha.
Cut one slice from the lemon and add to the glass.
Squeeze the juice from the rest of the lemon into the glass.
Enjoy :~)
~
Also on rotation this month: Tepache made with a generous pinch of saffron instead of cinnamon sticks and served with slithers of ginger. Recipe for Tepache to come but this one will get you started.
FERMENTS:
Lacto-fermented tomatoes and romano peppers (just in time for tomato season).
It might be an overstatement but I think I might have made the best ferment of my life this month.
The winning combination was a mix of pierced vine tomatoes and a couple of roughly chopped romano peppers, covered in a 2% brine solution and left to do it’s thing for 5 days.
The fermented fruit and veg were then scooped out, blended with a couple of cloves of fermented garlic and sieved for a few minutes to let some of the liquid drain (tip: keep the tomato-y liquid! See below for tips from the Holobonist on what to do with the tomato water).
We mostly ate the sauce spooned onto savoury sourdough pancakes or used as a salsa dip for chips. It tasted like tomatoes but with a delicious tang and everyone couldn’t seem to get enough. I’m going to try the next batch (currently on fermentation day 2) on Rummo gluten free spaghetti.
I have tried a few variations of fermented tomatoes over the past few years, but it never resulted in something I would actually want to eat. Either the top went mouldy and I would need to start again or the tomatoes just didn’t ferment properly and never hit that desired fermentation sweet spot.
I used to chop the tomatoes and squash them with salt like a dry ferment but simply sitting them in the water changed has the game. If you haven’t managed to get a good lacto-fermented tomato with the classic method, try brining them and let me know you get on.
You just can’t beat a good tomato.
MAY WISHLIST:
An aesthetically pleasing lemon squeezer:
For all the acv, kombucha and lemon tonics I’m going to be sipping on this summer, I thought it might be wise to invest in an aesthetically pleasing lemon squeezer.
The ones above were found at Gohar World, Garden Trading, Kiosk 48th & Refound Objects.
I’m still trying to work out which one is my favourite.
PLAYLIST:
Dinner party prep ~ summery music to groove to while chopping, peeling and plating this alfresco dining season.
I originally made this playlist two summer’s ago on the eve of my dad’s 71st birthday. We had a garden party in Somerset with his alpacas and invited the neighbours round for barbecued fish, salads, dips, sourdough breadsticks and potatoes from the garden. The playlist now gets revisited and added to around this time of year, ready for barbecues with loved ones.
SUBSTACKS:
Holobonist: A fermented newsletter
For all the other fermentation enthusiasts, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Kelsey’s Substack and particularly loved this issue on tomato water.
This Plate Will Save Your Life
My new favourite place for no nonsense advice on eating well, cooking and fermenting. I think my favourite thing about TPWSYL is all her great use of the word f*ck. It definitely helps to get the message across.
How was your May?
I hope you enjoyed this gathering of notes and findings :~)
Always love to hear if you have found any fun fermentations or recipes recently <3
Wishing you a lovely week,
Fleur x