Kimchi, Kefir, Sauerkraut and all other fermented foods

Second attempt at basic soy bean tempeh appears to be working, hooray

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So I tried this method with some sweet peppers a few nights ago. Not much going on, the liquids gone a little cloudy and there's a few micro bubbles on the surface. Do I just leave them alone?

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yeah give it another 5 days at least, it'll take a while to get going. Just did some carrots and onion seeds, forgot about it for a week, when I opened it up there was a layer of kham yeast on the surface but nothing more. I guess things will move fairly slowly at the moment as it's still not that warm on average.

Nice one. I could move it to the hot press?

don't know about that. If you get it too hot you'll kill off the microbes.

Cool, I'll leave it be so! Might do carrots later

Ok, 5 days later. Here it is, there's been some bubbles during the week but not a huge amount. The water is cloudy and a yellowish colour

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I thought my scoby had been binned but found it the other day. Made up some sugar tea, lobbed it in and left it. Couple of days later it smells like it's going the right way (then again, I put some liquid in from the scoby so it could be that) but the scoby is hiding somewhere near the bottom of the jar... is this normal or did 8 months lost in my kitchen cupboard kill the scoby?

How much salt did you use in percentage?

3% as that was the advice for peppers in that video

Don't know then. Did you use rock salt? Some table salt has iodine in it I think which could suppress microbial activity.

Used this. The house is generally around 20 degrees too so shouldn't have been too cold. Does it look like nothing has happened?

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Hard to say tbh, it should smell slightly sharp/sweet. It's probably going still, I wouldn't expect to see loads of bubbles. You should only chuck it out if you see black mould.

Putting some old scoby liquid in is always best because it's acidic and will stop less desirable organisms from taking over. I've refreshed from scratch and had SCOBY float back to the top but often I just end up with a new scoby growing on the surface and eventually I'll carefully lift up the new one, bin the old submariner and then place the new one back on the surface.

I put a good slug of it in there but I've got a load left over I could slosh in.

Decanted the second batch of sauerkraut and found the bottom at the bottom to be quite dry. Tried a bit and tasted nice. Going to decant the first batch today and then have lots of kraut to eat...

Pop to lidl for some german sausage?

Finally decanted the first batch, and nothing has happened. The saurkraut is really salty. Can I re-add brine and see if the fermentation will take place as I am a bit loathed to throw it away at this time.

Should I make a carrot version? Aubergine? and maybe courgette? Or a slow cooked ratatouille?

Anyone?

You can re brine and try but chances are most of the microbes and nice lil bacteria workers left once drained so itll either take a while or not work.
Carrot is tasty, so is radish in my opinion :) aubergine and courgette are good but go quite soft in texture which is not my preference. Pepper is good, goes like jarred roasted peppers. Also would recommend cucumber with mustard seeds and dill. Also mushrooms are interesting!
Beetroot is super tasty when shaved real thin and fermented.
And my personal fav, horseradish! Once fermented, add to mayo and you got a tasty dip that's also helping the gut!

Thank you for the reply.

Have been thinking about it, so was going to prep and add carrots and brine to see if the microbes come back with the addition of carrot.

Do you used cooked or raw beetroot? That sound interesting and the horseradish may hit my spicy tastebuds.

Good idea! Let me know if it works out.
All raw.
Here are some dill pickles, carrots and radishes I just jarred up today after a 3 day ferment!

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Have looked in to it and the problem could be the tap water I used to top up the first batch, so this time no water added so will see how it goes.

Looking at your radishes have decided to give that a go, so have collected some radish. Not to decide to finely slice or to julienne? Also got some skinny cucumbers that I will slice and ferment with smoked garlic. Will use bottled water, or filtered and boiled.

Could be, I usually used boiling water to make the brine then let it cool.
Ooh sounds good! Hope they work out and you enjoy!
I think I'll do beetroot and oregano, tastes likes an umami ketchup!

Any ideas from anyone on kombucha flavours? I'm a bit tired of the usual rose, rhubarb, lavender or lemon and ginger I do.

Was thinking of getting a box of red non bell peppers to ferment. Anyone fancy sharing the box?

@Lucybee Can you use pomegranate? Been using homemade pomegranate molasses in salads and general cooking. I bought two crates/boxes that were over ripe so really cheap and reduced the juice with a couple of limes that I had. Didn't add any sugar, and have been adding it to all sorts of things.

That might work although not sure how to infuse without just adding the juice.
Could try to ferment though! Fermented raspberries and blueberries are super tasty, particularly good with meat or in a salad!