Shalgam juice is a delightfully sour beverage traditionally prepared in southern Turkey from lacto-fermented black carrots and turnips, usually accompanying heavy, rich fatty meals to aid digestion. Due to the use of black carrots, the juice is rich in polyphenol antioxidant anthocyanins, as well as necessary minerals, amino acids, C, carotenoids, and some B group vitamins. For the curious, more can be read about their incredible health benefits here than I could ever accurately spill in this journal.
Originating from and primarily cultivated in western and central Asia, black carrots are incredibly difficult to come by in California (and have I looked), so I have substituted it in this recipe with equal parts red carrots and purple carrots. The purple carrot substitution in particular contains anthocyanins, the antioxidant-rich properties offered by black carrots, and also helps with getting the desired sanguineous color. Please enjoy!
Ingredients
to fill one, 3 Liter jar:
salt
cleanest filtered or mineral water
8-10 black, red, or purple carrots
1 large turnip
optional: 1 beet
optional: teaspoon fresh, red spicy chiles
1/3 cup dried organic chickpeas and bulgur
The instruments you will need, besides those typically used for cleaning, will simply be a kitchen scale, calculator, an organic cotton spice pouch, and a 3 liter vessel (or adjust as necessary to fit what size you have).
Directions
1. As always, thoroughly wash and rinse all your vegetables under cold water three or four times or as necessary. As with all ferments, you want clean NOT sterile vegetables as the lactic acid bacteria on the surface of your vegetables are necessary for an active ferment.
2. Remove carrot, beet, and turnip stems; peel your turnip and beets, but not your carrots. In fact, for this ferment, it is ideal to preserve as much of the carrot skin as possible. Use the blunt edge of your knife in quick motions to remove all the hanging root hairs from your carrots.
3. Cut your carrots in half vertically, and the thicker ones into quarters as shown below. Slice your turnips and beet into thick discs.
4. Place your empty jar over a kitchen scale and reset it. Begin packing your jar with the chile flakes/desired spices (optional) and the pouch of chickpeas. Layer on your turnip and beet slices, and then finally your long carrots. Register the weight of your vegetables.
5. Pour in your clean, filtered or mineral water over your vegetables until the water just covers your contents.
6. Register the total weight of your jar including the vegetables and water. For me, the total came out to be roughly 2,345 g. Multiple your weight by 0.02 as we will be using 2% salt to make our brine. This came out to be 46.9 rounded up to 47 g of salt that I needed for this jar.
7. Finally, pour the salt in your jar. Place your fermentation weights carefully over your vegetables to ensure nothing is floating to the top. Cover with the lid and move your ferment into a cool, dark environment. Shalgam suyu will need about 3-4 weeks to best develop its flavors at room temperature, and longer if you prefer a very tart, salty drink.
My finished jar will not be in direct sunlight—obviously that was just for this photo. The floating bits are some peppercorns I added. I will be updating this post in a month and see how my shalgam suyu has developed!
I filled two large jars with baek (white) kimchi using Maangchi’s recipe, though I made some slight modifications (adding chilis to a non-spicy kimchi, for one). I foolishly decided not to strain the pulsed onion, garlic, ginger and pear juice, leaving a little bit of fibrous pulp floating around. Hopefully this will not affect flavor or the fermentation process, and will eventually settle. If this baek kimchi comes out a success, I will detail the process for it and its more famous and spicy, tongbaechu kimchi, in a future post. For now, this beauty will ferment at my room temperature (25°C) for 36-48 hours before fermenting in the refrigerator for another 2 weeks. 🙂
October 25, 2021 Update: My finished baek kimchi is perfect and has been thriving in the fridge; my initial fears about the fibrous pulp have also been relieved when I had a taste. My husband in particular loves the flavor–in fact he prefers it to the typical spicy kimchi!
I received a very special gift in early December from my husband—what every girl wants for Christmas—which was this Ohio Stoneware 3-gallon water seal fermentation crock. Naturally, I immediately filled it up with 6 large heads of cabbage, more than a dozen carrots, radishes, onions, and Serrano chiles. Our apartment has been very cold the past month, averaging about 18°C (64°F) indoors, which has been the perfect temperature for my sauerkraut to thrive. I let it ferment for longer than usual at nearing 5 weeks and it is the best sauerkraut I have ever made: refreshing and very sour!
My crock at its halfway-fill stage :)
Updating this as the end of March approaches, I still have about 11 liters of sauerkraut cooling in the fridge from just this sauerkraut in the crock I fermented in December! It will surely keep through early summer.
Fermentation is one of the oldest and most important technologies of food preservation throughout human cultural history. The innumerable purported health benefits of fermented foods have been attested to by our respective ancestors, long before they received any formal recognition or inquiry by established, Western capital-s Science.
In the modern diet of the so-called “developed” world, the corporate food industry and its bedfellow, the government, obscenely incentivize diets full of heavily processed, preservative- and sugar-laden foods, industrial seed oils, artificial flavors, pasteurization that depletes food of nutrients, and then post-processing nutrient fortification. To avoid getting overbearing and unnecessarily didactic, my main point is fermented foods remain one of the greatest methods to overcoming the poverty of such a diet, and re-introducing health and vitality back into one’s system. Consumption of fermented foods has shown promise in a wide variety of studies for decreasing the risk of bacterial infections, inflammation, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and a host of neuro-degenerative, psychiatric maladies. Spicy, tangy, sour, and salty, fermented cabbage—perhaps the most studied lacto-fermented vegetable—is low in carbohydrates, and rich in vitamins C, K, carotenoids, folate, minerals, and antioxidants. It is simply the best appetizer and accompaniment for all meals of the day!
To most, a classic sauerkraut recipe will only call for two ingredients: the freshest cabbage and salt, but I find this to be a bit too plain for my taste. And in fact, many Albanian lakër turshi recipes ask for at least the inclusion of carrots and garlic; if it is plain, it is usually fermented whole in a water-sealed crock (and oftentimes stuffed and steamed as sarma). That being said, the best sauerkraut is the one that you can see yourself consuming daily, with flavors you enjoy.
My fermented cabbage recipe is very approachable for beginners and the process itself is sufficiently rewarding; patience is the only real challenge.
Ingredients
for one batch (fills up one, 3 Liter jar):
salt
handful black peppercorns
2-4 bay leaves
2 green cabbages
2 large carrots
one red onion
one apple of choice
2 red radishes
2 Serrano chiles
Directions
1. Wash your vegetables by mainly rinsing them. Peel onion and carrot skins, clean and remove radish and carrot stems/ends, discard the outer cabbage leaves. Thinly slice your cabbages, carrots, radishes, apples, onions, and chiles. I personally chose to keep the skins of my radishes and apples.
Do not overdo your vegetable washing with soaps or astringent cleaners, as many lactic acid bacteria are already living on the surface of your vegetables which are valuable for our fermentation—soaking and rinsing three or so times until the water runs clear will suffice in most cases. You should mostly be concerned with how clean your hands and surfaces are when fermenting! It is wise to frequently wash your hands with fragrance-free natural soaps before handling your vegetables, jars, and any other tools you intend to use to prepare your ferment.
2. Weigh all of your vegetables.
3. Calculate the weight of salt you will be using. Cabbage, when salted, draws out enough moisture that making a brine is usually unnecessary. For sauerkraut, 2% salt for the total weight of your vegetables is sufficient for fermentation. So, for my last batch of vegetables weighing a total of 1924 grams, 2% of that total weight would be rounded up to 39 g of salt.
Because we are weighing the mass of our vegetables, rather than calculating volume, the coarseness of your salt does not matter as it might for other recipes that calculate based on volume (i.e. cups, tablespoons). Also, no matter how much or little sauerkraut you are fermenting, always use 2% salt.
4. Gently massage the salt into the sauerkraut for a minute, ensuring it’s well-incorporated. Then, let your vegetables rest with the salt for 20 minutes. They will become soft and limp as the moisture is drawn out, as pictured in the before and after below.
5. Begin packing your clean, dry jar with a couple bay leaves and black peppercorns to start. Bay leaves are great for fermenting particularly because they are rich in tannins, which can maintain the crunch of your vegetables. Squeeze a fistful of the vegetables at a time and pack tightly. Layer a few peppercorns in between packing the vegetables, to your preference.
6. Carefully place your weights over the packed vegetables. This is essential to prevent mold growth.
7. Pour the brine into your jar. And, this is quite important: make sure there is at least two inches of space between the brine and your lid.
As I learned from failed previous jars, it is important to leave some room for the gases that develop over the course of the fermentation process. In my failed previous batch, exactly that occurred and I ended up with oxidized brine and sauerkraut I unfortunately had to toss.
8. Cover with the lid and let your sauerkraut sit and ferment in a cool, dark environment for at least 2 weeks, preferably 3 weeks to ensure it has gone through all stages of fermentation.
A few considerations:
When fermenting anything, elect to use fresh, organic produce, preferably from your local farmer’s market. Although it will typically be more expensive, this is a worthwhile investment and will greatly benefit the microbial diversity and growth through the fermentation process as it ensures no: harmful chemical pesticides, herbicides, waxing, food irradiation, etc.—all of which can negatively impact the microbial life of your ferments. Produce farmed in organic soil is also healthier and contains more vital minerals and nutrients than non-organic soil.
I am fermenting using the 3 liter Kilner air-lock vessels. If you are using a screw-top Mason jar or other similar vessel, you would need to unscrew once (often called ‘burping’) daily to ensure gases can escape and your precious jars don’t explode from the build up of CO2 gas pressure released during the fermentation process. Otherwise I encourage using an airlock system or, better yet, a water-seal crock.
Additionally, if you are using a regular jar and not an airlock or water-seal system, it is possible that your ferment will develop some Kahm yeast. This is completely safe to consume (although it may affect flavor). It is not mold growth but you can skim it off if you find it unpleasant. Your senses are your better judgment in all cases.
The length of your ferment is as dependent on your climate as it is on taste preferences. If you live in a humid environment or are fermenting during the summer, it may be useful to taste test your ferment for readiness after 5 days or a week. It’s not advisable to ferment in peak summer heat. The best temperature for sauerkraut fermentation is between 18-21°C (65-70°F).
Finally, refrigerate your sauerkraut once it is ready and to your liking. Refrigeration halts or seriously slows fermentation, and your sauerkraut will typically keep for several months.
My three jars will be fermenting for about 21 days. I can hardly wait until then....
