The Life Sutra

The Food of Happiness

Navigation

Archives for May 2015

Beetroot, Fennel and Mandarin Ferment

by 2 Comments

beetroot-fennel

Guest post from Jamie Raftery, Michelin trained chef.  Jamie has worked with an amazing variety of inspiring mentors throughout his career, including Michael Caines, Gordon Ramsay, after winning the Ramsay scholarship in 2007, Rasmus Kofoed, the gold, silver and bronze Bocuse d’or culinary super-hero from Denmark, Marcus Wareing, Heston Bluementhal, Corey Lee, Clare Clarke and Angela Hartnett.

Jamie is currently studying holistic nutrition. Drawing on his experience and knowledge he is developing techniques, dishes and a range of products with the ultimate goal of opening his own restaurant and inspiring people with healthier food. Jamie is currently showcasing his products and dishes through a combination of pop-up dining events, collaborations with holistic practitioners and restaurant consultancy throughout the UK and can be found here as The Holistic Chef.

Here is one of Jamie’s simple but mouthwatering recipes that I can’t wait to try.

jamie-prep

 

Jamie2-prep

Both Jamie and I can be found at the Fermentation Masterclass at Newlyn’s Cookery School, 28th June 2015, where Jamie will be serving lunch and sharing knowledge and recipes, click here for more details.

 

Save Print
Beetroot, Fennel and Mandarin Ferment
Author: 
Recipe type: Fermentation
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 2 large red beetroot
  • 2 heads of baby fennel or 1 large fennel
  • 2 mandarins
  • 1 tablespoon of Malden salt
Instructions
  1. Grate the beetroot
  2. Very thinly slice the fennel
  3. Squeeze the juice from 2 mandarins
  4. Add the vegetables to a kilner or mason jar
  5. Cover the beetroot in the salt and kneed to release the juices
  6. Mix with the juice and fennel and push down firmly into a kilner / mason jar
  7. Close lid and allow to ferment at room temperature for 2-3 days
  8. Transfer to the fridge and serve

 

Fermented Ginger and Orange Carrots

by Leave a Comment

ginger-orange-carrots

Fermented ginger carrots supply the perfect marriage between sweet, citrus carrots and tangy ginger, I love this combination and it’s perfect paired with a crisp salad on a summer day.

Really simple to make, the liquids release really easily from the carrots as they start to produce lactobacillus, the sour tasting lacto-fermented form of bacteria.  Fermented foods are full of probiotic goodness giving you abundant health but most of all it tastes really delicious and like sauerkraut is a really simple way to start.

If you don’t like ginger you can leave it out or interchange it with some garlic or a freshly grated apple.

Save Print
Fermented Ginger, Orange Carrots
Author: 
Recipe type: Fermented Ginger Carrots
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 1 large bag of carrots
  • 1 cm root of fresh ginger
  • Juice and zest of half an organge
  • 1 tablespoon of natural salt
  • Either 2 tablespoons of whey or an extra 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 litre mason jar
Instructions
  1. Grate the carrot using the large grate on your standard grater
  2. Peel the ginger to remove the outer skin and use the fine grater to grate the ginger finely
  3. Grate half an orange and squeeze the juice.
  4. Add the ingredients into a bowl and sprinkle with sea salt and / or you whey is using
  5. Kneed and squeeze the carrot and ginger in a bowl to release the natural juices from the vegetables
  6. Push the carrots and ginger into a mason jar and press down firmly
  7. Keep pushing until the juice rises above the carrots then close the lid and leave to ferment for 3 days

 

Curry Kraut

by Leave a Comment

currykraut

This week I have Michelle Knox guest posting one of her wonderful recipes.  Michelle can be found at Sprouts, Krauts and Spice and has a real passion for adding unusual spices to her fermentation recipes. These wonderful spices have some incredible health benefits, check out this article with scientific literature about the benefits of black seed also called Nigella Sativa.  I can’t wait to try this recipe and we certainly share a passion for sprouts that are so easy and nutritious to make.  Please read Michelle’s amazing healing journey below and be encouraged to give fermentation a try.

My name is Michelle Knox. After being sick and in pain for forty years, I finally discovered the link between good health and good Food!!! I was crippled with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diverticulitis, Fibromyalgia, Hiatal Hernia, Migraines, Ankylosing Spondylitis and many other potentially serious diagnoses for decades… I was Eating what I believed to be the ‘Most nutritious diet” in the world… I was a Vegetarian/Vegan/Raw Vegan…. And I was getting steadily sicker and collecting yet more dread diseases!!! How could that even be???  I listened to my doctors for years telling me “If it hurts, rest it!!” And I obeyed.. Spending hours and days and years curled on the couch with heating pads that I would move from area to area in hopes of alleviating the pain…

And then… I got really tired of all that!!!  I discovered that eating The Most Nutritious Food that you can possibly find, will help you rid your body of the symptoms that plague you!!!  Eating foods that have No ingredient label, No spokesperson, No commercial, No pyramid scheme, and Nothing fake, can have a tremendous difference on how you feel!!!  Now in my fifties, I am in better health than I Ever have been, I ditched my prescriptions, started going to a fitness class, and I have entirely changed the way I eat, and how I feel about food!!

I’d like to take you all on a journey.. My journey… Discovering Fresh, Clean, Wholesome food and learning how to prepare it in such a delicious way that it’s really irresistible!! Discovering fermented foods and how they can work to heal your gut – and your whole body!! Discovering healing spices from around the world and learning how they can not only impact your health, but make your food seriously Wonderful!!!

Michelle Knox can be found at https://sproutskrautsandspice.wordpress.com/

Save Print
Curry Kraut
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 
 
Ingredients
  • 2 heads of cabbage - chopped ( not too finely)
  • 2 T sea salt
  • 1 red onion - chopped
  • 1 cup shredded carrots
  • 1 T hot curry powder
  • 1 T ground turmeric
  • 1 T nigella Sativa seeds
  • 1 T Ajwan seeds
  • 1 tsp Sumac
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1T chopped garlic
  • 2 T grated ginger
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
  1. Mix together and beat it up til the brine is about an inch deep on the bottom you your bowl.
  2. Press tightly into a ½ gallon mason jar.
  3. Weight down and close tightly.
  4. Put in a dark cupboard for a month without messing with it!!!
  5. I put a plastic bowl underneath the jar just in case
  6. Waiting a month is the hardest part!!!