Fermented foods have become quite the star in recent years – the rise of kombucha availability alone has proven that the fermented food movement is here to stay. Jill Ciciarelli, author of First Comes Health & certified life coach, is the fermented-food maven – just look at her baby, the go-to manual for all things fermented. With her book, Fermented: A Four Season Approach to Paleo Probiotic Foods, Jill gives us a season-by-season guide to everything you can ferment.
The benefits to eating fermented foods and beverages are incredible – and we’ve been doing this for CENTURIES. Eating probiotic foods is like sending a massive good-bacteria foot soldiers into your gut to fight the good fight & boost your immune system. From sauerkraut to kombucha to pickles and yogurt – Jill has recipes for all of these and everything in between.
Now, fermentation is a process – so if you’re looking for a quick mid-week homemade kombucha fix, think again. Plan ahead, be attentive and BE PATIENT. If you’ve ever tried to ferment anything, you know you have to be patient. Think of your kitchen as a mad-scientist food lab, and go to town experimenting. Be mindful to keep tabs on your creations & always be careful when opening your ‘booch. No one likes an explosion! See? How exciting! Fermenting your own foods can be like a Mission Impossible movie. And delicious :)
Jill has been nice enough to share one of her recipes from the book – Blueberry-Basil Fizz. Sounds tasty! You can choose to use water kefir or kombucha – which are recipes in the book – but if you’re in a hurry, store bought will do. Fermented will be released on August 6th – pre-order now!
Fermented - Blueberry-Basil Fizz
Ingredients
- 1 pint blueberries
- 10 fresh basil leaves
- 32 ounces kombucha
Instructions
- Put blueberries and basil leaves in a blender or the bowl of a food processor and blend until liquified
- Put through a fine mesh sieve and reserve the liquid
- Divide the infusion between 2 flip-top bottles and add the kombucha
- Seal bottles and let sit at room temperature for 1 to 3 days or up to 5 days
- Refrigerate and use caution when opening bottles
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I make about 7 flip top bottles of Kombucha every 3-4 days for my second fermentation, since I have a continuous brewing system going. It’s just my Mom and I drinking it and I let the 2nd fermentation go about 7-8 days, because we like lots of bubbles. Consequently, I can have up to 14 bottles at a given time in my fridge and they often sit for a week or longer before we get them all consumed. We’ve not noticed any ill effects from it. Flavor wise, we don’t some experimenting and we love my brew of ginger, lemon, apple and cranberry. It pretty much rocks! I also have a SCOBY motel, where I store my excess scobies because with the continuous brew, they multiply quickly and if you leave them all in the continuous brewing vessel, the turn over rate before it’s super vinegar-y is less than 2 days. That’s just too fast for us. I leave a fairly thick one (scoby) in my pot and put the rest in the hotel. Haven’t tried the bad breath fix for the dogs yet, but since I have four of them, maybe I’ll give it a go, especially since one of them has a sensitive tummy and frequent intestinal issues. Maybe the fermented scoby will give her some good gut bacteria, huh? Sorry this was so long…I tend to go on and on about my Kombucha!
Wow, that all sounds awesome. I love love love ginger.
Patience isn’t a strength for me but I have been hearing so many good things about fermentation that I might have to try at be patient and give it a go. The combination of basil and blueberries sounds interesting.
I love kombucha and making it isn’t hard. The biggest hurdle is often finding a SCOBY. Now I have several and can bring myself to toss them if no one wants one. My favorite flavors are ginger lemon and cherry. Can’t wait for the book, now.
Don’t throw the scoby out. You can add it to the bath for remineralizing your body through the skin, make skin lotions using them, and I even cut them up really small in the dog’s food and have cured her bad breath. At least, put it in a compost pile and let all the good bacteria and yeasts speed up the composting process and enrich the soil.
Looks delish! I need to incorporate more fermented things into my diet, I think!
You should :)
After that 5 days, how long i can keep that? Months?
I am pretty sure, it is all in the book
I love kombucha and making it isn’t hard. The biggest hurdle is often finding a SCOBY. Now I have several and can bring myself to toss them if no one wants one. My favorite flavors are ginger lemon and cherry. Can’t wait for the book, now.
Alana Pascal argues that you should consume kombucha within three days of putting it in the fridge after secondary fermentation to guard against excess acetone production. But obviously commercial kombucha sits on the shelf way longer than that with no apparent ill effect to drinkers.