This is one of the best appetizers you can serve yourself and your guests. Recently I was a guest chef at a huge fundraising event. All that was being served was appetizers from 6 different chefs on Maui. Most of the food was donated by local farms. Lucky me, received copious amounts of cabbage, beets, carrots, onions, and kale from Oprah's farm. Without one bit of hesitation I whipped up a 5 gallon batch of these incredible vegetables grown in rich organic soil, added some spices and let them brew for 2 weeks. The result? Well, you can see from this picture that the beets created a beautiful red/scarlet color to this rich and tasty appetizer.
I served them on a small nori sheet topped with a gluten free rice cracker. The good news is that people loved the fresh succulent bite they received. It was the perfect antidote to some of the other greasy stuff being served. This could be a good thing for you to try just before a meal to set up your taste buds and your digestive system, and/or a good way to start your day. Below are the ingredients to the recipe I used for this batch. The measurements are not included because I did not keep track of them. Basically, when making your own veggies, make it taste like you would like to eat it. It will change as it ferments only by getting better. Be brave and experiment!
Cabbage (1/3 of your base should be cabbage). I used basic green cabbage and also napa cabbage. Because of the water content of the napa cabbage, the mixture was more watery than usual, which was great because it was juicy instead of dry. By using the food processor, the texture was also small, like a relish.
Ingredients
Onions, beets, carrots, kale, ginger (in order of volume). I also added about 10 jalapeno's without the seeds. I used 2 cups of ginger in 5 gallons, which resulted in a bit of heat for the mixture.
Spices: salt, chili powder, sea kelp (about 1/3 cup).
Do it! Mix your favorite veggies together and create magic. If you want to learn more about making cultured veggies, beet kvass, fermented millet and more, take a look at my course on "Cultured Superfoods". Enjoy.
Photo by: Barry Frankel (http://islandfreshphotography.com/)