Fermented Spicy Squash Pickle

It’s that time of year where, if you are growing squash, you will suddenly find yourself inundated with them! This is a lovely way to preserve some for later in the year and it tastes amazing on homemade burgers or as a side to leftover meatballs and salad for lunch. It is fermented so it will take 5-7 days on your work top and the flavour will improve the longer it stays in the fridge. Can last for up to a year unopened and about 2-3 months once opened.

Recipe
Approximately 1 kg of grated squash of any variety – feel free to mix up whatever you have around
1 medium sized onion, grated
1-2 medium cloves garlic finely chopped
2 or more red chili’s finely chopped
20g Himalayan Pink Salt

Squash is self brining so toss everything into a large bowl with gloves on ideally and mix up well with your hands giving the squash mixture a good squeeze to release some of the juice. Leave for half an hour or so and then pack into a Probiotic Jar (I used a 1.5 litre jar but a 1 litre would have been fine – it was just what I had to hand). Push the mixture under the brine level add the brine bowl and seal the jar. Fill (with water) and add the airlock. Cover with a dark cloth and leave on the work surface for 5-7 days – whenever it stops bubbling – if unsure knock the jar and see if any bubbles are released. If not you are done.

Transfer into the fridge to be eaten immediately or leave for another couple of months to enjoy in winter.

Let me know how you get on. 🙂

Probiotic (fermented) Condiments, dressings, dips and salads. Instalment 3 – Sour Cream

As you know I am writing a series of posts on fermented (probiotic) condiments, salad dressings and dips to help you out with incorporating fermented foods into your daily meals easily. If you are wondering why you would want to be doing such a thing then have a read at this:-

http://www.naturallyinsideout.com/blog/7-reasons-to-eat-fermented-foods-every-day

So todays post is on sour cream and in my opinion sour cream is extremely under-rated! Making your own sour cream is very easy as you will see by the ingredients and instructions following:

Ingredients
240mls Whipping or thick double cream
40mls natural live yoghurt – I use my own here but any live shop bought version can be used

Mix together (I do this in a Probiotic Jar as you can see below) cover with a dark cloth and leave for 12-18 hours – depending on how warm your kitchen is. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours before using.

 

Do you use sour cream? I prefer it to normal cream and once made like this it will last up to 3 weeks in your fridge. Sour cream is cleaner on the palate than normal cream and has many uses. 
Our favourite ways to use it are:

1. Drizzled over new potatoes with chives or mint optional
2. Mixed into duck or beef juices to make the best gravy ever
3. Spooned over fresh berries or other fruits – absolutely lovely over mango
4. Drizzled over warm puddings
5. Eaten by the spoonful just because! (this being my daughters favourite way to eat it!)

Do you think you might give it a go?

If you would like to see the first two post in this series then you can find them here:

http://www.naturallyinsideout.com/blog/probiotic-fermented-condiments-salads-dips-and-dressings-instalment-2-lemony-chive-potato-salad

http://www.naturallyinsideout.com/blog/probiotic-fermented-condiments-salads-and-dressings-instalment-1-guacamole

Probiotic (fermented) condiments, salads, dressings and dips – Instalment 1 – Guacamole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you been religiously making ferments but just not knowing what to do with them? Or are you losing interest as they aren’t that easy to incorporate into every day living. Well this series of posts is designed to give you very practical ways to incorporate fermented foods into your every day lives. Here is the first post – with many to follow – on Probiotic (fermented) condiments, salads and dressing.

If you are reading this and wondering why you should consider including fermented (probiotic) foods in your families diet then have a look at my previous post here :-

http://www.naturallyinsideout.com/blog/7-reasons-to-eat-fermented-foods-every-day

Ingredients

• 1 large ripe beef tomato or equivalent of smaller tomatoes, cut into small pieces
• 2 large ripe avocado or 3 smaller – scooped out
• juice of 1 lime
• half of a preserved lemon skin and all
• 1-2 cloves of fermented garlic roughly chopped
• equivalent of one small fermented red onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 chilli’s or more to taste – these can also have been fermented, roughly chopped
• coriander – optional

Toss the chilli, preserved lemon, garlic and a little of the preserved red onion into a mini chopper and whizz until slightly liquid.

Put the rest of the ingredients in a largish bowl (big enough to allow you to mash) with the chilli, lemon, garlic paste and mash all the ingredients roughly together. Taste and add seasoning as necessary. 

 

Enjoy anyway you please. Traditionally eaten with tortilla chips, but equally sensational with a burger or in a wrap or sandwich. Note that I always stick one of the avocado seeds back in the middle of the mixture as it helps it keep longer in the fridge. In addition the preserved lemon and the ferments will also increase the fridge time to up to a week.

Spring is back – Food for free. Anybody up for it?

Last weekend I went for a day out in Glasgow at Queen’s Park for a foraging workshop with the very knowledgeable and enthusiastic White Cat Herbal (Cat is organising another free workshop for the end of April). The cherry on the pie for me was that the whole family was able to join and participate.

We learned to identify plants, which we could bring homes and cook such as nettles, wild garlic, Jack of the Hedge, Hawthorn, plantain…. it was a fantastic day out and we all enjoyed it.

So today, I decided to renew the experience all on my own, albeit in my backyard. As you can see, I have been really successful with the wild garlic.

Actually, there were loads of them growing in amongst Japanese Knotweed (which will also soon start to be edible). I just made a tincture with the wild garlic using apple vinegar as well as other herbs, and (as wild garlic has quite a short season) Lindsay will ferment the rest of it so that we can continue enjoying it throughout the year.

However, the most exciting part of my trip, whilst I was not looking for it, was to find the fantastic and underrated Jelly Ear Mushroom. Actually, it was more like a colony of Jelly Ear rather than the usual handful.

To say that the Jelly Ear is underrated is actually an understatement but to be honest, this is not really surprising. The mushroom is not the most attractive looking and its taste is bland. However, few know this following little secret…….

In order to unlock the true potential of the Jelly Ear, one needs to work the mushroom.  The particularity of the Jelly ear is that when cooked it absorbs the flavour and so what I do is to cook it with a stock (home made in this instance and beef stock works the best) until it is reduced. Now the most amazing part of it is actually the texture of the mushroom. The Jelly Ear has a different consistency on the palate, it is quite crunchy, but when you bite into it, suddenly, it amazingly releases the concentrate of flavour in which it has been cooked. If you have never tried it, you will need to take my word for it. It is just so incredible and so I mix it sparsely with pasta, rice, lentils or vegetable dishes.

Below is picture of my Jelly Ears just ready to be cooked. The excess is now in the dehydrator.

I know that mushroom picking can be pretty daunting. When I was a boy, my father took me  mushroom picking. As I grew older, I lost all the knowledge and then became completely unconfident to pick mushrooms on my own. So here is a trick for anyone who wishes to learn about mushrooms or to refresh his memory: The easiest way is to join your local Fungus Group. My Group is the Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group and you can see the list of the Scottish Fungus Groups here.

As for me now, I am just delighted to have found what looks like an endless supply of this fantastic mushroom near me. Moreover, the Jelly Ear is also one of those mushrooms that is not seasonally dependant and can be harvested throughout the year.

7 Reasons to Eat Fermented Foods Every Day

7 Reasons to Eat Fermented Foods Every Day.

Naturally Inside Out becomes the Sole UK Reseller of The Probiotic Jar

Naturally Inside Out becomes the Sole UK Reseller of The Probiotic Jar 

Way back in August last year I wrote this post on the future of Naturally Inside Out and what I hoped it would encompass.

https://naturallyinsideout.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/naturally-inside-out-what-is-it-all-about/

The post details my business dreams and desires and in it I mentioned that 2 opportunities had come my way (both of which I followed/am following to fruition). The imminent one I am going to talk about today is “The Probiotic Jar”. One of my desires with Naturally Inside Out was to introduce slow/real food cooking workshops which I hoped would include sour dough breads, fermenting, sprouting and generally eating for health. I believe, without doubt, that eating nutrient dense foods for health is an unavoidable part of all of our futures. (I talk about nutrient density in modern fruit and vegetables here https://naturallyinsideout.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/5-fruit-and-veg-a-day-or-is-it-9-or-13/). It is a necessity of the future, due to depleted soils and over-use of chemicals and preservatives in our farming and overuse of antibiotics in our healthcare. This leaves us with a situation where, even if we eat well and look after our health we are, sadly, still unlikely to be getting enough vitamins and minerals to allow our bodies to thrive.

Gut Flora

More and more current research is revealing that 80%+ of our immune system is actually based in our gut. Maintaining that gut flora is essential to our health and in years gone by our ancestors would have incorporated fermented foods as part of their traditional food preparation and cultural practises. I won’t go into this at length in this post (or it will never end), but needless to say common eating habits of the modern world don’t lend themselves to eating probiotic foods.

Why Probiotic Foods and Why the Probiotic Jar?

What I discovered when I went looking for a vehicle to ferment in was that there are a lot of people advocating using any old jar and in the same breath, there are equally many people who are horrified by the idea of mould and removing it then still eating what is left! At the same time I couldn’t consider including fermenting foods in my future workshops, and ask people to incorporate eating probiotic foods daily, without finding a suitable vehicle to suit our modern lives and modern kitchens. Many internet searches later I discovered the Probiotic Jar (main site is here www.probioticjar.com) and enquired about the product. The result of this is Probiotic Jar UK which is launching within days, Naturally Inside Out being the sole UK Reseller.

Every bite of probiotic food contains trillions of living healthy probiotic microbes, usually in greater numbers than an entire bottle of high quality probiotic pills, which are dormant, and dried.  In fact, there is much debate about whether or not the microbes in probiotic pills effectively survive stomach acids.

Using any old container you might have lying around to ferment foods may produce fermented foods, but this is ill advised, especially if the reason that you are interested in fermenting is to improve a health condition.  The reason it is important to use a Probiotic Jar is because in a hermetically sealed anaerobic environment, the anaerobic health-nurturing cultures you desire are promoted, and the aerobic moulds and yeasts you must avoid are inhibited, in an environment that requires less salt.  You also don’t want the potential to leach chemicals into your food from toxic container materials.

In any other system that is not hermetically sealing, forcing out oxygen, the numbers of probiotics in the finished food are far fewer, because the active yeasts and moulds limit their growth, and also lead to earlier spoilage of the food.  For example, sauerkraut, even with an innoculant such as whey, rarely last without visible mould for more than five months in an open crock, and ours is still good in a Probiotic Jar after one year in 15.5ºC storage.  That is true harvest to harvest preservation.

The Future Begins Now

Probiotic Foods and therefore The Probiotic Jar are an essential part in bringing together the natural tool kit for your future health. Naturally Inside Out looks forward to bringing this and other essential tools and information together for you on one handy platform and to showing you how easy it all can be to achieve.

The website will be here within days www.naturallyinsideout.com. I will keep you posted. If you aren’t already following on Facebook feel free to join us at https://www.facebook.com/NaturallyInsideOut.

 

Naturally Inside Out – What is it all about?

OK so I haven’t posted too much recently, I was pondering why I haven’t and have realised that it is because I have too much material which my little head is finding different to rationalise! So I thought I would rationalise a little by doing a post on where Naturally Inside Out is now and what is going to be happening soon.

For those of you who have been following for a while you will know that I am a qualified Nutritionist and also a qualified Organic Skin Care Formulator.  I have been taking my time deciding exactly what I want to do in the future and I had decided that I would like to provide affordable eating plans for those wishing to improve their skin, improve their gut, those that just want them and their families to eat more healthily, those that want to improve their general health or those who are suffering from auto immune disease and are on lots of medication and need to counteract the damage that the medication is likely doing to their gut, those that want to improve their allergies – you get the drift!

The eating plans would be affordable and available to pay for  and download online with a comprehensive guide to how to get started what basics you need in your store cupboard, the plans would run for an initial 10 days and then extensions would be available , including how to make your environment healthier and less chemical ridden.

I was also keen to actually teach slow cooking, fermenting and skincare and was trying to figure out how to go about all of that I hadn’t quite figured out at this stage.

So far so good and I was on track until the summer holidays hit and kids took over.

What happened next?………..

Then, lo and behold I was offered 2 jobs, one on skincare and one on the nutrition side from different sources both with a teaching angle!

And

We bought a house

And

I was approached by several people to formulate skincare products for them

And

I found someone who wanted me to write them a personalised eating plan for improving the way they ate, reduced their allergies and eczema.

Here we are 3 months down the line in the middle of boxes researching which offers, if not both,  to take up and how to fit it under the umbrella of Naturally Inside Out – can I just say that I am genuinely delighted and grateful to be in this lovely position and I am much closer to sorting it all out and continuing progress to rolling out the business very soon….my  business cards are on order, just to prove how serious I am.

Plus I have several clients reviews for the skincare and eating plan ready and waiting to go on my website – whenever I get that up and running! In the meantime I have set up a Facebook page which can be found here – www.facebook.com/naturallyinsideout

So what isn’t Naturally Inside Out about?

Well that’s easy, it isn’t about dieting, losing weight, working out or conformity, quick fixes.

So what is Naturally Inside Out about?

Well that’s easy too, it’s about eating for health, affordability, sustainability, ensuring what goes into and onto your body is natural, improved lifestyles.

That’s all for now, please let me know what you think so far and keep an eye out to see my progress. I hope you are all having a fantastic summer.

Lindsay