fermenting green beans

It's a wonderful thing in Margate. The community has set up a system. Food from supermarkets is supermarkets is no longer thrown away so I grabbed loads of packets of Sainsbury's green organic beans for free... Sure, they were a bit old but that doesn't matter..

Here's what I did

- top and tail the green beans and throw away any ones that are a bit squishy or bad 

- then chop them roughly into 3 cm pieces and give them a good wash (I put them in a save and use the shower head to do it as it seemed like a good way to make sure they were cleaned of any nasties )

- I gave the jar a quick disinfect and wash with warm water and then at the bottom of the jar put bay leaves, sliced Ginger, sliced garlic, normal peppercorns, loose black tea, Szechuan peppercorns, And probably a few other things I might have forgotten 

- I put all the green beans into a catering sized pickled egg jar. There was about 940 G. Of them and lucky for me. They filled the jar exactly full

-I then made up the brine which was 25 grams of salt per 1 litre of water. Just give it a good stir and then you're ready to tip it into the jar 

- push the green beans down so they was submerged under the brine and then used a cabbage leaf to push round the edges of it. This was also submerged and to stop any beans from rising to the top. 

- then you need to weigh the cabbage leaf down with something. I used a tiny hotel jam jar filled with water and lid on ..

- then just put on the lid. And put it in a dark cupboard and forget about it for the most part. Just burping it 

occasionally.

I have no idea when this will be ready but I'd quite like to leave it a long time because I'm into extreme funky flavours....

A really earthy breakfast

I'm writing this for future Henry so you don't forget.. This is delicious! 

Toss. Jerusalem artichokes in olive oil, somethjng acidic And plenty of salt. 

Pat dry with kitchen towel 

Then sprinkle them with corn flour 

Put them in an air fryer at for a high temperature and occasionally give them a shake chucking a bowl of garlic as well 

When they're smelling and tasting good put them on a drying rack and then they are ready to eat 

I made two things from the Jerusalem artichokes a hummus kind of thing in which I mixturous artichoke some kefir yoghurt and some of the roasted garlic with olive oil and lemon in the NutriBullet 

And the dish that's pictured here which is simply roasted jerusalem artichokes sprinkled with sprouts that I grew in the jar over 5 days (The seeds that I used were mixed. They were lentils chickpeas that kind of stuff); I then dotted the bowl with a tiny bit of sriracha (sometimes moderation with condiments is a blessing as you just get little notes of the insanely beautiful flavour without it overwhelming the dish, have I think there's an epidemic with people using too much of a condiment, big squeeze of tomato sauce whereas it's quite a strong thing and using it in moderation can sometimes be more rewarding and you can taste the actual flavours of the main ingredient) 

I have to say it was so tasty and earthy with the crunchy sprouts and the the toasted earthy flavour of the artichokes... Food is amazing! I'm so grateful for it.. I feel like I've taken it for granted for my whole life. 

We are very lucky !! 

sloppy eye joe faux pizza

Here's a quick recipe for you if you have any leftover bolognese and a tortilla wrap... It's so good and quite a light bite. 

Put the tortilla in a pan heat until lightly brown and a bit crispy, turn it over, then add a thin layer of Bolognese and any other bits you want to put on it. 

I chose parmesan cheese, oregano, some red pepper flakes, and some olives which I broke up into little pieces and patted with a piece of kitchen towel.

Then just wait till the cheese starts to melt and you're done. 

Oh yeah and then I used a pizza cutter to slice it into eight slices

Very simple and very tasty