Monday 23 April 2018

Recipe: Fire Cider

Some time ago I went to a fermenting workshop and got to try a whole bunch of fermented goodies brewed by the workshop facilitators. One of the things I tried was a Fire Cider, and I remember at the time thinking it was amazingly delicious. I took my booklet of recipes home, and promptly put it aside, making nothing more exciting than my constantly-on-the-brew kombucha.

Recently I was chatting to a fellow school mum and she mentioned that she'd just put on a new batch of fire cider to ferment away. I remembered my workshop, went home to dig out my notes and made a few jars as soon as I collected all the ingredients. I posted about it on my recent In My Kitchen post, and I had a few questions about it so I figured I should post about it all by itself.

Google tells me that fire cider is rooted in folk medicine and is a great remedy for winter colds and ailments. Packed full of good things, it's a great immunity booster, helps with digestion, and is delicious all in it's own right.  It does take about a month to six weeks to ferment fully, so now is a good time to get started if you want a batch. Many people take a tablespoon or two daily throughout Autumn and Winter as a preventative, and more often if actually ill. I also like to personally have it as a tea (added to hot water) or a salad dressing, and dilute it in a little juice for my smalls.

It's very flexible, so please just use the below as a guide and adjust to your tastes.

Fire Cider 
clickable link

Equipment
Jars (sterilised)
Baking or waxed paper

Ingredients
1/2 cup peeled and shredded ginger
1/2 cup garlic
2 large white onions, diced
4 lemons
4 chillies (the hotter the better in my opinion, I like jalapenos), diced
1/4 cup peeled and diced turmeric
peppercorns
sprig of rosemary
1/2 cup peeled and shredded horseradish (optional)
Apple Cider Vinegar

Method
Add everything into your jar. You can dice it, slice it, shred it, arrange them prettily if you like. For the lemons, I peeled two of them and use the zest and juice of those, then slice the others and arrange them (skin and all) in the jars. Pack everything down semi firmly and top off with the apple cider vinegar. You want everything to be under the vinegar so it doesn't go mouldy - either use the heavier roots at the top to hold everything down, or put a weight on the top (the herbs and chillies tend to float so arrange accordingly). Keep in mind that some of the roots will expand during the process, so top it all off well. 

If you're using a metal lid, line it with waxed paper so the vinegar doesn't rust it. That's it, you're done. Pop those jars somewhere out of direct sunlight and leave them alone for a minimum of 4 weeks.
It does look all pretty fermenting away in the jar
When they're ready, give the jars a shake, then strain everything out through some cheesecloth. Store the liquid in the fridge and consume as needed. You can add sweetener to taste, but I don't bother.

Just a note here. I'm all about reducing waste, and this cider is so packed full of goodness I didn't want to throw away all of those veggies and roots after I'd strained them - what a travesty! After some thinking, I decided to blitz them up in the food processor. There was a lot of it, so I portioned it out into my old pods that I used to store baby food in. This one comes with a silicon lid so it reduces the potent smells that might take over the freezer. 
Blended fire cider pulp
Smells so good all blended up - glorious colour thanks to the turmeric
Here are some other suggestions that I have in mind for using the pulp up:
  • It was delicious added into a minestrone soup (although it did add a serious kick so was not at all kid friendly)
  • Shaken up with a bit more vinegar and used as salad dressing
  • Use as a flavouring for stews or lentil loaves
  • Mixed into smoothies
  • A marinade (I'm thinking tofu and eggplant would just soak up the flavour!)
  • A sandwich condiment
I'd love to hear if anyone else makes fire cider, and how you use it (and the leftover pulp!)

Tuesday 10 April 2018

I did a snack exchange thing...

Recently I took part in a snack exchange through a site I participate in regularly. Basically, you respond to someone's post asking for an exchange partner, agree on a dollar amount of food that you are willing to trade (excluding postage) and then exchange boxes of local food. Sure, it might be cheaper to buy the exchange items off Amazon or whatever, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun or mystery.

My exchange partner was from Texas, told me that her birthday was coming up and she wanted foreign snacks to enjoy. She had no preferences or dietary restrictions, but liked gummy things, chocolates and hadn't tried anything from Australia so was happy for me to choose a selection (she wasn't enthusiastic about Vegemite or I'd have popped a small pack in too). We agreed on a budget of $15USD for snacks, which worked out to be just under $19AUD. I think I got a pretty good representation of Australian snacks!

I always like seeing both side of an exchange, so here's what I sent:

  • French Fries
  • Chicos
  • Allens Party Mix
  • Twisties - both cheese and chicken variety
  • TimTam - gelato messina choc mint and cherry coconut varieties
  • BBQ shapes
  • Pods - snickers variety (because Americans are all about the horrible Tide Pod challenge at the moment and I thought it would be funny to send actual edible ones)
  • Chicken salt - surprisingly, this is a uniquely Australian seasoning and even more surprisingly is ninja vegan! Who knew
  • Not pictured - half a container of a Favourites selection that I used to fill the gaps - Cadbury mini cherry ripes, moro, boost, dairy milk, crunchie, turkish delight, flake and dream bar

I wrote a note explaining each item, explained the TimTam Slam and why she should try it and told her I'd love to know what was her favourite item once she got through them all (Pods are the winner at the moment but she hasn't tried everything yet).

Here's what I got back in my box. I hadn't provided any dietary restrictions because I figured if I wouldn't eat something, Mr Fork or the smalls would. The only thing I said was that I would prefer not to get any American chocolate (I think it's not very nice) and when asked I said I was happy to have spicy snacks! Every single thing she sent was totally new to me and if I'm honest, I don't even know what half of it is!

Lots of it is spicy and some of it I think are Spanish or Mexican sweets so the ingredients lists aren't in English at all.
   
The bright lollipops on the right are watermelon flavoured and then coated with spicy coating (I think they're amazingly delicious). The colourful chain of lollies underneath are spicy tamarind coated things which are delightfully spicy and sour at the same time.

Interestingly, the twizzlers (root beer and cherry flavoured) are both ninja vegan and SO GOOD! I haven't had a gummy sweet in a long time and these were good (I wasn't sure initially but I quite like the root beer flavour). The Laffy Taffy (watermelon and guava flavour) is also a ninja vegan product and I found it a chewy, fluffy sort of starburst type thing. It was good.

My smalls liked the milky (real milk!) lollypops, and there were also some soft caramels which Mr Fork tells me were amazing (but very milky... he thinks maybe goat milk). Mr Fork also claimed the spicy Fiesta mix and warhead worms as soon as he saw them. 

It was a super fun thing to do - I had fun picking snacks and then the anticipation of trying something surprising and new-to-me was half of the excitement, and then it was like opening a box to get a glimpse of someone else's favourite snack culture.

I'd definitely do it again in the future, and Mr Fork is already putting in requests for exchange locations to keep an eye out for. I certainly have some places in mind I'd like to try snacks from... I've even seen some posts pop up where people are looking for vegan or healthy snack exchange partners too which seems fun.

So I'm interested to know, if you could choose a location to exchange snacks with, where would you pick? And what would you send in an exchange that was representative of your location or your favourites?

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