Basic Fermented Hot Sauce and other delicious ferments

If you keep hearing how healthy fermented foods are, but feel stumped for a way to work them into our diet, you may be overlooking ways you already consume them — that sauerkraut-topped sausage, for instance. Fermentation employs one of the world's oldest forms of food preservation. In fact, cultures from around the world have relied on fermenting for thousands of years; to not only preserve food but to add intense flavour and nutrition to their meals.

Fermentation preserves food in a natural way without using vinegars, sugar or pasteurization. The process is known as lacto-fermentation, where bacteria breaks something edible down and transforms it into something else that is also edible.  

Think cucumbers to pickles, or milk to yogurt.  

Do not think of fermentation as controlled rot, it actually does quite the opposite, bringing to life the flavours, bacteria and nutrition of whatever food is being fermented – it creates a live and vital food. Naturally fermented foods are high in pro-biotics, B vitamins and other vitamins and minerals. The fermenting process also makes these foods easier to digest and assimilate than their raw counterparts.

If you love pickles on everything and eat yogurt regularly, hopefully you're munching on kimchi and kefir too. Here are some utterly delicious ways to add ferments to your meal rotation.

Kimchi is an intensely flavoured spiced Korean vegetable ferment. Traditionally eaten as a condiment along side dinner, kimchi is fantastic on grilled cheese, in noodle soups or on a hamburger.  

Kefir is a dairy-based beverage that is fantastic to drink straight up. Kefir is also delicious used in smoothies or as the base of a creamy salad dressing.

Miso is soybean that has been fermented for some time with a grain, like rice or barley. Most of us are familiar with miso soup that is served before sushi at restaurants, but miso is an amazing flavour agent for glazing fish or making vegetarian gravy too.

Kombucha is a tea-based fermented beverage that has an amazing effervescent quality. Perfect consumed alone, or incorporated into a summer cocktail, kombucha can also be used in place of vinegar in salad dressings.

While you can find all of those foods at major grocery stores throughout Canada today, or online, you could also try your hand with making fermented food at home. One of the easiest fermentation recipes to start with is fermented hot sauce. It requires very few ingredients and yields delicious results. Once you have the basics down, getting creative with other vegetables and fruits will be easy!

Basic Fermented Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 cups well-washed roughly chopped hot peppers (use one variety or a combination of many – jalapenos, Scotch bonnet, Thai bird, etc.)
• 2 tablespoons un-iodized coarse salt (like Kosher salt)
• ½ small red bell pepper
• Un-chlorinated water (bottled spring water works well)

Equipment:

• 1 litre clean mason jar
• A plate to sit the mason jar on
• A clean kitchen towel or coffee filter
• Kitchen gloves

Method:

1. Place chunks of hot peppers into a stainless steel bowl and sprinkle with salt.
2. Put your kitchen gloves on and begin to work the salt and peppers together by squeezing the peppers between your hands. Do this for 2-3 minutes.
3. Fill your clean mason jar with the hot peppers and salt, pushing down as you go to fit them all in.
4. Slowly pour in your spring water until everything is mostly submerged, at this point some peppers may be floating.
5. Use an apple corer or paring knife to cut a hole into the middle of your red pepper half.  Slip the red pepper under the shoulders of the filled Mason jar to ensure that all your hot peppers are fully submerged beneath the water.
6. Set the Mason jar on a plate and cover with a clean kitchen towel or coffee filter.
7. Set on kitchen counter for 1-2 weeks to ferment.  

What to look for during the fermentation process:

• Check every day to ensure the water level covers all your peppers and top it up as needed. It may bubble over and that is a good sign.
• If any scum or froth forms on the top simply skim it off using a clean spoon. If mold forms, throw it out and begin again.
• After the first few days, give a pepper a taste and see if you like it. The longer it sits, the more "funky" it will taste. I usually let mine sit at room temperature for a week. When you like the taste you can put the lid on it and store it in the fridge.

To enjoy, you have three options. The first is to savour the hot peppers in their whole form. Second, you can puree everything and keep it as a thicker paste. Finally, you can puree and then strain through a mesh sieve to get rid of all the seeds and pulp. Store in bottles in the fridge. Enjoy straight up on sandwiches, mixed with mayo or hummus for dipping, in soups and stews, tossed with roasted vegetables or grilled meats, in marinades or anything else that needs a little kick.