Spoonful Suppers

I finally cashed all of my paychecks from the past two months of work this week and treated myself with some investments in my ferments. I bought rose petals, porcini and frozen elderberries for my upcoming ferments. However, at checkout I realized that the rose petals were a bit expensive, but I assumed it was because they had to be hand harvested. I was wrong. It is because I ordered 3 lbs of rose petals from a company that does not take returns. I am so overwhelmed by the massive bags of rose petals I have lingering in my kitchen. I have thought of every conceivable use for these petals (rose infused vodka, rose jam, rose water, rose cake, etc.), but even combining all of those recipes I’ll only use half a bag (I have 3). I’m distraught; please give me your rose recipes if you have any.

This week, not only did I complete my fermentation goal, but I went above and beyond, completing 8 ferments this week (I don’t want to talk about it, but somehow I’m still behind). I finished the butternut squash vinegar, which I then used to make quick pickles and slow roasted carrots. I also finished the lemon verbena kombucha, and started elderflower kombucha. I also made the pear vinegar into hollandaise and I used my sweet citric koji water to prepare sole en papillote.

I made more of the citric barley koji this week in order to make sparkling citric amazake. However, I am continuously having problems with my koji sporulating too quickly, even when I harvested my koji at the 36 hour mark (instead of the normal 48), it was not enough to prevent spores. The premature spores are undesirable because they change the flavor of the finished product and they prevent a dense “cake” of mold to form. I learned a few things from the smart folks at koji con that I am hoping will prevent future premature sporulation, however it’s still trial and error.

I took my (unfortunately sporulated) koji and put it in a water bath at 60 degrees celsius for 8 hours, or at least thats what I was supposed to do. I timed the water bath all wrong and it took a very long time for the koji to get to temperature, so the 8 hours was supposed to end in the middle of the night (2am to be exact). Shockingly, I did not wake up to my alarm when it went off, so it ended up staying at 60 degrees for closer to 11.5 hours. It still tasted delicious and sweet when I started the alcohol stage of the Amazake with that koji-water mash.

My roommate has returned, so the mold saga is on hold again, I do, however have some exciting things planned for this upcoming week. I am expecting some frozen porcini in the mail which I will lacto-ferment, and I will start the alcohol stage of my elderberry vinegar. I have 3 midterms this upcoming week so I am trying to not start too many projects so I won’t be very overwhelmed when they all finish at the same time and I have to study. As much as I want the ferments to take priority, I don’t think they do.

Ferments Complete: 29

Ferments in progress: 8

Ferments to go: 137