A TREND THAT’S EASY TO DIGEST
Fermented food offers beneficial bacteria
Sébastien Bureau started fermenting foods in his mother’s basement in N.D.G. more than a decade ago, when he was a microbiology student at Université de Montréal. And now, he wants you to try it, too.
“The first thing I fermented was a bottle of unpasteurized apple juice. I just left it to do its thing, and it was delicious,” says Bureau. “It was amazing, actually, that this was a thing: You can leave stuff lying around and it will get better. I started exploring it a lot more.”
One of the fruits of that exploration is the new book Révolution Fermentation: Kombucha, kéfir, miso … 70 recettes à votre portée, co-authored with seasoned cookbook writer David Côté (Les Éditions de l’Homme, 200 pages, $29.95).
Côté made a mark on the Montreal food scene as co-founder of the Crudessence chain of raw food restaurants, which started on Rachel St. and has since expanded to locations on Mackay St., StViateur St., and in Quebec City, along with a number of takeout counters. He’s also co-founder of RISE Kombucha, based in StLéonard. Originally run out of the kitchen of the first Crudessence, it now produces 25,000 bottles a day of the fermented tea-based drink.
Fermented foods such as bread, cheese, wine and beer have long been dietary staples. But the past few years have seen an upsurge in interest in home fermentation, with cooks making their own kimchee, sauerkraut, yogurt and more complicated concoctions.
The trend is driven in part by the health benefits of fermented foods.
“Regular consumption of fermented foods improves intestinal health,” says Côté.
“What’s magical with fermentation is that you transform a certain food into something totally different that has way more power. You turn food that was hard to digest into something that helps you digest other foods, and gives you Vitamin C and bacteria that help boost your immune system and populate your digestive tract.”
Unlike home canning, which preserves food in a near-sterile, anaerobic environment, fermentation works through the action of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics.
Registered dietitian Edie ShawEwald describes them as “microorganisms that live in our intestinal tract and help with digestion, the immune system and a lot of other things. More research is being done on how probiotics are involved in our brain health, and with controlling obesity and digestive disorders.”
Côté is pleased to see that, when it comes to food at least, our decades-long germophobia seems to be coming to an end.
“About 25 years ago, it was the era of killing every bacteria that can exist in the world. We were scared of everything, and we were trying to clean everything. Bacteria were an enemy.
“Now everyone wants to have more bacteria in their life,” he says. “I don’t know what happened, but now everyone is making a little pot of sauerkraut or kimchee at home.”
Bureau says the rising popularity of fermentation is the next step in the local food movement.
“People are used to having baskets of food delivered by their farmer, whose name they know, and having things that are seasonal — and sometimes having way too many leafy greens and not knowing what to do with them. Maybe you want to have some bok choy or greens later in the year and you don’t want to waste them. It’s empowering to be able to preserve them.”
Côté and Bureau have skills that complement each other. “I’m much more nerdy and factand-science oriented,” Bureau says, “whereas David excels at communication.” The pair met through a mutual friend, the year after Crudessence started, and Bureau helped develop processes to standardize and scale up the restaurant’s fermentation processes. He would go on to become a vice-president at RISE, and today runs MannaNova, a fermentation consulting firm that works with clients making kombucha, beer, sauerkraut and other products.
What’s magical with fermentation is that you transform a certain food into something totally different that has way more power.
While fermentation may be good for you, Bureau and Côté say their main motivations are getting people to experiment, discover different flavours and have fun in the kitchen. Côté is a believer in not taking a dogmatic, puritan approach to healthy food.
“We want to eat healthy, but not hear too much about it,” he says.
Révolution Fermentation reflects that, with a casual, humorous tone, and recipes that are not particularly rigid. Some call for spices of your choice, or a range of fermentation times, depending on your tastes.
“It’s really meant for you to play in the kitchen,” Côté says. “Making food is not supposed to be stressful; it’s supposed to be fun. You’re taking back control of your kitchen. You’re not thinking ‘this is serious stuff, this is dangerous, this is complex,’ you’re just going back to the roots.”
And then there is the sour, satisfying bite of many fermented foods. “Even if there were no health benefits we would still ferment foods, because you take something that tastes kind of neutral and you transform it into something that has a diversity and spectrum of flavours,” Côté says. “For the last ten years I’ve sold vegetables to people, and to most people vegetables are boring. But as soon as you add some fermented food, it becomes something else. It changes the dish.”
The book uses a system of Mason jars (from one to four) to indicate the complexity of recipes. Most feature one or two, meaning they don’t require particularly complex skills. As for equipment, Bureau says: “You can do pretty much anything with a dozen Mason jars. They ’re made of glass, easy to wash, not too big, not too heavy, and you have your airlock on there. And Mason jars look really cool.”
Côté recommends first-time fermenters start with sauerkraut. “It’s so easy and you get all the benefits and a great feeling of achievement, because the cabbage transforms itself so much,” he says.
“It doesn’t take long, and it’s easy. You just need a Mason jar and a cabbage.”
Because you are working with live cultures, fermenting can sometimes lead to unpredictable results. And Côté and Bureau say that’s OK.
Sometimes, Côté says, he makes a batch at home that doesn’t work out. “It happens to me, too. Even the stuff you’ve made so many times. I started brewing kombucha at home again, and sometimes a batch fails. You never own ferments; you’re never really controlling them.” Patience is the main ingredient, even with these easy fermentation recipes. Adapted from Révolution Fermentation: Kombucha, kéfir, miso … 70 recettes à votre portée (Les Éditions de l’Homme, 200 pages, $29.95).
SAUERKRAUT
Sébastien Bureau says one of the things he likes about making sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables is that they force you to wait. “One of the ingredients we didn’t include in the book is patience. It’s not going to be ready now. You’ve got to wait 21 days. You’re going to have to forget about it. That’s part of the process. Just forget about it and disconnect.”
1 kg cabbage 4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp caraway 1 tsp peppercorns 1 tsp spices of your choice
1. Mince the cabbage, reserving one whole leaf, and put it in a bowl. Add salt and spices.
2. Massage and squeeze the cabbage until it begins to release liquid.
3. Transfer bit by bit to a jar or crock, pressing down each time with your hands or a pestle. The cabbage should be completely submerged.
4. Place the whole cabbage leaf on top, to prevent contact between the chopped cabbage and the air. (Add another leaf or weight if needed.)
5. Make sure air can escape the jar (for example, if using a Mason jar, don’t tighten it all the way).
6. Leave to ferment in a dark place for 3 weeks.
7. Remove the cabbage leaf and any sauerkraut that may be floating on the surface. Keeps for up to a year in the fridge.
MOSCOW GARLIC SCAPES
“Garlic scapes are ethereal,” Bureau says. “You can get apples or oranges any time of year now, but you can’t get garlic scapes if they’re not in season. Fermenting them means you can have them any time of year.”
1 litre of water 2 tbsp sea salt 500 grams garlic scapes 1 whole cabbage leaf (optional)
1. Prepare brine by dissolving the salt in the water.
2. Cut the heads off the garlic scapes.
3. Cut the scapes into lengths of 5 to 15 centimetres.
4. Pack the scapes into a Mason jar, being careful not to crush them. Cover with brine. Place cabbage leaf or plastic wrap on top, along with a weight.
5. Close the jar tightly and either use an airlock, or loosen the jar lid to release pressure once a day for the first three days, then retighten.
6. Ferment for 45 days. Keeps up to a year in the fridge.