Did you see @andioliver Fabulous Feasts on BBC 2, epsiode 4 on Stoke? If not, go watch it! (And the whole series for that matter!) BBC Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts Stoke
The programme focused on #stokeontrent in particular Portland Street and @theportlandinnprojectcic who are working with art, food, fun education to build community and it’s working! Such a positive programme and @andioliver created a festival to celebrate!
For this, Andi came up to the farm where Wild Pickle was based and we filmed, foraged and fermented up a seasonal sauerkraut to go with the awesome feast created. It tasted amazing and was awesome! So here is what we created!
And now would be a great time to source those greens and create this!
Chickweed, sorrel, mint and ancho chilli sauerkraut
To make 1 litre jar (1 quart)
2 Organic pointy cabbages (weighing approximately 900g)
2 big handfuls of chickweed finely chopped and remove any stringy stalks
1 Handful of sheep’s sorrel
1 Handful of spearmint (remove the stalks)
2 or 3 ancho chills soaked and chopped finely
20g of seasalt (2% of the total weight of veg to be fermented)
Wash the sorrel, mint and chickweed and leave to drain.
Remove the outer layer of the cabbage and keep to one side and chop the cabbages in half and just chop out and keep the core to one side. Finely Chop your pointy cabbages or whatever summer cabbage and greens you can get hold of.
Finely chop all the foraged greens and add to the cabbage
Add the chilli, and salt and massage until you get a great pool of brine at the bottom of the bowl.
This is much easier to do with summer cabbages that with Dutch white cabbages.
When you have a lovely amount of brine. Place your veg into your jar and press down until you have about 3 cms spare in the jar, press everything under with one of the outer cabbage leaves, so it acts like a blanket tucking everything in and under a layer of brine. Pop your core onto and there should be a couple of cms space at the top for air. Seal your jar, keep it at room temperature for at least 10 days to ferment! Let the microbes in the jar do the hard work and ferment your creation! The flavour in this ferment was delicious!!! and went really well with the feast!
