Once foreign to many an ear, kimchi and kombucha are now household names. Just the way we needed pronunciation guides for quinoa and cacao (buzz words we thought would recycle with the fashion) now having claimed their place in many a pantry, the fermented food movement is no different.
Fermenting and pickling food is nothing new, this ancient practice was used to preserve what we now refrigerate or throw out (tsk-tsk), and its recent hype is mainly due to its gut-friendly properties, a part of our body we didn't pay much attention to but is now just as important as cleaning our teeth (or so I'm told).
Chefs and mixologists alike are having fun playing with the different textures and flavours that come from the anaerobic fermentation process, so it's little wonder we're seeing them popping up on our menus and in our fancy drinks. Here are five fermented formulas to help you get your pickle on at home and bring to life - or keep from dying - those ingredients that may not have seemed all that important.
Dead Ringer's head chef Tristan Rosier (ex Est and Farmhouse) is used to playing with simple ingredients and turning them into something else altogether. Here's how to make the most of this seasons luscious figs.
Ingredients
For fig leaf yoghurt granita
500ml milk
125g castor sugar
200ml water
3 large fresh fig leaves
50g yoghurt from previous batch, store bought yoghurt or pre-packaged cultures (follow instructions on packet)
For pickled figs
5 firm black figs with stems on
2 star anise
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
375ml apple cider vinegar
2 large fresh fig leaves
125ml spiced rum
30g honey
100g brown sugar
4 peelings of orange zest
Juice of 1 orange
For Anzac biscuit crumble
90g rolled oats
75g flour
75g castor sugar
30g desiccated count
60g golden syrup
65g butter
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 tablespoon water
Method
1. Bring the milk to the boil, turn off and let cool.
2. In a separate pot, boil the sugar water and fig leaves, allow to cool then store in a container in the fridge overnight.
3. Once the milk has cooled to room temperature add the yoghurt, stir and place mixture into a plastic container, cover and place in a warm place for 12-16 hours depending on how warm your warm place is, or until yoghurt has become thick. At this point you can refrigerate or continue on to make the granita.
4. Strain the syrup through a fine strainer to remove the fig leaves.
5. Add this syrup to the yoghurt and whisk together until combined.
6. Pour mixture into a container that has a large surface area so you have enough room to scrape the granita later with a fork, freeze the mixture overnight.
7. To get started on picking the figs, combine star anise, cloves, cinnamon, cider vinegar, fig leaves, rum, honey, brown sugar, orange peel and orange juice in a pot and bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.
8. While the liquid is simmering add the figs and continue to simmer for 5 minutes, allow the liquid to cool then once room temperature, place in the fridge overnight to absorb all the flavour.
9. For the crumble combine golden syrup and butter in a small saucepan and melt on a low heat.
10. In a mixing bowl combine oats, flour, caster sugar and desiccated coconut.
11. Add bicarbonate soda and water together and combine with dry ingredients, add golden syrup butter mixture and mix together until combined.
12. Spread out onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake at 165C for around 20 minutes or until golden brown; allow to cool fully before breaking up into a crumble.
With impressive stints in Melbourne (Rosetta, Seamstress) and working for the Rushmore/Match Bar Group in London (Milk & Honey), creative director of cocktails at Dead Ringer and general manager of Bulletin Place, Paul Hammond has created a light digestif to accompany Tristan's pickled pudding.
Ingredients
2 fig leaves
45ml Dutschke's Bourbon Barrel Tawney
45ml sweet Vermouth
15ml fig vinegar (using the strained brine that Tristan's figs are made in)
10ml sugar syrup (1:1 Castor sugar to water)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
45ml fig leaf infused Dutschke's Bourbon Barrel Tawney
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 fig roasted
Lemon zest
Method
1. Infuse one bottle with two fig leaves for one week and strain through cheesecloth.
2. Place all ingredients into a mixing glass and stir over ice.
3. Garnish with a slice of fresh roasted fig and a squeeze of lemon zest.
From eating his way around Hong Kong, executive chef of Queens Hotel Patrick Frieson is no stranger to the unfamiliar. But when it comes to the simple sandwich, he uses a recipe passed on from a family friend to add zing and crunch from pickled gherkins.
Ingredients
For gherkins
3 cups water
1 litre vinegar
¾ cup salt
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp black pepper
10 cloves garlic
1.5 bunch dill
Method
1. Wash and clean gherkins, place in jars.
2. Boil remaining ingredients, all to cool.
3. Pour over the cooled pickling liquid over gherkins.
4. Put on jar tops and boil jars until lids seal.
5. Allow to cool before refrigerating.
Cornersmith's head fermenter Jaimee Edwards' favourite thing is to forage for leaves, but warns you must know what you're doing and to do your homework before picking. For those less adventurous than Jaimee you can replace foraged leaves for mild seasonal greens from your local market. Here is Jaimee's feral spin on her beloved sauerkraut.
Ingredients
200g of wild foraged, picked or bought leaves such as: nasturtium leaves, warrigal greens , dandelion leaves, mallow, sorrel, beetroot leaves, English spinach, 100g parsley leaves, 200g savoy cabbage, ½ tablespoon pure salt
Method
1. Finely slice all your greens and place into a bowl.
2. Sprinkle salt over the greens and gently massage the leaves and cabbage to break them down and release their water (keep going until you can pick up a fist full of greens and when you squeeze bright green water runs from your fist).
3. Pack into a clean jar pressing down as you go so that the water – what is now the brine - rises above the produce.
4. Pack your jar to 3cm from the top with your greens. From the produce level make sure that there is 1cm of brine above the surface, this will give you about 1cm headspace at the top of the jar.
5. Place your jar with a tea towel under it, to catch any spillage, out of direct sunlight but somewhere you will remember. It takes about 2 days for lactic acid to build up inside the jar to properly sour and preserve your vegetables.
At Firedoor, 23-year-old bar manager and top 25 World Class Cocktail maker Toby Robinson is constantly evolving their cocktail list according to season. With fermented drinks playing a key role at Firedoor, Tony shares his Evergreen, which is a little bit Scandinavian and utterly delicious.
Ingredients
180ml vodka
500ml fennel juice
20ml whey
6g white Sugar
10 roasted caraway seeds
4 sprigs of dill
Method
1. In a 1-litre bottle place all ingredients except the vodka and stir to combine.
2. Sealing with a cork, leave in a dark place to ferment for 7 days opening slightly every day to bleed out extra carbon dioxide.
3. Once the week is up the bottle can be placed into refrigeration to store.
4. Pour 45ml of vodka into four glasses filled with ice before fine straining out the fermentation and placing 130ml into each glass and stirring.
5. Garnish with a dill sprig and serve immediately.
The best recipes from Australia's leading chefs straight to your inbox.
Sign up