Need a pick-me-up? This bubbly tonic is full of beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes and bio-available micro-nutrients. Made by lacto-fermenting carrots, ginger and white miso, it is zingy, sweet and refreshingly sour.
This is my second experiment with using unpasteurized miso to ferment vegetables. You can read about the first one here. I was delighted with the results. Being familiar with the taste of ginger, carrots and white miso cannot prepare you for anticipating the taste of this brew. It fizzes on you tongue and is full of complex, surprisingly sweet flavours. Regardless of how much you believe in the benefits of probiotics, the sensations it produces in your mouth and throat are enough to give you a psychological boost.
A Note About Water
When choosing a water source for fermentation, you want to be conscious of contamination, but also of how the water may have been treated to remove those contaminants. Tap water is often treated with chlorine, chloramines (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) or fluoride, all of which can impair the quality of your ferments and should be removed before use. Check with your municipal water source to find out how your water is treated. Certain filtration systems will remove these compounds (more information here). The easiest method for removing chlorine is to boil your water for 15 minutes. As for chloramines, adding a pinch of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) powder to the water does the trick.
Protecting your ferments
To limit oxygen exposure and prevent surface molds from developing, it is important to cover the opening of your vessel. At the same time, you don’t want to seal it completely because, especially during the first week, the lactic acid bacteria will be releasing carbon dioxide, which can build up in your vessel and cause an unwanted disaster. A few options include: 1) covering the opening of your jar with a coffee filter of a piece of cheesecloth, fastened with an elastic band. 2) Using a lid, but keeping it loosely fastened, or making sure to unfasten the lid every day to release the air buildup in your jar. 3) Using a specialized airlock system.
Four quarts of probiotic tonic in a colouful row, about to be capped and fermented. The front two are today’s Miso Tonic, and the back two are, for now, a mystery!
Getting the Most out of your Vegetables
Making liquid vegetable ferments is a very quick affair. After two or three days, although the liquid in your jars will be cultured and sour, the chunks of vegetable will still be quite solid and raw. Instead of throwing them out right away, you can add more brine (or, in this case, miso-water) to the jars and get a second and sometimes third batch using the same vegetables. After the third batch, most of the flavour and nutrients will have leeched out the vegetables, and it is best to compost them and start from scratch.
Usually, when I make liquid vegetables ferments, I leave a cup or so of the cultured liquid to speed up the fermentation of the second batch, basically acting as a starter. For this recipe however, because the unpasteurized miso already contains live bacteria, I find that if you leave any liquid in the jar from the previous batch in the jar, the next batch will ferment too fast, becoming sour before extracting much flavour or nutrients from the carrots and ginger.
Beware of the Bubbles!
Because this ferment is still young at the time you store it is the fridge, it will still be dominated by carbon-dioxide producing bacteria. Make sure to release the pressure daily. If you are worried about forgetting or not being around to open it, you can store it in a bottle that isn’t completely airtight and allows the excess carbon dioxide to escape. You won’t get the same fizziness, but it will still be delicious.
Joëlle
Yields Up to 3 gallons
Need a pick-me-up? This bubbly tonic is full of beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes and bio-available micro-nutrients. Made by lacto-fermenting carrots, ginger and white miso, it is zingy, sweet and refreshingly sour.
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Ingredients
- 2 sweet Asian carrots, cut into small chunks
- 1/2 cup ginger, peeled and cubed
- 4 tbsp unpasteurized white miso (x3)
- Water
Instructions
- Put carrot and ginger pieces in a half-gallon mason jar (or divide them up among two quart-size jars).
- In a small bowl, combine miso and a similar amount of water. Using a fork, gently mash the miso, mixing it with the water until you have a liquid paste.
- Pour the liquid miso paste over the vegetables and fill the rest of the jar (or jars) with water.
- Cover the jars and leave them at room temperature to ferment.
- Start tasting on day 2. This is a very fast ferment! Depending on the temperature, it will only take 2-4 days. When you are happy with the taste, pour the liquid into an airtight glass container or bottle and store it immediately in the fridge. Leave the carrot and ginger pieces in your jar (or jars).
- Repeat steps 2-4 up to three times, or until you have extracted all the flavour and nutrients from your vegetables. At that point, compost the vegetables and start from scratch with fresh produce.
Notes
Warning! Because this ferment is still young at the time you store it is the fridge, it will still be dominated by carbon-dioxide producing bacteria. Make sure to release the pressure daily. If you are worried about forgetting or not being around to open it, you can store it in a bottle that isn't completely airtight and allows the excess carbon dioxide to escape. You won't get the same fizziness, but it will still be delicious.
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