Festive sauerkraut

Recipes

Sauerkraut takes about three weeks to ferment, so if you get cracking this will be ready to have as a delicious accompaniment to your cold Turkey on Boxing Day!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium red cabbage
• 1 medium white cabbage
• 3 carrots
• Raw beetroot (stalks included)

Method:

1. Wash any soil off your vegetables. Take the outer leaves off the cabbage and keep to one side. Keep half a carrot or the cabbage base aside too.
2. Shred and finely chop the vegetables. Weigh them in a large bowl, and then add 2% of this weight of sea salt flakes to the vegetables. Massage in with your hands – you should end up with a much-reduced volume of vegetables sitting in its own brine.
3. Add a mix of caraway, fennel, cumin, Nigella seeds and some ground black pepper.
4. Press the mixture, a small amount at a time, into a clean kilner jar. (medium size) The idea is to exclude the air. Keep filling the jar until the mixture is a couple of inches from the top.
5. Take the cabbage leaf you kept earlier and fold it to make a ‘lid’ that fits into the top of your jar. This will prevent bits of vegetables from floating to the top. Place a chunk of carrot or the cabbage base on top as a ‘stopper’ so that when you close the lid it presses right down on the vegetables.
6. Write the date on the jar, then place it on a saucer and leave for 3-5 weeks out of direct sunlight. Keep it at an even, cool room temperature (not too cool or the ferment will take longer; not too warm or it may become mouldy or ferment too quickly). It may bubble up and you may find that bubbles and liquid will escape from the jar (hence the saucer!); this shows that it is fermenting.
7. Once opened, refrigerate, where it will keep for several months.

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