Winter moments and inspiration

The winter school holiday is over. The good times we shared with holiday makers and kids in our kitchen is over.

In the more quieter moments we have in the kitchen we take time to test new recipes and make use of winter citrus for pickling and preserving. Our chef Camilla received a gift recently and the team has had a good time sharing this with her.

The gift is a cookbook – Ferment by Holly Davis. Holly Davis is an Australian whole-food chef and teacher who has explored the fermentation process for many years. Her journey and recipes have inspired Chef Camilla to put a course together on fermentation. And so we began learning some of the classic recipes and putting our course notes together.

Fermentation

The Holly Davis Ferment book lists the technique and processes of different fermentation processes in a clear manner as

Activate

Capture

Steep

Infuse

Leaven

Incubate and

Cure

Kimchi

The first attempt at fermentation started with the traditional Kimchi recipe which is based on Chinese cabbage and kosher salt, left to lie overnight at room temperature.

The following day we then mixed one batch of cabbage with the red kimchi paste – chilli, garlic, onion, apple, pear and fish sauce.  The other batch will be white kimchi paste, ginger, garlic, apple, pear and fish sauce. These pastes will infuse flavour, and continue the fermentation process. We also made beetroot salad brined with orange, fennel and juniper. This dish is part of our weekend harvest table restaurant menu. Sourdough bread is also on the menu, and it falls under leaven.

We will soon be sharing our SCOBY and starter. Contact us to find our more about our fermentation courses.