Fermenter: A New Cookbook 🚀 Today
Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare by Aaron Adams and Liz Crain plus a recipe from the book
A few months ago I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare. I had fun reading it and left inspired to try multiple recipes. It was like hanging out, nibbling on ferments, and chatting with Aaron + Liz. The book’s vibe is chill, honest, rich with story and has an easy conversational tone. Where Fermenter knocks it out of the park is with their vegan protein ferments, these recipes are approachable and delicious. Recipes are explained and the reader is encouraged in ways that leaves one feeling “I’ve got this!”
I have know Liz Crain since about the time our first book Fermented Vegetables came out, nearly ten years ago, but whose counting. Liz is a food writer and an amazing human with boundless joy in life. She also has tons of enthusiasm for fermentation. She founded Portland’s Fermentation Festival in 2009. (Do you have your tickets yet? Yours truly will be speaking.)
She and I had this little written chat to share more about the book. And Liz shared one of her favorite gateway recipes—Spicy Giardiniera.
KIRSTEN: What are you most excited about in your new cookbook -- Fermenter: DIY Fermentation for Vegan Fare -- out this week, that you co-authored with chef Aaron Adams?
LIZ: I love how fun and approachable we make the whole thing. I mean, you know very well how super nervous a lot of people get about DIY at-home fermentation. So many people truly think that they are going to poison themselves or someone they love if they, you know, ferment a jar of kraut on their kitchen counter. There's so much deeply embedded fear when it comes fermentation.
With our Fermenter cookbook, Aaron and I swing the doors open wide, and holler out to everyone near and far to come on in! Let's have some fun. It really is a party that we're throwing for microbes + humans side-by-side. I'm just so, so pleased that we managed to make all the recipes in the book jive with that. Zero intimidation factor.
KIRSTEN: You've been learning about and experimenting with food and drink fermentation for a very long time. Did you learn any new ferments while working on the Fermenter book?
LIZ: Oh for sure. I mean, I really love that I had just gotten into making tempeh finally right before we set into the book. It was one of my most rewarding pandemic projects, actually, in spring 2020. I put together a bunch of YouTube videos about it. That's how into it I was. Also, as a non-ferments side note, I got super into making macrame folding chairs -- these really cool chairs that I've been hunting and gathering from estate sales for years.
Anyhow, I remember reaching out to you with a pretty please and thank you, at that time, when I was first trying my hand at tempeh. Of course, I was lucky enough to consult your excellent book. I basically got to the point, though, where I wanted to ferment a veggie burger patty at home that was a solid tempeh patty. I asked you if you thought I could add some cooked potato and rice to the patties for flavor and texture. I liked the sound of that, but wasn't sure how the Rhizopus would react to those additions.
And you were so supportive and like, yeah, you should definitely try it! Let me know how it goes. And so I did and it was fantastic! Aaron's burger patties at Fermenter are very similar to those initial ones that I dreamed up with your encouragement.
So, all the tempeh recipes in the Fermenter book -- from the Smoked Pinto Bratwurst, and Tempeh Bacon, to the Pinto Bean Tempeh slabs -- although not necessarily new to me were newish and really, really fun to test. I fell in love with tempeh in a new made-with-my-own-hands way and learned a lot.
Also, the cheese chapter in the book -- I'd never done any of that in terms of culturing and aging plant-based cheeses. Ditto Koji Beets and Koji Rice. All of that was new to me in terms of making those delicious things at home.
KIRSTEN: And I know it's always hard to pick favorites, but what are a few of your favorite ferments in the book?
LIZ: I mean, I do consider myself a condiment queen. Any time I get a new cookbook, first and foremost I sniff out the condiment recipes. I love having a full at-home pantry supply of things like vinegars, mustards, hot sauces, misos, pickles, krauts, kimchis, chutneys etc., because they add so much depth and character to things with the shake of a bottle or dip of a spoon. Years of flavor at the ready. So, the condiments in the Fermenter book are overall my favorite recipes. Aaron doesn't ferment or cook anything that I don't adore though. It's all so good.
We had that time in early 2020 when we were all sheltering in place, as much as possible, and beyond that when we were just going out into the world and socializing and gathering less out of caution. Most of us, myself included, were shopping less as a result. I think we all became a bit more aware of exactly what was in our pantries -- you know all of the different vinegars pushed to the back of the shelf, the hot sauces gathering in the corners, the canned and jarred pickles, the soy and amino sauces.
And in doing our tallies and inventory, I think a lot of us figured out ways to use what we had on-hand more so that we didn't have to go to the store as much. Well, all of those things that I just listed, or most of them, as you well know, are ferments -- bigger flavored, more shelf stable foods and drinks loaded with the good stuff -- vitamins, minerals etc.
That's all a way of getting me to the condiments in Fermenter that I love, love, LOVE! The Spicy Giardiniera, the blended use-whatever-chilies-you-have Hot Behind Hot Sauce, Aaron's seaweed- and hemp seed-loaded North Coast Kraut, the book's Sour Dills & Pickle brine, oh and the, small-batch 1-quart Chickpea Miso. There are a bunch of others but those are some that are always in my fridge now. Well, the pickles run out by late winter usually even though I'm good at rationing. Oh and the book's Kombucha Mustard! Sorry, it's so good, had to add it.
KIRSTEN: And, of course it's not just ferments…
LIZ: True. Part One of the book is all the food and drink ferments -- ranging from those Sour Pickles, Hot Behind Hot Sauce, Chickpea Miso, and Local Bean & Grain Tempeh, to Raspberry Lime Leaf Water Kefir. And Part Two is all the plant-based dishes that you can make and cook up with those ferments.
I have a lot of favorites in both sections, but if I had to choose just a few in Part Two, I'd say I can't live without that Koji Beet Reuben now, and the Almost Famous Fermenter Burger is hands down the best veggie burger I've ever had. It's magic. I also really, really love Aaron's wife Jenny's GF Sunshine Cookies loaded with hazelnut butter, dried blueberries, pepitas and other goodness, and Aaron's super savory drink-from-a-mug turmeric-rich Boneless Broth. So soothing and tasty.
KIRSTEN: Who is your audience is for this one? I know it's wide but how do you see it?
LIZ: I think the Fermenter cookbook particularly speaks to younger progressive punk and indie folks – those not afraid to question authority, and in general not asking for permission but sometimes just asking for forgiveness instead when needed. That said, it has broad appeal for all humans on earth especially vegans and ferments-curious folks.
KIRSTEN: What are you working on now?
LIZ: Well, the Portland Fermentation Festival aka Stinkfest is in less than a month now, so we are getting very excited about this, especially since you are coming up for it to be our extra wonderful honorary guest speaker at it this year. We're so lucky! Thank you, Kirsten!
I co-founded the fest way back in 2009 shortly after traveling cross-country to Tennessee to meet and interview my hero Sandor Ellix Katz in 2009 for The Sun magazine, and we've been going strong ever since. For our last fest pre-pandemic in 2019, David Zilber, formerly of the Noma Fermentation Lab and co-author of the Noma Guide to Fermentation, was our guest speaker. Not too shabby.
Yeah, so that extra specialness is in the works as is the Portland Book Festival, which I'm on the advisory council for. Two of my favorite days of the year. At Portland Book Fest this year, Aaron and I are doing a book event for the Fermenter cookbook with Hetty Lui Mckinnon for her newest cookbook, Tenderheart, AND superstar Gregory Gourdet. That is so exciting…
I have a couple other projects that I can't talk about yet, but as usual food, food and more food and words. It's a very good life.
I'm just so forever in love with our big, wide and varied international fermentation community. And I'm really proud that I help to grow it via our Fermenter cookbook and these other fun endeavors. When you get into fermentation, you sign yourself up for a lifetime of learning. There's no end to what you can learn about, read about (thanks in no small part to all of your incredible books!) and roll up your sleeves about when it comes to food and drink fermentation.
KIRSTEN: Thank you Liz. As always it is a pleasure to chat with you. I appreciate your taking the time to share with all of us Ferment Nerds.
Spicy Giardiniera Recipe
Excerpted from Fermenter by permission of Sasquatch Books. (c)2023 by Aaron Adams and Liz Crain. All rights reserved.
