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We made fermented chipotle carrots this week at Skinny Lane Farm, and have been asked by several friends for the recipe. It’s been a very busy last few weeks since arriving in Texas! Praise year-round growing seasons!

Let’s start with a photo of some beautiful, just harvested carrots and organic spices:

This is for a portion size of 1 quart. I like to make 4x in a gallon container.

Ingredients:

1 lb of carrots

1 tsp black peppercorn

1 tsp white peppercorn

1 tsp coriander seed

2 tsp cumin seed

2 tsp caraway seed

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 chipotle pepper (more or less, depending on your heat tolerance)

1.5 tbsp unrefined sea salt

Process:

1) Prep your carrots by cutting them in halves and/or quarters (as pictured above), depending on the size you would like your final fermented treats. I measure each of my cuts at 3-4 bites per pickle.

2) Slightly crush the peppercorns and coriander with a mortar and pestle to intensify the flavor, as well as cut the garlic in halves. For the chipotle pepper, chop into inch long pieces and include the seeds. Put the spices in your fermentation vessel.

3) Fit carrots in your container – pack them in nice and snug.

4) To make the brine, dissolve 1.5 tablespoons of salt in one quart of the purest water available to you. Pour the brine over your pickles and seal tightly with lid, so you can give the vessel a few quick, non-violent flips to distribute the spices. Take the lid off.

5) Now you have an open container of pickles and it’s time for one of the most important parts to keep your ferment happy: a weight that will keep your carrots underneath the brine. It’s easy to fill a small jar with water and sit it on top of the carrots – if you have other ideas for weights, that still allow your ferment to get exposure to air, give it a try. As you can see with our gallon container below, we’ve inserted a plastic yogurt lid that fits perfectly under the neck of our jar. It allows the water to rise above the lid without offering any possibility for the carrots to float above. There are a lot of good methods, and many come straight from our creative common sense. Cover your vessel with a cloth and rubber band, to keep random bugs and dust particles out.

6) Wait a week and try a carrot – it’s probably going to need another week, but it’s good practice to try your ferments along their journey. Ferments will work at different speeds depending on their environment. Temperature is a huge factor – most ferments thrive best at 68-76 F, just like us.

7) When your ferment is to your liking, cover it with a lid and place in the fridge or other cold storage. Keeping your new pickles cool stalls fermentation process, so you can enjoy the fermented flavor from when you sealed the jar.

If you have any questions on this recipe, email the bus crew at info@fermentationonwheels.com.

Thanks for taking interest in our starter. We are very lucky to have obtained it. We actually received this starter from a friend in Brooklyn, who got it from a friend who originally started it in Portland, OR, who lived in Brooklyn, but moved back to Portland, and is now en route to San Francisco. Funny how these things get around just as we do.

1) If you don’t plan on feeding your culture immediately, put it in the fridge to keep it stable.

2) As soon as your ready to feed your starter, put it in a larger jar and add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water. Let it sit out for half a day and get excited from being fed.

3) That’s all you need to do to keep your new pet happy! Feed it once a week with equal parts flour and water. You can even let this one go longer than a week, as it’s a special strain and super resilient.

4) Remember, separation is natural. Once you leave your starter in the fridge for a while, a layer a water will appear on the surface.

Replace store bought yeast with your starter when making bread. Add it to the wet ingredients, and watch it bubble. This yeast is more slow acting during the rising stage, but so very worth it.

We hope you’ll love this starter as much as we do!

If you attended our workshop in San Diego, here is Tara’s favorite bread recipe, as requested:

The Mark Bittman No Knead:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0

I do a simpler version that is mostly different because I don’t have the whole cast iron thing going on.

3 cups flour (I like to do half rye and half wheat, but you can go any way you like)
1/4 tsp yeast (optional since you’re using sourdough – the rise time will take longer without)
1-2 tsp salt (flavor and something the cultures enjoy latching onto)

Those are your dry ingredients, and you can take them somewhere a crazier if you wish (i.e. cocoa powder)

Then the super fun stuff:
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup sourdough (less or more depending on your love for the sour)
It should get bubbly beaming beautiful. At this point you can stir in other wet ingredients, such as honey.

Slowly add it to your dry ingredients, mixing as you go. You’ll want the texture to resemble batter. Add more water if you need to get the desired texture.

Set the dough in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

After rise #1, do a little mixy-doo-da (add seeds, nut, dried fruit, whatever else suits your fancy at this point) and transfer it to your baking vessel. Let it rise for 6-12 hours, or until it nearly doubles in size, in the baking vessel.

Bake your bread at 350 F for one hour. Enjoy!