Lacto-Fermo....Carrots!

A long time ago I heard a guy explaining how you could make refridgerator pickles from root vegetables by doing little more than adding salt...it sounded like magic to me and I couldn't wait to try, but I forgot the instructions.

However, I am getting slowly acquainted with the ways of Sally Fallon and her "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook and there I found the answer. I learned about "lacto-fermentation" which basically means that you encourage the healthy bacteria that live on the outside sking of veggies/fruit so that they build numbers and prevent rot from occuring (kill bad, putrifying bacteria). They used it in old times before refrigeration. I think this is good for you because ingesting all the good bacteria is beneficial for your immune system. (Don't quote me. This is my layman's vague understanding).

This weekend I made ginger carrots. It was so easy that I remember the recipe.

2 cups shredded carrot
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated ginger

Put it all in a glass jar, then take some blunt implement (I used a marble pestle) and stamp at those carrots until the water inside them comes out and makes enough liquid to cover the solid matter. Then, put the cover on and let it sit on the counter for 3 days. Then stick it in the fridge!

We've eaten the ginger carrots as a topping on Pecan Lentil Patties, from the same cookbook. That was something like 1 c. cooked, pureed lentils, 1 c. ground pecans, 1 egg, and some spices(???) fried in a wee bit of oil. Yum! The tastes together are really great. It's way more interesting flavor-wise than eating carrot sticks--and you still get the benefit of raw vegetables.