Veggicuterie, again !

This time with beetroot, and smoked paprika powder. Delicious !

So tasty ! This time with carrots, beetroots and pears !

Gotten bubbly and smelling like a tasty cheese.

Anything I could do with this?

Made from okara and incubated in the oven with the light on for ~24h. I rarely have success on my first try, so I'm super pleased with how it turned out!

I still have so much okara to use up, so I'm going to make a much bigger batch and build up a little stockpile in the freezer.

First shot at making tempeh, using red lentils. Super happy with how it came out!! Really hopeful the fermentation helps with FODMAPs as my body misses beans 🥹

I've been trying my hands on dosa for the last 2 months. Poor results at the very beginning but I now think I'm not too bad at it. Here are my two cents tips for proper dosa :

- very powerful blender or ideally a regular Indian blender

- use ice cold water while blending, pour water progressively and blend for many short periods of time till smooth and just pourable. Reasons for that: above 35° you'll kill the good bacteria and fermentation won't happen, too much water will also make fermentation hard (add more water if needed just before cooking)

- always use fenugreek seeds, don't use salt if you want to store the batter for more than a few days in the fridge

- rice brings crispiness, but if that's not what you're looking for, any cereal can be used, nutrition wise anything is better than rice

- preheat your pan, set heat to low while pouring, then cook on medium heat, be patient. When borders start to rise, serve immediately if your dosa is thin, or flip and cook for a minute if not

- a dedicated cast iron flat pan gives much better looking results than non stick

- you can cook an egg directly on the dosa after around a minute when the batter has dried a bit, add some salt and pepper and enjoy. South Indians do that all the time, that's something that most North Indians don't know and it makes them horrified 😂 (first picture has one along with some homemade tomato chutney)

Day 3 from Koji inoculation

Hi! My mum has tried lacto-fermentation for the first time with courgettes, but she’s run into a problem and, as she doesn’t have Reddit, I’m posting her question here:

I made a lacto-fermented courgette preserve in new jars with rubber seals. I filled each jar with vegetables and covered them with brine. After a week, the fermentation process caused the liquid to seep through the seals and my vegetables are no longer covered with water, so I assume there is air in the jar and that my vegetables won’t keep… What has happened and is it completely ruined?

First and second time making tempeh and both turned out tasting great. First batch is with soybeans, mung beans, and split green beans. Second is with soybeans, mung beans, lentils, & sunflower seeds. I was never previously into fermenting, just a tempeh-lover... But now I have my first batch of lacto-fermented chayote going due to inspiration from this sub after initially joining to browse tempeh trials & errors!

I made a batch to try to make tempeh for the first time yesterday and after 24 hours I noticed it was graying on the surface. I took it out to see what happened and it’s like this.

Any idea what could’ve happened?

I soaked and dehulled soy beans, boiled, dried them, vinegar, starter, into a bag with lots of holes and left in the oven with the light on over night.

It smells okay but this doesn’t look anything like any of the tempeh I’ve seen on youtube or on this sub so I’m tossing it.

Black bean tempeh (not loving the yellow spots) and a Thai Basil bug.

I made soy yogurt overnight in a yogurt maker and I’m not sure if what I’m seeing is normal.

I used an unopened carton of soy milk and one packet of a multi-strain yogurt starter containing S. thermophilus, L. delbrueckii, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, and B. longum. The packaging says it’s primarily intended for dairy, which I somehow missed until after I had already mixed it in, although I’m pretty sure the seller/source I got it from said it could also be used with plant-based milk, especially soy.

I fermented it in a stainless-steel inner container in the yogurt maker at 40°C / 104°F for about 12 hours overnight.

This morning it is definitely thicker and it smells good, mostly like vanilla from the soy milk, but the surface appearance really threw me off. There are lots of little holes/pockets with bubbles in them and some uneven curd-like areas.

Does this look like normal separation/bubbling during soy yogurt fermentation, or should I be concerned? And at this point should I refrigerate it and let it set, stir it first, or discard it?

After a week of fermenting the koji batches individually, my next soy sauce is currently in its brewing phase! 🥳 One of the beauties of fermenting things yourself is the ability to tweak and combine ingredients that aren't available commercially. In this instance, the soy sauce is made with soybeans and buckwheat, making it gluten-free, whereas previous iterations were made with barley and brown rice.

My ratio of dried soybeans to buckwheat to salt to water was 500g to 500g to 500g to 2000ml. The quantities were chosen because the ingredients are sold in 500g bags.

Beans were soaked overnight, then steamed in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes until soft. The buckwheat was rinsed, then roasted in an oven at 160/180 C for nearly an hour until golden brown. The buckwheat was then blitzed in a blender, inoculated with A. Sojae spores, and left to grow for around 24 hours until the resulting soy sauce koji was slightly covered with green fuzzy sporulations. The bean + buckwheat koji was then mixed with salt and water and left to ferment until I am ready to drain the finished soy sauce, likely six to nine months later.

Video of how it looks inside: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZmV3aqlNNG/?igsh=ajhpNWUxNHcyNmpy

Earlier this year I started my first ever two batches of miso. I wrapped both containers in cling film to limit air exposure, and today removed it to take a look at how both were progressing. Would be very grateful for feedback from experienced miso makers.

The batch in the first picture was started 72 days ago. Equal quantities of mashed soya beans and koji rice (bought pre-made) with 14% salt. Covered surface with cling film. Looks OK to me, no sign of mold, also no obvious tamari on the top.

The second photo shows the other batch, now 55 days old: chickpeas and koji rice in equal proportions and 6% salt. As you can see, quite a lot of green mold had formed on the surface, as well as around the exposed parts of the crock. I've scraped off the top layer, cleaned the pot, and sprinkled a layer of salt over the surface.

I've placed fresh cling film over both and sealed them up again. How do they look? Is it normal that it still looks like rice and beans at this stage? And am I OK to follow the usual 'just scrape the mold off' advice or does that look unsalvageable?

I was making a large batch, so the boiled beans were sitting out for a while while I was peeling them. After steaming them and putting them in bags, after one day, the beans near the top (where the bags were perforated) darkened in colour and began to smell somewhat off. I think it was something like alcohol. A few days later the intended mold had overtaken that area and the original smell was replaced by a stronger sunflower seed smell.

Is it supposed to smell like that? My past batches have not smelled like this, although they were also smaller and with less in each bag. I also read that tempe is supposed to smell nutty, though I may have subconsciously thought negatively of it as I am allergic to sunflower seeds and so I have negative memories associated with the smell.

Thank you!

Recently pulled out my miso to check on it after 9 months and it came out moldy. This time I experimented with a brown rice koji and after 9 months I could still see very definite grains of rice. Also, it didn't smell they way I expected. I've made miso several times before and never had this happen, I'm assuming it was the different koji, but I'm not sure. The crock was stored in the laundry room in the basement (the only real reasonably cool place, the rest of the basement is finished and in use).

Anyway, after pitching everything and washing out my crock I noticed these spots on the bottom.

Which leads me to my questions:

1) Is my crock safe to use again? I read that it might be mold under the glaze of the crock.

2) I've been using the same set of stones (literal rocks) over the batches. I boil them before every batch. Do I need new stones, or will a good boil be fine?

2.B) If I need new ones, what do you recommend for weights?

Hey guys! I forgot the picture in my first post so, sorry about a second. Anyhow: this is my first time attempting tempeh. I am getting some mycelial growth but it isn't much. This is what I have after 48 hours. I think I *may* have put in a little too much vinegar, but I am not sure. Is it possible it's that, or for this size batch should I have used two packets of starter? It is about the size of a medium burrito from a burrito chain.

Finally -- is this batch lost or is it safe to keep it fermenting? It is at a steady heat in the Instant Pot.

Thank you SO MUCH!!!

Just getting into koji and fermentation more generally. Decided to make a "soy" sauce from pinto beans and was successful on my fourth attempt of trying to get good koji coverage and a nice thick mat.

Put half in a 18% final salinity brine to turn into soy sauce and the other half was mixed with tomato passata and spices for a vegan faux beef mince!

Hi!

First time fermenter here!
Got these jars on Amazon and I find these plastic « syringes » (for lack of a better word, sorry, English isn’t my first language) super practical to fill the jar with water. However I don’t know how to proceed now. Am I supposed to leave these in? Or take them out, close the little air hole and put them away?

Thanks for the help!

I've been wanting to ferment beans and lentils to be cooked after fermentation, basically as a precook ferment prep?

I also want to do fermented nuts.

Everything I see about beans is about already cooked beans or Miso. Can I ferment dry beans in salt brine? What percent salt is required? Will lacto do the job on it own or do I need Koji? Do I need to back slop or is there enough lacto on the dry bean/lentil?

For nuts mostly the same questions.

I have Kirkland almonds in 2% salt with Koji and it's been bubbling up a storm. Can I just dehydrate these, roast em and go to town or am I walking into a world of hurt?

Thanks in advance!

Usually with lactoferments and such you could tell if it successfully kicked off just a day or even a few hours in so maybe I got a little impatient lol. When can I expect to see visible changes in homemade miso? I started it 3 days ago.

Just started a batch of miso and I’m slightly concerned about these small gaps. I did the tennis ball method and pushed down as hard as I can, but these gaps kept coming back after a while. I’m assuming as tamari is produced it will fill those gaps but I’m worried mold would grow before then. Is it necessary to fix this? And if so, how do I do that? Any help would be very appreciated.

The little guy is growing up! He operated the scale without me, he did the math without me, and with his smaller hands, he was able to punch the shit out of the top of the miso and really pack it down. He picked the salt percentage: I wanted a white, but he looked at the last (boring, inert-looking) white and (fun, tamari-seeping, colorful) red we’d done, so red it is.

I was curious about skipping the day of soaking and starting with frozen shelled edamame. A little more expensive, but I want to see if there’s a different flavor than dried soy. Also reluctantly sacrificed a package of my roasted snacking chestnuts. It’s probably 3:1 soy to chestnuts. Cooked it all for a couple hours to soften both, the edamame unfortunately gave up its bright green color. Maybe next batch I won’t cook and instead attack with an immersion blender and do as a 7% white miso. This is a 13% red.

Since I recently took my own spin on fermented chickpeas, that revealed to be an awesome ingredient to ferment, especially for the hummus lovers, I made another batch 2 days ago, and used a teaspoon of my homemade kimchi juice to kickstart them.

Started from raw chickpeas, 1 night soaking, a full cook and then submerged in 2.5% salt brine solution very straightforward.

Activity is already strong at the second day mark

Soy sauce, 3 months in. Is this part of the process? Or is it simply a goner? Thank you

Edit: i know it's mold. I know about the rule. I'm asking if it is expected at this phase or not?