project update

So, here is a brief update on some of the projects we have been working on at the lab.

Several weeks ago Ben ordered unripe plums so he could make umeboshi but, when the plums arrived they were more unripe that he had hoped. The NFL lets nothing go to waste and we find inspiration and innovation in the unexpected. We thought the unripe plums looked a lot like olives and therefore decided to process them as if they were olive. Some were soaked in ash, other in brine, some in salt and some in lye. We then left them to cure for several weeks. This past week I jarred our plum-like olives in an 8% brine and layer of grapeseed oil. I have to say, some turned out quite well (and others...not so well). 

Everyone wanted to photograph the unripe plums!

Unripe plums in the process of becoming plum-olives.

Before jarring them Ben suggested we add brine and hemp oil (instead of grapeseed oil) so we could have "stoned fruit." ha. 

Cured Plum-like Olives.

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We have been processing the Herring in all sorts of ways-

Smoked Herring

There is pickled hering, and of course herring fermenting into fish sauce. There is bottarga curing and herring bushi fermenting.

Chocolate and Beer while making Herring Boshi.

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A little side project I've been working on is creating a Nordic Chocolate Rye Bread. A bakery here in Copenhagen, Lagkagehuset, makes the most delicious chocolate rye bread rolled in hazelnuts. We love these things here at the NFL but, chocolate is not a Nordic ingredient. I have been asked to figure out how to replicate the chokorug using all Nordic ingredients. I have been using Nordic Sugar Black Bakery Syrup in a variety of ways as a replacement for the chocolate. The syrup has the same sticky, bitterness that the chocolate provides but it has a slightly minerally taste and a different texture (chocolate chips vs sugar syrup). Although they are not perfect yet, they are quite tasty.

Lagkagehuset Chokorug.

My Nordic Chokorug.

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We make lots of fermented drinks including kombucha and Kvas. The first kombucha I ever made was decidedly the best kombusha we had all tasted! To make the Kombucha I mixed sugar, water, tumeric, ginger, Szechuan pepper, and fireweed in a saucepan to dissolve the sugar and steep the herbs. I then inoculated the mixture into fresh peaches by vaccum packing them. I then strained the peaches and added a honey kombucha starter to the leftover juice. A week later I had a tasty, tasty drink! Unfortunately I did not write down the original recipe, but I am playing around with the ingredients trying to recreate that delicious flavor. It was everything you want in a kombucha, sweet, slightly acidic, carbonated, and complex.

Sarah decided try her hand at making fermented beverages too and so she made these beautiful ginger beers. To each she added some wild plants we foraged some of which include- rose hips, rose petals, ditander, wood avens, and juniper.

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The Happy Bug Man paid us a visit this week and brought along lots of grasshoppers. We froze the grasshoppers and then I was put in charge of prying the grass from the grasp of the poor frozen bugs and separate them from their poo. 

Sifting Grasshopper.

They are really quite beautiful!

That is it for now but I'll be sure to post more updates as they come.