TABLE TALK #125
It’s officially autumn. Our trusty, rusty leafed friend is back.
It’s high time to hunker. It’s high time to pickle, preserve and give longer legs to the last of this summer’s bounty.
Today’s Table Talk is an ode to the great art of fermentation.
🍝 MAIN COURSE 🍝
Fermented foods are in vogue.
Everyone’s talking about them, everyone’s vouching for them, but the funny thing is, they’re not actually new at all. Almost every nation you can think of, has a fermented food or drink woven deep within their food culture. Think of Koreans and kimchi, Chinese and miso, or Russians and kvass to name but a few.
Today, we’re all so smitten with our SMEGs, we forget how novel refrigeration actually is. There was a time, not very long ago, when we relied on fermenting to preserve food, give natural shelf-life an oomph, and top up our food supply through the dour days of winter.
Over the years, so many of the dishes that have become cultural staples, include both a fermented and a non fermented food, the former helping us digest the latter, and make us feel all the more deeply satisfied.
Take miso soup for example, delicious yes, but also a savvy starter in that it primes our digestion for any noodles or dumplings on the horizon. An ideal accomplice.
Photo Credit: Nick Barnard's Eat RightAutumn, for us, always puts pickling and fermenting back on the agenda.
Life feels that little bit more rhythmic and settled. Our urge to be cosy, arty and crafty has returned with a vengeance. The time feels right.
Life feels that little bit more rhythmic and settled. Our urge to be cosy, arty and crafty has returned with a vengeance. The time feels right.
There’s something incredibly therapeutic about artfully arranging spears of carrot in a kilner jar, or burping your bubbling water kefir.
There’s something pretty comforting, about picking up a hobby, that you may well have shared with a great, great, great grandparent.
There’s something so damn satisfying about wasting less, and filling your shelves with an army of little jars that’ll keep and keep.
There’s something pretty comforting, about picking up a hobby, that you may well have shared with a great, great, great grandparent.
There’s something so damn satisfying about wasting less, and filling your shelves with an army of little jars that’ll keep and keep.
Photo Credit: Nick Barnard's Eat Right
🍮 SWEET ENDINGS 🍮
Fermentation takes time. It's a slow process, but a rewarding one at that. Kind of like a book really. Our favourite is The Noma Guide to Fermentation, a real bible for the hardcore and wanting more in our ranks.
But for those of you new to this sometimes messy, sometimes smelly business, let's keep it lean and clean with a couple of our favourite fermentation inspired recipes. First up, Anna Jones's Kimchi and Miso Noodle Soup, a mean Monday night go-to. Second, these five easy Non-Alc Kombucha Cocktails.
Photo Credit: The Fermentarium
🍷 WHAT'S NEW
FROM
WEDNESDAY'S DOMAINE? 🍷
This week, we’ve loved watching the press coverage of Vignette, our full bodied red, really ramp up.
Red wine, as many in the business will know, is notoriously hard to make alcohol free and just as delicious, which makes articles like this celebrating its “unparalleled depth and complexity” all the most exciting to see.
Until next week,
Luke x
