CHRISTMAS KRAUT

I first tried 'Christmas' sauerkraut when my friend (and fermentation master) Annie Levy shared some with me. It was full of interesting flavours and ingredients, such as apples or oranges, which aren't typical for your usual kraut. A couple years on I still had the memory of tasting that very special kraut and decided to make it for the Global Gardens Christmas feast.  In preparation I made a couple of batches, but without apples, as they made it a bit alcoholic. They also seemed to get quite mushy as I tried to pack everything tightly in a jar (a must do to get the juices out). 

Ingredients

1 head of a cabbage (I prefer a red one, but white will do too)

about 1 tbsp of sea salt (2%-3% of cabbage weight)

2 handfuls of goji berries or cranberries

1 orange peeled and cut in small pieces

1 tbsp of a mixture of pumpkin pie spices, such as cinnamon, ginger, ground clove, ground coriander, nutmeg

1 tbsp of fennel, or caraway seeds

Reserve one bigger cabbage leave for later and shred or finely cut the rest of it. Add all the other ingredients and thoroughly mix it using your hands. Let it stand for an hour, till the cabbage gets a bit softer. Pack it all tightly in a jar, pushing down with your fist every now and then to make the juice come out. When you're done, put the reserved leaf on top of it, and push it down compactly. This will help to keep all the small pieces submerged. You'll still need to find some kind of weight to make sure everything stays down. A glass pebble that fits into your jar is just perfect. Leave it on your counter for 4-5 days. Around that time you should start seeing the bubbles coming, which is a sign that it's fermenting. 

I like eating it when it's freshly fermented, just about 4-5 days old, but you can keep it for much longer. Once open, I'd recommend keeping it in a fridge as it will dry out very fast.

Vaida is food coordinator at Global Gardens and a food blogger at onesmallspoon.com