Lacto-Fermentation

I've had a fun packed day today with the Lovely Annie Levy who has an amazing passion for Lacto-fermented food.

From my point of view it was a bit like cooking meets sciences meets witchcraft (in the nicest possible way) meets alchemy. What it is is a method of preserving food in brine allowing a natural fermentation to take place. I would, if this interests you (and it should as its fascinating) have a stroll over to Annie's Blog where you can find out a little bit more about this fascinating technique.

So I arrived at Annie's kitchen where I was greeted with a great cup of coffee and a selection of ingredients spread liberally across her kitchen table. Chillies in abundance, peppers, garlic and spices. The intention was to create some Lacto-fermented Harrissa. (Harrisa being a paste thats certainly not for the faint hearted. Delicious but hot! Ouch!)

The finished jar of lacto-fermented Harrissa before spending weeks in a cupboard while it does its thing. © Joe Purches

What I wanted to do was try and capture the process from raw ingredients to final product and with Annie's help we set about setting up the shots. As this is a real kitchen I felt it important to get across the fact that real cooks don't have everything styled and the reality is that peelings and offcuts do end up spread around the worktop. Our only concession to aesthetics was the use of some fabulous pots that she has in her cupboard that wouldn't normally come out in the normal course of events.

It was a lot of fun and I look forward to tasting the Harrissa when it has finished fermenting.

Thanks Annie. A lot of fun..

Mmmm, Spice. © Joe Purches

The finished jar © Joe Purches

Garlic and dried chill waiting to be added © Joe Purches