Dilly garlicky carrotskys

This is a very common recipe, for good reason. It is simple and very moreish. AND it doesn’t involve cabbage.

The only issue for me is that I love it with spiralised carrots and the only way I can do this is with my hand spiraliser, which can be labour intensive. You can do it with carrots cut into long sticks as well, but I just love the bouncy fermented spirals of dilly carrots that the extra toil of spiralising produces.

Dilly garlicky carrotskys

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Ingredients

• 1.5kg or more of carrots (unpeeled if organic) spiralised or grated in whatever manner you fancy.

• 2 garlic cloves

• A bunch of fresh dill, stalks and all

• Caraway seeds

• Salt

Equipment

• 1 litre Kilner jar
  Washed in hot water or that has been through the dishwasher

• Mixing bowl

• Set of scales

• Spiraliser/mandolin/grater/food processor/knife

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Method

Chopping

1. Spiralise the carrots or chop/food process/grate in your chosen fashion.

2. Chop up the dill finely – stalks especially so, and mix together in the mixing bowl with the carrots.

3. Slice the garlic finely and add in.

4. Sprinkle with caraway seeds or other spices of your choice.

Weighing

1. Put the empty mixing bowl onto the scales, then zero the scales so that you can weigh the total weight of all the prepared vegetables.

2. Put all the vegetables into the bowl on the scales.

3. Add the fennel seeds.

4. And then make a note of the weight of the vegetables (excluding the weight of the bowl).

Salting

1. Calculate what 2% of the vegetable weight is and add that amount of salt. For example 1kg of vegetables requires 20g of salt.

2. Massage in well until you can squeeze moisture from the vegetables in a clenched fist.

Tamping

Then pack into the kilner jar firmly, leaving a little headspace at the top.

Weighting

The veg. should be submerged beneath the juices you have squeezed out as you have packed them down into the kilner. You can use a weight to weigh it down or an available cabbage leaf, along with a quarter of a carrot placed vertically will wedge under the lid pushing the cabbage leaf down and keeping the carroty ferment under its juices, whilst the microbes go about their business.

Waiting

1. Leave to ferment at room temperature (18-21°C) for around 5-7 days. I recommend putting the kilner on a saucer or a bowl whilst fermenting to catch any juices that are forced out of the kilner by the fermenting process.

2. I always label my ferments, listing the date they were made, the ingredients and the date I next need to pay them attention. You don’t think you will forget, but you do.

Tasting and eating

Have a taste after 5 days and, if you are happy, refrigerate and eat. If not, leave for a little longer but watch they don’t go slimy!

Glitches and hitches

Don’t worry if a bit of mould grows on the surface. Just remove the mouldy bit, keep calm and carry on. Obviously, if the mould is a very bright, unusual colour, you will need to take it more seriously, but this has never (literally never) happened to me.

Don’t worry if foam collects on the surface – this is not unusual either. I scoop it off with a clean spoon and shut the lid again.

Remember, fermenting is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, so with just a little bit of time invested, you will be eating your very own dilly garlicky carrotskys.