I live without a kitchen... & love fermented food

My house is a construction zone. I lived without a kitchen before. That was when I tried fermenting food. I can't ferment food now because, well, the house really is a construction zone, and a series of projects need to be completed before the kitchen can be made. It's a winter project moving up on the to do list.

When I lived without a kitchen before I made fermented breads (1 sweet and 1 herbal), banana (five days), salsa, mustard greens, beets, and even eggs! I want to do it now, but there's just too much stuff in the air. So I eat directly out of the garden what I can.

The five day banana ferment turned out awesome - for a small batch I used 3 bananas, a little Himalayan pink salt, a little mandarino acido mixed in and a thin layer on the top, and some fresh pro-biotic juice from goat cheese I had made mixed in also. I've seen other recipes that call for sugar also. I didn't use any. After five days in a temperate room with no sun, it had split into two products, a thick/pulpy lemony colored liquid at the bottom and a smooth, creamy yellow curd at the top. They were both delicious, zingy, sweet, energetic...

Looking forward to the greenhouse producing enough food for my paleo habit...

Sounds great! Best of luck with your construction and your projects.

Your banana ferment sounds so strange and different and interesting. When you get a kitchen again, I hope you will photograph the steps and post them here!

One way to look at it: during this time with no kitchen, you are terribly limited, which is forcing you to be creative in making minimum-preparation food. When you finally have a kitchen again, you will feel much happier to have that facility than you would have felt if you'd had it all along, plus you'll have some odd new recipes and tricks for your kitchen!

Thanks for the encouragement! I really want to cook a burrito stuffed with rice, avocado, beans, spicy pepper, cheese, onion, garlic, tomato, cilantro and parsley! Good thing I have a lot of patience over the things I know take time to "get it right."

Hola Pia,
We look the same, some paleo and local food, and a house that is not helping, I am also into builing....
We also might have a quite similar subtropical climate....
I also have polvacera in the air and do sometimes eat directly when I weed the garden...

I do have a lot of available bananas, and did not think about fermenting them.
What is "mandarino acido" ? and "fresh pro-biotic juice"? Is it just suero = whey from cheese making?
What recipient do you use?

Actually, my kitchen is partially ok, but I have no door, and so cannot regulate the temps.
So, with 12ºC.... how can I ferment?
Do not I need over 20ªC?

Actually, I am planning a special kitchen almost JUST for fermenting!!!
It is in a little cave on the side of the regular kitchen, where I will have a very large sink to cut veggies, and even a place that will be "shelves in a shower", for sprouting. I am longing for it to be ready!

Hola Xisca Nicolas, thanks for the comments - lots of ferment banana for alcohol recipes online - each stage in time produces a different quality product, or two

>>What is "mandarino acido" ? : Costa Rica, Nicaragua and probably other Latin American countries have this - combo sweet mandarin orange and a sharp lemon or lime flavor. Makes a wonderful C packed fresh juice. And inhibits mold (sorbic acid).
>> "fresh pro-biotic juice"? Is it just suero = whey from cheese making? : yes, sorry, goat whey
What recipient do you use? Large glass (and fine mesh cloth strainer, wood spoon, sterilized rock to hold hard plastic top down on ferments, plastic lids; no metal).

>>Actually, my kitchen is partially ok, but I have no door, and so cannot regulate the temps.
So, with 12ºC.... how can I ferment?
Do not I need over 20ªC?
: Definitely need to control temps! I had a consistently cool space previously, mid 70's - but, some days proved complicated and caused the need for more frequent checking and gaseous burp over flow clean up. For this current space, I am thinking of converting my refrigerator into the ferment space for much of the processing time. I may have to make some seasonal ferment choices - it gets really hot here and I don't do A/C in my house. But, I do have a space outside the kitchen area door that I am turning into a ferny, arum lily kind of space that can host an in-ground ferment box. With some technical infrastructure tricks, of course. From Food Safety News:

"Proper temperature is important. According to USDA, at temperatures between 70-75 degrees F, kraut will be fully fermented in about three to four weeks; at 60-65 degrees F, fermentation may take five to six weeks. At temperatures lower than 60 degrees F, kraut may not ferment, and, above 75 degrees F, kraut may become soft.

The take-home message: Proper fermentation temperature allows for problem pathogens to be “selected” and destroyed, while it also inhibits the growth of organisms that can spoil the food."webpage
Actually, I am planning a special kitchen almost JUST for fermenting!!!
It is in a little cave on the side of the regular kitchen, where I will have a very large sink to cut veggies, and even a place that will be "shelves in a shower", for sprouting. I am longing for it to be ready! Awesome!