Olia Hercules

Dishes from the Black Sea and beyond: exclusive extract

 This is an extract from Olia’s new book, Kaukasis: the culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & beyond (Octopus) out on 10 August.

How to Make a Ginger Bug Starter for Natural Soda

 To make your ginger bug, you need only three ingredients:

1. Ginger

Use organic ginger. In the US, non-organic (I refuse to call it conventional) ginger may be irradiated. Irradiation kills the naturally occurring yeasts and lactic-acid bacteria on the ginger which ferment it. Only once have I made a ferment that showed zero signs of life after several days: pickled ginger. I read about irradiated ginger later and realized I must not have used organic ginger. (We almost always eat organic.)

2. Sugar

I use organic cane sugar, rapadura or sucanat. Jaggery should work too. Do not use stevia. You need real sugar. If you want to experiment with things like honey or maple syrup, I would wait until you have successfully made a bug with sugar. Sugar works and you’ll learn how your bug should smell and look.

The sugar feeds the bacteria and yeasts in the bug. The amount of sugar you add to your bug and to drinks may horrify you. I know sugar is terrible. I have read Fat Chance and have watched the documentary Fed Up. But the bug consumes the sugar—not you—and emits carbon dioxide as a result, which adds that sought-after fizz. Once your drinks have fermented, they will contain much less sugar.

3. Water

I use filtered water. If you have highly chlorinated water, fill a vessel and leave it open to the air for several hours or even a day before you’ll use it and the chlorine will dissipate. I haven’t had trouble with chlorine but I do know that too much of it will kill your microbes.

Directions

Online and in books, you’ll find varying instructions for making a ginger bug, just as you will for sourdough starter. Everyone seems to do it a bit differently. This is just how I do it.

1. In a glass jar, combine about 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger and 1 tbsp sugar.

2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir vigorously. Cover your jar with a small breathable cloth to let air in and keep nasties out. I find cheesecloth too flimsy and loosely woven for this purpose. 

3. Feed your bug 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp sugar daily. Stir vigorously.

4. Your bug should be ready to use in about 5 days. It will bubble and smell yeasty, have a cloudy yellow color with sludgy looking white stuff at the bottom of the jar and the ginger will float to the top. My mature ginger bug in the pic above—I named her Mary-Ann because Ginger got all the attention on Gilligan’s Island—is three or four months old.

How to maintain your bug

Once you have established a vigorous ginger bug, you can keep it out on the kitchen counter but you will have to feed it daily—and you will end up with a lot of it. I sometimes keep mine in the fridge and feed it the usual meal once a week: about 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 tablespoon sugar. First I bring it to room temperature, feed it, let it sit for a few hours and put it back in the refrigerator, unless I want to make a drink!

I compost a little ginger occasionally. Otherwise your pile will grow to huge proportions. You can also regularly strain off the liquid, compost half the ginger-sugar mixture and start fresh—add 1 1/2 cups water and feed daily until it bubbles up again.

The basic recipe for ginger bug drinks

Stir up your bug to get the good white yeasty stuff off the bottom of the jar and strain off 1/4 cup of the liquid. Add that to sweetened tea, lemonade or water in which you simmered a lot of ginger and then sweetened. You can try adding it to juice also. I haven’t tried juice because I don’t buy juice. I would need to make it myself. DO NOT ADD YOUR BUG TO HOT LIQUIDS. You will kill the microbes.

Fill some flip-top bottles with your drink and let them sit at room temperature for three days max. Ferments with sugar can explode (I have never had it happen) so you may want to put yours in a cupboard or closet or in a box in the garage. Don’t let your bottles ferment for more than a couple of days without opening.

Once you get the hang of making this, you’ll have a feel for when yours has fermented enough. Fermentations go quickly in my kitchen. Yours may go more slowly or more quickly, depending on your environment.

Ginger Bug

Ingredients

To start

• 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water

To feed daily

• 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions

1. In a glass jar, combine about 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger and 1 tbsp sugar.

2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir vigorously. Cover your jar with a small breathable cloth.

3. Feed your bug 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp sugar daily. Stir vigorously.

4. Your bug should be ready to use in about 5 days. It will bubble and smell yeasty, have a cloudy yellow color with sludgy looking white stuff at the bottom of the jar and some of the ginger will float to the top.

Naturally Fermented Hibiscus Soda

 If you don't have hibiscus tea, use a different type of herbal tea.

Ingredients

• 1 heaping tablespoon hibiscus tea leaves
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups water total
• 1/4 cup strained ginger bug

Instructions

1. Steep the hibiscus tea leaves in 1 cup of hot water to make strong tea.
2. Strain the tea and stir in the sugar.
3. Add the remaining 3 cups of water. By diluting the tea this way, you cool it down faster and can add the ginger bug sooner, which speeds up preparation.
4. Once the tea has cooled to room temperature, add the ginger bug.
5. Fill glass flip-top bottles with the mixture and set aside in a cupboard or box to carbonate.
6. Burp the bottles every day or two to release built-up carbon dioxide and prevent geysers and exploding bottles. Simply open and close the bottle quickly.
7. The soda will be ready in approximately 3 days. Transfer to the refrigerator or ferment for longer for a higher alcohol content.

Notes

Exploding bottles can and do happen. Store your bottles in a cupboard or box to contain any possible explosions and subsequent messes. Burp your bottles every day or two, depending on the progress of the fermentation. If you open them too often, carbonation will not develop. After you have made this drink a couple of times, you'll have a better feel for what works best in your kitchen.