Sunday, April 3, 2011

Lacto-Fermented Strawberry Mango Salsa

I'm not an expert at fermentation yet, but so far, I really love almost everything that I've fermented. It's also amazing to be able to preserve fresh food so easily and know that you are adding in probiotics while doing it. My plans for this salsa are to put on top of a pan seared tilapia or other such fish. I just mixed it together tonight so I need to let it sit for 3-4 days to ferment. By the way, I got the idea for this salsa at a blog called How Sweet it Is.
-Amanda

Lacto-Fermented Strawberry Mango Salsa

  • 2 ripe mangos
  • 1 pint of strawberries
  • 6-8 basil leaves
  • 1/4 cup of finely diced red onion
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 cup of whey*
  • 1-2 tbsp of chopped fermented jalapeno or 1 jalapeno finely chopped

Dice up the mangos and strawberries and place them in a medium size bowl. Finely chop the red onion and add it in. Add the jalapenos, salt and pepper. With your hands, gently mash the fruit to bring out some of the juices (this helps with the fermentation.) Add 1/4 cup of whey and the basil leaves. Stir until everything is well mixed. Place inside a quart mason jar. If there doesn't seem to be enough liquid to cover the salsa, add just enough filtered water to cover. Cover the jar and let sit until you start to see small bubbles form (3-4 days usually.)

*One easy way to get whey is by draining plain whole milk yogurt. I put a coffee filter in a fine mesh strainer and put the yogurt in the strainer. I then let it sit over a bowl until the whey collects in the bottom of the bowl. Return yogurt to the container and you have extra thick yogurt to use in another dish. If you collect more than 1/4 cup of whey, save the extra whey in your refridgerator. It'll keep for months.
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4 comments:

  1. JulesApril 4, 2011 at 11:36 AM

    Ohhh! Let me know how this turns out! I would love to make something like this. Thanks for explaining how to get the whey! How does the Lacto-fermentation change the taste?

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  2. AmandaApril 4, 2011 at 12:17 PM

    It adds a sour taste sort of like lemon would. It also will give sort of an effervescence or bubbly aspect to a dish.

    I tasted it again this morning and I think I'm going to chop up some more strawberries. I had more mango than strawberry and I'd rather it be more equal.

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  3. Simple StaceeMay 19, 2017 at 9:26 AM

    Can you do this without the whey? What could you replace the whey with, any ideas?

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  4. UnknownOctober 27, 2017 at 4:45 AM

    You can open a probiotic capsule into the mixture for a probiotic starter. The purpose of the whey is to be a probiotic starter - You could also strain the whey from plain organic whole milk keifer (I make my own keifer every day which separates into curds and whey) or use the brine from fermented vegetables, like the brine from sauerkraut.

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