Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Amanda Andrei
As summer transitions to fall, our diets also shift with the seasons. This is the season for savory crockpot stews, warm baked goods, and soon enough, holiday treats. But before summer completely ends, many people turn to canning, pickling, and fermentation to preserve their favorite summer produce for the cooler months ahead.
Granted, those of us who shop in Asian grocery stores are used to picking up Asian fruits and vegetables in a canned or dried form—fresh bamboo shoots or mangosteen can be hard to come by. Many of the classes on food preservation in the area focus on mid-Atlantic area crops, so canned apples and green beans abound. And since many Asian vegetables are available year-round in grocery stores, canning fruits and vegetables might be more suitable if you go to a pick-your-own farm and want to preserve your organic goodies.
Additionally, pickling and fermentation are excellent ways to take fresh food and make tangy side dishes or chutneys. Pickling involves immersing food in an acidic medium such as vinegar, and the pickled veggies can be eaten fairly quickly from the first date they were preserved. On the other hand, fermenting produces an acidic medium (lactic acid) as a result of the preservation process and takes longer to be fully preserved before consumption. A bonus of fermentation is that it has helpful probiotics and enzymes that aid digestion.
As a general home preservation caution, be careful in how you can, pickle, or ferment your food—make sure that all of your utensils and containers are clean, and that you properly label and date your preserves, especially if you gift them to others. For additional safety questions, general issues, and seasonal tips, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation. You can also check out hands-on canning workshops at George Mason University’s Sustainability Institute or the University of Maryland’s College of Agricultural and Natural Resources.
There are a bevy of Asian goodies to pickle and ferment: spicy Korean kimchi, Indian mango pickles, salt-preserved Japanese tsukemono, or Southeast Asian sriracha chili sauce, just to name a few. What are your favorite canned, pickled, and fermented foods and recipes?
