Banana Stand

Meet the latest kraut creation from the kitchen of Fridge Top Ferments:  Banana Stand!

Sometimes the decision on what type of kraut to make next comes from Internet searches or seeing what commercial kraut makers are putting out.  Other times it comes from walking the local food co-op or farmers markets to see whats in season.  In the case of Banana Stand however, it came from somebody saying "I like banana peppers, you should do a kraut with those."  And with that simple sentence uttered from my brother, a star was born!

The goods.

For this batch of kraut I went with 3 heads of cabbage, 8 banana peppers, 6 cloves of garlic, and a thumb of ginger.  Determining the amount of peppers to put into the kraut involved a very complicated method of getting a call from my wife, who was at the store while I was at working, asking "you have banana peppers on the shopping list, how many do you need?"  And me answering confidently "ummmm, eight will do."  For garlic, I stuck with my not overpowering quantity of 2 cloves per head of cabbage.  And for ginger, I stayed with a thumb size per 3 heads.  The latter two ingredients play more of a supporting role in these amounts, which is what I was aiming for (I didn't name it Garlic Stand after all).

And the cabbage danced a happy dance around the peppers.

After seeding and chopping up the banana peppers into strips, I mixed everything together with some indeterminate quantity of salt, packed it down hard into the crock, and let nature work its magic.

Doing this in the heat of summer led to a pair of issues I had to deal with.  The first being that cabbage is not a summer crop, which causes prices to go up, which then results in my quantity purchased to go down.  As much as I would have loved to have put another head of cabbage into this, Fridge Top Ferments runs on a tight budget of nothing, so I had to restrain myself.

The second issue was heat.  Traditionally, kraut is made in the cooler months of the year because heat can cause fermentation to get out of control, particularly in the first week when yeast is doing its thing.  Adding ingredients like peppers, garlic, and ginger can help control that, and so can fermenting in a cooler environment.  So for the first time ever, Fridge Top Ferments went underground!  The crock was placed on the cold basement floor instead of my traditional top of the fridge location (hence the name Fridge Top Ferments) to combat the summer heat as best I could.

I kept a careful eye on it throughout the fermentation, peering into the crock every few days, and gave it a taste 3 weeks in to make sure all was well.  Thankfully, it went off without any issues!

Serving size 1.

As far as I can tell, there aren't any krauts on the market that are fermented with banana peppers.  And after tasting the results, I think they're missing the boat (the banana boat).  It's delicious, mildy spicy, and tastes like banana peppers mixed with kraut.  What more could you ask for out of a food?

10 cents gets you nuts!

As far as the name, it only seemed appropriate that I take the opportunity to celebrate the return of Arrested Development (of which my cat Gob is named after) by naming the kraut Banana Stand.  A great kraut named after a great show, it's a match made in heaven (or at least 'Wee Britain')!