Why is fermentation so popular in India?

From brewing one’s own kombucha or fermenting miso and soya sauce, and using Indian ingredients in unusual combinations, kitchens across the country have become fermenting labs for interesting flavours

Ajinkya Dharmapurikar, 32, a Pune-based IT engineer, remembers craving a very specific okra pickle during the lockdown. “It was served alongside southern fried chicken, and I remember having it in California, where I was studying. I didn’t want the fried chicken but the pickle,” he says. Since he did not have okra in storage, he pickled cucumbers with salt and cumin. “I left it fermenting for longer than usual, and it became cucumber mush. But it was tasty and I ended up finishing the whole jar,” jokes Dharmapurikar. While similar pickles found pride of place in his home, this experiment opened him up to the possibilities of  fermentation, specifically lactic acid fermentation. 

Curing versus lacto-fermentation

Many consider lacto-fermentation as ‘curing,’ a process even chef René Redzepi of the three-Michelin-star restaurant Noma in Copenhagen followed. In the introduction to The NOMA Guide to Fermentation, a tome that many fermentation enthusiasts globally follow, Redzepi writes in the introductory pages, “We set out to make our own caper-like pickle of (foraged) ramson buds. If you’d asked us what we thought was happening to the tiny garlicky orbs as they sat in a jar packed with salt, we would have described it as ‘curing’ or ‘maturing.’ If you’d mentioned the concept of lactic acid fermentation, we would have cocked our heads and looked at you quizzically.” But lacto-fermentation in this simple basic form has always existed across cuisines—think sauerkraut or kimchi.

Fermentation to reduce waste

Kolkata-based textile designer, fermenter and martial arts exponent Sanjukta Roy started her fermenting journey with sourdough to reduce waste while sheltering in place during the pandemic. The first thing she made was a pao cai, a traditional Chinese method of pickling greens and vegetables in brine, which she used to reduce wastage and preserve more. Now her kitchen shelf houses various ferments, fermented drinks and condiments, including mead, kefirs and miso, among others.

Combining traditional and modern methods

Goa-based Prachet Sancheti, 28—whose brand Brown Koji Boy (BKB) uses both traditional and modern Asian fermentation techniques on Indian produce—is also a fermentation enthusiast. A fan of macro-fermentation, it is a fondness he developed during stints while at restaurants across Sri Lanka and New York, and while tending to a hydroponic farm in Israel. But he grew a penchant for Japanese fermenting techniques while studying food sciences and gastronomy at the prestigious University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy.  

When his time in Italy was cut short by the pandemic, Sancheti started to tinker with fermentation at home while being guided online by researchers and leaders in the  field. “There was a gap in the market, in the sense that one could find koji only in fancy fine-dining restaurants. I was using other fermentation techniques too but played around with koji a fair bit more,” he says. Sancheti has named his brand after koji, the fungus scientifically known as aspergillus oryzae, which is used to make miso, soya sauce and beverages like sake and amazake. 

Soon he was making more than he could consume and started selling his produce locally, which, in turn, led to consulting opportunities with restaurants. “A year later, I finally started our brand.” BKB has had quite a meteoric rise in the restaurant scene in India. What started in 2020 as a kitchen shelf takeover has led to a brand with a veritable roster of misos, tamaris and shoyu that are being stocked and used in restaurants across the country.

What are they making?

BKB excels at making misos, amino sauces and seasonings from Indian produce—think shoyu or soy sauce made from chana dal, miso made from poe and beverages made from Goan red rice.” And while miso has always been typically assumed to be made from soybeans, Sancheti uses unexpected ingredients. There’s spiced chickpea miso, cashew and black garlic miso, roasted cashew dessert miso and even a “peaso” or a “lentil-forward miso” made with miso chana dal, mung dal and ukade koji (or koji grown Goan ukade rice).

Dharmapurikar, too, uses recognisably Indian flavours in his ferments. He has been tinkering with mung bean miso flavoured with kasuri methi and chilli pepper, an Indian take on shoyu made with toor dal and kalpasi or black stone flower and meads. Another miso he incorporates is, kala ghevda, or black turtle beans, often used in Mexican cuisine as frijoles negros.

Meads and kombucha are often what most new fermentation enthusiasts begin with, given the growing interest in probiotics.  With readily available guidance online, many continue on this journey. Dharmapurikar made his first mead with raisins and honey because “fruits and honey are a golden combination”. Along the way, he has experimented with quite a few flavour variants, including a four-year-old sourdough starter, and one with oolong tea and oranges. His latest—and favourite—mead adventure is what he calls a “kitchen sink mead” that uses barley koji, hops and honey. “It tastes pretty much like hopped mead with a slight malty taste. I’m loving it a little too much (sic),” he writes on his Instagram fermentation journal, @fermentation29.

What are they putting it in? 

But more than the making of it, what is fascinating is how these ferments are being used in unexpected ways. “I find it heartening when I see people use BKB condiments in Indian dishes instead of a standard ramen or a miso soup,” says Sancheti. Think chickpea miso in khichdi, or cashew miso in hummus. And BKB’s collaborations are wide-ranging—from using koji to make pale ale by joining hands with Goa Brewing Company or using aged peaso to make Olmi Mushroom Galouti with Chef Avinash Martins at Cavatina in Goa. Dharmapurikar’s mung bean kasuri miso is used to cure meats by the Daily Cut, a charcuterie brand based in Pune. He also uses koji in fried chicken and kimchi fried chicken, lacto-fermented watermelon rinds, and sauerkraut with pineapple.

Roy, too, uses her ferments in different ways.. Her Instagram page is a smorgasbord of shio koji-fermented dosa batter that’s beautifully fluffy, or a citrus peel kosho in an eggy congee. She even recommends making rice wine or hadiya for stomach ailments and uses the mahua flower to make “a beautiful flame-red mahua vinegar”.

Is it really good for you?

That fermented foods are good for you and genuinely beneficial cannot be denied. London-based risk analyst Srijita Datta, 37, learned this early in 2021. “I was trying to incorporate more protein and fibre in my diet. I had followed it earlier  as well but even if I lost weight, I couldn’t keep it off. I knew a part of that could be attributed to stress. But reading books like Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Ender made me realise that good bacteria for the gut is super essential,” she says.  

Roy, too, noticed feeling lighter with the addition of probiotics to her diet. “I was going through perimenopause and everything seemed out of whack. Hot flushes, brain fog, feeling bloated, lack of sleep—I was dealing with it all. But nearly a year-and-a-half into it, and I feel better,” she shares.

Eat it because you like it

Dharmapurikar cautions that “probiotics on their own will not magically make you healthier. You need to balance prebiotics and probiotics, and even postbiotics, for a healthy gut microbiome.” 

Have it not because it is good for you but because you enjoy it, believes Sancheti. “Our products are naturally fermented, unpasteurised and free of flavour additives like MSG and sugar. So while we are not denying the health benefits, for us, flavour comes first,” says Sancheti.

In his book, The Art of Fermentation: An In-depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World, Sandor Ellix Katz writes, “The word ‘culture’ comes from Latin ‘cultura,’ a form of colere, or ‘to cultivate.’ Our cultivation of the land and its creatures—plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria—is essential to culture. Reclaiming our food and our participation in cultivation is a means of cultural revival.” So stir your miso into your fish curry as Datta did or into your khichdi as Sancheti does. It is not just food, but a cultural revolution on your plate.

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