JAKE BUCHAN is an experienced AA Rosette Head Chef who has recently relocated to the Keighley area. In his new monthly column he will share a recipe that involves his four passions: cooking, fermenting, foraging locally and curing.

Jake is an idealistic and innovative chef with a wide understanding of cuisine, creating imaginative and wholesome dishes (often salvaging ingredients to avoid waste) incorporating interesting and exciting flavours which are often available on the doorstep right here in our local area.

Jake says: I have worked as a Head Chef for over fifteen years in many different restaurants across Manchester, preparing and creating dishes over a variety of different cuisines and trends.

As well as expressing myself through my food creations I am extremely interested in the transformation process of ingredients to prepare food or dishes, creating something new from a natural product is infinitely pleasing to me!

The recipe I am sharing with you this month embodies this in the most perfect and simple way; you are in effect just assisting mother nature, giving her a guided hand enabling her to work her magic, engaging in a tradition that goes back thousands of years, pre-dating refrigeration and canning.

What I also love about the fermentation process is that it does not involve a heat source, all you need is a knife and a jar – so anyone can have a go, just chop, salt and wait!

Traditionally Sauerkraut is made with cabbage, however I have created this recipe with seasonal ingredients all located locally at Keelham Farm Shop.

It's a delicious aniseed flavoured dish made with white cabbage and kohlrabi, seasoned with star anise, grapefruit zest and fennel, that goes perfectly with pork, salt beef and cheese.

Sauerkraut is finely-cut cabbage that has been subject to a fermenting process by various lactic acid bacteria.

It has a very distinctive sour flavour and an extremely long shelf-life, both of which are a result of the fermentation process, where the sugars in the cabbage ferment with the lactic acid to create it.

Lactic acid are bacteria found in decomposing plants and milk products. It is the end product of 'Carbohydrate Fermentation', acidification that inhibits spoilage agents and also means the creation of complex flavours.

Lactic acid bacteria have a long history of use in the food industry, usually best known for creating cheese from milk, or yoghurt. They are also used in many probiotic products for their health-promoting benefits.

Usually of course, people assume bacteria are our enemies however there are so many potential health benefits available to us from eating lacto-fermented foods: improved nutritional values of food, control of intestinal infections, improved digestion of lactose, the control of some types of cancer and also the control of serum cholesterol levels.

However, in our daily lives we already consume many fermented foods such as chocolate, yoghurt, cheese, bread, coffee, pickles and vinegars so we are on the way there to healthy lives already!

Fermentation also improves flavour and nutritional value, and makes the transfer of pathogenic micro organisms less likely.