Focus on Fermentation Week: Kefir

Funny how the last few fermented foods I have written about are all foreign sounding words beginning with K. Kefir (pronounced ke-feer) is another lacto-fermented product that provides numerous health benefits. I was a little dubious about this one as people had told me it doesn't taste great. I still decided to make it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tastes similar to yoghurt, and with fruit blended through it (as in the image above) it is actually really refreshing. As with Kombucha tea, the health benefits are astounding and are summarised and explained really well on Imperfectly Natural. 

Here are just a few of them:

1.     Diabetes - because of naturally occurring sugars within kefir, it is a good tool for regulating blood sugar for those who struggle with diabetes.

2.   Kefir boosts the immune system to effectively fight external germs and potential diseases.

3.   Treats digestive disorders such as constipation, diarrhoea, and substantially decreases bloating, wind, discomfort in the abdominal area, and thrush.

4.   Kefir apparently assists with colon cancer, ulcers, respiratory conditions, eczema, psoriasis, acne and diseases bourne from gut dysbiosis (a destructive imbalance of microbial flora which is linked to e.g. inflammatory bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome).

6.   Kefir is teeming with vitamins and minerals that are easily absorbed by the body such as vitamins B and K, folic acid, phosphorous, calcium and magnesium.

7.   Kefir provides energy by assisting with digestion.

8.   Kefir improves the functioning of the liver, gallbladder, circulation and heart activity. it increases metabolism, oxygen supply to the cells and blood circulation to the brain. 

Phew, I am going to have the healthiest gut in the country at this rate!

As with Kombucha, Kefir also needs a special ingredient to get the culture started. The kefir 'grains' are what you need and they are not really grains, just a special culture that in many European families, is handed down through the generations. I found my grains on Ebay - $3 for one teaspoon including delivery and instructions...how could I not give it a go? This is the plastic bag I received (above).

The white grains stuck to the plastic so I scraped them off the best I could...with a plastic spoon, apparently metal is not good for the kefir.

This is what I ended up with in my glass, a little messy but probably about a teaspoon of grains.

Cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel and secure with a rubber band. Leave the jar on the kitchen bench and the kefir will ferment at room temperature. During winter you can place the kefir on the top of the fridge to ferment quicker. 

Check the kefir every 6-12 hours or so. Once the milk has thickened, the kefir has formed, usually 24-48 hours.  It is a good idea to let the first batch ferment for three days, then I have found subsequent batches are ready every 24 hours.

Another sign that you have kefir is if it tastes tangy and sour like natural greek yoghurt. You then strain the milk and the remaining grains are placed back into the jar and topped with fresh milk…a continual process.

If you want a stronger fermented kefir (with more probiotics) then wait until the floating curds separate with the whey (which stays on the bottom), then mix the two together and drink. 

The interesting thing with kefir is if you place the grains in a larger vessel with more milk, then the grains will multiply, producing a larger quantity of kefir. I am happy with one coffee jar full per day, which is enough for a work-day fruit smoothie and to add to my dishes for dinner. Last night I used it in place of yoghurt in a chicken curry, stirring through last minute. There are some amazing recipes for using kefir if you do a Google search.

So, there you have it...the last post in this current fermentation series, and another gut-busting sensation. Have you ever heard of kefir or do you already make it yourself?

Focus on Fermentation Week: Kombucha

Kombucha is a naturally carbonated, fermented tea. It is made from a starter culture called a Scoby (warning...it is one alien looking culture) and has many health benefits including the following:

1. It boosts the Immune System - because it is fermented it encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the stomach and is also rich in antioxidants, which help to strengthen immunity.

2. It is a Natural Detoxifier - The good bacteria that Kombucha promotes aids in detoxifying your gut, and it also supports liver function.

3. It is Rich in Vitamins and Enzymes - Kombucha is rich in Vitamin B which provide support for the body's metabolic functions including overall energy, utilization of carbohydrates, heart health, and healthy hair skin and nails. The digestive enzymes that Kombucha provides breaks down the food we eat into smaller compounds so the nutrients can be more easily absorbed into the bloodstream.

4. Increased Energy and Metabolism - The Vitamin B increases energy and the beneficial bacteria in the Kombucha help your body work better and take the burden off it's functioning.

5. PMS Relief - the Vitamin B vitamins break down and flush out excess estrogen from the body.

6. Relief from Arthritis and Joint Pain - As Arthritis is an immune disorder, Kombucha's probiotic bacteria assists in strengthening immunity.

So, when I read all of this on the leaflet that came with my mail-order Scoby, I knew that this was a fermented product that I just had to try...despite the initially daunting process, which, I am pleased to say was so much easier than I first thought. And the Kombucha tastes beautiful!! The above image shows how my Scoby was packed...taped up in plastic and posted in an envelope.

This image shows the 'starter tea' surrounding the Scoby - it had to have something to live on during transit.

Now, I did warn you...pretty gross looking right? A bit like a deflated chicken fillet.

My Scoby came with instructions to make my first batch by boiling 1.5 litres of water and adding three teabags (organic black tea works best) and 3/4 cup of sugar. Mix until dissolved and remove the tea bags after ten minutes. Then let the tea cool.

Once it is cooled, pour the tea into a glass jar (Scoby does not like plastic) with the starter tea (the liquid the Scoby came in) . I used this one with a tap so that I can easily taste test during fermentation without disturbing the Scoby. You place the Scoby  on top of the tea, seal with a cloth and cover with a tea towel. Then you leave it to ferment.

This shot was taken on day 3.

This was taken on Day 10. If you want a sweeter tea you ferment for a short time, but if you like it bitter then you can brew it for a couple of weeks. Ten days was perfect in this weather. It is slightly carbonated and still sweet. You can just see in the above image that the Scoby has spread out across the full width of the glass jar...and the dark spot is actually....

...A baby Scoby, one that can be given to someone to start their Kombucha. You just peel it off it's 'mother'.

Look how beautiful and clear the tea is. You can just see the bubbles on the edges. My boys said it tasted like beer, but the fermented taste is very mild. You can combine your tea with other liquids such as water or fruit juice for different flavours. Just keep it in the fridge and it will last for several months...if your family don't drink it all first like mine :)

Now, how is that for one weird science experiment? Now that I have more 'starter tea' I am making a full batch of five litres, so in ten days time I can experiment with some new flavours and juices. And all for the cost of $10 for my Scoby, a few teabags and filtered water...a very economical and healthy beverage.

Have you ever made Kombucha before or tasted it?

Focus on Fermentation Week: Kimchi

Image Source

Before attending the fermentation workshop I had never heard of Kimchi, let alone tasted it. It is of Korean origin and is used as a side dish, and a base for many recipes. I have since spotted it at my local Asian Grocer, but after tasting a homemade version of it at the workshop, I am keen to make my own...eventually. I did not have a photograph of the finished product we made, but the above image looks just the same.

This is what you will need:

1 x wombok cabbage

1-2 onions, leeks or scallions

1-2 carrots, chopped

3-4 red hot chillies, finely chopped or you can use Korean Chilli powder (1 tablespoon)

Fresh grated ginger

2 tablespoons sour whey

Sea salt

Start by washing the wombok cabbage, and then cut it coarsely.

I would say each piece was roughly 3cm by 3cm as a guide.

Place the cabbage into a metal mixing bowl and then pound it with a rolling pin (end) until it gets a bit slack.

Add large chunks of onion, layers separated.

Add the salt (about a teaspoon) to approx half a litre of water in a small bucket.

Add the sour whey (can be from yoghurt) and chilli spices. Then add the chopped carrots and grated ginger.

Add the cabbage and onion to the liquid.

Then press down with your fists until the liquid covers the top of the cabbage. Place a plate on top with a weight on it to keep the vegetables submerged.

Keep on a bench for five days, and then pack the contents into jars in the fridge.

As you can image, the kimchi is quite spicy, but not overly so. I liked it as a side dish with our lunch, but I did prefer the Sauerkraut.

So, have you ever tried or made Korean Kimchi? I am tempted to buy some from the Asian grocer just to see what an authentic one tastes like.

Focus on Fermentation Week: Fermented Fruit Paste

This week I have been sharing recipes from the recent Sour Dough and Fermentation Workshop I attended. This fruit paste is my favourite of the day. The flavour is a little like a tangy, sweet chutney, with a subtle hint of alcohol...provided by the fermentation process, not added to the recipe. Before I share Elisabeth Fekonia's recipe though, I thought I would share some information from the workbook she provided to us, about the benefit of fermented foods for our children.

"Today's children are all too often lacking in a healthy population of gut flora. As adults we carry inside us 1.5-2kg of bacteria, yeasts and fungi. We need them for appropriate digestion and absorption of our food. A mother who was not breast fed herself and who has had several courses of antibiotics, been on the pill and is accustomed to eating fast food before conceiving her child, will inevitably not be able to pass on healthy gut flora to her new-born baby. The child then has a much greater chance of developing autistic disorders, ADDH/ADD, schizophrenia, bi-polar, obsessive compulsive disorders, depression and other psychiatric disorders and allergies...this generation is suffering more than ever before in history with compromised immune systems that need to do battle with the toxic age we live in."

Well....after reading that, I am certainly motivated to keep introducing these fermented foods into my children's diets, and there are many others promoting this age old diet.

Food for thought....

Fermented Fruit Paste

I prepared half of Elisabeth's original recipe which made enough paste to fill a large coffee jar.

Ingredients

375g pitted dates, cut in half
125g pitted prunes cut in half
100g combination of nuts and seeds, crushed or chopped
50g firm fruit such as apple, pineapple, rockmelon
A bit of grated ginger
Salt
Whey (from yoghurt, kefired milk or cheese making)

My selection of nuts and seeds before chopping.

Add 250ml water to a bowl, then add enough salt to taste a slight saltiness (about two pinches). Add a few tablespoons of whey. If you don't have any in the fridge, you can create whey easily by straining a small tub of natural yoghurt. The yellow liquid leftover is the whey.

Place your fruit mixture into the liquid and place a plate on top to push the fruit below the liquid. Then place a jar of liquid on top. I then placed my bowl under a net fly cover and left it on the bench for five days.

Not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but you can see the fruit has absorbed the liquid. You then just place it in a jar and it will keep in the fridge for months. What a wonderful way to utilise dried fruits, whilst providing a healthy paste for your stomach. Others at the course said they roll this mixture into balls, and coat with crushed nuts as a snack for lunch boxes or work. I will be trying that one out too :)

Have you ever tied anything like this before? I certainly hadn't. The mind boggles with possibilities and I am only just scratching the surface of this fermentation topic. Can you guess what recipe I will post tomorrow?

Focus On Fermentation Week: Sauerkraut

Until I went to Elisabeth's workshop I had not even tried sauerkraut. It certainly is an acquired taste and I use it like a relish, serving it up with salads, or with meat, for added flavour...and for a healthy dose of probiotics. Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage and you can use any type of cabbage to make it, even red cabbage. If you use savoy cabbage rather than drumhead, your sauerkraut will be ready to eat in a few days. Cabbage is really interesting to ferment as you do not need to add anything except for salt because the lactic-forming bacteria are already present on the cabbage itself. 

You will need:

One cabbage

A few pinches of salt

Caraway seeds for flavour (or whatever you prefer)

A large metal bowl

A sharp knife

A jar large enough to put your hands in

The first step is to slice the cabbage finely. I removed any chunky bits from my bowl. You then squish the cabbage between your fingers releasing all the juice. This takes some time, and the fellow next to me stepped in to help me 'massage my cabbage'.

You need to keep working the cabbage, adding salt every now and then to help draw out the juices, until there is enough juice to cover the cabbage when you put it in your jar. At this stage we also added some caraway seeds and I love the flavour these add to the sauerkraut.

Once you have worked it enough, you place it into a wide mouth jar (large enough to get your hand in) and press down with your fist until the liquid sits on top. Then you top it off with a couple of discarded outer cabbage leaves to hold the liquid in. The image above is of my finished sauerkraut which has absorbed most of the juice.

This is a rather messy shot of a purple cabbage sauerkraut showing the amount of juice.

The final step in the process is to let it stand at room temperature for five days, then keep it in the fridge. I left mine on the kitchen bench with the lid sealed, but not tight. If you do end up with mould on top just discard the top layer as the sauerkraut underneath will be healthy.

So, there you have it. It's a bit of a messy process but I still have a lot of sauerkraut left and it keeps for a long time in the fridge. You would probably only need to make it once a month or so.

Do you ever buy sauerkraut? If so, have you ever thought about making it yourself?

Focus on Fermentation Week: Sour Dough Bread Workshop

A couple of weeks ago, I had the absolute pleasure of attending a Sour Dough and Fermentation workshop.
It was held in the local town of  Cooroy and hosted by an amazing lady, Elisabeth Fekonia, who has been self-sufficient for the past decade or so. I found out about the workshop via the Permaculture Noosa group, where Elisabeth also happens to be the president. So, how could I resist this fantastic opportunity to learn more about my current fascination for fermented foods...and to make a loaf of sour dough bread that is more suitable for eating than making houses with (unlike the first brick I made several months ago).

This post is the first in a series on fermented foods. I will be sharing Elisabeth's recipes as well as others I have tried recently. What I am discovering is that the 'irritable bowel' symptoms I have had all my life are all but gone through the daily intake of fermented foods...and now that I have my made my own beautiful loaf of sour dough bread, using Elisabeth's starter, it will become a regular fixture in my weekly home-made regimen.

My sour dough bread using Elisabeth's starter

This first post will outline what we covered in the first half of the full day workshop, and I will follow up with daily posts of specific recipes from the afternoon session. If you ever see this type of workshop available, or you are fortunate enough to live in South East Queensland where Elisabeth travels to do hers, then I urge you to attend. The $95 I spent was such good value for money (including gourmet lunch and morning tea), and the internet cannot teach you what your dough should smell like, or exactly how the dough should feel after kneading. That kind of experience, handed down by someone so charming and knowledgeable, is priceless...and thoroughly enjoyable.

This was the very interesting table set up when I arrived...a myriad of fascinating produce and raw ingredients.

This is what we started with to make our sour dough. It is known as a sour dough sponge, and is made from the sour dough starter, which is basically a mixture of flour and water (equal parts) which you leave on a bench for a few days to ferment. You cover it with a loose weave cloth and it is ready in about 3-4 days. The first time I made this starter (following internet instructions) I added flour and water every day to "feed' it which Elisabeth says is not required...thank goodness because I often forgot, but you do need to stir it daily and the length of time it takes to 'ripen' will be effected by the temperature...it is ready when it smells yeasty and bubbles.

Now, Elisabeth's starter (which was a portion of her dough from previous baking) is really special. This is what she uses:

1 cup freshly ground organic flour (yes, she grinds her own flour)
1 cup raw milk
1 cup of kefir, yoghurt or buttermilk (I will be discussing Kefir later this week)

We each got to take home some of Elisabeth's dough which I keep in a container in the fridge. The sponge was made by mixing the dough with some water (I also used whey) until it breaks down, and then adding flour and dough until you get a thick batter-like consistency. Then cover with a tea-towel and leave overnight.

The next step is to add some flour to the starter (this you just have to judge), and knead it until it no longer separates, and is a lovely soft dough.

The dough is quite springy when you put a finger into it. If you overknead you will end up with a tough dense loaf.

The dough was placed into small buttered bread tins (don't you just love this vintage set?) and covered with a tea towel to rise. We put them in the back seat of a car to speed up the rising (say about 3 hours).

Whilst the bread was rising we made up a sour dough pikelet batter. You take about 3 cups of sour dough sponge, mix in one egg. Then add enough milk to allow the batter to just drop off the ladle. Then add one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and allow the mixture to froth and bubble.

Cook on a hot frypan using ghee (made from Elisabeth's butter, which is made from her own cow's milk). I am looking into making some myself. because it is good for you and does not brown when you heat it up.

This was our magnificent morning tea. Sour dough pikelets with jam and kefir soured cream, freshly made by Elisabeth. Yummo! The pikelets rose beautifully and were a lot lighter than sour dough bread.

We spent the rest of the morning going through the sour dough starter process and Elisabeth discussed the theory behind making her own fermented fruit wine. The process sounds a little complicated for me but will be on my to-do list for a time in the future when I have perfected everything else :) We then started setting up for lunch.

And some of Elisabeth's beautiful cheese was placed on the table. I think this was a cheddar.

And an amazing Brie that was out of this world in terms of flavour.

My amateur photography does not do this lunch justice. Home made sour dough bread with five varieties of cheese including a quark. There was sauerkraut and kimchi, and fermented nut paste, together with a fresh salad, miso paste, and fresh paw-paw. I have never eaten so many amazing flavours together and my belly did not bloat or feel uncomfortable...it just felt amazing. Oh, and we also had a glass of home-made passionfuit wine each to wash it down with...heaven.

These are the finished loaves of bread, turned out to cool. we each took home half a loaf. It was a lot tougher than the bread Elisabeth baked at home, due to a bit of over kneading on our part.

The afternoon was spent making sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented nut paste and preparing a fruit wine. I will share some images and recipes over the next few days.

Have you ever been to a hands-on workshop like this before? My next one will be Elisabeth's cheese making workshop. If you want to check out Elisabeth's approach to self sufficiency check out this video on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJbPo7HqjPs.