As we're rounding the corner into spring, and fresh fruits and berries start to crop up, is there a better way to enjoy them than on a bed of yogurt or cream fraiche? How about blended into a smoothie, or on a bed of kefir?
What is kefir? It's a lot like yogurt of cream fraiche, but instead of being fermented only by bacteria, it is created by culturing milk with both bacteria and yeast. This means it can even be digested by people who are lactose intolerant, and it's also really tasty. And once you have a culture going yourself, you can make pancakes every morning with the leftovers---if you don't drink it all, of course!
Eden Cooks is a cooking club for any interested members of the Eden community. We will meet on the forum to discuss everything from tips and pointers for less well-equipped kitchens, explanations of cooking terms, and important techniques. There will be a featured recipe each meeting, with pictures taken as I prepare it for you. I will cover some ingredient substitutions to make each recipe more friendly to people with dietary restrictions.
During the meeting, five $10 gift cards to EF will be awarded to the winners of a trivia contest from information that I will provide during the meeting, and to those who share fermenting and flavoring ideas of their own.
In this meeting, we'll cover the steps to kefir-making in depth and with pictures, including where to get grains, and we will also discuss culturing yogurt and buttermilk. And after the fermentation, there will be a tutorial for oladi, the traditional thick Slavic/Russian pancake, which is often made with kefir. I can't wait to share this with you, because home fermentation can be both delicious and a really awesome science class that you're learning from all the time.
Join us in this very thread at 8pm EST and let's eat in our lab coats!
What is kefir? It's a lot like yogurt of cream fraiche, but instead of being fermented only by bacteria, it is created by culturing milk with both bacteria and yeast. This means it can even be digested by people who are lactose intolerant, and it's also really tasty. And once you have a culture going yourself, you can make pancakes every morning with the leftovers---if you don't drink it all, of course!
Eden Cooks is a cooking club for any interested members of the Eden community. We will meet on the forum to discuss everything from tips and pointers for less well-equipped kitchens, explanations of cooking terms, and important techniques. There will be a featured recipe each meeting, with pictures taken as I prepare it for you. I will cover some ingredient substitutions to make each recipe more friendly to people with dietary restrictions.
During the meeting, five $10 gift cards to EF will be awarded to the winners of a trivia contest from information that I will provide during the meeting, and to those who share fermenting and flavoring ideas of their own.
In this meeting, we'll cover the steps to kefir-making in depth and with pictures, including where to get grains, and we will also discuss culturing yogurt and buttermilk. And after the fermentation, there will be a tutorial for oladi, the traditional thick Slavic/Russian pancake, which is often made with kefir. I can't wait to share this with you, because home fermentation can be both delicious and a really awesome science class that you're learning from all the time.
Join us in this very thread at 8pm EST and let's eat in our lab coats!
