#EdenCooks - Kefir and Oladi Pancakes - Monday March 18, at 8pm EST!

Contributor: bog bog
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
That's not actually a fermentation, it's just a jar on my counter! I am re-hydrating some wheat berries, so that they can sprout, and then I will dry them out and grind them. Diastatic malt is an enzyme that converts starch to sugar for when ... more
Happy to pitch in a few recipes! Thanks for being so welcoming - this is my first Eden Cooks party! Yaayy!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
did you sour the dough?
I let it have a poolish overnight first. Then a good gluten development all day... it smells soooooo good in here right now. I wish I had time to bake every day. But once a week is definitely better than nothing!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by bog
Happy to pitch in a few recipes! Thanks for being so welcoming - this is my first Eden Cooks party! Yaayy!
I think we should be thanking you for showing up
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I'm starting with mozzarella - I was going to make bocconcini (my spell check tried to correct that to "convincing"), but it's apparently not easy to find water buffalo milk. I'm excited to make all sorts of different flavors, though!
Wow, mozz is a tough cheese to start with! Have fun with it---the stretchign is so much fun
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by bog
Happy to pitch in a few recipes! Thanks for being so welcoming - this is my first Eden Cooks party! Yaayy!
I'm so glad you're here!

The first couple of cultured milks to spring to my mind are cheese, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, and labneh. Kefir is one I didn't learn about til a few years after I became interested in culturing things. These four basic foods are made using two different cultures. Yogurt and labneh and many hard cheeses are made with thermophilic (heat-thriving) bacteria, and buttermilk, sour cream, and many soft cheese are made with mesophilic (moderate-temperature thriving) bacteria.

Cheese is a more time-intensive food to produce, but if you guys are interested I can throw together some of the basics that I know at the end of the meeting.

But for the cultures you can make today and eat tomorrow, buttermilk and sour cream are the easiest. You can get a live culture (containing strains like Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris... but it's hard to know from dairy to dairy) by buying some fresh buttermilk (grab the one with the freshest date at the grocery store, this will be fresh enough in most places), and adding about a quarter cup of the buttermilk to a quart jar of regular milk. In 24 hours at room temperature, your quart jar will all be buttermilk. You can store this in the fridge, and make more buttermilk by adding a quarter cup to a quart of milk any time. The culture will stay fresh if you do this about twice a week. Sour cream can be made in exactly the same way, just fill your quart jar with heavy cream instead of with milk.

Yogurt and labneh (and in the middle, by the same technique, "Greek Yogurt") can be made with just a little more work. The thermophilic cultures that produce yogurt (Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus) can be gotten from a fresh batch of (plain, unsweetened) commercial yogurt from the grocery store. But for the microbes to flourish, they need to be cultured at warm temperatures. Because both desired and undesired microbes work faster at higher temperatures, first bring your milk to a boil to be sure you're starting with a clean slate. Boiling the milk also helps the finished yogurt to be thicker. Then, let it cool to 115F. Add the culture, and incubate at 115F for six to eight hours. I usually do this by floating sealed mason jars in a travel cooler filled with warm water, underneath my electric heating pad. If you are working without a heating pad, make yogurt on a day off and change the water every half hour or so, dumping out cooling water and adding water that you have boiled and let come to 118-115F. After the ~8 hours, your yogurt be finished. If you want the thicker "Greek yogurt," put your yogurt in a pillowcase and hang it so the whey drips out, and put it back in the container when it reaches the desired thickness. For labneh, have it drip and hang overnight until all of the whey is gone---you will have the spreadable rich yogurt-cheese found in Lebanese cuisine.
03/18/2013
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
Wow, mozz is a tough cheese to start with! Have fun with it---the stretchign is so much fun
I'm hoping that it's not unlike stretching dough, because I have a good deal of practice with that. I remember the first time I made salt water taffy - I had to get my mom to come help me with it because my arms were going to sleep, ha.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Kristi :) Kristi :)
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I'm starting with mozzarella - I was going to make bocconcini (my spell check tried to correct that to "convincing"), but it's apparently not easy to find water buffalo milk. I'm excited to make all sorts of different flavors, though!
Best cheese for pizza!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I'm hoping that it's not unlike stretching dough, because I have a good deal of practice with that. I remember the first time I made salt water taffy - I had to get my mom to come help me with it because my arms were going to sleep, ha.
Awww, we did saltwater taffy as kids in 4H. Talk about a good way to work out the energy of 12-year-olds...
03/18/2013
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
Awww, we did saltwater taffy as kids in 4H. Talk about a good way to work out the energy of 12-year-olds...
I was twelve at the time too. My best friend decided that she wanted to make some, but then she didn't have any desire to actually stretch it.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I was twelve at the time too. My best friend decided that she wanted to make some, but then she didn't have any desire to actually stretch it.
I'm proud of you for being able to walk the walk (or stretch the stretch...)


Kefir is equally as easy as buttermilk and sour cream cultures, in that room temperature produces a good result. Instead of being only a bacterial culture, kefir's culture also contains yeasts. As with any live bacterial culture, there are many strains present (check out this link, for example), but it's easier to think in terms of kefir's culture as containing lactobacilli, streptococci, and yeasts.

Unlike yogurt, where the culture just freely intermixes with the milk and you can eat everything, kefir's culture is propagated by little clusters called 'grains'. The grains are a combination of the lactobacillus, streptococcus, and yeast cultures that build their own little framework, aided by kefiran (the solubule polysaccharide byproduct of Lb. kefiranofaciens). (Researchers are still working out the chicken-and-egg problem here, but the tight-knit structure of grains means that bacteria in the centers are metabolizing anaeorbically. Kefiran, the polysaccharide, is produced in the anaerobic environment, and it's also nice and sticky, which allows the grains to stay tight-knit.) As you introduce them to fresh milk each day, the grains grow in size, and also produce little off-shoots which will eventually fall off and become full-sized grains.



These grains can be gotten from a friend, or from a nice benefator on the internet (I got mine from a lady in my hometown just be googling "kefir share" ), or you can buy them from online merchants for somewhere around $15.

03/18/2013
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I'm so glad you're here!

The first couple of cultured milks to spring to my mind are cheese, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, and labneh. Kefir is one I didn't learn about til a few years after I became interested in culturing ... more
Don't throw out the whey! Use that for fermenting veggies!!!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
Don't throw out the whey! Use that for fermenting veggies!!!
I haven't done this before---teach me how? Any other ingredients, or just veggies and whey? What temperature?
03/18/2013
Contributor: bog bog
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I'm so glad you're here!

The first couple of cultured milks to spring to my mind are cheese, yogurt, sour cream, buttermilk, and labneh. Kefir is one I didn't learn about til a few years after I became interested in culturing ... more
Don't forget to salt labneh! The saltiness is what distinguishes labneh from other yogurt and kefir-based cheeses.

The easiest cheese in the world is:
culture kefir too long (until it separates) and hang it in a cheesecloth or piece of muslin fabric.

Salt it or don't. That's all!
03/18/2013
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I'm proud of you for being able to walk the walk (or stretch the stretch...)


Kefir is equally as easy as buttermilk and sour cream cultures, in that room temperature produces a good result. Instead of being only a bacterial culture, ... more
I love that there's actually a kefir sharing system! That's actually really neat.
03/18/2013
Contributor: bog bog
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I haven't done this before---teach me how? Any other ingredients, or just veggies and whey? What temperature?
Just a teaspoonful in saltwater will do the trick!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by surreptitious
I love that there's actually a kefir sharing system! That's actually really neat.
Yeah, I was really happy. And of course now I share mine along forward too---it's self-propagating, so why not!

Once you've got kefir grains, the kefir practically makes itself! Just put your grains in a clean jar (either washed in a dishwasher, or boiled), and cover them with milk. I'll show you how I make mine, but the process is adjustable to taste---If you like thinner kefir you can use more milk per grains, or strain more often. If you like it thicker, you can use less milk per grains, or let it culture for a long time. If you're using a long culturing time, be sure to stir with a sterilized spoon, or shake your jar up every once in a while to get the grains access to fresh milk.
For pictures, let's start at the beginning, when your benefactor hands you your grains. Put them in a jar.

Fill the jar with half a quart of milk.

Let sit at room temperature (for me, that's about 68F this time of year) for 24 hours. So at the same time on the next day, add another half-quart of milk (so the jar is full) and stir the culture well. (In the original days, when peasants of the Caucasus Mountains would make kefir in a goat bladder (because these were the days before mason jars), the kefir sack would be hung in a doorway and people would slap the bag to mix it every time they walked through.)
In 24 more hours, the kefir is ready to drink (or to be made into pancakes).


03/18/2013
Contributor: bog bog
Quote:
Originally posted by Wicked Wahine
Don't throw out the whey! Use that for fermenting veggies!!!
This is the Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions) method.

Sandor Katz's method involves only saltwater. Check out Wild Fermentation
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by bog
Just a teaspoonful in saltwater will do the trick!
Cool. What veggies do you guys suggest?
03/18/2013
Contributor: Kristi :) Kristi :)
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
Yeah, I was really happy. And of course now I share mine along forward too---it's self-propagating, so why not!

Once you've got kefir grains, the kefir practically makes itself! Just put your grains in a clean jar (either washed in a ... more
Seems easy enough, we will have to try it.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Lildrummrgurl7 Lildrummrgurl7
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
Yeah, I was really happy. And of course now I share mine along forward too---it's self-propagating, so why not!

Once you've got kefir grains, the kefir practically makes itself! Just put your grains in a clean jar (either washed in a ... more
Haha that's an interesting way to mix it. I never knew that.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Kristi :) Kristi :)
Any suggestions for making a flavor kafir?
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by Lildrummrgurl7
Haha that's an interesting way to mix it. I never knew that.
I know, right? I can just imagine a family where someone didn't cinch the closure tight enough and a balloon full of kefir falls from the sky..!
03/18/2013
Contributor: ZZ ZZ
It possibly made for odd arguments, "Why didn't you slap the goat bladder? Everyone does their part!"
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by Kristi :)
Any suggestions for making a flavor kafir?

Yes---cranberry is my favorite. Get some cranberry juice concentrate (like when they boil it down to extract the juice, but haven't 'jucied it back up' with water yet. Sooooo good.

I also use fruit syrup (like from blueberries or strawberries.) And since I work at a coffeeshop, sometimes I'll add pumps of the simple syrups used for coffees---so I can have "hazelnut" kefir.

But cranberry is my favorite.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova
Quote:
Originally posted by ZZ
It possibly made for odd arguments, "Why didn't you slap the goat bladder? Everyone does their part!"
Yesssss!
03/18/2013
Contributor: bog bog
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
Cool. What veggies do you guys suggest?
use saltwater to ferment:

whole green beans with stalks of fresh dill

whole cloves of garlic for cooking

giardinera (hot peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, and any combination of whatever else you like)

experiment!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Wicked Wahine Wicked Wahine
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I haven't done this before---teach me how? Any other ingredients, or just veggies and whey? What temperature?
The whey can be kept in the fridge in an airtight container for a few weeks. If you get any mold, you can strain it out. As long as they whey doesn't bubble or smell bad it useful. The amount to use depends on the recipe you're following. For the kimchi recipe I did I used 1/4 c for what yielded 1 qt. I HIGHLY recomment the Idiot's Guide to Fermenting because it has many recipes. After you get that down, it makes easier to understand Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation & his newer encylopeadic tome, The Art of Fermentation.

Honestly & noticed it's usually 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of whey for a quart. But I could be wrong, so...
03/18/2013
Contributor: surreptitious surreptitious
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I know, right? I can just imagine a family where someone didn't cinch the closure tight enough and a balloon full of kefir falls from the sky..!
With April Fool's Day coming up, I'm glad that that's not how we mix it anymore.
03/18/2013
Contributor: Antipova Antipova

Pour your quart of kefir into a fine strainer (or into a cheesecloth, if you like) with a large enough container underneath to catch everything.


Obviously a little different from the milk you started with!
If you like your kefir thick, like I do, it won't go through your strainer without a little help.


So roll the grains with a spoon to force the kefir through---just scrape the edge of the spoon across the surface of the strainer. Be gentle with your grains, though.


Before long, only the grains will remain---


put them back in a quart jar, and fill half-full with milk... and the cycle continues.

My kefir grains double about every week to week and a half. When I have too many grains, I usually separate out some extras, keeping about 3-4 Tablespoons to use again. I either give the extra to friends, or throw them out.

It's a good idea, also, the first time your batch of grains doubles, to save some as a backup. Put the backup grains in fresh milk in your refridgerator. Change the milk once a week. The cool fridge temps will prevent the grains from producing too much, and in case your cat ever gets on the counter and knocks over your kefir jar, you won't be left out in the cold!
03/18/2013
Contributor: Lildrummrgurl7 Lildrummrgurl7
Quote:
Originally posted by Antipova
I know, right? I can just imagine a family where someone didn't cinch the closure tight enough and a balloon full of kefir falls from the sky..!
I bet that happened more than once
03/18/2013