My Kitchen Counsel

Last week another pro-biotic culture of joy arrived in my life.  Or rather my letterbox.  Snugly tucked inside a postcard sized, craftyly made polystyrene and cardboard box labeled ‘organic Japanese Tibicos’ was something which looked a bit weird but that I find pretty exciting.

Safely sealed in two little plastic bags were, suspended in a little cloudy water,  some beautiful clear, jelly-crystally, globby bits of joy.

Yippeee my Water Kefir is HERE!

The kefir grain sender, Margaret included some ‘how to” instructions on making delicious fizzy water kefir as well as cultivating more water kefir grains.  If treated properly, like milk kefir, these grains multiply naturally which means you can share them with your friends and then they grow and they can share them with their friends and then they grow-you get the idea. Truely a gift that keeps on giving.  Margaret’s instructions were pretty much the same as those from Dom’s kefir website but the amounts were modified to work best with the two tablespoons of grains which she had sent to me (most recipes call for using around 1/2 a cup of grains, but I have to wait for mine to grow a bit first).

So, following along with her instructions, first I popped the crystally bits of kefir grain in a large glass jar.   Then I dissolved a pinch of bicarb soda with a tablespoon of Bundaberg white sugar (apparently jaggery works well-Margaret also wrote that if you use white sugar then CSR or Bundaburg sugar makes a difference) and 1/4 teaspoon of molasses in two cups of water.  Non-clorinated water (remember these are living organisms).  That dissolved mixture was then poured into the jar with the grains in it.

Next I added a tablespoon of organic, no-sulphur added sultanas (any organic dried fruit which hasn’t been preserved with sulphur will do, figs are particularly recommended) and fussed around on the internet looking for more information because I didn’t have half an organic  lemon in the house (or even a whole one for that matter) which is what Margaret’s recipe called for.   I eventually found some info which said that while the lemon was useful in maintaining a correct PH level in the water  it wasn’t always essential.  So I stopped worrying about that and figured I’d get more lemons for my next brew.  I also didn’t have any egg shells or coral which were on the list- but these were also described on the net as not being essential for every brew so I wasn’t fussed by that.  It was interesting to learn that the calcium and magnesium present in both of those organic materials helps to fortify the Kefir so the grains grow faster and the resulting Kefir water can help our human bodies absorb those minerals as well.

Finally the jar with all this goodness was covered with a little piece of cloth mesh which Margaret had thoughtfully provided and the whole kit in caboodle was wrapped up in a tea towel and plonked it on the kitchen side table to brew and do it’s fermentation thing for around 48 hours (24 to a max of 72 is recommended).

Two days later….

I had a slightly sourish-yeastish-sweetish-brownish jar of water with bits of sultana floating in it.  And a few little bubbles here and there.  It was, as I expected, rather flat and I couldn’t really tell if the grains had multiplied- which probably means they hadn’t much at all.  But considering the poor critters had been in a box for three days so you can’t really blame them for needing a little time to recuperate before they crank into action.

I poured the kefir brew through a plastic mesh sieve, picked out the sultanas and returned the kefir grains back to the original glass jar.  This time, as well as the sugary water I added a piece of lemon (apparently it’s important it’s a ‘slice’ or more and not just the juice as the juice alone is too acidic) some fresh ginger (I’d read somewhere that it really gets the brew going) and some egg-shell that I boiled to sterilize.

The remaining fermented kefir brew, minus the grains, was poured into another glass jar and I added some fresh grated ginger and lemon before leaving it out for another 24 hours to ferment some more.  The resulting beverage reminded me a lot of the ginger beer that my mum used to make when I was little.  Except it wasn’t very fizzy, but the easy explanation to that is that I have to use an airtight jar or bottle in order to trap the carbonated jar.

Brew two (the one  with the lemon, ginger and eggshell was lovely. I added chopped strawberries and some passion fruit pulp to the second fermentation, as well as using an air tight jar, and the resulting beverage was, in my opinion, magic. Yum.  Especially if you enjoy tangy beverages like kombucha and apple cider vinegar.  “Wow! Intense!” is what Cam handsomely exclaimed, but he added that he liked it.

Now batch three is on the kitchen bench top having a second ferment with some mandarin pieces and extra ginger added and batch four of the original grains is on its first brew.  I’m curious to find out if the grains have started to multiply at a faster rate as I’m looking forward to brewing more and sharing them around.  I’m also enthusiastic to experiment with more fruity flavours and hopefully feel some inner health benefits to boot.

And so folks, let the fizzy, fruity, sugar-water fermentation fun begin…

For months now I’ve been straining off Kefir and pouring it over morning porridge.   Topped with  a swirl of molasses or some agave syrup if I really need to sugar me timbers, this is a lovely tarty and sweet start to the morning.  I often make too much so that I can take a second breakfast to work with me, bearing in mind that I begin work at 7am and so am throughly ready for a second breakfast at 9.

Cam and I also substitute Kefir to use in recipes which call for milk or yogurt.  Think crepes, pancakes, scones, pies, cakes, sauces and smoothies.

Hmmmmm smoothies.

So easy to make and so yum to drink.  Recently, in a bid to get 15min’s more sleep, I’ve done away with porridge on work mornings and am right into the joy which is a great breakfast smoothie.  I like to use oat bran in my breakfast smoothies to get more fibre in my diet and to energy fuel up my day.  I have a joyfully powerful blender so can chuck in things like flaxseed and chia and they easily get ground up in the mix. If your blender is more blend than blitz, you might want to pre-grind or soak them up first.

When toying around with different flavours and combinations, I figure it’s all good to get a little Kefir creative crazy in the morning so long as there is fibre to fill me up and something sweet to make me love the world that little bit more.  I read somewhere about honey and kefir not being a great combination because of honey’s antibacterial qualities. This makes sense to me so I like to use agave and fruits to sweeten up the tangy-tastic Kefir.   Depending on how much Kefir I have, sometimes I add oatmilk, sometimes I add a little water.  It depends a bit on what’s in the smoothie already. Ultimately I don’t mind if the consistency is initially on the thin side because  I know the oats, bran and any seeds will expand with soaking.

I make my breakfast smoothie the night before I go to work which saves Cam from listening to a two-horse power blender motor at 6am and has the added benefit of allowing the Kefir some more counter time to ferment and get fabulous and fizzy as well as soaking grains and seeds.  I’ve found that if I make my smoothie in the evening, pour it in a jar which is covered with a tea towel and left out on the bench over night, in the morning I just add the jar lid, give it a good shake and put the jar in my bag.  Then come 9am after a couple of hours of racing around, I have a fabulous second breakfast smoothie with a lovely mild effervescent quality to it all ready to go- and this makes me very happy.

Here are my top eleven favourite breakfast smoothie combinations made using milk Kefir as the key ingredient.

* Kefir, a banana, 2 dates, 2 tablespoons of oat bran, 1 tablespoon of flaxseed, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, dash of vanilla, hint of cardamom.

* Kefir, handful of blueberries/mixed berries, 2 tablespoons of oat bran, a spurge of agave syrup.

* Kefir, handful of raspberries,  some vegan protein powder (made with hemp, rice and pea protein), a dash of vanilla.

* Kefir, a banana, couple of dates, small handful of walnuts, 1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon, teaspoon of coconut oil

* Kefir, a mango, a couple of passionfruit, some coconut milk, (I haven’t tried it yet, but I think some pineapple would be magic in this combination).

* Kefir, a banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter, hint of cinnamon and vanilla and now and then a teaspoon or so of coconut oil.

* Kefir, the juice of half a lemon, 2 dates or a dash of agave syrup, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon and some oat bran.

* Kefir, 1/2 a cup of oats, small handful of raisins, pinch of nutmeg, a bit of cinnamon, a teaspoon of molasses

* Kefir, 2 tablespoons of oat bran, 1 tablespoon of cacao powder, 2 teaspoons of agave syrup, one tablespoon of flaxseed/chia seed

* Kefir, a banana, 1/2 a cup of oats, small handful of dried cranberries, a small handful of soaked almonds

* Kefir, stewed rhubarb and depending on how sweet they are some dates as well as some oats or oat bran

I love learning about my bacteria-yeasty Kefir friends.  Yesterday I had an inspiring conversation with a woman who is happy to swap some of my milk eating grains with her water Kefir ones.  Water Kefir grains are something which have intrigued me since I learnt about these living organisms which use just water and sugar to grow and create an effervescent pro-biotic drink which can be combined with fruits for a fresh, fizzy, fiesta for the taste buds.  Delicious sounding yes?

So I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open, waiting for some Kefir water grains to pop up into my life. Last week, while looking for Kefir info online, I came across a post in a Kefir forum (there’s a forum for everyone and everything on the net isn’t there?) where someone said that they had water Kefir grains to share. I emailed the poster and they wrote back saying that while they didn’t have enough to share at the moment their friend does.

Yesterday I found myself chatting on the phone to Margaret.  She told me that while she already has both water and milk Kefir cultures growing, every now and then she likes to ”cross-breed” her grains with those from other people to help keep her colonies in great health.   Margaret asked me if I have any ‘flat’ sections of cultured grains and I said yep, some of the Kefir has grown together and were a little flattened out.  She asked me not to send those ones, as the flatness indicated that the grains hadn’t been given enough milk and were- I gasped a bit upon hearing the word- ‘starved’.  I immediately felt a pang of worry at the possibility I had been torturing my generous Kefir friends.  ”But my Kefir is so lovely!!’ I exclaimed. “It’s creamy and delicious…”  Margaret’s voice smiled down the phone saying that it was all a matter of personal taste. She explained that if you use less milk you get a creamy Kefir which many people prefer but the grains flatten out and hold together. ”Yes! exactly! That’s like mine!” I said.   Margaret said she prefers her Kefir more liquidy but that so long as the kefir my grains produced looked and tasted healthy and I enjoyed it, then I had nothing to worry about.

Margaret’s enthusiasm for Kefir flowed down the phone lines and I enjoyed that lovely, easy feeling of conversing with someone who is passionate about the same topic as myself.  In our brief conversation she talked about how much she appreciates and enjoys Kefir, how she found it a little odd to begin with, but how now she can’t imagine not having it in her life.

As Margaret lives south of the border she gave me her tips on how to post Kefir.  She recommended I pat down the grains I plan to send with a paper towel, double bag them in plastic ziplock bags, add some powered milk for them to eat in transit and pop a bit of bubble wrap around the package before posting it off. Easy peasy.  ”I’ll use Express post!” I said assuredly.  ”Oh, normal will do” she replied, as relaxed in style as the care free Kefir cultures we both love.

So this coming Wednesday I’m going to gift wrap up a portion of my beloved grains and post them off to a distant-ish land where they will meet and mingle with Margaret’s milk colony and more Kefir magic will be made.  And hopefully, all going well, some time this week I’ll get a package in the post and I too will be the care taker of both milk and water Kefir grains and sweet, fizzy, liquidy mischief-making will ensue! Watch this space…..

Ode to Kefir (definition here)

“Oh! My dear Kefir!

I keep you near,

on my kitchen bench top

and you never stop

to give to me

a carbonated -lactose-’less’- creamy- beverage of pro-biotic goodness for free

well almost for free,

as I also give to thee,

juice from cows and a little TLC.

So it’s kind of a symbiotic relationship we’ve got going on….”

Cross cultural romances are oh so lovely and oh how I love my jar of blobby, opaque, squidgy, probiotic Kefir culture. There is something so pleasing about working with ‘food’ cultures because of the continual growth and giving which happens when simple care (and sometimes in spite of willful neglect) is practiced. That and they are just SO yum (and healthy- a favourite combination of mine).

Simple care, like all maturing relationships, can be a little give and take. I give my Kefir culture (grains) milk and they give me delicious, creamy, pro-biotic, gut-health, goodness after they’ve had a feed of the proteins, fats and sugars present in the milk. I keep the gloopy, slimy, mass of growing Kefir grains in a glass jar out of direct sunlight and they keep on growing and growing and growing and growing. I don’t use a metal spoon or sieve when touching the Kefir grains and they stay healthy and happy (well I like to imagine them being happy because I have a tendency to anthropomorphize things).

In many ways, keeping Kefir is like having a very undemanding pet.  About as active as a pet sea urchin but with no prickles, less tank cleaning and more digestive health benefits for it’s owner.  And unlike pet sea urchins, Kefir is reputed to have almost mythical healing properties for many ailments and is said to be more easily tolerated by the lactose intolerant (although proceed with caution if you fall into that category).

‘A Pro biotic gem cultured with a pro biotic jewel’- is how ‘Dom’s About Kefir in-site‘ romances the relationship between Kefir grains and the cultured, fermented, milky magic they create and I for one agree with him. Since Kefir came onto my radar some time last year I’ve increasingly become an enthusiastic ‘Kefir’ pusher amongst my friends and family- waxing lyrical about it’s many merits and offering my excess grains to whoever comes to visit.

‘Isn’t Kefir just another kind of yogurt?’ some ask,

‘Yes! but No!’ I say.

Sure it’s a bit like a liquidy yogurt drink- but really it’s not yogurt. While yogurt contains transient beneficial bacteria that keep the digestive system clean and provide food for the friendly bacteria that reside there, Kefir can actually colonize the intestinal tract with micro-organisms and protect our guts from disease causing bacteria. Yippeee!! Who isn’t a fan of improved intestinal health because of healthy gut bacterial colonies?

‘Is it REALLY easy to look after?’

‘Yes! but….

Granted, there were a few hiccups early on in my relationship with Kefir.  I’m not entirely sure when or where I first learned about Kefir but last year, as part of my exploration into how to get great gut health, I became inspired to hunt out some Kefir grains and make it myself.   I started to ask around and obtained a little batch from someone lovely at the local organics store.  A quick ‘how to’ chat with the gift-er, followed by a quick google for some Kefir making info and I was on my way.

The first online Kefir making information that popped up for me was ‘Dom’s Kefir website’. This Australian site is a quirky, jumble of stories, science, spiritual information and practical information of just about everything you need to know about the magic of Kefir and maybe a bit more.  I read Dom’s instructions, remembered what the lovely lady at the organics store said about how she made hers, and had a crack at making my own Kefir.

For some reason my first batch of Kefir didn’t work out great. I didn’t love the taste- or smell. It was all a bit too animal-ly and I seemed to have unpleasant sour milk coming out of my ears.  Given that moo milk isn’t my favourite beverage of choice for ethical and digestive reasons this process wasn’t bringing me joy.  I tried different fermentation times and different types of milk, adding cinnamon, putting it in the fridge….but it just didn’t taste good.  So when the time came to go away on a two month holiday I relegated those Kefir grains to the top of the compost pile and said adieu to my first Kefir romance.

Two months passed and I was well and truly over my affair with Kefir.

But taste buds are perhaps as fickle as the heart and life can change as quickly as the clouds….

So one minute my main love and I are driving up the coast, happily heading home from holidays in distant lands when we decide to drop in on some friends.  And the next minute I’m having a conversation about Kefir.  My friend wonders I’d been going over board with my milk to kefir ratios. She suggests I try what she does, this time covering the grains with enough milk to just submerge them (rather than the 7-1 ratio I had been working with) and to see what happens. She also conveniently has a portion of grains she can share with me right away.

It’s kismet.  I take the grains home, feed them just enough, no more, no less and the next morning, pour the creamy goodness over porridge…

BOOM! Right in the taste-love-buds.  Aliveness in my mouth! No unpleasant smell! Kefir as I knew it could be!

And so it began and so it continues.

The details of how I continue to look after my lovely Kefir grains can be found right here.