Friday, November 28, 2014

First Homemade Kefir Experience

Most bloggers tend to portray themselves as true experts in the field.  They may be, but for those looking for the experiences and point of view of a first timer, look no further. 
Everything I know about Kefir (pronounced Kee-Fur) (also spelled keefir or kephir) has been learned over the course of the past week through internet research and culminating with one highly scientific project in the kitchen.

What is Kefir?          A cultured milk product, much like cheese, yogurt, or sour cream.  It is a nutritious, probiotic-rich food.

How do you make it?
  1. Purchase the mysterious Kefir Grains (no seriously, its mysterious, no matter how much reading you do on it)
  2.  Add grains to milk, store at room temperature, and wait.
  3. Strain cultured mystery milk (Kefir) into new jar, straining the grains which have now grown, even furthering the mystery
  4. Repeat (in larger quantity, if desired) 
 


Is that all there is to it?     Metal kills it, so use a glass jar, with plastic lid, spoon, and strainer.

There are numerous sources to purchase kefir grains on-line.  We chose to get ours from Marilyn at www.kefirlady.com.  She has been doing this for many years and is very knowledgeable on the subject. 

For our first run we used cheesecloth in lieu of a plastic strainer.  The strainer we ordered (HIC Nylon Mesh Strainer, 3-Inch) came in from Amazon today, so we will be using that next time. 

Shannon and the boys used to get kefir smoothies, so luckily she knew what to expect as far as taste goes.  We tasted it this morning after chilling it in the fridge.  With no additional flavoring, it was a little tart, a little sour cream-ish.   Since neither of us gagged, we whipped it up with some frozen strawberries and served up fresh kefir smoothies to the kids.  I could not get a good descriptive comment from them, but they did ask for seconds and thirds.  I liked it too.  Next time we will be trying blueberry. 

After we get used to this we may be trying our hand at kombucha.  This is of course, Shannon’s idea.  Personally, I want to brew some beer, but we can only take on so many projects.

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