Kombucha

It's funny how things work out sometimes. I read a lot of food blogs, as anyone who has read this blog can probably assume. I started reading this really good one called The Kitchn. They have all kinds of great things - not just recipes but tours of awesome kitchens and tips from their various contributors. A while back, I stumbled across this recipe for kombucha. At the time, I thought that it was interesting but where would I find this mythical mother? Cue a few days later, I'm at the farmer's market and there's a lady selling kombucha! After chatting with her she agreed to bring a part of her mother for me next week - and this is how I started brewing kombucha. Well the limoncello is done with, I need another project!!

Have you met my mother?

Well, actually, this is my mother. (center, I'm in coral)

If you have not heard of kombucha, do not worry, most people have not (well at least most people around here in central PA). Kombucha is a fizzy, probiotic drink that is made using a mother or a scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). The process is similar to making vinegar. You have a sweetened liquid - for kombucha, it's a black tea base; for vinegar it would be grape juice - then you add the mother at it ferments for a period of time. Vinegar can take quite a while, for the kombucha, you want some of that sweetness so you can drink it, so it takes 4-10 days to ferment, depending on the ambient temperature of the room (in the summer it takes less time, the winter it take more time). Kombucha is nonalcoholic and I happen to like the somewhat vinegary taste.

First make the base - black tea, water and sugar. Let cool to room temp

Put in gallon container, cover with cheesecloth. Sit in dark corner of kitchen

The mother usually ferments from the top, but it can also sit diagonally

After the fermenting time, taste the brew to see if it is to your liking

Pour into bottles to carbonate at room temp for 1-3 days then refrigerate 

Once you pour the kombucha into bottles, you make a new batch and keep going. There are a lot of variations you can do as well. The last batch I made, I put 100% cherry juice in the bottom of the bottles - tasty. This batch, I did half green tea and half black tea. Easy, right? I think so. Also each batch breeds a new mother, so if anyone wants to try this let me know and I will share :)

July 4th Juice

Well wrapping up residency has been keeping me busy...only 1 more week and I am free for a whole month!!! Lately, I have been into juicing. Not sure exactly why I decided to pick this up, but I have to say that I am glad I did! After some research on the internet, I decided to go for this Breville juicer. I chose it because it was lower in price than other models and still had good reviews. This juicer is a centrifugal style. I have found out that there are two main types of juicers: centrifugal and macerating. Apparently the macerating type is better if you want to juice leafy greens such as kale. My main concern was that I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a juicer only to use it once or twice and never again. In general, good quality centrifugal models run from $100 to $250, while the macerating types run $300 to $400 an above.

That being said, some thoughts on the model that I have - the waste catching receptacle is inside the model not outside, which originally I thought I would like. I find that it's somewhat of a pain, particularly if you are making a lot of juice. I did a juice fast in which I had to make a breakfast and lunch juice before work and had to clean it out between batches - something you would not have to do if your waste container was separate. Another thing is that I get a lot of foaming of my juice. This is apparently enough of a problem that the provided container has a "foam separator" portion to the lid. I think this is due to the extraction process and the very high speed of the motor. The foam does melt and go back to juice after a while but that doesn't really help if you are making something to drink right then (which I have to say is most of the time). So those are my thoughts. These "problems" are not so bad that I won't continue to use the juicer, just thought I would put my review out there.

If you would like some more information about juicing, I suggest you watch this video called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It's a documentary about an Australian guy who comes to the US to go on a 60 day juice fast. It's amazing how much weight he loses and how many people he helps. He's also a business man and now has his own website with juice fasting plans that you can download. I did a 5 day "reboot" and I have to say that I feel great because of it. Now of course, here's the disclaimer: this is my opinion and I have not been paid to say any of this...

Now that I am off the fast and eating real food again, I still have some fruit around. Also since it is the 4th of July, I thought I would make a patriotic juice...

A red and blue juice with strawberries, watermelon, blueberries and mint. With the juicer that I have, it has a really big feed chute so these are the size pieces of watermelon that I put in the juicer, yes rind and all.

Since it's the 4th, I thought I would make a spritzer with some sparkling water. See what I mean about the foam? In the glass, that's somewhat due to the fizzy water but in the carafe, that's from the juicer. Tasty none the less. Happy 4th everyone!!