Saturday, July 30, 2011

Kefir fizzy for the weekend

I recently wrote about my adventure with Kefir Water....and making my fizzy drinks.....
Well, I think I've done it! Yep, I think I have finally mastered a few techniques that will keep me in good supply of fizzy drink. I like my soda...I can't help it...I like the bubbles...lol

Experimenting with Kefir grains 

Straining the Apple & Blackcurrant Juice
which I added Kefir grains to for 48 hours.

Orange from the juice and rind of 1 orange
Quince from 1 tablespoon of Quince jam added
Passionfruit from some really old Passionfruit jam
Apple & Black Currant from Juice with grains added
Cherry from some preserved cherries

Lots of Kefir grains after straining

These ice-cube trays fit a good tablespoon of Kefir grains
Storing Kefir grains in the freezer.
(You can also dehydrate them, which I will do next time I dry apples)
All of the flavours were lovely and mild..don't expect the same strength of a store bought soda as *they are laden with lots of chemicals for colour, sweetener and flavour......*They can't be good for you.

With the orange Kefir; I won't use the rind of the orange again as I needed to add too much sugar to sweeten it, and this kind of defeats the purpose of all those good pro-biotics. So I think I will be able to cut out most of the sugar in the orange drink if I only use the juice next time.

I have one jar of preserved cherries left from the back of the cupboard...I'm so glad I found a use for them, I think they lost their prime for ice-cream a few years back.

I'm so happy I have worked out the Water Kefir...I wonder what flavour will be next?
at

6 comments:

  1. Cat J BJuly 30, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    Looking good! Do you mind giving specifics on any combos that you find work well? I was doing a 2nd ferment in juice but it was tasting very alcoholic. I have a ton of grains now, they seem to multiply faster than my milk grains did and I didn't know you could freeze or dehydrate them, I should try that, as I have killed off my milk grains twice now, don't want to do them with these!

    ReplyDelete
  2. nellymaryJuly 31, 2011 at 9:45 AM

    Oh no, I have some of both grains frozen now, as I have heard that they can die off for unknown reasons...For the second fermentation I only leave the fruit in the Kefir for 24 hours, no longer...but adding jam seems to be a good way to go for me...and I have plenty of it in my stockpile.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Little Home In The CountryJuly 31, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    Wow, that is fantastic! I've never touched kefir grains and I want to try to use them. I'm a little scared, though - the whole process makes me nervous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. nellymaryJuly 31, 2011 at 8:04 PM

    Little Home in the Country: hey Sherrie, it really is worth trying....I wasn't sure at first, but it never hurts to try new things...

    ReplyDelete
  5. country lifeDecember 12, 2011 at 3:20 AM

    I would love to try water and milk Kefir also, but cannot find it around here. How do you get a start?
    Kim

    ReplyDelete
  6. nellymaryDecember 12, 2011 at 4:02 AM

    Hi Kim, here is a great link with loads of info on finding Kefir grains internationally.
    http://www.webaware.com.au/ferment/finding_kefir.php

    ReplyDelete