June 7, 2013 in What's New at CFH
Every week we’re going to bring you the best of the week in posts from right here at the CFH blog, news you can use from the CFH site, and a few interesting links from around the web.
Let’s start with some awesome new content you can find at the CFH site including recipes, upcoming products & events, and brand new products to help you in your cultured kitchen.
June 6, 2013 in Kefir
Making milk kefir is so simple, and that is one of the many reasons I love it. However, the one part of the process that can become difficult is removing the grains from the finished kefir.
I’ve used a few methods over the years and all have worked for me at various points of my kefir-making career. I really think it just comes down to personal preference, what you like and what you don’t like.
But for those who commented on struggling with this, I thought I’d share three popular options.
June 5, 2013 in Sourdough
If you’re looking for something a little bit more adventurous than those plain loaves of sourdough bread, then how about combining a rustic loaf of sourdough bread with your favorite pizza ingredients?
This is almost as good as having a pizza and it makes a great snack with a slice of cheese melted over thick slices of the bread. This is the “hurry-up” version, but the overnight-rise method is included at the end of the recipe.
You can make it with unbleached white flour, whole wheat, or a combination of flours. Unbleached flour will yield the lightest loaf, whereas 100% whole wheat flour will produce a dense, chewy loaf.
June 3, 2013 in Ancestral Fermentation
If you’ve hung out in the world of cultured foods for very long you have probably heard of beet kvass. It is a popular tonic listed in the book Nourishing Traditions.
It is made simply with beets, water, salt, and an optional starter culture of whey. It is slightly sour, earthy, and not exactly something you drink because you can’t get enough of the taste.
But there is another type of kvass, a bread-based kvass, that also hails from Russia. If you scour the internet for recipes you can find about a hundred with some combination of bread, yeast, water, and optional fruits and sugars.
I knew that kvass had to have been born out of necessity, though. And because of that I wondered if the yeast, something that wasn’t available for much of history, was a new addition. Turns out it was, and you can make it perfectly well without it.
June 1, 2013 in Weekly Cultured Gathering
Welcome to the Weekly Cultured Gathering! We’re here to share and celebrate our adventures in food fermentation. From recipes to tips & tricks to food preservation – cultured foods are as old as food itself.
Maybe you eat cultured food because of the health benefits. Maybe you make it for the art and science involved. Maybe you believe that this age-old practice of souring dough, culturing dairy, brewing beverages, and fermenting vegetables is wonderfully sustainable. Maybe you feed them to your family because of all of the above.
Whatever draws you to the art of fermentation, this weekly gathering is a place where you can find others working towards the same goals as you are. It is a community.
So please share what’s culturing on your counter. Have a new recipe? What’s your favorite ferment right now? Why do you eat cultured foods? What have you learned that might help others?
Please share a link to your favorite cultured blog post below. If you don’t have a blog, I’d love to hear what you’re up to in the comments. Next week I’ll highlight a few of your posts & comments for everyone to take a closer look at.
