It's recipe week! It's recipe week! Ok, maybe I didn't exactly plan it that way. But that's what it's shaping up to be. Until #TheHubbs, bonus daughters and I go to the Iowa State Fair later this week. Then it will be all about stuff you can eat on a stick. But until then, it's recipe week!
Yesterday was the super yummy Butter Poached Lobster Rolls (if you missed it, you can find it here). If you loaded up on Lobster Rolls last night, your tummy may not be feeling all that great today (Way to go, glutton. They're awesome, but eight of them? Really?). You know what you need? A few bugs in your gut. No, I'm not kidding.
Since about a bazillion years ago, folks have known that probiotics and cultures are good for you. And for your tummy, among other things. The Chinese started making this probiotic-filled, fermented tea called kombucha around 415 AD (or at least, that's what Wiki told me. And here I thought Whole Foods invented it).
I'll skip all the mumbo jumbo about why it's good for you. It just is (which is code for I don't really understand it, but my doctor swears by it, as do about a gazillion Whole Foods customers and Asians and Russians. Yup the Ruskies (btw - I learned while looking that term up that Ruski, if spelled correctly is non-offensive to real Russians. You're welcome). They caught wind of it from the Chinese. And then it hit the 1900's version of social media and just EXPLODED.). If you really need to know more about the why, go here and it should clear things up.
I've been drinking it for years now and I love it. But it's expensive! At least, it is if you buy it at your local Whole Paycheck store (you know who I'm talking about). I knew that you could make the stuff yourself, but it always sounded new age-y and hard. But finally #TheHubbs got wind of the grocery bill and I knew the gig was up. A little research, a tiny purchase via Amazon and I was up and running. And it was EASY! Easy enough that I'm doing it every week. Yup. EVERY week.
So, here goes. I'm hoping to turn you into a new age-y tree hugger, just like me, too.
Stuff you'll need for step one:
1. A SCOBY (see below, because I know 99% of you are scratching your head right now)
2. 4-8 tea bags - your choice of variety
3. One gallon of filtered water
4. 2 cups of sugar (I use raw turbinado sugar)
5. A large glass container (I bought this one here from Amazon for under $20)
6. A long piece of paper towel or cheesecloth
7. A rubber band
Stuff you'll need for step two:
1. glass bottles with lids (about 6-8 of them - I just reuse old store bought kombucha bottles and yes, they have to be glass not plastic)
2. fruit - your choice of flavors, but berries and melons are the best in my opinion. You could also use fresh ginger.
First, you need a SCOBY (also called a mother, but this one won't tell you to pick up your room or eat your veggies). A SCOBY is a live culture and you need that to ferment the tea mixture. It's just magic. Work with me here. You can buy a SCOBY in all kinds of places but I bought mine on Amazon here. They aren't the most photogenic things. But that's science.
Now you'll need some tea. I bought a few different kinds so I could try them over time. So far, I think the lighter teas work better (Jasmine, Dandelion, etc.) but you could also use black tea. And it works just fine if it's decaffeinated, which I need. You'll need about 8 regular sized tea bags or four of the oversized ones.
In a big pot, add one gallon of filtered water (and why does Wendy have to filter her water? Oh yeah. Because the folks that manage the neighborhood's community well suck. Yup Aqua and Tom Roberts - I'm still looking at you!) and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and add your tea bags. Let them steep for about 20 minutes.
Unwrap your SCOBY and place it in your big glass container (make sure your container doesn't have any metal pieces. Not even the spigot can be true metal. Mine is metal colored paint over plastic). Then pour your sweet tea over the top, making sure all your sugar, if not completely dissolved, gets in there too. Take your paper towel/cheesecloth (I like a paper towel - it can still breath but little tiny bugs can't get in) and secure it over the top of the jar with your rubber band.
*this is what my first tiny SCOBY grew up to be. You can see the first small guy in the middle.
Let the stuff sit for at least 7 days. Yup. I'm here to test your patience and make you wait on stuff. It will happen again, I'm sure. After 7 days, take a straw and taste the mixture. If it's the right amount of sweet for you, then you can move to step two. If not, wait a few more days and test again. If it's hot out or you keep your house warmer, taste it every day after day 7. It can get vinegar-y quickly in the heat.
It's going to look weird. The SCOBY will rise to the top. It may bubble. There could be some brown stuff on top. There could be some stringy stuff on the bottom. All normal. It's just doing its thing. Unless you introduce a foreign bacteria to this somehow (unclean stuff or putting your hands in it), it's pretty hard to screw up.
Once it's ready to bottle, you need your step two supplies. First, take your fruit or ginger or whatever you're using and emulsify it in a blender with a little water. I don't have more explicit measurements than that. You'll just have to play with it a bit.
Combos #TheHubbs, bonus kids and I have liked so far = strawberry/blueberry, watermelon, raspberry/ginger, blueberry/pomegranate (use the pomegranate seeds), cherry (pit the cherries first)
Make sure your glass bottles are really clean and have been sanitized in hot water to kill any germs/bacteria (we don't need to introduce bad bacteria into this). I use the dishwasher to clean both the bottles and the lids.
If your glass jar has a spigot, this next step works much easier. Put a glass jar under the spigot and open her up. Fill about 7/8 of the way full and set it on the counter. Do that with the rest of your bottles, leaving about 1/2c of the mixture in the bottom of the glass container, along with your SCOBY which is floating on top.
*I was a little stingy with the pour on this one. It could have been filled a bit further.
Take your emulsified fruit juice and top off the bottles just up to where the lid screws on. Leave a little room. This is still going to ferment for a few days and we don't want anything exploding. Put your lids on. Mark your bottles with a marker so you know what fruit you used and set them on the counter for a couple of days (longer if you want the stuff really fizzy). After a couple of days, put them in the fridge. This stops the fermenting process and now it's a ready for the drinkin'.
*Helpful hint - just before you get ready to bottle your first batch, make your second batch of tea and let it cool, so you can pour it into your jar with your SCOBY to start batch two.
After batch two, you'll get a double SCOBY going on. Know what you can do with the extra SCOBY? After washing your hands really well (remember, we don't want to introduce different bacteria), you can separate them and put one in a large plastic Ziploc with a little plain kombucha and give it to a friend. What doesn't say friendship more than sharing your bacteria, I say.
This stuff is good. Really good. #TheHubbs and I both agree (for once) that the homemade kind is much better than the store bought versions. And the bonus kids even like it (Shhhhhh - don't tell them it's good for them). I have a bottle a day! And look at me. I'm still kickin'.
Let me know how this goes for you and if you try to make it, love it, hate it, wish you'd never heard of kombucha. Or if you just ate too many Butter Poached Lobster rolls and are sitting at home fat and happy.
You're welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line.