Busy day in the kitchen yesterday. A few short hours after completing my first batch of mozzarella our mailbox yielded the long awaited arrival of kefir and fil mjolk cultures (okay maybe not so long a wait, but the cheese kit came faster). Motivated by Genevieve's digestive issues, I was dabbling in yogurt making when a little further research revealed that kefir, an ancient cultured drink from the Caucasus Mountains, has far more beneficial bacteria in it. By the sound of some of the websites it may be the very elixir of life.
Now I had been given some kefir cultures by a friend a couple years back and had not fully understood what the stuff was or that it may require more patience than I realized to get it going. Then again it may not have survived the cross country trip and that was why it didn't seem to do anything. At any rate I'm now giving it another go with a better appreciation for it. So far, the fil mjolk, a Swedish version of kefir (pictured above), seems to be the more lively of the two cultures. It came foaming out of it's little vial when I opened it. A cup of milk and 12 hours it has already thickened into a fairly tasty yogurty drink.
The kefir milk mixture on the other hand seems unchanged. My next trick will be to get Genevieve's fussy little palate to accept it. Just a matter of finding the right sweetener I expect. Not giving up yet.
My other challenge after yesterday's cheese making adventures is to find a way to use the leftover whey. There's nearly a gallon of it and I can't bear to throw it away. So far it's found it's way into pizza dough and two loaves of bread and I still have a ton left. Apparently it can be a refreshing and healthful drink, but this batch is a tad salty due to the cheesemaking method I used. I was thinking it could be a handy alternative to Jack's whey protein shakes, but this is apparently to salty even for Jack the salt fiend. Maybe next batch.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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