The first line of defense against imbalance, or disease, before
outsourcing medicine or supplements, is to introduce your body to some culture.
By that I mean probiotics, or beneficial micro-organisms that are the essential part of
good gut health. But where do we get our naturally available probiotics?
Probiotic cultures
thrive when provided with the right food and comfortable living conditions.
Fermentation is what happens when you leave a place a whole lot of culture or a scoby into the
right conditions with food for a period of time.
SCOBY(n) is the commonly used acronym for Symbiotic Culture Of
Bacteria and Yeast, and is formed after the completion of a unique
fermentation process of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), acetic acid bacteria (AAB),
and yeast to form several sour foods and beverages such as kombucha and kefir.
In the case of water kefir, the culture presents as grains or scoby's and
they look and feel like florist ice. The grains or scoby's ferment the mixture by 'eating'
the sugar and minerals in the water. The process happens fairly quickly if
the environmental temperatures are in a green zone: between 22
degrees and 27 degrees Celcius, and the kefir scoby's begin to thrive and
grow.
The fermentation is complete when the sugar has been consumed by the water kefir scoby's. The fruit, or medicinal root in this recipe, flavours the fermented water kefir.
Kefir scoby's OR grains, are a good way to produce naturally
occurring probiotics. You can get kefir grains here.
Now to get started making your ginger kefir, have your kefir
grains ready.
Dehydrated kefir grains/scobys need to re-hydrate, this can take up to a
week of soaking and might take longer to come back to ‘life’ in
winter. Before your kefir grains can thrive, they need to be well hydrated. If you have live kefir grains/scobys you can start immediately, if not start hydrating now (how to rehydrate kefir grains/scobys. You can also order fresh grains from us or get some a friend.
RECIPE
Makes 2L, half an hour preparation and a waiting time of 24 – 48
hours depending on environmental conditions.
Ingredients
2 litres filtered water – chlorine is not a friend of kefir
1/8 tsp Himalayan salt or bicarb
8
Tbs cane sugar
1/4 cup sliced ginger root
4-5 Tbsp water kefir grains – scobys
6-8 Raisins
Start making your ginger kefir by placing the sugar and 1 litre of
water into a pot on the stove over low heat for 3 minutes, stir with a spoon to
dissolve. Add ginger and simmer for 20 minutes.
Strain the ginger and allow the sugar mixture to cool to room
temperature. This is important because water kefir grains can't survive in high
heat. If it’s too hot for you to touch, it is too hot for the grains.
Once the ginger sugar water is cool add it to your 2 litre jar and
fill the remaining space with cool filtered or previously boiled water. This
is to ensure you do not introduce contamination from other cultures found in
our environment. Remember, you want to make kefir rather than a science
experiment.
Scoop in 4-5 Tbsp of water kefir grains into your ginger sugar
mix. Add raisins. Secure the lid and place the jar on your kitchen counter, but not in direct sunlight. Wait 24-36
hours.
While you wait the fermentation process out, check your kefir jar
now and then. Observe the bubbles that form as it comes to life and smell the
flavour of the kefir in the jar. After 36 hours begin tasting the kefir and if
the grains have consumed most of the sugar and the sweetness is gone, it is
ready. This time may vary depending on the season and the temperature.
Strain the drink from the grains/scobys and sweeten to taste before
bottling with honey or a healthy sugar if you must. You may leave on you kitchen counter before refrigerating to allow some carbonation to build up. Keep an eye on this as a forgotten about ferment can get messy if it explodes. Keep refrigerated once you have enough carbonation built up to
inhibit further fermentation. Make and add some more sugar ginger mix to your
grains and top up with water for your next jug of delicious Ginger kefir.
You may find if your kefir is exposed to a warmer than fridge temperature,
perhaps you’ve taken kefir with you on a picnic, remember to keep a tight
gripping lid on your bottle and open with slow and patient caution; to avoid
the kind of pop explosions best saved for new year celebration!
PS. If you are not into home chemistry in the kitchen, buy our
delicious Ginger kefir already fermented and nurtured at Numesa by our
attentive carers, online here. Or the Granadilla kefir, or the Berry
flavour... so many choices.
Written by Viv Brown
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