Fermented Cherry Tomatoes That Pop! & Panzanella Probiotic Salad

Fermented Cherry Tomatoes That Pop! & Panzanella Probiotic Salad: "

Last summer I fermented a large batch of cherry tomatoes.They were nothing what I expected. They were bubbly and fizzy and they danced around in the jar. They popped when you placed them in your mouth. Super easy and oh so good! Tomatoes are a super food.One of the best. Even your skin benefits when you eat tomatoes. Lycopene has been scientifically proven to help protect your skin from sun damage. Not only that but people who eat the most were shown to have 33% more protection from sunburns.

The high content of vitamin C in tomatoes means that you have added protection against viruses. Vitamin C is also an essential component in healing of cuts and injuries. So eat your tomatoes and here is a great recipe to do just that!



Lacto Fermented Cherry Tomatoes



Quart canning jar

Enough Cherry tomatoes to fill a quart jar 3/4 full

1 pck of Cultured Veggie pck Or 4 Tbsp of kefir whey

Filtered water



Wash tomatoes and place in clean sterilized jar.

Fill with filtered water 3/4 way full .

Sprinkle a small amount from cultured veggie package into jar about 1/2 tsp or add kefir whey.

Seal and let sit on counter for 4 days.

Then place in refrigerator and ferment about 1 week or longer. They will last at least a year.

Panzanella With Fermented Tomatoes And Fermented Dressing

Panzanella With Fermented Tomatoes And Fermented Dressing

Serves Twelve



6 cups cubed Sourdough bread or (stale bread works well too)

1 jar of fermented cherry tomatoes

1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 medium yellow peppers, seeded and cubed

1 large seedless cucumber, quartered lengthwise, cut into 1' pieces

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup of kombucha

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 tbsp juice from fermented cherry Tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Heat oven to 400^o F. Arrange bread cubes in a single-layer on pan. Toast in oven 10 to 12 minutes, until evenly browned.



Meanwhile combine oil, kombucha, garlic, fermented juice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Whisk together.

Add tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumber and parsley to large bowl. Stir in dressing. Just before serving, add bread cubes, toss to blend thoroughly.

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Magic Pickles & Sweet Fermented Pickle Relish

Magic Pickles & Sweet Fermented Pickle Relish: "



Every year I plant my garden anxious for my fruits and veggies. But each year I don't plant cucumbers because each year they come back anyway. In different places in my garden they will sprout. Always in a place where they can have lots of room. It just makes me laugh and delights me. It is what I call summer magic. This year I thought they wouldn't come. We had an exceptionally hard winter and I started to believe they weren't coming and I started to panic. No pickles, what is a fermenter fanatic to do. But come they did, in a spot they had never sprouted from before. Now in my own reality I like to believe that as I sleep, angels come at night and plant seeds,so they will grow and become cucumbers. Then I will ferment them and tell the world how to have make these life giving pickles. That this it is my destiny and higher calling. So if I find out that every-bodies cucumbers come back every year. I will be slightly disappointed maybe even crushed. So if you don't mind I prefer to stay in my own crazy reality watching with joy as my cucumbers come to me year after year, and coming up with new recipes to fulfill my greater destiny.



I think everyone should ferment and not can their vegetables. No big boiling pots of water heating up the kitchen. Just a little chopping and patience and you have one of my favorite foods fermented pickles!! Pickles that are loaded with vitamin c and good bacterias that can change the world that lives inside of you. So my first recipe this year with my cucumbers is: Sweet fermented relish. Man I just love pickles...







Sweet Fermented Pickle Relish

Makes 1 quart

You can also make these into bread and butter chip pickles. Just don't chop and dice but leave the cucumbers and onions in thin slices. These are really good on sandwiches.

3 cups chopped and diced cucumbers

1/2 cup chopped and diced sliced onions

1/4 cup whey or 1/2 tsp from Cultured Veggie pck

1/2 cup honey or maple syrup

1/2 red pepper chopped and diced

1 1/2 Tbsp celtic sea salt

1 Tbsp whole celery seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds

In large bowl, mix cucumbers with onion and place in 1 quart-sized, wide-mouthed mason jars, pressing down lightly with a pounder or meat hammer. Combine remaining Ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover. Keep the top of the liquid 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to the refrigerator. These will last at least s year in your fridge.

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Don't Can It Culture It! & Claire's Cultured Squash & Donna's Dill

Don't Can It Culture It! & Claire's Cultured Squash & Donna's Dill: "



Every summer my mom and her friends would can the produce from our garden. They would heat up the house for days with the canning and sterilizing jars. The house will get so hot I would go to a friend house. I did however love one particular thing that my mom would can. It was summer squash relish. Oh man I would eat spoonfuls of this stuff. I would put on hamburgers and dish it out as a side with my sandwiches I just loved it. So this year I found the recipe and decided to culture it and leave out the vinegar. No heat just chop and place in jars. Doesn't get any better than that. It is still one of my favorite condiments and it taste just as good as my mom's. It's a great way to use your summer squash and on top of that it is a fantastic probiotic food.



Claire's Cultured Squash

2 lbs Yellow squash cut in thin round circle's

3 tbsp salt

1 onion chopped in thin slices

2 cups honey

1 tsp celery seed

1 tsp tumeric

2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 pck Veggie culture or 1/4 cup whey

2 cups filtered water( you will add more later)

Place squash and onions in 2 quart jars. Place other ingredients in a bowl with a spout for easy pouring. Mix all ingredients till well combined. Pour mixture into jars making sure that each jar gets equal amounts of ingredients. (some of the seed fall to the bottom)

Fill the jars with extra water leaving an 1 1/2 inches of room at the top and making sure veggies are below the water. The veggies will mold if left above the water. If this happens scrape off the mold or discard veggies and push the others below the water. The mold is harmless and won't hurt anything but they can ruin the taste of the veggies. Set at room temperature for 3 days and then place in the refrigerator.



I thought you might also like my Dill pickle recipe.









Donna's Dill Pickles

3-4 lbs of cucumbers (small to medium is ideal, but if all you have is large, cut them into spears)

3 Tbsp Celtic sea salt

2 – cloves of garlic, separated into cloves & peeled and chopped

3 Tbsp whole dill seed

2 Tbsp whole coriander seed

1 tsp whole mixed peppercorns

1 tsp juniper berries

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp dill seed

1/2 Veggie Pck or 1/4 cup kefir whey

filtered water

Chop cucumbers in half place flat side down on surface and cut into spears.

Place cucumbers in 4- 4 quart jars. Place other ingredients in a bowl with a spout for easy pouring. Mix all ingredients till well combined. Pour mixture into jars making sure that each jar gets equal amounts of ingredients. (some of the seed fall to the bottom)

Fill the jars with extra water leaving an 1 1/2 inches of room at the top and making sure veggies are below the water. The veggies will mold if left above the water. If this happens scrape off the mold or discard veggies and push the others below the water. The mold is harmless and won't hurt anything but they can ruin the taste of the veggies. Set at room temperature for 3 days and then place in the refrigerator.

"

Kefir For Dummies

Kefir For Dummies: "





Someone at my class asked if I had a kefir for dummies blog. I give out so much information at my classes that it is hard for people to keep it all straight. I have been doing this for at least 8 years and forget that I learned it over a period of time. So this is for all the people who come to my classes and read my blogs and want it explained in more detail.



Kefir For The Extremely Smart



1. There are two ways to make kefir. One with grains that reproduce and will last a life time (if you don't kill them with heat or starve them by not feeding them.) Or you can purchase culture packages. You get 6 packages that makes 42 gallons of kefir. Instructions for this kind of kefir is inside the packages. This explanation is for kefir using kefir grains.



2. You have to find or purchase kefir grains. Here are some resources.



Cultures For Health



www.torontoadvisors.com/Kefir/kefir-list.php/>



Happy Herbalist.



3. Take 1-2 tablespoons of Kefir grains. ( always keep them in milk they need something to eat at all times)







4. Place in a 4 quart glass canning jar and cover with 1-2 cups of cold milk. A good rule of thumb is for every tablespoon of kefir grains add 1 cup of milk.



5. Place a lid on the kefir and place in a spot in your kitchen that is out of the sunlight. This will stay for 24 hours.







6. After 24 hours take the kefir and remove the grains. This can be done with a slotted spoon or a strainer.







7. Then place your kefir that is strained in a glass jar and refrigerator or drink or second ferment. (see below)









8. Place your kefir grains in new milk and leave for 24 hours to start the process again.



Storing your kefir on vacation.



If you don't want to make new, kefir and want to store it, place it in at least 2 cups of milk remembering that if you have 1 Tbsp of grains to 1 cup of milk rule and adding a little more. I like to store mine in at least 3 cups of milk making sure that they have plenty of food to eat. Then you place this in the refrigerator. This will last for one week and then if you want to do it longer drain the milk and add new milk after 1 week. If you are going to be gone longer than a week double the milk you would add. It eats the lactose (milk sugar ) out of the milk and you want to be sure it has plenty to eat and won't die. It is a living colony and needs food just as you do.





Second Fermenting Your Kefir







This is what I do on a regular basis. It taste better, less sourer and the B vitamins sky rocket. Once you try this you won't go back to making it without 2nd fermenting. So Good!!



So here is what you do. It is super easy. After you make your kefir normally ( see above) and take the grains out, you place your kefir in a clamp down jar. Then you take an organic lemon or orange. If you don't have an organic one you can make it chemical free by placing your orange or lemon in boiling water for 30 seconds, then rinse in cold water. Then you take a vegetable peeler and peel you fruit skin in strips and place it in your jar and clamp the lid down. Leave it on your counter for half a day to a whole day. Then place in refrigerator and enjoy. It is so yummy it is lighter and creamy and flavored with your lemon or orange. It has a little more carbonation and the taste is worth the extra half a day and it is better for you. A lot of people I know will leave there grains and ferment their kefir for days. Although this is not a bad thing it makes for super sour kefir. You hardly want to drink it, it is so sourer. Kefir is meant to be enjoyed and the better it taste the more you will drink it.



Things I have second fermented my kefir with are; lemon or orange peel, whole strawberries, chia tea bag, cinnamon stick, and vanilla extract. I take the item out after the second ferment and store the flavored kefir in the fridge.



Blueberry Banana Kefir Smoothie



1 cup of frozen blueberries

1 cup of kefir

2 pcks stevia or your choice of sweetener



Blend until smooth, then pour in a pourable pitcher.



1 Banana

1 cup of ice

1 cup kefir

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 pcks stevia or your choice of sweetener



Blend until smooth, then pour in a pourable pitcher.Then take a tall glass and pour at the same time from both pitchers into the glass.This will create the two sided drink. Kids love this!



"

Gluten pain the best teacher & Strawberry Gingerade Coconut Kefir

Gluten pain the best teacher & Strawberry Gingerade Coconut Kefir: "

I have met hundreds of people who are now on gluten free diets. My daughter used to be one of them. How can this grain that has been around since time began suddenly wreak such havoc on so many individuals. Well it is definitely causing a lot of problems, but I was never one to just do something with out understanding the reasoning behind it. I want to know the answers for myself and not just take someones word for it. So when my daughter developed IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and couldn't eat wheat and every week the list kept getting bigger with things she couldn't tolerate. I became a woman on a mission to understand what was going on. One of the things I have always hated about modern medicine is that they slap a band aid on problems such as blood pressure, cholesterol and a host of other problems. My question is why do you have high blood pressure and why can you suddenly not digest wheat and other foods? What causes the body to develop these symptoms. This is the best part of all our beautiful bodies. They call out to us with problems to get our attention. They are our best teachers and when you start having troubles there is much to learn.The only way to do that is to go within and become attentive to something we take for granted. The inner world of our bodies. I will share with you what I learned. This is my journey to understanding and yours may be different but maybe I can shed light on something that will help you.

Every morning my 16 year old daughter would climb out of bed and drag her self to the kitchen. Each morning I would pray that she would feel better that day. Her words were always the same. " I never feel good mom,"' It broke me. She was only 16 and she hated getting up everyday to a life filled with pain. I took her to doctors and they wanted to remove her gallbladder for really no reason. It was just a guess. Then I took her to an acupuncturist. This was my first lesson in the bodies ability to talk to you. With much kindness our Chinese acupuncturist talked with Maci. He said things to her like," you have to much hurry worry and your body is hurting because of this." I remember as those words came out of his mouth, I fought back tears, because it was so true. She came home that afternoon and broke up with her boyfriend and than the journey really began.
I started researching the foods that hurt her gut the most and eliminated them from her diet. Here is what I found.

The reason she was having so much trouble digesting grains is really two fold. First her gut lining was damaged. Stress and foods she was eating and a lack of nutrient dense foods was destroying her gut lining. Not enough of the right bacterias to turn her foods into vitamins and fatty acids was causing much stress on her gut. There was nothing to protect her lining. Years of antibiotics had stripped her of all her good bacteria and left her defenseless. Just eliminating the food will eliminate the pain but then you need to fix the lining and add foods to do this. The best foods for this are cultured foods. She had a cultured food at every meal. Kefir for breakfast and 1 to 2 tbsp of cultured veggies at lunch and dinner. Then kombucha or coconut kefir to drink at every meal. She also had a lot of bone broths made into soups. They are healing to the digestive track because of the collagen in the broth. She also ate a ton of coconut oil by the tbsp. Usually 3 tbsp a day. I would watch as she got a burst of energy from this and was always amazed. All these foods are healing to the gut. Each one plays a different part in the healing. As she got better I discover why we have such trouble with grains now.

Grains are not the same as they used to be. For 100 of years they would cut the sheaths of grains and stack them in the fields and leave them to gather the next day. The dew would make the grains sprout and unlock the nutrients and deactivate the phytic acid, and enzyme inhibitors. Than the workers would gather the grains and take the seeds off the stalks to be used. Today we have combine machine that take the seeds off instantly never allowing the grains to sprout. Then for years and still today in European countries we always used sourdough starters to rise our breads, which transforms the bread in the same way that sprouting does. It puts lactobacillus into the bread. These wonderful bacterias that not only change our breads into a healthful foods, also change our bodies the same way. Now we have instant yeast and the bread never has a chance to transform. Couple this with guts that are so damaged they can barely digest anything and you have a recipe for disaster. Grains take huge amounts of B vitamins to digest and when you are under a lot of stress you don't have what you need. Sprouting a grain activates all the B vitamins that are locked in there, giving you what you need to digest it.

So the formula. Remove or deal with stress. Heal they gut with fermented foods and nutrient dense foods.Then once it is healed add sprouted or sourdough grains. This is what I did and have watched many others do. My daughter can now eat anything and is free from a life sentence without grains. She loves life and can't wait to get out of bed. Food is not something that she is afraid of but something that brings her great joy. If you are reading this blog chances are your body is trying to tell you something.
Your body is your best teacher are you listening?

How to make Strawberry Gingerade Coconut Kefir

This Drink is so delicious you'll want to drink it everyday. it is fizzy and bubbly and full of flavor.It is a great way to get probiotics in your kids because it taste so good!

Heat 1 quart of young green coconut water to 92 degrees or skin temperature. (You can find coconut water in the Asian sections of your grocery store or health food stores.

Add entire foil package of Kefir culture packages ( purchase here. http://www.culturesforhealth.com/Milk-Kefir-Starter-Culture.html) and stir to dissolve thoroughly.

You can also use kefir grains about 3 to 4 tbsp per quart of coconut juice.

Add 1 tbsp of fresh grated ginger

Pour into a close able vessel.Such as a bottle with a clamp down lid. It will now take 4-5 days for the kefir to culture at room temperature. The coconut water will become cloudy as the culture grows and it will become "fizzy" and lose it's sweetness and become tart. When the coconut culture is done,add 4 or 5 frozen strawberries to about 8 ounces of the coconut kefir and whirl in a blender. Then sit down and enjoy this delicious probiotic drink. Or refrigerate for later.

If you used the Kefir culture packages ( purchase here. http://www.culturesforhealth.com/Milk-Kefir-Starter-Culture.html) save 6 tablespoons from each batch to inoculate the next quart of coconut water. It will culture faster each time. Many times it will only take a day to culture. You can do this up to 6 times on each package or until it stops culturing. Mine can go up to 13 times.

If you use kefir grains you will start over each time with your kefir grains in new coconut juice.

"

The Legend Of Kefir & Apple Kefir Breakfast

The Legend Of Kefir & Apple Kefir Breakfast: "

Here is how I know a recipe that I have created is something people will
like. This particular recipe scenario went like this. I sampled my recipe for
breakfast and then while I was eating it, I started plotting when I would eat
it again, like say lunch. So then at lunch I start listing in my head all the
nutrients and all over health benefits of eating this food many times. This of
course goes on while I am eating the chosen recipe. Than after dinner I decide
that it would make a fabulous dessert only to discover that someone has eaten
the rest of it. Slightly irritated, I realize that yes my recipe is a success,
because everybody is eating it and I can't stop eating it. Yes, it is truly a love affair for me between
the joy of eating something good for me, while enjoying the deliciousness of
the food.

This recipe fits these criteria. Hope you like it.

But first I must tell you; The Legend of Kefir

There are so many stories of kefir that you can pick and choose which one suits you. It has been around for thousands of years. The stories are many and the mystics behind this food would make a great documentary. The one main point is that is seems to date back to the time of Abraham. It is there in ancient scrolls found in Turkey, that Abraham credits his long life to this fermented milk. There are more stories told in Turkey and in Russia. The first is that kefir grains were the manna that fell from the sky to feed the children of Israel. Another story I heard that is told quite frequently in Turkey is that they were given to Noah from an angel to sustain him. Marco Polo also mentioned kefir in the chronicles of his travels in the East.


This is the most documented story about kefir. In the Caucasian Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea there is a legend that Mohammad
who claims that the grains were a gift from Allah, gave kefir grains to the people and taught them how to make kefir.
The 'Grains of the Prophet’ were guarded carefully since it was believed that they would lose their strength
if the grains were given away and the secret of how to use them became common knowledge.

Other peoples occasionally heard strange tales of this unusual beverage which was said to have ‘magical’ properties.

Not many people outside the Caucasus used kefir and it was mostly forgotten about for centuries until news spread of its use for the
treatment of tuberculosis.
Russian doctors believed that kefir was beneficial for health and the first scientific studies for kefir were
published at the end of the nineteenth century.

However, kefir was extremely difficult to obtain and grains were the only way to make this drink and very hard to come by.
In 1908 a committee of Russian Doctors determined to obtain some grains, came up with a plan. They contacted two brothers called Blandov that ran the Moscow Dairy and had connections in the Caucasians mountains, were they made some of their cheese products.

They sent a beautiful employee named Irina Sakharova, to the court of a local prince to see if she could entice him to give her some grains. The prince was quite taken with her but had no intentions of giving her kefir grains, so instead he kidnapped her for himself.
However the Tsar was not happy when he discovered the facts of what the prince had done, and ruled that the prince was to give Irina ten pounds of kefir grains,
to repay her for the insults she had endured.

In Russia in the 1930 the first commercial kefir was made and sold and the rest is history. In 1973 the Minister of the Food Industry of the Soviet Union sent a letter to Irina Sakharova
thanking her for bringing kefir to the Russian people.

So this food that seems to have been around since time began has written it own story on the lives of my family and friends. The stories are quite astounding and they still continue to grow. Maybe it is time that you meet my friend kefir. Here is how to make kefir. Kefir for dummies.

Here is another way to enjoy kefir on a cold winter morning.



Apple Kefir Breakfast

2
apples (Golden Delicious or Rome Beauty), medium size

2 Tbsps butter
1 tbsp sucanat
2
tablespoons chopped walnuts
1/4 cup of water

Wash and core the apples almost to the bottom. Don't core all the way to the bottom.Take a apple peeler and peel a thin strip all away around the apple. Place them in a baking dish. Combine the butter, cinnamon/sugar mixture and walnuts. Fill the cavity of each apple with the mixture, dividing it evenly among the two apples. Pour the water into the bottom of the baking dish.

Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. Then let cool and make the kefir topping.

Kefir Topping.

2 cup plain kefir

2 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp maple syrup ( or four packages of stevia for a lower sugar option)

Mix plain kefir with the cinnamon and maple syrup and blend in blender. You can also use stevia in place of the maple syrup if wanting to cut down on sugar. When apple is warm not hot, ( you don't want to kill the good bacteria) pour kefir topping over top of apple and serve. You can add some golden raisins and extra walnuts if you like. This is really delicious and the house smells heavenly.

"

My First Oven-Baked Bread for Thanksgiving

My First Oven-Baked Bread for Thanksgiving: "

This was my first time to use oven to bake bread (before used bread machine). I had been wanting to try the no-knead bread receipe since it came out in 2006.

I followed the original receipe but tuned it to suit my case. Since my order of the digital scale hasn't arrived, I could only use volume to measure the quantities:

• 3 Cup flour (2 AP + 1 WW)


• 1 5/8 tsp salt


• 3/8 tsp active dry yeast (direct into the mix)


• 1 5/8 Cup filtered water

After mixing, it looked pretty sloppy.

Then went back to look at the video and realized that it's 1 1/2C water used in the video. This dough was way too wet. Anyway, I still continued the process. Atfer two hours at room temperature, I put the dough (inside a plastic bag) into the fridge.

Here are a series of photos of the long cold-fermentation process.

With another hour at room temperature (total 58.5 hr), I streched and folded the dough. It's so wet that even with plenty flour it's very difficult to handle the dough.

I let it sit for 15 min and then transferred it onto a kitchen towel with flour & cornmeals. Covered for 2.5 hr for the 2nd rise. The dough did rise quite a lot (but in a flat round shape).

When I tried to put it into the big stainless stew pot (preheated in the oven at 500F), I couldn't let it slide into the pot. The dough was so wet that it sticked to the towel. I tried to use the chopping mat but it still sticked to that. In the end, I had to scrabed the dough down.

I was worried that this might delate the dough quite a lot. But when I removed the cover after 30min, I noticed the bread was all right. So happy that I forgot to lower the oven temperature to 450 until 8 min later. I let it baked at 450 for another 8 min before took the bread out.

It looked not bad right? Initially I shaped it into a round 'disk' (it's too soft to be shaped into a ball), but it became oval when I tried very hard to let it slide into the pot. I even slashed the dough but it's all gone during that process.

Look at this caramalized crust!

I brought this bread for the Thanksgiving dinner at my supervisor's house. I had the honor to cut my bread and took the picture.

When I saw the crumb like that, I knew it's going to be good. And indeed, it's very chewy inside! I was very proud of my bread. Well, for a newbie, this was a big success.

If I didn't have the trouble of sliding this extremely wet dough into the pot, the bread would likely rise higher than the above.

I estimate the hydration in my dough was around 90%, much higher than Mark Bittman's in his later note (80%). Next time I would definitely lower the water amount. I would like to try no-knead bageutte. :-)

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