Kombuchamazing!!!

I made kombucha! Since starting Bastyr in the fall of 2008, I saw emails everywhere about "kombucha babies" and had no idea wtf these were. I had started drinking bottled kombucha while living in Santa Barbara, and found I could only tolerate the mango-flavored one because it was sweetest, the other ones were so bubbly it hurt my throat and tasted a bit on the, uh, NOT appetizing side. Then, a few weeks ago, my friend showed me his kombucha operation, had me try some, and I had a revelation: if this guy can do it, I could totally do it...better. So, when his kombucha "mother" had a "baby" I went and adopted it.

My little kombucha baby was pretty much the opposite of any other kind of baby, as far as the whole cute thing goes. This looked like a gigantic slime mold pancake swimming around in a concoction of some kind of nastiness. And it smelled like weird vinegar. As soon as I figure out how to get the photos off my camera and onto my computer, I'll post some pics of the lil guy. Anyway, I followed my buddy's instructions for constructing a suitable home for my new baby. If you would like to do this yourself, here are the ingredients:

1 gallon-sized glass--it MUST be glass--jar

an old t-shirt or some cheesecloth

a rubberband

enough brewed green or black tea to fill the jar

a bunch of sugar

and the instructions:

Brew up a gallon of caffeinated tea, this will use about 6-8 regular sized tea bags. I used loose leaf jasmine green tea, the kind where the tea is in little balls that pop open into flowery-like things when added to water, I used about 3-4 tablespoons of this tea.

Once tea is brewed, strain it and add 2 cups of sugar (I only had powdered sugar. It worked, but I also noticed that it contains cornstarch, but it was all I had at the time, and my first batch turned out just peachy. Next time, I'm goin for the organic evaporated cane juice...). Stir until sugar is dissolved and then let the tea cool to room temperature. This will take a long long time. I saw a youtube video where the woman just used a quart of water to make her tea and then added water to fill the gallon jar. Do whichever method you like, I've only done it the first way I've described.

Then, once the sugary tea is cooled to room temperature and in the gallon glass jar, plop in your kombucha baby. Oh yeah, you have to have a baby for this method. HOWEVER, I found yet another youtube video where these two guys describe how to make a kombucha culture from scratch. Basically, instead of adding the baby, just pour in a bottle of unpasteurized kombucha, I'd suggest GT's Kombucha since you can find it pretty much anywhere nowadays.

When the baby/bottled kombucha has been added, place the old t-shirt or cheesecloth over the mouth of the jar and rubberband it to keep it in place. Next, put your jar someplace dark and warm. I stuck mine in a cupboard above the stove at my house. And then you wait...

My kombucha fermented for 12 days (I've heard you can let it go for 2-3 weeks, but I got impatient). It wasn't too sweet but also had not begun to turn vinegary yet, and was slightly effervescent.

To bottle my kombucha, I simply removed the culture and it's subsequent babies (mine had triplets, yay!) and placed them in a glass dish with a extra "juice" from the big jar so they could float around and play. Then I simply poured the kombucha into GLASS bottles (old Pellegrino ones work well, so do those glass Knudsen juice bottles, or old wine bottles with a screwtop) with tight-fitting lids and place these in a dark, room-temperature place if you'd like them to ferment a little more and thus get more bubbly. When you want fermentation to stop, put 'em in the fridge. So far, I've only just bottled today so we'll have to wait a few more days to see what happens. This is basically just a test and retest approach here, I've got no strict "recipe", no formal instructions, which really wouldn't work anyway since climates are so different around the state/country/world. But what you have here is an excellent framework from which to grow your own kombucha in the comfort of your own kitchen. Since those bottles of GT's Kombucha run about $4 each (they're 16oz), homemade kombucha is definitely preferable if you're on the conservationist side of things. Plus, mine turned out absolutely delicious and I'm even going to bring some to school with me so that Rebecca can try it (she hates all things kombucha...maybe we'll convert her!)

I found that by referring to these nasty SCOBY's (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) as babies, I've grown quite fond of them, and don't want to throw them away, so if anyone reading this lives close by, feel free to let me know if you'd like to adopt one!

The Magical Fruit

I made baked beans.

From scratch. Like, complete scratch, soaked the beans overnight and everything.

I found the recipe while leisurely reading American Food Writing, by Molly O'Neill. The "recipe" was part of someone's work, and here I will translate the recipe so that you too can make it at home (it's really easy, and so incredibly delicious):

Ingredients

4 cups white [great northern] beans, soaked overnight

1 lb (16 ounces) salt pork [I used bacon]

1 large onion, peeled and quatered

1 heaping teaspoon mustard

1/2 cup dark molasses

1 teaspoon black pepper

water to cover beans

1/2 tablespoon salt, divided [more or less to taste]

I quartered this recipe, but accidentally added 1/4 cup molasses instead of 1/8. It turned out incredible, but I'm a fan of sweet, and I topped the finished beans with plain Greek yogurt. I could imagine them being just as tasty if only half as sweet, however. The first time I tried baked beans hen I was growing up, they were ones that my mom had made. The moment the first mouthful passed my lips, I thought they were...disgusting. They were out of a can, but this is not why they were gross to me the first time around. I had expected the beans to be savory. They were sweet. A very interesting, complex sweet, not your standard, confectionary, cupcake-frosting sparkly sweet, but also tangy, pungent, sour, salty. All five flavors in one dish, a balanced food.With the balanced nutrient content of the beans themselves, plus the energetics of the other various ingredients, we have here a surprisingly simple, ambrosial tonic dish that everyone will enjoy...if they know what to expect ;)

Instructions:

Place beans in large bowl, cover with 2 inches of water. Soak overnight. In the morning, discard water and place beans in heavy-bottomed saucepan (or whatever you have that most closely resembles this setup) and cover with 2 inches of fresh cold water. Heat until a white scum forms on the entire surface of the water. Remove beans from heat and strain. Into an ovenproof casserole (with a lid. I used my cast iron one.), place the onion and pork [bacon]. Then pour in the beans to cover the first 2 ingredients. Add molasses, mustard, and pepper. Pour in boiling water to cover ingredients by 1-1/2 inches. Cover and place in a "slow oven" (I set mine at 300-350). Here the original "recipe" instructs us to wait 2 hours, then add salt mixed with 1 cup boiling water to the bean mixture. Then, every hour thereafter (according to the original instructions, we started this entire process at 5AM) we would add i cup of water to compensate for whatever had evaporated, or something. I chose to start my beans at 5:30PM. So at 7:30PM, I checked on the beans (having also checked on them about 3 times up until the 2 hour mark) and added roughly 1-1/2 teaspoons of sea salt (eyeballed it). Stirred the mixture and replaced the cover. Cooked until about 9:00PM, then removed from oven and placed on the stove uncovered to thicken the liquid portion, kept at a simmer for about an hour. Then, added a bit more water, maybe 1/3 cup, covered and replaced in oven set at 200 degrees until 3:30AM. The results were nothing short of delectable perfection. The addition of sour cream or plain yogurt (preferably organic, as dairy is one of the most important products it is crucial to consume only organic versions of) is a fantastic addition.

Happy baked beans!

And, for you further reading pleasure, here is the medicinal value of baked beans [from scratch]:

Great northern white beans:

Onion:

Pork:

Salt:

Mustard:

Black pepper:

Molasses:

Already??

Seems the time has started to fly by this quarter as we enter week 5. Personally, I can't wait to go home next weekend. "Home" for these purposes is Santa Barbara, CA, the most beautiful place in the world...well, when my current world of Seattle, WA is 46 degrees with random hail storms, anyway. Looking forward to lay on the beach and see the sun...and drink some wine and eat the wonderful, local food that is abundant in that area.

Speaking of eating locally, I've realized that not many people see the benefits to this. I don't feel like explaining, but I will simply say that it is the best choice. The food doesn't travel far, the local economy is supported, and the food that grows where you live has distinct nutrient profiles specific to supporting life in that region. Along with eating locally comes eating "in season", meaning that you eat the food that naturally grows during certain times of year. For example, lettuce in winter is just weird, and who's ever heard of a spring pumpkin? So, wihout further ado, here is a recipe for springtime:

Awesome Asparagus

Ingredients:

2 bunches fresh, local asparagus, trimmed* and diagonally sliced into thirds

1/2 tablespoon salted butter

1/8 tsp sea salt (more or less to taste)

2 tablespoons dried dill OR 1/4 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

OPTIONAL: 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation:

1. In a large cast-iron skillet on medium-high heat, add butter and let melt.

2. Add asparagus and stir-fry until bright green and softened but still crisp, about 5-7 minutes.

3. Just before removing from heat, add salt and dill and mix to incorporate. Remove from skillet and, if desired, add lemon juice and stir.

*To "trim" asparagus, hold one end in each hand and bend the spear. Where it breaks is the natural separation from the tender edible part from the tough, woody stem. Discard woody stems.

Copyright 2010, Jessie Carroll, Original recipe

If anyone tries this recipe, please let me know how it turns out for you!