Kefir and yogurt cheese

03/23/2009 at 12:19 pm (uncategorized)

I got some kefir grains last week. What is kefir, you ask? It is a creamy cultured milk product that is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Kefir can be made with cows’, goats’, coconut, rice or soy milk. It is similar to yogurt in that it contains friendly probiotic bacteria but it also  contains beneficial yeast. This naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in kefir combine to provide superior health benefits.

Besides the friendly bacteria and yeast, kefir contains minerals and amino acids. The partially digested, complete proteins in kefir are easier to digest making it good for those who usually can’t handle milk products. Kefir is also rich in calcium and magnesium and has an ample supply of phosphorus. Kefir contributes to a healthy immune system.

To make you simply add the gelatin-like particles called “grains” to the milk. I use a clear canning jar so I can check on its progress. I stir it throughout the day with a wooden chopstick, but you don’t have to do anything to it. Never use metal to stir it with or strain it because the grains will react to the metal. The longer you leave it out, the more sour it will taste. You just decide when you want to use it.

When you’re ready you strain it in a plastic colander and take the part that you strained and use that for smoothies, or in place of milk in pancake batter. There are many things to do with kefir. A simple search on google will tell you. The part in the colander will be put back into a clean jar and you will add milk to it and start over again. It might sound hard but it’s really not!

When I make smoothies with it, I take the strained finished product and add frozen strawberries and a bit of sugar or honey to it and blend it until smooth. I think frozen bananas would be tasty too. We have quite a bit of a sweet tooth, but eventually I hope to not have to add any extra sweetener to it. It reminds me of a strawberry milkshake. We enjoy drinking this every day.

I also ordered a 64 ounce container of plain yogurt from the local buying club. The whole reason I ordered it was to get the whey from it and to do that you make yogurt cheese.  To make the yogurt cheese you put the yogurt in a flour sack towel and knot the ends up and hang to drip. The liquid that drains out is the whey.  I wanted the whey to make homemade mustard and other fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and pickles. I got the idea from my favorite book: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. I let the yogurt cheese drip for 2 days. But I didn’t hang it the whole time and I think if I had, it would have been done sooner.

The yogurt cheese smells and looks like cream cheese, but it’s more sour to me than store bought cream cheese. I think it would be excellent in a vegetable dip of some sort. I made some “cream cheese” frosting out of it and it was pretty tart, but I think I will end up using it as a “lemon” glaze for poppy seed cake. The yogurt cheese was good spread on crackers with jelly on top. The jelly seemed to make it taste less sour.