Kefir Grain ABCs; Easy and Cost Effective

Back around Christmas I posted about making kefir for improving the health of your digestive system. I was making it with dehydrated kefir powder I got at a health food store. I had heard about kefir made from “grains” that could be reused. Again and again.  Sounds kinda magical doesn’t it?

Well, I did some research online and found that yes, there is such a thing as kefir grains.  They are not grains like we think of, more like a starter clump.  I couldn’t find the grains at any local stores but I found a guy on Craig’s List who was selling enough to get started.  We met in the parking lot of a Dunkin Donuts in Montgomerville, PA. Seemed somehow illicit swapping kefir curds in a baggie for my $10!  He turned out to be a very nice young man who enjoys making and drinking kefir with his wife.  He gave me some advice and coaching on the process for a couple of weeks via emails.

Basic directions: all you do is put the gently rinsed grains (they look like soft cauliflower cut into small flowerets) into a glass or ceramic jar, pour in milk; no need to heat.  Best is raw milk, next best organic whole milk or try two percent. I don’t suggest you make it with skim milk.  I do the raw milk but my quart of it doesn’t keep very long…as I only make a pint of kefir at a time.  Anyway, pour in the milk, put a loose lid on it and let it stand on the kitchen counter top for a day to 36 hours.  I stir mine occasionally as I walk by.  It will clump up – the curds rise to the top. Plastic or wooden stirrer….no metal.

Once it gets thickened you strain out the curds, being gentle with them.  Put the jar of kefir in the fridge to chill and put the curds in a glass jar and just cover with milk, put that also in the fridge; retards the kefir grains; basically brings the process to a halt. For detailed information check out this site: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-milk-kefir-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-202022.

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I drink it cold for a snack.  You can mix it with fruit juice. I sometimes have it over crushed pineapple. It is sort of like buttermilk and yogurt had a baby; thick liquid, tangy flavor.  Great for your gut.  Full of far more probiotics than the stuff you can make using the powdered kefir. Which is what I did before.  Now I have my kefir grains and I don’t need anything but the milk to make it with.  And it is better for you.  I did buy a small plastic strainer; you shouldn’t really use metal in connection with making or storing kefir.

If you have celiac or any sort of gut issues kefir is a great healthy choice to incorporate into your life style.  I hear you can even make it with coconut milk.  Not tried that yet.  Maybe someday…  Meanwhile I have tasty, healthy authentic kefir when ever I want it.

Super Spring Salads

Early spring is not known as the season for great salad but it could be! I am giving you several salad options in this post. Try your own blends but it is best not to throw everything in the fridge in it.  Try to be selective and highlight only a couple ingredients.  Simple ones I enjoy have only three – five ingredients and I use my homemade vinaigrette dressing.   They are pretty healthy and probably fairly low in calories yet high in nutritional value.  These are basic recipes which you can tweak depending on the ingredients in your fridge

Avocado Celery Salad (serves 1)

½ an avocado

1 celery stalk

3-4 leaves of green loose leaf lettuce

2-3 tbsp. fresh pomegranate seeds (optional)

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Or try this yummy salad which shows off citrus flavor and color:

Citrus Fennel Salad (serves one or two)

1 inner stalk of celery cut in 1/3 inch rounds

1 navel orange

1/2 cup fennel bulb, cut in ¼-1/3 inch slices

Peel the orange, either by hand or using a paring knife.  Cut across into rounds about ¼-1/3 inch across.  Cut again across into halves.

Fennel has a sweet crunch to it, faintly tasting of licorice, kinda sort of and it marries really well with citrus.  I also like to use tangerines, Clementines, blood orange or cara cara navel oranges in this recipe.  Even grapefruit slices are great.  Cara cara oranges have an interesting orange-pinkish cast to the fruit and a lovely sweet flavor. My local Giant grocery store has them on display right now.  You can also mix two citrus in your salad; a navel and a blood orange.  Fantastic!

I also make this same salad but instead of an orange I use a half to 3/4 cup of cubed fresh peeled ripe papaya; gives a lot of color and great flavor in this salad.

Papaya and fennel salad…healthy and yummy

Finishing directions for these salads:

Place the salad ingredients in your salad dish; I have some very low sided ceramic bowls I got a long time ago that I love for salad. Then sprinkle the salad with vinaigrette which you just shook up one more time! Please don’t add too much salad dressing or you will have soggy salad.

Margie’s Vinaigrette

I named this after my older sister who passed away three years ago.  She made fantastic vinaigrette.  Mine is not quite like hers but close enough to masquerade as it.  She would approve….

So, I like to use one of those Good Seasoning’s jars but add my own ingredients, use a pint jar if you like; the main thing is a tight fitting lid.  Fill it to the vinegar line with red wine vinegar, not the cheap store brand (skimpy 1/4 cup).  Then some filtered water to the water line (about 1/3 inch more or two tbsp.). Next I add 1 tsp Dijon mustard, ½ tsp sea salt, ¼ tsp dried oregano or dried thyme, one garlic clove (peeled and mashed down a bit to release flavor), 1 tsp mayonnaise, ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper and ½ tsp sugar. Then add extra virgin olive oil, stop a bit before the oil line and finish it with lighter olive oil (1/2 cup plus one tbsp of combined olive oils).  Shake it up really well. Then shake it some more, you need to get the mayo to blend in as completely as possible. It tastes best at room temperature and plan ahead – let it rest for at least an hour before you use it the first time.  Keep it in the refrigerator if there is any left over, lasts like a month in there. The mustard adds snap and the bit of mayo helps the dressing stay emulsified (fully blended) longer than it would without the mayo.  If your salad is delicate and you don’t want as much olive oil flavor use only mild olive oil and skip the EVOL.  If you chill the dressing you will need to let it warm up before using it; ten seconds in the microwave can help with that process.

Note: You could up the nutritional value with a few almonds or walnuts if you like nuts in your salad.

More ideas: I make any number of salad combos depending on what is in my fridge.  Two of my favorite ingredient combinations are: shredded carrot, sliced radishes, chickpeas, romaine and half rounds of European cucumber or a mixture of torn kale leaves, shredded raw Brussels sprouts, scallion rounds and julienned raw summer squash.  Both mixtures are great with this vinaigrette.

Last thought: I avoid tomatoes in winter or spring although some of the grape tomatoes are decent in flavor; use them if you feel the need for tomatoes. One last note: I don’t use tomatoes with citrus or papaya; sort of weird together.

So, go get your healthy green on and enjoy a fruity salad anytime of the year.

Peanut Butter Beauties

Making a batch of these tonight; just what I crave. I searched long for this old fashioned peanut butter cookie recipe and making my own version turned out to be a great move. Yummer!

Angela Drake's avatarMy World Without Wheat

I keep hearing about recipes for three ingredient peanut butter cookies. I wanted something a bit more actual cookie texture (think less greasy) and with less sugar than the versions I have come across. So I decided to play with the proportions and I wanted to add some gf flour. I cut the sugar by one fourth and dumped in a small amount of flour. To make sure my results weren’t like a brick I added some baking powder and to keep them from being incredibly crumbly messes I tossed in a touch of xanthan gum. The resulting dough was still a tad crumbly but when you scrunch up about a tablespoon with your fingers it forms a ball that can be flattened with a fork dipped in granulated sugar in the traditional cross hatch of all great peanut butter cookies.

The results: simple but tasty = peanut butter heaven…

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Easy Cherry Berry Muffins

People may wonder why I post muffin recipes fairly often.  Well, it’s simple: those cute things are so easy to make and so delicious… They are my go to gf snack.  They never turn out heavy or gummy: always tender and delightful not to mention healthy.  Best of all they taste much better and are cheaper than most readi-made store gf snack bars.

Turning to my trusty muffin recipe I decided to try a new variant; cherry and berry because I got a bag of frozen dark cherries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. I was thinking I would get a similar texture to previous berry muffins especially using my basic, easy to dump together, recipe. It’s so easy; I think I can almost do it in my sleep! Plus the frozen berries might actually be of better quality than fresh ones in the produce section at the grocery store right now; it is not berry season yet, hardly seems like spring at the present folks!

I’m emphasizing how simple they are to bake so that you can feel comfortable making your own muffins even if you have never done it before.  Why buy them when you can make your own: tasty and far cheaper than GF muffins you can buy? Seriously simple and a big reward; 14-16 tasty treats for less money.

This batch of muffins did not disappoint: delicate texture yet slightly crunchy outside with zingy cherry, blackberry, raspberry and blueberry flavors and just enough sugar for me.  I used the bag of mixed fruit I got from Giant grocery store straight out of the freezer -don’t defrost them before adding.  I suggest you use a paring knife and chopped up the larger fruits for this recipe. You can buy a bag of what ever berries float your boat or fit your budget. That’s the beauty of this recipe, flexibility.

The streusel topping insures that they look gorgeous and adds an extra layer of flavor.  There are walnuts in them to so you get some really great nutrients from the fruit and nuts.  Not much guilt in eating one of these treats! You can swap the white sugar for coconut palm sugar as I do: it barely raises blood sugar levels, unlike white sugar.  Loving the envious looks people give me whenever I chow down on a berry muffin as they eat some noxious bag of salty/sugary snack full of preservatives and who knows what. People are envying ME and my GF treat…Loving it! Much better than the pity party I can face when there is nothing safe for me to eat at school or at gatherings.

As always I taste tested a muffin from the batch while they were still warm out of the oven: at the moment of perfection.  This version is up there with all the other flavors of muffins I am addicted to.

It is smart to freeze any you won’t eat in two days time; a zip lock freezer bag works great.

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Cherry Berry Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)

2/3 cup granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. xanthan gum

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp. dried ginger

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 large eggs

½ cup milk, 1 or 2 percent

½ cup canola oil

Topping: Mix the following in a bowl, make sure the butter is in tiny pebbles; use your fingertips to blend.

½ cup rolled oats

¼ cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. almond meal

1½ tbsp. butter

¼ tsp. cinnamon

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Directions: Heat oven to 375 degrees, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 14-16 muffins.  I got 16 when I made them but if you make them really full I am guessing it will make a dozen.

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer or big bowl Add fruits and walnuts; stir to coat them with dry mix.  Combine milk and oil in a a small bowl.  Beat in eggs, add vanilla.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir just until blended.  It is a very thick batter. If you used the coconut palm sugar be sure to add ¼ cup extra milk.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full.  I use a big serving spoon and fill it about half way to dump in each muffin space. Sprinkle the top with the topping. Press it in a bit so it won’t all flake off after baking. Bake 21-23 min until golden brown. Do not over bake or they will taste dry.  Remove immediately from the pans and cool on a rack.  They freeze well for a few weeks, if they last that long.  Keeps in fridge (well wrapped) or an airtight cookie jar for two days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix 

(This mix is the same as King Arthur’s basic gf blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

This recipe is a variant of the muffins you will find in Annalise Roberts’ Gluten-Free Baking Classics cookbook.

Zesty Lemon Cookies

Sometimes we all long for things of our childhood; I find it difficult to find sweet treats of yesteryear now that wheat based foods are not an option anymore.  This gf cookie recipe that I made late this winter nearly perfectly reminds me of the Lemon Cooler cookies my dad loved to snack on.  I might have snitched a few when he wasn’t looking.  My little sisters also thieved them!

They are a refrigerator cookie; so easy to concoct and once chilled, you just slice and bake.  I froze many of them as they wouldn’t keep that long even in my airtight cookie jar.  They defrost quickly and still taste great a month later.

The recipe is from Annalise Roberts’ “The Heirloom Collection” published last year.  I recommend getting a copy; every single thing I have made has been fantastic. I used my stand mixer to whip this up and some Meyer lemon zest to add extra flavor. Regular lemon will work fine too; use lesser amount of lemon extract if you use regular lemon which has a stronger flavor.micro greens, orchids, lemon coolers 003

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Zesty Lemon Cookies

¾ cup unsalted butter

½ cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp. grated lemon zest

2 tsp. vanilla extract

¾ to 1 tsp. lemon extract

1 2/3 c brown rice flour mix

1/3 c sweet rice flour

½ tsp. xanthan gum

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup powdered sugar  ** for rolling the baked cookies in

Instructions: Beat butter (room temperature) and first amount of powdered sugar in stand mixer until light and fluffy.  Add zest, extracts and mix well. Mix flours and dry ingredients in a small bowl, add to creamed butter/sugar and beat until a smooth dough is created.

Make two rolls of dough using a length of plastic wrap; shoot for a 1 inch diameter: plop big spoonfuls on the plastic wrap, fold over to seal, twist ends, roll until smooth.  Chill at least an hour or two.

Heat oven to 350.  Spray baking sheet with Pam.

Use a sharp knife, slice cold dough logs into ¼ inch slices and put on baking sheet, an inch apart (they don’t spread much).  Bake for 12-14 minutes, until light brown. Let them sit on the sheet for 3-4 minutes, cool slightly more on rack and then roll in powdered sugar until well covered.  Cool and enjoy. Store in an airtight cookie jar. They freeze for about a month in a freezer bag.