Winter Warmer Soup

This is a quick and easy way to make your daily stock more interesting, when you can't be bothered making a vegetable soup. 

Have a mug of this warming soup at first signs of a flu or cold, or when you're feeling the winter weather. If you get sick, sip throughout the day.

• 1 litre of chicken, duck or turkey stock
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
• 4-8 Tablespoons creamed coconut
• juice of 1 lemon
• sea salt to taste

Bring the stock to a boil, skim off any foam. Add the ginger (and optional extras) and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the creamed coconut and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and sea salt to taste, and serve.

Variations:

• For an even more heating soup, also add 1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes -OR- 1-3 dried chillies (depending on their size)
• Use as a base for a more filling soup by adding pumpkin, butternut or kumera. After adding the lemon and sea salt, take out the chillies (if you used whole ones) and puree with a handheld wand blender.
• Garnish with a spring onion, very finely chopped

Milk kefir

Milk kefir can be made from kefir grains, or from a powdered starter. Here's how to make it from kefir grains.

When you receive your grains

If your grains have been stored in the fridge or freezer for a while or someone has posted them to you, they'll need some preparation before they make a good batch.

Put the grains into a jar with about ¼ of the normal amount of milk (eg. if you have 1 tablespoon of grains, use 1/2 cup milk). Leave out for 12 – 24 hours (depending on temperature), shaking or stirring from time to time. When the milk separates out (so that the thick curds are at the top, and the liquid whey is at the bottom), it’s fermented. Shake or stir well, so that the grains are easier to separate. Pour the mixture into a non-metallic strainer, with a jug underneath. Throw away the milk.

Repeat this washing and throwing away a second time.

After that they will make great kefir on the third batch.

Types of milk

Raw milk is best, but pasteurised works also. Avoid homogenised or ultra heat-treated milk.

If you can get milk from Jersey cows, it will be very high in cream, which makes delicious kefir. If your milk is lower in fat, you can add some extra cream to it, if you like.

Cow’s milk is usually used, but you can also kefir goat’s milk, coconut milk and other liquids. When you use cow’s milk, the grains will grow each time you use them. But with other milks they won’t grow, and may eventually stop working.

You can also get water kefir grains, which feed on glucose instead of lactose. Or you can convert milk grains to water grains, though they won’t then grow. They can then be used to make fermented fruit juice drinks. (But that’s another post!)

Ratio of milk to grains

Each tablespoon of grains will ferment about ½ a litre (2 cups) of milk. Each time, your grains will grow a little. So you can increase the amount of milk you’re fermenting, or separate the grains into two batches. Store the spares, or share them. (Detailed instructions for shipping grains are available on request).

Making the kefir

Kefir is much more “forgiving” than yoghurt, as it isn’t temperature sensitive. It will ferment in about 7 days in the fridge, or in 12 hours to 2 days in a warm place (18-25C). The most popular way seems to be to keep in the fridge for 24 hours (or more) then leave on the bench for about 24 hours.

Place milk and optional cream in a clean wide-mouth jar. Ceramic is best, but glass will do. Add kefir grains, stir or shake well and cover loosely with a cloth or with the jar lid, placed loosely on top. Stir or shake vigorously occasionally to redistribute the grains. Every time you stir, taste the kefir. When it achieves a tartness to your liking, the kefir is ready. The kefir may also become thick and effervescent, depending on the temperature, incubation time and the amount of curds you use. (If you’re having trouble telling when it’s ready, I consider it ready when the mixture separates out. But that will depend on how tart you like it.)



Pour the kefir through a strainer into another jar to remove the grains. Store in refrigerator. If you have enough milk for a new batch, start it straight away. Keep in the fridge for up to a week, taking it out about 24 hours before you need it, to finish the fermenting. Otherwise, store grains in a small jar in some fresh milk. Grains may be stored in the refrigerator several weeks, but change the milk every few days. If you don’t have any milk, store them in filtered water, but they won’t keep as long.

Note: some people rinse their grains in water before starting a new batch. This isn’t necessary, and the grains will grow more quickly if you don’t rinse.

Check out Dom’s kefir “insite” http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html#what's-kefir for more information and recipes.

Kombucha

The kombucha starter culture or scoby (a symbiotic colony of yeast & bacteria, sometimes known as a "mushroom") acts on sugar & tea to produce a wide variety of beneficial acids, such as acetic & lactic acid.

It is a therapeutic drink, and is considered a liver tonic, but is also very refreshing as a summer drink.

• 1 large, uncoloured pyrex bowl
• 2.7 litres filtered water (3 quarts)
• 1 cup sugar (white sugar feeds the culture best)
• 4 tea bags of black tea
• 1/2 cup kombucha from a previous culture
• 1 kombucha scoby

Bring the filtered water to boil. Put the sugar into your bowl, add the boiling water and stir till dissolved. Add the tea bags and leave the tea to steep until the water has completely cooled.

Remove tea bags, add 1/2 cup kombucha from previous batch and stir. Place the scoby on top of the liquid. Cover the bowl loosely with a cloth or towel, secured with a ring of elastic and leave to a warm, dark place, away from contaminants and insects.

The kombucha will be ready in about 7 to 10 days, depending on the temperature. The ideal temperature is about 23-27°C (74-80°F) and if possible, don’t let it fall below 20°C (68°F) or rise above 30°C (86°F). A hot water cupboard is a good place to ferment it, or if you don’t have one, you may need a heating pad in winter. If it gets too cold, the balance of bacteria and yeasts will be disturbed. Avoid moving it until it’s ready to bottle.

When the kombucha is ready, it should be fizzy and rather sour, with no taste of tea remaining. The scoby will have grown a second spongy pancake, which can be used to make other batches or given away to friends. If you are doing the GAPS protocol, or SCD diet, you will need to make sure all the sugar has been fermented away. (Test this cautiously when you are stable on the main diet.)

Store fresh scobies in the fridge in a glass jar (never plastic), covered with some of the last batch. A scoby can be used many times. If it begins to turn black, or if the resulting kombucha doesn't sour properly, it's a sign that the culture has become contaminated. When this happens, it's best to throw away all your scobies and get a new clean one.

Set aside a cup of liquid for the next batch, and bottle the rest. Use bottles suitable for carbonated drinks – otherwise they are prone to exploding! Keep at room temperature for 5-7 days, then store in the fridge.

Contraindications:

As with any food, kombucha will not be suitable for everybody. Always start with a small amount and increase your intake slowly. It may not be suitable for you, or you may need to be especially careful introducing it if you:

• Are diabetic, or on any other sugar controlled diet - Some diabetics have had great results from drinking Kombucha. But it is important to remember that although most of the sugar is converted into other components during the fermentation process, some still remains as sugar in the finished tea.
• Are an alcoholic in recovery - Recovering alcoholics sometimes find it helpful to drink Kombucha during their recovery period. Be aware though, Kombucha does contain a small quantity of alcohol. It is usually less that 1% by volume, but even a small quantity of alcohol can have a negative effect on a recovering alcoholic.
• Have a yeast allergy – most people with yeast allergies find Kombucha helpful, but there is a possibility of an adverse reaction in some people
• Have a badly functioning liver, or any other chronic disease - Kombucha is a very powerful detoxifier and will pull toxins from your body and pass them through your liver on their way out. If your liver does not function correctly then it may be unwise to drink Kombucha, or you may be only able to take very small quantities (such as a spoonful).
• Are giving it to an infants under 6 Years - Whilst a young body is growing it cannot withstand the same degree of supplements and foodstuffs as an adult. Kombucha is very strong and should not be used on infants. Dilute an older child's Kombucha with water.
• Are a pregnant and breastfeeding mother - As above. Nutrients from the mother will pass into the unborn child and / or breastfed baby.

Fermented cabbage juice

If you are doing the GAPS Intro stage where you use sauerkraut juice only, this recipe is a lot easier than making the full sauerkraut recipe. It's also easier to sip this if you don't like eating sauerkraut.

I found this recipe on a NZ website Jacqueline Organics. Here is her recipe with a couple of my own comments below:

Fill a blender with chopped green cabbage and distilled water, which is available at the warehouse - bottom shelf in drink section, called Pure Dew. (Deb: We use artesian well water from the Petone aquifer, and that works fine too)

Add water till 2/3 full - beat at high speed in the blender for one minute and pour out into bowl and repeat with two more batches.

Cover with gauze or stocking and let stand at room temperature. After 3 days, the cabbage juice solution is ready to use. It is preferable to keep this in warm place out doors as it has strong smell and some may find it unpleasant! (Deb: Or keep it in a chilly bin in the laundry or garage.)

Strain the mixture to separate the liquid and the pulp. Place cultured cabbage juice in the refrigerator.

When your supply gets low, make a second batch just like the first one, except, add 1/2 cup of the juice from the first batch to the second batch. Your second batch will be ready in 24 hours.

Drink up to ½ cup 2 to 3 times each day, but start with small doses. Dilute with equal part of water.

The lactic acid in the cultured cabbage juice will purify the G.I tract and kill most strains of fungi, parasites and other pathogens. You should drink this drink until your stools float in the toilet bowl and are odour free. You can gain some benefits from eating the cabbage pulp (which is what you separate off from the liquid).

My experiences so far making it:

Batch 1:

The cabbage I bought from Commonsense Organics was quite small, so it didn't make 3 blender loads - only 1 .5. As she said, it was very smelly, right from the start and did need to be fermented outside. It took about 6-7 days to be tangy enough, rather than 3. It wasn't that great tasting, but not too bad either. Since I bottled it, it has been left on the bench and not refrigerated, and it seems to be tasting better as it gets older. Or I'm getting more used to it. Either way, its all good.

Batch 2:

As she says, I added some of the first batch to it, but since my cabbage was again small, I only added 1/4 cup. Funnily enough, it doesn't smell anywhere near as bad as the first batch and although you can smell it when you get within a couple of metres, I have been able to keep it inside. It's currently on Day 3 and tastes nearly ready.

Later updates:

Another way of controlling the smell is to keep your jar inside a chilly bin, if you haven't got a suitable outdoor area to keep it in.

I have found that you can also ferment red cabbage juice, and it doesn't smell so much. Though I think it's also not quite as effective a digestive tonic.

So I have been doing a mixture of red and green cabbage, which is a nicer flavour and smell, but still helps digestion. Build up to 1/3 or 1/2 glass before each meal.

Another variation:

Add some chopped raw beetroot, and a small amount of salt and extra water to each batch, so you are also getting the benefits of beet kvass.