What is Kefir anyway??? Kefir is a fermented milk drink that is high in good bacteria and probiotics. It is basically like a super hopped up version of what you get when you consume yogurt, but way better. I am new to this whole Kefir thing, all because I asked a friend what in the world she was doing with milk sitting out on her counter. Her reply? Making Kefir, want to try a smoothie? I did and I was hooked! Ever since I have been making Kefir smoothies every day and the kids love it too. Plus, I really think it does wonders for a person's digestive tract, all that good probiotic stuff.
My friend was so gracious as to share some of her Kefir grains with me and tell me what to do, so this is her wisdom not mine originally. Kefir grains are not really grains at all, they look like cottage cheese, don't really smell, and are essential to making Kefir. From everything I have read you cannot make your own you actually have to get a start from someone who has Kefir grains and then you are set as long as you keep feeding your Kefir.
This is what the grains look like, cottage cheesy right? Doesn't taste like cottage cheese at all though.
My friend was so gracious as to share some of her Kefir grains with me and tell me what to do, so this is her wisdom not mine originally. Kefir grains are not really grains at all, they look like cottage cheese, don't really smell, and are essential to making Kefir. From everything I have read you cannot make your own you actually have to get a start from someone who has Kefir grains and then you are set as long as you keep feeding your Kefir.
This is what the grains look like, cottage cheesy right? Doesn't taste like cottage cheese at all though.
My friend started me out with a mason jar just like this. This is about how it looked the day she gave it to me. Just looked like milk in a jar. You can secure a paper towel on the top of the jar by either a mason jar ring or a rubber band but the idea is that you want the Kefir to be able to kinda breathe without danger of something falling into your jar. I was told to just leave it alone for 24 hours sitting out on the counter in my kitchen, which I did.
The next morning when I woke the substance in the jar looked like this.
Looks kinda funky huh? It doesn't smell as I was wondering if my kitchen was going to take on a certain spoiled milk smell, it didn't. So, then I stir to incorporate the watery and chunky masses and then strain to keep the Kefir grains while using the Kefir milk in that every yummy smoothie!
My friend (ingenious as she is) used a grain sprouting lid as a strainer. Again, brilliant because my first attempt at straining out the grains resulted in a whole lot of kefir milk all over my counter. Wanna know how cool my friend is? She then heard that story and gave me her own sprouting lid to use!
I used the strainer type lid to pour the thickened Kefir milk into my blender to make a delicious smoothie (I am now addicted). Then I put the Kefir grains into a small plastic bowl while I washed out the mason jar to start the process all over again.
For the large mason jar I am using (quart jar) it takes about 2 T of Kefir grains to get the probiotic thing going and turn it into Kefir milk. I am passing some grains to a friend so I filled a pint jar with 1 T of Kefir grains to share with her. Kefir does grow so sharing with friends is fantastic or you can just keep proliferating your Kefir milk. You can also mix the grains into your smoothie or just part them out and get rid of them.
Here is my clean jar with my grains plopped back in. Then it is so simple, just add milk to the top of the jar, cover with a paper towel secured by a lid band or rubberband. Then I just leave this sit on the counter for 24 hours until my next batch of Kefir milk is ready for another super-probiotic awesome smoothie.
This mornings batch for breakfast. We added frozen blueberries, frozen peaches, and some honey to sweeten things up a bit.
Yummilicious!!!
