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A Letter to People Who Think They Can’t Cook
Dear People Who Say They Cannot Cook, I kindly ask that you reconsider your
position. Why? Because cooking is not magic. Continue reading
Posted in Student Blog Project 2013
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Cooking In Tandem: Yoghurt and Granola
Yoghurt and granola is my ultimate comfort food.
Classic. Crunchy. Tangy. Not-to-sweet. You know what makes this pairing even more beautiful? They can made in tandem.
First of all, people are often quite amazed to learn that you can make yoghurt yourself. You can. Anybody can. It isn’t difficult and you don’t need any special equipment. And because the process of making yoghurt is rather spread out – since the milk must be heated and then cooled – it allows ample time to make the granola. Using the residual heat from baking the granola, you can incubate the yoghurt. You’re using heat that would otherwise go unused. They really are a perfect couple.
What you will need for the yoghurt:
1/2 gallon milk (cow or goat)
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
Mason jars or containers for yoghurt
1 roasting pan
1 bathroom towel
What you will need for the granola:
6 cups rolled oats
1 – 2 cups nuts or seeds
1 – 3 teaspoons spices of your choice
1 cup liquid sweetener and/or oil
Sea salt
1 roasting pan
1 saucepan
This will produce about 64oz. of yoghurt and 7 cups of granola.
Start by warming milk for the yoghurt.
You will need 1/2 a gallon of milk, either cow or goat. (Goat will yield a thinner consistency and require longer to incubate.) Pour into a large metal saucepan, place over medium-high heat and bring to just below a boil. If this is your first time, I recommend you use a thermometer and bring it to about 190° F. Do not let it bubble.
While the milk warms, start the granola.
First, preheat the oven to 325° F.
Then lay a metal roasting pan across two of your stove’s burners. Light both to medium-high heat. Pour your oats, nuts, seeds and spices into the pan:
- 6 cups rolled oats
- 1 – 2 cups nuts or seeds
- 1 – 3 teaspoons spices of your choice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves)
Shuffle the oats, nuts, seeds and spices around the pan until they are toasted and fragrant, about 10 – 15 minutes. Then, remove from heat.
The milk shouldn’t be done heating yet, so finish the granola.
Put another small pot on the stove. Measure out one cup of liquid sweetener and/or oil. We used 1/2 honey and 1/2 cup coconut oil. But this is flexible, you could use all honey, all maple syrup or all brown rice syrup. Or you can substitute oil for up to one half a cup.
Heat the sweetener and oil until thin and runny. Pour over oats/nuts/seeds and stir until well combined. Sprinkle sea salt over the granola, to taste.
Put the roasting pan in the oven. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool and then store in an airtight container.
The milk should be up to temperature.
When it hits 190°, or thereabouts, take it off to the stove. Let it cool to 120°.
When finished, remove the granola from the oven. Turn off the heat.
Time to prepare the yoghurt.
When the milk is cooled, measure out 1/2 cup yoghurt. Ladle about 1 cup milk over the yoghurt and stir. Then pour the mixture back into the heated milk. Stir.
Pour the milk/yoghurt mixture into mason jars, or store bought yoghurt containers. Wrap them up in a bathroom towel. Place the wrapped up containers in a roasting pan. Check the oven. It should be about 130° – cool enough that you can put your hand inside but still pretty warm. Put the roasting pan into the unlit oven. Close the oven.
Let the yoghurt incubate for at least four hours.
You can let it sit overnight or just for a couple hours of the afternoon. The longer you leave it, the thicker and tangier the yoghurt will become.
After the amount of time you choose, remove the roasting pan from the oven. Put the yoghurt in the fridge and let it cool.
And there you have it. Breakfast. Or a snack. Or dessert…
One disclaimer: While the yoghurt is incubating, remember that’s it’s in the oven. Leave a note for yourself if you have to. Because you may find you need to use the broiler. And you may or may not remember that you have a very flammable bathroom towel in the oven. And it may or may not catch on fire if the broiler is lit. I speak from personal experience…
Posted in Student Blog Project 2013
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Eight Kinds of Nut Butters
One day, while wandering the aisles of a grocery store, we got unusually
excited about the idea of making every kind of nut butter. And so – after
months of dreams and cravings – we finally did it. Continue reading
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It’s Alive! (Kombucha)
This semester, I brewed kombucha under my bed in a college dorm room.
Starting from at beginning of this story, I took a kitchen chemistry class this semester (yes, I go to a liberal arts school). At the start of the semester we were told that we had to chemically and biologically examine a recipe and explain how it worked in scientific terminology. With all this time, I decided to create a beverage that I had fallen in love with over the summer. Kombucha.
For the uninitiated, kombucha is fermented tea. If you drink rum, wine or any other fermented beverage, you now officially lose the right to say, “Ewww”. It’s sour, tangy, refreshing and absolutely fantastic during the summer. Over winter, you can warm it and sip it like hot cider. The really fantastic thing about kombucha though is how great the stuff is for you. Loads of B vitamins, probiotics, other delicious things. It’s like an energy drink, but without the caffeine and nagging guilt from the energy drink (ok, it’s not actually strong enough to be an energy drink, but it’s still something). So it’s good for you, it’s delicious, I’m pretty sure it saves starving martians on Venus or something.
So how does this kombucha-y thing work? There’s actually a really simple explanation with lots of non-essential things to learn. The actual process is very simple: sweetened tea is fermented for 10 to 12 days using a culture to acidify the tea and give it a delicious, fizzy tang. There are a lot of other variables involved, but that’s the gist of it. If you want to learn all about making kombucha and all the interesting variations you can create, check out Kombucha Kamp which was an invaluable resource during my research. The Art of Fermentation is also a fantastic book if you’re interested in creating all kinds of delicious tangy foods. For now though, I’ll include a short explanation of why to choose certain ingredients with the recipe.
Kombucha
– Compounds – Ingredients –
3 quarts filtered water
It’s best not to use chlorinated water. Chlorine is meant to kill bacteria and viruses and other nasty things, but it’s kind of like cleaning your carpet with a flamethrower instead of a vacuum. Sure, you’ll get rid of all the bad things, but you’ve also gotten rid of the good things as well. Distilled water also isn’t a great choice since it’s really just pure water without any minerals or delicious things. Filtered water still has some of the good stuff left but doesn’t have the nasty chlorine chemically stuff.
1 cup organic sugar
You can use white sugar, it tastes crisp and clean. Personally, I’m a bigger fan of Sucanat (unrefined cane sugar). It still has the vitamins, minerals and molasses compounds that are normally removed and once it’s fermented gives a fantastic complex flavour. Other things that work? Maple syrup is delicious but expensive. Using honey also gives a really nice flavour, but as some on Kombucha Kamp will tell you, it doesn’t always work so it’s best to use half sugar/half honey. Stay away from artificial sweeteners and stevia, they don’t work at all. Rule of thumb: If it isn’t made of sucrose, it probably won’t work.
4 organic tea bags
Black, green or white tea only. If you want to add herbal teas, add them in addition to the 4 tea bags. “Real” teas come from Camellia sinensis and will provide nitrogen for the kombucha mother/mushroom/SCOBY/squishy thing. I recommend you use organic, but I did just fine with Twining’s English Breakfast tea for a month. When picking your tea remember, black tea will create the strongest brew, green will be smooth and white will be delicate. If you want to be creative, try combining 4 “real” tea bags with two herbal ones. Two chai tea bags with four black tea bags is delicious in the winter and two mango herbal tea bags with four green tea bags in the summer is fantastically refreshing.
1/2 cup kombucha from a previous culture
You can get this at any local store that has plain kombucha. Or you can order some online. This doesn’t matter as much as long as it doesn’t have fruit juice or other things mixed in.
1 kombucha mushroom or starter culture
Best case scenario? You have a friend who will give it to you for free. Next best case scenario? You have connections with the weird hippie people at your farmer’s market. Worse case? Order online.
– Procedure – Instructions –
(Non-bolded procedure for science-y people. Bolded instructions are for the rest of us.)
- Heat 3 quarts of filtered water in a vessel of appropriate size. Bring to 100ºC/212ºF.
- Make 3 quarts of water boil.
- Sanitise the vessel that will contain the ferment.
- Wash a large glass or ceramic jar.
- Pour the heated water into the vessel that will contain the ferment
- Pour the water in your kombucha jar.
- Combine sucrose compound with heated liquid. Stir until dissolved.
- Mix your sugar with your hot water. Make sure it’s mixed in and isn’t settling on the bottom of the container.
- Add your four samples of Camellia sinensis to the heated water. Remove the samples once the water has dropped to ~21ºC/~70ºF.
- Add your four tea bags to the hot water. Take them out of the hot water when the hot water is not hot anymore.
- Combine the sample of tea ferment from previous experiment with the liquid.
- Add the kombucha from the store to the tea.
- Gently place the Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeasts (SCOBY) into the liquid. Cover with a sterilised cloth and keep in a dark location with regulated temperature for 10 to 14 days.
- Name your kombucha mother/squishy pet. Carefully add your pet to her new home and then cover the jar with a towel (rubber bands hold it in place pretty well). Keep out of direct sunlight as kombucha doesn’t tan well. It also prefers to stay at about 70ºF, though it won’t complain as long as it’s within 20ºF of that. Try to keep it cooler than 90ºF and warmer than 50ºF. Actually, it won’t complain at all. It doesn’t talk.
- After fermentation cycle is complete, remove SCOBY sample from fermented tea, making sure to reserve enough tea ferment to cover the SCOBY. Pour into containment vessels and store in a reduced temperature environment for up to a week.
- Once your kombucha is tangy and delicious, take the mother out and store her somewhere safe and clean with enough kombucha to cover. Pour your kombucha into jars and store them in the refrigerator. Try to drink them before the week is up because it will continue to get stronger (all those probiotics keep working even after you’re finished brewing).
- Consume beverage. Repeat process if more tea ferment is desired.
- Enjoy your kombucha. If you want to make more, then just start over from the beginning, since you should have all the ingredients again.
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Posted in Student Blog Project 2013
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Never the Same Thing Twice: Quinoa Pancakes
I can’t say pancakes are my favorite food.No, I have too many favorite foods to pick just one. Sweet potatoes, blueberries, pesto, good bread, kale, hummus, tomatoes…I love them equally. Pancakes are on th… Continue reading
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Ordinary Magic: Making Butternut Squash Bread
This recipe did not start in the kitchen. It started in the library.I picked up this book. We paged through it together and came upon a recipe for Butternut Pumpkin Bread with Feta. Tim immediately put … Continue reading
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The Who, What, Why & How of Permaculture
It started with two fellows in Tasmania.Their names were Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. In the 1970s they constructed a new design system for agriculture; in 1978 they published a book called Permacu… Continue reading
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Metamorphosis: Making Bread on a Stick
We had a plan.We were going to make bread. On sticks. Over a fire. In the woods. In mid-October we went camping for a weekend, and I got it into my head that I wanted to make bread outside. We’re n… Continue reading
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