KimmyKokonut

My husband is happily immersing himself in a much needed field: that of the online cookbook. There is no single program out there that functions efficiently and is easily editable. After finishing my cod at school and spending countless hours costing out each recipe in my menu and figuring out food cost percentage and yield percentages, my husband has been inspired to design the ideal coster/menu planner and more.

It is just entering beta phase, but I’m sure he’d let you play around and give feedback.

http://cookingcompendium.com/

Catchy name, eh? Muy intellectual and descriptive. These are some of the features he’s working on:

• Recipes costed per portion
• Nutritional info linked to recipes
• Base cost linked to ingredients
• Yield percentage of produce taken into account
• Uploading photos and linking them with recipes
• Star rating system allows the web to vote on your recipes (if you share them).
• On-line access to your cookbook.
• Recipes are printer friendly.
• You can build a menu, change the total served and it will be costed anew as well as the recipe re-written for the new yield.

How wonderful that two seemingly different career choices have been brought together for a software program that will revolutionize the food industry!

My first relationship with soy was the obvious soymilk on my cereal, then tofu. I don’t think I knew what tempeh was, even after my mom brought home some store tempeh called “fakin bakin” which was not like bacon, but fun. I didn’t understand it well enough to embrace it and bought it rarely because I was confused about what it was and how to prepare it.

My proud first attempt and success!

I have ascended in the soy world as I declare my love of tempeh to y’all. It is nutty, mushroomy and full of texture. It is the highest known food source of B12 (eat that, cows!), it contains beneficial bacteria so the body can digest it easier. It has 40% more protein and 40% less fat PER POUND than hamburger. It’s full of fiber, which tofu has none. And the omnivores tend to dig it more than tofu, in my experience.

I have an intimate relationship with tempeh, as I have cultured it myself. It was my entree protein for my 5 course lunch. I will go through the steps in my next post complete with pictures. It is not hard! Anyone can do it as long as they can maintain an environment of 88 deg F for 24 hours, or at least 12 hours. I bought my bacteria strain from GEM Cultures, which is run by the cultural manipulator master, Betty.

Care for a slice of yummy goodness?

The cost of the starter for 15#: $2.50; The cost of 8 oz dry organic soybeans to yield 13 oz tempeh: $0.70.

Price per ounce of homemade tempeh: $0.18 Price per ounce of store tempeh: $0.47

I did the math. I don’t think anything is wrong with store tempeh, but you can’t beat fresh-made tempeh, no packaging, no delivery trucks and the pure satisfaction of making a simple bean into a paradise for the mouth and belly and soul. I encourage you all to try it. I met a vegetarian today who had never even heard of it before. For real? Open your mouth world, I’m bringing the tempeh to you!

I chilled a bottle of kombucha after 5 days in the bottle and it’s perfect! Crisp, full of bubbles and muy refrescante. Matt likes it so much that we’ve already drank the whole batch and another one is brewing.  I can’t handle the carbonation in soda but this is a different sort of bubbles.  Happy yeasted bubbles.

Yummy!
Here’s the results of my two tests: 1 Tbl of flavored simple syrup was enough for the 16 fl oz bottle and filling it to the top or 1/4″ to the top didn’t make much of a difference. The first bottle had a baby “jellyfish” in it and Matt drank it and he’s still alive. The remaining bottles didn’t produce scobies.

We’re drinking so much of it I think this will be a constant process throughout the summer of culturing, bottling and consuming. If anyone needs scobies, contact me, I already have more than I can handle.

So far I’ve plated my entree (but it’s too ugly to post), my appetizer and here’s my dessert. My first attempt was quite embarrassing. Somehow I had the brownie in a triangular shape and I quenelled the ice cream and my dessert became a vagina on a plate. I think this plating is much more appropriate and appealing. Vaginas don’t really belong on a plate.

Aliens!

I tasted the kombucha yesterday and it could have (should have?) been bottled yesterday but I had a busy day and it was NOT possible. So the taste today compared to yesterday didn’t seem like that big of a difference, but I am not a connoisseur yet and can not determine what this 2.7 ph is on my tongue. I could easily smell it when the jar was in front of me. I sterilized my 16 fl oz glass EZ cap bottles and with clean hands played with my new baby.The baby was so white and slippery like jello. I could feel the newest layer of growth on it, it could have been easy to pull off. The mother got darker and they were connected by a strange filaments that reminded me of seaweed. I’m going to do my next batch without separating the mother from the baby to make the baby stronger. Then I’ll pass the mother on to an awaiting classmate who wants some kombucha action of her own.

So the mother and baby are patiently waiting for their new home in a mason jar in the fridge with about 12 fl oz of the current batch. I filled all the bottles differently and labeled them to see if any of them burst or if the taste is affected. I’m quite the refiner.

Yeast doing it’s final task: bubblizing

I made a small batch of strawberry ginger simple syrup and added different amounts to two bottles. Watch out, Wonder Drink company, I’m going to learn it all on my own! So my 3 liter batch filled exactly 5 pint bottles, and they will sit for 5 days for fermentation number two, where the carbonation will get more intense and the acidity should mellow out while the kombucha becomes a bit drier. We will see if that will be the case.

Strawberry-Ginger Simple Syrup (Yield: about one cup)

1 cup of evaporated cane juice, 4 fl oz of filtered water, 8 strawberries, hulled and diced (like a small dice) (about 2 cups), a 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and mixture reaches a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Strain strawberry pulp and ginger. Add 1 Tbl per pint bottle of kombucha during the bottling process. Syrup will keep for a long time covered in the refrigerator.

Today it still tasted a bit sweet, but look at that yeast strand action! Talk about living organisms! I will wait a bit longer.

Today I tasted the kombucha and it seemed a little sweeter. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but it’s still too sweet for me and if the internet is right and says it mellows while in the bottle, I’ll have to suck it up and be patient a day or so more. The baby is getting more opaque and thicker and where it attaches to the mother it’s got an ugly brown area….it currently tastes like cider jack.

Both of my babies hard at work

I don’t think I explained what kombucha actually is or what it does for you. Here’s a synopsis if you are too lazy to wiki it yourself. Kombucha is a solid mass that is actually a symbiosis (happily living together in a beneficial way) of yeast and bacteria (good bacteria), mainly Bacterium xylinum. Kombucha has been studied in Europe, but they won’t state anything solid in America about it’s multitude of beneficials—the FDA doesn’t really like to do that for natural products or herbs (although the FDA has studied it). It is an immune booster, a detoxifier, and has helped people reduce cancer symptoms, has improved arthritis, candida, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, blood pressure problems, obesity, psoriasis, eczema and other skin problems, PMS (hooray), poor digestion and migraine relief.

With such a natural, affordable and easy to make product out there, I don’t understand why MORE people aren’t making and consuming it. When will the day come when taking care of your body like this will become the norm?

Have I mentioned that I want to manipulate culture or is this too early on to share? Culture as in bacteria and yeast. I’m SO excited! It’s like I’ve entered a magical world where scientists and witchdoctors are friends. I think people in modern day society tend to forget that food has a life before it’s on the supermarket display…that it was attached to a plant which was rooted in the earth and so on. It makes me happy that little friends such as bacteria and yeast still live on our planet and will work for us for a small fee and in return, nourish us to the core. Enough of my far, far away rant.

Last week I acquired a kombucha baby from someone at my local co-op and today I tasted it’s progress. It is day 8 of it’s fermentation, and my apartment is warm with no breezes. I couldn’t get past the bubbles! I didn’t expect bubbles until the second fermentation. I kept tasting it and tasting it. It has a hit of acidity after I swallow it, but the initial taste was somewhat sweet. I’m going to taste it every day and wait for some of the sweetness to disappear.

Bubbles=Yeast party!.

For those of you with the inability to google or out of pure laziness, I will educate you of the lovely ugliness that is kombucha. I first heard of it visiting my husband’s late grandfather years ago. He had a fizzy alcoholic, sediment filled liquid in a jar in his refrigerator. He drank it every day. I was very wary of this old world voodoo juice, but I tried a little bit. And I liked it. Now it seems like you can get kombucha bottled in any grocery store, at least in Seattle, and it’s expensive! It’s like $3 for a 12 oz jar. The cost for me to make a gallon of this stuff is one cup of sugar and two tablespoons of green tea. I’ll do a cost analysis later and enter it in for the costing nerds out there. Or you could do it for me. Knowing it is possible to make it at home and being the frugal fraggle that I am, I am out to make my own kombucha revolution in my apartment. Plus it’s fun and satisfying and liberating to make nourishing and healing foods for oneself.

My recipe for homemade kokonut kombucha:

1. Bring 3 liters of filtered water to a boil. Add 2 T of green tea (or 5 tea bags) to the water and steep for 15 minutes.

2. Strain off tea leaves, add one cup of granulated sugar (I like evaporated cane juice). (1 cup sugar on my scale is 7 oz).

3. Stir the sugar so it dissolves. Cool it to 68-77 deg F.

4. Add your starter liquid, stir, add the culture (the pancake, mother, gelatinous blog).

5. Cover the opening with a clean kitchen towel, secure with a rubber band and place in a warm, undisturbed location for about a week. Full sunlight is not desired, but it doesn’t need to be in a closet, just don’t anger the beast.

6. Taste test until slightly acidic and not sweet. With clean hands, remove the blob, place on a clean plate. Save 10% of the liquid and hold the mother and her baby in it until you are ready to make a new batch. They can be separated and given as gifts along with some of the liquid.

7. Bottle the liquid, leaving no airspaces into a glass bottle. Plastic and metal are bad news. Don’t even try it.

8. Wait at least 5 days before cracking the lid and sipping to your soul’s content. It can keep for a few months, apparently the yeast will stop when they are ready and won’t overdo their job. The longer you wait the mellower and drier it will be.

View from above.

Enjoy my current picture, hopefully I’ll bottle it tomorrow with an update. Please share your kombucha stories with me. Has anyone eaten the mother? Kind of cannibalistic but I have an urge to bite it.

My next cultural manipulation: tempeh. awaiting the culture in the mail.

COST ANALYSIS UPDATE:

For those of you at-home fermenters, you will be happy to know that an 8 oz portion of kombucha costs a lovely 14 cents!  (plus or minus how much you spend on sugar and tea).  The suggested retail for an 8.5 oz jar of Kombucha Wonder Drink is $1.99.  Are you amazed?

Appetizer: Bok choy, morel and goat cheese wontons. Soy-ginger dipping sauce

Salad: Wood sorrel, arugula, taro croutons, pickled fiddleheads, dried hibiscus, lemongrass vinaigrette

Intermezzo: Shiso granita, adzuki gelee

Entree: Macadamia nut encrusted tempeh, coconut lime sauce, mango salsa, forbidden rice, pea vines

Dessert: Mocha poi decadence, strawberry ice cream, li hing mui

One step closer, still a lot of work to do. I don’t quite understand yet how chefs can come up with menus at the drop of a hat that have a theme and flow between courses. It must get easier with experience, or they all steal someone else’s ideas. This COD (Chef of the Day, i.e. final project for culinary school) has been months of work, testing, seeking advice from chefs, peers and books. Obviously, being the only vegetarian in my school, I feel a bit of pressure for it to be above and beyond. Well, I tend to head in that direction anyways with details. (Which is a very employable trait). Anyways, my theme was a number of horrible ideas I wasn’t in love with and I was totally inspired by Hawaiian produce (note:NOT hawaiian food. no spam musubi for me, thank you).

So I now have a 5 course lunch loosely based around Hawaiian flavors and products mingling with Seattle springtime happiness. I have made some drastic changes but I feel that I am at the point where I have resarched enough complimentary flavors and have actually simplified my eclectic, almost overwhelming menu into something I am excited to make.

So, menu done. Recipes written for 34. Recipes costed out and met the required food cost percentage. (Our lunches are a deal–we get to use great product and it’s about 1/3 of what you’d pay for a prix fixe at a nice restaurant). My inventory sheet is set up for my purchasing meeting. My place settings and napkin folds have been decided (Cock’s comb, only the best fold. I would have gone with the rabbit, but I don’t have unlimited staff or time to fold that beauty).

Next step: make time to test all my recipes, make sure I like them, plate courses. And all of this has to fit within my normal rotations at school–which is a headache but it’s forcing me to multitask. Something I wouldn’t be very good at teaching myself.

My big test will be if I can make tempeh. I just ordered some culture from GEM Cultures in NoCal, so I’ll update when that experiment begins. That’s part of the above and beyond business. For now, enjoy my menu!