Probiotic Soda Recipes

Probiotic soda made from water kefir is an excellent way to stay hydrated and nourished all day!

If you missed my post What is Water Kefir? you probably want to check that out. Today I want to tell you how to make flavored soda from water kefir. In this post I will refer to the water kefir (a.k.a. tibicos) SCOBY as "grains." This term refers to the look of them, as in "grains of sand", they are in no way grains like wheat, barley, oats, rye, or spelt.



If you're starting from scratch, you will need to acquire water kefir grains. I ordered my grains from Keysands, which sells dehydrated and live grains. They have excellent, friendly customer service, so email them if you have questions. Follow their instructions to re-hydrate or revive your grains.
Now that you have a healthy batch of grains... Lets get started!

Link Party! Celebrate What's in Season LINK-UP BELOW

Here are some pictures I took in the shuk (local market, Petach Tikva, Israel) yesterday.  Click to enlarge.

What's in season where you live?
Comment or attach a link below to your autumn food-related favorite things.
Or play Name That Fruit by commenting below. 

See additional details and what was in season this summer in the August 2011 What's in Season? Link-Up.

Trip to the Market and Food Tricks

Before I talk about dinner, I want to share two tricks.  I think I learned this first trick from Alton Brown on Good Eats, but I couldn't find the clip, so maybe it was my imagination.  But it works!  Have a head of wilted lettuce?  Put it in a big bowl of cold water with a splash of vinegar.  Poof!  Magically, your lettuce can pass for fresh.  (20 minute soak recommended.)  And it will keep looking fresh in the fridge for a couple days.  You don't have to worry about it turning back to its old wilty self as soon as the guests arrive.  (I took pictures, but wilted lettuce isn't very appetizing, and would you really believe a before-and-after photo?)

The second trick is just a fancy way to cut a lemon.  It won't help you get the juice out, but it makes a nice presentation.

Today I went to the city market (shuk) with my favorite shuk-buddy - A Mother in Israel.  She showed me a great little Ethiopian spice shop.  I'm sure you'll hear more about it as soon as I successfully cook some of the legumes I picked up there.

At the shuk I bought the usual fruits and veggies which were in season, including persimmons, a pomegranate, 1.5 kilos of honey, pistachios, and a chunk of winter squash that they call pumpkin. It looked like a giant butternut squash on the outside, but it wasn't as sweet.  I'm going to use the leftovers to try something like Pumpkin Soup with Wine and Rosemary on Cooking Manager.  I actually have some rosemary I need to use up.  And of course, no trip to the shuk is complete without fish!  My favorite is wild Norwegian Salmon, but I try to stick to thinks that more local, and less expensive.  Today I picked up five whole Amnon, a kind of Tilapia native to the Sea of Galilee (The Kineret), but I think mine grew up on a fish farm in Northern Israel.  Tilapia does well in close quarters like a fish farm, so it is considered a very responsible choice, ecologically, and there's no concern of mercury.   Amnon is a favorite of my mother-in-law, but when she was visiting I was too scared of all those little bones to make it.  These fish were a little bigger than what I tried the first time, but I think I still swallowed a tiny bone.

We had guests tonight; not the best time to experiment.  I usually compensate with extra dishes in case they don't all work out.  Usually there is something for everyone and everything is tasty, even if it's not what I expected.  Today was an exception, with burnt Ethiopian chick peas reminiscent of my first popcorn attempt, to bland squash that didn't cook in time.  Fortunately, there were enough successful dishes for a well balanced meal.  The couscous was okay without the chick peas and my guests weren't scared off when face-to-face with a whole fish.  I think the consensus was that it was fun to eat.  Not exactly a quick bite, but nice for sitting and talking to your guests.  I recommend having something like a trash bowl on or near the table in order to get some bones off your plate to make room for other food or further dissecting the fish.

I rinsed each fish thoroughly to make sure no scales were hanging around.  Then I started to make a sort of homemade mayonnaise: One egg, a splash of vinegar, and mustard in a food processor, then drizzle in olive oil.  Then I threw in a bunch of fresh dill (no stems), pulse, then half a red onion, pulse until well chopped. I smeared that all over the inside and outside of the fish.  Baked in a preheated 205 C/400 F degree oven for 20-30 minutes covered, 5 minutes uncovered.  I found it to be very delicate and slightly sweet.

I also made a version of the salad mentioned in my pomegranate post, except I used romaine and parsley instead of baby greens.

Pomegranate PLUS Salad Recipe

Pomegranates have recently become some of the most affordable produce in Israel.  My kids love them (I love them when the kids aren't spilling them) and they have many health benefits.  Inside you will find many juice filled sacs with tiny seeds in the middle which some people eat and some prefer to spit out like watermelon seeds.  These are called arils and according to Jewish tradition, a pomegranate (rimon in Hebrew) has 613 arils, the same number as the number of Mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah.  Below are pictures of local pomegranate trees from May and August.

We like to throw bunches of arils in our mouths and eat them like candy, seed and all.  Both my 4 and 5.5 year old love them.  You can also put them in yogurt, breakfast cereal, ice cream, or salads (see below); or make juice or syrup from them.
Here is a picture of a lady juicing pomegranates in our outdoor city market.

Below are pictures and video showing how to get the arils out.  I'm no expert, but this is the basic technique:
Cut off crown, score sides, break open. Gently rub off arils in a bowl of water. Use your hands to rub arils underwater and remove all the white membrane from the water. Drain.

 

This video is in honor of my mother, whom I love (and who butchered a pomegranate at my home last month).  After making this video, I learned another innovation from my friend Hannah.  It involves "drilling" into the top at an angle like you might with a tomato.  You can see a video of it in her post on Cooking Manager or  the demonstration in this YouTube video.

I recently tasted a delicious salad that my Israeli friend, Tzippy, made.  The base was baby greens chopped fine like you would herbs, plus chopped red onion, apple, and pomegranate arils.  She said you can add whatever fruit you like, like strawberries.  It was lightly dressed with olive oil, a little apple juice, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper (optional).  Below is a picture of a similar salad I made when I had guests.