First, there is fermentation happening here.
No, we have not built our own still!
Although that's actually not a bad idea...I digress. We are making a crazy sort of moonshine though. Ours, however, is a health-nut approved elixir - Kombucha. Yep, after spending 30 bucks a gallon on a weekly basis for this stuff at our local natural foods emporium over the past several months, we've decided to brew our own shroom. And let me tell you, this process is not for the faint of heart. Very involved it 'tis, that's for sure. However, the hubs was determined and his patience paid off for we now have a gallon of the stuff brewing.
Lookie how purty our fungal tea is...
The hubs has definitely got foodie mad scientist tendencies in his blood. Anyway, this reddish, amberish, brownish liquid has been sitting on it's heating pad for close to a week now. Hubs checked the pH yesterday and we're almost at the drinkable level. Definitely a little scary, but awesome nonetheless.
While the hubby has been playing around in the fermentable zone I've been concentrating my efforts in the realm of dehydration. That's right, for me it's been all about the jerky. Uh-huh, I made my own by following the recipe and oh so sage advice regarding the dehydration of foodstuffs from one of my favorite Food Network personalities, Alton Brown. Love him.
What's cool about his jerky recipe is way the meat is dried out by using a box fan, paper air conditioning filters and bungee cords. Dude, who knew that one could literally suck the moisture out of food by using items from your local hardware store? Needless to say, AB's method worked and I now have a container full of dried out meaty goodness...
Fruits and veggies beware. I will suck the moisture out of you sooner than you think!
We've definitely entered a whole new level of craftiness over here and I love it!
13 comments:
Am I seeing dried food theme apparel in our future?? Looks like fun ;-)
very cool, er i mean dry. goes with your humor regina... lol.
that fungus is huge! wow. impressive!
I saw that episode of AB - I thought it was really neat, too! Awesome that you tried it!!
I'm happy to hear that you're back on your usual wacky soundtrack of life. =)
I too saw that AB episode and had been discussing a food dehydrator for months before that-
The Kombucha-interesting, all I'm gonna say about that.
Mmmmm... beef jerky! I *love* beef jerky! I thought you had high blood pressure or something... you don't have to cut back on salt? (If you don't, I've got three favourite beef jerky recipes I can share... but one has breath-defying amounts of garlic.)
Yum! My most recent food experimentation involved a blender, mac 'n cheese, whole jalapenos and habanero hot sauce. Coming up: Tomato soup, whole jalapenos and habanero hot sauce. :0)
Looks good...and intriguing! I loved that AB episode too! Glad to see it actually works
Alton Brown is insane. I adore him. Thanks to him I've got a two-foot length of heavy chain under my kitchen sink, to weight down frozen foods as I thaw them in a sink of cold water.
Is that stuff floating in the top of your brew some kind of bactera/yeast/fungus colony? If so, TOO cool. I assume you'll just move it to a new jar of goo when this one's done brewing?
I can't wait to see how it turns out!
You definitely know how to work those veggies to the skin lol!
Hello! Ann Marie, the former lurker, here. I loved reading this blog mainly because I LOVE Asian teas and the Kombucha piqued my interest. I'll have to check it out.
I also LOVE Alton Brown. He's the best. I'm not crazy about jerky but I'll have to try his moisture-sucky contraption on my fruits and veggies.
Thanks for another wonderful blog. Sounds like all is well with you, but I'm still going to send hugs and good vibes your way!
Where DID you find the paper furnace filter?? We've been looking all over....our local hardware stores only carry the fiber/bad kind. I wonder if Home Depot has them---you know, I think that's the only place we HAVEN'T looked...hmmm....
We've been wanting to do that recipe for years. Yes, I said YEARS! I knew it would turn out great---everything else we've ever made with one of his recipes always has. Including the Thanksgiving turkey---that's the ONLY recipe we've used for our turkey each Thanksgiving. Again, for YEARS. :-) I love the Sweet Corn Pudding!!! (I won't be able to have it this year because I'm on Weight Watchers!!! Core Plan!!!) Still looking for a way to have bread on the Core Plan (that's why I've started MAKING my own bread!!! I should post those too...)
Sorry for the ramble! Love your site!
Post a Comment