You know you're a TF geek when... you can't leave for a week's vacation without spending an entire evening doing food prep. Not necessarily food for the trip (we'll be staying with ILs who will pay for all our grocery shopping, so I'm not wasting money prepping food for while we're there!), but mostly managing cultures so nothing needs attention while we're away!
![]()
Ok, I did one food prep thing - I'm soaking beans and rice to make megadarra, to take on the plane with us. Hence comes the rambling about phytates. I've been meaning to experiment with using the "warm" setting on my crock pot to soak beans at 140. Theoretically, that's the temp of "warm". Last time I tried it, I left the lid slightly ajar so I could run the cord of my electric thermometer out of it, thus to monitor the temp. It never got above the mid-120s. I think the ajar lid probably contributed to that a lot, so tonight I'm trying it with the lid closed. I really want to know if soaking grains at 140 has the same effect as soaking beans at that temp; meanwhile, I figured it can't hurt, so I threw the rice in with the lentils. I heated water on the stove, poured it over the beans and rice, then added boiling water a little at a time until I got the temp up to 140. Then I turned the pot on low and covered it. I'll report in the morning with what the temp is at that point. I imagine I'll be modifying the recipe somewhat, given all the liquid that will be absorbed in this process; I'm going to make it with lamb stock, but I don't imagine I'll need a lot of that.
In kombucha news, ya'll might remember me lamenting the sorry fate of my scoby. I let my scobies sit for a few weeks (including a backlog of old mama scobies), and when I went to use my most recent baby, both jars went moldy. :yuck: I tossed them, and reverted to some older scobies. I posted that it had been a long time and there was no development of a new baby yet. Much to my surprise, though, despite the lack of baby scobies, no mold grew on the brew, and it *smelled* like kombucha. I hated to throw it away, so I let it just sit there to see what happened. Lo, after over three weeks, suddenly babies appeared in both jars! Woo-hoo! My 'bucha isn't dead after all! I just siphoned it into bottles, and am drinking a glass now. I guess, if I fail to report in on the lentil soaking experiment, ya'll can assume I'm dead
![]()
So, in addition to siphoning this round of 'bucha, I've got water boiling right now for the next batch.
I also set up a batch of yogurt to culture overnight. I had a bunch of raw milk to use up. If I'd been on the ball, I would have set it up earlier in the day so it would have 24 hours to culture before I refrigerate it, as I have *loved* 24-hour raw yogurt. But, I'm not too concerned with that. It'll chug away for a good long time, I probably won't get to it until mid-afternoon tomorrow. I'll also strain a bit of it and mix it with garlic to serve over the cold megadarra we're taking on the plane on Wednesday.
I'm futzing around with kefir, as well. And took my ice cream maker bowl down to the chest freezer, because I have some raw cream I have to use up before we leave so we'll make ice cream tomorrow.
Yup, I'm a geek. Leaving on vacation can't just be throwing a couple of t-shirts in a suitcase, not for me
![]()
Ok, I did one food prep thing - I'm soaking beans and rice to make megadarra, to take on the plane with us. Hence comes the rambling about phytates. I've been meaning to experiment with using the "warm" setting on my crock pot to soak beans at 140. Theoretically, that's the temp of "warm". Last time I tried it, I left the lid slightly ajar so I could run the cord of my electric thermometer out of it, thus to monitor the temp. It never got above the mid-120s. I think the ajar lid probably contributed to that a lot, so tonight I'm trying it with the lid closed. I really want to know if soaking grains at 140 has the same effect as soaking beans at that temp; meanwhile, I figured it can't hurt, so I threw the rice in with the lentils. I heated water on the stove, poured it over the beans and rice, then added boiling water a little at a time until I got the temp up to 140. Then I turned the pot on low and covered it. I'll report in the morning with what the temp is at that point. I imagine I'll be modifying the recipe somewhat, given all the liquid that will be absorbed in this process; I'm going to make it with lamb stock, but I don't imagine I'll need a lot of that.
In kombucha news, ya'll might remember me lamenting the sorry fate of my scoby. I let my scobies sit for a few weeks (including a backlog of old mama scobies), and when I went to use my most recent baby, both jars went moldy. :yuck: I tossed them, and reverted to some older scobies. I posted that it had been a long time and there was no development of a new baby yet. Much to my surprise, though, despite the lack of baby scobies, no mold grew on the brew, and it *smelled* like kombucha. I hated to throw it away, so I let it just sit there to see what happened. Lo, after over three weeks, suddenly babies appeared in both jars! Woo-hoo! My 'bucha isn't dead after all! I just siphoned it into bottles, and am drinking a glass now. I guess, if I fail to report in on the lentil soaking experiment, ya'll can assume I'm dead
I also set up a batch of yogurt to culture overnight. I had a bunch of raw milk to use up. If I'd been on the ball, I would have set it up earlier in the day so it would have 24 hours to culture before I refrigerate it, as I have *loved* 24-hour raw yogurt. But, I'm not too concerned with that. It'll chug away for a good long time, I probably won't get to it until mid-afternoon tomorrow. I'll also strain a bit of it and mix it with garlic to serve over the cold megadarra we're taking on the plane on Wednesday.
I'm futzing around with kefir, as well. And took my ice cream maker bowl down to the chest freezer, because I have some raw cream I have to use up before we leave so we'll make ice cream tomorrow.
Yup, I'm a geek. Leaving on vacation can't just be throwing a couple of t-shirts in a suitcase, not for me
