I have a thyroid problem and part of research led me to the wunder bug, kefir.

It looks like brains or cauliflower florets and is slightly slimey in texture. All you do is through some in a clean jar with pasteurised or raw milk, (homogenised and UHT will fail) put a lid on, place it on a bench or shelf, the casually give it a gentle rock every few hours and watch it do stuff.
It will take 12 to 24 hours depending on your climate. The liquid will eventually curdle and you can remove the kefir grains and start again with fresh milk.

Once you have this yoghurt like stuff, you can drink it, it also has a little alcohol and natural tritophans, good for a mood lifter.

Or you can use it to make cheese.

I have no real recipes of my own, apart from one for Halloumi, and the process was developed by someone else, called Dom, so I'll give his link to you rather than copy anything. I learnt about the process and about the possibilities by reading his website entirely then following his links to another guy who makes cheese using rennet or vegetarian rennet. My results have always been better with using kefir.

Dom is rather strange (understatement) but his website is informative. He claims kefir can cure the world, well you can certainly make yummy alcopops with it, in just a few days.

I've bought the milk kefir and water kefir, but now he has allsorts of new wierd cultures too. If you want to get kefir from somewhere other than Australia, then there are groups run by him or affiliated, where you can get your grain locally for just postage and packing.

If it's sold in a shop then it's not real but some sort of powdered stuff that runs out after a few litres. Then there are the ones who pretend they are something special on the internet. I bought some from one of those sorts of websites when I was in the UK last. I was on a mission to convert the world and my family, but I failed as usual. You can't sell cr**y products:)

I sound like I've got shares

The links
Dom's site
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html

Dom's Cheese page
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir_cheese.html

FANKHAUSER'S CHEESE PAGE
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

Kefir - yes, I had to look it up! Hey, I'm a Texan, Southern, North American - what do I know?

From Wikipedia:





Kefir (alternately kefīrs, keefir, kephir, kewra, talai, mudu kekiya, milkkefir, búlgaros) is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region. It is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep's milk with kefir grains. Traditional kefir was made in skin bags that were hung near a doorway; the bag would be knocked by anyone passing through the doorway to help keep the milk and kefir grains well mixed[citation needed]. Dairy-free alternatives are available, such as coconut milk kefir and soy milk kefir.

The word kefir is said to have originated from the Turkish word "keyif" which means "joy" or "pleasure". This is probably due to the overall sense of health and well-being they enjoyed though its consumption. Kefir dates back many centuries to the shepherds of the Caucasus mountains, many of which live to be happily active and over 100years[citation needed]. They discovered that fresh milk carried in leather pouches would occasionally ferment into an effervescent beverage.

For most of recorded history, kefir was scarcely known outside the Caucasian Mountains, although Marco Polo mentioned it in recounting his travels. Kefir received renewed interest in the Western World when it was found it to be a useful therapeutic treatment for patients in sanitariums. This self-carbonated dairy-based beverage continues to be popular in Russia, southwestern Asia and Eastern and Northern Europe, and has recently gained some popularity in the United States.

Kefir comes from two Persian words- "kef" (foam) and "shir" (milk).

Overview
Kefir grains are a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars. This symbiotic matrix forms "grains" that resemble cauliflower. Many different bacteria and yeasts are found in the kefir grains, which are a complex and highly variable community of micro-organisms termed probiotics.[1]

Traditional kefir is fermented at ambient temperatures, generally overnight. Fermentation of the lactose yields a sour, carbonated, slightly alcoholic beverage, with a consistency similar to thin yoghurt.[2] Kefir fermented by small-scale dairies early in the 20th century achieved alcohol levels between 1 and 2 percent, but kefir made commercially with modern methods of production has less than 1% alcohol, possibly due to reduced fermentation time.[3]

Variations that thrive in various other liquids exist. They may vary markedly from kefir in both appearance and microbial composition. Water kefir (or kefir d'acqua) is grown in water with sugar (sometimes with added dry fruit such as figs, and lemon juice) for a day or more at room temperature.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

Kefir has a wiki page now, that's awesome.

I think it's more likely that kefir has it's origin with the Turkmen or Turkic peoples rather than just the Caucusus region. Imagine, nomadic races travelling through Asia to the west causing general mayhem on the way, with little more than weapons, horses and goats as possessions. Weapons for the rape and pillage, horses to get them there, goats as meat and for dairy and don't forget the goat stomach which the kefir was made in. Sounds like a world dominating brew to me:)

Quasi nstructions for making Halloumi or Hellim.

Make curds as per instructions from Dom's cheese pages or any other cheese recipe anywhere. Press them gently for an hour or 2 to remove some extra whey. Salt the curds if you like.

Bring the whey (from making the curds) to boil and strain off the ricotta cheese at this point if wanted.
Reduce the boiling whey to a simmer.
Take the curds and seperate them into portions, about the size of a cricket ball and simmer them in the whey for about 25- 30 mins.
Take them out of the whey, place a sprig of mint on each them fold them over.
Place in brine solution


Rough and ready instructions:)
I'll look for a better recipe.

So a cricket ball is bigger than a baseball, right?

Ya'll are laughing at me - I hear you!

What do I know about cricket? I'm a redneck bubbette!

Sorry, Kate, I'm not picking on you it's just we use such different measuring terms - I just want to make sure I got it!

I love Australians!

The Aussies and the New Zealanders were our bestest buddies in Venezuela. I guess because Texans are bad to the bone just like ya'll!

Oh, and we drink almost as much beer and love our "shrimp on the barbie", too!

Blue you crack me up

And yes a Cricket Ball is a bit larger than a Hard Ball, maybe half way between the size of a hardball & a softball?

I don't have specifics but I hope that helps

A hard ball?

Ya crazy Canadian! It's a baseball and a softball. And BTW in Bubbette/Bubba terms only GIRLS play with softballs!



This is one thing I love about this place - the terminology we all take for granted and use. It can be hilarious at times!

A hardball is small and hard, a softball is large and soft...

Leave it to the dam Yanks to complicate such simple things, geeze

...oh, my. god bless ya's for the laughs.

and from where i came from, .....only sissy girls played softball.
the rest of us played baseball.
.....after we ran the bike trails (dirt bikes)


cuz...i was the only girl. only had boys around while i was growing up. but dang, did it ever make life fun!!! and i learned alot of good life skills along the way.

and sorry your thread got off subject a bit, kate.
i'll have to read it over again. lot's of info there!