What are you been cooking today

[Cuilidh]

Thanks Marina for a very clearly written recipe for making Kombucha.  My gardener is bringing me a scoby this week.
A question.  Can you use plastic bottles when you decant the Kombucha?

Chookie, I am not sure about the plastic bottles.  Personally I don't think I would use plastic as I would be concened that they were not as clean as glass, but I think most of the commercially produced and sold kombucha is in plastic so it could be OK.

I would be interested to hear your gardener's take on making kombucha.  As I said, I have only been making it for a couple of weeks so it would be great to hear of a comparason method.

Scobys have babies and I have seen somewhere that, if you haven't got a new home for the babies, you can put them into your compost.  It would be interesting to get your gardener's view on that as well.

I have also decided I quite like the strawberry flavoured kombucha this week after all (I used about 6 strawberries).  I think I'll try blueberries next week!

[mab19]

Made a Cinnamon Cake yesterday.  Would have taken a photo but it's nearly all gone.

I'm tired of cooking tomatoes so today I thought I would do something different,  a SC meat casserole and later a some sweet & sour mince. 

[cookie1]

Yes Judy the crackers stayed crisp until they were all eaten.

[Cornish Cream]

Did anyone makes pancakes today? I didn't 

[judydawn]

 I didn’t Denise but they did at the nursing home and they were so light and delicious.

[mab19]

Back to the tomatoes today.  Just cooking some up to freeze.

[cookie1]

Margaret you have certainly been Tomato busy.
No pancakes here either.

[achookwoman]

No pancakes here either.
Mab, you certainly get sick of an over supply of anything you grow.

[astarra]

Thanks Marina for a very clearly written recipe for making Kombucha.  My gardener is bringing me a scoby this week.
A question.  Can you use plastic bottles when you decant the Kombucha?

Chookie, I am not sure about the plastic bottles.  Personally I don't think I would use plastic as I would be concened that they were not as clean as glass, but I think most of the commercially produced and sold kombucha is in plastic so it could be OK.

I would be interested to hear your gardener's take on making kombucha.  As I said, I have only been making it for a couple of weeks so it would be great to hear of a comparason method.

Scobys have babies and I have seen somewhere that, if you haven't got a new home for the babies, you can put them into your compost.  It would be interesting to get your gardener's view on that as well.

I have also decided I quite like the strawberry flavoured kombucha this week after all (I used about 6 strawberries).  I think I'll try blueberries next week!

I do a continuous brew method for my Kombucha, love it
I bottled with pineapple juice today, my kids favourite 

[achookwoman]

Thanks Astarra.  All grist to the Mill. Will let you know how I go once I get started.

[Cuilidh]

Astarra, what is the continuous brew method?

[achookwoman]

Made Pea and Ham soup with ham bone from Xmas ham. 
Made Rals favourite biscuits. Coffee fudge.  I hardly ever make them , as although delicious, they are not at all healthy.

[mab19]

Another batch of Sally's Tomato Relish this morning.  This time I tried a recipe from here.  Very nice but a bit too sweet for me, probably because of the apples.

[astarra]

Astarra, what is the continuous brew method?

I'm hopeless at explaining things, but basically its where you brew the kombucha in a jar with a spigot/spout, and then just bottle out 3/4 of the brew each week (or whenever its ready) and add the next lot of sweet tea into the top. Saves having to handle the scoby until it gets too thick (like mine is atm  ) and also less disturbance of the bacteria etc.
Miss7 loves to drink it straight from the brewing jar, with the spout she just gets a cup and helps herself

I make my next batch in the thermomix jug, heat about 500ml water and dissolve about 3/4-1C sugar, then steep the tea (I use 4 black tea bags + 2 green tea bags) 10 minutes or so, squeeze out and remove teabags, then top up the TM jug with cold filtered water to bring the temp down, then pour it into the brewing jar carefully.
Mine is an 8L brewing jar.

[judydawn]

I made this tomato sauce from Bron http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=813.0 to use up some very ripe roma tomatoes.  Added a zucchini and red capsicum instead of green. Will freeze in 1 cup quantities to use in different meals.