Fruit kefir

THE KEFIR OF FRUIT

Kefir grains are a symbiotic that digests sweet water with lemon and dry fruit to give the kefir drink. Once the preparation is fermented, the dry fruit floats on the surface. This drink contains less than 1% alcohol and is therefore considered “no alcohol”. The fruit kefir drink is detoxinative, facilitates digestion, strengthens the body against diseases. Finely sparkling, previously used as a lemonade, it drinks pure or mixed with syrup, for example. Sugar is swallowed by kefir grains and your drink is, once fermented, unsweetened.

Fruit kefir grains are translucent/whiteish and have a rubbery consistency. They can vary in volumes and appearances depending on where they are.
There is also the milk kefir, which produces, according to the Mongolian tradition, a more digestive milk residue than yogurts, and which therefore best suits people with difficulty digesting milk.

The fermentation process to produce a drink was discovered a long time ago, in the same period as

e beer for example.

Where to find it? Fresh fruit kefir grains are a gift. They multiply, so if you know someone who has it, you can get it! For my part, I received it at the Papoti-Popote workshop of the association for parents and children in the region of Béziers (http://www.papotipapota.com).

Here is a possible preparation of the fruit kefir:

Ingredients:

water, as pure as possible for a high quality drink
sugar, or honey, or full sugar, or red
dry fruit: a dry fig, or dry grapes, or a dry apricot (fermentation will be slower with apricot), or what you want!
lemon, organic if possible, for a high quality drink

Equipment:

a passory, not iron, it is not recommended in kitchen
a beak container, or a funnel
a glass jar
a bottle that serves for lemonade.
A fabric that will allow to close the jar while leaving the air pass, and an elastic to maintain the fabric in place.


	Preparation: Rinse the kefir grains in the passor under water for a few seconds. Then put them in the bottom of a glass jar. Fill with water at ambient T°. Pour sugar. For a "good mom" jam-type jar, it will take an average of 2 tablespoons of sugar. You will need to adjust later to put more or less sugar, depending on your tastes! Put the dried fruit, which will flow to the bottom, laid on the kefir grains. Then lemon, about 1⁄4 lemon for the same type of jar. Close the jar with the fabric and elastic.


	Leave the preparation to the light (not in a closet), with air circulating. After about 24 hours, the drink will be ready. You will know that it is ready because the dry fruit will be dried with water and will float on the surface. If the fruit goes back as soon as you touch it, let still ferment because it is not completely finished. The drink is « troubled » when it is ready (before, right/after photo, left photos)


- Leave the dried fruit and lemon. You can consume them if you wish.


	- Filter the drink to bottle it by helping you with passory and funnel, or beak container.

- Close the bottle. You will need to consume it within 24 hours after bottled. After this period, the drink is no longer good.

- Rinse the kefir grains in the passor under the water for a few seconds, and resume preparation at its beginning.

Conservation:
Kefir grains can be stored for 1 week (renewable) to 15 days in the fridge in sweet water with the jar closed by a fabric that lets the air pass. You will need to change the sweet water every 7 to 15 days.
You can also rinse the kefir grains and put them in a jar or conservation bag, and freeze them. You can defrost them, use them, and freeze them if necessary.

Decrease:
if you see molds, it is that the kefir is no longer good.

Variants:

You can replace the water with tisane that you have let cool at ambient T°.
You can replace a little water with fruit juice (bio preferably for a quality drink).
You can put lots of fruit in it, to give an extra taste to the drink. During the preparation, when you put sugar, dried fruit and lemon, you slide pieces of apple, strawberries, pears, ... everything you want. The fermentation takes place with these fruits, the drink will taste it.
You can dye the drink naturally. To make rose for example, just put a flower of hibiscus.