"sour drinking kefir, clean tasting and bright as a button" Nigel Slater
One of the things that makes us all individuals, is the food, and drink we like to eat/drink. My husband, every day, for lunch has a slightly warmed apple and oat muffin, with blueberry flavoured kefir poured over and then all mashed together. I find the whole thing absolutely repulsive and have to remove myself from the sight. Alas I was too late to take a photograph.
He on the other hand, feels exactly the same about me eating sardines on toast. Well opposites attract they say.
I'm not talking about kefir because of David's lunch habits however, but because of this picture (and recipe) for Crispy-fried kefir chicken with rosemary and garlic which I found in one of my folders of recipes I have collected and filed away. Mostly never to be seen again but now part of my very slow decluttering process.
Currently I have decided to keep this particular recipe. It may be in one of his cookbooks that I own, although I do not remember it, hence the decision to keep it. I mean who doesn't feel like crispy-fried chicken every now and then? There's something, marginally wicked about it, although in this case, most of the cooking is done in the oven - well after a bit of frying. And those are peppers underneath, not tomatoes which is what I thought at first.
The point here, however, is the kefir in which you soak the chicken overnight. I'm guessing it tenderises it in some way. In his introduction I was interested to see, that he maintains it's easier to find kefir than buttermilk in England - he's talking in 2020, so maybe this was because of COVID, or maybe he's being a food snob and ignoring the buttermilk you get in your local supermarket:
"Chicken marinated in buttermilk, is an American classic, but buttermilk is less than easy to find Thwarted once again, but with my mind set on fried chicken, I decided to use kefir. The resulting batter was light, crisp and deliciously fragile."
Anyway I guess the point I am somewhat circuitously trying to make here is that, having now explored the possibilities, kefir and buttermilk achieve fundamentally the same thing whilst yoghurt with a touch of lemon will too. And indeed, according to marstec of Reddit:
"You can also drain the kefir to make kefir cheese which is similar to a tangier cream cheese."
Blueberry kefir is not the thing here of course. Blueberry flavoured cheese?
Another thing I learnt as I explored was that if you cook kefir you destroy all those great probiotic bacteria that are its claim to fame. So crispy-fried kefir chicken may be delicious, but it is not healthy and not just because of the frying in oil, but also because the kefir's goodness is destroyed. So just use it because of its effect on the chicken.
Because of the similarity to buttermilk and yoghurt, and also because of my low interest in salads, I ignored all the multitude of salad recipes with a kefir laden dressing and also the multitude of smoothies, which I am also not into. Although, for a very brief period I was into smoothies for breakfast. I would throw whatever fruit I had into a liquidizer with some orange juice and yoghurt, blend and drink, and I was often surprised at how delicious the result was. My younger son introduced me to them when we visited him when he was living in Canada. I wonder why I stopped?
I did find a few things of interest - to me anyway - although that said - my first recipe - Matcha and kefir iced latte from Phoebe Wood/delicious. is here for the photograph and not for the drink which does not interest me at all. But isn't it gorgeous? Equally gorgeous are two icecreams from Nigel - Fig leaf and kefir milk ice - although you will need access to a fig tree for this for the leaves and Mint and kefir ice. I know it's not summer yet, but you can always find an excuse to eat icecream and it's just to give a couple of templates for you to play with next time you feel like making icecream.
On the savoury side there are Corn dogs from Ottolenghi - frankfurters or other sausages, dipped in a highly flavoured, polenta and kefir based batter before frying. Rather more healthily there is NIk Sharma's Roasted cauliflower in turmeric kefir - which demonstrates how kefir is a slightly different tasting choice over yoghurt for a curry sauce.
The other main sphere where a comparison with buttermilk is rife is in baking of course, from Spring onion and kefir turmeric soda bread - Sarah Cook/Olive Magazine to a very popular Devil's food cake with hazelnut praline from Yotam Ottolenghi/delicious. Chocolate cakes, in general seemed to be a popular choice for cakes with kefir - and of course scones galore.
I suppose, in a way, I didn't find a lot of completely original uses of kefir, in that only kefir would do. Almost all of what I found were really experiments to see if kefir would do instead of buttermilk or yoghurt. Interchangeable really I think, although I might try the chicken some time soon, and use the rest in a curry.
POSTSCRIPT
August 26
2023 - Herbes de Provence
2022 - Random thoughts on an ordinary day - which begins with this quote from Leonardo da Vinci: “Whatever — the soup is getting cold." [Last sentence of a mathematical theorem in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, 1518]”
2019 - Disappointing Tin Shed
2018 - Nothing
2016 - The use-by date
I am enthusiastically looking forward to the crispy fired kefir chicken with rosemary and garlic