#SmallChangesSunday features a guest spot in the form of a local producer or sustainability hero, bestowing handy reuse tips, mindful changes in perspective, or how to make steps towards being more sustainable.
This weeks Small Changes Sunday is with Cúán Greene – chef and creator of ÓMÓS – whose small change is something a few of us could do well with, especially in the current climate – both weather wise and otherwise.
Last week we put up a photo of some flowers we spotted in a garden on the way to work and Cúán responded:
This little Instagram interaction resulted in Cúán kindly sending us a beautiful recipe!
CÚÁN
“While I love a tipple, I sometimes pine for something other than alcohol as it just sits better. Only last week I found myself indulging in a midweek bottle of wine a couple of hours earlier than expected. I was enjoying the prolonged stretch in the evening and by 7.30 pm, my bottle had been well and truly consumed. I was faced with a conundrum I am sure you can relate all too well to: opening a second bottle, making a splash and sacrificing the following morning, or putting on my responsibility cap and retiring inside in preparation for an anticlimactic demise to the evening. If there was a bottle of something tasty that had the sophistication of wine, without the high ABV, I would have been delighted.”
Beach Rose Kombucha:
“This is a recipe I have been using since my time working at Noma in Copenhagen, where wild rose grows everywhere. It’s a beautifully perfumed kombucha with a deep pink colour. Although wild beach rose can be found in the south of the country, it is more commonly found in Northern Counties such as Donegal. Alternatively, if you can’t find beach rose, you can use dog rose, a native wild rose with white and light pink petals, which grows in abundance along the Irish South-East coast.”
1.76 g filtered water
240 g organic cane sugar
200 g wild rose petals (rosa rugosa)
200 g unpasteurised kombucha
1 SCOBY (kombucha mother)
- Begin by sanitising all of your equipment. Ensure everything is very clean.
- Heat half the water with the sugar.
- Top up with the remaining water and allow to cool.
- When cool, add the rose petals and transfer this mixture to a blender and blend until the rose petals are well broken up into small particles. Place in a container and refrigerate overnight.
- The next day, strain the rose syrup into a sterilised jar, add the unpasteurised kombucha and mix well.
- Add the SCOBY using very clean hands. Gloves are preferred.
- Moisten the top of the scoby with a little of the mixture to avoid dryness and cover with a very clean kitchen towel and elastic band.
- Do not cover with a lid. Leave for 5-10 days, tasting for acidity or using a PH reader.
- Remove the SCOBY along with 100 ml of kombucha and reserve it in tupperware in the fridge. You can use it again for your next brew.
- The following day, strain the kombucha and place it in a clean container, or bottle in sterilised bottles capable of holding some pressure.
Note: For a lightly carbonated kombucha, place the bottles in the fridge. This is now ready to drink. Alternatively for sparkling kombucha, Leave the bottles outside for 1-3 days before placing them in the fridge. A secondary fermentation will occur in the bottles causing CO2 to be created, giving you that sparkle.
Cúán Greene is a chef from Ireland. Although growing up in Dublin, Cúán was raised in an Irish speaking household. He has trained in many kitchens around Europe, spending over four years in Copenhagen and training under René Redzepi at Noma. Having returned to Ireland in 2019, Cúán was the head chef at restaurant Bastible in Dublin. He has since left Bastible, to pursue his own venture, Ómós. Cúán’s belief is that more can be brought by working together through the process of communication, learning, and understanding other’s crafts and inspirations. https://www.omos.co/
