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Sourdough Black Forest Cake

Jenny — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:28 +0000

In our home, one of our favorite cakes for special occasions is Black Forest Cake, a scrumptious torte made from layers of dark chocolate cake, sour cherries, and cherry-flavored whipped cream. As we’ve sought to eat more nourishing and traditional foods, I’ve wondered how best to prepare the rare sweet treat like this one, but with a bit of experimentation (and with a bit of inspiration from other real food bloggers), I’ve stumbled upon a cake we truly love and that I feel excited about serving.

Of course, even though this recipe uses alternative sweeteners and traditional fats, it’s still a treat and should be eaten in moderation. (Don’t moderate your enjoyment, however!) If you don’t have a friend from whom you can pilfer a bit of sourdough starter, you can find a starter online. When I purchased mine, it was ready to use in about five days.)

Sourdough Black Forest Cake

I have given two options for chocolate, as I can’t decide which one I like the best. The melted chocolate increases the moisture content of the cake and makes it a bit denser, while the cocoa option gives the best crumb. Whichever way you choose, it’s delicious!

For the Cake

1 cup sourdough starter (get a starter here), recently fed
1 cup milk, preferably raw
1 3/4 cup whole wheat or spelt flour (get it here)
1 cup unrefined cane sugar (get it here) OR 3/4 cup date syrup
1 cup unrefined, virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled but still liquid
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large pastured eggs
1 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (get it here)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
100 grams (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled or 1 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

For the Soaking Syrup

1/3 cup filtered water (find a good filter here)
1/4 cup unrefined cane sugar, coconut palm sugar, or raw honey (get it here)
3 tablespoons kirsch or other cherry-flavored liqueur

For the Cherry Whipped Cream

3 cups heavy cream, preferably raw
2 tablespoons kirsch or other cherry-flavored liqueur
1 tsp vanilla extract

For Assembly

2 cups sour cherries, pitted, plus 8-16 cherries for the final garnish
50-100 grams dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao)*, finely grated or curled

Method

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sourdough starter, the milk, and the flour. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours.
After 8 to 24 hours, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease well two 8-inch round or 7-inch square cake pans.
Scrape the sourdough batter into the bowl of an electric mixer (or grab your favorite wooden spoon to mix by hand). Add the cane sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla and mix on low speed. Increase the speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add sea salt, baking soda, and chocolate. Mix just until uniform, scraping the sides of the bowl if needed. If the batter is very thick, add a few tablespoons of milk to thin it. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20-30 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack.
While the cake cools, prepare the soaking syrup and cherry whipped cream. In a small saucepan, combine the water and sugar and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the kirsch. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
To prepare the whipped cream, chill the bowl of an electric mixer in the refrigerator or freezer or by filling it with ice water for a few minutes and then drying thoroughly. Place three cups heavy cream into a mixing bowl with kirsch and vanilla extract and beat on high speed using the whisk attachment until soft peaks appear. Remove three-quarters of the mixture and reserve in the refrigerator to layer with the cake. Beat the remaining cream to firm peaks. Spoon into a piping bag and refrigerate.
To assemble the cake, slice each cooled cake horizontally to create a total of four thin layers. Save one of the bottom layers to use as the top layer, since it is flat and smooth on one side. Place one layer on a serving plate and brush it generously with a bit of the soaking syrup. Spoon on one or two large dollops of the refrigerated whipped cream (approx. 1/2 cup) and spread evenly. Scatter one-third of the cherries across the cream. Place the next cake layer on top and press down gently. Repeat as with the previous layer with the soaking syrup, whipped cream, and cherries, then do it again with the third layer. Place the final fourth cake layer on the top, making sure the flat side of the layer is face-up. Soak with the remaining syrup and spread the remaining whipped cream all over the top and sides of the cake.
Scatter the grated or curled chocolate on the top and sides as you desire. As a final touch, pipe the firm cream into rosettes around the edge of the top of the cake and place a cherry on top of each rosette. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to three hours. Flavor-wise, the cake is even better the next day, but the whipped cream will droop within a few hours, so for the sake of presentation, serve within hours of assembling.

NOTE: If you avoid chocolate due to its high content of theobromine, a stimulant, you may substitute roasted carob powder (get it here) or carob chips.

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This post was generously contributed to Nourished Kitchen by Kresh Faber of Nourishing Joy. Kresha is a mother of three and finds her joy in loving joyfully and purposefully. If you would like to contribute a post to Nourished Kitchen, please contact me. – Jenny

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2012. | Permalink |

Serious Comfort Food: Bacon, Chicken and Green Beans

Jenny — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:00:21 +0000

Bacon, Chicken and Green Beans has an almost-Asian flavor to it, which was a delightful surprise to my family who has been on the GAPS diet for about 2 years now. Since we don’t eat soy in any form, including soy sauce, we’ve been missing those Asian inspired dishes.

This recipe uses bacon, and you’ll want to find a good source of bacon. We are pig farmers, and can tell our butcher that we want our bacon nitrate and sugar free. It will be difficult (if not impossible) to find a sugar-free bacon in a store, but you can probably find a good, thick sliced, nitrate-free bacon.

For maximum nutrition, make sure to get your chicken from a farmer who allows the birds to roam on grass. Part of the reason we are all lacking in Vitamin D is because we do not eat animals that were raised in the sun. Find out what kind of feed the birds were supplemented with, as well. Feeds that are free of corn and soy are becoming more readily available these days, which is a good thing! If you have an estrogen-induced cancer, you’ll want to avoid soy-fed chicken, because the estrogen in the soy may cause your cancer to grow. Corn fattens the chicken very quickly, making for a profitable; but unhealthy product. Soy and corn were never meant to be food for poultry, as they must be processed by humans before they can be consumed.

This time of year, I don’t think any of us have green beans growing fresh in the back yard. That is why this recipe calls for frozen green beans. There are many good sources of organic, good quality green beans. If you enjoy this dish, maybe next year you will want to set aside some of your own beans in the freezer so that you can make it again.

Bacon, Chicken and Green Beans

Ingredients:

1 pound bacon, chopped
1/4 cup butter or ghee (buy it here), optional
2 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
24 ounces frozen green beans
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup full fat coconut milk (buy it here or make your own)

method:

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon and set aside on paper towels.
Cook chicken in remaining bacon grease. Add butter or ghee to the pan if there is not enough grease. Add garlic and onions and reduce heat to medium, stirring until the garlic and onions are tender. Add in green beans, and cooked bacon, cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir in cheese and coconut milk until mixed well.

YIELD: 4 to 6 servings | TIME: 10 to 15 minutes (active), 25 to 30 minutes (stovetop)

Love this recipe? This is a guest post by Brenda of the Well-fed Homestead. Brenda and her family operate a small farmstead and she blogs about her experiences on the GAPS diet. While my family is away, celebrating the holidays with our favorite winter tradition – soaking in hot springs, Brenda offered to share her knowledge and her recipes with you. She’ll be answering questions about this recipe, so if you’ve got something to share, leave a comment for Brenda. If you have a guest post you’d like me to consider, please contact me.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2011. | Permalink |

Grain-free Shortbread with Salted Caramel

Jenny — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:07:30 +0000

Last week I shared my recipe for Grain-Free Shortbread Wedges, crumbly and buttery and just in time for the holidays. Now it is time to share how I morph that recipe into delectable shortbread bars that are delicious on their own, but go completely over the top when dipped in caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. They are perfect on their own, but really shine when paired with afternoon tea, or piping hot coffee or hot cocoa.

Shortbread is one of my favorite recipes to make. The ingredients are wholesome and simple, plus the finished bars are not too sweet. I find that I need less sweetness these days now that I eat real food on a regular basis. A small amount of good quality honey is all it takes to make these shortbread bars the perfect bite after a holiday meal. And since shortbread is traditionally lightly sweetened, these grain-free shortbread bars are perfect to pair with a touch of sweet caramel on occasion.

Grass-fed butter is rich in vitamin K2, which is responsible for proper absorption of vitamins A and D. I prefer using grass-fed butter in cookies and baked goods because the vitamin K2 is not broken down in the heating process. So when I eat my salty-sweet shortbread bar, I know that it is at least my best version of a homemade treat that won’t make me sick.

Grain-free Shortbread with Salted Caramel Glaze

almonds, cream, honey and sea salt

for the shortbread

1 3/4 cups almond flour (buy it here)
1/4 cup coconut flour (buy it here)
1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (buy it here)
1/4 cup honey (buy it here)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into small pieces (buy it here)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the salted caramel

1 cup heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized (find a source)
1/2 tsp unrefined sea salt (buy it here)
1 cup honey (buy it here)

special equipment

candy thermometer (like this)
parchment paper (like this)

to prepare the shortbread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, and salt. Pour honey over the top. Add butter pieces and vanilla. With a pastry blender, or with your hands, combine ingredients until they form small crumbs. The dough should stick together if you pinch some in between two fingers. Lay out a long piece of parchment and dump the crumbly dough into the center.
Between two pieces of parchment paper, roll the dough out into a long rectangle. Using the pizza cutter or a knife, cut the rectangle lengthwise in half, then cut across every 2 inches or so creating a pair of shortbread bars end to end with each cut. Using the small spatula, transfer the bars to a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately slide parchment to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before dipping into caramel.

to prepare the caramel

Prepare a shallow pie plate by filling it halfway with cold water. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small saucepan, heat the cream and salt over a medium heat until bubbles start to form alongside the edges of the pan. Add the honey and stir until completely heated through.
Turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Attach the candy thermometer to the side of the pan, taking care that the thermometer not touch the bottom of the pan.
Lower the heat to medium to keep the mixture at a slow simmer. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook the mixture for 15 to 20 minutes or until it reaches 255 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the heat.
Carefully lower the saucepan into a bowl half-way full of cold water. Mix with a wooden spoon as the caramel cools and thickens. Tilt the saucepan to the side so that the caramel pools on one side. Dip completely cooled shortbread bars halfway into the caramel and then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt immediately.
Transfer the baking sheet to the refrigerator to harden completely. Store in an airtight container.

Love it? This is a guest post by Kendahl of Our Nourishing Roots who generously contributed this recipe to Nourished Kitchen as a way to keep your appetites tantalized while I take my family on a mini-vacation to the hot springs. If you’d like to contribute a guest post to Nourished Kitchen, shoot me an email.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2011. | Permalink |

Perpetual Soup: The Easiest Bone Broth You’ll Make

Jenny — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:51:15 +0000

Bone broth is a staple of my family’s diet. As with healthy fats, heirloom vegetables, grass-fed meats and a good old-fashioned fermented cod liver oil, we consume a lot of bone broths – usually aiming for one quart per person per day, at the recommendation of our nutritionist. Broth, you see, is a nutritional powerhouse. It is extraordinarily rich in easy-to-assimilate minerals, amino acids and goodies like glucosamine chondroitin. Its gelatin helps to heal the gut, which is why it plays such an integral role in the GAPS diet, and it provides powerful medicine – particularly in combating colds and flus.

And, you did read that right: we do aim for one quart per adult per day (the little one of the household gets at least a pint). That’s a lot of broth. Let me do the math for you. That’s between two and three quarts per day, averaging to about four and a half gallons of broth each week for our family. Yes, as you might imagine, soups and stews are a big part of our day, more so in the winter than in the summer. When I serve breakfast, I serve it with a mug of broth and another mug of broth sits at my desk as I work.

It’s a beautiful thing, really, and I credit good broth, fermented cod liver oil and of fermented foods with the resilient immunity my family enjoys each flu season. We also use these unconventional techniques to fight the flu and build immunity.

So how do we make enough broth?

So if you’re wondering just how I manage working at home full time, homeschooling our 6-year old with making four and a half gallons of bone broth each week, I’ll tell you. I slow cook it. I call it perpetual soup. You see, my six-quart slowcooker (kinda like this one) is my cauldron. That is, it is always on – bubbling away and ready to nourish my family with the bounty of the bones that stew away every hours of every day.

Once a week, I place the frame of a roast chicken into the slow cooker, cover it with filtered water (We use a Berkey to filter our water, and you can find them online.), toss in a few bay leaves, black peppercorns and vegetable scraps, turn it on and call it good. As I pull broth from the slow cooker, I filter it through a reusable coffee filter which helps to strain out any floating herbs, chicken skin or pieces of bone and results in a beautiful clear broth. As I remove broth, I add water and continue the process throughout the week – ensuring that by the end of the week every bit of goodness has been pulled from that chicken frame.

And, in case you’re worried about the cost of keeping your slow cooker on twenty-four hours a day, every day of the week, the estimated cost of running your slow cooker is about $0.01 to $0.03 per hour – for a total cost of $1.68 to $5.04 for the week. Undoubtedly worth it. Learn more about energy-wise cooking here.

Perpetual Soup or Bone Broth the Easy Way

chicken bones, sweet bay, peppercorns, vegetable scraps

ingredients

1 whole chicken or the frame of a roasted chicken
2 sweet bay leaves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
any vegetable scraps you have on hand (see note for recommended vegetables)
filtered water (see sources for a good filter)

equipment:

6-quart slow cooker (like this one)
fine-mesh sieve or reusable coffee filter (like this one)

method:

Place one whole chicken or the frame of a roasted chicken into your slow cooker with sweet bay, black peppercorns and any vegetable scraps you have on hand. Cover with filtered water and cook on low for one week.
After twenty-four hours, you may begin using the broth. As you need broth or stock, simply dip a ladle or measuring cup into the slow cooker to remove the amount of stock you need. Pour it through a fine-mesh sieve or, preferably, a reusable coffee filter which will help to clarify the broth. Replace the broth you remove from the slow cooker with an equivalent amount of filtered water (see sources for a good filter). If you’re using a whole, fresh chicken, you may also remove chicken meat from the slow cooker as desired for stir-fries, in soups or in recipes like Asian-style lettuce wraps.
At the end of the week, strain off any remaining broth and discard or compost the bones. The bones from your chicken should crumble when pressed between your thumb and forefinger. Their softness is an indication that much of the nourishment from the bones – minerals, amino acids – have leached from the bones and into the broth you’ve enjoyed all week long. Wash the insert of your slow cooker and start again.

YIELD: As much or as little broth as you want, my family consumes about 2 to 3 quarts of broth each day. | TIME: Perpetual.

NOTE: Vegetable scraps are not necessary for perpetual soup; however, if you’d like to use them, take care to use the ones recommended as prolonged cooking with certain vegetables may yield a bad flavor to your broth. I recommend using parsley and parsley trimmings, onion, garlic, celery and celery leaves. Do not use carrot scraps (it makes the broth too sweet) or beets, broccoli, turnips or any other brassicas which introduce a bitter aftertaste to your broth.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2011. | Permalink |

A Recipe for a Nasty Cold: Egg Drop Soup with Duck

Jenny — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:30:49 +0000

While we’re away at the annual Weston A Price Foundation annual conference, learning about the GAPS Diet,
traditional foods and hearing speakers like Denise Minger bust established myths regarding health, nutrition and the place of fat and animal foods in the diet, I thought I’d take the time to share with you some older posts that I love, but that may have gone unnoticed in your inbox for one reason or another. Egg drop soup with duck, the recipe below, is one such post. Perhaps it’s the duck meat that put you off (you, of course can subsitute chicken), but it’s a beautiful soup – oddly light in spite of it’s richness. Enjoy! I’ll be back late next week with some beautiful new recipes and tips from our Facebook followers on eating well while on e road. –Jenny

Egg drop soup is a favorite in our home: easy to make, rich with flavor and brimming with nutrient-dense ingredients. A far cry from the tepid, gelatinous and oddly yellow soups of Chinese restaurants, a real egg drop soup is mild, simple and aromatic. Like all good soups, a real egg drop soup begins with a good broth – one that’s fragrant with aromatic vegetables and deepened by the flavor of roasted bones.

So when my young son fell ill this weekend, in addition to upping his dose of high vitamin cod liver oil – a boon to wellness and the only supplement we take (you can find it online) – I made sure that flavorful, mineral-rich and nutrient-dense soups like this egg drop soup with duck became the focus of his nourishment. We’re fortunate. Between eating nutrient-dense foods, taking that mixture of high vitamin cod liver oil and butter oil coupled with regular chiropractic adjustments, we rarely get sick and when we do get sick the illnesses are mild and we tend to recover quickly.

A good bone broth as the base for a good soup is the critical food in our medicinal kitchen armament – nourishing our bodies on an almost daily basis and reviving our health when we’re hit by the stray stomach bug, cold or flu. You can learn more about the uncoventional ways we fight colds and flus here. A true bone broth is rich in micronutrients and easy to assimilate minerals, particularly calcium which makes the inclusion of broth essential for those who follow a dairy-free diet by either choice or necessity; moreover, broth is rich in amino acids like glycine and proline. Glycine plays a critical role in detoxiication and both amino acids as well as other nutrients found in broth contribute to healthy skin and hair.

Preparing this soup over the weekend, I started with a whole duck: cutting away its skin and fat to render, slicing its meat for the soup pot and roasting its bones for a beautiful broth. To make the duck stock, I roasted the duck bones, covered them with filtered water and seasoned the broth with ginger, leek, garlic and chilies. I love the way ginger infuses its perfume in a good broth – it’s aromatic, peppery and floral all at once.

In this recipe for egg drop soup, I combined that nutrient-rich, revitalizing broth with farm eggs – rich in fat soluble vitamins including immune-boosting vitamin A. Aromatic vegetables like ginger not only add interest, flavor and fragrance to this egg drop soup, but also help to soothe a troubled stomach. In many ways, a soup such as this illustrates how real food can be both beautiful on its own and life-giving in its nature.

Egg Drop Soup

egg drop soup with duck and aromatic vegetables

Seasoned with ginger, shallots, carrots and scallions, this egg drop soup is deeply aromatic. Take care to choose a good rich stock like this Asian-inspired chicken foot stock which combines chilies, lemongrass and garlic.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons rendered duck fat or coconut oil (see sources)
1/2 pound duck meat, sliced thin
1 1-inch knob ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
3 medium carrots, scraped and cut into matchsticks
2 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 lb mushrooms (any will do, shiitakes are nice but I used trumpet), sliced thin
2 quarts duck stock or chicken feet stock
3 eggs, beaten
3 scallions, finely sliced

Method

Melt coconut oil in a heavy-bottomed stock pot over a moderately high flame and toss in sliced duck meat. Stir fry the duck meat in coconut oil until cooked through, about four to five minutes. Transfer the duck meat to a plate and add mushrooms, ginger, carrots and shallot to the pot, stirring frequently until they release their aroma.
Return cooked duck meat to the pot and pour two quarts stock into the pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for twenty minutes.
Increase the heat and bring the soup to a brisk boil. Pour beaten eggs into the pot in a very thin stream, stir the soup and give the soup a stir before garnishing with finely sliced scallions.

YIELD: about 6 servings.
TIME: about 30 minutes.
SUBSTITUTIONS: Can’t get a good duck? Substitute chicken meat and stock.

Love this egg drop soup with duck? Try these nourishing recipes:

Miso Soup with Clams

Miso soup with clams is one of those special foods – simple and quiet and humble, but also elegant in its simplicity. Sometimes the best dishes are the simplest. In our home, broths and stocks form the foundation of many of our meals, and with good reason.

Fermented Hot Chili Sauce

Seasoned with fresh garlic this fermented hot chili sauce is rich with flavor, bright and fiery. Use it in strict moderation to add flavor and heat to your meals. You’ll notice that the flavor of this sauce is more uniquely complex than vinegary sauces you can purchase at the grocery store.

Did you like this post? Please let me know by leaving a comment. Don't forget to find Nourished Kitchen on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. © Jenny for Nourished Kitchen, 2011. | Permalink |

Kombucha: A Reintroduction to this Ancient Tonic

Jenny — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:42:47 +0000


	This is a guest post from Hannah Crum – the fermenter extraordinaire and the woman behind Kombucha Kamp where she sells kombucha mothers, continuous brew kits and all things kombucha.I had the pleasure of first meeting Hannah at the Freestone Fermentation Festival this past May where we both spoke about the pleasures of fermented foods, demoed our techniques (I showed the folks there how to make brine-pickled beets with orange and ginger) and taste-tested a panel of artisan kombucha brews from around the country with the likes of Sandor Katz and Michael Pollan.I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do. – Jenny

Kombucha – A Reintroduction

As a reader of this site, you’ve almost certainly heard about the fermented tea with a funny name, Kombucha. Perhaps you’ve brewed it yourself (or still do) or maybe you’ve only ever tried a store bought brand. Even if you’ve never tried it before, allow me to reintroduce you to Kombucha from the beginning and clue you in on a few secrets and tricks, including flavoring ideas and my favorite way to brew, the Continuous Brew method.

The first question is, with all the fermented food choices out there, why Kombucha? Well, let me say, I love a glass of kefir, be it water or milk, and enjoy yogurt regularly too. Sauerkraut and fermented veggies are staples at my table and lately I’ve been experimenting with a ginger bug. Still, Kombucha is queen because fits into any time of my day and with any meal, especially because I mix up my flavors for variety. I enjoy something a little sweeter in the morning, like a pink lemonade Kombucha, usually mixed half and half with water to help with my morning detox and rehydration. Then I might switch up to a green power Kombucha with lunch or just a tall glass of unflavored from my home tap to help with digestion after eating. Really any time of day seems to work for me and my family.

Kombucha, also, because of the ingredients and brew cycle, is a longer, deeper ferment that offers more, in my opinion. More complex acids, more flexibility in when and how to flavor or serve, more ways to use the tea and culture to improve your diet and household; in this way, Kombucha can be a gateway into closer connection with traditional ways of living, not only by fermenting more foods but also in ways such as making your own household cleaners, bath products, first aid items, pet care and more. The living spirit of Kombucha is personified by the abundance it is constantly creating, a message of everlasting life.

Some people may find the flavor off-putting at first, especially if their taste buds are over sugar-fied. Some ways to ease the intensity include adding it to smoothies, pouring it over ice or diluting with water or juice. You still receive all of the health benefits and over time may discover that your tastes shift.

My last reason for loving Kombucha? It’s fun in so many ways: seeing the SCOBYs grow, experimenting with different tea or sugar combinations, and of course the never ending possibilities when it comes to flavoring. It’s also social. It’s a wonderful thing to bring a bottle to parties, sure to inspire conversation and, if you’re a talented kitchen witch, win over some new fermented foods converts. There is something wonderfully social about sharing a glass of Kombucha that brings sparkling magic to conversations.

History of Kombucha Tea

The legend of Kombucha Tea stretches back thousands of years as home brewed beverage, often maintained by the grandmother and passed down through the generations. It is said to have been invented in 220BC for a Chinese Emperor, favored by Genghis Khan for keeping his soldiers strong on long journeys, credited for saving Nobel Prize winner Alexsander Solzhenitsyn’s life while in exile in Siberia and rumored to have been on Ronald Regan’s daily menu during his presidency. Modern day movie stars seem drawn to the drink, while recently health conscious types and athletes have finally begun touting the benefits of including fermented foods in our modern diets, specifically Kombucha.

Why do we need Kombucha or any fermented foods?

You don’t need me to tell you that the state of America’s health is in SAD shape (pun intended). When there is money to be made off illness, then expect illness to thrive, unless we take our health back into our own hands. Foods that are nutrient dense, unadulterated, fermented, sprouted and so on are making a huge comeback. “You are what you eat” is finally breaking through our very thick skulls and making some sense as it rattles around in there. We must make better choices and we must get educated and educate those around us or we are to blame!

As many readers here are familiar with Weston A Price and his findings, you already know that fermented foods play a crucial role for digestion, mineral absorption and maintaining balance. The healthy bacteria in sauerkraut, yogurt and kefir have evolved with humans and without them our quality of life simply is not the same. Side note: have you been staying updated on The advances of the incredibly cool Human Microbiome Project. Scientists made the connection that they can’t even finish sequencing our human DNA until they map all or most of the bacteria in our gut first! These bacteria literally inform our body’s cells how to behave. It’s no wonder fermented foods have been showing such promise with improving the condition of autistic children when you consider these new discoveries. I recommend you visit their website, it’s fascinating stuff.

So what about the benefits of drinking Kombucha? While all fermented foods are good for you, for me, Kombucha is queen. Made from 3 simple ingredients – tea, sugar and water, the SCOBY transforms them into a powerful detoxifying and alkalizing tonic. Moreover, in addition to beneficial bacteria, Kombucha has been specifically shown to aid healthy liver function and detoxification, balance blood sugar and improve digestion. From personal experience, I know that the more Kombucha I consume, the less sugar my body can tolerate. My skin cleared up, digestion improved and it even has pulled poison oak out of my skin when I applied it topically.

How To Make Your Own Kombucha – The Ancient Method

Making Kombucha at home is very easy. Always start with quality ingredients, which means tea, sugar and water all free of toxins and a healthy, full-size Kombucha culture, never dehydrated or stored in the refrigerator (those lead to mold). Follow the super simple recipe on and in about 7 days you will have delicious homemade Kombucha that you can bottle and flavor to your heart’s desire. There is no downside to experimenting with this ancient ferment.

Okay, I cannot lie, there is one down side to brewing Kombucha, but it’s not that much different from any food preparation: the clean up. A batch of Kombucha usually takes between 7-10 days to ferment, and at the end it’s time to bottle and start another batch. The best way around this problem that I have found is called Continuous Brewing (CB).

This method is actually most like the ancient method for brewing Kombucha and is very simple. As Kombucha is removed from the brewing vessel (via a spigot, the secret key to CB) to be consumed or bottled for later, more sweet tea is added to the brewer. Because only a small amount has been removed, it will take only a short time, much less than the normal brewing cycle, for that sweet tea to be transformed into mature Kombucha Tea (KT). It’s important to start with a large batch of mature KT, at least 2 gallons, so that the sweet tea will quickly transform into Kombucha.

So obviously CB saves time. Many people also appreciate not having to handle the cultures all the time, though I admit I really do love that process. With CB, the big SCOBY that grows only needs to be tended to once or twice a year. That was basically what convinced my mom and step-dad to start making their own Kombucha. My mom maintains the continuous brewer and he can just pour it from the tap right into his glass and never have to see what’s going on behind the scenes. They recently added a second brewer because they started drinking it all day instead of diet soda. It helps control his sugar cravings so that he doesn’t have to take medication for adult onset diabetes.

The last reason some prefer the CB method is that it’s a deeper, healthier brew. The reason is that at the 15 day mark and 30 day mark of the brewing cycle, new healthful acids are expressed in the Kombucha fermentation process. Most of the time, Kombucha brewed in the batch method for 15 or 30 days would just be too sour. In CB, old Kombucha and young Kombucha alike can mix together, producing a delicious drink.

I hope you will come by Kombucha Kamp and enjoy all the free videos and information we have available, and consider making Kombucha brewing a part of your real food routine.

Follow-up Resources for Kombucha Brewers

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Curried Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk

Jenny — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:37:42 +0000

Curried lentil soup, rich with the heady scent of toasted cardamom, coriander and fenugreek, moves from the humble to the extraordinary. I don’t often cook curries, not that I dislike them: far from it, I love curry; it’s just that I find more easy inspiration in culinary herbs from the kitchen garden (many of which have medicinal uses) and for get the exotic spices that perfume dishes like this curried lentil soup. It’s an uplifting perfume but sexy and earthy, too, ginger and shallots cook in grass-fed ghee or clarified butter, an ingredient essential in classical Indian cuisine, that offers the dual value of being one of the most nutrient-dense fats to any home cook. It’s brimming with vitamin A, vitamin K2 and conjugated linoleic acid. You can make ghee at home or, if you’re like me, you’d just purchase it online from an artisanal producer (see sources).

Making a good lentil soup is a slow process, as any good soup should be and it first begins with soaking the pulses for ten to twelve hours in warm water into which whey, yogurt or another acid has been added. This traditional process that our great-great-grandmothers knew well is all but forgotten today. A shame, really, for soaking legumes first for this curried lentil soup or for other dishes requiring their use effects three primary goals: 1) it increases the digestibility of legumes by neutralizing enzyme inhibitors that make digesting the proteins found in legumes difficult; 2) it liberates the plentiful minerals bound up in legumes by degrading the antinutrient phytic acid, and 3) soaked legumes typically cook more quickly and more thoroughly than those that have not been soaked. Thus in one traditional practice, you’ve effectively increased the nutrients available to your body from legumes like lentils, peas and beans. It’s a simple tradition, as it should be, but powerful and beautiful too.

Curried lentil soup would be nothing but for its spices. Where a good stock is essential in preparing other soups (like miso soup with clams), the combination of ethereal spices is essential in this dish – which is, of course, not to say that a good stock plays no role in the success or failure of curried lentil soup (it does, and I recommend a fresh chicken broth or an Asian-inspired chicken foot stock for this soup), but, more aptly, it’s the toasted cardamom, cumin, fenugreek and coriander that truly elevate this humble pot of pureed lentils and split peas into something deservedly special.

As you toast the spices in a hot skillet, they begin to release their fragrance, but it’s upon crushing them that they blossom with perfume, erupting in clouds of fragrance: the maple-like scent of fenugreek, the sharp and green odor of cardamom all subdued by the earthiness of cumin and coriander. And as those clouds of perfume waft from your mortar, you can’t but help to become more involved in your cooking. No longer are you simply making a meal to feed your family; rather, you’re moved by the fragrance, by the celebration of flavor.

Curried Lentil Soup

Curried lentil soup, perfumed by the luxuriant scent of coriander, cardamom, ginger and fenugreek, provides warmth and nourishment in a single, humble bowl. Season the curried lentil soup with yogurt, cilantro or fresh lime

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups yellow split peas
1/2 cup red lentils
2 tablespoons yogurt, kefir, whey, lemon juice or vinegar
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon fenugreek seed
6 cardamom pods
2 tablespoons ghee/clarified butter(see sources)
2 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
1 2-inch knob ginger, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon powdered cayenne pepper
2 quarts homemade chicken stock
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 cupraisins
2 cups full-fat coconut milk
yogurt, cilantro and fresh lime, to serve

Special Equipment:

mortar and pestle (buy it online) or spice grinder (buy it online)
immersion blender(buy it online)

Method:

Pour yellow split peas and red lentils into a mixing bowl with two tablespoons yogurt, kefir, whey, lemon juice or vinegar and cover with hot water by two inches. Allow the lentils and split peas to soak for ten to twelve hours, then drain them and rinse them thoroughly.
Heat a cast-iron skillet over a moderately high flame until hot, then toss in coriander, cumin, fenugreek and cardamom seeds, stirring constantly until well-toasted, about two minutes. Remove the toasted spices from the skillet and crush by hand with a mortar and pestle or grind in a spice grinder. Melt ghee in a heavy-bottomed stock pot over a moderate flame, then toss in shallots and ginger, frying until fragrant – about three to four minutes. Stir in toasted spices, curry powder and cayenne pepper, and continue cooking for another minute or two.
Pour soaked, rinsed and drained lentils and split peas into the pot with chicken stock and fish sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the lentils and split peas are cooked through, about forty-five minutes.
Puree the soup with an immersion blender or run it through a foodmill, then stir in coconut milk and raisins and continue simmering about ten minutes.
Serve with yogurt, cilantro and fresh lime.

YIELD:
6 to 8 servings.
TIME:
10 to 12 hours (soaking), 1 hour(stovetop)

Asian-inspired Chicken Feet Stock

Prepared from chicken feet and no other bones or meat, this stock produces a solid gel. One pound of feet will produce approximately ½ gallon of well-gelled stock. Its aroma is faintly reminiscent of Top Ramen, no joke. Even if you prefer to season your stock with a mild combination of onion, celery and carrot or herbs of your choice, follow the same method as outlined below.

Caldo Verde: Portuguese Kale, Potato and Chorizo Soup

Richly spiced with chili peppers and smoked paprika, caldo verde is deeply flavored and brimming with nutrient-dense additions such as manganese-rich kale, potatoes and pasture-raised lard and chorizo. For both ease of preparation and for a lovely presentation, I recommend serving the potatoes whole.

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Stocking Up: A Recipe for Homemade Sauerkraut

Jenny — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:11:52 +0000

Homemade sauerkraut, in all its funky humility, is a favorite food in our home – particularly in wintertime when fresh, local produce is a rare treat and we rely on what we’ve put by over the summer and autumn months. For us, this means lots of fermented foods and sauerkraut in particular.

We grow cabbage in our tiny plot in the community garden, and I’ve a preference for the more whimsical heirloom varieties – Wakefield cabbages with their conical heads and Shoshudori cabbages with their wide and flat ones. I love the crinkled Savoys and the brilliant hue of Mammoth Red Rocks. Cabbages are lovely things, indeed. While these varieties aren’t found in most garden supply centers, you can typically can find them online (see sources) or from seed saving enthusiasts. They grow well at high altitude where frost lingers until mid-June and begins to threaten gardens again in late August.

So, when the time comes, we harvest ours and peel back the rough outer leaves that blanket the tender heads, core them, shred them fine, salt them and let them sour on the countertop for weeks and sometimes months until they acquire the requisite funk that only true fermented foods enthusiasts love, and that – cabbage, salt and time – is all you need for a truly wonderful homemade sauerkraut. We serve our sauerkraut throughout winter, with sausages and preserved meats in choucroute garnie, on its own or dropped by the spoonful into bowls of steaming lentil stew - welcome nourishment for cold and dark days. Of course, planning for homemade sauerkraut takes time – it’s something you start now in late summer and in autumn that will nourish your family until spring.

Homemade Sauerkraut: Optimal Nourishment for Dark Days

Homemade sauerkraut takes time – a week for the impatient and months for those who love their sauerkraut with the same fervor that an oenophile devotes to wine. Originally, the production of sauerkraut served the primary purpose of preserving the harvest into the winter when food was scarce and hunger a true threat. Sauerkraut is a peasant food, humble, disparaged, but truly lovely when produced with tenderness and the passion only a true real food lover can provide.

So while European peasants preserved their cabbage with salt in an effort to keep hunger away during the dark months, their method of preservation fulfilled another need: that of optimal nourishment. The process of lactic acid fermentation used to transform salt and cabbage into sauerkraut increases vitamins, particularly vitamin C and B vitamins, and food enzymes. Moreover, homemade sauerkraut is also extraordinarily rich in beneficial bacteria – friendly microorganisms which help to colonize the gut, train the immune system and manufacture vitamins in the digestive tract. In winter, when colds and flus make their rounds, homemade fermented foods which provide plenty of vitamins, food enzymes and beneficial bacteria coupled with fermented cod liver oil (see sources).

Finding the Right Crock for Your Homemade Sauerkraut

If you’re like me, you began fermenting foods like homemade sauerkraut in mason jars for want of something better – and while mason jars work fine for small quantities of fermented foods, they’re not optimally suited to fermentation. Fermentation is an anaerobic process and when fermented foods are exposed to air, as they often are when fermented in open crocks and mason jars, they run a very real risk of being contaminated by stray microbes, yeasts and molds. Creating a true anaerobic environment by using the right crock or fermentation device results in better sauerkraut, less contamination and fewer failed batches. So if you’re committed to preparing fermented foods for your family: either as a method of old-world food preservation or for their health benefits, investing in a good crock is essential.

You can typically find fermentation crocks online (see sources) – some are glass jars fitted with airlocks which helps to maintain that anaerobic environment essential to proper fermentation; others are traditional ceramic or stoneware crocks equipped with a heavy weight (to keep fermenting foods completely submerged in brine, thus creating an anaerobic environment) and a lid. Both function well though the traditional ceramic and stoneware crocks typically have a larger capacity than glass fermenting jars equipped with airlocks.

Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe

cabbage, salt, time

Ingredients:

2 medium heads cabbage (about 4 to 5 total pounds), cored and finely shredded
2 tablespoons unrefined sea salt (see sources)

Equipment:

large mixing bowl
sauerkraut crock or vegetable fermenter (see sources)
wooden spoon or dowel

Method:

Toss cabbage and salt together in a large mixing bowl and begin to squeeze the cabbage and salt together with your hands, kneading it thoroughly to break up the cellular structure of the shredded cabbage.
When the cabbage has become limp and released its juice, transfer it to a sauerkraut crock or vegetable fermenter (see sources). Pack the salted cabbage into the crock or fermenter as tightly as you can, eliminating air bubbles. Continue packing the cabbage into the container until it is completely submerged by liquid. Cover loosely and allow it to sit at room temperature, undisturbed, for at least seven days and up to three or four weeks, testing the sauerkraut every few days until it is done to your liking. Transfer to the refrigerator or other cold storage where it should keep for at least six months.

TIME: 20 minutes (active), 1 to 4 weeks (fermentation) | YIELD: about 2 quarts | Click here to visit the recipe page where you can print, email or text this recipe to your phone.

NOTES: If scum appears floating in the brine of your homemade sauerkraut, simply spoon it off. You won’t be able to remove it all, but spoon of what you can and don’t worry about. The real key to preparing homemade sauerkraut, and any fermented food, is that the solid materials rest below the liquid. Fermentation is an anaerobic process and to expose your ferments to air increases the likelihood that they’ll become contaminated by stray microbes, yeasts and molds.

And just a head’s up: I wrote this post while participating in the Sowing Millions Project by Real Food Media on behalf of Seeds of Change. I received product and exclusive content to facilitate my post (free seeds rock!). My thoughts and opinions are my own and not of those of Real Food Media or Seeds of Change. I’ll be participating all summer long – sharing garden tips, news and recipes. You can follow seeds of change on facebook, twitter and upload photos to their virtual garden where you’ll undoubtedly see more pictures of my lovely herbs soon.

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Traditional Remedies from the Garden: Stinging Nettle Infusion with Mint & Clover

Jenny — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:49:26 +0000

Stinging nettle infusion spiked with mint and red clover found its way to my kitchen counter by chance this summer where its deep green, inky hue is now desperately loved. Yes, like most of you real food lovers, I’m a fan of the legendary herbalist Susun Weed. And though her Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year sits nestled between the Physician’s Desk Reference for Herbal Medicine and Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine, I had never really put her wisdom to good use in my kitchen.

Sure, I’d made a fermented infusion of dried stinging nettles which I had purchased from Mountain Rose Herbs in the winter similar to the infusions I teach students to make in How to Cook Real Food and Get Cultured, but that infusion, lovely as it was, does not do justice to the green, chlorophyll-rich brew of fresh stinging nettles coupled with other medicinal herbs like mint and red clover whose flavors positively sing in this simple, traditional remedy from the garden.

Fresh nettles arrive every other week from our local CSA, and having only worked with dried, cut and sifted nettles, I had no idea what they were when I first encountered them. Gleefully, I stuck my hand into a bag of nettles thinking they were any other green (which spurred this post about what to do with mystery veggies in your CSA) and that, dearest real food lovers, was a grave mistake. It felt like a thousand mites were biting my hand and, yelping like a chastened puppy, I pulled my hand from the bag only to find it cover in little red welts. Fortunately, I mentioned my predicament at the local health food store where it was suggested that I probably am not allergic to those green serrated leaves at all as I had thought, but that they’re stinging nettle. And I promptly fell in love.

Now, I’m not one to caution you about proper handling of foods. You’re grown-ups. Or, at least most of you are. But do wear gloves when handling fresh nettle. Trust me … me who foolishly didn’t know better.

Stinging Nettle Infusion: Deep Nutrition

Benefits of Stinging Nettles

Stinging nettle infusion is potent medicine, particularly for women whose bodies crave the plant’s rich minerals like magnesium and calcium. And nettles are highly anti-inflammatory and rich in phytonutrients like rutin, which is also found in buckwheat. Traditionally, stinging nettles were used to ease rheumatic complaints and disorders of the urinary tract – and many modern herbalists recommend their use in conjunction with fresh raw milk (see sources) to ease seasonal allergies.

Where to get stinging nettles: Stinging nettles often grow wild, but can be cultivated from seeds (see sources) for medicinal gardens. You can also purchase the dried herb online from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Benefits of Mint

Similarly, mint is also a source of deep nutrition which is why I grow at least four varieties in my little kitchen garden – many of which came from Seeds of Change as part of their sowing millions project which gave away over 100 million seeds this year. Mint is, like other green herbs, rich in antioxidants, trace minerals and vitamins. Traditionally, mint was used to ease digestive upset and that it does fairly well – a remnant of its traditional use is left with after-dinner mints which, sadly are often flavored with artificial ingredients rather than true, fresh mint or mint oils. Mint is also used for its faint sedative effects and it’s perhaps these two effects in combination – easing digestive upset and calming the nerves – that gives mint its rightful place in many traditional remedies for colic.

Where to get mint: Mint is a culinary herb as well as a medicinal herb (learn more about the medicinal qualities of culinary herbs). Mint can be purchased as starts in most garden centers, but you can also grow it from seed (see sources) which provides you with more varieties from which to choose. Additionally, you can purchase dried mint online.

Benefits of Red Clover

Red clover is rich in minerals and is also a source of coumarin which, like most phytonutrients, offers benefits in miniscule amounts but can be detrimental when overly consumed. Coumarin is a blood thinner. Red clover also has potent antispasmodic effects and, for this reason, is traditionally used to treat coughs and respiratory conditions including whooping cough. It is also a source of isoflavones which offer benefits in small quantities, particularly for women, though are too often consumed in large quantities as soy.

Where to get red clover: Red clover, like nettle, grows wild and in my area it covers the hillside. If wildcrafting the herb doesn’t suit your needs or it doesn’t grow where you live, you can purchase dried red clover online.

How to Make Stinging Nettle Infusion

nettles, mint, red clover

The grassy, green flavor of nettles combine with the sweetness of mint and clover for a deeply nourishing infusion of fresh garden herbs.

ingredients:

1 cup coarsely chopped fresh stinging nettles or 1/2 cup dried nettles (buy them online)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint or 1/4 cup dried mint (buy it online)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh red clover or 1/2 cup dried red clover (buy it online)
raw honey (see sources), as needed to sweeten the infusion

equipment:

kettle
1/2-gallon wide-mouth mason jar
fine-mesh sieve or tea strainer

method:

Bring two quarts of filtered water to a boil.
Toss nettles, mint and clover into a 1/2-gallon wide-mouth mason jar and fill with boiling water. Allow the herbs to steep in water for at least four and up to twelve hours, then strain them from the infusion using a fine-mesh sieve or tea strainer. Sweeten the infusion with honey as you like it and transfer to the refrigerator. Serve over ice.

YIELD: a little less than 2 quarts | TIME: 5 minutes (active), 4 to 12 hours (steeping)

NOTES: In the summer, I prepare this infusion using fresh herbs which are more readily available and can be plucked from the garden in a moment’s notice. You can purchase seeds for both culinary and medicinal herbs online (see sources); however, if you’ve no garden or it’s winter and nothing green will grow, consider purchasing the needed herbs online. I typically purchase dried herbs and spices from Mountain Rose Herbs which specializes in organic and wildcrafted medicinal as well as culinary herbs and spices.

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Welcoming the First Frost: Spiced Lentil Soup with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes

Jenny — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 03:28:37 +0000

The other morning I woke to the thin sheen of the season’s first frost glazing the leaves of my kitchen herbs which grow in mismatched, hand-me-down pots and buckets on my front steps. But it’s only August, I hear you say. Indeed. But here in the heart of the Rockies, where my little nook in the community garden sits at an elevation of roughly 9,000 feet (that’s about 2,700 meters you crazy metric users, you), winter overstays her welcome like a bad house guest, with frosts lasting until mid-June and arriving again in August. Her tenacity means, of course, that our growing season is about 60 days in total – just enough to manage a few heads of lettuce, some radishes and a handful of frost-hardy roots and greens like turnips and collards. It’ll get hot again, yes, as summer and winter fight for dominance in the waning warmth of autumn, but the frosts have most decidedly arrived. And I’ve heard tale that even a few aspens are shedding their green for gold, far in the back country.

And with that first frost came the cold early mornings – a prelude to a winter where snow drifts can easily reach the second story of homes, mothers transport bundled toddlers in blanketed sleds and my 5-year old has been known to strap on his skis to play in our front yard. It was with great reluctance that, upon waking shivering for several mornings, my husband and I stole into the storage closet to air out extra bed clothes – which means our August bed is now made up with two thermal blankets, a down comforter and a quilt. We have a few extra down comforters for when it gets really cold.

And as the cold days begin to arrive once more, I turn to hearty soups and stews. Not only because they nourish so completely, but also because the ambient heat caused by their cooking warms up my home and I become less tempted to turn on the thermostat – something that seems resoundly hateful in August.

So when the frost arrives and chilly evenings follow chilly mornings, I hunger for warming foods. Lentils are remarkably versatile and their earthy flavor marries equally well with European herbs like thyme and marjoram as it does with the warming spices of the Middle East and South Asia whose toasty perfumes can elevate the humble lentil with their fragrant charms.

The full fragrance of spice dissipates after it is ground, and for that reason I like to buy my spices whole and in bulk (typically from Mountain Rose Herbs) and grind them myself as I prepare my food. Often, I toast the spices in a dry skillet for a few minutes before grinding them (as I did for this curried lentil soup with coconut milk), a practice that deepens their flavor.

Lentil Soup: Beloved Nourishment

Lentils soup offers deep nourishment. Lentils are inexpensive, and extraordinarily rich in folate – a B vitamin that is essential to women of reproductive age as a mother’s folate status influences health of her newborn. Mothers with insufficient folate intake are more likely to give birth to babies who suffer from neural tube defects than those who have sufficient folate levels. Liver, too, is a potently rich source of folate. (Read more about foods for fertility.)

Lentils are also rich in phosphorus, which earned them a beloved place in the heart of Dr. Weston Price, a nutrition researcher of the early 20th century who traveled the globe researching traditional diets and their influence on the health of native populations. In a letter to his nieces and nephews, which can be found in the most current edition of Nutrition & Physical Degeneration (you can purchase it online from independent booksellers, Price outlines his recommendations for affordable, nutrient-dense diets and in that letter he heartily recommends lentil soup as a dietary staple for its phosphorus content coupled with its affordability.

Lentils, like all pulses, are best served after a good long soaking. You see, these nourishing foods contain potent antinutrients which bind up minerals in the digestive tract preventing their full absorption. In soaking beans and lentils, as well as grains and nuts, before consuming them, you can mitigate the effects of these naturally occurring antinutrients thereby increasing the nutrients available to your body and decreasing overall cooking time.

Spiced Lentil Soup with Roasted Tomatoes & Eggplant

mustard, coriander, cumin, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and kale

Ingredients:

2 cups green lentils, picked over and rinsed well
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 lbs heirloom tomatoes, halved and seeded
1 lb eggplant, any variety, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons unrefined extra virgin olive oil (see sources), plus extra to serve
2 tablespoons clarified butter/ghee (see sources)
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin
3 ribs celery, sliced thin
1 teaspoon powdered mustard (buy it online)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (buy it online)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (buy it online)
2 bay leaves
2 quarts roast chicken stock (get the recipe) or filtered water
1 bunch kale, trimmed and coarsely chopped

Equipment:

mixing bowl and kitchen towel
baking dish
heavy-bottomed stock pot (buy it online)

Method:

Pour lentils into a large mixing bowl and cover with hot water by two inches. Stir in vinegar, cover with a kitchen towel, and allow the lentils to soak for eight to twelve hours. After they’ve soaked for eight to twelve hours, drain off the water and rinse them well.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange tomatoes and eggplant on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about thirty minutes or until the tomatoes begin to caramelize.
Melt ghee in a heavy-bottomed stock pot and stir in onion. Fry the onion in ghee until it softens and becomes translucent, six to eight minutes, then stir in mustard, cumin and coriander.
Pour chicken stock into the pot over the onions and stir in soaked lentils. Cover and simmer until the lentils are tender, about twenty minutes. Once the lentils are tender, stir in roasted tomatoes and eggplant and continue simmering, covered, for a further twenty to twenty-five minutes.
After twenty to twenty-five minutes, turn off the heat, stir in the kale and cover. Allow the kale to wilt under in the ambient heat of the soup. Season the soup to taste with unrefined sea salt (see sources), coarsely ground black pepper, and additional olive oil.

YIELD: about 8 servings | TIME: 8 to 12 hours (soaking), 30 minutes (oven), 45 minutes (stovetop)

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Roots, Berries, Bark & Flowers: An Old-fashioned Recipe for Root Beer

Jenny — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:08:25 +0000

There’s an old-fashioned charm to homemade root beer with its odd array of roots and bark, flowers, leaves and berries. It, like many other fermented beverages, once enjoyed position as a staple of American cookery. Water, as you know, was not always potable and raw milk, small beers, cider, perry and other fermented beverages were consumed as the drink of choice – even for small children. For a time, each community and each family enjoyed a closely guarded homemade root beer recipe.

While most home brewers now make their root beers from commercially sold root beer concentrates, there’s a certain undeniable charm of brewing root beer the traditional way – slowly simmering a concoction of roots, berries, bark and spices, dissolving a sweetener into the herbaceous brew adding a natural source of yeast, bottling and then simply waiting for the yeast to do its work. (If you’re reading this on email, be sure to click through to view the history of root beer, the safrole controversy, its use in folkloric remedies and, of course, the recipe).

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Click here to read the rest of Roots, Berries, Bark & Flowers: An Old-fashioned Recipe for Root Beer (1,391 words)

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Don’t Waste Garden Thinnings: A Recipe for Braised Whole Baby Beets

Jenny — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:47:10 +0000

I always feel a little lost, a little wasteful when it’s time to thin my garden as though all those little plants, doing their best to grow in our very rocky mountain soil, are being plucked early with no chance of reaching their potential. It’s a curious thought, but I’m known for being particularly sentimental when it comes to odd things like that. It’s a trait my husband and I share and one we passed down to our son who just yesterday burst into tears when I told him he must throw away that band-aid he found on the floor of our chiropractor’s office.

This year, thinning was particularly challenging. I let my five year-old sow the seeds in our little plot in the community garden, and while I might have gently placed each individual seed at its perfect increment in an indentation at perfect depth, my son doesn’t share my care for precision and order in a garden. I gave him our packets of organic seeds most of which we bought online (see sources) and some of which we were generously given by Seeds of Change as part of their Sowing Millions Project and virtual garden which you can follow via Facebook.

He ripped open those packets and cast all the seeds into a square about two feet by two feet, then roughly covered them with moist soil. I watched his technique, admiring the eagerness with which he planted. The turnips, he said, the turnips will go there, Jenny. And these? These will be watermelon radishes and over there is cherry bells. Yes, he calls me by my given name and I find it utterly charming. But, as much as I loved his passion for this year’s garden, I said a little prayer under my breath – hoping that we’d get at least a few to germinate properly.

And so they did, some, but not all as many were carried away by the winds due to their shallow planting depth. Now, of course, the they sprouted and grew in a jumbled mess necessitating a good solid thinning. We thin our vegetables a few times: shortly after sprouting when the plants are a few inches tall and again later when the roots are larger in the case of beets, turnips, radishes and carrots.

Best Techniques for Thinning Beets & Other Root Vegetables

If you, like me, aren’t particularly fond of thinning your vegetables, you might enjoy this video which describes why you should thin your beets and how to do so more effectively.

How I Use Garden Thinnings in My Kitchen

Despite my reluctance to thin, the thinnings make lovely foods. And it’s a practice that is necessary to promote the health and growth of your other plants, because as you thin you allow more room for other plants to develop and allow them more sun as well.

The youngest thinnings are best served raw in salads as might serve microgreens: rinsed, spun dry and seasoned with a good quality fruity olive oil (see sources) and lemon juice or vinegar. Later as the roots mature a bit, they’re wonderful braised. All vegetables, though, are lovely when braised.

Braised Whole Baby Beets

beets with their greens, mint, butter & cider vinegar

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, preferably from grass-fed cows (see sources)
2 lbs beet thinnings or whole baby beets with their greens, washed well and patted dry
2 cups fresh chicken broth or roasted chicken stock
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons cider vinegar, preferably raw or four thieves vinegar

Equipment:

cast iron, enameled cast iron or stainless steel skillet with lid (buy it online)
tongs (buy them online)

Method:

Melt butter in a skillet over a moderate flame. When it froths, neatly place beet thinnings into the skillet so that all the root tips rest in one direct and the greens in the other. Sear in butter until the greens are wilted. Pour two cups chicken broth or chicken stock into the skillet, cover, and simmer until roots become tender – about ten minutes.
Turn off the heat and transfer the beets to a serving dish using tongs. For best presentation, lay the beets together so that all the beetroots rest at one end of the serving dish with the greens resting at the other. Sprinkle with fresh chopped mint and dress with cider vinegar or four thieves vinegar.

Dairy-free? Consider substituting coconut oil (see sources) for butter and orange or lemon juice for vinegar.

YIELD: 4 to 6 servings | TIME: about 15 minutes

And just a head’s up: I wrote this post while participating in the Sowing Millions Project by Real Food Media on behalf of Seeds of Change. I received product (free seeds, but you knew that) and exclusive content to facilitate my post. My thoughts and opinions are my own and not of those of Real Food Media or Seeds of Change. I’ll be participating all summer long – sharing garden tips, news and recipes!

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