Monthly Archives: February 2014

Serious business…….Pumpkin with tahini/tamari

Posted on by
Reply

Really now the school is getting serious and I have to be very serious. I know I do know a lot about food, but still to give people advise, especially on a way to thread disease, Makes me really nervous.
We got a instruction to help 1 human and to write it down what we are doing and what kind of advise we gave to help him/her. It is our last mission of the school
Also I had to speak about a book, I am was reading, on the 13 Th of February. I can recommend it to you, it is called food as medicine by Ted Caldecott. The book is really informative and nice and easy written, has also some recipes on the end. The book is about food and what food can do for the human and what is healthy and of course it is a nice introduction to the Ayurveda, but also other diets are lighten up 🙂
I made today a recipe from Ted, I made it as a side dish and I really liked it. It was a different taste for me and again another method to make a pumpkin nice and less sweet.

Ingredients for Pumpkin with tahini/tamari..(2-4 persons)
1 large butternut cut in slices 2,50 centimetre max
1 thumbsized ginger minced
3-4 tablespoons of  tamari
2 tablespoons of tahini

Kitchentools
a bowl
a oven dish
a whipper

 

How to start……….

Get the bowl and mix the ginger together with the tamari and tahini (sesame paste). Till it’s like a sauce! Cut the pumpkin in nice slice maximum at 2,5 centimetres thick.
Grease the oven dish a little with some oil and put in the pumpkin on top of the pumpkin you put the sauce you just made.

Put the dish for 45 minutes in the oven at 175 degrees Celsius, till they are lightly browned and soft. Now it’s ready to be eaten

You can make also an Indian variation.
Mix cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, black pepper and clove, mixed with jaggery and oil (he used ghee, but isn’t vegan of course)
enjoy/आनंद लें

changing the garden…..herb-tower

Posted on by
Reply

Nice, all the square-gardening stuff is outside of the garden, we decide to put everything in the full ground. To experiment with permaculture and to learn about our garden and how it grows.
Of course a real thing of permaculture is the herb tower (at least I see it everywhere), so I tried to make this also.
In the herb-tower you create a life of animals and make sure the water is going slowly into the ground and is being hold for a longer time.
Also you want to make a sunny side and a less sunny side, we choose for an easy tower, you can make also a spiral, looks really great. We wanted a mulch place/compost in the middle of the tower so the worms are being feed and the tower gets soil of their poop!
So this is how we began.
First make the ground equal and then decide how big you want the tower, we just do one layer.
Be aware that you want also a place for the compost to put in the middle.

Lay some stones to mark the round and dig a little whole on the place you want to make the compost pile.put some sticks (I used some old material what is really perfect for this task!) See the pictures
Put in the ground of the pile some straw and some food to feed the worms mixed with some earth
Time to build up the tower, staple the stones a little inwards so the tower will be strong! Decide how high you want the tower, I left some wholes so I can fill the wholes with some herbs to, but this is up to you.

Fill the first layer with straw and upon some soil

(of course there are many variations on this I tried this one), time to put the plants in make sure which side needs the most sun, there you will put the sunny need herbs and on the other side you can put the shadow herbs.
Make sure the herb tower is close to the kitchen so you don’t have to walk a long distance to your fresh herbs if you want to use for some nice dishes.
The tower is ready for use, I will see this summer if I did a great job or if the tower is useless, but anyway it looks really great in the garden! And I made also after i made the tower a little pond for the wateranimals under the tower Picture will follow

Here I have for you some you tube-films so you get inspired, really nice and great to see how the towers are made and how beautiful they are.
spiral tower with pond

herb tower

my inspiration to make a nice tower

Stormy weather…….adukibean-pie

Posted on by
Reply

Already time for another Japanese recipe, again from the book written by Yasuko fukuoka (Fresh Japanese)
While the wind is blowing outside, really stormy, I am enjoying the taste of the pie I didn’t imagine it could have a nice taste. Beans are really beans and more savoury, why would you put this in a pie?
In the midday I crashed all the nuts I had laying here, and they were many little hazelnuts and I needed 150 gram, but the time was to be in the house, with the children singing children songs and hearing the woooossh outside!Oh and I didn’t make the 150 gram so I put some sesame seed instead of the nuts, it was a success
Anyway you must try this at home, it is easy to make and I even made my own puffed rice, recipe you will find also!

Ingredients for the adukibean-pie  (anko to kinomi pai)For the filling
200 gram of cooked adukibeans (I used dried ones I soaked overnight and cooked for 1 1/2 hour)
2 decilitre water
80 grams of rice syrup (she used sugar)
150 grams of roasted mixed nuts finally chopped (I used hazelnuts, almonds and sesame seed)     For the crust
50 grams of oat flakes
20 grams of puffed rice*
2 1/2 tablespoon of water
3 tablespoons of rice syrup
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon of Himalaya salt
80 gram of spelt meal (she used flour)

Kitchentools
a saucepan with some oil
a spring 20 cm diameter
a cooking pan for cooking the beans
a bowl
a frying pan
food processor
an oven
a skinner

How to begin…..
You must crush/shell the nuts? do this first and roast them immediately in a frying pan and set aside
First you cook the beans (after they are cooked 1 1/2 hour) in 2 decilitre water, poor in the rice syrup and stir well. Put the fire higher and throw in the salt, make it like a creamy mass. Put the fire of when this happened.

Time to make the crust get the oat flakes and puffed rice and put them in the food processor and crush them in smaller parts, not too small when it getting like crumble dough.
Get the bowl and poor in the rice syrup,2 1/2 tablespoon of water, oil,salt. Mix well. When it’s mixed well poor in the oat flakes and puffed rice and mix again well till it’s like a dough set aside for ten minutes.

Get the spring and oil the spring, the dough you put in the spring and make also some sides with the dough, so you get a ‘tray’. You do this with your fingers.Bake the crust for 15 minutes in a oven at 230 degrees Celsius.

When the crust is ready, take the crust out of the spring, put in the adukibean mixture and sprinkle with the nuts!
I can say enjoy this with some nice Japanese green tea.
Enjoy/せていただき

*puffed rice
Get some rice (in this recipe 20 grams) I took dessert rice, put I am sure you can do with all rice. Cook the rice in water, till the rice is soft and ready to be eaten.
But no, you won’t eat it. You will dry the rice (I had to bake a bread in the oven so I putted the rice in the oven, you can also wait a day and put the rice into the sun)
When the rice is dry again, you get a saucepan, put in some oil for frying and get a skinner where you put the rice on, when the oil is 175 degrees Celsius, you put in the rice very shortly. You see the rice is getting twice as big, don’t let them turn brown! Take out when they aren’t growing any more. Now you have puffed rice, very easy to make

Saturday relaxing day…..steamed turnips with misonuts

Posted on by
Reply

nice a Saturday without stress, without planning without appointments. Today was a relaxing day. Kaya was at grandma her house and I was alone with Yvi, so slept for  3 hours in the midday enjoyed some music, made some fresh bread. looked into a new cooking book got as a present from grandma. A book with nice recipes, great to try when it’s my birthday…
But last I tried something out of a Japanese cooking book (one week ago), I got it from the library, good way to get used to some Japanese food, and as I promised I would make some more Japanese food. so here you are…I used instead of parmesan, the vegan version, the noble yeast flakes

Steamed turnips with misonuts (4 persons) kabu no furohuki*
8-12 little turnips
1 litre of dashi (bouillon/stock made from kombu)**
2 teaspoons of soy sauce
250 gram of spinach (I used carrots and some leaves of bok choy)
3 tablespoons of brown or white miso
1 tablespoon of mirin
1 1/2 tablespoon of sake
50 grams of unsalted mixed nuts  (I used only almonds)
1 tablespoon of noble yeast flakes

Kitchentools
a knife
a cooking pan
a saucepan
a colander(for steaming bok choy)
a mortar or food processor to grind the nuts in little pieces
a plate
grill

Lets begin……
Make sure you make the dashi first.
Wash the turnips and get the peel of (I let the peel on at some turnips because they are organic and washed very well). Get of the tops (and put them on a plate, it will be later the lid of the turnips) make a hole in the turnips to put in the nut mixture later, I did this with a sharp knife and cut out a whole because with a spoon it was too difficult, turnips are very hard of structure.
Get a cooking pan and poor in the dashi, turnips and soy sauce and bring it to a boil. Lower down the heat and  boil them till they are glassy.Get them out of the pan and put on a plate, be sure you will keep them warm (maybe put them under a cloth)

In the pan with the dashi you can cook the carrots for 10 minutes (till they are soft) and steam the bok choy for a short time (till they are softer, like 4 minutes ) I always to this with a colander on top of the cooking pan and on top of the colander a lid.(if they are ready before you are ready with the mixture keep it warm till serve)

In the meanwhile you can make the nut mixture, get a sauce pan and poor in the mirin and sake bring it to a boil and put the heat of and stir in the miso till it’s smooth. I did the miso at last, because they told me the vitamins and minerals will be destroyed if you cook miso.

Time to put in the last ingredients into the saucepan, stir in the nuts and noble yeast flakes.
Lets get the turnips and fill them with this mixture, put the filled turnips under a preheated grill till the filling is bubbling. (I didn’t had a grill I put them short into the preheated oven)
Now the finishing touch, get the carrots and bok choy, decorate your plate on a nice way and put the turnips also on the plate with the tops of the turnips as lids to give the meal a nice look.

Enjoy/楽しむ

*recipe from Yasuko Fukuoka from the book fresh Japanese

 

**for the dashi stock
Dashi stock for 3 cups

3,5 cups of water
kombu kelp, 10 by 5 centimetres


Make the dashi stock, it will take one hour! Get three pieces of kombu (kelp), wash it with a damp cloth, soak them after for one hour with 3,5 cups of water in a bowl! Bring the stock to a boil and get out the kombu, now it is ready to use

hospital week….oat milk

Posted on by
Reply

Strange week, and a hospital week. First on Sunday my son went to the hospital for his ear, the doctor said he had to stay for at least 2 days, he was suffering from mastoiditis, so he got some infusion, he had tubes for his heart terrible to see he is not 2 yet….
Anyway he is home now, yes, I am so happy. Still he get his antibiotics and ear and nose drops. But he is walking happy and climbing like he does normally, I must say he wasn’t terrible sick at all he is a die-hard.
On tuesday I had to go to the doctor also to check my breast, we have a BRCA2 gen in the family. It was the first time to get a breast biopsy, stereotactic. Not nice at all, it doesn’t hurt, but you have to lay down for a long time in a strange position what isn’t really comfortable, but we survived and now my breast is tickling ;)!
So strange week didn’t had time to cook special dishes, but i made also this week a new milk, the oatmilk found a recipe on the internet

The ingredients for almost 1 litre
80 gram of oat flakes
800 millilitre of water
some dates or other sweetening
some vanilla stick

kitchentools
a food processor
a big bottle of glass
a fridge
a sieve

Easy to make….
Just grind the oat flakes in the food processor together with the dates, vanilla stick and water.
Poor this in the bottle of glass and let it stand overnight in the fridge, in the morning you put the mixture again in the food processor and you mix it again, get a sieve and sieve the liquid. Now you have nice fake milk, experiment with the taste, you can make it spicy by putting in some cinnamon or clove just what you like.

enjoy

 

sleep…and rice milk

Posted on by
Reply

The last days I am so busy with good stuff. Reading so much about Ayurveda, really every day I understand more about this lifestyle. Also I am experimenting a lot with recipes, went to the library for cooking books (this time Japanese) I have also a book from school were I am making pickles, whole food breakfasts and so on. Good for giving advise to anyone about food. Also I have to look some informative documentaries and my evening Dutch soap (bleh yes I am that kind of person :)). Where is the time to sleep, I have the feeling the days are too short. Of course my kids want attention too and I give it to them as a housemam 🙂
But with all the experiments I have a nice rice milk recipe, I don’t want to buy the one in tetra packages because there is still plastic in it and they poor the ‘milk’ hot into the packages, so Imagine what will happen with the ‘milk’ and plastic. Fresh is the word I like.

The recipe for a lot of rice milk
1 cup whole wheat rice
6 cups water
4 dried dates
some himalaya salt
(for variation maybe some spices, like cardamom,vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, pepper name it and experiment with the taste)

kitchentools
a cooking pan
a blender

Lets make it…….
Wash the rice first till the water isn’t cloudy any more. Get the cooking pan and poor in the water and rice. Put them on the gas and cook for 2 hours on low fire. After the two hours you blend the mixture together with the dates/salt and make a smooth liquid from it.
You have a thick rice milk now, put just some water too make the mixture the thickness you like.!
And voila poor them in bottles of glass and they are like 3 days preservable in the fridge.

Nice for a porridge, enjoy the taste. Last I mixed in some red dates also, really nice too. And if you like more sweet, put in some syrup or maybe you like spices into the milk more, just experiment

Enjoy