Zen and the Art of Lentils and Beans

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/lentils

There are certain things that Legumes love!

• Black pepper corns (cook a few into the pot or crack them after)
  
• Celery seed, Cumin, Coriander, or Bay leaf
  
• Maple flavor (toasted ground Fenugreek seed)
  
• Smoked Chipotle powder!
  
• Basil, Dill, Mint, Parsley
  
• Leeks / onions
  
• lemon juice
  
• Garlic!
  
• Olive oil
  
• Salt (like Miso, etc)
  

Proven combinations:

• w/Beets and Goat cheese.
  
• w/Carrots, Mustard, Celery and Leeks.
  
• w/Celery, Tomato and Zucchini.
  
• w/Garlic, Lemon, Ginger and Curry.
  
• w/Olive oil, Onions and Buckwheat.
  
• w/Cumin and Garlic or Turmeric.
  
• w/Coriander, Cumin and Ginger.
  
• W/Maple and Smoke and Mustard are the best flavors for beans.
  

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/slow_cooked_boston_baked_beans/

Zen and Art of Potatos

http://www.thesaucysoutherner.com/grated-potato-nests-with-poached-eggs-meatless-monday/

Pan steam-fried is the easiest and fastest way to cook roots. A hand crank grater is the best kind of food processor.

• Potatoes, Carrots, Beets, Rutabaga, Celeriac?
  
• Spinach or other greens
  
• Leeks, Chives, Caramelized onion (fry with Tamari), or Dry Onion Flakes
  
• Garlic pressed
  
• Oil (for high heat, like Peanut oil)
  
• Black pepper, salsa, etc.
  
• Umiboshi vinegar, Soy sauce or Miso (salt)
  
• Sunflower or other seeds, well toasted
  
• Lemon juice, or lemon zest.
  
• Celery seed, caraway seed, dill seed, marjoram, rosemary, sage, oregano, or thyme.
  
• Fennel fresh or ground seed (looses taste when cooked)
  
• Fried caned Fish (very salty)
  
• Cheese (very salty) or Tahini
  

Zen and art of Biscotti

http://shewearsmanyhats.com/gingerbread-biscotti-recipe/

(approx. 1 wet to 2 dry)

• Pastry or other low gluten (but it needs some to help hold it together) flour like Almond or Coconut flour.
  
• Dark Cocoa powder {№ I never measure!}
  
• Arrow root powder and/or ground flax seed. Or egg (for binding)
• Baking powder
• Oil (coconut oil makes it feel like chocolate!)
• Sweetener (to taste) I use several eye dropper fulls of Stevia!
• Almond and Vanilla extracts, maple? And Licorice powder is good.
• Milk or Water HOT! {Just enough for a stiff dough}

Mix the dry ingredients, then add melted oils. Then the hot water so the coconut oil does not congeal and finally egg after the thick dough is cool enough to keep the egg from instantly cooking.

Spread about ½ inch thick on baking pan.

Bake about 30min until the outside is looking tough enough to cut, cool until firm. Slice with steak knife, and re-bake until dry and hard.

Dip in coffee, slurp loudly!

https://tryityoumightlikeit.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/double-chocolate-biscotti/

Fermented Salsa

make small amounts at a time or you may loose some due to temperature fluctuations.
40 degrees is to warm.

• Onions
• Tomatoes (don't use green-house grown, they are not sweet!)
• Tomatio's an ancient relative of tomatoes.
• Green peppers
• Green apples??
• Hot peppers and Sweet peppers
• Garlic pressed or equivalent
• Fresh cilantro (essential for taste)
• Lemon / Lime juice (too much and you can't can it)
• Salt keeps out the bad bacteria, but too much sodium in your diet can lead to heart disease! Use unrefined sea salt with a little whey to help start the fermentation. (strain yogurt to get whey.) Salt will provide additional mold protection and a crunchy texture.

https://zerowastechef.com/2015/07/14/fermented-salsa/

Art of Sauerkraut

 Sauerkraut with out salt

I used caraway, celery and dill seeds. And some fresh cut dill weed.

Mixed with the onion puree it was smelling like heaven the second day.

Two large and one small cabbage with four large onions. I chopped and blended the onion a little at a time, with enough water to make it blendable.

Making sure the shredded cabbage was under the liquid to keep out the oxygen. Plate and rock on top. Plastic wrap around the plate so I could pull it out (not the best idea) A plate with a handle on it with enough room for a heavy weight, would be best. And plastic wrap over the top of the crock to work like an air lock.

Straight verses tapered walls: a plate will fit the same all the way down for straight walls. Tapered walls may require several different sized plates as you remove the kraut.



Natural Food Preservatives (you don't need to use salt!!!)

Lactic Acid (this is the product of fermentation) vinegar

Raw Onions (blend enough onions to cover the cabbage)

Hot Peppers (actually mellows out during fermentation)

Garlic (garlic and ginger make that Kim Chi flavor)

Ginger (probably not as strong)

Lemon and Lime juice

Salt (this can lead to heart disease, by dehydration)

• 5 pounds cabbage cabbage cabbage 
• 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds caraway seeds caraway seeds 
• 1 Tbsp. dill seeds dill seeds dill seeds 
• 1 Tbsp. celery seeds celery seeds celery seeds 
• 1 Tbsp. crushed peppercorns crushed peppercorns crushed peppercorns 

Filtered water

clean and shred cabbage into a clean container.

Press with a ceramic plate or olive oil on top of the brine will keep out the Oxygen, mold and yeast. Or use coconut oil

The candida-preventing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has the ability to shift from fermentative to oxidative depending on the level of oxygen available. Keep the oxygen out, and this friendly yeast can help your guts heal.


In Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisine, chopped cabbage is usually pickled together with shredded carrots. Other ingredients may include whole or quartered apples for additional flavor or cranberry for flavor and better keeping (the benzoic acid in cranberries is a common preservative).

Excessive consumption of sauerkraut may lead to bloating and flatulence due to the trisaccharide raffinose, which the human small intestine cannot break down.

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/category/lacto-fermentation-recipes/?tag=238#browse_articles

kraut in it's crock

http://sweethealthyliving.com/2012/03/how-to-make-salt-less-sauerkraut/

http://joybileefarm.com/fermented-vegetables-no-salt/

Canned fish

Most canned fish is not very good these days. Don't even try to eat tuna, it is full of Mercury! Fry out the water then add good oil. Do not add more salt!

• Olive oil or Tahini. Or even soy mayonnaise?
  
• Kimchi? Or what ever you want.
  
• Ground up Olives (if you can find some with out salt)
  
• Toasted sprouted whole grain bread
  
  

Fish cakes

• can-o-fish
  
• herbs / chives / dry onion flakes
  
• eggs
  
• Masa Hernia corn meal
  

Fry it

Zen and the Art of Soup

Soup is at once the easiest and yet, least understood food. All you really need is sugar (vegetables) salt and fat (oils). Mixed in hot water!

• ½ cup each Pearled barley cooked with Lintels or beans???
  
• What ever vegetables you can find (food bank?)
  
• I like to saute' mushrooms in balsamic vinegar.
  
• Nettles and Sorrel or maybe Savory, Basil, Oregano, Celery seed, fresh Ginger....
  
• Kim-Chi or Sauerkraut, chopped in machine?
  
• Miso is even better for the salty warmth.
  
• Tahini (to taste) or possibly peanut butter without hydrogenated fats! or at least olive oil! Blue Cheese is a fabulous tasting fat. Toasted sesame oil is another one.
• Secrets ingredients for soups
• Acidic ingredients like umiboshi vinegar or lemon juice or anchovy sauce.
• Good tasting fat like schmaltz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz

Traditionally a base for soup is 2 parts onion 1 part carrot and 1 part celery, but a better base is leeks carrots celeriac. But anything works if you have olive oil and salt.

KimChi SUPER FOOD!

This is the most nutritional food you can get in the middle of the winter.

There are many many different kinds of Kimchi. So make up your own. It was kept in the ground in large ceramic pots with lids all winter.

Fido jars with lids that let
pressure out but not back in.

Use an airlock or a clamp down lid that works like an airlock. Or just keep the lid slightly loose.

• Cabbage: Bok-choy (the most nutritious) Head cabbage (use Kraut shredder), Nappa cabbage,or Swiss chard?
• Kosher salt (for soaking cabbage for 2-3 hours then rinse out all of the salt! Do not use brine in this!)
• Daikon radish, and/or Carrots (cut thinly)
• Cucumber? (Good substitute for Radish.)
• Bell peppers could be good.
• Green Apple chunks or grated (do not use sugar!)
• Scallions or green onion, or even dried onion flakes.
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
“Paste” to mix onto the vegy:

• fresh Ginger (grated with a micro-plane, or minced)
• Garlic cloves, (minced or pressed)
• Pepper flakes (Gochugaru or what ever hot pepper flakes)
• or minced fresh HOT peppers. Remember that seeds and spines are the most piquant parts!
• Sea weed for Umami flavor! Wakame, Kombu or Dulse has the best flavor (powdered kelp? you don't need much; ¾tsp will replace 2tbsp seafood)
• Dried Bonito flakes would be excellent.
• Miso paste is the best for Umami and starter bacteria! Put a little in the paste.

Brine (washed out after soaking cabbage): one tablespoon salt to one cup water; for sucking juice out of cabbage.

Once it goes beyond sour, into sweet and alcohol-smell, it is spoiled. But not completely inedible, according to some people.

Just keep adding more to the pot when it gets low.

Kimchi and sauerkraut ferment primarily form lactic-acid bacteria. Yeasts and molds are in the kingdom of Fungi, they are eukayotes (have organelles even if only single-celled). Bacteria are smaller and are a different branch of the biological family - prokaryotes, no internal organelles.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/quick-kimchi

https://food52.com/recipes/35678-zucchini-kimchi

Small Pressure Cookers

This is one of the best investments I have ever made. For a single person it is essential. A two quart inside volume including lid, I cook about a quart of food. There are not many stainless steel pressure pots this size.

• 1 cup of Lintels or Mung beans, with Millet?
  
• 1.75 cups water
  
• After cooking add some ground walnut? And Umiboshi vinegar or Tamari (salt)
  

I can cook enough Lintels with Millet for a good sized meal in less than 30 minutes with out spewing steam all over my house that is cold enough for heavy condensation. Just bring it up to pressure (for a few minutes with legumes), then turn off the heat and let it sit.

Corn Bread

http://www.hungrycravings.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

• Masa Harina, maize flour (processed with lime to prevent pellagra)
  
• Pastry flour? Less than 50%
  
• Leavening 
  
• Cumin, Garlic, dry onion flakes, celery seed, caraway, oregano, basil...
  
• Chipotle pepper tomatoes?
  
• Lime juice, Butter milk ?
  
• Eggs for binders?
  
• Cheese chunks??

Enough water to make a batter, bake 350°-400°(you should know by now), bake this on top of beans and tomatoes. Or bake the masa then cover with beans and tomatoes.

Sourdough Cornbread

• Starter dough
  
• Masa Harina
  
• sage or other herbs
  
• Milk for the bacteria to eat
  
• something to help hold in the gases: eggs or gluten or cream-of-tartar?
  

This may need some time to developed the bacteria that raises the dough.

Yogurt sour cream cheese dip

• Quart yogurt (plain, full fat) drained in #6 coffee filter in a large funnel over night.
• Dried onion flakes and chives
• Umiboshi vinegar or soy sauce (salt)
• Lemon zest!
• Basil? Cumin? Smoked chili powder? Celery seed?
• Fennel? Dill? Caraway?

This is so much better than buying factory made dips with way too much salt and other crap in them. Make two quarts from three quarts plane yogurt.

Squash Pie (essential for fall festival feasts)

http://learningandyearning.com/2012/10/14/winter-squash-pie/

http://www.aerogardenblog.com/2011/08/italian-squash-pie/

• Winter squash: Butternut is the sweetest. Delicotta & Acorn are good.

  {sweet pie}

  • Apples (in place of sugar),
  • Ginger, Cinnamon or Maple flavor .
  • Cranberries and Pecans or Walnuts.
  • Coriander, only a pinch!

  {vegetable pie}

  • Caramelized onions (open pan steam fry with soy sauce, until translucent) .
  • Toasted Sesame seed ground or Tahini.
  • Lime juice and Soy sauce.
  • Celery seed, Rosemary and Thyme.
  • Leeks, Garlic, Olive oil, and Sage.
  • Cheese (Parmesan etc)?
  • Fried canned fish?

  Steam the squash, mash in bowl, mix with what ever you want. Very simple and easy!

  
  

  A Crust is harder:

  • Butter or vegan shortening
  • Bread crumbs, Quick oats, Matzo meal, or Graham crackers crushed.

  Press into a baking plate and pre-cook the crust a bit (10 minutes?)
  
  

  

  http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/savory-butternut-squash-pie-hazelnuts

Butternu

Delacotta