Monthly Archives: September 2018

Dehydrated Spinach

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Start with fresh spinach. Wash it thoroughly so you don’t have any dirt hanging around on the leaves, and pat them dry. They don’t have to be thoroughly dried before going in the dehydrator. Remove the larger parts of the stems, they get tough when they dry.

Dehydrate at 125 degrees (vegetable setting) for 3-6 hours or until they are crispy.

Once the spinach is dry, remove the leaves from the trays and crush lightly by hand for spinach flakes.

To powder your dry spinach, place the crushed leaves in a blender and pulse until they reach the consistency you desire.

Pickle Powder

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Ingredients
12 oz. whole kosher dill pickles

Instructions
Set a dehydrator to 153°. Using a mandoline, slice pickles lengthwise, ⁄ ” thick; arrange slices in single layers on dehydrator sheets. Dehydrate until pickles are completely dry and crisp, about 3.5 hours. Let pickles cool; grind into a powder using a spice grinder. Store in an airtight container up to 2 months.

Tortillas

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DIRECTIONS

  1. Sift the flour, salt & baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
  2. Into the dry ingredients cut in the shortening, or add oil if you are using this option, & mix with your fingertips to combine.
  3. Add the milk or water, working the liquid into the dough until a sticky ball forms.
  4. Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Divide the dough into 8-10 balls (for small tortillas) or 6-8 balls for larger ones, cover them again with the damp cloth.
  6. Lightly dust a counter or pastry board w/flour & roll out each ball of dough into a circle or oval approximately 1/4″ thick. If you want nicely rounded tortillas, trim off any ragged edges & discard. Don’t roll the dough out more than once or the tortillas will be tough.
  7. Heat a dry griddle or heavy skillet over high heat for 5 minutes. Cook the tortillas 30 seconds on each side or until the dough looks dry & slightly wrinkled & a few brown spots form on both surfaces. Do not over cook or they will be hard. Butter and roll up and wrap in damp tea towel to keep warm as you cook the other tortillas.
  8. (I place cooked ones wrapped in the damp towel in a low 200 oven to keep warm, while I am cooking the rest.) Serve warm.

Crusty Boule

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  • 6-1/2 cups flour
  • 3 cups warm water
  • 1-1/2 tablespoon yeast
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients together well. Allow to rise for 2 hours and then refrigerate. Preheat Dutch oven and lid. Place dough in the Dutch oven and allow to rise for 15 minutes, uncovered. Bake for roughly 50 minutes, covered, once your thermometer reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

If baking in an oven, this bread can be baked at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes covered followed by 15 minutes uncovered, for a total of 30 minutes.

Cast Iron Skillet Biscuits

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3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 + 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 + 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, COLD
1 + 1/2 cup buttermilk (approx.)

  1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor
  3. Cut the butter into chunks and cut it into the flour so it resembles course sand. If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until the sand consistency is achieved.
  4. Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined. Do not overmix!
  5. If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. The dough should be wet.
  6. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and spread flour over the top.
  7. Gently PAT (do not use a rolling pin) the dough out until it is about 1/2″ thick. Fold the dough about five times, and gently pat the dough down to 1″ thick.
  8. Use a 2″ round cutter to cut into rounds. Place the rounds in the cast iron pan, touching but do not crowd. Gather the scraps together for round two of biscuits but try not to knead the dough too much or at all as it disrupts the layers.
  9. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and bake for 10-12 minutes until the tops of the biscuits are a light golden brown.

Fermented Roast Potatoes

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Equipment

1/2 gallon jar

Something to weight the potatoes down in the jar

Ingredients

  • 2.5 lbs (1.13 kg) small potatoes, dirt rinsed off in cool water, skins on
  • 2.75 cups filtered water (650 ml)
  • 1.5 – 2 tablespoons kosher salt (27 g – 36 g, or roughly 4.1% – 5.6% in brine by weight)
  • 3 four-inch (100 mm) sprigs rosemary, and more for garnish at roasting time (optional but delicious)
  • 4 peeled cloves garlic, divided (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
  1. Quarter or halve potatoes into pieces that are roughly 1.5 inches square. Remove any eyes or greens spots, but again, otherwise keep them unpeeled.
  2. Mix salt into water until dissolved. Add 2 cloves of garlic into the jar and top with some potatoes. Layer in rosemary sprigs, but end with potatoes on top. Jar should be full to about 1.5 inches below the rim, or to the bottom of the threads.
  3. Add brine to the jar to just cover potatoes and add your weight. Once the weight is applied, the brine layer should still be 1 inch below the jar rim and no more than half an inch over the potatoes.
  4. Close or cover jar, according to which type of weight you’ve chosen and ferment at room temp, out of direct sunlight for 4 to 10 days. 4 days will be slightly less crisp, but they’ll have more body. 1o days will be quite sour and have a lot of puff.
  5. Strain off pickling liquid (feel free to use this for a large pot of soup or anywhere else you’d like salty, sour liquid, but remember it’s VERY salty compared even to normal pickle brine) and pat potatoes dry. Compost the rosemary sprigs and garlic.
  6. Heat the oven to 400 F and spread the potatoes in a single layer on a large, lined baking sheet. Add peeled garlic cloves and add finely chopped rosemary from another 3-4 inch sprig of rosemary, if using. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Place it in the oven for 40-50 minutes. They’re ready when they’re deeply browned and have pronounced bubbles under the skin.
  7. Serve as close to immediately as possible. They will stay kinda crisp in the fridge for a couple days, but they won’t be company ready again.

Nooch Salad Dressing

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  • ¼ cup cashews
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon miso
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons water, give or take as needed

Put the cashews, nutritional yeast, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and miso in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until the cashews are ground up and you have a uniform paste. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin, steady stream until the mixture is creamy. It will be fairly thick, so add water until the dressing has loosened up a bit.

Bacon Maple Almond Rice Cakes

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Ingredients

  • 3 cups uncooked Calrose rice
  • 4 cups water*
  • 8 ounces cooked bacon
  • 1 cup warmed almond butter
  • Braggs Liquid Amino’s to taste
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • maple syrup to taste
  • salt to taste
  • optional: add olive oil to rice mixture to help hold everything together

 

  1. Cook rice with water
  2. Mix cooked rice with liquid aminos, rice vinegar, maple syrup and salt
  3. Spread half the mixture in a pan
  4. Top with warmed almond butter
  5. Top with crumbled bacon
  6. Spread the remaining mixture on top
  7. Cut into squares

Fish Au Gratin (MOM)

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Preheat oven to 350

  • 1 lb. smoked haddock
  • 1/4 pint milk
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 oz. butter
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs
  • 3 oz. grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 oz. fresh bread crumbs
  • parsley

Place haddock in a shallow dish.  Cover with milk, salt and pepper.  Dot with butter.  Cover dish and bake for 15-20 minutes until fish is cooked.

Mix together eggs, grated cheese and bread crumbs.  Sprinkle on top of cooked fish.  Brown in oven for 25 minutes.

Serve garnished with parsley.

 

Breakfast Sausage

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  • 12 oz lean ground turkey
  • 1 Pasture-Raised Grade A Organic Eggs
  • 1/3 cup Red Onion
  • 1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
  • 3/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Dried Sage
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 dash Sea Salt
  • 2 tsp grapeseed oil

1In a large bowl, combine by hand the ground turkey, egg, onion, rosemary, 3/4 teaspoon of the black pepper, the sage, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt.

2Add 1/2 tablespoon oil to each of two (PFOA-free) nonstick skillets and heat over medium-high. Transfer sausage mixture to hot skillets making 4 (1/2-cup) servings. Pat to form 4-1/2-inch diameter patties. Cook until well browned and well done, about 4 minutes per side. (Alternatively, cook patties in batches.) Transfer patties to a plate; loosely cover with foil.

3Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil to each of the two skillets and heat over medium. Add the eggs and cook until sunny-side-up or desired doneness, about 4 minutes.