Dietnet Recipes

Carrot Pulp Bread

2012-01-14T20:49:00.000+13:00

I admire and appreciate the people who blog regularly with fantastic new WAPF or GAPS recipes. Sadly, I'm not one of them. It's been a year almost to the day since my last post... But hopefully this will be so helpful that you'll forgive me.

We've been juicing a bit recently and thinking about whether we could use the pulp for other recipes. One thing we've been doing is soaking ground chia and flax seeds, mixing them with the pulp, along with some Himalayan or celtic sea salt, then drying them in the dehydrator to make crispy crackers. Note that these are only suitable in later stages of GAPS.

Then I went looking for GAPS friendly bread recipes and found this recipe. I was looking for a more savoury recipe, so made a few tweaks. I also made a bigger version. Here's how it ended up.

6 largish eggs
1 tsp celtic sea salt
3oz / 85gm melted butter (or mix of butter & coconut oil)
12oz / 350gm / 2 tight packed cups carrot pulp left over from juicing (usually a little beetroot too)
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
9oz / 255gm / just under 3 cups ground almonds (or ground cashews, hazels or sunflower seeds or coconut flour)
1.5 Tbs cider vinegar

Turn on the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with baking paper. Then just throw it all in the food processor, starting with the eggs and salt. Once they’re well beaten, add the other things in the order of the list, beating well after each addition. Once the baking soda and cider vinegar are in there, get it in the oven as quickly as possible as they will be working their rising magic. Bake for 50 to 60 mins on 175C.

The first 2-3 times, I used ground almonds. Then last time I used raw cashews instead and that was quite different. The photo is the cashew version. Both versions were delicious.

Notes: I started off putting the tray of water in the bottom, but last time I didn't and I couldn’t tell the difference. I haven’t needed to let it sit in the tin for 10 mins either.

Baked Oatmeal

2011-01-15T19:52:00.000+13:00

I just happened upon this recipe for baked oatmeal today, which sounds like a fabulous change from porridge for breakfast. I love that it can be made ahead of time, easing up time constraints in the morning.

It's no good for people who are GAPS or GF, but if you're fairly healthy and following a basic WAPF diet, it should be great!

Christmas Morning Almond Muffins

2010-12-15T20:14:00.000+13:00

I tried another version of the Xmas morning muffins, this time with almond flour, for those who can't have coconut. The texture was quite different, but still very good.

2 cups ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs
8 Tbs (100gm, 4oz) butter or coconut oil, melted
4 Tbs honey
4 Tbs juice from an orange
Grated zest of the orange
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 cup frozen cranberries

Line a 12 muffin pan with patty pans. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda and spices. Stir in cranberries. Blend together eggs, butter or oil, orange juice, honey, salt and zest. Mix the two together. Pour batter into muffin pans. Bake at 350° for about 20 minutes. If the tops start to get too brown, cover with some brown paper or foil. Cool and serve.

Twice Baked Pumpkin

2010-12-09T14:29:00.001+13:00

Ya know, I've never been that fussed on pumpkin. I love butternut pumpkin in soup, but the usual big grey pumpkin leaves me cold. But there are 4 ways that I actually quite like it - which is good, cos it's such a handy GAPS vegetable.

The first is in bread or cake - I've already posted recipes for Cashew Bread and Coconut Almond bread, which both have pumpkin as an optional ingredient.

The other 3 are "Twice baked pumpkin".

Cut your pumpkin into pieces, scrape out the seeds and place spaced out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for about an hour at 175C, till a knife goes through easily. Scrape the flesh away from the skin and put into a food processor with a little salt and some ghee. Process till smooth.

1. With feta (not GAPS friendly, or at least not till later stages):

Put 1/2 of the pumpkin into a baking dish. Sprinkle a generous layer of feta on top (1/2 to 1 block). Pour on the rest of the pumpkin. Grate some tasty cheddar cheese and mix with breadcrumbs or ground almonds. Sprinkle on top. Put back in the oven for about 15 minutes till the cheese is nicely browned.

2. With peanut butter

A chance comment from a client about putting peanut butter into pumpkin pie lead to this variation. When you add the ghee and salt to the food processor, also add a couple of large spoonfuls of peanut butter - preferably either Reilly's or your own homemade. Zizz till smooth, pour into a baking dish and bake for about 15 mins. It's amazing the difference this makes to the taste.

3. Souffle.

This version comes from Emma on the GAPS Australasia Support Group. She makes it with butternut squash and calls it Pumpkin Pie. Her version is a sweetish breakfast dish. Make the peanut butter version above but also beat in 6 eggs that have been whisked up in a separate bowl. Bake for 15 minutes or so till firm and lightly browned. Serve as a vegetable side dish. Or for breakfast or dessert, top with shredded coconut, ground up nuts or berries.

Versions 2 or 3 can be part of our GAPS Xmas Feast.

Chilled GAPS soups

2010-12-09T13:37:00.001+13:00

At this time of year, hot soups aren't as appealing as during winter. So I've been searching for chilled soups for our daily dose of GAPS stock. I'm especially looking for red and green soups that would be nice for Xmas Day. I haven't actually made any of these yet, but hopefully will get away from the computer for some recipe testing over the weekend.

Borscht:

Make Dr Natasha's borscht recipe from the GAPS book. Let it go cold. Puree or keep it chunky - your choice. Chill. Serve with the recommended garnishes.
Or this recipe looks good too. Omit the sugar from the soup recipe, and of course no potato to garnish. Use your own cultured cream or drained yoghurt.

Gazpacho:

For this Tomato Soup recipe, omit the sugar. Note that cilantro = coriander, and consomme = stock
This Cold Spiced Tomato Soup recipe doesn't need any adjustments - it's already GAPs friendly

Green soups:

Green Goddess Soup (avocado and spinach) - use meat or chicken stock instead of vegetable stock
Avocado Island - replace the vegetable broth with chicken
Chilled Cucumber and Green Apple Soup with Cilantro - actually this doesn't have stock in it, but it does have olive oil. Green onions = spring onions.

Spinach Roulade

2010-12-09T12:40:00.001+13:00

A spinach roulade is a classic dish that can be varied by using different fillings. The mozzarella and tomato version, which is good either hot or cold, comes from Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Kitchen. A couple of other variations have been included. The red with green looks very festive and this would make a nice Xmas entrée, side dish or to cater for a vegetarian family member.

Note that the recipe as it stands isn't suitable for GAPS as these cheeses are not GAPS friendly. You may be able to tolerate them later in the diet, or you could substitute harder cheeses.

The Roulade:

450g (1 lb) fresh spinach or 175g (6oz) frozen
15g (1/3 oz) butter
4 eggs, separated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
grated nutmeg
4 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Set the oven to 200°C/400°F. Line a 23 x 33 cm/9 x 13” Swiss roll tin with baking paper, extended a bit up the sides.

If you're using fresh spinach, wash well in sinkfuls of cold water, then put it into a large saucepan & cook over a high heat for 7-10 minutes, or until it is very tender. Keep pushing it down into the pan with a fish slice as it cooks. Or, cook frozen spinach in a tiny amount of boiling water, just enough to prevent it from sticking to the pan; it takes the same length of time.

Drain the spinach into a colander and press it very well to extract as much water as possible. Put it into a food processor, along with the butter, egg yolks and the seasonings, and whizz it all at top speed to make a smooth, creamy-looking puree. Whisk the egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks, then gently add the spinach mixture and carefully fold into the egg whites, incorporating as well as you can without stirring too hard. Tip into the tin, level the top gently and sprinkle it with 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the top is springy. While the roulade is baking, prepare a piece of baking paper to turn it out on to, by sprinkling it with the rest of the Parmesan.

The Filling:

2 x 150g/5 oz Mozzarella cheese, packed in water (OR 100g feta, OR 250g ricotta)
4 medium tomatoes (OR a red capsicum)
3 - 4 sprigs of fresh basil (OR small bunch fresh parsley)

Drain the Mozzarella & slice thinly (or crumble the feta); cut the tomatoes into thin rounds (or capsicum into chunks) & chop the basil (or parsley).

Putting it together

Take the roulade out of the oven and turn it out on to the baking paper. Peel the paper off the roulade, and add the filling:

Cover with a layer of Mozzarella slices (or other cheeses)
Then a layer of tomato rounds (or capsicum)
And finally chopped herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Roll up the roulade, starting at one of the long ends. Serve immediately, or put on a plate, cover with foil & put it into the oven, at 160°C/325°F, for 15 minutes or so.

Mushroom Nut Roast

2010-12-09T12:17:00.001+13:00

A few years ago I went in search of a nut roast recipe, and was interested to find they were all so different. So I made up my own composite, picking all the tastiest sounding ingredients. And I was surprised how delicious it was. It keeps well in the fridge, and can also be frozen.

This is a handy recipe if you have vegetarians in the family. For Xmas Day, they're festive made in star shaped tins, or mini loaf tins, and can be made in advance. At other times of the year, it's a satisfying any time snack for even a dedicated carnivore like myself.

If you’ve only got a small food processor, or are only feeding 1 or 2 people, it might be easier to make a half mixture.

1 Tbs each butter & extra virgin olive oil (or 2 Tbs olive oil)
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 baby leek (optional), sliced and rinsed
5 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
2 large mushrooms, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups crispy cashews
1/2 cup crispy brazils
1/2 cup crispy walnuts
1/2 cup crispy almonds
2 small slices bread (starch free is fine, or you could omit it), roughly torn into chunks
½ tsp sea salt
Your own favourite fresh or dried herbs
1 egg (can be left out, if you don’t tolerate eggs)

In a large food processor, grind together almonds, cashews,

brazils

& walnuts until they’re the consistency of large breadcrumbs. Add the bread. Process again. Sauté onions, leeks and garlic in the oil and butter. Add mushrooms, and cook till softened. Add to the food processor along with seasonings, herbs and the egg. Process till smooth. Cook in a greased, lined ring tin, for about 40 mins at 180C, or in four individual tins for less time.

Gingerbread Xmas Cookies

2010-12-09T09:52:00.001+13:00

Last Xmas I had a go at making gingerbread Xmas shapes, which turned out reasonably well. This year I was going to tweak my recipe, but discovered that another GAPS blogger has beaten me to it. So no need to reinvent the wheel. If gingerbread is something that appeals to your Xmas spirit, I'll just send you over to Thinking Outside the Box. Thanks yet again dansmumm.

Marinated fish in coconut cream

2010-12-09T09:31:00.001+13:00

Usually I serve this in a bowl. But at the moment, my thoughts are on Xmas and I can just see a platter full of kebabs, with the white of the fish alternating with red and green veges. If Xmas Day is hot (but with it having dropped to 12C in Wellington today, who can be sure it will be?), fish kebabs would be a light and refreshing alternative to a roast. They could even be tossed on the BBQ for a minute on each side. Here's my regular recipe, plus thoughts on kebabs.

½ cup lemon juice (3-5 lemons approx)
1 tsp sea salt
500g (1/2 lb) firm white fish (see note below for good types of fish)
approx 100ml (1/2 cup) coconut cream
slice of red onion, chopped up finely
about ¼ telegraph cucumber, chopped up small
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
mesclun or other lettucy type greens

Start preparation 24 hours before you want to serve. Mix the lemon juice and the salt together in a medium sized bowl. Cut the fish into chunks that are roughly 2 cm (just under 1 inch) a side, and mix together well. Press the fish down, so that the juice covers it. If the lemon juice doesn’t cover the fish, add a little extra. Marinate in the fridge for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.

Drain the fish well, put into a clean bowl and stir in the coconut cream. I don’t measure it; I just slosh in enough so that the fish has a nice coating. Chop up the salad veges and stir them in.

The amounts given are approximate and will depend on your taste and how you are going to serve it. If you are serving it as a main meal, you’ll want to add more vegetables than if it’s an entrée. You can vary the vegetables as well, eg by using spring onions or capsicum.

Kebabs

Leave the fish to sit in the coconut cream for an hour or two. Then thread onto skewers, alternating pieces of fish with your choice of raw salad vegetables – e.g. cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, capsicum, radish or baby turnips. Cold, cooked roast vegetables such as pumpkin could also be interesting.

Xmas kebabs

For the red veges: cherry tomatoes, capsicum or red onion

For the green: cucumber (or zucchini if going on the barbie), celery, green capsicum

What fish should I use?

Good fish to use: terakihi, kawahai (with the brown meat cut off), cod, mullet, halibut, skipjack or albacore tuna

Fish to avoid: Gurnard, bluefin or yellowfin tuna

If in doubt, ask the fish seller for a recommendation

Beetroot dip

2010-12-09T08:47:00.005+13:00

I love baby beetroot, and we got some picked fresh from my sister's garden last week. I turned them into a beetroot dip which we served with fish for dinner.

Baby beetroot (5 of them made a dip that served 2 of us for 2 dinners)
Cultured cream, homemade yoghurt or yoghurt "cheese" (ie after dripping out the whey). For a dairy free option, homemade mayo would probably work fine.
A little himalayan or celtic sea salt

You can add extra flavourings, though I didn't this time. Some possibilities (choose one only!):

Horseradish cream is a classic addition (check for non-GAPS ingredients)
I've used PureWasabi by Coppersfolly as a horseradish substitute before
Lemon juice, ground cumin, ground coriander seed, crushed garlic
Or just the lemon juice and cumin

Trim the beetroot, leaving about a 1cm of stalk and tail. Wash well, but leave the skins on. Put into a pan and cover with cold water and a little sea salt. Simmer till they can be pierced with a skewer, approx 45-60 minutes, depending on size. Drain off the water and cover them with cold water, till they're cold enough to handle. Slice off the two ends, and you'll be able to slip the skins right off.

Put into food processor with a couple of tablespoons of the sour cream or yoghurt, and zizz. Add more sour cream till it comes to a good consistency, and seasonings to taste. (Sorry, I didn't measure anything). I didn't even take a photo, the one above is pinched from another site. But it's there so you can get a rough idea of what the colour and consistency will look like.

This would make a lovely Xmas dinner starter, with a bowl of guacamole and maybe a third bowl of chicken liver pate. Make some biscotti from starch free bread, or cut up some vege sticks or chunks to go with it.

Dukkah

2010-12-09T08:05:00.003+13:00

Ok, this probably isn't an authentic dukkah recipe. I didn't even look on the net to see what usually goes into it. I just grabbed a few things I had in the cupboard. I think these were the quantities:

About a cup or so of nuts: tamari roasted almonds and cashews, pistachios
About a tsp ground cumin seed
About a tsp of curry powder

Zizz in mini food processor till it resembles bread crumbs. Keep in a jar in the cupboard, and use to spice up your sauerkraut salad.

To make it fully GAPs or WAPF, it would be better to use your own "crispy" nuts. You might then need to add a little sea salt.

Sauerkraut Salad

2010-12-09T07:48:00.004+13:00

Some people love sauerkraut. And some people just don't like it at all, but know it's good for them. When you're first introducing a tiny bit of kraut into your diet, you can usually hide it in something, but once you're up to 2-3 tablespoons, it's harder to hide. One way you can make it more interesting is to vary what goes into your sauerkraut - carrots, red cabbage instead of green, some beetroot.

We've recently been enjoying sauerkraut salad. This would be good if you're still easing into GAPS, or later on, when you're digesting raw vegetables well. It's not suitable for the early stages of GAPS Intro.

This is enough for two people:

About 4-5 Tbs sauerkraut
A carrot
Or an apple
Or 1/2 a beetroot
A little red onion, finely chopped (optional, if you can digest it)
1-2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1-2 Tbs chopped nuts and seeds or homemade dukkah

Grate the carrot, apple and/or beetroot. Or roughly chop them, then zizz in a mini food processor till in small chunks. Mix everything except the nuts and seeds together, then stir those through.

This particular salad looks very carroty, as the original sauerkraut also had carrot in it.

For Xmas, I'd use zizzed beetroot and apple, and some chunkier pieces of almond. Maybe serve it on a lettuce leaf such as baby cos.

Dr Fife's magic oil

2010-12-08T20:02:00.000+13:00

There is a drawback of cooking with coconut flour that you've probably all noticed - things stick to the tin like crazy! When possible (eg when making a loaf) I use baking paper to line the trays.

But for muffins, it's more difficult. Pattie pans don't work. One possibility is to cut a square of baking paper and slide it into the muffin trays.

Or you can use Dr Fife's magic oil. He talks about it in his book "Cooking with coconut flour". He doesn't ship it to NZ, but did share the secret with me - it's a combination of coconut oil and lecithin. He didn't tell me the ratios, but after some trials, this is what I came up with.

Measure ½ cup (3.5 oz, 100g) coconut oil in the jar you want to store it in.
Put into a bowl of hot water till melted.
Stir in 1 tsp of liquid lecithin.

Keeps fine in the cupboard for ages.

Christmas Morning Muffins

2010-12-08T13:56:00.006+13:00

I love Nigella Lawson's recipes, even though most of them are full of white flour and sugar and other things we don't want to have on a WAPF diet, let alone GAPS! I love her passion for food and her ideas. This morning her recipe for Xmas Morning Muffins arrived in my Inbox, and I could immediately see how to make them GAPSy. My recipe is a variation of Bruce Fife's Honey Blueberry Coconut Flour muffins.

For those who can't have coconut, see the almond flour version I tried later in the week.

1/2 cup sifted coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 eggs
4 Tbs (50gm, 2oz) butter or coconut oil, melted
4 Tbs honey
4 Tbs juice from an orange
Grated zest of the orange
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup frozen cranberries

Grease a 12 pan muffin tray with Dr Fife's magic oil, or line with baking paper. Sift the coconut flour, baking soda and spices into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Blend together eggs, butter or oil, orange juice, honey, salt and zest. Mix the two together until there are no lumps. Stir in cranberries. Pour batter into muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees F (205C) for about 16-18 minutes. Makes 12. (If you want to make less bigger muffins, adjust cooking time accordingly.)

Note that there is a small amount of baking soda, which is technically not GAPS legal. For most people, that small amount shouldn't cause a problem, and I think the texture would really suffer if you left it out. Use your own judgement, or talk to your GAPS practitioner about it.

For my first trial, I used just the mixed spice (in place of the original cinnamon and nutmeg). Ian thought it was spicy enough, but I didn't, so next time I'll add the 1/4 tsp nutmeg as well.

They came out a nice consistency, both warm and cold, and didn't need a spread. But they would be extra good with ghee, sour cream, or yoghurt cheese. Or maybe even sour cream or yoghurt cheese mixed with some lemon juice and honey.

Next day PS: We just had one each out of the fridge for morning tea. Ian had his plain and I cut mine open and spread with coconut ghee. Both ways were great.

Cranberry Sauce

2010-12-04T19:51:00.004+13:00

Turns roast turkey, chicken or duck into a Christmas treat.

This is an easy sauce, made from the recipe on the frozen cranberry bag, but using natural sweeteners instead of sugar.

1 cup frozen cranberries
1 tart apple, peeled and grated
Juice of one orange
Zest of half the orange
a bit under 1 cup rapadura, shakkar or muscavado sugar

Simmer berries, juice, zest and sugar together till sugar melts and glazes the berries, and berries are hot. Add grated apple. Simmer lightly for 5 minutes. Put into blender and pulse blend until berries are broken up but still chunky. Serve at once. Or make ahead of time, store in the fridge or freezer till needed, and reheat. It's also good cold.

Use the leftover turkey and leftover sauce to make a yummy meatloaf.

GAPS friendly version

Replace the sugar with 1/2 cup honey. After pulsing, taste and add more honey if needed.

White Christmas slice

2010-12-04T18:28:00.003+13:00

We recently discovered dried strawberries. Not the sugar coated, preservative laden things you might have seen in the supermarket, but ones where strawberries are the only ingredients. I found them in Hardy's Health food shop. They're so sweet, it's hard to believe there's no added sugar. Anyway, I got thinking about how they would be a good substitute for glaced cherries in some Christmas recipes, and had a hazy memory of something called White Chrismas.

When I googled it, it turned out to be a rice bubble slice with glace cherries, Kremelta, and dessicated coconut and of course lots of icing sugar. So today I've been playing with versions of creamed coconut slice, and here's what we've got so far.

Version 1 used creamed coconut, coconut oil, vanilla essence, dried strawberries and sultanas. I didn't add extra sweetener. It tasted ok, but nothing special, just an everyday slice. For version 2, I used cocoa butter instead of the coconut oil. I added some mixed spice, and replaced some of the strawberries with dried pawpaw (cos I didn't have enough strawberries). It was much more Christmassy.

If you wanted extra sweetness, you could add a little honey. If you wanted some rice bubble like crunch, you could add some chopped nuts.

So here's the final recipe - well, as final as these things get. I'll probably tweak it again next time I make it. But we've got a lot of slice to eat before the next trial!

250ml (1/2 jar) creamed coconut
50g coconut oil -OR- cocoa (cacao) butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp mixed spice
1-2 tsp honey (optional)

50g dried strawberries (or other red dried fruit of your choice)
50g apricots, pawpaw or pineapple
50g sultanas or raisins
50g almonds, cashews or macadamias (optional)

First, get your jar of creamed coconut softening in a bowl of hot water. (If you've got a jar already prepared, you won't need to do this). Next, line a plastic container that's about 15x20cm, or 12x25, or similar, with baking paper. Prepare your fruit: stir through the raisins and sultanas and remove any stalks; chop the rest into small pieces with kitchen scissors or a sharp knife. (note: choose fruits that are free of sweeteners and sulphites)

If you're using nuts, chop them up. (Best nuts for flavour, texture and digestibility are ones that have been made into "crispy" nuts, but raw or roasted unsalted will also do).

When the creamed coconut is soft enough to get out of the jar, scrape it all into a food processor and zizz till smooth. You might need to jab any big bits with a knife to break them up a bit more, and zizz again. When it's smooth, pour half back into the jar for another batch later on, or for adding to soups or stews.

If you're using cocoa butter, grate that and add. Or just spoon in the right amount of coconut oil. Add the other flavourings and zizz till it's all mixed together and smooth. Add the chopped fruit and nuts and pulse just enough to mix them in, but not mush them.

Pour into the container and mix around a bit to make sure the fruit and nuts are evenly dsitributed. Refrigerate for an hour or so, till hard. Lift the baking paper and contents onto a chopping board, and use a large knife to cut into small pieces, 1-1.5 cm wide. Gather up the corners of the paper, and you'll be able to stuff the whole lot back into the container, put the lid on and back into the fridge.

If you want to make them look pretty, spoon the mixture into mini muffin patty pans that have been stuffed into mini muffin trays. Or use foil thingies that are designed for truffles.

More GAPS festive ideas...

2010-11-16T19:51:00.000+13:00

How slack is this? I haven't posted for 6 months and even now this is a very quick post to pass on someone else's great ideas. I spotted them on Thinking Outside the Box blog and didn't want them to get lost. Thanks Dan's mum!

Click on the Festive category over on the right for a bunch of other GAPS festive ideas including boiled Xmas cake, Easter buns, chocolate and fudge, party menus and Xmas menu.

Mayonnaise

2010-05-31T17:14:00.003+12:00

I was talking to somebody about homemade mayo the other day, and that reminded me what a good GAPS dressing it is, and a great way to incorporate your olive oil.

Mix together in food processor till well blended :

1 whole egg, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 ½ Tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp Dijon style mustard or 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder

With the motor running, add one drop at a time:

¾-1 cup extra virgin olive oil (preferably from NZ)

Once about a 1/3 of the oil has been added, you’ll be able to add the rest in a small stream. If it starts to get very thick before you add all the oil, you don’t need to use it all.

It will keep in the fridge for about two weeks.

Variations:

Garlic mayonnaise:

Add 1-2 cloves crushed garlic instead of the mustard

Curry mayonnaise:

Add 1 Tbs curry powder. Use this to make a chicken salad with cold diced chicken, organic green grapes, fresh bean sprouts and crispy cashews. Or add your favourite salad vegetables, and try out different crispy nuts, such as walnuts or slivered almonds.

Cabbage and Apple

2010-04-27T16:34:00.001+12:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an event hosted by Simply Good Food, our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). One of the growers, Frank van Steensel, was so eloquent about the superior nutrition of vegetables grown properly in nutrient dense soil, that it reminded me that there are not many vege recipes on this blog, yet...

So let's get started with our favourite cabbage recipe - Red Cabbage simmered with apples and onions. This is adapted from a recipe in Nourishing Traditions that doesn't include the onion. So if you can't have onions, it's fine to leave them out. If you're on GAPS or SCD and can have fruit, the apple adds some carbs without adding starch.

1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 onion
½ medium red cabbage
1 bay leaf
5 cloves
¼ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon honey
Sprinkle of cinnamon
½ cup water
1 apple
1 tablespoon butter
Optional: 1-2 Tbs red or white wine vinegar

Chop up the onion, and sauté in butter in a large frying pan that has a lid. In a small pan, mix bay leaf, cloves, salt, honey and cinnamon with water and start simmering. Cut the core out of the cabbage, and slice thinly. Rinse the cabbage in a colander and add to the frying pan. Pour the now flavoured water through the colander into the frying pan, and mix all together. Put the lid on, turn the heat down low and cook gently for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the apple if you like, but it doesn’t have to be peeled. Cut into quarters, and slice each quarter thinly. Add to the frying pan, stir and cook for another 15 minutes. Take off the heat, and drain off any excess liquid. Toss with the butter and optional vinegar and serve.

This is a nice side dish with any meat or poultry. Or you can chop up your meat when it’s cooked and toss it through, for a one dish meal.

You can do something similar with Green Cabbage. Green cabbage doesn't need to cook as long.

1 Tablespoon butter or ghee
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, cut in half and then sliced thinly
½ a large or all of a small green cabbage
1 apple, sliced
Juice of a lemon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
sprinkling of paprika

Sauté the onion and carrot in butter. Meanwhile, chop up the green cabbage, and rinse. Chop up the apple. Add the lemon juice, salt and paprika to pan and stir well. Add cabbage and apple and stir well. Add more butter if needed. Cover and simmer for a few mins till cabbage is soft.

Coconut almond bread

2010-04-19T15:06:00.002+12:00

A few of you that came to my GAPS workshop last week wanted the recipe for the pumpkin bread, and I discovered I hadn't put it on the blog yet. So here it is!

The basic almond bread recipe in "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" contains just ground almonds, eggs and fat of some kind (eg butter, ghee, duck fat or coconut oil). In "Breaking The Vicious Cycle" Lois Lang's Luscious Bread also contains dry curd cottage cheese, salt and baking soda.

I developed this combination of Lois Lang's bread with the basic coconut flour bread recipe. It contains baking soda, but to be 100% GAPS just leave that out. The variation I made last week used coconut oil for the fat and pumpkin for moisture to make it dairy free. It stays moist in the fridge for a few days.

5 eggs
4 oz melted butter (or ghee, coconut oil, duck fat, palm oil)
1 cup cottage cheese, yoghurt, yoghurt “cheese”, kefir, kefir cheese OR 1 cup mashed pumpkin
1 heaped teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups ground almonds (or other nut flour)
½ cup coconut flour, sifted

Preheat oven to 175C (350F). Line a loaf tin with baking paper. Beat the first 5 ingredients together. Mix the flours together and beat into the wet ingredients. Spoon into tin and smooth the top. Bake till golden, about 45 minutes.

Variation: Zucchini bread

Replace the cottage cheese or pumpkin with 1.5 cups grated zucchini. Stir this in when you mix the wet and dry together.

Making ghee

2010-04-19T14:42:00.002+12:00

After you've been off dairy products for a while, and want to introduce them again, you need to start with homemade ghee. Ghee is butter that has the milk solids and water removed, leaving pure butter oil or clarified butter. It is often used in Indian cooking as it is a highly stable cooking oil, with excellent flavour, that aids the digestion. It is often used in gourmet cooking as well. It is considered a lactose free food, and can be used instead of butter in most recipes, and for most uses.

Store in a glass jar with a lid, but don’t put the lid on till it’s cooled. You can keep ghee in the fridge, but it doesn’t need refrigeration if you keep moisture out of it; for example, don't dip a wet spoon into the ghee jar, always use a clean utensil. It will keep in the cupboard for weeks. But with it's delicious caramelly flavour, it might not last that long!

Stove top method
(Time: less then 30 minutes)

500gm / 1 lb. sweet butter (preferably unsalted and organic)

1. Melt the butter in a medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat, and bring to the boil. Do not leave ghee unattended during this process and watch to make sure that the butter doesn't scorch while melting.
2. Lower heat to medium-low. The butter will bubble and make a slightly popping sound and a layer of foam will form. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, it will be a clear golden colour and quiet, and the milk solids at the bottom of the pan will have turned a light golden brown. It is important to take it of the heat as soon as it goes quiet, or it will burn.
3. Pour through a sieve or cheese cloth to strain out the milk solids.

Crock-pot method
(Time: 8 hours)

One or more pounds of unsalted butter

1. Cut the butter into 1/4 pound portions and place into the crock-pot on low temperature setting.
2. Leave it on all night.
3. In the morning you will notice that there is a brown crust on the top and a white sediment on the bottom. Skim the crust off the top and pour the golden liquid into stainless steel or glass containers. When the white sediment begins to mix with oil while pouring strain the sediment from the ghee by pouring it through a cotton cloth placed over a stainless steel strainer.

Oven method
(Time: Depends on quantity. 1 pound could take as little as 1 hour)

A heavy-bottomed, thick-walled ovenproof pan
As much unsalted butter as will comfortably fit into your pan

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C / 300 F.

2. Cut the butter into 1/4 pound portions and place into the pan.

3. Allow the butter to melt and slowly clarify, uncovered and undisturbed, until there is a layer of solid foam on the surface, clear amber-gold ghee in the middle and lumps of pale gold solids on the bottom. Remove from oven.

4. Skim off the crusty foam on the surface with a fine mesh skimmer or a large metal spoon.
5. Ladle the clear ghee into a glass jar using a strainer lined with several layers of cheese cloth. When you have removed as much as you can without disturbing the solids, skim off the last 1 inch with a large spoon.

Winter Warmer Soup

2010-04-19T14:25:00.003+12:00

This is a quick and easy way to make your daily stock more interesting, when you can't be bothered making a vegetable soup.

Have a mug of this warming soup at first signs of a flu or cold, or when you're feeling the winter weather. If you get sick, sip throughout the day.

1 litre of chicken, duck or turkey stock
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
4-8 Tablespoons creamed coconut
juice of 1 lemon
sea salt to taste

Bring the stock to a boil, skim off any foam. Add the ginger (and optional extras) and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the creamed coconut and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and sea salt to taste, and serve.

Variations:

For an even more heating soup, also add 1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes -OR- 1-3 dried chillies (depending on their size)
Use as a base for a more filling soup by adding pumpkin, butternut or kumera. After adding the lemon and sea salt, take out the chillies (if you used whole ones) and puree with a handheld wand blender.
Garnish with a spring onion, very finely chopped

Chocolate Spread

2010-03-31T20:10:00.005+13:00

I'm very excited that the stock of our new product - creamed coconut - has arrived today! One of the first things I did was whip up a nutella type chocolate spread for people to sample, but free of dairy, sugar and even nuts!

250gm (1/2 a 500ml jar) of creamed coconut
125gm coconut oil
2 Tablespoons raw cocoa powder (it doesn't have to be raw, but raw tastes better)
2 Tablespoons honey (or your favourite sweetener)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Zizz it all together in a food processor till smooth and pour into a jar. Eat as you would any chocolate spread, or just off the spoon.

Chocolate & fudge recipes

2010-03-26T19:56:00.015+13:00

Holidays like Easter or Valentines Day can be a challenge for those on restricted diets. Here are some ideas for chocolate replacements. And the links at the bottom have some non food ideas.

Most people on gluten or starch free diets will be able to tolerate cocoa butter, as its fully fat. You need to melt it before using in these recipes. The easiest way is to chop it up finely, then put it in a bowl on top of a pan of gently simmering water. If you want to maintain its raw status, melt it a small bowl inside a larger bowl of hot tap water. Keep replacing the hot water, until it’s completely melted, which will take a lot longer.

Another whole food that’s good for making fudge like confections is creamed coconut (or coconut butter). It’s very solid to start with, but softens up when gently heated, which can also be done over a pan of simmering water.

Coconut oil is also used in some of these recipes. You can place your whole jar of oil in a container of hot water, or measure out what you need and melt it in a pan.

Try different combinations of these, flavoured with vanilla essence, dried fruit, citrus fruits, spices or raw cocoa powder. Although GAPS doesn’t allow cocoa or carob, some people find they can tolerate them if they're far enough into healing, so use your discretion.

I prefer a little honey as the sweetener. When using honey, it doesn’t mix well with the oils and often separates out. So for the recipes that use a lot of fat, let the mixture cool in the fridge, still in the mixer, taking out and beating from time to time, till it’s almost set. THEN add the honey and process again. Or try your own favourite sweetener instead.

Pour into a flat tray lined with baking paper, mark into squares, then refrigerate till set. Or roll into small balls to make truffles. The oilier mixtures can also be poured into chocolate moulds. In the picture below I've used Easter egg, star and heart shaped moulds.

Store in the fridge. The ones that are mostly creamed coconut might need to sit at room temp for a few minutes before serving, but the ones that are higher in cocoa butter or coconut oil will melt if left out too long.

WHITE CHOCOLATE with nuts

· 2 cups raw or crispy (ie. soaked then dehydrated) macadamias or cashews

· 75g cocoa butter, melted

· 25g coconut oil, melted

· 2 Tbs honey

· 1 tsp vanilla

Zizz up the nuts in a food processor. Melt the cocoa butter and coconut oil. Add to the food processor, along with the vanilla, and combine well. Put the food processor into the fridge until nearly set. Take out a couple of times and give it another zizz, then back into the fridge.

Once it’s thick but not completely set, add the honey and zizz well. Spoon into chocolate moulds or into a flat tray lined with baking paper. Or roll into small balls to make truffles.

Variation: & 2-3 Tbs raw cocoa powder

Try these other combinations using the same basic method, or make up your own.

COCONUT WHITE CHOCOLATE

· 100g creamed coconut, softened

· 100g cocoa butter, melted

· 1 tsp vanilla

· 2 tsp honey

Variation: & 2-3 Tbs raw cocoa powder (pictured)

COCONUT ORANGE FUDGE

· 1 cup creamed coconut, softened

· 1 teaspoon coconut oil, melted

· 1-2 tablespoons honey

· 1-2 Tbs grated orange rind

· Optional: orange oil

Variation:
Replace the orange oil and rind with 1 tsp vanilla and a splash of almond or other essence.
Mix in a handful or nuts and/or raisins before forming into truffles.

COCONUT FRUIT FUDGE

·         200g creamed coconut
·         1-2 teaspoons coconut oil
·         a little honey added at the end if needed

· some chopped dried fruit, eg:

o 4 fresh dates – or –

o 4-6 dried apricots

COCONUT CHOCOLATE FUDGE

· 200g creamed coconut

· 1 Tbs raw cocoa powder

· 1 Tbs carob or extra cocoa

· 1-2 tsp natural sweetener of your choice

Variation: & 2-3 Tbs raw cocoa powder

OR for something completely different, this chocolate substitute recipe that Shelley sent me:
Mix together pureed dates, pecan butter and a little honey

For more Easter ideas, see this post and this post on Baden's GAPS Guide. There are also some great ideas on Pecanbread.com

Easter Spicy Buns

2010-03-26T19:45:00.003+13:00

These gluten-free, starch-free buns don't have the texture of hot cross buns, but they're still a tasty treat for Easter. They can also be made casein-free.

· 1 cup ground almonds

· ½ cup coconut flour

· ½ tsp baking soda

· 1 heaped tsp mixed spice

· ½ cup sultanas, raisins or currants

· 2-3 tsp grated orange rind

· 3 eggs

· 75gm melted butter or coconut oil

· 2-3 Tbs honey

· ½ tsp sea salt

· ½ cup yoghurt OR mashed, cooked pumpkin (prepared earlier) OR finely diced feijoa (I haven't tested these, but mashed banana or grated apple should work fine too)

Preheat the oven to 175C. Set butter or oil melting over a low heat, and if your honey is solid, add that to the pan as well. Mix together the flours, baking soda and spice in a large bowl. Stir in the dried fruit and rind. Beat together the eggs, melted butter, honey and sea salt in a small food processor.

If you’re using feijoa, chop the ends off, peel them and dice them. If you’re using pumpkin, it needs to be pre-cooked, mashed and cooled.

Add the yoghurt, feijoa or pumpkin to the wet mix and beat. The pumpkin needs to be well mixed in, but the feijoa can be still in tiny pieces.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. If the mix is too wet, add a little extra flour. Leave to sit while you grease the muffin tins. Spoon in the mix and cook for 15-20 mins. Serve hot, with butter or ghee if you tolerate it. Makes 8-10 std muffins or about 24 mini ones (which need less cooking time).

Food for Travelling

2010-02-07T17:39:00.001+13:00

We're going to Whiritoa Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula for a few days. The only shop is a dairy, so we'll be on taking all our food with us. We can top up with a few things from Waihi or Whangamata, but most of the foods we eat regularly won't be available. For many years, we had to carry gluten free food with us. Now that's quite commonly available, we've moved on to starch free!

I'm still finalising the food packing list, but it will probably look something like this (in no particular order).

Raw milk (fresh and frozen)
Caspian sea yoghurt (that we can use to make a fresh batch every day)
Stock (frozen in small containers. If it was winter, they'd be pre-made vege soup, but in summer that feels too heavy)
Filler free sausages (Stoneycreek Farm or Harmony)
Meat (fresh & frozen)
Maybe a couple of tins of salmon or sardines, or maybe just get some fresh fish there
Sauerkraut
Carrots, baby beetroot, tangelos and blueberries that will be coming in our order from the CSA the day before. From Commonsense Organics, I'll get a couple of small pumpkins, and see what else will travel well, maybe some avocado. Other than that, we'll probably take pot luck with what produce is available.
Green Pastures fermented cod liver oil (we're currently "enjoying" Salty) and a probiotic
A jar of each of Reilly's nut butters
"Crispy" cashews and macadamias
Some dried fruit or maybe some homemade fruit cake
Coconut almond muffins or bread
Organic butter or ghee
Cheese
Eggs - we'll take whatever's here, but buy extra free range eggs as needed
A jar of Zenian Phillipine coconut oil or maybe just some refrigerated "slice" made from coconut oil and nut butter or cocoa butter
EV Olive oil and some lemons
Sea or Himalayan salt
Bottles of kombucha
Maybe some bottled water, but we'll mostly buy that once we're there

Anything I've forgotten?

PS. If you're a Nature Foods customer, don't worry, we're leaving my mum and sister in charge of sending out the orders.

Cheese muffins (no starch)

2010-02-07T16:56:00.003+13:00

We're going away on holiday for a few days, and my mind has been mulling over what food to take with us - especially for the 9 hour drive north. We usually travel with a chilly bin full of chilled food, another full of frozens (depending on how long we're away for), and a cooler bag with food for the trip.

For snacks, we'll probably have nuts, fruit (fresh blueberries would travel well), maybe a coconut oil or cocoa butter based "slice". For lunch, I'll roast or bake some duck or chicken legs which we can eat cold with some carrot sticks and maybe some pre-cooked baby beetroot. I've also decided on cheese muffins. With pesto, ghee or another spread, carried in another container, these are filling and tasty.

I've used the standard coconut flour cheese muffin recipe before, which is nice. And I've also got an almond flour cheese scone recipe which I used to use a lot. But I usually prefer the two flours mixed. So here's my first attempt at a hybrid recipe. This amount made 6 standard sized muffins and about 10 mini muffins, so I think would make 9 std.

Please note, this isn't suitable for early stages of the GAPS Intro, only once you're back on full dairy.

Mix together:

1 cup ground almonds
4 tablespoons coconut flour
a sprinkling of herbs of your choice (optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (leave this out if you're full GAPS, they'll just be a little heavier)

Beat together:

3 eggs
50gm (2 oz) melted butter or ghee
1/2 cup yoghurt or kefir
1/2 teaspoon sea or Himalayan salt

Grate:

1 1/2 cups tasty cheddar cheese (or substitute up to half with diced feta)

Mix all 3 together, and leave to thicken slightly while you prepare your muffin trays. I use a combination of coconut oil and lecithin for this, as recommended by Bruce Fife in his book on coconut flour cooking. Three quarter fill the muffin pans. Bake at about 175C for about 20 mins (a bit less for bite sized).

You can add other savoury goodies like bacon, salami, mushrooms, etc, depending on what your particular diet restrictions are.

These came put a pretty good consistency, and I haven't even got any notes for how to improve them next time!

Snacks

2009-12-20T08:51:00.004+13:00

I also get asked about snacks a lot, so here's some ideas to get you started

Stock or soup
Fermented drinks such as kombucha or coconut water kefir
Milk kefir smoothie
“Crispy” nuts
A little fried fruit with some nuts. NEW: Correction - fruit fried in some ghee or coconut oil would actually be fine , but I MEANT dried fruit.
Fresh fruit with nut butter
Cashew bread with ghee
Coconut flour muffins
Almond flour baking
Homemade snack bars - made with coconut oil, ground nuts or nut butter and a little honey or dried fruit
Homemade crackers
Avocado dip and vege sticks
Coconut ice cream

Breakfast ideas

2009-12-20T08:37:00.002+13:00

Many people who are new to GAPS or SCD are at a loss for breakfast, if they can't have cereal or toast.

So here are some other thoughts on what to have for breakfast (depending on what stage you're at):

Start with a cup of stock or soup made from stock
Eggs
Grain free sausages (eg in NZ - some flavours by Stoneycreek Farm, Harmony, Acme, Hungarian Delicatessan)
Homemamde meat patties
Cooked mushrooms, tomatoes or spinach
Homemade baked beans
Starch free pancakes or toast with nut butter, avocado or tinned fish
Nut muesli with chopped "crispy" nuts, dessicated coconut, yoghurt, stevia and spices
Smoothies with yoghurt, coconut or avocado
Fruit salad
Fruit crumble with nut topping or fruit pudding with coconut flour topping

There is nothing special about what you can have for breakfast, you can have anything that you would eat at any other meal. This may not be to everybody's taste, but for a special treat I love chicken liver pate with carrot sticks.

Chocolate Orange Drizzle Cake

2009-12-20T08:31:00.000+13:00

When I was surfing about looking for sponge-like recipes for my trifle idea (still not tested, by the way) I came across this recipe for a Coconut Flour Orange Cake that reminded me of a cake Mum used to make. It was a Madeira cake that had orange juice drizzled over the top after baking, making it very moist. The topping was Cadbury dairy milk chocolate melted with a little butter. So I got nostalgic all over again, and had to give it a go.

For my trial, I made just a half recipe and baked it in a mini loaf tin. I made a couple of extra changes:

melted the oil in a bowl that sat in another bowl with hot water in it, which meant it didn't get too hot and I could add it to the beaten egg mix, before the flour
reduced the honey a little more, and used just 2 Tbs for the half mix
replaced the baking powder with baking soda
made a chocolate topping for it

I was toying with the idea of making the coconut oil topping shown, and just adding cocoa powder instead of orange zest. But I chose to make it even easier. I got some of Reilly's chocolate hazelnut spread, put it in a bowl inside another bowl of hot water, stirred it till was soft enough to spread, and voila!

Ok, so this isn't strictly GAPS, as chocolate and baking soda are illegal. But as an occasional treat, it will probably be tolerated fine by most GAPsters.

Back in May, Baden did an informal survey on her blog which showed that out of a group of 21 who had tried pure cocoa, 19 had no reaction, 1 wasn't sure and 1 had a reaction. If you think you react to cocoa, stick to the original coconut oil frosting.

Baking soda is allowed on the SCD, but not recommended for GAPS, as NCM believes most GAPsters have low stomach acid and this will worsen it. Many GAPS baked goods are fine with the soda missed out. But for the occasional cake, I don't believe a small amount of baking soda will be an issue. See Baden's comments on her blog.

Other Festive recipes

2009-12-17T12:30:00.001+13:00

There are a bunch of useful Christmas recipes and resources on the Biomedical forum.

Here are links directly to each topic:

GFCF Christmas cake recipe
Raw carrot cake
Pina Colada Ice Cream (GFCF)
Christmas Pudding & where to buy premade Xmas goodies
Crisp biscuits
GFCF chocolate

Children's Party

2009-12-17T12:20:00.000+13:00

While we're talking about parties, I'm reminded of all the great ideas that Hollie from Auckland posted about on the Biomedical forum a few months back.

She kindly gave me permission to repost it here:

I know the thought of upcoming parties is tough with our kids limited diets... so I thought you might be interested in some of the party food I created for our sons birthday party. All the food was GAPS (stage 6) friendly. The food was a hit with all people big and small. One little boy came and asked for his 4th 'cupcake'!!! No one even knew the food was ‘good’ for them... one mum was avoiding the food cos she thought it was too sugary for her kid – once I told her what was in it, she kept coming back for more, and the kid loved it.

The menu:

Ø Muffin stand instead of birthday cake. Purchased coloured muffin cups and a fancy cake/muffin stand to put them all on. Did a variety of GAPS muffins:

o Coconut berry muffins decorated with frosting and strawberries

o Coconut banana and raisin muffins decorated with frosting and fruit leather shapes

o Could also have done blueberry or pumpkin

Ø Tahini and raisin biscuits decorated with frosting and dehydrated kiwifruit

Ø 'Fairy Bread’ - coconut bread, cut into shapes with cookie cutter, then frosted and dipped in dehydrated crushed raspberries and kiwifruits

Ø Fresh fruit platters

Ø Homemade lemonade sweetened with honey and topped with Soda water for some fizz

Ø Homemade 'pink' iced tea (rosehip & raspberry) sweetened with honey

Goodie bags:

Instead of Goodie Bags packed with lollies and other crap, I got a bunch of helium balloons, ($3 each) which made great decoration - and handed each one to the kids as they left. They thought that was pretty cool too - and much cheaper than a bunch of $2-shop junk in a bag.

To check out the original post on the Biomed forum, click here.

Christmas menu

2009-12-16T19:44:00.000+13:00

When we go to my brothers house on Christmas Day, there will be plenty of meat and veges, and my own starch free Christmas cake, so there'll be lots we can eat. There'll also be lots we can't have, and when my brother ran through the Xmas menu for me, I got to thinking about a Xmas menu that was 100% gluten free and starch free. Since we're in the Southern Hemisphere, and Christmas Day might be hot, we're looking for festive summer dishes. So here's some ideas to choose from for anyone who might be struggling to think of what to make.

Starters:

Chilled borscht. I've never tried this, but there are lots of chilled borscht recipes on the net. I'd just use NCM's recipe from the GAPS book, and chill it, and there's our serve of broth.
Fish kebabs - marinate some firm white fish for 12-24 hours in lemon or lime juice, then drain and mix with come coconut cream. Thread onto skewers, along with something red (tomato, red pepper, red onion) and something green (cucumber or green pepper)
Chicken liver pate
Guacamole
Biscotti made from starch free bread, and carrot and celery sticks to dip in them

Mains:

Any meat dish, but this one sounds nice - the stuffed leg of lamb in Nourishing Traditions (P344) has a pecan stuffing, so no starch
Baked pumpkin, mashed with ghee and a large spoonful of peanut butter, then baked again
Raw vege platter - cherry tomatoes, capsicum, cucumber, grated carrot
Sauerkraut - we've just been trying out one made from red and green cabbage, carrot, apple, ginger and daikon radish, very festive. It's Vim and Vigour from Earthwise Gourmet in Canterbury, New Zealand.

Vegetarian options:

Nut roast
Spinach roulade, filled with chopped tomatoes and ricotta

Dessert:

Drinks:

Punch made from organic fruit juice, kombucha and sparkling water
Preservative free red wine

I'll post other ideas as they come to me.

How to whip raw cream

2009-12-16T18:51:00.000+13:00

Whipping pasteurised cream is easy, but raw cream doesn’t work the same way. It doesn’t thicken for ages, then it turns straight to butter. Nobody is exactly sure why this happens. I’ve heard theories like “pasteurised cream has carrageen in it” – but in NZ it doesn’t, or “your cream isn’t fatty enough” – but this doesn’t explain it either.

Traditional ways of thickening cream are culturing, or making clotted cream by heating raw cream, then leaving to sit. There do seem to be some ways of whipping raw cream, but it does take some preparation.

1. Skim well – Pour your cream into a wide mouthed bowl or container, and leave for 24 hours or so. You will then be able to skim full cream off the top and be sure you don’t have remaining milk in it.

2. Age it – Older cream whips better than fresh cream, so the skimming stage will allow that to happen. But there is a fine line here, if you leave it too long, it will sour, and that may not be suitable for your needs.

3. Chill it well – It may also help to chill your bowl and beaters. Cream turns to butter faster when warm.

4. Beat it fast – Use the fastest speed on your beaters. (But be careful starting up, so you don’t spray cream all over the kitchen. A bigger than usual bowl helps too.)

5. Additives last – If you want to add flavourings (eg vanilla essence) or sweeteners (eg stevia, maple syrup) add them AFTER the cream has thickened enough.

I can’t guarantee this will always work, but will increase your chances.

Jelly Trifle

2009-12-16T18:38:00.003+13:00

I always think of my grandmother at Christmas, usually when I'm wrapping my presents. When I was at high school, every year I would go down to her house a couple of days before Xmas and sit at her kitchen table doing her wrapping for her. She would go round the house collecting up all the gifts she'd been putting away all year and tell me who each one was for. Things were more leisurely then, and we had a relaxed evening, with time to get every parcel just right.

I'm thinking of her early this year and remembering her trifle. Her speciality dishes included her apple pie, jam tarts and my favourite, trifle. It had to be made with jelly, not sherry. (When I was first introduced to trifle made with sherry, it was most disappointing.) It was spread with jam, layered with fruit salad, and then the jelly was poured over it. When it was set, it was topped with a thick layer of thick custard made from Edmonds custard powder. Then another thick layer of whipped cream, and sliced strawberries on top. Or sometimes grated chocolate. It was luscious. And mum, my sister and I kept up the tradition at family gatherings, always making it just the same.

I don't think I've had trifle since I went gluten free, so about 12 years, though I've been known to have a spoonful of custard and cream off the top. But this year I've been thinking about how to make a GAPS friendly trifle. So far I don't have a firm recipe, just some musings - but I might try out a mini one this weekend.

So I'll start with something sponge like, probably made with coconut flour, as I think almond flour will be a bit heavy for this recipe. Maybe just a batch of blueberry muffins using the recipe in Bruce Fife's book. Or maybe this Triple Berry Coconut Cake. When cooled, they'll be cut into rough chunks.

Then I'll put half in one layer in my dish, then some berries, and another layer of each.

Next I'll take some red organic fruit juice - eg grape, apple & blackcurrant - dilute it a little, and use gelatine to make a jelly. I'll pour this over the top, press it all down firmly and leave it in the fridge to set.

The next day, I'll make a custard with real eggs, and either raw milk or coconut milk, sweetened with a little honey. It might not be as thick as Edmonds, but fingers crossed it will thicken up in the fridge.

Lastly, a layer of raw cream, whipped well, and more sliced berries.

I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I'd better do another post on how to whip raw cream, because you sometimes need to make some extra preparations.

Chicken Liver Pate

2009-12-16T18:04:00.002+13:00

Christmas is at my brothers house this year, and I got a phone call from him the other day, with my instructions on what food to bring. I'm to take pate, fruit and christmas cake - 3 things that can be made GAPS and SCD friendly. I've been making this pate recipe for years now. It used to have bacon in it as well, so people who are not GAPsters can add a handful of bacon rashers. But unless you can find sugar free bacon, for GAPS leave it out.

50gm (2oz) butter or duck fat
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
approx 225gm (1/2 lb) brown mushrooms (a bit more or less is fine)
1 bayleaf
approx 450gm (1 lb) chicken livers (a bit more or less is fine)
a little sea salt
15ml (1 Tbs) brandy, sherry or port (optional, leave out if doing GAPS)
½ cup (125 ml) cream, plain or cultured – or – 50 gm (2 oz) softened butter or duck fat

Sauté onion, garlic, mushrooms and bayleaf in butter in a large frypan. Turn up the heat & add chicken livers and sea salt. Cook quickly for 5-10 mins till just cooked. Take off the heat, take out the bayleaf & let cool. Put into food processor, along with the brandy, and cream or butter. Blend till smooth. This will do about 3 bowlfuls. To keep for a few days – pour a layer of melted butter carefully over the top of the pate. This could take ½ a lb of butter. Make sure it completely covers the pate, and seals it in the bowl. Store in the fridge, and chip the butter off just before serving.

Serving suggestions:

This is quite a soft pate, which can be served with toast or crackers, or serve as a dip, with corn chips, toasted pita breads and raw vege sticks
Makes a very satisfying quick breakfast with vege sticks. Freeze in 1-cup containers and take out the night before.

Watermelon Cake

2009-11-30T23:41:00.004+13:00

This watermelon cake looks like a great idea for summer birthdays, or something light to add to the Xmas Day menu...

http://livingfruity.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-make-watermelon-cake.html

GAPS friendly Boiled Christmas Cake

2009-11-30T18:04:00.009+13:00

Over the years I've made various different Xmas cakes recipes, but it all got a lot easier a couple of years ago. I watched Nigella's Christmas and was inspired to find her recipe for a boiled Xmas cake which looked so easy.

Have a read of her original recipe here (I'm sure we can all relate to her description of the busyness of Xmas!), and then come back for the GAPS version.

The first year, I made a few slight tweaks:

Gluten free - ground almonds, rice flour, arrowroot PLUS pectin, xantham or guar gum
Unrefined sugar (eg rapadura, shakkar or muscavado) instead of brown sugar
"Ruby Red" cooking wine instead of rum - just because that's what I happened to have lurking in the back of the fridge
and no chestnut puree because I couldn't find any

It was a fantastic cake. And I didn't have to make it months ahead. You can make it and eat it on the same day, and it's still delicious.

The second year we were starch and sugar free, so a few more tweaks:

Coconut flour instead of rice flour and arrowroot
I could have used honey or stevia, but decided to try it with no sugar

and it was still great. By now, it was still Nigella's recipe in spirit, but she probably wouldn't have recognised it! To see the recipe at this stage, see where I posted it on her website.

2009 and we're 100% GAPS, so a couple more tweaks:

No pectin or gum
No baking soda

This is the version I'm sharing with you today. (See egg free and nut free notes at the end).

900g dried fruit
170g butter, ghee or coconut oil
Zest of one orange and one lemon
Juice of one orange
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup extra fruit juice, or extra water (I just used water)
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ginger powder
3 large or 4 small eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coconut flour

First, prepare your fruit. This is the lengthy part of the process, so have some favourite music playing, or something else to listen to. Or get the whole family helping, which will make it much quicker. I like to make up my own mixture from raisins, sultanas, dates, prunes, figs, apricots or whatever is to hand - this year I even added some goji berries as I didn't have enough other stuff. If you are salicylate sensitive, choose mango, papaya, apple and pear.

I'm rather particular about not having raisins stalks in there, so I always give my raisins, sultanas and currants a good stir first, turning them over and looking for stalks, turning them over and looking for stalks, and so on. That probably takes 5 minutes. Then chop everything else up and mix together. I use kitchen scissors which is much easier than using a knife.

Put the next 7 ingredients into a large pan, and melt them all together. Stir the fruit in, bring to a simmer, and simmer for about 10 minutes. All the liquid will have been absorbed, though you may have a bit of the oil that doesn't soak in. Leave to cool for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk up your eggs and put them to one side. And mix together the two flours and set them aside. Then prepare your tins.

The full recipe fills an 8” x 8” (20cm x 20cm) square tin. Line tin with a double layer of brown paper, which comes to about double the height of the tin. Then line with a double layer of baking paper. Or you can make a selection of different sizes. 1/3 of the mixture will fill a mini loaf tin or you can make star shaped cakes (as per the photo), muffin sized or bite sized mini muffins. With the stars and muffins, you'll probably only be able to line the bottom.

When the mixture is about room temperature, stir through the beaten eggs and mix well. Then stir through the flours. It should be thick and hard to stir. If it's too runny, add some extra flour. Fill your tin, smooth the top, and bake at 150C or 300F for 1.75 to 2 hours. Use the usual skewer test to see if it's done, or listen - if it's still sizzling, it's not quite ready. Towards the end, you may need to cover the top loosely with extra brown paper or tin foil to stop it browning too much.

If you use smaller tins, approx cooking times are:

1/2 mix in a loaf tin - 1.5 to 1.75 hours
1/3 mix in a small loaf tin - 1 hour
star - 45 to 60 minutes
muffin - 40 to 50 minutes
mini muffin - 30 to 35 minutes

Troubleshooting - if it doesn't cook properly - it doesn't matter!! Ground almonds and coconut flour are perfectly safe to eat raw, so call it Xmas pudding and serve with some whipped cream or custard (coconut custard for dairy free).

Let it cool at room temperature. Then take it out of the tin, wrap in baking or greaseproof paper, then a tea towel and refrigerate. It can be a bit crumbly, so it;s best to store it in the fridge, cut it cold, and then let it get to room temp before eating it. If you can wait that long!

I've also tried it without egg, as I need to cater for an EGG FREE person this Xmas. My first trial, I just missed the eggs out. I made a 1/3 quantity and baked in a small loaf tin. I pressed the mixture down well as I put it in the pan. I let it cool completely, and then refrigerated it. I made it with coconut oil, which I think was what held it together well once it was cold. It sliced easily when cut straight from the fridge and didn't fall apart. Though a large size cake might not hold up as well. You could also try replacing the eggs with 1 Tbs gelatine dissolved in 6 Tbs to replace each 1-2 eggs.

If you need to be NUT FREE, replace the ground almonds with half that amount of coconut flour. Then just keep adding coconut flour 1 Tbs at a time till you get the right consistency. I haven't tried it, but it should work fine with the version that includes eggs. I'm not sure that just coconut flour would work as well egg free, so with that combination I would definitely try the gelatine. If anyone tries it nut free, please report back.

Crackers

2009-11-30T17:08:00.005+13:00

I've been investigating a few GAPS friendly cracker recipes based on nuts. This recipe from Elana's pantry is particularly good, though I used coconut oil instead of grapeseed.

It seems you can make them using eggs, egg whites or even egg free. Different combinations of nuts and seeds also work. So here's a "mix and match" type recipe you can adjust to your own specific needs.

This amount will make two trayfuls of crackers.

4 cups of nuts of your choice, eg: 1/3 each almonds, pecans and walnuts OR all the same nut OR all ground almonds OR 3/4 ground almonds & 1/4 sesame seeds (my favourite)
1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan salt ( a bit less for a sweet biscuit)
1-2 tsp herbs & spices of your choice, eg: I like basil or oregano with paprika OR cinnamon for a sweet cracker OR ginger and spices to make gingerbread. You can also add cheese or peanut butter for different flavours
2 Tbs melted coconut oil, butter, ghee or duck fat
2 eggs, beaten till frothy OR 4 egg whites OR an extra 2 Tbs fat
Water to bind if needed

Preheat the oven to 325F or 165C.

If you're using whole nuts, grind them up in your food processor till they're pea sized or smaller. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse till well mixed. If you're using ground almonds and maybe sesame seeds, you don't need a food processor, you can mix it all up in a bowl. Mix the dry ingredients first, then the wet. If it's too dry to hold together, add a little water drop by drop, till it all binds into a ball of dough.

Divide the dough into two halves. Cut three pieces of baking paper that are the same size as your baking tray. Put one piece of dough on one of the sheets of paper, with a second piece on top. Roll the dough out to as thin as you can get it. Carefully peel the top layer of paper off and place it on your baking tray, with the greasy side up.

If you've got spare time and cookie cutters, you can cut your crackers into nice shapes. But if you're in a hurry like I usually am, just cut them into squares. (And even my squares aren't as beautiful as Elana's, but they still taste great).

Lay them on the tray and bake for 10-15 minutes till they are golden but not brown. Set a timer for 10 minutes, because it really is important not to let them cook too long. If some are ready before others, take them out, and put the rest back in. Meanwhile, prepare the second batch.

Cool on a wire rack, and once cold, store in an airtight container.

GAPS Baked Beans

2009-11-14T14:14:00.007+13:00

This recipe is an alternative to the Baked Beans recipe in the GAPs book. They can used as a breakfast dish with eggs or sausages, a side dish, or added to other casseroles.

The Tomato version is aimed to be similar to NZ baked beans in a can.

Basic recipe

500g haricot / navy / white beans
2 Tbs whey, lemon juice or cider vinegar
Stock or water (but preferably stock)
Sea salt

Soak the beans for 12-24 hours in warm water with the whey, lemon juice or cider vinegar added. Drain and rinse. Put in the crockpot with enough stock to cover the beans. Simmer for about 8 hours, till the beans are soft. Periodically check that there is enough liquid covering the beans. Add more stock or water and stir if needed. When they’re soft, stir through sea salt to taste.

These are a basic bean that can be served as a side dish or added to other dishes, such as mince, stews or casseroles. Or stir through some sliced meat or poultry before serving.

~Tomato baked beans ~ Also add to the crockpot at the start:

Chopped tomatoes, or tomato puree with no additives
Herbs to taste

~Mediterranean beans ~ Also add to the crockpot at the start:

Chopped tomatoes, or tomato puree with no additives
Chopped red and green capsicum
Herbs to taste

About half way through cooking, add:

Chopped zucchini

~Baked beans and sausages ~ Near the end of the cooking time, slice up some all-meat sausages, fry then up in some duck fat, ghee or other fat of your choice. Add them to Tomato or Mediterranean beans.

Cashew Bread

2009-10-10T17:54:00.014+13:00

I first came across Cashew Bread in Eat Well Feel Well, a book of SCD recipes by Kendall Conrad. While it was delicious, it wasn’t quite what we were looking for at the time. It was a couple of years before I came back to the idea, when I wanted to develop a GAPS friendly bread for those who were having problems with almond flour.

This version has a few changes from the original:

1. I found a version of it at hellokitchen.blogspot.com/2007/11/cashew-coconut-bread.html which substituted 1 cup of coconut flour for some of the cashews. This seems to make the bread a bit more stable. If you don’t or can’t have coconut flour, use all cashews.

2. For those who can’t have dairy, I substituted mashed pumpkin for the SCD yoghurt in the original recipe.

3. The original recipe had 1 cup apple juice. To reduce the sugar content, I replaced that with water plus a little extra apple cider vinegar. The pumpkin gives it enough sweetness.

These three changes make the mix a little drier, so you may need to add a little extra water.

OK, so I have to confess, it does have baking soda which isn’t GAPS friendly. I haven’t tested it without baking soda yet but will let you know when I do. (If you try it before me, post a comment letting me know how it goes.) It is a dense loaf anyway, so I think it will come out pretty much the same.

Pumpkin cashew bread

Makes 2 loaves

6 large eggs, separated
1 tsp sea or Himalayan salt
5 cups raw unsalted cashews
1 cup coconut flour (or an extra cup cashews)
1.5 tsp baking soda
2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin (or SCD yoghurt)
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
Extra water if needed

Preheat oven to 300F / 150C. Line loaf pans with baking paper - either two approx 14cm x 23cm or three smaller ones.
Separate the eggs, putting the whites into a large bowl and the yolks into a smaller one. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs whites with the salt until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Using a food processor, grind the cashews till they are in small pieces. Add the coconut flour and baking soda and process till the cashews are as fine as you can get them. If a paste starts to form on the sides, stop now.
With a whisk or fork blend the egg yolks, pumpkin, water, and vinegar. Add to the ingredients in the food processor and mix thoroughly. If necessary, add a little extra water to blend it all together to a thick paste.
Take out the blade, and add a little of the egg white mix to the food processor. Mix it in with a fork. Add the mixture to the egg white bowl and fold into the egg whites using a metal spoon. Mix just until you no longer see clumps of egg white, trying not to overmix.
Spoon into prepared pans and bake for 1hr-1hr 20min, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pans on a rack for about 15 mins, then slide the loaves onto the racks to complete cooling. Keeps in the fridge for a few days, or can be frozen.

Milk kefir

2009-10-09T16:39:00.011+13:00

Milk kefir can be made from kefir grains, or from a powdered starter. Here's how to make it from kefir grains.

When you receive your grains

If your grains have been stored in the fridge or freezer for a while or someone has posted them to you, they'll need some preparation before they make a good batch.

Put the grains into a jar with about ¼ of the normal amount of milk (eg. if you have 1 tablespoon of grains, use 1/2 cup milk). Leave out for 12 – 24 hours (depending on temperature), shaking or stirring from time to time. When the milk separates out (so that the thick curds are at the top, and the liquid whey is at the bottom), it’s fermented. Shake or stir well, so that the grains are easier to separate. Pour the mixture into a non-metallic strainer, with a jug underneath. Throw away the milk.

Repeat this washing and throwing away a second time.

After that they will make great kefir on the third batch.

Types of milk

Raw milk is best, but pasteurised works also. Avoid homogenised or ultra heat-treated milk.

If you can get milk from Jersey cows, it will be very high in cream, which makes delicious kefir. If your milk is lower in fat, you can add some extra cream to it, if you like.

Cow’s milk is usually used, but you can also kefir goat’s milk, coconut milk and other liquids. When you use cow’s milk, the grains will grow each time you use them. But with other milks they won’t grow, and may eventually stop working.

You can also get water kefir grains, which feed on glucose instead of lactose. Or you can convert milk grains to water grains, though they won’t then grow. They can then be used to make fermented fruit juice drinks. (But that’s another post!)

Ratio of milk to grains

Each tablespoon of grains will ferment about ½ a litre (2 cups) of milk. Each time, your grains will grow a little. So you can increase the amount of milk you’re fermenting, or separate the grains into two batches. Store the spares, or share them. (Detailed instructions for shipping grains are available on request).

Making the kefir

Kefir is much more “forgiving” than yoghurt, as it isn’t temperature sensitive. It will ferment in about 7 days in the fridge, or in 12 hours to 2 days in a warm place (18-25C). The most popular way seems to be to keep in the fridge for 24 hours (or more) then leave on the bench for about 24 hours.

Place milk and optional cream in a clean wide-mouth jar. Ceramic is best, but glass will do. Add kefir grains, stir or shake well and cover loosely with a cloth or with the jar lid, placed loosely on top. Stir or shake vigorously occasionally to redistribute the grains. Every time you stir, taste the kefir. When it achieves a tartness to your liking, the kefir is ready. The kefir may also become thick and effervescent, depending on the temperature, incubation time and the amount of curds you use. (If you’re having trouble telling when it’s ready, I consider it ready when the mixture separates out. But that will depend on how tart you like it.)

Pour the kefir through a strainer into another jar to remove the grains. Store in refrigerator. If you have enough milk for a new batch, start it straight away. Keep in the fridge for up to a week, taking it out about 24 hours before you need it, to finish the fermenting. Otherwise, store grains in a small jar in some fresh milk. Grains may be stored in the refrigerator several weeks, but change the milk every few days. If you don’t have any milk, store them in filtered water, but they won’t keep as long.

Note: some people rinse their grains in water before starting a new batch. This isn’t necessary, and the grains will grow more quickly if you don’t rinse.

Check out Dom’s kefir “insite” http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html#what's-kefir for more information and recipes.

Kombucha

2009-10-02T15:30:00.010+13:00

The kombucha starter culture or scoby (a symbiotic colony of yeast & bacteria, sometimes known as a "mushroom") acts on sugar & tea to produce a wide variety of beneficial acids, such as acetic & lactic acid.

It is a therapeutic drink, and is considered a liver tonic, but is also very refreshing as a summer drink.

1 large, uncoloured pyrex bowl
2.7 litres filtered water (3 quarts)
1 cup sugar (white sugar feeds the culture best)
4 tea bags of black tea
1/2 cup kombucha from a previous culture
1 kombucha scoby

Bring the filtered water to boil. Put the sugar into your bowl, add the boiling water and stir till dissolved. Add the tea bags and leave the tea to steep until the water has completely cooled.

Remove tea bags, add 1/2 cup kombucha from previous batch and stir. Place the scoby on top of the liquid. Cover the bowl loosely with a cloth or towel, secured with a ring of elastic and leave to a warm, dark place, away from contaminants and insects.

The kombucha will be ready in about 7 to 10 days, depending on the temperature. The ideal temperature is about 23-27°C (74-80°F) and if possible, don’t let it fall below 20°C (68°F) or rise above 30°C (86°F). A hot water cupboard is a good place to ferment it, or if you don’t have one, you may need a heating pad in winter. If it gets too cold, the balance of bacteria and yeasts will be disturbed. Avoid moving it until it’s ready to bottle.

When the kombucha is ready, it should be fizzy and rather sour, with no taste of tea remaining. The scoby will have grown a second spongy pancake, which can be used to make other batches or given away to friends. If you are doing the GAPS protocol, or SCD diet, you will need to make sure all the sugar has been fermented away. (Test this cautiously when you are stable on the main diet.)

Store fresh scobies in the fridge in a glass jar (never plastic), covered with some of the last batch. A scoby can be used many times. If it begins to turn black, or if the resulting kombucha doesn't sour properly, it's a sign that the culture has become contaminated. When this happens, it's best to throw away all your scobies and get a new clean one.

Set aside a cup of liquid for the next batch, and bottle the rest. Use bottles suitable for carbonated drinks – otherwise they are prone to exploding! Keep at room temperature for 5-7 days, then store in the fridge.

Contraindications:

As with any food, kombucha will not be suitable for everybody. Always start with a small amount and increase your intake slowly. It may not be suitable for you, or you may need to be especially careful introducing it if you:

Are diabetic, or on any other sugar controlled diet - Some diabetics have had great results from drinking Kombucha. But it is important to remember that although most of the sugar is converted into other components during the fermentation process, some still remains as sugar in the finished tea.
Are an alcoholic in recovery - Recovering alcoholics sometimes find it helpful to drink Kombucha during their recovery period. Be aware though, Kombucha does contain a small quantity of alcohol. It is usually less that 1% by volume, but even a small quantity of alcohol can have a negative effect on a recovering alcoholic.
Have a yeast allergy – most people with yeast allergies find Kombucha helpful, but there is a possibility of an adverse reaction in some people
Have a badly functioning liver, or any other chronic disease - Kombucha is a very powerful detoxifier and will pull toxins from your body and pass them through your liver on their way out. If your liver does not function correctly then it may be unwise to drink Kombucha, or you may be only able to take very small quantities (such as a spoonful).
Are giving it to an infants under 6 Years - Whilst a young body is growing it cannot withstand the same degree of supplements and foodstuffs as an adult. Kombucha is very strong and should not be used on infants. Dilute an older child's Kombucha with water.
Are a pregnant and breastfeeding mother - As above. Nutrients from the mother will pass into the unborn child and / or breastfed baby.

Fermented cabbage juice

2009-10-02T15:20:00.009+13:00

If you are doing the GAPS Intro stage where you use sauerkraut juice only, this recipe is a lot easier than making the full sauerkraut recipe. It's also easier to sip this if you don't like eating sauerkraut.

I found this recipe on a NZ website Jacqueline Organics. So I don't breach her copyright, you need to go and read her recipe, then come back.

FEB 2011: This link is currently offline, so I've included her recipe with a couple of my own comments below:

Fill a blender with chopped green cabbage and distilled water, which is available at the warehouse - bottom shelf in drink section, called Pure Dew. (Deb: We use artesian well water from the Petone aquifer, and that works fine too)

Add water till 2/3 full - beat at high speed in the blender for one minute and pour out into bowl and repeat with two more batches.

Cover with gauze or stocking and let stand at room temperature. After 3 days, the cabbage juice solution is ready to use. It is preferable to keep this in warm place out doors as it has strong smell and some may find it unpleasant! (Deb: Or keep it in a chilly bin in the laundry or garage.)

Strain the mixture to separate the liquid and the pulp. Place cultured cabbage juice in the refrigerator.

When your supply gets low, make a second batch just like the first one, except, add 1/2 cup of the juice from the first batch to the second batch. Your second batch will be ready in 24 hours.

Drink up to ½ cup 2 to 3 times each day, but start with small doses. Dilute with equal part of water.

The lactic acid in the cultured cabbage juice will purify the G.I tract and kill most strains of fungi, parasites and other pathogens. You should drink this drink until your stools float in the toilet bowl and are odour free. You can gain some benefits from eating the cabbage pulp (which is what you separate off from the liquid).

My experiences so far making it:

Batch 1:

The cabbage I bought from Commonsense Organics was quite small, so it didn't make 3 blender loads - only 1 .5. As she said, it was very smelly, right from the start and did need to be fermented outside. It took about 6-7 days to be tangy enough, rather than 3. It wasn't that great tasting, but not too bad either. Since I bottled it, it has been left on the bench and not refrigerated, and it seems to be tasting better as it gets older. Or I'm getting more used to it. Either way, its all good.

Batch 2:

As she says, I added some of the first batch to it, but since my cabbage was again small, I only added 1/4 cup. Funnily enough, it doesn't smell anywhere near as bad as the first batch and although you can smell it when you get within a couple of metres, I have been able to keep it inside. It's currently on Day 3 and tastes nearly ready.

Later updates:

Another way of controlling the smell is to keep your jar inside a chilly bin, if you haven't got a suitable outdoor area to keep it in.

I have found that you can also ferment red cabbage juice, and it doesn't smell so much. Though I think it's also not quite as effective a digestive tonic.

So I have been doing a mixture of red and green cabbage, which is a nicer flavour and smell, but still helps digestion. Build up to 1/3 or 1/2 glass before each meal.

Another variation:

Add some chopped raw beetroot, and a small amount of salt and extra water to each batch, so you are also getting the benefits of beet kvass.

Sauerkraut

2009-10-02T14:56:00.009+13:00

Another important food, especially for the GAPS protocol, is sauerkraut or other fermented veges.

There are a variety of different ways of making sauerkraut, but these are the basic steps:

Select your veges, wash and, if necessary, peel them
Chop them - with a knife, grater or in a food processor
Add sea salt and give them a good squeeze with your hands, or pound with a heavy object, such as a bottle filled with water. You need to get lots of juice out.
Pack into the container you're going to ferment in, either a large bowl, with a plate on top, or directly in a jar. Make sure the veges are covered with the juice.
Ferment at room temperature till the sauerkraut is slightly sour
Store in the fridge - it will keep for ages

Following are three different recipes you can try (remembering at each step there are different ways of doing it, that all work fine). My next post will be a recipe for fermented cabbage juice.

Recipe One:

First is a YouTube video by Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, so you can see how it works.

Recipe Two: Libby's sauerkraut

Take a large "white cabbage". Cut off the outside green leaves until you have clean leaves. Wash the leaves you cut off and save them.
Using a knife, or food processor, cut the cabbage into quarters and slice the cabbage quarters fairly finely [3-2mm slices] into four heaps.
Optional extra: For each quarter, take about three good sized carrots, about the bulk size of one third of each quarter. Peel the carrots, and shred them into four piles, slightly finer pieces than the cabbage.
Take a large enamel or plastic bucket or stew pot or similar. DO NOT USE METAL CONTAINERS.
Place half of the washed cabbage leaves on the bottom of the container.
Mix in another bowl one quarter of the cut cabbage with its share of shredded carrot. Add some salt, mix in about one level tablespoon per large quarter of cabbage to start with [then use more or less next time to taste]. Use more if you want to use sea salt.
Place the mix of cabbage, carrot and salt into the container and repeat until all is mixed. As you place the mix in the container, squeeze it as strongly as you reasonably can to draw out any liquid.
Place the rest of the cabbage leaves on top of the mix to finish.
Place an ice cream container or similar on top of the leaves, filled with water [NO WATER IN THE CABBAGE MIX, THE WATER GOES IN THE CONTAINER TO MAKE A WEIGHT]. We use an old plate upside down on top of the cabbage leaves to ensure good cover and spread of pressure, and then put the weight on the plate.
Leave for three or four days, then take off the weight and top leaves, turn over the mix and re-lay the leaves and weight. Sometimes under the weight liquid will rise over the leaves, simply stir it back in when you stir the mix. The product should be finished to eat in about six-eight days. (Note: in colder weather this can take up to 3 weeks)
When tasting tells you the sauerkraut is ready, take it out of the container and store it in the fridge in any sealed container you want to use.

Recipe Three: Kimchi

Our friend Evan makes his own kimchi, which is a Korean fermented cabbage and is more spicy than sauerkraut. He tells us the best recipe is Ultimate Kimchi.

Bone broths & GAPS Intro soup

2009-10-02T08:36:00.014+13:00

Bone broths (or stocks) are a basic for a Weston Price foundation style diet, and for the GAPS protocol.

They are a good source of minerals and amino acids, and aid digestion.

For more information on the benefits of broth, see this article on the WAPF website. It also has full recipes for classic beef, chicken and fish stocks, towards the bottom of the page. Have a read of this article and familiarise yourself with the full recipes before reading the summary below.

The classic recipes above use a variety of bones, plus vegetables and seasonings for flavour, and are simmered for several hours (4+ for fish, 6+ for poultry and 12+ for beef).

For beef stock (or other red meats), you need a combination of meaty bones for flavour, marrow bones and knuckle bones.
For poultry, use a full carcass or a whole bird. If you use the whole bird, simmer for 2-3 hours, just till the meat is cooked. Then take that off the bones, and put aside, and simmer the bones for a few more hours.
For fish, ideally use all the bones and the head.

After simmering, pour the contents into a colander to seperate out the bones. Take any meat off the bones to use later. If you're doing GAPS, you may also want to put the skin, fat, etc into a separate bowl for adding back to your soup.

Let the stock cool, then refrigerate it. You can then take the fat off the top if you want a clear soup, or leave it on if you want to make a thicker, higher calorie GAPS soup.

GAPS Intro soup

If you're going to turn your stock into vegetable soup, you can simplify the basic recipes by leaving the vegetables out of the initial stock.

When you're doing stage 1 of the GAPS intro - you need to use all the meat, fat and marrow in your soup, to give you enough sustenance.

Make your stock as usual, using quite meaty cuts. Cook till the meat or chicken is just cooked, then take the meat off the bones and put to one side. I like to have three bowls - one for meat; one for fat, skin, marrow, any gelatinous bits, etc; and one for the bones. The meat and fats go into the fridge. The bones go back into the pot with a splash of apple cider vinegar and cook for a few hours more.

When you're ready to make your soup, pour into a clean pan through a colander, and throw the bones away. In the classic stock recipe, you would then skim the liquid fat off the top, but we need it in this soup.

Chop up your veges and cook in the stock till tender. Choose low starch veges like pumpkin, butternut, zucchini, onion, garlic, carrots, etc.

Then get your bowl of fatty bits out of the fridge and add it back to the soup. Take a wand blender and blend till everything is combined, and you have a thick creamy soup. Add salt to taste. Shred the meat and add it back to the soup.

This will be your main food while on the early stages of GAPS Intro.

Variations: I like this variation as it "hides" the fat and the veges, which some children (and adults for that matter) don't like. But you can leave your veges chunky, and have the fatty bits loose, if you prefer.

Where To Shop in NZ

2009-09-20T08:42:00.001+12:00

When you're eating differently to the people around you, it can be hard to find the foods you need. So we have found sources of some of those hard to find foods.

Some weren't available in NZ, so we're selling them ourselves through our online shop Nature Foods:

Books:

Nourishing Traditions - Sally Fallon
Cooking with Coconut Flour - Bruce Fife
Gut & Psychology Syndrome - Natasha Campbell-McBride
Put Your Heart In Your Mouth - Natasha Campbell-McBride

Coconut Products

Coconut oil
Coconut flour

Green Pastures Cod Liver & Butter Oils

Fermented cod liver oil
Fermented skate liver oil
X Factor Gold butter oil
Royal blend of fermented cod liver oil & butter oil

Natural Vitamins & Minerals

Max Stress B Nano-Plex
Quantum Vitamin C complex
Camu camu powder for Vitamin C
Elete electrolytes
CMD complete mineral drops

Supplements

Bio-Kult probiotic
Allergy Research Group Liver
Allergy Research Group 5HTP
Country Life l-tyrosine
Country Life DLPA

Other Foods

Traditionally made Peanut Butter
Traditionally made Almond Brazil Butter
Chocolate hazelnut spread
Raw cacao powder

If you're interested in fermented foods, we have locally made sauerkraut available from us in Kilbirnie, Wellington, and usually have starters for kefir, caspian sea yoghurt and kombucha.

Outside of Wellington, contact your nearest WAPF chapter leader for starters.

For other foods, see the Where to Shop page on DietNet

Kitchen Equipment

2009-09-20T08:17:00.003+12:00

Whether you're eating real food WAPF style or following a special diet, you'll find you're in the kitchen a fair amount of time. So it helps to have the right equipment. These are the things I use most.

Crock pot or slow cooker - for stocks, soups, stews. I actually have 2 - one round and one oval and sometimes they are both going at once.

Large stockpot - for stocks and stews. You will need either a crock pot or a soup pan, and may need both.

Le Creuset enamelled cast iron frying pan - available in NZ from online shops like Table Pride and the Studio of Tableware. Read more about cast iron pans on the WAPF Wellington blog.

Large food processor - for a variety of jobs

Blender - for breakfast smoothies

Stick blender - the kind that has a detachable handle, and three attachments is very useful. Mine has a blender, whisk and mini food processor.

Coffee grinder - for grinding nuts and seeds

Dehydrator - for drying nuts and making jerky. You can use the oven, but a dehydrator is easier.

Large glass mixing bowls, jars and bottles - for making fermented food and drinks

A colander - this is my favourite - an old style Tupperware one that stands up by itself, or can sit on a bowl or pan. Now only available second hand.

Sharp knives of various sizes

Measuring jugs - 500ml and 1 litre

Measuring cup set - with 1, 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 size cups

Measuring spoons - 1 set has 1 Tbs, 1 Dsp, 1 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1/4 tsp and the other has 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 and 1/32 tsp

Digital scales