Cream of Kamut for Jim

Cream of Kamut cereal with 3 1/2 C. of water used in cooking.

Day before serving:


1 C. Kamut grains toasted at 350° for 15 minutes and cooled.
2 t. whey (optional)
2 C. water


Blend in standard blender until grains are broken and it is beginning to look cloudy.


Let sit on kitchen counter overnight.


Next morning for breakfast:


Add 1 1/2 to 2 C. more water.
1/2 t. salt


Cook in heavy bottomed saucepan until bubbling.  Let sit on warm burner for 10 minutes or so until you like the texture. 


Top with your favorite ingredients such as:


Raisins
Cream
Coconut Oil
Butter
Maple syrup
Almonds, chopped.


Tastes like cream of wheat which it actually is.  Kamut is an ancient wheat grain.


Jim might add cocoa too.  The taste is nutty and smooth.  There is no indication that you are eating a whole grain.  The bran becomes soft in the overnight soak and more digestible.

Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

I made this for breakfast and enjoyed it immensely.

In a stainless steel skillet:

½ Onion-medium, sautéed
3 Garlic cloves sliced or chopped
1 C. Kale or any greens sautéed with onion and garlic

Add:
1 ½ C. Tomato Juice
2 t. cumin

Let simmer until reduced slightly by about 1/4th and add salt.
½ t. salt or to taste.

4 Eggs brought to room temperature. Put these in a measuring cup with a spout and pour each one into the sauce spaced out. Put a lid over the skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes or more until the eggs are done how you like them.

Serve in a bowl with sour cream on top.

This is just delicious.

Christmas Morning Hot Chocolate

Scale the recipe up or down from these amounts:


4 C (1 Quart) Milk
2 t. cornstarch
4T Sugar
4 T Cocoa
Dash of Salt


Pour 1/2 C milk into a small saucepan with the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and cocoa.  Heat until it bubbles and cooks for about 30 seconds while whisking.  Remove from heat and let sit for 2 minutes. 


Add remaining milk and heat to 160° while whisking.  Serve in warmed mugs with whipped cream floating on top.


For the whipped cream, I use a very thick (so thick I have to dig it out of a jar) local dairy cream.  In order to whip it, I mix it half and half with milk.  For a several mugs of hot chocolate, I use:


1/2 C Super Cream
1/2 C Milk
1/2 t. vanilla
2 t. sugar
dash salt (for non-commercial milk)


Whip until soft and spoon over hot chocolate.


This hot chocolate has a nice "mouth feel" and is superior to the hot chocolate I make using chocolate chips.

Cheesy Baked Grits for Christmas Dinner

This is especially for niece Heather.

Cheesy Baked Grits is/are a family favorite for our Christmas Dinner. They are delicious hot and also as they cool down on a buffet.

4 C. water
1 C. grits
1 t. salt
1/3 C. butter
6 drops Tabasco hot sauce
3 eggs
2 C. sharp cheddar cheese

Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add the grits and salt and bring back to a boil and cook for minute or two. This tends to splatter so I use a hot mit while I stir with a whisk.

Take off of the heat and whisk in the butter and Tabasco sauce.
Have eggs ready to pour in all at once while whisking.
Add the cheddar and whisk that in until smooth.

Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish with some kind of cover.

Bake at 275 for 1 hour. Cover the baking dish for 50 minutes, and then uncover it for the final 10 minutes.

If you choose a smaller deeper casserole, then it will need a longer baking time. This casserole re-heats very well too.

I've also used cornmeal and loved it. The basic recipe is quite versatile.

Baked Oatmeal

When I made this recipe for the first time, I thought that it must need liquid added before baking, so I did. I like the results but I've double checked the original recipe from Candace and indeed there is no additional liquid. I like the mistake.

Soak overnight:

3 C. Oatmeal
1 1/2 C. Yogurt
1/2 C. water

Next morning, stir together:

1/2 C. melted butter
2 eggs
1/2 C. Sucanat or organic sugar, possibly maple syrup, or nothing if you like savory.

Add:

1 1/2 t. Baking Powder
1 t.Soda
1 t. Salt
1/2 C. Raisins
4 1/2 C. Milk-(this was not in the original recipe)


8" by 13" glass pan
350 degrees
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Oven Baked Pancake - Sprouted Wheat

1 C. Whole wheat pastry flour ideally made with sprouted wheat .
1 C. Milk
3 eggs
1/2 t. Vanilla
1/4 t. Sea Salt

6 T Butter
1 T Sucanat or unrefined sugar
3/4 C. fruit like blueberries or cherries.

Pre-heat oven to 400 and melt the butter in a 9 x 13 pan while heating.
Mix the first 5 ingredients and pour into hot baking pan.
Sprinkle fruit and sugar on top and return to oven.
Bake for 20 - 25 min.

It is better to use fresh or thawed fruit otherwise the frozen fruit seems too cold to allow proper puffing. This recipe is similar to Yorkshire pudding and the French dessert Clafoutis aux cerises. They all puff in a dramatic way that makes the baking a spectacle.

I serve this with Maple Syrup or cream.

YUM

Sue Gregg's Blender Pancakes-Judy's Version

I love Sue Gregg's Blender Pancake recipe. It's the perfect blend of traditional cooking and technology. Her website has many variations listed and if you are overwhelmed with the information, I've extracted a simple recipe.

Night before you serve pancakes:

1 C. mixed whole grains (not flour), put in blender and add,
1 C Yogurt, Kefir, or Buttermilk.


Blend 3 minutes on high and maintain a VORTEX by drizzling in a little water. The Vortex is important in getting all the grains blended and looks like a funnel or tornado in your blender and ensures that everything is blended well. Let sit overnight or 7 hours at least for the acid medium to remove the phytates on the grains. Phytates are an anti-nutrient which keeps you from absorbing other nutrients you are eating. In history, people just soaked their grains without knowing why. It's very traditional to do this.

In the morning, add the following. Get the dry ingredients ready to dump in all at once.

1 T. Flax seeds-optional
1 Egg
2 T. Olive Oil or melted butter

3/4 t. Real salt
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1/2 t. Baking Powder

Put the egg, flax and oil in the blender and blend on high while maintaining a vortex using more liquid.

When the flax seeds seem to be ground up, add the dry ingredients into the vortex. The easiest way is to place a funnel in the top of your blender and dump them in. The funnel makes them hit the right spot. Blend only a few seconds after the leavening is added because it thickens and that's the way you want it.

Pour batter onto heated griddle and serve with butter and maple syrup and bacon on the side!

This is part of the Nourishing Gourmet's Handmade Gift Carnival.

Update, 11-14-09: If you use Kefir, beware that storing the leftover batter with a tight lid causes pressure to build up and the jar may explode, if not with broken glass, then all over you. Kefir has good bacteria that continues to grow.

Grain Mix for Blender Pancakes-Favorite

Using Sue Gregg's Blender Pancake recipe. I like this mix of whole grains:

2 parts Kamut
2 parts brown rice
2 parts buckwheat
2 parts oat groats
1 part rye berries

These can be changed at whim from what I can deduce. You can go gluten-free easily and maintain excellent flavor and texture. This is a pretty amazing recipe. One of those better than could be imagined. Making pancakes from this is unlike trying to use 100% whole wheat bread which is really hard to make light and tasty. One can get used to it of course, but the pancakes can be passed off as "regular" to anyone, even skeptics of healthy eating. I refrigerate the leftover batter for several days without loss of quality.

Since grains can be stored whole easily, I think it's the perfect marriage of tradition and technology.

Breakfast Quiche Casserole

In a large bowl:

1 t. salt
7 c. shredded potatoes
1 onion shredded
1/2 c. butter melted and tossed with the potatoes
Press into large glass baking dish and bake at 400 for 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile prepare:
2 lb. sausage fried and crumbled and set aside
4 c. shredded cheese

Whisk in the same bowl:

12 eggs (3 c.)
3 c. milk or Chicken Broth (Updated 1-26-11)
1/4 t. pepper

When potatoes are baked, sprinkle on the sausage and cheese and then pour liquid mixture over everything. Squish your finger tips down into the bottom of the baking dish several places and then bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Since the baking dish is nice and hot already, it doesn't take long for this egg mixture to set.

For lower carbs sometimes I use spinach instead of potatoes and bake for only 15 minutes at 350 during the first part of prep. Cool, and cut into squares. I wrap in plastic after it's room temp. Another way to freeze would be to freeze the separated squares on parchment paper and then put into a big container to keep in freezer.

This dish seems to improve with freezing even though potatoes don't usually freeze well. For Fast Food at breakfast, I put the squares into individual casseroles the night before, place them in the counter top convection oven and in the morning, they are ready to heat. This makes a wonderful fast breakfast.

Update January 26, 2011
I often use chicken broth instead of milk to mix with the eggs.  This adds the benefits of broth and means I have more raw milk available.  I don't like to ruin the enzymes if I don't really have to. 

Pepper Parmesan Blender Dressing-No Mess

First, check to see if your blender blades screw onto a standard mason jar. If it does, you make this without much clean-up.

I use a 12oz. mason jar, but a pint would be fine too.....into the jar add:

1 clove garlic, peeled
1 egg yolk, free range
3 T Lemon juice, fresh
2 t. Dijon style mustard, I don't bother to measure this
1/2 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 T coarse ground pepper
1/2 C. grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 t. salt, "Real Salt"

I screw the blade/base component onto the jar and turn "up-side-down", place on the blender and pulse several times, and then blend at a medium speed. The mixture seizes up nicely for me even though I haven't drizzled in the olive oil like Julia Child says to do. I don't even bother to have everything room temperature which is supposed to be better.

This is very intense and satisfies those who need some real zing with something else bland. I screw on a regular lid to store and only need to wash the blades of the blender.