Kwas

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Kvas (квас) is an ancient and beloved beverage from Slavic Europe. While it is basically a low-alcohol beer, it is enjoyed as a soft drink, even by small children. Factory-made versions have been available for some time and many are quite good. But homemade will always be best. 

Ingredients

• whole wheat sourdough bread, cubed -- 1 pound
• Water -- 3 quarts
• a red apple
• Raisins -- 2 tablespoons

Method

1. Bring the 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the bread. Cover with a clean towel and let rest in a dark, cool place for 8 to 10 hours.
2. Pour the liquid through a fine-meshed sieve or strainer, gently pressing one the bread to get the liquid out. Don't press too hard, or your kvas will turn cloudy.
3. Pour into a 1-gallon pitcher or container. Add the raisins and pieces of apple and cover tightly with plastic wrap and a rubber band. Set in a dark, cool place for 4 or 5 days , it should bubble a bit.
4. Carefully pour off the clear liquid into a clean container or individual bottles. Chill well before serving.

Variations

• Add 2 tablespoons of fresh mint leaves with the raisins
• Some recipes substitute berry juice for 2 to 3 cups of the water, giving it a refreshing, fruity flavor.
• Kvas is often served unfiltered, with the yeast sediment. This gives it a richer flavor and boosts its vitamin content.
• The final fermentation can also take place in stoppered bottles if you like. In step five, pour the strained liquid into individual beer bottles. Add one or two raisins to each bottle and rest for 4 or 5 days. Move to a refrigerator and store chilled until consumed. CAUTION: the bottles have an alarming habit of popping open from pressure during the fermentation. So it's best if you know what you're doing.

And Sauerkraut, one more time

As I am pickling a lot of sauerkraut lately, pickle authority, Bill Hettig (www.PerfectPickler.com) shared some of his secrets:
start the fermentation at 70 degrees fahrenheit (21 C), then take it down to 66 or 67 F (18-19) for 7 to 8 more days. That is because there are a variety of bacteria that rise and fall in those temp. His rule of thumb for kraut fermentation is a minimum of 4 days (shredded or finely sliced), and 1 additional day for each degree below 70F (21C). 
So if you had it at 66 degrees, it would be 4 + 4 = 8 days.
As my room temperature (with airconditioning) is 86F (30C) I have to find a way to cool it down: I think about putting my Perfect Pickler pots in a bucket with colder water for 4 days and then even more colder water for the next 6 days, before putting it into the refrigerator.
Over 2,500 years ago, the Chinese actually figured out the optimum temperature range for sauerkraut  71 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit  (21 to 17 C)
Thanks Bill, you did us all a big favour.

Vegan Broth

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If you want a good soup or stew, better make a vegan broth first. There are many ways to make a good broth, and here is my way:
I fry chopped onions for about 5 minutes, add water, chopped carrot, wakame seaweed, a clove of garlic, with the peel, I also use scraps and skins from other vegetables,  add salt , ginger, some natural soy sauce, herbs like thyme and cook for 30 minutes. Cool down, strain it and refrigerate till you need it. The rest of the veggies you can bind with arrowroot and eat with rice, as nothing is thrown away in a healthy kitchen.

Tempeh Cacciatori

An all-vegan cacciatore recipe made with tempeh instead of meat and simmered with plenty of herbs and spices for flavor. No need to forego your favorite Italian foods when you are vegetarian or vegan, just use tempeh instead, as in this cacciatore recipe.
Ingredients:
1 pound fried tempeh
1 tsp sesame oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp tomato pesto
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tablespoons white miso
1 tsp dried parsley
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp natural sea salt
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp ginger
Preparation:
Cut the fried tempeh into 2 inch squares. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sautee the onion and garlic for two minutes. Add the tomato pesto, broth, mushrooms, herbs salt and spices and stir thoroughly blended.
Bring the sauce to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, stirring often.
Add the tempeh squares and the miso and continue to simmer until the tempeh is heated through.
Serve the cacciatore with whole wheat pasta or brown rice.
Cacciatore means "hunter" so this is a vegetarian hunter recipe  ideal for warm summers, as it is rather Yin. I give it a Yin -4 on my Yin Yang food scale. If you do not want to use tomatoes, you can replace them by pureed pumpkin.

Vegan Cheese Sauce

Do you miss those cheezy sauces because you want to eat healthy? Here is a very good recipe.

1 1/2 cup of rice milk
1/4 cup of any flour (I used whole wheat flour)
2 table spoons of sesame tahini
2 table spoons arrowroot
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic
2 teaspoons of light miso. 

Place all ingredients in the blender and process untill completely smooth.
Pour the liquid in a small saucepan and cook over medium hight, stirring constantly with a wire wisk until very thick and smooth.

This is another recipe from "The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook", that you can buy in our store.

It is slightly adapted for health food, as I do not want to use nutritional yeast flakes, I use the miso instead.
You can add 1 teaspoon of mustard and/or a bit of paprika powder too.

Of course this sauce is delicious with macaroni, spaghetti, on cauliflower or broccoli.

When children less than 7 years old  eat at your table make a second batch of this sauce, but without the salt and half of the tahini, and add some natural colour, so you can make the difference between the child sauce and the adult sauce.

Mouthwatering, indeed!

Chickpea Burgers

Ingredients:
2 cups chickpea flour
1 cup grated carrot
2 small onions, diced
2 Tablespoons fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
optional 1/8 teaspoon garlic, minced
other herbs/spices to taste.
Mix everything very well, add water till you get a kind of burger feeling and bake well on both sides.

Chickpeas are also called garbanzo beans and are beneficial for pancreas, stomach and heart, contains more iron than other legumes and are a good source of unsaturated fats.

Rejuvelac

Rejuvelac is a fermented drink, it helps you to digest your foods and rejuvenates the whole body.
Here is the best way to make it:
take 1 cup (230gr.) of organic (non parboiled) brown rice (or any other cereal ), put it in a wide mouthed jar , add two liters of water, a few drops of lemon juice  (in hot climate/season max. one table spoon lemon juice) to kill the pathogene bacteria (the bad ones) and fix a tissue over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band. Let stand for 24 hours (12 hours in hot climate/season), dont put  in direct sunlight, and stirr it slowly every 6 hours for a few seconds with a wooden spoon.  Once a light foam develops and  it is getting cloudy, you have Rejuvelac.
Take the liquid, put it in the fridge and put again 2 liters of water on the used rice, you can use the same rice till 4 times, but the 2nd and the 3rd batch are the best, bubbling like Chamagne. It is the easiest way to make a fermented product.
How to use it? Mainly as a drink, in the morning on an empty stomach , better take it out of the fridge the night before and put it in a covered glass, as the good bacteries flourish better on room temperature.
It will give better natural bacterie to your digestive system, so you will have easier detox thanks to Rejuvelac.
For people who eat healthfood, one small glass a day will be more than enough, and like every cure, do it for 3 weeks and then stop one week.
For MPS people (meat-potato-sugar people) 1 big glass in the morning and one big glass in the evening, till you feel the difference.
You also can use it to start sourdough.
 

Carob Muffins

Ingredients:

200 g whole wheat flour + 100 gr sourdough
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tbsp carob powder
1 tbsp arrowroot
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh grated ginger or  ginger powder
100 gr amasake
100 ml sesame oil
150 g vegan yogurt
100 ml rice milk
2  bananas

Do all liquids  and the bananas in a blender, prossess till smooth and add slowly the other ingredients at low speed . 

 Let the mixture rest for about 1 hour at room temperature, for me that is 30 degrees C (86 degrees F), so if your room is colder, the mixture should rest longer so that the sourdough can do it's job.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F) and fill the batter into muffin forms. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This recipe is enough for 12 muffins.

** Another time I used 300 gr sourdough and no wheat flour; that gives less problems with digestion if you do not want to use baking soda or baking powder, and I added less rice milk, as the sourdough is liquid enough**

Vegan Rice Burger

One day, I was experimenting in my kitchen, and got a delicious vegan burger !
Here you can see it , with fried pumpkin to simulate French fries.

Recipe:

2 cups of cooked brown rice

1 table spoon of miso

2 table spoons of tomato pesto

1 tea spoon ground thyme

1 tea spoon cayenne pepper

1 small fried onion 

2 finely cut cloves of garlic (optional)

1 table spoon grated ginger

a few table spoons of chickpea flour

the "secret" ingredient is the tomato pesto: 

1) it gives a nice structure to the burger

2) it gives a kind of sweet taste, like you can find in some kinds of meat

3) it gives it  a nice reddish colour .

Mix everything (except the chickpea flour) very well, shape 2 burgers in your hands and roll them in the chickpea flour, and bake the burgers slowly on a medium fire (I use position 4 from 9).

You gonna love it!

Tomato Pesto

I know most healthfoodies are agianst the use of the plants of the Solanaceae or nightshade family (tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, eggplant) because they are too Yin but if you find a way to make it more Yang (like drying), you can use it from time to time.
I call this one tomato pesto: it is a paste made from dried tomatoes and herbs.
Take 2.5 kilo of tomatoes, I use chinese tomatoes they have less water and more "flesh", cut them in quarters and put them in the de-hydrator. Put some sea salt on the tomatoes, and leave them to dry for 10-12 hours on the hottest position. What remains is about 250 gr of dried tomato (so it is 10 times more Yang than before), put in a blender, together with 6 pieces of garlic, 1 cm fresh ginger, 2 red chili (optional) and the leaves of 4 branches of sweet basil.
This is a very strong antioxidant, and everyone loves the taste.
You can put a little bit on a plate to go with your lunch, or put it on toast or a slice of bread.

Kvass

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On Wikipedia I read:
"Kvass or kvas, sometimes translated into English as bread drink, is a fermented mildly alcoholic beverage made from black rye or rye bread (which attributes to its light or dark colour).
It is popular in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and other Eastern and Central European countries as well as in all ex-Soviet states, like Uzbekistan, where one can see many kvass vendors in the streets. Its origins go back 5,000 years to the beginnings of beer production. The alcohol content is so low (0.05-1.44%) that it is considered acceptable for consumption by children. It is often flavoured with fruits or herbs such as strawberries or mint. Kvass is also used for preparing a summer cold soup, okroshka.
The last time I made kvass was about 10 years ago, so I decide to make it once again. To fill my big Perfect Pickler pot, I took 6 appels (862 grams), 1 sourdough bread (400gr), 250 grams fresh sauerkraut, a few leaves of fresh mint, a handfull of dried raisins, and a teaspoon of fresh grated ginger (as I am a gingerolic).
First soak the bread in water, grate all the appels, mix all well, knead the soaked bread so it will crumble, put all in the pickle pot and fill up with water.
Keep 4 days in room temperature, till it start to bubble, afterwards keep in refrigerated.
The longer you keep it , the better it become. After 2-3 months , you can filter it and bottle the kvass. It is a long time and as I love kvass ...

Vegan Sausage

A few months ago, I tried something new: I took a piece of Tempeh and crushed it in my mortar with some herbs to make vegetarian spicy sausage (ไส้กรอก in Thai).
This recipe is rather tropical (Yin) but you can adapt it to your own way, this is just to show  you a new technique, that I have never seen anywhere else. It gives you a very smooth structure, the possibility to mix herbs with your Tempeh, and the possibility to change the shape ;you can make sausages, burgers, tempeh balls etc.. the sky is the limit.

I took 2 green chili, 2 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of grated ginger, a hand full coriander leaves, a teaspoon of soy sauce , crushed those ingredients in my mortar and then added 120 gr of Tempeh and grind all till very smooth.

I shaped it with my hands into a sausage and baked it for 15 minutes in a frying pan with some sesame oil. Really delicious!

Mushrooms

I just love mushrooms, they are one of my "good Yin" foods .
Here I use oyster mushrooms, straw mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and wood ears to make a delcious stew. Just cut all the mushrooms, fry them with some onion, ginger and grated carrot, and once fried, add some water and let simmer for 20-30 minutes, add some arrowroot and your favorite seasoning and it is done. 

Mushrooms decrease  the fat and cholesterol in your blood and eliminate mucus for the respiratory system; they increase white blood cell count, thereby improving immunity. They have a strong effect against tumors and cancer.

Long-term vegans should use all mushrooms sparingly. Mushrooms should never be eaten raw.
They are great in stews, soups or for stuffing the cabbage spring rolls.

Dips and Sauces

For daily cooking, I avoid sauces, as they stand in the way of chewing: if you add sauce to your food, you are tempted to swallow without chewing.

But sometimes when I invite people, I make some dips or sauces as I want to  prove that healthy food should not be boring.

Here a recipe of a dip, that you can use as a sauce too:

1 cup of rice milk 

2 table spoons of lemon juice

1 table spoon of arrowroot

1 tea spoon of white miso

1 tea spoon of natural sea salt

1 table spoon of natural  mustard

1 table spoon of sesame tahini

1 tea spoon of ginger powder.

Throw everything together in a sauce pan, and bring to a simmer while stirring constantly.

Simmer a few minutes and take it off the fire.

I used this as a cold dip on my seaweed crackers.

Amasake Recipe

Amasake is fermented glutinous rise, and used as excellent healthy sweetener.

First you soak your glutinous brown rice overnight in water : then you steam it for 30 minutes, the first 15 minutes with a lid on it, the last 15 minutes without a lid. You let cool down till the rice is still hot on your hand, but not too hot.  

Here I use pure starter, in most Western countries you find only inoculated rice. I make the starter fine in my mortar and add 90% of the powder to the rice, mixing it gently. When the mixing is done, put the rice in a non metalic sterile recipient, dig a hole in the middle and put the other 10% of the starter on the surface.

Close the recipient with gladpack and put at  room temperature for 3 days.

If all goes well you will see some liquid in the hole that you digged, and then the amasake will be ready.

Once ready , you can keep in in the refrigerator for 1 month.

Pickled Watermelon Rind

Watermelon rind is especially high in an amino acid known as citrulline. Our bodies use citrulline to make another amino acid, arginine, which helps cells to divide, wounds to heal, and ammonia to be removed from the muscles and the liver. Use the white inner rind, not the outer green part of the rind. This relish goes deliciously well with summer marinated and grilled foods — especially with proteine rich food.

Take a watermelon, remove the outer rind, like you can see on the picture. Then remove the inner rind, till you can see the red part .From one watermelon you get abound 400 grams / 0.90 lb rind.

Add 8 grams of natural sea salt, a teaspoon of mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of celery seeds, 1/2 tea spoon cinnamon, 1/2 tea spoon ginger and a few cloves. 

I also added some pickle juice from my sauerkraut, you also can add a bit umeboshi liquid. Fill up with water till your recipient is full, and close.

Keep it 24 hours in room temperature  and one week in the refrigerator and then it will be ready .

Tempeh Nuggets

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When I saw Jamie Oliver making chicken nuggets, I wanted to replace all what is not healthy and try to make vegan nuggets with tempeh.
Ingredients:
1 bloc of tempeh (150 gr/5 oz), cut in 16 pieces
1 table spoon of arrowroot
0.5 tea spoon sea salt
1 tea spoon ginger  powder
3 table spoons  chick pea flour or whole wheat flour
other dried herbs at your taste.
Put the arrowroot in some water and cook, while stirring, till transparent, and pour it on a cold plate. Put the arrowroot paste with a kitchen brush on the tempeh in a thin layer and afterwards roll the tempeh in the mix of the flour, salt, ginger and herbs.
Put the tempeh in an oiled pan, with a lid that is smaller than the pan, so the lid will rest on the tempeh,that will give the tempeh a more fried look.

Chapati

Chapati is an unleavened flatbread  from the Indian subcontinent. Versions of it are found in Turkmenistan, in East African countries including Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and in West Africa in, among other countries, Ghana.

 Ingredients :

3 cups Fine wholemeal flour 

1 1/2 teaspoon Salt or to taste

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1 cup lukewarm water or rice milk

Method :
Put flour in mixing bowl, reserving about half cup for rolling chapatis. Mix salt through the flour in the bowl, then rub in the sesame oil. Add water all at once and mix to a firm but not stiff dough. Knead dough for at least 10 minutes (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be). Form dough into a ball, cover with clear plastic wrap and stand for 1 hour or longer (if left overnight, the chapatis will be very light and tender. Shape dough into balls about the size of a large walnut. Roll out each one on a lightly floured board (using reserved flour) to a circular shape as thin as a French crepe. After rolling out chapatis, heat a griddle plate or  your BBQ until very hot, and grill the chapatis, starting with those that were rolled first.Turn and grill the other side a further minute, pressing lightly around the edges of the chapati with a folded tea towel. This encourages bubble to form and make the chapatis light. As each one is cooked, wrap in a clean tea towel until all are ready. Serve immediately with pickles or vegetable dishes.

Juicy Burgers

Here I changed a recipe to make juicy turkey  burgers into a vegan burger recipe.

Ingredients:
1 branche of celery
1 green apple
1 onion
1 table spoon grated ginger
2 cups of rice
1 table spoon of dark miso 

Cut the celery, apple and onion in match sticks and fry them for about 30 minutes in sesame oil. Then put it in the blender with the miso, mix well, add the rice, mix again and make burgers with this mix.
Bake them in an oiled pan  for at least 30 minutes , flip them over from time to time and indeed, this gives you juice burgers.

Bon apetit!

Non Meat Loaf

Ingredients:

1 c cooked brown rice 
1 c dark lentils
Sea salt
Sesame  oil
1 chopped carrot
1/2 chopped onion
1 stalk chopped celery
1 ts Herbs de Provence

1 TBS fresh ginger
1 tomato (optional)
1/2 c walnuts or peanuts roasted and chopped
1/4 c wheat germ
2 TBS brown mustard
1 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS miso
1/4 c  water
1/4 c whole wheat flour

Cook lentils: add 1 cup of rinsed lentils to 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cook about 25-30 minutes, covered. Leave cover off toward the end if there is still a lot of water.

Cook the vegetables: heat oil in pan, and fry  the tomato, carrots, onions and  celery with seasonings until golden brown. Add 1/2-1 cup water and allow to evaporate.  

Toast nuts in a skillet until golden, adding wheat germ toward the end to lightly toast. Cool  down. Add this with the whole wheat flour in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F/180 C. Coat a loaf pan with oil.
Once lentils, rice, and veggies have cooled, mix in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients  Season with sea salt and ginger.

Make sure the mixture is somewhat "wet" or else it will be crumbly instead of moist. You can add more water if necessary.

Place in loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches at least 160 degrees F/70 C. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and then cut. Serve with a mushroom sauce.

You also can bake it in muffin forms, then you have  more crunchy surface in less baking time.