Turnip Ferment as Pickles

I think I have a new favorite!   Turnips! The lowly turnip as it turns out, makes a wonderful pickle ferment.
I bought some lovely turnips at the grocery store and decided to experiment with them.  I cut one of them up and used that in a ground turkey soup which was very good, and the rest I decided to ferment.   I had two
 1 liter  "pickl-it" jars free so I used those.  When I use the liter jars I use slightly less than 1 TBS salt ( that is my standard for quart jars)....like  2 tsp. plus some, salt for the brine for each jar.  The instructions that come with the "Pickl-it Jars" use the metric measurements like  "mls" or grams of salt and I figured that out in TBS and tsps.

I started with 7 med to large turnips and cut then in quarters then peeled the white peeling off but left a little bit of the purple.  I love color and figured that little bit of purple would be pretty.  Yes!   I was right, it did cast a slightly pink color to the liquid that I find very appealing.  I cut each turnip quarter into sticks and packed them into the jars.  I filled the jars with my "Prill" water and then poured that out and added 2 tsp. plus  Real Salt to make brine and poured that back in.  I filled the "air locks" with regular water and set them aside at room temp for 5 days.   There were enough lacto-bacillus on the turnips to start consuming the sugars from the turnip juice.  They bubbled away for 5 days...very active.   After 5 days I removed the "air locks" and put in the little red plugs that come with the jars and set them in the fridge for another week.  The cold slows down  the fermentation.   At the end of second week you can eat them or put all vegetables with brine in clean glass jars and tighten the lids, label and stick downstairs.   Same process I use for sauerkraut.
These are so good!

Pretty Pink!

"Starter Pancakes"; Digestible, Eatable Bread

This post is for those who have a sourdough or natural yeast starter that you are feeding regularly and making sourdough bread once in a while and perhaps your family will not eat whole grain sourdough bread cause it tastes "yucky" or sour.   Here is a solution; fry up pancakes made with the starter, the excess starter as you are feeding it.

 Wheat flour has some serious digestive problems that natural yeasts can mitigate if allowed to soak in a jar with water and yeast for several hours or days.   If you are using sourdough then you or someone you feed is having digestive problems with wheat.   This is a good solution even for those that are gluten intolerant but only if the gluten intolerant person has had some healing in the gut first by leaving all wheat products alone for a time.  Wheat starches are also a problem and the yeasts break them down as well.

1/2 cup sourdough whole grain starter  either wheat or spelt or combination
1  beaten egg
Real salt to taste
maybe a TBS of honey or agave
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix all this thoroughly, it will puff up when you add the babking soda then stir down and fry in hot fat such as butter, ghee or coconut oil.
I store them in the fridge and use as "bread" for husbands sandwiches.

The secret to making it not sour is the baking soda.  Soda "sweetens"  the sour.

Sourdough bread can also be made sweeter by using 1/2 tsp baking soda to the dough as you knead it before final rising.  It will puff up some but knead it a little before loaf forming and final rising and baking.

Another "sweetener" is to feed your starter often, at least twice a week or more and keep starter in the fridge. This slows down the action and it still bubbles in the cold but the taste is not quite so sour in the finished bread.

Sauerkraut "Stomp"

For those who live in Utah County, or close by, I will come to your house and teach you and others that you invite, how to make your own healthy, pro-biotic, living food, tasty, inexpensive, life changing and healing SAUERKRAUT!   Making your own sauerkraut is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to start fermenting your food.  Properly fermented sauerkraut is an alkaline food that is preserved by lactic acid which tastes like vinegar but when consumed, turns alkaline and is very "gut" friendly.   Cabbage juice is very beneficial for healing damaged gut but fermented cabbage juice is a SUPER healer!   There are no starts to buy for this ....if your cabbage is out of your garden or a neighbor's or you buy it organic, then it will have natural lacto-bacillus bacteria on it which will start it naturally.  I will bring some of my own for tastes.

My fee is $30  which will cover gas and traveling.   I would prefer daytime appointments, but an evening would do.    801-765-4645     or    joannesmithseal@gmail.com

 
You will need to provide for yourself, and the others you invite will need to bring....
1. a head of cabbage, organic  white or purple
2. chopping board
3. good knife
4.  a pounding tool like a clean hammer or meat tenderizer
5.  a big plastic bowl
6.  one or two clean wide mouth quart jars or one big 2 quart jar
7.  some pink, Redmond Real Salt
8.  maybe an apron

Adzuki Beans, Amaranth and Walnuts; Great Foods for As and Os

I've been preaching the Blood Type Diet and living it for 6 years now and still discovering new things.   These two foods I have recently been experimenting with and found my body likes them, digests them easily without gas or constipation or discomfort.  Once cooked, I've been combining them as a sweet treat and it is very satisfying.

Cooking Adzuki beans.  They are small and red and cook easily.
1 cup dry Adzuki beans in a quart of water, soak over night.
Cook next day in same water.  Bring to high heat for first few minutes then reduce heat and simmer 1 hour,
with lid.   Add almost 1 tsp. Real Salt and simmer another 1/2 hr or until tender.

Cooking Amaranth. This ancient So. American staple looks like millet (African staple) only smaller.
3/4 cup amaranth in a quart of water
add 2 TBS whole flax seeds  (another beneficial food for As, Os and Bs)
add 2 TBS  chia seeds  ( either beneficial or neutral for all 4 blood types)
Soak over night (soaking neutralizes the phytic acid on all grains, seeds and nuts)
All three of these foods create a "gelatinous" material  when soaked which is highly
nutritious for the gut of As and Os.
Start cooking low and allow to simmer low and slow with lid, for an hour and half or more
as needed.

Walnuts have strong phytic acid on them so they need to be soaked for a day and then laid out to dry before storing.  Those who don't like walnuts find that they taste the bitterness of phytic acid so when this is neutralized by water soaking, the bitter taste is gone. Walnuts are beneficial for all 4 blood types.  

I took a scoop of both the cooked beans and the cooked amaranth and combined them in a bowl and added some melted coconut oil, some honey, some walnuts (previously soaked and dried)  and some cream.  This was so good!   very satisfying  and yet not upsetting to my gut.

I keep both cooked foods in the fridge in separate containers and find that they go with eggs and vegetables in the morning for breakfast or any other food  later for lunch and dinner.  They digest easily for As and Os
which is a boon for mixed marriages.