Stuffed mushrooms

These vegan stuffed mushrooms are delicious with tons of umami. Be sure to make enough because they disappear fast.

Ingredients:

13 Stuffing mushrooms
Mushroom stems from stuffing mushrooms, chopped
2 cups of cooked seitan, grounded in a food prosessor
1 leek or onion, chopped
1 parsnip, finely grated
2-3 celery stalks, finely chopped
1-2 cups kale or spinach, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

olive oil
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning
lemon juice to your liking,from 1/2-1 lemon
lemon peel from 1/2 lemon, or more if you like
2 table spoon mushroom miso. This is optional s it is hard to find. I used my home made chicken of the wood miso.

Sautee the leek, parsnip , celery , mushroom stems and garlic in the olive oil. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
Add ground seitan after 5 minutes. Add water or a broth if too dry.
Add the spices.
The kale goes in last as you want to keep it nice and green.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes

Almost done sautéing

Close up. The seitan  has a meat like look and consistency. 

Ready for the oven

Seitan (don't look further if you dont eat wheat gluten)

I have been making seitan ever since I was introduced to vegetarian cooking 30 years ago.

Seitan is pure wheat gluten. I love using it in stews as it absorbs  the flavours of the dish.

Make a dough with high protein wheat flour. The dough should be pliable and easy to kneed. The amount of flour depends on the amount of gluten you want. Try starting with 8 cups of flour.
Kneed for 5-10 minutes.
Let it sit for 1-2 hours under hot water.

Kneed the dough under the water. You'll notice that the gluten is stringy. Change water frequently until the water is clear and you have a stringy gooey mass .

The raw seitan below has been sitting overnight in a bowl , hence the shape.

Cut into pieces. At this point you can freeze it for later use.

Boil the raw seitan with water, shoyu sause, bayleaf and ginger,. I usually add kombu seeweed for umami and nutrition.

You can omit this step and add the raw seitan right to your stew, it will absorb the flavors. Be aware that the seitan will expand as it cooks.

Add the prepared seitan to your stew. Here its added to a chili.

On the picture below the seitan it deep fried.. It is so delicious added to a stew.

Here the deep fried seitan is added to a root vegetable stew. The deep fried seitan adds a meat like quality to the stew.

See my recipe for stuffed mushrooms for more ideas of how to cook with seitan. 

Sourdough bread.

Recently I purchased a sourdough starter  on line (yes somebody has a sourdough starter business).

Making sourdough bread is a love affair. It needs carful attention and encouragement to bloom into its full potensial; a beautiful corny loaf of bread. It comes out with a different personality every time  I make it, which makes baking bread so much fun.

I make bread approximately every two weeks and do not feed the starter in between. I even forgot about it for a couple of months , and was able to revive it after scraping off a little bit of mold.

You can mix any kind of flour. I like spelt, oat and rye in different proportions. Sunflowers add a nice crunch.

This bread is baked in a  pre heated cast iron pot.

Following is the basic steps.

Day 1.

Take the sourdough starter out of the fridge . I keep it in a mason jar.

 Add 2 tbs of flour and 2-3 tbs of water. Let sit over night.












Day 2

 It is bubbling!


Add more flour and water in the morning

 This is how it will look like when you get home from work.

 Scrape it in to a bowl

 And add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of flour. Let sit over night. The dough should be fairly loose.












Day 3.

 In am add 2 more cups of flour and a little bit of salt of make a semi firm dough.

This is a good time to take off a lump of dough for the next time you are making bread.

In pm it will look something like this. It is ready to be formed into a loaf.

 Add seeds, nuts, oat, dried fruits; what ever you want.

 And form it into a loaf. Make a nice pattern so that the bread does have room to expand without ripping into an ugly  looking ravine.

 Cover the baking bowl with parchment paper and carefully ease the bread into it.



Let it raise in the fridge over night.







Day 4.

Let the bread sit for 3-4 hours in room temperature.

45 minutes before you intend to bake it, turn your oven on 425F  and heat up the cast iron pot.

Be careful when you remove it. Use the parchment paper to lift the bread from the baking bowl into the cast iron pot. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.

 After 30  minutes take of the lid and let it bake for another 20 minutes.
Insert a thin stick to check if the bread is done, if dough sticks, bake for longer. It is done when the stick comes out clean.

Take the bread out of the cast iron pot using the parchment paper.

Cool on a rist.

I usually cannot wait until the bread is completely cooled off ( I probably would not pass the marshmallow test) before I cut into it.











If you need a starter, let me know.

Pepperkaker

It is getting to look a lot like Christmas.......

My boys will not let the holiday pass without a demand for "Pepper kaker" which is the Norwegian version of gingerbread cookies.

Here is the recipe ( sorry it is the metric version):

Butter, 150 gm

Golden Syrup ( Lyle's), 1 deciliter (dl)

Sugar, 2 dl

Heavy Cream , 1 dl

All purpose flour, 6 dl

Ground clove, 1/2 tsp

Ground ginger, 1/2 tsp

Ground pepper, 1/2 tsp

Ground cinnamon 2 tsp

Baking powder, 1 tsp

Day 1:
Mix butter, syrup and sugar in a pot, heat until the sugar and butter are melted. Cool and add cream.
Mix in the flour, spices and baking powder. Stir well. Let it sit in a cool spot until next day.

Day 2:
Knead the dough . Grab an orange sized dough slab and roll it to apr 0.2 inch.  Use your favorite cookie cutter,

Bake 8-10 minutes at 400 F, in the middle of the oven.

Let them cool on a rack.

Put them in a locked box or keep them hidden until Christmas.

Lactofermented vegetables, the ultimate slow cooked food

Recently I was introduced to fermenting vegetables and was pleasantly  surprised how delicious they are. So now we have a new family favorite.

Fermentation of vegetables have been used since the dawn of humanity to preserve the harvest.  Not only does the fermentation prosess preserve but it also improves on the nutritional value of the vegetable. The fermentation process creates gut friendly bacterias, probiotics, which are so beneficial to human health.

You can ferment almost any vegetables but the most commonly used is cabbage in the form of
sauerkraut.

My favorite recipe so far is cabbage mixed with grated turmeric root and chopped ginger. The first batch disappeared within a week so the second time I doubled the amount.

I also made cabbage with dried birch polypor, to add umami, and dulse, a common seaweed.

Inspired by the traditional korean kimchi I added watermelon radish, scallions, korean hot pepper, garlic, ginger and a little bit of fish sauce to a second batch.

Believe me, making sauerkraut is incredibly easy.

This is how I calculate how much salt to use.

Vegetables (pounds) to salt (grams)

• 1/2# : 5g or 1 teaspoon
• 1# : 9g or 2 teaspoons
• 2# : 18g or 1 scant tablespoon
• 2.5# : 23g or 1 rounded tablespoon
• 3# : 27g or 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons
• 3.5# : 2 scant tablespoons
• 4# : 36g or 2 tablespoons
• 5# : 45g or 3 tablespoons
• 10# : 91g or 5 tablespoons

If you do not have any of the ingredients below you can make wonderful sauerkraut with cabbage only.

                                      Sauerkraut with turmeric and ginger

For this recipe I used 4 cabbage head which weighed 9 pounds all together; a days work of chopping and kneading.

Chop the cabbage fine.

 Add the grated turmeric root (two 5 cm pieces) , chopped ginger (approximately 2 cm)  and salt.

Knead the ingredients together until you have plenty of juice. The salt will draw out the liquid from the cabbage.

Put the vegetables in the fermentation vessel. I have a Korean kimchi box which works wonders keeping the oxygen away from the vegetables. 

You can use any glass or food grade plastic vessel, just be sure that the vegetables are submerged under the brine. 

The inner lid keeps the vegetables submerged in the brine, away from oxygen.

Then the waiting begins............... 2-4 weeks depending on your tast buds.

The "kimchi" cabbage is made the same way as the sauerkraut plus watermelon radish (you can use any radish) a bunch of scallions, ginger, garlic, a dash of fish sauce and hot Korean pepper. 

This is cabbage, dulse and a few pieces of dried birch polypore.

One of my favorite kraut is " Crazy Kraut " courtesy Michelle Knox on Wild Fermentation on Face Book. 

2 heads Cabbage. chopped coarsely

1 pineapple = cut into chunks

2 large jalapeños - thinly sliced 

2 T salt

1 tsp Chipotle powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 T Mexican oregano

t tsp smoked paprika

1 bunch Scallions - chopped

1 red onion - chopped

Add salt to cabbage in a big dish tub or bowl.. massage and let sit… Occasionally massage it or pound it… depending on your mood! When there’s about an inch of brine in the tub, add the rest of the ingredients.. Mix well and press into a large jar… This quantity makes one half gallon… Press down.. if the brine doesn’t cover the cabbage make a little more and add it… weight down.. This time I used a ziplock bag filled with brine to fill up the space. Slap a lid on it and put away in a shady place.. In a tub to catch the overflow… wait 4 weeks!!! Refrigerate!!!

Use the salt calculation as above if you are making a smaller batch.

I have used apples instead of pineapple and it came out super.


Other tips:

These glass weights are helpful to submerge the vegetables . You can check them out at the link below.

https://nourishedessentials.com/products/the-easy-weight-fermentation-weights-with-grooved-handles

These fermentation lids keep the oxygen out of your ferment while letting out gas from a slit in the top so that your ferment dont act like a home made bomb ( it will eventually explode if  gas builds up)

https://www.amazon.com/Maintenance-silicone-waterless-fermentation-dishwasher/dp/B072N42T61/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1521395640&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=waterless+fermentation+lids&psc=1

It is so much fun to ferment vegetables. The only challenge is the waiting.

Have fun!

If you participated in one of my Sauerkraut classes this is the  webpage where you can give your donation: http://profile.pmc.org/MS0629

Ganoderma Tsugae tea/broth

Mushroom season is over us. I love to go looking for them when I visit my sister in law in New Hampshire.

One of my favorit mushrooms are Ganoderma Tsugae.

You can find them on hemlocks that grow close to water.

This year I was fortunate to find wilting hemlocks full of these beautiful mushrooms.

Ganoderma also known as Reishi or Lingshi, has been used for centuries in Asia due to their alleged medicinal properties.

First cut the mushrooms in 0.5 cm thickness.

Ganoderma is a woody mushroom and you need a good knife. My bread knife worked well.

Dry them over night in a dehydrator on the highest setting. 

They should be easy to break in half when done.  If they are not  entirely dry they may mold and have to be discarded. 

Store the dried mushrooms in a container. Add a small bag of silica to keep them from 

molding.

I add a few strips to my stews and soups to add umami. Pick them out before serving as they are woody and impossible to chew.

Fried Rice

When I am in a hurry this is my go to dish. You can make the rice ahead of time.

This serves 4 people. Usually I have enough leftover for lunch the following day.



1 cup of rice, I like to use short brown rice

2 cups of water

pinch of salt

1-2 tbl spoons roasted sesame oil or any other oil to your liking

1 leek, cut thin

2 carrots, cut julienne style

1 red pepper, cubed

1 package of firm tofu, cubed (1/2 X 1/2 inch)

Corn from 1-2 cobs of corns, or use frozen corn.

crushed garlic to your liking

1 -2 table spoon of  ginger juice or grated ginger

Soy sauce, enough to make it tasty but not too salty.

1 bunch of Cilantro

roasted walnuts , optional


Add water and rice and pinch of salt . Cook until done.

Heat the oil add the garlic for 1 min.

Add the vegetables, stir for 1 minute then add the soy sauce; stir for 2-3 minutes.

Add the cubed tofu add more soy sauce and the ginger juice. Stir for 2-3 minutes.

Add the cooked rice  and more seasoning if needed.

Just before serving add the cilantro.

Use roasted chopped walnut as garnish.