Keep it Real

Lacto Fermented Hummus

I had soaked and cooked up a bunch of organic chickpeas the other day. A couple of days later I looked at them in the fridge and thought - hummus! I didn't have tahini, but I did have some sesame oil. 

I started by pureeing the chickpeas - of course they were dry (not from a can) so they needed some liquid added during the puree. I'm always trying to incorporate the extra whey that's always around, so I just started adding whey during the pureeing. To this I mixed in olive oil, sesame oil, lemon juice, lime juice, lots of fresh pressed garlic, cumin, sea salt, and some chili flakes. Sorry, no measurements - taste, adjust, taste again. Keep going until you taste and say, 'oh wow! that's yummy!' LOL!

At this point I'm remembering my lacto fermented bean dip made of pinto beans from NT. Same thing, right? Pureed beans, whey, salt, spices... I put it all in an old pickle jar and let it sit out on the counter for 2-3 days.

The jar is a bit big and there was about 4-5 inches of air space at the top. It has a tight fitting lid. 

Turns out that it was a good thing I had that extra room. Here it is after two days on the counter. It certainly did bubble up and expand! I'm sure I added at least a half cup of whey to this mixture as I was pureeing it. I put it in the fridge yesterday and did have one small taste of it. A wonderful flavor with just a touch of that lacto fermented bite. Hope some of you can try this out! Today I sliced up some cucumbers and bell peppers from yesterday's farmers market trip.  Put a bowl of hummus out with the veggies and we all dipped away! It was yummy!

 
Shared at The Healthy Home Economist, Monday Mania and Whole Foods for the Holidays. 

Soaked Spice cake with a Nutty Raisin topping

Raw milk kefir has been part of my life for exactly a year now.  I've kept a constant supply going and always find a way to use it.  Occasionally I'll drink a glass plain, but other than that, it's made into smoothies, cheese, dressings, baked goods, ect.  There is about a quart brewing all the time.  I strive to have no more than a half gallon on hand at a time.  If it gets to be more than that, then that means we are not consuming enough.  

I found myself with some extra kefir so I decided to soak some whole wheat flour and oats in it for some type of baked good. You'll lose some of the probiotic benefits by baking with the kefir, but it is still highly nutritious.  What resulted was a delicious, lightly sweet, moist cake.  I almost want to call it a 'coffee cake'.  It would make a nice brunch addition or to bring to a gathering.

 

The night before you want to bake the cake mix together the flour, oats, and kefir.  Stir well to make sure all the oats and flour are wet.  Cover and leave in a warm spot in your kitchen.  The soaking process will reduce the phytic acid and make the nutrients more available.

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups oats

2 cups kefir

The next day preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish with butter or coconut oil.  In a big bowl mash a ripe banana and mix in the eggs, molasses, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.  Mix with a whisk until all ingredients are fully incorporated.  Then add the soaked flour mixture all at once.  Mix with a wooden spoon until all you can see are lumps of dough.  At this point it's better to put down the spoon and use a clean hand to squish all the dough pieces.  You want to make sure no lumps from the soaking dough are left.  Once it's well mixed pour it into the baking dish.

1 ripe mashed banana

2 large pastured eggs

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

This topping makes the cake!  Mix all the ingredients together and spread evenly over the unbaked cake.

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup organic raisins 

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.  It smells amazing baking in the oven! ;)

** I thought this delightful cake was wonderful and had just the right amount of sweetness.  My husband on the other hand felt it wasn't sweet enough.  If you would like a sweeter cake feel free to add a cup of any natural sweetener you choose to the mix.**

I would love to hear from any of you who might try this recipe!  Let me know how it turns out for you. 

This post is part of 'Fight Back Friday' at Food Renegade and Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist.

Tuesday Twister ~ July 6th

Lately I've really been concentrating on getting some type of fermented, highly probiotic and nutritious food along with each meal.  It's really not hard to do when I work on having a constant supply of lacto fermented vegetables, raw soft cheese, milk kefir, kombucha, and water kefir.  Here are a few examples.

This was absolutely delicious!  Soaked brown rice cooked in bone broth topped with sauteed various greens and radishes and pastured eggs cooked in coconut oil.  Along side it a serving of fermented kim chi pickles.  This was Tim's plate, and he wasn't super thrilled with the combo.  I had one egg, greens and a small bit of rice with the pickles.  I LOVED it and will make small portions for myself.  It's an easy breakfast when you have everything on hand.

 

Here's a grain free option.  This is a very usual breakfast for me.  Sauteed greens with an egg on top, side of purple lacto fermented cabbage, and some avocado.  Super delicious and filling.  Remember when going out to breakfast was a treat??  It really isn't anymore.  Not when I can make myself stuff like this at home. 
 

Dinner the other night.  Wild caught local salmon baked with coconut milk and fresh herbs, beets sauteed in butter and sea salt and a fresh greens salad with kefir ranch dressing.  Yum!

 

We also went berry picking last weekend.  I can't believe how fortunate we were to find a local organic strawberry farm!!  Strawberries are part of the dirty dozen I always feel guilty for buying the non organic ones, but they are just so hard to resist!  Well we didn't have to resist these at 1.50 per lb!  We picked 30 lbs and I brought them home to clean and freeze.

Next was cherries.  Oh cherries, how I love you so.  18 lbs.  I have several gallon bags in my freezer and I hope to get more in there before the short season is over.

This post is happily part of Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS.  

  

On my counter

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to grow things?  I do.  I love it.  Always have.  Doesn't matter what it is - animals, plants, babies, food, anything living.  I've always had a fascination with anything living and changing.  'Indoor gardening' has fit in with that fascination quite well.

Here's what I have going at the moment.  From left to right.  

A half gallon of raw goat milk. This milk went straight from goat to cheese. No refrigeration, no heating.  Just bring it home warm and add the mesophilic culture and rennet.  Sits out until it has formed almost like jello, then I strain it through cheesecloth to separate the whey from the cheese.  It's really good and similar to cream cheese.  Fresh raw cheese!

The next half gallon jar is kombucha.  I've had this mother culture since last summer.  Over the winter I let it go months and months and ended up with a kombucha vinegar - which I really liked to use in dressings and as a soaking medium.  I didn't like the taste of kombucha so letting it turn to vinegar worked well for me.  Well, recently I decided to try it again and have found I like it better!  So I've been brewing it once a week and drinking a small glass every day.

The jar next to it is a second fermentation of water kefir.  I added a juiced orange (along with the pulp) and some fresh ginger pieces.  I've been playing around with different flavors and this one smells pretty good!  I'll strain it today or tomorrow and see how it tastes.

Ginger carrots - this is my first time trying this recipe.  Grated organic carrots, grated fresh ginger, whey, and sea salt. Mixed together and packed in a jar.  Let sit at room temp for a few days to ferment. They smell really good and I'm excited to try this.  Can you believe that I'm still eating vegetable ferments from last summer's harvest?  I'm the only one in the house that eats it and it's lasted me this long. Still tastes good!

Next to that is a new brew of water kefir.  When I started the second fermentation of the previous batch, I started a new one brewing.  These grains grow quickly!  I had to take some out and store them in the fridge.  I let it brew for a week to be sure the sugar is mostly eaten up.

And on the end I have pinto beans sprouting.  First I soaked them in whey and warm water for more than 12 hours.  Then I drained and rinsed them in a colander.  I keep them in this over a plate with a towel over the whole thing.  I rinse them twice a day.  They now have little sprouts coming out.  I think today I'll cook them in some of the bone broth I have left from the other day.  Then I'll either use them in a dish right away or freeze them in batches for later use.

On the liver front - still not satisfied with giving up on the liver pate.  So yesterday I made a batch of sourdough crepes and filled them with the pate, an herbed yogurt dressing and some lato fermented kraut.  Rolled them up and put in the fridge for easy grabbing.  I had two of them and they were tolerable!  I think it will help when I don't have to SEE the pate (which looks like something I wouldn't want to eat) and has melded flavors with the dressing and kraut.  Yeah, I'm stubborn.

 

Sour Cream

Who doesn't love sour cream?  It adds a tart creamy smoothness to so many dishes.  There is a way to make sour cream out of just raw milk and some cultures or just letting it sit out or something (can you tell I've never done it?).  I've found a way to have delicious, fresh, raw, probiotic sour cream.  A couple of weeks ago I made chevre.  It comes out like a cream cheese.  I've also been keeping up my kefir - always have a supply of it in the fridge.  So all I do is blend some chevre and kefir till I get the consistency of sour cream.  VIOLA!! Beautiful sour cream!  Now, you're probably thinking - that's a lot of work for sour cream - making raw milk chevre and kefir.  You're right, it would be.  But I already have those things on hand - so if these are the types of dairy products you keep around then give some sour cream a try!

 

This morning it was soooo good on one pastured egg mixed with a tablespoon of kefir, fried into an omelet in coconut oil and topped with my tomato pesto chevre and a side of purple lacto kraut.  mmm!