Nourishing Nectarine Crisp

nectarine crisp

I love fruit crisps. They are a perfect alternative to the more complicated fruit pie – there’s still warm sweet fruit and spices involved, just with a delicious sweet topping instead of a more neutral pastry underneath.

I’ve been making fruit crisps for a long time. Usually I rely on the fruit crisp recipe from my favorite cookbook, Fields of Greens, by Annie Somerville. Somerville opened one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Greens. I first ate there when I was a practicing vegetarian – the food is amazing and the views are spectacular, looking out the big windows toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

Even meat-eating friends at that time loved Greens. No one felt like anything was missing.

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I Took a Little Break

So last week I was a little lax with the posting.  It was my birthday on Friday, and I had a bunch of plans with friends, so I ended up being offline from Friday afternoon through the weekend.  It was a nice break, and a little odd not turning on the computer, but I think it’s important to unplug from the laptop a bit for a few days from time to time.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, as well as with some newer friends, and that made the weekend really special.  So good to be with the people you care about, and who care about you.

As far as what I ate… well, I admit that overindulged in the rich, sweet food category a bit, but hey – it was my birthday!  But on the bright side, what I ate was made with quality ingredients.  I had some cake from a local bakery that uses real food – butter, eggs, cream; none of this shortening or veg oil business.  And I did make a peach sorbet from my CSA peaches, which came out great. Had a few cups of fair trade coffee and tea.  Sharing it all with friends made it even better.

So now I’m back on my favored eating path, and expect to feel amazing over the next couple of weeks!  I’ll have some recipes, a garden update, and another CSA report this week.  Stay tuned!

Brownies – A Conversion Story

brownies

These days I’m not totally refined-sugar-free anymore.  However, I have managed to find a way to eat refined sugars in very small quantities – mostly in a bite or two of gelato here and there, or some dark chocolate, or in a treat made by a friend – and I eat natural, unrefined sugars in small amounts – raw honey in my tea, mostly.  I don’t eat sweets every day, either.  This works for me, and who knows – maybe someday I’ll be able to totally and forever kick the sugar habit, both refined and unrefined!

Earlier this week, I talked about using coconut sugar, a gentle, traditional sweetener derived from the sap of the coconut palm flower.  I used this sugar in a batch of brownies last weekend, and I thought it was a great alternative to refined white sugar.  The sweetness was gentle and light, with no acrid element to it at all.

Not knowing what exact results I’d get by this switcheroo, I felt that brownies would be more forgiving in this experiment – the combination of chocolate, eggs, butter, and sweetener is a pretty safe gamble in resulting deliciousness.

Additionally, I used sprouted wheat flour in exchange for cake flour; this was the first time I’d used a sprouted grain flour and I liked it a lot.  It added a nice texture to the brownie; in the past, I had used whole wheat pastry flour in place of the specified cake flour, and still enjoyed the more uneven texture compared to white flour.

Usually, one can substitute 7/8 cup all-purpose flour for each cup of cake flour, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for every 7/8 cup all-purpose flour used.  However, I didn’t want to use any cornstarch, so I just stuck with the flour on its own.  I knew it would make for a heavier brownie, and I was ok with that.

The chocolate I used was, sad to say, quite inferior, but it was all I had at the time.  I do not recommend using unsweetened Baker’s chocolate for anything, really.  It imparted an anemic chocolate flavor – flat with no depth, no real richness.  Next time, I will search for something of higher quality, preferably organic.

The eggs and butter were fabulous.  The eggs are pastured “beyond-organic”, and come from my buying club.  The butter was Organic Valley Pasture Butter.  Plenty of CLA and Omega-3s there.

Vanilla, baking powder and salt are what’s left.  Nothing remarkable with these ingredients.

It had been a long time since I’d made brownies.  The recipe I use is from Cook’s Illustrated The Best Recipe, and I think it’s a very good basic brownie recipe.  The recipe converted ok, but I think it will convert even better if I use even less flour next time.  The brownies, which normally come out more fudgy than cakey, came out not quite cakey but certainly not fudgy.

My friend Charlene, who was there helping out, also remarked that using the full cup of sugar would also contribute to a more fudgy texture; I used only about 3/4 cup of sugar, because in tasting the batter it seemed sweet enough.  I understand that coconut sugar is not as sweet as white sugar, so the brownie batter tasting sweet enough with 3/4 cup coconut sugar tells me how far along I’ve come in my tolerance of sweet things.

The brownies did improve the day after, I believe.  They got a little softer and a little more intense in flavor, which I enjoyed very much.

My goal is to have a brownie recipe that is nourishing while still being a reasonably sweet treat.  I want to do some more testing with this recipe before I share the details of the adjustments I’ve made, so I am not going to reprint the recipe just yet.  Look for it in the near future, though!

The Best Rice Pudding

rice pudding

Recently, I read this post by traditional food blogger Cheeseslave, entitled Paula of Guadalajara, Mexico: A Testament to Dr. Weston Price, and was struck by her exchange regarding dessert:

I asked her how many times a week her children got dessert. I thought maybe she’d say once a week. She said, “Usually every night.” …  She’d also make them “arroz con leche” or rice & milk custard, made with milk, butter, rice, raisins, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of sugar.

When I saw that, I was instantly inspired to make rice pudding.  I’ve been a fan of rice pudding since I was a little girl, and especially liked the recipe my grandmother uses.  She passed it down to me, and I’m so grateful to have it, because it’s wonderful!  In fact, I’ve made this rice pudding for people who say they hate the stuff, and after tasting it they become total converts.

I used to make it with conventional ingredients, but now I make it with my raw milk – and yes, the milk cooks in the process, but as it’s grass-fed, non-homogenized and did not go through the pasteurization process originally, it’s so much better for you.

I use raw milk, organic sugar, pastured eggs, grass-fed butter, and organic rice – I like to use sushi rice because it results in an even creamier pudding than with long grain white rice; arborio rice would work, too, I bet.  I do wonder if maple syrup would be a good replacement for the sugar; I’ll have to try that next time.

Rice Pudding

Dessert is something I love, and although I’m severely reducing my sugar intake, I’d be sad to completely abandon dessert.  I’m constantly looking for options that do not wreck havoc on my system, and that are relatively healthy while being delicious.  This pudding works for me – it’s made with top notch ingredients and is very rich, so a little goes a long way.  It’s also a wonderful dish to share with others – rice pudding is so comforting.

1/2 c. organic white rice (long grain or sushi, not instant)
1 c. water
1 qt. milk (4 cups)
1/2 stick unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
3 pastured eggs
1/2 c. evaporated cane juice or rapadura
1 c. raisins (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon

Pour rice slowly into rapidly boiling water in large pot. Don’t stir.

Cover tightly and cook exactly 7 minutes. Water should be absorbed for the most part.

Add milk and butter. Stir a little.

Bring mixture to a boil, cover and cook slowly over a low flame for 1 hour.

5 minutes before the hour is up, beat eggs, add sweetener and vanilla.

Temper egg mixture by mixing a little bit of the hot milk and rice in with the eggs. Pour mixture into rice, stirring slowly until rice starts to thicken. Add cinnamon to taste. Can be enjoyed either warm or cold.