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Massaged Raw Kale Salad Recipe

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Yeah, it happened to me too at the end of the year-I couldn’t resist eating the homemade goodies that arrived in little cellophane gift bags tied with pretty ribbons.  Full disclosure: I could resist most cookies but not the homemade almond roca or the toffee.  So, as the New Year begins, I am sharing my antidote for replacing the sweet taste that might still be clinging to your palate, and derailing your healthy food choices too.

At Parsley Farm, lacinato kale, or commonly referred to as dinosaur kale, is our primary winter food crop.  All the cruciferous vegetables grow well in the Pacific Northwest climate, but kale, in particular, seems to thrive. And if it thrives, we thrive.  Unlike cabbage, broccoli or Brussels sprouts, which mature for a one-time harvest, kale, a plant that keeps on giving throughout the seasons, will continue to generate growth when some of its leaves are picked as it develops. If you start your plants in the spring, by fall they will mature into big leafy plants, mighty manufacturers of nutrient dense nutrition for picking throughout the winter.

Kale is a medicinal money tree as far as I’m concerned.  With many large plants growing in my garden, I feel rich. In Chinese medicine, we view kale as slightly bitter which benefits the liver and heart.  All dark green vegetables nourish the blood, but kale also has a detoxifying effect, which can be helpful for anyone with cancer thus my strong attraction to this plant. It is also helpful for lowering cholesterol.  Besides being rich in vitamins such as Vit A, C and K, it is also a good source of iron, magnesium and calcium.

Massaging raw kale is my favorite way to prepare it because by manually breaking down the cell walls, we render it into a tender, digestible and delicious dish.  The shiny deep dark green leaves seem to transform into something more akin to seaweed with all the nutrient richness of chlorophyll coming to the surface, but with none of the fishy taste. Below is my basic recipe because I like the simple, clean taste of the kale itself with a little red onion, but it can be fancied up with red pepper, olives or sprouts, or whatever else you might imagine.

Parsley Farm

Massaged Raw Kale Salad

Ingredients

1 bunch kale

1 – 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or, any other acid: ½ lemon or lime; rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar)

1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 pinches of sea salt (adjust to taste)

¼ cup red onion sliced thinly

First, cut the stems out of the kale.

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Roll up a few de-stemmed leaves at a time and then slice them into narrow bite size pieces.

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Put all of the sliced kale into a bowl, add 2 pinches of salt and drizzle olive oil over the greens.  After washing your hands, massage the kale with your hands for 2 -3 minutes until they soften and wilt, and become visibly darker.  Add your vinegar and stir.  Add sliced red onion, and any other additions such as red pepper, olives or sprouts.  Toss, serve, and eat ALLOT.

 

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Rice Currency

img.phpSouthend Sake for sale this Saturday (Dec. 8th) at the Rainier Beach Community Club Holiday Bazaar located at VFW, 6038 S. Pilgrim Street, Seattle, 10a.m.-2p.m.

A few years ago we came under the tutelage of sake master, Ten Ridlon.  Ten passed on all the technicalities and timing of adding the primary ingredients (water, rice, koji and yeast) over a forty-five day period.  When rice and koji are introduced gradually into the fermentation, at repeated intervals, the yeasts produce alcohol at higher concentrations than any other type of fermented alcohol. It took awhile for us to acquire our own mastery over these few ingredients, but now we are making consistent delicious batches of Shiboritate Namazake Genshu Nigori Sake.

Let me explain these Japaenese terms:

Shiboritate means that it was just pressed.  The sake we are selling on Saturday was pressed on Thursday night.

Namazake is a sake that has not been pasteurized.  It has a live culture of probiotics, which requires refrigerated storage and has a shorter shelf-life than pasteurized sake.

Genshu is undiluted sake.  Most sake is diluted with water after brewing to lower the alcohol content, but genshu is not.

Nigori is cloudy sake.  The sake is passed through a loose mesh to separate it from the mash.  It isn’t filtered thereafter and there is much rich sediment in the bottle.  Before serving, the bottle is shaken to mix the sediment and turn the sake white or cloudy.

Unlike beer, sake, fermented rice wine, tastes more nutritive, and its sparkly, clean disposition reminds you that it is very much alive. I only drink it in tiny sips due to its high alcoholic content however; Craig enjoys sake with most meals.  As grill master, he especially enjoys using it as a main ingredient for his moistening marinades for fish, pork and chicken.  I use sake kasu, or sake lees, the remaining solids that were pressed from the liquid sake, for pickling, and experimentally in cooking.  I also use it as a face mask.

In 8th century Japan, rice grains were traditionally used as a commodity, a means of currency.  At Parsley Farm, we would like to continue trading in grain and we encourage our neighbors to develop their own mediums for currency so we can have a very vibrant and alive marketplace in Upper Rainier Beach.

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Raw Sprouted Buckwheat Granola

tumblr_mejikgAR1Y1ra92m5When fall turns to winter, we all start looking for our sugar fixes.  We seem to have a physiologic insistence for heavier, denser food, specifically in the form of carbohydrates.  For Craig and I, that urge hit on December 1st.  For the most part, we eat the Paleolithic diet, which consists of raw foods, cooked vegetables and grilled meat.  I occasionally eat quinoa but generally no grains, starches, dairy or refined sugars. The benefit of this kind of diet is my lymphoma stays in remission. I also have no ups and downs in terms of weight gain or energy level, and have zero food cravings.  Reason enough to keep me on the straight and narrow, and feel good about it.

Craig has adapted well to this way of eating although he seems to have more carbohydrate requirements than I do.  He occasionally eats some flat breads and rice, but it is fairly minimal. But when I saw him return from a food-shopping trip with packaged pancake mix, I knew it was time to build more carbohydrates into our winter diet.  Lately, I also noticed myself prowling the kitchen on the hunt for a snack at night.  My usual snack of celery and peanut butter wasn’t cutting it.

Although there are fantastic raw food desserts recipes to choose from for a high protein/low glycemic sugar fix, I tend to make raw sprouted granola as my snack of choice because it has just the right heft and crunch factor for my tastes. After pouring myself a heap of granola into a bowl, I add coconut or almond milk and call it good. Craig, well, he might not be as easily satisfied with raw sprouted granola as I am.  I can hear him now crying out in his best grumpy old man imitation, “Where’s my pie?”

Why bother with soaking and sprouting grains?   Because when grain is soaked in water, it ferments which helps to pre-digest it.  And when the grain is sprouted, its nutrient (Vit B, C and protein) content is increased, and its enzymes are intact.

Raw Sprouted Granola

2 cups sprouted buckwheat (soak buckwheat overnight, drain and let sit in a colander until a sprout forms to the length of the grain.

1 cup almonds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

1 cup sunflower seeds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

8 – 10 dates (soaked and pureed)

½ cup coconut flakes (optional)

1/3 cup coconut oil

¼ cup maple syrup (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon

½  tsp salt

Optional: You can add walnut, cashews, and pumpkin seeds.

Mix all the ingredients together.  Dehydrate at 105 degrees until crunchy (12hrs). Add dried apricot or other dried fruits if you wish.  Store in a glass Mason jar.

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On Making Sauerkraut

tumblr_mdrtfiZ9EZ1ra92m5I always have containers of bubbling fermenting vegetables around so I can get my live food hit all year. In my kitchen, you’ll see glass jars of cabbage, turnips and tomatoes, crocks of cucumbers and chickpea miso, and plastic buckets with rice sake, all breaking down into highly digestible delectables. Fermentation not only is an excellent way to preserve vegetables, it also increases nutritional content, removes toxins and generates enzymes in the process.  Eating fermented food introduces lactobacillus bacteria (probiotics) into your digestive system. When it comes to health and strong immunity, lactobacillus bacteria is your best friend-the one who will watch your gut.

I love dipping into these containers for a quick snack or for an already prepared tangy side dish, which is sure to brighten every meal.

If you always wanted to know how to make sauerkraut, here are instructions from my favorite fomenter of fermentation, Sandor Ellis Katz:

http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/

Here’s a video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ

IExperiment. Befriend Bacteria. Don’t fear mold.

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Crunchi Mungchi Sprout Salad Recipe

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During the winter, I like to have light, raw foods available beyond the kale, turnips and root vegetables still in my garden. Sprouts contain vitamin A, C, B1 and B6, and are rich in minerals, protein and enzymes.  They are easy to digest, high in fiber but low in calories and cost so they are the perfect food to keep you light during the winter.

For sprouting, I use the Easy Sprout Spouters from www.sproutpeople.com because I get good crop of sprouts every time I use them; I like its design and ease for completely draining water from the sprouts.  I would recommend buying two or three Sprouters so you could be sprouting different kinds of seeds, legumes or grains at any one time.

Parsley Farm’s

Crunchi Mungchi Sprout Salad Recipe

This delicious crunchy clean tasting salad has a strong bite from the radish additions.  It will clear your nostrils and satisfy your palate at the same time. See last blog post for more on the benefits and hazards of horseradish.

4 cups sprouted mung beans (1/2 cup dried mung beans)

1 cup green cabbage (thinly sliced)

1/3 cup red onion (thinly diced)

1 small daikon radish (thinly diced)

1 green pepper (thinly diced)

1-2 tsp horseradish sauce

1/3 cup mayonnaise

water to thin sauce

½ squeezed lemon

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

In a medium bowl, mix mung bean sprouts and thinly sliced cabbage, green pepper, onion and daikon radish.  In a small separate bowl mix mayonnaise, lemon, horseradish sauce, salt and pepper and enough water to make a thin consistency.  Add more horseradish sauce if you want it spicier. Mix in sauce with mung bean sprout mixture.

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Killer Cure or Revenge of the Radish

DSC05824 Here I am innocently scraping the outerlayer off the horseradish root I just dug out of the garden. I’m thinking about my next steps in making horseradish sauce where I will chop the root into small pieces and then, along with salt, add white vinegar, a little water, before mixing them up in the Cuisinart.  It’s all very straightforward, ordinary kitchen crafting.  My intent is to use the horseradish in my raw salads because I like its bite.

I begin to believe in horseradish’s potency as the pungent fumes from the horseradish root make their way to my nostrils.  I start seeing the root as a sword because it has a cutting, toxin-purging effect in the body; it can battle viruses, mucous, urinary tract infections and even cancer.

Then I get an idea: a killer idea.You see, my husband, Craig, who is in his mid-fifties, has begun snoring this past year.  Although I am passionate about this man and want to sleep next to him every night, I despise the sound of wet phlegm flapping through his respiratory system. As I think about the snoring, and how it has disturbed my sleep, that precious restorative time, I start feeling more hateful, more evil, and more determined to kill the phlegm.

I think to myself, what he needs is a big whiff of this stuff and that will give me a good night sleep – sleep deprived people think distorted thoughts. So when my root slurry is all mixed up, I take the top off the cuisinart, call him over and say, “Put your nose in this stuff; it will cure your snoring.”  My husband trust me so he lowers his nose into the mixture and takes a full inhalation, the deep kind we all take on a fresh spring morning. The next thing I see is Craig, on his knees, coughing and gasping for breath.

When he can speak again he says with heat in his voice, “Are you trying to kill me?”  I examine his face, which is beet red.  Uh oh! So, believing he is being perhaps a bit overdramatic. I lower my own nose into the mixture, albeit with a touch of caution, snort once and experience the same noxious fumes.  Instantly my eyes sear and a spasmodic coughing fit follows.

Horseradish, that sword-bearing root, took us both down.

After Craig recovered, his nostril passages did, in fact, clear up. That night, I can report  the snoring situation was improved but not completely resolved.  What to try next? Will he sniff my concoctions one more time?

Here’s a traditional remedy for clearing phlegm from the sinuses:

Take ½ teaspoon of grated horseradish sauce without dilution morning and afternoon.  Don’t drink anything for ten minutes and feel your breathing passages open up.