Well Wrapped

A sandwich wrap seems like such a good idea, but I am usually not really pleased with 

the texture or the taste of commercial wraps. Here is a simple to make wrap made with 

real food and no wheat or gluten. The breakfast wrap in the photo was made with cooked

squash and roasted garlic, which gives it that beautiful golden color.

The filling is: scrambled egg, avocado, cheese, and tomato. 

1 cup golden flax meal

1 cup fava or chick pea flour 

1 egg 

1/4 cup butter 

1 cup cooked, pureed vegetable, i.e. spinach, zucchini, 
broccoli, chard, or squash

1 teaspoon salt 

Soften butter and mix all ingredients.

If it is too sticky, add a little more fava flour. 

Chill the dough for at least an hour, then form small flat discs 
about 6 - 7 inches in diameter. I use a floured pastry cloth to pat the dough 
into shape. Make them as thin as you can without ripping them.

Fry in a small amount of coconut oil on a low heat. These make a 
great holder for beef, egg, chicken or other sandwich fillings. They probably 
taste a little better warm and are a little easier to handle while they are 
slightly warm. 

To rewarm them, run them quickly under a cold water faucet and wrap in a cloth dishtowel

or napkin and microwave for about 15 seconds. 

This recipe makes a fairly large batch - about 10 wraps. I usually make about five and 

put the rest of the dough in the refrigerator and make the second five fresh.

You can also make them a little smaller and use them more like a traditional flat bread for dips 

or to accompany a meal. 

There is time for everything.   Thomas Edison 

Pumpkin Oat Bread

If you want to make bread, and you know you do, fall is a great time to do it. And this pumpkin oat variety is just as good as it sounds!

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast with 2 tablespoons sugar (any sweetener will work)

Let the yeast mix sit in a warm place and work for about 1/2 hour. When the yeast has grown to at least twice its original size, add the rest of the ingredients.

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats - grind in

coffee grinder

1/2 cup oats - not ground

1 cup cooked squash or pumplin

1/2 cup flax meal

3 tablespoons molasses

2 eggs (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups water  

3 cups wheat flour

Stir and let sit covered in frig for 12 or more hours.

Knead on a floured pastry cloth, adding enough flour to make the dough smooth; form loaves; let rise until doubled, and then bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Everybody should be free to go slow.      Robert Frost




































 

Bread Diary Update

I have recently discovered an efficient way to make home made bread. This is a flexible rising and baking plan, and it offers options for the final product, as well.

After you have mixed your bread dough,* put it in a glass or enamel bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set it in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. The great thing about this method of bread making is that you do not have to complete the additional steps at any particular time. The bread dough can sit in the refrigerator for up to one week. I like to have some dough waiting in the refrigerator almost all of the time.

When you want to bake, simply take the amount of dough you want to use, and put the rest back.
For instance, if you want to make a single loaf, pull off about 1/2 of the dough and form into the shape you want.

Let it sit in a warm place until it doubles in size. Then bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. The rise from the refrigerated state will take about 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

Another advantage to having bread dough in the refrigerator is that it is an easy way to make naan, which is an East Indian fry bread. Pull off several small lumps of dough (plum size) and, with floured hands, form them into round, flat shapes - approximately 7 inches in diameter. Fry with a small amount of oil on a medium low temperature.  No rising time is needed for these; you can fry them as soon as you form them. I like to use these as sandwich bread.

You can also use the naan to make a sort of multi-national breakfast taco. Fill the naan with scrambled egg and bacon and any condiments you like, such as: sour cream, chopped fresh basil, salsa, or chutney.

Basic recipe:

1/2 cup warm (80 - 90 F) water with a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of yeast
Put the yeast mixture in a glass container and let it sit in a warm place until it begins to bubble and foam. It should rise up about an inch or two.

After your yeast has worked a bit, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

1 3/4 cup warm water
5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup flax meal
2 eggs (optional)

This recipe will not work well as a gluten free option, but you can certainly vary the flours you use. Oat flour, amaranth, spelt, einkorn, whole wheat, fava bean flour, garbonzo bean flour, almomd meal, and many others can be used in place of a portion of the wheat flour. No wheat flour = no gluten= no rising. But a dough with 1/2 wheat and 1/2 alternatives seems to work pretty well.

For more ingredients that can be added to bread, see some older posts or be an adventurer and just add something you like!

Be kind whenever possible; it is always possible. Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Baba Ganoush

This recipe comes from my friend Sandy, who treated Mercedes and I to lunch at her beach home and served this fabulous dip.

You will need:
1 large or 2 small to medium eggplant
2 - 3 tablespoons tahini
3 - 4 cloves garlic
A tablespoon of lemon juice
2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil

Begin by roasting the eggplant and a head of garlic. Drizzle these with a little olive oil and sprinkle the eggplant with sea salt and pepper. Roasting should take about 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

You can use crushed raw garlic, but as long as you are roasting the eggplant you might as well have the delectable flavor of the roasted garlic.

When these two items are cooled enough to touch, scoop out the eggplant, leaving the skins and squeeze out 3 or 4 cloves of garlic. These come out almost like toothpaste from a tube.

Put the vegetables in a blender along with the tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. You may want to add a little more salt or some fresh parsley. Blending will only take a few seconds; the dip will get creamy very quickly.

Put the extra roasted garlic in a covered glass jar in your refrigerator and use to make a fantastic salad dressing. See Roasted Garlic and Tahini dressing on this blog.

If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.   Bob Hope

Zucchini Flatbread

2 cups grated zucchini

2 cups oat flour

1/4 cup plain yogurt (This can be almond or coconut yogurt if you are trying to go dairy free.)

3 or 4 cloves of roasted garlic

1 teaspoon curry powder

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

1. Sauté zucchini over low heat for 10 or 15 minutes.  Cool, then use a cheese cloth to squeeze out excess water. Use a hand blender to puree the zucchini.

2. Mix all of the ingredients together. The dough should be slightly sticky.

3. Coat 3 baking sheets lightly with olive oil and drop spoonfuls of dough onto them, flattening out the dough with a spatula as you go. Aim for a round disc shape about 1/8 inch thick.

4. Sprinkle the tops with ground sea salt.

5. Bake in a low oven - about 325 - for 15 minutes on each side. You can also cook these on a fry pan on a low heat, but the oven makes the job much easier.

Eat these alone as a snack or use them to dip into soft cheese, guacamole, or baba ganoush. They could also accompany a meal as a bread substitute. 

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

Cheesy Potato Snacks

"Snacks" might be a bit misleading. A couple of these will work for me for lunch or breakfast any day. They are easy to put together, pretty to look at, and most likely a crowd pleaser. They would make a nice hors d'oeurve if it's going to be a while before dinner is served.

Use leftover baked potatoes; cut each one in half and scoop out the middle. (Save this for a breakfast hash.) Leave about 1/4 inch of potato in each skin.

Place the skins on a cookie sheet. Add the following to each potato skin:
1 teaspoon butter
1 chopped fresh basil leaf
2 tablespoons soft herbed cheese or 1 ounce jack cheese

Sprinkle with paprika or turmeric and bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

While they are baking, chop some fresh tomato and avocado. Add these as soon as you remove the potatoes from the oven.

There is no such thing as an end unaffected by the means used  to obtain it.
Anne Perry 

Mango Salsa

This one's for Reggie; I hope he likes it.

1 Anaheim or Poblano pepper

3 cloves garlic

3 large tomatoes

2 large or one giant ripe mango

2 red chili peppers

¼ cup pineapple orange guava juice (any fruit juice could be substituted)

Juice of 1 large lime

Few sprigs of fresh cilantro

1. Remove seeds from the Anaheim pepper and dice.  Peel and mince the three cloves of garlic. Put the garlic and green pepper into a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil and sauté until they are both soft. 

2. Cut the tomatoes in half. Remove the seeds; if a few remain, that’s OK.

3. Dice the tomato into small pieces and set aside.

4. Peel and dice the mango and add to the tomato.

5. Chop the cilantro and add to the mango/tomato mixture.

6. Remove the chili/garlic mixture from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.

7. Add the lime juice, mango/ tomato/cilantro mix and fruit juice to the pepper/garlic mix.

8. Mince the chili peppers as finely as you can and add them to the salsa.

Let the mixture sit a few minutes, or a few hours if you have time, for the chili peppers to be infused into the liquid. Serve as a garnish for fish or rice or use as a dip for tortilla chips.

Do something you love every single day.

Heather McCloskey Beck