Chicken Soup with Coconut Milk, Gluten Free

Saute in 1/4 cup Coconut Oil


3 cups carrots chopped small
2 cups celery chopped small
1/2 of a large Walla Walla Sweet Onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, pressed

Meanwhile in a separate sauce pan, whisk to make a thickened sauce with
4 cups cold water
4 Tablespoons Potato Starch or Arrowroot Starch
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon Better Than Bullion, Chicken Flavor
1 can coconut milk

Combine cooked veggies, thickened sauce and
1/2 of a small chicken baked or fried, cut up in small pieces.

Season with sea salt to taste.

Good for what ails ya!  Took this to friends who were sick with the flu and they could actually eat it.  I was not sure how it would go.

Note:  Made this again 11-20-14 for our housemate who is sick with a cold.  Added 2 Tablespoons Braggs Nutritional Yeast for Vitamin B.   Also I made up a batch of French Blue Lentils  with sea salt for some healthy high fiber.  Because the young ones amongst us won't want the lentils, I pulled 3 cups of soup out of the pan and added it to the lentil pan with about 1/4 cup of lentils.  The ladies will want the lentils and the others won't.

Made this again 2-21-16 for a friend who has a cold.  This time I added 4 small shallots and 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast.  No lentils.

Home Made Whole Wheat Bread

Maybe you have had this whole wheat bread making technique down pat for many years, but I did not until recently.

For our wedding gift so many years ago, Dad and Mom gave us a Bosch Kitchen Center and Magic Mill Wheat Grinder.  Mom makes bread often and it always turns out perfectly.  When I made bread from white flour it turned out pretty good but not as good as mom's.  But what I really want to do is make whole wheat bread instead of white.  Even when I use Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat which of course I grind fresh about once a week or so...the bread still turns out too dense and heavy and doesn't raise very well.

So why did this secret ingredient escape my attention for so many years?  I finally discovered it and now I too can make prize winning whole wheat bread which even my children will eat...the ones who want store bought bread and the more high fructose corn syrup the better they think.  Did you know it's really hard to find store bought bread without high fructose stuff?  Especially in that size the kiddos like the most?

So here is a recipe that works for me.  Can you pick out the secret ingredient?  Write it in the comments if you think you know.

3 cups fresh ground Prairie Gold Whole Wheat from Wheat Montana
6 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten from Bob's Red Mill
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2.5 cups very warm 125 degree water
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup local raw honey
1 large lemon, juiced
3 cups fresh ground Prairie Gold Whole Wheat from Wheat Montana

In a Bosch Kitchen Center using a dough hook Mix together the first 3 cups of flour, vital wheat gluten and active yeast.  If you have veggie water left over from something, this would be a great place to use it.  Add the warm water and mix for about a minute.  Make sure it all got mixed in.  Cover and let rest for 10 or 15 minutes.
Add sea salt, coconut oil, honey and juice.  Run mixer for a minute.  Add the remaining 3 cups flour about a cup at a time.  Knead on low speed for 10 minutes . The dough should be smooth rather than sticky.

Warm the oven slightly but turn it back off before it gets hot.  Place the dough in a Demarle shape tray or bread pans such as the Demarle mini loaf tray.  If you use a regular bread pan you will need to grease it or use parchment paper.  With Demarle, no greasing should be done.

Let raise until it is how you want it to look in the end.  It will not raise during baking.  This should take about 30 minutes or so depending on how warm the oven is.

Now turn the oven to 350 degrees and time it for 23 minutes for the mini loaves or 30 minutes for large loaves.  It will begin baking as the oven is heating and it is done quick like.

Home made Pesto with Coconut Oil, The Best Yet

 Harvesting basil, pattypan squash, tomatos and leeks.

The basil in our garden is at the use it or lose it stage.  Even though it is a very busy day I decided to enlist the help of one of the children to pick the leaves off the stems.  Great help indeed.

Many of you who know me personally are aware of my recent understanding of the amazing benefits of coconut oil because of the book I read by Bruce Fife called, "Coconut Oil Miracle."  If you are trying to take good care of your health and wellness naturally, I recommend this book.

So I didn't use a recipe this time just went from memory of times I've made it before.  Taste tested and added more of this and that until I came up with a flavor I liked.  Also, I'm usually trying to cut down on garlic because otherwise the family won't eat it...just me and then they can't stand to be near me.

8 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
4 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Combine ingredients in a food processor until creamy textured.  Freeze in Demarle Small Savarin tray, then bag in a zipper bag.

 Reflecting the blue sky from the window.  The Demarle savarin tray is black.

Makes 20 Small Savarin squares.

I can't remember when I've tasted a better batch of pesto but then I've never made it with coconut oil before so I suppose that is the secret ingredient that isn't so secret anymore.

Here it is after it is frozen:

Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes

Oh just you wait.  Most of the day today was taken up with making this recipe and it was the best dessert EVER.  Of course that included three trips to the store to get the best chocolate available in town at the Huckleberries Health Food Market. It is shocking to spend $25.00 on chocolate and that did not include the other ingredients such as a pound of butter, a pint of cream plus other ingredients.  You see as I went along I kept thinking of ways to make this better and better.  It was amazing. 

 Later I went back to the store for three more packages to make the ganache.

Meanwhile, here's the recipe before the changes:

Found online and at the end are a few notes I made as the day went along:

From the menu of . . . McCormick and Schmick
190 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta
404-521-1236

600 Ashwood Parkway, Altanta
770-399-9900

Q: I have recently eaten at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant. It has the most wonderful dessert. If at all possible, I would like to get the recipe for that dessert. It's called Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake With Raspberry Sauce.
- Jerrie Wright, Atlanta

A: Rex Horrell, executive chef at the restaurant at the CNN Center location, was happy to share the recipe for this dense, flourless chocolate cake. He recommends using very high-quality chocolate for best results.

Hands on time: 25 minutes (Ha!  All day is more like it) Total time: 1 hour and 25 minutes  Serves: 12 (Actually 24)

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 sticks) butter
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped
5 eggs
6 egg yolks  Yes folks that IS 11 eggs in all.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees on a convection setting. In a saucepan, heat butter, milk and sugar to scalding, stirring frequently. Make sure butter is melted. Remove from heat and add chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a bowl, whisk eggs and yolks together. Gradually whisk eggs into chocolate mixture, beating until completely combined.  (I skipped this next paragraph and used the Demarle Bouquet Tray 3 times).
Line an 8-by-2 1/2-inch springform pan with buttered parchment paper, making sure the paper circle comes up 1/2 inch on the side of the pan to seal. Pour batter into the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes. The sides will be puffy and slightly cracked. The center will be soupy but will set as it chills. Refrigerate overnight. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and release springform.

Chef Horrell bakes the cake in a convection oven. If using a conventional oven, bake at 350 degrees and add 20 to 30 minutes to the cooking time. The cake is served with a sweetened raspberry sauce

 Using great ingredients

 Including fresh eggs from our neighbor's chickens:

Today's notes:

Recipe and notes were found online and here are a few notes I made as the day went along:

Made 9-8-14 for Derrick and Kate and Ermyl.  Used Theo Chocolate because Kate cannot have Soy Lecithin.  Ermyl needs to do gluten free.  Dave needs raw dairy rather than homogenized so how do you make a high end chocolate dessert to suit all three of their diet restrictions?  Well thank goodness they can all eat eggs.  Whew!

Fill the shapes to the top…these don’t puff up. 

 Convection oven at 325 degrees for 18 minutes in Demarle bouquet tray.  Then cool for an hour before removing from tray.  Top with Ganache and whipping cream.  Then fresh Ogalala strawberries from the garden.

Ganache recipe:

3 - 3.5 ounce bars Theo's Dark Chocolate 70%

1/2 cup  plus 2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream (no substitutes please)

Combine in a double boiler over hot water and heat until chocolate is melted.  Place a dollop in the center of each bouquet muffin.

Macadamia Nut Crusted Halibut

My husband pulled a package of frozen halibut from the freezer today for lunch. My parents go to Alaska and fish then share with us.  Thanks Mom and Dad!  This halibut was from this year's trip.

 This recipe was in a cookbook I've had for several years.  Though I had never tried this halibut recipe I had some confidence it would be great because I had made the beurre blanc sauce a few times and that recipe alone was worth the purchase of the cookbook. 

Beurre Blanc Sauce before the shallots were strained out.

Furthermore, for the first time in my life I had a good supply of macadamia nuts.  It was SOOOO good and a must try recipe especially for those of you who have Alaska halibut in your freezers...you know who you are.

MACADAMIA CRUSTED HALIBUT
McCormick and Schmick's Recipe

Serves 2

Fish and Crust
2 (5-6 oz.) fresh halibut fillets  (I had enough coating for all seven fillets in the package)
1 cup macadamia nuts (chopped small in a mini food processor)
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs (Kikkoman brand made from whole wheat bread.  This brand had the least additives)
1 tablespoon ground pepper (I got tired of grinding so used pre-ground for about half of this)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (I used fresh ground Montana Wheat Prairie Gold)
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used Avocado Oil this time)
1/2 cup Beurre Blanc Lemon sauce (see recipe below)  (I did not use lemon this time)
1/4 cup Major Grey's chutney



Roast the macadamia nuts in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. (My macadamia nuts were pre-roasted so I skipped this step). Combine the nuts and Panko breadcrumbs in a food processor (the mixture should be a little coarse), and place on a large plate or in a pie pan.

Season the flour with the salt and pepper, and place on a second plate.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a tablespoon of water or milk. I used a little 55% cream instead of milk.

Dredge the halibut fillets in the flour, then the eggs and then the nuts. Pat the fillets to ensure the nut mixture sticks to the fish.

Pan fry the fillets 3 to 4 minutes per side in oil over medium high heat. Remove the fillets and allow them to drain briefly on paper towels. Combine the butter sauce and the chutney and pour over the halibut.

Beurre Blanc Sauce and Chutney combined:

Beurre Blanc Sauce 
6 ounces white wine (I used Vermouth this time)
3 ounces white wine vinegar (I used Champagne Wine Vinegar this time)
3 whole black peppercorns
1 shallot, quartered
1 cup heavy cream (I had 55% cream from a local dairy)
9 ounces cold butter, cut into pieces

Combine wine, vinegar, peppercorns and shallot in a non corrosive saucepan. Reduce until the mixture is just 1 to 2 tablespoons and has a consistency of syrup. Add the cream and reduce again until the mixture is 3 to 4 tablespoons and very syrupy. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in butter, about 2 ounces at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each piece to melt in before adding more. If the mixture cools too much, the butter will not melt completely and you will need to reheat it slightly.

To make lemon butter sauce, replace the vinegar with 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

I made this again June 16th, 2017 because my friend brought some macadamia nuts from Hawaii.  It was so good again.  This was the last of the halibut brought to us from my parents who fished in Ketchikan, Alaska.

 

Oven Fries From Bintje Potatoes

 Bintje potato plants shortly before harvest

For those of you who visit regularly, you will have seen a few references to Bintje potatoes in previous posts.  I've been waiting for the harvest to write this post.

The story started on March 19th 2014 when I was in the local kitchen store "Providence Fine Living".  This is my favorite store in town and I've gotten to know and enjoy interacting with the proprietor, Ivan.

Well just maybe the story started 19 years ago when I planted regular potatoes in the garden.  I didn't do that again because it was not worth the potato bug fight.  I had to be out there every day killing the bugs by hand unless I wanted to use pesticides...which i did not.  They just gobbled up the plants.

The story picks up again last summer when we left Moses Lake at 5 in the morning and saw the spray planes flying over the potato fields just before harvest; spraying herbicide on the (commercially grown) potato fields to kill the plants.  Ummm...I think that herbicide goes straight into the potato.

Based on these two experiences I decided I needed to reduce potatoes in my diet except for a very rare occasion.  After this experience I occasionally bought organic fingerling potatoes at the grocery store.

The story picks up again, as I said, on March 19, 2014 when I went in to purchase a birthday gift for my daughter.  Ivan asks if I have my garden planted? 

Oh the beets, lettuce, spinach and peas are in.  Most of the garden is still a mess of weeds from last year but I planted what was cleaned up so far.  He said he wasn't done with the clean up yet so had not started planting.  I say if I wait until all the clean up is done I won't ever get the seeds in the ground.

 Baked Bintje potatoes...the largest ones we had this year.

Then he asks if I am planting potatoes and I say no and I won't because I don't like the potato bugs.  "He says, I plant potatoes and don't have potato bugs."  I look at him like he is joking.  He continues on to say something about how our current culture has moved away from quality to quantity (though I only partially agree with this).  When he was growing up in Denmark they planted Bintje potatoes and he continues to do so getting his organic seed potatoes from a certain catalog.  Well since he could not remember which catalog at that moment, I went home and got on the Internet and found  a supplier of organic Bintje potatoes just a couple hours away in Le Grande, Oregon.  It was on Etsy.

We planted those potatoes in early April and then harvested them the end of July.  We have so enjoyed them.  Yes they are better than potatoes from the super market and better than any I've ever tasted.  You will see a post about Lefse recently.  It was the best ever.

Oven fries:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut the smallest Bintje potatoes (1 to 2" ones) into small slices.
3. Coat in 1/4 cup grape seed oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Spread in a single layer in a baking sheet with sides. (Pampered Chef Clay Jelly Roll Pan)
5. Bake 15 minutes, turn the fries over and Bake 15 minutes on the other side.

Bintje potatoes become part of the decor at our house...notice that the wheat berries do too.

Champagne Muffins

Weekend guests left 3/4 cup of Champagne remaining in a bottle this weekend.  I need muffins soon for a family reunion breakfast so I decided to experiment and see what could be done.

Champagne Muffins by Bonda
Makes 16 Muffins using Demarle Crown and Petal trays.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together in one bowl
2 1/2 cups Prairie Gold Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 teaspoons Rumford Baking Powder

 In a second bowl combine and stir:
1/3 cup local honey
1/2 cup melted butter
(Easier to mix together before cold ingredients are added)

Add:
3/4 cup champagne
1/4 cup orange juice
2 large farm fresh eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Using a soup spoon, place batter one heaping spoonful at a time into the Demarle Petal Tray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes.

These were amazing.  Must repeat...I don't even have to ask anyone else's opinion.  We served them with Apricot Jam made by our daughter from her own apricot trees.