Recipe: Cajun chicken

Our family loves roasted chicken, so I try to make it in many types of ways as possible. And here is another way. It's a child friendly recipe. My children love it. Usually I serve roasted vegetables, such a carrots, parsnips and swede with roasted potatoes with it. The best part about that is that you can put the chicken at the top shelf and the vegetables with potatoes in 1 oven dish on the bottom shelf in your oven and it is all done at the same time. I put the vegetables at the bottom of the dish and the potatoes at the top, so they get some more crunch to them.

Origin: Louisiana maybe. I don't really know, but I use a cajun spice mix.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 2 hours in total from start to finish, but that is including the 1h30m in the oven, so 30 minutes real work
Serves: 6
Yield: 6 pieces 
Traditional/GAPS/SCD legal, Primal, Paleo

Equipment:

• Oven
• 1 oven dish
• 1 roemer topf or a oven dish with a lid

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken of about 2 kg
• 1 jar of cajun spice mix of Steenbergs
• 1 bunch of thyme
• celtic sea salt
• black pepper

Things to do ahead:
1 day ahead - defreeze chicken
1 hour ahead - soak your roemer topf and take your chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas4
• Put your chicken in the roemer topf.
• Cut your lemon in half and cut one half again. The other half you squeeze out over your chicken. The other 2 you squeeze out into the cavity and put the squeezed lemons inside.
• Put the part of the thyme inside and part under your chicken.
• Spread about 2 tablespoons of cajun spice mix over your chicken on all sides. Massage it in well.
• Close the lid of your roemer topf.
• Put your roemer topf into the oven for 1 hour.
• After the hour take the lid off your roemer topf. Put up the heat to 220C/430F/Gas7. Pour the cooking juices as well as you can over the chicken.
• Leave the chicken in for another 20 to 30 hours. Depending on how heavy your chicken has been. When it's somewhat under 2 kilos 20 minutes is usually enough. When it is over 2 kilos 30 minutes is often necessary.
• Make sure your chicken is cooked well by checking whether the juices run clear.
• Take your chicken out of the oven, put the lid back on the roemertopf and leave it standing for 30 minutes to an hour to rest.
• Take the bones out of the chicken and let the chicken absorb the juices a bit.

Enjoy!

cooking at home

homade made chicken doener, pita breads, garlic sauce & vegetables

As I am doing several courses at the moment I do not have a lot of time on my hands to waste on all kinds of stuff. But I do still cook for my family, I like cooking and baking, so most days I make all the meals from scratch for my family.

Home made chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream

Because of the courses that I do, 2 on nutrition and 1 on marketing, I have come to a realisation. Most people these days are very heavily influenced by the marketing and advertisements of food companies. Those companies want to sell their unhealthy products and make a lot of money. They had to create market. Itt is in their benefit to make making food seem like it is a LOT of work, NO FUN and very DIFFICULT. And NONE of that is true. Making food isn't a lot of work, actually when you learn how to do it well, as our ancestors did. For me that would be my parents and grandparents, but depending on which country you are from and how your family was, it may be that neither your parents and maybe not even your grandparents made most foods from scratch. So when you've grown up with that you may not be aware of the easy, time savings, money savings and the fun that it can be. I know a few families where food is rarely cooked as nobody has a proper clue on how to do things and they haven't learned in school either. It is quite sad at times to hear people talk about food. I also know of families where cooking isn't done because it would make the kitchen dirty or any of those ideas, it's really really a sad state of affairs.

So, despite having 4 home educated kids, doing 3 different courses and helping out my husband in his business I still make our food most days of the week. My husband does some other days and every now and then one of my kids makes food. It works out quite nicely this way. We also make sourdough bread, sauerkraut and other ferments. That doesn't mean it all always goes smooth, but it mostly does. It has actually been quite a while ago that we had take-away. We do occasionally have some pizza's or so, which are pre-made and we only have to bake in the oven. But my kids prefer home made pizza, so that is a rarity as well. I think in the last 2 months it happened once. And take-away is even longer ago.

When making your own food you have so many more possibilities than you have with processed foods. A pizza can have any type of topping you want. When I make home made pizza. I use 2 large baking sheets and put the dough on that - there are 7 mouths to feed in our house at present - then I put the pizza sauce (home made) on top and from there we have a selection of choices. Everyone can have some input. Frequently I make 2 different pizza's so that everyone is happy. And lastly we put the cheese on top. We rarely have left overs.
And then there is the pizza from the Alsace, which i learned about in Switzerland, flammkuchen. That is so tasty! It just has a sour cream / double cream topping, then onions and bacon bits on there and it goes in the oven. That also disappears very quickly and is so easy to make!

Futhermore there are any number of ways to make meats, roast, cook, fry, whatever. Any number of spices can be used to flavour them. For me garlic and onions are always on any meat. As that just makes it all so very tasty.

Vegetables. there is no limit on how you can make them. So much fun.

So despite the fact that the food companies have tried their best to make everyone think it is too much work, too difficult and no fun. I actually am convinced they are totally wrong. They are only doing this to sell their products. They have indoctrinated people into thinking this and it is patently not true. Making food is loads of fun. Especially when you do it together with family members. I prefer only have a few with me. Having 7 people in the kitchen isn't a workable situation LOL.
But having 1 or 2 people with me is really nice, you can chat about the day, or - as my husband and i often do - have a business meeting while preparing dinner.
And it is so much more tasty. You can use so many different natural ways to flavour your food. When I make chicken korma I make it the way I like it. The way I have had it from the take-away was quite a disappointment, as it also was from the supermarket. Loads of salt and not enough flavour. I have read up on korma dishes and found that the spices are where it is at. In India spices are the big thing anyway. We do not like the extreme hot spiciness from India, but we do like food from India. So when I make a dish from India I use less burn and keep the flavour.

Making soups is really easy as well. You can use any number of meats and vegetables and even mix them. You can blend or not. Whatever you like. I have a friend who tends to make a soup with the leftovers of the previous day and add some flavour that fits and there it is. Nothing difficult about that. She does always have home made broth going. So do I. There is always a broth going on the cooker or in the slow cooker.

Oh... and then the slow cooker. The most wonderful tool in the kitchen. Any stew and soup can be made in that. Cut the evening before. Keep in the fridge. Put in the slow cooker in the morning, and your dinner is done by the evening. How easy is that!

Now that I am so much more busy we actually pre-cut most of our foods on the weekend. This includes lettuce and such. The best way to keep all vegetables is in the fridge, all in separate bags or boxes. Meats all go in the freezers. I plan my meals ahead, so I know which vegetables keep longer and can be used later in the week. Some parts, that require that, we precook on the weekend already and then put in the fridge or freezer. I also make all my salad dressings on the weekend already, they keep just find in a former jam jar or such.

I recently read that Michael Pollan has said in an interview that he thinks that it is very difficult to get obese on home cooked food and I think he is very right with that. The people that I know that are doing a lot of home cooking are definitely not obese. Some may be a bit overweight, but none are to points where it becomes a big problem for their health.

I also think it is very important to teach children to cook. Mine are invited to be with me / us in the kitchen to help out from very young onward. My youngest is no 8, but she has been very good with even knives from about 6 onward. We have always let them help and all of them are very good with making foods. They all have their preferences, which is actually quite a blessing. It gives us a lot of variety. It is amazing to see the preferences between my husband, my oldest children and myself creating so many different types of foods and all similarly tasty.

My children do all loves hamburgers, pizza's, kebabs and all those things. There is no reason for them not to eat it. We just make it at home, unless there is a special occasion. But even then some of my children prefer the home cooked version.

So this is all really not that difficult when you look at it. In case you want me to talk more about specific parts of cooking at home. Please feel free to ask.

Recipe: Whole chicken shawarma from the slow cooker

In the slow cooker, adding the rub

Finished cooking, just put it on a plate.

Here is another family favourite. When we lived in The Netherlands we sometimes got Shawarma from the Shawarma take-away. In The Netherlands it is actually written differently: Shoarma. Either way, all of us loved it. Frequently we would get it with mushrooms and peppers added or things like that. There were quite some varieties possible in most of the take-aways. But since we moved the first time to the UK we haven't had it much anymore. When we lived in The Netherlands the last time somehow in the area where we lived then there were mainly döner take-aways there. So we hadn't had it in many years. So when I read about it again a few years ago I realised how long it had been ago since we had it and how initially we had all craved it and the kids had asked about it. At some point they asked me to make it myself. But I couldn't see myself buy one of these upright grills or how to actually make it. It looked very difficult from the way they made it in the take-aways. So I had forgotten about it altogether for years. Until a few years ago when I read about it. At that point it was described on how to make it as a roast in the oven. Of course that worked. But it didn't taste as great as I remembered it. So I started tweaking the recipe and read up on other sites about it and asked friends from the Middle East how they made this type of food. So slowly but carefully I ended up getting it better and better. But then I got lazy and found it too much effort to make a roast in the oven. I started reading a bit more and looked up whether I could make it in the slow cooker. I found that some had done it with good results. So I had to try of course. The first time was right away a great success. The whole house smelled wonderful and everyone was more than ready for dinner by dinner time, they had been smelling it all day long LOL. Since I have made it quite regularly and because we love it so much I felt I should share it with you. We usually eat it with pita breads, garlic sauce, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and cucumber. Not everyone eat all with it. I love the raw onions, my kids not so much :-)

Origin: Middle east

Just before eating

Difficulty: easy
Time: 8 hours
Serves: 6 
Traditional/GAPS/SCD legal, Primal

Equipment:

• Slow cooker

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of cayenne
• Salt and black pepper
• 3 tbsp yoghurt
• juice of 1 lemon
• butter, chicken fat or such

Things to do ahead:
2 days ahead - thaw chicken in fridge
1 day ahead - start sourdough pita breads
1 day ahead - make garlic sauce

Directions:

• Grease the slow cooker with butter, chicken fat or such.
• Make a nice rub with all the spices, yoghurt and lemon juice. 
• After mixing it well, rub it all over the chicken, which you could cut in bits if you prefer. I usually keep it whole. 
• Put the chicken in the slow cooker and turn in on low for 8 hours. or 4 hours on high.

Possible substitutions:
dairy - coconut
butter - coconut, tallow, etc.

Ready to dig in

Recipe: Bobotie

Recently we had Bobotie again. I do not make it often as I find it quite a bit of work, but because I do love the taste of it I do make it whenever the mood strikes. When I make it I make it on African Wednesday as we eat African inspired foods on Wednesdays.

So recently it the mood struck me again when I was making my menu plan. 

I find Bobotie a very fascinating dish as it is a complete mix of dishes of various ethnic influences. The curry that is used is clearly from India. Some of the spices and the raisins used are from North African background. This is because at some point in history travel on the African continent became easier and trade started happening, so in South Africa they could add North African spices and such to their dishes. The combination of dried fruits and meats is definitely from North African influence.
The chutney is again from India.
It also contains allspice, this comes from the Caribbean.

It is totally understandable that this dish is a such a lovely mix. When you look at the history of South Africa you can see how many different people settled there over the times and all left their mark on the kitchen, as it always happens.
The Dutch have settled there, they made a farmers colony in Kaapstad, this was to make sure that their ships on their way to Indonesia and such could load fresh foods for the seamen. This made the trips a much less unhealthy experience. The Portuguese settled. The Dutch took workers (probably slaves) back from Indonesia and Malaysia.
After this the French came over. They brought their grape vines and there we have the South-African wines from.
Of course the British wanted to be there as well. They were travelling the whole world and really would like to have their finger in the pie. So they more or less kicked the Dutch out of the coastal areas, so there is also the influence of the British, who then brought people over from India and China. So there you go, a lovely mix of many people of many backgrounds and it all comes out in lovely food. 

Some people call it South Africa's Shepherds pie, others call it South-Africa's answer to Moussaka :-)

I served it with the standard yellow rice, and this time with peas, though generally it seems that Bobotie is normally served with a salad, or so I have been told.

Origin: South Africa (and the rest of the world ;-))

Difficulty: easy
Time: a bit over 1 hour
Serves: 6 with side dishes, 4 when stand alone
Yield: 4 to 6 pieces
Traditional 

Equipment:

• pan
• oven dish
• oven

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, chopped
• butter, lard, beef drippings or such
• garlic to taste (I like to use several cloves)
• 1 kg beef mince, not the lean variety, it makes the dish dry.
• 3 TBSP bread crumbs
• 2 TBSP curry powder, I used korma powder, usually madras powder or paste is recommended
• 1 tsp mixed herbs, dried
• 1 tsp clove powder
• 2 tsp allspice powder
• 2 TBSP chutney, I used red onion chutney
• 3 TBSP raisins or sultanas
• 6 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 300 ml milk (full fat, raw)
• 3 eggs

Things to do ahead:

1 day ahead

You can make the meat mixture a day ahead, put it in the ovenproof dish and put that in the fridge.

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F / gas 4.
• Fry the onions in butter for about 10 mins until they look glassy, stir regularly. 
• Add garlic and beef, keep stirring, make sure the mince falls apart in small bits. You want it as grainy as possible. 
• Stir in the curry, herbs, spices, chutney, raisins and 2 of the bay leaves.
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Add bread crumbs
• Leave it cooking for a bit, until all flavours have combined nicely. 
• Put it all in a ovenproof dish. Press it down and smooth out the top.
• Beat the eggs and add the milk with some salt and pepper.
• Pour it over the meat mix.
• Put the 4 left over bay leaves on top.
• Put it in the oven and leave it there for about 40 minutes. Check after about 30 to see whether the topping is firm and has a golden brown look to it.

Possible substitutions:
dairy - coconut
butter - coconut, tallow, etc.
beef mince - chicken mince, turkey mince, pork mince, lamb mince

Enjoy! Let me know what you think! Leave a comment or ask a question. I'd love to hear from you!

What did we eat today (23/08/2016)

Today we had a bit of a busy and late day, so we had a late breakfast and I skipped lunch and had a big dinner. Nobody got hungry, the home stayers had a bit of ravioli, so all went smooth. After our late breakfast we went to out local farm to get milk. We usually get milk on Mondays, but as we had enough this week we ended up going today, which is Tuesday. We will see when we need to get some more again. We usually get 20 litres, which usually lasts us 7 days, sometimes a bit more, as this week.

For breakfast we had sourdough french toast. I put maple syrup and cinnamon on mine. I had an orange and an apple with it. For my drink I had a mug of raw milk.

I didn't bother with lunch as I had enough and was on the road anyway. I didn't get hungry until near dinner time, so all was good. I often have that when we have french toast or so for breakfast. When I use eggs or so I can last all day on my breakfast. 

The home stayers had a bit of spinach and cheese filled ravioli with a Sriracha & aioli sauce to top it. I heard it was very tasty :-)

For dinner I have made some sausages, oven potatoes and cooked mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, green beans and sweetcorn). I heated up some home made baked beans that I have in portions in the freezer. I used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon for that.
The oven potatoes were cooked in beef drippings and I added some butter to the cooked vegetables. Everyone is satisfied today. 

Tomorrow we will see whether I can again satisfy my family with our meals :-)

Recipe: Sourdough waffles

Usually on Mondays we eat sourdough waffles for breakfast. The kids love them. They are very tasty. I learned how to make these from the Gnowfglins sourdough e-course. And ever since I learned them I have been making them. It is a great way to use sourdough starter. My starter lives on my counter and I use my starter quite frequently, most days actually.
To the right you find a picture of one of my waffles this morning. This morning we had ripe bananas so I had banana and whipped cream as my toppings. Very tasty. 

Origin: Europe

Difficulty: easy
Time: half an hour
Serves: 6
Yield: 12 pieces 
Traditional, Vegetarian

Equipment:

• bowl
• waffle iron

Ingredients:

• 500 ml sourdough starter
• 4 tbsp melted butter, coconut or so
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (I use Le Guerandais sea salt)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp sweetener
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I use home made - you can use other flavourings if you prefer)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp water

Toppings:

• maple syrup, sucanat or so
• fruit, such as raspberries, apples, black berries, cherries, strawberries or which ever you like.
• melted chocolate
• whipped cream
• yoghurt
• fried bacon bits
• cheese melted on top
• fried mushroom slices
• fried onion slices
• crispy nuts
• desiccated coconut
• you can use spices in your batter or top your waffles with them. I like using cinnamon on top, but really the sky is the limit.

Directions:

• First plug in your waffle iron. Because you want it to be hot and ready to go when you have mixed up your batter. Mixing up the batter goes really fast. Most of the time my waffle iron has not fully heated up yet when my batter is done, but it is close to being there.
• In your bowl mix the sourdough starter, the melted butter, the sea salt, eggs, sweetener and vanilla extract together with a whisk.
• Put the baking soda in a small bowl and add the water, mix it well together.
• Add the baking soda with water to the batter and mix fast and well through. This will very quickly poof up the batter and make it very fluffy. Baking soda also neutralises the flavour of the acid of the sourdough as it reacts with that. 
• Now you are ready to make your waffles with your hopefully hot waffle iron.
• Serve with which ever toppings take your fancy.
• The waffles freeze really well. I always put the left overs in the freezer. When someone takes a fancy for a waffle during the week they can just take one out and put it in the toaster and have a nice warm waffle.
• Do make sure you freeze them separately as they can be a real pain to take apart when frozen onto each other. I usually take a sandwich bag and add 1 at the bottom and the other next to it towards the top, fold the bag over so that it is closed and then fold the 2 waffles on top of each other with the bag in between, that way they are easy for all to take out of the freezer and pop in the toaster right away, no need to thaw.

Possible substitutions:
dairy - coconut
butter - coconut, tallow, lard, etc.
sugar - honey, sucanat, maple syrup
chocolate - carob

Recipes: Crumpets, sourdough

Recently I made sourdough crumpets for breakfast. I had had the crumpets one buys in the supermarket on occassion, but didn't really like them. I tried to home made version with white flour every now and then, but still I wasn't satisfied, there had to be a more nutritious way to make them with sourdough. So I read a lot online and experimented a bit. The result of my experimentations you will find below. It is certainly very tasty and my children loved them, hopefully yours will as well.

As for the toppings, you can use a variety of things, savoury and sweet.
Sweet toppings can be: sliced or mashed fruit, whipped cream, clotted cream, butter and cinnamon, home made fruit butter or such. The possibilities are endless.
Savoury toppings can be: home made nut butter, tomato or any other vegetable, either cooked or raw, with some salt and pepper, melted cheese with a vegetable, such as tomato or mushroom, cheese, fried or poached egg, ham, salami, fried bacon, pulled pork, or whatever takes your fancy. You can add some herbs or spices, or chilli to make the flavour you want. Again the possibilities are endless. 

Recently we made pizza crumpets, just add a bit of tomato sauce, salami, ham, mushrooms and cheese and put them under the broiler. The kids loved them :-)

Origin: United Kingdom

Difficulty: easy
Time: about 1 hour start to finish
Serves: 4
Yield: 8 pieces 
Traditional, Vegetarian

Equipment:
* egg, crumpet or american pancake rings, I used silicon ones that I bought on Ebay
* frying pan
* bowl for the batter

Ingredients:
* 2 cups / 500 ml sourdough starter
* 2 TBSP sweetner, such as sucanat or any other whole sweetner (you can omit if you prefer, for instance for savoury crumpets)
* 1 tsp celtic sea salt
* 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
* 1 TBSP water to dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in
* butter, coconut oil, ghee, lard or beef drippings for greasing your pan and rings
* optional - herbs and spices to your liking

Directions:
* Warm up your pan, grease it, grease your rings.
* Put the sourdough starter, sweetner and salt in a bowl, mix well. 
* Mix the bicarbonate of soda and water together.
* Once your pan is hot mix the bicarbonate of soda/water mix with the sourdough mix. Now it will start bubbling and poofing up. 
* You can now put your batter in your rings, make sure you do not fill them up too high as they crumpets will rise while baking. I used a gravy spoon to fill my rings, which was halfway up the ring, but by the time the crumpets were cooked they were to or slightly over the top of the rings, which wasn't a problem as the batter had cooked and was firm.
* Once you see the characteristic holes in the top of the crumpets and they are dry at the top you can flip them over and cook the other side a bit, or, if you prefer tip them out onto a plate right away. When you choose to cook the other side, take them out when they have the colour you want.
* Grease your pan and rings again (clean the rings in between in case they have dough on them) and make your next batch.

Possible substitutions:
butter - ghee, coconut, tallow, lard, beef drippings etc.
sucanat - honey, maple syrup, coconut/palm sugar, maple sugar
celtic sea salt - himalaya salt, persian salt

Unpasteurised milk UK

There is an online petition in the UK to support the possibility to buy unpasteurised milk in UK. I think it should remain an option to buy unpasteurised milk in the UK.
The milk produced by farmers who sell it unpasteurised is of a much higher quality than the milk bought in the supermarket. The farmers that I know who sell unpasteurised milk are treating their animals much better. Their animals have a very good quality of life.
The farmer where we buy our milk also has the calves drink directly from the cow for the time they need it. They are not bottle fed at all, unless that is necessary. According to our farmer this is a much easier way of working with much less problems, and therefore a win-win.

I have signed the petition and hope many more will do so. You can find it here:
unpasteurised milk petition

Raw milk is healthy

Today I read an article on the Real milk website about a new study which shows that raw milk is healthy. It was a good read.

Here is the start of it.

quote

Raw milk opponents and doctors strongly warn against the consumption of unpasteurized milk for infants, children and pregnant women, arguing that these individuals are more susceptible to illnesses that raw milk could cause. However, a new study that took place across Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Switzerland shows a connection between the consumption of raw milk and lowered rates of colds and infections among children. This study clearly relates Raw milk and lower infections in children.
The study, detailed in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, aimed to assess the effects of consumption of raw vs. boiled vs. industrially processed milks on common infections (including coughing, runny nose, fever, ear infection or diarrhea) in babies’ first year of life.
Women from rural areas (about half of the women lived and worked on livestock farms) were recruited during their third trimester of pregnancy and detailed their children’s consumption and lifestyle changes in weekly diaries. A total of 983 children completed the study.

“The main finding of this analysis was an inverse association between consumption of unprocessed cow’s milk and rhinitis [cold or runny nose], RTI [respiratory tract infections], and otitis [ear infection]. The effect was strongest when cow’s milk was consumed raw; boiled farm milk exhibited an attenuated effect.”

unquote

read more at:

http://www.realmilk.com/european-study-shows-connection-consumption-raw-milk-lower-infections-children/

Cod Liver Oil and Our Changing Food Paradigms

Earlier this year Sally Fallon wrote a very good article named Cod Liver Oil and Our Changing Food Paradigms. I read it with much interest and want to share it with you so you can have a read as well. It was published in the autumn issue of the publication Wise Traditions. 

quote

Cod liver oil—what is it?That stinky stuff kids had to take on a spoon? A magic medicine that heals rheumatism, clears the scrofula of TB and helps children recover from measles? A beauty aid that smooths the skin? A messy industrial product used to tan shoe leather? A clean, clear, standardized yellow liquid or a brown oil that rises from rotting livers?

It’s all of these and more. In fact, our views on cod liver oil can serve as a kind of bellwether for evolving attitudes on food, health and processing over the years. Cod liver oil is the quintessential traditional “natural” remedy and also one of the first common foods subjected to industrial processing. And as tradition has collided with modern science, cod liver oil has suffered the buffets of changing attitudes. Even in the early days, when this ancient folk remedy first caught the attention of modern physicians, it provoked instant and constant controversy.

Since early human settlement in northern Norway, cod and cod products have served as the cornerstone of industry for the region. Even as early as the Viking Age, cod liver oil brought prosperity as a chief item of trade with northern Europe, both for consumption and for industrial purposes. Some types were used for oil lamps, ovens, leather treatment, paint manufacture, coloring processes in textile production, soap manufacture, tempering and lathing of steel, manufacture of explosives for the armaments industry, and industrial lubricants, while more carefully extracted versions were consumed as a food and medicine for humans and animals, or used as skin creams and healing ointments, and even as a lubricant for childbirth.1

The method used by the Vikings was actually a kind of steam extraction. They brought water in a pan to boil and then placed birch tree branches on top of the pan; the cod livers were put on top of the branches. As the steam from the boiling water rose, it began to cook the livers, and oil from the livers would drop into the pan.2

Unquote

- See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/cod-liver-oil/constant-controversy/#sthash.zyKeHz4c.dpuf

Vitamin D in Cod Liver Oil

Chris Masterjohn, Phd wrote a very interesting article on vitamin D in cod liver oil. As I found it very interesting I decided to quote the summary here, so that you can read it as well. It is well worth spreading this information

quote

ARTICLE SUMMARY

• In recent years, controversy has erupted over whether vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 is the predominant form of vitamin D in cod liver oil.
• Research in the 1930s suggested that there were at least four if not six forms of vitamin D in cod liver oil.
• Recent research has shown that fish metabolize vitamin D into at least three other compounds and probably more.
• Although cod liver oil probably does not contain vitamin D2, it probably does contain an array of different compounds derived from vitamin D3.
• The diverse array of vitamin D compounds we would expect to exist in natural cod liver oil likely provides a diverse array of biological activities; many people may experience vitamin D-related benefits from a natural cod liver oil without experiencing as pronounced a rise of 25(OH)D – the blood marker of vitamin D nutritional status—as they would have expected.
• Although it makes sense for someone to increase their sun exposure and vitamin D3 intake if their 25(OH)D is low, low 25(OH)D in and of itself should not be used as evidence that cod liver oil is not providing a vitamin D benefit

unquote

.- See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/cod-liver-oil/vitamin-d-in-cod-liver-oil/#sthash.NMoJK5kL.dpuf

Fermented fish foods

Recently I read a very interesting article on the website of the Weston A. Price Foundation. It was about an article that discussed fermenting fish in quite some detail. 

Here is the first part of the article. In case you are interested in reading the rest, below you will find the link to the article.

quote

Fermented foods currently comprise approximately one-third of the human diet globally. In traditional diets, cereal grains, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood and fish are all fermented using various methods as a way to preserve food and to improve its nutritional quality.
Fermentation of fish is an ancient practice. It has historically and continues to be employed to preserve fish when other methods of preservation have failed. This method of extending the harvest was born of necessity as a way of coping with seasonal scarcity. Other methods to slow bacterial degradation such as drying, salting, smoking and curing require certain ambient air temperatures and levels of humidity to be successful. Under conditions that were either too wet for drying, or when these other methods were just not feasible, fish fermentation was developed as a needed solution.
Fermentation became especially important for species of fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, Arctic char, and herring, which are not very suitable for drying due to the presence of large amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids. In addition, fermentation developed as a way to preserve fish using less salt, as salt was expensive and generally scarce in ancient times.
The processes used in fish fermentation vary greatly worldwide, and depend on the culture, climate, and availability of both salt and fish. The species of fish and or shellfish that are fermented have always been determined by what is abundant in a given locale.
The acceptance of the aromas and taste of fermented fish sauces, pastes, and other fish food products is culturally specific. What tastes good is in part determined by familiarity and cultural upbringing as well as genetically determined taste preferences and aversions. Fermented fish products have been variously described as tasting “meaty,” “fishy,” “cheesy,” and “ammonialike.” The combination of the assorted chemical products of fermentation determines which flavors predominate.
Of all fermented foods, fermented meats and fish are the least stable, and present several challenges, such as the risk of contamination with pathogenic bacteria, namely Clostridium botulinum, and the formation of potentially toxic biogenic amines in the food product. These concerns are much more prevalent in fermented meat and fish than in other categories of fermented foods.
As fermentation expert Sandor Katz remarks in his book, The Art of Fermentation: “Fermented fish can definitely force us to confront and perhaps challenge the slippery and elusive boundary between what is and is not fit to eat.”
Currently there is a resurgence of interest and a revival in traditionally fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, sourdough bread, kombucha and the like. Fermented fish products, while new to many, have a long history as health-giving, nutritious foods that impart unique flavors, aromas, textures, and nutrients to the diet. An overview of some of the more notable fermented fish products from around the world, as well as information regarding safety and health benefits, are reviewed here.

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- See more at: http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/traditional-diets/fermented-fish-foods/#sthash.k3IanoRb.dpuf

St. Nicholas pepernoten, spiced little cookies

Pepernoten

This is an old recipe. It is from the time when people were still fasting before the christmas period. This means that there are no dairy or eggs used in this recipe. I personally do sometimes use milk or butter, simply because I like the flavour.
There is pepper in this recipe, as you can see in the name of the cookies. There are also other spices in there, which were shipped in from Asia by the Dutch trading ships and because of that fairly soon already common goods in The Netherlands, while they were still relatively unknown in other European countries.

Origin: The Netherlands

Difficulty: easy
Time: 30 minutes preparation, 1 night waiting, 20 minutes baking
Yield: about 50, depending on the size you make them

Equipment:

• Oven
• Kitchen machine

Ingredients:

• 125 grams sprouted flour
• 125 grams sprouted rye flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 100 ml honey
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon aniseed
• 100 ml water (I often use buttermilk as this prepares the flour better for digestion)
• a pinch of salt
• a bit of oil or ghee

Directions:

• Put all the spices in the kitchen machine and grind to a powder consistency. alternatively use all powder, though the flavour will be more rounded when using the whole spices and grinding them yourself.
• Make sure honey is fluid, if need be warm it up a bit au bain marie.
• Mix baking powder and flour, make sure there are no lumps in there.
• Mix in the spices.
• Mix in the honey and maple syrup
• Add the water (or buttermilk) bit by bit, maybe you will need a bit less or a bit more than the 100 ml. Try to achieve a nice soft dough.
• Put it in the fridge overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Rub a bit of oil or ghee on a baking tray, or use a silicon mat.
• Make balls the size of a marble, or cut squares the size of marbles from the dough. Make sure the balls lay relatively close to each other, so that they rise up in stead of sideways.
• Bake in a preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, check after about 10 minutes how they are fairing. When you have made your balls small, they may need to go out after 10 minutes, when they are average it takes about 15 and big ones take about 20 minutes, use your nose and your eyes to check where they are.

Possible substitutions:

1. butter - coconut, tallow, etc. depending on which flavour you can handle. In this case I would go for deodorised coconut oil if at all possible.
2. sugar - honey, but then leave out the milk.
3. sprouted flour - plain flour

St. Nicholas, 5 December

I am very late with writing this blog post, but better late than never.
We are educating our children at home in the Waldorf tradition. This is one of the reasons why we celebrate St. Nicholas in our home. As I am Dutch, this only adds to wanting to celebrate it. We celebrate it in a traditional way. 

I always decorate the Nature Table in the theme as you can see above. I have made several of the decorations myself with wool, felt and silk. I still have several others to make. I have the kits for it, but this is a slow process, due to priorities being as they are.

When we celebrate it we keep an eye on when the arrival of St. Nicholas is in The Netherlands. From then onwards I let the children put their shoe out to get a little gift in them, which is a nice pencil, bit of chocolate, some bees wax, a pretty gem stone, crafting yarn, wool roving or so.

On the last day of November when they put out their shoes they know that the advent calendar will be in there the next morning, I love giving the advent calendar on that day.

On the day itself we always have the traditional Dutch Pea Soup for dinner, this we eat together with sourdough rye bread. It is just the way I grew up, so I still do that. During the weeks before I have done my St. Nicholas baking, so I have made kruidnootjes, pepernoten, speculatius, filled speculatius, taaitaai, banketstaaf and such. These we have already had since I started baking, but I like to make sure that we have enough for the day itself.

In the evening we receive a letter from St. Nicholas. In this letter he explains that his helpers have put the gifts for all the family members in various places on our home and that the children can search for them. 
The gifts are useful gifts and things they really like. I always make sure that we stay in budget as I am of the opinion that it is all in good fun and should not cost a lot of money. 

The children love it when I read out the hints on where the gifts are and to go out a find them. We do this one by one so that everyone gets to see what everyone gets. Once all gifts have been unpacked we have hot chocolate with whipped cream and some of the baked goods. Usually we have some left overs of that for a couple of more days.

Speculatius spice mix

As I do not live in The Netherlands any more it isn't easy for me to get hold of speculatius spice mix these days, fortunately it is very easy to make myself.
Usually at the end of November I make a preserving jar full of it. I tend to use a LOT of it in the month of December for my St. Nicolas and Yuletide baking. And just in case I do not finish it, I can continue making speculatius biscuits until it is all finished.

This is what it looks like.

Origin: Dutch

Difficulty: easy

Time: 10 minutes

Traditional, Primal, Paleo, Vegetarian, etc

Equipment:

• preserving jar
• measuring spoons

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon clove
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon anisseed

Directions:

• All need to be powder, so in case you only have the whole part, pulverise it.
• Put all in the preserving jar, stir, done!