Homemade Ketchup (GAPS, Paleo, Refined Sugar Free)

 

Ingredients:

12 lbs. fresh tomatoes, quartered (for canned tomatoes, see note)
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red pepper, diced
1/4 cup celery leaves or chopped celery stalks
1/4 cup of ghee (or butter - optional, but I would highly recommend it!)
1  1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice (if you are canning this is essential)
1 Ceylon cinnamon stick, broken up a bit
2 tsp whole cloves
about 7 whole allspice berries
2 garlic chive stems, with flower heads (or 1 clove of garlic - I can't use garlic due to husband's allergy)
1 cup pure honey (You may need more or less - somewhat depends on what kind of honey you have and how strongly it comes through)

1/2 cup date sugar

2-2  1/2 tbsp. herbamare (or sea salt)
1 small can of organic tomato paste

 

Preparation:

Combine tomatoes, onion, bell pepper,and celery in a large stockpot (mine is 9 quarts and it was just enough) Crush the tomatoes slightly with a potato masher to make enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until tomatoes are soft and falling apart, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the vinegar to a small saucepan. Add the spices and garlic (chive flower heads) and bring to a boil over high heat.
Remove from heat and let stand for about 30 minutes or so. Pour vinegar through a strainer into the tomato mix. Discard spices. Simmer tomatoes, for another 30 minutes.

The lid is off from now on.

In batches, run the tomato mixture through a food mill (fine disk) to remove seeds & skins. Or press through a sieve, or puree in a food processor then sieve.

Return pulp to the stockpot, add tomato puree, lemon juice and ghee and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until the volume is reduced by about half, and the texture is about the thickness of a thick tomato sauce. Takes about 3 hours at a gentle simmer. You can turn the heat up higher to shorten the simmer time, but you will need to be close by to stir frequently.

Prepare canner, jars and lids.

Blend tomato pulp with an immersion blender or puree in a food processor/blender. Return to stockpot, add honey, date sugar & salt, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Simmer, stirring occasionally - I would really recommend using splatter guard if you have one, at this point!

Just keep simmering away until it is just a little thinner than you want the final product to be, (ketchup will further thicken when cold.)

If you're canning, fill hot jars to ½-inch headspace, wipe rims, affix lids and process in a boiling water bath for about 20 min.

Or you can freeze the ketchup.

 

Notes:

1.) If using canned tomatoes, use 6 x 28 oz. cans and omit the food mill step, as skins have already been removed.
2.) If you're not canning the ketchup (or you are pressure canning it,) you can omit the lemon juice and replace with 1/4 c of ACV. The lemon juice is just to keep the home canning safe.

Pin It

Homemade Ham (GAPS, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar free, preservative free)

 

 

Ingredients:

6 lbs. or so of Pork loin (excess fat removed)

3/4  gallon water

3/4 - 1 cup Himalayan sea salt

1 cup raw honey 

1 tbsp. dried sage

1 tbsp. dried thyme

8 whole peppercorns
1 cup  fresh celery juice (optional)

1 l prepared water kefir (also optional, but does help to prepare pork properly) - or more water + 1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice

 

Preparation:

Place the water, salt, sage, thyme and peppercorns into a saucepan. Heat and  stir until salt is dissolved. Let it cool until just barely warm, then add 1 cup of raw honey. Stir until dissolved.
Let it cool all the way to room temperature, then add 1 bottle of homemade water kefir - this is less for flavor and more for the acid base to properly prepare pork, even though the flavor does contribute.  I love using homemade water kefir root beer in this!

Add the fresh celery juice  too. Stir to combine.

Note that celery juice does contain some natural nitrates, so if you are trying to avoid them, omit the celery juice. I am adding it for flavor, more than anything else.

I cut the loin into about 3 -4 pieces - they brine and smoke more evenly that way.

Place each piece in a gallon zip lock bag, divide brine amongst it.

 

 

I like to place my bags in a little box or basket, so they are pushed together a little more. The brine rises and  covers all the meat. That way you don't have to turn the meat.  If you don’t do it this way, turn the meat once a day, so all the sides get brined evenly.

 

Place in the fridge and let it brine for 3-4 days.

Remove meat from brine and rinse well. Pat it really dry.

 

{A double batch, just before smoking.}

I hickory smoke it for 3.5-4 hrs. at 200 F until the internal temp is 150F.

 

 

{All done! Now just cooling down before slicing and freezing!}

Let it cool and slice/shave it thinly (with a deli slicer!)

 

{Yum!}

 

Store in the refrigerator. Unlike the commercial ham, this will not keep nearly as long, even when refrigerated, since we have no preservatives. Treat it like you would any other cooked meat.
I find that slicing one of the pieces and keeping it in the fridge, while freezing the others and then taking them out one by one as we slice and eat it, works well!

Pin It

Salted Caramel Ice Cream (GAPS, SCD, Paleo, Gluten-Free, Refined Sugar Free)

This is not your run-of-the-mill caramel ice cream. It has a very satisfying honey flavor with a hint of salted caramel, enveloped in a rich and velvety ice cream texture.

And, this ice cream is scoop-able right out of the freezer!

My children have declared it “the best ice cream you ever made.” That is high praise, especially since they love all the other ice creams I have made before!

 

 

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of pure honey

2 tbsp. water

1 can of  Coconut milk 

1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt

4 egg yolks (fresh, preferably from pastured chickens) room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup of cultured cream (I make mine from raw milk, culturing it for 24 hrs. with some milk kefir grains)

 

Preparation:

Place the honey and the water in a pan. Let it cook to 240 F (soft boil stage) on your candy thermometer. This takes about 8-10 minutes.
Then, carefully, add 1 can of coconut milk and 1/2 tsp of sea salt and stir to combine.

Let it cook until the temperature goes back up to 190 - 200F.

It will look like sweetened condensed milk, but a bit more runny.
Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temp.

Then add 4 egg yolks, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups of cultured cream. Whisk together and process in the ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, that is fine. Whisk it a little longer to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients and whip in some air.  Then pour into a container and freeze over night.

If you are processing this in an ice cream maker, please note that this particular ice cream will stay really slushy and soft. It barely gets to soft serve stage, so just transfer it to your ice cream container and freeze at least over night.

Unlike other ice creams, this scoops right out of the freezer, so no need to set this ice cream out to thaw a bit before serving.

Enjoy!

Pin It

Quick And Easy Homemade, Grass-Fed Ghee

Ghee is so delicious, don’t you think?

What is Ghee, you ask?

Ghee is basically butter with the milk protein and lactose taken out, leaving pure butter fat. Ghee is not only very flavorful, but it also has a higher burning point, meaning you can cook at much higher temperatures than butter without it burning.

This means that you can have the rich flavor of butter, without worrying about it smoking or burning at a low temperature, quite unlike butter!

While I am very sensitive to dairy, I find that I can consume ghee without any issues. Many dairy sensitive people find that they do well with ghee since it is casein and lactose free, when  prepared correctly! However, ghee can also be quite expensive, especially the grass-fed kind, which holds the most benefits.

So, I’ve been making my own ghee from the Kerry Gold Butter we get at Costco. Initially I thought this was out, as they only carry the salted kind at our Costco, but I soon found out, that the salt seems to attach itself to the protein, which is what we’re filtering out. So, the resulting Ghee is actually unsalted - and as far as I’m concerned - utterly heavenly!

I’m not only entranced by the flavor, but even more so by the smell this homemade goody produces. I have been known to just take the lid off my homemade ghee, so I can take a little sniff at the utter deliciousness! It makes me happy! And I put it on everything. On warm bread, on waffles, on my vegetables ...

My children even prefer it to butter of late!

Anyway, if you think producing Ghee is a long and laborious process that is very prone to failure - I’m here to tell you it isn’t so!

It’s actually quite easy and relatively quick. It generally takes me just 20 minutes to turn 3 blocks of Kerry Gold Butter into Ghee.

You will need:
Grass-Fed Butter
Unbleached organic cotton fabric/cloth
Fine mesh metal strainer
Large Saucepan
Jar( s) with lid

Turn the stove to medium and melt the butter in the saucepan. The temperature will stay at medium the entire time.

It really doesn’t matter how much butter you use at the time, as the process will be the same. If you’re using only one stick of butter the whole thing will of course happen faster than if you are using five.

Just make sure your saucepan is large enough to accommodate the rising foam later!

Once the butter is melted, it will fairly soon start to bubble like this. That’s the water cooking out. The bubbles will be relatively large and well defined, popping away and there will be steam. Stand away from the stove a little, just in case!

There will be some foam, but the most prominent thing will be the increasingly big bubbles.

After a few minutes, the volume will be somewhat less in the saucepan. You will be able to see this on the pot, where the melted butter formed a ring.

After a while you will see the larger bubbles disappearing and tiny little, foamy bubbles will start to appear instead.

Usually that’s when the laborious process of ghee making starts. You’re supposed to skim off all the foam. And it just keeps on coming, so you keep on skimming. I don’t.

That’s why we chose a large saucepan! We let the foam do it’s thing.

And it will! It will rise and rise. And there will be lots of foam.

If you have chosen a big enough saucepan, there’s no problem!

This is not a process you can walk away from. It’s not laborious, but you need to be standing there so you can gauge when it’s time to take it off the heat. When that moment arrives, you have to be ready and be quick!

However, up until this point, the butter is just doing it’s thing and you don’t really need to do much.

So, get your bowl, strainer and cloth ready.

A word on the cloth. Cheese cloth, even several layers of it, doesn’t do a good enough job in my opinion. Some of the casein always escapes and that is what we’re trying to filter out.

If you don’t have a cloth, you can use a dedicated white dish towel, or even unbleached coffee filters. The coffee filters take longer, but they do an excellent job!

Back to the butter. The foam will really be rising now. Tiny little bubbles all over the place, rising up!

And then there will be that point of change. It will be subtle, but unmistakable.

First of all, the smell will change. It will go from a melted butter smell to an unmistakably nutty smell.

The foam will no longer want to rise up, but rather go down now and certain areas in the foam will turn from yellow to a light golden brown.

And then little golden brown flecks start floating on the foam.

That is the point when you spring into action. You pull the pan off the stove straight away and you slowly pour it into your set up bowl with the strainer and cloth/coffee filter.

There will be quite a bit of browned casein visible at the bottom and the sides of your saucepan, once all the butter and foam is out.

Just soak that in a bit of hot water and washing up liquid and it will wash right off!

The cloth/coffee filter will be doing it’s thing.

When you get to the end, give the cloth a quick twist and press with a spoon to get all the remaining butter fat out.

What will be left in the cloth is this:

Now, to enhance the nutty flavor, you can let the ghee go a little longer, which will make for darker residue and a darker ghee. I have done both, both is very flavorful, but personally, I prefer it right about at this stage.

If you’re doing it for the first time, go by these visuals and see how it works for you. After you are a more seasoned ghee maker you will develop your own preferences!

Once you are done with filtering, you will have perfectly wonderful ghee. It’s still hot though, so be careful while handling it!

If you didn’t filter straight into a jar, decant the ghee and close the lid.

Let it cool down a little bit at room temperature, then place in the fridge.

I find that it has a creamier texture when it’s fully cooled in the fridge.

I generally keep my ghee in the refrigerator when not in use. Strictly speaking this is not necessary, as ghee is shelf stable at room temperature, but I prefer it from the refrigerator. Since it’s quite warm around here, it gets soft at room temperature fairly quickly, so using it while too hard is rarely an issue!

Once it cools and hardens a bit, it has this lovely deep yellow color and beautiful aroma and flavor! Yes,  I totally love the stuff!

So, there you have it! Lovely ghee!

And if you would rather not make your own, this is the ghee I use and recommend when I don’t make my own!

Purity farms ghee is organic and certified cassein and lactose free!

Vitacost seems to have far the best price on it and has fast shipping, be it the flat rate shipping or the free shipping for purchases over $49!  If you haven’t signed up for Vitacost yet, do it now through my link and receive $10 off your first purchase of $30 or more!

Pin It

Homemade Almond Milk / Almond Milk Creamer (Dairy-, Gluten-, Soy -Free, Low-Carb, Raw, Vegan)

As you know, I’ve been making my own nut milks, but for some reason it hadn’t occurred to me to make my own almond milk. I have had the almond milk in the cartons and even though I don’t dislike it, it doesn’t blow me away either. So, almond milk wasn’t really on my to do list.

Since another Azure Standard delivery is coming in a few day’s time, I was in “use up the last little bits here and there and make room” mode and found some almonds in the freezer.  So, just because I was in the mood for a change, I thought I would make some almond milk!

Oh my goodness!! Homemade Almond Milk is N.O.T.H.I.N.G like the stuff in the cartons! It’s not even in the same flavor category!

The homemade stuff is rich and creamy (not slightly watery like the bought stuff) with a full round flavor, slightly sweet and very satisfying!

And with the addition of just a couple of healthy ingredients you have a delicious non-dairy creamer that won’t separate or curdle in hot or iced drinks!

And it’s so easy to make! If you have never tried homemade Almond Milk, you are so in for a treat!

Basically I went about it much like I did with my cashew milk.

Homemade Almond Milk

Soak 1 cup of whole almonds (I use organic) in water for 4 hrs. or as long as over night. Drain the almonds and rinse.

Place almonds in a blender with about 4 cups of filtered water. If you have a Vitamix, just fill it to the “max” line of the 32 oz. container with water. Blend on high until it’s all well incorporated. It takes less than a minute in the Vitamix, but will probably take longer in a regular blender.

Place a Nut-Milk Bag in a large bowl and pour your almond milk through the nut milk bag. Then squeeze, squeeze, squeeze until there’s no more milk coming out.

Discard the pulp (unless you want to reuse it, but I haven't found anything that yields a tasty result so far) and decant the Almond Milk into a jar or bottle.

Personally, I like to add a pinch of  Himalayan Sea Salt , 2 tsp of Maple Syrup and 1/2 tsp of Butter Vanilla Bakery Emulsion (or extract) to mine to round out the flavor some more, but that is optional. Shake it up and refrigerate!

Give it a quick shake before use. It doesn’t separate, but the milk can settle a little. A quick shake takes care of that though!

Note:

1.) Any kind of sweetener of preference can be used in this.

2.) We are soaking the almonds to remove the enzyme inhibitors from the nuts, so please DO discard the soaking water, as we don’t want them in the milk.

3.) For an even (naturally) sweeter Almond Milk, peel the skins off the almonds (or use blanched almonds) to make the milk.

4.) I have read that the 1 gallon paint strainer bags at Home Depot work just as well as nut milk bags and are much more inexpensive. They don’t last as long, but apparently they do the job. I haven’t tried them myself however.

5.) Four or more layers of fine cheese cloth also works for straining and squeezing the Almond Milk.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Almond Milk Creamer

Make almond milk as above, then after squeezing the milk, return the milk  to the blender and add

1.5 tbsp. Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

2 tbsp. Maple Syrup (or sweetener of choice)

pinch of  Himalayan Sea Salt

2 tsp of Vanilla (or any other kind of flavor you like your creamer to have) extract

Blend to incorporate fully.

You can use this straight away, especially the foamy head it makes in the blender for a Cappuccino or Café au lait, or refrigerate for later use.

Shake before use.

Notes:

1.) This creamer doesn’t seem to separate or curdle like almond milk does in hot or iced drinks. At least not for several hours! However, if preparing an iced late, I would recommend adding the creamer last, so the coconut oil doesn’t harden around the ice cubes.

2.) You can just make a little at a time too by using about 1/2 cup of homemade almond milk, 1/4 tsp Coconut Oil, 1/8 tsp flavor extract of choice and sweetener to taste.

3.) Use up to 2.5 tbsp. of Coconut Oil  for a richer, creamier result. Personally, I like it best at 1.5 tbsp., but experiment and find your own happy place!

4.) Use 2 dates in place of sweetener and blend until it is thoroughly incorporated.

Pin It

Our Favorite Guacamole

Ingredients:

4 ripe avocadoes

1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, deseeded and chopped (grape or regular variety) - I love to use the yellow ones

1/4 cup red onion (finely chopped)

1 jalapeño pepper (seeds removed and finely chopped) - Optional - I omit this one as the kids like to eat “whackamole” too, but not if it’s too “hot”!

2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro

2 cloves of garlic (minced) - I omit this too when we’re all eating it, as my husband is allergic. I replace it with 1/8 tsp onion powder. It rounds out the flavor a bit!

1/4 tsp ground cumin (slightly heaping)

1/4 tsp Chipotle chili powder

Juice of 1 grilled lemon (sliced in half, placed cut sides down in a hot dry skillet, until the underside turns dark brown, but not burnt)

1/4 tsp Himalayan Sea Salt (or to taste)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

 

 

Preparation:

Cube the avocados and place in a bowl.  Pour the grilled lemon juice over the avocados and mash all of it roughly with a potato masher (or a fork.)

Add all the other ingredients to the bowl.

Mix well, so everything is nicely incorporated, then taste and adjust seasoning.

Once you’re satisfied, add the avocado stones back into the bowl (it stops it from browning too fast) cover and let the guacamole sit for a while so all the flavors can marry.

Refrigerate left-overs.

Enjoy!

Pin It

Mexican Queso Dip/Sauce #2 (Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free)

This is the dairy-free version of my favorite Mexican cheese dip (original recipe is here) and I have to say that it comes out really close to the original flavor and texture!

This was quite amazing to me, considering that the original Queso Dip is really one big dairy feast, and this one has no dairy whatsoever in it!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of diary-free sour cream (cultured for about 18 hrs. and then briefly drained to thicken)

1/4 cup Rejuvelac

1/2 cup of cashew milk or Mimic Cream

1/3 cup raw macadamia nuts  (or macadamia flour/butter if not using a high powered blender)

3 tbsp. sliced jalapeno juice

2 tsp jalapeno slices (chopped if not using a high powered blender) - or more if you like it spicier

2 tsp chicken or vegetable stock bouillon powder

1 large egg (vegan: replace with 1 tbsp of cornstarch and 3 tbsp of water)

3/4 cup of meltable vegan/dairy-free cheeses (I used half Daya cheddar and half cheddar flavor rice shreds in my latest batch, but any meltable dairy-free cheeses will work.  I have also used my homemade meltable nut cheeses  successfully in this!)

Sea Salt to taste

Vitamix Instructions:

Add everything to the Vitamix, go to variable 1, then up to 7 quickly,  then process on high for 7 minutes. The mix should resemble the consistency of hot cheese sauce.

If it doesn’t thicken (somewhat depends on how much thickening agent your cheeses have,) add 2 tsp of corn starch (or tapioca starch, or potato starch, or agar powder) and process for a further 2 minutes or until thickened.

You can now use this sauce as a cheese sauce (over enchiladas or such) or cool down to room temperature and then cover and chill overnight for a thick Queso dip (it will thicken as it chills!)

Stovetop Instructions:

First off, you will likely not get as smooth of an end result as you do with a commercial blender, as the macadamias add a lot of the creaminess and the high speed processing adds a little “fluffiness”. However, you still get a pretty decent tasting cheese sauce!

Let’s get started!

Add the dairy-free sour cream, Rejuvelac, the cashew milk, the macadamia flour/butter , the jalapeno juice, jalapeno pieces, stock powder and egg to a saucepan. Whisk to combine and heat under constant stirring on medium heat until slightly thickened.

Once it has thickened a little, add the cheese shreds and continue to stir until all the cheese is melted into the sauce.

Taste the mix and add salt if needed.

You can now use this sauce as a cheese sauce (over enchiladas or such) or cool down to room temperature and then cover and chill overnight for a thick Queso dip (it will thicken as it chills!)

Recipe and substitution notes:

1.) If you prefer, you can omit the chopped jalapeno slices at the beginning of the recipe and add them once your sauce is thick at the very end. It gives your Queso dip a tad more texture, especially if you are making the dip in the Vitamix.

2.) I have not tried making it with other nuts, so I don’t know if it works. Chances are that you will get a completely different result, so experiment at your own risk.

3.) Macadamias are an important addition here. They provide a lot of the creaminess, so if you substitute with something else, chances are the result will just not be the same! Having said that though, cashews may come the closest in creaminess and would make a "close enough" kind of substitute.
4.) To make this dish vegan, replace chicken bouillon with vegetable bouillon and replace the egg with 1 tbsp of corn starch and 3 tbsp of water.

Pin It

Plant Based Dairy Basics

As I am developing non-dairy recipes, I seem to come back to the same base products again and again. I thought it would be easiest, if I just had those base products/recipes all in one place, so I can just link to it in future recipes.

Dairy-Free Yogurt

When I first started experimenting with Dairy-Free Yogurt, I started with the recipes by Kelly of http://www.thespunkycoconut.com.

I have since developed my own preferences in how I make my yogurt, both texture and flavor wise, but they are based on Kelly’s base recipe. Thank you, Kelly!

Add to a pot:

3 cups cashew milk
3 cups canned coconut milk
1 tbsp. Raw Coconut Nectar  (or honey, or palm sugar - we just want something to help feed the bacteria, rather than sweeten the yogurt)

Bring to simmer. Watch carefully so it doesn’t boil over.

Once it begins to simmer turn off the heat.

While the milk is warming, let

1 tbsp. of gelatin 

bloom in

1/4 cup of water.

(OR 1.5 tsp agar powder, dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water)

Blooming simply means that you sprinkle it on top of the water and leave it undisturbed until it has absorbed the water. Then you heat the mix until it bubbles and turns into a clear liquid.

Whisk your gelatin mixture (or your agar mixture)  into the hot milk.

Take your pan off the heat and place it in a basin full of cold water. You can add some ice cubes to your water bath, to hasten things along. We want to cool the mixture down to about 95F. An instant read thermometer really helps here. If you don’t have one, place a little of the hot milk on the inside of your wrist. If it no longer has the slightest “heat” to it but is still warm, your ready to whisk in the

contents of about 9 probiotic capsules (make sure they are dairy free.)

You just need to pull the capsules apart and use the dried powder inside.

When all the probiotic powder is whisked in, ladle into jars and keep warm for about 10 hours.

I use my yogurt maker, but I have also successfully made this yogurt many other ways.

One of the easiest is to use mason jars, placed in the oven (lids off) and wrapped/draped with a thick bath towel) with only the oven light on for 10 hrs.

If there is a clear pool at the bottom after 10 hours, don’t worry about it. Just secure the lids tightly and shake the yogurt to mix it in before refrigerating.

Refrigerate for 8 hours. It does actually take this long and it is possible that your yogurt looks very thin and runny for quite some time before that. But don’t worry, it will set up fine - just wait for the required 8 hours!

Keep refrigerated.

Note:

This dairy-free yogurt works really nicely as a sour cream replacement too!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rejuvelac

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I will just post a few links to videos/articles of people making rejuvelac. You will find that ever recipe is ever so slightly different, but all of them have the same end result, which does show how forgiving the process is, once you got it down!

I started making Rejuvelac after I got Miyoko Shinner’s book Artisan Vegan Cheese. Many of her cheese recipes require Rejuvelac and even though I was initially a bit weary about it all, once I got it right, I really saw/tasted, why it was so much the culturing agent of her choice!

http://www.rawmazing.com/rejuvelac/ (they also answer all sorts of trouble shooting in the comment section.)

http://www.sproutpeople.com/cookery/rejuvelac.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rejuvelac-231401

http://www.growyouthful.com/recipes/rejuvelac.php

http://www.karynraw.com/blog/2012/10/18/rejuvenate-replenish-and-restore-with-rejuvelac/

A few personal notes on the process:

1.) My first batch went horribly wrong and smelled extremely putrid. Way worse than “old socks”. This was not a good batch and in retrospect I know what went wrong. I sprouted the grains in a mason jar and neglected to drain them COMPLETELY during the sprouting process.

My batches since then have all been a success, mostly because I used my sprouting jar and made sure it all drained really well.

2.) I still don’t drink the stuff, but I do use it in all sorts of plant based dairy. It is awesome in culturing plant based dairy and gives that unique cheesy flavor - much more so than many other ways I’ve tried.  To me it isn’t so much the smell of “old socks” but more that of a slightly pungent/very ripe cheese. It’s not all that unpleasant and I tend to drain and refrigerate the liquid as soon as I smell that cheesy smell!

3.) If you are living gluten-free, you can sprout brown rice and or gluten-free oats. I have tried wheat, rye, brown rice and oats so far and all have worked great, even though each and ever one had a slightly different smell/flavor to them.

4.) Rejuvelac keeps for up to a month in the refrigerator.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cashew Sour Cream/Cream Cheese

Soak 1 cup of RAW Cashew Pieces (NOT roasted or salted!) in water overnight. I leave it covered out on the counter over night.

Drain and rinse the cashew pieces in the morning and add to a blender.

Add just enough Rejuvelac to process into a thick and creamy puree.

Blend on high until smooth and incorporated, about 2 minutes in the Vitamix.

Transfer into a container with a lid and leave it out at room temperature to culture. I prefer mine cultured for around 24-30 hrs., but tastes vary. It can culture anywhere from 12 - 48 hrs.

Then refrigerate. I find that it continues to culture a little in the refrigerator when left for a few days, but at a much slower rate.

If you were processing your sour cream with a regular blender, chances are that you needed to use much more liquid than you would with a high powered blender.

If your sour cream or cream cheese isn’t really thick, line a colander or sieve with a double layer of a cheese cloth and drain the cultured mix for a few hours until you achieve the desired thickness. Discard the liquid that dripped off. Refrigerate the sour cream/cream cheese.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Instant” Sour Cream (Uncultured)

This sour cream does requires much less waiting time than the cultured variety. You do need to soak the cashews, but once that step is done, you can have your sour cream in minutes!

1 cups raw cashews
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar,
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
additional fresh lemon juice or vinegar for adjusting the flavor
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4  cup water (if using Vitamix) plus 2-3 tbsp. more water (if using food processor)

Soak 1 cup of RAW Cashew Pieces (NOT roasted or salted!) in water overnight. I leave them in a covered bowl on the counter over night.

Into a food processor or a very powerful blender, combine the cashews, vinegar, lemon juice, and salt. Puree for 1-2 minutes, until you have a thick paste. Scrape the sides of your processor as needed during this process, to make sure everything is well blended.
Slowly, while the processor/blender is running, stream in the water. Let the water incorporate before adding more. It’s the best way to see how much you really need. Use as little water as possible.

Taste test and adjust the flavor with more vinegar, lemon juice and/or salt.

Refrigerate. It will thicken up a bit while it refrigerates too.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cashew Milk

Makes about 5 cups.

Soak 1 cup of RAW Cashew Pieces (NOT roasted or salted!) in water overnight.  I leave it covered out on the counter over night.

Drain and rinse the cashew pieces  in the morning and add to a blender with 3 1/2 cups of water.

Blend on high until smooth and incorporated, about 2 minutes in the Vitamix.

If you are using a regular blender, it tends to work better to make it in several smaller batches. Process for as long as you can without overheating your blender! Then combine the batches. If you still have bits floating in your milk, you may want to drain your milk through a nut bag or very fine mesh sieve.

I also like to add a pinch of Real Salt and 2 drops of Liquid Stevia to give it some depth of flavor. I store my cashew milk in a glass jug in the refrigerator. So, whenever I refer to Cashew Milk in a recipe, this is what I use!

Keep refrigerated.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rice Milk #1

This variety of rice milk is great for using up leftover rice and tends to work really well in baking and cooking applications. However, as a “over your cereal” or “drink straight from the glass” milk substitute it is not my preference. For that I would recommend Rice Milk #2.

1/2 cup cooked organic, brown rice
2 cups of water
2 tsp.  sweetener of choice
pinch of salt

Add all ingredients to your blender and blend on high (about 1 minute or so for a high powered blender) until you have a smooth and creamy milk.
If you’re not using a high powered blender, you may have some rice bits left. Simply strain the milk through a fine mesh sieve.
Keep refrigerated.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rice Milk #2

This milk has a tendency to separate after a while. Just give it a quick shake before use.
Makes about two cups

1/2 cup brown rice
2 cups filtered water
1-2 tsp Organic evaporated Cane Sugar - or stevia, raw coconut nectar, honey, maple syrup, or other sweetener to taste (optional)
pinch salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast rice grains until fragrant and coloring, stirring regularly, about four minutes. Transfer to a bowl or jar and add 2 cups water. Cover and set aside to soak for 10-12 hours.
When soaking in complete, pour rice and water into blender pitcher, add any additional sweeteners and flavorings, and blend on  high until rice grains are no longer visible, about 2 minutes.
Use a nut milk bag or similarly fine strainer to drip milk into a clean glass storage jar or bottle. Chill rice milk thoroughly before serving. Shake well before each use.

Notes:

Toasting the rice is optional. I would recommend you try it both ways though, and with white and brown rice to find your own flavor preference.
Personally, I prefer a light toasting and the brown rice as it gives a little more depth of flavor to the milk and a less “raw” flavor, for lack of a better description.


For instructions on how to make your own Almond milk/Almond Milk Creamer, see here.

Pin It

Chocolate Mousse (Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Gluten-Free, Reduced Sugar) - with Vitamix Instructions

On of the other new things in my life is a later model Vitamix 5200. Seldom has an appliance been so long wished for, eagerly awaited and then put to use repeatedly over days and weeks as this machine!

 

It.is.fantastic! Especially for the making of nut anything. The texture it produces just can’t be beat.

When I first went dairy free, I was using an ordinary blender and a Personal Blender and even though it produced pretty passable results that certainly worked for me, they were nothing compared to the texture the Vitamix 5200 was able to give me. Incidentally, the personal blender did much better than any full size blender, in case you're wondering!

 

Just as an example:

I was able to make perfectly fine cashew milk in my personal blender. It took a lot longer and I had to do it over and over to incorporate most of the soaked cashews, but I got there. The cashew milk would separate in the refrigerator rather quickly, but it didn’t matter that much - shake it up before use and go!

When I got my new Vitamix 5200, the first thing I did was cashew milk. The difference was amazing! All of the cashews just sort of incorporated into the water and made this smooth, creamy milk. And I have yet to see any separation in the refrigerator from that milk. And all of it was done in about a couple of minutes or so!

 

Diary-Free Cream Cheese:

I made pretty good tasting cream cheese before, but there were texture issues. Not terrible, but enough to give away that it wasn’t dairy. With the Vitamix 5200,  that is no longer the case. Depending on what nut combination I use, it comes out smooth and creamy - almost akin to whipped cream cheese! Especially when I put a few macadamias in it!

 

The other thing that I have discovered with the Vitamix 5200,  is cooking in it!  SO easy, especially for puddings, sauces and soups! Just dump everything in it and go!  So, quite a few of my future recipes will be with Vitamix 5200 instructions, especially the non-dairy ones!

 

As you can see I am totally in love with my Vitamix, as are my kids. I haven’t even told you about all our morning smoothies, our healthy and nutritious after school “ice creams” and such! We’ve had green juices, smoothies and shakes for breakfast for years, but I always had to be careful what to use, since both my kids and my husband are quite sensitive to texture problems. Unless it’s completely smooth, they have issues! Now, with the Vitamix 5200,  it doesn’t matter what I use anymore, since everything ends up completely smooth and incorporated! It even makes chia seeds disappear right into the shake without grit or anything! Amazing!

 

Ok, I stop gushing about my little machine! By the way, I am in no way affiliated with Vitamix 5200 , they don’t know I exist. I just love, love, love this machine!

 

Speaking of my kids. My kids are dairy lovers through and through. My girl in particular is also a dairy “snob”. She won’t just accept any ole thing as dairy and has refused nut milks of any kind. Good thing they don’t have to be dairy-free! However, having said that, it was my girl who declared the following chocolate mousse “the best chocolate pudding ever!”

So, here comes the recipe. Note that I will give you instructions both for the Vitamix 5200 and a stove top method, but that due to the lack of air incorporation in the stovetop method, it will be more of a pudding than an airy mousse.

 

Chocolate Mousse (Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Gluten-Free, Reduced Sugar)

 

 

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups Nut milk of choice (I like it best with Cashew Milk, it makes it creamer. Cashew milk  method is in “additional notes”)

1/4 cup of full fat coconut milk (I use Native Forest Organic Classic Coconut Milk)

2 tbsp. cornstarch (or tapioca starch, or potato starch, or dairy-free, unsweetened vanilla custard powder)

1/3 cup of sweetener of choice (I use liquid stevia equivalent)

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp Lorann’s buttery vanilla emulsion (or vanilla extract, but add after the mousse is cooked)

1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

 

1 cup Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Gluten, Dairy, nut & Soy Free, Mini Chips

 

Vitamix Instructions:

Add all ingredients, except for the chocolate chips to the Vitamix and process for 6  minutes on high. The mixture will be hot and have thickened. Turn the blender off, add the chocolate chips and process for another minute on high. Add the vanilla extract (if using) and incorporate.

Pour into ramekins, small mason jars or custard forms, let it cool down to room temperature and chill overnight.

 

Stove Top Instructions:

Please note that this will be more like a thick custard if made on the stovetop, rather than a lighter mousse as the stovetop method doesn’t incorporate the air into the mixture as the Vitamix does. It is nevertheless delicious!

 

Add 1 cup of the nut milk, the coconut milk, the sweetener, vanilla emulsion and cocoa powder to a pan and whisk well.

In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of nut milk, the eggs, the egg yolk and the corn starch.

Warm the mixture in the pan, taking care not to let it boil over! Once the milk is hot, add the egg and cornstarch mix under constant whisking until it thickens.

Add the chocolate chips and let them melt into the custard under constant stirring.

 

Add the vanilla extract if using, stir it in well, then pour into ramekins, small mason jars or custard forms, let it cool down to room temperature and chill overnight.

 

 

Additional recipe and substitution notes:

1. Please do chill these overnight! They take a little longer to set up than their dairy counterparts and won’t get to the right texture for several hours. But when they do, they are so worth the wait!

 

2. I make my cashew milk the following way:

Soak 1 cup of cashew pieces in water overnight. Rinse in the morning, add the drained cashew pieces to a blender with 3 1/2 cups of water. Blend on high until smooth and incorporated, about 2 minutes in the Vitamix. If you are using a regular blender, it tends to work better to make it in several smaller batches. Process for as long as you can without overheating your blender! Then combine the batches. If you still have bits floating in your milk, you may want to drain your milk through a nut bag or very fine mesh sieve.

I also like to add a pinch of real salt and a couple of drops of liquid stevia to give it some depth of flavor. I store my cashew milk in a glass jug in the refrigerator. So, whenever I refer to Cashew Milk, this is what I use!

 

3. If you are using the Lorann’s Baking Emulsion, you can use it right at the beginning and cook with it, as the flavor won’t dissipate. If you are using regular vanilla extract, you will need to wait until the end to add it, as it has a tendency to evaporate and take most of the yummy vanilla flavor with it.

 

4. The dairy-free, unsweetened vanilla custard powder I speak of in the recipe refers to the Cook & Serve kind, NOT instant!

 

5. You can use unsweetened MimicCreme instead of the home made cashew milk.

 

6. It does work without the coconut milk, but you will get a slightly different texture and consistency.

 

 

7. You could use all coconut milk, for an even thicker and creamer option (it will however impart some of the coconut flavor!)

Pin It