Amazing Fruit Crisp with Teff Flour, Maca, Almonds, Organic, Local Berries and Apples
Whether you are gluten-free, vegan, or omnivore, who can resist fruit crisp hot out of the oven? I have been baking and eating fruit crisps using teff flour for over 20 years and loving it. Here is a tasty variation, where I swapped a tablespoon of super food maca for some of the teff flour. You can do that with any flour; swap a little maca for about a tablespoon of flour. You will find yummy fruit crisp recipes in my cookbooks, Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook and Going Wild in the Kitchen. Also, you can add some almonds to the sweet maple syrup sweetened crumble on top. I also love to use extra virgin coconut oil. Local organic apples, along with fresh picked then frozen strawberries, raspberries and wild cranberries line the bottom of the baking dish before the crumble goes on top. Delish! Feel free to mix and match seasonal fruits all year round! A generous touch of organic cinnamon and organic vanilla extract “Spices this Up” and makes this a “Great Meal with Great Grains”. “Improvisational Cooking for Health and Vitality and Pleasure, too. All major themes of my cooking classes and cookbooks.
Serve it for breakfast with yogurt on top, or for enjoy as a snack or dessert with whipped cream or ice cream. Since oats are a complete protein, this is a great meal with great grains any time of day!
CHICOPEE Mass. (Mass Appeal) – Dark chocolate isn’t just delicious, it’s great for your heart. Leslie Cerier is a Chef and Educator and also known as The Organic Gourmet and she’s here to make a some delicious truffles with us.
Here’s the video of Leslie being interviewed on NBC affiliate Channel 22 in Chicopee, MA
Recipes Below for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies and Date Nut Treats
Halloween used to scare me. My kids coming home with all that junk food sent shivers through my spine. But with a selection of healthy Halloween treats and snacks, it’s a joy, a chance to play dress-up with the kids, and parade around the neighborhood at night, greeting friends, nibbling on healthy, all natural candies, marveling at carved candle lit pumpkins and houses decorated with creepy masks and hanging skeletons.
Natural food stores are well stocked with natural candies: fruit leather and licorice in many sugar-free flavors: strawberry, raspberry, apple and grape. There are plenty of vitamin C lollypops, peppermints, and fruit juice sweetened sucking candies. You will find little bags of organic pretzels, animal cookies, different flavored potato chips and corn chips, small boxes of raisins, chocolates with scary Halloween caricatures on the wrappers like ugly witches and black cats on a pumpkin.
To add to the fun, you can create your own-bagged delights from the bulk bins with all natural pretzel mixes, malt balls, chocolate covered nuts and raisins. Best of all, you can make your own organic candied apples, chocolate-dipped dried fruits, date nut treats and maple syrup sweetened chocolate chip cookie treats that kids of all ages love.
To make your own candied apples, forget the artificial red dyes and sugary caramel coatings. You can dip your apples in agave nectar or rice syrup and then roll the glazed apples in ground up graham crackers or small chunks of all natural sandwich cookies, granola, chopped up raisins, figs, dates, or calcium rich ground walnuts and almonds.
Dried sliced pineapple, pears, apricots, peaches, and oranges half dipped in chocolate are beautiful and easy to make. Simply melt dairy-free chocolate in top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Then, put a piece of dried fruit on a toothpick or dipping fork. Dip it half way into the chocolate. Swirl it around. Lift it out, and let the excess drip back into the pot. Stick the bottom of the toothpick into an apple or pear to catch the chocolate drippings, while the chocolate cools and hardens.
When making your own chocolate chip cookies, take advantage of the large assortment of chocolate and carob chips available at your local health food store: organic dark and organic white chocolate chips, vanilla chips, peanut butter chips, dairy-free espresso chocolate chips, vegan carob chips and guilt-free, sugar-free chocolate chips sweetened with malted barley. Feel free to use any of these in the cookie recipes.
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12-18 cookies depending on how big you make them
These cookies are quick, easy and fun to make. I love shaping them with my hands, but you could also use a cookie cutter.
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour
1/3 cup melted extra virgin coconut oil or butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a large bowl. Mix them together briefly with a wooden spoon; then shape them into cookies with your hands.
To use cookie cutters, flatten some batter between your hands and place it on a pastry board. Press in a cookie cutter and shake gently. Pull away the excess. Repeat till you use all the batter.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet with olive oil. Put cookies on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let them cool before eating.
Date Nut Treats
Makes 15 walnut sized balls
Kids love to make and eat these.
1 cup tightly packed pitted dates
4 tablespoons water
Pinch of cardamom (1/4 teaspoon, or to taste)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons brown rice syrup or honey
1/3 cup almonds, ground
Put the dates in a food processor with the water, cardamom, and cinnamon. Pulse on and off until finely chopped. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding more spices, if desired. Transfer to a small mixing bowl.
Grind walnuts in the food processor, or coarsely chop them up. Mix walnuts into the dates and shape into walnut sized balls. Drizzle on and coat with brown rice syrup or honey.
Grind almonds into a meal in the food processor. Pour ground almonds onto a cutting board or plate. Roll date nut balls in almond meal and serve or wrap up to give away.
Whole grains are one of nature’s gifts that have nurtured people all over the world for centuries. These powerhouses—loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants—offer energy, great taste, and worlds of healthy eating pleasure.
Kasha, amaranth, teff, bulgar, cous cous, quinoa, corn grits and rolled oats cook quickly: 5-15 minutes. Besides the standard boil and simmer, you can toast, marinate, bake, sprout, sauté, and even presoak grains to produce different textures and flavors. Kasha, quinoa, oats, and amaranth are complete proteins and gluten-free. Other gluten-free grains are corn, millet, wild rice, sorghum, teff, and numerous varieties of rice.
A fabulous variety of whole grains provide culinary excitement without hours of labor. You can cook grains alone and together with other grains, in infinite combination with spices, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Once you know the proportion of liquid to grains you can make up your own combination. Sometimes it may require a little math because some grains require more cooking liquid than others. Don’t let the math stop you. Go a little wild and improvise. Add cooked grains to a salad, stir fry, soup, or garnish with fresh herbs or toasted seeds.
Organic and Gluten-Free Feta Cheese and Quinoa Salad
Some Grains need to be rinsed. Place a measured amount in a pot, or large bowl. Cover grains with three to four inches of water. Swirl grains with a chopstick or wooden spoon. Pour off any floating debris, grain hulls, twigs, etc. Repeat until the water is clear. Some grains such as barley, oats, and millet are dustier than others and require a longer rinsing period. Spelt, and kamut are fairly clean and rinse quickly. Don’t bother rinsing teff. It is too tiny, and has already been cleaned before packaging. I also never rinse kasha (buckwheat groats) or flaked or cracked grains like rolled oats, spelt flakes, kamut flakes, corn grits, bulgar wheat, or cous cous. Do rinse red, tan and black varieties of quinoa unless the package says pre-rinsed.
Special Ways of Cooking Grains
1- Dry roast rinsed grains before cooking them
* Alone or with:
* Spices
* Vegetables and Spices
* Nuts and/or Seeds
To make them fluffy, light, individual, dry and nutty flavored.
2- Sauté rinsed, uncooked grains
* Alone or with:
* Vegetables
* Spices and Herbs
To make them moist, tender, individual, rich and flavorful.
Use sesame, extra virgin olive, extra virgin coconut oils, butter and ghee
3- Soak rinsed grains in their cooking liquid overnight or 6-8 hours before cooking them. This makes them easier to digest and softer.
Want to be deeply nourished? Eat whole grains! Loaded with B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, iron, fiber, and valuable antioxidants not found in fruits and vegetables, whole grains give you tasty protection against cancer, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In fact, I actually lost weight without trying by eating lots of gluten-free grains and gluten-free pastries.
Whole grains are important to everyone’s diet-and Leslie can show you how to mix and match whole grains with local, seasonal and organic produce for infinite easy to prepare gourmet meals.
Mocha Rice Pudding Garnished with Fresh Strawberries
The seasons change and with them the availability of fresh, local produce. Crisp fall apples, tart cranberries, juicy summer strawberries, fresh figs — would they be so special if we could eat them all year round?
Reinventing a recipe keeps it fresh and enjoyable. For example, you can make Apple Blackberry Pie in fall, Pumpkin Pecan Pie in winter, Lemon Tart in spring, and Blueberry Crumb Pie in summer. For variation, use the same pie crust and change the filling. Create a new variation to the pumpkin pie filling by adding sweet potatoes, or substituting butternut, or kuri squash. Use more cinnamon or cloves. Change the pie crust, too by switching the flour, oil, or sweetener.
Likewise, keep your basic minestrone new and inspiring all through the winter by swapping vegetables. Use butternut squash instead of carrots, leeks for onions for example. Other times change the beans from pinto to kidney to other beans. Cook the beans from scratch with a sea vegetable, like kelp. Another time, switch the sea vegetable to dulse, or skip the seaweed, and just use spices. And of course, you can vary the herbs, too. Finally, flavored oils can take the place of some herbs and spices.
My enthusiasm for creating new recipes and menus comes from the local harvest. For instance, in June the markets near my western Massachusetts home yield strawberries, spinach, baby red kale, arugula, radishes, lettuce, mustard greens, and mizuna (an Asian green leafy vegetable that you can eat like spinach). Perennial herbs like chives, oregano, garlic chives, sage, and sorrel abound. Simultaneously harvested, they become the natural choices to mix and match into savory salads, dressings, quiche, scrambled tofu, sushi rice rolls, and pasta dishes. During summer, crunchy fresh string beans, cherry tomatoes, and sweet baby carrots are wonderful in salads dressed with aromatic basil. The first zucchini and eggplant inspires me to fire up the grill. Come fall, collards, red peppers, and cilantro, revitalize the tofu scramble. The vibrant cool weather leafy kale, moist to the touch seduces me in winter when spinach is out of season. Kale becomes the green to use in quiche, soups and stews. When we take our cues from Mother Nature, she gives us plenty of guidance.
The weather affects our cooking methods, too. In hot weather, you may want to stay away from the stove. Quick grilled vegetables and tofu, refreshing smoothies, marinated salads with corn, berries, and chevre cool you off. To beat the heat, cook beans, pasta, or grains in the early morning or the night before when the house is cool. Cold winter days are ideal for long simmering soups, garlicky roasted vegetables and spicy stews made with the vegetables of the season: potatoes, carrots, winter squash, and yams. An attractive garnish can enliven any dish. For example, decorate summer pasta salads with yellow calendula flowers and bright red bee balm for a splash of color. Toasted nuts and seeds on top of green salads add a contrasting texture. Chopped herbs on cooked rice give a delicate fragrance. These simple pleasures charm the heart.
Recipes are not etched in stone in my kitchen, nor should they be in yours. The more you cook, the easier it becomes to improvise. Calm and confident, you can focus; choose ingredients, rinse and chop, mix and taste. Your inner wisdom will tell you when to follow pure intuition and when to stop and think it out.
Bee on Flowering Marjorami in Leslie's Organic Herb Garden
Herbs and spices are Mother Nature’s versatile gifts. Herbs are the leaves; basil, thyme, and cilantro are good examples. Spices are the twigs, stems, roots, and seeds such as garlic, cumin, cinnamon, and ginger.
Before adding herbs and spices to a dish, smell or taste them to make sure they are fragrant and potent. Dried herbs can be stored for about a year, spices longer. Generally, you can add hearty spices in the beginning of cooking a dish. Delicate herbs, whether fresh or dry, are added at the end of cooking.
Every culture has its blend of sweet, sour and pungent flavored herbs and spices (Ethnic Herb and Spices, Global Flavors Chart below). Paired with beans, grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, wines, and cheeses; herbs and spices deliver ethnic flair, support our health, and reduce our need for salt. As garnishes, herbs whet our appetite with a stylish hint of what is to come.
Bay Leaf, Mediterranean Marinated Dried Tomatoes and Olives Decorate Organic Vegetable Stir Fry
Various herbs and spices cross borders and appear in more than one ethnic cuisine. Ginger is common in Indian, African and Asian dishes. Dill is a regular in Eastern European, Indian, Mediterranean and French cooking. Cumin is standard in African, French, Indian, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisine. These herbs and spices called carminatives aid digestion. They contain volatile oils that absorb intestinal gas, relax stomach muscles, increase peristalsis and reduce flatulence. Thyme, cinnamon, fennel, chilies, anise, caraway, cardamom, mint, and turmeric are also carminatives. Before scientists could explain their restorative virtues, cooks worldwide intuitively cooked with these herbs and spices.
Join The Organic Gourmet Chef, Author, and Educator, Leslie Cerier to learn how to use spices and create tasty dishes with seasonal ingredients. Garlic, ginger and coriander make a tasty dressing for an Asian cabbage slaw with gogi berries. See how you can swap coriander for cilantro. Learn how to season your dishes with lots of great cooking tips for cooking with spices: how to fix dishes that are bland or too spicy and lots more.
Sea vegetables are getting more attention now that sushi is so popular. For thousands of years, cooks on every continent have made flavorful meals from sea vegetables—soup, stews, garnishes, condiments, and even desserts. Sea vegetables are rich in minerals and vitamins and low in calories. You may also find that eating sea vegetables satisfies your need for salt. (Rinse sea vegetables before cooking them to reduce their sodium content.)
Most people eat Irish moss, a sea vegetable without even knowing it. Irish moss is boiled down to make carrageenan, an important stabilizer in ice cream, puddings, pies, fruit syrups, cheeses, and instant soups. You can use it at home to thicken vegetable dishes or to gel desserts. Irish moss is high in vitamin A, iodine, and trace minerals. Gelatins made with Irish moss are soothing remedies for ulcers. Irish moss also relieves respiratory ailments.
In macrobiotic cooking, sea vegetables are considered tasty preventive medicine for high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, rheumatism, allergies, arthritis, and nervous disorders. Because they contain vitamin B12 and iron, sea vegetables are good blood builders.
Sea vegetables contain trace elements’ barium, boron, chromium, lithium, nickel, silicon, silver, strontium, titanium, vanadium and zinc, which are sometimes lacking in our soil and vegetables.
These wild, wonderful foods are harvested from rocky surfaces deep in the ocean at appropriate times of the year. Superior quality sea vegetables are wild crafted from pristine waters. Then they are sun dried, packaged and stored. They can keep for years in a cool, dry, dark, place.
Agar agarcan make jams, jellied salads, aspics, kanten (gelatin), and non dairy custard. Simmer 1 tablespoon agar agar flakes per cup of liquid into your dessert stock such as juice, add spices and fruits, chill and serve. Unlike other sea vegetables, agar agar is odorless.
Nori(sea lettuce) is a delicate purplish-black sheet that turns green when lightly toasted. Wrap it around rice, cooked and raw vegetables, noodles, tofu, seitan, tempeh, or fish to make sushi, a great lunch, appetizer, or traveling snack. Toasted and crumbled nori is a tasty garnish and condiment. Of all the seaweed’s, it is the highest in protein, iron, vitamins A and B2, and is the only one without sodium.
Kelp and ocean ribbons are quicker cooking, sweeter, delicate, thinner, leafy varieties of kombu. Digitata’s (horsetail kelp) tough texture softens with longer cooking. Kelp and kombu isolate radioactive substances in the body for elimination. They cleanse the circulatory system, reduce hypertension and high blood pressure.
Kombu looks like a narrow, olive-brown lasagna noodle. It enhances flavors and is a tenderizer, too. Sodium glutamate is extracted and concentrated by long simmering of kombu and then added to foods to enhance their natural flavors. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a synthetic version. To tenderize and to blend kombu into other foods, cook it a long time. It reduces flatulence when cooked with dried beans. You can use it in soup stocks, stuffing’s, fish and vegetable stews, or pickle or deep fry it. Kombu is high in iron, calcium, and iodine.
Alaria, see Wakame.
Aramehas a mild, sweet flavor. It looks like black threads. To cook, rinse and soak it for 5 minutes. Add it to soup, stews, sautés, or marinate it for salads.
Dulse is a soft, leafy, deep red, purple, and brown sea vegetable, perfect for a snack. It melts in your mouth. Kids love it. Add it to oatmeal, soup, stews, bean dishes, or rinse it and add it to a salad in place of spinach. Dulse is high in potassium, phosphorus, iron, protein, vitamin C, and fat (3.2 grams per 100, high in fat compared to the other sea vegetables), but the fat in combination with protein, yields a nutty flavor.
Hiziki, an erect black sea grass, is popular as a side, or in soups, salads, and sandwiches. Hiziki and arame are good camping foods. Soak them for 5 minutes and eat them without cooking. Hiziki has the most calcium of all the sea vegetables. It is very rich in iron and vitamin A, too. Oriental folk medicine recommends it for pregnant women.
Sea Palm, the fettucini of sea vegetables, is dark green, versatile, and sweet. With all its salt water minerals and trace elements intact, it is my children’s favorite in soup. It is also delicious in salads, sautés, stews, and noodle dishes.
Wakame is a dark-green sea leaf. It is the seaweed highest in alginic acid, which cleanses heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium from the intestines. Fermented foods, such as miso, facilitate this function. Use it in miso wakame soup, in salads, with fresh or marinated vegetables, or in tender-root vegetable and bean dishes. Roast it lightly. Add roasted sesame seeds. Grind the two together in a suribachi or food processor and use it as table salt. Wakame is high in calcium and B12. Alaria is similar to wakame. Its mild flavor is delicious when simmered for a long time in stews and soups. Before drying, some wakame is blanched in boiling water, but alaria is not.
