Great Granola!

Now that you’re making your own yogurt you want to eat some of it with your own home-made granola, right?

I have a few granolas I like to rotate. We have to make our own because granola is not generally gluten-free. Oats are processed in the same mills that process wheat, so oats apparently are full of wheat gluten, unless you buy gluten-free oats. 

The gluten-free granolas I’ve found include sugary cereals in the mix, which is just useless calories with little nutritive value, which is not necessary to have fantastically delicious granola. If you’ve ever made your own granola, you know what I’m talking about. I think we’ve all sampled enough granolas to know that home-made is as good or better (and cheaper!).

Now that I know how easy it is to make, I feel like a fool for not doing this when I was younger.

I adapted this recipe from the Horn of the Moon Cookbook, a fantastic vegetarian comfort-food cookbook from the café in Vermont. The entries are for things like healthier French toast and crepes, muffins, soups, salads, sandwiches, pasta, and cakes. Basically, a healthier cookbook minus meats (it includes eggs and dairy). Most of it is not gluten-free; however, my copy is not going anywhere!

The oats I use are Cream Hill Estates Lara's Rolled Oats. Until I tried these oats I thought oats were the same everywhere. These are not the oats you get at the grocery store, no sir. Really, these are the highest quality oats I've ever baked with. If I never cooked gluten-free again, I'd still use these oats. Plus, they give you great recipes in the box, for oat cookies and cakes. (If you can’t find them and can’t wait for them to arrive to try this recipe, use McCann’s quick-cooking or rolled oats*.) 

A final note – Since the granola does not have any salt in it, I make a flax mix using roasted and salted sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. The recipe is below. If you sprinkle it on your breakfast, I think it adds just the right amount of salt, and bonus fiber. 

Pecan Raisin Granola

4 cups uncooked rolled oats (McCann's or Lara’s Cream Hill)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/4 + 1/3 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds
1/3 cup Grade B maple syrup
1/3 cup canola, sunflower or safflower oil
2 Tablespoons water
3/4 cup Thompson raisins, large if you can find them
1/2 cup organic unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup pecans, broken by hand into pieces

Preheat oven to 300F. Mix together oats, sesame seeds and sunflower
seeds. Whisk together maple syrup, oil and water and pour over oat
mixture and stir to coat evenly. Spread onto 1 or 2 sheet pans and
bake, stirring and turning the pans every 10 minutes. Bake for 35 - 40
minutes for McCann's, but 50-55 minutes for Cream Hill Oats. You can
add the raisins, pecans and coconut shavings for the last 10 minutes,
if you want them to be a little bit toasted, otherwise add after
removing from oven and letting granola cool. Once all ingredients are
mixed in and granola is cool, store in tightly sealed jars at room temperature.

Flax/nut mix to sprinkle onto the yogurt and granola:

1 lb. bag Bob's Red Mill ground flax seed (golden flax or regular)
1/2 cup sesame seeds

Grind these in blender, food processor or coffee mill:
  3/4 to 1 cup almonds
  1/2 cup roasted and salted pumpkin seeds
  1/2 cup roasted and salted sunflower seeds

Mix well and store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.

*I’ve heard that McCann’s is, for all intents and purposes, gluten-free because they only process oats, but it doesn’t say gluten-free on the label. (I'm not talking about oat gluten, it's different from wheat gluten, but some people are apparently allergic to even pure oats, but that's another story.)

Facing The Rise in Dairy Prices

If you don’t make your own yogurt, you might want to start, now. It is SO EASY you won’t believe it. Homemade yogurt not only makes itself in a crock pot, but also, it is a great replacement for buttermilk and sour cream in baking recipes, and it’s just plain delicious with anything.

And, we’re about to face rising prices in dairy products. Apparently, because of the drought, feed prices are rising so the resulting dairy products produced are becoming more expensive.

For the cost of a half-gallon of milk, you get twice as much yogurt as you get in one large container. This will pay for that $20 crockpot in no time.

Do not waste your money on an expensive crockpot. (Please re-read that last sentence!) In my experience, the cheap ones you get at Rite Aid and such are the most reliable. And, when Cook's Illustrated did a test, they still liked the original crock-pot brand (albeit a more expensive, souped-up one) better than other, fancier brands.

A few years ago, I got this recipe from a blog that seems to have disappeared. I’m re-publishing the pictures here because they’re so homey and cute. [If this is your blog, please comment so that I can replace this with links to you instead!]

This recipe has been going around the Internet for years. Some people add sugar, I don’t think it needs it. Also, some of the blogs say you can’t use ultra-pasteurized milk. That is just bull. It has no effect on the thickness of the yogurt. If you use whole milk you will have thicker yogurt, if you use lower fat milk, you will have thinner yogurt. Period. That’s why Stonyfield adds thickeners to their low-fat plain yogurt! (That said, if you have a different experience, I'd like to hear about it.)

A note about ultra-pasteurized dairy:  It’s less processed and tastes more like the dairy products our grandparents imbibed than the current pasteurized stuff. That’s because ultra pasteurization takes seconds, while normal pasteurization takes a while as they bring the milk to a boil and then cool, then boil again. (FYI, the latter process is also how they make glue. Draw your own conclusions as to what that means for your body.) The result of normal pasteurization is you have less of the cow-ey taste and more of a “white” flavor. I prefer the old-fashioned cow taste, myself, so I use ultra-pasteurized cream and milk in my recipes.

Also, since I always use Stonyfield whole milk and for my starter, I spring for a container of Stonyfield low-fat plain yogurt, the result is, my yogurt tastes like Stonyfield yogurt! My favorite!

Crock Pot Yogurt

8 cups (half-gallon) of whole or 2% or 1% milk (I use Stonyfield whole milk, NOT omega-3)

1/2 cup live/active culture plain yogurt as a starter (I use Stonyfield low-fat plain yogurt)

Thick bath towel

4-quart crockpot

1. Plug in crockpot and turn to low. Add entire half gallon of milk. Cover and cook on low for two and a half hours.

Unplug after two and a half hours

2. Unplug crockpot, leave the cover on and let sit for three hours. While it sits, measure one half cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt into a medium mixing bowl and cover it so it can sit and become room temperature for the next step.

3. When three hours have passed, scoop out two cups of the warmish milk and put into the bowl with the half cup of store-bought live/active culture yogurt. Whisk the two together well. Then dump the bowl’s contents back into the crockpot. Stir to combine.

Cover with a towel and let sit for at least nine hours

4. Put the lid back on your crockpot. Keep it unplugged, and wrap a heavy bath towel all the way around the crock for insulation. Let it sit for at least nine hours or as long as 13-14 hours (I prefer 14 hours when using Stonyfield whole milk). Do not leave for much more than 14 hours, or there will be a difference in quality, although it will still taste like yogurt and work fine in your recipes.

5. After 14 hours, the yogurt will be ready. Chill in a plastic container(s) in the refrigerator. Will thicken further as it sits in fridge. 

Time-wise, if I start the process at Noon the prior day, unplug at 2:30 pm, let sit until 5:30 pm, it’s ready at 7:30 am the next morning.

You can save a half cup as a starter to make a new batch. We always eat it all up before we realize we need more yogurt, though.

Another Recipe for the Imminent Bacon Shortage

If I tell you that I make pink beans and rice with no pork, I am certain you will balk.

I mean, WHO DOES that?

The people who buy the vegetarian refried beans do! Duh!

I have nothing against lard. It is fantastic in pie crusts and beans, I could go on. But those of us in our 40s+ know that if you want to have great skin and a strong cardiovascular system, you will want to be eating lots of beans and less lard. Period.

Yes, beans are these magical items that cause the body to produce nitric oxide, possibly the most important molecule in the body. According to Nobel laureate Dr. Louis Ignarro, “Blood vessels use nitric oxide to signal the surrounding smooth muscle to relax, thus dilating the arteries, increasing blood flow, and maintaining normal blood pressure. These blood vessels deliver oxygen and nutrients to, as well as remove waste products from, every cell in your body.”

And, beans are great for your skin. I should know, because for a two-week period when I was broke while living in New York City, I had to go through my cabinets and eat only the food that was already in my kitchen because I couldn’t afford groceries. I found lots of beans – I used to buy a bag of one type or other and then use one cup of them, once. The bag with the remaining beans then sat in the cabinet forever.

That week, I made bean dips, bean soups, bean salads. I ate beans and lentils for two weeks straight. And no, I didn’t have gas, because I cooked them with Kombu, a seaweed that apparently diminishes this effect on our digestion.

My skin was fabulous. All acne cleared up immediately. I knew it was the beans because I’ve done brown rice fasts and juice fasts and the like, but nothing affected my skin like the beans.

You’d think I’d decide, once I had money again, to continue eating lots of beans? Please. I went right back to eating bacon cheeseburgers. My skin broke out again, of course. But I digress.

I love the style of beans that you get at your Puerto Rican or Cuban restaurants, the kind of delicately flavored pink beans I’d have when my Spanish coworkers shared their lunch. So, I was determined to recreate that, without the pork. I adapted the recipe on the back of the bag of Goya Pink Beans and I think I’ve succeeded. These are our favorite beans!

Scarlet’s Pink Beans

Serves 4-6

½ lb dry pink beans

4 cups water

2-inch piece Kombu seaweed

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped

½ med-large green pepper, chopped

2-4 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup Goya tomato sauce

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground pepper

¼ tsp oregano

Handful of fresh cilantro tops (w/ stem attached, not just leaves)

¼ tsp liquid smoke

Cooked white rice for serving (I just cook white basmati rice in a rice cooker, according to directions, adding a tablespoon of butter before I turn it on)

Sort and wash beans. In a large saucepan, soak the beans in 4 cups water with the 2-inch piece of Kombu seaweed. Do not drain.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and green pepper and watch, stirring frequently, as you mince the garlic.

Add garlic to the skillet as the onion and pepper begin to be tender. Stir for a minute or two and add this mixture to the pot of beans. Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce heat immediately to a simmer. Cover the pot halfway and simmer until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally. Add more hot water if necessary.

Once beans are cooked to your satisfaction, stir in the Goya tomato sauce, salt, ground pepper, oregano and cilantro. Simmer 10 minutes longer.

Remove from heat. Add liquid smoke and stir. To serve, remove the stringy cilantro and serve over hot cooked white rice. 

Collard Greens In a Bacon Shortage

In 2001, fresh out of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School, I was on my way to see Vassar Clements at Christmas. He told me since I’d graduated from cooking school he expected me to cook. But having seen The Beverly Hillbillies, I told him I wasn’t sure if he’d like my style of healthy cooking. “I don’t put ham hocks in my greens,” I said.

“Then I won’t eat ‘em!” He replied.

I told this to a friend of mine who said, on no uncertain terms, if I would be cooking for southerners, I would have to cook greens WITH ham hocks, as well as macaroni and cheese and peach cobbler. (At Christmas? Peach Cobbler?)

Not intending to eat the greens myself, I purchased a copy of Sylvia’s Soul Food and brought it with me to Florida. (I bought it before hearing the bad reviews.)

Now, I can’t vouch for any other recipes in that book, but those greens recipes got raves from everyone, (“this is how their SUPPOSED to taste!” Vassar exclaimed) and I, myself, began to understand the contribution that bacon fat and ham hocks make to bitter collards.

So when I realized I would not be able to cook them for my husband who is against the animal husbandry industry’s treatment of pigs, I was heartbroken. I’m the kind of person who keeps bacon in the freezer for every occasion.

“But I’ll use the well-treated pork!” I promised. He wouldn’t budge. “Look, in the Whole Foods circular here, it says surveys of pigs on these farms report high satisfaction with their lives. Apparently they answer questionnaires about it daily.” He wasn’t buying it.

Thankfully, I found this recipe for “Sneaky Collards” in The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. They suggest blackening a tomato and an onion under the broiler, then making that into a broth and voila! You have spicy, tasty collard greens, that you might even think have bacon in them.  My husband and I are addicted to these greens. A man who never ate collard greens, he has even come home from the grocery store with collards just so that I have to make them!

This recipe is great with green or red tomatoes.

Sneaky Collards by Matt and Ted Lee

Makes 6 Servings

8 cups water

3 dried chilies or 1 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt

2 bunches of collard greens, washed and cut into 1-inch wide strips. If you are going to cut out the ribs, then do 3 bunches.

1 large onion, trimmed, peeled and quartered

1 large tomato, quartered

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika (pimenton) or Hungarian paprika

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 cloves garlic with peels on

In an 8-quart stockpot, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the chilies and 1 tablespoon kosher salt, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the stock has a nice salty spiciness, about 10 minutes.

Add a few handfuls of greens to the pot. They will float on the surface, so stir them frequently, submerging with the spoon, until they have turned a bright Kelly green, 3 to 5 minutes. They will become floppy and more compact, so you can add more handfuls of greens. Continue adding greens, stirring and submerging them until all of the collards are in the pot and submerged under water. Turn the heat down to the gentlest simmer, and note your time at this point or set a timer for 1 hour.

While the greens simmer, place the onion and tomato in a small bowl. Drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over them, add 1 teaspoon kosher salt, the paprika, and the pepper, and toss to coat. Transfer the vegetables to a medium cast iron skillet and add the garlic. Place the skillet under a hot broiler, about 3 inches from the flame or heating element, until the vegetables are nicely charred, 6 to 8 minutes. Stet them on the stovetop to cool.

When the garlic is cool enough to touch, peel the cloves and return them to the skillet, discarding the charred skins. Transfer the broiled onion, tomato and garlic to a blender or food processor and blend at high speed until the mixture is completely smooth, about 3 minutes. You should have close to 1½ cups of puree.

Strain the collards with a colander, reserving the pot liquor. Return the collards to the pot, add the puree, and return the pot to the flame. Simmer the greens gently in the puree until 1 hour from the point at which you marked the time is up (add reserved stock ½ cup at a time of the pot becomes too dry). The greens will be a very dark matte green and completely tender, bathed in pale red gravy. Discard the leftover stock or save for soups.