Raspberry, white chocolate spelt and buckwheat muffins

Today I adapted these muffins from a recipe in Good to the grain cookbook I baked them for my little friend Atticus who turned 3. He requested pink or strawberry cupcakes these worked a treat for all the children and adults.

1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 block fair trade white chocolate
2 cups raspberries (frozen)
3/4 stick organic butter
1/2 cup panela sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
Lightly grease the mini muffin tins with butter
Make sure the butter is room temperature and cut into small cubes to put in a bowl with the panela sugar.
Beat with electric beaters or use mix master to blend until pale and creamy. Add the eggs and butter milk and mix until combined. In another bowl sift the flour and add raspberries and cut the white chocolate into small pieces to add too.
Now take the butter mixture and add to the flour mixture and hand stir with wooden spoon until blended
Drop a spoon full of the mixture into each hole in the muffin tin.
Bake for 20 minutes

Taste buddy

Recipe journal written by friends and famiy and put together by cool foodie Chelsea Stevens Tastebuddy

Laionica chickens

Let's get this straight yesterday I heard on Twitter that Laionica chemical free birds are dipped and bleached, today I checked with my very thorough and ethical butcher and he told me he has visited the production plant and that is rubbish!
La Ionica birds are half the price of an organic one if your a bit tight and there are truly a beautiful little tasty bird
Laionica
Chemical free, free roaming, hormone free (although it is illegal to give chickens hormones in australia) ooh la la the bird.

Spinach zucchini potato and fish brown rice red curry hotpot

When it's cold I love to get a one pot dish happening, it's quick and very nutritious and keeps me warm and nourished.
This hot pot is using a bunch of left over ingredients you can substitute the fish for tofu or chickpea's if your vegetarian.
1/2 brown onion, diced small
1 tablespoon red curry paste ( I like west country spice company available at always organics
small amount organic ghee or extra virgin olive oil
1/4 red capsicum, cut into julienne or sliced
1 zucchini , sliced diagonally
4 small potatoes, sliced thinly
5 spinach leaves, cut very fine
2 pieces blue eyed cod
1 cup brown rice
1 litre vegetable stock (I use marigold organic swiss vegetable bouillon when no time for homemade)

In a saucepan gently saute the onion in ghee or oil and add red curry paste stir around add potatoes and rice and stock cook for 20 minutes with lid on the saucepan and once rice is soft add he remaining ingredients and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Serve steaming in a a bowl

Prima Italiano Festival East Sydney Sunday May 23

This sunday in east sydney, get down and sample food and music, art, short films and pizza making classes go to link for more info
Prima Italiano Festival

Raw almond and coconut butter with a dash of himalayan sea salt

Nut butters are so delicious and an extra dollop of protein as a snack or added to dishes.
My friend Bec makes a killer salad dressing with brown rice vinegar, raw almond butter and a little raw honey and dijon mustard.

All you need is a food processor to make this recipe and it takes ten minutes max.

2 cups raw almonds
1 teaspoon himalayan sea salt
1/2 coconut oil (add more if mixture to dry)
1 teaspoon cinnamon and cardamon (if you like a little spice in your life)

Place all the above ingredients into a food processor and pulse for ten minutes, the almonds will break gradually over this time and the oil will disperse.
Enjoy on a little brown rice cracker as I have done or in a salad dressing.

Wild fig and buttermilk muffins

This original muffin recipe is taken from Nourishing Traditions, but I have adapted it to my own tastes and preferences.
It really is very healthy, delicious and so damn simple!

Cook's tip * you need to start this the night before by soaking the flours in buttermilk or water and lemon over night in a bowl covered with tea towel*

2 cups barley flour (demeter farm mill)
1 cup spelt flour (demeter farm mill)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon raw honey
2 cups wild figs (available from middle eastern grocers and sometimes organic retailers)
1 tablespoon cardamom powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (not artificial colouring please)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups butter milk (or water if dairy sensitive with 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
60 grams melted organic butter
2 eggs

Soak flours overnight in butter milk or water and lemon juice
In a saucepan gently on low simmer melt the butter and add maple syrup and honey stir well.
To the soaked flours add the spices, salt and vanilla and also whisked eggs, lastly add butter mixture and figs and gently fold.
The mixture will be more like a dough, spoon into a muffin pan and bake for 20 minutes or until firm to touch, cool and enjoy with a spread of butter and a cup of tea!

First harvested lettuce from my garden

I have been patiently tending to my little garden for 8 weeks chasing away snails with organic coffee granules, beer and finally eggshells, none seemed to work so I just let the snails cohabit with my garden although they chewed all my kale!
Finally it's harvesting some beautiful lettuce, basil and soon broccoli.

Red kidney beans, pumpkin, kale and polenta crust

This recipe is inspired by the cold weather and I have also been reading this fantastic cookbook called 'The enchanted broccoli forest' it has been around since 1982 all the recipes are handwritten and Mollie Katzen is the author who helped set up the famous Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca upstate NY the restaurant has been running for 33 years and is a very well know vegetarian establishment. Anyway the recipes are yummy and the little drawings are also cool.
But this is my own original recipe inspired by thee Moosewood!

3 can's red kidney beans (organic of course)
1/2 brown onion, diced small
2 tablespoons organic ghee or extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon organic sweet curry power or ayurvedic blended curry powder (bioveda brand)
250g Japanese pumpkin, peeled and chopped into small squares
5 kale leaves, chopped very small
1 cup polenta (cornmeal)
2 cups water
sea salt and pepper to season and olive oil

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
Heat the saucepan with ghee or oil very gently and add the onion and brown, add the curry spice and stir, add the kidney beans an tamari and pumpkin, cook for ten minutes and if the mixture is drying up just add some water so that the pumpkin can steam. Lastly add the kale and stir around. Put into a deep baking dish (square of round)
Put the polenta and water plus a little drizzle of olive oil and seasonings into a saucepan bring to the boil and stir very vigorously until polenta thickens, Pour the polenta on top of the bean mixture and flatten like a lid.
Bake for 20 minutes
Cool down so that the polenta is firm and crunchy before eating.

Rebecca Katz

One on my mentors Rebecca Katz is a phenomenal and very special chef, Rebecca makes healthy food fun and delicious and like me has gone through losing a parent to cancer and uses it as a catalyst to inspire her cooking. Intelligently fusing food, health and nutrition as a platform for designing recipes for fighting cancer check out her website www.rebeccakatz.com

Vegan blogger 'resistance is fertile'

I have been following luscious lagusta since my vegan day's almost 8 year's ago, this cool new york girl has ALOT to say, but her passion and politics are inspiring. http://blog.lagusta.com

Food inc.

The highly anticipated film Food Inc hits the cinemas on May 20th.
For more intelligent writing's on food and politics check out Michael Pollen and Eric Schlosser
Let's be more mindful about food and eating please ask more question's when buying and sourcing food. Be a responsible and savvy eco-cook!
Website
Food Inc

Last weeks big waves in sydney photo courtesy of steve from light play photography

www.lightplay.com.au

Biodynamic oats anyone ?

Porridge

Soak your oats overnight in filtered water and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

Add grated pear and apple, chia seeds, flaxoil and mayple syrup with a dash of sheep's yogurt

Rainbow chard

Fresh from the markets I turned this rainbow chard into a black bean Jamaican potato curry it is so beautiful with the different coloured stems that it was a sad experience to cut it hence this photo to demonstrate its gorgeous stems

Rosewater and lime cardamon almond vegan cookies

Now as the cooler weather has reached us all I wanna do is Bake!
These small and sweet cookies are made with barley and spelt flour and more like a healthy whole food version of petit four because I'm so fanatical about middle eastern and persian food these hit the spot with the fragrant rosewater

1 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 tablespoon rosewater
1 tablespoon cardamon powder
3/4 cup panela sugar (similar to rapadura low gi and rich in minerals)
1/2 cup almonds (grind up in a coffee grinder or food processor)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons millet milk or no dairy milk
1 tablespoon aluminium free baking powder (available at health food shop or organic retailer)
1/4 organic sunflower oil (or use coconut oil)

Preheat oven t 17o degrees
Mix the flours, baking powder in a bowl together and set aside
Put the milk, lime juice, oil, sugar, oil and rosewater in a bowl and whisk, add this mixture to the flour mixture and use your
hands to mix into a dough, make little balls and roll in the almonds and put on a lined baking tray and bake for 15-2o
minutes.

Demeter flours

When you bake it's important to use top quality fresh flour, you see the longer flours, seeds and nuts sit on the shelf in the store (or floor!) the precious oils and minerals go rancid.

I always use demeter products when baking as I don't have flour mill to grind my own.

There products are far superior and available at most organic retailers and health food shops

It all my recipes on my blog I use these products, check them out..
www.demeterfarmmill.com.au

Chicken and black bean tortilla with smokey chipotle and guacamole

I really love great mexican food and when you find the good stuff in the states it is healthy and so delicious, when I visit new york I always eat at chipotle it is a fast food place but they use organic chicken and pasture fed beef and have a huge selection of vegetarian dishes as well, all the sauces and guacamole are made fresh on the premises.

Here is my take on a a chicken black bean dish I would eat at Chipotle.

My secret ingredient in this recipe is sweet potato it balances out the spice perfectly!

It is real simple and I found my smokey chipotle peppers at harris farm (of all places) you can also order them online from a fab latin/mexican wholesaler in sydney fireworks foods


2 can's black beans (amy's or goya)
packet of diago's gluten free tortilla"s (available at supermarkets)
1/4 small sweet potato, diced very small
1 chicken breast poached and shredded (IF VEG SKIP THIS)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 red chilli, diced small
1 garlic clove diced small
1 smoke chipotle pepper
1/4 red onion, diced
2 avocado
1 lemon juiced

Mash the avocado and add lemon and sit in the fridge
Take the onion and garlic and gently fry in ghee of olive oil for 5 minutes, add cumin.
Add the black beans, sweet potato and shredded chicken and cook for 10 minutes, when beans and sweet potato have softened mash up with a whisk or fork
Lastly add the chipotle pepper (medium heat) and cook for another 5 minutes until all the smokey chipotle flavour is soaking into the beans.
Heat the tortillas in a warm oven or grill and eat with beans and guacamole

Saturday lunch

I love to use left overs it makes me feel thrifty and economical.
For lunch today I use left over basmati rice from dinner and also a cooked salmon fillet
This sure is a tasty and super quick recipe, if you ever have left over brown rice or basmati you can whip up a stirfry in not time.

Salmon, basmati stirfry with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and fresh rocket with a hint of harissa

2 cups cooked basmati rice
1 salmon cooked fillet
6 cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon harissa paste (refer to recipe finder on this blog)
handful rocket
handful mushrooms

Slice the mushrooms and put in a a skillet with the harissa paste a little olive oil or ghee and cook until golden, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to skillet finally add the salmon and rocket and stir for 2 minutes.

Be as creative as you can and use this recipe as a template for your own rice stirfry