Savoury muffins zucchini and pecorino

These muffins are great for breakfast with a slab or butter or a mid morning/ afternoon tea.

They are nutrient dense made with spelt and buckwheat flours and the sharpness of the pecorino cheese perfectly balances the zucchini, they are simple to prepare and babies and toddlers love them!

130g white spelt flour
120g wholemeal spelt flour
60g buckwheat flour
80g pecorino grated
150g zucchini, raw grated
250g wholemilk unpasteurised (or dairy free milk - oat milk)
1 egg
80g extra virgin olive oil (use good quality)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Black pepper freshly grinded into batter

Makes around 10-12


Method

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with papers or grease with butter so muffins do not stick
Prepare all the dry ingredients, weigh the flours and baking power and put into a large bowlwhish for a few seconds to get some air in the flour mix.
Grate the zucchini and pecorino and if you have a thermomix you can grind the hard cheese for 6 secs
In another bowl combine the wet ingredients, oil, milk and egg, blend with a whisk or use thermomix 5 secs
Combine both the wet and dry ingredients and blend well with a wooden spoon hand stirring gently until all ingredients are well combined (do not over mix)

Take a large spoon and fill each muffin hole until almost to the top

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes on 170 degrees

Nourishing chicken soup with fresh shiitake mushrooms broccoli and corn

Here is a special little soup I created for a client that needs nourishment and recovery foods for a long stint in hospital, pulling in all my food as medicine notes and experience cooking for different medical conditions I came up with this little gem that the family also enjoy.

*** Note for this recipe it helps to have chicken broth already premade, I make mine well in advance and freeze in portions and freeze for later use. ***


800g organic chicken breasts
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced finely
1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
1 lemongrass stick
1 fresh lime, juiced
1 litre home made chicken broth
300g organic broccoli, cut into florets
1 fresh corn husked
2 tablespoons tamari


Method

In a large pot add hot water and the lemongrass stick, infuse for 5 minutes, add the organic chicken breasts and poach for approx 12-15 minutes, checking at 12 minutes and making sure the thick part of the breast is cooked through.
Once done drain the chicken and lemongrass into a spider/sieve and reserve the water for use later.

Leave the chicken to cool slightly then when not to hot to handle start to shred into manageable pieces, the chicken should be very moist, that's why overcooking is not advised you need to check at 12 minutes when poaching.

Using the same cooking pot add the chicken broth and start to gently simmer, add the fresh shitake mushrooms and ginger and cook for 3 minutes until shitakes are softening. Add the corn cobs, fresh lime and tamari, taste and adjust for your palate. Simmer for a further 5 minutes, lastly add the shredded chicken and the raw broccoli and cook for a further 5 minutes. The add some of the reserved poaching chicken water to get the right consistency.

Enjoy by itself or with some biodynamic brown rice

Nutritional note about shiitake mushrooms - They are 6000 years old and have been used in asian countries as food as medicine for centuries, they are also sustainable as they are forest farmed, although you will hard pressed finding certified organic ones in Australia. Used frequently for cancer patients to boost immunity. Shiitake mushrooms contain all 3 b vitamins (b2, 5 and 6) vitamin d and maganese, and are a good source of dietary fibre. They are very soft to handle and to retain all there phytonutrient properties make sure you don't over cook them. We like to add them to soups and also gently fry in coconut oil for stir fries and fantastic with scrambled eggs!

Kerfir soaked spelt blueberry and vanilla muffins

After a long break from blogging due to pregnancy and also a hectic catering schedule here is a very simple and nourishing muffin recipe inspired by the muffin recipe in nourishing traditions by Sally Fallon, I soaked the flour for 24 hours and once done it is elastic and resembles the texture of sourdough. Soaking grains has many nutritional advantages the main one been easy digestion. If you have every tried any of the eithopian flatbreads or indian breads they are all fermented up to 3 days in water or a culture to make them more digestable, we don't do it much here in the western world but its well worth investgating for your families gut health.
Here is a great little article for more info

3 cups spelt flour (I grinded mine from grain in a thermomix but you don't have too!)
2 cups home made kefir or buttermilk
3 tablespoon raw honey
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 fresh organic eggs
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter
1/2 teaspoon seasalt
1 cup blueberries

Method
In a large bowl sift the flour and add the kefir or buttermilk
Cover the bowl with a teatowel and leave in a warm place in the kitchen for 24 hours
Grease a muffin tin with some coconut oil or butter
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
Whisk eggs in a clean bowl
Take your mixture that has been fermenting for 24 hours and add the raw honey, coconut oil or butter, vanilla, eggs, baking soda and seasalt
In each little hole of the muffin pan add 4 blueberries then ladle in the flour mixture and add 5 more blueberries on top
Bake in a preheated oven for 35 minutes
I have added cultured cream to my muffins just before eating which is delicious or have some yoghurt

Spelt gingerbread men

This weeks recipe is from Susan our wonderful cook, and super organic mamma

Thanks for sharing your recipe Susan I can't wait to try them with my niece Mia.

Hi Belinda - I baked some really yummy spelt gingerbread men with my daughter Olivia this afternoon so thought I would pass on the recipe! I adapted the recipe from a few different recipes that I found, to make it more nutrient dense and a little lighter on the sugar, replaced brown sugar and golden syrup with molasses sugar and a little bit of honey. Changed the flour to spelt, added some fresh ginger and ditched all modern icing sugar decoration and went back to the old women in the fairytale's idea of currants and orange peel! Baking the gingerbread men turned out to be a great afternoon with the kids, Olivia loved decorating them and we ate them together reading the fairytale over and over :-)


Ingredients

125g organic butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup, firmly packed molasses sugar (I used Billington’s brand)
1/4 cup honey
1 large organic egg, separated
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 tbs ground ginger
½ - 1 tsp of finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Extra flour, to dust
Currants, raisins and fine strips of orange rind – to decorate

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 trays with baking paper (or lightly grease with melted butter)

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until paler and creamy. Add the honey and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, fresh and dried ginger, mixed spice and bicarb soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about ½ cm thick. Use gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart. Decorate using currants for eyes and nose, orange rind for mouth and raisins or sultanas for buttons.

Bake in oven for 7-10 minutes or until brown (I like mine crunchy so cook for 10, but reduce time if you like the gingerbread soft). Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool.