Category: Recipes

How To Preserve Olives

Home Made Olives

Olives are Gluten Free. These preserves are delicious, and very nutritious, being rich in antioxidants such as Vitamin E.

All you really need to preserve your olives at home is plenty of salt and water. Brine made with water and salt, and just a dash of olive oil for the final part of the operation, will produce you delicious home made olives that will keep for a year at least.

Here is one way to preserve olives:

Olives are very bitter and inedible in their raw state. They need to be cured of this bitterness, and so we use salt to remove the bitter flavour. This done over a period of time:

Generally, green olives will take about 12 to 14 days, and black olives between 10 to 12 days to cure.

Method:

Begin by washing your freshly picked olives. Remove any stalks from the olives. Now put them into a ceramic or glass bowl or large open necked jar. Do not use stainless steel or any other metal, as this will spoil your olives – even stainless steel has a reaction to salt.

Step Two: Make your brine. Use one cup of sea salt to every 20 cups of water. Pour this over your washed olives.

Step Three: Put a plate or other ceramic or glass weight on your olives to hold them down beneath the brine. All olives must be covered with brine.

Step Four: Leave for 24 hours. Then drain off the brine.

Step Five: Make a fresh lot of brine.Pour over the olives and leave for another 24 hours.

Step Six etc: Keep changing the water every 24 hours for 10 to 12 days, or for as long as is needed to produce a nice sweet olive.

TheFinal Step: When you are satisfied with the flavour of your olive, put them into jars suitable for storing. Then make a brine using 1 cup of sea salt to only TEN cups of water. This final brine is double the strength that we used before.

Bring this brine to the boil and dissolve all the salt. Let this cool to warm then pour over your olives in the jars.

Leave an inch or so at the top of the jar. Top with virgin olive oil to prevent the air getting in, and seal.

How To Use Your Home Made Olives:

Simply open a jar. Then drain off the brine and wash with fresh water several times. Fill with more fresh water and keep the olives in the fridge as you use them.

Alternatively, you can use olive oil to fill the jar with at the eating stage. You still need to keep the olives in the fridge though. This olive oil can abe used for cooking with.

Gluten Free Flour Mix

Gluten Free Flours for Baking.  People who are sensitive to wheat, or have coeliac disease, also known as celiac disease, need to avoid wheat completely. Here are some gluten free flours which actually are tastier and more nutritious than eating baking products which contain only wheat.

The best flours  to use in your Gluten Free flour mix are the following.  These combinations are highly nutritious and contain good amounts of protein.

Arrowroot

Besan flour, or Chick Pea Flour.

Cornmeal

Potato Flour

Rice Flour

Soy Flour

Tapioca Flour

It is a good idea to make up a mix of the flours you wish to use in your gluten free flour mix beforehand.  A  large jar or tin of it in the pantry will keep several weeks in the cool, but the best method for storing flour or grain is to put it into a cotton or linen bag so that it can breathe.  By making up a quantity of flour,  you do not have to mix it up fresh each time you bake.

You can use any combination of the above flours, but here are two different recipes which work very well:

Gluten Free Flour Mix Number One: For Bread and Pastry, use the following Gluten Free Mix:

  • Four parts Besan flour, or chick pea flour.
  • Four parts Potato flour.
  • Two parts Rice flour
  • Two parts Arrowroot flour or Tapioca flour
  • One part Soy flour.

Gluten Free Mix Number Two:  For Gluten Free Cookies, cakes, muffins, and pancakes use the following mix:

  • Four  parts Besan flour, or Chick pea flour
  • Four  parts fine yellow cornmeal
  • Two parts Tapioca flour, or Arrowroot flour.
  • Two parts rice flour
  • Two parts soy flour

Test out your pancake mix which is listed directly above:

To Make Gluten Free Pancakes:

  • Take one cup of the Gluten Free Flour Mix Number Two
  • Add  one  cup of milk or water:  You might need slightly more water, depending on what flours you have used. These gluten free flours do not need as much water as wheat flour does, in making a pancake.
  • Add two free range organic eggs

Mix altogether.  Heat up a sturdy fry pan.  Add some butter or olive oil and cook as for normal pancakes, pouring in a thin covering of the batter each time.  Let cook for two minutes or so, then turn over.

You need to mix the batter well each time before you pour a cupful into the heated fry pan, as the solids will settle on the bottom of the bowl otherwise.


High Protein Gluten Free pancakes;

Simply follow the recipe above for making pancakes with gluten free flour.  Add half a cup of sunflower seeds to the mix before cooking.

Sunflower seed pancakes:  Gluten free flours such as besan, or chick pea flour, soy flour, cornmeal and others, are very high in protein.  When you mix these flours together, you increase the quality of protein and make the protein more complete.  By adding eggs, and adding sunflower seeds to the mixture, you end up with a very high quality protein which is easy to digest.  This food is great for people on vegetarian diets.

How To Make Ghee

Making Ghee

You need to learn How to Make Ghee if you want your Indian curries, and other Indian dishes to have that authentic ethnic flavour.

Medicinal Properties of Ghee:

Ghee is also commonly used as a medicinal agent in Ayurvedic medicine.  Ghee has healing properties  of its own which we will discuss here briefly, and it is also of great value in the making of medicated ghee oils, and in acting as a carrying agent in the body  for the  transporting of  specific therapeutics in herbal remedies.

It Is Easy To Make Ghee

The Method:

All you need is a quantity of unsalted butter.  It must be real butter,  and it must be unsalted.  Softened types of butter are no good, and nor is margerine.

  • Take a nice heavy saucepan and place your  unsalted butter into it. 
  • On a medium heat, melt the butter.  Take care not to burn it.   Keep that heat moderate, and watch it while it melts.
  • Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat a little,  briefly,  so that the butter just comes to the boil.
  • Turn down the heat immediately to the lowest point where the butter will just simmer gently.
  • About 15 minutes to 20 minutes of cooking is enough. You can tell when the ghee is done, as the ghee  will smell nice and roasty, like popcorn.  At this point, all the liquid in the butter will have evaporated, and so you must take the ghee off immediately so that it does not burn.
  • Let the ghee cool a little, then strain the liquid ghee off from the remaining curds at the bottom of the saucepan.
  • Store the ghee in a bottle with a fitting lid.  Make sure the ghee has cooled to room temperature completely before putting on the lid.

Ghee will keep indefinately if it has been made properly, and it is stored in dry conditions with its lid on.  Its medicinal properties are supposed to improve with age, so you don’t need to be in a hurry to use it up.

Make sure you tip out the required amount of ghee, rather than dip spoons into the ghee, as this will contaminate it, and it may not keep if you do that.  Never tip any unused ghee, or ghee off your measuring spoon, back into the bottle.  If your ghee has solidified, due to cold temperatures, then use a dry, clean spoon in the ghee jar.

Health Benefits of Ghee:

  • Ghee oil is nourishing to the body and helps keep the bones and ligaments well lubricated.
  • Ghee included in a healthy vegetarian  diet is good for the skin, and the hair.
  • Generally speaking, ghee oil is a very healthy oil to use for cooking.
  • Ghee oil should be used in moderation if you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure.  Get some professional advice to see if ghee is ok for you to use in moderation if you have either of these ailments.
  • Ghee oil has an effect  a little like castor oil.
  • A drop of ghee oil, or castor oil, can be put into each eye at night to help reduce irritation, and help prevent cataracts.  Cataracts which have only just begun to form can sometimes be treated successfully with ghee or castor oil treatment.
  • Ghee oil can be used in some cases to help people lose weight.
  • An Ayurvedic recipe to avert hunger pains consists of:   one mashed banana with a teaspoon of ghee and a 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom  stirred into it.  Eat this when hungry instead of going for a slice of bread or a cookie.

Fermentation of Garlic

How to Ferment Garlic and Enhance its Health Giving Properties.

Recipe for Fermented Garlic. This is a recipe from my book which came out in the 1980’s, entitled  ‘The No Cancer Notebook’. I was given this recipe by Walter Last when I began a detoxifying programme with his guidance  in about 1977.  My health had been very bad, as was that of my elder child, since being aerial sprayed with the chemical 245T, or Agent Orange, in 1975.  My unborn child suffered because of this spraying episode which had contaminated our drinking water, our house,  and our whole environment. She died three months  after birth.

Walter Last’s  detox methods and strict diet, which included this fermented garlic, helped me to restore our health again over time.

Fermented garlic is supposed to be easier to digest than fresh garlic.  The nutrients are made more potent by the fermenting process:   enzymes are created during fermentation which assist the digestive function.

Fermentation of garlic provides your digestive system with plenty of healthy acidophilus bacteria, which benefit the functioning of the digestive system, and help to keep the unhealthy bacteria like candida albicans and other nasties from proliferating in your intestines.

Here is what the  eating of  Fermented Garlic might do for you:

  • Garlic helps to lower ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood.
  • It helps to lower blood pressure.
  • It helps to dissolve calcium deposits in the blood.
  • It strengthens your immune system.
  • Garlic helps to prevent against cancer.
    Garlic     also helps to prevent other disease, like arthritis, gout,  and rheumatism.
  • It can help prevent diseases like epidemic encephelomyelitis
  • It provides you with important zinc.
  • It helps to heal wounds.  The fermented garlic mixture can be applied as a poultice to wounds. The poultice needs to be replaced every 4-5 hours with a fresh application.
  • It has been used to counteract snake venom and other poisonous bites.  (But best to head for a hospital unless you are in the wilderness)
  • Fermented garlic gives you increased  B vitamins,  Vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, phosporous,  and sulphur.
  • Fermented garlic gives you digestive enzymes which help you process your food better.
  • Fermented garlic gives you acidophilus.

Note:  If you have a chronic candida infection, then it is best to wait until you have cleared this a little before  you begin to take your fermented garlic.

This recipe  makes garlic palatable even to the most sensitive of tastes.  The added honey enhances the vitamin and mineral content, and also sweetens the garlic so that children are not averse to taking it.

Recipe for Fermented Garlic

  • In your blender put 1-2 cups of garlic.
  • Add half  to one  cup of apple cider vinegar depending on how much garlic you are using.
  • Add half to one cup of good honey.
  • Add some sea salt.

Blend all ingredients together.  Put the garlic-honey mixture into a screw top jar with the lid loosely screwed on to let any gas out. Put the jar in the sun for a couple of weeks.  After that, store the jar in a cool dry place with the lid screwed down firmly.

Use some fermented garlic every day. This is more beneficial to the health than eating raw garlic.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Gluten Free Banana Bread has always been a favorite with my family.

This high fiber banana bread recipe is entirely gluten free, and so is a good alternative for people with the coeliac condition, for people who have an allergy to wheat, or simply for people who want to avoid eating wheat for the betterment of their health.

This bread is highly nuitritious, with the added health bonus of flaxseed, or linseed for added fiber.  It is ideal for those school lunches or for your work lunch box.   It is a great picnic item, as this moist bread slices easily.

Gluten Free Banana Bread With Flaxseed.

Pre-heat the oven to 325 F  or 180 C.

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 free range organic eggs
  • 1/2 cup of coconut milk or dairy yogurt
  • 3/4 cup olive oil or grapeseed oil
  • 1 large ripe mashed banana
  • 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
  • 3/4 cup ground linseed/flaxseed
  • 3/4 cup chick pea flour
  • 1/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup fine rice flour
  • 1/4 cup arrowroot flour
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Beat together the oil, eggs, mashed banana, sugar and coconut milk or yogurt.  Add the chick pea flour, rice flour, cornmeal and arrowroot flour with the baking powder and soda.  Stir until smooth.

Line 2 loaf tins  with butter paper, or oiled greaseproof paper.  Pour the mixture into the loaf tins.

Bake for 3/4 hour, or until the loaf has turned brown and the loaf is firm.

Let cool with the paper still on the loaf.  This is best left for a day before cutting, but you can use it right away.