Tag Archives: Nourishing Traditions

Roasted Lamb Chops with Savory Stuffing

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savory-stuffing-2

Arrange the lamb chops on top of the roll of nut stuffing.

This recipe is based on the Rack of Lamb recipe in Nourishing Traditions. It is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It is a very quick meal and a family favorite.

Stuffing
2c walnuts or almonds, soaked and dried
4T butter
1/2c parsley, chopped
1c onion, chopped
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
sea salt and pepper to taste

Use a food processor to grind the nuts into small pieces. Add the chopped onions, garlic and parsley. When well mixed add the butter. The stuffing should hold together well. Form the stuffing into a “log shape” the same length as the lamb chops. Make the stuffing before cooking the lamb so the flavors have time to meld.

Roast 6-8 lamb chops in a row like a rack of lamb, with the fatty side up. Sprinkle with some sea salt. Cook at 375F until the lamb temperature gets to 110F. Remove lamb chops from the oven. Remove the chops from pan and place the log of stuffing in the bottle of the pan. Place the lamb chops on top of the stuffing. Continue to cook until the meat is at 120F for a rare chop. The stuffing should be just heated through so the onions can soften. Do not overcook the stuffing or the nuts will take on a burnt flavor. For more information on cooking meat by temperature please read Cooking with Grass-Fed Meat and Fowl.

savory-stuffing-1

Put the roll of nut stuffing on one side of the bread baking pan.

Pork Roast with Savory Stuffing
This recipe is also good as a stuffing for a pork roast. Just be careful not to over cook the stuffing. Unroll the pork loin and place in a baking dish. Place the stuffing over the roast and roll the roast so that the fatty side is on top. Tie with cotton kitchen twine and bake to an internal temperature of 145F for a rare roast.

Winter Storage: Kimchi and Lacto-fermented Green Tomatoes

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crock

This is one of my fermenting crocks. I have about five different types and sizes. You can pick up crocks at garage sales or buy them new.

It is that time of year again to be thinking about winter stores. I spent the day making kimchi. Kimchi is by far my favorite lacto-fermented food. This recipe is based on a Korean Sauerkraut recipe from Nourishing Traditions. It uses mostly local produce that you can get at the Kamloops Farmer’s Market.

If you have never made lacto-fermented vegetables, please read Wild Fermentation. Remember to use organic or un-sprayed vegetables because the fermentation culture can be killed by residue pesticides or herbicides. Ask the Rubinsons at Silver Springs Organic for their organic fermenting cabbages for best results.

kimchi-and-eggs

This is a favorite breakfast with grilled steak, kimchi, eggs and garden fresh greens.

Kimchi
2 large organic fermenting cabbages, finely sliced
1 large organic onion with green top, grated or chopped
6 large organic carrots, grated or chopped
2c organic daikon radish (any type of organic radish will work), grated or chopped
4T organic ginger, freshly grated
1 organic hot red pepper, finely chopped
6 organic garlic cloves, freshly grated
4T sea salt
4T whey (if not available add an extra 1T sea salt)

In a very large bowl mix together all the vegetables, salt and whey. Put the mixed ingredients in a fermentation crock or follow the directions in Wild Fermentation. I use two types of fermenting crocks in my household. I have two 10L Harsch Gairtopf Fermenting Crock Pots and various sizes of Medalta Crocks.

Lacto-fermented Green Tomatoes
4-5 pounds organic green tomatoes
2 organic garlic cloves, whole
1 organic hot red pepper, whole
1T sea salt
2T whey (if not available add an extra 1T sea salt)
enough fresh water to cover green tomatoes

This is a good recipe if you find yourself at the end of the summer season with too many unripe tomatoes. Only use the hard green tomatoes that have not turned color at all. Follow the directions for Lacto-fermented Horseradish Dill Pickles. The green tomatoes need the same treatment as pickling cucumbers. If you like dill better than hot red peppers, try replacing the pickling cucumbers in the recipe with green tomatoes for a dill favor. The green tomatoes should be tried in a month and the flavor will improve over the winter.

Updated November 8, 2010: I originally wrote this posting back in early October. I had never tried making Lacto-fermented Green Tomatoes but I had lots of green tomatoes and nothing to lose. I have just opened my crock to find a coat of white slimy mold on the top. I have learned from experience not to worry about the mold as long as there isn’t a horrible smell. The mold on top actually seems to protect the contents below. I carefully removed the slime and cleaned the sides of the crock. I lost a bit of the mold to the fluid so I washes the green tomatoes in fresh water (no chlorine please) and filtered the liquid with a sieve. I returned the green tomatoes to the crock and poured the liquid back in. I moved the crock to our cold storage area for the winter. I tried a few of the green tomatoes. They remind me of a cross between an olive and a very crunchy pickle.

Learning Home Cooking

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omelette-cabbage

Food doesn't have to be complicated to be good. If you are new to cooking, start with breakfast. Eggs are a superfood. A simple omelette with sauted mushrooms and onions can be wonderful. Garnish with cilantro for a fresh taste. Have a salad in summer or cabbage in winter. Some people like eating their cabbage with kelp.

Home cooking is fast becoming a lost art. I have had a number of requests for good starter cookbooks. I would recommend:

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon
Recipes and information about nourishing traditional food preparation methods.

Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice
“Moon by moon” seasonal cookbook based on seasonal local foods.

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
This is a reprint of the original 1931 edition or get any copy between 1932 and 1979. Later editions start to go low fat and do not have much information about food storage and cuts of meat. I like the 1930s and 1940s editions best.

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee
Not a cookbook but full of information about the science of food and cooking.

Thompson Rivers University has a Culinary Arts Program and Retail Meats Processing Program. If you are looking for inspiration, The Culinary Arts Program runs a Cafeteria and Bistro. The Accodales Dining Room is run by Chef instructor Ron Rosentreter, and has won awards for their fine foods.

For online videos and courses, you might want to have a look at Rouxbe Online Cooking School. There are free videos that explain basic cooking techniques. You can get a membership and take courses. The website is supported by Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver.

omelette-chard

Omelettes are so flexible and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Don't worry if the omelette doesn't come out perfectly. It will taste wonderful even if it is messy.

Updated November 23, 2009: I have just found a link to an online library of classic American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. Feeding America is a good source for old-style recipes.

Updated June 22, 2010: We have been having a discussion about favorite cookbooks on the Weston A Price Leader’s Board. Two suggestions caught my attention. Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child was recommended by Suzanne Waldron of the WAPF Memphis Chapter. Here is a link to The Self-Sufficient Homestead: Surviving Civilization on the Homestead which has audio presentations and links to some early American cookbooks.

Extended Interview with Sally Fallon

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I enjoyed my first day at the Kamloops Farmer’s Market. It was a rainy day so it was good to see so many people out buying fresh local food. I enjoyed meeting members of our community interested in eating whole foods.

For those of you new to this website and the Weston A Price Foundation, I have an short five minute video by Sally Fallon that may answer some of your questions and covers the basics. If you have more time, here is three, ten minute sections from a five hour lecture by Sally Fallon during the Weston A Price 2008 Conference. Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions and president of the Weston A Price Foundation. In this interview Sally Fallon introduces the research of Dr Weston Price and basic concepts of nourishing traditional foods. She explains why it is so important to carefully prepare grains, legumes, nuts and beans for easier digestion and the dangers of soy. She talks about raw milk, raw milk safety and enforcement.

This is just a small sample of the full lecture. If you would like more information, Sally Fallon has two DVDs called Nourishing Traditional Diets and The Oiling of America.

Wild Fermentation

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I had a request for information about lacto-fermentation. Before there were freezers or canning your great grandmother preserved food with fermentation. Fermentation was a magical event that the Greeks called alchemy, the art of transformation.

Wild Fermentation

This is great book for the person seriously interested in learning the art of fermentation.

I would recommend two books to read before starting to make fermented foods: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellis Katz. A third book to read if you are interested in lacto-fermented drinks is Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice. Here are three links that will get you going with lacto-fermentation:
1. This is a primer by Sally Fallon on Lacto-Fermentation.
2. This is a link to Sandor Ellis Katz’s website about how to make Traditional Sour Pickles.
3. If pickles aren’t your thing, and you were thinking about something sweet, Charles Eisenstein will introduce you to Traditional Sodas, a healthy alternative to soft drinks. This essay is a very good introduction to artisan food production. I would like to see small groups of like minded individuals coming together in community cottage industry to produce these commercially unavailable traditional foods.

If you would like to start rather than read about it, go to your kitchen and we will do some magic!
Simple Sour Kraut
Equipment
1 glass container with lid
1 glass saucer that can fit into glass container
1 small round granite rock that can fit into glass container
1 wooden mallet or spoon
Ingredients
1 large un-sprayed/organic cabbage
1T sea salt

Find a large mason jar or any glass container with a lid. Find a small glass saucer that can fit into the glass container. (I do not feel comfortable using plastic.) Go into your garden and find a small round granite rock. Shred and core one large un-sprayed cabbage. Make sure the cabbage has not been sprayed or the fermentation will not occur. Add one tablespoon of sea salt to the shredded cabbage and put it into the jar. Don’t worry if you have too much. More cabbage than you would think possible will go into the jar by the end of the process. Pound down the cabbage with a wooden mallet or spoon. Let the cabbage stand for 30 minutes.

The water from the cabbage will start to come out. Add and pound down more cabbage. Leave another 30 minutes. In the end, there should be about 1″ of cabbage water over the cabbage. Place the saucer over the cabbage and weigh it down with the granite rock. Any cabbage at the surface of the liquid will rot so remove any pieces. Cover and put in a warm place. Bubbling should start in a day or so. Everyday take a peek and watch the mystery of life unfold in your kitchen. Try the cabbage in about a week. After the cabbage becomes as sour as you like, refrigerate the sour kraut. Eat with meats for better digestion.

This process must have been very mysterious for our ancestors. It is mysterious for me!

Update August 8, 2009: I have just found a new website on lacto-fermented food. The website has recipes, lots of photos, radio links, and short postings on food safety. I hope you enjoy www.awesomepickle.com.