Recipes

Sourdough Buckwheat Pancakes

These pancakes are yummy! The amount of liquid you add in the second step will vary. I add enough for it to blend easily into a relatively thick batter. You can also vary the amount of liquid (eggs and milk or water) added in the third step for making thicker pancakes. This recipe makes relatively thin pancakes.

Step one

• 1 C buckwheat
• 2 C water

Place buckwheat in a bowl, cover with a plate or towel and soak for 2 – 24 hours.

Step two

After soaking strain water off buckwheat and rinse. It will be very mucilaginous. Put buckwheat in blender with another 1/3 to 1/2 c of water. Blend until smooth.

Rinse out bowl that buckwheat was soaking in and add the blended mixture back to the bowl. Cover and let sit for another 12 to 24 hours.

Step three

Put a non-stick or cast iron pan on the burner over medium to medium high heat and let the pan heat up while you are mixing up the batter. The secret to cooking pancakes is to make sure the pan gets hot before you add the batter.

Add to buckwheat batter:

• 3 eggs beaten
• 1/2 c milk (or unsweetened almond milk or water)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt

Mix in the wet ingredients. Then sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the surface of the batter and thoroughly mix it in.

Make sure pan is hot and add a generous amount of fat (ghee, coconut oil, lard etc) to the pan. When fat is shimmering ladle pancake batter into the pan. Allow pancakes to cook almost all the way through before flipping. You can either continue to add fat before each new pancake or not. With more fat the pancakes are almost like fritters, with less they are more like typical pancakes.

Top with fruit, butter, kefir cream or whipped cream. (And a small amount of honey or maple syrup if you don’t have blood sugar issues.)

Beef “no-tacos”

Beef filling

• 2-3 tsp fat – coconut oil, ghee or lard
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced or pressed
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp ground coriander
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 1/8 – 1/4 cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it)
• salt (to taste)
• 1 lb ground beef (10-15% fat preferred)
• 1/2 c canned crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 homemade chicken broth

Heat fat over medium heat in a cast iron skillet until it is hot and shimmering. Add onion and cook until soft. This will take anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes. Add garlic, spices and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir constantly for about a minute (until the spices “bloom” and become fragrant). Add ground beef. Cook breaking it into small pieces and stirring to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the beef is no longer pink. Add the tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat so that it continues to simmer uncovered for about another 10 minutes, until it has thickened.

We like to eat the beef filling over roasted kabocha squash that we put in the over before beginning the beef. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut kabocha squash into bite size chunks. Coat it in melted lard or duck fat and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Put it on a pan and roast in the over for 20 – 30 minutes.

Toppings:

• shredded lettuce
• grated raw cheddar or jack cheese
• chopped tomatoes, avocado or cilantro
• sour cream
• salsa (see recipe)
• guacamole (see recipe)
• squeeze of lime

Home made salsa

• 1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes diced (we love the ‘early girls’ from the farmers market.) This amounts to about 3 cups
• 1 jalapeno, remove seeds and ribs and mince
• 1/2 c minced red onion (very fine)
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp salt
• juice from one lime

Put tomatoes in a colander and let them drain for about a half hour.
Put tomatoes in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients except the lime juice. Mix.
Add lime juice to taste.

Guacamole

• 3 ripe avocados
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp minced red onion (very fine)
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro leaves
• juice from one lime
• 1 small jalapeno removed seeds and ribs and mince
• 1 garlic clove, minced or pressed

Mash the avocados to the consistency you like. I like mostly smooth with a little bit of chunk. Add all remaining ingredients except lime juice. Then add lime juice and salt to taste.

Elanne’s Rice Porridge

• 1 C cooked long grain white rice
• 1/2 C milk (or unsweetened almond milk, or coconut milk)
• 1 pastured egg yolk lightly beaten
• butter, preferably raw
• raw honey (please note, doctors advise not giving honey to infants under one year old)
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or cinnamon, or both)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Put milk and rice in a small pot over a medium flame. Add spices and vanilla.
Stir the rice, breaking up chunks until the milk comes to a boil and turn it down to simmer. Simmer until most of the milk has been absorbed (the more milk absorbed the thicker the pudding – adjust to your preference). Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and add the egg yolk quickly stirring it into the rice and milk mixture until it is completely mixed in. The mixture should get thick and creamy within 30 seconds to a minute. Turn off the heat.

Add a generous amount of butter and a small amount of honey. Stir.

Nice toppings for the pudding/porridge include:

• fruit
• cream
• yogurt
• milk
• soaked nuts or seeds

Chris’s Daily Special

This isn’t so much a recipe as a combination of foods. My usual (4-5x/wk) breakfast is:

• 2 poached eggs
• 1/2 large sweet potato or yam, with a lot of butter. If the half yam I’m eating is left over from the day before, I’ll fry it in butter.
• 2 pieces of pastured, organic bacon
• 2-3 TBS of kimchi or sauerkraut