Sprouted Wholegrain Sourdough Bread

Real wholegrain sourdough with sprouted grains is nutritionally superior to commercial  yeast bread including wholegrain loaves. Commercial bread contains flour and grains that have been sprayed with herbicides, contain a lot of salt and preservatives - even if the label says it is preservative free. Some sourdough breads available are not really sourdough and still contain commercial quick rising yeast.  Real sourdough takes 12-15 hours or more to rise and the wild yeasts digest the gluten (protein) in the flour and the long soak of the grains makes all of the vitamins and minerals much more bioavailable.  Those that have gluten intolerance, allergies and inflammatory skin and gut conditions may benefit greatly from eating real sourdough.  In a study in Italy it has been shown that coeliacs can tolerate real sourdough bread. The bread recipe I am about to share with you is based on a traditional Danish rye that I have altered and tweaked to make it more nutritious and easy to make.  There is no kneading involved at all and the recipe will make 2 smaller but long loaves or 1 very large loaf. It is important to follow the recipe exactly.  You have to wait until the following day before you can cut into the loaf as it needs to set, I then slice the whole loaf and package into smaller amounts and keep in the freezer.

There is very little ground flour in this recipe because even ground wholemeal flour is not low GI enough or nutritious enough, so most of this bread is made up of whole grains.  I buy 5kg bags of Four leaf brand (organic) cracked rye, cracked wheat, whole rye & wheat flour and place it into non bpa  plastic tubs. Join your local food co-op for near wholesale prices or order through organic grocers.  I do not buy larger sizes as it is important to have the grains as fresh as possible.

The wild yeasts in sourdough like us, are very sensitive to chemicals and metals, so it is very important to use glass bowls, wooden spoons and pure water with no chemicals.  You will need a large mixing bowl, sturdy wooden spoon, glass jar, and two smaller loaf pans for this recipe.    I am going to teach you how to make your own starter (also known as a mother), some starters are 100`s of years old and if fed every week, you can keep it indefinitely.  

How to Make A Starter

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Buttermilk (with live cultures - from an organic grocer)
• 1/2 cup organic rye flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

mix the above ingredients together in a glass jar, the mixture should be thick pancake batter consistency, add a little filtered water if needed.  Leave jar on the kitchen bench, uncovered for 24 hours. Next day stir the mixture and cover with a paper lid.  Stir the mixture everyday and leave out on the kitchen bench (do not refrigerate) On day 6 add another 2/3 cup of  whole rye flour and 1/2 cup of water and mix.  The starter will be ready to use in 8 hours.

 If you plan on making bread every 2 or 3 days then leave the starter out on the bench, discard 1/2 cup of the starter every 8 hours and then feed it 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water every day.  If you only want to make bread every few weeks you will need to keep 1/2 cup of starter ( use 1/2 cup of the raw dough) in the fridge in a sealed glass jar. You will have to feed this starter once a week while not in use, to do this discard half of the starter and add 1/2 cup of organic whole rye flout and 1/2 cup of spring water and mix through, place back in the fridge.

When you need to make some more bread, 2 days before, get the starter out of the fridge, discard half of it and feed it 1/2 cup of whole rye flour and 1/2 cup of water every 8 hours for 2 days.  Your starter will then be ready if it is nice and bubbly. If your starter is not bubbly keep feeding every 8 hours until it is ready.   Dont forget to keep 1/2 cup of raw dough to keep in the fridge in a small glass jar to use as your starter for next time you want to make bread.

Sourdough Starter Day 1

Active sourdough starter has doubled in size and has plenty of air bubbles.

Sourdough Bread Recipe

Step 1, Soak Grains 8 Hours Before 

Ingredients  :

• 51/2 cups of pure water
• 4 cups organic cracked rye grains
• 1 1/4 cups organic cracked wheat grains

Method:

In a bowl add the grains and water, cover and let soak for 8 hours or more.  I do this in the morning and after dinner that night I make the bread, let it rise overnight for 12 - 15  hours and bake mid - morning the next day. The longer you let is rise, the more sour it will be. 

Step 2 - Mix Wet Ingredients

Ingredients: wet ingredients first into a smaller bowl

• 3/4 cup cooked barley (I cook up a batch and keep it in 3/4 cup size ziplock bags in the freezer for convenience.)
• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1 cup pure water
• 1 tablespoon molasses

Method:

Mix all the wet ingredients together quickly with a whisk and set aside. Minimise contact between metal whisk and starter.

Step 3 - Mix All Dry Ingredients

Ingredients:

• 1 & 2/3 Cup organic wholemeal flour
• 1 cup organic whole rye flour
• 1/2 cup raw linseeds
• 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon ground wakame seaweed (or kelp granules)

Method:

Mix dry ingredients in a very large non metal bowl and add the wet ingredients and soaked grains.  Mix thoroughly with a sturdy wooden spoon.  Line two loaf tins with baking paper and divide the mixture between the two tins, pat down and sprinkle with sesame seeds and pat down. Cover with plastic or foil and leave overnight for 12 - 15 hours.  The loaf will only rise by 50% as it is a moist, dense loaf (and delicious!). 

The next day, sprinkle or spray the loaves with water, cover with foil and place into a 190 degree oven, set the time for 90 minutes.  After 40 minutes, remove the foil lids and turn the loaves around. The loaves need to be cooled on a wire rack, covered and left for a day before slicing.

Notes:

I add seaweed for iodine and minerals, I purchase Clean tasmanian wakame and blend it to a powder and keep in a jar. You cannot taste the seaweed in this recipe. 

Square Loaf Tins (professional Baking Tins)

Bread Mixture

Soaked Cracked Rye and Wheat Grains

Happy Mothers Day On Sunday!

Due to a close bushfire threat (only 10 minutes away and heading this way) I will not be writing a blog this week.  Hopefully next week I will be able to do a small post and the week after will be the no - knead sprouted sourdough recipe (and hopefully a video).

Shoppping: "Nuts About Food" 47 Glynburn Rd. Glynde, SA is a bulk, direct to the consumer business with very good prices on nuts, legumes, chia seeds, dried fruit, flours, quinoa, seeds and some organic produce.  It is worth paying a visit. and you can also shop online -  Let them know that I sent you.

To all the mothers have a wonderful family day on Sunday.

Weightloss & Heart Health

 The segment about my garden on Today Tonight on channel 7 will go to air on 24th April so tune it if you can...Also I will be opening my Art Studio, to the public on May 4 & 5 so email me if you need the address, also my neighbour who has a wonderful Japanese inspired garden is opening that same weekend as part of the Open Garden Scheme and the Autumn Garden Festival in Stirling is on that weekend also.  

I have some more reasons to change your diet to a plant based diet - a CNN report about Bill Clinton`s weightloss and diet change. Here is a recipe for a weightloss smoothie to get you started, and remember to drink plenty of water to flush out those toxins (2L per day). Replace 1 or 2 meals a day with a vegetable based smoothie with non dairy protein and plenty of fibre and some almond milk.   Cut right back on caffeine or eliminate while trying to lose weight as it is an appetite stimulant and a drug, no alcohol, refined flours (white or wholemeal), no white foods like potato, rice, crackers, biscuits, no sugars or processed oils, minimum salt .  Water sautee` , steam and bake instead of frying & Include complex carbohydrates that are also high in protein - lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, tofu, soy, tempe etc. salads twice a day, 1  1/2 cups steamed leafy greens and no more than 1/4cup of raw nuts 3 times per week while trying to lose weight.  You must exercise for at least 30 minutes every day as weight loss is simply burning more calories and eating less calories - so you may as well improve your total health at the same time by consuming vegetable based smoothies full of enzymes, vitamins and minerals.  Dairy protein shakes contain an isolated, concentrated animal  protein called Whey, and I do not recommend these for health and ethical reasons (if you knew what those cows go through I am sure you would agree with me.) Whey powder may contain concentrated hormones, pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics & pus from mastitis.  Cows milk is to grow cows and it is a myth that we need it in our diet. It is better to use a soy or pea protein powder instead.  

Please seek medical advice before embarking on these changes.

The Health Kitchen Blog will be changing from weekly to fortnightly posts as I am busy painting my next exhibition in Sydney for September 2013.

Weight Loss Summary:

•  Exercise 30 minutes every day plus 10 minutes of yoga stretches
• Replace 1 or 2 meals with a high fibre, veg protein smoothie
• Drink 2L water every day
• Take 3 x 1000mg B12 supplements per week
• Steam, bake, water sautee`
• 2 large leaf based salads per day
• 1/2 - 1 cup of legumes eg. chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, tofu, tempe
• Soups eg. broccoli, kale (not white potato & cream!)
• no processed oil but have 1/4 cup raw nuts 3 times per week, a tblsp of avocado in your salad, raw nut and chia gel based salad dressings
• no added salt - use Herbamare diet seasoning, spices
• No caffeine, no alcohol, no commercial fruit or veg juices, diet soda/soft drinks
• no sugars that includes cane sugars, honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, molasses
• Include citrus, strawberries, kiwi fruit, blueberries, pear, green apples 1/2 -1 cup per day.
• include probiotics to help with cravings & gut flora
• Juice fast 1 or 2 days per week (optional but good for you)
• Good multivitamin if you need one
• Vitamin C 4000mg every day (see Step 3 To Excellent Health)
• If you want to have a an occasional piece of bread choose a dense sprouted whole grain loaf like essene (I will be doing a video tutorial on a sprouted grain rye sourdough soon)
• Think positive thoughts, surround your self with positive people, include 2 tsp of raw cacao powder 3 times per week in your smoothie as it contains 26,000 antioxidants, tryptopan which you need to make seratonin (this is what makes you feel good), iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium and more.  

Step 3 To Excellent Health - Vitamin C

Rosehips Contain Vitamin C & Were Used in WWII  in the UK due to a shortage of Oranges

Just to let you know that I was interviewed today by the Tv show "Today Tonight"

The current affairs show is on  channel 7 and it is a good new story about the garden and why I am a keen vegetable grower, they will also be featuring Jeremy Cordeux`s garden and Steve Hailstone.  My new blog will be promoted on Today Tonight face book page which is great! The show will be aired on Monday 22nd April (unless they change this) and will be advertised on the weekend, you can probably view it on their website.

Vitamin c

Higher primates (including humans) and guinea pigs cannot make vitamin c and so it must be ingested daily.

I believe that we should get most of our vitamins and minerals from food and vitamin supplements are only for supplementation to an already excellent diet.  We are not always perfect (including myself!) nor can we always rely on the nutrient content in the food we buy due to freshness and farming methods so I choose to take vitamin C powder that has been buffered to make the PH neutral.  Pure vitamin c is acidic so it is important to make it ph neutral - this can be done by adding 1/2 tsp of good quality carb soda (I use Bobs Red Mill as some brands contain aluminium and it is not on the label due to slack labelling laws) to 1 tsp of pure Vitamin C powder.  This amount will give you about 4000mg of vitamin C, I then dissolve this into a small glass of water with the juice of a lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  This is a good drink for your whole body, a liver cleanser and I have it every morning. The RDA (recommended dosage allowance) for Vitamin C for humans is 60 mg, for guinea pigs it is 15 times higher and  gorillas eat 4000mg per day!  I don`t think the RDA is correct for humans...  

Vitamin C  has been used successfully intravenously to treat cancer instead of chemotherapy by medical practitioners in the US and in the book "Doctor Yourself "by Andrew Saul PHD  he writes that Vitamin C can replace antibiotics, antihistamines, antitoxins, antipyretics and anitviral drugs at saturation levels - mega doses to bowel saturation.  He also says "Taking vitamin C will help to keep colds and flu away, improves fertility, good for eye health, helps with Alzheimers, asthma, cancer, cervical dysplasia, diabetes, fibromyalgia, receding gums, heart arrhythmia, hepatitis & cirrhosis, immune dysfunction, kidney stones, laryngitis, menopause, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, platelet formation, schizophrenia & psychosis" I highly recommend his book Doctor Yourself & the Site Orthomolecular Medicine and to view the 60 Minutes Program story about a farmer in NZ with swine flu, nearly died and Vitamin C saved his life.

How much vitamin c you take depends on your deficiency - a good friend of mine had to take 36,000mg to get rid of hay fever, so if you have a mega deficiency you will need a mega dose.  whatever your body does not need it will be eliminated through your urine.  It is a myth that Vitamin C causes kidney stones and no one has ever died from too many vitamins, but I have read that 100,000 people per year in the US die from prescription drugs.  

I have found that Vitamin C helps to keep me well and a year ago I was struck with iritis in my left eye (inflamation of the iris) and the opthamologist put me on 6 weeks of steroids.  It went away but came back 6 months later, so I went off all tea, coffee, & alcohol and started taking high doses of Vitamin C, Bilberry and Curcumin and the Iritis went away without having to take any steroids.  The eye contains high levels of Vitamin C, something the specialist did not even mention. Captain Cook used sauerkraut for vitamin C on his voyages to keep scurvy away. If I ever feel like a virus is trying to invade my body I take 4000mg of buffered Vitamin C every 30 minutes until bowel tolerance and I always feel better almost immediately! 

Dietary C is also very important because your body will not absorb plant based iron called nonheme iron unless there is Vitamin C present in the gut at the same time.  Vitamin C is very heat sensitive and is destroyed when heated above body temperature so it is important to add raw fruits or vegetables such as red capsicum, citrus, raw kale, cauliflower, strawberries, collards or sauerkraut in the same meal and always include them in your salads. 

How To Grow Citrus

Grow A Few Lemon Trees

Strawberries contain Vitamin C

Raw Broccoli Contains Vitamin C

Nutritious Green Soup

Trust you all had a great easter break.  We had a lovely family & friends Easter down at the south coast with a few beach walks and a little boating but way too much drinking!!  I must say it can be difficult to say no to a lovely glass of wine but as I get older the less my body can tolerate so now I need to have a break from it.  This week I am sharing a delicious soup recipe that is very easy to make and is a very good staple.  Most of the enzymes and vitamins have been destroyed by heat but the minerals are retained in the liquid this is why soup is an important part of your diet. Soup that has been blended makes it easy for your body to absorb the nutrients.  Kale and Pea soup is an easy way to eat plenty of Kale or other dark leafy greens and is tasty enough to serve at a dinner party.  It also contains seaweed as most Australians are iodine deficient and its great you cannot taste it in this recipe.  You can also sprinkle some chia seeds on top for some extra protein, calcium and omega 3.  Recipe here

 Next week I will writing about a very important topic - Vitamin C & the role it plays in body functions and disease prevention.  It is step 3 to excellent health.

Easter Chocolate Superfood Treat

Raw Chocolate Superfood Brownie

Chocolate contains 26,000 antioxidants, blue berries 2400, prunes 4700.

As a special treat for Easter I have been developing a raw chocolate brownie recipe for the past few weeks and I must say that I have been enjoying the trials! The resulting recipe contains high iron, magnesium, calcium, protein, fibre, omega 3, polyphenols, anti oxidants, manganese, zinc, copper, chromium. Below is a video of David Wolfe - an enthusiastic user of raw chocolate an interesting and informative video. Enjoy this high nutrient special treat that will also give you an energy boost if you include the maca powder in the recipe. Have a wonderful easter break.  This weeks recipes here.

I have also posted 2 other new recipes this week - a delicious rocket, pea, and artichoke salad with a dressing that has kelp granules added, I have added this as most Australians are iodine deficient and we need iodine for thyroid & brain function and seaweed is the best way to add it to your diet  - you cannot taste the kelp in the dressing.  I have also substituted most of the olive oil for chia seeds and cashew mayonnaise as it is much healthier and offers many more nutritional benefits than processed oil.  With this salad you could add blanched tofu cubes or cooked chickpeas and you would have a main course.   The other recipe is a tasty black eyed beans and mushrooms dish as a main.

PS. if anyone has any ideas about how to get the word out about this site without spending money please let me know.  Cheers, Chris.

Your Health Depends On Nutrition Not Supplements

Vegetable Garden at Piccadilly

We live on an amazing planet - we are part of a delicate and complex web of life and I believe one day scientists will discover a strong biological link between all plants and animals.  We need exactly the same elements as plants to survive except we need sodium and iodine as well (seaweed is an excellent source for this).  Some of the largest animals on this planet are vegetarian and get all their protein needs from plants.

All animals eat fresh and so should we, and we can make a great contribution to our planet and our health by choosing to eat more plants.  We actually have herbivore digestive tracts (long) rather than carnivore digestive tracts (short) and have teeth designed for grinding not tearing and yet we are so focused on animal flesh and animal products as the most important part of our diet.  Our genetic code is 98% exactly the same as a chimpanzee and their diet consists of leaves, fruit, nuts, and some insects. We forget that we are higher primates with a very creative intelligent brain and we have this ability to justify and talk ourselves into just about anything.

Never before in our history have we had such easy access to abundant food and medicine - so why are we so sick?? Never in our history have we experienced such huge increases in the rates of diabetes, cardiovascular disease , cancer, auto immune disease, allergies, ADD, autism, obesity, super bugs, alzheimers disease.  In fact the WHO (World Health Organisation) predict that in the next 10-20 years 1 in 2 people will develop cancer at some point in their life - and what strikes me as tragic is that most of  of these diseases are preventable.  We all have genetic predisposition but the genes have to be turned on and if you switch to a high nutrient diet in time these genetic expressions will probably not occur.  As 80% of your immune system resides in your digestive tract this is where all the problems begin and this where they should be fixed. The typical western diet consists of  calorie dense food from dead animals and it is high in salt,  fat, simple carbohydrates, sugar and way too much protein.  We are so focussed on macro nutrients ( protein, fat and carbohydrates) instead of micro nutrients that we do not get anywhere near enough vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.  Thanks to the TV cooking shows, busy lifestyles, effective fear marketing by the meat and dairy corporations and lack of nutrition education, dinner plates in western countries have a large lump of meat, chicken or fish cooked in butter, oil, salt and cream and salad is just a garnish! Living on this kind of diet will trigger disease at some point in your life - you can be overweight, obese even, and still be malnourished.

Most food on the supermarket shelves is not nutritious, I consider it to be a food product designed to make profit.  The large corporations and large scale & factory farmers of food are not interested the care of their animals, the chemicals they use, or the levels of nutrition in their crops. It is up to us to vote with our wallet and take control of our health by growing some of our own food because nobody else will do it for you.  One of the most powerful things you can do is grow sprouts. Sprouts are a living food full of enzymes, concentrated vitamins, minerals and amino acids in a digestable form and have none of the chemicals in them associated with farming.  They are easy to grow and are still alive when you eat them in comparison to a vegetable that is picked a week prior and sits on the shelf for another week before you buy it and eventually use eat it.

 I will discuss sprouts in more detail in another post but be aware that grains, seeds, nuts and pulses such as lentils if  sprouted first before eating or cooking are much more nutritious, the nutrients are more bio-available to your body & amplified by  up to 1300%!!.  This is phenomenal - for example, oat seeds when sprouted the vitamin B2 content increases by 1300% and B6 by 500%. 

Our health is directly linked to the health of soil.  Some soil is very poor in natural minerals and there can be a wide variation of vitamins and minerals per mm3.  Therefore it is my belief that we can all greatly benefit from growing some of out own food in a small vegetable garden or in containers and making sure the correct minerals and home made compost is in the soil so the plant contains the right nutritional profile. If you dont want to be a victim of or improve recovery from cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, colds and flu, alzheimers, auto immune disease, suffer from allergies, ADD, or autism then the information that I will share with you may be very helpful.

Berries are full of phyto chemical compounds and anti oxidants

You will be interested to know that imported fresh food is sprayed with methyl bromide to get through quarrantine and this is a chemical used in fire extinguishers.

 I do not recommend eating imported fresh produce for this reason also as consumers, we do not know what chemicals have been used on these crops.  Grow, pick and eat your own and buy local organic produce that is in season is the optimum way for the best nutrition levels in food.  Always ask the greengrocers where the produce is from and ask them to label the origin of the produce - you have a right to know. Some crops are sprayed with herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides up to 10 times in the growth cycle. These chemicals are making a major contribution to the decline of our health. In California 7000 tons of pesticide is used on the almond crop every year and they are wondering why 60% of their bees die every year and now there are not enough bees found naturally to pollinate the crops.  If all the bees on the planet died today, man would only survive for 4 years.

Nutrients in plants diminish very rapidly, if I pick lettuce out of my vegetable garden and keep it in the fridge until the next day, it is already up to 50% depleted of its nutrients within 24 hours, therefore what you buy in the shops has minimal nutrients due to the farming method and length of time it travels and eventually consumed.

You may be interested to know that the US Department of Agriculture has been collecting data on the nutrient content of food since the late 1800`s and the nutrient content of broccoli for example has diminished by 50% per mm3 since 1950, this is due to the use of hybrids as opposed to heirloom varieties and possibly modern farming methods depleting nutrients in the soil.  Fruit and vegetables that are grown organically have more nutrients in them because of the way they are farmed.  More care is taken with the soil and they are produced more sustainably. Getting your nutrition from fresh organic plants is far more effective in boosting your immune system  and it has been my experience that supplements (which are designed to do just that - supplement not replace) cannot replace fruit and vegetables. The best way for optimum nutrition is to grow some yourself, pick and eat mostly raw.  Two large nutritious salads per day and some vegetable juice for breakfast will be very beneficial to your body`s requirements.

A view of vegetable beds in the main garden

Sunflower Sprouts - are a complete protein