I'm on the road, in search of food — food for my body, food for my mind, food for my soul. I dedicate this blog to peanut butter, my best friend. Food is what we're all about. Cheers!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Beckmann's Old World Bakery

This morning I had a very special treat! Thin slices of steamed rye bread from Beckmann's. The bread is the most delicious, pure rye bread I have ever tasted that wasn't homemade. It's made of organic 100% rye flour, water, sea salt, and fresh yeast.

The bread company used to have a small bakery cafe in Santa Cruz, which is where I was first introduced to the rye bread. The cafe has since closed, and now Beckmann's is pretty much the wholesale bakery that stocks many of the shelves in local grocery stores and market places. And I just discovered that you can buy Beckmann's bread online at their website!

Yesterday, I was delighted to find several loaves of their pure rye bread stocked on the shelves at the New Leaf Market, since it is not always there — probably because other people get there before me and snatch them all up! Beckmann's Bakery makes many other varieties of bread, which are also delicious, but none as great in my opinion as the one-hundred percent rye bread.

The loaf is rectangular and shaped like a fruitcake or a brick of pure gold. The bread tastes the best when slices or chunks of it are steamed, and second-best when very thin slices of it are toasted or grilled. It can dry out quicker than other breads, but steaming always seems to revitalize it!

Did you know that rye flour is the original source for sourdough starter? (Someone from the San Francisco sourdough bread company, Boudin told me that on the museum tour at the wharf.)  Natural yeasts in the air seem to love it! It makes perfect sense, once you've tasted the slightly sour quality of Beckmann's rye bread. Wikipedia has a long article about the history of sourdough. I also found an interesting pdf article written online by Robin Donovan on The Story Of Sourdough Bread.

But where San Francisco Sourdough Bread is made of white flour, Beckmann's Pure Rye bread is made of 100% whole rye flour. I see from their website that since the acquisition of the Whole Grain Natural Bread Company, Beckmann's flour is now freshly milled each day, thus retaining most of the vital minerals and nutrients of the rye and making the bread less acid-forming. Beckmann's also uses organic grains, ensuring that no harmful chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) are in the bread.

By definition, bread that is made from flour is not a whole food. The process of making flour from the rye berries separates the components and some get lost, like important alkalyzing minerals and metals, thus making the bread more yin and more acid-forming than the whole grain. The more the grain is milled and the longer the flour is moved from place to place, the more that gets lost. Therefore, making your own bread from your own freshly milled flour is going to be the closest to whole foods, and Beckmann's Pure Rye bread is the next closest!

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

What Is Macrobiotics?

Here is an answer to the above question from off the top of my head this morning:  

• Macrobiotics is a way of life.

• It follows the principles of yin and yang and the seven laws of the universe.

• It is a language for understanding and controlling the effects of the two forces, yin and yang, on you and your life.

• Macrobiotics is based on the laws of nature.

• Macrobiotics is a practice followed by many people. There are many official websites and macrobiotic centers all over the world.

• Macrobiotics is a diet based on whole, natural foods.

• Macrobiotics is a restless, ever-changing view of our world as we know it.

See:
What is Macrobiotics? by Carl Ferre

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Wild Dandelion Greens Freshen Up Dinner

Wow. Not bad! Here's how I fixed the fresh-picked wild dandelion greens for my dinner:

I put a heaping teaspoon of unrefined sesame seed oil (Spectrum Organics) in a seven-inch frying pan and turned the gas stove on medium-high to heat it up. I washed and stacked about a dozen dandelion leaves on my cutting board and then sliced the stack into very thin strips. I placed them in the pan, stirred evenly, and turned the heat down to medium-low.

While that was starting to cook, I brought out my leftovers from the refrigerator: a mixture of cooked quinoa, brown basmati rice, and wild rice, and a mixture of cooked lentils, kombu seaweed, and onion. I scooped out enough for a single meal and placed it on top of the greens in the pan, then drizzled a little water over it (about a tablespoon). I turned the heat down to low and covered the pan.

While that was slowly steaming, I boiled some water for tea, and washed some dishes. I'm telling you this, because otherwise, I did not use a timer to mark how long it was taking to cook the food. I knew it wouldn't take very long, because most of it I was only reheating and the dandelion greens did not need to cook much at all. (They're often used raw as a salad green.) Then when the tea water had come to a boil and the tea was steeping, I plated up my dinner.

I placed the whole mixture in a bowl, sprinkled gomasio and a little Ohsawa soy sauce over the top, and took its picture. Then I ate it. It was very good. And there was no bitterness at all. Some of the pieces of dandelion greens had become delicately light and crispy, adding a little crunch to the overall dish. Yum, yum!

See Also:
Dandelions, Rediscovering The Wild Greens 

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Dandelions, Rediscovering The Wild Greens

I was working out in the garden a couple of weeks ago, pulling weeds, when I finally decided to taste my first dandelion leaf — right then and there on the spot, without bothering to wash it. Before, maybe ten or fifteen years ago, it never would have occurred to me that dandelions are edible. I have childhood memories of my grandmother showing me how to eradicate them from the garden and lawn, stressing how important it was to remove the entire root, or else it would always grow back.

Nowadays I hear about dandelions a lot, both the green leaves and the roots, being used in cooking recipes and tea. I've even seen it in the grocery store. So here I am, standing in the sunshine, finally tasting my first dandelion leaf, and I'm shocked to find that not only is it not bitter — as everyone seems to be saying it would be — but it is also delicious! I picked a whole bunch of them and cooked them up for my lunch and they tasted even more delicious, again, no bitterness to be found.

The next week, I found a big bunch of dandelion greens at the grocery store and decided to buy it. The leaves looked much better than my straggly little dandelions back home — longer, bigger, and brighter green. But you know what? They tasted bitter! Even after I cooked some, they tasted bitter. But I liked them anyway. I looked up a bunch of recipes for cooking them and tried the simple method of boiling them for 15 to 20 minutes and then seasoning them with soy sauce. Not so much bitterness, but it was still there.

Okay, this morning I happened to be looking at a dandelion in our back yard and began to wonder. Do dandelion greens start out tasting sweet and become more bitter the longer or bigger they grow? Does the process of cultivating them using rich, loose soil, fertilizers, and lots of watering, actually cause them to become more bitter? Do they become more bitter when they're flowering? 

I don't know, but I'm going to go pick that dandelion right now and see how it tastes!

Well, the verdict is not entirely in, but I will say this: I just tasted two wild dandelion leaves, one from a plant that has no stems or flowers and one from a plant with lots of stems and flowers. I could not detect any real difference in the taste and once again, they were not bitter like the ones from the store. There is a faint bitterness, but it's very faint. So, later, I shall cook them and see how that changes the taste, but I suspect that cooking will only make them taste less bitter.

I think my wild dandelions are better than the cultivated ones from the store!


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