Great article on how ghee doesn't cause coronary diseases

I ran into this today, written by an Indian-American doctor. It's about ghee. She also discusses what could be causing health problems that are rampant in the Indian-American community.

India Rediscovers The Health Benefits Of Ghee by Niraj Patel, M.D.

Turnips

If you hit it just right with the peeler it'll do a triple lutz into the sink.

(More) Sauce!

Since we've been eating cooked tomatoes, general-use sauce has been very popular around here. It's very basic - slow-sauteed onions, garlic, oregano, basil, tomatoes, ghee and broth.

Here's what I found today at the farmer's market for a very reasonable price...

The plan is to make a huge pot of it, distribute it among all of our recycled yogurt containers and freeze it all for winter. 

Tonight's menu and cooking plan

As my work schedule speeds up I need to do more cooking at once, but only twice a week...Sundays and Thursdays.

The ghee is almost finished.

Tonight is "pizza night" which is actually a fun, easy meal. I'm making the crust first. The pizza actually takes about 10 minutes once the crust is done. I suppose I could actually make and freeze a few of those crusts...hmm.

There will be steamed cauliflower and roasted fennel with our pizza. (The fennel just showed up in our box and I was at a loss until I found this:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roasted_fennel/

Simple. Nice. Looks tasty.

Then I have to make two entrees for the next four days. Once chicken and one beef.

I am hoping to put together either a fun ice cream type thing or an apple/pear pie.

It's going to be a late night here...better get back to work.

Pie Crust Revealed!

Coconut flour has a few qualities to it that make it more difficult to work with and one or two that make it easier. It doesn't bind well to itself like wheat flours do. It's also not starchy. For those reasons, it tends to crack and requires a lot of eggs to hold it together. It's dehydrated. It's also a fat-based material, which means that melted fats moisten it much better than water-based liquids. It tends to have the consistency of a rich pound cake when thick, or when thin, like a crispy, very delicate cracker.  Dryer breads work well as crusts for pizza or pie. Moister versions work well as pancakes or pan breads. 

I've usually found that coconut bread texture actually improves with refrigeration.

Because of many of these factors, it's also a crust that does well with patching, which is good, considering how easy it cracks.

This was actually the bottom crust to our pumpkin pie, which was not deep-dish. On a deep-dish pie pan the crust needs to be a little thinner than in this case. Either way, this is the technique I've found works. 

The top to the apple pie was my first attempt at it. It went surprisingly well, but I still don't have quite enough to document that process yet. 

Apple Pear Raisin Pie (GAPS-friendly with one alteration)

The pie was fantastic. There's only about 1/5th of it left. I love that our daughter goes to a school where a festival spread has a gluten-free table. Then I love it that someone asks me what's in my pie and when she finds out says "That's perfect," takes a big piece, then enjoys it!

One note on the type of apples: They should have a bit of bite to them. Granny Smiths are a classic choice. On the other hand, our pie was made with Macintoshes (Little Moo's choice) and it was delicious.

Here's the recipe.

Deep Dish Apple Pear Raisin Pie


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Double Pie Crust
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
3/4 cup flaked coconut
3 eggs
1/3 cup melted ghee
generous pinch salt

Blend dry ingredients. Beat eggs. Slowly add the ghee to the eggs while enthusiastically beating the mixture so as not to cook the eggs (but not so much that you decorate the walls!). Add the wet to the dry ingredients and blend well.

Divide so that one piece is slightly larger than the other. The larger one will be for the bottom. Roll out the bottom dough between layers of waxed paper on a large cutting board to fit the pan. Carefully peel off the top piece of paper. Lay the pan on top of the dough. Flip the whole cutting board over and with the last piece of paper still on the dough, carefully squash the crust into the pan. Peel the top paper off and form the edges of the dough to the pan. Don't let too much crust stick out or be too thin since coconut flour will dry and burn very easily. (See next post for a detailed description of how to make a coconut crust with pictures.) Roll out the top portion and set aside. Don't do this too far in advance or it may dry out too much.

Filling
4-5 large apples, pared, cored, thinly sliced
4-5 large pears, pared, cored, thinly sliced
1/2 cup water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons maple syrup (optional)
1/4 teaspoon liquid stevia
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch allspice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sugar - palm, date, or other granulated/crystalline form (optional)

In a large saucepan or dutch oven simmer apples and pears in water, covered, stirring occasionally until slightly soft, but still with some body. This could be between 5 and 10 minutes depending on the consistency of the fruit. Add raisins, stevia, (maple syrup,) cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and vanilla. Continue cooking until the fruit becomes tender. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Fill piecrust with the mixture. Cover with the top pie crust and seal the edge. Carefully cut several slits in the top crust to let out steam. If you are using sugar, sprinkle it over the top of the crust.

Bake for 12 minutes or long enough for the edges to start to brown. Open the oven and cover the edges with long folded strips of foil wrapped around the top and bottom of outer edge of the pie. Continue to bake for another 5-6 minutes. If your oven tends to be hot, reduce the heat after 12-14 minutes to 350 degrees F.

Ah...coconut crust tip for a single-crusted pie

When you've got that thing nice and thin, peel off one layer of waxed paper. Flip your cutting board and keep that last sheet of paper on the other side of the pastry. Using the solidity of that last sheet of paper, push it down into the pie pan. Pieces will fall off the sides. It's okay.

Then gently peel that last sheet of waxed paper off and patch with the fallen bits of crust.

And there it is...