GAPS Almond-coconut baking mix and Breakfast Casserole

3 cups almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together well and store in ziplock bag in the refrigerator.


BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

6 eggs
2/3 cup coconut milk
1 chopped onion
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped mushrooms
½ cup almond-coconut baking mix
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups shredded cheddar or Gruyère (Swiss) cheese or Parmesan
7 strips bacon*, cut in halves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Heat oven to 350° F.
Cover the bottom of the 8 inch casserole with the bacon.  Bake until crisp.  Turning over is not necessary.  Remove casserole from oven.
Sauté the onions, peppers and mushrooms in a frying pan with a little butter, coconut oil or ghee. After 5 minutes add the spinach and sauté 5 more minutes.
In a medium bowl, mix the eggs and coconut milk.  Add the cheese and the baking mix.
Spoon the onion/spinach over the bacon, then the batter.
Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until it puffs up, browns slightly and no longer wiggles when shaken gently. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

* GAPSters in Ottawa are lucky to have the Sausage Kitchen where they make additive-free, sugar-free bacon.  If you don't have access to GAPS-edible bacon, put 1/3 cup coconut oil or ghee in the bottom of the casserole and place in the oven until melted.  Proceed with the rest of the recipe starting at "Remove casserole from oven."

Asparagus Velouté

A velouté (French for velvety) is a very smooth soup.  The asparagus and coconut flavors blend surprisingly deliciously.  Super easy too - and we GAPSters always have lots of chicken broth on hand!

Asparagus Velouté

2 cups chicken broth

1 bunch asparagus

2 cups coconut milk

1.  Rinse the asparagus. 

2.  Put about one cup of the chicken broth in each of two saucepans.  Bring both to a simmer on medium heat.

3.  Meanwhile, break the asparagus into 1 to 2 inch pieces with your hands.  Put the all the tips in one saucepan, and the rest except the pieces that are too tough in the other.  Simmer for about 8 minutes, until the asparagus is tender.

4.  Measure the coconut milk in your blender jar.  Add the contents of the saucepan that has the middle of the asparagus.  Process on high until completely smooth.

5.  Pour the blender contents into the second pan.  Mix and check seasonings (salt, pepper).  Serve lukewarm. 

Eggnog Mousse

Looking for another way to add coconut oil to our daily fare, I've been tweaking this recipe to get the creaminess and spice just right.  It is a light, frothy, creamy dessert with that wonderful familiar eggnog flavor.

In addition to guaranteeing 2 Tablespoons coconut oil per serving (estimating that the coconut milk contains at least 15% fat), it's also an easy way to give your family the fantastic nutrition contained in raw egg yolks.  No one in my family likes them in broth, and then if you reheat the leftover broth, the nutrients get altered anyway.  Here the yolks stay cool during the whole process. If you can't do egg yolk, the recipe still works.

With a tight lid, the mousse can keep in the fridge for 5 days - betcha it won't stay around long enough for you to worry about it!

Makes 8 servings.  

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups coconut milk, warmed
2/3 cup coconut oil, warmed until melted
1/3 cup honey or 12 dates
0 to 4 raw egg yolks*
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 package unflavored gelatin

Equipment: blender

Note: for ease in measuring, I measure the coconut milk in the blender jar, then take some out to warm.  The idea is to get the blender contents over 76 F to keep the coconut oil liquid while the ingredients get mixed.

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients except gelatin in blender.  Process on low until well mixed. If using dates, process on high for 1 minute, then turn to low. Remove cover while still running and drizzle in the gelatin.  Process on high for 30 seconds. 

2. Place the blender jar in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. The liquid should now be very slightly thickened, very creamy, not yet cold.  Put blender jar back on base and process on high for 1 full minute.  This puts air bubbles in the thick liquid to get the fun & frothy mousse texture.

4. Pour into individual serving bowls with lids (individual yogurt containers for example).  Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.  Sprinkle with additional nutmeg if desired.

* The egg yolks are not necessary to the recipe.  If raw egg yolks are not part of your diet, you can leave them out; if you only have 2 egg yolks from using the whites elsewhere, just use those, and so on.  I usually  put in 2 to 4 yolks, depending on my egg supply, how desperate I am to get nutrients, etc.

Coconut milk sugar composition

Ever wonder what sugars are in coconut milk?  I know it doesn't have very much, or I wouldn't have to add dates to make yogurt.  But the exact composition was a mystery to me, and I've spent several hours looking for it, never finding it... UNTIL TODAY.  I found this Australian Food Standards website.

The website gives the composition of coconut cream, defined as the liquid extract of mature coconut meat, presumably not using water.  So it's more concentrated than coconut milk, but if you pro-rate it it works out to, per 100 grams coconut milk:
Fructose, 0.1 g
Glucose, 0.3 g
Sucrose, 1.6 g
Total: 2 g, which is the amount listed on the box of Aroy-D coconut milk on my shelf.

So there it is: coconut milk contains sucrose, theoretically not allowed on GAPS. But it's a very small amount compared to most fruits, including bananas (6.5g of sucrose!). There's a great table showing the breakdown of sugars for a long list of fruits here.

Dried dates have about 60g sugar per 100g, which is usually pretty evenly divided between fructose and glucose, and that's what make them a good sweetener for GAPSters.

Quick and Easy Coconut Milk Yogurt

I've revised my coconut milk yogurt recipe. It's much faster, much easier. No heating, no cooling down, no watching temperatures.  Because it's made with coconut milk it has no lactose and no casein, so no 24-hour incubation needed.  You do need a blender and a yogurt maker or other way to keep the microorganisms thriving at their favorite temperature for 8 hours. I use a crockpot plugged into a dimmer switch.

If you are doing strict SCD or GAPS you must make your own coconut milk.  There are lots of good recipes on line for this.  I actually use Aroy-D Coconut milk in 1 litre TetraPaks, which has won awards (I know...).  It lists only coconuts and water as ingredients, and as far as I know, the TetraPak packaging contains no BPA, which canned coconut milk (like all other canned foods) does contain.

Dates are added to provide food (fructose) for the microorganisms that turn milk into yogurt (Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, etc).  Dates are said to be very digestible, but if you prefer, you can replace the dates with 1 Tablespoon of raw honey.

The unflavored gelatin sets the yogurt to a soft gel as it cools.  One pack of gelatin usually sets 2 cups of liquid to the bouncy "Jell-O" consistency we all know.  Here we're doing over 4 cups of liquid, so it won't be as firm as Jell-O, but of a gentle consistency that blends in a heavenly way with the coconut milk's creaminess. Gelatin is also very soothing for the digestive system.

Keep refrigerated, like any yogurt.  Should keep well for at least a week but in my house it's gone within about a day, so it's a good thing it's quick and easy to make again!

COCONUT MILK YOGURT

Ingredients:

4 cups coconut milk , at room temperature or up to 42 C
1 package yogurt starter or the dose for 1 quart milk
1 package unflavored gelatin (1 scant Tablespoon) or 1 1/2 Tablespoons unflavored Vegan Jel
5 raw dates, pitted

 Directions:

1. Plug in your yogurt maker to warm it up.  Place all the ingredients near your blender.

2. Pour the coconut milk into the blender jar (use the jar measures to get the right amount if using canned milk).  Start the blender on a low speed, take off the whole lid, and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin and the yogurt starter into the middle of the swirling milk.  Turn off blender, add dates, put the lid on, and process on high for 1 minute, until dates are liquefied.   Pour into yogurt maker and follow your usual yogurt-making steps.  Incubate 6 to 8 hours.

3.  After about 6 hours, the yogurt will still be liquid and the cream will have risen to the top. No worries! Mix well and taste the yogurt to see if you prefer to let it ferment longer.  If it's got that great yogurt taste, put the lid on the container and refrigerate.  After cooling 1 to 2 hours (depends on your container), the gelatin will be starting to set, and it will be starting to separate again. Mix again (add 1 tsp vanilla if desired). Cool 2 to 3 more hours before serving.

Almond Milk Recipe

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

1 cup raw natural almonds
filtered water or tap water if you normally drink it
vanilla extract optional
almond extract optional
1/4 cup coconut milk optional

Soak almonds for at least 2 hours. I find that's the minimum to get the nuts to jump out of their skins. Some recipes call for soaking 12 to 24 hours, but I find that the taste gets more bitter with a prolonged soaking. I like soaking about 6 hours.  Rinse several times thoroughly with good water.

"Blanch" the almonds, that is, remove the toxin-laden skins by squeezing the nut between your thumb and index finger,  The nut inside will pop right out! I admit it takes a few minutes, you can do it while listening to an audiobook for example, anyway it gives you an excuse to sit down for a few minutes.  You have to keep the almonds wet because the skin dries fast and sticks firmly to the nut when dry.  Frankly, some pop right out, some you have to peel. 

Put the almonds in a blender with 2 1/2 cups water (room temperature). Blend on high for one minute. In a Vitamix, about 30 seconds is plenty.

Pour the milk into a strainer lined with a juicing cloth. Put another 1/2 cup water in the blender jar, swish around to rinse out ALL the almond foam and add to the almond mixture in the strainer. That's a total of 3 cups water for 1 cup almond milk. Let the milk drip out for 15 to 30 minutes, then press out by hand (see my first post on how to do this) or in a press.

Add vanilla and almond extracts to taste, if desired. I use 1/2 teaspoon of each, if at all.  I prefer to add 1/4 cup of coconut milk, which removes the dry edge that raw almond milk tends to have, and adds creaminess and sweetness.  See my last post on Mixed Nuts Milk for how I arrived at this formula.

This makes a pretty thick milk, no guars, gums or xanthan anything needed. It keeps about 3 days in the refrigerator, but in my house it's gone within 24 hours.  So I set my cup of almonds to soak every morning and some evenings too.

Welles People's Press

  When we started the SCD diet, I was making coconut milk from the nutshell. See my very first post, How to bust and milk a coconut. Well, after a few weeks I got tired of wringing the cloths by hand, and looked into getting some kind of press. The most affordable press I could find online is the Welles (People's) press (a very similar one costs over $2K and is apparently heavily marketed to cancer patients).  It works like a car jack, you pump a lever that raises a platform fitted with a juice catcher until it presses against a fixed plate. One reviewer gave it a 1 star (worst) review, and the first time I tried the press, I wholeheartedly agreed! BUT... I found a solution. If you buy one, read this BEFORE YOU EVER USE YOUR PRESS! 


  The big problem is that there is no easy way to get the platform back down after you've jacked it up and pressed out the juice. Instructions say, go ahead, don't hesitate to use force to push it down. Great. Thanks. There is absolutely nothing to grab hold of! Only fingernails fit in the narrow space between the juice catcher and the top plate, the juice catcher is plastic, so you do hesitate to apply force, and the pressed cloth with the residue are in the way of anything you might want to try to use as a wedge or lever.  You get two cloths with the press, so you don't want to damage one of them the very first time you use it. My fingernails took a beating that night. One hundredth of a millimeter at a time, I nudged the platform down. It felt like it wasn't going down at all. IT TOOK ME OVER AN HOUR to get the contraption far down enough to be able to remove the bag and residue.  Then I wedged a screwdriver wrapped in a kitchen glove into the space.  After that it came down pretty fast. Oh, boy was I sorry I'd bought that thing!  Only buyer pride (and anger) kept me going. I went to bed two hours after everyone - had to finish cleaning up. During the night, I came up with a solution.


SOLUTION: Cut a piece of cotton cloth (an old pillowcase is just right) into a 20 inch square.  Fold it in three.  Before you place the juice catcher on the platform, drape the folded cloth across the platform so that the long ends hang down to the right and left of the platform.  This will give you something to hold on to. Then place the juice catcher on the platform.  It holds the fabric in place. BEFORE YOUR FIRST PRESSING, practice jacking up the platform (NOT ALL THE WAY UP), turning the release knob a 3/4 turn, and pulling the platform back down. Turn the knob back, jack up.  Repeat. At least you won't have a sticky mess to deal with like I did.


The instructions say this stiff release gets better over time, well, mine is still pretty stiff and I will always use the cloth. Can't see any reason not to.


The instructions are pretty badly written, but do read them, so you'll know not to turn the release knob too much. I find that 3/4 of a turn is enough.  You can hear a "sigh" when the hydraulic pressure is released. 


See a photo of my press at odddlycrunchy.blogspot.com.  And recipes.


CONCLUSION: Not sorry I bought it now. The press is otherwise easy to use and does a great job.


RECOMMENDATION TO THE MANUFACTURERS: ADD HANDLES BELOW THE PLATFORM!  Or, at least, add this solution to your instructions.  

2. The juicing cloths: two cloths are included in with the press. The fabric is strong, thick and non-absorbent, which is good, because you don't want half your precious juice to be retained in the cloth. But the edges are not stitched, so they fray, and really, for some uses, you want a bag. Like coconut milk the way I make it, in the Vitamix. Too much liquid for folding. So I stitched one of the cloths into a bag. If you do this, make the bag slightly smaller than the platform part of the juice catcher, with a widening opening for easier filling. Use it with the stitching outside (for easier cleaning). The other cloth, I zigzig stiched along the edges.

3. Keeping the cloths clean: Rinse the cloth out thoroughly and store it in the freezer in a ziplock bag, like the instructions say. You don't have to dry it. If you've sewn it into a bag, turn it inside out while washing to be sure to remove all the residue. Just before using it, microwave it for one minute to kill any bacteria the freezer may have missed.

HOW I USE THE PRESS

1. To make almond and other nut milks and coconut milk - that was my main reason for buying the press. Vitamix one to two cups nuts with twice as much water on High for one minute, with a date or two if you want it slightly sweetened (nutmeg, vanilla...).  Pour onto the juicing cloth or bag placed in a strainer over a bowl deeper than the strainer.  After letting most of the milk drip out, fold the top of the bag 2 or 3 times, or fold the cloth over the pulp, place on the juice catcher, load into the press, and jack it up!

2. To make Ginger Juice. Cut a whole hand of fresh ginger root into chunks. Put in Vitamix with water to cover. Process on High for 30 seconds. Proceed as for nut milks above. Use the GJ in soups, sauces, in hot water for tea, or cold water for a Ginger Ale type drink. The residue is so dry it looks like cardboard. Let it dry out in the sun or on a radiator (or dehydrator) and hang it up like a car deodorizer (you might want to cut it into a pine tree shape).

3. To press fresh juice out of vegetables. Grate zucchini, carrots, and press out the juice. Or chop vegetables in a food processor until mushy, then juice in the press.  Use the not completely pressed residue of vegetables to make "latkes", i.e., add egg, chopped onions, seasoning, and fry like pancakes.  

That's all I've done with my press so far. Let me know if you have a press and how you use it.

How to bust and milk a coconut

We're talking about making fresh, "raw" coconut milk out of a whole, mature coconut in the hard, brown, hairy shell. What took hours of grating yesteryear is now done in a minute in a blender. But there's still that nasty part about getting the "meat" out of that hard brown shell... Well, I do have a few tricks to make that part easier.

Materials and ingredients: a coconut, water, a blender, a cloth (a 20-inch square cut out of an old pillow is just right), a small pointy knife like the one in the picture, a large drinking glass, a large mixing bowl, a colander that fits in the bowl but with some clearance underneath, a mesh like the ones they sell fruit in, a twist-tie, a clear plastic bag, and a concrete sidewalk or other concrete slab (in my house it's in the garage).

Note: When choosing coconuts at the grocer's, pick the heaviest ones, and shake to make sure each has water.  A dry mature coconut is a spoiled coconut.  The flesh comes out more easily if you let the coconut sit for 24 hours in the fridge after removing the water.  You can also freeze it after removing the water; freezing doesn't affect the taste or nutritional value.  Even the fragile enzyme lipase retains its effectiveness after 6 months at -20 C! (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18800302)

See me opening a coconut on YouTube!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD3Zqrmvcew

Step 1: Draining the coconut. The coconut has three "eyes" and there's always one that's soft enough to be opened with a short pointed knife. It's the one that looks the most different from the other two.  Dig the point of the knife in with a twisting motion, go around a couple of times.  Then poke in a chopstick until it pops through to the center. Shake some of the water into a tall glass, then rest the coconut on top of the glass until all the water has dripped out. This water is excellent and nutritious, and you can drink it right away.  In my household it is shared like precious liquor.

Step 2: Shell-busting - this is the fun part (caveat: take care the coconut doesn't land on anyone's head). Place the coconut in the mesh, close the mesh with a twist-tie, then place all this in a plastic bag, tie the bag closed loosely, and take it to your concrete slab. Throw the coconut down with some force onto the slab. It will break, and the pieces will stay inside the net and bag. Repeat until all the pieces are of manageable size -- 2 to 4 times. Don't overdo it. You don't want lots of little pieces, they're harder to hold when prying the flesh out. When you're satisfied with the busting, return to your kitchen, take the coconut pieces out of the net and bag, and pry the flesh out of the shell with the same short knife. Or, leave it out on the counter or fridge to dry overnight, and the flesh will come out more easily. This won't alter the taste.  Do taste a piece of the flesh, because occasionally, you may find that your coconut just isn't fresh.  When in doubt, throw it out.  If you have hens, feed the meat to them.  Otherwise, throw it in your compost bucket.  BTW, the shell burns nicely in your fireplace or BBQ.  No waste!

Step 3: Blending. Rinse the meat in a bowl of filtered water, and transfer to a blender. Check the back of each piece to make sure there aren't any pieces of hard shell attached. They could damage your blender.  Cut the meat into large pieces so your blender doesn't get stuck. Add 2 to 3 cups warm filtered water. Blend on high until smooth. If you have a Vitamix, start the usual way and then keep it on High for 1 minute. Some recipes use hot or even boiling water, but I believe in handling delicately anything containing fragile vitamins and enzymes.  Heat destroys lipase, which is a real pity, because lipase digests fats, including the ones in the coconut milk. Like other enzymes, it is destroyed by temperatures above 120 F.  On the other hand, coconut oil hardens at 73 F, so your water needs to be warmer than that.  

Step 4: Milking the coconut! Wash your hands thoroughly (and rinse well). This is literally a "hands-on" method, and, again, kids love to help with this. Wet your cloth with filtered water, and then wring it out so it doesn't soak up your coconut milk (you may also sterilize by stuffing the wet cloth in a mug, covering with a saucer, and microwaving for 1 minute; be careful when handling, the steam and cloth will be quite hot!).  Place a colander inside a larger bowl.  Line the colander with the cloth. Pour the contents of the blender in the cloth. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes to let most of the liquid drip into the bowl.  When most of the liquid has dripped out, pick up the cloth by the corners, hold the four corners in one hand, then pick up the new corners that have formed, so that you hold the cloth at 8 points. Hold *tight*, with those 8 points above your fist, and twist the cloth, holding it over the bowl. Twist, and twist the other way, and wring, and press, and squish! And twist the other way again! You're milking your coconut! When you can't wring much more out, dip the clothball in a bowl with 1/4 cup water, let it soak in a bit, and wring again, to get those last drops of deliciousness.

Alternately, just fold the cloth edges over the center while still in the strainer, and press by setting a saucepan filled with water on top of the cloth.

(Truth moment: I got myself a press after a few weeks of milking by hand).

This makes 3 to 4 cups of coconut milk, perfect for drinking. Its light, nutty taste is fresh and wonderful, a lot better than that "coconut milk drink" (yep, I'm talking about So Delicious, which was a terrible disappointment for a coconut connaisseuse like moi), plus it's a lot cheaper (see below). Did I say it tastes incredibly fresh, rich and wonderful? (Don't toss the "dregs", by the way. That's Coconut Flour. It's high-fiber to an extreme. Use it in your meat loaf, casseroles, cookies, or make coconut flour pancakes or other baked goods - this flour is legal for the SCD & GAPS diets, since it contains no starch. But use it sparingly, that much fiber can be overwhelming to your digestive system.)

(Truth moment number two: I haven't found ANY good SCD recipes that use the dregs, oops, coconut flour. I did notice that one batch of flour turned into some kind of slime after a few weeks of neglect in my fridge!  I was afraid to taste it... Maybe it was a miracle cure for something...)

Pour the milk into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator. Use within 2 or 3 days. Shake before using. It will separate, the cream rising to the top like in an olden day milk jug, just because it's a whole food. Because it doesn't have emulsifiers. Because it's homemade. Because it wants to give you a choice: coconut cream? coconut "skim" milk? coconut "whole" milk? You get to pick each time you pick up the bottle (esp. if you have a gravy separator).

Use within 2 days, because that wonderful lipase will start doing its thing on the milk, as well as the ever-present bacteria by the billions.  Fresh food usually needs to be eaten fast.

Health Benefits: Coconuts contain Manganese (very good source), Phosphorus, Magnesium, Folate, Vitamin C, Selenium, Zinc, Copper, Iron, Potassium, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin E, and more! The coconut protein array is among the best (most complete) available from any source, animal or vegetable. The fats in coconut are saturated, so whether coconut is a terrible threat to your health or a miracle cure remains a subject of controversy in some circles. I'm convinced it's a very healing food.  The fatty acids present in coconut (and coconut milk) are lauric acid, myristic acid, and palmitic acid. Lauric acid is converted by the human body into monolauric acid, the main fat in breast milk, so it must be pretty good for you. Myristic acid is named after a variety of nutmeg, Myristica fragrans (love that name!). It's also present in butter and sperm whale oil. Palmitic acid is also found in palm oil as you may have guessed. Palm oil got a really bad reputation because early research was done using hydrogenated palm oil, which contains trans fats. But recent research shows that populations that consume coconuts and coconut milk in their raw, unprocessed, non-hydrogenated, un-de-vitaminized, un-trans-fat-ified, non-emulsified, non-additive-itited, great-tasting state, have healthy cholesterol levels.  As for the "more," it's enzymes!  Hard to find the info from a reliable source, but you can get those enzymes in the milk if you DON'T HEAT IT or heat the water you use to make the milk.  

Whew!  A long blog to describe a simplified method. It seems long as written above, but with the concrete-slab shell-busting method, it really is doable. I've timed it to 22 minutes from poking the eyes to bottling. I'll add photos when I replace my lost camera...

Pricing: one coconut costs $1.49 where I live, and makes one quart of milk, so this milk costs about $2.98 per half-gallon (So Delicious is $3.49 per half-gallon). Comparable to whole milk (cow's) where I live. And that's not counting the coconut flour, if you can figure out how to use it.