Avocapaya Salad

All eager to embark on adding enzymes to our diet, I made this salad today.  I credit my relative Claire for introducing the Avocado-Papaya combination years ago, and I never forgot how good it was.  This is the first time I've been able to make something approximately as good as what she made that day at the beach.

1 large Papaya (or two small ones)
3 sprigs Cilantro
3 Hass Avocados (or 1 or 2 Fuertes)
1 lime

Rinse the papaya, because you'll be eating some of the peel, which has most of the enzymes.  Cut the papaya in half along the "equator" (not the usual way).  Save one half for another use (smoothie!).  Place the other half cut side down on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to slice off the top and cut down along the sides to remove the peel.  This method is fast and minimizes handlling.  Save some of the peel for smoothies, except one or two long pieces, which you now cut into little bits for this salad - don't worry, they will go totally unnoticed among the cilantro leaves.

Turn over the peeled papaya half, and remove the seeds.  The seeds are also enzyme-rich, so you may want to leave a few in the salad. They should be swallowed without chewing, because they have a bitter taste.  You can also drop them into smoothies just before serving, where they'll be like bubbles in bubble tea.

Cut the now peeled and seedless papaya flesh into chunks about the size of a walnut, and place in salad bowl.

Cut the bottom of the cilantro sprigs where the stems meet, and rinse off any dirt. Shake the water off. Chop into 1/2 inch pieces and sprinkle onto the papaya in the salad bowl.

Cut each avocado in half and pry out the pit by chopping your knife halfway into the pit and twisting.  With a soup spoon, scoop out large chunks of the avocado into the salad bowl. Use the empty skin to pull the pit off your knife.

Juice the lime and sprinkle onto the goodies in the bowl.

Toss and serve. I promise it will disappear.

This is a SALT-FREE recipe but the lime juice does have sodium.  All the other ingredients are so rich in potassium that this is an excellent dish for sodium watchers.

What I learned today

There's a website, www.SCDLifestyle.com, written by Steve and Jordan, "two average guys who rejected conventional medicine by facing our fears and healing our guts using the Specific Carbohydrate Diet". Through their email newsletter and their caring response to my emails, I've just discovered how important enzymes are for proper digestion. Enzymes DIGEST the molecules of the foods you eat. That is, they break them down into absorbable, smaller molecules, the ones needed for your body's cells.

I did a little research on LIPASE, the enzyme that breaks down LIPIDS, that is, fats. The SCD is a high-fat diet, and fats can heal your gut, but without lipase, it ain't gonna happen.  A healthy digestive system makes its own enzymes.  But disease is a vicious cycle that slows down enzyme production, which worsens digestion, etc.  And lipase is scarce in the SAD (Standard American Diet). Like all enzymes, it is destroyed by heat, so you can only find it in raw foods. Like most enzymes, it is present in the foods that contain the molecules it works on. So lipase is present in the raw foods that contain fats. BUT, like all enzymes, lipase is water-soluble, so it is NOT present in oils, even raw, extra-virgin, unrefined oils. So the only food sources I can figure are:

Avocado - my hero!

Coconut - raw, in the shell (I don't know how desiccated coconut is processed, maybe it's ok)

Olives (again, I don't know how they're processed, but if they're canned or jarred, they've been heated and lost the enzymes)

Papaya - an exception to the "rule" about the food having to contain fat. Papaya is famous for papain, the enzyme that helps with proteins, but is also is a good source of lipase, especially the green papaya.

Almonds - but they also contain toxins that inhibit the action of lipase. Fortunately, soaking removes this. Also, soaking allows you to peel the almonds (do it while listening to an audiobook) which removes toxins.

I got all this information from trustworthy web pages, but don't have time to list them.

So, I'm going back to making coconut milk from SCRATCH (this blog's first post) and almond milk from RASAP (Raw Almonds, Soaked And Peeled). There's no way TetraPak coconut milk has any enzymes left. So I'm comforted that I spent $399 on the Welles Press after all.

BTW, freezing does not affect lipase. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18800302 states: "... retained its activity for more than 6 months at -20 degrees C, beyond which it lost activity progressively." So, freeze stuff, but don't keep it toooo long.

Chicken broth a la Thai

This has everything to heal and to please.

Put 1 whole chicken in a crockpot and sprinkle lightly with salt, paprika, cumin and turmeric. Cook until the breasts are done, about 2 1/2 hours for my crockpot. Remove the breasts to serve separately. Add 5 cups of filtered water, salt to taste, a bay leaf, herbs and/or a branch of celery. Simmer for another 5 to 6 hours or overnight. The chicken will fall apart, but the broth will be very tasty and healthy. Take a potato masher and mash the chicken to let out more nutrients into the broth. Even the bones should mash somewhat. Then, strain the broth into a saucepan or process it in a blender for a thicker velouté. Add 1 cup of coconut milk (see my first post) and 1/2 cup ginger juice (recipe in next post) or to taste. Add salt to taste. For best results don't boil it again, just reheat gently. Freezes well.

This is the basic recipe. You can also cook carrots and onions in the broth (before adding the coconut milk and ginger) and liquefy them in the blender. Then add the coconut milk and ginger.

Almond Bread Straight From Whole Raw Almonds

There are a lot of recipes out there for almond bread, for starch-sensitive people, made with almond flour instead of wheat flour, and almond milk or SCD yogurt instead of cow's milk. Almond flour and almond milk are quite pricey. And there are also a lot of recipes for making almond flour or almond milk in a blender (Vitamix or other powerful blender). But I couldn't find a recipe that skips the intermediate steps - why bother to make almond flour, just to add some kind of liquid right back in? Plus, almonds are easier to store than almond flour, which turns rancid fast if not kept in the freezer. Raw almonds are available everywhere.

So here's what I made today: bread straight from almonds. I put the almonds to soak last night. I think soaking almonds is going to be a daily habit.

PLAIN ALMOND BREAD STRAIGHT FROM THE WHOLE ALMONDS

Materials needed: Vitamix-type blender, oven, cookie sheet, bowl for soaking almonds.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight (8 to 12 hours), drained and rinsed

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/4 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 400. Butter a parchment paper laid on a cookie sheet (you can use oil but butter gives the bread a nice aroma).

2. Put all the ingredients in the Vitamix. Start on low, quickly move to high and process for 1 minute. The mixture is quite thick, just liquid enough to keep moving, but it may develop a bubble and stop moving. If it does, turn off the blender, stir with a chopstick, and start over.
3. Ladle the mixture onto the parchment-covered cookie sheet, shaping it like bread slices. This recipe does not make a loaf, but individual slices. Makes about 8 slices.  Easy to double for 16 slices in one go.

4. Bake for 20 minutes.

5. Pull the parchment paper off the cookie sheet, with the bread slices, onto a countertop to cool.

Allow to air out a few hours before storing.  Freezes very nicely.

The result was pretty decent (as fake breads go). You can sprinkle a few caraway seeds on the slices before baking. Or a soupçon of rosemary. I just read rosemary removes the eggy taste. Not that this bread tasted eggy.

I made the slices too thick, and the dough rose a bit although there's no baking soda in it. So I ended up with 7 slices plus one mini-toast and the bread was a little too moist. I turned the oven on again at 200°F; put the slices directly on the oven rack and let them dry out 20 minutes. They're nice and firm now. That means my DH can have toast with his soft-boiled egg tomorrow. The SCD diet becomes a little easier to enforce...

The recipe is inspired from the almond torte recipe in the Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking, which calls for 6 ounces almonds, finely ground, 1 1/4 cups sugar, 1/3 cup water, and 8 egg yolks! I cut the sugar out completely; 5 ounces almonds make a cup; and no way I'm going to sacrifice 8 eggs to make 8 slices of bread! Plus, I don't know what to do with the whites (yet).

Pricing: 1 bag almonds was $3.49 and held 3 cups of almonds, so 1 cup is $1.16. Eggs were $5.49/doz, so 3 eggs are $1.37. Total: $2.54. So, ok, that's not really cheap considering it only made 8 slices bread, but it's in the range of commercial gluten-free breads.