onsdag den 5. august 2009

Cooking and eating: My philosophy

Hi everyone!

I thought that I wanted to talk a bit about my food philospohy. I think that it can be summed up to: Food has to be fun, whole, beautiful, loved and enjoyed!

I am soooo tired of commercials advertising ready-made, fast, zero-nutrition food, because it makes people forget how the real deal should taste - and more importantly, how to cook the real deal! The article in NY Times "Out of the kitchen, onto the couch" by Michael Pollan (read itHERE) was the final nudge I needed to realize how important it is, that the few of us who actually cook everything from scratch, make sure to shout it out loud to the public, and make them understand how easy, delicious and rewarding it is. How many young people today knows how to make their own mayonnaise?

Easy mayonnaise:
2 egg yolks
1 tsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (or lemon or any other vinegar)
a bit of salt and pepper
Oil (cold-pressed and organic preferably)

Whisk it until the yolks are turning white, then slowly add oil (rapeseed, olive or whichever you like) to the mixture while whisking. When the mixture is shiny and thick-looking, you can add oil at a faster pace. Add about 2 dl of oil. If it gets too thick, add a bit of water. Make sure that everything is room temperature when starting, and you can't go wrong. Store in glass container in the fridge for about 5 days tops. You can add garlic, spices, herbs, chili or whichever you like to the mayo. Mix it up with some organic yoghurt naturel og soya yoghurt for a nice dressing/dip. Play with it! It's easy-peasy and I can whip up a batch in 5 minutes, including putting things in the dishwasher afterwards - you'll learn very fast!
Mayonnaise with hard-boiled eggs serve a nice egg-salad without any E-numbers or other nasty things.

Enough talking about mayonnaise, even though it is an amazing type of food when home-made and made from organic, beautiful and honest ingredients - and a great way to get those unsaturated fats!

Through the years I have read a LOT about different ways to eat, on my way to figuring out what is good for me to eat. I've come to the conclusion, that while I'm glad to know which foods my body can't tolerate that well, and how I should eat to feel my absolute best, there is NO WAY that I'm going to jeopardise amazing flavours and intense pleasure and indulgence, to eat completely clean. This all comes down to me thinking that life should be somewhat spontanious and filled with extravagant experiences, some of these which I gain through cooking and eating. Some days and even weeks I eat what I like to call "clean". To me, this is food with no dairy, no sugar and a very small amount of gluten (some pasta will do, but no bread). If I eat like this, I feel my best physically - but what about mentally? As you will see on this blog, I have a number of recipes honouring this way of eating clean (a chocolate mousse made from avocado, real cacao powder and dates is one example), which is the ones I indulge in most of the time. But I also bake cookies, cakes, extravagant layer cakes with mousses and muffins, I bake amazing organic spelt bread, which I eat with ice-cold organic butter and I make Pasta Milanese with cream - and enjoy it all the way!!! When I make the choice to eat something that might make me feel less good, I choose to enjoy it, to really appreciate it, and simply be a real bonvivant! I think that you should do the same. I will address the issue of healthy eating some more throughout my blogging, but I can tell you now, that I believe the biggest reason for our populations all over the world growing bigger by the minute, is that people have forgotten what real food is...

I'll leave you with a recipe for the most gorgeous almond spread to use on crackers, in sandwiches, on chicken - you name it! On this picture is it accompanied by some semi-soft rosemary crackers, recipe following below. The crackers can be hard, depending on how thick you roll out the dough.
Salty almond spread:
3 dl almonds
2 tbsp organic, cold-pressed avocado oil (can
be subbed for oliveoil or rapeseed oil)
2 tbsp organic, cold-pressed olive oil
1 tsp maldon salt (I like mine rather salty, so taste-test it underway)
Fresh thyme or other herbs - basil is good (optional)
Garlic is good in it as well, but it is just as yummy (and easier to serve) without it.

Grind almonds, oil and salt in a food processor for around 4-5 minutes until you have a spreadable mass. It can take longer, depending on your appliances. Add herbs and run for around one minute until everything is incorporated. Eat and enjoy :-) Keeps a couple of days in the fridge.
Semi-soft rosemary crackers:
3,75 dl organic wheat flour
2 organic eggs
½ tsp maldon salt (any salt will do, but I like this one, as it does not only contain NaCl but also other minerals )
A few tbsp of cold water
1 tbsp cold-pressed, organic olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (I added some thyme in the batch you see above, which was very good)

Heat up the oven to 175 degree celcius (350 degree fahrenheit). Mix dry ingredients, add eggs and oil and gather the dough quickly with a spoon. Add water if needed for the dough to stick together. Roll out as thin as you like on a baking sheet, and score the dough into desired cracker-size bits. Bake at 175 degrees for approx. 10 minutes, or as long as needed to reach the cripsness you would like. If you make them very thin, then make sure to keep an eye on them, as they might be finished in less than 10 minutes.

Julie

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