Saturday 31 August 2013

New Book - Grain Free


Kersten's Kitchen Grain Free Recipe Book



grain free book cover


I am very excited to be able to provide you with a simple collection of Grain Free recipes.

There are recipes for everyday staples, meals and baking
  • You will be using coconut flour, nut meals and seeds to create delicious treats
  • Healing broth will be the base for different easy to prepare meals
  • Probiotic fermented foods and drinks will surprise you

Recipes are free from gluten and refined sugar. Some do use nuts and egg, although you will find many recipes without. Most are dairy free, some use ghee.

Instructions are written for the Thermomix but can be adapted to use a food processor. Many recipes are very simple, using a bowl and your stove.



compilation image grain free book
Just a sample of the creations in 'Grain Free'



Please check out the table of contents to see what goodies you can prepare. The book is available in Printed format as well as an eBook for instant download.

Grab your copy today

Welcome to the world of healing... ENJOY!




Saturday 24 August 2013

Sausage Rolls

Gluten free Pastry for Sausage Rolls


This is a simple pastry which is easy to handle and very flexible. It is able to be used to make sausage rolls, meat pies, savoury pasties and sweet fruit pies as well.


sausage rolls



The recipe can be found for traditional mixing or by hand in Kersten's Kitchen: Allergy Free, Not Flavour Free and for Thermomix in Thirty Second Baking.


Pastry for sausage rolls and pies (traditional method)

Sausage rolls method


Here are some step by step photos to help with preparing sausage rolls:

STEP ONE


Prepare the dough either by hand, in KitchenAid or Thermomix
(You can double the recipe if you want to make a big batch to freeze or for a party)

sausage roll pastry dough


Dough Tips: Mashed potato should be just a potato, boiled then mashed. Do not use TMX mash potato as it is way too runny. Consistency should be thick. Add water slowly and mix. The guar gum takes time to activate and if you add to much liquid you will end up with a sticky mess. Once the dough comes together, stop adding liquid and use your hands to knead. Add a little extra flour to your bench as above and knead to get your dough into a ball shape. If you grind your own flours they will not be as fine as store bought. You will need to add a little less liquid or more flour to compensate for the coarser texture. I find if you use store bought white rice flour and tapioca/arrowroot starch and only grind the brown rice texture will be fine. Dough should be soft and pliable, and very easy to handle and roll out. It will feel similar to playdough...

STEP TWO


Roll out half the dough until about 5mm thick adding extra flour to your rolling pin and surface so the dough doesn't stick
Cut into a rectangle shape

roll out pastry

STEP THREE


Roll sausage meat into a log and place on the long side of the rectangle of pastry

 

roll into log and add meat to pastry

STEP FOUR


Using the baking paper to help you, lift the pastry and roll over the top of the meat, lift the paper away from the pastry and continue rolling until the meat is enclosed and the pastry starts to over lap. Then cut away excess pastry.


use baking paper to help roll up

STEP FIVE


Cut into serving size and place on lined baking tray and brush with milk or egg to glaze

cut to size



STEP SIX


Repeat with remaining pastry and meat

repeat and place on baking tray


STEP SEVEN


Bake 180 degrees celcius for 40 - 50 minutes until golden





TIP: If you would like to freeze sausage rolls for later use, par bake for approx. 30 minutes and freeze portions. Reheat and complete cooking the pastry for 15-20 minutes







Monday 12 August 2013

Update: Children's Healing Journey: Six months on...

UPDATE: My Children's Journey from Failsafe to healing...

my children


So it has been just over 6 months since making some big changes in diet for my little ones. You can read about the first changes here http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2013/01/childrens-journey.html

Thought you may like to hear how they have been going... We introduced some healing foods and then added in vegetables and fruits as their tolerance grew. Remember they were on just a handful of foods before...


Coconut Oil

I continued using coconut oil in their cookies and cupcakes. We now add coconut flour too, there is very little rice flour. The quantity has increased from the initial tablespoon and they can eat unlimited quantities with no reaction.

Meat - ghee and coconut oil

Previously I cooked in sunflower oil and always baked their meat balls and any chicken in the oven very lightly so there was no browning at all. Now I fry their meat balls and chicken sticks in Ghee on the stove. I also bake with coconut oil. They now tolerate slow cooked lamb and chicken with no reaction.

Broth

Their tolerance for broth has also increased... instead of the 2 hour cooked broth, they are able to have long cooked chicken broth that has loads of healing gelatin.

Gelatin

We have been able to add Grass Fed Beef Gelatin from Great Lakes... we use it in sugar free marshmallows. This has been an exciting new food for them as it looks and tastes like a treat but is full of healing gelatin!


Fermented Veg

Every few days they have half a ml of fermented veg juice. It is a strong probiotic so I am still going slowly with this.

Kefir

Instead of increasing their food chemicals even more by using coconut kefir, I made some rice milk kefir. This now makes up their icecream (replacing the rice milk) as well as having 1 Tablespoon in their glass of rice milk each day. I started with 1/8 teaspoon and built up every few days. This is a strong probiotic so introduce slowly.

Vegetables

The healing foods have been amazing and the children's tolerance has improved so much. They now eat unlimited moderate salicylates... carrot, cucumber, sweet potato every day. I chose to introduce broccoli and avocado very early due to their nutrient profile and they can now eat both every day.

Fruit

This has been tricky... early on even tiny amounts of any fruit sent them crazy! With slow and steady perseverance I have added in small serves of banana (a slice once a week initially), they now have half a lady finger banana three times a week. My son is not keen on fruit, but my daughter is loving it and now eats strawberries, blueberries and kiwi fruit several times a week. 


Egg

Last month we challenged eggs. Previously they would get a lot of stomach pain and bleeding bowels when eaten. I bought chickens last year to see if I could tolerate their eggs as I was also sick when eating store bought eggs. That was a success for me, so I thought it was time, given how well they were doing, to try some egg. So far so good!! They are having egg cooked in cake every day now. We just tried scrambled egg on the weekend and that was fine too! yay!


Nuts

While trying to get my son to eat egg, I ended up challenging nuts. He was not liking his normal cake with an egg added... he was very upset with me and told me I had ruined his cake! No amount of telling him "that was what a good cake should be" was helping. At the time I was eating macadamia cake - lovely recipe which will be in my Grain Free Book avail soon - he really wanted some of MY cake. So I weakened and let them both have a small piece. I was very worried and watched them closely for hours, even when they fell asleep, checking for swelling, rashes etc. But to my delight (and theirs) NO reaction! So they now get to eat macadamia cake :)


The children have been so excited to try new foods and it has been a delight to watch their faces light up at all the new experiences.

 
I have been aiming to increase their chemical tolerance, so that I could decrease the grain component of their diet. I decided not to totally remove grains but limit them...
 
 
 

Here is a sample of a their meals before and now:

 

BEFORE

 

Breakfast

toast
rice puffs
rice milk smoothie
 

Morning tea

rice cupcake
rice cruskit and choko jam
chips
rice cookie
 

Lunch

lamb meat balls
celery sticks
potato hash
 

Dinner

chicken schnitzel
hot chips
choko sticks
 
 

NOW

 
 

Breakfast

lamb meatballs cooked in ghee
rice toast with avocado
rice milk kefir smoothie
 

Morning tea

macadamia cake
banana or berries
 

Lunch

chicken skewers cooked in ghee
cucumber
potato fritters
 

Dinner

slow cooked lamb
roast sweet potato
carrot
broccoli
 
And they can have rice kefir icecream if they want for dessert.
 
I cannot believe this has been achieved in just 6 months of slowly adding in healing foods. Credit is not only in food as medicine, but also from Homeopathy. We started Aperture Homeopathy with Dhanvantari College of Homeopathy in April. It has made such a huge impact on our lives. 
 
 
 
Jump into healing people!!! It is worth the ride... If you need some ideas to get you started as well as some recipes, check out my Failsafe to Healing Workbook
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday 10 August 2013

Pizza

Gluten Free Pizza bases


gluten free pizza



You can use any of my bread recipes but I prefer to use the Guar Gum recipe.

The recipe in all the books:

Rice based using Stand Mixer is in the first book, Kersten's Kitchen
Rice based using Thermomix is in Thirty Second Baking
Grain free using Buckwheat and Millet (can use Quinoa if you prefer) is in Failsafe to Healing Workbook

Guar Gum Bread Recipe (traditional method)

how to proof yeast and bread dough

If you need some help when preparing the dough, please refer to http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2012/07/technique-bread-making-with-yeast.html


Step One


Once you have prepared the dough, using very wet hands, place into a greased baking dish. You can use a large rectangular lamington tray or if you want circles, use a cake tin

pizza dough


With your wet fingers, press out the dough until thin - you will be able to make more than one pizza with one quantity of dough. It will double in size after rising, so you want it to be half the thickness of what you want your pizza to be. I like a thin crust, so I make it very thin at this stage

pizza dough - spread out thin


Step Two


Put in your warm place to rise (that you prepared earlier when making the dough - see http://www.kerstenskitchen.com.au/2012/07/technique-bread-making-with-yeast.html for assistance)
Leave till doubled, about 10 minutes

pizza dough - leave to rise

Step Three


If you are not using your base right now,
Partially cook - 15 minutes should be sufficient. It will still be soft on top, but set so you can remove it carefully from the tin.

pizza base - cut to size


Leave to cool on a baking rack until cold.
Cut to portion size and freeze in snap lock bags to use later

pizza base - freeze in portions in snap lock bags



If you are using your base now,
Remove from warm place, cover with your desired toppings

pizza toppings

Step Four


Bake - 180 degrees Celsius for approx. 20 - 30 minutes until golden and filling is cooked




Enjoy!