Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (133 page)

BUCKWHEAT CREPES

Makes about 18

1 cup freshly ground buckwheat flour

1 cup freshly ground spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour

2 cups
buttermilk
,
kefir
or
yoghurt

3 eggs, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon salt

about ½ cup melted butter

Soak flour in buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours. (Those with milk allergies may use
2 cups filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar
in place of undiluted buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt.) Beat in eggs, salt and ¼ cup melted butter and thin with enough water to achieve the consistency of cream. Beat several minutes with an electric beater and chill well. Heat a heavy skillet. Brush with melted butter and use a ¼-cup measure to ladle batter into pan. Tip pan to distribute batter. Turn after two minutes and cook another minute. Keep crepes warm in the oven while making the rest, brushing the pan with butter between each crepe. Fill with raw honey,
apricot butter
,
sweet cheese topping
, grated raw cheese,
ratatouille
,
crab
filling or
chicken supreme
. Crepes may be made ahead of time and reheated.

Variation: Crispy Crepes

Spread crepes on a platter and leave in a 150 degree oven overnight. Crepes will dry out and become crispy. These are delicious with butter and raw honey.

Traditional methods for preparing grains and legumes supply those factors that nature uses for neutralizing phytic acid in seeds so that they can then sprout and grow: warmth, moisture, time and slight acidity. Soaking whole grains and flour overnight in a medium like cultured milk or warm acidulated water activates the enzyme phytase, which then neutralizes phytic acid. Studies show that salt added to the soaking medium inhibits this process, so the time to add salt to porridges and batters is just before cooking, not during the soaking period.

Under the right conditions, phytase is also activated in the human intestine, which explains why some people do not develop mineral deficiencies on a high-phytate diet while others do. However, extrusion—which is a high-temperature, high-pressure process used to transform whole grains into breakfast cereals like bran flakes and shredded wheat—totally destroys phytase but leaves phytic acid intact. Thus, high-fiber cold breakfast cereals deliver a double whammy of mineral-blocking phytic acid without the phytase that can deactivate at least a portion of the phytic acid in the intestinal tract. Extrusion also renders certain proteins very toxic, essential oils rancid and many vitamins useless. Cooked breakfast cereals are far more nutritious, even when not soaked beforehand. Best of all are properly soaked and cooked whole grains eaten with quality fat in the form of butter or cream.

The fact that phytic acid is a strong chelator has led to claims that phytic acid can be used to remove toxic metals. This may well be true, but to avoid mineral deficiencies the use of high phytate foods for this purpose should be carried out only for a brief period—as the Jews ate high-phytate unleavened bread for a few days during Passover. SWF

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

Serves 4

¾ cup
bulgur flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ cup whole milk

2 eggs, well beaten

½ cup filtered water

¹
/
₃
cup beef tallow or suet

Yorkshire pudding made with sprouted wheat flour will not rise as well as pudding made with white flour, but the results are still very tasty.

All ingredients should be at room temperature. Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Stir in milk, eggs and water. Beat vigorously several minutes with a wire whisk. Cover and chill well about 1 hour. Meanwhile, heat the beef fat in a round pie plate placed in a 400-degree oven. When the fat is very hot, beat the batter again for several minutes and pour into the pan. Bake at 400 degrees for ½ hour and at 300 degrees for another 1 hour.

BASIC MUFFINS

Makes about 15

3 cups freshly ground spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour

2 cups
buttermilk
,
kefir
or
yoghurt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons melted butter

Soak flour in buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours—muffins will rise better if soaked for 24 hours. (Those with milk allergies may use
2 cups filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar
in place of undiluted buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt.) Blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into well-buttered muffin tins (preferably stoneware), filling about three quarters full. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Variation: Raisin Muffins

Add
½ cup raisins
and
½ teaspoon cinnamon.

Variation: Blueberry Muffins

Add
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen.
To prevent blueberries from falling to the bottom of the muffins, do not mix into batter but place 5-7 blueberries on top of the batter in each muffin tin.

Variation: Dried Cherry Muffins

Add
4 ounces dried cherries
(available at health food stores and gourmet markets) and
½ cup chopped
crispy pecans
.

Variation: Fruit Spice Muffins

Add
2 ripe pears or peaches, peeled and cut into small pieces, ½ teaspoon cinnamon,
¹
/
₈
teaspoon cloves
and
¹
/
₈
teaspoon nutmeg
.

Variation: Lemon Muffins

Add
grated rind of 2 lemons
and
½ cup chopped
crispy pecans
.

Variation: Ginger Muffins

Add
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
and
1 teaspoon ground ginger
. Omit vanilla.

As one stands in profound admiration before the stalwart physical development and high moral character of these sturdy Alpine mountaineers, he is impressed by the superior types of manhood, womanhood and childhood that Nature has been able to produce from a suitable diet and a suitable environment. Surely, here is evidence enough to answer the question whether cereals should be avoided because they produce acids in the system. . .when one has contrasted these people with the pinched and sallow and even deformed faces and distorted bodies that are produced by our modern civilization and its diets; and when one has contrasted the unsurpassed beauty of the faces of these children developed on nature's primitive foods with the varied assortment of modern civilization's children with their defective facial development, he finds himself filled with an earnest desire to see that this betterment is made available for modern civilization. Again and again we had the experience of examining a young man or young woman and finding that at some period of his life tooth decay had been rampant and had suddenly ceased; but, during the stress, some teeth had been lost. When we asked such people whether they had gone out of the mountain and at what age, they generally reported that at eighteen or twenty years of age they had gone to this or that city and had stayed a year or two. They stated that they had never had a decayed tooth before they went or after they returned, but that they had lost some teeth in the short period away from home. Weston Price, DDS
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

BANANA BREAD

Makes 1 9-inch by 4-inch loaf

3 cups freshly ground spelt, kamut or whole wheat flour

2 cups
buttermilk
,
kefir
or
yoghurt

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon sea salt

¼ to ½ cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons baking soda

¼ cup melted butter

2 ripe bananas, mashed

½ cup chopped
crispy pecans

Soak flour in buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt in a warm place for 12 to 24 hours—bread will rise better if soaked for 24 hours. (Those with milk allergies may use
2 cups filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar
in place of undiluted buttermilk, kefir or yoghurt.) Blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into a well-buttered and floured loaf pan (preferably stoneware). Bake at 350 degrees for at least 1½ hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Variation: Zucchini Bread

Use
2 zucchini
instead of 2 bananas and add
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
. Use the food processor to cut the zucchini into a julienne, toss with sea salt and let stand for 1 hour. Rinse, squeeze dry in a tea towel and stir into batter.

Variation: Banana or Zucchini Spice Bread

Add
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon allspice, ½ teaspoon cinnamon
and
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
to either of the above recipes.

Variation: Apricot Almond Bread

Omit bananas. Use
1 cup unsulphured dried apricots, cut into pieces, soaked in warm water for 1 hour and drained, 1 cup chopped
Crispy Almonds
and
1 teaspoon vanilla
.

[Egyptian tomb scenes show] the processing of wheat grain into bread. One man we see pounding the grain with pestles in a solid cylindrical mortar. . .. A woman passes the coarse flour through a sieve into a tray to remove husks and a companion grinds it still further. . .other scenes show the grinding operation repeated by successive teams until all the grain had attained the desired fineness, through thirteen sieving procedures. . .[but] many other accounts imply that the vast majority of peasants and workers ate a whole grain bread. This means that possibly only the pharaohs and nobles managed enough workers to produce a white flour bread. . .. Mummy x-rays [show] curvature of the spine or scoliosis. . .. This wife of a pharaoh suffered arthritis of the spine, which would have been severely uncomfortable, and marked scoliosis, which would have made movement difficult and painful. This condition can be produced in rats born in laboratories today. While pregnant, the mother rats were fed a diet low in the trace mineral manganese. What does this have to do with ancient Egypt? When we remove the bran and germ from the whole grain as they were doing and as we do today, manganese diminishes greatly. . .. Buck teeth, or malocclusion and impacted wisdom teeth appear. No doubt Dr. Price would spot this as the result of a deterioration of the diet of the parents. Ruth Rosevear
PPNF Health Journal