Fire Cider

Prevention is a lot smarter when it comes to sickness- there are many things you can do to boost your immunity before the winter season sets in. Your good health helps your body fight off the germs that abound in the colder months. Start to think about changing your diet and your daily habits in tune with the cooler weather, and your body will thank you.

This is a great recipe to prepare now, before you need it! It is something you take by the tablespoon (1 tbs daily) as a preventative to getting sick over the winter months, and also to boost your immunity when you do get sick. It is antibacterial, anti-viral, and it helps warm you and increase your circulation. You can splash it on your vegies or rice or any food or drink straight, or diluted.

If anyone knows where to get fresh horseradish here in Perth, I would be grateful to know! I have used daikon radish from an Asian store before, or just left it out. It still has plenty of benefits with the other ingredients. Be careful of adding so much hot pepper that you don't want to take it. I will also be using fresh turmeric as it is available here (I get mine from Peaches, Sth Freo). Enjoy!

 

Fire Cider

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fresh grated organic ginger root
• 1/2 cup fresh grated organic horseradish root
• 1 medium organic onion chopped
• 10 cloves of organic garlic crushed or chopped
• 2 organic jalapeno peppers chopped
• Zest and juice from 1 organic lemon
• fresh organic rosemary Several sprigs of - or 2 tbsp of dried rosemary leaves
• 1 tbsp organic turmeric powder
• organic apple cider vinegar
• raw local honey to taste

Prepare all of your cold-fighting roots, fruits, and herbs and place them in a quart sized jar. Cover with apple cider vinegar (with the mother still in it, such as Braggs) Use a piece of natural parchment paper or wax paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal lid as it corrodes it. Shake well! Store in a dark, cool place for one month and remember to shake daily (but if you forget, that's ok too, shake when you remember, and put your love and prayers into it!).

After one month, use cheesecloth to strain out the pulp, pouring the vinegar into a clean jar. Be sure to squeeze as much of the liquid goodness as you can from the pulp while straining. Next, comes the honey! Add 1/4 cup of honey and stir until incorporated. Taste your cider and add another 1/4 cup until you reach the desired sweetness.
Remember to label it!

Ingredient Variations

These herbs and spices would make a wonderful addition to your Fire Cider creations: Thyme, Cayenne, Rosehips, Ginseng, Orange, Grapefruit, Schizandra berries, Astragalus, Parsley, Burdock, Oregano, Peppercorns

Recipe from mountainroseblog.com 

 

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

Do you have an abundance of lemons at the moment? This recipe give you a wonderful condiment and flavour boost to many dishes, especially African dishes. I love to add my preserved lemons to rissoles along with cumin and other spices.
Preserved lemon is a traditional North African condiment where its sour and salty flavour adds a distinct flavour to classic tagines, roast chickens and other meals. 

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds lemons (preferably Meyer lemons)
• 1/4 cup unrefined sea salt

Instructions

1. Trim the ends off lemons, taking care not to cut into the flesh, then slice the lemons as if to quarter them - keeping the base of the lemon intact.
2. Sprinkle the interior of the lemons with unrefined sea salt then layer in your mason jar, crock or fermentation device. Sprinkle with unrefined sea salt then mash with a wooden spoon or dowel until the rinds of the lemon begin to soften and the lemons release their juice which should combine with the salt to create a brine conducive to the proliferation of beneficial bacteria.
3. Continue mashing, salting and mashing until your lemons fill the jar and rest below the level of the brine.
4. Ferment at room temperature for three to four weeks. Lemons can be kept for one to two years.

Fermentations and Easy Sauerkraut

 

Fermentations
If you have Liked my Facebook Page  you may have noticed that I love to make fermented foods. These foods, used by traditional cultures all around the world to preserve food and for medicinal purposes, help heal our guts-  and our gut health is foundational to our immune system, our brain health and our whole wellbeing. Many people have found that by eating fermented foods and feeding and repopulating the healthy bacteria into their body, many health issues improve dramatically. If you have ever taken antibiotics and not consciously taken probiotics or yoghurt afterwards, you are likely to be suffering from an unhealthy balance of micro-organisms in your digestive system. If you have candida or thrush, ditto. We need lots and lots of the good bugs! Here is a very simple recipe for making some sauerkraut.

Easy Sauerkraut

Ingredients:

• 1 Head of cabbage (red, green or Napa or a combo)
• 1 tbs of caraway or fennel seeds (I use the fresh wild fennel seeds that are growing all around Freo at the moment)
• 1 Tbs sea salt
• 4 tbs whey (you don’t actually need the whey, but it helps, and the recipe for making whey is below. If you don't use whey, just add a little more salt. )

Directions:
Chop, grate or cut your favourite type of cabbage into strips. You could also put it in the Thermomix or food processor and break it up that way.
Put all the ingredients into a sturdy, large bowl, and start kneading and squeezing them with your hands. Keep kneading for about 10 minutes. Alternatively, mix them well and let them sit for a couple of hours. Either way (and kneading your vegies puts your energy and love into them, so I recommend that if you have time!), the juices will be released from the cabbage.

Put the mixture with all its juices into a wide mouthed jar, pressing down into the jar and making sure the juices come up and cover the cabbage by a cm or so- this stops mould growing. If there is not enough juice to cover the cabbage, add a little water with a pinch of salt in it to cover.
Put the lid on and leave it sitting on the bench for 3 days, before moving it to the fridge. I usually start eating it right away. It will last for many weeks.

To make whey- and cream cheese:
Take a tub of yoghurt.
Pour into a strainer over a bowl, first lining the strainer with a damp cloth- muslin is ideal, but a new Chux cloth or piece of tshirt will do too. Let it drain for a couple of hours.

The liquid in the bowl is whey- use it for your fermented vegies.
The solids in the strainer....is very healthy and nourishing cream cheese. Use it for dips, spreads or in recipes.

If I have no whey in the fridge, sometimes I will just scoop off the clear liquid that forms on top of a tub of yoghurt, and use that. You can also use water kefir, or some liquid reserved from a previous ferment.

Enjoy your fermenting journey- it can be addictive!

Raw Cacao Bliss Balls

Here is my basic recipe for Raw Cacao Bliss Balls. There are endless variations on these. Sometimes we make a cacao- free version for when we have eaten too much cacao, or for in the evenings when we  don't want the cacao buzz.