Last month (I’m way behind), my main man Scott Kustes of Naked Food Cooking stopped by the UW Kitchen to show us how we can satisfy our chocolate cravings semi-healthy style with this flourless chocolate cake.
To be totally honest, I thought I was gonna hate this one since it had coffee in it. Coffee disgusts me. Yuck!
But I totally dug it!
It’s reeeeally simple with just a handful of ingredients. And it’s quite tasty, especially the ganache!
Scott put together the directions for you. Here they go!
Try it out and let us know how it turned out.
Stay tuned. Scott and I also made some delicious Pork Belly with Pineapple Salsa. I’ll get it edited and uploaded some time next week.
Click HERE to learn more about Scott’s online cooking course!
Thanks for bearing with my silence these past few weeks.
The e-book is coming along nicely. Hit page 75 last night. Today, I plan on knocking out the Digestion chapter.
Getting closer every day!
Thanks for all of your Facebook and Twitter support. I really appreciate it.
By the way, I’m looking for recipe submissions for the Underground Cookbook. If you’re interested in submitting something, contact Allyson at assistant at undergroundwellness dot com.
We’ll link your website to the recipe, of course. I’d like each recipe to have a video to go with it, so our readers will be able to follow along. It’s not mandatory, but recommended.
First thing’s first, though. Please send in your favorite 2-3 healthy dishes. We’ll let you know which one’s we’d like to include in the book. Thanks!
Sorry about yesterday’s radio show cancellation. I wasn’t even close to being prepared, as this book has consumed my life.
BUT we do have a show this Thursday with cell phone expert Devra Davis. And I’ll be shooting Part 1 of the Grow Your Own series tomorrow with Kirk Hensler of Hale Holistic!
Gotta eat some Real Food for breakfast and get to work.
Today, I did my video rendition of last month’s This is Silly blog. Did it all in one take!
I’m sure a handful of health bloggers will be a bit offended. But, everything is a matter of perception anyway.
I just want the common person out there who is curious about health to be able to find real answers about nutrition without having to deal with all the B.S. and grandstanding that has become so prevalent in our field.
And NO, there is nothing wrong with changing our minds about things. But I can only imagine how frustrating it is for people to hear one thing today and something completely different from the same person tomorrow.
Let’s keep it simple.
Let’s Just Eat Real Food!
Join the NEW Just Eat Real Food Facebook fan page. Post your Real Food meals, recipes, and pics!
I was supposed to blog about glutathione, your most powerful antioxidant enzyme, today.
BUT I have a bunch of little stuff to do around the office, including preparation for tomorrow’s radio show. Come back tomorrow and I’ll drop some more antioxidant truth bombs on you.
In the meantime, get a load of this yummy Detox Salad courtesy of our favorite Raw Food Stylist, Melissa Henig.
The main detoxifying ingredient is cilantro. It pulls out all kinds of nasty toxins, including heavy metals like mercury.
Personally, I like to have cilantro as a garnish when I’m chowing down on fish due to the mercury issue. I also like it on my eggs along with turmeric, of course!
It’s great on tacos, too!
Here’s what you’ll need:
* Food Processor w/Shredder Blade
* Cilantro
* Red Peppers
* Green Onions
* Ginger
* Cold Press XV Olive Oil
* Lemon
* Apple Cider Vinegar
* Maple Syrup
Just mix them all up, put ‘em on a plate, and throw down!!
This a great excuse to stop by your local Farmers Market this weekend. Get to know your farmers. Go organic. And get your detox on with this Real Food Fantastic dish!
Post your thoughts, videos, and Detox Salad pics on our NEW Just Eat Real Food Facebook fan page. Lots of great stuff on there!
Today, we’re making Raw Spaghetti with Sun Dried Tomato Sauce. The stuff is BOMB! I wouldn’t B.S. you!
Melissa also gives us the scoop on the benefits of raw foods. No, I’m not becoming a die-hard raw foodist. I love me some bacon! But I can appreciate the incorporation of raw fruits and vegetables into the diet.
So, try this one out at home. It’s super fun and the kids will LOVE it!
Here’s what you’ll need:
* Spiralizer or Potato Peeler
* Zucchini
* Sun Dried Tomato (soaked for 20 min)
* 1 Roma Tomato
* 2 Tablespoons Red Onion
* 4 Fresh Basil Leaves
* 2 Dates (soaked and pitted)
* 2 garlic cloves pressed in
* 1/2 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
* Dash of Celtic Sea Salt
I’m out! Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow. I’m bringing a friend.
I liked it so much that the Shanahans came all the way to San Diego to hang out and show me how to make Brown Beef Stock.
The stock is loaded with glycosaminoglycans, which are phenomenal for healing and building up collagen. If you have aches and pains, you gotta prepare this recipe!
I had Luke send over a list of the ingredients, as well as the instructions. Check them out below and watch the step-by-step video we put together.
Let us know how yours turns out!
Ingredients:
* grass fed soup bones and a joint bone (knee or other joint) w/ some meat on them (2-3 lbs)
* 2 12 oz. cans of tomato puree
* 1 small can tomato puree
* celery, 6 stalks
* onions, 2-3
* carrots, 5 medium-large
* fresh parsley
* bay leaves
* fresh thyme
* black peppercorns
* 2 or 3 cloves
* red wine, nothing labeled “cooking wine,” inexpensive but drinkable
* sea salt
* olive oil
* flour, 1 tbsp
* cold, filtered water, about 3 gal
Directions:
Step 1) Lightly coat bones and meat trimmings with olive oil. Then rub tablespoon of tomato paste mixed with one tablespoon flour onto bones and roast alone in a large roasting pan for 30-40 mins at 400 f., or an hour at 350 f.
Step 2) Add lightly (olive) oiled mirepoix (rough cut onions, carrots, and celery) and continue roasting for another half hour (check color; caramelize, but don’t burn).
Step 4) Add the bones only to a large stock pot. Put the roasted vegetables aside and refrigerate. Add a cup of red wine, half a can of the tomato puree and enough cold water to cover bones plus one inch.
Step 5) Deglaze the hot roasting pan by pouring in some red wine or water to remove the nice caramelized drippings. (If you have the kind of pot you can put on the stovetop, you can get it a little hotter this way to aid deglazing.) Add this rich liquid (called “fond”) to the stock pot. That’s extra flavor!
Step 5) Heat stock at medium heat, stirring every few minutes and watching closely. Bring to a low, low simmer–but NEVER BOIL with the bones in the stock (as this extracts bitter proteins and clouds the finished stock).
Step 6) Low boil or steep at around 200 f. (just short of making boiling bubbles) for 12-24 hours, no more, no less. You can leave uncovered or partially covered. But never cover (as in seal, with no way for steam to escape) your stock when hot as doing so “sours” the stock. Every once in a while, use a slotted spoon to remove any scum that forms at the top of the liquid. That scum can make the stock bitter, so remove it every half an hour for the first few hours.
Step 7) For the last hour (or two) of low simmer, add those roasted veggies you put in the refrigerator. Throw the bay leaves and cloves in when you add the veggies. If your a fan of tomato (as I am), add another 12 ounce. can of tomato puree at this time if you’d like.
Step 8. For the last half an hour of the low simmer, toss in the fresh parsley (plenty, as in the full bunch) thyme (half as much as the parsley) and a flat tablespoon of peppercorns. (If you only have dry spices, you can steep them in the stock using one of those big tea balls, dangling it from the side of the pot by the chain a full hour before you take the stock off the heat.)
Step 9) Remove the dry herbs tea ball, if that’s what you used. Let the stock cool for a while on a cooling rack, until it’s cool enough to handle and strain. Strain through a fine wife mesh strainer into another big pot. (The bones are big and heavy, so you might want to remove those with big tongs or a solid slotted spoon before straining.) You can also use cheesecloth to strain, as Sean did so expertly when straining his chicken stock.
Step 10) Once the stock’s in the other pot, chill in an ice bath in the sink. Stir both the stock and the ice water to cool quickly. Once it’s at room temperature, put the stock into the refrigerator to chill.
Step 11) After it chills overnight, you’ll notice that the stock has formed a cap of fat on top. This can be as much as an inch thick. Remove this by cutting into quadrants with a knife and gently lifting it off of the gelatinous stock.
Step 12) If you like, reduce the stock by up to a half. Season with a little sea salt, but keep in mind that the more you further reduce, the saltier it will get–so under-season! You can always add more salt later. Now warm the stock for a couple minutes on the stove to make it easier to pour, and pour into little plastic or glass containers and store in the freezer for up to several months. I use painter’s tape to label the date of the stock, and the type of stock. Just remember to leave a little room to allow the freezing liquid to expand. Enjoy!
After reading so much about the health benefits of bone broth (a.k.a stock) from books like Deep Nutrition and Nourishing Traditions, I figured it was about time to make it myself.
But I didn’t want to just wing it.
So, I got called on the experts to help me put it all together. Luke and Dr. Cate Shanahan, co-authors of Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Foods, joined me yesterday via Skype to coach me through the process.
I know, you can barely see their faces in the video. My bad! The Ustream link below has a better angle.
If you’re following along from home, here’s what you’ll need:
The Main Ingredients
* 2 chicken carcasses – I had Allyson the Assistant pick up a couple of organic rotisserie chickens from Whole Foods
* clean water – of course!
* some cheap white wine – we got the cheapest
* a big ass pot
The Veggies
* 4-5 medium carrots – peel ‘em and cut ‘em into 3-4 pieces each
* 3 stalks of celery – also cut into 3-4 pieces
* 2 onions – chop ‘em (careful, they’ll make you cry)
The Spices
* thyme
* bay leaves
* pepper corns
* parsley
* seal salt
It’s was simpler than I thought it would be. Here’s how it goes down.
1. Put your chicken carcasses in you big ass pot and cover them with water (have about an inch of water above the bones)
2. Add 1/2 cup of white wine to the mix (WATCH the video to find out why we use wine)
3. Throw it on the stove at medium heat (DON’T BOIL IT!) for about 2.5 hours.
4. Check on it every 15 minutes or so to pull off any scum that rises to the top.
5. Once 2.5 hours has passed, go ahead and strain the stock (broth) through a colander to get the chicken bones and meat out. I screwed up this part. My bad!
6. Add the “mirepoix” (the veggies) and the dry spices (pepper corns, thyme) to the now-boneless stock and put it back on the stove for another 45-60 mins. Remember, NO BOILING!
7. When you have 20 mins to go, add the chopped-up parsley, a few bay leaves, and about a TBSP of sea salt for taste. See Luke’s tips below.
8. Once it’s done, strain it again through a small metal colander, a metal coffee strainer, or a cheese cloth (like me).
Straining Tip from Luke: “It’s easier to strain stock when it’s still pretty hot. At room temp and lower, the fat and gelatin kinda stop up the strainer.”
Good point.
9. Put stock in your fridge after it’s down to room temp and allow to cool overnight. On the next day, remove the fat that has collected on the top.
10. Store in small plastic containers in the freezer. Be sure to leave a little room in the containers for the freezing stock to expand.
That’s it!
A few more tips from Luke:
Toward the end, after you’ve added the fresh parley, you should add about a tablespoon of sea salt to help you taste the stock. Check it for acid. If it tastes kinda flat and fatty (taste from underneath the surface to get the real taste because the fat goes to the surface), then add some more white wine and/or fresh lemon juice. Also, if you plan to use the chicken stock for non-asian soups (don’t do this if your going to make Tom Ka Gai), you can add a whole can of tomato product before the final straining. Trust your taste buds. Check the stock as your cooking toward the end and add acid or spice or–in moderation, because the stock gets saltier when reduced–salt.
Thanks, Mr. Shanahan!
And finally…
Luke and Dr. Cate’s 4 Stock No-No’s!
1) NEVER BOIL YOUR STOCK! Not even for a few minutes. Vigorous boiling releases unwanted particles that can actually emulsify into the stock, making them impossible to strain out. This can make the finished stock bitter and cloudy. Just a low, gentle simmer or even below a simmer for a hot steeping at around 200 degrees f. extracts flavor, gelatin and other nutrients if you do it long enough. When it comes to chicken stock, however, you can go too long.
2) For chicken stock, don’t simmer or steep for over 12 hours. This is not a magic number. You can make a decent stock in just a couple hours. I let my stock stay on the heat for 6-8 hours. Anything beyond 12 hours, however, and you can start to create off flavors, and you don’t get much, if any, benefit in flavor or nutrition extraction. Beef stock, on the other hand, takes at least 12 hours on the heat, and a full 24 hours is preferable.
3) Never cover your stock while it’s on the heat, or while it’s cooling down. You may partially cover it, it you wish, to retain some extra heat. But covering the pot completely without allowing steam to escape–to use Julia Child’s words–”sours the stock.”
4) Use wine (white for chicken stock, red for beef or lamb stock) for the acid at the beginning of the stock-making process. Avoid using vinegar if you can, as it leaves the finished product tasting sharp. If you don’t have wine, for a chicken stock you can use lemon, and for a beef stock you can use tomato product (pureed tomatoes), presuming that you aren’t planning on using the stock for Asian or other recipes that may be incompatible with tomato flavor.
One last thought. Happy animals make for healthier, far tastier stock. So go free range chickens and grass fed and finished beef if at all possible.
A good stock is a half an hour away from being a fantastic soup, and 5 minutes away from being a great demi-glace or gravy.
One last mistake: They don’t make it often enough!
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BIG THANKS to the Shanahan Fam for schooling us on how too hook up some chicken stock! They’ll be back very soon LIVE in the UW kitchen to show us how to make beef stock. Can’t wait!
Be sure to watch the video above. Sorry you can’t see their faces very well. BUT we did stream our shoot LIVE on Ustream if you’d like a better angle. You can check it out HERE and catch all of the great info I edited out of the video above. There’s even a Q&A session with our live audience (a fire alarm, too)!
And don’t forget to buy Deep Nutrition from the UW Store! It’s one of my faves!
Join us for a LIVE question-and-answer session with our Day 2 SexyBack Summit presenters, including:
* Paul Chek - Restoring Sexual Vitality: A 4 Doctor Approach
* Jane Bennett - Natural Birth Control Alternatives
* Yuri Elkaim - Super Foods for Super Sex
* Matthew Sanders - What’s So Sexy about Vulnerability?
Register to attend this FREE weeklong online event at www.sexybacksummit.com.
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton & Melissa Henig
by Sean Croxton & Melissa Henig
