Macrobiotics and Me

Ingredients

Apricots, chestnuts, agar agar, good quality soya milk, rice syrup, ground almonds, whole almonds & rice syrup

Soak apricots. Place (with soaking water) in pressure cooker, add a pinch of salt and the chestnuts. Pressure cook for 30 minutes. Heat up soya milk with some agar agar, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. Cook until the agar agar has dissolved (after about 10 minutes). Blend the apricots & chestnuts & then add to the soya milk and agar agar. Add some ground almonds and some rice syrup to taste. Pour into moulds and allow to set & then decorate with toasted almonds.

Brown rice croquettes

Ingredients

Brown rice (already cooked), finely sliced leeks, grated carrot, oak flakes, a little drop or two of shoyu

Mix the brown rice, leeks, carrot & a couple of drops of shoyu in a bowl. Then get your hands in there and pick up a handful of the mixture and squeeze it together to see if it forms into a ball. It is most likely that it will be a little wet so this is where the oat flakes come in. Add enough oatflakes (add a little bit at a time) to to mixture so that it starts to stick together. You should be able to pick up the mixture and squeeze it (a bit like play dough) so that it holds together well. Once you have the right consistency you will be able to form into balls or into croquette shape.

Heat up enough oil (I usually use sesame or sunflower oil) to be able to deep fry them. When the oil is hot enough, add a few balls & fry until lightly golden. Take out and drain on absorbent paper. Yum!

Tip: it can be good to make one ball first, fry it and then taste it just to see if it needs a bit more shoyu.

Aduki truffles

These little beauties are wonderful and actually taste better the longer you leave them. I think i’ve kept them to up to a week before and it’s as though they start fermenting and actually begin to taste like some kind of alcohol/chocolate kind of truffle!

Ingredients

Aduki beans, raisins, rice syrup & oat flakes

Cook the aduki beans. Add about 25-40% raisins. Mix together. Get your hands in there and try forming balls. You will find that it will be a little too wet so add oat flakes to form a good consistency so that it sticks together. I have used some sourdough bread crumbs before too and this worked well. Give the mixture a taste. If you think it needs some more sweetness you can either add some more raisins or some rice syrup. Form into beautiful little balls. Then roll them in desicated coconut, ground almonds, sesame seeds or chopped nuts & voila. Mmmmm!

Tofu cheesecake

For the biscuity base:

½ cup organic corn oil, ¼ cup barley malt, ¼ cup rice syrup, ¼ cup organic apple juice, ½ cup walnuts chopped, 4 cups rolled oats, ½ tablespoon cinnamon, ½ cup almonds (ground/chopped)

For the cheesecake filling:

 2lbs soft silken tofu (I used normal tofu), 1 ½ cups maple syrup (I used date syrup), 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla pods), 2 tablespoons tahini, 1 pinch sea salt, ¼ cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon rind, 1 tablespoons arrowroot, 2 tablespoons agar flakes, ¼ cup organic apple juice

 To make the base:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the ingredients and transfer to baking pan.
3. Press the granola mixture into the base of a 9 inch springform pan.  Bake for 15 minutes then set aside.  

To make the cheesecake filling: 

1. Increase the oven temperature to 180 degrees
2. Crumble tofu into a blender and add all the remaining ingredients. Blend well until you have a creamy consistency.
3. Pour filling into the crust and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Allow to cool and then add a topping. For the topping I usually add some agar agar dissolved in some apple juice and thenmixed with a sugar free (of course!) jam. But you can just add jam if you don’t have time to do this. Or you can make a topping of your choice and decorate it however you please :O)  

Chocolate cake

Ingredients

Dry ingredients

2 cups spelt flour

1 & 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

pinch of salt

3/4 cup of ground almonds

1 table spoon of grain coffee

3/4 cup of cocoa powder

2-3 boiled beetroots

Wet ingredients

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup of oil

1/2 cup of fruit concentrate

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Water or rice milk if needed

To make

Sift spelt, baking power, salt, grain coffee and cocoa power. Add ground almonds and grated beetroot and mix well.

Mix all wet ingredients together except for water/rice milk

Combine wet and dry ingredients. The mixture should be wet and a little runny so it runs off the spoon easily. If it is not then add the rice milk or water

Pour into a 7/8 inch cake tin and bake in the oven at about 145 degrees for 50 minutes

For the topping:

1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup of water

pinch of salt

1/2 cup of hazel nut butter

1/2 cup of rice syrup

3 table spoons of kuzu or arrow root

1/4 cup of water

To make:

dissolve cocoa powder in water

add salt and heat for 1-2 mins

take off heat and stir in nut butter and rice syrup

Dissolve kuzu or arrowroot in 1/4 cup water and add to the mixture and stir over a low heat until it thickens

Once thickened allow to cool and put in fridge for an hour or so and once the cake is done, spread it on top of the cake and voila voila.

I must thank my friend & amazing cook, Sonia, for sharing this wonderful work of macro art. :O)

Enjoy!

Recipes

Apple pudding

Ingredients

Apples (4-5), pinch of salt, 1 cup rice milk, 1/2 cup rice or malt syrup, 1 cup cooked brown rice, roasted almonds

Peel and chop apples. Pour over enough water just to cover and add a pinch of salt.

Allow to simmer for 20 minutes until most of the liquid has gone

Add a cup of rice milk, 1 cup of brown rice & 1/2 cup of rice syrup. Simmer gently for a further 5 minutes

Place all ingredients in blender and give it a whizz. Taste and see if you’d like to add anything. If you’d like to make it thicker, sweeter, more sour…it’s completely up to you…

Place into serving bowls and top with chopped roasted almonds. Serve hot or cold.

Tempeh Stew

Ingredients

Tempeh (1 jar/block), Shoyu (1 tbsp), shitake mushrooms (2-3) soaked and then finely sliced, onions (1-2) cut into eight, a strip of kombu, carrots, swede, garlic or garlic powder, white miso, ume su, apple juice concentrate or apple juice, 2 cups water, arrow root (3tbsp), bayleaves (1-2), fresh herbs (parsley &/or corriander), sesame oil for frying

Cut tempeh into chunks of your choice!

Fry in a couple of t.spoons of sesame oil for a few minutes and then add shoyu

Put water, kombu, bayleaves, garlic, all the veg in a pot and place tempeh on top. Cover, bring up to the boil and cook for around 45 minutes on a medium heat

Once cooked you can find the kombu and slice it into small pieces and add it to the dish

Drain some of the cooking liquid and add white miso, apple juice and ume su to taste

Dilute arrow root in small amount of water and then add to the cooking liquid mixture, stir until it becomes transparent and thickens

Pour over vegetables and tempeh and serve with fresh herbs

Recipes

Tofu Quiche

Ingredients
Crust:

Olive oil, garlic (pressed/finely chopped), 1 onion (diced), sea salt (pinch), fresh rosemary (chopped), 1 cup of millet (make sure you rinse it first), 3 cups water (preferably bottled or filtered water)

Topping

1 block of tofu, 3 tablespoons of tahini, 2 tablespoons of ume su, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 onion (diced), 2 garlic cloves (pressed), 2 tablespoons of rosemary, sea salt (pinch), handful of mushrooms (however many your heart desires!), 4 tablespoons of shoyu.

Ok so first things first you need to make the base.

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic and onions with a pinch of salt. Add the rosemary and saute for a few minutes. Then add the millet, keep stirring for a minute or so. Add the water and bring to the boil. Let it simmer for about 25-30 minutes until millet is soft.

Whilst the millet is doing it’s thing make the topping.

Mix the tofu, ume su, tahini, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the food processor (or you could put it in a big bowl and mix/mash it) until you have a smooth blended mixture (it’s up to you how smooth you want it)

Then heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms and rosemary making sure you add a pinch of salt. When it’s soft add 3 tablespoons of shoyu. Then add this mixture to the tofu mixture. Mix it. Taste it…it tastes like cheese!!!

When the millet is cooked choose a baking dish, wet it slightly with your hands to stop the millet stick and then spoon the mixture into a baking dish. Press it into the dish and then spread the lovely tofu mixture on top. Drizzle some shoyu over the top, pop in the oven for about 30 minutes, take it out, let it cool and that is your doorway to quiche heaven. See you there :O)!