6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf with Grilled Garlic Jalapeño Chicken

 Healthy, whole-grain, budget-friendly meals are one of my specialties! This recipe uses Triticale, Red Wheat, White Wheat, Barley, Oat Groats, or Rye interchangeably. If you use all of the grains, it is very colorful and has a more significant nutrition range, but there's no wrong way to make this! I know it will surely be a hit at your dinner.

6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf

1 1/2 cups Whole hard red wheat, white wheat, oat groats, barley, rye, or triticale
3 cups Organic Red Beans, canned, drained
2 Tbsp. Montreal-style Steak Seasoning
3 Tbsp. Garlic, minced

Directions:

• Add 6 cups water to the grain in a 4-quart slow cooker on high for 1 ½ hours to cook the grain. Drain the grain well.
• It should make about 5 cups. After the grain is tender, add the remaining ingredients and cook for 30 minutes more on high.

You can use any combination of those whole unrolled grains or one grain by itself, as long as it equals 1 1/2 cups of uncooked grain. The cooked amount of grain will be 5 cups.

Grilled Garlic Jalapeño Chicken

Marinade:

4 Jalapeño, seeded and chopped fine
3 Tbsp. Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
1/2 cup Lime Juice
2 tsp Sea salt
1 Tbsp. Black Pepper

8 Chicken and leg thighs

Directions:

• Combine the first six ingredients and whisk well.
• Retain 1/2 cup of the marinade for drizzling over the chicken after cooking. In a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, combine the chicken with the remaining marinade and place in the fridge overnight (up to 3 days).
• When ready to eat, bake in a covered cast iron dish for 20-25 minutes until the internal temperature is over 165 degrees.
• Finish cooking on a BBQ grill or a stove-top grill pan. Serve over the 6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf.

There you go! Make a delicious and healthy whole-grain meal today!

Always My Very Best,
Chef Tess 

Pistachio Peach Sprouted Einkorn Artisan Bread

  The concept of sprouted wheat bread isn't new to me, in fact I used it for years to make my Sprouted Wheat Bread in a Food Processor that first saw its way onto the blog in 2009. I have many Sprouted Wheat Recipes but those have been tricky because of the nature of sprouted wheat and the process can be time consuming.  In the early days, I had a lot more time to sprout the grain and make my own products directly, including the option of re-dehydrating the sprouted grains and making them into flour.  If you have the time and means to do it, that is a valuable skill and the most nutritious. When grains are sprouted they are converted into a raw, living food with more vital nutrients which are more readily absorbed by the body. Sprouted flours are digested by the body as a vegetable not as a starch.

When grains are sprouted, enzymes are created that aid digestion. Complex sugars are also broken down and as a result, painful intestinal gases and potent carcinogens and enzyme inhibitors are neutralized. This is especially beneficial for those people with intolerance to wheat as they often discover that they can digest sprouted grains without any problem. Grains are normally digested as starches using pancreatic enzymes but when grains are sprouted the starch molecules are changed into vegetable sugars which the body then digests as a vegetable.  

The trick is getting the dehydration done at just the right enzyme stage of the sprouting as to produce good bread instead of bricks. It is also an issue to use a dehydration method that doesn't get too hot and kill all the nutritional benefits of sprouting (anything over 118 degrees). Those enzymes are critical to the raising process of the bread.   

I personally have changed to just purchasing the Pre-sprouted and dehydrated organic sprouted wheat and milling it at home in a stone mill or if you don't have a mill, purchasing it already ground. The other baking benefit of sprouted flour is that it has the depth of flavor associated with a long slow fermentation in a bread dough that is usually achieved with eight-12 hours of slow raising, but it can be done in a short period of time (usually an hour or less). 

Because Einkorn is an ancient form of wheat, it is already a better option for those who can't tolerate modern wheat, but sprouting the grain takes it one step further!   Organicgrains.com is the only company I know of that actually mills the grains to order to provide the freshest flours possible and retaining the nutrition of the flour. I'm addicted to their  Sprouted Einkorn Wheat Flour .  It has all the benefits of sprouted grain without having to do all the back-work.  I'm okay with that right now.  I've enjoyed working with OrganicGrains.com and their products so much, that I asked if they would sponsor my TV show. They graciously agreed and have been very kind to us. So yes, I do benefit greatly from my association with their brand, but I loved them long before they started backing me. 

Sprouted Einkorn Flour from OrganicGrains.com 

Why Use Sprouted Wheat Flour?

According to research done by the University of Minnesota, sprouting increases the total nutrient density.

• Vitamin B1 (thiamin) increase of 28%
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) increase of 315%
• Vitamin B3 (niacin) increase of 66%
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic) increase of 65%
• Biotin increase of 111%
• Folic Acid increase of 278%
• Vitamin C increase of 300%

These studies also demonstrated a significant increase in various enzymes including amylase, lipase and Protease. Sprouting grains also helps with the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc as reported by the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.*Resource: www.organicwheatproducts.com 

 Gourmet Nuts and Dried Fruit sent me this huge box of my favorite little nuggets of love and asked me to try them out in my baking. We discussed earlier this week all The Health Benefits of Pistachios so I wanted to use them in conjunction with this amazing sprouted wheat flour to really get all that nutrition in one place. 

This is "Staff of Life" kind of bread. It will definitely give you a huge boost of energy as well as a full gamut of benefits.  If you don't want to use dried peaches, this recipe will work with any dried fruit. Figs would be amazing! 

Pistachio Peach Sprouted Einkorn Artisan Bread
Yield: 1 loaf

3 cups Sprouted Einkorn Wheat Flour
1 tsp Salt 
1 1/2 cups Water, lukewarm
1 cup Raw Pistachios, chopped 
1/2 cup Dried Peaches or any Dried Fruit, chopped
1/2 cup Coconut Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Yeast, active dry

 Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large 1 gallon bowl, and mix by hand until combined, about 2 minutes.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and allow to sit at room temperature 1 hour.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop.  Cut it in half and form each part gently into a ball. Roll dough into a rectangle and fold into thirds. Roll, pinch, and form into a loaf. Place in greased 4 quart dutch oven loaf and raise one hour. Preheat oven to 425°. When oven is hot and only then, place loaves in the oven. Covered with lid. After 15 minutes, reduce heat to 325 ° and remove lid, Continue baking for 30-35 minutes, until internal temperature is over 175°.

There you go! Make some nutritious and extremely delicious bread. Your body will thank you!


Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

My Mom's 5 Day Bread Dough...Updated Bosch Tutorial!

Homemade matters to us.  For my entire life, this recipe has been the standard of excellence in bread making. This is a bread dough recipe that my mother, Geneve, developed for her college Food Science final. I grew up with this bread and the smell of wheat grinding fresh in our family home.  I remember mom always testing the fresh milled flour to be sure the wheat had not gone rancid in storage.  Today...we milled wheat that I had put away when my first born son was born. Yup. 14 years ago.  I turned into my mom today. I got really giddy to find it was still perfect wheat, ready for bread.

  There was also only one bread mixer that she would ever openly praise.  It was our family Bosch mixer from the Bosch Kitchen Store.  It really was the only machine strong enough to handle this dough, because she made 5-6 loaves at a time. Repeat that several times a week. The machine lasted without a hick-up or need for a tune-up for most of my life. The last time I visited my mother, she was still using the same machine. She got the machine when I was about 2 years old...and I turn...(gulp) forty this year.  Yup. Bosch mixer are that good.

Gathering around Mom’s mixer and watching the dough form into supple perfection was the highlight of my week and the very testing-ground for what became a baking passion for me. We had to watch as it "spun gold out of wheat" and I was able to see first-hand what proper protein development should look like in the bread making process. Baking bread with mom made me what I am today. Some of life’s richest lessons were taught around that bread-board. 

 She'd always dissect the fresh loaves and make sure they were up to her standard.  I still do the same when I make mine. 

• Is the crust thin, crisp, and uniformly colored? 
• Is the crust tight to the loaf or did it separate?
• Is the loaf rounded, uniform in width size, and well domed? 
• Is the taste mild and sweet with the flavor of the wheat?
• Are there any strong flavors?
•  Is it overly yeasty, sour or salty?   
• Is the texture silky and tender?
•  Is the crumb fine? 
• Are there any flour lumps or knots in the dough?
• Are the air holes uniform?
• Can you cut reasonable slices without the bread falling apart?

Life has taken me far from my mother’s home. If I think about it too much, I get misty-eyed.  Now as a pastry chef and mother myself, her recipe for this remarkable bread remains a classic.  I was reminded of this once again this week as we gathered around our mixer. Mine is the newest model, thanks to my friends at Bosch. The recipe...is still mom's. 

It is called 5-day bread, but the dough can be made up to 7 days ahead of time. I still use it every single week! The dough is stored in a large bucket or covered bowl in the fridge.  Sometimes I divide it between 4 gallon sized zipper bags.  I love this dough made into rolls, pretzels, pizzas and yes, decorative ornate braided bread loaves.  You’ll find this to be excellent dough to keep on hand for all your bread making needs. Don’t be dismayed by the number of ingredients in this bread, each one works with the other to make it perfect.

Chef Tess' Mom's 5-Day Bread
2 T active-dry yeast OR 1T SAF Instant premium yeast
4 c milk, scalded and cooled OR water (no hotter than 115 degrees)
3/4 c honey
1T salt
4 large eggs
3/4 c oil (olive or melted coconut oil)
1 1/2 c mashed potatoes, cooled to body temperature
1T baking powder
14-15 cups fresh milled whole wheat bread flour ( tutorial on making-whole-grain-flour-at-home )

Directions: Dissolve yeast in milk (or water) in a Bosch Universal Mixer.  Yeast does matter. I use this one because I know it works.

Stir in honey. Allow yeast to get foamy. Add egg, oil, mashed potato, baking powder, salt and 14 cups of fresh milled flour. Turn to speed 1 and combine about 30 seconds.

 Increase speed to 3 and mix 4 ½ minutes until dough is soft and well developed but not dry.

 It will look almost like spun golden yarn. That's what good protein development should look like in your bowl. 

Allow dough to rest 10 minutes in the bowl (this gives the wheat time to absorb moisture). Don't skip this 10 minute resting step. You'll end up using way more flour than you need to in your bread and your bread will be dry.  After 10 minutes, you should be able to pull a piece out and have it string 6-7 inches above the bowl without the dough breaking. 

Add enough of the flour remaining to make soft dough that is easy to handle but not dry. More often than not, I don't have to add any more flour at all. Turn dough onto a  very lightly floured surface.  Form into a ball. It should hold it's shape without melting into a blob on your counter-top. 

 Place dough  in an ungreased 2-gallon bowl or food-grade bucket, covered tightly. If you don't have a large enough bowl...use two smaller bowls. Or...just half the recipe if you are worried about the dough growing all over your fridge outside of the container.

Put in the fridge, tightly covered.
 Punch down after 2 hours (this may be faster if you use warm ingredients or flour). If the dough is over 85 degrees when you put it in the fridge, be sure to punch down sooner. 
Form into a ball again. Cover tightly and chill at least 8 hours.  This chilling step is what will give you the best taste in your bread.  Long, slow, low fermentations of dough  are unparalleled for flavor development and gluten elasticity. This fermentation process cannot be produced by adding artificial flavors or mixing longer mechanically.  Some people try to mimic this process by adding extra chemical dough conditioners or added gluten powders.  They are not necessary if you do this step correctly.  They happen naturally by slowly raising in your fridge. This is the single most important step in making this bread remarkable and clean from added chemicals. 

Be sure to punch down daily if keeping it more than a day or two (this not only expels gas, but also ensures even temperature in the dough). This will yield 4 standard sized loaves of bread. Yes. You can also use it for anything remarkable at this point. I have such a hard time not making it into at least a dozen cinnamon rolls...or apple pie rolls...

To bake a standard sized loaf: Divide dough in 4 equal portions, about 2 lbs of dough for standard loaves. Form each loaf using the loaf molding technique ( Loaf Molding Tutorial).  Lightly coat the top of the loaf with melted butter and then lightly tent the loaves with plastic or plastic bags OR place in a moist place to rise. Allow to rise (1 -1 ½ hrs) until dough is about 1-2 inches above the edge of the pan. Lightly slit the top with a very sharp knife. 

Bake in preheated 425° oven for 20 minutes then drop the temperature to 350 for the final 15-20 minutes of cooking.

Remove from pans and allow cooling completely before cutting.
I cut this loaf right from the oven. 

Awww. See how it looks fuzzy instead of a clean texture?

Wait 30 minutes...and it slices a lot cleaner and nicer. 

So now I have my dough, ready for the week. It is just part of what I do to make things run smoothly here and save money.  Homemade matters to us. I know what is going into our sandwiches and lunch boxes.  We're using fresh milled grain that keeps the nutrition right in my kitchen instead of a factory somewhere. Plus, saving money and eating whole food is just how we roll.  

Yes. Mom was right. The best things in life cannot come from a store. They come from the heart. As I watched my kiddos rip into this gorgeous bread (while praising my name) I thought to myself, "This is it. This is why I do what I do."   Make a memory. Share some love.  Get the goodness into them!  And by all means, move onward and upward!

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

Simple Cake Mix 6 Grain Jam Crumble Snack Bars

You know what I love about summer? Nothing in Arizona. Well... not the life-sucking death-heat of the Sonora desert or the way my albino  (remember the Albino on Princess Bride?) skin  that turns bright pink the second I walk out of my house. I can tell you that there are days when I think I will burst into flame the second I walk pass the portal of my front door. Yes...I'm violently sucked into a brilliant vortex of white light and space aliens. "Take me to your leader Albino-Scum!"... I'm pretty sure I've watched too much of the Twilight Zone...and X-Files.  I also randomly imagine hairy long-nailed monsters on the wings of my airplane when I travel. Just for the record. I don't like window seats. I do however love those tiny bags of peanuts. They're so cute.

There is a perk to living in the surface of the sun valley of the sun. Phoenix is perfect for summer solar cooking. I love it! See. I DO love something about the heat. I pop my bad-boy Solar Oven on it's cart and wheel it into the yard, pointed the direction of the sun. Here it works likes a crock-pot and I can basically forget about dinner until it is time for dinner. Huge perk for me working full time now. Today however, I decided at 4 AM that it was cool enough in the house to bake some snack bars for the boys. They are home on summer vacation and I wanted them to have little fun goodies to wake up to. Yes...I do wake up that early almost every day. Yes. I know I'm crazy. That is what works for me to be home with the kids and still use the test kitchen. Ironically...I used to do that before I had kids but at a bakery. Somehow it seems more fun when I can still be in my PJ's and bake. Go figure. I haven't yet had any of my fuzzy-neon-pink cupcake-jammie material end up in the cookies. Now...that's funny because today I made jam bars. Not to be confused with jammie bars. Those are fuzzy. These are delicious.

I use my homemade cake mix and the evil-delicious blueberry confection known affectionately by me as Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam. You don't have to make your own homemade cake mix or jam. I'm not checking your cupboards. You make what works for you. One box of regular cake mix will work. I also use all natural granular erythritol instead of sugar in most of my baking. It is zero calorie and no carb. It's great for diabetics and for those watching their sugar.

Chef Tess 6 Grain Jam Crumble Bars
4 c  homemade cake mix (or 1 box store bought)
1 c granulated sugar (or all natural granular erythritol )
2 c  6 grain rolled cereal
¼ c  whole flax seed
 ½ c brown sugar
1 egg
1 c melted butter (no substitutions on flavor)
2 c unsweetened jam (I used Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Yes. These can be baked in a solar oven. Pre-heat it to 350. That will take about 15 minutes.  In a large bowl combine all ingredients except the jam. The mixture will be thick. Reserve 1 ½ cup for the topping.     Using fingertips press the remaining mixture into the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch pan so it reaches all sides. 

  Spread the jam over the crust mixture in a thin layer.

  Pinch off pieces of the reserved mixture and scatter over the jam.

Bake until light brown and bubbling, 35-40 minutes. It will take 45-55 minutes in a solar oven. Allow to cool 30 minutes before cutting.

If you don't wait for them to cool before you cut them, they will just fall apart in mounds of hot buttery delicate grain-confection laced with jam. It's really hard to resist at that point but...ya know. Do what you want. I'm not checking your closets either. 

Yield 24 bars. Let's be honest. It makes 6 bars for a teenage boy.  There you go.

Always My Very Best,

 Your Friend Chef Tess

It's Good to Be an Old Maid...

Seriously, I love a good Ol' Maid!!

My granny used to always get after us..."Stop fighting over the Old Maids...you kids are crazy!!"

I don't know... I just don't know how those crispy little nibblets of popcorn could taste any better on the bottom of the bowl. Know the ones I mean? The ones that have popped slightly and are all crunchy and popcorny. (Is popcorny a word?) Well, they are my favorite. So much so that a few years back I decided I wanted to make them the main snack instead of residuals to the fluffy stuff. Mind you, I make the fluffy stuff, but I do love a good ol' crispy treat. They are loaded with fiber and down home goodness too. Just the thing on a movie night instead of processed microwave stuff. Though I do sometimes indulge in the micro-cooked too.

Have you ever seen so many ol' cuties together?

These are really hard to make...kidding. Actually they are so easy it seems insane to me that more people don't make them! I think if more folks knew the secret, it would be a staple!

So here's the secret, ready? Soak the popcorn first. 6-8 hours. 2 cups covered in water.

Just about an inch over it's head...

Drain it after 6-8 hours and pat dry with a towel.

Put popcorn in a covered popper or pan with a lid.

I use one of these whirlie popper gizmos.

It whirls the popcorn so I don't have to keep moving the pot over the burner to move the popcorn.


I put the kernels in the pot with 1T oil.
Get the pan good and hot.

Cook on Medium high.

They will start to pop something awful!!... Crazy sound too. Like my boys playing "army" chucking hot wheels as hand grenades and hitting the walls. EEK.

But the sound is worth the resulting pot of love...

Season however you want. We have done ranch seasoning, cheese powder, Parmesan and garlic, sea salt and pepper...if you put 2T sugar in the pot at the end of cooking, it will be like kettle corn nibbles. I have even gone so far as to stir in a little melted white chocolate. Ouch. Try them. You can thank me later.

Sprouted Wheat bread...day 3 with a meat grinder

Today we will make the sprouted wheat bread dough and bake it.
This is how it is done in a meat grinder. If you have an electric food processor, check the next posting.

I learned this recipe from:
The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, 1984, by Laurel Robertson...

Laurel is my hero in whole grain bread baking!

Get your ingredients together. You will need:

Your Sprouts...these sprouts should weigh about 4 lb (2 k)--for 2 loaves. You started with 2 1/2 lb wheat, or 1135g) which will be a little more than 3 quarts sprouted.

You will also need for 2 loaves:
Your meat grinder or electric food processor
2 tsp yeast (1/4 oz, or 7 g) [you can double this]
1/4 cup warm water (60 ml)
1/3 cup honey (80 ml)
4 tsp salt (22 g)
non-stick cooking spray for coating the pan ( I mix a little oil with a little flour--bit more natural)
2 , 8 by 4 inch loaf pans
1 clean towel
2 gallon size bags

If you are making a single loaf, you will need:
6 cups sprouted wheat berries (if you started with 1 1/4 lb or 575 g hard wheat)
1 tsp active dry yeast (1/8 oz or 3.5 g) [you can double this amount]
2 T warm water (30 ml)
2 tsp salt (11g)
3 T, scant, honey (40ml)
1 8 by 4 inch loaf pan
1 clean towel
1 gallon size bag

Your little sprout babies should look something like this, with maybe a little tiny hair of a root sticking out. The starches have not been turned to sugar at this point and it is still good for bread

These babies will start to show their little white toe heads. That is all the sprouting you want to happen. The rule is that the sprout root should not be any longer than the length of the grain of wheat itself.



For an electric meat grinder attachment on a Kitchen Aid, remove the front cover plate and put on the grinder attachment (I have a hand meat grinder...this one is we did at Evil Genius Tara's house because she had all the cool gizmos, bells and whistles)

Feed your little sprouts through the meat grinder as you would meat.


This is how it will look. I had to repeat this grinding process one more time, but found it to be much faster than my hand grinder.


To this add your yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup water,


Add the honey, and salt.

Blend with your dough hook for 5-7 minutes on speed 2, until a smooth dough forms. If you do this by hand (per chance you don't have a kitchen aid, or power and need to use the hand grinder...you will need to knead by hand 5 minutes or more for a good texture and proper gluten developement.)


Form the dough into a ball and place in a covered bowl until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Punch down the dough, and allow to raise again, about 1 hour, until wet finger inserted leaves an indent without much effort on your part.
Remove from bowl and place on a counter lightly covered with WATER.

Divide the dough into two pieces.

Make a rectangle with the dough... then fold into thirds.

Roll the dough into a tight log...

Place in a loaf pan, this one is stoneware for better baking. This recipe will make 4 of these 5 by 2 1/2 inch loaves.

Repeat the loaf making until you have made as many loaves as you have dough. Lightly coat the top of the bread with oil and cover with a loose piece of plastic wrap. Raise bread about 1 hour until it raises like this...

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake 40-45 minutes for standard size loaves (8 by 4 inch), or 3o-35 minutes in smaller loaves like these ones.

Once baked, remove from oven.

I test mine for doneness with a meat thermometer. When it registers over 175 degrees, the bread is cooked through.

The final step is to put the warm loaves in a clean dishcloth and place them in gallon size freezer bags. This allows any wheat that is on the surface of the loaf to steam a bit so it isn't rock hard. Remove from bags after about 45 minutes

If you only have a hand held meat grinder,

here are the instructions for that...

In a hand meat grinder it will look something like this...

Because it is done by hand, you will need to re-grind a second time to really make a good dough.

Re-grind the dough...

Once ground, proceed as above as far as dough mixing and loaf formation. By the way, don't forget that if you do have a hand held grinder, to be sure to clean it right away, as this dough tends to have a glue like effect on the grinder if left alone too long.