Ionia Community Recipes

Ionia Community Recipeswww.ionia.org • 2013

Ionia, inc • 54932 Burdock Road, Kasilof, Alaska 99610 • (907) 262-2824 1

Table of Contents

Condiments We Use! 2

Grains and Beans! 4

Land & Sea Veggies! 13

Soups and Stews! 22

Desserts! 26


Condiments We UseMiso is a salty, earthy creme made from soybeans, salt and barley or rice koji (which is the starter, or inoculant) fermented for 2 - 3 years. Used for hearty flavoring of soups, stews, porridges and pickles, miso has beneficial organisms and enzymes which are vital for digesting whole grains. In meat eating cultures, yogurt and cheeses were used for this same purpose. In grain eating cultures, miso is the key to assimilating all the valuable nutrients in the food. At Ionia, we eat miso soup every day and make miso from scratch.

Shoyu known by many westerners as soy sauce, is a fermented soybean/salt/koji liquid condiment used in just about everything - soups, stews and broths, porridges, sauteing, dressings and sauces and pickles. Shoyu flavors a broth similar to bullion, is a gentler, more rounded form of saltiness and also holds those beneficial enzymes. At Ionia, we use shoyu in just about every meal.

Umeboshi pickled plums and ume vinegar are made from green plums, pickled in salt and shiso leaves for a year or so. Umeboshi brings a unique, bold combination of salty/sour to many dishes. It is bright pink and also bravely stands out as a healing power. Umeboshi is used as a go to tonic for nausea, indigestion, and hangovers... also as a way to countermeasure poisoning and infection of any mild sort. We use it often in dressings, sautes, pickles and it is a great pickle on its own with brown rice. The juice off of the pickling crock is bottled and sold as ume vinegar. At Ionia, we are beginning to make umeboshi from scratch.

Kuzu, processed from a root, is a thickener like corn starch which is very strengthening for the intestines. Perfect for adding to cooked fruits or to make a clear gravy for sauted veggie stir-fry. Kuzu is expensive, so at Ionia, we use it sparingly and consider it precious.


Brown rice vinegars are top of the list for adding zing and sour sparkle to dressings and pressed salads. Brown rice mirin is a sweet vinegar used to bring sweetness to broths and sautes.

Brown rice syrups are gentler than either maple syrup, agave nectar, or honey. The sugars in brown rice syrup are complex sugars (rather than simple sugars) so they are even gentler than fruit sugars and less acidic. Kids don’t bounce off the walls after eating brown rice syrup, and as a concentrated sweetener, this is as mild as it gets. At Ionia, we use brown rice syrup in dressings and many desserts - pies, cookies, cremes and fruit compote. The kids cook it to make candies like taffy and peanut brittle and popcorn balls.

When we are setting up a kitchen, there are a few cooking utensils which we have found to be quite indispensable:

•A S H A R P , C O M F O R TA B L E V E G E TA B L E C U T T I N G K N I F E

•A S TA I N L E S S S T E E L ( N O T A L U M I N U M ) P R E S S U R E C O O K E R

•A G I N G E R G R AT E R

•A W I R E M E S H H A N D H E L D S T R A I N E R A N D A C O L A N D E R

•B A M B O O O R W O O D E N S T I R R I N G S P O O N S

•A S TA I N L E S S O R C A S T I R O N S A U T E P O T W I T H A T I G H T F I T T I N G L I D I N A N A P P R O P R I AT E S I Z E F O R T H E H O U S E H O L D

• A S TA I N L E S S S O U P P O T W I T H G L A S S O R S TA I N L E S S L I D T H AT F I T S W E L L , A N D P E R H A P S T H AT D O U B L E S A S A S T E A M E R

•G O O D M I X I N G B O W L S - P R E F E R A B LY N O T M E L A M I N E P L A S T I C

•G L A S S J A R S F O R S T O R I N G G R A I N S , B E A N S , A N D S E E D S

•2 F L A M E TA M E R S ( M E TA L H E AT D I F F U S E R S U S E D U N D E R P O T S )•P I N T A N D Q U A R T G L A S S J A R S A R E A L S O U S E F U L F O R M A N Y T H I N G S F R O M S T O R I N G L E F T O V E R S T O T E A

•G A S O R W O O D F I R E S A R E T H E B E S T S O U R C E S O F H E AT - E L E C T R I C I S L E S S D E S I R A B L E A N D M I C R O WAV E I S U N A C C E P TA B L E


Grains and Beans

For practical purposes in the kitchen, think of these whole grains:

•The brown rices (including sweet rice, long grain, basmati, short grain and even black and red rices)

•Millet•Whole Oats (groats)•Barley (both pearled and naked)•Quinoa•Grain corn (blue and yellow)•And the wheats - red, white, winter, spring (also kamut, spelt and rye)

Also, these are grain like staples which share much of the same properties:•buckwheat (kasha) •jobs tears (hato mugi barley) •wild rice There are also many whole grain products, in which most of the whole grain is present but has been ground up:•Whole grain pastas and noodles•Polenta and corn tortillas•Whole wheat breads including pita and chapatis•Cracked oats, rolled oats•Seitan (“wheat meat”)•Bulgher and whole wheat couscous

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Sweet Millet2 ½ cups millet2 onions, diced3 carrots, diced½ any kind of sweet winter squash (acorn, butternut, buttercup, kobocha, etc.), diced½ hard green cabbage, cut into small squaressesame oil

In a heavy saute pot, water saute the onions over a med low flame, covered. There should be about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot to prevent burning. After about 20 minutes, add the carrots, squash and cabbage. Then, in another pot, bring the millet up to a boil and cook on a low flame with a flame tamer for ½ hour. Keep cooking the vegetables on a low flame while the millet is cooking, stirring every once in awhile. Mix the cooked millet in with the sweet vegies, and a dash of sesame oil. Cook all together for another 10-15 minutes on a flame tamer to sweeten up the millet. Very nice and soothing on the stomach.

Pumpkin Rice4 cups of short grain brown rice1 ½ cups raw pumpkin seeds6 cups watersmall pinch of salt

Soak all ingredients overnight. In the morning, add a pinch of salt, and pressure cook for 45 minutes on a low flame and flame tamer. Mix well and serve hot. Really delicious with umeboshi pickle and nori on the side!

Walnut Rice1 1/2 cups short grain organic rice1/4 cup walnuts1 pinch sea salt

Place rice in pressure cooker. Add 2 1/2 cups water, the pinch of salt, close the lid and put on a medium high flame. Once up to pressure lower the flame and place on a flame deflector. Cook for 45 minutes. While the rice is cooking preheat an oven

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to 350 F and roast the walnuts on a baking tray for roughly 10 minutes. Check the nuts every 3 minutes and turn them to prevent burning. Once evenly roasted remove them and allow to cool. Remove pressure cooker from the stove and bring down from pressure naturally, do not open the valve. Transfer the rice to a bowl and stir in the walnuts, then serve.

Fresh Summer Rice Salad3 cups long grain or basmati brown rice1 cup each of diced:applescucumberscelerycarrotsbroccolicorn off the cob, if you have it1 cup minced parsley5 cups of waterbig squirt of olive oilbig pinch of seasaltjuice of 2 lemons

Combine rice, water, olive oil and salt in a boiling pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer, cook on low for 55 minutes.

Blanch the celery, carrots, broccoli and corn briefly in boiling water until they are the brightest color! Combine in a salad bowl with the raw apples, cucumbers and parsley. When the rice is cooked, fluff up with a wooden spoon and mix well with all the vegetables. Squeeze in the lemon juice, mix well, and serve on a bed of lettuce.

Steamed Rice Kayu Bread4 cups of softly cooked brown ricewhole wheat flourpinch of sea saltcorn oil

If you don’t have any soft rice cooked, you can make it with leftover rice from lunch - or just cook 1 cup of rice with 5 cups of water for 1 hour. In a big mixing bowl, put the soft rice and one pinch of salt. Mix well. Slowly knead in whole wheat

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flour until you have a dough that is not too sticky. It should eventually feel like your earlobe. Keep kneading about 100 times. Form it into loaves, oil some bread pans, and fill up each bread pan about ½ full with the dough. Put the loaves to rise in a warm spot for 6-12 hours. If you have a steamer that your bread pans can fit into, then great! If not, place the bread pans in a big pot and pour water into the bottom of the pot until it is halfway up the sides of the bread pans (“Ohsawa pot style”) Bring to a full steam, and steam the bread for 2 ½ hours on a med low flame. You may have to add water into your steamer or pot a few times. Remove the bread from the pans, and let cool for half an hour before slicing. This bread is very digestable, and kids love it! They love to make it too. We like to serve it with:- sesame sauce- stew- jam- pumpkin butter with onions

Sweet Barley1 ½ cups barley, soaked overnight in 6 cups of water2 onions, diced3 carrots, diced½ any kind of sweet winter squash (acorn, butternut, buttercup, kobocha, etc.), diced½ hard green cabbage, cut into small squaressesame oil

In a heavy saute pot, water saute the onions over a med low flame, covered. There should be about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot to prevent burning. After about 20 minutes, add the carrots, squash and cabbage. Then, in a pressure cooker, bring the barley up to pressure and cook on a low flame with a flame tamer for 1 hour. Keep cooking the vegetables on a low flame while the barley is cooking, stirring every once in awhile. Mix the pressure cooked barley in with the sweet vegies, and a dash of sesame oil. Cook all together for another 10-15 minutes on a flame tamer to sweeten up the barley. This is a calming, strengthening, favorite dinner at Ionia!

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Pan Fried Sweet Millet Patties

1 1/2 cups millet 1/2 cup sweet corn, fresh or frozen1/4 cup minced Italian parsley3 1/2 cups water1 tablespoon shoyulight sesame oil for pan frying

Bring water to a boil in a pot, add the millet and sweet corn and simmer with a lid on for 25 minutes. Remove millet and corn from the pot , place on a tray or in a bowl. Once cooled, add in the parsley and fashion the mixture into patties roughly 1/2" thick and 3" - 4" in diameter. Wetting your hands first helps to keep the mixture from sticking to them. The patties should be fairly compact, not loosely held together. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with some sesame oil, enough to coat the bottom. Fry the patties until they are golden brown on both sides then serve.

Spring Bulghur

1 cup Bulghur1 teaspoon lemon juice1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil1 pinch sea salt

Place bulghur in a small pot, add the olive oil and salt and mix together with a fork, thoroughly coating each grain of bulghur with oil. In a separate pot or kettle boil 1 1/2 cups of water and add to the bulghur, cover with a lid and leave to cook on a low flame for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, fluff up with a fork and add the lemon juice, then serve.

Spring Vegetable & Noodle Salad1/2 lb udon noodles2 cups assorted vegetables in season cut into similar sized matchsticks2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oilPinch of sea salt

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Scallion White Miso Dressing:3 scallions roughly cut into 2" pieces1 1/2 tablespoons white miso1 1/2 tablespoons shoyu5 tablespoons lemon juice5 tablespoons olive oil

Place all the ingredients in a blender and set to puree. Once a creamy texture is obtained and there are no pieces of scallion remaining, remove from blender and store in a glass jar or bottle.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the vegetables. Do this one type of vegetable at a time, starting with the lightest color first. The vegetables should be placed in the water and removed fairly quickly and set aside on a tray to cool. The vegetables should be slightly al dente and brightly colored, not soft, mushy and dull. Bring a second, large pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles, salt and one of the tablespoons of olive oil, stirring the noodles at the beginning and occasionally throughout cooking to prevent them sticking together. Once done, strain the noodles, run under warm water to prevent them sticking and then mix in the vegetables and second tablespoon of olive oil. Pour the dressing over and serve.

Baby Kokoh (otherwise known as Happy Baby Porridge)

This is the staple food of all the Ionia babies (over 40 of them over the years) along with sweet vegetable purees. It makes strong, adaptable and calm babies.

1/2 cup brown rice1/2 cup whole oat groats1/2 cup sweet rice1/2 cup barley

2 cups soybeans2 cups sesame seedsPostage stamp size piece of kombu sea vegetable

Toast the grains in a pan over med high heat until golden and starting to smell sweet. Put aside.

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Toast the soybeans in a pan or oven until golden and cracking open. Put aside.

Rinse the sesame seeds under cold water and drain in a strainer... Then toast over med heat until they smell delicious and are popping out of the pan. Combine with soybeans.

Grind up the soybeans and sesame seeds together in a hand flour mill so that they are a course powder. You can store it in a jar or ziplock bag. This is your kokoh mix, and will last for 4-6 pots of kokoh.

Combine toasted grain and 10 cups of water in a pressure cooker (or 12 cups of water in a heavy boiling pot). Add two handfuls of the kokoh mix as well as the small piece of kombu. Bring up to pressure (or boil), place a flame tamer under the pot, turn flame to low and cook for 50 minutes.

For babies who don’t have molars yet: While the kokoh is still hot, blend well or grind through a Foley food mill. If you have a toddler who can chew somewhat, serve this porridge whole. Keep kokoh in a bowl in the frig for up to 3 days, heating up baby portions as needed.

Some babies prefer to eat their kokoh plain, and have their sweet vegetable puree on the side... Some prefer to mix their veggie puree in with their kokoh. Either way, if your baby is eating this combination 3-4 times per day, you can relax in the knowledge that they are getting the basic nutrients they need in a highly digestible form.

Baked Lima Beans with Onions1/2 cup dried lima beans1cup onion cut into large chunks2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil1 tablespoon french Dijon mustard2" strip kombu1 teaspoon sea salt

After soaking the beans overnight in cold water, drain and place in a pressure cooker with 2 1/2 cups of water. Quickly rinse the kombu under cold running water and place at the bottom of the pressure cooker. Bring up to pressure and cook for 1 hour. While beans are cooking preheat the oven to 350 F. Take a deep sided baking tray and put the onion and olive oil at the bottom. Mix up the onion with the

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oil to evenly coat each piece. Bake in the oven turning occasionally and remove once the onion has begun to brow slightly . Keep the oven on. Strain the beans from the pressure cooker keeping enough of the liquid so that a thick stew like consistency is obtained. Mix in the salt and mustard then pour the beans into the baking tray over the onions. Place back in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, then serve.

Plain Guatamalan Black Beans3 cups of black beans (also known as turtle beans)1 inch piece of kombu (kelp sea vegetable)1 clove garlic2 large onions, minced9 cups of watersalt to tasteminced cilantro

Soak the beans over night in water to cover. In the morning, drain the soaking water and add 9 cups of fresh water, a one inch strip of kombu sea vegetable (which will give the beans a rich taste and make them more digestible), a whole clove of garlic, skins and all, and the minced onion. Bring it all to a rolling boil, turn the flame low, add a flame tamer if you’ve got one, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Stir along the way to check if you need to add more water. When the beans are 3/4 done, add salt to taste. When the beans are soft and taste delicious, serve hot with a little minced cilantro on top. Especially great dish served with rice salad and baked parsnips or yams.

Thank You Omaha Black Bean Salad

In 2008, a small group of us from Ionia attended a six day national mental health conference called Alternatives, which was held in Omaha Nebraska that year. The conference was located in a fabulous gigantic hotel complex in lovely downtown Omaha. There were no grocery stores or accessible kitchens anywhere nearby. We were surrounded by marble hallways with fountains, pigs in a blanket, gourmet coffees and champagne bars with no edible food in sight. In our hotel rooms, however, were coffee machines in which we proceeded to make miso broth with dulse and scallions we had brought with us from home for our breakfast. We started to scour the local neighborhood for food we could relate to.

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Happily, in a small corner mart, next to the pepsi and the stale baloney sandwiches, we found a stack of containers with a simple, refreshing and delicious bean salad - clearly locally made. We filled our little hotel room fridges up with bean salads and ate those with our corn masa from home for the rest of the week. Thank you Omaha!

Here is the recipe, which we figured out when we got home:

3 cups black beans1 inch piece of kombu sea vegetable1 1/2 cups diced sweet red peppers1 1/2 cups minced red onions1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn, cut off the cob1 1/2 cups diced cucumbersthree pinches of salt9 cups of water

Dressing:2 T Shoyu1 tspn fresh garlic - minced2 T lemon juice4 T olive oilCilantro, minced

Soak the black beans over night in plenty of water. Then pour off the soaking water, and add 9 cups of fresh water in a heavy pot along with the piece of kombu (this will help the beans to soften and be more digestible.). Bring to a boil, then simmer over a low flame for 60 - 90 minutes. After 30 minutes, once they are half cooked, shock the black beans with cold water every 10 minutes or so. Once cooked all the way through, drain the remaining liquid out of the beans in a colander, and discard the liquid along with the piece of kombu.

While the beans are cooking mix the other ingredients in a large salad bowl. Mix up your dressing in a bowl, pour it over the vegetables, and let marinate for 30 minutes or so. Add beans right before serving.

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Land & Sea Veggies

Daikon Rounds with Sesame SauceThese are a favorite of all our kids, even the babies and the teens.

2 large daikon, cut into 1 inch thick rounds2 cups sesame seeds OR 1 cup sesame butterShoyu to taste

Rinse the sesame seeds under cold water and drain in a strainer... Then toast over med heat until they smell delicious and are popping out of the pan. Place in a bowl to cool.

Grind the sesame seeds in a Corona grain mill into sesame meal or butter. (Alternatively, purchase toasted sesame butter - it won’t be as tasty but will do in a pinch.)

Mix the sesame butter in a suribachi with 1/2 cup water and shoyu to taste.

Boil the daikon rounds until tender all the way through, then drain. Mix the hot daikon with the sesame sauce and serve immediately.

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NishimeCut the vegetables very big and chunky. Carrots, onions, winter squash, daikon, rutabaga, turnips, burdock and leeks all make good nishime. Place a stamp sized piece of kombu plus a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the pot. The water should barely cover the entire bottom of the pot. If there is too much water, the finished dish will lack vitality and sweetness. Then layer the vegetables in the pot with the most juicy, rounder or softer on the lower layers and the harder, longer and dryer on top. Cover, bring to a high steam and immediately turn the flame down to a very low simmer. Resist the urge to lift the lid and peek at the vegetables as they simmer - they will lose plenty of liquid each time one opens the lid. If the fire is too high, it is easy to burn, so the flame needs to be just high enough for the simmering to continue. Cook slowly (for about 40-60 minutes) until completely soft and sweet. The juices of the vegetables will come out as they steam and if one started with just a smidge of extra water one will get the sweetest, juiciest, most soothing veggies ever with just a bit of sweet juice in the bottom of the pot. At Ionia, we eat nishime 3 - 4 times a week to keep grounded.

KinpiraOne of our favorite dishes is known as kinpira, and it is a quick saute made from strong root vegetables. Here is how we make kinpira at Ionia:

Slice carrots, burdock, rutabaga, parsnips, daikon and/or lotus root into thin matchsticks. You can use one, two or three different roots - carrots, burdock and lotus root, for example, OR just parsnips. Heat up a pan and coat the bottom with sesame oil, then add the matchsticked vegetables - first one kind for a few minutes, then another, etc. Stir the entire time over a high heat, finally adding a sprinkling of salt to bring out the juices of the vegetables. Kinpira takes a bit longer than usual quick sautes because these root vegetables are dense and firm. When the veggies are cooked yet still a bit crispy, add a dash of shoyu and sometimes a bit of grated ginger juice.

This dish has a dynamic fiery energy, sweet and salty taste, and is a community favorite in the winter times.

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Baked Parsnips ala Sweet PotatoesEverybody, especially kids, hates parsnips, or that’s what they think because the ones that are sold are generally bitter, bland and mealy. However, in Alaska, we have year round access to the sweetest parsnips in the world, grown organically in ten feet of rich dark Matunuska Valley top soil by Mark Rempell of Rempell Family Farms in Palmer. Mark’s phone number is (907) (and he also has the biggest, sweetest carrots ever.) Order up a box - it will keep well in a cool place for a month or two. Or, go to your local organic farm and ask for sweet parsnips. Cook them up this way:

Cut diagonally, twirling the parsnip as you go so as to create large chunky triangles.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 2 pinches of salt.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Drop the parsnips into the water, and parboil for 7 minutes until just barely tender. Scoop out with a slotted spoon into a large mixing bowl.

Mix the hot parsnips well with plenty of olive oil and a dash of shoyu. Spread them out in a baking dish and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or so. During baking, stir the parsnips several times in their pan so as to cook evenly. They are done when they are soft all the way through and getting crispy and golden brown. Serve hot!

(We love serving these with rice salad and black beans.)

Sauted Summer Veggies1 nappa cabbage, sliced pretty thin2 carrots, sliced in ribbons4 ears of sweet corn, cut off the cob (you can use organic frozen in the winter)dark sesame oilshoyu

Saute the carrots in toasted sesame oil for a few minutes, then add the corn, then the nappa. Cover and let steam in it’s own juices for 5 minutes until cooked but still crispy. Season with shoyu. This is simple and loved by all.

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Creamy Hiziki Salad2 cups hiziki1 head shredded lettuce1 cup chopped celery1 cup matchstick carrots1 bunch broccolli cut into flowerettes1 bunch finely chopped italian parsley1 cube tofu

Dressing:2 T umeboshi3 T sesame oil1 T shoyu½ bunch finely minced scallions

Soak the hiziki until soft, then boil 15-20 minutes until it’s just cooked. Blanche the carrots, parsley, celery and broccoli - don’t boil these too long, they should still be crisp. Boil the tofu for 3 minutes and drain. Scramble the tofu and place into a big bowl. Mix all the vegies, lettuce, and hiziki in with the tofu. In a suribachi or blender, grind scallions, umeboshi, sesame oil, and shoyu. Mix into the salad and add more seasoning if needed.

Arame with Tahini3 cups arame, soaked2 carrots, cut into matchsticks1 ½ onions, cut into half moons½ jar unroasted tahinishoyu

In a frying pan or sauce pan, lightly water saute the onions, then add the carrots. Drain the arame, keeping the soaking water in a bowl. Place the arame on top of the vegetables in the pot. Add 1 ½ cups of the soaking water. Simmer with a top until the arame is tender - maybe 20 minutes. Add shoyu to taste and drizzle the tahini on top, mixing well. It’s not the prettiest dish, but it’s delicious. For looks you can add some scallions or parsley garnish on top.

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Arame with Fu3 cups arame, soaked1 burdock, cut into matchsticks1 ½ onions, cut into half moons1/2 bunch thinly sliced scallions1 package of fu ringsshoyusesame oil

Generously coat the bottom of a frying pan with sesame oil, and heat it up on a medium flame. When hot, but before it smokes, place four - five fu rings into the oil, and fry briefly on both sides until golden brown. Drain the rings on a paper bag or paper towels. Repeat this process with all the fu - about 12 pieces. Cut each fu ring into eight bite size peices. In another frying pan or heavy bottomed pan, lightly water saute the onions, then add the burdock. Cook for 15 mnutes on a low flame until it smells sweet. Add the fu pieces on top of the vegetables. Drain the arame, keeping the soaking water in a bowl, and place the arame on top of the fu in the pot. Add 2 cups of the soaking water. Simmer with a top until the fu is tender - maybe 20-30 minutes. Add shoyu to taste, and add sprinkled scallions on top for color.Serve hot.

Onion Dulse Condiment2 onions, cut into half moons2 ½ cups of dulse, soakedsea salt

Water saute the onions with a pinch of salt on a low flame, until golden, translucent and sweet smelling. This takes a long time - a much as an hour. Drain and squeeze out the dulse, making sure there are no shells in it. Add to onions, mix well, and cook for 3 minutes. Serve next to rice.

Tofu with Shiitake Kuzu Gravy2 cubes of tofu, cut into thick, chunky triangles6 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in 2 cups of water2 T kuzushoyusesame oil

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½ bunch scallions, cut thin

Fry tofu lightly in sesame oil. Drain on a paper towel or paper bag. On a pretty platter, spiral the tofu pieces, standing each on its side. Chop the shiitakes thin, and then simmer in their soaking water for 15-20 minutes until tender. Adds shoyu to taste - should be slightly salty. In a small bowl, dilute the kuzu into some water, stir well to dissolve all the lumps, then add to the shiitake liquid, stirring all the while. The kuzu will thicken it up into a ‘gravy” - once it is thick, you can leave it to bubble on a low flame for 5 minutes. Using a shallow ladle or spoon, pour the gravy over the tofu. Sprinkle the scallions on top and serve hot! Everyone will love this dish.

Blanched Vegetable Salads

Blanched veggies make a wonderful salad and satisfy ones’ desire for crunch. We want to hear the crunch of biting into a blanched salad from the other side of the room! Greens of all kinds (kale, collards, nappa, mustard, turnip, radish, arugula, all the oriental choys, watercress, parsley), carrots, rutabagas and turnips, diakon and radishes, celery, leeks, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, summer squashes and fresh peas, beans and corn all make great blanched salads, and bring a bright gorgeous color to the table. At Ionia we eat blanched salads five - ten times a week! They keep us flexible, light, open and young.

Blanching works best in a stainless pot, not too shallow nor too deep. We use a nice slotted spoon or handheld wire strainer to lift the veggies up out of the boiling water. It also helps to have a tray or platter on hand on which to spread out the freshly blanched vegetables to cool.

BASICS for blanching:

•A pinch of salt in the boiling water will help keep the nutrients in the vegetables.

•Cut the veggies thinly so that they can cook thoroughly yet stay crispy.

•Don’t pour cold water over blanched vegetables to cool them off - a lot of the light energy and taste is lost that way. Instead, spread the steaming hot veggies out on a platter or tray to cool before tossing them together in your serving bowl. This way, they won’t overcook in the bowl and ruin their ideal crunch.

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•Eat blanched salads plain sometimes, and other times with a light dressing or a sprinkle of vinegar or lemon. A wonderful simple dressing is olive oil and ume vinegar.

•Mix (light) greens with (dark) greens or mix and match wonderful bright colors with your greens. For red and purple - radishes, purple cabbage For white - daikon, turnips, cauliflower For orange/yellow - carrots, rutabaga, summer squash.

Pickles:Pickles, as well as pressed salads, are a necessary part of any well rounded grain based diet. They add beneficial micro-organisms which aid digestion. Pickling uses time, pressure and salt rather than heat as a form of cooking which transforms our raw ingredients, and therefore, for us, pickles are a much more acceptable form of salty taste at the table (rather than raw salt).

Pickling and pressed salads come in many shapes and sizes, but here are some simple ways we make pickles (the variations are endless.)

Cucumber Quick Pickles1-2 English cucumbers, sliced on the diagonal about ¼ inch thick. brown rice vinegarsea salt

In a bowl, rub sea salt into the cucumbers until they start to get a little wet. Place a small plate on top of the cucumbers, then a heavy rock or a bowl of water on top to press. Press until water is covering the cucumbers, about an hour. Strain cucumbers and sprinkle with the vinegar. Refreshing and delicious!

the pickle crockTo start an ongoing pickle crock, we bring 1 part shoyu and 4 parts water to a simmer. Then we cool this brine down to room temperature. Now we find a clean glass jar or small crock. We slice up some veggies thinly - onions, turnips and rutabega and their greens, radish and daikon and their greens, nappa cabbage and

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regular head cabbage, carrots, ginger, are all good - and layer them up in the jar. We pour the brine to cover all the veggies, cover the jar with a light piece of fabric or cheesecloth, place on the counter and let ferment all week. Once the vegetables taste “cooked” all the way through, which may take 4- 6 days, we rinse a few at a time to serve at each meal. Once the jar is empty, we slice up some more vegetables to immerse in the brine. We keep re-using the brine as long as it smells good - if it gets weak, we simply add a few more squirts of shoyu. If mold grows on the top of the brine, then we discard it and start over fresh.

A variation of this is to start with 1 part shoyu, 1 part brown rice vinegar and 3 parts water. This is especially delicious with rutabagas.

the pickle crock #2A salt brine is also nice - sometimes we add dill for summery flavor or red peppers for kimchee. We use unrefined sea salt, about 1T per cup of water, and proceed as above. Good vegetables for this pickling jar are pickling cucumbers (used whole), nappa cabbage, cabbage, onions, cauliflower.

the pickle crock #3Refreshing delicious and prettily pink pickles are made in a brine of 1 part ume vinegar, to 3 parts water and sliced ginger . (The ginger is for flavoring the brine, not for eating). The best vegetables for this brine are diakon, radishes, white turnips, purple onions, cabbage, purple cabbage and nappa cabbage - all sliced thinly.

Pressed Salad

Pressed salads are a very refreshing side dish and add freshness, crunch and uplifting energy to our meals all year. The key to making refreshing pressed salad, we’ve learned, is to slice the vegetables very very thinly and use as little salt as possible by massaging the vegetables thoroughly. Cutting thinly takes a good sharp knife, big cutting board and practice.

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We use 2 - 5 vegetables at a time: green cabbage, nappa cabbage, radishes, diakon, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, turnips, bok choy, celery - also sometimes pears, apples, oranges or wakame seaweed. After slicing thinly, we mix the shredded vegetables in a big bowl and sprinkle with salt - it looks like a meadow barely dusted with snow. With clean hands, we deliberately massage the salt into the vegetables until they start to “weep”. For cucumbers, this happens quickly. For cabbage, it takes some time. If the vegetables don’t release lots of juice, we add a bit more salt. Once the vegetables feel limp and quite juicy, then we press with a heavy weight for 1 - 3 hours. A straight sided bowl or crock works best for thorough pressing: we gather the veggies into a pile, place a small plate on top, and a river rock or jar full of water on top as a weight. The plate must not touch the sides of the bowl. The salad is done when it no longer tastes “raw” - ideally, it should not taste salty either, but if it does then we rinse it off. We discard all the excess juice. We like it best served plain or with a light dressing. Here are favorite Ionia dressings: grated carrot and grated green apple; mashed tofu, olive oil and brown rice vinegar; tahini, lemon juice and a dash of brown rice syrup.

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Soups and Stews

Creamy Squash Soup1 1/2 butternut or buttercup squash, cut into big chunks3 onions, cut into big chunks1 cauliflower, in small flowerettes1 bunch of cilantro or parsley, mincedsmall pinch of saltdash ume vinegardash shoyu

In a big soup pot, layer the onions, squash a small pinch of salt, and enough water to not quite cover the vegetables. Boil for 20-30 minutes. Blend up until creamy, and place the puree back into the soup pot. Add cauliflower, and very small amounts of shoyu and ume vinegar to season. It should taste sweet and mild. Serve with minced cilantro or parsley garnish.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup2 cauliflower, cut into big chunks3 onions, cut into big chunkssea salt2 leeks, cut into thin slicesshoyusesame oil

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In a big soup pot, layer the onions, cauliflower, a small pinch of salt, and enough water to not quite cover the vegetables. Boil the vegetables for 20 minutes until soft. Blend up until creamy, and place the puree back into the soup pot. Add several pinches of salt for seasoning - should be very mild. Saute the leeks in a bit of sesame oil, until soft. As the leeks get soft and sweet, season with shoyu to taste. Serve the soup into bowls, and place a spoonful of leeks in the middle as garnish/flavoring.

Simplest Aduki SoupNo one ever tires of this rich bean soup because it is so simply delicious:

2 cups aduki beans8 cups water1 small piece of kombu sea vegetableFresh ginger, grated1 onion, dicedShoyu to taste

Soak beans overnight in 8 cups of water and small piece of kombu. Bring to pressure in a pressure cooker, place a flame tamer under your pot and simmer for 45 minutes on a low flame. In a separate soup pot, barely cover the onions in water and simmer for 15 minutes. Once the adukis are done, pour cold water over the pressure cooker to carefully bring down from pressure, and then pour the aduki beans with their broth over the onions. Simmer all together for 5-10 minutes, then add shoyu to taste. Squeeze the juice from the grated ginger and add that to taste. Serve hot and top with minced parsley if you wish.

Barley Soup1/2 cup pearl barley1/4 cup diced onion1/4 cup diced carrot1/4 cup button mushrooms halved1 1/2 tablespoons white miso1 tablespoon shoyu1 pinch sea salt Place barley in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water and bring up to pressure. Lower the heat, place on a flame deflector and cook for 45 minutes. Transfer to a

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pot, add the vegetables and mushrooms and extra water if need be (there should be enough liquid to just cover everything.) Simmer for another 20 minutes. Remove a ladle of broth from the soup, place in a bowl and with a spoon, mix in the miso until completely dissolved. Return broth to the soup, add the salt and shoyu continuing to simmer for a further 2 minutes and being careful not to boil it.

Magic Miso Soup1 onion, sliced in thin half moonsOther sweet veggies, sliced thinlyA handful of wakame sea vegetable6 cups water1 cup barley miso

Layer the onions in the bottom of a soup pot, and add water to cover. Bring up to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add any sweet vegetables that you have - carrots, daikon radish, cabbage, squash, turnips, leeks - also sliced thinly. Layer the the vegetables one at a time, hardest to softest, in the simmering water. Then add enough water to make a brothy soup, and let it come to a gentle boil. Soak the wakame in some cool water for 5 minutes or until soft and shiny. Slice in small bite sized pieces, and add to the simmering broth. Cook for 5 minutes, then turn off the flame.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup miso with 1 cup of your soup broth. Mix well until the miso is completely dissolved in the broth. Add the mixture into your soup. The broth should taste mildly salty and sweet. Add more miso as desired (in the same way - dissolving in hot broth before adding to the soup.)

Magic Mochi Patties in Miso Soup

At Ionia, we have found this dish to be guaranteed to give nursing moms tons of rich breast milk for our babies within twelve hours. We give it to our new mothers once or twice a day in the first two weeks after birth - then as desired or needed thereafter for as long as we are breastfeeding. It is rich and delicious! It is an Ionian tradition to rest in bed for 3 - 4 weeks after birth with our newborn, so that we really have the time to get used to our new motherhood, heal and refind our strength and center after the last nine months of pregnancy. Making mochi and miso soup is a great way for the family to support this process and contribute to welcoming the new baby.

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Make as much or as little mochi at a time as you like - it will stay in the fridge up to a week. This recipe calls for 8 cups of sweet rice, which will give you enough mochi for 8 - 11 big portions.

Basic Mochi Dough:8 cups of sweet brown rice8 cups of water8 pinches of sea salt

Combine ingredients in a pressure cooker and soak for 6 - 10 hours. Bring to pressure on a high flame, then place a flame tamer under your pot and simmer on low for 30 minutes. While still hot, pound vigorously with the biggest wooden pestle you can find, a clean wooden baseball bat, or potato masher for 15 minutes until the rice starts to resemble a sticky dough. OR alternatively, push the rice through a Corona hand flour mill (using a pestle to press the rice through the mill) to produce a sticky dough. (NOTE: Mochi is very sticky. Handling your mochi dough is much easier if you dip your pestle and spoons into a bowl of water as you go.)

Flatten the mochi dough into a tray or baking pan with your hands (again, wet your hands for easiest handling). Keep in the fridge until you are ready to fry a piece for eating.

fried mochi patties:

Heat up a pan with fair amount of sesame or other vegetable oil on med heat. Spoon a chunk of mochi into the pan and let fry for 5 - 8 minutes, until golden brown and crispy. It will start to melt into a pancake in the pan - help it along with your spatula. Once it is crispy and golden on the bottom side, flip the mochi patty over and fry until golden on the opposite side. Add more oil as desired as you fry, turning the flame down if it starts to burn or stick. When crispy and golden on each side, scoop the patty out with your spatula into a large soup bowl. Top with raw sliced scallions. Pour a generous portion of miso soup over your fried mochi patty. Eat while hot! If you are breast feeding and need more or richer milk, eat this in the morning and and fry another mochi patty later in the day. (Make enough soup for two portions). Now wait for the milk to come...

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Desserts

Fruit Compotes

Stew up apples, pears, peaches or berries with a bit of water and pinch of salt. Sometimes we add fruit juice, raisins or a dollop of brown rice syrup for more sweetness. For maximum digestibility, we dissolve some kuzu root starch in a cup of cold water, then stir it into the bubbling simmering fruit to thicken up the juices and make the dish more like a fruit pudding.

Best Loved Apple or Berry Pie

Our crust is 1 cup pastry flour, 1 cup white flour, salt, 1/2 cup sunflower or safflower oil and 1/2 cup water. We knead it very little for a manageable, flaky dough. The filling is raw fruit mixed with powdered kuzu, brown rice syrup or maple syrup, salt, vanilla and cinnamon. We bake it all together at 350 degrees until golden and cool before serving with a sweet creme topping.

Frothy Fruit Kantan

For a lighter fruit dessert, we soak kantan flakes in apple juice- 1 T per cup of liquid - for 10 minutes or so. Then, we bring to a boil and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes. While the juices are simmering, we cut up some fresh soft fruits, such as berries, melons, peaches and place them in the bottom of a baking dish. Then we pour the

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simmering juice over the fresh fruit, and place in a cool spot for an hour or more, until it sets up like jello. This is a refreshing summer dessert which everyone loves. We top it with some mint leaves or sweet creme and fresh berries. Another version of kantan is blended fruit pudding - once the kantan is firm we simply blend it, then top with sweet creme, toasted nuts or fresh berries.

3 versions of Sweet Cremes

To make sweet creme from nuts: We boil almonds or pecans for 20 minutes, then peel the almonds, then blend with vanilla and brown rice syrup until smooth and creamy.

To make sweet creme from tofu: We blend fresh raw tofu with vanilla and brown rice syrup until creamy.

To make sweet creme from oat milk or rice milk: Rather than using fruit juice, we make a small kantan with oat milk or rice milk that is sweetened up with rice syrup. Once it is firm, we blend it until creamy.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/4 cup white flour2/3 cup rolled oats1/4 cup raisins1/4 cup walnuts1/3 cup brown rice syrup3 tablespoons safflower oil1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract1 pinch sea salt1/4 teaspoon baking powder

In two bowls separately mix dry and wet ingredients together. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir together until an even mix is obtained. Preheat oven to 350 F. Oil a baking sheet with some extra safflower oil and place a wooden

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spoonful at a time of cookie dough onto the sheet, using your fingers to create the right size and shape. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Apple Burritos

4 cups diced apple4 medium sized tortillas1/4 cup brown rice syrupSunflower oil for pan frying3 tablespoons arrow root flourPlain flour to seal tortillas1 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract1 pinch sea salt

Place apples, rices syrup, salt, vanilla extract and cinnamon in a pot. Add 1/4 cup of water, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer with a lid on for 30 minutes. Add the arrow root flour and mix in well to prevent lumps from forming. The apples should be nicely cooked down, with a thick, syrupy juice. Remove from stove and set aside. Take a tortilla and laying it flat, spoon some of the apple in the middle, slightly to one side of the center and a couple of inches in from the edges so it has a sausage like shape. Fold in the edges then roll the tortilla so it looks like a burrito. Seal the edges with a paste made from plain flour and water mixed together. Heat a frying pan with enough oil in the bottom to cover the whole thing but not enough to actually shallow fry. Place one or two of the burritos in the bottom of the pan (depending on its size) with the sealed edge down and cook until golden brown. The pan should not get so hot that the oil smokes. Once done on one side, flip it over and cook the other side, then serve.

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Ionia Community Recipes