Raw hommus

150 g chickpeas, sprouted
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon, juiced
125 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
1 carrot, grated
30 g raw sesame seeds, freshly ground
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
60 ml water
1/2 tsp cummin
ground pepper

Optional
1 cup chopped celery
1-2 tbsp dry basil or 1 cup fresh basil


1. Soak chickpeas for 12-24 hours, changing water every 12 hours, until they are doubled in size. Drain, cover container opening with a fine mesh, turn jar upside down at 45° and let sit for 2 to 3 days, until the sprouts are about 1-2 cm long. Rinse once or twice a day.

2. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat, and let stand for 1 minute. Put the sprouted chickpeas in the hot water, and let sit for 1 minute. Drain. If you do not do this step, the hommus will be awful.

3. Place the chickpeas into a blender or food processor. Add the other ingredients. Blend until smooth. It will take a few minutes to blend. Let sit in the blender for 5 minutes to allow the beans to absorb as much of the water as possible. If too thick, add more water, and blend again.


This recipe tastes so rich you almost think it has cheese in it.

Sources
- Raw Hummus
- How Do You Make "Raw" Home-Made Hummus? (VIDEO)

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Immune boosting health drink

200 ml homemade natural full-fat non-sugar yoghurt
1 free-range organic egg yolk
2 tbsp cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamon
1 tsp (5 ml) olive leaf extract
5 g raw organic ginger with skin
1 sprig fresh rosemary, stem removed
1 tbsp flaxseed/linseed, freshly ground (don't use pre-ground!)
some fresh or frozen (defrosted) blueberries
some fresh or frozen (defrosted) raspberries

Place ingredients together in a blender, and blend until everything is fine and well mixed.


Notes:

* If possible, it's best to use non-homogenised hormone-free full-fat milk from grass-fed cows to make yoghurt.

* Free-range organic eggs are much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, having a ratio of around 1:1 Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids. Use the egg white for cooking, because raw egg white contains enzyme inhibitors.

* Olive oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and antioxidants. It is best eaten uncooked to get the most benefits out of it.

* Cinnamon has antibacterial, antiseptic, antifungal and digestive properties (among others). It has been found to lower blood glucose, LDL cholesterol, and total cholesterol.

* Flaxseed oil is not very light and heat stable, so only buy seed and grind before use. Keep seed in a cool, dry and dark place such as in the refrigerator.

Flaxseed should be bound with sulphur-based proteins, found in foods such as yoghurt, cottage cheese, Quark and garlic. This converts the rich source of fatty acids in flaxseed more available in the body.
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Soaking nuts

Unlike grains, nuts contain smaller amounts of phytic acid. Their real issue for us are their high amounts of enzyme inhibitors. These enzymes inhibitors are useful to seeds and nuts because they prevent premature sprouting, but they can really strain your digestive system.

- http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html
- Nourishing Traditions, 2nd edition


Almonds

600 g (4 cups) almonds, preferably skinless or almond slivers
1 tbsp (15 g) sea salt
filtered water

Soaking time: At least 7 hours (can do overnight)
Dehydrating Time: 12-24 hours at about 35 °C, until completely dry and crisp


Pecans and Walnuts

400 g (4 cups) of nuts
2 tsp (10 g) sea salt
filtered water

Soaking time: 7 or more hours (can do overnight)
Dehydrating Time: 12-24 hours at about 35 °C, until completely dry and crisp

Pecans can be stored in an airtight container, but walnuts are more susceptible to become rancid so should always be stored in the refrigerator.


Macadamia nuts

4 cups of raw macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon sea salt
filtered water

Soaking time: At least 7 hours or overnight
Dehydrating Time: 12-24 hours at about 35 °C, until completely dry and crisp


Cashews

4 cups of "raw" cashews
1 tbsp (15 g) sea salt
filtered water

"Some care must be taken in preparing cashews. They will become slimy and develop a disagreeable taste if allowed to soak too long or are dried out too slowly, perhaps because they come to us not truly raw but having already undergone two separate heatings. You may dry them in a 90-120 °C oven since the enzymes have already been destroyed during processing."

Soaking time: 6 hours, no longer
Dehydrate at 90 °C for 12-24 hours
Store in an airtight container
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Ausstecherle - Cut-out Biscuits

250 g flour
125 g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
125 g butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 drops almond essence
50 g almonds, finely ground

Sift flour and baking powder onto the kitchen bench, and with the sugar make a pile with a hole in the middle with butter place around the outside.

Put the egg in the centre with the vanilla and almond essence.

Kneed all the ingredients together into a nice dough. Kneed in the ground almonds. Add a little more flour if the dough is too wet.

Prepare greased oven trays or line with baking paper.

Divide the dough into smaller parts. Sprinkle flour on the bench and roll out part of the dough.

Use cut-out shapes and cut out pieces of the dough and place them on the baking trays.

Pre-heat oven at 200°C and bake for about 10 minutes.
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Mocha Macadamia Cookies

125 g butter, chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence
250 g brown sugar
1 egg
3 tsp dry instant coffee
1 tbsp Tia Maria, Kahlua or Baileys
2 tbsp cocoa
225 g plain flour
185 g chopped macadamias, toasted
1 cup sultanas

Beat butter, vanilla essence, sugar and egg with combined coffee and liqueur in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth.

Stir in dry ingredients and nuts.

Drop level tablespoons of mixture about 5cm apart onto greased oven trays, flattened slightly with a floured fork.

Bake at 200°C for about 15 minutes or until firm.

Makes about 35.

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Apple and cinnamon cheese cake

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]




The base - gluten free dough recipe

180 g rice flour
20 g cornflour
20 g potato flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 g sugar
100 g butter
2 eggs

Base - original dough recipe:
200 g flour
100 g butter (softened)
50 g sugar
1 egg

Weigh out cream cheese first (see Topping section below), and let stand to let it get soft.

Knead all ingredients together for the base, roll out, and place in a greased round cake dish (about 25 cm diameter). Prick the base with a fork to allow any air to escape and stop it from rising.

This dough is quite fragile, so it will probably need some piecing together to get it all in the pie dish.

Alternatively, instead of rolling the base out, put the dough in the cake dish and shape it to cover the bottom and sides.


The filling

2 apples, peeled and sliced
some raisins
sugar
cinnamon

In a small bowl, cover the apple pieces with some sugar and cinnamon and mix. Sprinkle a handful of raisins on the base and cover with apples. Bake the base and apples at 200°C for 15-20 minutes (or until apples softened and base is light brown).


Topping

250 g cream cheese (softened)
125 g yoghurt
some milk
2 tbsp cornflour
3 egg whites
100 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese, yoghurt and cornflour with an electric hand mixer. If mixture is too thick add some milk or more yoghurt. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs with an electic hand mixer until hard, then add sugar and vanilla essence and continue mixing. Gently fold into cream cheese and yoghurt mixture and the pour topping over the hot base and apples. Bake at 200°C for another 20 minutes or until set.


Notes:
If you want to make a plain cheese cake (without apples) simply double the quantities of the other ingredients for the topping, but use 5 egg whites.
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Potato cakes with bacon

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

1 kg potatoes, peeled and grated
1 onion, finely diced
150 g bacon, diced
3 eggs
60 g rice flour
40 g cornflour
salt and pepper to taste

Regular recipe:
100 g wheat flour, instead of rice flour and cornflour

Mix potato, onion and bacon together in a large bowl. Beat egg, and mix in with potato. Add flour, salt and pepper and mix in.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and spoon on mixture with a ladle or large spoon. Press down with a spatula and make into a round shape. Fry both sides until golden brown.
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Chocolate cornflake biscuits

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

Cups are metric cups; 1 cup = 250 ml

60 g (2 cups) cornflakes
220 g butter
80 g (1/2 cup) caster sugar (or white sugar ground in a food processor)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp desiccated coconut

Wheat-free use:
100 g rice flour
60 g cornflour
20 g potato flour
10 g rice bran or nuka in Japanese
10 g almonds, finely ground (optional)
1 tsp baking powder

(instead of self-raising & plain flour)

Icing

2 heaped tsp butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 level tbsp cocoa
few drops vanilla extract
1 tbsp boiling water


Using a rolling pin or other blunt instrument, lightly crush the cornflakes in a plastic bag.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until light. Sift the flours and cocoa together and add the lightly crushed cornflakes and coconut. Add to the butter/sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. Form into walnut-sized balls, place slightly flattened on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper. It may be a little crumbly but it holds when baked.

Bake in 180°C oven for about 12-15 minutes. Remove from trays and leave to cool on a wire rack. Ice when cool.

To make the icing, first melt the butter. Sift the icing sugar together with the cocoa. Add the melted butter, a few drops vanilla and then the boiling water. Beat well. Use while still warm. (This icing will thicken as it cools. If you prefer a thick dollop of icing, allow to cool more before using.)

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/03/1054406179626.html
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Fruit jelly

2 cans of fruit with syrup
fresh mint leaves (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice
4 tsp of gelatine
4 tbsp cold water

Put the gelatine in a bowl and add water. Allow it to dissolve for a few minutes and then put in the microwave and heat on high for 30 seconds.

Put the mint leaves in a container and the fruit on top. Pour the syrup into a separate bowl. Add lemon juice to the syrup as well as the dissolved gelatine and mix well. Then pour it over the top of the fruit in the container.

Place in the refrigerator until set.

* Use 4 teaspoons of gelatine for every 200 ml of juice. If the juice is less than 200 ml, make up to 200 ml with water.
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Burnt Butter Biscuits

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

125 g butter
125 g sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 g rice flour
60 g cornflour
20 g potato flour
25 g almonds, finely ground (optional)
1 tsp baking powder

Melt butter and sugar in saucepan, on low heat, until it is light brown. Cool slightly. Pour mixture into mixing bowl. Stir in egg and vanilla. Mix flour and other dry ingredients together and then add to the butter and sugar. Mix to a stiff consistency.

Using two spoons drop portions of dough on an oven tray covered in non-stick baking paper. Allow some space for mixture to spread during baking.

Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes until golden brown.
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Ginger Biscuits

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

180 g rice flour
50 g potato flour
20 g cornflour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves (optional)
150 g brown sugar
50 g white sugar
35 g ginger, finely chopped
100 g butter
30 g pecan nuts, finely chopped
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp milk
1 egg

1. Put the rice flour, potato flour, cornflour, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a mixing bowl and mix together well. Add sugar and mix in. If the sugar has lumps, put it through a sieve first. Add ginger, nuts and butter and rub the butter into the dry ingredients.

2. Put baking soda in a mixing bowl and dissolve in the milk. Add egg and beat into the mixture. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well until a smooth dough is formed.

3. Put baking paper on a baking tray. Flour your fingers and then form small balls of dough and place them on the tray. Pat each one down a little. Always lightly flour fingers before forming each ball, and handle the dough lightly and quickly because it sticks to the fingers.

4. Bake at 200°C for about 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool a little and then place biscuits on cooling racks.
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Potato, carrot, onion and corn cream stew

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

750 ml (3 metric cups) water
4-5 potatoes, cut into medium-sized pieces
2 carrots, cut into medium-sized pieces
1/4 Japanese daikon radish, cut into medium-sized pieces (optional)
2 chicken stock cubes
1 onion, diced
2 bay leaves
Italian herbs
5 tbsp cornflour
200 ml milk
1 can sweet corn, drained
Ham, cut into small chunks
salt to taste and/or Veggie Salt (if available)
Maggi seasoning and/or some soy sauce

1. Put the water in the pressure cooker together with the potatoes, carrots, daikon and chicken stock cubes and pressure cook for about 5 minutes.

2. In a small saucepan over a low heat steam fry the onions with bay leaves and Italian herbs in olive oil with the lid on. Once soft, turn off the heat and add about 5 tbsp cornflour, enough to soak up all the moisture. Mix the cornflour in and then slowly stir in the milk, a little at a time to avoid lumps.

3. Let the pot depressurise and add the onions and cream sauce as well as the ham, corn and salt and spices. Mix in and simmer over a low heat, stirring regularly until it thickens.
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Pizza bases from potato

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]




4 medium potatoes, grated and stained of water
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
50 g rice flour
50 g cornflour
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (or some normal grated cheese)
salt and pepper
Italian herbs

1. Peel and grate the potatoes. Use a stainer to squeeze out any excess water. Microwave on high for 2 minutes on some paper towelling.

2. In a bowl whisk the eggs and then add milk, rice flour and cornflour, cheese, salt and pepper and Italian herbs and mix well. Then add the grated potatoes and mix well.

3. Oil a shallow pizza pan which can be put in the oven and pour in the potato mixture. Press down a little to make it flat. Alternatively, use baking paper in the pan instead of oil.



4. Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 20 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and add tomato puree, some cheese, topping and some more cheese on top. See topping ideas below.

6. Put back into the oven and bake for about another 15-20 minutes, until golden on top.


Topping ideas

- 1/2 can chopped tomatoes, with any watery part removed
- capsicum
- ham
- onion, finely diced
- chicken marinated in soy sauce
- grated cheese. For extra cheese, put some on the tomato puree underneath the other topping, and some on the very top.
- 2 eggs, whisked and poured on top of the cheese (just before it goes in the oven). This will make the pizza a little quiche-like. For a small pizza use only 1 egg. You might need to extend the time a little for the egg to cook through.
- pineapple pieces & ham for a Hawaiian pizza
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Vegetable and chicken soup

2 carrots
1/4 Japanese daikon radish
2 cubes of chicken stock
1500 ml water
330 g tofu
Maggi seasoning
Chicken thigh, cut into pieces
Salt and pepper

1. Cut carrots and daikon radish into small chunks and put in pressure cooker. Salt the chicken and put in the cooker. Add water.

2. Cook for about 9-10 minutes on high pressure.

3. Add tofu and sit for a few minutes before serving.
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Apple cake

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

1-2 apples
cinnamon
40 g walnuts or pecan nuts, chopped (optional)
150 g rice flour
30 g cornflour
2 eggs
80 g sugar
50 ml olive oil
1 tsp baking powder

1. Peel the apples and slice them into pieces and sprinkle with cinnamon. Combine with chopped nuts. Set aside.

2. Beat eggs with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar slowly while mixing, and then the olive oil.

3. Mix the rice flour, cornflour and baking powder together, and then add to the egg mixture.

4. Add the apples and mix well.

5. Line a round cake/pie dish (of about 25 cm diameter) with oven paper and pour the dough mixture into the dish.

6. Bake at 180°C for 40 minutes.
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Garden salad with herbs

1 head lettuce
1 carrot, thinnly sliced with a peeler
a few leaves mint
a few leaves sweet basil
a few leaves red basil
a few leaves lemon balm
a branch of parsley
salt, to taste
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
some Maggi Original Seasoning, to taste

Cut the lettuce into medium sized pieces and put in a large bowl. Peel the carrot and thinnly slice with a peeler.

Using kitchen scissors, cut the herbs and add to salad. Put the parsley into a cup and finely cut with scissors and add to salad.

Lightly salt the salad. Add olive oil, vinegar and some Maggi Seasoning, to taste. Gently mix.


Notes:
All herbs in this recipe are fresh, not dried. Any herbs which are unavailable, simply omit them.

If you don't want to serve the salad immediately, you can salt it, but only add the olive oil, vinegar and Maggi just before serving. Once you add those ingredients, it will lose a lot of its volume.
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Banana and nut pound cake

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]



160 g rice flour
40 g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
40 g walnuts or pecan nuts, chopped
20 g dark or normal chocolate (optional)
2 very ripe bananas
15 g (1 tbsp) lemon juice
3 eggs
80 g sugar
80 g olive oil

Mash bananas and mix in the lemon juice.

Beat eggs with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar slowly while mixing, and then the olive oil.

In a bowl combine the rice flour, cornflour, baking powder and baking soda, and mix evenly.

Add the egg and the banana mixtures to the flour and mix well. Then pour the dough into a rectangular oven dish lined with oven paper, and bake for 40 minutes at 180°C.
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Homemade gluten-free pasta

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

120 g rice flour
90 g besan (chickpea) flour
90 g potato flour
30 g potenta (maize meal)
4 eggs
1 tsp olive oil

Weigh out the flour and put in a bowl. Mix well before adding the remaining wet ingredients. Kneed together until a good dough is formed.


Follow the steps below using a pasta machine, like the Marcato Atlas:

Put a small portion of dough through the rollers on the widest setting. With the first pass it doesn't come out very good. It tends to come out a bit in tatters, but flat.

Fold it up to make a kind of rectangular piece and pass it through a few more times. It should improve with a few passes through the rollers. It's probably enough to only use the widest roller setting when making gluten-free pasta.

Once you have a nice long sheet it's ready for the final step. Sprinkle some rice flour on the table, and lightly dust both sides of the dough sheet. Dusting the dough with flour keeps it from sticking to the cutters so it passes through easily. It also helps keep the final pasta from sticking together as well.

Now pass the sheet of dough through the cutters and place the cut pasta on a tray, ready for cooking.


Cooking the pasta

Bring plenty of water to boil. If you don't use enough water, the pasta is more likely to stick together because it doesn't have room to move while cooking. 1 or 2 tbsp olive oil can also help prevent pasta sticking.

Fresh pasta takes longer to prepare, but it cooks in only a few minutes. Soon after it rises to the surface during boiling it's done. Make sure you have the sauce ready before you start boiling the pasta.


Dough going through the cutter


Finished pasta
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Black sesame pudding

This is a similar recipe to vanilla custard pudding without vanilla, and using black sesame paste instead. For how to make the paste, click here.

2-3 tbsp sugar (depending on desired sweetness)
5 tbsp corn flour
500 ml milk
1 tbsp black sesame paste

1. In a saucepan, blend sugar, corn flour and milk together. Slowly bring to boil over low heat, mixing continuously with a whisk until thick.

2. Thoroughly mix in the sesame paste at the end and pour into bowls. Let cool and then put in the refrigerator. Serve when chilled.


Notes:
To avoid pudding from forming a skin layer during cooling, rest cling wrap or other plastic directly on the cooling pudding surface.
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Baked Beans in Tomato

250g navy beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1250 ml (5 cups) water

Cook beans with water and olive oil in pressure cooker for about 20 minutes. Cook at high pressure and use the natural release method to drop the pressure.

Do not add any seasonings that are salty or acidic until after the beans have been cooked, since adding them earlier will make the beans tough and greatly increase the cooking time. The oil will minimise foaming.

Sauce

1 onion, finely chopped and fried
1 clove crushed garlic, fried with onion
1 can tomatoes, pureed
1 can of corn, drained and pureed (optional)
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 beef stock cube
1 tbsp sake (optional)
2 tbsp cornflour, mixed with a little water to thicken sauce (if necessary)

Fry the onion and garlic in a frying pan. Puree tomatoes and corn in a blender. Combine ingredients in a large pot and let simmer until beans and tomato get fairly thick.

If you use corn pureed with tomatoes you probably won't need any cornflour to thicken at the end. Save the water from the corn and add to the sauce if necessary.

Serve on toast, with corn chips, mashed potatoes, or whatever you like.
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Black Sesame Paste

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

100 g black sesame seeds (toasted)



Black sesame seeds in the blender


After the first blend


More blending


Keep blending until the oil starts to come out


Black sesame paste


The trick with this is to keep grinding/blending the toasted sesame repeatedly, over and over, until you get the oil coming out. The more you grind it, the more oil you get, until you have a nice paste. It's amazing how it changes into an oily paste.

Try mixing a little of the paste with some vanilla ice cream... Actually, I got inspired after eating Haagen Dazs Black Sesame ice cream!


Black sesame paste mixed with vanilla ice cream
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Drinking Yoghurt

400 g yoghurt
500 ml water
a few drops of vanilla essence (optional)

Place yoghurt in a large mixing bowl. Beat with a hand mixer on a slow speed until well blended. Add cold water gradually, mixing well. Serve cold. Store refrigerated.


This recipe is based on ayran, a traditional Turkish yoghurt drink which usually contains a little salt. It is drunk as a refreshing drink with meals to help digestion and is especially good with hot spicy foods because milk products have a cooling effect.

I use Matsoni (called Caspian Sea Yoghurt in Japan) which is a mild tasting yoghurt that tastes great natural, or with fruit. It stirs easily into water.
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Cornflour Pancakes

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]




220 g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp (10 g) baking soda
2 large eggs, beaten
500 ml milk
Butter for frying

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and then add the milk. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk.

Heat the frying pan with a little butter. Add one or two scoops of batter to the frying pan and fry on both sides until golden brown. Mix the batter a little before each scoop.

Serve with your favourite topping. Leftover pancakes can be sliced into thin strips and added to a chicken soup.


Notes:
A non-stick frying pan is probably best for ease of cooking.
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Polenta (maize) with egg and meat sauce

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]




Polenta

150 g polenta
600 ml milk
200 ml water

Put polenta in a pressure cooker tray without holes and pour the milk and water over it.


Polenta in the pressure cooker tray


Pour milk over the polenta

Cook for 10-15 minutes and let cool a little. Cut into strips and spoon out.


Cooked polenta


Cut cooked polenta into strips


Egg mixture

3 eggs
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning (herbs)

Heat frying pan with olive oil, place polenta strips in the pan and lightly fry. Pour over the egg mixture and fry until lightly cooked.

Serve with your favourite meat and tomato sauce.



Fry polenta


Pour eggs over the top and fry
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Real ginger tea

This is a great tea to make, especially in winter.




Simply grate a little fresh ginger and add it to boiling water with some honey.
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German fruit cake with egg white topping

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]



The base - gluten free dough recipe
180 g rice flour
20 g cornflour
20 g potato flour
50 g sugar
100 g butter
2 eggs

NB. This dough is quite fragile, so it will probably need some piecing together to get it all in the pie dish.

The base - original dough recipe
200 g plain flour
100 g butter
50 g sugar
1 egg

The filling
Approx. 500 g apricots
4-5 egg whites
100 g white sugar

Knead all the ingredients for the base together, until it makes a pliable dough. Roll it out and put it into a round cake dish (of about 25cm diameter, 5cm deep) greased with butter. Poke the base down with the pointy end of a chopstick to stop it lifting in the middle during baking. Cover the dough with fruit and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes.

While the fruit is baking, beat the egg whites until very stiff and the slowly mix in sugar. When base is ready, remove from oven and quickly cover with egg white topping, make smooth and bake for another 10 minutes or until egg white is light brown on top.

Notes:
You can use all kinds of fruit, such as peaches, grapes, blueberries, gooseberries, red currants, plums, apples.
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Lentil and bacon sauce for pasta

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

The first thing you need to do is cook the lentils. What you need is:

375g lentils
750ml water

Make sure you examine lentils before cooking by spreading them out on the kitchen table so that you can easily see and discard any small stones, dirt, or damaged ones. Then place the lentils in a strainer and rinse them under cold water. There's no need to pre-soak lentils when using a pressure cooker.

Cook the lentils in a pressure cooker tray in water for 16-18 minutes. If some end up a little overcooked that will make a thicker sauce.



Lentils in water before cooking



Cooked lentils


1 onion, diced
200g bacon, chopped
Mixed herbs
1 or 2 bay leaves
2 tbsp flour (rice flour is fine if you want to avoid wheat)
500ml water, saved from cooking the lentils
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp mustard
3 tbsp soy sauce
Salt and pepper

1. Fry onions in oil with bacon and mixed herbs. I use Italian Seasoning which contains basil, oregano, parsley, paprika, garlic, onion and rosemary. Cook until onions are soft.

2. Mix in the flour so it absorbs all the oil.


After frying the onion and bacon, add flour and mix it in



The flour should soak up all of the oil


3. Slowly stir in the water to make a sauce.



Slowly add water, mixing continuously to avoid forming lumps


4. Add the remaining ingredients togeter with the cooked lentils. Simmer until it becomes thicker. If necessary add more water.



After simmering the sauce will get thicker


Serves about 5
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Thai green curry

I often make Thai green curry with potatoes and chicken as the main ingredients. Recently I started making it with the pressure cooker, rather than in a big pot.

Here's how I make it:

3-5 potatoes, diced
200ml water
300-400g chicken pieces
1 tbsp chopped ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
1 onion, halved and thickly sliced
1 large red or green capsicum, thickly sliced
1-2 egg plant
250g pre-cooked bamboo shoot
50g green curry paste
400ml coconut milk
3 tbsp soy sauce
Your favourite herb spices
Dried potato flakes (to thicken at the end)


1. Fry the onion, ginger, garlic and chicken a little in a frying pan.

2. Put the vegetables in the pressure cooker with the water. Then place the chicken and onions on top.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the coconut milk with the remaining ingredients (except the potato flakes). Pour this liquid over the vegetables and chicken in the pressure cooker.

4. Close the pressure cooker and heat on fast speed setting, cook for 8 minutes once it reaches the correct pressure.

5. Depressurise and let sit with the lid on for a few minutes. Thicken the curry with potato flakes as you like it.


Notes:
If you don't have all the ingredients, you can substitute something else instead. A little pumpkin with this is good too. Just chop it up and boil it with the potato.

I get my Thai green curry pasta in Osaka at Yamaya, which is in the OCAT Building near JR Namba station. They have lots of other import stuff at fairly good prices.
http://www.yamaya.jp/
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Hommus dip

I always bought hommus dip ready made, but since it's not available in Japan I found out how to make it at home. Most of the ingredients are easy to get except chickpeas.

What you need:

200 g dry chickpeas
1000 ml water

1. You need about 1 cm of water at the bottom of the pressure cooker. Place the chickpeas in a pressure cooker tray with the 1000 ml of water.


Pressure cooker tray


2. Close the pressure cooker and heat on fast speed setting, cook for 25-30 minutes once it reaches the correct pressure. Chickpeas can tolerate extra cooking, so don't worry too much about over-cooking them.


Fissler pressure cooker


Chickpeas, cooked and drained
1 clove garlic, minced
30 g sesame seeds, ground
1 tbsp sesame oil
125 ml natural yoghurt
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar (for flavour and preservative properties)
1 tsp sea salt
ground pepper
60 ml water

Optional
20 g fresh coriander
1/2 tsp cummin
a few leaves lemon balm


Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until it makes a smooth paste. A food processor is probably best because blenders can be a bit weak for chopping up thicker stuff.

Suitable to freeze.


Notes:
Chickpeas, navy beans, lentils and other beans are available at these distributors in Osaka for about 400 yen/kg:

http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~daiwa/
They usually have everything in stock, are a bit cheaper than the company below, and are probably easier to find.

http://www.daiyu-kobe.jp/
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Nikujaga in the pressure cooker

Nikujaga (肉じゃが) is a popular dish in Japan. Here's how to make it using a pressure cooker:

200-300g thinly sliced beef
5-6 potatoes, peeled and diced
1-2 carrots, thickly sliced
1 onion, halved and thickly sliced
1 packet of ito-konnyaku (spaghetti type)


Spice mixture (mix together)

300ml hot water (from the tap)
1 packet dashinomoto (seaweed spice)
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sake
2 tbsp sugar (dissolve in a little hot water)


1. Rinse konnyaku in hot water, cut into shorter lengths and set aside. Fry meat and onions until a little brown.

2. Pile the vegetables into the pressure cooker with the meat, onions and konnyaku on top.

3. Pour the water and spice mixture over the vegetables and meat, and ensure that there is enough liquid at the bottom of the pressure cooker.


Before cooking


4. Close the pressure cooker and heat on fast speed setting, cook for 8 minutes once it reaches the correct pressure.

5. Depressurise and let sit with the lid on for a few minutes.


After cooking


Good pressure cookers aren't cheap, but they are worth every cent. If you are thinking of buying a pressure cooker, I recommend only getting something top quality made out of stainless steel like a Fissler brand. These should last 10-15 years (or longer) if you look after them. Every 5 or so years you may need to buy a replacement rubber seal depending on how much you use your pressure cooker. I tend to use mine just about every day, and even stopped using the rice cooker I had.
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Homemade vanilla custard

[Gluten free - wheat free recipe]

Vanilla custard powder isn't common in Japan, but it's pretty easy to make yourself.

Here's how to make it:

2-3 tbsp sugar (depending on desired sweetness)
4 tbsp corn flour (use 1 or 2 tbsp more for thicker custard)
500 ml milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla essence


1. In a saucepan, blend sugar, corn flour and milk together. Slowly bring to boil over low heat, mixing continuously with a whisk until thick.

2. Lightly beat the yolks in a separate bowl and mix in 6 tablespoons of the hot custard. Blend thoroughly, then stir the yolk mixture and vanilla essence into the remaining custard.

3. Heat for a further 1-2 minutes or until thick, stirring continuously.


Notes:
Tastes nice hot or cold. You can use fewer egg yolks or leave them out completely and it's still nice. The egg yolk helps to give the custard a nice yellow colour and gives it a richer taste.

For a chocolate custard, melt in one of those 65g blocks of Japanese chocolate instead of using vanilla and eggs.
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Some of my herbs

Around autumn last year I scattered some lemon balm seeds in the garden out the back. I never saw anything come out and we let the weeds take over during winter. Spring arrived and it was nice and warm outside again. When we did the weeding we found we actually had a nice lemon balm herb growing in the garden bed.


Lemon balm

We also found that the mint had grown out of its pot and started growing in the ground nearby. The same thing happened in the front yard as well.


Eau de Cologne Mint

When I was still living in my old place I had a few plants growing on the balcony. Peppermint was one that grew particularly well. If you want to start new plants it's easy to do so from cuttings.


Eau de Cologne Mint


I had my rosemary hanging on the side of the balcony and it seemed to like that spot.


Rosemary