I have been experimenting with raw foods and using my dehydrator. Tonight, I have a wonderful raw granola “I am Great” taken from my ‘I am Grateful’ cookbook, which consists of grated apple, soaked almonds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat, cranberries, dates, coconut and cinnamon. I have also been trying to eat less bread, making all sorts of linseed crackers and almond toast from soaked and sprouted seeds, then dehydrating them in my special oven.
But my favourite food at the moment is a bowl of brown rice.
Yesterday, I sautéed tofu, zucchini and red peppers, added a little tamari and gomasio and that was another delicious meal. The other day, I rolled brown rice mixed with some left-over almond pulp into nori rolls with some avocado, grated carrot and crisp cucumber..yum. On the weekend, it was more of an elaborate meal with a simple red dal and a green salad with a big bowl of brown rice. Today, I had a bowl of brown rice and a salad drizzled with a tahini-lemon sauce over the top, but my favourite is eating it plain, drizzled with ghee and sprinkled with gomasio. It tastes so comforting, clean and wonderfully grounding.
Gomasio is a nutty, salty condiment that you can sprinkle on soups, salads, stews or use as you would salt. Sesame seeds have a high calcium content. They also have wonderful amounts of manganese, copper, iron, zinc and vitamin B1. My version is a slight variation on traditional gomasio by incorporating a sheet of toasted nori for a salty sea flavour and additional nutrients.
You can use any sesame seeds, though preferably the tan ones instead of the white. The white ones that are sold at the supermarket are hulled and maybe even bleached. I don’t recommend them, as the hull keeps the oil inside from getting rancid. You could also omit the nori and make a spicy gomasio by adding crushed red pepper flakes.
I used a quick modern-day grinding method but for a more meditative and energetically calming experience, you can use a traditional mortar and pestle by grinding it in smaller batches.
gomasio
Makes 1 cup
ingredients
2 tsp freshly ground rock salt
1 cup tan sesame seeds
1 sheet toasted nori
preparation
1. In a small skillet, toast the salt for a couple of minutes and put aside, then add the sesame seeds to the skillet and dry roast them on very low heat for about 10 mins, stirring constantly, until the seeds begin to brown. Don’t be tempted to increase the heat as the longer lower temperature will result in more even heat distribution, more even browning, and more of a potent roasted flavour.
2. Using a small blender or a coffee grinder, place the still-warm sesame seeds and salt, roughly broken-up nori sheet and blend. Be careful not to grind too much: you want some of the texture of the seeds to remain.
Use immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. It can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Goodness shared from Stacey
