Mild White Cheeze-- Amazing!

Mild White Cheeze -- Amazing! (gfcf and soy free)

I have my brother-in-law to thank for this recipe. He was coming to Thanksgiving dinner, and I needed a cheese to put out with the crackers before dinner that he could eat -- meaning no soy and no yeast. Now that might not seem like a tall order, but when you consider that everything that goes into or comes out of my kitchen is already gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, and that I am ever conscious of trying to reduce or completely omit the oils from my cooking...... well you can start to see that I had a terrifically inspiring challenge.

It was late the night before. I was bone tired and about to head to bed, and I suddenly got this idea -- it was sort of a melding of several other recipes that I had seen. The final alchemy came from a conversation I had with my friend Andre a few days prior, in which he shared with me his recent experiences playing in the kitchen with tapiocha flour.

I blended some tapiocha flour with water, threw it in a pot on the stove and added a sprinkling of agar flakes to the top. I lit the fire and then turned my attention to the blender, where I put in some raw almonds and cashews and a little bits of other flavorful ingredients. After about five minutes, of boiling, I added the pot of liquid to the blender and put it on high until it was just totally smooth and creamy. Then I poured the contents into a small glass dish, covered it and let it harden in the refridgerator. The resulting "Cheeze" was simply amazing. Everyone at our Thanksgiving (which let me tell you included a very wide range of culinary preferences.) loved the cheeze.

Today, I just made the recipe a second time -- increasing the amounts of a few of the flavoring ingredients, and I think it is even better. This cheeze is very quick and easy to make. However it does call for some ingredients that some people may not be familiar with. Umboshi plum paste is found in the macrobiotic section of the natural foods store. It is a beautiful reddish pink paste with a very salty taste. My favorite is made by Eden foods. Another brand that I sometimes use is "Sushi Sonic". Miso, is salty bean paste also used in macrobiotic and traditional asian cooking. It is usually in the refridgerated section. Most miso is made from Soy beans, and some miso even has barley in it and would thus not be gluten free. But South River (http://www.southrivermiso.com/) makes a chick pea miso that is not only soy free and gluten free, but even is packaged in glass jars. It is a fantastic product. It is pricy but you only need two tablespoons of miso to make a block of cheeze that is over two cups in volume. So that comes out to be a dollar's worth of miso to make this recipe. The last "unusal ingredient is also tradtional to asian cooking. It is called Mirin. It is a sweet rice cooking wine. No mirin that I have ever tried is as good as the mirin made my Eden foods. So I encourage you to find it and not sub something else here.

Not only is this cheeze slicable, but it is delicious, creamy and satisfying. In additon it is gluten- free, vegan, soy free, peanut-free, casein-free, dairy-free, and even oil free. The only fat here is from a small amount of whole raw nuts, so enjoy

Ingredients:

2 cups water
2 T tapiocha flour
2 T Eden Agar flakes

1/3 cup raw almonds
1/3 cup raw cashews
4 tsp umboshi plum paste
2 T chickpea miso
1 T Eden mirin
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp yellow mustard (Natural Value is gluten free)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions:

  1. Blend cool or room temp water with tapiocha, put it into a saucepan and sprinkle the agar flakes on top. Then turn on the heat and bring it to boil. Turn down heat and allow to boil slowly for five minutes.
  2. Place all remaining ingredients into a blender (I use a Vitamix -- but a regular blender would probably work -- but you might just have to blend a little longer.)
  3. Remove the water/tapiocha/agar mixture from the heat and pour immediately into the blender, put on the lid and blend on high until totally smooth and creamy. If using a regular blender, you will probably need to stop a few times and scrape down the sides and then blend again.
  4. Pour hot mixture into a glass bowl or other mold, cover and place into the refridgerator. In a few hours it will harden up and then can be sliced or shredded.

This recipe yeilds one 20 oz block of cheeze.

Each ounce contains about

40 calories and 3 grams of fat

About 60% of Americans have the genes that predispose them to becoming gluten sensitive.

Recent research (By Dr. Kenneth Fine) suggests that about half of these people have detectable immunological reactions to gluten, and the majority will NEVER meet the classic definition of celiac disease -- even though gluten IS triggering an autoimmune reaction in their body which may affect many organs or tissues other then the small intestine.


Recipe for these GFCF Penguins is in my book!

Are You Educated on Genetic Engineering?

Biotechnology is the new frontier. Yet, few people in our country right now, have any idea, just how dramatically Genetic Engineering is poised to change our lives. Proponents believe biotech holds the possibility of doing some great things, and I believe it might have some great applications, but there is also evidence that this technology if misapplied or allowed out of the lab/hospital setting, could have significant and even disasterous consequences for our health, and well being. The problem is, there is so much money to be made right now in biotech, and so little required in terms of safety testing, and no requirement for product labeling, that human hubris and capitalism being what they are, I think we are headed for some difficult lessons -- before appropriate safeguards are put in place. I believe at the very least, people should have the option of taking the risk of exposure or avoiding this risk if they so choose. (But that is currently NOT the case.) Please watch the video below (it is less then 20 minutes long) of how one mother (who just happened to be a wall street food analyst) woke up to this issue. Then go explore this site: Seeds of Deception to learn the facts so that you can protect yourself and your family.

Should you avoid Genetically Engineered Foods?

Check this out -- Vitamin D

Many of us probably have suboptimal levels of vitamin D, which can be a contributing factor to the development of many of the related conditions and symptoms more common in those who are gluten sensitive. Watch this video -- It's worth the investment of thirty minutes of your time. I should mention however, that while some authorities consider D3 superior to D2, there is good data that if D2 is taken in reasonable amounts (like 1000-2000 iu daily -- not the huge megadoses that some doctors recommend taking on a weekly basis) that D2 is very effective. (And for someone like me who prefers to minimize any possible exposure to prions which may contaminate animal derrived substances -- of which D3 is one -- this is very good news.)

Dietition Jack Norris has great info on Vitamin D here. Be sure also to read Vitamin D Researcher/MD Michael Hollick's book, The UV Advantage.

Recurrent Abdominal Pain (R.A.P.)

Pre Celiac Disease?

As soon as my daughter could talk she began to report to me that her tummy almost always hurt. Although it didn't become really bad until she was about 8 years old -- this I believe was due to long term exclusive breastfeeding. Throughout her early years, I raised the issue of her chronic abdominal pain with our family doctor on many occaisions, and he would assure me that nothing was wrong, that RAP was very common in children and usually due to emotional issues. When it increased in severity we went to see another doctor -- he thought she might have ulcers -- but that test came back negative and the other tests he ran showed that she was in good health. He thought she was fine too. Eventually I learned about gluten from a friend and well you can read the rest of this story by clicking on the links to articles at the top of this page. However the main point I wish to make here is this: In looking back, it is clear to me now that my daughter -- probably from birth was reacting to gluten. Her fussiness, her greenish stools, her starting to nurse and then pulling off and crying, and then years of tummy aches -- all suggest that gluten was causing her issues from the very beginning. On many occaisions I suspected that wheat might be affecting her -- but its withdrawal never entirely resolved her issues. Now of course I know that gluten is not just in wheat, but also barley, spelt, rye, oats and lots of things made from these. RAP is very common and most the time, it's cause is never found. I would urge anyone who's child is suffering, to explore the possibility that gluten might be the cause of their distress.

Why is Gluten so Problematic?

August of 2009 Scientific American published this very in-depth article on Celiac Disease:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=celiac-disease-insights

With this quote in it:

"Gluten, however, has a peculiar structure: it is unusually rich in the amino acids glutamine and proline. This property renders part of the molecule impervious to our protein-chopping machinery, leaving small protein fragments, or peptides, intact."

However one thing the article left unanswered. I want to know what is the scientific basis for so many doctors believing that antigliadin antibodies are non-specific and are not (by themselves) indicitive of a problem? The article said that anti-gliadin antibodies are NOT considered specific to celiac disease because they are often found in people who do not have celiac disease. But given that it has only been about 65 years that the medical profession has even made the connection between celiac disease and gluten, and only SIX years since the medical profession realized the incidence was at least TEN TIMES more common then they previously thought....why are they still assuming that anti-gliadin antibodies are nonspecific?

Could it be that all those people who do have antigliadin antibodies in their systems, but don't show damage to the villi are still having a dangerous reaction to gluten? Should the definition of celiac disease be altered...or else dropped altogether and simply be part of a condition called gluten sensitivity which may or may not create visible damage to the villi of the small intestine?

Taxonomic Relationship Amongst Grains

Taxonomic Relationship Amongst Grains
Only the Hordeae tribe make their own gluten -- but oats can absorb gluten if they are grown or stored near gluten containing grains.
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