Posts Tagged ‘agave nectar’

31 Aug

Kitchen staples: granola with chia seeds

Posted by wooddogs3 in cooking, fruit, home food production, kitchen staples, preserving, recipe, sustainable, urban homesteading. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

may 2009 032

Kitchen experimentation is a lot of fun, but early in the morning on a busy workday I don’t feel very experimental. I want something comfortable and familiar, quick to prepare, healthy, and tasty. Oh yes, and I also want it to keep me feeling good all morning, not just give me a sugar rush to get me out the door.

       My homemade granola fits the bill perfectly. It offers whole grains, fruit, nuts, lots of fiber and antioxidants, and good flavor. If you eat it with yogurt, as I do, you get a good dose of healthy bacteria too. One easy kitchen job every 3-4 weeks keeps two people supplied with good breakfasts, plus an occasional handful out of the jar as a snack.

     I use agave nectar as the sweetener due to its low glycemic index and good flavor. I used to use vegetable oil but now use a light-flavored olive oil. This is a great vehicle for chia seeds, too. If you’ve read Christopher McDougle’s interesting new book Born to Run, you know about how the Tarahumara tribe uses chia seeds as an energy source. Personally, I won’t eat anything just because it’s good for me; it also has to taste good. In this recipe, chia seeds taste good.

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17 Jul

The Joys of Summer: Tepache

Posted by wooddogs3 in cooking, fruit, home food production, kitchen staples, preserving, recipe, sustainable, urban homesteading. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

july 2009
My husband and I love good wine and good beer, but we also love various fermented drinks that I make at home. In summer, tepache is my favorite. It’s a traditional Mexican drink which, as I make it, is light, barely sweet, and contains at most 0.5-1% alcohol, probably less. It’s great for drinking with grilled dinners on the patio. I treat myself to fresh pineapple regularly during the summer, and making tepache uses up the rind and scraps and prevents waste.

I have a great interest in natural fermentations, from sourdough bread to tepache. If you share my enthusiasm, you’ll want to read Sandor Katz’s weird and fascinating book Wild Fermentation. But you don’t need his book or any technical knowledge of fermentation to make this drink. Fermentation has been happening for millions of years, and it will happen in your fermenting jar without much input from you.

I love to use agave nectar as a sweetening agent. It’s available at La Montanita Co-op in Albuquerque, and it’s showing up in ordinary grocery stores everywhere. (Addendum 2019:  later evidence cause me to completely change my mind about agave nectar as a sweetening agent, and I know longer use it, but make up your own mind.)

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