Chapatis, Rotis, Flat Bread--Quick and Delicious

Chapatis, Rotis, Flat Bread, you name it, it's quick, delicious, and actually nutritious. As I mentioned in a former blog, I learned about chapatis from Garcha, a friend from India who was in my English class. Just lately, I was talking with a lady from India at our usual gasoline stop, and we got to talking about chapatis, or "rotis" as some call it. She gave me a web site to visit to learn how to better make the flat bread. The first address she gave me was but the second one gave better help: .

At the Youtube site I watched Manjula as well as another lady make the bread. I learned from both what I was doing wrong and two ways to have better success. I'll see if I can describe it to you in my own words. The first part was almost the same except for the amount of oil used. The second part was almost the same except for the final heating. So here goes.

Using one cup of whole wheat or unbleached flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and about 1/2 cup of water mix together in a bowl, kneading until it forms a smooth ball. You want a soft dough, not too wet and not too dry. If too wet, it won't roll out, and if too dry it will crumble. Manjula puts about two or three drops of oil on her fingers to facilitate the kneading. The other lady put about a teaspoon of oil into the flour and a few drops into the bowl where she was working the dough. When the smooth soft dough is formed pull off little pieces about the size of a small egg, roll the pieces in the palms of your hands until they are small smooth balls.

Place a ball of dough on your bread board and roll out thin. Lightly dip the dough into a bowl of flour when needed to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin or the board. Have a crepe pan ready, heated on medium--test it with a drop or two of water to see if it sizzles up--and put your flat bread in the pan. Watch for a change of color and little bubbles. Using a pancake turner, flip the bread over to the other side. When that side shows little bubbles, flip it back again. You should see some small brown dots here and there on both sides. Here's where things get quite different.

Manjula immediately takes her pancake turner and pressing lightly keeps turning the bread around in a circular motion while it puffs up. When puffed, she takes it off the heat and onto a dish where she brushes some ghee (clarified butter) or oil on it.

The other lady has a low rack on her glass top stove which is about one inch high and on which she puts her crepe pan. She uses tongs for flipping, and for the last flip, she pulls out the crepe pan while holding the bread and plops it right on the rack. Immediately it puffs up like a balloon, and she then places it on a plate and brushes it with ghee or butter or oil.



I challenge you to try it, and don't get discouraged if it doesn't turn out at first. It takes practice, but it's well worth it.



=================================This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.

Chapatis

 While teaching English as a Second Language in British Columbia, Canada, I met Garcha, a lady from India, who invited me to her house to learn how to make chapatis and to have lunch.

She mixed one teaspoon of salt in two to three cups of flour, then added just enough water to make a soft non-sticky light dough.  Then she divided the dough into about 1/4th cup  size pieces.  Each piece was rolled out into a circle about 1/8” thick on a lightly floured board.  It was interesting to see how she used her rolling pin in almost a circular pattern.

The flat circle of dough was lightly toasted about 15 seconds on each side and then placed directly on a gas stove burner top right above the low flame.  Immediately the dough puffed up like a balloon.  She quickly turned it to the other side for a brief moment and then placed it on a plate.  The puffed chapatti sank into a light soft bread, ready to use as a spoon to scoop up a delicious red lentil stew.

Trying my skill at making chapattis at home was somewhat of a challenge, as I have an electric stove.  I couldn’t put the dough directly on the electric burner and tried using a rack.  My best method I found was to use a dry cast iron fry pan and to turn the chapatti several times while baking.  With that method I get pretty close to a “puffball” effect.  I think I may try putting them in a hot oven like I do when I make pocket bread.

It would be interesting to hear what results some of you readers might have had in making chapattis.

 



================================= This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.

Acid - Alkaline Balance

A healthy body is an alkalized one.  As we metabolize our foods, we produce acid wastes.  When our body doesn't get rid of them when it should, these wastes are reabsorbed back into the body via the colon, from there to the liver, and then into the tissues.  Too much acidity clogs our bodies and can cause an attack in joints, muscles, glands, and organs in the form of pain and disease.

The body has a natural cleansing mechanism, and it seeks to get rid of acid toxins.  Eating more alkaline forming foods can aid the body to do this.

Also, our bodies build up an alkaline reserve from our eating more alkaline forming foods than acid forming ones.  If in the digestion process we have immediate release of mineral elements, the alkaline elements neutralize the acid ones.  If more acid forming foods are eaten than alkaline forming ones, the body draws on the alkaline reserve to neutralize the acidity properties.  If the reserve is depleted and used up, the build up of acidity promotes sickness, and if not corrected, death.

It's interesting to note that a predominately alkaline or acid condition generates energy or lack of it.

In order to increase the alkaline reserves in the body, it is recommended that one eat a 80/20 percent ratio of alkaline versus acid forming foods.  Even on the time of Hippocrates, this was used to help heal an unhealthy condition.

The next time we'll go into which foods are more alkaline or more acid forming.  See you then.




================================= This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.

Acid - Alkaline Balance - 2

We ask, "How important is this matter of acid and alkaline foods?  Does it make a difference in our health?"  The answer is, yes it does indeed.  In his book, "The Normal Diet," W.D. Sansum, M.D., has this to say:  "The living body is always slightly alkaline.  If the tissues of the body become acid to the slightest degree, death occurs, and serious illness results long before the alkalinity of the body has been reduced to the neutral point."

Body wastes are acid and must be eliminated or else they accumulate in the tissues and bloodstream, a threat to health and even life itself.  The problem is having excess acid in the body.  We need some acid, but the alkaline solutions aid some of the vital life processes.  They constantly are concerned in the work of neutralizing excess acid residues.  That's the danger--excess acid residues.

In order for the alkalies to not be deleted, there is a need for constant replenishment through ingesting more alkaline foods than acid.  Otherwise, sickness and ultimately death can happen.  Competent authorities state the average person's diet should consist of 75%-80% of alkaline forming foods and only 20%-25% of acid forming foods if optimum health is to be maintained.

Lists of acid forming and alkaline forming foods vary.  In general, the grains and proteins are more acid forming, while the fruits and vegetables are more alkaline forming.  Here are two sample lists:

Acid Forming Foods


Barley                          Bread                            Buckwheat
Cheese                         Cherries                        Corn
Cereals                        Crackers                        Cakes
Cookies                       Cranberries                   Egg white
Egg yolk                     Flesh foods                    Fish
Fowl                           Gelatin                           Hominy
Lentils                        White & w.w. flour        Grains
Peanuts                       Plums                            Prunes
Rice                            Shrimp, etc.                   Macaroni
Oatmeal                     Oysters                           Reptiles

Alkaline Forming Foods

Acidophilus              Almonds                         Apples
Apricots                    Artichoke                       Asparagus
Avocados                  Bamboo shoots              Bananas
Beans, all                  Beets                              Beet greens
Brussel sprouts         Buttermilk (soy or dairy)
Cabbage                   Cantaloupe                     Carrots
Cauliflower              Celery                            Chard
Chestnuts                 Cherry juice                   Citron
Coconut                   Collards                          Cucumbers
Currants                   Dandelion                       Dates
Eggplant                   Endive                            Figs
Garbanzos                Grapes or juice               Greens
Grapefruit                Guavas                            Honey
Kale                         Kohlrabi                          Leeks
Lemons                    Lemon juice                    Lettuce
Loganberries            Mangoes                         Maple syrup
Milk (dairy or soy)  Melons                            Mushrooms
Olives                      Onions                            Oranges
Parsnips                   Peaches                           Peas, all
Pears                        Peppers (green)              Pineapple
Potatoes                   Pumpkin                         Radishes
Raisins                     Raspberries                     Rhubarb
Rutabagas                Sauerkraut                       Spinach
Soybeans                 Soy flour                          Squash
Strawberries            Tomatoes and juice          Turnips
Sprouted seeds        Watercress                        Grasses

No attempt has been made to arrange the items in order of acidity or alkalinity.  Some are strongly one way or another while others are only slightly so.

Most people eat too heavily of meat, eggs, bread, pastries and for too lightly of base forming foods, and most people are sick or half sick!  It's interesting to watch what food choices people make and compute their acid-base balance.  What do you think yours is?



================================= This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.

How to Make Your Own Delicious, Nutritious Raw Nut and Seed Mylks

~by Guest Blogger, Cynthia Zirkwitz

When my husband and I first started being seriously vegan we purchased alternative “milks” such as soy milk, rice milk and occasionally, almond milk. I never did much like the taste of soy milk so was quite relieved to find out that soy is not a optimal food for healthy people, in fact, can be quite toxic, and that many of the commercial soy milks are made from non-organic, GMO soy beans. The other alternative milks were usually “okay” but came in packaging with the ability to shelve the product for THREE YEARS– hardly what you would call ‘fresh’ and not likely to have much redeeming nutrition after that length of time.

Alternative milks also cost quite a bit more than fresh, home-made.

Now I regularly make mylks. All that is needed is a stash of good organic raw nuts or seeds (sometimes I use a combination– sunflower and sesame are a good match; fresh-made almond mylk is luxury; brasil nut mylk is decadently delicious), a blender (a VitaMix is nice, but isn’t really necessary), water of course, some add-ins like vanilla and/or sweeteners: stevia, raw honey or soaked dates are great and a Nut Mylk Bag to strain the blended product so that you end up with a creamy, milk-like homogeneity. The left-over fiber can be incorporated into lots of raw dehydrated recipes, such as cookies and burgers.

The video that follows provides additional clear, hands-on directions. As always, have fun and be blessed with the resulting good health! (See Brigitte Mars’ recipe for Almond Milk at the bottom of this post for an idea of proportions of ingredients to use)




Brigitte Mars’ recipe for Almond Mylk:

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight
1 quart water
1 tablespoon raw honey or 2 dates, soaked 20 minutes

Rinse the nuts in a colander to remove enzyme inhibitors

Combine all ingredients in a blender and liquefy. Then strain through a sprout bag or a paint strainer bag (available at paint or hardware stores). Pulp can be saved to add to casseroles, cookies or other dishes.

Note: These same directions can be used for making cashew, hazelnut, pine nut, sesame, sunflower, walnut, hemp seed, or pumpkin seed mylk.

=================================
Cynthia Zirkwitz is an avid Blogger blogger currently focused on "moving house" in the blog-o-sphere-- moving her Raw Genesis blog from its old home on Wordpress to its new home on Blogger.  If you visit, please excuse the present lack of comfy furnishings-- they're on their way!

Wonderful Couscous

While at a pot-luck dinner at church, I ate a casserole that had flavor galore.  So I asked the lady who made it, what it was and what the recipe was.  She said, "Oh, it's couscous, a vegetable couscous dish."  Oh joy, she had gotten the recipe out of a book that I owned as well.

Later I discovered that couscous is a pasta made from hard wheat middling, mistakenly thought of as a grain.  The common form is pre-cooked, the traditional form, which is brown, takes longer to cook.  It resembles a small rice when cooked.

I bet you would like to know the recipe I mentioned, wouldn't you?  It's from a book entitled "Nutrition for Life" by Darlene Blaney, copyrighted in 2002.  Since, it is copyrighted, I'll just give you my version:

Saute chopped onion, garlic, celery and carrots in a small amount of water until crispy soft.  Add chopped steamed kale or collards.  In a different pot boil twice as much water as couscous used, salting to taste.  Combine the veggies and couscous and add some olive oil.  Season with basil, dill, tarragon, or similar seasonings.  Some like to add nutritional yeast flakes or chicken like seasoning.  There you have it.

 


================================= This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.

Fighting MRSA with Raw Honey

WASHINGTON — Doctors at Georgetown University Hospital are using a sweet solution to help fight infections like the deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Almost three years ago, Josh Pennington suffered a quarter-size cut on his foot that never healed.

Doc Attinger worked on it a few times and almost had it healed, but "it would never stay healed,” Pennington said.Pennington and plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Attinger tried everything from topical treatments to skin grafts, but the blood vessel in Pennington’s leg was permanently damaged.”The injury damaged the blood supply permanently to his anterior leg where the wound was, and as a result, there wasn’t enough blood for the wound to heal,” Attinger said.

 When a friend suggested that Pennington try using honey, an old home remedy, he was game, and it was perfect timing.  Attinger and the hospital’s Center for Wound Healing was piloting a new program using MediHoney, a special, medical-grade honey that’s used as a dressing for wounds and infections. It’s made from an especially potent form of honey called manuka honey.”We don’t know why this honey works well, but it has antimicrobial capacities that other topicals don’t have,” Attinger said. “It may also stimulate, inhibit proteins that stop the healing. So it has a lot of things that we don’t understand, that we’re first discovering.”

Pennington started using the honey in December.  Doctors said the wound has shrunk almost 300 percent.

Attinger said since the program started, they’ve treated about 40 patients with MediHoney and have seen positive results in 75 percent of them.  They’re also finding it’s helping patients with MRSA infections, which are resistant to many antibiotics and can be fatal.Attinger said he believes Pennington’s wound might finally heal thanks to the honey.”I suspect that this is going to do it,” he said. “It will heal the whole wound completely.”Manuka honey is a dark honey from New Zealand. Household types of honey might work, too, but doctors said they’re finding best results with manuka.


================================= This post is the personal opinion and experience of the writer. I am not a medically trained professional. Please take responsibility for your own health and wellness and consult with a qualified health care professional if you have health concerns.