Soak your oatmeal for at least four hours before making Oat Milk

Have you ever purchased oat milk?  I have – I wanted to taste it so I could I understand what  I was serving on the days where I’d entertain a friend with lactose-intolerance or on a vegan diet or just trying to avoid dairy.

What I discovered is that oat milk isn’t just for those with specific dietary restrictions.  It has a smooth, creamy mouthfeel that is the perfect addition to a smoothie, but would also works well in a “cream” soup as a replacement for half and half or heavy cream.  I tried this in a carrot-cumin soup the other day, and the soup went from being a watery concoction crying for substance to a velvety delight.

The problem with buying your own oat milk is that along with the relatively high price per liter, it also comes with preservatives and stabilizers – which means there are lot of other things in their besides oats.  Beyond all that, since I don’t have specific dietary restrictions that place oat milk on my shopping list on a regular basis, I almost never buy it.

Oat Milk and a Blueberry-Ginger Smoothie

And now I don’t have to because it’s snap to make it.  Oats and water.  Soaked at least four hours or up to overnight, and blended.  You can strain them if you wish to use the mixture as a replacement for the milk.  When I make smoothies with it, I don’t bother as I actually like the additional texture provided by the soaked oats.  If you do strain it, you can add the oat pulp to cookies or bread.

I typically use either Oat Milk or Almond Milk when I make smoothies rather than regular milk – I prefer the flavor, and find that they don’t curdle when I add a fruit with a high amount of acid the way cow’s milk does.   Add fresh or frozen fruit, dates, honey or maple syrup if you want a sweetener, and a little chia or ground flax seed to increase the health factor.  I sometimes throw ginger into a blueberry smoothie or ground cardamom into a raspberry smoothie.  Basically, your imagination is the limit!

Oat Milk

1 cup oats
4 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, optional, but adds important flavor

Soak the oats and salt in the water up to four hours or overnight.  Pour the entire mixture into a blender or food process and process for a minute or so.  Strain the oat milk through a fine-mesh sieve.  Store in and air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.  Shake before drinking as this has no emulsifiers and will settle.

Makes four cups.

UPDATE: if you are having trouble getting oat milk with a smooth mouth feel, try using mid-grain oats, not steel cut or the old fashioned kind.  Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

UPDATE #2:  I found that straining the oat milk through a sieve 3 times, rinsing the sieve between each round, makes for a smoother product.  Here’s how I do it:  strain the oat milk from the blender through a sieve into a bowl.  Rinse the blender; spoon the oat pulp out of the sieve and save for another use; rinse the sieve.  Then pour the oat milk back through the clean sieve into the clean blender.  You’ll see that a bit more of the fiber has collected in the sieve.  Rinse the bowl and the sieve.  Pour the oat milk back through the sieve into the bowl.  Take a sip, and enjoy your (smoother) oat milk.

Beautiful Citrus Salts

I can’t stop myself:  every time I go to the grocery store, I buy another pile of citrus fruit.  Since I love to cook and bake with citrus zest, I typically buy organic lemons, limes and oranges.  This way I can wash them with warm water, dry them off, and remove the zest with a Microplane which I then freeze for later use.  It’s pretty handy to have little containers full of citrus zest in the freezer for when a recipe calls for “1 teaspoon of lemon zest” and there isn’t a single lemon in sight.  Or to not waste that fragrant zest just because the recipe I’m currently working on requires only the juice.

Left to Right:  Orange, Lemon, Lime salts

This time of year, the most abundant fruits are part of the citrus family.  So today, I’m keeping this post short and sweet and the main purpose is to give you one more great way to preserve your beautiful citrus zest for later:  Make your own citrus salt.

Here’s how it works:

Buy a box of Maldon salt.  Divide it into 3 parts into 3 separate bowls.  This means you’ll have 3 portions that are roughly 1/3 cup each.

Lime Maldon Salt:
Wash two organic limes in warm water (no soap) and dry them well.  Using a Microplane with a fine blade, zest the limes over the first bowl of Maldon salt.  Stir well with a fork and spread evenly across a dry dinner plate. Allow the mixture to dry overnight, and then store in an airtight, labeled, glass jar.

Uses:  Over popcorn with olive oil; sprinkled over fajitas, enchiladas, or any Mexican food; sprinkle of white fish; add to fish soup

Orange Maldon Salt:
Wash one organic orange in warm water (no soap) and dry them well.  Using a Microplane with a fine blade, zest the orange over the first bowl of Maldon salt.  Stir well with a fork and spread evenly across a dry dinner plate. Allow the mixture to dry overnight, and then store in an airtight, labeled, glass jar.

Uses:  Over popcorn with olive oil; use in place of regular salt in this salad; use in place of regular salt in chocolate chip cookies

Lemon Maldon Salt:
Wash one organic lemon in warm water (no soap) and dry them well.  Using a Microplane with a fine blade, zest the lemon over the first bowl of Maldon salt.  Stir well with a fork and spread evenly across a dry dinner plate. Allow the mixture to dry overnight, and then store in an airtight, labeled, glass jar.

Uses:  To replace regular salt in fish soup; use in this savory pie instead of regular salt; use in these scones instead of regular salt; on top of sardine pizza.

Spice Road Soup

Spice Road Soup

As I read through the Spices book, studied online, and talked to spice shop owners and the proprieters of ethnic food shops, I started to rebuild my spice rack with new, fresh spices.  I bought fresh cardamom pods, both green and black, and a mortar and pestle to go with them.  The green cardamom had the familiar perfume I’d come to recognized via the ubiquitous pulla  in Finland – sweet cardamom rolls sold in every coffee shop and quite delicious with a cup of coffee.  Only these fresh cardamom pods were ten times more fragrant, and I was surprised at how powerful the smell was.  The pungency of the black cardamom actually shocked me – it’s smell reminscent of eucalyptus combined with fresh ground black pepper and isn’t a pleasant scent at all – it will be added soon to a slow oven roast where the flavors will mellow and meld with the dish.  Black cardamom and baked goods will never be good friends, I don’t think.

I hunted down sumac to make Za’atar from a recipe found at 101 Cookbooks, and bought a fresh sachet of dried oregano as well as black sesame to toast and add to the dish.  The Za’atar was first added to yogurt until I became more adventurous and dumped generous tablespoons of it into a cold Spelt Salad along side of quick-pickled red onion, not-so-quickly preserved lemon and fresh Naval orange.

I picked up curry, a tandoori blend, turmeric, cumin, and dried coriander pods, looking forward to adding their perfume to my kitchen.  I learned that warming the spices before adding them to the dish brings out their flavor – so that the flavors of the finished taste warmer, matured.  I discovered that homemade Italian Seasoning is as simple as a thing could be and curiously satisfying.  Most importantly, I became more adventurous about combining various spices to see what gastronomic paths unusual combinations might lead me down.

This soup is like a journey down the Spice Road from ages ago, and brings a new appreciation of the importance of the Spice Trade and an understanding of why spices were so highly valued as a currency.  It combines spices grown around the world together with beans, buckwheat and vegetables to create a robust meal with great depth of flavor.    Serve this with a strong bread such as rye, wholewheat, or spelt.  Then go take a look at your spice rack and begin some experiments of your own.  And if you see me out somewhere with bright yellow thumbs, blame it on the turmeric.

Spice Road Soup

1.  In a medium-large pot combine over medium heat:
4 cups vegetable broth
1/3 cup whole buckwheat
1 cup cooked black beans
1 cup cooked chickpeas
3/4 cup diced firm tofu or okara (by-product of making tofu or soy milk)
1 large carrot, chopped to equal 3/4 cup
1 cup chopped cauliflower
1 cup steam Swiss chard (approximately 2 cups fresh)

Bring the mixture to a bowl and reduce to a simmer.

2.  In a mortar (or a spice grinder) combine the following spices:
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 bay leaf, crushed
2 green cardamom pods, pod discarded and seeds reserved or 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon chili powder

Crush the spices until they are roughly ground.  Transfer the spices to a small saucepan and warm over dry, high heat until the spices are fragrant and are just beginning to smoke.  Pour the spices into the soup and cover.

Allow the soup to simmer for 25 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.