Handmade Traditional Style Pickles Making Workshop

Are you adequately pampering your stomach & intestines with good bacteria?

Eating Good Bacteria Food is so important for us.

Learn the benefits of fermentation in the foods we consume for a healthy digestive system. 

 

Getting ready for making pickles cooking class this weekend on Aug. 31, 2013 at studio mugen in Santa Monica 

http://www.meetup.com/Vegan-Macrobiotic-Community-Meetup-Group/events/126994702/ 

 

This is a special workshop to learn how to make traditional style handmade Pickles making. Which has natural good bacteria/probiotic of all  the benefits of fermentation.

 

Details:

1. Learn why Pickles/fermented foods are good for us.
2. Learn how to make traditional handmade pickles
1) Brown Rice Bran (nuka) pickles making
2) Tamari pickles making
3) Miso pickle making
 

 

I am going to show you how to make pickles with  cucumbers, red radishes and daikon radishes this time.

 

 

 

Left to right: miso pickling, brown rice (nuka) pickling and tamari pickling 

I will also share my aged pickles that I made for you to taste.

Aged pickles: left to right: over one year aged brown rice (nuka) daikon pickle, 3 moths aged tamari pickle carrot and one month aged miso pickle cucumber

Come and try out power of pickling!

 

If you can't come to the class all the recipes are in my cookbook "Love, Sanae" 

 

To purchase Love, Sanae 

 http://loveericinc.com/books_lovesanae_en.html

If you have any question, please contact seedkitchen@gmail.com

Love,

Sanae

Vegan Macrobiotic Support Group

Getting a good night's sleep and dealing with cravings evolved as the topics of concern at the monthly Vegan Macrobiotic Support Group meeting at Seed Kitchen in Venice Wednesday, August 21.

Several people expressed concern about not being able to get to sleep easily and then waking up during the night and not being able to return to sleep easily.  It was determined that several factors affect this condition.  These include mental stimulation caused by stress from work, consuming stimulating food and liquids, eating too soon before going to bed, a busy mind that continually recirculates concerns for work or personal matters.

Macrobiotic counselor Sanae Suzuki discussed the five elements' understanding of energy cycles.  The sleep cycle is a water energy and the human body needs to be able to rest fully, as does the mind, to recharge.  Solutions to achieve a better sleep included: being able to disconnect from work and leave work issues behind as we move into personal activities. One person talked about how she practices yoga after work.  If she cannot get to the studio she will use You Tube to find yoga instruction appropriate to her need.

Additionally, stimulating foods eating too late in the day can prevent the body from being calm.  It's better to eat any stimulating food earlier in the day.  Also, after the evening meal, a walk will help the body and mind to release excess energy.  Sanae pointed out the importance of finishing the evening meal so that at least three hours passes before going to sleep or else the body will continue working to digest the food rather than resting and healing the body. The result can be an overworked kidney.

For the person who finds the mind preoccupied with lists to do and tasks to complete, one answer is to write a list of the activities, prioritize what to do for the next day, set it aside and let the mind rest.  Or, if a task is truly important, a person might pore his/herself into the task, take as long as needed to finish in order to have peace of mind.

Another concern focused on one person dealing with allergies as well as not sleeping well.  It was determined that the combination of the two factors indicated a possible contracted kidney condition.  Potential remedies included taking a sea-salt bath to relax the kidneys, or even using a ginger-compress over the kidneys which also will relax the kidneys and reduce any adrenal fatigue.

One attendee was concerned about cravings and how to deal with cravings.  That person usually had only salty food cravings and now was having cravings for sweet taste foods.  It was determined that this person had been taking some macrobiotic remedies to clean and detox the body, and that now that her body was having more balance, the body had a greater variety of craving.  So, while the subject of craving has a variety of concerns, in this case the experience was one of a body gaining balance.

Sanae also reminded that macrobiotics considers the energy of food and its impact on the body, mind and spirit.  Many food discussions focus on calories, raw versus cooked and other considerations.  However in macrobiotics, the focus is on how what we eat, how we cook and other facets of nutrition impact energy--either negatively or positively.

Additionally, it was noted that macrobiotics is not just about the food we eat, but about the quality of  life as reflected in the expression of our minds, hearts and spirits.

The Vegan Macrobiotic Support Group meets monthly at Seed Kitchen in Venice, California. Information on the group can be found at http://www.meetup.com/Vegan-Macrobiotic-Community-Meetup-Group/

Fermented Mung Beans and Brown Rice Bindaetteok Pancakes

Wanted make a something I never tried for my husband, chef Eric Lechasseur who is always cooking either for his private clients, our vegan macrobiotic dogs, me and our vegan macrobiotic restaurant Seed Kitchen in Venice, California.

I wanted use Mung beans since I never used them so first I soaked them...
 
 
....making savory pancakes came up to my mind. 
I did not want to use flour so I soaked also brown rice,
then, an idea of making Korean Bindaetteok Pancakes got sprouted.


 
It came out very light and tasty. Eric loved it so much and he had second!

Here is my recipe of  
Fermented Mung Bean & Brown Rice Bindaetteok Pancakes

 

Makes three 6"(or six 3")

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mung beans, rinsed and soaked for 6 hours or over night

1/4 cup short grain rice, rinsed and soaked for 6 hours or over night

1 cup water

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 bunch scallion 

1tsp toasted sesame oil

1 clove garlic, finely minced (option)

dashes of cayenne pepper (optional)

Dipping sauce:

1 tsp shoyu

lemon juice 

roasted grounded sesame seeds

Soak mung bean and brown rice for 6 hours or over night

  

Place drained mung beans, drained brown rice and water in a high speed blender and blend until smooth

Cut scallions and add them to the heat up frying pan

Pour 1/3 of the batter into the pan

Flip and cook the other side

Garnish with blanched red radishes and serve warm with the dipping sauce

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1. Soak mung bean and brown rice for 6 hours or over night.
2. Place drained mung beans, drained brown rice and water in a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
3. Cut scallions and add them to the heat up frying pan (I like to use our crepe pan) with some oil. 
4. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the pan, spreading it thinly with the bottom of a ladle. Cook for 3~5 minutes or until golden brown (add option of garlic and/or cayenne pepper). Flip and cook the other side for another 3~5 minutes.
5. Mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set aside.
6. Garnish with blanched red radishes and serve warm with the dipping sauce. 

Hope you like making this pancakes as much I did!!

Love,

Sanae

Chef Eric Lechasseur's Healing Vegan Macrobiotic Soup!

2013 has been 12 years since I had injured my legs from the fatal car accident. I was diagnosed and not able to walk again.  
It is 5 soil element year in 9 Star Ki calendar (if you want to learn about 9 Star Ki calendar check Alex Jack's site http://www.9starki.com/). I was born in 9 fire element year so I am on the fire position this year. Wow, I have never been so active and traveling also since the car accident.

I have offered 42 all together between cooking classes, meditations, knitting clubs and Seed Kitchen's events by the end of July.
Traveling and attending my wonderful friend, Barbara's celebration for her life in the Bay area in June, teaching at French Meadows Macrobiotic Summer Camp in Tahoe Forrest in July, and visiting my long time friend, Mayumi Nishimura who I did not see for almost 5 years in Ionia macrobiotic community in Alaska. 

I felt very exhausted by the time I came back from Alaska and I had no choice, but taking a rest.
My condition was very weak and tight. 
Felt no motivation and strength to do anything. 
This is not me.
What happened to me???

I have used all my knowledge and counseled my teachers, but I was not able to eat anything. I was not able to eat even brown rice cream. 
I had pain in my stomach, intestines and kidneys when I tried to eat anything.

So I tried below...
Remedy drinks: kuzu cream, umeboshi extract drink, apple cider hot drink, home-made water melon syrup drink. 

External remedies: ginger compress (on stomach, intestines and kidneys), massage on especially on foot, hands, neck and back, sea salt hot bath, hot water bottle on kidneys, ginger hot foot bath, body scrub.

Nothing made me feel a good taste except drinking home-made water melon syrup drink after not eating anything for three days, but I really wanted to have something savory and sooth me as a food by 6th day so finally I have asked my husband, Eric (chef Eric Lechasseur) what he can make for me. He made quickly his vegetable puree soup with onion, corn, celery, kabocha, kombu dashi broth seasoning with mellow barley miso and garnish with Kazuko's 10 years organic California umeboshi plum that we have.

 

OMG! 
It was heaven after a whole week of not able to eat much.
I can’t thank Eric enough to save me once again.
I feel revived and have a little strength today to get motivated to write about it.

I am continuing to take it easy for the next few days here and there before I start teaching again later this month. I am very grateful for this lesson to take time to rest, appreciate pure love healing soup of Eric to keep my life simple and rejoice it. 
 
with gratitude and love,
Sanae