Authors: Charlie Cascio

Esalen Cookbook (5 page)

BOOK: Esalen Cookbook

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ORGANIC FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Those of you who have been to Esalen may have noticed that the mashed potatoes or glazed carrots you were served in our dining lodge were prepared with their skins still intact. (Those small brown flecks you found in your mashed potatoes were not some exotic culinary herb from Esalen’s organic garden, but potato skins.) The layer of cells just underneath the potato skin holds the richest concentration of minerals and vitamins the potato has to offer. According to J. Rodale in his book
The Complete Book of Food and Nutrition,
peeling potatoes results in a 47 percent loss of vitamin C. Since we at the Esalen kitchen are concerned with offering food that has the highest amount of nutrition, you will almost always find potato skins and other skins of fruits and vegetables left on the food we serve. That’s why you won’t be asked to peel your vegetables in most of the recipes presented in this book

But hold on before you toss your vegetable peeler into the trash. The skin and the layer just under the skin of fruits and vegetables can also be a concentrated source of unhealthy residues of toxic agrichemicals. If you’re going to follow Esalen’s example of serving fruits and vegetables with the skin intact, then you must, and I stress must, also follow Esalen’s example of being committed to using organic fruits and vegetables. At Esalen, we only use organic potatoes; that’s why we offer them to our guests with their full nutritional value intact.

I strongly urge you to consider making a commitment to organically produced foods. I believe we would be a healthier society if mainstream America made a major transition to organic agriculture. Non-organic fruits and vegetables are almost always sprayed with toxic pesticides, and the plants get their nourishment from toxic chemical fertilizers that are put into the soil. Some produce is even dipped and coated with fungicides to prolong shelf life. Meat and dairy products are pumped full of hormones and chemicals. Their toxic residues are cumulatively stored in our bodies, and this accumulation causes our bodies to fall prey to degenerative diseases and premature aging.

We have all heard from experts and scientists that the amount of toxic chemical residue in non-organic foods is too little to affect our health. Their statistics are based on the toxic residue that’s contained in one apple, for example. What they are not telling you is that when you eat that apple, the toxic residue you consume will never leave your body. The cumulative effect of eating many apples with toxic residue over a period of many years is what destroys our health. Also, it’s a very dangerous endeavor to mix toxic chemicals, and yet this is exactly what we are doing when we eat different non-organic foods sprayed and fertilized with different chemicals.

Organic foods may be a little more expensive at the grocery store checkout stand, but they are less expensive than hospital and doctor bills from loss of our health. Eating organic foods is preventive medicine. And besides, organic foods taste so much better!

SEMOLINA FLOUR

Semolina flour is made from durum wheat, the hardest variety of wheat. It is too hard for most breads and is used almost exclusively as pasta flour. Semolina is a course grind of durum wheat and has a very high protein content.

THOMPSON RAISINS

Thompson grapes are the green, seedless grapes that you find all over America. They are also the most popular grape to dry into raisins. Yes, that’s right—all those Sun-Maid Raisins that you have been eating are dried from Thompson grapes.

UNSULFURED APRICOTS

The process of sulfuring dried fruits, including apricots, is to maintain the bright color of the fruit. It also makes the fruit have a sour taste, kills all of the B vitamins, and gives one intestinal gas. Unsulfured apricots are darker than sulfured ones; they are also sweeter and healthier for you.

BREADS

Angela Karegeannes

“I created this recipe during my first year in the bakery. I used to pull old cookbooks down from our dry storage pantry, and experiment with substitutions. I owe the idea of adding sour cream to a yeasted bread to the Tassajara Bread Book. Using orange extract-laden raisin water in the bread was, up until now, my secret to this recipe’s rich flavor. I imagine many other extract flavors would do just as well. This bread is amazing as toast, with soft goat cheese and honey, or made into a bread pudding.”—Angela Karegeannes

ORANGE-ESSENCE RAISIN BREAD

Angela Karegeannes brought this recipe to the Esalen bakery. Soaking the raisins in orange extract water and using the soaking water in making the dough is the secret to this recipe’s rich flavor. Try other extract flavors instead of orange, such as lemon or almond, to create new tastes.

Makes two 2-pound loaves

1 cup Thompson raisins (see page 25)
1 cup golden raisins
1 teaspoon orange extract
1½ cups warm water from the soaked raisins
5 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar or Sucanat
(dehydrated cane juice)
2 cups fine whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Place the raisins in a bowl and cover with almost-boiling water, and then add the orange extract. Stir. Let sit until raisins are plump but not too soft. Drain, reserving liquid. Set raisins aside.

Put 1½ cups of warm soaking liquid from the raisins in a mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast. Leave bowl in a warm, draft-free space for about 10 minutes to create a sponge-like texture on top. Whisk in the vanilla, butter, sour cream, sugar, and whole wheat flour to create a wet paste. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free space.

Dust your hands with flour, and then knead 1¼ cups of the unbleached flour into the dough. Knead for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the dough forms a soft ball and easily lifts off the sides of the bowl. Add the raisins and remaining unbleached flour and knead for another 8 to 10 minutes. The dough is ready when it is pliable and resilient and doesn’t stick to your fingers when poked.

Shape dough into two equal rounds and let sit in a warm, draft-free space until doubled in size. Punch down the dough and reshape into two rounds. Let the dough raise again until doubled or when a finger poked into the dough barely springs back. Place on a baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the bread has a hollow sound when tapped on bottom. If you want to use a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 185 degrees F for doneness. Remove bread from oven and place on a wire cooling rack.

APRICOT NUT BREAD

This was a recipe that Flanagan Mackenzie brought to the Esalen bakery. Flanagan is a fiery Irish-Italian baker who would sit and knit socks during our weekly process meetings. She wrote, “I remember this recipe because it reminds me of the kids at Esalen—they would ask for it a lot. One afternoon Emilio, the 5-year-old son of our bookstore manager, came to the bakery and made a batch of this bread. He called it Butterfly and Bug Bread, and he did an amazing job!”

Makes 2 loaves

1½ cups dried unsulfured apricots (see page 25)
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons non-aluminum baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup nonfat dry milk
½ cup fresh orange juice
1 cup chopped walnuts

Cut the apricots in 1/4-inch dice and cover with the hot water.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until you have a grainy paste. Add the egg and beat until you have a smooth mixture.

In another mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and dry milk.

Pour the water off the soaking apricots and reserve ¾ cup. Add orange juice. Whisk this liquid into the egg mixture. Stir this into the bowl with the dry ingredients, stopping when everything is incorporated. Gently fold the apricots and nuts into the dough. The dough should be the consistency of cake batter.

Oil 2 bread pans and divide the dough into them. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the bread comes out clean. The bread should have a golden brown appearance. Place on a wire rack to cool.