Summer Buckwheat Porridge - A work in progress

It seemed so weird to me when I first came across a recipe for a raw buckwheat porridge on one of my favorite blogs! Then slightly different versions appeared on two more of the blogs I often read. So I figured I had to give it a try. My first attempt came out way too runny, as it's supposed to be more like a parfait-style breakfast. I'm wishing I halved the batch, because now I have to finish the rest of it somehow. The too-runny texture is kind of throwing me off, it would definitely be better with less liquid. The taste is great however, falling just short of cookie batter!

This is one of those breakfast that requires getting started the night before. You have to soak the raw buckwheat overnight in water with a tiny bit of lemon juice or vinegar. I checked out three different recipes before I made my own. Here are the inspirations:

http://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/raspberry-ripple-buckwheat-porridge/

http://ohsheglows.com/2011/07/11/raw-buckwheat-breakfast-porridge/

http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/raw-buckwheat-walnut-porridge/

This isn't a perfected recipe, more of a documentation of what I did and my reflections on it!

I soaked (separately) 1 cup of raw buckwheat and 1 cup of walnuts overnight in water, adding just a squeeze of lemon juice in the buckwheat water. This morning I drained and rinsed the buckwheat and walnuts in a colander with small holes. I blended them in a standard blender with a heaping tablespoon of honey, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, and 1 sliced ripe banana. For the liquid I used half milk-half water to cover the ingredients in the blender. Since it came out soupy, I served it in bowls with heaps of fresh blueberries and blackberries from the farmers market.

Each spoonful of the porridge with the juicy tart berries was quite heavenly, but without them this would have been difficult for me to get down. I feel it must be mentioned that I put a bowl of down in front of my boyfriend, and he just plowed right in and finished before I did. I was impressed, he's usually a good sport about eating the "strange" things I give him.

So this would have been much better with less liquid, and maybe using a food processor would have been a better way to blend? There is a lot of potential here!

Fresh Blueberry Pie

I hate wasting precious fresh fruit on cooked pies! The no-spray strawberries and blueberries come out for such a limited time at the farmers markets I work at. I found a recipe yesterday for an open-faced fresh blueberry pie with reduced sugar. In order to feel less guilty when I eat most of this pie over the course of the next 24 hours, I made the pastry crust with a 2/3rd coconut oil to 1/3rd butter ratio, and substituted spelt for half of the flour. I also forgo the homemade whipped cream which would of course be awesome, but I'd rather sacrifice my whipped and iced creams in order to have cream in my morning coffee. Actually, I think it's better to keep it simple and just enjoy the fresh berries and coconut crust than to have too many flavors going on. I made a streusal last week with my market blueberries, but they were lost in the richness of it! I think using frozen organic fruit is fine if you are going to be cooking it.

I'm not going to post a coconut crust recipe, because it's definitely not perfected yet. I had trouble with the frozen coconut oil forming large chunks, so next time I will try grating it first. Maybe the spelt flour contributed to the difficulty? Not sure yet. I did however notice that the crust did not bubble or shrink at all during blind baking.

I must also mention how much I absolutely LOVE my stoneware pie dish from Pampered Chef. I conditioned it first with lots of coconut oil, and it releases the crust amazingly every time. And so far the coconut oil has not begun to brown or darken the stoneware as it "seasons." The butter seasoning on my stoneware cookie sheet gives my baked goods a certain taste that I'm not always fond of, and the cooking times really vary with it. For your enjoyment:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Open-Faced-Fresh-Blueberry-Pie-101866