Grains, Gluten, Quinoa & Mold - My Story So Far....

The very first time I ate QUINOA…..I didn’t feel right. Only I couldn’t fully explain that feeling, it was just a weird sense of something not sitting well in my stomach. Then, I went to bed later that night and had strange disturbing dreams as if I’d eaten something that didn’t suit me.

I’m an Intuitive by profession and I place a lot of stock in my dreams. I rely on them to inform me of general goings on in my body and throughout my life.

So…..I got up the next morning and ‘knew’ it was the quinoa that wasn’t right. I remember saying to someone that week…..I don’t like the quinoa it gives me nightmares and the energy of it is all wrong.

Just something wrong about it – but at the time, I had a young child, I was a student and I was working part time in my clinical practice so I didn’t spend much time looking into it. I just didn’t want to use it in my cooking!

However, time moved on and so did I, this was probably sometime in 2004 -05. I didn’t go out of my way to eat quinoa nor did I go out of my way to avoid it either. If it was there in front of me (at a friends house for instance) I usually ate it, however, I never forgot that very first strange encounter and those ‘feelings’ did not go away.

A couple of years later, because we had been gluten free for so long, I decided I wanted to make some bread. Of course, the only few options open to me where making bread from several types of flours at the same time, to get the dough to hold together.

One of those flours I ended up experimenting with was Quinoa flour. At first I was just happy to be able to make some sort of a bread for the family. But then….I noticed a peculiar thing about the quinoa that I wasn’t seeing on the other flours.

I mean, perhaps (it is!) it was there on all the different types of grain in varying degrees, however, on the quinoa I was seeing it, and tasting it…..

In fact, the very first time I noticed something – I had opened the top of a bag of Quinoa flour, used a couple of cups of it from the top half of the package. When we ate the bread, I remember saying; this tastes funny.

I was re-assured everything was fine, put some jam on it and it will be grand. When I went to make the next batch of bread a few days later and dug more deeply into the package – I could see a greenish looking flour and it now smelled more strongly of mold.

That was what I was tasting! I quickly threw out the package and chocked it all up to just one of those random things….that is, until it happened again this time with a bag or box of quinoa grain. I noticed they tasted ‘off’ and examined the grains deeper down into the box and found this same dark green mold.

This one I took back to the health food shop, where I was re-assured it must have been a rare occurrence but that quinoa was perfectly safe to eat. Then it happened a third time – again with the flour I was desperately trying to use to make bread.

By this time in my life, I had eaten my fair share of so many different types of grains -  (wholegrain, flakes, flour etc.), yet never encountered this anywhere else and was having nothing more to do with the quinoa.

The reason this became an issue was because, during that time I was exhibiting symptoms of mold toxicity from all of these non typical grains I was using while I was vegan (sugar free, dairy free, wheat free, gluten free, meat free, Night Shade free and so forth) and I knew my system was not used to the types of molds found on these grains I was not accustomed to eating.

At the time we were using Amaranth grain and flour, coconut flour, quinoa flour and flakes, grains, gram flour, rice flour and flakes and so forth – each of which was new to our systems. Any grain, as well as nut and seeds contain a high amount of molds. Perhaps it was the entire combination of all of these items in our diets that caused some of these problems?

However, we did not eat bread that often or use the flour on a daily or even weekly basis as it was just too much work to make the breads stick together. Besides we were quite happy with our diet and had adapted quite well to a general whole food vegan diet.

Some of the symptoms I had at the time were;

Pins and needles in my hands & arms

Tiredness

Weight gain (without diet change)

Headaches

Rashes

Joint pain & muscle aches

Fever & chills

I just started to not ‘feel’ well. These symptoms were not there all of the time – they would come and go. It was just often enough, that I knew something was not right and I needed to get to the bottom of it. Once I realized I was eating moldy quinoa – I was able to trace back the worst symptoms to the days following eating this stuff!

In some ways, I think I am still not 100% over the effects of these molds and I would not ever go near quinoa again. I am also a little more cautious with all grains – we eat them and now enjoy our sourdough breads, rice and oats; but I am watchful of any ‘new’ untried grains on our digestive systems!

April

My lovely Sourdough breads that makes me feel great! 

An Intuitive Bread Baking Lesson....

Ok….I’m back!! LOL

It’s been a long summer and I have done quite a bit of cooking, baking and creating in the kitchen….and I’ve learned quite a bit – being busy means needing to find shortcuts but also something else, that is perhaps far more important.

I don’t really ‘like’ to follow recipes! But let me clarify that a bit better here….I love looking at the ingredients list and deciding if I can make something or other. I enjoy the final product and of course the process in between.

But, being a ‘spiritual’ foodie and interested in this inner connection we should have with our foods – certainly the ones we grow and create ourselves – I am far more interested in putting things together until they ‘feel’ right.

Perhaps the best way to explain this is with my breads….I have long been known to be able to whip up a quick batch of bread and have it come out tasting absolutely fabulous. To be honest….it often amazes me! LOL

Because I really don’t ‘think’ about any recipe…..I just put things together (in this case, flour, water, baking soda or sourdough) and see what happens. It really is quite an intuitive process – but this also means each and every dish may turn our differently.

So….for today’s lesson! LOL An Intuitive Bread Baking Class

Get a bowl – deep and preferably stoneware, a wooden spoon and some water. Take your sourdough starter culture out of the fridge and let it sit for an hour at room temperature.

Next get some flours out of the cupboards and see what you have – I like to mix them a bit especially for sourdough because it is nice if it rises and is soft on the inside – ie. It’s not a brick!

Today I used strong white bread flour, malted grain flour (whole grains) and of course rye for feeding my sourdough starter. I like the malted flour because it contains several dark flours and is made with fermented grains – so the goodness is already present before we even begin.

Into the bowl I pour flour – until the bowl is about ½ to ¾ full. Often about an equal portion of each of the strong white flour and the malted but sometimes a little more white to make a softer bread. Don't measure anything - just fill the bowl to a little more then 1/2 full.

Next, I spoon out my sourdough starter, enough to make at least ½ cup and upwards to 1 full cup if I am trying to keep these sourdough starters freshened. Then I always replenish my starters with 2 -3 tablespoons of rye flour and ½ the amount of water before anything else.

Once the starters are dealt with I can move onto mixing the bread. Which is simple – I pour in enough water to make a doughy substance that is not wet and not dry. Each time this might take a little more or less water. And yes, I use cold water (or whey if I am making cheese that day). 

Then I let nature take it’s course and the  sourdough sponge is placed somewhere warm to rise for the next 18 to 24 hours or so. Again, the length of rising time all depends on the heat in the house, the time I have, the type of bread I want, how active the culture is that day and so on.  

Then I knead it down, add more flour and work with the dough until it is soft and silky. Usually about 10 to 15 minutes or so. Then, back into the bowl for another rise (usually 4 to 6 hours) until it is ready to be kneaded again and shaped for the bread tins.

I bake my breads at 250C for 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 200C for 20 minutes or so. This seems to work out best (sourdough doesn't rise for me in a fan oven). But each oven is different - so you have to play around with this. 

Is this a recipe? Perhaps or perhaps not…..to be honest when I look at the complicated list of details for making sourdough bread that are on the internet and in the recipe books – my eyes glaze over.

It’s just not that complicated. And neither is life!

April

Sourdough dough after 2 rises....ready to be shaped into loaves

All We Need Is....Bread!

I haven’t been doing much in the way of cooking these days…I’ve been baking bread. A little bit obsessive I know – but with good reason I might add – I have been perfecting my wild yeast culture as well as my sourdough culture…

And it is pretty well – perfect! I just love the taste of the bread but more then that I really like the ‘feel’ of it when I am working with it – kneading it, the pulling and stretching as well as the mixing.

It just doesn’t compare to how bread feels when I have used commercial yeast. This feeling is the first thing I noticed about the dough when I first mixed it – it just felt so different in my hands.

Wild yeast gives the bread a softness and a lightness not found anywhere else and I just know it must also impart far more flavour (it tastes so good!) and along with that the vitamins and minerals that come from fermented grains.

This week I have been playing around with the culture – using different types of flours as well as varying the length of time I have let the dough rise (and rise again). Mostly I have treated it a bit like a sourdough giving it lots of time to develop.

As of right now I have 3 different breads on the go – one in the oven while the other two are at different stages of fermentation. Each one is completely unique in it’s flavour and texture when done but so delicious.

Who’d of thought that bread could be this easy to make, yeast this easy to grow and the taste so superior? And I couldn’t be happier! LOL

 April

Living Bread - More Thoughts on Sourdough

Still on the bread theme here – but learning lots as I go and having some fun in the process. Every day I have been working on making my own sourdough – and by that I mean getting to know my starter, how it reacts with different flours as well as what it can do.

So far, I am consistently baking a great tasting loaf with the best crust I have ever tasted for a bread. The taste is crunchy, sweet and sort of like it has been fried in butter…I must admit, I never thought a sourdough bread would taste this good!

Inside, the bread itself is not overly sour – I don’t let it rise for hours and hours. Usually my bread is reaching it’s peak at about 4 – 6 hours or so. I have been reading how some people let the bread rise (the first time) for about 18 hours or so.

I will probably try that to see what difference it might make with the taste, texture and result of the bread. Right now I am really enjoying this process of learning, experimenting and seeing where it all takes me.

Either way – it is still not rising in the oven as much as I would like it to. So I have been changing flours around to see if that makes a difference. Usually I do all of my baking with organic whole grain spelt (and have for years)…using different flours such as organic wheat certainly adds a new dimension to baking for me.

And we are enjoying all of this homemade bread – well, our bread has always been homemade, but now we have different tastes, flavours and textures for each meal. One thing about my sourdough, and perhaps everyone else’s – the taste changes each time you bake with it….

The bread has become a dynamic, living part of our meals. Amazing! 

April

Sourdough Olive bread made with organic whole grain spelt flour