Green tea is thought to be a cancer-fighting powerhouse. This is because it has antioxidants, called polyphenols, that reduce the growth of new blood cells that are needed for cancer to grow and spread; polyphenols also encourage the natural death of cancer cells.  Green tea is also a powerful detoxifier, activating liver enzymes that remove toxins from the body.

To get the most health benefits from a cup of green tea, you need to steep the tea leaves for about 10 minutes. This works beautifully with Japanese Green Tea. But if you’re drinking Chinese Green Tea, which is the variety sold in most grocery stores, this long steep will cause the tea to be bitter. A good solution is to steep the same tea leaves (or tea bags) 3 times over the course of a day, for about 3 minutes each time, so you still benefit from the full complement of polyphenols.

With this approach, only the first cup of tea will contain caffeine, which is information you can use if you generally prefer your tea to be caffeine-free. Since caffeine is released quickly into water, to eliminate caffeine simply steep tea leaves (or tea bags) in just enough water to cover them for about 30 seconds. Then discard the water and cover the same tea leaves with enough water to make a full cup. This time, allow the tea leaves to steep as you normally would. This decaffeinating technique works with all varieties of tea.

Keep in mind that, with or without caffeine, you need to drink green tea within an hour or two of steeping it to benefit from its full polyphenol punch.

Ingredients

1/2-1 teaspoon Japanese Green Tea leaves, or 1 teabag
6-8 ounces cool water

Recipe

1. Heat the water, bringing it close–but not all the way–to a full boil. Using boiling water tends to “cook” the leaves and make green tea bitter. (Yet the hotter the water, the more polyphenols are extracted from the tea leaves. So your tea water should be very hot, but not boiling.)

2. While the water is heating, put the green tea leaves into a ceramic or glass teapot. Or, if you’re using a tea bag, simply place it into a mug. Then pour the hot water over the tea leaves and steep them for 10 minutes. If you’re using a tea bag, try moving it up and down in the mug as it steeps to increase the extraction of polyphenols.

3. Strain the tea into a mug or, if you’re using a tea bag, simply remove it. Discard the tea leaves or tea bag.

4. Enjoy your tea within an hour or two.

Remember, if you are using Chinese Green Tea, follow the instructions above, but steep the tea leaves or tea bag for 3 minutes. Then repeat twice with the same tea leaves.

Sources for my favorite Sencha Japanese Green Tea Leaves: Kushi Store, Goldmine Natural Foods

Copyright 2010, Ellen Arian, Ellen’s Food & Soul

Yield: 1 quart

There are two simple steps to making homemade yogurt. The first is to heat the milk and then partly cool it. The second is to ferment the milk for a period of hours. All varieties of milk–sheep, cow, or goat–work for making yogurt, with each providing a slightly different result.

Ingredients

1 quart whole milk (or, for a richer yogurt, use 1/4 cup heavy cream and 3-3/4 cups whole milk)
1/16 teaspoon yogurt culture (I like ABY612 from the Dairy Connection), or 2 tablespoons plain yogurt with live cultures

Recipe

1. In a heavy saucepan, heat the milk (or milk and cream) to 180 degrees, watching carefully to be sure it doesn’t boil. Elevating the temperature in this way thickens the final yogurt, so even if you are working with raw milk, do not delete this step.

2. When the milk reaches 180 degrees, remove it from the heat. Let it cool a bit and then pour the milk into a glass canning jar and let it continue to cool on the counter top. If you want to speed the cooling process, you can immerse the glass jar in a bowl of ice water.

3. Check the temperature, and when the milk reaches 110 degrees, the optimum fermentation temperature, add the culture or yogurt and mix well.

4. Keep the mixture at 110 degrees for about 6-7 hours, or until it reaches the desired consistency.* Note that the yogurt will thicken as it cools so, with each batch, note the consistency after it has been refrigerated and then make adjustments with your next batch. (Yogurt fermented for 24 hours is said to be lactose-free.)

5. Refrigerate the finished yogurt and use within a few weeks.

*I generally use two different approaches for holding the temperature of the warm milk. With both, I begin by wetting a thin towel with warm water and wrapping it around the canning jar. Then I place the wrapped jar into an inexpensive Salton 1-quart yogurt maker and cover it with the plastic lid. Or I put the wrapped jar into a small, sturdy cooler (not a lunch bag, but a real cooler) and surround it with more warm, wet towels. With this second approach, experience has taught me to re-warm the towels every couple of hours.

Other ways to hold the temperature are to place the canning jar into a large pot of warm water; then keep the water on the stove top over the lowest heat, checking the temperature of the water to be sure it hovers around 110 degrees. Or, if your oven has a reliable 110-degree setting, put the canning jar into the pot of 110-degree water and place the pot into the oven for the desired amount of time.

Makes 2 pizzas

This is a very special pizza crust. It’s easy to make; it also tastes good, handles well, and has, for me, moved pizza out of the ranks of ambitious undertakings and into the realm of food that works when there’s little time to spare. You will not miss the white flour that’s included in most pizza dough recipes, and you will not miss the kneading either. With this recipe, making whole-grain pizza at home becomes practically effortless—and I don’t use that word lightly.

The vital wheat gluten included in the ingredient list is optional, but I like to add it because it makes a tender dough that rolls out beautifully. In practical terms, this means you get a crust that rolls out large; if you like a thin crust, you will get two pizzas, each about 10” x 14.” If you like a thicker crust, simply roll the dough smaller and thicker. Taking into account the long, slow rise of this dough, if you want to serve pizza for dinner one night, just pull the dough together the evening before, which will take five minutes, and your dough will be ready to roll before dinner the next day.

Dough Ingredients

¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water (110 degrees), divided
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for parchment paper and rolling pin
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2-1/2 cups whole-wheat bread flour
½ cup rye flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten, optional

Pizza Ingredients

2-1/2 cups pizza sauce*
1 pound fresh, or 8 ounces shredded, mozzarella cheese

Recipe

1. Sprinkle yeast into ¼ cup of warmed water and let it sit for 8-10 minutes to ensure that it’s active. You should see a creamy foam develop, and if you stick your nose into the bowl it should smell like bread. (If you do not see the foam or detect the smell of bread, discard the mixture and start again with new yeast.) Once the yeast foams, add the remaining 1-1/4 cups water, along with the rest of the dough ingredients, and stir with a wooden spoon or your hands until the flour is evenly moistened and the ingredients are well mixed. The dough will have a sandy appearance and will not feel sticky. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and leave on the counter top for about 16-18 hours in a room that is as close to 70 degrees as you can make it. Two or three times during the rest, you may need to lift the cover of the bowl to release trapped gas. (You don’t need to wake up in the night to do this step; just lift the cover in the morning.)
2. One hour before you plan to bake your pizza, preheat a pizza stone on the lowest rack of a 500-degree oven.
3. Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Let each half rest covered on the counter top or in an oiled bowl for 30-40 minutes.
4. Lightly oil 2 pieces of parchment paper, each about 11” x 15” and place one ball of dough on each piece. Flatten each ball into a disc and let one rest, covered with plastic wrap.
5. Take the other disc and, if it feels sticky, sprinkle it lightly with flour. Using an oiled rolling pin, roll the dough out on top of the parchment paper—into a 10” x 14” rectangle (if you used vital wheat gluten) or a 9”-10” round or rectangle. If you like a thicker pizza crust, roll the dough smaller and thicker. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15-30 minutes. Repeat this process with the second disc of dough.
6. Cover the first dough you rolled with a generous portion of tomato sauce—the amount depends on the size of your pizza. For a 10” x 15” pizza, you will need about 1-1/4 cups of sauce. Then cover the sauce with half of your mozzarella cheese.
7. Using a pizza peel, slide the pizza, along with the parchment, onto the pizza stone and bake for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is lightly browned.
8. Repeat this process with the second pizza dough.

*To make a simple pizza sauce, fill a 2-quart saucepan with diced tomatoes from one 28-ounce can, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2-4 cloves peeled and crushed garlic, 1 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Bring the contents of the saucepan to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Puree and season to taste with additional sea salt and freshly-ground pepper before using.

Embellishments

For a good-tasting and nutritious pizza topping, wash and chop about 3 pounds of escarole for one pizza. Then coat it lightly with olive oil and sprinkle it with fine sea salt. Put it on top of the mozzarella cheese before cooking the pizza, and bake the pizza for the same amount of time.

In Transition

If you’re transitioning away from pizza dough made with white flour, you may want to substitute 1 cup of white bread flour and 1-1/2 cups of whole-wheat flour for the 2-1/2 cups of whole-wheat flour in the recipe. Add the same quantity of rye flour called for. This change will lighten the flavor and texture of the pizza dough.

Copyright 2010, Ellen Arian, Ellen’s Food & Soul

These small cupcakes taste intensely of chocolate without being overly sweet. They take little time to make and both adults and children enjoy them. When you look at the ingredient list, you’ll see how easy bold baking can be: The chocolate is dark; the cupcakes are sweetened only by dates and maple syrup; and the flour is whole-wheat.

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ounce fine-quality (70%) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup pitted dates, coarsely chopped (check for pits)
3 tablespoons Grade-B maple syrup
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch fine sea salt
2 tablespoons whole-wheat pastry flour
1-1/2 teaspoons virgin organic coconut oil or butter

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Place the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces into the bowl of a food processor.

3. In a small saucepan, bring the water and dates just to a boil. Remove them from the heat and let cool for a moment. Then add the dates and water to the food processor and pulse once to combine. Uncover the food processor and let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the maple syrup, egg, vanilla, baking soda and sea salt and puree until smooth. Then add the flour and pulse until just mixed. Gently finish mixing with a rubber spatula and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.

5. While the mixture is resting, liberally oil a 12-cup mini-muffin tin with coconut oil (or butter). The oil is an ingredient in the cupcakes as well as a lubricant that prevents the cupcakes from sticking, so don’t worry if there seems to be an ample amount in each cup.

6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cups and bake, rotating once, for about 20 minutes (the tops should be firm to the touch). Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for about 10 minutes.

7. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool slightly. These are nice served gently warm, though the cupcakes keep for one day, covered, at room temperature.

Copyright 2010, Ellen Arian, Ellen’s Food & Soul