Macrobiotic Cooking

The Lonevity Soup From Overnight Congee Cooklet

Barbara Jurecki-Humphrey Illustrations by Erin Brown

hat 1 love most about at night to enjoy the next day. French Meadows cooking Most of all, you're eating FRESH Wis cauldrons of food cook- foods every day. Within 24 hours, ing for many long hours. I remember you've consumed what's in the crock cooking with Comellia Aihara. On pot, and you start a fresh crock pot Tuesday we would be prepping pinto after the supper dishes are done. beans to eat on Thursday. Soaking There's no leftovers to store that and long cooking would make the grow "whiskers" in the fridge. beans absolutely melt in your mouth. Every evening, you are choosing It is so satisfying to eat foods cooked a different grain, legume and "food a long time. Campers would ask medicine" to cure what ails you. You the cook staff, "What's in the pinto are the doctor and food is your medi- beans? How come my beans don't cine. You have a variety of fresh, taste like that?" What's in there is revitalizing, health promoting food no secret! It's long cooking. We are that cooks WHILE YOU SLEEP. totally rejuvenated after eating camp You will notice big returns as your food that is cooked long and lov- health and energy improves every ingly prepared. Slow-cooked food day. The 5 minutes you invest in fill- outdoes fast-cooked food every time. ing your crock pot every evening will Here is a selection of congee recipes BARBARA JURECKI-HUMPHREY compensate you beyond your wildest from my. Overnight Congee Cooklet. Time is such a precious com- dreams. It's long-cooked food to sustain us modity. When you get home hungry One final suggestion: 'RE- between French Meadows camping at 5:30, is not the time to start plan- THINK BREAKFAST.' Let your old experiences. ning dinner. This cooklet saves time, concept of breakfast go. A congee because you cook while you sleep, breakfast will have no resemblance using a crock pot, oven, or stovetop to the Standard American Diet (also INTRODUCTION with a heat diffuser. appropriately called SAD). You can Do you know why this cook- A staple grain cooks for the com- get accustomed to a diet low in meat, book is different from most others? ing day's breakfast, lunch, and din- eggs, milk, and sugar. Congee is You COOK HEALTHY while you ner When you get home from work, high in grains, legumes, vegetables, SLEEP. It is geared to your intuition, the planning (the hard part) is done and fruit. I call congee "Longevity what you have a taste for, and what is and so is the main part of the meal. Soup." in your refrigerator. You can cook three meals in one pot

30 MACROBIOTICS TODAY • September/October 2006 WHAT IS CONGEE? eggs. The other pot contained white Breakfast rice congee. Spicy assorted condi- Congee, or Jook in Cantonese, is To crock pot add: ments and SCALLIONS were avail- water nee. able. But at^er 10 days, I started 1 Tbsp barley miso/ shoyu or 1 to crave the variety of my congee, Tbsp maple syrup, honey, rice using different grains, spices, and syrup, or barley malt miso. Hence comes the birth of this Very finely chopped scallions, cooklet. It contains original recipes kale, or other leafy greens using different grains, legumes, and Turn off crock pot. special herbs and spices.

Lunch CONCLUSION Fill wide mouth thermos with The Buddha is recorded as say- congee broth. Pack a side dish salad. ing, "This praiseworthy medicine (Congee) confers life and beauty, ease and strength; it dispels hunger, thirst, and wind; it cleanses the blad- der; it digests food." Let's cook!

HISTORY OF CONGEE Chinese Medicinal Breakfast Por- ridges have been used as medicine for thousands of years. There is also a long unrecorded history of the use of breakfast porridges as medicine. In the Journal of the American Col- lege of Traditional Chinese Medi- cine, ". . . many noted contemporary Chinese doctors always make a point Dinner of using medicinal porridge for the Reheat congee. Add sliced mush- prevention and treatment of disease." rooms, onions, squash, and seitan "Because Congee is cooked (wheat meat) to pot. Add ginger with so much water. Congee helps BARB'S FAVORITE-OVER- juice, soy sauce, and basil. Cook moisten the fluids of the stomach NIGHT JOB'S TEARS until veggies are soft. This makes a and intestines which tend to become (HATO MUGI-GRASS BAR- tasty stew with a side salad. depleted in old age due to chronic LEY disease." Rice Congee, especially is In the evening combine in slow good for babies, infants, anyone ill, cooker: anyone recuperating from prolonged or serious disease, the weak and the Vi cup Job's Tears (Hato Mugi) elderly," reports Bob Flaws in The 8 cups water Book of Jook. V» cup navy beans 1 to 2 inch piece kombu 1 pinch sea salt MY TRIP TO CHINA y* to Vi tsp cardamom (calms My congee quest continued in digestion) Beijing and Shanghai. All of the hotels had congee cauldrons on the Set crock pot on medium for breakfast buffet, called "steamed overnight cooking. Serves 3 meals porridge." One pot had white rice for 1 person. congee and 100 year black duck

MACROBIOTICS TODAY • September/October 2006 31 OVERNIGHT WILD RICE In the evening combine in slow cooker:

Vi cup hand harvested wild rice 9 cups water VA cup black turtle beans 1/8 cups arame 1 pinch sea salt V4 tsp turmeric (supports all conditions, aids protein digestion)

Set crock pot on medium for overnight cooking. Serves 3 meals for 1 person.

Breakfast To crock pot add: 1 Tbsp barley miso/shoyu or 1 BETH, KAJA, BARB, NOEL, AND DICK SERVING LUNCH Tbsp maple syrup, honey, rice AT FRENCH MEADOWS CAMP 2005 syrup, barley malt. nish with parsley. Very finely chopped scallions, Unrefined Coconut oil is lower kale or other leafy greens Get amazing hand harvested in calories than most fats and oils. wild rice from the Ojibwa Indians. It is over 50 percent medium chain Turn off crock pot. (218.246.2746) fatty acids, the kind that are not Remember that the medicine is in stored as fat. Rather the body me- the long cooking broth. If your broth tabolizes medium chain fatty acids Lunch cooks away, add more water at the into energy. Moreover, coconut oil's Fill wide mouth thermos with hot start of cooking or use a lower crock most remarkable property is that it's congee broth. Pack a side dish salad. pot setting. Temperatures of crock one of the few significant sources of pots vary so experiment with yours! lauric acid found in mother's milk! It enhances brain function and the im- mune system. Go to www.tropicaltra- ditions.com for premium coconut oil! QUICK BREAKFAST DULSE Thanks to Rebecca Wood, author of Dulse is a superior source of iron The Splendid Grain and New Whole and iodine. It also contains phos- Foods Encyclopedia, for the infor- phorous, potassium, magnesium, mation on dulse and coconut oil. protein, and vitamin A. Dulse is a good source of vitamins E, C, and B 2 Tbsp coconut oil complex, including B,, and numer- Vi cup dulse ous trace elements. I prepared this dish at French Meadows camp for Heat coconut oil in skillet. While the kids' cooking class. I had never heating, tear up dulse into small Dinner used Mendocino Dulse before. You chunks. Drop one chunk into oil. If Reheat congee. In a skillet, can imagine my surprise when it hit it turns green, the oil is hot enough. matchstick cut carrot and 1 piece the coconut oil, it immediately turned Drop all dulse chips into skillet. They burdock root. Heat a small amount bright green! The kids and I both should quickly turn green and crispy. of water or oil, shoyu, and pinch squealed in amazement and delight. Remove from skillet, drain on paper sea salt about 20 minutes, until soft. You can get Mendocino dulse at and enjoy! Transfer veggies to crock pot. Gar- www. seaweed, net.

32 MACROBIOTICS TODAY • September/October 2006 CAMP BREAKFAST TEFF RECIPE Here are Barb s most popular Discover what millions of ooking class recipes from this men, women, and children This recipe is the most often 'ear's French Meadows Camp. around the world have requested by French Meadows camp- -ed. found - the macrobiotic path to ''Infinite freedom, Cook overnight: TEMPEH MOCHI REUBEN absolute justice, and eter- SANDWICH nai happiness." VA cup hand-harvested wild rice 1 block tempeh VA cup teff olive oil to saute VA cup black turtle beans Vz block plain mochi cut 1 bay leaf crosswise like French fries BACK IN Vg cup nutritional yeast VA tsp fennel 1 to 2 cloves garlic 1 chunky onion V2 cup sauerkraut PRINT 1 chunky carrot 6 slices rye bread 1 little dried fish soy sauce by popular demand 2 Tbsp dried mulberries mustard, lettuce, pickle Saute tempeh in garlic and ol- In the morning add chopped scal- ive oil. Mix Vi to V2 cup soy sauce lions, kale, or other leaiy greens. in 1 cup water and add to skillet. Season with miso, shoyu, maple Lay strips of mochi across top of syrup, or honey. tempeh. Sprinkle nutritional yeast flakes. Cover and simmer until mochi is melted. Add sauerkraut. Cut into slabs and place on rye bread. Add mustard and dill pickle. Serve open face or as a sandwich.

MOCHI MELT STIR FRY 1 tsp dark sesame oil 1 leek thin slices 1 cup thin sliced shiitake mushrooms $15.95 pius $2.50 shipping 1 carrot thin matchsticks s $18.45 % cup thin sliced green cabbage soy sauce 1 cup broccoli florets Essential Ohsawa is the most Vi block thin mochi strips cut comprehensive look at Ohsawa's crosswise philosophy ever presented. In Vt cup spring water it, you will learn the essence Heat oil in large skillet. Add of Ohsawa's teachings - the veggies in order listed in recipe and need for and methods of simple, stir fry until tender, but not quite natural eating and drinking; and cooked through. Saute each veggie the concepts of the Order of the Universe and yin and yang. separately and remove. Don't saute broccoli. Season lightly with soy Barh Jurecki-Humphrey resides sauce as you cook each veggie. Put George Ohsawa in Telluride, Colorado. She offers all veggies back in skillet, add raw Macrobiotic Foundation on-site andfioor plan Feng-Shui broccoli. Place strips of mochi on consultations for home/office. She top of all. Gently pour water down PO Box 3998 invites guests to her log home for the side of skillet. Cover and cook Chico, CA 95927 800-232-2372 or Mountain Wellness Weekends in the over medium heat until mochi 530-566-9765 majestic San Juan Mountains. E-mail melts. Serve! 530-566-9768 fax [email protected]. [email protected]

MACROBIOTICS TODAY • September/October 2006 33