August Potluck – In Review

I thought I’d let you know what many of you missed last month.  We had a potluck at Hendrick’s Park in Eugene.  It started off slow while people found there way there, but after a little bit we had a lively group of participants and lots of food.

I did a demo of making Beet Kvass, and talked about making pickles and other fermented veggies.

A few of the dishes we enjoyed included:

• Corn on the cob
• Homemade raw butter
• Crustless Quiche
• Roast pork
• Paleo Garlic-Herb Crackers
• Grainfree zucchini bread
• Chicken gizzards with garlic & butter
• Lactofermented pickles & mixed vegetables
• Watermelon
• and other delicious foods…

I brought the grain-free zucchini bread and had requests for the recipe so here it is:

Zucchini Bread

Part 1:

• 3 c. zucchini, grated
• 1/2 tsp salt

Part 2: dry ingredients

• 1/2 c Coconut Flour
• 1 TBS Maca Powder*
• 1 TBS Flax Seeds
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 TBS Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp Mace
• 1/8 tsp Clove

Part 3: liquid ingredients

• 1/3 c. Coconut Oil, melted
• 1 TBS Ginger, freshly grated
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
• 1/2 tsp Liquid Stevia (other natural sweetener of your choice)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 Plantain**

Directions:

1) Grate zucchini, add salt, mix well and leave in bowl while preparing other ingredients.

2) Grind flax seeds in clean coffee grinder if available (omit if not available). Combine flax seed meal and all dry ingredients in bowl.

3) Combine wet ingredients in a separate container and blend until plantain is liquefied (an immersion blender works well for this).

4) Drain zucchini thoroughly.  Squeezing with your hands as much juice as possible (retain juice for separate recipe such as soup, or compost).  Draining the zucchini makes a big difference to the consistency of the bread.

5) Combine all ingredients and spoon into well greased loaf pan.

6) Bake at 350 F until done (about 1 hour).  Check bread at 45 minutes, then give it an

other 15 minutes or more until done.  Edges should be golden.  Center of bread should be firm not wobbly and toothpick should come out clean.

7) Slice, and serve with lots of butter.  Also great sizzled in a pan with butter.

Notes: This was the recipe I used for the potluck, but I have made several versions with different ingredients and amounts and it seems to be fairly forgiving.  Some times I added ground goji berries, dried plantain slices, or omitted fresh plantain or maca powder, added up to 6 eggs or as few as 3, doubled most of the spices, etc.  Feel free to adjust spices and sweetening to taste, leave out ingredients if you don’t have them.

* Maca is a South American root that is dried, ground into a powder and sold as either a food or supplement.  It has a long history of being used to balance hormones and promote fertility.  It is available at most of the local natural food stores (The Kiva, Sundance, Natural Grocers, etc).  It has a slightly malty flavor and helps absorb liquids in the batter.  You can omit it if you don’t have any.

** I happened to have plantain available, you can leave it out if you wish.

Paleo Garlic-Herb Crackers:

Stephanie brought crackers and had many requests for the recipe.  She was kind enough to forward the instructions.  You can download the recipe here: Paleo Garlic-Herb Crackers