Cooking with Chef Jo: My Infamous Chicken Salad Recipe

This begins a series of my recipes for, "It's Too Hot to Cook!" Summer friendly recipes. ' Cause here about, the daytime temperatures are in the 90s

When I was working as a cook at my local hospital, I gained the reputation of having the best chicken salad in town. Whether you liked your chicken salad smooth or chunky, they loved my recipe. I used to make 10 lbs of it twice a week.These same customers followed me to my own restaurant years later just to order my chicken salad! It was the ultimate compliment to me. They begged for decades for the recipe to no avail. I've pared the recipe down to 2 cups worth and offer store substitutions as usual.

Now I'm sharing it with you, but it is copyrighted.

Jo's Infamous Chicken Salad 
 1/2 pint charcoal cooked canned chicken*
1/2 pint chicken canned in own juice
Substitute 1 breast and 1 thigh of grilled and poached chicken (reserve liquid for each)
1 small onion, minced
3 ribs celery, minced
1/2 cup mayonnaise, I make my own but Kraft will do
1/4 cup pickle relish *
2 eggs, hard boiled and minced
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp Jo's seasoning salt or Morton's Natural Seasoning Salt, to taste*

Notes-
*I season my grilled chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder before I grilled and canned it. It was grilled just enough to lightly color the outside before "raw" packing it into my jars and canning it.
*I use my zucchini bread and butter relish.
* Link to my seasoning salt recipe

Putting it all together

• Cube grilled chicken into 1/4" to 1/2" cubes removing any fat you see. Set aside
• Remove any fat you can see on the poached chicken, cut into chunks.
• Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, and dill weed in a small bowl. Whisk until blended. Set aside for 5 minutes to let the dill weed rehydrate.
• In a food processor, add poached chicken, relish, celery, onion, and eggs, 
• Add mayonnaise mixture.
• Pulse until smooth and creamy. If mixture seems dry, add reserved liquid.
• Stir in diced grilled chicken.
• Refrigerator for an hour before service to allow flavors to meld and get happy.

Serving Suggestions
I'll scoop 4 ozs on top of a fresh green salad, serve it on large buttery

croissants, as part of a chicken salad melt, I've stirred it into pasta salads, or just plain bread. Choose your toppings lettuce, tomato slices, did someone say cheese? Oh yeah! Now, you are talking. Make mine Pepperjack, please.Or, your favorite dill pickles. Chips or crackers is optional.

Enjoy this yummy for your tummy.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Progress Continues at the Cockeyed Homestead

As the days and nights continue their warming trends towards summer. I can already see the progress forward as we grow our homestead to how we want it to be every week. Considering we're two sexagenarians, disabled females, and on a tight shoe string budget, we're making it happen one baby step at a time.

The orchard is coming along slowly but surely. More raspberries, grapes, elderberries, and fruit trees will be bought, traded for, or given to us this year expanding production while they mature. The apple trees are blooming , the peach trees are setting fruit. We're hoping the old peach and apple trees, one each here when Mel got here almost 6 years ago, will bear fruit this year. Trimming branches off the existing apple and peach trees each year has given us ample chew sticks for our rabbit and the local colonies of cotton tails.

The existing trees, having been neglected for too many years, are out of control and are over 15 ft tall. My balance isn't the greatest, as you can imagine and Mel's grace, aka stumbling and falling while walking on solid ground, has me concerned when she climbs up on the roof. Let alone climbing trees anchored in sloping ground, with wayward branches with and using a chainsaw. Just the mental image alone gives me the willies.

That's what happens when you decide to pick up stakes and start your homestead near a small town. Who you gonna call? Nobody, because you don't know anyone and you can't afford to pay someone else to do it. You have to get creative and think outside the box to get the job done which both of us are terrific at.  But unfortunately in this case, it's failed us. So for now, we do what we can and take care of them the best we can.

The roof in the living room is still leaking. We thought the silicone had done the trick. In the coming weeks, we are trying a different tactic. We'll be ripping out the ceiling and insulation. Where we see daylight and mold has to be the problem, right? It's affecting both of our health now. I'm back on asthma medicine that I haven't had to use in 50 years other than a rescue inhaler. I might have used 1 inhaler a year. It's a daily thing now. The weather is warmer, we can tackle this job if we can get a week's worth of dry days and I can afford the repairs.

So now I'm budgeting for roof repairs. It's not only the roof, but the wood that needs to be replaced, new insulation and some sort of replacement ceiling covering. I'm thinking of thin plywood or paneling for that. but before any of that, there's the cost of the batteries ($100) for the tools to operate. ARGH! You see the see the source of my financial rants of late about our finances? I'm treading water here.

If I sound  depressed, I am in a way. I updated our Cockeyed Critter page and deleted Benjamin, our ermine English angora buck. He was one of Mel's favorites. He joined his son who died last week. I announced a few weeks ago that we were downsizing our rabbitry BUT not this way! Plus all the hens we lost...6 total over winter and early spring due to coyotes. It gets down right depressing at times. Yes, they are livestock and earn their keep, but they are like our pets.

What killed them. I dunno. It could have been fifty different things We'll be pulling down all the cages down early.and be giving them all a good scrubbing and bleaching. It's that time of year. We do it four times a year. Their barn was emptied of composted bedding, but these rabbits went down fast. Max 48 hours so I'm ruling out feed (they were eating the same as all the rest). I'm ruling out infection because it takes longer to manifest, but the two bucks were 8n side by side cages. I could play the twenty question game all day long and not have an answer.


It seems I'm always griping about finances lately, doesn't it? A few months ago, I went from a monthly $500  project budget down to a $50 dollar budget. It's harder to get things moving forward with that kind of budget crunch. It seems everybody that can help is $65 an hour or greater and nobody can fix something in an hour. The less cushion we have the more repairs or replacements we have to have. These are few, but we can't do without some basics.

Baby stepping with style

But, if we keep plugging forwards and keep our eyes on the goal, it'll get easier over time. Mel built a ram pump to bring water up from the creek and we've Gerry-rigged a sump pump for the hydroponic grow system that can later be expanded for the new greenhouses and irrigating the garden and orchard areas. Our toilets flush and animals are now watered using rain water catchment for their needs. This is major progress. They were done with what we had on hand. Some of these projects had items purchased years ago waiting for the opportunity to buy additional items, and some were just scrap found here and about or from other projects. We're baby stepping to our goal our way in style and laughter. We'll be thanking God for every step forward. With Him in the plans, how could we ultimately fail?

Y'all have a blessed day! I know we will.

Cockeyed Jo                                               

Cooking with Chef Jo: Lower Carb Quiche

Circa 1982 on Amazon

I know, I know. Real Men Don't Eat Quiche! If the book was before your time, it's a hilarious read. But I personally know many men that have ordered it and enjoyed. I guess they were in-the-closet quiche eater in a very public restaurant. 😆 They were those muscular type guys with facial hair. I guess they could have been women in disguise with their husband's names on their credit cards. But I dunno. Stranger things have happened.

But that's okay, here at the Cockeyed Homestead, we're just two older widows who love it! Besides, it's springtime and my hens are back in full production mode again. We had some losses over the winter...3 hens. But the remaining nine are busy at it. We lost a couple of customers who moved away in the last two seasons for their job and one got a few hens themselves. So it's just as well with the egg production lower, but I end up with 6-9 eggs a day now and have a stockpile building. Might as well make quiches with them.

I was taught by a well respected chef how to make mine (the basic technique). It's more a souffle like than just stuff in scrambled eggs like I see in so many cookbooks. It's light and and fluffy. When the low carb diet craze hit, I made it without the puff pastry crust. It also save me hours of laminating puff pastry dough. I found that I actually like it better without the crust.

Enough jabbering.  Onto my recipe especially since I'm making it for dinner tonight. Once again I'll add store bought ingredients for my home canned goodies.

Jo's BOSSES Quiche 
(Bacon, Onion, Swiss, Sausage, Egg, Spinach quiche)
Makes 2- 8x8 square pans or  1- 10" souffle deep dish
Serves 8 dinner sized portions depending on your appetite.
What  you'll need
1 dozen eggs, separated (room or chicken temperature)
1 lb Swiss cheese, cut 1/8th cube * I love the way it pulls out in long strand rather than grated, your choice.
2-1/2 pint jars of bacon, 16 slices (cooked, drained, and chopped into 1/2" pieces)
2 1/2 pint jars of sausage patties, 8 patties (cooked, drained, and chopped into 1/2" pieces)
1-1/2 cup half and half
1 onion, 1/8" dice* and cooked
1/2 lb spinach, fresh wilted in hot water and chopped, or a box of frozen, chopped spinach thawed and squeezed
About 1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoon all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoon of Jo's Seasoning Salt*, adjust to taste and diet


 * Notes-

@ Amazon

1.  I use my Vidalia, small grate, for the 1/8th inch dice. I slice my cheese partially frozen for easier slicing with my mandolin. What can I say, I'm a one handed chef that has to use gadgets now instead of just a knife.
2. Using my Vidalia onion chopper* again. I love this slap chopper. Easy uniform cuts and fast. When I open my jars, there is always some fat left on the meat from the canning process. I place my meat on a broiling pan to get rid of the excess grease. To conserve energy, I'll spread my onions on the drip pan to cook my onions at the same time. Bake not broil since the meat is already cooked 15 minutes at at 300 degrees. Pat onions dry of the grease.
3. Link to my seasoning salt blend recipe.
4. A note within notes for full disclosure- this is not an affiliate link and we receive NO money if you use the link and buy one.

Putting it all together 

• Beat eggs whites until stiff peaks form. Sprinkling is 2 Tbs of flour while beating to stabilize the loft of the meringue after adding yolk mixture.
•  In another bowl, combine egg yolks, half and half, seasoning salt, meats and vegetables. Mix well.
• Gently fold 1/4 of of yolk mixture into the beaten egg white meringue so not to deflate them totally. It okay to see small chunks of egg whites in the mixture.
•  Pour remaining yolk mixture into the egg white meringue. Gently fold together.
• Pour mixture into well buttered pans only filling the pans halfway full. it will rise 1-1/2 to 2 times in baking process.
• Bake 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes until golden a just set. It will jiggle slightly but springy to the touch. Do not over bake it.
• Slice into servings while hot

It's yummy for your tummy!  Some more notes It's not great on the fat calories with all that meats and cheese, but it is low carb without the puff pastry crust and cream. I haven't found a Swiss cheese that is low or no fat that I like so I use Alpine Swiss. There is 2 Tbs of flour in this recipe divided over 8 servings. If gluten free substitute tapioca or rice flour. Not good with nut based flour because the oils will split your egg whites. Leftovers freeze great for three months. So this is also one of those cook once and eat many times unless you are serving to your not real men bosses or have a large family.😉

Eat hot, at room temperature, or cold. Add what you like and make it your own. I also do a killer version of a Philly Cheese Steak version using leftover roast beef. I like to serve mine with a fresh salad. I love me some veggies.  Or. if not low carbing it, some garlic rubbed, toasted sour dough bread. Enjoy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Another Homestead Garden Update

With the daytime high temperatures reaching 80 degrees and above, it's time to plant heat loving plants like tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumbers, melons, and corn.

While others direct sow their seeds directly into the ground like Mel did, I find I get better results by soaking my seeds in a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution overnight, and then starting my seeds as transplants. I don't like the hit or miss of direct sowing. You end up with gaps in your planting area. This may not matter for those that have a large acreage to plant, but we have a little over 500 sq ft of gardening space to provide our needs. By using a combination of sq ft, back to Eden, and lasagna organic gardening techniques, I get the most bang for my efforts.

So while Mel does her direct sowing method, I'm going to eek out a small space to do my thing. I can't let her have  all the fun. While we actually have enough corn and pickles to last another year, I'm  going grow field corn to supplement our chicken's winter rations and popcorn. While Mel doesn't care for cucumbers or squash (didn't plant any), I love them so a few plants are in order. I'll start 6 and pick the best 4 plants. My gochugaru and bell peppers didn't get started so I'll start a half dozen of those too. They will keep the rats, and squirrels away.

I'll grow the field corn down in the orchard and the popcorn in a (3'x6') "raised" bed area. This way there is no cross pollination between the two types of corn with several hundred feet and the barn between them. It's a raised bed because I'm raising the soil about a foot to two feet from ground level with no containment boards.

On the short ends with popcorn, I'll use a variation of the three sisters method and sq ft gardening method. I'll plant my cucumber or luffa sponges at each of the corner with one corn plant in the center. I'll plant a squash (zucchini and yellow) plant in outer most edge of the corner and 4 garlic plants along the inner edge.  In between the corner squares I'll plant three corn shoots in the 1 open squares.

On the long sides for every other square, I'll plant one corn two peppers (1 gochugaru and 1 bell), and 4 scallions, or small onions with garlic planted along the the back edge. I'll have 2 squares on each side four a total of four of each type of peppers.For every missed sq ft, I'll plant three corn plants. I'll intersperse peppermint  or cosmos flowers along the the front of the rows. About five plants in each square.

In each interior square, I'll plant three corn plants. Again, I'll plant three cosmos flowers or dill with them in every other or there about. Sound nuts? Believe me, there's a method to my insanity of  planting like this.

As a small-time, organic gardener, I believe in companion planting and natural pest deterrents. My number one problem in growing corn is squirrels and rats. Onion, garlic, and hot peppers and peppermint. they even shy away other predatory animals and pests. Rabbits love mint, but not the others so the young shoots are protected.

My second problem is corn earwig worms by planting cosmos and dill around the corn shoots encourage green lace wings to come and stay. Green lace wings just love the corn earwigs and other pests that can destroy your garden. Besides, it looks pretty and you can eat them too. Be sure to plant the Cosmos Sulfureus type only if you want to eat them. The other varieties will poison you! I get my seeds from Baker Creek. They give my garden bright spots of color specially after the corn stocks dry and turn brown.

When you harvest your dried corn (popcorn and field) you can also harvest the seeds from the flowers for next year. I've done this for a couple of years now. Although they are an annual, they reseed themselves easily. this year I've got an abundance of seed of cosmos and dill so I mixed them into the orchard grass seed (I plant the corn with  it) this year. Rabbits and chickens love cosmos and dill! It's and extra treats in their hay.

See there was a method to my madness. Oh, after I transplant the shoots, I sprinkle rabbit poop over the whole area. I'll mulch it 3" deep around the plants in the raised bed and 6" deep with loosely scattered hay or straw in the orchard. I'll let Mother Nature do her thing. I don't have to do much except pull the occasional weed and water it if we have a dry spell over a week or two long. That's the beauty of raised bed gardening. It also meets my dual or three prong of use status in small area homesteading.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Cockeyed Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Fresh Salad!

I watched and waited for this for months! It's time for for fresh salads from our garden! I was out early this morning harvesting assorted leaves from our red sail, oak leaf, radish leaf, other assorted other lettuces and greens, herbs, and flowers. All our organically garden.

For tonight's salad, I picked the outer leaves of assorted lettuce leaves, strawberry leaves, dandelion leaves, some of the English pea leaves, and plantains. For good measure I pick some small strawberries too. There are still some chicken planted strawberries outside the garden fence line. The berries are pea size.

I then went for the flowers and herbs. I grabbed a few pea blossoms, dandelions, nasturtiums, pansies, impatiens, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and a couple of roses.I peeled the petals off the dandelions, nasturtiums, clovers, pansies, and roses (the centers and green bits can taste a bit off). I do a double rinse on my harvest. Followed by a good spin in my salad spinner and placed them all in the refrigerator until supper time.

I mixed up some lemon vinaigrette about thirty minutes before dinner and poured it into the salad bowl. I thinly sliced an onion and put that with some grated carrots to marinate. Just before serving I'll add my herbs, lettuces, leaves, and flowers. I'll toss it very gently to lightly coat the greens, flowers, and herbs. I can't wait to add our other homegrown veggies to this in the next month or so.

Hey Jo, where's the recipe? Don't worry. Here it is...

Jo's Lemon Vinaigrette 
Makes 5 servings or 1 large (family size) salad

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (about 1/2 a lemon zested)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 whole lemon)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon lemon thyme, minced
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• In small bowl, add lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and mustard. Whisk until sugar and salt are dissolved.
• Add pepper and lemon thyme.
• Drizzle in oil. Whisk until emulsified.
• Pour into air tight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days for optimum taste.

Enjoy!

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Tearing Down the Greenhouse

Like many new homesteaders Mel built a greenhouse out of pallets and cattle panels. Watch videos  here. It actually worked fairly well. But there were two major problems with it. It way too hot in our GA summers and the winds howling through our hollow destroyed the plastic covering so we had to replace it yearly.

As you can see, those nifty shelves filled up with assorted junk too. Nothing was protected from the elements for very long. It became a royal pain in the behind in upkeep to grow vegetables  and house rabbits in winter.

Kassity @ 5 months old

Stripping the shredded plastic covering off the outside and the floor was the easy part. It took two days with chasing down Kassity who insisted helping us by carrying off pieces to other parts of the property.

We got smarter after chasing her a couple times. We started stuffing the plastic into an outdoor trash can to prevent this. We'd take a break making sure to press the lid closed only  to find the trash can rolled down into the orchard and the plastic pulled out of the can. The trash can lids couldn't withstand rolling down the 25' incline littered with small blueberry bushes, fallen trees branches, and a 40 lb puppy jumping on it the whole way down. The lid didn't stand a chance with this puppy having fun. How could you stay mad at such a sweet, lovable face? We ended up hauling the trash can into the barn during breaks.

Finally, the plastic was off. Then the job of cleaning up the mess. Every few handfuls we'd traipse to the barn with it. Kassity, not to be left out, would grab something and follow us...most times. If the item was something fun to play with or had a good chewability factor, she'd try to run off with it. We'd stop her in her tracks by the only way we've found that works- a cutesy voice with that held  the promise of play or being loved on.

With Kassity's help, it took us a week to get it accomplished. I'm just glad the greenhouse is only 8'x8'. I shudder to think what the three proposed 8'x 24' greenhouses will be like. But we're thinking of old windows and doors or those clear tuftex panels for those. We've got some time to gather what we need for that project slated for 2020.

Now all that's left to do on the old greenhouse is to install the shade cloth over the wire structure. It should arrive next week.We've filled the new planting beds on both long sides of the greenhouse with the cleaning out of the rabbit barn on top of wood chips. Everything planted is growing well. Inside the "new" shaded greenhouse should allow us to continue to grow cooler weather crops and jump start our fall garden seeds.

That's it for this week.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: It's A ll About Radish Greens

Oops, I fotgot to hit publish yesterday. My bad!

Radishes and lettuces are the first harvestable crops in your garden each spring. I have to really restrain myself from cutting all the greens for salads and tasty treats for the rabbits. The radishes roots themselves I don't particularly care for raw unless it's daikon radishes fermented. I find them too spicy and bitter for my palate. But even so, we plant 7 or 8 varieties each year.

But roasting or stir-frying them, radishes take on a totally different texture and flavor. I can't get enough of them. It works with any type of radish: red, white, and even daikon.

Spring Stir-Fry of Baby Japanese Radishes (radishes and greens) and Soba

Servings 2

Ingredients

  Kosher salt

2 ounces dried soba noodles

12 to 22 young radishes with greens

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup thinly sliced scallions plus 1 to 2 tablespoons for garnish

2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger

 2 teaspoons chopped fresh garlic

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or 1/2 small fresh serrano pepper, sliced

1 tablespoon white (shiro) miso plus more to taste

§  1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (leaves and tender stems), plus a few whole sprigs for garnish

§  Low-sodium tamari

Instructions

•  Bring a medium saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. (Beware of the package instructions, which will tell you to cook them for much longer.) Drain, rinse briefly with cold water, and allow to drain well.
•  Separate the greens from the roots. You should have about 1 cup (a little more or less won’t matter). Separate the greens from the radish roots, then trim the radishes and cut into 1/2-inch slices. You should have about 1/2 cup. Roughly chop the  radish greens and measure out 2 cups loosely packed.
•  In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup of water to a very gentle simmer.
• Meanwhile, in a large (12-inch) nonstick stir-fry pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the diced radishes and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring, until all the veggies are slightly browned, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of the scallions and the ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until fragrant and softened, about 1 minute. Add the 2 cups of chopped greens and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat. 
•  Whisk the miso into the hot water, then add the mixture to the stir-fry pan. Add the cooked soba noodles, the chopped cilantro, and a splash of tamari. (If necessary, return the pan to low heat for a minute or two to heat everything through.) Transfer to two bowls and garnish with the remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons of scallions and the cilantro sprigs.

Enjoy!

Y'all Have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

It's Definitely Springtime!

True meaning of the rhyme aside

"Mistress Mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?"

Well, I don't know about her garden, but the Cockeyed Homestead is starting to green up. The seeds are sprouting there first true leaves and the transplanted tomatoes and peppers are loving these warmer days.

In fact we've only had to water once so far. Mother Nature has been good to us. We harvested some Dandelion seeds last week to plant them where we want them. We've got a spot for these nutritious and medicinal weeds. They can grow and spread to their hearts content. We've also reseeded the bunny patches. Yes, I'm already pulling plantains, clover and grasses for their yearly diet transition. At least as much as my back and abdominal incisions will allow.Yes, the surgery sites are still tender because of all the bending. That's the thing about not being a spring chicken nor a fall hen anymore, you do everything slower including healing. If it wasn't so hard getting up again, I'd kneel or squat. The Golden Years are so great, why are we having such "fun" dealing with 'em?

$27 for a new looking porch

But honestly, I'm enjoying these days. I can take my rest periods with my glass of tea on the porch swing. Yes, the house is going through the yearly transition too. Porches are cleaned off for the warm weather migration. Now that the weather is nicer, I'm investing in the evergreen paint for the porch and shutters. We'll have to invest in some new roller and brushes since the 45 lb puppy, otherwise known as Kassity or chew up everything she can get to, has absconded off somewhere in the deeply wooded property with them. Nothing brightens them exterior  of a house faster than a fresh coat of paint. I'd planned to do this in the fall, but fall lasted two days. Not a lot of bending so it's a perfect job for me. 

A quick sanding job and a new stain would make it almost new again patio set. I may even get new patio chair cushions. The old ones are getting thin. Maybe new foam will suffice. Bennie, our previous German Shepherd, made short work of shredding them. By the time I get the porch done, I should be healed enough from my surgery to do the chairs and table. At least that's the plan.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Jo

Cooking with Chef Jo: Snack Green Peas No Wasabi

 My #2 grandson loved these since he was a toddler, now 18.He could eat a whole bag every time he visited on average of two or three times a week. At the time, they were $1 a bag plus shipping. Being an absolutely fabulous grandmama, I tended to keep whatever each grandchild liked on hand. But it began eating away at my pocketbook. So I learned how to make them from frozen green peas.

Now you can find Wasabi peas everywhere, but the no wasabi peas are still a specialty order thing.

It's that time of year when the snap or English peas are ready to be picked or soon will be. It's time to empty the green peas out of my freezer for this year's crop. Once roasted and vacuum sealed, they will keep for an additional 6 months to a year in an air tight container or vacuum sealed bag. Warning: they are additive!

This recipe is for 5 lbs of green peas. Sounds like a lot? It isn't. Trust me. I used to do 10 to 20 lbs at a pop.

Jo's Kasugai Style Roasted Peas
5 lbs frozen peas, rinsed under cold water and strainec
2 cup Mochiko flour, recipe to follow
2 TBS Tahini pasta
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBS sea salt, fine
Spray oil

• Rinse peas under water and spread peas on layers of paper towels
• In large bowel, mix Mochiko flour, sugar, and salt.
• Lightly spray peas with oil spray. Toss well to cover the peas well.
• Roll peas into tahini paste until lightly coated..
• Place a couple handful of peas into the flour mixture and coat well.
• Repeat until all peas are covered.
• Place peas on parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. Do not over crowd the pan.
• Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Shake pan occasionally to rotate the peas while roasting.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool before bagging them for storage.

Mochito Flour
2 cup short grained rice
2 cup hot water
1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp salt

• Dissolve sugar and salt in hot water.
• Pour over rice in microwave safe container with vented lid.
• Microwave 100% power for 2 minutes.
• Stir well.
• Repeat the process until there is no visible liquid in the container (about 4 times)
• The rice will be tender and mushy.
• Remove rice from the container and spread thinly on parchment lined baking sheet.
• Flip the mixture several times a day or place in the dehydrator until dry and hard.
• Grind pieces into fine flour.
• Store in air tight container.

Enjoy!

Have a blessed day!

Jo