Fruits Enzyme Cooking

Betting on Fruits’ Gold

When did you last hear that lots of sugar is good for you? Never? Me either, until I started making fruits enzyme extract. The sugar used in the process to make this magical enzyme actually has great benefits to your health…OK don’t quote me on it,  I’m just summarizing what it said in the cookbook. It's saying that the enzyme is a type of protein that breaks down food we take in and also boosts metabolism. It is not a snake-oil sales pitch… I hope.

Making fruits enzyme is not very hard. I found many recipes online. It seems that you could use any fruits or vegetable except ginger. The most difficult part is timing I guess. So if you don’t mind me sayin’ I’m not quite sure when to hold ‘em. Anytime you see mold or smell something funny that’s when you walk away. Like I said, the secret to survivin’ is knowin’ what to throw away…just singing (kidding).

Ingredients and Instruction for Fruits Enzyme Extract (Print recipe here)

Necessary equipment: Large wide mouth glass jar 3 liter or larger

• 1000g of your choice of fruits and vegetable – avoid ginger or strong aroma food such as garlic, garlic chives, bitter melon. Cut in chunks.
• 1000g of sugar (although I used tensai sugar, you could use regular sugar but not brown sugar)

1. Put 1/4 of fruits/vegetables in the glass jar. Add 1/4 of sugar on top. Stir with your clean and dry hand (harmless bacteria in your hand promote fermentation process faster…sounds gross doesn’t it?). Repeat three times more and mix well each time.
    
2. Cover with paper towel or cloth and secure with rubber band or twine. Do not put an air tight lid on it. Avoid direct sun, leave it at room temperature of 68 to 77 degree. If it’s lower than that, fermentation is slow. In ideal atmosphere, it will be ready in about 10 days. Make sure to stir the contents 1-2 times a day.
3. When lots of tiny bubbles are evident then it’s ready. Strain the fruits/vegetable from juice through a sieve without pressing. Keep refrigerated (if you leave the juice at room temperature, fermentation continues and may turn into alcohol) Note: fruits part should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and consumed within 5 days.

Ingredients and Instruction for meat wrapped broccoli

• 2 Tablespoons tonkatsu or Worcester sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of fruits enzyme extract
• 1 teaspoon of stone ground mustard
• 1 pound each of ground beef and ground pork, combine well
• 1/2 of medium onion finely minced
• 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 1 Tablespoon of finely minced ginger
• 2 Tablespoons sake
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper
• 1 head of broccoli divided in small florets Note: broccoli must be dry other wise it will cause spattering in the frying process
• Cornstarch or flour for dusting
• Oil for frying

1. Make sauce – combine tonkatsu sauce, enzyme juice and mustard in a small bowl. Set aside. Option: Go spicy by adding hot pepper sauce.
   
2. Heat oil in thick deep pan to 338 F.
3. Mix well meats, onion, garlic, ginger, sake, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Divide into however many broccoli florets you have.
4. Flatten the divided meat and wrap floret top tight. Dust lightly with cornstarch.
5. 
   Fry for 3-4 minutes. Receive in 2-3 layers of paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve with prepared dipping sauce.

Oatmeal cookie with minced enzyme fruits Yield approximately 2 dozen

• 140g butter room temperature
• 40ml fruits enzyme extract
• 140g low viscosity flour 
• 60g oatmeal, chopped small
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 140g fruits enzyme fruits/vegetable, minced
• 50g corn flakes (optional)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional) I used mini chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 356F
2. Whisk butter in a large bowl until creamy. pour fruits enzyme extract and continue to whisk for an additional minute.
3. Add flour, oatmeal and baking powder. Combine with wooden spoon or spatula.
4. Fold minced fruits/vegetable in, then fold in corn flakes and chocolate chips if you are using.
5. Drop 1-2 Tablespoons of the dough onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten the dough with back of spoon if you like the uniform look
   .
6. Bake for 20 minutes.
   Without additional sugar, cookie has gentle sweetness and scone like texture. Care for tea? Why yes!

Spicy Hot chocolate – a single serving

• 1 Tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons fruits enzyme extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• Freshly ground black pepper

1. Put cocoa powder and fruits enzyme extract in a small sauce pan. Combine well to make pasty mixture.
2. Gradually add milk to thin it out. Grind pepper in then heat up to desired temperature at low heat.

Cul de sac tale…We share what we make with neighbors sometimes, then neighbors return the favor. One of our neighbors tried this Marshmallow Gelato recipe from my blog. With her blueberry compote. Life is really cool!

Weekend warrior –  the store that specializes in orchids was moving to another location. This table was used as a display table and sold to me at a huge discount. I gave my husband a project to refinish it. I think this will be a great piece of furniture some weekends later.

Mahalo for reading this post thus far….we’re going to take a few weeks off from blogging and projects, plan to do mainly nothin on the sandy beach.