Post 46: We can leave juice, wine oil etc. bottles to recycle at the health food store Nizit Ha Duv Duvanim in Gvat Shaul : Awareness as defined by macrobiotics: Yin and Yang foods by kijimunas-kitchen, Combination of two recipes to make a healthy puff pastry (occasional use)

 

Information: Just learned that one may leave juice, wine oil etc. any recyclable glass at the health food store Nizit Ha Duv Duvanim in Gvat Shaul.

Thanks to Leslie Anne Ashburn via Klara LeVine  for posting the following discussion of Yin and Yang conditions to Macrolovers Jerusalem Macrolover’s Library.

(I’ve included two puff pastry recipes. The second is more in line with whole grains. Pastry dough in and of itself is not macrobioic. However, I try to get close to considering the dough macrobiotic by using minimally processed ingredients. Obviously, it’s meant for occasional use, which means freeze the dough in small amounts. You make less and then you’ll eat less.)

From Leslie Anne Ashburn  and Klara LeVine:

Being aware of the connections between food and our emotions is quite an eye opener. Sometimes we forget in our search for health, that it’s not just the physical body that’s in need of good balanced food. Btw, I consider food more than just what’s on the table, anything we take in, like good friends, good thoughts, good deeds, kindness and also what we keep out, the opposite of above and tensions, dishonesty, and an overwhelming schedule.

Yin Mental Disorders result from over-consumption of sugar and other sweeteners, fruits, fruit juice – all the sweet mood elevators and alcohol.

1. General mental fatigue, which manifests as complaining and as gradual loss of clear thinking and behavior.

2. Feeling of melancholy gradual loss of ambition, and self-
confidence; the beginning of forgetfulness and vague memory.

3. Emotional irritability and fear, prevailing depression; a
defensive attitude.

4. Suspicion and skepticism, misconceptions and misinterpretations,
general attitude of retreating from life.

5. Discrimination and prejudice based upon an inferiority complex.

6. Loss of self-discipline; chaos in thinking and attitude;
schizophrenic symptoms.

7. Yin arrogance characterized by total inability to adapt to the
environment and the creation of a world of fantasy and illusion.

Yang Mental Disorders result from over-consumption of meat, eggs, poultry, cheese, and other hard dairy food, other animal quality food, salt, baked and burnt food, and other extreme yang substances, as well as insufficient liquid intake, produce:

1. General mental fatigue, which manifests as frequent changing of
the mind and gradual loss of steadiness in mind and attitude. And so on.

2. Beginning of rigidity, gradually developing into stubbornness and insistent attention to trivial matters.

3. Excitability, short temper, prevailing discontent, and an
offensive attitude.

4. Conceptualization, leading to adherence to various “isms” and
delusional beliefs.

5. Discrimination and prejudice against others based upon a
superiority complex.

6. Exclusive indoctrination, egocentric thinking and attitude, and
paranoid symptoms.

7. Yang arrogance characterized by total inability to accept others
and self-righteous attempts to control or coerce others.

Healthy conditions of the liver and gall bladder are connected with
patience and endurance, while unhealthy conditions produce short
temper and anger.

Healthy conditions of the heart and small intestine are connected
with gentleness, tranquility, intuitive comprehension, spiritual
oneness, and merry, humorous expression, while unhealthy conditions
produce separateness, excitement, and excessive laughter.

Healthy conditions of the spleen, pancreas, and stomach, are
connected with sympathy, wisdom, consideration, and understanding,
while unhealthy conditions produce irritability, skepticism,
criticism, and worry.

Healthy conditions of the lungs and large intestine are connected
with a feeling of happiness, security, and wholeness, while unhealthy conditions produce sadness, depression, and melancholy.

Healthy conditions of the kidneys and bladder are connected with
confidence, courage and inspiration while their unhealthy conditions
produce fear, lack of self-esteem, and hopelessness. There is an abundance of statements and might I add, emphatically stated, poor diet causes mental problems.

Let’s try to keep these 5 “H” states in our focus.

 

yin yang in foods from kijimunas-kitchen

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin yang is used to describe how polar, interconnected and interdependent or seemingly contrary forces manifest in the biological world, and how they cause each other to happen in succession. The concept lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine.

Yin yang dualities only exist in relation to each other. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, but either of these aspects may manifest more strongly in particular objects, and may ebb and flow over time. Many natural complementary opposites—e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot— are thought of as occurrences of yin and yang (respectively).

It is important to see that yin yang dualities do not account for good / bad distinctions or other dichotomous moral judgements. Most contrary, yin yang account for the idea and importance of balance.

Under the philosophy of letting food be your medicine, yin yang dualities and the importance of their balance, have been adopted by plenty of diets and nutritherapies around the world.

There are foods predominantly yin or yang, and foods containing both yin yang forces in quite a balanced way. In simple terms, yin is expansive, cool, moistening, light and upward growing. Yang is contractive, warm, drying, compact and downward growing. The ideal diet should contemplate a balance of these two energies. However, one should always have present that all foods share the presence of yin yang forces, usually one force predominating.

Yin foods (simplistically, most vegetables and fruits, sweets, stimulant drinks and water) are cooling to the body and turn down the internal thermostat. Yang foods (simplistically, salty foods, seaweeds, fish and meat with their concentrated protein) are heating.

Cooking food methods are also of great significance regarding yin yang balance. Quick cooking (light sautéing, rapid stir-fry, steaming) is a yin method, the end outcome is food that is still crisp and intact. Long cooking (baking, stewing, roasting and braising) are yang methods, the end outcome is concentrated foods that tend to have merging flavours and textures.

Seasons are definitively important to fine-tune one’s diet balance. A very yang season –summer– will ask for a more yin diet, with fresher and moist foods cooked in a lighter way or raw. A very yin season –winter– will ask for a more yang diet, with denser and dried foods cooked using longer methods or baked.

A list follows as a basic guideline to yin yang in foods, from foods with a stronger predominance of yin to a stronger predominance of yang. Ideally, one would like to choose foods from the middle range list to keep a balanced diet. The highlighted red are no-nos for macrobiotic diet.

Yin
Alcohol, sugars, coffee / spices / chocolate / caffeinated or stimulant teas, tropical fruits and juices, fats and oils, nightshade vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergine), fresh and soft dairy products (milk, fresh goat cheese).

Balanced / neutral foods
Temperate fruits (apples, pears, berries, stone fruits), aged miso, nuts, leafy green vegetables, round vegetables, beans / tofu / tempeh, root vegetables, sea vegetables, whole grains, fish.

Yang
Poultry,  miso / tamari / shoyu, salty and aged cheeses, read meat / eggs, caviar, sea salt.

The balanced neutral should be our diet mainstay.

If you should need a pastry recipe, the following is adapted for macrobiotic eaters by eliminating the sugar and margarine and using toffuti cream cheese/silken tofu/toffuti sour cream. Now I have a vegan butter recipe tht I am sharing with you (Post 45). I resorted to making my own pastry recipe because there is no whole grain prepared frozen pastry with a good hechshir on the market.

I also have a tub and a half of the non-dairy sour cream in the fridge. This pastry will come out stiff. The way to improve the flexibility is to add ground nuts to the flour mixture.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (8oz) margarine, cold from freezer  or toffuti cream cheese blended with tofu. Best substitute is the vegan butter substitute described in Post 45.
• 2 cups of all purpose flour for dough and some more for dusting
• 2/3 cups of cold water
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1/4 tsp of salt

How to prepare, step-by-step 2 pastry recipes. The first shows more photos:

1. Prepare ingredients: margarine or substitute should be cold, so should be water:
   
2. Dilute salt and substitute for sugar like maple syrup or omit sugar, with water, set aside:
   
3. Pour 2 cups of whole grain flour into shallow wide mixing bowl:
   
4. Chop margarine sticks or substitute vegan butter  into smaller pieces to the bowl:
   
5. Using pair of dull knifes or a fork (like me) mash/cut vegan butter into smaller pieces allowing them to get coated by the flour in the same time. You goal is to get pieces about pie size big, evenly covered with flour:
   
6. Add water mixed with salt and maple syrup:
   
7. Mix with fork:
   
8. And then form cohesive ball of dough:
   
9. Cover bowl with food wrap and put it to the fridge for at least 3 hours (you can leave it there overnight): I do this in the food processor.
   
10. After dough cooled down, turn it over wooden board dusted with flour, knead with few strokes and then roll thin with rolling pin dusted with flour (don’t care about shape, you can make it more square later in the process): I roll out on a silicon sheet
    
11. Fold dough in thirds along the long side, then fold in half to the center:
    
12. Roll the formed dough envelope thin, dust with flour lightly and fold it the same way again:
    
13. Roll the dough again, at this point it is ready to be used:
    
14. But if you don’t plan to use it right away, fold it again, put into a freezer bag and store in freezer until needed:
    
    I have included a second Whole Wheat Puff Pastry Recipe From Annie’s Eats
15. 

    Makes 3 and 3/4 lbs. dough

    Ingredients:

    Dough-
    

    • 3 cups (10 1/8 oz.) whole wheat pastry flour
    • 3 cups (12 ¾ oz.) bread flour
    • 2 tbsp. (½ oz.) nonfat dry milk or use almond power
    • 4 tbsp. (2 oz.) chilled unsalted butter-cut into small pieces-use half margarine and half tofu sour cream or vegan butter substitute described in post 45.
    • 2 tsp. salt or less
    • 1 and 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. (13 oz.) water (+ more if necessary)
    • Unbleached all-purpose flour, for dusting the work surface

    Butter Square-
    

    • 2 cups (or 1 lb.) unsalted butter, softened but not warm or equivalent toffuti sour cream/margarine or vegan butter
    • 1/3 cup (1 1/8 oz.) whole wheat pastry flour

    Preparation: The section in red differs from the earlier recipe due to the use of whole grain flour.
    

    • In an electric mixer combine flours and dry milk (or whisk by hand)/nut powder
    • Add in the cut up cold butter/tofutti/margarine and either mix in with the stand mixer or use a pastry blender (or even just your fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and the pieces of butter are pea sized.
    • Combine the salt and water. Gently mix the water into the flour mixture until a dough comes together. (I had to add some extra water.)
    • Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and a little bit springy (for a couple minutes)–try to use as little extra flour as possible to avoid messing with the texture. Dough may seem extra wet/tacky at first, that’s fine. Pat dough into a 1 inch thick square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate  at least 1 hour.
    • To make the butter square combine the butter/tofu cream cheese and flour and mix until smooth with no lumps (make sure to learn from my mistake and have the butter properly softened or else this will be difficult).
    • Lightly flour a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper and add the butter mixture. Spread it out into an 8″x8″ square. Cover and place on a flat surface in the refrigerator to chill for a minimum of 30 minutes.
    • Remove the refrigerated dough and place on a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 12 in. square. Place the chilled butter square on top of the dough at a 45 degree angle (a point will be facing you).
    • Pull the flaps of each corner of the dough over the butter square, meeting in the middle (pictured above). Pinch and seal the edges (moisten if necessary).
    • Lightly sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, then turn over and gently roll into a 10″x 20″ rectangle. (checking the underside frequently to make sure it’s not sticking and add flour if needed).
    • Brush excess flour off the dough and fold one third of the dough over and then cover with another third (like folding a business letter), line the edges up carefully.—this is the first “turn.”
    • If the dough is still fairly chilled (which it should be unless your kitchen is very warm), repeat the process (roll out into a 10×20 rectangle, fold into thirds)–if it’s too warm chill for 20 minutes and then do the 2nd turn.
    • Repeat this 4 more times-you’ll be doing a total of 6 turns. Between each set you’ll need to re-wrap in plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 1 hour. (So, generally, you would do 2 turns, chill an hour, 2 more turns, chill an hour, and then do the final 2 turns.) Divide into 3 or 4 equal pieces ( divided into thirds but fourths would probably be closer to the amount in store bought packages), wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 day in the refrigerator before using. If you won’t be using within 2 days, store in the freezer (let thaw in the refrigerator for about 1 day before you’re ready to use it.)
    

    
     

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