have you ever heard of "5-elements cuisine"? i don't even know if i (or google) have translated that correctly because i only ever heard it talked of in german. it's a sort of concept that can be applied to anything you cook or bake. you can even make drinks and jams following the 5 elements and it's supposed to make everything healthier and tastier.
when i grew up we had one of these posters taped to the door of one of the upper kitchen cabinets. it's a table of the 5 elements:
wood
fire
earth
metal
water
listing the most common ingredients which are associated with each of the elements, again sorted by:
hot - warm - neutral - refreshing - cold
my mum swears that once she started following the 5 elements while cooking we suddenly ate (multiple helpings) of dishes we previously would hardly touch because everything tastes so much better and "rounder"...
i don't know how true that is though. maybe we just grew out of a phase of suspiciousness regarding unknown and untried dishes (and my mum likes to experiment while cooking and of course using whatever she has at home at that moment).
it works like this: every element and every heat-category has a list of ingredients, headlined by general type of food - like: fruit, vegetable, diary, wheat, herbs, spices, drinks, etc.
my mum would refer to this poster while cooking and after a while she knew most of the things she used a lot by heart and by now it's sort of second nature and she follows this even when dressing a salad. (my mum's salads are without a doubt the most awesome ever!)
there are books about this (this poster came with a book which i admit to not having read yet) that explain the benefit of this more fully. personally i haven't really taken over this way of cooking yet, mostly because so far i couldn't be bothered to check every ingredient for its element.
the point is that you start with one element, which one does not matter, as long as you keep the order in which they appear on the poster. you can think of it as some sort of circle:
wood burns - fire creates ashes - they turn to earth/soil - deep under ground metal is compressed - it's washed out by water - water makes trees grow - we're back at wood
or something like it.
you have to stick to the circle and add all the ingredients belonging to the element, mix or let boil/sit for a minute or just stir (depending on what you make) and then move on to the next element. it's important that every element is added and if you don't have an ingredient for whatever you're making that goes with one of the elements, check the poster to find anything you can add just a dash or pinch of so the element is at least in.
the element water contains mostly fish and sea-food for example. imagine you make something sweet and don't find anything to add for the element water - but there's always salt which belongs to the element water. you can always add a tiny pinch of salt - even to sweet things - and everything's well.
if you went through all the elements and realise that you forgot something, start again and either add more different ingredients per element or a tad more of the ones you've used already to make sure you don't interrupt the circle.
sounds complicated and very fussy, i know, but having grown up in a kitchen were cooking like this was normal i can tell you that it's not as stressful as it sounds - especially if you take your time.
now, i said i don't usually cook this way; but once, when i had a spur of motivation to live more healthily, i grabbed the poster and made my own little table containing all the ingredients you can possibly use to make your own muesli.
we've always been muesli-people and whenever i had a phase and made our own muesli it was always very well received and eaten up in no time.
my muesli-table is organized by element and by type of ingredient: all the grains are boxed-in in orange, the fruit and berries in pink, spices in green, nuts and seeds in purple and sweeteners in brown. then there's an abreviation for dried and fresh ingredients (yes, for some fruit and berries it makes a difference).
this is the latest batch i made and it is really good. i made it as follows and in order of appearance (use a large bowl and stir well after each element is finished):
wood: spelt flakes, dried lemon zest
fire: dried orange zest - i would have liked to use dry-roasted buckwheat but didn't have any and it was sunday
i make my own dried orange and lemon zest when organic citrus fuit are in season here (mostly in winter, but we usually get organic lemons all year round). i would not ever recommend to use non-organic citrus fruit for their zest because of the chemicals and waxes they might be treated with. it should say on the product label if the zest is fit for use in the kitchen. i either use a grater and spread the little pieces of zest on a plate to dry or, as i did in this case with the oranges, a peeler to get longer strips as they are easier to use in teas and wintery drinks. since these strips of dried orange zest were all i had in the house of the element fire i asked my husband to chop them for me as fine as he could. he really did chop them very finely but the pieces were still a little bigger than the flakes you get when you use a grater in the first place. and it's awesome when you eat a spoon full of muesli and happen to get a piece or more of the orange - the flavour is just divine and a lovely surprise.
earth: chopped walnuts, black and white sesame, cinnamon, chopped almonds and hazelnuts, vanilla and brown sugar.
i'm really lucky that almonds, hazelnuts, vanilla and brown sugar (white sugar as well) belong to the same element because what i like to do for a little crunch is caramelise the chopped nuts with the vanilla and brown sugar to make brittle. i put everything in a wide pan and constantly stir on low heat until the sugar melts, starts bubbling and coats the nuts - be careful not to let it burn. i spread the hot brittle on a baking sheet and spread it out, breaking bigger lumps with a spoon, then let it cool at least long enough so the sugar's not sticky any more.
BE VERY CAREFUL! HOT SUGAR ON SKIN CAUSES HORRIBLE BURNS!
when it's cool enough i add the brittle to the rest and stir only when i've added everything that belongs to the element earth.
metal: oat flakes, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg - all dried and ground
water: a tiny pinch of salt - it gets lost among all the other ingredients
it's not necessary but i like to do it because of the flavour it adds: dry-roasting the flakes and nuts i use. i didn't roast the walnuts but i roasted the spelt and oat flakes and the sesame - and the brittle of course. i really like to add buckwheat - non-flaked but also dry-roasted. i don't like the flavour of buckwheat when it's the only grain used for something (my mum sometimes used it as a substitute in cake or for veggie-burgers when i was little and i couldn't stand it - still can't when i think about it...) but when mixed in with all the other ingredients the flavour doesn't really come through but the shape and consistency of the seeds add greatly to the whole eating experience, if you know what it mean by that. when you roast buckwheat, some of the seeds can pop, which gives you the cutest little mini buckwheat-popcorn that add a touch of playfulness to your muesli - i know lots of ready-made ones add stuff like that too...
this batch is almost out already. T and his dad really like it. T gave me lots of hugs after his first portion, declaring it was the best he ever ate. makes me feel so appreciated...
you can add all sorts of dried and fresh fruit of course - the dried for storing in a jar or tin the fresh right before eating. i usually don't put dried fruit in when i make it. i stick with the nuts and flakes because i know my kids would just pick them out. i add them right before eating if i want them and then i don't care about the order i put them in...
you don't have to care about the order of putting things in at all by the way. just search through your cupboards and drawers and toss together all kinds of flakes, nuts, seeds, fruit and spices you want.
for some reason the 5 elements stuck with me as far as muesli making goes - i don't know why. i don't know if it tastes better that way or if it's just a way to make me add more interesting things than i otherwise would, simply because i see them on my list. i just know: it's really nice and my family likes it too.
lots of love! xxx
p.s.: i'll add a full list of all the possible ingredients with their associated elements in a separate post in the right side bar. if you speak/understand german, feel free to use my handwritten list pictured above - i hope it makes sense.
