Vegetarian Blues..

I never realize how healthy I eat until I'm around meat eaters who survive on processed food. Then I find myself making grilled cheese sandwiches longing for legumes and grains.

Great grilled cheese

Butter that bread up with REAL butter
Take some munster and provolone cheese
Whole seed Mustard and put it in between the bread.

and put it in a pan and brown the sides.

The best gift I thought of

The food obsessed freak I am has come up with some great gift ideas. Two of my dear friends recently bought a house. So I was thinking of how to give them something useful and meaningful for Christmas....of course I go for the heart of it and think of the kitchen. We share a love for Indian food (mine a bit more snobby due to my time in England) so I found a great cookbook for them on Indian cuisine. The kicker is, I am about to head out and go to the herb shop and get them a bunch of spices needed for the recipes. Things like that will be the frills the definitely won't be buying when the they are worried about wallpaper and bedding.

Pat knows RICE

Whenever you make rice you might as well make twice as much as you need, cause then later on you can make fried rice, one of the easiest and most versatile leftovers meals. Here's one of the spice combinations I like to use, along with two suggestions for vegetables you can mix in. You can really use any combination of vegetables as long as you know how long they need to cook for. If you fry the rice under fairly high heat you'll get some nice crunchy bits, but if you turn down the heat you can cook whatever vegetables you have until they're done and then turn up the heat for the last minute or two to get the crispiness.



What you'll need: vegetable oil, black mustard seeds, ground tumeric, cooked rice, garlic, tamari sauce



Pour about a tablespoon or so of oil in a frying pan or wok over medium heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seed and 1 teaspoon tumeric powder. Swirl around the oil so the tumeric is evenly distributed. When the seeds start popping add your cooked rice. Break it up so there are no chunks and stir the rice through the oil so that it is evenly coated.



Variation 1: add some broccoli florettes after you've got you're rice evenly coated with the tumeric/mustard seed oil. Splash on some tamari sauce. Cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally, then add one or two cloves chopped garlic. Cook for another minute, then serve with black beans.


Variation 2: add some frozen peas after you've got your rice coated. Let it sit on top for a minute to defrost before stirring them in. Let that cook for a couple minutes than add a chopped plum tomato, one or two cloves chopped garlic, and some chopped leafy greans, such as spinach, cilantro, or parsley. [I find the easiest way to chop leafy vegetables is to roll them into a tube, then slice it. You don't need to mince it, they just need to be bite-size.] You can also stir in an egg if you want egg-fried rice. This goes great in a breakfast burrito.

Flap Jacks

My friend Pat and my housemate will agree that these rock. I don't understand why people buy instant pancake mix because this recipe is simple and soooooo much better than any instant stuff.

This makes a lot of batter, about 10 huge pancakes worth.

90 grams (3 oz) of butter
3 cups self raising flour (white/wheat your choice. King Arthur flour is my suggestion)
3/4 cup unrefined sugar (or reg sugar, your choice)
1 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Melt the butter, beat the eggs, mix everything together and make your pancakes.

They are fantastic, you don't even really need to add butter because they are already buttery enough.

Fried Tofu

An easy way to fry tofu and it is a great addition to stirfrys.
First you have to press the tofu to get a lot of the water out. Wrap it in paper towels and put it on a plate. Usually I stack a few plates on top of it, which is an interesting balancing act.
Cut the tofu in to small blocks.
Take some flour, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some garlic salt and roll the tofu in the flour.
Then coat a frying pan with canola oil (I add a touch of toasted sesame oil for flavor, but not too much because it burns easily).
Place the tofu in the oil and fry until golden brown on all sides. It takes about 5-10 minutes.
While it's frying I usually am also starting my stirfry, so when my veggies are near cooked, I can add the tofu in at the end.

Fried tofu is good.

Tofu

I don't have exact measurements for my favorite way to prepare tofu. First I wrap the tofu block in papertowels and press it for at least 20 minutes. Then I put cut the tofu into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a shallow bowl and add the following until the tofu is covered in liquid:
minced fresh ginger
1 clove minced garlic
tamari soy sauce
toasted sesame oil
a bit of hot chili oil
rice vinegar
mirin

I let this marinate for as long as possible, it's good to do ahead and use the next day.
Then to cook, I pour everything into a pan and I let the juices simmer and reduce. The tofu becomes a dark brown color and you can cook until crispy if you want, or until you have a nice syrup. I then use this tofu with an assortment of meals, whether it is with stirfry, or just on the side with some quinoa. I have also made a tempura batter and dipped the marinated tofu into the batter and fried it up. That's a bit more labor intensive.

Cabbage Excess?

If you happen to grow cabbage in your garden, you probably have an issue of huge cabbage heads and a lack of ideas of what to do with you cabbage. This happened to me in England, the cabbage from the garden were like basketballs. One lasted all week, and I had to find interesting thing to do.
This one I learned from Satoko, a Japanese woman I lived with.
She shredded the cabbage, added some salt, sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil (to cover) and a touch of rice vinegar.
Let it sit for a few hours, and you have an awesome, tasty salad. I love toasted sesame oil, that is perhaps why I love this so much.

I only eat fresh Coleslaw

I was a super picky eater as a kid. I only ate one thing at a time, washed my plate in between and then would have the next part of the meal. I didn't have dressing on salad until my freshman year of college. The first (and last time) I had a BLT was the summer I lived in NYC. That was also my first time eating tomatoes and lettuce on a sandwich. I stopped eating hamburgers about 15 years ago. Swore off all beef, and then for a brief time in college ate steak every chance I got for 10 months. There are a lot more examples of weird eating habits, like the time my roommates and I only ate canned soup for three months. We would go to the store and fill the cart up with Progresso and Campbell's soup. Now the thought of canned soup makes my stomach turn....
I am still a fussy eater. I don't eat meat, and sometimes indulge on Tuna and some other seafood. I don't eat much processed foods, and you would have to strap me down to get me to eat anything with MSG or hydrogenated oils in it.
To the point. I still carry my fear of preprepared salads like potato salad and coleslaw. Once I made them from scratch, I realized how good they could be. I'm not about to go out to the grocery store to buy some pre-made, but I will eat them if myself or someone has cooked them up within the last five hours and there is no bacon.

Coleslaw

12oz white cabbage
1 large carrot
1 onion peeled and chopped fine
3 tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 pint mayo
salt
pepper
paprika

I use the food processor to shred the carrot and cabbage. This is best 2-3 hours after serving.

Ginger Cake

I was going to post my banana bread recipe, but I'm not sure I am ready to release that to the public. Perhaps if someone has a need for it, but in my opinion it is Blue Ribbon stuff.
So instead, I will give you a ginger cake recipe, compliments of Nigel Slater. Nigel ruled my culinary world when I was living in England. He contributed to the Guardian magazine every Sunday, and he always had seasonal recipes. Which worked out wonderfully for me, since I was working magic cooking straight from our community's garden. I have a notebook of cutouts and most are his. This cake was yummy and helped secure my spot as Pennine's best cook. An honor I and my students of Hibernia took pride in. Mark, Claire and Chris and I spent many hours together working peacefully (most times) sometimes preforming miracles.


You will need::::
60 grams butter
125 g golden syrup
100 g plain flour
25 g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100 g caster sugar (unrefined sugar works fine here too)
a pinch of salt
125 ml milk
1 egg beaten


Preheat the oven to 325*F
Thoroughly grease a 9 inch by 5 loaf tin.
Put the butter and golden syrup in a small sauce pan and melt stirring occasionally over a low heat. Remove .
Sift both flours, the soad and spices into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and salt, then add the milk and egg and mix until smooth. Gradually add the butter mixture stirring until mixed well.
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 50-55 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for five minutes.
You can make syrup for the cake by placing
125 g sugar, 125 ml water and 1 tbsp of finely grated ginger in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil and simmer in small sauce pan. Spoon the syrup over the hot cake and leave to cool.


ps. I know its in metric system. I'm protesting the Masons and their "we keep the metric system down" sign they have posted in their yard right now. Perhaps if someone can explain this to me I will post my Banana bread recipe :)

How to Sprout Beans

You Need::
1/4 cup of dry beans (lentils, soybeans, mung beans, black red beans...seeds)
Filtered water

Sort and rinse the beans. Transfer the beans to a bowl and cover them with 2 cups of water, and leave them to soak at room temp for 8 hours. Drain the beans into a colander and gently rinse them with cold water. Place the colander in a dark place, such as your kitchen cabinet. Repeat "the rinsing/leaving to drain/returning to a dark place" twice a day for 3-5 days until the beans have sprouted a 1 inch tail. Place these baby sprouts in indirect sunlight for several hours, to create chlorophyll and to turn the sprouted tails green before using.

Use your sprouts within 3 days.

DO NOT use potato or tomato seeds, they are poisonous.
Sometimes this might not work due to circumstances only the bean knows....so don't give up, and try it again.

Enjoy.

Oats, Ginger and Apples

I decided that the post by Pat was too huge for those who like quick digestable bits of information, so I broke it down into two parts. So here is his recipe for a way to spice up your traditional oatmeal.


It's getting be that time of the year where it's unbearable to get up in your frigid house. At the same time the apple harvest is just wrapping up so there's mountains of apples to make stuff out of. So here's the breakfast that gets me out of bed all winter, with some of those autumn apples to make it like dessert first thing in the morning. What you'll need: rolled oats, water, cinnamon, ginger, raisins, an apple, brown sugar (or maple syrup) For 1 serving: Pour 1 1/3 cups water in a small pot, add about 5 shakes of cinnamon (I get those big jars that cost like a buck, so you can go nuts with it) and turn the burner on high. While that's boiling up peel and mince half an inch of ginger (see below) and dump that in the cinnamony water. When the water is boiling add 2/3 cups rolled oats and turn the heat down to low. You're gonna have to turn the heat down before the water boils if you have an electric stove, because otherwise the oats will froth over, and if the heat's too high the oatmeal on the bottom will get burnt and your pot will be a pain to clean out. Once that's simmering you can go get dressed, since it'll take the oats 7-10 minutes to absorb the water. Come back a couple minutes before it's supposed to be done and dice a third of an apple. You can save the rest but it'll just get brown so I usually end up eating it. A couple minutes before the oatmeal is done (it'll get those little dimples on the surface, like rice) dump the apples and raisons in there. Too early and the apples will get mushy and the raisons will become little fireballs, too late and they won't have time to warm up. Anyhow, when all the water's been absorbed give it a stir to get everything mixed in and let it stand for a minute. Dump all of it into a bowl and pour some brown sugar on top, then let it stand for another minute to let it caramelize real pretty. If you live in New England and can get maple syrup cheap this is also a delish touch. Heck, throw some more cinnamon on there if you really want to put on a show. Now you've got a piping hot breakfast that's got plenty of fiber, is slightly spicy (to warm you up even more) and sweet and fruity. This is kind of the gourmet version; when fall ends and the only apples available are trucked in from the Northwest you can skip them and go for the budget version. It'll still get you a pimp hot breakfast for like 25 cents and five minutes prep. Just remember to get some water in your pot before the scrapings dry, it'll spare you dish agony when you get around to cleaning up.

Loco Coco's

I am pleased to annouce at the possibility that Loco Coco's in Kittery might start delivery service.

Roasted Acorn Squash

This meal is fantastic. I did it for myself and had it for two days.

1 acorn squash, cut in half and roast at 375*F for 50 minutes or until very tender
Once it is roasted you will need
1-2 tbsp of butter
1 med onion, sliced thin
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Melt the butter then add the onions. Cook the onions slowly until tender, add the garlic, coriander, and nutmeg and scoop the acorn squash into the mix. I then seperated it by mashing with my wooden spoon and I added a bit of water to make it easier to manage.

This goes great with brown rice (which you could start when you start the roasting of the acorn squash. Brown rice is 1:2 (rice:water) and cooks for about 40 minutes at a med-low heat)

This meal was one of those surprisingly awesome meals, where you are overjoyed with all the flavor since it is a simple recipe.

Enjoy.

Ode to Pat and ginger

So my friend Pat is great. He was the jumpstart to this online food project. He asked me for some recipes one day, and while I started going through my many cookbooks (I have about thirty) I decided to get to it and start blogging. Well, he is really great, and this post is completely composed by him, so you should send thanks his way .

Preparing fresh ginger root:

There are a lot of fresh ingredients that don't cost a whole lot but will make a world of difference in your cooking. Ginger is a tangy root that is available almost anywhere fresh produce is sold. Look for smooth skin and an even diameter to make preparation a cinch. "Antler horns" are cool looking but a pain to peel. A thumb of ginger (a piece about four inches long that looks like... well,) costs like 15 cents and is enough for four or five gingerrific meals, more if you're a spice-a-phobe. What follows is the easiest way to get this thumb-looking root into a form your can put in your food.

You'll get a taste for your level of ginger tolerance after a couple meals, but I generally find an inch long piece is enough for a four-serving meal. It's easiest to prepare ginger with a small, sharp, non-serrated knife, like a paring knife. Slice off the dried up end where it was broken off, then slice off half an inch or an inch, depending on how much you need. You can peel off the skin with a potato peeler or just knife it off.

Cut it in half lengthwise and put the flat part down. If the root is really thick you might have to cut it into thirds. Ginger is a fibrous root, so by cutting lengthwise you'll be cutting along the fibers. Cut the ginger as thinly as possible into spears, then slice the spears. This is where it's helpful to have a sharp knife, since you won't get caught up in the fibers but can cut through them cleanly. Basically you want to mince the ginger into little bits the size of minced garlic. If the bits are too big you'll get these chunks of ultra-zingy ginger in your food.

You can also grate ginger but I find that it turns into a pulpy mess and you always get down to a piece that's too small to grate without grating your fingertips, so I prefer just mincing it with a paring knife. Once you get the hang of it it takes like a minute. Throw some in some white rice or oatmeal to perk up an otherwise blah dish. I'll post some other recipes to utilize your new ginger-mincing skills in the upcoming days.

The fantastic Ginger dressing

Ever go to a Japanese restaurant and get the salad with the ginger dressing? Do you love that dressing? Well I found a recipe for it, and it is amazing. Something about it hits my tongue in a fantastic way....

Ginger Soy Vinaigrette

Mash together until a paste is formed:
1 peeled garlic clove
2 to 3 pinches of salt

Remove to a small food processor or blender. Add and puree:
1/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c minced shallots (onions are okay too)
2 tbsp minched peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 teaspon toasted sesame oil
salt to taste
hot red pepper (or oil) to taste

With machine running, slowly pour through the feed tube and process until smooth (aka emulsify the dressing :)
1/2 cup peanut or vegetavle oil

Use right away or cover and refrigerate.

I love Cheese= My death

Cheese will be the death of me.
Boucheron, Cana de Cabra and Five year old aged gouda have me hostage.
Boucheron and Cana de Cabra are similar cheese from the same mountain, different countries. Cana de Cabra is the Spanish version of this goat cheese, and Boucheron is the French version. Both are great. The restaurant I work for, introduced me to both, and I will forever be hooked.

Veggie Barley Rice Soup

I made enough vegetable/barley/rice soup to last me all week.
I thought I was having a lot of people over for dinner, so I went nuts. Instead, it was me, a friend and that is it. We watched Troy, the worst movie ever, but so fun to dissect!

I chopped up:
2 onions, 2 garlic, a bunch of celery, 3 carrots, 2 zuchinni
I threw them in the pot with some oil, added water and some Better than Bouillon, a can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, parsley, a can of garbanzo beans, two handfuls of rice, and two handfuls of barley. I let it simmer until the rice & barley were cooked through, and then I had me some soup. For the week.

Vegan to boot. But I add a spoonful of Romano cheese in my bowl before I eat it. It makes the soup.

Lemon Artichoke Pesto???

If anyone has a great recipe for a lemon artichoke pesto, do tell! I bought some from the local pasta company, Terra Cotta, and it was devine. I guess I should just ask them, but perhaps someone that reads this might have their own.


This is another reason why it's good to live on the Seacoast.

I will not provide food to the thief.

This post is in honor of stability and comforts. Someone stole about 50 cds from my car, including my new Andrew Bird Oh! the Grandeur cd which I just bought for the SECOND time. I don't even want to think about what other cds are lost, all with a lot of meaning and memories. Once I do come to think of them, recovering them is going to be a long daunting task. I'm not looking forward to it...

My comfort meal is easy to make, healthy and satisifying.

Quinoa is the only grain that has a complete protein.
So I take 1/4 cup quinoa, 1 tsp of Better than Bouillion and a half cup of water and bring it to a boil. Then I chop up whatever veggies I have in the fridge and throw them in. Cover the pot, simmer the quinoa for 15 mins and then I have a super tasty quick meal. You can go two ways with flavoring, soy sauce (I love tamari and Braggs) or cheese, Romano and Asiago are nice. It depends on what type of mood I am in and if I want to go vegan or not.

Thats my comfort meal.

So long CDs. It was a lovely relationship.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I love Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.

Only one more week of the Portsmouth Farmers Market. This week my friend Megan and I wandered around and decided on two huge Butternut Squashes from Barker's Farm. My house mates are not so keen on turning the heat on, so roasting squash was a great way to add some warmth to my ice box.

First Meg peeled the squash and scooped the seeds out. Then poured some Olive Oil on them and roasted them in the oven at 350 F for 40 minutes (or until tender).
Next we chopped two onions, two garlic cloves and sauteed them in olive oil until they were soft.
I added the roasted squash, poured enough water to cover them, and added a few teaspoons of Better than Bouillion (the vegetable one) and four heaping tablespoons of Organic Brown Sugar. I didn't have powder cinnamon, so I threw a stick in, and sprinkled nutmeg. I let it cook for about 15 minutes, and then I put my new food processor to work. After creating a nice smooth soup, I put the soup back on medium heat (and put the cinnamon stick back in) and added some salt and pepper.

I think the whole process would be a lot easier if you had that wand that you can just stick in the pot and puree everything.

Anyway....this soup was great, and it is vegan. You could saute your onions in butter, and add some milk at the end for a richer soup, but I think it is just as good without.

The BEST peanut sauce EVER!!!!

Udon Noodles and Peanut Sauce.

This has to be one of the best peanut sauces I have EVER had. Seriously. It comes from the book Three Bowl Cookbook by David Scott and Tom Pappas. It was given to me Christmas 2003 by Vivienne, the potter I worked with in England. She was a crazy lady. She loved anything to do with Asian culture by ideal, but when it came to her own kitchen she was a meat and potatoes lady for sure. Despite this irony, she was a lovely lady, and I learned a lot from her about pottery, herbs and the students we worked with.

You need:
450 g of Udon Noodles (I used one pack of frozen noodles from the Asian mrkt)
25 mm of ginger, peeled
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
4-5 jalapeno peppers (less if you are wimp about spice like me)
4 spring onions, cleaned and chopped (I used a leek)
30 g of fresh coriander (I didn't have this)
225 g peanut butter, unsalted (I used a salted organic brand. Ingredients, Salt, Peanuts....none of that hydrogenated oil crap you find in Skippy)
50 ml of rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce (I love Braggs or Tamari)
1/2 lime, juiced
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
150 g bean sprouts ( I didn't have any so I used Kale instead)

CookUdon Noodles according to your noodles directions. Place everything but the sprouts (and noodles) in the food processor and Puree. If the sauce seems really think, add water. I then tossed it all (noodles and all) in a wok and tossed it around for a few minutes over medium/high. You could just add the sauce to hot noodes, or cold noodles, depending on your desire.

I also added some tofu that I lightly fried on each side. I imagine if you are a chicken eater, chicken would go well with this meal.

It was a tastebud treat. This recipe serves 4, I was cooking for myself so I reduced it by 1/2....I wish I had more people to feed this to, because it was excellente.

Enjoy!

Today I make miso soup again. My stomach still churns hate out towards me. I must put a recommendation in here for Yogi Tea. Whatever the ailment, Yogi tea is the answer. Throat Comfort tea is the most amazing thing for any type of sore throat. I can't tell people that enough, and they still don't listen. And the few that have, agreed that it works like magic.
The Calming Tea really makes me sleepy. I know it all sounds like hocus pocus. I didn't believe they would do anything, but they really do.
I bring up the tea, because I love tea. I'm excited that the cold has come and I can start boiling water the instant I come home. Tea has become a comfort, a time to regroup and reflect. If you don't drink tea, or just drink black tea, you should test the waters and try some others. You might be surprised.

Miso Soup

So I caved in and decided to start my food obsessed web blog. The theme will be pretty much about recipes, food discoveries, farming (preferably organic and local) and of course, restaurants. I cook primarily vegan and vegetarian, but I do have a lot of knowledge of meat preparation. So here and there if I find something worthy in regards to meat...then it will come. Perhaps I will upload photos of some cooking creations... Anyway. On to the first recipe.


Today I was feeling ill to my stomach. Maybe it had something to do with the impending doom of a personal matter, or perhaps it was that sushi/sake combination I overindulged on at Sakura last night. Regardless, not being able to eat all day, I decided it was due to time break into my Miso Paste and make some Miso Soup.

Miso Soup is perhaps one of the easiest soups to prepare, if you have the ingredients at hand. Most of the ingrediants come from my local Asian market, Lo's.

First, boil about two cups of water. While they are heating up slice about 3/4 of an inch of ginger. Also slice 1-2 cloves of garlic. Don't slice them too thin. When you are done chopping them you should add them to the boiling water for ten-fifteen minutes. While that is boiling, assemble any of these ingredients:

Miso Paste (red, brown, whatever you prefer) 2 tbsp (this can change more or less depending on the strength of your miso)
Leeks or Scallions-sliced thin
Tofu- Cubed
Rice Noodles-a hand full of these is nice
Carrots-shredded
Nori Roasted Seaweed-torn up into bite size pieces

Scoop the ginger and garlic out and discard. Add all the ingredients and let simmer until thoroughly cooked (ie. about three minutes for the rice noodles)

Miso Soup in about 15 minutes.

Nutritional Value of Miso
Two tablespoons of miso provide:
Calories 71
Protein (gm) 4.00
Fat (gm) 2.00
Carbohydrate (gm) 9.00
Calcium (mg) 23.00
Iron (mg) 1.00
Zinc (mg) 1.25