Mexican Style Quiche

Pastry:
(for a nine inch dish)

1 1/4 cup flour
1 stick of butter
1 tbsp cayenne pepper (more or less depending on your tolerance)
1 tsp salt if you used unsalted butter
5-8 tbspns ice cold water

First cut cold butter into cubes. Mix with flour/butter/cayenne pepper using your fingers. Keep pinching it together very fast until you get a bread crumb type mixture. With a mixing spoon slowly stir the crumbs and add the ice cold water until the mix is sticking together in huge clumps. Make a ball and wrap in plastic, and keep in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

6 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 chili pepper (your choice of hotness)
1 tomato (or two if small)
1/2 bunch green scallions
1 bell pepper (i used an orange bell pepper for color)
3 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
a bit of salt
pepper
1 1/2 cups of mexican style shredded cheese

Cut all veggies up into small pieces. Beat eggs, sour cream and milk. Add spices.

Take out pastry from the fridge and roll it out. Put it in a buttered 9 inch pan, cover in aluminum foil, fill with dried beans (I keep a container of kidney beans around for this). Put in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Take pastry out of oven. (Take aluminum out/beans)
Add the veggies and spread out so equally over the pastry. Add egg mixture. Add cheese.

Put back in oven for 30-40 minutes until a light golden brown on top and the egg has firmed.

Serve hot or cold.
I served mine with salsa and my homemade guacamole, which I will post up here shortly.

India Palace

Not relevant for many that don't live in the NH area. But if you do, India Palace is the best Indian restaurant I have been to in the States. Whatever you want, they have it and it is excellent. This time I had the Vegetarian Thali, which is a traditional Indian dish that includes, Naan, Raita, Saag Panner, Vegetable Korma, Rice Pudding and Lentil Dal. It was sublime.

Hydrogenated Oils Are EVIL

If anyone has ever gone grocery store shopping with me or handed me a box of snack food they would know I am label checker. I am not looking at calories/fat/cholesterol directly; I am looking at hydrogenated oils. I hate them. I think they are evil and if we wanted to cure the obesity epidemic we should make them illegal to add in any food.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils and Hydrogenated oils cannot be digested. They were invented to make good oil into oil that could live forever on grocery store shelves. In a world where no one cooks anymore, there needed to be easy way to eat food with no preparation. This change in food culture started in the 1950’s when marketing directed at housewives emphasized having a speedy meal on the table, keeping a clean home and the kids well controlled so her husband would want to come home from work instead of going to the local bar. They created an infinite amount of products to reduce the time a woman would have to spend cooking, cleaning and managing the home so she could spend more time catering to her husbands needs. It is absolutely outrageous but that is history. So this is where the sneaky hydrogenated oils got into the food chain. There was massive marketing about natural items, such as butter, or even baking bread at home because there was more germs at home than in a nice clean factory where bread was baked. Margarine became the new spread for the Wonder Bread.

So what do they do to you? They lower your HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and raise LDL cholesterol (the kind that clogs your arteries). All that hydrogenated oils can be digested so it just sits in your arteries waiting to give you a heart attack. It triggers diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Go here for Harvard’s word on the evil oils.

Still not convinced that I’m giving you some valuable information? Try and go a week without eating any. First you will see that you can’t eat the majority of foods in your pantry. Second, you might feel ill, or even get sick. Taking your body off of these is similar to quitting a drug. You will feel side affects. Perhaps a week isn’t enough so try and go longer. Then try and eat something with them…you will feel sick, I’m sure. Every time I eat anything with these oils in them, my stomach hates me.

So what is the alternative to a life of fast food? Eating whole foods, learning to cook and reestablishing a connection to where your food comes from.

For even more information go here : BAN TRANS FATS!

Warning!!!

I made a soup last night, a LOT of soup, and I thought it would be a good idea to throw in a handful of fresh cilantro.
Waaaaay too many conflicting flavors (theres also basil/oregano/bay leaf/parsley). I'm a bit annoyed cause it had potential to feed me all weekend.
So be cautious with cilantro unless you love it, it can dominate the whole dish.

Sunday I was invited to a pot-luck party. These type of gatherings make me very excited to showcase my love for cooking... My future apartment is on the line here and I need to cook to impress potential future roommates!! I will post the results.

ThaiTofu with Red Curry Sauce over Coconut-Scallion Rice

I made this for my friend Nate and he said it was very good but he has never had anything like it. I agreed. It is definitely the most unique and interesting thing I've ever cooked. It rocks the taste buds for sure!!

You need
10 kaffir lime leaves (The Asian Market will have these in the produce section)
1 1/4 cup (10 oz) of coconut milk
2 3/4 cups of water
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups of brown long grain rice (white is fine, but I always cook brown for the nutritional factor)
1 bunch of cilantro chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts
1 tbsp Thai or Vietnamese fish oil (or 1/2 tsp salt)
1/4 c canola or corn oil
3 tbsp hot chili sauce
1 16 oz package of firm tofu, pressed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I get mine fresh from the asian market...I used 2 blocks for this recipe)
1/2 bunch broccoli cut into small pieces
1 cup minced scallions, both green and white parts

1. Soak the kaffir lime leaves in 1 quart of very hot water for 30 mins
2. Bring coconut milk, 2 1/4 cups of ater and 1 tsp salt to boil then add rice. Cook until it is ready (brown rice is about 40 mins)
3. Drain the lime leaves and cut into pea sized pieces. In a food processor or blender combine the lime leaves, 2/3 c chopped cilantro, garlic, and peanuts. Run until pulverized. Slowly add the fish sauce, 3 tbsp oil and chili sauce. Add more oil/chili paste if needed to make it more sauce like.

4. In a wok over high heat pour the rest of the oil. Add tofu and cook until golden brown on each sides. Transfer to a paper plate or papertowel when done.

5. Into the same wok, put the broccoli and 1/2 c of water. Cover and steam for about 2 minutes. Stir the lime/peanut paste in and cook for another minute. Add tofu and toss.

6. Stir the scallions into the rice.
Serve tofu/broccoli over a mound of coconut rice. Garnish with cilantro if you would like.

And ENJOY this intense meal!

I'm back from my adventures out West. I will start cooking again and post some new blogs this week.

Red Lentil Soup

The first meal I've cooked in weeks and it was my attempt to recreate the Asian Red Lentil soup I have had twice this week at Ceres St. Bakery.

One onion chopped
garlic
ginger
oil
red lentils
water
better than bouillion
tumeric
cumin
coriander
bay leaves
salt
pepper

=
awesome soup.