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.

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.