Warning: I swear a lot and you open the links at your own risk.
Jump to *** if you want to just read about food and don't care for my complaining. I'm not insulted.
It has been a long time! I need to update the "about me." It needs to be shorter, because who really gives a shit about all that stuff and because I can't keep up with it all the time. About me should be the sort of stable stuff, trait not state. So there's that.
God, blogging. It really is a narcissistic undertaking, isn't it? In any case, I've started cooking more again and have some goals. I finished both of the Big Dumb Exams (and passed) that I needed to take and now I will be making more money and be able to pay my $840 student loan every month. That's just super. I'm really looking forward to that for 25 years. Well, it was all worth it because I'm rich and comfortable and have a great retirement savings as well as investments and equity in the home I don't own. Whatever. I'm mostly lucky so I'm not complaining exactly. I'm tempted to just not pay and let them garnish wages cause I hear that's cheaper.
Onward to cultured foods.
***about food now!*** GO EVEN LOWER IF YOU JUST WANT THE RECIPE AND NOT MY OTHER RAMBLINGS ABOUT CHEESE.
So this is going to be about cream cheese! Yum! I like cheese a lot. Ya know what the most tiring thing is about being vegan? Hearing this: "Don't you miss cheese? I couldn't live without cheese." Yes you could. You sound like a moron when you say that. What is there to say to that? Umm. Just because maybe I miss it or like it doesn't mean I eat it. I don't do a lot of things that are fun or that I might enjoy because they are bad for me or go against my morals and values such as: cocaine or skinny-dipping or watching The Bachelor. But so cheese yes. Cheese. It's really good! It's tasty. People have been culturing and fermenting foods for a long time because they last longer. They are usually good for your guts and it's chemistry! Neat!
I've made things like "cheezy" sauce with nutrition yeast (the vegan standard) and I've had the huge range of fake cheeses you can buy. The former is fine but not cheese. It is not a very good simulacrum but will do in a pinch. The latter? Those things are not actually food. I eat them but they sure as shit are not food. They don't have nutrients really. They are Frankenstein-ian sort of amalgams of various thickeners and oils and stuff. It's not cultured almost ever (though the non-dairy yogurts are such as from almond or coconut or soy milk). Daiya is the best out there right now. It's good shit and it is hella expensive but it ain't cheese. I've been interested in making it myself. I've been borrowing my mom's vita mix. It is really old and the cookbook that comes with it is hilarious (you know, recipes for raspberry fluff and weird stuff like that). If you haven't heard of these holy crap. It sounds like a goddamned jet engine crossed with a coffee grinder. I feel bad for my neighbors--no I don't. I don't like them. But it is really loud. It is crazy powerful and fast (and expensive which is why I checked mine out of the family library) and really I think it is pretty much needed for these cheese things. Why? Because you have to blend up soaked nuts and you really need them to be creamed and not just pulverized and grainy. I've never seen or used a blender like this monstrosity. It's awesome.
This is the first cheese I made. I'm going to try the swiss and cheddar and brie...all of them. ***These recipes are not my own! I got this one from VegNews. It's the September/October 2012 issue*** It's a good magazine but unlike Vegetarian Times, it will feel more like propaganda and political stuff. They are not screwing around with gently encouraging veganism or whatever. They have an agenda. Their recipes ARE super and the articles are good but you will feel bad about eating meat and it might make you mad--just a warning. There's some crazy woo shit in the back too. THAT SAID, this recipe is great and the others look good. They are from this book by Miyoko Schinner. I plan to get the book.
Let's talk about the recipe.
They call it Philadelphia-Style Cream Cheese. What the f**k does that mean? Have you had other styles? And can we talk about how gross it is to have cream cheese in your sushi? Really? If you need to eat it that way, then maybe you should try this. Just my 2 cents and snottiness. So anyway.
NOTE: Read the recipe. This is not something you whip up in the morning. It takes 2+ DAYS for it to be done. Cheese-making requires patience. It will be good practice for me because I am NOT a very patient person. Some of these take more days than 2 and there's all this coordinating and stuff. I practically have spreadsheets set up with times and stuff so I can make them.
This is the only recipe that didn't call for rejuvelac. Rejuvelac sounds pretty gross: you soak some grains until they ferment and start making a weird sort of cloudy bubbly liquid. I kept feeling like I was making rotten food. I haven't used it yet; it's in the fridge now. So this recipe doesn't call for it but lots of others do. It's the culture, starter sort of. Actually this whole thing is a lot like doing sourdough! If you haven't done that, it's fun. You get some starter and it could be like 20 years old, passed on from someone else! You keep it in the fridge and have to feed it and stuff. It's alive! Yes...I had starter...had. I killed it.
***RECIPE***
Makes 2 cups
2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 3 hours and drained---I soaked mine for like 12 hours...maybe more. Why? I got lazy and just didn't feel like taking off in the jet engine until Sunday morning.
1/2 cup plain unsweetened soy yogurt--I had a really hard time finding this! Wegmans only had teeny little 6 oz containers and even those were sweetened with agave or some shit. Giant only had flavored yogurts. I need to hit up some other places too. I could make it myself but that sounds annoying. Anyway, I used the stuff from Wegmans and I don't know if it would taste different with another kind.
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients and process until smooth. This means that you stop occasionally and look really close at it. It needs to NOT be grainy. Use a spatula and stir and turn it around a bit. I pulled it up the sides of the blender and rubbed it between my fingers to be really sure it was not grainy. I processed it quite a bit and I think this helped it become sort of billowy, fluffy, and light.
Transfer mixture into a large bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap (I used plastic wrap because I hate the earth).
Let sit for 24-48 hours until cheese is very thick and has developed desired level of sharpness. I let mine sit from Sunday mid-morning until this evening, so about 30 hours or a little more.
After the first 12 hours, the taste starts to change pretty quick. It was totally different after Sunday night and from Monday morning until tonight. Do taste it! It started out as kind of sweet and I was concerned. Not anymore! It's zingy and tangy and brilliant!
Store in refrigerator in a closed container up to 4 weeks.
This was lifted STRAIGHT out of the vegnews magazine and probably straight from the cookbook author. So if you like it, buy her book!
I'm going to make the others when I can track down Agar Agar powder (not flakes!). If I can't find powder, I'll use my coffee grinder to make powder. I need umeboshi paste too.
So there's that. I forgot how fun it is to write these and put links in. Did you enjoy them?
Goddamn it. It's almost midnight.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Monday, July 8, 2013
Ridiculously vegan meal and teeny update/random bits
Kale chips, caraway millet, kale salad variation. Holy vegan meal.
So I've started to get my interest in cooking back. Those few weeks really sucked. They sucked for a variety of reasons, though it's not like I was super-miserable, but my cooking interest definitely waned.
Chili thing-y
Yesterday I made a sort-of "leftover use-up chili" thing. It had cubes of fried tofu, cauliflower, collards, black eyed peas, kidney beans, a couple kinds of leftover canned tomatoes and some seasonings. Nothing to write a blog about but reasonable. I think there was too much tomato. That made it weirdly tangy and the soy sauce didn't cut that enough. The collards are already bitter so mixed with a lot of tomato, it was pretty intense. Further, the whole thing lacked depth. No Fett here when I made it so I didn't have his expertise on-hand and I bet he could've fixed it. I did tell him about the dish and he said: "Eh, just put it in a wrap and it will be fine." This is good advice for many foods. We eat things as wraps and burritos all the time, most recently in cabbage leaves.
The key, I have found to making chili: curry paste. NOT curry powder. Curry paste. You can use the Thai stuff (the little Taste of Thai jar in green or red) and it works really well, especially with sweet potato or cilantro. To give credit where it is due, the post-punk kitchen (theppk.com) gave me that idea because she makes a Thai red lentil curry that is fantastic. I used a different kind of curry paste, the Indian kind (only I used the mild version for this). So give that whirl. And curry paste lasts forever in the fridge. Along these lines, I keep a jar of tamrind chutney around for mixing in rice and stuff. I don't use it much but it has a very interesting flavor and seems to keep forever.
Enough links for ya?
Kale chips: Holy crap these sucked.
I used beautiful Tuscan kale my mom grew in her wonderful garden. What a waste. I wish I'd put it in a simple salad. I should've taken the stems/stalks out. Usually I make kale chips with the pre-washed and cut stuff. Truth be told, they turn out more like kale croutons and then quickly, kale shake. But damn they are good when tossed with a little olive oil and salt or nutrition yeast before you put them in the oven. You can find recipes for them all over the place. I'm not posting one.
I put them on the cookie sheet and at first when they came out they were great. Then after they sat for just a little bit, they softened. Ok, so I tried to eat them anyway. Well, I couldn't really macerate them right so I ended up with a wad of what felt like twine in my mouth. I felt like a goat grinding my jaws over and over. I tried to swallow it and had that panicked "Oh shit, I'm choking on a long thing that's sliding" and so I gave up. I got it down my gullet, but my heart was pounding from fear. No thanks. Kale chips should not stimulate my (edit i used autonomic but i think i meant sympathetic though it is true that i was afraid my heart would stop) nervous system that intensely. Next time: take out the spines/stems/stalks whatever you want to call them.
Right. Moving on.
Caraway millet
Well this might be a misnomer because the caraway is really subtle. I'm trying to get into millet more. Isa Chandra Moskowitz (of post-punk kitchen fame, see link above and she has videos too. She's one of the originals.) has a great cookbook called Appetite for Reduction. She has a great recipe for Ethiopian millet. The best part about it is that it is bold and deeply spiced. Millet can handle that. It's like rice but sort of sturdier. It's like quinoa in that it has a toothsome quality but it doesn't have the very distinct taste that quinoa does. It's a good backdrop or canvas. I recommend her book, by the way. I also HIGHLY recommend The Veganomicon by Isa and Terry R. Changed my life. True story.
So I wanted to use some wonderful chard from my mom (that gorgeous rainbow kind) and have a nice grain to go with the crummy chili. Here's what I did:
1. Sauteed a GORGEOUS and huge shallot from my mom's garden, probably equivalent to 3 normal ones. You could use onion or add garlic. Sautee until soft in about 1-2 Tablespoons of coconut oil. I did all this in my big cast iron pot. Not a pan but a high-sided pot.
2. Then I added a bunch of lemon-pepper seasoning from Penzey's. It's one of my guilty pleasures. It's kind of a standard Ah-muhr-ican flavor and the snob in me thinks it's for people who don't want to really cook or think about cooking. But it's salty and tangy and I like it on rice and salads and sandwichs when I myself am lazy. So I added maybe a teaspoon or more of it. Then I added caraway seeds. I'm not sure how many. It is a strong flavor and I wanted to be careful. Next time I'll add a little more but not much. I wanted it to really be aromatic but not distinctly "tasteful" of rye bread. So I added maybe 1-1.5 teaspoons. I did NOT add salt because the seasoning has salt. You should definitely salt it and I actually added some when I ate it.
If you don't have lemon-pepper, you could add lots of black pepper and maybe some lemon zest. I would not add lemon to my dish because it was in cast iron and citrus+iron is a no-no.
Currants or raisins would be good in this, it occurs to me now!
3. Chopped up the colorful stems of the chard, as I would chop up celery for salad, in half moons. Tossed those in and sauteed those. No need to waste them! I had a pretty big bunch of chard, maybe 15 big leaves? A little less?
4. Rinsed 1 cup millet and then add to the sautee and stir it around a bit. Added 2 cups of water. Next time I will substitute some of that for my homemade broth. I didn't want competing flavors when I was experimenting with caraway. I try to start relatively simple when I'm tweaking or creating a recipe/dish. If I like it, I want to know what the components "did," if that makes sense. I decrease variables until I'm ready to alter it after understanding the dish. That can be surprisingly complicated.
5. Chop up the leaves of the chard and add them and stir around.
6. Bring to a boil and then cover pot, turn down to low and simmer/steam for 20-25 minutes. Check it near the end and tip the pot to see if the water is absorbed. I had to add a little extra water but don't do that unless you have to. It's a great way to totally ruin a grain. It's kind of amazing how often I screw up cooking grains. I am notorious for ruining rice. I know I've mentioned that before. I look forward to having this conversation again.
7. Let it rest for a bit and then serve. It might be good with parsley or lemon juice at the end.
Kale salad variation
Shout-out to my friend April of The Enchanted Kitchen who served us a kale salad on July 4th that was fantastic and pushed my creativity a bit. Fett loved it too and was pleased that her version could eliminate even the small amount of Veganaise I often use as emulsifier and thickener. He has kind of a .... thing... about mayo. He's tolerant of Veganaise but will not suffer standard mayo otherwise (even his egg and tuna salad is sans mayo, with extra mustard and relish). You can make him gag if you mention the idea of a mayonnaise factory. Anyway.
1. As usual, massage your kale and pull out the hard spiny bits.
2. Cut about 2/3 or 3/4 of an avocado into small squares.
3. Juice 1 and 1/2 limes. Add avocado to the lime juice and toss around. Add a little salt.
4. Mince some mint, probably 1/2 cup before minced. I used my mom's and it is STRONG. So I would use less next time. Add mint to lime juice and avocado. Stir around and let sit a little while.
5. Meanwhile, add about 1/2 cup of roasted cashew pieces (thank you Trader Joe's for cheap cashews). I also toasted about 1/3 cup of pumpkin seeds/pepitas and threw them in because I love them in the salad.
6. I bought two kinds of mango (this large red one and this smaller yellow one). I don't know what they are called but I diced up the yellow one. Jesus Christ mangoes are a pain in the ass to cut. And they are kind of hairy around the pit-thing and the knife cut makes a weird noise when you're close to the pit. I don't like that part...it's a bit creepy to me for some reason. Anyway, chop/dice that shit up. I used the whole yellow one.
7. I tossed all that stuff up and let it sit. I tasted it right after and then about 2 hours later. Much better later. The components hadn't melded right after.
It's really tangy. It's quite minty. I would use less mint next time and add a little more salt than I added. Sorry Fett, but I think I would add Veganaise too. Just for a little more body. But, after it sits overnight, I could change my mind. The mango is great in it. I think the cashews are good but not necessary. Toasted macadamias would be good but they are about 35k per pound so I don't use those.
Have you had roasted hazelnuts? Holy shit I love them. I have been eating way too many of them. Their flavor is unique and interesting.
That trick of storing your peanut butter upside down in the fridge really works! It keeps the oil from separating!
Washing and carefully drying my lettuces and greens and then storing them with a dry paper towel really extends their life. Kind of a pain in the ass but worth it.
If you can get young spring onions or yellow lemon cucumbers from a local farmers' market, do it. Both are fantastic. I finally had a chance to go to our market and I blew about $40 on local cheese and fancy hot dogs and local wine and veggies and fruit. We got wild black raspberries, maybe my favorite fruit.
Moving again on August 5th. Yeah, this is the third time in a year and probably the 15th time in my life? Less? More? I've moved a lot. I'm not even stressed. Packing is begun and underway. I've got mad boxes and newspapers thanks to a friend. I have some people who have volunteered to help and they will be getting the commitment call soon. Further, I'm purging things and have piles of stuff for friends with babies and kids and pregnancies. So satisfying.
Taking Punky to the gym tonight was a revelation. We had so much fun shooting baskets, throwing the tennis ball. Tomorrow we will do it again and, like a time a couple weeks ago, I will workout for some of it and he will play alone. If we can make this a regular thing, that would make me so happy. It was so much fun to share this with him.
So I've started to get my interest in cooking back. Those few weeks really sucked. They sucked for a variety of reasons, though it's not like I was super-miserable, but my cooking interest definitely waned.
Chili thing-y
Yesterday I made a sort-of "leftover use-up chili" thing. It had cubes of fried tofu, cauliflower, collards, black eyed peas, kidney beans, a couple kinds of leftover canned tomatoes and some seasonings. Nothing to write a blog about but reasonable. I think there was too much tomato. That made it weirdly tangy and the soy sauce didn't cut that enough. The collards are already bitter so mixed with a lot of tomato, it was pretty intense. Further, the whole thing lacked depth. No Fett here when I made it so I didn't have his expertise on-hand and I bet he could've fixed it. I did tell him about the dish and he said: "Eh, just put it in a wrap and it will be fine." This is good advice for many foods. We eat things as wraps and burritos all the time, most recently in cabbage leaves.
The key, I have found to making chili: curry paste. NOT curry powder. Curry paste. You can use the Thai stuff (the little Taste of Thai jar in green or red) and it works really well, especially with sweet potato or cilantro. To give credit where it is due, the post-punk kitchen (theppk.com) gave me that idea because she makes a Thai red lentil curry that is fantastic. I used a different kind of curry paste, the Indian kind (only I used the mild version for this). So give that whirl. And curry paste lasts forever in the fridge. Along these lines, I keep a jar of tamrind chutney around for mixing in rice and stuff. I don't use it much but it has a very interesting flavor and seems to keep forever.
Enough links for ya?
Kale chips: Holy crap these sucked.
I used beautiful Tuscan kale my mom grew in her wonderful garden. What a waste. I wish I'd put it in a simple salad. I should've taken the stems/stalks out. Usually I make kale chips with the pre-washed and cut stuff. Truth be told, they turn out more like kale croutons and then quickly, kale shake. But damn they are good when tossed with a little olive oil and salt or nutrition yeast before you put them in the oven. You can find recipes for them all over the place. I'm not posting one.
I put them on the cookie sheet and at first when they came out they were great. Then after they sat for just a little bit, they softened. Ok, so I tried to eat them anyway. Well, I couldn't really macerate them right so I ended up with a wad of what felt like twine in my mouth. I felt like a goat grinding my jaws over and over. I tried to swallow it and had that panicked "Oh shit, I'm choking on a long thing that's sliding" and so I gave up. I got it down my gullet, but my heart was pounding from fear. No thanks. Kale chips should not stimulate my (edit i used autonomic but i think i meant sympathetic though it is true that i was afraid my heart would stop) nervous system that intensely. Next time: take out the spines/stems/stalks whatever you want to call them.
Right. Moving on.
Caraway millet
Well this might be a misnomer because the caraway is really subtle. I'm trying to get into millet more. Isa Chandra Moskowitz (of post-punk kitchen fame, see link above and she has videos too. She's one of the originals.) has a great cookbook called Appetite for Reduction. She has a great recipe for Ethiopian millet. The best part about it is that it is bold and deeply spiced. Millet can handle that. It's like rice but sort of sturdier. It's like quinoa in that it has a toothsome quality but it doesn't have the very distinct taste that quinoa does. It's a good backdrop or canvas. I recommend her book, by the way. I also HIGHLY recommend The Veganomicon by Isa and Terry R. Changed my life. True story.
So I wanted to use some wonderful chard from my mom (that gorgeous rainbow kind) and have a nice grain to go with the crummy chili. Here's what I did:
1. Sauteed a GORGEOUS and huge shallot from my mom's garden, probably equivalent to 3 normal ones. You could use onion or add garlic. Sautee until soft in about 1-2 Tablespoons of coconut oil. I did all this in my big cast iron pot. Not a pan but a high-sided pot.
2. Then I added a bunch of lemon-pepper seasoning from Penzey's. It's one of my guilty pleasures. It's kind of a standard Ah-muhr-ican flavor and the snob in me thinks it's for people who don't want to really cook or think about cooking. But it's salty and tangy and I like it on rice and salads and sandwichs when I myself am lazy. So I added maybe a teaspoon or more of it. Then I added caraway seeds. I'm not sure how many. It is a strong flavor and I wanted to be careful. Next time I'll add a little more but not much. I wanted it to really be aromatic but not distinctly "tasteful" of rye bread. So I added maybe 1-1.5 teaspoons. I did NOT add salt because the seasoning has salt. You should definitely salt it and I actually added some when I ate it.
If you don't have lemon-pepper, you could add lots of black pepper and maybe some lemon zest. I would not add lemon to my dish because it was in cast iron and citrus+iron is a no-no.
Currants or raisins would be good in this, it occurs to me now!
3. Chopped up the colorful stems of the chard, as I would chop up celery for salad, in half moons. Tossed those in and sauteed those. No need to waste them! I had a pretty big bunch of chard, maybe 15 big leaves? A little less?
4. Rinsed 1 cup millet and then add to the sautee and stir it around a bit. Added 2 cups of water. Next time I will substitute some of that for my homemade broth. I didn't want competing flavors when I was experimenting with caraway. I try to start relatively simple when I'm tweaking or creating a recipe/dish. If I like it, I want to know what the components "did," if that makes sense. I decrease variables until I'm ready to alter it after understanding the dish. That can be surprisingly complicated.
5. Chop up the leaves of the chard and add them and stir around.
6. Bring to a boil and then cover pot, turn down to low and simmer/steam for 20-25 minutes. Check it near the end and tip the pot to see if the water is absorbed. I had to add a little extra water but don't do that unless you have to. It's a great way to totally ruin a grain. It's kind of amazing how often I screw up cooking grains. I am notorious for ruining rice. I know I've mentioned that before. I look forward to having this conversation again.
7. Let it rest for a bit and then serve. It might be good with parsley or lemon juice at the end.
Kale salad variation
Shout-out to my friend April of The Enchanted Kitchen who served us a kale salad on July 4th that was fantastic and pushed my creativity a bit. Fett loved it too and was pleased that her version could eliminate even the small amount of Veganaise I often use as emulsifier and thickener. He has kind of a .... thing... about mayo. He's tolerant of Veganaise but will not suffer standard mayo otherwise (even his egg and tuna salad is sans mayo, with extra mustard and relish). You can make him gag if you mention the idea of a mayonnaise factory. Anyway.
1. As usual, massage your kale and pull out the hard spiny bits.
2. Cut about 2/3 or 3/4 of an avocado into small squares.
3. Juice 1 and 1/2 limes. Add avocado to the lime juice and toss around. Add a little salt.
4. Mince some mint, probably 1/2 cup before minced. I used my mom's and it is STRONG. So I would use less next time. Add mint to lime juice and avocado. Stir around and let sit a little while.
5. Meanwhile, add about 1/2 cup of roasted cashew pieces (thank you Trader Joe's for cheap cashews). I also toasted about 1/3 cup of pumpkin seeds/pepitas and threw them in because I love them in the salad.
6. I bought two kinds of mango (this large red one and this smaller yellow one). I don't know what they are called but I diced up the yellow one. Jesus Christ mangoes are a pain in the ass to cut. And they are kind of hairy around the pit-thing and the knife cut makes a weird noise when you're close to the pit. I don't like that part...it's a bit creepy to me for some reason. Anyway, chop/dice that shit up. I used the whole yellow one.
7. I tossed all that stuff up and let it sit. I tasted it right after and then about 2 hours later. Much better later. The components hadn't melded right after.
It's really tangy. It's quite minty. I would use less mint next time and add a little more salt than I added. Sorry Fett, but I think I would add Veganaise too. Just for a little more body. But, after it sits overnight, I could change my mind. The mango is great in it. I think the cashews are good but not necessary. Toasted macadamias would be good but they are about 35k per pound so I don't use those.
Have you had roasted hazelnuts? Holy shit I love them. I have been eating way too many of them. Their flavor is unique and interesting.
That trick of storing your peanut butter upside down in the fridge really works! It keeps the oil from separating!
Washing and carefully drying my lettuces and greens and then storing them with a dry paper towel really extends their life. Kind of a pain in the ass but worth it.
If you can get young spring onions or yellow lemon cucumbers from a local farmers' market, do it. Both are fantastic. I finally had a chance to go to our market and I blew about $40 on local cheese and fancy hot dogs and local wine and veggies and fruit. We got wild black raspberries, maybe my favorite fruit.
Moving again on August 5th. Yeah, this is the third time in a year and probably the 15th time in my life? Less? More? I've moved a lot. I'm not even stressed. Packing is begun and underway. I've got mad boxes and newspapers thanks to a friend. I have some people who have volunteered to help and they will be getting the commitment call soon. Further, I'm purging things and have piles of stuff for friends with babies and kids and pregnancies. So satisfying.
Taking Punky to the gym tonight was a revelation. We had so much fun shooting baskets, throwing the tennis ball. Tomorrow we will do it again and, like a time a couple weeks ago, I will workout for some of it and he will play alone. If we can make this a regular thing, that would make me so happy. It was so much fun to share this with him.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Teeny food bits and remembering what is wanted
I haven't blogged. I kind of haven't been cooking much. I haven't been super-connected to food and cooking in any way that is worth sharing, I guess. I wish I had more to offer than that. I'm trying to get back to it. I did add flax seed to a kale salad and that was good. I added chia seeds to my english muffin. Score.
A recommendation from Fett that I enjoy is miso paste on toast, especially the mellow. Try it!
Also-Fett has been adding seltzer to red wine, typically a dark and deep merlot, and it is really good. Try that too! I've been digging on vodka and seltzer with frozen mango. Limes and cucumbers have made debuts lately too, especially when we had dry cucumber soda.
***
So.
Discipline is remembering what I really want. I had a post-it that said this next to my dissertation work-station. I got that behemoth done. Time to get some other shit done. Time to remember and focus on what really matters.
What do I really want?
-to be a genuine, kind, and supportive parent who gets out of the way whenever possible. I need to trust Punky more and be supportive and firm and encouraging with less emotional valence.
-to be a genuine, kind, and supportive friend and girlfriend who gets out of the way whenever necessary.
-to be independently motivated and kind to self. hard to say what that really looks like. i need to think on that one.
-to pass licensure exam--I sure as hell know what that looks like.
-to get licensed--which means make some money and become more independent, decrease stress, and begin to save in a real way for retirement, the future, and my son.
-to be present and genuine with my clients and help them to the best of my ability and let go when I cannot, potentially letting them go if I cannot
-to train and focus on a competition or goal, sports/fitness-wise. Have i mentioned that I did great at and loved my sprint triathlon? well, I did and I did. i got second in my age group and blew my goal time out of the water. I also would have been first if it wasn't for my transition times and maybe shaving a little off the swim. I won the running and biking parts, a full minute ahead on the bike. BOOM
So. those are a few things I want and a few things i'm going to focus on. there are probably more related to moving and organizing and revisiting a spiritual practice. That will do for now.
A recommendation from Fett that I enjoy is miso paste on toast, especially the mellow. Try it!
Also-Fett has been adding seltzer to red wine, typically a dark and deep merlot, and it is really good. Try that too! I've been digging on vodka and seltzer with frozen mango. Limes and cucumbers have made debuts lately too, especially when we had dry cucumber soda.
***
So.
Discipline is remembering what I really want. I had a post-it that said this next to my dissertation work-station. I got that behemoth done. Time to get some other shit done. Time to remember and focus on what really matters.
What do I really want?
-to be a genuine, kind, and supportive parent who gets out of the way whenever possible. I need to trust Punky more and be supportive and firm and encouraging with less emotional valence.
-to be a genuine, kind, and supportive friend and girlfriend who gets out of the way whenever necessary.
-to be independently motivated and kind to self. hard to say what that really looks like. i need to think on that one.
-to pass licensure exam--I sure as hell know what that looks like.
-to get licensed--which means make some money and become more independent, decrease stress, and begin to save in a real way for retirement, the future, and my son.
-to be present and genuine with my clients and help them to the best of my ability and let go when I cannot, potentially letting them go if I cannot
-to train and focus on a competition or goal, sports/fitness-wise. Have i mentioned that I did great at and loved my sprint triathlon? well, I did and I did. i got second in my age group and blew my goal time out of the water. I also would have been first if it wasn't for my transition times and maybe shaving a little off the swim. I won the running and biking parts, a full minute ahead on the bike. BOOM
So. those are a few things I want and a few things i'm going to focus on. there are probably more related to moving and organizing and revisiting a spiritual practice. That will do for now.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Catching up: Ermagherd! Asperghus Sehrsun!
I want to catch up. It's been a long time since I posted anything. It's not because I haven't cooked or wanted to. I haven't been super-experimental in the kitchen but am still cooking a lot.
Cooking is necessary for me. it's like exercise. If I'm not doing those things, I am very unhappy. They ground me and remind me of the basics in life.
Here are a couple ideas for you from probably 6 weeks ago, back when there was snow on the ground and Fett swore to me that we'd have a big snow in late April. I was right! We didn't!
Kale salad discoveries:
I recently read a brief interview with some snotbag chef in Vegetarian Times who was saying how passe and uncool kale is. She rolls her eyes and thinks anyone who uses kale now is totally unhip. Fuck her. I love it.
-I put celery greens/tops in a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. It's like parsley but bitier and a bit more interesting. Maybe some celery seed would be nice with it? Fennel? Anise?
-I am finding that using a bit of veganaise is really helpful to get the dressing to stick and for the salad to feel like it has body and heft. It only takes 1/3 c or so for an entire 16 oz of kale.
-chopped prunes are awesome, better than raisins.
-pepitas are totally my favorite nut in there and they are lowest in calories and high in iron and other nutrients vegans need
-It is gross and nasty with balsamic vinegar and and makes it wilt too fast.
-Parsley is great, the more the better. I think I chopped up at least 2-3 cups of curly parsley in the last batch.
Asparagus season
-Is NOW!!! Get on it! yes, it makes your pee smell weird. But isn't it kind of satisfying knowing you ate something so healthy and delicious and you are reminded of it at an unexpected time?! You really "know" your body used it...although I guess the smell means that the body can't process some part of it....whatever. Let's move on from urine.
-Roast your asparagus. I haven't yet this year but will tonight. My mom made some last night and I don't know what was on it (What was it, momma?) but it was great. I often just use italian seasoning or salt and olive oil.
-Asparagus vinaigrette is TO DIE FOR.
-Make the most of its ubiquitousness now. It is a wonderful vegetable
Booze
-This has often been Fett's department. He's clever with this.
-A few weeks ago he made a drink with Mirin (a sort of sweet thing derived from Sake) and pickled ginger and vodka and seltzer. It was really good.
-When making mojitos!!!! Fett does the following: he sort of spanks the leaves of mint. I know that sounds hilarious and crazy but he does. He puts it flat on his palm and smacks it with the other. It bruises it and gets it ready to muddle. He uses high quality turbinado sugar and REALLY good rum called Zaya. I recommend that you follow that because these were fantastic. Be sure to really muddle up that lime too. There are millions of recipes on the web for mojitos. I'm at work and don't have time to look right now and don't need to be fantasizing about alcohol for the next hour.
-If you are gluten-free, a fantastic beer is Omission. I highly recommend it.
My child has been driving me nuts about food. He is suddenly pretending he doesn't like things he once did (curry, peanut butter, bread, asparagus, grapes, applesauce). I have decided that he has to eat what I make and that I'm not harassing him about it. But it makes my head explode when I make him a tasty grilled cheese and he whines that it's not exactly what he wanted actually. And I can't eat a tasty grilled cheese so it makes me rage that he CAN and WON'T. I know..I could if I really wanted to. You don't want to see the fall-out from that though or maybe I should say blow-out.
Cooking is necessary for me. it's like exercise. If I'm not doing those things, I am very unhappy. They ground me and remind me of the basics in life.
Here are a couple ideas for you from probably 6 weeks ago, back when there was snow on the ground and Fett swore to me that we'd have a big snow in late April. I was right! We didn't!
Kale salad discoveries:
I recently read a brief interview with some snotbag chef in Vegetarian Times who was saying how passe and uncool kale is. She rolls her eyes and thinks anyone who uses kale now is totally unhip. Fuck her. I love it.
-I put celery greens/tops in a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. It's like parsley but bitier and a bit more interesting. Maybe some celery seed would be nice with it? Fennel? Anise?
-I am finding that using a bit of veganaise is really helpful to get the dressing to stick and for the salad to feel like it has body and heft. It only takes 1/3 c or so for an entire 16 oz of kale.
-chopped prunes are awesome, better than raisins.
-pepitas are totally my favorite nut in there and they are lowest in calories and high in iron and other nutrients vegans need
-It is gross and nasty with balsamic vinegar and and makes it wilt too fast.
-Parsley is great, the more the better. I think I chopped up at least 2-3 cups of curly parsley in the last batch.
Asparagus season
-Is NOW!!! Get on it! yes, it makes your pee smell weird. But isn't it kind of satisfying knowing you ate something so healthy and delicious and you are reminded of it at an unexpected time?! You really "know" your body used it...although I guess the smell means that the body can't process some part of it....whatever. Let's move on from urine.
-Roast your asparagus. I haven't yet this year but will tonight. My mom made some last night and I don't know what was on it (What was it, momma?) but it was great. I often just use italian seasoning or salt and olive oil.
-Asparagus vinaigrette is TO DIE FOR.
-Make the most of its ubiquitousness now. It is a wonderful vegetable
Booze
-This has often been Fett's department. He's clever with this.
-A few weeks ago he made a drink with Mirin (a sort of sweet thing derived from Sake) and pickled ginger and vodka and seltzer. It was really good.
-When making mojitos!!!! Fett does the following: he sort of spanks the leaves of mint. I know that sounds hilarious and crazy but he does. He puts it flat on his palm and smacks it with the other. It bruises it and gets it ready to muddle. He uses high quality turbinado sugar and REALLY good rum called Zaya. I recommend that you follow that because these were fantastic. Be sure to really muddle up that lime too. There are millions of recipes on the web for mojitos. I'm at work and don't have time to look right now and don't need to be fantasizing about alcohol for the next hour.
-If you are gluten-free, a fantastic beer is Omission. I highly recommend it.
My child has been driving me nuts about food. He is suddenly pretending he doesn't like things he once did (curry, peanut butter, bread, asparagus, grapes, applesauce). I have decided that he has to eat what I make and that I'm not harassing him about it. But it makes my head explode when I make him a tasty grilled cheese and he whines that it's not exactly what he wanted actually. And I can't eat a tasty grilled cheese so it makes me rage that he CAN and WON'T. I know..I could if I really wanted to. You don't want to see the fall-out from that though or maybe I should say blow-out.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Obnoxious Greens and Tie Curry
Have you changed your vacuum bag lately? HOLY SHIT it's like a new appliance! Wow! Very exciting. It's all clean up in here. As an aside, I have to move. I might even bail on this lease early if something better comes along. Punky christened the laundry room The Stinks Closet when we first moved in. Why? Because it's like the washing machine and dryer both fart in your face when you open the door**. The landlord has half-heartedly tried to fix it but it hasn't really worked. He gave up and has ignored me since. Fuck him. I'm moving. I'm too old to get smacked in the face with a smell so bad my eyes water every time I want to do laundry.
Good news! I am getting better at swimming. I had fewer times today when I thought I was going to drown and I was able to keep a better rhythm and better form for longer. That is clearly going to be hardest part of the tri. That feeling when you sort of snort in water but try not to flail around like a carp on a fishing line is pretty scary and embarrassing. Ah...so many opportunities for me to practice facing shame and experiencing humility. Thank you Universe, for your infiniteness.
I am hesitant to post a Thai curry recipe. I use the red paste from the little jar, A Taste of Thai brand. It's good. They don't tell you how to use it right, in my opinion though. And I add my own stuff too because it needs it. But I have NO IDEA what real, authentic Thai food should taste like. I'm skeptical of all the restaurants around here that say they are Thai. They are delicious but it seems too American-ized or something. I have no way to explaining what that means.
I'm not going to post the kale recipe I made tonight. I'll do a full kale entry another time. Suffice is to say that massaged kale salads are amazing.
Obnoxious Greens: Parsley'd and Garlicked (from Friday)
I'm pretty proud of this recipe for two reasons, not to mention that I think it is really really good.
1. I made this recipe on a Friday night when I both stayed in alone all night and chose not to drink. That might not seem like much, but I've been avoiding my own thoughts and feelings for a while now and it's time to give them space. This was the first Friday night since I moved back on November 3rd, that I did not have alcohol. This is significant. It was both harder and easier than I'd expected it to be. So this dish can celebrate that!
2. I made it up with what I had lying around. It uses at least 2 ingredients which I think are unexpected. It's super-healthy and could be jazzed up/turned into a main dish with tofu, tempeh, seitan, rice, pasta, and meat I guess.
INGREDIENTS:
HOW TO DO IT MY WAY:
1. Heat about 2 TB of really good olive oil in a good sized pan over medium low heat. Colavita is a good brand of olive oil. DON'T scrimp on olive oil, please. Canola? Fine. NOT Olive.
2. When oil is warm put your garlic in. Don't burn the garlic! You want to lightly and gently warm/sautee/move it around. Turn heat down if you have to . You have to be patient for this dish.
3. While garlic is sauteeing, Mince up your parsley.
5. Put in your obnoxious greens. These are not the kinds of greens you want to absent-mindedly pop in your mouth. Raw turnip greens are NOT fucking around. They will punch your tongue. You want to do something with them. Trust me.
6. Let it cook for while, turning and stirring it sometimes. Salt it a bit. Grind black pepper a whole bunch.
7. I was making a kale salad with raisins and wondered if raisins would be good in the greens. Nope. But the apple was fantastic!
8. Once the greens are nearly done--meaning they are bright green and soft, take up WAY less space, are less obnoxious--throw in the chopped apple. Let it soften a little bit but not get mushy.
9. Watch it carefully and pull it when the apples are a little soft. DON'T overcook the greens.
10. Throw in some more minced parsley. A bunch or not too much, whatever.
11. Serve with a generous sprinkling of the toasted pine nuts if you managed to not eat them all while they were toasting in the pan on the stove. Aren't they so good?? Creamy, snappy, a little bitey?! I love them. Too bad they are about 45 thousand dollars a pound.
This would be good with basil too, or other eye-talian oibs
Tie Curry-I can't guarantee there is much authentic about this but it is DAMN good.
I'm calling it Tie Curry instead of Thai curry cause I am loathe to misrepresent a cuisine.
The thing about this kind of recipe is that you can swap out the protein/vegetables if you want. Thai curry sauces are fantastic with squash, potatoes, carrots, celery, red peppers (i find green peppers gross in curry), eggplant, greens of ALL varieties. Tofu is my favorite protein but beans work well. I find tempeh to be kind of soggy but it is feasible as is seitan of course. Don't know what seitan is??? As long as you aren't gluten-free (cause it's basically straight gluten), then give it a whirl cause it's kind of the truffle of the vegan meat world.
INGREDIENTS
DO IT MY WAY:
1. Heat coconut oil in heavy bottomed sautee pan over medium heat.
2. Throw in garlic and ginger and sautee it nicely but don't burn it.
3. Put in sweet potato dice
4. **this is where I think the curry paste jar recipe is FULL OF SHIT** Put the Thai curry paste in the pan and sautee it a bit with the garlic, ginger, and sweet potato, for maybe 2 minutes. The jar says to put the milk in and then add the paste. Bullshit. they are wrong.
5. Add cubed tofu and sautee the tofu and other ingredients on medium heat for a while, being careful it doesn't burn or even brown really. You want the tofu to start soaking up some of the red curry paste flavor and get evenly covered by it. It should be covered in a sort of irregular pastey curry thing.
6. Add the Galangal and white onion parts and maybe a few of the green onions.
7. Add the Cilantro Curry paste.
8. Keep sauteeing for maybe 3-4 minutes, maybe longer, until this stuff is pretty well combined. It should maybe be sticking a little bit now. Add the diced up shreds of kaffir leaves with a little bit of their water to deglaze the pan.
10. Add carrots and bring to a light simmer but turn it down when it gets there to keep it bubbling only a little bit.
11. Keep cooking it for a while, like 10 minutes, maybe longer. You don't want carrots to get squishy. It will start to get a sort of red skin on the top, where the fat of the coconut milk is grabbing some of the spices and floating up...I think.
12. Right before serving, add green onion and cilantro.
13. Serve with rice or quinoa or millet or rice noodles.
Punky said "We haven't had this in forever! Daddy used to make this when you worked late last year."
That made me sad and indeed eating the curry reminded me very much of Pants as this was one of the things he used to make. He used just the coconut milk and paste and added more onions but it still was a lot like his.
Several times today, things reminded me of our previous life (like driving by our old house outside of town, using our vacuum cleaner and changing the bag myself which he used to do). I have been sad about this kind of thing the past few days. A kind of sad that I haven't experienced in a long time. It's like PURE sadness without depression or anxiety or anything. Just sad. It's very painful at times but also sort of precious and unique. It feels like when someone dies and you are just so sad they are gone. Nothing else. Just essential, distilled sad.
But then I read books with and played cards with Punky and got ready for my week and remembered that I can be okay and be sad, do my life the best way and still be sad. I remembered that I get to see Fett soon and talk to a lot of my friends and family and coworkers and clients. I get to listen to lots of interesting people in lots of places. I'm going to a party with more recently acquainted friends on Saturday.
I spelled saute/e wrong the whole way through this but I'm not changing it. I'm tired.
Excellent website from which I made sweet potato rice: http://www.maangchi.com/
I'm planning to make the rice cakes and some other things when I have the money for the ingredients. Shout-out to Fett for showing me her site and youtube channel.
**Shout-out to sister-in-law Sister Pants for that! :)
Good news! I am getting better at swimming. I had fewer times today when I thought I was going to drown and I was able to keep a better rhythm and better form for longer. That is clearly going to be hardest part of the tri. That feeling when you sort of snort in water but try not to flail around like a carp on a fishing line is pretty scary and embarrassing. Ah...so many opportunities for me to practice facing shame and experiencing humility. Thank you Universe, for your infiniteness.
I am hesitant to post a Thai curry recipe. I use the red paste from the little jar, A Taste of Thai brand. It's good. They don't tell you how to use it right, in my opinion though. And I add my own stuff too because it needs it. But I have NO IDEA what real, authentic Thai food should taste like. I'm skeptical of all the restaurants around here that say they are Thai. They are delicious but it seems too American-ized or something. I have no way to explaining what that means.
I'm not going to post the kale recipe I made tonight. I'll do a full kale entry another time. Suffice is to say that massaged kale salads are amazing.
Obnoxious Greens: Parsley'd and Garlicked (from Friday)
I'm pretty proud of this recipe for two reasons, not to mention that I think it is really really good.
1. I made this recipe on a Friday night when I both stayed in alone all night and chose not to drink. That might not seem like much, but I've been avoiding my own thoughts and feelings for a while now and it's time to give them space. This was the first Friday night since I moved back on November 3rd, that I did not have alcohol. This is significant. It was both harder and easier than I'd expected it to be. So this dish can celebrate that!
2. I made it up with what I had lying around. It uses at least 2 ingredients which I think are unexpected. It's super-healthy and could be jazzed up/turned into a main dish with tofu, tempeh, seitan, rice, pasta, and meat I guess.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 bag (8-16 ounces) of mixed strong greens: turnip, mustard, collard, spinach (grown-up, not that pathetic whiny baby spinach)
- Olive oil (you will not need much)
- 6-8 cloves of garlic (yes...that much): minced but not pulverized
- Lots of parsley...LOTS, like 2 huge handfuls.
- 1 Pink Lady or Gala apple, cut into 8ths or 10ths and then sliced into 1" pieces, about.
- Toasted pine nuts
- As always: taste as you go, especially with the salt.
HOW TO DO IT MY WAY:
1. Heat about 2 TB of really good olive oil in a good sized pan over medium low heat. Colavita is a good brand of olive oil. DON'T scrimp on olive oil, please. Canola? Fine. NOT Olive.
2. When oil is warm put your garlic in. Don't burn the garlic! You want to lightly and gently warm/sautee/move it around. Turn heat down if you have to . You have to be patient for this dish.
3. While garlic is sauteeing, Mince up your parsley.
- Separate leaves from stems. KEEP STEMS
- Mince the leaves. Save most of it for your kale salad ( :) )
- Chop very finely the stems of the parsley.
5. Put in your obnoxious greens. These are not the kinds of greens you want to absent-mindedly pop in your mouth. Raw turnip greens are NOT fucking around. They will punch your tongue. You want to do something with them. Trust me.
6. Let it cook for while, turning and stirring it sometimes. Salt it a bit. Grind black pepper a whole bunch.
7. I was making a kale salad with raisins and wondered if raisins would be good in the greens. Nope. But the apple was fantastic!
8. Once the greens are nearly done--meaning they are bright green and soft, take up WAY less space, are less obnoxious--throw in the chopped apple. Let it soften a little bit but not get mushy.
9. Watch it carefully and pull it when the apples are a little soft. DON'T overcook the greens.
10. Throw in some more minced parsley. A bunch or not too much, whatever.
11. Serve with a generous sprinkling of the toasted pine nuts if you managed to not eat them all while they were toasting in the pan on the stove. Aren't they so good?? Creamy, snappy, a little bitey?! I love them. Too bad they are about 45 thousand dollars a pound.
This would be good with basil too, or other eye-talian oibs
Tie Curry-I can't guarantee there is much authentic about this but it is DAMN good.
I'm calling it Tie Curry instead of Thai curry cause I am loathe to misrepresent a cuisine.
The thing about this kind of recipe is that you can swap out the protein/vegetables if you want. Thai curry sauces are fantastic with squash, potatoes, carrots, celery, red peppers (i find green peppers gross in curry), eggplant, greens of ALL varieties. Tofu is my favorite protein but beans work well. I find tempeh to be kind of soggy but it is feasible as is seitan of course. Don't know what seitan is??? As long as you aren't gluten-free (cause it's basically straight gluten), then give it a whirl cause it's kind of the truffle of the vegan meat world.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Tb Coconut Oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Piece of ginger, minced: 2" x .5" x .5"....or something like that. it was maybe 2 teaspoons
- 4 green onions, chopped pretty thin, white parts separated from green parts
- 1-2 teaspoons of galangal (I got it jarred at Wegmans)
- 1 block of tofu, extra firm (press it...for a while. I pressed it for almost an hour and it was perfect and remember, I have the awesome press if you don't maybe do it longer). Cube it into about 1" squares, maybe a little bigger.
- 2 Tablespoons, maybe more, of Taste of Thai Red Curry Paste. Their green is excellent too.
- 1/2 cup diced sweet potato (I had it lying around, leftover from something else <-- this recipe is amazing)
- 2 carrots, cut on the bias, pretty chunky so they don't get mushy.
- 1/2 can of REAL FULL FAT coconut milk (DON'T screw around with LITE coconut milk. Screw that shit. If you're going to do it, do it right. Lite coconut milk manages to make you want the real thing and offer none of the richness or depth. Life is too short to not use the real deal. Lite coconut milk IS good for making rice though, if you want it a little richer or sweeter but otherwise, stay away from it). Save the other half of the can and make brown rice with it later so you have a rice pudding for breakfast! That's what I did! I love using the extra bits in clever ways!
- 1-2 teaspoons of jarred shredded Kaffir lime leaves, diced up very small (because it's stringy and woody)
- 1 Tablespoon of Cilantro Chutney/paste
- 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
- OPTIONAL: Fish sauce, soy sauce, bragg's amino acids
As an aside: having the jarred galanga and kaffir leaves is kind of nice cause you can add them to things like dressings easily. They will last a loonnnggg time in the fridge as do most curry pastes (tamarind etc)
DO IT MY WAY:
1. Heat coconut oil in heavy bottomed sautee pan over medium heat.
2. Throw in garlic and ginger and sautee it nicely but don't burn it.
3. Put in sweet potato dice
4. **this is where I think the curry paste jar recipe is FULL OF SHIT** Put the Thai curry paste in the pan and sautee it a bit with the garlic, ginger, and sweet potato, for maybe 2 minutes. The jar says to put the milk in and then add the paste. Bullshit. they are wrong.
5. Add cubed tofu and sautee the tofu and other ingredients on medium heat for a while, being careful it doesn't burn or even brown really. You want the tofu to start soaking up some of the red curry paste flavor and get evenly covered by it. It should be covered in a sort of irregular pastey curry thing.
6. Add the Galangal and white onion parts and maybe a few of the green onions.
7. Add the Cilantro Curry paste.
8. Keep sauteeing for maybe 3-4 minutes, maybe longer, until this stuff is pretty well combined. It should maybe be sticking a little bit now. Add the diced up shreds of kaffir leaves with a little bit of their water to deglaze the pan.
- Now is when you'd add a little soy sauce, braggs, or fish sauce I'd say
10. Add carrots and bring to a light simmer but turn it down when it gets there to keep it bubbling only a little bit.
11. Keep cooking it for a while, like 10 minutes, maybe longer. You don't want carrots to get squishy. It will start to get a sort of red skin on the top, where the fat of the coconut milk is grabbing some of the spices and floating up...I think.
12. Right before serving, add green onion and cilantro.
13. Serve with rice or quinoa or millet or rice noodles.
Punky said "We haven't had this in forever! Daddy used to make this when you worked late last year."
That made me sad and indeed eating the curry reminded me very much of Pants as this was one of the things he used to make. He used just the coconut milk and paste and added more onions but it still was a lot like his.
Several times today, things reminded me of our previous life (like driving by our old house outside of town, using our vacuum cleaner and changing the bag myself which he used to do). I have been sad about this kind of thing the past few days. A kind of sad that I haven't experienced in a long time. It's like PURE sadness without depression or anxiety or anything. Just sad. It's very painful at times but also sort of precious and unique. It feels like when someone dies and you are just so sad they are gone. Nothing else. Just essential, distilled sad.
But then I read books with and played cards with Punky and got ready for my week and remembered that I can be okay and be sad, do my life the best way and still be sad. I remembered that I get to see Fett soon and talk to a lot of my friends and family and coworkers and clients. I get to listen to lots of interesting people in lots of places. I'm going to a party with more recently acquainted friends on Saturday.
I spelled saute/e wrong the whole way through this but I'm not changing it. I'm tired.
Excellent website from which I made sweet potato rice: http://www.maangchi.com/
I'm planning to make the rice cakes and some other things when I have the money for the ingredients. Shout-out to Fett for showing me her site and youtube channel.
**Shout-out to sister-in-law Sister Pants for that! :)
Monday, March 25, 2013
Whip-it-up dinner featuring super-greens that you can FEEL gettin' in your cells
Today was an annoying weather day. I discovered while standing in the locker room at the gym in my underwear, that Punky actually had a snow day and not a delay. I swore under my breath and reorganized my day, including not getting my work out. Getting to lift and throw and grunt around with weights is really important to me and I'm training for a sprint triathlon and considering starting striking/boxing in the summer. Not being able to exercise pisses me off. BUT I did a good job rallying. Today was another day when I loved loved loved my job. I am really lucky.
Enough of that. Let's get some recipes going, eh?
I have a cooking problem. I am really bad at cooking rice. Really bad. It's a running joke with Pants. I even texted him the other day when I blew it, and he said "good to know some things never change." I fucked up an entire pot of brown the other day...just underdone and swimming in water. Today I fucked up wild rice and this is the kind of rice that comes so that it is easily made...any American should be able to do it. I salvaged it but it's kinda weird and chewy and hard.
Fett digs the wild rice so I'm getting into it too. Hadn't been in my rotation. I did a millet recipe recently--Ethiopian--and it was wonderful. I made a hot cereal mix of toasted millet and amaranth grains. It's pretty good though strongly nutty.
These are easy recipes and are great for a night when you don't have a lot of time and want to talk to your dearest friend ever (whom I will call Significant Other, Mrs. White) while cooking. That reminds me, I need to get my voicemail fixed.
Did you guys click on the links in my blog last night??? I felt really clever.
Really I think it behooves all of us to eat more greens. This post will give you 3 different ways to have them and they are all very different and very delicious and very easy and quite fast.
Sauteed Chard and Tofu
I like tofu. I know that people think we all eat too much soy, that tofu is boring etc etc. I like it, Punky likes it, and it's really versatile. Another time I will post Dr. Sarah's smokey tofu.
If you haven't had chard, it's a great introduction to the kale and heavy greens family. It's intense like kale but softer, more tender, and not as cabbage-y. It's really good. Trader Joe's has it in bags along with bagged kale and bagged mustard/collard greens that I'm psyched to use. I use my cast iron pot, not just a sautee pan, because you use a lot of chard and it's in a big pile until it cooks down.
1 medium shallot-minced (pretty small)
3 cloves garlic-chopped (not quite as small)
Olive oil, enough to coat the bottom. You could easily use spray.
1 block of extra firm tofu.
1 whole 16 oz/1 pound bag of chard. It's a lot. Trust me on this
Salt
Pepper
Seasoning of your choice, in the Italian realm. I used an oregano/marjoram/thyme/basil blend and some random Penzey's blend I had lying around. WHAT??? You aren't familiar with PENZEY'S. OMG I'm obsessed.
1. Press the tofu. Some of you poor saps don't have the Tofu Express. It ain't cheap but it's worth the money. It is very sturdy and really presses the water right out. Perfect for marinating. If you don't have it, you need to put the tofu between plates and stack a bunch of cookbooks or something on top. It really helps to press tofu. It keeps it from falling apart and lets it soak in flavor. Don't scrimp on this and if you don't have the press, try to do it for 1/2 hour at least. The press is really quick though.
2. Preheat pan with olive oil over medium-low heat.
3. Add shallot and garlic. Stir them around until they are nicely browned but NOT burned.
4. Cube up the tofu: Cut it longwise, as though you are making 2 layers. Then cut those layers into long strips and then crosswise into 1/2-1 inch cubes...I can't believe how long it took me to figure out how to type that and really, you probably know what I mean. And put it in the pan
5. Sautee tofu until it's starting to brown and maybe even sticking a little.
6. Add the seasonings. I have no idea how much. Tablespoon?
7. Add the chard, just throw it all in and try to stir it. It will be hard to stir cause it's in a big pile and will fall out and be annoying. It'll get easier when it wilts. Hang in there!
8. Cover and stir every once in a while.
9. Check it occasionally and once the chard starts to really wilt, take lid off and let it sautee and give off it's water.
10. Stir it often enough to scrape up the little fried tofu and shallot/garlic bits. Yum!
11. Tofu will scramble a little and some of the pieces will fall apart a little (not too much if you pressed it right) but those bits get yummy and sort of crispy.
Make rice while you're doing all this. Serve it up!
Kale chips aka Shrinky Dinks
Punky helped me make these. He ate 1/2 bag of kale...that's 8 oz, 1/2 a pound of kale. And kale is mad good for you. These are easy.
1. Preheat oven to 275.
2. Pour 8 oz (1/2 bag )of kale into a big bowl.
3. Put olive oil on one hand or drizzle a LITTLE bit on the kale. Only a little.
4. Optional: sprinkle with maybe 1-2 tsps of balsamic vinegar
5. Sprinkle with salt. I like it pretty salty but start easy.
6. Options: Add nutrition yeast, one of the most famous/infamous vegan seasonings. Add chili powder, cayenne, curry powder. Be creative!
7. Put them on baking sheets. Don't let them overlap, spread them out a bit.
8. Bake at 275 for about 5-10 minutes. Check them every once in a while. They should shrink and get crispy, really crispy. Watch that they don't burn!
9. I made these with spinach the other day and they were kind of cool. I'm going to work on that more.
A massaged kale salad: One of many variations
I have noticed that I really like colons. ::: Punky helped me make this one too but wouldn't let me take his picture.
IMPORTANT: As you massage the kale, pull the leaves off the woody stem parts and set the stems aside. Also, save the stems of parsley and the leftover parts of carrot if there is any. I hate wasting food and like to use as much of my ingredients as possible. I have a little recipe below that uses this stuff.
8 oz of kale, washed and trimmed. Don't be a sucker! Buy that prebagged stuff!
A lot of parsley. I probably had 1/3 cup minced up really small. It was a handful+
1/4 cup of veganaise (you could use mayo, yogurt or eliminate if you want)
1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
Olive oil, enough for your hands to massage and a little more
Agave nectar, maybe 1-2 teaspoons
Salt
Pepper
1/3 cup toasted pepitas/pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup dried cranberries. We used the orange ones from trader joes and they were fantastic.
1 carrot, grated or julienned very small
1. Massage the kale with olive oil and a little salt
2. Throw in parsley
3. Add veganaise and lemon juice. Toss it around really well.
4. Add agave, pepitas and toss some more
5. Add cranberries and pepper and salt if needed.
6. Add carrot
7. As always TASTE AS YOU GO and change as you see fit.
8. I added some leftover strawberries, sliced up. I hesitated in this. Adding strawberries to salads is totally passe, totally last decade. I know this because Eat n' Park used to have a salad with strawberries in it on their menu. They are the epitome of uncool and behind-the-times. Oh well.
Leftover Kale Butts Relish
You saved the kale butts/woody bits and the parsley and carrot, right?
Making a broth: ALWAYS if possible, throw the butts/bits/leftovers of your vegetables into a bag in the freezer. I often use an old plastic lettuce container (Yeah...I buy prewashed lettuce too). Then when you have a bunch and have an afternoon or morning to hang around, put it in a pot and make your own stock. I'll post more about that some time cause it is TOTALLY worth doing. Most store bought broth is nasty. I have shittons of vegetable butts in my freezer so I wanted something different to do with them.
1. Chop up the kale butts. I sliced them longways so that I was exposing the more tender part. Make them diced pretty small cause this is a relish-y thing. You want as much surface area of your veggies exposed as possible.
2. Chop up the parsley butts.
3. Chop up carrot butts.
4. In a large bowl add 1/2-1 cup of cider vinegar (Bragg's if possible).
5. Add vegetable butts.
6. Add 1 Tablespoon-1/8 cup of Sriracha
7. Add salt, a bit
8. Add Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids, maybe 1-2 Tablespoons
9. Toss around a lot in the bowl.
10. Store in a glass container (use glass, pickley things can make plastic or metal weird) and chill.
11. Truth be told, I haven't actually tasted this yet. I know it will need to marry and pickle up a bit. It coudl be good on a hummus wrap or something like that.
Ok...one more....
Creamy Coriander dressing (This is almost exactly like the pale green dressing at an Indian restaurant)
One more recipe. I love this dressing. Fett and I made a chili the other day (that I should post) and it was SUPER-easy and used the Laxmi Coriander Chutney paste which is absolutely amazing. You can see it in this picture, a gorgeous bright green. As an aside, this company has cheap spices and grains. I buy them sometimes. The only perfume I wear is their Rose Water. It's like 3 bucks and lasts a long time and I can put in my hair and on my clothes etc.
If I wasn't mostly vegan, I would use a nice tart non-fat yogurt for this. I think soy yogurt would be disgusting. Try if you must but don't say I didn't warn you. I only eat that crap when I'm really hard up for probiotics/cultured products.
1. In a jar, add 2-3 Tablespoons (maybe more, depends on how strong you want it) of coriander chutney paste to about 1/4 cup veganaise or yogurt.
2. Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice
3. Shake that shit UP.
4. Check for salt and general taste.
So, those are the recipes for today. Lots of green stuff. It's all very healthy and very easy.
Things I plan to post about soon: vegetable broth; injera; Fett's Fire-roasted chili; smokey tofu; the other kale salad I made that was amazing; more cocktails; artichoke pasta;
Hey so how is my layout treating you guys? Do I need to space it more? Not putting pictures in sure is faster but this entry has taken quite a while. Argh. God damn it. I just realized I made tea water an hour ago and still didn't make it. Crap.
This entry isn't as entertaining, is more food stuff. I hope that's cool. Want to keep it lively still. I do use the word shitton a lot lately, so that's fun.
Enough of that. Let's get some recipes going, eh?
I have a cooking problem. I am really bad at cooking rice. Really bad. It's a running joke with Pants. I even texted him the other day when I blew it, and he said "good to know some things never change." I fucked up an entire pot of brown the other day...just underdone and swimming in water. Today I fucked up wild rice and this is the kind of rice that comes so that it is easily made...any American should be able to do it. I salvaged it but it's kinda weird and chewy and hard.
Fett digs the wild rice so I'm getting into it too. Hadn't been in my rotation. I did a millet recipe recently--Ethiopian--and it was wonderful. I made a hot cereal mix of toasted millet and amaranth grains. It's pretty good though strongly nutty.
These are easy recipes and are great for a night when you don't have a lot of time and want to talk to your dearest friend ever (whom I will call Significant Other, Mrs. White) while cooking. That reminds me, I need to get my voicemail fixed.
Did you guys click on the links in my blog last night??? I felt really clever.
Really I think it behooves all of us to eat more greens. This post will give you 3 different ways to have them and they are all very different and very delicious and very easy and quite fast.
Sauteed Chard and Tofu
I like tofu. I know that people think we all eat too much soy, that tofu is boring etc etc. I like it, Punky likes it, and it's really versatile. Another time I will post Dr. Sarah's smokey tofu.
If you haven't had chard, it's a great introduction to the kale and heavy greens family. It's intense like kale but softer, more tender, and not as cabbage-y. It's really good. Trader Joe's has it in bags along with bagged kale and bagged mustard/collard greens that I'm psyched to use. I use my cast iron pot, not just a sautee pan, because you use a lot of chard and it's in a big pile until it cooks down.
1 medium shallot-minced (pretty small)
3 cloves garlic-chopped (not quite as small)
Olive oil, enough to coat the bottom. You could easily use spray.
1 block of extra firm tofu.
1 whole 16 oz/1 pound bag of chard. It's a lot. Trust me on this
Salt
Pepper
Seasoning of your choice, in the Italian realm. I used an oregano/marjoram/thyme/basil blend and some random Penzey's blend I had lying around. WHAT??? You aren't familiar with PENZEY'S. OMG I'm obsessed.
1. Press the tofu. Some of you poor saps don't have the Tofu Express. It ain't cheap but it's worth the money. It is very sturdy and really presses the water right out. Perfect for marinating. If you don't have it, you need to put the tofu between plates and stack a bunch of cookbooks or something on top. It really helps to press tofu. It keeps it from falling apart and lets it soak in flavor. Don't scrimp on this and if you don't have the press, try to do it for 1/2 hour at least. The press is really quick though.
2. Preheat pan with olive oil over medium-low heat.
3. Add shallot and garlic. Stir them around until they are nicely browned but NOT burned.
4. Cube up the tofu: Cut it longwise, as though you are making 2 layers. Then cut those layers into long strips and then crosswise into 1/2-1 inch cubes...I can't believe how long it took me to figure out how to type that and really, you probably know what I mean. And put it in the pan
5. Sautee tofu until it's starting to brown and maybe even sticking a little.
6. Add the seasonings. I have no idea how much. Tablespoon?
7. Add the chard, just throw it all in and try to stir it. It will be hard to stir cause it's in a big pile and will fall out and be annoying. It'll get easier when it wilts. Hang in there!
8. Cover and stir every once in a while.
9. Check it occasionally and once the chard starts to really wilt, take lid off and let it sautee and give off it's water.
10. Stir it often enough to scrape up the little fried tofu and shallot/garlic bits. Yum!
11. Tofu will scramble a little and some of the pieces will fall apart a little (not too much if you pressed it right) but those bits get yummy and sort of crispy.
Make rice while you're doing all this. Serve it up!
Kale chips aka Shrinky Dinks
Punky helped me make these. He ate 1/2 bag of kale...that's 8 oz, 1/2 a pound of kale. And kale is mad good for you. These are easy.
1. Preheat oven to 275.
2. Pour 8 oz (1/2 bag )of kale into a big bowl.
3. Put olive oil on one hand or drizzle a LITTLE bit on the kale. Only a little.
4. Optional: sprinkle with maybe 1-2 tsps of balsamic vinegar
5. Sprinkle with salt. I like it pretty salty but start easy.
6. Options: Add nutrition yeast, one of the most famous/infamous vegan seasonings. Add chili powder, cayenne, curry powder. Be creative!
7. Put them on baking sheets. Don't let them overlap, spread them out a bit.
8. Bake at 275 for about 5-10 minutes. Check them every once in a while. They should shrink and get crispy, really crispy. Watch that they don't burn!
9. I made these with spinach the other day and they were kind of cool. I'm going to work on that more.
A massaged kale salad: One of many variations
I have noticed that I really like colons. ::: Punky helped me make this one too but wouldn't let me take his picture.
IMPORTANT: As you massage the kale, pull the leaves off the woody stem parts and set the stems aside. Also, save the stems of parsley and the leftover parts of carrot if there is any. I hate wasting food and like to use as much of my ingredients as possible. I have a little recipe below that uses this stuff.
8 oz of kale, washed and trimmed. Don't be a sucker! Buy that prebagged stuff!
A lot of parsley. I probably had 1/3 cup minced up really small. It was a handful+
1/4 cup of veganaise (you could use mayo, yogurt or eliminate if you want)
1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
Olive oil, enough for your hands to massage and a little more
Agave nectar, maybe 1-2 teaspoons
Salt
Pepper
1/3 cup toasted pepitas/pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup dried cranberries. We used the orange ones from trader joes and they were fantastic.
1 carrot, grated or julienned very small
1. Massage the kale with olive oil and a little salt
2. Throw in parsley
3. Add veganaise and lemon juice. Toss it around really well.
4. Add agave, pepitas and toss some more
5. Add cranberries and pepper and salt if needed.
6. Add carrot
7. As always TASTE AS YOU GO and change as you see fit.
8. I added some leftover strawberries, sliced up. I hesitated in this. Adding strawberries to salads is totally passe, totally last decade. I know this because Eat n' Park used to have a salad with strawberries in it on their menu. They are the epitome of uncool and behind-the-times. Oh well.
Leftover Kale Butts Relish
You saved the kale butts/woody bits and the parsley and carrot, right?
Making a broth: ALWAYS if possible, throw the butts/bits/leftovers of your vegetables into a bag in the freezer. I often use an old plastic lettuce container (Yeah...I buy prewashed lettuce too). Then when you have a bunch and have an afternoon or morning to hang around, put it in a pot and make your own stock. I'll post more about that some time cause it is TOTALLY worth doing. Most store bought broth is nasty. I have shittons of vegetable butts in my freezer so I wanted something different to do with them.
1. Chop up the kale butts. I sliced them longways so that I was exposing the more tender part. Make them diced pretty small cause this is a relish-y thing. You want as much surface area of your veggies exposed as possible.
2. Chop up the parsley butts.
3. Chop up carrot butts.
4. In a large bowl add 1/2-1 cup of cider vinegar (Bragg's if possible).
5. Add vegetable butts.
6. Add 1 Tablespoon-1/8 cup of Sriracha
7. Add salt, a bit
8. Add Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids, maybe 1-2 Tablespoons
9. Toss around a lot in the bowl.
10. Store in a glass container (use glass, pickley things can make plastic or metal weird) and chill.
11. Truth be told, I haven't actually tasted this yet. I know it will need to marry and pickle up a bit. It coudl be good on a hummus wrap or something like that.
Ok...one more....
Creamy Coriander dressing (This is almost exactly like the pale green dressing at an Indian restaurant)
One more recipe. I love this dressing. Fett and I made a chili the other day (that I should post) and it was SUPER-easy and used the Laxmi Coriander Chutney paste which is absolutely amazing. You can see it in this picture, a gorgeous bright green. As an aside, this company has cheap spices and grains. I buy them sometimes. The only perfume I wear is their Rose Water. It's like 3 bucks and lasts a long time and I can put in my hair and on my clothes etc.
If I wasn't mostly vegan, I would use a nice tart non-fat yogurt for this. I think soy yogurt would be disgusting. Try if you must but don't say I didn't warn you. I only eat that crap when I'm really hard up for probiotics/cultured products.
1. In a jar, add 2-3 Tablespoons (maybe more, depends on how strong you want it) of coriander chutney paste to about 1/4 cup veganaise or yogurt.
2. Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice
3. Shake that shit UP.
4. Check for salt and general taste.
So, those are the recipes for today. Lots of green stuff. It's all very healthy and very easy.
Things I plan to post about soon: vegetable broth; injera; Fett's Fire-roasted chili; smokey tofu; the other kale salad I made that was amazing; more cocktails; artichoke pasta;
Hey so how is my layout treating you guys? Do I need to space it more? Not putting pictures in sure is faster but this entry has taken quite a while. Argh. God damn it. I just realized I made tea water an hour ago and still didn't make it. Crap.
This entry isn't as entertaining, is more food stuff. I hope that's cool. Want to keep it lively still. I do use the word shitton a lot lately, so that's fun.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Hot Legs Cabbage Salad and Miso-Tahini spread/dip. Bonus: Cocktail recipe by Fett!
**Note: I try to embed at least 1-3 fun links in each entry so don't miss them!** or miss them and be really sad and miss out.
I've been missing blogging. It's fun. I'm going to try to be faster about it so I don't feel the whole: "Oh shit, I want to blog but I don't have 2 hours to set aside." I'm trying to go to bed on time, drink less, eat in a reliably helpful way, and to generally be more mindful of my own health. If I want to take good care of Punky, I need to care for myself. It's totally trite and totally true.
When Fett came back from Philly, we did some cooking that night. I made a dip/spread thing that was really good. It tastes vegan. That's all I can say about that...tahini, braggs, miso...those things taste vegan. And by that I mean that it tastes very different than a typical spread/hummus/American thing would taste like. I guess it's sort of Asian-y but not exactly. It's a far cry from ranch or french onion dip. But it's tasty!
The thing about being vegan is that you get creative about spices, flavor profiles, and texture (in all its forms). It's either that or everything tastes flat. Meat and dairy give depth and body to food. They give it true umami. You can get pretty close to the umami and depth and body without meat and dairy but it isn't easy and isn't a true simulacrum. I usually find that it's not worth trying to recapitulate and approximate anything that is truly meat/dairy. Mac n Cheese? Don't bother unless you're willing to really enjoy butternut squash and cashew cream instead of rich Gruyere and cheddar. Hamburgers? Bacon? Sausage? Don't. Bother. Those things are amazingly delicious and cannot be imitated. A veggie burger is just that and nothing more. I think veggie dogs are revolting. I love hot dogs and I just suck it up. My reasons for being vegan are motivation enough and reason enough for me to sacrifice. Frankly, I don't believe vegans who say the smell of bacon, cooked meat, cheese sauce is nauseating. It is delicious smelling. My response? So what. I get really tired of hearing "I could never give up cheese." Yes you could. You just choose not to. That's fine, but don't state it as something that is inflicted upon you and out of your control.
And do me a favor: Don't tell me that when I crave meat, enjoy smelling it, that I must be missing some nutrient or vitamin, that I probably "need" it. I crave fucking margaritas and beer and chocolate and potato chips. That doesn't mean I need those things. My brain is an idiot and I don't trust it.
The other thing that I've been thinking about lately is flexibility in food and life. I eat fish occasionally now, in the form of sashimi and sushi. I also ate a few eggs lately. They were raised by Fett's friend and they were amazing and beautiful, saffron-colored and rich-tasting. I have no regrets, don't feel bad, and simply know that I can make a choice any time I have options and I don't have to be rigid.
So on to some recipes!
Hot Legs Cabbage Salad
You guys, this salad is intense and gets more intense over time. I ate the last of it this afternoon after a workout--and I scarfed it--and my stomach is like: "Hey! We're digesting some cabbage and garlic over here! Have a whiff!" It's really good though. I did not like it at first but it definitely gets better with age. Fett liked it and he's kind of a kim chi connoiseur.
1/2 head of green cabbage: sliced across the bias so it is in lacy ribbons like cole slaw
1/4-1/2 cup of cider vinegar: I use the Bragg's version. The label is silly and fun and I think it tastes MUCH better than the standard.
A bunch of Sriracha, probably 1/4 cup eventually I kept adding it. I started with a teaspoon and added it along the way. Probably ended up with quite a bit. It adds the garlic edge.
1/4-1/2 cup agave nectar You could use sugar or brown rice syrup but the concentrated sweetness of agave is perfect here.
Salt I used a lot cause I like it salty. This will make the cabbage give up some of its water, which is good i think. You can always salt your cabbage ahead of time and drain it so it stays crunchy (according to Cooks Illustrated).
Mirin, maybe 1-2 teaspoons Which is made from sake. It's a little sweet and has an aromatic edge.
Ume Plum Vinegar 1-2 teaspoons. This is a good thing to have in your pantry but don't go get it just for this. It's sort of sweet/tart.
Lemon juice Not much, just a splash.
It occurs to me that with all the vinegar and sriracha, that the mirin and ume plum might be wasted and barely detected, masked. But whatever. It made me feel like a really good cook to be putting dashes of this and that in the bowl, playing chemistry or something.
Taste it. Throw it around with tongs in a big bowl. Keep shaking and tasting and tossing and tasting. It's good after about 2 days and then keeps getting better. I might have forgotten a couple ingredients but try adding other stuff too: peanuts? sunflower seeds? pumpkin seeds? raisins???
Miso-Tahini spread/dip
My mom made a dip very much like this that inspired me to attempt to imitate it. I got close. It's super easy.
1/2-3/4 cup tahini
1 Tablespoon of WHITE miso I think it would be really different if you used the non-mellow, strong stuff. Good maybe, but really different. It is worth having a range of misos hanging around your fridge. They are cheap, last forever, and are so good in soup, dressings, marinades and other stuff.
5-6 green onions Chop them up pretty well.
1/2 tsp ground ginger (maybe a little less, taste as you go)
1/2 Tablespoon of Bragg's liquid amino acids Bragg's aminos is totally necessary if you are vegan. It has umami. It's kind of like soy sauce with a more grainy edge. Hard to explain. It's necessary in this recipe. Soy sauce would be okay but not as good.
Don't add salt unless you really think you need it. Bragg's is salty.
Mix it all up in a little dish. You could blender-ize it but it's not necessary. The miso makes it a little sweet-ish. We found this went very well with a spicy tangy dip.
Fett's Raspberry-Lime Rickey
Little-known fact about Fett: He knows a shitton about liquor and cocktails. He's really creative and has made drinks with pickled ginger and mirin, to name 2. This one is more traditional and I will try to add more of his stuff in later posts. Be sure to click that link in the title for a really interesting quick bit about the history of lime rickey's.
Handful of raspberries We usually use frozen and have lots of frozen fruit around for this kind of thing including whole strawberries, raspberries, mixed berries, peaches, and we've tried mango and pineapple. Blueberries SUCK for this kind of thing.
Lime-Juice it. I like using a wooden reamer for juicing citrus.
Agave nectar (2 teaspoons or to taste)
2-ish shots of vodka (Luksusowa (awesome link for MMA people!) is absolutely my favorite kind but we drink New Amsterdam usually)
1. Muddle the lime juice and agave and raspberries. Muddle is smashing it up at the bottom of the glass, preferably with a wooden implement (I think).
2. Add the vodka and stir it up
3. Add 1 can of seltzer.
No need to shake it if you have seltzer. It's sort of self-mixing. You can gently stir it around. Try not to chug this cause it's so good.
And next time you're making a vodka and soda, throw in some pickled ginger. It is really good.
Well what do you know! It only took 1/2 hour to do this entry! Not posting pictures helps. And it was fun. Sorry I went off up there about meat and vegans. I don't like offending people but I also like offending people...it's a hard way to be sometimes.
I've been missing blogging. It's fun. I'm going to try to be faster about it so I don't feel the whole: "Oh shit, I want to blog but I don't have 2 hours to set aside." I'm trying to go to bed on time, drink less, eat in a reliably helpful way, and to generally be more mindful of my own health. If I want to take good care of Punky, I need to care for myself. It's totally trite and totally true.
When Fett came back from Philly, we did some cooking that night. I made a dip/spread thing that was really good. It tastes vegan. That's all I can say about that...tahini, braggs, miso...those things taste vegan. And by that I mean that it tastes very different than a typical spread/hummus/American thing would taste like. I guess it's sort of Asian-y but not exactly. It's a far cry from ranch or french onion dip. But it's tasty!
The thing about being vegan is that you get creative about spices, flavor profiles, and texture (in all its forms). It's either that or everything tastes flat. Meat and dairy give depth and body to food. They give it true umami. You can get pretty close to the umami and depth and body without meat and dairy but it isn't easy and isn't a true simulacrum. I usually find that it's not worth trying to recapitulate and approximate anything that is truly meat/dairy. Mac n Cheese? Don't bother unless you're willing to really enjoy butternut squash and cashew cream instead of rich Gruyere and cheddar. Hamburgers? Bacon? Sausage? Don't. Bother. Those things are amazingly delicious and cannot be imitated. A veggie burger is just that and nothing more. I think veggie dogs are revolting. I love hot dogs and I just suck it up. My reasons for being vegan are motivation enough and reason enough for me to sacrifice. Frankly, I don't believe vegans who say the smell of bacon, cooked meat, cheese sauce is nauseating. It is delicious smelling. My response? So what. I get really tired of hearing "I could never give up cheese." Yes you could. You just choose not to. That's fine, but don't state it as something that is inflicted upon you and out of your control.
And do me a favor: Don't tell me that when I crave meat, enjoy smelling it, that I must be missing some nutrient or vitamin, that I probably "need" it. I crave fucking margaritas and beer and chocolate and potato chips. That doesn't mean I need those things. My brain is an idiot and I don't trust it.
The other thing that I've been thinking about lately is flexibility in food and life. I eat fish occasionally now, in the form of sashimi and sushi. I also ate a few eggs lately. They were raised by Fett's friend and they were amazing and beautiful, saffron-colored and rich-tasting. I have no regrets, don't feel bad, and simply know that I can make a choice any time I have options and I don't have to be rigid.
So on to some recipes!
Hot Legs Cabbage Salad
You guys, this salad is intense and gets more intense over time. I ate the last of it this afternoon after a workout--and I scarfed it--and my stomach is like: "Hey! We're digesting some cabbage and garlic over here! Have a whiff!" It's really good though. I did not like it at first but it definitely gets better with age. Fett liked it and he's kind of a kim chi connoiseur.
1/2 head of green cabbage: sliced across the bias so it is in lacy ribbons like cole slaw
1/4-1/2 cup of cider vinegar: I use the Bragg's version. The label is silly and fun and I think it tastes MUCH better than the standard.
A bunch of Sriracha, probably 1/4 cup eventually I kept adding it. I started with a teaspoon and added it along the way. Probably ended up with quite a bit. It adds the garlic edge.
1/4-1/2 cup agave nectar You could use sugar or brown rice syrup but the concentrated sweetness of agave is perfect here.
Salt I used a lot cause I like it salty. This will make the cabbage give up some of its water, which is good i think. You can always salt your cabbage ahead of time and drain it so it stays crunchy (according to Cooks Illustrated).
Mirin, maybe 1-2 teaspoons Which is made from sake. It's a little sweet and has an aromatic edge.
Ume Plum Vinegar 1-2 teaspoons. This is a good thing to have in your pantry but don't go get it just for this. It's sort of sweet/tart.
Lemon juice Not much, just a splash.
It occurs to me that with all the vinegar and sriracha, that the mirin and ume plum might be wasted and barely detected, masked. But whatever. It made me feel like a really good cook to be putting dashes of this and that in the bowl, playing chemistry or something.
Taste it. Throw it around with tongs in a big bowl. Keep shaking and tasting and tossing and tasting. It's good after about 2 days and then keeps getting better. I might have forgotten a couple ingredients but try adding other stuff too: peanuts? sunflower seeds? pumpkin seeds? raisins???
Miso-Tahini spread/dip
My mom made a dip very much like this that inspired me to attempt to imitate it. I got close. It's super easy.
1/2-3/4 cup tahini
1 Tablespoon of WHITE miso I think it would be really different if you used the non-mellow, strong stuff. Good maybe, but really different. It is worth having a range of misos hanging around your fridge. They are cheap, last forever, and are so good in soup, dressings, marinades and other stuff.
5-6 green onions Chop them up pretty well.
1/2 tsp ground ginger (maybe a little less, taste as you go)
1/2 Tablespoon of Bragg's liquid amino acids Bragg's aminos is totally necessary if you are vegan. It has umami. It's kind of like soy sauce with a more grainy edge. Hard to explain. It's necessary in this recipe. Soy sauce would be okay but not as good.
Don't add salt unless you really think you need it. Bragg's is salty.
Mix it all up in a little dish. You could blender-ize it but it's not necessary. The miso makes it a little sweet-ish. We found this went very well with a spicy tangy dip.
Fett's Raspberry-Lime Rickey
Little-known fact about Fett: He knows a shitton about liquor and cocktails. He's really creative and has made drinks with pickled ginger and mirin, to name 2. This one is more traditional and I will try to add more of his stuff in later posts. Be sure to click that link in the title for a really interesting quick bit about the history of lime rickey's.
Handful of raspberries We usually use frozen and have lots of frozen fruit around for this kind of thing including whole strawberries, raspberries, mixed berries, peaches, and we've tried mango and pineapple. Blueberries SUCK for this kind of thing.
Lime-Juice it. I like using a wooden reamer for juicing citrus.
Agave nectar (2 teaspoons or to taste)
2-ish shots of vodka (Luksusowa (awesome link for MMA people!) is absolutely my favorite kind but we drink New Amsterdam usually)
1. Muddle the lime juice and agave and raspberries. Muddle is smashing it up at the bottom of the glass, preferably with a wooden implement (I think).
2. Add the vodka and stir it up
3. Add 1 can of seltzer.
No need to shake it if you have seltzer. It's sort of self-mixing. You can gently stir it around. Try not to chug this cause it's so good.
And next time you're making a vodka and soda, throw in some pickled ginger. It is really good.
Well what do you know! It only took 1/2 hour to do this entry! Not posting pictures helps. And it was fun. Sorry I went off up there about meat and vegans. I don't like offending people but I also like offending people...it's a hard way to be sometimes.
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