tylik | Entries tagged with recipes

put 1.25 c water in a small sauce pan
add several cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped,
1-2 t nutritional yeast*
.5-1 t salt
tablespoon sun dried tomatoes (optional)

while this is coming to a boil, chop and add to pot some assortment of vegetables that need at least light cooking, such as:
one small zucchini
one small purple and white stripey eggplant
a ripe pepper
5 tomatillos (okay, they don't need to be cooked, but I like to spead the tartness)

add .5 cup whole wheat couscous
whisk in one duck egg**, remove from heat.

While the couscous is cooking, chop such vegetables and herbs as don't need cooking, such as:
3 plum tomatoes and
1 handful fresh basil. Blend in.

Feed one or two, depending on how hungry they are. This can be made, and made well, in ten minutes. It is also very open to variation.

* Nutritional yeast is great stuff, and worth cooking with. People are often aware of it as a source of B vitamins and the most easily absorbable form of iron from a non animal source. But it's also just plain tastey. A little garlic (or mushroom, or whatever), a heaping teaspoonfull of nutritional yeast and some salt in a cup of water will give you something people tend to be willing to mistake for chicken broth.

** I often mention my fondness for duck eggs, but I might not have talked about everything that prefigured it. Of course, I like that they taste better. The sulfury component of hen eggs has never been my favorite thing, especially after my time as a breakfast chef. I like that they are relatively rare -- eggs are beautiful and precious, and should be treasured, not gobbled. I like their texture, which is firmer than that of hen eggs.

But more practically, I really really like that they are a good source of B12, much better than hen eggs. If you don't follow these things, B12 is a necessary nutrient that we only get from animal sources. (Yes, B12 is synthesized by bacteria. However, I haven't seen anything remotely convincing about the bacteria in our guts producing B12 in sufficient quantities.) Unusually for a water soluable vitamin, we can store several year's worth of B12... which is why a lot of people can get completely insufficient amounts of it in their diets and go on for years before running into deficiency issues. (And hey, if you can cope with the anemia, there are always the neurological issues...)

I am also a little sentimental about duck eggs. When I was growing up, the family of my closest friend / foster brother raised ducks, and we spent a lot of time hunting down their eggs in the yard.

queergrrrl once told a charming story about duck eggs when she was dealing with conflicts between food ethics and health... My duck eggs come from a local organic family farm that is very open about their cultural practices.

Making a vegetarian* larb from quinoa and lentils was a good idea, though I think I want to cook the quinoa less next time. It's all about the fresh herbs, I tell you. I am being very happy with the food. Okra to cook tonight (okay, I know that nobody else likes okra as much as I do... huh, actually I haven't done the obvious test there) and bread rising as I write this...

( Recipe )

* Well, okay, it wasn't really because I used fish sauce (lovin' them fermented fish products, thanks) but it could be easily made with tamari instead. I'm currently at plant products + ducks eggs + sushi + weird asian fish stuff white folks don't usually like (dried shrimp, fish paste, etc) + honey. I'm not hard and fast not eating other seafood or hen eggs, but I'm moving away from them, generally. Might rethink the seafood over time (the logic here is mostly that it's rare cooked fish that strikes me as worth the effort, fish entries at american restaurants are often gross and way too rich, and while I'm often pro fish for health reasons, I like to aim towards sustainably harvested fish, which is often difficult. Did I say logic? I'm not certain sushi doesn't get a religious exemption.)

In other news, presentation at MS tomorrow. Feeling pretty good, except my body is screaming for me to do something more active than desk work -- and I did more than my usual morning exercises and biked in.

a trivial recipe:

Into a tumbler (16 oz?) put two tsp sugar
Add 1/2 c. hot water, stir or swirl to dissolve sugar
Add ice cubes
The juice of one lemon
And water enough to fill the glass

It really is pretty silly, and yet I am suddenly going through lemons at a greatly increased rate...

So in one of the most recent issues of Gourmet, there is a hysterically funny article about three Chinese chefs being taken on a culinary tour of America. A tour that included some of the best restaurants in the country, and a menu that had my mouth watering... and was met with a lot of "How am I supposed to eat this?" "This has a weird texture!" "If I eat any more raw food I'm going to turn into a barbarian!" and "I ate an hour ago and yet I'm already hungry!" by the chefs. Culinary culture shock is apparently a universal experience.

Anyhow, in the article I was reminded of egg fried rice, which is one of the great comfort foods of all the world. (Recipe: Beat a couple of eggs. Swirl a little oil in a very hot wok, swirl in the eggs, add a couple of cups of leftover rice and some chopped green onions, stir energetically until the egg is cooked and the rice is hot -- say, a minute, maybe two -- and maybe add a tiny bit of salt. If you have leftover rice on hand, you can make it in five minutes flat, and it is good.)

So I felt like making something fairly simple for dinner, but I was also feeling whimsical. Note: I'm not saying this is an improvement on egg fried rice. Egg fried rice is already perfect. However, it's awfully good.

First, prepare:

1 bell pepper, chopped (I used a pale purple one, but suit your own tastes)
2-6 serrano chiles (very finely cut)
1/4 cup fine chopped shallots (or a tablespoon or so chopped garlic if you don't have shallots)
1/2 cup finely chopped basil and cilantro (I used 3 parts basil to 1 part cilantro, and I used "vietnamese cilantro" rather than the corriander plant, because I like it better, and it's a perrenial, and I have a ton in the garden. If you hate cilantro, don't use it) closer to 1 cup if coarsely chopped
2-4 green onions, chopped
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspood finely chopped fresh galangal
1/2-1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh lemongrass
one lime, juiced
one handful crushed cashews (optional)
three cups cooked rice. (Ideally this should have been cooked well before.)

You really need to get this all done ahead of time, because the actual cooking goes fast.

For simplicity, beat the green onions and shallots into the eggs

Put the galangal, lemongrass and peppers in a hot wok with a little oil, stirring gently for a minute or two -- this isn't about cooking them, just distributing the flavors a little. Swirl in the egg and allium mixture. When it is at least two thirds of the way cooked (which should be about ten seconds if your wok is hot) add the rice and cashews, stirring energetically. Sprinkle with fish sauce. (Or soy sauce, or a little fermented bean paste thinned in water, or whatever. Heck, a little vegetable broth and salt wouldn't be bad, and wouldn't darken things the way soy sauce does.) Once the egg is cooked and the rice warm (again, about a minute if your wok is hot, but take as long as you need to) remove from heat, sprinkle with lime juice, add the basil and cilantro and stir a little more.

I bet adding a little finely chopped mint with the basil and cilantro wouldn't suck, either.

We had ours with peaches and cream (a variety) corn on the cob.

I've made several versions of this recipe over the past several days. I feel a little guilty, because it's certainly not about seasonal local produce... but I think as the days get longer and the weather warmer, I'm craving more vegetables, and this addresses that need, at least, pretty well. (

chinchillagirl, this is what we ate Saturday evening.) Fast, easy, good for you.

Coarsely chop

3-4 mid sized zucchini, or a similar amount of other summer squashes
Several mushrooms (optional)
a red bell pepper
6-12 cloves of garlic
A handful or two jerusalem artichokes
3ish paste or 1-2 large tomatoes
A handful of fresh basil

I've been preparing this in my cast iron wok. A large skillet with cover, or other wide pot will do.

Heat the pan thoroughly (easy if you have gas, but it takes a while over an electric burner). Add an appropriate amount of olive oil. (A couple tablespoons?) Add the squash and jerusalem artichokes, stirring them as needed over medium high heat. Continue with this until the edges are slightly browned, and perhaps they begin to stick. Add a small quantity of wine of deglaze the pan, and then the mushrooms, garlic, and pepper. Stir everything together for a couple of minutes, then add half a glass of wine (I've been using red, but would probably prefer a dry white if I had it available) reduce the heat to medium, and cover.

Cook covered until the vegetables are tender. (But not soggy!) Uncover, raise the heat, and add the tomatoes, a handful of pine nuts (if you happen to have them around) and a cup and a half (one can) of cooked garbanzo beans.

Salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat, and quickly stir in the fresh basil. Serve over pasta, or your favorite starchy staple of choice. (Or, I suppose, by itself, if you're not into starchy staples.)

Other vegatbles can be added -- though baby artichokes were awfully bitter. One could use other beans, or cooked meat of some kind. Or, oddly tastily, a can or two of fancy tuna fish.

This is the kind of thing I live off of over the summer, when there are fresh veggies everywhere. It hardly counts as a recipe, really.

Barlotto Stuffed Pumpkins

Barley is a grain too seldom used, mild and creamy in texture, it is a good foil for many hearty winter foods. The pumpkins described here are small pie pumpkins, measuring about four inches across -- pumpkins are not the best storage squash, but these little pumpkins are available each year from our local organic farmer's stand, and make for particularly attractive presentation. If they are not available near you, halved and seeded delicata or acorn squash also works well. These should be baked at 350, cut side down, for at least half an hour or until just tender before being stuffed, for their thicker walls will not quickly bake through after stuffing.

( Barlotto )

Today

dianthus and I had lunch at il Bacio's, and finished up with a raspberry mousse. As this was extremely darned tastey, and we happened to have a bunch of raspberries at home, I decided to reproduce it.

In a smallish bowl, whip together essentially equal amounts of heavy whipping cream* and lightly crushed raspberries. Add sugar to taste** and serve.

This is really, really good.

* I use Organic Valley's Heavy Whipping cream. Interestingly, their cup cartons are ultra pastuerized, but their pint cartons are not. I prefer not to use ultra pasteurized cream when I can avoid it. It's less stable, but tastier.

** I used about two tablespoons. I didn't want to overwhelm the tartness of the berries, and the berries themselves were very ripe.

Vegetarians beware

( I mean it, serious carnivorism behind this tag )

(for

phaedra_lari)

The bread recipes is at: http://www.widdershins.org/vol7iss5/08.htm

The gingerbread recipes is in: http://www.widdershins.org/vol7iss6/01.htm

Chop an onion, carmelize the onion in olive oil over medium heat, deglazing the pan as often as is needed. (Sorry Jeffrey.)

Add a couple of handfuls of chopped button mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms are cooked. Add a couple of quarts of water, bring to a simmer.

Add 1 bay leaf, 2 curry leaves, and some assortment of porcini, matsutakes, and princes or other strongly flavored mushrooms. Add salt, pepper, several cloves of crushed garlic and two to three cups of cooked rice. Simmer for another ten minutes or so.

Taste the broth. Is it acceptable? (If not, add salt, more mushrooms, or perhaps a very small amount of molasses, as needed.)

Add the juice of two lemons.

Remove soup from heat. Separate the yolks from four eggs. Beat eggs with a small amount of water. Beat in about half a cup of broth from the soup. Then beat the eggs into a soup, until smooth and creamy. Return the soup to the burner and bring just to the edge of a simmer. Gently.