Another Lunch

Asparagus season is coming to an end and while it makes me want to curl up and cry until the next spring sprouts shoot up i am more inclined to celebrate its passing!  For lunch I had a grilled asparagus sandwich with grated carrots, radishes, and sliced red bell peppers.  The asparagus was sauteed in copious amounts of garlic with a little olive oil and a splash of soy sauce.  The bread was lightly toasted and slathered with locally produced spicy mustard.  I ate two of these and was thinking of going for a third but alas I ran out of asparagus

Strawberries Smoothed

 No joke it is summer.  The weather pushes into the 90's (that is 32-37 C for you out side of the US) on a regular basis and I cannot help but make like a lizard and lay in the sun. . . I just prefer a comfy chair or blanket in place of a hot rock.  The other way I win over your typical reptile is I can have a smoothie while I bask in the glory of our day time star.

I get these strawberries fresh from the farm and get the tops taken off so I can freeze them. . . of course (in case you didn't know) I am a science geek and I happen to have access to liquid nitrogen.  

This chilly liquid sits at a cool 77K (-196 C or -320 F) and while it does not freeze something 'on contact' as popular television would have you believe it does freeze the strawberries so fast that the ice crystals have no time to form and the cell walls of the strawberries stay intact through the freezing process.  This means when you thaw them they are almost as good as fresh picked (but we all know nothing is really as good as fresh picked). In terms of a smoothie this also means that less ice is trapped in the straw berries and you get a smoother smoothie. 

the vapor around the container is condensing water

that is LN2 boiling around the berries

so cold they crack

ready to transport!

To actually make the smoothie take your frozen strawberries (how ever they are frozen) and combine about 1C of the frozen darlings with 1C of almond milk (if you are sassy you can make your own almond milk so it is a raw treat).  Add more almond milk or a bit of water to get the consistency you like; depending on how much you put in you can get it anywhere from a nice sorbet to something more like a drink.  I use a few mint leaves a quarter of a lemon and a table spoon of agave to balance out the sweetness without detracting from a bit of a tart hit when you first sip with a cool mint flavor lingering after the berries are in your belly.  a bit of vanilla extract (or raw vanilla bean) goes a long way to balance out the flavors and make this healthful drink seem a bit like a desert!  

I have had one or three of these in the last week and I am eager to share! so come do some porch sitting with me we can yell at the other coop across the street! 

Salads for Dinner

Some days are just not what you want them to be. . . .your mind gets stuck on some idea and you spend a beautiful day inside writing letters you are never going to send. There is only one thing that helps . . . 

COMFORT FOOD

Potato salad, pasta salad a nice green salad to get those vitamins minerals and fiber and then a bean salad for that protein kick that makes tomorrow easier.  Ill tell you right now that this is going to be level less 'recipe' than usual.  I did some experimenting with the potato salad and it was PHENOMENAL.  

So lets turn this mass of veggies---->

<----------- into this mass of tasty!

The pasta salad get nixed in this post, because well it is a day like that but it is pretty simple.  Cooked pasta tossed with peas corn garlic and olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste. For ratios you want to aim for something that is mostly pasta accentuated with some vegetables. 

 The green salad is also straight forward.  I used a spring mix with raisins, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, diced almonds, some shredded radish and a sprinkling of calendula petals for color!  Calendula (aka marigolds) have edible petals  that dont have much in the way of flavor but add amazing color to salads with a texture that is consistent with the rest of the dish. 

Bean Salad:

   Using a pressure cooker (or enough forethought that you soak the beans beforehand and have enough time to cook them)  prepare enough beans for your meal; I did about 3 cups dry white beans and 1 cup dry kidney beans (it comes out to about 6 cups of cooked beans) 

 I diced in some raw beets to add some color and sweetness and a bunch of long beans cut into one inch segments.  I also shredded carrot and zucchini into the mix.  Not only does this give an additional texture and some bonus vegetation but ti also provides more color which makes your typical bland bean salad seem fun and exciting! 

Seasonings can be as simple as salt and pepper but I strongly urge the use of some summer time herbs like oregano basil and thyme.  We had a bounty of rosemary in the kitchen so I used that as my primary flavor, using paprika to add a bit of spice and color (yes paprika can have spice you just need to get the fresh stuff)

 of course I used fresh grated garlic, yum! 

I tossed the salad with a combination of olive oil and white wine vinegar (though you can use any vinegar you like).  I wan to make up some measurement for how much I used but I honestly have no clue, though you do want about equal parts oil and vinegar!  The goal here is to make the salad moist without drowning it, add in slow amounts alternating olive oil then vinegar (too much olive oil is easier to deal with than too much vinegar) until the beans are evenly coated without there being a pool of 'dressing' in the bottom of the bowl

Potato Salad:

    I have a problem with potato salad. . . I dont like mayonnaise.  I didnt like it when I was an omnivore and i found the vegan versions just as unappealing.  I still used it when I was making some dishes but damn it!  I didnt want to this time.  I used an adaptation of a cream sauce I made for a pasta primavera alfredo.  Again with a bit of forethought I would have soaked the almonds for 30-60 minuted before I made this but i didnt know I was going to do this until i was in the store holding a jar of vegan mayo and cringed.  

I blended 1 cup of almonds with 1 large block of silken tofu (seemed about 2 cups worth) and 1/2 cup olive oil.  knowing that this was going to a potato salad I was not shy about using some vinegar to thin it out (just a couple table spoons) 

I used mustard, a pinch or two of salt and a bit more vinegar for flavoring while a few more splashes of olive oil were there to push the sauce to a more creamy texture.  I was surprised at how quickly  it all came together but in the time it took the potatoes to boil I ended up with my own vegan sauce for potato salad (That I refuse to call mayo because it is nothing like that stuff).

You cook the potatoes . . .just boil them.  I like to used red potatoes boiled in an open pot so I can make sure they dont get over done.  For my house i sued five pounds of potatoes (you might as well too because left over potato salad is GREAT).   

Mix the potatoes with the almond-tofu sauce (lets call it almofu sauce, or someone make up a word for this stuff we need a vocabulary to describe these things that does not relate it to some dairy counterpart) a hearty helping of black pepper and grated garlic ( i must have grated 20 cloves for this meal) and some diced parsley.  I also diced it the celery greens because I like the color and flavor.  I dont grate carrots for this dish, I coarsely chop them with the celery because then everything has a comparable texture.  I also use a few spoon fulls of sweet pickle relish to round out the pallet of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy.  

I feel like I am forgetting something but like I said it was an experiment and I will have to repeat it again and see what changes. . .though i hope nothing because I could have eaten this potato salad for days! (though my brother would not even try it, he has something against pickles in relish form or otherwise).

(the change in coloring of the potato salad is due to lighting only)

Enjoy!

Lunch time, yeah!

The last two weeks have been BUSY!  it may be hard to believe but I dont think I have cooked a full dinner in 2 weeks!  Egads!  yet still I crank out some tasty and quick lunches.  Above you see the toasted sesame asparagus in a balsamic reduction with a side of chipotle zucchini and roasted fennel bulb.  The salad is a Dino/Red Russian kale mix with sunflower seeds and grated carrots.  The strawberries on top are just because but made an excellent cap to the meal.

Triple Carrot! 

Lunch Brief

This time of year is great!  Asparagus is growing with vengeance in the sun after brief rains.  So when i get home from the farm I always have a nice handful of the culls.  Start the pasta cooking and while that is going on get your added vegetables ready. I sautes the green onions and garlic with some olive oil on a medium heat tossing in carrot slices after the onions browned a bit (only a minute or two with green onions).  Soon after I toss in the asparagus and the collard stems and let them all sizzle for about 5 minutes.  I toss the collard greens in then and turn the heat off, letting the residual heat of the cast iron and steaming vegetables blanch the collards without turning it to mush (If I was doing a lot of greens I would need to leave the heat on a while on low).  I toss the pasta with the vegetables some 'butter' (earth balance, coconut oil, olive oil, or what ever fatty stuff you like) salt pepper and grated garlic to taste!  

Pumpkin Curry

Somehow we made it to this spring and had some extra squash around and only one thing seemed appropriate,  Pumpkin Curry! Of course I decided to make Garlic Nann to go with it and I tried to do some fried rice but oh man it was failing. . . I managed to save it by transforming it into coconut fried rice, using the extra flavor to help out my texture issue, turned out everyone loved it and it complimented the garlic potatoes well.

             So lets go ahead and turn this:

                                          into this!

Pumpkin Curry:

 I am sure there are a lot of ways to prepare the pumpkin (and roasting will bring out AMAZING flavor) but for time I just cube it and steam it. I remove the skin before hand so I don't have to cool the squash peel it and then reheat, yes it is technically easier to peel it after cooking but it does take an extra step.  Normally I dont steam with herbs but there was enough extra majoram and Basil that I figured why not! I used one butternut one pumpkin and one squash I didn't know the name of. I diced it all and steamed about 5 cups worth (maybe 6) for 15 to 20 min. 

I over-did the steaming a bit (which i don't suggest).  The pumpkin can come out of steam a bit more firm than you would like since it will get cooked during the simmer period.  The end result was something a bit more soupy and not as chunky as I like but WOW it went really well with the Nann and rice.

I used: mustard seed, corainder seed, and fenugreek as my tempering spice (1 tsp each in 2 Tbs oil) heating them in oil until the mustard began to pop a bit before tossing in raw garlic and onion> I dont know why but there was an eggplant in the fridge so I went ahead and diced that and tossed it in the oil to cook down and brown in on a medium high heat.  

I simmer the garlic onions and eggplant in a big pot with the seeds  because I knew the next step was to toss in the pumpkin which I mixed with one can of coconut milk (shake it before you open it so the fatty part mixes in well) with a good head of basil (probably 1/4 to 1/2 C worth of diced basil).  No tomatoes went in but if you have one or two dice them up (just adds a nice body and acidity). The heat gets turned down and the second series of spicing happens! Golden curry powder extra turmeric extra garlic powder then salt an pepper to taste!  No . . .I dont know how much of each but by my estimation a good 1 Tbs of curry a tsp of turmeric and maybe 2 tsp of garlic, it is important to note these extras are to round out the curry powder I get at the food coop and almost all curry powders are different so you will have to go for what you like and maybe include some paprika for spice, cumin (not suggested) for earthiness, ginger or cinnamon for aroma, and so on.  After I had a balance of flavor I liked, I put in a pinch of Asafoetida. . .I dont know who to describe its flavor but it just makes all the flavors pop.  Now you can just let it all simmer on low heat with the occasional stirring to keep it yum! 

 Garlic Potatoes with Greens:

This dish was an add on because I needed something to round out the meal and . . .I love potatoes!  I boiled the potatoes (about 3 lbs cubed) in my extra water (see rice mishap) which was just 2 to 3 cups of stock with some turmeric, pepper and oil.  It only takes 10 min for the potatoes to get soft in boiling water so while that is going I sauteed onions with garlic, mustard seed and cumin seed.  Once the onions were brown I tossed in all the stems from the collards, chard and kale with some random asparagus I found in the fridge, which happened to be just before I threw in my cooked potatoes (just a minute after the stems literally or the stems will go to mush) 

it occurred to me that my pan was not large enough to accommodate all of my greens so I moved it all to a pot, since the essential saute steps were done. Just a bit of water and let it all steam together, giving it a quick stir on occasion.  once the greens were getting down I grated 5 cloves of garlic in and added a Tbs of butter, just like that it is pretty much done! 

Coconut Fried Rice:

So . . .sometimes when you are trying to take pictures of your rice as you brown it before you put in your vegetable stock something silly happens where you forget to measure the amount of stock you are putting in. . . with rice that is very bad! Using a long grain brown the rice to water ration needs to be just below1:2 and somehow I put in 11 cups of stock for my 4 cups of rice. . .I took out as much about 3 cups and used that for the potatoes (which really improved that dish) but Being off in measurements my rice came out a bit more mushy than I usually like. . .I am a fan of firm rice and. . .when you are making fried rice, having your grain on the firm side of cooked is ideal.  This made it hard to get a 'fried' feeling for the rice but we will get to that.  Just a tea spoon of turmeric in the water and your rice will come out awesome colors!  I also used 1 bag of frozen peas, tossed in when the rice was turned to a simmer.  This adds some nice vegetable matter but more importantly fancy color.

Using brown rice the cook time is about 45 minutes on simmer, that is after it is brought to a boil.  keep it covered the whole time with a well fitted lid (or if you put too much water in let the last 10-15 minutes go un-covered).  Right when the rice is almost done use a bit of oil to saute up some onions and carrots. . . or if you forgot to save some carrots steal a bit of your friends carrot,beet,radish salad and saute that.  I only had a bout a 1/2 cup of veggies and ideally for that amount of rice I would have closer to 1.5 cups of veggies to stir fry in.

With the limited vegetables and the consistency of the rice I made a last minute decision! I tossed in about 1 cup of shredded coconut and 3 Tbs of coconut oil. This little trick transforms my yellow rice with a little bit of fried veggies in to COCONUT FRIED RICE! ta~dah! The coconut oil is a key part of getting the flavor to reallt stand out while the shredded coconut does a bit of texture and is really nice sprinkled on top to give away that it is coconut fried rice. 

Garlic Nann:

I rushed it. . . I didnt give the dough enough time to rise but what you see above is 4 cups of flour sifted with 1 tsp salt and 4 tsp baking soda on the right is 2 cups warm water with 1 Tbs sugar and 2tsp yeast ( I think another tsp of yeast would have been good but I already didnt have enough time).whisk in about half the sifted flour always stirring in a smooth clockwise direction.  Once the dough become just slightly stiff and smooth let it sit for 40 minutes (or in this case ten).  Toss in 5-500 cloves of grated garlic ( i used about 10) and add a few green onions for color effect (I didnt do it this time) and begin adding the four again.  stir at the edges making sure you rip through the nice strands of gluten as LITTLE as possible.  once the dough begins to ball you can knead it for 10 minutes on a dry floured surface.  Give it another 40 minutes to rise (or in this case 5 minutes) before cutting ti into little balls that your can easily roll out.  

Turn your griddle (or your cast iron over flame) up to high until the thing si hot then turn it slightly down to medium high and give each side 3-5 minutes.  once it is golden brown and puffy you are ready to east!

Even with the mishaps that were regular in this weeks meal everything came out great! If I didnt keep complaining about the rice people would have thought it was all on purpose! the flavors complimented each other better than I expected where the coconut rice was a nice change up from the garlic potatoes and garlic nann.  the salad (not discussed above) was the perfect color and taste to round out the meal (thanks Ashley) 

This was my Lunch yesterday

Mondays are a particularly yummy lunch day for me.  Fresh food comes in from a local farm (sometimes picked by me! ) and I have enough time to do something with it.  Above is this weeks lunch which I was particularly happy with.  On the left is a green saute which started with onions, green garlic, mustard seeds and carrots.  I originally planned on putting the asparagus in that but after adding the collards stems and some thinly sliced potatoes it took on a life of its own.  The collards went in last and the dish was seasoned with oregano salt pepper and a touch of brags.

The quiona with fresh sliced radish (center) I did a bit weird.  See I wanted to have plain quiona this morning for my quiona pancakes (coming soon) so i did not cook it in broth, just water.  After separation out about a cup of cooked quiona I tossed in Spike (my favorite powdered vegetable broth) some olive oil, garlic powder, pepper and paprika (for color contrast to all the green).  A couple quick stirs and onto the plate it goes with the radish and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

The asparagus . . .lemon pepper in coconut oil. I brazed it in a hot cast iron with a bit of onion and garlic after it browned and was tender (though young fresh asparagus can be eaten raw and is already tender) I turned off the fire and added a teaspoon of coconut oil and a squeeze of half a lemon (probably only 2 tsp of juice) and let it simmer in the cooling pan.

A very happy lunch I had :)