“Cliff, did you set the chickpeas on the boil to make beans for the beans and rice?”
“I thought you made beans already.”
“No, that’s not for beans and rice, that’s West African Black Bean & Yucca stew. Beans and rice beans don’t get garlic, remember?”
“Yeah, but that’s what it’s labelled as. Go look.”
I walked to the walk-in. And there, in three little service buckets, sat my bean stew, being labelled as just Beans. Crud. I grabbed a sharpie, and added “soup” to the end of the label, so that it’s differentiated between the bean soup and the beans and rice.
Y’see, every day at Chow, we try to do a bean soup and a vegetable soup. Of course, it’ll be gluten-free 99 times of 100, and it’s relatively low in fiery spices, like chiles or pepper, so that anyone can have a big bowl full without feeling pain. However, because so many people requested it, we started doing a special for beans and rice, where we cook a different bean every day, in a different technique. If the soup restrictions seem a little strict, let’s look at the restrictions for the beans and rice beans.
1) No garlic or onions. A lot of people who come in follow vegetarian diets with religious overtones, and many of the Eastern philosophies discourage the consumption of garlic and onions.
2) No soy. There are a lot of people allergic to soy who are stymied by the lack of choices out there. Even in many vegan places, they’ll end up using tamari or soy sauce instead of salt, to give more umami flavour. This means that stuff that’s ostensibly free of soy, like seitan, will often have soy sauce as a flavouring agent, and will be unsafe for those with soy allergies.
3) No gluten. This one is so obvious that I shouldn’t even have to explain it, but here goes anyway. A lot of the food at Sacred Chow is gluten free. People who follow gluten free diets often come in and are excited to try all the options available to them. Whenever possible, we cook food without gluten, so that everyone can give it a taste, and revel in the experience, regardless of health needs.
4) Nothing too hot-spicy. While there’s food at Chow that packs a bit of a kick (Mama’s Soy Meatballs, Korean Cutlets, Black Olive Seitan, etc.) we wanted the beans and rice to be accessible to anyone. So in other words, this means “Dino, put the chiles down.”
I did yet another once-over of the fridge, and found a service bucket with beans in it. “Cliff! What’s this?”
“Isn’t that the black beans you made?”
“Uh. It looks like the red beans that you made.”
Apparently, around the same time as Cliff had made a pot of adzuki beans & pumpkin for the beans of the day, I had made a small pot of black bean chili for a soup. Either way, someone managed to confuse the two, and combined them. The resulting flavour was delicious. The chili’d black beans (cooked in bell peppers, chili powder, and a hint of cumin) went very well with the adzuki beans (cooked with pumpkin, various herbs, and simmered low and slow till tender). The sweetness of the pumpkin complemented the spices of the bean chili extremely well.
Basically, everyone benefits, because now there’s chili for the beans and rice of the day, and it’s ten times more delicious together than it would have been apart.
How do you feel about disposable bags? Do you have a preference for paper or plastic? Do you prefer to avoid the whole mess all together, and just use your own?
I don’t know if this is a New York city specific thing, or if it’s something that you all are beginning to notice too, but I’ve seen that people are being really conscious about saying no to plastic or paper bags from the grocery store. This goes from people who simply take the merchandise and stick it into the bags that they’re already carrying (purses, backpacks, strollers, what have you), all the way to those who re-use old bags from home, or use cloth bags.
This is in sharp contrast to what used to be my experience back in the day. The worst offenders were those high-end clothing stores at the shopping mall. They’d first fold up each garment. Then they’d wrap that garment in paper on both sides. Then they’d wrap all the garment types (shirts in one, trousers in another, etc.) in a stack in more paper. Then the whole shebang got wrapped in still more paper. Then it’d go into a plastic bag. Which would then go into a paper bag. Which would then be stuffed with more paper. The clerks were lightning fast at doing this, but sheeeeesh. Just as soon as you’d get home, those reams of trees would go straight in the bin, and you’d hang up the clothes.
But now, a lot of clothing stores are being careful with how much waste they create, and will neatly stack your clothes into as few bags as possible. At the grocery store or hardware store, the clerks are (rightfully) careful to ask, “Do you want a bag for that?” if it’s a small quantity. And people (rightfully) reply with, “No no, that’s fine. I’ll carry it with me!”
Is this a trend you’re noticing in your city too? Speak up, rest of the world! I know it’s not just New Yorkers who are conscientious!
“Yeah, but if we get the turnips, it looks different, and they’re used to something else, and it might slow them down.”
“OK.”
I let it drop for about five minutes.
“Really, Cliff. It’s worth it. Let’s just get the freaking turnips.”
“OK, let’s do the turnips. Y’know, we could also make like that Middle Eastern pickled turnips, where they add a little bit of beets to the mix to make it that pretty purple colour. But it’s so salty.”
“Well, our version doesn’t have to be quite so salty. We can make it more mild.”
“It’s wonderful with hummus too. How come nobody ever orders our pickles with hummus?”
“Probably because we don’t bill it that way. You plunk down at a Middle Eastern place, and they set some pickles in front of you. Turnips are inexpensive enough that they can afford it.”
“Hm. Good point.”
We kept rambling about other things to do with turnips, Middle Eastern food, falafels, hummus, olives, olive oil, and things in between. It wasn’t about my being right or wrong or him needing to be convinced. It was more that both of us are playing for the same team, and tend to thrive on the open and free discussion of ideas and methods. Underneath it all, we both help each other to get through that initial fear and nervousness, and try something new.
Sometimes, you just need someone to push you to try something, “just because”. It’s mainly to do with breaking out of the rut you’re in, and trying something that may just work out in the end. It’s fortunate for me that I’ve got that in so many people: my boss, my husband, my mother (on more occasions than bear counting). It’s why I’m able to push too. If I didn’t have that team of people behind me, I wouldn’t be quite so self-assured in trying something different.
I will report details of the outcome of the turnip saga later on, when I know how it turns out.
Boss man said I could take pictures of him making a red bean stew. To start, here are the ingredients, and their rough quantities. All the vegetables are diced to roughly an inch or so. For the potatoes, you can get away with a slightly larger dice. The red beans have been soaked in cold water overnight. If you’re in a hurry, soak the red beans in boiling water for about an hour, and you’ll have similar results.
The oil of choice for today is extra virgin olive oil, though you could use whatever oil you’re most comfortable with. If you prefer to use canola, or don’t have olive oil, don’t fret! It’ll still be delicious.
First, to get things started, add the oil and onions to a deep stew pot. When the onions get softened and translucent, add in your celery.
While the celery and onions cook together, start chopping up the herbs. The onions and celery will probably take around five or ten minutes to get cooked through. If you like the flavour of well roasted veggies, go ahead and cook them until they’re browned. Otherwise, just cook the celery and onions until they’re softened.
Below, we see Boss Man chopping up the dill very finely.
Finally, when the onions and celery are softened, add the potatoes, red beans, dill, thyme, and rosemary. Add just enough boiling water to cover the vegetables and beans. You don’t want too terribly much extra water, or else it’ll be a soup, and not a stew.
Allow everything to cook together at full boil for about ten minutes, then drop it down to a simmer for about an hour or so, or until the beans are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Lovely!
What are some of your favorite restaurants (in NY and LA) and what do you usually order there? There are so many! New York is vegan’s paradise. For more casual dining, I love Sacred Chow. I always order the vegan melted cheese and grilled western tofu sandwhich or the 3-dish tapas plate (Orange Blackstrap BBQ Seitan, Baby Root Vegetable Latkes, and Sautéed Shiitake Mushroom are my favorite combo). Caravan of Dreams has vegan nachos and seitan quesadilla (yum!). And I always have the scallion pancakes at Wild Ginger.
