This year, during the fast, I decided that I'd set a goal for myself to reach out to at least one person whom I haven't kept in contact with (even though I swore up and down that I'd never forget them, and we'd stay in touch). In a way, for me, it's almost as if I were doing wrong by them by not keeping up my side of the acquaintanceship. Mind you, things like facebook and twitter give an illusion of keeping in contact, but in reality, there are many folk with whom I have not had a good conversation, even though I deeply enjoy their company, and love talking to them. I felt guilty, and pledged to do something about it.
So I did. I reached out, and sent an email to a couple of people, as of Wednesday of last week. Today, when I got back to work, my inbox was filled with love from the people whom I'd lost contact with. If I am strictly honest with myself, I will likely end up losing touch with those same people again, but for now, our two souls have connected, and a small spark of kindness has been released into the world. There's just something about writing a letter to someone which (to me) is a lot more personal and meaningful than pressing a "like" button on something. I don't expect all my correspondences with people to always be deep and meaningful, but when they are, I enjoy them.
I'm not sure why I felt the need to share that, but I hope you didn't mind my little diversion into personal life, before I get to the beans of the matter (I don't think I'd enjoy getting to the meat of any matter; beans are quite lovely, thank you).
Beans and beets. Specifically, black beans and beets. Why had I never considered this before? Mind you, I'm personally not a huge fan of beets on their own. They're kind of challenging. The colour bleeds all over everything, they make a right mess of your counter tops, and if you stain your clothes, that stain isn't coming out (PS how /do/ you clean off beets stains from a white shirt without harsh chemicals?) any time soon. Black beans, on their own, are tasty ,but a little monochromatic when you're talking textures (and when aren't you talking textures, right?). Especially when combined with brown rice, the black beans feel a little alone.
This is why so many black bean recipes are loaded with onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Anything to get into that texture, and break it up a little. However, beets, in my opinion, are a lovely choice. Black beans sometimes depress me, because that beautiful black colour doesn't last. It seems to bleed out into the water (especially if you soak your beans before cooking), and the final beans are a dark brown, instead of black. With beets, it's the opposite problem. The vivid garnet and purple colours leech into the cooking water, and stain /everything/ that same colour, and the final 'do looks just awful.
However, when black beans and beets are combined, something magical happens: the two colours reinforce the other! The beans no longer bleach out, and the beets don't stain everything that awful medicine looking colour. Victory! This particular recipe is very simple, because I'm looking to make it for the beans and rice special (for which I may not use garlic, onion, soy, gluten, sugar, or black pepper).
6 cups of black turtle beans
3 large beets, diced
16 cups water
1 tsp thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Salt, to taste
OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup of red wine
Simmer the beets and the beans together, until the beans are tender. If you chop the beets into 1 inch cubes, they'll cook at roughly the same amount of time as the beans. Add the thyme, nutmeg, wine (if you're using it), and salt. Let the beets and beans simmer together for another 10 minutes, or until the wine's alcohol-y smell has evaporated off. Serve with crusty brown bread, or brown rice.
With earthy flavours, like beets and black beans, I find that a little thyme and nutmeg complement each other beautifully. Please be careful with thyme. You can very easily overpower the dish if you're not careful. The wine helps round out the flavours, and gives just a touch of sweetness, while deepening the earthy flavours. If you don't drink wine, feel free to use about the same amount of apple juice or cranberry juice for the same results.Beets and mild sweet flavours go together very nicely.
Also, I've had about a thousand and one dishes that feature black beans and cumin and coriander. I wanted something completely different from stuff I've had before, so that I can challenge myself to think of different ways to use familiar ingredients.
Of course, feel free to augment the stew with shredded red cabbage, sliced carrot, tomatoes, or diced turnips.
10/10/11
10/7/11
Tofu Saag Paneer
There's this ubiquitous dish on most Indian restaurants, called saag paneer. Often times, it's hard little cubes of what feels like rubber, covered in a green goo of some kind, with about an inch and change of fat floating on top. And yet, people eat it with great relish. I don't get it.
Saag paneer, when made right, is little cubes of Farmer's cheese, deep fried, and served in a spiced spinach puree. It can be quite lovely, if you were to do things properly, but when it comes to mass quantities, the dish suffers. Fortunately for me, and the patrons of the restaurant, it improves when made vegan, and healthy. Rather than using tender, soft spinach, which should really be eaten raw, I use a combination of tender and hardy greens, like spinach, collard greens, and kale. That way, when I puree the greens together, I don't let a loose sauce as much as I get a textural wonderland. Rather than using farmer's cheese, I use little cubes of tofu, tossed in a bit of oil, and baked until they puff up into little balls. They're very cute to look at on the tray.
This way, I'm not deep frying anything, while still getting the taste and texture of deep fried tofu. And, rather than cooking down everything until it's homogenised, I cook things separately, so that they retain their texture and taste. The dish is transformed to something totally tasty, and much easier to eat with roti. That slumpy mass you get at restaurants should no longer be tolerated. Fight back!
FOR THE GREENS
10 oz (roughly 1 bunch) of spinach, washed WELL, and plunged into boiling water for 10 seconds.
8 - 12 oz kale, roughly chopped, and plunged into boiling water for 1 minute
8 - 12 oz collard greens, roughly chopped, and plunged into boiling water for 1 minute
Drain the water from the greens well. You don't need to squeeze them, but you can if you'd like. In a food processor, combine all the greens (in batches of 1 handful at a time), and pulse until they become chopped very finely. Set the greens aside in the fridge, so that they cool down.
FOR THE TOFU
2 lbs of tofu, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp salt
Don't bother to press the tofu. Just chop it up into cubes, and toss it in the oil and salt. If you prefer, you can use a mister or a nonstick cooking spray. I prefer just using oil, because there isn't too terribly much of the stuff I'm using here. Either way, get fat and salt onto the tofu. Lay it out onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment. The parchment is important, because the tofu will want to stick. Leave plenty of room between the cubes of tofu, or else they'll go mushy instead of crispy.
FOR THE SPICES
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp cumin seed
3 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
2 medium (tennish-ball sized) onions, sliced thinly (red works great, but use any onions you have)
3 - 12 cloves of garlic, minced
2-inch knob of ginger, grated
Pinch of cinnamon
Scrape of nutmeg
1 tsp of oil
salt, to taste
In a large, nonstick skillet, pour in your oil, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds. Let the lot heat over medium high heat, until you hear the seeds pop and crackle. Add the cardamom pods, cloves, and bay leaf. Sautee around until the fragrance becomes too delicious to stand anymore. Add the sliced onion, minced garlic, and ginger. Let the lot sautee over medium high heat, until the onions become lightly browned. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir everything for about 30 seconds. Add the chopped greens, and turn off the heat. Toss through to combine, making sure to thoroughly mix through the spices.
Add the cubed roasted tofu, and gently toss to combine. The tofu will become tough from the cooking, so no need to be that gentle! Just give it a toss. It'll be fine.
Now here comes the best part.
WALK AWAY!
The dish isn't ready for you yet. Now, you must exercise self-control by walking away, and letting the whole mass sit around, undisturbed, for at least an hour. Why? Because you want the tofu's skin, which formed in the oven, to permeate with the liquid from the greens and the spices and onions and such. You want the spices to mellow out a bit. You want the whole lot of it to taste and smell fantastic, while still having a bit of cohesion. You want to make a batch of roti, to be perfectly honest, and I'm giving you the chance to do that, with the excuse of, "Dino said so, so it must be right." Either way, this works out best if you make this at the beginning of your dinner preparations, and then come back to it much later, after it's sat around a bit.
I won't tell anyone if you sneak a few healthy spoonfuls, for "quality control". I do the same thing.
Saag paneer, when made right, is little cubes of Farmer's cheese, deep fried, and served in a spiced spinach puree. It can be quite lovely, if you were to do things properly, but when it comes to mass quantities, the dish suffers. Fortunately for me, and the patrons of the restaurant, it improves when made vegan, and healthy. Rather than using tender, soft spinach, which should really be eaten raw, I use a combination of tender and hardy greens, like spinach, collard greens, and kale. That way, when I puree the greens together, I don't let a loose sauce as much as I get a textural wonderland. Rather than using farmer's cheese, I use little cubes of tofu, tossed in a bit of oil, and baked until they puff up into little balls. They're very cute to look at on the tray.
This way, I'm not deep frying anything, while still getting the taste and texture of deep fried tofu. And, rather than cooking down everything until it's homogenised, I cook things separately, so that they retain their texture and taste. The dish is transformed to something totally tasty, and much easier to eat with roti. That slumpy mass you get at restaurants should no longer be tolerated. Fight back!
FOR THE GREENS
10 oz (roughly 1 bunch) of spinach, washed WELL, and plunged into boiling water for 10 seconds.
8 - 12 oz kale, roughly chopped, and plunged into boiling water for 1 minute
8 - 12 oz collard greens, roughly chopped, and plunged into boiling water for 1 minute
Drain the water from the greens well. You don't need to squeeze them, but you can if you'd like. In a food processor, combine all the greens (in batches of 1 handful at a time), and pulse until they become chopped very finely. Set the greens aside in the fridge, so that they cool down.
FOR THE TOFU
2 lbs of tofu, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp salt
Don't bother to press the tofu. Just chop it up into cubes, and toss it in the oil and salt. If you prefer, you can use a mister or a nonstick cooking spray. I prefer just using oil, because there isn't too terribly much of the stuff I'm using here. Either way, get fat and salt onto the tofu. Lay it out onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment. The parchment is important, because the tofu will want to stick. Leave plenty of room between the cubes of tofu, or else they'll go mushy instead of crispy.
FOR THE SPICES
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp cumin seed
3 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
2 medium (tennish-ball sized) onions, sliced thinly (red works great, but use any onions you have)
3 - 12 cloves of garlic, minced
2-inch knob of ginger, grated
Pinch of cinnamon
Scrape of nutmeg
1 tsp of oil
salt, to taste
In a large, nonstick skillet, pour in your oil, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds. Let the lot heat over medium high heat, until you hear the seeds pop and crackle. Add the cardamom pods, cloves, and bay leaf. Sautee around until the fragrance becomes too delicious to stand anymore. Add the sliced onion, minced garlic, and ginger. Let the lot sautee over medium high heat, until the onions become lightly browned. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir everything for about 30 seconds. Add the chopped greens, and turn off the heat. Toss through to combine, making sure to thoroughly mix through the spices.
Add the cubed roasted tofu, and gently toss to combine. The tofu will become tough from the cooking, so no need to be that gentle! Just give it a toss. It'll be fine.
Now here comes the best part.
WALK AWAY!
The dish isn't ready for you yet. Now, you must exercise self-control by walking away, and letting the whole mass sit around, undisturbed, for at least an hour. Why? Because you want the tofu's skin, which formed in the oven, to permeate with the liquid from the greens and the spices and onions and such. You want the spices to mellow out a bit. You want the whole lot of it to taste and smell fantastic, while still having a bit of cohesion. You want to make a batch of roti, to be perfectly honest, and I'm giving you the chance to do that, with the excuse of, "Dino said so, so it must be right." Either way, this works out best if you make this at the beginning of your dinner preparations, and then come back to it much later, after it's sat around a bit.
I won't tell anyone if you sneak a few healthy spoonfuls, for "quality control". I do the same thing.
10/6/11
Creamier Hummus
There's a couple of things that you can do to ensure that your hummus comes out ultra super creamy and tasty. You can increase the fat, increase the cooking time, or increase the liquid (to an extent). All of the techniques leave you with a different kind of hummus at the end, but regardless, they're all tasty.
First and foremost is the option of increasing the amount of fat you put in. This can mean more olive oil or tahini than the recipe calls for. There's a couple of considerations to this method. For one thing, the tahini is going to thicken the hummus. It'll give it a mild bitter edge if you're too generous with how much you put in. Mind you, your chickpeas can take a lot! They can probably take much more than you think that they can, and still be extremely tasty. I've gotten away with (for about 1 lb of chickpeas, soaked, boiled, and drained) up to a half cup of tahini, and had it all come out very well! Just bear in mind that tahini is (1) expensive, and (2) mildly bitter. If you're already adding in bitter things, like bell peppers or walnuts (both of which can bring out bitter flavours if you're not careful), you want to ease on up with the tahini, and bump up the oil instead.
Unfortunately, adding extra oil to the mix means that you'll end up with a slightly more runny hummus. Again, this is OK, as long as you've got enough chickpeas and tahini to balance out. If you do end up (mistakenly) adding too much oil, throw in a handful of almonds to thicken things up. It'll take a little longer to grind it down until the hummus is smooth, but it's OK. You'll get there.
Finally, you can add a bit more water. Like the oil, you're still working with ingredients that will give you a more runny product, so please be careful when you add water.
I mentioned cooking time for a very good reason. For the best hummus ever, use dried beans, that you soak overnight in cold water, then drain the next morning, rinse well, then boil the beans until they're tender. You want the beans to cook until they're all the way tender. Don't stop until everything is cooked through. The problem with tinned beans is that they aren't built to break down. Something about the masses of salt that they're packed in makes it difficult for the beans to grind down to a smooth paste. They'll grind if you give them a long time in the food processor, but they'll take an awfully long time. It's not pleasant at all to have chunks of chickpeas left in your hummus.
Yes, it takes a lot longer, but the payoff is well worth it. Please soak your beans in cold water, then boil them the next day. Why does't pressure cooking or quick soaking (wherein you soak the beans for 1 hour in boiling water, drain, then boil over the stove) work as well? The beans don't get as thoroughly hydrated in quick cooking methods as you would when you're being slow and deliberate. That extra time that you spend in the soaking and cooking process will give you thoroughly hydrated beans, that are cooked all the way through to the middle, perfectly. No problems with stubborn beans that won't grind down properly.
I'll also note here that if you want to increase the lemon flavour in your hummus, please consider using the zest of the lemon, along with the juice. If you add too much lemon juice, you'll end up with a hummus that's closer to a dressing, than a creamy dip. The zest of the lemon will increase the lemony taste without increasing (too much) the acidity of the whole mix.
At the end of the day, I'd rather you were eating any hummus at all, because it really is a tasty and healthy treat. So even if it means you buy the tinned chickpeas, or use peanut butter or almond butter in place of tahini because your local store ran out of tahini and won't be in stock until the next week (this actually happened once), or you end up making it runny because you're using a blender (which you shouldn't be doing, but how am I going to stop you from doing so?), or you don't have any mechanical grinding tools, so you sit there and pound with a pestle and mortar, or a potato masher. However you get the stuff into you, go ahead and do it. I'll probably still enjoy it immensely, with either bread, sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks, sliced apples, or my greedy face.
Hummus
2 cups dry chickpeas, soaked overnight, rinsed, and boiled until tender
3 - 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
2 lemon, juiced and zested
2 TB cumin seeds, lightly toasted and crushed or ground in a pestle and mortar
Salt, to taste
1 cup water, in reserve
1 bunch parsley
3 TB olive oil, for topping
When your chickpeas are cooked to perfection, drain them well, and rinse them off in cold running water to cool them off completely. Add the garlic to the food processor, and give the blade a spin to chop up the garlic. Add the chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Let the food processor run until all the ingredients are combined thoroughly. Add water, 1 TB at a time, until desired creaminess is achieved.
Top with ground cumin, chopped parsley, and olive oil. Serve with bread, sliced vegetables, or a big spoon. :)
First and foremost is the option of increasing the amount of fat you put in. This can mean more olive oil or tahini than the recipe calls for. There's a couple of considerations to this method. For one thing, the tahini is going to thicken the hummus. It'll give it a mild bitter edge if you're too generous with how much you put in. Mind you, your chickpeas can take a lot! They can probably take much more than you think that they can, and still be extremely tasty. I've gotten away with (for about 1 lb of chickpeas, soaked, boiled, and drained) up to a half cup of tahini, and had it all come out very well! Just bear in mind that tahini is (1) expensive, and (2) mildly bitter. If you're already adding in bitter things, like bell peppers or walnuts (both of which can bring out bitter flavours if you're not careful), you want to ease on up with the tahini, and bump up the oil instead.
Unfortunately, adding extra oil to the mix means that you'll end up with a slightly more runny hummus. Again, this is OK, as long as you've got enough chickpeas and tahini to balance out. If you do end up (mistakenly) adding too much oil, throw in a handful of almonds to thicken things up. It'll take a little longer to grind it down until the hummus is smooth, but it's OK. You'll get there.
Finally, you can add a bit more water. Like the oil, you're still working with ingredients that will give you a more runny product, so please be careful when you add water.
I mentioned cooking time for a very good reason. For the best hummus ever, use dried beans, that you soak overnight in cold water, then drain the next morning, rinse well, then boil the beans until they're tender. You want the beans to cook until they're all the way tender. Don't stop until everything is cooked through. The problem with tinned beans is that they aren't built to break down. Something about the masses of salt that they're packed in makes it difficult for the beans to grind down to a smooth paste. They'll grind if you give them a long time in the food processor, but they'll take an awfully long time. It's not pleasant at all to have chunks of chickpeas left in your hummus.
Yes, it takes a lot longer, but the payoff is well worth it. Please soak your beans in cold water, then boil them the next day. Why does't pressure cooking or quick soaking (wherein you soak the beans for 1 hour in boiling water, drain, then boil over the stove) work as well? The beans don't get as thoroughly hydrated in quick cooking methods as you would when you're being slow and deliberate. That extra time that you spend in the soaking and cooking process will give you thoroughly hydrated beans, that are cooked all the way through to the middle, perfectly. No problems with stubborn beans that won't grind down properly.
I'll also note here that if you want to increase the lemon flavour in your hummus, please consider using the zest of the lemon, along with the juice. If you add too much lemon juice, you'll end up with a hummus that's closer to a dressing, than a creamy dip. The zest of the lemon will increase the lemony taste without increasing (too much) the acidity of the whole mix.
At the end of the day, I'd rather you were eating any hummus at all, because it really is a tasty and healthy treat. So even if it means you buy the tinned chickpeas, or use peanut butter or almond butter in place of tahini because your local store ran out of tahini and won't be in stock until the next week (this actually happened once), or you end up making it runny because you're using a blender (which you shouldn't be doing, but how am I going to stop you from doing so?), or you don't have any mechanical grinding tools, so you sit there and pound with a pestle and mortar, or a potato masher. However you get the stuff into you, go ahead and do it. I'll probably still enjoy it immensely, with either bread, sliced cucumbers, carrot sticks, sliced apples, or my greedy face.
Hummus
2 cups dry chickpeas, soaked overnight, rinsed, and boiled until tender
3 - 6 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
2 lemon, juiced and zested
2 TB cumin seeds, lightly toasted and crushed or ground in a pestle and mortar
Salt, to taste
1 cup water, in reserve
1 bunch parsley
3 TB olive oil, for topping
When your chickpeas are cooked to perfection, drain them well, and rinse them off in cold running water to cool them off completely. Add the garlic to the food processor, and give the blade a spin to chop up the garlic. Add the chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Let the food processor run until all the ingredients are combined thoroughly. Add water, 1 TB at a time, until desired creaminess is achieved.
Top with ground cumin, chopped parsley, and olive oil. Serve with bread, sliced vegetables, or a big spoon. :)
10/5/11
Turmeric Cooking
Working with turmeric can be a bit of a challenge, because it really is a strong dye. You spill that stuff onto your counter, and you've got a pretty long-lasting horrible looking stain. If you do manage to spill some onto your white dress, apron, or otherwise, just rinse it lightly in soapy water, and dry it out in the sun. It may take one or two dryings to get it to completely bleach out to white again, but it'll get there eventually. Or, as my mother says, "You could use Oxyclean. That stuff cleans everything."
For the record, it was also my mother who mentioned that drying in the sun will clean turmeric stains.
But this isn't about how to stain with turmeric. It's about how to cook with it.
Turmeric likes fat. Its colour gets much stronger, and more intense when there is fat present. It goes from bright yellow, to a more burnished, brownish-reddish-orange that looks very tempting. When combined with some kind of alkaline food, it'll turn a more reddy-orange. However, for whatever reason, there are multiple recipes that call for turmeric to be added raw. Ew. It's got a very odd taste when it's raw. In fact, there's recipes that I've seen that call for large quantities of the stuff raw. Eeeeeeewww.
Please, if you're using it, just toast it in a tiny bit of fat. You need not drown your recipe in fat, but a little goes a long way to making the colour and flavour be so much more enjoyable. In fact, the next time you see tumeric in a recipe where there's also some fat, just say in your head "and toast it in fat".
Here's how it works.
Start with your hot pan or pot with fat in it. Add your whole spices (cumin, coriander, sesame, etc). When the seeds pop, turn off the heat, and add your turmeric. Remove the pot from the heat, and stir it all around. Then, add it to whatever it is you're cooking.
Mind you, I'm aware that there are South Indian recipes that call for boiling the turmeric with the veggies, or daal. This isn't necessarily wrong. I'm just right.
For the record, it was also my mother who mentioned that drying in the sun will clean turmeric stains.
But this isn't about how to stain with turmeric. It's about how to cook with it.
Turmeric likes fat. Its colour gets much stronger, and more intense when there is fat present. It goes from bright yellow, to a more burnished, brownish-reddish-orange that looks very tempting. When combined with some kind of alkaline food, it'll turn a more reddy-orange. However, for whatever reason, there are multiple recipes that call for turmeric to be added raw. Ew. It's got a very odd taste when it's raw. In fact, there's recipes that I've seen that call for large quantities of the stuff raw. Eeeeeeewww.
Please, if you're using it, just toast it in a tiny bit of fat. You need not drown your recipe in fat, but a little goes a long way to making the colour and flavour be so much more enjoyable. In fact, the next time you see tumeric in a recipe where there's also some fat, just say in your head "and toast it in fat".
Here's how it works.
Start with your hot pan or pot with fat in it. Add your whole spices (cumin, coriander, sesame, etc). When the seeds pop, turn off the heat, and add your turmeric. Remove the pot from the heat, and stir it all around. Then, add it to whatever it is you're cooking.
Mind you, I'm aware that there are South Indian recipes that call for boiling the turmeric with the veggies, or daal. This isn't necessarily wrong. I'm just right.
10/4/11
Peel a head of garlic FAST
Video
Essentially, you take two stainless steel bowls of roughly equal size. Take a head of garlic. Smash it with the heel of your palm to break it apart into individual cloves. Dump the lot into a bowl. Cover the top with another bowl. Shake shake shake. I tried this at home with a couple of different things. Since the concept seemed to be tumbling garlic together, I tried this with a tupperware box. No dice. It seems like the round shape of the bowl keeps things moving. I tried this with a plastic salad bowl with lid. Still no dice. It needs to be /two/ bowls. I tried this with two plastic bowls. It was getting better, but I had a couple of cloves still tightly holding onto the skin.
Two stainless steel bowls, of comically large size later, and I had a head of perfectly peeled garlic. I think part of the peeling process is the smashing with the heel of your palm. I tried with just loose garlic cloves that were lying around, and they didn't work as well. The other part is agitating against the stainless steel bowl, which has a bit more grip than plastic or ceramic. It clings to the garlic, and not the skin. Also, with the cloves of garlic smashing around, and hitting each other, you've got a bit more abrasion going on than you would if it were one or two cloves of garlic.
Try it out, with two large stainless steel bowls, and you'll be happy that you did. Next step is to chop them. Or, to leave them whole. Or, to run them through a garlic press. I got one of these garlic presses a few months back, for a review copy, and have been impressed thus far. The cost seems to be fairly reasonable. The thing about it is that the OXO doesn't like unpeeled garlic. With this method, you can use the OXO, which does a fine job of getting the garlic into your cooking pot (rather than all over your counter, or stove, as the old style ones used to), and is easy to press without a lot of effort.
Frankly, I'm quite happy to use an entire head of garlic in my meals, but if you're not, there's a trick to storing peeled garlic. Just place an absorbent paper towel (lightly crumpled) in the bottom of a tupperware container that's just big enough to store the garlic cloves. Dump in the peeled garlic. Cover the lid tightly, and place it in your vegetable drawer of the fridge. It'll last a good few days, and won't get all wet and gross on you. Mind you, it is still best to use your peeled garlic immediately, but if you can't, you can buy yourself a couple of days of insurance.
If you do want to use the whole head, and don't want a SUPER strong garlic odour, just add it into your hot fat, at the beginning of cooking, rather than towards the end. Add it even before you add onions. The sharp bite will cook out, and the garlic will get more mellow. When you eat the final dish, it'll be garlicky without being overpoweringly garlicky.
Final note: do not let the garlic get more than a medium brown while you cook it in the hot fat. Burned garlic is bitter, and extremely unpleasant.
How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds from SAVEUR.com on Vimeo.
Essentially, you take two stainless steel bowls of roughly equal size. Take a head of garlic. Smash it with the heel of your palm to break it apart into individual cloves. Dump the lot into a bowl. Cover the top with another bowl. Shake shake shake. I tried this at home with a couple of different things. Since the concept seemed to be tumbling garlic together, I tried this with a tupperware box. No dice. It seems like the round shape of the bowl keeps things moving. I tried this with a plastic salad bowl with lid. Still no dice. It needs to be /two/ bowls. I tried this with two plastic bowls. It was getting better, but I had a couple of cloves still tightly holding onto the skin.
Two stainless steel bowls, of comically large size later, and I had a head of perfectly peeled garlic. I think part of the peeling process is the smashing with the heel of your palm. I tried with just loose garlic cloves that were lying around, and they didn't work as well. The other part is agitating against the stainless steel bowl, which has a bit more grip than plastic or ceramic. It clings to the garlic, and not the skin. Also, with the cloves of garlic smashing around, and hitting each other, you've got a bit more abrasion going on than you would if it were one or two cloves of garlic.
Try it out, with two large stainless steel bowls, and you'll be happy that you did. Next step is to chop them. Or, to leave them whole. Or, to run them through a garlic press. I got one of these garlic presses a few months back, for a review copy, and have been impressed thus far. The cost seems to be fairly reasonable. The thing about it is that the OXO doesn't like unpeeled garlic. With this method, you can use the OXO, which does a fine job of getting the garlic into your cooking pot (rather than all over your counter, or stove, as the old style ones used to), and is easy to press without a lot of effort.
Frankly, I'm quite happy to use an entire head of garlic in my meals, but if you're not, there's a trick to storing peeled garlic. Just place an absorbent paper towel (lightly crumpled) in the bottom of a tupperware container that's just big enough to store the garlic cloves. Dump in the peeled garlic. Cover the lid tightly, and place it in your vegetable drawer of the fridge. It'll last a good few days, and won't get all wet and gross on you. Mind you, it is still best to use your peeled garlic immediately, but if you can't, you can buy yourself a couple of days of insurance.
If you do want to use the whole head, and don't want a SUPER strong garlic odour, just add it into your hot fat, at the beginning of cooking, rather than towards the end. Add it even before you add onions. The sharp bite will cook out, and the garlic will get more mellow. When you eat the final dish, it'll be garlicky without being overpoweringly garlicky.
Final note: do not let the garlic get more than a medium brown while you cook it in the hot fat. Burned garlic is bitter, and extremely unpleasant.
9/29/11
Bring each other kindness
This story had me shedding a tear of my own.
Short story shorter (for those who don't want to click through), a man wrote his experiences of being tormented in school by bullies. Tell me, to how many of you does this sound eerily familiar?
It's scary how close Kevin's words ring true for me, and I'm very sure, many of you. When I think of what culture means, with its implication of "shared experiences" and the like, this is not what I have in mind, but for many of us, this was the culture we experienced while going through school. It's sickening to think that it's still rampant today.
When I made the choice to go vegan all those years ago, a big part of it was living my life in reflecting the peace that I feel towards all beings, human and animal alike. I don't think it's right for people to have to suffer the indignities of physical or emotional torture. I don't think it's right for violence against our fellow beings who are sharing our time on this planet, to continue unchecked. It's not OK.
However, as with many stories, where the hero sticks it out (and, if you can see this, Kevin, you are a hero), things get better, and a ray of hope shines through. The very next day, Kevin got an email from one of his former tormentors, asking for forgiveness.
Whether or not Kevin chose to forgive (and you'll find out, if you click through) is immaterial. Forgiveness is as much an act for the forgiver as it is for the forgiven. When we seek to better ourselves, we must remember that we are imperfect. We are going to make mistakes, and learn from them. However, if we don't at least make an attempt to make amends, and to move forward, we hold ourselves back from evolving as people. We hold ourselves back from making peace, and making more kindness flow through the world.
I know that when I was in a position to forgive a former bully, I have done so. It wasn't for that person's sake; it was for my own. I needed to let go of that hurt and pain that I'd been holding on to all those years, and make peace with it; indeed, to make peace with myself. However, if that person had not come forward to ask me to forgive, I may have never had the opportunity to heal.
That's the thing about atonement. You are doing something good for yourself, but you're also doing something good for that other person. This is a time of celebration. The new year dawns open, and hopeful. In a week, we'll be in Yom Kippur, and it's time for us to reach out to those people that we've wronged, even if it's been a very long time since we've even thought of them. Kevin's bully approached him after thirty-five years, and Kevin could still vividly remember the hurt and pain he suffered. That's why it's so important to have a day of atonement. It forces you to step back for a moment, and really think about what you can do to clear the air, and move forward.
We can't move forward without looking back.
L'shana tova!
Short story shorter (for those who don't want to click through), a man wrote his experiences of being tormented in school by bullies. Tell me, to how many of you does this sound eerily familiar?
The bullying began in the 7th-grade and continued through to the day I graduated the 12th-grade. Although I didn’t come out of the closet until I was 35-years old, I was constantly ridiculed and called names including fag and fudgepacker. No matter how hard I tried, from going to school dances to dating girls, I was always seen as weak. I sang in the school choir and I was active in various clubs, which was seen as gay. Despite my participation in these activities I was a pretty shy kid. I wasn’t very good at gym and I was always picked last for games. I was excited when I discovered tennis and made the tennis team. But, alas, tennis, the bullies claimed, was a gay sport. I couldn’t win for losing! It didn’t help that most of my friends were girls – although, as it turns out, it was those girls that were the very people who kept me from going over the deep end. Those girls saved my life.
It's scary how close Kevin's words ring true for me, and I'm very sure, many of you. When I think of what culture means, with its implication of "shared experiences" and the like, this is not what I have in mind, but for many of us, this was the culture we experienced while going through school. It's sickening to think that it's still rampant today.
When I made the choice to go vegan all those years ago, a big part of it was living my life in reflecting the peace that I feel towards all beings, human and animal alike. I don't think it's right for people to have to suffer the indignities of physical or emotional torture. I don't think it's right for violence against our fellow beings who are sharing our time on this planet, to continue unchecked. It's not OK.
However, as with many stories, where the hero sticks it out (and, if you can see this, Kevin, you are a hero), things get better, and a ray of hope shines through. The very next day, Kevin got an email from one of his former tormentors, asking for forgiveness.
Whether or not Kevin chose to forgive (and you'll find out, if you click through) is immaterial. Forgiveness is as much an act for the forgiver as it is for the forgiven. When we seek to better ourselves, we must remember that we are imperfect. We are going to make mistakes, and learn from them. However, if we don't at least make an attempt to make amends, and to move forward, we hold ourselves back from evolving as people. We hold ourselves back from making peace, and making more kindness flow through the world.
I know that when I was in a position to forgive a former bully, I have done so. It wasn't for that person's sake; it was for my own. I needed to let go of that hurt and pain that I'd been holding on to all those years, and make peace with it; indeed, to make peace with myself. However, if that person had not come forward to ask me to forgive, I may have never had the opportunity to heal.
That's the thing about atonement. You are doing something good for yourself, but you're also doing something good for that other person. This is a time of celebration. The new year dawns open, and hopeful. In a week, we'll be in Yom Kippur, and it's time for us to reach out to those people that we've wronged, even if it's been a very long time since we've even thought of them. Kevin's bully approached him after thirty-five years, and Kevin could still vividly remember the hurt and pain he suffered. That's why it's so important to have a day of atonement. It forces you to step back for a moment, and really think about what you can do to clear the air, and move forward.
We can't move forward without looking back.
L'shana tova!
9/27/11
Creme de la Creme: Tofu-style
Get urself 3 lbs of firm tofu, mash it up with ur hands in a bowl of choice, place tofu in food processor. Depending on ur desired degree of sweetness, next add anywhere from a 1/2 cup to 1 & a half cups of cane sugar (or other dry sweetener of choice); then 12 ounces of coconut cream, not milk; and a 1/4 cup of desired oil or earth balance (or perhaps rich, decadent cocoa butter if ur so inclined) add 2-4 tablespoons of maple syrup, & same amount of tahini; then 3/4 cup of corn starch (or other starch of choice); & 1 tablespoon of vanilla ( or other desired variation); add 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg; & 1/2 teaspoon agar- agar powder; finish w a few pinches of salt. The recipe is done, unless u come up w other variations, but keep the liquids near the same amount. (Maybe cocoa powder or peanut butter; a banana or toasted nuts...) Whiz away till creamy as creamy can be, near 3-5 minutes. Stop processor, every now & then to scrap down the sides. It should not be grainy. If so, whiz some more. And it must be thick enough to hold on a spoon, it shouldn't drip over. If it drips over, u can add an extra 1/2 lb of mashed tofu, or place in freezer for a half hour or so: If it hardens up, it's good to go. Of course, give it a taste. If u have added less sugar, u may want more, along w other amount variations. If u taste a delicious sweet cream, and it holds up on a spoon, u r ready 4 the dance.
Pour in2 pie shell; over a baked 1" high cake; pour in2 a deep dish bowl...and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Chill well in freezer if u want or need 2 consume quickly. Check in half hour to 1 hour. It shouldn't wiggle, and should, but doesn't necessarily need to be: Cold. Top, if u'd like to, w ganache, fresh fruit w glaze, nougatines... The variations r endless. Omit the starch & agar powder, pour over granola, spread on muffins... But it needs to be chilled till it hardens up a bit. And lastly: Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Pour in2 pie shell; over a baked 1" high cake; pour in2 a deep dish bowl...and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Chill well in freezer if u want or need 2 consume quickly. Check in half hour to 1 hour. It shouldn't wiggle, and should, but doesn't necessarily need to be: Cold. Top, if u'd like to, w ganache, fresh fruit w glaze, nougatines... The variations r endless. Omit the starch & agar powder, pour over granola, spread on muffins... But it needs to be chilled till it hardens up a bit. And lastly: Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
9/20/11
Veg & Daal
When I was a young one, and I didn't eat vegetables as readily as I do nowadays, my mother used to quietly slip some into the daal. I loved daal (as most Indian kids do), and loved it even more when my mum would mash up the rice, so that the whole lot became very easy to eat. It's sort of like how mothers in the USA slip veggies into pasta sauces that they serve their kids.
However, over time, I've grown to appreciate what a good idea that is for adults as well as for youngsters, and I've taken to making more grown up versions of it. For young children, whose teeth are still developing, you want things to be on the wetter side, and on the soft side. They're not going to appreciate very under-done veggies for the most part (if your kid is an exception to this, please give them a hug for me; it means that you have a particularly un-fussy young person in your life). As the child gets older, and her or his tastes develop, they start enjoying very crispy raw veggies, just barely cooked veggies, and all kinds of other things that they would have had a tough time with as kids.
It's why I've taken to updating the daal and rice with veg of my youth by adding raw veg to the end of the cooking of the daal. As in, I'll boil the beans, spice them up, make sure everything tastes right, and then turn off the heat. Then, I'll add whatever veggies I'm looking to add to that meal. This works especially well for dark leafy green veggies—which all of us should be eating every day—which cook rather quickly with a quick blast of heat (from the residual heat left in the pot of daal).
This does a few things. For one, it makes it much easier to get my complete meal in one go. I don't have to fuss about with a separate side dish when I'm in a rush. Everything's in one bowl, so I'm good to go. For another, it makes a very neat textural contrast. When cooked well, rice and beans tend to meld together beautifully. They provide this lovely creamy texture that cannot be matched. It's a very comforting texture, which is why so many cultures love to eat rice and beans together. However, to be perfectly honest, it can get a little monotonous. By adding the veg into that mix, you get this whole new textural experience. It's nice.
Of course, as all dark leafy greens do, it adds a good boost of fibre, vitamins, and minerals. You're getting a nice hit of vitamin K, A, and C, along with calcium and iron. Since vitamin C helps the absorption of iron, you're getting even more benefits from adding the leafy greens in. This means that you'll not only get the iron inside the greens, but also the iron in the brown rice and the iron in the beans much more easily than if you ate just the rice and beans. Since vitamin K and A are fat soluble, and daal is cooked with a bit of fat, you're getting the benefits of the whole shebang in one bowl!
Awesome, isn't it?
It's interesting to me to look back on things that my mother did, and see how smart they truly were. Mind you, if I were eating a proper Indian meal, I'd have the beans, the rice, the dark leafy greens, the root veg, the squashes/gourds, and raw vegetables in a meal. Each one would be in small little bowls, that I would mix with the rice as I'm eating, and I'd have a completely balanced meal going in one plate.
However, when I'm in a rush, and don't really have the time to have all those different components every time, it's nice to have something that I can have on the run without having to worry about getting all my nutrients in order. When I have the time, I certainly do make all those different varieties, and enjoy sitting down to them. When you're making small quantities of those things (enough for just one meal), you don't really need to spend too terribly long. However, there are those days when even those quick things to put together are too time- and labour-intensive to bother with.
On those days, it's daal, rice, and dark leafy greens.
9/16/11
How your roasted veg should NOT look if you want to peel them easily.
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| From September 16, 2011 |
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| From September 16, 2011 |
I was impatient, and pulled them out when I saw most of the skin ballooning out. Bad idea. It took a herculean effort to wrest the skin from the veg. It was ridiculous. Please learn from my mistake, and let them go for as long as they need, turning the pan (or the veg) as necessary so that they get cooked evenly.
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| From September 16, 2011 |
Chilly Weather Stuff
It's starting to get chilly, and it's times like these that you don't really worry too terribly much about cranking up the oven, and doing some serious roasting and baking, because your apartment could do with a bit of warming up anyway. Last night's dinner was really simple, but rather nice. We sliced up some eggplant, spaghetti squash, and broccoli, blasted them with a bit of nonstick cooking spray, and roasted them in the oven. The broccoli was done in 25 minutes, but the eggplants and the spaghetti squash took about 1 1/2 hours. Again, I wasn't bothered, because the big hard work of it all was slicing everything in half, and laying it on the baking tray, then chucking it in the oven.
The other thing is that since these are not finicky creatures, I didn't bother to preheat the oven. I just let them park in there as the oven heated, and they got done to a turn in that time. I didn't have parchment paper last night, so I also gave the baking sheets a hit of the spray, but if you do have parchment, you can skip the spray stuff completely. While those roasted away in the oven, I did some simple cabbage with a bit of curry powder, garlic, and oregano. Something about that mix just does lovely things to the smell. At the end, I sprinkled on some sea salt, and ground cumin. It tasted incredible. Then, I whipped up a quick white bean & chickpea dip (we used cucumbers for dipping) with white beans and chickpeas, rosemary, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and a bit of water to thin it out as needed.
The reason I'm not mentioning huge gobs of fat in everything is because we were having dinner at a friend's house, and both of them are trying to watch their calorie intake, so that they can keep the pounds under control until Thanksgiving and the other winter holidays show up, with their obscene amounts of food.
Frankly, none of us really missed the fat. The bean dip provided that creamy addition to the meal, and since everything was simply roasted, it was already bursting with caramelly flavour. And the best part is that the actual prep time was nonexistent, because everything kind of sat in the oven until it was done to a turn. For dipping, we used that Oyster Mushroom sauce you get at the Chinese market, and some Tamari with garlic and lime juice. It was quite possibly the most surprisingly filling meals I've eaten in a while. It was all vegetables, but it was filling!
We went through one medium head of cabbage, three broccoli crowns, five cucumbers, four pounds of tinned beans, a head of garlic, five enormous eggplants, and one large spaghetti squash. For all that, we went through about 1 teaspoon or so of oil. It got to where the fat was so low that it added negligible calories to the meal. Score.
Just because it's getting colder doesn't mean it's time to go into hibernation mode!
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