Is to quickly throw some beans on. Why? Because hummus needs to happen, and frequently. And since chickpeas can take a long time to cook, it's important that I have a fair bit of them ready for me to use at any minute. However, how do you get it done when you forgot to soak them over night? Two things. Quick soak, and crock pot.
I've found that the beans will soak very quickly if soaked in boiling water before cooking. So what does this mean for crock pot cooking? Throw your beans (chickpeas in this case) into a metal pot, and fill it with three times as much water as beans. Crank up the stove to high heat, and let it come to a full, rushing boil. Turn off the stove. Dump the whole business into a crock pot. Turn on the crock pot to high. You'll have perfectly cooked chickpeas in three hours flat, while you're off doing other things.
What this means for you at home is that those slow cooker dealies are worth their weight in gold. The more you use it for things like beans and the like, the more you realise that spending the money on the tinned product is not only inefficient, but needlessly expensive. In fact, if you want to really talk about making it easy, soak them over night in cold water, and throw them in the crock pot and set it to low before you walk out the day for work. You come home to perfectly cooked beans that are ready to puree into hummus, ready to make into a curry, ready to roll into a soup, ready ready ready.
6/13/10
a note to thomas friedman bout sustainability.
hi tom, thank you so much for your amazing op-ed pieces. i never tire of reading what you have to say. your pieces are insightful, engaging, goal-oriented without being bombastic. just what the doc ordered!
just wanted to give you and your readers a perfect way to make our lives, and thus other lives and the planets, more sustainable & less dependent on fossil fuels: eat more plant proteins, make less violence...reduce carbon emissions. instantaneously! i am not telling the world to stop eating animal proteins, but boy would that reduce green house gases in a n.y.c. minute, and also violence; violence on every level. if you want to help make the world and your life be a bit more gentle and sustainable, begin by eating more plant proteins. and just like that: u'll feel the flow of less violence, less carbon, less dependence on fossil fuels. and perhaps, more hope and love.
all goodness to you mr. friedman! go indulge in an amazing white chocolate-coconut/tofu cream cheesecake w halva crust, savor a few chunks of juicy b.b.q. seitan or a tempeh rueben hero slavered w french dressing, kraut, spicy onions & half sours. it's all there waiting 4 u to partake in and enjoy. make change now! love your writng!
best, cliff preefer
just wanted to give you and your readers a perfect way to make our lives, and thus other lives and the planets, more sustainable & less dependent on fossil fuels: eat more plant proteins, make less violence...reduce carbon emissions. instantaneously! i am not telling the world to stop eating animal proteins, but boy would that reduce green house gases in a n.y.c. minute, and also violence; violence on every level. if you want to help make the world and your life be a bit more gentle and sustainable, begin by eating more plant proteins. and just like that: u'll feel the flow of less violence, less carbon, less dependence on fossil fuels. and perhaps, more hope and love.
all goodness to you mr. friedman! go indulge in an amazing white chocolate-coconut/tofu cream cheesecake w halva crust, savor a few chunks of juicy b.b.q. seitan or a tempeh rueben hero slavered w french dressing, kraut, spicy onions & half sours. it's all there waiting 4 u to partake in and enjoy. make change now! love your writng!
best, cliff preefer
6/10/10
Father's Day Brunch
Please join us on 20 June 2010 to celebrate Father's Day. To ensure seating, please call 212-337-0863 for reservations or email sacredchow at aol, and we'll take care of the rest. Please be sure to include the time you'll be arriving, as well as your name and phone number, so that we can identify your table. :)
6/7/10
ah hope, it's a beautiful thing!
ah hope, it's a beautiful thing! the world, it's such a violent, tortured place, but you and me kid, we can make it a better place. you and me, and someday maybe, little you, if we teach kindness, and communicate with love and gentleness, little by little: there will be less violence! where do we start kid? okay, here it is: if we begin by eating more plant proteins, we'll make less violence, and we'll reduce our carbon footprint. i know, i know, it won't stop the conundrums in the congo, or poverty or hunger: we're a greedy, angry lot kid, but it's a beginning. yeah, sure, the world may go pop and dissolve into nothingness; but here's the kick about this creation thing, it doesn't stop, it keeps moving, and whatever we create moves right into its ever-flow, to its far reaches and back again. so kid, let's put our goodness into the flow. no kid, i don't know how much change we'll be able to create, but we'll create change and we'll make less violence, and when less violence starts moving through you and me, and maybe through little you...then perhaps...ah hope, it's a beautiful thing!
6/2/10
The importance of ethical living.
The lovely folks from Tav HaYosher came to interview the employees to ensure that everyone is being treated fairly, and with dignity. I overheard a couple of the questions, and got sick to my stomach. One of them was "Are you allowed to go to the bathroom when you need to?" Of course, the response was a resounding "yes", because that's never been an issue here.
But the fact that they had to even ask the question means that it's enough of an issue, and has been an issue in the past. It just boggles my mind that there are people in my own city being treated with so little dignity. It drove the message home to my brain immediately: these things matter. Demanding that the establishments you spend your money at live up to ethical standards is vitally important, both for you and the people that serve you.
It also makes me thankful for what I have: a boss who genuinely cares about his workers, as much as he does about our customers.
But the fact that they had to even ask the question means that it's enough of an issue, and has been an issue in the past. It just boggles my mind that there are people in my own city being treated with so little dignity. It drove the message home to my brain immediately: these things matter. Demanding that the establishments you spend your money at live up to ethical standards is vitally important, both for you and the people that serve you.
It also makes me thankful for what I have: a boss who genuinely cares about his workers, as much as he does about our customers.
5/19/10
"Processed" soy
It always irks me when I see that term being tossed around casually. Why? For one thing, it makes the assumption that all processing is necessarily bad. For another, it makes the assumption that the processing is being done by someone over whom we have no oversight. I hope, in this post, to gently correct some of those assumptions, and maybe shed some light on things.
First and foremost is the assumption that all processing is necessarily bad. It's not. Processing is taking something in its raw state, and doing things to it to make it more palatable. Grinding coconuts in a blender with water, then squeezing out the milk is processing it. Cutting vegetables, soaking them in a vinegar-water-spice solution, then letting it ferment for a few weeks is extensive processing. You've changed the nature of the vegetable completely, you've created different chemical compounds in the surounding liquid, and you've massively extended the shelf life of said vegetable. Is that automatically a bad thing?
Another assumption is that all processing has to happen out of your eyes. This couldn't be further from the truth. We take raw ingredients (flour, vegetables, tofu, etc.), and make everything from scratch. That means that everything you see on the menu has been worked over by hand. So yes, the tofu goes through transformations. That's what makes tofu magical in the first place. But all of that "processing" goes on with the strict oversight of either Boss Man, myself, or Laura. Yes, it's processed soy, but it's our processed soy that we do ourselves.
What I'm trying to get at is that yes, we serve processed soy. But it's soy that we process ourselves, from the raw ingredients.
First and foremost is the assumption that all processing is necessarily bad. It's not. Processing is taking something in its raw state, and doing things to it to make it more palatable. Grinding coconuts in a blender with water, then squeezing out the milk is processing it. Cutting vegetables, soaking them in a vinegar-water-spice solution, then letting it ferment for a few weeks is extensive processing. You've changed the nature of the vegetable completely, you've created different chemical compounds in the surounding liquid, and you've massively extended the shelf life of said vegetable. Is that automatically a bad thing?
Another assumption is that all processing has to happen out of your eyes. This couldn't be further from the truth. We take raw ingredients (flour, vegetables, tofu, etc.), and make everything from scratch. That means that everything you see on the menu has been worked over by hand. So yes, the tofu goes through transformations. That's what makes tofu magical in the first place. But all of that "processing" goes on with the strict oversight of either Boss Man, myself, or Laura. Yes, it's processed soy, but it's our processed soy that we do ourselves.
What I'm trying to get at is that yes, we serve processed soy. But it's soy that we process ourselves, from the raw ingredients.
4/28/10
How to let go.
My mother and I had a long conversation yesterday night, about letting go. What does it really mean? How does one detach from things that are out of one's control? I still don't know completely, but we came up with a couple of things.
For one thing, there comes a point when you have to just trust in things working out in the end. When we were living in the old apartment, our rent was astronomical, and neither of us was making very much. We could have ended up on the streets. We never did, but the threat was certainly there. The point is, we could have very well spent that time in a daily panic, anticipating the final minutes. Instead, we both realised that the situation is out of our control, and the only thing we could do was work our butts off to make sure that the rent got paid. Yes, some months it got paid 7 days after the first, rather than 3 days before as we'd always done before, but it still got paid.
Funny, that.
The point is that I couldn't really affect the outcome. What I could affect was my reaction to it. It's the same way I view my moments in the subway. I'm an impatient little thing, and don't care to sit around on the train as it's crawling along between stations, or stopped betwen stations, or stopped at a platform. I do whatever I can to avoid such situations. However, when I'm in said situation, I zone out for a bit, and just enjoy the time that I have there, away from everything that can distract or impede on my time. It means that I must stop, and just be for a while. I don't get that chance very often, so instead of getting frustrated, I take it as time to get some much-needed alone time.
Then come the material things. I like my stuff. I like my stuff a lot. I get upset when something happens to my stuff (stolen, lost, broken), not so much because I don't have that thing anymore, but because the role that it fulfilled in my life now needs to be taken over by something else. However, I still think that regardless of what the thing is that I've lost, I'm thankful for what I do have, and the people that I have to share it with. I found a man who understands me, and likes being with me. Stuff comes and goes, but friendship, partnership, and love are much deeper and longer-lasting. Maybe it's not forever, but it's longer than the time my stuff will last!
So how do you let go of things that you're holding on to? You realise that in the grand scheme of things, they only take up a very small amount of importance. When you feel yourself getting caught up in the daily dramas, and stressing yourself out to the point of physical pain, it might be time to breathe, step back, and contemplate all you've done thus far, and all you'll do in the future. And that at the end of the day, whether or not you do something just so, or get something done just so, really isn't going to stop the sun from rising.
And then, you let go.
For one thing, there comes a point when you have to just trust in things working out in the end. When we were living in the old apartment, our rent was astronomical, and neither of us was making very much. We could have ended up on the streets. We never did, but the threat was certainly there. The point is, we could have very well spent that time in a daily panic, anticipating the final minutes. Instead, we both realised that the situation is out of our control, and the only thing we could do was work our butts off to make sure that the rent got paid. Yes, some months it got paid 7 days after the first, rather than 3 days before as we'd always done before, but it still got paid.
Funny, that.
The point is that I couldn't really affect the outcome. What I could affect was my reaction to it. It's the same way I view my moments in the subway. I'm an impatient little thing, and don't care to sit around on the train as it's crawling along between stations, or stopped betwen stations, or stopped at a platform. I do whatever I can to avoid such situations. However, when I'm in said situation, I zone out for a bit, and just enjoy the time that I have there, away from everything that can distract or impede on my time. It means that I must stop, and just be for a while. I don't get that chance very often, so instead of getting frustrated, I take it as time to get some much-needed alone time.
Then come the material things. I like my stuff. I like my stuff a lot. I get upset when something happens to my stuff (stolen, lost, broken), not so much because I don't have that thing anymore, but because the role that it fulfilled in my life now needs to be taken over by something else. However, I still think that regardless of what the thing is that I've lost, I'm thankful for what I do have, and the people that I have to share it with. I found a man who understands me, and likes being with me. Stuff comes and goes, but friendship, partnership, and love are much deeper and longer-lasting. Maybe it's not forever, but it's longer than the time my stuff will last!
So how do you let go of things that you're holding on to? You realise that in the grand scheme of things, they only take up a very small amount of importance. When you feel yourself getting caught up in the daily dramas, and stressing yourself out to the point of physical pain, it might be time to breathe, step back, and contemplate all you've done thus far, and all you'll do in the future. And that at the end of the day, whether or not you do something just so, or get something done just so, really isn't going to stop the sun from rising.
And then, you let go.
About the price increases ...
To our dear customers:
You may have noticed that the prices on the menu have increased. This has everything to do with the cost of doing business, and was a difficult decision that Preefer and I had make to keep our heads above water. We haven't instituted a proper price increase that accurately reflects our costs going into the product in years. Unfortunately, the cost of running a restaurant has increased exponentially, and the money coming in hasn't reflected that.
When Cliff started Chow all those years ago, he wanted to ensure that he's being fair to everyone. Fair to the Earth, fair to the animals, fair to his customers, and fair to his workers. Unfortunately, it's not been fair to himself, as he hasn't taken home a salary in more years than I care to count. It's also meant that we've had to forcibly keep our staff small, so that the money coming in doesn't completely get put into payroll before the incidental (repairs, replacement of equipment) and repeating expenses (rent, taxes, utilities, food, supplies) get paid, and we get chased out of the space.
As it stood before the menu cost increases, we were losing money. The labour, the cost of materials, the cost of running the space, and the amount of time everything takes to make (nothing is pre-made, everything is made from scratch) was quickly stifling our growth, and making it impossible to serve all the people who wanted the food. With only two kitchen workers and a delivery person, it was a juggling act of massive proportions to get any work done to grow the business. So we hired more people. And a couple more. And another. So now the work was getting done, but Preefer wasn't taking anything for himself.
Then the cost of our produce started to increase for random things that we go through (for example, over the span of a week, the cost of our onions doubled). And as any fair employer will tell you, a good worker is hard to find, so to keep him with you, you offer raises and other incentives so that the worker will want to stay. To keep someone at minimum wage when they're doing maximum work is unfair, and not a good way to get things done. So wages increased.
All this time, over the years that we're growing behind the scenes, we're still charging the same amount of money, even though our operating costs are increasing. It got to the point where we could no longer do things like we could in the old days. Gone are the days where one wait person was sufficient to cover the restaurant. We've had to hire another person, the lovely Nena, to take some of that pressure off of our servers. You've been there, I'm sure. It's a busy brunch, and it takes like 10 minutes to get your coffee, by which point, it's lukewarm. It's a crazy busy weekday night, and you're waiting 25 minutes for your beer. It's not a good look. We can do better for ourselves, and most importantly for you.
So in that vein, we're pushing to improve the level of service, the quality of the food, and everything about Chow, so that it's a place that you can come, and know that you're fully taken care of. And, at the same time, everyone who's working here is taken care of too.
You may have noticed that the prices on the menu have increased. This has everything to do with the cost of doing business, and was a difficult decision that Preefer and I had make to keep our heads above water. We haven't instituted a proper price increase that accurately reflects our costs going into the product in years. Unfortunately, the cost of running a restaurant has increased exponentially, and the money coming in hasn't reflected that.
When Cliff started Chow all those years ago, he wanted to ensure that he's being fair to everyone. Fair to the Earth, fair to the animals, fair to his customers, and fair to his workers. Unfortunately, it's not been fair to himself, as he hasn't taken home a salary in more years than I care to count. It's also meant that we've had to forcibly keep our staff small, so that the money coming in doesn't completely get put into payroll before the incidental (repairs, replacement of equipment) and repeating expenses (rent, taxes, utilities, food, supplies) get paid, and we get chased out of the space.
As it stood before the menu cost increases, we were losing money. The labour, the cost of materials, the cost of running the space, and the amount of time everything takes to make (nothing is pre-made, everything is made from scratch) was quickly stifling our growth, and making it impossible to serve all the people who wanted the food. With only two kitchen workers and a delivery person, it was a juggling act of massive proportions to get any work done to grow the business. So we hired more people. And a couple more. And another. So now the work was getting done, but Preefer wasn't taking anything for himself.
Then the cost of our produce started to increase for random things that we go through (for example, over the span of a week, the cost of our onions doubled). And as any fair employer will tell you, a good worker is hard to find, so to keep him with you, you offer raises and other incentives so that the worker will want to stay. To keep someone at minimum wage when they're doing maximum work is unfair, and not a good way to get things done. So wages increased.
All this time, over the years that we're growing behind the scenes, we're still charging the same amount of money, even though our operating costs are increasing. It got to the point where we could no longer do things like we could in the old days. Gone are the days where one wait person was sufficient to cover the restaurant. We've had to hire another person, the lovely Nena, to take some of that pressure off of our servers. You've been there, I'm sure. It's a busy brunch, and it takes like 10 minutes to get your coffee, by which point, it's lukewarm. It's a crazy busy weekday night, and you're waiting 25 minutes for your beer. It's not a good look. We can do better for ourselves, and most importantly for you.
So in that vein, we're pushing to improve the level of service, the quality of the food, and everything about Chow, so that it's a place that you can come, and know that you're fully taken care of. And, at the same time, everyone who's working here is taken care of too.
4/27/10
It's gorgeous out today!
Yesterday was dreary and rainy, and suddenly, today is absolutely stunning out. Mind you, it's a bit chilly, but that's OK. I can handle it. When I stop and think of how quickly this week, this month, and so far even this year have gone, I can't help but be amazed at how much things have changed.
For one thing, I moved from the heck hole that is Roosevelt Island (or as I call it, Stepford, NY) and into a lovely apartment in Inwood. For whatever reason, the commute is way less of a hassle, and about the same amount of time now. Weird. Boss Man and I resolve things within minutes, if not within an hour or two at the most. It used to be that we'd sit and stew with the negative feelings for a good long time, and then drag ourselves through the day. No more. Now, when there's an issue, disagreement, whatever, we manage to very quickly get over our own egos, and find a way to move forward.
I think a lot of that has to do with trust. Not only do we trust each other more, but we trust ourselves more, to do whatever it takes to make the best of our situation, whatever it is. The other part is that we've got an amazing staff who surrounds us. The other other part is that after going through all we've been through as a team, you start to realise that you really can do it, even if it doesn't seem that way at the time.
My mother has gotten far more comfortable with the computer. Now she can get onto her facebook account, look up the pictures on my husband's accout (or mine, for that matter), and keep in touch with her children a lot easier than before. She got a chance to look at our apartment, and a party we'd had, while sitting in Arizona, all those miles away. Pretty cool. Not only that, but she's become more comfortable with typing. Whenever I'd send her an email, she'd send back a very breif line (at the most) to say she'd got it, and read it, and we'll talk on the phone please. The last couple of emails have gotten at least a couple of paragraphs each. I'm inordinately proud of her. It just goes to show that it's never too late to learn!
I myself have become much more sociable. Part of it is that I don't hate where I live. The other part is that I am a lot more comfortable in my own skin. I know full well that what I have isn't the same standard as other people, but it doesn't matter to me. I realised after a while that my friends are there to see me because they like my company, and not to be served from silver platters and the like. I may not have much, but I'm always willing to share!
I don't know what got me going on this long ramble, but something about being outside in that gorgeous weather just shook something loose from the attic that is my brain.
For one thing, I moved from the heck hole that is Roosevelt Island (or as I call it, Stepford, NY) and into a lovely apartment in Inwood. For whatever reason, the commute is way less of a hassle, and about the same amount of time now. Weird. Boss Man and I resolve things within minutes, if not within an hour or two at the most. It used to be that we'd sit and stew with the negative feelings for a good long time, and then drag ourselves through the day. No more. Now, when there's an issue, disagreement, whatever, we manage to very quickly get over our own egos, and find a way to move forward.
I think a lot of that has to do with trust. Not only do we trust each other more, but we trust ourselves more, to do whatever it takes to make the best of our situation, whatever it is. The other part is that we've got an amazing staff who surrounds us. The other other part is that after going through all we've been through as a team, you start to realise that you really can do it, even if it doesn't seem that way at the time.
My mother has gotten far more comfortable with the computer. Now she can get onto her facebook account, look up the pictures on my husband's accout (or mine, for that matter), and keep in touch with her children a lot easier than before. She got a chance to look at our apartment, and a party we'd had, while sitting in Arizona, all those miles away. Pretty cool. Not only that, but she's become more comfortable with typing. Whenever I'd send her an email, she'd send back a very breif line (at the most) to say she'd got it, and read it, and we'll talk on the phone please. The last couple of emails have gotten at least a couple of paragraphs each. I'm inordinately proud of her. It just goes to show that it's never too late to learn!
I myself have become much more sociable. Part of it is that I don't hate where I live. The other part is that I am a lot more comfortable in my own skin. I know full well that what I have isn't the same standard as other people, but it doesn't matter to me. I realised after a while that my friends are there to see me because they like my company, and not to be served from silver platters and the like. I may not have much, but I'm always willing to share!
I don't know what got me going on this long ramble, but something about being outside in that gorgeous weather just shook something loose from the attic that is my brain.
4/26/10
Try this ...
Part of the benefit of working with people like my boss is that he’s excited about food. Not just excited where he gets a new froofy gourmet ingredient that he saw on the Food Network. That’s affected, not excited. Not excited, where he has to go out and buy all the flavour of the week type ingredients/recipes that come and go like horrible fashion fads in the food world. That’s being a follower, not an innovator.
Boss Man gets excited about food in the way that a young kid gets excited about a play date with his best friend. He’s excited about food like a painter is when she sees the perfect inspiration and has to run home and draw it. You see, for Preefer, food is tied deeply into his memories and the people he loves. And tied intimately with that excitement for food comes the deep need to share said food.
When I started working here, on the first day even, he took me on a grand tour of the kitchen, and started describing the various dishes that Sacred Chow makes. “Here, try this,” he’d say, and pop some divine little nibble into my mouth. That was where I started my long-standing love affair with the Mama’s Soy Meatballs. The very first bite was a little grenade of flavour that washed over my taste buds, and had quite tantalising aromas wafting through my head.
Mind you, if he knows that you specifically don’t like something (in my case, that’d be bell peppers, eggplant, beets, okra, seitan of any sort, tempeh … and the list goes on), he won’t force it on you, but then it’s sort of like “Such a shame that you won’t enjoy this with me.”
And the thing is, he has that relationship with all the kitchen staff. “Have you ever had Spaghetti Squash? No? Here, open.” And in pops another little burst of flavour to encompass your senses. “Try this. And that. And that. And that too, while you’re there.” The best part is that we’ve all begun to learn more about food, because the captain of our ship is so skilled at making us fearless to get in there and just give it a try. The cool thing is that even when I make something “out there” or unusual (in the eyes of my coworkers), they’re still interested to give it a shot, because Boss Man encourages us to keep an open mind and even more open mouth!
Boss Man gets excited about food in the way that a young kid gets excited about a play date with his best friend. He’s excited about food like a painter is when she sees the perfect inspiration and has to run home and draw it. You see, for Preefer, food is tied deeply into his memories and the people he loves. And tied intimately with that excitement for food comes the deep need to share said food.
When I started working here, on the first day even, he took me on a grand tour of the kitchen, and started describing the various dishes that Sacred Chow makes. “Here, try this,” he’d say, and pop some divine little nibble into my mouth. That was where I started my long-standing love affair with the Mama’s Soy Meatballs. The very first bite was a little grenade of flavour that washed over my taste buds, and had quite tantalising aromas wafting through my head.
Mind you, if he knows that you specifically don’t like something (in my case, that’d be bell peppers, eggplant, beets, okra, seitan of any sort, tempeh … and the list goes on), he won’t force it on you, but then it’s sort of like “Such a shame that you won’t enjoy this with me.”
And the thing is, he has that relationship with all the kitchen staff. “Have you ever had Spaghetti Squash? No? Here, open.” And in pops another little burst of flavour to encompass your senses. “Try this. And that. And that. And that too, while you’re there.” The best part is that we’ve all begun to learn more about food, because the captain of our ship is so skilled at making us fearless to get in there and just give it a try. The cool thing is that even when I make something “out there” or unusual (in the eyes of my coworkers), they’re still interested to give it a shot, because Boss Man encourages us to keep an open mind and even more open mouth!
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