XYZ Recipes

Less Turkey, More Bull, with King George VI Pie

2008-11-25T17:00:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the massive and incredible and stunning changes about to be Wrought in our World (I for one am still patiently waiting, for with the appointment of "20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons" to top posts before you could recover from your post-election hangover, it appears that the more things change, the more they stay the same) - in any case, to celebrate the nature of the change, I am doing Thanksgiving with good, old-fashioned, BEEF AND POTATOES, I'm done with election gobble-gobble, I mean, WHERE'S THE BEEF?

This Change is beginning to look like Halloween all over again. And therefore, for this Permanent State of Halloween we have found ourselves in, reminiscent of the ForeverNEver Irish-Brit conflict in an ironic way, ironic because it would not make money for the evil elite to have that conflict ever, ever end, how about some BRAISED BEEF with as much Irish beer and and whiskey you can muster up, spuds a la COLCANNON, and King George VI's very own special Pumpkin Pie, to celebrate America's new Thanksgiving of Bogus Change.

After all, King George has run yet another one of his "choicest boys" up the flag (you did know he had a penchant for this kind didn't you?) and into the deadliest cage of them all, deadlier than the Colorado ones of days of yore. There's more on that at my Black N Crispy political kitchen, if you can find it.

I would suggest for your listening pleasure preparing this All Bull Thanksgiving, Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares to You". It is arguably one of the 25 saddest songs in the world, in my book the saddest, and sing it for our Last Thanksgiving Supper, and for the blackbird in the white cage who could fly us away, if he himself only could do so for himself. This is because at precisely "7 hours and 15 days" into his "Co-Presidency", Americans were again cheated of any right for justice on real legal matters. See for yourself:

Mario Murillo: “There’s been talk about a close ally and friend of Obama as a potential Attorney General for the United States, Eric Holder, who is currently defending Chiquita Brands International in its defense against dozens of plaintiffs here in Colombia, working families who were targeted by paramilitaries who were funded to the tune of $1.7 million over the last several years. It’s a major scandal. And if this guy becomes the Attorney General under an Obama administration, then it’s going to be really hard to find justice in this case coming from the United States.”

Xyz_Recipe Girl: "Ummm, that would be any case that goes against PNAC, can you say Banana Republic in the new Administration and not get sued?"

COLCANNON - adapted from Irish Food recipes all over the world - traditionally served at Halloween - now spruced up for America's Final Harlequin Banquet.

INGREDIENTS

3 lbs of thin skinned medium sized potatoes
1 medium green cabbage
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup copped green onions
6 Tbl butter
Lots of Salt and Pepper

I like this best with cabbage, but have made it with kale, turnip greens, bok choy, brussel sprouts, spinach, and a goodly mix of all of the above, and still like it best with green cabbage.

METHOD

1. Wash spuds, with brush if not organic, leave skins on, place in cold water in large pan, best to be large enough to allow them all have their own place at the bottom, to cover by a third. Salt it liberally.

2. Cover and Bring to a boil then reduce to Medium heat.

3. After about 15 minutes (usually the halfway plus point) pour out 2/3 of the water, leaving the spuds in just a little bit of water, reduce the heat a teensy bit more, let the potatoes cook for about 10-15 minutes. You must keep the covered, cuz its the steam that does its magic here.

4. In the mean time, quarter the cabbage, cut into very thin slices and place in a pot with a bit of BOILING water and salt, and cook til soft, should not be more than 7 minutes. When done, drain immediately if not sooner, salt and pepper LIBERALLY, nad add 2-3 TBL of the butter.

5. Back to the spuds, when done, drain the water, put the spuds in a bowl, and remove the skins, mash in the bowl with a potato ricer.

6. Put the potato pan back on the stove, add the buttermilk and onions, bring to a boil, then add the mashed potatoes, and stir furiously.

7. Add the cabbage, and the rest of the butter if it is too stiff, else save the butter for adding to the serving bowl, mix well, until fluffy. Does not matter if chunks of spuds are in there.

Put in a heated dish and serve hot with the optional butter globbed in the center, and fresh pepper/salt, sprinkle with parsely. There is no better comfort food, political or not.

I forgot. You will want to do these spuds last, to keep them hot, it's easy and fast as a last minute dish.

BEER or WHISKEY BRAISED BEEF

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds really really good beef, like tri-tip chopped into largish stewing sized pieces
1 1/2 pounds carrots
3 large onions
4 Tbl all pupose flour
1 Tbl + 1 more Tbl cumin for marinating
4 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Basil
1 Tbl molasses
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock - no MSG
Parsley

METHOD
1. Cut tri-tip ino chunks a bit larger than for stewing, and marinate in balsam, salt, pepper and cumin.
2. Dice the onions and peel and cut the carrots into finger sized lengths, and not too fat across.
3. Heat the oil and onions in a large pan until fat and transluscent definitely NOT where they lose their water and give up the ghost, cuz they are going into the oven.
4. Remove onions to a large pan for the oven, placed for now on top of the stove burner, on low to keep warm.
4. Mix cumin and flour, salt and pepper
5. Coat the beef with the flour mix, and brown in the pan that did the onions, adding more oil if needed. Brown.
6. Add basil and a few Tbl guinness to beef in pot, cook for a minute or two, and add molasses with a few tbl of stock.
7. NOW remove to the place on top of onions in the oven pan.
8. Bring to low simmer, arranging carrots (no potatoes or anything else please) around the beef
9. Slowly add rest of Guinness and bring to low simmer.
10. Now lastly add remaining stock, and cover with foil.
11. Bake in a 325 - 350 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Serve with colcannon, very delicious COMFORT food both, and ya gonna be needing it in the days ahead, esp., mid 2009.

You will want to end with Irish Coffee and King George VI Pumpkin Pie - recipe is next. In the UK in the '60's and '70's they used to call this Gollywogg pie, as this pumpkin pie will include UN-CHIQUITA BANANAS, as indeed so I was slandered as a young girl, going to a top British school... but we shan't be as crude here, or shall we? Hmmmm!

Coconut Panko Oven Fried Chicken

2008-07-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

This chicken is quick and surprisingly delicious, goes well with the coconut vegetable basmati rice.

Main ingredients

2 pieces of chicken breasts, skinned
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup panko - Japanese breadcrumbs
4 Tbl butter
1 egg
1-2 Tbl soy sauce
1 Tbl cornstarch

Spices

Cumin - 1 Tbl
Curry powder - 1/2 Tbl
Oregano or cilantro flakes optional
Salt, pepper to taste

Optional Gravy ingredients

Chicken broth
Coconut milk
Cooking alcohol (wine, rice wine)

Baking pan, oven at 350-360 deg. F.

Dot butter in bottom of baking dish with fingers, flatten the dots out a bit til bottom is overed.

In a large flat-bottomed bowl, mix together cornstarch, spices, coconut flakes and panko. I sometimes add oregano or cilantro or even basil flakes here.

In a small bowl beat egg, add soy sauce, a bit of water to stretch if you have more than 2 pieces of chicken.

Dip chicken, one piece at a time, in egg mix, then roll in coconut-panko mix.

Put in pan and bake uncovered at 350 - 360 degrees for 25 minutes. Turn chicken pieces and continue baking 20- 25 minutes more.

Remove the chicken and add a suitable amount of chicken broth with coconut milk to the bottom of the baking pan, and a bit of alcohol of choice to reduce the butter etc., mix, add salt and pepper to taste, and that is your gravy.

If you want a more robust gravy, then add some pureed fruit (any fruit, I'm not picky, but aficioanados will tell you the pulpy ones are better, apricot, peach, grape, plum ... vs apple), more butter (or olive oil), rice wine vinegar, chicken broth, brown sugar, mustard, salt and chili powder... and cook 'til blended. This is really in the duck sauce family but goes great with this sort of baked chicken.

Coconut Vegetable Basmati Rice

2008-07-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have not been posting, but I have been cooking up a storm, mostly for Buddha Kitty, who has been diagnosed with chronic renal failure. Well, that's what the blood tests say, of course, I always said starting a year ago, that by the time they get around to diagnosing his liver/kidney issues using blood tests my cat will be near death.

That, of course, is EXACTLY what happened, *fork* over a few thou anyways.

Interestingly, in this journey, Buddha Kitty has taught me a lot about homeopathics, holistic approaches, integrative medicine, asshole vs. sainted vets, and how owners must stick to their Cat's instincts, always.

He was losing weight dramatically; this meant getting and keeping food in him was a life-and-death challenge. His digestive system finally did get jump-started, *that's* a whole 'nother blog especially considering how many thousands of pet owners have furry loved ones with CRF after that bloody, terroristic pet food attack last year - and when it did, my beautiful cat began to eat.... and how! and what? What did he eat? eye-talian food!

Yep, that'd be prosciutto, bologna, chicken cooked with garlic, oregano, bit of cheese and tomato, more prosicutto, does he not like the dish? - put some tomato paste over it - for that matter, pour tomato soup with corn, fresh corn on the cob, aparagus, screw the rice, how about orzo instead. Fish? Cod? Okaaay but I prefer fillet of sole please... baked with a smidge of olive oil, garlic and basil... and frigging kale, which the sainted vet-author Carol Schwartz who wrote "Four Paws, Five Directions" about TCM for pets, has a recipe for CRF cats that includes kale, and asparagus, so dear folks, we ignore my sainted CAT's internal food taste machine at our own peril!

My beautiful, soulful Buddha cat, coming back from a CRF death ... on Italian food... yeah, yeah, he's got the science diet k/d out, also the modified diet kibble, he eats those too, plus about a tray of 20 different feline nutritional and herbal and other supplements, some prescription, others not, plus three difference kinds of cat vitamins and minerals... that he gets delivered through a feeding syringe twice a day, plus his sub-q fluids etc. etc. etc. But, make no mistake, he puts up with all of that ONLY if he gets fed pure Italian.

I kid you not. Sainted vet says (when I asked about the salty prosciutto) as long as he's eating we'll worry fine-tuning the "what" later, right now he's got to put on weight so whatever he's eating within reason, fine. Just watch the garlic and no onions and make sure he gets the canned and the kibble also.

Cat is now back to demanding food every two hours, demanding I get off the phone and pet him, demanding fresh-laundered, warm white towels for him to recline over, and looking at me with those magical aqua blue eyes from 10 thousand times 10 thousand years ago.

Back in action he is, a 6-7 on a scale of 1 to 10, better than the 1-2 he was mere weeks ago, proving for once and for all the kitchen is the medicine cabinet of first resort. You want to know what worked, it'll cost ya, not giving any of that away for free anymore.

I go back to where I left off, predictably with Mr. Coconut. I'll fix the vinegar and other sections in a bit, I am a busy, traveling person in a HURRY!

Coconut Vegetable Basmati Rice

SERVES 4

1 cup basmati rice
4 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Coconut etc.

1 cup chicken broth
1 cup coconut cream/milk
½ cup shredded coconut (optional)

Vegetables

½ cup green peas (fresh, froze, whatever)
½ cup carrots - cut in strips, bit pieces

Spices

1 small cinnamon stick
4-6 cardamom pods
4-6 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fenugreek seeds (optional)

METHOD

Clean wash soak rice in water for 15 minutes, drain, set aside
Heat oil in pan
Add all spices stir for about 1 minute - don't let it smoke esp. if you're using cinnamon powder instead of a stick
Add vegetables (green peas and carrots), and optional shredded coconut; stir fry for 4 minutes, keep the heat to stir-fry level.
Add rice, salt, chicken broth with coconut milk
Bring to a boil, cover the pan and turn down to low
Simmer for 12-15 minutes

Serve with curry or yogurt. The picture does not do it justice, when I removed the cover to take the snap, the aroma was intoxicating. So the most accurate way to look at the picture is to imagine being suddenly intoxicated.

Fermented Wine: The Secrets of Vinegar

2008-03-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

[This is a blog in progress. I am culling from several places the most amazing vinegary tales of culinary and medicinal triumphs. More importantly, I'm on the road, and need to have custom pickled things with me - or sent to me from my food storage stash - for my own health and wellbeing.]

After Codex, all our secret medicinal remedies will be pass on in the Green Language with poetry.

Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

And Jill came tumbling after.

Up Jack got and home did trot

As fast as he could caper;

And went to bed and covered his head

In vinegar and brown paper.

Job's Tears

In Japan, an aged vinegar is also made from Job's Tears; it is similar in flavor to rice vinegar.

[edit] Kombucha

Kombucha vinegar, also referred to as probiotic vinegar,^{[citation needed]} is made from kombucha, a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria. The bacteria produce a complex array of nutrients and populate the vinegar with symbiotic bacteria which some claim promote a heathy digestive tract, though no scientific studies have shown this to date. Kombucha vinegar is primarily used to make a vinaigrette and flavored by adding strawberries, blackberries, mint, or blueberries at the beginning of fermentation.

Sodium acetate is the chemical that gives salt and vinegar chips their flavor. It may also be added to foods as a preservative; in this application it is usually written as "sodium diacetate" and labeled E262

This is the well-known "fizzing" reaction between baking soda and vinegar. 84 grams of sodium bicarbonate react with 750 g of 8% vinegar to make 82 g sodium acetate in water. By subsequently boiling off most of the water, one can refine either a concentrated solution of sodium acetate or actual crystals.

Most meals start with onions, ginger and garlic. In this the fermentation month, I thought to pickle these favorites, plus the peck s of peppers that I never seem to finish.

However a big caveat:

"Pickled peppers and mixed vegetable-pepper home-canned products are commonly prepared by many households. These products also have been implicated in botulism deaths due to the use of untested recipes, under-acidified products, addition of too much oil, or lack of processing."

So we're not canning.

GINGER:

Uncle Phaed of course, gave us this recipe for pickled ginger.

A great way to keep ginger is to put whole roots in a jar and cover with dry sherry. Ginger will keep indefinitely this way. Just slice off as needed. Be sure the sherry continues to cover the ginger.

Pickled Ginger

1/2 cup fresh ginger -- sliced paper thin
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

Stir all ingredients together in non-reactive stainless steel pan or glass
saucepan and bring to a boil.

Let mixture cool to room temperature and chill overnight. (Pickled ginger
keeps for several months in the refrigerator.)

Yield: 1 1/2 cups
Pickled Ginger

2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 pound fresh ginger root

Combine sugar, vinegar (use ONLY rice vinegar) and water in 1-pint jar
with tight-fitting lid.
Peel ginger then cut it into long, PAPER-THIN slices using a swivel-bladed
vegetable peeler.
Place the slices in the pickling liquid. Refrigerate at least 2 to 3 weeks
before using.

Yield: 1 pint. If kept submerged in the liquid, this will keep indefinitely
in the refrigerator.

PICKLED HOT PEPPERS

chili and jalapeno

Chile peppers are usually preserved in salt and vinegar. Adding sugar or honey produces a more mellow tasting pickle. Adding spices gives additional flavour.

Salt a: Used to extract moisture from some vegetables, which would otherwise dilute the vinegar and cause the pickle to ferment, and the vegetables to toughen. Use cooking salt rather than table salt; the latter contains a higher iodine content which can discolour the vegetables (it makes them darker).

Salt b. Use noniodized canning or pickling salt. Noncaking materials added to table salt may make the solution cloudy.

Vinegar a: Use bottled vinegar's (malt, distilled, wine, cider, spiced etc); draught vinegar's are not strong enough. White distilled or cider vinegar's of 5 percent acidity (50 grain) are recommended. Use cold vinegar for crisp vegetables and boiling vinegar for softer ones. The vinegar should cover the vegetables by at least an inch (2.5cm). For a home-made spiced vinegar, boil 1oz (25g) of mixed pickling spice in 1 pint (600ml) of vinegar for 5 minutes. Strain when cold.

Vinegar b. Use a high grade cider or white distilled vinegar of 5 percent acidity (50 grain). White vinegar may be preferred with light-colored peppers or vegetables to retain color or if clear liquid is desired. Do not use vinegars of unknown acidity. For a less acidic flavor, add a small amount of sugar. This offsets the sharp acid flavor without affecting the pH or acidity of a product.

Caution: The acidity in a pickled product is as important to its safety as it is for taste and texture. There must be a minimum, uniform amount of acid throughout the mixed product to prevent growth of botulinum bacteria. Use only recipes with tested proportions of ingredients. Do not alter vinegar/water proportions in the recipe.

Spices: Use whole spices, powdered ones will make the vinegar cloudy. Mixed pickling spice consists of equal amounts of stick cinnamon, allspice berries, cloves, mace and peppercorns. Extras can include root ginger, celery seeds

Pre-cooking: Some recipes require the chile peppers to be blanched before pickling, some don't.

Pans: Use un-chipped enamel, aluminum or stainless steel pans. Copper, brass and iron pans will react with the vinegar, giving an off taste.

Sealing: Jars must be sterilised and well sealed. Metal lids will corrode on contact with the vinegar. Kilner jars, with their rubber sealing rings, are recommended.

Maturing: A minimum of 2 to 4 weeks maturing time is recommended. Crisp pickles will tend to soften after about 3 months.

Quick Facts...

Use only fresh, blemish-free vegetables and up-to-date, research-based recipes when pickling peppers and pepper blends.
Use pure, granulated, non-iodized canning or pickling salt, high grade vinegar of 5 percent acidity, and fresh spices.
Process pickled peppers in a boiling water bath for the altitude-adjusted length of time specified in a tested recipe.
For oil peppers, use only fresh vegetable oil in the amounts specified in tested recipes.
Additional processing time and head space are needed to preserve pickled peppers in oil.

Pickled peppers and mixed vegetable-pepper home-canned products are commonly prepared by many Colorado households. These products also have been implicated in botulism deaths due to the use of untested recipes, under-acidified products, addition of too much oil, or lack of processing.

Ingredients:

4 pounds hot, long red, green or yellow peppers
3 pounds sweet red and green peppers, mixed
5 cups vinegar (5 percent acidity)
1 cup water
4 teaspoons canning or pickling salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cloves garlic

Yield: About 9 pints Procedure:

Wash peppers. If small peppers are left whole, slash two to four slits in each; quarter large peppers.

Blanch in boiling water or blister in order to peel.

Flatten small peppers.

Fill jars, leaving ½-inch headspace.

Combine and heat other ingredients to boiling and simmer 10 minutes.

Remove garlic.

Add hot pickling solution over peppers, leaving ½-inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process pints or half-pints for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Garlic Pickled Chile Peppers

500g (1 lb) Cayenne peppers
2 tablespoons salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves of garlic cut in halves
900ml (1 1/2 pints) vinegar (garlic vinegar if available)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
8 peppercorns

Wash the peppers and place into hot sterilized jars. Mix the allspice with the celery and mustard seeds. Pack into the jars. Add the garlic. Place the vinegar, sugar and peppercorns into pan and bring to the boil. Pour over the peppers and seal the jars. Makes about 1.5kg (3 lb)

Fresh Pickled Jalapenos

Using fresh Jalapenos peppers, blanch for 3 minutes in boiling water. To prevent collapsing, puncture each pepper with a needle. Add the following ingredients to a pint jar packed with the blanched peppers before cooling occurs:

1/4 medium sized Garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon of onion flakes
1 small bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon ground Oregano
1/8 teaspoon Thyme
1/8 teaspoon Marjoram
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Cover with boiling brine solution prepared as follows: mix together;

3 tablespoons sugar
9 tablespoons salt
2 pints water
2 pints 5% vinegar

Close containers and process for 10 minutes in boiling water, then cool. Note that the jalapenos must be hot when brine solution is added.

Easy Pickled Peppers

1 - 1 1/2 lb. fresh hot peppers (any kind you like)
1 good sized handful of cayenne peppers (optional - adds color to mix)
1 lb package of peeled baby carrots
1 or 2 heads garlic - peel and separate cloves
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
White vinegar to cover

Put the carrots on to boil in the vinegar. Stab each pepper with a paring knife. After the carrots have cooked for about 10 minutes, add everything else to the pot. Simmer 5 (crisp) to 15 (soft) minutes depending on your taste. Pour mixture into old mayonnaise jars or what ever else large glass jars you have on hand that have a cover. Cover (not too tight) and let cool for an hour or so. Then refrigerate. You can eat these right away but if you way for a few days the vegetables (carrots and garlic) will get hotter.

Peppers. A variety of peppers work well for home canning. Common varieties are Cubanelle, Hungarian, yellow wax, sweet cherry, sweet banana and sweet bells. Thick-fleshed peppers with firm waxy skins and bright, glossy color, free from defects, give the best pickled products. Avoid peppers that are soft, shriveled or pliable, and dull or faded in color. As with all pickled products, the shortest time from pick to pack offers the highest quality pickled product.

Cut large peppers (Cubanella or bells) into jar-size pieces. Remove seeds and white inner core. Smaller varieties may be packed whole but must be slit to allow the vinegar solution to enter the hollow portion of the pepper. Make two small slits through the flesh of each whole pepper.

Pickling Chili Peppers

Chile peppers are usually preserved in salt and vinegar. Adding sugar or honey produces a more mellow tasting pickle. Adding spices gives additional flavour.

Salt: Used to extract moisture from some vegetables, which would otherwise dilute the vinegar and cause the pickle to ferment, and the vegetables to toughen. Use cooking salt rather than table salt; the latter contains a higher iodine content which can discolor the vegetables (it makes them darker).
Vinegar: Use bottled vinegar's (malt, distilled, wine, cider, spiced etc); draught vinegar's are not strong enough. White distilled or cider vinegar's of 5 percent acidity (50 grain) are recommended. Use cold vinegar for crisp vegetables and boiling vinegar for softer ones. The vinegar should cover the vegetables by at least an inch (2.5cm). For a home-made spiced vinegar, boil 1oz (25g) of mixed pickling spice in 1 pint (600ml) of vinegar for 5 minutes. Strain when cold.
Spices: Use whole spices, powdered ones will make the vinegar cloudy. Mixed pickling spice consists of equal amounts of stick cinnamon, allspice berries, cloves, mace and peppercorns. Extras can include root ginger, celery seeds etc.
Pre-cooking: Some recipes require the chile peppers to be blanched before pickling, some don't.
Pans: Use unchipped enamel, aluminum or stainless steel pans. Copper, brass and iron pans will react with the vinegar, giving an off taste.
Sealing: Jars must be sterilized and well sealed. Metal lids will corrode on contact with the vinegar. Kilner jars are recommended.
Maturing: A minimum of 2 to 4 weeks maturing time is recommended. Crisp pickles will tend to soften after about 3 months.

Garlic Pickled Chile Peppers

500g (1 lb) Cayenne peppers
2 tablespoons salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves of garlic cut in halves
900ml (1 1/2 pints) vinegar (garlic vinegar if available)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
8 peppercorns

Fresh Pickled Jalapenos

1/4 medium sized Garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon of onion flakes
1 small bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon ground Oregano
1/8 teaspoon Thyme
1/8 teaspoon Marjoram
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Cover with boiling brine solution prepared as follows: mix together;

3 tablespoons sugar
9 tablespoons salt
2 pints water
2 pints 5% vinegar

Close containers and process for 10 minutes in boiling water, then cool. Note that the jalapenos must be hot when brine solution is added.

Easy Pickled Peppers

1 - 1 1/2 lb. fresh hot peppers (any kind you like)
1 good sized handful of cayenne peppers (optional - adds color to mix)
1 lb package of peeled baby carrots
1 or 2 heads garlic - peel and separate cloves
1/4 cup salt
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
White vinegar to cover

Grandma's Pickled Banana peppers

Recipe By : Jerry Ziehm

banana peppers
1 tsp. salt
2 tbs. good olive oil in each jar
Brine
3 qts. water
1 qt. white vinegar bring to boil

Place peppers, salt, oil in jars, pour hot brine to the top of jar, seal jars, water bath for about 5 min.
(When I water bath I only boil about 2 min). Peppers stay very crisp. Also you can put a clove or two of garlic in each jar if you wish. Recipe yields about 10 quarts.

Pickled Jalapenos

Recipe By : Pacific Northwest Extension Bulletin

6 pounds jalapeno
5 cups vinegar
1 cup water
4 teaspoons pickling salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cloves garlic

Wash peppers. If small peppers are left whole, slash 2-5 slits in each. Quarter large peppers. Blanch in boiling water. Flatten small peppers. Fill half-pint or pint jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Combine and heat other ingredients to boiling and simmer 10 minutes. Remove garlic. Pour hot pickling solution over peppers leaving 1/2 inch head space. Adjust lids. Use conventional boiling water canner processing. Process for 10 minutes at below 1000 feet, 15 minutes at 1001 to 6000 feet and 20 minutes above 6000 feet.

Pickled Chiles

Recipe By : The Goodness of Peppers by John Midgley (Pavilion Books Unlimited, London).

225g/8 oz. whole fresh chiles
350ml/12 fl. oz/1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar with 1 teaspoon salt
sprig of bay
sprig of rosemary
4 gloves of garlic, peeled
up to 350ml/12 fl. oz/1 1/2 cups extra white wine vinegar

Inspect the chiles for damage, discarding any that are bruised, lacerated or otherwise blemished. Snip off all but the base of their stems. Bring the vinegar and the chiles to a boil in a pan. Add the remaining ingredients except the extra vinegar and simmer for 6-8 minutes. With a clean spoon, transfer them to a jar previously sterilized with freshly boiled water. Pour in the pickling liquid with its herbs, top up with the additional vinegar to cover and allow to cool before sealing.

The chiles will be ready within a month.

This quantity will fill a medium-sized jar with whole chiles, preserved with herbs and garlic and up to 675ml /1 1/2 pints /3 cups of vinegar. Increase the vinegar quantity and dilute it with a little water if you want to preserve a larger quantity of chiles, or sweet red and yellow peppers, which should first have their caps, seeds and pithy membranes removed.

Garlic. If desired for flavor, use mature, fully-dried, white-skinned garlic, free of blemishes. Garlic contains a water-soluble pigment that may turn blue or purple. A blue-green color may develop in pickles made with stored red-skinned garlic. Immature garlic, garlic that is not fully dry, or red-skinned varieties may turn blue, purple or blue-green. Except in the case of a bright blue-green color resulting from abnormally high concentrations of copper-sulfate, such color changes do not indicate the presence of harmful substances.

Marinated Refrigerated Peppers

Remember, all pickled pepper products stored at room temperature must be processed, to avoid the risk of botulism toxin development during storage. The boiling water bath processing step can be omitted if pickles are stored in the refrigerator. Use the following procedure.

Wash peppers. Small peppers may be left whole with two small slits in each pepper. Core and cut large peppers into strips.

Sterilize jars, lids and screwbands. Pack peppers tightly into sterilized jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

For each 6 cups of brine, combine 5 cups vinegar, 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon pickling salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer five minutes.

Pour vinegar solution over peppers, leaving 1/8-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust headspace so that brine covers all peppers. Wipe rims.

Place sterilized flats on jars. Do not put on screwbands. Allow jars to cool. Put on screwbands and wipe jars. Refrigerate six to eight weeks for the pickled flavor to fully develop. Keep refrigerated and use within six months. This pepper product allows the peppers to marinate in a high acid solution, at a cold temperature, and in the presence of air. These conditions are not favorable for botulism toxin formation. It does not ensure against other types of spoilage.

Salsa

Most salsa recipes are a mixture of low-acid foods, such as onions and peppers, and acid foods, such as tomatoes. Use tested recipes to ensure proper acidification.

Use the amounts of each vegetable listed in the recipe. If desired, green tomatoes or tomatillos may be substituted for part or all of the tomatoes. Add the amount of vinegar listed. If desired, you may safely substitute an equal amount of lemon juice for vinegar in a recipe using vinegar. However, do not substitute vinegar for lemon juice. This substitution will result in a less acid and potentially unsafe salsa.

Spices do not affect acidity or safety and may be adjusted as desired. Do not thicken salsas with flour or cornstarch before canning. After you open a jar to use, you may pour off some of the liquid or thicken with cornstarch.

Chili Salsa

12 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes (choose a meaty variety or
squeeze out extra juice)
6 cups seeded, chopped chili peppers*
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
1/4 cup finely chopped garlic
1 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
*Use mixture of hot and mild peppers to suit taste.

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 pints

Procedure: Combine ingredients in large saucepan. Heat to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Ladle hot into clean pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe jar rims. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water bath.

Style of pack/Jar size	Process time at altitudes of:
Table 4: Recommended process time for chili salsa in a boiling water canner.
Style of pack/Jar size	6,000 ft or less	Above 6,000 ft
Hot: Half-pints or pints	20 min.	25 min.

*Tomato Salsa (Using Paste Tomatoes)

Note: Paste tomatoes, such as Roma, are recommended for salsa because they have firmer flesh and produce thicker products. Slicing tomatoes will require a much longer cooking time to achieve a desirable consistency.

7 quarts peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes
5 cups seeded, chopped long green chilies
4 cups finely chopped onion
1/4 cup seeded, finely chopped Jalapeno peppers
6-12 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups bottled lemon juice
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin*
3 tablespoons oregano leaves*
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro*
*Optional; use only for desired flavor

Yield: Makes 13 pints

Procedure: Combine all ingredients except cumin, oregano and cilantro in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add spices, if desired, and simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Add pretreated lids and process in a boiling water bath canner.

*Source: Salsa Recipes for Canning; PNW395, a Pacific Northwest Extension Publication. Washington, Oregon, Idaho.

Style of pack/Jar size	Process time at altitudes of:
Table 5: Recommended process time for tomato salsa in a boiling water canner.
Style of pack/Jar size	6,000 ft or less	Above 6,000 ft
Hot: Half-pints or pints	20 min.	25 min.

Veterinary treatment

Pest fighter:

A teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for each quart bowl of drinking water helps keep your pet free of fleas and ticks. The ratio of one teaspoon to one quart is for a forty-pound animal.

Vinegar along with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is used in the livestock industry to kill bacteria and viruses before refrigeration storage. A chemical mixture of peracetic acid is formed when acetic acid is mixed with hydrogen peroxide. It is being used in some Asian countries by aerosol sprays for control of pneumonia. A mixture of five-percent acetic acid and three-percent hydrogen peroxide is commonly used.^{[citation needed]}

Apple cider vinegar in particular is often touted as a medical aid, from cancer prevention to alleviation of joint pain to weight loss.^[20] Claims of its benefits go back at least to Hippocrates. In 1958, D. C. Jarvis made the remedy popular with a bestseller that has sold over one million copies.

Diet control

Multiple trials indicate that taking vinegar with food increases satiety (the feeling of fullness) and so reduces the amount of food consumed.^[13]^[14] Even a single application of vinegar can lead to reduced food intake for a whole day.^[15]

Cholesterol

A scientific study published in 2006 concluded that a test group of rats fed with acetic acid (the main component of vinegar) had "significantly lower values for serum total cholesterol and triacylglycerols", among other health benefits. ^[7]

[edit] Blood glucose control and diabetic management

Small amounts of vinegar (approx. 20 mls or two tablespoons of domestic vinegar) added to food, or taken along with a meal, have been shown by a number of medical trials to reduce the glycemic index of carbohydrate food for people with and without diabetes.^[8]^[9]^[10] This has also been expressed as lower glycemic index ratings in the region of 30%.^[11]^[12]

Food Preparation

Getting the last drops:
When you can’t get the last bit of mayonnaise or salad dressing out of the jar, try dribbling a little of your favorite vinegar into it, put the cap on tightly and shake well. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ve been wasting.

Cooking fish:
Try soaking fish in vinegar and water before cooking it. It will be sweeter, more tender and hold its shape better. When boiling or poaching fish, a tablespoon of vinegar added to the water will keep it from crumbling so easily.

Cake icing:
Cake icing can be prevented from becoming sugary if a little vinegar is added to the ingredients before cooking. The same is true when making homemade candy.

Boiling eggs:
When boiling an egg and it’s cracked, a little vinegar in the water will keep the white from running out.

Keeping potatoes white:
A teaspoon of white distilled or cider vinegar added to the water in which you boil potatoes will keep them nice and white. You can keep peeled potatoes from turning dark by covering them with water and adding 2 teaspoons of vinegar.

Freshen vegetables:
Freshen up slightly wilted vegetables by soaking them in cold water and vinegar.

Fruit and vegetable wash:
Add 2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar to 1 pint water and use to wash fresh fruits and vegetables, then rinse thoroughly. Research has shown that vinegar helps kill bacteria on fruits and vegetables.

Frying doughnuts:
Before frying doughnuts, add ½ teaspoon of vinegar to hot oil to prevent doughnuts soaking up extra grease. Use caution when adding the vinegar to the hot oil.

Flavor booster:
Perk up a can of soup, gravy or sauce with a teaspoon of your favorite specialty vinegar. It adds flavor and taster fresher.

Meat tenderizer:
As a tenderizer for tough meat or game, make a marinade in the proportion of half a cup of your favorite vinegar to a cup of heated liquid, such as bouillon; or for steak, you may prefer to a mix of vinegar and oil, rubbed in well and allowed to stand for two hours.

Fruit stains:
Remove fruit or berry stains from your hands by cleaning them with vinegar.

Fresh lunch box:
It is easy to take out the heavy stale smell often found in lunch boxes. Dampen a piece of fresh bread with white distilled vinegar and leave it in the lunch box overnight.

Get rid of cooking smells:
Let simmer a small pot of vinegar and water solution.

Fluffy Egg Whites
Soak a paper towel with 1-2 Tablespoons of white distilled vinegar. Wipe mixing bowl and beaters or whisk with the vinegar-soaked paper towel, then dry with a cloth or paper towel prior to whipping egg whites.

Fluffier Rice
For fluffier and great tasting rice, add a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar to the boiling water before adding rice. Rice will be easier to spoon and less sticky.

Quick Tempura Dinner

2008-03-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

This Spring calls for light fermented foods, so begins a month dedicated to the cuisine of Japan. Black, Red and White misos of various strengths, from strong MUGI (barley-rice) miso to medium soybean-rice miso - these pastes provide the bases for soups. For stock I used fish broth or bottled water. For the solids, I always have some seaweed, tofu, spring onions, carrots and radishes; added to that are one or more of mushrooms, spring potatoes, green peas and sugar snaps.

Tempura is a lovely, sophisticated fun addition. It's a great way to quickly cook shrimp, other seafood morsels and vegetables, and serve them instantly with various tempura dipping sauces. The trick is to prepare the seafood, vegetables and lay out the tempura batter components (never made batter until the oil is hot!). Once you have everything ready to go, the meal is prepared in mere minutes. When I prepare tempura the miso is on the lighter side, with less solids.

I call this LIGHT, yet it involves deep frying. Done properly there is very little fat and the seafood is super fresh, cooked in a flash. Not more than 3-4 minutes stove time and it's ready.

I call this QUICK, yet it has a lot of prep time. You can prepare all the batter mixes, dipping sauces, vinegar sauces, and vegetable bits ahead of time. If you just doing shrimp, other than making them straight, what else prep is there?

I never said this was not messy. Not only can it be MESSY, it rates no less than 5 black-and-crispy fire engines and/or ambulances if you do not have a start to finish oil management plan.

INGREDIENTS

This is a deep frying dish, so make sure you have 1-2 liters of fresh oil handy. It's not that you will be using all of this, but dish is not the "three turns of the pan" oil usage. The best way to stress this is to urge you to invest in a lovely large goblet of quality OIL. Your brain needs it!

ICE - just enough to cover the bottom of a large bowl
(You will put your batter bowl on top of this to keep your batter ice cold)

Optional Condiments on table: Pickled ginger, wasabe, soy sauce, salt, pepper, grated daikon (or other radish bits), sriracha sauce...

Tempura Dipping Sauce - Fancy

2 Tbl soy sauce
2 Tbl orange juice - or lemon juice w/brown sugar to sweeten
2 Tbl Mirin rice wine
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 Tbl extremely fine chopped spring onions
1 tsp sesame seeds (gomasio)

(This makes a different salad dressing - has no oil or vinegar)

Tempura Dipping Sauce - Fancy and Spicy!

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Mirin rice wine
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbl brown sesame oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon wasabi powder
2 tablespoons really finely minced scallions

Tempura Dipping Sauce - Regular

1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock
2-3 Tbl soy sauce
2-3 Tbl Mirin rice wine
2-3 Tbl grated fresh ginger

Tempura Dipping Sauce - Traditional

1 cup dashi soup stock (dashi are bonito flakes, a most indispensable secret ingredient to add savory flavor in any kitchen - do not underestimate the taste-power of dried fish flakes, second only to MARMITE!)
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar

Tempura Dipping Sauce - Alternative

1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
2-3 Tbl seasoned rice vinegar (note: not rice wine!)
4 teaspoons white sugar
1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced
(Add some hot chili to this if you'd like)

HOT SPICY VINEGARY SAUCES

There are people who have not tasted Japanese foods but once in their lives, and upon being introduced to Tempura, say "Oh, just like Long John Silver's!". They will appreciate having a spicy, vinegary sauce to go with their Japanese Fish 'n Chips. - most people's metabolisms need and love to have a second spicy vinegary sauce to go along with this.

The Long John Silver Coca Cola Deep Frying Fast Foods OIL Clause:

Long John Silver's has a Nutrition Calendar with numbers for their battered shrimp. It is worth paying attention to this. You in your own kitchen will NOT be using their oil: "100% soybean oil with dimethylpolysiloxane, TBHQ and citric acid", which is also used in other fast food chains, such as MacDonald's. Neither will you be cooking it the way they do. You will be COMBINING with other prescribed items, and that is the secret to health.

Let's take a look at "100% soybean oil with dimethylpolysiloxane, TBHQ and citric acid":

TBHQ, or TERT-BUTYLHYDROQUINONE is used as an antioxidant for unsaturated vegetable oils and animal fats. It can be used in combination with BHA. It is added to a wide range of foods, with highest limit permitted for frozen fish. It is used to enhance storage life. For industrial use, TBHQ is used as a stabilizer and is added to varnishes, lacquers, resins, and oil field additives.

In high doses, TBHQ led to stomach tumors and damage to DNA for lab animals. Prolonged exposure to TBHQ may cause cancer. While this is for high doses and lab rats, I have trouble with the idea that something you can only handle with protective clothing, per the Material Safety Data Sheet, is going in my food. You can find TBHQ in a wide variety of fast food menu items, especially anything fried or cooked in oil.

Hmmm! What about Soybean Oil?

Soybean oil is very popular because it is cheap, healthful and has a high smoke point. Soybean oil does not contain much saturated fat. Like all other oils from vegetable origin, soybean oil contains no cholesterol.

Well, that's what it started out as, today it's been GMO'd, and:

Food use of soybean oil Soybean oil is also used by the food industry in a variety of food products including salad dressings, sandwich spreads, margarine, bread, mayonnaise, non-dairy coffee creamers and snack foods. The high smoke point of soybean oil allows it to be used as frying oil. Soybean oil is often hydrogenated to increase its shelf life or to produce a more solid product. In this process, unhealthy trans fats are produced which may raise blood cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. Food manufacturers are now trying to remove trans fats from their product. For this purpose, scientists are breeding new varieties of soybeans containing oil that does not need to be hydrogenated.

Good gawd, will they NEVER STOP their madness?!

RULE: Properly deep fried foods are very healthy but if you eat a deep fried product prepared with messed up oils (from food industries that fund ever more crazy messing-up of our basic food ingredients) - it will KILL you sooner than later - but, do NOT throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak - proper deep frying is HEALTHY!

If you do not have wasabe, try making a Hot Mustard sauce, or have a chili fish vinegar sauce ( e.g., Sriracha sauce, which is an Asian (Thai) hot and spicy chile sauce with garlic for dipping) on the table. Sriracha is made from chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. Be forewarned, it clocks in on the Scoville rating at around 2,000 units. I add some to a dashi-soy mix.

The fact is you really do need the VINEGAR and PEPPER to help digest the deep fried fat. There is nothing wrong with a good dose of fresh healthy OIL in your body as long as it is balanced.

A borrowed note on Japanese Vinegars:

I got these from LUNCH IN A BOX:

Sanbaizu (three-flavored vinegar) is one of the four main vinegar dressings in Japanese cuisine, made with rice vinegar, soy sauce, dashi (bonito stock) and sugar. The other vinegar dressings are:

Nihaizu (two-flavored vinegar) with vinegar, soy and dashi
Amazu (sweetened vinegar) with vinegar, dashi and sugar
Ponzu dressing with citrus juice, vinegar, soy, mirin, bonito flakes and konbu

Sanbaizu #1 (sweet vinegar dressing)
3 Tb rice vinegar
1/4 tsp soy sauce
2 Tb sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 Tb dashi (bonito stock - instant is fine)
Sanbaizu #2 (sweet vinegar dressing)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1.5 Tb sugar
1/4 tsp salt

TEMPURA BATTER - Beer and Straight up

1 egg
1 cup very cold Asahi beer or 1 cup iced water
3/4 cup mix of all purpose flour, and if you like, use less flour and make up the rest with a bit of baking powder, corn starch, spices such as cumin, parsley as you like

(I've settled on using 1/2 whole wheat flour and 2 Tbl cup kudzu root powder and 2 Tbl corn starch with cumin, garlic powder, CHILI PEPPER POWDER, and other dried herbs (parsley, basil, tarragon, depending...)

1/4 cup of the above flour mix for flouring shrimp and vegetables

Mix eggs and ice water or beer in a bowl, and 1/2 to 3/5 cup add flour to the egg mixture.

You want the consistency of heavy cream. The batter should be runny enough to light coat seafood and vegetables dipped in it. Test with the back of a spoon - it should be thick enough to coat the spoon.

What if you don't have BEER ... or an EGG...

Tempura Batter - Wolfgang Puck

1/4 cup rice flour (you can use all purp, or unbleached white, even wheat for this...)
3 cups soda water, plus more if necessary (Use regular bottled water...)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder (this is instead of the egg)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (some this ends up on the bottom of the oil pot as red dots!)

"The quantities here make enough to coat about a dozen shrimp and a dozen scallops, or other bite-sized pieces of seafood, plus an accompanying assortment of vegetables that you like. "

"First, make the Tempura Batter: In a small bowl, stir together the rice flour and 1/2 cup of the soda water until blended. Set aside. Into a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Stir into this mixture the remaining 2 1/2 cups soda water, salt, and cayenne; then, stir in the rice flour mixture. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it to rest in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before use."

Puck makes a HOT CHINESE MUSTARD SAUCE to go with his tempura... as the alternative dipping sauce. What a great idea.

HOT CHINESE MUSTARD SAUCE modified from PUCK's original cuz his had hard to get ingredients.

2 tablespoons Chinese dry mustard (or Colman's English Mustard Powder)
Pinch turmeric
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons water (umm, I'd use soy sauce)
1/4 cup liquid from bottled pickled ginger

STOP!

We are not running a fancy restaurant where we buy bottles of pickled ginger just to harvest the juice. From Uncle Phaedrus Consulting Detective and Finder of Lost Recipes we offer his lost pickled ginger case file:

Pickled Ginger

1/2 cup fresh ginger -- sliced paper thin
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

Stir all ingredients together in non-reactive stainless steel pan or glass
saucepan and bring to a boil.

Let mixture cool to room temperature and chill overnight. (Pickled ginger
keeps for several months in the refrigerator.)

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Continued...

1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup peanut oil
1 tablespoon chili oil
1 tablespoon toasted Asian-style sesame oil

While the batter is resting, make the Hot Chinese Mustard Sauce: In a bowl, dissolve the dry mustard and turmeric in the rice wine vinegar and water. Stir in the pickled ginger liquid, lemon juice, and sugar and whisk until well blended. In another bowl, combine the peanut, chili, and sesame oils. Whisking continuously, slowly pour the oils into the mustard mixture until emulsified. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

That's it for all the best batter AND dipping recipes.

Optional:
Panko - Japanese breadcrumbs (do not use any other)

SEAFOOD

Large Shrimp with tails on, deveined. Get a bag of uncooked shrimp tails on and take out what you will be preparing, let them sit in the refrigerator to defrost.

After defrosting, you have to straighten the shrimp with your fingers, nick each side 2-3 times with a knife, and press the back of the shrimp without breaking the tail off, or else it will curl up when frying. Then stack them on paper towels to dry, coat in flour...

...if the oil is hot, NOW make the batter ... dip shrimp in batter, rain the panko on, and quick deep fry it.

Any variety of fish cut into small pieces will do nicely as well.

All the tempura cooks agree, if you drop a little tempura batter into the oil and the batter comes back right up it's 360 degrees F or over. If it it goes half way to the bottom and then back up (it does the bob-thing) it's about 340 degrees F and the right temperature for the carby veggies - a bit higher for the protein rich seafood.

HOW TO MANAGE THE HOT OIL:

Suggested Equipment:

Candy Thermometer with clip
Deep pot, dutch oven cast iron preferably
Wire basket
Tongs
LONG wooden chopsticks
Paper towels
Paper bag
Lotsa oil - if you do not have a 2+ qt (2 liters) bottle of good oil handy, fouggedaboudit.
Nerves of Steel (just kidding!)

RULES FOR COOKING IN HOT OIL:

I got these from a number of different sources:

Be sure to choose a pan that's larger in circumference than the heat source to minimize the risk of flares. Many experts feel a Dutch oven made of seasoned cast iron is ideal.
In Japan, they deep fry in a wok, but I usually use a pot, because it's more stable on an electric stove and I'm nervous around hot oil.
If you don't have an electric deep fryer, invest in a wire frying basket - and a candy thermometer with a clip.
Make sure you have a lid nearby. If the oil bursts into flames, pop the lid on. Oil fires will go out if you smother them. Have aloe vera gel around in case you burn yourself.
Always use fresh oil if you can.
Never fill your pot more than half full of oil.
You need the oil deep, deep enough to immerse your food without touching it the bottom. A few inches, a lot, make sure you have a large bottle. You will need to top off during batches.
Remember you'll need at least 3 inches between the surface of the oil and the top of the pot to allow room for the oil to bubble up.
Get that clip on candy thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, a you can drop a cube of white bread into the hot oil. At 350*F (175*C) the bread fries to a golden brown in about 1 minute; at 375*F (190*C) it takes about 40 seconds.
When the oil's hot enough, you'll see swirls forming at the bottom of the pot. I look for that, and then I plunge a wooden chopstick into the oil; bubbles should form all around the submerged stick.
Do not let the oil smoke; this is a sign that it's too hot, can flash soon, and it'll give your food a burnt taste. Make sure you can quickly move then entire pot to a cold burner and regather your wits.
On that note, make sure the vent is on, the doors to the smoke alarms are closed. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than a too sensitive smoke alarm that goes off if it hears you whisper "make me some dark toast, honey" when you've got a pot half full of near smoking hot oil.
Make sure the cats are stowed. Especially when there is seafood around, they'll be circling the floor around your hot pots like sharks.
To remove fried foods from hot oil opt for an Asian wire mesh skimmer, a slotted spoon or a pair of tongs.
Placing a clean brown paper bag beneath the paper toweling will absorb the most oil from the freshly fried foods.
Dispose of your used oil with care. Don't pour it down the drain: our sewage systems have enough to deal with without that. Let the oil cool completely, and then pour it into an empty bottle or jar and throw it away in the garbage.
Really, COULD you re-use your oil? No, yes, maybe... Never more than once or twice, and then only if you are using a similarly flavored food, and it is finely strained to remove old food particles.

VEGETABLES

You do not want to use a vegetable or fruit that will release its water into the 350 degree hot oil!!!

Carrots, potatoes, daikon, yams, sweet potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower, broccoli, turnip, green onions, any root vegetable, mushrooms...

Cut these into thin slices - you might want to parboil the potato roots a bit first... dip in the seasoned flour, then into the tempura batter, then into panko (or just the panko) and deep fry in the hot oil. 2- 3 minutes, 4 at most.

Fry in batches, and remove with tongs, chopsticks, slotted spoon or basket, and put on a plate with paper towels - remove paper towels - and place in pyrex dish in warm oven on extremely low to keep warm while rest is cooking.

The prep is worth it. You can do large parties so well with this. When prepared properly, the tempura absorb much less fat than you would think.

From the moment they are lifted from the wire basket - they give off such delicious smells, are so appealing, and eaten so quickly - all gone so fast I have never managed to snag photographs.

OIL MANAGEMENT PLAN

My oil management plan is to cool the oil and strain back into a reserved oil bottle. I re-use the oil twice for Tempura within 5-7 days. Then I'm done with Tempura for the season. It's too addictive.

CLEANUP

I was kidding up there about the mess, cleanup is a breeze.

If you are disposing of the oil, cool and bottle it, as per usual, and place the bottle in the trash. The best way to cleanup lots of oil is with lots of soap,right? Nope, in fact, most cooks know that "a puddle of oil on your kitchen floor can grow bigger and even more slippery when mixed with soap and water."

Sprinkle salt and/or any remaining flour on the oily deep fry pot and wire basket. Let them soak, then add just a drop or two of dish-washing liquid, HOLD THE WATER!, then wipe with paper towels or a dry rag.

Now, wash as usual.

Manna - the most secret ingredient in the world

2008-02-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

Manna from heaven. Some have a good idea of what that might have been and I agree with them.

Homemade Yogurt with Pomegranates

2008-02-25T23:51:00.000-08:00

Mix 1/2 cup of pommy seeds with 1/2 cup of fresh homemade yogurt. A home run on all fronts.

Pomegranates:

Summary Features of Pomegranate

1. Most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits
2. Potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects
3. Inhibits abnormal platelet aggregation that could cause heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease
4. Lowers cholesterol and other cardiac risk factors
5. Lowers blood pressure
6. Shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque
7. May have benefits to relieve or protect against depression and osteoporosis

Homemade Live Plain Yogurt:

This is a picture of "Kefir Grains" - a commodity more precious than gold in my book
though it is merely a "gelatinous community of bacteria and yeast".

If you know how to use "Kefir grains" to ferment foods
(not just milk for making yogurt), it will give you a condition known as
WTMB - Way Too Many Birthdays, routinely, 120 of them.

Summary of live (probiotic) yogurt features:

Provide dual roles (protective and therapeutic):

They manufacture some of the B-vitamins including niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid and biotin.
They manufacture the milk-digesting enzyme lactase which helps you digest calcium-rich dairy products.
They actively produce anti-bacterial substances which kill or deactivate hostile disease-causing bacteria.
They do this by changing the local levels of acidity or by depriving pathogenic bacteria of their nutrients or by actually producing their own antibiotic substances which can kill invading bacteria, viruses and yeasts.
Some (such as the bifidobacteria and acidophilus) have been shown to have powerful anti-carcinogenic features which are active against certain tumors.
They improve the efficiency of the digestive tract and when they are weakened bowel function is poor.
They effectively help to reduce cholesterol levels when this is high.
They play an important part of the development of a baby’s digestive function and immune system. Bifidobacteria infantis is acquired from breast-milk and when it is in poor supply allergies and malabsorption problems are more common.
They help protect against radiation damage as well as deactivating many toxic pollutants.
They help to recycle oestrogen (one of the female hormones) which reduces the likelihood of menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis.
Therapeutically they have been shown to be useful in treatment of acne, psoriasis, eczema, allergies, migraine, gout (by reducing uric acid levels), rheumatic and arthritic conditions, cystitis, candidiasis, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome and some forms of cancer!

There's this helpful tidbit from Wiki:

In 2005, Mireille Guiliano released her best selling book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, in which she touts yogurt as her secret weight loss weapon.

In her novel, she campaigned for Americans to discover the benefits and pleasures of homemade plain, non-fat yogurt, as opposed to the sugar and corn syrup-laden ‘imposters’ found in most U.S. supermarkets. Her book was the first contemporary weight loss plan to center around making homemade yogurt.

You see where I'm going don't you?

I shall be marched straight to a CODEX jail subsidized by the AMA and the FDA and George Bush's GrandPop's IG Farbenverbunderen Global Big Pharma for ruthlessly promoting all this!

Apple Coconut Redux: Yogurt!

2008-02-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

I made the title Apple Coconut Redux, because of some copy cats out there in the CHOW world. I don't make a zillion dollars ripping off other people's culinary knowledge, so I shall make it a bit harder for them. They are the gateway to the Corporate Plasticized Homogenized Food industry. Beware! They are out to make it illegal for the average person to own raw ingredients and cook!

I am addicted to Apple Coconut anything - fresh or fermented, raw or cooked, boiled, baked, grated, ground, toasted, roasted, squeezed, pies (oh yummy!), cakes, dessert, chocolatized, caramelized, cerealized, porridge, soup, salad, yogurt, ice cream, curries - and this time, we're taking on Apple Coconut YOGURT.

This is not the "take some live culture raw yogurt and add some coconut and apples and honey to it", nope, this is the real deal, where this apple coconut yogurt is produced by encouraging the Yeastie Beasties and Culture Vultures to do their thing, with Mr. Coconut and Ms. Apple right there.

If you suspect there might be some synergistic chaos and fusion magic from cre-arranging a taste-stage where cultures unite - YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!!

Yogurt by definition is made with milk. Coconut can be fermented into making fermented coconut (kefir) and even coconut vinegar (we're not going that far!) So can apples be fermented (cider) and even apple cider vinegar (we're not going that far!) What we are doing is a double, then a triple witching fermentation making apple coconut yogurt, and umm, apple coconut milk yogurt yogurt.

EQUIPMENT, INGREDIENTS and REASONS:

To make yogurt you will need 1 quart of whole milk, about 1/4 cup whole powdered milk with no preservatives (ask me about brand names if you are serious), about 1/4 cup of yogurt starter culture with at least the following:

In addition, you will require a candy or frying thermometer that you can easily and quickly read 100, 115, 120, 190, 200 degrees F real well, and one you can clip to the side of a heavy metal pot or else you'll have to stand there over the stove and hold it at least 2 inches into the milk or other fluid, as you don't want it to touch the bottom of a metal pot (false high readings).

For the apple coconut part of this, you will need 1 cup of peeled cored, ground up ripe apple and 1 cup fresh unfiltered unpasteurized raw apple juice. Also, 1 cup of fresh coconut meat from a young coconut (the slippery stuff, not the old hard stuff) or 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut that you must reconstitute using 1/2 fresh coconut water or 1/2 coconut milk with no preservatives (ask me about brand names if you are serious). You will need a sweetener which I prefer to be HONEY. Have some vanilla and coconut essence on hand.

"The family that ferments, fandangos and flosses together stays together forever." I said that, 2008.

Lets Get Cultured...

You can culture the coconut separately and the apple separately or you can do it together. The difference is the taste and texture of the final product.

Fermenting Together...

INGREDIENTS

1/4 - 1/3 cup starter
2-3 tablespoons of finely grade fresh eating apple
2-3 tablespoons of fresh shredded coconut

Note: If you can't get fresh, then use store-bought but it will like have preservatives. I believe the preservatives in the yogurt ingredients are responsible for a slightly salty aftertaste, which can be alleviated in the final product by adding a bit of honey.

Note: if the only shredded coconut you can get is SWEETENED, then use less honey in the first step mix.

1-2 tablespoons honey.
1 pint of whole milk (note: many times I have run out of milk and sometimes use a mix of evaporated and whole milk; evaporated has a number of additives but it will still work. )
2 tablespoons of powdered milk

METHOD:
Prepare food thermos by cleaning and filling with hot water to heat thermos.
Stove burner between medium and medium low.
Take starter out of refrigerator to bring to room temperature, place in pyrex measuring cup at least 2 cup size.
Mix the apple coconut and honey you plan on using in a small container.

Pour milk into a deep pot and affix the candy thermometer to the side
Add the powdered milk and stir
Add the coconut apple honey mix and stir.
Keep stirring to prevent scorching until mixture reaches 200 degrees F.

Remove from heat and let cool to 120 degrees F.
Empty the thermos of the heating water
Quickly remove one cup of this mix and add to starter, stir well.
Quickly pour this into the thermos
Quickly pour the rest of the mix mix into the cup and then transfer into the thermos until all milk is in thermos.
Mix quickly and well then close thermos
Let rest for 6 hours
Open and pour into container and refrigerate overnight, or at least 2-4 hours.

It will have a very creamy consistency, a tart yogurt taste followed by a coconut taste and a sweet taste. The shreds of coconut add some perceptible texture, as this closeup I took sort of show:

Goes extremely well over APPLE COCONUT PIE! Or even Just Coconut Pie!

The Fermentation of Milk, a culinary enleavening experience in Two Parts

2008-02-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

You can always count on my refrigerator harboring the odd pint of spoiled milk. I hang on to it, convinced one day I shall find a way of transforming it from "bad" to "wondrous life-saving elixir". Then someone comes by and points out the mold, the stale cheesy smell, and tosses it out. Then I start over. I am amazed at the flourishment of all sorts of life with regard to milk.

But I digress. Cow's milk is for children. Adults thrive on culture... fermented milk. Here's how to make two which feature interchangeably in XYZ recipes: YOGURT and SOUR CREAM.

A note on the equipment - you will need:

A good candy thermometer that YOU can find the following temps easily 98, 100, 115, 120, 125, 190, 200 degrees F even when it's steamy and milky. Make sure it has a clip so you can clip it on the side of the container/pot or else you will find yourself standing over a pot of warm steaming milk for longer than you like holding it in 2 inches of fluid without touching the bottom of the pot. They cost around $5.
A heavy (stainless steel preferably) pot.
A funnel or a pyrex measuring container with a spout
A food thermos, has a wide opening so you can get the yogurt out after it has incubated. Thermos brand thermoses has a nice one that holds over a quart for about $15.00.

YOGURT

For the longest time commercial yogurt sold in stores had no live cultures. It was packed with sugars and that corn syrup. People wised up and all of a sudden commercial yogurt companies had to bend to people pressure, and they put the live cultures in - well, we think they're still in there! Now they pose off as being the owners of a very special traditional knowledge...hey, lets make our own yogurt, and keep our own starter culture to pass around to family and friends - this way you can make sure it it isn't genetically engineered!

INGREDIENTS:

1 quart whole milk
1/8 to 1/4 cup powdered whole milk or 1/8 to 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup starter culture with AT LEAST:

Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Streptococcus thermophilus

It is said these two strains are the closest to what the Mongols used (kumiss) which came from the steppes, you know, home to those people who live to 120 zillion years.

For the starter culture use a good quality plain commercial yogurt. I recommend, if you can get it, Nancy's plain non fat Yogurt. You can be assured that your yogurt will turn out perfect and BETTER tasting (if you thought that was possible) than Nancy's. Nancy's is far better than Dannon or the others, in my opinion.

Nancy's yogurt has all the good stuff:

L. acidophilus

Acidophilus produces enzymes that improve the digestibility and absorption of vitamins.
Acidophilus suppresses the overgrowth of yeast infections following antibiotic therapy.
Acidophilus, by balancing the bacteria in the gut, helps with dermatitis and acne.
Acidophilus is able to survive digestive acids and enzymes to become a resident of the small intestine where it becomes therapeutically effective.

S. thermophilus

Thermophilus produces high levels of the enzyme lactase, which assists humans in the digestion of milk based foods.
Thermophilus helps form the body and flavor of yogurt.-that tartness you taste with Nancy's is the live culture!

L. bulgaricus

Bulgaricus increases systemic immune response.
Bulgaricus produces an antibiotic-like substance called Bulgarican.
Bulgaricus produces lactase, the enzyme needed to digest milk products, thus helping lactose mal-digesters enjoy yogurt.
Bulgaricus helps give yogurt its distinctive flavor and creamy consistency.

L. casei

Casei is a highly prolific probiotic.
Casei, being a probiotic, successfully survives digestive acids to take up residency in the intestines where it provides many health benefits.
Casei significantly enhances lactose digestion.
Casei reduces the risk of infection from E. coli, salmonella, shigella, lysteria and intestinal viruses.

L. rhamnosus

Rhamnosus stimulates an immune response to invading foreign organisms.
Rhamnosus suppresses rotoviruses and diarrhea-causing organisms.
Rhamnosus is effective in treating colitis.

B. bifidum cultures

Bifidum is known to make milk products more digestible to lactose-intolerant consumers.
Bifidum eliminates yeast and intestinal virus infections Bifidum repairs and prevents intestinal inflammation.
Bifidum contributes greater protection to breast-fed infants by stimulating the immune system.

I like the Springfield Creamery team because they were "the first to use live acidophilus and bifidum cultures in yogurt over 30 years ago." Casei immunitas closed, Dannon!

I do not recommend using Corporate Probiotics. Be careful. Those clowns are mucking around AGAIN in all sorts of ways, including genetically engineering our beneficial bacteria. Worse, they have stolen traditional processes and decided they can make it better with their "More is More" mantra ... NO! More is greed, gluttony and ... so George! Check out what HEALING CROW has to say about the "yogurt conspiracy".

METHOD

Take the 1/4 cup of starter out of the refrigerator and place it in a large (2 cup) pyrex measuring container, to bring to room temperature.

Take the 1 quart of whole milk and add the extra powdered milk or cream to it. Mix well.

(At this stage you would later add certain flavorings but if you try to do this now without ever having made plain you will screw up and likely make something that tastes like frog vomit.)

Heat the milk slowly to between 190 and 200 degrees. Keep at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. You will notice that at around 190 to 200 it begins to bubble ever so slightly at the edges of the pot, it will steam but not boil. I keep mixing with a wire whisk constantly.

After 10 minutes of this, remove from heat, but keep the burner at the setting you had for 120 in case you have to warm it back up for whatever reason.

Let it cool to 130 degrees then remove one cup full and bring this to 120 degrees by placing it in a blow of tepid not cold water. (You want this cup to cool down a tad faster than the pot).

When it is at 120 degrees pour over the starter in your pyrex container. Mix gently but well. This mix has a mind of its own and will lump up just like that. Make sure it doesn't drop below 115 degrees so work fast.

While you were mixing the starter with the cup of milk, the rest of the pot milk is cooling - and should now be close to 120.

Pour this pot milk into the food thermos, and check the temperature. It should be at 120 degrees and not more. It's OK if it goes down to 115, but you only have these 5 degrees of separation to work within.

(If you pour the pot milk into the thermos when it's at, say 130 degrees, it will take forever for it to cool down to 120, even if you leave the lid open, it's a thermos!)

Now, add the starter mix you prepared to the thermos with 120 degree milk, mix well, and close it up tightly.

It will keep at between 115 and 120 which is perfect. You don't want it to drop below 98 degrees, and I think better firmer yogurt is made if you stay within 115 to 120. Other recipes will say heat to 190 degrees, or cool to 98 degrees as boundaries, but I say 120 and 200 are the only numbers you have to remember for perfect yogurt.

Let it rest for 6 hours.

Turn the stove burner off!

After six hours, open it up, and pour into a container, marking the date and time. Feed some to your cat - they LOVE warm freshly made yogurt - and NEED the probiotics too.

As for you, hands off, put into the refrigerator for a couple of hours, better yet overnight. You will likely find the taste less harsh than the original, and the texture more solid, less commercial.

If it didn't come out this way, then start over and follow the instructions to the T. I never failed on my first try and I made all sorts of mistakes so this is about as fool proof a recipe as you'll get.

SOUR CREAM

Most commercial sour cream I find in my local supermarket, with few exceptions, such as NANCY's, has corn starch to make it artificially thick and no live cultures. Nancy's sour cream:

No additives, thickeners, or preservatives
Cultured for 18 hours with acidophilus, bifidum, and four lactic cultures

It is a food group by itself. It is addictive. I can eat no other commercial sour cream. By comparison, other commercial sour creams taste like milk with corn starch and lemon juice. Even so, if you make your own sour cream it will taste better than Nancy's.

The process is far less involved than yogurt IF you start out with ultra-pasteurized (heated past 280 F to extend shelf life) heavy WHIPPING cream, (not HEAVY CREAM) According to "Whats Cooking America - What is Cream - Are you Confused?":

Heavy Whipping Cream has 30 % butterfat
By contrast Heavy Cream has 36-38% butterfat.
Heavy Whipping Cream is Cream with enough butterfat in it to allow it to thicken when whipped.
Does not whip as well as heavy cream but works well for toppings and fillings.
Almost all whipping cream is now ultra-pasteurized, a process of heating that considerably extends its shelf life by killing bacteria and enzymes.

The issue of ultra-pasteurization is not just about the killing of bacteria etc. The process changes the protein structures and that is why you have to heat it up to 200 F if you do not start out with the (ultra-pasteurized) whipping cream - not all heavy creams are ultra- pasteurized.

Pasteurized and Ultra-pasteurized: Creams will generally be labeled pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized. Ultra-pasteurized creams will remain fresh longer but pasteurized will provide a better flavor, will whip up fluffier, and will hold up longer.

If you don't have or want to start out with something that processed, then the method for making sour cream is exactly the same as yogurt where you have to heat to 200 degrees and let it cool back down to 120.

INGREDIENTS

1 Quart of heavy whipping cream - decide whether ultrapasteurized.
1/4 cup of starter culture - use Nancy's yogurt or your own yogurt as above

METHOD

Using Ultra-pasteurized:

In a heavy steel pot, heat the whipping cream slowly (stirring gently and constantly with a wire whisk to ensure even temperature distribution) to 120 degrees F.

Add the culture, and mix well. Do not let the temperature drop below 115.

Pour into a food thermos for six hours. Remove from the thermos, and refrigerate overnight. Actually you can use it after a couple of hours, but it sets better overnight.

Muy Miso

2008-02-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

For Saturday night, there was a repeat of "Peasant Miso Soup" with a salad that had definite elements of Mexican and Asian cuisine: avocados, corn, bell pepper, garbanzo beans, shitake mushrooms ... and the salad dressing must contain: lime, diced to microscopic perfection shallots, garlic/ginger powder and cumin with plain live yogurt and sesame seeds together with rice wine vinegar and brown sesame oil, and a tad of brown sugar to taste. Wave some chili and black pepper powder in the general vicinity. I sometimes substitute (for the yoghurt) coconut cream/milk (without the meta bisulphites please, that leaves only ONE brand that I know of, the one in the red can brand named Thai).

Oops I did it again

2008-02-24T14:23:00.001-08:00

Broken promises!

For Thursday February 21st, I made "Indian Lamb Chili" but I omitted the lamb. I replaced the lamb with quite a bit of hamburger beef.

Because of that substitution, for this episode, I added more flax seeds, 1/2 can of corn, a bit less kidney beans, less garbanzo beans, and a bit more peppers, including whole chilis to the mix.

To balance the spicy hot taste, I served it with HOMEMADE live-culture yogurt, and avocado slices on top.

I failed to take pictures, it was gone too soon. However, it did remind me to do a section on fermented foods - this time fermented Milks - such as yogurt and flavored yogurts. If you are real good I'll show you how to cross over into non aerated ice-creams, fermented ice creams and ummm, masalarized ice creams, you know, curry ice cream!

You can't call yourself a proper nutraceutical cook without owning your own live "yeastie beasties", this time, yogurt cultures. Okay I know live yogurt cultures are bacterial "YEASTIE BEASTIES" - but it's my food blog and I like calling the whole lot of them that leaven up our lives - the Yeastie Beasties.

Indian Lamb Chili

2008-02-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

I have now returned to posting what I make every day for my self-declared Health Month. Since I have to tend to healing my fur angel, I have limited myself to 30 minutes for preparing any meal.

My fur angel is on a very nice protocol to cure his oral gum teeth issues without the horrific risks of oral surgery, that Corporate Vets know about, and I am so glad I fired that Nazi Vettery. Interestingly, fur angel's teeth and gums are very quick to heal, with the right care and homeopathic products. The usual suspects work quite well. I am amazed at how quickly they are returning to health. I thought I couldn't make myrrh based formulations but turns out I can.

I found a quick recipe for chicken chili that I modified and used for lamb. I modified it so much it's hardly recognizable and the final result is a "keeper", especially it only took me 30 minutes to make.

INDIAN LAMB CHILI

Served with buttermilk soda bread, topped with fresh avocados and homemade plain yogurt (daahi style)

INGREDIENTS (yes this part takes only 10 minutes to prepare)

A. The "Holy Trinity"
Red Onion or Shallot chopped fine - 1/2 cup
Garlic 1/2 head finely chopped
Fresh Ginger 1 inch finely chopped

B. Basic Indian Spices - Seeds
Cumin seeds and powder
Coriander Seeds and powder
Cilantro

C. Meat - cubed lamb about 1 plus pounds
Marinated 5 minutes in soy sauce balsam vinegar brown sugar S&P (discard marinade)
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper

D. Chili Spices and stuff
Oregano
Garlic Powder
Bay leaf
Chili pepper
Red crushed peppers
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
1 diced red bell pepper
2 diced jalapeno peppers

E. Beans
Red Kidney Beans
Garbanzo beans

F. Vegetables
Diced tomatoes frizzed with tomato paste and tomato juice and Soy sauce

G. Olive oil

METHOD

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy steel skillet.
2. Add the Holy trinity, and saute about 10 minutes on low.
3. Add the Indian spices stir about 30 seconds
4. Add meat and salt and pepper and braise lamb until the meat is browned and converted.
5. Add Chili stuff stir
6. Add beans and stir
7. Add "vegetables" tomatoes and tomato juice/or/paste and water and stir

Bring to boil. Cover, turn heat to low, simmer for another 20 minutes. Serve hot. It's all you need for dinner, plus 4 oz red wine.

The trick here is in the organization of your basic ingredients. When you do your shopping, for the basics, e.g, onions, garlic, ginger etc. divide this stash in half, chop one half immediately before storing them.

Make sure your spices are organized so you can pull one teaspoon quickly. Use the library approach.

Served with buttermilk soda bread...

Taming the Wild Yeastie Beasties

2008-02-18T19:14:00.001-08:00

I wanted to make India's oldest most difficult, most sophisticated, most healthy, most common simple food items: Idli/Dosa's...

I have been putting it off for a year cuz of traveling, one reason or another. It's like making music, you get into the groove with your band and it's all perfect, you get out of the groove and y'all just don't sound right. Same with me and my Idli Dosa ingredients, they're a tough crowd - the Yeastie Beasties.

By the way, fermented foods are the secret to long healthy life, if you want to really know. Yes, it's also about omega fatty acids, yes it's about anti-oxidants, but really, let's all cut to the chase - if you're over 50, you've gotta start fermenting to live past 120.

When Dixie belonged to Whiskey

2008-02-17T14:09:00.001-08:00

A Summary of Whiskey Recipes a la Taste Wheel (tm)
- when there are health benefits and when there are not

Exotic "Leftovers" - Eggs Migos again!

2008-02-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

This is a weekend institution when I am in California - I love the fresh corn tortilla taste with the fresh red peppers, jalapeno peppers, vine tomatoes, avocados, shallots, cilantro, jalapeno jack pepper cheese and shot through with bit of deli meat. And eggs.

The trick is to wake up motivated to cut veggies. If you're sane, you're not.

So, start by going into the kitchen and start the coffee. Grab the bag of tortillas at the back of the refrigerator, waiting faithfully and patiently for you to remember them again. They can do this for months.

You start with browning some 1-2 inch tortilla strips in brown sesame oil. While that is browning on low to medium, chop the jalapenos and onions and red peppers real fine and layer over the tortilla. That will take several minutes. While that is cooking slowly, dice the tomatoes and add some balsam vinegar and sugar and let marinate. Break 3-4 eggs in a bowl and whisk, add some cumin, soy, sea salt and black pepper. Dice half the avocado into medium sized pieces. Take a few slices of whatever deli meat you have and dice it into small pieces. Chop some cilantro.

Let's see about now, the coffee should be ready so pour yourself a cup. Cut a small block of the cheese and grate it.

About now the corn tortilla-onion-pepper base is ready for the next layer. Add the meat and some cilantro. Stir. After a minute of two, add the tomato mix, and stir/cover, then add the rest of the cilantro and the avocados. Stir. Cover. After a minute, pour the eggs mixture carefully and evenly, and stir to make sure it cooks evenly, then add the cheese, and cover.

Let it cook slowly for a minute, then take the lid off - check for egg done-ness - and serve immediately.

Health Month's promise to post daily recipes

2008-02-15T22:10:00.001-08:00

I remember I wrote this a mere two weeks back, though it seems a lifetime ago:

For the month of February , self-declared "Health Month", I am going to post what I make each day mostly for dinner per Taste Wheel (tm) (c) protocols.

Then one of the two felines got sick and I was tending to him. All promises go out the window when your fur babies are sick. The Tonk threw up one last round that scared the bejesus out of me. I actually went into the bathroom and cried, cuz I thought I was going to lose him. He didn't eat for 3 days, and with a cat that is dangerous. He lost a lot of weight. Course they get sick at midnight at the start of a weekend. Bitch-vet played games with me ordering antibiotics at midnight Friday night from 1800 PetMeds. You can read all about my response "at another blog".

I cooked for him, I fed him every hour on the hour sometimes only 1/4 tsp some food until he got over the hump. Bought store-bought for me or wasn't hungry. I had professional carpet cleaners come with their van and vacuum hoses and their non toxic cleansers and clean the entire house. I had to leave with the two fur babies for several hours; they were wonderful in their box and carrier. I was a nice day. When I came back the air in the house smelled better. Since I had to get everything off the floor and move the furniture around, it was a time I did early spring cleaning.

All of a sudden it was Valentine's Week, and lots of cooking, baking to do for self and others. No time for posting here.

On Valentine's day I thought I would skip the Tonk's nightly administration of his nutraceutical supplements* - something I have to do with a medicine dropper and he hates it. I figured I'd give him the night off, as a special treat. He wasn't having it. As much as he hates it, he parked himself at the "medicine dropper" place, and waited: his sweet dark chocolate/cappuccino colored apple face looking up, a quizzical-laughing look in his drop-dead gorgeous aqua jewel eyes. (He knows how to use those eyes, hearts of pure strangers skip a beat.)

I hugged him, and gave him his supplements. When I was done he crawled on my shoulder and hugged my neck. My Heart. My Soul. My Furry Valentine.

Note for those interested:

Tonk has a range of issues - bad gums - likely an old abcess flaring up - but he also has some kidney issues due to toxic pet food attack of 2007. Hence he also has liver issues. Anesthesia is out of the question. Infections have to be controlled and his gumz have to be made healthy again. He won't eat when his teeth hurt. The poisons make him throw up. Brushing his teeth, and giving him a wide range of natural antibiotics, and supplements, and food he can bear to keep down, 1/4 tsp at a time.

*Current Feline Supplements:

Separately:

Oli-Pet Olive Tree Leaf Extract

*Food he keeps down:

My special chicken soup recipe for cats
Weruva canned "grandma's chicken soup" formula
Weruva Mack n Jack seafood formula
Broiled orange roughy or tilapia only - and - boiled large shrimp
Canned tuna in water very very low sodium only mixed with boiled white rice (a tempter to eat, in desperation, not good to feed tuna regularly due to mercury contamination)
Orijen kibble (no grains at all) from Champion Pet food in Canada!

And, if you are REALLY interested... from a HOLISTIC MAMMAL CARE point of view...

The cat is an older Tonkinese male, and Tonks are known for having teeth problems and throwing up. Most vets I have taken him to do not know this fact. Tonks bodies are dense, they are "bricks wrapped in silk" and they do not look like those stupid poster picture from the 1950's of the alley cats most vets have up on their wall to show you when your cat is overweight. Tonks have fur coats to die for, so most of their weight in in their coat. Go ahead, put one in the tub and wet it down. What you're left with is an overgrown rat. Sick Tonks emaciate quickly, while looking full and furry. Even Holistic vets, who should know this, don't, and IMO should be taken out and &*^!

So taking him to a vet is a crap shoot and he is too sick for crap shoots. Vets have no bloody idea what to feed sick cats except to push the Science Diet Killer Korporate foods on them.

So I'm on my own. Food and meds. Healing food and healing meds. For healing meds, even if I can get a scrip for an antibiotic, most Corporate pharmacists are too stupid or lazy to mix down the human grade e.g., Clavamox down to cat sized. What the &*%! did they go to school for?

So, throw out "all they make you believe in, all that you should be leaving"...

Holistic meds for dental care works the same for pets as for humans: Vitamin C to decrease swelling and pain; Myrrh to heal gums; Echinachea, (both types but especially purpurea) for infection and periodontal therapy; Arnica for healing; Fragaria vesca paste softens and breaks down years of built up plaque and tartar (that artificial sugar laced crap they put in pet and human mouthwash just gives you cancer and you do not need a dental cleaning or dental surgery to whack off the plaque or fix the gums); Herpericum perforatum is excellent for oral pain control. Hepar Sulphur promotes suppuration (pulls out the poisons from abscesses) and for pain as well as Mercurious Sol for abscesses. Even Traumeel tincture. You can get these anywhere real Americans have had the courage to burn the American Nazis (Kissinger- Bush - and Hillary Clinton's codex alimentarious) and stock their shops properly.

YOU have to read up on this for dosages and strengths and interactions for both humans and pets. Once you have it worked out for yourself, you can figure it out for the pet. If you're lucky you might get to talk to a human being (not a corporate clone). If you are really really really lucky you might find a vet, or a friend who will actually give you the name of a vet who will help you out with all this. Most friends who know vets won't give their names out, cuz the Nazi's are going after the good vets first.

As for the foods: your pet knows better than you the tastes that will heal. You just have to throw out what they tell you and start cooking and spicing and herbing for your sick pet they same way you do for humans.

PS They say cats and dogs will die if they eat onions. Develop Heinz body red blood cells. Kidneys destroyed. The cruel onion lab experiments on cats have been grossly misinterpreted. On purpose. There is nothing more dangerous than a poorly educated twit with a typing finger and an internet connection who have replicated dire warnings about onions of all sorts being a deathly threat to cats. Only in America. Don't feed it raw you twits. And don't believe anything a corporate lab experimenting on animals has written.

My cat loves and thrives on curry. But that's another blog.

Orange Cappucino Pudding Cake

2008-02-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

I was listening to Carly Simon's "Hymn of Wall Street", which is better remembered as "Let the River Run", her Oscar winning song... in the vid you can see the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center... Carly captured the spirit of New York of that time, there was still an innocence despite it all.

If you ever had anyone tell you as a child you could be anything you wanted to be, then "that New York" was the place with a special energy that pushed you to make it happen. I know, it pushed me, it made me, and in the end, it saved me. The Twin Towers were my beacon home. I have been all over the world and every single State in the Union, and no place has "that New York's" energy. Now, neither will "this New York". It's become a craven caricature of its former self, filled with plastic people from the other plastic places of this and other countries who flooded to it after 9/11, who never knew her. They are all trying to be cool citizens of the Silver City Carly wrote and sang about. New York will never be that enchanted Silver City ever again. Listening to that song made me homesick for a lot of things, including this Orange Cappuccino thing.

It is from the old Ebinger's bakery. Ebinger's was a New York institution until the Entenmann's of the same era moved ahead with marketing their bakery items in supermarkets and other places. These days, (in my opinion of course) Entenmann's tastes plastic, filled as it is with High Fructose or other Corn Syrup and other Corporate plastic food ingredients. Ebinger's may have disappeared, but at least they didn't sell out. As a result, it is the Ebinger's recipes that are hunted down, argued over and missed; it is the Ebinger's recipes that garner sighs; it is the people who stored the last of Ebinger's famous Brooklyn Blackout cake as museum items in their freezer for years who are respected in culinary circles.

Here's the recipe for their Orange Cappuccino Pudding Cake.

I found it on the web over by Uncle Phaedrus, Consulting Detective and Finder of Lost Recipes, and made a change or two, or three - you didn't think I was going to leave out Mr. Jack Daniels or Mr. Jim Beam? Naah, this is Valentine WEEK!

I gave some to Vegetable Cutting Boy - he had ordered Cacao Nibs a la Scharffen Berger for Valentine's day. This is what the baked nibs look like, and they taste muy better than the chocolate chip dealies.

I always appreciate a man who brings me the correct chocolate things - things I can use at the start of a chocolate cooking adventure, rather than some end result, that is pretty to look at, and pleasing to taste, but where's the fun!

Here's the fun! Make yourself some Choccolada fun! Vegetable Cutting Boy said this version turned out to be a $15.00 dessert in a five star restaurant and could not believe this was the first time I made it. See it's FOOLPROOF! Well, to good friends anyway!

Orange Cappuccino Pudding Cake

Serves 12
(Note: 12 is a stretch goal, do your best. In my house, half of it was gone in one sitting, two helpings each of dessert, I was careful to make just a hearty salad with cheese, shrimp, avocado, tomato, celery, carrots and mixed herb greens with a sesame coconut dressing for the dinner).

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed (I mean really packed) golden brown sugar
2 rounded tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. orange zest (note, I had two oranges, overly ripe but not gone bad, I used all the zest a bit closer to 3 and I would do the same again).
1/2 cup orange juice (I used the juice of the above oranges plus some pulp).
2 Tblsp. vegetable oil (I used 2 Tblsp. melted and cooled butter)
1 egg (hmm, I looked at the lone egg, it didn't look right, so I added the yolk only of a second egg)
2 tsp vanilla extract (and if some extra runs over that's OK too).
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used the Scharffen Berger Semi Sweet Chocolate Covered CACAO NIBS. I used enough to dot it the way it came out in the picture. I didn't measure but it is a least 1/4 - 1/3 - 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup instant coffee powder (Note they say "or hot chocolate mix" - NO it must have the coffee or is isn't right!)
1/4 cup cocoa (I used the GHIRADELLI Unsweetened Cocoa - I get fabulous results with their products).

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch square baking dish (they said spray with vegetable spray, I don't, and suspect it was so done by Ebinger's for kosher reasons - note there is no milk in this recipe).

Put up about 2 cups of hot water to boil for this recipe. You'll only use 1 - 1/4 cup of it. Fill the espresso maker for later, it tastes real good with espresso.

Note: This is a recipe where you mix the dry and mix the wet then mix together. Remember I treat brown sugar as "a wet one" 'cuz it is wet, so even though their recipe says "mix the brown sugar with the flour", as a dry, DON'T. Mix the brown sugar in with the WET ingredients. Ask Alton Brown, he finally did a show that backed me up on this, though he has no idea who I am.)

In a bowl stir together flour, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together orange zest, orange juice, BROWN SUGAR, egg, vanilla, then mix in the butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, blending until JUST mixed. (Do NOT over mix!!!) Batter will be thick. Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chocolate nibs (chips) over the top.

In a bowl whisk together 1 -1/4 cup HOT water, granulated sugar, instant coffee mix, and the unsweetened cocoa. Pour carefully over cake batter. (Yes, DROWN THE CAKE - it'll pool at the bottom to make the sauce - see picture).

Bake 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.

(In my cheap oven that runs cold, I had to do the 385, 375, 365, 350 drill which worked well).

SERVE WARM. Spoon cake and underlying sauce into individual dessert dishes.

CALLING Mr. BEAM! Mr. DANIELS!

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup whisky (Kentucky bourbon)
1 goodly capful vanilla essence.

Put cold heavy cream in a blender, add sugar and WHIP until hard; add whisky - (now look, you DON'T have to reach for 130 year old Kentucky Bourbon, but then again, if you're going to knock up the cream in proper Southern fashion, then you sort of have no choice), and vanilla and WHIP again.

Spoon onto and around cake and chocolate.

Serve with espresso coffee. Serve again and again and again. (Ummm, If you're a minor reading this, you have no business drinking in the first place.)

After you have made this cake, things like BAB AU RHUM begin to make sense. "Delisheye" things that cost $12.50 per teensy-weensy spoonful in those snotty yet trendy coffee houses, with the $25 cappuccino's suddenly become in your reach. It's real power, man, this is where it's at!

NOTE:

I fought the urge to add Cointreau or Bourbon to the coffee, cocoa mix you drown it in before you put it in the oven. Instead I opted for the whipped cream "knocked up" by Mr. Daniels or Mr. Beam. In reality, you could add your favorite orange liqueur in with the coffee, the taste will be added to the cake, though the alcohol will have evaporated off, AND you can also add it to the whipped cream.

A final word on the Silver City: For each anniversary of 9/11, in honor of my DNA being Touched by the Sun , it has become a planned activity - with a select few of us who were "in danger of burning by fire" that day - to wake up with Carly and Mr. Daniels. I suppose I shouldn't - depleted Uranium alone is a deadly toxic legacy, much less to mix with Kentucky Bourbon, but as Carly sez in her song :

"Let my wings of desire
Soar over the night
I need to let them say
she must have been mad..."

And I am, still, extremely, quite... mad!

Every time I raise a glass, it's a back-handed "slap in the face" salute to the International Dixie Mafia for pulling off the most ghoulish stunt since they lifted those missiles and took them up to that airport in NJ, for the TWA 800 stunt.

When "Dixie belonged to Whiskey", y'all were better gentlemen politician pirates than the ones you've become on this global narco-terrorism jaunt of yours. Phoo-ey in your eyes. A pox on your karma. No pudding for you!

Sweet and Sour Chicken a la Fast Food

2008-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

February 2nd, 2008

It was a cold, rainy, windy Saturday dedicated to my feline master and mistress.

The male is doing much better on chicken soup. I resorted to using a medicine dropper to ensure he gets his nutraceuticals, and waving a 12 inch turkey baster at him to "encourage" him to eat something.

The female is a world class athlete, Siamese were bred for that, and she starred today in some awesome videos; I spent all day and night making into YouTube material (does anyone know how to export a photo captured within a Windows Movie Maker clip into Adobe Photoshop without resorting to capture software like Hijaak or Snag-it?)

Around 8:30pm it occurred to me it was Saturday night, and no, cold roast chicken and slices of cheese with celery and carrots were just not gonna cut it. In addition, there's all that delisheye bok choy...

In 15-25 minutes, the following was whipped up and set to wine and song:

Ingredients:

Cold roast chicken cut into small chunks
Cold jalapeno cheese sliced and diced
4-5heads baby bok choy sliced and diced
One tomato, diced
One fresh jalapeno pepper diced small
One stalk celery diced
4-5 Tb canned corn
4-5 Tb frozen sweet peas
1-2 heads spring onion diced finely
Sesame seeds

2 Tb canned diced tomato
1 Tb tomato sauce
1 Tb dark sesame oil
2 Tb Soy sauce
2 Tb vinegar
2 Tb dark brown sugar
1 Tb Cumin
1 Tb ginger powder
1 Tb garlic powder

2 twirls of sesame oil for the wok

Method:

In a small mixing container mix the tomatoes and and the sweet and sour ingredients.
Heat oil for wok, and stir fry on hot hot heat all the green stuff 2-3 minutes.
Add chicken, corn, stir fry for a minute, then add the sauce. Stir for 2-3 minutes.
Add sesame seeds and cheese. Cover, and turn down heat.

Serve hot over rice.

First Friday in February Fast Food

2008-02-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

For the month of February , self-declared "Health Month", I am going to post what I make each day mostly for dinner per Taste Wheel (tm) (c) protocols.

February 1:

Feline companions, the Tonkinese especially, are not feeling well, they took the priority. Did you know the extent of the horrific state of National Vettery?

Because I spent most of the day doing research into National Vettery (sort of like the National Lottery - if your pet survives a vet appointment you win the jackpot!) - the quick Friday Night Special dinner was a roasted herbed chicken with steamed broccoli and brussel sprouts as sides, done "a la sesame"

Recipes:

Taste Wheel Values:

Sweet and Sour Fish with Bok Choy and Vegetables

2008-01-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is a straight up recipe I did tonight. I had about three kinds of bok choy that needed using up. When I purchased them I wanted to make a load of sweet and sour bok choy as sides, and tonight with a separately prepared chicken dish; but I had already baked all the chicken in the infamous orange-honey-mustard dish from my misbegotten yute. Having nothing other than raw frozen fish pieces (tilapia, roughy, sea bass), I put them together "ah so":

For Sweet and Sour Sauce:

½ cup diced tomatoes with 1 tablespoon tomato paste mixed well
4 Tbl soy sauce
2 level Tb brown sugar
2 Tbl red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 Tbl ground ginger – or 2 TB fresh grated ginger
1-2 TB brown sesame oil
½ tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin

For the wok:

1 tsp olive oil· 1/4 cup minced scallions
2-3 diced shallots
1 diced jalapeno pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup grated fresh ginger

1 more TB cornstarch preferablt Kudzu Root as thickener at end
½ cup water
½ cup coconut milk

For Fish:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 to ½ pound fresh white fish fillets, cut into 1-2 inch strips
1 large TB cornstarch

For Vegetables:

(Note: you do not need all the veggies just a sweet one e.g., carrots to balance the bok choy. earth mushroom would complete the trio of tastes.)

2 -3 cups baby carrots diced small
1 lb baby bok choy, cut into 2-inch pieces (about 5 -6 cups)
¼ to ½ pound fresh shiitake or any other fresh mushroom, thinly sliced
¼ - ½ cup diced celery or water chestnuts
¼ - ½ cup frozen corn defrosted or canned corn

Method:

Stir together all sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a prep bowl, and set aside.
In large nonstick wok, warm vegetable oil over high heat.
In a second skillet with its 1 TB olive oil, stir fry scallions, shallots, jalapeno, garlic, and ginger, and cook until scallions about 2 – 3 minutes.
Coat pieces of sea bass with 1 Tbl of cornstarch. Add fish to skillet and cook until golden, about 4 - 5minutes. Transfer fish to a plate using a slotted turner or spoon and cover with a bowl to keep warm.
To the wok, add carrots, bok choy, mushrooms, celery, corn and ½ cup of water. Cook until vegetables are crisp but tender, about 2 – 3 minutes
Stir in sweet and sour sauce mixture and ½ cup of water. Simmer until vegetables are almost crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.
Return fish to skillet and simmer until cooked through, about 2 minutes.
In the sweet and sour sauce prep bowl, mix kudzu root powder (or cornstarch) and water.
Stir into skillet and cook until sauce is lightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes.
Serve hot over rice. Basmati rice prep takes 15 mins for soaking and 12 mins for boiling, the same time as this dish.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Internet Vindaloonies

2008-01-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

This appears to be a colder and wetter winter for the entire North American continent than experienced for many a year. Short memories and still shorter IQ's have people screaming "global cooling is the new global warming".

This is the time for warming foods, hence we dredge up an oldie but goodie for this sort of season, the VINDALOO curry.

Take a Google-gander at the Internet: About 30,000 hits for "VINDALOO CURRY". Hmm, something's wrong. OK, omit the word "curry" and search again. Now you get about 612,000 hits!

Originally a pork dish made with "red wine and garlic", the Portuguese brought it to Goa, India, and it immediately merged with local spices. it became an authentic Indian dish when the Hindu people got ahold of it - no red wine and no pork! They are completely forgiven because what they did with the spices brings this dish to new culinary heights, that those two simple ingredients (which end up jangling the nerves) cannot accomplish.

We find the Queen of Indian Cuisine, Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking (1982) to be one unwitting cause of the epidemic of Indian Slob Cuisine cropping up all over the Internet.

Mrs. Jaffrey is a world-class gourmet cook, author and teacher, and it is her recipe books which made Indian cooking accessible to the Far West.

Her recipes have been slaughtered by those reading her, too many of whom decided, it appears from Internet food sites, they are in a most unique position improve upon her curry.

There has been no more grievous bollixing up of Madhur Jaffrey's recipes than in the Vindaloo arena by those I call Internet Vindaloonies.

You can always can when a self-appointed Curry Cuisine-artist has ripped of Jaffrey - e.g., the tell-tale signs of her uniquely phrased original in their instructions, such as but not limited to: "remove them with a slotted spoon".

In fact, if you Google just that: "remove them with a slotted spoon" you will find over 1,000 hits, having mostly to do with curry, and people who have borrowed Jaffrey's work and minced their own around hers. Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery, but the Vindaloonies should know that when you flatter someone you have to give them credit, or else it's just plagiarism.

A few Vindaloonie hints:

Authentically speaking, Vindaloo is a very dry hot curry process applied to meats mostly. It's a standalone kind of thing, meaning, don't ADD stuff to it, it is not a stew.

Most people add potatoes. Don't. All that potato starch chemically changes the curry sauce. If you must add, add chickpeas, some appropriate green bean, or dessicated coconut for an appetizer version.

And by the way, if you are looking on the web at an "AUTHENTIC CURRY RECIPE" that has beef in it, remember that the COW is a sacred animal in India, and there is NO AUTHENTIC RECIPE that calls for BEEF.

Now, it's merely a point of cultural fact: I eat BEEF, I just don't expect to see "Authentic Indian" and "Beef" in the same sentence.

One last thing: the real thing does NOT require electric blenders, mixers etcetera etcetera etcetera just as real Mexican Mole makers shun that process. It don't mix up the same, and it don't taste the same, period.

VINDALOO CURRY

(Despite popular misconceptions, the "-aloo" in Vindaloo does NOT mean "potatoes")

There are two approaches: marinate the meat in the vinegar and some of the spices then process, or not. If you are using a gamey meat such as lamb, marinate, if chicken do not marinate.

Vindaloo Chicken with Coconut:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Apple Cider or Rice Wine or WHITE Vinegar
1 TB to 1/4 CUP DARK BROWN SUGAR (you can use less but use SOME sugar it is bitter without).
4 TB light vegetable oil
1 large onion, quartered OR diced fine
1/4 cup water
2 TB tamarind paste IF YOU CAN GET IT.

1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup coconut flakes unsweetened (optional) mixed in just enough water to wet

1 TBL brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper (chilli pepper crushed is fine)
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1" cube fresh ginger

MEAT:

1 POUND CHICKEN BREASTS or CHICKEN THIGHS CUT INTO BITE SIZED PORTIONS

SPICES:
For Vindaloo Masala:

1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cumin powder
6 green cardamom pod seeds only
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp chili powder

...

2-3 tsp CORIANDER POWDER
1/2 tsp TURMERIC

METHOD:

Make the Vindaloo Mixture:

Grind the ingredients for the masala together. Pour into a small bowl, and add vinegar, salt, cayenne pepper and sugar.

Heat 2 Tbl oil in a skillet and add the onions. Saute on low heat for a long time, covering when the onions sigh, until they turn a dark golden brown. Remove them leaving as much of the oil and moisture in the pan, and grind them to a pulp, making an onion paste. Add this to the masala mix. This is the vindaloo mixture.

Grind the garlic with about 1 Tb water until you have a garlic paste. Grind the grated ginger, and add to the garlic paste. Add a Tbl oil to the skillet and add the garlic ginger paste. Stir constantly make sure it doesn't burn just browns. Add the coriander and turmeric, then add the chicken pieces, stirring constantly. Brown the chicken.

Now add the vindaloo paste, tomato sauce, and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup water (and potato pieces if you must). Stir and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about an hour.

Serve with Indian bread (roti) or rice.

The Garam Dude -- how to heat things up

2007-12-18T16:49:00.000-08:00

In Hindi, Garam Doodh means Hot Milk. Once, I travelled extensively with someone whose first tentatively inquiring words in a dhaba were: "Garam Dudh hai?" This means, "Do you nice people have hot milk?" If they said yes, as inevitably they did, he would order some, and look over at me, Wink and Mooooooo. He was from Wisconsin USA, Home of the Sacred Cow, and after enough instances of this dhaba thing, I'd call him "The Garam Dude".

There is a story of why to drink milk warm, for all you who cannot digest the thing, drink all milk products warm. But I won't go into that one yet.

First, the concept of "warming foods" and how they should be selected, and when and why and for whom and how etcetera etcetera etcetera.

You've heard of Garam Masala, so now you know the Garam means Hot, and the Masala means "A Blend of Spices". It's used to make spicy Indian foods, and sold in Western food stores, often formulated locally as, well, what I refer to as a blatant attempt at cultural genocide.

I am in the MidWest currently, and stopped in to a highly touted health food store in Columbia, MO, and grabbed a couple of starter spice bottles for YAWHCPTNWAC (Yet Another Western Health Care Provider Teaching Nutrition Without A Clue).

I was going for the 6 C's, and saw this formulation for their "Garam" Masala:

Pretty pathetic, I'd say it was Thanda Masala, or rather, Thanda Pandering Masala... everybody knows that real Garam Masala - to warm the consitution - consists of - well if you google you will come across several recipes like this:

½ cup cumin seeds
½ cup ground coriander
½ cup whole black peppercorns
5 teaspoons seeds of black cardamom pods
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons black salt
1 ½ teaspoons asafetida powder

Not the real thing either...I found that recipe source came from a Wesbite marketing Indian Culture, and the key person behind it was a Westerner... it seems everyone is copying the frauds.

Here you go, why on earth they left out the critical warming agent: GINGER, is beyond me.

INGREDIENTS:
4 tbsps coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 ½ tsps black cumin seeds (shahjeera)
1 ½ tsps dry ginger
¾ tsp black cardamom (3-4 large pods approx)
¾ tsp cloves¾ tsp cinnamon (2 X 1” pieces)
¾ tsp crushed bay leaves

PREPARATION:Heat a heavy skillet on a medium flame and gently roast all ingredients (leave cardamom in its pods till later) except the dry ginger, till they turn a few shades darker. Stir occasionally. Do not be tempted to speed up the process by turning up the heat as the spices will burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside. When the spices are roasted turn of the flame and allow them to cool. Once cooled, remove the cardamom seeds from their skins and mix them back with all the other roasted spices. Grind them all together, to a fine powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder. Store in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.

Taste Blocking: Sweet with no sugar, Savory with no salt, Bitter with fruit

2007-05-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. I've been learning to feed and heal Buddha Cat, who got hit with the Poisoned Pet Food making it's rounds, even in the top of the line Pet Food items. The squalid, grotesque criminality of the Pet Food Industry is a cherished Corporate Family Value protected by Big Agra and Big Pharma. I learned a lot, and the bottom line is this: if we want to succeed, we better start looking after the animals NOW.

For a while back there I was feeding my own human circle on automatic pilot. I could hardly bring myself to touch chicken, or turkey, or beef, or olive oil, or wheat flour, anything "food" for that matter without shudders of revulsion. But, it's better to know the worst truth than to have your head so firmly entrenched in the sand, you might as well be a living, mindless carcass. Which is all your value is to Corporate America anyway.

Some time last week, sparks of creativity flew and someone noticed the aromas of a meal I cooked in 30 minutes. Rachel Ray, eat your heart out sweetie, you'll never be able to taste block like this.

Sweet with no sugar, savory with no salt, bitter with fruit

Block 1 - Sweet with No Sugar
Rice

1 cup of Basmati rice (wash and soak for about 15 minutes, drain)
1 cup green peas
1 cup chopped carrots cut across into 1/4 inch dime sized pieces
Salt

1 cup Coconut flakes
Cinnamon, Whole Cardamoms , Cloves, Cumin Seeds
(1 - 1 1/12 teaspoons of flavor each)
Mix sesame oil and olive oil, and head, stir fry spices for about 1-2 minutes, or less, do not burn.
Add peas and carrots, stir fry some more and add soaked rice, coconut flakes, salt, stir it up, and then add 2-3 cups water, boil and back off to simmer for 15 minutes, then done, how hard was that?

Block 2: Savory with No Salt

Onions
Garlic
Ginger

Fenugreek, Mustard Seeds, Cumin Seeds, Cumin powder

Heat Olive oil, add onions, garlic, ginger, and bring to stir fry temps, then back off. Add fenugreek, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cumin powder. Let it all cook together. When onions have sweated, add cooked pieced poultry and brown. Stir and cover.

Block 3: Bitter with Fruit

Tomatoes soaked in a bit of soy sauce
Chard or other bitter green e.g., bitter melon

Make a hole in the center of the pan the poultry has been browning in, and put the tomatoes and if you are using bitter melon, add these too. Add some channa masala. Cover, and let tomatoes (and/or melon) cook. After a few minutes, if you are using chard, add chard now, and stir well. Cover and cook on low till all flavors mixed.

Perfect Roast Chicken for Imperfect Cooks

2007-04-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like it: a tender, juicy, tasty roast chicken each and every time, like clockwork, no double guessing, no worries, very predictable, with all the trimmings, perfectly done, with potatoes and veggies, and I - Ordinary Cook - have such a recipe.

First, google: "perfect roast chicken". I got over 10,000 hits. There's so much perfection out there in Chicken Land! Each one incorporates a different approach. I tested at least 6 "gold star" recipes which claimed "perfection". Even the Food Network Gods, gold-plated actors with scripts - if they don't have a simple roast chicken in their repertoire, they're TOAST, in my book. And they don't. Each one gets something wrong they didn't warn you about. Even Saint Emeril the Bam-Meister. They don't get the herbs right either.

It appeared more often than not, the most successful "perfect" roast chickens are done at high temps for a short period of time like 40-50 minutes. The theory is that this seals in the juices and gets the job done with short cooking times to prevent drying it out. That isn't the entire drill though.

Trust me, 500 degrees for 45 minutes will serve up one HOT chicken (key parts at 190 degrees no less) with near RAW places inside. Why? Unless you started with a near frozen bird, there are two questions to consider, and you're not going to like either one: The first one is IS YOUR RANGE/OVEN FAITHFUL? and the second one is are you purchasing UNDER-AGE CHICKENS.

IS YOUR RANGE/OVEN FAITHFUL?
Your oven, my oven, the big question mark is your oven faithful at 500 degrees? Mine is rock solid at 400, even 450, but it sure isn't at 500. Like marital fidelity, a lot can go out the window under extreme conditions. Perhaps yours is faithful, but at 500 degrees, you have to tend things closely, expect "errors", and make allowances. Don't be too judgmental if there is a screw-up or two; if all this makes you think of trading in ovens, remember, they're mostly all alike in our "price range"... I tried this maximum of settings (500 degrees) in other ovens, and seems medium to low end residential ovens flake out at high temps. Okay, back to roasted chickens.

Any 500 degree roast recipe requires up to double the "Professional Cooking God" recipe stated times, unless you have a superb quality top of the line professional oven and sous-slaves basting to the crack of your whip.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE TANDOOR:
I studied the one ethnic chicken dish that gets rave reviews the world over: tandoori chicken. I do not want lipstick-red tandoori on my dinner table (did you know the red color in tandoori chicken these days is food dye masquerading for special sauces?) - however, I did want the unbeatable succulence and whatever delicate taste I chose (thyme, lemon, garlic, rosemary) to survive the roasting.

The tandoori gets rave reviews because it is succulent each and every time. And so very tasty. Tandoori chickens are marinated in a yogurt mix without their skin, and stuck in a clay oven which can reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and faster than you can say " "high-temperature reusable surface insulation" they are done! For reference, the Space Shuttle tiles are re-usable up to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit, while average home ranges/ovens max at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

"A tandoori oven is designed to provide very high, dry heat. Fuel for this fire is provided by charcoals lining the bottom of the structure. In order to produce temperatures approaching 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius), employees maintain a long vigil to keep the tandoori oven's coals burning all the time. At such high temperatures, most foods cooked in a tandoori oven develop a very crisp outer layer without sacrificing moistness on the inside."

Hot and fast. The entire bird is done, no chopping into pieces or it won't work. That sounds like roast chicken to me.

Best Roasting Rule #1:
I went with the extreme salting and peppering inside and out, as much under the skin as you can get, and squeeze a lemon over it. Also, it doesn't take a Space Shuttle Scientist to figure out adding a bit of sour milk to the lemon squeeze would do wonders for the taste.

Best Roasting Rule #2:
Short of Space Shuttle tiles and a bevy of coal workers, I was going to have to figure out how Mr. Average Oven could be utilized to simulate 500 degrees. You might marinade things perfectly, but you might still be stuck in non-professional range/oven land. Locate the oven's thermometer.

If you review ovens, say at ePinions you'll see ovens first categorized "Below $1,230" to "Above 9,190", then by brand, by type (single, double, triple) and by "Energy Type" (gas, electric dual); Kitchen Ranges are "Below $740" and "Above $5,200" etc.

For yuks I selected one of the "most affordable" ones, from GE, and went to read the thousands of reviews. Not a single review actually spoke about the product (the range/oven itself). Instead, they griped about the stores they bought their item from. I chuckled at the litany of "rude", "scamster", "unethical", and then scolded myself, "Self, you are living in the kingdom of the corrupt, don't waste your time on the obvious". If a consumer wants actual reviews, a subscription to "Consumer Reports", or some such is the only way to "truth". When I believed in being a consumer I dutifully maintained such subscriptions. I was often quite irritated as "they" would ALWAYS omit from their reviews, at least two of the most or nearly most popular item in a category. So, I wouldn't want to subscribe and then discover for "Kitchen Ranges", they might have omitted "GE", for example.

Review of ranges/oven idea screwed, I am back to relying on my own common sense: The oven is supposed to get up to and hold 500 degrees. If it did not work once for you, then it won't work the second time. I located where the thermometer was placed (e.g., at the top left rear) and decided that will be the "truest" part, and kept turning the bird so every piece of it gets a bit of "prime time" at 500 degrees.

RESULTS:
I did a baseline test for the first one: roasted for the "perfect Roast Chicken" recipe instruction that in 40 minutes it would be done. It wasn't - it was cooked unevenly - on top and raw underneath. With burned thigh ends.

OK. I put it back in, foiled the thigh ends, flipped it and decided it was done at 90 minutes. But by then it was so late in the day, I refrigerated it, and heated it up the next day in the oven, for half and hour. ONLY THEN WAS IT DONE!

However, it was very moist and exceedingly delicious. Something was up. It wasn't supposed to be this way, and I suspected the roaster had been chemically treated somehow, such as being injected with solutions of phosphates and flavoring compounds. If they don't "getcha" on the hormones, the Korporate Food Machine will "getcha" on the chemicals another way. More on that later, and if you think I'm being paranoid just keep reading.

I knew the very high temperature approach was the way to go. I ate the other half two days later, heating it up in the oven for 40 minutes. Again, I could not believe how moist it was. That is not supposed to happen, ever. This occurred even with a frozen chicken I had allowed to thaw thoroughly.

I tested various roaster recipes again. I changed the herbs and the timings and temps and performed proactive oven management and discovered:

BEST ROASTING RULE #3:
Perform Pro-active Oven Management: Turn often - every 15 to 30 minutes, flip the bird once, let it roast for almost two hours at the highest setting of 500 degrees. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM. As for basting, it isn't worth it and it's too dangerous to get near a spitting bird with your face unless you do this every day. You don't need to baste.

OVEN:
Oven at 900 degrees (just kidding) - 500 degrees, OR it's best shot at simulating that.

Personal Safety Check:
When playing with really hot ovens, pay attention to personal safety. Wear a pair of spectacles, sunshades or safety goggles when you open the oven, as the roaster will likely spit at you and you don't want that in your face. Wearing an apron is not an option, it's not about keeping your clothes clean, it's about protection. Make sure your hair, if you have any, is pulled back. Make sure you have several oven mitts, and sheets of aluminum foil out, and several kitchen towels available. Make sure you have standard safety equipment in the kitchen, a fire extinguisher, aloe-vera gel, and ice. Keep the cat occupied elsewhere. Make sure your kitchen floors are clean and dry to avoid slippage. Make sure your fan/range vent is on at least low. Make sure there is light ventilation in the house, and your smoke detectors are working but not neurotic. If it tends to go off toast bread on "dark", you're going to have to do get rid of it because it will go off on a 500 degree oven that is smoking a bird: the sudden, excruciatingly loud noise might make you drop the roast. On the cat. Make sure you keep a surface clear and with heat resistant tiles, e.g. half the range top, so you can place the roast pan on top for the "flippy-thingy" and testing.

INGREDIENTS:
For Chicken: A roaster that (1) isn't underage and (2) hasn't been frozen, or if frozen, the penalty is you have it thawed and marinated for hours. Marinate in salt and pepper with lemon juice and optionally, a bit of sour milk or yogurt only.

For Marinade: Lemon, Butter, Olive Oil or Sesame Oil, Rosemary or Thyme, one heads worth Garlic cloves, Bay Leaves.

For Trimmings: Potatoes, Carrots, Celery, Onion, Ginger (optional)

For time: Maximum, 3 hours start to finish, 1 hour easy, slow prep , 2 hours easy, slow watching the oven.

START:

Do Trimmings:
Boil a large pot of water with onions. Peel large potatoes, and cut into quarters. Place in boiling water for 5-6 minutes, then drain water, leave spuds in pot, with lid on and shake the crap out of it. This will scuff them - giving nice chuffy and puffy roast potato skins.

Remove lid and the "mash potato'" looking stuff from pot and lid. Remove spud, and if you want coat each with some of the mashed potato-y looking stuff. Place these potatoes in a large oven roasting pan around the rack for the chicken.

Peel carrots, slice lengthwise, and cut into 2-3 -4 inch pieces. Do same with celery and ginger. Cut one large onion into large thick slices. Place these trimmings in the roasting pan and spritz with sesame oil and some soy sauce and brandy (or not).

Do Marinade:
Finely dice (I mean really tiny) about 8-9 large cloves of garlic. Place in 3-4 TB olive oil or other oil. Add chopped up rosemary about 5 fresh sprigs, and 1/2 as much thyme, a tiny bit of sage if you have some. Place all this in the olive oil, and add 1/4 cup of softened butter.

Do Chicken:
Wash and pat dry with paper towels. If you have a problem getting the chicken to stand while you prep it - get a clean empty soda can and insert into where you just pulled out the gizzards. But remember to remove it. Now you can coat with sea salt and fresh ground pepper, inside and out. Squeeze a large lemon all over inside and out, and save rinds to insert in cavity later. And, this is where you can mix the lemon with sour milk and rub in.

Using your hands, grab some marinade and coat the chicken with the oil/butter/herb mixture inside and out. Lastly, insert the bay leaves and the lemon halves.

Transfer the chicken carefully onto the rack inside the roasting pan and place in oven.

Roast for 30 minutes and check to see if you need to tent with aluminum foil, or if you should turn the pan around. (Some ovens do not heat evenly). If some part is getting real dark, tear off a piece of foil and cover it, the way they do women's hair in a salon when they are dyeing it.

At 45 minutes turn the pan around.

At the one hour mark, flip the bird over, and continue to cook for 45 to 60 minutes, total 2 hours. To flip the bird over, I remove the roasting pan carefully and quickly from the oven and place on top of the stove. I make sure both hands have oven-mitts, and in each mitted hand, I have grabbed a large square of foil, then I secure the bird with my foil-mitted hands and turn it over. With confidence. Then I return the roasting pan to the oven.

(The preceding is for people who do not have expensive kitchen accessories, and do not wish to have third degree burns while handling really hot stuff.)

Now turn the pan every 10 minutes for another 30 minutes to the 90 minute mark.

At 90 minutes mark, check to see if the roast will be done when the meat is pulling away from the bone, and the juices are running clear. HA! I had that happen and still had red and pink spots at some places inside. But is that really a sign of not being done? NOPE! If you stick a thermometer in at two places in the breast and see it gets up to 180 - 190, that mostly means it's done - or not?

When is is done?
If it looks a nice golden brown all over, and has clear juices, and it's at the correct temps, and you left it in long enough, and you cool it for 10 minutes and you cut it to the bone, and then wait a few minutes for any pink to turn, then see for yourself, only then is it done. If you do not have a meat thermometer, check this out: for thousands of years people didn't. They went by the other signs.

But what if really, you have all the signs it is done and you cut it and oh my gawd, it's still bloody and red inside? Oh the horror, the embarrassment!

This is where we have to have the sad little talk about UNDERAGE CHICKENS.

Here is some good advice on when a chicken is done because even when it is, these days you'll be cutting into the chicken and finding worrisome red spots.

"A more technical explanation of the "bloody chicken" phenomenon is that chickens today are sold much younger than in years past. As a result, their bones are soft and porous due to lack of maturity. This allows bone marrow to seep from the bones into the surrounding meat, especially if the chicken is frozen and thawed. This can result in an undercooked appearance even when the meat is cooked to 185°F."

And even worrisome PINK spots:

"Regarding thigh meat, "it's almost always a little pink when you first cut into the joint, even when overcooked." But if the thigh has been properly cooked, "the meat will lose its rosy tint very quickly on contact with the air."

Be forewarned: The following can turn you into an instant vegetarian - I suggest you read Bloody Chicken by O. Peter Snyder, Jr., Ph.D. of Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management. He summarizes thusly:

"The retail food industry is being forced to sell grossly overcooked chicken in order to get rid of the red blood color around the bones. The result is chicken that is dried out, unappealing, and does not taste good. A counter measure is to needle the chicken, pumping in solutions of phosphates, flavoring compounds, and water, which puts pathogens in the middle of the chicken. If consumers were taught to eat safely prepared, bloody chicken, as they want to do with beef, they would be able to enjoy juicier chicken. This is an interesting problem for the USDA to solve. "

Then he illustrated that these chickens were cooked properly, and pasteurized but noted that a customer would likely call the Department of Health with a complaint if served these wings.

TRIMMINGS:
The spuds will have thick, crispy roasted skins, and the carrots will have shrunk to lovely pieces of carrot sugar; the onions may be black so give them to the person who loves burned onions, there's always one. I place the onions over the other veggies so it can drip onion on the veggies during the roasting, the veggies won't burn but some onions will, but burnt onions are my favorite part of any roast.

GRAVY:
Pour a cup of hot water into the pan, scrape pour the drippings into a saucepan. Add some root (e.g., kudzu root) - a bit of soy, brandy, water, bring to a boil, and that's your gravy.

Ginger Chipotle Cookies

2007-03-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

Ginger is a favorite year round ingredient, and ginger cookies are not just for Christmas. I make them year round too. I followed an Amish recipe for its appeal to men who remember their mothers using a similar recipe, but changed it radically to adjust taste values seasonally.

Ginger will be hot, so you will need the sweet, cloves and cardamom to balance. I like it with a kick, so I add a 1/4 teaspoon of chipotle chili pepper.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup melted unsweetened butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg, beaten
2-3 Tablespoons fresh grated ginger
2-3 Tablespoons of powdered ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of chipotle chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon clove powder
Extra brown sugar

Oven to 350.

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar for a long time, until creamy. Add the beaten egg and molasses, and mix well. Add the spices, and mix well. Then add the flour and mix - it should be a dough like consistency.

Scoop and roll into balls - about 30 of them - roll in brown sugar, and place on a large cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, they will rise and almost join up, and will not be ginger snappy but have a fat, soft dome on top of a ginger snappy base. They taste better fatter.

If you want ginger snappy, make smaller balls, about 50 of them, and bake for about 7-10 minutes check carefully, they could bake faster and burn.

Apple Coconut Pie - the sequel got better

2007-03-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

I am forever in search of the best apple coconut pie and for Spring, wanted a lighter recipe. When I came up with this one, I vowed never to go back to the previous Winter version. It looked and tasted so great I have only this last lonely picture, as it vanished almost instantly.

Ingredients:
1 graham cracker crust, prebaked
3 eggs beaten (definitely only 3)
1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar (or was it 1 1/4)
1/2 cup of melted and cooled butter (definitely a full half cup of melted butter)
8 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or was it 6
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unsweetened finely grated coconut (this is accurate)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup apples cooked finely diced, mixed with 1-2 Tblspoon brandy it could have been a tad more.

Those were the measurements, as best I can remember as I was experimenting and cannot be so sure - you know, was it 1 cup, or 1 and 1/2 or a 1/3 ... hmmm, I'll just have to do this over and over until it's recorded right. The differences are not going to ruin a darn thing.

Preheat oven to 350. Note, you will kick this up to 375 approximately halfway through.

Prepare the apples and let them soak in the brandy. Beat eggs and sugar till creamy, add vanilla, lemon juice, salt, mix well. Stir in apple mix and then coconut, pour into the pie shell and bake for 30 minutes at 350, bake for 20-30 minutes at 375 more until the top is fairly firm, and doesn't wobble. You may have to tent with aluminum but I've never had to and the coconut rises to form a golden brown crust, the apple is in the middle and the butter seeps into the crust dragging the vanilla with it.

You cannot serve this warm, as it will melt. You must refrigerate it overnight, then take it out about 30 minutes before serving. You will not believe your taste buds.

Irish Soda Bread - to go with Irish Stew

2007-03-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

In New York City the Irish deli's bake Irish Soda bread with raisins for St. Patrick's day, and I always asked "how come you don't make it year round?"

Most Irish Soda Bread today is made with sour milk masquerading as buttermilk - so you'd think a restaurant has a good milk recycling reason for Irish Soda bread - I suspected some food mafia is in place to prevent that sort of common sense.

Corporate Butter Milk:
Any Irish Soda Bread recipe will call for a cup or two (1/2 to 3/4 pt) of buttermilk. Here's the scoop on Buttermilk, never forget, there is REAL Buttermilk and CORPORATE Buttermilk, which tastes nothing like the real deal, but there you go, corp-conned again.

Wikipedia says rightly, "Buttermilk is the liquid left over after producing butter from full-cream milk during the churning process. It has a slightly sour taste." Further, "It is quite popular as a refreshment in Northern Europe and South Asia, particularly in Afghanistan, Punjab and the Pashtoon belt in Pakistan and in India. "

Wiki seems to be in agreement with me about the con job on corporate buttermilk: "Most of the modern, commercially available, "buttermilk" in supermarkets is not genuine buttermilk, but rather cultured buttermilk, that is, milk to which lactic acid bacteria have been added to simulate the traditional product. "

And so, fellow food travelers, Real Buttermilk is the popular refreshment I was so fond of, and Corporate Buttermilk is what I suspect Frog vomit, more correctly, Slappy squirrel vomit tastes like. Again, I kid you not..."Traditional buttermilk is quite different from cultured buttermilk: it is thin and slightly acid, while cultured buttermilk is thick and tart." Yecch!

Real Buttermilk:
Real Buttermilk is very healthy. In older-bud-wiser days, "pure cow's milk and buttermilk are described as ‘divine’ food or best source of nourishment for those on a spiritual quest." In fact, long term fasting is usually done in the East on Buttermilk alone. From the annals of the Himalayan Academy we see: "Buttermilk acts as a tonic; it pacifies the doshas and aids in digestion if taken after a meal. Vata people fare best with sour products to which a little salt has been added. The pitta person adds sugar or honey, and kapha types add ginger, black pepper or black chilies. Commercial buttermilk is too sour for consumption and should be avoided. "

If you purchase sour cream or real cream, and you keep it in the refrigerator for days, (OK, in my house it's weeks) and it gives off that thin liquid on the top - that's real buttermilk... drink up! Or save it for Irish Soda bread. Like the real Irish, I mean, real people every where do...

As for the Western debate about drinking cow's milk: "Children may have a glass of milk per day, adults may get their milk through the consumption of ghee, buttermilk and curds. Milk should be considered as a whole food not a beverage." Duh! How could anyone drink a glass of milk and call it a beverage, it hits your stomach like a lead balloon it's that protein and fat rich and heavy.

How to make Sour Milk that's closer to Buttermilk:
"In baking, regular milk can be substituted for buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar or 1 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar per cup of regular milk. Allow the soured milk to stand for ten minutes before adding to recipes." That's also why some Irish Soda bread recipes call for Cream of Tartar.

Conversion:
Thank you to my best reference site for conversions: http://www.wwrecipes.com/convert.htm

1 pint = 2 cups = 16 fl oz = 450 ml (Can usually be rounded to 500 ml)

How to make Irish Soda Bread, and variations:
Never been to Ireland, but have flown over as part of umpteen transatlantic flights, and every time - we're not yet at cruising altitude so still quite low - I could not believe how green it is... I could hardly believe the green. You've got to see it: it's like the bitter in bitter melon, you can't believe how bitter, bitter is until you've tasted bitter melon.. and so, you've never seen green until you fly over Ireland. That's how come I instantly knew their cows have to make some pretty special milk, and their creams and buttermilk must be to die for.

That being said, you now know why you're never going to recreate real Irish Soda bread outside of Ireland, but this is a fair approximation.

A word about leavening agents: baking powder, soda and cream of tartar
Soda bread is a quick bread, and its basic ingredients are flour, baking soda, (some call for baking powder and cream of tartar) and buttermilk.

The acid (sour taste) in the buttermilk reacts with the alkaline base of the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and that causes the leavening, the rising of all quick breads. It must be mixed with acidic ingredients to work. Baking powder contains baking soda and a powdered acid, so it can work without other acidic ingredients, so you don't need buttermilk if you use baking powder, but the baking powder won't be hurt by buttermilk. Use your judgment when mixing and matching ingredients, you'll more often be right.

Quick breads call for a pretty hot oven around 425 degrees, but some bake them with less heat. Most Soda Bread recipes call for a crap load of flour - 4 cups. But it's worth it.

Optional ingredients:
Some put in molasses (aka treacle), caraway seeds, raisins or currants, even apples, and if you're like me, you're going to try to see how you can sneak in Mr. Coconut. But straight-up, plain Irish Soda bread is great with Irish Stew - and so can be served at almost every meal, the way dinner rolls are served in Corporate restaurants.

I keep a stash of plain Irish Soda bread along with Mr. Cornbread and they all freeze quite well if you have to go that route. It goes well with Irish stew, see recipe index, the combo is amazing.

4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon BAKING SODA
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon BAKING POWDER OR 1 tspoon of CREAM OF TARTAR
(Note: you can just use one generous heaping tsp of BAKING SODA)
4 Tablespoons of melted butter
(Note: you can go with cold butter if you have the energy to crumb it into the flour)
1 cup raisins
(Note: you may want to soak them in whiskey, and add the sugar here, plus I add a bit of lemon)
1 or 2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk

(Black and Crispy clause: If you're going to sample the whiskey while making this, beware after the whiskey prep, I once thought one egg looked so lonely, used two, and mistook baking powder for baking soda. I was rewarded with a wonderfully soft, cottony texture - tasted and looked great, but not the Soda bread texture...)

METHOD:
Oven at 425 degrees C., grease a round pyrex pan, or a large cookie (baking) sheet.

Sift and mix the dry ingredients, and make a well. (If you are expert, you can "cut" the hard cold butter into the flour mix until it's crumby - I don't because I always overwork everything and it doesn't rise).

In a separate bowl, beat the egg, add the cool melted butter (else the eggs will cook), and the raisins etc. etc. etc. caraway seeds, mix well, and add to the other well.

Mix decisively and quickly, running your wooden spoon against the side of the bowl, turning using your wrist as your spoon travels to the center to deftly spiral inwards, release and do again. Try to get everything mixed within 30 seconds, until you begins to form ball and you can hardly mix anymore. Some people say turn out onto a floured board and knead for 30 seconds more, but it's likely to soft for this and you do not want to overwork it, one minute of kneading will ruin it. Scoop the whole dough out onto the baking surface you've chosen, take a serrated knife and make a deep X on the surface. This is to let the fairies out.

Pop it in the oven for 35-40 minutes, if the dough was a bit soft you might have to run it for an hour, but it's done when stick inserted comes out clean (it will) and sounds hollow when tapped.

If it starts to brown up too fast, put an aluminum tent foil over it somewhere in the middle. Some recipes call for 325 for an hour to 1 1/4 hours... try it both ways.

BitterSweet Melon-choly

2007-03-22T23:01:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how certain foods remind you of people from your childhood, especially grandparents? In my case, bitter melon reminds me of my grandmother.

Periodically, the grandchildren were deposited into her care, and after some thorough spoiling, she graduated us to other matters: cleaning us up not only on the outside but also on the inside. This involved introducing us to specific adult foods.

One of these was the bitter melon, a dreadfully bitter vegetable - as ugly as it was bitter - and it was so bitter, we were actually excused from not eating the entire serving. Unheard of. We called it the green crocodile from hell because its skin was toady and reptilian. The first time I took a taste, I was so stunned by it's bitterness - I could hardly believe something that bad would be deliberately put on the dinner table.

Grandma tried everything to get us to regard this as a sainted food and not a flat-out inedible poison. She called it "korela". The older kids ate it without fuss, in fact, they were shepherded in, their grown-up eating preferences put on display, and they actually ate it as though they liked it. The adults made a big deal of how smart they were, and how we were so young, likely going to remain that way if we continued to look upon this sainted food as poison. Somehow, we knew this, the most odious and relentlessly bitter-tasting of vegetables, had to be pretty special - you couldn't find a substance more opposite to the idea of sugar than this. So we made faces, but we ate it and grandma really did try to make it taste good. But she never said it wasn't bitter, she said straight up it was very bitter, and very good for you, that it cleaned your blood and made you strong. And she was right. A year or so later, I was among the older and wiser kids, setting a superior example to a new generation of recently assaulted tastebuds. My grandma, Doctor Grandma to you!

To this day, when I see bitter melon in the rare store, I am reminded of my fantastic good health. My subtle knowledge of what foods to select to stay that way I attribute mainly to her...I do pay homage to my entire ancestral line which contributed to this uncanny taste-balance , food-health-diagnostic thing I have. So, I buy lots of bitter melon, and pass on the bitterness. How sweet this memory is, and how I miss her. Now all grown up and then some, I find myself craving it usually around spring cleaning... which is now...

Bitter melon is among the few items that will cure diabetes (and if you don't believe that, it's OK with me, please don't eat it, and if you don't like me making that claim, feel free to climb the nearest legal rope and hang yourself) ... and they're finding out it cures a lot of liver ailments, ...is good for a lot of immuno-supressive diseases. Whatever. I've do crave this thing now, and when I do, I remember those innocent times with bittersweet melancholy, for they can be no more.

I have developed this recipe which gets rave reviews, and calls for seconds and thirds by those who have never tasted bitter melon before.

Bitter melon with yellow lentils (chana dal)

Lentils:
1 cup yellow split peas (lentils)
4 cups water

2-3 Tablespons soysauce (optional)
1 large onion, finely chopped (I prefer white onion)
1/2 head garlic finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons fresh and finely chopped ginger
1 Tablespoon cumin seed or powder if you don't have the seed
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 Tablespoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, if you don't use soy)
4 Tablespoon mix of olive and sesame oil
1 Tablespoon of chana masala which has: amchoor (dried mango powder yum!), ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, anardana (pomegranate seed!), black and green cardamom, black salt, white salt, cloves, turmeric, garlic, nutmeg, mustard seed, bay leaves, asafetida (hing), coriander, cumin, fenugreek (methi) leaves. This is sweeter than the other masalas.

If you don't have it, that's fine too, just use 1 teaspoon of curry powder, or a tiny bit of as many of these ingredients that you do have. Don't worry about the spice balancing. If you can only manage to have one or two spices, make sure these are cumin and turmeric.

Method:

(Warning: The pressure-cooker approach is about as nutritious as flash frying onions in plastic.)

Clean the lentils thoroughly in cold water, and bring to a boil in 4 cups of fresh water. Skim off the beany scum. Add salt, soy sauce (optional), turmeric, masala to the lentils and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile in a small pan, heat oil, and add cumin, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, onion, garlic, and ginger for several minutes; when the spices begin to release their oils, add it all to the lentil mix.

Simmer and stir frequently as the lentils tend to burn. If they do burn, do not stir or scrape, just remove contents to a fresh pot, and continue. Simmer for another hour or so, until the lentils become soft and it turns into a creamy texture.

You will want to serve this over the bitter melon, next to a bed of rice and perhaps other tidbits. Note, it can be refrigerated and heated up the next day for a richer taste. I prefer to split the prep over two days, and re-simmer for 30-45 minutes the next day when I do the bitter melon. In my experience, lentil soup does not keep for more than a three or so days in the refrigerator, and you will know this as it can develop a "sour" smell, and does this quite rapidly, so take care, don't leave it out.

Bitter melon:
1 large bitter melon ripe or not
Turmeric
Cumin
Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
Black mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Soy sauce
A tspn of the chana-type masala which has: amchoor, ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, anardana, black and green cardamom,black salt, white salt, cloves, turmeric, garlic, nutmeg, ral, bay leaves, asafetida, coriander, cumin, methi leaves. This is sweeter than the other masalas. If you don't have it that's fine too.
Optional:
1 medium onion chopped finely
5 cloves garlic chopped finely

Cut melon lengthwise and fish out the seeds. Cut into thin strips and then across so each strip is about 2 inches long. Place in a bowl with some soy sauce (for the salt), some tumeric and a bit of chana masala. Marinate for about 10 minutes.

In a saucepan place some olive oil, and the onion and garlic. Brown them slowly, and add the spices, then the bitter melon. You can skip the onions and garlic if you'd prefer the bitter melon straight up but use the spices. Cover and cook very slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring as it will brown and stick from time to time. In the end, they'll be quite soft with a lot of brown in the pan, it's all good. You may have to add a teaspoon of so of water along the way.

When the lentils are ready, spoon several tablespoons of the bitter melon mix in a soup bowl, pour two ladles of the lentil soup over it, and serve right away.

The lentils give an almost sweet contrast to the bitterness of the melon, and this dish gets rave reviews for taste and health values.

For a more elaborate dinner, I serve this with a fish and another vegetable dish, followed by a slice of the Springtime version of apple coconut pie... washed down with sparkling wine. These sorts of dishes mark the end of winter for me.

AMA ZING Spring Bling

2007-03-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

When Spring rolls around, dont'cha just feel you're trying to throw something off and spring to life? A certain joy fills you and I'm not talking about Corporate Spring Fever, (which TV-transformed itself from an innocent line in a Hollywood song to a patriotic medical syndrome - meaning, an excuse to sell you Corporate Adolph-Pharma's spring allergy drugs).

For those of you who find yourselves ... pick one or more...

sneezing and wheezing
moaning and groaning
meeping and weeping
mind floating and body bloating
blaming and flaming
hogged, fogged and blogged

... it's time to re-balance and cleanse your body and mind and spirit using the Medicine Cabinet of First Resort (MCFR)- your kitchen.

What exactly are you balancing? The Constitution! The Constitution of the United States of Who You Really Are!

What exactly are you cleaning out, getting rid of? AMA! Not just any "ama", THE Ama!

Well, yes, as initials, your brand-name recognition programming identifies the A.M.A. as the Anti-Christ Medical Association. Here it means AMA, pronounced "ama". How appropriate the lead agency for dispensing death-oriented medicine to America in this Age of Adolph, should be named after a bodily-produced substance that is the root cause of all sickness in humans. Holy Crap. Nay! Unholy Crap. Excrementissimus Vilus Iniquitus Lotharious ... EVIL ... like the entire Bush Crime Family, which embedded itself, like AMA, deep within the Global Body Politik, much less the last 6 US Administrations.

[Drum roll maestro, that WAS a good one! You'll NOT likely forget the name of this WOEFUL SUBSTANCE now, will you?]

While we exhort all good people to get rid of the Bush Adminstration from within the body politik, we also exhort all good people to gird themselves with good health in our battle of good vs. evil.

If you want to know what AMA personified looks like, view the corpusculent visage of Karl Rove, you can see pus-drizzled ama coursing in the bulging veins behind his eyeballs... watch Condoleeza Rice closely, if you can stomach it, and see the bile-flecked ama working her mouth and lips, as she spittles forth words in the form of dancing corpses...

We don't want to end up like that do we? Here's how AMA builds up:

EFFICIENT DIGESTION: Eat food, convert to nutrients or waste, all wastes flushed out. No AMA.

INEFFICIENT DIGESTION: Eat food, converts to nutrients or waste, some wastes flushed out, rest stuck in body in digestive system, bio-leaks into surrounding tissue, becomes more toxic, clogs up all tubing, including nerve channels, blocks flow of bio-electricity, known as chi, life force, body feels hogged (like Rove) flogged (like Condi, she was MKUltra programmed in one of the gifted child programs, watch her hand movements!) and blogged (like America?). Lots of AMA.

AMA is the ground in which bacteria, viruses, degenerative diseases, endocrine collapse, heart disease, cancers, diabetes, stroke, kidney and liver failure, substance addictions, including obesity take hold. And when the physical instrument is off, what the heck do you think happens to the mind and spirit? Duh! Like you didn't know this all is the black business of the AMA ...

Fasting and cleansing are the oldest therapeutic interventions known to man (i.e, Homo Sapiens, not Homo Adolpho Pharmo) . So, do not expect the AMA Medical establishment to back this up. This is not their clap-trap, this is the people's medicine, not corporate medicine. This is not AMA medical advice! This is how to get rid of AMA for GOOD!

AMA builds up when your digestive functions are not efficient. If you eat something not suited to your particular and precious constitution, which makes you spectacularly and only you, AMA will build up. If you eat something old that cannot be digested, AMA will build up. If you eat something when your digestive system is off, AMA will build up. When you eat processed or artificial foods, AMA will build up.

That's sort of obvious. What's not so obvious is this: drinking ICE COLD BEVERAGES when eating food shuts down the digestive "fires". This is what a famous Chinese Jewish doctor said about drinking ICE COLD beverages DURING meals:

"YOU GET BIG BELLY - BIG BEER GUT! IN WOMAN, SHE GET GUT HANG DOWN BELOW POOPIK, VERY SAD, EVEN SCARE RATS."

The rest is just common sense:

DON'T EAT HEAVY FOODS IN THE EVENING
DON'T EAT WHEN FULL OR BEFORE THE LAST MEAL IS DIGESTED
DON'T EAT WHILE DISTRACTED, OR NOT MINDFUL.

Okay so we're filled with the treacherous AMA, what's a body to do? Cleanse it out. We already talked about it, the Tridoshic Trump Cards are the way to go, as well as a few other cleansing tricks. It's not rocket science or a bloody mystery, folks. How about simply slowing down the eating. Slowly.

Eat fresh and light like spring... and tridoshic
Drink warm water throughout the day.... take a tip from Buddha Cat...
Kitty likes his tea. In the morning and last thing at night, he insists on a bowl of warm water, that has been thoroughly boiled and allowed to cool to the correct temperature for his pretty little nose. He also wants a drop or two of fresh lemon juice in it. Believe it or not. This is a kitty, who if you forget to do this, will "call you" over, and as you bend down, will reach up with a soft paw and swat you as reminder. No scratches mind you. Then when you bring him his tea, he'll lick you on a specific meridien which will make you feel loopy-happy.
Quick, warm oil body self-massage right before morning shower - Coconut is good, sesame is preferred.
Cook with detox spices such as Cumin, Chili, Coriander, Clove, Fennel, Ginger, Turmeric which also happen to keep the digestive fires burning efficiently.

AMAZING BUT TRUE STORY

I sprouted a whole bunch of Mung beans which looked marvelous, they were such eager little sprouts - the ones I verbally encouraged embedded their little roots practically before my eyes into the paper towels in their joy to grow; damn things sprouted an entire inch over one night!

With equal and misplaced enthusiasm, the next day I rewarded them their yearning to live and express themselves, by scarfing them down, devoured every last one (Insert picture).

[I hope the vegetarian nazi's reading this understand that every living thing has some sentience and it was just as life-taking doing the sprouts in, as it was doing the fish in. I predict that only when vegetarian nazi's get this will all war will stop on this planet.]

Within 4 hours I was rewarded with terrible abdominal cramps which told me there was a lot of AMA in my body, and my digestive fires were low, and I should really cool down this gung-ho lets clean-up and re-balance, Ein, Zwei, Drei, Heil, Heil, (goose-stepping music now) Cleansing Macht Frei! I know, that damn Austrian blood in me gets going when the AMA is in town.

AMAZING RECIPES
I devised a great mung sprout recipe which my stomach loves and is very tridoshic. Excuse me while I call it simply amazing. That's right, a-m-a----z-i-n-g.

AMAZING

Ingredients
1 cup freshly spouted mung beans (sprouting instructions below)
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup brown rice if you can get it
1 lemon
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
Fennel
Coriander
Cardamom

Method
Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the spices toss in the mung beans and stiry fry til the edge is off the beans, add everything else, and remove from heat.

MUNG BEAN PANCAKES

In Japan, these are eaten like rice cakes. They are so tasty I can't seem to get any left over in the fridge past one day.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups mung bean sprouts
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 tablespoon sesame oil
Ground cayenne pepper

Method:
In a bowl, mix the ginger, soy, salt, wheat flour and water. Stir in the mung beans, and make it into a pourable batter of pancake like consistency, just a bit thicker.

Heat the oils in a large skillet over medium heat then reduce to low and pour in just enough batter to make a medium plate sized pancake, make sure it's thin and not too thick. Cook about 4-5 minutes on each side.

The best way to flip this pancake is to get another skillet same size, place over the pancake skillet and turn over, then transfer the flipped pancake to the cooking skillet. Do this over a cutting board so you can retrieve your mistakes with dignity.

You can drizzle some tamari or soy sauce over this, it is delish.

Coconut Head

2007-02-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

With the approach of Spring, my system has changed, and no longer do the wonderful Winter lush rich, exotic, deep-red suffused, velvety, creamy, spicy dishes excite my senses. Rather, my body says quite loudly, what are you thinking, and of course, I was thinking Winter!

One Sunday morning I woke up and suddenly couldn't get enough of huge salads and fruits. Gallons of soup, dozens of peaches and apricots, with Mr. Coconut of course, but he has been relegated to second fiddle in this new Spring Orchestra. And fish, I am in love with Mr. Fish again.

Don't ask me how all that works, it just did, about two to three weeks before the weather definitely made a change. And right in the middle of the change, I went through two weeks where i didn't want to eat a single thing. I was always full. At the end of that I had shucked off the Winter vibe (not weight, I am always at the same perfect ideal weight I always am) and was, well, quite springy myself. It was an energy thing.

But there was one aspect of my health that I was concerned about: my hair. It looked dull, lifeless, and had the texture of old winter hay. Weeks of salads and green and leafy means new life in my blood supply, but what else is a person to do. In addition, it was falling out! Ouch!

So I went down to my local ethnic store and purchased some ANOOP HAIR OIL. It was old and out of date but I was extremely pleased to even find it. It is coconut based, and well, it works. It is also COCONUT OIL based, something my grandma was careful to let me know was the only thing to put on my head.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/05/20/stories/2002052001270300.htm

Did it ever work. ONE single application of Mr. Coconut Plus, as I call this hair oil, (it is definitely not your Corporate Fragrance but smells like something strong and raw deep earthy herbal that just rolled up its sleeves and went to work) - and my hair had its sheen back, had its spring back, and began to behave.

After I washed my hair I sat down to breakfast, ate some coconut flakes with carnation milk, like it was cereal. Then I came up with the Spring regime xyz_recipes.

Like Chocolate for Cornbread

2007-01-28T01:27:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite movies is Like Water for Chocolate. If you take food seriously, as in eating to live (not the other way around), see this movie. In it, the main character Tita pours her soul into her cooking, which causes the people who taste it to experience what she feels.

When we were little, my cousins and I knew this to be true, and would not eat the food our aunties cooked if they were in a bad mood. We were suspicious and superstitious little shits, and we still believe we were right.

To this day, cooking is my way of coming to terms with my life, and setting me back on my path. Through food as my physical and spiritual medicine, those around me taste what it's like to be me. Obeying my first commandment "do no harm", what they most always feel is joy and abandon, or else they starve as I will not cook if I am not balanced and centered. Sometimes though the black and crispy parts of my soul do show through. The taste is bitter sweet. When I put together the Tastewheel this is the stealth program determining what matches when and why.

I think everyone's cooking is like Tita's, meaning, whatever mood you are in comes through in some way. If your sense of taste is acute, you know what I mean. What I think is destroying us, physically and mentally, causing so many food based physical and mental diseases - the soulless cooking of mass produced food.

Anyway, I use mole in cooking when I feel like flying. Here it is, Oh Solee Molee Cornbread.

Solee Molee Cornbread
(A word of caution, all these entries and recipes are copyrighted, so if you want to use any part of them, you have to give credit, and if you use it and change e.g., 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp, you still have to give credit).

Mole paste has some form of nuts and seeds in it. You will find cheap US knockoffs doing a Reese's peanut butter cup imitation by dumping peanut butter and candy store chocolate in the paste recipe. Run far away!

Basic mole paste has these ingredients, more or less, depends on if you want to add tomatillos, onions, garlic, tortillas and chocolate now or later when making the mole sauce from the paste. Since this is for a bread, not for a sauce and the rest of the poblano drill, I use a paste which already has:

Chilies: Anchos, Pasilla, Mulato
Nuts/Seeds: Almonds, Sesame Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds (pepitos)
Dried Fruits: Raisins
Spices: Canela (Mexican soft bark cinammon), Cloves, Peppercorns, Oregano, Mexican Chocolate
A few Tblspn of Oil

That's just to point you in the right direction. Authentic regional variations pastes can only be appreciated by starting off with the basics. Variations add Anise Seed, tomato, onion, garlic to this and one US variation adds a bit of raw peanuts in small quantities. That's just because they couldn't get the Sunflower seeds which is a required ingredient in some regional variations.

A word about the chocolate: If you really want authentic try doing the roasted carenero andsur del lago/maracaibo cacao beans.
A word about the spices: Some variations add cumin, nutmeg or thyme. I always add cumin.
A word about the chilies: chilhuacle chiles if you can find, else substitute the more easy to find anchos.

Unless I've prepared this paste ahead of time, I'm going to be using store-bought mole paste that's been sitting around for a while, either in my refrigerator or a Mexican market. Here's the important part. Take a bit of the mole paste and TASTE it, raw. Dense, dark, earthy, sweet, thick, grainy, hot.... and this was meant to go with poultry to balance it. However, there's going to be no chicken in this recipe, how do we balance it, what strange item oft overlooked in the food closet makes this work into cornbread to fly for?

Cornbread Recipe
(Oh wait, I've entered this into a contest so you'll have to wait til after the contest - sorry those are the rules!)

Solano Cornbread

2007-01-28T01:06:00.000-08:00

Traditional Mexican "fiesta" style cornbread has no flour. It's very savory, goes well with chicken dishes, especially coconut chicken. The other cornbread (with flour) goes better with red meat dishes.

We get a lot of good Mexican style salsa casera (picante) in these parts, and I replace the usual jalapeno peppers with this. Some recipes call for onions, but I dice a few spring onions really fine, add to the salsa, and kick it all up with the local chipotle pepper mix. This is the place I threw caution to the winds, and had fun with mole paste and bitter chocolate powder. I call that one Oh Solee Molee Cornbread and I just might put the recipe up one day.

1 C cornmeal
14.5 oz. can whole kernel corn
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs well beaten
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup regular milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter melted and cooled
2 heads spring onions finely diced
2 Tbl salsa casera picante
1 tsp chipotle pepper mix
1 cup shredded cheddar or jalapeno cheese

Mix the salsa with onions and pepper
Mix the wet ingredients and add salsa mix to it
Mix the dry ingredients, make a well
Add the wet to the dry mixing thoroughly
Pour into a greased 8x8 pan
Sprinkle cheese on top.
Bake at 350 for 45 mins.

This recipe creates a very rich crumbly cornbread. Sometimes, I add a half to one cup of flour, another egg, and a 1/2 tsp of baking powder or so to give it a more textured body.

Cold and Flu Nutraceuticals

2007-01-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

We're gonna get nutraceutical. I got this from a website I call Grandma Crystal's website, who posted some healing recipes. This one was posted by Di Anna as opposed to me Mono Anna, and was under a section for Bath Salts, Lip Balm & Other Healing Recipes.

I like it's simplicity, but it is a bit harsh and only half the solution. I have a thing to say about cold-flu remedies. You're feeling crappy enough so why can't there be something more appealing that works. I have one, it's after Dianna's. Dianna says this one is an old Norwegian recipe and I guarantee you it would work up to a point. It is missing a few things, but it is a nice short term solution.

Garlic and Onion are the feature attractions, while and Honey and Nutmeg are backup singers in this old Bumping and Dumping act. They bump up the immune system and dump antiseptics into the bod. But what about rebalancing the bod? Getting colds and flus is about your immune system taking a hike on you. This means your own bod is out of balance. We have to add a good Thumping to straighten that out, and that's presented later.

Bump and Dump Cold/Flu remedy
In Juicer blend:
1 med.size onion
4 fresh garlic sections
(use juice only)

Add to juice:
2 tbsp. melted honey
¼ tsp. nutmeg

Chug a lug. Were I a bug, I'd chug my lug and leave you too.

Here's a more evolved though somewhat involved idea, and it does involve whiskey, and I caution you that means in your flue-ey state, it comes with a Black and Crispy Clause which goes like this. "Caution, do not confuse an open fire with a place to toss-about negligently with alcohol; the resultant explosion will likely leave your place of abode, not to mention you, your drawer strings and hair in a black and crispy condition, which will lead to invitations for you to move to Red Cross shelters, cold hospital rooms, and be followed with headaches of legal hassles and recriminations, not to mention date-canceling, and your reputation in flames on neighborhood bathroom walls, take my word for it, it isn't worth it."

The Thumper: Po-Ja Inspired Flu remedy

Po-ja also called "Po-be ja" and is a Tibetan word for well, Tibetan tea, as the land of Tibet is know as Po, which is pronounced as a cross between a B and a P, trust me you gotta hear it to believe it. The Ja is like the Indian Cha for Chai.

Tibetan tea is churned with butter. Not Yak butter. A word about that later.

These people - the Tibs - and others like them - have made a living for millenia above the tree line. "Can you hear me now, veggie-box people"? Above the tree line. That would be above where the green and leafy grow. I suppose one answer could be "let them eat dirt." But, forgive them, that's not what they did.

They lived around their revered Yak. yes, they planted barley and mustard seeds and flowers and anything that would grow in the short growing season up in the high cold Tibetan plateau. Yes they did, and they came to know the medicinal properties of anything that eked a life up there: plant, animal or mineral. Yes, stones are considered living in their tradition. Thank you Pema Wangyal I finally got it. Life hung in the balance in this harsh cold barren region, people developed a great respect for the sanctity of live. They also knew a basic tenet on this planet, that for anything to live, something must die, be it bug, plant or animal.

Back to the Yak

Yak Milk, and Yak Butter. NO such thing. The Yak is male and hence does not give milk. It is the Dro, the female which gives milk. There is precedence in the West: Bulls give Shit and Cows give Milk, right? In Asia, it's Dro Milk.

Thumper
In a pot on the stove top:

3 black tea bags some water to brew it
1 tsp ground black pepper
Dash of cayenne
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1 cup fresh Ginger grated
1/2 stick Butter (cow or dro, clarified as ghee or whatever greases your fancy)
1/2 cup Whiskey (be good now, it's an ingredient, not the main course)
1/2 cup jaggery or honey
1/2 cup lime juice
Cardamom

A word about whiskey and alcohol in general: this has nothing to do with morality, it's to do with understanding the natural laws of the universe. Everything has a place and time.

Citation:
"Alcohol is a powerful substance that has dangers that should not be taken lightly. Ayurveda, contains clearly defined views on the use alcohol. Alcohol as a solvent for extracting the active ingredients of certain herbs. Tinctures are used in western herbalism in the same way. Ayurveda also prepares special herbal wines for a weak digestion and as relaxants for stress. Certain alcoholic beverages (like wine) can have health benefits, like improving digestion or circulation, but only taken in moderation. Excessive alcohol consumption can cause or contribute to physical or psychological diseases. Excess alcohol can damage the liver, make the blood toxic, and overheat the brain. Alcohol can impair our mental judgment as well as our sensory coordination. "

I put the whiskey in there because you want the effect on circulation with the black pepper to speed up the elimination of the excess doshas. You will pee and sweat it out. Oh right this is a food blog and there I go again talking about the other end. Just not done is it? Well keep it between us.

You know what to do next. Make the tea with the ginger, hot and strong, add butter and stir, (churn if you can) add honey/jaggery and stir, add lime and stir, and the spices, stir the crap out of it, turn off the flame add the whiskey and as soon as it is cool enough to swallow, down it all in one fell swoop.

Wrap yourself up in dry blankets and don't move until they are wet. If that didn't start your perspiration engine on your terms, go back, and do it again, increasing the hot things...

So what happened to the onions and garlic?

You probably know this: you get sick because your body is out of balance. You get out of balance because you're not eating the right things for your constitution and living context. You are not eating the right things because you stopped listening to your body, or your sense of taste needs adjusting. When you eat the wrong things for your constitution, your liver and kidneys are the first to know about it.

Right, so when you have a cold/flu you have an excess of wind/heat. You want to reduce the Wind and Heat. How to rebalance underlying unbalanced constitution? Not with Onions and Garlic as the primary tonic. "Considering that the object is to give thedigestive and nervous system as much of a rest as possible, it isadvised to eat as lightly as your particular constitutionwill endure. " Citation. Onions and garlic are not light. The lovely tridoshic rice porridge is.

Citation:

Sito Paladi In India, the vegetarian Hindus use a revered Ayurvedic preparationcalled Sito Paladi Churna for colds. This preparation depends on theuse of certain herbs mixed with raw brown sugar to supplementnutritional energy. Most of the herbs in sito paladi are readilyavailable and consists of the following: raw brown sugar, bamboomanna, pippli long pepper, cardamom and cinnamon. It is a primary anti-kapha or anti-mucus remedy especially good for internal coldness with accompanying clear or whitish mucus.

Bamboo manna (phylostachys nigra) is the inner sap of bamboo. It iscalled zhu li in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and is similarlyused to clear inflammation and phlegm from the lungs. Pippli (piperlongum) called bi ba in TCM, along with the other ingredients insito paladi are hot and counterbalance the cooling energy of bamboomanna. Although, not as preferred, one can substitute black pepper forpippli in this formula. These herbs tend to stimulate circulation andraise the body's resistance to external cold pathogens.

A simplification of this combination is readily made by combiningpowdered black pepper, cardamom, echinacea root (either purpurea orangustifolia) and, if available, adding kudzu starch powder.

Onions is "hot", eliminates phlegm, is a stimulator, causes the formation of urine, increases appetite and the supreme destroyer of wind humor. It is beneficial in eliminating all the three excessive humors i.e. phlegm, wind and bile. However, onions in order to eliminate phlegm must be crushed and boiled not merely juiced. Although raw onion juice is marvelous for the nervous system, and gives great strength making it a tactical approach, it's not specific to the imbalance inviting colds and flus.

Tilapia Migas - Indian Austrian Mexican Style

2007-01-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

Once every two weeks, I make a point to use up all the vegetables left over in the refrigerator. I usually start guilt tripping about the 10 day mark, and develop a fine fear of looking to see how far the left-over vegetables have gone.

Work always gets in the way of an overly ambitious cooking schedule. I invite vegetable cutting boy to come by. He pulls everything out, half filled bags of chard, mustard leaves, bok choy, tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, carrots, onions, spring onions, shallots, garlic, small red potatoes - he says it's not bad at all, there's nothing to throw away but you have to cook these now.

So he weans, preens, lops, chops, slices and dices; soon a rainbow of vegetables look up expectantly. The first thing I do is open a can of Mexican salsa verdes in vinegar toss a good bit over each of the vegetables, over the fish marinade. But, not the potatoes: the potatoes will be cooked "dry" in Indian spices and onions.

Then I select the spices - a range of masala ingredients - and a container of nutritional yeast. That's the Austrian part you see.

Nutritional yeast is not quite brewer's yeast, but it supplies B-12. The corporate yeast monopoli-nistas like to enroll vegans that only their version has their holy grail B-12.

While we're on this subject, what did vegetarians do before the advent of "Korporatische"? Vitamin B-12 must be supplemented by those on strictly vegetarian diets, as well as other amino acids, which raises all kinds of interesting Darwin-esque questions about people inside their veggie-only box...

"Nutritional yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a food yeast, grown on a molasses solution, and comes in powder or flake form. It has a pleasant-tasting, cheesy flavor and can be used directly on vegetables, baked potatoes, popcorn and other foods as a condiment. It is different from brewer's yeast or torula yeast. It can often be used by those sensitive to other yeasts. Yeasts are not animals! Yeasts are part of the group fungii. They were originally considered to be plants even though they do not produce chlorophyll, now they have their own kingdom. "

"Natural nutritional yeast has been recognized as an excellent source of essential nutritional elements. One heaping tablespoon provides more protein, with all the essential amino acids, than most common foods. nutritional yeast provides all the B-vitamins, including choline and inositol, RNA and DNA, and all the important mineral and trace elements natural to yeast. Nutritional yeast tastes good because it is a primary yeast grown specifically as a food supplement."

I had a feeling that the yeast business got serious in Germany, France and Austria - them thar places that were the Western birthplaces of BEER und VIN. Und indeed, we find zat is zo! The Lesaffre Yeast Corporation is "leading the world in yeast research and technology" and at their fine site we read about their GREAT STEP FORWARD.

"In 1871 the Austrian Baron Max von Springer, owner of an excellent distillery at Maisons-Alfort, introduced from Vienna the idea of extracting yeast from the grain fermentation wort and selling it to bakers. Up until that time, the bakers had used their own sourdough, sometimes accompanied by residual brewery yeast. The following year, Lesaffre and Bonduele developed the process of manufacturing fresh yeast at Marcq-en-Baroeul, with the operation being housed in a former mill. The Societe Industrielle Lesaffre grew from this site. This company gradually emerged as the driving force and the platform for the industrial and commercial expansion of the yeast branch of the Group."

Well, there you go. Out of the grain wort sprang yeasty Austrians... and a century plus later:

"In February, 2001, Lesaffre Yeast Corporation further expanded its presence in the US yeast industry with the purchase of Red Star Yeast from Sensient Technologies Corporation. The Red Star family featured a consumer yeast brand as well as commercial products for the wholesale, bakery, foodservice and nutritional yeast industry. This merger continued to increase SAF’s leadership position in the U.S. yeast industry and gave the resulting company a strong national network of plants delivering quality yeast products to bakery, food, agriculture and nutriceutical markets.

Well that explains a comment at a veggie site: "...one might conclude that Red Star T-6635+ nutritional yeast, and probably no other variety, is a reliable dietary source of B12 at this time."

Oh puh-leeeeeze. Corporate jingle jangle. Merdekopf-ische. That's French-Austrian for "shit for brains". More on "neutriceutical" monopolies later, but I have to dig up Linda Ronstadt's "Lets get physical" for that one.

Back to the fish and veggies. A multiplicity of veggies works well with blander tasting fish, so I always make sure I have Tilapia (and real Tortillas) on hand and I set out four pans for a fish and veggie dinner that always garners a vow never to cook anything else again.

Fish
Potatoes
Green and Leafy only
Celery/Mushroom/Peppers - everyone else

Potatoes
These should be thinly sliced. In a saucepan with olive and sesame oil, add the onions, and cook until soft, then add "masala" components: cumin, tumeric, coriander, fenugreek, salt, red pepper, ginger powder, garlic powder and bring it to the point the spices begin to turn in the pot, stirring. Now add the sliced raw potatoes, and cover. Let the potatoes get really brown on one side, then turn, and cover again. Keep doing this until the spuds are done. Keep the heat to medium low, more low.

Remove, set aside and cover.

Green and leafy vegetables
In a wok style pot, place some olive oil then add the chard and other green and leafy cut small. It will look fairly mountainous and will cook down to only a few handfuls. Sprinkle soy and your leafy green spices over the mountain - tumeric, cumin, chili pepper together with a good dose of nutritional yeast. Note, I did not cook these spices in the oil. This is considered a crime in some Indian cooking circles, and I laugh defiantly at them.

Fish
Cut the tilapia into stew sized pieces, put lemon juice over, and marinate in a bit of rice wine vinegar and soy. In a pan heat some sesame seed oil with a bit of olive and very slowly fry a finely diced mix of the onions: spring and shallots etc. When half way to translucent, add cumin, coriander, ginger powder, red pepper powder and garlic powder. When cooked to where the onions are ready, add tilapia with marinade. Sprinkle some dried tarragon over this.

Cook about 5-6 minutes stirring gently once or twice. Remove from pan, put aside.

Celery Mushrooms Peppers etc.
Olive oil now, heat and add celery, mushrooms, peppers and anything else that doesn't fall into the other categories. Add soy, sprinkle the "hard vegetable" curry spice mix over, and stir. Now add a heavy sprinkle of nutritional (brewer's) yeast, two turns of the pot.

On low heat, cover and let cook til done. Use your judgment, you're in control.

Tortillas (optional)
In one of the pans I place a bit of oil, and place whole tortillas and cook til crisp, placing on a paper towel to absorb the oil. I do this for as many people as are sitting for dinner, or else for a simpler meal, I serve the fish over spuds, and the veggies around that.

Otherwise, I place the tortilla in a place, the fish in the middle, and the spuds and veggies in a circle around the fish. The tortilla is eaten when it has soaked up the amazing juices, and are easy to cut. You will have happy tummies set aglow with the exotic spices and the fish is delish.

Disclaimer: No vegans were harmed in the preparation or consumation of this dish.

Sourcream Coconut Cornbread

2007-01-09T18:08:00.000-08:00

Oops I did it again. Another insult to the South. I put flour in a cornbread recipe. Not only that, I used baking powder and baking soda. Good god, I can see the Dixie Mafia foodies on corporate food blogs burning a cross for me as I write this. I confess, I did think "cream-style corn" in a can they like so much, but thank god it was fleeting.

Instead, I turned to fresh corn and creamed it myself. Creaming corn according to XYZ taste wheel methods goes like this:

Coconut Creamed Corn
8 oz petite sweet corn niblets, fresh or frozen
1 cup evap milk
1 - 2 Tb Molasses
Coriander, Cumin, Chili Powder, Coffee
[1/2 tsp of the spices and 1/5 cup strong black coffee]
2 Tb Coconut Cream
1/3 cup Coconut flakes unsweetened

If you want, add 1/3 cup raisins drowned in cognac. This will change the straight-up savory earthy flavor which counterpoints well with an apple-carrot-celery winter soup or an Irish stew. Or else, add 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, or a few cones of piloncillo/jaggery melted in hot water.

Put it all in a pot, stir well, and put on real low heat for a while. Do NOT slime it up with corn syrup and corn starch please.

Here's the recipe for what is actually known as 6-C cornbread in my kitchen - Coriander, Cumin, Chili Powder, Coffee, Corn, Coconut.

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking POWDER
1 tsp baking SODA
(Note there is no added sugar in this recipe because the corn has that)

Wet Ingredients:
1 Cup Sour Cream
3 eggs
1 stick butter, melted.
1 can's (14-16oz) worth coconut cream style corn as above

Method:
The usual cornbread drill: Mix dry well, make a well, mix wet well, add to the well, mix the mix well. Pour in an 8 by 8 buttered pan.

Bake at 380 for 35 minutes, and 400 for 5 minutes. Or 385 for 40 minutes. Depends on whether you have added the raisins or not. Without the coconut its 375 for 40. A stick inserted in the middle should come out clean.

Results:
The coconut flakes add a subtle crunch and satisfying texture. It looks like cake, but tastes like rich savory bread, pure corn bread. It has deep, earthy tones; it is moist with a good solid crumb around the corn niblets.

The molasses provides a springboard for the other spices. You can also serve this with those very spicy chili recipes you do for chili contests. It has not a whit of sweet, and you don't want to sugar it up, instead you might just want to do the raisin version.

Tridoshic Trump Cards

2007-01-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

There are only a few magical food substances that balance all three constitutional types. The constitutions are called "doshas" so these things are called tridoshic. This means no matter who or what you are, these things will center your body back to the natural state for your exquisitely particular and specific body type, and of course, regardless of what you've done to it all your life so far, which makes it so exquisitely and preciously yours.

Kind of magic huh? Sort of what god would have had in mind, strafing the desert wandering Israelites with manna from heaven? As a kid going to Catholic school, I thought surely some religious food magic was in the communion wafer we got at mass. In fact, we all were led to believe the manna from heaven were likely communion wafers. First time I got up there the priest mumbled "Body of Christ" and I almost choked. "Too late, they got me! another church trick!" I stumbled back wondering if I had been double-crossed into cannibalism; I swear I almost puked. I mean in catechism they said it was to "represent the body of Christ" - but that's not what HE said, he said it like it was the real deal. He fervently meant it. Back in the pew I considered whether I should spit or swallow. As it stayed in my mouth dissolving I had to makeup my mind whether I ditched God by spitting him out or not in full view of the nuns. Could have been then the rumors started about kids disappearing to make the wafers. I had nothing to do with that. I swear.

Definitely not tridoshic, and not body nor mind balancing for me.

Well, just as a taste test, which of the following food substances do you think has the magical tridoshic triple-witchy-whammy?

Adzuki Beans
Asparagus
Beets
Black Pepper
Cardamom
Carrot
Coriander
Fennel
Green Beans
Gooseberry
Mung Beans
Rice
Saffron
Zucchini

Interestingly, all of them.

The most famous balancing act in the kitchen is the rice dish called Kitcheree. It's quite the healing dish. My mom used to put coconut in it, and since ghee in small quantities is tridoshic also, I'm going to illegally add coconut oil, almond butter and ghee in small quantities to my list. Just because.

There is another secret ingredient. It IS the real manna the Israelites appeared to be strafed with, from heaven no less, and when you have it and add it to the above, and change the method a bit, the results are miraculous. So miraculous I would be excommunicated from this planet much less the Roman Catholic church. So I can't write it down here, but it you pay attention to this blog (and hence, don't have a life, you'll figure it out in a bit).

You can create recipes that end up with a tridoshic hit, with a recipe that uses a lot of the trisdoshic ingredients. Here's a few of them, starting with Kitcheree.

Trisdoshic Manna

You will need a large sturdy pot.

1 cup Brown Rice - washed
1 cup Mung Beans - washed
10 cups Holy Water
1 TBspn lemon juice

Toss both rice and beans into the pot, bring to boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. You must stir frequently because the beans will tend to stick to the bottom of the pot.

In the mean time, mix:
1 onion, diced
1/2 head garlic fined diced
1 large or 2 small carrots diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 Tblspn ghee, and if you don't have that, try olive, sesame or coconut, or even butter heated and strained, which is what ghee is.
2Tblspoon soy sauce, or more to taste

To the above add, more or less:
1 tsp black pepper
1 tblspn turmeric
1.2 tsp cayenne
1-2 tspn or more coriander - this will give it an earthy taste and some don't like
1 tsp fennel
If you have saffron, gosh yes! add it!

Now add the spiced veggies to the rice-mung bean mix and simmer for another 30 minutes. You must stir frequently. This makes a large quantity equivalent to at least 10,000 communion wafers. Put into double meal sized containers and freeze - voila! readily available tridoshic trump cards that the Vatican will have you hung for, under Blackfriars Bridge no less, on your next London vacation.

No more "rice-rocket" pots

2007-01-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Aren't you tired of all those rice recipes, really instructions on laminating your pot-bottoms with black carbohydrate polymers that look like space shuttle heat tiles after re-entry?

I know. Buy a rice cooker and be done with it. And I might just do that, but I cannot bring a rice cooker with me on real camping trips. And, I cannot bring a rice cooker with me in any real Emergency in which FEMA intervenes, because you know (you may not, but I do) their appearance on scene transforms dire, urgent, serious but human-manageable emergencies into a "get the hell out of town now cluster-fuck!". In other words, in an emergency, rice is a great food to bring along, because it is easy to pack, also medicinal, but not so the rice cooker.

If you know how to use Rice the way they do in Ayurvedic Asia, then you know that rice is a food and a medicine. This is good to know especially in situations where the water supply is questionable, or the state of health and hygiene of the dishwasher, cook, waiter, manager at your local 5 star restaurant is questionable. Did anyone say "norovirus"?

So here's the scoop on really, really and truly, how to cook rice, and it isn't in any Western cook book, or on those corporate food racketeering blogs. Also a baseline XYZ note on "bio-medicine" and bio-medicinal uses of rice.

Healthy Way to Cook Brown Rice - SOAKING

Note: Rice is always BROWN as in BRAN BROWN.
SOAK the rice in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes.

(Dear me, what an obvious concept, especially if you've ever cooked beans, or anything hard and dried; who took the soaking out of rice cooking - and what happens when you don't soak? Therein lies the answer as to why corporate recipe-heads took the soaking out).

The point of this soaking is so the rice grains can absorb some water. Long, pointy grains need more soaking. Now drain off this soak water, and let the rice breathe for about 10-15 minutes. This is an easy-going way to do things, because right about now you're preparing the other stuff for your rice dish.

The rice just isn't going to get mushy or burnt this way, which is more often the result with the ubiquitous corporate recipes: "bring to a boil, stir once, and leave undisturbed for 30,40 or 50 minutes". Here are pictures of how this method ends up, even with my spiffy All Clad top of the line cookware. (have to post pictures)

NOW combine the soaked, drained, aired rice with fresh water, salt and lemon juice. Why the lemon juice? It prevents oxidation yes, but also prevents sticking, so no butter or oil please. Fats change the pure taste and health values of the rice. Lemon juice synergizes health benefits of the rice. Rice is healthy for your intestines; the lemon juice aids digestion. Rice specifically soothes inflammation left by e.g., undigested food festering in your alimentary canal. I know it's not "done" to talk about what happens to your food once it leaves one set of expensive China on the table on it's way to the other expensive China on the floor. But hey, it's me. It's what I do.

Lemon juice just might do something for acid reflux. This makes sense because the detox program that save my life - part of the process used vinegar mixed with apple cider to cure our stomach problems, including acid reflux. I haven't done the research with lemons, but here's what I'm going on. An extreme version of acid reflux, which is a sort of "stomach acid regurgitation" is called "rumination". It's sad because severely developmentally disabled children can suffer from this, where bits of food are constantly regurgitated.

...Long-standing rumination in a profoundly retarded girl was treated using lemon juice as a consequence of the rumination. Rumination was nearly eliminated and weight was increased as a function of the use of lemon juice while the child was in a daycare center. "...

The lemon, malum medicum or the "medicinal fruit", was originally cultivated "in the hot, semi-arid Deccan Plateau in Central India". In the book, Back to Eden, Jethro Kloss writes, "The medicinal value of the lemon is as follows: It is an antiseptic, or is an agent that prevents sepsis [the presence of pathogenic bacteria] or putrefaction [decomposition of tissue]. It is also anti-scorbutic, a term meaning a remedy which will prevent disease and assist in cleansing the system of impurities.” Due to the digestive qualities of lemon juice, symptoms of indigestion such as heartburn, bloating and belching are relieved. By drinking lemon juice regularly, the bowels are aided in eliminating waste more efficiently thus controlling constipation and diarrhea.

Seems that rice and lemons were always meant to "go together", ask every healthy inch of your alimentary canal. So, what do you eat with meat to enhance complete digestion? Veggies or rice? Food combining requires a little more thought than "separate carbs and meat", though there is a time and place for that.

Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Test for done-ness because you're close, depending on the type of rice. Lower the heat and simmer for 5, 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the grain of rice. See chart.

Note: there are three stages. 1. Soak and drain 2. Boil 3. Simmer.

Three different stages, three different heat settings, plus lemon juice. Does this make it more difficult, no, it makes it easier. What if you left it soaking for an hour, not a big deal! What if you left it airing for an hour? Not a big deal. And when you boil and simmer, it will likely be for a mere 10 - 30 minutes at most even with the hardest grains of rice. No more rice-rocket pots.

Healthy Way to Cook Brown Rice - TOASTING
Rice: Fluid about 3 :1 depending on the type of grain

Heat a heavy skillet over a moderate flame.
Add 2 cups rice and toast lightly.

In a separate pot, bring 2 cups water and 1 cup tomato puree to a boil. Or 2 cups water, 1 cup coconut milk, or 1 cup water, 2 cups broth, even 2 cups of water and 1 cup of pure lemon juice - with something to take the edge off, I don't know, coconut and honey? Am I making myself clear? The corporate food nazis will scream "chemistry", "you need a PhD in chemistry and a license from us before we let you near your stove". I say, bugger off, this is personal body alchemy.

Pour all liquid over the rice.

Mix in the amounts your heart desires from this list: minced fresh garlic, medium chopped onions, minced cilantro.

Cover, turn heat to very low and cook for about 25 or 30 up to 50 minutes depending on the type of rice grain.

The term Bio-Medicinal and the Bio-Medicinal properties of Rice
I've invented the word "bio-medicinal" to distinguish from the "corporate-medicinal" world as legislated by the Corporate FDA. Oh, did you say FDA was a Government Agency? Well, never mind, you'll get over it, but here's the real scoop: there's no difference.

Now, with the word "bio-medicinal", I'm not in their world, and they're not in mine. Their corporate FDA world treats my body and your body as their legal entities, and have succeeded in legislating over our social security bodies as though it were their property. Through insurance companies of course.

Here's the point at which I'm supposed to put a disclaimer. You know, you see all these "holistic medicine" Internet sites, and articles and books, with the required disclaimer "This is not REALLY good medical advice; for that, you have to check with your legally FDA sanctified physician for proper corporate medicine, the only intervention the government allows you to take for your corporate body with a corporately recognized malady".

Right, what I have isn't corporate medical advice. Duh, hardly anything that makes common sense is, now is it? We shall publish the disclaimer with pride and in words we the people understand: "Not the sort of propaganda you'll get from those numb-nuts".

Rice as Medicine
An ancient food, rice cultivated 10,000 years ago too. The oft-overlooked humble rice bowl. “Archaeological findings of the Indus civilisation reveals that wild rice was eaten in advanced Mesolithic or pre-Neolithic (c 8080 plus/minus 115 B.C.) period Prolific use of rice husk and chaff as pottery temper ... 5440 plus/minus240 B.C ..."

Rice Water cures intestinal maladies
A decoction of rice, which we call Rice Water is used to re-balance your intestinal activity. A long time ago and so very far away I was in the foothills of the Himalayas on my 11th sequential giardia attack. Stubborn as always, I was going to teach my intestines a thing or two about adjusting to the local diet, as I was going to be there for a year, and did not have the time or inclination, to be a full time American Princess foreigner for that year.

Taking pity on my state and total ignorance at how to manage the wondrous biosphere known as "my own gut", my hosts whipped me up a decoction of rice water. Where those blue, liver-destroying pills had failed, the rice water worked in 10 minutes. Grate some apples (yes, with the deadly skin washed in the same deadly water too) and put in the rice water. I was eating, better yet successfully drinking lots of water again, within the hour.

(Blue, liver-destroying pills: Flagyl, prescribed ahead of time by my corporate doctor among other prescriptive items I had spent a few thousand dollars on, just in case).

What else is Rice good for? Everything!
Source: http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/pgrnewsletter/article.asp?id_article=11&id_issue=122

"In Ayurveda the medicinal values of rice have been described: rice is considered to be acrid, oleaginous, tonic, aphrodisiac, fattening, diuretic and useful in biliousness (Caius 1986)...Rice water is recommended as an excellent demulcent, refrigerant drink in febrile and inflammation diseases and also in dysuria. " [Febrile means fever].

Rice has cooling properties and is used to soothe all kinds of tissue inflammation. Do you hear me, "all kinds" from the deep internal to the external.

Rice and their sprouted greens are used as an eye tonic. Dried, powdered rice is used on many kinds of skin flare-ups. Again, rice sprouts are used to cure a wide variety of digestive ailments of course, because indigestion and weak alimentary canals are usually due to crud, left-over, undigested, rotting and festering bio-substances, unwisely combined; eventually our intestines become sewers, gassy, bilious, fatty, eventually spilling and toxifying our systems, leading to degenerative diseases.

What specific type of rice do you get if you need to be serious about this? Njavara. Or red rices.

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=155&page=16

“These researchers too mention about the medicinal properties of not only the Njavara variety but also Cbhmennelu and Rakhtashali saying that “it is believed that the Njavara variety, which matures in sixty days, has the medicinal property of redressing tridosha (the Ayurvedic term for imbalance in body humors) the root cause of body ailments. This rice has the unique capability to enrich body elements, to exclude toxic metabolites, to strengthen, regenerate and energise body, to regulate blood pressure and to prevent skin diseases and premature ageing…

That be said, you've got to these people who have put out this web site, and work so very hard to bring this to the rest of the world. http://njavara.org/

Saffron also has tridoshic properties, which makes saffron rice pretty special if you know what you're doing. Speaking of tridoshic trump cards in another entry, I should mention here, that...

1/4 teaspoon dry ginger plus 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
plus
1/2 teaspoon teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

...is a tridoshic mix. Hence the raison d'etre of X+Y+Z recipes. When you make your saffron rice, add those spices in those combinations and that's the rice rocket that will help you balance your system. A balanced body experiences those much sought after mind miracles. Happy space travels.

Taste Values:

Health Values:

Nectar of the Gods - Krupnikas

2007-01-04T00:45:00.000-08:00

I have been fascinated with heavily spiced liqueurs that call for saffron. This one appears to be as complex as any medicinal tonic and it is referred to as nectar of the gods. Make it, and tell me it isn't so.

The way I got to this recipe was through the Coal Region's (the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania) recipe for Boilo. The Boilo recipe struck a note with me, because I came across a medicinal tonic in the Himalayas with the same idea.

Sooner or "afterlater", as they say in coal country, I found the recipe that may have inspired Boilo. Here it is. Thank you CoalRegion - though I'm worried about yiz'll (youz?) winning for the most roadkill deer in any State from New York to California, a cross-country metric from two years ago.

http://www.lithuanianglobal.org/recipes/honey.html
Posted by someone named LAIMA. Thank YOU Laima!
LITHUANIAN HONEY LIQUEUR [KRUPNIKAS]
(Gosh darn it, check out my recipes and tell me this isn't the way I cook!)

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons caraway seed
10 whole cloves
10 whole allspice
4 sticks cinnamon
2 sticks vanilla
2 pieces yellow ginger
2 pieces white ginger
10 cardamom seeds
1/2 nutmeg
3 strips orange rind
3 strips lemon rind
1 pinch saffron
4 cups water
2 lbs honey
1 quart grain alcohol

Method:
Crack cardamon seeds and nutmeg. Boil spices, rind and water in a covered pot until liquid is reduced to about 2 cups. Strain.

In a pot large enough to hold the spiced liquid, alcohol and honey, bring honey to a boil. Skim off the foam. Pour spiced liquid into honey and stir. Remove from heat.

(And, they have a Black and Crispy clause - how perfect is that!)
Place far away from heat to prevent flare-up or explosion of alcohol. Slowly, and very carefully, pour in alcohol. Replace pot on LOW heat. Heat, being careful not to simmer or boil, for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool in the same covered pot overnight. Following day, pour into bottles and allow to settle (about 2 weeks). The longer it sits, the clearer it becomes and the better it tastes.

Note: When I make this, I let it settle for a week. Pour off the clear liquid into a separate bottle, being careful not to disturb the sediment. Filter the sedimented portion (through a coffee filter) into a separate bottle. Do this several times over the next month. You will end up with a clear liqueur that is akin to the nectar of the gods. Good Luck and Enjoy!

Boilo - Yuletide drink of the Coal Region

2007-01-04T00:14:00.000-08:00

I was reading the Drudge Retort, which is considered an attempt at countering the madness found at the Drudge Report. The Drudge Report is a political news machine. Their prime value proposition is a goal, using information and social engineering, of making medieval war behavior the New American Century's prime American cultural directive. Although many websites do just that, Drudge Report's specialty is in the rape and pillage aspects of said war-mongering. Does Iraq make more sense now? Anyway, at Drudge Retort, I found an interesting political commentary that ended with a recipe for something called Boilo.

It reminded me of my New Years Nog, and was pleased to see sensible and lavish use of spices and fruit. I repeat this recipe entirely from a most interesting site, CoalRegion.com, from the Anthracite Coal region of Pennsylvania. There we find recipes for not only Boilo, but City Chicken (not chicken) and coal candy (hard chunks of black licorice). This from there:

"City chicken: During the depression, chicken was more expensive than pork. So pork and veal were substituted for and "passed off" as chicken. The pork and veal are alternated on a wooden skewer such that it resembles a chicken leg." - Coalregion.com

We are informed that "A really big to-do will feature both filling AND stuffing (filling is made from potatoes, stuffing from bread)."

A word of Boilo advice: the name is misleading as you do NOT want to boil this. They say: "Boilo is traditionally made during the Christmas and New Year's holiday. It's great on those cold winter nights. Beware, this can knock you for a loop! Cheers!"

Boilo recipe #1: Crock pot style

2 oranges (med-large size)
2 lemons
1 small box raisins (about 1 1/2 ounces)
8 oz honey
12 oz whiskey (or more, to taste). Use Four Roses, or Seagrams 7, or something similar. At least 80 proof (40% alcohol). I understand they use 150 proof.
1/2 to 1 teaspoon each of any or all of these spices: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Caraway seed, Anise seed

Make this in a crock pot. It's easier than cooking on the stove and much less likely to overcook or scorch. For the quantities shown here, a small (1.5 quart) crock pot will do.

Peel the oranges and lemons. Cut up the fruit and squeeze them into the crock pot. A garlic press works, or you can use some kind of juicer or fruit squeezer if you have one. Put the remaining fruit pulp into the crock pot as well.

Add the raisins, honey, and spices. Stir.

NOTE: do not add whiskey yet!

Start the crock pot and let the mixture cook for about 2-4 hours. Stir occasionally. It's done when the fruit pulp gets "cooked-down".

Strain into a pitcher. Mash down the fruit in the strainer to get all the liquid. NOW add the whiskey to the pitcher and stir. If you cook the whiskey, even for a short time, the alcohol will start to evaporate (and who wants that to happen??). Taste, and add more whiskey to your liking.

Serve hot in shot glasses, espresso cups, or coffee mugs. After the first round, each individual serving can be heated in the microwave.

This recipe makes about 12 ounces of "virgin" boilo. Add 12 ounces of whiskey to this and you get 24 ounces of coal region nectar, enough for 12-18 servings.

Boilo recipe #2: Stovetop style

1 bottle whiskey (any relatively cheap, blended whiskey will do)
Several oranges. Quantity depends on how much you wish to make. Use at least 4.
Same number of lemons
1/4 cup raisins
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups of honey
2 cinnamon sticks

Peel the oranges and lemons and cut into quarters. Squeeze the fruit into a pot, then throw in the remaining fruit pulp. Add some water (some people use ginger ale). Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the whiskey.

Cook everything at a slow simmer, stirring constantly. This will take about 15-20 minutes. If necessary, add orange juice and a bit more water. The color should be a yellow-orange.

They have a Black and Crispy Clause: Don't overcook; the name is misleading. You don't want to boil this. Then slowly stir in the whiskey. Be careful - this can catch fire if splashed on the stove. Keep adding whiskey to taste.

It's not uncommon to use the whole bottle. (I bet it's not uncommon for there to be no reason to continue to the next steps either).

Simmer for just a few more minutes once the whiskey is added. Strain and serve hot in shot glasses (a regular glass may crack). The "No Guzzling This Is For Company Clause": Drink in sips. Individual servings (what's THAT?) can warmed later in a microwave. (XYZ says, please don't Mwave!) Everyone's recipe uses pretty much the same ingredients, but the quantities on each vary greatly. You'll have to experiment to find what suits your taste. See also a traditional Lithuanian recipe.

Boilo apparently was derived from a version of an old Lithuanian Honey Liqueur called KRUPNIKAS, which is the real deal. See next recipe.

Tips for Once a Month Cooking (OAMC)

2006-12-28T20:55:00.000-08:00

Once a month cooking, or banking "Frozen Assets", is the only way to survive Early 21st century lifestyle under this Corporate Food racket.

Most people I know - who have no choice but to eat out - would give almost anything to eat home cooked meals, and not have to bear the indignity and health risks, the total lack of control over nourishing their body and mind. However, time and money are the two biggest reasons given.

However, cooking every single day becomes unworkable. Even if you stay at home, managing your home and business from a base of operations. No matter how much you like to cook, it becomes tiresome to cook - Every-Single-Meal. The quick meal options in supermarkets are no alternative - so laden with body clogging junk you're better off fasting.

In addition, prices in Supermarkets are ridiculously unreasonable, especially if you are cooking for just one or two people. I refuse to pay $12 for half a pound of the nuts I need for this season's version of meat stew. I refuse to pay $24 per pound for salmon. With few exceptions (e.g., tomato paste or carnation milk) rarely purchase canned items. The price of fresh produce is getting to be ridiculous, especially given most is grown half a mile from me.

With the Frozen Asset approach, I put the highest quality, body-type-tailored, gourmet meals (breakfast lunch and dinner) on the table or to go, for $1.25 to $1.85 per meal per person. Average for 2007, is $1.55 to $1.65. Each meal is cooked according to ayurvedic principles of balancing. They contain complex spice and herb treatments that ensure the longer they are frozen, the tastier they are.

I do "Nutraceutical Catering" which means that I will prepare meals to order, to accomplish someone achieve their health goals. Many have medical conditions made more complicated by the drugs (prescription) they are taking. Easing them back to health using the Kitchen as the Medicine Cabinet of first resort is a relatively easy thing to do, once they understand they control their bodies, not Corporate Pharma. But cooking for health is everyone's birth right so I don't make a big deal of it. I DO make a BIG deal of putting nutraceuticals on the table 24x7 for as low a price as I do.

Truth be told, I have been doing this so long, I actually get more for the buck, and it's embarrassing how inexpensive some dishes become. And I am not - repeat - not - a vegetarian. Cooking according to "ayurvedic" principles does NOT mean you have to be vegetarian - and anyone who says so, run from them. So there is animal protein - of the kinds each particular body requires - on the menus.

So how do you go about it?

In OAMC you buy all your food preparation items, in bulk once every month, six weeks or two months. You experience huge price savings right there. For one or two people, your shopping list may include 10 pounds of diced lamb, 15 pound of apples, 3 gallons of milk, 5 pounds each of three kinds of cheese etc. as ingredients for a 4-6 weeks meal supply. (You also purchase your household sundries in this sort of bulk - 36 rolls of paper towels, 5 gallons of dish-washing liquid etc. which bring great savings).

The idea is to convert - as fast as possible - all these ingredients to delicious, healthy meals that are frozen, stacked and stored in your freezer for use over a 4 -6 week period. In this way, you always have e.g., 4 course meals available to you without being tied on a daily basis to shopping, cooking, leftovers or eating out.

In OAMC you have dozens and dozens of storage containers of different sizes, stackable, and gallon freezer bags in which you place one or two meal sized portions.

In OAMC you cook with the freshest of fresh ingredients, (no canned or boxed ingredients of any sort) and then flash freeze or regular freeze meal sized portions in containers that are labeled and dated.

In OAMC you cook using the same slow home-cooking methods that turn out healthy and delicious meals, that you will never find in any star restaurant. E.g., most dishes I slow sweat onions - taking about 20-25 minutes on that alone. Unheard of in restaurants. For me, that just the beginning of a dish that takes 2 hours to cook.

In OAMC you scour restaurant supply stores, extremely large supermarkets that stock the freshest items, and - especially - large ethnic supermarkets that cater to ethnic populations (who tend to do home cooking the right way).

In OAMC you must have recipes and food lists. In the end you probably will not need a computer program much, you'll have seasonal recipes and their monthly variations kept in your head. But it helps to have the assistance of a computer based organizer.

Your OAMC recipes must go through at least one bout of freezing - in single meal portion - for you to understand how your regular spicing and the ingredients hold up. For example, potatoes don't freeze and unfreeze well. That does not matter in soups as much as in stews. In most taste balanced recipes, freezing and storing enhances the flavors.

In OAMC, if you love to cook, this will develop your skills, and "stealth change" you from amateur to professional, because this is exactly how professionals go about meal making.

OAMC means "best quality" personalized food service, at every meal. You always keep items such as, fresh milk, butter, eggs and salad makings on hand. But, you have one or more freezer s full of assets. Since you are flash freezing fresh cooked, you are doing exactly what the packaged food industry and restaurants do. Your quality of personal food preparation however, is quantum levels higher and customized to your constitution and health than theirs ever could be.

The drawbacks are cooking it all in one fell swoop, which can get out of hand. It doesn't need to, and here are the tips:

1. Start slowly. At first, lets say you normally cook for two, now triple it, cook for six, and freeze the four extra meals. I did this constantly for about 2-3 weeks and realized I had about 2 months worth of frozen assets and had to stop. This breaks you out of the "one meal" at a time mentality.

2. Enroll an OAMC accomplice, for shopping, for vegetable cutting and cheese grating, and for dish-pot washing dept. Create your own OAMC hit team on Corporate Food! Reward liberally with Frozen Assets!

3. Organization before cooking days: Create the menu for the month, shop for the menu, and take kitchen inventory on the same day, recording prices of all items. But, do not shop and start a cooking marathon the same day! Do not rush. Make sure you have your storage and labeling supplies on hand. Get your recipes out, and make sure you have all ingredients.

4. Organization on cooking days: Prepare the workstations, and tape the recipes above each one. Make sure you have several timers, lots of kitchen towels, oven mitts, and food preparation boards. Make sure you have at least two sets of stove top utensil caddies. Place kitchen towels over the food prep stations, making spills and cleanups easy to handle. Roll an extra towel and keep handy.

I have a station for bake prep, for meat prep, for vegetable cutting, for spice arrangements and for placing components that must undergo some stove top prep first, e.g., melted butter, sauteed onions, and the like. It's nothing like the food network channel and their "too-too frou frou" bowls - but you will need a lot of interim use food prep bowls.

To maintain your equilibrium, do one round of cooking, and then clear all works surfaces, wash all the prep dishes and pots and pans, re-organize the kitchen, before you launch into round two.

5. Split the categories of meals to be prepared over 2-3 days. You will be creating the same 4 to 6 weeks of assets you did in Step 1 over a period of 2 to 3 days only!

Example: I create baked products on the first day. I also prepare all my meat and vegetable stocks from scratch on this first day and I use up all leftovers in the refrigerator for this. In addition, I soak all the beans I will be needing on Day 2 and 3 overnight of this first day. I also marinate the roasts overnight. The second day, I do roasts, soups and salads (salads are never frozen, they are refrigerated and last for maximum a week only). All stove top entrees and casseroles are prepared on the third. After a while you'll get this down to one weekend.

6. Use the stove top and oven at each session, and you'll want to avoid traffic jams on either level. I do all the baking first, on day one, as that's more fun for me. I bake all the breads and pies in one day. I reserve the stove top for the fillings and other prep items such as melted butter.

For a household of 2 or three, we make four different kinds of cornbreads, two yeast breads and four deep dish fruit pies. During festive occasions, we make a chocolate or other kind of pie.

7. One the second day, have one helper who really likes to chop vegetables. It's an art. Create different workstations so you don't get in each others way. Give back to the helper - send them home with some ready made pies and breads you've already made. Wash and chop your entire supply of vegetables and fruits you will be using to create frozen assets in one session. Refrigerate (or freeze) anything that doesn't get cooked right away. Use your judgment - don't freeze the green and leafy uncooked!

8. Cook soups and roast meats on the second day, as they take similar times which are fairly long, if you are cooking elaborate process soups. Most of my hearty soups require blender at the end and this means I have to cool down gallons of soup. I prefer a natural cooling process which allow the flavors to meld and that takes time.

9. Cook the stove top dishes and bake the savory pies such as quiches and casseroles on a separate day. I do this on my third day, or session. Most of my entrees are elaborate and multi-process meals, and I take far more care creating frozen assets than were I to eat it within the day. So I save these for last. By the third day, I'm into a Zen-line cooking zone, and my best insights come to me.

10. When you separate out into one or two meal sized portions, place/pour the meals into plastic freezer bags - this takes up less room and they stack and store more flexibly.

11. Freeze recipe components. So if you have a recipe that calls for potatoes, freeze everything except the spuds until you're ready to make the meals. e.g., Buy lots of frozen fish filets in individual wrappers - which are a recipe component and take only 5-6 minutes to cook.

12. Do not be afraid to substitute if you run out of basic ingredients. Some of my best recipes were serendipitously made through this process.

13. Do not start a cooking process late in the day, especially if you have been cooking all day, and are slowing down a bit. For example, if you start prepping a last batch of dishes at 7 or 8 pm, you may be putting 2-3 dishes in the oven at 10 or 11 pm at night. They may not be done until 12 or 1am. This means you may be up til 2 and 3 in the morning - as you have to let things cool down, if you don't have the equipment to flash freeze. You don't want your already frozen assets stored in the freezer to warm up! I personally prefer a natural cooling process on most dishes.

14. Do not microwave. Not even water or coffee. If you microwave, you might as well give up and just eat at McDonalds. Study the effects of microwaves on cellular structure and realize what you are doing. If you cannot give it up, don't come back to this blog.

15. The very last thing to do, is to open the freezer and gloat. There is absolutely nothing like having a freezer stocked full of 150 individual meals of the highest caliber, tailored made to your tastes. Remember though, that you still have to plan ahead, and pull the next days meal out of the freezer the night before.

You may begin to worry what might happen in a power outage, and might start to freak out. Never mind. If it's a real catastrophe, you will be a life saver, feeding your neighbors for days. If it is a minor outage, remember the freezer stays frozen for a long time and the more frozen stuff in there, the longer they'll keep that way. However now would be the time to investigate a generator and freezer setup in a garage.

Advantages OAMC:
1. Frees up time to pursue career, business and other interests
2. Huge money savings.
3. Rigorous health through balanced eating program.
4. Meals are portioned ahead of time creating built-in serving control
5. Meal preparation can focus on the fresh juices and salads since the meal part is taken care of.
6. Peace of mind - "what's for dinner" always has an answer
7. Pre-planning every meal makes you proactive about self-management of health
8. Focus on monthly recipes means focus on continual improvement.
9. Proactive focus on necessary seasonal nutritional changes to manage healthy eating.
10. Measurement of one's own state of health done under managed nutritional program - there is a measured track of every meal, and every ingredient of every meal, and a track of personal health states. You cannot manage what you don't measure.

Misconceptions about OAMC:
1. You don't spend one marathon session once a month cooking - that doesn't work.
2.

Parsnip Pie, Parsnip Pudding

2006-12-28T20:42:00.001-08:00

"Lookit, not to get parsnippity with you, but, if you're going to put something in a pie dish with cheese, onions, nutmeg, eggs and milk, why don't you just call it a pie, even a quiche and be done with it?" [I am speaking to the inventors of the venerable Midwest parsnip pudding recipe.]

"I thought we agreed to leave the pudding word to things with at least a whisper of sugar in them." They replied: "Parsnip is a unique root vegetable, in that when it is harvested correctly, all it's starch turns to sugars which results in its strong distinctive taste."

Ooops, Nevermind! So quiche, pie or pudding, it's a sweet savory dish.

But, why is Mr. Parsnip treated like the poor white trash cousin of Mr. Carrot? After all, it loves cold weather, and minds not the frost. Frost will not kill this crop, merely enhance the delicate flavor. How's that? The parsnip has many more vitamins and minerals than the carrot, and is a primo source of potassium. It may be that parsnips look suspiciously like poison hemlock and have been picked in lieu of. It may be that wild parsnips are a really bad idea, but that's no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I kid you not, there is in Blogspace, someone so taken with Mr. Parsip, they have written a blog dedicated to among other things, writing poetry in its honor: http://aparsnip.blogspot.com/. This person is not alone, as a reader chimed in with:

"The parsnip is my shepherd, I shall not want.
It groweth in green pastures,
it leads me beside quiet waters, "
...

Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for it is in my belly;
its potassium and vitamin A,
they comfort me. "

Then the comments devolved into the usual realm of nasty spammers and poor aparsnip couldn't keep up with it. I was please to see a recipe on the site for Parnip Soup that involved my hard vegetable spice combo: cumin, cardamom, coriander, ginger, turmeric and of course, garlic and onions.

So with that in mind, we balance the German stodgy egg-y parsnip pudding/quiche/pie as follows:

Peasant Harvest Salad with Exotic Dressing

2006-12-28T20:31:00.001-08:00

Cooking for the Buddhist Cat

2006-12-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

He's the most ethical person, skin or fur that I know of. He has the obligatory cat food set up: bowl for water, bowl for holistic dried kibble, always out, always changed daily. But that's not how he eats or drinks. That's only for show, and only for backup.

This cat wants his warm tea every morning, very lukewarm water mostly with two drops of fresh lemon juice in it. And the last thing at night. That's ayurvedic practice. Warm water especially with lemon removes "ama", the stuff that cruds up your intestine and oozes across into your bloodstream and lymph system, blocks chi and is a major root cause of illnesses.

After that, he wants different kinds of fresh cooked seafood (shrimp, tuna and white fish, not so much salmon as that's too oily) and different kinds of vegetables and fruit even, mashed slightly.

He loves a bit of tomato soup from time to time, rice, and curried garbanzo beans. Occasionally he'll eat a bit of red meat. He loves multi grain brown bread with sesame seeds. He hates coconut! He eats nothing larger than 1 to 2 tablespoons worth at each mealtime. He sometimes likes a bit of evaporated milk daily, then he cycles off it. He cycles on and off, e.g., a larger volume of food for a while (7 to 10 days) then off, depending on the outside temperature. I can tell from his appetite week by week what is in store weather wise.

Similarly, he'll have a yen for tuna or chicken for a week, and then not touch it for two.

Every time he "goes", he drinks water right before. If he has just eaten, he drinks water right after he goes. I watch him, and marvel. We should be that disciplined with our bodies. You can set your clock by him, he eats to a schedule, he drinks to a schedule, and his bodily functions are remarkably predictable. He is an amazing 11 years old.

He will not eat anything without asking me specifically. He has a different and specific vocalization for different levels and natures of his hunger. He will "ask" exactly three times. If still ignored, he will use the kibble bowl, sparingly. This was easy to implement because each time he went to his kibble bowl, I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and started preparing him something. He learned quickly.

To this day, if I have ignored him, and he's at his kibble bowl, if I can I'll go to prepare something. He will immediately cease eating kibble, and wait for me to prepare fresh food. I call that intentional behavior, awareness of choice and the ability to check his hunger for a better solution. If one out of of ten politicians had this cat's ethics there would be no wars in the world.

He gets treats (mostly vitamins and greenies) put out for him in the evening, his daily complement split into two sets: one to eat before I go to bed bed, and one to eat when he wakes up at 4am. He eats the bedtime treats, and walks by the other treats several times, before going to bed. He will not touch them until 4am.

When I started this routine, I never had to say anything except, "keep those so you'll have something for the morning". How the hell does he understand, how the hell does he do what most humans can't pass up. Treats to him are like chocolates to us.

He doesn't like red meat, though he'll eat some once in a while. He is a seafood cat. Feeding him can be frustrating, because he knows exactly what he needs and when he needs it and will not settle for anything less. Training me to fulfill his dietary needs has been monumentally difficult.

He won't eat anything I won't put in my hands or eat myself. He hates oily fatty foods. He is game to try most anything, especially I invite him to sample what I've prepared, and he always asks for a taste.

You should see his face on most of it, he screws it up and runs aways. He's funny, it's such a ritual. He's always there at dinner time "asking nicely". "Nicely" means he sits really close to my chair, puts his feet together politely and raises his head and give me an inquiring look, that says "may I please have some".

He gets green "cat plants", which I offer him once a week. It's usually after one of these sessions, and then about once a month that he'll ask to go on the patio to cough up a hairball.

I've noticed he is insistent on a particular kind of full body massage... the one that involved 600 brushes done a certain way. I practice acupressure, and know from the way he responds to therapeutic touch that this is how he helps keep his energy and internals flowing and balanced.

Course there are no oils involved, but there is sesame oil in my hand lotion, and he'll lick it off.

A small price to pay to keep him out of the hands of so many useless vets out there.

The funny thing is his former owner had no idea of what they had on their hands, and his diet was abysmal. He loves listening to classical music, even Buddhist chants and will run away when a regular radio station is on.

The best is to watch him with birds. He isn't interested in killing them, it's a bit embarrassing to watch and the birds know it - they come ridiculously close to him. If the bird get too close, HE'LL RUN AWAY! He'll sits at his safe distance and watches endlessly; when they trill and warble, he'll mimic them. He has a repertoire of trills and warbles he puts together to wake me up in the morning. And he knows the time I have to get up. If I sleep through the alarm, he's there as backup.

What's best about him, is that he'll get me up in the middle of the might if there is sometime not right going on outside the house.

Cats sleep 16 hours a day but in exchange they have exquisitely refined senses which they share with us, if only we weren't so dense to get it. In my book, they are still in and of the Garden of Eden, and came to be with us, as consolation, to guide us back.

Buddhist cat. I learn about eating to live from him the most.

Crock Pottery with Pork

2006-12-28T20:26:00.002-08:00

Peasant Style Miso Soup

2006-12-28T20:26:00.001-08:00

I've always liked the basic taste of miso soup in fine Japanese restaurants. In the best of such, miso soup is served like the minimalist architecture of the lake in a Japanese Garden. It transports one into a world where food and nutrition were raised to the finest of arts. The tofu pieces are like stepping stones on the lake. The floating seaweed and spring onion circles are like lilies and other plants. The curved lone strip of a carrot brings to mind the arched bridge. The precision cut decorative radish reminds one of the egret on a stone lantern.

Stone lantern with egret and spring blossoms in lake
at the Japanese Gardens, Cowra, NSW, Australia, 22 September, 2006.

Elegance silently reminds you to show your best manners. You realize you must know when to use the spoon and when to use the chopsticks. Do you pick up the solid pieces with the chopsticks after you've finished elegantly sipping 3.0 spoons of 1/3 each fluid ounces of the liquid miso soup? How many solid pieces should I leave? I have a suspicion there is a "way of miso" like a Japanese tea ceremony that Wiki doesn't know about. Ms. Manners says it is gluttonous to eat or drink to the last drop, so one should leave some in the bowl.

So tasty. Once I lifted the bowl and defiantly drank it down: "It's how they do it in Japan", realizing too late my dinner date's bemusement was the miso dripping down the front of my new black Tahari suit and pearl-white silk blouse.

After that, I downed the last of the miso soup only with the spoon, and when no one was looking (don't you know it, waiters always are watching me) - I swear it's they that made me make that loud embarrassing slurp. That's it, like an ice skater who falls on her first jump, the rest of the meal is doomed; if there's sake in the picture, let me tell you it can get pretty gruesome. I ended up walking the head sashimi pieces (with chopsticks) down an aisle of lesser sushi pieces I assembled on the decorative rice paper gracing the table, and then married them, much to the horror of neighboring patrons, when I made them kiss. That's what you get for inviting a peasant girl to a table set for lady.

(Actually, I was making a point to my dinner companion about commitment - since he failed to understand the spoken word, I thought to make a sushi puppet show.)

All that aside, the sophisticated miso taste is put to more practical nutritional use in many Japanese and other kitchens, including mine. I know there are more robust versions of miso soup. Miso soup was and is (with white rice) the breakfast of choice for thousands of years of a very advanced nation.

Miso soup is comprised of three things: MISO PASTE, MISO STOCK and SOLIDS. Miso is a FERMENTED FOOD, so listen up you over 49 crowd: the secret to long healthy living is fermented foods. Tastewheel differentiates between "fresh" tastes and "fermented" tastes. The fresh sour taste of a lemon is different from the fermented sour taste of vinegar. Both are healthy and each is appropriate for different times and contexts of living and health.

Miso pastes come in red, white and black, darker being more hearty and salty. I like the fermented barley black miso paste for my hearty peasant miso soup that can "carry" small red potatoes and mushrooms. For "everyday" use I used red, it is lighter. Here is a primer:

Miso paste is a grain fermented with soybeans

"Depending on what grains and ingredients are fermented along with the soybeans, the miso paste will develop a different taste and the texture will vary a bit. Some miso pastes are grainier than others, some are saltier or more mild. Any of the flavors below could be any of the four colors, depending on their age.

Genmai - soybeans and brown rice
Hatcho - soybeans and sea salt
Kome - soybeans and white rice
Mugi - soybeans and barley
Natto - soybeans and ginger"

Miso solids are separated into those that float and those that sink. Potatoes sink, spring onions float especially when they are cut across.
Miso stock is usually made of dried fish and dried seaweed and dried mushrooms.

I love the barley based dark "Mugi" miso.

Soup being soup, I thought for dinner time we should add peas, carrots and small red potatoes. Think hearty peasant style. Optional other ingredients are mushrooms, but if I add mushrooms, I omit potatoes. Rather, I'll add several kinds of mushrooms since taste-wise and nutritionally, they should stand all by themselves. (Your peasantry may differ.)

I prepare the hearty peasant version by starting off with a tad of sesame oil, bring to heat on medium, and stir frying the spring onions. If I cannot find kombu and bulky seaweeds, if I just have the nori seaweed strips they use for wrapping sushi, alas, and oh horror, I use a pair of scissors to cut this into soups sized strips and stir fry for 30 seconds along with the onion. I add the tofu here, right before I add the stock (usually water) and the miso paste.

For the salad, we should have an exotic fusion salad with JUST:

Herb greens, Tomatoes, Avocados, Radishes, Garbanzo beans, Broccoli, Snow peas, diced baby carrots, (Corn, optional) Sesame seeds with a coconut milk or yogurt based soy salad dressing.

Here is the fusion dressing for the salad:

In a decorative bowl:

1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp lime juice, ½ tsp dark brown sugar, mix.
Add: ¾ tsp brown sesame oil, ½ tsp cumin, black pepper, hints of garlic powder and mix.
Add: 2-3 Tblspn fresh live culture plan yogurt, mix, and add water to desired consistency not more than 1-2 Tblspn.

And lastly, one should avoid utilizing a table with romantic themed rice paper as a decorative covering. Instead find a well-designed minimalist cafe style table, with little room for food acting stages, thereby reducing the chance food pieces will star in puppet shows, to convey messages at dinner time.

Ginger Sauce with Apples

2006-12-28T20:25:00.001-08:00

Brown Rice Pasta with Eggs, Cheese and Sausages

2006-12-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Chard with Sausages

2006-12-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

Solano Pumpkin Pie with Mole

2006-12-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

I got the idea for this pie long after Thanksgiving was over and long after I did the mole inspired enchilada pie called Chicken Vallejo as a birthday present for a friend. A trip to my local Mexican food store and way too much time on my hands gave me the idea.

Solano Pumpkin Pie with Mole

1 1/2 cups of canned pumpkin, well drained.
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 large eggs, beat the crap out of them
1/2 cup piloncillo (Mexican cone sugar)
1/2 cup molasses with 1 Tb bitter cacao powder mixed in it
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 cup grated fresh ginger, drained with 1/4 tsp ground ginger to kick it up
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg and allspice mix
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 Tb lime juice
1/4 cup rum, brandy, orange liqueur, whiskey, or orange juice

Now I don't know why this works, but the above won't work unless you put ONE TEASPOON of mole paste in it.

All right. Now oven to 425 and bake for 15 minute.
Turn down to 375 and start checking at that point for doneness when a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the pie comes out clean. It will rise and be cracked on top.

Oatmeal Crepes

2006-12-28T20:10:00.002-08:00

Cardamom Ale Bread

2006-12-28T20:10:00.001-08:00

Anchos stuffed with whipped coconut cream

2006-12-28T20:09:00.001-08:00

All right, I do have my moments and this is one of them.

6C Pie - a nod to each taste

2006-12-28T20:05:00.002-08:00

Garlic Soup

2006-12-28T20:05:00.001-08:00

Fried Tilapia and other Fishy Tales

2006-12-28T19:59:00.001-08:00

Tilapia. A fish known as Nile Perch, Hawaiian Sunfish, and St. Peter's fish, from the waters of the Mediterranean. "Tilapia is very hardy and can thrive in salt, brackish or fresh water... Tilapia eat primarily vegetation and algae eaters and are often stocked in canals and artificial lakes for algae and vegetation control."

The University of Florida says that four ounces (an average portion) yields 110 calories, 21 g Protein, 2.5 g total fat, 1 g total carbohydrate. And with that, a whopping 90 mg of Omega fatty acids.

Tilapia has a mild, bland flavor (some say it's slightly sweet) with firm flesh. It great for quick meals as it cooks quickly, 3 to 6 minutes, and it freezes well. The say you can freeze tilapia for up to 4 months. It's inexpensive, plentiful, has yummy omega stats, and there is a global food farm and distribution industry around them. Large corporations. Therefore we expect nasty fishy food fights. And we have them!

Enter "The Fish List", launched by the Blue Ocean Institute and announced with much fanfare to the media, nationwide. (Hmmm! that's serious money, has to be foundational in origin; yep, it is. Foundations are how corporations do backdoor deals to pacify "do-gooder$" while continuing to pepetrate sleaze - it is Hegelian, as in Yale Club Skull and Bones, it sews chaos among people, hence ensuring the duality required to maintain violence exists on this planet until we do ourselves in once and for all).

Here's what they say:

'Many consumers know that seafood is part of a healthy diet. It’s also clear that our ocean is in trouble from problems posed by certain fishing and aquaculture practices; increasingly, consumers are also learning about the safety of certain seafood items, such as mercury in tuna and PCBs in farmed salmon. “The Fish List” helps by providing information about broadly available seafood choices that are better for the environment and your health, as agreed upon by leaders of the seafood conservation community. Join Seafood Choices Alliance and partners for a press conference to launch “The Fish List,”'

And, tootsweet, they were shut down. Why, because they slammed ALL fish from Asia practically. That's elitist crap. People have to eat. No one is gainst sanity is fish farming, but for goddsakes can't people find a better way to go about righting wrongs than taking food out of starving people's mouths. Listen, these Blue Ocean people should go on a hunger strike for their principles, for environmental change, that how to put your money where your mouth is.

Here it is:

The Fish List

Blue Ocean Institute, Environmental Defense, and Monterey Bay Aquarium have complete information about these seafood choices. Please follow the links to learn about your favorite seafood choice.

Enjoy

Catfish (farmed)
Caviar (farmed)
Clams (farmed)
Crab: Dungeness, Snow (Canada), Stone
Halibut: Pacific
Mussels (farmed)
Oysters (farmed)
Sablefish/Black Cod (Alaska)
Salmon (wild from Alaska)
Sardines
Scallops: Bay
Striped bass/Atlantic rockfish
Sturgeon (farmed)
Tilapia (US farmed)

Avoid

Caviar (wild)
Chilean Sea Bass/Toothfish
Cod: Atlantic
Grouper
Halibut: Atlantic
Monkfish/Goosefish
Orange Roughy
Rock cod/Pacific rockfish
Salmon (farmed or Atlantic)
Shark
Shrimp (imported, farmed and wild)
Snapper
Sturgeon (wild)
Tuna: Bluefin

Blue Ocean Institute
Environmental Defense
Monterey Bay Aquarium

US farmed tilapia is extremely expensive. Imported farmed tilapia is not. These Blue Ocean snots are the same Marin woo-woo types whose kids wreck their Jags every weekend, who say you don't deserve a spot on this planet if you buy Tilapia from China, and who gang up on you and literally lynch you for keeping warm in a fur coat, or for eating beef. Sorry about the mercury, the lead, the arsenic, the this, the that and the other, but you can stop this by telling your Dirty Diddling Daddies to stop their corporations' dumping toxic waste into the ocean - can you hear me now? Charity for the world begins in your home, Jag girlznboyz, so keep your idle fascist hands out of working class kitchens trying to put food on their kids' tables.

90 grams of omega fatty acids per serving. Wow. My local health food store sells omega fatty acids for

Egg beer batter is common, some have gone as far as to pour vanilla cream over it, many bake it with sweet potatoes. Lots of sweet sour hot spicy standard fish approaches work. But I like to roll this fish like a big sushi - and fry in a lightly sesame oiled pan. Fried sushi?

Chocolate Chili Pumpkin Pie

2006-12-28T19:57:00.002-08:00

Oatmeal Pie Crust

2006-12-28T19:57:00.001-08:00

Chili Cheese Corn Quiche

2006-12-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

Oatmeal Breakfast Quiche

2006-12-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of quiches because they fit into my frozen asset plan.

Frozen assets, or Once a Month Cooking or "OAMC" as we call it, it's becoming the only way to survive the high risk and cost of eating out and to fight back against the ridiculous corporate supermarket markups: OAMC'ers buy in bulk. I have gotten the cost per meal down to anywhere between $1.25 and $1.65 per meal per person, and trust me each meal is made with fresh ingredients, home-cooked according to a five-star health balanced recipe. From a hygiene point of view (e.g., norovirus creeping into restaurants) this can't be beat.

I don't always have freshly baked bread, or apple coconut compote for breakfast, so pulling a few slices of this quiche out of the freezer the night before and popping it into the toaster oven is a good solution for a healthy quick breakfast.

Oatmeal Breakfast Quiche

Unbaked 9 inch pie crust

3-4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 can coconut cream
1/2 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup old fashioned uncooked oatmeal

(finish)

Broccoli Cauliflower au Gratin

2006-12-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

I can never get enough of these two. This is a dish that jazzes up these veggies, which I often serve over a tortilla base, prepared as in the Migas recipe for a light supper.

1 medium broccoli
1 medium cauliflower
2 cups White Sauce (a la Mornay)
2 Tb bread crumbs, preferably corn bread or tortilla crumbs
2 Tb Jack cheese
2 Tb Butter

Oven to 375 deg. F

While bring 2 quarts of water with the salt to a boil in a large pot, prepare broccoli and cauliflower flowerets and add to the boiling water. Cook for 7-8 minutes. Drain, place in mixed fashion in a buttered casserole dish.

Cover with the white sauce, then sprinkly the top with breadcrumbs, the cheese and butter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until top is lightly browned.

While baking prepare the tortilla corn base:

White Sauce (a la Mornay)

2006-12-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

It is said you are not a real cook if you don't know how to make the four basic classical sauces. OK, I guess I'm not a cook, to me the four sauces are milk, tomatoes, brandy and water.

White Sauce

4 Tbl coconut oil, or butter
4 Tbl all-purpose flour
1 cup coconut cream
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter/oil in a heavy steel saucepan. It must be a non-reactive vessel. Stir in the flour over moderate heat. When the mixture begins to bubble stir and cook for another minute.

Add all the evaporated milk, and stir with a wire whisk until the mixture begins to thicken and comes to a boil. Reduce heat and add the cheese. Simmer for two minutes, stirring constantly and add the coconut cream and the seasonings.

Yams with Apples

2006-12-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

Yams - the most overlooked tuber. And what is the difference between a YAM and a SWEET POTATO? You can thank the U.S Dept of Agriculture for the infernal confusion since they insist the word YAM be followed by SWEET POTATO.

The sweet potato is found in tropical America and is a storage root, a part of the Morning Glory family. There are two mains kinds, pale yellow with a thin skin and bright orange with the thick skin.

The yam is a tuber (a bulb) of a tropical vine found in Central & South America, as well as the West Indies, Africa and Asia. Yams are generally speaking always imported. Never refrigerate your yams!

In the supermarket, note the difference by the shapes and the skins. Sweet potatoes are short and blocky, with relatively smooth skins, and yams are long with toes, with rough and scaly skins.

That being said, let's now focus on YAMS, and within this family of tubers are some of the most astounding health properties to be found. ams have many beneficial health properties; they contain B6, they protecting against certain forms of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and hypertension. The Chinese Yam is used in a soup (see ___) and if it this metric is important to you, it lowers cholesterol. I have something to say about the whole cholesterol business later on.

I make this dish with a number of different YAMS depending on the health effect I am after.

Yams With Apples

4 large yams
4 large green apples (sour)
1 cup jaggery (unrefined Indian brown sugar cones crushed into small pieces)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 Tb butter, or coconut oil

Oven to 350 deg. F

METHOD

Cook yams in jackets in boiled salted water until tender, depending on the type of yam from 15 to 20 to 25 minutes no longer. Peel them and cut into 1/1 inch thick slices.

Peel and core the apples and cut also into 1/4 inch thick slices.
In a buttered casserole place alternating layers of yam and apples.
Sprinkle each layer with brown sugar, cloves and dot with butter.
Cover the casserole and bake for 40 minutes.

Health Properties of YAMS

Although I pay little heed to cholesterol and more so to my pulses and other real signals of health status, since this society has been brain-washed on the cholesterol issues, note that the medical profession (whatever that is) has no idea really, except the insurance companies make sure they warn people of the dangers of high cholesterol. The pharmaceutical companies run spiffy ads on TV selling their cholesterol lowering drugs t you the consumer directly, asking you go to your local pill-pusher (the one with the MD), and get a prescription for it. Notice that most of the ad-time is filled with yet other dire warnings you might just drop dead while taking their pills.

Cholesterol BTW is about ratios. Bad LDL over Good HDL gives a numeric ratio somewhere theoretically between 1 and whatever. This ratio is a probability you may get a heart attack based on population statistics. Cholesterol science (whatever that is) is confused, and the confusion is bolstered with statistics - in my opinion this is where the saying "lies, damn lies and statistics" apply.

All that being said, certain kinds of yams will drop your bad cholesterol in a jiffy all other things being equal, and you're not taking your blood tests after an alcohol or a sugar-pie-eating binge whilst sitting on your couch for the last 6 months.

Wassail Bowl or New Years Nog

2006-12-28T17:17:00.000-08:00

The Encyclopedia Britannica tells us the word wassail "derives from Old Norse ves heill, meaning 'be well, and in good health.' The name has come to be generally applied to any bowl from which a toast is drunk, as well as to the actual drink itself."

I make this for New Year's toasts. This recipe is for 25 people, however two to four people hard at work on last-minute drafting and vetting of their top five New Years resolutions should easily be able to polish this off, toasting each resolution for good luck. If you have a top 10 list, then by all means, double the recipe and make it for 50.

Wassail Bowl
12 Small crispy APPLES
2 quarts of ALE
1 bottle (4/5ths quart) DRY SHERRY
(Optional: a little brandy or rum never spoiled this either)
6 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
2 C dark brown sugar

3 whole cloves
3 whole allspice balls
3 cardamom seeds (whole green pods)
3 inch-long sticks cinnamon, broken
(Need a cheesecloth bag to put these 4 spices in)

1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Optional - the original recipe didn't call for this:
1 Orange, thinly sliced
1 Lemon, thinly sliced

Oven at 350 deg. F

METHOD
Bake apples at 350 deg. F for 20 minutes

Put first 4 spices in a small thick cheesecloth bag and put in a large kettle with 2 cups of ale, ginger and nutmeg.

Heat SLOWLY for 10 minutes, and remove the spice bag. Stir in the remaining ale, all of the sherry, and the sugar. If you want to add the optional orange and lemon, do it now.

Heat SLOWLY for 20 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!

Beat egg whites until firm peaks appear.
Beat the egg yolks then fold in the egg whites.

KEEP BEATING and slowly add SOME hot ale to the egg mixture, don't cook them, and continue to beat until smooth.

Pour into a large punch bowl, and float the baked apples on top.
Serve WARM.

.... and a happy new year!

Irish Lamb Stew

2006-12-28T17:06:00.000-08:00

Now this lamb stew, unlike the Babootie, has nary a fruit, and has different taste and health values. It was traditionally made with mutton or lamb. I am not sure the original thing contained stout or ale, but if you can get some definitely add it in, as it is very healthy. Otherwise use a tad of malt vinegar.

Ingredients

2 pound lamb or mutton cut into 2 inch squares
2 large potatoes cut into 1/8's
1 parsnip or turnip diced, or both!
3 carrots cut into large one inch pieces
3 stalks celery chopped
2 leeks chopped
2 cans water
(else, reduce the water a bit and add 1 can of stout or a tad of malt vinegar to taste)
1 can meat broth
1 onion, chopped
10 small white onions
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
2 Tb savory
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Tb chopped parsley

Some people keep stout on hand to control the thickness of the stew and I like that idea.

Ancho Chili Sauce with Yogurt

2006-12-28T17:05:00.001-08:00

Babootie: Never-Ending Lamb Stew

2006-12-28T16:47:00.002-08:00

This is a dish from South Africa I got from someone in New York. She says, traditionally, they start a pot of this when the cold season comes around, and they keep it on the stove ALL WINTER, adding things to it as it gets used up. She says they never refrigerate it, it's always simmering slowly on the stove. I can't bring myself to do that, but after eating hers sometime around the holidays, I have to say I've rarely tasted more delicious lamb stew. Then again there's the safety issue of having something "on" the stove when you go out or go to sleep. I figured there must be an optimum temperature to keep it from getting too gamey, then again, those old-world "bush Brits" had stomachs of cast iron, loved to go native, and stayed amazingly healthy.

What I like about this from a taste balance is the warming sweet meat and the sour fruit and the astringent cooling vinegar. The sweet taste is robust - not a dessert or cloying sweet, and is carried decisively on a killer savory base of sour, astringent earthy tastes.

I've seen the babootie recipes going round the web and recipe books, and most of them call for ground lamb. Well, my authentically served version, by a woman whose family was 5 generations South African called for cubed lamb (with bones) for a stew.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs cubed lamb for a stew - marinated as per the instructions below
2 1/2 onions chopped
6 cloves garlic crushed
14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes - or 1 lb fresh is better
1 16 oz can tomato puree (instead of tomato juice)
2 1/2 Tb molasses
1 cone Indian or Mexican unrefined sugar (dark brown with molasses) (optional)
2 1/2 T curry powder or more
2 Tb vinegar (rice wine)
2-3 firm bananas sliced - if they are more ripened, use two to control the sweetness.
2-3 apples cored and diced - smaller apples, use 3.
1 can of whole apricots or apricots halved - do not use the canned juice!
(using apricot jam is a ghastly last resort)
1-2 good handfuls unsweetened finely shredded coconut (instead of slivered almonds)
3/4 cup soaked raisins
3 Tb brandy (add towards the end)

Method:
Marinade the lamb in a mix of soy, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, ginger powder, turmeric and balsamic vinegar. For a deeper marinade, add cardamon, saffron, cloves, paprika, caraway and fennel. Aww heck, go on, chuck in a few Tb of strong brewed coffee.

Brown the meat in a heavy skillet, with some olive oil
Add garlic, sautee
Add onions, sautee
Add curry powder, sautee
Add molasses, mix well
Add all the fruit, mix well
Add tomatoes, mix well
Add vinegar, mix well
Let cook together for a few minutes
Add coconut and raisins
Adjust liquids with tomato puree diluted with water
Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer on low for 60 minutes

Important: At this half way mark do a taste test. Dependin gon the quality of the fruit the stew may be a bit sweeter, a bit more sour etc. Here is where you adjust the taste by adding either the cone sugar to sweeten it, or a mix of rice wine vinegar and soy to reverse the sweet, or tomato puree to deepen it.

Stir frequently for first 20 minutes, then as needed after that.

Add tomato puree mixed with water if stew gets too thick, but you shouldn't have to.
Towards end, add the brandy and stir.

Goes well with brown basmati rice cooked the traditional way with lemon juice. When you use some babootie up, add some more ingredients and keep simmering on the stove. Do this for 3 months.

We had this for New Years Eve, and it was very festive, an appropriate end to the holidays - rich and fruity, without the holiday spices of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and cloves. I wanted to freeze some for the New Year but everyone inhaled the first serving, and had seconds and thirds by the time anyone could say ba boo tee.

Even the cat liked it, but I attribute that to a raving case of munchies brought on by most excellent catnip branches brought him for a new years present. The rest of us had sherry, red wine or apple cider, for auld lang syne.

Veggie Sphagetti Sauce

2006-12-28T16:47:00.001-08:00

Ancho Apple Chili Pie

2006-12-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

Chicken Avocado with Sweet Potatoes

2006-12-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

Oh the National Chicken Contest again! I love those people. Really, I know it's all corporate sponsored and if you've been reading this food blog, you know what I think of the lot of them, but there are some shining exceptions. The National Chicken Contest is one of them. I mean, they promote chicken, how can they go wrong (yes I know, hormones, additives etc. but a girl has to feed her family and I am showing you how to balance those additives out).

I want to thank them for their wonderful winning recipes, from which I have extracted this dish, and hope they don't mind I have modified it to balance the tastes.

Salmon Loaf with Peas and Curry

2006-12-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is healthy, inexpensive, and quick to make. All you need is some salmon, and any can of salmon will do nicely. Yes, yes, we all want fresh, but we can't always have what we want. large can is better, small is fine too.

Loaf ingredients:
1 16 oz can of salmon. If you have fresh cook it til it approximates what's in the can
2 cups bread crumbs, more if you have 8 oz of salmon only
Note: you can substitute cooked garbanzo beans for breadcrumbs
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1-2 eggs depending on size, use your judgment.
1/2 cup coconut milk or regular milk
1/3 cup chopped shallots, or spring onions or onions, very finely chopped

Spices:
Lime juice
Turmeric
Cumin
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 to 1 Tb tarragon

Oven to 400 deg F.

Loaf method:
Drain, de-skin and de-bone the salmon.
Combine the loaf ingredients, mix and mash. Place in a loaf pan 8 by 8 by 2 in the oven at 400 deg. F for 25 - 30 mins.

Sauce Ingredients:
2 cups frozen peas
2 Tb chopped tomatoes or pimento or red pepper other red veggie
2 tsp cornstarch or other vegetable thickenr
1/2 t tarragon
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup coconut milk, or milk, or water with a bit of butter in it

Sauce Method:
While loaf is baking, take 2 cups frozen green peas, 1 cup coconut milk, or regular milk, 1 tsp. curry powder, 1/2 tsp tarragon and 2 tsp corn starch or other vegetable based thickener.

Put the peas in a bit of water and bring to a boil; add about 2 Tbl more water and the rest of the ingredients, stir well, let it thicken then remove from heat.

Layer over the salmon load and serve.

Apple and Butternut Squash Soup

2006-12-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is a winter soup, and I got the original recipe 25 years ago from a cookbook written by someone who used to cook for the White House even 25 years prior. Anne Marie something? I no longer have her wonderful recipe book, and I did heavily modify her recipe for this soup. But her idea of sour fruit and sweet squash was right up my balance-the-taste alley.

1 1/2 pounds of butternut squash
3 tart green apples dice (I used the granny smiths)
1 medium red onion
1/2 tsp rosemary
1.2 tsp marjoram
3 cans chicken broth (I use vegetable broth, or water, for me, I keep away from meat broths when doing this pair of food combining).
2 cans water
2 slices bread (I use rye, else add 1/4 tsp caraway seeds)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup coconut cream or 1/4 cup cup milk (she calls for 1/cup heavy cream)

Halve, peel, and de-seed the squash.
Core and coarsely chop apples (I don't peel them).
Coarsely chop onion.

Combine all ingredients up to but NOT including the pepper and cream in a heavy saucepan. Boil then simmer for 45 minutes. puree the soup in a blender, filling no more than 1/4 each time. return to saucepan, bring to a boil, remove from heat, add cream and parsley.

Note: Why do people add cream to soups? It is to achieve a particular consistency and richer taste. But it isn't based on taste values for health. It has nothing to do with cream being full of fat, which is good for you, it has to do with the correct balance for the person eating it.

Over the years I've substituted a number of substances to achieve differing final taste combinations - sesame oil, coconut oil, milk, melted butter etc.

Hamburger Quiche

2006-12-28T15:12:00.001-08:00

Apple Coconut Pie

2006-12-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

I've made literally over a thousand of these in my life, and never make the same one twice. It's one of those things that you go into the kitchen and automatically start making, like a cup of tea. If you have comfort food, this is my comfort process, something I do to make me happy. It's definitely one of "my things". When they are done, they are cooled and get popped into the freezer. My freezer is a happy place!

Oven at 350 deg. F.

1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell
3 eggs beaten
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 apples peeled cored and cubed or 3 cups of canned sliced apples, cubed.
1/2 cup butter melted and cooled
1/3 to 1/2 can coconut cream, the creamier the better
2 tb kudzu root or other vegetarian based thickener dissolved in 1 Tb cold water
6-8 tsp fresh lime or lemon juice
1-2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup of finely shredded coconut (1/3 for the topping)
1/4-1/3 cups raisins soaked in brandy
1/2 tsp salt
Spices: cinnamon and cardamom powder

Method:
Combine beaten eggs, sugar , lemon or lime, vanilla, salt and butter, mix well.
Add coconut flakes and cream, and raisins, spices, stir gently.
Add apples, kudzu thickener, mix and pour into pie shell
Top with coconut.

Bake for 30 - 45 minutes

Tomato Rice

2006-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

Heat heavy skillet over moderate heat, add 2 cups of rice and toast slightly. Bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup of pureed tomatoes to a boil in a separate pot then pour this mix over the rice. Add 1/2 cup diced cilantro, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 medium onions diced and 2 T oil of the season (coconut, sesame, or olive).

Cover, turn heat to low and cook without lifting cover for 40 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.

Graham Cracker Quiche

2006-12-28T13:58:00.000-08:00

I love the sweet savory of this idea. I once ran out of regular pie crusts, and all I had left were those store-bought graham cracker crusts.

Quiche base:
Use a lighter cheeses for this crust, use heavier cheeses for a regular crusted pie shell
5-6 eggs (if really large, use 4)
1 cup grated swiss cheese
1 cup grated jalapeno cheese
1/2 cup light cheddar cheese

Quiche filling ingredients:
1/2 cup jalapeno peppers, diced and sauted
1 tightly-packed cup diced, shrimp, stir-fried in lime, cumin and coconut oil
1 cup finely diced shallots in sesame oil, sauted slowly to translucency
1 cup finely diced mushrooms, lightly cooked to remove moisture
1 cup finely chopped chard sauteed with coriander to remove moisture

Note: Cool the sauteed ingredients before adding them or the eggs will cook. I often mix these together so their flavors combine prior to adding them. Taste and adjust.

Method:
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup regular milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 t to 1 t cayenne
1/2 tsp Nutmeg

Beat eggs, mix in milks, add spices.
Make sure sauteed ingredients are cooled before adding them or the eggs will cook.
Add the fillings.
Stir gently.
Pour into two 9" pies or one deep dish 10 incher.

Baking:
First or last 15 mins at 425 degF
375 for 30 minutes.

Cool for a good half hour.
Pies freeze extremely well.

Note:
The graham cracker pie shells I had on hand contained a bit of high fructose corn syrup. It had crept in during one of our monthly shopping marathons.

Here's my philosophy - don't be a Food Nazi!. If graham cracker crust with some of those bad ingredients is the only thing around, then for godsakes USE IT, and figure out a way to stock better. There are priorities in life, and eating on a regular schedule suited to your constitution is, by far, the MOST important. Having frozen food assets around with kick-ass healthy ingredients is the way I personally ensure my family can keep to a schedule.

Another priority is treating food items as a sacred trust between you and the planet that sustains you. Don't waste food, it's IS a sin. That is a far, far bigger philosophy than good "food rules" in the hands of "fascist food-twits" in such vogue these days.

If you have a grip on using taste to maintain body balance, you'll know if and when to periodically adjust your diet to cleanse bad stuff that may accumulate.

All that being said, my Buddhist, Ayurvedic Cat refuses to touch anything past 30 minutes of "opened" or "cooked" much less refrigerated, and he is the one exception we allow. After all, he IS the Buddha, never failing by his example to remind us the stretch goal for optimal health.

Breaking the Rules on Cornbread

2006-12-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

My favorite topic. I took a short visit to another food planet, governed by a sad species that hits one restaurant after another in search of a life. I am always amazed at how much ignorance floats to the top in that unhealthy food society ... they gang up to force their ridiculous food opinions on the rest of their population. They wax forth on taste values, when they have no clue as to the art and science of taste, vis a vis optimal health. They are as dangerous butter-wise, as guns are in the hands of an ignorant ruling elite.

Their name be Chowhound. My ID there was none other than xyz_recipes and after a certain amount of crap, I told the woman in charge to remove all my posts. I wrote a nice little goodbye letter, where I opined if they took a walk in the Oregon wilderness, no one would really care.

Here's the recipe that the gang took offense to, criticizing it as not authentic. All those who criticized with a trademark-like nastiness - if you checked closely - were part of the Chowhound Team. Interestingly their email ID's left webtrails that showed, from other non-food websites to which they contributed, they were facing health and serious emotional issues. Enough said.

A word about Mr. Coconut

2006-12-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

Many of these recipes include the magical coconut. The coconut has winter warming properties, and a subtle but definitively sweet taste. But more than that, it has a way of clearing the intestines from the "summer heat", a necessary transition to winter. So that's why you've seen a lot of Mr. Coconut now.

Wasn't the coconut considered a horrifically bad oil or fat? Is it because Corporate Food Processing got hold of the basic coconut oil and hydrogenated the crap out of it? Why did they do this? I have no idea, that's like asking "Why is there fluoride in our toothpaste?". Fact is that coconut oil (the real deal not the stuff that is mixed with e.g., palm oil and pawned off as pure coconut oil - that'll kill you) used daily will help you lose weight while helping you achieve satiation. You can Google all about the Coconut and decide for yourselves. In case you miss it, I've included some good links below. As with everything, the amount of coconut you eat depends on your constitution and it's current state of balance. When it turns to summer my intake of coconut milk and oils decrease, for that's what my constitution generally wants.

I hope the treacherous American corporate pharma-health food industry - which appears to be well-organized and legally protected to commit crimes against humanity - does not get wind of the fact that coconut is really, really healthy for you, or they may just get a law passed they have to add - oh I don't know - pick a poison any poison - say, fluorides, to it, since their dirty little hydrogenation trick is no longer an option.

Coconut Rice - sweet or savory versions

2006-12-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

In making this dish we prepare a base that can go two ways depending on what you are after. Either way it is very nutritious, warming winter side dish. Savory goes with meat, and sweet goes with vegetables and fish.

10,000 BC Bread

2006-12-27T00:53:00.000-08:00

I just finished with three soup tonic recipes, and it reminded me "Bread, Beer and Soup" the cross-cultural staffs of life began some 10,000 years ago. It had taken about 10,000 years to go from rice - cultivation of which began in dim pre-history - to bread, beer and soup. I personally wonder if 10,000 years hence we'll have any rice left.

So, bread is a global concept, and in my opinion, very little has changed since 10,000 years ago, with the exception of the use of yeast in breadmaking about 5,000 years ago.

I got to comparing bread recipes across cultures, and across time. The oldest breads would be unleavened of course, and we are told that Indian Naan was the oldest bread, together with Pita. Well, Naan, it is generally accepted, is a leavened bread, so they meant Roti's aka Chapati's.

As these are unleavened flat breads, the Roti is much like the Mexican Tortilla and the Middle Eastern Pita and the Italian Pizza. Only the Mexican Tortilla is still made by some rare souls today with some hint of authenticity to the original preparation of the corn; only in some places of the Himalayas have they preserved the authenticity of the preparation of the wheat. I have read that archeologists found "Italians as far back as Neolithic man were grinding grain between stones, adding water to make a mush and leaving it to sit overnight to dry. It is thought that they then cooked it over coals or stones, and the focaccia was born."

Here's a very basic recipe for wheat flat bread, minus the grinding of grain between stones accompanied by the the gnashing of teeth. Now I suggest the use of sea water as an allowable substitute for salt and water, but I'd be foolhardy to put that stuff in my mouth in this modern era. It's become a toxic version of Ice-Nine. So use regular water and leave out the salt.

Ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
2 tbsp animal fat
1 cup water
Extra wheat flour on hand

Method:
In a mixing bowl, take 1 cup flour and add 1 tbsp animal fat. Rub the flour between your palms so that the fat becomes incorporated the dough. Add water, a little at a time and knead the flour to make a dough, which will be stiff.

Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it for 30 minutes. Take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a smooth ball between your palms. Flatten the ball of dough by pressing it in a separate bowl of whole wheat flour. Dust the flat dough liberally on both sides with the flour.

Place the dough on a flat surface and with something that looks like a neolithic rolling pin roll out a 6 inch flat circle. Use circular movements of the rolling pin to get a perfect circle which is evenly thick all over. The bread dough should be as thin as a slice of processed cheese single. If the dough gets stuck to the rolling pin while rolling, dust it with more flour.

Now take the remaining 1 Tb of animal fat and brush it onto the flat circle, then made a radius cut, and start rolling up the dough in a circle. You will end with a cone, place it on the base and poke the peak down into the base. Leave for an hour.

Now take each roll and flatten again and roll out again.

Roasting the Bread

Heat a flat iron griddle, reduce the heat to medium and flip the rolled out the bread circle on the griddle. Cook it on one side for about 10-15 seconds and flip it over before you start to see big brown spots (i.e. a tad deliberately undercooked).

Cook on the other side for another 15-20 seconds or until you see brown spots to indicate the bread is cooked on this side. Keep turning the bread on the griddle so that it does not stick. Finally, flip the bread again on the first side and finish cooking for another 5-10 seconds. Serve I am sure they also brushed the bread with a little hot animal fat if cave-daddy had been bringing home the bacon on a regular basis.

Foodaceutics for Dummies

2006-12-26T18:40:00.000-08:00