Manna - the most secret ingredient in the world

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

Homemade Yogurt with Pomegranates

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):

1. They manufacture some of the B-vitamins including niacin (B3), pyridoxine (B6), folic acid and biotin.
2. They manufacture the milk-digesting enzyme lactase which helps you digest calcium-rich dairy products.
3. They actively produce anti-bacterial substances which kill or deactivate hostile disease-causing bacteria.
4. 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.
5. Some (such as the bifidobacteria and acidophilus) have been shown to have powerful anti-carcinogenic features which are active against certain tumors.
6. They improve the efficiency of the digestive tract and when they are weakened bowel function is poor.
7. They effectively help to reduce cholesterol levels when this is high.
8. 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.
9. They help protect against radiation damage as well as deactivating many toxic pollutants.
10. They help to recycle oestrogen (one of the female hormones) which reduces the likelihood of menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis.
11. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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:

• Missing Link Superfood Feline Supplement
• Gumz n Teeth Native Remedies powder

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

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

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

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

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:

a.

• 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

b.

• 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:

1. Stir together all sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a prep bowl, and set aside.
2. In large nonstick wok, warm vegetable oil over high heat.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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
6. Stir in sweet and sour sauce mixture and ½ cup of water. Simmer until vegetables are almost crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.
7. Return fish to skillet and simmer until cooked through, about 2 minutes.
8. In the sweet and sour sauce prep bowl, mix kudzu root powder (or cornstarch) and water.
9. Stir into skillet and cook until sauce is lightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes.
10. 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

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

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

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

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.