Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Habichuelas rojas guisadas



I have been trying more Dominican recipes lately (rice and beans, and rice and beans!), and I really like this one. Don't bother measuring any of the ingredients, it is fairly forgiving. Just toss in a little this and that and don't fret if you are missing something (except maybe the beans). Instead of white rice, I used Costco's gaba rice. I'm sure any kind would be good. I also got lazy mashing and pulled out the immersion blender. And I used canned beans. Like I said, it is really forgiving. Both of my kids really liked it. I called it a "sauce" for the rice and never mentioned the blended beans.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

This old blog

I'm sorry, neglected and ugly food blog, that nobody reads or posts on you except to exploit you to win a mixer that has nothing to do with vegetables. But I'm doing it anyway!

If there are readers reading, check out Everyday Southwest! They are giving away a Kitchenaid, and they make great food!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Thai Rainbow Salad

It's more fun to eat things that have "Rainbow" in the title.

Salad:
Romaine lettuce, shredded
Purple cabbage, shredded
carrots, julienned or ribboned with a vegetable peeler
cucumbers, julienned or ribboned
red pepper, julienned
bean sprouts
baked tofu cut into strips
cilantro

Peanut Dressing:
Natural peanut butter
Rice vinegar
Brown sugar
Asian chili sauce
Ginger

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Salad at work

Dressing:
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 t olive oil
2 T dijon mustard
2 T honey
1 t each: thyme, tarragon, basil

blend dressing and pour over two cans rinsed bonzos in a container

scoop however many beans you can handle over a giant, scary, huge amount of salad greens when ready to consume for easy, non-sog salad at work

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Sprouts: king of them all

I've been meaning to write about sprouts for a while, but the simple truth is there's a lot of information and I just can't find a way to make talking about food quite as amusing as Amy can. Sprouts just aren't really that funny. So, this will be a serious discussion of sprouts.

Why sprout? Plants are most nutritous when they are only a few days old- when they're sprouts. Seeds and beans even pre-sprouting are a really great idea, as we know, and sprouting them increases several-fold the amount of nutrients in those foods. As the seed/bean germinates the vitamin C content increase 3-5 times and the calorie count lowers as the seed uses energy to grow. In the book Super Baby Food (from which I am deriving much of my sprouting information) she makes a good case for sprouting as, "one way you can have crisp, fresh vegetables at their prime. A method of indoor organic gardening." It is actually pretty hard to find good numbers on sprout nutrition, but just trust me here. Sprouting is a good idea.

What to sprout? wheat, almonds, any kind of beans, lentils, millet, seeds-even seeds used as spices such as mustard seed. The seeds should be raw, unsalted and fresh. They cannot be treated with anything (such as fungacide) or they won't sprout. Do not use seeds intended for garden use.

How to sprout? The basic idea is to keep the seeds moist (but not wet) and in a dark place. There are many different methods of sprouting, none of which are really that hard. How I do it:
I usually do beans.
Use about 1/3 a cup (the beans will grow, so don't use too many) and rinse them.
Place the beans in a glass jar (I used my washed out spaghetti sauce jars) and cover will cold water three times the volume of beans.
Let the beans soak uncovered and unrefridgerated for 6-12 hours.
Drain the beans (I just hold a saucer over the top and turn the jar over. Some people put netting across the top of a canning jar). I reserve the vitamin-filled soaking water to pour on my plants.
Rinse the beans well by adding new water and gently swirling around. Pour out the water and rinse again.
Drain well.
Lay the jar on its side so the seeds are spread out. The seeds will stay in the jar (in a dark place, or covered by a dark cloth) until it is time to rinse again.
Rinse 2 to 3 times a day, no more than 12 hours between rinse.
The beans are done sprouting when the sprout is about as long as the bean(anywhere from 2-5 days, depending on what you are sprouting). It's best not to allow the sprouts to grow longer than that. When the sprout reaches optimal length, rinse and store in the fridge.

For sprouts that grow green leaves (such as alfalfa, radish, kale) when the green leaves start to grow place the sprouts near a window with indirect sunlight to increase Vitamin A and chlorophyll production.

A few more tips: sunflower seeds are supposed to be the easiest, so it might be good to start with those. Bean sprouts should always be cooked before eating, this kills some harmful enzymes present in the sprouts. Seed sprouts can (and should) be eaten raw as much as possible.

I will post some sprout-containg recipes once I find some good ones. My girls like to snack on raw sprouts (radish and sunflower are their favorites) and bean sprouts go well in chili.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Blurry tasty

This cabbage salad was another hit at the barbeque. Three people asked me for the recipe, in fact. It is a simple one, and comes together right quick if you have a food processor, and it looks great served in a secondhand soup pot.

See?

I did serve it in this pot. And people loved it. Here's the recipe:

Yield: 1 massive pot full, enough for a billion servings

1 head red cabbage
1 head green cabbage
1 bunch green onions
2 packages of oriental flavor ramen
1/2 C oil (you could tone thins down I bet)
1/2 C sugar
1 /2 c white vinegar
seasoning packets from ramen

shred the cabbage and green onion in a food processor
smash ramen noodles (right in the packaging, if you like)
mix dressing ingredients
mix all in giant container
allow to sit, refrigerated, several hours if possible- it tastes best when it has had time to settle

Party time


I have come to the conclusion that, while special food is a critical part of most celebrations, disease-promoting food is not. My current feeling is that there are a million ways to make special food for special occasions without sacrificing the nurtient-density whatsoever. Or at least muchsoever. One way to show the ones you love how much you care is to make foods that take an exorbitant amount of time to prepare. This watermelon bowl (which would have had scalloped edges if I had been in the mood to spend ten hours on the thing instead of just five) took a lot of time, but when we took it to the primary barbeque on Thursday, it was the most appealing thing on the table. Who would want a hotdog when they could have beautiful, perfect watermelon and cantaloupe balls with strawberries?

Not even I.