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Freshly baked bran muffins

2009-12-04T19:39:57Z

Freshly baked because you can keep the batter in the fridge for a couple weeks, and bake them as wanted. Traditional in a lot of ways, though the apple juice concentrate (in place of buttermilk and sugar or honey) is my idea.
Various people have told me they don't like bran muffins but they like these.

Combine and allow to cool

1 c boiling water
1 c bran (wheat)

Whisk together

2-1/2 c whole wheat flour
2-1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt

Separately mix together (use a pretty large bowl: it can expand quite a bit when you add the other ingredients)

2 eggs
1/2 c oil
2-1/4 c apple juice concentrate (the frozen stuff, thawed)

Measure out

2 (additional) c bran
1-1/2 c raisins

Stir the cooled bran into the wet mixture. Add the flour mixture; before completely mixed, fold in the dry bran and raisins. Cover and keep refrigerated.

To make:
Do not stir the batter—most of the rising has happened in the bowl, and stirring will deflate it. Fill greased muffin tins almost full (again, most of the rising has already happened), and bake at 400° about 20 minutes (start checking a little earlier), until springy. If you're not using all the cups in the tin, put a little water in the empty ones, for more even cooking and to avoid warping the tin.

Variations:
The above is more traditional, but I now replace the raisins with diced crystallized ginger (maybe a bit less than 1-1/2 c). "Baker's cut" is already diced, though difficult to find. I assume you could use other fruit juice concentrates or other dried fruit.
I've used melted butter in place of the oil, and barely notice a difference—I now stick with oil.

Two bits of cleverness

2008-06-08T18:22:58Z

I cooked at Farm and Wilderness camp for a few days this week; Sam Arfer is head cook there and he invited me up for "skills week," cooking for 130 adults (with 6 cooks). They do real cooking there, no heating up frozen lasagna, and very good food. I had two while-cooking ideas I'm pleased with.

I made scrambled tofu for breakfast, and I'd pressed (and crumbled) the tofu the night before so it wouldn't end up soupy. But by the time it had started to brown it was really too dry, even with a ton of caramelized onions—it'd be difficult to eat with a fork without it all falling off. I thought, with the help of one of the other cooks' suggestion of hummus, of tahini. Not enough to really be noticeable of itself, not enough to be in any way creamy, but enough to definitely improve the texture. Something I'd probably do at home too.

The other bit of cleverness was in a coconut-milk sauce for stir-fry. I was looking for something sweet to add to it, and was considering applesauce. I was looking around the walk-in cooler for leftover applesauce and saw leftover canned pumpkin. It worked very well—a little sweetness, some earthiness, ideal amount of thickening. (This along with a bunch of other seasonings.) Definitely something I'll use the next time I make my quick-curry chickpeas. About 2 parts coconut milk to 1 part pumpkin puree.

Several snack-like things

2008-01-04T06:38:01Z

I found an interesting bowl as a holiday present for my brother and sister-in-law, and filled it with several different snacks:

Candied pecans
The candied pecans from below. (I ended up making 3 [double] batches, because I slightly burnt the first one, and needed an extra gift. I lost my nerve and undercooked the next two batches. This can be partially remedied by putting them in a low oven for quite a long time. They'll get un-sticky, but they'll never get crisp.)

Chocolate peanut brittle
This turned out quite different from what I intended, though I wasn't unhappy with it. It was supposed to be a thin layer of brittle with cocoa nibs floating in it and peanuts sticking up through it. But it's been too long since I've made peanut brittle and I didn't remember that the candy cools and seizes up after you add the room-temperature ingredients, so if you want it to pour you have to get it fully hot again. Also, I'd never done anything with cocoa nibs before, and I didn't know that they'll at least partially melt. Also, I used so many cocoa nibs that they were never going to be individually visible anyway. The result looked like a disaster—such large chunks that you'd surely damage your teeth trying to eat it. But the cocoa nibs acted like shortening in biscuits, making the brittle much less hard. (The brittle was nearly black from the nibs, which was not unattractive.) The result wasn't bad at all. I don't offer this as a recipe so much as an idea—using cocoa nibs in nut brittle, either just as an ingredient, or to "tenderize" it (not quite sure what to call it—the result is still entirely crisp/crunchy/brittle, just less hard).

Candied orange peel & candied ginger
I cheated on the candied ginger and bought it from Trader Joe's, then sliced it (knife dipped in hot water—you'll need to set the ginger aside to dry afterwards) to be about the same size as the orange peel. It'd been years since I made candied citrus peel too, so I forgot that it has to age for at least a couple weeks before you eat it, or you'll get a pretty objectionable and long-lasting bitter aftertaste.

3 (organic, or at least unwaxed) oranges
2 c sugar
3 Tbs light corn syrup
3/4 c water
Cut the oranges into quarters and cut out most of the flesh (you don't have to be too obsessive at this point). Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, cover with fresh cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer until tender (about 15 minutes). Drain and dump into cold water. Remove the softer remaining innards with a spoon. Cut into 1/4" or so strips (and to a length that's similar to the ginger).
Combine 1 cup of the sugar with the corn syrup and the water in a heavy pan. Stir over low heat until dissolved, then either a) brush down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water, or b) cover the pan and simmer a few minutes so condensing water will wash down the pan sides (this option is a bit less reliable) (you're doing this to make sure there are no stray sugar crystals that might make the whole thing crystalize as it becomes supersaturated). Add the orange peel and cook over low heat, carefully stirring occasionally, until most of the syrup is absorbed. Cover and let stand overnight. Bring to a simmer again.
On several layers of paper towels, spread the remaining cup of sugar. With a slotted spoon (if there's still syrup remaining), remove the peel and roll in the sugar. Transfer to a sheet of wax or parchment paper and let dry for several hours, turning occasionally.
Either put this (mixed with about 2/3 the amount of candied ginger) in single layers separated by wax or parchment paper, or toss both with about 1-1/2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot. Store in an airtight container. Set aside for at least 2 weeks to mellow.
(Taken with minimal alteration from 1997 Joy of Cooking.)

Thai curried sliced almonds
2-3 tsp Thai curry paste (I used red)
3/4 tsp salt
4-1/2 tsp oil
2 c sliced almonds
Lightly cook the first 3 ingredients in a saucepan. Put the almonds in a bowl and pour the spice mixture over; stir to combine. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, at 275° for 30 minutes. (If you start out with toasted sliced almonds, you can cut the time to about 15 minutes; if you use whole almonds bake at 300°.)
The higher amount of curry paste is probably too spicy for snacking, but I meant them to go on salad, fish, etc. Even 2 tsp may be too spicy for eating out of hand.

Curried pecans
2-1/2 Tbs olive oil
1-1/2 Tbs curry powder (Anyone have a recommended one that's reasonably easy to find? Mine is Frontier Herbs, which is okay.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1-1/2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 c pecans
Heat the first 5 ingredients in a small saucepan and cook gently for a couple minutes. Take off heat and add the Worcestershire. Pour over the pecans and stir to combine.
Line a cookie sheet with several layers of paper towels or brown paper. Spread the pecans on the paper, and bake at 275° for 10 minutes. Transfer to fresh paper and bake another 10 minutes. Raise heat to 300°, transfer to fresh paper, and bake 4 minutes; stir and bake for 3 more minutes. Let cool.
I'm sure you could use half a pureed canned chipotle instead of the powdered, or cayenne plus more smoked paprika.

New Year's meal

2008-01-02T04:00:07Z

I have a pretty set meal that I've been cooking on New Year's Day for a long time now.

I tend to shop for groceries several times a week (partly from spending my early adulthood without a car), and to expect to go the grocery store if I need something for that day's meal. A couple of days before New Year's many years ago I realized I'd have to decide ahead of time since the stores would be closed. I hadn't had black-eyed peas in a long time and decided on them, not remembering that they were traditional for New Year's Day—when I looked up some recipes, one mentioned the tradition, and I've stuck with it since.

Of these three recipes, only the cornbread is even a little unusual, but I'll include all of them for completeness.

Black-eyed peas and rice
1-1/2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
7 cups water
1-1/2 tsp salt
1-3/4 c black-eyed peas (dried)
1-1/4 c brown rice

Saute the onions in the olive oil until lightly browned; add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook a few minutes more. Add the water and bring to a boil, then add the black-eyed peas and rice. Cook 45-55 minutes till tender.

It's worth getting the peas from a store with a decent turnover; very old ones will take a lot longer to cook. Reasonably new ones will cook in about the same time as brown rice.

Greens
1-1/2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
3 lbs greens* (weight includes stems)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs shoyu
water

Saute the onions in the olive oil until lightly browned; add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook a few minutes more. In the meantime, stem, wash, and coarsely chop the greens. Add the greens to the onions along with the salt and shoyu, and water to cover. It's fine to have plenty of water, it's good mixed with the peas & rice and the cornbread. Simmer 60-90 minutes, until very tender. Taste for shoyu/salt.

Note that curly greens like kale take up a lot more room until they wilt. Just keep adding them to your pot (along with a smallish amount of water) and stirring until there's room for the next couple handfuls. Don't add water to cover till it's wilted.

*Greens: I like kale. Supermarket collards are overwhelmed by the taste of the onions, chard gets too soft when cooked long, and the bitterness of mustard is the wrong symbolism for New Year's.

Some years I've added some kind of smoky veggie "meat" to one or the other of these. (One year I added it to both, and they tasted too similar to one another). This year I added "sausage" to the greens after they'd finished cooking, so the greens still tasted of themselves—a better choice than adding it at the beginning.

Cornbread
I don't know why I tried this recipe—everything about it suggests dry cornbread (not much fat, all cornmeal, hot pan) which I don't like. But it doesn't come out dry, and it's my favorite recipe. And the fact that it's all-cornmeal gives lots of taste.

1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1 c buttermilk*
1 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 425°, and put an 8- or 9-inch cast iron skillet in the oven; let it heat for at least 15 minutes. (If you don't have a cast iron skillet you can use an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan, but you won't get much crust.)

Beat together the egg, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the oil, then add the buttermilk. Whisk together the cornmeal and baking soda. Add the buttermilk mixture and quickly whisk to combine. Remove the pan, add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the hot pan and swirl it around, and pour in the batter. Return to oven for 12-15 minutes, until springy in the middle.

*Buttermilk is best, but plain yogurt is an okay substitute.

----------
The black-eyed peas & rice and the greens recipe are slightly modified from The Political Palate, Bloodroot Collective, 1980 Sanguinaria. The cornbread recipe is slightly modified from Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook, Sarah Fritschner, 1996 Houghton Mifflin.

Kimchee salad

2007-01-08T02:32:56Z

A little less unseasonably warm today, but I'm still thinking warm-weather food. Any number of variants here, but one I just made that I'm quite happy with:

1 lb kimchee
1 lb coleslaw mix
1 bunch scallions
1 c peas or snow peas or snap peas
1 c roasted peanuts
Baked tofu:
      14 oz tofu
      3 Tbs shoyu
      1 Tbs sesame oil
      1 tsp dried ginger
      2 Tbs water

Slice the kimchee so it's about the same shape as the coleslaw (I used nappa kimchee, but radish should be good too). Slice the scallions. Lightly cook the peas (if you use frozen English peas, you just need to run them under hot water) and slice if you use snow or snap peas. Press and bake the tofu as in the green bean recipe; cut into small strips; bake in a large shallow pan till it firms up. Mix all ingredients and taste. Don't use up all of an ingredient to start with in case you want to adjust proportions.

With the tofu it works as a main dish, without it works as a salad.

Cold avocado soup

2006-07-09T16:48:42Z

Yet another requested recipe. Everything is pretty approximate.
Serves 2.

1 avocado
1/2 c sour cream
1 to 1-1/2 c ice water
1 Tbs good soy sauce
1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
2 medium globe tomatoes or about 2/3 of a pint of grape tomatoes
2 to 3 scallions

Puree the avocado and sour cream along with a little of the water in a blender or food processor. Add the soy sauce, salt, and the rest of the water to your desired consistency. Taste for salt; it will need to be quite salty for the tomatoes. Dice the tomatoes and add to the soup; cut the scallions lengthwise and then slice thinly and add to the soup.

You want this well chilled, but it should be served soon after making it--I suggest chilling it over ice water so it'll be quick, or I imagine you could use a few ice cubes in place of some of the water if you're using a blender. If you make this fairly thick, there will be enough air incorporated into the soup that even if you press plastic wrap onto the surface it will discolor and get old tasting if it sits a while; this is less of a problem if the soup is thin.

The soy sauce is basically to add a rich/meaty character--I imagine you could use a mix of chicken (or vegetable) stock and water instead of soy sauce and water. One-third stock, two-thirds water would be my guess.

I've made this with frozen avocados when fresh weren't available and it works, though there's enough citric & ascorbic acid added to them (to prevent browning) to be tasteable.

Glorious vichyssoise

2006-07-02T02:10:06Z

First, the 's' is pronounced. "Mayonnaise" isn't <may·oh·nay>, "hollandaise" isn't <hol·un·day>, and "vichyssoise" isn't <veesh·ee·swah>. The next waiter who incorrectly corrects me on this gets a fork in his thigh.

Not that I order vichyssoise in restaurants any more--I've never had a proper vichyssoise in a restaurant. Which baffles me, it's about the easiest soup there is to make. The problem is, I'm not good at planning ahead unless I'm cooking for guests, and this is a soup that has to be chilled after cooking--so it's been a long time since I've made it.

3 cups sliced leeks, thoroughly cleaned (or a mix of leek and onion)
4 cups red potatoes, peeled and diced
8 cups water (some of this could be chicken stock, but even if I ate chicken I'd use water)
1 Tbs salt
3/4 - 1 c heavy cream
chives, snipped

Put the first 4 ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer, partially covered, 50 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Purée--a fine food mill is best for this, a blender or stick blender is next; don't use a food processor, it'll turn glue-y. Taste for salt--because it's chilled it needs to be a little saltier than you'd think. Chill. Check the texture, you may want to add more cold water. Add the cream before serving and garnish with snipped chives. Glorious.

Local vegetables!

2006-06-22T00:36:07Z

The farmers' markets have been open since the beginning of June here in Boston, but until this week they just had leafy things, which in the spring aren't enough different from the supermarket to get excited about (though they're great after the first frost), and rhubarb, which was rather pale. But I got local snap peas today! Snap peas are almost always good, but picked today (or maybe yesterday) they're one of my favorite foods. Here's how I made them, for me and a friend tonight:

Snap peas, snapped
A little oil
A little salt

Preheat oven to 550F (yes, really 550F). Toss the peas with the oil and salt in a roasting pan (single layer), and roast them till some of them have gotten a tiny bit brown, stirring once or twice--probably 3-5 minutes total. For maximum crispness, serve immediately, but they're also good cold. If not eating right away, cover them once cool--they tend to dry out.

If your snap peas are a bit wan, you'll want to cook them a little longer at 500F. Farm fresh don't really need to be cooked at all, so brief in a really hot oven works fine. Older ones will be better a little more cooked.

I cook green beans (especially early ones, later in the season they can be too tough for this method) and asparagus this way too.

This I served with

Cold shrimp soup
2/3 lb shrimp (frozen is fine)
3/4 to 1 seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
1/8 sweet onion, chopped (maybe start with less)
1-1/2 Tbs dijon mustard
2 tsp dry dill weed (if serving immediately, you'll probably want more)
1 tsp sweetener
1-1/2 to 2 c buttermilk
1/3 c tart white wine, or a bit of lemon juice

All measurements are quite approximate. If your shrimp are still frozen, run them through the food processor first till finely chopped, then add the next 5 ingredients and process till finely chopped. Add the buttermilk & wine and process again; taste for seasoning. Since almost all the ingredients start out cold you can serve it immediately, or it'll keep a day or so chilled. Serves 2 as a main course.

A very good combination, the slight sweetness of both the shrimp and the snap peas, with the contrasting texture.

Cinnamon-Date Skones

2006-06-11T16:30:53Z

Not "scones," as the flavoring is about as authentic as blueberry bagels. But tasty. Another requested recipe.

4 c whole wheat pastry flour (you could certainly try white, though I suspect the flavor would be a bit insipid; I've used barley flour and they taste good, but they're a bit crumbly)
1/4 c dry sweetener (I use dried cane juice; if you use brown sugar you may want to mix it with the wet ingredients)
1/4 c baking powder (yes, really that much)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 lb butter (frozen or chilled, see below)
1-1/3 c chopped dates, packed
1-1/3 c chopped pecans
1-3/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c dark rum
4 eggs

Mix the first 5 ingredients.

Either
Cut in the butter however you normally would, then add the dates & pecans
or
Add the dates to the dry ingredients and break up the clumps (the dates do tend to clump when you pack them), then add the pecans, and grate in the frozen butter (this is my preferred way of "cutting in" butter).

Mix together the cream, rum, and eggs, and briefly stir them into the dry ingredients. Allow that to sit for a few minutes to firm up.

Divide into 4 pieces, and shape each into a round 1-1/2" high; cut each round into fourths; place on a lightly greased baking sheet. This will keep, covered closely with plastic wrap, overnight in the fridge.

Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes (that's a rough guess), till lightly brown and minimally springy. Rich enough to serve plain, or with processor-whipped cream (which is much thicker than other-whipped cream) or clotted cream or butter.

Chipotle-sweet potato soup

2006-05-11T00:25:41Z

I had a request for this one too. Perhaps the highest ratio of goodness to effort of anything I make.

1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp dried ginger
3 very large sweet potatoes, the redder the better, peeled and diced
1 canned chipotle, minced, with adobo
vegetable stock to just cover
1 cup or so milk/soy milk [edit: a can of coconut milk is really good]
tamari to taste
1 large (approx 22 oz) can black beans, rinsed

Saute the onion in the olive oil with the salt over medium-low heat till well softened. Add the garlic and ginger, and saute a few minutes more. And the sweet potatoes, chipotle, and vegetable stock. Simmer, partially covered, till the potatoes are very tender. Puree (a stick blender is easiest) and add milk to thin as you like. Taste for salt/tamari & heat (you can finely mince more chipotle or just use the adobo if you want more heat). Stir in the black beans and heat through.

The extra canned chipotles: I put individual chipotles on plastic wrap and spoon their adobo over, and then freeze hard. Once they're frozen I wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Polenta with chiles

2006-03-26T06:27:09Z

A friend asked for the recipe, so I figured I'd post it here.

Roast
3 mild chiles (can certainly use more if you like).
Bring to a boil
2 c milk
1/4 c water (use liquid from canned corn)
1/2 tsp salt (a bit more if you don't use the canned corn liquid).
Once that's boiling, combine (don't let it sit long)
3/4 c cornmeal
3/4 c cold water (use liquid from canned corn)
and stir into the boiling milk. Stir continuously until it comes back to simmer and thickens; turn heat down and simmer 15 minutes (or longer), covered, stirring occasionally. (If you let the polenta cool it will solidify, so have everything else ready before you take it off the heat. It won't be harmed by cooking longer.) Just before taking it off heat, stir in
1/2 c parmesan (or a bit more).
Meanwhile, peel, seed, and chop the roasted chiles; chop
2-3 canned chipotles (more if they're mild)
and mix with the chiles.

Layer in a greased casserole:
polenta, chiles, and
1 c corn (or a bit more)
2/3 c chopped cilantro
1/2 lb (2 c) shredded jack cheese
1/2 c heavy cream.
(The layers I use, from the bottom up:
a bit less than half of the polenta
chiles
corn
cilantro
a bit more than half of the cheese
a bit less than half of the cream
the rest of the polenta
the rest of the cheese
the rest of the cream.)
Bake 400° for 30 min, until well browned.

The advantage of canned corn over frozen (I've tried both) is that the liquid is a good addition to the taste of the polenta. (You won't have a full cup, just use what you have and water for the rest.)
I haven't described how to roast chiles here—I assume there are plenty of places on the web that will tell you how if you need it.
I bet diced nopales would be a good substitute for the chiles—haven't tried it.

An update: If you want this to come out at all solid, you'll need to let it cool (or chill) before you bake it. If you bake it immediately it'll come out very soupy. Still tasty, but a very different result.

Another update: Cooked cilantro doesn't have much taste; I've been asked if it was spinach. I'm considering using culantro (which I can rarely find) or minced cilantro stems (does anyone know if these stand up to cooking better?) or minced cilantro root (which I know does stand up to cooking, but might have an odd texture).

Cheese pancakes

2006-01-28T18:18:25Z

I just made these; I'm amazed at how good they are. Another recipe that is even better than it looks. Only slightly modified from the current Gourmet.

3/4 c chopped onion
1/4 tsp salt
olive oil
1-1/2 c whole-milk cottage cheese (preferably small-curd)
4 Tbs butter, melted
1/4 tsp pepper
3 eggs
6 Tbs flour

Cook the onion with the salt in olive oil over med-low heat till browned. Combine with remaining ingredients.

Using a well-seasoned cast-iron or non-stick skillet and a bit of olive oil, cook 1/8-cup scoops of batter till somewhat browned on both sides.

These have a nice slight crispness when served immediately, but unless you can serve them instantly they should keep in a warming oven as you finish cooking the batch.

Along with a fruit salad, serves two hungry people or three more reasonable appetites.

Candied pecans

2005-11-29T04:01:04Z

I haven't made these in a while, but I was just talking about them. I always make a double recipe.

1 c pecans
1/4 c dark rum
1/4 c maple syrup
2 Tbs butter
1/8 tsp (or a bit more) salt

Steep the pecans in the rum for at least 20 minutes.

Combine pecans & rum, maple syrup, and butter. Cook over high heat about 10 minutes (if you have a light-weight pan, you'll probably have to user lower heat for longer to avoid burning), stirring frequently and then constantly, until liquid is gone and butter starts to be noticeably separate, and the syrup just starts to form threads between the nuts—this is a bit nerve wracking, as overdoing it will burn the butter or nuts, but undercooking will leave them gooey. (If you've cooked out the liquid, they will be dry once they cool.)

Spread out onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (the more you spread them out, the less you'll have to break them apart after they cool), and sprinkle with salt while still hot (I like fairly salty with the sweet). Let cool completely before packing in an air-tight container.

Slightly modified from The Common Ground Dessert Cookbook.

Tofu with green beans and coconut sauce

2005-11-08T02:15:10Z

This is remarkably good—better than the sum of its parts. As I was tasting the sauce, etc., I thought I was going to be disappointed. I think it also gets better the next day (though it loses a lot of color).

On first reading, this may look time consuming. But there's a lot of meanwhile time—while the tofu is pressing, while it's baking, while the onions are sweating.

Press 16 oz firm tofu (put on a plate, cover with another plate, and weight with about 4 lbs [½ gallon container] for 20-30 minutes). Cut the tofu into cubes.

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine 1 Tbs sesame oil, 2 Tbs shoyu, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp dry ginger, a few dashes hot sauce, 2 Tbs water. Grease a shallow baking dish. Add the tofu, pour the shoyu mixture over, and gently stir to coat. Bake, gently stirring occasionally (a silicone spatula works well), until liquid is mostly gone, about 25 minutes.

Thinly slice 1 smallish onion. Cook in oil over low heat with ¼ tsp salt until thoroughly soft, 10-15 minutes—you may want to cook it covered, as you don't want it to dry and brown. (A wide skillet works best for this, for reducing later on.)

Trim 1 lb green beans and cut into 2" pieces; slice 1 red bell pepper and cut into 2" pieces.

Once the onions are soft (but not brown), turn heat up to medium and add 1 Tbs grated ginger, 1 Tbs minced garlic, ¼ tsp chili flakes; sauté a couple minutes.

Add 1 can (14-15 oz) coconut milk, additional ½ tsp salt, 1 Tbs shoyu; bring to a boil. Add the green beans and quickly bring back to boil; simmer 2-3 minutes. Add the peppers and simmer another 6 minutes or so, until beans are just cooked through.

Remove the beans and peppers with a slotted spoon, and quickly boil down the sauce till slightly thickened, reduced to about ¾ cup. Stir in about 1 Tbs lime juice; you may want to add a bit of sweetener or more salt.

Serve the beans over the tofu, pour the sauce over that, and top with cilantro and chopped salted toasted cashews.

You could serve this over rice noodles or rice, though it's not very strongly flavored—I liked it by itself.

It's difficult to keep the green beans bright green; cooking them quickly and serving as soon as possible after they're cooked will help.

Modified from Gourmet, Sept 2005

A very parsleyey tabouli

2005-08-09T22:43:04Z

For some reason I haven't made this in years. Made it last night, I do like it.

1 c bulgur
3 c or so water
2 med onions, finely chopped
4 c firmly packed chopped parsley (smallish batches in a food processor works well)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
juice of 2-3 lemons

Soak the bulgur in cold water in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Drain and squeeze dry.
Add the onions and crush into the bulgur with a spoon.
Add all the other ingredients and stir/toss to combine. Taste for salt and lemon.
Good immediately, but better the next day. Unlike other greens, parsley doesn’t turn olive drab when exposed to acid.
Mint can substitute for some of the parsley if you like that sort of thing.

Black bean salad

2005-06-12T23:53:24Z

I hadn't made this in a while, very much a summer dish.

3 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed (frozen corn can substitute for some of this--but take care, too much will make it too sweet)
1 red onion, diced
2 lg tomatoes (3/4 pint grape tomatoes), seeded and chopped (since I don't seed grape tomatoes it ends up being a bit soupier than is ideal)
3/4 c (packed) chopped cilantro
4 jalapeños, 3 of them seeded, minced
3 smallish cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
5 Tbs cider vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
3/4 tsp salt

You might start with smaller amounts of the strong flavors and then taste, the original recipe had less cilantro, jalapeño, cumin, and vinegar; this is how I make it. My beans started out salted. Better the next day, but quite good the first day too. In Toronto I could find frozen black beans, which had a great texture, so use frozen if you can find them. Or cook them yourself, of course.

The perils of spell-check

2005-05-11T17:28:59Z

www.cfs.purdue.edu/safefood/1995/poster12.html

As far as I can tell, this hasn't been picked up as a boner. I found it while looking for graphics for hand-washing posters for dance camp

Mayday!

2005-05-03T17:30:24Z

I ran into an acquaintance last week who's very involved with the faeries, and the conversation turned to May Day/Beltane. I talked about the history of May Day among the Boston fairies of 20 or so years ago, and he talked about Beltane rituals he'd been to. He described one organized by a trans activist where the people who identified as men went and got the pole, and the people who identified as women dug the hole, and the people who didn't identify as either put the rocks in the hole to hold up the pole. I replied, with what I think was admirable restraint, that I could never really deal with doing pagan ritual with heterosexuals. So then he talked about one year that was all guys, and the ones who were doing drag played the priestess roles. So I said my goodbyes and left.

On my way home I continued fuming, coming up with caustic replies--"I'm not a real fan of doing ritual that celebrates an ideology of binary sex*," etc. (And Alix Dobkin's Boy/Girl Rap came to mind: "It's boy/girl, boy/girl / Sure gets tedious.") And then I thought more and realized talking about "an ideology of binary sex" puts a '90s/'00s slant on this that it doesn't deserve, suggesting "at least it's moved beyond issues we were dealing with in the '70s/'80s"--and it hasn't. This is about "sex role stereotyping," with all the datedness that that phrase carries with it. Which I think was the real source of my aggravation, that there's been no growth over these 20+ years, indeed that things have gone backwards. As dear Michael Starkman said at a gathering 20+ years ago, on this same point, "As gay men, we have no history. That's why drag never gets any better." Back in my day [that should be said as crotchetily as possible] organizing a ritual around boys being poles and girls (or simulated girls) being holes would have been something we did a derogatory skit about. Why make it into a ritual when all you have to do is turn on television?

And what ought to go without saying, but apparently doesn't, is that this is also about heterocentrism (another good '80s word). It seems to me [again crotchety] that it shouldn't take a whole lot of insight to notice that boy/girl = pole/hole isn't a good representation of queer sexuality.

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*And having that particular place for trans folk doesn't do nearly enough to undermine that ideology--choosing from three boxes instead of two isn't what radical change is about.

Various Christly things

2005-04-14T20:51:10Z

Wanted to pass these on: Stations of the Kitsch, which is perhaps not work safe, just because some Christly person is bound to ask you "Why are you laughing so hard?" From there you can find the Cavalcade of Bad Nativities and the Passion of the Tchotchke, but I'm not finding a link back to the Stations.

From there I found this, which has to be one of the clearer examples of self-parody I've seen. Back when people were activists, we'd carry signs that said "Masturbation is murder!" and chant "Every sperm a wanted sperm!" and now there you go. This scary Baby Jesus is also theirs. (Makes a bit of noise, but not loud.)

Using gougere dough

2005-04-02T18:55:46Z

Not so much a recipe as an idea. Using savory cream puff pastry as a sort of crust around a filling. E.g., cream puff pastry with added gruyere around the edge of a pie plate and creamed mushrooms in the middle. Bake in a 400F oven for about 35 minutes. I brought this to a contra dance potluck (lcfd.org/jp) last weekend.

A variation: bake the pastry by itself first--I would imagine this would make it puff more and be crispier. And of course you could slice the baked pastry and fill it. But then it just turns into filled pate choux--lovely but more common.

Peanut sauce

2004-12-21T04:54:10Z

I'm not sure what this journal will end up being, but I'm sure it will include recipes, so here's one to start. I finally came up with a peanut sauce I like. Started from the '97 Joy of Cooking and modified from there.

Make 1 cup black tea (a teabag or ball will be easier), to which you've added 1 large dried chipotle; take out the teabag after 4 minutes, but let the chipotle continue to steep. Saute 1 medium onion and 4-5 cloves garlic in a mild oil till translucent but barely colored. Add 1 cup smooth unsalted peanut butter, ¼ c cider vinegar, 4-6 Tbs tamari, 1 ½ Tbs honey, 2 Tbs toasted sesame oil; purée the chipotle and add it. Gradually stir in the tea. Can be served as is, but it tends to separate and get oily unless you buzz it with a stick blender (or in a blender or food processor, but it's probably not worth the mess).

If you want this spicier, try cayenne rather than more chipotle—just a little smokiness is good. Good over noodles with stir-fried vegetables, or anything really. A friend adds more vinegar and makes it a salad dressing, which sounds good.