Coltrane, Monk, and Chai

I'm turning the corner on finals week, and I've been busy studying and working and making decisions (or rather, hemming and hawing over decisions) about what to do next. Which has left little time for complex food indulgences.

So I've been eating simple brain food things - like this - for dinner: black beans (of course), spinach

sauteed with onion and garlic from the day before, a sunny side up egg, and TJ's tomatillo salsa.

Anyway, all this hecticness wears me out like a kid playing outside, or an old person running errands, I'm not sure which. Passing out at 10:45pm fully clothed, with lights on, ON TOP of my bed resulted in a chilly, restless night of sleep. Here's some thing I don't understand: how come I can be dressed warmly, but wake up with a chill if I don't have a blanket on while I sleep? Is it psychological? If anyone can tell me why... lemme know. Needless to say, 6am dawned on me a little uncomfortably.

What's a girl to do? There's only a few things I find that can really take the edge off: a fire, music, tea, love, or hard liquor. Since I woke up alone, sans fireplace, and it was still.... 6am.... I put on a Thelonius Monk with John Coltrane record, and started making Chai.

After reading countless webpages and a few magazine articles on more than a few occasions, here's what I've learned about Chai. It's made traditionally in India, as commonly as we would make coffee. You shouldn't have to say "Give me some Chai tea, please" at a cafe, because 'chai' means tea. (However, it feels really awkward to do this in America... it just seems like you spaced out in the middle of your order.) As with everything, there's a bazillion different ways to make it, but a few spices are most commonly used, and you should use a black Indian tea like darjeeling. Also, it's delicious.

Here's my variation.

Need:

• 6-7 cloves
• 1.25'' of cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamon pods
• 1/4'' sliced FRESH gingerroot
  
• 4-6 tsp of sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)
• 3/4 c. milk or soymilk.... 2% or non-reduced fat is better
• 2 c. water
  
• 3 tsp darjeeling tea

• Put 2 c. water in a small pot that HAS A LID.
• Put all the spices in, WHOLE. (Isn't that great? You don't even have to spend the effort to crush or cut the spices....... except for the ginger I guess.)
• Bring water to a boil with the lid on. (Tangent/rant: I don't know why everyone leaves the lid off while trying to boil liquids. First of all, you cut the time you have to wait for it to boil by about half. Second, you don't waste precious amounts of gas or electricity. I just don't get it.... to me it's the same thing as trying to bring the oven up to 350 with the door open. Yet I see people do it all the time.)
• Uh, anyway, bring to a boil with the lid on. Once it boils, reduce the heat and let it simmer, with the lid on for about 10 minutes.
• Next, add the milk and sugar, and stir. Bring again to a boil (this time with the lid off because the milk will foam up if you do), then simmer for 10 minutes. The idea is to burn off 50% of the water and leave the milk behind. This gives it the creamy texture. If you've used milk, you ought to stir it frequently to make sure it's not forming a film or burning. Soymilk inherently requires less work due to its non-dairy properties.
• Turn off the heat, and add the tea leaves. Let them steep for 3 minutes.
• When it's finished, pour through some sort of straining device to filter out the spices.

So:

• water + spices = boil
• simmer 10 mins
• +sugar + milk = boil
• simmer 10 mins, stirring
• + tea leaves = steep for 3 mins
• strain
• drink!

I stood on my deck sipping this tea, squinting into the early sun and snuffing out the morning chill...

P.S. leave comments if you have them! :)

Not so much, Hummus

Hey there! Happy Earth day! Villanova is celebrating Earth day with lots of things like..... a farmer's market that's not really local at all, a food stand featuring healthy food items (some of which are legit), student poster displays about their 'sustainable' research (featuring some good stuff like biodegradable coffee cups and reusable mugs), a table with non-everything cookies, a table with 'coon skins, turtle shells and a snake (probably the most ridiculous table but also the only real 'Earth' things present at the festivities, correlation?), 25 cent scoop Hersey's ice cream... because hey, Hersey loves the Earth! (?) Even Wawa decided to join the party and give away mini chocolate milks! It's totally related, you know, like "Lowfat milk, liquid sucrose, coca processed with alkali, corn starch, salt, carrageenan, vanillin"... they're all like, from the Earth at one time...... uh....

Anyway!

One of my favorite things about Whole Foods is the bulk foods section. It brings me back to my days in Denver where I'd spend some early Sunday morning meandering through Whole Foods, picking out random treats from the heady bulk bins. It's like bulk candy.... for wholesome people. It also reminds me of preparing for backpacking trips... wondering just how much was enough to keep me going. It's kind of an ominous feeling.

Anyway, I obtained these little dried, wrinkly nurdles, otherwise known as Garbanzo beans, and decided they were just the right price for making Hummus.

It seems to me like there's a hummus craze going on right now. I mean, everyone. eats. hummus. Even my mother. (Who's pretty Italian.) And there are a bazillion different kinds. My favorite title is "40 spices Hummus". 40 spices? Really? That seems like... 35 spices too many . (Turns out it's actually delicious.) Anyway, I decided to make my first pass at traditional Hummus, and then build from there.

This recipe is going to be an example of what NOT to do. Don't snicker. I know what you're thinking... 'sweet food blog', you don't even make successful hummus. But here's what I think: you will be much better informed if you ever want to make your own hummus. And much more successful.

Look at what I did. (<- Sounds like I'm going to segue into a little kid story of drawing on a wall with crayon and being so proud of it.)

You must soak and cook the garbanzo beans to get rid of all the stuff that makes a person gassy. You can either a.) soak over night b.) boil for 30 minutes, then discard water. I did the latter.

• Put yer beans in a pot with a bunch of water to cover them
• Boil uncovered for about 40 minutes, or until they're really tender
• Take about 1 3/4 cups beans and put into FOOD PROCESSOR (wheo! wheo! wheo! er! er! er! this was the wrong thing to do!)
• Blend it up with some of the bean juices from the pot so it is not super pastey
• Throw 2 cloves of garlic in
• Throw 1/4 c tahini paste in
• Throw 1/4 c fresh squeezed lemon juice in (about 1.567 lemons, but I guess it depends on their juiciness)
• add 1.5 tsp of sea salt ground up (or in my case, rubbed between your fingers to crush)

Alright, after blending a bunch.... until it didn't appear to be getting any smoother, this is what I got:

Some garbanzo bean dip that was too grainy and too lemony. Turns out blending everything BUT the garbanzo beans BEFORE adding the beans is the way to go.

Stay tuned for 'Hummus New and Improved!'

.... I kindly notified my roommates to please help themselves to the hummus in my fridge upstairs.... someone has to eat it. ; )

EDIT: I tried 'frothing' the tahini mixture before adding the beans, and was still slightly unsuccessful in achieving the perfect creaminess. I believe this has a lot to do with cooking time for the garbanzo beans, and potentially with the quality of my food processor. Don't worry though, I've been scheming about how to fix these problems. More hummus to come later....

Breakfastgasm

Well, I've been silent for a week or so. School and work has kept me super busy. I've been eating copious amounts of PB&J's and cereal (mmm 'shredded spoonfuls' from Trader J's). Oh, and the occasional salad that only comes in those really annoying disposable plastic containers.

Here's the thing about living in the city: it's great, but every now and then, it gets old. The spring trees have bloomed, and are quite flowery and amazing. The farmer's market is running full steam ahead these days, complete with the occasional flea market and Mennonite choir. People are coming out of the winter woodwork, and the line at the incredible $2.50 breakfast taco truck grows by approximately 5 eager patrons each week. Time spent walking or biking outside is enjoyable in the city, for sure. It's warm enough to stumble across a rip-roaring bluegrass/jug band in the middle of Rittenhouse Square en route from bar to party... and want to stay awhile. But sometimes, all this city springtime cheer just isn't enough to counter the wafts of WasteManagement on a warm day, or the endless gauntlet of potholes and trolley tracks.

So when your friend offers a chance to escape the city for a day or two at cabin in the Poconos, you jump on it. Promises of a girthy fireplace, canoeing adventures on a big lake, and a designated gaming/drinking table lured me in like soccer mom to a spa.

So while I have no food creations of my own to blog about, here's the reason why I've not created anything noteworthy in a week:

You are looking at:

Fluffy, cheddar dosed eggs cooked in bacon grease, tomatoes and avocado sprinkled with sea salt, and a slice of thick bread toasted over an open fire.

We all agreed it was the best thing we'd tasted in weeks.

Thanks to master chef, T-bird.

I promise more yummy things later in the week.

Cappuccino Eggs

It WAS the weekend. And one can enjoy weekend mornings for the simple idea that you might have the chance to do something you want to do that day. It also means eating DANK BREAKFAST FOOD. And usually at a time of day that's really too late for breakfast. It's the best.

First of all, let me warn you that this is was really a me-food creation. I made it up from the edible things in my kitchen, and it's me-sized (meaning it can fit in a cup). So in the event that you can't conjure up 1 week old black beans on the spot, I won't be offended if you just read this post for entertainment. Here's the backstory: I make beans dry, from a bag. This requires soaking and much boiling before you can eat them. (Turns out there's a certain suspect suger polymer, Oilgosaccharide, in beans for which your body has no enzyme to break down. It WILL turn you in a green house gasser if you don't allow it to leech it out somewhat through soaking.) Ok, long story short, making them is a process, and I like to do it as little as possible. Hence, there's usually a tupperware of beans living in my fridge at any time.

They were perfectly fine of course, but I decided to throw them in the oven and bake them just in case. For about 15 minutes I heard screams of anguish from inside the oven as any undercover germ burned to its death.

Without further delay, I give you the cappuccino concoction:

From Amanda's kitchen you need:

• Two eggs
• 1 week old black beans, baked again
• 2 Tbs of flour
• 1.5 Tbs honey
• Scallions from the farmer at the market who thought you were the girlfriend of the guy that just happened to walk up to the table at the same time. At which point an ex-hippy also walks up to the table in shades and pulled back hair muttering something about the cabbage plant called 'poke' sitting pitifully in a watery bin in front of you. How there was this song from the 70's about poke salad, etc. "Yeah, for awhile.... that's all they ever sang about..... poke." Turns out he wasn't making it up. So we all stood there, me, my insta-boyfriend, and the ex-hippy, learning about poke from the farmer. I'm glad things finally came full circle for that hippy.... 40 years later.
• Water
• Salt
• Shredded Cheese, whatever kind you like with eggs

I used a little glass cup to make them (thanks Aunt Mim!), but I'm sure you could improvise in size and shape to whatever you have. Normally I'm all about the rules when it comes to baking.... but not today.

1. Mash up the beans however you deem best. I mashed them with a pestle and mortar
2. Stir up 1 egg yolk with the honey in a bowl
3. Add the beans
4. Add the flour
5. Add a little pinch of salt
6. Mix and mash
7. Spray your choice o cookery with some Pam, or Paula Deen it with animal lard... however you like
8. Put the bean mixture in the bottom about 1/2 inch thick. You're trying to form a kinda of crust for the bottom of the cup.
9. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes
10. Meanwhile, beat remaining 1.5 eggs in a blender on high with two splashes of water, so that the whites get foamy like bath bubbles. Who didn't just get the visual of a kid putting a handful of suds up to his chin?
11. Pour a splash of half-and-half, or heavy cream, or mmm, maybe even butter cream over the 'crust'. See below.

1. Pour the egg mixture right on top. Pour it like you would pour a cappuccino. Even if you've never done this, you've know you've seen a barista do it at some point. Let the heavier, yellow-er, liquidi-er part flow out from under the egg foam into the cup. Spoon in some egg foam. Let it settle a little, and pour in more liquid. Then more foam. Do this over and over again until it doesn't seem safe anymore. (Meaning just until you think you're going to spill over.)
2. 
   Now for the most wonderful part... the scallions. It was a beautiful day in Philadelphia, and this amazing pink flowery tree grows all the way up to my 3rd floor deck. There's a chance I just did this whole post to show off my neighbor's tree.
3. Sprinkle them on top.
4. Put in the oven immediately
5. Bake for 40 minutes (aka forever)
6. Put some foil over top, because it's taken way longer to bake than you thought it would, and the top will burn from this point forward if you don't
7. Take it out at 6o minutes
8. Sprinkle some cheese on top.
9. LET IT COOL. I ruined half of this cup by trying to eat it too soon. All I could taste was hot.
   
   
   
   
   

And there it was... the cup of breakfast that came around noon. For being so small, it was very filling and delicious. The mix of the semi sweet crust with eggs is offbeat enough to give the whole deal a much different taste. It was super heavy, but really didn't have much fat or flour in it, which made for easy digestion. Black beans are slowly becoming my newest favorite ingredient that wears many hats. You'll understand what I mean later. (hook!)

P.S. Did I mention this is a raw-foodie's nightmare? Black beans baked not once, not twice, but three times! Intolerable!

Super Salad

It was a rainy week in Philadelphia. Everything turned green, including my lunch. Marked as the first week of the 'I need to stop buying so much bread because it's comforting, cheap, hassle free, and relatively skimpy on the plastic packaging' campaign, I tried to make a salad every day out of kale. (It also became a weapon in the 'I love buying Matzos, because it's cheap and makes me feel like I'm not eating bread' war.)

Turns out, kale was a green worthy of the task. Kale: it's pretty high on the super food scale with lots of vitamins (beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin -whatever that is), cancer fighting trolls, and all that jazz. You can read about it in it's wiki page. I'll put it nicely and say that it's a 'rugged' or 'hearty' green, and requires a little rough housing before eating. You can cook your kale, for sure, but as the raw-foodists point out, you loose some nutritional value that way. And in today's world of hormone-dosed drinking water, hand-held wireless appendages, and food with 'carrageen' and 'high fructose' wrapped in PVC, you can't afford to leave a cancer-fighting troll behind.

This recipe is pretty hassle free, kind of fun, and really really good for you.

You need:

• Kale (try to buy at a farmer's market, it's only ~$2.50 a bunch, and makes ~5 servings)
• Avocado (try this for yourself, but I think I'd omit it from this salad. I don't think the avocado works well with the vinegar. Maybe replace with some chunks of cheese.)
• Rasins
• Tomatos (not pictured here, was out for the first making of this salad... was definitely IN for the subsequent versions)
• Vinegar (regular white vinegar, try to use a decent brand)
• Coarse sea salt or kosher, whatever salt doesn't have iodine in it. I was fortunate enough to use New Zealand organic sea salt. holler.

Rinse the kale if you care about that sort of thing.

Rip it into bite sized pieces and throw into a bowl.

Pour about 2 capfuls of vinegar onto the kale, and sprinkle two pinches of salt.

Now for the fun part: rub the kale between your fingers, distributing the vinegar while you work. The goal is to break down a the kale a little bit so you don't feel like an animal grazing on wild cabbage. All of your kale should become wet and wilty with this process, so if it's not, add a little more vinegar. I have no idea how long this takes. I want to say a steady 3 minutes. But basically you'll know when the texture goes from squeaky, rubbery, and unruly to wet, wilty, and tender.

Add your choice additives... the good kind, not xanatham or absorbic acid.

Add a drizzle of olive oil.

That's it!

Now you have a delicious, superfood salad. (Uh, well, I added some leftover teff from the Ethiopian... does that count as bread?)

I owe this recipe to the brilliance of my good friend, Alex, who I may or may not be able to coax into guest posting. He's pretty good at rough-housing when it's necessary, which is where the vinegar idea came from. I hope he's not mad that I'm stealing his idea and writing about it. But good ideas need to be shared, right? Anyway, thanks Alex!

Miser Wat - 1st

1st Attempt at Ethiopian

This is my first attempt at an ethiopian dish that's made with red lentils. Due to my graduate student-sized wallet, a continued interest in Ethiopian food, and the convenience of living in West Philly where the ethnic diversity abounds.... I bring to you.... lentil mush! Also known as MISER WAT. It's made with a stock spiced butter, red lentils, spices, onions and garlic. It can be eaten with rice or a similar grain, plain, or the authentic way -- with Injera, which is a tortilla shaped, spongy, Ethiopian 'bread' made out of teff flour. It's an amazing dish that's economical, filling, flavorful, and healthy. The hardest part is going to be getting outside to find the right spices. But I assure you, if you can find an international store that has everything, I'm sure your unique experience will pay for the effort it takes to get there.

Before you make Miser Wat, you'll need some Niter Kebbish. Mmmm don't we all love ourselves some Niter Kebbish. It's basically butter with spices. First things' first. I only had 2 sticks of butter, so instead of using 1lb of butter (like the recipe I used indicated), I used 1/2 lb of butter. I kept the same amount of spices. In my head that made a lot of sense

('cut the fat, keep the flavor, genius...')

You'll need:

0.5lb butter (2 sticks)

2 cloves Garlic, crushed

2, 1/4'' slices of gingerroot, fresh

3 Cardamon pods

1 Cinnamon stick

3 Cloves

1/2 tsp Turmeric

1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

Melt butter over low heat, let it bubble a little bit, add everything, simmer on low low heat for about an 1 hour. Don't let it burn. Strain the butter somehow so the solids and crap are left behind. I used the coffee cradle of an old fashioned espresso maker because it was all I had. I don't need no kitchen gadgets, I'll burn myself for free, thank you very much.

Alright. So I know Cardamon pods may not be the first thing in your spice rack, but I've been gathering spices like a squirrel slowly over the last couple of years. I'm finally putting them to use. Also, if you don't have something, don't fret. It's a bit of an experiment every time anyway. If you can't find everything, it's okay, just call it 'your version' and move on.

Alright, put this in the fridge and save for later. You won't need all of this for the Miser Wat, so you can make more dank Ethiopian food with it another time.

On to the main feature: MISER WAT

(makes about 5 servings) You need:

2 Onions

2 Garlic cloves

2 tsp Gingerroot, peeled and minced

1/4 c Niter Kibbeh (or if you skipped part 1, butter)

1 tsp Tumeric

2 Tbs Paprika

1/2-1 tsp Cayanne Pepper (please, don't add too much, you'll ruin the whole deal)

3/4 lb Red Lentils (or Miser if you get it from a foreign place)

4 c Water or Stock

Salt and Pep to taste

Alright. Pretty simple ingredients. (Minus the whole Niter Kibbeh deal... but if you are in a time crunch and just don't care about authenticity, use butter.) Pretty cheap ingredients. I mean, the dish is kinda weird if you think about it.... lentil mush with sponge bread. But I've romanticized this cuisine borne out of economic necessity to be a desired exotic delight. Whatever, caviar is uber weird, and that costs a buttlode! But if 'gross' and 'weird' are merely perceptions dependent on geographic/cultural boundaries... then I'm allowed to think lentil mush is bomb diggity and a Tastykake is robot food.

Here's what do to:

• Puree onion, garlic, and ginger in a food processor.
• Heat your choice o' fat (butter or niter kebbeh...mmm) in a BIG SAUCE PAN.
• Add Turmeric, Paprika and Cayenne pepper and stir rapidly to color oil and cook spices through, about 30 seconds.
• Add onion mixture and saute on medium until you can't smell the raw onion smell, about 5-10mins
• You might want to transfer to a BIG POT now
• Pour in 4 cups of your choice liquid
• Add lentils
• Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30-40 minutes until the lentils are tender
• Stir in Salt and Pepper to taste
• Serve with Injera (the sponge bread), or however else you deem delicious
• Can store this in the fridge for about 1 week, or freeze for 2. (Actually I have no idea if that's true, I'll get back to you in about 2 weeks.)

Alright.... so that's the way to do it.... for all those putting off work by reading this blog, all the face book-esque people who like 'browsing' other people lives, or those who are scientifically inclined to review prior experiments for a more well rounded understanding of the experiment...... here are some notes on my experience:

Ingredients: Tumeric is an amazing spice. It's flavorful, looks cool, and it dyes everything yellow. My yellow dish sponge actually looks newer. I used too much cayanne pepper. When I told a friend he asked, "wow, how did you let that happen?" Crazy, I know... I even took a picture of my little cayanne pepper pile, and never thought, hmm, maybe my mouth is going to be on fire. Just, use half of what I used.

one -almost two- garlic cloves committed voluntary suicide here:

niter kibbeh with spices

Measuring out the lentils... Nearly busted my scale trying to measure them all out... I ended up using only 3/4 lbs lentils instead of 1 lb. as the instructions I read directed. I still found the final product to taste a little too 'beany' for my liking.

ta da! Lentil mush! All the ingredients were so vibrant up until the final product, which now, looks pre-t-t-y unappetizing. But believe me, it's great. Plus, you eat it by tearing off a piece of injera and scooping up a bite-size portion of Miser Wat with it. Doesn't everyone love eating with their hands? Anyway...

Comments/recommendations:

The final dish still tasted a little too 'beany' or grainy as opposed to rich and flavorful. So I'd recommend cooking and tasting until the lentils are really nice and soft. (I think I got impatient and just cut it at 35 mins.) I think another way to combat this would be to be a little heavy handed with your choice o' fat. (Logic: beany/grainy = dry/raw/healthy, so rich/flavorful = fatty/unhealthy... I'm trying to find a balance.) Also, as I pointed out earlier, I used way too much cayanne pepper for some unknown reason. It masked the other flavors of the dish, which was really disappointing. However, I have confidence that reducing the spice will make the other flavors stand out.

Stand by for more attempts at similar Ethiopian dishes... after I manage to finish all 6 servings of this stuff.