Red Beans and Yum

This just in!

I've been clearing my cupboards for those half used bags of what not, and decided to put these year old kidney beans to good use in a little something inspired by the red beans and rice I've had on trips to N'awlins in years past. Not much in the mood for meat these days, as bad climate change news is keeping me on the straight and narrow as far as habits go. Cutting meat out of your diet is one of the big ones as far as carbon emissions go, and I was afraid the flavor would take a hit, but with a little help from my friends, and some yummy chipotle powder I got from a friend, it was just perfect! I also substituted rice with bulgur, as it was also laying around in the cupboard, as well as it being healthier.

You'll need:
2 cups of kidney beans, soaked overnight
bulgur
1 can/box of crushed tomatoes
1 bell pepper, your choice of color, diced
1 yellow onion, sliced or diced how you want 'em
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and sliced or diced
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
flour for thickening

Start by sauteing the onion, garlic and bell pepper in some olive oil in a pot. When they're soft and glassy, throw in the spices for a good mix around. Add the beans, bay leaves, tomatos and a little salt. Fill your pot with water until the ingredients are covered, and let simmer for 20-30 min. I used my pressure cooker since the beans were old-ish, and probably needed a little help. When it's about done, get your bulgur going, as much as you need for as many people as you are, it's usually half bulgur/half water. Taste the beans and add salt and pepper as needed. If it's a little runny, mix som flour with a little water in a bowl and add the mixture slowly over heat until it thickens.

That's it. Serve it up, pick out the bay leaves if you've got kids, and enjoy!

ps - I happened to add some pimentos that I had in a jar, and I added that along with the pimento water. I like the pimento flavor, but the water made it too acidic. I rememdied this by throwing in a teaspoon of baking soda at the very end. It neutralized the flavor just fine, but if you want to make this addition as well, I'd recommend a little caution!

Kimchi

One should only be so lucky to be invited to one of Mina's kimchi slave mines. It sounds ominous, but really, all it is is a bunch of folks standing around getting chili paste up to their elbows while they smother cabbage, daikon, carrots and spring onions in it before stuffing in a jar and calling it kimchi. Then, she makes yummy Asian delicacies for you to eat before heading home with your new acquisition. Kimchi is so photogenic. And it tastes great with scrambled eggs, among other things. You should be so lucky!

Easy Hot Lunch - Udon Noodle Soup

Yeah so, culinary adventures are just not my thing these days. I'm into sandwiches, easy homemade pizzas and pasta dishes lately. The more time I spend thinking bigger, better thoughts about my master plan (which encompasses everything), the less time I have to thinking about dinner.

I wanted a hot lunch the other day, despite my lack of creativity, and I luckily spied a package of forgotten udon noodles in the back of the fridge, hooray! So easy.

Hot water. Add udon.



Boil as the package instructs. Add miso (mine's vegan). Then I add a small handful of chopped spring onions and canned corn.



At the very end I add cubes of silky tofu. Don't heat them too much, or they'll disentegrate.



Less than five minutes. Hot lunch. So good.

Soupe Marocaine - Harira

As followers of my other blog know, I am in Morocco! I'm two weeks in, in a month stay at our "old haunt" in Essaouira. It's absolute bliss. We've been adopted by some locals, who are kind, so kind. We've been in the country, treated to the hospitality of Moroccan farmers, and their daughter Latifa has continued spreading the love. Yesterday, by celebrating Mikael's birthday (a week late) with cake, Moroccan crêpes, and the traditional soup for breaking the fast of Ramadan, harira.

I love this soup. I could eat it every day without getting bored. This also because each Moroccan person/family/restaurant makes their own variation. It can be vegan, vegetarian or with lamb, chicken or beef. However which way you like it. The main points of reference in this soup are the spices, chickpeas, lentils, tomatos, herbs and vermicelli pasta. Beyond that, you can pretty much do what you like. And it'll still taste fabulous!

Here's lovely Latifa, dishing it out for us and our friend the real estate agent here, Salah. I made sure to watch her closely, making mental and real notes. So here, I will first write out which ingredients you will be needing, and approximately how much, after that, there's a lot of gefühl going on. No matter, the outcome will be tasty. I promise. This particular version is vegetarian, but can be made vegan by using only olive oil, vegetable stock cubes and omitting the egg.



2 cups of chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 cup of small, dark green lentils, (pretty sure it was puy)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tomatos, grated or finely diced
2 cups of finely chopped celery
1 cup of finely chopped coriander
2 eggs, whisked
a small handfull vermicelli pasta
3 tbsp spice mix: equal parts turmeric, powedered safran, powdered ginger
tsp pepper
salt to taste
3 tbsp tomato purée
1-2 tbsp smin (Moroccan rancid butter), or ghee
olive oil
2 vegetable boullion cubes
1 bay leaf

In a large pot (Latifa used a pressure cooker) mix the onion, tomato, chickpeas, lentils, celery, coriander and spices with a big dollop of the olive oil and heat up for a bit, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, when the spices have released their flavor, and the vegetables and herbs are wilted a bit, add a cup of water and the tomato puree and bring to a boil. Add more water, until the pot is about 3/4 full. Now, this is where Latifa put the lit on the pressure cooker, and let it work its magic for half an hour. If you don't have a pressure cooker, I think you'll need to let this simmer for at least an hour, probably two.

Fast forward. After 30 minutes of pressure cooking, or after your hour or two of regular cooking, mix the flour well with a cup of water. Add slowly, little by little, to the still simmering pot, stirring all the while. Let it bubble and thicken. It must thicken, so if you need to make more flour/water and add it, please do, this soup must be thick! Add your bay leaf and stock cubes, and a small handfull of vermicelli pasta. Also, add more water, if necessary. While the pasta are cooking, add the whisked egg, slowly and little by little, while stirring. You should have something that resembles the "egg drop" in Chinese Egg Drop soup. When your pasta are done, add the smin (or ghee or olive oil), remove the bay leaf, and you should be done! Enjoy with bread if you like, but this is quite hearty by itself!

I hope its everything and more. This soup is made for hangovers, cold nights, sickly children or just whenever. I shall amend the recipe as I continue my Harira making career! Bon Appetit!

Dumpster Diving

A friend and fellow blogger I know has been doing some pretty successful dumpster diving in this town, and I asked if I could join. We met this week on an extremely cold night, and after unsuccessfully going one place, we hit a small jackpot in another. I got a couple of perfectly fine cauliflowers, some nice apples, asparagus, some beetroot salad and some flatbread. There were also some wok veggies, though I haven't used them, so they're going in the compost, and someone even got some vacuum packed smoked trout! A lot of the wares that are thrown out aren't past their actual usage limit, but there's is a date on them that shops have to adhere to, and some things are thrown out merely to make room for the new. I'm looking forward to relieving more dumpsters of unneccessary trash in the future.

This was my first dumpster dived meal. And it was great!

Spelt in lieu of rice.
Fried cauliflower with mild curry and nigella seeds in a tomato/soy cream sauce.
Asparagus fried in turmeric and mustard seeds.

Sorry no recipe, it was made in a frenzy since I had some hungry boys waiting for grub! But it was delicious, and the boys ate their fair share.

Fast and Easy Whole Grain scones

Sorry no picture, the omputer ate it!

These scones are a recipe that I've had lying around for ages, and never got around to baking. I used whole grain spelt flour, but I imagine regular spelt, or wheat flour will make them a bit moister. These were a bit dry and flaky, but nothing that can't be remedied by butter, jam and a mug of tea on the side. Delicious!

220 g. flour (again, I used whole grain spelt)
2 heaping tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
dash nutmeg
60 g. sugar (I use organic raw cane)
60 g. of soft butter (I used half butter, half canola)

Mix these in a bowl together. Then add:
1 egg, beaten. Now, put the egg in a measuring cup, and fill up with yogurt naturelle (or soy cream, like I did) until you hit the 1 dl mark. Set aside a few drops for later. Then add to the other ingredients.

Mix everything well, and then roll it out until it's roughly one inch thick. Using a cup about 3 inches in diameter, stamp out your scones. Anywhere between 8-12 scones is the goal, depending on the size of your cup.

Place them on a baking sheet, brush the tops with the remaider of the egg mixture, and bake at 200 degrees for about 12 minutes. If you're using convection oven, lower the temp a little!

Enjoy! This was a nice change from our usual Saturday pancakes ritual, faster too!

Vegan Hokkaido Heavy Fajitas

So I'm in this co-op. And I love it. But practically every single week includes a hokkaido pumpkin. I like a good hokkaido once in a while, but you know...pumpkins and versatility...not so much. Usually they get thrown into soups, puréed and used in cakes and pies. It's all good. But it's just not enough. They're still milling around my kitchen, piling up in a sort of gourdish/kitchen traffic jam. I was loathe to make a soup out of one. Again. So I ate myself to one less hokkaido the other day, and I was quite pleased with my creativity in doing so. I present: fajitas with beans, hokkaido guacamole and hokkaido/tomato salsa.

Fillings:
- Admittedly, the beans are canned chili beans. I warm them on the stove with a bit of ground cumin and garlic. Still good, nonetheless.
- Peel the hokkaido with a good potato peeler. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds.
- Now, dice half of the hokkaido into smallish cubes, and blanche in a bowl for a few minutes. Drain, and leave to cool. When cool, mix them with diced tomato, diced onion, cilantro/coriander and a dash of vinegar. Tastes best when the flavors are allowed to mesh and mellow a bit. I also added canned corn to the mix, because the kids and I like to play with them at the table (!).
- Cut the other half of the hokkaido into chunks, and steam or boil them in just a tiny bit of water until soft. Let cool. When cool, mash them up with your regular old guacamole ingredients, you might want to go heavy on the avocado and lemon so the guac isn't too orange-y and pumpkin-y. Nothing wrong with it, but I know my kids would get suspicious!

Warm up some nice whole wheat tortillas, and you've got yourself a meal. The guac is extra creamy, and the pumpkin bits in the salsa have a lovely bite that's really satisfying. Because of the pure vegan aspect of this meal, it's nice and light, and doesn't seem to bog you down with that really full feeling, even after you've had your share. Yummy!