My first, of many to come, food recipes for this blog. Cooking is a worthwhile pursuit. A true sensory experience, losing your self in the world of the kitchen. Filled with the aroma of sauteed garlic, the yellow, red and green chopped rainbow chard stirred with black beans and tomatoes, and feel of the wonderfully textured food in your mouth to provide heavenly tastes. Each bite you can think of the effort it took to grow and prepare the food and appreciate it just a little more.
Here is a quote from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle. A great book about her experience of eating all her meals for a year from food that was grown in a 100 mile radius of where she was living.
"Cooking without remuneration" and "slaving over a hot stove" are activities separated mostly by a frame of mind. The distinction is crucial. Career women in many countries still routinely apply passion to their cooking, heading straight from work to the market to search out the freshest ingredients, feeding their loved ones with aplomb. [...] Full-time homemaking may not be an option for those of us delivered without trust funds into the modern era. But approaching mealtimes as a creative opportunity, rather than a chore, is an option. Required participation from spouse and kids is an element of the equation. An obsession with spotless collars, ironing, and kitchen floors you can eat off of---not so much. We've earned the right to forget about stupefying household busywork. But kitchens where food is cooked and eaten, those were really a good idea. We threw that baby out with the bathwater. It may be advisable to grab her by her slippery foot and haul her back in here before it's too late."
Here is an original recipe, collaborated with Ms. Sarah Beth. Hope y'all enjoy.
Quinoa Bean Vegetable Salad
Black Beans (already cooked before the meal)
Quinoa (1 cup makes 4 cups - serves near 6) [you can substitute rice, but quinoa works great with this dish]
Greens (pick any, we used arugula, kale, swiss chard, spinach)
Zucchini (2)
Tomatoes
Onion
Avocado
Garlic
Peppers (flavorful or spicy or both - Hawaiian Chili Pepper/Anaheim/Bell/Sweet Italian All great!)
Herbs (use any, we used basil, rosemary, green onion, curry)
salt, pepper, chili powder, cayenne, cumin - all optional to taste
Lemon (you can use zest too to cook with the quinoa)
Soy Sauce / Apple Cider Vinegar / Tapatio (hot sauce) / Balsamic Vinegar (use one or two or any combination)
Cook Quinoa (2 parts water to 1 quinoa like rice)
Add curry, green onion, soy sauce/braggs (or apple cider vinegar or balsamic or a combination of any of them), avocado, basil, spicy pepper, and lemon when quinoa is fluffy and nearly all the water is evaporated, around 5 minutes left in cooking.
Saute Onions, Peppers, Zucchini, in Olive Oil. Add salt, pepper, generous cumin, cheyenne, lemon Add cooked beans, tomatoes. Cook on low-medium until zucchini is soft or tender, 15 minutes.
Steam the greens, sprinle some lemon and salt. Chop up fine. Raw greens work too.
Serving suggestions.
1) Bed of steamed greens, mix together quinoa and veggie-bean mixture. Top with extra seasonings.
lemon/salt/pepper/cayenne/nutritional yeast. Garnish with cilantro or parsley. A little extra soy or hot sauce wouldn't hurt either.
2) Serve all separately. Nice color contrast.
3) Stir'em all together in a big bowl and serve to happy eager mouths!
This dish is on the verge of both asian and mexican. Add more cumin, cayenne, hot sauce, tomato for mexican. Add more soy, zucchini, green onion, lemon for asian. Maybe even toss some ginger in there.
We really enjoyed this one. It's especially satisfying when you harvest the food from your own land and gardens or buy them fresh and locally at a farmer's market. I bet there is one in your area, and if not, I recommend demanding one! Everything is going great here still. I'm out of the state of transition and am comfortable with my bare feet back on lava rock here.
Since my last post, I've slept in my trunk of my Subaru, had a lava rock picnic, cleaned up, pruned, weedwhacked, mended some fences for our chicken paddocks. One of the four paddocks hosts a breed of chicken an Americauna. They lay blue eggs. The chickens are starting to pick up production coming out of their molten winter phase, and we now harvest around 40 dozen eggs a week from some very happy, productive hens. I've gotten my library card, went to the island's only winery, and continued to dig my time on the farm. Each day has been incredible. From the morning writing sessions, to the meditative egg collecting and washing, to the hours of work and the time spent after that to relax, research and create. Many projects, both short term and long term to accomplish.
Future Posts:
Moments in Time
Short Story Excerpts
Music/Movie Reviews
More Recipes!
And to end, one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies.
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.
- Anton Ego
No comments:
Post a Comment