sesame spinach ( and other greens) gf if needed

You just roasted some tofu and made some rice
You need edible greens...

Take 1 lb leaves wash em'. Remove woody parts.
Please don't be skittish about ingesting a variety of edible greens. Use what's in season, you can grow it and will be ok cooked. Eating what's available encourages biodviersity, your health and can save you money. (For ex right now in may spinach is tres expensive but the kale is coming up, and so is arugula and dandelion greens. Last month cress was cheap...and if the strawberry spinach would grow it should have shown up then..alas.
Pour 1 tb off the top of your tahini or direct from a bottle of sesame oil
add 1 tb lemon juice and 3 cloves garlic, if desired grate in 1/2 inch fresh ginger.
Heat and allow greens to wilt . Add 3 tb soy sauce (gf if needed) and a small handful of sesame or sesame and flax seeds. Serve hot or chilled. Some greens freeze well, some do not.

Cook until most of the liquid is dissolved and evaporated and your greens are bright green.
options:
add 1 tsp honey or maple syrup if sweetness is desired with the soysauce
add 1/4 tsp thai or korean chili powder with the soysauce.
This is good packed with a protein and rice balls for lunch, as part of bibimbap, sushi filling, as a sandwich topping or omlette filling and along side bbq tempeh or pulled jackfruit bbq.

apple cheddar rice cooker risotto (veg,gf with dairy free / veganoptions)

I'm going to start out by saying that you shouldn't do this. Your rice cooker is not designed for it and you might set something on fire..Really.

I do it at least once a month but I don't leave the house when I do and I check it every 15 or so minutes. Even then it's really good but not quite risotto textured.

1.Take 1 cup rice (can be med or long grain) add 2 cups water with broth paste (or cubes) or broth
meanwhile sautee 1 chopped sweet onion (like a red or yellow) or one sliced clean leek.
5 cloves minced garlic
and one lb of clean and chopped mild or bitter greens (kale, collard, dandelion, chard,cress,broccoli leaves or spinach. Mustard and Turnip do not work well here)
if you want to add a chopped mushroom or a chopped apple feel free
add a bit of salt nutmeg and pepper
use olive or sunflower oil as your oil
add a handful of walnuts or pecans if you can afford to and want to


2.Cover and let sit until rice is cooked

with cheese 3.  Grate or mince up 1/2 cup very sharp cheddar. add this and 1 tb dijon to your rice and stir thoroughly.

dairy free   3. Take 1 tb dry mustard , 1 tb dijon,1 tb lemon juice, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast and 3 tb sesame paste, if you have almond or cashew butter add 3 tb. Mix all thoroughly. Now mix into rice.

4. Add 1/2 bottle gf hard cider to your pot. stir. The more you stir the more creamy.
5. Reset cooker and put back on cook cycle. allow to be used in keep warm cycle for up to 24 hours. garnish with cress or parsley if desired.

how rice ate chicago- lazy lentil risotto

This month this been insane. As a result not only have my posts been more sporadic at best. The status of my frequency in the kitchen is not much better. But we still have to eat and hopefully it'll be quick and not too intense or frequent and it should be hearty and contain nutrients...which brings us to my rice cooker. Several years back, in the throes of a bad fever I purchased a rice cooker online. One of those non stick vacuum sealed bucket kinds. It was a very good deal. No, seriously. Despite it's fever related origins this device is used almost as much as my cast iron, my cutting boards and my knives. Better yet it can keep food warm for a day so I make one big batch of something and it's good for 24 hours without changing serving devices. Please keep in mind the method I am suggesting is not recommended by manufacturers , may cause fires and is done entirely at your own risk. I have successfully been doing this and crazy stuff like it with my rice cooker for 7 years. It's not supposed to do sushi rice or brown rice either but it has been doing that for years too. It's still working. I do have to clean the vents more often. We make pilaf,  rice and beans, sushi rice for handrolls etc in it. We use it an average of 4 days a week. Rice cookers save my sanity, such as it is. This is the best thing I can make in it besides plain  rice. That being said I have seen enough recipes calling for similar that I would assume you can throw these ingredients in a crockpot on low for 8 hours and get similar results. I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know but it might work.


In your rice cooker put:
1 cup lentils

1 1/2 cup rice
3-4 cup water or broth
1 cup red or white wine or hard cider ( my favorite)
1 half head of garlic and 1 sauteed onion or 2 cleaned and sauteed leeks and 2 tb butter/ olive oil/ mixture to sautee them in.
1 lb chopped veg of choice (lately peppers from the freezer or chunks of squash form previous cooking)
1 handful frozen peas
1tb grated nutmeg
chives or scapes when available
1 tsp salt
a few grinds of black pepper
1/2 lb to 1 lb small cooking greens (little kale, dandelion,baby mustard, mizuna, cress,spinach, chard, caulifower leaves,whatever is popping up) washed
1/2 lb grated cheese (swiss, gouda, cheddar, parmesan...whatever)
4 oz sliced mushrooms or 5 dried shitake broken up into the rice cooker pot.

Throw everything but the cheese in. Stir. Put on a full cook cycle. adjust flavours to preference. Stir in cheese. wait 15 minutes, stir again....serve.

Slow cooker cheesy Grits

This recipe was altered from the gourmet vegetarian slow cooker by Lynn Alley
Please use yellow cornmeal rather than the kind bleached with cleaning solvents, kay?

 In a little crockpot

Take
1 cup coarse cornmeal (often marketed as polenta or grits)
4 cups water
(optional 1-2 cups thinly sliced greens like mustard, collard or kale)
1 poblano chile diced (I get them when they go on sale, wash them and leave them in the freezer until I feel like using them)
Plug in, put the lid on and leave alone for 8 hours. 
Before serving stir in 3/4 cup cheese (strong flavours work best here so cheddar, gouda, smoked provolone) and recover for about 15 minutes so it can melt. Stir again. Divide 1/4 cup of cheese between your 2-4 servings so it can be pretty. Sprinkle a touch of paprika on top. Eat.

Baked Custards (gf, cf options)

You will need

4-6 oven safe ramekins, cups or bowls 1-2 inches in depth

a deep baking dish that fits  the ramekins and can hold water to just below the rim of said vessels. I use a lasagna pan.

Put the cups down in the baking dish now to see if they fit.

To put water on to boil and preheat oven to 325F

Then mix these in a biggish bowl.

2 cups dairy or almond milk, cream, or half and half (the last time I made it with a mix of almond milk and cream.)
2 eggs (egg substitutes have not worked here for me)
1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg (alternately use a plane grater to cover surface lightly and that should be enough
1/4 c of plain,vanilla sugar, turbinado, or maple sugar (honey and maple syrup don't seem to work here)
a pinch of salt

Optionally, add any 2 or 3 of the following
1 tsp preferred extracts (vanilla, almond and lemon all work well)
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 cup jam, or fresh fruit (drain excess liquid)
2 tb cocoa powder
lemon or orange zest

Mix all ingredients until incorporated.

Ladle the batter into the ramekins/cups. carefully pour hot water water into the big dish so that the water stays below the rims. Transport this to the oven and try to make sure water doean't splash into your cups.
Bake (at 325 F) 35-50 minutes until it wobbles like jello and a fork or skewer comes out clean. You can serve this chilled or warm as it is good both ways.


If you need gf or cf options please make sure all ingredients are gf and cf.
this can be pre- prepared in bulk for events.

Beans.... a preliminary guide

Beans.... a preliminary guide

For most of you reading this cooking beans from scratch is old hat. This makes sense..beans are far and way the cheapest form of protein available (short of cannibalism), they are versatile,tasty, filling, healthy, and ubiquitous in virtually every cuisine on earth for thousands of years.

However , it has come to my attention that there are many , many, many of us who do not understand how to make our dry beans tender moist and pliable in a manner suitable to people used to convenience foods. These methods allow one to by pass the expense and BPA in canned beans and retain most of the convenience. Storage methods discussed later.

For bean in this post I mean broad beans of all types, soybeans, lupins, Vigna,chickpeas and Phaseolus types. Lentils ,peas and other pulses are generally prepared differently.

Here, I present 2 methods which both require this 1st step

Step one:

Take 1lb bag of beans and pick through for bits of rock, beans without skin, rotten/gnawed on parts and rinse to remove road crap. (I call this showering the beans.) Prep Flavoring agents. In my case I usually cook beans with plenty of garlic onion and cumin because my my favorite are black beans. I add lime, salt and ancho chiles at the end. to navy beans I leave them be as there are widely differing methods to spice these guys and I use them to make a creamier lower fat macaroni and cheese, a garlic dip, and in baked beans. To red beans I usually add garlic, green pepper, red onion cumin oregano and tomatoes. Adzuki beans get left alone until they're done cooking as they're used for sweets. Whatever.

1. Low tech

post shower Soak overnight in 2x as much warm water as there are beans. Leave it alone covered with a cover, towel or whatever at room temp. Drain (no you can't skip this. feed your plants the water) and cover with 2X as much water as the current volume. That usually means 1lb of beans ends up with 2 qt of water at this stage. Add any seasonings desired except salt and vinegar (salt and vinegar make beans stay hard), onions garlic, wine , whatever. Bring to a boil and cover...reduce to a simmer boil 40 minutes to 2 1/2 hours here's a chart telling you how long each type takes http://www.chezbettay.com/pages/basics1/basics_beans1.html

2.'high tech"

This is what our crockpot lives for. It takes less energy, less effort and less hands on time to create good beans this way than any other method. You plop your 1 lb of showered beans into the crockpot with 6 cups water or unsalted flavoring liquid. (salt and vinegar make beans stay hard) cover and turn on low. Add seasonings that aren't salt or vinegar. Go away for 8 hours. If it's too thick add water. If your beans are too firm wait a while.

The one caveat is that yes you do need to cook them for the full 8 hours or risk poisoning yourself. According to Wikipedia "Some kinds of raw beans, especially red and kidney beans, contain a harmful toxin (lectin phytohaemagglutinin) that must be removed by cooking. A recommended method is to boil the beans for at least ten minutes; undercooked beans may be more toxic than raw beans. Cooking beans in a, slow cooker because of the lower temperatures often used, may not destroy toxins even though the beans do not smell or taste 'bad'(though this should not be a problem if the food reaches boiling temperature and stays there for some time)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean.

3. the gassy (um quick) method...just don't . this method makes sub par beans that make your gastrointestinal tract infamous rather than your gastronomy. Go ahead and use some other bean. You can even buy frozen or canned just this once. I won't tell.

4. A pressure cooker. These are apparently awesome for this and real energy savers. Unfortunately, I don't have one and I don't know how. Check another blog.

Sorry.
Yeah now I have one. These ARE awesome. Rinse and pick you beans add 2 cups beans and fill water to the minimum fill line. Attach lis per directions. Cook on high until pressure hisses. Reduce to simmer and do something for 35 minutes. Your beans are done. Look at the chart that comes with yours.

Storage: why you can use this instead of canned.

Crockpot:

If you used a crockpot you can leave anything but chickpeas in there for 3 or so days adding about 1 cup of water a day to replace the amount lost by evaporation

The chickpeas will get water logged and gross. Drain them after 1 day at most unless they are in Chili.

If you aren't crock potting them allow them to cool.

Frozen:

You can pour them into any bpa free container and stack in the freezer. Freezer bags filled and squished flat work well here as do freezable glass jars.

Jars should only be filled 2/3 to allow for the water in the beans to expand as it freezes. If using on stovetop add 1/2 water to heat. put them in other things in the oven or you can nuke them if you want. I don't but then we don't own a nuker and I'm freaked out by possible radiation in my starches.

fridge;

Pour into jar and store in fridge. (any old jar will do)

As a puree: This is what we call lowfat refried beans. Take my blackbeans recipe from above ..pour off 1/2 the bean liquor (into soup maybe?)and apply a stick blender until smooth. 

You can do this..It's easier than writing about it even.

red lentil stew and creamy coconut curry stew upgrade

Ingredients

8 oz red lentils (can also use yellow split peas in this recipe)
paprika (sweet)
Onion
5 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon juice. (fresh if you can but not imperative)
6 cups veggie broth ,chicken stock or 6 cups water plus 2 cubes vegetarian chicken flavor boullion (I like the rapunzel no salt) 2 tb Harissa(if you can't find it sri racha or gochu chang works well instead, In a pinch Lousiana hotsauce will do)

optional add ins: dill, 2 carrots, a potato, a red or orange pepper) 2 handfuls fresh spinach, a handful of barley or kasha, parsley, salt
freezer containers (recipe easily doubles)


1.Put one half bag (8 oz) red lentils in a medium 6 qt pot and add 6 cups water(or chicken stock). Check for stones or rotten beans. If anything floats to the top pick it out and use new water. If using kasha or barley add it now.
Turn heat on high.

2. chop one large onion saute until translucent in two TB olive oil . add one tb whole cumin to the oil and 1 tsp paprika.
3. add 5 cloves or more sliced garlic and saute for 1 more minute (if you add the garlic in at the same time as they onions they will burn and ruin your soup.)
3. Add one two chopped carrots or chopped potatoes if desired
4. grind cumin over lentils 15 times (or add 1 tb ground cumin). Stir the lentils every few minutes as you do this.
5. add onions, garlic, spices to lentils
6. after about 20 minutes add broth cubes if you used water or add at beginning on low for crock pot

7. add 2 cups water and reduce heat to medium. now go do something else in the kitchen for about ten minutes.
8. add lemon juice and stir. If lentils are falling apart taste. if not wait ten more minutes.
9. Adjust salt ,lemon, olive oil, and cumin to your taste
11. If using dill add 1 small handful chopped fronds (skip it if you can't get fresh or frozen)
or 2 handfuls chiffonaded spinach (you could use chard or kale here if you wanted but then add it when you add the lemon)
12. Simmer until blended. about 5 minutes
13.Garnish with thin lemon slices and or parsley if desired

Ok so let's say you've been eating on this for a week because you quadrupled the recipe because it's finals week (or you have doubleshifts )or you don't feel like cooking. You're sick of it.There's no room in the freezer. Well it turns into other stuff pretty easily
Let's say you want:
Curried coconut lentil soup (good hot or chilled)
and you have
4 cups of red lentil stew
1/2 can of whole coconut milk (12 oz) or 4 oz unsweetened coconut cream(half a small tetra pack)
2 tb curry paste (any kind but I think green works best here) or 3 tb good curry powder
and optionally some leftover roasted tofu (or grilled chicken breast or cooked shrimp) and maybe some cilantro


There are two methods for step one:
If you are lazy and/or hot and have a blender
put cooled stew , curry and and coconut milk (and cilantro if using) in blender and pulse until smooth.

Stove top (it's going to be chunkier unless you blend it too)
Add all ingredients and stir in a pot until blended even if you want to serve it chilled so the flavors can marry

Step Two:
Heat or chill and pour into bowls. Garnish with tofu, or shrimp
or chicken if desired. If you used cilantro garnish with a little as a warning to cilantro haters.

Step 3: In the extremely unlikely event of leftovers serve heated over steamed rice (white or brown) along side a salad or some pickled veggies