hippy chow

I have a confession. Much of the time I don't have the time or cant be bothered to cook creatively, and have no money but some groceries. In these times I rely on hippy chow.

2 cups brown rice ( you set up the rice cooker last night , right?)

In skillet 
1 bunch / 1/2 lb green vegetables such as kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, chard or whatever,
and 
1 sweet onion sliced
in 2 tsp olive oil
add 1/2 lb baby carrots or squash roasted last week while making nut loaf or red peppers, beets or some red or yellow veg (tomatoes are fruit, pick something else)

put out servings of rice and add veggie mixture


soy sauce (obviously in my case this is gluten free) and cheddar cheese to serve
vegans - add tofu or tempeh and some nooch.


Note...please keep in mind that rice grown in areas that are less traditional rice growing areas like MN and WI seem to have lower arsenic load than TX or SC rice because the soil was less likely treated before the arsenic ban back in the 70's. Buy it from a co-op and it's usually cheap too.

scape pesto

June is that magical time of year when your garlic bulbs even do pirouettes that spiral into pretty or delicious. The cress or the sorrel should also be booming because the full heat of summer has not yet hit. Your scapes will be best just as they come out of their first spiral. Any longer and you want to dice them for a stir fry or other steam cooked thing. As with all garden produce wash it well and check for insect damage , although garlic is repellent to most insect and is unlikely to be so afflicted.

1/2 chopped to fit your blender/food processor garlic scapes
1/2 cup sorrel(lemony), cress (peppery), spinach or chard (if using spinach or chard add 1 tb lemon juice.
1/2 smoked cheddar or other very sharp cheddar
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch salt
blend until a smooth paste
sequester in jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil.
eat with bread, crackers,in risotto, with white beans, on apples, etc.

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.

paneer pizza and cilantro mint chutney

Things have been hectic around here. Rabbit is gradually recovering from being hit by a car, the library is moving, and I'm in the home stretch of the last semester at this school which includes service learning. That and needing to get a garden planted, family concerns and trying to breathe means a need for faster meals. Also, possibly a maid. Seriously, our apartment looks like a gentle laundry producing tornado hit. We went out for dinner for our anniversary...an Indian vegetarian place  we love, Uru Swati (very vegan and gluten/ wheat free friendly) after getting some wheat free flours and spices at a nearby Desi grocery. Sorghum (Jowar), Besan (chickpea),and some paneer, also 1 lb of cumin runs 3$ there and we use the stuff like water. In said grocery store we saw pizza like things made on naan (you could use pita I'm sure) with a cilantro or tamarind chutney, veggies and paneer. It was frozen and looked like it was mostly actual food.  Now those of you who can't eat wheat know naan is ,sadly, stuff we shouldn't eat. (If anyone has a recipe for good gf naan I'd love to try it.)But ...chickpeas go with virtually every Indian influenced type of food known to man ..and that farinata/ socce type crust I told you guys about is down to a science in this house. It's something even Rabbit feels confident cooking. Rabbit has been known to panic about making stirfry despite their  master level chowing skills, so this is saying quite a bit. So last night I came home to a lovely surprise  which I am sharing here with Rabbit's permission.

For the crust
Mix:
 1 1/2 cups chickpea flour
 1 c water
 2 tb  olive oil
 pinch salt
 (optional 1 tsp whole cumin)
Pour into  a cast iron skillet and bake at 425 F until the crust is firm in the middle 15-20 minutes or up 30 minutes for a crisper crust

While the crust is baking wash some spinach, slice up some veg, 2-3 oz  of diced paneer cheese and some red peppers (in our case ancient red was cheap as I've been hoarding them in the freezer. To do this just wash and put them in the freezer) I'm thinking red onion, cauliflower, and frozen okra slices next time.

When the crust is done remove from oven and spread crust with chutney of choice using the back of a spoon. In our case Rabbit used about 1/2 cup of  jarred cilantro mint chutney (I'll share my homestyle recipe for this kind of chutney at the end). Now add your veg and a quick drizzle of olive oil over the paneer chunks so they brown a bit. You could probably sub bake fried tofu here for the vegans or those with no access to paneer with minimal flavor change. Stick this back in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 425F. Serve. The leftovers are even pretty awesome. If you are me ...spread this with an unholy quantity of hot lime pickle.

Cilantro-mint Chutney
Put the following in a blender/ food processor:
2 inches peeled fresh ginger
5-6 peeled cloves garlic
1 tb cumin
1 pinch salt
1 bunch washed green onions - remove stump
1 large bunch cilantro (including stems)
1 small washed bunch of mint (also including stems
1/4 cup water
juice of two limes or 1 lemon
 Blend until it becomes smooth.

universal pesto (vegan or cheesy) gf, cf

a blender or food processor
1 lg handful (1/2 ish) nuts or large seeds
1 0z aged cheese (or 1/2 oz tahini and 1 TB dry mustard)
1-2 oz herbs/aromatic greens
pinch salt and maybe pepper
2-4 cloves garlic
1 oz olive oil
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Tonight I have crinkled cress and nasturtium leaves from our garden getting a bit wilty. If I had them and wanted this a touch spicier I could add radish leaves. If I wanted it mellower I could use spinach or chard. I could also use cilantro.
I will add 3 cloves garlic

and 1 oz cheddar (which I buy in bulk) and walnuts (which are yummy and sitting around)with salt pepper and olive oil. I will blend this until it's mostly uniform.

Sucking Chest Wound Salad (simple and gf when made with gf stuff) 15 minutes max

10 or so years ago I thought I hated beets unless they were in borscht. Everyone else in my family loved beets including he tinny or syrupy pickled harvard beets that besmirch all beet kind. I still hate them. Then I had straight beet juice and recognised it's delicious and inherent borschty, earthy, sweet but not syrupy goodness. So I played it against sour stuff and I made borscht, and torschi and finally I discovered the best thing of all ....sliced raw beets. I couldn't be stopped. Sure it will look like a five year old used lip tint on you, but who cares...it's delicious.mmm beets.

Sucking Chest Wound Salad
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(So named because of the color of goat cheese when mixed with raw beets)
1 lb greens
I use what's around but soft buttery greens and peppery ones seem to work best. Sometimes it's little beet greens, arugula, some ' spring mix' , wrinkled cress and other I grab a dozen carrot tops and some dill from the garden; go at them with scissors and call it a day. Anyway, you need 1 lb of salad greens in a big bowl.
add 1/2 oz of sunflower seeds
and 1 oz goat cheese or other sharp flavoured soft white cheese like feta or farmer cheese. now you can be all presentation-y and slice it neatly with dental floss but I usually pinch off a bunch of little  pieces  and throw them in between layers of greenery
you could leave out the 1/4 of a thin sliced red onion but wheres the fun there?
and if it's needing to be used you could add sliced cucumbers or some leftover cooked quinoa or chickpeas
(and clearly, as usual, I digress)
The important part is that you have 2  or 3 well scrubbed raw beets at hand. Speaking of hands you can use some rubber gloves if you don't want to look like Lady Macbeth. Personally I don't bother unless I have an interview or something. Also don't wear anything you might care about getting stained,and um.. if you are squeamish about pink cutting boards either scrub immediately(no guarantees) or protect your board with a layer of wax paper (still no guarantees but a greater success rate) Slice thin or julienne...just remember the smaller the piece the more blood (um I mean juice). Add the beets and juices to your salad bowl. Now for dressing. Drizzle on some lemon or balsamic vinegar (really gory looking and complements your beets sweetness) and maybe some salt and or olive oil. I like pepper but Rabbit doesn't. Toss carefully. Eat.