CILANTRO PESTO

CILANTRO PESTO

1/3 C walnuts or pine nuts
1-2 cloves garlic, to taste
1 lg bun. cilantro, roots and larger stems trimmed, washed and dried
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 – 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C raw vegan parmesan cheez
Salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, finely chop nuts and garlic. Add in lime juice and cilantro, and continue processing. Drizzle in oil gradually. From time to time, stop and taste until you feel there is enough oil. Add oil if texture seems dry.

Place pesto in a mixing bowl. Fold in cheez, and season to taste with sea salt and pepper

HOLIDAYS COMING! Thanksgiving Recipes, and more

The holidays are coming up.  Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I have a good selection of free holiday recipes on my holiday recipes page.

These are the recipes I have used for quite a while.

11/16/09 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

looks like lots of lettuce-y type things!

Potatoes – white or yellow – 2 lbs
Watermelon Radish – 2 pcs
Red or Green Boston Lettuce – 1 hd
Escarole – 1 hd
Radicchio – 1 hd
Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bun
Butternut Squash – 1-2 pcs (depending on size)
Broccoli – 1 pc
Cilantro – 1 bun

FRUIT SHARE*
Red Delicious, Macintosh & Fuji Apples – 1 mixed bag
Bosc Pears – 1 bag

SAUERKRAUT NEWS or not

Tonight I started a new jar of sauerkraut with 2 heads of cabbage. I could not find my recipe and the Internet was down,  so I guessed.  I had read an account on Sunny Raw website, where she said to chop the cabbage in the food processor.  I did that, but I am not really happy about it… the cabbage pieces came out as small as when I make “no chew” cole slaw, i.e. very fine.

Oh well… then I added two T sea salt to the first head of cabbage — it juiced up really fast, and I added one heaping T sea salt to the second head of cabbage which came out so fine I did not even massage it — I just mashed it into the jar.  I also added about a T of acidophilus to this batch.    I am curious to see how it turns out in 7 days.

Stay tuned.

11/05/09 CSA SHARE: What we got and what I took home

I’ve just picked up my CSA share. Yum!

Here is what we got, vs was they said would come.

Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs………..Sweet potatoes – 3 med.size
Rutabaga – 2 pieces
Romaine Lettuce – 1 head
Leeks – 2 pieces………………… Leeks – 3 small
Spinach – 1/2 lb. bag………….. Romaine lettuce – 1 hd
Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bun
Red Kale – 1 bunch
Green Cabbage – 1 head

There was also a bag of orange cherry tomatoes in the box.

I traded the Romaine for 1 bunch of kale and 1 head of cabbage.

I am glad to have the cabbage since the sauerkraut I made is already about half- gone.  Yum!  I need to lay in some more mason jars because while I’ve been making the sauerkraut and storing it, I haven’t been able to make any sprouts or rejuvelac.

ELLEN DEGENERIS SHOW TALKS ABOUT VEGANISM

I was blogging, and Ellen DeGeneris was on over top of the   computer screen, and she had a guest on who has authored a book called “Eating Animals
Eating Animals”.   The author calmly explained why he did not think he wanted his family (and his young child) eating meat.  Wow. You might want to check out this book.

SAUERKRAUT RECIPE: it worked for me!

Here is the sauerkraut recipe that I used.  It is based on a recipe  from Truly Cultured by Nancy Lee Bentley.

1 med size head cabbage

2 T sea salt

Spring water or purified water

• Shred cabbage in food processor (or with mandoline, or by finely slicing with a sharp knife).
• Place cabbage and salt in a large bowl.
• With hands, massage cabbage until “juice” flows freely (about 2-5 minutes – the longer you massage, the softer the sauerkraut will be).  Alternatively, beat cabbage with a wooden mallet until thoroughly bruised.
• Place massaged/bruised cabbage and juice in a 1-quart mason jar. Pack cabbage down until juices flow.
• Add spring water, or purified water, to fully cover cabbage, leaving 1 inch space between top of liquid and top of jar
• Tightly screw on mason jar lid.
• Place jar in a room temperature place away from sunlight.  Allow to sit 3-7 days. (Taste test after 3 days, until desired taste is reached.
• Refrigerate sauerkraut up to 6 mos.

I filled one 2 – qt jar made with this recipe (actually, I cut a 10-lb cabbage in half and then in fourths).

I covered the jar with the mason jar lid screwed on tight.

——————————————

I mixed 1/4 of the remaining cabbage with 1 T ancho chile powder and 1 T garlic powder.

I covered this jar with with a piece of plastic and the mason jar lid ring.

After  6 days, I opened the jars to get the sauerkraut.

 

I

 

11/05/09 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

Here is what they say we will get:

VEGETABLE SHARE

Sweet Potatoes – 2 lbs
Rutabaga – 2 pieces
Romaine Lettuce – 1 head
Leeks – 2 pieces
Spinach – 1/2 lb. bag
Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch  
Red Kale – 1 bunch
Green Cabbage – 1 head

IT’S SAUERKRAUT!!!

I had been wanting to experiment with making sauerkraut for a while, and then I found that huge cabbage at the green market last Monday.  I bought some sea salt on Tuesday (the pound of sea salt that I had bought in 2000 had finally run out), and I set about making the sauerkraut on Tuesday night.  I was very excited.  I filled one 2-quart jar with plain cabbage, and half-way filled a second 2-quart jar with cabbage mixed with ancho pepper powder and garlic powder.

Then, on Thursday evening, my spirits were dampened a bit when a woman at the CSA pick-up told me that sauerkraut usually gets moldy and fails.  She also told me that the three days my recipe had recommended was not enough.

I ended up leaving the sauerkraut until tonight– I guess that is 6 days.  I opened it and !!!!there was no mold!!!!!  Interestingly, the plain sauerkraut is rather crunchy, while the pepper sauerkraut is more like the sauerkraut you can buy.  I like the pepper one better, but I guess I will have to eat the other one, too.  The recipe says it will keep for 3 months in the refrigerator.  It sounds like I am going to have to eat sauerkraut every day for a while.  Right now, I am thinking that, the next time, I will just use a small cabbage.

10/29/09 CSA SHARE: What we got

WHAT WE GOT	WHAT I TOOK HOME
Lettuce Mix – 1/4 lb. bag	Baby Salad Turnips – 1 bun
Carrots – 1 bun
Kohlrabi – 1-3 pcs	Kohlrabi – 2 pcs
Leeks – 2 pcs
Cilantro – 1 bun
Green Kale – 1 bun
Baby Salad Turnips – 1 bun
Baby Bok Choi – 1 bun	Kale – 1 bun
Apples and Pears – 1 bag

 

Everyone seemed to be giving up their kale.  The trade box was full of beautiful green leafy bunches!  Some people even dropped their kale in the box without taking a trade!  Turnips were also unpopular.  Happy with my second bunch, I only saw one other person take turnips; a Japanese fellow waxed ecstatic over the idea of turnips in miso soup.

WHAT TO DO WITH THIS FOOD

GREEN TOMATOES: I have no clue yet what I am going to do with those green tomatoes.  Maybe some sort of chow chow?

CARROTS: Juice is the only way I like carrots.

TURNIPS: I expect I will make my usual marinated turnip recipe, but I think I will take one bunch of these pretty  turnips to experiment with making pickled turnips.

KALE: More kale chips – yum!  I will probably also make one dose of marinated kale.

CILANTRO: I  love cilantro fresh, but I will probably dehydrate most of it so I can love it longer.

LEEKS: I usually just thinly slice leeks and use them like onions.

KOHLRABI: This will become ravioli with the smokey jalapeno cheez I made earlier in the week.

APPLES & PEARS: I made apple juice and a big bowl of apple sauce  (the pulp from the juice) for dinner last night.