KALE CHIPS FOR DAYS

POST #895
NOUVEAU RAW’S KALE CHIPS
I’m a sucker for kale chips. I mostly just make the same ones over and over again, but here and there, I try new ideas to see if there might be another “same one” to add to my repertoire.

Enter Nouveau Raw’s Kale Chips bank of recipes. I say bank because there at least a dozen different recipes, for whatever kind of taste you fancy.  You’ll find Mexican, Thai, Jamaican, chocolate (yes!), and more traditional-sounding vinegar-dill, sour cream and onion, and barbecue flavor ideas.  The ones I’ve tried have all been good.

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NEW YEAR, NEW RECIPES: marinated mushrooms, marinated dehydrated mushrooms, cheezy dehydrated broccoli bites, cheezy kale chips,

POST #875
I had big plans for today (editing a book I want to put on Kindle), but, when I finally fell out of bed at 7 a.m. (2 hours later than my usual wake-up time), I went to the kitchen, looked around, thought about what was in the refrigerator that should get used, thought some more about the mushrooms I marinated yesterday, and thought about what I could do with the portobellas and baby portabellas I bought yesterday. On a trip past the dehydrator shelf in the hall, I saw that, in addition to the 2 lbs of cashews I picked up yesterday, I have at least 3 C-worth of cashews on the rack over the dehydrator. Got lemons, jalapenos, bell peppers, onions, garlic, sea salt, and olive oil. So much for the day tied to the computer. I tied on my apron, and started digging around in my recipes.

MARINATED MUSHROOMS: Let’s start with those mushrooms I marinated yesterday. After I had already started pouring oil on them, I realized that I had accidentally picked up flax oil instead of sesame oil. Oh, well, I do like flax oil on salads. We’ll just hope. I added some garlic to try to make a more flavorful mix. Gave mushrooms to the room-mate guinea pig – she liked them even with flax oil. Still, this morning, I wanted that sesame flavor, and so I drizzled about 1 teaspoon of sesame oil (all I had left) over the mushrooms and tossed them well, to distribute the oil. Then, I decided that, since the carrots in my refrigerator were not getting any younger, I should shave some off a carrot and put that in the mushroom mix as well. Did that with the vegetable peeler – really thin, sheer, see-through carrot shavings, and I chopped them into smaller pieces to mix nicely with the mushrooms. Fed that to the room-mate guinea pig, and she liked it even better, and was excited that it looked like the marinated mushrooms that she can buy in her Japanese supermarket.

After I’d done that, I decided I should do something about all of the other “baby bella” mushrooms I had sitting there. I glanced at a couple of recipes I had picked up from other people, and changed a couple of things here and there, and got to work.

First, I removed that stems and set them aside (I use them for “pulled” barbecue), then I sliced the mushrooms about 1/4 inch thick and put them in a large bowl. I ground a small jalapeno in Magic Bullet, then added some extra virgin olive oil, garlic, a little tamari, and some lemon juice, whizzed it again in the Magic Bullet, then poured it over the mushrooms in the bowl, and massaged it in. After that, I put the mushrooms in the dehydrator.

MARINATED DEHYDRATED MUSHROOMS
20 baby bella mushrooms, sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 small jalapeno, finely minced
1 T garlic powder
1 t tamari (all of the recipes I saw called for much more, but I don’t much care for salt)
2 T lemon juice

Place mushroom slices in a large bowl.
Blend remaining ingredients, then pour over mushrooms in bowl.
With your hands, toss the mushrooms around with the oil mix until all pieces are well coated.
Spread mushroom slices one layer thick on teflex covered dehydrator tray (you could put them directly on the plastic screen, but the teflex is a lot easier to clean up)
Dehydrate for 4-6 hours

I was planning to dehydrated these mushrooms to a jerky consistency, but, after about 4 hours, I tasted them, and turned around and gobbled up about half of them. I decided I should put them in a container in the refrigerator at that point. (Later, when I called Mom to wish her Happy New Year, and I told her about all of the mushrooms, she asked if they tasted like sautéed mushrooms – it has been so long since I have eaten cooked things, I had to think hard – yes, these dehydrated mushrooms taste like well-sauteed mushrooms!) I liked them so much that I sliced up 2 portobellas, cut them into 1-1/2 inch pieces, marinated them, put them right into the dehydrator, so I can have more of these delicious mushrooms.

CHEEZY DEHYDRATED BROCCOLI: I dug some still-okay broccoli out of the refrigerator, and, remembering a recipe from Nouveau Raw I had seen a while back, decided that I could chop it up into about 2 C of florets , toss it with my cheddar cheese, and dehydrate it, so that was the next project. Man! It is really hard to cover broccoli florets completely with sauce. I got it done anyway. They are in the dehydrator as we speak.

CHEEZY KALE CHIPS: I got the idea for the broccoli since I had a lot of kale which needed to be used. (I figured that I could make one batch of the cheddar cheese and use it on the broccoli as well as the kale – it worked, btw). This kale was labeled “young kale.” I’ll say this about “young kale” – it does last longer in the refrigerator, but, if you are going to make kale chips, it is hard to get bite-sized pieces from those small, tightly curled leaves… I got a lot of “crumbs” along the way. Never mind… two trays of chips are in the dehydrator.

HURRICANE ALLEY: What do I do when there’s a hurricane outside?

POST #847
What do I do when there is a hurricane outside?

Well… first, I watch the weather for too long, and, then, when I cannot take it anymore, I get up and go to the kitchen and make stuff. Today, that was kale chips and sunflower seed crackers.

After I did that, I raced back to the computer, just in case the power might go off, and found a new cool site, Nouveau Raw, with great recipes, read them all, then sat around and thought about making something else. [I really really liked Nouveau Raw. It is almost like a raw food training. Who knew there could be so many things to address on such an attractive blog?  I’ll be going back there soon and often]
That brought me up to now.

Time to hop in bed. The hurricane can wait or go away.

BACK HOME & BACK IN THE KITCHEN

POST #846
I’m home at last! The hurricane was coming in, my family valiantly worked to get me out of the Outer Banks, into Virginia Beach, onto a bus to Newport News, VA, and then I had a 10 hr. train odyssey back to New York City (Luckily, I had an arsenal of books and magazines, and…the train had electrical outlets and wi-fi, so I didn’t get a wink of sleep on the all-day train!)

After a long night’s recuperative sleep, I woke up bright and early this morning, did some work around the house, ran around the neighborhood scoring batteries and flashlights and some kale (I figure 2 lbs of kale will make enough kale chips that I can live through any power outage). Everyone’s hurricane-crazed here (insane lines with people in stores talking to total strangers (me) while standing in interminable lines that kept seeming to get longer or else not moving at all, or else both.

This evening, I opened the last jar of kohlrabi/garlic/jalapeno pickles and the last jar of cabbage/jalapeno sauerkraut.

I’d been unhappy about the first jar of kohlrabi, but, after a week, the second jar turned out fine (we ate them up at the beach last week!), and I had left the third jar to see what would happen if they went 3 or 4 weeks. Opening the jar today, I was faced with some busy fizzing, and, when I tried the pickles, I was glad to know that longer works very well. These pickles are even better.

The sauerkraut was a very happy experience! The first jar did nothing for me, but this jar (at 3-4 weeks) turned out very tasty. Yumm!

Right now, I have a jar of lentil sprouts working, and jar of sunflower seed sprouts. Tomorrow morning, after I make up the kale chips and stow them in the dehydrator, I think I will make some sunflower seed crackers from a recipe in Rose Calabro’s book, Living in the Raw … haven’t had those for a while (hopefully, we won’t lose power, and I’ll be able to get them dehydrated for 12 hrs).

BRINGING FOOD TO MOM FOR A CHANGE

POST #845
I made it down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with almost everything I had left with (I ended up sleeping through almost the entire trip and only ate a few of the crackers I had with me). Even the kale chips made it.
So, yesterday afternoon, after we had gotten settled and were recouping from the long drive, just sitting around talking over a glass of wine, I dragged out the fermented kohlrabi, the fermented carrot sticks, and the kale chips. At first, my parents were wary, yet my Mom, being a good Mom, was willing to try the kohlrabi and carrots. Then she wanted more. Then she wanted my Dad to try them. Then he wanted more. Then I showed her the kale chips, she tried them, and she wanted more. I always take “voluntary wanting more” as a good sign. My little pride sign lit up (it’s always nice when your Mom thinks you have done something well). Today, when my Dad and I got back from church, I found that Mom had made salads and chopped liberal amounts of the kohlrabi and carrots into the salad. Ding!Ding!Ding! Mom always makes a good salad, but, with the fermented vegetables, and a dose of the fermented salsa as a dressing.. the salad was a super-hit, even with me (remember me? the raw vegan who doesn’t like salads?)

6/14/12 CSA SHARE: What they say we will get

POST #753

WEEK #3 CSA SHARE

This is what they say we will get.  I’m happy to see something I would want to trade if I could score an extra bunch of kale – I really like this toscano, or dinosaur, kale for chips.  If the beets are a reasonable size, I will make my raw beet salad.

Baby Spinach – 1 bag
Scallions – 1 bunch
Toscano Kale – 1 bunch
Romaine OR Red Boston Lettuce – 1 head
Cilantro – 1 bunch
Red Beets – 1 bunch
Bok Choi -OR- Japanese Salad Turnips – 1 bunch

Now,  I’m all about the logistics of getting in there first, to have the best chance at the kale I want.  Tomorrow I’m working until 3pm and it is payday.   I guess I could get the check, run home, change clothes and drop excess baggage, run up to pick up the share, go home and drop the bags, then turn around and go to the bank to make my deposit.  Sounds like a plan! (You are wondering why all the stops at home: I’m in NYC. No car to leave stuff in, and anyway, there would be no place to park it, if I did have one.  I could go to the bank before I go home, but then I would have to stop at the CSA on the way home, with an extra 10 lb bag to carry in addition to the vegetables and fruit.  I could go to the bank before I go home from the CSA, but I’d be carrying a bag of vegetables. I vote for the many forays. Hope I have the energy.)

CASHEW CHEDDAR CHEEZE

CASHEW CHEDDAR CHEEZE
1 C raw cashews, soaked 1 – 2 hrs., and drained
1/3 lg orange (or red) bell pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 t onion powder
1/2 t sea salt
1 T chili seasoning, or to taste (optional)
Water to just cover cashews

• Combine all ingredients in the VitaMix (or a high-speed blender) and process until smooth.
• Refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Use as a spread on sandwiches, crackers, or chips, as a dip for crudites, as a sauce for raw pates or burgers, or as a salad dressing.

7/29/10 CSA SHARE: What we got, and what I took home

This is what I got in my box, and this is what I went home with:

Zucchini – 2 pcs
Red Onions – 2 pcs.…………1 hd. cabbage
Long Peppers – 2 pcs
Green Peppers 1 – 2 pcs
Yukon Gold Potatoes – 3 lbs
Parsley – 1 bun………………..1 bun. kale
Cucumber – 1 pc
Red Kale – 1 bun
Green Beans – .3 lb
Cabbage – 1 hd
Garlic – 2 hds

I would have traded the onions and the potatoes for more kale, but,  despite the fact that there was a lot of kale in the trade box, most of it was very holey, and I did not think that would make for luscious kale chips, so I only came away with two bunches, which I will do up tomorrow night.

I did trade the onions for another head of cabbage. (I am in sauerkraut mode this week – the first batch will be ready tomorrow night — and I want to try some new flavors, so small heads like I got will be perfect for small jars of flavored sauerkraut.

I have sent a message to the farm asking about the green peppers.  I do trust my farm, but aren’t we told that green peppers are unripe? (The farm knows about me, i.e., I am a raw vegan and I write about them and talk about raw food issues, so I am looking forward to their answer — will relay it here as soon as it comes through-– I have asked them to tell me, if in fact *green* is the ripe color of these peppers, what the actual *name* of the peppers is)

CHEDDAR CHEEZY KALE CHIPS

CHEESY KALE CHIPS

3 bun. curly leaf kale
1 C raw cashews, soaked 1 – 2 hrs., and drained
1/3 lg orange (or red) bell pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 t onion powder
1/2 t sea salt
1 T chili seasoning, or to taste (optional)
Water to just cover cashews

• Tear kale leaves into bite-sized pieces, and set aside.
•  In a food process all ingredients except kale to a smooth consistency
• Place kale pieces and 1/2 cashew mixture in a large bowl
• Massage cashew mixture into kale pieces, massaging each leaf individually.
• Place kale pieces one by one on covered dehydrator trays, and dehydrate at 110 degrees for 2 hrs
• Remove trays from dehydrator and transfer chips from sheets mesh covered dehydrator trays (easy way: Place a mesh sheet over the dehydrator tray with the chips. Cover the mesh sheet with another dehydrator tray. Flip the assembly and then remove the first dehydrator tray, and the teflex sheet.)
• Dehydrate for 5-6 hours more, until crunchy.