GREAT GRATED BEETS – from the Corbin Hill CSA Newsletter

GREAT GRATED BEETS
2 T rice or balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 T agave
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
4 med. beets, grated
4 med. carrots, grated
1/2 C thinly sliced basil leaves
2 T finely shredded fresh cilantro
1 scallion, thinkly sliced diagonally, for garnish (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the vinegar, lemon juice, agave, an a large pinch each of salt and pepper. Whisk to combine.
Gradually whisk in oil.
Add beets, carrots, basil, and cilantro. Toss to combine. Taste, and adjust seasonings.

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NEW SPICY TOMATO SALSA FERMENT GOING

I’ve just put a quart and a half of tomato salsa to ferment.  

What did I put it in?  About 6 large Roma tomatoes, chopped; a large onion, chopped fine, a medium-sized yellow bell pepper, chopped fine;  one very ripe jalapeno (it was orange), chopped fine;  a large handful of cilantro, chopped fine; 3 large garlic cloves, minced; 2 t sea salt; and 2 capsules of New Chapter All-Flora probiotics.  

There’s a fermenting meet-up on Monday evening, and I am fully expecting this mix to be ready and garlicky-spicy-licious by then. 

WHERE HAS GONE RAW GONE?

POST #982
SOMETHING HAS GONE RAWNG
Admittedly, I had not visited GoneRaw.com in quite a while (okay, maybe a year or so), but I was surprised and disheartened to find the place in a shambles today when I clicked through and old link on an old, inactive blog, looking for Chef Landria, who seems to have disappeared.  On the home page, there was some kind of code disturbance, which just got worse when I clicked on RECIPES at the top of the page.  

Ah, but help is on the way, if you want to go see this famous old repository for raw recipes of all kinds.

Go to the bottom of the page, and find where it says RECIPES –GONE RAW – that link is healthy (at least as of a few minutes ago)  You can page through the recipes, which seem to be intact. 

My advice – if you want to avail yourself of a number of wonderful recipes from people who have posted over the years, who may or may not still be active, QUICK! Go there and look through all of the recipes which sound like something you might want to eat or prepare for someone else.  (Who knows how long this site will remain – it has apparently been abandoned, and there have been no postings in the past year or so).

IT’S ALL ABOUT EASY – What kitchen appliances do you really want?

POST #916
IT’S ALL ABOUT EASY
One of my students, who has been reading my blog and wants to provide healthier food for her family, commented that her cooking/food-prep style is all about EASY.  I can totally get into that.

My first questions to her were about her kitchen equipment.  She has knives. Okay, well, I started out with one knife (which I still have) and a cutting board.  That’s easy, but not so easy, if you start to get into preparing anything more adventurous than a salad.

I suggested that she start out with a good quality food processor, because that is what she will probably end up using the most (I know that’s the thing that gets the biggest workout in my kitchen!).  For a few years, after I decided that I needed a food processor, I worked with cheap ones, because that is all I could afford.  One after another broke.  When I was on the third one and I saw that it was headed for the graveyard, I started saving so that I could buy a Cuisinart food processor when it went on sale at Macy’s (I’d seen them go on sale for @half-price every couple of months, so I decided to get one the next time that happened. I have never regretted the $80 spent – my Cuisinart has now lasted longer than all three fo the food processors I had before, put together!

With a food processor, you can grind nuts and seeds, chop or puree vegetables and/or fruit, make pates, and shred vegetables or slice them (I still like to slice with a knife, though).  You can make apple sauce or grind beets or other hard vegetables (turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.)  in to a nice applesauce consistency.   You can make soups (and then heat them in your dehydrator if you like — Nomi Shannon, in her book Raw Food: THE ANSWERS, suggests pouring boiling water over chopped vegetables  –she feels that the vegetables will not be cooked by the contact of with boiling water – you’re on your own here – if you think that will work for you, go for it)

In addition to my food processor, I also have a Magic Bullet blender thing, a Champion Juicer, and an Excalibur dehydrator.  I have a VitaMix, but I broke it, and I am making do with the Magic Bullet right now, until I can afford to repair it  (It broke just past the 10 year warranty, of course).

If you are just setting up, just starting out, I’d say, after the food processor, the next thing to get would be a Magic Bullet – it does simple blending (smoothies, purees, etc) and, also, does the job of a herb/nut grinder quite well.

If you are moving forward from there, I’d say it’s a toss-up between the Champion juicer and the dehydrator.

I got the Excalibur Dehydrator first,because I seriously wanted to make crackers,  but, then, I had a working VitaMix at the time, and, after a consult with author Rose Lee Calabro, whose book, Living in the Raw, was my first modern raw food recipe book, and continues to be my first go-to book, I decided that I could make do with the food  processor for a while longer, instead of going for the juicer right away (Calabro told me that I could get by with the food processor, but the resulting pates and nut butters would not be as fine as those I could get with the Champion juicer).  I researched dehydrators ad infinitum, and, although there were cheaper choices (and I didn’t have much money), I chose to save up for the Excalibur 5 Tray with Timer ,  because it is easier to add and remove things as they dry, and, also, it is easier to clean – always a big plus in my world!  With the Excalibur, you can pull out individual trays to check them for done-ness, so it is easy to dehydrate several different things at once (I got the 5-tray model with the timer – the only thing I would do differently would be to get the 9-tray model, because there are often times when I could use 9 trays, but, still, I do fine with 5 trays)

I finally got a 1976 vintage Champion Juicer on ebay for $80.  I love it. (I have a Green Star GSE-5000 twin-auger machine that I got  for $20 at Salvation Army, but I find that the Champion is a thousand times easier to clean, so..—you never see Champions in Salvation Army, and Champion is made in America)

So… my kitchen set-up right now is very simple:

Cuisinart
Magic Bullet
Excalibur 5 Tray Dehydrator with Timer
Champion Juicer

WHAT DO I WANT NEXT?
I want to get a Nutri Bullet Hi-Speed Blender/Mixer System
next.  I’ve read the reviews (I always start with the 1-star reviews first and work my way back up, and it seems that this might do the job , if I follow the instructions, while I am waiting for money to fix my VitaMix—it will certainly fit better on my shelf)

SUCCESSFUL TASTY SAUERKRAUT: why other people don’t like raw sauerkraut and how you can

POST #899
SUCCESSFUL TASTY SAUERKRAUT: Why Other People Don’t Like Sauerkraut, and How You Can

Swayze Foster recently posted a “low-sodium” sauerkraut-related video, in which she talked mostly about how she hates sauerkraut.

I’m a fermenter, and I do like sauerkraut, and I have been lucky that everyone who has tasted my sauerkraut has liked it (I do get lucky like that – people who say they are don’t like something that I am pushing  generally tend to like it once they have tasted it). 

Swayze says she put her sauerkraut in a jar covered by leaves, and topped  by cheesecloth to ferment for three days. That is, by me, the first mistake – if you are going to make “short-ferment” vegetables of any sort, you need to 1) press the vegetables down under the liquid, and/or 2)cover the recipient with a tight lid.

I’ve tried several ways to weight the vegetables, all of which involved putting a cabbage leaf on top and putting a weight on that, and then putting the lid on.  Each time, I have ended up with a slimy cabbage leaf, and an iffy batch of sauerkraut.

The sauerkraut I make is low sodium (I use a maximum of 1 T sea salt to a large head of cabbage — 2 1-qt jars worth). The sea salt is already low sodium, and it helps to draw the liquid/juice from the cabbage.  I find that the kicker, or the trick, to making a successful, tasty raw sauerkraut is the addition of 1 – 2 capsules-worth (or 1 teaspoon) of probiotics to the mix  (you could mix it in by hand, but I worry that some might get stuck on my glove and not remain in the mix, or you could mix it into the water you add to top off the jar)  The salt works to ferment, but salt wants a while.  The probiotics go to work immediately, and practically ensure that your batch of sauerkraut will succeed (when I first started making sauerkraut, I was warned that my first batches might fail – the only failed batches I have ever had were the ones where I did not use the probiotics)

I usually let my sauerkraut batches go for 3-4 days before I open them.  With the tight cap on them, I need to open them over the sink, as the probiotics will have created a fizzy pressure, and the cabbage sometimes pops out of the top of the jar.  I like the sweetness of the 3-4 day ferment, but I have left it as long as 7 days with no ill results.  My batches rarely last more than 7 days in the refrigerator, as, when I have a batch of sauerkraut, it goes into almost everything I make up (wakame seaweed and vegetable salad, raw tuno, crackers – you name it!)  I often eat it on its own, as I love the flavor (I most frequently simply add jalapeno pepper slices, but often I add garlic, dill, cilantro, curry powder, or kimchi spices).

The way I figure it is, if you don’t like raw sauerkraut, most probably, you have gotten a bad batch, or you don’t like the flavorings.  A simple, plain raw sauerkraut made with just sea salt and probiotics will be tasty, sweet-ish,  to almost anyone, even children, and will be a good addition to just about anything you want to make up.

One last thing about sauerkraut, or any other fermented vegetable: If you don’t like to chew,  or if you don’t like crunchy, process your vegetables to a fine grate (not applesauce texture, but more like if you chopped for 20 mins) and be sure to include probiotics in your mix (many people tell me you can use sauerkraut juice from an older batch, but I never have that much juice left, and I don’t trust commercial batches.  For my first batches, I used a Zukay salad dressing for the probiotic, but, since Zukay salad dressings are not available in New York City as of this writing, and the company refuses to sell even crates of their product to individual buyers, I have never used that since).

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.

RAW DOUGNUTS WITH ORANGE GINGER GLAZE

POST #893
I found this recipe on Rawmazing.com 

Raw Doughnuts with Orange Ginger Glaze

serves 10**

• 2 1/2 cups raw oat flour (can be made by grinding raw flaked oats)
• 1 cup brazil nuts, ground fine
• 1/2 cup raw, organic coconut flour
• 1/4 cup raw, organic agave nectar or liquid sweetener of choice
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Making one doughnut at a time, press firmly into doughnut pan. Tip pan over and tap gently to release doughnut. *
3. Top with Orange Ginger Glaze

Orange Glaze

• zest from one orange
• 3 tablespoons orange juice
• 3 tablespoons raw coconut butter
  (not coconut oil), softened
• 2 tablespoons raw, organic agave nectar or liquid sweetener of choice
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1. Whisk all ingredients together. Pour over doughnuts. Let set (this will take a couple of hours).
*Alternatively, roll into 1 1/2-inch balls and dip in orange glaze.
**This recipe makes 5 doughnuts but due to the size, one doughnut should be considered to be 2 servings.

TRADITIONAL NEW YEAR’S GOOD LUCK FOOD, raw take

POST #874
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MY TRADITIONAL NEW YEAR’S GOOD LUCK FOOD
I am from the South, and Southerners eat black-eyed peas, greens (collards or kale), and pork (usually a ham hock or a hog jowl cooked together with the black-eyed peas and the greens, for flavor. (In other parts of the country, they might eat the same thing – I don’t want to exclude anyone – I just can only speak for what we do in the South).

The foods Southerners traditionally eat on New Year’s Day have meaning:
BLACK-EYED PEAS SYMBOLIZE PLENTY AND PROSPERITY).   When you cook black-eyed peas, they almost double in size. I’ve heard a number of different stories about black-eyed peas – most of them stem from an event in the War Between the States, in the 1800s. I’ve heard that a city was burned down (some say Charleston, some Atlanta, some Savannah – that doesn’t matter – the Union army made a point of burning down Confederate cities ) The story I have heard most often was that the starving people, homeless because of the burning, found a warehouse with barrels of black-eyed peas, and, so, they were able to eat (and, possibly—now this is me thinking – plant a new crop). This morning, I learned that some people say that, in Vicksburg, VA, the Union army burned all of the crops, save the black-eyed peas, which they mistakenly believed to be only food for animals.

GREENS (COLLARDS OR KALE) SYMBOLIZE PROSPERITY: Green has long been the color of American money.

HAM/PORK SYMBOLIZES PROGRESS: The pig is the only animal that moves forward while it is eating.

MY RAW NEW YEAR’S GOOD LUCK FOOD

BLACK-EYED PEAS: I ate 5-day black-eyed pea sprouts with chopped red bell pepper, onion, garlic, and an olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing.

GREENS: Most years, I eat marinated massaged collards or kale, but, this year, I had a batch of cheezy kale chips, so munched on those while I was doing things around the kitchen.

So, WHAT ABOUT THE HAM? Early on, I decided to resolve this issue by “intention”. I have a little pig figurine made of gold. I place it on the table when I am eating my New Year’s good luck food, and I think about it. I think about how the pig eats while it is moving forward, and I think about how the pig I have is made of gold, and how valuable my little pig is. Even when I have desperately needed money, I have never thought of selling my little gold pig. He urges me to find other ways to get money. That’s progress.

CABIN FEVER DINING: What I made today post-Sandy

POST #848
With no public transportation on the day after Sandy, this week is definitely a stay-cation.  Worse, everything within walking distance is closed.  Cabin fever city!  Back to the kitchen!

This morning I got up and made some kale/cashew cheeze in my much beloved Cuisinart food processor (it has already outlasted each of the two economy food processors I had before) to go with the sunflower seed crackers I meant to eat later.

Later, I made a “surf and turf salad.”
I had some leftover torn-up kale from huge bunch I’d bought on Sunday, so I chopped it up a little more, added some soaked wakame seaweed, also chopped up, about 1/4 C chopped red bell pepper, 1/2  jalapeno, chopped, some freshly-ground black pepper, 1/2 galangal (don’t ask why, I have no idea), 2 chopped garlic cloves, about 1/2 C lentil sprouts, and about 1/4 C sunflower seed sprouts, then some apple cider vinegar and olive oil.  It didn’t seem like enough, so I took a heaping soup spoon of the kale/cashew cheeze and mixed it with water to make a creamy dressing which I poured over the top.  Yumm!

10/18/12 CSA SHARE: What they said and what we got and what I’m going to do with it

POST #842
Share pick up day.  Unfortunately, I missed ordering the 5lbs of cranberries because today was the cut-off day,and I only just realized yesterday that I had no more checks, and they won’t take cash.  Oh well.

Here is what they said we would get and what we actually did get, and what I took away.

Butternut Squash – 1 pc
Green Kale – 1 bun…………dinosaur kale
Escarole – 1 hd……………………………traded for kale
Radicchio – 1 hd
Broccoli – 2 pcs…………..Chinese broccoli
Fennel – 2-3 pcs…………..3 pcs
Dill OR Cilantro – 1 bun……cilantro
Spinach -.75lb bag

I also got two broken heads of garlic (about 4 cloves altogether)

I am traveling by train down to Virginia Beach tonight (train leaves at 2am in the morning). I doubt that all of these leaves would survive a week and a half in the fridge, so I’m taking them with me, hoping that they will survive the train trip — my mom is very good at making a salad, and, although she has never worked with radicchio, I’m sure that, together, we can make something happen. I’m not sure if she is familiar with fennel, but I am going to take the fennel, too. (I am going to double bag the kale and hope that it will wait for me to come back)