Cauliflower Chowder

 Keeping this posted so I can find it later. 

Cauliflower Potato Chowder

Mains

Ingredients:

Pot # 1

1/2 cup olive oil

3 cups onions, rough chop

9 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

1/8 tsp dry rosemary, crushed

1/4 tsp dry thyme

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 lb rutabaga, peeled and diced (optional; replace with more potato if needed)

1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced

Stems of the califlower

2 cups almond milk

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

Salt, to taste

Pot # 2

1 1/4 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced

1 1/4 lb head cauliflower, stem (but save that for pot #1) and leaves removed (discard those), cut into florets

6 cups water, RESERVED

Directions:

WARNING: Don't dump anything in the pot unless it's specified. This is not a dump everything into one pot and call it a night. There's a specific process. Read through carefully. 

1. In a 2 gallon pot (DO NOT ADD OIL YET), add the onions and garlic, and set over medium high heat. We will call this pot # 1. While this comes up to heat, start peeling and chopping the potatoes, rutabaga, and cauliflower. It's going to take around 10 minutes or so for the pot to come up to heat, and for the onions and garlic to begin to sizzle. Once you hear the onions and garlic begin to make noise in the pot, stir everything around so that the liquid starts to pull out from your veggies. Add olive oil only when the water has started to leech out and evaporate quickly. This will take anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on how "wet" your onions are. Why wait to add oil? Because if you add the olive oil to the pot first, the evaporating water from your vegetables is going to carry your expensive olive oil with it, and into the air and all over your cabinets. You spent all this money on olive oil. Make sure it stays in the pot. Anyway. Once your onions and garlic make a sizzling noise, add the olive oil to the pot, and stir everything around to combine. Add the rosemary, thyme, and black pepper at this point, so that they have a chance to bloom in the oil + aromatics. 

2. Let onions/garlic/spices cook for about 10 more minutes over medium heat until they are fragrant, and the onions have begun to soften. If you hear the onions sizzling very quickly (bubbles rapidly rising from the bottom of the pot and breaking on the surface of the oil, making lots of excited sounding noises), turn down the heat lower until you hear a more gentle sizzling sound. You want to smell the garlic and onion and herbs/spices along with the smell of olive oil. Once the spices and onions/garlic have had a chance to cook for a few minutes to take off that raw edge to the flavour, drop the heat to as low as it'll go, and put the lid on the pot. Let this simmer away over the lowest heat for 30 minutes. 

3. While the oil and onions/garlic/spices are cooking away slowly, finish preparing the rutabaga, potatoes, and cauliflower. Not all of the potatoes are going into the same pot. About half is going to pot #1, and the other half is going to pot # 2. Why? Because you need some potatoes to have the taste of being sautéed in oil (pot #1) and some of it to be cooked only in salted water (pot #2). It does make a difference, so make sure that you don't just throw all your potatoes into one pot. You may want to use a vegetable chopper to get the potatoes and rutabaga the same size cubes. 

4. Once your potatoes and rutabaga are chopped up, give them a good rinse under cold water, to remove any excess starch or leftover dirt from the peeling process. Same with the cauliflower. Give it a good rinse under running water after you've made it into florets. 

5. Once the onions and garlic are softened completely with the lid on, remove the lid and add: ALL of the rutabaga, and 1 lb of the peeled and diced potatoes. If you have any cauliflower stems that are from the central branch of the cauliflower, add it to pot #1. Over medium low heat, gently stir the potatoes, rutabaga, and any cauliflower stems in the oil. Put on the lid, and let it cook away for 5 minutes before stirring again. You want to keep stirring and covering the lid to allow it to cook in 5-minute increments until the potatoes get very very lightly browned on the edges. You don't need them crispy, but just lightly browned. 

6. Meanwhile add the remaining potatoes (about 1 1/4 lbs) to pot #2 with the 6 cups of cold water. You will not be throwing this water out, because it will have the leftover starch and seasoning that you add to it. Generously salt the water (not quite as salty as pasta water, but you do want to taste some salt in there) and bring up to highest heat. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, drop down the heat to low, and allow to simmer for 12 minutes. Check a potato. It should be tender but not mushy. You want it to be cooked through but still firm. If the potatoes are still raw in the middle, let it cook an additional 5 minutes, and check again. Keep cooking until the potatoes are just cooked through. Add the cauliflower florets, and simmer an additional 5 minutes. At the end of the 5 minutes the cauliflower should be barely cooked and still kind of crunchy. This is a good thing. Strain out the water into a bowl, and SAVE THE WATER. 

7. Once pot # 1 has the potatoes lightly browned, add the 2 cups almond milk, and about 3 cups of the water from pot # 2. Bring up to a full rushing boil, and let it continue to boil for about 8 minutes. Drop the heat to low, and let it simmer away for another 15 minutes until the rutabaga and potatoes are soft. If it's not soft at the end of the cooking time, keep adding more simmer time until it's all soft. 

8. In a blender, combine the contents of pot #1 with another 1 cup of water, and blend until smooth. My blender holds about 64 oz of liquid, so I was able to do this in like 2 batches. Your mileage may vary. Using a proper blender (and not a stick blender) is important, because you want the olive oil to combine with the starch in the potatoes and form a creamy liquid. It won't work unless everything is moving at high speed. Add the ground soup back to pot # 1, and bring up to heat. Dump in the cauliflower and cooked potatoes from pot #2. Add nutritional yeast, and adjust salt to taste. Bring up to a boil, and let it all cook together for about 5 minutes. This final cooking step is important for all the vegetables to get combined nicely together.

Brigsby Bear

 WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Tread lightly if you don't like spoilers for movies. This is about the movie Brisgby the Bear. 

I was watching a YouTube video where this guy had watched all the Lonely Island (a production company, I guess?) films. He'd mentioned Brigsby the Bear as being a generally wholesome watch, and enjoyable overall.

I won't go over the general premise, because there's plenty of people who have done a much more compelling job than I have. The 5 second pitch is that a guy wants to make a movie, and most of the people in his life are on board to help him out, if not immediately, at least eventually. There's some diversions along the way, a weird "sexy" scene while both parties are under the influence of more than one drug, and a therapist who's out here giving therapists and therapy in general a pretty bad name. Aside from those specific issues, I really enjoyed my film. 

First, the bad. There were moments in the film where it was alluded that James (the main protagonist) did have a libido, and exercised it with the only picture of a lady outside of his "family" that he had. That was uncomfortable, but I could get where they were going with it, because people will find a way to exercise their needs when they're alone, and when there isn't explicit inspiration available, you'll get there however you can. I also like how they didn't zoom in and show any movement under the covers or whatever, and that it was an allusion rather than an outright show and tell situation. Also, the guy was in his 20s when they showed those scenes. Fine. 

What I didn't like is that he was at a party with his biological sister, Aubrey's friends, who're in high school (?) or early college. Pretty much the entire group was drinking, and doing various drugs. I'm going to call it for them being in college, because if it really was high school, there's some pretty grody stuff upcoming. There's a sex scene with James and Merideth while both are high on something or other, and most likely also drunk. I really really didn't need to see that, so I kind of skipped past it. 

There was also a scene where there was a family therapy session. The therapist they was basically this shrill character that didn't just gently guide the family to discuss their feelings, but instead used her knowledge of human psychology as a cudgel to beat James over the head with her agenda the entire time. I found her character to be insufferable, and not at all a compassionate or kind person at all. Let me say it right now: if you ever find yourself in a situation where a person in power isn't listening to you, and trying to sympathise with your needs, get away from them, and don't trust them with your thoughts and feelings. You deserve a therapist who will genuinely hear what you're saying, and help you navigate your feelings in such a way that you can get to where you need to be together. Yes, there may be an overarching agenda, but there's no reason to force you to get there on anyone's schedule but your own. Therapy can be a very useful tool to get your thoughts in order, so that you can address your challenges instead of ignoring them. 

I've known and still know a fair few people who have very specific interests. This can be anything from music to writing to TV shows to performing to video games. It can be collecting pretty things to decorate their spaces. It can be an author they love and whose characters they resonate with. It can be games of the imagination, like D&D or its various offshoots. It can be dressing up in costume and role playing. There are so many things that we as humans can get interested in, and that's a good thing. When that thing that you love so intensely ends, you have lots of people who aren't ready to let that thing go yet, so they go off and create their own versions of it. There's a very popular book series that the author took a long time to finish the story. Tons of people went out and wrote their own versions of those stories as fan fictions, and would read other fan fictions. When the actual author's final book was done, and the story completed, there were several people who felt this biting loss, because the author had published the series over a period of 10 years or so. People had read them as kids, and finished them as adults. They'd watched the movies. The series had a huge impact on folk. Oddly enough, the fanfic writers and readers never really left the world. They'd been doing their own thing for so long that the story never ended for them even when the official version was done and dusted. \

In the film Brisgsby the Bear, James is obsessed with the Brigsby character, and knows (eventually) that there is no way at all for there to be new stories unless he does his own. To be honest, he'd always been interested in writing his own versions anyway, but got shot down by his false "mother" in the bunker. Anyone who's known anyone who's passionate about the media they consume would have told the guy to at the very least write some fanfic, and do his own ending, so the he has a healthy outlet for the stuff he loves, while still functioning in the world. I can't tell you how many fanfics I've read from people who still hold down jobs or school or various other commitments, while still creating stuff they love. 

Instead, the therapist basically tells him to get over it, and move on, even though the Brigsby show was the only piece of media James was ever allowed to consume over the course of his entire life, and he had nothing else to latch on to. Let the guy do his special interest, instead of forcing him to fit your needs right away. Sheesh. 

Aside from that, the film as a whole is extremely lovely. There's a scene at the party where you think James is going to run in with a sketchy crowd, but the guy whose house it is, Spencer, sees it and immediately diverts James to go hang out with folk who will be more receptive to his vibe. Then, as James describes the Brigsby character and TV show (which literally nobody else has seen, because the show was made for and watched only by James), Spencer and the other characters are spellbound and super interested in what James is talking about. They listen to his stories, and respond positively. 

I feel like that's a sign of our times we're living in. Because there's so much media out there, people are way more understanding of folk who are passionate about the things they love. I was at a party the other day, and this person was describing this food they enjoy. Aside from a side-joke of "how much are they paying you" (because they were telling us all the cool things about it), everyone there was happy to let them talk about it for as long as they wanted. It was absolutely not something that would have happened when I was a kid. If someone is too "into" something that isn't main stream and acceptable (sports, cars, money, etc) they'd be shamed for it and told to stop talking about it. Nowadays, people are much more accepting of differences, and it's so refreshing to see.

The film reflected this attitude way more than I'd ever seen in other films with similar protagonists like James. And, much like the immigrant kid, or the home schooled kid who goes to school eventually, or the otherwise formerly lonely kid who finds friends, you see James so the listen and repeat thing. When you're trying to fit in with a new group, you code switch, and try to imitate the speech patterns of the people you're talking to. The ones who do it most successfully tend to fit in more quickly. James does it by finding phrases or references that the kids he's with make, and then repeat those phrases or references throughout the film to others. 

Either way, regardless of who the people are who meet him, folks generally look at James in a way that celebrates his passion for making the Brigsby film that will wrap up the storylines from the TV show, and do so in a way that's genuine instead of patronising. Spencer in particular goes all in, and helps James stage the scenes, edit it in the computer, and is a huge cheerleader for the project from the jump off. His sister comes around, once she realises how much James lights up and comes alive when he's working on the film. Detective Vogel gets caught up in the magic too, and helps out in huge ways. Even Detective Bander, who's supposed to be an antagonist, looks at James with sympathy when James has a run-in with the police after a particularly scary incident involving explosives. 

By the time the ending rolls around, the family sees eye to eye, and the film gets made. And throughout the movie, there isn't really a major villain. You get redemption for almost all the characters, and things get wrapped up really nicely. 

I genuinely had a good time watching this film, although I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed it with young children around, as there's several scenes that are not appropriate for kids. 

CDs

 I was at a thrift store, and found a copy of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. I lost my own copy of it ages ago in one of several moves, so it was really like the universe giving me back my CD. (Now if only I could get back my Op Ivy CD that Dwight borrowed all those years ago and never gave back!) It turns out that my guy is also a huge fan of that CD, so not the car it went, and it's taken us through many a long drive. There was one time he was stuck on a mountain on the way to a ski trip, where the road was a bit sketchy, and he had no cell reception, so he played Jagged Little Pill on repeat until he got to the lodge. 

My guy's car has a CD player, so rather than relying on the radio (we've been through one too many dead zones where all we can get is local religious stations) or the bluetooth audio from his or my phone (again with the dead zones), I like having CDs in the car, because you can throw the thing into the player, and let it do its own thing. In fact, I'll even make mix tape type CDs because I have a CD burner and blank CDs. Every time we hit up a thrift store, I'll go look through the CDs, and pick up a few that I like, or that look good. It's also a cheaper way to buy music than getting it on iTunes or whatever. I can import the CD into my iTunes library, and I'm good to listen on my devices. 

Midweek Soup

Midweek Dinner.

Heating Control

Pantry Staples

One of the old episodes that's not showing up on the podcast feed. Reupload.

Breakfast

Winter Soup in pictures

Winter Soup

Cookware

There's always questions about what cookware to get, and how much to spend. There's a reason that more expensive doesn't always mean better. Let's consider the law of diminishing returns. Let me give you an easy example.

With wine, there will be crap wines. You're talking your Franzia, your Fetzer, and the vast majority of stuff sold as "white zinfandel". It's fine for making sangria, but you're not going to notice much except sugar, and whatever additives they've thrown in the vat to mask the shitty quality.

Then you've got your low rent ones, like Fetzer, Turning Leaf, that Kangaroo one. They're like $7 - $10 a bottle. Nothing to write home about, but it'll do to cook with, or with people who aren't huge wine drinkers, but can't really afford much better.

Then you get your /good/ wines. These vary by region and by brand, but you're looking to spend between $12 and $15 a bottle here. When served in a decent wine glass, you'll notice all kind of cool little subtle flavour profiles, and it won't be harsh on the way down.

If you've got some cash to spend, then there's those boutique wines that run you about $15 - $25. Around here, you're hitting very complex flavours and aromas. You don't want to pair it with anything that will challenge the wine, and you take care to serve it at the proper temperatures.

Once you cross this threshold however, you're looking at diminishing returns. The difference between boxed wine and the $25 wine is VAST. We're talking leaps and bounds of difference in experience, quality, and taste. But then once you've crossed about $28 - $32 a bottle, the difference between a $100 bottle and the $35 bottle isn't really that huge. Yes if you're in the top 5% of sommeliers or wine makers in the world, you'll notice subtle differences, and it's a nice intellectual exercise to figure out what those differences are, but the vast majority of us aren't really going to get that much more enjoyment or taste difference between the two. Then you start hitting the $200 and $300 bottles with pedigrees and all kind of marketing buzz, and you're like "I'll stick with the $15 bottle if it's all the same to you."

Think of your cookware the same way. The crappy TV Celebrity Chef set from the Walmart versus a standard brand is going to be massive. And the thin-bottomed dollar store pots compared to the standard brands will also be a huge huge difference. But once you hit about the $30 - $70 per pan range, you're not going to notice that much of a difference in your cooking experience to have warranted spending $300 on a freaking pan. I see you, Le Creuset.

Go into a store, and pick up as many pans as you can. If it's not comfortable in your hands, you won't use it as much. Look for something that has a good weight to it, but isn't too heavy for you to pick up. Look for something that has a nice balance to it. This has been my issue with a fair few of those restaurant cookwares: they're so bottom heavy that when I have to tip it over to get from cookware to serving dish, it's very awkward.

Get one piece at a time, not a set. Getting a set means that you'll have pots that you never use. Not good. Start with one piece (for example, an all-purpose pan).

https://www.amazon.com/Simply-Calphalon-Nonstick-Jumbo-Deep/dp/B001ASBBSG/ I reach for this thing every day. I'd consider it an all-purpose pan. I can cook pretty much anything in there. I've cooked pasta, curries, stir fries, rice dishes, delicate things that need the nonstick, potatoes, breakfast things, stews, soups, veggies, the list goes on. I've had it for a few years now, and it's been a champ. However, after having it a while, I realised I wanted a small pot for making ramen, or reheating leftovers, or small amounts of daal. That's when I sprung for a small saucepan. I got their 1-1/2 quart pot from the same line, because I liked how it felt in my hand.

Then, I saw that I wanted something in stainless, because when I make dosa, or other things, I wanted to use my Indian stainless steel utensils, and I couldn't do that on the nonstick. So I got myself a https://www.amazon.com/Tramontina-80116-007DS-Fry-Stainless/dp/B00JAP44MQ/ stainless steel pan from Tramontina. Then, I saw that I needed a stock pot, because if I'm using that 12" thingy on the stove, I don't want another large pot cluttering up the stove. I went to my restaurant supply store, and picked up the most squat 6 qt stock pot they had. I wanted metal handles, and a metal lid. Why? In case I start something on the stove, and want to finish in the oven, I want that to be seamless. I got something like this guy:
https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-MCP44-24N-MultiClad-Stainless-Saucepot/dp/B009W28RPM/

Point is that you don't have to spend like a millionaire to have cookware that's a joy to use, and that will produce good results, and you don't have to worry about getting a full set. Build as you go.

Weekly food prepping

I was going to make a soup. I had some lovely leeks that I found at the market, along with these adorable little tiny white and red potatoes. I had some kale that needed using up. I had a couple of heads of garlic that would go in there too. Come to think of it, there were also like 3 lbs of large white potatoes that had been there for three weeks already. 

However, once I started chopping the leeks (3 of them, with the tough green parts removed), I noticed that I had a LOT of leeks. What if I wanted leeks in something else? Also, two heads of garlic is going to be such a waste if I use it in one soup. What if I need garlic for something else? I don't really have a ton of time during the week to go grocery shopping. 

FINE. Message heard, universe. I'll do that thing where I prepare myself for making a bunch of different dishes by doing the preparation of the individual ingredients, then cooking them separately. That way, I can use my prepared ingredients during the week when I want something fast. Bear in mind that I do also have some canned beans, some frozen veggies, and (as always) rice, ginger, onions, and coconut milk knocking about in my kitchen, so I can augment whatever I prepare here to keep things varied and interesting.

First I set a large pot of water to boil. I was going to boil, then roast the baby potatoes. It seems a shame to lose them to a soup when they're so cute. I also set my electric kettle on the boil with 1 1/2 litres of water. Then, I separated out the stems from the leaves of the kale. The leaves went into a bowl, and the stems I chopped into thin cross-wise slices. That went into a separate bowl.

I made a garlic confit. Not only does this allow me to be lazy, and use pre-peeled garlic in large quantities if I want (because whenever I buy pre-peeled garlic, I can never get through the entire amount before about 1/3 of it goes off on me. I'm one person. I like garlic, but not to that extent. But, in today's case, I had only the garlic inside the skin, so I peeled it, and submerged it in room temperature olive oil in a cold pan. I set it over medium low head (like a 2 on a 10 point scale), and got to the business of slicing the leeks. Since I was going to want a fair bit of sauteed onion product, I augmented the leeks with 2 medium sweet onions (I used vidalia, but you can use whatever you keep in the kitchen). 

  

Here's a picture of the garlic in the pan. It's ready to go on the stove, over the heat. The leeks and the sweet onions are also pictured here. They go in a pan, with about 3 - 5 tablespoons of olive oil (or however much you need to coat the bottom of your pan. By the time the garlic head was peeled, the electric kettle had boiled the first kettle full of water. I dumped it over the kale leaves, and put in another litre of so of water to boil. 

While I was chopping the leeks and peeling the garlic, I was already boiling the mini potatoes. Once the leeks were starting to sizzle in the pan, the potatoes were cooked to my liking (firm, but cooked through). 

 

I set the mini potatoes into a large bowl, and tossed them with garlic powder, onion powder, plenty of salt, olive oil, and za'atar.

By this point, the leeks were starting to smell nice. I went and gave them a quick stir. 

 

Once the potatoes were thoroughly combined with the spices, I laid them out onto a baking sheet to go into the oven at 425 for 20 minutes.

 The leeks took a few minutes to soften. The garlic was starting to bubble. I kept stirring occasionally.

 

By now, the kale had cooked through, so I strained out the water, and poured cold water over it. I used the rest of the boiling water to cook the stems. They needed to set in the boiling water for 10 minutes. The kale leaves needed like 5 minutes or so. Meanwhile, once the baby potatoes are in the oven, wash out the stock pot, and put it back on the stove with more water. 

I set the kale leaves to drain in the colander, and went to chop up the white potatoes into little cubes. I had around 3 lbs, give or take. 

If you aren't rushing and going quickly, but are taking your time like I was, go ahead and submerge the chopped potatoes into cold water, so that they don't turn weird colours. Once they're all nicely chopped up, your water should be boiling fiercely. Dump them into the cooking pot, and watch the boiling come to a screeching stop. It'll take a few minutes to come back to the boil. This was when I added salt to the cubed potatoes.

Once the water came to a boil, the kale was as drained as it was going to get. I squeezed out as much water as I could, because I planned on keeping the kale for about a week or two in the fridge in its cooked state. I chopped the kale leaves into very very fine pieces.

 

I wasn't going fast, just kind of taking my time. By the time I was done chopping up the kale into fine pieces, the potatoes in the oven were roasted, and the potatoes in the pot were cooked through (because they were little cubes of potato).

I put away the kale immediately, while the cubed potatoes were draining. I slipped in a dry paper towel and squeezed out as much air as I could. The paper towel will absorb any excess moisture, and keep the cooked greens fresher for a longer time.

 

I rinsed off the cubed potatoes with cold water, and bagged them up as well. The roasted potatoes cooled, and I put them into containers. My garlic was soft, and golden brown. I strained the garlic into a deli container, and saved the oil in a bottle. 

 

The onions and leeks were softened, and very light brown. They had considerably shrunken in size. I've been doing dishes as I've gone along, but they do pile up quickly!

Pictured here are clean dishes. If I had to face this amount of dishes during the week, I'd have to call a cleaning person to help me get it under control, because I don't have time on weekdays. However, since this is a weekend, I don't have to worry. 

Depression Prepping

I used to live in Florida, and we'd get hit with hurricanes quite regularly. I can guarantee you that every dyed-in-the-wool Floridian has their own plan for hurricane preparedness, whether it means batteries and bottled water, or vodka and pop tarts. In the Frozen North (New Jersey now, but New York before) we get hit with massive amounts of snow every now and again. Apparently in NYC, that means that you must buy kale. I'm not even kidding. Go into any store in the five boroughs before a snow storm hits (OK, maybe not Staten Island, but nobody counts Staten Island) and you'll see the shelves emptied of kale, down to the last scrap of a leaf. In Jersey City, it's eggs and bread. The freaking bodega sells out of eggs and bread.

The point is that when we know disaster is about to hit, we prepare for it. Why is it that we don't treat mental health predictable disasters in the same way? I do. I know that every winter, the sun is going to be overcast (if not outright missing) when I leave for work in the morning, and be gone by the time I leave work 8 hours later in the evening. It throws me into a horrible spiral of depression, which then means that basic things that I normally do are impossible to sort out. This winter, I literally had a giant suitcase with all my laundry piled atop it from Christmas through about two weeks ago.

Again, because I knew this mess was headed my way (and always will head my way), I do a few things to prepare for it.

FOOD

I love to cook. I wrote a freaking book about it. However, when I'm in the throes of depression, I'm going to lack the motivation to /eat/, much less to cook. I need to stock up on certain easy things that I can get into my system, so that I don't get hit with malnutrition on top of the depression.

- Frozen "steamable" veg. At my local grocery store, they sell these 12 - 16 oz packs of frozen veg that you can throw direct into the microwave, hit it with 4 1/2 minutes of heat, and it's steamed to perfection. I stock up on these guys big time before the winter hits, because sometimes I can't eat handle another stack of carbs (potato chips, bread, plain rice with salt), because that's all I've had the motivation to make. On those days, I can throw a steaming pack into the microwave, and get it down.

- Tofu & spice mixes. When I'm particularly too sapped of energy from being a sobbing mess on the floor, I sometimes don't have the energy to sort out even the 4 1/2 minutes in the microwave. Also, I've not had the energy to eat anything of substance in way too long. Also, I actually /do/ need a spot of protein, because I've been subsisting on potato chips and steamed veg for about three days. Enter tofu and spice blends. I will take a block of tofu out of the fridge, and liberally sprinkle on salt and a spice blend. Mrs Dash works. Berbere works EXCELLENT. And then I'll take a fork, and chomp away.

- Potatoes & margarine. Not to be funny, but there are times when I want something that'll fill me up, but not be too challenging to eat. I don't want al dente pasta. I don't want crunchy veg. I want something that's easy to chew, that doesn't taste too strongly of anything, and that I can bolt down quickly. I always have at least 5 lbs of potatoes on hand, because a microwave baked potato is 4 minutes flat. I'll pile on some margarine and salt, and go to town. If I have the energy for it, I'll also throw on some of my leftover steamed veg.

- Broccoli and/or cauliflower florets, chopped kale, chopped collars. The Trader Joe sells these veg already chopped and prepared. I have a hot water kettle. On nights where I am not in the mood for steamed frozen veg, and want something with more substance, I'll use these prepped veggies for a quick snack. 1 lb of veg takes about 1 1/2 litres of boiling water. I fill up my electric kettle, and let it come to the boil. While that's coming to a boil, I'll throw the veg into a large bowl in the sink. Once the water boils, I'll dump it over the veg, and let it all sit together for five minutes. I drain off the water, and then toss the veggies in olive or sesame oil, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and sesame seeds.

- Nuts. Before the winter hits, I'll grab a few pounds of nuts, and toss them in oil, garlic powder, salt, and ground red chilies. I roast them at 350 for 8 - 12 minutes (depending on the nut), and store them in jars after they cool. There's times when I need a snack that has some fat, and some protein, because yesterday's meals consisted of steamed corn, seasoned tofu, and a saltine cracker. This ensures that I hit my calorie mark.

- Disposable plates. It seems obvious to me, but I'm stating it here: when you're too depressed to cook, you're sure as heck too depressed to clean. There are times when I've avoided eating anything, because I know that the cleanup is going to not happen, and I'm surrounded by enough mess that I can't handle adding any more mess to the growing pile of cleaning I need to do.

CLOTHES

- Extra socks. Before the winter hits, I'll make sure to buy about 2 months worth of socks. Underwear I can figure out. Shirts I can re-wear. Jeans and pants, I /will/ re-wear. But socks are a different story. If they're not clean, I won't wear them. And unlike the summer, where I'll throw on a pair of sandals and move on, the winter /requires/ shoes. If I'm in a bout where I cannot do laundry, I'm going to need socks for sure. Not to mention, if I'm too poor to afford to heat my home, I'm going to need to get socks on my feet before I sleep, so that I'm not too cold at night.

- Black t-shirts. I'll buy about 12 - 15 black t-shirts as well. You can wear a black t-shirt with anything, and dress it up or down as necessary. Also, they don't show stains that much. Trust me, it's worth having a few on hand. By the time winter is done, I have to throw out a fair few pairs, because they've got holes in them from being worn so many times.

- Pyjama pants. In the winter, I'm not going out. In fact, I'm not even leaving my bed on my free time. I make sure that I have at least a few pairs of pyjama pants, so that when I'm too depressed to go for a full on shower, I can at least have a fresh clean bit of clothing on.

There are definitely other aspects that I prepare with, but I'm not remembering them at the moment, because my depression has cleared properly, and I'm happy right now. If someone has any requests, let me know, and I'll add to the list.

Lemon Rice

I know that I forgot to include the lemon rice recipe in the book. Here is my apology to you all.

Beet salad update

I keep meaning to update my beet salad recipe, but keep forgetting to do so. My friend asked me for the recipe, and I pulled it up here.

http://altveg.blogspot.com/2009/02/beet-salad-of-doom.html

I've made that salad many times, and as she mentioned, it's extremely forgiving. You can happily cut this in half, and it'll be fine. When I wrote the recipe originally, it was a way for me to eat beets, and not hate them. Over time, however, I found that 3 lbs of beets was a bit much to get at once, and that buying a half pound of daikon is a bit of a ridiculous proposition. So I'd quietly cut back on the beets, and just bump up the daikon and apples, and the balance of flavours was much nicer for me. Also, over the times I've made it, I would sometimes not have daikon, so I'd use whatever was similar in texture that was lying around, and it worked out just fine. Sometimes, I'd have only odds and ends left, and I'd work it out with those odds and ends. Also, sometimes I'll throw in a chopped red onion, and it's a lovely addition.


2 lb beets
1 lb carrots
1 lb daikon, red radish, chayote, red cabbage, white cabbage, or any combination of these
1 lb granny smith apples (if you can't find granny smith, use the firmest apple you can find, and bump up the lime juice in the dressing)

Peel the beets with a peeler. Grate the beets. Don't bother peeling anything else, unless you're really that fussed about it. If the skin is gross looking, I'll peel the daikon or carrot, but never peel the apple. The skin helps it stay together.

Dressing:
1/4 - 1/2 cup peanut butter (this works with sunflower seed butter, almond butter, and cashew butter as well)
1 TB white miso (optional; if you use red miso, cut the amount in half)
1 1/4 cups apple juice
2 TB lemon or lime juice
Salt, to taste
1 TB Rice wine or apple cider vinegar
Knob of ginger about the size of the first joint of your thumb
Cayenne pepper, to taste

In a blender, combine together the miso, the apple juice, the lime juice, some salt, the vinegar, ginger, and a couple of pinches of cayenne pepper. Blend until the ginger is completely broken down and incorporated. Start with 1/4 cup of peanut butter, and blend to combine. If the dressing is thick to your liking, stop here. If you'd like it thicker, feel free to add more peanut butter.

Toss the grated vegetables together with as much dressing as you'd like (I use it all, because I like salad to be decadent), and let it marinate for about 30 minutes in the fridge. The flavours need a bit of time to mellow out, and combine well.

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If you don't have or like apple juice, just use water, and add about 1 tsp of sugar. If you don't have miso, skip it completely, or sub it out with tahini. The dressing will definitely have no problems if you feel like adding a bit more ginger. You can blend in about 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil if you want the flavours to be more intense, but I wanted this recipe to be oil free. You can also add chopped onion and garlic, but I wanted the recipe to be free of onion and garlic as well.

If you don't like sweet with salty, cut back on the apples by about 1/2, and bump up the daikon/cabbage/chayote (or whatever you end up using) instead. They'll be able to mute some of the sweetness coming from the apples and carrots. I personally don't care for recipes that are sweet and salty together, but this was a good balance, and I enjoyed it.

This does make a good base to add to other stuff, but when you've got like 6 lbs of salad lying around, I'm not sure that you'll ever need to bulk it out. That said, if you do end up halving the recipe, still make the full batch of dressing. The dressing is quite delicious when tossed with noodles too.

The point is that the salad is very forgiving, and you'll be fine as long as you stick to the texture family of the ingredients I've listed.

Blooming spices

I give a VERY short primer on blooming spices in fat.

Vegetable Soup

It came out well. I also give you a mini mini mini tour of my tiny kitchen.

Rice

Someone asked me how to get separate rice like you get in the Indian restaurants. I responded as I did below:

First of all, realise that restaurants frequently undercook 1/4 of their rice, and toss it through to give it the illusion of being even more separate. Also, they use enough fat to drown a whale. If we all did that, it would come out like the restaurant too, but we'd also turn so fat that we'd never walk again.

Here's your best bet.

You need a pot with tight fitting lid. You need rice that's a good brand of basmati. Not all basmati is created equal. If you want the best of the very best, get yourself Tilda basmati rice. It will always come out longer, fluffier, and better tasting than any other brand. While you practise, you can use whatever.

In a saucepan, add just enough oil to coat the bottom. You don't need huge heaping amounts, but just enough to lubricate the rice. Heat it up over medium heat, with the lid on, checking frequently for the state of the oil. The oil should be hot enough that a bit of smoke escapes the surface. Add in 1 cup of rice. If you really feel like washing rice is essential, feel free to do so before you heat the pot, but I've skipped that step, and my rice comes out lovely. Add a generous sprinkle of salt. Why? Because like any starch, rice absorbs salt from the cooking water, and tastes really good when it does so. If you're watching your salt intake, just do a couple of hefty pinches. Rice needs some salt to be its best.

DO NOT USE A SPOON ON THE RICE. In fact, don't use any stirring utensil if you can help it. Instead, toss the rice in the oil by making the tossing motion with your saucepan. Why? Because if you mess with the rice with a stirring implement, you risk breaking up the delicate grains.

Continue cooking and tossing until the rice is opaque. It will no longer be translucent, but become a brighter white than opaque. Once the rice smells slightly nutty, and has a uniformly opaque look, add 1 cup + 1/4 cup of boiling water, and crank the heat to as high as it'll go. Why boiling?

You want the water to come up to the boil as rapidly as you can. It seems to help keep the oil onto the surface of the rice, rather than washing off into the liquid, and making the rice stick to the bottom of the pan, or each other. As soon as the rice hits a full rushing boil, lift the pot off of the stove, and swirl it around for 3 seconds. Loosely drape a square of parchment paper, aluminium foil, or a damp towel over the pot's opening, and slam on the lid. This will ensure that the seal is tight.

Drop down the heat to as low as the stove will go, and place the pot back onto the heat. Set a timer for 12 minutes if it's an electric stove, or 15 minutes if it's a gas stove. Why? Because an electric stove takes a longer time to cool down than a gas stove. You will have the pot sat on the residual heat longer on an electric stove. The gas stove will only have residual heat on the metal parts, meaning that the rice will need direct flame a bit longer.

At the end of the cooking time, turn off the heat, and DON'T TOUCH THE LID OR THE POT. The rice is still cooking, and needs time to finish steaming. There will be a bit of water that needs to absorb into the rice. Set a timer for 12 minutes for electric, and 10 minutes for gas. Leave the pot alone, and walk away.

At the end of the waiting time, go ahead and remove the lid, and any tightening measures you've done. Dump it out aonto a large platter (I use my cookie sheet, because it's huge), and gently press it out into as flat a layer as possible with a silicon spatula. Let it cool for about 30 seconds, and gently toss with the silicon spatula. It will fluff up beautifully and the whole thing will smell awesome.

Or, use a rice cooker.

Catching up with old friends

My friend Pete had a Monday evening off, and it was a flimsy excuse (but a good enough one for us!) to get together. He's the one who took the lovely picture of the food. Go say hi to him. He's a cool vegan guy. I suggested we get together for dinner. Mikeypod realised that he was also free on Monday night, and said he could come as well. Perfect.

Photo Credit: Peter Teoh https://plus.google.com/+PeterTeoh

It's been a long time since we got together. Between scheduling and work, it's been almost impossible to coordinate a time when we can all hang out and eat. I knew that the meal had to be good and filling, while still tasting amazing. Pete had some green beans, broccoli, and red lentils. He also had  box of those campari tomatoes. They taste good all by themselves. 

I brought over the brown rice and the cucumbers. I generally dislike brown rice, but in the hands of people who know how to cook it properly, I quite like it. I especially like it if I have some kind of stew to pour over it. That way the texture isn't quite as much of a turn-off. 

The red lentils were a basic daal: mustard seed, cumin seed, sesame seed, turmeric, onion, garlic, and ginger. I fried some dried red chilies, but that's an optional step. You can skip it, or add it directly to the tarka, and it'll still be fine. Pete made the brown rice. He is without a doubt one of the people who is good at making brown rice. 

The broccoli was super simple. I peeled the stems and cut the florets into long pieces with the long stems attached. I blanched it in boiling water for about a minute or two. I drained off the boiling water, and rinsed it under cold running water. I then fried some garlic and sesame seeds in hot oil, and tossed the cold broccoli in that mixture with a bit of salt. I did this last step just before Mike arrived, so that it'd be hot off the stove. 

The green beans are a typical South Indian preparation. You chop them into small pieces, and stir fry them with a tarka made of mustard seeds, asafoetida, and sesame seeds. I didn't have any urad daal or curry leaves, so I skipped it. I didn't have any fresh grated coconut, so I skipped that as well. 

The salad is a basic combination of cucumber, tomato, onion, lemon juice, and cilantro. Since all three of us like cilantro, I put lots of it in. If you don't like cilantro, try basil instead. It's equally delicious. 

I think all three of us had second helpings of everything, because it all came out so well. I had help, so the whole thing took about 45 minutes to make. 

Curry Leaves

There's been a lot of questions about curry leaves coming up as of late. I figured now is as good a time as any to answer them.

Daal

As promised, here's the written instructions for the basic daal tarka: http://goonswithspoons.com/Daal_Tarka

The thing about daal is that there are so many different types out there that it's impossible to pin it down to one technique or recipe. I tried to give  general overview here about the regionality of daal, and how it generally works for most people. I ended up rambling a lot.

There's an excellent article (with pictures) about daal written here:

http://indiaphile.info/guide-indian-lentils/

It gives cooking times and ideas of what to do with the various daal we use.

Fat Free :(

In response to Margie, I've made a new episode, discussing fat free cooking. It's been difficult but I'm glad I tried it.