This recipe is from +Jenny McGruther, modified a bit. Here's my version (but check hers out).
1. Buy a plump chicken, the best quality you can afford.
2. Place the chicken in a large crockpot, cover it completely with cold water, and turn the pot on low.
3. Lay various veggies on top: carrots including tops, whole stalks of celery including leaves (but cut in half if they won't fit), onions, leeks, kale or chard stems, or whatever is available. Don't chop them or mix them in.
4. Cover the pot and ignore it for 24 or more hours.
5. Remove the veggies and discard the inedible parts.
6. Remove the chicken and debone, carefully retaining as much of the broth as possible.
7. Turn the broth, still in the crockpot, on high.
8. Saving half the chicken for another recipe, place the boned chicken and salvaged cooked veggies into a food processor and whirr till it is almost smooth. (I had to do this in batches).
9. Add the resulting paste to the broth and stir it in thoroughly.
10. Heat till steamy.
11. Stir in a cup of heavy cream. I preheated the cream in the microwave because my crockpot is slow to heat up.
12. Mix 3-4 egg yolks (depending on size - I used duck eggs, and with their large yolks I found I needed only 2 yolks). Use a wire whisk. Add some of the hot stock mixture to temper the yolks, then stir them into the soup.
13. Heat the soup to close to a full boil.
14. Serve. I added an extra tablespoon of cream in a swirl. We ate the soup with roasted veggies (potatoes, rutabagas, and parsnips sprinkled with olive oil and good salt and cooked and browned in a 400 degree oven).
This is a smooth, rich, satisfying soup full of flavor and real food. The two of us will get two meals each out of it. The flavor is so full that more cream or even water could be added to stretch it. Thanks, Jenny!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Wheat isn't what it used to be, and that means trouble
Every time a food we had a symbiotic relationship with over the millennia begins to cause problems, we find that someone has messed with it.
Wheat is a cornerstone of our civilization, but the wheat we eat today has had some serious chemistry done to it so it is better suited to mass production, harvesting etc. So says the following article.
The article then goes on to describe the savagery done by wheat and its breakdown compounds in our guts. This is an article every bread lover should read before taking another bite.
Because it's not just what is happening in the gut. Wheat has on of the highest glycemic index values of any of the foods we eat, right up there with candy. And that means it contributes to big bellies and the packing of fat into visceral cavities.
Here's the link to the article: You Should Probably Stop Eating Wheat.
Back in 2006 I had to stop eating wheat. It was hard but not as hard as enduring the pain and intestinal distress, even bleeding, I experienced every time I ate it. I have not had wheat (except by accident) since. I don't miss it. It is not tempting. I am over it.
So I found this article fascinating because now I realize I might have avoided all sorts of other ills, too, including diabetes.
Well, just read the article. And then leave a comment here or share this post with your friends. Peg
Wheat is a cornerstone of our civilization, but the wheat we eat today has had some serious chemistry done to it so it is better suited to mass production, harvesting etc. So says the following article.
The article then goes on to describe the savagery done by wheat and its breakdown compounds in our guts. This is an article every bread lover should read before taking another bite.
Because it's not just what is happening in the gut. Wheat has on of the highest glycemic index values of any of the foods we eat, right up there with candy. And that means it contributes to big bellies and the packing of fat into visceral cavities.
Here's the link to the article: You Should Probably Stop Eating Wheat.
Back in 2006 I had to stop eating wheat. It was hard but not as hard as enduring the pain and intestinal distress, even bleeding, I experienced every time I ate it. I have not had wheat (except by accident) since. I don't miss it. It is not tempting. I am over it.
So I found this article fascinating because now I realize I might have avoided all sorts of other ills, too, including diabetes.
Well, just read the article. And then leave a comment here or share this post with your friends. Peg
Monday, December 17, 2012
How I lost 24 pounds (along the way)
"Before" and "during" photos coming soon!
Weight loss has always been hard for me.
I'd get woozy in the head, and seriously hungry, and I'd have cravings that would drive me to distraction.
I tried various kinds of programs. I discovered along the way that I really didn't digest raw veggies well, so that eliminated some programs. Others, such as ones that emphasized a heavy consumption of meat, were obviously not a way I could eat for very long, so what would happen when I stopped?
What happened when I stopped these programs was more weight gain, the yoyo dieting effect everyone talks about.
Then I heard a lecture about the cause of yoyo dieting, which is thought to be the loss of lean muscle mass.
Without lean muscle, the metabolism goes down, and sitting becomes the preferred occupation. That information jibed with what I had found that to be true.
By now, with more years under my belt, I also had added more pounds under my belt.
Then I ended up doing a sedentary 18-month service project and the weight accumulated. By the end of it I was 35 pounds heavier than my traditional overweight weight I had lived with during my 40s and 50s.
And by the time I had gained all that new weight, I was eager only to sit and at best work from my comfy chair.
I had heard about this program that I'm doing now. It's called Cinch Inch-Loss program*, and claims suggest that people on that program will not lose any lean muscle mass. (The program literature cites research that shows that just about every type of diet causes the loss of 60% fat and the rest - a full 40% - of lean muscle. But it also shows that participants in the Cinch program actually gain lean muscle.)
Nonetheless, based on my earlier dieting experience I knew it wouldn't work for me.
Then in August I attended an event that featured a dozen or so successful dieters who had used this program. They had lost as much as 200 pounds! They each had a story that began with hopelessness. That sounded like me.
By the time I had heard all twelve stories, I began to entertain hope that this program might work for me.
So I committed to it.
I began in late August when I got the products in the mail. I liked it right away. I liked that it made breakfast and lunch easy. And that it meant that I could make supper for John and we'd be eating the same things.
I did need help measuring calories of our favorite dinners. Sometimes I was too high, sometimes I was too low. With a little effort and paying attention, I got the evening meals right in the proper lane for modest weight loss.
That's what I opted for, reasonable weight loss, maybe 1-2 pounds per week. It didn't really sound like much, but I also figured that if in a year I lost 50 pounds, I would certainly look and feel better.
The pounds began to come off. The first ten pounds were fairly quick, and then they slowed to a steady rate, until I reached 18 pounds off. At that point I plateaued in terms of weight loss, but during that time I was losing inches, especially around my waist, which by now has gone down 5 inches. FIVE INCHES! They said 'inch-loss' and that's what was happening.
(The idea was this: because we are losing fat but also building lean muscle, there are times when the inches go down when the weight doesn't.)
I also undertook walking every day. This was not new for me, and I was frustrated that at first I could walk only about a mile or a bit more. So I got a referral for a physical therapist to help build my endurance. From then on I did one or both every day 6 days a week and my stamina increased.
I never ran into a problem eating the foods recommended. I never had cravings, which I still consider a miracle. When we were traveling, I still used the recommended food-products. When we spent a week at a resort south of Cancun, I didn't have full access to the food-products and I sorely missed them. That was the first and only time I have experienced cravings in these 3 1/2 months, cravings for the products, not for the sweets the resort offered us.
Now I can walk 3 miles up and down hills and am comfortable walking an hour or more. (I'm striving for more every day.) I have reached new levels of stamina in my PT sessions. And I have lost 24 pounds.
That's about a third of what I want to lose. At the current rate I should lose the next 48 or 50 pounds in another year or so. I have no idea how far or fast I may be able to walk or do other exercise by then. What I do know is that I'm looking forward to it. I love the daily routine, the foods on the program. The thought of keeping on going is delightful.
I've lost one pants size, and people are starting to notice, but best of all, I'm proud of myself and I feel excellent! And there's more good stuff to come.
*The program changes its name to Shaklee 180 on Jan 1 2013. Meanwhile go to http://at-the-well.myshaklee.com and click on Cinch.
Weight loss has always been hard for me.
I'd get woozy in the head, and seriously hungry, and I'd have cravings that would drive me to distraction.
I tried various kinds of programs. I discovered along the way that I really didn't digest raw veggies well, so that eliminated some programs. Others, such as ones that emphasized a heavy consumption of meat, were obviously not a way I could eat for very long, so what would happen when I stopped?
What happened when I stopped these programs was more weight gain, the yoyo dieting effect everyone talks about.
Then I heard a lecture about the cause of yoyo dieting, which is thought to be the loss of lean muscle mass.
Without lean muscle, the metabolism goes down, and sitting becomes the preferred occupation. That information jibed with what I had found that to be true.
By now, with more years under my belt, I also had added more pounds under my belt.
Then I ended up doing a sedentary 18-month service project and the weight accumulated. By the end of it I was 35 pounds heavier than my traditional overweight weight I had lived with during my 40s and 50s.
And by the time I had gained all that new weight, I was eager only to sit and at best work from my comfy chair.
I had heard about this program that I'm doing now. It's called Cinch Inch-Loss program*, and claims suggest that people on that program will not lose any lean muscle mass. (The program literature cites research that shows that just about every type of diet causes the loss of 60% fat and the rest - a full 40% - of lean muscle. But it also shows that participants in the Cinch program actually gain lean muscle.)
Nonetheless, based on my earlier dieting experience I knew it wouldn't work for me.
Then in August I attended an event that featured a dozen or so successful dieters who had used this program. They had lost as much as 200 pounds! They each had a story that began with hopelessness. That sounded like me.
By the time I had heard all twelve stories, I began to entertain hope that this program might work for me.
So I committed to it.
I began in late August when I got the products in the mail. I liked it right away. I liked that it made breakfast and lunch easy. And that it meant that I could make supper for John and we'd be eating the same things.
I did need help measuring calories of our favorite dinners. Sometimes I was too high, sometimes I was too low. With a little effort and paying attention, I got the evening meals right in the proper lane for modest weight loss.
That's what I opted for, reasonable weight loss, maybe 1-2 pounds per week. It didn't really sound like much, but I also figured that if in a year I lost 50 pounds, I would certainly look and feel better.
The pounds began to come off. The first ten pounds were fairly quick, and then they slowed to a steady rate, until I reached 18 pounds off. At that point I plateaued in terms of weight loss, but during that time I was losing inches, especially around my waist, which by now has gone down 5 inches. FIVE INCHES! They said 'inch-loss' and that's what was happening.
(The idea was this: because we are losing fat but also building lean muscle, there are times when the inches go down when the weight doesn't.)
I also undertook walking every day. This was not new for me, and I was frustrated that at first I could walk only about a mile or a bit more. So I got a referral for a physical therapist to help build my endurance. From then on I did one or both every day 6 days a week and my stamina increased.
I never ran into a problem eating the foods recommended. I never had cravings, which I still consider a miracle. When we were traveling, I still used the recommended food-products. When we spent a week at a resort south of Cancun, I didn't have full access to the food-products and I sorely missed them. That was the first and only time I have experienced cravings in these 3 1/2 months, cravings for the products, not for the sweets the resort offered us.
Now I can walk 3 miles up and down hills and am comfortable walking an hour or more. (I'm striving for more every day.) I have reached new levels of stamina in my PT sessions. And I have lost 24 pounds.
That's about a third of what I want to lose. At the current rate I should lose the next 48 or 50 pounds in another year or so. I have no idea how far or fast I may be able to walk or do other exercise by then. What I do know is that I'm looking forward to it. I love the daily routine, the foods on the program. The thought of keeping on going is delightful.
I've lost one pants size, and people are starting to notice, but best of all, I'm proud of myself and I feel excellent! And there's more good stuff to come.
*The program changes its name to Shaklee 180 on Jan 1 2013. Meanwhile go to http://at-the-well.myshaklee.com and click on Cinch.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Recipe: Savory creamed kale
This recipe is super-simple, though it does take about 20 minutes to cook if you use curly kale. I really don't understand the incredibly intense and deliciously satisfying taste of this recipe. It's nearly addictive, and it's not just because of the cream:
You will need:
1 cup homemade veggie broth
2 large heads kale
1 T good butter
3/4 cup whipping cream
salt
What you do:
Trim the kale, chopping the stems into tiny pieces and shredding the largest pieces of leaf
Heat the broth and add the kale, including stems. Cover for 5 minutes or until the kale is beginning to wilt, then leave the cover off the pot and cook on medium until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add the butter, stir, and continue cooking until the liquid is gone.
Lower the heat, add the cream, and heat through, just until the cream is about to simmer. Salt to taste.
Serve in bowls.
You will need:
1 cup homemade veggie broth
2 large heads kale
1 T good butter
3/4 cup whipping cream
salt
What you do:
Trim the kale, chopping the stems into tiny pieces and shredding the largest pieces of leaf
Heat the broth and add the kale, including stems. Cover for 5 minutes or until the kale is beginning to wilt, then leave the cover off the pot and cook on medium until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add the butter, stir, and continue cooking until the liquid is gone.
Lower the heat, add the cream, and heat through, just until the cream is about to simmer. Salt to taste.
Serve in bowls.
Recipe: Rhubarb chutney
I wanted something I could do with rhubarb that didn't have bucketloads of sugar, and that didn't end up being a dessert. The resulting experiment gave us something we call chutney. Whatever the proper name, it goes well on goat cheese and crackers, any other cheese (we've tried many) and crackers, with pork, with lamb, and with Indian dishes. (I served it with something I made that was similar to lamb saag.)
You will need:
6 cups of coarsely chopped cleaned trimmed rhubarb
2 onions chopped into about 1/3-inch dice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1-3 cloves finely chopped garlic, depending on how well you like garlic
2 T finely grated ginger
1/3 cup water
2 T sugar, more or less
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T tamari soy sauce
2 T mirin
2 T good butter
1-2 carrots (depending on size) chopped in 1/4-inch dice - optional
What you do:
Saute the onion in the butter until the onion is beginning to become translucent. Add the rhubarb, ginger and garlic and optional carrots and saute for about 2 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown. Add the water, raisins and sugar. Let simmer until the rhubarb softens (but stop before it turns to stringy mush). Let this mixture sit until it is no longer very hot. Taste for sweetness and stir in more sugar if you need it. Stir in the vinegar, tamari, and mirin. Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more sugar, vinegar, or tamari. Eat warm or cold; pack leftovers into jars and keep in the fridge. Use lavishly with almost anything savory.
You will need:
6 cups of coarsely chopped cleaned trimmed rhubarb
2 onions chopped into about 1/3-inch dice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1-3 cloves finely chopped garlic, depending on how well you like garlic
2 T finely grated ginger
1/3 cup water
2 T sugar, more or less
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T tamari soy sauce
2 T mirin
2 T good butter
1-2 carrots (depending on size) chopped in 1/4-inch dice - optional
What you do:
Saute the onion in the butter until the onion is beginning to become translucent. Add the rhubarb, ginger and garlic and optional carrots and saute for about 2 minutes. Don't let the garlic brown. Add the water, raisins and sugar. Let simmer until the rhubarb softens (but stop before it turns to stringy mush). Let this mixture sit until it is no longer very hot. Taste for sweetness and stir in more sugar if you need it. Stir in the vinegar, tamari, and mirin. Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more sugar, vinegar, or tamari. Eat warm or cold; pack leftovers into jars and keep in the fridge. Use lavishly with almost anything savory.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Recipe: Rhubarb cream surprise
Last night, an hour or so after dinner, I wanted a bite of something special. The old gray cells started reviewing what we had in the house. This yummy concoction appeared a few minutes later, and it satisfied every tastebud.
Rhubarb, cooked in enough water to cover it about halfway in a pot (not aluminum!). I added about 2 T sugar at the end of the cooking to about 3 1/2 cups of rhubarb and stirred it in. Stir as little as possible to keep the rhubarb chunky.
10 frozen peach slices. We freeze bucketloads of ripe peaches in season by cutting them in about 12ths and laying them on cook sheets, then freezing them till they're hard and packaging them in Ziplocs.
30 frozen blueberries. We freeze bucketloads of blueberries, too, straight from the box, on a cookie sheet. We also package these in Ziplocs.
Half-and-half cream. We use good jersey cream from Bellingham.
Assembly:
In a small attractive dessert dish (we use our Chinese miso bowls), pour in about 1/3 cup of cream. Then lay 5 peach slices in a layer partly submerged in the cream. Sprinkle the blueberries on top of the peaches. Spoon the hot cooked rhubarb on top of the fruit. Use as much as you'd like and include some 'juice'.
So you have a cold layer and a hot layer. The cream wells up around the rhubarb. Eat by digging straight down through the layers. It should be delightfully hot and cold. By the last spoonful the flavors will have blended delightfully.
You can have seconds if you want - it's that good, and that healthy. Nothing bad in it!
Let me know if you try it. We enjoyed this over the Mariners game - it almost compensated for the loss.
Rhubarb, cooked in enough water to cover it about halfway in a pot (not aluminum!). I added about 2 T sugar at the end of the cooking to about 3 1/2 cups of rhubarb and stirred it in. Stir as little as possible to keep the rhubarb chunky.
10 frozen peach slices. We freeze bucketloads of ripe peaches in season by cutting them in about 12ths and laying them on cook sheets, then freezing them till they're hard and packaging them in Ziplocs.
30 frozen blueberries. We freeze bucketloads of blueberries, too, straight from the box, on a cookie sheet. We also package these in Ziplocs.
Half-and-half cream. We use good jersey cream from Bellingham.
Assembly:
In a small attractive dessert dish (we use our Chinese miso bowls), pour in about 1/3 cup of cream. Then lay 5 peach slices in a layer partly submerged in the cream. Sprinkle the blueberries on top of the peaches. Spoon the hot cooked rhubarb on top of the fruit. Use as much as you'd like and include some 'juice'.
So you have a cold layer and a hot layer. The cream wells up around the rhubarb. Eat by digging straight down through the layers. It should be delightfully hot and cold. By the last spoonful the flavors will have blended delightfully.
You can have seconds if you want - it's that good, and that healthy. Nothing bad in it!
Let me know if you try it. We enjoyed this over the Mariners game - it almost compensated for the loss.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Opinion: Irksome yogurt!
I always check labels! But the other day I grabbed some yogurt and didn't look. I think it's a brand I used to use that met my standards of no thickeners, no sweeteners, just milk.
I know why this happened. My usual brand, Nancy's, had been on sale for a couple of months, but now it was back to the regular price of $5.29 a half gallon. I had been paying a dollar less. So when I saw something nearby on sale, I grabbed it. It was whole milk plain yogurt, and only $4 for 2 quart tubs. Good price.
I use yogurt in my breakfast smoothie every morning. The first day it seemed a little foamy and pasty. The second too. And I didn't like a certain discomfort in gave me after I drank it. So I checked the label. It had as its second ingredient cornstarch!
I had succumbed to the temptation to go with price over quality, not intentionally but carelessly.
And what I got wasn't yogurt. True yogurt doesn't need thickeners, which is what the cornstarch is. As is the tapioca in other brands, or the gelatin.
If the right bacteria are present for the right amount of time, milk will turn into thick yogurt and no other thickener is needed.
Nicely, bacteria also convert sugar into acid, lactose into lactic acid in the case of yogurt. You can read about it here.
So you have helpful bacteria, the kind that coexist inside of us and help us convert food to nutrients, working to ferment milk and convert its difficult-to-digest sugar lactose into lactic acid, which thickens the milk, separating the liquid part from the protein part, whey and curds, through fermentation.
The result is more digestible milk with less sugar.
Along comes the food industry. In the name of something I can't imagine, it 'improves' on the process and instead gives us a milk product so inadequately fermented that it has to add cornstarch and then to make up for lost sugars, adds sweeteners.
Most yogurts come with added sweeteners, but the label PLAIN helps us avoid those. Nothing on the label helps us avoid the adulterants. For that we need to turn the tub over and squint at the list of ingredients. If it has more than milk and bacteria in it, it's not yogurt. Or not all yogurt.
I confess to being overly influenced by price, even though I realize that good food always costs more than bad. (Fresh spinach costs far more per pound than cookies, even if it's not organic spinach.) So in this frugal mindset, I resent paying for cornstarch when I think I'm paying for a milk product.
Corn is in everything. The government subsidizes corn and we have a glut of it. Cows eat corn to make milk (though they shouldn't - it makes them sick). But it's cheaper to skip the cow and just add corn to milk products.
I don't want to pay for yogurt that has been 'extended' by cornstarch. Or thickened by it. I don't like the texture - pasty, foamy - and I don't like the idea of it.
There are only one or two yogurts out there now that are made from whole milk and yogurt-making bacteria and nothing else. Good luck finding them at an affordable price!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Recipes: Rhubarb dessert creation
I'm gluten-free of necessity, so the usual rhubarb treatments are out. Here's what I came up with for the 2 stalks we just harvested, the first of the season. We're eating it now and it's just GREAT!
2 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed of green parts and chopped into 1-inch chunks
2 T sugar, or more to taste
1 large banana, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Cook the rhubarb in about 1/3 cup of water for about 7-10 minutes or until just barely soft. Stir in the sugar and taste the rhubarb. It should be tart but not too tart. Leave it in the covered pot until it cools.
Stir in the banana and refrigerate until you serve the dessert.
Whip the cream till very stiff, and serve on the rhubarb-banana mix, or stir the cream into the rhubarb mix before serving. Serves 2.
2 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed of green parts and chopped into 1-inch chunks
2 T sugar, or more to taste
1 large banana, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Cook the rhubarb in about 1/3 cup of water for about 7-10 minutes or until just barely soft. Stir in the sugar and taste the rhubarb. It should be tart but not too tart. Leave it in the covered pot until it cools.
Stir in the banana and refrigerate until you serve the dessert.
Whip the cream till very stiff, and serve on the rhubarb-banana mix, or stir the cream into the rhubarb mix before serving. Serves 2.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Recipe: Miso Soup with Sizzling Rice
Last night I needed something quick and tasty and if possible, never-seen-before on my table (just for fun). I had tofu so miso soup was a natural choice: I always have the basic ingredients in various cupboards, and I try to keep the miso itself in the fridge.
What I didn't have was something new or extra in mind to add to it or go with it. I don't usually put rice in miso soup. It did sound easy, but also a little boring. That's when sizzling rice came to mind.
I've never made sizzling rice but I've enjoyed it in Chinese restaurants. So I looked up a recipe online. And so this meal was born. (I didn't know it yet, but that recipe wasn't a good one - more on that later.)
Here's the recipe. At the end I'll tell you what didn't work, and then what happened and then how to fix it:
1 strip of kombu, rinsed quickly
1/2 cup or so dried shiitake mushrooms. I bought sliced ones, but whole ones will work.
1 quart cold water
3-4 T miso, whichever flavor you favor - for a gluten-free recipe avoid miso with barley
1 pkg soft tofu, rinsed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (more or less)
2T mirin (or to taste)
2T tamari soy sauce - for a gluten-free recipe use wheat-free tamari
3-4 choy sum (small bok choy type plants) or 2 baby bok choy or other green. Spinach would do.
1/2 cup medium grain white rice - I use a brand of CalRose rice, used in sushi. Other kinds might work.
Put the water in a 2-qt pot and add the kombu and mushrooms. Bring it up to a simmer (little bubbles at the edges) but don't let it boil. Take it off the heat and let it sit while you do something else. It can sit till nearly cool, or for hours.
Remove the kombu and put it in the compost bucket
Slice the mushrooms if they aren't already sliced, and put the tough stalks in the compost bucket. Return the sliced mushrooms to the pot.
Turn on the heat. As it starts to get hot, stir in the miso by placing it in a strainer, lowering the strainer into the kombu broth, and stirring the miso around in the strainer. The idea is to get rid of lumps and anything else that stays in the strainer.
Don't let the broth boil.
Add the greens. I prepare the choy sum by cutting off the stems at the base of the leaves (one cut). Then I separate the leaves from each other and rinse them off, then add them to the broth.
Put the tofu in a flat dish and heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes. You don't want it to chill the broth.
Add the hot tofu to the pot, add the mirin and tamari, stir gently, and taste. Adjust the seasoning. Keep the broth hot just below the boiling point.
So far so good. Now to the sizzling rice.
Heat 3/4 cup oil in a wok or frying pan. Toss in a piece of rice and if it sizzles, add all the rest. Stir it around till the rice begins to brown. This takes a good 5 minutes, but watch it closely - burning does not improve it.
Ladle the soup into wide bowls, then add a portion of rice. This recipe will make 2-4 servings.
Now to the difficulty and the solution:
When I did this last night, the rice never did cook enough. And it didn't stick together at all, as it does in restaurants. So after the first serving I took all the rice we had been avoiding in our bowls, heated up the oil again, and added them. While they browned (better than before) they began to stick together. They looked and smelled like sizzling rice! I served them on our second bowls of soup and they were a welcome addition, crispy, tasty, complementary.
So from now on I'm doing it this way:
Before adding the tofu to the broth, measure out the rice and add enough broth to cover. Once the soup is heated, heat up the oil, strain the rice mixture back into the pot, and add the rice to the hot oil. It will splatter a bit. Cook until the rice turns opaque, then brown. Finish the soup as before. Serve a portion with each bowl of soup.
This was absolutely delicious, and surprisingly filling. The choy sum was lovely. The rice floated in crunchy little islands and was a great touch!
What I didn't have was something new or extra in mind to add to it or go with it. I don't usually put rice in miso soup. It did sound easy, but also a little boring. That's when sizzling rice came to mind.
I've never made sizzling rice but I've enjoyed it in Chinese restaurants. So I looked up a recipe online. And so this meal was born. (I didn't know it yet, but that recipe wasn't a good one - more on that later.)
Here's the recipe. At the end I'll tell you what didn't work, and then what happened and then how to fix it:
1 strip of kombu, rinsed quickly
1/2 cup or so dried shiitake mushrooms. I bought sliced ones, but whole ones will work.
1 quart cold water
3-4 T miso, whichever flavor you favor - for a gluten-free recipe avoid miso with barley
1 pkg soft tofu, rinsed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (more or less)
2T mirin (or to taste)
2T tamari soy sauce - for a gluten-free recipe use wheat-free tamari
3-4 choy sum (small bok choy type plants) or 2 baby bok choy or other green. Spinach would do.
1/2 cup medium grain white rice - I use a brand of CalRose rice, used in sushi. Other kinds might work.
Put the water in a 2-qt pot and add the kombu and mushrooms. Bring it up to a simmer (little bubbles at the edges) but don't let it boil. Take it off the heat and let it sit while you do something else. It can sit till nearly cool, or for hours.
Remove the kombu and put it in the compost bucket
Slice the mushrooms if they aren't already sliced, and put the tough stalks in the compost bucket. Return the sliced mushrooms to the pot.
Turn on the heat. As it starts to get hot, stir in the miso by placing it in a strainer, lowering the strainer into the kombu broth, and stirring the miso around in the strainer. The idea is to get rid of lumps and anything else that stays in the strainer.
Don't let the broth boil.
Add the greens. I prepare the choy sum by cutting off the stems at the base of the leaves (one cut). Then I separate the leaves from each other and rinse them off, then add them to the broth.
Put the tofu in a flat dish and heat in the microwave for about 2 minutes. You don't want it to chill the broth.
Add the hot tofu to the pot, add the mirin and tamari, stir gently, and taste. Adjust the seasoning. Keep the broth hot just below the boiling point.
So far so good. Now to the sizzling rice.
Heat 3/4 cup oil in a wok or frying pan. Toss in a piece of rice and if it sizzles, add all the rest. Stir it around till the rice begins to brown. This takes a good 5 minutes, but watch it closely - burning does not improve it.
Ladle the soup into wide bowls, then add a portion of rice. This recipe will make 2-4 servings.
Now to the difficulty and the solution:
When I did this last night, the rice never did cook enough. And it didn't stick together at all, as it does in restaurants. So after the first serving I took all the rice we had been avoiding in our bowls, heated up the oil again, and added them. While they browned (better than before) they began to stick together. They looked and smelled like sizzling rice! I served them on our second bowls of soup and they were a welcome addition, crispy, tasty, complementary.
So from now on I'm doing it this way:
Before adding the tofu to the broth, measure out the rice and add enough broth to cover. Once the soup is heated, heat up the oil, strain the rice mixture back into the pot, and add the rice to the hot oil. It will splatter a bit. Cook until the rice turns opaque, then brown. Finish the soup as before. Serve a portion with each bowl of soup.
This was absolutely delicious, and surprisingly filling. The choy sum was lovely. The rice floated in crunchy little islands and was a great touch!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The end of March...
Yesterday John planted asparagus and artichokes in the beds he'd prepared. We haven't done artichokes before, but are hopeful. We don't know if we can get them to winter over, but at least their roots will be bigger each year if they do. According to this article we should be sharing one big choke by August!
Then little ones will grow and we'll have a few more to enjoy.
We planted 3 plants. It may not be enough! We've got to wait a good 4 months or more to find out.
The asparagus won't be ready for a couple of years. We have a few plants that are ready to harvest this year, planted in 2007.
Otherwise, it's all preparation for a delicious future.
Then little ones will grow and we'll have a few more to enjoy.
We planted 3 plants. It may not be enough! We've got to wait a good 4 months or more to find out.
The asparagus won't be ready for a couple of years. We have a few plants that are ready to harvest this year, planted in 2007.
Otherwise, it's all preparation for a delicious future.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Dirt!
That was a lot to do just to get a load of dirt dropped off! But now it's here, all 13 yards of it. It's part-way into the yard, but some of it overlaps the fence line.
Immediately we started shoveling. We started by filling up the garden box that has been waiting for it. Ten wheelbarrow loads later, it was part-full, maybe a third full. This box is 16x4x1 in dimension, or 64 cu ft. That is about 2.3 yards of the 13.
John likes to move it by the wheelbarrow, but I prefer carrying one shovelful at a time the 20 feet uphill from the pile to the box. We tend to count things around here, and I can tell you I did 80 shovelfuls. At first I did 20 and took a break. The third time I did 40 shovelfuls. The wheelbarrow holds 10 shovelfuls.
See, I'm getting more fit already! I like it ever so much better to get my exercise from real work than from a dedicated exercise session: it seems so much more meaningful!
I'd say the box is now 2/3 to 3/4 full. Big improvement from those shovelfuls! I should be able to plant tomorrow!
YAY!
By the way, this soil is a mixture of composted local heavy-metal-free sludge from a small town nearby, sand, composted chicken manure, and ... I don't remember the rest. It seems very sandy to me, certainly more than we're used to. We'll see how that is. Even though it has the manure, we may need to add more compost just to boost the organic and water-holding content.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Recipe: Pipian Rojo
This ancient traditional sauce has as many variations as the number of cooks who have made it over the past 8000-10000 years. Here's one to try:
Soak 2 ancho or other dried chilis by covering them with boiling water and letting them sit for 15 minutes.
Put in a blender:
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh pumpkin or squash seeds, cleaned of pulp
1 cup veggie or chicken broth
the soaked ancho chilis
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1-2 limes (depending on size)
Whirl it all up in the blender till a thick uniform paste forms. To use it, add more broth and stew a chicken or game in it until cooked. Serve over rice or with steamed tortillas. Or use it to flavor soups by stirring the paste into the soup broth for flavoring. I haven't tried it with bean soup, but it sounds like a perfect combination.
There are infinite variations, so have fun with it. You can find dried chilies in most groceries.
Soak 2 ancho or other dried chilis by covering them with boiling water and letting them sit for 15 minutes.
Put in a blender:
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh pumpkin or squash seeds, cleaned of pulp
1 cup veggie or chicken broth
the soaked ancho chilis
1/2 tsp salt
juice of 1-2 limes (depending on size)
Whirl it all up in the blender till a thick uniform paste forms. To use it, add more broth and stew a chicken or game in it until cooked. Serve over rice or with steamed tortillas. Or use it to flavor soups by stirring the paste into the soup broth for flavoring. I haven't tried it with bean soup, but it sounds like a perfect combination.
There are infinite variations, so have fun with it. You can find dried chilies in most groceries.
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