Thu, 13 Aug 2009

Vegetable Stew with Rice and Lentils

Earlier this week I had wanted to try making a rice and lentil dish another bike polo player had described, but summer weather had finally turned hot and I didn't feel like heating up the kitchen (or, really, do anything I couldn't do in the little air-conditioned cage I have in my apartment). I turned to the greatest invention of all times, the crockpot, and this is what came out.

I have a six quart crock pot, but none of the stuff in this recipe is really measured, so just wing it. Crank the crock pot on high. Dice up one onion and three cloves of garlic, put in the pot. Slice up six carrots and six stalks of celery (plus all the inner leaves of the celery bunch) and throw those in. Slice eight ounces of mushrooms and throw those in. Throw in a can of diced, no-salt-added tomatoes (if you have fresh lying about, one or two tomatoes diced will do). Add about 1.5 cups each of lentils and rice. Put in 1 quart of vegetable broth (again, I use the low sodium stuff), and then add enough water to well cover every thing. Stir.

When everything is good and bubbling, turn the crock pot down to its lowest setting. It only takes a few hours to cook, stir occasionally or the rice and lentils will clump and stick (then again, I left this going on "warm" overnight and it came out fine). I added water occasionally as liquid evaporated away, do so to your liking. You can tell when everything is done, the rice will expand and release a bunch of starch, which will make everything nice and thick. When it was done I threw in a few tablespoons of Bragg's liquid aminos (soy or tamari sauce would work as well) and a couple dashes of liquid smoke. Do this to taste.

This tastes even better when you leave it in the fridge for a day.

Posted at: 11:52 | category: /food/2009 | Link

Mon, 15 Jun 2009

Quinoa, Wheatberry and Pea Salad

Borne out of boredom and looking in my pantry. Take a cup of wheatberries, soak overnight. Take a cup of quinoa, soak overnight. The next day, drain the wheatberries, and drain and rince the quinoa (especially well if they aren't pre-rinced). Throw in a pot, add twice the amount of water, and bring to a boil. Put on simmer, cover, and let sit for 25 minutes.

While that is happening: dice up some peeled tomatoes (I used a can of whole peeled tomatoes I happened to have around, fresh should work as well). Mince very well a couple cloves of garlic. Sit both of these aside. Take the juice of a couple lemons, add about as much olive oil, toss in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a teaspoon of dijon mustard. Grind in some pepper. Whisk until completely mixed.

When the time is up, throw in a cup of fresh or frozen peas, let sit a couple minutes. Drain. Add the tomatoes, the garlic and the dressing, toss well. Put in the fridge to cool completely. Add some salt and more pepper to taste.

Posted at: 21:11 | category: /food/2009 | Link

Sat, 31 Jan 2009

Ginger Beer Batch 0, Part 1

I've long been a fan of good strong ginger beer, and after seeing the Good Eats episode on ginger and the relative simplicity of the recipe for making it, I decided the main project this weekend would be to make up a batch.

In a saucepan, add one cup water, two cups sugar, and the zest of one lemon. Grate about four thumbs of ginger (I used a microplane grater and didn't bother to peel the ginger), add that. Heat until the sugar dissolves and then simmer for about three minutes. Remove from heat, and then let steep for one hour.

In the mean time, take two empty two liter bottles, clean and rinse very well. Add seven cups of good tasting water (filter if you have to, especially if you have chlorinated water).

After the hour is up, filter the lemon zest and ginger bits out of the sugar syrup. Add to it the juice of the lemon you zested. I ended up with about 1-3/4 cups of syrup. Divide the syrup between the two bottles, and then add 1/8th of a teaspoon of active dry yeast to each bottle. Cap and shake very very well.

At this point, you have some head space in the bottle. I squeezed most of the air out of it --- it's the carbon dioxide the yeast are going to produce as they digest the sugar that is important to making bubbles, so I figure filling as much space in the bottle with it will help. Let sit someplace warm for 48 hours. When that time is up, but the ginger beer in the fridge to slow the yeast down.

That's where I'm at, the waiting bit. Now, the yeast will also produce some amount of alcohol, but if you put it in the fridge after 48 hours, it will be a very slight amount. You are also cautioned to burp the bottles once a day or so, unless you want a Ginger Beer Explosion in the fridge.

Taste results when I open them up in a couple of days.

Posted at: 15:41 | category: /food/2009 | Link