Karate Smoothies

I got the chance to go work out with some great people from my dojo, and a special guest instructor (who is one of the most amazing teachers I get to watch) for a weekend.

I wanted to eat well, and the best way to do that seemed to be to ask to be in charge of the food.  They let me.

So both mornings I wanted a tasty breakfast with some sugars to wake us up, but some protein to keep us going.... oh and fast prep, fast service and simple clean-up.  (We were serving 17!)

A smoothie with apples-and-peanut butter, or toast-and-something fueled everyone for a rather intense morning.

(This was for a dairy free crowd - so we went the silken tofu route.  Yogurt adds a bit of sour.  Both work and whichever is good for you is the right one.)

Smoothies

Make these with some frozen fruit – no ice cubes needed

Equipment:

blender

large spoon

drinking vessel(s)

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of fruit (frozen/partly thawed) – about 1C

1 large spoonful of yogurt or silken tofu – about 1/3 C

juice

(Using fresh fruit?  Add a handful of ice cubes as well.)

Cook!

In a blender, add two handfuls of frozen fruit, a heaping  spoonful of yogurt or silken tofu, and pour juice of your choice into the blender jar until it comes up to the top of the frozen fruit.

Place the lid on the blender.  Start blending at a lower speed.  Then turn up the power and blend until smooth.  Pour into your drinking vessel(s).

Enjoy.

Some combinations to begin with:

peaches and orange juice

raspberries and cranberry juice

plums and carrot juice

cherries and pomegranate juice

strawberries, melon and orange juice

apples, pears, mint and apple cider

frozen blackberries - and protein boost of your choice.
 I also added peaches to this smoothie - but thawing
peaches aren't as pretty.

It is hard to go wrong, and combinations of whatever fruit you have on hand is usually what works best. 

Using a combination of fresh and frozen fruit is a great option as well, or let tomorrow’s frozen fruit melt a bit in the fridge over night.

Feel free to get adventurous by adding more savory flavors, like cucumber and leafy greens.  Learn what you like and makes you feel good.

"Mom, Does 'Earthy' Mean it Tastes Like Dirt?"

Beets.

I tell ya', love or hate 'em.

At least that's what I thought 'till I gave them another try.  Because I had nothing to say to a beet except, "no thank you."  But they started showing up in my CSA box.  And they last forever.  I mean I can ignore arugula for 2 weeks, and then can throw it away without guilt - because it has gone bad.  But those beets, they were still beets a month later.  So not to be daunted, I tried fixing them in some desperate new ways.  And found some things that made me say, "huh?  These actually have potential."  And through sheer force of personality - or force of something, I got my husband to try them (again) too.

Here's the thing.  Except for the adorable, non-threatening early baby beets that are the size of walnuts:

most beets come across like this:

Definitely associated with dirt, and - in this case actually - bigger than your head.  Just not appealing.

And then beet lovers insist on serving them like THIS:

Look at their stripy-ness!

 or this

borscht - you have to try it!  See it has sour cream, it's great!
(apologies to Simply Recipes -
it actually looks like a very good borscht recipe)

 or this

beet salad - where you can really taste the beet-i-ness

But for the rest of us - well, beets do taste a bit, err, ummm earthy.  ("Say it mom, they taste like dirt!")
OK, no ducking out of it, there is definitely the taste of the soil about them.  Or well, really - they are awfully sweet for a vegetable (high sugar content), and they are very low in sodium (taste very bland to our sodium desiring palates), and have a pretty neutral pH (are neither sour - acid, nor bitter - basic).  So  for most of us, they are in dire need of adjustment.

And as the boy genius in my life pointed out, if they were just cut up smaller, they could actually be good.

After all - who goes around chomping up huge plain mouthfuls of arugula, watercress, kale, broccoli or even spinach?  All of these veg need help, and do best when given the appropriate companions.

So how to adjust your beets so they are fit to go out in public - and get consumed:

Step 1:  Make them smaller.  Even the baby beets, when I first tried them raw, were "wafer-thin" to quote a little Monty Python.

BAD:  bigger than a fork

GOOD: very-thin or small beety-bits suitable for matching with other produce.

Step 2: Find good flavor contrasts.  Sharp, Sour, and Crunchy all compliment and elevate the beet.  It after all is soft, sweet and somehow bland.  And, yes, earthy.
But the beet also has a complex set of flavors, that when uncovered, are actually good - no, great!
So do not serve them alone to novices.
Match them with the right partners.

Sharp (or pungent) flavors include  - onions, bitter greens, or strong cheeses.  And radishes - also sliced thin.

Sour - vinegar or citrus.  Use sour-er vingars like cider and rice rather than sweeter ones (like balsamic). Lemon and lime juice or grapefruit segments.

Crunchy - Nuts! Toast!  Beets when properly cooked do have a "cooked carrot" texture about them that can be off putting to those that have bad childhood vegetable memories (I see the raised hands) or continue to have issues with certain textures (and the other hands).  But throwing a handful of roasted pistachios, hazelnuts or almonds can do wonderful things.
And eaten with a crispy piece of toast (with garlic butter?), or a crispy salty cracker - well, now we're talkin'.

All of these tamp down the bad and pop the good to the top.

Step 3: Dressing!  They are a vegetable, and they don't have (much) sodium.  And the sweet benefits from a little pungent heat (mustard and garlic).

So get out a small tupperware with a water-tight lid.  Use it to shake up your tasty vinaigrette dressing.

Basic Vinaigrette - in the small tupperware
a) pinch of salt, pinch of pepper
b) 1 crushed/chopped garlic clove (or 1tsp minced garlic)
c) 2 Tbs acid (vinegar or citrus juice)
d) 1tsp mustard (any kind)
e) 4 Tbs oil - (something tasty if you have it)

pop on the lid - shake it 'til it's cloudy and combined

Note: taste and add salt and pepper and vinegar as needed.  You can whisk this all together in a small bowl with a whisk or a fork too.

Now, make a salad.

BOWL - choose one big enough to toss things around
BIG SPOONS - for tossing your salad - OK any salad servers will work
In the bottom - beet bits (cubes), chopped onions
pour in plenty of dressing to coat (you only made a little dressing - you'll be OK) and toss the onions and beets.

Wash your greens.
Find that handful of nuts.
Cheese - break up the blue cheese or goat cheese into small chunks.

Toss everything together.
Toast the bread - or find the crackers.

And then make it look something like this.

Yup - I had GOLDEN beets for this.  

Enjoy.

P.S. For whatever reason - beets pair better with gin, vodka (The Russians!) and bitter beer than they do with wine.  But if you MUST have wine, dry white.

Time to Roast... Vegetables

It is sunny, shiny fall here in the NorthWet...err West.  After our dismal spring and June, the sun just won't stop shining.  And it has made for some amazing fall produce.

And a bunch of it is big, pumpkin big, if you know what I mean.

So what to do with it?

Admire it 1st.

Beets, garlic, tomatillos, jalapeños, tomatoes - regular & cherry
radishes and carrots

pie pumpkins, butternut squash, leeks - oh yeah, and the chicken scraps bag

Holy Full Fridge, Batman!  What to do with it all?

Step one - cut it down to size.  Those whole veggies take up a bunch of space.

Step two - dedicate a day to roasting everything into freezable food.  And MUCH of that is done through the magic of roasting.  By driving off excess water, and breaking down the plant cells by tasty cooking, they are all set up to freeze.  If these are frozen raw - the water/chemical balance ends up with mushy and sometimes rotten (blechk!) food.

It's take a big chunk of a day but the longest part of the prep - the roasting - is done (and because it mostly happens at 425˚F) and done together.  Pumpkins and Peppers don't mind sharing oven space with Radishes and Beets.  And while things are roasting you can do lots of other thing - as long as you don't have to leave the house.

So what are the results from a day spent that way?

Tomatillo-Garlic-Jalapeño Sauce

Roast everything until it gets mushy -pull of the stems
peel off the skins,
(optional remove some/all seeds from the jalapeños)
blend them together - add a little salt.
Perfect over leftover mole beef... if you have it.
Lots of other stuff if you don't.

Roasted beets - and other veg

(see the next post for more on beets - or check out some flash backs:

It's Cold Baby!

-or-

Beet Salad - with the goods

-or-

It's Fall - break out the Truffle Salt)

Pumpkin Puree and Roasted Squash Wedges and Chunks

Dedicate the time to making these - and then THERE THEY ARE ready to go into whatever you want 

- things like...

Sweet & Spicy (Butternut) Squash Soup

and the new best thing ...

Pumpkin Mushroom Polenta 

Made lots - freezing this for later use.

(the pumpkin takes the place of the Parmesan - and makes it creamy and savory - and perfect for all stripes of "no dairy" folks -OR- a super way of sneaking in extra veg.)

That is coming up too...

Hello? Anybody Home?

I bet you've noticed a HORRIBLE lack of entries here this summer.

Why you ask?

It has been an all hands on deck (oh wait I just have 2) experience getting this cookbook the rest of the way ready to go.

But, now that all the pictures are taken, the recipes written, the copy edited the best it is going to get - by me - the book is gone and out of my hands.

But I'm going out tonight to Foodportunity in Seattle to meet people and figure out how to get it out there in the BEST possible way.
And then time to get back to my adventures here at home.

How many heads are better than 1?
Giant Kraut Cabbage at Central Market
This is what you are supposed to buy to make sauerkraut.
Then what?  I don't know now, but I may some day.
In the mean time, check out OlyKraut.

Upcoming:

A post on beets - and how not to get people to eat them - and then a good way to start.

Some tasty fall food - root vegetables and squash.

A tomato sauce primer for the timid - or those who have left over tomatoes for the first time in years!

And then the recipes from my last weekend where I worked hard at Karate - and got to feed hungry athletes and make them happy.

So - things should AT LAST pick up around here, as things have slowed down elsewhere.

My favorite cabbage head!

Wild (Fish) Food

What happens when you send 9yr olds out with a shrimp net on a dock?


They catch those little minnows that swim around the margins.  Especially if they are persistent and energetic - and no one has given them any silly notions about how one must catch the minnows.




My nine year old went for the overhead swing and speed netting.  Looked odd to me, but then, my "sneak up slowly" technique never caught sixteen of the little guys.

So, as a self respecting science teacher, what do you do when your child says, "can we dissect them?"
Well, you sharpen the paring knife in the boat's galley, get out your fine forceps (tweezers to the rest of the world), and go to work.  (Of course I have dissecting forceps with me - for emergencies such as this, don't you?)

ok, cleaning a fish smaller than your pinky
is harder than/as hard as it looks.

Then, my opportunistically practical offspring asks, "Can we eat them?"
And I am forced to ponder my last trip to a tapas restaurant.  Well, yes we can.  And if I am going to dissect one in the name of science, why not six in the name of culinary exploration?

And thus:

A quick fry in a 1/4" of oil and a sprinkle of salt.
Pro Tip: frying in oil on a boat galley - not normally recommended.
But this was in the name of science.

And since it was his idea:

OhBoy! OhBoy! OhBoy!

And finally:

Chowder = Thai Curry... true story

So, this shows up on the boat...

So, they're not all keepers - some too small, some females,
and T's not there, so we can only keep 5.  "Only."

The problem with shell fish is you gotta eat it or freeze it pretty much RIGHT AWAY.  And if it freezes too slowly it tastes funny, and feels funny in your mouth because of the large ice crystals that form during slower freezing.

But - in a soup - it has half a chance.  The soup ingredients change the freezing dynamics, and some other secrets.

But back to my crazy claim - that building a chowder and a Thai Curry are the same process.

Let's start with the ingredients:

Thai Curry:                           Chowder:

coconut fat/oil                          bacon/salt pork/oil
curry paste                               salt & your preferred seasoning
garlic & aromatics                   onions, celery

vegetables                               vegetables
(eggplants, carrots, peppers    (corn, peppers, carrots)
pea pods, cucumbers)
starch - noodles/potatoes         starch - potatoes
creaminess - coconut milk       creaminess - milk/cream
liquid - broth                           liquid - broth
secret ing. - fish sauce             secret ing. - clam juice
protein gently cooked in         protein warmed/cooked in the 
the hot soup (chicken,             hot soup (shellfish or lobster/crab)
prawns or tofu)

In both you heat the fat, and cook up some pungent and aromatic ingredients.  Soften the vegetables, stir in the broth, cook the potatoes, and any other tender vegetables (OK the noodle gig is a bit different - but you get the picture...)
Add the creaminess and season with the secret ingredient.
Heat up or gently cook the protein of your choice.

Which all led me to completely go off the rails while making a corn and crab chowder for dinner - some to eat and some to freeze.  The stunningly delicious result?

Green Curry Corn & Crab Chowder

Ingredients:
1/2 lb Bacon cut into thin strips
1/2 tsp green curry† (a little goes a long way)
1 large yellow onion, chopped (about 2 C)
2 ribs celery, chopped (about 1C)
1/2 C roasted piquillo peppers, chopped*
3/4 C flour (wheat or rice or 1 Tbs corn starch)
2Q (8C) chicken stock (that's 2 of the boxes)
1.5 lbs potatoes (waxy) cut to the size of your end thumb joint
3 ears of corn - cut off the kernels (see below)††
1 C half & half **
1/2 C fresh parsley - or a mix with cilantro - chopped
2 Tbs fish sauce (add more, carefully, to taste)
Per Person - approx. 1/2C - 1C picked dungeness crab meat

Prep:
Chop everything to the right size.  That'll keep you out of trouble for awhile

Cook!
Place a large soup pot over medium heat.  Cook the bacon until most of the fat is cooked out - and it starts to think about getting crispy.  About 10 min.
Add the curry paste and stir it into the rendered bacon fat.  As soon as you can smell it,
add the onions and celery and cook until they start to soften.  About 10 min.
Stir in the flour - cook for about 10 min - until the flour is nice and pasty over the veg.
Add about a cup of the chicken stock - stir to dissolve the flour.  Add in the rest of the the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down to medium, add in the potatoes, corn and roasted peppers.  Simmer for 10 minutes - check the potatoes.  If the are soft - onto the next step.  If not, keep simmering until the potatoes are fork tender.  When they get there,
Stir in the half & half and herbs.  Stir in the fish sauce and taste.  Add fish sauce a spoonful at a time, tasting as you go.   Stop when it is just right.
Simmer for the last 2 minutes.

Place the crab meat in the bottom of the bowls, and ladle over some soup.

Enjoy while laughing wickedly.

If there is extra soup - let it cool in the fridge, pop it in plastic snap top containers and freeze it ASAP.  Any extra crab goes in there too.

Thaw overnight in the fridge, heat over low heat, and serve with lime wedges to revive the flavors.
  

† Any green curry will do, but if you have a recipe/access to a particularly fresh, lemon grass heavy version - that will give results to brag to your friends about.  You CAN add more, but you don't won't to overwhelm the flavor of the crab.

*Point of substitution to your taste/materials: use regular roasted red peppers, or the amount you want of something spicier or 1C chopped raw red peppers.

† Put a small plate in a large bowl.  Stand the shucked corn cob on the flat end on the plate.  Hold the pointy end.  Use your chefs knife to cut down the cob and cut off the kernels.  No need to go too close the the cob.
Turn the knife so the blunt side is facing the cob, and run it down the side, getting all the yummy, sweet corn juice out.
Use the whole soupy mess in your chowder.

** Another easy substitution - you can go 1C milk and 1C cream if you happen to have that instead.  Or if you don't do dairy, take it a little more over to Thai Curry with 1 can of coconut milk instead.

Bocha Bocha Udon (Splashy Noodles - Japanese Style)

The secret to making those amazing noodle soups: the right broth, the right noodles, and not so much random stuff.

Just add broth - bok choi leaves and stems, pea pods, teriyaki chicken,
fish cake (kamaboko - its traditional!) and scallions

Even though it is noodle soup, the vegetables are really one of the most important parts.  Noodles are shelf (ramen) or freezer (udon) stable, as is the fish cake (kamaboko), so they can be bought at any time.
But leaves, they need to be caught up and captured when opportunity and the season allows.  Late spring and early summer means tender bok choi, pea pods and scallions are sweet and green, and will balance a hearty fishy broth to astounding (possibly legendary?) effect.

But the greens can't stand alone.  They need the support of salty, savory and sweet, along with the extending and sweet chewy foil of a proper udon noodle.

scallions (9:00), teryaki chicken, kamaboko (fishcake) and
udon noodles (frozen clump, ready for boiling) 

The noodle broth needs to be properly complex and tasty.  There are many ways to accomplish this.  If I were in Japan (or San Francisco) there would be several Best Of places to direct the connoisseur.  Here in Seattle, lacking a lucky strike in the C.I.D., the 2nd best is getting bonito sachets from an Asian or well supplied market (steer clear of things with "not fish" as the 1st ingredient - If it smells like fish food you most likely have the right stuff.)  Follow the directions on the box.  If the directions are in characters, rather than letters... do the following (in true barbarian style - I've figured this out though trial and error.  If you know better do it your way):

a) in one large pot, bring plenty of water to the boil - add the frozen udon noodles.  When the water returns to the boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, drain and add a bit of sesame oil to keep the noodles from sticking.  If you are working with dried? udon {which I have never seen} use what directions you can find.
b) find a reasonable recipe for dashi/noodle broth on the internet.
c) see the next picture

My favorite (easy) noodle broth:
4C water - bring to a boil
Add sachet (10g) of fish flakes - boil 5 min - remove fish flakes
lower to simmer and add 1/2C (115ml) soy sauce and
1 Tbs/1oz. sugar (28g)
garlic and ginger are optional/to taste
(revise and adapt as you develop preferences) 

ready for boiling water - genmaicha
roasted rice and green tea.  Smells like home
to much of the Pacific rim  - both East and West sides
- even if we've never had it before.

The very best part of Bocha Bocha (Japanese for "splashy") Udon is that is can be personalized in a large crowd.  Splashy - beacuase that's what happens to one's nose when you slurp them properly.

Everyone gets a bowl of noodles - lubricated with a bit of sesame oil.
Top with leaves, proteins (chicken - teriyaki or otherwise, beef, tempura shrimp, fish cake, sliced hard boiled eggs, fried or cubed tofu - many combinations also suffice) other vegetables, and possibly a pickled vegetable (radishes or chrysanthemum petals can are traditional) to one's taste - and then scallions/green onions for all create a delicious yet individual feast for a small crowd - even the picky ones.

Meatless Monday you say?  Go with a veggie broth, and toss in a handful of mushrooms and sliced inari skins to fill up the meaty flavors and the protein desires.  Any extra inari strips can be fried up and added to a salad the next day.  (honest, I'll show you soon!)

A truly versatile meal - and once you get the hang of it - quicker than takeout and MUCH cheaper than delivery.