Seeded Bread

When I first began baking bread, it was stressful and always seemed to take a long time. After a while, it is easy.
I make the dough for this bread once a week and split it into two, baking one and keeping the other in a plastic bag in the fridge. This makes a fresh loaf twice a week. I've experimented with the recipe quite a bit and finally have it down.

Active time is about 45 minutes for the initial dough and 5-10 minutes to prepare each loaf for baking. Allow about 3 hrs from start to finish.

Ingredients:
8 cups of flour (at least half white but no more than 3/4 white)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons salt
2 packets yeast
White pepper
Coarse-grained salt
Seeds (sesame, poppy, sunflower, fennel, etc.)
Sugar/water solution

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and white pepper (to taste) in a large bowl.
Make a hole in the center of the mix and gradually pour water in and mix until dough is elastic. It usually takes about 2 1/4 cups of water. If dough is to sticky/stiff add more flour/water.
Knead the dough until a thin area pulled apart is translucent ("windowpane test").
I like to knead it while reading. It is a good workout for the arms, too.
Knead seeds into dough.
Put olive oil on it and cover with plastic wrap or a floured towel and let rise 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Divide the dough in half and put one half in a plastic bag in the fridge for later.

To prepare each loaf:

Preheat oven to 475.
If from the fridge, take it out the night before so it won't be cold.
Knead the oil into the dough and form into a round or loaf.
Cut slits in the top and prepare sugar solution (about 1/4 cup of warm water and some sugar).
Top with seeds and coarse salt.
Brush on sugar solution to make seeds and salt stick to the loaf.
Put it in a cast-iron pan and allow to rise for about a half hour-45 mins.
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the seeds look well-cooked and the crust is dark brown.

Put on a wire rack to cool.

Ethiopian Vegetarian Combination

For much of 2010, we lived on Ethiopian/Eritrean food. The neighborhood has many immigrants from the area, and ingredients, plus a constant supply of fresh Injera at both the liquor store and the produce store, are always in steady supply. Recipes are based on three from "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking" by Daniel Jote Mesfin (available at U&I liquors on Telegraph & 49th in Oakland).

My favorite dish is the Vegetarian Combination, and I made the three primary elements along with a salad:
-Greens
-Dark red lentil sauce
-Yellow lentil sauce (actually made with red lentils)

Ingredients:
-Greens(1-2 bunches)
-Red lentils (4 cups)
-Garlic (about half a head)
-Ginger (a large arm)
-Onion (6 cups)
-Berbere (1/2-1 cup depending on spiciness level)
-3-4 Serrano or Jalapeno chiles

A lot of vegetable oil
A pinch of black cumin
Salt and pepper
Lettuce (romaine), tomato, lemon, and olive oil for the salad
Injera

Prep:
For each of the three sauces, chop 2 cups of onion and a tablespoon or two of garlic and ginger.
Set aside 2 cups of lentils for each lentil dish, and a bunch or two of finely chopped greens (chard, collards, kale, etc) for the greens dish. Then slice lengthwise a few jalapeno or serrano chiles for the yellowish dish.

When you are ready to cook, set three pots on burners: one with about 2 cups of boiling water and two with onion and oil. The recipe books use a lot of oil, and the richer the desired outcome, the more oil one can use. The least amount: cover bottom of pan. The most amount: one cup (recommended by recipes). Cook onions until clear, adding water to prevent sticking or burning especially if you aren't using as much oil.

-When the water boils, add the greens, garlic, ginger, and up to 1 cup of oil.
-When the onions are clear, add the lentils, garlic, ginger, berbere, black cumin, and a few cups of water to one pot for the dark red sauce.
-When the onions are clear, add the lentils, garlic, ginger, sliced hot chiles, a little black pepper, and a few cups of water to the other for the yellowish sauce.


Bring lentil dishes to a boil, simmer, add water as needed, and stir occasionally as needed to the lentil dishes. They will take about 30 minutes to cook through. Cook greens until very dark and well cooked. Salt everything to taste.

Arrange the three dishes on plates of injera.

Chop tomato into cubes and place on bed of romaine lettuce on the injera next to the sauces. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper for the dressing. Heat up remaining injera and fold to serve on the side. Serve with light/amber beer, stout beer, and/or guava juice.

Total preparation time is about 1.5-2 hours the first time you try it and 1 hour once you become more experienced. It lasts exactly one week in the fridge, and gives about 6-8 full portions. Do NOT let it sit in the fridge for longer than exactly seven days.

Tips:
-Washing and chopping the greens, garlic, ginger and chiles can be done while the onions are getting clear or the water is boiling. If it's your first time, it's easier to prep everything first to avoid burning the onions.
-Immediately freeze the injera you don't use the first or second meal. It's usually sold in large rounds and I cut them into quarters for easier single servings before freezing.

Red Bean, Sweet Potato, and Peanut Stew

Another one-pot dish. I used a rice cooker but any large pot will work.

Ingredients:

Canned red beans, rinsed well
Canned diced tomatoes
Sweet potatoes/yams, diced and softened in microwave
Peanut butter, about 1/4 cup
Onion, diced
Garlic, chopped
Fresh ginger, chopped
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Curry powder (about 2 tablespoons)
Salt to taste
Lime squeezed on top
Water

Heat the garlic and onion in oil in the bottom of the pot and cook till clear. Add ginger and spices and cook another minute or two. Add sweet potatoes, coat. Add beans and tomatoes, stir. Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer. Add peanut butter. Add water as needed to maintain slight soupiness (shouldn't be like a paste). Simmer until sweet potatoes are well-cooked. Salt to taste and squeeze lots of fresh lime juice on individual portions. Serve over rice. It's also really good if you mix the rice in a lot.

Curried Garbanzo Beans with Swiss Chard

I made this curry in a rice cooker during my lunch break. It would also be an easy one-pot meal on the stovetop.

Ingredients:

2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed well
1 can coconut milk
1 thinly sliced onion
Chopped fresh ginger
1 large bunch of Swiss chard, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1/4-3/4 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
Olive Oil


Heat the oil in the bottom of the pan.
Add the onion and cook till clear
Add the ginger and spices and mix well
Add the coconut milk and garbanzo beans
Add the chard and simmer until chard is well cooked.

Serve over rice.

Guacamole

This is a simple and delicious guacamole recipe that is flavorful and very fast to make.

Ingredients:
Hass avocados
Limes
Salt
Hot sauce (tapatio or valentino or crystal are all ideal) if available--if not, use red pepper flakes
Cilantro if available

Slice all avocados lengthwise and remove pits.
Scour the flesh of the avocado in a grid pattern.
Mash up the avocado with a fork while still in the skin (this helps mix it up later).
Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and then mash together in a bowl.
Add remaining ingredients to taste and mix well.

A Delicious Sandwich

This delicious sandwich consists of:

Rosemary bread
Lettuce, tomato, etc.
Quickest Peanut Sauce (#3)
Seasoned Tofu


The Quickest Peanut Sauce (#3) is peanut butter, lemon juice, and pizza flakes. It is so quick it doesn't even get its own entry.

Seasoned tofu is a package of tofu baked at 350 for 1 hour (turned once) in a pan with a mixture poured on it of equal parts soy sauce and water (totaling 1/2 cup) with about a half teaspoon of Chinese five spice and two teaspoons of ground fennel seeds.

If you don't want to make the seasoned tofu you can just fry up some tempeh in a little soy sauce and it'll still be good.

The seasoned tofu is from a recipe in the excellent book entitled Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd by Mollie Katzen. It has delicious recipes for 24 or more people.

Serve with Corn on the Cob in the summer and steamed greens in the winter and potato chips in the fall and sweet potato fries later in the winter.

This is a good recipe to keep in mind if you need to pack a lunch every day for a week. You can make up a batch of the tofu and then a batch of the peanut sauce and then it takes about 2 seconds to assemble the sandwich each night. Then you can be like, "no, thanks, I don't need to buy a salad sandwich, I have the best sandwich ever right in my bag".

Fresh Tomatoes and Oil on Herb Bread

This is what I have been having for breakfast lately.

Halve some Rosemary bread (I used "Herb Slab" from acme bakery).

Toast or heat up slightly in microwave.

Slice tomatoes on top.

Drizzle some olive oil on them.

Add salt and pepper.

Eat with Peppermint Tea in a transparent glass mug.

Kale with Lemon Juice

Easy, Delicious, Nutritious.

Steam kale.
Squeeze lemon juice atop kale and season with salt and pepper.



Tastes best if you steam it until the stems are dull in color but the leaves still hold shape. If you cook it for a long time till it's wilted, it still tastes good but be sure to squeeze any excess water out.

Cornbread Stuffing with Wild Rice and Cranberries

I made this for the first time on Thanksgiving in the year 2007. I combined the elements of all the stuffing I had had in life and put this one together. Amounts of each thing don't matter too much, they just need to be mixed together in a pan so that not one ingredient totally dominates.

Cornbread (toasted, dried or stale is best) and any leftover or stale bakery bread lying around
Wild Rice cooked with butter and herbs
At least 1 onion
A few shallots (optional)
4-6 stalks celery
5 cloves garlic
Handful dried cranberries ("craisins")
Handful golden raisins (optional)
Fresh or fresh-frozen herbs such as thyme, oregano, or rosemary
Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper


Prepare the rice, cornbread, and stock. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop the onions, garlic, shallots, and celery. Puree half this mixture.
Sautee the chopped and pureed vegetables in oil with the herbs and seasonings.
Mix the rice, cornbread, vegetables, dried cranberries and golden raisins in a baking pan. Moisten with vegetable stock.
Bake until the top is brown and crispy (about 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how moist you make it).

Spicy Tempeh with Sour Cream and Lime

1 Package Tempeh
Cayenne Pepper
1 Lime
Sour Cream (real or fake)

Fry Tempeh in oil
Shake in bay with Cayenne Pepper until well coated
Squeeze lots of lime juice on
Serve with the sour cream as a dip, and serve with lime wedges, cause you can never have enough lime juice in this one.

Tomato Topovers

Tomatoes
Bread
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Slice tomatoes thickly and fry in oil.
Toast bread and top with fried tomatoes.
Top with salt, pepper, and a little more oil.

Recipe by Brian B of Pillowgoat.com.

Gingery Marinated Chickpeas

5 cups cooked/canned chick peas
5 to 6 Tbs. olive oil
3 to 4 Tbs. lemon juice
1 to 2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 Tbs. finely minced ginger
2 to 3 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup finely minced red onion
freshly ground black pepper

Combine everything, mix well, cover tightly, and let marinate practically
indefinitely. Stir from the bottom periodically during marination.

This recipe was given to me by Amy A. who was my roommate for a summer. She'd make this if there was a barbecue. I make it if I need to pack lunches for a few days in a row--it just gets better every day it's in the fridge and is a great picnic food.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Chocolate Chip
Makes about 1 quart

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, chopped
1 1/2 cups raw cashews or cashew pieces (trader joe's has the best deal I've found)
1 1/2 cup water
1/2-3/4 cup grade B bmaple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons alcohol-free vanilla flavor


Combine the cashews, water, syrup, and vanilla a blender. Blend on high until silky smooth, at least 1 minute. Place the blender in the feezer for 40 mins or in the fridge for at least one hour, until well chilled.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions. Remove the cover and blade from the ice cream maker and fold in the chocolate chips.

This recipe is adapted from a great book calledVice Cream by Jeff Rogers. It is full of delicious non-dairy ice cream. The catch is that cashews are pretty expensive, but if you can find a good deal, this is an all-around winner.

Vegetarian Sloppy Joe

1 pkg. Fake Ground Beef
1 Can Manwich
1 Package Hamburger Buns

Fry up fake beef.
Mix with Manwich.
Assemble on buns.

Brian's Special

Bowtie or other shaped pasta
Bell pepper, chopped
Small fragment of onion, chopped
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
Thin Asparagus, fried
Baked or fried tofu, or fried tempeh
Capers
Annie's goddess or other tahini-based dressing
Black peppercorns, crushed or ground

Cook the pasta.
Fry the asparagus.
Mix all ingredients together and toss.

Can also substitute other vegetables.

This recipe by Brian B. of Pillowgoat.com

Pizza #3

This is a no-big-deal pizza meant to be made quickly, but is still good.
Pizza from frozen dough.

This could be dough made from scratch and frozen, or dough purchased at Trader Joe's for a dollar a pizza. They have regular, whole wheat, and cornbread; they're all really good.

This is the pizza you make when you just want a normal night--a quick meal without big deal.

Ingredients:
Pre-made pizza crust dough
Sauce or fresh tomatoes
Onion
Whatever pizza toppings you have: mushrooms, bell peppers (red orange yellow combo is nice), basil or oregano, etc. Check "pizza topping" post for ideas, too.
Cheese, if you want

I usually saute the vegetables first but if you're in a rush, you can just put them on the pizza.

Spread out the dough on an oiled cast-iron skillet (or baking sheet, or pizza stone)
Add toppings.
Bake according to dough instructions- usually around 10-15 minutes.

Cut with a large knife applied like a guillotine with slow rocking pressure.

Cool and eat.


Notes: Non pizza type food might still work, like potatoes, canned corn, or butternut squash--If i have something like that, I usually surf the web to see how they are used by others. (For example, potatoes are usually used on non-sauce pizzas, corn is used with cheese, and butternut squash paired with sage and goat cheese.) If anyone makes a good one with no fresh ingredients, let me know, and we can post a "don't have to go to the grocery store" pizza.

Spring Rolls

Spring Roll Wrappers (Vietnamese)
Glass noodles (thin clear or white vermicelli), soaked in hot water to cook

Tofu or Tempeh, fried

Fresh herbs (basil, mint, and/or cilantro)

Raw Vegetables: Shredded carrots, bean sprouts, cabbage, celery strips, just whatever you've got...

Prepare all ingredients in separate piles so they're ready to be added into the rolls. Setting up a station where everything is ready and within reach is key to being able to get in a good rhythm making the rolls.

Lay out a clean, non-terrycloth dish towel on a half of a cutting board. This will be used to dry out the spring roll wrappers.

Heat up a skillet or pan of water. It can be boiling (then turned off) or just below a boil. You want it pretty hot but it's easier if the water is cool enough to touch. Place the stack of wrappers in an accessible place near the pan.

To make a roll, submerge a wrapper in the water for a minute or so, and remove carefully with a spatula. Place on a plate to transport it from the stove to the work area with minimal dripping. Place the next wrapper in right away so it can soften while you assemble the roll.

Spread the wrapper out on the towel and flip over to remove excess water.
Move the wrapper off of the towel and fill with ingredients. Keeping the noodles on the top will improve the look of the finished spring roll (this way, carrots or herbs will appear on the outside).

Fold in the sides and roll the wrapper as you'd roll a burrito. Roll it as tightly as possible and seal the last flap with a little water if it doesn't stick tight.

Serve with lots of peanut sauce (see recipe on this site).

Eat within a day or two.

Peanut Sauce #1: Grateful Dead Peanut Sauce

3-4 tbs. Peanut butter
Soy Sauce or Tamari to taste (a few tablespoons)
Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice (1/2 lemon)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. grated ginger
Water to dilute

Mix into a spreadable sauce. Can still be really good if all you have is peanut butter, water, and one or two other ingredients.

This recipe is adapted from Cooking with the Dead: Recipes and Stories from Fans on the Road by Elizabeth Zipern (St. Martins, New York, 1995). This one was by someone named Greg and it is a sauce for a tempeh sandwich.

It keeps for a while in the fridge--not sure how long but I've never had it go bad.

Peanut sauce on a sandwich, on noodles, on rice with vegetables, as a dipping sauce for spring rolls, on fried tofu or tempeh...


What else can this delicious food make more delicious?

Peanut Sauce #2: Senegalese

Peanut Sauce to go with rice:
3 tbs oil
2 tbs tomato paste
1/2 -1tsp of your favorite piment (hot pepper)-
1/2 tsp salt
1 bullion cube-
1 cup water-or more depending on the density of the peanut butter you’re using
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup diced onion

Saute tomato paste, hot pepper, salt, onion and bullion cube in oil for a few minutes. Add peanut butter and water. All natural peanut butter is better than the processed type because it doesn’t have any sugar that clashes with the salt. Mix and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Makes enough sauce for 3 servings (1 1/2 cups dry rice). Serve with white sweet potatoes.

I got this from this site:
http://www.geocities.com/fon_is_fun/beninese_food_recipes.htm
I like to imagine that I was in the peace corps group with these girls, and when I make it, I always reminisce with fake memories of people I might have met in Benin.

This one doesn't keep in the fridge for as long as Peanut Sauce #1 but has a richer flavor. It is better for dinner-type meals like beans and rice.

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients
4 cups stock (veggie or mushroom)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1/2 head celery, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups arborio rice
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups white wine
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. olive oil
Fresh basil or parsley, chopped, for sprinkling on top
Fresh and rehydrated wild mushrooms (about 1/4 pound fresh and 1 handful dried is a good amount)
1 Potato (yukon gold is best), peeled
Oregano and thyme

Directions
1. Boil 4 1/4 cups water in saucepan. Add potato and let boil until potato is soft. Add boullion after potato is removed to make stock.
2. Rehydrate dried mushrooms by covering with warm water (just enough to cover mushrooms)
3. Mash up the potato and set aside. Chop fresh mushrooms if necessary.
4. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery and garlic. Cook until soft, 10-15 minutes. Add rice, salt and pepper, cook one minute, or until rice is slightly translucent, stirring constantly. Turn up heat to medium high.
5. Add wine and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly. Stir in a pinch of salt.
6. Add one ladle of stock (1/3 to 1/2 cup), cook until absorbed, stirring constantly. After stock is absorbed, add another ladleful. This process should take 15 minutes or so. Add mushrooms and potato about halfway through the stock. Add water from dried mushrooms along with the mushrooms
7. When all the stock is absorbed, turn off the heat, put on the lid and let it sit for 3 minutes. Then take off the lid and stir in the rest of the olive oil. Stir and serve with chopped fresh basil or parsley sprinkled on top.

The flavor comes from the fresh herbs and the rehydrated mushroom water. The potato gives it creaminess.

Base risotto recipe from http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=268