Sweet & Sour Braised Cabbage & Carrots

When we find the card reader I'll post the picture of last week's cabbage. Gloriously purple, gorgeous shape, and as big as my head. Really. It was the Cabbage as Big as My Head (insert your own dramatic reverb here)

This week a smaller head of white cabbage was delivered so it was high time to address the giant head already in the fridge. I'm cold and didn't want salad. We also had a whole lotta carrots and it seemed the sweetness of those would add nicely to the cabbage.

The Stuff

• Half a large head of purple
• 4 large carrots
• 1/4 medium red onion, sliced thin
• 2 cloves garlic, diced small
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 2 T white wine vinegar
• 1 8 oz block of tempeh

The Making

First slice tempeh into 1" wide slices and grill until golden brown on the cut sides. Sprinkle with garlic pepper and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, roughly cut into 1" chunks and set aside

Halve the cabbage again and slice into 1" strips, set aside. Slice carrots on bias into 1/4", coins and set aside. Heat canola oil in large saute pan on medium heat and add onions. Cool until onions are shiny and starting to go translucent, then add garlic. Continue to cook garlic and onions until the onions began to darken and caramelize a little. Add carrots, cover, and cook until onions began to take on an orange hue from the carrots. Add cabbage, sprinkle with sea salt, cover and cook until cabbage starts to soften. Add in the grilled tempeh, maple syrup and vinegar. Cover and continue to cook until most of the liquid has been absorbed and cabbage is tender.

Feeds 4, I served this with qunioa for a nice, nutrient-packed grain accompaniment

Organics to You - Week 2

Last week's cooking also saw another squash/bean/polenta casserole to serve to guests on Halloween, a delicious soup, a Saturday breakfast scramble and sweet & sour cabbage, kale cauliflower & tofu. I didn't make it through all the veggies, not even close!!

Some notes on the Halloween casserole. This variation on this casserole included 1 of the Schwartz Hubbard and 1 Delicata squash from our basement stash, roasted until they caramelized on the edges and mashed. The squash all went into the bottom of the 9 x 12, oiled pan and was topped with the white bean, leek, garlic, rosemary & olive oil combination. The beans were topped with dry-toasted pine nuts and a chiffonade of fresh basil & oregano (I am thinking a light sprinkle of shredded sage leaves would be more fitting to the autumn season). The polenta had once again been cooked in the pressure cooker, this time I'd darkened the garlic in the olive oil then fished it out so it was just the garlic infused oil. Then in went the polenta, sea salt, nutritional yeast, white miso, and a generous amount of pepper. The cooked polenta went on top again. Baked, the under the broiler to toast the polenta a little. Delicious!

I didn't touch the giant head of purple cabbage, the radishes (only I like these, Christie does not), the greens of the beets, the garlic (already had some), or the bok choy. The Halloween party helped use up some of the beets (served raw, sliced thin, most people hadn't seen Chioggia beets before, so fun to introduce folks), the carrots, some of the cauliflower and the rest of the broccoli. All of the produce, except perhaps the baby bok choy (which seemed a little beat up), was very tasty.

That we've started off this delivery experiment with several veggies in the fridge already along with pounds of apples, it isn't too bad. I managed to use up a lot of the veggies we had already and many of the ones delivered. I'm wondering how I can preserve some things we get too much of in a way we'd enjoy using it. Maybe a big pot of cabbage soup that can be frozen to serve for lunches? I also think I just need to chop up a bunch of stuff so it is easy for us to grab raw veggies to take to work, either to eat with hummus or steam.

This week's box has a much smaller head of white cabbage and some larger, nicer looking bok choy. 2 more good sized leeks, some more broccoli (a real winner last week), 6 very nice looking Russet potatoes, more garlic, 2 shallots & a yellow onion, celery, 3 small ears of corn, a bunch of collard greens, a head of Romanesco broccoli, 1 green bell pepper, and more kiwi berries.

I'm thinking we'll have either stuffed cabbage rolls or do this with the collard greens. Or perhaps some great raw wraps one day using the collard leaves. The corn must be the very last of the season - will just steam this in the husk and enjoy. We learned that we should eat the kiwi berries right away, by the time we were eating them Saturday many were over ripe. I'm also thinking I'm going to roast some of the extra heads of garlic, we now have 4, which is kind of a lot for us. Have a lot of yellow onions as well, which I may caramelize a lot of to serve later (perhaps I'll try my hand at Mjdara this week).

Organics to You & Apples!

Saturday saw us out in Parkdale with friends to check out the heirloom apple/pear/Asian pear tasting day at Kiyokawa Family Orchards. A fave from last autumn, we wanted to take our friends to enjoy tasting the many varieties they grow there as well as pick a bunch to make applesauce. Turned out the apples had all been picked, but we still had a great time trying many varieties we'd never heard of before. 31 pounds of fruit later (that's just us), we were loaded up and off to our next stop.

Rasmussen Farms saw us leave with several fun gourds, a couple of pounds each of fresh, local walnuts & hazelnuts, ornamental corn, and 2 smallish Hubbard squash. Yes, I know we have a bunch of these in the basement, but these are the blue type we didn't grow. Oh yes, and pumpkins. There are 7 of them on our front steps. 6 of them Christie and I picked out. What can I say, we were having fun.

Into this collection of squash and apples arrived our first box from Organics to You. I offered to take it from the deliver guy, but he then offered to put inside for me because, "its heavy".

I ripped off the tape and opened the box to see a lovely bunch of red kale, some baby bok choy, radishes, chioggia beets, chunky carrots, onions, garlic, a huge head of broccoli, a head of purple cabbage bigger than my head (seriously), 2 big leeks, a half pint of kiwi berries and more fruit. 4 more apples, 3 more Asian pears and 3 red Bartlett pears. Uh yeah.

One good sized box of produce and a fridge already filled to the brim with mostly apples...

Yep, time to make the apple sauce. I chopped up 8 quarts of mixed varieties of apples and a few pears that needed to be used. Cooked until we had a chunky sauce and added the zest & juice from a medium sized Meyer lemon. That's it. Nothing else needed for that much deliciousness. I'm waiting on the water in the canner to boil, 20 minutes in the bath then we have lovely applesauce for the rest of the year and to go into the little gift baskets we're planning to do this winter for people.

That helped some. While the apples were doing the cooking thing I threw some Great Northern beans into the pressure cooker. Drained them when done and cleaned out the cooker to make soup. Into the pot I sauteed a bunch of garlic and most of the leeks, celery & Russet potatoes were added. Water, salt, pepper, and a sprig of fresh rosemary in the covered cooker, on high pressure for 8 minutes. Release valve, add in half the red kale that was delivered today along with half the white beans. Simmer with salt, some nutritional yeast, and more pepper. Serve with croutons. Yum!

The other half of the beans, more garlic and the remaining leeks have been stewed together with a little rosemary sprig, olive oil, tarragon, and some diced celery. This gives a lot more flavor to the Great Northern beans, which are not Christie's favorite. These have been set aside for later this week when I'm going to revisit the whole squash/polenta baked casserole, but with the white beans and some fresh basil pesto.

By this evening's end there will be lots of applesauce in jars, soup in the fridge, and some progress made towards Wednesday or Saturday's dinners. I've had some ideas about the cabbage and how to use up all the produce that's coming along with what we had already here. Right now I'm really enjoying the challenge of making food for us primarily based on what is brought each week.

Roasted Red Pepper Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 box Trader Joe's (or like) Creamy Red Pepper & Corn soup
• 1 med sweet onion, diced
• 8 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tbsp red taco sauce
• ¼ tsp smoked chipotle chili powder
• 1 bag frozen soup veggies
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 2 cans diced tomatoes with cilantro & lime
• 2 tbsp olive oil

To Prepare:

• Heat a large stock-pot to medium. Add olive oil.
• Add diced onion and saute covered for 4-5 min.
• Add garlic and saute for 2-3 min.
• Add in frozen veggies and saute covered for 5 min.
• Add tomatoes and heat for 5 min.
• Add in boxed corn soup, taco sauce and chipotle powder and stir well.

Serve over pasta or soy curls with sour cream, fresh cilantro, lime wedges and toasted or fried tortilla strips.

Squash, squash, squash!

This is truly a "Nothing but food porn" kind of post. Immediately after the post that I'd be making all kinds of updates for Vegan MoFo 2009 I was diagnosed with an apparently months old sinus infection. Many days of antibiotics later I'm feeling a lot better and am having the energy to work on projects, writing, etc.

Did I happen to mention that Christie decided we should grow winter squash this year? The result is pounds and pounds of the stuff keeping cool down in the basement. I've not yet started on creative ways to cook the spaghetti squash, but I've been doing the Delicata and Hubbard styles a couple of different and successful ways.

First of all, a very homey, Japanese inspired stew of Hubbard squash, tomatoes, garlic, onions, Aduki beans, cooked with red miso and black sesame seeds (honestly because they look more dramatic with the squash). Everything but the beans go into the pressure cooker and 8 minutes on high-pressure later you have piping hot stew. Add the pre-cooked beans, some Nappa cabbage, and a good teaspoon or so of toasted sesame oil. Simmer until the cabbage has softened and serve with brown rice, bread, whatever. There's very nearly a recipe for this one done since Christie's mom got out her notebook and grilled me on what I'd done when the family was up here earlier this month.

The other winter squash winner has been a complete re-do of a recipe we tried last year. We had liked the casserole of squash, pinto beans and polenta but found it kind of uninspired. Great base ingredients, but lacking in a lot of places. The big thing we thought wasn't right was the polenta being at the bottom of the casserole where it never really firms up right.

This afternoon I slow roasted 3 of the Delicata from the basement stash and let them cool. I also put on a pot of diced, unsalted tomatoes and pre-cooked pinto beans. We had chili recently, so I threw a little in as well as adding sweet, smoked paprika, chili powder and cumin powder. I let all the juice cook out of the beans until it was just the chunks of tomatoes & beans coated in the reduction of the juice.

In checking around for cooking times, ratios, etc. for the polenta I discovered it is another thing that can be made in the pressure cooker. Fried about a 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds ('cause that's all that's left in the house - yikes) in 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Added 3 large cloves of garlic, diced and two hot, dried chili pods (seeded). Then the polenta, water, sweet, smoked paprika, chili powder and cumin powder. 5 minutes on high-pressure then let sit to come down and release the lock (about 10 minutes). Perfect polenta!

The dish came together with the mashed squash in the bottom of a 9x12 baking dish, coated with spray oil (like soup/stew I can't seem to make smaller quantities of casseroles). A generous sprinkle of nutritional yeast, add the bean/tomato mix, and top the whole thing with the polenta. Into a 350 oven for 30 minutes. Broil on high until the top is golden with a few toasty bits. Cool a bit and enjoy. Total redo of the recipe that we tried last year, absolutely what we wished it had been!

Real recipes for both dishes coming soon as well as my experiments with the spaghetti squash! We've also been experimenting with au gratin/scalloped potatoes and are on track with mucho yumminess in time for Thanksgiving!

Vegan MoFo 2009

Today kicks off a flurry of vegan blogging for Vegan MoFo (Month of Food). Started in 2007 by Isa Chandra as a way to give a vegan spin on NaNoWriMo. Two years later and there scores of vegan bloggers signed up to write. I have listed both my personal blog as well as the Cooking Club here and will be making posts to both!

That said -- I'm hoping everyone will throw in a few extra recipes, reviews, rants, and posts about why you choose to be vegan. I'll be putting up some new recipes, wax nostalgic (already) for the apple bananas in Hawai'i, talk more about my experiment with Dropping the Food Chatter, apple food porn, and field trip to an orchard (10/24, Hood River, I'll be posting more details elsewhere).

Look for the VeganMoFo2009 tag for the posts. Check out the other blogs. Send us some recipes, places to review, products to try!

Drop the Food Chatter

It has come to this. A need to rant to a public forum. My Zen community and Christie have already heard this rant a few times.

Have you noticed my total absence of posts? Yes, there was the whole Hawaii trip during which no blogs were updated. There's also the sewing of rakusu (which I should be doing right now, but I'm writing instead... I've missed my writing practice).

The real reason I've not been posting recipes, reviews, food porn comes down to a Zen mindfulness activity I'm trying (poorly) to do.

Zen Community of Oregon has an email if you can join want to receive a weekly "mindfulness task". Little things to help you return to the present moment, stop wandering off, etc. One week it was a heightened awareness of the color blue. Another week - stopping to take 3 breaths whenever one hears a bell or bell-like sound. Awareness of the hands was suggested.

For the past several weeks, starting the week of September 3, has been tasks building upon the concept of not talking about food. First week, stop talking about it and refrain from "idle chatter" about food. Next week, refrain from that same chatter about food that goes on inside the mind. This week we're continuing to drop the idle chatter outwardly & inwardly and move to just noticing the physical sensations in the body as we eat or as desire for food arises in our thoughts.

Go ahead. Try it. I dare you. Try to not talk about food, with other people or in your head. Even for a day.

No posts about amazing fruit in Hawaii or just how satisfying a simple bowl of aduki beans & quinoa was after a day hiking in a volcano. No food porn about the produce from the garden or farmers market. No discussing how great a potluck dish or new recipe is. Nada. Let it all go.

The basis for my practice is in the relationship I have with food.

That said. I am a foodie. There, I've said it. A healthy, fresh-grown, organic, hippie, vegan foodie, but a foodie nonetheless.

People quite often assume that being vegan means food will be boring and bland. If anything, veganism has made me appreciate so many more flavors and subtleties about food. It has made me more passionate about the way food is produced and I have become very sensitive to the enormously intimate act that eating food is. I am deeply passionate about just how wonderful food that's good for you can be!

I like to share this passion with people. I talk about food, I write about it, and I cook a lot of it. I'm a pretty damn good cook.

The past few weeks have made we aware of just how much food chatter there is in my life. It takes up a whole category by itself; next to "Planning Conversations with Other People" and "Worrying I've Screwed Up" (more enjoyable than either of those by far). How I think about it, how I plan around it, how food gets my creative juices flowing, and how sexy I find it (hell, I use the tag "FoodPorn" all the time). I am acutely aware of the ways in which I just feel like I can't resist talking about how wonderful some food is.

So although I'm dying to tell you all about the delicata I made tonight (stir-fried with white cabbage, sweet onion & garlic in a maple/miso glaze). I'm trying not to.

Go on try it. I'd like to get some input from others about this mindfulness task.

How much do you talk about food? How much do you think about it? How easy or difficult is it to try and stop?

Please post your comments about your experience in trying to drop the "food chatter" here.

Like my sideways way of talking about food without talking about it?

Gratuitous food shot...