Catchy, but not contagious
June 23, 2006
It was recently revealed in an offical report out of the Kimchi Nation that there are exactlly one zillion sorts of kimchi. Kimchi is a falsely generic term for the Korean national pickle and katchi is the mustard green variety pictured here.
Catchy Tofu
recipe described vertically, from bottom to top:
a puddle of saffron oil
stray scallions, strewn about
a block of fresh tofu
a stack of katchi
a drizzle of nama shoyu
Stack the ingredients voluptuously. Leak a few drizzles of nama shoyu over the lot until it starts to pool at the base of the tofu.
Serve.
- culiblog reports on the kimchi air conditioner
- culiblog recipe for kimchi comfort food
- culiblog recipe for kimchi monkfish en papillot
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Sugar and tea
April 16, 2006
A smokey lapsang souchong, my favourite afternoon tea, served with plain and saffron flavoured sugar crystals from a Persian supermarket in Amsterdam.
Growing up in my family, sugar was called white death. Until recently I didn't have much of a taste for sweets or sweetend things. Even one year ago, in the throes of low glycaemic cooking experiments, I never would have added sugar to my tea let alone, tea to my sugar.
But these sugars are so pretty, and the crystals flavoured with saffron are aromatic, combining nicely with smoke and bergamot, that everyone who sips tea flavoured in this way just closes their eyes in pleasure.
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Not cooking with flowers and leaves, a raw food recipe for marinated shitake mushrooms
March 21, 2006
If I want to eat with my friends, I can't just serve up vegetables with the dirt still clinging to the rootball, the way I like it. I have to engage in some refining.
Hibiscus flower and green tea leaf marinated shitake mushrooms
(work: 7 minutes, wait: 1-4 hours)
- dried hibiscus flowers
- whole green tea leaves
- water
- fleur de sel
- lemon zest
- crayfish oil (vegetarians, relax)
- two shitake mushrooms
In the bottom of a cup, pour enough hot water to cover a layer of hibiscus flower and green tea leaves. You're going to make a highly aromatic and concentrated tea, something too strong to sip. Aim at producing four tablespoons.
(This year, hibisicus flowers seem to be my souring agent of choice. I find it hypnotising to watch the magenta colour leach out of the petals, and I just live for the 'powdery' aftertaste.)
Add to the 'tea' a big fluffy pinch of finely zested lemon peel, a goodly amount of fleur de sel, and a teaspoon or two of *crayfish oil.
Adjust the marinade and toss around with two large shitake mushrooms. Marinate for one to four hours before serving. Everytime you walk by, just toss the mushrooms lightly for fun.
You can keep the mushrooms for about a day without ruining the texture in or outside of the fridge. The marinade and juices leached out of the mushroom can be 'recycled', it's like bouillion for raw foodies. You know how I love the food recycling!
*A note on crayfish oil: you can't buy it. Mine was a cadeau made by my friend Marlein, to whom this recipe is dedicated. Possible (vegetarian) substitute: grape seed oil, barely warmed and barely covering half a fennel, star anise and a dried hibiscus petal. Leave to cool and sit for two days. Remove the 'stuff' and decant to a very clean jar. Store in a cool, dark and dry place.
*A note about using non-vegetarian, non-raw ingredients in this recipe: relax and enjoy delicious foods that have been made for you with love. Aromatic oils are like parfum, you need only a few drops. In this recipe you will need enough drops to fill a teaspoon or two.
Both the green tea leaves and the crayfish oil have a powdery 'note' that compliments the woodiness of the shitake. This marinade smells like peonies. Shitake pivoine! My hands are parfumed from the shitake tossing.
The recipe is dedicated to my dear friend Marlein Overakker, a chef who has turned me on to my favourite parfums and who is always a huge source of inspiration.
technorati tags: raw food recipes, vegetarian, shitake, mushrooms, cooking with flowers, cooking with tea, green tea
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Grow your own dang food
January 30, 2006
Back in the eighties, as a student at the University California at Santa Cruz, I lived in a vegetarian commune with a bunch of hippies. As hippies, we produced our own sprouts, yoghurt and salsa fresca for the entire commune, approximately thirty people. I had all but forgotten this part of my life until recently, when my Food Atelier students at the Design Academy Eindhoven started working on ways to grow their own food. The work of two enthusiastic students got my wings flapping enough for me to dare revisit my past. These are the images from the first trials, theirs and mine.
After initial attempts at growing mung sprouts in bread (see above), Cygalle Shapiro is successfully growing a ready-made 'salad on salad'.
images top to bottom: sprouts in bread, salad on salad, sprouting experiments courtesy of Cygalle Shapiro, copyright Cygalle Shapiro 2005 - 2006. Contact culiblog for further information.
Liora Rosin is growing sprouts in labneh, a fresh yoghurt cheese, commonly made at home. For Rosin it is important that the seeds are grown within the labneh in order to transmit the flavour of the sprouted seed into the delicately tangy cheese.
images top to bottom: home sprouting installation, soaking, lactic fermentation sill; courtesy of Liora Rosin, copyright Liora Rosin 2005 - 2006
Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all had a designated windowsill for lactic fermentation?
Having resolved to practice what I preach in 2006, I am also working on growing sprouts on labneh and find that the experiments coördinate nicely with my developing a good recipe for yoghurt ravioli.
This is a cute disaster of basil seeds rotting into overly dry labneh. Seeds that become gelatinous when they are moistened (e.g., basil, buckwheat, watercress) are poor candidates for immediate immersion on or in the yoghurt medium.
images top to bottom: sprout collection 2x, basil on labneh, playing with mistakes, pretending sampler, curd seed brittle; Debra Solomon
The results of an unsuccessful attempt at growing woody spice seeds (dill, coriander, cumin, kummel) in yoghurt medium with the intention of flavouring the labneh were not especially delicious, although visually exciting. The linen and the seeds texture the labneh beautifully and I look forward to spin a few successful recipes from these experiments soon.
Lori Alden's cheese definition site
N55: Manual for city farming plant modules
N55: Manual for home hydroponic unit
Sproutman's sprout bag. Any idiot can make one, but Sproutman is somehow selling them! My experience is that growing sprouts on wet linen works much better than growing them in jars. I have never tried sprouting in a linen bag.
Here are other urban gardening solutions, mostly rooftop gardening related:
- Rooftop Gardening link hub. Yes, it's a trend!
- Plant vegetables on your rooftops, like they do in Egyptian cities
- Toronto rooftop gardening project
- Greening Gothan Project, NYC also on the roof
- BLDG blog on rooftop farming in London
- Treehugger reports on Toronto rooftop gardening facts and figures
technorati tags: rooftop gardening, urban gardening, food security, sustainability, farming, food-related design, agricultural diversification
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Beets in hibiscus salt crust
November 22, 2005
Preheat oven to 220°c/475°F. Mix in just enough water with the salt to make sandcastle-style sand. Add dried hibiscus flowers to the mixture in a few swift turns of the fork. On a baking sheet covered wtih baker's parchment, pack the beats in the salt. Bake for 20 minutes. Crack open and serve the beets piping hot.
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Just experimenting with raw cruciferous vegetables
November 16, 2005
It would be absolutely no problem for me to go on and on about the conceptual and nutritional inconsistencies of the raw food (culture) diet, but I have to admit that this raw food culinary experiment has seriously increased my intake of *cruciferous vegetables. And that's good a thing because all cooked cruciferous vegetables taste to me like fart. And that's a bad thing.
* cabbages, kale, broccoli, bruxelles sprouts, cauliflower, get it?
Please read more... "Just experimenting with raw cruciferous vegetables"
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Audible gasps caused by morphogenetic fields
November 15, 2005
I was perusing my daily share of food writing, food photography and food porn, when what should I spy with my little eye? An aged eGullet entry about Grant Achatz' tasting menu at his much praised restaurant, Alinea. I know, I know, everyone's been eating honeycomb since time immemorial, but honey is apparently extra hot right now and Grant Achatz uses Ohio honeycomb at his restaurant, whereas I use Turkish and Dutch honeycomb... at home.
Images from top to bottom: honeycomb dessert image attributed to eGullet contributor 'yellow truffle' in his October 14, 2005 entry on Grant Achatz' buzzy restaurant, Alinea (hopefully used with permission), a prototype of my honeycomb cocoa nib bonbon photographed by the author herself
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And now for something completely simple, honeycomb cocoa nib bonbon
November 14, 2005
Images r to l: bonbon prototyping, the box it came in
Recipe for Honeycomb Cocoa Nib bonbon
Cut a piece of honeycomb into desired shape.
Place the dripping honeycomb on some raw cocoa nibs.
Alternately, place some raw cocoa nibs on the dripping honeycomb.
Serve.
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Honey, rockin' my world
October 27, 2005
A honey shop in the Kadiköy market in Istanbul is visited by wasps.
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Today's fig-related transactions
September 01, 2005
Went to bum a cigarette from my kitchen garden neighbour AlGouche,
and was invited to sit around eating figs and play with Abel's toes for awhile (Abel is 3 months old, so it's OK).
Received a fig tree as a present from Abel's parents, Amad & Lila,
and gave them some leafy greens.
Gave some tomatoes to neighbour Patrick across the stone wall,
and was given a huge jar of fig preserves that utterly rocked my world.
Inquired whether Patrick would like an assortment of leafy greens from my kitchen garden,
and received an apple on top of the wall, which I think was an 'exchange-a-thon' joke.
It's not really apple season yet.
Gave Patrick an assortment of leafy greens.
Gave Mme Afkir an assortment of leafy greens.
Have decided that tomorrow while watering the Family Afkir's kitchen garden, I will eat some of their figs when no one is watching.
images t to b: the gifted fig tree (black figs of yet unkonwn variety), corn stalks drying and all my leafy greens thriving, divvying up the leafy greens for those that want them:
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Subsistance farming can be so romantic
August 30, 2005
... if you only have to do it for a week. The long and short of it is that whilst living in the yurt, Lad and I didn't end up doing a whole heq of a lot of cooking, preferring instead to eat what fell into our mouths, right out of the hands that fed us. In the Occitanian summer that means raspberries, and yes, lots of leafy greens.
After the buzz of the new and the raw wore off, we did eventually develop a hunquering for heated food. Turns out that like most lads, mine knows how to BBQ, and is thankfully not averse to grilling a radish (or an ear of corn). We BBQ'd inside the yurt because the mercury did actually drop below 22°c at one point and we feared we might get the wrong kind of shivers.
Our favourite dish was a sorrel omelette prepared with Brillat-Savarin creamy cheese. Now I, in all my decades have never actually heard of a guy liking sorrel, or at least one willing to take it full on and fake it for an entire week. So for the time being, this spells blessing-counting time.
And oh how we turned eating my garden's first tomato into a wondrous ritual. Amen.
images from l to r: Lad eating from the hand that feeds him, domestic work-related gender issues au plein air, leafy green grower talks to leafy green eater about soil tillability (although clearly, Monsieur C. is tucking into more than just leafy greens!)
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Seed
August 19, 2005
Pick the fruit you like, and its seed is for the taking. Everyone does it. 'Shake your moneymaker' is the name of one of the fruits. Or maybe it was just moneymaker.
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Yurt and garden
August 13, 2005
My garden at three and a half weeks old, is thriving! My yurt, set up at the edge of a vineyard, with views into two river valleys and mountains on all sides, is now little more than a glorified bedroom, shouting distance from the 'real house' in town.
But in one week's time a very special guest will arrive and we will among other things, live, and cook (!!!) at the yurt without the support of a proper kitchen. And because I am not a practical woman by nature, I have my heart set upon the notion that the yurt-cooking menu should consist primarily of food originating from my pre-pubescent garden. So I'm digging my toe in the dirt and wondering what kind of grits can a gal dish up using corn, tomatoes, several kinds of lettuce, rocket, chard, red chicory, mint, basil, sorrel, coreander, and everything but the squeal of a radish and a beet using nothing but a BBQ-for-one and an Occitanian 2-ring burner.
Fortunately, he's a vegetarian.
images from t to b: author slash subsistence farmer surveys her harvest possibilities, yurt lighting, flashed-view from the foot of bed.
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Blighted blackberries, all you can eat
August 05, 2005
In the valley, all of the climbing berry bushes are suffering from blight. Blackberries, raspberries, rusty and yellow leaved are making the locals depressed. My neighbour Jean-Louis tells me, 'Take them all, I just can't stand the sight of it'. 'You want me to take all of your blackberries?!' Even when I offer to bake him a blackberry pie he makes it clear that he just wants the blackberries out of his life forever. As if to spite the bush he tells me that he'll never grow blackberries again.
Maybe it's because they're not wild that they taste a bit bland, maybe it's the over-watering, maybe it's the blight. It'll take me a few summers to know the difference, but I climb in the tangle to duke it out with the wasps, who are for some reason unusually passive this summer. Maybe they also can't stand the thought of a crop of blighted blackberries. They're just buzzing around and don't seem to mind me shooing them off the dull and heavy berries. 'Just please take them away,' they're saying in wasp-talk.
Speaking of dull and heavy, afternoons at river's edge we just loll about and let the sun do it's sun thing, chez former folly of the sun king.
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That's French for BBQ practice
August 02, 2005
Last year I bought my first BBQ, a very cute bbq-for-one sort of thing. The level of my naïvete concerning all things BBQ became apparent when it turned out that there really is no such thing as BBQ'ing for one. After giving her a good shining, I announced to the hungry hoard that it was I who would be preparing that night's dinner on the barbie. There were a few grunts and not a little bit of silver-back posing, but in the end the gents were somewhat content to let me have a go at the girly BBQ as long as I didn't fiddle with their well-composed fires or ask too many questions.
Up until this moment, I thought BBQ'ing was little more than guys hanging around playing with fire, but to my disappointment it turned out that there was actual skill and engagement involved in producing and maintaining a fire suitable to transform a hunk of meat into something amazing. And while I was busy making a dog's breakfast of some dainty sardines on my Barbie-doll-barbie, I also realised that the average eleven year old boy has a great deal more BBQ'ing experience than I do due to his vast experience in playing with fire.
No worries, this year is a year for solving all of life's little problems and now that I am generating loads of burning material in the garden I have the perfect excuse to work on my own fire-making skills instead of facilitating others by making meat marinades. And since we're in Occitania, it seems that it's OK to go around lighting fires on hot August afternoons in your garden if you want to. Tonight we're having dainty little sardines, on the big barbie.
And check out my fire! The ash heap was still hot the next day and when I distributed the ashes thoughout the garden I accidentally cinged a little tomato plant in two. It's like youth serum, fire-making.
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Freak of nature
July 04, 2005
In the rice-maker the grains of wild rice had aligned themselves practically in the same direction. If I can repeat this action I will most surely open up a rice circus.
Please read more... "Freak of nature"
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I would have been satisfied with less
June 27, 2005
Café Dudok in Arnhem prepared a special menu in honour of the Arnhem Fashion Biennale. Dutch Art Institute student, MuXue and I were visiting Arnhem for other reasons entirely but we did manage to end the day with an hors d'oeuvre and dessert at said café. The starter, a smoked turkey avocado and edible flower 'wrap', was printed in a floral pattern with cherry red pigment. It was most unfortunate that the pigment had no additional flavour because it would've been great if the pattern was made out of salsa picante for example, with an overlay of patterned guacamole and maybe cutout smoked turkey in pretty tailored shapes. Bring on les ruches!
Also the California-Dutch in me always feels inclined to let folks know that 'wraps' (let's just call them white flour tortillas from now on) really should be served warmed up to arouse the subtle flavours of the nutritional void that is white flour.
The dessert of this fashion menu was presented rather simply and therefore I reacted to the lack of pretension with less venom. Visually it reminded me of Allsorts licorice candy. It was a dessert of blocks and a worthwhile array of textures, had some of the flavours not come from directly out of standard bottled essences. MuXue and I felt we were served far too much food, but that's something that seems to be inescapable these days. The service was great by the way, and this is a rarity in a café in the Netherlands.
Squares from top left and top to bottom: walnut fudge brownie, bitter almond pannacotta, raspberry bavarois, dark chocolate-raisin fudge, cake au mousse au chocolat, coconut snowball. The finger pokes in the mousse and in the raspberry bavarois are the author's own.
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Hibiscus flowers
June 12, 2005
One million years ago, when I was a little girl, I had a piano teacher called Miss Pierce. She was an elegant and graceful woman, and ancient, as far as I was concerned. She was the secret girlfriend of Mr. Greenjeans, from the chilluns' TV show, Captain Kangaroo! We lived in a university town full of orange and date orchards on the edge of the desert, and Miss Pierce was probably one of the few people there that fulfilled for me, in her own wierd and spinster way, the notion of what it is to be 'fabulous'.
I used to arrive at her strangely decorated house for lessons with my neighbour Michelle, who was even more of a tomboy than I was. The two of us played so rambunctiously that Miss Pierce decided to give us 'lady-lessons' at no extra charge. We agreed to the lady-lessons because we just loved listening to Miss Pierce blather on and on about table manners and gentlemen as we sipped hibiscus tea and nibbled girlscout cookies, all the while kicking eachother surreptitiously under the table.
Miss Pierce liked her hibiscus tea incredibly sour but I never added sugar because sugar was 'white death', and I was trying to get my head around enjoying sour things. Hibiscus flowers in their wet form, alive and still on the tree, are forever connected in my mind with my father and his battle against vast herds of aphids. But hibiscus flower in its dry form and as a tea still reminds me of my piano teacher, Miss Pierce, patiently battling to turn me and Michelle into ladies.
Today I'm experimenting with using hibiscus flower as a souring agent in a batch of quick pickles and a vegetable broth intended for a summer borscht although 12°c doesn't really qualify as summer.
Please read more... "Hibiscus flowers"
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Art is, art was fluid last Sunday
June 08, 2005
Due to the good company and delightfully engaged audience, artist initiative Artis in Den Bosch showed this Sunday (05.06.2005) that they really know how to throw a happening. Margriet Kemper opened the salon with a presentation of her book, Speak, Image! (unfortunately only in Dutch) in which she talks about how the image is actually a performer. Kemper cited Allan Kaprow, the Daddy of the Happening, explaining to us the choice of the title of the event, Art Fluid.
A.K.: 'I want the line between art and life to be as fluid as possible'.
A presentation of culiblog was next on the menu followed by a breathtaking poetry reading by Robert Gray (AU) and the Dutch translator of Gray's work, Maarten Elzinga. Wafts of rosey caramel in-the-make were the only distraction as both Gray and Elzinga read for the better part of 42 minutes to a rapt audience.
Now there's only so much reflection and interior thought that an audience can take, and just when we thought we would forever be living inside of our heads, the shy noise band, SPASM performed invisibly from the guts of the cavernous gallery. It was just the lightness that the moment needed and everyone started to beam with smiles so broad they barely fit on their faces. Everyone except the young children who ran around annoyed with fingers in their ears.
What could be a better follow-up to a poetry reading and a concert of noise than a cookery presentation! Together with my fabulous assistants, Stefano and Kaj, I rejoiced in showing other Dutch people how to make the traditional Dutch 'hang-op'. The hang-op had been dripping whey all the livelong day in linen bags hanging from pink string, defining the space of the kitchen. Stefano removed the linen bags from meathooks and helped Kaj scrape out the 'hung' yogurt from within. Kaj then proceeded to beat to a satiny smooth consistency, the yogurt with rose flavoured whipped cream. I know, it was very, very sexy.
While the audience enjoyed a film by Annika Ström and a presentation of Jan van Toorn's (re)releases from the oldies but goodies of avant-garde sound-art, Kaj and Stefano prepared the banquet table with rose petals, rosey caramel, organic local strawberries and little bowls of hang-op.
Aan tafel, I sort of whispered into the microphone.
Please read more... "Art is, art was fluid last Sunday"
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Recipes without words
June 05, 2005
Image: olive oil, green tea powder, ume boshi vinegar, © Debra Solomon 2004
The images above and below are from a cookbook of mine in-the-making titled Recipes without words. Or rather, with very few words. More later. I’m about to do a presentation about culiblog in the ‘s Hertogenbosch artists’ initiative Artis. This Sunday’s programme is titled Art Fluid and culiblog is just one of several interesting programme pieces. We will be making Hang op with rose caramel and local strawberries.
Image: olive oil, grass powder, ume boshi vinegar, © Debra Solomon 2004
Image: sugar, soy sauce, shrimp powder, © Debra Solomon 2004
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Pasta that is pasta
May 27, 2005
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Pasta that is not pasta
Finalement, Pasta that is not pasta. In this recipe I use thinly sliced raw courgette/zucchini as spaghettini, and courgette/zucchini and beet slices as ravioli. The main ingredient of the sauce is Turkish pickled and roasted peppers, a product I love because of the bits of charred skin still sticking to the pepper flesh. There is nothing like fire to add flavour to food, as our ancestors, if only they could respond to this blog entry, would readily agree.
Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- beet ravioli
- roasted and pickled paprika coulis
- rocket emulsion
The beet ravioli recipe you can find here. For the courgette spaghettini, please click Please read more to read more.
Please read more... "Pasta that is not pasta"
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Play with a mandolin
May 14, 2005
The original recipe for Pasta that is not pasta is coming. But first you need to own a mandolin.
Orange rubber bangles, model's own, courgette rings and bangles, model's own.
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Garlic and beetroot
May 13, 2005
Sliced garlic, marinated with beetroot, lime zest, lime juice, fleur de sel and extra virgin olive oil.
Please read more... "Garlic and beetroot"
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Which one is the fish skin wedding anniversary?
May 09, 2005
5th Wedding Anniversary Menu for John and Kristi
Pasta that is not pasta
- courgette spaghettini
- courgette ravioli
- roasted and pickled pepper coulis
- rocket emulsion
- even creamier cheese in a can
Pepesan sans pep
- grated coconut tamale with
- smoked mackerel marinated in tamarind and lime leaves
- sweet potato
- not very much sambal djeroek taking into account the delicate Northern palates
- coconut cream
Charlie Trotter's Banana and Chocolate Lava Cake
- w/ roasted mini bananae
Please read more... "Which one is the fish skin wedding anniversary?"
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Another short supply chain
April 26, 2005
This time it's dessert! Ladoos, to be exact. These gentlemen are working in the temple compound (Hanuman Mandir, CP, Delhi) 30 metres from the dung fuel sales and manufacturing woman. Their whole production setup takes place within 10 metres, their point of sale is 30 metres away.
A ladoo is a graham flour sweet, sometimes made with puffed rice. If someone would explain to me why one always finds ladoo near temples I would be most appreciative. I think it has to do with religiously sanctioning things that people like to do anyway, and I mean that in the most generous possible way.
Please read more... "Another short supply chain"
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Love those short supply chains
Here in Europe we can't stop talking about 'food miles', that is to say, how many kilometres our food travels before we actually get to touch it. There's that quite famous study of the strawberry yoghurt, It's the same for all products, including cow dung fuel. The images shown were all taken within 20 metres (!) of eachother in the Hanuman Mandir temple complex near CP, Delhi.
From top to bottom: Cow - dung collection - patty cake, patty cake, dry dry dry - fuel saleswoman
Please read more... "Love those short supply chains"
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Avocado update
April 21, 2005
Safe and sound back in the Heimatt. Pity la geste Californienne. Compare the image above to the entry of hope before heading off to India and France. Looks like my sense of home in Amsterdam needs a bit of nurturing. My inner mother tells me to return the failed avocado sprouters to their original use as vessles of buffalo grass vodka.
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Gullet Girl
January 24, 2005
This is the correct Dutch way to eat a herring.
By firelight.
Please read more... "Gullet Girl"
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Keeping one's vows
January 19, 2005
Remember in October when I had just bought Roxanne Klein's R A W and I reported how it made me homesick for Laurel's Kitchen? And then upon rereading Laurel's Kitchen I made a vow to 'take cashew cheese seriously' from now on?
Well, I have been taking cashew cheese making very seriously indeed, and I believe I have improved upon the Good Ladies' recipes. Pictured above are some of the steps in this easy process (from l to r: placing the blended cashew butter in a cheese cloth, cheese cloth hanging in the window, cheese cloth dripping with cashew milk and dark winter sky).
Please read more... "Keeping one's vows"
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Like raw beans in a hippy's beard
January 18, 2005
In less than 2 months I will be heading off to India again and as I prepare the Indian version of the Nomadic Banquet Workshop I find myself hunquering for Indian food. I'll be writing about the Nomadic Banquet in future culiblog entries.
Hippy Beard is the nickname I gave to the Southern Indian (Karnatakan) mung dal salad that I adored in Bangalore and adapted to my own liking once back in the Heimatt. If you thought that nothing good could ever come from eating raw beans, you really need to try this simple recipe. The salad is very light and the good kind of crunchy with no negative... uh, aspects.
The cukes I replaced with zukes and unfortunately I had to omit the 'curry leaf' because I can't find it anywhere in Europe. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to figure out why I call this salad Hippy Beard and just like in a real hippy beard this salad keeps for a few days. I'll ask my buddy Zeenat Hassan (who is neither a hippy nor does she sport a beard) for the real name of this refreshing snack with the cheerful 'mouth-feel'. It was her menu choice for that fine afternoon in Bangalore... (recipe follows).
Please read more... "Like raw beans in a hippy's beard"
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Juicing, but not frothing, and you?
January 06, 2005
So far this juice fast has yielded quite a number of discoveries, the usefullness of oat milk being one of them. In my opinion grain and nut milks qualify for a juice fast because they are simply the wrung out water in which grain or nut meal has been soaking. These 'milks' don't give the gut flora anything more to do than a glass of apple juice does but they are useful in making things taste 'creamy'.
Other discoveries concern how to make 'comfort food' for the fast yet maintain its nutritional value. Roxanne Klein (and all raw foodies) feel that valuable enzymes in vegetables and fruits are destroyed when heated above 50°c. For this fast I've kept to this parameter while still being able to serve up some warm soup on these cold Occitanian days.
Here are a list of some of the liquids that my ruthless jury has deemed delicious enough to sip even when not on a juice fast: (This is not a menu.)
Cucumber Kiwi Juice
Kiwi Zucchini Juice
Pineapple Juice (fresh squeezed is entirely different from the storebought stuff)
Carrot Grapefruit Juice
Celery Juice
Avocado Zucchini Soup
Celeriac Oat Milk Soup
Green Curry and Carrot Soup
Broccoli Stalk, Zucchini Soup with Guacamole Dumplings
Red Pepper Tomoato Miso Flower Broth
Date and Pear Sorbet (pictured above)
Banana Chai Ice Cream (pictured above)
Pear Sorbet
The juicer that I am borrowing from Fred and Kristine for the duration of the fast is a real Cadillac (Magimix Le Duo). Only crit about this machine is that it doesn't produce foamy froth - like my Braun back in the Heimatt. I think that some of the recipes could be improved with new texture additions. At home I use the foam from the juicer.
Posted by debra at 10:46 PM | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us
Milk tasting, and you?
January 05, 2005
As I said, not eating solid foods affords you a chance to try new things. Tonight we did a little experimental milk tasting. Because we're on a juice fast and generally behaving as self-righteously as we can we decided to bypass the locally produced cow, sheep and goat varieties and test the locally imported almond, rice and oat milks.
Oat milk was the clear winner in the category; Tastes Like Something I Might Drink Even When Debra Isn't Forcing Me.
Please read more... "Milk tasting, and you?"
Posted by debra at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us
Enough with the raw food already
January 03, 2005
We just couldn't eat them all so they've been in the fridge in a wet tea towel since the 31st. I wouldn't have guessed that after so much time you could still eat them raw, although upon opening more than 2/3rds of them were perfectly delicious looking, smelling and tasting. Those deemed not perfect were only a bit dehydrated, not unlike ourselves after overdoing the champies.
I decided to warm them in some melted butter, chopped garlic, rosemary sprig and bay laurel from le chateau.Gawd damn do I love oysters! It was J's first time on New Year's and we told him that eating an oyster is like biting into fresh and solid seawater. Now he sees oyster eating as a superior option to actually going swimming.
Oh and here's what else was going on... JT, Kristi, Fred, Kristine, un grand tour de leur chateau, aussi la Palmiére, la cascade, et toutes pour lui.
Please read more... "Enough with the raw food already"
Posted by debra at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | post to del.icio.us
