Filed under: African, Legumes, side, vegan | Tags: African, ethiopian, lemon, lentils, mustard
This is another recipe I found on Lisa’s Kitchen food blog. After you cook the lentils it is very quick and easy to make. It is very tart and flavorful and makes a better side dish than entree. It would go well with another mellower wot and a grain like rice or bread or, if you can track some down, injera.
Last winter break I participated in Hillel’s Alternative Break in Israel and worked with Jewish Ethiopian immigrants at a mercaz klitah (absorption center) near Afula. We had the opportunity to celebrate with the community and ate a feast of wot (stew), injera (fermented flatbread… definitely an acquired taste as it is very sour), and coffee. We didn’t have this exact dish but it still makes me a bit nostalgic!
I added a diced roma tomato and diced onion to this recipe and ate it warm.
Ethiopian Lentil and Mustard Salad
1 cup green lentils
2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
juice of 2 lemons
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 large jalapeño peppers, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch long matchsticks
Wash the lentils and put into a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn down the heat to low and cover, cooking gently for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Drain and set aside to let cool.
Add the mustard seeds, peppercorns, salt and cayenne into a clean coffee or spice grinder and grind finely. Put into a small bowl and mix well with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Now add the lemon juice and olive oil and stir in well.
Pour the jalapeño peppers and dressing over the lentils and toss thoroughly. Serve warm or chilled. Serves 4 to 6.
I don’t like marinara aka “red sauce.” I like my pastas chunky! I am in a bit of a pasta rut lately. I want to find recipes that are interesting, simple, and nutritious but usually the best recipes I can find involve meat or gobs of cheese. Don’t get me wrong, cheese is delicious and often essential to pasta dishes, but I want a little variety. I picked mushroom ragu from Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food. Chunks, tasty, nutritious, simple preparation with complex flavor… everything I was looking for! I served it on fancy colorful Italian pasta that my friend Erica left in my pantry in August and ate it with my neighbor Jamey.
Mushroom Ragu
olive oil and butter for cooking
1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced fine
1 large carrot, peeled and diced fine
2 celery stalks, diced fine
pinch of dried thyme or 6 thyme sprigs, leaves only
6 parsley sprigs, leaves only, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
2 pounds of mushrooms (I used white button but Alice advises a mixture of two or three types like chanterelles, black trumpets, hedgehogs, brown or white button)
1/2 cup cream or creme fraiche
1 cup water, vegetable broth, or chicken broth
salt
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery with some salt and cook until tender. Add the herbs. Cook for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Set aside. Clean the mushrooms if they are dirty. Saute each type of mushroom separately until tender and lightly browned in olive oil and a little butter. Turn the cooked mushrooms onto a cutting board and chop to the size of the vegetables. Combine with the vegetables and herbs and add the cream and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Serve over pasta. Makes about 2 cups.
The soffritto or mirepoix
Cookin’ the mushrooms
Filed under: Italian, rice | Tags: cheese, gorgonzola, Italian, rice, risotto, vegetarian
This is the ultimate comfort food. Not only is it incredibly rich but it forces me to slow down during its preparation and relieve the stress of life as a college senior. I had everything for this except for the wine on hand. I went to McNally’s and bought Veramonte, a very good Chilean Sauvignon blanc that is modestly priced at $10.99 (not exactly Carlo Rossi cheap but incomprably better). I also used vegetable broth instead of beef broth but you can follow the recipe if you prefer.
Gorgonzola Risotto
2 1/2 cups aborio or other risotto rice
5 tbl unsalted butter
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 glass of white wine, warmed
1 1/2 quarts simmering beef broth
1/2 lb of gorgonzola (1/3 dolce, 2/3 picante… I didn’t follow this)
1 tbl cream
Saute the onion in the butter over low heat until golden. Remove onion with a slotted spoon and toast the rice in the butter over medium heat for a few minutes, coating the grains with fat. Add the onion and wine and cook until evaporated (this will happen quickly). Add broth one ladle at a time. When half cooked (the rule of thumb for risotto is that you’ll be done 17 minutes after you add the wine, but taste it constantly so as not to overcook it and get a mushy risotto), stir in the cheese. Stir to make sure the cheese doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan. Keep adding ladles until cooked al dente (a little chewy still). When done, stir in cream. Serves 6.
From: http://italianfood.about.com/od/creamyrisotti/r/blr0468.htm
Filed under: Italian, Legumes, rice, soup, vegan | Tags: beans, grain, herbs, kale, kasha, rice, soup, vegan, vegetarian
I try a lot of different recipes but soup has never turned out badly for me. I think that’s why it onto here so often. I clipped this out of a magazine last year (sadly I forget which one) and have since shared it wiht family and friends to their delight. It is incredibly healthy and nourishing and probably tastes better than any other soup you have ever had.
Hearty Grain Soup with Beans and Greens
2 tbls olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 cloves garlic
4 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups cooked kasha (I used brown rice… you put it in uncooked, so 1/2 cup)
15 oz can crushed tomatoes
15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I used 1/2 cup dried, soaked overnight, pre-cooked)
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 lb kale, trimmed and chopped (you can use other greens but some hold their shape better than others)
3 tbls chopped fresh parsely
2-3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1. Heat 1 tbls olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, cook 3 min. Add garlic, cook 5 more minutes.
2. Stir in broth, kasha/rice, tomatoes, 1 cup beans, oregano, and rosemary. Bring to boil. Press half of kale/spinach into liquid until it wilts.
3. Press remaining kale/spinach into liquid. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 15-20 minutes.
4. Puree remaining beans in food processor. Add pureed beans, parsely, and remaining 1 tbl olive oil to soup. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
Per serving: 204 cal, 8g prot, 6g total fat (1g sat fat), 33g carb, 0mg chol, 521mg sod (with low-sodium broth), 7g fiber, 5g sugars
Filed under: Uncategorized
This year my parents and sister were coming to Grinnell for Thanksgiving and I wanted to get a locally raised turkey. I started to investigate and found that a music professor at my school raises turkeys along with goats, chickens, geese, and sheep. I could buy a turkey for $2/pound + $4… or I could join seven other students the Saturday before Thanksgiving and “process” the 26 turkeys (a euphemism for butchering).
Eric, the owner, doesn’t have any processing equipment so we hung the live turkeys by their feet on a homemade wooden frame where they would be killed, submerged them in near-boiling water over an open wood fire, plucked the feathers while hanging on the wooden frame, and gutted them on a nearby picnic table, all in below-freezing weather.
I picked out a 16 pounder and stuck it in my fridge. It was especially delicious, in large part because my dad did a great job at roasting it but also because the breast was especially meaty (we carved more meat from the breast than you would usually get from an entire 16 pound turkey) and there was no doubt that it had been a healthy bird.
I tried to choose a less gruesome picture:
Eric shows us how to pluck the feathers
