Kiki and Gregg's

Back in June 2012 I had the honor of writing a guest blog on Kiki and Greg Webb's Blogsite. Now they have returned the favor by posting for my readers a wonderful vegan dish that I will be trying out for myself asap! What a Valentine's Day for all of us! These two talented people not only write about food and are constantly coming up with new vegetarian as well as vegan delights. They are also very talented musicians as well, among other things.

Recipe for Besan Chilla with Greg's Special Sauce

Kiki & Greg Webb

Greg's Special Sauce

     This sauce looks delicious, healthy and easily-made. It could easily become your next fave sauce for almost ANY dish.

Ingredients

1 fresh red bell pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

1/3 cup raw almonds

juice of a lemon or a lime (about 4T or 1/4 cup)

1/2 teaspoon of your favorite mineral-rich salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

I large clove of garlic

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Put all ingredients in a blender, except the olive oil and cilantro.  Blend until smooth.  With blender running, slowly drizzle olive oil and blend until sauce is thick.  Stop blender and unplug.  Stir in chopped cilantro with a long wooden spoon.  Pour into serving container.

Kiki's Besan Chilla (Vegan Veggie Omelette)

(makes 8 - 10)

     Besan is another word for garbanzo flour, a naturally gluten-free and high-protein flour that is popular in many places around the world. As one example, it is made into "Socca", a crispy thin crepe that is a common street food in France. In Italy it is called "Farinata" and is sold in bakeries. In Argentina, "Faina" is served atop pizza. As an Indian breakfast food, "Chilla" or "Puda" is often served as a vegan type of "omelette". Previous to Kiki and Gregg's recipe, my own experience with garbanzo flour was as an important ingredient in Samosas, an Indian version of Japanese Vegetable Tempura. 

     What Kiki says about her Besan Omelette: "One is plenty for me.  The boys like two or three!"

Ingredients

2 cups of garbanzo flour

2-3 cups of water, depending upon water content of veggies

1 T oil

1/2 cup grated zucchini

1/2 cup grated summer squash

1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/3 cup finely chopped sweet onion

3/4 cup chopped fresh spinach

1/4 cup of grated carrot

1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed well

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 tsp. mineral rich salt (or to taste)

add crushed red pepper for heat, if desired

fresh avocado slices

your favorite sprouts

Olive oil or Earth Balance spread for skillet

In a medium bowl, whisk garbanzo flour with salt, turmeric and optional crushed red pepper flakes.  Add olive oil and 2 cups of the water and stir until well-blended. Add zucchini, squash, bell pepper, onion, spinach, carrot, black beans and stir gently to combine.  Let sit for 10 - 15 minutes.  Add more water to achieve the consistency of a thin pancake batter.

Heat large skillet to the temperature you would for pancakes.  On our current electric stove we set the largest burner to one setting shy of medium.  Add 1 tablespoon of oil or Earth Balance buttery spread.  When the skillet is hot (but not smoking) add 1/2 cup of your veggie/garbanzo batter and spread it out into a 5-6 inch circle.  Allow the edges to dry out and bubbles to form on the pancake.  When the top is almost dry, flip it over with a pancake turner, and cook the other side.  The second side will cook much faster than the first.  When both sides are golden (garbanzo flour browns SO nicely) remove the pancake from the pan to a large plate.  Add avocado slices to one half of the pancake and salt the avocado.  Drizzle Greg's Special Sauce on top of the avocado.  Fold the other half of the "omelette" over the avocado and sauce.  Top with sprouts and more sauce, if desired.

 

          I now realize that all of my life I have been a “foodie”, although that word wasn’t even in use when I was growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s. For many of us, food is closely linked to positive memories, and therefore evokes within us emotional responses. This was certainly true in my case, as most of my fondest memories centered around, or else somehow involved FOOD! Perhaps it was just the unconditional love that I was almost always given by two sets of loving grandparents as well as my own parents, aunts, uncles, etc.

          As one example, when I was three years old and spending my summers at the Jersey shore, my Granny Goose loved to set me up outside on sunny days with my own tea party. My Pop Pop, a carpenter/contractor had created a little table for me out of scraps of leftover wood. I had my own tiny tea set and willingly “shared” the little red packets of raisins with my “babies”, the dolls and stuffies I was so fond of taking care of.

          During the winter my other set of grandparents lived in a big old house with my family, including my cousin, who had been orphaned. Since we were the same ages, we became like sisters. This grandmother (the one I dedicated my cookbook to, “Lady Virginia”) loved to eat and to cook for others. She was also a night owl who enjoyed staying up until the late show went off the air around 2 am. One night when we were four years old, she surprised Cousin Lynne and me by waking us in the wee hours and asking us: “Would like some warm cherry pie with vanilla ice cream?”  Did we ever! Leaping out of bed and entering her inner sanctum, that cheery yellow kitchen she was almost always in, we three enjoyed clandestine moments of sheer happiness together, laughing and chattering amid bites of sweet bliss, while my Grandpa snored away. Grandma was an example of someone who liked to cook and create in the kitchen, and just HAD to share her latest creation with someone, even if it was four am!

          By contrast, my Granny Goose at the Jersey shore had a lot of common sense, and served healthful food that kept me healthy and happy. She bought whole-grain bread right off the bread truck and lots of fresh fruits and veggies in season from the farm stand. My favorite was blueberries, which I could never seem to eat enough of!  Although we indulged in such delights as ice cream, dessert at her house was often “a poor man’s dessert”, consisting of a slice of whole-grain bread and butter. It would never have occurred to her to bake a pie at 2 am and then wake me to eat it in the middle of the night!

           My uncles nurtured my early interest in cooking and baking by gifting me with an E-Z Bake oven when I was eight. All too soon, however, I outgrew this in favor of creating dishes using my mom’s real stove and oven. 

          I was an avid reader and later realized that almost all my favorite scenes from books somehow revolved around FOOD as a theme. I vividly remember Heidi telling us about The Grandfather up in the little hut in the Swiss Alps where they lived. He would take fresh apples, freshly-made goat cheese and a stick, and roast them over the hut’s little fireplace. These they would spread on freshly-baked bread from the Village mill.

          In THE SECRET GARDEN, little Miss Mary feasted on Colin’s mother’s biscuits and potatoes from their humble cottage garden, and it became part of the reason for her return to health, along with time out of doors in the fresh moor air with her cousin and friend, tending their secret garden together and exercising.

          Movies’ greatest moments also seem to involve food in one way or another. The most often remembered scene from “Lady & the Tramp” is the sharing by Tramp of his treasured Italian restaurant back-door spaghetti & meat balls with his new love, Lady.

          “It’s a Wonderful Life” shares with us the simple ritual house blessing involving salt, bread and wine.

          “Moonstruck” is fraught with food themes, from a restaurant public after-dinner proposal to a morning breakfast table proposal at the end of the film.

          After Michael, the battling angel, returns to heaven in “Michael”, his traveling companions adopt his habit of putting a kazillion sugar cubes into their tea and coffee.

          One of the most meaningful moments for me in “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”, is when Claire comes out into the cold rain with a loaf of homemade bread to offer to Francesco and his followers.

          I could go on, but I’m pretty sure you all have your fave food-themed moments if you stop to think about it.   

          Just because I’m a vegan does not mean that I can’t appreciate film’s greatest food moments as well as pages from a beloved book. Some of the food is vegan but even if it is not, that doesn’t stop me from appreciating this ritual that most of us are fortunate enough to share with others three times a day. The sharing of food in the United States even has its own special holiday, Thanksgiving. Among the vegan community, we also celebrate this important Day of Thanks by creating a “gentle Thanksgiving”, in which no animals are sacrificed. See you next month when I promise to share a recipe.  

THANKSGIVING WITH THE THREE SISTERS

            This is a lovely Native American legend for old and young alike, recorded from an Iroquois storyteller by Lois Thomas of Cornwall Island, Canada. Telling the story this Thanksgiving may inspire even the youngest child to try a few bites of Succotash, a traditional dish the settlers learned from the Native Americans. It usually consists of the staples of maize (or corn, as we call it) squash (whose family includes the pumpkin) and beans, which might be lima beans or any other variety of green bean or pea. Try it with Edamame, or green soybeans. Below this tale is a recipe for zingy SOUTHWESTERN SUCCOTASH.

THE THREE SISTERS* LEGEND

            "Three sisters lived together in a field. One sister, dressed in green, was so young she could only crawl. The second sister wore a bright yellow frock. The third sister was the oldest. She wore a pale green shawl and had yellow hair that blew in the wind. She stood straight and tall above the others and protected them.

            One day, the sisters chanced upon a young Indian boy as fearless as the eagle that circles the sky. Each of them was curious about his home and the way he lived. They watched him fit his arrow into his bow; saw him carve a bowl with his stone knife, and wondered where he went at night. First, the youngest sister followed him home. Then the second sister dressed in yellow followed her younger sister. The eldest sister grew sad because she could not live alone. Finally, she too followed the boy. The three sisters were so happy to be reunited and felt so welcome in the boy's home that they decided to stay.

            Everyone knows these three sisters and needs them just as much as the little boy did: for the little sister in green is the BEAN; her older sister in yellow is the SQUASH; and the eldest sister with the green shawl and yellow hair is the MAIZE or CORN."

   

              *The CORN, which is planted first, gives the bean vines support as they begin to grow; the SQUASH is planted next and helps to suffocate intruding weeds, thus protecting the young beans as they grow; the BEANS are planted last, and as they mature, produce nitrogen to feed the soil and fertilize the corn. Thus, the Three Sisters live in a symbiotic relationship, helping each other to thrive.

SOUTHWESTERN SUCCOTASH

            I found this easy recipe in a magazine, created by Sam Arnold, owner of The Fort, a restaurant near Denver, Colorado that is a full-size adobe replica of the first permanent trading post in Colorado. I like to make it with the superfood green soybean, also known as Edamame. It is a wonderfully zingy new way to incorporate the "three sisters" of corn, beans and squash into your Thanksgiving holiday.

INGREDIENTS:

2 packages frozen Edamame (shelled soy beans) OR baby Lima beans

1 package frozen corn

2 zucchini and 2 yellow squash*, steamed

1/2 c. roasted salted sunflower seeds

4 oz. pimento OR 1 red bell pepper, minced

1-2 fresh jalapeno peppers, minced**

2 T. olive oil

Cumin, chipotle powder and sea salt to taste

Cilantro for garnish    

DIRECTIONS:

            1. Steam the corn and lima beans together just until tender.

            2. Steam the zucchini and yellow squash together just until tender.

            3. Sauté the jalapeno peppers and red bells together in olive oil for several

                minutes.

            4. Add to the steamed veggies, along with the sunflower seeds and seasonings,

                mixing well and  adjusting any seasonings.

            5. Garnish with the fresh cilantro and serve.

*You could also use pumpkin, acorn squash or another type of winter squash.

**Wear latex gloves when handling hot peppers.

May you feel Especially Blessed on this special day of the year for Giving Thanks.

QUINOA TABBOULEH (Continued from Sept. blog)

            October is traditionally a month of change. In Florida, the long hot summer is finally winding down, and with the children now back in school, it’s time to think about serving heartier meals, full of extra protein and nutrition to help power their brains and bodies. In the South, however, the hot weather may continue for at least another month, so that we continue to crave cooling foods.

            This year I discovered a recipe on the back of a package of Bob’s Red Mill Organic Quinoa that led me to ask myself: “Why didn’t I think of this before?” It combines the wonderfully healthy elements of Tabbouleh (“Taboule”, “Tabouli”), a traditional Middle-Eastern grain salad that is created with bulghur, a type of steamed whole wheat. The difference in this recipe is that the bulghur is now replaced with the highly nutritive QUINOA. (See my Sept. blog for details on its nutritive properties).

            The other raw or minimally-processed ingredients that turn it into a salad (tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, green onions, fresh parsley, basil, mint, lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil) are here in this new version of Tabbouleh. Feel free to add even more of the fresh herbs and veggies to turn it into an even greener type of salad. As the cooler Florida weather sets in, this Tabbouleh may also be gently heated and served as a delightful side dish to accompany an entrée. As in many other dishes containing garlic and pungent herbs, QUINOA TABBOULEH becomes even more flavorful if served the next day.

QUINOA TABBOULEH

           

INGREDIENTS FOR PREPARING THE QUINOA:

The easy directions for washing and cooking quinoa, and then transforming it into QUINOA TABBOULEH are listed below.

1 c. natural quinoa, washed* (see WASHING DIRECTIONS below)

1 ½ c water

1 medium-small heavy saucepan, such as a rice pan

*WASHING DIRECTIONS (takes an extra minute):

1.      Pour 1 cup of quinoa into a medium-sized bowl. Add enough water to cover the quinoa.

2.  Using the palms of your hands, gather handfuls of the quinoa in your

     palms and lightly scrub to wash off the outer coating.

     3.   Using a fine-holed strainer, pour the quinoa from the bowl into

           the strainer, rinsing well under running water until the water runs clear.

4.      Repeat steps #1 through #3.

5.      Your quinoa is now ready for cooking.

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

1.  Pour the washed quinoa into the saucepan.

2.  Add 1½ cups water, and bring to a boil, just as you would brown rice.

3.  Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover with a lid, and simmer for 20 minutes,

     until the water is absorbed and the coverings on the quinoa seeds unfurl

     into little curlicues.

4.  Cooling the quinoa in the pan allows it to become fluffier.

5.  While the quinoa is cooling, prepare the rest of the ingredients to make the

     QUINOA  TABBOULEH.

QUINOA TABBOULEH INGREDIENTS:

Pan of cooked and cooled quinoa (see above)

6 green onions, finely sliced

1 c. tomatoes (1 large tomato or 2 medium), minced

1 cucumber, peeled and grated

2 T. lemon juice (about ½ lemon)

3 (or more) T. extra virgin olive oil

¾ c. fresh Italian parsley, minced

¼ c. fresh mint, minced

2 T. fresh basil, minced (optional but delicious)

3-4 large cloves garlic, crushed

Cayenne or black pepper to taste

Sea salt to taste

QUINOA TABBOULEH DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium-large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, stirring until well-

    mixed.

2. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more if necessary.

3. Store in the fridge in a covered container.

4. This is an excellent side dish* when served chilled as a grain salad OR

    heated gently and served hot.

*You can also serve this as a main dish by adding 1 can chickpeas, 1 c. frozen peas or edamame, or 1 c. firm marinated tofu or tempeh to give it even more protein and substance. ENJOY!