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samirgianni · 6 years

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Placeholder - Aug #3

Last Thursday a couple of events coincided. The Ecological Farmers of Ontario (EFAO) held their first-ever fund-raising dinner at the The New Farm, which is just 45 minutes away from us. It was also my birthday, so I strong-armed Mr. Ferdzy into going as a birthday treat. Since we were in a wild and reckless mood, we took my Mom too. At $150 each, that was a bit wild and reckless. Still, I think this is about the second time in 30 years together that I have made Mr. Ferdzy take me out for my birthday so on a pro-rated basis he has not done badly. We arrived in the late afternoon and enjoyed some drinks and nibbles before dinner, which was to be served in the barn - you can see one of the tables at the far right of the photo. We didn't know too many people so we milled around for a while. People seemed to be pretty friendly, and being the world's dorkiest conversationalist, I tried to break the ice by asking, "So, are you a farmer?" There were some, but mostly people weren't, is my impression.

Guillermo, one of the chefs from Richmond Station restaurant, passes out appetizers and chats with some of the guests. Guillermo - gosh I hope I have that name right, somebody please correct me if I don't - actually works at the farm, growing vegetables in the large (laaarge) kitchen garden, which then go to the restaurant in Toronto. Except for the ones that are eaten on the spot, of course. The New Farm has a very efficient and attractive cooking and dining set-up and meals and events happen there regularly.

I can tell you who two of these people are; Mr Ferdzy and the famous Mom, both on the right. The man in the violet shirt is Thorsten Arnold, who told me that "his wife is the farmer, he just helps some" and not that he is the Strategic Initiatives and Fundraising Coordinator for EFAO. But I guess it serves me right; I asked him if he was a farmer.

A couple of the chefs haul vegetable scraps out to the poultry pen. The chickens are plainly prepared for this routine, and mobbed the scraps as soon as they were dumped.

Gillian Flies (left) and Brent Preston (centre) are the farmers behind The New Farm. They introduced themselves and the event, and then we heard a few words from Ali English (right) who is the executive director of EFAO.

Next Gillian and Brent gave a tour of the farm. They talked about their conversion to a no-till system, newly implemented, and the changes they are already seeing. Behind them is one of their fields, recently mown, in which a "cocktail" cover crop had been grown. Sunflowers, radishes, and an assortment of other plants were grown to pull up nutrients from the depths of the soil and provide organic matter. They will compost over the winter then provide improved soil for spring planting.

The New Farm started as a mixed vegetable farm, but has evolved to supply mostly salad greens to mostly restaurants (about 70 of them, between Toronto and Collingwood) and a few markets; about 20 of those. That white streak in the background is another field of greens, being kept under row covers to keep the pests out.

One of the new features of the no-till system is the use of tarps to prepare planting areas, by killing the weeds, and possibly warming the soil. Although as Brent said, that has not exactly been an issue this year. The photo above makes it clear that there are surprising differences between the covered spots and the uncovered spots. Ignore the lettuce on the right and focus on the spinach seedlings in the centre. The ones on the right were planted in the area that had been covered by a tarp. The ones on the left were planted in the area which was not covered. There was a very distinct line between the two! The tarps they are using are made of a plastic film, actually for use with silage on dairy farms, as it is readily available and affordable.

Next we all trooped over to the "kitchen garden" The woman in the front there is Fran McQuail, one of the founders of the EFAO, of Meeting Place Organic Farm. She is looking at the beds of carrots, which are being grown as part of a trial of carrot seeds. EFAO does a lot of farmer-led research, which it turns out is a lot more complex, expensive and generally not done, than you would have thought. Because ecological farmers don't tend to be big consumers of industrial farm products, they don't tend to have much research done on their behalf. This is one of the real benefits of belonging to EFAO.

Guillermo and Katrina McQuail in the garden.

And then, it was time for dinner. I took a picture of this first plate that was brought out, a delicious sign of things to come, with hummus, quinoa tabbouleh, roasted tomatoes, arugula and amazing little homemade pita breads - the extra touch that let us know that dinner, by chef Carl Heinrich of Richmond Station, was going to something out of the ordinary. After that the dishes came fast and furious, and I was too busy eating and talking to our neighbours to take any pictures. There were some really delicious beets with yogurt and mint (yes, there was a definite middle-eastern vibe going on); there was charred eggplant with yogurt and corn; stuffed pattypan squash; and a fairly simply cooked pastured chicken with grilled scallions. It was all so good!

At the very end I remembered to take one more picture of the very impressive peach shortcake which finished the meal, as we listened to a short speech from Tony McQuail. It wasn't quite as dark as the photo makes it out to be; but I did need to use the flash. After that we headed out, as we still had a bit of a drive to get home. It was a very enjoyable evening and I was sorry to see it end. from Seasonal Ontario Food https://seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/2018/08/placeholder-aug-3.html

#Seasonal Ontario Food

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andy-abroad · 7 years

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Luxor_02

June.10.2017 Hello hello- Today has been a great day, and a long day, but a great day! It started this morning at 6am. My alarm went off. I was pretty tired, but super excited. I didn't have the best night's sleep. Although there is a ceiling fan in the room that works very well, it was still so hot. The sun sets in the direction of my room (like at home) so it turns it into an oven. The walls, and even the mattress just retain heat. It took a while to fall asleep, but I got some rest and woke up ready for the day. To beat the heat, I asked the tour to come at 7am, instead of 9. 6am was also an option, but I thought that was a little aggressive. I woke up and immediately forced myself to eat the burgers I had saved from last night. It wasn't the most pleasant, but I knew I needed energy, so I washed it down with some water. I got ready and packed a few things in a bag. I knew I wasn't going to sketch. It just wasn't going to happen due to the heat, so I only brought my Polaroid, my external charger, water, and sunblock. I applied sunblock all over and before I knew it, it was 6:55. Also, side note, so glad I bought these linen pants. They breathe so well, and protect my legs from the sun. They were so awesome in Egypt. I definitely didn't want to wear shorts out of respect, even though they know that I'm a tourist. I met my driver downstairs and my guide. One is Muslim (driver) and the other is Christian. We started the day by driving to the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It's about a 40 minute drive, as the bridge is located away from the city. This was done to protect the purity of the waterfront, and to preserve the atmosphere of Luxor. There used to be a ferry, I was told, but they stopped its use as it stirred up the river too much. On he way there, the guide sat with me in the back and explained a bit of history and a bit of Luxor as it is today. They are still a huge agrarian based economy, with one of the largest sugar cane industries in the world. They are also known for their fruits, especially bananas. Mangos, dates, figs, grapes, all thrive in the fertile soil. It's true. When I was flying in, the Nile was like a cut in the dry sand, with green all around it. Upon arrival at the temple complex, we took a small train (like the ones at the mall for kids) and rode up to the entrance. It was cut deep into the rock. Here I learned that Christians actually used it as a monastery, and had destroyed some parts of it. Also, I learned that it was the polish people who restored the temple. It is a three story complex, and until about 100 years ago, the bottom two floors were buried in sand, which actually preserved the paint quite well. All the paint I saw today was original, meaning thousands of years old. They don't restore the paint out of respect to the passage of time. I was really... in awe of the structure, not because of its presence physically, but more due to the fact that like other works, it's something I studied for so long and finally got to walk and see. My guide was very knowledgeable and took me around the whole complex. At the end, he gave me free time to wander and see it at my own pace, which was awesome! It was here that I walked into the last chamber. One of the docents pointed at something on the wall. I looked. He kept trying to get me to take photos, and when I turned to leave he asked me for a tip. Very annoying. He just pointed. I walked briskly away and met back up with my guide. As a side note, my guide was very good, but I think he was not feeling well? I am not sure. He was very out of breath and just had a hard time throughout the day. It was a bit troublesome at times, as I know he, like so many others, are more than a little desperate for job stability. More on that later. Our next stop was the valley of the kings, or where the Pharos were buried in secret as to protect themselves from grave robbers and such. This complex is still being excavated, but has recently been abandoned, more or less, because the government will not spend money on it. It was also here that I learned the location of king Tut's funeral mask is not in Luxor, but at the Cairo museum!!!! I am definitely regretting not going to see it, as I didn't have the time. I do have that 5 hour layover in Cairo tomorrow morning, maybe I'll try and go! Haha. In the valley of the kings, I got to go into the burial chambers of several kings, including king tut's but no photography was allowed, and they were strict about this. It was impressive to see all of these tunnels cut out of sheer rock. The labor it must have taken, the treasures they must have held. My guide told me that the ancient government stopped paying these craftsmen well, so they rebelled and started robbing the graves. The funerary rites and beliefs of the afterlife were so intricate and really played out on the walls and paintings. After the tombs, we walked back to the car and I drank water. I learned from my precious mistake of not bringing my own water and quickly downed it all. At this point, my guide wanted to take me to where "local artisans" paint and sculpt in the inherited style, but I strictly told him I wasn't interested. I said I didn't want to buy anything and he kept telling me That it was mostly for cultural value, but I held my ground. I could tell he was disappointed or annoyed, but I really just wasn't up for being sold more things. He also Said this was a chance for him to drink water and take a rest, as out of respect he didn't like to drink in front of people during Ramadan, which I felt badly about, but I chose to be selfish. We drove back to the east bank, the bank of life, which took about another 40 minutes. During this time I looked up how much I should tip a tour guide. I found out that I grossly over tipped my woman in Cairo. I was also upset because I began to realize that she didn't do a good job at all of explaining. Even if my guide today was being a bit repetitive, he asked me questions and really wanted to have a conversation about what I wanted to learn about. Anyways, we got to Luxor Temple, which I had walked around yesterday but didn't enter. Here, he gave me a ton of information about why it was built, how, and by whom. It took two hundred years to complete, and was worked on by several Pharos. It even depicted events from the Bible, like Joseph's time in Egypt and the collection of grain in preparation for a famine. Like so many other structures, the Muslims, Christians, and other invaders all did their part to destroy or reuse these spaces. A mosque was built on top of one of the gate walls, as it used to be buried in sand, while the christians painted frescoes of the last supper in one of the back rooms. It was really interesting to see the layers of history and of conquest. At the end of this, I needed to get some money from an ATM (one located right across the street). I grabbed my cash and went to get water. The price for 1.5L of water is 4 Egyptian pounds, here, it was 15! I couldn't bring myself to buy it, even in dollars it's 25 cents vs. 75. In retrospect it's silly. My guide agreed that it's a steep price, but that it's not just because I'm a tourist, but also because his shop is right across the street from the temple and rent is higher. I felt very foolish. We got to our final destination, Karnak temple, which is where I was last night. While my guide was paying for the tickets, I grabbed a bottle of water. It was 20 Egyptian pounds, which I happily paid. My guide and I laughed about that. Again, my guide took me through all the rooms, explaining the importance of each, and showing me really interesting things cut into the stone. Here, there were depictions of slaves and of conquests. There was also a portion showing soldiers cutting off hands. The soldiers cut the hands off of their prisoners to keep count, but also to torture and kill them slowly. Yikes! I took a ton of photos, had some free time to wander, and then it was time to get lunch. On my way out, I picked up two post cards and a stamp. The man tried to charge me 50 Egyptian pounds. If I were alone I would have haggled down to maybe 25, but I settled at 40. Throughout the day my guide and I had a conversation about the tourism industry and the economy. It was really sad to hear that many guides that went to school for it had to go and work in the fields because they get no support from the government, and not many people come on holiday. We got to lunch and originally my guide was going to go home to eat, but he decided to stay. We went to a nice restaurant. I was also really mad about eating falafel, because I think the woman took me somewhere cheap and pocketed the rest of the money in Cairo! I ordered some chicken, and a lot of 반찬 came with it. A great lentil soup, some pickles the way mama makes, a cucumber salad, and really delicious grilled eggplant. It also came with pita bread. I enjoyed my food and my guide and I continued to chat. He didn't eat which was kind of awkward. He told me that he's in the process of trying to immigrate to Canada with his family as the job situation is not so great in Egypt. He says more and more people are seeking to leave, especially Christian's, as the government is somewhat oppressing them. I finished my meal, tipped the waiter, and we were on our way back. We dropped the guide off at the train station down the street from my hotel. I tipped him and thanked him for his time. I over tipped him as well, but he deserved it, and earned it! We then made our way to the hotel I tipped the driver as well and headed inside. I saw the man who took me on the boat and just hurried to my room. I quickly took off my money belt and sat for a bit. I drank water and wrote a post card. I wanted to send it before I left so I searched for a post office, and luckily there was one down the street. It was closed but it had s little slot to drop off mail. I really hope any of my post cards make it. I also hope that slot was for mail. It was in Arabic so I couldn't tell! I walked back to the hostel, grabbed some waters and a mango juice, and took a nap. The heat is super tiring. I know I keep saying that, but it's true! I woke up from my nap, went downstairs to pay for my cab (only 75 pounds in comparison to the 150 I paid at the airport...), showered, packed and organized, and now I'm here! While cleaning, I realized I drank 14L of water (4 gallons) in two days! I learned my lesson from last night and have opened my window. The ventilation is helping regulate the temperature. I think yesterday the fan was just pushing the hot air around, that didn't really have anywhere to go. The downside is that the street is noisy, and I'm trying to sleep early as my flight tomorrow is at 5:30a. I have a. 5:30a flight to Cairo, a 1:25p flight to Kuwait, a 9p flight to Mumbai and I arrive at 4a. It's going to be a long day. Anyways, I will leave it here. Until tomorrow--

#Luxor

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radiant-silver-gal · 7 years

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how i cook

So, I certainly consider cooking a creative endeavor. And my roommate keeps mentioning me when people talk about going vegetarian, not to mention I occasionally see such inquiries myself. So I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and I suppose I feel this is the most appropriate place to put it all down. I was raised vegetarian by my parents and have never really cooked meat in my life. I spent a few years sometimes eating meat when at friends’ places or at restaurants, but I eventually decided I wasn’t that into it and became more invested in ethical/environmental concerns. So now I’m pretty eager to help people be vegetarian/vegan if they want, though I really hate feeling like I’m pressuring people.

Anyway, as far as cooking goes, I don’t really follow recipes closely (unless I’m, like, baking, obviously); it’s more like, I have certain habits for how to do things and it’s really easy to adapt pretty much anything made out of vegetables and stuff to them. So, sorry if this comes off as pretty vague, I hope it still maybe helps? You can skip to Part 3 if you just want to see me talk about specific things I make.

Part 1: A few things I use all the time and pretty much can’t live without

Pressure cooker: basically you could look at this as “only” letting you cook dried beans in about an hour without soaking first (though, aside from black beans from what I know, it still doesn’t hurt), but if you’re like me and not very good at planning far ahead that’s pretty huge. My mom will just throw a bunch of stuff in and blast the whole thing until it turns into soup, though this will make your vegetables super soft and requires a much larger pot. I have a small one (4 quarts maybe?) and just cook all my other stuff in parallel so I can pour the beans in at the end. There’s also Instant Pots, which...I’ve never used, so I have no real input on this, sorry. I know a lot of people who love them.

Other pans/pots: we have a couple small saucepans I usually cook rice and leftovers in (we don’t have a microwave or a rice cooker...there’s no space), plus there’s a big stock pot I use for soups (and cooking noodles) and a large skillet for stirfries and stuff.

Rice: I know lots of people don’t like brown rice and it’s one of those things I prefer because I was raised on it, but I really like the flavor and think it complements things well. Regardless it’s easy to cook and a pretty inexpensive staple; I think I buy bags for like $2.50 that last like 5-6 meals for two of us? I usually do about 1 cup per dinner, and will roll over leftovers. Since we usually get two dinners out of stuff I end up doing 2-2.5 cups with most full preparations. Rice cookers are very nice to have but I kinda accidentally made it a year without one.

I’m glad I have it now though.

Garlic and Onions: I don’t care what a recipe says, I pretty much always put both of these in everything. A garlic press is very handy to have, but like many things that haven’t always existed, not absolutely necessary. You can take a kinda big flattish knife and crush the garlic pieces with the side before cutting them up to still get great results.

Canned tomatoes: Super useful base for all kinds of soups and sauces, etc. I make spaghetti sauce all the time starting with canned tomatoes (though obviously fresh ones are really nice when they’re plentiful in the fall).

Stuff I use a lot but would probably consider not strictly necessary: broth (I like “Better than Boullion” brand pastes, both the vegetable broth and the one that imitates chicken stock; it mixes with water you’re already using so a ~$5 jar will go much further than cans/boxed broth too. I probably use too much and a jar still lasts me a few months), and soy sauce (my family basically just straight up uses San-J brand instead of salt in almost everything, even scrambled eggs. It’s not super cheap and may be hard to find but it’s just something I’ve gotten too used to to live without. I would not buy any kind that has sugar in it for primary use, though more than anything that’s because it weirds me out I guess)

“Meat substitutes” - I kind of hate this term since most of the stuff I actually use is not actually like meat in any real way. I guess it works for some people but since I never liked it too much in the first place I don’t need it. The main exception is the Field Roast brand sausages: the Chipotle one in particular is a great combination that’s amazingly delicious with eggs and useful any time you want some smoky spice and that kind of protein texture together. But even then I tend to stick with seitan (I think the texture is great, and apparently you can make it yourself cheaply and without too much trouble, but I haven’t tried myself. But it’s important to note that it’s also made of gluten.) and tofu (a Vietnamese grocery I like in Denver sells it cheap, fresh-made and pressed. I wish so badly I still lived near it, if you can find something like that where you live it’s unbeatable). I also like tempeh a lot, but it’s on the expensive side by weight and considerably weirder in appearance, texture and taste. Definitely worth a try if you’re curious or other options don’t work well for you, though.

Part 2. General methods

Pretty much everything I do starts with an appropriate pan and sauteing onions and garlic. There’s a bunch of reasons to do this, but basically it’s also easiest because you can mostly leave the onions alone for a few minutes while you keep working on the other vegetables without worrying about anything bad happening. For the most part a good approximation of what should cook longest is what’s hardest to cut, so roots like potatoes/sweet potatoes/carrots should probably go into whatever you’re making before things like zucchini or peppers. The big exception is eggplant, which you pretty much always want to cook as long as you possibly can. (There are other things you can do to make up for this, but again, I’m too lazy for them.)

Now, in the end, if you’re making soup or something you don’t have to stress too much about this since most things can just simmer for quite a while without getting messed up; you mostly want to watch out for certain green things like chard/kale/spinach leaves or broccoli florets which can definitely start to become less appealing if overcooked. With greens you should cut out most of the stem (unless they’re like baby greens where that part is already going to be soft) and cook it with the other vegetables, then put in the leaves when you’re almost done because they’ll wilt the way you want so quickly.

Most things I make have rice, pasta, or beans, so like I said I’ll usually cook those on the side and combine when everything is done individually. I don’t think there’s too much to be said about that. Overall this is stuff I don’t even think about much so if these explanations are too vague I’m sorry, maybe just ask me for more clarification?

Basically in general I estimate how much of an ingredient to get/use based on like...sort of arbitrary assessments of how big my pans are, how much I think we’ll eat, etc. Stuff like canned tomatoes come in fixed amounts obviously, so there’s less worrying about that. For my purposes I almost always use large ones (~30oz in america) because I cook a fair amount of food at once.

Part 3: These Aren’t Recipes Because I Just Do Whatever I Feel Like

Ok, so here’s some stuff I either do or used to cook often. Going to kind of break it down by vegetables, seasonings, and other stuff (like rice or beans that I cook on the side), which will hopefully make it easy to read? Like I said this is all very loose when I do it, so if you don’t have exactly everything, want to try other stuff, it’s obviously not a big deal. Again, unless otherwise mentioned I usually put onions, salt/soysauce and garlic in everything.

Quick/low effort:

Spaghetti sauce:

Side cooking: whatever kind of pasta you want, obviously. You can do up garlic bread too if you like. One 1lb package goes with one can of tomatoes, much like my mom always did with jars.

Main ingredients: tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper, roasted red pepper, zucchini

Seasonings: oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme. Sugar if it turns out too acidic or something.

Notes: obviously if you’ve bought spaghetti sauce before you know there are SO MANY different kinds, so I basically never even put in everything I listed here at once and you should definitely try stuff to see what you like. I tend to stick with safe/traditional picks but I’ll often throw in some capers and hot pepper to mix it up some. Also if you aren’t restricted on dairy, adding some cream will really make everything a lot richer, my family loves it when I do that.

Shakshuka: ok, there actually is a recipe here which was my original inspiration: https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/shakshuka/

Of course, I don’t follow it particularly closely at this point since I hate measuring stuff. Also, get some latex gloves or similar if you’re going to be seeding the peppers (I only do it for this, because in general I like everything really spicy), since it can take a couple days for the risk of accidentally burning yourself to wear off when you’re scraping out all the really hot parts. (If you just cut the peppers up, it’s still not a bad idea, but you’re in a lot less danger either way.)

Tabbouli: (to go with Mediterranean food like hummus, baba ganoush, pita, etc. Which you can mostly prepare yourself but obviously turns the whole meal into a lot more work.)

Side cooking: 2 cups of bulgur wheat. (This arguably makes quite a lot. But we eat a lot. My mom uses quinoa but I don’t like it for many reasons and it’s much more expensive.)

Main ingredients: onion, celery, fresh tomatoes, parsley, mint.

Seasonings: Olive oil, lemon juice.

Notes: the bulgur is the only thing you really cook, though it’s nice to put in the onions while it’s still hot so they soften up a bit. (You can dump the rest in too if you’re in a rush, but if you have a chance to wait a bit it’ll be a little fresher overall.)

Risi bisi: so I guess this is really supposed to be more of a risotto thing, but that’s what my mom calls this anyway. I learned to cook from her and she shortcuts even more than I do. This isn’t anything fancy, just one of her big fallbacks when she has like <45 minutes to make dinner because you really barely have to do anything if you have the ingredients ready to go. I do it occasionally, especially if I’m eating alone since I hate putting *any* effort in if no one else is gonna eat

Ingredients: you basically just pressure cook split peas and rice (similar amounts, with 3 cups of water per cup of split peas and 2 per cup of rice) for about 12 minutes with an onion. and maybe celery if you have some/want to. Right before serving you put frozen peas in, you don’t want them to get really cooked though.

Seasonings: Garlic. Optionally: broth, parmesan cheese, fresh parsley (add those last two at the end as well if you’re doing them)

Medium cooking time/prep effort:

Chili:

Side cooking: 2 cups beans. You can use whatever you want but I tend to focus on black beans, with maybe some kidney beans sometimes.

Main ingredients: Onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, corn (my roommate is allergic, so I usually use sweet potatoes instead. I think they’re also nice), seitan (I often don’t have this available since I can’t just get it on a whim though), zucchini (this is a great neutral vegetable for this)

Seasonings: Oregano, garlic, broth, cumin, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are things I basically always use.

Notes: This is way more “do whatever” than even the spaghetti sauce above. I pretty much try doing different things every time. Cinnamon and cloves are nice subtle flavors associated with Mexican food (but it’s easy to use too much and have them not be subtle anymore). Replacing some of the water with a nice beer gives a lot of interesting flavors. Tons of other seasonings are great in small amounts. You just really don’t want anything to be dominant, I think, the beans and tomatoes are already great on their own.

Stirfry:

Side cooking: Rice. or noodles.

Main ingredients: Onion, eggplant, tofu, broccoli, carrots, peppers, mushrooms (rehydrated shitake or button), asparagus, green beans, cabbage, spinach...whatever you like, honestly

Seasonings: so there’s a few different main ways I go with this. I pretty much always use garlic, ginger, and some chili sauce (maybe not much if you don’t like spicy foods). If I want to keep things basic I might throw on a bit of stuff like rice wine vinegar, miso, five spice, or vegetarian oyster sauce (we have a big bottle because it’s an ingredient in my roommate’s ramen recipe). My mom does a coconut curry thing that I also like sometimes, usually with yellow curry (but I keep meaning to try to make my own), thai basil, and coconut milk. It’s really great with noodles. You can also do a kind of peanut sauce thing with a lot of the same ingredients as above...it’s really open to messing with, which is obviously my style in the first place.

Potato leek soup:

Side cooking: none

Main ingredients: Onions/celery (sort of optional), potatoes, leeks, milk (or not, if you don’t do dairy. I think you could also use whatever substitute you like, but I haven’t ever myself. You can make it look and feel a little creamier by just blending a bit of it to mash up some of the potatoes as well.)

Seasonings: broth, black pepper, lemon juice.

Notes: ultimately pretty simple, potatoes just take a while to clean/cut/cook. Not really an entire meal on its own, nice to pair up with some other vegetables on the side (my family also likes doing meat substitutes with it, like the Apple Sage Field Roast sausages).

Hoppin’ John: this is another one my mom has a really lazy version of. I don’t do that though, I basically just go off of this recipe: http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2014/12/vegan-hoppin-john/

I like to put in some okra and kale when it’s available as well, and I’ll throw in a little basil because that’s what my mom does, but I follow that fairly closely (aside from not measuring stuff, haha).

Red beans and rice: pretty similar situation here, but I don’t have a main recipe in the same way. This (and the hoppin’ john) can be good targets for a slow cooker as well.

Side cooking: rice, and red beans (2 cups)

Main ingredients: onion, bell pepper, chipotle sausages (as above), celery

Seasoning: broth, garlic, oregano, vinegar, something smoky if the chipotle isn’t enough

Notes: this really doesn’t take very long aside from cooking the beans, so if you have some way around that part...

Ratatouille:

Side cooking: rice. or pasta, in which case this is basically spaghetti sauce with eggplant. eggplant still takes forever to cook.

Main ingredients: Onion, tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, zucchini

Seasonings: Garlic, oregano, garlic, basil, seriously tons of garlic, rosemary

Notes: I don’t know, this is also really straightforward. Also nice to let go in a slow cooker all day, you can leave the vegetable pieces bigger so they keep a bit more of their own flavor.

Feijoada: another one that my mom does a lot, I guess it’s based on Brazilian food. I love this a lot, basically the zenith of simple beans-and-rice-and-vegetable food that I’m pretty into. Anyway, this one’s a bit odd, because it’s three parts, but they’re each really easy individually and you only have to pay attention to one of them. I’m going to have to describe it differently than usual though. I usually want a big onion and can of tomatoes for this.

Beans: I cook a couple cups of black beans with a little less than half a (large) can of tomatoes, a little bit of onion, and some oregano/cumin. (Then salt them after they’re done, obviously). I put a bunch of smoked paprika in them last time, which i thought came out really delicious, but I’d still say that’s less important than the other two.

Rice: You can sautee some of the onion for this, but you don’t have to. Either way you’re basically putting in the rest of the tomatoes with some water to cook the rice in (add more or less the amount of water you need for the amount of rice you’re cooking). I don’t season this with much more than a bit more oregano (and salt, of course).

Chard (you can use other greens, but I think chard is the best by far since it’s just a little sweeter naturally): Basically, prepare the chard like I said above, sauteeing the stems with some onions, then cooking the leaves for just a few minutes to get them nice and soft. Once everything’s done you just pile it together on a bowl. We always eat this with oranges, which really complement the simple savory flavors.

More involved soups/stuff: basically things I don’t do too often since they involve a lot of cutting/prep followed by cooking time, but I really like. Much faster if you have more than one person working, and since most of the effort goes into preparing individual vegetables you can kind of just delegate with these, rather than coordinating some really complicated thing with a bunch of dishes.

Kima: basically a curry stew. We’ve always eaten this with pitas, I don’t really know what else you’d do.

Main ingredients: Onion, tomatoes, root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes; I’ll often go for other stuff like turnips, rutabaga, beets as well but not always. they’re all great here), celery, tofu or tempeh, peas

Seasoning: yellow curry powder, black pepper, maybe a bit of garam masala if you have it

Notes: pretty simple, you just cut everything up and let it simmer for a LONG time. Some stuff can take a really long time to get soft, but it does let the curry flavor really sink in. Again, peas go in at the end.

Minestrone soup:

Side cooking: ~1cup (or less) beans. I usually mix garbanzo and kidney beans, though there’s a bunch of good options

Main ingredients: Onion, small pasta, tomatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, carrots, celery, chard (or kale/spinach/other greens), bell peppers, zucchini, other squash, peas, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets with leaves, pretty much any mild-flavored vegetable you like, honestly...

Seasonings: broth, lots of garlic, basil/oregano/rosemary/thyme/parsley/black pepper

Notes: obviously I’ve never done all of those vegetables at once, and the seasoning is fairly open as well. Just get a good variety and go for it, it’s always good. You can cook pasta on the side but I honestly feel it makes the most sense to just stick it in about 10 minutes (or however long it will take to cook) before you’re ready to call it a wrap. (I guess if you’re a real stickler for presentation it’s best to cook it on the side and just put some in each bowl, but I’m way too lazy for that.) Peas and leaves go in after that, of course, they’ll help cool down a bit before serving.

Borscht: hearty Russian beet soup. My roommate wasn’t too fond of this but I do this with my parents pretty often. I always avoid wearing bright colors when cooking for obvious reasons, but it’s especially important here, because beets will bleed over everything (especially your hands! this is another good thing to have gloves for) if you let them.

Side cooking: not really anything

Main ingredients: Beets (cut off the leaves and then do them up like chard later), onions, carrots, celery, potatoes. That’s a short list compared to some of these, I know, but the beets take longer than everything else combined.

Seasonings: garlic, broth, dill.

Notes: again, pretty simple stuff where the prep is a lot of work and you really want to let it stew for a while. Plain yogurt is a popular accompaniment. Having some nice bread to go with it is just perfect, I think.

Part 4: Wrapping it up

So, I don’t know if this is going to be any use or not. Maybe it’s easier to just say “look up some recipes for stuff you want to make and think about how to use the ingredients in a way that suits your style” or something, since that’s a much simpler description of what I do. There are a lot more vegetarians and vegans out there than when I was young, and of course it’s easier to find information like that on the internet now. Odds are just about anything you can think of has dozens and dozens of adapted recipes at hand immediately, at least if you’re willing to play along with certain kinds of replacements or things that won’t ever quite be the same. In my case a lot of stuff takes way more work than I’m generally up for; I don’t really make desserts because it’s a ton of effort compared to the amount of food you’ll eat, for example, and I’ve only barely scratched the surface of stuff like bread baking. I’m not a professional chef or even a particularly dedicated hobbyist, just some girl who works all day and then has gotta fuckin’ eat after she gets home, you know? But I think there’s a lot of people out there like that, and so I’d really like everyone to be able to believe that cooking decent stuff for yourself really doesn’t have to be as difficult or as involved as, like, a cooking show or whatever.

#food #cooking

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