earth food
grown from the page at earthside.org/Food & in support of the forth-coming cookbook of the same name by June Perg Floyd
Sunday, November 26, 2006
bread & coffee
A Simple yet tasty meal.
Brummel & Brown[i] yogurt spread, honey if you want sweet.
The preparation here is simple: make the coffee, swab the bread in the dish of spread, and [optionally] squirt some honey on it. Yum.
The bread in question here is pumpernickel rye from the SuperTarget bakery [target.com]. In fact, all the ingredients came from the SuperTarget, since it's right up the street...
Also used in the preparation of this meal - Melitta coffee filters, Starbucks coffee (Sumatran, "cone ground"), Nestle CoffeeMate [powdered] non-dairy creamer, Ice Mountain spring water, and the RTH brand hot pot[i] from CVS Pharmacy.
The Archer Farms Blueberry Honey ["Archer Farms" is a Target store brand] pictured in the Picasa gallery looks cool, and isn't bad, but doesn't taste much like blueberries - apparently the honey is made by bees who are feeding on blueberry plant blossoms or something - it's not blueberry flavored - which is okay unless you were expecting a taste like Smucker's blueberry syrup or blueberry preserves (either of which might be good on bread, as well, but I didn't have any of those).
Labels: bread, coffee, yogurt spread
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
food delivered
Ordered from Lee's Egg Roll House: chicken & mushrooms, spicy with garlic; an extra pint of white rice (the chicken came with a half pint of rice); and spicy noodles.
This order cost something like $12 and change (tip to delivery guy not included). There was enough food there for two meals. They sent 2 Styrofoam plates, about 6 plastic forks, two plastic spoons, 2 plastic packets of Panda soy sauce, two plastic packets of Panda hot mustard, and one fortune cookie.
The "spicy noodle" was $2.99 and was what appeared to be ramen noodle soup. Not bad, but something we could probably make in the microwave for - say $1 if we got the high end ramens... The mushrooms were nothing special, and in fact seemed a little tough, but the spiciness was right, and the chicken was good, although it was breaded.
There is no tofu or bean curd on the menu. When I called I asked them about it, and they just said "no", they didn't have it. There is some sushi on the menu - which appears to be the only thin Lee's has that's not pretty ordinary. I think I may try some california roll, next time.
Also, note that the chicken and mushrooms that I ordered was not on the menu - this didn't seem to bother them, which was gratifying.
Overall, the meal was satisfying, but nothing special - the main feature was the fact that it was delivered and we didn't have to cook it. A bit pricey for what it was, too, but I would guess that most people around here who are ordering from Lee's are not looking for a particularly special oriental dining experience, they probably just want some Chinese-type food delivered for convenience sake, which purpose I'm sure is served adequately. Not exactly Schezuan Bean Curd with Fried Dumplings that will have you ordering from them twice a day - but then, we've only ran across a couple of those, and they were in a much denser metro area (Germantown, MD). There is a really good place in Iowa City that we have been to in the past, but it's too far for delivery, and the car is in the shop, so zipping down there for takeout was not an option this time...
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
tofu and wild rice
Ingredients:
- 1 pkg organic extra firm tofu
- 1 pkg uncle ben's pre-cooked wild rice
- thai peanut sauce
- "rooster" chili sauce
- some chili oil I found in target
- chopped garlic
- some powdered ginger root mixed with sake (about an oz)
Directions:
- put the tofu, oil, peanut sauce, chili sauce, garlic, and galanga mixture into a bowl and microwave it for 2 minutes (time may vary)
- when the tofu finishes, put the package of rice in for 90 seconds (don't forget to open the top of it, or it makes a disturbing 'pop' sound at about 63 seconds into the cook cycle :D)
- when the rice is done, put it in the bowl with the tofu, stir it up (w/ chopsticks)
- enjoy!
This is basically another one of my "meal-in-a-bowl" specialties - quite tasty! It would be good with some chicken or beef broth, too, but I only have 1 liter cartons of those, and didn't want to open one, since I'll be leaving before I could use it up, and the weather is not cold enough to keep it chilled once I take it out of the fridge.
Labels: chili oil, chili sauce, garlic, ginger, microwave, rice, sake, tofu
Friday, November 17, 2006
ginger sake microwave fried rice
Powdered ginger root and sake makes a good sauce - just put some powdered ginger root in a bowl or cup and moisten it with the sake; add sake and mix thoroughly tp get all the lumps out - add sake and stir until a desired consistency is achieved.
This turned out to be a good way to apply powdered ginger to a dish of rice, egg, and beef broth. Other seasonings used were chopped garlic, a mixture of chili-sesame oil and olive oil, and soy sauce.
The entire recipe went like this:
- In a ceramic (microwavable) bowl, combine cooked rice, beef broth, two raw eggs, oils, and chopped garlic "to taste"
- Use a chopstick to poke the yolks on the the eggs (this keeps them from exploding in the microwave)
- Microwave on high for a few minutes (how long will depend on your microwave and how much rice and broth you're using - 1500W microwave for 3 minutes should work - this works better if you cover the bowl)
- While the bowl is in the microwave, mix the the ginger sauce - You'll probably want to leave the bowl with the eggs & rice in the microwave after it stops running for a few minutes - but check it first to make sure it is hot - if the contents of the bowl is hot enough, and it is covered, the eggs will continue cooking from the heat in the bowl - this is fine, since they might not be done yet.
- Once the eggs are done (cooked through) take the bowl out of the microwave and add the ginger sauce (just pour it over the stuff in the bowl), then mix with chopsticks to spread the ginger sauce and break up the eggs. You might want to add a bit more oil at this point).
- Add soy sauce "to taste" (use a shaker bottle) and let the dish cool down enough to eat.
If you keep some cooked rice on hand (recommended that you do), preparation time for this dish is about 5 minutes, not counting time to let it cool enough to eat.
This makes a really tasty (assuming you got proportions of the ingredients that you like) sort of fried rice bowl.
The ginger sauce could be modified for use a dressing for noodle salads (maifun or saifun noodles, perhaps).
Other stuff could be added to the rice bowl - tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables spring to mind as items that would go well in this.
Note that powdered ginger root is sometimes sold as "galanga powder".
Thursday, November 16, 2006
catastrophic failure of alien technology
Well, we decided to try out something new that was (apparently) dropped off by the mothership in time for our recent visit to the store - a 'microwave rice cooker'.
Unfortunately, this device failed catastrophically 'out of the box' - on the first try. Pictured below are the results. The full album (linked from Picasa) tells the rest of the story, in pictures.
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| From MicrowaveRice... |
Sunday, November 12, 2006
things to keep on hand
Ingredients that go in many things:
- flour tortillas ("fajita size")
- hot chili sauce
- powdered ginger root
- dried chopped chives
- extra virgin olive oil
- sesame oil
- chili oil
- tofu
- soy sauce
- thai peanut sauce
- sea salt
- tuna
- salmon
- chicken eggs
- soy milk
- candy
- cookies
- honey
- rice seasoning
- sushi rice
- wild rice
- oatmeal
- garlic
- dried fruit bits
- soy sauce
- mushrooms
- cheese
- hummus
- bread
Brand names we use:
- Aquafina
- Bolthouse Farms
- Sriracha (chili sauce)
- Kikoman
- Brachs
- Worthington
- Mission Brand (tortillas)
- Melitta
- Botan (Calrose Rice)
- Myojo (Udon)
- Dynasty (sesame oil, maifun)
- Tabasco
- Cheerios
- American Spirit Tobacco
- Top cigarette filter tubes
- Rizzla cigarette tube packing device
- Bic
- Zippo
- Orient White Tea w/ mardarin orange
- Sun-Maid (dried fruit)
- Star-Kist (tuna in oil)
- Chicken of the Sea (salmon)
- Zatarain's (cooked, packaged rice)
- Brummel & Brown's Yogurt Spread
Equipment:
- microwave oven (1150 Watt)
- rice cooker
- hot pot
- #2 drip coffee cone & filters
- 8" stainless steel wok w/ cover
- 14" steel wok
- bamboo chopsticks
- bamboo spoon/spatula
- ceramic soup spoon
- coffe cups
- pyrex bowl w/ plastic lid
- bowl
- cutting board
- pocket knife
- plate
- glass jars
- freezer bags
- ginger grater
- sinlge-burner portable butane stove
- refridgerator
Labels: cooking, equipment, ingredients
vegelink wraps
- Take two vegelinks - the kind from Worthington - put them in the microwave (together) for 40 seconds.
- Slice some cheese thinly
- Place each link in a flour tortilla
- While the links are still hot, put the sliced cheese on the links
- Add some taco bell fire sauce to each
- Wrap the tortilla around the link, cheese, and sauce
- Enjoy!
Labels: cheese, microwave, taco bell, tex-mex, tortilla, worthington
ginger
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Dynasty Maifun Rice Sticks
From the Earth Food Labs:
Using a rice cooker (test model was a Black and Decker model from Walmart) to cook maifun.
- pour the entire contents of a 0.5 liter (16.9oz) bottle of water (Aquafina) into the rice cooker
- Switch the rice cooker on (i.e. plug it in and move the switch to the 'Cook' position).
- Once the water starts to bubble, add the entire contents of a 6.75oz (191g) package of Dynasty Maifun Rice Sticks.
- Place the lid on the rice cooker and wait for it to switch to "Warm". The maifun are ready to eat.
- It may help to remove the lid now and then and break the mainfun apart e.g. with a pair of chopsticks - making sure to stir them down into the water.
- Ideally, the rice cooker should switch to 'Warm' mode once the water is cooked out - whereupon the noodles are ready to be removed from cooker.
Notes:
- In all tests, the water was absorbed into the noodles as they cooked, so there was no need to drain the noodles after cooking.
- In a number of tests, the noodles started to stick to the 'non-stick' interior surface - since noodles stuck to the inside of the pot is an unacceptable result for these experiments, the rice cooker was immediately shut down by disconnecting main power when the sticking phenomenon was observed.
Labels: cooking, maifun, rice cooker
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