earth food

bread & coffee

2006-11-26T20:11:00.000Z

Simple but tasty.

Brummel & Brown yogurt and vegetable oil spread - yes, this is a blatant commercial plug, but - well, this stuff is good and there does't seem to be any actual competition in the faux butter spread market since B&B came out with this stuff... nothing really compares except butter or dipping oils, and for plain old "bread and butter", the yogurt spread actually tastes better, imo.

Honey. If you want sweet. Yeah.

There's no particular "preparation, here - make the coffee, swap 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...

food delivered

2006-11-22T03:41:00.000Z

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 turned out 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, and 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...

tofu and wild rice

2006-11-21T03:09:00.000Z

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.

ginger sake microwave fried rice

2006-11-17T12:17:00.000Z

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".

Dynasty Maifun Rice Sticks

2006-11-04T04:25:00.000Z

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.

ginger

2006-11-12T07:11:00.000Z

Ginger - Zingiber officinale by Steven Foster is a monograph on ginger - what it is, it's history, some traditional uses from different cultures, and some modern lore. References are included.

vegelink wraps

2006-11-12T09:37:00.000Z

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!

things to keep on hand

2006-11-12T10:32:00.000Z

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

catastrophic failure of alien technology

2006-11-16T01:46:00.000Z

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.

From MicrowaveRice...