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
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
tofu and rice
This can be prepared using a microwave oven and a rice-cooker - there are numerous other ways to accomplish the same basic meal, but what we used this time is:
- standard four-cup rice-cooker
- standard 1500W microwave oven
- Botan rice
- [reverse-osmosis-filtered - $0.39 @ Wallyworld] water
- 16-ounce package extra-firm tofu (the "cold-pack" kind)
- extra-virgin olive oil
- soy sauce (Kikoman)
- garlic powder
- ground (powdered) red pepper (cayenne)
- beef stock
(note 1: any and all of these ingredients have substitutes - email if you want a list)
Instructions:
- Cook some rice - 3 cups should be plenty for two people
- After the rice is ready, break up about half the tofu into a [microwave safe] bowl
- drizzle some olive oil over the tofu
- Add the spices to the tofu and olive oil in the bowl
- Pour in about 2 ounces of beef stock
- Stir the contents of the bowl and microwave it on high for about 60 seconds.
- take the bowl out of the microwave and add about a cup or a cup and a half of rice
- drizzle more olive oil and some soy sauce over the rice (the tofu is in the bottom of the bowl, under the rice, at this point).
- Stir up up.
- Enjoy
Labels: beef stock, cooking, olive oil, rice, rice cooker, tofu
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
how to eat carp
Okay, for all those of you who, as I so often have wonder what carp is good for [human foodchain-wise], perhaps couching your wonder in some phrase resembling "How do you eat carp?" or "Is carp good to eat?" and something like that, here is the answer to that question that goes beyond the "boil it in a pot of water" answer we got from Korea in 2004.
This is from a news article about traditional [ethnic?] food once served in the waterfront districts of Baghdad [and, one presumes, more generally in the region we call "Iraq"] - this is a quote from the article, with HTML added:
National dish
Abu Ayyad’s masgouf recipe:
- Take large freshwater fish, preferably carp caught in Tigris or Euphrates
- Scale, gut and clean
- Cut along back and open up so that fish is flat and round
- Season with salt
- Place in barbecue grill
- Cook upright beside open wood fire
- Season with lemon
- Serve with bread and salads. Eat with fingers, ideally in the evening in the open air along river bank
The article goes on to point out that traditional preparations of this dish are no longer possible regionally due to the degradation fo living conditions in the city caused by internal combustion transportation technology, and the military occupation that currently places the Baghdad water-front areas "off-limits" to most locals.
Source: Imams put fatwa on carp caught in Tigris, Times Online (UK Edition), 2007-06-27
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
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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