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, February 24, 2010
metric quantification weirdness
Metric measurements are nice, imo - they allow me to use nice counting numbers that and up neatly. Most of the time. Here's a bit of weirdness that works in spite of the cross-system measurements:
My [current] Recipe for Rice
- 1 pound of white rice
- 1 liter of potable water
The above measurements, if combined in a pot, brought to a boil, then covered and cooked over the lowest possible fire for exactly 20 minutes will produce enough cocked white rice for 3 people for one day. Earth Time.
Labels: rice
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
Saturday, January 27, 2007
leftover tortilla integrity
Ingredients
Note: this one is probably not easily repeatable - or at least, most food techs who are just interested in preparing a meal for consumption today won't go to the trouble of e.g. buying a package of tortillas and leaving them opened in the crisper drawer of the fridge for 2 weeks just to reproduce the condition of the torillas. I suppose a similar dish could be prepared using rice that hasn't been frozen, and fresh tortillas. Fortunately, Ghetto Kitches Labs maintains a substantial inventory of various specialized ingredients specifically for these types of experiments.
- Most of a quart of white rice - left over from an order of egg foo yung. It sat in the fidge until it froze. Nothing wrong with that, really, but it needed defrosting.
- Four whole wheat tortillas sat in the drawer in the bottom of the fridge in a torn package until the exposed part of each of the tortillas had gotten quite dried out and hard.
- A 7 ounce package of Starkist tuna
- olive oil, garlic powder, soy sauce, chili sauce
Directions
- Remove the frozen rice from the cardboard chinese food container, placing it in the large [microwavable] glass mixing bowl [Anchor Hocking]
- Adjust the "temperature" dial of the microwave to be somewhere around "medium" - this setting changes during cooking, so the precision used in this step is not particularly important - the idea is to thaw the rice gently, then heat it up causing it to give up some moisture to the tortillas
- Place the bowl in the microwave and lay the partly dried out tortillas over the top - on top of the rice
- Start the microwave - the timer setting doesn't really matter, since the m/w has to be stopped frequently to check the state of the rice and the tortillas
- After about a minute or a minute and half, stop the m/w and check - if the rice is not thawed, run it some more. It may be useful to adjust the temp, but if the rice gets too hot to quickly, the rest of this won't work right. Also, if the tortillas get too hot too soon, they will get too tough or (in the extreme case) too crispy.
- Once the rice has thawed, but before it gets hot, move the tortillas underneath the rice - a spoon might be useful for this, but is not required.
- Drizzle some olive oil (enough to plausibly make its way down thru the rice and onto the tortillas) over the top of the rice, increase the temperature setting incrementally and run the m/w some more. Repeat this step until the rice is steaming, and the tortillas have softened enough to eat.
- Take the bowl with the rice and tortillas out of the m/w, open the tuna and empty it over the rice.
- Add garlic powder, chili sauce, and soy sauce on top of the tuna, to taste.
- Stir the rice and spices into the rice [use chopsticks], then [again w/ the chopsticks] drag one of the tortillas out from under the rice - most of the way - capture some of the of the rice and tuna onto the tortilla and role it up - if you want extra chili sauce, this would be the time to add it. Repeat this step with each of the tortillas until the tune & rice are taken.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This is good with coffee.
This dish is significantly more complex and takes quite a bit longer to prepare than most of the stuff we do here.
Additional spices and/or different types of oils, rice, or tortillas would give the dish a slightly different character using the same procedure.
Labels: chili sauce, garlic powder, microwave, olive oil, rice, tuna
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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