Spices
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M’s Turk-ish Eggplant Stew
Miranda here, posting a recipe by request.
So here’s the deal. Eggplants are creepy.
Don’t get me wrong, I think they is one fine looking piece of … fruit? vegetable? alien pod? whatever. And so much variety in shape, size, colour, etc., that the eggplant area of my life is delightfully well-spiced (you know, ‘variety is the spice of life‘…. Okay). I dig it.
But … they also seem kinda poisonous, and like, what’s up with being the texture of wet packing foam fresh and like the lovechild of a mushroom and a whelk when cooked? I see you decided to go with ‘slippery’. Well played Mme. Aubergine, well played.It’s taken me a long time, an exercise of my palatal boundaries (aging, as Shakespeare noted, does play dickey with our tastes), and an interest in slaking my mother’s insane hunger for eggplant to reach parley with this ‘edible’.
I’ve disCOVered … it’s quite nice. Mixed with other stuff. Cooked like, a lot, usually with spices. Hey, does everybody want a bouquet of only baby’s breath? No. I like my textures diverse, and my baba ganoush like, 90% pita chip.
To get to the point, I composed this delish eggplant recipe with reference to Almost Turkish Recipes’ Vegeterian Eggplant Stew (Etsiz Patlican Güveç) and Taste.com’s Beef and Eggplant Stew and a hearty helping of rugged individualism. It came out preh-tay awesome, I am required by inherent truthfulness to say. Diane loves it for its rich layers of flavour and healthy, hearty vegetabliness that make it the perfect combination of comforting and exotic. There’s something for everyone in there! Plus, you can stroke some more hash marks into your summer “Zucchinis/Eggplants/Tomatoes ENDED” tally with a sauce-stained smile once you’ve roused yourself from your stewy food-coma.
Celebrate the small victories.
(Mme. Aubergine can celebrate a gracious concession from one former eggplant separatist.)
Enjoy.
M's Turkish Eggplant StewPrep time:Cook time:Total time:Serves: 3-4The perfect combination of comforting and exotic, and an amazing way to use up summer vegetables.Ingredients- 1 large eggplant (larger than big grapefruit) or equivalent amount of smalls
- 1 zucchini about 6 in. long (soft center cut out) or equivalent amount of smalls
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled
- 3 seitan filets (equivalent to 4"x4" each) or other vegetarian protein product, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium onion, chopped thin
- 1 large clove garlic, minced unless you like larger pieces
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. thick tomato product: tomato paste, fresh tomato concoction, specialty ketchup, etc.
- 1½ cups broth (I have used leftover broth from making seitan before, or veggie broth)
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil, more or less
- 1 tbsp. olive oil, more or less
- Black Pepper to taste
- [Optional additional spices, in any combination: ½ tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp. ground paprika, Touch of chili/pepper of some sort]
Instructions- Use vegetable peeler to stripe the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise. Chop into ~ 1 in. pieces, or to preference (eggplant will shrink in cooking, so can leave larger chunks).
- Chop potatoes smaller (1/2") to keep cooking time down.
- Heat a large pan (I prefer to use our flat-bottomed wok) on high until very hot.
- Toss in eggplant and zucchini as well as potatoes and seitan and allow to sear, stirring on and off to prevent burning.
- Drizzle some sesame oil and/or olive oil around the edges of the pan to stop the searing and allow the veggies and seitan to begin to fry.
- When seitan begins to brown a bit, turn down the heat and add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, until onions are browning (don't allow garlic to burn, as it cooks faster than onion).
- Add spices and ketchup, and stir on medium-low for a few moments to fully incorporate.
- Pour in broth and stir well.
- Cover, and set to simmer for 30 min. If it's looking too soupy towards the end, remove the cover and raise the heat until it's less liquidy, but it should be like a thick stew.
- Serve with rice or couscous.
NotesWe count on the excellent leftovers, so I always make extra, but it is filling so portion size may be smaller for some. May also be made a few hours early, left in the pan on the stove and reheated to serve. For seitan recipe see Diane's post: http://www.vegetariat.com/2015/01/seitan/.
MCK - Dessert, Fruit, Gardening adventures, Herbs, Special Events, Spices, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Water Saving
Our Annual Marketplace, and Last Tours of 2015
Our fourth-annual Finch Frolic Marketplace will take place Nov. 21 and 22nd from 9 – 2. We’ve been working like little permaculture elves, harvesting, preparing fruit and vegetables, canning, baking, and inventing new recipes for your table and for gifts. We have a curry spice mixture that is amazing. Our record white guava harvest has allowed us to create sweet guava paste and incredible guava syrup. We’ve pickled our garlic cloves, as well as zucchino rampicante, and our Yucatan Pickled Onions have a wonderful orange and oregano base that is fabulous. Of course there is Miranda’s small-batch Pomegranate Gelato, Whiskey-Baked Cranberry Relish, and a selection of curds (passionfruit, lemon-lime, and cranberry). So much more, too. We’ll also be selling plants from several sources, and some collectibles and knick-knacks from my home. Please come support a small business early – a whole week before Small Business Saturday! Your patronage allows us to continue teaching permaculture.
Join us for a tour! Our last two Open Tours will also be held that weekend, each at 10 am. The tours last about two hours and we should be having terrific weather for you to enjoy learning basic permaculture as we stroll through the food forest. Please RSVP for the tours to dianeckennedy@prodigy.net. More about the tours can be found under the ‘tours’ page on this blog.
Finch Frolic Garden will be closing for the winter, from Thanksgiving through March 1. However, Miranda and I will still be available for consultations, designs, lectures and workshops, and we will be adding posts to Vegetariat and Finch Frolic Facebook (you don’t need to be a member of Facebook to view our page!).
Have a very safe and very happy holiday season. Care for your soil as you would your good friends and close family, with swales, sheet mulch and compost, and it will care for you for years.
Diane and Miranda
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Vegan Turmeric Milk: A Yummy Cold Remedy
Gingery turmeric milk is a delicious powerhouse in the war against colds. Have a cold, or just near someone who has one? Headache? Aches and pains? Digestive problems? Here is a simple and very delicious East Indian recipe that mothers give their children when it is cold season. It contains some powerful anti-inflammatories, namely turmeric and ginger. I’ve written about how taking turmeric daily has kept my arthritic hands mobile and virtually pain-free. Look up the health uses for turmeric and you will be amazed. Black pepper helps activate turmeric, and since turmeric is fat-soluble it is best taken with a little fat in your meal. The following recipe can be made in a few minutes and feels wonderful going down. It was inspired by a post on Journeykitchen.com. I used organic vanilla soy milk, because that is what I had. You may use any dairy substitute that you want, but not non-fat. If it is non-fat, then add a half teaspoon of oil (such as coconut oil) to the drink, or eat some on the side.
I make a big pot of this in the morning, strain it and then rewarm it during the day as I need it. The longer you simmer the spices, the stronger they become. The ginger becomes a little hotter, and the others more bitter. For children or those new to these spices, heat the spices in the milk 3-5 minutes before straining unless they like it stronger.
Turmeric is a bitter yellow root that can be cooked with, or more commonly is found dried and ground to use in curries and as a colorant. Where do I even begin to list its benefits? As I previously mentioned turmeric is used for arthritis, heartburn , stomach pain, diarrhea, intestinal gas and bloating, loss of appetite, jaundice, liver problems and gallbladder disorders. It is also used for headaches, bronchitis, colds, lung infections, fibromyalgia, leprosy, fever, menstrual problems, and cancer. Other uses include depression, Alzheimer’s disease, water retention, worms, and kidney problems. Turmeric can be applied to the skin for pain, ringworm, bruising, eyeinfections, inflammatory skin conditions, soreness inside of the mouth, and infected wounds. It is used as a facial to help skin and give darker skin a glow (I used it on my pale face and came up yellow for a few washings, but with nice skin!).
Ginger helps with the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, cough, menstrual cramps, arthritis and muscle pain, but is especially known for relieving nausea. I ate a lot of ginger during my pregnancies, and now we have some in the car to treat motion sickness.
Adding organic honey as a sweetener really boosts the healing power of this drink. Honey – and not the processed mass-produced kind, but unheated organic honey – has anti-fungal, anti-septic, and anti-microbial properties that really help soothe a sore throat and kill germs. The glucose and fructose are absorbed by the body at different times so that the energy they provide is slow and long-term -not the high and low that granulated sugar provides.
Cloves are anti-fungal, antibacterial, antiseptic and analgesic. They’re packed with antioxidants and are good sources of minerals (especially manganese), omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and vitamins.
Peppercorns help turmeric work, are anti-inflammatory, carminative, and aid digestion. They are also an excellent source of many B-complex groups of vitamins such as Pyridoxine, riboflavin, thiamin and niacin, and are a good source of many anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-C and vitamin-A, and in flavonoid polyphenolic anti-oxidants that help the body remove harmful free radicals and help protect from cancers and diseases.
Cinnamon has been used to reduce inflammation, it has antioxidant effects, and fights bacteria, and may lower cholesterol.
Cardamom is rich in nutrients such as iron, calcium and magnesium, potassium, manganese, many vitamins such as C, and is a co-factor for the enzyme, superoxide dismutase, a very powerful free-radical scavenger.
Cayenne is rich in capsaicin. The pepper also contains vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin E, potassium, manganese, and flavonoids (anti-oxidants), and has long been used to ease pain, headaches and to increase circulation. If you don’t use hot peppers regularly, please add just a few grains to the milk and work your way up.
If you are recovering from stomach distress and need some bland, comfort food, please investigate this recipe for jook, a wonderful cooked rice dish.
My best wishes for a healthy and happy day!
Turmeric MilkAuthor: Diane KennedyRecipe type: Beverage; VeganCuisine: East IndianPrep time:Cook time:Total time:Serves: 2 cupsThis quickly made hot drink will help ward off colds, or bring relief if you have one. The inspiration came from Journeykitchen.com.Ingredients- 2 cups whole or low fat (not non-fat) organic soymilk, rice milk, nut-milk, or other non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3 black peppercorns
- 3 cardamon pods, cracked
- 3 whole cloves
- ½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon (or a fingernail-sized piece of cinnamon stick)
- Pinch of saffron (optional)
- A couple drops of vanilla (opt.)
- Cayenne to taste (opt.) (start with a few grains and work up)
- Organic honey, brown sugar or other sweetener to taste (opt.)
Instructions- Lightly crush the peppercorns, cloves and cardamon pods
- In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except for sweetener.
- Gently heat and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Add sweetener to taste. If adding organic honey - which is a healing force on its own - stir it in as the milk is off the boil. Boiling will kill the beneficials in the honey.
- Strain into cups and serve.
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Finch Frolic Marketplace, Revisited
Wonderful, tasty winter squash of all kinds! Due to popular demand, we’re having one more short Marketplace this Saturday, 9 – 1.
Join us on Saturday, November 29nd from 9-1 for the annual Finch Frolic Marketplace, the Extended Version! We’ll have for sale fresh and prepared foods straight from our permaculture gardens. All are excellent gifts, or will grace your holiday table. We’ll have the much-desired Pomegranate Gelato again, and new this year, Passionfruit Gelato! Squash, fruit, veg, preserves, passionfruit curd, baked goods, and much more.
Herbs, veggies, frozen juice, gelatos, curds, jams, preserves… and much more! Finch Frolic Garden is located at 390 Vista del Indio, Fallbrook, CA.
Directions:
Finch Frolic Garden is open by appointment only for tours, lectures and other activities. The address is 390 Vista del Indio, Fallbrook, CA 92028-2548. Please call only if you are lost or delayed; we use our house phone only and are often not inside. Please use the email above for any other communication.
From the North (Temecula and above): take 1-15 South to Exit 51 and turn right. Make the next right onto E. Mission Rd/County Hwy-S13. In .8 of a mile turn left onto E. Live Oak Park Rd. In 1.6 miles turn right onto Alvarado St. In .7 miles at the top of the hill turn left onto Vista Del Indio, at Roja’s Succulents. Make the very first right; 390 is at the end to the left.
From the South (Escondido and below): take I-15 North to Exit 51 and turn left over the freeway. Make the next right onto E. Mission Rd/County Hwy-S13. In .8 of a mile turn left onto E. Live Oak Park Rd. In 1.6 miles turn right onto Alvarado St. In .7 miles at the top of the hill turn left onto Vista Del Indio, at Roja’s Succulents. Make the very first right; 390 is at the end to the left.
From the West (I-5): take CA-76 East, Exit 54A and drive for 12.6 miles. Turn left onto S. Mission Road/County Hwy S13 for 4.1 miles. Turn right onto S. Stagecoach Lane (at the high school). In 2.8 miles turn right onto Alvarado St. At the top of the hill turn right onto Vista del Indio, at the Roja’s Succulents sign. Make the very first right; 390 is at the end on the left.
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Celery Soup
Celery soup, served hot or cold, is delicious and great for you! I thought I had posted this wonderful soup but apparently I hadn’t. Celery is a remarkable food for helping combat mental aging, among other attributes. This year we grew our own celery which is strong, fiberous and slightly bitter. We use it diced in stir-fry and many dishes including Celery Soup. This soup can be served hot or chilled, and you can either use cream at the end to finish it or just rely on the included potato for the thickener. Add a little cayenne to spice it up and increase its medicinal value. This is a blended soup that doesn’t freeze well (the flavor changes), so eat it all up! This is a lovely light green soup… great for Halloween! For another green soup, try my Zucchini and Rosemary Soup, too.
Celery SoupAuthor: Diane C. KennedyRecipe type: Main DishCuisine: AmericanPrep time:Cook time:Total time:Serves: 6 - 8This easy, delicious low-fat soup can be served hot or chilled, or dressed up with cream.Ingredients- ½ cup butter or butter substitute
- 10 ribs of celery (3½ cups) coarsely chopped (no leaves)
- ⅓ cup coarsely chopped shallots, or sliced leeks
- 1 small baking potato (russet-type) (6 oz), peeled and cubed
- Salt
- Pinch celery seed, ground (if using organic, stronger-flavored celery you may omit)
- ⅛th teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ cup heavy cream, or to taste (optional)
Instructions- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
- Add celery, shallots or leeks, potato, celery seed and cayenne (if using), and a pinch of salt.
- Partially cover and cook, stirring occasionall,y until vegetables are soft but not browned, about 15 minutes.
- Add stock and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 30 minutes.
- Stir in nutmeg.
- Allow to cool enough to be comfortable for you to puree in blender or food processor, in batches until completely smooth.
- If necessary pour through a fine sieve into a large bowl, pressing with a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. If you have a Vitamix, just blend it on high and don't sieve.
- Return soup to pot, reheat slowly and adjust seasonings. (If serving cold, just adjust seasonings and chill.)
- Stir in cream (if using) and serve, garnished with celery leaves or croutons.
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Preserving Squash and a Terrific Pumpkin Chai Recipe!
Beautiful patterns on the banana squash shell. Four sugar baby pumpkins that I’d kept for myself, and three pink banana squash, were all in need of preservation. They were not keeping well due to the warmth of our hot San Diego county Fall. During a rainy break in the weather I did something about it. You can preserve cooked pumpkin and winter squash best by freezing it. If you have a pressure canner you may can pureed pumpkin or pumpkin pieces in liquid, but since I only use the water bath method that wasn’t an option.
Even sugar baby pumpkins can be difficult to cut when raw. There’s a better way! Roasting a squash isn’t difficult at all. In fact, you only have to wash it, put it on a tray in a 350F oven for about an hour (longer if its a really large pumpkin), and then slice when cooled.
Roasting a whole pumpkin makes the scooping so easy! Its easy to scrape out the seeds and then spoon out the cooked flesh out of the hardened shell. This is what I did for the sugar baby pumpkins. There was too much banana squash to fit whole into the oven, however, so I cut them into chunks, scooped out the seeds, covered them with aluminum foil (it helps steam them) and baked 350F for forty-five minutes.
Three banana squash is a lot of squash I have more details here. I also roasted the pumpkin seeds.
Then I had a lot of squash to puree! These squash and pumpkins were dry, so I added a little water to the VitaMix and tossed in the chunks.
Pumpkin and seeds. I pureed batches until smooth, then spooned cups full into freezer bags. My pumpkin scone recipe calls for only half a cup, so I froze one-cup batches, as well as two-cup batches for pie. The secret to ‘vacuum-packing’ freezer bags is to close the top of the bag around a straw and then suck all the air out. It really works well, and is kind of fun, too.
Get a straw, suck out the air and presto: vacuum packed! However, the best thing that happened out of all this squashing was that I had a little less than a cup of pureed roasted squash left in the VitaMix, too little to freeze and really irritating to scoop out. It was a cold day and past lunchtime. I had an idea and spooned in what was left of some Chai tea mix, poured in vanilla soy milk, blended it until it warmed up and sat down to drink. Heaven! I’m not one for pumpkin flavored things, but this was the real deal.
Pumpkin puree. It was so good that the next day I took a cup of the pureed squash that I refrigerated, poured in 1 1/2 cups of vanilla soy milk, a touch of orange syrup left over from candying orange peel, added cinnamon and blended until it was hot. It was thick, satisfying, a little sweet, spicy and full of beta carotene, fiber, protein and other good things. I’m sure you can do the same thing with canned pumpkin and other liquids, such as milk, rice milk, almond milk or coconut milk. If fact, I insist that you try it.
Hot Yum! Pumpkin ChaiAuthor: Diane C. KennedyRecipe type: BeverageCuisine: AmericanPrep time:Cook time:Total time:Serves: 2Cold or hot, spiced pureed pumpkin or squash mixed with the milk of your choice is extreme comfort food that is actually terrific for you!Ingredients- 1 cup cooked pumpkin or squash puree, fresh or canned.
- 1½ - 2 cups vanilla soy milk, or milk of your choice. (Less for a thick drink).
- ½ - ¾ teaspoon cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice or up to 1 scoop Chai tea mix.
- Sweetener (optional); a natural syrup would do or honey.
- ½ teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Instructions- For cold pumpkin chai mix all ingredients briefly in a blender or VitaMix.
- Taste to adjust seasonings, thickness and sweetener, and serve.
- For hot pumpkin chai, heat milk and add to the rest of the ingredients in a blender and process. If you have a VitaMix, you can add all cold ingredients and then process until it is hot.
I’m going to make some more for me right now. -
A Painless Breakfast, and a Bombilla
I'm all over this medicine! Food is the ultimate resource for health. As my body complains ever louder about all the years of abuse I’ve put it through, I’m turning to diet to help with the pain. Certain foods have anti-inflammatory properties, and they aren’t hard to eat at all. Cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger are high on the list. Cooked asparagus is excellent for kidneys and liver, and there is speculation that it cures serious illness as well. Whole eggs are much more healthy to eat than separating out the white and throwing away the yolk. The two parts compliment each other. As well great sources of protein, eggs are excellent for the eyes. The vitamin C found in fruit is an essential boost to your immune system, and helps other vitamins work better.
I also take some supplements. I take a multi-vitamin, a couple of natural menopausal relief pills, a vitamin C, and a couple of glucosamine/chondroitin tablets. G/C is a miracle supplement if you have arthritis. It helps keep the joints juicy.
Hot ginger tea; good for your tummy and good for your joints. So for mornings after a full day of weeding, carrying, hauling, flinging, and planting, I need everything I can get to help get my hands and back moving again. My ideal painless breakfast is: an egg from one of my hens, sprinkled with a turmeric and pepper combination (pepper is supposed to aid turmeric), some Trader Joe’s frozen grilled asparagus, heated, a piece of toast liberally sprinkled with cinnamon and coated with organic (sometimes home-harvested) honey, orange juice and a hot cup of ginger tea. I keep a small white container of cinnamon on the table, as well as a small bowl of the turmeric and pepper combination. That way I don’t forget to sprinkle it on my food. Inflammation is the source of almost all illness. If you can fight inflammation naturally, you’ll be a long way ahead health-wise. You’ll be relieved from pain that you never knew you had!
Bombilla I considered giving the bombilla its own post, but it was in the breakfast photo so I’ll talk about this wonderous gadget here. A bombilla is a metal or bamboo straw with a strainer on the end. Ingenious! Common in South America, it is commonly associated with the drinking of the new old fad tea yerba mate. However, to my delight it works perfectly with loose leaf and herbal teas! Instead of snapping and screwing and pressing tea strainers, I just put loose tea in my cup, brew it and drink it via the bombilla! So easy! Afterwards I scoop the spent tea into the compost, rinse the cup and the bombilla, and its good to go for the next batch. Loose leaf tea is such a better experience than using tea bags. With the bombilla, I now have herbal or loose leaf tea almost every time. Bombillas have transformed my drinking experience! I believe they are available at international marketplaces, but I bought mine online at Amazon.com. I bought two for me and my daughter, who took hers to college, and another as a gift for my son, and then two more as extras at home. Never can have enough bombillas! What a concept! A perfect drinking implement! My life will never be the same. Better still, I can now sip hot tea without losing my place in my book, or steaming up my glasses!
