Kitchari

When we got back from Chicago/San Fransisco (so much traveling in March!) we were sick of eating. We had eaten so well and so richly that we sort of wanted a break from food...

So kitchari, is India's cleansing-food. It is extremely nourishing, with a lot of spices, and is fed to anyone who is sick or unwell as it is simple to digest, yet stimulates digestion. It is like America's chili because it is a thick, spicy stew that you can add every ingredient and the kitchen sink, but it is very light and easy on the body.

We went on a weeklong kitchari cleanse (kinda) as a nice reprieve for our tummies.
This recipe is vegan and gluten free :)

You will need:
3 cups of dried split muung dal (I normally use yellow and black, but I was out of black for this photo sesh)
2 cups of dried brown rice
6 cups of broth+ extra water
Ghee or coconut oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 carrots, chopped finely
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 finger sized fresh ginger, peeled and minced (*or ground, if you only have it dry)
+Any vegetables you want to add (bell peppers, spinach, kale, green onions, peas, potatoes etc)
**in this one I added zucchini, bell peppers, and green onions
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon+ fenugreek seeds
1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds or ground mustard
2 tablespoons turmeric
1/2 tablespoon garam masala** optional, I like mine to have A LOT of spice-flavors
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 dash of ground cayenne

Garnish:
Fresh cilantro
Squeeze of lime
Tamari
Sriracha
A dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt

Start by prepping your veggies and tracking down all of your spices (there are a lot)

In your ghee or coconut oil, saute onion, chopped carrot and all whole-seed spices (mustard, cumin, fenugreek) until the onions and carrot soften a tad, about 5 minutes.

Add your dal, rice, all other dry spices and broth and cook on a medium boil for 1 hour, stirring frequently. **if you use potatoes, add them here, too!

After one hour, add other tender vegetables (green onions, peppers, zucchini, etc.) and cover with more water, and continue to simmer (covered) for another 30 minutes, stirring frequently--- the kitchari will absorb all of the liquid and you may have to add more to get it to a consistency that pleases you.

After 30 minutes, taste your kitchari. The beans and rice should be soft, the broth should be almost completely absorbed and the overall flavor should be spicy (but not hot, unless that was what you were going for) but not salty. Since it is a cleansing food, kitchari isn't normally salted. I however, like to add tamari over the top when I am ready to eat it.

Serve with fresh cilantro, lime juice, tamari, hot sauce and a dollop of plain yogurt if you'd like!

xoxo

Chicken Tinga (for spicy shredded chicken tacos, tostadas, etc.

Ally, do you remember long ago when we had a BIG Mexican fiesta for your dad's birthday? And I made that REALLY spicy shredded chicken? Well this is the recipe, only I have since toned down the spice. **Though I did love how spicy that batch turned out, I didn't realize how spicy it was until the next day...and that is never fun. So this is a more, uh, forgiving recipe.

This chicken is good on tacos, on tostadas, in enchiladas, on a salad, with beans, with rice-- the possibilities are endless. I however, am always partial to tacos.

What you will need:

1/3 of an onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of boneless skinless organic chicken breasts
1 32 ounce can of organic diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chipotle in adobo sauce or 3 tablespoons of fresh/previously frozen/canned green chili (either come canned in the "ethnic" aisle of the grocery store// you can get at Mexican grocers)
Ground cumin
Mexican oregano
Salt

To serve:
6-8 tortillas
"Stuff for ensalada" (today I used romaine, red cabbage and cubed cucumber, pickled onions and cilantro)
Sour cream/Crema or crumbly Mexican cheese

First, in a soup pot (that has a lid) saute the onion and garlic briefly over medium heat in a scant amount of olive oil two-three minutes, then add the whole chicken breasts, tomatoes and chili/chipotle. Cover the pot and let this simmer on medium heat for 45 minutes. 

While the tinga was cooking, I prepped a small salad to top my tacos with, chopped romaine, shredded red cabbage and cubed cucumber. I then discovered that I still had pickled onions in my fridge, and chopped them into small pieces and used them with a tablespoon of their juices to dress the salad. Wa-la. You have a light salad to top your tacos with.

After 45 minutes of simmering, remove your chicken breasts and let them cool. Turn the heat down on the tomato/tinga sauce that is still on the stove. Shred the chicken once it is cool (with your fingers or a fork) and add it back into the sauce. Season with cumin (about two tablespoons), Mexican oregano (about one hefty tablespoon) salt and pepper. Add up two half of a cup of water or broth to bring moisture back into the shredded chicken so that you may return it to medium heat without it burning or sticking to the pan. Let the shredded chicken simmer with the sauce and spices for about another 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

 Meanwhile, heat up your tortillas, today we did it the quick way in our cast iron, over high heat.

Ready whatever other toppings you have (cilantro, sour cream, cheese, lime).

Top your tortillas with all of the fixins.

Happy taco eating!!!

xoxooxoxoo

Quick Vegan Taco Filling: Anasazi Bean and Yam

So, geez. It's been a long couple of weeks. I sort of feel like I have been swallowed up under a tidal wave of a schedule, and so I am completely lacking time, especially Monday-Wednesday. Though it is all exciting a stuff I still can't help but feel like I don't have the space to concentrate on the things that make me feel good (like going to yoga and cooking delicious dinners for my woo-bear, AJ). In order to compromise both my tight schedule and my desire to cook a solid meal at the end of the day, I chose TACOS as a quick way to make a really satisfying dinner.

I will try to post a lot of taco fillings throughout the life of this blog as we eat them often and they always have basically whatever I can find in my cupboard or in the dredges of my refrigerator...so it is always a random, wild interpretation of the traditional taco fillings we are used to.

Tonight, I had yams.

What you will need for this recipe

2 cups of cooked beans (I had made anasazi beans in the slow cooker, with just water out and no seasonings of the sheer hurriedness of my life this week, they cook identically to the black bean recipe previously posted on this blog)
2 medium to small yams, skinned and diced
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 bunch of kale, chopped roughly
Salt
Cayenne (a pinch!)
Cumin, ground or whole or both
Coriander
Taortillas (we get Abbo Blue, local organically cultivated blue corn tortillas by Abbodanza farm/seeds: Rich, AJ's mentor found and culivated the strain of corn they are made of from a heirloom variety in Mexico: they are SO DELICIOUS)
1 avocado
Salsa, any other condiment you like on your tacos

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You will need the oven for your tortillas later.
Then saute the onion until translucent in a good layer of olive oil on medium high heat (I prefer, when cooking in my cast iron, especially with taco fillings, to get a "blackened" quality to my ingredients, especially with the likes of potatoes or yams). Add yams and saute, constantly flipping so as to keep them from sticking for about 6-10 minutes, or until they are soft and getting golden (or blackened edges, like I like them). Add your drained beans and garlic and stir in over medium heat for about 2-4 minutes. Season with salt, cumin, coriander and pinch of cayenne or another chili powder if you like spice.

Add chopped kale and let it wilt and get a little crispy, stirring for about 5 minutes. Taste and continue to season accordingly if you so desire.

Meanwhile, while the filling is resting on low heat and covered (because it is now done) lightly paint olive or grapeseed oil on your tortillas and place on a cookie sheet. Set in the oven and let them get soft and warm-- if you like them slightly crispy leave them in for up to 10 minutes, but I usually keep mine in for about 7. Certain tortillas are denser and take longer, so stick your nose in at 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes etc. and you'll know when they are heated and to your liking.

 While the tortillas are warming up in the oven, slice your avocado and ready any other condiments you might like (cheese, sour cream, crema, salsa, cilantro, hot sauce, etc.)

We kept ours simple and when our tortillas were ready we filled them with the yam-bean-kale fillings and only added the sliced avocado and salsa.

Twenty minute dinner, YAY. Who doesn't like tacos????

Marinara ala Sacchitella

You know, when you are Italian everything "is aboutta-da-sauce." So, growing up, there were two different sauces; there was the simple, elegant sauce my grandmother made, and...the sauce my dad made.

The sauce my dad made defied my grandmother's traditional recipe, which was my dad's underlying purpose I believe, because he put everything-- I mean everything-- in his sauce. He had sort of a if-one-thing-then-why-not-ten attitude in the kitchen. His marinara included tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, olive oil, barbecue sauce, honey, miso, wine, soy sauce, every spice in our spice cabinet...the list goes on. And once, he even put (I wish I was kidding) corn flake IN his sauce. I repeat, IN the sauce: IN it.

He also rebelled against tradition and didn't always pound his chicken flat when making chicken parmesan, so when he served his chunky breaded and fried chicken with his eclectic-flavored tomato sauce, it was more reminiscent of chicken nuggets with some kind of sweet-sour dipping sauce you get from a fast food joint.

(Rene if you are reading this, I know you are laughing really hard right now-- we used to beg our mom when our dad wasn't home just to make us sauce out of the can, we would DAYDREAM about Ragu because it was so different than what our dad served us so often!)

So now that I am an adult and don't have to force myself to eat things I don't like so that I may get up from the table, I have gone back to honoring my grandmother's way of doing things, which I always liked better, anyway.

My grandmother is a simple, woman from a farming family in Sicily. She makes things simply. This sauce is simple. And delicious.



For this family-inspired marinara you will need:

Olive oil
Half of once large yellow onion, peeled and diced
8 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
Dried marjoram and basil
Two 32 ounce cans of organic** whole, peeled tomatoes (I am a stickler for buying all things organic, but with everything BUT I really, really push for people to make sure that mass-produced things, like canned tomatoes are ESPECIALLY high quality, they are even better if you buy them in the jar, but if I bought jarred tomatoes all of the time I might go bankrupt)
Salt


First, coat your sauce pan lightly with olive oil, turn up to medium high and saute your onions until they are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium and add your garlic. Saute altogether briefly, about a minute, until the garlic starts to soften.

Next, add 1/2 tablespoon of marjoram and 1 tablespoon of basil. Mix up with the onion-garlic mixture. Then add both of your cans of whole tomatoes and if you feel that you need more volume, 1/2 of a cup of water.

With a potato masher (which I do not have!) or a heavy-duty whisk, mash your chunks of tomato into the sauce, while the pan is still on medium heat. 

Once your sauce is a more even consistency, add salt to your taste liking and cover to let it simmer on low for at least 30 minutes-- you can let it simmer on low all day if you would like, my grandma did.

If you like a really garlicky sauce, add 1/2 of the garlic at the beginning and save 1/2 to put in just for the simmering at the end, this will give the sauce a little more zip.

Enjoy with pasta-- or in my next recipe, in lasagna!

xoxo

Coconut Milk Custard

This is one of my favorite, FAVORITE dessert recipes. It is full of protein and extremely versatile.

You will need:
1/3 cup of sugar 
2 teaspoons of corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 can of coconut milk (14 oz.)
6 egg yolks, beaten
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract


First, split your egg yolks and eggs whites-- I used my egg whites the next day in an omelette.

Next, combine sugar, corn starch and salt in sauce pan on stove. 

Add milk, mix completely and turn onto medium heat. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. (I use a whisk for this recipe!)

Once boiling keep it at a boil for 1 minute (still stirring). 
Add the egg yolks into the sauce pan full of the hot milk mixture on the stove. Stir constantly (and vigorously!) over medium heat for 10 minutes. 

Finally, add the vanilla and immediately remove from heat. Let cool.

This makes lovely parfaits in cups with chopped bananas, berries, nuts, or cookie crumbles. I like eating it in martini glasses with bananas and raspberries on the top and bottom. With this last batch, I used it as a filling between four layers of gluten free vanilla cake, and topped with with chocolate ganche to make a Boston cream cake. 
ENJOY.