Dishes from the Dish

Porch garden report

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:44:49 -0430

Scarlet runner beans have sprouted and are climbing up a string to a former laundry line on Bob’s side of the cabin.

Some very brave nasturtiums are struggling out of the bottom of a pier on my side.

Bok choi started in water sprouted and is unhappily regaining its footing after re-potting

Volunteer kabocha and acorn squash continue to grow out of a mound of soil, but don’t seem to be sending out runners.

Planted some sweet peas and nasturtiums alongside my collards. The collards reaaaaalllly hate the heat, and spend most of their time looking leggy.

The tulsi/Holy Basil plant was going bonkers, so I trimmed it back in the hopes that it’d bush out.

The sweet-smelling herb I bought from the grocery store is Aztec sweet herb, and while it’d be as sweet as stevia, it has enough camphor to be dangerously medicinal. Ah well.

Conventional basil and culantro continue doing their thing.

Celery sprouted, but the top of the soil is getting moldy. Like the collards, I think it hates the heat.

Three orchids are content to blossom, as well as a fuchsia. Don’t eat those!

Lemongrass, after a few weeks, finally put out roots. I’ll plant them when the roots are two inches long.

Sprouted adzuki beans: on round II. This batch seems to be reluctant to sprout as quickly as the last one.

A sweet potato on top of the fridge decided to put out leaves. I guess I’ll eat them soon!

Things have been quiet

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:36:13 -0430

Tonight I made some meals for the week:

Churrasco steak cooked in a cast iron pan with butter, lemon juice, sea salt, black pepper, and the Trader Joe’s 21 spice seasoning salute (thank you Ti!)
Gravy out of the liquid remaining in the pan, dredged with coconut flour (thank you Kseniya!)
Steamed green beans with butter
Roasted sweet potato
Spinach, egg, coconut flour, and local green (Anaheim?) pepper muffins

Hopefully this next week I can avoid eating in the cafeteria.

Tomorrow’s lunch:

Spinach, arugula, and watercress salad dressed with lemon, cilantro pesto, and sprouted adzuki beans
Green beans over steak over kimchi

Cilantro pesto

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:03:53 -0430

On Friday I bought two bunches of wilting cilantro from the fruit vendor by Pueblo for about $2, then all of her remaining bananas for another $2.

Washing off the cilantro tonight to make pesto I found not just attached roots and dirt, but also a SNAIL IN ITS SHELL.

There’s a first.

Added walnuts, olive oil (ran out, for the first time! signs you’ve been in one place for six months, partial list), some Korean red pepper, garlic (from China, sigh), salt, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Pretty darn amazing.

Bok choi and collards

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:12:48 -0430

Took the bottom of a clump of bok choi and put it in water.

Within 12 hours it’d sprouted more leaves.

Planted collards earlier in the week.

This morning they sprouted.

I’d like to move off-site so I can plant hyacinth vine, loofahs, bitter melon/goya/ツルレイシ all growing up trellises. At some point I should plant the giant pumpkin.

Kitchen sink shake

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:55:25 -0430

Handful of kale
1½ inch of a bunch of cilantro
4 generous discs of cucumber
2 spears of bok choi
2 spears of celery
Pinch of Korean red pepper
1 teaspoon of cumin
Juice of one lime
5 miniature bananas, approximate 2 standard bananas

Blend with some water. Drink. The pepper’s just enough to remind you that you have 15 hours of observing tonight.

The little bananas are great: the fruit vendor sold me at least three or four hands for $2 yesterday. I froze some and would love suggestions on what to do with the rest.

Grilling

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:37:40 -0430

Bob had the grill out tonight and admonished me for not using it.

I rapidly chopped up a sweet potato and my last acorn squash that’d been languishing on the top shelf of the refrigerator, then pulled three slightly freezer burned slabs of churrasco out of the freezer.

The churrasco turned out better than I thought, surprisingly tender. Acorn squash is a delight, nuttier and smoother than local pumpkin. Sweet potato takes a bit longer, but it’s a reliable breakfast.

For lunch I brought along a tub of kale (smuggled in from Whole Foods on the Upper West Side), bean sprouts (organically grown in Puerto Rico!), and spinach, dressed with olive oil and some pomegranate balsamic vinegar. Made the midday cafeteria meal much better.

Sprouts

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:26:46 -0430

rhazade-waterbender:

dishesfromthedish:

I carefully removed seeds and guts from kabocha and acorn squash cavities, putting them in a colander to separate later. The colander upended, sending seeds all across the porch. I swept them onto the gravel walkway and the rocky border, then went abroad for two and a half weeks.

Upon my return I found them eagerly sprouting their second sets of leaves up through the stones. I’ve never had this much luck with squash in the past, especially my poor loofah of spring 2010.

Plucking one of the sprouts, I tried it: deliciously spicy. Like a nasturtium.

Bob’s psyched. He wants plants enveloping his deck.

Nasturtiums, squash, beans, morning glories?

Let’s try planting things again.

Cucurbita stems/leaves are edible? I knew that the flowers were, but I didn’t know about the rest of the plant (aside from the fruit, of course, that is).

I mean, I’m sure they’d be way too fibrous after a certain age, but even so. Good to know.

My Nepalese and Indian colleagues discussed recently their recipes involving pumpkin shoots, like this one from Nepal with spices and sautéed pumpkin greenery. Frying pumpkin and squash blossoms is another fun way to eat parts of the pumpkin plant if you’re trying to promote growth of giant squashes (like this 56-pounder).

Sprouts

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:24:36 -0430

I carefully removed seeds and guts from kabocha and acorn squash cavities, putting them in a colander to separate later. The colander upended, sending seeds all across the porch. I swept them onto the gravel walkway and the rocky border, then went abroad for two and a half weeks.

Upon my return I found them eagerly sprouting their second sets of leaves up through the stones. I’ve never had this much luck with squash in the past, especially my poor loofah of spring 2010.

Plucking one of the sprouts, I tried it: deliciously spicy. Like a nasturtium.

Bob’s psyched. He wants plants enveloping his deck.

Nasturtiums, squash, beans, morning glories?

Let’s try planting things again.

Apologies for the radio silence: I’ve been in Houston,...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:10:49 -0430

Apologies for the radio silence: I’ve been in Houston, Boston, New York, and behind the Orange Curtain for the last two weeks, spoiled rotten by the proximity to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Market Basket.

Posts to resume soon.

Brunch and pineapple vinegar with the mum

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:06:06 -0430

The entire Houghton clan (James, Alli, mum, dad, and two sisters) visited! We had a Caribbean meal at Salitre with baked snapper, seafood paella, tostones, and mofongo.

This morning we woke up around 6 and toured the telescope platform. It was a bit cloudy, but cool as crepuscular rays peered over the knobby karst hills. We came back to the family cabins to make a huge breakfast of pineapple, grapefruit, leftover stuffed squash/lasagna stuffing (ground chicken, sage, spinach, shallots, red peppers, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms), scrambled eggs, watermelon, bacon, orange juice, milk, coffee, tea, toast, and red peppers.

I had a brainwave to wrap the pineapple in bacon. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 ˚F, flipping once in the middle. The warm sweet acidic pineapple with the fat and salt of the bacon is a perfect balance. I bet a dusting of cumin would work, too! James’ dad declared that this would be a repeat recipe in their household.

Tonight I took the pineapple remains and started vinegar: 1 quart of filtered water, 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup raw unfiltered vinegar (supposedly with the mother, but there’s no obvious structure), and one pineapple’s worth of skin and eyes. I’ll leave it for a week then strain out the solids and hopefully there’ll be the start of a mother structure. I can afford to be patient here: I’m leaving on Friday for two and a half weeks, so it’ll be hard to prod whatever developing structures exist from Houston, Boston, New York, and Dana Point!

I’d like to try making this: salmon with pistachios...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:43:42 -0430

I’d like to try making this: salmon with pistachios wrapped in leeks. Spotted in Vanidades while waiting at the doctor’s office. My Spanish is serviceable enough to read the gossip magazines here! I learned that Prince Harry has “no power over love”.

Go home bread, you’re drunk. (Round II on...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:34:36 -0430

Go home bread, you’re drunk.

(Round II on TGIPaleo’s bread, using eggwhite protein. Really tastes like eggwhites. Next time, I’ll use whey protein instead. It also shrunk, becoming very dense. It baked into this giant wave shape. Alas.)

Moosewood winter pesto

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:16:00 -0430

On the “to try” list, courtesy of a weathermartian:

Winter Pesto
from the New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant

4 cups firmly packed fresh spinach (about 5 oz)
1/2 to 1/2 fresh lemon juice [sic]
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil [would probably replace with more olive oil]
1/2 cup pine nuts or chopped almonds or walnuts
3/4 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese (2 oz) [omit or replace with nutritional yeast]
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup dried basil
2 garlic cloves, minced

If you have time, soak the basil in the olive oil 1/2 hour before starting the recipe.

Wash and drain the spinach. Remove only the large stems. In a blender or food prcessor, blend half of the spinach with all of the lemon juice and half of the oil. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

Serves 6 to 8

Kabocha squash stuffed with chicken, sage, and spinach

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:37:00 -0430

Inspired by Nom Nom Paleo’s recipe for pork and spinach stuffed kabocha squash, I decided to try my own version. I was lucky enough to score organic celery at Supermercado Pueblo, along with sage, chopped frozen spinach, red peppers, an onion, and ground chicken (which you don’t see often in the States, though I’ve seen it in Jerusalem, Tokyo, and Accra). The cilantro was sold fresh at an intersection here in Arecibo, but I didn’t wind up using it–even so, local, Areciban produce is to be celebrated.

The squash in question was not from Supermercado Pueblo, but from my favorite Econo out in Aguadilla. When I saw they had kabocha, acorn squash, and butternut squash, I bought one of each. After removing their insides and saving the seeds I roasted the kabocha and acorn squashes for 30 minutes at 350 ˚F.

Even squash can appreciate a sunset from the VSQ.

I sautéed the onion with some garlic paste until the onion was translucent and sweet, then added chopped celery and red bell pepper.

I added the ground chicken, cooking it until it was no longer pink, then tossed in several torn sage leaves and about two cups of frozen spinach.

Stuffing the squash was easy; I then added vegetable broth to cover the stuffing before baking both squash for 25 minutes.

Fernando went for seconds. Successful VSQ dinner!

"A whole chicken cooked inside the cavity of a pumpkin. It’s perfect as the main Halloween course and..."

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:28:00 -0430

“A whole chicken cooked inside the cavity of a pumpkin. It’s perfect as the main Halloween course and gives out the impression of eating a chicken that grew inside a pumpkin. It’s not much more complicated to prepare than your regular roasted chicken and the only trick is to get a pumpkin that will be large enough to contain the whole chicken. This recipe will definitely surprise your guests when you bring the cooked pumpkin the the center of the table and remove the top to a roasted chicken.”

- I’d like to try this with a Cornish game hen and a large kabocha squash next time I’m back stateside. Holy smoke.

Thai curry pumpkin custard

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:52:00 -0430

I made up a recipe tonight! It definitely hits the Thai food spot.

Thai Curry Pumpkin Custard

Makes four ramekins’ worth of custard. Preheat oven to 350 ˚F.

Ingredients:

8 oz pumpkin or winter squash, canned or fresh
6 oz coconut milk
2 eggs
1 inch of fresh ginger, chopped
1 teaspoon Thai green curry paste
1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, depending on heat tolerance
zest from half a lime
1/4 teaspoon salt, or 1/4 teaspoon fish sauce
(optional: four fresh basil leaves)

Method:

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender; mix until smooth.

Set four greased ramekins into a baking dish deep enough to come a little more than half-way up the ramekins’ sides.

Pour mixture into ramekins. Pour a boiling waterbath into the baking dish around the ramekins, being careful not to pour water into the custard.

Bake at 350 ˚F for 20-25 minutes, until the center of the custard is just a little springy. If you’re worried they’re browning too quickly on top, cover with aluminum foil after the first 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool until safe to handle. Carefully remove from baking dish. Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired.

I think this could have used more ginger, galangal, or lemongrass. To add the latter, I’d infuse the coconut milk with lemongrass by boiling it, then strain out the lemongrass pieces. Astoundingly enough, you can get all the ingredients for this in Puerto Rico!

Electrical engineering

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:15:45 -0430

It’d be too inefficient to generate the radar signals that microwave our space potatoes from down in the control room; instead, we send 65,000 volts carrying 33 amps (2.1 megawatts) out to the telescope platform, where that voltage drives two klystrons. Half of that power (1 megawatt) is dumped out into the atmosphere as waste heat via fans powered by a 75 horsepower motor, drawing another few kilowatts. Could you cook with that? Boil water?

There’s a joke about how it takes 300 seconds in a conventional microwave oven of 1 kilowatt to cook popcorn; here, it’d take 1/3 of a second at 1 megawatt to cook popcorn. What would happen if you filled the tertiary dish with popcorn kernels and turned on the transmitter? Would the frequency be correct to make the Arecibo version of Real Genius?

Pyrex loaf pan

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:14:07 -0430

We have a couple of visiting grad students from Stanford; I took them to the grocery store, out to dinner, and to Walmart last night. Salitre was closed, so we went to the pizza food truck right by Pueblo. They felt really bad that I couldn’t eat anything there, but the proprietors (Irving and Lynn) fixed us shots of Cuban rum then stir-fried chicken with orange peppers, mushrooms, and caramelized onions for me while the boys devoured pizza and calzone. Followed by more Cuban rum shots with the owners, Brooklyn transplants and super happy folks.

(Did you know that pineapple and olives don’t sell well on pizza in Puerto Rico?)

At Walmart, the boys felt bad for not taking me out for a nice meal, and offered to get me something nice and charge it to their grant as a thank you gesture. I picked out a Pyrex loaf pan with a cover (!) and some dish cloths. If there’d been an immersion blender… I should have looked for glass mixing bowls!

I made red velvet cupcakes this morning, using raw beet purée in...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:53:00 -0430

I made red velvet cupcakes this morning, using raw beet purée in the hopes of getting a vivid red cupcake. No such luck; perhaps I needed more acid to turn the cocoa powder red? Or was the cocoa powder processed, and not natural as it claimed?

Iced with cream cheese mixed with some blackberry wine from Korea and a smidge of maple syrup. Needs some work, but the overall flavor worked very well. Next time I’ll do a spiced nut cream, maybe like the one here? It’s hard to find cashews or macadamia nuts outside of the salted blends from Walgreens.

The best part of this recipe was making the raw beet purée. I cut raw beets into chunks, ran them through the grating disk of my food processor, measured out two cups of grated beet, then put the cutting blade in the food processor, added the grated beet, and hit “on”. Beet shreds were everywhere at the end of the process, but cleaned up quickly.

My other thought: I should have used some of the red palm oil Anna brought back from Ghana. And blanched almond meal, rather than whole almonds. Maybe less cocoa? I could experiment by mixing the cocoa powder with acids to see if it turns red. I could try adding some lemon or apple cider vinegar to the mix.

Giacomo complained that they were bitter, but he likes very sweet things. I think the chocolate flavor is perfect, but needs a bit of a kick. Maybe ginger? Some other spice?

Happy rocks-from-space day.

(via Real Paleo Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe (Paleo Muffins, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free) | Fat-Burning Man by Abel James: Real Food, Real Results.)

"alpha-caesin beta-caesin casomorphin milk butyrophilin cow’s milk american..."

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:03:54 -0430

“alpha-caesin
beta-caesin
casomorphin
milk butyrophilin
cow’s milk
american cheese
chocolate
coffee
all cereal grains
quinoa
amaranth
buckwheat
tapioca
rice
potato
corn
sesame”

- Having been gluten-free for almost four years now, and mostly grain free as of late, it looks like it may be time to be a little more restrictive. I’d like to see where Chris gets this list, however.

After the pre-observing chocolate binge last night and sleeping for two hours, five hours, and three hours, I’m feeling not great. But sesame?! Sigh. Better not to eat quinoa as its growth in popularity is damaging the folks who grow it in the Andes.

9 Steps To Perfect Health – #1: Don’t Eat Toxins