Fat free rice pudding!

I was about to call this "healthy rice pudding," but then I remembered the huge amounts of sugar. At least this uses brown rice and skim milk (and is, therefore, Dad-appropriate!). I'd like to play around with the proportions a little more and, let's not kid ourselves here, I think it'd be much better with whole milk. Maybe less sugar, too. This is a good start, though. I combined the techniques/proportions from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker version with the spices from the Taste Divine version.
Mix 2.5c cooked brown rice (1c dry + 2.5c water) with 1.5c(?) milk and .5c brown sugar.
Add 1t vanilla, 1/2t coriander, and 1 bay leaf.
Mix and set cook for 3h on low.
After 1.5h, stir in 1/3c raisins and 1/2c slivered almonds.
Serve hot or cold.
I made this in the anticipation of a visit by a friend, but turns out she can't be here--looks like I'm gonna have to eat it all my self!

Divine Yogurt Potatoes

Just tried another recipe from The Taste Divine: "Vibhuti/Potato Yogurt." I'm getting pretty sick of potatoes but I've been getting them every week from the CSA for quite a while now. This dish was a nice change! If you added onions and cauliflower to the mix, it would be like Aloo Gobi. Here's my adaptation:

Cook 10 small potatoes (I cooked them for 12 minutes in the microwave in half an inch of water). Cool, prick, peel, cut into large chunks.
Mix 4T yogurt, 1/2t turmeric, 2t coriander, 2t cumin (I only have the powder but I bet the seeds would be better), and .5t salt. Spread sauce over potatoes.
Heat 3T oil in a frying pan over medium heat and stir-fry until all the liquid is absorbed and potatoes are a golden brown.
Serve with a cilantro garnish.
Tastes good cold, too!

Steaks... eggplant steaks

Just made a delicious eggplant dish (are we noticing a theme with my recent entries?) Slice eggplant longwise into 1/2" "steaks." Place them on paper towels and salt. After 30 minutes, dab away the water that has seeped out. Broil them for 2-3 minutes on each side. Eat with the Smucker's peanut butter jar peanut sauce (posted here) and cilantro. I ate it with some leftover garlic mashed potatoes and bread with hummus. Yum!

The Taste Divine: Mashed Eggplant

Did a lot of cooking today! Made mashed potatoes, bread, and my first crack at a cookbook from Jo, "The Taste Divine." I've long contemplated making things from this book, but the author insists on calling for bizarre ingredients that I'm sure cannot be found in the US, specialty food stores or no. Anyhow, the neighborhood Superfresh certainly does not have asafoetida or coriander leaves (update: this is cilantro. #genius). It doesn't even have turmeric powder or cardamom. So, without further ado, here is my version of "Vairagya/Mashed Eggplant":
Coat 1 large eggplant lightly with oil & cook 45 min at 400 deg. or until skin is loose (as per mom's earlier post). Skin and chop eggplant into small pieces.
Heat 1T olive oil in a saute pan.
Saute one chopt onion.
Add 1 chopt jalapeno and 2 chopt tomato (I used an heirloom CSA tomato--made a big difference!) Saute until well-cooked.
Add eggplant and cook until everything is soft and well-blended. Periodically mash with a spoon.
Add .5t salt, .5t coriander powder, .5t cumin about 3 min before you remove from stove.
Serve with bread or rice.

The eggplant is pictured above with veggies vindaloo, rice, and raita.  Sorry the image of the dish in question is so small... I usually get so excited about sampling a new dish that I forget to photograph it and then have to scramble for blog pics later on!


Word to the wise: if you only have 1 eggplant and 1 tomato, it is not a good idea to use a whole jalapeno. In fact, it is a worse idea to use a monster jalapeno that's the size of about 2 jalapenos put together. I had to eat mine with an absurd amount of bread to tone down the heat. Still, it was delicious.

Pumpernickel Bread

Adapted from the back of the Arrowhead Mills Rye flour bag:

Add to the bread mchine:
1c warm water
1/3c molasses
2T veg oil
2c bread flour
1.5c rye flour
1t salt
2T cocoa powder
1T caraway seeds
1 pkg active dry yeast
Set machine to med. loaf for delicious results!

Like most things, this tastes especially good with butter.

Toby's Tastes

Following on his earlier post, "Holistic my A-hole," Toby discloses that Newman's is nowhere. Toby is a Purina man. He ate some of the recently-purchased Newman's out of Robin's hand, but he spurned it otherwise. She decided he deserved a bit of indulgence and bought him his old fave, Purina Sensitive System Salmon. She left the 20-lb bag briefly on the sidewalk, whereupon he grabbed it in his jaws and started tugging on it. She poured a portion on top of the spurned Newman's. He ate all the Purina and left all the Newmans. Robin did like the mock-up newspaper article on the Newman's bag: "Newman's Dog Tells All."

Tofu Temptation

The mousse which Jo and I made for Reeves's b'day is really adaptable. Simply take 1 package tofu (~13 oz), dice it, put it in a collander and pour boiling water over it, then press it a bit, then try to blend it (difficult in a blender, so start adding some milk); melt 4 - 5 oz 100% cacao, add 1 heaping T. cocoa, meanwhile trying to get the damn thing to blend; add 1 t. vanilla and a pinch of salt, and after that it's all optional: can add 1/2 t orange zest, remove the serving(s) for people who don't want it to be sweet, then add maybe 2T. maple syrup.
Question: Speaking of mousse, what about Jody's moose triumph at the cooking contest at the conference last spring??? Can we see a recipe??

Delicious but suspicious

Moorish stew (chickpea) made with red-stemmed chard. Don't do it. The red in the stems colors the chickpeas a rather grim, gloomy light brown.