Soup and Salad

The other day my friend came over for lunch and I took it as an opportunity to get creative with the random stuff I had left over. I was trying to get the fridge cleared out in anticipation for an upcoming dive so I heated up some leftover peanut soup and made a yummy salad with some romaine lettuce and honey mustard dressing.

The salad was made using the last of some honey mustard dressing mixed with some mustard sauce. I made some croutons with some old bread and toasted some sunflower seeds while the soup heated up. I added some salt, pepper, dried dill and other herbs to the salad before mixing it all up. It was very tasty with the crisp romaine lettuce and herbed croutons.

Peanut Soup

2-3 cups stock or just water

1 small onion

1 small sweet pepper

1 hot chili

1 clove garlic

1 carrot and/or

sweet potato

1 tomato

1cup peanut butter

Combine everything in a big pot and cookr til veggies are tender. Reduce heat and add peanut butter, stir and simmer till thick and smooth. You can add or omit just about anything you want to this recipe. This soup is best served over fufu but fine on its own. This is an important model for making up other soup recipes whenever I have odd leftover in the cabinet and can be used in many variations. In the one I ate with lunch, I added coconut milk, ginger, corn, cinnamon and a few coffee beans for good measure.

Tomat

This is in response to a question from one of my lovely readers who wanted to know what Tomat is. Tomat is one of my favorite dishes because its so simple and so tasty. My grandfather often ate versions of this growing up in French Algeria and taught my dad who taught my mom who made it for us when we were growing up. Tonight was the perfect night to make it; I just got hold of a delicious loaf of Holla bread from a local bakery and my sister gave me some organic free range eggs from her job last night. Both are important parts. Here is a step by step how-to guide to Tomat.

First, start by gathering your ingredients. I used:

2 large tomatoes

fresh parsley and rosemary

dried basil

garlic powder

two eggs

sea salt

black pepper

olive oil

bread

Obviously fresh ingredients are always better and much more tasty, but Im working with what I've got. There wasn't much left alive in the herb garden..

Start by preheating the oven to 350-400°F. Slice the bread however thick or thin you like it and drizzle some olive oil on it, then sprinkle some herbs, pepper or whatever flavors you like on it.

Toast it in the oven while the tomat cooks, about 15-20 minutes.

Now add some oil to your pan and set the heat to medium low.If you have fresh garlic, add some minced to brown a bit. Let the oil heat up while you cut your tomatoes in half. You will hear the garlic sizzling when the tomatoes are ready to go in.

Put them in face down to simmer for a few minutes with the lid on.

While the tomatoes cook, chop up your other herbs.

After a few minutes the skins should easily slough off. Don't forget to check on the bread! 

Crack your eggs in the middle. Make sure the heat is not too high or the eggs will cook too quickly and get hard while the tomatoes remain undercooked. 

Now you can sprinkle your chopped herbs, spices, salt and pepper over it all.

Its not done yet! Put the lid back on for a few minutes on low heat to cook a bit longer. 

By now, the bread should be nice and toasty. I like it to be good and dry so it can soak up all the savory juices and oil. 

Simmer until the yolk has reached your desired firmness. I like it about half way through, so its still just a little bit runny.

Enjoy! It's best when you break up the tomato and egg so you can get a bit of everything on the crusty bread. This is what my brother and I had for dinner tonight. Yum!

Ham croissant with mango-apricot spread

Last night my best friends and I decided to watch a movie and hang out at my house all night. Before we watched settled down to watch "Dead Zone" starring Christopher Walkin, which was awful by the way, we decided to make a little snack. Laura and I had made a version of the ham croissants a few nights before so we decided to try it again, changing the things that we talked about last time. We sliced the croissants and put ham on each one.

 We decided to make a mango-apricot spread so I cut up some of the dried pineapple flavored mango slices I had and put them in a small sautee pan with some apricot preserves, water and sugar. I added some cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and reduced it a bit. I put the mango-apricot spread on the bottom and put them in the oven to bake at a medium-low temp so that the ham would get hot and without burning the croissants.

While they baked I while I grated an apple and shredded some pepper jack cheese to top the sandwiches with. When the ham was ready I spread the apple and then cheese on each one and put it back in to broil for a minute longer.

Once the cheese had melted, they were ready.

The results were exceptional; Ive never had anything quite like them before, although a few things could still be improved the next time around..

How to clean cheese

My new camera has arrived so I thought Id do a step by step how-to guide to keeping firm cheeses clean and fresh so that they last a lot longer. Most people are very scared of "bad food" and think that the tiniest speck of mold on a block of cheese means its beginning to rot or something. The truth is that mold can be simply washed off of the cheese, leaving it free of anything gross. Take this example:

I found this cheese the other night. It was obviously thrown out because of the big patches of mold growing on it, even though the cheese is still good and fresh.

Upon opening the package, you can see that there was some pretty gnarly mold on the whole side of this block. This is a good example because it doesn't really matter how much mold there is, as long as what you are trying to save is more cheese than mold..

Just run it under some cool water and wash it with a clean cloth or brush. You should obviously not use hot water for this, as you will have a terrible mess to deal with afterwards.

Once it is satisfactorily clean, put it in a clean, dry towel and pat it dry. It is important to make sure it is good and dry before wrapping back up, or it will just get moldy again in a couple days.

Voila! A fresh, clean block of cheese. This pepper jack was also pretty moldy, so I tried washing it too, and it worked just as well. Wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap or keep it in a well fitting tupperware container; the less air its exposed to, the longer it will keep before getting moldy again or drying out.

I grated some of both cheeses on top of these Swedish baked potatoes. They were delicious. I found out this time that Yukon Gold potatoes is the way to go for this recipe, which I posted earlier.

Recipes galore

Ive been cooking lots of stuff that I have been meaning to post recipes for but I always seem to forget.. Well here's a recipe for some chicken salad I made today that turned out really well. I based it off of my moms recipe that she used in her restaurant and changed it to suit what I had in the fridge. The results were tasty!

Curried Ginger Chicken Salad

Chicken
mayonaise
diced celery
diced green onion
minced red onion
minced roasted garlic
minced garlic
relish
dried cranberries
soy sauce
curry powder
toasted sesame dressing
basil
cilantro
salt
pepper
soy sauce

I mixed approximately equal parts celery, onion, cranberries, and mayo with about 2 tbsp garlic and ginger, tsp herbs, soy sauce, sesame dressing and curry powder, and salt & pepper to taste. You can add more or less of what you like and change it to suit your taste. I served it on a toasted English muffin with organic spinach leaves for lunch.

Ive also been talking about baking a pie for days but haven't gotten around to it.. so tonight I whipped one up with some stuff that needed to be used while I made big pot of soup stock with all the veggies that needed to be used.

Strawberry Ginger Lime Pie

2c strawberries
2 segmented limes
1c sugar
2tbsp flour
1tsp vanilla extract
~1tbsp minced ginger
frozen pie crust

Mix up ingredients and pour in the pie crust. Bake according to directions on pie crust package. Dare I say, easy as pie.. or following directions. As you all may have gathered from previous posts, I prefer to make my own pie crust because its much tastier and really easy, but I didn't have any flour.. Ill keep an eye out at the dumps next time.

Mmmm.. so meaty

I stopped at one grocery on my way home tonight and found a bunch of meat and potatoes.. Ill give the meat to my brother.. I also went to the pharmacy the other day on my way home and found some stuff; ill throw it all in to one list:

2 gallons milk
2 1/2gal. chocolate milk
2 gallons grape drink
2lbs baby white potatoes
1lb hot pork sausage
8oz cooked bacon
1lbpkg oscar mayer hot dogs
1lbpkg Nathans hot dogs
8oz button mushrooms
8oz oscar mayer salami

Not really what I was looking for, but someone can appreciate it.. I always seem to forget about posting recipes so I feel like I should include one in here:


Curry Cashews

cashews
curry powder
olive, chili, or sesame oil
pepper
cumin

Preheat oven to 350. Heat oil in a wok and add cashews when hot, sauteeing for about thirty seconds. Add spices and continue, but be careful not to burn. spread nuts on baking sheet and roast for about 5 minutes, taking care not to over cook.

Remember all those cashews I found the other week? This is a tasty snack for any occasion. I burned them every time, but they were still good... haha

Crumble Recipe

In reviewing my blog I realized that I have neglected one of the main functions of this project, which is to share recipes I come up with for dumpstered food. I feel like this recipe for fruit crumble is appropriate because it is fast, easy, and interchangable depending on what is available. I developed this recipe for blueberries since they dont behave in the same way as other fruits in pies. This crumble recipe much simpler than a pie and great for anything you want to put in it.

Crumble Topping

I get one small measuring cup for everything and add

one scoop( I use 1/4c. scoop size for 2 cups of fruit filling)
brown sugar
flour
butter

two scoops (=1/2c.)
oats

half scoop(=1/8c.)
sugar, whatever kind you like

dash of salt

Mix it all up till its crumbly and easily sprinkled. The size of the scoop doesnt really matter as long as you have the ratio right. Make a bigger batch if you have more fruit.

Fruit Mix

(I use 2cups fruit for the 1/4c crubble topping scoop size)

2c. fruit
1/2 c sugar

Mix it up til the juices liquify the sugar. Pour in greased baking dish and sprinkle crumble topping over fruit mix. Bake at 425 for about 20-30 minutes or until desired brown color is reached on crumble topping.

Cool and enjoy with ice cream or something else yummy

I realize that I am not great at dictating recipes, so Im working on getting a step by step video for posted recipes. More about that later..

lately...

I have been a mess. I've been trying to keep up with the last week of classes but I have felt like I'm in some kind of dream.. probably because I have not been sleeping normally for the last couple weeks. I had not gone on a food run(until last night) since I went with Alicia to stock up for the cookout last week, but I've been going around places in the city. Late at night/early in the morning on the weekends, after the bars have closed and people are going home, I have found is a wonderful time to scan the streets and check the cans in and around downtown for some interesting things.. I also went back to the train station (first time since the incident) and found that there are many good things there as well. I may not have been taking the time to log my findings lately, but I am constantly on the lookout and have found several interesting things over the last couple of weeks.To name just a few items:
1 leather bound bible
1 pair size 11 nikes in relatively new condition
2 cell phones (which I could use if i ever decide to get a phone again...)
1 bottle black beeswax shoe polish - had nice shiny shoes for my last orchestra concert monday night :D
$10
2 porn DVDs.. havent checked them out yet; thought it was amusing
tons of assorted easter candy and paraphernalia
1 bottle hand sanitizer ..to stay in the car for when I go diving

Im glad that Movie Night is starting up tomorrow night; it's given me a project to work on that makes me feel like I have a purpose in life.. If you want to know more about it, I have a facebook group with all the info about it here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=67596363883&ref=share
Ive been cooking today in preparation for the pre-movie feast. I want to be sure there is tons of food; I felt like last thursday's cookout didnt have enough after I hyped it up to everyone... I will probably go back to the dump tonight just to see what else I can find, so maybe Ill be able to thorw something together tomorrow with whatever I find. I have been making apple crumbles a lot lately. I never realized how much easier and less consuming they are to make than a pie is. I love to make pies, but only for special occasions and for people who really deserve one :) Most of the recipes I use are based on ones I look up online to use as a guide, then I change them according to what I want or whatever I have available. The crumble recipe I am using is really easy, so Ive been trying different renditions each time.

Apple Crumble
6 apples
1/3c butter
1/2c brown sugar
c oats
whatever else you want in it.. I chopped up toasted almonds and added them to the crumble mix and added nutmeg, ground cloves and added the juice of 2 oranges to the diced apples.

Peel, core and dice apples. Stir in spices and juice. Mix sugar, soft butter, oats, and chopped nuts together to make the crumble topping. Pour apples in a baking dish, cover with topping, and bake at 375˚ for about 30 minutes or until top is gold and crisp and apples are bubbling. Cool on the sill of an open window for 15 minutes before serving.

Last night I was feeling kind of down and even though it was raining I really, really wanted to go to the dumpsters. Whenever you go find something good, it makes you feel like you won the lottery or something, so I got my friend to come along and film some of it. We stopped at three places but didnt get a whole lot, partly due to the rain and my unwillingness to climb in to some of the really soggy bins. But what we found was good and helped to lift my spirits. It seems that every time I go, I find what I need:

6pk Mott's applesauce
1 bag sesame bagles mmmm.. pizza bagles
1 pack okra (which I needed for a movie night dish)
3 bags salad lettuce
8 cans Dr. Pepper
4 packs butterscotch pudding
1 bottle ranch dressing
1 apple
48piece box of plasticware yay! I won't have to wash all my silverware after the feast!
1 bottle pine sol cleaner

Violet Cordial

I think this sort of fits the definition of a cordial.. With dandelion season coming in to full swing, I have been toying with some recipes to make flavored syrups using spring flowers. The last batch of dandelion syrup turned out excellent, so I decided to try a batch using violets this time.

I went to the park today and picked about 4 cups of violets and brought them back home. I tried to get ones that had just sprouted up and had not fully opened, because they have not been visited by any bugs yet and have lots of nectar. I boiled the flower heads in 4 cups of water and let them steep for a few minutes. After a while the petals became transparent and the water became a teal greenish blue. I strained the liquid with a sieve and a linen cloth to get all the particulates out. Once i had the strained liquid back on the stove I added about 2 cups of sugar and the strained juice of 2 limes. Once I added this and brought it to a boil, the solution changed to a bright purple, like beet juice. I let it simmer away for about two hours on low-med. heat while I sterilized a jar to put it in. Once it was ready and had a syrupy consistency, I poured it in the jar and covered it, replacing it in the hot water bath to cool.

Once it has sealed itself, I can put it in the fridge and try some out. If you stir about a teaspoon of syrup in to a glass of water, it makes a sweet refreshing tea.

Update: The syrup is really tasty. I could have let get a bit thicker, but the flavor was good, very subtle. It kept its excellent clarity and color and makes a big statement spread on a piece of toast. Im looking forward to experimenting with and perfecting a recipe! :)

Food Galore

Today was such a lovely day that I decided to host a cook out tonight. I invited a bunch of people over and I cooked most of what was left in my fridge. I tried to use the food that was older; stuff that has been frozen for a couple weeks and vegetables that needed to be used. We grilled chicken and some turkey hot dogs as well as a veggie pack that I made last week with red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, red, white, and sweet onions. I also cooked two pasta dishes and one of my favorite dishes ever, which we will call Tomat. You can find a recipe below. I recently found a recipe that a friend sent me for dandelion cordial, which requires dandelion syrup. Fortunately, I made a batch last week before the weather turned... You just mix some of the syrup in to a glass of water for a light refreshing tea like beverage with a unique floral flavor. Needless to say, everything was delicious. Hopefully, I will be hosting these dinners each week for the rest of the summer. you will just have to keep in touch to find out when the come up.

Tomat

I start with a hot skillet and add some olive oil. Add minced garlic and roast it while you halve a couple tomatoes. Put the tomatoes face down in the garlic oil and cover them for about five or ten minutes while they cook on medium-low heat. While they cook, slice thin pieces of bread and toast them in the oven at about 325°. You can put some olive oil and spices on them if you want, but with the spices in the tomat, its not completely nessecary. After a bit, the skins of the tomato will shough off easily, so remove them once the tomatoes are soft, then crack one egg per tomato into the center of the pan and sprinkle salt, pepper, basil, and whatever else you want on top. Cover it for a few more minutes until the egg is mostly cooked. Once its done, break up the tomato and egg and sop it up with the crusty bread.
This is a dish that my grandfather taught my dad to make and my dad taught my mom and my mom has made it for us(kids) for years. I like it because it seems so refined but is so simple and delicious to make for any occasion.

Cooking With Garbage

I have been wanting to have a cooking blog for a while that documented my cooking adventures. Now that the contents of my cupboards depends on what is available, I have had to get very creative with the stuff I find. Some dishes, i ate because i didnt want to waste the food.. others, i cant believe I had never thought of before! So from now on I will be including any interesting recipes I come up with while trying to figure out how to cook what ive got. There are two things that I can think of since I created them both last night.

the "Chinese Burrito" as I called it
I spread cream cheese on to a spinach wrap and cut up some imitation crab meat. i sauteed the crab meat for a couple minutes with some spices and olive oil. While it cooked, I shredded some iceberg lettuce and grated a carrot. When the crabmeat, which I cut like pulled barbecue, was done cooking, I put in on the wrap with cream cheese and added the lettuce and carrot. On top of it all, I put some chinese oyster sauce and wrapped it up. It was really tasty with good variety of textures and flavors; it was a little like a giant california roll... mmmm

Im not sure what to call the other one. Its like a pizza mixed with a pastry. We'll call it an Apricot Bleu Cheese Crostini.
I started by making a chutney of sorts using dried turkish apricots and incorporating them in to a simple syrup. I reduced it down to make it like apricot preserves. While that was simmering, I sliced some thin rounds of bread and toasted them til the outsides were dry and crispy, but not quite toasted. When the chutney was done I spread it on the toasts and crumbled gorgonzolaover it, sprinkling black pepper and chili powder on top of it all. I then baked them in the toaster oven for a few minutes and broiled them for a minute to make sure the tops were nice and melty and the bread got good and crispy.
They turned out to be really really amazing. It had all the flavors and textures you could want: sweet, tangy, pungent, creamy, spicy, crispy, and smooth. I will serve these in my restaurant as an appetizer whenever i have it... i got the idea from the fig preserve and cabrales bleu cheese flatbread the was on the menu at GVG and tweaked it to work with what I had. I encourage you all to try some of the things I post, using whatever you have to make your version, and let me know how it works out!

For my final message, i want you to remember this: try not to throw stuff away. give it to someone or some orginization who can use it. one day there will not be a place where we can just dig a hole and bury stuff... minimize your wate. make a compost pile. put unwanted items on freecycle.org or craigslist. use a fucking mop instead of a swiffer. boycott disposable stuff that has to be replaced constantly, taking up space in landfills and costing you money!