Baked Chile Rellenos

Its been a long week. Not only am I leaving for vacation ridiculously early tomorrow morning, working forty hours in four days, and finishing up my assignments for this week and next, my best friend is moving to New York. Its really fantastic for her - she is headed to Columbia for nursing school and will do amazingly well there - but I am really going to miss her. A and I were lucky enough to have her stay with us on her very last night in Seattle - obviously a tasty dinner was in order. (I do have pictures - but you'll have to wait until I return from Mexico to see them)

These are nothing like chile rellenos you've ever had before -- the yam, corn and masa filling is deliciously cakey, but no where near as heavy as the traditionally battered, fried and filled with cheese chile rellenos you would find in a restaurant! Originally, this came from my beloved copy of the Rebar. If you haven't purchased it yet.... do it!

You will need: 

• 8 poblano chiles
  
• 1 1/3 cup corn flour or masa (I like to use Bob's Red Mill corn flour because the ingredient list is short, but last night used masa and they were just as tasty!)
  
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 4 T butter
• 2 T oil
• 1 large yam
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 c corn
• 1 c grated jack cheese
• sea salt
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 c water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the poblanos and cut a slit along one side. Roast the chiles on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes or until the skin blisters. Transfer to a bowl and cover. 
2. Mix masa or corn flour with 1/2 c warm water. Set aside to rest. 
3. Dice yams and saute with 2 T oil until soft. Add diced, seeded jalapeno, corn, and sea salt. Set aside.
4. Coat your hands in olive oil (or don't... but don't cry later when your skin is burning and you can't enjoy your tasty dinner because you just want to hold ice cubes until you feel better...) and rinse and peel the poblanos. Taking care to leave the stem intact. The skin should be fairly easy to remove since they have been sweating in a bowl. Rinsing will help you to remove the seeds. Set skinned peppers in a baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
5. Cube butter and use your hands to mix into the masa dough. Mix baking powder with 1/4 c water and add to masa mixture. When butter and baking powder liquid are integrated into the mix, add vegetables and cheese. 
6. Fill peppers and bake until filling is golden. 
7. I typically serve this with green rice in a pool of enchilada sauce. To make green rice, simply blend jalapeno, cilantro, garlic and spinach with the water you would typically add to your rice. Enjoy! 

Adventures in Quinoa

Has anyone noticed that the price of bell peppers inexplicably shot through the roof? Seriously. They are like $4 a pop right now, right up there with $3 avocados and as a result I'm been skimping on my quinoa consumption. Usually, I make this amazing salad about once a week to have around for lunches and/or dinner, but I can't be expected to make it without avocado OR bell peppers! All I'd be left with would a bowl full of quinoa, lime juice, cumin, cilantro, green onions, black beans and toasted pumpkin seeds... which doesn't sound half bad now that I list all those delicious things out... but thats not the point! While disgusted by the price of avocados and bell peppers, and pondering what exactly we did to piss off Mexico and send produce prices through the roof (there is no fact in this... but I swear I heard something on NPR the other day...) I made a fantastic discovery... tomatoes are looking edible and affordable these days! Awesome. I bought a small bag of organic cherry tomatoes for $2 instead. Much better.

So instead of making my salad, which just isn't the same without satisfying chunks of avocado, I decided to make Quinoa-camole! Look at me branching out, eh? It is practically the same, but most drastically different because instead of the avocado and peppers (I think you get it by now) this salad uses tomatoes! And lime zest! Reviewing the recipe, I guess its not so similar... it is... and its not... you get the idea. Anyway, thanks, Wiggs, for inspiring me to move past my avocado/bell pepper obstacle. 

I have a tendency to not stick to the recipe....at all. Which is why my salad is nothing like the salad in the cookbook I originally found it in, and why this salad, which was inspired by quinoa-camole....is also nothing like quinoa-camole. What can I say? I'm a kitchen rebel. So this is what I did:

• 1 c quinoa, rinsed
• 1 1/2 c water

Bring water and quinoa to a boil. Lower heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes. In a separate bowl combine...

• chop one bunch cilantro and two green onions (or less, whatever. I am a cilantro fiend)
• quarter one pint cherry tomatoes
• zest one super juicy organic lime into bowl and squeeze juice over mixture (if your lime is not juicy, you might want to use two) 
• mix in 1 T cumin, salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste (okay, I threw in a little cayenne too... I am also a spice fiend...)
• rinse one can of black beans (or not canned if you have them lying around) and add to mixture
• add cooled quinoa

Optional (but totally delicious)...

• Toast raw pepitas in a skillet and add to quinoa salad. They add an interesting dimension. 

At this point.... you're done. Its easy. Awesome. Delicious. Good for you. The juice from the tomatoes give the quinoa-camole a much different feel than my avocado cilantro-lime concoction. Both tasty. Just different. 

A few years back I was having dinner at a co-op in the U district and someone told a joke along the lines of.... "whats the difference between a hippie and a yuppie?" (TONS of things, right?) "The yuppie sees food going bad and says, "ew, thats rotting throw it out" and the hippie says "quick eat that! before it goes bad!"" So anyway... I had some kale that was getting all wilty on me, so I chopped it up and threw it in - which worked grrrreat with all the juice from those tomatoes - but made this salad nothing like either of the salads I've been rambling on about. Just an idea. 

Enchiladas with zucchini, black beans and corn

Yes. I said corn. I have reintroduced corn without any difficulty as far as I can tell. Still out: dairy (excluding butter), wheat and eggs. 

This is another gem I picked up while spending time in Costa Rica. The concept of what I make today was born out of one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, rebar. You should probably just buy it, because its so amazing. The deliciousness is endless. The black beans are a recent addition by Adam, who felt like it needed a little more ooomph! I agreed, and we've never gone back. I think tonight I'll throw in some black olives too, just for fun. Sounds fun, right? 

These enchiladas are casserole style, which means this takes almost no time at all to prepare. Its like a tasty enchilada lasagna. Awesome. 

If you have some time on your hands...and own the rebar...you can make their mesa red sauce. Its quite good. I've become dependent on Trader Joe's and use their enchilada sauce, yet another reason why I call this "easy"... if you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby, you can also use canned enchilada sauce, but I recommend working on it until it actually tastes good. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
   
2. In a skillet saute diced onion, garlic, red bell pepper, zucchini, corn, jalapeno and 1 T each, coriander and cumin until veggies are tender, yet firm. Set aside. Mix in 1 can rinsed black beans and chopped olives.
   
3. In a 9 x 13 or similar-sized oven proof pan, spoon about 1/4 cup enchilada sauce into the bottom and begin the layering process with a layer of corn tortillas. 
4. Layer sauce, tortillas and veggies so that you have 3-4 layers, depending on the size and depth of your pan. 
5. Top with cheese if you eat it. Omit if you don't. Bake until bubbly. 
6. Cut into squares and top with real or fake sour cream, and avocado.
7. Enjoy!

On a side note, the beholder is totally my new favorite blog to read. I cannot wait to try her ab routine! 

Black Beans and Spinach

I'm so glad its still cold enough out there for soup to sound good. When you take away wheat, corn, soy, dairy and eggs, it seems like the easiest thing to make. This is one of my favorites. I've made it so many times this winter that Adam says, "this one again?" when I make it. Its cheap, tasty and takes minimal effort. What's not to like?

I like to use dried black beans for this because I think they add something lovely to the texture. If you don't have the time, or want to make this on the fly, canned beans are delicious as well.

• 1 cup dried black beans 
• 1 bunch spinach, chopped
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T coriander
• 1 T cumin
• 1/4 t cinnamon
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 T minced ginger

If you eat dairy or soy.... neither of which can I have this week or next....

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt added at the end

1. Soak beans overnight. Rinse, drain and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and simmer at medium heat until tender.
2. Saute oil, garlic and ginger and spices. Add tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add beans and chopped spinach. If the beans are in quite a bit of water, you may wish to drain some off.
4. Stir in yogurt (if you're using it) and simmer until stew thickens. 

Potato Chickpea Curry

I was searching through my list of posts this morning because I thought I had drafted this last night. Apparently I'm going crazy because I most certainly did not, but I did find an old draft where I had written only this: 

 Environmental Degradation in the Tropics was hands-down the best class I took as an undergraduate at the University of Washington. I took the course one Summer after a long stretch in Costa Rica. It took my heart and tore it to pieces.

Its a bit dramatic, but absolutely true. Changed the way I feel about trade and tropical commodities forever. Don't even get me started on shrimp...

This post is actually about curry, not global environmental issues. Yesterday was my first official day on the elimination diet, and I went home early with a splitting headache due to inadequate caloric preparation for the day ahead of me. I went to Madison Market immediately and stocked up on some wheat, corn, gluten, dairy, soy and egg free essentials. Basically, ingredients for cooking up an allergen free storm. Whee. 

I found this one over at Meaty Vegan (and she found it over at Simply Recipes) I more or less paid attention to the recipe, tripled the spices as I tend to do, and ended up with something quite delicious. 

Saute together: 

• 1 T coconut oil
  
• 1 onion, diced
  
• 1 T ginger, minced
  
• 1 T cumin
  
• 1 T coriander
  
• 1 t cayenne 
  

To this add: 

• 1 large tin diced tomatoes
  
• 1 tin coconut milk
  
• 2 tins garbanzo beans, rinsed
  
• 1 sweet potato (I had one around, so threw it in - it was an awesome addition)
  
• About 10 small potatoes
  
• Chili's (the recipe called for anaheims seeded and diced - I couldn't get them at the store, so had to use diced green and it wasn't hot enough for my taste)
  

Add water as needed (about a cup) to have enough liquid to cover potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are soft, and serve over brown rice. Add salt to taste. 

If a tree falls in the forest...

Sorry for the silence if anyone has been checking in (...I sort of doubt that anyone has) things have been busy, and I've been distracted by a secret personal finance blog of mine that has managed to get almost 3000 hits already from when I started it in the end of July (which I feel is pretty decent) and quite honestly, I haven't been cooking. 

Oh the shame!

I know. 

Its not like I haven't been cooking at all, just haven't been cooking new and interesting things. 

Despite my initial excitement about sewing, my pattern sits unopened in my stack of mail. Still.

I've started back at school, which is fantastic, but mostly to blame for this lack of cooking. I'm taking a policy class, Environmental Decision Analysis. Its challenging. More so than I initially expected. 

Adam and I will be moving one of these days...which will cause a little jump in my rent, which may, in turn, inspire me to cook once again in an effort to bring more lunches and eat out less. 

Granola

I spent four years traveling between the states and Costa Rica between 2003 and 2007. Thirteen trips to be exact. Now, doing the math, it seems that during those four years, adding up the time that I was in country, I spent about two years of my life there. About one year of that time as a volunteer and student at a place called Rancho Mastatal. Every day at the ranch felt amazing and magical. Sometimes it was; watching bright green and black poison dart frogs on the buttresses of trees in the forest, leaping from a waterfall, walking barefoot in the red, tropical soil, prepping bamboo for building or cooking for a group of forty in the tiny kitchen (which has since been renovated -- I hear its downright "posh" these days!) Whatever the adventure may be, it was drastically different from my life as I knew it.

I come from a family of amazing cooks, so I am not going to go so far as to say that I learned to cook at the ranch, but I definitely honed my skills there. Cooking in a rural village in the tropics is both exciting and challenging. The availability of new, fresh ingredients is a treat to your senses. A neighbor stops by to sell eggs, oranges, cheese or milk to make yogurt. The vegetable truck comes once a week and baskets are filled with fresh produce and carried into the house. Everything else was either grown in the vegetable garden, or found locally around town.

One of the items on the weekly cooking agenda was always granola. Homemade granola is (in my opinion) far more delicious than its store bought rival. You have complete control over the amount of oil, sugar and addition of extras you'd like to put in there. I'm a fan of adding dried fruits (golden or regular raisins, apricots, cranberries, bananas, apples), nuts (almonds, walnuts or both) and sometimes coconut or ginger for a more interesting granola. At the ranch, granola with such fancy additions was a bit of a time suck (but well worth it) since adding coconut meant hunting down a ripe coconut, cracking it open, getting the meat out of the shell, and then chopping it into granola-sized pieces. Not that it wouldn't be enjoyable (for the sake of nostalgia) to buy a whole coconut at the store and prep it the Costa Rica way, I don't have that much time on my hands, so I've opted for the store bought flaked and unsweetened variety.

This is what I used:

3 C rolled oats
3/4 C chopped walnuts
3/4 C chopped almonds
3/4 C dried coconut flakes
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1/4 C canola oil
1/3 C honey
1 t molasses
1/2 C chopped dried apricots
1/2 C raisins
1/8 C finely chopped crystallized ginger

This is how I used it:

1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet and set aside.
2. Combine oats, walnuts, almonds, coconut flakes and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, honey and vanilla. Pour onto oat mixture and mix well with your hands, ensuring that everything is well coated.
4. Spread on the baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden, stirring every 10 minutes. Pay close attention while the granola is in the oven, as it quickly turns from perfect to burnt.
5. After the granola has cooled, add the dried fruit.
6. Store in an airtight container.

If you choose to, you can add the fruit to the granola in step two, but adding it at the end results in a nice, crunchy but chewy granola.

Vegan Lasagna and Pineapple (Rightside Up) (Cup)Cake(s)

Last night Emmy and I prepped the vegan lasagna recipe - with our own addition of zucchini and spinach added to the layers (who doesn't want to up their vegetable intake?!) then took Lucy for a run around greenlake. Not our best run ever, Lucy's leash skills were atrocious. Half the time she spent pulling us around the lake and the other half yanking us to her distractions on either side of the path. Embarrassing, really, but only because her lack of least etiquette is our fault. When we came home I had just enough time to make the batter for the Pineapple Rightside Up Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (we are on a quest to try all the cupcakes in this gem of a book - the recipes are fairly small, so we don't feel too guilty) while Emmy sauteed some kale and chard to have with our lasagna.

The vegan lasagna was excellent. The addition of fennel to the sauce was new to me, but gave it an interesting flavor. The tofu was perfect as a substitute for ricotta, without mimicking ricotta (which I love when I choose to eat it) or being too tofu based. We used raw zucchini and it came out perfect - just firm enough without being undercooked. I am definitely an advocate of Cherie's recipes - I've made a few and they have all come out amazing. My favorite so far has been her Vegan Indian, it was incredible. A hit with all members of our household and our dinner guest, the lovely, MegV.

The pineapple cupcakes were delicious - as everything from the book has been so far. Emmy voted the pumpkin chocolate chip the winner, while I favor the Mexican hot chocolate. Gus came home from class too late for me to get his vote, and Adam has escaped to Lopez for the week, we'll see if there are any around for him to try come Friday...