Green Eggs and “Ham”

For breakfast this morning my son asked for green eggs and ham.  I’ve made this before and it was pretty good, but I made a few adjustments this time and it was even better.

Last time I used a lot of greens,  this time I used just 2 leaves of kale and a few small dandelion leaves w/ 4 eggs.  I also added some spices.

Serves 2

• 4 free range eggs
• 2-3 leaves of kale, chard or other greens
• spices – I used zatar (green) and garlic (yummy)
• salt or tamari to taste
• fat for the pan – I used chicken fat

Put everything in a blender in the order listed and blend until fairly smooth.  This should just take a minute or 2.

Cook like you would scrambled eggs.  I was very happy w/ the color, a vibrant green, just like in the book.  Blending the eggs gives them a nice fluffy consistency.

Instead of ham I used purple carrots.  I added some avocado slices to compliment the green theme.

Enjoy!

Fire Cider

Just got forwarded this video.  It’s a good time to start thinking about winter medicine.

Here is the recipe:

• 1 part onion – chopped
• 1 part garlic – finely chopped
• 1 part horseradish root – graded
• 1/2 part ginger – graded or chopped
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• apple cider vinegar (ACV)
• honey to taste

The recipe is for a 1 quart jar

1. Prepare the ingredients
2. Fill the jar w/ onion, garlic, ginger and horesradish
3. Cover w/ ACV
4. Add cayenne
5. Cover and shake to mix
6. Let sit at room temperature for 4-6 weeks
7. Strain and add a small amount of honey to taste

Good for when you feel a cold coming or need a little boost.

Jumble-aya (Pescatarian style)

Last week I got the urge to make Jambalaya.  It’s usually made w/ lots of meat.  We keep kosher, so a lot of the seafood and pork you would normally put in jambalaya wouldn’t work.  Also since we live in Southern Oregon, the kosher meat supply is currently very limited.  So, I decided to put in tofu, tempeh, and some fish.  It usually has rice, some veggies, tomato sauce and lots of spices.

This is the story of the jumble of ingredients that went into the dish.

The rice, tofu, tempeh, and fish came from the co-op, not that exciting.  The tomato sauce I used was made by my brother.  He was trying to make catsup, but it didn’t quite work, so I ended up w/ 2 pints of it in my cabinet.  I thought the sweetness of it would work well w/ the fish and spiciness of the dish.  It did.

The bell peppers came from Ashland Food Angels, a local organization that I work at a couple of hours a week.  We collect unwanted food from markets and bakeries in town and distribute to a bunch of organizations.  Since I try to by mostly local food, it’s a nice compromise in the Winter to be able to use produce that didn’t sell at the grocery stores.

I picked the bay leaves that I added for flavor the last time I was in the Bay Area.  I learned this a few years ago, that bay leaves are just the leaves from the bay laurel trees.  I think the ones I got were from the California Bay Laurel (Umbellularia californica) the link has some cool info about the tree including eating the fruits and seeds, and how the wood was once used as currency in Oregon.

Be careful w/ the laurels because they look similar to some other species that are poisonous.  One last tangent about the California Laurel, and this is my favorite part – in Oregon it’s called Oregon Myrtle.  Gotta love it 🙂

That is the story of the ingredients in my Jumble-aya.  A few final thoughts, and then some links to recipes.  For the tofu, I bought extra firm tofu and then cut it into small pieces and baked it in the over for close to an hour till it had a very firm and chewy texture that was a nice substitute for sausage that would go in a standard Jambalaya.

My wife, Andrea said that the fish was just going to fall apart and not add much to the dish.  She was right.  I added it in at the last-minute, but it still turned to mush.  A recipe I found said to use firm white fish, like grouper or sea bass.  I guess mine wasn’t firm enough.  One recipe recommended blackening the fish first.  That probably would have been good.

I used brown rice instead of white, so it took longer to cook. than some recipes called for, but it’s supposed to cook for a while, it’s bascially a stew or risotto.

The flavor overall was good for a non meat version of a meaty dish.  I tried to stay close to the spices listed in Jambalaya recipes I found.  Here are a few recipes to get you on the right track: Gulf Coast Chicken-and-Fish Jambalaya and Smoked Fish Jambalaya

Enjoy.

Nicole’s Baked Sweet Potato Fries

My friend Nicole brought these to a picnic and we couldn’t stop eating them!

Ingredients: Sweet Potatoes, Sea Salt, Cinnamon, Cumin, Chili powder, Oil of your choice

Directions: Cut sweet potatoes into wedges, bathe in oil and spices, bake at 350 for about one hour, depending on quantity.

Eva’s Creamy Spinach Soup with Cardamom

This recipe came from my friend Mandy, who’s a personal chef. She made it for a party I threw and I loved it so much she named it after me!

Eva’s Creamy Spinach Soup with Cardamom

Ingredients:

Spinach–1 pkg frozen (about 2-3 cups) OR 6-8 Cups fresh
Onion– ½ a larger onion, roughly chopped
Cardamom–Seeds from 6 pods OR 3/4 tsp of ground cardamom
Olive Oil–1 Tablespoon
Salt–to taste

Directions:

1. Simmer spinach and onion in 1 ½ cups of water for 10 minutes, until onion is soft.
2. In a blender, combine spinach with olive oil, cardamom, and salt to taste. Add water if you want it less thick.
3. Enjoy!

Lentaranth

Pronounced /LENT-ah-ranth/ it is not a new pagan holiday, it’s a lentil amaranth loaf.  I was inspired by my friend Karen who brought an awesome lentil loaf to a potluck.  I asked her about it and she said she went to the internet for inspiration and came across The Magical Loaf Studio

This site captures the spirit of edible improv.  There are 9 categories (protein, carbohydrate, vegetables, etc.) and in each category you choose what you’ll put in your loaf.  It gives a framework for your creation and you even get to name it!

The best part is it generates an official looking recipe including step by step instructions.  As usual, I only loosely followed the recipe.  I had fun making the loaf, but the end result wasn’t that exciting.  The main issue I had was spices.

I’ve never been very good at spicing food.  Growing up, my father was allergic to garlic, onions, pepper and most other spices, so I’m used to bland food.  When some of our friends left town for Thailand, they left us with their spice collection, and lately I’ve been a little spice happy, just throwing in a sprinkle of this and a dash of that.  Sometimes it’s good, but not always.

For the letaranth it had a kind of burning acrid taste that I couldn’t identify.  My solution was to smother it in cayenne pepper and salt which made it edible.  I was able to identify the offending spice when I used too much of it in another dish – mustard powder.

Lesson learned: use mustard powder sparingly.

But besides the outcome of my first loaf experience, I had fun making it and hopefully I’ll work up some combinations that will taste better.  I’m excited to add vegan loaves to my repertoire.

Here is the basic blueprint of my lentaranth, if you’re curious:

• Carbohydrates: cooked amaranth and millet
• Protein: cooked lentils
• Nuts or Seeds: walnuts and sunflower seeds
• Vegetables: veggies from making stock (probably not the best choice as they lacked flavor)
• Liquid: veggie broth
• Herbs & Seasonings: too many – no mustard powder next time and more garlic!
• Binder: ground flax seeds
• Salty Seasoning: tamari and “real” salt
• Oil: olive oil

Now go loaf up your own recipe -> The Magical Loaf Studio

Origins – garbanzo flour

Eva and I have been cooking buddies for the past few years. We united over our similar diets and styles of cooking – neither of us eat dairy or wheat, and we’re both recovering sugarholics.  When we both lived in Berkeley we would often cook together.  However, 2 years ago, my wife and I moved to Ashland Oregon and it hasn’t been easy to cook together when we’re 300 miles apart.

Last month I was in the Bay Area for the Hazon Food Conference and I had 24 hours in Berkeley to visit friends. Eva and I were able to cook together again, but the eternal question is – What to cook? As was often the case, we began with a suggestion from the pantry, here is how the conversation went:

“I have this garbanzo bean flour that I don’t know what to do with.”

“Hmm, I’m thinking something Indian, like a pancake and with lots of spices.”

“Yeah, pakoras…” [Google searching] “…but not fried.  How about baked pakora w/ veggies, that sounds really good”

Eva looked up some recipes to get a sense of the spices, proportions, and such and we proceeded to roughly follow them. Since we are lazy cooks, and ended up with more batter than baking dishes, we decided to make a casserole instead of individual pancakes. We had to break it into squares with a spatula to flip it, but we managed and it was delicious.

I’ll see if we can recreate some semblance of a recipe for you here, and maybe Here are some links to the recipes we didn’t quite follow: Recipe 1 Recipe 2

As we sat down to eat, we spoke of our many and varied interests. We got onto the topic of improv. Eva is into contact improv and Josh likes comedy improv. They have their similarities, but are quite different.  Contact improv is more physical, like full-body dancing.  Comedy improv is more about creating stories and characters.

We realized that we both take the idea of improv – rolling with what the universe (or refrigerator) throws at you – into our cooking. We aren’t good at following recipes, but we are good at cooking on our toes.  We had both talked about starting a blog, and once we had the name, Edible Improv, this blog was born.

That is the story of how Edible Improv was born.  We hope you enjoy our ramblings and half baked recipes. Now – Go! Play with your Food

Edible Improv Tips:

• Start with a suggestion from the pantry, garden, or farmer’s market
• Get a sense of the playing field from cookbooks, friends, family and online
• Play, combine, taste, play some more

Coconut secrets

My new favorite frozen treat is:

1/2 lb. frozen raspberries + 1/3 can coconut milk + 5 pitted dates in the Vitamix.

This tastes like frozen yogurt, and the tartness of the raspberries is balanced by the sweetness of the dates and the creamy coconut flavor. You can use other kinds of frozen fruit instead–strawberries, cherries, blueberries, mangoes. With mangoes you probably need fewer dates.

Another longstanding favorite is:

2 frozen bananas + 1/2 can coconut milk + dash of vanilla extract in the Vitamix. Serve with a dash of salt to bring out the sweetness.

This is a good one for bananas that are getting overripe–peel them and stick them in the freezer in a ziploc bag, and then you can use them for smoothies.