Day 67, Wanna guess...

What I’ll be having for dinner tonight?

Well, it took me forever but it finally happened, yes yes, the day has come and now you can rejoice along with me because I have finally found (and at a store I shop at all the time, no less)...

Vegan Won Ton Wrappers

Whoo!



So I’m pretty excited about that and the prospect of making something that I have eaten before but have never had the chance to make myself because of the won ton/dumpling/egg roll wrappers that I’ve seen until now always had egg or some such thing in them, but not these babies.



I’m thinking of trying out this recipe, sans egg (and maybe some other things that I can’t find at the grocery store), that I found on the Food Network site. It’s from Alton Brown’s Good Eats show (awesome show, by the way):

Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings

1/2 pound firm tofu
1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup shredded Napa cabbage
2 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Bowl of water, plus additional water for steamer
35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
Non-stick vegetable spray, for the steamer

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Cut the tofu in half horizontally and lay between layers of paper towels. Place on a plate, top with another plate, and place a weight on top (a 14-ounce can of vegetables works well). Let stand 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, cut the tofu into 1/4-inch cubes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the carrots, cabbage, red pepper, scallions, ginger, cilantro, soy sauce, hoisin, sesame oil, egg, salt, and pepper. Lightly stir to combine.

To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the tofu mixture in the center of the wrapper. Shape as desired. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.

Using a steaming apparatus of your choice, bring 1/4 to 1/2-inch of water to a simmer over medium heat. Spray the steamer's surface lightly with the non-stick vegetable spray to prevent sticking. Place as many dumplings as will fit into a steamer, without touching each other. Cover and steam for 10 to 12 minutes over medium heat. Remove the dumplings from the steamer to a heatproof platter and place in oven to keep warm. Repeat until all dumplings are cooked.


Wish me luck with that and if you have any other won ton wrapper recipes or tips on cooking them then definitely feel free to send them over.

Day 56, Koos-koos

I remember a day, a several years ago when me and a friend of mine that I don’t see anymore were out and around at night with absolutely nothing to, and I mean really nothing to do, like we were literally just wasting gas driving around town. We ended up eventually back at his work, a local barbeque eatery, and met up with someone that he either knew from somewhere or worked with (I’m still not sure which). After spending time playing pool and doing nothing much we ended up back at this other guys home nearby (and about five minutes from my house, luckily) to play pool on his own pool table (I promptly sucked up the entire game) and hang out and watch t.v. because, well, what else are you going to do at one in the morning? We all ended getting fairly hungry, enough so that the guy treated us all to this, so he said, Indian food consisting of stuff that I can’t rightly remember but can recall as being very meaty and bready. The one thing that I do positively remember eating, because one of us asked him about it, was what I’m going to talk about today. (And then I had to drive my friend home because he had been drinking quite a bit and could hardly walk straight and was spouting various nonsensical gobbledigook...sometimes being the permanent designated driver of the group does have its drawbacks).

That food being, if you haven’t already figured it out from my phonetically worded title:

Couscous!



Yes, folks, couscous, the food so nice they named it twice. The food so carbohydrate loaded that you could choke a yak with the stuff, or some such thing. The food so versatile that it’s almost like the rice of the Maghreb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb). Tasty and filling, it’ll puff up in your stomach and leave you content to sit around basking in the glow of post-couscous stuffing euphoric happiness.

Couscous itself is made by sprinkling semolina with water and then rolling the wheat to form small pellets, sprinkled with dry flour to keep the pellets separate, and then put through a sieve. Those pellets which are too small fall through the sieve and are put through the very labor intensive process of being sprinkled with semolina and rolled with flour. Couscous was traditionally made from the hard part of the hard durum wheat that resisted the millstone grinding. Now the process is largely mechanized.



One of the very first written references to couscous is from an anonymous 13th century Hispano-Muslim cookery book called, in translated English, “The book of cooking in the Maghreb and Al Andalus” that boasted a recipe for couscous “known all around the world”. Whether it was or not, I don’t know, but I certainly am glad that the knowledge was passed down from those humble origins through Granada, through a Syrian historian from Aleppo in the 13th century, through Provence and Brittany in Europe in the 17th century, and etc. The process of cooking couscous, steaming the couscous over a broth in a special pot, may have originated in West Africa in the 10th century in the area now made up of Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.

To cook couscous is surprisingly simple, requiring only a quick blanch in boiling water if you’re cooking pre-steamed couscous which can be found in most places in Western supermarkets. All that needs to be done is to boil a pot of water, the measurements being about a cup and a quarter water for every cup of couscous, stir the couscous in quickly, remove from the heat, and let stand for about five minutes. BAM! Done. Season it or combine it with something else as you want. And then, voila! light, fluffy couscous awaiting your eager consumption. It’s easy enough that an untrained monkey could do it, which must be why it turns out so well for me.



I hope this all helps you and I desperately hope that you’ll go out and find some couscous the next time you’re out visiting the ol’ local supermarket or farmers market. It’s tasty and light, fifty grams of the stuff will end up looking like an entire meal in itself, and, man, is it filling.

Have fun with it, people, and start looking for crazy, exotic things that you may not have ever tried before because it is totally worth the risk. T.V. dinners and spaghetti and tomato sauce get old quickly, why not try something new?

For those who are interested in something tasty I found this while looking around (I personally would get rid of the garbanzo beans but that’s just my allergies talking, looks delicious):

Vegetable Couscous Stew
Recipe courtesy Kathleen Daelemans

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Coarse grained salt and cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 zucchini, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
3 yellow squash, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 pound mushrooms, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced, or 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 (19-ounce) can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup chopped parsley, plus 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh basil
2 cups couscous, prepared according to package instructions
1/2 cup raisins, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes and drained

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute until softened, approximately 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Add thyme, zucchini, squash, and mushrooms. Saute for 5 to 10 minutes.
Add garlic and stir.
Add tomatoes, stock, and garbanzo beans. Let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Add more stock if dry.
Add 1/4 cup parsley, red wine vinegar, and basil. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Add the raisins and remaining parsley to the prepared couscous, and stir to combine.
Plate couscous and spoon stew over the top.

Day 48, Keen-wah!

If any of you out there have had the distinct pleasure of buying and watching David Lynch’s Inland Empire on DVD then you will already know what I’m talking about and have probably already discovered the wonders and sheer taste extravaganza of the South American wonder grain known simply (or not so simply as the name is likely to trip you up on first seeing it) as:

Quinoa



Haaailing from the Andean region of South America, this high protein (14g protein for every 100g quinoa), high in dietary fiber, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron, gluten free food, packed with essential amino acids is considered worldwide as being one of the most important foodstuffs in the early pre-Columbian Andean civilizations and has continued to be so for over 6,000 years. Did you know that this delectable grain is also an unusually complete food for all of your eating needs? You can eat this tasty food and rest easy knowing that your body is humming along nicely thanks in part to...quinoa!

Like I said up top, anyone who has the Inland Empire DVD is probably already aware of this wonder food because of the special features included with the movie. On the second disc of the DVD set David Lynch, always the groundbreaking and eccentric auteur, cooks for himself and for us a bowl of quinoa (see the comparison I’m making here? It’s also kind of like Robert Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Cooking School...except without all of the unappetizing cooked pig flesh) while regaling us with a story from a trip he took into...um, somewhere in the Middle East, I think (I’m not sure, it’s actually been a while since I’ve seen this particular special feature video).

So that’s what piqued my interest in quinoa, for all of you wondering why I’m going on about it. Within a week of seeing the video by Mr. Blue Velvet I found a local farmer’s market that, conveniently for me, has tons of the stuff. So I jumped on the chance to make some of the stuff for myself.

Cooking quinoa is astoundingly similar to cooking ordinary rice, in that you take two parts water for every one part of quinoa. Firstly, though, if the quinoa you find is still covered by saponins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponins) then remove the stuff by soaking the grain in water for a few hours, then changing the water and resoaking again, or rinsing it in ample running water either in a fine strainer or in cheesecloth. Hopefully you’ll be able to find quinoa that is presoaked. So once that’s done with let’s say that you wanted to make one cup of quinoa, well then you would cook it in two cups of water. Bring to boil the two cups of water and add the one cup of quinoa after turning the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 14-18 minutes (I usually do about 16 and a half to 17 minutes). Voila! You now have cooked and delicious quinoa!



Or, for a more appetizing look,



Looks de-lish, now doesn’t it? And just wait until you see the cooked stuff in front of you, it’ll look even tastier! Also, those tiny curls coming off of the actual quinoa are the germs of the stuff and are totally edible (there’s no way it would be worth it to eat the stuff if you had to get rid of each and every one of those things). They should have a slight “bite” to it, like al dente pasta, and really add some flavor and fun to it.

So look around your local supermarket or farmer’s market and see if you can snag yourself some of this amazing stuff. You won’t regret it, trust me (and check out Inland Empire, it’s full of weird, crazy goodness).

Hmm, I enjoyed this entry, perhaps I’ll have to make this unique food exploration thing a weekly event. Yeah, that sounds cool (I wonder if I’ll stick with it...any suggestions from you fine people?). Coming up next week...Couscous.

Also, for those of you who are interested, a basic recipe I found while hanging out on the Food Network web site (amazing, aren’t they? But I wouldn’t use much of the oil, it never seems to be worth it):

Quinoa and Veggies

2 cups quinoa
1 cup wild rice
1 tablespoon olive oil or peanut oil
1 cup mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup diced chives
1/2 cup diced orange bell pepper
1/2 cup diced yellow bell pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cayenne or crushed red pepper


In a large skillet, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the quinoa and cook, stirring occasionally, until it expands out of its shell, about 10 minutes; be careful not to overcook it.

In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally until done, about 20 minutes.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, chives, bell peppers, salt, and cayenne pepper. Cook, while stirring, for about 3 minutes. Add the quinoa and rice and stir until hot. Serve immediately.