food

Can’t live without rainbows Thursday

April 11, 2013 by Edlyn

I’m tired. I’m tired. I’m tired. My eyes want to be closed but my brain doesn’t want to be asleep. It’s cool. We can all have breathing deep kinda days, can’t we?

Alrighty then.

I do love getting off on the right foot. It much better than getting off on the wrong foot, something I’m also quite good at. What I don’t want to do is not brag about my Thursdays. Back in the day, Thursday was my solace, my day to forget time and my one and only weekend. It’s tough working for a newspaper. People seem to want the news everyday and when you’re not the boss, you don’t get to pick which day you want to flip them ALL off.

I picked Thursday. I would’ve rather had Tuesday, my original weekend but Thursday was just laying there, inviting me in. I rolled my eyes and took it. Thursday can be quite dramatic.

This Thursday (I mean the one I’m sitting in right now), was very dramatic. By that I mean, nothing happened. I didn’t get my day off which technically doesn’t exist anymore. I’m glad it doesn’t. I was the only one (well, Claire too for a while) who couldn’t say TGIF. I’m not going to be a day basher. I’ve always loved all days equally. If you’re not living your life on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or this day of Friday, then you’re not doing much of this living thing at all. I object to not living. The alternative is quite unpleasant.

As Awesomepants just said, “bloggers need holidays too.” I agree. But today is Thursday.

It needs me.

Ingredients

1 bunch of rainbow carrots (Count 7 carrots in all)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup (you can also use honey)
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F which in my house takes eight Thursdays. Days I’ll never get back again, but this is something I have to do. For the fans.

(edit: I didn’t peel the carrots. I just rinsed them well and dried them off. You can peel them before of after they’re roasted. Your choice)

On a baking sheet lined with foil, line up the carrots like prisoners and rub them with olive oil. Pour the balsamic vinegar next and then add the salt and pepper to taste. For me, 1 tsp of salt plus a little bit more was enough. 1 tsp plus a little more….you don’t get instructions like this anymore, do you?

It’s better if you do not.

Close the foil over the carrots and place the tray on the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes. At the 30-minute mark, pull the tray out of the oven and drizzle on the maple syrup. Leave the foil open this time around and place it back in the oven for 15 more minutes. The carrots are ready when they’re caramelised and you can pierce a butter knife easily through the largest carrot.

That was easy. My love for roasted carrots and beets is insatiable so it better be easy.

Serve with quinoa or just eat them the way they are. I ate all 7. Once and a half. I know what I’m talking about.

Hope you had a more relaxing Thursday. If you’re in India you’re over it and wondering what the heck I’m talking about.

Oh nothing much. TGIF.

Cilantro-basil pesto + Some real talk

April 2, 2013 by Edlyn

Are you one of those people that believe ads? I’m not talking about the usual “Oh I need to get that” kind of belief. It’s more like the “Poor thing, I should help them out by buying some of that new toothpaste” kind of faith. There’s a big part of me that can’t stand advertising (this punchline is just one reason why). My sister was an ad copywriter for the start of her working life and one of the things I’d famously do in my head was secretly hate that profession. I had my head stuck in the clouds about how much better a journalist was. That somehow, my work was more meaningful no matter how much I was forced to fill space with make-up tips I didn’t have the slightest idea about. I was a good pretender. I know my spring colours. If by spring you mean trying to stop your face from melting because it does not exist in India.

That one.

I guess I’m not one to be Miss journalistic ethics but I do believe that a part of me did some good work. Now that I feel a lot more informed and less misguided, I still miss the poop world that us news guys created. No other place let me love and hate with equal fervour and I embraced it, knowing well that some of what we as an industry did was pretty crummy. Like that one time….meh. Fugghedaboutit.

As much as I try not to, I can’t help but be naive. It’s this big, fat stupid baby stuck inside my head that still wants to believe that people are good. I mean they try so hard to put Hawaiian breeze in an easy to spray can that they can’t be that bad, right? And just like Santa’s not real, I get to snap back into reality, except it’s more of a *thud* because shit just hit the fan. At least it’s Hawaiian-scented.

It’s not.

I’m 25 years old and I think I should be used to the idea that everything is something I’m supposed to need. All I ever need is for my body to be nourished well, my mind to be okay. As we become more conscious consumers, this goal become less of a chore and we can easily win. So try. Maybe one day, we’ll have the ad world wrapped around your finger.

I feel like I make this recipe too much because I (eeps) eat too much spaghetti. Judge, judge all you like. I love life in the fast lane. If my instructions are too easy because the recipe is just that. Make it once and you’re expert enough to adapt it the next time. I’m gushing. It’s my fave. Take that “can’t live without Thursday”!

Ingredients

1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup pecans, chopped roughly or just crushed with a punch of your fist.
2 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1/4 cup olive oil (you will need less than the quantity stated but have a 1/4 cup ready to pour into the food processor while it’s working the basil, cilantro and pecans)
1/4 cup parmesan-reggiano (optional)
Salt to taste

Put the basil, cilantro, garlic, parmesan and pecans in a food processor. Start it up and set it to low because setting mine to high just makes me paranoid that the blade will fly out and turn me into this.

Why so serious?

Okay that NEVER EVER happened.

As the food processor is working itself up, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Like I said in the ingredients note, you will not need the entire 1/4 cup of olive oil so keep a watch on the contents and how it reacts to the oil. When you notice the ingredients moving around the food processor bowl more freely and looking more pasty, stop stop stop stop. It’s done. Did I scare you? Okay, good.

Make a huge bowl of spaghetti, mix this in and bounce across the room because this is the life.

If you have leftover pesto, bottle it and refrigerate until you’re ready to make another huge bowl of spaghetti.

I don’t have to tell you what to do next.

(Look out for a sandwich recipe using this pesto on Thursday. So I guess as an afterthought, you could skip that second huge bowl of spaghetti.)

Almond butter + Made with love and a food processor.

March 21, 2013 by Edlyn

Remember here where I said I was driving myself crazy that I hadn’t take pictures of almonds. This post is the reason why. I’m over it.

All you need to make almond butter is almonds and a food processor. That’s it. Nothing was every this simple. Unless you choose to use a grinding stone. In that case you need almonds, upper arm strength and a grinding stone. Even then it’s no big deal.

I feel silly listing the ingredients (because there’s only one!), so I’m breaking off from my usual style (show off) and going nuts. When I made this for the first time, it took the food processor 15 minutes to reach almond butter status. The second time it took 5 minutes. I’m assuming this was either due to the quantity I used, or that I stopped the food processor to do the amateur cook version of “are we there yet?”. However long it takes, you’ll eventually get there.

Roughly chop the almonds and throw them into the food processor. I did not use raw almonds because as I just found out, they’re not really raw. Apparently they’re only ever raw 1% of the time. Be a champ and use natural almonds.

Set it to low and let the almonds be ground. You’ll notice that part of the almond meal gets stuck to the sides of the container, like a well. Whenever this happened, I would stop the motor and scrape whatever was sticking to the sides and started it back up. Eventually, the almonds start releasing their oils and form into ball. At this point, it becomes impossible to work the food processor without thinking it’s going to explode. Hence, your almond butter is done.

Here is a photo step-by-step of how the almonds ultimately get cool for school.

Your turn.

(You can use this recipe for almond butter in this, this, and of course, this)

Dirty dishes can wait.

March 11, 2013 by Edlyn

These past three days were filled with time I just didn’t want to waste. After pleading for more Indian-friendly weather, the sun came out just in time for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Well..not so much on Sunday but I’m never greedy about these things.

It’s funny because my mother keeps telling me how horrible the weather is in Goa. They had a pool day on Goan Sunday, which is American Saturday night, which is very far from pool day weather, which is fine because I can pretend when I’m eating fish and chips.

Which is what I did.

So I gladly forgot to bring to you my breakfast picture from Sunday, though I must add I was THIS close to making something out of boiled eggs. THIS close (can you see my thumb and index finger? Thought so).

Let me break it down for you because you know I do such a great job of it.

Friday: I ate too much.

Saturday: It started out with fog but the day just got so nice by the time it hit noon. We went for a nice long walk on an island. It was a ferry ride away and I want to live on Whidbey Island. No big deal. Can I borrow some money?

Sunday: Spent the afternoon discovering Chinatown, Seattle Underground and talking about something that depresses me as much as it is a cause for my elation — food. It’s about time we have some consensus on the fact that premium needs to become normal again and food needs to spoil faster, without genetically-modifying it please. I can’t imagine spending extra for a CSA basket just because it’s better for me. What about the people that don’t have that “luxury”? It’s not fair. Stories like this are reassuring. But Whole Foods isn’t mainstream enough. In my opinion, they’ve just found a great way to market the most obviously good-for-you products better and hence, mark up the prices for them. If they can wage a battle against Pepsico and Coca Cola and YIKES Monsanto – some of the giants that spend millions to hide the truth from us and buy “organic” titles – all power to them.

America, you need to learn. Because the big guys here become the big guys in other countries too and that’s not the direction the world needs to move in. Not with our food.

As for pictures, I have some but not of the digital variety.

I promise you more shenanigans soon. Eat well and live well. The world needs your spark.

Potatoes are forever.

February 17, 2013 by Edlyn

I’ll admit with not an ounce of regret that potatoes are my number 1 favourite food in the world. I don’t think it’s possible to do anything wrong with a spud and some salt.The person I live with is probably making a stink face if he’s reading this right now (which will happen IN MY DREAMS).

But I don’t care. I liked potatoes before I liked him.

And I liked home fries since last May, when Melissa took me to breakfast on a New York Sunday, the day after I arrived in the US. Immigrant in the house. You know, I’m probably just showing off now, which is totally not what a potato is about.

They don’t mind if you chop them unevenly or don’t peel them or leave them in a basket till they start sprouting from their eyes or use them in a stock and act like they didn’t do squat. They don’t. They just take it.

Makes me cry.

This is my way of thanking them. Selfless potatoes, you matter.

Fried egg and home fries

I used 2 of the Yukon Gold variety (they look exactly like the potatoes we get in India), 1 red pepper and half a white onion.

The recipe I was kind of following suggested I microwave the potatoes for five minutes until the edges turned white. I have said before that I am a borderline snob and one of the things that make me stop and think about how I don’t want to live my life is using a microwave. In our home, we use it as storage space for bananas and sliced bread and maybe banana bread.

Instead, I turned up the oven to a very random 385 degrees F. I chopped the potatoes into cubes (1/2 inch), mixed them with olive oil, and put them on a baking tray lined with foil. I baked them for 30 minutes. At the 15-minute mark, I tossed the potatoes a bit so they would cook evenly. I also realised that 385 degrees F was a bit too random EVEN FOR ME, so I turned it up to 400 degrees F.

While the potatoes were cooking, I chopped the onion and red pepper and fried them in a teaspoon of butter until the onions were light brown. I seasoned with a 1/4 tsp of salt. Not much but you’ll know why soon enough. I put them in a bowl and set them aside. They weren’t happy but they learnt to live with it.

The potatoes came out of the oven. I added a tablespoon of butter to the same frying pan and threw the mothers in. I pressed them down with the back of a spatula and let them cook for 8 minutes. Then I turned it over and did the same thing but I let them sit for 10 minutes. I kept doing this until I got the crisp+soft texture and dark brown colour I wanted. I think it took about 18 minutes. I then added the onions and peppers and some more salt + pepper, mixed it..blah blah.

Home fries, people. My favourite.

Finally, the eggs. A serving for 2, I broke two eggs on the top but in retrospect, maybe I should have cooked the eggs separately and then placed them on top of the potatoes.

You live you learn.

I garnished it all with chives from a pot in my living room and parsley from a grocery shop nearby.

Then I ate it and blogged it.

Now I’m sleeping it off.

Happy happy happy truly HAPPY Sunday to you.

How to conquer the world.

February 15, 2013 by Edlyn

I may not have all (or any) answers, but I know I’m the happiest when these feet are tired.

….when the fog does little to hide it

….when the winter sun makes me forget what a wuss I am without my fleece

…and when I get to call this my most important meal of the day.

Thanks for the sunshine today, Washington.
Herbert, thanks for the tour. Your mother is a saint; something my unholy self needed to hang around. And Bruce, you’re insane.

INSANE.

I loved every second of it.

We are family

November 29, 2012 by Edlyn

(Recipe followed to a T — minus a tart shell — from Smitten Kitchen. CLLLLIICK ME)

I must say, Awesomepants and my first Thanksgiving alone was a disaster. This dessert was delicious. Next time we will cook a lot less and by that I mean order pizza. No shame at all.

Made in the oven

November 21, 2012 by Edlyn

By now you must know that I live in one giant gloom bucket. Washington is beautiful…stunning in fact, but like every stunner, it’s very high maintenance. Summer was two months long this year. The rest of the year (or the six months I’ve lived here rather) it rained or threathened to. So when I finally got up off my butt and decided to make sun-dried tomatoes, summer was long gone.

What the heck.

I’d heard of the oven method and it did seem like a piece of cake.

WRONG.

I got impatient waiting for the oven to do its thing for 6 hours and I just ate them un-sun-dried. Un-sun-dried. I just made that up on my own. I’m such a unicorn sometimes.

This time, I waited 6 hours and 17 minutes. Voila. They shriveled up and died and that was a very good thing. I used this recipe as a guide of what I wanted my ingredients to be. I left out the sugar but you don’t have to. I didn’t want to mess with the inherent sweetness the tomatoes already had. Plumpy yumpy things.

Now on a perfectly related note, if you were wondering if tomatoes are fruits or vegetables, let Science Bob help you with that.

Oven-dried sun-dried tomatoes

Ingredients

3 Roma tomatoes (sliced in two, length-wise)
3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Dried herbs like thyme, oregano and basil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees F (90 degrees C).

Slice the tomatoes and lay them cut-side up on a cookie sheet lined with aluminium foil.

Season the tomatoes with sea salt and leave them at room temperature for 15 minutes. This will get some of the water out of the tomatoes, which is what you need to do for that sun-dried state of mind anyway.

Flavour the tomatoes with the remaining ingredients…Oh the bright fresh flavours. If it’s smells amazing, it will taste amazing. Place the sheet into the oven and let it sit for 6 hours (or more*), until you see the tomatoes are shriveled up and the juices have run out.

Take the out of the oven, cool, chop and enjoy over pasta in a cream sauce or as a stuffing for mushrooms. Or not. I just ate them whole.

*The drying time depends on the ripeness of the tomato. If you feel you need to go over the 6 hours as stated in the recipe, do it! Just remember to keep a check on them every half hour extra.

That’s what’s up.

November 19, 2012 by Edlyn

Before I begin, I want you to know what I was contemplating. It’s something about wanting to get off Posterous and get Typepad instead. I don’t know what the benefits are but Posterous take FOREVER to publish my posts and sometimes doesn’t do it at all. I’m not one to sit around because I got me some baking to do so I just sulked and didn’t blog for more than a month. What’s wrong with me? I did take a bus to Arizona for 10 days (including travel…by a BUS), but I wouldn’t consider that a “psychological problem”. It’s just this strange side of me.

It’s a very rainy day in Washington today. “Rain? Washington?! WHAT. What?”

So I decided to make banana bread. I always need fruit in my life. Fruit in the form of cake is an even better excuse. As usual I had to battle my demons (which I found out from this post) but my other demons include not wasting food in the form of three uneaten bananas so I channeled my inner Smitten Kitchen and said, “Eh, what the heck?”

(I didn’t use your recipe though, Deb. I’m sorry)

This is the recipe I used. I tweaked it because I’m a firm believer in doing as I please.

“Eggs one at a time you say? Separating them at birth is not my style.”

“Lightly beaten? No ma’am.”

And other fables.

Banana Bread

3 ripe bananas
Pumpkin spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice powders)
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup of cane sugar (or even less if you prefer. The recipe called for 1 cup)
2 large eggs
Chopped walnuts for added crunch
A 9in x 5in x 3in bread loaf pan

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).

In a bowl, mash the bananas and add the pumpkin spice and tablespoon of milk. Set aside and batter up for step 2.

Cream together the butter and sugar in another bowl of choice and then add the eggs to the mixture. Stir till eggs are combined.

In a totally different bowl, mix together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. This step is important as your baking powder/soda need to travel all across the bread and not just sit on the top and act like they’re on vacation.

Now you’re looking at three bowls and wondering: “Where is the banana bread?”

Step 4 is the wedding. The banana mixture goes into the butter/sugar/eggs mixture and stirred up well. The flour is then added little by little until it all disappears into a big bown of gooey, banana-y goodness.

Pour it in the bread loaf pan and add the walnuts on the top. You can also stir the walnuts in prior to pouring the mixture into the mould.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Make sure the loaf passes the knife test* before declaring it done.

*Stick a butter knife into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s ready. If not, bake fore 10 minutes more and re-check

A post about chocolate ice-cream

September 20, 2012 by Edlyn

I think everybody in this entire world needs a Cuisinart ice-cream maker. I so strongly believe this that I’m giving away 3 of them from the goodness of my heart.

No I’m not because I’ve not reached the point in my blogging career. If Cuisinart contacts me and tells me to give them away, I will use random comment picker apps to pick the most undeserving comment I’ve ever heard and call you “#4523” asking you to send me your address. I hate it when that happens.

I’m just glad I got the spelling of Cuisinart correct the first time.

I made some chocolate ice-cream! HOORAYYYY! See picture above. See lack of fancy photo applications. See a blog post that lacks any semblance of looking “cute, quirky, ad-worthy”. Hi.

Here’s what you need:

A Cuisinart ice-cream maker

The book that comes with the Cuisinart ice-cream maker. Turn to page 3

Okay, okay.

Real recipe:

3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted. If you don’t have a sifter, don’t fret. Just stir extra.

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

A pinch of salt

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract that’s oh-so-pure and is wondering what the heck it’s doing in a chocolate ice-cream recipe anyway. Weirdo.

1) Mix the cocoa, sugars and salt. Add the milk and combine until everything dissolves to oblivion.

2) Stir in the heavy cream and the oh-so-pure vanilla extract that got lost on the way to the recipe it actually belongs to.

3) Re-fur-getate. I mean refrigerate for 1-2 hours and overnight if you can wait that long.

BEST PART ALERT!!!

4) Dump it in the ice-cream maker and watch it turn. I mean churn, churn, churn.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6jxxagVEO4?wmode=transparent]

(Pretend The Byrds are saying “Churn”. It’s soooooo grooovy)

5) Holy crap, it turned to ice-cream.

Cuz Rumplestilskin is my name.

(I forgot to tell you I added Reese’s Pieces)

I’m probably never going to eat this because I don’t like that I used that much sugar or heavy cream in the recipe. Awesomepants on the other hand, does not CARE. He loves it all. Light, floaty, taste is what I go for but the recipe always goes somewhere else. Thank the lawd for husbands!