Latest Ashram Breakfast

1. Add ghee (latest fav is niter kibbeh which is ghee flavored with garlic, ginger, onion, turmeric, cardamom  cumin, fenugreek, cinnamon and cloves) or other fat to small pot that you might cook rice in.
2. Once ghee is hot, add sliced leeks.
3. Stir and saute after a little bit, add a cup or less of white basmati rice.
4. Add 1/2 a vegetable bouillon cube and mix up.
5. Add enough water to cook rice (usually less than you think) and bring to a boil.
6. Add sliced kale on top and 2 raw eggs.  
7. Cover and bring to a simmer, cooking about 10 - 13 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.  (Lately I like them pretty stiff.  If you like runny eggs, give rice about 3 to 4 minutes before adding kale and eggs.
8. Simply scoop into a bowl.  I like a little white balsamic vinegar sprinkled on.  And salt.

Wilted Spinach and Kale Salad with Ginger Rosemary Lemon Dressing

Made this from what was in fridge.  Worked out pretty well.

1. Mince some ginger and fry up in too much olive oil.
2. Add mashed garlic and rosemary just for a few moments.
3. Transfer to large wooden salad bowl and mash together with ground pepper and salt and a little meyer lemon zest.
4. Squeeze out 1.5 or less or more meyer lemons into bowl and mix with ginger paste.  
5. Taste and add a little maple syrup to balance the lemon.
6. Heat some oil up again and brown some slivered almonds.  When golden, set aside. 
7. Artistically slice a few carrots.
8. 1/4 Moon half a small red onion.
9. Thinly Slice some black kale.
10. De stem fresh spinach from Steve's Farm
11. Mix carrots, onions, spinach and kale with the Ginger Dressing in the bowl.
12. Crumble Feta Cheese and Toss.
13. Heat some more olive oil.  When hot, pour over salad to wilt the greens.  Toss Well and then toss in the almonds.

Fried Rice, Again!

So tonight, made the fried rice with:

shallots, scallions, carrots, celery, bok choy, kale, basil

so good.

Buffalo Pasta Sauce

I went to farmer and the cook tonight to pick up ingredients for dinner.  We have been sick for like 2 weeks in my house and i was tired of soup.  It felt like we needed more fortification.  Sometimes getting dinner stuff at FnC is hard.  They have the freshest most amazing local organic produce in town but the shelves are lacking the other stuff that I want.

I left with some frozen ground buffalo, kale, egg noodle pasta and a can of crushed tomatoes.

Here is what I did:

1. Defrosted buffalo meat under warm water.
2. Start pot of water to boil
3. In a heavy Crueset dutch oven like pot, heat some olive oil.
4. Break up buffalo meat and brown.  Grind some fresh pepper into the meat while browning
5. While meat is browning, find some bacon(!) in your fridge left over from the holidays.
6. Slice up 3 strips of bacon.  
7. While meat is still browning, mince up 1/2 a yellow onion and the rest of the carrots from Sunday's farmer's market.
8. When meat has browned, remove from pan and add bacon.  Cook up bacon until fat has been rendered and done to your liking.  Remove.
9. Add a little extra olive oil to pot and add onions and carrots.  (If I had had celery or fennel, I would have used some of that too.)  Stir and start the saute process.  Add your desired herbs and spices.  Tonight I had some fresh sage in the fridge so I minced up some of that and added dried thyme, Mexican oregano, red chili flakes.  Once the onions and carrots were browned, I poured a little port into pot to deglaze it.  (If wine were open, I would have used that).
10. I added the meats back in and mixed well, then added the tomato mixture back in.  
11. By this time the water was boiling, but I wanted the sauce to have a chance to meld, so I turned the water off.  
12. I found some sun dried tomatoes in the fridge, so I thinly sliced about 5 of those up and added them to the pan.  I added a little extra pepper flakes and ground pepper for more spice.
13. I thinly sliced up the beautiful amazing kale from Steve and added that and stirred it in.  (We need the Kale in this house for fortification).
14. Turned the water back on.  That egg pasta cooks in 4 minutes.
15. I tossed the egg pasta with a little butter (this is totally cheating).  And served the pasta with a little splash of olive oil and Parmesan for grating.

Both Geordie and Eric liked it.  I did too.

Smokey Greens

So easy, so awesome. Spicer suggests cooking them in duck or bacon fat. Butter seems to work great. Original recipe from Food and Wine, December 2000.

The trick with greens is to start with way more than you think you need. They cook down so fast. This recipe serves 5 with left overs.

5 bunches of greens. Mixed is best. Kale, collards, mustard, chard, etc. with large stems removed.
Generous 1/2 stick unsalted butter or equivalent fat
2 large red onions chopped
5 cloves garlic minced
2 canned chipotles with some of the adobo sauce (OR 3 of Olivia from Farmer and the Cook's smoked dried chipotles)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbl cider vinegar

1. Coarsely chop and wash greens in cold water. (This can be done in stages as the greens cook down.)

2. Heat fat in dutch oven like pan. Add the onions and saute until soft. (10 minutes or so). Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

3. Stir in greens by the handful, adding more as previous batch starts to wilt. This takes a long time to get through all the greens. Add the chipotles and some adobo sauce if using canned and some salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring ever so often until greens are tender, about an hour.

4. Discard chipotles if you can find them. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Uschi's Roasted Beets with Kale, Polenta and Carmelized Tomoto Sauce

We will have to convince Uschi to give up this recipe. She is a master at creating vegan yumminess. She understands flavor and texture and the resulting delight when combined just right.

Brocolli Rabe Pasta with Kale and Sausage

2 Links Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage, broken up
1 medium Red Onion sliced into 1/4 moons
Approx. 1/2 Cup of Madeira or other such cooking alcohol
Dash of Red Pepper Flakes
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Tablespoon or so of chopped rosemary
Teaspoon or so of Dried Thyme
Approx. Cup of Chicken Broth
Generous bunch of Broccoli Rabe from BD's Farm
Bunch of Black Kale from BD's Farm
Approx. 3 tbl of unslated Butter
Approx. 1/4 cup of Half n Half

Egg Noodle Pasta from Farmer and the Cook. 4 minute cooking time.

1. Start a pot of boiling water.

2. Saute Sausage in a heavy pot.

3. Remove Sausage and reserve. Add a little olive oil to pan if not enough fat was rendered.

4. Add onions and saute. When desired tenderness is achieved, add peppers and herbs and stir. Add Madeira and reduce. Add chicken broth. Meanwhile slice kale into 1/4 inch pieces and wash. Chop Broccoli rabe into evenly sized pieces. Usually the stalk can be cut into 2 or 3 pieces.

5. Add Broccoli and stir. Loosely cover the pot to help broccoli steam, but pay attention that it does not overcook. At this point, throw pasta in boiling water. Just before pasta is done, add kale. And stir sausage back in.

6. Drain pasta and add to pot. Mix in butter and creme and stir to combine. Salt to taste.

Flu Season Chicken Soup

When Eric and I start to feel like we are getting sick, we make a pot of Chicken Ginger Soup. The heat of the onions, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes help to burn out the germ. We vary it depending on what we have in the house, but the basic recipe is something like this:

olive oil
1 Medium yellow or white onion halved and thinly sliced
1 Big Carrot Peeled and Sliced
3 cloves garlic smashed
1.5 inch piece ginger peeled and thinly sliced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 carton of organic, free range chicken broth (we like Pacific brand the best)
(Optional: 1 organic free range boneless skinless chicken breast cut into even size pieces)
1 bunch black kale or chard or other bitter green washed and sliced into thin strips
Lemon
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

1. In a heavy pot, saute the onions and carrot. About a minute before desired softness achieved, add the whole smashed garlic cloves, ginger and red pepper flakes.

2. Add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn heat to low and simmer for at least 10 minutes. (Sometimes I will add cup soy sauce and rice wine to create a tastier broth, but if we are already sick, too much salt can cause mischief. Also, if we want a heartier soup, I will sometimes make some brown rice or noodles or orzo to add to the soup. But again, if we are already sick, I try to reduce the amount of grains in our diet).

3. If you are going to add the chicken, bring stock back to a boil and add chicken. Pay attention to not overcook. Usually takes less than 5 minutes.

4. Just before you are ready to eat, stir in the greens and allow to wilt. Squeeze in lemon juice and lots of freshly ground pepper.

Carrots and Kale in Orange Ginger Sauce with Spiced Rice

As I mentioned before, I am trying to hone easy vegan cooking. So, these next several months I am going to see if I can pull it off by choosing to eat light and less and find out what I start to crave.

Today I used Ghee, cuz I am gearing up for a PK with my pal Jackie Parker and I am supposed to be drinking ghee daily. Ghee is obviously not vegan.

1. Basmati Rice with Spices
Heat up some fat (today I used ghee). Once hot, add some spices. Today I used mustard seed, cumin seed and coriander seed. Add soaked basmati rice. Stir and toast rice a bit. Add the right amount of water. Bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat. About 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and slice up some carrots. Mince up some ginger. Slice up some kale.

3. Heat some fat in a pan. Add the ginger and stir for about 30 seconds, and then add the carrots. Allow carrots to cook in the fat, stirring every so often, until they start to brown a little. Add 1/2 a squeezed Orange, cover and allow carrots to steam and soften.

4. When rice is done, remove from heat and let sit.

5. Add kale to the carrots, stir and cover for only about a minute to wilt the kale.

6. Today I added the rice into the pan with the carrots and kale to stir it all up and soak up the extra orange ginger sauce.

7. I put it in a bowl, added a little salt and ate the whole thing.

Pappardelle Pasta with Sausage, Kale and Mozzarella

We have made lots of different versions of this and will continue to vary it depending on what is available. Tonight I have started to record them.


1. Start the Water for the Pasta and add some salt.
2. In a separate heavy pot, heat some olive oil. (Probably about 2 tbl.)
3. Break up Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage into the hot olive oil and allow to brown. Stirring as required to get all sides.
4. As Sausage is browning, dice up 1 leek, 2 carrots and 1 clove garlic. (Sometimes the leeks will be super sandy and you will need to wash them once cut).
5. Once sausage has browned, remove from pan with slotted spoon into a bowl and add a little extra olive oil to the pot.
6. Add Leeks and Carrots to the pot and saute until desired softness and color is achieved. (I usually error on the side of browned and soft). While carrots and leeks are cooking, chop up Fresh Rosemary. (We are lucky enough to have this growing in our yard, so I use it a lot).
7. Once Leeks and Carrots are done, add minced garlic, Rosemary and dried Mexican Oregano. Stir until fragrant, about a minute or so.
8. Add enough Pernod to the pot to deglaze and simmer the veggies for about 2 minutes. (You could use almost anything here. I chose Pernod cuz it was in my cupboard).
9. Add enough Beef Stock (prob. about 1/3 cup) so that you can throw the sausage and slivered kale back in and cook it down into almost a sauce. (I slivered about 1/2 a head of beautiful black kale).
10. Add a smidge of the adobo sauce from a can of chipotles. Add Good Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper.
11. Put the wide egg noodle Pappardelle into the salted boiling water.
12. By the time the pasta is done, about 6 minutes, your 'sauce' is ready.
13. Drain Pasta and mix with sauce. Add some butter to bring flavors forward.
14. To serve, scoop into shallow pasta bowls. Add a bit of lemon zest. Chopped fresh mozzarella and toasted almond slivers.

Kale Bruschetta

1. Thinly slice that beautiful dark kale from Farmer and the Cook and Wash.
2. Mince up some garlic
3. Heat too much olive oil and when hot, throw in Kale and stir, adding garlic a few minutes later. Fry until the kale feels sort of dry, about 15 minutes. Add enough water to almost cover and cook partially covered for about 30 minutes until soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. Meanwhile, slice some country style wheat bread into shy 1/3 inch slices.
5. When ready to assemble, use broiler to toast one side of bread, flip over, brush with olive oil and toast other. Rub with sliced garlic, spread green mixture on top and cover with shaved Romano.

Note: The next day I toasted some bread with left over Romano cheese and left over sliced almonds. Then i put the greens on top. This was also yummy.