macrobiotic

Millet, JPIX, KCC and Upcoming

millet
I have recently been exploring millet. Some say millet is an alkaline forming grain (and that this is a good thing). While the alkaline/acidic food balance theory may just be a theory, I’ve gotten interested in learning how to cook millet. What do I do with it?

I’ve made millet like rice: two parts water to one part millet. It was OK, kind of grainy, and when it was warm, and I stuck in a bit of cheese, I liked it better (but cheese is supposedly acidic, so that sort of defeats the alkalizing part). Recipes, anyone? Here are some I found online:

I haven’t tried any of these recipes. Which one should I try? Would you try any?

On a related topic, Batya will be hosting the next Kosher Cooking Carnival. She would like you to submit a post and to be a host.

In topics related to blog carnivals, JPIX (Jewish Photographers Blog Carnival) will appear on this blog at the end of June. So submit your favorite post with a great photo.

Upcoming on this blog (tomorrow): How to Pay a Shiva Call: A Guide for Non-Jews, non-observant Jews, Jews who need to brush up on the tradition of shiva, and people who find the idea of comforting a mourner a bit scary

Thursday Challenge: Fresh Slaw

cole slaw - fresh tekka - cabbage with carrots, ginger, orange, miso
The recipe for this dish of cabbage with carrots, ginger, orange, miso is here as Winter Slaw and here as Fresh Tekka. It is adapted from a macrobiotic recipe, and if I have the time, I make it once a week.

Thursday’s Challenge is “FOOD” (Meals, Restaurants, Eating, Vegetables, Unusual Foods, Cooking, BBQs,…).

If you really like food shots, see the apple pie in the previous post.

Bitter to Sweet Radish Salad

radish salad
Radishes in Beet Juice with Oranges and Parsley

Avdus L’Herus (Slavery to Freedom) Salad Revisited

Passover is a challenge even for vegetable salads – sometimes one cannot get a certain condiment with a Pesach hashgacha (approval) that adds flavor, so one gets creative. Last year I blogged about the Slavery to Freedom Salad. This year I became enamored of a macrobiotic dish of pickled radishes with umeboshi paste. Since I cannot get the umeboshi paste for Passover, I came up with this combination of the two salads:

Ingredients:

  • 3 fresh beets – boiled and beet juice preserved
  • 1 bag of red radishes, sliced
  • 1 bunch chopped mint (or substitute parsley or cilantro)
  • 3 navel oranges, cut into pieces
  • 1 half chopped red onion

Cut the radishes into circles and cook them until slightly soft in the beet juice. Mix with oranges, chopped parsley and red onion. Serve at room temperature.

•    •    •

Beet Salad

Don’t know what to do with the cooked beets? Here is what I put together:

Peel the beets after boiling. Discard skins. Chop into circular pieces (and then cut in half again, if desired). Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Garnish with scallion and parsley. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.

Shiitake Mushroom Soup in Red Bowl

Shiitake Mushroom Soup with Clear Broth in a Red-Trimmed Bowl
Shiitake Mushroom Soup with Clear Broth in a Red-Trimmed Bowl

I was in mood for a mushroom soup with no grains, and so I came up with this recipe. To photograph it for a post, I put in a red china bowl. This prompted my daughter to eat it; she insisted on eating it in the red china bowl. You see, presentation does count!

Ingredients

  • 8 oz. shiitake mushrooms
  • 8 oz. baby bell mushrooms
  • 1 leek
  • 1 zucchini (or substitute other greens, such as bits of kale or collards)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. mirin (rice wine – or substitute 1 tsp. dry wine)
  • 1 tsp. miso
  • chopped scallions
  • 1 tsp. sea salt

How to Make the Soup

Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil. Slit the leek in half; wash out any particles inside the leek. Cut in half and put in with the onion. Chop the zucchini and put it in with the onion. Add chopped mushrooms. Cover with water and add at least 1 cup more water. Cook until all is tender. Add sea salt and wine. Add miso at the end. Sprinkle with scallions and serve.

Proof My Daughter Liked the Soup:

soup_shesips soup_shelikes soup_smile

For more photos with red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
rubyslippers

More soup recipes

Review with Lentils

Fall Leaves at East Jersey Olde Town, Piscataway, New Jersey
Fall Leaves at East Jersey Olde Town, Piscataway, New Jersey

On My Blog

bald_cypress_november lecha_dodiforum_parking
autumn09belle chanukah

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

Long ago, Jacob prepared some lentils for his brother Esau. “And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils” – Genesis 25:34. So here are some lentil recipes:

Soup Beautiful Soup

soup

Soups on My Blog (pareve, vegan)

Soups from Some of My Favorite Bloggers

Macrobiotic Soups

Fish and Poultry Soups

In this fish and chicken soup category are my children’s favorite, my chicken soup, and my own favorite, Mimi’s Fish Soup:

I believe soup is one of the healthiest foods one can eat. And it is yummy, too!

As Lewis Carroll wrote:

Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau–ootiful Soo-oop! Beau–ootiful Soo-oop! Soo–oop of the e–e–evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two
Pennyworth only of Beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?

Beau–ootiful Soo-oop! Beau–ootiful Soo-oop! Soo–oop of the e–e–evening,
Beautiful, beauti–FUL SOUP!

— Lewis Carroll

According to this article, that poem was a parody of a poem called “Star of the Evening.” More of Lewis Carroll’s funny poetry on this page.

Mushroom Barley Soup

Mushroom Barley Soup
Mushroom Barley Soup
Ah, autumn. A wonderful time to review one’s soup recipes.

I originally learned how to make mushroom barley soup from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. Here is my current one-pot recipe, which I prepare now by heart without consulting Mollie:

Ingredients

  • Mushrooms
  • 1 onion
  • 1/2 cup barley
  • Flavoring: I use a tsp. of miso. You can also use soy sauce and/or 1 tsp. of red wine.
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Water
  • Olive oil to cover bottom of pan

Many optional ingredients:

  • Root vegetables: chopped carrots, parsnip, and/or turnip
  • Garlic clove
  • Chopped celery
  • Chopped ginger root
  • Green leafy vegetables: chopped kale or collards
  • Herbs, fresh or dry: dill, oregano, thyme
  • Shiitake mushrooms: make the soup all the more healthful and flavorful by using shiitake mushrooms

Preparing the Soup

Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil at the bottom of a large pot. When the onion turns translucent, add the barley. Add more than enough water to cover the barley – about one inch higher in the pot. Cook for about 1/2 hour until the barley is almost tender. Add pepper and salt to taste. Add optional ingredients of carrots, other root vegetables, garlic and celery; add the mushrooms. Pour in one cup more of water. Cook until the vegetables are tender. Add optional kale, dill, other herbs and/or other fast cooking greens. Add soy sauce or miso to give the soup taste. Serve warm.

Coming soon (next week?): a list of soup recipes from around the blogosphere. Also, some suggested soup ingredients. If you have a favorite soup recipe that is on a blog, feel free to leave the link in the comments (thanks to Mrs. S., who last week did just that).

Crunchy Quinoa Salad

Quinoa Salad with Carrots, Kale and Almonds
Quinoa Salad with Carrots, Kale and Almonds
I got this recipe for crunchy quinoa salad from Klara. In my own style, I changed it a bit. You can do the same when you try it.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1.5 cups water (I used leftover broccoli broth)
  • 1 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrots
  • handful of shredded kale
  • 1/2 cup chopped almonds
  • 2 chopped scallions or 1 small sweet onion (I used a chopped sweet onion)
  • 1/4 cup mekabu
    (tiny wakame – use whatever seaweed you have available – Klara’s recipe used arame; you probably need to soak it first)

Dressing, optional:

  • A few tsps. tamari
  • A few tsps. mirin (rice wine – Eden makes one with an O-K – a specialty product that is DE-licious)
  • 1/4 tahini (I didn’t use – I don’t like tahini, but maybe you do)

Soak the nuts earlier in the day. Rinse the quinoa, cook it in water or broth, add a bit of salt. Shred the carrots and put them on top of the almost cooked quinoa. Ground up the nuts. Put shredded kale and all other ingredients on top and cook a bit more until the kale is soft.

May be served served warm or at room temperature. Enjoy your quinoa salad!

Pressed Salad

Cucumbers, radishes, kale, lettuce waiting to be pressed
Cucumbers, radishes, parsley, lettuce waiting to be pressed

Why press a salad? According to macrobiotics, a pressed salad makes the vegetables easier to digest. It is a way of preparing the vegetables without any cooking.

At first I thought I would need to buy a salad presser to press a salad, but then after an email from Klara convincing me to try putting a heavy bowl on top of the salad I came up with this homemade version of pressing:

My method of pressing: plate, vegetables, bowl and heavy jug of water on top
My method of pressing: plate, vegetables, bowl and heavy jug of water on top

How to Press a Salad

Gather up some vegetables. Here are a few suggestions:

  • kale, chopped or torn into pieces
  • cucumber, sliced (my understanding is peel if it is not organic, you can leave peel on if organic)
  • radishes, sliced (they will be less sharp after pressing)
  • lettuce, torn in pieces
  • sweet onion, chopped
  • parsley, basil or another fresh herb

Put your vegetables on a plate. Sprinkle with sea salt (or whatever salt you have). You can put on some apple cider or rice vinegar, too, according to some recipes (I just use salt). Put whatever heavy objects you need on top of the vegetables for an hour or two or three. The vegetables should soften and release some water, too. You can rinse off the salt and drain any excess water.

Lemon juice might be tasty as an addition, too. Enjoy.

The definition of a pressed salad, from Changing Seasons Macrobiotic Cookbook, by Aveline Kushi and Wendy Esko:

“Very thinly sliced or shredded fresh vegetables, combined with a pickling agent such as sea salt, umeboshi, grain vinegar, or shoyu, and placed in a special pickle press. In the pickling process, many of the enzymes and vitamins are retained while the vegetables become easier to digest.”

Tomato Sauce Alternative

Parsley tops green mugwort noodles and beet sweet potato sauce
Parsley tops green mugwort noodles and beet sweet potato sauce

Beet Sweet Potato Sauce

Ever want an alternative to tomato sauce for your spaghetti? Here’s an easy recipe if like me you often have a leftover cooked beet and a leftover sweet potato or yam.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cooked beet
  • 1/2 cooked sweet potato or yam

fork_beet_sweetpotato
Put the sweet potato or yam in a bowl with the beet. Mash with a fork. If you don’t mind cleaning your food processor and prefer a creamier sauce, throw both in the food processor.

beet_sweetpotato
Mash until you get a lovely orange and pink sauce.

beet_green_noodles
Meanwhile, cook your noodles. I used Eden mugwort soba noodles, which are a lovely shade of green, nutritious and delicious. When ready, mix immediately with your beet and yam sauce so the sauce warms up.

I topped mine with grated parmesan cheese and fresh chopped parsley. Get creative. Basil would be a great topper, too. You could also mix in a few drips of cold-pressed olive oil or some organic butter.

Serves 1-2.

Inspiration: Klara has a beet – carrot – onion sauce that she used to make as a tomato sauce alternative. See her comment on this post for the recipe. Since I often have a leftover beet and some leftover sweet potato, this recipe was a natural for me.

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