Goddess In The Kitchen

Rising.                        Risen.                        Baked.

I love being a Goddess in the Kitchen. . . recipe from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

Making sofrito tonight for Cuban Red Beans. I didn’t have any green peppers so I used some beautiful red peppers I had gleaned from the Black Mountain Community Garden. They looked like a large sweet pepper I had grown last year,but it appears that they must be an annaheim that turned red. Whatever it was it was immensely hot and I did not discover this until after I had brushed the cheek under my eye with my pepper juice stained finger.

The burn continued to spread to the skin surrounding both my eyes. If you’re reading this I imagine you have your own memories of mistakes or carelessness with hot peppers.

This time (yes,I’ve done this before –to my hands only) in my misery,I actually discovered a cure. I initially tried bathing my skin in plain yogurt and then rinsing with cold water. But the burn remained. Then I remembered we had a tube of Weleda Burn Care in our first aid kit. I tried it on a whim and within 15 minutes the burn was gone–even though as I type,the backs of my thumbs,which did not receive the ointment,still burn. Back to the first aid kit. . .

I’m writing this entry in response to the blog Home Grown Evolution. She is focusing the month of September on an exploration of beans. At current count my own pantry contains 14 different types of dried beans and the refrigerator vegetable bin holds three types of fresh beans from the garden.

The three  beans used most often in my kitchen are mung,red lentil and pinto. My preparation for pinto beans is simple and based upon years of searching for the least labor intensive method with the highest nutritional return. The night before I want to make them for dinner I pour  between two and four cups of pinto beans (four if I plan on freezing a batch for another meal or two) into my ceramic crock pot and cover them with at least four inches of water. The next morning I drain the water and cover the beans with one to two inches of water. I add a strip of kelp,which adds nutrition and improves the finished quality of the bean,and turn the crock pot on low. The beans simmer slowly all day until dinner time. If necessary,the beans can also be cooked on high for four hours.  When preparing dinner,I take the lid off to simmer off any remaining liquid,add salt and sometimes a little fat–a tablespoon or two of olive oil,palm oil or lard. Although I rarely do,you could also saute some chopped onions,garlic and cumin seed in oil until lightly browned and stir this in during the last few minutes of cooking.

I serve these beans as filling with homemade tortillas. Depending on the season I will lay the table with additional fillings such as baked sweet potato sticks,steamed corn,steamed julienned slices of kale or collards,brown rice,and fresh or canned salsas.

On a weekly basis I make mung bean soup. I often eat this nourishing and cleansing soup for breakfast and dinners on Mondays. A day traditionally used for fasting in many yogic traditions. This also happens to be the day I teach Kundalini yoga. The following recipe is shared courtesy of Naomi Scott of Body Work for Wholeness.

GREEN MUNG BEAN SOUP

Ingredients:
1 cup whole green mung beans – soaked overnight
8 cups water
1 tbs. sunflower oil/or ghee
½ tsp. mustard seeds
1 pinch. asafoetida (called hing in Asian stores) (get @ health food store in the frontier herb section)
1 bay leaf
½  tsp. turmeric
½ tsp. ground cumin
½  tsp. ground coriander
1½ tsp. chopped ginger root
1 tsp. salt
1½ tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. raw sugar cane or jaggery (available in Indian grocery stores) I use Sucanat
1 pinch garam masala powder  (see recipe below for this spice mixture)

Soak the mung beans overnight in water. Drain and wash the beans two times with fresh water. Cook beans in large covered pot with 3 cups water until tender,bring the beans to a boil,and then simmer for 30-40 minutes,until the skins have broken. Heat the oil in large deep saucepan and add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds pop,add asafoetida,bay leaf and stir.  Add the spice mixture to the cooked beans.   Add 1 cup water,bring to a boil and add all remaining spices. Simmer for a few minutes more.

Benefits of Mung Bean Soup:
Mung bean is used in Ayurveda to balance all three doshas and eliminate toxins. Spices are used medicinally to create a delicious and nourishing soup.  When eaten daily over a period of time,it will have a powerful detoxifying effect that is quite remarkable.

Garam Masala

To make your own garam masala:roast 1 tablespoon each of cardamom,cloves,cinnamon bark and black pepper. Grind to a powder and store in an airtight container.

Coconut Red Lentil Dal is another mainstay of my dinner table. I take a generous cup of red lentils and place them in a pot with approximately three cups of water. I bring them to a boil with 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1 dried chili. (This is a child friendly recipe,the pepper merely flavors and does not add heat–unless you personally eat the whole thing). Once boiling I simmer the mixture,lid off,for around 20 minutes until the lentils begin to break down and thicken. I then add around 1/2 a can of coconut milk and continue cooking while I heat a dry cast iron skillet. I add 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds and have ready half an onion and three garlic cloves finely chopped. Once the seeds begin to pop I add a generous tablespoon or two of butter or ghee and scrape the onions and garlic off my cutting board into the hot pan. I rapidly saute,stirring frequently until the onions begin to brown deeply. I scrape the pan clean into the pot of dal and add a pinch of asafoetida–also known as hing. I add salt to taste and simmer until the mixture reaches a thick porridge like consistency. We eat this with sweet potato parathas (I will share this recipe and the tortilla recipe another day),coconut,carrot rice,a steamed vegetable like cauliflower or broccoli and green tomato chutney for my husband and I (that recipe to be shared,as well.)

The beauty of all these bean recipes is that they make great leftovers and freeze well–both good traits for successful meal planning.

I haven’t a camera,so think of this entry as the radio version of blogging:you’ll have to picture it.

On Tuesday I purchased a generous dozen ears of corn from Mike Sobol’s corn stand on Blue Ridge Rd. not a half mile from my house. Yesterday I stopped by the weekly farmer’s market held by Becki’s Bounty across from the Post Office in Black Mountain and purchased Wahoo. (They ship fish from the coast each Wednesday.)  Today I pulled an arm load of carrots out of my plot at the Black Mountain Community Garden,hand picked a handful of bush beans,and selected one voluptuous tomato–probably a Mortgage Lifter.

Tonight I turned it all into dinner. I took the carrots,composted the tops,washed and chopped them into large chunks. I put them,1 pound in all,  in a 1 quart pot with water to cover. I boiled them until they were fork tender. I drained them (saving the hot water in another 1 quart pot to use in the next phase on the green beans) and plopped them into my Cuisinart–a hardworking friend which has been my companion since I made off with it from my parents’house where it had been residing since my 6th Christmas. I added 2 Tbs. olive oil,a dash or two of cayenne,1/2 teaspoon cumin,a generous pinch of ginger,and some Celtic Sea Salt. I pureed it all,scraping down the sides between pulses to ensure an even puree. I scraped the puree into a glass container and placed it in the frig to cool until serving time.

Next I tipped and tailed the green beans,removing any tough strings,cut them into one-inch pieces and added them to the boiling leftover carrot water. I blanched these until bright green then drained them. Meanwhile,I sauteed a minced garlic clove and a finely diced shallot in olive oil. When golden and fragrant I added my large tomato chopped and seeded. When the tomato released it’s juices I added the green beans and a little sea salt and cooked the fragrant loveliness until the beans were tender.

This isn’t how it really happened,but in an ideal world. . . The kids shucked the corn at the back door to the kitchen and handed them in to plop into my ready and waiting pot of boiling water. Each cob was bedecked with my new corn nobs from Pampered Chef. (Which are so cool–you put them on before you cook the corn;they cool faster than the corn–no burnt fingers eating corn or putting the nobs on!) While the corn cooked I dredged the Wahoo (say it with me) Steaks in seasoned flour and pan fried them in equal parts butter and olive oil.

The result:mouth humming,finger licking goodness. The Wahoo Steaks had thick succulent chunks of flesh,firm enough for sopping up tomato juices and pools of olive oil and butter. I took cool,crisp slices of cucumber and dipped them into the carrot puree. I snapped Sobol’s corn under my teeth,sweet as candy. Only a thin veneer of butter needed. And not really even that. But butter,. . .well. I sank my teeth cleanly into each bite of the green beans which paired deliciously with the acid of the tomatoes,the pungency of the garlic and the sweetness of the shallots.

To finish,I sipped on a cool cup of nettle-licorice tea which I had brewed earlier and nibbled slowly an UliMana Hemp Nib Brownie. Mmmm,sigh.

Pictures and a recipe will be on their way soon from our delicious evening. Lots of sighs and swooning at the dinner table during tasting time.  Thank you to all you lovely ladies –and my very supportive husband (who filmed and added mint leaf and raspberry garnish to the dessert)–who shared the evening with me.

I will hold the Pampered Chef show open until Wednesday June 16. If you would like to place an order go to www.pamperedchef.biz/goddessinthekitchen. Go to Shop Online. Type in “Brett McCall”under Host/ Organization name to be included in this show. If you are out of town,have your product shipped directly to you. Unless specified,orders will ship to me.