Sifa's Table

Vegan Lasagna

2010-03-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so who knew?

I've quit dairy because of Z -- and while I'm not prepared to say that it was as sinfully good as my regular ricotta-laden lasagna --I can't believe it was as good as it was.

I was chopping with one hand as Z napped in the sling -- my upper back/shoulder is killing me -- i have to find a better nap solution!

I sauteed portobellos and zucchini in olive oil and garlic, roasted a red pepper in the oven -- used bottled organic tomato sauce and no-bake noodles -- and instead of ricotta I put two cans of cannelinni beans in the food processor with some roasted garlic, smoked paprika and salt and pureed it.

I layered it like you would normally -- using the bean paste and some soy cheese called 'soy kaas' -- which, while I was skeptical that it would be anything close to mozzarella -- at least approximated the texture.

I will say that the 'parmesan' substitute was almost inedible and I had to peel that layer off of the lasagna when it came out of the oven -- it smelled vile and tasted worse -- but the rest of it?

Yummy.

Huh.

This is sacrilege in the dairy heartland ... we're nearly in Wisconsin afterall...

Curried Cream of Cauliflower and Leek Soup

2008-10-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

This was maybe the first recipe I ever actually made up on my own -- I'll try to replicate it here -- but I need to go remember how I did it... I figured it was time to post something. I had intended to just follow and old standard recipe of potato leek but I had some cauliflower in the fridge --and I've been trying to add more anti-inflammatory ingredients into our meals -- so Tumeric is a great choice here.

Ingredients:

2-3 leeks chopped-- well cleaned, use just the white to light green part

2 celery stalks, chopped

3-4 Yukon Gold potatoes - peeled and diced

1 medium head of cauliflower (I just quartered and sliced it)

1.5 cups vegetable broth

1.5 cups milk

salt and pepper to taste

Tumeric (alot - 2T?)

Curry -- to taste 1T

2T butter

Sautee leeks and celery in butter on medium heat -- add a bit of salt and pepper -- until vegetables soften -- add cauliflower. I like the way cauliflower tastes when it is browned -- so I allowed it to brown a bit, covering the saucepan and steaming it as well for about 7 additional minutes -- until it is browning -- watch it constantly though so it doesn't get too brown. When needed I deglazed it with a tiny bit of broth.

When I diced the potatoes I put the tumeric over the potatoes on the cutting board -- I just shook the container a few times vigorously -- I wasn't sure how much I wanted to use but I think it must have been between 1.5 - 2 T. I added that to the vegetables -- and then I added the vegetable broth and I used lowfat, lactose-free milk. I more or less added as much liquid as needed to cover the vegetables and allow it to simmer freely without fear of the bottom scalding. I added the curry. I simmered it for twenty minutes and then blended 3/4 of it -- leaving a fourth for the texture of the potatoes.

I have to say it turned out much better than I imagined it might!

Homemade Pizza

2008-04-17T13:50:00.001-07:00

Soon I will post the dough recipe but for now I'd just like to post the pictures...this must have been about a month ago now...getting a little dusty and unused over in this corner of the blogosphere....if only blogger would cooperate...hmn, well maybe later...

Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

2008-02-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

Evidently I don't actually know how to cook on my own but need the help of the entire creative team of Cooking Light magazine -- to whom I am very grateful...

This was last night's dinner -- and I have to say that other than broiling the peppers and steaming off the skins...it was all pretty simple. You need a blender though...I'll include my own recipe for 'Mexican rice'...

Here's the link to the enchiladas.

Mexican Rice

As for the rice...yes you COULD use brown rice and it would be all very healthy for you and such...but my MIL has created a devotee to Unc.le Ben's ...so I used that instead (and it's half the time...oh sure, half the nutrition too...)

I had some leftover chicken stock (about a cup) from poaching the chicken breasts in the enchilada recipe and it turned out that the garlic and oregano in it was just perfect for the rice...it turned out better than planned.

1c. leftover chicken stock
1c. water
1T. olive oil
1c. rice (Uncle Ben's -- you know you want to)
and here's where it gets squishy: paprika and cumin -- I'd say 'to taste' but I can't really tell you how much I used -- a ratio of about 3:1 in favor of the cumin...maybe 3t. of cumin and 1 of paprika? Honestly, I just did about four or five dashes of the paprika and then went to grab the cumin to do the same and it didn't have a sprinkle top...oops.

Heat olive oil on med.heat -- add rice and spices -- saute a few minutes -- then add broth and water and boil as you would normally in making the rice, covering it and turning it down to simmer for 2o minutes. It's the perfect timing for the enchiladas because they only need about that long to reheat in the oven...

Anyway...hope it works! I just had a cold enchilada for a mid morning snack...tasty :)

Kreas Manestra

2008-02-28T05:47:00.000-08:00

I would have included a photo but we were so ravenous we ate the entire thing like a bunch of lions falling on a wildebeest -- or more appropriately to our setting like a pack of wolves on a snowshoe hare...ANYWAY.... this is a hit with kids because it contains pasta, albeit in a different form. I use a pressure cooker first because I use stew meat rather than left-over leg of lamb, diced -- which is already tender enough...and if you happen to make lamb enough to have leftovers this is a perfect dish...my measuring these days is all kind of approximate...and I've tried to use less olive oil than many might -- the less oil you use the lower the heat should be as the onions and garlic will burn....

1 lb or so of lamb - stew meat works
1 c. chicken broth
1 16 oz package of orzo
2 large-ish yellow onions
4 cloves of garlic
1T olive oil
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4t - 1/2 t cinnamon
salt & pepper to taste (I cut down on salt if my chicken broth isn't low sodium)
1T sugar
μυζήθρα, pronounced mee-ZEETH-rah, sometimes spelled "myzithra." -- 1/4 cup, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the diced onions and diced garlic -- cooking to soften -- 7 mn or so. Add salt. Add the tomatoes, sugar, cinnamon, and lamb -- stirring together and adding enough chicken broth to use the pressure cooker -- it should be a little thinner than stew-like --you may not end up using the entire cup of broth - -that's okay. Put the lid on the pressure cooker and cook for about 15 minutes or so.

New pressure cookers aren't nearly as scary as our mother's were -- I remember terrifying stories about food explosions and the lurking possibility that in making a simple dish one might end up in the emergency room...BUT now it's totally easy to use and depressurize and all that. I often worry that I'm going to get it too hot and it will burn -- rather than pressurize -- so the mistake I made initially was not getting it pressurized enough. I find that if you put it on medium heat and wait for the tell-tale hissing to be constant -- then turn it down as you would do rice.

Okay...after the pressure cooking you add the orzo. I was able to actually mix in the orzo, turn off the stove, take W. to practice and come back to find the orzo cooked and the dish ready to be put in the oven. Whichever way you do -- either traditionally on the stove under low heat -- stir constantly though -- and if it gets too thick add a tiny bit of broth -- the orzo should absorb all the liquid...when cooked at the cheese, mix and put in a baking dish with a little bit of grated cheese on top. The baking at this point is just to really melt the cheese on top...15 minutes or so, if that.

And voila (or whatever the Greek equivalent is -- OOPA?)

I guarantee it won't last long...supposedly this should have fed eight people. It fed two adults and a boy.

This is How we Roll

2008-02-25T10:01:00.001-08:00

I can't say enough about how delicious this was -- it was hit or miss with W. who doesn't like anything that might actually come from the earth (when did that happen??) But it is really yummy.

Cannellini Bean and Shrimp Stew

The Art of Eating

2008-01-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

Food has often been my enemy.

I hate to admit this, but it has. Food was the thing that kept me from some elusive imaginary state of physical perfection -- the point which I'd realize when my mother's voice didn't hold that hesitation while looking at me look at myself in the mirror as she pulled flat a puckered seam -- my perennial question to my mother 'do I look fat?' because, of course, to her, I did -- for years I wasn't good enough. I was a 'fat slob.' I was 'a little pig.' I was also a part of her that she loved so fiercely she couldn't forgive herself for the things she'd said and so promptly washed them from her memory forever. 'You would be so beautiful if...' It is how I remember it. I also remember the numbing qualities of food and how it could blank my mind like nothing else -- how afterwards plates and pans and forks would slide beneath my bed -- as if I were, what? hiding them? It's not that I feel shame about it now, but it's as if I wonder at how I made my way back from there...how did I come to this place where sustenance is good and to feed my body essential.

I remember the year I learned to bake bread. It was 1992 and I was living on Aurora street in Boulder, in the fourplex where Trevor and I lived with our long-haired gray cat - colvin. It was a two-room apartment with a kitchen along one wall. We covered our awful velour, earth toned flowered sofa with a purple Indian-print bedspread. My friend Matt was knitting a sweater for a girl he'd fallen in love with and he and I decided, for some reason, to bake bread. It was, I remember, simply agony. The flour and the yeast, and the foaming and the stirring -- oh god the stirring. My arm was getting tired. The sticking and the ... what now? It was summer in Colorado and we didn't have air conditioning and we lived on a busy street. Our carpet was pine green and CD's were lined all along the living room wall. My idea of dinner in those days was cubed chicken thighs sauteed with cheddar broccoli campbell's soup -- and baked somehow...awful. Awful.

I, in fact, truly shudder now to think of it. I had yet to discover farmer's markets or organic produce. I had only briefly glanced at my mother's Gourmet Magazine. My partner at the time, from rural Maine, it was his suggestion for the casserole above.

The evolution of my cooking I have to largely give credit to my best friend Tamara -- an artist who owned all The Moosewood Cookbooks. She made things from scratch, invited me over for her freshly baked bread. Soups. Mollie Katzen's books would serve me well for ten years -- and more...still I have them, ruffled pages with drips and bindings falling apart.

I came to learn more about what food meant to the body -- and to the mind -- to the mood -- to feed yourself well was to nourish yourself -- to truly care for yourself...to respect yourself.

I bake bread rarely now -- but when I do it's an easy affair -- though G. still complains its too dense and worthy as a doorstop -- the rising dough draped with a damp cloth, the punching down, the kneading -- the consistency...the feel of it -- 'like an earlobe' someone once said to me -- a strange comparison -- but true.

I think of how I went to visit my mother's friend Randi who lived in a small mountain town -- the kind of town that gets dark early when the sun dips behind the peaks -- and her herb garden, her compost, the hand-grinder for coffee --- it resonated for me, somehow -- it was about connection, and I was a person always seeking connection.

So now, if I feel off-kilter, or unsteady -- I find myself at the co-op. I pull out the produce and hum through the aisles. I fill tiny plastic bags of herbs and dried fruits -- which drives G. crazy -- all the little bags with numbers cluttering up the cupboards. I plan the meals and what to feed our bodies and our souls -- and it makes me feel connected.

This summer I have plans for a garden, and a compost. Maybe a fruit tree or two if I can convince G. whose childhood memories of mowing around apples and swarms of wasps have kept him from agreeing so far.

Apiaries and Chicken Coops

2008-01-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

I gave this book to my mother's roommate for Christmas and my mother called jokingly to tell me that I have now made her life miserable.

Mary Ellen has now forsaken anything not local.

In Minnesota, in January, that's not a whole lot.

In my ideal world I grow an organic garden, can things, dry fruit. The backyard is a tangle of berry bushes and there's a chicken coop, perhaps keep bees on the garage roof.

In reality Lucy would dispatch the chickens in short order, G. can't stand raspberry bushes -- claims they are a total nuisance and fruit trees 'too messy.' I've gotten the go-ahead for a vegetable garden in the spring if I have the soil tested at the University.

I would like to try to be more conscientious though -- shop more often at my local co-op -- try to wean the boys off of 'flamin' hot cheetos.'

Sifa's Table

2007-12-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

Evidently, Sifa is the Norse goddess of the harvest. I thought it was appropriate because the idea of bounty doesn't really come to mind when you think of the upper Midwest -- or, for that matter, Norway. There's a joke about our fore bearers striding into this barren, cold, wintry land and finding a place just as frigid as the place they'd left.

My roots don't run deeply here, not like most people a generation removed from family farms in Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin. I was raised here, a child of a Michigander whose family roots were southern. Kentucky. It makes for interesting cooking. I've been writing so much about what fails to thrive in my life that I thought it would be interesting to explore the things that do flourish.

Cooking. I love to cook -- but what's interesting is how food and cooking and nourishment have come to represent a kind of template for exploring how we are living, feeding ourselves -- literally and metaphorically.