Monthly Archives: July 2011

Arroz, Spanish Rice that isn’t so Spanish

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I grew up calling Arroz Spanish Rice. This followed me into adulthood, and up into my 30′s. I found out not to long ago, that what I learned to call Spanish Rice isn’t so Spanish. It really doesn’t have anything to do with Spain, or how they cook rice in that country (think Paella). Arroz really is Mexican Rice, cooked in a tomato base with peppers, onions and garlic. I’ve been making this rice for as long as I remember, back to when I would stay with my grandparents on the farm. I’ve since perfected it, and made Arroz palatable for the Vegan.

Arroz is traditionally cooked with chicken stock. My version uses vegetable stock which when made right comes close to tasting like chicken stock. So try this recipe out on your non-vegetarian/vegan friends, and don’t tell them there’s no meat in it. They’ll come back for more.

Arroz (Mexican Rice)

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp Cooking oil
  • 1 cup Rice (your choice)
  • 2 Roma tomatoes pureed
  • 1 ½ cups Vegetable stock
  • 4 Tomatoes, pureed (you can use canned tomatoes if you wish)
  • 2 Jalapenos, diced
  • ½ Yellow onion, diced
  • 3-4 Garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 2 Limes juiced
  • ½ bunch Cilantro chopped
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Process

Soak rice in water for several hours, then drain.

Heat up a large skillet, and add the oil. When the oil is hot, stir in the rice. Toast the rice until it starts turning darker.

Add jalapenos, onions, and garlic. Sautee until the onions are soft and translucent. Pour in the liquid. Bring to a boil, then turn to a simmer and cover.

Cook the rice for 35-40 minutes, or until it is done. Take off the heat and add the chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper.

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Following the Spice: Cumin

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Cumin4th in a series about spices

In ancient times, cumin was as common a spice as black pepper is on our tables today. Used as a condiment, baked in bread, and distributed widely, cumin seed generated several fascinating myths and origin stories as well as a list of incredible health benefits. In the Ancient World, people believed that cumin could cure anything but death.

What is Cumin?

There are two kinds of seed that are called cumin. Nigella Sativa, otherwise known as black cumin, and Cuminum Cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The latter comes in amber, white, and black varieties. The black is more of a dark brown, not the color of the Nigella seed. Today, Cuminum Cyminum is the more popular culinary choice. Black cumin is more rare, but seems to be the seed of the  legends.

black cumin Black cumin, or Nigella Sativa, was found in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Pharaohs were buried only with items that would help them in the afterlife, so they must have placed a high value on the seed. The Old Testament tells of threshing wheat and cumin at the same time. Many women used cumin to keep their husbands from straying since it was known as the fidelity spice. They would bake and give cumin bread to the men before they went off to war, to keep them faithful.

It is still unclear if these legends are referring to Nigella cumin or Cuminum Cyminum. The research I have delved into remains blurry. It is safe to assume that most of the legends are about the more popular cumin seed, but when discussing health benefits they are referring to the Black Cumin, or Nigella.

Health Benefits of Cumin

The health benefits of cumin are extensive. Mostly I’ve found reference to Black Cumin and health benefits. But I’m sure that there are incredible health benefits to the more every day kind of cumin.

As mentioned in recent posts, when ginger, coriander and cumin come together they create the trifecta of health benefits in the culinary world. Add turmeric, and your cooking will do wonders for the diner.  Just don’t tell them that what they are eating is healthy for them. Let them enjoy the meal and thank you for great tasting food.

Cooking with Cumin

The culinary uses of cumin seed are many and varied. Cumin seasons soups, stews, breads, and vegetables. Toast the seed, grind it, and use it like pepper at the table. It can also be made into a tea. Cumin can be considered one of the truly global cuisine spices. It is used in Asian, Indian, North African and Mediterranean, as well as Latin American cuisines. It gives a nutty, peppery flavor to food.

I love cumin. I discovered it when I first learned Sonoran cooking. And as I progress further into South Indian cooking, I find myself buying more of it than I ever did in the past. I get excited about the smell, the feel, the taste of cumin. And when it is on the stove toasting in the pan, the whole house feels a bit more relaxed.

Visit any one of my recipes that includes cumin as a base spice, Smokey Tofu and Magic Sauce, Black Bean and Tempeh Chili, or Tofu Scramble. Or try it in one of your own recipes. The taste will be reward enough.

If you have any experiments or recipes with cumin you would like to share, please feel free to comment below. I’d especially like to see a cumin bread recipe.

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Move over Pinto, here comes the Black Bean

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In traditional Southwestern cooking, the pinto bean is king. Pintos are in everything. Traditionally, they are the bean that makes up Refried Beans. But pinto beans are starchy, they have a high fat content. And when you add something like lard (traditional way to refry the bean), the calories go off the scale.

In developing Sonoran cooking for those who want no meat but all the flavor, I’ve come up with this little goodie. Smashed black beans. Cooked in a high heat oil like Sunflower, and you can add that flavor, without adding the fat. Beans are also traditionally cooked in some kind of meat stock. I cook mine either in just plain water, or in vegetable stock. Either way, because of the red chili sauce, there’s flavor in this side dish.

Smashed Black Beans

30 minutes

30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Black beans, cooked
  • ½ to ¾ cup sunflower oil (corn oil works better but I have an allergy)
  • ¼ cup Red Chili Sauce
  • Salt to taste

Process

Heat up a large skillet and add ½ the oil. When the oil is hot, but not boiling, add the beans. Mash with a potato masher until the oil incorporates into the beans. Add ½ the chili sauce, and salt. The beans don’t have to be mashed smooth, just until they are broken up and look close to refried beans. Add more salt if needed.

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The Spice Road: Coriander

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Coriander (seeds)3′d in a series about Spices

Certain foods inspire strong reactions in people.  For example, many people either love or hate cilantro.  Its prevalence in salsas and Mexican sauces make it easily recognizable to most diners. On the other hand, coriander is more of a stealth ingredient, finding its way into many foods without inspiring such a strong reaction.  What many people don’t realize is that those cilantro leaves and stems come from the same plant as the spice known as coriander.

Coriander is the fruit or seed of the cilantro plant (also known as Chinese parsley). The seed is ground up and used as a base in curry pastes or “gravies.” It serves as a base ingredient in Mediterranean, Chinese, and Indonesian cooking. It sports a pungent fragrance and provides a deep, rich flavor to food. Cilantro, on the other hand, lighter but stronger, imparts a “lift” to any food it seasons. Recipes usually add cilantro at the end of a dish while coriander is added at the beginning. Oftentimes coriander is toasted and ground, and then mixed in with ginger and turmeric. Diners can easily see and recognize cilantro in a dish, which can trigger an immediate reaction, either positive or negative. Since coriander is one of the invisible spices, most people don’t even know they are eating it.

cilantroThere are many culinary uses for coriander. I put it into almost any stew or soup I make. I use it in chili and in the Indian dishes I am learning to cook. It was an ingredient in the “magic sauce” that I accidentally created one night. I like the earthiness, the pungency, the deepness coriander gives to dishes.

I started using coriander after reading Michael Symon’s Live to Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock Your Kitchen
a book by one of America’s Iron Chef’s. Using coriander made sense to me, since I was already a heavy user of cilantro. From the time I started using it in my food, I have been richly rewarded with compliments.

Like other spices that are used in curries, coriander has many medicinal uses. It is a digestive aid, an anti-inflammatory and helps with nausea. It can help prevent urinary tract infections. It is believed to help prevent heart disease, lower LDL’s (bad cholestorol) and it is known to lower blood sugar. Coriander is also a good source of trace minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. It has been proven to be an effective and powerful anti-oxidant.

Coriander may be one of the oldest used herbs or spices in our food. It grows wild, and needs hardly any cultivation to thrive. It is easy to start, and doesn’t mind being transplanted. I’ve successfully grown and harvested several plants for seed. Once the desert weather cools down, I’ll have another crop on the way.

If you aren’t a fan of cilantro, try coriander; you might be surprised, and may find yourself starting to like cilantro a little more.

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Meatless Enchiladas That Will Have Them Begging for More

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In case you haven’t guessed, I love roasted vegetables. I’ll stuff them, make salsas, chop them up in salads, put them on a dinner plate with portabello mushroom burgers… And now, here’s one more use for roasted veggies: stuff them into corn tortillas, topped with sauce and cheese (soy or real, your choice), bake in an oven for just a little while, and serve with smashed black beans, arroz, and calabacitas. Add guacamole, herbed “sour cream” and roasted salsa, and you’ll have your kids, your neighbors, and your mom begging for more. Please, don’t forget the guacamole.

Enchiladas take less time than you might think, especially if you get the rest of the family involved in rolling them. Follow these recipes and in under an hour you’ll have dinner on the table –  and happy diners.

Roasted Veggies

 Ingredients

  • 1 Italian squash
  • 1 yellow squash
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 red pepper
  • Salt

Process

Slice up the ingredients and place on a sheet pan. Coat with a little herb oil, and broil in an oven (If you are a grill master, stick em on the grill, blacken the peppers, and cook onions and squash until tender). Remove vegetables when tender, and the skin on the peppers look wrinkled. Be careful, all the veggies might not cook at the same time.

Chop all the veggies up into bits. You want them small enough so you can roll them in tortillas. Add a little salt and pepper. Use in Roast Veggie Enchiladas, or as taco filling.

 Roast Veggie Enchiladas

 Ingredients

  • Corn tortillas-enough for 2-3 per person
  • Roasted Veggies
  • Cheddar Cheese, or Daiya cheddar soy cheese
  • Tomatillo Sauce
  • ½ cup diced tomatoes
  • Cilantro for garnish

 Process

Dip tortillas in a small amount of warm oil. Lay out on a work surface and stuff with Roast Veggies and cheddar  or vegan cheese, then roll up the tortillas. Lay into a baking pan big enough to hold the amount you are cooking. Top with Tomatillo Sauce and more cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese melts. Top with diced tomatoes and sliced black olives.

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The Heat of Ginger

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Ginger:

2nd in a series about Spices

GingerGinger is a root, the rhizome of Zingiber Officinale, and grows in fertile, moist soil (definitely not where I come from). Unlike most spices when ginger is used fresh, not dried, it is still called a spice. Typically the root is dried, and ground to a powder, or the oils from the ginger are extracted and used medicinally.

Ginger purportedly has many medicinal uses. Most of them are unproven by Western Medical Science, but well known in the Schools of Ayurveda, and in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I am not a trained Nutritionist, or part of the Medical Profession, yet I do believe in the power of herbs and spices to heal. And ginger is one of those spices. It is known as an anti-inflammatory, helping with Arthritis, nausea and vomiting in both pregnancy and chemo therapy patients. It is used to combat ulcerative colitis, heartburn and stomach upset. It is also used to treat Upper Respiratory infections. It may possibly help in heart-related disease, by lowering cholesterol. And there have been studies done to show its usefulness in alleviating motion-sickness. Ginger may possibly have cancer-fighting agents as well, but that remains unproven as of right now.

The culinary uses of ginger are simple. Chop it up fresh and add it to sauteed vegetables. Make a spice mixture, or ginger paste, with turmeric and coriander and a little water, add this to potatoes and cauliflower (Aloo Gobi). Or make a tea, cutting discs and steeping in water. Ginger carries heat, and is spicy, when used with chili powder, it creates a volatile, hot, and terrific compound for soups or stews. I use Ginger in Fava Bean Cassoulet, it creates a complexity in the broth, and the Fava love the ginger. You can pickle ginger, or make ginger beer. Here in the US, ginger has been regulated to Ginger Ale, Gingerbread, Ginger Snaps, and candied ginger. Maybe if we got a bit more fresh ginger in us, we’d be a healthier, happier nation.

Do you have any ginger recipes, or uses of ginger, leave a comment below, let me know. I’d love to post it here on Kitchen Shaman.

 

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Spicing up your Cuisine: Exploring the World of Spices

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1st in a series about Spices

Spices make up the “palette” of a chef. They have a long and intriguing story of travel; how they spread out from a point of origin to all over the globe. Each culture treats these spices a little differently, yet there seems to be several common spices used in global cuisine.

Cumin, coriander, turmeric, and ginger make up the base of most Asian and South Asian cooking. Pick up any Indian cook book, and at least three of the four will be listed. The combination is the base of a “curry,” or gravy, that is made to compliment the food on the table.

Spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg are used as enhancing spices in Indian cooking, yet they are known as “sweet” spices in American cuisine. That’s where they have a tendency to stay, unless the cook is feeling a little adventurous. Finding out that I could add cinnamon to tomato sauce opened up the possibility of using other “sweet” spices in savory dishes.

Using spices judicially is key to the success of a dish. Too much turmeric can overwhelm a dish. Coriander can turn food bitter while cumin imparts an earthiness, and when used with ginger can make or break a dish. Too much ginger will give too much heat to the food.

Most of the spices that came from Asia, or the Sub-Continent have medicinal as well as culinary uses. Ayurvedic Cooking bases itself on these medicinal uses, and the warming or cooling elements of the spices themselves. When such spices and herbs are combined with certain foods, healing, or balance can take place in the body-mind-spirit.

I am going to examine each of these base spices, and help you understand just a bit more about their ancient benefits. How we can bring these spices into daily use, and help gain from the medicinal uses as well as the flavor. Going along, I’ll point out some of the recipes I’ve used as a springboard for other great food I’m creating, with the help of several Indian cookbooks. And because I love the history of food, there might be some discussion of the Spice Road, and how the American continent was discovered because of our love of spices.

 

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