Recipes4Survival,

I despise milk.  I never liked it, never drink the stuff, as a matter of fact I have an aversion to it.  Let me put it another way, I despise milk with a capital H.  I’m literally uncomfortable if a drop should touch me or having to wipe up spilt milk is something I have a momentary lapse of reason about.

In any case, with Passover quickly approaching and a neglected banana looking like an oozing  jumbo vanilla bean in a prone position  on my kitchen table I got a brilliant idea the other night to make banana pancakes.

I halved a recipe I found for pancake batter from scratch; 3/4 C flour, 1T baking powder, 1 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1 egg scrambled, 1 T melted butter and 3/4 C milk.  Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well for the liquids – scrambled egg, melted butter & milk. Once the pancake batter is well mixed I mashed in the banana.  I put the batter in the refrigerator for about 15 mins. Not because I was told to but remember this is done when making batter for crepes.

The pancakes came out beautifully.  I made quite large ones.  I melted a little Trader Joe’s earth balance an organic buttery spread in a non stick pan, poured the batter into the pan. Flip the pancake once bubbles form on the edge and within the pancake.   I topped the pancakes with Trader Joe’s lemon curd, served and ate them immediately with a cup of hot lemon ginger tea.

Here’s the long and the short of it, There are very few things I make that use, call for or require milk.  The last time I had milk in the house it was left behind by an Italian couple that sublet my place a few summers ago.  It didn’t take much more than a quick search that I soon became the queen of panna cotta. Thanks to panna cotta and ice cream I probably get the recommended daily allowance of milk in a year.

I think I’ll be going there this time too, meaning I’ll be making panna cotta. I’m going to make a pineapple one. More on that later, but here’s the punch line, even tho I only buy a pint of milk, when I do – I FREEZE the milk between uses. Yes, cooking with it requires a bit more planning but, hey, I couldn’t help but share what I think is a great Recipe 4 Survival – tactic and resourceful tip.

With much love I share this with you.

CHA!

D.

I pan seared lightly dusted silken tofu slices with unbleached flour & Salt of D Earth in a saute pan w/olive oil tamari sauce. I made some sushi rice and topped this with fresh scallions and gomasio. Gomasio is a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds, seaweed & sea salt. OH, The four brown blobs between the tofu slices is Hoisin sauce – YYUUMM.

I also made Bunashimeji – commonly known as Beech Mushrooms. They are just adorable.  Brown topped white stemmed mushrooms. I cut the bunch in half, put them on a sheet of aluminim foild, threw in about a half dozen garlic cloves, tamari, a small pad of butter, & a good splash of Old Grouse! I balled the foil up and put it under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes.  I served these on top of the sushi rice, again with the scallions and gamasio.

roasted Japanese mushrooms

I know the title of this entry sounds sO boring but I must admit, I’m happily full and each dish was really flavorful.  I must also add, all ingredients are organic and I doubt I spent $4 to feed myself – two dishes.

CHA!

It’s Friday. I’m hOMe from yoga. My mind is clear and reaDy to tackle the list of e-mails to follow up on as long as my arm but of course I was starving.

I could have opted for pouring some organic tOMato soup into a pot from out of a cardboard box but something inside said, NO, make yourself a soup. I’ve got a half a head of organic cauliflower, 4 or 5 heads of garlic, 2 small yukon gold potatoes and vegetable broth left over from the tOMato soup I made for Alex last week.

Healing ingredients

I’ll also highlight the healing aspects of the ingredients in this velvety cauliflower & garlic soup.

So there you have the ingredients, now here’s what I did.

First I cut the cauliflower into chunks that look like individual…flowerettes, keeping some of the stem. Put these into a steamer basket in a heavy bottomed pot with water that comes to just below the bottom of the steamer basket.  I also threw the 2 small yukon gold potatoes into the steamer.  This steamed for a good 20 minutes, then I turned the heat off and let it continue to cook another 10 minutes or so.

While the cauliflower & potatoes were steaming I went at cleaning up and preparing the garlic for roasting in a small sauce pot with oil.

inner green stem removal

If you’re new to cooking and not so comfortable with a knife, leaving the inner green ’stem’ in a garlic dent if FINE.  Many cooks don’t remove it. Those that do remove the green ’stem’ say it can heighten a bitter taste in what you’re cooking.

To roast the garlic use the whole cloves that are slightly cracked from the initial smash to get the skin off added to about a 1/2 C of organic, cold pressed olive oil. Cook over a medium heat. You want to see little bubbles. Don’t let the oil get to hot. A gentle simmer is great.

Roasted garlic & infused, seasoned oil

While the garlic was roasting I pureed the steamed cauliflower & potatoes in my ordinary blender, no fancy Cuisinart.  I sliced the potatoes into 1/4″ discs when I added them to the blender.  I blended the veggies in two batches adding about a cup of vegetable broth. This would become the base of the soup along with the organic vegetable broth I’d add to the roasted garlic roux.

With the garlic roasted and garlic infused seasoned oil and the cauliflower & potato puree, I began to make the roux.  This is simply done by mashing the roasted garlic cloves, adding the garlic infused seasone and a small hand-full of unbleached flour.

Garlic roux

I added about a 1/2 C of the vegetable broth to the roux to create the creamy stock for the soup, then I began to add the cauliflower & potato puree, alternating between adding stock & puree.  Stirring all the while.

MMgOOd and you’ll feel great too and boy oh boy did I have a LOT from just a half a head of cauliflower.

Once I was in the street, this vision flew away.  The street was entirely shuttered up . It was whipping freezing cold so a real scout about was not what this Dparture was about.  A place to read my book and maybe grab a bite would do – rather than standing in a cold lobby without a chair or bench in it.

The immediate choices were a Dunkin Donuts /Baskin Robbins or an iHOP, caddy corner to each other. I was shown to a nice clean table at the iHOP.  The coffee was good and the Swiss crepes were the cheapest thing on the menu. Their caloric measure is higher than I would have liked, but I order them.   They were so rich I packed up half of what I had been served and was still the first in line to register.

It was 11:15A when I was leaving.  At the elevator was a woman and her young son. Both were heavily bundled against the elements. I heard her say how frustrated she was. I mentioned what happened to me earlier this morning. This was nothing compared to what she was about to tell me. She was there to file her taxes on line with software provided there, for free. She had all her paperwork together but they wouldn’t let her in because she was with her little boy, a 4 yr. old.  She was given a piece of paper where she may be able to go – with her child.  It was way futher out in Brooklyn. She was saying that she would have to wait for a bus and she was with her son.  I looked right at her and told her, “Go right back up there. You do exactly what you inteded to do and are prepared to do.  I’ll look after your son.”

1st snap

I said I would hang out with him at the pancake house on the corner. Of course she was hesitant.  Her cell phone wasn’t working properly.  I cave her my DVine card, this made her think for a minute.  Leaving the premises with her son was not the right thing to do. I said I could be of help to her now. There was no reason for her to turn away from this favor, so we all went back up in the elevator  and I hung out with her son, Izaiah, in the hall outside the WORKFORCE ONE facility. It took all of an hour for Stacy to file her taxes.

Rahhh!

Izaiah catching a paper airplane

Izaiah noticed my tea cup charm on my phone and loved it. I put one on the zipper of one his sweat shirts but it was bothering him and it’s the phone he really wanted. Stacy came out at this point. She was happy to put the tea cup charm right onto her phone.  I could tell, she felt lucky and empowered.

As we were bundling up to go outside Izaiah mentioned that he was hungry and wanted pancakes.  Stacy said she made him pancakes earlier that morning with sausages.  I immediately handed her my left over ‘pancakes’ without much of an explanation. She told me that she’s a school crossing guard and during her off time she works on the computers here refining her skills and searching for a better job.  She had tickets for Sesame St. at Madison Sq. Garden so she was taking the A train into Manhattan. We got on the train together.  She and Izaiah ate the Swiss crepes on the train. Of course we told Izaiah they were pancakes.

I don’t know, I’d call this a recipe for survival; open eyes, open heart, no judgement and sharing what you can.

Not so pretty ~ but oh good.

I came across these small, fist sized, not so pretty looking artichokes at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market earlier this week on one of the coldest days this season.  The motto, Frost Kissed Artichokes, not so pretty ~ but oh good, written in Sharpie and with a very reasonable per pound price I grabbed four of them.

I cut the top off of two of the four artichokes with a serrated knife and then snipped the thorny top off of each leaf with a heavy duty kitchen scissor.  As The Utilitarian Chef, gadgets are one thing I don’t feed into but good kitchen sheers are one of the few pieces of equipment I think is great to have in ones kitchen. So is a serrated knife.

Frost kissed artichokes preparation

I was reheating left over sushi rice I had from my first try at hako/press sushi, I got a press box as a holiday gift, so I decided to thrown these two artichokes into the steamer along side the rice. I added a pinch of Kosher salt, a wedge of lemon and a 2 dents of garlic to the water that came to just below the bottom of the steamer in a heavy bottomed pot. Artichokes are ready in 15 – 20 minutes. The rice was certainly ready.

While the artichokes and rice were steaming I flash wilted well washed, dark green, curly kale in a very hot saute pan with just a little olive oil.   I also whipped up a cup of organic mayonnaise and capers – for the artichokes.

I served the wilted kale on top of the rice and put the artichokes in another bowl.  All I can tell you is, these Frost Kissed, battered looking artichokes are so Dlicious I ate the first one w/out even dipping one leaf or nibble of the heart into the traditional sauce I made for it. Another surprise from these Dlectable chokes is that  when you get to the heart and have to remove the thistles, they’re so soft they wipe away with a swipe of your finger.

Get them, the season is short.  You can eat the whole thing: leaves, heart and stem – right to the bottom.