tomato basil soup and grilled portobello grinders

there is a great reason why there are no prep photos from this post.

so there i was, feeling like a total g with my jazz on the grill,

my soup in the blender, my onions caramelizing...

...

...

...when i looked over at my blender and saw my soup leaking into 

a beautiful orange puddle on the floor that homer the dog was 

quietly ingesting.

i was debating whether or not to use real tomatoes in this recipe.  they're

a nightshade and completely absent from traditional macrobiotic cooking.

for good reason.  nightshades can do wicked damage to your joints, your

blood (i bruise like... well... a tomato when i eat them), and a lot of people

thought they were poisonous for a few hundred years.

that being said, they were growing on a vine in my front yard and i just

couldn't help myself.

if i were making this totally macro, i would substitute tomatoes for carrots

and onions, slow-cooked and run through the food processor.

portobello mushroom grinders

4 portobello mushroom caps

olive oil

organic steak marinade, or tamari with spices

italian dressing

sweet vidalia onion

bun of choice

preheat barbecue grill to 400 f.  marinade mushroom caps in liquids

(i did 1/4 c. olive oil, 1/4 c. steak marinade and 1/2 c. italian dressing)

at least 30 minutes.  brush grill with olive oil and grill for 15 minutes.

slice vidalias into disks and caramelize with a pinch of salt at least 20

minutes.  i did this in a large cast-iron skillet and left it greasy for the soup.

once the mushrooms are done, roast your bun of choice 3-5 minutes on

hot grill, stack, and enjoy!

tomato basil soup

6-7 fresh tomatoes, diced

2 c. veggie stock

2 shallots

3 cloves garlic

1 head cauliflower

olive oil

2 cups fresh basil plus more for garnish

salt

ume vinegar

preheat oven to 375.  drizzle cauliflower florets with olive oil. roast

for 15-20 minutes until soft.

brown diced shallots and garlic in skillet and set aside.

run cauli florets with some veggie stock through your food processor

until pureed and smooth.

at this point, take everything out of your cuisinart.  unless you really like

mopping the floor.  transfer it to a high-powered blender.

blend all ingredients until smooth in consistency.  transfer to a large pot,

season with salt and ume vinegar to taste, and heat.

dip your grinder and enjoy!

Kale Chips, Perfected.

I have discovered the way to make the most perfect kale chips. They are more perfect than my previous kale chips, not to mention a good deal greener.

The correct way to eat these Kale Chips is laying in bed, wearing huge jammies, watching "Modern Family."'

TO CREATE A MORE PERFECT KALE CHIP

THAT IS CONSIDERABLY LESS TIME-CONSUMING THAN IT USED TO BE

AND HAS PLEASING GREEN COLOR.

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Take a bundle (or three, if you're me and you want to pickle yourself) of kale and rinse it in the sink. The NEW TRICK I've learned is to make the chips As Big As Possible. I rip off the bottom part of the stems with few leaves, but I leave the heads of the smaller leaves intact, and I rip the bigger ones in half just one time.

3. Take these leaves and place them in a salad spinner. Spin them with gusto.

4. Mix 3 tbsp. olive oil with 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. My biggest mistake is always over-salting the chips. It's better to under-salt than over salt, believe me.

5. Place them in the oven and bake ten minutes until the smallest leaves look flat and dark green/brown. They might be a little crispy, but having crunchy, brown small leaves means that the big leaves are about perfect.

Here's how I look at it. We're in the Lord of the Rings. We're in Middle Earth. The kale chips are a pack of orcs crossing Rohan, land of the horse lords.

There are a few orcs that are stragglers, they are runty and small, and they've fallen behind the rest of the pack. Then there are the big, strong, scary Uruk-hai created by Sauroman who like to scream and apply face paint. If the small orcs get eaten, it means that the pack is stronger and can run faster. It also means that the Uruk-hai make up the majority of the pack.

Sounds delicious.

Where the Heck I Have Been!

Hey all,

I survived the GRE's! That's the monster test I spent most of October studying for. May's taking it too (two weeks, so keep your fingers crossed and send good vibes her way!! She's studying across the table from me right now :) so we crammed studying in every available nook and cranny in our respective schedules. As we drove out to Kushi, we shouted words like "prevaricate" and "peregrinate" across the seat. We quizzed between macro cooking classes.

My life is now devoted to even thirds: coffee shop, grad school preparation, and sleeping. It's been hard to squeeze macrobiotic cooking into the schedule, but I've tried. I'm writing this blog post because all the blood in my body is currently in my stomach making headway on a heavy pumpkin muffin, and I find myself unable to write anything really funny.

I made a truly righteous set of Honey Coconut Cornbread muffins this week that were surprisingly delicious. They were extremely mild in sweetness, and were sweetened entirely by Boston-area raw organic honey.

Here's the recipe on that. I don't have a picture, so here's a picture of the pumpkins we made for Halloween (the originals from the internet). Happy Halloween!

1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
½ cup coconut shavings plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon powdered kuzu root, dissolved in cool water
1 cup soy milk
2 large eggs
1/2 stick vegan margarine, melted
3 to 4 oz. raw organic honey

Preheat oven to 400. Mix liquids, then solids. Mix liquids forever, because the soy milk and honey congeal, and it's a serious pain to get it looking nice. Line 12-16 cups in a muffin pan with aesthetically pleasing cupcake liners. I used pink polka-dot. After filling tins 2/3 full with batter, sprinkle the tops of each muffin with a generous pinch of shaved coconut and cook for 15-20 minutes.

NOTE: These cupcakes were great, but they were kind of small. Going back, I'd probably do 6-10 in a deep pan. Great recipe, and really cheap to make. Coconut shavings cost a little more than sawdust. It's great.

Life Changes and Lattes

I was reading back on some posts I did a couple months ago before I went home. Turns out there were some big life changes headed my way, and I'm pleased to announce that beginning in January, I'll be taking on a five month macrobiotic apprenticeship!

My friend Natalie was telling me that there's a difference between a "pull" and a "call." A pull towards something means that you feel a nervous urge to do it, whether from guilt, desire, or some sort of need. A call is quieter, and often much more subtle. It can be long term, never "pulling," simply waiting at the periphery of your life for you to decide that it's the right thing to do.

I have felt a call to take on a more serious study of macrobiotic practice that has been growing for some time, and once I stopped fighting the urge to be right in the thick of things here in the city, it became clear that it was the right thing for me to do, and that this is the right time for me to do it.

I plan on setting down some major roots in the next two years (graduate school, a dog, a lease with my name on it and checks that don't have hello kitty on them)... so this feels like the right time for me to do this.

Ok, onto the next. I had two major culinary accomplishments today:

1. Homemade vegan lattes.

2. "Buttermilk" Scallion-Corn muffins.

As you know, I am a purveyor of artisan crafted beverages by day, so on my days off, I find myself utterly bereft of steamed foamy drinks. This morning I went to the yuppie grocery and got two soy lattes. This evening I needed another, so I cleverly heated soy milk to boiling, put on an oven mitt because it was insanely hot, and used the $3 Ikea Milk Frother to make a drink that looked nothing like this:

But it tasted pretty good.

My second victory was a modification of a positively stellar Martha Stewart recipe that blew my mind with its utter goodness. I told May I'd make her dinner because she's been cooking all kinds of insanely good Chinese comfort food lately for my cold-ridden self. The theme? Southern Comfort.

We had vegan chili with kidney beans, organic local onions, and a bunch of other stuff I'm not too sure about. We had patatuh salahd, as it were. And we had these amazing freaking biscuits. I know that I just wrote a tirade about making vegan substitutions and calling it healthy. So hear me say:

This is not healthy.

There we go. I feel heard. Onto the muffins:

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

• 2 tablespoons agave nectar/ brown rice syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons rice or soy milk
• 1 tbsp white or white wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 2 large eggs, whisked
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 1/2 cup fresh corn, cooked first

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease 6 cups of a standard-size muffin pan with vegetable oil. In a large bowl,
   combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center; stir in buttermilk, oil, egg, and scallions. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 13 minutes.

Courtesy of Martha Stewart. Modifications by Becky to make it dairy free and gluten-free and more delicious. I was privileged in my muffins to have both local scallions and local corn, which totally heightened the experience, because the cornmeal I was using was so generic it was probably GMO'd to glow in the dark so it could be picked at night.

Lotus Root Chips

We're entering my favorite season. The days are getting longer, celebrities are getting thinner, and magazines are getting thicker. It's Blockbuster Season.

Between the Twilight sequel, the Pirates sequel, and the last Harry Potter, what's a Snacro girl to eat at the theater? The only thing in the theater snack case that's seen anything remotely close to a vegetable are the peanut m&ms.

So I decided to try my own series of Macro Movie Snacks. I should start with the ones that didn't work:

-Wakame Chips. This was my weapon of choice in high school, and it alienated entire rows.

-Daikon Veggie Rolls. We've discussed on this blog how daikon smells like a cadaver once it ripens. Don't and say you did.

-3 Course Fish Dinner. May had the soups in her cup rests, I kept the salads on my lap, and the salmon fillets were on the floor. It was a lovely meal by Legal Seafood enjoyed while watching True Grit, but I'm not gonna lie, it was really uncomfortable trying to hide those fish fillets going in. And everybody in the theater seemed pretty surprised that somebody would smuggle a full formal dinner into a movie theater.

Successful Macro Snacks:

-Trader Joe's Seaweed Snacks. These thin sheets of nori seaweed are toasted in sesame oil and dusted with sea salt. The price is right at $.99, but you should be prepared to buy at least three, because they'll be gone in 60 seconds... har har har.

-I would say granola bars, but these are a lame snack food. They only last about a minute. True movie snacks are built to last at least thirty minutes.

-Little Lad's Herbal Corn. This stuff is amazing, and for $5, you'll get a bag you can repurpose into a tent to live in. The bag is huge, and rather than be smothered in the normal buttery trappings of theater popcorn, it's got fresh dill sprigs and nutritional yeast. Yum!

And that brings us to the delicious...

Lotus Root Chips

Pictured above are the Sweet Lotus Chips

Ingredients:

2-3 lotus root pods (available at your local World Mart or Chinese/Japanese grocery store)

Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Olive Oil

White Wine Vinegar

Nutritional Yeast

Sea Salt

SAVORY LOTUS CHIPS (Crunchy and salty)

Heat olive oil in skillet. Slice lotus root into thin rounds (about half the width of an oreo cookie). Toss slices into the skillet and squirt about 2-3 tsp Braggs into the skillet, cooking until all the liquid is gone and the slices are chewy like bacon. Throw into a ziplock baggie, sneak into theater, and enjoy!

SWEET LOTUS CHIPS (Similar to sweet potato fries or taro chips)

Whisk 3 tbsp. olive oil, 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar, pinch sea salt and 1 tbsp. cool water in large bowl. Place slices in bowl and allow to soak 1-2 hours. We agreed that this is the best because then the lotus roots can really absorb the flavor.

Place soaked roots on cookie sheet and coat in a generous dusting of nutritional yeast. Bake 10-15 minutes at 400.