Indian Night In

Around 5pm I decided that all I wanted for dinner was beer bread and hummus. I had ingredients to wing a hummus but not enough flour to make the bread. I could a. walk across the street to the corner grocery and get some flour or b. fork over a little more cash for the real stuff at Lebanese Taverna conveniently next door to the grocery. It took me 15 minutes to come to the conclusion that I didn't want to leave the apartment at all, my kitchen was actually fully stocked, and I probably need to have a little more caloric discression after a week of binge eating. After a conversation with someone this afternoon about being fiscally responsible, I decided to use what I had in the kitchen.

I opened the fridge and was completely uninspired. Kale. Tomatoes. Butternut Squash. Mushrooms. Yuck. I couldn't come up with anything remotely interesting and could only see each ingredient in a silo when, out of nowhere, I had a flash of inspiration. I opted to make a kale/chickpea concotion and did a little Googling for some assistance. Apparently I wanted to make something similar to Balti. Evidently my strange concotion has probably been made many a time by many a generation. Does that make me brilliant for discovering something on my own that had already been discovered? Yes.

My yearning for whole wheat bread something was consuming me, so I rememered that I could make Roti. Jennilicous and I were just talking about roti as we shared her first Indian feast in which we both tried to see how much we could shove into our bodies before our stomachs would explode. And then we added a little more.

So it nicely came together for me. I mixed a cup of whole wheat flour with some water (maybe 2/3 cup? I started with .25 cup and added more until it was firm/stiff). Once I made it into a dough ball, I added in some chopped garlic and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes with a moist cloth atop. It must be amazing if it has to freaking rest.

Meanwhile I sauteed a large red onion in some olive oil (1TBish) until transparent, then I added some garlic for a minute or two. I cut up 7 plum tomatoes, which are my favorites, and added them in along with some of the liquid from a can of chickpeas. I threw in some salt, curry powder, the chickpeas (sans liquid), and a gigantic 16oz bag of fresh kale and cooked until the kale was done. My brother inspired me to buy the kale since he mentioned it several times while I visited him last week. Good job, bro!

While that was going I made 3 little balls out of the dough and flattened them out into little circles that were not thick but not really thin. I am a chump and can't succecssfully use a rolling pin, so I used the palm of my hands. And it worked like a charm. I put the last remaining drops of garlic olive oil into a frying pan and put it on medium. Then I realized that this was pretty stupid because olive oil has a low smoke point and I really needed the temp on high. Oh well. I turned the heat up a little more but not all the way and cooked both sides of the roti until they were brown. It's much more fun to make them when you have a gas stove because the next step is to put the roti on the open flame for a few seconds per side. But, considering my history with heat sources, it's probably better that my kitchen is lame.

The kale mixture made 3 large servings- more than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I can't wait to try it reheated when the curry has had time to mingle more with the other ingredients. And the roti were the perfect accompaniment. The garlic chunks inside it were super amazing. I'm now delightfully full and overpoweringly odorous.

Chickpeas and Barley

In need of an easy meal, I cooked .5cup barley (my favorite grain) and mixed in .5cup chickpeas, 2 cloves of roasted garlic (threw them in the oven with the paper on for 15 minutes or so on 400ish degrees until soft), .5TB olive oil, and some dried basil. It was good.

Memorial Day Dilemma

I was invited to a Memorial Day potlock with 4 hours notice. Normally that would be plenty of time to go to the grocery store (which was on my list of things to do anyway) and come up with something yummy to make. However, I opted instead to go on a bike ride.



So before I took my bike out, I was waiting for my mom to call me and thought I'd see if I could get started on something (plan B was to buy something, gasp!). I went to vegweb, my favorite for recipes, and checked out the potlucks and picnics category. I stumbled up the recipe for Three Bean Pasta Salad and did a quick inventory of food in my apartment. I thought I could pull something together.



I immediately cut up 4 cloves of garlic and smashed them into a paste, adding a little salt and olive oil to assist. I then let it marinate together in the fridge while I drained and washed a can each of black, garbanzo, and dark red kidney beans. I then decided to use up my baby carrots and carefully cut them up into thin strips. Very time consuming. I also defrosted some frozen cut zucchini that I randomly got the other day (I didn't know they made frozen zucchini). But it seemed seasonal.



I threw in the beans, zucchini, and carrots, then I added the olive oil/garlic mixture I'd made, carefuly not to add a lot of the garlic since I was pretty sure it would be garlicky. I also thought some dill would make a nice addition so I threw some dried dill in as well. I mixed, set in the fridge, added more olive oil and dill to the olive oil/garlic mixture, and went off on my bike ride.



When I came back, I cooked 1 cup of barley and steamed 12 stalks of asparagus. With the asparagus I decided to be fancy- I steamed them for just a couple of minutes and tossed them in an ice water bath. I see it all the time on TV and I'm really sure what it does, but it seemed apporpriate. And it cooked it down so I could add it to the dish. When the barley was done, I put it on a plate and stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so to cool it down. I then added the barley and asparagus to the salad along with the olive oil/garlic/dill mixture and some salt. I'm so scared of over salting so I tried to minimalize the amount I added. It also had a strong garlicky taste, which is fine by me. Then I put it in the freezer just to make sure it's all cold enough.

It was pretty tasty and it lasted forever, which was great during my first week of tri training!

Spinach Chickpea Goodness

The past few weeks have been hectic with board meetings, travel 2 weekends in a row, and my workload picking up significantly. So, I haven't had the time to cook, much less blog about what I'm eating. Sadly, 2 days last week I had to settle for (don't take it the wrong way, I love it, but it's no homemade treat) peanut butter sandwiches. But I did go to a "Tex Mex" place (as you'd suspect, DC "Tex Mex" doesn't even come close...) and was proud of myself for avoiding the chips and then only eating half of my veggie burrito. I brought the leftovers back with me, but decided they weren't worth my time.

This afternoon's meal was not quite what I expected- but pleasantly surprising. I sauteed some onions and garlic in about 1/3TB olive oil. I added 1 cup of chickpeas. There was a moment of panic when I looked in the cupboard and couldn't find them. But after moving every single can of beans out of the cabinet, I found the garbanzos hiding in the back. Whew.

I added an entire bag of fresh spinach, about 2TB of white wine, 1.5TB nutritional yeast, and lots of mustard. And salt (amazingly not too much) and pepper. This is clearly my favorite easy sauce for things.

Once the spinach wilted (5 min), it was ready to be devoured. The only thing I'll do differently next time (and I will be making this again) is to cut up the spinach before dumping it into the pan.

"Ochazuke"

Since I'm feeling a little sick today and I wasn't sure my leftovers from last night would be that great without a little help, I decided to make "Ochazuke." Traditional Ochazuke is leftover rice and green tea with seasonings on top. Things like seaweed, plum, salmon, etc. I use the quotes because, while my dish and the traditional dish both contain green tea and leftover rice, I'm pretty sure most Japanese people don't add chickpeas, kale, and Tony Chacheries. And they probably use white rice instead of brown.

I don't have a picture since I ate it at work, but all I did was mix last night's food together and add some green tea. Just what the doctor ordered, but could have used a little more of the spices.

Crunchy Spicy Garlicky Kale and Chickpeas

I thought I found a recipe online once with kale and chickpeas, but I searched and couldn't find anything. So got .75c of brown jasmine rice going and then I tossed a can of chickpeas in a dish, sprayed with olive oil spray, and rolled them in some Tony Chachere's and roasted on 400 for about 15 minutes, or the amount of time it took me to take the dog out.

I added about 6 cups of cut kale that came from the largest bag of kale I've ever seen. To be honest, though, I'm not sure I've ever seen kale in a bag. I also put 4 cloves of garlic with the paper on them on a cookie sheet and let them cook separately until they got soft and yummy. I added them to the kale/chickpeas and turned on the broiler to get the kale nice and crispy. All together, it made 3 servings at about 350 calories a piece.

This dish was surprisingly good. The crispy kale and beans were a delight, and the garlic was amazing. I only wish I'd added more. Yum.