Sandbox thread for cooking, nutrition nazis, your fucking lunch, etc.

eating the last of my sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry -- p good, tastes like it always does

could you share your recipe for this, it's up my alley.

lowv, do you have a recipe for that? sounds yum.

oops xpost

i don't really have a recipe, but it's a basic curry with those things --

can of diced tomatoes (with liquid)
can of garbanzos (drained and rinsed)
2 largeish sweet potatoes
tons of chard

first I sautee spices and aromatics in a little oo in my small cast iron pot,
then add the cut up sweet potatoes and stir for a few min
then i add the tomatoes and garbanzos, simmer for 10-15 min? sometimes I add a little water if it seems like it needs it
then about 5 min before it's done i add the chard and it wilts into the rest
stir, serve

spices and aromatics:
garlic
ginger
shallot or onion, whichever
ground cumin
cumin seed
nigella seed
little bit of hot curry powder (prob not entirely necessary but it's there)
garam masala
hot pepper flakes
salt

I think that's it? I'm not really sure, but it's the best i can offer atm

also i nuke the sweet potatoes a little bit (boiling would work too) to soften them up before The Flavoring begins

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

this is what it looks like with rice
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2606/4094309284_a8d6a06709.jpg

that looks really good! thanks.

my pleasure! it's amazing how far 2 sweet potatoes and two cans of other stuff that you probably already have on hand will stretch, really.

would eat!

I am defrosting my last bag of black beans but I don't know what to make with 'em

hot or cold?

hot: burritos or soup?
cold: salad with quinoa, peppers, corn, other stuff you like

that photo reminds me of why i am not so good w/recipe books that don't have photos. at least at first glance (maybe it changes when it's a book you have to rely on). just the visual fact of garbanzos & the colours, i am half-way there.

my next i-ate-it-now-i-will-cook-it thing is gonna be trying to make good fassoli, after eating some at a yemeni place in bay ridge. i found a bunch of recipes like this which are all kinda frustratingly brief; i think it totally was a simple bean thing, cooked in tomatoes that almost entirely simmered off, & almost burnt to give the beans some texture, but it was so transcendently nicer than the cannelini-beans-in-onion-&-tomato i make to have on toast sometimes, like there was some jedi spice magic happening that i have to work out.

xp frozen beans, huh?

I soak beans a bag at a time but obviously I am not gonna eat a whole pot of beans at once!

xp LL ooh, a cold vinegary corn and beans salad sounds good - what else should I put in it?

multicolored bell peppers, cilantro, quinoa, whatever else you like! or do something like this
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6129/5990088385_b7d520b117.jpg

as for the curry photo, that's why i take somewhat substandard photos of new things i make (and save them) -- it's like a visual menu, which really helps in the planning/shopping stage of regular cooking (a stage that i think is generally underappreciated by most people who don't engage in it on a weekly basis) even if it's not the world's most beautiful food photo

Made an excellent vegan stir fry y'day that had loads of veggies in it inc some crunchy fresh choy sum, cabbage, capsicum, carrots etc, and added some firm tofu which I'd marinated in sesame oil, a little soy and a sprinkling of smoked paprika so the cubes came out all crunchy. Chucked over some udon noodles. Tres yum.

aw that looks great LL! bell peppers are out of season but maybe I'll do an asian style marinade w/ chinkiang vinegar xp

my soup will be like 100x better tomorrow after it sits overnight i think - i used dried black-eyed peas and tried to speed soak them but it didn't QUITE work as well as it does with other beans (it's my first time cooking them).

i definitely want to try to make that curry!

I make a chickpea/sweet tater curry a fair bit, theyre easy and tasty. I also add some coconut cream to mine at the end.

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

one of my new year's resolutions is to go back to all the recipes i either half-assedly wrote down or adapted from somewhere else -- and write everything down meticulously. i want to put all my recipes into a sort of cookbook that i can give to friends and family.

like, i have a vague idea of how i made that yam curry a while back, but i want to do it over so i can write down how much coriander it needs, how much turmeric, etc.

yeah, not only that, but i have no idea how many people it will "serve" or if i measured the spices to begin with. usually i just use a spoon and put some spices in the spoon and poof, it tastes good. whether or not it is the ideal measurement, i don't know (and really i don't notice the difference a little bit either way)

i guess writing recipes seems like a job for a perfectionist, and i am not one of those

Yeah ppl often ask me on FB for a recipe when i post a pic of some random thing i made and I'm like "i dunno I just chuck things in"... my mum hates this, she has to follow EXACT INSTRUCTIONS or else it is a disaster. When its baking or something then sure but not otherwise.

I acknowledge that there is a process to be followed (sautee the spices and aromatics, then add the rest of the ingredients, etc) but beyond those processes, I don't really pay much attention to measuring things.

This year we gathered together piles of loose recipes -- some handwritten on index cards or scratch paper, some printed off the net -- into a 3-ring binder and called it the Gastronomicon.

I have a binder! It doesn't have a name, but I did organize it somewhat and it includes stuff I printed, wrote, and ripped out of various magazines.

I have a binder too! YAY BINDERS!

A good cheeseburger is a great comfort to me, and right now I am very comforted.

sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry

I made something very similar to that this past weekend - except with kale instead of chard and with carrots instead of garbanzos!

(I would have liked to use garbanzos, but my wife doesn't like them.)

i made a similar thing with blackeyed peas, yogurt, and regular potatoes once, it was really good!!
sorta like this? http://www.food-nepal.com/recipe/R002.htm

(for ppl who don't like garbanzos but do like curries)

Hmm, that looks interesting, though she probably wouldn't like the bamboo shoots either. She's a bit particular about certain ingredients. I didn't have curry powder so I kind of rolled my own with coriander, cumin, turmeric, and fennel. Probably used more fennel than is typical for curry, but it tasted good anyway.

I'm taking kale and brussels sprouts home w me and making my parents eat them.

My parents need a good setting-to about their nutrition iirc, and no one else is going to do it.

i bet they're gonna LOVE THAT

I'm sure! I will also love that, every second of it remembering when I was forced to stay at the table with a quarter-cup of peas on my plate long after everyone else had gone off to play.

nobody in my family ever seems to want to eat as many cruciferous greens as i do (which is admittedly a lot/more than usual).

I only ever want to eat kale now idk why

i will never tire of brussle sprouts; you don't need to gussy em up w/fat either as long as they're cooked slow

My parents need a good setting-to about their nutrition iirc, and no one else is going to do it.

― OH GNUS (Pyth), Monday, December 12, 2011 3:17 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

i bet they're gonna LOVE THAT

― league of women voters, Monday, December 12, 2011 3:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

I'm sure! I will also love that, every second of it remembering when I was forced to stay at the table with a quarter-cup of peas on my plate long after everyone else had gone off to play.

delicious irony

my grandmother apparently boiled her brussels sprouts until they were grey, so there has always a ban on them in my mom's house. i can't say that i blame her. i'm glad they were not ruined for me as a child because they are one of my top 5 veg now easily.

acc. to my dad, his mother boiled everything until it was grey. she was a nutritionist! she actually met my grandpa when he was recovering from getting his appendix out in the hospital.

well it would make sense if she drank the pot likker afterwards

one thing i've never really come around to is regular broccoli...i love broccoli rabe, chinese broccoli and cauliflower but i just have never learned to love it. i think the answer may be lots of garlic and lemon.

garlic needs to be stir-fried and/or roasted, must retain the crunchy mouthfeel. also it improves immeasurably with SALT. steaming/blanching broccoli is so sad

so bored w/broccoli. even broccolini is better, tastes a little sweeter. regular broccoli steamed is like soft wood.

thanks, l, i am going to make a modified version of that with what i have on hand tonight (potatoes and kale instead of sweet potatoes and chard).

I only ever want to eat kale now idk why
this!!!

Garlic, chilli, salt and a little butter will zing brocooli right up.