Two-Part Dinner

When I cook for myself alone I end up with one bowl of colorful mushy-tasty stuff. This isn't very appealing to many people. I think only my mother would find it appetizing. She is the queen of mixing unusual foods together. (It can get a bit scary when she mixes too many different kinds of leftovers. Even I start to think twice...) My mom cultivated in me the enjoyment of food combining. I get so excited about some of the most classic combinations (such as kale with sweet potatoes or tomato sauce & pasta with broccoli) and basically this is how I make meals now, when I cook for other people. I think of two or three colors, textures, tastes and make 2 or 3 dishes that I think go together particularly well--also keeping in mind a balance of nutritional components. I'm trying this out on Greg. He doesn't enjoy a dish with too many flavors, or textures. But that's ok. I appreciate simplicity too, and am glad that when cooking for the two of us I strive to find a compromise between what is tasty, healthy, simple but interesting.

Often I end up preparing three separate dishes to make a complete meal. That is okay. But when I can make a 2-dish meal I find it very satisfying. Here is a meal I made last week that was three things at once: healthy, varied-yet-simple, and tasty (Greg liked it too!).

Quinoa-Chickpea Pilaf (recipe from a great cookbook called Veganomicon)
with Spiced Soy-Roasted Vegetables

I made up the title for the second dish. I make roasted vegetables often, using various vegetables and herbs and spices depending on what is good at the market. The one rule is that I cut the vegetables into similar-sized pieces (bite-sized), use some vegetables that compliment one another or my meal (for example last week I roasted sweet potatoes and white potatoes, and when they were half-cooked I added brussel sprouts and zucchini....something starchy, something juicy, something orange, something green...) AND I use soy-sauce to keep them moist while they are roasting. I also add dried (or fresh) herbs such as oregano, thyme, dill, tarragon (sparingly), and then some cayenne or my new favorite, hungarian paprika. Last week I added tons of this hungarian paprika. I just found it in a neat store down the street which has great spices and other exotic ingredients in nice little packages, measured in the store.

I'll post the recipe for these roasted vegetables separately. Make them and adapt the recipe to fit your refridgerator, farmer's market, or to compliment other things you want to make (such as rice, soup, pasta, polenta).

Tangy Baked Tofu

Tangy Baked Tofu:

I have a few recipes (or variations) for making baked tofu. I'll list some others later. This one is not really best with Japanese food. It probably works better with Thai food, or added to pasta. (The flavor is a little heavy for Japanese, I think.) But this is an absolutely delicious way to prepare tofu, and you will probably want to eat all of it before dinner. Also good added to salad, eaten cold, by itself the next day...and if you slice it in wide, flat rectangles instead of cubes it is excellent inside a sandwich!!

Preheat oven to 175 C (375-400 F)

1 block extra firm tofu, squeezed for excess water then cut in medium-small cube-like shapes

In a mixing bowl, whisk: (adjust amounts to suit yourself)
3-4 tbsp. soy sauce
1-2 minced cloves of garlic
1 scant tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. sesame tahini
1-2 tsp. powedered ginger (not necessary, I didn't have any)
Another "thinner" you can use instead of some of the soy sauce or oil is a splash of O.J.

Add tofu cubes to bowl and mix

Put tofu and liquid into a baking pan (cookie sheet or a deeper dish)

Bake, stirring every 15 minutes or so (Add more soy sauce or oil if desired while cooking)
until the cubes get dark, the liquid is gone and the tofu is chewy. You can vary the time according to the texture you want. If you cook it a very long time (an hour?) the tofu gets small and crisp and delicious (especially on salads). But for a stir-fry I wanted the tofu to be fluffy so I only cooked it until just starting to get dark brown on some sides, and not shrunk too much from its original side. Still, this took about 40 minutes, I think.

Bearing Brown Rice

Greg prefers white rice to brown. Actually, he just doesn't like brown rice, or so he thinks. This has been a subject of debate for us. I don't think I have yet proved myself, though my arguments are so solid, so fibrous! I know I will win, one day.

The point is, Greg thinks white rice tastes better and doesn't like the texture of brown rice. I say brown rice has a fun texture and a great toasty taste. And it is better for you. I refuse to eat white rice because it tastes too much like candy. (Well, I think it tastes great but I would rather get my calories from something more nutritious, and I also think brown rice is very nice....In fact a favorite snack sometimes is a small bowl of hot, freshly steamed brown rice with olive oil and salt and pepper thrown on it. This is heavenly.)

I was excited about making a healthy vegetable stir-fry with brown rice and tofu today, because all weekend Greg and I ate mostly potatoes, pancakes and pasta. I need to redeem myself and save him too! Whenever I plan to make tofu for Greg (or brown rice), I get nervous. I have to make it great! Because if I make it absolutely amazing and delicious, he still won't notice and only then might he barely tolerate it. Maybe I am being harsh, but this is the state I am in after some trials.

So, I went for a walk this afternoon and decided that toasted sesame oil might help the stir-fry and the rice situation. Just last week I noticed an Asian Laden (asian food shop!) a few blocks from here. There is another shop I visit for Indian/Mexican/Asian ingredients but this new place has more of the particularly "Asian" stuff. It is great and even has a big refridgerator full of fresh herbs like cilantro and thai basil and lemongrass and fresh tofu too.

I try to be very frugal in the ingredients I buy here in Germany. I don't have a job (legally I can't have one) and Greg isn't moved by or really even aware of the things that one must buy to make good food. So I have a very limited selection of herbs and oils and vinegars and the other basics one might need to make great tasting food. I am thinking of this period as an experiment in how simple really is good....But I do think Sesame Oil adds a lot, and so for the first time I bought some here. I would really like to buy rice wine vinegar or some seaweed or other things that make japanese food so good. I don't have much experience with these ingredients but have a desire to become adept at making tasty Japanese-style meals.

Anyway, with my shorter list of ingredients, I stir-fried the veggies in a little oil and then added some miso (mixed with water) and cooked til the water was gone. It was ok, but missing something. (I had started with onion, garlic and ginger...) Maybe hot peppers, or some of that rice vinegar, or even just cilantro would have made this work better. Or perhaps I added just a bit too much miso. I have tried this trick of steaming/stir-frying vegetables in miso in the past and it is always delcious. This was the first time I used the very dark kind of miso paste. Maybe that was the problem. I'll work on this recipe and post it later when it is good!

Meanwhile, look at my recipe for no-fail, delicious tofu! Greg said that the meal, of miso-stir-fried veggies, brown rice and baked tofu was "very good, despite the brown rice and tofu." He also said after his first taste of the tofu that it was the best tofu he's ever had. He hasn't had much, but I'll take what compliments I can get!

Sharing the Joy

I have long been an adamant fan of the idea of healthy eating. I inherited this interest from my mother. My current day-dream is to go to grad school and study nutrition so that I can really know what I'm talking about when I talk about cooking and eating well to maintain the health of my body (and your body, and the planet's body). I also love cooking, and have done so for a living more often than I've made a living in my actual "career" as a musician and singer/songwriter.

I am a published cookbook and song writer. My only cookbook publication to date is a self-released work, a collaboration with my musical duo partner, Lisa Bastoni. Our Gray Sky Girls cookbook is full of tasty vegetarian recipes passed down from families or of our own invention. The Gray Sky Girls cookbook also contains hand-made illustrations of the foods, travel tips for musicians and non-musicians, a cartoon of some of our adventures, and other useless, interesting information.

Since Lisa and I printed this cookbook I've wanted to do another. Not as crafty without Lisa's influence, I find myself maintaining the idea but not producing any product.

So, since I love writing stories about myself and the world as I see it, and am passionate about cooking and creating simple, tasty meals with fresh ingredients and the health of the human body and the bodies of all other creatures in mind...I will blog about food. Others do it. Maybe I should not do it! Too many others do it. I am by no means a gourmet. I just know how to make things I like. And I believe that when I buy, eat, cook food I am influencing not just my own few cubic feet of flesh and blood and other stuff, but a much broader and incalculable set of bodies and circumstances. I want to do good in the world by encouraging you to eat well, take care of yourself and others, and make choices at the market, the restaurant, in the kitchen, and at the table, that will help life flourish, not fade.

(Am I being subtle enough? I believe you should eat less meat!! And if you don't believe me, I hope you'll try some of my recipes anyway. And then forget all the meat-recipes you know. Then make up your own recipes, without the meat, pesticides and other crap.)