Rhubarb Berry Pie

A colleague gave me some fresh rhubarb, a plant I'd neither cooked with or tasted before. So what to do? Make pie!

Recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 2 deep dish pie crusts (we used Marie Calander's, because they were the only vegetarian ones at the store. If you're veg, make sure you read labels and don't buy the ones with lard in them.)
• 3 c. rhubarb, chopped (just the stalks; you don't need to peel them)
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 c. mixed frozen berries (you can thaw them in the microwave)
• a little milk (for brushing)

Methodology

1. Preheat oven to 425*. Put one pie tin on a baking sheet (if you want; this is really unnecessary and done to make putting it in the oven easier). Put the other out to thaw.

2. Mix rhubarb, sugar, spices, and flour. Thaw the berries in the microwave, cut up any really big ones, and mix them in until everything looks like pie mix (no loose flour, etc.).

3. Fill pie crust. Flatten the other pie crust and use it to cover the first; pinch edges and poke some holes in the top. Brush top with milk, sprinkle with sugar, and put in in oven for 1 hour. After ~30 minutes, take it out and cover the edges with tin foil.

Notes

*Delicious. 0/7.

Korean Vegetable Stir Fry with Pasta

A lot of the recipes I post here are things I've come up with knocking around in the kitchen with veggies to use up. This one is not only not mine, but almost entirely unaltered (well, a few changes, but not many). I'm posting it here mostly to help myself keep track of it, since it was delicious.

Original from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, found here.

Ingredients

• 1/4 box (2 servings) whole wheat pasta
• 2 oz. baked Thai-style tofu (it comes pre-made with peanut sauce on it) cut into bite-sized pieces.
  
• 1 T. dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons water
• ~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 yellow summer squash and 1/2 zucchini, halved and sliced into half moons.
  
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• handful matchstick carrots
  
• one bok choy, chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon brown
  
• ~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Methodology

1. Start water boiling and cook the pasta. I broke it in half before I cooked it. Whatever, it's pasta. When it's done, drain and set aside.

2. Mix the red ingredients and set them in a dish with the tofu. When you're done chopping the veg, cook the tofu in a large pan until brown on one side, then flip. Add in most of the sauce. After a few more minutes, remove and set aside (you can put it with the pasta); not all of the sauce had boiled away yet.

3. Add the squash, onion, zucchini, and carrots to the pan and cook for a few minutes, until they start to soften. Add the rest of the veg plus the garlic and about 1/4 c. water and cook until everything is starting to soften and the bok choy is wilting a little. Mix the green ingredients and pour over the veg, then add in the pasta and the tofu and mix it all together, stirring until everything is heated.

4. Eat while reading The Corpse in the Koryo[1] by James Church. Get small flecks of gochujang paste on the pages. Feel this is somehow appropriate.

Notes

*Needs more tofu. I only used the one piece because it was left over from the week's salads, and everything else was frozen. The baked tofu came out quite nicely, though I think regular tofu would also have been fine.

*0/7 on the disaster scale. Delicious. Also not bad for the clean-up, despite the number of dishes used - the longer veg cook time gave me time to do the dishes mid-project.

*Excellent pre-race fuel.

*[1]: Fact for the day: the word Korea comes from the name Koryo, which in turn comes from Goryeo (Goguryeo), which was the most powerful of the 3 kingdoms which ruled the area we now call Korea in the 5th century CE. Koreans call their land Chosen, the land of morning calm. (How nice does that sound? I want to visit Korea now.)

*I picked up the gochujang paste at a little Korean grocery store (on South Park street). It was fairly cheap ($4.99 for a big tub) and it keeps forever; plus, I hadn't realized until I bought it that I'd been missing the taste. 很好吃！I totally recommend hanging around Asian groceries anyway, because they tend to be family-run (and so need support), and the food is often much cheaper than at big chain stores, plus it's not just Asian food that they sell. Also they sometimes have really neat stuff (this one had radish kim chi, so I bought some of that). So let me end this by encouraging you to check out your local Asian grocery store. Yay.

Of Brownies and Bribes

The first rule is, when you don't know how to do something, get a book from the library.

The second rule is, when that doesn't work, bribe one of your brothers until he does it.

This bribe took the form of brownies. I made them from a box because I'd heard that you could do this. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit to having tried it, and more embarrassed that it worked.

Ingredients

• a box of brownie mix. I used Betty Crocker because it was the cheapest and lowest calorie. I never make brownies from mixes, so I don't really have a preferred brand or anything.
• about 12 oz diet Coke
• a pan, greased
  

Methodology

1. Preheat the oven as directed on the box.

2. Put the mix in a bowl. Add coke until it is mixed to the right consistency. Do not add eggs, oil, or water.

3. Put the brownies in a pan and bake according to the instructions on the box. This went so fast my oven didn't preheat completely, so it took about 30 minutes as opposed to the 25 the box suggested, so keep an eye on it.

Notes

*These are sweet, and not very brownie-like. They taste a lot like vegan chocolate pudding cake (a delicious treat which, if you have vegan friends and you have not tried it, I suggest you force them to make it for you, since they are obviously holding out on you). The sweetness may be a problem for some people. However, it doesn't taste like nutrisweet (or whatever Diet Coke is sweetened with these days), which is a plus.

*The caloric content is equal to whatever the unmade mix was, since Diet Coke has no calories to add. Mine was 1 brownie = 100 calories. This was great to know, because I ate about 5.

*Did I mention I was really hungry after aikido for some reason?

*My youngest brother, for whom the bribe was prepared, seemed to like it, though he only ate two. I served it with whipped cream - maybe better with vanilla ice cream or frozen yoghurt?

*Anyway, 1/7 on the disaster index, losing a point for not actually being brownies. I wouldn't, for example, bring them to a pot luck if I were trying to maintain my reputation. But delicious to have at home.

Sushi Weekend

Last Saturday, with Claire in Minnesota, my brothers and I decided to have a night in. So I decided to try making sushi.

Recipes adapted from sushiday.com, a fantastic site for all your sushi needs.

Ingredients

• 2 c. Japanese sushi rice
• 2 c. water
• 8 T. rice vinegar
• 7 T (minus 1 tsp.) sugar
• 6 sheets sushi nori
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 cucumber, cut into strips
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• some neufchatel or cream cheese
• mung bean sprouts
• matchstick carrots
• Sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. Cook the rice in the water. Mix the vinegar and sugar and microwave or heat on the stove until the sugar is dissolved. When rice is cooked, spread it in pans (we used pie plates) to cool and pour the vinegar/sugar mixture over it. You can stick it in the fridge if you want.

2. Put the nori on the rolling mat and place a little more than 1/2 c. of rice on the nori. Spread it out in a thin layer, leaving about a 1" strip of seaweed uncovered at the far end. At the end near you, place your selected fillings on the rice - combinations include pepper and cream cheese; avocado and cucumber; avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese; cucumber and cream cheese; mung bean sprout and carrot...you get the idea.

3. Roll the sushi away from you using the mat. Cut it into pieces. Eat it with soy sauce and wasabi.

Notes

*Mung bean sprout and carrot was the least successful combination. But they all got eaten. In fact, all the sushi was eaten, though my feeling was that this was just enough sushi for 3 people.

*This looks intimidating, but it's actually really easy.

*1/7 on the disaster scale (points docked for the absurd amount of leftovers I had to deal with afterwards - not leftover sushi, just leftover avocado, pepper, cucumber, and what have you. I am a little nonplussed about that.)

Vegetable and White Bean Soup, or As You Like It

A typical sort of end-of-the-week soup.

Ingredients

• 1 head broccoli, chopped into florets, stem peeled and chopped
• 1 summer squash, halved and chopped
• 1/2 sweet potato, chopped
• a handful of baby carrots, chopped
  
• 1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 mushrooms (crimini), halved and sliced or quartered
• 1 15-oz. tin canellini beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 2.25 bouillon cubes
• ~4 c. water
• 1.5 tsp garam marsala
• about 1 tsp chopped garlic
  
• chili powder and cayenne pepper, salt and pepper
  

Methodology

1. Put water in a pot with bouillon and some garlic. Bring water to a boil and put in sweet potato, broccoli, and carrots. Let them boil until somewhat tender and add beans, mushrooms, bell pepper, and squash.

2. Add seasoning and taste. When sweet potatoes are cooked, the whole thing is pretty much done. Serve with toast.

Notes

*Eating this directly after a 6-mile run, I was so hungry I burned my tongue. The soup was good, but nothing fantastic - certainly not really anything to blog about. But today, eating the leftovers for lunch, I find that it has become a fantastic, spicy dish. The beans start to disintegrate and thicken the broth. So I recommend making this a day ahead. Also it uses a minimal number of pots and there's not much clean-up. Hurrah.

*Can probably be done with whatever veg you have lying around - I'd recommend bak choi, maybe some spinach. Tomatoes might be nice, too. I didn't have any.

*3/7 on the disaster scale.

Sweet "Asian" Salad Dressing Mk. II

A variation of this. It actually seems dumb to call this Asian Salad Dressing because I've never really had salad in Asia (exception: Thai papaya salad). Though I did frequent one restaurant which occasionally made stir-fried lettuce. Hm.

Ingredients

• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 T. kecap manis
• 2 T. rice vinegar
• a few blobs of Sri Racha sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• a sprinkling of dried ginger

Methodology

1. Put ingredients in a jar. Cap jar and shake. Serve over salad.

Chinese Peanut Noodles with Gingered Vegetables

I've had China on my mind lately. (Claire pointed out that I always have China on my mind, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've had Chinese food on my mind.) This recipe isn't really Chinese, or at least it's not like anything I had in China, but it is delicious. Get your mates to help you cut stuff up, because it takes forever.

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce:

• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
  
• 2 to 3 tbsp stock
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp chili oil

Noodles recipe:

• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 8 ounces broccoli, tops cut into florets, stems peeled, cut into
  thin strips
• a bunch of small carrots cut into matchsticks
  
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 medium zucchini
• 1/ medium size summer squash
  
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
  
• 10 ounces Chinese tofu
  
• ~ 8 oz. buckwheat noodles (soba, e.g.)
• 1 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts

Tofu marinade

• 1 T. soy sauce
• 2 T. water
• 1/2 T. garlic oil

Methodology

1. Make tofu marinade in shallow dish. Blot tofu dry, slice into 1/2" thick "steaks" and put in marinade. Set aside. Make peanut sauce and set aside. Put water on to boil. Chop veggies.

2. Cook the tofu until brown, then flip and brown the other side. Set aside, retaining marinade. Put the ginger in the wok with about 1 T. of sesame oil. After a few minutes, add the broccoli and carrots and stir fry until almost cooked. Add the other veg, the cooking wine, and the tofu marinade. When cooked, add the tofu and stir until everything is warm. Cook pasta.

3. Drain pasta and put in a bowl. Mix in the peanut sauce, then put the veg on top. Top with peanuts.

Notes

*There wasn't really enough ginger in this, despite the fact that I cut up too much. Maybe it needs to be sliced smaller? I guess I chopped it kind of roughly. But the peanut sauce was extremely delicious and made up for the lack of ginger.

*It could use more chili oil or maybe some hot pepper. Something to give it a little more of a kick.

*2/7. Also it used a lot of dishes. Oh man.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Good for the vegetarians, too...bless them... (Gordon Ramsay)

I came home from work an hour later than usual. The cats were in a strop, and I'd missed my afternoon snack, so I was about ready to kill something with my bare hands for sustenance. Plus it was a lovely day out, and a very primal part of my brain was insisting that I should go out for a jog right the hell now.

What can you make in a hurry which is also very delicious? Broccoli soup! Recipe from Gordan Ramsey[1].

Ingredients

• 2 small heads of broccoli, chopped into florets
• 1 small baby bok choy, chopped
• water
• seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder)

Methodology

1. Boil water. Put in broccoli and bok choy, season, and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

2. When tender, put in the blender or cuisinart with a cup or two of the water you boiled it in and blend until smooth. Add more seasonings (about 1-2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/2 T garlic powder, a bit of cumin).

3. Serve with a little cheese grated on top - I used Irish Kerrygold "Dubliner" cheese, but cheddar would also be nice.

Notes

1. Gordon Ramsey has recently been in the news (well, on food blogs) because he has a new cookbook (he's been on some chat shows of late), and a show on Fox where he yells at stupid people. I haven't watched the show, but I'm in favour of yelling at stupid people. So apparently he used to have a show in the UK called "Gordon Ramsay Makes it Simple", which involved less yelling and more being adorable (see here). Anyway, I found the video of the soup on YouTube and had to try it.

2. It worked well, was super fast (I was out the door for my run by 19:00) and quite delicious. Serve with bread. 0/7.

3. Here's another Ramsay article, in case you are interested in him like I apparently am.

ETA:

4. Do not put curry powder in this dish, no matter how cool you happen to think curried broccoli soup might be. It's not a good idea.

Thai-style Ichiro's Rice

Who was Ichiro? My hypotheses aside, the rice dish that bears his name is an excellent way to use up leftover rice. And since I wanted curry, I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients

• 6 oz. tofu, marinated and cooked
• 1 baby bok choy
• 1 sweet potato
• 1/2 summer squash
• 2 dried crimini mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a trickle of oil
• 1 tin coconut milk (I used "lowfat organic", but I recommend the one that says "nuoc cot dua" or "coconut cream" for maximum goodness)
• 4 tsp. red Thai curry paste
• about 1 T. brown sugar
• about 1 T. of the marinade from the tofu (see above)
• leftover brown rice, about 3/4 c. (or however much you have)
• a sprinkling of ginger and cumin
  

Methodology

1. Heat garlic and mushrooms in a deep pan with oil (maybe a tablespoon or two, not much). When they sizzle, add the curry paste and the coconut milk. Heat until it boils, then add the veggies. Cover, stirring occasionally.

2. When the sweet potato is cooked, add in the brown sugar, the rice, and a bit of the marinade. You may also want to add some salt. Cut the "steaks" of tofu into bite-sized pieces and add those, too.

3. When everything is warm, taste and add a sprinkling of ginger and cumin. You may want to add more sugar or salt as well. It's done! Enjoy!

Notes

*I recommend serving with Sri Racha sauce and sweet chili sauce on top. If you use the lowfat coconut milk, this has very few calories. Actually, it probably doesn't have that many even if you use coconut cream. So go all out.

*0/7. This was delicious, and an excellent way to use some vegetables.

Thai-style Tofu Marinade

Recipe adapted from the Chicago Sun-Times, so probably not the most Thai thing ever.

Ingredients
(quantities approximate for some stuff)

• 1/4 c. warm water
• 1 T. sesame oil
• 1 T. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 T. brown sugar
• ~1/2 tsp. Sri Racha sauce
• ~1/2 tsp. cumin
• ~1/2 tsp. corriander
• ~1 clove garlic, chopped
• ~1 tsp. lemon juice

Methodology

1. Mix everything together.

2. Cut tofu into "steaks" approximately 1/2" thick and put in marinade. Leave in the refrigerator until time to cook.

3. Cook and use in whatever dish. I recommend browning them over high heat in a not-too-oily pan.

Notes

*I liked the tone the sesame oil gave it. Needs to be stronger. 3/7.

Cold Sesame Noodles with Kimchi

There are no two ways about it, my friend: kimchi is delicious. I bought some at the co-op the other day (they had vegetarian kimchi, so it didn't have nuoc mam [fish sauce] in it, which makes it more delicious) and I was trying to think of ways to use it. Then I remembered I wanted to make this recipe I found on Serious Eats.

Ingredients

• 1 "bundle" soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
  
• 1 1/2 cups kimchi
  
• 1 tablespoon kimchi juice from the jar
  
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons toasted black sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
  

Methodology

1. Boil water. While that's going on, mix the sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Measure out the kimchi and slice it up if it isn't already sliced; add kimchi and juice and mix.

2. Cook pasta as directed, about 4-5 minutes. Drain and run briefly under cold water, then add to bowl. Add the sesame oil and mix.

3. Eat! I topped it with Thai sweet chili sauce.

Notes

*Delicious. This is definitely a great batch of kimchi. Very easy to make, too, and pretty low calorie. The pasta is 210, the kimchi is about 100 total, so figure about 200 per serving. Serves 2.

*0/7 on the disaster index. The only difficult part was opening the jar of kimchi.

Book Review: To the Edge

A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance, by Kirk Johnson

Following his brother's death, NY Times reporter Kirk Johnson decided to become a runner. But he wasn't interested in doing any old race - he had his heart set on running the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile race across Death Valley, widely regarded as the most difficult footrace in the world. This book chronicles his descent into ultrarunning and (simultaneously) gonzo journalism.

In a normal newspaper story, the reporter remains at a distance from his subject - there is no "I", and so the tone is (perceived as) objective, rather than subjective, or at least that is what they strive for. In gonzo journalism, the journalist inserts the "I" and truly becomes "one of those crazies" (as he says), which is what happens here. While this gives a more interesting look at Mr. Johnson's struggle to go from a non-runner to an elite athlete over the course of a year, it also skews the perspective one gets of the race. Other participants wander in and out, never fully characterized beyond their most recognizable qualities - this one had cancer, these ones are twins, this one is an amputee.

The lack of distance is obviously something Mr. Johnson is neither used to nor comfortable with; he spends a significant portion of the book returning, like a good Times reporter, to the history of the race and that of Death Valley. The information is interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, and the book would have done better had he simply surrendered, Hunter S. Thompson-like, to the pull of the race.

This "distant lack of distance" works to his disadvantage in another way: Mr. Johnson is never entirely successful in exploring his reasons for beginning the Badwater journey. Just as he has no explanation for his brother's suicide, he seems to have no reasons for whatever drove him to commit this much time and energy to so strange a quest; the few he comes up with (to be closer to his brother, primarily) are never closely examined, and cannot be, because his brother is never really fleshed out as a character.

The story, while interesting, had the potential to be truly moving - a tale of self-discovery and healing. But instead of the reader feeling the sentiments, we're left with the sense that the author pointed at a photo and said, "This was very moving". Nice try, but we remain unaffected. Whether this is a quality of Mr. Johnson's writing or simply a fact of trying to deal with a difficult subject, I cannot say. The book is worth a look if you're interested in running and its history.

Veggies and Tofu in Brown Sauce （红烧豆腐蔬菜）

How do you tell someone you don't want to go on a date with them because they write awful poetry? What do you make for dinner after karate when you're really tired and out of sorts? When do these rhetorical questions become ridiculous?

I call this "brown sauce" because that's how it's always translated, but a closer translation is "red baked tofu and vegetables". Based on this recipe.

Ingredients

Tofu marinade

• 1/2 block tofu, cubed
• 1 T. garlic oil
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• about 1/2 tsp sri racha sauce

Vegetables etc.

• 1/2 sweet potato
• 1 summer squash
• 5 mushrooms
• 1 baby bok choy
• 3/4 c. brown rice
• 2 c. water
• a few cloves of garlic
  

Red Sauce

• 3 T. dark soy sauce
• 1 T. kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 cube bouillon
• 1 T. vermouth
• 1/2 tsp. sri racha sauce

Methodology

1. Cut up tofu and put in marinade. Cut veggies into similar sized pieces.

2. Start the rice. You can dribble in a little of the tofu marinade for flavour if you want. Heat a wok over high heat with a small amount of oil in it and drop the tofu in. Leave it to brown on one side, then flip and brown the other. You can put some of the marinade on here, too, and let it reduce, or just throw the rest away. When the tofu is done, remove it to a plate.

3. Put a bit more oil in the wok and turn the heat down slightly. Add the garlic, then the mushrooms. When they start to brown, add the bok choi, the sweet potato, and the squash. Stir fry it for a few minutes, then add about 1 c. water and cover; the water will boil, cooking the potatoes. This is especially useful if your pan is small.

4. When the sweet potatoes (the veg needing the longest time) are almost done and the water has boiled off, add the tofu and the sauce. Stir everything together and cook a while longer to let the sauce reduce some. Serve over rice.

Notes

*Good and healthy, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but while I wasn't displeased there also was nothing to make me sit up and take notice. Chinese dishes tend to use only one or two vegetables, which is frustrating for a vegetarian but tends to bring out more of the "essence" of those vegetables, as opposed to "a bunch of vegetables in a bowl".

*3.5/7. Middle of the road.

Pictures forthcoming.

Three Grain Passover Stew

Yesterday, Daniel, Claire, Sean, and I headed back to my parents' house for Seder. It was a nice meal, and then afterwards we all got food poisoning. Or possibly I got food poisoning, Daniel got the flu, Claire had a hangover, and Sean had...a migraine? Food poisoning? Who knows.

My illness began first (perhaps because I have this dumb, souped-up metabolism), and luckily this meant that I felt better first too, so by evening (and following a five mile run) I was ready to eat something. The only problem is Passover.

Luckily, I have my own take on how to keep kosher[1], and this recipe works well. It was meant to be kind of a "stash killer", using up a bunch of partial vegetables in the fridge, but I went down to the co-op and bought a whole bunch of other veggies, so that was not totally a success.

Three Grain Passover Stew

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion
• 3 large mushrooms
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 4-5 baby carrots
• 1/2 sweet potato
  
• 1/3 c. lentils
• 1/3 c. brown rice
• 1/3 c. red quinoa
• 1/2 cube bouillon
• 1 tin tomatoes (diced, 15 oz.)
  
• ~ 3 c. water

Methodology

1. Chop vegetables and throw into a medium sized pot over high heat with about a tablespoon of oil (I use garlic oil). Throw in some garlic as well, and season with chili powder and paprika, salt and pepper.

2. After a bit, put in the lentils, rice, and quinoa, the bouillion, two cups of water, and the tin of tomatoes. Stir everything together and cover. Let it boil over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water as necessary.

3. When cooked, put in a little more water and about half a teaspoon of garam marsala. Serve with buttered matzo.

Notes

1. I used to keep a really rigid sort of kashrut during Pesach, down to even high-fructose corn syrup, and all it did was give me an obnoxious superiority complex. Honestly, if you are vegetarian and do not care for eggs, Pesach can be really difficult, especially when you are running a lot (32 miles last week).

In Vietnam I ate one meal per day and kept Sephardic kosher, which-- I don't know. Generally my family keeps Sephardic kosher despite being Ashkenazim, which I think is okay. Lentils and rice are therefore acceptable in this soup, provided you feel vaguely guilty about eating them.

Anyway, my personal rules for Pesach, in case you were curious, are:

1. No bread, muffins, cookies, etc.
2. None of the five grains (wheat, oats, barley, spelt, rye).
3. Avoid as best I can corn and corn syrup. Other kitnyot like beans, rice, and lentils are okay. Peanuts are also okay.
   
4. Try to eat enough calories, because I will be really miserable if I don't.
   

Regardless of your interpretation of the rules, this recipe is Sephardic kosher and parve (depending on your bouillon, I guess).

2. This came out really full of tomatoes. It was wonderful. Be careful putting the carrots into the pot, as they roll and may try to escape from the cutting board in the wrong direction.

3. 1/7 on the disaster scale. \o/

Polenta and veggies, take II

Last time I tried this, the recipe came out so salty it was nearly inedible, so you'll probably understand when I say it took me a while to get back to the idea. But last Sunday, feeling exhausted after a long run the previous day, I wanted something delicious and easy, so I tried them again, this time with more success.

Ingredients

(for polenta)

• 1 c. yellow corn meal
• 1 tsp. salt
• a handful of raw spinach, about 1/2 c.
• 3 c. water

(for sauce)

• 1/2 zucchini
• 1/2 summer squash
• a few florets of broccoli
  
• 3-4 mushrooms, to taste
• 1/2 small onion
• 1/2 to 1 tin diced tomatoes
• a few cloves of garlic
  
• oregano, basil, chili powder, paprika

Methodology

1. Boil water, add salt. Pour in polenta, stirring constantly. There will probably be lumps. I'm sure there's a way to deal with this, but I just resign myself to it. When polenta has cooked into pudding (this is very quick), add in the spinach and stir until it's wilted. Divide into 12 muffin tins (or fewer if you want thicker cakes). Put in the fridge for about an hour.

2. Chop veggies. Put some oil in the bottom of a pot and add the garlic, then put in the onion and mushroom. Season. After a few minutes, throw in the squash, zucchini, and broccoli. When that starts looking cooked, add the tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Split a polenta cake in half and warm it in the microwave. Spoon sauce over it and top with grated cheese (if desired). Eat.

Notes

*Very easy and ridiculously healthy - each polenta cake is about 40 calories, and the sauce is not much more. In fact, the main fat in this meal comes from the cheese.

*The polenta cakes keep well in the fridge for about a week, and are good with salad (I put vinegar and salsa on my salad, then leave it in the fridge at work until lunch, so it marinates), or with bottled pasta sauce if you are not feeling up to making sauce.

*You can actually make this "sauce" with any collection of veggies plus tomatoes. Experiment, it's fun. For a different twist, use whole tinned tomatoes (cut in half if you want).

*2/7 (if only I could get the lumps out of the polenta...)

Moroccan Stew

I found this on Runner's World's website. Since I had eggplant and zucchini to use up, it looked like a good bet. That said, I wouldn't call it an unqualified success; if you go look at the page I've linked to, you'll see that whoever wrote it has no idea how much stuff should actually go in - 3 cups of onion, 4 cups of zucchini? Serves 6? How much do these people eat?

On closer inspection, the photograph at the top of the article is obviously not the dish described. Maybe that should have been a warning sign, but what the hell - Runner's World is not exactly known as a source for gourmet recipes.

So I made some alterations, and then some more alterations. I'll write the ingredients list with the amount of stuff I cut up; see the notes section for more information.

Ingredients

• 1 biggish onion, chopped
  
• 2 T. garlic
  
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 9-10 baby carrots, chopped
  
• 1 large sweet potato, chopped
  
• 1 eggplant, chopped (I used 1/2 Japanese eggplant, 1/2 traditional aubergine)
  
• 3/4 zucchini, chopped
  
• 1 tin diced tomatoes
  
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1/2 cup raisins (I used a "raisins and cherries" mix)
  

Methodology

1. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a biggish pan and throw the onion in. Bring it to a boil, then add garlic and spices. Mix. Add the rest of the veggies, the tomatoes, and the chickpeas. Add the raisins.

2. Mix well and add about 1 c. water. Cover and let cook until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Serve with bread.

Notes

*Initially, this tasted like a big bowl of vegetables, and not a particularly inspiring one. There's no salt in the recipe, which makes it kind of bland. I would have said 5-6/7 on the disaster scale.

*After a couple of days in the fridge, however, this had somehow morphed and become a super delicious stew. With a pinch of salt on top and heated in the microwave, it made a great lunch at work, and probably it will be lunch today as well. 2/7.

*I have to admit that even my biggest pot wasn't big enough for the quantity of veggies I cut up. If I were doing it again, I'd use only 1/2 eggplant total, plus about 1 zucchini and a small onion. It might be worth using a smaller sweet potato, too. The spices were a good mix, but I'd add more salt earlier on. And less water; better just to keep an inch at the bottom and keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

*I'd almost recommend making this a day ahead of time.

Book Review: No Country for Old Men

A literary critic (of whom I am not fond) by the name of Harold Bloom referred to Cormac McCarthy as one of the four living (and still working) American novelists who write "the Style of our age", saying they have composed canonical works. So with this ringing in my ears, and the film version still playing through my mind, I decided to read the book.

Cormac McCarthy writes about the west, but not the vaguely-homoerotic wild west that we all know and love. This is West Texas, where there's antelope and dust and drugs and a bunch of stuff that's been around forever and not a whole lot else. The men are tough and taciturn; they don't use apostrophes or quotation marks, they're slow to anger and quick to strike once roused. They love their wives with a slow, steady passion. Their wives, on the other hand, are strong, steely women who do well by their menfolk (of course they're called "menfolk".) They may carry weapons, but in the end they're not too important, mostly functioning as reasons for the men to do the things they do.

The book's central thesis (or, I suppose, one of them; books are relatively poor places for straightforward philosophy) is this: you make choices as you go through life. There are rules and other, smaller choices you make which propel you along. And then eventually there's an accounting.

In some ways, it's similar to the "alternative universe" trope beloved by science fiction writers, except here the "what if" part of the universe doesn't matter. Only what happened is actually relevant. People live their lives thinking every day is a fresh start, that they can somehow divorce themselves from their pasts, but in a certain sense the past is the only thing that exists. Your past defines you, just as the past of the country defines what America is today.

This is not, as it happens, a philosophy I particularly buy into. But that's neither here nor there.

What surprises me is how McCarthy drags us through nearly 300 pages looking over the shoulders of Llewelyn Moss, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, and Anton Chigurh without ever really letting us into their lives. The way he uses and discards them makes it difficult to get attached, and none of them are especially likable (though I'll admit they each of them have their own particular charms). The plot, revolving around a drug deal gone bad and a big case of stolen money, is interesting but never really tied up - it's mostly a MacGuffin to keep the characters on the move, which is disappointing; you'd think that if you spent as long as CM must have writing a book this full of ideas, you'd have taken a few minutes to fix that.

The book was engrossing, true; I spent more than one lunch hour buried within its occasionally agrammatical pages. But though I liked it, I remain unconvinced that McCarthy is as good a writer as Bloom seems to think. The word I'm searching for, I believe, is "overrated". It's much like Bloom himself in that regard.

If you were curious, by the way, I kept a count: Chigurh kills at least 14 people ("on screen"; there's some implication that he kills others along the way).

Book review: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Dean Karnazes is a runner, specifically one of a small group of elite athletes called ultramarathoners - people who run more than 26.2 miles at a go, but typically at least 50 kilometers and often more than 100 miles without rest.

As a runner myself, I tend to get my share of odd looks when I mention I spent my weekend running eight or nine miles. But this guy gets looks on a whole different level. For me, on any given day I can run five miles without too much trouble. He can run a marathon.

This book is his attempt to answer questions that everyone asks him: Why do you run? How do you do it?

The trouble is, these questions aren't easily answered, even for someone as well educated as Mr. Karnazes, who has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about them. His best moment comes early on, when he quips, "Addictions are never neatly defined." The rest of the book spends a lot of time trying, then, to describe a particular feeling that (much as it pains me to admit, being a writer) is fairly indescribable: the painful, euphoric sensation that you get when you run really far, pushing your limits, if not the limits of what a human being can accomplish. The "how" gets glossed over as well, because the answer is one that people who don't run will never really believe: you get to be a long distance runner by putting on your shoes and running every day.

Despite the fact that his answers are essentially, "Lots of reasons" and "You wouldn't really believe me anyway", the book has a lot of promise. It misses out on being a truly moving memoir - it's more a recitation of events, without any real characterization or narrative arc - but it's damn interesting and more than a little inspiring, which is pretty good. Three and a half out of five stars. You can find his blog here. The book can be found on amazon.com here.

Curried Kidney Beans (rajma)

Via the Veg Lounge. Because kidney beans are good for you.

Ingredients

• 1 tin red kidney beans, drained and washed
  
• about 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 T. garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tin whole tomatoes, chopped
• salt, cayenne pepper, garam masala

Methodology

1. Put some oil in the bottom of a pan and add the onions and garlic. After they have cooked for a few minutes, add about 1 tsp. garam masala and a sprinkling of salt and cayenne pepper.

2. Add the tomatoes and about 1/4 c. water and cook for about 5 minutes. When it starts looking sauce-like, add the kidney beans and cook for about 5 more minutes, until it looks cohesive and not like an assemblage of ingredients. Add about 1 tsp. more of garam masala, 1/2 tsp. cayenne, 1 tsp. salt.

3. Eat. Goes well with bread or brown rice.

Notes

*Warm and tasty. Fairly low calorie, too - kidney beans are 100 calories per half cup.

*That's it. Really easy. It's a nice pretty purple/red colour, too.

Pointer

If you happen to be exceedingly curious as to who I am, I wrote up a little FAQ and then buried it in the mists of time so I don't have to keep staring at it. It can be found here.