Chocolate Beans

This is one of my very best recipes that has developed over the last year and it is really easy.  Perhaps my masterpiece?  Please give it a try and tell me what you think!

- 2 cups dry pinto beans soaked overnight, drained and rinsed well

- 1 butternut squash cubed

- 1 sweet onion diced

- 1 tsp salt

- 3 heaping Tbsp plain cacao powder

- 1 to 2 tsp chipotle powder depending on how hot you like your spice (or 2 dried chipotles)

- pinch of cinnamon

Put all the ingredients in a crock pot and mix well.  Cover with water and cook on high for 6 to 8 hours so the beans are very soft.

Buen Provecho!

Chokola'j - to drink chocolate together

We stumbled on this amazing little sipping chocolate place in Santa Fe with Jafari last month which has really inspired us.  We found it unintentionally, thinking that we were looking for an herb store.  It was so magical - we walked in almost in a dream state and sat down and ordered three different varieties of sipping chocolate. It was pure Mayan medicine and love.

Real cacao is good for everything - especially your heart.  It is also full of magnesium, which is one reason why we crave it during our moon time.  Lita and I have been making this delicious Mexican hot chocolate drink...

1 cup boiling water

1 heaping spoon organic cacao

1 teaspoon agave syrup

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of chipotle 

1 star anise

How beautiful that a culture had a word especially for drinking chocolate together:  Chokola'j

I started eating bison this year.  It all started with an article Lita picked up on how bison are restoring the plains, as cattle have destroyed our grasslands (and much more).  It made me realize how awesome bison are and we had our first bison burger in Santa Fe with our brother, Jafari at the Cowgirl Cafe.  It was incredible.  Leaner than beef and feels so good in your body.  Raising bison is one of the best thing big-time ranchers can do for this land.  Their hooves restore specific grass species that have been disappearing.  They don't need extra feed, so no heavy equipment or soy fields or corn fields, and they are never pumped with hormones or antibiotics.  They are the perfect North American solution to our disgusting, earth-destroying meat habit.  Well, that and to cut down meat consumption and buy from small, organic farms, yes?  I know, we know.

You can check out this Smithsonian article on bison here.

I've been making bison burgers and bison chili, and it got me to thinking of all the ground beef recipes that were popular while I was growing up and how I could honor them (and still honor my body).  So today I dragged my sick-ass up out of bed and Lita helped me prepare food for the week and this was one of the creations:

Bison  Stuffed Peppers

1 lb ground bison

6 bell peppers

1 sweet onion diced

6 garlic cloves minced

3 T EVOO

1 large can crushed tomatoes with basil

1 container of cottage cheese or ricotta

1 small container of pitted black kalamata olives (chopped or left whole)

2 cups cooked quinoa, cous cous, or rice

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp salt

fresh ground pepper

cumin and cayenne to taste

crumbled feta for topping (or sharp cheddar, blue cheese, goat cheese...)

Cut the tops off the peppers, pull out the core, and put them on a baking tray  in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes

Saute the onions and garlic in EVOO and add  the bison  - cook until browned. In a large bowl, mix the bison mixture with the rest of the ingredients except for the feta

Stuff the peppers with the mixture and bake for about a half an hour.  The peppers should be soft but not mushy.  
Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes, sprinkle with feta, and serve.

Other things you may want to add... green peas, fresh chopped basil, artichoke hearts, or kidney beans

Finally we have photos!  I have been wanting to put them up for all posts, but we're staying with our friend Brad and Brad's dishes are ugly (sorry Brad!) so we had to wait to find some good thrift store treasures.  I'll try to go back and add photos to the older posts as I make the dishes again.

The Mother

I really love kombucha.
It is so easy, but I do recognize it is one of those things people have a hard time keeping up on.  If you don't have it in you to take care of a really simple living organism, like a goldfish, it might not be your thing.  But when you consider that you pay 4 to 5 dollars for a single serving bottle from a store that is now pasteurized (losing the health benefits of fermentation), it is really appealing to have a gallon of home-made kombucha for the price of 7 tea bags and a cup of organic sugar, even if you have to care for the mother.
We have this beautiful SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) from our friend, Erik, in Hawaii.  I've gotten a few of them over the years and this one is by far the strongest and creates the nicest babies.
I think they are so beautiful.  They remind me of a sea creature, or a full moon...

It takes just a few minutes to prepare:

- Boil one gallon of water (or enough to fill whatever glass container you will let it ferment in)

- Add 7 teabags or the equivalent of loose tea and let it brew for about 20 minutes (tea should be any combination of black, green, white, or oolong)

- Remove the bags and stir in 1 cup of organic sugar

- Let the tea fall to room temperature, pour it into a glass container and add the mother (stringy side down) and 1 cup of kombucha from the last batch.  I've also heard you can use apple cider vinegar (natural, with the culture still intact like Bragg's) if you don't have enough reserved kombucha.

- cover the container with a clean cloth and rubber band and let it sit in the kitchen for about10 days.  You could let it sit much longer - it will get more sour the longer it ferments as the scoby breaks down the sugar and makes the tannins, antioxidants, and the poly-phenols in the tea more bioavailable.  Kombucha contains multiple species of yeast and bacteria along with the organic acids, active enzymes, amino acids, and polyphenols produced by these microbes.  After the process, there is only about 5mg of caffeine per serving.

- Remove the mother and prepare a new batch, or you can put her in a jar; cover her with kombucha, and put it in the fridge (with a lid) until you are ready to start a new batch.  The cool temperature in the refrigerator will stop the fermentation process.  She will now have a new scoby baby attached to the top of her, which you can gently separate, with your fingers and either pass it on to a friend or put it in the compost.

I like to use those huge pickle jars.  They are only about 7 dollars, and if you go to buy a large glass container, you will probably spend closer to 20.  Plus you get pickles.  (yum)
If you want to flavor kombucha, most recipes will suggest that you do it after the fermentation is over and you've removed the mother, because some ingredients may affect her potency.  I have made a few batches with chai tea bags, and had no problem.  They were my favorite so far, although Lita wants to work on a rootbeer flavor, which I'm sure is going to win.

If anyone wants a mother, I can send it!

the master cold remedy

I have been so sick.

I started a new job two weeks ago and part of it is being a nanny.  First of all, it is the best job ever.  And second, it has the perk of gaining a very strong immune system from working with children. 

So I've been thinking a lot about cold remedies.  Our sad western system of taking pills to cure symptoms which in turn damage your organs and extend your healing process just doesn't cut it.  And the common cold is our most common complaint!  There are a few things I do each day to feel better.  I do a steam using oregano in boiling water with a towel over my head.  I use the neti pot morning and night.  And I put eucalyptus oil under my nose, on my throat, and chest.  All these things help.  But the thing that makes me feel the best is my honey vinegar tea.  Almost all the Ancient Egyptian medicine recipes involve honey.  Honey is a perfect medicine.  It is antibacterial, good for dressing wounds, moisturizing skin, works better than over the counter cough syrup, prevents tooth decay, regulates intestinal function, contains antioxidants, and is used to treat a number of chronic diseases.  And it tastes like candy.  Of course, the honey you buy should be raw and unfiltered, and it should be local.  Local honey also helps us build up tolerance to local allergens.

The recipe is simple.

A cup of boiling water that you let fall to about 98 - 101 degrees (body temp)

about a tablespoon or more of honey

a tablespoon of natural apple cider vinegar (unfiltered, still has the mother culture, like Bragg's)

juice from 1/4 lemon

It works every time.

salsa verde de Angelica

During our stay in Chihuahua with our dear friends, Ramón and Angelica, we got to experience the joy and tastebud explosions of authentic Mexican sauces.  Chile Colorado, chipotle, salsa verde...  Angelica spoiled us.  She is a beautiful Mexican medicine woman who taught me a lot about food, herbs, and healing.  La brujita. 

Salsa Verde is an important breakfast staple for me and really easy.  Angelica shared her recipe with love.

- 7 jalapenos

- 1 tomato

- 1 sweet onion cut in half

- 1 sweet bell pepper (for mild) or 1 poblano pepper (for medium)

- 1 head of garlic

- 1 half a bunch of cilantro

- 1/2 - 1 tsp salt

- Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar to taste

There are three ways to roast the vegetables.  You can put them all on tinfoil on a gas or charcoal grill (this is my favorite way) and roast them until they are soft and a little blackened.  Or you can put them all on a cast iron skillet on the stove top.  Or you can put them in a roasting pan and put them in the oven at 400 for about a half an hour or until they are blacking and browning.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.  Then peel the onion and garlic and pull the stems off the peppers, and put everything in the food processor with the salt and cilantro.  I just wash the cilantro and put it all in there - stems and all.

Pulse the mixture while adding vinegar to taste.  I like mine with a lot of vinegar and usually put in about a half a cup or more.  We store it in a glass mason jar.  If you like it hotter, try different pepper varieties.  It is very flexible.

Angelica would take the finished mixture and saute it in a pan with a little olive oil before storing it in the jar, so you can experiment with how that changes the flavor as well.

Last night we mixed the salsa with greek yogurt to make a sauce for dipping quesadillas.

¡Viva México!

finally, hummus

I've been making hummus since I was 17.  I started with canned chik peas and lemon juice from a plastic lemon.  Eventually I got the fresh cooked chik peas down and realized that fresh lemons are important.  But still in 14 years, I was never fully satisfied with the turnout.  It was never creamy like in Middle Eastern restaurants.

Ashlita and I were on our way to Ala' Al-Deen in Victorville, CA for dinner a few months ago.  This is the best restaurant in the area and they have the best hummus and baba ganoush I've ever had.  Lita told me I should ask for tips.  The family who owns the restaurant is from Jordan and people come from LA and Orange County to eat at their little place in the High Desert.  We had a delicious meal of stuffed, marinated grape leaves, falafel, hummus, tabouleh, and baba.  Before leaving I asked the kind man in the kitchen to please share his secret to making the hummus so creamy.  The simplicity of his answer thrilled me.  You put a teaspoon of baking soda into the pot of chik peas while they boil.  This makes every one of those little skins come off the peas, and that is what makes real hummus so creamy.

Here is my recipe:

   2 cups dried chik peas

   1 tsp baking soda

   1/2 - 2/3 cup tahini

   juice from 2 lemons

   1 - 3 cloves fresh garlic (to taste)

   1 - 1 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

   2 - 3 tbsp of reserved water from cooking chik peas

Soak the chik peas over night.  Drain and rinse well and put in a big pot with plenty of water and the baking soda.  Cook for 90 min - 2 hours until they are very soft and the skins are coming off easily.

Reserve a half cup of the water and then drain the peas and rinse well.  Put them back in the pot and fill with cold water.  Use a big slotted spoon to start pulling out the skins.  If you keep stirring the chik peas, skins will keep coming off and floating to the top.  Do this until you've gotten as many as you can.  Drain the chik peas and put them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients.  It will blend very slowly.  If it is too thick, you can add a little of the reserved cooking water.  A little goes a long way, so add it slowly.

You can top it in the bowl with extra virgin olive oil and a shake of paprika and a bit of parsley for presentation.

And of course, there are a million delicious things you can add to your hummus if you want to make different flavors.  Some of my favorites are chipotle powder, fresh basil, or sun-dried tomatoes.

Finally, hummus.