four excellent things
With the gloom clouds lifting from my own, private Gotham, I have four Excellent Things to share with you:
1. The Willie Nelson video of Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other (thanks for sending, Mr. Goatman). Nothing like some karaoke drag queens and absurdly cute line dancers with great bums in their jeans to brighten my day. Also – a little verklempt, the queers I know in rural places having had their heads put through windshields and such.
2. ACT UP 20th anniversary demonstration: Activists staged a die-in today on Wall Street, affirming our human right to health care and demanding a national insurance plan in the U.S. The march, memorial, body bag dump at the Wall Street bull, and arrests recalled the historic first demonstrations by ACT UP on its 20th anniversary. In addition to the old ACT UP vangaurd, the crowd included people living with HIV/AIDS, at least one “Granny for Peace,” and some doctors who have never participated in civil disobedience before.
3. Short jump from bad-ass AIDS activists to the folks at Just Food. Just Food is empowering communities to generate the good food people need, the environment needs, and our economy needs while also advocating and educating for the necessary systemic changes to ensure more communities can have good food. They are looking for “community chefs,” and the announcement is pasted below.
4. My first muffin recipe post! Continuing with the cornmeal trend and the last of this year’s pears (maybe?). It is becoming spring pretty quick…mmmmm, spring greens…
Job Title: Community Chef Organization: Just Food Location: New York City Salary: PT Temporary
Job Description: Just Food is looking for people to join its team of Community Chefs. To become a Community Chef, Just Food will train you through a series of classes. You will learn how to facilitate workshops about local, seasonal cooking and eating; basic nutrition; fruit and vegetable identification; recipe creation; knife skills; and food storage and preparation. As a Community Chef, you will inspire and empower New Yorkers to create delicious and healthy meals for themselves and their families.
The training to become a Community Chef costs $100, however, the fee may be paid in installments that are deducted from your stipend or it can be paid in full at the time of the training.
Community Chefs are paid a $100 stipend per cooking demonstration workshop. Eligible Applicants:
Are great cooks
Are able to answer basic nutrition questions
Are able to plan health-supportive meals and recipe
Are concerned about eating local and where their food comes from
Are independent, self sufficient workers
Work well with groups
Are outgoing with a desire to teach
Are able to think on their feet with creative flare
Are willing to travel on public transportation with cooking equipment in tow
Applicants should contact Angela Davis, Community Food Education Program Coordinator, via e-mail at Angela@justfood.org. Organization Web Site: www.justfood.org
muffins—pear cherry cornmeal
dry ingredients
wet ingredients
- ¼ cup of oil
- 1 cup of soy milk soured with 1 capful of vinegar
- egg replacer equivalent to two eggs
bits
- 2 medium sized pears
- 1 cup of dried, unsweetened cherries
- ¾ cup crushed walnuts
heat your oven to 400ºF.
oil a standard sized muffin tin. I have three sizes: mini, standard, and pan that makes those perfectly mushroom shaped biggie muffins you would see in a café (but probably wouldn’t really want to eat because they’re mass produced and taste like Jiffy Mix if anything; unless it is a lovely café, in which case the treat’s probably gonna run you $3). As a general preference, I use the standard or mini size for vegan muffins.
carefully peel two medium sized, ripe pears, or leave one peeled, the skin is nice for texture. I used Anjou pears. Chop them into muffin-sized chunks. Cut a pear in half then into quarters. Slice out the core. Slice each quarter into 3 parts and then cut across the fan to make 4 or 5 rows of bits.
crush the walnuts; I like them in pea-sized bits. Slice the dried cherries in half if you have that kind of time.
sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients. Stir in the fruit and nut bits. This is the basic technique for all muffins. Dry, wet, bits. It’s cake (ha ha).
bake for about 35 minutes or until a knife slid through the top of a muffin comes out clean.
these yummy treats are based on the Raspberry Cornmeal Muffins in How it all Vegan, by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer, an old vegan standard.
santa fe
Things have been a bit slurry and slumpish in the Big Apple. The kids are throwing rocks at each other in the fenced off grass near the subway stop, and my self-generated negative mantras have droned on and on and on.
So we went to Santa Fe even though we couldn’t afford the travel. The sunsets are free, and that’s what we needed most anyway: to stand under the sky and feel small in an awesome and uplifting way not desperate, scrambling or scared.
We put 500 miles on the Jeep – a rental inadvertently upgraded by late-night arrival in Albuquerque. We listened to Patty Griffin and “other music to bury your dog by,” and at night, we read in the bathtub.
A Native artist, selling art too beautiful for all of us tourists in the city center, told me the story of a necklace, a brushed silver square with a stylized stalk of corn with root systems wrapping around an oval of bloodstone. “Corn is life,” he said.
So we made cornbread and veg stew and kicked a bottle of Jack with some friends, and tried to understand our broken hearts a little better. Each other’s and our own. I was one sad little muffin kitten, resting in the security of a decade of friendship and seeking insight and grace.
When I got back, one of my favorite kitchen witches text messaged me this poem:
wild geese by mary oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Right – my place in the family of things; in tune with the cycles of being. I am struggling to get there intellectually and spiritually, but in the teeny realm of kitchens, the learning is a little easier. Coming home from Santa Fe, I’ve wanted to practice with any and all recipes featuring cornmeal.
broccoli rabe quiche
- butter
- all purpose flour
- cornmeal
- ice water
The filling:
Crust
be not afraid! Remember – the freezer will help you make yummy, foolproof pastry. Cut up 6 tablespoons of butter then stash the butter bits in the freezer for a few minutes.
combine the cold fat with 3/4 cup all purpose flour sifted together with 3/4 cup cornmeal (there will be some grit but just dump that in, you aren’t trying to get rid of it, just fluff the dry stuff). If you have a food processor, you can whir this all together until it is crumbly, like soft gravel (about four bursts should do it). If not, then you can use a pastry cutter, two forks, two knives, or your hands (which is what I do and prefer).
work the dough with your fingers, freeze it for a few more moments, then use a wooden spoon to stir in just enough water so the dough holds together. See also the directions for the pastry pockets given before.
pat out your pie dough into a flat circle and roll it to form a crust. Lay it into a 9- or 10- inch pie pan (or a cast iron skillet).
Pie
heat your oven to 375.
clean about ½ a bunch of broccoli rabe, enough to fill a large skillet heaping full. Green, leafy things tend to cook down more than you would expect, but you only need enough rabe to make a layer in the pie. Heat a heavy skillet on the stove top, and add a tablespoon or two of butter. Sauté the rabe until bright green and nearly tender – maybe 8 minutes. While the greens are cooking, grate a whole lemon so the zest falls into the pan then squeeze each lemon half, adding the juice to the greens. I do a sort of squeeze and flick number, squeezing the lemon half a little then shaking the about-to-escape seeds into the sink.
grate about ½ a cup worth of pecorino cheese, and spread it over the bottom of the pie. While you are prepping, crush a handful of pine nuts, maybe with a bit of sea salt.
whisk together 4 eggs, 1 cup of ricotta cheese, and 3 tablespoons of flour. Spread the broccoli rabe over the cheese, pour the egg mixture over the rabe layer, then top with the crushed pine nuts and a generous sprinkling of paprika.
bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until solid in the center. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
simple stuffed mini squash
- 3 baby acorn squash – you can use any squash, but we had these absurdly cute mini-acorn (acorn-like acorn) squash at the coop
-
mushrooms – any and all sorts would be good
- fresh sage
- pine nuts – if you’ve got ‘em; try subbing pecan/walnut bits, maybe sunflower seeds
- millet
- olive oil
- sea salt
- pecorino cheese
heat a heavy skillet over a medium-high flame (for medium high on a gas stove – turn it up all the way then back a quarter turn; that’s about right). Toast (slightly browned; nutty smelling) 1 cup of millet. Dump into a sauce pan or pot with a lid, and add 1 ¾ cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes. When the millet absorbs all the water, take it off the heat and fluff with a fork.
toast ½ cup of pine nuts too, and put them aside.
halve the squash and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Pour a little olive oil into the hollow of each of the squash, sprinkle a little sea salt and let them hang out soaking while the oven heats to 350. Turn them over onto a cookie sheet, slide them about to oil the sheet, and bake for 20 minutes to half an hour, until soft.
chop two generous handfuls of mushrooms (about a cup and a half chopped or more; more is tasty). I picked out the smallest crimini mushrooms I can find and just slice them thin, stem and all. If you select larger mushrooms, just pop of the stems, tossing them if they’re really woody or mincing them for the stuffing if they’re nice. In the skillet over medium heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until soft.
shred a handful of fresh sage. Toss it with the cooked mushrooms along with a bit of sea salt. Shred enough pecorino to scatter on top of final assembly (three inches of a wedge ought to do it).
when the millet is fluffy, stir the mushrooms and pine nuts into the millet. Stuff your squash halves. Top with some cheese. Slide the whole shebang into the oven for quarter of an hour or until the cheese is melted.
Fancy Stuffed Squash
(from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977, 1999, 2000)
same process, but for the stuffing:
1 cup raw brown rice cooked with 1 ¾ cups water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups minced onion
1 to 2 tbs honey or brown sugar
2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium sized tart apples, diced
3 large navel oranges, sectioned
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice or cloves
1 cup chopped almonds
Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until translucent.
Add garlic, apples, oranges, and spices, and sauté over medium heat about 5 more minutes. The oranges may fall apart, but that’s ok.
Add the sauté to the rice and mix well. Season to taste with salt and honey or brown sugar.
Fill the pre-baked squash halves, and top with chopped nuts.
And dear, dear Mollie recommends serving with Orange-Ginger Sauce on page 90. Oh, yes:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup of orange juice
2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
¼ cup of soy sauce
salt, pepper, and cayenne, to taste
Other Additions
½ tablespoon grated orange rind
1 to 2 tablespoons honey or dry sherry
1 scallion/green onion, finely minced
Place cornstarch in a small bowl (if you are using this for stir-fried vegetables) or in a small saucepan (if you’re using this for anything else).
Add orange juice, and whisk until the cornstarch dissolves. Stir in all remaining ingredients (including optional additions).
If you are using this sauce for stir-fried vegetables, stir from the bottom and add to the wok or skillet about midway through the cooking (see detailed instructions on the previous 2 pages). If you are using this for anything else, place the saucepan over medium heat, and gradually bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Lower heat to a simmer and cook, whisking frequently, until thick and glossy (3 to 5 minutes). Serve hot or warm.
