Internet is Life

I have all these idyllic ideas about agricultural life pre the industrial revolution.  It was a time when things were simpler, and everyone picked their own wheat and made their own bread and read books together at night like the Bennet's.  It all seems so much better than the industrialization of our modern Western world complete with the chemical fest that is commercial farming and Pokemon Go, which I have to say, is destroying my hope for humanity.  As I dodge the crowd of adolescent zombies walking through our downtown streets staring at their screens and running into me, I become worried that we are all that Ray Bradbury predicted and Pokemon Go is exposing this tragic truth.

Then I made my own bread. For weeks I woke up in the morning and scooped from my starter some globs of what looks like pancake batter and placed it in a new bowl with fresh flour and water, this is feeding my starter. Then I wash the bowl, which inevitably takes twenty minutes due to the concrete hold the starter has on the glass, but it’s the price I pay to be granola.  A quick note, it should be said that the term granola needs a positive connotation I am not ok with all the hate. Then the day came where I used a bit of my little starter I’ve been growing and added flour, water and salt to make my dough!

At this point the idea of bread making was still very romanticized, I was just a little 1950’s housewife swept off her feet by sourdough.  So every thirty minutes for four hours I went into the kitchen to turn my dough, which is sort of like kneading it.  After the four hours of rising I got to shape my dough into a round loaf. This is where things took a turn. I’m not going to try and explain the catastrophe that was the dough shaping, I would rather let you imagine pouring a bowl of thick pancake batter on your counter and trying to get it into a ball without it sticking to your hands. Trever happened to be munching on some chips standing dangerously close to the counter while I was in the middle of this process and asked innocent questions that almost made my head explode, so I held up my sticky batter hands and yelled, “no it’s not supposed to look like this.” Woah, I lost my 1950's housewife cool for a second.

Another four hours I waited until I got to transfer my globby sticky mess into my dutch oven where I was meant to cut small slices in the dough so it would rise properly. It was at this point I was fairly certain I had failed. Imagine again with me cutting slices into weak, wet, batter…it’s like, what’s the point? So I aggressively jammed the knife into the sorry lump and huffed at the calamity of it all. Then it baked and came out like a very heavy and dense ball that resembled, in some distant way, bread.  I think Trever felt a bit of panic over the failure of my day-long baking saga that went south.  I know this because when I squeezed the bread it’s supposed to make a crunching sound and when it kind of did he got ecstatically happy and congratulated me on my feat of accomplishment.  “Ooh yum, it tastes just like sourdough. No the texture is fine.  Ya it’s a little dense but I LIKE IT. Ironic how I just started a diet huh? No bread for me, but good job babe!”  What a dear.

I realize now, that if I were to somehow travel in time to the days prior to the fabulous and brilliant industrial revolution, I would have spent all my days surviving.  You just spend the whole day making bread, and then you eat it, and that’s it, because all you have time to do is make bread because it is so damn hard. 

But I do not give up quite so easily, so I made bread a second time and it was much better. I brought it to my sister’s house and we all ate it with cheese and celebrated the bread, something I will never again take for granted.  The irony is my dramatic improvement on round two was thanks to You Tube bakers who showed me what to do, thank God for the internet.  Ray Bradbury had no idea what he was missing. 

Maqluba

A very traditional Arab and Israeli meal is a rice dish called maqluba. We were served it so many times during our trip, I got home and was mad about finding a way to make it. It's usually made with some sort of meat, but I altered the recipe to make a vegetarian version.  The original recipe came from Jerusalem, which is an amazing collaboration of recipes from an Israeli & a Palestinian chef. 

Place eggplant slices on a paper towel to pull out any excess water. 

Rinse the rice and place it in a bowl with veggie broth and spices - set aside. 

Put a tsp. of coconut oil (or high heat oil of your choice) in a large saucepan and grill onions over medium heat until caramelized  - set aside. Do the same with the cauliflower & eggplant until lightly browned, set aside and sprinkle with salt. The eggplant will want to soak up a lot of oil, but don't keep adding oil or it will get mushy. 

Wipe out the pan and place a sheet of parchment paper the same diameter as the pan on the bottom.  Brush melted butter on the parchment paper and up the sides of the pan. 

Layer the sliced tomato, then the eggplant, cauliflower & finally grilled onions.  Pour the rice mixture over the vegetables and add garlic.  Make sure the rice is covered with liquid, bring to a boil, cover & lower to medium heat for 30 minutes.  

Turn the heat off, place a tea towel over the rice and cover again for 10 more minutes.  

This gets tricky, but put a plate over the pan and flip fast so the rice dish is upside down on your platter. Fancy. 

If you want to add a side yogurt sauce (which I highly recommend) just mix together a small carton of greek yogurt, thin slices of 1/2 of an English cucumber, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp fresh chopped mint & the juice of one lemon.  

Maqluba Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant cut into 1/4" rounds

1 2/3 cups basmati rice

1 Large onion

Coconut Oil

3 medium ripe tomatoes cut into 1/4" rounds

1 Medium Cauliflower divided into large florets 

3 Large cloves of garlic halved 

1 Tsp. Tumeric, Cinnamon, All Spice & Baharat

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper & salt 

Kumquat Bonanza

My sister's kumquat tree is HUGE and produces so much fruit.  When I got to her new house she didn't know what they were so I raided her tree and told her to love them. Kumquats are a type of fruit that is common in most of Asia and sort the red headed step citrus here in America. It's a cross between an orange and a lime, so it's tangy and sweet and a little bitter. You can eat the skins, so eat them like grapes. 

We had three baskets full so I called my friend Annette who makes a kumquat reduction sauce that mixes with champagne for a delicious spring cocktail.  You can also just mix it with sparking water if you prefer. Maybe even drizzle it over Crepes, or Vanilla Ice Cream with a little sea salt sprinkled on top (this idea courtesy of Taylor Neece who is always making better food choices than everyone else at the table).  So if you have a tree with what you thought were uneatable baby oranges used for decoration, don't let them go to waste. 

Place kumquats in a blender or food processor. Add water to cover the fruit and puree.

Pour contents of blender into a strainer an use the back of a spoon to force the juice through the strainer. Toss out the mass and the seeds.

Put the juice into a saucepan and heat with sugar added to taste.  (Don't omit the sugar otherwise it won't thicken properly).  Keep adding sugar until the flavor is a good ratio of bitter, tangy and sweet.  

Stir over medium heat until it's thickened to the consistency of maple syrup. 

Now you're ready for a kumquat mimosa. 

Grilled Vegetable Salad with a Black Bean Vinaigrette

There is a restaurant close to us that makes the most amazing vegetable plate.  One of the things I love about the food  in the middle east is that they aren't afraid to serve veggies.  Here everything has to have meat and if it doesn't it's a heavy pasta dish.  Vegetables can be good and filling, they can be a whole meal and make your appetite happy, I swear.  

1 Zucchini, 2 Carrots, 15ish White Mushrooms, 1 Yellow Onion, 1 Bell Pepper, 1 Avocado, 2 Corncobs, Fresh Rosemary, Fresh Thyme, Mixed greens , 1 Can of Black Beans, Olive Oil, Agave Nectar or Honey

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  

Dice zucchini, carrots, onion, bell pepper & mushrooms. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Don't overcrowd the cookie sheet or the veggies will steam and they'll be mushy (in my photo they are overcrowded, don't follow my example).  Sprinkle veggies with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary & fresh thyme. Place the veggies in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. 

While the vegetable are cooking lay out a bed of lettuce.  Drain the liquid from a can of black beans into a small dish and set aside, place the beans on the lettuce. Cube an avocado and sprinkler over the salad.

Place a grill pan over medium/high heat.  Drizzle Olive Oil and sprinkle salt and pepper over 2 corncobs and place in the pan.  Turn every few minutes until the corn is grilled, about 10 minutes.  When it's finished cut the corn from the cob and sprinkle over salad.  

For the Dressing Whisk together the liquid from the black bean can (about 1/4 cup), 3 tbsp. Olive Oil, 2 tsp. red wine vinegar & a squeeze of agave nectar. 

When the veggies are finished pull them out and let them cool for 5 minutes.  Place them on top of the salad, drizzle with dressing, and yum. 

Photos by the ever fabulous Kayla Adams, who didn't stay for lunch because she got In-n-out to avoid eating 'leaves' as she calls them.  It broke my heart, it broke my little protein deficient heart.