Jamaican Me Crazy

Ok... confession time.

For as much as I make fun of my mom's Shepherd's Pie, I actually like it.  A lot.  So much that I've made a couple different vegetarian versions of hers.  They were good, but not like hers, they were all missing that secret ingredient only moms can add (Hint:  it's love)

So... the other day I was brainstorming a new version.  Coincidentally, it was cold and snowy, and I was thinking of a line from Jimmy Buffett's Boat Drinks:  "Lately, newspaper mentions cheap air fare, I gotta to fly to Saint Somewhere" and it hit me...

Jerk Shepherd's Pie!

A quick survey of what I had on hand revealed I had all necessary ingredients, so cooking commeneced.  It turned out better than I expected - sweet, spicy, and very filling.  Carol loved it, and she's finicky as anything  It only lacked one thing, mom's special ingredient.

Here's how I made it - feel free to improvise with what you have on hand.

Jerk Shepherd's Pie

1 12 oz bag Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
1 small onion, chopped
1 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Caribbean jerk sauce (I used World Harbors)
4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese.
1 tbs Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.  Heat oil in a large skillet, then add crumbles and onions and saute until onions soften and brown slightly.  Stir in the jerk sauce, mushrooms, veggies, salt & pepper and cook about 5 minutes more.  Spoon the mixture into a 9x5 baking dish and sprinkle with the cheese.  Spread the mashed sweet potatoes over this (Note:  This works best if they are warm.  Cold mashed potatoes don't spread very well) and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until it's heated all the way through.

That's it, makes about 6 servings.  Douse it with some Pick-a-Peppa or other hot sauce of your choice and dig in. You'll be glad you did.

Scenes from Findlay Market

After walking the Queen City Underground Tour, I was going to head to Soho Sushi, but I decided to put that off until Carol could join me.  Instead, I headed to the Findlay Market nearby.

Findlay Market has been around since1852 and is the longest running public market in Ohio. Local farmers come and sell their produce, crafters sell their goods, and all kinds of other trinkets and goodies abound

Fresh produce of all varieties make this a vegetarian's heaven.

 

Or other offerings appeal to the carnivores

Trotters?  No thanks.

You can grab a quite bite at several places there, like the World Food Bar

Taste of Belgium (Get a waffle, you must.)

Dojo Gelato - Dogfish Pumpkin Ale Gelato, you can thank me later

Or something a little sweeter

When I lived in University Heights, I used to shop at Findlay Market all the time, I could take the bus right down the hill and get all my groceries for the week.  Carol and I are going to start shopping there more, we're planning weekly menus that will concentrate on fresh ingredients and minimal waste. What better place than Findlay Market?

Corn Cob Cutter

I have had one of these in my kitchen for quite a while now. I thought it was a pretty cool tool, it would just zip the kernels right off the cob. Easy, right?

Wrong...

For a couple reasons. First, I like corn on the cob just the way it is, no need to remove it from the cob prior to eating. And B, on the occasions I have tried to use it, the corn is too big. Today for example - I stopped at a roadside stand (Ok, it wasn't really on the side of the road, it was in the parking lot of Westen Bowl) and bought some fresh corn, tomatoes, and a yellow zuchinni for a dinner idea. After shucking and steaming the corn, the cob cutter just wasn't up to the task. My trusty santoku was more than adequate though.

It not only made short work of decompiling the kernels (nerd alert), it also chopped three tomatoes and chiffoned some fresh basil. These all got tossed into a bowl with about 3 Tbs of olive oil, 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice, some zest from the lime, and a 15oz can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.

While that tasty mixture was being assembled, a box of whole-wheat spaghetti was busy boiling in anticipation of the tasty sauce.

An interjection: Carol is not used to pasta not being smothered in a red sauce. She looked at what I was making, and asked if I was going to add anything else to it while pointing at the can of tomato paste in the open cabinet. I said nope, this is the sauce right here. She looked a little leery, but she trusts my kitchen skills :)

When the pasta was done, I tossed in the de-cobbed corn to heat it just a little more, then drained it all. Back into the pot it went along with the sauce. A couple good stirs and it was good to go.

Yeah, it was good. Pretty dang good. Carol had seconds...

And to cap it off, fresh, seeded watermelon. Not that unseeded, tasteless crap. Real watermelom has seeds.

Tofu Xpress

Entering into the world of vegetarian eating has opened up new avenues of cooking and ingredients.  I've done a lot of cooking in my days, and I've used a lot of different ingredients, but one thing I've never cooked with before was tofu.

Tofu... the name brings up images of a tasteless, white blob.  Pretty much accurate, except that tofu is very versatile and can be used almost everywhere meat is. I'll admit to a certain amount of apprehension when I first used tofu.  When the results were, to put it lightly, less than edible, I was ready to give up on cooking with tofu.  But, I did a little research and picked up a few tips.

The big thing I found was draining/pressing the tofu.  Pressing removes the water from tofu, allowing it to absorb more flavor from the ingredients it cooked with.  So I had a block of extra-firm tofu  wrapped in paper towels on a cutting board, and a 10" cast-iron skillet sitting on top of it to push the water out.  It worked, to a point.  There weren't enough towels to absorb the water so it ended up running all over the counter, but the tofu was reduced to about 3/4 the thickness.  I sliced it into portions and fried it, and it came out good, better than prior attempts, but it still wasn't quite there.

Back to the interwebbernets for more research.  That's when I stumbled on the Tofu Xpress.  I looked at it, and looked at it, and finally, after months of waffling, went for it.  Holy cow!  I should have ordered this months ago!

It's pretty simple in concept, the developer talks about how she came up with it on the website.  A container for the tofu and a lid that locks down and puts constant, steady pressure on the block.  The first time I used the Tofu Xpress I was amazed at how much water came out of one block of extra-firm tofu after one hour in the fridge - more than I got out using the cast-iron press on the counter.  And bonus, you can marinate the tofu in the same container after you're doing pressing it, it comes with a lid as well.  You can also use it for pressing the water out of thawed frozen spinach or eggplant slices.

The tofu dishes I've made since I got this have been great, the texture is very dense and meaty - very similar to the tofu I'm used to from Thai and Chinese restaurants.  

I'll be making this this week:

Spicy Orange/Garlic Tofu

1 block extra-firm tofu, well pressed and diced into cubes

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup orange juice

Sriracha sauce, to taste.

2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 3 tbsp water

Sauté tofu and garlic in olive oil for 3-4 minutes, until tofu is just lightly browned. In a seperate bowl, wisk soy sauce, orange juice, rice vinegar, Sriracha, and ginger.  Pour over tofu and stir to coat  Heat for 3-4 minutes, then add cornstarch and water, stir andrbing to a boil and cook until thick.

Serve over brown rice

Check out the Tofu Xpress website, it has a lot of good info and demos.  It's a worthwhile investment, buy yours here!

Myra's

This past Friday, Carol and I went to dinner with our friends Shawn and Katy, of Foodluv.net fame and more.  Our destination:  Myra’s Dionysus.  It's been quite a few years since I've been to Myra's, and this would be Carol's first visit.  It was pretty much as I remembered, small, quaint, cozy, and filled with incredible smells and a display case of goodies right inside the door.

After negotiating the parking lot tundra and the Sidewalk of Doom, we were lucky to score a table right away, right - if you've never been to Myra's, the seating is at a premium.  But the food is well worth it.  Seriously - vegetarians/vegans and carnivores alike will find something there.

The menu is full of choices to suit anyone's palate, and the four of us all found, after some hemming and hawing, tasty comestibles on which to sup.  Carol went with the baked tofu with kecap manis and lime over sesame noodles with vegetables.  I couldn't decide on any one thing and went with a sampler plate of pulao - Indian spices with coconut and raisins in brown rice served with a hot parsley chutney, the same baked tofu as Carol, and warm sesame noodles in a spicy peanut sauce.  Oh yeah.. it was tasty. 

Shawn went with Hoppin' Juan - Brown rice and black beans with a picante tomato salsa and onions - it usually has cheese, but since he and Katy are vegan, he opted not to get it.  Katy chose one of the dishes I had been considering, Claudia's Creation - Chinese black bean sauce with sherry & garlic, garnished with mandarin oranges & broccoli and served over brown rice.  She wasn't overly pleased with that, so I'm glad I didn't order it.  Shawn was happy with his however.

Myra's is a great stop if you're looking for an inexpensive vegetarian meal, just be aware that the service can be a bit slow sometimes, but everyone who works there very friendly. They feature artwork from local artists which changes on a semi-regular basis, and they have a free(!) parking lot, which is a rarity in that neighborhood.  We will definitely be repeat customers, especially in the warmer months when the patio is open.

Week 1 down

It went well, there wasn't any real challenge to overcome. The first week I planned on taking things easy, I have bigger things planned for coming weeks...

I improvised a casserole with Quorn nuggets instead of chicken, potatoes, and mixed veggies.  Came out pretty well, and very filling.  We had pizza one night - tomatoes and spinach, and had enough left over for lunch the next day.  Salmon & tilapia found there way into our bellies as well.

Some recipes I have my eye on...

Vegan Curry

Root Vegetable Shepherd's Pie

Traditional Baked Ziti (I'll make my own sauce for this one)

My pal Chaz hooked me up with some stock recipes, I'm going to make a big batch of veggie stock to freeze into portions - we'll be using a lot of this for making brown rice, quinoa, and soups.

And check out Foodluv's post on vegetarian/vegan options at Dunkin Donuts!

Hi There

Hi! This is the first post in my year-long experiment of eliminating red meat and poultry from my diet. Fish, dairy, and eggs are ok, and of course tofu/seitan/tempeh and many of the products from Morningstar Farms, Quorn, & Boca, among others.

Drop in from time to time and see how I'm doing, offer suggestions/praise/encouragement/, check out recipes and experiments, and product reviews.

Peace!