Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 8!

So finally got to the 8th week of this post. A bit after 8 weeks, but it is titled the "Forever Week" so whenever works? The goal here was to have the changes instituted during the course become permanent, which for me they did not. Kinda: I find myself eating less meat and more nuts than I used to. And a lot of veggies: one week's worth of prepped veggies for just myself, though some went into the soon to be opened sauerkraut.

Two recipes of the week, one from the site, one from my heart. Other challenge of Forever Week was "share with someone in your life and reflect on the positive power of real food" so I made the dishes for the Summer Solstice cookout for the community garden, which now has chickens! Challenged myself to cook with veggies we are growing!
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/chard-wraps/
His recipe is probably better but I used more local produce: carrots and radishes instead of peppers and avocados.



Then my recipe:
Wasabi Peas and Ginger candied-sunflower seeds

1 cup wasabi peas (from the store, cheating, I know)

Mixed w/

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp sriracha

1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp ginger powder

Start a skillet on medium heat, adding just a smidge of oil (I recommend coconut oil spray). Once it warms, throw on just the sunflower seeds. Stir constantly to make sure they cook evenly. They will be ready when they start to smoke a bit and are turning golden brown, probably will take 5 minutes. Once they are the desired degree of toasted: throw on rest of ingredients: sugar, sriracha, soy sauce, and ginger, mixing quickly. Continue to cook in skillet as the liquid is cooked off. Once the seeds start clumping together, transfer to dehydrator at 125 degrees or onto a cookie sheet at lowest oven temperature, watching carefully as they crystalize together. Will take about 2 hour by dehydrator or 30 minutes by oven.

The amount of ginger, soy, sugar, and sriracha was low and mild, definitely could have made a stronger dish. But thought the mildness balanced well against the kick of the wasabi!

P.S. Christiani: thanks for visiting and the pic I snagged!
P.P.S. If anyone wants access to the course, let me know!

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 7!

Sorry for silence, got distracted by Step 2CK. But that is behind me now. So now it is time for dessert week.
My favorite one ingredient dessert is date-nut balls. Didn't actually make them recently but the recipe is simple:
1 cup nuts
1 cup dates
Pinch salt, some spices of your choice
Food process together. Wet hands and roll 'dough' into balls. Place if fridge until hungry.
Quick, simple easy. I often vary this up depend on my mood: almonds, almond extract, then take out some dates and put in 1/4 cup cranberries. Or use hazelnuts and cocoa nibs as the nut for a Nutella-like dish.
Or you can use the same recipe as a pie crust! I like using springform pans for easy cleaning, but a normal pie tin works well too.

From there, you can get bold.
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/banana-pie/
Ingredients I used:

• 1 cup nuts (pecans), 1 cup date, blended together
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 2 frozen bananas blended together w/ pinch salt
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter, 2 frozen bananas blended together

Important lessons on this recipe: remember to keep it in the freezer, in the fridge it gets a bit.... runny.

And a next up a few recipe from a cookbook, using blended cashews to make 'cheesecake': coffee chocolate and ginger lime berry! I took photos of the recipes here but dropped the pics from the book so my pies didn't look bad in comparison.
But I was happy how my pies of Black and White (almost) for Game of Thrones finale turned out. The characters I liked getting killed off, not so much.


And since we are on the topic of desserts, shout out to Hummingbird Macaron that opened a few months ago but due to the roof collapsing, they have moved over to Granby for a few weeks along with Cure! Maybe not vegan, but that is okay. Hazelnut praline macaron - ice cream sandwich. And bacon in a macaron! They have normal options too, like nutella, pistachio, and lemon meringue.
https://www.facebook.com/hummingbirdMacarons?fref=ts

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 6!

So this week was 'unrecipe' week. It challenged me to make some of my own recipes, so I will share some of my culinary adventures of the week!
First off, followed the one new recipe from OneIngridientChef:
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/sparkling-sangria/
Well mostly: I lacked prosecco and didn't intend to drink it in one night so used a 'flat' white. Very tart drink but once I added the blueberries and added some basil too, blended together very well!


The first of my recipes was a take on polenta /reversed Shepard's pot pie.
1 cup gluten free polenta
1/4 nutritional yeast
1/4 gluten
3 cups water with some salt, pepper, and dash of vinegar
w/ One bag of mixed veggies from Trader Joe's on top!

So I realize the irony of how I played it out, but gluten really makes the polenta much stickier and hold together better, so not for Celiacs but with nutritional yeast one may accidentally think there is cheese in it. But once it was boiling for 10 minutes, put it in the oven with the cast iron skillet for 30 minutes, getting a nice crust on top. Then I threw the veggies on top with more spices (southwest seasoning) and back in the oven for another 10!

My last one was a very lazy combo dish of canned tomatoes and Beyond Meat's fake ground beef, which is like ground turkey but tastes better. And is quicker to make since I don't have to cook it through. Raw peas are safer than raw meat. So combined it with a can of crushed tomatos, curry powder, and tumeric on the stove top. And plated it with cilantro and basil to help mild the spices! Quick, easy, and nutritious. Plus, all the ingredients keep well so can be easily remade because I buy everything in bulk!

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 5!

First off, my favorite 'one-ingredient' recipe I tried this week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Side_%28cocktail%29
Even got the waitress to give us the recipe they used!

Cheesy Kale Chips
So this week I finally tried kale chips with my dehydrator I got last month. I have done these is the oven before and they are tricky. Some parts of the leaf always dried faster so you have burnt parts, gooey parts, and accidentally just right parts. Fun easy recipe if you can set your oven to 200 degrees, mine would not go that low!
Although I realize many people couldn't do that for this reason, fun recipe to try out, go to showcase for the nutritional yeast/tahini/lemon juice combo for a sharp cheese substitute. I know it isn't a real substitute. But it does taste amazing, trust me! His pics on the left, all pure and vegan vs. mine with homemade sausage and coleslaw (again)!
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/cheesy-kale-chips/


Chickpea "Tuna" Salad

The next recipe I followed from the course is, of course, blocked. So I copied it in below. However, it is very easy, also hits the tahini/lemon combo (I added 2tbsp of yeast when I made this too). I had no nori on hand and would save that for sushi regardless. There are a lot of solid sea-flavored substitutes if you look hard enough, but even without it, chickpea salad would still taste great. Just taste less fishy. Choices include fish sauce (less than vegan), dulse flakes, or seaweed snacks (at Trader Joe's now!).


INGREDIENTS
1 15 oz can chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 stalks celery
3 tablespoons red onion
1/2 sheet nori (optional)
                                                                             
                                                                                                                                The spices I threw into my dish: lemon pepper and seaweed flavoring!

Step One

First, use a kitchen strainer to thoroughly rinse and drain the can of chickpeas. Then, add them to the food processor with the tahini, lemon juice, garlic powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper until partially broken down, but not completely smooth.

Step Two

Chop the celery and red onion into small chunks, then throw them into the processor as well, along with half a sheet of nori (optional) to add a mild oceany flavor to the spread. Pulse several times until incorporated.

Step Three

At this point, you’re basically done, taste a piece of this spread and feel free to add anything else it needs: salt? Garlic powder? Lemon juice? Go for it. In addition, feel free to add a tablespoon or two of water if you’d prefer a thinner consistency.

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 4!

So I made two recipes from the site this week, again!

http://www.oneingredientchef.com/sweet-potato-shepherds-pie/
I have made this with my brother a few times but usually throw some meat down as an additional bottom layer so my father and him will eat it. But this time I stayed true to the recipe. Besides switching out sweet potatoes for white sweet potatoes (because they were on hand). This made the dish a little bit milder and look more like normal shepherds pie. But without the meat, I think it was actually better. Much lighter so it drew out the flavor of the lentils and tomato.

http://www.oneingredientchef.com/vegan-meat-sauce/
So for this one, it is quick to make if you have the burgers on hand, which I usually don't. I just go with BeyondMeat's beef instead: quick and easy. And decently priced if fake meat is your thing and you buy in bulk from Organic Food Depot. http://beyondmeat.com/



In more exciting adventures, played with my Kitchen Aid this week to make lamb merguez sausage then grilled it with the waffle iron, which worked better than the time with the bean hash. Didn't look too much like sausage when it came out, but tasted excellent and was properly crisped. I then quickly roasted onions and garlic with the waffle iron and threw them on my homemade chips for nachos for Game of Thrones: Nachos of Black and White!
Black = chocolate with coffee cashew cream with craisins
White = mango salsa, roasted beans, cilantro, onions, and garlic

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/08/homemade-merguez-sausage-recipe.html
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=778811

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 3!

So this week was a quick recipe, the "8-Minute Black Bean Soup"
http://www.oneingredientchef.com/black-bean-soup/ but the name is a bit misleading, takes a bit longer than 8 minutes to make and less than 8 minutes to eat!
However, it is a quick and light dish, with no oil, sautee, and minimal cutting involved. His ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients:

• 2 15 oz cans of black beans
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth (or water)
• 1 large roma tomato
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro
• 1 clove of garlic

• 1 lime, juice
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 avocado (optional)

I went on the edge and used green lentils (dried) instead of black beans since I am a fan of the crunchier texture. Also probably why it took longer than 8 minutes. Also used a (preserved) lemon due to lack of limes, which would have been better. I was also heavy on the spices since I think Sriracha is sweet: I would follow his suggested amounts.

But if you were being true to the recipe, only 3 things to cut so it really is a breeze. Because there is no frying/oil/cheese/meat involved, the dish is very light and fresh. If you want something with more 'umami', just add what you feel to the recipe. I would probably go with something on the lighter end like a white fish, but follow your heart!

In other news, Sentara Cafeteria has this cute little display! They did eventually add some greens to it but aren't selling it at this time. However, they promise me a "farmer's market" at some point this Spring from local farmers. Hopefully this comes to fruit so it saves me trips to the grocery store!

Cooking from one ingredient items, Week 2!

So as stated, this week was breakfast week, which I always skipped. Except for the one day I made cookies for that evening and enjoyed the dough. But all from one ingredients!

The one recipe I did try for brinner last night was: http://www.oneingredientchef.com/waffle-hashbrowns/

Didn’t have a green bell pepper on hand though so substituted chipotles, jalapenos, and beets instead. I like spicy and bright colors, so worked for me. The hash mix was pretty easy to assemble but I had misgiving about putting it in the Belgian waffle iron, which I had never used before (main reason I was going with this recipe). So threw the ‘batter’ in, which obviously didn’t spread too well so I had to spread it with a bit of pressure and crossed my fingers it would hold well. It didn’t. But after removing the hash from the non-stick iron, I disguised the destroyed ‘waffle’ with an avocado, celery root (also ironed!), parsley, and lemon. I think it looks presentable. And tasted delicious.

After re-reading the post, was drawn to a helpful line: “NOTE: as readers have suggested, adding 1-2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour to the mixture before cooking will result in waffles that are much easier to remove in one piece. Thanks, guys!” May actually be worth trying again with this advice!

My other cooking adventure for the week was making a few dishes for my dogs second birthday. Cooked him up collard greens, heart tartare, and heart jerky (with my new dehydrator!). Needless to say, I really just wanted to continue testing out pork heart. Knowing this isn’t most people’s cup of tea, if you are curious about tartare, check out this article: https://food52.com/blog/12354-how-to-make-steak-tartare-at-home for a quick history lesson! Not too surprisingly, Beau and the other dogs happily ate everything and so did I!

Because someone asked me about hard to find products in Norfolk, I get most of my ‘eccentric’ ingredients/brands from organic food depot: https://www.organicfooddepot.com/ where I order stuff online from a wide selection and it gets delivered to their store on 20^th and Granby (at very good prices).

Quick reminder that we have a brunch next Sunday at Pendulum and it will only be $5 for FiM members! RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/a/email.wm.edu/spreadsheets/d/1lzJni0xj8E1jfMSK2UXOpRjLhV_cOmUvJ_stCkhvSZU/edit#gid=220842482