mother nature treats us

one day after a long trip away from home

i am a carnivore some days

and sometimes on those days i love it.

Vegan Miso Ancho Quinoa Corn Black Bean Chowder

ok, i dont have a pic for this yet, but i will get one posted, even though its not the puhrtiest stew in the book its certainly one of my tastiest.

moar bad bmpsSo this is a recipe for a great Chowder i made over the weekend. start with the usual two/three cloves garlic and a white onion and sautee over olive oil. add 1-2 Tb of ancho chili powder, paprika, 3 tien tsen chilis, 1 ts nanami-togarashi, 3 Tb parsley, 1 Tb chives, 2 ts ground red pepper, 2 ts ground mustard, 1/2 ts lemon grass. Add 2 Tb white miso paste, 2 ts vegetable base. Also add 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/8 cup bragg's aminos, and enough cheap white wine to completely submerge everything. simmer it down for a few minutes.

now we get to adding ingredients, heres the sandbox. i went with 3 carrots (skinned then thredded), 1 can corn, 1 can black beans (both rinsed); and 1 18oz pack of quinoa polenta (from Ancient Harvest, red and black heirloom) that i cut into 1/2" cubes. i began by adding the quinoa and carrots, cooking them down quite a bit (20ish mins), then adding the corn/beans. once it had all cooked together for a total of 30 mins (and i had added more spices like salt, black pepper, sage, thyme and some extra lemongrass), i took about 5-6 cups out and ran it through the food processor. this altered the consistency from a jambalaya to a chowder.

anyway, i let it finish stewing for another 10-15 mins till where the flavors were really working together (cumin would be the only additional one i would add were it not for a.b's injunction regarding that verboten spice). then i put it into a casserole dish, poured about 5 Tb of cashew cheese from the day before on top and threw it into the fridge to wait to be baked (350F for about 40mins) and went and bought a nice sourdough loaf of sweet onion bread to serve with the soup.

in summary, what is a better name for this dish? its spicey in three different ways, savory, and hearty as an ox. im thinking "three alarm ox chowder?" leave me a comment about what it should be called.

PLAN: tien tsin tomato sauce

mmmmmmmmm

a.b made stuffed shells last night, and ive been thinking about it. how to work it? im thinking of jarring a roasted tomatillo sauce and preparing with zuccini. now i just have to wait until i can get tomaters.

im referring these hot lil guys ----->

Apr0n: Red Cabbage Chao(s)

this was a straight forward cook it down and serve it up. you take a package of spinach penne and cook it. this will be your base, but brown rice would also be pretty good. anyway, thats the most obvious part. for the tasty bits you'll have to have Red Cabbage. its the real backbone of this meal.

basically, start it all off the usual way, medium-low heat to olive oil, garlic, white onions sauteeing in a deep frying/stewing pan until done (you know, soft, translucent). hit the mess with a healthy dose of paprika. you can add any other spices/herbs you want, but i think the paprika was all that i really found gawdam i really should leave all the food picture taking to a.b im terrible at it for seriouseessential (there will be a note on red pepper later). next, peel two carrots with a grater, discard the skin, then grate them the rest of the way. take that heap of carrot ribbons, chop them into smaller bits (i went for squares that were the width of the shred). throw them into the onions and stuff. take half a head of Red Cabbage, i tried to shred it, but chopping was easier and equally effective as long as you break it up by hand when dropping it into the pan. drain and rinse a can of corn, add about 2/3 to all of the corn to the mix. about 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/8 cup of Bragg's and you should have a pretty good base going on.

now thats going to need to cook down for awhile. i'd recommend putting some water on to boil for the pasta at this point. when the water is boils, before you add the pasta, add two stalks of chopped broccoli to the mix. after you add the pasta, pour a few splashes of dry white wine into the mix and turn it up medium-high, this should help everything cook down but retain its firmness and texture. by the time the pasta is done, hopefully the wine should have cooked off. if not, turn it up to high while you drain the pasta. pour some olive oil over the pasta and coat all of it. this will not only compensate for the lack of a real sauce, but will keep any pasta you dont use immediately from getting all starchy.

plate the pasta, spoon on some veggies, and voila yer done.

notes:

1. this whole thing arose from me trying to cook Red Cabbage. i searched and searched, but all the recipes were for Rotkohl, or other sweet and sour foods... and darlin' doesnt like her sweet with her meat, in a manner of speaking. that is to say, she doesnt like sweet meals, salads etc.; cinnamon and even cumin are more than a bit taboo when it comes to the main course. suffice it to say, while we were looking she found a link to a so-called "Cabbage and Noodle Melt". Aside from not having a lot of the ingredients on hand (principally a large stock of earthbalance, soy parmesan cheese) i became interested only in the prospect of a cabbage pasta, not so much a cabbage informed mac n' cheese.
2. one ingredient i did not really include mention of is nutritional yeast, despite using about 6 Tbsp of it in the recipe (to add, include after youve added soy sauce by folding in tablespoon after tablespoon). in this version Red Cabbage Chao, i didnt find the Nutritional Yeast adding much in the way of flavor (in terms of its health benefits, i will add it again).
3. one ingredient i wish i had added as i have made my way through three bowls of this Chao, is either 4 Tbsp Kim-Chee hot sauce or some dried hot chilis (think general tso's) with 1-2 Tbsp of Hoisin sauce.

Apr0n: <plan>

• following here: Tempeh with Spinach Sauce

i swear i dont just think about eating all day. nonetheless, in light of the eggplant crush (which made for amazing leftovers) reliance on vegetable stock, and my not having any, i think i am going to make this sometime this week. i dont have any polenta though, may just go with rice.

also, a.b added this to my queue