Eat your veggies.

Apparently, mothers will never stop telling you the importance of eating your veggies. Recently my mother has complained that my blog is too meat-centric. There is some truth to that. So, I invited my vegetarian friend Kailee over for dinner and it was the perfect opportunity to experiment with some new all veg meals.

Before I delve into the recipes I want to share my thoughts on vegetarianism, veganism and the raw food diet craze. First off, if you're a vegetarian and you eat fish sometimes or buffalo chicken wings, but only when it's wing night at the dining hall, you're not a vegetarian. I'm sorry but an animal is an animal even if it's ugly. I can't root for the Red Sox 3 games a month and in good conscience call myself a Yankees fan so you can't call yourself a vegetarian if you eat fish. I'm glad I got that all out.

Newton's third law states that forces occurs in pairs, one called the action and the other the reaction. However, I don't believe Newton's laws are limited to physics. To me, the explosion of vegetarian, vegan and raw diet culture is a direct result of the sad state of meat production and the prevalence of the fast food industry in the United States. It is easy to see how McDonald's and KFC can turn people off to meat. Not only because they serve either fried reconsituted chicken bits or greasy and grey pre cooked beef patties but because there is no soul or effort put forth to respect the animal that has been killed. If you're going to eat chicken you should cook the best chicken you possibly can. If a chicken has to die it shouldn't be for a nasty soulless nugget. I imagine that if the widespread use of animal protein was more respectful to the dead animal, if we used all the parts, if we cooked it well with some love and soul, and treated it as if it were once alive there wouldn't be such aversion to meat.

Now enjoy these veggie recipes you dirty hippies.

Sweet Potato and Turnip Curry with Spiced Kale

For the curry:

4 white turnips (slice into 1/4'' semi circles)
2 large sweet potatoes (cut similarly)
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp ginger minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp cruish red pepper
1 tsp cumin 3
tbsp of your favorite red curry paste
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat, add the olive oil. Saute the onions, garlic and ginger until they are softened and lightly brown. Add the cumin and crushed red pepper and lightly brown the spices for a minute. Add the vegetable stock, tomatoes, yogurt and curry paste. Stir until combined. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sweet potatoes and turnips to the mixture cover and continue to simmer on low for 20 minutes.

For the Kale:

1 1lb package frozen kale (spinach works too)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tsps fresh ginger minced
3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place a saute pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and when it is warm add the fresh ginger, garlic, garlic powder crushed red pepper and cumin. Brown for 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth and stir. Season with salt and pepper. When the liquid comes to a simmer add the Kale. Cover and let cook for 8 minutes.

Serve these along side steamed jasmine or basmati rice.

Curry:



Jack says:

Dirty hippie recipe deserves dirty hippie music -

"When I Woke" by Rusted Root

My Big Fat Greek Preplanned Week Long Supply of Dinner

There's no point in cooking unless you're going to cook a lot. Sure I'm only one person, but recipes for one are (a) not worth the effort and (b) make you feel lonely... That's why I like to cook in big batches because I can have a lot of food prepped for the week. If a day comes along and I'm too tired to cook at least I have a delicious pre-prepared meal that saves me money as opposed to eating out.

Over the weeks I've put up a lot of heavy dishes and stews, like meatloaf and chili but as the weather turns warmer people want to eat lighter and suddenly that big old slab of bacon wrapped meatloaf is less appealing. The following recipe for Greek roasted chicken and potatoes doesn't have to be a preplanned dinner for the week, that's just how I use it. It's perfectly fine for any light supper. Here we go:

Greek Chicken and Potatoes

2 lbs assorted chicken parts bone in and skin on (legs, breasts, thighs, whatever you like but you need to buy bone in skin on pieces or the chicken will be dry and tasteless)
1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large sprig of rosemary, leaves chopped roughly
2 tsps salt
2 tsps pepper
2 tsps garlic powder
2 tsps dried oregano
2 lbs red potatoes, quartered

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse the chicken pieces and pat them dry with a paper towel. Wash, dry and quarter the potatoes. On a baking sheet arrange the chicken and potatoes so they fit. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze all the lemon juice out over the top. Sprinkle the rosemary and remaining seasonings over the top and toss the chicken and potatoes until coated. Place in the oven for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes at 400 degrees, place the baking sheet with the chicken and potatoes under the broiler for 5 more minutes. Done.

Before:



After:



Musical Pairing:

Jack says, "Steely Dan, "Aja," for no other reason than I like to listen to Steely Dan when I cook, especially one-dish or one-pot wonders."

Not for the purist.

We've already tackled green chili, so it's about time we moved on to the red stuff. Now, if you're a chili purist, this post probably is not for you. The purists will talk about making sure you use small chunks of beef instead of ground, and insist on using a variety of dried peppers to make a complex "gravy" as they call it. That is all fine and well, it's just not what this is. My chili has ground beef. My chili has tomatoes. My chili has okra? Yeah, I threw some in one day to ramp up the veg count and it came out well, so I kept it. It's also quick and dirty. Sometimes you don't have 5 hours to fire up a bowl of red and you need to get dinner on in an hour or so. If it helps the chili traditionalists out there, think of this more as a thick chili like stew than actual chili. Then again, to hell with the purists. They probably would not regard the green chili I made as chili either. No matter what you call it though, green or red, beans or not, it's delicious.

My 'not' Chili

1.25 lbs ground chuck
1 large onion chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
1 medium green bell pepper chopped
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 12 oz can kidney beans (rinse off the nasty bean liquid)
2 tsps cumin
2 tsps crushed red pepper
2 tsps salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 lb okra sliced (fresh or frozen)
2 tsps olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

This is easy. Place a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Saute the onion, bell pepper and garlic until lightly browned, 4-5 minutes. Add the ground chuck and brown, 10 minutes. Add the garlic powder, cumin and crushed red pepper. Lightly cook the spiced meat mixture for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and incorporate into the meat mixture. Stir in the crushed tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and add the beans. Cover, lower the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the okra and stir (if the okra is frozen it will only take about 3-4 minutes to come to temperature, if fresh it will take about 7-8 minutes to cook). Serve with yogurt or sour cream.




*UPDATE*

Jack Every, a trusted music and radio buff, will be providing complimentary musical pairings with each post to enhance the culinary experience.

Jack says, "Seeing that this looks like a good southern-style chili, I'm going to have to go with a good southern-style album, and I promise, it won't be, or ever be, ZZ Top. Listening selection-- "Live Alive" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble."

There you have it. ZZ Top out, Chili and SRV in. Enjoy