Recipes4Survival,

I despise milk.  I never liked it, never drink the stuff, as a matter of fact I have an aversion to it.  Let me put it another way, I despise milk with a capital H.  I’m literally uncomfortable if a drop should touch me or having to wipe up spilt milk is something I have a momentary lapse of reason about.

In any case, with Passover quickly approaching and a neglected banana looking like an oozing  jumbo vanilla bean in a prone position  on my kitchen table I got a brilliant idea the other night to make banana pancakes.

I halved a recipe I found for pancake batter from scratch; 3/4 C flour, 1T baking powder, 1 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1 egg scrambled, 1 T melted butter and 3/4 C milk.  Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, make a well for the liquids – scrambled egg, melted butter & milk. Once the pancake batter is well mixed I mashed in the banana.  I put the batter in the refrigerator for about 15 mins. Not because I was told to but remember this is done when making batter for crepes.

The pancakes came out beautifully.  I made quite large ones.  I melted a little Trader Joe’s earth balance an organic buttery spread in a non stick pan, poured the batter into the pan. Flip the pancake once bubbles form on the edge and within the pancake.   I topped the pancakes with Trader Joe’s lemon curd, served and ate them immediately with a cup of hot lemon ginger tea.

Here’s the long and the short of it, There are very few things I make that use, call for or require milk.  The last time I had milk in the house it was left behind by an Italian couple that sublet my place a few summers ago.  It didn’t take much more than a quick search that I soon became the queen of panna cotta. Thanks to panna cotta and ice cream I probably get the recommended daily allowance of milk in a year.

I think I’ll be going there this time too, meaning I’ll be making panna cotta. I’m going to make a pineapple one. More on that later, but here’s the punch line, even tho I only buy a pint of milk, when I do – I FREEZE the milk between uses. Yes, cooking with it requires a bit more planning but, hey, I couldn’t help but share what I think is a great Recipe 4 Survival – tactic and resourceful tip.

With much love I share this with you.

CHA!

D.

On a bed of arugula I added 1/2 a grated apple, sliced then diced red onion, 2 sliced radish, capers, a cup of couscous topped with fresh dill and pieces of smoked trout – drizzled with olive oil and a spritz of a lemon wedge.

I topped creamy polenta with a few mashed anchovies & oil with pan seared escarole.

The next day I reconstituted the polenta in a saute pan with a little water, threw in the cleaned, chopped, escarole and topped it off with less than a 1/4 C of Trader Joes Kurma sauce.  Very satisfying on yet another very cold night.

Dtailed directions will follow under separate entry.

I pan seared lightly dusted silken tofu slices with unbleached flour & Salt of D Earth in a saute pan w/olive oil tamari sauce. I made some sushi rice and topped this with fresh scallions and gomasio. Gomasio is a Japanese condiment of sesame seeds, seaweed & sea salt. OH, The four brown blobs between the tofu slices is Hoisin sauce – YYUUMM.

I also made Bunashimeji – commonly known as Beech Mushrooms. They are just adorable.  Brown topped white stemmed mushrooms. I cut the bunch in half, put them on a sheet of aluminim foild, threw in about a half dozen garlic cloves, tamari, a small pad of butter, & a good splash of Old Grouse! I balled the foil up and put it under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes.  I served these on top of the sushi rice, again with the scallions and gamasio.

roasted Japanese mushrooms

I know the title of this entry sounds sO boring but I must admit, I’m happily full and each dish was really flavorful.  I must also add, all ingredients are organic and I doubt I spent $4 to feed myself – two dishes.

CHA!

It’s Friday. I’m hOMe from yoga. My mind is clear and reaDy to tackle the list of e-mails to follow up on as long as my arm but of course I was starving.

I could have opted for pouring some organic tOMato soup into a pot from out of a cardboard box but something inside said, NO, make yourself a soup. I’ve got a half a head of organic cauliflower, 4 or 5 heads of garlic, 2 small yukon gold potatoes and vegetable broth left over from the tOMato soup I made for Alex last week.

Healing ingredients

I’ll also highlight the healing aspects of the ingredients in this velvety cauliflower & garlic soup.

So there you have the ingredients, now here’s what I did.

First I cut the cauliflower into chunks that look like individual…flowerettes, keeping some of the stem. Put these into a steamer basket in a heavy bottomed pot with water that comes to just below the bottom of the steamer basket.  I also threw the 2 small yukon gold potatoes into the steamer.  This steamed for a good 20 minutes, then I turned the heat off and let it continue to cook another 10 minutes or so.

While the cauliflower & potatoes were steaming I went at cleaning up and preparing the garlic for roasting in a small sauce pot with oil.

inner green stem removal

If you’re new to cooking and not so comfortable with a knife, leaving the inner green ’stem’ in a garlic dent if FINE.  Many cooks don’t remove it. Those that do remove the green ’stem’ say it can heighten a bitter taste in what you’re cooking.

To roast the garlic use the whole cloves that are slightly cracked from the initial smash to get the skin off added to about a 1/2 C of organic, cold pressed olive oil. Cook over a medium heat. You want to see little bubbles. Don’t let the oil get to hot. A gentle simmer is great.

Roasted garlic & infused, seasoned oil

While the garlic was roasting I pureed the steamed cauliflower & potatoes in my ordinary blender, no fancy Cuisinart.  I sliced the potatoes into 1/4″ discs when I added them to the blender.  I blended the veggies in two batches adding about a cup of vegetable broth. This would become the base of the soup along with the organic vegetable broth I’d add to the roasted garlic roux.

With the garlic roasted and garlic infused seasoned oil and the cauliflower & potato puree, I began to make the roux.  This is simply done by mashing the roasted garlic cloves, adding the garlic infused seasone and a small hand-full of unbleached flour.

Garlic roux

I added about a 1/2 C of the vegetable broth to the roux to create the creamy stock for the soup, then I began to add the cauliflower & potato puree, alternating between adding stock & puree.  Stirring all the while.

MMgOOd and you’ll feel great too and boy oh boy did I have a LOT from just a half a head of cauliflower.