wednesday was cooking day. having not cooked since last week, and knowing puck would be doing school things til late late yesterday, i took advantage of my window.
i had hummus i’d made last week for the first time. good. not as good as the baba ganoush i made a month or two ago (but that was miraculously fantastically good.), but very good.
so i thought i’d try to continue on in the vein: pita bread, tabouleh, falafel. keep in mind that i’d never made any of them before. and i didn’t want to use the garbanzo beans on the falafel, so i was trying it with mung beans. and i didn’t have any bulgar so i was using amaranth on the tabouleh, nor did i have mint.
the result? the best meal i’ve had in ages. if i’m going to talk about such things here, though, i really ought to pay closer attention to what i put in. i’m a dash/pinch/handful kind of cook.
the hummus, for example:
1 can garbanzo beans (drained)
1 heaping Tbsp tahini
a few splashes of lemon juice
~3 Tbsp olive oil
lots of cumin & garlic paste
generous pinches of salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper
all blended up in a food processor. re-season to taste.
tabouleh:
3/4 cup dry amaranth boiled in 1 1/2 cups of water until soft and porridge-y
1 c chopped parsley
3 small tomatoes, diced
1/2 an onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
generous splashed of lemon juice and olive oil
salt & pepper
mix it all together, then let it chill for at least a few hours.
pita:
1. dissolve yeast packet in 1/4 c warm water, and let it come to life as it will.
2. combine 3 c flour (i used half white, half wheat. the more wheat you use, the more water you’ll need), a little salt, 1 Tbsp honey, 1 1/4 c water (only 1 c if using all white flour, more for more wheat), and the yeast w/ water. mix it up til it forms a ball, then knead it 8-10 minutes, adding flour as needed. oil it, and let it rise in a warm place for an hour and a half or so.
(if my directions leave something to be desired, it’s because i make bread too often to think about all the steps. feel free to ask questions)
3. slice the dough into twelve pieces, and then flatten them into disks, ~ 1/4 inch thick. layer them between damp paper towels and let them sit for ~ 20 minutes. In the mean time…
(i found two different methods: stove top and oven. the latter makes puffier pitas more quickly, but i wasn’t very good at the technique, so i preferred the stove-top method).
4a. oven: preheat oven to 400 with a baking stone or upside-down baking sheet inside. after the discs have rested 20 minutes, throw one on your stone and close the oven. If three minutes later, you have a beautiful, puffy pita, then it’s ready! throw on as many discs as will fit at once, rotate them out every three minutes, and enjoy.
4b. stove top: heat a cast iron skillet on medium-high with just a few drops of oil. throw on a pita round. it should start to puff up in under a minute. after a minutes, flip it. it should take about 3 minutes between both sides, give or take.
they were all delicious, regardless of method. i ate two of them dipped in olive oil before i restrained myself and started on -
the falafel
a friend and i recently gave falafel the title of “chicken nugget of the vegetarian world.” it’s protein-y, fried, and the perfect comfort food. also, we’re back to pinch/handful directions…
1. cook up a mess of lentils or mung beans. nothing fancy – just let them simmer in hot water until the water is nearly all gone and you can puree them with a potato masher.
2. puree the lentils with a potato masher. add cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, cardamom, coriander, powdered ginger, a little finely diced onion, a little diced parsley, and mix it all until it tastes the way you want it.
3. heat 1/4 inch of oil (peanut or canola, something that can get pretty hot) in your frying pan.
4. add three Tbsp flour to your lentil mixture. mix. throw a little piece of the mixture in the oil. if it sizzles (but not in any out of control way), it’s ready. shape your lentil mixture into golf-ball size rounds, then flatten them and lay them in the oil. by the time you’ve filled your pan (i recommend going clockwise so you know the order you put them in), the first will be ready to flip, so slowly go through and flip them. by the time you flip the last, the first will be ready to come out .
5. set them on a paper towel to let a little grease drain.
sorry about the lack of pictures. the pita bread wasn’t very photogenic in the lighting i had, and the falafel was devoured. what’s left of the rest isn’t worth showing. but it was tasty indeed.
we watched the state of the union streaming off the cnn site, laughed at the republicans who looked to me like punk high school students stuck in detention, wondered how much of what obama said would actually happen, and hoped that he is as angry (and therefore will be as forceful) as he seemed.
yesterday was quilt-fest. it’s just a baby-sized thing, not even four feet by four feet, but i’m doing well with it. another two or three days and i’ll have it done. my fingers are callous-ing.
and today? typing up the story i started earlier in the week
(an excerpt:
A gale of wind rattle the windows, shaking him from his dreams, and Pete opened his eyes. Diffused light clung to every surface of the room, and he swore without words against his body’s indulgence of oversleeping. The January sun didn’t show its light until seven, and he had intended to be awake by six at the last.
He closed his eyes and stretched out onto his back, clenching one by one the muscles the lining his body from neck to toes to fingertips, then one by one released them, mindful of the increased speed and strength in the flow of his blood, the warmth spurring his limbs to action. He pushed off the blankets, slid his legs over the side of the bed, and opened his eyes once more, this time looking to the window to determine how much of the morning he had in fact lost.
The ground lay covered in crusty snow, what had fallen the day before bringing the level almost up to the height of the windowsill. Beyond the garden walls, past the cliff’s edge, the sea glowed silver under a grey-black sky. The stars looked blanched and dull, sanded to smooth harmlessness, like driftwood washed up on shore. It wasn’t coming sunlight that lit the room, then, but the full moon, closer now to earth than it would be all the rest of the year, and cause of the past week’s noticeably high tides.)
i’m almost to the end, but i’m just not sure how to get there.
we were going to go up to asheville this weekend, but they’re supposed to get a foot of snow. so much for that idea. but…
looks like it’ll be coffee and pajamas, reading and old movies. gee, what a terrible way to spend a couple of days.
