For my inaugural meal, I really wanted to pick something that wouldn't scare off my tasters too quickly. Goodness Soup seemed like a hearty choice with familiar ingredients: lentils, navy beans, barley (though I'm not used to cooking this), carrots, celery, and more. I substituted plain white wine for the mirin since we didn't locate mirin until the Health Foods Store and Krogers, I think, on a later date. This was my first experience using kombu (type of seaweed). The dried, nearly-black green piece that I cut off soaked up water rather quickly and stretched out to become a soft forest-green ingredient that I minced and added to the soup. According to Clean Food, kombu helps alkalinize food and prevents some of the less glamorous side effects of beans (30). Dad gave this dish a thumbs up.
The side dish looked gorgeous! I used kale for the first time ever, and after cooking, it became a brilliant green that looked almost too good to eat. It flashed through my mind that Eric would love it. Dad would have loved it, too, if I hadn't--ahem--accidentally knocked the sea salt into it and added a little more sodium than we needed.
The Brown Rice Pudding was selected because it reminded me of a delicious bread pudding I had recently eaten. For this reason, Dad nixed it as a favorite dessert of his, but Mom and I enjoyed it. This recipe sneaks tofu and rice milk into the mix to replace dairy and requires the use of kudzu--a thickening agent--instead of cornstarch. While making it, I remembered why it's never a good idea to put a spoon down into the blender while it's mixing, no matter how much it seems the blender's not processing like you want it to...ruined a perfectly good wooden spoon and found a couple of splinters in the dessert to boot. Noted.
No comments:
Post a Comment