4 tilapia filet
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine, dry white wine or dry sherry
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil + 1 tbsp
5 scallions, chopped, including green part
Mix ginger, soy sauce, rice wine and 1 tsp sesame oil in a small bowl. Place filets in a plate and pour sauce over. Top with scallions. Steam for 10 – 15 minutes.
Before serving drizzle 1 tbsp of remaining sesame oil over fish.
bamboo shoot, drained
garlic, chopped
oyster mushroom
camote tops (or any greens such as spinach)
Bragg’s amino acid or soy sauce
vegetable oil (I use virgin coconut oil)
Cook garlic in hot oil, do not brown. Add mushroom, cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Add bamboo shoot, season with Bragg’s, cover for 2 minutes on medium low heat. Add greens and remove from heat.
arugula leaves, washed and dried
cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
extra-virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
parmesan cheese
Toss arugula with oil until leaves are lightly coated. Add tomatoes and drizzle with vinegar (oil to vinegar ratio 3:1), toss to combine. Top with shavings of parmesan cheese or toss in several teaspoons of grated parmesan cheese.
* To make parmesan shavings: Use a vegetable peeler and “shave” cheese like you would peel a vegetable.
I purchased a bottle of cooked mussels in oil from my supplier of natural and organic processed products. The mussels come in 3 flavors – garlic, hot & spicy, and plain. All the mussels have a sweetish flavor due to the sugar used in cooking it. I thought it went perfectly with the arugula and Kalinga rice mix which I had in hand to make a quick lunch. I’ve used brown rice and the rice mix in making this salad and they’re both delicious. The nutty rice, sweet mussels and spicy arugula turned out to be a good combination of flavors.
Take equal amounts of torn arugula and cooked brown rice or Kalinga rice (or you may make your own combination of 3 different kinds of rice varieties to make a rice mix). Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and toss. Top with mussels.
A good substitute for the mussels would be a sweet chili or sweet garlic shrimp saute. Hmmm, I’ll try that next time…
This recipe is an improvement of my first recipe for lemongrass iced tea.
1 cup chopped lemongrass, cleaned, discarding tough outer leaves; use white and light green parts only (discard tough green part or you may use it to stuff a roast chicken)
1/2 cup muscovado sugar
8 cups water
Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. Strain into a pitcher and discard solids. Cover pitcher and refrigerate. Serve with or without ice.
I am passionate about organic food because I believe in health and I want to save the environment (baby steps). I’m hoping more people become aware of the dangers of conventional agriculture to their personal health, to the environment and to society as a whole. Failing to reach others intellectually or emotionally, there’s always the flavor of conventionally grown produce compared to ones organically-grown. Organic food taste a LOT better. It’s a world of difference. I was first and foremost a lover of good food and eventually I became concerned about the state of the environment. In my studies I learned of the connection between the environment and the food we eat which led me to start an organic garden last year. So far there have been few ups and many downs.
Yesterday I joined the Organic Market for the 3rd time. I had vine-ripened red cherry tomatoes, Italian arugula, chrysanthemum leaves, mustard greens, flat-leaf parsley, lemongrass and scallions. Well, I made enough to pay for the stall I rented and buy some groceries for myself but I’m beginning to have doubts about this venture. It doesn’t seem to me like there are enough people out there who want to eat organic food. Also, the market is only open on Sundays which is a rest day in this country. I asked Mara, our organizer, and she said the “powers that be” won’t allow the market to open on Saturdays because there is already a Saturday market going on. Completely ridiculous and a decision based on that premise should be illegal! But frankly I don’t know what to do about it. So I told myself that we just have to make do with what we’ve got. Which is Sunday 7am to 2pm. Luckily, I don’t give up easily and I’ve come up with some ideas to attract people over on Sundays. I will write about it if all goes well, or doesn’t, but right now it’s still forming in my head.
The other problem I’m having at the moment is that I am not producing enough to tap a wider market. The problem isn’t a lack of land area but the people I’m dealing with. Mistakes made in agriculture has big and time consuming repercussions. So its a slow process when things don’t go right. One of my farmers misunderstood me and cut off all the branches and most of the leaves off my fruiting cherry tomato plants. Needless to say, the plants are now dying. Bloody idiot. After having to calm down for a couple of days, I thought of a way for this to never happen again. All instructions I give will be written down on the whiteboard before I leave the farm. I also gave each farmer something that he alone is responsible for. Hopefully I’ve organized things so the farm will run more smoothly.
On the up side, I’ve been cooking more than usual with all the vegetables I have on hand. Eating something I’ve grown and knowing how fresh and toxin-free my fruits and vegetables are gives me a sense of well-being. And the flavors are truly astonishing after eating bland tomatoes and not-so-fresh produce for a year. This morning I made some lemongrass iced tea using fresh lemongrass from my farm and organic muscovado sugar instead of regular granulated sugar. Yum!
I love cooking with liquors! And I’ll be doing just that for Sugar High Fridays. Yes, I’m joining another food blogging event. The theme this month is “Liquors”, hosted by Chandra of Lick The Spoon. Sugar High Fridays was started by Jennifer of Domestic Goddess who chooses the host for this monthly event. Joining these events gives me the chance to try out recipes from my embarrassingly large library of cookbooks. Embarrassing because I haven’t used most of the books. I read them like novels and off they go to the bookshelf never to be opened again. So here I give them new life.
I’ll be baking a Guinness Stout Ginger Cake from the book The Last Course by Claudia Fleming and Melissa Clark. I used San Miguel Cerveza Negra instead of Guinness Stout because I couldn’t find any at the grocery. So this should actually be called Cerveza Negra Ginger Cake. Cerveza Negra is Spanish for dark beer.
I used virgin coconut oil for this recipe because I thought the flavor of coconut would go well with the spices and ginger. The cake turned out really well and the smells emanating from the kitchen while it was baking… well, you know what I’m talking about.
One thing I would change when I make this cake again is to use a nonstick baking pan and forgo buttering and dusting the loaf pan with flour. The cake had streaks and patches of flour when I turned it over a serving plate. Although, it did not affect the flavor of the cake it didn’t look appetizing.
Cerveza Negra Ginger Cake
1 cup Cerveza Negra
1 cup molasses
1/2 tbsp baking soda
3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup muscovado sugar or brown sugar
3/4 cup virgin coconut oil or grapeseed oil or vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp grated, peeled fresh gingerroot
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter and flour a loaf pan or bundt pan.
Pour beer and molasses in a large saucepan. Make sure its large because the mixture will foam up and spill over. Bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and add the baking soda. This mixture will foam up again after adding the baking soda so I can’t stress enough using a large pan to do this in.
Whisk flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom together in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs and sugars together in another bowl. Add oil and whisk until well combined.
Pour the egg mixture into the beer mixture and whisk well.
Pour half of the liquid mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly. It will get stiff, continue whisking until its well combined. Pour in the rest of the liquid mixture and slowly whisk to combine.
Pour batter into prepared loaf or bundt pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
I served slices of this cake with dulce de leche ice cream.
This sandwich is a variation of one my sister often makes. It is soooo good.
You boil an egg. Peel and slice it. Quarter a bunch of cherry tomatoes and toss it with a finely chopped scallion, use the white and green parts. Spread some Japanese mayonaisse on two pieces of bread. On one piece place the sliced egg, top the egg with a sheet of nori (seaweed used to wrap sushi), then top the nori with the cherry tomato salad and top this with the remaining piece of bread. Enjoy!
I came across this poem this morning and liked it a lot.
Time to plant trees is when you’re young,
So you will have them to walk among -
So, aging, you can walk in shade
That you and time together made.
X.J. Kennedy
The weather nowadays is wilting my poor plants. It is so hot, I’ve had to put nets all over the farm to shield the plants form the intense heat. Despite the stifling weather my tomatoes are fruiting nicely. The herbs, mustard greens and arugula are also doing well, even without the nets. The problem is the soil dries much faster so 
we have to water more often and the leaves of the fruiting plants droop and some turn brown. The netting should shield the plants from to much sun. One thing that’s thriving in this heat are the African Marigolds. I had more of the marigolds seeded and will plant them in borders. These marigolds are also edible so 
I’m eager to try them on salads and use them to decorate sweets. What I’m having a hard time with are the peppers and eggplant and the problem has nothing to do with the heat. These plants bear one fruit at a time and take a long time for even that one fruit to come about. I figured it is from the way the pants are being watered. The pepper and eggplant plants do bear numerous flowers but then come to bear single fruits. I think the farmers probably water the flowers off, so I gave 
instructions to water only the ground around the plants and not the tops. Hope that works. Being in the farming business certainly teaches one a lot of patience.
