Food Swap #2

Here's the food swap#2:

Clockwise from the white bowl:

Weetabix granola bars from N.
Bread Salad by Alex
German Potato Salad with Shittake Mushrooms by Tim
Crunchy Indian Snacks by Ashley
Samosas by Ashley

Samosas
I used spring roll wrappers for the traditional Indian and paneer-spinach samosas. For the empanadas, I used Goya Discos para empanadas. You can also make your own with this recipe: http://www.samosa-recipe.com/Samosa_Pastry.html. Filling recipes are below:

Traditional Indian Filling:
1 Potato finely diced
1 carrot finely diced

2 cloves of crushed garlic (omitted for swap)
1 Onion finely chopped (omitted for swap)
1 Cup of frozen peas
1 tblspn vegetable oil
2 tspn curry powder or your own spices
Salt, Pepper to taste.
About a cup of vegetable stock.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic, mix in the spices and fry until soft. If omitting garlic/onion, just add the spices to the oil until it is pretty hot, but not burnt. Add the vegetables and stir well until coated with spices. Add the stock, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until cooked. Watch the pan, because if the water gets low you should add a touch so your filling doesnt burn on to the pan. Don't add too much water though! Filling should be mushy, not watery.

Paneer-Spinach Filling

Thaw frozen cubes of paneer. Heat some oil (tiny bit, because paneer absorbs) in a wok or pan. Brown paneer until crisp, seasoning with whatever spices you are in the mood for. I used red pepper flake, cumin, coriander powder, and black pepper this time. Add spinach and cook just until wilted.
Mexi-empanada Filling
Brown soy chorizo (or regular variety) in a pan with one small chopped onion. In a seperate pot, combine one small can of tomato sauce with a can of chickpeas, adobo powder, and one packet of sazon goya powder. Add one tomato-sauce size can of veg stock to the mix. Bring everything to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer 30-40 minutes, until sauce thickens. Add chorizo and onion mixture to the sauce.


Watermelon Mint Feta
Big surprise girl I used the Paula Dean! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/watermelon-salad-with-mint-leaves-recipe/index.html
Mine marinated overnight - maybe that's why Michelle's tasted different?

Pink Beans with rice and mango by Emari
Green Vegetable Curry by Cindy
and in the middle: Banana Nut Muffins by Emily

Vegetarian Gyro

It's not a gyro. It's a cousin to a felafel, but in a hurry. Which brings up the issue: why don't I know how to make felafel at home? I made this one day when I was a student. I did everything as quickly as possible with what was in the fridge.

1 package Morningstar Farms (or other) sausage patties, sauteed according to package directions then broken into bite sized hunks
4 pita pockets (four big halves, toasted and split)
Tabouli or alternative (recipe below)
Greek Yoghurt/Raita/Taziki
Goat cheese

Open one of the pita halves
Put the hot veggie sausage into the bottom inch or so of the pita.
Add another inch of tabouli or Tomato Salad
Add dabs of Greek or plain yoghurt and some generous dabs of goat cheese.


**
Tomato Salad

Olive oil
garlic
tomato
avocado or cucumber
red onion (optional)
dab of Dijon mustard (optional)
lemon juice

In a bowl pour about 2t olive oil and a finely minced clove of garlic.
Press the garlic with your finger into the bowl.
Add a diced tomato, diced cucumber, etc.
Add the juice from a wedge or two of lemon
Lightly salt and pepper

Food Swap #1

My friend Emari had been wanting for people to trade food for years. It finally happened last week. There was a parade of boxes of plastic containers people had recycIed from their take-out or some inexpensive re-useable containers. Big trade like at Christmas when we trade cookies. E. had to leave quickly since she's getting married in three weeks and has a million things to do. The rest of us took the food swap as an opportunity to catch up, eat fruit, play a board game. We ate fresh food made by my pals for several days. The fridge at N's work failed which meant he needed an alternative lunch source and this was perfect.

Now we're doing it again tomorrow. Each person makes enough for everyone of one dish. Then each person packs the dish as a meal for all participants. So if you have X participants, you bring X gladwares of your dish. Then you swap and go home with X number of meals. We had an easy time finding friends who want: a) not to have to cook for most of the week b) save money c) eat fresh healthy vegetarian meals (only one of us is a vegetarian, but it's good for us!).

Here we have on the foil square: mini sopes with mole sauce, Mexican crema, red pepper and some other combination of black beans, lime chili butter. It just depends on the sopes.

Corn salad from the Barefoot Contessa.

Eggplant with black bean sauce and spring rolls with peanut lime sauce.

Two edamame burgers with cheddar and rolls.

Corn and rice salad (not pictured)

Gnocci with homemade tomato sauce

Indian snacks made with chickpea flour and spinach

We might have another participant next week...sweet. I had a real lunch every day this week and was able to do a lot of work at home because of it. And overcome my fear of canning since the peaches and tomatoes and other goodies don't stop coming at the farmer's market.

Spring Rolls

Yeah, I guess they are all vegan.

1 package bean thread noodles

1 package 20cm diameter spring roll wrappers

1 carrot

cilantro

1 package tempeh

tamari

sesame oil (optional)

olive oil

1 head boston lettuce (optional)

mint

Boil some water then take it off the heat. Let the rice thread noodles soften in the water until they are soft. Cut the threads with a knife and fork in the pot like you're cutting up spaghetti for a kid, but just a little. Put this in a medium bowl. Shred a carrot and put a handful of chopped cilantro into the noodles and toss.

Slice tempeh about a third of an inch thick. Sprinkle amply with tamari in a bowl. Let this sit for a minute.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add a few drops of sesame oil. Fry the tempeh lightly until golden on both sides, then drain on a paper-toweled plate.

Heat about a centimeter of water in a pot until it is a little hotter than tepid. Do not let bubbles form -- your wrappers will be a mess.

Lay out the wrappers, then the bowl of noodles, a cutting board, the mint leaves, the lettuce leaves, and the plate you'll stack your finished rolls on, all in a line on the counter.

Pick up a dry wrapper. Feel for the "rough" side and make sure it's facing down. Letting only half the wrapper in the water at a time, turn the wrapper so it gets wet progressively as you turn the wrapper like a steering wheel. (See youtube for this). When you feel the texture of the wrapper soften very slightly, pick up the whole wrapper and let the excess water fall off of it. DO NOT use a wrapper that has gone soft and retracted.

Lay the wrapper on the cutting board, still rough side down.

Place half a lettuce leaf in the center.

Add a handful of the noodles, about as much as would fit in a small scoop of ice cream.

Put a piece of tempeh and two mint leaves on top.

Slowly pick up the left and right sides of the circle and lay them on top of the food.

Starting from the bottom of the circle, roll the spring roll up.

Put it on the plate.

Dip in sauce, serve with cilantro/basil/bean sprouts.

Mmm.

Sauce:

2 heaping T natural peanut butter (no sugar added)

juice of half a lime

2 t tamari

1 T oil

1T water

Beat all ingredients until smooth