Black Chick Pea Salad

From Daniel: My measurements here are approximate and the recipe generally is intended to be a template rather than an exact guide.

This is the base of the salad

1 14 ounce Timeless Natural Food Black Kabuli ^TM Chick Peas
2 1/2 cups medium bulgar wheat
Lemon Juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Garlic, peeled and minced very fine
Salt
Pepper
1 cup well-chopped fresh mint leaves

Rinse and pick through the chick peas there might be the occasional bit of grit or even a pebble. Relax. Thats how you know they were grown someplace. Combine the chick peas in a pan large enough to hold them and 4 ½cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer the beans for about 2 hours, or until tender, but not yet soft. Drain and cool in the refrigerator.

In a large bowl , combine the bulgar wheat with 4 -5 cups (depending upon how chewy you want it) of salty hot water. Set aside. The bulgar will absorb all the liquid in a fairly short time and it wont get at all pasty. Perfect for salad.

Once the bulgar has absorbed all the water, add the chick peas to the bowl.

Make a dressing with lemon juice, a goodbuttery olive oil (my current pick for this recipe would be Kouras), minced garlic to taste, salt & pepper to taste. The proportions I use for the dressing is about 1:1 juice/oil, but your tastes may very. If you want less oil but dont want a more intense lemon flavor you could add a little water to the dressing.

Add your dressing to the salad. Its okay if this makes our ingredients pretty wet. The bulgar will absorb any excess and will only be improved in this way. Adjust seasonings again. Add the mint leaves now.

Additions:

This is where the fun starts. You can add pretty much anything to this salad and it will be more fun. I added pitted calamata olives, sliced cucumber, diced sweet red pepper, chopped scallions and sliced yellow crookneck squash to my salad and it was lovely. Heres a list of suggested additions:

· Pitted olives
· Cucumber
· Peppers (sweet or hot, pickled or roasted)
· Yellow crookneck or zucchini squash
· Scallions
· Fresh figs
· Dried cranberries
· Crumbled Feta Cheese
· Fresh peas
· Pine nuts or almonds
· Persimmons
· Roughly cut spinach
· Pickled shallots
· Capers
· Cherry tomatoes
· Shaved Kefalotyri
· Grilled beets
· Grilled fennel
· Flat-leaf parsley
· Fresh oregano or basil leaves
· Dill weed

Dont let that be a limiting list. Use your imagination here. It would be hard to fail this salad.

Hot Dish Macaroni and Cheese – from Daniel

Hot Dish Macaroni and Cheese

-for Margaret

1 pound De Cecco penne pasta
½ cup Meadowbrook unsalted butter
½ cup flour
2 cups whole milk
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Allepo Pepper (available in our bulk section)
1 pound Tickler extra sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded
½ cup beer (pale ale)
½ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
½ teaspoon Allepo Pepper (available in our bulk section)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook pasta in plenty of rapidly boiling, salted water until al dente. Set aside.

Melt butter over low-to-medium heat. Add flour. Cook flour and butter to make a blond roux. I like to cook roux for 5 – 8 minutes, so this is done slowly. It shouldn’t get brown, only tan. It’s important to cook the roux thoroughly, though, so as to minimize the flour taste in the sauce.

Whisk the salt and allepo pepper in a little bit of the milk until the seasonings are well-dissolved. Stir this into the rest of the milk and add this resulting mixture to the cooked roux. Raise the flame to medium heat and cook as for a very thick, smooth béchamel (white sauce, n’est-ce pas?).

Add the cheese in small portions, whisking thoroughly after each addition. Add the beer.

Combine the cheese sauce and pasta. Smooth this mixture into a greased casserole dish.

Combine the final four ingredients. I like to use home made bread crumbs for this now, but at Hot Dish we used store bought (yes, the stuff in the big cardboard tube). Sprinkle this mixture over the macaroni and cheese.

Bake for about half an hour or until golden brown on top. Don’t over-bake it. It’s possible that the cheese sauce will break if you do that. A cheese sauce is said to break when the fats and solids in the sauce separate and leave a gloppy mess.

Recipe by Daniel C. McGlothlen

Big John’s Baccala (stockfish) Adriatico

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 1/2 pounds salt cod — (stockfish/baccala)
8 pounds potato
1/2 liter olive oil
4 heads garlic
4 ounces onions — chopped
4 ounces celery — chopped

Soak fish in water; change water daily for 6 days.

Boil fish for 1/2 hour (outside if possible to prevent fish odor in your house).

Boil potatoes until done. Peel and cube potatoes

Clean, skin and debone fish.

Mix stockfish with potatoes, add onions and celery.

Blend garlic and olive oil in blender; add to potatoes and stockfish.

Big John’s Meat Sauce For Spaghetti

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 1/2 pounds pork spareribs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion — diced
1/2 each green pepper — diced
2 stalks celery — diced
28 ounces whole tomatoes — (1 can whole peeled tomatoes with juice)
28 ounces tomato puree — (1 can tomato puree)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 glass red wine
2 tablespoons italian parsley — chopped
2 tablespoons basil — chopped
salt — to taste
pepper — to taste

In a large, heavy pot, heat olive oil. Add meat and brown.

Add celery, green pepper and onion. Cook until tender. Add wine.

Pree whole tomatoes, garlic and parsley in a blender, add to pot.

Simmer 2 hours over medium heat.

Add tomato puree, reduce heat and simmer another hour.

Add basil 15 minutes before serving. Salt and pepper to taste.

Remove meat to a separate serving bowl.

Red Beans and Rice – Vegan Style

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 pound red kidney beans — dry
1 large onion — chopped
1 each bell pepper — chopped
5 each rib celery — chopped
garlic — minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme — or more if needed
1 each bay leaf — or more if needed
tabasco sauce — to taste
Creole seasoning (See separate recipe) — to taste (start with a tablespoon)
salt — to taste
liquid Barbecue Smoke® — to taste (start with a teaspoon)

Soak the beans overnight, if possible. The next day, drain and put fresh water in the pot. Bring the beans to a rolling boil. Make sure the beans are always covered by water, or they will discolor and get hard. Boil the beans for about 45-60 minutes, until the beans are tender but not falling apart. Drain.

While the beans are boiling, saute the Trinity (onions, celery, bell pepper) until the onions turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally. After the beans are boiled and drained, add the sauteed vegetables to the beans, then add seasonings, and just enough water to cover. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil along with the seasonings. Add liquid smoke, to taste – start with about a teaspoon.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 2 hours at least, preferably 3, until the whole thing gets nice and creamy. Adjust seasonings as you go along. Stir occasionally, making sure that it doesn’t burn and/or stick to the bottom of the pot. (If the beans are old — say, older than six months to a year — they won’t get creamy. Make sure the beans are reasonably fresh. If it’s still not getting creamy, take 1 or 2 cups of beans out and mash them, then return them to the pot and stir.

If you can… let the beans cool, stick them in the fridge, and reheat and serve for dinner the next day. They’ll taste a LOT better. When you do this, you’ll need to add a little water to get them to the right consistency.

Serve generous ladles-ful over hot white long-grain rice, pickled onions and good French bread. There are some great vegan sausages out there that you can serve as well – grilled, preferably, but you could fry or broil them as well.

Adapted by Daniel from a recipe by Chuck Tagart in the Gumbo Pages (www.gumbopages.com)

Spinach and Feta Tart

From Kelly, a wonderful PFI employee:

This recipe is open to variation and flexibility in ingredients.

1 med onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c. olive oil
1 1/2 lbs frozen spinach, (you could use fresh, but frozen is easier)
1/2 t. salt
1 t. oregano
1 t. basil
1 T. bread crumbs
1 c. feta
3/4 c. ricotta or cottage cheese, whole or low fat
black pepper
2 eggs (can use just the whites)
5 to 7 phyllo sheets
5 T. olive oil or melted butter
1/2 c. (more or less) grated romano or parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 – 400 (heat of oven will determine baking time)

Finely chop onion and mince garlic, cook in 1 T. olive oil in large skillet over moderately low heat until softened. Squeeze spinach to remove as much liquid as possible and add to onion with salt, oregano and basil. Cook mixture over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until liquid is evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk eggs until combined. Add eggs, bread crumbs, feta, ricotta and pepper to spinach and combine well. Adjust seasonings as necessary. Bring filling to room temperature.

Unwrap phyllo and lay on a sheet of plastic wrap or waxed paper, and then cover the stack completely with a dampened kitchen towel. Melt butter if using, and brush cookie sheet or tart pan with butter or olive oil.

On a work surface (or directly on the pan) lay first sheet of phyllo and brush with olive oil or butter and then sprinkle with romano/parmesan cheese. Lay next sheet on top of first and repeat procedure of brushing with oil and then sprinkling with cheese. Continue layering with the rest of sheets. Transfer to pan (if you were working on a different surface).

Spoon filling onto center of phyllo spreading out evenly, leaving 3-4 inches on each side. Roll up sides of phyllo towards the center and tuck to form rolled edge barrier. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until phyllo is golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Asado De Bodas, Vegan Version (Wedding Stew)

From Daniel (PFI Employee):

1 1/2 cups Vegetable broth
1/8 teaspoon cumin seed — crushed
1 ounce mexican drinking chocolate — broken
bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 each orange zest
Peanut oil — enough to saute
1/2 each medium onion — roughly chopped
4 each chiles anchos — slit open, seeded and veined
6 ounces tomatillo — washed and peeled
4 each garlic
1 each bread slice — dry
1/2 each tostada
2 pounds sweet potato
sea salt — to taste

Peel and dice sweet potatoes. Fluff with olive oil and roast in 500 degree oven until tender, but still firm. About 25 minutes. Place in refrigerator until cool.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a pot large enough to contain all the ingredients except the sweet potatoes. Bring to simmer.

In a large saute pan (or brazier) add enough peanut oil to cover bottom of pan by about an eighth of an inch.
Saute onions in oil. Remove and add to broth.

MAKE SURE THERE’S PLENTY OF VENTILATION. Saute anchos in oil. They turn a kind of tobacco brown inside when they’re done. It only takes a couple of seconds. Remove and add to broth.

Saute tomatillos and garlic in oil until golden brown. Remove and add to broth.

Saute bread and tostados in oil just until golden. Remove and add to broth. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Remove bay leaves from broth just before blending.

In the large blender, add the above mixture in less than half-jar batches at a time. Pulse/blend until pureed. Salt to taste. If you intend to use this right away, pour it into a sauce pan as you go. If you intend to refridgerate it, pour it into a shallow pan as you go and once you’re done place this into the refridgerator to cool. Then cover.

To heat and serve; place pureed sauce in a large pot with a bit more broth to make it all stirrable. Make sure sauce is hot before sweet potatoes are added. Add sweet potatoes. Heat mixture to 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer and serve with rice, beans and tortillas.

Copyright 2002, Daniel C. McGlothlen