Black Beans and Rice Cooker Magic

I was brave this Sunday. I tossed 2 1/2 cups of rinsed dried black beans into my rice cooker with two bay leaves and a chopped clove of garlic. 5 cups of water and one sleep later... the beginnings of an awesome soup.

Sadly, I was so excited about presenting J with the pretty bowl of soup and cornbread, that I neglected to take a photo. He assured me that it was photogenic. Next time! But till then, here's the recipe.

(finger numbingly good) Black Bean Soup

2 1/2 cups dried black beans (obviously more after re-hydration)
1 clove of garlic roughly chopped
1-2 bay leaves (I have a bundle in my freezer from my veggie dealer, and need to use them up)
2 small/medium red onions chopped
1 decently sized red bell pepper chopped
2-3 cloves garlic (yes more garlic, ALWAYS more garlic) minced
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of one lime
handful of cilantro/coriander
1-3 chilis diced (I used what we had available at our local Brazilian store, and am not sure what kind they were... made my finger go numb for a bit, so I take it they mean business)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Pop the first 3 ingredients and 5 cups of water into your rice cooker. All I did was hit "cook" and let things roll until I got up the next morning. Make sure to prep well in advance if you are cooking this the same day!

2. Add olive oil, onion, garlic, pepper, and cumin to pan and cook till onions start to brown slightly. Be careful not to burn the cumin on the edges of the pan (coat well with oil before adding it).

3. Transfer the pan love into a large bowl and toss in the chili, lime juice, and cilantro/coriander, followed by about 1 cup of the beans.

4. Mix well with submersion blender (if available) or transfer batches into food processor/blender first, then into a large bowl. Continue till all the beans are mixed (unless you like your soup to be lumpy and beany... your call).

5. Now is the time to add your salt and pepper to taste. You could add a few tomatoes here, to thin out the soup without losing flavor, or you could add a cup or two of hot water with veg bullion or possibly a bit of soy milk. I opted for a thick soup and left it as is.

This soup is delicious over fresh cornbread*, and perhaps a dollop of sour cream (vegan or otherwise), if you are feeling naughty.

*I initially followed a cornbread recipe in my ancient vegetarian cookbook that called for 4 eggs (I was astounded by the amount of eggs, but figured the cookbook knew better than I did). The first batch came out of the oven smelling raunch. Probably because I am not a huge egg fan. J dutifully tasted it and threw it away (it was unsalvageable, despite my initial mottainai leanings), whilst I whipped up PPK's tried and true vegan cornbread with the minor adjustment of nixing the syrup. Soooo much better than eggy goo!

Vegetarian (vegan) Shepherd's Pie



This autumn, J and I were inundated with gifts from our school and friends' gardens. Our kitchen was filled with persimmon, sweet potato, onions, and potatoes. Having worked through most of the overstock, I am still faced with how to use 5 persimmon tomorrow (perhaps a bread?) and about 4 gargantuan sweet potatoes. Looking at a pile of radish greens, onions, and potatoes provided from our friend Miyawaki-san's hatake, I decided to make something pie-like. Inspired by the recipe from fatfreevegan , I concocted a Farmer's Pie.

Farmer's Pie

5-6 small to medium potatoes
1/2 cup soy milk
dash of salt and pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
6-8 ounces fresh mushroom, diced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 can/pack kidney beans
1-2 cups green beans, snapped
1 1/2 tsp thyme
2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp sage
2 cups radish greens or spinach
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

1. Cube and boil the potatoes.

2. Mash them, as you will, and add soy milk. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

3. Using 1 tbsp canola oil, fry onions till translucent.

4. Add garlic, and cook for 2-3 minutes more.

5. Add carrots, celery, pepper, and mushrooms and cook for 3-5 more minutes.

6. Add veg broth, kidney beans, green beans, radish greens, and herbs. Simmer for 20 minutes.

7. Some liquid remains in the pan, so add corn starch and stir till sauce has thickened.

8. Pour into glass pie dish, and top with mashed potatoes.

9. Sprinkle with sage and rosemary. Broil for 3-5 minutes, till slightly browned.

*note: I added cheddar cheese to the top of the potato in this recipe (thus de-veganizing it), but we found that the cheese added nothing to the flavor of the dish, so I feel it's best to omit it.

Vegetarian Polish Sausage (take 1)



Last week, during my Japanese conversation class, I mentioned vital wheat gluten to my Sensei. To explain a bit, this man is possibly the most curious Japanese man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is a Baptist minister who has traveled around the world, and is fluent in English and passable in a slew of other languages, most recently including Portuguese. I have the utmost respect for him as a teacher and a friend, and his family as well. His son became one of my first and best Japanese friends, and is a pretty impressive snowboarder (after just 2 seasons). The entire family are also musicians, and when Maekawa-sensei is not trying to get me to somehow understand transitive and intransitive verbs, he's convincing me I need to learn how to play the accordion, or perhaps start studying Chinese as well. Like I said... amazing man.

Back to wheat gluten. My sensei doesn't eat fish, which is considered rather odd in Japan. When I stay for dinner after class, his wife cooks vegetarian food, so we can all eat together. It's awesome and I have gleened many ideas from her cooking. When I mentioned I have been looking for gluten so I could make vegetarian sausages, his interest was immediately peaked. He ran upstairs and ordered 1kilo for us to share, and I it was delivered this week. Upon handing me my pack, he said, "You might as well take mine, too. You'll need it to make me sausages." Cheeky!

This is my challenge. An old childhood favorite, that I made a few times in university with store bought veggie sausage. Can it be done with no proper steamer?

I started with a variation of Isa's sausage recipe from the Veganomicon, and altered it for a more Polish flavor.

for the sausage

1/2 cup beans (I used cannellini)
1 cup cold vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1. Bring steamer water to a boil while preparing other ingredients.
2. Mash beans in large bowl with fork.
3. Add other ingredients as listed and mix well.
4. Shape into sausages and wrap with aluminum foil, be sure to twist ends of foil
5. Place in steamer for 50 mins.
6. Using 1 tbsp of olive oil, fry sausages for till uniformly brown on edges.

for the kraut

1 jar sauerkraut
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tsp caraway seeds

1. Cut sausages into 1.5cm thick slices.

2. In frying pan or hot plate, add sauerkraut, sugar, mustard, and caraway seeds.

3. Toss in slices of sausage and spoon kraut over them till well integrated.

4. Cover with lid and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

I apologize for the most unappetizing food to ever be posted online, but I wanted to show the process for creating the sausages.


All tucked away in their make-shift steamer.

J gives it a 6 on a 1-10 scale (with 5 being I would eat it again as if some changes were made). The texture was surprisingly good, but admittedly the spice was not strong enough. I will "kick it up a notch" as requested, next time around. There was a definite flavor memory touched upon for me, though, so I was happy with my first attempt.

The Next Step

The clock is counting down in my mind. It's already November, and I have butterflies in my stomach about what comes next. Next month, J and I will be heading home for a few weeks to visit our families and to see how much America is still "home" to us. There is a long list of things I am looking forward to seeing, doing, and of course eating when I get back. J mentioned the ease with which we can eat out. No worrying about what hidden delights might be put in the "vegetarian" food, and he can freely go to a steak house knowing that they are bound to have at least one veg option on the menu. I, on the other hand, am delighted to dive into the supermarket. Living here has allowed me to level-up my cooking skills. I never anticipated I would be making tortillas, pita, pesto, and veggie patties and sausages with a mini-oven and range out of necessity. It's definitely been a wonderful experience, but having a full-sized oven, a freezer that fits more than 2 ice cube trays and a bag of frozen bananas, and sweet god perhaps even a counter-top larger than my cutting board would be AMAZING. I am getting way ahead of myself, though. Before I can dream of appliances and roots, we have to plan out this next year.

The loose plan is to head out in August. Where we will lay our heads from July 31st till August 20th (besides in a tent on a mountainside) is still up in the air. Onward then, to Thailand. It's so comfortable and centrally located, you can't help but to keep coming back. This will mark my 5th time visiting Thailand, and the longest chunk of time staying solely there. Whilst J and I drown ourselves in local food (FRUIT!!), we will be taking the CELTA certification course just outside of Chiang Mai. This course is about a month long, and will both give us a kick-start back into study mode, and provide us with internationally accepted certification. Nice to have in your back pocket.

We're hoping to hop over to Luang Prabang for a few days before or after the course as well. Steveo, we will be in need of your expertise!

Soon after the course comes to an end, it's back to Bangkok and then to Mumbai (with a possible stopover in Myanmar). I'm still waiting for the dates on this one, but J and I are going to spend a month at the Yoga Vidya Dham Ashram in Nasik, India. Perhaps my dear Kara will join us, but it's a bit far ahead to know yet.

So, we'll be limber, licensed, and certified. We want to wander around India for a while after the course, to really see the country. After we have satisfied our wanderlust enough, we will likely head to Amsterdam, and possibly London (on your toes, Callaghan!) before landing safely back in Detroit sometime in December.

Nothing is concrete... things haven't been paid for or reserved yet. My goal is to solidify these plans in the next few months, and relieve some of the crazy pressure I feel right now. If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, I would love to hear them!

News, diet, and fishy guilt



On a near daily basis, I have access to the internet and use it as a between class mental recess. I like to check various news sites both international and local, to get a broader idea of what is happening in the world. When I am finished reading reputable sources, I go slumming.

Some things I have noticed lately:

CNN's IQ has dropped appallingly in the past few years. I am sure it has been a gradual decline, but having the time to check regularly has given me a front row seat to the perversion of news.

American media in general is completely obsessed with weight loss. I suppose all the other countries finally poked us in our flab enough times that we became ashamed. They try to sound "hip" and make dealing with obesity sound more like a trip to the circus rather than an actual SERIOUS matter. I offer you this article title I stumbled across this morning "How to Eat Like a Hot Chick". What? The article seems to realize it sounds like a twat when the first paragraph tries to dig it's way out of the hole it's firmly planted in. (just saw that this is taken from a book of the same title. It makes me sad for American women.)

We know that you're already hot and that you have the potential to be and feel even hotter.

It sounds more like "oh, shit... we called you ugly didn't we? Um... you are sexy? Yeah, and you don't need this article really, but you could be sexier maybe?"

Let's delve further. Upon reading anything along these lines, which I mostly do to amuse myself, wondering if something of value is hidden between the lines, I am instead met with repetitive Sex in the City references, and reminders that are completely unnecessary if one would just look at an ingredient or nutrition label. This particular article also manages to insult vegans, and all they really accomplish is saying condiments will make you a fatty.

My bastion of sanity for news comes from the BBC.



Why all this talk of food? What does ocean conservation have to do with this? Well, let me provide some cohesion. I haven't eaten meat for nearly 12 years now, and feel guilty calling myself a vegetarian. This is because I have eaten fish for the past 3 years. Before that, it was 8 years clear. It's still not a regular food for me, perhaps 3 times a week or so. Living in Japan as a strict vegetarian is possible, but you become a bit of a social pariah. I couldn't, for instance, go to a Japanese friend's home for dinner, without causing them dismay over what they could possibly serve me. I admit I have grown to enjoy a few types of fish. Shrimp are delicious, and I have a serious weakness for salmon onion mayo sushi.



My only problem is the guilt. I have been contemplating for a long time, what I will do when I eventually leave Japan. Will I stop eating fish again? Will I go back to my real vegetarian lifestyle? I always say that you should only be veg if you truly don't like eating meat/fish. I don't hold anyone's diet against them. Fish isn't that important to me, I could easily go without again. Plus, the above photo is a view of man's impact on the world's oceans. I live in a country that is renowned for it's fishy needs and whaling prowess. The demand for maguro (tuna) alone is astounding and since the stock in Japan has been pludered, we import from Mediterranean waters. National Geographic explains it far better than I could.

I realize that I am just one person, but really don't feel very good about myself if I order that plate of maguro.

It also makes me want to slap the hell out of Gal Sone. (they start wolfing down the Otoro, or fatty tuna in the middle of this clip.)