Great Barbers Eat Plants

I got a kick out of Trump´s visit to the Knockout Barbershop at 1189 Castle Hill Avenue, around the corner from me. It turned out, of course that Trump was entirely correct in sensing that people are ready for change, and with the team he brought in, he also showed he is ready for change.

To celebrate the positive mood, we organized a plant-based lunch for the crew. 

Clearly. this stuff went over really well. I kept it moderately spicy, and that worked out well, as always when you do not know your crowd in advance.

For the occasion, owner Javier Rodriguez donned his T-shirt

MAKE BARBERS GREAT AGAIN

And people were really enjoying the food.

And some people came back again and again.

It started out with a trickle, but once I announced I was leaving, the food disappeared very fast.

Javier Rodriguez sampling the food.

We had one box of  Black Bean Salsa

Ingredients

2 cans of black beans, drained

One 15 Oz can of Corn

Bunch of fresh Cilantro

1-2 celery stalks, sliced thin

Juice of 2-3 limes (depending on how juicy the lime)

16 Oz jar of medium green salsa

Liberal amount of pickled jalapenos.

Directions

Soak and Cook the beans with a kombu strip (Abt. 45 mins.), or simply drain the cans and rinse the beans.

Slice the peppers, especially the hot ones, as thin as possible, and small chunks.

Celery also, paper thin slices are the way to go, that way, the taste blends throughout. (Use the mandoline).

Wash and chop up the cilantro

Add lime juice, mix in the black beans and the salsa.

Mix well.

And we had:

Cactus Salad - Ensalada de Nopales

It all started with Tacqueria Tlaxcalli 
mexicoinmykitchen.com

Ingredients

Cactus leaves

Red Onions

Tomato

Pressed Tofu in lieu of ch

2-3 TBS¨P of nutritional yeast

Cilantro

(Mexican) Oregano

Sliced Radish 

Serrano peppers or pickled Jalapeño

3/2/1 dressing with lemon and lime

a sprinkle of Green Salt

Pepper to taste

Directions

Cut the nopales paddles in 1/2" strips and cut those to 1" lenghts. Cooked: boil the nopales paddles in ample water for 15-20 mins with a small onion and some garlic in the water.Let cool.

Place the nopales in a large bowl; add the chopped tomato, onion, serrano peppers, radish and cilantro. Mix the ingredients.

In a separate bowl mix the dressing with oregano, salt, and pepper.

Add this to the nopales mixture and stir.

Top the salad with crumbled fresh cubed tofu and the nutritional yeast and avocado slices.

(Radishes go well with this salad also).

Eat with corn tortillas or tostadas.

And they still have the picture of Trump coming to visit the shop.

Lots of fun was had by all. 

We'll do it again after the inauguration.

Polish Health Soup - max Anti- Inflammatory

 

A friend was taught this recipe by a Polish person as being highly anti-inflammatory, and that makes sense.

I obviously left out the oil, as well as any added salt.

I have no quarrel with one tablespoon of better than bouillon for 5+ qts of soup.

I ended up using about 4 onions, 3 peppers, 5 Thai Chillies, 1lb of carrots,  and I ate 2 large bowls of soup. very filling, but I could see myself adding some barley next time. I had 4 quarts left over. A friend went large scale and made about 10 mason jars (same as Ball jars).

In all highly recommended.

Polish Health Soup

From Poland via Blossom from a live demonstration, with some tweaks.

Ingredients

2 tbsp Panchpuran

3-10 Onions

3-10 cloves of Garlic

3-10 Thai Chillies sliced thin

2-4 Bell Peppers cut up fine

1-3 lb Carrots, sliced thin

1 whole Celery, sliced thin

1 Cauliflower, cut up in cubes

1 dry cup red lentils.

I can Tomato Puree

5-10 Fresh Tomatoes chopped

1 tbsp Veggie Bouillon

2-3 Qts Veggie Broth

Pepper to taste

Turmeric

Cayenne

Directions

dry roast the panchpuran briefly

Caramelize the Onions, add peppers, garlic

add the veggies in layers, stir in between 1-9 mins

Add Broth as needed

Add the tomatoes

add the lentils

simmer 15 mins

add the tomato puree

The turmeric (fresh or powder) and Cayenne can be added on the plate to taste.
Note that black pepper potentiates turmeric

The fresh cayenne on top will clear your sinuses.

Notes

You can cook for a week by putting it into ball jars, let them cool upside down for a good seal and then refrigerate. In my one person household that is soup for a week.

The concept of cooking it in layers, and allowing the flavors to slowly blend is an essential part of this soup.

Cassava 1st try

Meet my cassava 

And the dal with Jackfruit seeds, a handful of fresh peanuts, Swiss Chard, onions, garlic, panch puran, and other spices.

And a veggie dis of snake gourd, with onions and garlic and bean prouts

And the Cassava of course.

Plus I drank a cup of pot water, as west Indians like to call it.

Protstate and Cassava - Folk Wisdom

This is just a bit of folk wisdom that an african friend passed along to me and I post it here, in case it can help somebody.

================

*

I BEG EVERYONE ON THIS PLATFORM ESPECIALLY THE MALE AMONG US, TO READ THIS ARTICLE TO THE END.

*

Don't die in silence!!!

    

*Eat Cassava*

Good news for those who have issues with their prostate, be it enlarged or cancerous.

Let me begin by sharing my own experiences with my prostate.

My father and his younger brother died from prostate cancer, and I've been living with an enlarged prostate since 2006.

I've tried both orthodox, herbal and food supplements with varying degrees of success, but my bladder is never empty, and I have been embarrassed a few times by incontinence.

However, the turning point appeared when in 2021 I traveled in a bus and met with some elderly people.

Before we boarded the bus, I remarked that I would be asking the driver to stop for me to pee along the way, because of my enlarged prostate.

This provided an excellent opportunity for one of the elders to give us the remedy, which he said his own father have been using.

Very simply, cook cassava over a charcoal or wood fire.

*DO NOT COVER THE SAUCEPAN . ALLOW THE STEAM TO EVAPORATE FREELY*

You can eat the cooked cassava with any stew of your choice.

I must tell you that right from our return I've had cassava cooked for me as prescribed.

I'm in a place without access to a coal pot, so I use gas to cook the cassava.

Since Friday when I got here, my breakfast has been lemon grass +ginger tea and lemon.

Lunch is boiled cassava.

Previously, I woke up after every two hours in the night to pee. Sometimes, I peed twice within the hour. And this affected my health.

But since I started the cassava therapy, I wake up only once in the night.

I don't feel the heat/pain associated with peeing.

I don't feel the urge to rush to the washroom in order to avoid spillage.

I know there are a number of elderly Brothers who have issues with the prostate, and I recommend the cassava therapy to them.

Try it, or recommend it to anyone with prostate issues.

*Shared as copied* 

 CASSAVA & CANCER CELLS !!!

Don't stop, please read to the end !

After eating cassava for one month, my doctor checked my bladder for cancer. He was surprised because my bladder was completely clean and normal.

As long as I kept eating cassava, I feIt very fit and very healthy. Every three months I would go for a check up and my results remained clean. Since then, I only ate cassava and did not continue other cancer medications.

Mr. Pereira, a 70-year-old man, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His wife at the hospital happened to read my article. They had no money for the cancer treatment and the injection given made Mr.Pereira very weak. His wife gave him cassava to consume. After eating cassava for a week, his situation started getting better. After a month of eating cassava every morning, his PSA test result reduced  from 280-290 to 5.89 !

They visited me with the test results before and after eating cassava. Pereira no longer had any symptoms of cancer after continuing eating cassava.

There was another person who had liver cancer and had to undergo surgery. But from the MRI scan results, the cancer cells still existed. So, she started eating cassava after surgery. A month after eating cassava or ubi kayu, doctors told her there would be no need to undergo surgery anymore because the MRI scan did not show the existence of any cancer cells in her liver.

So why not try cassava for curing cancer? It is cheap, easy to get, easy to cook and very tasty.

SHARED AS RECEIVED !!

*This may help someone; please pass it on. (You may try it.)*

 *Copied.                               #HealthIsWealth.*

Purslane, Verdolaga, miracle nutrition

 Right along with Dandelions, Purslane (Spanish Verdolaga), is one of those plants that is too often disregarded, if not seen as a weed, but it is a nutrition powerhouse.

Since I have been writing about recipes with purslane, I wanted to basically post a recent article that talks about puslane.

I asked one of the Bangladeshi merchants on my street about it, why he did not sell it in his store. The answer was oh, I grow that in my yard. In other words it was too easy to sell it in the store.

Anyway here is a posting on a site called WorldCrops. It contains an album of pictures of Purslane. They have adopted the Spanish name of Verdolaga.

I find it at a Mexican store in my area.

And here is yet another article:

https://www.newsbreak.com/share/3550869690554-purslane-the-underestimated-superfood-with-maximum-health-benefits

Econo #WFPB #4 Dal with stems from various leafy greens.

 

Here is a huge bunch of Purslane (Verdolaga), and note below my potato salad with the leaves. 

Next to it, you will see the stems. I cut them up in 1 inch pieces (Verdolaga is fairly soft, and freeze them, and I will have stems from Kale and Collard greens, or Malabar Spinach, and I cut those in 1/4" pieces when I use the leaves, and save them in a ziploc bag until I am ready to make dal again. Or, alternatively I can use various odds and ends to even cook my own vegetable broth one day.

And the last image is a plate of dal, along the lines of the recipe, but including stems of purslane, kale, collard greens and even malabar spinach, but it could be any stems of leafy greens. The stems can be tougher, but when you make the dal, I cook thos stems, cut in small chunks, right along with the onions and peppers to form the base. Then when you add teh lentils and simmer it some more, those stems are pretty soft and they add a lot of depth to the flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp of panch puran
• 1 cup water with Yondu for the sauté
• 1 medium/small Onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 carrots, shredded or sliced thin
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 2-3 Thai chilis
• 1 Jalapeño
• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 cups water
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp parsley flakes or fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp salt-free chili powder
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp chipotle powder (or more)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 tsp cumin, milled
• 1 tsp caraway, milled
• 1 tsp fennel, milled
• 1 piece of turmeric minced, or a tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 14.5 Oz can of diced tomato (fire roasted)
• 1 6 Oz can of salt-free tomato paste

Directions

• Set aside the tomatoes, red bell pepper.
• In a large soup pot, first roast the tablespoon of panch puran, then water sauté or dry sauté the onion, garlic, peppers until translucent, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add remaining ingredients but not the tomatoes, and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium and cook until lentils are creamy, about 20 minutes.
• Blend the tomatoes, bell pepper and garlic in blender and blend until smooth. Skip this step if you like it chunky.
• a) Place all ingredients in an electric pressure cooker and cook on high for 10 minutes,
  or
  b) place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
• Garnish with finely chopped scallions and a sprinkling of Faux Parmesan (or nutritional yeast).

Notes

Optionally, you can make this with more veggies, liek beet greens, chard, and other such. In that case, I left out the tomato puree.

I also made it more spicy and aromatic than the original from chef AJ, but by including veggies, it becomes more of a dal.

Econo #WFPB #3 Fingeling potatoes with Purslane

I wrote about this simple spring salad of fingerling potatoes with purslane for the first time in 2017 (link).

As a refresher, here is the basic recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 lb fingerling potatoes
• 1 cup purslane leaves
• 3/2/1 dressing with one lemon or lime (3tbsp balsamic, 2 tbsp dijon mustard, 1 tbsp maple syrup)
• red onion
• either 1/2 teaspoon of piment d'espelette or
• (1 heaping teaspoon of paprika powder and
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper)
• 1-2 tsp of dill
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• boil the potatoes
• cut in small chunks
• pluck the leaves off the purslane and reserve the stems for another use.
• make the salad dressing
• mix

The reason I want to write about this now in terms of kitchen economics, is that it appears not to be economical, but it all depends on a lot of circumstantial stuff. Take note of the fact that purslane is very, very nutritions, see here (https://www.verywellfit.com/purslane-nutrition-facts-4692802) : 

One cup of purslane contains:

• Calories: 8.6
• Fat: 0.2g
• Sodium: 19.4mg
• Carbohydrates: 1.5g
• Fiber: Not provided
• Sugars: Not provided
• Protein: 0.9g
• Vitamin C: 9mg
• Potassium: 212mg
• Iron: 0.9mg
• Magnesium: 29.2mg

But purslane (Spanish Verdolaga) is not usually cheap, and this recipe calls for the leaves only, so I saved the stems and used them in my next dal.

Those are the kind of little tricks that are the engine of kitchen economics, and they are fun to figure out. In my next piece I will write about the dal.

A Dal and a Curry with Jackfruit seeds and Green Leafies

We had an interesting discussion at Neerob Restaurant based on a taste test of two alternative tests for a sauce made with Jackfruit seeds. In the picture below it is served over Brown Basmati Rice with a side of Bitter Melon

Serve over brown rice and a mild veggie side dish

Notes: 1+ tbsp or tsp means a heaping tablespoon or a teaspoon. Just the number means exact measures; jackfruit seeds are pre-cooked and peeled

Recipe #1 - Jackfruit seed Dal (milder)

• 2 tbsp Panch Puran
• 1-2 red onions
• 1-2 yellow onions
• 7 thai chilis
• 3-6 cloves of garlic
• 2 cups veggie broth (I used Plantstrong Sweet Corn /Broth)
• 6 Oz tomato paste
• 2 cups jack fruit seeds
• 1 tbsp Tianjin Vegetables (not sodium, don't overdo it)
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 3 tbsp besan, dissoved in:
• 2 cups water 
• 2+ cups of chopped swiss chard

Process

Roast panch puran dry until it starts to pop

1. add chopped onions and chilis
2. add some broth slowly
3. simmer 10 mins
4. add garlic, jackfruit seeds, garam masala, tomato puree, tijanjin vegetables
5. Simmer 10 mins
6. Dissolve besan in the cold water, starting with ½ cup
7. add swiss chard
8. cook 10 mins.
9. Serve over basmati brown rice.

=========================================

#2 Jackfruit seed Curry (hot and spicy)

• 3 tbsp Panch puran (seeds)
• 1-2 red onions
• 1-2 yellow onions
• 7 thai chilis sliced
• 3 jalapeños sliced
• 1+ tbsp curry powder
• 1+ tbsp garam masala
• 3 cups jackfruit seeds
• 4 cups  (1 pint) vegetable broth
• 4 tbsp besan, dissolved in:
• 2 cups of water
• 4 cups of Swiss Chard
• 1 lb of water squash 

Process: 

similar to #1 above 

Stuffing with Young Jackfruit

 Young jackfruit can be cooked and it has an interesting consistency. Here is how to prepare it:

I made a simple stuffing for burritos:

1 small unripte jackfruit 1.5 to 2 lbs.

1 tbsp panch puran

1 red onion, cut up fine

1 white onion cut up fine

3-4 cloves of garlic,

1-2 carrots cut up

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

1 cup of water with 1 tsp Yondu to caramelize the onions.

2 cups of veggie broth

mixed peppers, cut up fine, bell peppers, and some jalapeño, serrano, and/or thai chilis

1/2 napa cabbage

1 6 Oz can of tomato puree

Directions:

1. heat the panch puran until it begins to pop
2. add the peppers and onions, the garlic and the ginder
3. add in the water with Yondu, keeping the heat high and slowly and the water until the onions get soft.
4. Lower the heat, and add in the cut-up jackfruit and the veggie broth broth.
5. Let it simmer until the jackfruit is soft and can be easily pulled apart.
6. shred the cabbage let it simmer until just cooked
7. add in the tomato paste

Server in whole wheat burritos over brown rice

An easy meal.

Natto Breakfast Updated

Some time ago I posted about my new favorite breakfast, Natto, with brown basmati, black rice, natto, scallions, chives, and a cut up jalapeño and serrano pepper. 

Afterwards the Australian Doctor Robyn Chuter, who is a fellow graduate of T.Colin Campbell's institute of Nutrition Studies, gave me the idea of adding in ground flaxseed, but that might be healthy it does not taste great. It easily dulls down the taste of the whole dish, in spite of the peppers. Until... Wasabi powder came to the rescue. The result is great. Gourmet stuff, and it sure as hell wakes you up in the morning. Robyn's Substack is worth following, by the way. 

So here goes, the winning edition of my healthy breakfast:

It starts harmless enough, 

• 50/50 Brown Basmati rice and Black Rice
• 1 jalapeño seeded and cut up fine
• 1 serrano seeded and cut up fine
• chives
• 2-3 scallions

Adding the ground flax seeds  dulls down the taste. It drowns out even the peppers.

Here comes the Wasabi shaker.

And I am adding a liberal dusting of Wasabi. to be precise, exactly 1/4 tsp of wasabi powder is enough to overcome the dull taste of the flaxmeal and still be neutral, any more than that raises the heat.

The final stage is of course mixing it all and eating it.

I assure you it is glorious.

You will not be in any doubt if you are awake or not.

Recommended.

It only took me two months of experimenting since Robin suggested the ground flax seeds for me to come up with this refinement.

Econo #WFPB #0002 - Basic Miso Soba

Note: to be economical in your kitchen, one thing you might want to do, is to be clear with yourself what cuisines you like best. It is very easy to carry altogether too much in inventory, when your cooking styles are all over the piace. I like potatoes, and pasta and rice. They are all good complex carbs, if you use whole wheat flour and brown rice. Rice keeps fairly well, Pasta also, but not potatoes. I was raised with potatoes, but by the time I started living on my own, I became a little Chinaman, living on mostly rice, tofu, and veggies. But, I always had a reputation for cooking good pasta sauce, and while the precise recipes changed over the years, that remains a favorite. Then, later in life my tsste for potatoes came back.

All of that, just to say that Miso soup and miso soba are easy dishes if they fit your pantry. On the positive side, most of the ingredients keep rather well. Dried seaweed is an example, dried mushrooms is another. For the following recipe the fresh ingredients are some collard green leaves, some daikon, and some scallions. All the rest can be kept dry. 

In the following recipe, I will assume that we begin making the soup at breakfast.

You rinse about a 1" to 2" wide strip of kombu, and put that on with 2 cups of fitered water. You add in the dried mushrooms, a teaspoon of hijiki and a teaspoon of wakame. Rinse them, before adding to the soup.

Cut up a 1/4 block of tofu in small cubes, and bring the whole thing to a boil, and let it simmer for a bit and then let it cool off.

Dry Ingredients:

1 1"-2"strip of kombu, rinsed

1 tsp hijiki, rinsed

1 tsp wakame, rinsed

1/4 block of tofu, cubed

1 handful of dried shiitake mushrooms

1 bundle soba noodles or whole grain ramen.

Bring to a low simmer and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, and then let it cool off. Do this at breakfast if you want to have the noodles for lunch of dinner.

Preparation:

Presently, you reheat the now cooled off broth, and when it comes to a boil, you turn it completely low, and remove the kombu. Now come some more ingredients:

Fresh Ingredients:

3-5 Collard Green leaves, stem removed, rolled up, and cut in thin slices

1"-2" section of Daikon, julienned, katsumatsuki style cut

3 scallions sliced thin. 

Assembly:

If using Soba, cook it separately in ample boiling water.
If using ramen, you can add them in the soup at the end, for about 4-5 minutes, as long as you make sure they are submersed long enough.

Cook the daikon and collards in the soup.

Meanwhile boil a cup of water to dissolve about 3 tbsp of miso, but let it cool briefly for you do not want to boil the miso. 

Dissolve the miso. Mix it all in a bowl, and finish with the scallions.

Nutrition:

Clearly the noodles are the carbs

The leafy greens are there in abundance,

the tofu bumps up the protein a little bit

the miso, see this healthline article:

One ounce holds (please get the low sodium variety) :

• Calories: 56
• Carbs: 7 grams
• Fat: 2 grams
• Protein: 3 grams
• Sodium: 43% of the RDI
• Manganese: 12% of the RDI
• Vitamin K: 10% of the RDI
• Copper: 6% of the RDI
• Zinc: 5% of the RDI