Another Bengali Meal Prep in September

Bengal cuisine offers such rich possibilities for cooking with spices more than salt.

Today's cooking class was another lesson in a @WFPB version of traditional recipes.

We start with Brown Basmati Rice, which was cooked in advance with a Zojirushi NP-NVX18 Rice cooker on the GABA Brown Rice setting, meaning it is germinated brown rice, that germinated for 2 hours at 105F and then cooked under pressure with an Induction Heat system.

Our new friend from Queens, Katerina from Queens was there once again. Somehow we lost count, because two people could not make it in the last minute, and we ended up inviting other people in the church to share our meal with us, and a good time was had by all. Not to mention many of us ended up taking more home with us.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Garlic
• Peppers
• Tomato
• Cilantro
• green chilis
• turmeric
• Panch Puran
• Bay Leaves
• Yondu or Bragg's liquid aminos
• Water

• Water squash
• Cauliflower
• Egg plant
• Eddo
• Green Papaya

Instructions:

The first steps are actually the same for both dishes, so we made a large batch of onions, and then split them in two and put on the vegetable medley first, since it needs a longer cooking time.

• Caramelize the onions 
• add in the chilis, turmeric, panch puran, minced garlic, cut up peppers and add some water with Yondu or Braggs to continue - we used 1 tsp Yondu for a cup of water.
• add in the lentils and more water
• add in the harder veggies first, for they need longer to soften
• add in the softer veggies later (e.g, tomato), also cilantro.
• add water as needed.
• add some bay leaves

Three Greens Medley Dal

No, dal is not an airline. It is the typical sauce made from lentils, and you can consider it a soup or a sauce, depending on the occasion. Any three green leafy veggies will do... according to the season today we picked this:

Ingredients:

• onions,
• garlic
• pepper
• cilantro
• turmeric
• panch puran
• green chilis
• Yondu or Bragg's Liquid Aminos to taste.

• lentils
• poi leaf (aka Malabar spinach)
• spinach
• callaloo

Preparation:

For the first step, see above about caramelizing the onions, again we did the onions once for the two dishes and then split them up.

We added water to the caramelized onions

We had young baby spinach, so we did not need to cut it. The callaloo and Poi Leaf we cut in about 1" lengths.

There were grapes for desert. Unfortunately, our friend Khokon unexpectedly could not make it so we will have to do it again and learn to do it even better, but it was a good lesson in a basic dish that you can vary almost endlessly according to the season.

If the group had been bigger, we would have made a salad. The plan was for spaghetti salad from green papaya, carrots, daikon, and zucchini, with a 1/2/3 ddressing (1 measure maple syrup, 2 measures dijon mustard, 3 measures maple syrup) with lemon and lime, dill, parsley, pepper. That 's an invention of Shamim, who is Khokon's cousin and sometime chef.

Practicing plant-based on a budget:

We always donate the overage to St. Helenas, and this week it was almost half of the money we collected. We spent about $8 per person, so our donation to St. Helena's is $7 per person this week. If we had made the vegetable spaghetti salad, our spend per person would have been $10 or so.
On top of that several of us took leftovers home and we actually fed 10 people not the five people who signed up in the class, for some of the other staff and one of the priests joined in. Or rather they were not given the chance to leave without eating for we had more than we could handle.

These numbers can swing from one month to the next, depending on when we buy certain staples, nevertheless, this is always a good lesson in how economical plant-based food can be. Meat is expensive, even while it is heavily subsidized. 

Of Aruba, Steelcut Oats and Solving the Healthcare Crisis

Even Happy Cow lists 23 Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurants in Aruba, as we found out during a short vacation... pretty impressive. Still, on an island excursion, we met a couple from Trinidad who were vegetarian and we took our meal together.

Balashi Beer Garden

We were on a tour that stopped for lunch at the Balashi Beer Garden, the restaurant at Balashi Brewery and vegan/vegetarian options were hard to find... their idea of salad was iceberg lettuce. But with a little prodding we got some cooked broccoli and carrots with rice (albeit white rice) instead. There is a lot of educational work needed to get things to change in the restaurant business...

For the most part, we ate in, except for on a few of these excursions.

My girl friend had brought a Zojirushi NP-HCC10 Rice Cooker with her on the trip and we stayed in a timeshare apartment with a kitchen. At first I thought a bit over the top, but I had to admit that it allowed us to eat in most of the time and never have to go to a restaurant.

For one thing, we made one run to the major supermarket Superfoods and that covered us for the week, I found some Dutch nostalgia there, and we loaded up on kale and fruits and other veggies for the week. They even had Lundberg rice (we had brought some with us from the States), and Braggs Liquid Aminos, in other words, next time we go, this market will be our first stop. The selection was awesome, even including Bob's Red Mill products. So the next time we will have less to bring in ourselves. Which brings me to Steelcut Oats... why?

Steelcut Oats are better for you

Finally, Dr. Michael Greger produced a report on youtube on why oats are the best breakfast, and why steelcut oats are even better for you. No wonder that #WFPB people prefer steelcut oats above any other. The work of Dr. Greger is so very helpful in understanding the nutritonal value of every aspect of the Whole Foods Plant-Based diet.

Signs of the Coming Revolution in Healthcare

In another useful video, Plant Based News from the UK put a collage together from various MDs speaking on nutrition at a recent medical conference and relating their experiences and opinions about the Whole Foods Plant-Based diet, and it is very helpful indeed, as always it is wonderful to have sources to refer your friends and family to to at least give them the option of taking control of their health, instead of falling into the trap of pharmageddon.

And in other news: Vegan 2017 was released

Dunya Harvest Steel-cut Oats at Chang-Li: Breakfast of champions

Dunya Harvest is a beautiful collection of organic staples that is avalaible at Chang-Li Supermarket. One of my favorites is their Steel-cut Organic Oats.

Dunya Harvest, Steel-cut Organic Oats

The best way to prepare them is always with your automatic rice cooker, in my case a Zojirushi NP-GBC05. There's nothing like just setting the timer at night for 6:30 and waking up to the smell of the oatmeal cooking.

Shredded Granny Smith, raisins, craisins, and some fresh ground Ceylon cinnamon

Once it's done, all I do is shred a Granny Smith apple with my trusty Börner V-Slicer mandolin, and add in some raisins, some craisins, and optionally other dried fruit (apricots work fine too), and some ground cinnamon. I add these dried fruits during the "keep warm" cycle and just wait a few minutes, and voilà you're ready to go. You can top the whole thing with some fresh fruit, and you have a breakfast you can't beat.

Adding the dried fruit in the "keep warm" cycle

As to the cinnamon, the usual "supermarket" variety, is actually chinese cinnamon (Cassia Cinnamon), which has a more full-bodied flavor. For the gourmets out there, the alternatives are Ceylon (Sri-Lanka) cinnamon, which is very aromatic and milder and Saigon cinnamon, which is a little spicier. Much has been made of the fact that Chinese cinnamon contains more coumarin, but it would appear that the amount is so small that the concern is not warranted, as this excellent article points out.

Topped off with persimmon

Secret Weapons for Vegans: Rice Cookers

For one thing, in going vegan, you'll have a lot more fun cooking than ever before in your life, there's lots to discover, and as per usual, the key to it all is to make your kitchen efficient.

The pattern that has evolved for me is preparing some cold dishes ahead, so they're always ready to grab. That might include Tabouleh, or French Lentil salad, Black Bean Salsa, and usually I make some hummus so I can quickly make crackers with hummus and cucumber (and I like some sprinkles of Tajin or Siracha, or Sambal). Also I always have some quinoa, which I like to add to salads (minimum one a day, and meal size), and brown rice, or other whole grains.

Some of the tools you will find yourself looking for are a salad spinner, a mandolin, and generally sharp knives, plus I like to have a mortar and pestle around for crushing garlic and grinding spices. All these and more add convenience to your life. However, the one instrument that is absolutely indispensable and the key secret weapon for the vegan lifestyle is the rice cooker. And with rice cooker I mean a serious, top of the line automatic rice cooker, which must have a GABA brown rice (GBR) cycle and a timer function. The reason for having GBR is nutrition: GABA brown rice is simply more nutritious because the germination cycle allows Gamma-aminobutyric_acid (GABA) and other nutrients to develop, making it much more nutritious in the same way that various sprouts (beans, broccoli) are so exceptionally healthy. The timer thingy is phenomenal because it makes your life easier than having your own cook (rice cookers are endlessly patient), and you can put on your breakfast at night, to be ready when you wake up, and put on brown rice for dinner after you finish breakfast, so it's ready when your day is done. The extra money for the fancy models is easily worth it.
Here are two of my favorite designs (I am considering primarily the smallest models, for a one person household):

• The ideal might be a rice cooker with Induction Heat and a pressure cooker, but Zojirushi doesn't make one in the smallest size, so my favorite is their NP-GBC05 which has a 3-cup capacity that is great for one person households and small families. I have had this one for years, and I can honestly say that without it, my transition to a fully vegan lifestyle would have been almost unthinkable.
• Another phenomenal option would seem to be the Cuckoo CRP-EHS0309F, which is the same small size (3 cups), and offers generally the same conveniences as the Zojirushi, but it adds the pressure cooker feature, which does save time when you're in a hurry. Admittedly the timer should allow you to always cook ahead, but sometimes you forget, or you have a change of plans, and then saving time does count.

So, there you have it. The one thing to know is that brown rice has a shorter shelf-life than white rice, because it is more "alive." So you do not want to over-buy brown rice, lest you end up eating stale rice all the time. There are plenty of choices at most good supermarkets, and in our neighborhood Chang-Li is my favorite destination for rice, although, when I have a chance, I like to get some mixes like Organic 10 Mixed Grains at MayWah, or any one of the Lundberg varieties. Lundberg is the leader of the pack in terms of quality organic rice varieties and various products. The closest place you can get it in our neighborhood is at Good 'n Natural on White Plains Road by Pelham Parkway, which is one amazing health food store. Other places where you'll find Lundberg rice include Fairway, Whole Foods, and most any healthfood store in town.