Yet Another No-Oil Vegan Dinner at Packsun

My hunch that Bangladeshi cuisine is particularly suitable to be adapted to the no-oil vegan lifestyle, is proving to be amply true. And of course, I was lucky enough to get to know Khokon, the owner of Packsun Halal Chicken, where we had our second no-oil vegan dinner yesterday, Tuesday April 4th, 2017. Conveniently, he also owns Neerob Bazaar on Starling Avenue, and he always cooks for the restaurant with ingredients from his store. And it's all home style food, people come from far and wide, and slowly but surely his clientele is expanding beyond the Bangladeshi people.

Our Dinner Last Night

Last night, we had a beautiful salad of chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, with purple onion, cilantro, salt and lemon juice. There was also a dish of daikon radish cooked with some water, turmeric, garlic and cilantro. There was another excellent dish of yellow lentils, and a dish of greens (poi greens) as well. Rice and bread were the foundation.

Khokon is taking ownership of this initiative to such a degree that he is not letting his regular chef come close to the food - he prepares it himself, and he is all excited about the fact that without oil everything tastes better. Everyone at the table was complimentary of the food, and only one person of eight even wondered why there was no meat in it, and when he got the explanation he promptly became very interested in the whole idea. One of the diners will probably go to the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore.

On to Forks Over Knives on April 25th

On April 25th, NYPL Parkchester will be showing Forks Over Knives from 5-7, and at 8 PM there will be a free oil-free vegan dinner sampling menu at Packsun. You do need to make a reservation.

Neerob Tradition at Packsun Restaurant, some recipes

Neerob is Mohammed "Khokon" Rahman's favorite symbol, both for his store on Starling Avenue, and for his restaurant, called Packsun on Westchester avenue, where the Neerob label is also prominently displayed.

Last week Packsun was extensively written up in the New York Times. Clearly, Khokon and his team produce quality food for a moderate price in our neighborhood.

I am deeply honored to be working with Khokon on the no-oil vegan project. For now, the plan is to launch with a taste testers dinner on Tuesday 4/4 at 9PM. After that on 4/25, there will be a dinner following the showing of Forks over Knives at NY Public Library at Parkchester, from 5 - 7 PM.


Here are some of the recipes we prepared last week for the first time, which I now made at home over the weekend, and with great success. Here is the list, followed by comments on the preparation.

1. Sautéed spinach with onions, garlic and green chili peppers.
2. Yellow lentils, tomato, onion, garlic, green chili peppers, and some turmeric, liquid aminos and pepper
3. Water squash (this is a light green squash that is popular with the Bangladeshi community), eddo (a delicious tuber, Jamaicans call this white coco), tomato, onion, serrano peppers, garlic, turmeric, a bay leaf and liquid aminos.

Because of timing, the rice should come first. I used Lundbergh Organic Brown Basmati Rice, cooked in my Zojirushi rice cooker on the GABA (germinated) Brown Rice cycle. That takes two and a half hours, but obviously, you can make it ahead of time. I put it on at lunch with a timer for dinner time.

The next dish should be the lentils:

• Start with softening the onions without oil or water, but just before they start to brown too fast, add in the crushed and chopped garlic, a half dozen of small green chilis. Finally add a tomato, diced.
• Now, add a half a cup of vegetable bouillon (or can be water from steaming vegetables), then add the lentils and more boullion till the lentils are adequately covered, and add turmeric, liquid aminos and pepper to taste.
• This needs about 35-45 mins until the lentils are done.

 Then comes the squash dish

•  Peel the water squash and eddo, peel and slice or chop the onion.
•  Start with the onion, again, dry without oil or water, and when the onions start getting soft, add the crushed/chopped garlic, and the sliced peppers, and now add first the eddo in 1/2" slices, and next chunks of water squash (I quartered it lengthwise and then cut it in 1/4" slices). Add the diced tomato, and again, add some vegetable bouillon before anything starts getting burned, in small amounts.
• Add enough bouillon to allow this to simmer and cook nearly dry while you prepare the spinach.

The spinach comes last, because it cooks the quickest:

• Stir-fry the onions first, adding the garlic and serrano peppers (halved length-wise), allow to simmer long enough so it starts getting soft.
• When the stir-fry gets soft, add the spinach, after a thorough washing and chopped to manageable size. 

In this dish there should be no need for any water, as the spinach contains a lot of water and creates a delicious flavor.

The above should take you no more than 45 mins to one hour to prepare. It is a festive dinner, with delicious aroma. Obviously, you can vary the level of "heat," depending on the number of pepper, and salt & pepper can be used to taste.

The plan is to continue replicating these recipes at home every time, before writing them up here. All ingredients are available at Neerob Bazaar, 2085 Starling Avenue.

Happy and healthy cooking to all.

Is there a secret to cookware for vegans?

I think this question is fraught with fallacious arguments, although there are a few things that belong in the arsenal if you want to make life manageable. What is important is the staples you use, and you set up a program so you're always cooking ahead certain staples, so you can just reach for them during the week... For that, as I have pointed out in earlier blog entries, I recommend a top of the line Rice Cooker, with a GABA Brown Rice cycle. The timer will free you up tremendously. I start my breakfast before going to bed, so that it's ready at 6:30, and then I can setup anything for during the day, even lunch first, and dinner later, but in reality I cook these staples in batches for a few days.

But then it comes to pots and pans, and what is the best for cooking without oil, and sometimes even without water?

For the last forty years I have used Demeyere Silvinox, and these pans were designed to cook without oil or water. They stay beautiful, but they are a bit

pricey.

Then, some of my favorite pans are Calphalon, and that is what Khokon, the owner of Packsun was using when we had our Oil-free Vegan dinner there. Calphalon is also high quality cookware, though again a bit pricey, but not as high as Demeyere.

Recently, I found some budget options, and they seem to work well, though I don't know if they'll last forty years. There is the Gotham Steel, Titanium & Ceramic Non-stick frying pan, and here is a Youtube video on it. I have used it for vegetables quite successfully, and I like it.

And lastly, there is the Red Copper (TM) pan, which is also a good candidate. And here is another review, which is quite impressive, and confirms my first impressions with this material. The green one in the video I have never tried.

The confusing part is that the Red Copper (TM) pan says to season it, while the Gotham Steel pan does not say so, and visually the materials look quite the same. You can get these everywhere in the city at Bed, Bath and Beyond, or online. I like the way both of these work with oil-free cooking of various vegetable dishes, and they remain easy to clean.

By comparison, for a while I had a Uniware Ecolon pan that also claims a ceramic coating, but I found it did not stay as easy to clean, or as forgiving for oil-free cooking. Different from the ceramic coating used in Red Copper and Gotham Steel, it does not tolerate steel utensils. To me this is not a big point per se, for I use mostly wood or silicon utensils for cooking, as I generally don't like any risk of scratching in any of my pans. For now, it is not one of my favorites.
But the choices are endless, but it does seem some pans are better than others, and quality does pay for itself. Notice how Demeyere claims 30% lower energy consumption, that really does make a difference also. Quality does pay.

Inaugural No-oil Vegan Dinner Improv at Packsun

Tonight, Monday March 27th, 2017 we spontaneously had our first no-oil vegan dinner at Packsun. It all started with a conversation at Neerob Bazaar at 2085 Starling Avenue, with owner Khokon (Muhammad Rahman), and a few friends. He then simply said, let's do it right now, and with that he grabbed some ingredients, and our little group was on its way to the Packsun Restaurant, at  2160 Westchester Avenue, which he also owns.

There, inside of 40 minutes, Khokon whipped up a beautiful no-oil vegan dinner with basmati rice, whole wheat roti, and three vegetable dishes:

1. Sautéed spinach with onions, garlic and chili peppers.
2. Yellow lentils, tomato, onion, garlic, chili peppers, and some turmeric, salt and pepper
3. Water squash (this is a light green squash that is popular with the Bangladeshi community), eddo (a delicious tuber, the jamaicans call this white coco), tomato onion chili peppers, garlic, turmeric, a bay leaf and salt.

The food was too good, so I only took a pic of the last bit of #3

(bay leaf in the middle)

This was not a joke, people inhaled the food. Khokon himself was an inspiration, he had only just discovered the whole idea of oil-free vegan cooking recently, through our conversations, but he loves it now himself. So we have a motivated owner (and part-time cook).

In short, this experiment is off to a roaring start. All the ingredients can be found at Neerob Bazaar.

Neerob Bazaar

Asked by one of the diners what was the secret of his preparation, Khokon answered: "All you need to cook a good meal is heart." Now, that's my kind of cook, I'll go to his restaurant any old time.

Bronx #not62 and Dr. Robert Ostfeld, cardiologist at Montefiore

If you weren't paying attention, the plant-based lifestyle has gone mainstream at least four years ago, for since that time, Dr. Robert Ostfeld, a cardiologist at Montefiore Hospital, has been teaching plant-based nutrition at Einstein College in the Bronx. I had the pleasure of attending his workshop at the Chappaqua library recently, and if you missed it, don't fret, you can still catch up with a video the library posted, here.

The presentation was impressive, even for me, for to hear this doctor saying how he's never seen any medication achieve such dramatic results as the simple dietary change to a plant-based diet, was music to my ears. Generally speaking, the presentation reinforced everything I needed with my knowledge from Dr. Esselstyn's books, and the documentary Forks over Knives.
At the cost of one visit with Dr. Ostfeld at Montefiore, you can participate in his four-hour Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore.

Note the key statements: 

quote

"We have been humbled and awestruck by our results" says Dr. Ostfeld. When asked about why the program, still in its infancy, is meeting with such success, he explains, "Our patients are presented with scientific evidence of this diet's powerful effects during our four-hour Wellness Program. It's harder to get all the information across during a 20 minute patient visit." In addition to the dramatic impact on heart disease, research continues to mount on the effectiveness of a plant-based diet in reducing the risk of many forms of cancer, osteoporosis, chronic kidney disease, many digestive diseases including IBS as well as autoimmune diseases.

unquote


In the aftermath, I have started to organize some more specific activities in the neighborhood:

• NYPL Parkchester will be showing Forks over Knives on April 25th at 5 PM.
• I have set up a Meetup group to work with local restaurants to put oil-free vegan dishes on the menu,
  https://www.meetup.com/Starling-Avenue-Triangle-Vegan-Cuisine/
• And on April 15th, I will be at a health fair from Metro Plus at Devoe Park.

Last, not least on March 25 I met some young people at a meeting at Community Board #9, who are planning a healthy restaurant in the area, probably vegan. In short, inspiration galore.

It all reminds me of a young mother I met at one of our community planning events, who said her number one priority for our neighborhood was to not have another fast-food restaurant. She wanted more healthy food choices for her kids.

The times they are a changing. They sure are! If the Bronx wants to change health outcomes, such as the #not62 campaign seeks to achieve, it should do more to supports programs like this one.

Rice in the hood

Buying, keeping, and preparing organic brown rice is easy, but it does require some thought.

First, if you are equipped with that most essential kitchen tool, the automatic rice cooker with an GABA brown rice cycle, that will determine what rice you buy. If you are still wondering if you should own such a device, do read my earlier post that I linked to in the previous sentence. The long and short of it is: if you have one of the fancy models with GABA brown rice cycle and a timer, it's better than having your own personal cook - they don't talk back, and they deliver like clockwork, never mind the GABA brown rice cycle takes two and a half hours.

If you do not have such a device, nor a pressure cooker, you might have reason to buy parboiled brown rice, which recently was available in many stores in the neighborhood, including this one at Neerob Bazaar:

Della Parboiled Organic Light Brown Rice (Quick Cooking)

The facts of life are that brown rice is healthier, but it takes longer to cook, and that is an excuse to buy parboiled rice. However, the downside is that it won't keep as long as raw brown rice, and you cannot cook it on the GABA-cycle, so if you do have a pressure cooker, or certainly a good rice cooker, you might want to skip this one and go for the raw (preferably organic) brown rice. Neerob Bazaar offered a good choice here too, from Laxmi brand:

Laxmi raw Brown Basmati Rice

 Basmati rice is always a flaverful choice, and Laxmi is certainly a good brand, however this is not organic rice. For a good organic rice, you need to make the trip to Good 'n Natural, at 2173 White Plains Road. They carry the full line of Lundberg Organic Rice, which is the best rice you can find in America today.

Lundberg Organic California Brown Basmati Rice

Personally, being a household of one, I prefer these 2 lbs packs from Lundberg, or other similar packs, because raw brown rice has limited shelf life.  You can find the best guidance on keeping food on the StillTasty website, and their specific advice for brown rice, here, states clearly that brown rice has a shelf life as follows:

1. In the pantry, in air-tight containers, 3-6 months.
2. In the fridge, 6-12 months
3. In the freezer, 12-18 months

The bottom line is: buy rice according to your usage pattern. Stale rice spoils the fun. Particularly if you're learning how to enjoy food more, which is what happens when you go vegan, the flavor of rice will hit the palate strongly, and life is too short to eat inferior rice.

Aside from this general guidance, there are some interesting rice mixes coming on the market, which are certainly worthwhile if you can find them. In our area you can find some mixed rices in the Lundberg family at Good 'n Natural, but also Chang-Li Market sometimes has interesting options, such as this Healthy Grains Rice from Taiwan, which is mix of raw brown rice, black rice, wheat, pearl barley, millet and buckwheat in a vacuum-sealed 2.6 lb bag:

Healthy Grains Rice Blend at Chang-Li Market

 Other good staple rices are Nishiki brand, which is a regular at Chang-Li, here:

2 Lb packs of Nishiki Brown Rice at Chang-Li Market

Other interesting varieties you can find at Chang-Li are red rice, here:

Red Rice at Chang-Li Market

and black rice - sorry, I forgot to take a picture, but you'll find it in the aisle with Chinese staples. The oriental black rice, also known as forbidden because it once was the reserve of the emperor, is real rice, and it is absolutely delicious. It is very different from American black rice, which you will find in gourmet stores, or in health food stores such as Good 'n Natural, which is a grass variety, and not a proper rice at all. Having said that, it is also delicious, and people often mix about 20% with their rice when they cook it, which adds depth to the flavor of the rice.

Lastly, another interesting rice blend, which I love, is this one:

3-Lb bag of Organic 10 Mixed Grains, from May-Wah on Hester Street, NYC

May-Wah Vegan Market is a good resource to know about for vegetarian or vegan foods, and/or meat alternatives. It is worth a periodic shopping expedition. This particular blend, Organic 10 Mixed Grains, contained Organic Brown Rice, Organic Sweet Brown Rice, Organic Oat Groats, Organic Rye Berry, Organic Barley, Organic Buckwheat Hulled, Organic Millet Hulled, Organic Wehani Rice, Organic Forbidden Rice, Organic Quinoa. It is a delicious alternative to just plain rice.


That's all for this report. Happy rice shopping! And, not to belabor the point, but, there obviously never is a reason to eat white rice in any form, it essentially has very little nutritional value.

Vegan/Vegetarian options at Taqueria Tlaxcalli

Recently, we went to Taqueria Tlaxcalli for my birthday, and to my delight, I found that the place is eminently survivable for the vegan/vegetarian palate, more so than I was aware. In the past, I had stuck to the cactus salad and maybe some rice and beans. This time we found more options, not to mention one that was particularly gorgeous and delicious. A true culinary piece of art.

Vegetable Burrito at Taqueria Tlaxcalli

In particular, the vegetable burrito was delightful, and, for an appetizer, I had the cactus salad - sin queso, of course. My girlfriend had herself a delicious black bean soup for an appetiser.
Naturally, if I'd have my 'drathers, the rice would be brown rice, and I'd like to double check the soup stock on the bean soup for I would suspect it's not all that vegetarian.
The bottom line is the options are growing compared to what I was used to in the past. Plus, I also know more about nutrition today than I ever did before, so menus are getting easier to navigate. The simple fact is there are more and more people going vegan, all around us, and you see it reflected in supermarkets and increasingly in restaurants. Nice to see one of my favorite places catching on.