When served with rice, lentils are one of the few vegetarian sources of complete protein.  Along with their protein comes iron, B vitamins, and fiber–all very important when on a restricted diet.  Adding in some vegetables helps round out the nutrition, and ethnic stores often have inexpensive produce.  I chose some tindora (technically a fruit), available for $2.40 per pound.  If you’ve never seen or eaten tindora, I’d describe it as somewhere between okra and zucchini.

The flatbreads in front are chapati, made with a finely ground whole wheat flour.  Not pictured, but also on the table was some plain basmati rice.  The dal (lentil dish) on the left is a simple red lentil dish, cooked with a touch of ginger and turmeric, tempered with some cumin seeds, mustard seeds, hing, dried chillies, all fried briefly in butter.  It’s a favorite in this house, and costs only a few dollars to make 4-8 servings (depending on how many other dishes).  I’ll try to recite the recipe below.

The dish on the right is an improvised tindora curry.  It was inspired by this video made by a Chicago chef who has become a YouTube star under the name vahchef.  The tindora was sliced into 1cm rounds and fried in a little cumin and mustard-scented oil with a diced onion and then a few cloves of sliced garlic until they softened a bit.  I added a can of tomatoes and let it simmer until everything was cooked through.  More spices were added to adjust the final flavor, like coriander and a little home-ground garam masala.  While that was going, a pot of split moong dal was cooking until the lentils were tender.  I added the lentils in and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes to let the flavors meld together.

Both dishes were delicious.  Even our guests (one of whom is Indian) really enjoyed everything.  Looking back, I thought that we overspent yesterday, but our total for the day was only about $15.70 (compared to our daily allocation of $18 for 4 people).

Today I made matar paneer (a tomato-gravy curry of peas and cheese, seen above), which left plenty of leftovers.  Breakfast was similar to yesterday, and Megan’s lunch was the same.  I had food from yesterday (already counted in that total), and dinner for us included the matar paneer.  Our younger daughter had some yogurt and a banana… she ate very well at daycare today.  Our older daughter ate some leftovers from the weekend (cost accounted in today’s total).  Today’s total is only $13.69!

To be honest, this week isn’t terribly different from how I cook sometimes.  Okay, I didn’t even make it to the farmer’s market this past weekend (like I normally do), and only a couple ingredients were organic (because that’s what I had).  So far, I haven’t made any big meat dishes.  When I look at it, we’re all full, happy, and have many different flavors to keep us interested.  It may not be 100% nutritionally complete, but we have fruit, vegetable, dairy, grain, and fiber all represented.

Our Favorite Dal

The toasted spices in the tempering give this dal a rich, smoky flavor that goes well with any Indian dish, or by itself with some rice.

serves 4-8 (depending on whether it’s a main or a side)

• 10 oz. red split lentils, washed
• 1/2 – 1 tsp dried ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 Tbsp butter
• pinch of asafoetida (hing) (optional)
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 2-4 dried red chillies
• salt

1. Put lentils, ginger, and turmeric in a heavy saucepan with enough water to cover by 1/2 an inch.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, reduce to simmer, covered loosely, until lentils are tender, about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add salt to taste, about 3/4 – 1 tsp.
4. In a small heavy frying pan, melt the butter.
5. Add the asafoetida, if using, then immediately add the mustard seeds.
6. After a few seconds, add the cumin seeds, then after another 10 seconds, the dried chillies.
7. In about 30 seconds, when the mixture is very fragrant and the seeds and chillies have darkened just slightly, dump it all over the cooked lentils and stir to combine.
8. Taste for salt and adjust, as needed.

P.S.  If the recipe seems a little daunting, don’t despair!  I hope to be starting up some ethnic cooking classes through Common Ground.  I’ll show you all the techniques and shortcuts you can use to make these kinds of dishes at home–fast, easy, and cheap.

The boss, Chuck, usually sends out the “meat mail” every Tuesday and Thursday to let everyone know what they have and what’s new.  Today he mentioned that they made some fresh chorizo.  If you know me, you know I love Mexican food, so I had to run down and try it.  Good thing I did, because there wasn’t much left (I forgot to ask if they had more in the back).

As you can see, it’s not the typical red chorizo that you’ll find vacuum-packed in the grocery store, nor is it the bland, over-salted store-brand crap.  This is a slightly different style, using fresh jalapeños and cilantro.  I took a link, removed the casing, and browned it up in a pan.  Once it was pretty much cooked, I tasted it.  It had a great fresh taste, and the cilantro really came through.  It’s not spicy-hot, but it’s miles ahead of any grocery store chorizo you could buy.  For chorizo, it’s quite lean, but it’s tender and not too finely ground.  Chuck knows how to make some good sausages.

It was good, but I realized what I really wanted a more paprika-laden chorizo, so after I tossed in a quarter of an onion, diced, I added some hot smoked paprika and some regular sweet paprika.  After the onions were cooked and the chorizo well-browned, I added two beaten eggs.  Heat up a few tortillas, sprinkle with a little cheese, and that was dinner.  I spooned it straight from the pan onto warm tortillas with a little salsa on top to add a bright kick to my tastebuds.

We headed out west, about 15 minutes from Fargo, to Casselton, ND.  While speeding along, we saw some plane doing maneuvers over the highway and adjacent fields.  It wasn’t crop-dusting, but flew what appeared to be maybe 10 feet from the ground and then climbed rapidly as it approached the highway.  Megan snapped this picture from the passenger seat.  I have no idea what this plane’s purpose was… maybe just having fun flying around on a beautiful North Dakota day?

We pulled in to historic downtown Casselton, home of the world’s largest can pile.  This thing is a towering 45 feet of old oil cans.  We didn’t get a picture, since it’s set back from the road and we had no idea what it was at the time.  Go to the site and learn all about its almost 80 years of history.

We pulled into some parking spaces outside of what ended up being the location of Maple River’s offices and retail operation.  Inside the small storefront was a single employee (maybe another in the back?) who greeted us warmly.  Along with their wines, they also sell a wide range of local products, including jams, jellies, honey, and all sorts of pickled things (we picked up some spicy pickled quail eggs).  We introduced ourselves and embarked on a tasting of most of the wines they produce.

Maple River specializes in fruit wines.  In fact, they only make one wine with grapes.  I’ve been consistently disappointed (and often disgusted) by fruit wines in the past, so I braced myself for the first taste.  Instead of cloying, sticky-sweet juice, it really was wine.  Yes, almost all of their wines are “sweet,” but by using great, local fruit and natural ingredients like honey, they achieve the complexity and maturity that other fruit wines seem to avoid.

Regarding their fruit, their rule is that 90% of their ingredients have to come from within 90 miles of the winery.  Their honey is locally produced, and they get a wide range of fruits from North Dakota and Minnesota, like mango melons, chokecherries (the North Dakota state fruit), and rhubarb (which I guess is a vegetable).  I asked about their production schedule, since their growing season is shorter than ours.  He said they freeze everything when it comes in, and that way they are able to produce wine all year long.  I don’t recall how many fermentation tanks they have, but it was a much larger operation than I expected.

But back to the wines!  We tasted everything, from the aforementioned chokecherry wine, to elderberry (one of my favorites).  They have some unique selections as well, including pumpkin wine, dandelion wine and lilac wine.  If you could imagine a wine tasting like the aroma of lilacs… amazing.  They do strawberry and raspberry wines that have the rich, deep flavor of the ripest berries.  They have so many more on their site with very well-written descriptions, and they do ship their wines if you are so intrigued.  We brought home a great selection, but this is a winery we’ll keep in the back of our minds for when we want something delicious and unique.

You may remember mention of the Maple River rhubarb vodka in the cat’s meow cocktail in the HoDo Lounge in the previous Fargo post.  Well, a couple doors down from the winery is the Maple River Distillery.  It’s a bit more sparse and the selection is smaller, but then again they just opened the distillery in December, 2009.  We didn’t go through a tasting, but we picked up a bottle of chokecherry brandy and their rhubarb vodka.  They also make some cordials, but we opted to not pick up any.  Sadly they don’t/can’t ship their spirits to individuals outside North Dakota, but you may be able to convince a local liquor store to order some in for you.

If you find some rhubarb vodka, here are some suggestions.

Go the strawberry rhubarb route:

• 2 oz. rhubarb vodka
• .5 oz. strawberry schnapps
• .75 oz. ginger-infused simple syrup
• juice from 1/2 lime

Stir everything together with plenty of ice, or shake and strain into a cocktail glass.

Our attempt at reproducing the cat’s meow had something like

• 2 oz. rhubarb vodka
• 1 oz. ginger-infused simple syrup
• orange juice, to fill

Fill a rocks glass with ice, add vodka and syrup, then top off with orange juice.  Roll the drink, or shake briefly, just enough to mix.

While at Maple River, we were also told about another drink that wasn’t on the HoDo menu.  It was called the Rubix cube (maybe Rhubix cube?).  We haven’t tried to replicate it, but it’s also made with the rhubarb vodka, some ginger ale, and strawberry-rhubarb ice cubes.  It was good, that’s all I remember.

Electrolux and Kelly Ripa are partnering with Foodbuzz to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF).  According to the OCRF, ovarian cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer death among women in the US.  Because symptoms are rarely matched with ovarian cancer, most women (81%) aren’t diagnosed before the cancer has spread.  The OCRF’s mission is to fund research to better detect and ultimately find a cure for ovarian cancer.  When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Just for writing this post, they’ll donate another $50 to the Fund.  If you want to help out, visit Kelly Confidential and build your own banana split.  For each one you do (up to one per day), they’ll donate another $1 to the OCRF.

I’m not always a dessert guy, but this opportunity piqued my interest.  I wanted to create a banana split that was a little different from what you’d get at your corner ice cream shop.  I thought about the tropics, and I thought about Elvis.  I thought about bananas foster and pad thai.  It’s not traditional, but it was tasty.

I started with the defining element: a split banana.  Some small scoops of vanilla ice cream went on top, then I drizzled the whole thing with a brown butter caramel sauce, made super simply by browning some butter, adding in brown sugar, then a little cream to smooth it out.  The wackiest element is the dry peanut butter.  I made this fluffy powder by combining some creamy, natural peanut butter with tapioca maltodextrin ().  It’s pretty cool stuff, when you put the ultra-light peanut butter powder in your mouth it instantly dissolves into that sticky, peanut buttery taste and texture.  Then, feeling a little inspiration from pad thai, I grated some lime zest over the whole thing.  The color is great, but the citrus flavor also brightens up and enlivens the dish.

I only had two bananas, so I made one for me and one for my wife.  I think if I did it all again I’d add even more lime zest… or maybe squeeze some lime juice over the top.

Some facts and statistics taken from the OCRF page.  I have not and will not receive any monetary payment from FoodBuzz as a direct result of this post, but I do have a chance to be featured in the Top 9 on Monday, July 19th.

Another local food blogger, Scott from Fight the Fat Foodie (his post about the project), and I were asked by a reporter from the local paper, the News-Gazette, to contribute to a piece on a local Million Meals for Haiti meal packaging party, where more than 1,000,000 meals were put together to be sent to Haiti.  (If/when it goes on their website, I’ll be sure to link to it here.)  Edit: The reporter, Meg Thilmony’s, reflections are online. I was given one of these packages, designed to feed six people, and asked to make something with it and reflect on the notion that my ability to do so was far more than the people this food is intended for.

The bag came, filled with rice and other stuff inside.  According to the Numana fact sheet, “rice, soy protein, freeze-dried vegetables, and 21 vitamins and minerals targeted to help the immune system of malnourished people.”  The bag is just a functional means of conveyance to people who tend to understand how to prepare rice and beans.  That’s a good thing, because the information and instructions on the bag are riddled with typos and mistakes.  For example, the instructions call for too much water (6 cups for 2-3 cups of rice) and too little cooking time (5 minutes).  It does include a genuine request from the Numana organization that it is “Not to Be Sold” for “This food is to be given freely because Jesus loves little children.”

I prepared it according to the instructions and was underwhelmed.  The stuff is bland if prepared by the basic instructions.  Of course, it’s food, and as I remind everyone in my tagline, “we all need to eat.”  For using as a recipe component, I felt like it was just too starchy for me to use it as-is.  I browned some ground beef and mixed in some tangy tomatillo salsa to add a little kick.  As universal as stuffed peppers are, I wanted to bring something genuinely Haitian into the dish, so I made a traditional black bean sauce called sauce pois noir based on this shell of a recipe.  I’ve been wanting to give the odd tuber jicama another try, so I made a basic salad with it, which added in a great crunchy element on the plate.  The delicate purple chive flowers were a beautiful (and tasty) garnish, adding in a reminder of the fresh growth of Spring.

I’ll share recipes and a delicious photo further down, but I have to go back and reflect on how lucky I am to have those choices.  I can go to a grocery store and buy fresh produce from around the world all year.  I can choose organic and locally grown products, or visit the farmers’ market.  And I do do those things, because those things are important to me and I (usually) have the means to do so.  I’ve always grown up understanding that food should be a source of joy.  It doesn’t have to be great, it doesn’t have to be expensive, but sharing a homemade meal with people is one of the things that makes me happiest.  From the looks on the faces of family and friends who join us for meals, that joy tends to reach across the dining table.  Organizations like Numana, in partnership with the Salvation Army, are making that feeling happen for hungry people all over the world.

Numana is a Kansas-based non-profit international hunger relief organization formed in August, 2008.  They partner with organizations like the Salvation Army to deliver much-needed food to people all over the world.  From the literature available on their website and the bag they provide, they focus on feeding school children first.  Feeding children not only increases their chances for success in their scholastic endeavors, but they are at lower risk for being exploited by their families in order to get food.

Food insecurity, not knowing where your next meal will come from, isn’t just a problem in areas devastated by earthquakes or stricken with poverty.  According to Share Our Strength, food insecurity exists in 14.6% of US households, meaning that nearly 50 million Americans, including around 17 million children, are not able to regularly provide nutritious meals for themselves.  This is a global problem.  This is a local problem.

Sauce Pois Noir (Haitian Black Bean Sauce)

• 2 T oil or butter
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
• 1 14-oz. can black beans
• 3 T cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 t. salt, to taste
• 1/4 – 1t powdered chipotle pepper (optional)

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add onion and jalapeño and cook about 5 minutes, or until softened.
3. Add beans and cilantro and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Blend in a blender, food processor, or with an immersion blender until smooth.  Consistency should be similar to a thick cream sauce, so add a little chicken stock or water to thin if necessary.
5. Add salt, to taste, and chipotle powder, if using.  Keep warm until serving.

Easy Tomatillo Salsa

• 1/2 pound tomatillos, about 7-10, husk removed and washed
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 3 T cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 t salt, to taste
• 1 jalapeño, seeded
• flesh of 1 avocado, chopped

1. Put half of the tomatillos in a microwave-safe bowl, cover, and cook on high for 2 minutes.
2. Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until mostly smooth.
3. Taste for salt, but be careful not to add too much.
4. Chill until ready to serve.

Stuffed Peppers

I really want to mention that this is not well-tested because I used the Numana meal, not rice and beans.  The Numana meal left plenty of leftovers after making the stuffed peppers, but it was still delicious.  Taste along the way and make sure you like how it’s going!

• 4-8 bell peppers, tops and core removed
• 2 c long grain rice, cooked (about 4 cups cooked rice)
• 1 14-oz. can beans (pinto or kidney), drained
• 1/2 cup of Easy Tomatillo Salsa (recipe above), or more, to taste
• 1.5 pounds ground beef
• shredded cheese, for topping

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, stir together the rice and beans with the salsa.
3. Brown the beef in a pan over high heat, and drain off the fat.  Stir into the rice mixture.
4. Spoon the rice mixture gently into the bell peppers, being careful not to pack it down too much.
5. Arrange peppers in a baking dish, standing up, and top each pepper with cheese.
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes, or until peppers are tender and cheese has melted and begun to brown.

Jicama Salad

• 1 jicama, peeled, sliced into matchsticks (julienne)
• juice of 1-2 limes
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t cayenne pepper
• 2T cilantro, chopped finely
• chive flowers, to garnish (optional)

1. At least an hour before serving, combine all ingredients except the cilantro and toss to combine.
2. Just before serving, add cilantro and toss to combine.
3. Taste for salt, and adjust if needed.