Kenyan-Mexican Fusion

This meal was inspired by a comment from my friend and Kenyan host sister Lilian. When I stayed with Lilian and her family we often had sukuma wiki, ugali, beans, and chapatis as a base for dinner. My family lived in a rural part of Western Kenya and the cooking was done in a cooking house behind the main house over an open fire.

This meal is meant to be eaten with your hands (specifically one hand). Sukuma wiki is typically collard greens cooked with an onion and tomato. Ugali is similar to polenta, but it is used to pick up the greens, beans, or meat served with the meal. Chapatis reminded me of tortillas that my mom makes to eat as burritos on a hot/dry pan; however, the chapatis were fried in oil or lard. On one occasion, I cooked for my host family and made refried beans with garlic and a chilli powder. I modified everything a little bit based on the ingredients that we had at home.

Sukuma wiki
1 bunch mustard greens (from CSA)

1 onion
2 cloves garlic (from CSA)
grapeseed oil

Chop onion and cut greens into strips. Heat oil in a pan and cook onions until translucent. Add greens and garlic and cook until greens are wilted and brightly colored.

I liked the mustard greens. Yum!

Ugali
2 c water
1 c corn flour (from CSA)
1 t salt
1 T butter

Heat water and salt until boiling. Slowly add in corn meal (or flour) stirring quickly to prevent (or remove) as many lumps as possible. Add in butter near the end.

I am quite out of practice and my ugali was very lumpy and didn't hold up well when picked up by hand, but tasted great when paired with the greens.

Chapatis

4 c flour mix of whole wheat and white

4 T butter

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

1 1/2 c water

Mix all ingredients together using hands or a pastry knife. Roll out into rounds chapatis.


Cook over medium heat and flip when bubbles start to appear. Can be cooked with oil or without on a griddle or cast iron pan.

My chapatis were not quite round even though I used my Kenyan chapati board and rolling pin. I could hear my Kenyan host mom in my ear reminding me to make them as round as possible. But they tasted great and held up for several days for a variety of toppings!

Beans
1 can garbanzo beans
2 cloves garlic (from CSA)
1/2 onion
2 t cumin
2 t chili powder
oil

Heat oil and cook onions until translucent. Add in beans, spices, and garlic. Cook until heated through.

The beans were a nice addition to the meal. I think especially with the more typical Mexican flavoring it was a nice compliment to the other parts of the meal.

Karen's Roasted Beet Vishyssoise

On dreary fall days, I enjoy enjoy eating potato-leek soup. I often make mine with a milk base, but thought I'd try the dairy free version my friend Karen wrote about on her blog. It's a modified potato-leek (from our CSA) soup with roasted beets (from our CSA) and a very flavorful vegetable scrape broth.

She has wonderful pictures, recipe list, and step-by-step instructions on her blog.

I did make a couple of modifications to the recipe. First, I roasted both the beets and the potatoes in the oven. The beets were gorgeous when I cut into them; some were red and white stripped and others were yellow and white stripped.

I also did not make the pesto, but instead added ginger and garlic (from our CSA) directly to the soup in the last stages of cooking.

The beets were super sweet and so the soup has a very sweet taste. And because of the coloring of the beets the color is more pink-light brown than the vibrant red in the original on Karen's blog. The soup was also delicious with a little cheese sprinkled over the top.

Rutabaga Fries

The first time I cooked a rutabaga was last winter when they were included in our CSA bag. They are a cross between a turnip and cabbage, and I think taste like a mild Brussel sprout. Last year, I made a Waldorf salad with the rutabagas.

When our CSA share had two Rutabagas this week, I decided to make them into fries with a recipe suggested by our famers. I want to like rutabagas because they have a lot of Vitamin C and dietary fiber, and they have such a great name.

The recipe is fine and easy to make. However, honestly none of my family liked them very much. I haven't acquired a taste for rutabagas yet, and consequently, I don't think I would purposely seek them out. However, this is one of the reasons I enjoy getting a CSA share--as a challenge to eat foods that are not part of our normal repertoire. Next time we get rutabagas, I might try to make them into mashed potatoes to see if we like them more that way.

Rutabaga Fries

Rutabagas (from our CSA)

Salt

Olive oil

Water

Cut rutabagas into large fry shapes. Place in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain. Coat with olive oil and salt. Bake 30 minutes in 400F oven until browned.

More Butternut Squash

Several weeks ago we made butternut squash ravioli adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The original recipe calls for a brown butter sauce with pecans and sage; however, we were out of both so I used filberts and the other herbs. The ravioli and sauce were delicious, but it was quite a project to make the ravioli pasta. I still had butternut squash and filberts left from my thanksgiving pies, and wanted to try it again. This week, I didn't have the time or energy to make the pasta. I decided to use gyoza wrappers to make the ravioli; however, unfortunately, the ones we bought at the store were moldy when I opened the new package. I had a handful of lasagna noodles, mozzarella cheese, spinach, and mushroms at home, so I decided to make the butternut squash filling into a lasagna.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles

large handfuls of spinach (from CSA)

5 mushrooms sliced

6 oz mozzarella cheese diced

Olive oil

I often make a tomato based lasagna without cooking the noodles first, but decided that because this time I was not going to use a sauce, I needed to cook the noodles first.

Sautéed chopped mushrooms and baby spinach with garlic in olive oil. Layer cooked lasagna noodles with butternut squash filling, spinach, mushrooms, and cheese. Add another layer of noodles and repeat toppings. Add one final layer of noodles, cover with cheese.

Add water to the bottom of the pan. Cover with tin foil and bake 350F for 30 minutes. (I neglected to cover the pan at first and the noodles on top got a little too crunchy.) When cooked through, top with brown butter sauce (this really finishes the pasta--it's not nearly as good without the flavors of the sauce).

Butternut Squash Filling

2 c butternut squash roasted (from CSA)

2 T butter

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1/2 c bread crumbs (I've tried this with just a toasted and food processed piece of bread and matzo meal--both work fine)

Mix all of the ingredients together in the food processor until very smooth.

Brown Butter Sauce

4-6 T butter

1 clove garlic

2 T dried parsley

2 t dried thyme

1/2 c chopped filberts (from Thistledown Farm)

Add all ingredients to skillet and cook until butter is melted

Cabbage Fritters

This is such a simple recipe which has become one of our favorite cabbage ideas. Our Open Oak CSA farmers suggested this recipe developed by one of their farm hands during the winter 2010 season. It's a super easy weeknight dinner.

5 eggs

1 1/4 c rye flour (from CSA)

cabbage cut into strips or shredded (by hand or in the food processor)--enough to be completely coated by eggs and rye flour

oil for cooking

Whisk eggs, flour, and cabbage together. Cook over medium heat on the stove top until browned on both sides. Serve plain or with yogurt, ketchup, or hot sauce.

Wheat berry breakfast

I had some cooked wheat berries left over from the chili that I recently made and turned it into breakfast!

I defrosted blue berries, which we had picked and frozen during the summer, and mixed in Nancy's Vanilla yogurt.

Simple, delicious, and very filling!

Corn Flour Waffles

I love making breakfast on the weekends. This corn flour waffle recipe from The Joy of Cooking was given to us by our CSA farmers last year.

I like to have a variety of toppings for waffles too so that I can alternate between blueberry syrup, maple syrup, and yogurt. The blueberry syrup recipe from my mom is so simple to make and delicious. I use the leftovers with yogurt during the week. Our maple syrup comes from Funks Grove in Shirley, Illinois; we restock our supplies when we visit my brother and family in Illinois. Yum!

Corn Flour Waffles

4 T butter

1 1/2 c milk

3 eggs

1/2 c corn flour (from CSA)

1 1/4 c wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1 T sugar

1/2 t salt

Melt butter, cool, and mix in milk and eggs. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Cook on waffle iron. Remove when golden brown.

Blueberry Syrup

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 c water

1/4 t cinnamon

3 slices lemon or oranges

2 c blueberries (Willamette Valley)

Mix sugar, water, cinnamon, and lemon/orange in a pan. Heat until boiling, and boil 5-7 minutes stirring constantly. Turn down heat and add in blueberries. Continue to stir and simmer 5-6 minutes.