Meat Cookbook Recommendations

Being a vegetarian for 10 years and now eating meat again, I have been trying to search for books that would help me learn how to cook and shop for meat in a more morally conscience way. Through browsing at Modern Times Bookstore, I found Meat: Kitchen Education by James Peterson and The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, which more than fulfilled my intentions. The former includes great step-by-step pictures on how to cut different types of meat, from Poultry to Venison, and what to look for when buying meat and the latter covers this information as well, along with more details on the different sides of the meat industry and its impact on the way animals are treated and raised and, ultimately, how these processes may impact the environment, your conscience and taste buds.

Salad with Baked Tofu

Salad with Baked Tofu!

Ingredients:

Firm Tofu or Nigari
Preferred Spices (I used Chile spices this time)
Sea Salt
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions
Bell Peppers
Olive Oil and Lemon Juice or Tahini and Lemon Juice


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Dice the tofu and place it in a container that has a cover (ex. used Nancy's Yogurt Bulk Container) and add sea salt and spices. Close the container and shake it until the tofu pieces have completely soaked up the spices.
Before sprinkling the tofu pieces over the cookie sheet, oil it with canola oil or grape seed oil. Place the tofu in the oven for around 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.

In the meantime, clean and cut the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and mix them all together in a large bowl.

Once the tofu is ready, pour it over the salad and add the dressing. Mix and eat.

Vegan Empanadas

Vegan Sweet Empanadas with Pear and Apple Filling

Inspired by my grandmother's style of mixing different fruits in her empanadas, I used different types of apples and pears to add depth to these yummy treats.

Filling
diced apples
diced pears
grounded cloves
grounded cinnamon
evaporated sugar cane
almond flavor
Currants


Dough
3 sticks of Earth Balance Soy Butter
4 cups of Flour (1 part whole wheat and 1 part unbleached white)
1/8 cups Water (or as much needed to glue the dough together)


In a separate bowel, I mixed the butter and flour until the texture looked like crumbled feta cheese and then add water until the dough sticked together. I create 3 big balls of dough and roll each one out and use a cup to cut out thick circles (around 2 centimeters thick) that I will roll out to create thin ovalike empanada coverings.

In a saucepan, I boiled on a stove top some water with evaporated sugar cane, cinnamon, cloves and almond flavoring until the water looked completely saturated. I then added the diced apples and pears. Afterwards, I mixed the ingredients until the the fruits were completed drenched with the sweet juice. I then place the pot into the oven and baked the mixture for another 25 minutes at 350. After 25 minutes, I placed the pot back onto the stovetop and used a hand mixer to puree it with currants.

I spooned this mixture onto the middle part of each thin oval dough piece and folded it in semicircle to make the shape of an empanada. Sealed the edge and if space permitted, I forked the edges to make it look a little more textured.

I placed the finished pieces onto a well oiled cookie sheet and baked them at 350 for around 25 minutes.

Chile Verde Sauce for Chilaquilas

A long awaited post for a recipe I learned from my beloved grandmother...

chile peppers
tomatillos
onions
cilantro
jalapenos and other hot small peppers
almond butter
sea salt
queso fresco
refried beans or chicken
grapeseed oil
corn tortillas


I start out with roasting different types of peppers on the stove until they are crisped black on the outside. I place them in a large bowl with a towel over them and wait until the skin has soften from the trapped steam and heat. Once the skin has softened, I peel it off, along with the stems.

In the meantime, I start to boil water in a large pot and add the tomatillos once the water is ready. I boil them for around 5 minutes to 8 minutes and turn off the heat. I pour out the hot water and add cold water to them so I can more easily peel off their skin.

Once this is done, I begin to add onions to a food processor or blender until they are minced. I then add the peeled tomatillos to the minced onions. Once they are completely mixed, I add the peeled roasted chiles, jalepenos, and cilantro to this concoction. Later, I add almond butter to taste and texture. Lastly, I add some sea salt.

For the tortilla chip layer, I heat up some grapeseed oil in a large frying pan, wok or what contraption you have for deep frying. As the oil is heating up, I cut up the tortillas into triangles. I normally use the whole bag of a small pack of tortillas for this part, depending upon how much I want to serve fresh at the time. Once the oil is ready for dipping, I add a handful amounts of tortillas at a time and wait until they look crisp and before they look super golden. I drop the fried tortillas into a colander with a plate underneath it for catching the dripping oil.

As for the refried beans, you can use the premade stuff, but I normally soak pinto beans the night before and boil them with garlic and dried peppers for 1.5 hours and then refried them with a bit of milk and oil. If you are going meaty, you can use baked or boiled chicken.

The layering process
I began the bottom first layer with some freshly fried corn chips, then I add a layer of refried beans or chicken and, lastly, I would sprinkle some queso fresco. I would repeat this layering process and end with a layer of queso fresco as the top layer. No need to bake this dish since the heat of items will easily melt the cheese.

Italian Sausage and Veggies for Breakfast

Today I went to the Divisidero Farmers Market in NOPA, San Francisco. While there, I picked up some Free Range Italian Sausage, from SF Grill, along with other veggies I thought would work with it. Being mindful of my nutritionist's, Jae Berman, suggestion that I eat more protein so I can reach my goal on building more muscles and keeping my sugar levels from fluctuating too much, I thought I made a good purchase for a breakfast meal :)

I used a whole purple onion and sauteed it with leftover grape seed oil. Then I added the 3/4 of Italian sausage package as I tried to spread the meat around, cooking it for another five minutes with the cover on top. In the meantime, I diced 3 regularly sized portabella mushrooms and added it to the mix and continued to cook it for another 4 minutes. I turned off the heat and let it sit for another minute. The above picture is of the end product of a very tasty meal, of which I will be using for breakfast for the next two to three days, along with some greens, radishes and other grains. YUMMY!