Vegan Ice Cream

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Ann Lovejoy
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No Dairy, No Sugar, No Soy…

As summer arrives (more or less), our thoughts turn to cold treats like sunflowers turning to the sun. Mine do, anyway, and so do those of my dear family. Back in the day, I used to whip up batches of ice cream using gorgeous organic cream and lots of fresh fruit, from rhubarb to raspberries. Since I now cater cheerfully to family members who can’t have dairy, soy, sugar, wheat, or citrus, the frozen treats have changed quite a bit. The good news is that we can make literally dozens of delectable treats without resorting to the off-limits ingredients list.

Like Sorbets, F’rinstance…

Traditionally made from fruit, juice, or alcohol, sorbets are dairy free alternatives to ice cream. The basic idea is very simple; combine the flavoring agent (fruit or whatever) with water, add sweetener and freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker. Tart sorbets are used as a palate-cleanser between courses at long, fancy banquets. They don’t need to be super-sweet to be tasty, and you can make really intriguing sorbets using apple cider vinegar, freshly made tomato juice, cucumbers, or ripe bell peppers. Here’s my current favorite sorbet to try:

Vegan Rhubarb Sorbet

4 cups rhubarb, chopped in 1-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

Place cut rhubarb in a saucepan, add 1 cup water, bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer until soft (10-12 minutes). Puree in a food processor for 1 minute, then add salt, and honey to taste (start with 3 tablespoons). Puree for 30 seconds, stir in vanilla and chill until cold. Process in an ice cream maker until well whipped, pack into containers and freeze. Makes about 2 pints.

We All Scream For Ice Cream

Sorbets are definitely refreshing. Sometimes, however, we crave a treat that tastes more like real ice cream. Dairy free ice creams abound these days, but most are loaded with sugar and/or soy products, which in our case are out of bounds. I tried making ice creams with rice milk but found them on the thin side, with not much body. Coconut milk works great and the results are all about body, but can be overwhelmingly rich.

My recent attempts have been the most successful so far. These involve using almond milk, with some coconut milk. Instead of sugar, I’m using honey and/or maple syrup. Homemade ice cream is often rock hard, especially non-dairy versions. Commercial ice cream is whipped (air is cheap) to stay soft, but also contains ingredients that make ice cream softer.

Softer, Gentler Ice Cream

Fats, for instance, don’t freeze, so cream or coconut milk makes for softer ice cream than oat or rice milk. Sugar, brown rice syrup, honey, and maple syrup also have a softening effect. So does alcohol, including pure extracts like vanilla, almond, and chocolate as well as wine or liqueurs (which work especially well since they also involve a lot of sugar). Thus, a successfully soft ice cream will include some of all these ingredients.

My most recent ice cream recipe combines ripe strawberries with a little of each of these important ingredients, balanced for personal taste preferences. I started with a 2-pound tub of organic strawberries, which I hulled and quartered. Some were a little manky, so I didn’t use them. Some were not very ripe, but I definitely used those, since they offer the tartness that would usually come from added lemon juice (not on our permitted list). It tastes light yet satisfying, and just sweet enough without losing that fresh fruit flavor.

Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream

2 pounds strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons maple syrup

In a food processor, puree fruit with 1/2 cup almond milk. Add remaining almond and coconut milks, salt and vanilla, then sweeten to taste with honey and maple syrup. Chill until cold, then freeze as directed on ice cream freezer. Makes about 3 pints.

Posted in Recipes, Sustainable Living, Tomatoes | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Purple Peruvian And Ozette Potatoes

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Ann Lovejoy
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Fabulous Flavor And Pecks/Pecs From Heritage Spuds

Seed-Potato-purple-peruvianI love potatoes. Potatoes get a bad reputation with dieters, but these humble tubers have been the backbone of many a cultural cuisine for millennia. Until we slather them with tasty fats, potatoes are in fact highly nutritious. The reason we load on the fats is that fats carry flavor. Potatoes without help are not all that yummy, or so I always thought.

However, on a trip to Costa Rica a few years back, I ate potatoes that tasted fantastic without even the addition of pepper. When I asked the cook what she had done to make them taste so amazing, she looked puzzled, shrugged and said “salt?” in a quizzical, you-gringoes-are-so-weird voice. I soon discovered that in South and Central America, where potatoes were born, potatoes come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, with memorably delectable flavors.

Funky Looking Treasures

Until very recently, we North Americans didn’t know about these marvelous potatoes because many of them don’t pack, ship, or store especially well. For another thing, many of them look unusual, since they are knobby instead of smooth, and yellow, orange, purple, or blue (often inside and out) instead of brown-skinned and white-fleshed. For many years, we Americans had earned a reputation for rejecting any food that looked odd out of hand. (American colonists grew tomatoes–called love apples–as ornamentals long before they were accepted as edible.)

Thus, when hybridizers worked with various spud stocks to create an All-American potato, they looked for something that would stand up to spending long months in storage, would ship without bruising or rotting, and would make good French fries. That set the standard and until very recently, most supermarkets carried only Russet Burbank bakers and generic red or white thin-skinned “new potatoes” for boiling.

New Old Stock

Happily, our tastes are changing and these days, unusual looking foods are warmly welcome at our tables, especially if they taste exceptional. Recently, a heritage potato with a splendid flavor and an intriguing history has made its way to Northwestern farmer’s markets and restaurant menus. Small, thin-skinned and lumpy looking, the Ozette potato was introduced to Makah Nation people in 1791. At that time, explorers from South America built an outpost fort near Ozette Lake at Neah Bay. They abandoned it about a year later, but left a patch of potatoes in the ground. Since then, the Ozette potato has been passed down by generations of Makah Nation gardeners, who prize it for its distinctive flavor.

About 10 years ago, the Ozette potato was included in a fascinating book called Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions, edited by Gary Paul Nabhan (author of Coming Home to Eat). Nabhan cited the Ozette as an example of a little-known regional food that deserves wider appreciation. Almost immediately, this unassuming little potato was taken up by a group called Slow Food Seattle, which works to preserve and renew interest in the traditional foods of the maritime Northwest. Soon, Ozette potatoes were grown by local farmers and featured on trendy restaurant menus.

Pick A Peck Of Purple Potatoes

Because of the resident deer herd, my kitchen garden is actually on my back deck, some 20 feet above the ground. This year, I planted my potatoes in a large storage tub, cutting drainage holes in the bottom and along the sides as well. It holds three bags of potting soil, enough soil volume to support plenty of potatoes. I planted both the rich, nutty-tasting Ozettes and creamy, flavorful Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes. Ozettes are awesome boiled, mashed, or roasted, and make terrific potato salad. So do Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes, which keep their lovely color when cooked. Both are late varieties, so they’ll be ready to harvest this fall.

I used strong, healthy starts, but you cal also cut up sprouting organic (fungicide-free) potatoes and let the fresh cuts cure for a few days (I dry them out on a mesh cooling rack). Place each sprouted chunk several inches apart in full sun in compost-enriched soil. Planted from April into June, each plant may produce 10-15 potatoes this summer. Since potatoes form along the stem, plant them in a trench, filling it in as stems grow. In a container, put potted starts on a few inches of soil, cover the stems with another 6 inches of soil, then keep adding more soil as stems lengthen until the tub is nearly full.

Tubs Make Harvest Easy

Harvest potatoes when the tops start to turn yellow and collapse. Early potatoes and tiny new potatoes can be harvested in mid to late summer, while late varieties are ready in early to mid fall. In the ground, gently lift soil around the plants with a garden fork. Use any that get speared right away so they don’t rot. To harvest a tubful, simple dump out the soil on a tarp and sort out the spuds. Recycle the soil in a hot compost pile to eliminate potential diseases.

I recently learned of another way to get health benefits from potatoes that doesn’t involve eating or growing them.  A friend shared the following suggested exercise for seniors to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. The original article suggested doing it three times a week. It’s so easy, I thought I’d pass it on.

Build Beautiful Pecs

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-pound potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-pound potato sacks. Then use 50-pound potato sacks, and eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-pound potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.

Onward!

Posted in Easy Care Perennials, fall/winter crops, Garden Prep, Nutrition, Soil, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Treasures of Spring; Super Soup and Raw Asparagus

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Ann Lovejoy
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Cat On A Broccoli Spree

Chopping Broccoli by Elizabeth Fraser

Chopping Broccoli by Elizabeth Fraser

A few days ago, I steamed some broccoli side shoots (the last from last fall’s plants!) and covered them in a dish on the counter. Later, I heard a little clunk and saw that my longhair tuxedo cat, Sophie, had pried open the dish and stolen some broccoli. Not only did she scarf it down, she came back for more. I thought it was a bit odd, but she’s certainly on to a good thing; broccoli offers lots of vitamins C and A as well as ample calcium. Like most of its crucifer cousins, broccoli is also exceptionally rich in phytonutrients such as sulforaphane, the somewhat stinky substance that gives overcooked crucifers that distinctive and unpleasant smell, yet which also defends against several cancers.

I love steamed broccoli all by itself; steam for 3 minutes, plunge into cold water, drain, shake dry and there you go. Cooked like this, broccoli doesn’t even need salt, and it’s my favorite go-to snack when I’m working at home. You can toss some into almost anything (soup, salad, sandwich, wrap) at the last minute without getting soggy, mushy results. Change it up with a drizzle of citrus vinaigrette, some Thai sweet chilli sauce, or a little mayo mixed with hot, hot, HOT Spanish smoked paprika (my latest addiction). Yow!

A Blooming Headache

I have developed some allergy issues in recent years, and when bigleaf maple flowers and Scotch broom coincide, I’m doomed. I spent a couple of days at home, nursing myself with steam and sea salt gargles and whatnot. This super soup was the best help of all, opening up my head so I could hear and taste again. Yay! I made a self-broth with carrot peels, onion and garlic scraps, celery ends and etc, but plain water works fine as well (just not too much). Broth can be so heavy tasting that it covers up fresh flavors, especially those delicate hints of spring, while plain water or self-broth lets them shine through.

Head Clearing Spring Soup (Vegan)

1 tablespoon coconut or olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 inches ginger root, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 organic lemon, juiced, rind grated
2 leeks, chopped (white and palest green bits only)
1 large carrot, chopped
4 stalks celery
1-3 teaspoons hot smoked paprika (start w/less)
water to cover or self broth from trimming/peels
1 cup stemmed Italian parsley

In a soup pot, heat oil, onions, garlic, ginger, salt and lemon rind over medium high heat until fragrant. Add leeks, carrots, and celery, stir to coat, reduce heat to medium low, cover pan and cook until tender (10-15 minutes). This sweats the veg and builds deep flavor. Add paprika, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and water or self-broth to cover, bring to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in parsley and serve hot. Serves 2-3.

Another Raw Asparagus Salad

One of my favorite spring salads involves thinly sliced raw asparagus blended with some kind of nut, parsley or another fresh herb, and a light, lemony (or citrusy in general) dressing. This tastes especially clean and bright when made with Italian parsley picked moments earlier, but it’s also lovely made with fresh basil (mine grows in a sunny, bump-out kitchen window during the cooler months) and fresh cilantro, so you pick.

This is the place to use your best extra virgin olive oil (never for cooking!). The rich, subtle flavor is the perfect melder for all the others, but you don’t want a heavy, oily taste here. These days, I’m using a fantastic virgin olive oil from an organic grove in the Peloponnesus, imported by a friend whose family has harvested the olives there for generations. It’s amazing to taste a truly virgin olive oil; no oily off flavors, no burn, no aftertaste at all, just a clean, smooth, sumptuous, velvety rich flavor of olives.

Lemon Zest Or Lemon Pledge

However, watch the amount of lemon juice you use: I like lemon, so when I taste the dressing, I usually think it needs a little more, but even a little too much is still too much and hard to adjust for. After adding an extra couple of teaspoons of lemon juice for a little more zip, I ended up with something that tasted like furniture polish. I had to make a whole new batch without any lemon juice and combine them (which made a lot, bummer) to get the right blend of mellow and sharp.

Change up the nuts as you please; sometimes I use almonds or toasted pumpkin seeds, and it’s even good with salty, roasted peanuts (what isn’t?). If you love cheese, you might also add either some fresh goat cheese or a little Asiago, coarsely grated, but this vegan version is utterly satisfying, even mildly addictive (It’s hard to leave it sitting on the table without taking just a few more bites…).

Vegan Raw Asparagus and Mushroom Salad

2 tablespoons delicious olive oil (or any oil you prefer)
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
sea salt
freshly ground pepper **
4 brown field mushrooms, or your favorites
8 stalks asparagus, stem ends snapped off
2 green onions
1 cup stemmed Italian parsley
1/3 cup walnuts (or hazelnuts, etc.)

In a serving bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice (start with 1 tablespoon and add more by the quarter teaspoon), salt (start with 1/4 teaspoon) and pepper to taste (combine the smaller amounts of everything, taste and adjust). Halve the mushrooms and slice them very thinly. Slice the asparagus and green onions on a short diagonal as thinly as you can (I leave asparagus tips whole, your call). Now combine everything with the dressing, gently toss and let stand for 10-15 minutes to mellow before serving. Serves at least one.

** Or hey, try smoked Spanish paprika, not the hottie but the Bittersweet for a milder nip. Yum!

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Speedy Vegan Meals

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Ann Lovejoy
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When Time Is Short And Hunger Is Sharp

As I mature (more or less), I’m realizing that what I eat when I am tired, hungry, and stressed can significantly help or seriously hinder me. For many years, my go-to foods were cereal and milk or cheese toast. These days, I can’t tolerate almost any commercial cereals, even organic-y ones. Milk is also harder to deal with, and soy milk is no longer an option either. I love bread and cheese, but am sorrowfully recognizing that wheat really does trigger some inflammatory symptoms and cheese impairs my singing voice. Dang!

grains-of-paradiseweb

Grains of Paradise

After a lot of denial and culinary fumbling, I’ve settled into a few fast food treats that satisfy me when I’m eating them and leave me feeling better, not worse. Probably not coincidentally, they are all plant-based foods. Instead of cereal, I enjoy a bowl of homemade granola that’s wheat-free, sugar-free, and oil-free yet totally delicious. It has many variations, but here’s how it goes in basic form:

 

Grannie Annie’s Granola

10 cups organic rolled oats
1-2 cup(s) each almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts
sesame seeds, hulled pumpkin seeds, hulled sunflower seeds
unsweetened coconut flakes, unsweetened raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In rimmed baking sheets, bake oats for 20-30 minutes, nuts 12-15 minutes, seeds 8-10 minutes, and coconut for 8 minutes (all to desired degree of crispness/browning).  I mix it all up in a huge bowl and store it in canning jars, tightly sealed, and refrigerate it for up to a month.

You can dress this up with more dried fruit, change up the seeds and nuts, whatever you like. It makes great cereal with cold rice milk and is also a lovely topping for fruit crumbles. For a treat, stir some into melted bittersweet or dark chocolate and spoon into blobs on waxed paper for crunchy, chewy candy.

New Condiments Add Zip To Same Old

That takes care of the cereal issues, but nothing really replaces cheese toast. However, I do find homemade hummus to be almost as yummy, especially slathered on sourdough rye muffins. I love creamy hummus in a sandwich with weirdly large amounts of Romaine for the crunchy factor. I also find I can alter my basic hummus in wonderful ways by changing up the flavoring.

I love condiments, as you would know if you saw my fridge, which is packed with mustards, sauces, chutneys, ponzu, and so on. I’ve recently discovered a couple of new-to-me flavors that just knock my socks off and give my old favorite foods a whole new spin. A company called Safinter makes outstanding smoked paprika in 3 heats; mild, which is gentle and tasty; hot (which is very hot indeed); and bittersweet, combining medium heat with a lovely mellow sweetness. To taste the differences, stir some of each into a little mayonnaise for an instant aioli effect. This stuff is dynamite on steamed vegetables, and any of them makes a basic hummus amazing.

Smoother Hummus

Every simple food has a trick or two that make the difference between pretty good and terrific. For pesto, it’s grinding the basil with coarse salt, which keeps it from discoloring. For hummus, it’s blending ingredients in a certain order, and processing them longer than you think is necessary. Try it and see if you find the result to be especially toothsome.

Smoother Hummus With Smoked Paprika

3-4 tablespoons tahini
1 large organic lemon, juiced, rind grated
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1-2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
1-1/2 cups cooked garbanzos, rinsed and drained if canned
1-2 teaspoons bittersweet smoked paprika (or any)

In a food processor, combine tahini and 3 tablespoons lemon juice and puree until very well blended (about 1 minute). Use a rubber scraper to push material from the side of the bowl back to the bottom and process for another 20-30 seconds. Add garlic and salt and process for another 30-45 seconds. Clean bowl again, add oil and 1 cup of garbanzos and process for about a minute. Clean bowl again, add remaining garbanzos and puree for another minute or more. Taste and adjust lemon juice, salt and garlic, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time to get the density/creaminess you want. Now add smoked paprika and process for 15-20 seconds. Store in covered glass jar in the fridge for up to a week. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.

Vary this by using hotter or sweeter paprika and more or less garlic, lemon juice, and/or tahini. It’s traditional to sprinkle a little paprika on top and call it good, but I find blending it in makes the hummus even better.

Grains Of Paradise

Another new-to-me pepper substitute is called grains of paradise, which are seeds of the ginger relative Aframomum melegueta. These deliver a mild, spicy, peppery flavor with citrusy overtones. I put some in an empty pepper grinder and grind them just like peppercorns, but you can also use a mortar and pestle. The delicate heat and intriguing flavor is as delicious as paprika in hummus and wakes up a bland potato leek soup in a flash. I especially enjoy this traditional Ethiopian flavoring with white beans and kale (of course).

Wondering Where The Kale Was?

This speedy, satisfying dish has become my new favorite fast food; it takes only a few minutes, smells and tastes great, and is pretty yummy even as leftovers. Anything that combines kale with garlic is good already, but adding cannellini (or any) beans makes it a meal. For a switch in direction, use coconut oil and add a little garam masala to the mix. It’s all good!

Kale With White Beans And Garlic

1 tablespoon olive OR coconut oil
3 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 big bunch kale, cut into thin ribbons (chiffonade)
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1-1/2 cups cooked garbanzos, rinsed and drained if canned
1 teaspoon garam masala (optional)
1/4 teaspoon grains of paradise

In a wide, shallow pan, combine oil and garlic over medium high heat until fragrant and golden. Add kale, onion, and salt, stir to coat, cover pan and cook until lightly wilted (2-3 minutes). Stir in beans and garam masala if using, add 1-2 tablespoons of water, cover pan and heat through. Season to taste with grains of paradise. Serves 2 as a main dish, 4 as a side.

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