Odi's astoundingly incomplete notes
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back | nextOrecchiette cime di rapa
This is my version of pasta with Cime di Rapa. Cime di Rapa is an exquisite vegetable with a strong and slightly bitter taste. It's popular mostly in southern Europe and nearly unknown north of the alps. In Zurich you can find it throughout the winter season in smaller shops or on the market, very rarely in supermarkets.
This is a cheap and simple vegan/vegetarian pasta dish that's quickly prepared and tastes great.
You need:
Wash the Cime and chop it. We use the whole plant. Chop the parsley, garlic and onions. Setup the water for the pasta.
In a large pan, heat some olive oil and fry parsley, garlic and onions. I use enough oil so that they are actually fried and not roasted. So the onions do not get brown.
Add the chopped Cime di Rapa and after a minute add some water and/or red wine. Cover with a lid. The Cime should now cook in steam, it should not be roasted.
When the Cime gets soft, add the tomatos, purée and a tea spoon of sambal. Add a bit of water when the sauce gets too thick. Salt to taste. By this time the water should be boiling and you can put in the pasta and salt. When the pasta is ready, so is the sauce. Serve hot.
This is a cheap and simple vegan/vegetarian pasta dish that's quickly prepared and tastes great.
You need:
- fresh Cime di rapa (1 medium sized plant per person)
- Orecchiette
- Olive Oil
- Garlic (1 clove per person)
- Onions
- Tomatos in juice from the tin (200g per person)
- Tomato purée
- Sambal Oelek
- Parsley (fresh or from stock in your freezer)
Wash the Cime and chop it. We use the whole plant. Chop the parsley, garlic and onions. Setup the water for the pasta.
In a large pan, heat some olive oil and fry parsley, garlic and onions. I use enough oil so that they are actually fried and not roasted. So the onions do not get brown.
Add the chopped Cime di Rapa and after a minute add some water and/or red wine. Cover with a lid. The Cime should now cook in steam, it should not be roasted.
When the Cime gets soft, add the tomatos, purée and a tea spoon of sambal. Add a bit of water when the sauce gets too thick. Salt to taste. By this time the water should be boiling and you can put in the pasta and salt. When the pasta is ready, so is the sauce. Serve hot.
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Kaki jam
Winter is closing in. That's the time when the kaki ripen. So today I made delicious jam from kaki and apple.
I used
Carefully peel the kaki. They have a very thin but hard peel. This is going to be messy as the fruit easily turn into sludge while being peeled. You'll like it, trust me :-) Collect the peeled fruit in a large pot.
Peel also the apple and cube it. Pre-cook the apple in a sip of water in a small pot until soft.
In the large pot, mash the kaki. Then add the cooked apples. Add a small piece of real vanilla to taste. Cook a the mixture for 10 minutes while stirring constantly.
Blend the mixture into a smooth mash.
Now add the sugar and gellant. Stir gently and cook for another 5 minutes. Then fill into the prepared jars. After closing the lids turn the jars over and let them cool off.
Time to enjoy the remaining hot jam in the pot with your fingers!
I used
- 8 very ripe kaki fruits (about 2 kilograms)
- 1 large Boskoop apple
- 1 kg of sugar
- gellant (apple pectine) for 1kg of fruit (it's sufficient believe me)
Carefully peel the kaki. They have a very thin but hard peel. This is going to be messy as the fruit easily turn into sludge while being peeled. You'll like it, trust me :-) Collect the peeled fruit in a large pot.
Peel also the apple and cube it. Pre-cook the apple in a sip of water in a small pot until soft.
In the large pot, mash the kaki. Then add the cooked apples. Add a small piece of real vanilla to taste. Cook a the mixture for 10 minutes while stirring constantly.
Blend the mixture into a smooth mash.
Now add the sugar and gellant. Stir gently and cook for another 5 minutes. Then fill into the prepared jars. After closing the lids turn the jars over and let them cool off.
Time to enjoy the remaining hot jam in the pot with your fingers!
Stuffed pepperoni with quinoa
It's as simple as it sounds, delicious and vegan. If you don't know quinoa, it's cooked like rice. Unlike rice however it's complete in amino acids.
Use your favourite vegetable for the filling. We used zucchini and soy cream. The red sauce is basically just passata with salt.
Use your favourite vegetable for the filling. We used zucchini and soy cream. The red sauce is basically just passata with salt.
The protein myth
Meat is high quality protein1. Meat gives you all the protein your body needs.
1see bottom for definition
These are the words you have most likely heard. And they are true. They are one of the top facts used by the meat industry to trick you into believing that you need to eat meat. And that is not true. You don't need meat - at all. You can even get rid of all animal products in your diet. With no adverse effects - rather the opposite.
What few people realize:
It's near to impossible to suffer from a lack of protein
Unless you live in a region where famine is a common problem. It's extremely hard to create a diet with enough calories that would lead to protein deficiency.
Also a vegan diet delivers all essential amino acids.
Because vegans don't eat only a single vegetable. The 8 essential amino acids are abundant in the following plants:
What is "high quality" protein?
The building blocks of all proteins are amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids. All but eight of them can be made by your body by chemical reactions. The other eight you have to eat and ingest. They can not be made by your body. They are thus called "essential amino acids", because it is essential to eat them.
Protein (or a combination of proteins) that contains all the essential amino acids (and any number of nonessential ones) is called "high quality". Animals and the human body store essential compounds in generous quantities in order to compensate any temporary shortage. Thus meat contains a lot of high quality protein.
1see bottom for definition
These are the words you have most likely heard. And they are true. They are one of the top facts used by the meat industry to trick you into believing that you need to eat meat. And that is not true. You don't need meat - at all. You can even get rid of all animal products in your diet. With no adverse effects - rather the opposite.
What few people realize:
It's near to impossible to suffer from a lack of protein
Unless you live in a region where famine is a common problem. It's extremely hard to create a diet with enough calories that would lead to protein deficiency.
Also a vegan diet delivers all essential amino acids.
Because vegans don't eat only a single vegetable. The 8 essential amino acids are abundant in the following plants:
- Isoleucine and Leucine: sesame, peanuts
- Lysine: pulses (beans, lentils, peas), spinach, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa
- Methionine: sesame, cereals, broccoli, mushroom, cauliflower, avocado, potatoes, spinach, peas, oranges
- Phenylalanine: peanuts, sesame, peas
- Threonine: lentils, sesame
- Tryptophan: spirula, sesame, sunflower seed
- Valine: sesame, peanuts
What is "high quality" protein?
The building blocks of all proteins are amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids. All but eight of them can be made by your body by chemical reactions. The other eight you have to eat and ingest. They can not be made by your body. They are thus called "essential amino acids", because it is essential to eat them.
Protein (or a combination of proteins) that contains all the essential amino acids (and any number of nonessential ones) is called "high quality". Animals and the human body store essential compounds in generous quantities in order to compensate any temporary shortage. Thus meat contains a lot of high quality protein.
Going veg
I have gone vegetarian since the beginning of the year. I have stopped drinking milk. Although I am not avoiding milk altogether: I still consume milk as an ingredient (like butter in cookies), eat yogurt and cheese. I have stopped eating egs. Although I am not avoiding eggs strictly: I still eat cake, pasta that contains eggs, but not an omelett.
Why? Several reasons:
So what do I actually eat? This is what this new catgory in this blog is going to be about. Random facts surrounding a vegetarian/vegan diet. Random recipies or notes of what I eat. Random experiences I make while becoming a vegetarian.
Why? Several reasons:
- health: meat is the most unhealthy food in the long term (obesity, cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, rheumatic diseases, osteoporosis)
- disgust: I work next to the slaughterhouse. Sometimes the smell is unbearable. The screams of these animals tear your heart apart.
- ethics: animals are no longer born - they are produced (sounds familiar? Like that scene in The Matrix?). Short, horrible life. Industrialized inhumane killing of lives for their meat. Mass breeding. Each year about 10 times as many animals are killed than people live on earth.
- sustainability: meat is horribly inefficient use of resources. Farmland vs. grazing land. Crops for animal food. Rainforest for farmland. Water. CO2. Methane. Dung. Name any environment problem.
- fairness: the 3rd world produces the food for the animals of the rich instead their own food. Most people on earth have a nearly vegan diet, but most of earth's resources are used to produce meat.
So what do I actually eat? This is what this new catgory in this blog is going to be about. Random facts surrounding a vegetarian/vegan diet. Random recipies or notes of what I eat. Random experiences I make while becoming a vegetarian.
FWIW, I gave up meat in 1993/4, and actually grew rapidly quite a lot fatter.
I don't expect you need me to tell you this, but try to avoid the grim and tasteless dishes which are just veggie versions of meat dishes. Meat-eaters sometimes lack the imagination (or confidence) to offer anything else, and may need educating. I deal with that by example: my friends, including meat-eaters, know me as a good cook, and take pleasure in proud and honest veggie food.
- niq
I don't expect you need me to tell you this, but try to avoid the grim and tasteless dishes which are just veggie versions of meat dishes. Meat-eaters sometimes lack the imagination (or confidence) to offer anything else, and may need educating. I deal with that by example: my friends, including meat-eaters, know me as a good cook, and take pleasure in proud and honest veggie food.
- niq
Pasta
Amazing what you can do with flour and water when you're bored on a Sunday night.
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Hihi wo hast Du den das gelernt?
GuK ma
GuK ma
Sowas bring ich mir selbst bei :-)
Bravo! Bravo! :-)