Holishkes

One of the things with shopping locally, and starting to source 100% of my produce (except bananas, my beloved transnational addiction. I'm working on it ok!?) from the Farmers market, is that it has changed how I do my meal planning. In the interests of frugality, health, and general deliciousness, I try to plan out my meals for the following week as much as possible. I've had to institute a little shift in how I do my groceries to accomodate the local produce plan. Instead of going to the farmer's market and then my regular grocery store (Trader Joe's) immediately, I am now going to the farmer's market (always on Thursdays) and then TJs the next day. This is making my partner happy, because he can come with me on Fridays and we do our shopping together, but it also gives me some time to think about what I am going to cook with whatever yummy in season thing I got at the market I wasn't necessarily expecting, and then get any additional required ingredients at the store.

Last week it was savoy cabbage, with its beautiful crinkly leaves and tender flavour. I love savoy cabbage, and there is one dish I love it in above all others - stuffed cabbage, aka holishkes! I associate it with both my mom, who used to make this dish in large batches and put them in the freezer, and Passover, which is just around the corner, as I used to make them for the vegetarian seders my ex-partner and I had every year. No longer being a vegetarian, and it not yet being passover, I made a meat version, which also happens to go under the Weight Watchers Core plan. Man, they were good. I still have two meals worth in the freezer. I stuffed them with ground turkey, which is at least cage free at TJs, although, thanks to Michael Pollan I know that cage free ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Cabbage Rolls

1 savoy cabbage (the crinkly muppet kind)

1 lb ground turkey or extra lean ground beef or thawed frozen tofu crumbled
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 egg
1/2 cup brown rice

2 large cans lowfat tomato sauce (I use Trader Joe's marinara because I love the taste)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop the cabbage in - let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl.

Take the cabbage out of the boiling water - be careful - it will have lots of hot water stuck between the leaves. You can run it under a bit of cold water to cool it down a bit, but don't cool it all the way.
Cut the core out of the bottom of the cabbage, and pull the leaves off until you have all the ones big enough the fill. Put a tablespoon (or more - for the bigger leaves I used more filling) at the bottom of the leaf, and fold the cabbage over the filling to make a little packet. Put one can of tomato sauce in the bottom of a large dutch oven or casserole pan and put the rolls in, seam side down. Pour the second can over the top. put the lid on, or cover with foil, and cook for about 2 hours in a 325 oven, or on the stovetop over a low flame.
This made about 6-8 servings.

They freeze well.

Tofu and Brown Rice

I say "tofu and brown rice" as a metaphor to describe all kinds of things in my life, things that are dependable, nutritious, but slightly unexciting. Today I had the real thing for lunch, and I must say how much I have missed unexciting food!

I graduated from my program in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine this weekend, so, on top of what feels like a few months of indulgent eating, I REALLY indulged, with my parents visiting. I was raised in a 'foodie' family, and we recreate by eating. We ate Korean tofu soup, south Indian vegetarian, Italian, Japanese, and a few things in between, all in a three day period! I am so ready for some tofu and brown rice.

I took my parents, who were visiting from snow-socked Ontario, to my local farmers market on Thursday. It was a treat for them to wander in the sun and see the produce that California has to offer in March. I was thinking ahead to this week after their departure, and stocked up on some veggies. I bought broccoli, which i love but often find too pricey at the grocery store - this was fresh crowns, a big bag for 2$. Still a bit for veggies, but with crowns there is little waste. I bought two big bunches of my current infatuation, Northern Lights rainbow chard. It steams up so soft and sweet. I love it in my favourite Sri Lankan greens from Madhur Jaffrey, but it's delicious just on its own as well.

I took Monday morning off work to recover from the festivities, and from my parents' 5 am departure. I cooked up a big pot of organic brown rice (must pop over to the coop for more this weekend), steamed up half that broccoli, and then marinated some cubes of tofu in tamari, rice vinegar and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil. One of my classmates exclaimed with disgust on seeing my lunch "God! You eat so healthy!!" Mmmm. It's not glamorous, but I think I'll save the glamour for the weekends.

Daal: Don't leave home without it

This weekend was a symphony of overindulgence as my partner and I celebrated his birthday, first with a rib dinner for two at home on Friday night, and then a potluck party on Saturday night. Thank god for my friend Prajna, who brought chole as her contribution. I at least got a quasi normal dinner, but heartily laced with way more sugar than my system can really tolerate. It's such a cycle - one which I am so familiar with. Something trips up my cooking-eating system, and I eat something unusual: restaurant food, so much richer, saltier, fattier, then anything homecooked. The salt and fat makes me crave sugar. Then I am too wiped out from sugar crashing to cook properly, and the whole thing carries on.

Today I was determined that this week wouldn't be like last. Jeremy and I are going away on Thursday (my birthday) to celebrate our birthdays and a year since we moved in together. We're going to Idylwild, where his folks have a cabin - anyway, we will definitely be doing some eating for pleasure, as well as other things for pleasure, and I don't want to go away feeling exhausted, bloated, over-sugared and generally lousy. To that end, I hauled out my favourite book, Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, and made some of my trusty daal. Without Daal nothing is as good. It's the perfect fuel for me. I make it like she tells me too now, sllightly differently than how my mom taught me. Tonight I made moong daal. I flavoured it with mustard oil in which i fried black mustard seeds, fennel seeds and dried ginger, a fave combination of mine. So that's in the fridge, ready to nourish me through the week.

I stuck some sweet potatoes in the oven, and made another Madhur recipe, for sri lankan greens. You can make any greens this way, and they are really knock your socks off. As you can see in the pic, I bought some beautiful greens at the farmers market. I am trying to get closer to 100% my produce at the farmers market, and part of that is weaning my dependence on the prewashed bags of greens I buy at Trader Joe's.

Anyway, the greens are sauteed with spices: sliced onion, fresh chilies and curry leaves - those are the secret ingredient, giving a rich, buttery taste that is utterly unique. Add a little salt and turmeric, put the lid on until the greens are tender. I never used to cook my greens long enough. These ones, red and white chard and tuscan black kale, really benefited from the 15 minutes steaming in the spices. They became sweet and tender, taking on the flavours of the seasonings beautifully.

Anyway, I feel much more equipped to handle the week without having to stretch my belly or my budget at a restaurant: 4 or 5 meals of creamy dal, delicious sri lankan greens and comforting sweet potatoes. Bring it on!