Showing posts with label tabouli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tabouli. Show all posts
Thursday, August 19, 2010
SOME SIMPLE SUMMER MEALS, KITCHEN MISHAPS, AND PERUVIAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM FROM CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
I can't believe this week has gone by so fast! Sheesh! And here it is Thursday again! We did have a fun few days with DH's stepdaughter from Montreal and her two lovely 12-year-old twin daughters. We had a picnic the beach with some friends and 2 of my granddaughters, the girls having a great time swimming, canoeing, going out on my stepson's motor boat, and getting to know each other. We went to Salt Spring Island for a night, with the "gang" (as DH calls them) to visit more family-- driving in style in a friend's immaculate white 1972 Chevy Caprice. We would have been squished in our little car, with no air conditioning on the hottest weekend of the year, so our friend offered his ride. Very fun, and a big surprise for the Salt Spring relatives when we drove up!
But, along with company, cooking, the ordinary daily running of a house and job, family, and, of course, the Book-- hours of editing-- it's been mostly work and very little serious cooking, I'm afraid!
I did make an interesting recipe yesterday-- Lucuma ice cream (vegan, of course!). Lucuma is a Peruvian fruit and, as many of you may know, my father was Peruvian. I remember lucuma ice cream from my three months in Peru as a six-year-old. Lucuma is a fruit with a quite dry texture, so it isn't eaten as a fruit, per se. Mostly it is used for a delectable, rich ice cream. Lucuma is rather sweet and has a butterscotch-y sort of flavor. When I was in Vancouver last, I found a store with Peruvian foods and bought some frozen lucuma puree-- what a coup, I thought!
Yesterday I worked out a recipe based on my vanilla gelato recipe made with Instant Clearjel®, with the help of a (non-vegan) recipe from the internet. After splattering the kitchen with soy cream after a little accident (Mercury is in retrograde-- what can I say?), I made the mix and tasted it-- WAY too sweet!! I couldn't figure it out! My gelato is not as sweet as most, and I had used less sweetener than the non-vegan recipe called for (in relation to the volume of liquid, etc.). So, I got out my (new, under-used) reading glasses and read the small print on the bag of lucuma puree-- sugar! I had been assuming that it was unsweetened, since the label did not say "sweetened" and the recipes I found online all called for unsweetened puree. My mistake!
I tried diluting it with more soymilk-- still overpoweringly sweet! (I now have about 2 quarts of very sweet milky liquid in the fridge that I have to think of some ways to use! Any ideas?) So, I started over and used no sweetener at all. It still tasted too sweet to me, but I know that when food is frozen, the sweetness is not as apparent, so there was hope. I stuck it in the freezer and hoped for the best, as I was hoping to take it to a family dinner with my sister and my mother on Friday-- they will remember this treat, too!
Last night I looked for unsweetened lucuma puree in Canada online-- no luck. But I did find lucuma powder
. It seems that lucuma is all the rage in the raw foods community and is even used as a natural sweetener. I found some at a good price from this Canadian vendor, and ordered 2 lbs for future experiments!BTW, lucuma is being called a "superfood", but I think this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's true that it has lots of fiber and beta carotene, but, then, so do carrots! It is high in natural carbohydrates, so it was used by the Incas to provide energy, and evidently the trees are very prolific-- no wonder it was a popular food. Tasting sweet and butterscotch-y didn't hurt! I just feel that we should not go hog wild over exotic foods that are supposed to provide miraculous nutrients, when, in fact, we have foods at home that are just as good, more available, and much cheaper! For me, his is an exotic treat to relive some childhood memories.
Anyway, that said, we tried a bit of the ice cream when I was photographing it and re-packing it, and it is delicious! Here is the recipe I used with the sweetened puree, but I plan to try it again with the lucuma powder
and will report back!
Printable Recipe
Update Aug. 2012: See a recipe for Vegan Lucuma Ice Cream using lucuma powder here. And stay tuned for Take 3!
BRYANNA'S VEGAN LUCUMA ICE CREAM (PERUVIAN), TAKE 1 (WITH SWEETENED LUCUMA PUREE)
Servings: 10
Yield: 5 cups
1 1/2 cups soy creamer (plain)
1 1/2 cups nondairy milk
1 1/2 cups lucuma puree (with sugar)
3/4 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes and drained
(if allergic to nuts, use 1/2 cup more nondairy milk, or soy creamer, and 2 tablespoons oil)
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
or vanilla paste
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons Instant Clearjel®
(see info below recipe)OR 3/8 tsp. guar gum or xanthan gumPlace the creamer, milk, and lucuma puree into a blender along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).
Mix all of the remaining ingredients, into this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.
Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine. Scoop into a quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours (preferably 24 hours) before serving.
Cooking
Tips
A
while ago, I started playing with my gelato recipe from my book
"Nonna's Italian Kitchen
".
I wanted to make it richer-tasting, easier to make, and with more
servings. One of the things I did was to use Instant Clearjel®
instead of the cooked tapioca flour mixture that I generally use
(tapioca thickens the mixture instead of eggs, and it has better
mouth feel than cornstarch). This eliminates cooking the starch
mixture, which means the whole thing takes less time and it doesn't
take so long to chill the gelato mixture before freezing. Another
option is xanthan gum or guar gum, and I have given the amounts in
the recipe.
".
I wanted to make it richer-tasting, easier to make, and with more
servings. One of the things I did was to use Instant Clearjel®
instead of the cooked tapioca flour mixture that I generally use
(tapioca thickens the mixture instead of eggs, and it has better
mouth feel than cornstarch). This eliminates cooking the starch
mixture, which means the whole thing takes less time and it doesn't
take so long to chill the gelato mixture before freezing. Another
option is xanthan gum or guar gum, and I have given the amounts in
the recipe.
INSTANT CLEARJEL® NOTES AND SUPPLIERS (July 2017)
In this recipe, DO NOT use the regular Clearjel® meant for making jam and pies and needs to be cooked. Instant Clearjel® does NOT need to be cooked. It is carried on amazon.com, hoosierhillfarm.com, barryfarm.comand King Arthur Flour for US customers. It has been available in Canada primarily from baking supply wholesalers, but, good news for Canadians--amazon.ca finally carries Instant Clearjel®! (Make sure you add a note to your order specifying that you want INSTANT Clearjel®.) According to their website, Gourmet Warehouse in Vancouver, BC carries it, too, but I'm not sure if they do mail order (their website is under construction right now).
For information about these thickeners, see
http://sharealikecooking.blogspot.ca/p/clearjel-page-clearly-best-thickeners.html (According to this source and others, Instant Clearjel® and Ultra Gel® are both NON-GMO.)
In this recipe, DO NOT use the regular Clearjel® meant for making jam and pies and needs to be cooked. Instant Clearjel® does NOT need to be cooked. It is carried on amazon.com, hoosierhillfarm.com, barryfarm.comand King Arthur Flour for US customers. It has been available in Canada primarily from baking supply wholesalers, but, good news for Canadians--amazon.ca finally carries Instant Clearjel®! (Make sure you add a note to your order specifying that you want INSTANT Clearjel®.) According to their website, Gourmet Warehouse in Vancouver, BC carries it, too, but I'm not sure if they do mail order (their website is under construction right now).
For information about these thickeners, see
http://sharealikecooking.blogspot.ca/p/clearjel-page-clearly-best-thickeners.html (According to this source and others, Instant Clearjel® and Ultra Gel® are both NON-GMO.)
Keep cool!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
BULGUR WHEAT, AN ANCIENT, HEALTHFUL FAST FOOD!
"Fruity Tabouli" from my book "World Vegan Feast".
This post was updated on May 31, 2018.
BULGUR WHEAT IS A LOW-GLYCEMIC WHOLE GRAIN:
Articles on the nutrition of bulgur wheat:
https://www.livestrong.com/article/256333-what-are-the-benefits-of-bulgur-wheat/
https://www.livestrong.com/article/500635-can-you-eat-bulgur-wheat-with-diabetes/
https://www.quora.com/Is-bulgur-wheat-a-good-carbohydrate
http://www.nutridesk.com.au/bulgur.phtml
WHEAT-FREE BULGUR; GLUTEN-FREE BULGUR AND COUSCOUS SUBSTITITES (see end of this post)
BULGUR RECIPES ON THIS BLOG:
Mushroom-Tempeh Burgers
Potato Kibbeh
Pumpkin Kibbeh
Red Lentil and Bulgur Salad Balls with Dried Fruit in Butter Lettuce Cups
Sanaa Abourezk's Bulgur and Black Eyed Peas
Apple-Cinnamon-Bulgur Cereal
Summer Bulgur and Green Bean Salad
Bulgur Pilaf with Mixed Greens and Garlic
Orange Bulgur Salad
Cooking directions for different types of bulgur wheat.
This time of the year almost always keep a grain salad on hand for snacking. Grain salads are hearty, filling, nutritious, and, the way I make them, low in fat. Tabouli (also spelled tabbouleh or tabbouli), the lemony Levantine bulgur wheat and parsley salad, is well-known to vegans and omnis alike. Sometimes it's the only thing we vegans can eat at a potluck! But I never get tired of it.
The other day I was craving some tabouli, but I didn't have any tomatoes. I've made other versions before-- I guess you can't really call them tabouli, but I do, anyway!-- but I decided to use chopped fresh orange and mango instead of tomatoes and green peppers, and add a few kalamata olives for a savory touch. The result was delicious and I was sorry when there was no more left!
"Also known as bulgar, bulgour, or burghul, this very versatile food, is believed to have been first eaten in the Euphrates Valley as far back as 5000 BC. Since then, it has been on the daily menu of the people of the Middle East," writes Canadian cookbook writer and historian Habeeb Salloum in his article "Bulgur, the noblest food achieved by wheat" in the Vegetarian Journal, Jan/Feb 2004. In this article he describes how his Syrian immigrant family made their own bulgur on the Saskatchewan prairie. He and his young siblings did not appreciate the hard work involved in making bulgur, but he now appreciates the value of bulgur to Middle Eastern cuisine, and even modern, Western cuisine. He writes, "Simple to prepare, this ancient food is an inexpensive, succulent, and versatile cereal. It is cooked in the same fashion as rice, which it commonly replaces, and takes about 20 minutes to prepare. It can be used in all types of dishes, and it can be employed in every course and every meal of the day."
Bulgur pilaf was one of the first dishes I learned to make as a child. I learned it from Rosie, a good friend of our family who was an Armenian refugee in California. Now I always have 3 types of bulgur in my kitchen-- coarse (#3), medium (#2), and fine (#1)-- ready to make a nourishing, quick meal at any time. (There is also an "extra-coarse" grade [#4], but I've never used that.)
L to R: fine, medium, coarse, and extra-coarse bulgur (photo by Craig Lee, SF Chronicle)
What about the nutrition in bulgur? Bulgur is made by pre-cooking whole wheat kernels, drying them, and then cracking them. That's why it cooks so quickly. According to this interesting article on bulgur, "Bulgur Wheat is a natural whole grain food in that no chemicals or additives are used in processing the product. Many of the wheat's naturally occurring vitamins and minerals permeate the kernel during cooking thus maintaining more nutritive content than other forms of processed wheat products."
This is similar to what happens with “parboiled” or “converted” rice.
This article also reports: "The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published two posters in 1992 describing the nutritional characteristics of bulgur wheat. The first, titled 'Nutrition Scoreboard', listed bulgur wheat as the number one grain in terms of nutrition scoring. Bulgur (69 points) outpaced wheat germ (61 points), pearled barley (60 points), brown rice (45 points) and pasta (45 points). It beat oatmeal and the highly touted Wheaties cereal (both 38 points) by 31 points!
The second poster from CSPI, titled "Rough It Up", listed bulgur wheat as the third highest grain item in the Grains and Pasta category in terms of fiber content. In this category bulgur wheat beat out whole-wheat spaghetti, buckwheat pancakes, and had more than double the fiber of cous cous. The Food Research & Innovation Enterprises says "cereal foods like bulgur should be the cornerstone of our daily diet."
Cooking Light magazine published (June 2004) an excellent visual comparison between bulgur and brown rice, showing that a cup of bulgur has fewer calories, less fat, and more than twice the fiber of rice!" Here it is:
Here's an interesting food article on bulgur wheat.
And some follow-ups articles: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-bulgur-wheat-6245.html and http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/bulgur-wheat-nutritional-information-1681.html
(PS: read more about Habeeb Salloum's prairie childhood and his mother's recipes in his fine book "Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead: Recipes and Recollections". It was the Silver Winner of the 2006 Canadian Culinary Awards, Canadian Food Culture Category. It's not a vegetarian book, but there are many fine vegetarian recipes, and the cooking lore and history is fun to read. It's one of my favorite cookbooks.
Habeeb is also the author of "Classic Vegetarian Cooking From The Middle East And North Africa", a book that should be in every vegetarian kitchen, and is co-author of From the Land of Figs and Olives, another excellent cookbook. He's also written many articles for The Vegetarian Journal, and a variety of articles on Canadian, Arab and Latin- American history, travel and the culinary arts in various journals.)
Cheers!
This post was updated on May 31, 2018.
BULGUR WHEAT IS A LOW-GLYCEMIC WHOLE GRAIN:
Articles on the nutrition of bulgur wheat:
https://www.livestrong.com/article/256333-what-are-the-benefits-of-bulgur-wheat/
https://www.livestrong.com/article/500635-can-you-eat-bulgur-wheat-with-diabetes/
https://www.quora.com/Is-bulgur-wheat-a-good-carbohydrate
http://www.nutridesk.com.au/bulgur.phtml
WHEAT-FREE BULGUR; GLUTEN-FREE BULGUR AND COUSCOUS SUBSTITITES (see end of this post)
BULGUR RECIPES ON THIS BLOG:
Mushroom-Tempeh Burgers
Potato Kibbeh
Pumpkin Kibbeh
Red Lentil and Bulgur Salad Balls with Dried Fruit in Butter Lettuce Cups
Sanaa Abourezk's Bulgur and Black Eyed Peas
Apple-Cinnamon-Bulgur Cereal
Summer Bulgur and Green Bean Salad
Bulgur Pilaf with Mixed Greens and Garlic
Orange Bulgur Salad
Cooking directions for different types of bulgur wheat.
The other day I was craving some tabouli, but I didn't have any tomatoes. I've made other versions before-- I guess you can't really call them tabouli, but I do, anyway!-- but I decided to use chopped fresh orange and mango instead of tomatoes and green peppers, and add a few kalamata olives for a savory touch. The result was delicious and I was sorry when there was no more left!
"Also known as bulgar, bulgour, or burghul, this very versatile food, is believed to have been first eaten in the Euphrates Valley as far back as 5000 BC. Since then, it has been on the daily menu of the people of the Middle East," writes Canadian cookbook writer and historian Habeeb Salloum in his article "Bulgur, the noblest food achieved by wheat" in the Vegetarian Journal, Jan/Feb 2004. In this article he describes how his Syrian immigrant family made their own bulgur on the Saskatchewan prairie. He and his young siblings did not appreciate the hard work involved in making bulgur, but he now appreciates the value of bulgur to Middle Eastern cuisine, and even modern, Western cuisine. He writes, "Simple to prepare, this ancient food is an inexpensive, succulent, and versatile cereal. It is cooked in the same fashion as rice, which it commonly replaces, and takes about 20 minutes to prepare. It can be used in all types of dishes, and it can be employed in every course and every meal of the day."
Bulgur pilaf was one of the first dishes I learned to make as a child. I learned it from Rosie, a good friend of our family who was an Armenian refugee in California. Now I always have 3 types of bulgur in my kitchen-- coarse (#3), medium (#2), and fine (#1)-- ready to make a nourishing, quick meal at any time. (There is also an "extra-coarse" grade [#4], but I've never used that.)
L to R: fine, medium, coarse, and extra-coarse bulgur (photo by Craig Lee, SF Chronicle)
What about the nutrition in bulgur? Bulgur is made by pre-cooking whole wheat kernels, drying them, and then cracking them. That's why it cooks so quickly. According to this interesting article on bulgur, "Bulgur Wheat is a natural whole grain food in that no chemicals or additives are used in processing the product. Many of the wheat's naturally occurring vitamins and minerals permeate the kernel during cooking thus maintaining more nutritive content than other forms of processed wheat products."
This is similar to what happens with “parboiled” or “converted” rice.
This article also reports: "The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published two posters in 1992 describing the nutritional characteristics of bulgur wheat. The first, titled 'Nutrition Scoreboard', listed bulgur wheat as the number one grain in terms of nutrition scoring. Bulgur (69 points) outpaced wheat germ (61 points), pearled barley (60 points), brown rice (45 points) and pasta (45 points). It beat oatmeal and the highly touted Wheaties cereal (both 38 points) by 31 points!
The second poster from CSPI, titled "Rough It Up", listed bulgur wheat as the third highest grain item in the Grains and Pasta category in terms of fiber content. In this category bulgur wheat beat out whole-wheat spaghetti, buckwheat pancakes, and had more than double the fiber of cous cous. The Food Research & Innovation Enterprises says "cereal foods like bulgur should be the cornerstone of our daily diet."
Cooking Light magazine published (June 2004) an excellent visual comparison between bulgur and brown rice, showing that a cup of bulgur has fewer calories, less fat, and more than twice the fiber of rice!" Here it is:
 |
| Click on photo for larger view |
And some follow-ups articles: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-bulgur-wheat-6245.html and http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/bulgur-wheat-nutritional-information-1681.html
(PS: read more about Habeeb Salloum's prairie childhood and his mother's recipes in his fine book "Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead: Recipes and Recollections". It was the Silver Winner of the 2006 Canadian Culinary Awards, Canadian Food Culture Category. It's not a vegetarian book, but there are many fine vegetarian recipes, and the cooking lore and history is fun to read. It's one of my favorite cookbooks.
Habeeb is also the author of "Classic Vegetarian Cooking From The Middle East And North Africa", a book that should be in every vegetarian kitchen, and is co-author of From the Land of Figs and Olives, another excellent cookbook. He's also written many articles for The Vegetarian Journal, and a variety of articles on Canadian, Arab and Latin- American history, travel and the culinary arts in various journals.)
For those of you with a wheat sensitivity (not a gluten allergy or sensitivity, however), there is now a Kamut® bulgur on the market! Check it out here. Kamut® bulgur could be used in place of couscous, as well. From what I've read, it can be used just like wheat bulgur.
If you must eat gluten-free, you can substitute millet or quinoa for bulgur and couscous. This recipe from Whole Foods explains how to cook millet, especially for a salad. Here's how to cook quinoa.
There used to be a product called "Rice-Cous" (not sure if that was the spelling) on the market, but it's no longer available. However, you can make a kind of "bulgur rice" or "rice couscous" by pulsing uncooked white basmati rice, 1/2 cup at a time, in a good blender (make sure the interior of the blender is dry!) until the rice is broken into small pieces, like bulgur or couscous. Toast the rice, spread thinly on an ungreased baking sheet, at 350ºF for 20-30 minutes, stirring on and off, until it is lightly toasted. Let it cool thoroughly and store in a covered container, or zipper-lock bags. It's worth making several cups at a time.
There used to be a product called "Rice-Cous" (not sure if that was the spelling) on the market, but it's no longer available. However, you can make a kind of "bulgur rice" or "rice couscous" by pulsing uncooked white basmati rice, 1/2 cup at a time, in a good blender (make sure the interior of the blender is dry!) until the rice is broken into small pieces, like bulgur or couscous. Toast the rice, spread thinly on an ungreased baking sheet, at 350ºF for 20-30 minutes, stirring on and off, until it is lightly toasted. Let it cool thoroughly and store in a covered container, or zipper-lock bags. It's worth making several cups at a time.
You can't simply soak this “bulgur rice” in boiling water for salads, like you do with wheat bulgur-- you have to cook it as you would cook ordinary rice, but using 1 cup liquid (water or broth) for each 1/2 cup toasted rice, bringing to a boil, then turning to low heat, covering the pot, and cooking for about 1/2 an hour. Fluff it with a fork. Then serve as you would couscous or bulgur, or use in a salad recipe.
Kamut® Bulgur
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