The ending to our black eyed bean chili

We spent our weekend attending a family wedding. As in many Malay weddings, food was sumptuous, and we had two meals, a pre-wedding dinner, and the next day the wedding lunch. Rich briani rice and meat dishes was among the menu. And all the dessert that was hard to resist. When we got home yesterday evening, and hungry, I went on to reheat my black eyed bean chili for a quick dinner. Today I made some more flour tortilla and again eat them with the last of the very modified chili.

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Besides olive oil and garlic, some cut little green chillies (super hot) from the family backyard garden was first added to the pan. This was followed by two tablespoons of pasta sauce, and half cup of water. Once boiled I put in the rest of the left over black eyed bean chili to the pan, and left it simmering for five minutes or so. The soupy chili and some crackers was my dinner.

For our lunch today, I made another batch of pizza dough, and turned it into six pieces of tortilla. My son eat  his tortilla as cheese quesadilla. I eat mine with the last portion of the chili. And the tortilla became the warps for our bake chicken dinner.

With that I've no more chili nor bean. It is about time to get some more black eyed beans and other type of beans for more beans cooking. Soon.

Alternative Foodie

Black eyed bean chili modified

My Tuesday chili looked anemic and lacking of punch. Luckily I had yet to freeze them, it was still in the fridge. So I ladled about two cups into a pan and added slices oyster mushrooms, diced tomatoes and a blob of Tesco ready made spicy spaghetti sauce. Then some pepper and a pinch of dried oregano leafs. After adding a half cup of water I let it boiled till no more water was left. Finally I'd a decent looking chili. Yeah to a much better taste lunch.

I still have four more serving of the original chili in the freezer. May be I'll add some meat in the next portion I'm going to have, or some root vegetables as I originally planned. The bread was made Tuesday evening, was meant as a pizza dough, but some ended up as tortilla and the rest to make three longish oregano rosemary dinner bread.

In our house food tends to get on our lunch/dinner plate looking different from what it was originally intended. There is not much rule we follow, really, just that food be great tasting, nutritious and non junk. In between we eat some vegetables soup, fruit and salad. And drink plenty of water. Although I eat plenty of plant foods, I'm not a vegetarian. We also drink a good amount of milk. And kind of dependent on cheese and yogurt. My son eat much more animal protein as fish, chicken and beef, on top of dairy products. He certainly has to up his vegetable intake beyond tomato base sauces, and mushrooms. Good thing he is much better at eating his fruit these days than in in his early years. Today his lunch is a simple (bread) pizza ... same bread as mine above, but the bread got spaghetti sauce topping first before it was topped with extra cheese. Dinner will be baked chicken wings, for him. And I'll have another helping of chili.

Hope everyone's day is a great one.
Alternative Foodie

A really frugal meal - crepes and chili?

Last week my sister and her family stayed with us for a few days. She is a great cook and cooked family dishes that I enjoyed eating a lot. We also had fresh fish and live crabs (that we bought from a trip to fish market close to a fishermen village) that we just made into soup, and steamed dishes. Now that just the two of us in the house I'm back to experimenting with my food.

I had in the pantry black eyed beans and various dried herb and spices. I wondered if I can make a chili out of these ingredients. No beef, but I'd dried anchovies. The anchovies were pounded to a paste, so were the garlic and the cumin seeds. These were sauteed with a little oil in a pot. Next into the pot were sliced onion, grated ginger, paprika, cayenne (instead of chilies), and coriander powder then some water, salt, and black paper. Once boiling the already soaked black eyed beans were added. After 45 minutes or so, the chili looked good but I added a half cup of quinoa for variety. Hah, it changed into something totally not like a chili.

No matter how the chili looked, it tasted not too bad. It would be great with a tortilla. but I was getting hungry. Next best option was a quick (French) crepes. My recipe required two cups of flour, two tablespoons of dried milk,  half a teaspoon salt and half a teaspoon soda bicarbonate. The soda would give a little softness to the crepes. After mixing the dry ingredients and adding enough water - 2 cups, maybe more, and mixing the batter well; one egg and two tablespoons of cooking oil was added. I just used a hand whisk to mix this batter. The following photos show the step by step to making rolled pizza crepes.

I eat my 'chili' & crepe with orange apple salad, and my son eat his with cut apples. It was an OK meal to me, but my son always loves his pizza crepes. For dinner though I made him baked chicken warped in (pizza dough) tortilla. I love the taste of tortilla made of pizza dough, instead of using baking powder as its leavening agent. Next time I'll take some pictures.

Alternative Foodie

Tempeh cooking 101: Reengineered

Stir fry oil soaked tempeh & cabbage, tofu ... with corn, carrot, and lettuce. 

In my family, tempeh is normally cooked either deep fried or boiled (in gravy like curry). My favorite is of course deep fried, eaten with rice and sambal belacan. In my effort to reduce fat intake, I opted to stir frying instead of deep frying. I then realized how much oil is required to stir fry four by four square inches of tempeh, that is cut into small pieces. A couple of table spoons. Duh. That is 30 m of oil. Otherwise you get either burned tempeh, and if you added water early to prevent burning, you get soggy tempeh.

Grilled Tempeh, rice and veges of bitter gourd and carrot

Sometimes, my late mom did something out of ordinary, regarding tempeh cooking. One is by grilling it in open fire. I copied that by grilling in my toaster oven. It worked!!! She never added anything on the tenpeh. I sometime brushes some oil on it to get it crispier. Perhaps not necessary, next time will grill it longer. Soybean is already rich in oil. Yup, did all that food analysis way back in school in 1980. Man, that was so long ago.


Happy tempeh eating.

Alternative Foodie

Rice included

Rice, sambal belacan with pieces of lemon & tomatoes,
and deep fried fresh water salted fish.

It is never going to be a total change of diet in the house of alternative foodie, rice will always have a place. May hopefully not revert to platefuls as the way I would love to eat my rice, especially when there are ulam (raw salad, Malay style) and sambal belacan to accompany my boiled polished white rice!!! Moderation is a nice word, just a word, mostly ignored while the all out eat urge took over. Just once in a while these days. Alhamdullilah.

Otherwise rice is often served as half cup portion mixed with raw vegetables like bitter gourd and tomatoes, or carrot, topped with  tempeh  and more vegetables.

Bitter gourd is one of the usual ulam eaten with rice among Malaysian, although it is can also be cooked in many ways. My almost no fail inclusion of bitter gourd with my rice arises from the knowledge that it can prevent the quick rise of blood sugar level from eating polished rice. As well bitter gourd being one food item eaten frequently by the Okinawan. Especially those (close to be) centenarian Okinawans. Why not right?

For now. Goodnight folks.
I better get some sleep. This renewed interest with blogging can get one so carried away.

Sweet drearm
Alternative foodie

Rooted in nutty beans and seeds with lots of greens

This is another food blog as though there is not enough what is already in cyberspace. Like I do not already had blogs that some I have forgotten how to access them. But I do like Mr Bean (the series) and beans in a pot dishes. At my age, eating beans or for that matter rice itself makes a good living with gas. Ooh man. We are nuts. No no not just being nutty figuratively, but loving nuts and seeds as food too. For example, yesterday I had a clear beans and lentils soup with cubes of sweet potato. Yumms. This morning, breakfast was quinoa salad and boiled sweet potatoes. I'm born and breed a rice eater right in the middle of the paddy field that dad owned  in an area he participated in turning a virgin jungle into one of the now famous Malaysian rice bowl. Sekinchan, Selangor. And these days I'm venturing away from eating rice by the platefuls. A new blog must accompany this epic transformation!!!

Beans, lentils, mushrooms and sweet potato soup

Thus another blog road is taken, of note scribles, written on digital paper, on thought of daily foods, exotic or otherwise; seen for its nutritional and health contribution, presented again as daily meals in total or modified to suit my palate. Nah. It is more about my taste being modified to suit my preference for super fast and easy easy food prep. Still there will be write up on food prep that are true to tradition, that are nutritious and healthful with their yummy factor intact.

Quinoa salad and boiled sweet potato

Still this blog will not be just about food but of life as a whole. A minimalist simple life I aspire to have.

It will be a road well taken. InsaAllah.

For now.
Happy Chinese New Year Folks
and save travels to whichever destinations you are heading this festive season

Alternative Foodie
p/s
My son remarked, "But you already have blogs mom. Who is going to read them anyway." {{After I jubilantly announced to him I have a new blog}} "May be just your friends or whoever is stalking us?" Uuh uh my son the pragmatic man!!!