The Flexibility of Cooking

One thing I like about cooking is that you have both a rich tradition AND endless flexibility. Last night, for instance, I went to cook a reciped I'd gotten from a friend many years ago: Red-Cream Lentils with Polenta. It's a German dish, and I remember it being creamy and having a unusual but mild herb flavor.

I had some seitan already cooked, so I substituted that for the lentils, which take a while to make. And, I had some already cooked rice in the fridge, so I figured that could be a good stand-in for the polenta. Ah, yes- I didn't have cream. Some half and half will suffice. The recipe calls for marjoram, which I usually have, but I was out... so I substituted poultry seasoning, which has marjoram as the third ingredient (of about ten!). I had the onion and the vegetable broth, that the recipe called for. I had to leave out the tomatoes, though, as I didn't have those, and I didn't bother grating the hard cheese I had in the fridge, either.

OK, so there were a FEW substitutions, but the dish turned out OK after all, if a little bland. It needed something. I had some dried curry leaves (used in Indian cooking but NOT part of curries), so I ground up some those in the seitan/onion/poultry seasoning. Just right! Good cooking is as flexible as a determined yogi.

World Made By Hand

I just read a very interesting novel, "World Made by Hand," by James Howard Kunstler. It is set in upstate New York, a decade or two in the future. The US is eventually unable to maintain supplies of oil, gets embroiled in a end-all war in the Middle East, and suffers nuclear attacks on Washington DC and Los Angeles. The lack of oil shuts down the entire US infrastructure and the economy collapses and political unity dissolves. Everything that requires oil becomes scarce, and people are left to grow their own food and learn again the skills required to make things they used to buy at Walmart.

While the outcome seems extreme, the really interesting part of the novel is how it makes such an outcome seem to be a very logical follow-on on our current dependence on petroleum. While one can argue about how long oil supplies might last, and how conservation measures might prolong things in the face of increased cost of oil, it really does follow that IF oil does become scarce, then a whole host of unpleasant things happen.

The story and characters of the novel are three-dimensional enough that the reader doesn't feel like the book is just a diatribe against modern short-sightedness. It's a good read- not just describing a possible world, but also how the characters react to this radically changed world.

Vegetarian Gyros!

People sometimes ask me, "Now that you're a vegetarian, what do you miss eating?" There isn't much I miss. On thing I do mention when asked this, though, is GYROS.

But guess what? I've learned how to make a vegetarian version, and it rocks! Very tasty, and not particularly hard to do. The recipe below feeds four.

Seitan Gyros

Ingredients
1 cup wheat gluten flour
3/4 cup vegetable broth
2 TB soy sauce
1 ts cumin seed
2 ts oregano
large pinch cinnamon
large pinch nutmeg
1/4 ts cayenne
1/4 ts paprika
1/4 ts salt
black pepper, a few grinds
one half onion, sliced into thin half-rings

garnish:
two medium tomatoes, diced
lettuce, shredded

Preparation:
Mix all dry ingredients (except onions and the garnish) in a large bowl. Mix soy sauce and broth together, then add to dry ingredients. Quickly stir. When it forms a mass, plop it onto the counter or a cutting board and knead 25 times. Let it rest for five minutes, knead a few more time, then break it into four pieces. Boil three cups of water, add seitan pieces, five cloves of sliced garlic, and one tablespoon vegetarian broth powder. Lower heat and simmer for one hour. Make sure the water doesn't dry out. Best to add one cup of water at the mid-way point. You can discard the garlic, or add it in with the seitan later.

Cut seitan into small, irregular pieces (cut on a bias and then the edges will get crisp). Brown half of the seitan in one tablespoon oil in a very hot skillet. Throw in half of the onion slices and cook for a few more minutes. Keep warm and repeat the procedure with the other half of the seitan and onions.

Warm the pita in a skillet with a touch of olive oil. If the pita is a little dry, you can add a tablespoon or so of water to the hot skillet and cover to steam the pita for a little while. When the pita is warm, sprinkle with the sumac powder. The sumac looks like paprika or red pepper, has a delightful quasi-citrus flavor. Middle-Eastern markets stock it.

Fold or slice open the pita, add the seitan, then add chopped tomatoes, chopped lettuce, and tsatziki (see below).

Tzatziki (John's Way)

Ingredients:
16 oz. (1/2 large container) plain low fat yoghurt
1 large cucumber, peeled
4-6 cloves garlic (depending on size), minced
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 TB good olive oil
10-12 fresh mint leaves, minced (or one teaspoon dried mint)

Preparation:
Peel and grate the cucumber, using the most coarse side of a four-sided upright hand grater (you can seed the cucumber, too, but it doesn't seem necessary). Put the cuke into a bowl, and put a smaller bowl on top with weight on it to press juice out of the grated cucumber. Mince the garlic and mint leaves. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Chill and adjust salt to taste.