Cook at Home. By Maty Ezraty

The saddest places for me are supermarkets, fast food places, restaurants with bad food.”

I avoid supermarkets because I get sad when I see what people buy. How they waste their money on food that will make them ill;”

…how little joy goes into preparing a meal; how uneducated the average person is about food and what to eat. Places like MacaDono should be outlawed. They harm customers everyday. The food is toxic, which makes our society ill physically, emotionally and mentally.”

I grew up eating out a lot; in cheap places. I just don’t enjoy paying for food that is unhealthy, badly cooked and served without heart.”

I would love to find the words that express how much I Love to cook, go to Farmers’ Markets and cook a variety of vegetables, grains, beans, and meet the farmers that grow the food and learn new cuisines.”

Try these delicious Recipes created by Maty!

Kale Salad

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2285875251644287

Black Beans

Black beans (organic if possible), rinsed
Water
Strip of kombu or kelp
Head of garlic
Chipotle pepper (this is a jalapeno that has been smoked and dried)

After the beans have soaked, cover them with water and add a head of garlic, unpeeled and a chipotle pepper and the kombu or kelp

Cook until tender. This could take up to 2 or 3 hours, depending on the type of bean you are cooking and their age.

Add salt after beans have cooked, or at the earliest, near the end of the cooking time.
(Salting beans prematurely can cause them to remain tough.)

These black beans are easy and richly savory and satisfying. The only thing you need is a bit of advance planning to soak the beans. There is very little actual preparation—the soaked beans just require time to cook.

Beans are made better by seaweed. By adding a strip of kelp and you will be adding minerals as well as helping the beans to cook through more effectively, rendering them more digestible. A properly cooked bean should mash against the roof of your mouth with a press of the tongue.

So, once you have a pot of beans, you could serve them over rice or polenta. Accompany them with a green and an orange vegetable—for summer, grilled carrots and yellow squash and a simple green salad. In the fall and winter, your veggies could be sautéed kale and roasted acorn squash or sweet potatoes.

Then you can recycle the leftover black beans into subsequent meals:

• Add water or broth to the cooked beans and puree a portion or all of them if you like and you have black bean soup.
• Serve them whole with cornbread this time and roasted or grilled mixed vegetables.
• Roll your black beans up in whole wheat chapatis, along with salsa, cheese, and chopped veggies.
• You can also throw the whole beans into soups, salads or on top of a pizza.
• You could puree them into black bean humus and serve them with corn chips and raw vegetables.

Yogurt Khadi

I went to Manju’s house to learn how to make Khadhi.  She is the woman who takes care of the apartment next to Lata’s (In Pune).  I love this apartment.  I have 3 rooms to myself.  One is the office, the other is my room for reading and drawing and the bedroom.  I like having rooms. And Sunshine!

She was all prepped for my arrival.  Everything was cut and set.  She had a great kitchen with a big bay window where she dried the dishes in the sun.  I loved that.

So, the Khadhi she made was not great.  Yesterday, I went online and dug some other ideas.  I made the best Khadhi I have ever had.  It was good to see her doing it and get a sense of the technique and so it was good that I went to learn from her and here is how I did it.  And there could be a million other variations!

Take yogurt and put some water in it and lemon juice let it stand for 15 min.   It is not a  necessary step but makes the Yogurt sour which is ideal for this recipe. Regular yogurt is fine, the thicker the better such as Greek with little water.  Mix it well so it is smooth.

Make a smooth consistency.  About 3 cups yogurt to maybe 2 cups water.

Add in bowl; flour.  Maybe 2-3 tablespoons.

Mix thoroughly so that there are no lumps.

Start cooking on medium heat.  Stir frequently.

Add a tomato chopped with no seeds.

Turmeric powder, Green chili silt (?).  

Little chili powder is optional. Coriander powder optional

Add Sugar, salt

Make the pakoras:

Bowl; onion red chopped fine.

Add Garlic, cilantro, cumin, turmeric, hing, salt

make into a cookie dough batter. Make paddies. Fry in oil till just only golden,

drain and add to yogurt.

To finish the Khadhi in Ghee: 

add fenugreek, cumin seeds, curry leaf, chili powder optional

hing, small red onion, garlic

add to Khadi.

Could do cumin, mustard, hing, curry leaf.

Ginger was also recommended by some recipes.