2011 January « KarmaFree Cooking

Archive | January, 2011

BBQ Roasted Potatoes

Who says you need to have BBQ only in the summertime???

Where I live it is summer weather year-round so I really do not discriminate when I should or shouldn’t eat something slathered with BBQ sauce.

When I get a craving to eat BBQ sauce, like I used to when I used to eat ribs at Tony Roma’s… I go to this recipe.

BBQ ROASTED POTATOES

2 large red-skinned potatoes, cut up roughly into 1” pieces

2 veggie hot dogs or tofu dogs, sliced on a bias

1 medium yellow onion, cut up into wedges

3 tbs of your favorite BBQ sauce, organic preferable

A drizzle of Olive Oil

Garlic Salt to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400F
In a medium bowl toss together all the ingredients. Make sure all the potatoes, onions and pieces of hot dog are coated with the BBQ and seasonings. Transfer to a baking sheet and line everything up in one layer.
Roast in oven for about 40-45 minutes. I move things around about halfway thru cooking to make sure everything gets golden brown on all sides.

Serve alongside some garlic toasts… or next to a refreshing crispy salad to cool off the heat from the BBQ sauce.

Comments 2 Comments
Categories main courses

When I went last year to Guadalajara, I fell in love with a taco filling they call RAJAS… Rajas are translated directly as STRIPS of something. I had the pleasure of having RAJAS made from Jalapeños, Nopales and Poblanos.

The Rajas de Jalapeños were delicious made in a creamy sauce with corn and little pieces of some other crumbly cheese. They served me three corn tortillas with the filling and you top them with your favorite veggies – lettuce, tomato, crema, etc. Something that surprised me about all the Pepper Rajas I had while in Mexico is that I always expected the dishes to be so spicy that I would not able to handle them. This was not the case… All dishes were mild, even to my wimpy palette.

I saw this recipe from Marcela Valadolid on making Poblano Rajas and I had to try it… I am almost certain I used some other chile other than a POBLANO, because after seeding and deveining, it was WAY SPICIER than what I remembered in Mexico. Maybe one of my peppers started to ripen and I’ve been told this adds to the spicy level of a pepper.

Who knows what happened… but the results were delicious. You should try this too…

POBLANO PEPPER RAJAS

6 fresh poblano chiles

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium white onion, thinly sliced

1 medium clove of garlic, minced

2 fresh ears of corn, kernels removed

1/4 cup heavy cream

½ cup plain yogurt – or Mexican crema…

¼ cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup, shredded Mozzarella cheese

¼ cup mild feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

For Accompaniment:

Fresh baby spinach

Fresh tomatoes

1 cup of strained plain yogurt – or Greek yogurt

Slices of lime

Corn Tortillas

Char the poblano chiles under the broiler of your oven until blackened on all sides. I did mine in a toaster oven. Enclose in a plastic bag and let steam for about 10 minutes.
When the chiles have cooled a bit, peel and seed them. Cut the chiles into 1/2-inch strips (rajas) and set aside.
Add the oil to a heavy large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the corn kernels and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Add the strips of chile to the onion and corn mixture and sauté until the corn is tender, about 5 more minutes.
Add the heavy cream, vegetable broth and yogurt. With the back of a knife, scrape all the liquid that resides in the corn hull left behind. Cook until bubbling, about for 8 minutes more. Add the cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. Season the rajas with salt and pepper, to taste.
Transfer to a serving dish and serve as part of a Taquiza.
Warm the corn tortillas in a dry skillet and place inside a clean cloth surrounded by aluminum foil to maintain warm and pliable as long as possible.

What’s a Taquiza??? When you set out all the fixings for making TACOS buffet-style… just like they do in Guadalajara. Buen Provecho!!!

Comments 2 Comments
Categories main courses

Vegetarian Festival – Centro Yoga Devanand

17 Jan

Last Sunday we organized a Vegetarian Festival at the Yoga Center. It is the first Vegetarian festival of 2011 and the first one celebrated on a Sunday.

My friend Tania had a dream… she dreamt we did this kind of Festival on a Sunday, more people would come and try more of all the foods we offer. We usually celebrate these Festivals on Saturday nights, but people sometimes are not too fond of eating so much food at 9PM at night.

We have been doing these Festivals for a long, long time. It’s a way for the Yoga Center to demonstrate:

how varied and delicious Vegetarian food can be
the cooking talents of our Yoga Cooking Team

Usually people just bring in any dish they want to share along with the whole crowd. It’s our own vegetarian version of a pot luck dinner. It’s just a HUGE pot luck dinner featuring usually 15+ dishes, plus salads, natural juices and desserts.

Here is a round-up of all the dishes featured in this latest version of our Vegetarian Festival:

Onion Rice made by my Mom

Baked Rice with Spinach, Mushrooms, Pecans and Cheese aka Arroz Kristina made by me

Rice Pasta Lasagna with Spinach and Dairy-free Cheeses by Rosani

Chipa Guazú made by our friend from Paraguay, Ester

Vegetable Lo-Mein made by Manolo and Jesús

Roasted Potatoes with Spices by Mili

Sun-dried tomatoes Stuffed Mushrooms made by me

Breaded Eggplants made by Tania

BacalaFREEtos – made with some leftover batter from the fried eggplants inside the Lo-Mein

Pizza Pastelillitos made by Yazmín

Soy Albóndigas with a zesty Tomato Sauce made by Angie

We featured 2 different soups…

Roasted Plantain Soup made by Tania

Rice and Bean Soup with Smoked Veggie “Ham” made by Carmen G.

We had a green salad served with 2 different dressings and a natural Juice made with passion fruit, kiwi and other citric fruits.

And 3 desserts…

Candied Coconut (Dulce de Coco) made by Cony

Carrot Dessert with Raisins made by María Rosa

Walnut Cake with Candied Walnuts on top made by Rosani, our resident Master Baker…

Well… the Sunday plan was a complete hit. Dreams actually DO COME TRUE, right Tania?? We had 50+ people visit our center, some of them for the first time. It’s so gratifying to cook for a crowd and to see how the food would fly away and the trays be completely empty is a real joy.

The Staff - Medelicia, Carmen G, Angie, Katy and Tania, the mastermind of this Festival on Sunday.

I include some links to several recipes I have already shared with you. Click on them so you can enjoy them right away. And over the next few weeks I will be sharing some new the recipes I have learned from the star chefs in this Vegetarian Festival.

If you live in Puerto Rico, or close to our Yoga Centers in NYC/Queens or Miami Beach, I hope this display of photos make you hunger and come over to our next Vegetarian Festival. OK?? Just stay tuned to the Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand FaceBook Page were we usually post all our activities… It’s in Spanish, but you’ll enjoy it all the same.

Hari Om.

Comments 5 Comments
Categories appetizers, desserts, main courses, MY EDITORIAL, Puerto Rican delicacies, sauces, side dishes

Caprese Salad

13 Jan

I don’t know what it is about tomatoes in Florida… but every time I visit my sister, we can’t contain the urge to buy lots and lots of tomatoes. They’re just so plump and red and sweet and delicious… And I learned never to put them in the fridge. Just leave them on the counter and eat from there. They’ll not spoil and you’ll always have the best tomato experience.

We would go to The Boys Farmers Market or to another smaller more traditional type of farmers market near my sister’s home and would always return home with a batch of delicious tomatoes. I would make batches and batches of my Tomato Basil Brushetta mix and this Caprese Salad for my sister… her favorite.

I always like to add a bed of crispy lettuce underneath to bump the nutritional value and heft of the salad. Even though its tradition to have only tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, I need lettuce to make it feel more of a real salad to me. All the components are readily available fresh from The Boys – mozzarella, basil leaves and mixed greens…

CAPRESE SALAD

6-8 romaine lettuce leaves, thinly shredded or baby spinach leaves would work well also

2 large tomatoes, sliced

½ ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

10-12 basil leaves, washed and trimmed

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Coarse Sea Salt

Freshly Cracked Black Pepper

Just place cut lettuce or other greens as a bed on a serving platter. Arrange tomato and mozzarella slices alternately on top of lettuce bed.
Place a basil leaf in between each slice of tomato and cheese.
Drizzle with Olive Oil and Balsamic. Sprinkle liberally with Salt and Pepper.

Don’t the tomatoes look scrumptious???

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Salad

The Boys Farmer’s Market – Delray Beach, FL

10 Jan

Close to where my sister lives in South Florida there’s a farmer’s market called The Boys. I always fund the name funny… particularly because it’s located next to The Girls Strawberry Patch store. We always drove past it, but never paid really much attention to it.

Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time at my sister’s and my brother-in-law always insisted The Boys had the best prices on produce. Even better than Publix or Winn Dixie. Being the market lovers we are, particularly when we travel (check out my market experiences in NYC, Paris and Guadalajara…) we had to go at least once.

We were certainly in for a surprise… The Boys, is indeed closer to a specialty food store than a mere farmers market. The concentrate in fresh produce, but have a great bakery, cheese/dairy shop, freshly squeezed juices, specialty items like gluten-free goodies, nuts and dried fruits section, cooked foods area, butcher and fish monger. I’ve never ventured into those latter areas; we tend to concentrate on the fresh produce, dairy/cheese case and the $1 table at the entrance, where they have bags filled with stuff and everything in the bag is just $1. Awesome…

My favorite things to always look for at The Boys are: $1 bags of apples, potatoes, limes, plum tomatoes, fresh ears of corn, sweet potatoes, etc. The fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, smoked cheddar, strawberries, blueberries, cut/peeled pineapples, mushrooms, poblano peppers, fresh leaf spinach, basil stalks, tri-color bell peppers, watercress, mesclun lettuce mix and red skinned potatoes.

I wish I had a specialized market near my home, so accessible and cost-effective, as The Boys. There used to be a time where we would visit The Boys daily to get the ingredients of what we would make that day for dinner. Just like in the ol’ times. I’ll be sharing some of the recipes I was inspired to make based on the awesome fresh produce from The Boys…

This makes me want to visit farmers markets every weekend now… let’s see if I can do that now in the New Year. Am I adding another resolution to my list??? Hope not…

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories MY EDITORIAL, Travel

Santa and the 3 Wise Men love to watch Infomercials!!!

7 Jan

Here in Puerto Rico we celebrate the best and longest Xmas Season in the world… We start right after Thanksgiving and finish right about the middle of January with the Fiestas de San Sebastián. So we have a few more weeks left to continue the celebrations and parties…

That’s why our kids receive gifts twice during the Xmas season – first comes Santa Claus on December 25 and then, the 3 Wise Men, or Los Reyes Magos, as we call them in Spanish, visit us bringing extra gifts on January 6. Kids leave grass inside shoe boxes for the camels or horses to feed along their route delivering gifts. For our kids, school doesn’t start again until after the 3 Kings have visited.

This year, apparently I’ve been a good girl cook… because Santa and the 3 Kings brought me kitchen gadgets. But not any ol’ kitchen gadgets – they brought me The Magic Bullet and the Xpress Ready, Set, Go. I swear I did not ask for these by name… however I am certainly super excited to receive them both.

Have you seen the infomercials??? They both offer 1001 ways to cook in less than 3 minutes… The Xpress Ready, Set, Go came without the insert pans. My mom got those in her kit. God bless the “call now and get a second one absolutely free” offers. The Magic Bullet came with the whole shebang – 2 cups, a blender attachment, a juicer attachment, 2 blades and 4 mugs that can double as storage containers.

Now, I want to record the infomercials on TiVo so I can see the demos of the recipes one more time now that I have the gadgets. In the next few weeks I’ll be test driving these beauties and sharing with you some of their wondrous advantages… cool?

Do any of you have any of these appliances?? Care to share some of your vegetarian quick recipes??

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories MY EDITORIAL, Xmas

Three Kings Day Menu

6 Jan

Today is 3 Kings Day… when we celebrate the arrival of the 3 Wise Men to visit Baby Jesus at the manger. It’s a great holiday in Puerto Rico. Back in the days of my grandma, kids only received presents on 3 Kings Day, never on December 25. That’s a new thing of the last 50 years…

Because of my yoga retreats, which start on Dec 25 until Jan 1, our plans usually are to spend 3 Kings Day as a family at my aunt’s farm in the country. We had agreed she would make for us the traditional menu she likes to prepare for us:

Rice and Pigeon Peas or Rice with Corn

Vegetarian Pasteles – brought by my mom and me

and yes… that’s a pastel hiding underneath all that ketchup…

Boiled Green Bananas

Green Salad

And my Tití Carmín’s famous Potato Salad

My former grad school roommate, Michelle, was always baffled by my wanting to have Potato Salad on our holiday menus. When for her, potato salad is a summer salad only. Well, my dear friend Michelle, Puerto Rico has consistent 70F weather during Xmas time, which is pretty warm for most US standards.

This year, my aunt and her husband are “under the weather” with one of the worst flu ever. So we had to cancel our 3 Kings Day celebration. Later on, I will be trying to attempt her Potato Salad recipe and try to share it with you all. OK?

Happy Triking Day!!!!

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Puerto Rican delicacies, Xmas

Welcome 2011!!!

3 Jan

Hi my dear friends… I know I’ve been a little quiet lately but it’s been because there were some illness in the family and that has kept me away from writing these last few weeks. But I have kept on piling up the ideas and recipes.

2010 was a great year – full of blessings and challenges. I started 2011 by eating 12 grapes and asking for 1 wish per month. I always ask for a mixture of spiritual/altruistic wishes and a few material ones. I can’t share them yet because if I do, then they will not become reality. I promise to share as they become true…

But now, at the beginning of the year, you always want to get a fresh start on those things you always know you should do and for some reason don’t. So, here are my resolutions for 2011:

Eat more fresh salads

As a vegetarian you would think I already did this, but I get lazy when I am hungry and in a hurry.

Exercise more

Since becoming vegetarian I have maintained a healthy weight. Some might even say I am underweight… but I need to tone up more. I want to be stronger physically and exercise will do that. A combination of power walking, P90X and Hatha Yoga are in store for me.

Continue to eat fresh fruits for breakfast

This was a resolution of a few years back, but I kind of slacked a little lately. I promise to maintain this habit in a more consistent basis in 2011.

What are your 2011 New Year’s Resolutions?? Please share…

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Xmas

Top Recipes of 2010

1 Jan

I am always surprised with the amount of visitors we get from all over the world… and the acceptance my recipes have on you, our readers.

I want to share with all the newcomers to KarmaFree Cooking, which have been the recipes published in 2010 that you’ve made most popular. This will give you an idea of what others are most interested in the KarmaFree Cooking world.

Bon Appetit!!!

Spinach Croquetas