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Natural Safe Ways to Clean your Produce

3 Apr

I’ve mentioned to you already how I like to use a produce cleaner like Fit to clean my fruits and vegetables from the chemicals, pesticides and wax companies throw over produce to make them look particularly pretty for display at the supermarkets. They might look pretty, but those chemicals are definitely no good for our health.

But what do you do if you don’t have Fit or any other commercially available produce wash with you??

There are indeed natural ways to clean your fruits and vegetables… using lemon juice, vinegar or a combination of the two.

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Grapes are fruits we enjoy a lot – we love to welcome in the New Year by eating 12 grapes to ask for 12 wishes for the new year. And after 10 days of fasting and cleansing your system, the last thing you want is to intoxicate your body with the pesticides and wax non-organic grapes are coated with.

All you need to do is soak the grapes in water and add the juice of 2-3 lemons or limes to the water the grapes are soaked in. Try for the grapes to be submerged as much as possible in the acidic solution. If not possible, then be vigilant and rotate the grapes so at some point they’re all soaked with the acidulated water. If using vinegar, try 2 tsps per gallon of water. Soak the grapes for only 20 minutes to 30 minutes tops. After that, the grapes start to soak the acidic water and they start to become mealy… not a good thing.

The acidic nature of lemon juice or vinegar dissolves and breaks down the wax covering the grapes… Check out this side by side pic of grapes washed in just water and grapes washed in the lemon water.

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Knowing this method, we were able to thoroughly wash grapes we purchased right on the streets of Allahabad. Lemons are very common in India and unfortunately, waxed grapes are too.

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After the grapes, or any other fruits you wish to enjoy, are cleaned… just dry them off and store as you would usually do – in the fridge or countertop. Or just go ahead and eat them immediately!!!

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Guava Puree

10 Sep

I love guavas… I love guava paste… It’s part of the Puerto Rican/Cuban culinary DNA.

We used to have a guava tree behind our first house and I loved to eat fresh guavas right from the tree. Some are sweet… some are sweeter. But it’s definitely a fruit that represents me and my childhood.

You need to be careful when eating fresh guavas… you can’t chew on the pulp too much. Just a bit to puree the pulp in your mouth and swallow. Why?? Guavas have these little pesky seeds. These seeds are small enough that will remain almost untouched by the blade of a blender yet large enough to threaten to crack a molar of any adult if you bite into one.

This was not a concern when I was little, but after experiencing a few not so positive experiences with cracked molars, we protect our teeth as much as possible. Besides… the seeds taste like nothing. We can certainly get rid of them before any damage is done.

GUAVA PUREE

Guavas, peeled and cut
Water

It is important when you peel and cut the guavas to look out of the fruit has any holes in it. If it does, it is very likely that guava may have one or a few little worms inside. Don’t be squeamish… this is all part of dealing with fresh guavas.

Just cut the guavas and inspect them a bit around the part where the seeds are. If there are worms, they will be moving… just remove them carefully and place them in a piece of paper towel. I may be creating bad karma for myself, but I kill them by squishing them in the paper towel. You may want to dispose of them in a different way… that’s entirely up to you.

  1. All you need to do is place the guava pieces into a blender with some water. I do not measure the water… but the more water you add, the looser the puree will be.
  2. After you process the guavas for a few minutes in the blender, you can strain it thru a sieve. The guava puree will go thru and the guava seeds will remain on the sieve.

Store the guava puree in a pourable container so you can use it in your favorite drinks or recipes.

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Give new life to your recipes…

30 Aug

In the spirit of reusing, reducing and recycling I wanted to share with you some of my recipes and how do I use them and re-use them in other preparations. As a very wise Alton Brown once said in one of his TV shows – “There is no room in my kitchen for uni-taskers!!!” I think Alton was referring more to kitchen utensils and gadgets than recipes… but you get my drift.

In my everyday life I cook and eat most everything I post here in this blog… and when making a recipe, I sometimes have leftovers. Sometimes… too much leftovers for just one person to chow down. I personally try as much as possible to cook just for now and maybe, to have something for tomorrow… but in my ideal world, I would cook for just now and make everything fresh right before I eat it.

Something I learned from the Yoga Center is that if you’re using leftovers, at least combine them with fresh stuff to give the leftovers a new lease on life. You see… leftovers have lost some of its nutritional value because it’s been a while since they’ve been cooked. This is the exact same reason why I discourage the consumption of frozen prepared meals or that convenient idea of cooking one day for the whole week and then just reheat and eat it whenever you’re hungry. If it’s something you do occasionally… it’s not that bad, but doing it as a system, well, in my opinion, you’re always eating old food that’s not as healthy and nutritious as when it was originally cooked.

So here are my ideas to use recipes the next day converting them into new dishes altogether. This way, we use our leftovers right away and do not accumulate lots if little containers in our fridge. OK??

Whenever I make Bruschetta Mix, I eat some as a snack or appetizer, but I always try to make more than I think I’ll need and eat with pasta.

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When I have leftover mashed potatoes – or just leftover boiled potatoes – this is a perfect opportunity to create a pastelón with it. Cook a filling made of veggies or soy protein and top with your favorite cheese…. And there you have a complete meal.

You are familiar already with my Meyer Lemon Thyme Granita recipe… if you do not want to eat it all as a granita, what I have done in the past is save pieces of the leftover frozen simple syrup in a freezer bag. And every time I want to create a fruit smoothie I supplement the ice/juice in my smoothie with a few pieces of the frozen lemon thyme mixture. The end result is a great tangy taste to your favorite morning drink… My suggestion, add a few pieces to a BB Shake – banana, blueberries, meyer lemon, thyme… YUM!!!

Anytime you have leftover rice, it’s easy to give it new life by adding a few delicious odds and ends you might have in your fridge. Just make your very own version of Millionaire Rice, the one that would cost you and arm and a leg if you had to go and buy so many ingredients to make, but it’s cinch just using up whatever you have cluttering up you fridge. Or make some Rice with Corn.  And if after making rice you still end up with a leftover, you can revive it once again into a Stuffed Pepper.

Cooked greens is not something I grew up with… eating spinach, for example, was an acquired taste I developed well into adulthood. If you make a version of creamed spinach to fill a spinach crepe… you can use any leftover mix into a Spinach Canelloni with the same crepes but adding some ricotta cheese to the filling and topping with tomato sauce. Add some more flour and create delicious Spinach Croquetas. You could even use it to fill a traditional Spinach Lasagna.

I hope you have learned a few tricks on how to give more mileage to the recipes you already know and how to use similar ingredients and flavors to enhance a brand new dish. This is kinda taking the semi-homemade concept to your leftovers.

What other magical recipes do you create based on your leftovers??? I want to learn something from you guys too!!!

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Frozen Vianda

9 Aug

I mentioned you on my Yuca Alcapurrias post that if you did not have the equipment, muscle or simply, like me, you’re too lazy to grind yuca all by yourself… you can certainly use frozen ground masa already available at supermarkets.

I visited the supermarket the other day with camera on hand to show you the different kinds of masas available for you already…

You see, on the left,  you have masa for alcapurrias and/or pasteles… you also have ground yautía by itself which would be delicious for these yautía fritters Mili and I used to make at the Center. You also have masa made from green banana, great to make little dumplings and boil into a soup.

In this other photo, you can see the ground yuca in the center… flanked by yautía and green banana. These are just made from another company.

These are available in all major supermarkets in Puerto Rico… but I have also seen these in supermarkets in Miami.

If you rather make boiled yuca to eat with Cuban mojo, there’s also convenient yuca cut into pieces ready to boil. This is the kind I usually buy when I need to get my Cuban fix at home. At the Yoga Center we peel yucas. At home, I just boil the frozen stuff!!!!

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Pickled Red Onions

7 Mar

Onions are the cornerstone of my cooking… I rarely cook without onions. But my onion of choice is mostly the yellow onion. Red onions, on the other hand, are not part of my usual grocery shopping list. They’re more like a treat.

However, I love to add red onions to my salads… very thinly sliced red onions are perfect to give that little something to a huge plate of greens. But I have noticed not everyone is a fan of onions in salads like I am. The times I have tried to add red onions to the salad course at the Yoga Center, I have been received with resistance. They’re too pungent… they’re too strong… my breath will stink afterwards… are some of the critiques I have received.

So I’ve had to become creative when delivering my onion news to those non-believers… How about a pickled onion?? The flavor of onion, but mellowed out to satisfy the skeptics.

Here’s how I do them…

 

PICKLED RED ONIONS

1 red onion, sliced as thin as possible
2 tbs rice vinegar
1 tbs warm filtered water
1 tsp salt
  1. Place the sliced onions in a bowl with a cover.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Toss to coat.
  3. Allow the onions to soften in the vinegar/salt mixture.

Now you can certainly enhance this basic pickle technique. I have added lime juice instead of vinegar. I have added fresh parsley and sometimes even a clove of garlic. You could add some pepper too…

The basic premise is that by marinating the onions in vinegar and a little bit of water, the onions will soften and the flavor will soften as well, making them the perfect addition to your salad.

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