KarmaFree Cooking

Vegetarian Cooking Class… in Puerto Rico

If you live in Puerto Rico and what to learn some hands-on vegetarian cooking skills… this coming Sunday, April 17, Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand will be holding a Vegetarian Cooking Seminar open to the general public.

This is how I started my vegetarian culinary steps… You’ll learn from the same people who taught me how to make textured soy protein, brown rice and tofu scramble. I still do not know the menu of this workshop, but I can assure you, you’ll learn tons and will have lots of fun in the process.

Hope you can join us.

For more information, you can call the Centro Yoga at 787-273-0236. Or email me at karmafreecooking{at}yahoo{dot}com.

Tags: cooking class, Puerto Rico, vegetarian

Comments 5 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL

Italian Night @ Devanand Yoga Center

10 Apr

Last night we had our Italian Night @ the Yoga Center… part of our International Night Series to educate people that vegetarian food is tasty and varied.

The night belonged to my mom’s cooking team, usually featured by Rosani, Angie and her. But on Friday afternoon they officially recruited me to join the team in charge of “appetizers” and desserts. I say “appetizers” because in our Devanand dinners, we serve buffet-style, so everything is served at once and people pick and choose what they prefer.

Even though I was officially recruited on Friday, I have been part of the creative engine behind the menu since the team selected Italian as their featured cuisine. Welcome or not, I had forwarded Rosani and my mom a few ideas I had up my sleeve… Mami told me they wanted to avoid pasta and pizza at all costs and she wanted me to supply a few wisps of inspiration…

Among the original ideas I shared were – a Caprese salad presented in a different way, making the tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella bocconcini kind of like the “dressing” for the lettuce. Another idea was to make polenta with a mushroom ragú… something quite different from the typical expected Italian treats. I also suggested they could make a Minestrone Soup or Ribollita, which integrates bread into the brothy soup. My guess is that this idea was avoided due to the wheat-avoiders we have in the Center. You want to offer something most people can enjoy without having to make double batches.

Finally, the menu consisted of the following:

Tomato Basil Bruschetta with 2 choices of crostini – Whole Wheat or GlutenFree

With WholeWheat Crostini

with GlutenFree Crostini

Pesto Rice – This was MY FAVORITE for the night… The flavors were awesome and fresh… I’ll share Rosani’s recipe with you soon…

Baby Red Potatoes and SnowPeas with a Rosemary, Parsley and Garlic Seasoning

Pasta Vegetali – brown rice penne pasta with broccoli, cauliflower and other veggies in a tomato basil sauce with plenty of cheese. Even though the team wanted to avoid pasta… it crept back into the menu.

Eggplant Parmesan – This version was fully baked, not fried prior, but still very delicious. Here are 2 versions of Eggplant Parmesan if you would like to try one out soon enough… Version 1 and Version 2.

Vegetable Pizzas in Whole Wheat and Gluten-Free versions – Our GuruJi wanted pizza, so we made him pizza…

Green Salad with a Red Bell Pepper and Parsley Dressing

And the runaway hit of the night… Strawberry Sorbeto. Just like the Very Berry Sorbet I have already shared with you, but made only with strawberries. People were asking for seconds and thirds. We also planned on a second dessert – a Mango Ginger Granita, but because this was a recipe I was trying out for the first time, I realized I did not allow enough time for the juice mixture to become a granita. As soon as I perfect the recipe and have all the times down pat, I will certainly share with you all.

We had a lot of visitors last night… most of them impressed with the variety and deliciousness of the menu. Rosani, Angie and Mami were very happy too… Vishnu, one of our littlest members of the Center was super pleased with both the bruschetta and the sorbeto. And when I told him I could turn that bruschetta into Shrek’s Spaghetti his eyes lit up. I see some spinach pasta in his future…

I hope you enjoyed this latest Devanand International Menu… which other cuisine do you think our cooking team should tackle?? Middle Eastern? Greek? Any suggestions??

If you’re based in Puerto Rico, hope you can join us for our next International Night. If you’re interested in receiving an invitation, just visit our page on FaceBook or send me an email to karmafreecooking{at}yahoo{dot}com and I will certainly keep you posted on all the upcoming International Dinners.

Tags: food, Italian, vegetarian, Yoga Center

Comments 1 Comment
Categories MY EDITORIAL

Creamy Sour Cream Stuffed Mushrooms

4 Apr

I love to buy produce at Costco… but lately I’ve discovered “el pulguero”… yeah, the Flea Market. It doesn’t sound like the name of the place you would like to buy produce. And produce is only about 10% of what they sell there, but the prices and the bargaining power is amazing. Go with $10 bucks on hand, and you’ll fill a few canvas bags full of produce.

I learned about El Pulguero through Tania… she lives around the same area. She started going there to buy produce for the Yoga Center. You find bags of anything and everything for $1. It’s similar to The Boys Farmer’s Market near my sister’s house with their $1 bags.

The catch… most of the produce is ready to be used RIGHT NOW. Some things may have little blemishes or have a few leaves that need to be thrown out. This is usually not produce that you can allow to hang in your fridge or pantry for a long time. But the price is exceptional… way better than any grocery store. It’s like going to Marshall’s. You need to see what’s there and allow the produce “speak to you”.

My mom found the other day some great looking mushrooms, and coming from El Pulguero I didn’t want them to linger too much. That’s when I came across this stuffed mushroom recipe from Alex Guarnaschelli. Of course, I changed it up a bit to make it easier on me to make and to dirty less pots and pans.

CREAMY SOUR CREAM STUFFED MUSHROOMS

10 white button mushrooms stemmed, reserving the stems

3-4 additional mushrooms to use for the filling, chopped finely

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup savory béchamel sauce, recipe here

½ onion, chopped finely

2-3 sprigs of thyme

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Handful of shredded parmesan cheese

2 handfuls of whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs

Aged balsamic vinegar – optional, but highly recommended

Clean the mushrooms well using a damp paper towel. Remove the stems and chop them into small pieces and set aside. Reserve the caps for later use.
In a medium skillet, pour a little olive oil and sauté the onions and the mushrooms stems you already chopped. Cook until the mushrooms are browned. Season with the thyme, stripping the leaves from the stems, salt and pepper. Add the béchamel and sour cream. Remove from pan into a bowl and allow cooling a bit.
Mix together the cooled mushroom stem/onion/creamy mix with the parmesan and panko breadcrumbs.
Preheat oven to 425F.
Place all stuffed mushrooms in a large baking dish drizzled with a bit of olive oil. Don’t push the stuffing too much into the mushrooms cavity, but do heap any additional stuffing generously on top of mushrooms.
I usually drizzle a a bit of olive oil and sprinkle some additional salt and pepper to season the raw mushrooms themselves.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked and the top is golden brown.

Serve immediately…

A drizzle of balsamic vinegar at the table. It adds a really nice tang that finishes the dish.

I served this with Spinach Polenta and a side avocado salad… Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Tags: bechamel sauce, food, sour cream, vegetarian, white mushrooms

Comments 1 Comment
Categories main courses, side dishes

Breakfast Granola Parfait

30 Mar

I mentioned recently how I love the combination of fresh fruit, granola and yogurt for breakfast… so the other day I wanted to share it with my mom and friend. But I wanted to make it look pretty. That’s when I had the idea to layer it into a parfait. It would look far prettier than just mixing everything haphazardly in a bowl.

BREAKFAST GRANOLA PARFAIT

1 cup ricotta

1 cup vanilla yogurt

Squirt of honey

2 cups fresh strawberries, quartered

1 tbs brown sugar

2 cups granola

In a bowl, mix the cut berries and mix in with the brown sugar to macerate. Allow the berries to release some of their own juice about 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl, mix together the ricotta cheese, yogurt and honey. Mix together well.
In parfait glasses, or just some old-fashioned glasses, layer all the components – First add some yogurt/ricotta, then some fruit and end with some granola. Repeat again, yogurt/ricotta, fruit and granola. End up it some additional fruit on top.

Serve immediately. Serves about 3 parfaits.

The flavors are spectacular and the presentation is really nice, especially if you are entertaining for breakfast or brunch when you have special company, don’t you think??

Tags: granola, ricotta cheese, strawberry, vegetarian, yogurt

Comments 2 Comments
Categories breakfast

Sesame Seed Horchata

21 Mar

Last summer there was a conversation on Serious Eats about non-alcoholic drinks and how easy it is to make horchatas… and most people are familiar with the Mexican version of horchatas made from rice and cinnamon. However in Puerto Rico, horchatas are made from sesame seeds or as we call them in Spanish, ajonjolí.

I was not aware a horchata made from sesame seeds was so unique until Serious Eats editor, Adam Kuban, flagged my comment that week as something interesting on the SE Talk threads.

Sesame Seed Horchata is served a lot in our Yoga Center mostly because it’s a beverage that’s easy and economical to make. And the fact that it’s a great source of calcium and nutrition is an added plus.

It’s been awhile since I’ve made horchata at home. It’s not really difficult to make – hey, it only has 3 ingredients. But I do agree it’s a bit tedious and can be messy if you’re not organized. I made it with my new Magic Bullet, but you can certainly make this just the same in a blender.

This recipe makes about 96 ounces of horchata… but I have never ever measured the exact amount of water I use. This is something I have always “eye-balled”. But do not be intimidated by the lack of measurements… horchata is so forgiving that you’ll not mess it up. Here we go…

SESAME SEED HORCHATA

1 ½ cup sesame seeds – soaked in 3 cups water

1 cup brown sugar

Water

Start by soaking the sesame seeds in some filtered water. I like to soak the seeds for about 1 hour. This is certainly not necessary, but I think it helps extract more flavor and creaminess from the seeds. I soak in about 3 cups of water, just to give you an idea of the amount I use. Do not soak for too long (longer than 8-10 hours) because the water and seeds may start to ferment and will give you a weird aftertaste.

Sesame seeds just starting to soak...

After aboout 2-3 hours of soaking... See how much they plump?

Gather all your equipment – a large pot with a fine sieve, a bowl to collect the sesame seeds after they’ve been blended once. I also like to have the container where I’ll store the horchata with a funnel on hand.
Drain all the water from the soaking seeds.
Place some of the sesame seeds in the large container of your Magic Bullet or blender. Fill almost to the top with filtered water. Process for a few minutes in 30 second intervals to puree the seeds as much as possible.
Drain the milky sesame seed pureed water over the sieve. Use a large spoon to move the slush around, but you don’t need to press extremely hard to release all the liquid. If you do, you’ll only push a lot of sediment into the finished horchata that will not be very palatable in the end. So there’s no need to use extra muscle for this. Allow gravity and a slight firm hand to do its job.
Save the leftover seed slush in a bowl for re-processing. Repeat with all the never-processed seeds in the same way as before. I usually divide the original seeds into 4 batches because the Magic Bullet large container is not as big as a regular blender. If using a regular blender, I might divide into only 3 batches because you can accommodate more water too. After processing all the seeds once, reprocess in the exact same way, diving it into batches, but this time after passing it through the sieve, just discard the leftover seeds.
Add the sugar with some additional water to the blender and process to break up the sugar and make it easier to dissolve in the horchata. Add the processed sugar water to the horchata. I usually get about 96 ounces of total liquid.
Mix well all-together. Chill before serving.