Guava-Piña Cranberry Jam

3 Dec

I wanted to try a few different variations on cranberry sauce… I have relied on my true and tried recipe here for quite some time. It’s been a staple of Xmas for a few years and I’ve had friends and family request it for Thanksgiving and Xmas pretty often.

But I wanted to see if I could give it a more Caribbean twist… something I could put my Latin stamp on. Inspiration comes from many places and Guava-Piña is a fruit combination very popular in Puerto Rico. We happened to have frozen pulp in the freezer, left over from our Guava Fizzy Drink creation earlier and the fresh pineapples from The Boys are extremely sweet and juicy.

Would the flavors the Caribbean go well with the tart northern American cranberry flavors? Check it out for yourself…

 

GUAVA-PIÑA CRANBERRY JAM

1 12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup water
¼ cup guava pulp, defrosted
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into small pieces about ¼” thick

 

  1.  Wash the cranberries.  Go thru them and throw away all the ones that have gone soft.
  2. Place the cranberries, water, guava pulp and sugar in a large heavy saucepan.
  3. Bring mixture to a boil.  I cover it so it comes to a boil faster, but watch it, because it can boil over.  After it starts boiling, uncover, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  The cranberries will begin to pop on their own.  Stir it every few minutes, and as you stir, pop the cranberries that might be still whole.  It’s the pectin inside the cranberries that helps the sauce thicken.
  4. After the cranberries are cooked, remove from heat and mix in the pieces of pineapple.  Let cool.  Be careful, the mixture is VERY HOT and could burn you.
  5. Transfer to smaller jars or plastic bowls.

 

It’s nice because you can actually taste the guava and the pineapple pieces in the sauce.  The flavors do not get masked with the tartness of the cranberries.  This is awesome to serve over pancakes, over vanilla ice cream or to just eat over crackers…

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Healthy Lifestyle Change for DECEMBER – Avoid Buying Canned Goods

1 Dec

By now, I have shared with you 11 tips on how to integrate new healthy habits into your everyday life.  Ideas, without changing too much the way you live currently, can actually have a positive impact in your overall health and well being.

It’s kind of funny that the idea I left for December was to Avoid Canned Goods…  because some of the very typical Xmas recipes I have and prepare every year have canned goods as the main ingredients and unfortunately these do not come in any other presentation, that I know of so far.  Tembleque, Coquito, Arroz con Dulce…  all are recipes that use sweetened condensed milk or coconut milk or cream of coconut and I have not been able to find those ingredients in another packaging format.  And these recipes or Xmas would not be the same without these ingredients.

Which actually helps me make the point… this series is about developing conscience of the ultimate better choices for you.  These ideas and changes are about modifying the way you purchase things so they’re overall better for you.  So when you’re at the grocery store you learn which packaging has less impact on the contents inside.  Not necessarily to start jumping hoops and making things extremely difficult for you if other choices are not readily available. 

So now…  onto the can thing.  Try to avoid cans as much as possible.  WHY?

  • Usually, canned products tend to contain more chemicals to help preserve the contents when compared to the same product in a different package format.  These chemicals and preservatives are only harmful to our health.
  • Canned products have been cooked previously a long time ago by the time they reach your home and this devoids them of many nutrients.
  • Cans can’t be recycled the way plastic or glass containers can be…

I understand how convenient it is to purchase canned goods.  How they’re economical, there always there in your pantry when you needs them… and hey, they give you comfort in times of need, like when preparing for a hurricane.  But, instead of purchasing this that typically you buy in cans, you’ll start buying them in another packaging format with many of them still getting the convenient pantry shelf life.  Here are some examples:

Instead of buying CANS of: You’ll now buy:
Vegetables Frozen Vegetables

  • such as corn, spinach, carrots, peas, etc.

 
Tomato Sauce Spaghetti/Pasta Sauce POMI brand of Tomato Sauce which comes in UHT boxesPasta Sauces in glass jars
Stewed TomatoesWhole Tomatoes Stewed Tomatoes and Whole Tomatoes in glass jars
Evaporated Milk Buy Evaporated Milk in UHT boxes
Roasted Bell PeppersRoasted Piquillo Peppers Buy them now in glass jars
Fruit CocktailsPineapples in syrupPeaches in syrup Buy these preserved fruits in plastic or glass jars and better if they are in natural juice or light syrup.
Beans Buy dried beans and soak them overnight
Cranberry Sauce Make it yourself… it’s so easy!!!
And I understand that nota ll you readers are 100% vegetarian yet… so here are additional considerations when purchasing goods:
Vienna Sausages (Salchichas) Buy refrigerated sausage productsOr even better…  Use veggie hot dogs
Tuna It’ll be preferable if you bought the pouches to transition away from the cansOr buy frozen TuNo product from a health food store

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Maoz Falafel

22 Nov

While staying with my sister in Southern Florida recently I did most of the cooking for about 7-8 people on almost a daily basis…  It was fun.  It gave me the opportunity to try out a bunch of new recipes and to showcase to a new audience a few old favorites.

But every once in while we needed to BREAK AWAY!!!!!  Borrow the car and go out into the sunshine and go some credit card damage…  That’s what brought us to the Mall at Boca Raton and Maoz Falafel.

I have seen and eaten Maoz Falafels before – eaten it in Madrid during my last visit and seen them in NYC.  But I have never seen them in Florida.  It was a VERY WELCOME surprise to go to the Food Court and see Maoz as an alternative for our lunch hunger.  I learned today Maoz is a Dutch chain…

They serve $5 falafel sandwiches that you can fill with a variety of toppingsthey have.  I went for the traditional vegetable salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions in a light lemony dressing and roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  Then drizzled with copious amounts of yogurt sauce to cool off the falafel’s cumin taste – which to me can be a bit overwhelming.

 

 

Maoz has a guy in front of their storefront serving sample pieces of their falafels for everyone to try… I do not know if it’s the samples or the growing vegetarian community in Boca, but Maoz had a long line consistently during the time we were at the Food Court.  Something the traditional fast food giants could not brag about that afternoon…

I am glad to say Maoz is expanding their operations in the US… and if you have a chance to see a Maoz store in your town or in your near future travels, give them a try.  They’re delicious!!

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KarmaFree turns 3!!!!

17 Nov

It seems like it was just the other day when I decided to share the recipes I adapted from magazines, books, TV shows into delectable vegetarian concoctions all my friends and I would equally enjoy.

How quickly times go by, no??    Since that day in 2007 KarmaFree Cooking has grown into areas I never imaged then…

We have a new awesome logo and incorporated it into a brand new look…

 

We have a FaceBook page…

http://www.facebook.com/karmafreecooking

 

We have a Twitter account…

@KarmaFreeCookin

 

We have developed a reader base that spans the whole world around…

 

I am super proud of my US-based fan base, but it never ceases to impress me that people in Australia, India and even Russia are reading my posts here on a regular basis.  A great shout-out for you guys and feel free to say hi directly in the comments here.  I would like to know more about you all.

 

Now in year #3 I have a new goal…  I want to average 1,000 daily visitors.  I am not there yet, we need to work out a few things,  but with your help…  I am confident we can do this in the next few months. 

This is where you come in… I would like for all you KarmaFree Cooking regulars to share KarmaFree Cooking with your friends who like to cook, with those that would benefit from eating less meat in their diet, heck, just your friends that enjoy making easy and delicious recipes.  We want to grow and I need your help getting there.

Here are your favorite recipes in the last year…

 

Comme ci comme ca Salade Niçoise

Pasteles in Banana Leaves

Yuca con Mojo Cubano

Veggie Sancocho

Fried White Sweet Potato

  

Here are some of your favorite non-recipe articles…

 

Greek Food – a Great vegetarian alternative

Are there any rice cookers without Aluminum?

Vegetarianism as a way to lose weight

 

 Thanks a lot for your support.  Your positive energy fuels me to continue sharing everything I learn with you.

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Oyster Mushrooms Chips

12 Nov

I have always been curious about oyster mushrooms, but I have never made them before myself because the ones we get usually here in Puerto Rico always look old and wet… not fresh and beautiful like the ones you see on TV or when you visit markets in the US when traveling.  So staying a few weeks with my sister in Southern Florida gave me the chance to use a few ingredients I have very limited access to in my homeland. 

Anne Burrell made these oyster mushroom chips in one of her shows and I was completely inspired by the simplicity but also because she mentioned these mushrooms, after roasting in the oven, tasted like bacon.  SAY WHAT?!?!??!  That immediately caught my attention…

These are so easy to make… my 10-year old “nephew” David helped me out making these.  He and his twin sister Marietta were wary because they both claimed they were not mushroom eaters.  Boy, were they in for a surprise…

 

OYSTER MUSHROOM CHIPS

½ pound of fresh oyster mushrooms
Drizzle of Olive Oil
Sea Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 425F
  2. Peel off each piece of mushroom from the stalk and separate them into individual “petals”.  Place them in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.
  3. Arrange gill-side up in 2 baking sheets side by side to allow the mushrooms to cook well and for the edges to crisp up.
  5. Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes.  They will shrink up considerably.
  6. Take them out of the oven and allow them to cool of a bit for about 2 minutes and scrape them off the baking sheet using a spatula.

If you’re not eating the right away… you can certainly place them again on a baking sheet and reheat them at 400F for about 5-8 minutes more.

 

We had to make this recipe TWICE because the first time we did them everyone was so excited that I did not get a chance to take any photographs.  David liked them raw and cooked alike.  Marietta was afraid of tasting them because “she doesn’t eat mushrooms” but was shocked and told me these did not taste like mushrooms at all.  Her parents were in awe…

Even the skeptics were impressed and mentioned unaided these mushrooms tasted like bacon.  I thought the crispy edges tasted more like “chicharrón” than bacon… so I can see more applications of these mushrooms in my future besides sprinkling them over a lettuce, sprout and cucumber salad.

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