Ethiopian upon Ethiopian

I can make absolutely no qualitative statements about when I might update this blog.

I will do it when it makes me happy, and lo and behold today it does.

Back story: I’ve had a series of rotten Thursdays due basically to the fact that Thursdays are an awkward day for me because it’s the only day of the week I don’t go directly from work to class and instead have an awkward 4-hour interval. You can’t really accomplish that much in four hours (well, and four hours minus commute time), but you can spend a lot of time feeling guilty about everything you’re supposed to be doing and eating all the chocolate in the house.

Today I just mixed up my routine- feeling not yet hungry for lunch due to a series of morning snacks, I went straight from work to the gym. Though I encountered anarchy due to a traffic backup on the Beltway (seriously, it was like nothing I have ever seen and left me feeling somewhat humbled and in awe. And not wanting to live here), I nonetheless made it to the gym and thoroughly revived myself with a magazine and workout. Good work, self!

Anyway, last Thursday was still in the rotten phase but FORTUNATELY I woke up Friday morning and there was ETHIOPIAN FOOD IN MY FRIDGE!

My mom and her friend went to dinner at Ethiopic, one of the more in-demand restaurants in DC these days. It serves Ethiopian food, which is obviously awesome (always. ALWAYS) but it’s also in the up-and-coming H Street corridor and is apparently simultaneously really cool and really cozy.

And a (regrettably) Styrofoam container of it was saying “Good morning Lele! Breakfast is served!)

Let’s deconstruct, shall we?

We had a megapile of bread (some eaten, most saved for later; just wait!)…

 

… and the remains of the vegetarian sampler and a fish dish.

The fish (nestled atop the collard greens) was gone in two bites; but what bites! Grouper flash-fried to moist, not at all greasy perfection, zestily seasoned.

And the greens, holy garlic! I apologize to everyone who inhaled near me in the following class, but they tasted great.

 

The legumes, in the form of a wonderful smoky lentil dish and a rich and hearty yellow split pea dish sandwiched the last tasty bite of potatoes.

And the tomato salad tasted way better than any tomato has a right to in January.

So fortified by several servings of vegetables for breakfast, I then had oatmeal for lunch.

(Oatmeal with oats, milk, yogurt, chopped apple, almond butter, and chia seeds, with which I have rekindled my love affair. And overpriced tea).

The setting? Our on compus cafe. I have an awkwardly long lunch break Friday (a class 9:30-12;10 and then nothing til 2) but would be too disgusted with the carbon impact if I drove home. So, I bring a lunch to campus and eat in the Barnes and Noble cafe at the school bookstore.

Eating alone is so TOTALLY different when you are a returning student. It’s so relaxing!

And you can stare out the window at the REMARKABLE weather we’ve been having and watch pretty clouds…

 

Become RADIANT SUN!

  

Full disclosure: I have had oatmeal for lunch multiple days in the past week. I am so okay with it.

Also, someone else at the bookstore had done the same!

Er… maple instant oatmeal with an energy drink. Still, one superfood aint bad.

But back to Ethiopian… I had LEFTOVER INJERA! The blissfully sour, chewy and spongy Ethiopian bread that makes a wonderful canvas for all things delicious.

Moreover, we had carrots, cabbage, and potatoes, the fascinatingly simple ingredient to the mouthwatering dish I’ve enjoyed many times at Ethiopian restaurants.

My mom’s brief Google research turned up this extremely tasty recipe for “Ethiopian cabbage dish”

She not only researched a proper recipe she also used a proper tool and madoline’d those veggies into thinly sliced beauty.

 

It’s amazing how quickly and PERFECTLY that thing dispatches those veggies.

Unlike me, she did not draw blood, either!

My mom is  a big proponent of the olive oil (and well she should be, as her doctor informs her that she has “the best HDL I’ve ever seen”), but I thought that 1/2 a cup was just a BIT excessive.

So she EXTREMELY reluctantly toned it down to 1/4 cup.

It still seemed to be PLENTY, as we watched the veggies slowly dissolve into caramelized bliss, seasoned oh-so-simply.

 

This stuff is SO GOOD. Seriously Ethiopia, how do you do it?!

 

I, meanwhile, tried to make Mark Bittman’s Ethiopian braised lentils (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian).

You used a delicious smelling selection of spices:

But, er, damn they burn fast.

And then the air gets a little toxic.

And the lentils were kind of bitter. So I dumped a great deal of pepper jelly in the pot with them. Then they were fantastic. Go figure!

A great, great, great dinner.

 

Food served atop injera. The way all food should be, really.

make your own Trader Joe’s vegetable masala burger

That’s likely the longest title one of my posts has ever had, but anyone who has ever tasted the contents of this box…

… probably just perked up.

Trader Joe’s vegetable masala burgers are the BEST! They are so perfectly spiced, so delightfully crunchy, so indulgently rich and satisfying (if, er, a bit low on the protein). All it really seems to be is vegetables- real, identifiable, chunky vegetables; not some mushy pureed burger- somehow miraculously bound together with wonderful Indian spices.

Those of you unfortunate enough to live somewhere in the US where there isn’t a Trader Joe’s, and haven’t moved away from that place for some reason, take heart.

I was in a cookin’ mood (as so often occurs), and I was in a masala-burger-eatin’ mood (as even more often occurs).

I thought the original could stand to be a bit healthier, oil being the second ingredient and all.

And so I dissection of the (totally reasonable) ingredients began.

Potatoes, well that’s easy.

In teeny teeny TEENY dice.

Then spices. This is a compilation of some of my favorite Indian spices; the spices explicitly stated on the box; and spices other people on the Internet theorized they tasted in the burgers.

 

I toasted my spices, ‘cause everyone knows they taste better that way.

I did not purchase these frozen vegetables, because I am a food snob and eat vegetables from the farmer’s market.

My sister is not and likes her vegetables to be ready in two minutes. (And doesn’t really like vegetables, from what I can tell, so doesn’t put a lot of thought into them.)

Anyway, we had these and they seemed to perfectly approximate the veggies in those burgers. (In all likelihood, Trader Joes’ frozen vegetable department and frozen vegetable burger department have probably had their own collaborations).

Breadcrumbs were highish on the list, but I didn’t want to use our Italian seasoned breadcrumbs since they tasted Italian, not Indian.

So I took a (sort of old and dried out) whole wheat wrap and ripped it up.

 

Other copycat recipes I found pureed their vegetables.

But… but… these burgers are CRUNCHY and TEXTURAL! My copycat version must also be so!

So here’s my brilliant thing I did: I partially pureed the filling to make a thick and starchy binder for the rest of it, which stayed chunky.

My first thought was pan frying.

Uh… they dissolved even more than this picture lets on. Binding FAIL.

And a whole lot stayed in that pan.

 

Let’s try again- baking!

These definitely need some oil to get the wonderful crispy exterior those who’ve tasted the real burger know and love.

So a drizzle in the pan…

… a brush for even coating…

… and a brush atop the patties.

After a trip in the oven, GOSH! Look at those CHUNKY BURGERS OF DELIGHT!

Full disclosure: these burgers are beta. And by that I mean they taste good but are hilariously crumbly.

Try them! Tell me what you think! Give me suggestions! (Or just compliment me, that’d be fine too.)

Copycat Trader Joe’s Veggie Masala Burgers

1/2 tsp. dried ginger
¾ tsp. dried coriander
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/8 tsp. ground ground turmeric
1/8 tsp. mustard powder
2 tsp. canola oil
3 red potatoes (12 oz.) finely diced
½ c. minced onion
½ c. minced green pepper
1 c. frozen mixed veggies
½ c. whole wheat breadcrumbs
½ c. water
Salt and pepper
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. water
2 tsp. canola oil

Heat a large skillet on medium high. Add spices and toast until fragrant. Remove to a separate bowl.

Add 2 tsp. canola oil. Add potatoes, onion, and green pepper, and cook for ten minutes. Add frozen vegetables and cook an additional five minutes. Add breadcrumbs and water and stir vigorously to scrape up flavorful brown layer from the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat to low. Return spice mixture, add salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with sugar. Cook an additional five minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove skillet from heat,

Remove ¾ cup of the mixture from the skillet and puree in a food processor. Stir the puree and the remaining vegetable mixture together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.

Chill overnight, or at least until cool (this seemed to help them bind).

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. If small, brush with 1 tsp. oil (and make burgers in two batches). If large, brush with 2 tsp. I used a small baking sheet to bake this in my toaster oven.

Form the burgers into patties (I used my hands, and patted them down as flat as possible) and put on baking sheets, evenly spaced. Use a brush to brush any oil on the sheet that isn’t under the burgers on top of the burgers (so they brown on top and the oil doesn’t burn on the sheet). Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then broil until golden and crispy on top, rotating baking sheet in oven as necessary, about 10 minutes. (Adjust times as needed if using a conventional, rather than toaster oven.) Repeat with remaining potato mixture and oil, if making in two batches. 

upping the veggies

It is good to eat plants. But let’s be honest, it can be a bit harder this time of year.

In the summer, you can chuck corn on the cob in the microwave, saute zukes on the stove, or just chop up some tomatoes or green beans and boom. You’re done. It’s awesome. Summer vegetables are LOW MAINTENANCE. (I mean, you can get all the aforementioned things in the winter but they taste terrible. Do your taste buds a favor. Try to eat seasonally.)

I’ve been trying to amp up my veggie intake because winter vegetables are a little trickier, and they’ve been lacking. I’ve been sometimes eating them more out of duty than pleasure.

Like this meal. This meal wasn’t so great.

Ugly salad:

 

Just sardines ‘n greens. Which is great if you have the sardines in mustard sauce (SO GOOD!) but if you just buy plain sardines you must season them, which I was too lazy to do this day. And the arugula was none too attractive. I did not buy it, ahem.

Also tried to make a mini green monster with some even older greens that needed using and a frozen kiwi. Yeah, doesn’t sound appealing, does it? It wasn’t.

The bread and PB apple slices were good!

 

But eating veggies shouldn’t just be about duty.

As my sister seems to see it. So she drinks V8.

One of which I just found abandoned in our freezer?!

 

With winter vegetables, you just have to be a bit more creative.

For example, making a big pot of butternut squash oatmeal and then getting to eat it for breakfast for a solid WEEK! Yes, root veggies take awhile but if you prep in advance they can be your savior!

Also, so sweet and delicious and you’ve had a serving of veggies before 8 am :D

 

Mmm, veggies and pecans, too!

 

Another method I am trying to utilize is called Salad of the Week (or SotW).

Also aided by prepping on the weekend, I’ve been trying to make a salad (but a HEFTY salad, with veggies and protein and no flimsy lettuce that will have dissolved by Tuesday) that I can eat for a few days in the following week.

This was SO GOOD! 3 lunches (and a few nibbles as snacks):

2 small bulbs of kohlrabi, peeled and chopped
~1/2 c. chopped carrots
~6 olives
1 can chickpeas
1/2 an avocado
1/2 cup plain nonfat Trader Joe’s European style yogurt
juice of 1/2 a lemon

So HEARTY! So FILLING! So TASTY!

On a bed of kale (which does not get soggy) for even more veggies!

Next SotW:

Roasted beets
plain nonfat Trader Joe’s Greek style yogurt
a few dashes allspice
a few splashes red wine vinegar

Beets are like CANDY right now. I read somewhere that when it’s really cold, root vegetables try to conserve their energy by transforming their complex starches into simple sugars. Which equals sweet and delicious veggies for us! 

And finally two veggie rich lunches that I photographed ages ago but haven’t shared yet.

Obvious ways to get veggies are to blend them into soup (and what’s more inducing of childhood nostalgia joy than grilled cheese and tomato soup?!)

(English muffins make SUCH great grilled cheese)

Or dunk ‘em into some tasty hummus.

A very WELL ROUNDED lunch!

   

One can also blend veggies into purees, as I did with frozen but flavorful green peas and mint to make this yummy pesto.

 

(this meal includes anchovies that DID taste good cause I made them into a salad with oil, lemon juice, chopped carrots, and curry powder)

And when in doubt, roast a bunch of sweet potatoes.

dumplings!

I made some extremely delicious dumplings on Saturday, then realized it was just in time for Chinese New Year!

When I traveled to Asia, (link to those posts at my About Me page! They’re fun!) I JUST MISSED Chinese New Year. (My guess would be that my dad booked tickets before the holiday because they probably jack up flight prices for it. Understandable.)

I have always wanted to get to experience the (I have a feeling) delightful lunacy of the holiday in Asia. According to my stepmother, her family plays Mah-johnng (spelled wrong, I am sure) until 2 in the morning. And the food sounds amazing. And parades! And red envelopes!

This is the year of the dragon we are beginning. The ultimate awesomeness in Chinese Zodiac! I point this out because I am a dragon :D But ACTUALLY, my mom had an acupuncturist who said that it is excellent luck to have a baby in the year of the dragon but if you are a dragon,  you have bad luck during that year! Oh dear.

Anyway, in all honestly Steve and I did not plan a Chinese New Year celebration. We just wanted to go to HMart. Actually, I wanted to go to HMart because I wanted more dried shiitake mushrooms and had a guilty, carbon-hogger craving for tropical fruit.

Reason I love My Neighborhood #8235723464508902835

This is the shopping center where there is an HMart. It’s in an area with a lot of (vaguely) affordable apartments and a pretty healthy immigrant population (from all over). There’s also a place called “Chicken House Panaderia” where I have been known to impulsively buy horchata and yuca fries.

After buying Korean awesomeness at HMart, I noticed a woman who seemed to be selling drinks from a STEAMING container. Yknow, just hanging out in the middle of the parking lot.

It was cold and gross outside, and something hot looking called to me. I went “… Want to go over there?” and Steve agreed because like me he loves him some adventures in ethnic eating.

Well, the woman with the container and I had a delightful conversation (in Spanish! Of which she thought I was a native speaker!) about her native pais of Venezuela and its wonderful looking and smelling drink of elote y leche (corn and milk).

Steve, class act that he is, had cash and treated us to a cup to share, which we enjoyed in my car. (I felt guilty making Steve the environmentalist buy styrofoam, but we agreed, this woman probably could use the money, so it felt good to support her).

Plus, it was SO GOOD! Hot milk and corn!

On the one hand, it would be great to make this in the summer when the corn is ripe and sweet and wonderful. On the other hand, having it on a blustery winter day warmed our souls.

  

Back to Steve’s and we decided it was dumpling time. (Steve came up with the whole idea, which turned out GREAT!)

Filling was made by sauteeing in peanut oil (much less than would’ve been used had Steve been in charge of filling), oyster mushrooms (YUM! So huge and meaty), carrots, tofu, Steve’s homegrown green onions, fresh basil, and oyster and soy and chili sauces.

I got out our (green! How fun! No extra nutrients but they had spinach powder to make a fun color) wonton wrappers, and started a filling station, wetting the edges with a water/peanut oil mix.

Steve upped the ante by adding pieces of bacon to his dumplings (!). He said the bacon grease was great for making the sides stick together. And still has a lot of birthday bacon, because I am a good girlfriend :D

Oh, then he went ahead and proceeded to fry the (bacon filled) dumplings. In bacon.

 

I chose to boil the non-bacon ones that I had filled :D But it was fun having both textures!

 

Also at HMart, we took advantage of their (incredibly affordable and fresh) deli section and bought some premade things.

Pickled veggies, in ascending order of deliciousness from bottom to top of spinach, bean sprouts, and long green beans. Just salt and sesame oil. SO yum!

 

Annnnd Korean sushi, which is made exciting with the addition of black rice (!) and pickled veggies. Also imitation crab, spinach, and egg.

 

And our DUMPLINS!

The spinach wrapper turned out SO pretty looking. And won tons are so fun to make, cause though they take forevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvver to fill, as I am freshly reminded every time I make them, they boil in seconds.

  

As for the fried ones, holy crap. Bacon stuffed wontons fried in bacon. Of COURSE they were amazing. They were amazing!

 

And bacon boy also made some collard chips (in the same style as kale chips) with soy sauce and bacon. Didn’t totally go, but we still ate them with chopsticks :D

Happy Chinese New Year!