Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Getting started, moving on

This has been a while coming. I've been waiting for the right time to start a blog, humble and small, about the things I love and enjoy: food and the making of it, pottery, plants, handmade things and the way all these intertwine to inspire and excite me. I'm afraid that time has been evading me for a while now, so we will have to just make do with right now: I'm leaving my beloved apartment, am surrounded by a ramble-jamble of boxes, and have been itching to do this for too long. So here we go



Moving Lunch:Green Beans with Tofu, Herbs, Rice and Seaweed

One cup white rice
handfull Green Beans, tips cut off and cut into thirds
A clove of garlic, crushed
handfull of Walnuts, crushed in your hand
toasted sesame seed oil

about 1/4 package tofu, cubed
a cup of the following: cilantro, mint, scallions-chopped
a lime
chilli flakes, ground pepper, salt
Wakame Seaweed

First of all, set your rice to cook. We will have to have a lengthy discussion some day about rice cooking and the intrigues involved- but today is not that day. Suffice to say you should warm a little oil ( olive is good) in a pot, add some black pepper and enough salt to make the water you are about to add salty, add your rice and fry shortly. Then add the equivalent of 1.5 times your rice in water, bring to boil, cover and let cook for about 20 mins.
in the meantime set a pot of salted water to boil. pop the green beans in there once the water has boiled till they start turning emerald green- 30 seconds to a minute. remove and rinse with plenty of cold water
in a skillet, warm the sesame oil. add garlic, chilli, salt,pepper, walnuts-just till the nuts start getting golden, then add green beans. toss for a minute or so, remove from heat.
Now, yesterday I had this warm, and this is how it went: rice on the bottom, then green beans, then plenty of fresh chopped herbs and Tofu cubes, Wakame and a squeeze of lime it was delicious, and despite the several steps involved in preperation came together in less than an hour


this was yesterday


I had some of everything left over. so I put the beans, tofu and greens into a container and away to the fridge. The rice got to stay outside to cool and then just got left there since I thought it was cool enough in my Jerusalem apartment
Today found me packing again and once more- hungry. I mixed some rice into the mixture  in the container and topped it with wakame and lime. same as yesterday, just cold. then I dragged a chair onto my patio and ate my cold lunch out of the box. I think I may have even enjoyed it more! this makes a very refreshing salad, and the different textures work great together. try to add your wakame just before serving so it stays crisp