Recipe: Squash Ravioli with Rainbow Chard

Squash Ravioli with Rainbow Chard
This recipe gets 3.5 Purkle Stars

Ingredients – Filling

• one smallish kabocha or buttercup squash, cooked with skin and seeds removed
• one small white onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp crushed coriander seed
• olive oil
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients – Pasta

• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup water

* I initially doubled this recipe but ended up making one more as well (which actually made it triple) but I suggest starting with a double recipe first. Once you’ve made it, it’s not that difficult to just make a bit more.

Ingredients – Rainbow Chard

• one bunch rainbow chard (beet greens) chopped into 1-2 inch pieces (including stems)
• handfull of fresh, chopped fennel
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Cut squash in half and cook (I find it easiest to cut in half and place open-face down in a glass dish with 1/2 inch of water. cover with plastic wrap and cook in microwave for about 10 minutes) remove seeds and skin and place flesh in large bowl. Cook onions, paprika and coriander seeds in a little olive oil until soft and a little carmelized. When done, mix with squash in large bowl. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Pasta: The recipe above comes from the following website: http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/117/Homemade-Pasta/ which says to mix all ingredients in a bowl, wrap and let sit for 30 minutes. I never do this… I mix, knead a bit and roll out pretty much immediately. My pasta usually comes out a bit thick.. maybe this is why! I also roll my pasta by hand with a pasta roller. Basically this is like a thin rolling pin without handles. I roll out about 1/3 of the pasta dough and cut round shapes with a glass. Cut out all the shapes while the squash mixture is cooling. Once you’re ready to make the ravioli, place a small amount of the mixture (about a large teaspoon) and either trace the edge of the pasta with a wet finger, fold pasta in half and pinch to close or place another round shape on top. Set raviolo aside where they can get a bit dry, otherwise the mixture will keep the pasta wet and if touching, they can easily stick together. While these are drying, heat a large pot of water to cook. Wehn water is boiling, turn heat down to medium-low and add pasta. Chop the greens and put on medium heat in a skillet with a little olive oil until leaves are wilted and stems are soft and flexible but still a little crunchy.  Add some salt and pepper to taste. Turn heat off, add chopped fennel and stir. These should both take 5-10 minutes to cook. Drain pasta.

On the plate, prepare a bed of chard ( around 1/3 of what’s in the skillet) and top with 4-6 Ravioli. Eat! This recipe makes enough for 3 people (with some ravioli left over if you used the fold-over method) but you can always cook up more of the chard (or some other dark green) and fennel.

Even our friend who normally wouldn’t dream of eating something vegan liked this dish a lot.

Thanksgiving and purple stars!

Thanksgiving was very nice. We had dinner with some friends of mine and the meal was really quite healthy. I was especially impressed with the cubed sweet potatoes cooked with orange juice. It made a very nice change from the standard candied yams. I made succotash with kidney beans and black eyed peas and a squash pie…

Also, my significant other and I have devised a rating system for my recipes. So keep an eye out for the “Purkle Stars”.

YERT Conversation 14.1: Simple Living 101

Gerald Iversen, National Coordinator of Alternatives for Simple Living, gives us a few options for keeping things simply marvelous– even during the holidays.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by YERT with a No license (All rights reserved) license.

So much for being mindful…

The morning of November 7th was one of the foggiest that I have ever encountered. I went to work, as usual, and later that day heard that a cargo ship had struck one of the support towers of the Bay Bridge. And, even worse, it had a 70-90 foot gash in the side that had caused a fuel spill. The captain was able to eventually stop the spill by routing the ship’s oil to another compartment. For some reason, after hearing this, I didn’t really expect the spill to be very large or something very difficult to deal with. There are many ways to contain oil but of course those things require quick action, preparedness, good information and without a doubt – less fog. I didn’t really pay much attention to the whole thing for a few days. But information was slowly reaching me. Videos, stories and discussions were continuing. Oil on Ocean Beach? Point Reyes? Animals covered in oil?

I decided to look into volunteering for the clean-up effort. Naturally, the only training session was happening on a night that I was unavailable. Though I’m happy to know that so many people were volunteering that many had to be turned away.

This leads me to think about that cargo ship and what might have been on it. We are now so dependent on not only oil, but the products that are manufactured overseas for our pleasure and our convenience. I wonder if we will get to a point when we stop to think about how our own lives and habits feed the fire before we look for someone else to blame.

Video of oil on Ocean Beach

NPR: San Francisco Bay Oil Spill Investigated

Sessions offer oil cleanup volunteers the scoop about goop

Senators blast Coast Guard response to bay oil spill

What is this plant?

So, a couple weeks ago, I started saving coffee grounds and tea to use as compost for my plants. Lat week, I started sprinkling the coffee around and noticed that there was something that had sprouted in the can. I looked around a bit more and found 2 others as well. I knew it couldn’t be the coffee, and I also knew that I had only put one bag of tea in there. I found what was left of the bag and it smelled of Earl Grey tea. So, these three little sprouts have now been planted and are happily growing in the back window. I imagine that they either have to be tea, or bergamot. It’s quite suprising to me that they sprouted in that dark can. But it was warm and damp and full of nutrients – and after steeping in very hot water as well. I look forward to finding out what the heck these 3 little guys are.

A video about food supply

Watch Your (Fo)odometer!

LOL Foods

OK. Enough with teh silly. If you want more, check out the tags “food” and “eat” at icanhascheezburger.com

What is this herb?

I bought this herb last week at the farmers’ market and was told that it was water mint but, as you can see, this does not look like any photo of water mint I’ve seen so far. The smell is well, frankly, kind of grassy and a bit watery. If that makes any sense! It’s not terribly fragrant unless it’s very close. The taste is a tiny bit minty but, again, kind of grassy! The leaves are very tender and wilt easily. I’m just not sure what this is.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

And, yes, I know what grass tastes like…

Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market.

Today we went to the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market. I have avoided this market for more than 2 years. The reasons are as follows: 1) I used to work in the Ferry Building.. and market days were chaotic! 2) the food is not what one might call  inexpensive 3) did I mention that market days are chaotic? So are lines for the bathroom. However, today I felt like properly checking the market out. One of the disadvantages of working during the market is that you never really have time to explore.

Here’s a list of what we bought:

• at least 3 kinds of hot chili peppers
• pea sprout pesto
• almond maple spread
• mixed, sprouted beans
• pumpkin quark cheese
• organic butter
• fennel
• purple radishes
• almond butter
• almond chocolate coffee brittle
• a mossy turtle with a plant growing out of it!
• serrano chili seasoning

Things I saw, did not buy, but will buy in the future:

• organic, brown rice
• jerusalem artichokes
• various organic dried beans

So, as you can see, many of these things are not easily found at your average shop. I intend to make the FPFM an occasional supplement to my existing market diet. We also stopped by Mistral Rotisserie Provencale for lunch. One of the things I quite like about the restaurants and shops at the Ferry Building is that they are very much dedicated to using and selling local and organic food. The prices might be a bit high, and the atmosphere a bit upscale, but their hearts are in a good place. I actually know the owners of Mistral a bit and they are great people. And they make an absolutely kick-ass Morrocan Lamb Stew (Tagine).

So, in general, I give this farmers’ market a thumbs up. At least when it comes to variety and quality. However I find the customers rather rude. People are bumping into eachother all the time and, frankly, there’s less diversity. And more tourists. Also, I wouldn’t really call the atmosphere ‘relaxed’. Sorry Ms. Plaza, I’m not giving up Heart of the City Farmers’ Market any time soon.

Life on the Hill: Part 1

I keep meaning to write about my new neighborhood. Each day it seems there are new and interesting discoveries to add to the list of things I want to discuss. So I’ve decided to start with a little history…

Two weeks ago, I moved to Telegraph Hill. Most people (locals included) think I am talking about Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley even though I’ve specified that I’m living in San Francisco. But most SF residents don’t visit this neighborhood. There’s no way to get around the steep streets leading up from North Beach, or the hundreds of steps up Filbert Street from the Historic Waterfront Disctrict. Coit Tower sits at the very top of the hill, and looks over.. pretty much everything. And there’s Julius’ Castle too, a rather nice restaurant with a rather amazing view. Otherwise the area is strictly residential, with a shop and laundromat or two. Hardly the hustle and bustle just a few blocks away in North Beach.

One of the most interesting things about Telegraph Hill, in my opinion, is the eastern cliff face. At the bottom of this side of the hill was the Telegraph Hill Cemetery, where non-catholic sailors were buried over a century ago. The cliff face is evidence of the ballast quary that was once here. I am not sure how much of the hill was removed during that time but the rock is now covered in a thick blanket of blackberry, ivy, fennel and a number of other plants I’ve yet to identify. The various parts of the hill have concentrations of different bushes and trees. A little more to the southeast and there is a clump of strange, straight-branched pines, trees engulfed in ivy and even a few agave.

I saw a mouse on the steps a couple of days ago and I’ve seen some very strange bugs (I took a photo of one of them, it came out terribly blurry!) and had a face off with a fuchsia-headed humming bird and just today a blue jay landed in one of my planters as I was tending to my ivy.  I’ve become familiar with the favorite landing spots of the growing cherry-headed conure flock and noticed how quiet the hill gets when there’s a hawk circling above.

I could go on forever about Telegraph Hill. I’ve lived in San Francisco for 4 years and I feel that for the first time I can honestly say that this neighborhood has made me love San Francisco. And this environment has forced me to be more mindful of my surroundings. I suppose that’s the reason I’m writing about it. Living here, I cannot afford to keep my eyes closed. I just might miss something wonderful.

More to come in future posts. I’ve added some recent Telegraph Hill photos to the flickr stream, including the one of the blurry bug!

And if you’re interested in San Francisco history, check out SparkleTack.com.