Macaroni a la Fideua

        

                                         

                                                            Macaroni

                                           

Onion     Garlic      Red bell pepper        Celery          Carrot      Soaked porcini mushrooms

Soaked sun dried tomatoes              Green peas              Tomatoes                  Parsley

                                     Olive oil      Smoked spanish pimiento powder   

                                   Mushroom broth(I use a german paste from Vitamix)

                                                             A paella pan

Buckwheat soaked in Smoked Lentil Soup

Leftover cooked buckwheat(from our breakfast)

4 cups of cooked lentils

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 large carrot in small cubes

1 piece of celery cut in medium cubes

1/2 red pepper cut in small cubes

1 cup of whole canned pomodori cut in smaller pieces

1/2 tsp of spanish smoked pimiento powder

1 tbs of chipotle in adobe sauce

1 organic vegetable bouillon cube

1 tbs olive oil

In a soup pan sauté the onions, and garlic

Add the other vegetables one sort at the time stirring in between

Add the pimiento and chipotle and cook a bit more

Add the tomatoes and bouillon cube and stir

Add cooked lentils and enough water to create a thick soup consistency

Cook at medium fire for about 15 to 20 minutes

To serve put buckwheat in a bowl and abundantly soak with the lentil soup

Garnish with parsley or coriander

"Only the vulgar would see no more to a kitchen than saucepans and no more to dinner than dishes".

The Process

There seems to be enough new and old evidence that points to the fact that what we eat is of crucial importance on who we become physically and mentally. If we indeed are what we eat, then the role of cooking must be of paramount importance in our lives. It was the food critic Grimod de la Reynìere who said about two centuries ago  that "only the vulgar would see no more to a kitchen than saucepans and no more to dinner than dishes". 

The main purpose of cooking is to produce foods which nurture us physically and mentally and help us develop our potential as human beings while providing us with a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. The art is cooking to prepare nutritious foods that turns the eaters on, making the process of being nurtured and of developing ourselves into a pleasure and a feast for our senses. The colors, textures, flavors, aromas on our daily plates will transform into those of our daily lives. Food can and will transform us. When cooking it is important to play with the variety of elements which we have at our disposal, and to stretch our imagination in order to create the world we would like to live in. Daily cooks, more so than the fancy haute cuisine cooks, are the builders of civilization.

So what are some of the elements that we can use to help us create dynamic nourishing foods on which civilizations can continue to be built successfully?
-fresh foods-
-seasonal foods-
-whole foods-
-local foods-
-varied foods-
-organic foods-
-traditional foods-
-exotic foods-
-beautifully prepared foods-

The Dancing Soba

Make a broth from water, a bunch of dried shiitakes and a small piece of kombu

Let it simmer for about 15 minutes

Cook a package of soba noodle following the package instructions

In the mean time cut your veggies:

Leeks, paksoy, garlic, carrots(don't put in the paksoy leaves until the dish is almost ready, stir fry the stems only)

Sauté the vegetables in a wok with a bit of sesame oil

Add soy sauce or tamari to your broth to your own taste

In a cup make a mixture of 4 tbs. of rice vinegar and 4 tbs. of mirin

Add this vinegar mixture to your broth

Let it simmer for a minute and add a mixture of a couple of tsps. of kuzu with a couple of tsps. Of water and stir until the broth gets some body( not thick, just a bit less watery)

Add the paksoy leaves to the wok and let it sit for 1/2 a minute

Serve in bowls, first put the noodles in the individual bowl then pour the veggie soup over it, finish with a couple of drops of roasted sesame oil

*if the noodles have gotten cold while you were preparing the rest you can warm them up by rinsing them with hot tap water

*you can add cubes of fried tofu to the bowls

Vegetable Paesotto

My journey begins 50 years ago on the island of Cuba. I was born in 1963, by that time the revolution had already succeeded and Fidel Castro had become the leader of the country.  Castro instituted food rationing in order to try to equalize food distribution in the country. As a result, besides often not getting enough to eat, much of the food that was available to the general population was simple and basic. Traditional Cuban food shows the influence of Spanish, African, and native cuisine, but it wasn't until  years later after we had settled in the U.S and had access to a wider range of ingredients and restaurants that I was able to experience the Cuban cooking that my mother's generation had grown up with; a very rich cuisine, based on meats, white rice and beans, with very rich sugary, eggy desserts. Nevertheless  having lived part of my childhood  with my parents and grandparents in Santiago de Cuba in the post revolutionary Cuba, I was able to experience the Cuban approach to foods and cooking from a very simple and down to earth perspective, stripped from many of the ingredients that most people missed and longed for, but which also made the dishes heavy, greasy, too sweet, and generally unhealthy for most people. 

As a child I saw my grandmother and mother cook in a country which was not affected by the novelty of fast-foods, and the over abundance of ingredients. They had to cook with what there was, without the possibility of running over to the store for a couple of onions if those at home were finished; the stores didn't  have more onions. At the beginning of the month everyone got their share, until the next month, unless you could get stuff in the "black market" at outrageous prices. Cooking at that time in Cuba was not only about creativity, but also about planning. Nevertheless the food my grandmother(she was usually the daily cook then, my mother was more for the 'fun' sweet stuff)cooked was always simple, tasty and  beautiful. The economic system forced people to be creative and to live with what they had, it made people find meaning and beauty in simplicity. This process of creating, regardless of our circumstances can dramatically improve our creative abilities. 

In this book it is my goal to portray cooking as an example of the art in daily living. The daily activity of cooking which sustains and nourishes us, and which until very recently was an activity practiced by every culture on earth and given a great deal of attention, can demonstrate to us that art is something in which we all  participate, that we are all artists, because, as Eric Booth writes in his book The Everyday Work of Art, "the work of art is a way we all do things when we are working well".

When are we working well? When we can make our limitations feel limitless, we find meaning in our actions, in our creations.

Today I have a cold and it's rainy outside, typical Dutch weather. I have no desire to go food shopping, but at 12 o'clock lunch has to be ready since my daughter will be home from school. I look through my cabinets and fridge and assess the ingredients I have and conclude that it will probably be possible to create a "Vegetable Paesotto", my way of not succumbing to the pressure of having to create a perfect traditional Paella or Risotto.

1 onion cut in medium size cubes

2 pieces of garlic finely chopped

About 1/2 cup of squash cut in cubes

1 medium carrot cut in smallish cubes

2 tomatoes cut in cubes

The kernels of one corn husk

A bunch of string beans cut in medium size pieces

About 1 cup of chopped celery

Sea salt

1 tbs olive oil

1 organic vegetable bouillon cube

1 tbs miso

4 cups of cooked brown rice

2 cups of cooked chick peas

1/2 tsp smoked spanish pimiento powder

Water

In a casserole heat the oil and add the onions, stir, then the vegetables one group at the time sautéing and stirring a bit in between additions

Add a pinch of sea salt

Add the pimiento and bouillon cube, stir a bit

Add the cooked rice and the chick peas stir and add enough water to almost cover it

Cover the pan and lower the fire when it almost gets to boiling point

After about 15 minutes add the miso and stir well

Let it simmer a couple of more minutes

Garnish with parsley if you have any, I didn't! 

Creating the Universe

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create  the universe."-Carl Sagan

As with any form of art the art of cooking is inseparable from  our own personal stories, our memories and associations. Therefore I thought it important to let you into my world of foods, how these foods participate in my world and in the world they come from.
Here I will post recipes which I have used to nourish, amuse and inspire my family for the last 20 years. Just as with most food choices, there is a personal story, a feeling behind these recipes. Some are dishes which are reminiscent of my Cuban background, some reflect a certain Spanish influence from my mother's side and from having lived in Spain as a child,  many have an American influence as a result of having spend a big part of my youth living there, and of course there are Dutch influences behind some of these recipes, since Holland is where my adult family life takes place as wife and mother of 4 children.

All of the recipes here are vegetarian because that is how my cooking has mostly been for the last 20 years. Plant based cooking has been my basis since I became health conscious 20 years ago, and 5 years later when I came across Macrobiotics. But, my journey with foods did not come to a halt with those discoveries and my fascination with cooking has continued to grow and develop beyond the confines of philosophies and trends. My goal has been to combine ideas with a sense of purpose, receiving and giving insight from and to the world around us.

Approaching cooking(or any other activity) as art requires in the first place engaging in the process with a sense of wonder for the ingredients, activities and skills related to it. But, on a larger and more profound level it requires engagement, awareness and gratitude in and for the universe.

Transforming beautiful, whole, fresh products into delicious, nourishing foods can be as valid of an artistic endeavor as Michelangelo discovering a statue inside a block of stone. Art is an act of giving, and traditionally works of art have had the intention of encouraging devotion or awareness in a visual or aural way. Culinary creations encourage bonds between family and friends while nourishing the body.

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, or so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere through which we look - to affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of the arts." Henry Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

                               

                                                  Prayer Without End- Nicolaes Maes

Vegetable Collage a la Scappi

Spelt crust with a bed of thinly sliced braised potatoes and caramelized onions, with wild mushrooms and spinach, seasoned with fennel seeds a light dusting of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove powder and a hand full of raisins.

Bartolomeo Scappi was a famous Renaissance chef. His origins had been the subject of speculation, but a recent research shows that he came from the town of Dumenza in Lombardy, according to the inscription on a stone plaque in the church of Luino. Bartolomeo cooked for several cardinals and popes and was an innovative cook, showing a great deal of creativity incorporating the  New World vegetables in his cooking.