Calmate: my magical tincture for stressful times and Tincture How To.

I'm really trying to work on this more, get it cleaned up, post more regularly, the whole shebang. We'll see how long that lasts. Life has been pretty stressful and chaotic lately. Spring is a pretty emotionally destabilizing time for me, even though I'm excited about the emergence of green stuff, and love it when the weather finally warms up.

But I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, still working low-paying, high-stress and physical labor jobs, and still have an unsatisfying social life, but oh well. So do lots of us. Reading and thinking about (also eating) foodstuffs is really calming for me. It's one of the reasons I don't so much mind working in restaurants. I could talk food all damn day.

When I'm feeling like this, I try to get some sunshine, get some exercise (going for a long walk on a sunny day gets both these taken care of) eat better, and try to sleep better. I also take some of my favorite tinctures to help give me a little boost.

My top 4 tincture blends are as follows: immunity/winter wellness blend; sleepytime/gimpy sore muscle blend; sunshine and roses; and--of course--my calmate hysteria blend.

Calmate:
Passionflower
Catnip
Skullcap

Gimpy Sleepytime:
Valerian
Kava
Chamomile

Sunshine and Roses:
St. John's Wort
Lemon Balm
Rose petals

Two immunity blends I often take in conjunction with one another

Tasty Immunity:
Elder, peppermint, lemon balm, rosehips

Rooty Immunity:
Echinacea, astragalus, eleuthero, ginger

These are all shorter and sweeter type blends. I have a few lengthier recipes--which I will post in the future--but I like to try to keep it to 3 or 4 ingredients total. I also like to keep around a chamomile, and a catnip all by themselves.

How to tincture

It's really very easy. You just cover your herbs with alcohol. Higher proof, neutral alcohol is preferred, but I usually just use good ol' Gordon's Vodka. Everclear is great, but just so damn strong and gross. Some people use brandy, rum, or other darker spirits, but it all depends on what you are tincturing. 

There are a lot of great guides out there already, but it's just oh-so-easy. You want about 1:5 ratio for dried herbs and 1:2 for fresh herbs. That means one part herbs:remaining part mentruum (alcohol). 

So you put your herbs in a jar--I rinse an reuse all kinds of jars for this, mainly pickle jars because that is what I eat from jars the most--and then you fill that jar with alcohol. Done. Well, mostly. Then you wait. Just hide it somewhere relatively cool and void of light like a basement or closet and forget about it for at least 2 weeks and upwards of 6 for the ultra patient (or forgetful).

Hummus with variations

Hummus--like many of the food stuffs I make--is something I sort of do by "feel" and usually don't use standard measuring instruments to concoct. It's something so wonderfully simple that you can pretty much throw it all together and it'll turn out great. Recently, a coworker was raving about my hummus I made one day and requested an actual recipe, so I tried to standardize it. Feel free to play around: add more or less oil, tahini, or lemon, and double the batch if you want to keep some around for later or serve at a fancy event. 

I absolutely love the edamame and white bean variations.

Hummus

1 can chick peas, drained

4 cloves garlic (or more, I really love garlic)

2-4 TB olive oil

¼ cup tahini (or any nut butter: peanut, cashew or almond)

1 whole lemon or lime, squeezed (about 1 TB or so)

pinch cumin

pinch paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Blend it all up in a blender or food processor of some sort.

Healthy Variations:

Use cannellini beans, sub sage and thyme for the cumin/paprika, and omit the tahini for delicious white bean dip.

Use black beans, omit tahini, and add cilantro, ¼ cup chopped onions, and 2 chipotle pepper in adobo for black bean dip.

Use edamame, omit tahini, add ¼ cup green onions, parsley, 1 TB soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil for edamame spread. 

I love hot stuff, so I also add a jalapeno to my hummus variations as well.

Super duper syrups

Making a million syrups today! This is the basic process I use for making syrups. It's pretty much a sugary decoction. You can infuse all kinds of shit to spice up your alcoholic beverages, or even coffee and teas. Another tasty thing to do is add a tablespoon or so to a cup of tonic or club soda to make your own delicious soda. 

Let your imagination (and tastebuds) run wild: apple, blueberries, strawberry, lemongrass, cinnamon, etc.

In the summer, when honey is plentiful at the farmer’s markets, I often omit the sugar, and strain the liquids before adding honey at the very end. About 1 part honey to 2 parts ginger liquid.

Protip: don't just leave that on the stove unattended for an hour, you should really give it a peek every 15 minutes, because certain things (looking at you, elderberries) can make you lose a shitload of liquid reeeeaaal fast. If you don't have a large quantity brewing, or if you have the heat on too high, you will evaporate all of your liquids before you know it and be furiously pissed (unless you are less angered by kitchen mistakes than I).

Basic recipe:

I usually do a half batch, and let it go 30-45 min, checking periodically, alternately don’t add sugar, then after straining, add to honey 1 part honey to 2 parts liquids.

1-2 inch chunk of fresh ginger*

4 cups water

2 cups sugar

pinch salt

Chop up the ginger into smallish pieces, place into a saucepan and add the water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, then put the heat on low, and let it simmer for about an hour. Give it a peek every 15 minutes, it might need as little as 30-45 minutes. Use your best judgement.

Let it cool before straining through a mesh sieve, or perhaps some cheesecloth. Store in the refrigerator. It should last about a month.

Add a few dried chilies (I did this and it was great) to give it a spicy kick. 1 TB of mint or basil would also be lovely. Just try it! It’s pretty darn easy and great, and sugar is quite cheap.

*depending on what tasty treats you are using, you might need anywhere from 1 TB -1 cup of plant matter

Food History

Sometimes I'm forced to confront the fact that most people aren't even remotely interested in the sort of thing that absolutely fascinates me. It always surprises me, though I'm not sure why, because I should certainly know better by now. For instance this afternoon I have been on a food history tear and keep losing my original train of research to flit off after some different tangent, like what the Vikings ate, which will lead me to stumble upon some old menus from Disney in the 60s. This Food Timeline website I've found is pretty darn terrific and comprehensive. I like to glance over primary or secondary sources for accuracy, and this site even lists a few of those too.

Here's the main timeline:
http://www.foodtimeline.org/food1.html


This might be my favorite section:
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1980s

I might have to have an eighties style food soiree pretty soon.

Stir fried rice guide with cashew sauce, and stir fry sauce

Stir fried rice guide with cashew sauce

Cashew Butter:

1 cup cashews

⅔ cup water

2 TB oil

Cover cashews with water in a bowl, heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Let it cool for a bit, and then puree in blender with oil and a squeeze of lime. If it starts to have a hard time blending, don’t worry, just skip ahead and add the ingredients below.

Cashew Sauce:

1 cup cashew butter

1 whole lime juiced, zested

2 tsp honey

1 TB soy sauce, low sodium if possible

1 TB sesame oil

2-3 tsp hot sauce (sambal or sriracha)

6 cloves garlic

1 inch chunk ginger, peeled and cut into chunks

¼ cup cilantro (optional, I originally intended to add this, but forgot and deeply regretted it)

Blend with cashew butter. Thin with water if desired, or keep it chunky.

Stir fry sauce:

¼ cup water (or broth)

¼ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed if possible

1 TB white wine, or sake

1 TB honey

2 tsp lime juice

1 TB oil, peanut or canola or other light frying oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sambal

2 TB minced ginger, optional

Whisk together in small sauce pan and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

How to fried rice:

There are a great many ways to put together a stir fry. I like to start with a base of good aromatics and spicy stuff: green onions, garlic and ginger, chilies. This goes in first for a quick 60 seconds or so to release the goods and set aside for later. Next take turns cooking your veggies, and meats, employing the classic stir fry technique of high heat and constant vigorous stirring, making sure not to overcrowd that pan. Woks are pretty great here, but you can do a make-shift stir fry in a very large saute pan if necessary. Add about 1 TB of oil each time, using a bit less or a bit more if you feel like you need to. Finally, add half the rice and half of the veggies, and stir vigorously. Once you feel everything is well mixed and cooked up real nice, add half the stir fry sauce and keep up that ever present stirring. Remove to a large bowl and repeat with remaining rice. The following makes about 8 servings, fyi. Halve it if you have less people to cook for.

This is an example of the stuff I used for my simple stir fried rice that I brought to a potluck recently. I cooked up the Andouille sausage in a separate pan so I could have a vegetarian version as well.

¼ cup or so canola oil, divided into tablespoons

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 red fresno chiles, minced

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced

1 onion, diced

1 orange bell pepper, diced

3 or so cups of savoy cabbage, sliced into thin strips a la coleslaw

2 cups uncooked jasmine rice (always make your rice a day or so in advance for legit fried rice, this should be cooked at least several hours before everything else)

2 big fat andouille sausages, sliced (use 3 if you’re not making half vegetarian)

½ cup cilantro

1 bunch green onions

Follow fried rice instructions above, 1 TB oil into the hot wok, stir fry the garlic, red chiles, ginger. Remove to a plate or bowl. 1 TB oil to hot wok, add onions, stir fry till they are as cooked as you like, remove, do the same with bell pepper, and finally the cabbage.

Finish the rice with the veggies and stir fry sauce. Fry up the sausages in a separate frying pan, and add that to the finished rice along with the cilantro and green onions, and keep on stirring. 

Serve with cashew sauce on the side. 

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

 So I really love meatballs. Like a lot. And unapologetically. Because they are just so gosh darn delicious....if you make them correctly. Though, that pretty much sums up my feelings about most foods. There is very little that cannot be extremely tasty if prepared correctly. And buffalo chicken meatballs just might be the most correctly way to ball some meat. 

These were also quite easy to make, and it doesn't hurt that I love hot sauce and blue cheese a lot, as well. 

I rarely go on and on about food stuffs for more than a few days after I make it, because there are so many new ideas to explore, but I seriously couldn't stop thinking about these for weeks afterwards. Oh god. Now I want some more.

Buffalo chicken meat balls:

2 ribs celery, cut into ½-1 inch chunks

1 small onion, ditto

1 medium poblano or anaheim

6 cloves garlic, cut in half

*opt. add in ¼ cup of desired extra veg such as carrots, spinach, or bell peppers

1 tsp worcestershire

1 TB hot sauce of choice (I used sambal and sriracha because I hate Frank’s, sorry)

1 lb ground chicken or turkey meat

1 egg

¾ cup panko or other bread crumbs

*hot sauce/butter mixture prepared to your liking, see mine below

Preheat oven to 375.

Blend everything up to the ground meat in a food processor, blender or magic bullet. Mix with chicken, an egg, and bread crumbs until evenly distributed.

Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet (or any flat casserole type thing, really) and pop into the oven for 25 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and then toss with hot sauce mixture.

*Optionally, you could glaze meatballs after they have been in for 15 minutes, and return to oven.

Blue cheese dipping sauce:

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup mayo

6 green onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 TB (or more!) blue cheese

opt: swirl of hot sauce to garnish

Stir together, salt and pepper to taste.

Sriracha butter to baste meatballs, or toss in once finished cooking!

*Standard buffalo sauce ratio is 2 parts hot sauce to 1 part butter.

2 TB butter

4 TB sriracha

                                                I ate some nachos with them as well.