Cooking

Note To Self: Cook This Immediately

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Photo and "Spicy Cauliflower with Sesame Recipe" from Heidi Swanson's 101cookbooks.com, adapted from Reza Mahammad's cookbook "Rice, Spice, and Everything Nice"

I love cauliflower.  I also love spicy things.  For our one-year dating anniversary, Ryan and I are going to celebrate by making homemade hot sauce.

Recently when he and I went out to eat at a North Indian restaurant, we ordered everything “very spicy,” as usual.  And as usual, the person taking our order kind of looked at us (particularly Ryan) with widened eyes, which, again, usually means “Yeah, yeah, sure, okay,” and then usually when we get the food it is not very spicy at all.

Fortunately (and unusually), however, this kind restaurateur  took us at our word.

Probably some of the best Indian food I’ve had since coming back from a summer in India, in 2004.

And this recipe is not going to even approach that, but it is cauliflower and it is spicy and it does have ginger and cumin and turmeric and caramelized onions and two kinds of chiles, so I am certainly not complaining.

Man, I’ve missed spending real time in the kitchen.  I’ve even started generating these weird food metaphors in my head.  Yesterday’s fall weather felt heavy and bright, like lemon curd.

Time to get back to those pots and pans.

Radical BBQ, Radical Sangha

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Some friends threw an utterly beautiful “Radical BBQ” yesterday in Oakland. Young and old, different races, different genders and presentations, fun, kind, relaxed, co-operative, joyful, political. Food (good heavens — Dani made these amazing stuffed stromboli and vegan bread from scratch); music and dancing; a speech from a MUNI driver (SF public transit) on the struggles they’re facing among the rank-and-file; wonderful art (check the Advance the Struggle banner: gorgeous). And they even provided art supplies for people to do their own thing. I took advantage and sketched out a small banner to use for Radical Sangha. Took it home and spent the night painting and finishing it up.

The banner may come in handy tomorrow evening, as the scheduled Radical Sangha will be meeting and then carpooling to San Quentin prison to join the protest of the first death-penalty execution in California in four years. Albert Greenwood Brown is scheduled to be killed by the state on Wednesday. The decision to resume executions (backed by Jerry Brown) was sudden, and has shocked a lot of folks who’ve been doing anti-death-penalty work for years. I only heard about it last Thursday, through folks in Oscar Grant organizing.

I’ll be writing up some thoughts and questions soon on tactics and strategy for radical organizing (sparked in part by an event the Faithful Fools catered yesterday: a talk by lifelong activist and frequent prisoner Father Louis Vitale, a Franciscan priest who works around anti-nuclear intervention and the School of the Americas Watch). Part of me feels ambivalent about attending a protest of the death penalty, with no clear mechanism for affecting this structural, state violence. But I also feel that with the proper perspective, and in tandem with different types of tactics and organizing, it can be a fruitful part of a holistic, loving, politicized life.

What really bugs me is that I won’t be able to make it to another dope event featuring my friend’s mom: An Evening of Solidarity with Women of Haiti. If you’re in the Bay area and not coming to the execution protest, think about hitting this up instead.

And a good Monday to y’all.

Otsu: Yes, It’s As Good As It Sounds

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ahhhhhhh bowl o' otsu

Time for another favorite recipe.  Courtesy of (surprise) Heidi Swanson’s 101cookbooks.com.

I made this the other night for a semi-potluck, and as usual,* it was a hit.  Sesame-ginger-honey-lemon-cayenne dressing over buckwheat soba noodles, diced cucumbers, and pan-fried tofu, finished with sesame seeds and with green onions and cilantro, if I’ve got ’em on hand.

Swanson actually got this recipe from a restaurant here in San Francisco called pomelo.  The in-store version is mighty tasty (their tofu is especially nice), but it’s simple enough to make at home — no outlandish ingredients or particularly finicky prep.  (A food processor does come in handy, though.)

My minor tweaks: more cayenne, more cucumber. (I’ll use 1.5 or 2 cucumbers instead of one-half.)

I could eat this every day for a week, people.

Well, that’s true about a lot of foods.  But this one especially.

Enjoy!

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*One fairly disastrous exception was the time I tried to make it for my wonderful CouchSurfing hosts in Barcelona.  The effort was doomed by my inability to find Japanese ingredients in Catalunyan grocery stores.  The result was a brownish, ginger-less spaghetti slop with rock-hard tofu nuggets.  Pretty humiliating.  But they were totally sweet about it, bless their hearts.  Maybe someday they’ll visit me in San Francisco and I can redeem myself with a proper version.

B-Sprout Bachata

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One weekend highlight: Saturday night, when clubbing plans fell through, Ryan and I did a little online digging and came up with a one-hour, five-dollar, group bachata lesson near Lake Merritt. In a senior activity center, as we discovered on arrival. Talk about a score.

Let me just say: a lot of these elders can dance. I find it so inspiring. And many of the most optimistic, vivacious old folks I know are deeply musical people who actively dance, sing, or play instruments. So when Ryan and I learn bachata, I really feel like we’re investing in a long and happy life.

Bonus: practicing our moves while we roast a big pan of carrots, cauliflower, and b-sprouts.

Ryan’s Spicy Carrot Ginger Soup

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Honestly, I’m not sure I’d ever even tried carrot soup before Ryan cooked up this batch on Saturday.  If I have, its memory was totally and completely overshadowed by his gingery, sweet, spicy phenomenon-in-a-bowl.

How can a simple mixture of onions, olive oil, broth, carrots, ginger, cayenne, and cilantro wind up tasting like all the good things of the world combined?  (Then again, that might just be an effect that all super-delicious foods have on me.  I said the same thing about my friend Cat’s organic honey one time — that it tasted like chocolate and the sea and all earthly deliciousness.)

All I can say is: Yum, people. Yum.

Happy Monday!

Last Of The Stat Dragons

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[This is part of a collaborative series on mindful technology use.  Background and previous dragons here, here, and here.]

As you may have inferred from the above, Dana Heffern’s work as an artist is bad-ass and complex.  She’s another of my cohorts in the Goddard Interdisciplinary Arts MFA program — a true blessing to have as a peer.  One of those bold workers who gets to you at a head and gut level: often through something like a parody or twist that makes the familiar strange, thus helping us to confront our assumptions.

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Mission Pie with Ryan

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Yes, uh huh, yep.

Mission Pie is the best kind of pie shop.  A bright, airy café at 25th and Mission, filled with sweets and savories, operating on all kinds of good-for-the-community-and-environment bases.  Ryan and I met there yesterday to do some work: I was editing a video blog, and 18 hours later it’s still not finished but we got a sweet little photo story out of the deal.  I didn’t notice until uploading the pictures that they’re all in primary colors.  A fine, bright afternoon.  And who can resist that smile, huh?

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