I Am My Own Sweatshop

http://www.aakp.org/aakp-library/Vegetarian-Kidney-Disease/

Food amounts and types for low potassium cooking

killer banshee was asked to participate in a show honoring our friend Mott-ly, and we needed a box to assemble things into. Kriss asked me to cobble something together. So I glued up the strips left over from making the supports for the shelving I’m building at the studio to make this box.

We cook with roasted red peppers often as a an alternative to tomato.

If you have the patience and supplies, you can roast your own peppers. Its not hard, but it is often more expensive to buy fresh bell peppers (depending on time of year) for this preparation than to use jarred roasted peppers. It also takes more time.

We often buy jarred peppers at Trader Joes, but you can find them at almost any grocery store, and at a lot of corner stores.

I make two varieties of red pepper sauces regularly. One is a really smooth puree that is made with a higher amount of oil and is intended as an accent or warm dressing.

The other is a chunkier, stew-like sauce that works well with pasta, or with many grains, beans, and cooked greens.

Both of these recipes use a single jar of roasted red peppers, usually 3 peppers in a jar.

Red Pepper Puree Sauce

This recipe needs a food processor or blender.

ingredients

1 jar roasted red pepper
2 - 3 cloves garlic
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar or white grape verjus
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 - 2 cups hot cooking water

optional
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp coriander

Preparation

Mince garlic. Use a knife or a food processor.
In a deep skillet, or other wide bottomed pan of a medium height, add 2 Tbsp of olive oil.
Add garlic to pan with a bit of salt and turn heat to medium/medium low to warm the garlic in the oil.

Remove the peppers from the jar and rinse them well.
Finely chop or use food processor to puree the peppers.
When garlic is aromatic and starting to soften, add peppers to the pan.

Bring pan to a simmer, stirring frequently. cook for 4-5 minutes, until the peppers have lost most of their liquid, and they begin to stick to the pan. Add about 1/2 cup of cooking water, 1/2 tsp salt, some pepper and the paprika, and reduce again for 3-4 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar or verjus and a 1/4 cup of cooking water. Reduce until most liquid is gone again. Add 2 Tbsp of Olive oil and stir. Add a little water if any is sticking to the pan.

Transfer to food processor or blender and mix until very smooth. Add pepper to taste, a bit more salt and more vinegar or verjus if desired, and give the sauce a final blend. The resulting mix should be creamy, with a tangy sweet flavor. If it seems watery, return it to the stove to reduce for a little while before serving.

Goes well with blanched or roasted asparagus spears.
Also good with green beans and mushrooms
can work with toasted garlic breads, on pizza etc.
If you chill it and blend with a little more oil, it is good drizzled on salad too.

Red Pepper Stew Sauce

This recipe works better with a blender or food processor.

ingredients

1 medium to large sweet onion
2 fresh red, orange or yellow sweet peppers
2 - 4 garlic cloves
8 oz fresh mushrooms - white or crimini (optional)

1 jar roasted red pepper

1 cup cooking water
1 cup cooking wine or verjus
2 Tbsp olive oil

oregano, 1 tsp dried or 2 tsp fresh
thyme, 1/2 tsp dried or 1 tsp fresh
sage, 1/2 tsp dried or 1 tsp fresh
cilantro or parsely, fresh - 1/8 to 1/4 cup chopped.
pepper
salt

Preparation

Remove the roasted peppers from the jar and rinse well. Puree them in blender or food processor.

Cut onion lengthwise into thin pieces.
Chop peppers into 1/4- 1/2 size pieces, depending on how chunky you like vegetables in your sauce.
Add oil to pan, a little bit of salt and add onions and peppers. Cook over medium/medium high heat (about 5 min) until the onion starts to brown a little.
Chop mushrooms into chunky pieces and add to pan.
Mince or crush the garlic.
When the mushrooms have lost most of their liquid, add garlic to the pan. cook for a couple of minutes to soften the garlic. Stir frequently at this point. Reduce the heat to medium if needed.
Add the pureed red pepper and bring the pan back to a simmer.
If you are using fresh herbs, chop all of them finely and add them to the pan. If using dry herbs, add them now. (oregano, thyme, sage, cilantro)
Continue simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cooking wine or verjus and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
Add enough water to adjust the thickness of the sauce to your liking.
Add pepper before serving.

Variations/Add Ins

Crumble up 3 patties of Morningstar Farms veggie sausage into the sauce when cooking the mushrooms. The texture of the veggie sausage holds up well in this sauce.
I sometimes add 8-12 oz of white kidney beans or navy beans into this sauce and then serve with crusty bread. I get cans at Trader Joes, but often I have a pot of beans to add to meals going in the refrigerator.
It also goes well with grilled chicken

This is a good sauce to use with cooked grains as well as pastas. I serve this type of sauce over rice, quinoa, and millet.
Sometimes I’ll roast or pan saute zucchini or fix a side of green beans with this too. It works nicely with cooked kale or collards too.

Fresh romano or parmesan garnishes this nicely, along with some sprigs of cilantro or parsely. We prefer cilantro.

We don’t use green peppers because neither of us like green bell peppers. If you like green peppers, feel free to use those too.
You could also use hot sweet pepper for part of the sauce.

This really easy and tasty recipe was prepared for us by our friend Pamela. We’ve modified it a little– increasing the amount of cauliflower and adding kale to the mix. This dish is wonderful warm, but also works as a cold pasta salad too. Pamela usually makes this with linguine noodles. I tend to favor spiral pastas because I like how the carmelized onion mixes with them better, and they seem to work better after being refrigerated.

There are three major tasks that overlap to put this recipe together: roasting the cauliflower, carmelizing the onions, and cooking the pasta. The peas can be steamed over the pasta water or microwaved, and the kale can be cooked the same way.

I use my cast iron skillet to roast vegetables — it holds the heat well and when it is hot I put it on the grill outside, which gets hotter than my oven anyway.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower (medium to large)
2  or  3 large sweet onions
8 oz frozen peas
optional - 1 bunch kale

pasta of choice- up to 1 lb package, but usually about 8oz dry.

olive oil
sugar
salt
pepper

fresh parmesan or romano cheese, shredded or grated

Preparation

Carmelizing the Onions:
This usually takes 30-45 minutes to complete. Start with the onions and once they are cooking, start the other steps.
Prepare the onions by cutting in half from top to bottom (opposite the way you would cut to make onion rings or slices). Make thin lengthwise slices. Place these in a large pan with 2-3 tbsp olive oil and cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the onions soften and lose some of their water. Add 1-2 tsp of sugar. Cook onions on medium/medium low heat, now stirring regularly to avoid burning. When done, the onions should reduce to about 1/4 or less of the volume in size you started with and should have a deep brown color. Add more oil if needed while cooking, and be careful to not burn the onions, which makes them bitter.

Roasting the Cauliflower:

Heat oven to 425-450 degrees fahrenheit
Separate the cauliflower florets into bite sized pieces. The stalk can also be trimmed and cubed into 1/2″ pieces for roasting. Put the cauliflower in a pan (cast iron skillet, cookie sheet, or oven roasting pan). Lightly coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast in the oven, stirring the cauliflower about every 10 minutes until done. Cauliflower is ready when edges are browned and the cauliflower is soft. Usual cooking time is 30-40 minutes, varies by size and amount of cauliflower and oven heat. Reduce heat if cauliflower starts to burn, but don’t reduce it so much that it does not brown on the edges.

Pasta:

Once the cauliflower is in the oven, start your pasta water. Fix your pasta according to the instructions provided with it. Most of the pasta I use cooks in about 10 minutes. Drain the pasta and lightly rinse in cold water (unless your pasta specifies otherwise).

Peas:

Frozen peas cook quickly. You can steam them over top of the cooking pasta if you have a strainer basket, or you can put them in the microwave, or in a saucepan with a little water.

Kale:

Kale is an optional but delicious addition to this dish. Most varieties will work, but I usually use a dinosaur or red kale.
Wash 1 bunch of kale well, and remove the larger parts of stems. Cut kale into small pieces — if you roll the leaves together you can cut strips and then cross cut those to make a relatively fine cut size. Kale will steam in a basket in about 10 minutes, so if you have a basket that fits your pasta cooker, that is a good option. Otherwise, add a bit of water and use the microwave to steam it, probably about 4 minutes. I like my kale tender, but you might like it cooked less or more. For this dish it is better to leave it undercooked. It will hold up better with the other ingredients.

Assembly:

When all ingredients are ready ( they should all be ready within a couple of minutes of one another, but don’t worry if they are not), mix the cauliflower and onions together in a serving bowl. Add a little bit of the onion at a time until they separate and coat the cauliflower. Add peas and mix. If you made kale, add that and mix.

This mixture can now be served on top of your pasta, or it can be mixed with the pasta.

Garnish with parmesan or romano cheese.

This dish can be served in bowls or on a plate as a side dish.

This recipe will serve up to 4 people, and can easily be adjusted to serve more if needed. The leftovers make a great lunch the next day.

This is a light, refreshing soup that is easy to make. I make it vegan, but often serve it with sour cream or greek style yogurt. It can be made with leeks instead of onion. I use an immersion (stick) blender directly in the pan, but you can also put this in a blender to mix it before serving.

1 onion (sweet preferred)
1 carrot
1-1.5 lbs asparagus spears (trimmed to remove any woody bottoms)
4-6 cups water
2 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste (about 1 tsp or less when cooking)
fresh pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander (optional)
1/2 tsp thyme (optional)

sour cream or greek yogurt to garnish

Preparation

Add olive oil to a sauce pan large enough to hold all of the ingredients you will be using
Heat pan to medium/medium high.
Chop onion into smallish pieces.
Add onion to pan with a little salt - cook until clear and slightly browned. (4-5 min)
While onion is cooking, chop carrot into small pieces (1/2 inch rounds) and add to the onions. Cook this another 5 minutes.
Add 4 cups of water to the pan and let it return to a boil.

While the water is heating, chop the asparagus into 1-2 inch size pieces. When the water is boiling, add the asparagus into the pot. For a thicker soup, the water should just cover the asparagus. For a thinner soup, add more water.
Add a bit more salt, and a few grinds of fresh pepper, some thyme and coriander.
Cook for 5-8 more minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus. Thinner spears need less cooking time. The soup is ready to blend when the asparagus is tender to the touch, but still bright green. Don’t overcook.

Remove 2 spear tips for each bowl you plan to serve.
Use either an immersion blender or a mixer to blend the entire pot together.

Serving Tips

Ladle the soup into bowls, add two spear tips and a small dollop of sour cream or yogurt. A fresh grind of pepper is also nice.

This soup is great by itself, served with a good crusty bread. Alternately, a small serving of rice in the bowl can add a good texture. I’ve also been known to add a little fresh parmesan when serving.

Sometimes I make a quick pan saute of zucchini and carrot to serve with this.

I built these cubes as prototypes for another project. Now they are really good bases for cutting plywood down.

We might make them into table bases next.

Thanks Nick for cool picture!

Showing the fruits of our sweat shop action -- here Robot & Monster knitting patterns

Display that Kriss built w/ patterns hanging on the display - yes, not only writing the patterns, designing the patterns, printing the patterns but also building the fixture! I’m sure Eliot will add more pix from this show…

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Much planning later.

When you live in an old corner grocery store you have no built in storage. Corner stores have shelves, not closets, or builtin anything. So we are adding some finally.