Root Veggies and a Spring Celebration Pasta

All right, here we go. It's only taken me about a week to post this (Liver Qi stagnation + Blood deficiency= NO FUN! I'll explain later) but I made a wonderful celebration of Spring in food form that I have been very excited about. It marries the last of the winter root crops with the first green veggies and I had so much fun cooking it! The story goes: one day I woke up and was warm. It was sunny out (gasp!); the wisteria was a fountain of violet and lavender, exuding the most delicious, intoxicating fragrance and the garden beds were barren and sad looking. So Mr. Seasonality and I decided it was high time to turn the beds. Step one: clear beds. Step two: point husband at beds and watch his muscles ripple as he turns them. Step three: use the gleanings to make a fabulous meal. At the end of the day, I had some lovely purple dragon carrots, a couple baby carrots, some baby parsnips, and a huge turnip. I love roasting veggies of all persuesions, but root veg in particular benefits from roasting. It brings out a lovely sweet nutty flavor and mellows any bitterness in older roots. To address the lighter side of spring, I made an angel hair pasta dish with sauteed shrimp, crimini mushrooms, asparagus and peas, and a meyer lemon pseudo beurre blanc. Ok, so the peas were frozen, but only because the snails have eaten every single pea sprout in the garden. grr. If you are lucky enough to have shelling peas coming up in your garden, I would highly encourage the use of them in this dish. And notice how I snuck the meyer lemon in there? Yep, I'm sneaky.

Roasted Root Veggies

You can use any combination you like, but here's what I pulled from the garden:

2 or 3 Dragon Carrots

4 baby Chanteney carrots

4-5 baby parsnips

1 turnip (mine was ginormous and tough, I would rather 3-4 baby turnips)

Pre-heat the oven at 450ish (sorry, my oven doesn't really do exact temps). Chop into chunks roughly the same size and leave baby veggies whole.

Toss with a mixture of:

Small glug of olive oil

1 tsp maple syrup

salt and pepper to taste

Spread evenly on a parchment lined baking dish, making sure that the veggies are in one layer, not crowded. Roast until tender, around 40 minutes, flipping the veggies once or twice during the cooking process.

Spring Celebration Pasta

1/2 lb angel hair pasta

1/2 bunch asparagus

1 cup sliced crimini mushrooms

1/2 cup peas, fresh or frozen

8 shrimp, thawed if frozen

1 clove garlic, minced finely

1tblsp olive oil

1 shallot, minced

2 tblsp butter

1/2 cup white wine

1 Meyer lemon, juiced and zest reserved

1-2 tblsp mint, chopped finely

salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to boil in a pot large enough for pasta to cook and salt water. In a large, non-stick skillet, warm olive oil on medium heat and add garlic, sauteeing until fragrant. Add mushrooms and cook until tender. Add shrimp first, then asparagus and peas. Cook until shrimp are pink and the veg are still bright green and crisp, it should only be a few minutes. While these a

re cooking, cook the angel hair pasta, drain and set aside briefly (it shouldn't sit for too long).

To make the sauce, in a small sauce pan, sautee the shallots in butter until transluscent. Add the white wine and lemon juice and simmer until the liquid has reduced by 1/2 to 3/4. Remove from heat.

Toss together in a bowl the pasta, sauteed veg, sauce and the lemon zest and mint. Season to taste and serve with a shave of parmesan if you wish.

This would be really nice followed by a dessert of sliced fresh organic strawberries sprinkled with brown sugar.

New Raised Beds!

The plum trees are blooming and it's warm and sunny! Welcome spring!

Mr. Seasonality put in two beautiful new raised beds and it makes the garden space about a third bigger and much more spacious feeling. Here's a picture of our beautiful new beds.

Roommate D. dismantled one of the compost piles and loaded the lot onto the back one and I planted 6 lovely lettuces, including my favorite trout romaine. Soon we'll have fresh salads again. I'd love to hear from anyone who is planting right now and what is going into the ground for y'all. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'm holding off on planting seeds until it's clear again and I know that they won't wash away.

Two Rainy Day Improvisations and Garden Musings

Last night was rainy. Again. And cold. The day started out so beautiful, all sunny and warm and full on springlike. I started to work on garden plans now that the soil is finally starting to dry out a smidge and Mr. Seasonality and Roommate D. have begun the project of turning the soil. Still a ways to go since I wouldn't let them disturb my winter crops that are still in the ground. This week I need to use mass amounts of beets, a stray turnip, a few baby carrots and one or two parsnips hidden in the bolting arugula. Potatoes that were overlooked last fall are poking their fuzzy green rosettes out of the earth and I feel actual pain that I'll have to dig them up for the greater good of the spring plantings. At the Cabrillo farmers market on Saturday, we picked up a few seedlings to get us started: some lettuce (which the slugs won't let grow from seed in the garden patch), chervil, a black krim tomato, golden sage (Mr. Seasonality collects sage plants of as many varieties as possible), and new for me are sorrel and a jurassic looking artichoke. Which are tied with asparagus and chard for first place as my favorite veggie. Ok, and zucchini.

So when I woke up today, I decided that the sun meant it was time to weed the back fence where the legumes are going to be direct sown as soon as the soil resembles a marsh just a little less. I whistled my way out there and started yanking on crabgrass and cleavers. And then it started to rain. I went back inside. And the sun came out. Hmm, I thought. I'll try again. Shucked the fuzzy slippers for sneaks and out to the garden. Where it immediately started to rain again. This scene repeated a number of times before I stopped caring about getting wet and cold and just went for it. I'm hoping to get a couple peas in the ground tomorrow, but it could be dumping rain for all I know.

Tonight, warm and quick food was definately necessary after class that I underdressed for. Note to self: if I think I'm being optimistic about spring temperatures, I really need to put aside the flip-flops and opt for the down jacket. I'm discovering that miso is such an ideal food for a busy/lazy grad student; it is almost instant, infinately modifiable, healthy, and best of all, leaves minimal dishes to clean up after. Follow that with a coconut rice pudding eaten in front of a roaring fire and all is truly well in the world.

Improvisational Miso Soup

Miso paste

Boiling water

Really, that's the basic. Just put a spoonful of miso into a bowl, add a couple tablespoons of hot water and mix it until it is smooth, then add enough hot water to make the desired amount of broth. It's really important not to actually boil the miso itself, as that kills off all the beneficial microbes that help your gut. From here, you can add:

Baby spinach greens

Freshly shelled peas

Fresh grated ginger

Chopped scallions

Even rice noodles, which only need to be soaked in boiling water (aka, miso broth!)

For the next step up, start out by making a broth or dashi. To do this, bring some earthy ingredients to a boil that need to actually be cooked, add a little seasoning, some veggies and voila! Broth! Here's what I used:

2 pieces of wakame, broken into small bits

5 shitake mushrooms

1 tsp soy sauce

A dash of ume vinegar

This was brought to a simmer in about 3 cups of water for about 10 minutes, until the shrooms were tender. If I had had it, I would have included ginger. Then I added:

A handful of baby spinach

A few spears of asparagus, broken into bite-sized portions

And simmered until asparagus was done, but still bright green and crunchy, the way asparagus should be. This was stirred into 1 tblsp of miso and thoroughly enjoyed. It served one. Just me.

Improvisational Rice Pudding

This one is dairy, wheat, and sugar-free. And it still manages to be delicious and cozy. This makes 2ish servings. One if you are like me and just can't stop eating it.

Bring to a boil:

1 can of low-fat coconut milk

1/2 cup rice (I've used and enjoyed both basmati and arborio)

Miniscule pinch of saffron (optional)

Handful of golden raisins (optional, but highly recommended)

1 or 2 tblsp nuts, chopped (I like pistachios, but almonds would be tasty too)

Cook at a simmer until milk is mostly absorbed and the rice is done, around 20 minutes. Take the pot off the flame and stir in:

1 tsp rose water

1 tsp ground cardemom

honey to taste

To make it your own, consider substituting part or all of the coconut milk with almond milk; swap out the raisins for chopped dates, currants, dried apricots or figs; almonds, walnuts or even pine nuts for the pistachios. If you don't like rose water, try orange blossom water or vanilla or almond extract. The cardemom is non-negotiable for me, but I'm a cardemom freak. It is also a Chinese herb that warms and wakes up the Spleen and transforms Dampness, so I add it to most of my cooking. See my previous post on Dampness for more info.

Lamb Stew and Greek greens

I've been absolutely craving red meat lately, which happens about once a year for me. I generally subscribe to the philosophy of 'if your body really wants it, give your body what it wants'. Everyone's is different. So I've been making lamb stews for the last couple weeks. The surprise is that Mr. Seasonality has actually been eating them with as much gusto as me! He has been a non-red-meat-eater for, well, a long time. But the body's demands are hard to deny, and he has felt that this dip into carnivory is nourishing and good. I know that in a week or two, my own need for tender lamb cooked until it falls apart on the fork will be replaced by the Spring time desire to consume all things green and sprout-like. With lots of Meyer lemons, naturally.

Tonight's dinner is a mix of these two desires: meat and veggies. The meat portion is adapted from Deborah Madison's brilliant book, "Local Flavors", and is a recipe for lamb shanks braised with onions and rosemary. The veggie portion is inspired by Martha Rose Shulman's version of Spanikopita, which, brilliantly, uses chard instead of spinach. Always nice to find another chard lover. I just took out the crust and played around with it a lot.

Greek Greens Bake

Wash and stem:

2 large bunches of greens, chopped (if using chard, reserve stalks and chop finely)

chop:

½ onion

sauté until soft in a wee bit of olive oil with the chard stems.

Add and cook together for a few minutes:

1 leek, white and pale green parts, sliced

then add:

½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried dill

But you can use any herbs, either fresh or dried to your taste. This is what I had on hand.

Add in the greens and cook until greens are soft and wilty. Set aside and cool.

In a bowl, beat together:

2 large/jumbo eggs

¼ cup greek yogurt (I know it's weird, but trust me)

¼ to ½ cup feta cheese

add in the cooked greens and

½ tsp lemon zest

Pour into a non-stick 8x8 baking dish and bake at 350

Lamb Shanks Braised with Onions and Rosemary:

4 lamb shanks, rinsed and patted dry

1/4 cup flour for dredging

salt and pepper

3 cloves of garlic, 1 crushed and minced, 2 sliced thin

Rub the lamb with salt and pepper and crushed garlic. Stuff the slivers into the folds of the meat. Dredge the shanks in flour.

In a Dutch oven or cassarole dish, heat on medium high:

3 tblsp olive oil

Brown the meat on as many sides as you can and remove to a plate.

Brown the onions in the dish for about 7 minutes and add:

3tbsp chopped rosemary

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 or 3 tblsp balsamic vinegar

Add the lamb back into the dish and add:

1 cup red wine

Bring to a boil and simmer until it is reduced by half.

Add:

3 cups of liquid (I used 2 cups chicken stock and 1 cup water)

And bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. You can continue to simmer over the stove top or you can place the dish in the oven at 325 to cook all afternoon. Stove top it should take about 2 hours for the meat to start falling off the bone.

Love Your Spleen

It's the rainy season in California, with the southern regions actually getting hit harder than those of us in the more northern or central climes. At least we seem to get a couple days break here and there so that the water on the patio can drain away (away from the garage!) and give the plants some opportunity to manufacture food. Plants other than mold, I mean.

I find rain to be comforting and annoying at the same time. How is that possible? Maybe because instead of being at home curled up in front of a roaring fire sipping hot chocolate (or licking it off a spoon, 'cause it's so thick and tasty) and cooking meaty stews, I'm in classrooms all day with foggy

phlegm-head. Ever notice how in damp weather, your brain decides to go on strike? And then when you absolutely force it off the picket lines, it does critical thinking and computations at

the speed of a herd of turtles swimming through peanut butter. Yup. That's 'damp stagnation', as we like to call it in the world of Chinese Medicine.

Dampness is a Yin-type pathogen, which means that it is heavy and usually comes on gradually. It is the evil that, according to a brilliant teacher of mine, "can and will obstruct the qi mechanism". Which I'm sure means a whole lot to y'all. Here's what I think he means. Qi likes to move, it needs to move because the body is in a constant state of adjustment to reach relative homeostasis. Without the stasis. All the little things that constantly act to push us out of balance like the person in line behind you sneezing on the back of your neck, or eating just one piece too much of birthday cake, or looming deadlines, our beautiful bodies have to continually adjust and readjust to compensate for and keep us in a not-sick state. Movement is necessary. Which is why, when a heavy Yin pathogen like Damp comes in, Qi stagnates. The darn Damp blocks the Qi from moving. Why, you may ask? Have you ever been in Santa Cruz on a summer morning when the fog is in? It's like there's a silent grey blanket wrapped around everything. The air is perfectly still and even the sounds are muffled. Dampness. I think that might be a new curse for me.

So what prevents us from walking around in a state of foggy oblivion every time a cloud rolls by? The Spleen. Sounds funny, I know. I keep thinking of that movie, Mystery Men with Paul Reubens playing a character whose superhero name is the Spleen (said with a lisp and spit flying everywhere). But I promise you that you can't love your Spleen (the Chinese version) too much. It is completely different from the anatomical spleen (see how one is capitalized and the other not?), and is seen as being the digestive power of the body. It is in charge of moving and transforming food and water into pure nourishment, which is Qi and Blood, and then bringing that nourishment to every single cell in our bodies. The Spleen transforms and transports, and it really, really doesn't like Dampness. No surprise since it is such an engine of movement and anatomical alchemy. If the Spleen is weakened, then Dampness takes advantage of that toehold and grabs on with all the strength of its clammy little fingers. The Spleen tries to fight it, but is blinded and deafened and bound and gagged now. It's an epic battle. This is when we start to feel foggy headed, tired, maybe even a little bloated or over-full. We might not have a whole lot of an appetite. Joints may ache, muscles feel heavy, and there may even be some dreaded mucous.

How can we rescue our poor little Spleens? Well, by taking very, very good care of them to prevent any damage or weakening of their function. As my mother says, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". And how do we do that, you may very well ask? In a few simple ways:

1. Eat warm, cooked food that is nourishing and not greasy

2. Get good sleep but not too much

3. Get good exercise, but not too much

4. Limit your intake of dairy, sweets and alcohol

and the one that I think can vie for first place,

5. Eat a good (warm) breakfast

The reason for this is because the Spleen likes warmth and dryness, hates cold and damp, so we try to limit foods and environmental exposure that are energetically or physically cold and damp, while increasing things that are warm, dry and strongly aromatic because that can punch through the haze of dampness like sun drying up a puddle. Dairy, sweets and alcohol, as well as food right out of the fridge and raw food, all have a cold, damp energy which injures the Spleen. And that is what we are trying to avoid. Breakfast is important because it is the first meal of the day, it primes our digestive system and sets the level at which it functions for the rest of the day. We want to eat warm, nourishing food for breakfast not only because that wakes up our Spleens, but because it also has the potential for keeping us off of the insulin rollercoaster that is caused when we don't eat breakfast or eat something sugary and quick burning. Like pancakes or muffins or cold cereal. All of those foods spike insulin levels very quickly. When that happens, the body says whoops, that's a wee bit too much, and insulin levels drop just as quickly. All those sugars leave the bloodstream and go into our cells and suddenly we're hungry again an hour after eating.

What has been found is that if we start our day with this kind of spike and drop in insulin, it is really likely that the rollercoaster will continue throughout the day. The problem is that too much insulin (like the kind we get from spikes that repeat throughout an entire day) can over time cause our cells to develop resistance, which in turn, can lead to metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes. Don't take my word on this, but do some research on your own. There is a lot of good info out there on metabolic disorders and insulin resistance.

What constitutes a good breakfast? Something warm. Something that has protein in it to keep your insulin down and give you good energy throughout the day. If it is a cereal, then think about whole grain cereals. It should be something that tastes good to you. I'll post some of my favorite breakfasts a little bit later. For now, I need to go rest my foggy head.