Yeah, I made that up just now. I have a gift for making up alternate lyrics to popular tunes on the fly. It’s a pretty useless talent, but it is amusing.

It might even make my sickly friend Janis smile.

I hope so, because, Janis, this post’s for you.

See, Janis has an untimely cold. I mean, yeah, it’s cold season, but it’s also holiday season and who wants to be feeling like death on toast warmed over when there is all that festive fun to be had?

So, I offered to tell her how to make my “Chinese/Auyervedic/Appalachian White Chick Voodoo Priestess Tea” recipe and so many of her Facebook friends wanted the recipe, too, I figured I’d just haul off and put it up on the blog.

But, before we get into the recipe, I have to post the standard disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor or practitioner of any sort. I’m a chef and a writer and a mother, and so what I am dispensing here is not medical advice, it is just a little something that has helped my kitchen staff, my family and friends boot a cold out the door just a little bit faster than it might have faded on its own. And–it makes you feel better. A lot better. Or, at least, it makes myself, my staff, my family and friends all feel better when they take it, so I hope it will work for Janis and the rest of you, should you need it.

This concoction is a concatenation of folk remedies from all over the globe. I learned about the green tea and ginger from one of the Chinese line cooks I worked with back in the day. He also told me to add a tiny bit of chili pepper if I was really feeling bad. The black pepper, cinnamon and clove comes from rasam, a South Indian lentil broth that is spiced out of this world delicious, and which kills a cold before it can even think of becoming bronchitis. I added the cardamom because one of my personal chef clients’ mother told me that it had a soothing effect on the throat when it was sore. The mint is from my own self who figured that if menthol is in Vick’s Vaporub and is good for you, then plain old mint would work, too.

The honey, lemon and whiskey is straight up from Southern Appalachian tradition.

Now, about that whiskey–it’s optional. No, really, it is. All of the other stuff is pretty necessary, but the whiskey–that’s for the nights when you can neither sleep, nor stomach another swallow of Nyquil.

So, here’s how I make the tea. I used to make it for Morganna until she grew old enough to learn it, and now, she’s taught her friends and now I’m teaching it to you.

I sure hope it helps cure what ails you.

But if it doesn’t cure you, it certainly won’t kill you and it tastes mighty fine as it goes down.

Please note–all of the amounts are approximate. Voodoo tea is generally made by feel, but use your common sense. You know that a huge handful of peppercorns in your tea is not only going to taste bad, but will probably hurt you as well. so don’t put a handful in.

Oh, and one more thing–it doesn’t matter what phase the moon is in when you make this tea, nor do you need to use water gathered at the full moon from a mountain spring while you sing thirty-two verses of some holy chant or another. You just make it and take it when you need it, and that’s good enough.

Chinese/Auyervedic/Appalachian White Chick Voodoo Priestess Tea
Ingredients:

2 good, heaping teaspoons worth of jasmine-scented green tea (If you must use teabags, Numi’s Monkey King green jasmine will work perfectly well.)
1/2 teaspoon dried spearmint, or one sprig of fresh spearmint, bruised lightly
1/2-1″ cube fresh ginger, peeled and grated finely
1″ piece of cinnamon stick
3-5 whole cloves, lightly crushed
2-4 whole green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
3-5 whole black peppercorns
a pinch of Aleppo pepper flakes (optional, but it is very warming–and you CAN use hotter chili flakes if you want–but the Aleppo works more gently)
two or three good long, wide flakes of lemon zest–just use a vegetable peeler to remove it from the rind
3 1/2 cups water
juice of one lemon–about a 1/4 cup–fresh is best
honey to taste, but I suggest at least two tablespoons–honey is very soothing to sore throats–especially buckwheat honey–it works amazingly well on coughs
1 jigger whiskey–that’s for the whole pot–if you are using it–or you can do the whiskey to taste

Method:

Take the tea, and all of the other ingredients up to the water, and put them into the basket of either a press-style teapot or a French press coffee maker. (What? You don’t have either of those? Well, you can use a regular old tea ball, but then when it is done steeping, you have to play with pressing all the goodness out of the tea, herbs and spices with the back of a spoon into the pot, which is something truly bothersome to do while sick. Or, you can just throw it all loose in a pot and strain it as you pour it, but then you don’t get to squeeze the goodies out that way at all. So, suit yourself on this matter.)

Bring the water to a boil, and pour it over the ingredients in the basket and into the pot, cover with the lid and then pop a tea cozy or a towel over the pot to keep the liquid warm. (What? You don’t have a tea cozy? Well, don’t worry because neither do I. I always thought they were rather a bit twee for my taste, so I go with the towel method. There are always towels in varied states of cleanliness around the kitchen, but I doubt you will see a tea cozy any time soon. Oh, but be sure and pick the cleanest of your kitchen towels for this duty. No need to add anything odd to the tea when you are already feeling crappy.)

Allow to steep for a much longer time than you normally would for tea. About 5-8 minutes.

After the steeping time is done, press down the plunger on the pot, thus squeezing all of the essential oils, tannins, and flavors from the tea ingredients into the tea. Take out the basket if you are using a teapot, or pour off the tea into another vessel if you are using a French press coffeepot. (That’s the problem with using a French press. You get the squeeze out all the goodness, but you can’t add the lemon juice and honey to the pot unless you pour it into another pot, which is a pain in the tuckus, so I suggest not doing it that way. Just get a nice little teapot like mine–it will make your potion-making much easier.)

Now, add the juice of one lemon–about 1/4 cup, and stir well. Add the honey and stir to dissolve. Taste. If it isn’t sweet enough, add more honey. Too much honey isn’t really too much when you are talking about a sore throat and a cough.

Finally, add the whiskey if you are going to use it. I usually don’t use it unless the cough is truly horrific, but I am not opposed to using it either.

Drink this over the day–I prefer it hot, because I find its more soothing that way, but if you want, you can drink it lukewarm. And save those herbs, spices and other goodie bits in your tea basket, because you can make a second steeping from them, though you have to steep it for 8-10 minutes to get the same effect. And you have to add more lemon, honey and whiskey to it, too….

Well, that’s it. See–it was easy, wasn’t it? I hope that just reading it makes you feel better, Janis.
Hugs and love to you!

I know that the Meatless Monday campaign promoted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been in the media a lot recently, but I still wanted to present it to my readers because not only is it a good idea for our personal health to eat less meat, it is good for our environment as well. And–eating meatless one day a week helps us come up with even more delicious ways to use up the abundant local produce that is filling our farmers’ markets this summer.

Promoted by none other than author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) as well as many other celebrities, institutions, restaurants and countries (yes, I said countries) the concept of Meatless Monday is simple–one day a week, pledge to eat no meat. That’s it.

Simple.

Now, you can go farther and go vegan once a week, but that isn’t necessary. Or, you can eat vegetarian more than one day a week. I suspect that a lot of people will end up eating no meat more than one day a week once they realize how tasty vegetarian food really is–personally, this summer I have been eating meatless about three days a week. (You may have noticed that most of the last twenty recipes or so on this blog have been vegetarian. There is a reason for that–not only are we eating less meat here at Chez Barbara, but I am committed personally to showcasing delicious vegetarian recipes more often than I have in the past.)

Basically, while I am still an omnivore, and a committed locavore, I also want to eat less meat–even if the only meat we eat in this household is locally produced and grass fed– because eating a little lower on the food chain a little more often is good for our health and helps save a tremendous amount of carbon emissions. (On Oprah’s Earth Day special, Michael Pollan noted that if every household in America went meatless one day a week, it would be the equivalent of removing 20 million mid-sized sedans from the road.)

Meatless Monday isn’t just a modern liberal/progressive/vegetarian plan to save the animals and the environment–it has a venerable history in the United States. During both World War I and World War II, there were calls to eat less meat in order to support the war effort, and Meatless Monday was one of the programs instituted by the Federal Government to help succeed at the goal of not only feeding the army, but the starving populations of Europe whose own crops had been destroyed by war.

It was a good idea then, and I think it is a good idea now–and it is an idea that is beyond political ideology or identity. Research has shown that eating less meat is good for -everyone- and that means everyone no matter what their political beliefs.

Now, I am not advocating that everyone go vegetarian or vegan here. I am not being radical about this–I am just suggesting that we eat more plant-based foods than most Americans do, and the idea of setting aside one day a week to be completely meatless is an easy, relatively painless way to go about it.

So, in support of Meatless Monday, I will begin every week with a new vegetarian recipe that will make a great supper, guaranteed to taste good to vegetarians and omnivores alike. And, in support of Meatless Monday, I will evangelize the movement by serving guests–especially those who think they don’t like vegetarian food–amazingly delicious vegetarian meals.

This Saturday, I started my evangelical movement in support of meatless, locally sourced meals by feeding my Mom and Dad, both of whom are very “meat and potato” oriented sorts of folks, a meal that consisted of my Eggplant, Walnut and Tomato Bruschetta and New Potatoes with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes.

What was the reaction?

They both loved it. They loved the sauces (Melanzane Con Noci and Pesto) so much that Mom asked for the recipe, and Dad praised them both vociferously. (Even better–they had come to visit Saturday morning, all the way from West Virginia, to shop at the Athens Farmers’ Market!)

Even my parents are eating more meatless meals–in fact, for his birthday dinner, Dad asked Mom to make him Eggplant Parmesan–and this is from the man who once disliked eggplant. (I am pleased to have been instrumental in removing his eggplant-phobia by presenting him with a Portuguese eggplant appetizer I had learned to cook in culinary school when I visited home during break.)

Look, here is the deal–if my parents can do it–so can you, me and everyone else.

So, get on board and go meatless, if not this Monday, then next.

And if you need some recipes to get you started, check out my recipe category, Almost Vegetarian, Vegetarian and Vegan.

Or take a look at these recipes hand picked by me for you to try today:

Palak Dal, South Indian Style
Linguine With Olives, Feta and Lemon
Imam Bayildi
Heather’s Pasta With Mushrooms and Peas
Kashmiri Dhingri Chole
Chinese Noodles With Mushroom-Tofu Sauce

Or check out the recipes at A Veggie Venture and Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for inspiration.

Now, you know, purple cauliflower has -got- to be better than plain old white cauliflower. I mean, it -is- purple. And purple makes everything better. Purple hair–better. Purple paint–better. Purple cauliflower–better.

Yeah, that is just my emotional, aesthetic sense talking. There is no reason to believe that purple cauliflower is actually better for you, right?

Well, it actually is slightly more healthy for you than plain old white cauliflower, thanks to the anthocyanins that give the vegetable its lovely violet hue. Anthocyanins, which are the compounds that give plants vibrant red, violet or blue colors, are powerful anti-oxidants and can act in the human body to help fight the formation of cancer and the development of heat disease.

Otherwise, nutritionally speaking, purple and white cauliflower are exactly the same–low in calories, high in fiber, no fat, with a nice amount of vitamin A, folate and vitamin K.

So, yeah, all cauliflower is good for you. Purple cauliflower just happens to be a -little- tiny bit better.

Though, I have to say, it is a whole lot prettier on the plate–don’t you think?

This curry is extremely simple to make, and easy to eat, too, thanks to the delightful contrast in colors, flavors and textures inherent in it.

I decided to mix the peas in to the cauliflower because I really love the color combination of bright green and brilliant purple–they are complementary colors and as such really pop when placed in close proximity to each other, whether you are making a quilt, painting a room or creating a curry.

Besides, peas are sweet and cauliflower is nutty and sweet, and so I figured that the combination would work wonders. In order to keep the flavors fairly simple, I decided to go with a fairly minimal spicing–caramelized onions, a little bit of garlic and ginger paste, whole mustard seeds, whole cumin seeds, and a little bit of a secret ingredient: Indira’s Magic Powder, also known as pappula podi. We call it Indira’s Magic Powder, because Indira of Mahanandi introduced me to this powder by very generously sending me a jar of it that she had made. Made of split, skinned and roasted chickpeas, chilies, cumin, garlic, coconut and salt, this powder magically makes everything taste better.

It gives a toasty, nutty savor to any vegetable curry, along with a rich hint of sweetness from the coconut and earthy spiciness from the chilies and cumin. It is awesome, and I highly suggest you try her recipe to make it out and then keep some hanging around in your kitchen. Every time you make a vegetable curry, add some–a tablespoon or so and I guarantee you, it will make your curry taste even better than before.

And–as a bonus, it acts as a natural thickener–making on its own a delicious sauce when added to liquid!

Great stuff!

In order to preserve the bright violet color, I cooked the cauliflower in minimal liquid–in fact, it was mostly sauteed in ghee, with just a little bit of water–about a half-cup added near the end of the cooking process just to steam the vegetable through and give the curry a bit of sauce. Using minimal liquid also concentrated the cauliflower’s flavor, giving it a bit of a roasty-toasty, flavor that is often lost if the vegetable is steamed or boiled. (For those who believe cauliflower is bland, I always suggest they roast, sautee or bake the vegetable. They are usually astounded at how much flavor it has when treated this way.)

One more note:there is no turmeric in this curry–I deliberately left it out because I did not want any yellow coloring to get in the way of the vibrant violet and green hues.

Gobi Mattar
Ingredients:

4 tablespoons ghee or canola oil
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced red or yellow onion
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups purple cauliflower florets cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger paste (about 1/2″ cube ginger peeled and pulverized into a paste)
1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic paste (1 clove garlic peeled and ground into a paste)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1 tablespoon pappula podi
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves for garnish

Method:

Heat ghee or oil in a heavy-bottomed deep skillet over medium high heat.

Add onions, and sprinkle with salt and cook, stirring, until the water is cooked out of the onions and they are a deep golden color. Add cauliflower, mustard seeds and cumin seeds, and cook, stirring, for another couple of minutes. Add ginger and garlic pastes, and cook, stirring, until the onions are a deep reddish brown.

Add water, and cover skillet and turn heat down to low. Allow to simmer until the cauliflower can be pierced with a fork, but is not mushy.

Add peas, and if needed a little bit of water to make a curry sauce. Sprinkle pappula podi over the vegetables, and stir to thicken sauce. Add lemon juice, simmer for another minute and then taste for salt. If needed, add some–but you probably won’t need to.

Stir in chopped cilantro leaves and serve immediately.

I have been ill–for a while, although for the past few weeks, it has been worse. And, luckily, my doctor has probably figured out what is wrong with me and has narrowed our focus down to three possibilities, all of them necessitating diet and lifestyle changes.

One, that we know for certain is that I am allergic to wheat, and likely have been my entire life. It is only recently, however, that my digestive system has started acting out every time I eat wheat, so most of the symptoms I have had which can be caused by sheat allergy, I have only assumed were nothing more than general environmental allergies and malaise related to my sleep disorder.

The truth is, it is probably the wheat allergy that is causing the chronic severe joint aches and pains, the constant sinus problems, and the new in ability to digest much of anything involving wheat.

The other possibility is that it isn’t just a wheat allergy–which was diagnosed with a skin test that had a very dramatic positive result.

It could be celiac disease, which is gluten intolerance that causes specific antibodies to attack the small intestine and essentially reduce the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food. Today, I just had a blood test to see if those antibodies are present in my blood. The final, definitive diagnosis would come from a biopsy of tissue from the small intestine. If it is celiac, then I have to avoid barley and rye as well as wheat, and I will have to become very aware of what I am eating, because the only way to return the small intestine to health is to stop eating all gluten, to allow the villi to grow back so that nutrients can be absorbed again.

Celiac disease would explain why I am losing weight even though I am still eating well, and in fact, am hungry all the time. (When I first started losing weight, I thought it was the Welbutrin, as did my doctor. Then, I started exercising, and so that could explain why I was losing weight. Then, I stopped exercising and still lost a lot of weight. I am just glad I was overweight to start out with, because if I hadn’t been, I probably would look really ill right about now.)

The third possibility, which I think is the most serious, and is also a strong one, is type II diabetes. My Mom’s family is riddled with diabetics, so there is precedent. I will say that I have had glucose tolerance tests several times over my life, including when I was pregnant with Kat, and I have not shown any sign of having high blood sugar, so it is likely that this is not the culprit. However, to be sure, I had another glucose tolerance test done this morning.

So, we will see. If I am going to be living wheat or gluten free, I am going to have to change what I cook at home, and perforce, this blog will change somewhat. I don’t mind it–I can learn stuff that will help other people with their cooking, just within a narrower context than before. And if it is diabetes, then I will share with readers whatever it is I learn to cook in order to keep myself healthy.

I will come back to the blog soon–it is ironic–I had actually almost given up on writing Tigers & Strawberries, because I felt like I had said all I needed to say, and I was more interested in doing rather than writing. But now, if I am going to be doing kitchen experimentation for special diets–well, I have a reason to keep on writing.

And, in my post, I noted that while high fructose corn syrup -may- be metabolized a little bit differently in our bodies than cane sugar, it doesn’t make cane sugar a health food. Large amounts of any kind of sugar in anyone’s diet is going to cause health problems, including weight gain and metabolic imbalances such as diabetes and hyper or hypoglycemia–not to mention higher levels of tooth decay.

Today a similar article can be found in the Washington Post, outlining how food manufacturers are now advertising products with short ingredient lists–such as Haagan-Daz’s vanilla ice cream–as being somehow more healthful and pure than other foods which have longer ingredient lists that include unpronounceable preservatives, colorings and flavorings.

But when we are talking about ice cream and potato chips, the fact is–the short ingredient list is nice and yes, I would much rather eat something with fewer ingredients which I can identify as being real, live foodstuffs than something that sounds like a Chemistry 101 experiment gone awry, but people–junk food is still junk food. Ice cream is still high in fat, sugar and calories, and potatoes are still high in fat, salt and calories, and both of them are still low on nutritive value, no matter if they are made with artificial flavors and colors or not.

Now don’t get me wrong–I love me some ice cream and potato chips, and I do eat my fair share of both, but not on a daily basis. And I am under no illusion that when I do eat these foods that I am eating anything that is intrinsically healthful. No, when I eat ice cream and potato chips, I am not thinking of my health at all–I am eating them because they taste good and I want to eat them for the pleasure of it.

Both of these items are high-calorie investments, and so when I do eat them and take the caloric hit, I have decided to eat the very tastiest versions of these foods that I can get my hands on. Which means I eat Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (when I am in Columbus) or Haagan Daz when I am at home and cannot get Jeni’s handmade creations. Both of these ice creams have short ingredient lists–and that is why they have amazing flavors and creamy, velvety textures-because they are not filled with artificial flavors and stabilizers like many other brands do.

And when I eat potato chips, I tend to eat Kettle brand–even their flavored chips have short ingredient lists filled only with stuff I can recognize as food. And they taste great–potatoey-crispy with just the right amount of salt or natural flavorings to enhance the potato flavor.

And the fact that the ice cream and potato chip brands I eat also happen to have short ingredient lists has nothing to do with my belief that I am eating healthier junk food–it has to do with the fact that these high calorie snacks taste better.

I mean, if I am going to eat junk food–let it taste good enough to be worth the extra calories!

So, yeah, I guess it is nice to see manufacturers taking note of the fact that people want to eat more simply and thus are touting their short ingredient lists as proof of the purity of their products. But to lead people to believe that these foods are healthier just because they have a short list of “all natural ingredients” is misdirection at best.