african mofongo

African/Asian Night

Since we went out to eat for lunch today, I wasn't really too keen on making dinner, but of course, the people in my house just insist on eating! This dish is Puerto Rican - a stew of fried plantains or yucca with poultry - an affordable meal to make. Well, they haven't heard of seitan, I suppose, because seitan is even more economical and it is more spiritually happy - no one had to die for the meal.

So, you might be wondering, where is Africa in this? Actually Mofongo has its roots in Africa and was brought to the Caribbean.

I did not fry my plantain, nor use plantain, for that matter. I used yuca (or cassava as it is also known as)! It was the first time for me with this tuber, and I must say it was anticlimactic. There was nothing difficult in peeling it or cooking it. I just boiled the sweet potato with the yuca and did a coarse mash. I had the seitan left over from last week, and I made a dark spice mix for it using habanero, fennel, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, mustard seed, poppy seed and black peppercorns. I coated the sliced seitan pieces with it and pan-fried them with lemon juice.

Tomato sauce is on the bottom, topped with the yuca/sweet potato mash and then the seitan. It is a deconstructed stew because I thought the picture would be more appealing and it would be more obvious what is in the dish.

So how was it? Fabulous! Only one child did not appreciate it (Cat). Although she did say her favorite part was the seitan, as she was picking them out of her plate. She was saying how the other parts of the meal are too spicy. She didn't realize the spice was in the seitan until I told her. But she kept on eating anyway. I guess deep down she liked it, too.

Cost Breakdown:

seitan: $2

yucca and sweet potato: $2

tomato sauce: $2

habanero: $.10 (funny!)

spices: $ .50  

onions: $1

Total to feed a family of 5:

$7.60

raw alfredo primavera

Raw Night

To the delight of my children, I made another raw meal. For us, Mondays are the ideal day to make raw because that is when I go to Whole Foods and the vegetables are extra fresh - very important when they are naked, so to speak. It is especially important that summer squash be fresh because the older they get the more bitter they become. Not a good thing.

I lost a part to my spiral slicer, so I just used my knife to cut the squash into thin, long strips. I tossed the slices in a little olive oil and dehydrated them for about an hour. Sort of the extent of my cooking tonight. I also tossed some spinach with diced red onion and dehydrated that, too.

The olive 'bread' I tossed in the dehydrator the night before; it didn't need to be crispy because I wasn't shooting for a cracker.

The Alfredo sauce was really excellent. I wouldn't say it is 'Alfredo' sauce, but calling it Macadamia Pasta Sauce fits better for how it tasted. The sauce had a little garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and coconut vinegar. Mixed with the squash strips, tomatoes, olives and the spinach, it tasted very flavorful and quite good. Another raw surprise for David. It was harder to sell to the kids, though, who passionately dislike squash of any season. This meal was inpired by recipes in the cookbook Eating Raw by Mark Reinfeld.

Cost Breakdown:

nuts: $4

vegetables: $6

olives, oil, lemon: $1

flax seeds, sunflower seeds, olives: $3

Total to annoy 3 kids and feed 2 adults:

$14.00

Macadamia Pasta Sauce Recipe