Southern-ish Meal.

This is a pretty delicious and easy meal. I really like it. I really like the mix of food here. Some of the pieces are mildly expensive, but whatever. If there is something you don't like, just go ahead and put your favorite Southern style food in its place. So I made Corn Meal Encrusted Celeraic, Barbecued Black Beans, and "Carolina Kale".

First is first, I will start with easiest.

So the Barbecued Black Beans are basically the easiest thing on earth to make. Take your favorite Barbecue Sauce that you make. I use a recipe from Veganomicon but you can use any recipe from the back of a molasses jar or anything like that. Heat up your Barbecue sauce in a pot on medium low heat. Once it is fairly hot, throw in some drained and rinsed Black Beans or Black-Eyed Peas. I prefer Black-Eyed Peas for this dish, but I didn't have any. Black Beans it is. Heat up the beans in the sauce, I would say anywhere between 10-20 minutes. I usually do longer do get more flavor in the beans. At least thats the way it seems. Depends on the heat. I like to keep it medium-low. Watch it though. Sometimes it can get really thick and burn.

Second.

I really love kale. As far as greens go, it's probably my favorite. I messed up the ratio in the recipe for mine, but it still came out great. Okay, throw a can of diced tomato in a pan or pot, I like petite diced, throw in a small diced onion (make the dice pretty fine on the onions), throw in a tsp and a half of cumin, and a quarter tsp of red pepper flakes. If you like it hotter, do more. Simmer that stuff for about 5 minutes, covered. Throw the Kale on top, cover, wait until it gets bright green. Then mix the stuff up, and cook for a little bit longer. This kind of depends on how you like your greens. Maybe you like them smooshy, maybe you like them firm. Whichever. Just watch it and mix when you feel it's the way you like it.

Third.

Okay. Peel the Celeraic. Cut 1/4 inch slices. If the slices are big, cut them in half. Boil this in a big pot of water and some salt. When they are soft, anywhere been 9-11 minutes, take them out. Let these guys cool. Okay, mix about half a cup of bread crumbs, half a cup of corn meal. Maybe a little more than that of each depending on how large your Celeraic was. Put about a tsp each of thyme, oregano and salt, and I put in about 2 tsp of pepper. I mean breading is really slack in terms of composition. You'll learn what flavor you like. Anyway, evenly coat the celeraic in flour, then dip in soy milk, then evenly coat in corn meal and bread crumb mixture. Heat up, on medium heat, about 1/8 inch of oil in a skillet. Once it's hot, drop some of those guys in there. On the first side I usually do about 4 minutes, or until golden brown, then on the other side about 2 and a half minute, or until golden brown. Then you're set.

This meal is really easy and delicious. The Celeraic is the expensive part. It's about 4 dollars a pound depending on your grocery store. It's well worth it every once in awhile. It isn't a very heavy meal, and the Celeraic cuts don't really absorb that much oil. Just let them rest for a bit on a paper towel to let some oil drip off. As said before, I love kale. I also love tomatoes and cumin. So really that Kale dish is great. Also, I always love beans.

news.

Well, to be honest, I have not been that busy. At least not so busy that I could not perhaps write a new post on things I have been making. In fact, I have made a couple of good soups recently that I have just been too lazy to type up. I think I will write one tomorrow, but as of right now I will just talk about the things that have been happening recently.

This weekend I went to some party. It was pretty decent, fairly reminiscent of home. A lot of kids who ride bikes. It was semi-nice to feel like I was in Richmond again. At the same time, I left Richmond to see new things.

This weekend I went to brunch at the Green Zebra. I fairly nice vegetarian restaurant. I had the Monte Cristo with camembert, apples, and leeks. It was really good, but fairly heavy. The person with whom I went got the eggs benedict. I did not try any in the attempts to slowly cut out animal products from my diet (if not entirely, primarily). I know, the Monte Cristo of course had eggs on it, but for now I am just trying to cut out eggs in its straight cooked form. I think I would have done the Monte Cristo a little differently in terms of the amount of egg used, at the very least. Also, before the meal, we were served Madeleines, which are delicious little cake/cookie things in the shape of shells. They are very sweet. It came with a sort of maple syrup sort of frosting in a cup? It was delicious. The wait staff was fairly pleasant, and very attentive to our meal. I really liked the ambience; it was fairly modern with a nice clean setting. We also ordered some fries to share between us. We were using a Groupon. A Groupon is a coupon you buy for a certain price that pledges another price toward the bought object or service. For instance, the price paid was 20 dollars, but it pledged 40 dollars to the meal. If you can, I would look these up for your area.

Over all, the Green Zebra was pretty good. I really liked the atmosphere and the food. I just wish there were more vegan options. I don't think a single dish, for the brunch at least, as vegan. Actually, I just read the menu again, everything has either cheese or eggs. Anyway, if you aren't vegan and have money, I suggest this for a nice brunch.

Hopefully soon I will write a new entry on an actual dish I have made. There are a couple I have made on which I would like to write, and a couple dish I would like to make on which I could write.