Got a grain mill

 I bought a bunch of kamut berries a while ago thinking I'd get in to sprouting but didn't. So recently got a grain mill to make fresh flour. Pretty yummy.

fresh favas, lightly steamed/mashed beforehand, good aged cheddar

taco pizza ish with lentils, hot sauce, good aged cheddar

Xonequi

I love masa harina but making tortillas is hard for me. I can make quesadillas, empanada-style, alot easier. But lately I've been doing things like polenta made with masa, tamale pie - chili with a masa-based top crust, and something I'm calling mishmash which is basically garlic/onion/spices/mushrooms, masa, liquid, then black beans. The classy option, though, is Xonequi, basically black bean soup with masa harina dumplings cooked in it at the end. It's so good. Recipe is from Diana Kennedy's My Mexico. So garlic, onion, cumin, coriander, ground chipotle, black beans; masa, warm water, ground chile, chopped onion, evoo, make balls, simmer about 15min at end of soup cooking.

 

Here's a version with fresh favas added

Chickpeas a couple ways

 The VIPER lab did the eat by the alphabet again Feb 2023. I had chickpeas a couple of different ways and enjoyed each one. For U I made Usal - indian chickpea curry. For Y I made chickpeas with Yemeni spices. Mostly I eat them fairly simply, I cook them with garlic, kombu, CA white sage, then pour over some EVOO.

soak 'em

I save smaller cloves for cooking with beans, don't bother peeling them

White sage, the CA native medicinal plant is great for cooking chickpeas

kombu in there, too

 

The Indian and Yemeni dishes are pretty similar, just the spice combos are different, so spices, garlic, onion, cook with tomatoes, chickpeas at end. For one of them I used a concentrated red sauce and cooked for less time, the other got diced canned tomatoes and cooked longer. The Usal is from East by Meera Sodha, a really nice veg cookbook.

The Yemeni one I roughly followed this. Basically it's 2 onions; T coriander, cumin; couple cloves; seeds from 8 green cardamom pods, 1/2t fenugreek seeds, turmeric; a cup or so cooked tomatoes, cilantro. Use a coffee grinder for the spices.

A couple more days, A & G. Not pictured hippie hummus (has hemp seeds)

The red sauce is Romesco, basically red chilies (arbol, ancho) with ground almonds and ajo (garlic)

Green garlic, garbanzo, gochujang