A Buddhist Monk’s Meal – Jieyin Hall On Mount Emei

Tags

Bhuddist, China, Chinese, Emeishan, Food, low-calorie, Sichuan, Soup, Temple Food, Vegetables

Perhaps because of the Holiday season and all its indulgences and elaborate meals, I really find myself wanting to post about a wonderful meal I enjoyed on Mount Emei, one of the sacred Buddhist mountains in China.

While in Sichuan, we decided to hike up Mt. Emei, sleep at the top, and witness the sunrise on the Golden Summit, a spectacle that the Chinese flock to and that is really amazing to behold. Within about 2 minutes, you see the sun appear and fully rise above the horizon, bathing a Golden Pagoda on the summit in sparkling light. Lots of ooohs and aaahs and pictures!

But first things first – we hiked up Mt. Emei. This entailed waking up before the sun had risen, taking a bus to the base of the mountain, and climbing 23.5 kilometers (14.6 miles) of stairs, crossing a 3 kilometer (1.9 mile) height difference and a 23 degree Celsius (35 degree Fahrenheit) temperature difference. It took us 11 hours, sweat, bamboo poles as walking sticks (best 1 yuan we ever, ever spent!), desperate jokes and jello legs, but we made it. While some areas are accessible by cable car and teem with visitors, the vast majority of those 11 hours we spent alone, with the exception of 3 or so hours in the company of a total of maybe 15 Chinese people of all ages that were just as desperate as us. We arrived just as the sun was setting at Jieyin Hall, the last temple before the summit.

At the temple, we were shown to a room with beds with piles and piles of blankets and heating pads, as well as a wash bowl to take in the morning to wash. Then, we had a temple food – simple, vegetarian, wholesome, and beyond delicious.

There was rice, steamed winter melon (the cucumber-esque looking dish), a simple leafy green soup, stir-fried string beans (I ate 3 plates. What? They were the best string beans I have ever tasted, and I had just climbed 11 hours worth of stairs!) and boiled bamboo sprouts with mushrooms. It was a feast, we could have as much as we wanted, and I can’t begin to explain how wonderful this simple, Bhuddist meal was. No bells and whistles, no fancy ingredients – just beautiful produce prepared in the simplest ways to make it shine. Sometimes I wish more meals were like this.

Will you miss Holiday foods, or are you ready for a break from fancy meals? Have you had similar experiences with spiritually shaped dishes?

Balsamic Vinegar Roasted Red Beets (& Carrots)

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Beets, Carrots, CSA, Food, Local, low-calorie, Recipe, Vegetables

One of the foods I definitely avoided when growing up in Germany were red beets. Messy and just not desirable to me. In Germany, we eat these mostly raw as they are, raw in salads, or as a cooked compote-type dish. Neither held much appeal to me, and I pretty much managed to forget about their existence once I moved out, with the sole exception of the traditional Weihnachtssalat.

My CSA has been giving me bucket loads of beets, however, so I had to figure out something to do with them:

Ingredients:
– red beets
– carrots
– balsamic vinegar
– sweetener

Steps:
1. Peel and cube beets & carrots into 1/2 inch cubes. If available, wear gloves (I bring them home from the lab), unlike me during my brilliant first effort (although it’s a nice match with my nail polish, no?):

2. Keep the two vegetables separate, and toss each with 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar mixed with 1/2 packet of sweetener.

3. Still separate, roast in a glass baking dish at 375F for 1 hour.

4. Mix the two and serve as a wonderfully sweet, earthy and vibrant side dish!

On a side note: I discovered Chioggia beets, a wonderful Italian variety that is a tad milder and sweeter than your average red beet, and looks psychedelic pretty to boot!

These also taste great prepared this way, and don’t even need the addition of carrots:

What are some childhood foods you abhorred and have now rediscovered in different ways?

What other good beet recipes should I try?

Apple Cider Vinegar Braised Leeks And Green Onions

Tags

Apple Cider Vinegar, CSA, Food, Green Onions, Leeks, Local, low-calorie, Vegetables

When my CSA share contained leeks and green onions, I knew I wanted to braise them. And what better for a cold weather side dish than apple cider vinegar? Intensely flavorful, warming, and almost too low in calories to count at all, this one of my new Winter favorites!

Recipe adapted from Greene on Greens by Bert Greene

Ingredients:
– 1 large leek
– 3 large green onions
– 2 cloves garlic
– 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
– 1 packet sweetener
– 1 pinch salt
– ground black pepper to taste

Steps:
1. Spray a pan, then finely dice or crush garlic and brown slightly in pan.

2. Slice leek and green onions and add to pan. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

3. Add apple cider vinegar, sweetener and salt, stir well, cover and cook for about 15 minutes, until leeks and onions become tender.

4. Add pepper to taste and adjust sweetness if desired. Cook a few more minutes until liquid is reduced. (This version yields a very flavorful dish, but if you prefer it less vinegar-y, reduce apple cider vinegar and add water or apple cider to obtain 1/2 cup liquid total).

5. Enjoy!

Do you ever braise? I feel like braising gets forgotten way too often!

Baked Apple-Cinnamon Crêpes and Chocolate-Strawberry Crêpes

Tags

Apple-Picking, Food, Fruit, Local, low-calorie, Sweets

Part two of using all those gorgeous apples I got apple-picking brings me to a favorite of mine – crêpes. Crêpes are really popular back home in Germany, especially during the upcoming holiday season – we’ll have little wooden food shacks pop up all over town that prepare crêpes to go. Typical toppings on the sweet side (which is what you tend to get at these shacks; restaurants will also serve savory versions) are cinnamon-sugar, Nutella, banana-chocolate, strawberry-chocolate and Grand Manier.

I get cravings and homesickness attacks, but most of all, my wife fell in love with the crêpes in Germany. We had to find a way to make them without fancy crêpe plates and knives, and preferably find a way to make them low-calorie!

So here’s what we came up with, a wonderfully delicious, easy crêpe recipe that my wife (she’s the crêpe-maker in the household) makes at least once a week:

Ingredients:
for the crêpes:
– 1 cup skim milk or light plain soy milk
– 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
– 1/3 cup all-whites eggbeaters (or 3 large egg whites)
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp nutmeg

for the toppings:
– 4 apples (I used Golden Delicious and Red Delicious)
– 16 oz strawberries
– cinnamon to taste
– 1/2 cup sugar-free syrup
– 4 tbsp sugar-free chocolate syrup
– Splenda or other sugar substitute to taste

Steps:
1. Combine all batter ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk until bubbly and no clumps remain

2. Let stand for 15 minutes and use that time to slice fruit and pre-heat a griddle or large non-stick pan
3. Spray the hot griddle with PAM (don’t be shy, otherwise the crêpes might bake to the griddle!), pour 1/4 cup of batter in, swirl to get a thin layer

4. Cook for 2 minutes, flip, cook for another 2 minutes

5. Meanwhile microwave the slices apples for 4-6 minutes until soft
6. Top 4 crêpes with strawberries, sprinkle on Splenda and top with 1 tbsp chocolate syrup per crêpe

7. Top 4 crêpes with hot apples, sprinkle on Splenda and cinnamon and pour on 1/8 cup syrup

Yields 8 crêpes (4 apple-cinnamon & 4 strawberry-chocolate). One untopped crêpe comes in at only 45 calories using milk, and even less using a light non-dairy substitute. So dig in! 🙂

(Notes: When you sprinkle on the cinnamon, make sure it’s cinnamon, not ground, roasted red pepper. Yeah. Also, we once used red curry powder instead of nutmeg in the batter. Let me tell you, either mix-up makes for surprising first mouthfuls. What are some of the worst kitchen accidents you’ve had?)

What are some of the things you crave during the fall from when you were growing up?