Sunday fancy Taiwanese cooking

So, how do they eat in the little-talked-about country of Taiwan? That little blip on the map is home to some excellent fresh food...similar to Chinese, but with its own flare.
Last weekend, my friends were amazing enough to spend a few hours slaving over the stove to show us how to turn some marinated tofu, twisty mushrooms, and obscure greens into a good solid Taiwanese meal. Although the Asian way of cooking tends to be...throw a bunch of things into a pan until it looks right, I tried to turn a few of our creations into recipes (All are eaten over sticky rice, by the way). Here they are (Photo credits go to my awesome photographer roommate ;)

Tofu Appetizer:

This recipe uses this kind of tofu:


Boil tofu for one minute or so
Slice into strips
Arrange it nice and fancy on a platter and drizzle with sesame oil. Garnish with ginger, cilantro, and Asian hot sauce.




Squash with Thai Basil:

Cube and steam hard winter squash until it is just starting to soften
In a separate pan, sauté garlic, 1tsp brown sugar, and salt to taste in vegetable oil
Add steamed squash, 3 tbsp oyster mushroom sauce, and a little water
After a couple minutes, add about 3/4 cup fresh chopped basil















Tofu and Mushrooms in Brown Sauce:

Soak dried black mushrooms in hot water until soft
Sauté garlic, 1 tsp brown sugar, soy sauce, and the mushrooms in vegetable oil
Remove mushrooms from pan and place in a bowl
In bowl of mushrooms, add ½ c water, 1 tsp sweet potato starch, 1 tsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp sugar
Sauté cubed firm tofu in pan (add more oil) until golden
Add mushroom mixture to pan with tofu and cook until heated through















Greens..Taiwanese Style:

You can use all kinds, including bok choy, yam leaves, cabbage, spinach, or any other sautee-able greens.

There's lots of variation for cooking…but generally sauté them in veg oil and salt (You can also add a little brown sugar, garlic, or fresh ginger)
At the end, you can add sesame oil or oyster mushroom sauce

Here's the Resulting Feast!

On faith...

Often when we’re sorting through the musty cobwebs of life, we may have to make that difficult choice…To believe or not to believe?

We often forget that we are not the first to have faith. Even though Christ would have to wait His ENTIRE LIFE before He could see the full fruit of what He was believing in, he still KNEW that this time would come and was willing to wait. And not just to wait….but to actively wait.

It was a deep certainty of what Jesus was waiting for (and the JOY of it) that drove Him to spend hours of every day with His disciples…patiently teaching and relentlessly loving. Even when He knew they would not fully comprehend his words and actions until it all had been finished.

It was a deep certainty that drove Christ to heal the sick anyway…even when it enraged many people around Him. Every day for 30 some years…He chose to believe and He chose to love. And many times He escaped to pray and ask for what He waited for.

It was a deep certainty that drove Him to carry His own cross up a hill after almost everyone had abandoned Him and the people He was hoping to save were not only blind to the love He was showing, but they were actually demanding His death. He could have doubted. He could have given up. But instead, even though the impossibility of these people actually understanding and believing was everywhere around Him, He gave His entire life away to the point of death.

So Jesus Christ was certain. It seems that when we go through times of shaky circumstances contradicting what God has promised….When we have the choice to believe in the world around us, or in our God…This gives us a chance to participate in what Christ experienced when He was here. To know at least a little bit about what this was like for Him. And also to come to the place where we know that what we wait for (and more importantly, WHO we wait for) is true and we can be certain enough (and excited enough about the results!) that we are ok with waiting…and actively waiting. Actively loving anyway…Actively praying….Actively walking with Jesus, who has gone before us and promised to give us a hand if we find it hard.

And it just so happens that the same One who has all this experience living by faith is the one who promises to help us do the same...since all of this is certainly not easy. As hard as all this is...it sure is a good thing He's planning to give us a hand!
So...
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the JOY set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

A little stew to beat the frost…

This is one of my favorite warm things to make...Probably because I like to mix spices of all kinds together and see what happens. Let me know what you think...



Moroccan Stew:


1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
vegetable oil
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth (hopefully using the below recipe!)
12 oz chicken, sliced into 1 inch pieces (optional)
1 16 oz can chickpeas (in place of chicken if making vegetarian stew)
3 medium potatoes, cubed
2 turnips, cubed
2 carrots, chopped
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry
2 bay leaves
a little cayenne
salt to taste
2/3 cup raisins or chopped dried apricots or prunes
1 16 oz can chopped tomatoes

Couscous

In a large saucepan, saute onion, garlic and ginger in vegetable oil over medium heat until onions are soft but not caramelized. Add broth, (chicken), potatoes, turnips, spices, and salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer, adding carrots after about 5 minutes.



When vegetables are tender, add dried fruit and chopped tomatoes (and chickpeas if using) and cook over medium heat for 5 more minutes.

Serve in bowls over prepared couscous like this:




So now’s the time when all the fall crops are winding down and you may be wondering what to cook with all the lingering fresh food. Since my friends owns a vineyard/organic farm, my roommates and I get fresh produce delivered every week and initially I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the giant pile of turnips, carrots, and greens. Well….after using a little brainpower, I concocted this soup:

Butternut Squash/Fall Veggie Soup:

4 cups vegetable broth (canned or homemade…recipe below)
3-5 turnips (depending on the size), cubed
3-4 carrots, sliced
2/3 cup red lentils
2-3 bay leaves
1 tsp ginger
a little cayenne
2 cups cooked butternut squash
Salt to taste

Bring vegetable broth to a boil and add turnips, carrots, red lentils, bay leaves, ginger, salt, and cayenne. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook root vegetables until softened (liquid may be considerably reduced at this point). Place cooked vegetables (and broth if you want) into a blender and puree. Add the butternut squash to this mixture and place back in saucepan, cooking the entire mixture until heated through. Add water if the soup is too thick.

Vegetable Broth:

This is a GREAT way to put your leftover vegetable scraps to use! Given the cost of vegetable broth in the grocery store, it’s a great way to save cash. Basically, fill a pot with water and add whatever vegetable pieces you have on hand.

Celery, carrots, onions, and garlic cloves add the most flavor for your punch, so try to use these if you have them.

Some other suggestions are:
Leftover broccoli stalks (I’m sure you can put the tops to better use!)
Greens that aren’t quite good enough to cook for dinner
Tomato pieces
The part you peel off of beets
Leftover cabbage
Shells from peas
Potato peals. Almost anything goes.

To add a little flavor, parsley is a great addition…as well as bay leaves. Other herbs can be added too depending on what you’re making…oregano and thyme for an Italian soup, for example. And plenty of salt. When you have all your vegetables piled in your pot of water, boil them for about an hour or so (shorter or longer depending on how strong you like your broth). Then place a large bowl under a colander and pour the broth through in order to remove the vegetables.

Surviving without fungus and bacteria

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." - John Muir

I know about these ants…. It may seem odd to devote an entire blog entry to ants, but these ants are a little different from other kinds....They run an elaborate mushroom farm. How do they do it? With an established division of labor akin to the federal workforce, some of them (they’re all called Atta colombica, or leaf-cutter ants) climb high into the treetops to slice off corners of leafblades…Then they slide hastily down the trunk gripping an incredibly bulky burden on their backs. Although you might think these leaf blades would make a tasty meal for their queen, these ants are instead carting this long assembly line of greenery underground to pass it off to the minims, smaller ants in the colony that take the leaves and carefully feed a fungus on which the whole colony depends. Dependent on every delivery of fresh leafy greens from the ants, the fungus grows and reproduces until it becomes a mass of food for the queen and workers in the ant colony. In fact, the ants have even developed a sensitivity to detect when certain leaves are toxic to the fungus…and then they avoid them.



With such a high-tech farm operation in place, it looks like neither the ants or the fungus can live without each other. But…perhaps it reaches even further than that. A bacteria living in the ants, known as Actinobacteria, secretes an antibiotic that protects the fungus crop from a devastating parasite. The bacteria can’t live without the ants…And the ants and the fungus can’t live without the bacteria.

In the midst of this tiny yet giant operation of insects and bacteria….It may seem as though the trees are getting the raw end of the deal…But are they? Looming high above the forest floor, the trees need healthy soil in which to anchor so that they can take up nutrients and water, all the while gripping to the ground so they are not toppled by wind. If these ants (and a plethora of other insects and one-celled critters) were not constantly tunneling through the soil, then the ground would be similar to a giant block of concrete. The network of holes and passageways they create allow water to seep through the soil surface and eventually to the massive tree roots, which can penetrate the ground much more easily when it is not concrete. And when these ants die or excrete, they add all kinds of organic health food to the soil for the tree roots to feed on. I’m sure one could write forever about how the tree then provides a nesting place for the parakeet and fruit for the squirrels, which then plant the seeds for the tree, and so it goes indefinitely.

So what does happen when you tug one of these things out of the web? More on this in a later entry…But for now we know that everything in the natural world is rather seamlessly connected.

Perhaps this provides a bit of a picture of the Body of Christ as it was intended. Since we were created to be united, it’s when we decide we don’t need each other or we disconnect, that things go awry. Yes, we all contribute something completely different to the whole, but when we stay there and decide to contribute and depend on the others, we become part of something so much bigger than ourselves. The ants, after all, are only ants…But when they do what they do best and remain a part of things, suddenly you have a magnificent forest.

The fibrous roots of fritos and frijoles

Whether it be Cambodia, Pakistan, the French Riviera, or the hills of rural Mexico, it seems that everywhere one travels, you can find distinctive and often colorful cuisine. The question is….when you sit down to bowl of sweet potato soup prepared with coconut milk and tapioca in the Himalayas or you sort through the intense blend of spices, vegetables, and dried fruit and nuts in India’s Navratan Kurma…where did all these ideas come from?

Well recently, I had the privilege of travelling to the ruralest of rural villages in Oaxaca, Mexico. In these towns where doctors are a luxury and food is cultivated often on the side of cliffs, one can learn a bit about the origins of cuisine. Here time is scaled back a few decades and truckloads of wonder bread or exotic fruits are not options. However, in spite of their isolation, these people can somehow enjoy exquisite, flavorful food using only the resources around them.

As breakfast is cooked in an outdoor smoky stove, our local “chefs” whisked together some eggs from village chickens and cooked them gently in the giant leaves shown below, known as “hojas sanas.” These leaves are collected from trees in the forest just outside our bunkhouse and are actually quite delicious. The dish is topped off with traditional rice and beans to make a simple, yet flavorful Mexican breakfast.














And finally….at this tumbling waterfall, local residents tracked down and collected this green herb, known as “wild cilantro,” which actually does have a taste pretty similar to its namesake. Turned out it was the perfect complement to some early morning eggs, rice, and beans. And, just to throw in a little Vitamin C, we were sure to eat a few Mamey fruit…again collected from the trees outside.
















Even though time has progressed and world trade is booming (and certainly none of us would prefer to live in such harsh, isolating conditions), almost all cultures can trace back their history to a time similar to this….Times when ingredients you ate were the ingredients you grew (or sometimes what was brought in by the last ship) and drive-thru cuisine was not an option. The story almost anywhere you travel is similar….centuries upon centuries of local people starting with few resources and getting creative over time. Prodding the forest for a wild array of flavors and spices (as they surely did in India), then cultivating the foods that were most well suited to the area, then throwing a little creativity into the mix. Thousands of years of creativity. Slowly….after trial and error and tradition and plenty of slow-cooking grandmas, it seems that cuisines emerged of a very local sort. The options created by world trade, then, could only make these cuisines better because of their foundation. Of course, it would be wrong to romanticize remote places who still have few resources and few crops....but it is amazing that even these places can usually enjoy a meal that is better than what you would find at Burger King.














So what about the roots of our Fritos? America may stand alone as the only country who has not had its thousands of years to develop its own unique fare. Partly due to our youth, but also likely due to our quest for convenience since colonization. Without being limited to the land, long standing native-American fare was ignored as we started our “cuisine” on a base of giant processing plants and mass production of under-par produce.












Of course, let's not forgot that we have rights to the all-famous apple pie, so that should redeem us a bit for sure. And luckily, we currently have the advantage of being the world “melting pot” so that an intricate array of foreign flavors can be found in most metropolitan areas (if they are not changed to suit American tastes). Can we still appreciate them given our long-time hum-drum diet of corn syrup, beef patties, and caffeine? Let’s hope so….or we citizens are certainly missing out :)

The Grandeur of God

So I have this picture:

This was taken in the rugged terrain of northern Arizona, just south of the Grand Canyon. After spending hours taking in views like the ones at the very bottom of this entry, my dad and brother and I were inundated by this riot in the sky. From time to time as we watched, all these sweeping colors were cut by hot lightening bolts (wish it was easier to catch lighting on film), and as the colors dampened from the darkness and the dry thunderclouds, the full moon somehow pealed through and crowded into the scene.

It was as if our feet were glued to the desert ground. It’s amazing how a scene like this in the open wilderness could not only speak volumes about the wonder of the God who painted it, but also could make me completely aware of who I was not.

Just when you think you’re something…A God who balances the planet (and plenty of other planets) in its orbit; who scattered the stars into empty space; who hovers over deep oceans and shifts the rumbling thunderclouds…can easily remind you in one instant of the scope of His bigness and power.

As I’ve continued in my treks to little known natural places, I never stop discovering that there is nowhere where He is not present...........And sharply present.

In an abandoned out-of-the-way corner, you may find the soil stuffed with all kinds of greenery…each individual plant with cells perfectly arranged and with its own intricate seeds and flowers. Closer to the ground you may find an insect with elaborate color patterns too minute to see with the naked eye. Hawks may fly overhead with wings and feathers perfectly designed to hover in the wind. No matter how far you may roam, the story is the same…Our God is everywhere…No place too big and no place too small. The earth happens to be saturated with the presence and glory of God.

After taking all this in, the wonder is that the same hands that threw the stars into the black sky are the hands that worked at a carpenter’s bench…and eventually the hands that knew nails.

It appears that yes…there really is nowhere that He will not go. The God that shaped the planets, tosses comets around, and stirs up the waves….Lives in me?? Hold up.

While the truth that He lives in me is a stretch, the reality that He actually gave up everything to live and die for you and me is even harder to grapple with. Hopefully someday I will understand the humility that caused the Most Powerful of All to willingly assume the most powerless position on earth. Until then? Hmmm….