Filipino mung bean stew (vegetarian version)

I have to (embarrassingly) admit that, for as much as I love to cook, I don't cook a whole lot of Filipino food. Many of the "classic" Filipino dishes are meat-based, like the popular adobo which is a stew of pork or chicken, slow-cooked in vinegar, soy sauce, lots of garlic, and black peppercorns. They say that there are as many versions of adobo as there are Filipino households, and I don't doubt that. But this is not a post on adobo; rather it's about the humble mung bean stew.

I know many of us might not want to say goodbye to summer and think of stews just yet. But I'm starting to feel a little chill in the air now during my after-dinner walks with A. Fall is in the air, folks. At least in the Cleveland air, that is. :)

Given my love for lentils, mung bean stew is frequently part of our rotation of legume dishes. It's cheap, protein- and fiber-packed, and so good for you.

I make a very different version from what you might encounter in non-vegetarian Filipino households. In the traditional version(s), you'll see bits of pork and maybe tiny shrimp, perhaps the flavor of shrimp paste and/or fish sauce. Some add a chile pepper for a little spice; some add a little greens. I think the traditional version also calls for fish sauce as a seasoning; although I have started to eat fish 1-2 times a week now, A. doesn't, so I use a low-sodium tamari instead (or any reduced-sodium soy sauce). Balsamic vinegar is not a traditional ingredient, but I find that it works in here. Lemon juice would work too, but I like the sweet-tart flavor of balsamic vinegar.

It does take a bit of advanced planning to soak the mung beans 24-30 hours, or at least four hours; although you can cook mung beans without soaking, soaking makes it so much faster to cook. I actually soak mine at least overnight to about 30 hours, at which point you'll start seeing the white insides of the mung beans begin to push out of the green covering. Soaking and sprouting makes them more digestible as well. For those of you who are not used to consuming large amounts of legumes or lentils, this is really helpful in reducing your chances of... you-know-what. You're welcome.

Of course, before doing that just make sure you sort the beans, picking out any pebbles or unwanted items - easiest to spread it out on a light colored dish or baking sheet pan. Then rinse a few times before soaking, and if you are doing a long soak, change the water a couple of times. After soaking the mung beans will have plumped up. Even if you just start out with a cup of dried mung beans, it will triple in volume at least after a long soak, so in the end this recipe can probably serve 4.

Filipino-Style Mung Bean Stew (vegetarian)

• olive oil - a healthy glug (I'm offically making that a technical culinary term now), enough to cover the bottom of the pot
• half a large onion, chopped
• half a head of garlic, chopped (I know... I'm pretty unapologetic about my use of garlic. Except before yoga class.)
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 cup mung beans, soaked 24-30 hours (or at least four hours), then drained and rinsed
• water or vegetable broth
• tamari or soy sauce - I think I used 3 or 4 tablespoons
• balsamic vinegar - about a tablespoon
• salt and pepper

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and tomatoes (the trio that makes up the traditional sofrito, or the basis of many Filipino dishes) with a little salt and pepper. Once the onions are soft and the tomatoes have broken down, add the mung beans, and pour in enough water or vegetable broth to cover the mung beans by about an inch.

Bring it to a boil, then cover and lower the heat to a simmer. Let it cook until the mung beans are soft. Season with tamari or soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and pepper (be sure to taste for saltiness after adding the tamari or soy sauce). The stew should be somewhat thick; if it's too watery, continue simmering uncovered to reduce the liquid. I like mine pretty thick, as you can tell from the photos below; but you can just cook it until you get the consistency you want.

I'm not sure if this is traditional, but for extra nutrition I sometimes add some chopped leafy greens (spinach or kale) at the end, and cook through briefly till they wilt. 

And because I'm also unapologetic about my use of olive oil, serve the mung beans in bowls with a drizzle of good olive oil. I don't think that's traditional either, but I learned that from my late grandfather, who liked to drizzle olive oil over his bean stews. We Filipinos typically eat this with rice, but A. enjoys it with roti (Indian flatbread). It actually works out that way too. We are a Filipino-Indian household, after all.

A few notes...
~ The napkin in the upper right photo above is from betsygrace on Etsy. I splurged on this set of rustic linen embroidered napkins and asked for a custom set embroidered with "welcome" in different languages, but I asked for Filipino and Hindi as well to represent mine and my husband's language and culture. "Kain" actually literally translates to "eat" in Filipino. This is how we welcome people into our home; we don't say "welcome", we invite them to eat. :)

~ Here is a great book on Filipino food: Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Gorgeous photos and lovely stories about the history of Filipino food. 

~ Here is an informative and entertaining blog on Filipino food: Burnt Lumpia

~ My friend Dianne writes much more about Filipino food than I do, such as in this post.

Update on 11.12.12:
I made mung bean stew again tonight, and I added something to a whole other level: homemade garlic confit! It was SO.GOOD. I had some leftover garlic confit that I made last week, so at the last minute I decided to add some. While we were eating the stew, every now and then we would find these creamy, soft, sweet garlic cloves in our bowl, which we then mashed into the stew. Yum.

Here are a few recipe sources for garlic confit:
Epicurious - just garlic and olive oil
Food and Wine - garlic, olive oil, thyme, and chiles 

this should be my uniform

image source

Case in point.

#cakeforbreakfast

not your typical green beans... and a recipe for loubie bzeit

I know it must seem like I don't eat anything else but shortbread, ice cream, and cake, but I do eat real food. I mean non-dessert food. I promise. If in doubt, check out my food page here, and you'll see some variety in what I eat, beyond dessert.

Recently we got these beautiful dragon's tongue beans in our weekly produce bag from Fresh Fork Market.



Aren't they pretty? I love the purple striations against yellow. I've never cooked or tasted these before, so I was really excited thinking about what to make with them.

Unfortunately, after some reading on the Internet I found out that the purple striations disappear after cooking. Sad! Just like how the striations in Chioggia beets disappear after cooking as well.

At any rate, I suddenly thought of the Lebanese dish called Loubie Bzeit - a slow-cooked green bean stew with tomatoes, onion, garlic, tomato and spices. 

We also had these gorgeous tomatoes, which I thought would be perfect for this dish. I know - sometimes I think it's a crime to cook summer tomatoes, when they are at their juiciest and sweetest state best enjoyed as is, sprinkled with a little sea salt to bring out their sweetness, or in a caprese salad with basil and creamy, fresh mozzarella or the even more indulgent burrata.

However, A. also recently started requesting heartier "cooked" meals besides the light/raw summer salads I've been preparing. And you know me - when I get a culinary request, I deliver. Except when he almost threatened (in a good way) to enter me into the Food Network's Chopped. Highly unlikely as I don't have a single competitive bone in my body. And, forget about competing, I might just (shamelessly) join the judges at the judges' table and sample all the delicious meals cooked that day.

Anyway, I digress, as always... the stories just somehow sneak their way into my recipe writing.

So here's the recipe. I don't know if it's perfectly authentic...lest I offend any Lebanese cooks out there. Let's just say it's my version. Feel free to play around with the measurements; the spice measurements are only approximations as I didn't measure precisely. When in doubt, start with a small amount; you can always add more later.

Loubie Bzeit

• 1 lb green beans or, in my case, dragon's tongue beans, washed, trimmed, and sliced into 1-inch pieces (no need to be too precise here)
• olive oil - a generous glug, enough to cover the bottom of the pan
• half a large onion, chopped
• ground cinnamon - about 1/4 teaspoon
• ground allspice - about 1/2 teaspoon
• ground cumin - about a 1/4 teaspoon
• half a head of garlic, peeled and cloves left whole, or cut in halves if they are large cloves (I know it sounds like a lot of garlic, but I promise this makes it so good)
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• salt and pepper
• a pinch of sugar

Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet, over medium heat. Saute the onion with a little salt and pepper (season as you go!) until soft. Add the cinnamon, allspice, and cumin; saute to bring out the flavors, but be sure to keep scraping the bottom so the spices don't burn or stick. Add the tomatoes (and any tomato juice that collects on your cutting board) and the garlic, and let cook until the tomatoes break down somewhat and the garlic infuses the tomatoes. Add the beans, season again with a little salt and pepper as well as a pinch of sugar, then add about 1/4 cup of water to help soften the beans. Cover the pan, then once the sauce is bubbling lower the heat to let it cook gently.

Unfortunately I didn't time how long this took - I would say at least 15 minutes after the beans are in, but possibly more (I should be better at noting these things down!). The beans should be very soft, but not mushy, and the sauce should have thickened (but it shouldn't be too saucy). If the liquid is too thin or watery, let it simmer uncovered to reduce the liquid. The garlic should be soft as well. Check for seasoning and adjust as needed.

Serve with steamed basmati rice or crusty bread for mopping up the delicious sauce. The beans were soft and sweet, but not overly so; the tomato flavor made more complex by the spices.

As A. is my daily food critic, I always ask: "Do you like it enough for me to make it again?" To that he mumbled, yes, in between mouthfuls.

I had the leftovers for lunch today, and discovered it's good even when cold or at room temperature as well.

Going...

Going...

...gone!

redirecting the self-talk

Hindu temple, Ujjain, India | May 2012

"When we judge ourselves, we break our own hearts."

Something I've been thinking about after hearing a yoga teacher talk about this last week... so I'm committing to observe my thinking - whether I'm judging myself or not - for the next few days. Anyone care to join me?

I know it won't be perfect (aaack, judging again... see? Case in point.). I know I'll slip up and find that I'm judging myself. It's so easy to do. But it can be so destructive - the more we judge ourselves, the more we stay in the shadow of negativity and doubt. 

So when it does happen, I'll try to just observe what I'm thinking, rather than judge.

Then I'll let it go.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

We'll see...

"Mia and Jeni" doesn't really have a good ring to it, but...

...I think I have a new culinary idol, a bit like Julie Powell's admiration for Julia Child:

Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams scoop shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio

photo by my brother Carlo

photo by my brother Carlo

I am not much of a cookbook hoarder. I remember browsing through Half-Price Books and purchasing a few cheap, not-that-great cookbooks that ended up gathering dust (and ended up being either donated or sold back to Half-Price Books). Apart from cookbook "classics" like Julia Child and Marcella Hazan, I am more inclined to get books on the fundamentals, such as Ratio by Michael Ruhlman (I want to get this one as well, also by Ruhlman.). And by the way, whoever said Cleveland is the "Mistake By The Lake" is so wrong - we have an acclaimed food writer, and a food scene that can rival any other city here in the US. We have amazing restaurants, excellent pastries and French macarons that I'm certain can hold their own against Ladurée in Paris (not that I've been there, but...) and community-supported agriculture. And we have an Iron Chef.

(I'm not even a born-and-bred Clevelander nor Ohioan, let alone a born-and-bred American. Still, I always think it's good to appreciate the gifts of any city/state I live in. But let's not get into the Cleveland winters.)

Ok, I deviate. Back to the original topic.

When I saw that Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home cost just $14 on Amazon, I decided to go for it.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

It is a lovely, lovely book. I've tried two recipes so far (just simple ones for now - vanilla frozen yogurt, roasted strawberry buttermilk) and they are spot on - just like the ice cream you would get at her scoop shop or her website. I personally think that it is in the simplest concoctions, with relatively few ingredients, that you can see the value of a really good, fundamental recipe - that when all these ingredients are mixed together in the right proportions and work together in perfect chemistry, the flavor of each ingredient truly shines. So yes, maybe it's a little premature because I've only tried a few recipes - but ice cream calls for the same custard/ice cream base to which flavors, fruits, nuts, etc are added. And I already know, this basic recipe is a winner.

And the thing about really good ice cream is - when you use quality ingredients (no nonfat or other shortcuts here!), the fresh flavor and lingering, creamy mouthfeel is just so exceptional that it doesn't take a whole lot of ice cream to feel satisfied*. So our freezer is filling up! Help?

My next project though is Scarlet and Earl Grey ice cream, because I love anything Earl Grey. Yup, I've been bonding with my ice cream maker.

But more than the recipes, Jeni also wrote about the backstory of business, her commitment to local farmers, artisans, and suppliers or vendors at her nearby North Market in Columbus. She included stories, pictures, and descriptions of the farmers themselves. I think what the book highlights, aside from the recipes, is that "it takes a village" to make these splendid ice creams.

It's something I've been thinking about as well for my little cookie venture. I contacted a family-run dairy farm for butter - as shortbread calls for the best butter you can find.

So yes, I kind of feel like Julie in the book/movie "Julie and Julia", wanting to cook my way through a great cookbook. Though I won't try to do what Julie Powell did and cook a new recipe every day for a year, I know this is a cookbook I will thoroughly enjoy.

Homemade vanilla frozen yogurt with strawberries. Take that, Pinkberry!

Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk ice cream. It's not the perfectly sculpted, rounded scoop, but it was SOOO good.

 

* I have to admit to enjoying my homemade version of Jeni's ice cream at 11 am. That counts as lunch, right?

web-aholics anonymous?

I've talked about this before, and it's on my mind again.

The Internet.

Ah, my I-can't-live-without-you relationship. Sad, I know.

source

Hello, I'm Mia, and I'm a web-aholic.

Anyone else with me?

Or am I hearing crickets in the background? I know you're out there...

Recently I read an article about how the web is driving us mad. I do understand that the title is a bit inaccurate as it's not the internet itself, but how we use it (and the author does say this - that it's how we use it that creates problems).

I started thinking about this as I move forward in my new little venture that I wrote about yesterday, and how I would need to strengthen my online presence, my network, yada yada yada. And yes, I know it's important in any business.

Instagram. Pinterest. LinkedIn. Blogger. Facebook. And crap, now I have to tweet? (shudder)

I'm not against any of these things. In fact I use most of them (so far, except Twitter. Not quite ready for that). I don't know how we managed before Skype or Facetime, especially to keep in touch with family and friends who are half a world away. And I'm not afraid to say I love using these tools - though some more than others. Duh, I write a blog, right? And I'm a self-proclaimed Instagram-aholic.

It used to be (years ago) that I went on the Internet for a very specific purpose. To send an email, for example. Going online meant waiting for a dial-up connection that was spotty at best (do you all still remember that somewhat annoying sound when connecting through dial-up? Those were the days...). I would send off my email then disconnect and turn that clunky computer off. And now we have information right at our fingertips, 24/7/365, all in sleek, fast, tiny-yet-powerful devices. How many of us check our email on our phones even before we get out of bed? (slowly and guiltily raising a hand here)

I've been thinking about this as Kristin has been writing a series on intentionality over the past several days (starting with simplifying our lives - go catch up here if you're interested - it's good stuff!)

But that's the key - it used to be that I got on the Internet because of a specific intention or purpose. Now, I sometimes catch myself realizing how it can really become an almost mindless, endless time-suck. It's no longer very mindful or intentional because it's something that is just always there. Being online has now become a default state. Just think about all those smartphone apps that have "push notifications" that make something pop up on your screen every second of the day (ok, I'm exaggerating) unless you choose to turn it off in your settings.

"In less than the span of a single childhood, Americans have merged with their machines." (Tony Dokoupil)

 No wonder it's so easy to get overwhelmed.

I've gone through phases of taking breaks. Several months ago I took a Facebook break, and I've since lessened my use of it once I got back on. Last week I didn't write anything on my blog. I felt the need to be away for a little bit and unplug, and just do something else. I also didn't want to write just for the sake of posting something on the blog. Interestingly, a couple of my friends also talked about how they felt the need to do the same last week, and I've even read other bloggers write about the need to take a break. Funny how I heard this from so many people, at the same time I had been thinking about it for the past couple of weeks. There must have been something about how the planets were aligned recently or what phase the moon was in, I don't know.

Regardless, I think it's great when that happens. It's good and healthy to recognize when we need to turn off. Though I think it would be even better if I learned to manage it from the start before I get overwhelmed.

I think the key is to remember how the Internet is a tool, after all. A hammer - or any tool for that matter - is only as good as its user; if the user has the skill to manage it and use it toward a specific end or outcome. The next step then would be to keep our intention or outcome in mind, then be selective about the online tools we use, and finally to manage how we use it. It becomes problematic when the Internet controls us, when it really should be the other way around. The problem is that it's just so.freaking.addictive. (I'm looking at you, Instagram.)

So in thinking about my Internet use, I started to feel a sense of dread, almost, as I thought about the need to do more online marketing and be even more plugged in once I "officially" launch my business. But in the end, it's also a choice. I read an interesting take on Facebook from a successful blogger who chose not to use it (see here - part 1 and 2). So maybe I won't have to start tweeting, after all. Whew. I can choose not to.

Yes, my use of the Internet comes from a desire to connect with others. I've started making some great connections online and I do enjoy my (small) online blogging community. The Internet is only one of the tools to meet that end. I actually enjoyed my Facebook break - I decided I would more intentionally re-connect with others by making more phone calls or sending a card via snail mail. (I still enjoy doing that... don't you?). But a certain amount of being plugged in is inevitable, and it's up to me to make healthy choices and manage my online time.

On "Sacred Space"

I loved this article on the need to reclaim sacred space. Such a great reminder to allow ourselves time to be free of interruptions and enjoy just being alone with our thoughts without the constant dings and beeps from our mobile devices. This friend recently told me about how she started sketching and drawing again - what a great example of creating sacred space.

I'm looking forward to my sacred space on my yoga mat today - I'll be teaching a class tonight (yay!). Then there's my after-dinner walk with A., when we talk about our dreams, exchange even more childhood stories, or laugh at the corniest of jokes. And my sacred space in the kitchen to experiment with a new shortbread flavor or bond with my ice cream maker. ;-) All great times to be mindful, intentional, and present.

How do you unplug? Do you intentionally create a "sacred space" for yourself?

just do it already!

It's been quiet here on the blog over the past week or so, but life has been anything but that.

I've been (happily) covered in flour for the last few days.



I've had a new page in draft form for a while now, and for the past several weeks I had been debating with myself whether to publish it or not. Me and my indecisiveness... if you know me, you'll know that this isn't the first time you've heard me say that.

But over the past year I had been thinking, thinking, thinking about this little project... and I've vaguely mentioned it before...and finally, I thought, why not?

A. is always the one who gives me that extra little push in the right direction... he's the one who tells me, just do it already! And then I was even more inspired by Jen who is courageously going on her new venture, Kitchen 452. My other friend Anne who has gotten her work published in 513{eats}. And then there's Krishna, who launched her own catering company (though on hiatus during her 3-year European adventure). Sharon's writings on the zone of excellence and zone of genius. There is greatness all around me, from which to draw inspiration.



So I'm doing it. Here it is... click on the tab "SHOP" on the upper right corner to see the new page!

As you'll see, this is just a "teaser" announcement while my actual website is in the works.

Baby steps. Sometimes they are the hardest. But once you get over them, you just keep on going. :)

More soon!