Barley, Turnip, and Greens Soup

Like I've said in other blog posts, I don't really cook with set recipes. I let my knowledge of traditional foods and my culinary tradition guide me.

Today I made a simple soup that is rather exceptional. I wish I would have made it sooner!

Zeke's Barley, Turnip, and Greens Soup

4 medium sized turnips
1 bunch of greens (I used collards)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
a little olive oil for the onion and garlic
2 cups barley
broth
about 1/4 cup fish sauce

1.Place the barley in a large pot and cover it with as much water as your pot will hold. Soak it overnight. The next day pour off the water. This leaches out much of the phytates.

2. Sweat the onion in a little olive oil. When its about half done mince and throw in the garlic

3. Chop your greens and them them to your large soup pot with your barley

4. Add the onion to the pot

5. Wash and cube your turnips. Add them to the pot.

6. Top everything off with you broth and add the fish sauce

7. Cook it. This shouldn't take more than about half an hour. You really just want the barley to break open and release its goodness into the soup to thicken it. Everything else should cook pretty quick.


There you have it folks. Super simple and super tasty.

Eat your Heart Out

This post is Part of Real food Wednesdays!


Many people who eat traditional foods have trouble incorporating organ meats into their diets. It seems thats Americans have somehow been led to beleive that organ meats are yucky. When people into traditional foods start talking about organ meats, the topic almost immediately goes to liver. Liver is indeed a nutritional powerhouse, especially when eaten raw or rare.

I'm not here to talk about liver. Well, Not today anyways. I want to talk about my favorite organ meat, heart.

Thats right. Nothing is quite as satisfying as munching down on a bog old chunk of beef heart. Here in south Texas I can go into almost any grocery store and find tongue, kidneys, sweetbreads, feet(not organs, I know), and heart.

Heart is great for those of you just starting out with organ meats. When you get a nice steak, What are you eating? Muscle. What is the heart? A muscle. Granted its smooth muscle unlike skeletal muscle, but its still muscle. So what do you think it would taste like? Muscle!

Heart is great for organ meat noobs because it takes like extra beefy beef. It does taste kinda strong, but it still tastes like beef. I can't get enough of it, and cooking it is easy too! Just grab a chunk of heart about two to four pounds, trim off any connective tissue, and treat it like a small roast. Throw it in an oven until the outside is golden brown and delicious and the inside is as pink or well done as you like. I personally like all my meat very rare, even heart.

Heart can be ground and used anywhere you use normal beef. You can put it in Chili, meatloaf, hamburgers, soups, stews, or anywhere!

I haven't even started to mention the vitamins and nutrients in beef heart. Its one of the best sources of CoQ10. CoQ10 is good for you heart. So eat heart for your heart. Heart also attracts the best fats to itself, which means even if you buy a regular supermarket heart, you'd be getting better fat than with any other cut of meat.

Another kind of heart I like is chicken hearts. They're cute little bite sized hearts. They taste kind of meaty like duck or goose meat. You can make all sorts of interesting stir fries with these little organ bombs. I like to throw them in a pan with a little coconut oil (feel free to use schmaltz or tallow or butter or ghee) and brown, then let them simmer in a little Vietnamese fish sauce. Use some roux or cornstarch to thicken it and you have an awesome chicken hearts and gravy. I'd make this more often but my roommate gets mad when I cook with fish sauce.

So next time you're out shopping get some heart. You'll be glad you did!

More Beans

I've never really been one to use recipes. I've always had a pretty good culinary intuition, but some of you want actual recipes, so I'll give it a shot.

Here's an awesome pot of beans I made this weekend.

Zeke's Latest Bean recipe.
1 pound black beans
1 pound pinto beans
3 chicken thighs
3 Tablespoons cumin (or to taste
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons onion powder
3 Tablespoons chili powder
salt

1. Soak the beans overnight in a 5 quart dutch oven, then drain off the water and add fresh
2. place the chicken thighs skin side down in a pan and brown them. Don't worry about actually cooking them, we just want the flavor that comes from browning.
3. Place the chicken thighs in with the beans.
4. bring the beans to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Lets the beans almost cook. This can take up to two hours.
5. remove the chicken and shred it with a few forks. Put the meat and the bones back into the pot.
6. Add the spices and let the beans finish cooking. Remember salt will nearly stop the cooking process. I also wait till near the end to add the spices as much of oils that give them their flavor will cook out.
7. let simmer a while for flavors to meld and enjoy!


What could make this recipe better? Well if you aren't a broke tired college student like me, you can cook some fresh onion and garlic and add that. The flavor will be much better. you also keep more of the healthy chemicals in the food that way.

Lets not forget that beans feed your intestinal flora. Why pay good money for inulin or fructo-oligosaccharides? Beans contain the same indestible sugars that feed our gut bugs. Where do you think all that gas comes from?