Where Has the Time Gone?

If I were a teacher (oh, I actually am) and had to grade myself on blogging, I suspect that my grade would be less than a C for consistency or lack thereof. Each blog post might be an A or B but the lack of frequency would drag the grade down. With that said, and the self-flagellation out of the way, I can now tell you what I've been doing that's prevented me from blogging more often. (Listen for the excuses, if you read them, call me on them.)

As much as I'd like to say that I NEVER get ill, that's just not the case. I live in the world and sometimes those nasty germs and viruses get me, just like they do you. I take as many precautions as possibly but short of going the Howard Hughes route, I live in the world and as they say things happen.

In early March, I got hit with some stomach bug (from the one time that I ate outside the home) that I thought that I shook off through eating fermented foods, especially miso (South River is my favorite) and kombucha, rice and baked potatoes for the better part of a week. I was feeling better for a few days, and once again I ate at some potluck meals and wham -- I got knocked down again for close to another week. Back to rice, baked potato, miso, kombucha and home-fermented sauerkraut as tolerated. Finally started feeling better but a bit weak after the bodily assault. Throughout all of this I was writing and planning future classes. Luckily when I was teaching, I was feeling just fine. (Thank my lucky stars for that because teaching cooking when you feel lousy is just NO fun.)

I then went to Anaheim for the Natural Products Expo for just one day where I sampled my way through many products that I wouldn't necessarily consider "natural" but many that were. If you have any questions about the show, just ask me.

My favorite quinoa people from La Yapa quinoa from Bolivia where there. They call theirs, "Quinoa with a Cause", as they support education in Bolivia. I am pictured here with Tania, who is Bolivian. Check out their website. And while you're there, you can see my video on cooking quinoa in a pressure cooker.

Then I went to Oaxaca, Mexico for 6 days and all was well with the world. Saw some ruins, checked out Zapotec weavers, saw the Big Tree (any photos don't do it justice -- you have to just see it), went to markets, ate great food (stay tuned for posts and photos of the food) and then visited some friends of friends of friends and did what you shouldn't do - I drank the water because I saw it come out of a 5 gallon bottle. Trouble was that I didn't know where that bottle was filled, and with what. So, guess what? Traveling home the next day and wham -- sucker punched in the gut again, and there goes the eating for a number of days. Back to my regimen, which by then I had down pretty well.

Finally, I am feeling better and ready to get to work on food. I have a jar of cabbage, golden beets, green garlic, daikon radish tops, ginger, garlic and Oaxacan chipotle pepper fermenting on my counter top, inspired by the sprouting and fermenting class that I taught earlier this week. Once fermented (which will hopefully happen by mid-week next week) I plan to eat this regularly to help keep my gut healthy and resistant.

I have about a week to go and then I leave town again for Portland, Oregon and then Seattle. I am quite hopeful that I'll be able to drink the water and get back to blogging.

If you've got any wonderful stomach bug remedies, please share them in the comments below.

Tempeh -- Don't Serve Without a Warning, Tempeh Vegetable Stir-Fry

I just had the most fascinating email chat with Mark Scarborough about tempeh. Now, how often does one get to do something like that with a kinda famous cookbook author? Not part of my usual day.

Mark described his current desire for tempeh and vegetable stir-fries arising from having raised his own pigs and dealing with the aftermath in his meat-filled freezer . This may not be something that you can relate to, I can't (or it might be, don't know) but in any case, whatever it takes to get people eating more tempeh is just fine with me.

Here is what Mark said about tempeh, "Tempeh is a very hard sell--but I'm really not sure why. Maybe it's that slightly fermented taste? Or the texture? I certainly wouldn't serve it to most people without warning."

Do you need a warning to eat tempeh? I certainly don't but I do believe that Mark has a better handle on what people eat than I do. (I wear vegan- and vegetarian-colored glasses.)

Here's what Mark said about tempeh, "I do indeed like tempeh. We slice it up into a simple, sweet/sour/spicy stir-fry with snow peas, thinly sliced shallots, and thinly sliced red bell pepper. Had it for lunch today, in fact. Hoi sin, soy sauce, sambal, shaoshing, vinegar. Nothing complicated--but over sticky, short-grain brown rice, I think it's a great dish."

Here's my version of Mark's description with a tweak or 2. I like to steam my tempeh first which opens it up to absorb more marinade. Mark doesn't steam or marinate it. Your choice. Either way, it's likely to be delicious.


Mark Scarborough's Tempeh Vegetable Stir-Fry by The Veggie Queen


1 8 ounce package tempeh, any kind, sliced into thin strips (I particularly like Turtle Mountain Spicy tempeh)
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
1-2 teaspoons sambal oleck or your favorite hot sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1-2 tablespoons Shaoshing wine (optional)
1-2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
3 tablespoons thinly sliced shallots
1/2 cup sliced red pepper (in season) or carrots (in winter), thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 cup snow peas, stemmed, cut in half on the diagonal


Steam the tempeh for 5 minutes over boiling water.
While the tempeh is steaming, mix together all the liquid ingredients in a shallow pan and stir to combine.
Add steamed tempeh to liquids and let marinate for at least 15 minutes, and up to 30 minutes.
Remove tempeh from the marinade.
Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add the oil and then the tempeh and shallots. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the red pepper or carrot and stir for another 2-3 minutes, until the pepper or carrot is getting cooked through. Add the marinade and the snow peas. Cook until the snow peas are bright green.
Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more of any of the ingredients until it tastes right to you.
For me, I would garnish this with cilantro but that's because I love cilantro.
Serve over short grain brown rice.

Feel free to let me know what you think by emailing me at jill@theveggiequeen.com.

The Veggie Queen Shares Vegetable Advice for You

Generally, I don't do a lot of linking to other blogs because I so enjoy writing. Sometimes, though, someone else has written something as well or better than I can. So why reinvent the wheel?

This post was written by Jessica Porter on a blog titled A Grain a Day. You already know that I am into grains but Jessica wrote about vegetables, relating to macrobiotics. I have very strong macro leanings but I am not a full-fledged any-particular-thing. What I choose to eat is my best distillation of the wisdom I possess along with what's in season where I am, and more likely what's in the pantry and refrigerator.

I've run across The Vegan Coach blog more than once. I like the descriptions and how Sassy changes a meal by changing the sauce. It's a concept that I've shared for years, Sassy spells it out so nicely that I wanted to share it with you.

I have resolved that 2009 will be the year that I work smarter and not harder, so I am going to be sharing more of what others do so that I can focus more on what I do -- provide new and interesting information and videos (check me out on You Tube at TheVQ and feel free to rate my videos) related to vegetarian, vegan and pressure cooking, as well as live teaching and speaking.

I have a number of new classes coming up this year that aren't yet posted to my website but include alternative baking, live foods including fermentation, sprouting and salads and a market to table class. I may blog about them before they ever get posted to my website http://www.theveggiequeen.com/.

I always wish you a healthy and happy day but now it's time to wish you a Happy New Year.

My Japanese Food Week with Natto and Shoyu

As if using fresh yuba (the soybean skin) in my cooking wasn't exciting enough for me, I got an invitation from one of my former students who is Japanese to try natto, a traditionally fermented soybean product. I have mentioned before, or at least I think that I have, that eating fermented foods is a good thing.

And I may have even possibly posted about trying natto once before. I said that it was right up there with one of the 10 most disgusting foods that I have ever had. Well, I need to rescind my comment on natto. I tried frozen natto and it was beyond gross and smelly.

The natto that I tried today, produced here in the United States, just 10 minutes from where I live, in Sonoma County, is a very different food product. It doesn't have a ton of flavor and certainly not one that I would consider disgusting. I must point out that the texture is certainly not something most Americans are used to, as it is a bit gummy. I was told that the stickiness contains that nattokinase which is the beneficial part of the natto. The soybeans used in this natto are non-GMO beans from North Dakota that are not like any soybean that I have ever seen or used, they are much smaller.

Traditionally natto is eaten daily on top of rice with shoyu and mustard or wasabi, often for breakfast. I tried my natto with some shoyu and ate it on a lettuce leaf. It was delicious and a most interesting appetizer -- very fresh.

This brings me to shoyu -- I happened to be at http://www.gourmet-natto.com/ when there were some Japanese visitors who own a shoyu plant in Japan. I left with a small bottle of 2 year old shoyu, made without water. This is not what we usually see here in the US, unless you spend more money on your soy sauce, which I occasionally do. I actually use tamari, not soy sauce, since I know that it's usually a higher quality than the brown stuff in bottles.

I met with Minami and Shun and it was a great pleasure. I learned more about Japanese foods in one short visit with them than I had anticipated. I cannot wait to have my students try natto to see what they think. And I may have to take a trip to San Francisco to get some special Japanese products. Minami told me that he knows one of the best tofu makers in Japan. Perhaps I should just resurrect my idea of the Tofu Tour to Japan. Are you interested? Let me know by posting a comment here.

Why Sauerkraut? And other probiotic questions.

I read an article yesterday that in a poll of 1000 people in the US only 15% had any idea of what probiotics are, and my guess is that many have heard the word but are still unsure of what these living marvels do.


This means that there are far too many people who just don't know that eating live food can make a difference in their life. (But that's because so many Americans eat food that's way beyond dead -- processed beyond recognition.)


Probiotics help populate your gut with beneficial bacteria -- the stuff that's supposed to be there, that sometimes gets wiped out by antibiotics or GI disturbances. Also, there are prebiotics, which help keep your system healthy, in beans, whole grains and other vegetarian foods.


The other day I made sauerkraut. It is incredibly easy to do. And today I am eating some delicious pink kraut, that didn't cost me $10 per pint, which I just verified at the store today. Mine cost me $2.50 for the cabbage and I ended up with 2 pints, which is quite a savings. And where shall I spend what I've saved, I keep asking myself.


But back to the kraut. I did not grow up eating this stuff. And, in fact, since I don't eat hot dogs or sausages, which is what I think most people do with sauerkraut, I have to find other ways to use it.


One of the best, to my taste, is to mix it with cooked brown rice and vegetables. It's best if there's ginger or hot peppers in the mix. The cool and sour of the kraut, is a great complement in this simple-foods dish. I must admit that I first had something similar at Cafe Gratitude which was called The Macro Bowl (but of course, it had a name something like I AM LOVED or GRATEFUL).


A daily dose of sauerkraut will likely help keep your system populated with the good guy bacteria. And it will keep you healthier. If you want to know more about making sauerkraut and other fermented foods, check out http://www.wildfermentation.com/. Sandorkraut tells all.

Here's to your health and the health of your gut. Isn't that where your intuition lies?

Wild Fermentation and More

This has been my week of learning and meeting allies in the movement to help people eat better food. I met Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and Sandor Ellix Katz, fellow authors.

Miyoko and Colleen are fellow McDougall program http://www.drmcdougall.com/ teachers. Miyoko taught Japanese one day and holiday dishes the other. Miyoko's books are The New Now and Zen Epicure and Japanese Cooking--Contemporary and Traditional. Colleen just released her first book The Joy of Vegan Baking and has a great website: Compassionate Cooks http://www.compassionatecooks.com/ on which she features her weekly free podcast on vegan issues.

It was great fun to watch both Miyoko and Colleen, as it gave me a new appreciation for what it takes to present to a group. Sharing food tips and samples invites people in but you also need to capture their attention.

The day following those 2 meetings, I was a participant in a fermentation class with Sandor Ellix Katz, the author of Wild Fermentations and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Sandor is a fascinating fellow, I don't think eccentric truly captures his spirit, and an article about him and the class will appear in the future on Jason Wyrick's website http://www.veganculinaryexperience.com/. (Jason occasionally teaches the McDougall program.)

Katz embraces the Weston A. Price philosophy and is likely not a big McDougall fan but I do know that we can agree that eating fresh, local vegetables is good, especially if they are fermented. Everyone needs to embrace their own philosophy and eating style. If it works well for you, then do it. If what you are doing doesn't work, try other methods.

Learning how to ferment vegetables is quite easy. Check out http://www.wildfermentation.com/ for more information about it. If you've heard of probiotics and prebiotics, these are the original forms -- they occur naturally, no pills, capsules or liquids needed. Also, you don't really need special equipment such as fancy crocks. I do my fermentation in wide mouth quart or larger canning jars set in a bowl to catch the liquid. If you want to know more about this from me, please feel free to email me at jill@theveggiequeen.com.

This is a very busy time of year but I hope that you will take the time to nourish yourself in a very caring and loving way with lots of fresh food. Busy often translates into not eating well and grabbing things on the go. Keeping healthier foods around helps with that issue.

I know that I tend to eat what I've got (since it's incredibly difficult to eat what you don't have) around. Lately, I've had lots of wonderful leftovers from classes -- things like Fruited Wild Rice, Indian-Spiced Root Vegetable Soup, Mediterranean Greens, Red Rice, Braised Tofu and Vegetables and more. Taking the time to cook for yourself, as if you are an invited guest, will actually turn you into one. This is my gift to you -- treat yourself like a queen (or king). It's what I do, and it works.