Slow Food Potluck!

Slow Food IU had its first potluck of the new year this evening, and it was stellar! We had a record turnout of about 25 people, many of whom were neither friends nor roommates of either Sarah or I, which I thought was pretty impressive. All of the food was wonderful, but my personal favorites were the braised heritage turkey that Sarah made and the baked oatmeal that my friend Emma made, a throwback to our days as campers and eventually counselors at good ol' Camp T. I made some vegan cookies that I am calling "Too Good to be True Cookies," because they do not contain flour, sugar, butter, or any of the other ingredients that make traditional cookies so delicious (and so bad for you), yet they are fabulous! I snagged the recipe (for "Nikki's Healthy Cookies") from 101 Cookbooks, my favorite recipe blog of late. I also made black rice with curried sweet potatoes, a rough recipe for which can be found below.

I have also just learned of the creation of Super Natural Recipe Search, a search engine for recipes featuring minimally-processed, sustainable, "real" ingredients. It's courtesy of Heidi Swanson, Recipe Diva Extraordinaire at 101 Cookbooks, author of Super Natural Cooking, and my current personal culinary hero. Go check it out!

Since I spent the afternoon in the kitchen, however, I am now long overdue on some homework, so I'm off to put my nose to the proverbial grindstone.

Black Rice with Curried Sweet Potatoes

2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup Chinese black rice1 large sweet potato
1 T. fresh ginger
1 bunch scallions
salt and assorted spices to taste (I used some pink Himalayan salt that I picked up in Italy, as well as cardamom, sweet curry, and a little nutmeg)

In a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable stock and rice to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer; let cook for 30-40 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Meanwhile, peel and dice the sweet potato, peel and mince the ginger, and chop the scallions. Drizzle some olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan (the deeper the better) on medium-high heat and add the potato, ginger, and 2/3 of the scallions. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender (the amount of time this takes will vary depending on how big or small you dice the potatoes). When the potatoes are almost done, salt/spice to taste. When both the potatoes and rice are done, combine them, make any last-minute salt/spice adjustments, and serve. Make someone else do the dishes :-p.