Collectages

Below is our busy Spring schedule.
For all the clickable links go to: Spring schedule
If you are smart phone savvy then : voilà le QRCode!

Happy Spring to y’ll & we sure hope to see you here or there.
PJ & NP

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Celebrating the second inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama, requires some festive foods. Our menu might not be as lavish as the Inaugural Luncheon but I am not about to loose focus from our low glycemic diet.

No, we didn’t start the day with dessert, as the heading picture might suggest, but by a healthy juice inspired by Dr. Ali’s breakfast protocole. Juicing is now part of our daily routine & due to a low glycemic diet I rarely include fruits; but today being a festive day I included a red grapefruit —25 on GI scale when banana scores 45 & watermelon 76— accompanied by bok choy, celery, parsley, fresh turmeric & ginger roots, dandelions. And after our 5K walk the Tasty Pearl Barley Pabulum hit the spot:

1 cup of cooked barley
1/4 green apple
cinnamon, roasted pumpkin seeds
moisten with home made almond milk.
Almond Milk:
Don’t get put off by homemade almond milk, it is actually quite simple & will serve two purpose here. To make the milk, soak 1/2 lb of organic almond in filtered water overnight. In the morning pour out the water, rinse almonds until the water runs clear. Add 1 quart of filtered water to the almond then process one ladle full of almonds & water at a time into the top of the juicer —I use a Vert VRT350 Juice & I am pretty happy with it. Reserve in bottle and save in the fridge. I do save  the meal that comes out on the other side. I dry it and use for many other recipe.

Inaugural Dunch

Garlic Roasted Turkey Breast with Organic NYS Red Merlot Beans

Preheat the oven to 320°.  Grate 2 cloves of garlic, add olive oil, salt & pepper. Rub this paste thoroughly all over the turkey breast. Put a ramequin of water into the oven; it will keep the meat moist. Roast the turkey breast in the oven until thermometer reaches 160°.

To mirror the many New York State items on the Inaugural Luncheon I cooked NYS Red Merlot beans —available at the Park Slope foodcoop. These wonderful beans have a thin skin, are creamy though stay firm throughout. 

1/2 lb of  Org. NYS Merlot beans (or other red bean) soaked over night, then brought to a  boil in fresh water once and let sit for one hour before using in stew (for some reason I think it makes them more digestible).

1 onion finely chopped, goldened in the pan with olive oil
2 ribs celery
Lightly toast pumpkin & cumin seeds in a cast iron pan, then grind in a coffee grinder — I have one that I use only for spices —& add to the beans .

Add 1 seeded jalapeño pepper & 2 cloves of chopped garlic
Salt & Pepper
Bring to a gentle boil, turn it down & let simmer for 2/3 hours.

Lemon Cheesecake Mousse with Coconut Almond cookies

The cookies are essentiel to make this tart, festive, deconstructed Low Glycemic cheesecake work.
The custard:
Ben’s Cream cheese
Warm the juice of 2 lemon (Meyer if possible) in a pan
add 1/2 packet plain gelatine
Stevia to taste
Blend cream cheese,  juice w/ melted gelatin/ stevia

The cookies:
1 1/2 cup of almond meal —saved form several batches of making almond milk
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
Stevia to taste.
Mix, make the paste in a roll. Cut & bake  at 300° for about 25 minutes .

 Supper Time:

And while watching —& dancing to— the Presidential Inauguration Ball, we had Pierre’s delicious Belgium endive salad with Humbolt Fog goat creamy cheese & walnuts, dressed with a light mustard & olive oil vinaigrette.  And to finish on a sweet note we had a small serving of goat cheese yogurt with fresh ginger, walnut, stevia & a few blueberries. Now, if we did our calculation right it looks like our glycemic load for the day is about 52 —under 55 considered low. But please correct me if I am wrong, I am still in training!

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I am getting the hang of cooking low glycemic index meals —more on that coming up, since it will be the focus of my cooking for a few months. The menu featured today is my best so far. It happens to be vegetarian but I can assure you that it will satisfy even the staunchest meat eater. The delicate flavors & the filling qualities provide total satisfaction.

Fragrant Chickpeas, Veggie & Shitake Stew & Turmeric Slaw

Sauté 1/2 onion finely chopped in organic Olive Oil
add the following chopped vegetables:
2 leeks
2 celery ribs w/ tops
1 red bell pepper
2 Jerusalem artichokes
1 cup of shitake mushrooms
2 cloves of grated garlic
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1 1/2 cup of soaked & pre-cooked chickpeas (soaked over night, boiled once and let sit for one hour before use in stew)

Turmeric Slaw

If you have read the previous post you know that I have beautiful turmeric from Hawaï. This coleslaw recipe is a low glycemic slaw variation that work quite beautifully with the Fragrant Chickpea Veggie & Shitake Stew.  It is only slightly different than the one featured in Passion Cabbage.

Ingredients:
Finely chopped green cabbage/onion/celery/fennel bulb/ cilantro/
Dressing:
Fresh grated ginger / turmeric /1 clove of garlic
juice of 1 Mayer lemon
soy sauce
mostly sesame oil
a little olive oil
flax seeds

Tamarind Tofu Pudding with Minty Blueberry Purée

Finally a tofu pudding that is really good! I have been trying for months & at last here is one worth sharing. First I made tamarind paste with wet seedless (not totally!) tamarind. Tamarind doesn’t have a super low glycemic index but first, little is used & second, it is supposed to be very good for the liver. The process is a little tedious but worth the effort since it can be used in many other dishes —e.i: simply add to goat milk yogurt, morning cereals or to make the famous Pad Thai.

Tamarind paste process:
Soak one 14oz package in equal amount of warm water. Let it sit for a few hours. Once rehydrated work it with your hands to remove veins & seeds. Blend in food processor until smooth; keep in a glass jar in the fridge. For our purpose you will need only one or two tablespoons.

Pudding:
Put the desired amount of tamarind in a small pan, add a little water, heat to medium heat & add 1/2 package of plain gelatine; let it sit.
Meanwhile, in the food processor add:
1 package of organic silken tofu (1lb)
1 sunlime juice (this is a new kind of lemon that appeared at the ParkSlope foodcoop, if you don’t find it mix lemon & lime juice . The sunlime looks and tastes like an hybrid of the 2)
Freshly ground  cinnamon & nutmeg
Few drops of stevia (careful — too much gives it a terrible taste)
Add the tamarind mixture to the tofu mixture and blend thoroughly.
Pour in glass ramequin & let it set in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Serve with fresh blueberry mint puree (blend fresh blueberry & fresh mint in food processor, strain and pour over the set pudding)

Bon appetit & keep healthy!

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The Fresh Organic Turmeric from Pinner Creek Organics in Hawaï has arrived! It is beautiful.
I previous posted several blogs on Turmeric & it is a good time to refresh your memory -& mine!

General info plus Miso Turmeric Soup Recipe : here
Turmeric Synchronicity: The Case of the Antioxidant Curcumin: here
Bright Yellow Yummy Pears:  here
A Refreshing Turmeric Beverage: here

More recipe to come. But meanwhile enjoy & Thank you Pinner Creek family!

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NP with Most Fabulous CA Conrad at The Poetry Project New Year’s day

We are done with 2012,  alors:  WELCOME 2013!

Like every year Pierre (Joris) & I celebrated the first day amongst poets, musicians & friends at The Poetry Project. I flipped many crêpes in the Parish Hall & they were gone FAST. If you were not there &/or missed the crêpes, my family crêpes recipe is here & you can watch our short performances below.

We are entering January full speed:

January 4 & 5:  I will be in the studio with Michael Bisio, to record the CD that will be included in my upcoming book  Bi-Valve : Vulvic Space/Vulvic Knowledge (Stockport Flats Press).

January 5th (Saturday): Join us for the book party for Some Things Are True That Never Happened an anthology edited by Erika Lutzner & which includes my texts & drawings Ride the Line/Chevaucher le Trait. Modca
103 N 3rd street, Brooklyn, New York 11211
View Map · Get Directions

NicolePeyrafitte 01 01 2013 from Tawil Productions on Vimeo.

Pierre Joris 01 01 2013 from Tawil Productions on Vimeo.

Joris/Peyrafitte 2012/2013 from Pierre Joris on Vimeo.

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It seems to me that the most à propos food to take in on this solstice night is : Theobroma cacao—”food of the gods.”
I don’t know if the Mayans got their calendar from the Olmecs too, but it looks like they got they got the Kakawa, that is chocolate, from Olmec.

“The Maya derived a lot of their high culture from the Olmec,” said Coe, also professor emeritus of anthropology at Yale. “Even the word ‘cacao’ is not a native Maya word—it’s Olmec.” The Olmec lived in the southern Gulf of Mexico between 1500 and 500 B.C., and their influence extended to Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, and El Salvador.

“The new find is hard chemical evidence that the Mayans were drinking chocolate in 500 B.C.,” said Coe, suggesting that people were cultivating the cacao tree long before the Maya civilization, which flourished in southern Mexico, the Yucatán, and the highlands of Belize between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1500. source

& this is how I made our heavenly solstice Xocalatl —the original hot chocolate in Aztec culture:

1/2 bar of  organic 80% cacao
1 cup of home made almond milk
1 tbsp arrowroot
Raw agave nectar to taste
1 cup of whole milk

Melt cocoa with almond milk, add arrowroot & bring to a boil & whisk. It will thicken, add the milk, bring to a boil again. Whisk again. Strain and serve.
Happy Solstice everyone!

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Here are some videos of our gig on Saturday September 15th. I had a magnificent time diving whole-heartedly into impro-land with master double bassists Michael Bisio & Ken Filiano. They had set high standards with a very inspiring first set. After the break  we did three pieces with my visuals:

DRAGON LAND BAKERY & RIDE THE LINE / CHEVAUCHER LE TRAIT —both featured on my CD:  “La Garbure Transcontinentale / The Bi-continental Chowder  —  for which Firehouse artistic director Sandra Sprecher joined in & added relevance on piano.  RIDE THE LINE / CHEVAUCHER LE TRAIT just came out in an anthology edited by Erika Lutzner: Some Stories Are True That Never Happened. You will get a chance to set it live again at the book party on January 5th  at Modca 103 N 3rd street, Brooklyn.

We closed with PINKONOCLASTIC, a piece that literally whisks to emulsion: icons, politics & La Vie en Rose. To help us reflect on these complicated issues, we had the great honor to have the magnificent Grande Dame piano improvisor Connie Crothers  joining us. Then we hung out most pleasurably eating the mean black bean chili, the corn bread, the pescajos & the stage -vanilla flavored- whipped cream (see video 3). Truly “thank you” for playing, for being there — & also thank you Pierre Joris for filming & Françoise Bevy for the still photos!

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We don’t brunch, we don’t lunch, but between 3 & 4 p.m. we do DUNCH!
After our daily walk we have a very copious breakfast —will be featured in a near future post—, that sticks to the ribs until early afternoon. We also found out that the eating pattern works very well to regulate our weight without feeling deprived at all. Our evening snack is usually very light: few slices of cheese w/ apples, a little bread, maybe a bowl of miso soup… but for now voilà le Dunch today:

Dunch du Jour
Cheese Polenta (delicious NYS grown corn & US cheeses) with Shitake Mushrooms
Simple Salad w/ Fennel & Roasted & Soaked Almonds
Prune Sweetened CranApple Sauce topped with Sheeps Milk Yogurt
Vegan Bars (made with fibres saved from juicing & delightfully called turdies by our son!)

Bon App!

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These delicious little pyrenean beignets (pescajous) are for you!
YES! COME TOMORROW night (Sat December 15)
The Firehouse Space — 246 Frost St. Brooklyn, NY 11211  (Williamsburg)
A STEAL or better: a Christmas present to you!
for $10 you get:
8PM – The most sought after bass players in the world in a DUO: Michael Bisio & Ken Filiano
9:30PM – Filiano/Bisio/Peyrafitte with voice & video & food!
Ingredients courtesy of Sandra at Firehouse & cooking by yours truly! ( & I’ve been at it all day & the chili smells mighty good)
http://www.thefirehousespace.org

Ken Filiano : Critics have called him a “creative virtuoso,” a “master of technique” . . . “a paradigm of that type of artist. . . who can play anything in any context and make it work, simply because he puts the music first and leaves peripheral considerations behind.”

Michael Bisio : ”His personality, his technique, his skills are all there, but fully in the service of the music, real music then, with a depth that transcends the physical aspect of sound : it is so full of deep “human-ness”. An absolute joy to hear, … ” Stef Gijssels
freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2011/02/michael-bisio-travel-music-self.html
“His Playing appears to be produced by sorcery.” Frank Rubolino Cadence Magazine

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I am very passionate about cabbage and a few years back I dedicated two blogs to it.
Cabbage: a winner for the winter (I)
Cabbage: a winner for the winter (II) 

Today I came up with an other version of cole slaw. So bright, so crisp, so healthy that I can assure you,  this dish will make you smile on the dreariest foggiest winter days.
Try it!
Ingredients:
Finely chopped green cabbage/onion/ celery/ apple/ parsley
add fresh pomegranate &  satsuma
Dressing:
Fresh grated ginger & clove of garlic
juice of 1 Mayer lemon
rice vinegar
soy sauce
mostly sesame oil
a little olive oil

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