Sweet Garlic Soy Sauce

I cannot take credit for this. I have had this recipe for a long time and do not know where it came from. If anyone knows of the original inventor of this recipe, please let me know. It is so good!

Sweet Garlic Soy Sauce

Whisk together in a small saucepan:
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1/4 cup water

Then add:
2 Tablespoons honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup shiitake mushroom broth* or water

Put on stove to heat until boiling, keeping a close watch. Then simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens.

Stir in:
1 clove garlic, crushed first, then minced

Turn off heat and let thicken further. Serve any temperature. Can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator in a glass jar. Goes well with nori rolls and spring rolls.

*Note: I routinely rehydrate shiitake mushrooms when I make spring rolls or nori rolls, so I often have this broth freshly made. One time I decided to use it for this and it added so much flavor that I kept it in the recipe.

Showers of Blessing

March 17, 2007

During the night, we had our first rain in months. Maybe we are at the end of the dry season, we will see. We have a woman who comes and helps with cleaning. Later in the morning I could hear her singing the hymn, “Showers of Blessing” at the top of her lungs. Earlier I had asked her about the rain and if she was cold (it cools down considerably when it rains here). Yes, she is cold. 

Later I check the temperature. It’s 82 degrees. That is chili for Ghana. Maybe today it won’t hit higher than 90 degrees in the house as usual lately. It continues to rain lightly here this morning. Everyone will rejoice today and try to stay warm as the rains have come to wet this dry, dusty, thirsty land. 

                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*I wrote the above when we were living in Ghana, more than a year before I started this blog. I was working on condensing files on our computer, when I found this today. What a breath of fresh air!

The photo was taken at Till's Beach near Cape Coast. For us, it was a much welcomed retreat while we lived in Ghana. I love this shot. Good memories! 

Red Red from Ghana (Black-Eyed Peas with Plantains)

I have so many foods I miss from Ghana. It's hard to believe we've been back for almost 6 1/2 years now. This meal took us right back. My husband loved this meal and it was his usual lunch on school days. It was easily his favorite and most frequent meal in Ghana.

Named "Red Red" for a couple of reasons. When we asked why it was named this way in Ghana, they would tell us that the ripe plantains are called red and from the red palm oil. When I was checking on the name online, I came up with many recipes that included tomatoes in them. Since we don't recall tomatoes being part of the dish we remember, I opted to go middle road with some tomato paste for flavor. Tomato paste is used very frequently in Ghana. Also, traditionally the plantains are unhealthily deep fried. We opted to bake them, and didn't notice much of a difference. They were perfectly sweet and soft on their own, to compliment the beans.

There are a couple of ingredients in this meal that made it difficult to make this meal authentic until recently when we found some gari, made from cassava. One other ingredient was the red palm oil, harvested from palm oil trees.

My husband says it's a keeper. We all loved it. Enjoy!

Red Red (Black-Eyed Peas with Plantains) 

In a large skillet, heat:
1/4 cup red palm oil

Add and cook until soft:
2 medium onions, sliced
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped (optional, but lends an authentic flavor)
5 cloves garlic, pressed and chopped

Add and let cook for a couple of minutes:
1 teaspoon curry powder
red pepper (to taste, or use the chili and onion condiment below)
1 Tablespoons tomato paste
salt to taste

Finally add, and let simmer:
4-6 cups cooked black-eyed peas (save the cooking liquid)
(This is about what you get when you cook up 1 pound dry beans)
bean cooking water for thinning the stew to almost soupy

Meanwhile, prepare the baked plantains:

6-8 very ripe (preferably at least 1/2 black/yellow) plantains, washed, peeled, cut into about 1 inch sections

Arrange the peeled and sliced ripe plantains on a baking sheet in single layer.
Bake at 350 F until done (softened), about 30-45 minutes.

Serve up the Red Red with some slices of baked plantain. Making sure there is liquid for the gari to sprinkle on and soak up, enjoy as a meal.

Optional:
Process fresh red chili pepper in a mortar and pestle, adding some salt. Stir in some thinly sliced red onion (more typical in Ghana, but you may use any kind of onion for this). Put on the table to serve alongside as a condiment.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

I always think of pumpkin recipes at this time of year. Many times you will need to have this spice mix on hand, especially if you are making a sweet dessert. Recently I used this to make pumpkin ice cream!

Pumpkin Pie Spice

6 Tablespoons ground Cinnamon (Ceylon preferred) 
2 Tablespoons ground Ginger
1 Tablespoon ground Allspice
2 teaspoons ground Cloves
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground Nutmeg

Mix together and store in a airtight container. Label and date. Use whenever pumpkin pie spice is called for in recipes.

Urban Homesteading Video Link

Here is an interesting video about urban homesteading. Thanks to a reader who passed this on to me. Click on the link to view. Have a great day.

Flax or Chia "Egg"

I've been using this substitute for eggs when I make my Baked Oatmeal recipe and haven't ever really posted it.

For each egg needed:

Mix together:
1 Tablespoon of ground chia seeds or ground flax seeds (light or dark)
3 Tablespoons of water

Allow mixture to thicken for about 5-15 minutes. Proceed with recipe as usual.

This can be used in other baking applications as well. I have also used flax or chia seeds in my morning smoothies for thickness and overall good nutrition.

Soap making

I have ventured into the soap making niche of the world! It's the last thing I thought I'd do after a somewhat failed attempt to "make" my own soap powder (with borax and a bar soap) a few years ago.

It's actually something I can use. And that's nothing to sneeze at...really, it doesn't make me sneeze...unlike the powder soap experiment. Trying to locate a cheaper way to do laundry and using something more "green" led me to find a totally new concept. One that many others have also found useful.

Let me introduce you to the soap nut. I'm not talking about myself either...(I know it's been awhile since I posted and you were starting to wonder, right?) =) No, really the soap nut is a fruit (soap berry) that is dried and has been used for many years for just about anything that needs cleaning. I've used it for about 4 months now.

I make it into a liquid form which I make myself from the dried soap nuts. I add a few drops of lavender oil for a nice scent. You can use just about any essential oil you prefer. I found it to be very useful and mostly I've used it for laundry.

In a normal load, I only need to use about 1/4 cup. One batch lasts about a month for us if used for laundry alone. It does not have many suds, if at all, so keep this in mind when you try it the first time. Here's a list of the benefits of soap nuts at the Soap Nuts Pro website.

It naturally works as a fabric softener, so I actually use another soap for my towels, washcloths and cloth napkins, because I want them to be absorbent. It's great for clothes though. For someone who hates the chemical smell of fabric softeners, I'm happy to report that the soap nuts has no such irritation.

I bought mine locally here in bulk. I use the ratio in the recipe on this website: Naturoli.com (scroll down in the box to find it). They have a good website to learn more about soap nuts. You can do an internet search and find similar recipes and sources to buy from.

I always crush the soap nuts up in a bag (I use my potato masher and a cutting board underneath the bag), before adding them to the water when heating them on the stove. And after simmering, I strain through a nut milk bag and squeeze out all I can. Then I compost the pulp! I let the soap cool, then I refrigerate it to keep longer than a few days. I find that it keeps fine for about one month this way. When I start to use it for more than laundry (for our family of four), then I will make it more often.

Here are some photos of when I make it at home:

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll try to answer the best I can. Happy cleaning! =)

Update to add: I have now been using the EcoWasher in combination with my clothes washer for a while now - maybe a year or more? We have really liked it and therefore I am not using any added soap. I do however still use some spot cleaner and presoak things that need a little more help to get clean. Love this option and makes it a breeze to have children help too!