Baingan Bartha, Bounty, & Food Stamps

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.  I went an entire month without dumpstering.  How is this possible?!  I'm pretty upset about it.  Still, I think I have some decently good excuses why I haven't been as active in the trash lately:

I moved a few months ago and haven't found good dumpsters close to my new house. I was going to the dumpsters near my work...until I left that job in August (explaining why I didn't dumpster at all in August). 2: Leaving my job allowed for me to get food stamps again (I need the money for non-dumpster-able items like olive oil, etc, I just also started using it for everything else too)...now, I know this makes me a lazy dumpster diver and probably shows you that a big motivation for my dumpstering is saving money as opposed to saving the planet. Still, that motivation is there.
Bottom line is this: I have decent excuses for not dumpstering a whole lot lately. I have some friends who are showing me some new spots, soon, though...so hopefully I'll resume my normal dumpstering routine in no time. Since I got food stamps, I've been taking the leftover amount of funds I have in the account and have been buying dry or canned goods and have been donating them to a food shelter so they don't go to waste (shh, don't tell)! I think a good idea might be to start dumpstering again so that the amount of food I can donate increases (I've also been cooking for starving artist friends a lot lately, so that sort of counts as donating food to a worthy cause too).

July Bounty (really out of date, I know, but:)

7/24/12 – Food Lion

-       Bag of broccoli

-       2 pkgs cherry tomatoes

-       1 red bell pepper

-       1 loaf honey wheat bread

-       2 pkgs kiwis

7/26/12

Tried a new Trader Joe’s during the day – nothing good this time.

7/29/12

Chamomile tea, morrocan mint tea left in a "free" box by co-workers.

 BAINGAN BARTHA



I had gotten really tired of making my usual eggplant dishes: eggplant parmesan, ratatouille, baba ganoush...and then I dumpstered another eggplant.  So, I tried going WAY outside my comfort zone to try an Indian dish out.  I'm really unfamiliar with Indian cooking, so the picture looks pretty gross below.  However, it still tasted pretty good, even if it was a little off from the baingan bartha I'm used to having at restaurants.  Hopefully this is my first and worst foray into the land of Indian cuisine, and that practice will be on my side with this one.

Ingredients:
-  A few cups of brown cooked rice to put the mixture over (pasta will suffice, but will be weirder)
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1-4 jalapenos (depending on how you like your spiciness), chopped & seeded
- 3-4 chopped garlic cloves, minced
- 1-2 inches chopped ginger
- Olive oil
- Yellow curry powder - optional
- Coriander to taste

Step one: roast your eggplant.  Here's a nice video with instructions here.
Step two: take the pulp and put it in a saucepan with about a tbsp of olive oil.  Add the onions until they're soft, then the jalapenos, garlic, and ginger, then tomato.  Keep at a medium or medium-low heat until you start to smell the aromas mixing together.
Step three:  Add salt, coriander, and curry to taste.
Step four:  Taste and adjust flavors until it tastes right, then serve!

Ingredients not dumpstered or donated: Spices, olive oil

Peach-Mango Salsa & Ginger Mojitos

Recently I had the pleasure to go through Hurricane Irene. It didn't hit us very hard in Maryland, but everyone was told not to go out of the house. So, while I waited for the power to go out with a friend (it never did), we made some peach-mango salsa, guacamole, and ginger mojitos, then sat down and watched Royal Tenenbaums as the wind and rain raged outside.

PEACH-MANGO SALSA


Ingredients:

- 3 small peaches, diced (from a large bushel given to us at work by a customer bought from a local farmer's market)
- 1 mango, diced
- 3-5 cups diced (fresh) tomatoes
- 2 cups diced white onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 - 1 jalapeno pepper - with seeds (depending on desired spiciness)
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
- Juice from 2 limes
- 1 bundle of fresh cilantro, chopped
- Salt (we needed quite a bit), black pepper, & cayenne to taste

Place tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, and bell peppers in a large pot over medium heat for 10 minutes, allowing the tomatoes to release their juices.
Add peaches & mango, then cook for an additional 5 minutes.
By this time, there should be a LOT of liquid accruing in your pot. Depending on how watery you like your salsa to be, drain as much off as you'd like. I ended up draining off about half the liquid (but kept enough to use as canning fluid for a few jars).
Add lime juice, cilantro, and extra spices.
Cool down the salsa before serving.
Can it if you'd like so you can bring it to a BBQ or pot-luck or give it as a gift to a friend. Plus, if you can it, you can enjoy the salsa in the winter when none of the ingredients are in season anymore! But BEWARE: There's not a whole bunch of acid in this recipe, so I wouldn't use the salsa after a few months - 6 at most (even if it's been properly sealed the whole time). If you want to keep the salsa longer, just add some apple cider vinegar to your mixture and it should make it last a little longer.

Items not dumpstered or donated: Garlic, cilantro (from garden), salt, black pepper, & cayenne

GINGER MOJITOS

This is my favorite drink in the world. I first encountered a ginger mojito when I was living in Prague going to film school (which is funny, since the drink is Cuban in origin). Plain mojitos were all the rage in Prague when I lived there, and the ginger spin on the drink was on the menu at this really awesome lounge/club named Radost FX (Rihanna notably shot one of her music videos there). If you're ever in Prague, I'd highly recommend hitting it up.

They make a way better ginger mojito than I ever could, but this is my meager attempt at trying to recreate it. You can also do a virgin version (that actually tastes almost exactly the same as the alcoholic one and is delicious) by just omitting the rum.

I feel badly that this recipe uses a lot of ingredients not dumpstered, but when you have SO many limes and ginger (which we had), it's a good way to use them when you're tired of using them in other ways. Plus, when there's a natural disaster, everyone seems to want a drink...

Ingredients:

- 2 shots white rum (optional)
- 1 cup club soda (add slightly more club soda for the virgin version)
- 1+ tsps minced ginger (I put in way more since I love ginger - think like 4 tsps for that extra bite to contrast the sweetness)
- 10+ fresh mint leaves (Again, I like way more for freshness, but most other recipes call for 10-12 leaves)
- Juice from 1 lime
- Lime slice to garnish
- 2-4 tsps sugar or simple syrup if you're more patient/making a big batch
- A bunch of ice (crushed for more of a tropical feel)

Muddle (basically mash together) ginger, mint, and halved lime (with rind) with a mortar & pestle or a muddler (if you don't have either of these, just put the ingredients in a small bowl or cup and use a spoon or similarly blunt object like the top of your rum bottle to mash them up).
Add this mixture to your ice, rum, and club soda.
Add simple syrup (or sugar).
Mix and enjoy!

Items not dumpstered or donated: Mint (from garden), rum, club soda