Brunch: Hash Browns, Scrambled Tofu and Green Chile Sauce

I love brunch- love, love, love brunch. A savored cup of tea, a great magazine, and a lingering morning to really enjoy your breakfast. Hash Browns could very well be my favorite food in the world, with fresh whipped cream coming in second place. But there is an art to making the perfect hash browns AND they must be crispy, fat free is just not an option. Served smothered in homemade green chile sauce and with my special recipe scrambled tofu, you've got all the protein and nutrient bases covered. I also included Vegetarian sausage, fresh avocado, tomato, cultured sour cream, and multigrain toast with this 'ultimate' breakfast extravaganza.

The Best Hash Browns

serves 2-3

2 medium whole Russet or Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 green onion minced

3T Olive oil, Safflower oil, or Coconut oil

sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

Steam potatoes for 10-15 minutes. Potatoes should not be overcooked, they should be slightly undercooked so that they can be grated with a cheesegrater without falling apart.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, add oil of choice to heat up as well. The best skillet is an Iron skillet. An iron skillet makes the crispiest potatoes- nothing compares.Teflon is just gross and toxic, and thin saute pans don't crisp the potatoes as well.

Grate potatoes with a cheese grater.

Add potatoes to heated oiled skillet in a thin layer. Top with green onions and add sea salt and pepper to taste. Cook until bottom of potatoes is crispy- about 5 minutes. Flip once and crisp the other side and cook until this side is crispy.

The trick with perfect hash browns is to let each side get fully cooked and crispy. Don't stir them or bother them at any time. Let them sit and do their crispy magic. They should only need to be flipped once.

SPECIAL RECIPE SCRAMBLED TOFU

serves 2-3

Tofu, is scary and incredibly foreign to many. It carries a certain health nut stigma with it that is hard to shake out of the mainstream headtrip. The key to tofu is in its' preparation. It is a very bland, yet adaptable food which soaks up neighboring flavors well. This recipe is a great introduction to the culinary greatness of the humble soybean curd called tofu. Try it- really- just try it!

1/2 a block of firm tofu, crumbled

1-2T Tamari (or soy sauce)

2 cloves garlic minced

2 cups fresh spinach chopped

2T nutritional yeast

2t curry powder or 1t tumeric powder

In a thick bottomed medium saucepan or skillet add all ingredients. Stir frequently while cooking over a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Scrambled tofu is ready when you smell the garlic aromas being released and the spinach is fully wilted. Swiss Chard or Kale can be substituted for the spinach.

ULTIMATE GREEN CHILE SAUCE

Here in the Southwest, everyone claims to have the best green chile sauce. Green Chile is taken very, very seriously around here. This meatless version begins with a virgin coconut oil roux and uses fresh roasted green chiles. I am asked for this recipe constantly whenever I serve it at my farmers’ market booth. This recipe makes 8 cups of sauce, but can easily be halved to make 4 cups of sauce. I like to make the full batch and smother it on everything for days afterwards. Its’ that good!

In medium saucepan begin making the roux over medium low heat by sautéing the following ingredients:

½ cup Extra Virgin Coconut oil

1 carrot peeled and diced small

¼ cup minced yellow onions

When onions turn glossy, Add:

½ c. flour

Whisk together Roux until it thickens then gradually add 2 cups at time, allowing sauce to thicken slightly in between each addition:

6 cups Vegetable Stock

After all stock is added to sauce, stir in:

2 cups pureed or finely chopped fresh roasted green chiles (with all stems and peels removed) or 16oz frozen ‘Hatch’ chopped green chile defrosted

2t dried oregano

1t sea salt

Let sauce assimiliate on a simmer for 10 minutes. Then take off heat. Sauce is ready use.

It tastes great on enchiladas, tamales, burritos, or even as a salsa for chips to dip in. Enjoy!

Revolution in the Kitchen 101

The first step in food awareness, is just that, awareness:

We have to switch off the automatic routine of fast food, junk food, lousy restaurants, mindless grocery shopping carts full of crap (pardon my language but its' justified!), and lazy food preparation. Its' time to read every label on all food purchased. If there are more than ten ingredients and you can't pronounce them- don't eat it. Food awareness is a process, like a seed that gradually begins to sprout in your consciousness. Nurture it and let it grow, day by day, week by week, until it infiltrates every food choice.

The second step is choice:

What do you choose to eat? It is your choice to fill your body with artificial flavors, brain toxic artificial sweeteners, and harmful preservatives. It is your choice to ingest 22 different pesticides while eating a commercially grown apple. It is your choice to support genetically engineered foods and horrible companies like Monsanto, when you eat food that isn't organic. This is your choice. So, ok, I can hear everyone, stop the lecture! Lets' begin to choose organic, fair trade, and sustainably grown food. Let's choose food for a healthy body, mind, and planet. It is our choice together!

The third step is power:

In every revolution, the people realize there own personal power for change. In the food revolution, one realizes the power of their money, the power in where and to who their money goes to when purchasing food. So much power lies in every monetary transaction we conduct at the grocery store. We have the power to be aware and make good choices as to what we want to support with our money. Going to the farmers' market and local farms supports sustainability and community agriculture. Purchasing 'Fair Trade Certified' products and ingredients brings schools, livable wages, and a higher quality of life to third world sugar and cocoa producers. Buying Organic foods empowers ecologically mindful farmers and companies who are doing good for the planet. Buying standard commercially grown food empowers environmentally disastrous food production and greedy, human rights abusing multinational corporations. You choose what you want to happen in the world with what you buy! This is our collective choice. This is our collective realization of the power inherent in every food purchase made. You have the power to bring change into the world with every bite of food you eat! This is huge, this is big, this is a paradigm shift in being a conscious eating being.

The last step is action:

The food revolution begins, quite simply, with you, with me, with all of us. And it happens in our kitchen! So lets' take action:

Throw away all of that junky, crappy, disgusting, 'food' in the cupboards and refrigerator

Get rid of the microwave- it zaps out all nutrients in food, makes your meal into a plate of

pure free radicals (yuk!), lowers your immune system function and just basically creates bad         

vibed food, literally

Shop at your local farmers' market today or visit the funky food cooperative in your town.

Get to know the farmers', talk to the employees at the health food store, ask questions, learn 

more about where your food comes from

Educate yourself through magazines, books, and the internet about Organic foods, Fair Trade      

certified foods, vegetarianism, raw food diets, healthy food choices, etc... 

Just say no to artificial anything in your food- this means 'Splenda' and all fake, nasty sweeteners

that act as neurotoxins on your brain (i.e. migraines), preservatives, and gross artificial flavors

Be real! Eat real food that is cooked by real people with real ingredients. The age of mass  

produced, machine made, chemically infused, artificially flavored 'food' is so over.

Skip the gas station convenience meal or the fast food lunch- plan ahead and pack your own

food or eat at your local food coops' deli.

Cook for yourself! The conscious eater is going to have to cook for themselves. This does not mean microwaving brown rice. It means having a good knife and basic cookware. It means 

getting comfortable in the kitchen and relearning how to cook in the kitchen. Fortunately,

you have my blog and many others to assist in this process.

Beginning your own food revolution takes time, but most importantly, action. Every day try to do something towards the goal of being a conscious eater. It is a gradual process of relearning and creating a new relationship with our food. One step at a time, one day at a time, one food purchase at a time, one meal at a time...

Join me in our revolution in the kitchen!