Red Spectrum Main Course, Top Down Sleeve, Water Therapy

When shopping for produce earlier this week I began to wonder what eggplant and winter squash would taste like together. I don’t think I have ever seen them used together, but I thought that the bitter eggplant and the sweet squash might complement each other well. So I thought up Red Spectrum. This dish really tastes better if you serve it the day after it’s cooked so the flavors have a better chance to develop, but I ate it right away and you could do the same. Steam was rising from it and I had to eat it right away.It tastes pretty good. I couldn’t taste the eggplant at all, which surprised me. I don’t know how complimentary the eggplant and the calabaza were but the end result was good.

Red Spectrum

1 onion

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

5 cloves of garlic

3 small red potatoes

2 medium carrots

1 medium eggplant

1 large sweet red pepper

3 small tomatoes (you could use an eight ounce can in the winter)

1/2 bunch cilantro

2 pound wedge of calabaza (see note on substitution below)

Red quinoa, cooked.

Optional: 1 16 ounce can of black beans, drained.

I won’t lie to you. Some chopping is involved here.

Onions, Garlic, and Spices

Chop the onion and garlic, and add the chili powder and cumin. Add a little oil and zap until onion has begun to take on color, about eight minutes in the microwave, or cook on the stove on low heat, about 5 or 6 minutes, stirring frequently.  Meanwhile, chop the potatoes and carrots in thin slices, small enough to fit nicely into your mouth – see picture. Leave the skins on both of them, as that’s where the vitamins are, and how else can potatoes fit in the red spectrum?

Root Vegetables, Eggplant

Add what you just sliced and stir. Let cook for five minutes or until just tender. Frantically cut up the eggplant to be done in time for the above to be cooked, The eggplant should be in large dice. Leave the skins on, that’s where all the vitamins are. The skin of eggplants is rich in some rare phenols that are very nutritious, and be honest, how often do you get to eat a purple vegetable?  They are said to be antioxidants as well,

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=22 Stir in the eggplant when the bell has dinged for the root veggies, and cook for five minutes, While this is cooking, dice the red pepper, roughly cut up the tomatoes (forget about the skins, you won’t even notice them) and remove the leaves from the cilantro and chop into tiny pieces. Otherwise large pieces of cilantro may stick to your front teeth when you eat this, not rendering you attractive.

Pepper, Tomatoes, Cilantro

Add them, and zap for about eight minutes, until just tender. If cooking on the stove, this might take ten minutes. Use low heat and stir frequently. Remove from heat and let sit, covered.

Calabaza

Calabaza is sometimes called a West Indian or Cuban pumpkin, but what it looks like is a sort of scalloped acorn squash, and it tastes like one too. It has dark green skin and orange flesh, and you can really tell that squashes and melons are related when you look at one. Because calabaza are about ten or twelve pounds each, they are often sold cut in wedges. If you can’t find any, use an acorn squash. The easiest way to deal with a big squash is to microwave it in a big bowl and then take the skin off after its partially cooked. That’s what I did. I zapped it for about five minutes and zapped it again for about three more (it’s done enough if there is a strong smell of squash) so it would be more malleable but you could cook it until it’s entirely done. Remove the skin, chop it into bight sized pieces and mix it with the rest of the dish. Mix thoroughly.

Last Step

Zap for eight minutes and serve over a bed of cooked red quinoa. Unfortunately red quinoa loses most of its brightness when cooked, turning a sort of dark brown, but it still tastes good and has a lot of protein. Quinoa tastes a little like kasha but better. It’s a lot cuter than rice as well. Black beans also add protein and taste good with the squash. It’s easy to add a can  when you reheat this. Red beans would go better with the red spectrum theme, but black beans taste a lot better.

Sleeve Complete

Initially I decreased too slowly but eventually caught on. THe joy of working sleeves from the cap down is that you can try them on, and then little things like the fact that they are way too short and fat wider than they need to be become apparent.

Pet

Poor Mr. Yuki has got a small but nasty tumor (no picture, why would you want to see that?) on his right hind paw. I took him in to see Dr. Felton, his vet, who has been very helpful to all my animals for many years. She thinks the tumor resulted from a sharp foreign object. probably a piece of glass,  lodging itself in this paw  I feared the worst and was thrilled when the word “malignant” did not come up. The treatment involves antibiotics and soaks in the bathtub, pivtured below. He likes water so this is not an issue.

Mr. Yuki soaking his right hind paw, with the help of a biscuit.

Disregard the slightly peeved expression on his face. In fact, Mr. Yuki is now one of the happiest dogs on earth. He is given biscuits to encourage him to stay in the water, and those twice a day antibiotics are mushed into turkey sausage  almost as stinky as liverwurst. Surgery may be required later but for now life is good.