And even though not a morsel of you did I eat, I had a lot of fun creating you! I digress. I’m horrible riddler! What I’m getting at is that for the first time in about two months, I actually turned on the stove with the purpose of cooking food! I used my beloved crepe pan, the one that I spent about five years perfectly seasoning; I used my lovely royal blue Le Crueset grill pan, and even just using my old Sitram saucepan was its own cheap little thrill. So why? And why on earth didn’t I eat what came out of them!
Voted Baltimore’s best sandwich, and a long standing favorite for its innovative menu chock full of smoked goods and awesome salads, Neopol Savory Smokery, has asked me to work with them in integrating some healthy, alternative clean food options. A great honor, and so much fun! So tonight was the sampling night, where I used all my tools of past. The ingredients I decided to work with are your clean food staples for the most part, but in true Neopol form, creative in execution: Quinoa, Kale, Mung Beans and Brown Rice. Happily, creativity has actually become a requisite in this area. Deliciously, many restaurants these days are seeing the benefit of having quinoa on their menu’s, not to mention the now nearly ubiquitous raw kale salad, which of course delights me most!
So little by little, we’re raising the bar on restaurant expectations. Owners are getting it now! We want whole grains. We want clean food, and especially with our meats and organic produce. Speaking of produce, we want that too! And lots of it. And not smothered in cream and bacon. We like colors, and we expect to see beautiful presentations. But with all opportunity, of course there is a challenge, that I am now learning about first hand: With great food, comes great cost. Organic is more than conventional. Free range is more than caged. Whole is more than refined. So we’re figuring it out. And maybe that it’s certainly an issue many places are facing, there’s still another burgeoning opportunity: Did I hear someone say co-op??
Anyway, of all the things I made, delicious indeed, there was one that I, little ole raw me, loved best:
Jinji’s Zucchini Hummus
- 1 zucchini
- 1/2 c tahini
- 2 T lemon juice
- 2 T parsley
- 1 t paprika
- 1 t salt
- 1/2 t cayenne
- 1 t cumin
Blend it up! Enjoy.
jinjisfoodlove 