Egg-Fried Cauliflower w/ Garbanzo Gallo Pinto
The Yoga Farm, Punta Banco, Costa Rica
Anna, the resident tica master cook, creates nothing short of magical works every time she enters The Yoga Farm Cocina (kitchen). For me to document and share every breakfast and lunch she crafts would be a full-time job in itself…so instead I plan on sharing some choice offerings (Anna cooks twice a day and we, the volunteers, cook the dinner.)
A lot of our food is coming from local sources. We have a veggie run, which happens every Monday and Friday. The Yoga Farm also has a decent garden, chickens, ducks and naturally growing fruits that supplement our sourced veggies.
So here we have the infamous, Egg-Fried Cauliflower:
Egg-Fried Cauliflower
Ingredients
1 Head Fresh Cauliflower
1 cup Flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 Egg
1 cup Milk
1/4 cup light olive oil
Extra Virgin Avocado Oil (for frying)
Wash and chop the cauliflower into manageable chunks. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate bowl whisk the milk, egg and light olive oil (you will want to use light olive oil to avoid an overwhelming olive oil taste). Mix the dry and wet ingredients to create your batter. Dip the cauliflower into the batter completely coating each piece. On medium/medium-high heat a layer of Extra Virgin Avocado Oil in a pan. Place the coated cauliflower in the pan and fry until golden brown (flip over as needed). Drain the cauliflower with paper towels. Enjoy this deep fried delight with a modified Gallo Pinto using Garbanzo Beans and Rice.
Garbanzo Gallo Pinto
Ingredients
1 lb Raw Garbanzo Beans
8-10 sprigs cilantro
1 Medium Yellow Onion
½ small red or yellow sweet pepper (optional)
3 cups Organic Chicken Broth
2 cups Brown Rice
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1-3 tbsp Extra Virgin Avocado Oil
Put the Garbanzo beans into a large bowl, leaving room for them to expand. Fill the bowl with water, at least 3 inches above the beans. Place the beans on the counter or in the refrigerator and soak overnight (if the beans are fresh, just rinse them off).
The next day drain the beans and place them in a pot. Add cold fresh water, about and inch above the top of the beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a very low simmer and cover. Let the beans cook until soft (about 1 hour). Add the salt for the last 15 minutes (if you add the salt in the very beginning your beans will be tough). Keep about ½ cup of the bean water for flavor; drain the rest.
Chop the cilantro, onion, and sweet pepper very fine.
Add 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Avocado Oil to a large/deep pan and sauté the dry rice for two minutes over medium high flame. Add half of the chopped onion, sweet pepper and cilantro and sauté another two minutes. Add the chicken broth (or water), bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer. Cook until rice is tender (25-35 minutes).
Sauté the rice, beans, and remainder of the vegetables together in Extra Virgin Avocado Oil for a few minutes and sprinkle chopped cilantro over top just before serving.
The fruit consisted of: Papayas, Pineapples and Star Fruit
Enjoy!
- Nick
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Written by Nick
