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REDSTONE • REVIEW
JULY 14 / AUGUST 18, 2021
STABILITY Cabbage slaw is perfect for a summer meal with any grilled meat or fish By Barbara Shark Redstone Review LYONS – I bought a beautiful green cabbage from Zweck’s farm stand on Airport Road. Connie Zweck claims their cabbage is as tender and sweet as lettuce and she’s right. I decided to make a favorite Shark coleslaw with mangoes. Cut half of the cabbage into thin shreds. Then peel and thinly slice a mango and add it to the cabbage with a big handful of torn cilantro and a smaller handful of slivered mint leaves. Toss this with the dressing: combine the juice of a lime, a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, a teaspoon of shoyu (soy
sauce), a tablespoon of maple syrup and a big pinch of hot red pepper flakes. Then add the crowning touch – caramelized macadamia nuts. In a small heavy skillet, toast a handful of macadamias in a teaspoon of butter. Add a couple teaspoons of sugar and let caramelize, watching closely so the nuts don’t burn, then sprinkle them with a bit of salt and red pepper flakes. Let cool then scatter over the salad.
Tadka Dal – creamy, dreamy low-cal soup By Catherine Metzger Redstone Review LYONS – Although we don’t usually think about making soup in the heat of summer, once you discover this delicious dish featured at most Indian suppers – dal – it will become a welcome guest at your table with every season. Dal is the Indian word for a bean or pea that is split. There are sweet dals and savory dals found in Indian cuisine. Some are served hot and others cold. What follows is a recipe for the bright yellow, restaurant-style tadka dal filled with the summer tastes of fresh tomato, onion, cilantro and turmeric married with the magic of the tadka. Tadka means tempering spices in oil. It is a process common in Indian cooking where spices are heated in ghee or oil until they are crackling – but not burned – and the mixture is added to the dish either at the beginning or the end of cooking. In our recipe today, tadka lifts common spices we have on hand with their earthy fragrances and flavors married with beans, legumes and vegetables. This creates a creamy, deeply satisfying and visually cheerful cup of palate-pleasing soup/stew (you decide on the thickness). If there is no Indian grocery nearby, some of the ingredients might be hard to find. I shopped online for the moong Dal (split yellow mung beans) and toor Dal (split pigeon peas) to get the result I was looking for. The pigeon peas have a distinctive nutty flavor. Mung dal are dried split mung beans without their green coat. Both are packed with protein, carbs, fiber, nutrients and minerals and are a great ad-
dition to your low-calorie, high-flavor dining plans this year. This is a recipe from Food and Wine that I interpreted with what was on hand minus some of the chile heat in my dish for what became a delicious result. Once you learn this basic Indian soup, it will become a regular go to in your soup rotation. Tadka dal is delicious as part of an elaborate Indian meal or can be served simply as a complete meal over basmati rice. Tadka Dal 1.5 hours. Serves 6 to 8 Dal 3/4 C dried split yellow mung beans 3/4 C dried split red lentils 3/4 C split pigeon peas 2 1/2 t kosher salt 1 1/2 t ground turmeric 6 to 7 C water 1 1/2 T canola oil 4 green cardamom seeds crushed, shells discarded 4 whole cloves 1 1/4 t cumin seeds (I substituted all three spices with 2 t garam masala) 1 medium-sized yellow onion, finely chopped (about 2 C) 2 medium fresh serrano chilies, whole and slit through from top to tail (I substituted 1 jalapeño) 1 medium tomato chopped (about 1 cup) 1/4 C roughly chopped fresh cilantro plus more for garnish Tadka 3 T ghee 3 small dried chiles or more to taste 1 t cumin seeds
I’ve made this with peaches in place of the mango and pecans or sliced almonds in place of the macadamia nuts. This delicious slaw is a great accompaniment to any grilled meat or fish. Barbara Shark is an artist and author of How I Learned to Cook, an Artist’s Life. She lives near Lyons. For more recipes, read her blog at www.howilearnedtocookanartistslife.blog.
• In a large saucepan stir together the first 5 ingredients along with 6 cups of the water and bring to a boil over mediumhigh heat. Reduce heat to medium low, partially cover and cook, stirring occasionally until dal is soft and tender, about 35 to 40 minutes. Add up to the remaining 1 cup of water 1/4 cup at a time until desired thickness and consistency is reached. • Heat oil in a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add cardamom, cloves and cumin (or the garam masala, as I did) and cook until fragrant, about 30 to 45 seconds. • Add onion and serrano chilies and cook, stirring often until onion is lightly browned around the edges, about 10 minutes. • Add tomato and cilantro to the onion mixture and cook stirring often until the tomato begins to break down, about 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Add tomato-onion-cilantro mixture to dal mixture; stir to combine, season to taste with salt, cover and keep warm keep warm over low heat. • Just before serving, make the tadka: In a small skillet, heat ghee over medium high heat. Add dried chilies and cumin to pan; cook, stirring occasionally until cumin is toasted, fragrant, and beginning to crakle, about 30 seconds. Divide the dal mixture among serving bowls. Drizzle a portion of warm tadka over each bowl, sprinkling with additional cilantro. Serçe and enjoy. Catherine Ripley Metzger has been cooking professionally and privately since 1979. She was a French cuisine journeyman at the celebrated Henri d’Afrique restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Today she is the proprietor of the food blog www.foodfortheages.com, and Facebook.com/Food
COOK SPICES WITH WITH ONION AND CHILES
ADD TOMATO AND CILANTRO
FINISHED DAL
for the Ages. Though she cooks every day in a tiny kitchen with a two-burner stove, her recipes are expansive and she dedicates her craft to living large by cooking well in tiny kitchens.
CSU Researchers study bats in Uganda, with an eye toward disease transmission By Mary Guiden Redstone Review Editor’s Note: The team is studying bats that have an evolutionary relationship with beta coronaviruses. Researchers will be able to monitor them for transmission of SARSCoV-2 into the bat populations. FORT COLLINS – Bats and humans depend on the caves that pockmark the Mount Elgon caldera in eastern Uganda, making it the perfect field site to study human-bat interactions and emerging viral pathogens. This spring, an international team of scientists began a five-year research project in the area. Funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a Department of Defense agency tasked with identifying and mitigating emerging threats to global health, the research will help both countries understand and mitigate disease transmission from bats to humans and humans to bats. Principal investigator and CSU virologist Rebekah Kading is building on a decade of experience in Uganda. “From a biodiver-
sity perspective and an infectious disease perspective there’s a lot going on there,” Kading said. “People enter the caves to collect guano and salt crystals. They shelter in them with their cattle during rainstorms. They visit them for ceremonial purposes. It’s very tied with their communities and their resource needs, so it’s a really interesting place to study the interactions of humans, wildlife, and livestock and the transmission of infectious agents.” Monitoring viruses, preventing outbreaks After a year-long pandemic delay, Kading, veterinary postdoctoral fellow Dr. Anna Fagre, and postdoctoral researcher Emma Harris joined their Ugandan colleagues in May to capture, tag, and sample wild bats. They use passive integrated transponders – the wildlife equivalent of microchips for pets – to tag the bats. The PIT tags allow the team to identify individual bats and monitor virus infection and shedding over time. “There’s some evidence that there are differences in viral shedding patterns according to the breeding and birthing seasons. We’re going to capture that
information from these bat populations to get a seasonal assessment of the virus prevalence in these caves,” Kading said. They sampled six species during the
rainy season, when all of the female bats were pregnant. The team will return during the dry season with wildlife veterinarContinue Bats on Page 13
Rhinolophus (left) and Hipposideros bats, which have an evolutionary relationship with beta coronaviruses, will be monitored for spillback of SARS-CoV-2 into the bat populations.
