Doing the turkey shuffle. Or how to cook the bird?

                 Alright. What? you actually thought you were going to get away with NOT making a turkey and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving didn't you? Muhahahahha! Nope, no way.You're cooking!  And no frozen lasagna this year. You are going to make it all. Turkey, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese. Hmm..does any of this sound familiar to you? It should if you've been reading this blog, you already know how to make these! (well except for the bird, but we'll get to that) Now, quit your whining and go wash your hands, we've go work to do. :o)

So as you look at this turkey,(Jive turkey!..sorry) ahem.. you'll see that it's really just a big chicken. However if thought of roasting a chicken sends you running for cover than this is worst than I thought. The way to make nice with a turkey is to use a turkey bag. Reynolds (as in the aluminum foil people.) makes oven safe bags for this very purpose. Forget the Norman Rockwell picture of mama basting the bird at the oven door, life is short and we are going to use the bag! Now,where was I? Oh yes..the turkey (hereafter to be known as the bird or...jive turkey!) HAHA! Anyway, you'll need to clean the bird. There is no such thing as a clean bird. I don't care how good it looks. They all have feathers and stuff and they need to be looked over before you cook them. If you don't clean the bird, expect a house call from your local poultry police..I'll send them to you and.they will lock you up in the chicken coop! Ok that was bad...i'm done..really. So how do you clean the bird, chicken, turkey, duck,.same thing. Take your bird and run your hands over it. Feathers are hard. The fluffy part has been pulled out mechanically and all that's left is the hard part that's left in the skin. That's what you want. Take a butter knife and pinch the feather between your thumb and knife and pull it out. Do this for your whole bird. Now rinse. There are also flaps of skin, generally on the front or back of the turkey that have a ton of feathers and it's just not worth it to pick each one out. Just get a sharp knife and cut them off. Toss in the garbage and your problem is solved. Stick you hand on the inside and remove giblet bag. I cannot TELL you how many times I have forgotten to remove the bag from the inside of the bird. It's harmless, just don't to make a habit of it. What exactly is in the giblet bag? The turkey neck, the heart, and liver and the gizzard. Good stuff for stock, but I digress. Back to the bird.
    Put the giblet bag aside and no you can't throw it away.  Remember, I have the poultry police on speed dial!
Now if your bird has no more feathers and you've rinsed it well put it on a clean platter and season it; inside and out. I use seasoned salt,(Lawry's, or McCormick's or Adobo or your own creation, whutevuh works for you) pepper, garlic and onion powder. I also stick a whole onion inside, you can also stick a carrot some celery, a parsley sprig. The idea is to season the bird. All of these things add flavor while the bird cooks. Now put your bird in the oven bag. Depending on how big your bird is you may need help! This is a good time to talk about what size bird to get. Generally I go by how much I like turkey. Now in my house, no one really likes turkey so I don't buy a 47 pound bird! Even though there's 7 people in the house. I get like a 10 or 12 pound bird. That works for soup, or sandwiches. And to top it off no one eats dark meat. ( not to mention, my favorite vegan who doesn't even eat meat!) Moment of silence for me... Yeah so the point is to know your people. If it's just you, than buy accordingly. Also don't think that you'll freeze the rest and eat it later. No one wants to open a mystery package of meat in April to eat last thanksgiving's turkey. Leftover frozen turkey tastes like cardboard, only cardboard has a whole lot more flavor. So based on that, buy what you think you'll need. Follow the directions on the oven bag packaging. Basically, it's put bird in bag with seasoning put your bag in a roasting pan, pyrex, oven safe ( meaning all metal) stock pot? whatever you have that will fit the bird, and add the stock. Tie the bag closed with the supplied tie, and poke holes in it with a fork or slit the top a knife to let the steam out. Not hard. Let's get our bird in the oven.

   Now, 300 degrees is considered a low oven, in other words your bird is not going to cook fast. If you have a 25 pound bird (why??) and you put it on 300 it should be ready on Christmas Eve. If you are cooking a large bird, put it on 350 or so and it should be done in about  4 to 5 hours. (or days!) This is just not my idea of fun. If you have a bird that large, consider cutting it into parts, clean and season each part. Pack the parts in groups in ziploc bags and freeze them. Put the giblets and boney parts in separate bags and  pack in a ziploc as well.  Don't forget to clean and season everything. Nothing is thrown away except fatty portions with lots of feathers. (yuk) Once you do this, you can pick and choose what parts you want to cook. And because it's raw and seasoned You can cook the breast and the legs for thanksgiving and the wings and thighs for another meal and so on. I have done this many times and it really works. The pieces have been living in all of that seasoning so when you cook them they are so wonderfully flavored all the way through. Make sure you clean your hands really well. I wash them with Dawn and then spray the antibacterial spray directly under my fingernails and all over my hands, clean under my nails, rinse in hot water and wash again.Then I just use a really good moisturizer like Udder Cream or something else that's non greasy. Or you can try using gloves, they've never worked for me.
Okay your bird is in the oven and now you can clean up. (more cleaning?..yas!) A word about cleaning up. Raw meat has germs and you'll need an antibacterial kitchen spray to kill those germs. Use paper towels to wipe up all the water that splashed during the feather hunt. That way you can just throw it away. (Not green I know) After you've wiped the water, spray all of your surfaces generously with the antibacterial spray. Don't forget the faucet, the other sink, if you have a double sink. Behind the appliances on the counter, the back splash behind the faucet. And dry with a paper towel. Spray the Dawn bottle and wipe it down. Make sure to let the spray go in all the nooks and crannies on the sink. Then wipe everything dry. Lastly, spray a paper towel until it's damp and wipe the refrigerator handle and the garbage can top. I know this may seem excessive but you want your sink and counters spotless and germ free so you can continue to cook with confidence.
While the bird is in the oven I can finish my laundry, fuss at some kids and maybe even run to the grocery store. Why..because I'm not in a rush. Cooking is supposed to be an enjoyable endeavor. If you look at Thanksgiving as dinner, rather than a large event you'll relieve yourself of all the stress. Be mindful of who you've invited to your table, if they're stress producers leave them home. Invite people that will encourage you and celebrate your accomplishments. Don't invite a lot of them, maybe like two. There, stress gone poof!
Lets pretend that it's about 3 hours or so later and the bird is done. That's a guesstimate for my 10-12 pound bird. You will have to use your judgment. Generally, no less than 2 hours on 300 degree oven. You pull it out of the oven, and open the bag and see that it's falling apart. The legs have pulled away from the body and the liquid on the bottom is bubbling. The final test is the breast meat. You take a slice off and taste it and it melts in your mouth! WOW! you are amazing!
p.s..do not under any circumstances present your bird at the table and attempt to carve it.  Do your damage in the kitchen and present your masterpiece on a platter. They won't care as long as it's cooked. My turkey's are rarely photogenic. The cooking bag makes the bird so moist that the meat literally falls off the bone, and  that sounds like good eating to me.

The land of the beyond..or stuffing for dummies

OK, so I have a few areas of uncharted territory in my cooking adventures. One of them is making a scratch cake (as in not from a box) and the other is making homemade stuffing. Why does it matter?  Especially since only the adults in my house even LIKE stuffing. The meat eaters hate it. But my favorite vegan likes his stuffing with fried Portabello mushrooms, onion, garlic, celery, seasoning, chicken broth and bread crumbs made from whole wheat rolls. (gee is that all?!) That's it, right on the bottom of this paragraph. Vegan stuffing. Yummy!
  Alrighty then, back to the uncharted territory. This was the first successful attempt at homemade stuffing that I'd ever made. All of my previous attempts were horrible. I kept trying to make my grandmother's stuffing with the pork sausage, or  my mother-in -law's with the hard boiled eggs. And it just was awful! I think the reason is that none of these were my own creation. Now once again, if you are looking for relevance to the plight of the homeless in this in depth study, than this is not the blog for you! (smile) It's just cooking nothing more, nothing less. But if you can feel confident in the kitchen, who knows what it might do for other areas of the house!(HAHAHA!) Oh my dear!
Back to the stuffing. So you now have the recipe for how to feed a vegan stuffing. Now for me I make mine totally different. Since I'm a meat eater who occasionally grazes on veggies I used leftover chicken soup in my stuffing. (well i never..well you're going to today!) You know me, no rules only guidelines. Ready?
You will need: 
Bread crumbs- no boxed bread crumbs, or bagged stuffing please. Use leftover french bread or rolls. Toast them in the oven, put them in a large plastic bag and crush them.
Now your stuffing will only be as good as your breadcrumbs. So if you use hamburger buns, or 3 for a dollar bread..well..do we really need to go into this?  I am a cooking dweeb so I make rolls and bread at my house to keep the carb junkies at bay. Which means I always have homemade bread around. So I take my trusty mini food processor and grind them up. (Have I mentioned the fact that you need a mini food processor? well..I'm mentioning it.. mention mention ahem.. ) OK, back to the stuffing.
Leftover chicken soup, (yes, it's homemade!!) but you can just use chicken broth, no cubes please.
2 eggs beaten
Celery
Onions
Garlic
(And whatever else you want to put in to make this yours. Make it Latin with Sofrito and spices, Make it Indian with Garam Marsala, tumeric and cumin ( get Garam Marsala online, check links to the right) or make it Asian with Oyster sauce and green onions and ginger. Man, talk about uncharted territory! Go for it. I'm just giving you the bones you flesh them out any way you like.)
Alright now where was I?
Oh yes, so you have bread crumbs, broth, eggs beaten and veggies,and seasoning. Season this well. Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder are four of the basics I use. Now put it all together in a bowl. Here is where you add enough moisture to make it moist. The secret to moist stuffing is liquid. Too much and you have soup, too little and it's like oatmeal. This should not be soupy and it should not be dry,  Use your instincts. Remember, if you make this watery you will have to add more bread crumbs and adjust the seasoning.
 Once you have this all incorporated,  pour it into a buttered, not margerined...casserole (pyrex works well here) Cover it and bake it at 350 for about 40 minutes. The eggs will make it puff up nicely. After the 40 minutes take the top off and give it another 5-7 minutes to let it brown.
There, you've made homemade stuffing! You are so incredible, you rock!
Ideas: 
-Make your own instant stuffing mix ( which is nothing more than bread crumbs and seasoning) Take some of your homemade bread crumbs and toast them in the oven with a little buttah. In a plastic bag add a teaspoon of dried parsley,some onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and 2 crushed to smithereens chicken stock cubes and what ever else you want to put in)  Anyway mix it well. and after your crumbs have cooled toss them with the seasoning. I would keep this in the freezer because of the butter. Try it and let me know how it comes out.
-Mix your bread crumbs,with leftover beef stew. Whut?! Oh yes why not? Why does poultry get all the fancy treatment? Tell me if you put stuffing on a plate with mashed potatoes, buttered corn, baked meatloaf and gravy you wouldn't get some LOVE?  You would! True undying love and accolades!! Switch out your chicken broth for beef broth, go ahead and add the celery and onion etc.
Let me know how it comes out.
-Add a little sweet to your savory. I used whole wheat ,cinnamon raisin rolls for my vegan stuffing. Yes that means there were bits of raisin in my mushroom stuffing. It was wonderful! If you've ever had cranberry sauce on the same plate as your turkey you get the connection. You can use raisin bread, the good kind from the bakery section of the grocery store. Anything from the bread isle might be a little too sweet and processed. (but whatever works for you )  Try this and let me know how it comes out. :-)

Pasta Fagioli...or how to eat like you can afford to.

So what exactly is Pasta Fagioli. It's peasant food. Or my favorite term: Farm Food! (thank you Kim) A big ol' bowl of something hot and flavorful that doesn't cost a lot of money! I don't know about you but I'm all for cheap flavorful food. Let's eat like we can afford to! Now, like everything else I do, this only skirts the guidelines of the traditional Pasta Fagioli. (By the way Fagioli is itailian for bean) So we are making pasta and bean soup. Remember for all you seasoned chefs out there, this site is all about instruction so we go slow and in depth, I assume the person I'm talking to is total newbie when it comes to cooking. Here we go!
I start this soup like I start every other soup, with a good stock. I don't mean get crazy and roast beef bones in the oven and then and simmer in water on the stove for 4 days and strain. Who has the time for all of that? Not me! This soup is what you do after you've made that fantastic roast for dinner and you have all of this great broth in the pan.
You will need:
A roast
Lipton Beefy Onion soup
Salt
Pepper
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Veggies (celery, onion, carrot)
Make roast in the oven, not the crockpot this taste better if it's roasted in the dry heat of an oven-Don't worry you can do this!
-Take a roast, preferably a chuck roast, but whatever you have is fine. Put it in an oven bag, you know the kind you roast turkey's in? It's in the aluminum foil isle. Put your roast into the bag after you've rinsed it well. Season well, salt,pepper,garlic powder,onion powder however much you want. And here is where you can put well rinsed celery, carrots, onion, in if you want to, it adds to the flavor of the broth. (yum!) And add an envelope of  lipton beefy onion dry soup mix.(Yeah, lipton soup is your grandma's secret weapon) This can be salty so watch your salt. Add about a cup of water, you can add more but not much. You are not trying to make soup just a flavorful broth. Tie the bag and bake it in the oven on 300 for about 1 hr and 1/2 depending on how big your roast is.The nice thing about the bag is it keeps the meat moist so you almost can't mess this up! I like recipes like this.
-OK dinner is done and the roast was wonderful. You are amazing! Now your are in the kitchen cleaning up and you have this stuff left in the bottom of the bag. What to do? Pasta Fagioli! Why is this different from traditional pasta fagioli? Well I have no veggies in the soup, and most of them don't start with leftover roast gravy.
What you'll need-
1-16oz box of pasta-shells, elbows, rigatoni whatever, as long as it's on the small size. (Try to catch the pasta on sale and stock up for just such an occasion as this)
Cook your pasta according to the directions, drain-do not rinse in a colander. Put in a bowl with a little olive oil or butter. ( not much)
 1-Large can of tomato sauce, or small can of tomato paste and small can sauce, crushed tomatoes. Whatever you have. Catch the sale at the grocery store..you can even use  leftover spagetti sauce if you have it. Or crushed tomatoes, whatever you have on hand..tomato soup? Why not?
1-can of beans- once again, whatever you have on hand. I would stay away from chick peas-because they have a strong flavor and fava,or seasoned black beans. And definitely stay away from that can of baked beans in the back of your pantry. You want a plain unseasoned can of kidney or navy or white lima something not overpowering.
1-container good beef broth (no cubes please)
Okay we're in the home stretch
Make sure your hands are clean and cut up the leftover roast put it aside.
Put a colander (it's what you drain spagetti in) Hey someone had to tell me! Anyway put this over/in a large clean bowl. Pour all of your broth, veggies everything in the colander. The stuff in the pan is what goes in the colander. It's purpose is to catch the broth and leave all the big pieces. Pick out usable meat and toss everything else. Trust me those veggies gave their lives for a worthy cause!
Okay, the rest of this is easy. You might not have much liquid from the pan, but no matter. Pour it into a pot, add your tomato sauce, 2 cups beef broth and your pasta, beans and meat. Simmer until all is incorporated. Taste.. Hmm..correct your seasoning. It should taste like a rich and tomatoey(is this a word?) broth. Well seasoned but not overpowering. Here's where you trust your instincts. What does it need? More garlic, more tomato sauce? Italian seasoning is nice. Remember this should taste like it is an Italian soup. Taste it again, is it better? Remember, you are not trying to compete with your friends mama's soup. This is your interpretation of an Italian classic. Does it taste good? Eat something sweet and taste it again, sometimes you can't taste the difference in the flavor because your taste buds are overworked!
oops!
Is it over seasoned?
We can fix it. Make more pasta, bigger pasta this time and dump the "soup" in with the pasta.Now you have a pasta ragu. (in other words your tomato sauce has meat in it).No longer soup, now it's noodles and sauce! We can try for the soup another day. The important thing is you have made something wonderful out of very simple ingredients, Serve your Ragu with some garlic bread and enjoy. Take a bow!

Life beyond meat or a Vegan's gotta eat!

It's amazing how limited some of our favorite vegan restaurants are. Here where I live, we have a vegan restaurant like every 2 feet or so. Since we have a higher concentration of non-meat eating, gluten challenged, diary inhibited, raw food loving folks per square foot than say like Guam! Nice for my favorite vegan, however, most of these eateries serve food that has a high concentration of heat without much flavor. Or they serve completely bland unseasoned food. You either have one or the other but you seldom walk away satisfied. I believe that you don't stop loving to eat because you don't eat meat. Home cooking is home cooking and vegans want food that excites the palate just like the rest of us. Incidentally I was a vegan for like 7 seconds. Haha! Yeah, I'd pretty much run over my grandmother for a piece of bacon!

I made this just yesterday and it came out wonderful! One thing to note though,it is not visually appealing. Um yeah that picture isn't mine. Mine is in the freezer. So like I was saying Brown rice looks kind of blah, but most things that are lip smackin good are best to be eaten with close friends and family anyhow. You know I'm right!

You will need a Latin Market or a well stocked Grocery Store 

Black Beans and Red and Brown Rice

-1/2 cup Sofrito- about.com , elboricua.com  

Check these sites out before you begin.

Here's my quick recipe: Once you do this you are never to use anything in a jar labeled Sofrito or Recao You will make this in large batches and freeze and use it in everything except like..pudding. (okay pumpkin?) Haha!

Red Pepper

Green Pepper

Garlic

Cilantro

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne (pinch)

Onion

Olive Oil (or whatever you have)

Run this through a food processor. One of those little ones is fine. I know you were going to pick one up yesterday. This is something you need, it costs about 25 dollars at Shop Rite, probably cheaper at Walmart. I have the best Shop Rite in the world right down the road from me. In fact I almost don't need to go to a cultural market because they have so many of the ingredients on the shelves. I like to shop at the cultural markets because you get better deals, better selections and better prices plus you get to immerse yourself in the culture you are exploring. And ask questions.

This is my version that I throw together in a pinch. Sofrito is totally subjective. Some people add olives, hot peppers (aji dulces) or pimento or whatever.  No rules just guidelines but make sure you maintain the integrity of the dish. Read through the website and get an idea of what you're going for. This is primarily a Puerto Rican food site.(A nod to my Puerto Rican heritage) You can adjust the ingredients any way you like that's why there are no measurements. You will need something to turn the rice red. (You can use Annato powder or I use a packet of Sazon or even Achiote paste if you are a real purist). You can find Sazon in the grocery store, it is a seasoning packet so it will season your food as well as color it. Be mindful of that as you add your other seasonings. Also be mindful that it might have MSG in it. If you choose not to do MSG than you will have to get a suitable substitute from a Latin market. Sazon is a brand name. I have a lot of these ingredients on hand because you know me, when I decide to cook cultural, I go all in; I buy everything and spend way to much money!!

-Brown rice, as in not white rice. It is sold in 1 pound bags in the rice section. Measure 1-2 cups whatever your pleasure. It's generally double the amount of water to rice. So 2 cups water to 1 cup rice. BUT my favorite vegan likes his rice saucy so I add more liquid.

-1/2 can of tomato paste ( you can put in the whole can if you have a lot of rice)

-Adobo seasoning.( It's latin seasoned salt) and no you can't substitute.

-Pepper

-Garlic Powder

-Onion Powder

-A sprinkle of cumin

-Three grains of sugar (really all you need in 3 grains and a wish)

-A can of black beans preferably Goya ( store brand will do)

-2-4 cups good beef broth ( no cubes please) depending on how much rice you used you might not need all of this broth.

Ready?

Fry 1/2 your Sofrito in a little oil till tender (You're going to keep the other half to stir in rice at the very end)

Add your half cup of tomato paste and some Adobo. You want to marry the flavors here.

Add your brown rice, black beans, broth and seasoning. Taste your liquid, what does it need? You want your liquid well seasoned not over seasoned. ok taste it again..good? now add just a wisp of sugar. Just a sprinkle. Taste, hmm..you probably did'nt add enough. A little teensy bit more..now taste it. Notice the balance of the tomato and salt. The sugar balances the acidity of the tomato and the salt in the pot. If you are still not feeling this adjust until its the way you want it. Caution. don't overseason, and do not over sweeten, if you don't trust yourself leave this part out. (But I think you can do it!) When in doubt, better to leave it not perfect and adjust it on your plate rather than destroy the pot.

(Now if I were cooking with meat, I plop a big ol smoked turkey leg or 12 in the pot and let it cook down for 2 or 3 days) Haha!

Anyway where were we? Oh yes you should have a big pot of tomatoey broth with rice and beans in it. The tradional pot to cook rice in is called a Caldero, this is a spanish dutch oven made of aluminum that makes a mean pot of rice because of it's ability to hold steam. It also makes all the seasoned crunchies on the bottom called pegao. I have eaten a plate of this!  No you don't need to buy a Caldero, I have one because I am a cooking nerd but you can use any heavy pot with a good fitting lid )  psst..I have gotten pegao in my rice cooker, in fact that's how I usually do my spanish rice.

So set your pot to boil once it boils turn it down to low. You want it to simmer not burn. leave it for about 45-60 minutes. Try not to take the top off for the first 30 minutes or so stir and replace the lid. Once it's done, the liquid is cooked down and it should still be cooked through. Taste it! umm..this is pretty good right? I try really hard not to stir this while it's cooling or you will have a big pot of mush. Take the top off and wait about 10 minutes. Take the rest of your Sofrito, nuke it for like 30 seconds to take the chill off and put it in your pot adjust your seasoning if you want to and fluff. FLUFF? Yes two forks one in each hand, make like your mixing salad all around the pot. No mixing, fluffing. There.. all done. Feel free to spoon up a bowl.Yay! You  made rice and beans or Arroz y habechuelas! Take a bow! You're a fantastic cook!

Idea- I made a pretty mean beef gravy for the beef chunks that I made for the meat eaters in my family. I poured this over my plate of spanish rice and proceeded to dance around the kitchen! It was soo good. I froze the rice and gravy in individual portions so my favorite vegan could eat through the week. If we were'nt already married I'm sure he would have proposed!!

How to feed "My Favorite Vegan".

Well it is time to remember recipes for my favorite vegan. People sometimes get the idea that folks who don't eat meat don't like to eat hearty. Well not in my house! I married a man who loves to eat, so how do I feed him when I can't use meat? Ya'll know how I love a challenge so the goal is to put together hearty meals, without sacrificing flavor? Well the first thing to remember is that there are no rules. There are guidelines but no rules. I was raised by a southern grandma so I'm not going to abandon my southern roots just cuz I can't use meat. So this is what I did. My dear husband (henceforth to be known as "my favorite vegan") loves spice and heat.  Those two factors open up a world of possibilities for my creativity. Also, and it just gets gooder and gooder here; he loves beans, peas, and Farm Food. You know, the kind of food where you just make it steaming hot and flavorful, and slap it over rice or potatoes. Shoot! give me something hard to do! I know I can do this. Here's a few of my ideas:
I went to my favorite Indian food site about.com and read up on spices. Don't laugh if you want to know about anything you can find it on this site. I wanted to know the basics of what made Indian food taste Indian. Instead of Americanized Indian. Thank you  Patrina Verma Sarkar. ( She runs the site) It's like how to cook Indian food for dummies.
I went at this like a detective, I learned all about lentils (daal) which are similar to peas but not exactly the same. Once I got my list together I looked on the web for an Indian market near my area. Found one, yay! Not only that but I found a spice website just in case I couldn't find what I needed. Here's a tip: When you're getting ready to venture into home cooking from another culture, stay away from your local grocery store. Ask your friends, check the web and shop in culture as much as possible. I went into the Indian market with my list, and everyone was so nice. And yes, I stuck out but I knew I was in the right place. I focused on the food of North India mostly because of the focus on dairy, as soon as I found out that ghee (clarified butter) was one of the main components I was sold. Ok, on to the food.
Yellow Lentils (Moong Daal)
- 1  cup split yellow lentils
-1 onion/1 tsp garlic fried in ghee (or oil)
- 2 cups chicken broth (my favorite vegan likes more of a soup texture but you can use less broth.)
-1/2 tsp Garam Masala- a basic Indian seasoning, this is hot so I only use a little. Remember this is my version not traditional. You can add more, this is just guideline.
-1/8 tsp tumeric
-1/8 tsp cardamom
-sprinkle of cumin-to taste. (for me, too much gives it a latin flavor)
-1/4 tsp of ginger/garlic paste. (a wonderful little find from my Indian Market)
-salt ( to taste)
-chili powder- just a few shakes (once again, this is to taste. This is indian chili powder so it is stinkin hot and bright red (not dark brown like for making chili)  I only use enough to give it a kick.
-1/2 tsp onion powder
-Coconut milk
Put all of this in a rice cooker and go watch a movie. Get one with an automatic shut off  and you can do this.  If you don't have a rice cooker...get one. They cost 25-35 dollars and you can get them at Shop Rite, Target, Walmart. You can get them almost anywhere. If you are really serious about cooking you need tools right? and a rice cooker is multi-purpose tool you have to have.  Really. You'll thank me the first time you want to go shopping and cook rice at the same time.
Ok once this is done cooking, about 20 minutes. Turn it off and run it through with your hand blender. You know the one that looks like a wand. Sigh...I know..here it comes YES you need this. And no they are not expensive about 25 dollars. Why do you need one? Tomato pieces in your soup? Blend them away!  Gravy lumpy? Blend it away! The nice thing is you can stick the blender in  the pot and whisk it around the liquid and it is smooth as silk in no time. No lumps.
So I blend all the lumps away correct the seasoning and add about 1/4-1/2 cup of coconut milk. This adds a nice flavor to the finished product. No, coconut milk is not sweet, it's not even overly coconutty. (my word..obviously)
In fact, on it's own it's quite nursty!  Definitely an aquired taste. BUT it is perfect for spicy foods because it cools the pot but still lets the food retain it's character. Add it a little at a time. You can always add more but once you add too much you have ruined the integrity of the dish and it begins to taste like something else.
Soup done! Now, I fry up a good handful of medium cooked shrimp in some ghee, garlic, salt, and a little pepper. Once they are done, no more than 6 minutes total I throw them in a bowlful of yellow lentil soup and serve this with some whole wheat bread and watch my favorite vegan munch away. (I'll show you how to make whole wheat bread in another post, but for now regular wheat bread will do)
Ideas:
Empty your rice cooker -don't wash it- and put in 2 cups of basmati rice (and only  basmati rice, ) and 4 cups of chicken broth and a little Ghee and a sprinkle of Garam Masala. (yay, more ghee)
Hit the cook button and go watch your favorite 1/2 hr sitcom.
Serve the shrimp and soup over the rice with wheat bread and feed your vegan hearty! Ha!
Serve the soup/shrimp over mashed potatoes seasoned with salt and ghee. ( no rules remember?)
Mix the shrimp and the rice and the soup (yellow lentils) together almost like a cajun gumbo. Total freedom to do whatever you want.  Make this more hearty by adding sauteed scallops in with the shrimp. Use your imagination and go for it.
Things you must have:
Hand Blender
Rice Cooker