Bamboo-Delight.com proudly presents
for your good health and eating pleasure:
Dr. Wu Tao-Wei's
Hawaiian-Eskimo One Pot Heavenly
Pig-Out Cooking
Method.
Here's a way to feed four people for $2.50 or less. I devised this method of
cooking
in order to save on fuel and to save on washing up the mess that wok cooking
often makes.
While wondering how to keep the heat in the pot, I remembered that
the Hawaiians
for their
luau cooking would build a fire in a pit for several days until
the rocks
were hot. Then they
would bury in the pit a pig with all the trimmings for
a few more days until all
was well cooked.
Thus, the Hawaiian name.
With
this method, one pot is all that is necessary. I use a covered one gallon
stainless
steel pot with a lid. Into this pot I add enough brown rice which, when level,
reaches
to the first
digit of my finger. Add enough dry beans so that there are four parts of
rice
for one part of beans.
This way, the rice and beans combine to make perfect
protein because of their
complimentary
amino acid balance. All dry beans will re-
hydrate just fine except for the pinto
and the small red
beans. These should be
soaked over night first. Don't worry about getting gas
with this four-to-one
rice
and bean ratio.
If
you are cooking for more people, add more rice and beans but whatever the amount
of rice and beans, add double the amount of water. So, I fill the pot up with
water to
the second
digit of my finger.
Then
I start adding whatever vegetables that I want, making sure to put the hardest
ones
in first like carrots, turnips, ginger root, beets, celery, potatoes, garlic,
etc. Then
the softer ones
like onions, daikon radishes, cabbage or bok choy. It is best to fill
the rest
of the pot up to the
top with cabbage or leafy vegetables or the beet tops and
then put on the lid.
The water should
not be salted or seasoned at all.
Put
the pot on your hot plate or stove or hibachi or campfire at its highest heat.
What
you want to do is bring it all to a boil until the steam comes out from under
the lid.
Once this
happens, everything in the pot is as hot as it is going to get. Make sure
that
the steam is hissing
out real good but don't take the lid off because you want
everything to stay
hot. Don't worry
about the high heat. Nothing will burn. You'll see.
Now,
take the pot off of the fire and quickly wrap it in a towel or cloth of some
kind and
quickly put the whole thing into one of the ice chest-type coolers. No ice! The
ice
chest should
be dry and not contain any ice.
After
all, an ice chest is merely an insulated box. Whether it keeps heat out and cold
in
or keeps cold out and heat in is all the same to the ice chest. So, by putting
this
steaming pot
into the insulated box, all of the heat is trapped just like the heat is
trapped
in the rocks at a
Hawaiian luau. The ice chest I use is called an Igloo Cooler. Thus,
the name
Eskimo.
Now
all of these vegetables (I suppose you could add meat, too, but I've never cared
to try it)
will continue to cook just as if they were in an oven. The heat is trapped and
can't go anywhere so it
stays in the box and keeps on cooking. The food will be ready
to eat in a half
hour if you are in a hurry.
Or if you want to wait, this meal will be ready t
o eat at any time of the day
and will be steaming hot even eight or ten hours later. In fact,
it gets more delicious the longer
you wait because all of the
juices blend delightfully.
Women
should make note of this method for pleasing their husbands since they can
cook
the whole thing up in fifteen minutes in the morning while fixing breakfast. Pop
it
into the Igloo and
the husband can take it to work. When he opens th e box for lunch he
will have a
steaming hot and
delicious meal. And there is room in the Igloo for eating
utensils, a small bowl
and condiments, too.
Regarding condiments, this sort of cooking does best with a splash of
cold-pressed oil
such
as olive, soy, safflower or peanut and a dash of soy sauce. Leave out the oil if
you
are dieting. Don't
buy any Kikkoman or any other of the synthetically prepared junk food,
MSG-filled soy sauces. Only
use natural soy sauce for the best flavor.
And
at home, this method will save the ladies many hours a day over the stove. Using
only
brown rice and beans as the basis, there is an infinite number of flavors that
can
be cooked up
depending on the combinations of vegetables that you use. And thus,
the name,
"Wu Tao-Wei's Hawaiian-Eskimo One Pot Heavenly Pig-Out Cooking Method."
All you
have to do is
leave the pig out and go ahead and Pig Out! Bon appetite!
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