M. Darusha Wehm

Science fiction and mainstream books by award-winning author M. Darusha Wehm

Recipes of Arkadia

Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy’s Picante Beans

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

I don’t know how the chili wars will play out in the future, so let’s not even go there. This dish definitely owes its heritage to the American Southwest, and happens to go very well with Camilo’s Corn Bread.

Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy's Picante Beans
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 hours 24 hours
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 hours 24 hours
Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy's Picante Beans
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 hours 24 hours
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
2 hours 24 hours
Ingredients
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Soak the beans overnight in fresh water.
  2. Sauté the onion and garlic in the oil, adding salt and spices. Add the chili and sweet peppers, and cook until soft.
  3. Add the vegetable stock and kidney beans, simmer until they are getting tender. Add the chick peas, and simmer until nearly done. Add more stock or water if the mixture sticks or dries out.
  4. Add the tomatoes, simmer until the tomatoes have cooked down.
  5. Garnish with chopped coriander leaf.
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Notes

Notes
￪1, ￪4, ￪7 diced
￪2 crushed
￪3 seeded and diced
￪5, ￪6 soaked overnight

Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo’s Corn Bread

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Baking is therapy for Camilo Molina. No wonder he thinks of cornbead as a vegetable.

Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo's Corn Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo's Corn Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F/200C.
  2. Mix dry ingredients together.
  3. Melt butter, then beat in first the milk, then the egg.
  4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, mix until combined.
  5. Cut the kernels off the corn and add them to the batter. Mix well.
  6. Pour batter into a pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden.
Recipe Notes

Based on a recipe from The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas.

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Notes

Notes
￪1 melted
￪2 kernels removed

Recipes of Arkadia: Chen’s Herb Bread

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Isabel Hernández isn’t like the other residents of Arkadia. Chen helps her figure out how some parts of this society works and keeps her coming back to his market stall with both his knowledge and the savoury smell of this bread.

Recipes of Arkadia: Chen's Herb Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3 hours
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3 hours
Recipes of Arkadia: Chen's Herb Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3 hours
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30 minutes 3 hours
Ingredients
Servings: loaf
Instructions
  1. Mix together the flours, salt, yeast and mixed herbs.
  2. Add 3 tbsp of the olive oil and the warm water. Stir together until it's too hard to work with a spoon, then knead with your hands until it's all elastic. The dough will be moist.
  3. Let it rise an hour or more, then punch it down and shape it into a rectangle. Place it on a baking sheet with about a teaspoon of oil rubbed over it. Let it rest about half an hour.
  4. Stretch the dough out to the edges. Let it rest another half hour. Preheat oven to 425F/220C.
  5. Poke some divots into the top of the loaf, then drizzle with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F/200C and bake for about 30 minutes. Cool on a rack and cut into squares.
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Notes

Notes
￪1 basil, oregano, marjoram

Recipes of Arkadia: Slava’s Moroccan Chick Pea Soup

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

This soup is Siobhan Patel’s favourite, so Vyacheslav Haeroa makes it as often as he can in his soup café. Whatever it takes to get her to see him.

Recipes of Arkadia: Slava's Moroccan Chick Pea Soup
Print Recipe
Earth-based cooks can substitute canned tomatoes and chick peas.
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60 minutes 12 hours
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60 minutes 12 hours
Recipes of Arkadia: Slava's Moroccan Chick Pea Soup
Print Recipe
Earth-based cooks can substitute canned tomatoes and chick peas.
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60 minutes 12 hours
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60 minutes 12 hours
Ingredients
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Soak dried chick peas in cold water overnight. They will double in size, so use a large bowl and enough water.
  2. Saute onion and garlic.
  3. Add spices, stir until onion is translucent.
  4. Add flour, and cook a minute.
  5. Add vegetable stock, bring to a boil.
  6. Reduce heat as broth begins to thicken.
  7. Add tomatoes and drained chickpeas, taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
  8. Simmer 60-90 minutes (or about 15 minutes if using canned or pre-cooked chick peas).
  9. Add a dash of lemon juice prior to serving.
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Notes

Notes
￪1 diced
￪2 soaked overnight
￪3 chopped
￪4 minced

Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo Molina’s Nutty Oat Bars

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Camilo Molina is someone who wants to make sure no one goes hungry. A homebody and, with his husband Cliff, adoptive parent to a house full of kids, Camilo is one of those people who is always in the kitchen. For him, food is love, snacks are comfort and baking is stress relief. So, when one of his kids goes missing, Camilo’s kitchen starts to look like a commercial bakery.

Here’s one of his favourites.

Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo Molina's Nutty Oat Bars
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
16 bars 15 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
16 bars 15 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Recipes of Arkadia: Camilo Molina's Nutty Oat Bars
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
16 bars 15 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Servings Prep Time
16 bars 15 minutes
Cook Time
20 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: bars
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/200C.
  2. Beat the egg, butter and honey (or sugar) with a fork until it’s fluffy. Earthers can add a drop pr two of vanilla extract here. Then stir in the nut butter.
  3. Once that’s all smooth, add the oats and mix well so the oats are all damp.
  4. Add the flour, baking soda, salt. Stir until it's just mixed, then stir in the fruit and nuts.
  5. Pour it into a pan, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until the centre is solid and the top is golden. Let it cool a bit to firm up, then slice into bars.
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Notes

Notes
￪1 melted
￪2 or brown sugar
￪3 peanut butter
￪4 reduce to 1\/2 tsp if using sugar instead of honey
￪5 can add chocolate chunks

Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy Rhys-Jones’s Spicy Vegetable Stew

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Betsy isn’t one to build a community hall or tend to crops, but she isn’t content to just sit by the riverside. She loves to cook, but cooking for one is a pain. So why not share with everyone?

Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy Rhys-Jones's Spicy Vegetable Stew
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Recipes of Arkadia: Betsy Rhys-Jones's Spicy Vegetable Stew
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Servings Prep Time
2 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Ingredients
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Sauté the onion in the oil, with salt, pepper and other spices. (Note - spice amounts are approximate. Adjust to taste/smell).
  2. When the onions are translucent, add the stock and beans. Cover and simmer until the beans are just tender but not quite done.
  3. Add chopped potato and yam. If necessary, add stock/water to cover. Simmer about 10 minutes.
  4. Add the green beans or other vegetables. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Serve with rice or fresh bread.
Recipe Notes

The cook and prep time is highly dependent on what (or if) dried beans are used. Lentils and pre-soaked chick peas cook in about half an hour, other pre-soaked beans can take up to an hour and a half. But you can let the stew just simmer on the stove while you do other things, making the house smell wonderful. Or use canned beans. That works, too.

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Notes

Notes
￪1 diced
￪2, ￪3 small
￪4 or other pre-soaked beans
￪5 or other chopped vegetables

Recipes of Arkadia: Chen Wu’s Seed Loaf

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Chen Wu, one of Arkadia’s volunteer bakers, doesn’t think of himself as lazy — he’s efficient. He makes a lot of bread, so he does it the easy way: by letting time do the work. 

Recipes of Arkadia: Chen Wu's Seed Loaf
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 10 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
50 minutes 18 hours
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 10 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
50 minutes 18 hours
Recipes of Arkadia: Chen Wu's Seed Loaf
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 10 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
50 minutes 18 hours
Servings Prep Time
1 loaf 10 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
50 minutes 18 hours
Ingredients
Servings: loaf
Instructions
  1. Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl and stir them up.
  2. Add 2 cups of warm water, mix until you get a damp, doughy ball. You can do this all with a wooden spoon, there’s no need to knead! Cover with a cloth and let it sit overnight.
  3. The next day, pour the dough into a loaf pan and bake at 220C/425F for 40-60 minutes.
Recipe Notes

This seed loaf is my real-life everyday bread, using 3 cups of white flour, 1 cup of whole wheat and flax seed or meal. I’ve let the dough sit for more than 24 hours and as little as 8 hours. Longer is better, but the bread has always turned out.

You can use more or fewer seeds; I wouldn't go with more than a cup, though.

This recipe is based on Jim Lahey’s No-Work Bread, from How To Cook Everything.

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Notes

Notes
￪1 flax, sunflower, chia, sesame, whatever

Recipes of Arkadia: Vyacheslav Haereoa’s Easy Creamy Veggie Soup

Food — growing it, preparing it, eating it — is a central part of life in the Arkadia space colony. Over the next few weeks I’m sharing recipes for some of the food mentioned in the book.

Arkadia isn’t large enough to be able to sustain all crops year round, so its chefs need to be able to improvise based on what is available. This basic soup recipe can be modified nearly endlessly to use different ingredients and create highly varied options.

When Slava Haereoa decided to open a soup cafe, this was the first thing he made. It’s really easy to make, but don’t tell his regular patrons!

Recipes of Arkadia: Vyacheslav Haereoa's Easy Creamy Veggie Soup
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Recipes of Arkadia: Vyacheslav Haereoa's Easy Creamy Veggie Soup
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Sauté the onion in the oil with salt & pepper, add the garlic.
  2. Add the potatoes, vegetables and stock. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
  3. Let it cook until the everything is soft. With a potato masher or stick blender, puree everything until it is creamy.
  4. Add herbs or spices to taste. You can add milk or cream if you want a richer soup.
Recipe Notes

Some good combinations:

  • basil with zucchini (pictured)
  • chiles, coriander and cumin with pumpkin/carrots
  • thyme with broccoli
  • nutmeg with cauliflower
  • mint with peas
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Notes

Notes
￪1 diced
￪2 crushed
￪3 scrubbed and diced