Local Teen Chef’s Healthy Dish Earns Scholarship

in First Nationwide C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest

Third Prize Winner is Mary Geyer of Lane Tech College Prep and Gallery 37 AAEP, Chicago, for Red Coconut Curry with Tofu and Brown Rice

NEW YORK, March 13, 2012—Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), the national leader providing scholarships, education, and career opportunities in the culinary arts to underserved youth and Meatless Monday, an initiative of the nonprofit The Monday Campaigns, which provides healthy and environmentally friendly information and recipes, are proud to announce today the winners of the 2012 C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest. Third prize winner and recipient of a $2,000 scholarship is Mary Geyer of Lane Tech College Prep and Gallery 37 AAEP, Chicago, Illinois, for creating Red Coconut Curry with Tofu and Brown Rice.

Mary Geyer has always loved food and family meals and recently discovered her interest in cooking professionally. She has been a vegetarian for the past six years and is planning to attend culinary school in the fall.

“The Meatless Monday competition has further encouraged me to expand and diffuse my knowledge about the benefits of vegetarianism, which includes being healthy and environmentally friendly by means of food production,” says Mary.

Thousands of C-CAP high school seniors became head chefs in their classrooms and were introduced to the Meatless Monday public health campaign encouraging everyone to start each week with a healthy meal. While working with their culinary arts teachers to concoct the original meatless entree, the teen chefs were encouraged to use the recipe contest to explore new fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.

“We’re excited to be working with C-CAP, encouraging aspiring chefs to develop imaginative recipes that can be offered as alternatives on the menu, while simultaneously showing them that meatless meals can be both healthy and delicious,” says Sid Lerner, founder and chairman of The Monday Campaigns.

Each C-CAP school was invited to submit only one student recipe and photo. Seven finalists were selected and presented to a distinguished panel of judges. Three scholarships will be awarded this spring at the C-CAP Cooking Competitions for Scholarships Awards in the hometown of the winning student chefs. The first prize winner will receive $5,000, the second prize winner will receive $3,000, and the third prize winner will receive $2,000.

Mary will be competing in the C-CAP Chicago Cooking Competition for Scholarships on April 14 and she will receive her scholarship at the Awards ceremony on April 16.

“Through this contest, student chefs were guided by their teachers on recipe writing and development and were able to showcase their talent creating exciting meatless recipes,” says C-CAP president Susan Robbins. “C-CAP has teamed up with The Monday Campaigns to give high school seniors the opportunity for scholarships while promoting healthy eating in high schools and communities throughout the nation.”

The recipe submissions were judged on originality, flavor, healthfulness, ease of preparation, and writing ability. The recipe contest winners are from Los Angeles, California; Chesapeake, Virginia (Hampton Roads, VA); and Chicago, Illinois. The judges evaluating the submissions for the first annual C-CAP Meatless Monday Recipe Contest were Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet; Laurie David and Kristen Uhrenholdt, co-authors of The Family Dinner; Ellie Krieger, host of the Food Network’s hit show, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, now airing on the Cooking Channel, and USA Today columnist; Joey Lee, food editor of www.meatlessmonday.com; Hillary Mickle, founder of FOODILY, “the world’s largest recipe network”; Ron Taylor, executive chef of Brand Aromatics, and Scott Uehlein, corporate chef of Canyon Ranch.


3rd prize $2,000 scholarship: Mary Geyer of Lane Tech College Tech and Gallery 37 AAEP, Chicago, IL

Red Coconut Curry with Tofu and Brown Rice

Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients:

2 cups dry brown rice
4 cups water
3 (16oz) packages firm tofu, large dice
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, small diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 cup sliced mushrooms, ¼ inch thick
2 cans (16 oz) white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans (16 oz) coconut milk
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons red curry paste
3 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
½ cup basil leaves, chiffonade (shredded in julienne strips)

Salt and pepper, as needed
2 basil leaves, chiffonade for garnish

Directions:

In a sauce pot bring water to a boil. Add brown rice and cover with tightly fitting lid; turn heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. Do not take off the lid during 45 minute cook time.

Place 3 tablespoons of oil in a large sauce pan over high heat. Once pan is hot, sauté tofu until golden brown on all sides and set aside on paper towels when finished.

Using the same pan, add the remaining oil over high heat; sauté onions until translucent. Add garlic, carrots, and mushrooms until all elements are lightly browned and producing a small amount of liquid in the pan. The carrots should be slightly soft but not mushy.

Add the white beans, coconut milk and basil, stirring well. Return tofu back into the pan and bring to temperature.

Pour the soy sauce, white wine vinegar and oyster sauce in a bowl. Add ground ginger, brown sugar, red curry paste and red pepper and mix together to create a thick paste. Add this component into the sauce pan and stir until completely incorporated.

Stir in the chili garlic sauce, and add salt and pepper to season.

Serve on brown rice using leftover basil as garnish.

Contact:

Joyce Appelman
C-CAP
250 West 57th Street
Suite 2015
New York, NY 10107
516.482.1016


Cherry Dumaual
The Monday Campaigns
215 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212.991.1056

About C-CAP

Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) works with public schools across the country to prepare underserved high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry. A national nonprofit organization founded in 1990 by well-known culinary educator and author, Richard Grausman, C-CAP manages the largest independent culinary scholarship program in the United States and has awarded high school students $34 million in scholarships and donated $2.7 million worth of supplies and equipment to classrooms. C-CAP provides training and curriculum enrichment programs including: teacher training; scholarships and cooking competitions; job shadows, job training, internships, and career advising; college advising and college 101 workshop; and product donations. C-CAP operates programs in seven locations: New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia; Hampton Roads, VA; Prince George’s County, MD; and statewide in Arizona. For more information about C-CAP, visit www.ccapinc.org.

About Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday is a nonprofit public health initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The goal of the campaign is to cut saturated fat intake, which in turn reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Going meatless one day a week can also decrease our carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. Since its launch in 2003, Meatless Monday has become an international movement with support from celebrities, universities and organizations around the world. For more information about Meatless Monday, visit www.meatlessmonday.com.

Acknowledgment: Thank you to S&W Beans for their product contribution to the schools.

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