hardly starving | vegetarian cooking

Thanksgiving Menu

2011-11-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this menu mainly for my own benefit. We'll be cooking a small meal for four people, with very little prep work. We didn't find any fresh corn at the farmer's market (out of season, right?) so we scraped our favorite creamless creamed corn recipe. And I'm still debating what to do with the organic cranberries I picked up, since they're not my favorite. Any idea how to make them delicious without using a ton of sugar?

First Course

Butternut squash soup

(recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, or similar)

Homemade bread

Green salad
(leaning towards this one from Vegan Soul Kitchen)

Sides

Persimmon, pomegranate, and walnut salad

Brussels sprouts roasted in garlic oil

Mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy

Main Course

Rustic white bean and sage casserole

(from Veganomicon, featuring Rancho Gordo's famous Vallarta beans)

Dessert

Vegan apple pie (K.'s mom's recipe)

with non-dairy vanilla ice cream

And just for fun, here's last year's Thanksgiving recap.

Coconut Oil Biscuits

2011-05-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

These are the flakiest, most delicious biscuits I've ever made. Need I say more?

I first read about coconut oil way back when in Super Natural Cooking. Heidi pointed out that "coconut oil is one of the only unrefined vegetable oils that isn't heavily compromised at higher temperatures," which makes it a good substitute for butter. And according to some studies, coconut oil may be better for you than other saturated fats. But make sure you use organic unrefined coconut oil and not anything hydrogenated/trans-fatty. I used Dr. Bronner's (gotta love that guy).

Coconut Oil Biscuits
Makes 6-8 biscuits

2/3 c. white AP flour
2/3 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 scant tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. coconut oil
almond milk, as needed
1 small container plain soy yogurt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Microwave the coconut oil for about a minute, until there is a layer of liquid oil on the top. Use a small spoon to scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the solid coconut oil. It should still be slightly cold, but pliable. I use my hands to break the oil into small pieces and incorporate it into the dry mixture, but you can use a fork or a food processor if you prefer. Next, stir in the yogurt with a large spoon until the mixture forms a soft dough ball. This is the part where I usually need to add a few drops of almond milk to help everything come together. Finally, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 10 times. Pat or roll the dough to your desired thickness and cut out round biscuits. Place the biscuits on a non-greased cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes.

Shown with a heap of spicy tempeh and greens. And, because we can, a smidge of maple syrup!

East of Easter: Masala Dosas

2011-04-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Mmmm, dosas. Delicate pancakes made from a batter of fermented rice and lentils, stuffed with curried potatoes and served with a dollop of coconut chutney.

WARNING: File under "special holiday dishes that require at least one day of advance prep." Seriously, I'm talking 8 hours of soaking and 16-20 hours of fermentation.

And you'll probably need to make a trip to your local Indian grocery store for ingredients: urad dal, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, etc. And you might be inspired to stock up on additional goodies (like the largest jar of amchoor powder in the whole store, to make authentic versions of masoor dal and bhindi masala).

We referenced both Madhur Jaffrey's classic cookbook (currently obsessed with it) and this page for the dosa, potato curry, and chutney recipes.

Almond ricotta pizza

2011-04-22T00:51:00.000-07:00

After a not insignificant amount of experimentation this is the pizza we have loved the most (in degree and frequency). Regular crust with a quick marinara sauce, a few dollops of almond ricotta, topped with kale (or broccoli) and tempeh sausage. Out of a perverse kind of laziness (i.e., not wanting to go to the store), I've gotten in the habit of making all the various components from scratch, but everything other than the cheese and sauce could easily be subbed out for pre-made stuff.

I still like Bittman's pizza dough recipe. Kristen doesn't love the cornmeal so I have been using all flour lately (and I can verify that up to 1/3 whole wheat flour tastes good). Also if you are into leavening things, I can't recommend instant yeast enough (available on King Arthur Flour's website).

Once the dough has risen, divide it, shape it into two balls and cover with a dry cloth. Throw your pizza stone in the oven (I've also had good luck baking pizza in a 12" cast iron skillet) and preheat to 500. If your oven is anything like mine, you should have plenty of time to make the toppings while you wait:

Simple pizza sauce
Half an onion, diced
28oz can of whole tomatoes
0.5 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper, oregano

Heat the oil over medium heat, add the onions and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Trim the tomatoes (i.e., cut off the stems and chop coarsely), and add them with about half of their juice to the pan. Add the sugar, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, and then give it a quick pulse in the blender.

Almond ricotta
1 cup almonds
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
~0.25 cups warm water
Salt, pepper

If your almonds have skins, drop them in boiling water for a couple minutes, and then transfer to an ice bath. When they're cool, just squeeze along the edges, and the almond will pop out. Toss the skins, and let the almonds soak in warm water for a few minutes (usually how ever long it takes to make the sauce). Drain almost all of the water, and transfer to a food processor. Add the garlic, lemon, and a pinch of salt. The goal now is to process until it is quite smooth (it's always slightly grainy but that seems to work itself out when it bakes), and fairly thick, adding a little bit of water at a time as necessary. I've found it to be quite forgiving w/r/t the amount of water, so don't worry if it seems too thick or too thin (anywhere from yogurt to ricotta seems to work fine). Season to taste.

Toss the dough like so (warning: embarrassing animated GIF), or just roll and stretch it like a normal person. Top with plenty of sauce. We're partial to tempeh sausage crumbles à la Isa and something green (broccoli, kale) for toppings, plus a few evenly spaced dollops of almond cheese. Bake for 9-10 minutes at 500, until the crust is starting to darken and the cheese puffs up a bit. Enjoy!

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Interlude: Lentil black bean burgers

2011-04-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

A.k.a. clean out the fridge burgers, approximately 1:1:1 lentils, black beans, and barley, with an egg, ketchup, cumin, and chili powder. Also tried my luck at making my own buns -- a quick recipe from Vegan Lunchbox (great texture, a little raw flour-y taste, presumably from not letting it ferment overnight, will have to try Peter Reinhardt's recipe some time). Pictured here Kristen-style, double-decker with ketchup, relish, veganaise, and an artichoke.

Ginger-tofu potstickers (with dipping sauce)

2011-04-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

I've been having a love affair with fresh ginger. It's now a staple on my weekly grocery list. On any given day, our fridge's butter compartment is likely to be stocked with ginger roots instead of butter. Fresh ginger keeps for weeks and can be used to spice Asian dishes (like the potstickers featured in this post), make delicious tea (boil unpeeled slices for 25 minutes and sweeten with honey), and flavor baked goods (like these carrot bran muffins). But for now, back to the gingery potstickers.

I have fond memories of making potstickers with my college friends in the awkward kitchen of the International House. Of course in those days we filled them with pork and cabbage. This version is not nearly so authentic, but it's vegetarian* and relies on tofu for much of its substance. And luckily for me, the end result tastes nothing like tofu (it's no secret that I'm not a big fan--I think it tastes like watery plastic). K. said the filling was more reminiscent of crab rangoon, and I agree. Each bite is creamy and indulgent in taste but otherwise guilt-free. Enjoy!

*vegan if you use egg-free gyoza wrappers

Ginger-tofu potstickers
Adapted from Vegetarian Times

(Makes about 28)

Filling
1 10-oz. pkg. firm tofu, drained
4 oz. your favorite mushroom (we used cremini, shiitake would be ideal)
6 Tbs. blanched, slivered almonds
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 inch ginger root, peeled and sliced (about 2 Tbs.)
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch plus some extra for dusting
1 Tbs. orange zest
1/2 tsp. salt
28 gyoza wrappers
2 Tbs. canola oil

Dipping sauce
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar (or your preferred sweetener)
2 Tbs. finely shredded carrot
1 Tbs. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

Prep: drain the tofu by placing between two plates, finely chop the mushrooms, zest the orange with a zester or microplane, and peel ginger using a small metal spoon (this works better than a vegetable peeler).

Make filling: crumble tofu into the food processor, add cilantro, ginger, garlic, and half the almonds (1/4 c.), soy sauce, sugar and 1 tsp. cornstarch. Process until everything is well incorporated. Remove mixture from the food processor and place into a large bowl. Mix in the orange zest, salt, mushrooms and remaining almonds.

Assemble potstickers: Dust a baking sheet with cornstarch. Arrange several gyoza wrappers on work surface. Place a small bowl of water and brush nearby. Each potsticker will need about 1 tablespoon filling. Brush half of the wrapper's edge with water. Bring edges together and press to seal. Place pot stickers on baking sheet, and refridgerate until you are ready to cook them. If they get too warm they will start to fall apart and stick to the baking sheet.

Make dipping sauce: Bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat to cool.

Cook potstickers: Heat 1 Tbs. oil over medium-high heat in each of 2 large skillets (or make in 2 batches, using 1 Tbs. oil per batch). Drop pot stickers into pan, and cook until browned, about 3 minutes on each side. Pour about one inch water into the pan, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Cook 8-10 minutes, checking pan and shaking occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove carefully when done and serve hot with bowls of dipping sauce.

Grown-up rice crispy treats

2011-04-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, we're back! March was a trying month and we ate a lot of comfort food. Sophisticated comfort food. For grown-ups (and kids with mature palates). Like these brown rice crispy treats.

Sara over at Sprouted Kitchen created this clever recipe that subs in brown rice syrup for the traditional marshmallow creme, swaps white rice crispies for healthier brown rice cereal, and opts for almond butter instead of boring old peanut butter. We made them vegan by using margarine instead of butter, but I suspect coconut oil would be even better.

A note about brown rice syrup: Go buy some now! It has a mildly sweet, toasted flavor. I keep it around for making frequent batches of my favorite fat-free granola (recipe here).

Mushroom bourguignon

2011-02-22T22:10:00.000-08:00

A veg-friendly bourguignon from Smitten Kitchen. The closest I've come to eating beef bourguignon was watching Julie and Julia on an airplane, but Kristen said this at least met the basic criteria, i.e., that if you live somewhere where they still have chilly days, it would be the perfect thing to warm you up. If I were a slightly different person I would use the phrase "tuck into" there. Also, this did not take anywhere near all day to make, so there is no possibility of ruining an entire batch the day the reporter is coming over to your house to write a story about your blog... At least I think that's what happened.

We actually made this about a month ago, but I have been in that unmotivation cycle best described here (more applicable to genuinely creative people than silly cooking blogs, but nevertheless)

Vegan white pizza

2010-12-11T00:06:00.000-08:00

EDIT: We found a much better ricotta substitute -- make this instead!

So this was kind of an experiment: spinach, mushroom, and tofu ricotta pizza (with walnuts). I'd like to claim some kind of high-minded, ethical reason for cutting out most dairy from my diet, but the truth is I've just gotten kind of sensitive to it in my old age (though it doesn't bother me a bit not to be contributing to the dairy/cattle/veal industry either). I won't lie to you, Fellini's white pizza it was not (that is kind of a high bar to compare oneself to though). And it took a couple of bites to get over the cognitive dissonance -- the tofu looks an awful lot like ricotta without actually tasting that much like ricotta -- but once I did I really rather liked it. The walnuts were Kristen's idea and were a brilliant addition ... a textural contrast with the softness of the tofu or whatever.

I made Mark Bittman's pizza dough recipe (previously, with 2 cups bread flour + 1 cup wheat flour this time), and Isa's tofu ricotta, below. Pop it into a 500 degree oven for about 9 minutes.

PPK Tofu Ricotta
14oz package extra firm tofu
1 clove garlic minced
2 tsp lemon juice
two heavy pinches salt
pinch of black pepper
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Slice the tofu and squeeze out as much of the moisture as you can (within reason). Put it in a bowl with the garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and smash it with your hands for a few minutes, until it's the texture of ricotta. Add the olive oil and nutch and stir with a fork.

Upper West Side Lentil Salad

2010-12-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

A lot of times, deciding what we want for dinner is a matter of asking, "What kind of lentils should we make tonight?" This particular dish was inspired by the French lentil salad I had at Alice's Tea Cup on my recent trip to New York (my annual visit to the fabulous J. of custard fame). It was a perfect day: we toured the natural history museum in the morning (where I got the best souvenir -- a pressed penny with the whale from The Squid & the Whale) and then fawned over tea, scones, and lentil salad in the pink and purple wonderland of Alice's for most of the afternoon.

To recreate the experience, I used this super basic recipe from Saveur as a guide, adding dainty pieces of broccoli and carrot for nutrition and prettiness. I'd recommend serving the lentils warm, on top of a bed of mixed greens. We ate this as a small meal but it would work really well as a side dish... and would serve a whole ton of people. Tea party, anyone?

Thanksgiving recap

2010-12-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

After a travel-filled year, Kristen and I decided to take it super easy over Thanksgiving, fix a smallish meal at home and then spend a couple of days in the snow-capped Southern California mountains (<-- still weird).

At the last minute, we ditched our idea for a tofu-sweet potato "loaf" (mercifully, most likely) and split the ingredients up into a black bean-sweet potato salad with fried sage adapted from Steve Sando's cookbook and Roasted Rosemary Tofu from the always excellent Vegan Soul Kitchen.

I made another batch of Creamless Cream Corn which has been on my mind semi-daily for a year, and to go with our mashed potatoes, Kristen whipped up a batch of Isa's Savory Mushroom Gravy, which totally stole the show... But isn't that always the way with gravy? Yum, it was good.

And we had a really nice time in Idyllwild. The weather was clear and beautiful but sooo chilly! Dinner at the Mountain was kind of amazing...possibly the best piece of salmon I've ever had (I'm an occasional pescetarian in case that's confusing). And if you didn't believe me about snowy SoCal, here're some pictures!

Butternut squash pasta with sage

2010-11-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe it now looking out on the rainiest grayest day ever (and loving it), but just a week ago it was too hot to turn the oven on and two sad, neglected butternut squashes were on their last legs in our refrigerator. Too hot to roast winter squash... another one of those unique-to-southern-california problems.

NYT to the rescue, this recipe cooks shredded squash in a skillet until it breaks down into something like a sauce. Taking a cue from some of the comments, I used about 7 torn up sage leaves (added toward the end) instead of nutmeg and skipped the sugar, for a more savory dish. The result really did our CSA organic squash justice, highly recommended.

Playing: The Jezabels - Dark Storm EP

Breakfast of champions: tempeh sausage on scallion biscuits

2010-10-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I wrote that skillet smashed potatoes topped with leftover ratatouille topped with an over easy egg was the best breakfast I'd ever had, and I'm going to stand by that, but this is another new favorite. Tempeh is made of pressed, fermented whole soybeans, and it's supposedly better for you than more processed soy products like soy milk or tofu. I used to think it was sort of an acquired taste, until I learned from Isa that I was cooking it all wrong (i.e., I wasn't simmering it). On a warm biscuit straight out of the oven, it's enough to make me forget about Chick-fil-a breakfast forever.

Tempeh Sausage Biscuits

Tempeh
1 package of tempeh
2-3 tablespoon tamari
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
Red pepper flakes
Fresh or dried sage
2 cloves of garlic minced
canola oil

I like to cut the tempeh into three rectangles, then set each rectangle on its side and slice it in half crosswise to make a thin square that will fit nicely on a biscuit. Then add the tempeh to a medium pan, with enough water to nearly cover it. Simmer for 10-12 minutes until most of the water is absorbed (the tempeh should be a bit pliable). Drain the rest of the water, add oil and other ingredients, and cook until they are a bit brown on either side.

Biscuits
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole-wheat flour (or just 2 cups of AP)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3.5 tbsp butter
scant cup of plain yogurt
lightly caramelized sliced scallions (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and pinch it into the flour until it's blended. Add the scallions if using and then stir in the yogurt until you can form everything into a ball. It should be relatively dry but cohesive (we had to add a few splashes of soymilk to incorporate all the flour). Turn out onto a flour surface and knead just a few times (~10) until smooth. Press the dough into a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle, and use a glass to cut it into rounds. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 7-9 minutes.

Serve with good yellow mustard (crucial!)

Digression: I find the discussion of meat substitutes slightly interesting... With something like a lentil burger that really has almost nothing in common with a hamburger, it probably does a disservice to someone trying it for the first time (really it's just too bad that "patty" is such a gross word). Even worse are things like "vegan meatballs" (which I very infrequently am very grateful for). But at the same time, the lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard on a bun is at least as important as the burger (q.v., In-n-Out grilled cheese) to the extent that calling it anything else would be a sham. Same thing goes for the spices in sausage, if you can call turkey sausage sausage, I think we're pretty safe with this one.

Coccodrillo Ciabatta Bread

2010-10-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Poor neglected hardly starving. We've been cooking but sadly nothing really blog-worthy (except some amazing tempeh sausage biscuits that might make their way here eventually). In any case, if you've been wanting to try baking a loaf of bread, or need a good way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon, or if you don't feel like waiting for an overnight pre-ferment, this is a really good one to try.

You start with a pancake batter consistency dough (an incredible 95% hydration!) and dough hook it until it eventually turns into sticky dough. This took about 20 minutes with the kitchen aid on 6 for me. It rises like crazy--pretty sure mine quadrupled while we were out shopping--and has great oven spring so don't worry if it's all flat and sad looking when you first put it in the oven.

I only made a half-batch (so 250g flour, 237g water) which made two smallish loaves. Also I'd recommend erring on the side of overcooking since the dough's so wet, and make sure to let it cool completely before slicing!

Ratatouille with heirloom veggies

2010-10-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Whoa, it's been a long time! September almost went by without my noticing, had a really good time visiting friends the last couple weeks, but it's nice to be home and cooking again.

Inspired by some beautiful heirloom zucchini and eggplants from Suzie's Organic Farm at the grocery store, K looked up a few recipes for ratatouille and we decided to follow the one from Tartelette, attributed to her french mother, which was the right choice. Note to self: when in doubt go for the mom's recipe :)

The dish was super easy to put together, sauteeing each vegetable a bit before adding the next, and then stewing for about an hour basically unattended. And it made quite a lot. Easily enough for a main course for 4-5 people. All the veggies were good, but the Rosa Bianca eggplants (white flesh with white/purple skin) were particularly amazing, which is good because they were easily the most expensive thing that we got at the store.

That clove of garlic sitting on top was a knock out spread on a baguette. Kristen tried to convince me that roasted garlic was the real vegan butter, and while it is super delicious, I still ain't buying it.

Also happy World Vegetarian Day! A great day to go for the lentil burger or the mushroom risotto. Oh man, I need to make some mushroom risotto soon.

UPDATE: skillet smashed potatoes topped with ratatouille topped with an over easy fried egg is probably the best breakfast I've ever had.

Roasted vegetable enchiladas

2010-09-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

So the thing is, for me, enchiladas are just another way to make tortillas and cheese and salsa, but to Kristen they are apparently something sacred. Not to be trifled with. In what must have been another life, we had a little tradition where she would make these amazing enchiladas with flour tortillas and shredded chicken for my birthday every year.

Since then, we have tried lots of variations with middling success, cheese and black beans, one time with tofu, cashews, lentils, and chard. These all tasted fine but had a real problem with texture, falling apart with the filling spilling everywhere when you cut into it, if not as soon as you tried to take it out of the pan. I suppose I had always resisted a vegetable filling because of that horrible oily mess of grilled fajita vegetables at places like Baja Fresh, but vegetables are definitely the way to go... It just doesn't have to be soggy onions and green peppers! We adapted a bit from this great Rick Bayless recipe and ended up with some of the best enchiladas I think I've ever had anywhere.

Kris added some roasted anaheim peppers to the sauce because we have a ton of them growing on the porch and never know what to do with them. I liked the bitter spiciness they added, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them if we didn't already have a surplus. We also opted to skip the crema because that's how we roll.

Roasted vegetable enchiladas
Tomatillo sauce
1 lb tomatillos (about 6)
2 serrano peppers
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium onion
2 anaheim peppers (optional)
1.5 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups of vegetable broth (I like Rapunzel bouillon)

Enchiladas
4-6 oz. Button mushrooms, quartered
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 small onion + 1 small shallot (or some similar combination)
1 crown of brocolli
12 tortillas
Small handful grated cheddar

Start on the sauce; broil the tomatillos, peppers, onions, and garlic for about 2-3 min on each side. At this point I was a little nervous that they were turning so black so we opted to turn the oven to 400 degrees and move them down to the center for about 10 more minutes. When everything's getting nice and soft, peel and seed the anaheims if you are using them (if you put them in a ziplock bag for a few minutes while they're still warm, the steam will separate the skin for you). To make the sauce, toss everything into a blender or food processor, and puree. Then add the vegetable oil to a medium pot over medium-high heat. When that's heated up, add the puree and stir constantly for a few minutes until it darkens and thickens up a bit. Finally add the vegetable broth, reduce the heat to medium low, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

While the sauce simmers, put the filling vegetables, except for the mushrooms, on an aluminum lined baking pan, drizzle with a little oil, and a healthy dose of salt and pepper. Let these roast in the 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes, stirring a few times to prevent them from burning. We sauteed the mushrooms on the stovetop (in a small dry cast iron pan, adding a little splash of tamari when the mushroom liquid all dried up) while this was happening.

Finally, assembly. Warm the tortillas in the microwave with a damp cloth covering them, for about one minute. Pour a thin layer of the tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9x12 baking pan. One by one, fill the tortillas with some of each vegetable, roll, and line them up in the pan. Top with the remaining sauce and a little cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes, mostly just to melt the cheese. Garnish with sliced onion and cilantro.

Strawberry icebox cake for Labor Day

2010-09-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a recipe appropriate for American Labor Day, our hallowed end-of-summer celebration (as opposed to Real Labor Day, which they observe everywhere else on May 1st). It's a frozen strawberry cheesecake that you can whip up with minimal labor. Plus it's dairy-free and relatively healthy. And delicious, duh. The recipe is adapted from Green Kitchen Stories (looove this blog).

Strawberry icebox cake

Crust
2 c. almonds
10 fresh pitted dates
2 tbsp. coconut oil, melted to liquid
a generous pinch of salt

Filling
2 c. fresh or frozen strawberries (blueberries and raspberries would work too)
juice from half a lemon
1/2 c. honey
1 c. soy cream cheese (I used Tofutti, but make sure it's free of hydrogenated oils)
1 c. plain or vanilla soy yogurt (can substitute Greek yogurt)

Grind up the ingredients for the crust in a food processor. Then flatten out the crust in the bottom of an 8-inch spring form cake pan. Stick it in the fridge while you make the filling. You can rinse out the food processor or use a blender to mix the ingredients for the filling. Pour the filling on top of the crust and freeze for 1-2 hours before serving. If you store it overnight, let it soften a little before eating (otherwise you'll get that horrible freeze-burn sensation on your teeth).

Gnocchi with pesto and wax beans

2010-08-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

We finally rejoined a CSA after I get us kicked out of the very exclusive Be Wise Ranch CSA last year for (accidental) non-payment. This time we are trying out J.R. Organics from Escondido. The first box is interesting, really good lettuce and some other greens, excellent tomatoes, a whole bunch of oranges and a couple apples (weird time of year for both of them, but apparently that's what's growing right now), and among other things some really beautiful green and purple wax beans.

K reminded me of this great simple dish I used to get in Bernal Heights at (the very sadly closed) Valentina, which had spinach fettuccine with potatoes, green beans, and pesto. I decided to give it a try with gnocchi instead of pasta and potatoes, probably because I am obsessed with anything that involves making dough.

After the first batch that I murdered by boiling too long in too-hot water, the rest of the gnocchi came out pretty close to perfect, pillowy, and looking an awful lot like bay scallops. I had a good friend in college whose dad owned an Italian restaurant who pronounced it nacky or sometimes nee-yacky, so feel free to join me in pronouncing it like that, if for no other reason than to honor and make fun of Jim.

Ok actually I'm starting to get a little self-conscious about saying "gnocchi" so much; there needs to be some non-pretentious alternative, something with an s at the end... Potato dumplings maybe? The potato dumplings took about an hour and a half start to finish, which was maybe a little long for a weeknight dinner, unless you are someone who finds cooking relaxing after a long day of work :) Annnd now I need one more sentence here because of the ridiculous formatting of this post. How do those real food bloggers do it??

Here is the recipe for just the gnocchi. We steamed the wax beans with a pinch of salt and topped it with a dollop of pesto. I won't embarrass myself by posting a recipe for pesto. If you want to do it right, I'd predictably look here. If you want to do it like me just put all that stuff in the food processor (and skimp on the olive oil because damn, it is expensive).

Basic Gnocchi
About 1 pound of potatoes (supposed to be russet, yukon gold worked fine)
3/4-1 cup flour (supposed to be AP, bread flour worked fine)
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes whole with skin on for 30-45 minutes in salted water until they're very tender. Drain and let them cool a bit before peeling, which should be very easy with a small knife or your fingers.

Mash the potatoes with some salt and pepper. I used a wooden spoon but one of those wire potato mashers would work better.

Stir in half a cup of flour. Then add a little bit at a time and keep mixing until you can knead it into a smooth round dough. The goal is to add the least amount of flour possible that makes it a cohesive dough. You can pinch off a piece of the dough and place it in some water that is just shy of boiling to make sure it will stay together (if it doesn't, it needs a little more flour).

Roll a small piece of the dough into a snake about 1/2 an inch thick and cut it into small square pieces. Place a batch of the dumplings in almost boiling water. They will be done about a minute after they float to the surface of the water. I found the easiest way to handle the batches was to roll out all the strands first and then cut one strand right before adding it to the water.

They'll be best while they're still warm. Tossing with a little bit of olive oil in the meantime helped keep them from sticking to each other.

Mario Batali says that peeling the potatoes after you boil them is a big deal in Italy. He sounded a little dubious about the benefits of it but unwilling to mess with tradition, and so shall I be.

Carrot-ginger muffins & a digression

2010-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is my first-ever post about muffins. Pretty surprising given the fact that I am a muffin fanatic. Zealot. I'm of the opinion that the most perfect weekday breakfast is baked in a tin. Scones and bagels are fatty enough to be reserved for the occasional weekend indulgence, but I can bake a batch of muffins and eat them all week! I'd settled into this Spiced Carrot muffin routine (super healthy and quite yummy) when I discovered a small bag of wheat bran in our pantry. K had used it in his multi-grain sandwich bread and I decided to claim the leftovers for muffins. These ones are the best yet to emerge from my teeny tiny kitchen, which is why I'm finally posting a muffin recipe.

Carrot-ginger muffins
Makes 8 muffins

3/4 c white whole wheat flour
1/2 c wheat bran
1/4 c raw sugar
1/4 c agave nectar (or honey)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
3 tbsp butter, melted
3 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 c applesauce
1 large egg
1/2 c (packed) shredded carrots
2 tsp grated fresh ginger

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk the egg, applesauce, butter, and coconut oil in another bowl. Add the carrots and fresh ginger to the wet mixture. Combine the wet & dry ingredients and fill 8 muffin cups. Bake for 22-25 min.

Want more hardly-addicting muffins (proof of my obsession)? Here they come!

Doughnut muffins to cheer you up on bad days

Savory roasted red pepper and goat cheese muffins

Healthy lemon poppy seed muffins

Tart walnut yogurt muffins

Baked egg muffins (inspired by bouchons au thon)

Chocolate chip banana muffins (based on these from Supernatural Cooking)

Blueberry corn muffins from The Bread Bible

Chickpea Red Curry from VeganDad

2010-08-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Quick post on dinner last night... This thai-style curry made a really great, super quick weeknight meal. Starting with cooked chickpeas and with a frozen stir fry vegetable mix, it took all of about ten minutes and I should mention that I reduced the sugar to a heaping tablespoon and it was still just a little too sweet honestly. Judging by the color and spice level, I probably should've added a good bit more red curry paste.

I'm a little embarrassed that I like this blog about cooking for kids so much, although this guy's kids have much more sophisticated palates than I ever did (my favorite thing to eat as a kid was strawberry pop tarts crushed up with milk; I think it was a Paula Poundstone joke that I took literally)

Sourdough: First contact

2010-08-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Now this has been a fun one... I started cultivating a wild starter about three weeks ago, right when we got home from Oregon. This is actually my second attempt at making bread with it and I'm relatively happy with the result -- the crust is beautiful, the crumb a little bit too tight, and it's only just a little bit sour. The addiction center of my brain is fickle and usually gives up when something gets difficult but I'm hoping I stick with this long enough to make a truly face-twistingly sour loaf of bread.

So then, a wild starter is different from a regular starter in that it contains ... surprise, wild yeast. This is as opposed to commercial baker's yeast (also brewer's yeast) in other types of bread. It is apparently widely misconceived that wild yeast comes right out of the air -- I say apparently because I didn't even know that wild yeast was a thing, let alone a thing to be misconceived, until a few weeks ago. The yeast actually lives right there on the flour (particularly rye flour, particularly organic rye flour) and given some time to grow and ferment with regular feedings (i.e., adding more flour) it will turn itself into a little self-sustaining ball of bread-rising power. The really cool implication is that this bread is literally made from flour, salt, and water only (although the complete truth is that the starter began life in half a cup of pineapple juice to stave of leuconostoc bacteria that can sometimes, and on my first attempt did, delay the starter a few days)

All credit to Bread Baker's Apprentice by the way for this information. So another interesting thing is that it's actually bacteria and not the wild yeast that makes the bread sour. San Francisco sourdough is so distinctive because it contains a type of bacteria that lives only in that hallowed city (Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis believe it or not). The reason the wild yeast is important is that it can live in the acidic environment that the bacterias thrive in, and live long enough for the bacteria to grow.

Extra bonus Multigrain Extraordinaire. Incredibly delicious multi-grain loaf with millet, brown rice, wheat bran, and rolled oats. Instead of a pre-ferment, this bread starts with a "soaker" where you let the grains soak in water overnight, which actually made it one of the easier breads I've made so far, though it doesn't give me quite the same zen feeling of fermenting, kneading, and rising regular bread. Reinhart alleges that this bread makes the best toast ever, and he is correct in doing so.

It was a little bit too sweet for anything but breakfast -- Some of the people on The Fresh Loaf recommended cutting the sugar in half which I will definitely try on my next batch. And there will be a next batch.

Zucchini pasta with watercress pesto

2010-08-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

There is a special place in my heart for watercress on account of The Man Who Cooked for Himself (a children's story about ... well a shut-in who is out of food and goes foraging in the woods for himself and his cat, or an early introduction for children to the benefits of pescetarianism). Whatever your feelings about watercress, you must agree that it has the most appetizing name for a bitter lettuce ever!

Kristen found this clever recipe for zucchini "pasta" on Claudia Pearson's blog (you should click on that link, the recipe is very beautiful) -- shaved raw zucchini is tossed with a little salt and left to soften until it can be treated sort of like cooked pasta. I went for parmesan instead of blue cheese -- I'm sure blue cheese would have been good, but that's one of the few foods that I really never came to terms with... I can tell objectively that it should taste good, but if I'm honest with myself, blech.

We had a little white bean salad (with cilantro, red onions, and red wine vinegar) and a homemade baguette on the side

Only tangentially related (TMWCFH ate blueberries from a bush near his house), here is some proof that it's finally starting to be summer here (kids):

sweet potato mac & cheese

2010-07-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

i have a few food obsessions--raspberry lemon scones, oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies, spiced carrot muffins, purple potato frittatas, watercress sandwiches, tempeh bacon, aaaaand cheese. macaroni and cheese to wit. and this, my dears, is no ordinary variation on the classic casserole. this is IT. the macaroni and cheese i'd walk down the aisle with. it's smoky, it's sweet, crunchy and creamy, indulgent but healthy (not that it's bathing suit season or anything).

i should point out to my vegan friends that the key ingredient here is the sweet potato, not the cheese. you can substitute and modify any of the cheeses, but i really wouldn't lose the sweet potato (maybe butternut squash, but i'm not a big fan). i have been known in the past to jokingly describe my cooking as "50% vegan", which is ridiculous i know. but part of why i've been hesitant to post this recipe is precisely because it's a non-vegan dish inspired by the vegan version that calls for squash, sweet potato, or carrot to sweeten (and color) the cheese sauce. this sauce is healthy in the same way (no butter and plenty of veggies) and most of the cheese ends up on the top (slightly brown and crispy).

sweet potato mac & cheese

1-2 white-flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup vegetable broth
1.5 cups plain (unsweetened) soymilk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cayenne or chipotle pepper
1 lb. macaroni noodles
about 4 oz. grated smoked gouda
about 1 oz. finely grated parmesan
about 2 oz. grated sharp white cheddar
handful of arugula, coarsely chopped
1 slice of bread, coarsely chopped (for breadcrumbs)
1 tsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Bring milk and broth to a boil; add potatoes. Simmer about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil and add the macaroni. Cook according to package directions (about 8 min). Puree sauce with stick blender until smooth. Add nutmeg, cayenne, salt and pepper. Stir in all of the gouda cheese and half of the parmesan. Then toss macaroni and arugula with the sauce before added to greased baking dish. Top with the cheddar and remaining parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes or until cheese is slightly browned. Add breadcrumbs immediately before serving. To prepare breadcrumbs, broil the pieces of bread with olive oil and salt/pepper for 1-2 minutes.

5 pounds of flour

2010-07-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Given access to Kristen's family's giant kitchen, a digital thermometer, chlorine-free water, and their Bread Bible, I went a little nuts last week ...

Olive bread

As I was reading the recipe, I KNEW this was going to taste like Charlie's olive bread and I was so right! Thin crust, chewy, almost doughy interior. I think this was my favorite of the four

Pugliese

This was Kristen's favorite and definitely the best texture-wise, perfect crust and pretty big holes. Instead of the durum flour that was suggested I used 1/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour; I have no idea whether that was a reasonable substitute but it definitely tasted good.

Tuscan Low-Salt Bread

This one was a lot like the pugliese except drier and with (duh) less salt. I liked it on its own, but I think everyone else felt that it lacked... drumroll... salt. It was pretty perfect for sopping up Kris's excellent homemade pesto (that's about a pound of fresh pasta that we made there too!)

Bread Baker's Apprentice and a pound of instant yeast are en route from Amazon, and day 1 of a sourdough starter on the counter. Man I hope I never try heroin.

EDIT: I remembered that we also made banana bread from America's Test Kitchen, chocolate chip cookies, and two pizzas. So yeah, if you were wondering what happened to the gigantic jar of AP flour...

Basic hearth bread

2010-07-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Uh oh, I can already feel my addictive brain taking over. Kneading the stretchy soft dough, the crackling as it cools and the crust starts to contract on itself, the oddly holistic appeal of making so many different things from the same three ingredients...

This is my first time making bread from a sponge (or any kind of) starter. The sponge is a very wet mixture of flour, water, and yeast, with the consistency of thick pancake batter. I always thought that the point of fermenting was just for the bread to rise, but apparently giving the yeast more time to ferment changes the flavor dramatically too -- I am kind of in love with the Bread Bible.

So baking this thing was no small task, the sponge takes 4 hours, then you knead and/or shape and let it rise 3 times for about an hour each. It was unmistakably a (country?) white bread, not really sour like sourdough or super chewy like French or Italian bread, but it was crusty and tasty (unlike some previous attempts which have tasted sort of like raw flour) and very very good for plain ol' white bread... if I do say so myself.

Summer time in my mind

2010-07-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

It's been comically cloudy and cool in San Diego for the past couple weeks; while our friends in the north, east, northeast, northwest, south, and whatever Texas is are "enjoying" the full force of summer, we've been wearing jeans and debating light sweater or coat.

Now to be clear I am not complaining -- we do not lack sunny days, and today I count myself among the lucky few in the US who could survive preheating the oven to 500 so we could give the pizza stone K got for her birthday a test run. I'm really sorry I'm posting so much pizza but this one was too good to pass up. Yet another secret about yeast that I did not know -- it doesn't like chlorine (surprise surprise). In addition to sunny days, the other thing we have plenty of is chlorine in our tap water... So this time I heated up a cup of filtered water in the microwave for the bloom and it made a huge difference (also didn't hurt that I let it rise for two hours instead of my usual impatient one)

Made a quick red sauce (half an onion sauteed, a 15-oz can of roasted tomatoes, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tsp of cornstarch, salted to taste, and pulsed a few times in the blender), a few halfway-to-caramelized red onions, goat cheese, baked for about 8-9 minutes, and then topped with a handful of arugula (walnuts would be really good on this too, but I forgot). Holy macaroni it was good, and what a difference the pizza stone makes (if you don't have one, a 12" cast iron pan still works pretty great)

Here is a little Vietnamee-ish Bún salad with peanuts and a tamari-honey sauce that Kris made a couple days ago. Also I was psyched that these came out of the camera white balanced pretty much perfectly (tried the "PRE" setting for the first time -- awesome)

Bonus hardly bartending! From 4th of July weekend, I present the Mint Julep, a.k.a. Whiskey Snowcone (wouldn't that be a great band name? much better than Whiskeytown) Typically these are served in metal cups, I used the bottom half of my cocktail shaker which quickly became too cold to hold for more than a few seconds, which I have to imagine is part of the allure of the drink. Real southerners I'd love to hear if this is right or wrong:

Mint Julep

Muddle 10 mint leaves with 1/2 tsp simple syrup
Fill cup with shaved ice -- about 3/4 of an ice try pulsed a few times in the blender
Pour 2 1/2 oz (2 shots) of bourbon over the ice (I used Bulleit which I love and is pretty cheap at TJ's)
Stir and garnish with a few mint leaves and maybe a dash of powdered sugar

...so sadly, I wasn't really aware of liquor when I lived in Georgia. I remember a SoCo with Lime poster at Rocky Mountain Pizza and Jaegermeister at every bar, but I'm guessing Coke's presence kind of killed the chances for any cocktails that weren't Beam and Coke or Bacardi and Diet, Which in retrospect really seems like a shame so close to Tennessee and Kentucky

Rosemary foccacia

2010-07-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

I reeeeaaally don't know if I'm cut out for making bread ... the waiting is terrible! I managed a 2+1 hour rise rise for this, but overnight? I don't think I could stand it. Kristen, in a brilliant stroke of empty-refrigerator-as-mother-of-invention, put together some excellent (and photogenic) edamame hummus for sandwiches this afternoon.

All and all the bread was fun and turned out decent enough, but I'm sure it'll take a few more tries before I make something I'm really happy with. The recipe I used was basically a pizza dough recipe with a little bit more oil (I also tried subbing 1/2 cup of flour for cornmeal, but I wouldn't recommend that). The dough was certainly wetter than french bread, but I have a feeling it's supposed to be even wetter (and that feeling's name is Peter Reinhardt)

I won't post a recipe, but I did want to put up a couple pictures, mostly so the blog doesn't think I forgot about it.

Ode to: Farmers market squash blossom quesadillas

2010-06-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

One of my (our) absolute favorite things in San Francisco was going to the Alemany farmers market on sunday mornings (the largest in the city, a five minute walk from our old apartment). A street food neophyte, I'd fallen into a long and expensive rut of eating fancy crepes from these two French guys (it would be funny if I could say French creeps so they would be French creep crepes, but they were nice guys)... until one day their tent was missing, and I was forced to look further afield.

Enter El Huarache Loco and life-changing, home-made tortillas -- literally pressed to order -- and the achingly short squash blossom season (or maybe they were just always sold out). They had really fantastic, even less frequently available, mushroom quesadillas too.

And here we are three (or wow, more like four) years later. The Hillcrest farmers market in San Diego was kind of disappointing at first, but in the last year or so -- I don't know if it's changed dramatically or if I just have a better idea what to look for -- but it has turned into/out to be a remarkably good place to buy food. I particularly love Be Wise ranch, Eben-Haezer eggs, Sage Mountain Farm, Suzie's, Archi's Acres but they're almost all great, lots of cool organic farms represented. Also Spenser Little has a booth there

So last weekend we picked up this small bunch of blossoms, to use with some fresh nopales tortillas (that Kristen had earlier in the week asked me to "hook [her] up with"), avocado (from archi's), salsa, and goat feta (sounds weird but it's not that different from cotija). The squash blossoms were kind of an adventure, apparently this is normal but I realized they were completely covered with ants when we got home... suffice it to say this meal involved significantly more death than they usually do at our house. But oh the result was delicious... if you haven't had them, squash blossoms are pretty much exactly what they sound like, flowers that taste like squash. They quickly cooked down into almost nothingness but the flavor stood up quite well.

Heirloom tomato pesto pizza

2010-06-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

I wanted to update my pizza crust recipe because apparently I learned a few tricks since the last time around -- this one turned out so much better: chewy and pretty evenly cooked (though I'm still going to strongly advocate generally for the rosemary + goat cheese + caramelized red onions).

The brilliant innovation came from our neighbor: cook the pizza in a 12" cast iron pan (had been using a cheapo cookie sheet). This forced me to roll out a thicker crust but more importantly kept the pizza from burning on the bottom.

Two other changes: I dissolved the yeast in half as much water (not sure if this is what made the difference but the dough seemed to rise like crazy this time), and substituted half a cup of cornmeal for half a cup of flour (as per Bittman's suggestion)

Crust
2.5 cups flour (used AP, bread flour would be better)
0.5 cups fine cornmeal
1 cup warm water
2 tsp of salt
1 packet of active dry yeast
2 tbsp olive oil

Put half a cup of warm water (the hottest that it comes out of the tap works well for us) in a small glass, add and dissolve the yeast, let it sit for 10 minutes until it starts to get frothy

Here is where it gets much easier than my previous effort (which involved slowly adding things to a KitchenAid): Put everything together in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or your hands until you can form the dough into a ball. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-6 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a cloth. Let rise for 1-2 hours.

When the dough has doubled in size, divide into two sections, roll each into a ball on your floured surface. At this point you can freeze one and cover the other with a cloth while you preheat the oven to 500.

Pesto
About a cup of basil leaves (chopped down our whole basil plant, but it needed it anyway)
2 glugs of olive oil
small handful of pine nuts or walnuts
Three pinches of salt and a heavy grind of black pepper

Food process to your heart's desire. Kristen says this isn't really pesto since it doesn't have Parmesan, so let's just call it basily olive oil pizza topping.

Roll out the dough gently -- I really just sort of stretch it with my hands which tends to leave a pretty good lip on the edges. Set it in an oiled cast iron pan, top with pesto, a few balls of fresh mozzarella, halved cherry tomatoes, and bake for about 15 minutes.

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned it before -- I can't emphasize how much I love these cast iron pans. I bought an 8" and a 12" a few weeks ago for less than $30 total and don't think I will ever use a non-stick pan again.

hardly bartending! ginger beer, dark 'n stormy, and the communist

2010-06-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

It seems like we've had a couple of days lately where we wake up, make a semi-elaborate breakfast, ride bikes to the farmer's market for lunch, do shopping for the week in the afternoon, get home just in time to start cooking dinner. Well this Saturday was like that... except with liquids :)

Ginger Beer

We'd both been excited to try making ginger beer after seeing this post on Lottie and Doof recently -- another thing I'd never really considered making. And I'm still not completely sold that the proper way to make it is to make ginger juice and add club soda, but the method seems pretty common on the internet and it sure tastes good.

Ginger is wonderful, curative stuff, but we made a budgetary decision to limit it to 1 pound (down from 2.5), and I'm kind of really glad we did because it is still crazy crazy spicy.

Homemade Ginger Beer

1 pound of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
4 cups of water
1.5 cups of simple syrup (1 cup sugar dissolved in 1 part water). Turbinado syrup turns daiquiris an unappetizing color but it was perfect for this
0.5 cups of fresh squeezed lime juice

Put the ginger and two cups of water in the food processor. Process on high for about 3 minutes, strain the liquid and return the solids to the food processor. Add an additional cup of water, process for another 3 minutes, and strain again. Return the solids to the processor a third time, add a final cup of water, process and strain. At this point you should be left with some totally flavorless cellulosic ginger, and a big bowl of fiery ginger juice (go ahead and taste a big spoonful, it's fun. and by fun I mean shocking). Add the sugar and lime and stir.

Serve with lots of ice and about a 2:1 ratio of club soda to ginger. You can add a little more sugar to taste at this point, but this seemed a pretty good balance to me.

This stuff is great on its own, but two shots of Gosling's dark rum and a slice of lime puts it right over the edge.

The Communist

Another classic mixed drink I learned from Rachel Maddow (It is hilariously difficult to try to search for this on Google; lots of hits for "rachel maddow communist"). It's been on my to-try list for a while, and when I finally saw Cherry Heering at BevMo I could not resist.

Pretty ain't it?

The Communist
1 shot gin
1 shot orange juice
1/2 - 3/4 shot of lemon juice
1/2 shot of Cherry Heering

Shaken with ice and served up

For me, the cherry and lemon juice are the stars. I was worried it would be sweet with the syrupy liquer and orange juice, but thankfully it balanced out quite well, though the gin is maybe not quite as prominent as I'd like. Definitely one I'd make again.

creamy vegan mac and cheese!

2010-06-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

the whole idea of "cheez" is kind of gross, but don't be afraid. this recipe only resembles imitation macaroni and cheese in the color of the sauce, otherwise it takes on a flavor profile and character all its own. i loved this pasta so much, i had it for breakfast the next day.

the cheese sauce (guiltless!) incorporates raw cashews, nutritional yeast, potatoes, carrots, garlic, and mustard. several of my favorite vegan recipes call for cashew cream, which is absolutely delicious if you can afford to buy large quantities of cashews (pretty sure we spent nearly ten bucks on a pound of organic cashews).

the recipe can be found here (very cool blog).

Sam's avocado grapefruit mango salad

2010-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

There is only one thing I miss about having cable and his name is Sam the Cooking Guy. This is from the avocado episode and the first time we made it, it was pretty much the best salad I'd ever had (also I like that picture a little better). This time I made some mistakes, but you dear reader can benefit from them!

Kristen bought five perfect avocados from the farmers market over memorial day weekend. This was the semi-creative thing we came up with for one of them; most of the others ended up in a huge batch of guacamole (uncreative but delicious)

Avocado grapefruit mango salad
Serves: 2

Small handful of mixed greens, washed
1 WHITE grapefruit
1 perfectly ripe avocado
1 mango
Deli mustard (yellow mustard is no good)
Honey
Salt, pepper

Peel the grapefruit and cut it into supremes (by making an incision on either side of a section and removing the bitter-skinless section). Squeeze the remaining portion of the grapefruit for its juice. Cut the mango and avocado into similarly sized sections. Place the sections around the outside of your serving vessel. I like to lay out all of one fruit before moving on to the next.

You only need a small amount of dressing, as it goes on the greens only. To the grapefruit juice, add a good squeeze of deli mustard (about equal parts with the juice) and a bit of honey. add salt & black pepper and stir or shake to combine. Toss with the mixed greens and put them in a little heap in the center of the plate. Hit everything with a few grinds of black pepper

You'll notice in the picture above that we used pink grapefruit. This was not on purpose! The bitterness of the white grapefruit is a much better contrast to the sweetness of the mango, and just generally works much better. Seriously, who is pink grapefruit for? It's reminding me of the taste of a Greyhound made with pink grapefruit juice... yuck yuck yuck.

Peel bananas, peel peel bananas

2010-06-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

1 ingredient ice cream! We saw it on Thirty bucks a week, but apparently this is what all the cool bloggers are doing. Two bananas frozen, then food processed until they're completely smooth, then allowed to refreeze for at least 10 minutes. I loved it, Kristen characteristically thought it was too sweet. And I was like "It's a banana!"

ultimate vegan BBQ

2010-05-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

i don't like tofu. there. i said it. and forget about those frozen patties and processed soy products (full of neurotoxins). it's tempeh, glorious tempeh that dominates my "meat replacement" preferences. our memorial day menu featured barbecue tempeh sandwiches, carrot-cayenne coleslaw, california guacamole (hass avocados, cilantro, red onion, garlic, cumin, salt, lime juice, serrano pepper or chile powder), strawberry shortcake with balsamic chocolate sauce, and plenty of rum punch.

the sandwich recipe is adapted from bryant terry's vegan soul kitchen (my new bible). one taste of the hot/smoky/sweet sauce and i had really died and gone to vegan heaven.

BBQ tempeh sandwich

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (Braggs, if you can find it)
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3/4 c. tamari (kyle thinks tamari makes a big difference here so don't sub soy sauce)
1/4 c. your favorite organic ketchup
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c. agave nectar (or honey)
1 tbsp ground cumin
pinch of cayenne
2 tbsp water
2 packages of tempeh, sliced to desired serving size
loaf of ciabatta bread
veganaise or mayo
your favorite coleslaw

Combine all the ingredients (except for the last four, obviously) in a food processor and puree until smooth. If you don't own a grill (neither do we), place the tempeh along the bottom of an oven-safe dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Toast slices of ciabatta under the broil. Assemble sandwiches, dress with mayo and coleslaw. Dig in!

i also made shortcake muffins from this super easy recipe and served them with fresh strawberries, chocolate sauce (1/4 c. plain soymilk + 4 oz. chocolate chips), and balsamic reduction (balsamic vinger + sugar/honey/agave). what I should have known was that reductions take FOREVER. after ten minutes I gave up and turned off the stove. twenty minutes later it was perfectly reduced. and delicious enough to share with our neighbors.

it seems like there are two types of shortcakes: the biscuit variety and the spongy, cakey variety. is there a regional difference? i would love to know.

Simple red lentil dal (updated)

2010-05-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a little afraid of embarrassing myself but here goes... This was a good faith effort to recreate the way that my friend Anu told me her family makes dal. I don't know how authentic my reproduction is but it always tastes really great to me, savory and just a little bit sour.

Red Lentil Dal
Serves: 2-3

1 cup red lentils
1 small yellow onion diced
4 cups water
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tbsp fresh ginger minced (or 1 tsp powder)
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 chili or red pepper flakes
1/2 lemon

Bring water to a boil in a medium pot. Add washed and picked over lentils, onion, tumeric, and about a teaspoon of salt to the water. Let it return to a boil, and then turn down to low and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes -- just until the lentils are tender.

In a medium saucepan, add 1 tbsp neutral oil over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds and cook for about a minute until they start to pop. Add the garlic and ginger, coriander, a few dashes of chili pepper flakes, and after another 30 seconds or so the lentils. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes so it will thicken up a little bit (you can smush some of the lentils with a wooden spoon to thicken it a little or I sometimes add a teaspoon or two of corn starch). Squeeze the juice from half of a lemon over the top, and adjust the salt to taste.

Serve with basmati rice and homemade naan (or even easier chapati pictured here), mmmmmmm

UPDATE: Replaced the photo on Sept 8, 2010 with a batch with a much better consistency.

Menu planning like it's the dead of winter

2010-05-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests, we did a weird job planning our menu this week: pesto linguine (with almost our whole entire basil plant), a very rich bread pudding, and a hearty potato, leek, and bean stew with biscuits.

Asparagus Bread Pudding
Kristen has made this one once or twice, but this was my first attempt.

It had a couple of things I liked and a couple I didn't. The gruyere and dill were perfect, and the bread bakes with this crisp chewy top layer that is up there with the burnt edges of a lasagna. As some of the comments on Heidi's site say, the asparagus were way overcooked in the oven. I'm not entirely sure how to remedy this. We have tried both black olives and mushrooms and the olive version was definitely superior. Also, I would maybe pull back on the liquid a little bit next time, enough to moisten the bread but not enough to make it soggy (although it is supposed to be bread pudding, what do I know)

Leek and White Bean Cassoulet
Another one from Veganomicon: At this point I feel pretty comfortable saying, best cookbook ever.

After an unnecessarily long day of work yesterday, I actually really enjoyed cooking this big overcomplicated stew (and eating it wasn't bad either). I did not however enjoy stopping everything to drive to the store for corn starch when I realized half way through that we didn't have any.

The flavors were spot on, with a super savory taste from the leeks and a heaping tablespoon of fresh thyme from our balcony garden predominating. We didn't have any earth balance (and I'm guessing I probably won't buy it again any time soon) so I used unsalted butter. Here is the thing though -- unsalted butter is much less salty than buttery flavor EB -- add salt! Also please don't disrespect me real vegans, I am but a hobbyist.

Couple notes for myself for next time: smaller biscuits will probably cook up a little better. And this should've been obvious, but undercook the potatoes slightly because they'll finish in the oven.

Ginger chocolate chip cookies

2010-05-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

These Heidi Swanson cookies are some of our favorites, and oh so easy. I made them a bit bigger than she does and just sprinkled with turbinado before baking. Yum.

Beet and black bean burgers

2010-05-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Beet burgers were Kristen's idea. Apparently she had them at this little hippie retreat on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala (jealous). So she found a recipe that looked promising and bought the ingredients and left them both conspicuously laying around the kitchen for when I got home from Colorado.

These little babies were/are delicious. They are approximately equal parts beets, black beans, and brown rice with a little parsley, lemon juice, and spices. I loved the sweetness of the beets, but they were not at all overpowering.

The recipe from The Kitchn is really well written, and I didn't change anything, so no need to reproduce it here. I did cook them in a non-stick pan, which was not recommended but it worked ok. It is kind of ridiculous that we only have non-stick pans, health-conscious, progressive liberal foodies that we imagine ourselves to be (anodized aluminum skillet is on the List right after pizza stone and above pressure cooker)

Unlike every other veggie burger I've made, these didn't need to go through the food processor -- you just mash the beans and little bit with a fork and then mix it all together. This is one of those "less is more situations" -- it really would have been a shame to lose the textures of all the different components. I'm definitely going to try it this way on the next batch of chickpea burgers

Photography note to self: natural light is amazing, cook in the afternoon more.

Red Lentil Sloppy Joes (and an obnoxiously short depth of field)

2010-05-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

It's a little bit strange to go to such great lengths to recreate a dish that is so completely meat-centric, especially one that I never ate as a child (thought they were gross for some reason... had no problem with hamburgers or taco salad, but put them together? No sir). I can at least promise I won't be making seitan chicken fingers or soy pot roast any time soon.

We mostly followed the recipe in Veganomicon and used the Vegan Dad recipe for how to handle the red lentils (I've done it once before but they turned into interminable mush). So where Veganomicon says to add the cooked lentils, we instead added the dried lentils and water, along with all the sauce, tomato paste, and spices. This cooked for maybe 30 minutes. Open-faced on a toasted roll it was totally delicious, though I have to admit it evoked "french bread pizza" for me a little more than sloppy joe. And while it was not wholly unlike the chili I made last week, contextually it fulfilled a completely different craving.

Kristen par-cooked, smashed, and pan fried some yukon gold potatoes on the side, and they were awesome. Think this might be my new preferred method for cooking potatoes.

Soba noodle bowl

2010-05-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

We finally made a trip back up to San Francisco (I lived there for about three years and Kristen for one before moving to San Diego) earlier this month. A couple of friends met up with us one night, and we walked around Japantown/Marina/Western Addition for a while, eventually stopping at Osaka sushi for dinner and sake. I think Kristen was thinking of their soba with tofu dish when she suggested this. (Also we saw Laurine from Top Chef catering a party. None of us could remember her storyline, so Kristen just said "Hi!" and then we all turned around and walked away a little sheepishly)

Sorry the recipe is pretty rough; I didn't measure anything, just added stuff until it tasted good. It's a little bit (a lot) Otsu from Super Natural Cooking and a little bit Sam the Cooking Guy's broiled salmon marinade...

Soba noodles with tofu
Serves: 2-3

6oz soba noodles
1/3 cup tamari sauce
honey
a 1" cube of ginger grated or diced very fine
red pepper flakes
half a block of firm tofu
sesame seeds
nori
chopped green onions
diced jicama

Put the soba noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes or until done, drain and set aside.

Cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces, something like 1/4" x 1/2" x 1". Heat a pan over medium-low heat and add the tofu to the pan (with no oil). Let it cook for a few minutes (don't touch it!) until it starts to turn a nice golden brown. Flip and repeat on the other side. It takes a little while, but I think it's worth keeping the heat relatively low... Easy to burn the tofu otherwise.

Meanwhile, mix the tamari (soy sauce would work too) and ginger, and add honey to taste, probably something like a tablespoon. It should be just a little bit sweet. Add a couple dashes of red pepper flakes, and toss with the soba noodles.

Top the noodles with the tofu, pieces of nori, green onions, sesame seeds, and diced jicama (probably should be cucumber, but we had jicama which was actually really great)

That's us (well everyone but me) looking out over the bay (you can JUST see the top of the golden gate bridge on the left). It reminds me just a little bit of this picture looking out at Guanabara bay, which makes me happy.

Vegetarian chili and cornbread for a crowd

2010-05-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

This was fun. Some friends from college came out and rented a beach house in La Jolla last week. We were hanging out drinking and got to talking about how I was into cooking lately. Eventually I offered to bring over dinner on Tuesday if they would let me suffer through Lost with them.

Really this was serendipitous because I had been craving one of my very favorite recipes, Heidi Swanson's Pierce Street Vegetarian Chili, for a while, but wasn't necessarily in the mood to eat it 6 days in a row (it makes A LOT of chili). Other than the fact that it is ridiculously good, the best thing about this recipe is that almost everything in it is dirt cheap. I replenished my dried garbanzo beans, dried lentils, and had some leftover bulgar and barley from the last time. Beyond that it is basically just a couple onions, chilies, some garlic, ginger, vegetable broth (used 3 cubes for 10 cups), and a can of tomatoes. Only a couple bucks to feed 9 people! I used one serrano pepper with the seeds removed and one chipotle from a can and 3 tablespoons of pretty good chili powder. Halfway through cooking I worried it was going to burn everyone's mouths off, but when it was done it was really quite mild. Probably a good thing for mixed company but if you like chili to be hot, I would add another chipotle, or maybe only seed half of the serrano pepper.

I also made a batch of dairy-free cornbread (most calls for buttermilk apparently) to go on the side. I made 1.5x the recipe but left the oil at 1/2 cup, used only 1 tablespoon of sugar instead of the recommended 6 (!) as some people recommend in the comments, added a cap-full of apple cider vinegar for a little bite, and threw in a handful of frozen corn at the end of mixing. It was dry but tasted pretty decent and was definitely good at soaking up chili.

I have never known whether chili is supposed to be a summer food or a winter food, and maybe I don't want to know. It seems like it could be either a perfect fourth of july food or a perfect curl up by the fire on a cold winter's night food (not that I have had a fire or a cold winter's night in several several years).

Everyone seemed to enjoy it (not that I expected anyone to say they didn't it even if they didn't), and I hope it was a nice if brief break from California burritos :)

Oh, and Lost was kind of terrible.

(evil) Zucchini mushroom pies

2010-05-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

I learned a little about my culinary self last night. I learned that this kind of food is so emphatically not what I'm about. I don't hate making things that take a long time. I love stirring a risotto, kneading bread dough by hand (who doesn't), rolling out fresh pasta with a pint glass. It is the most relaxing thing in the world. But these dainty, pretty little pies really made me hate life for a couple hours.

The crust was just awful to deal with. I refrigerated it for an hour, cut it into two halves (four quarters would've been better), and then put one in the freezer while I worked on the other one. 5 minutes later it was a hot sticky mess. I'd cut one or two rounds (which usually fell apart on the way across the kitchen to the muffin tin) before having to ball it up and put it back in the freezer.

I was in such a pissy mood when dinner was finally ready that I'd resolved to hate them no matter what, which was difficult because honestly they turned out to be pretty tasty. Way way too rich for a main course (which should have been obvious) but probably a good appetizer.

Here is the recipe; beautiful pictures the siren song of my miserable cooking experience. We substituted earth balance (maybe part of the problem with the crust) for butter and silken tofu+apple cider vinegar for sour cream. It worked out ok but all in all I think I'm content to leave mini-pies in the hands of hippies and professionals

Flashback: Creamless Cream Corn

2010-05-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Corn on the cob last week and some passable cornbread that I made this week (entry forthcoming) have gotten me thinking wistfully of the cream(ed?) corn that Kris and I made for Thanksgiving last year.

It is Tom Colicchio's recipe, And it's just like ... corn with some onions and water and salt and tarragon, and it's a-m-a-z-i-n-g. You wonder why anyone ever felt compelled to make it any more complicated than that.

Fig and Almond Barley Pilaf

2010-05-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

I want to say I came up with this on my own, but then I looked at How to Cook Everything to get an idea of proportions for a pilaf and he had pretty much this exact thing (with apricots instead of figs). Starting to think that "everything" isn't all that much of an exaggeration. I am a pretty big fan of barley though. It's fun to say, loaded with soluble fiber, and super versatile (equally good as a hot breakfast cereals or in place of rice in a risotto)

Fig and Almond Barley Pilaf
Serves: 4

2 tbsp olive oil
0.5 cups diced yellow onion
1 cup pearled barley
0.25 cups sliced blanched almonds
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp fresh thyme
3-4 dried mission figs
Honey
Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
Cook the onion with a heavy pinch of salt for about 5 minutes, until it is translucent
Add the barley and almonds, stir until the barley is coated with oil and let cook for another minute or so.
Add the vegetable broth, thyme, and pepper. I find our bouillon makes a pretty salty broth, so I didn't add any at this point, but you might want to.
Bring to a boil, then cover and turn the heat to low. Let this cook for about 30 minutes until all the water is absorbed. You can add a little liquid if the barley isn't quite cooked or turn up the heat a little and leave the cover off if there is too much.
Stir in the figs (cut into 1/8ths) and a drizzle of honey. I thought a couple of drops of balsamic vinegar on the plate were nice too

I learned what "blanched" almonds were only after dinner, but let's say that leaving the skins on was an artistic decision to give the photo some contrast (and to be honest, it didn't bother me a bit)

Southern living

2010-04-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

alternatively: Bhindi masala is the closest thing I can find to fried okra in southern California.

Inspired by (i.e., jealous of) a friend's saliva inducing mom-cooked food, Kris put together some macaroni and cheese, barbecue beans, and sauteed kale last week. I always hated canned baked beans, but real navy beans and good barbecue sauce were pretty good together (I added some ketchup and molasses too). We are still working on the perfect macaroni and cheese, but I can guarantee with some surety that it will be topped with breadcrumbs.

Asparagus digest (ba-dum)

2010-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of really good asparagus dishes we made from the last week or so.

The first was a delicious spinach-asparagus-pesto pasta from Super Natural Cooking that Kristen made. The pureed asparagus gets a little bit lost in the spinach pesto, so we found it nice to have a few pieces of whole blanched asparagus on top, which also made for a pretty nice photo, if I do say so myself.

Next a super simple potato-asparagus frittata based loosely on this Bittman recipe. Mark used the microwave liberally in this recipe which is not something I am used to, but it definitely sped the process up.

Potato-asparagus Frittata
Serves: 3-4

6 medium eggs
2 red potatoes
large bunch of asparagus
1 medium onion
feta cheese (we used goat feta)

Preheat the oven to 400. Microwave (believe it or not) the potatoes for 4 minutes until they are nearly cooked through. When they've cooled, remove as much or as little of the peel as you want and cut into largish cubes. Brown the potatoes in a skillet over medium heat with a little bit of olive oil

Put the asparagus in a dish with a little water and sprinkled with a good amount of salt and pepper. Microwave (again?!) the asparagus for 2 minutes. Chop the asparagus into 2" long pieces and set aside.

When the potatoes are nice and brown, remove them from the pan, and sautee the diced onion (no need to clean the pan) for a few minutes until they start to turn translucent, then add the asparagus and continue to cook it until it's just cooked (a little bit tender). Add the potatoes, onion, and asparagus to a 8" pie dish. If you have a skillet that can go in the oven, transferring to another dish here isn't necessary.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a little salt and pepper, and then pour them over the potato and asparagus. Bake for ~15 minutes until a knife comes out clean. Top with a little bit of the feta and enjoy!

One thing I really hate about asparagus is that it seems like about one in three times I buy it, it costs $6 or more for a small bunch. Has everyone had this experience? By and large, I believe we should care more about food, and be willing to pay a little more for better food that isn't round-up ready or chemically ripened. And I am definitely a huge fan of organic foods and buy them whenever possible, but let me say this: if your budget gives you a choice between organic asparagus and conventional potatoes and organic potatoes and conventional asparagus, go for the organic potatoes!

Tempeh shepherdess pie

2010-04-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Oh lordy, I'm sorry this is turning into an infomercial for Veganomicon... Possibly disappointed by our decision not to make the yucca shepherd pie on Friday, we decided to make this slightly more traditional version last night.

The filling is crumbled tempeh cooked in tamari with onions, garlic, cremini mushrooms, peas, and corn. You're supposed to add a cup of veggie broth at the end -- I think I would recommend using low sodium, diluting your broth 50%, or even just using water. My usual rapunzel bouillon made it just a little bit too salty.

Topped with mashed potatoes and then baked for 10 minutes. I am pretty sure the ridges in the mashed potatoes are the key to getting lots of crispy bits of mashed potatoes, which I suspect is the key to the whole thing. If I had had a piping bag, I would've done it all Gordon Ramsay style

It is amazing how much this evoked a classic shepherd pie, so so so good. Maybe a little too involved for a week night meal (although not really), but I this is definitely something I would make again for a weekend/special occasion, for omnivores even.

Jack Rose and Old-Fashioned Gin cocktail

2010-04-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first installment of Hardly Thirsty! No? Hmm... Hardly Dehydrated? Hardly Parched? In any case, I've been wanting to do a drinks post since I started and here we are!

First, from Rachel Maddow* comes the Jack Rose:
* whatever your politics (although if you're reading a vegetarian cooking blog, I'd guess the odds are kind of stacked) this woman has never steered me wrong liquor-wise

This drink looks seriously frou-frou but it is a real, classic American cocktail. The little bit of sweet and little bit of sour adds a lot to, without covering up, the apple jack (sort of an old timey whiskey. Calvados works too according to Rachel)

2 oz apple jack (but mom, it doesn't taste like apples!)
1/2 oz grenadine
juice from half a lime

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Lime garnish is nice but makes it dangerously indistinguishable from a cosmo.

Second (it was an expensive trip to BevMo), the old-fashioned gin cocktail. Having completely exhausted every other good TV show on Hulu, we watched an episode of Three Sheets about Amsterdam and learned about genever -- Holland (as opposed to London) gin, which sort of sounds like it is distilled from maltwine before they add the ginny botanicals... As you can imagine it has an interesting taste.

I picked up a bottle of Anchor Distilling's Genevieve which even
had a cool little warning hanging around the neck of the bottle "Warning: This gin is not for martinis!". Acknowledging first that martinis are made with gin and second that the gin you are buying is special and different is like the equivalent to the girl at Criminal Records telling me that I picked a cool album (Elbow - Asleep in the Back) when I was a kid.

So far I've only tried this old fashioned gin in an old fashioned cocktail (cool because it is basically the same as a rye/bourbon old-fashioned).

2 oz genever
1/2 tsp simple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters

Shake and pour into a chilled glass. Alternatively, use a sugar cube instead of the simple syrup. Mash it up with the bitters before adding the ice, liquor, and stirring (like a real old-fashioned)

Chilled cantaloupe mint soup

2010-04-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Kristen wouldn't let me call it cantasoupe, but you and I can pretend I did, ok?

This was a little bit of an ode to this great chilled cantaloupe soup we used to get at an Alsatian restaurant in Decatur. It was maybe not quite up to that high standard but it was awfully good

Ingredients
1 cantaloupe, peeled cut into 2" pieces
Zest of 1 lime + juice of half of the lime
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup of Riesling or other sweet wine (pretty optional I think)

Remove the lime peel with a vegetable peeler in strips. Simmer it with the water, sugar, and mint for 5 minutes (make sure the sugar dissolves). Remove from the heat and let sit for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid. Purée liquid with the cantaloupe in two batches in the blender. Transfer to a bowl, mix in the wine (if desired) and lime juice, and chill for an hour or two.

Hummus among other things

2010-04-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

We had an extremely late lunch yesterday and so last night threw together one of those appetizer/snack dinners where you accidentally end up with lots and lots of good food.

The search for the perfect hummus is not over, is never over, but this is leagues better than anything I've tried to make previously, adapted from Veganomicon, in which they say the secret to hummus is to use the blender rather than the food processor -- music to my ears since, as I have complained more than once on here, our food processor is weak sauce (actually it is just an attachment on the blender).

Components
2 cups chickpeas cooked well (or 2 15-oz cans)
3 tbsp tahini
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup or more of water
two heavy pinches of salt
juice of half of a lemon
1 large garlic clove crushed
Paprika

Procedure
Put half of the chickpeas and half of the olive oil in the blender and puree as much as possible. You will definitely have to stop and stir it by hand a couple of times (i.e. constantly). Add the rest of the oil, chickpeas, water, tahini, lemon, garlic, and salt, and puree until very smooth, clearing down the sides of the blender several times. It really is much better chilled if you can wait 30 minutes (I couldn't). Top with a little paprika and a little drizzle of olive oil.

The hummus tasted quite good but wasn't as olive oil heavy as I am used to, which at the same time makes me appreciate store bought hummus more and less.

Strawberries are back! We are trying to eat more and more seasonally, which everyone always argues is environmentally conscious etc. etc. but maybe the best reason is that fruit that is in season tastes SO much better. PS If you live in or near San Diego, I can't recommend enough produce from Be Wise Ranch.

Finally a little steamed asparagus with lemon and parmiggiano reggiano.

Harissa linguine

2010-04-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Another recipe from 101 cookbooks, a delicious and a little bit weird Moroccan/Italian fusion sort of thing.

I'd never had Harissa until K brought some back from her recent trip to Morocco; it's sort of a salty, spicy red pepper sauce... it's very very good (in moderation). We used linguine, kalamata olives, and chard but otherwise followed Heidi's recipe pretty closely, so I'm going to be lazy and not write it out here.

vegan tortas and black bean enchiladas

2010-04-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

for some reason i have a vivid memory of this woman saying, gardenburgers -- yeah, that's what i eat for dinner when my husband is out of town. as if the frozen patties are not real food, just something to indulge in when you're all alone and no one's watching. so after kyle left for CO, i bought some vegan gardenburgers, got home and had the terrible realization that i didn't have any buns, or any bread at all. vegan lunchbox (around the world) to the rescue! i made a batch of jennifer's burger buns and used them for burgers, vBLTs, and these yummy tortas.

vegan tortas

ripe avocado
toasted hamburger buns or fresh bolillo bread
medium-hot pepper (or hot sauce)
veganaise
salt
black beans
cilantro

assembly is crucial here. spread veganaise on one side, smoosh the avocados on top, and sprinkle with salt. the other side gets mashed-up black beans and chopped serrano pepper. top with cilantro sprigs and the avocado side and enjoy. make two because one is never enough.

the next night i really wasn't in the mood to cook but i needed to fulfill my enchilada craving. so i dragged out the half-used can of black beans and threw together a small but delicious batch of enchiladas.

black bean enchiladas

1 can black beans
2-3 tsp. adobo sauce, to taste
1/2 tsp. cumin
small bunch of chard or kale
half a red onion
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt
12 corn tortillas
1 can green (tomatillo) enchilada sauce
crumbly cheese (optional)
cilantro

preheat oven to 350 degrees. simmer the beans with adobo, salt, and cumin. meanwhile, saute the chard in olive oil with red onions and garlic. microwave the tortillas in a damp paper towel. then pour half of the enchilada sauce into some kind of baking dish. assemble enchiladas using two small corn tortillas for each enchilada. spread beans and chard mix on tortillas and roll into enchilada. this double-tortilla method produces 6 enchiladas. cover with remaining sauce and bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes. after removing from the oven, garnish with onion slices, cilantro, and crumbly cheese.

the cheese i used was a goat feta and it was perfect. we had deliberately stocked up everything BUT meltable cheese, which in retrospect seems like a brilliant decision. it's like replacing milk chocolate with dark chocolate bars that are meant to be savored one small square at a time.

Beth's brownies

2010-04-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to give much commentary here except to say that these brownies Kristen made from our friend's blog are pretty much the best vegan baked thing ever and awfully good brownies in their own right.

And unlike every other vegan dessert they are not loaded with Earth Balance — they don't even have Earth Balance in them (!)

Broccoli-potato soup

2010-04-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here is our maiden voyage in the Veganomicon which looks like it is going to be a pretty great book.

This soup was super simple, based on brocolli, potatoes, and tarragon, with a little bit of dill and mint added at the end (gave it sort of a Mediterranean kick and discouraged Kristen from covering our vegan soup with parmesan)

I'm not entirely clear on the ethics of reprinting recipes from a cookbook, so here is a link to the Google Books book instead.

After that we watched the new Doctor Who and I cheated at two games of Bananagrams. A good night, all in all.

Rosemary goat cheese pizza

2010-03-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

This was our celebratory Kristen's finally home dinner... and a totally worthwhile reason to break my short-lived vegan streak.

I have made this pizza dough a couple of times, this the first with bread flour. It definitely made a noticeable (positive) difference, but AP works great too.

UPDATE: slightly different and decidedly better pizza dough recipe here! (no KitchenAid necessary)

3 cups bread flour
1 packet of active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt

Put the yeast in a cup of warm water and let it sit for a few minutes until it froths up. While that's happening, put half of the flour and all of the salt into a stand mixer (if you have a good food processor, supposedly you can just put everything in it all at once). When the yeast/water is ready add it to the flour with 2 tbsp of oil and combine. With the machine running, slowly add the other 1.5 cups of flour a little bit at a time. Add a little bit more water or a little bit more flour until the dough forms a ball. Knead for a few minutes on a floured surface, until the dough is smooth. Then let sit in a well oiled bowl, covered, for at least an hour. It should double in size.

Cut the dough in two pieces and roll each into a ball on a floured surface. Dust with a little more flour, cover with a towel, and let sit while the over preheats to 500. Right before you are ready to roll out the dough, push it into a small circle and let sit for another minute or two before rolling/stretching into shape.

At this point, you can do pretty much anything. We started with Mark Bittman's simplest white pizza which is just rosemary, olive oil, and salt and pepper (our olive oil seems to have gone rancid or possibly to have turned into olive wine? so I brushed the pizza with a tiny bit of canola oil and then finished it with a few drops of truffle oil when it was done cooking... Haha, a nice problem if you have it). Kris suggested caramelized red onions and goat cheese which were absolutely incredible. If you want to do this too, learn from my mistake and remember that the onions will cook a bit in the oven so maybe only cook them 50% beforehand. Also I think it's probably a good idea to add the goat cheese half way through cooking so it doesn't totally dry out and/or melt.

On the side is steamed asparagus with lemon, salt and pepper, and a little fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano (I try not to be snobby about things unless absolutely necessary, and in this case it is, absolutely. I thought the whole "reggiano" thing was totally stupid until we bought a different kind of parmesan and it was fruity and rubbery and disgusting... never again)

Jamie Oliver on food and obesity

2010-03-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Jamie Oliver gives one of the better TED talks I've seen, on the subject of food and obesity. Please don't be put off that he's pretty overtly plugging his TV show -- I think that is kind of the point. I would recommend his show too, by the way... aspects of it certainly have a made-for-TV feel, but it's hard to listen to him talk and have any doubt about his convictions. I've had three people independently talk to me about this in the last week or so, which makes me the slightest bit optimistic that it might actually catch on.

Health food isn't granola and wheatgrass anymore, it's just real, fresh food. And I have watched enough documentaries and read enough books to know that, because of FDA regulation/Monsanto/McDonalds/farm subsidies/name your favority evil corporation/gov't agency, fresh food isn't always accessible and is often a lot more expensive than its processed counterparts. But for now I will chose to be hopeful. Educated people are empowered people; the market and regulation will follow.

While I'm on the subject, I think I am pretty late to the party here, but I also watched No Impact Man last weekend at my friend Dave's recommendation and loved it. The trailer alone made me cry a little (also it's on watch instantly on Netflix)

Channa masala

2010-03-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

And so the weekend comes to an end. Today I slept in and rode my bike to the park and laid in the grass and read and bought a blueberry smoothie and marmite and cooked this! It was a good day.

The channa recipe is from Smitten Kitchen (I stole the idea for the first picture from SK too, though I like to imagine that I would've thought of it independently with the spices all assembled. Also, who knew paprika and cayenne looked so different). I was a little bit worried because I only had about 3 cups of chickpeas and for some reason decided not to adjust the seasonings, and about halfway through it seemed like it was maybe going to be crazy over the top spicy, but it worked out pretty perfect. I made another batch of naan too, as I suspect I am doomed to do frequently from here on.

And now, I am going to do what I can to stave off Monday

Spring minestrone and fresh baguettes

2010-03-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's always hard to cook for just one person (Kristen comes home soon!), but after eating frozen veggie meatballs and soy mozzarella sandwiches a few too many days in a row, I finally got myself together this week and went to the grocery store. I've been pretty excited seeing all the asparagus people are cooking right now (eating seasonally is relatively new to me -- it seems like it's been a YEAR since I had it).

I turned to another Heidi Swanson recipe, this one from her glorious book, Super Natural Cooking. This Spring Minestrone was really delicious and perfect for a cool afternoon.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 diced shallots (I used 1 shallot and half an onion)
1 clove garlic minced
6 cups vegetable broth (we like 2 cubes of Rapunzel bouillon cubes)
3/4 cup uncooked brown rice
8 spears asparagus cut into inch long segments
1 cup of sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut
1/2 cup frozen edamame, or snow peas

Heat a little bit of olive oil in a saucepan or large pot. Cook the shallots and garlic for a few minutes until they soften. Add the brown rice and let it toast for about a minute. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then cover and lower the heat to a simmer, until the rice is cooked to your liking. Add the asparagus, peas, edamame, and continue simmering for 2-3 minutes until the veggies are just tender. Salt to taste, and top with fresh ground pepper.

A few notes: 3/4 cups makes it pretty heavy on the brown rice, as you can probably see in the picture. I liked it that way, but consider reducing to 1/2 a cup if you want your rice:soup ratio lower. Also go as easy on the oil as possible at the beginning. I found that too much can make the soup a little oily.

I made a couple of quick baguettes following Mark Bittman's recipe (my food processor cannot handle 4 cups of flour though, so I just mix it with a wooden spoon and knead it by hand). They turned out okay, good enough that I wanted to post a picture, not good enough to share any advice on how to make bread. This is another in what is becoming a long series of middling successes

Veganaan

2010-03-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know what your experience is with Indian food, but for me it seems like naan is always the limiting factor. I had been wanting to try making it for a while, and with the tremendous amount of leftover aloo gobi, today seemed like a perfect opportunity. Given my disastrous history of pancake making, I had some reservations, but this turned out great!

I got the recipe from my best friend's girl (who can be found here). They have definitely established themselves as good people to turn to for advice on vegan cooking.

The one with the cauliflower and potatoes

2010-03-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

Cauliflower was one of the few vegetables I would eat as a kid and still one of my absolute favorites. Broccoli gets a lot of press--deservedly so--but of the cabbages nothing soaks up flavors like cauliflower. So unsurprisingly I love aloo gobi, but from looking up recipes online I'm getting the impression that the saucy, tomatoey aloo gobi I love is not quite real aloo gobi... Nevertheless, delicious

I more or less followed this recipe.

Materials

1 small onion diced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 peeled and cubed yukon gold potatoes
1 head of cauliflower broken into florets
14 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 serrano pepper, diced (I like to take out seeds from half the pepper)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
a clove of garlic
tsp of fresh ginger
small bunch of chopped cilantro
salt

Assembly
This ends up being a lot of food. If you have a large, deep sauce pan that would be perfect. I used our dutch oven (after first pouring everything from a medium pan into a large pan and then the large pan into the dutch oven). In any case, heat the oil over medium heat for a few minutes and add the onion, cumin, and a pinch of salt. When the onion is translucent, add the chopped pepper, tomatoes, tumeric, garlic, and ginger and mix thoroughly. Then add the potatoes, cauliflower, and a tsp of salt, mix it up so the veggies are coated, and simmer for 20-40 minutes (it was closer to 40 for me). While it's cooking, you can add a little bit of water if it is getting too dry. When the potatoes are done, stir in the cilantro and adjust the seasonings to taste.

Greens, grains, & garbanzo burger

2010-03-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

I threw one of everything we had into this one.

You can pretty much substitute anything for anything in this recipe. A lot of times we'll make really simple patties with just 2 cups of lentils, 1/2 cup rolled oats, an onion, an egg, and some spices (Mark Bittman's simplest bean burger recipe). Since there was a lot of stuff left over in the fridge after two weeks of real cooking, I decided to be a little more adventurous.

Components
2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats
1 diced shallot
1 egg
small handful of chopped kale
1 diced carrot
2-3 spoonfuls of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
salt and pepper
bean cooking liquid or water

Procedure
Put everything in the food processor and pulse until it is a good consistency, adding a few spoonfuls of water as needed to bring it together. Our food processor is a weakling, so I had to do it in two batches, but that was okay (actually it worked out kind of well because one batch was too pureed and the other was too chunky, so they mixed together nicely). Refrigerate at this point, or form the mixture into small, thin patties and cook in a skillet over medium heat.

Or don't turn on the food processor and just call it vegetable parfait

Kale every day forever

2010-03-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, I promise I am not going to post a picture of every dinner we throw together from leftovers, but this one was particularly great.

My mom was in town for a short visit last weekend and suggested we make fresh pasta again for dinner, partially because it sounded fun and partially to boost my ego I'm sure. She and I made a double batch (2 eggs + 1.5 cups flour) so I had lots for this quick dinner later on in the week. We chopped up 4 leaves of kale and 2 cloves of garlic, cooked them in some olive oil for about a minute and tossed with the cooked fettuccine, a little more olive oil, and a handful of toasted pine nuts.

Jicama salad and chipotle white beans

2010-03-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

Kristen's creative brilliance is back in charge of the menu this week. As evidenced by:

Jicama, orange, and radish salad. Super easy, light, and fresh. And there is nothing that is more fun than cutting orange supremes. This was a great contrast to:

Heidi Swanson's Chipotle white beans with cilantro pesto. While the chipotle is an inspired addition, to me the bread crumbs made the dish (also don't buy bread crumbs! just put 1 piece of bread in the food processor, sprinkle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper and broil for 1-2 minutes). We used lima beans, which were great.

Man, isn't it weird how some of the best vegetables have been so universally (well universal to the US) cast as foods kids are supposed to hate? I didn't taste a brussels sprout until well into high school and never had a lima bean until, um, Sunday.

Potatoes and spinach

2010-03-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

We finished out the week with a super easy recipe from Vegan Dad for sort of an Indian-inspired aloo saag sort of thing. The flavors were good, but I didn't love the soft texture of the potatoes against the vaguely slimy texture of cooked spinach. I think next time I would like to try not peeling the potato and browning it a little before adding water.

And with that we took care of almost every ingredient on the shopping list from last weekend (the broccoli quinoa at the bottom was an alternate -- its avocado ended up in a brown rice burrito and the lemon made its way into a hot toddy).

I am still amazed how much money we saved and more importantly how much better it was not to have to finish work and spend an hour figuring out and procuring dinner every single night. I have to say I'm feeling a little bit inspired

Vegan pad thai

2010-03-04T11:11:00.000-08:00

Kyle's menu week, day 4: Asian thing!

Looking for recipes for pad thai, I found a lot of people who said the key to it was fish sauce. And in the interest of full disclosure I do occasionally eat fish, but I don't really like thinking of myself as a pescetarian, as lame as that may be. And I guess that might be the reason I don't like using fish ingredients if I don't have to... I like to think the option to give it up is always available!

The sad fact is that I've probably never had good pad thai anyway (I always thought the key was a ton of oil and gross peanut butter sauce), so even without fish sauce this version from Andrea's easy vegan cooking pretty much knocked my socks off. Everything in it was cheap and almost everything easy to find at Henry's (save tamarind paste).

A couple of tips: cut everything up beforehand and separate it into a few batches (garlic in one, broccoli, carrot, tofu in another, tamari, syrup, red pepper flakes, shallot, and green onions in another). I've never done this before for anything, but it was absolutely necessary here -- once you start cooking it just takes a few minutes for everything to come together. Also the tamarind I found was in a gooey brick in plastic wrap, with pieces of the shell and seeds interspersed. I soaked it in warm water for a few minutes and then worked some of it through a strainer to get a paste like consistency. I would probably not recommend this method if you can avoid it

Lentil loaf

2010-03-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

This is going to have a little bit of a learning curve, I can already tell. My goal is to put up pictures of delicious things that I liked eating and not to like impart my encyclopedic cooking knowledge to the world, but I am still a little embarrassed about pulling two recipes from the same blog two days in a row.

In any case, last night's dinner (and today's lunch and probably tonight's dinner too) was this. Since I only had regular lentils and not French lentils (going to have to admit ignorance on this one?) I paid heed to Carolyn's comment at the bottom and cooked them down a little more than I normally would. Everything tasted great, but it really took a day in the fridge for it to congeal into a properly sliceable "loaf". I would say you could substitute for almost anything except the cumin which was absolutely critical, and I don't even love cumin that much.

Since I don't really eat french fries anymore, I so rarely have an excuse to have ketchup... mmmm

Fresh pasta with red wine mushroom sauce

2010-02-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

I decided to take on menu planning this week on account of Kristen being really busy with dissertation stuff... Since I'm totally uncreative I just tried to pick an Italian thing, an Indian thing, an asian thing, and something with lentils since lentils are awesome. Italian thing first!

This morning Kris sent me a link to this great blog 30 Bucks a Week about making your own pasta. Apparently something you can do without some sort of pasta rolling machine from SkyMall?? (I was also totally incredulous that two people could eat on one $30 trip to the grocery store a week, but we'll get to that)

I had to add a little water in addition to the 1 egg & .75 cu flour to get it into the right type of ball, but after that their instructions worked pretty perfectly. It took me about forty five minutes (almost a whole This American Life) to roll out and slice all the fettuccines... which was kind of a lot of work but rather entertaining on a Sunday night that would have been otherwise "duller than rolling out a bunch of pasta by hand" as they say.

The red wine mushroom sauce they used sounded really good too (well, at least having an excuse to open the red wine sounded good). I sort of made up my own recipe. To wit:

Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, chopped up a bit
1 carton of mushrooms, sliced (I used white, cremini or whatever else would probably be tastier)
~1/2 cup of red wine (cheapo Pepperwood Pinot Noir was great)

Actions
Heat up a medium skillet over medium heat. Add a tbsp or two of olive oil, the onions, and a pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook them a bit, maybe 5 minutes, before adding the tomatoes and another pinch of salt. Once most of the liquid from the tomatoes and mushrooms is gone, add the wine and keep cooking until it's sauce!

We topped it with some fresh mozzarella that was left over from something or other, and here is the result:

Yum! It was totally bizarre to me that this actually worked and actually looked and tasted like pasta (really really good pasta), though I can't imagine it would have tasted nearly as good if I hadn't worked so hard for it.

OK, the $30 story real quick since this is already way long: I spent some time looking through that blog this morning, thinking they were crazy since we usually spend twice that for each of multiple trips to the store in a week (I am embarrassed about this). We had almost no food in the house, so I put together a pretty massive grocery list for 5 meals. A few hours later, I'm checking out at Henry's, and by the how-heavy-the-basket-is metric I'm expecting somewhere between $60 and $80... The grand completely unexpected total: $29.67!! Too weird