The Makeshift Cook

Breaking the blog silence: Sundays in the kitchen.

2010-02-28T16:18:00.002-06:00

Hi internet. I disappeared under a pile of snow for awhile there, and now I am basically buried under my jobs. One of those jobs is in my field and fulfilling and wonderful, but it also necessitates that I live out of a suitcase Monday night through Thursday afternoon in a place with no kitchen. Fortunately I have access to an excellent food co-op on those days, but I have also been doing some very uncharacteristic food planning and prep in order to cope with my frequent travels. I work a full day on Mondays before I hit the road, so that has meant that I spend my Sunday afternoons peacefully in the kitchen, getting ready for my week.

No recipes today, but I thought I'd at least let you know what I'm making:

1. Veganomicon's Chickpea Cutlets, except I did mine with cannellini beans and Italian spices.
2. A blues-killing winter citrus salad that I ganked from Jeannette's blog. I added ginger and celery and a grated carrot and will probably chuck in some pumpkin seeds. There, that was kind of a recipe.
3. A huge pot of vegetable stock, using up all the veggie butts I've been chucking away in the freezer.
4. A huge pot of black eyed peas for some to-be-determined dish that I'll make later tonight. It'll probably be of the beans + grains + greens variety.
5. A big batch of apple granola, also based on a Jeannette recipe. I've been using this recipe as a starting point for a few months, and let me tell you, I don't think I'll be buying granola ever again.

I'll be coming back at you soon with a recipe for a Massaged Kale Salad, but I just wanted to get over my no-posting slump and say hi.

Hardcore breakfast: Crockpot Wheatberries with Coconut Milk and Mango.

2009-11-23T13:12:00.004-06:00

This is extremely easy and hearty as can be, but will give your jaw a workout.

1 cup wheatberries (I used hard winter wheatberries)
3 cups water
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup frozen mango chunks

Put it all in the crockpot before bed and set to low. When you wake up, breakfast will be ready! Top with a couple spoonfuls of coconut milk and sweeten to taste. You'll be full for hours. Makes 3-4 servings.

You could also make this with fresh mango (add in the morning?) or dried mango (add in the evening, and definitely more coconut milk. ALWAYS more coconut milk.

Note to self.

2009-11-10T14:25:00.002-06:00

This unattractive, oddly satisfying snack you're eating--leftover pureed butternut squash mixed with Trader Joe's soy chorizo--would, with queso fresco, make a great dip for tortilla chips. Or skip the cheese--it would still be good.

Just saying.

Roasted Green Tomato Curry with Chickpeas and Brown Rice.

2009-11-04T21:41:00.004-06:00

For a few weeks, all I've been doing is eating various squashes and kale, potatoes and kale, whatever and kale. The CSA is done and I guess I haven't quite gotten back in the hang of buying vegetables, especially green ones. My backyard kale is still going strong, so my tendency has been to chop it fine and throw it into everything, in the manner of stealth vegetables. It's hard to be stealthy with kale, though. Fortunately no one around here really minds.

Anyway, grocery shopping. I'm just not on top of it yet and it seems like there aren't a lot of ingredients in the house, at first glance. But I had a batch of roasted and pureed green tomatoes in the freezer, and I started thinking they'd make an interesting base for chili, or stew, or something.

What's that you say? You've never roasted green tomatoes? Well, I hadn't either, until a month ago or so. We had loads of tomatoes in the garden, but many, many of them never ripened. I window-ripened some.

In fact, I still have a few in the window right now, and they have actually turned red. But overall, I was pretty disappointed with our tomatoes; they were Jet Stars, and I just didn't like the variety for eating raw. So I roasted and/or froze LOTS of them.

To roast green tomatoes, cut them into wedges, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350 or 375. When they come out, you can eat them straight up--they are delicious, melty, caramelized little things--or puree them. I did a bit of both. The puree is super-tangy, without the sweetness of ripe tomatoes. And it's great in a simple curry, like this one I'm about to drop on you.

Roasted Green Tomato Curry with Chickpeas and Brown Rice
Oil for the pan
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pinches red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons of your favorite curry powder or sambar (I used both)
2 cups roasted green tomato puree
4 cups water
3/4 cup brown rice
4 carrots, diced
1 large can of chickpeas
A dash of agave or other sweetener
Salt to taste

In a medium soup pot, saute the onion in oil until translucent, then add the garlic. Let that cook for a minute or two, then add the red pepper flakes and spices and cook a minute or two longer. Dump in the puree, water, rice, and carrots, and bring the whole mixture to a low boil. Turn the heat back to a simmer and do something else for awhile, while the rice cooks--say 25 minutes or so. Add chickpeas and simmer awhile longer. Taste for salt and sweetness and add agave and salt accordingly. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and some cilantro, if you have them on hand. If not, eat it straight up.

Fresh green tomatoes would probably work just fine in this. I'd just chop them and let them cook down with the onions, garlic, and spices for awhile before adding water and rice. This would also be great with some fresh spinach tossed in at the end, but then I'll put spinach in anything.

Picture to follow, when it's not pitch black outside. Siiiiigh--that's the bad thing about Falling Back.

ETA: here it is, in lunch form:

and with the rest of Mr. Bento:

The mea culpa meal: Winter Squash Lasagna with Kale, Sage, and Caramelized Onions.

2009-10-17T19:58:00.007-05:00

Oh hello, internets. Remember me? No? I'm the owner of this here blog, which languished all summer. I do have a reasonably good excuse for some of the absence: I got married 4 weeks ago, and while I was not CONSUMED by wedding planning, it most certainly did absorb some energy. Also, it was summer, and I was doing summery things, like not cooking.

So I'm coming back at you today with, by way of penance, a delicious fat-bomb. It could definitely be worse: I could have used full-fat dairy products and a lot more cheese. Regardless, this is one of those meals that tells you that warm weather is definitively a thing of the past and you should start amassing an extra layer against the cold wind.

We got our last CSA box on Wednesday, and it was full of squash and pumpkins and beets and carrots and potatoes and brussels sprouts, all those harvest-y, hunker-down-for-the-winter kinds of foods. I roasted some unidentified squash earlier this week and hadn't decided how to use it until one of my Facebook friends asked the same general question: what do I do with all this squash? And then I remembered an amazing pasta dish a friend made me years ago, a homemade butternut ravioli with gouda sauce (and then I died). Coincidentally, today I found a picture of myself eating that very meal (we often photographed our feasts back then). There were brussels sprouts on the side, which was an excellent idea as well.

Kale and sage from my backyard, being investigated by Ace

In light of all this, I decided to make a lasagna using the same pairing of smoky, salty cheese and sweet winter squash, but with a sage-infused bechamel sauce and layers of kale sauteed with caramelized onions. This is not one of your quick weeknight meals, but if you're already sitting on 1-2 pounds of roasted winter squash, you can do the prep in about 30-40 minutes. If you don't have any squash ready, seeding, baking, scooping, and pureeing it will realistically take you at least an hour. While it's baking, though, you can do the other lasagna prep. Baking time for the lasagna is another hour.

Winter Squash Lasagna with Kale, Sage, and Caramelized Onions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 once your onions are well in hand.

For the bechamel sauce:
2-3 T olive oil
3 T flour
3 c milk (I used 1%)
30 or so fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 t dried rosemary
2 cloves garlic, minced

Warm the oil in a small pan. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk together. Whisk in the milk 1/2 cup at a time and allow the mixture to thicken slightly. Reduce the heat to low and add the sage leaves and rosemary. While this is infusing, saute the garlic briefly in a little olive oil, and then scrape every bit of it into the sauce. You can either leave it on very low heat or turn the burner off while you do the rest of the prep.

For the fillings:
1 large onion, sliced
1 bunch kale, chopped
olive oil for the pan
salt

In the same pan you used for the garlic, heat a bit more oil and add the onions, stirring to coat. Sprinkle with a little salt. Let the onions cook very slowly and stir frequently. When they are full of caramely goodness, add the kale and two tablespoons (or so) of water. Cook until the kale is bright green and wilted and the onions are as done as you'd like them to be.

Steamy!

1-2 pounds of baked/roasted winter squash
1 15 ounce tub of ricotta (I used part-skim)

Puree the squash using whatever equipment you like--I used an immersion blender. Add half the ricotta and mix together. Either salt and pepper to taste, or leave this plain, depending on your reaction to the side note below.

Side note: at this point in the prep I had a moment of reckoning. The squash by itself was perfect, sweet and delicious; with ricotta added, it was starting to taste like pumpkin cheesecake, and I sampled a lot more than was strictly necessary. I didn't add anything else to the squash mixture because I thought if there was some left over, it would become scones or muffins or something with a ginger snap crust. As it turns out, I have 2 cups in the fridge. That's just a tip from me to you, if you have more like 2 pounds of squash and a sweet tooth.

1 half pound of good smoked gouda cheese--preferably not the cheese-foodesque stuff with the brown rind--shredded
Half a brick of firm tofu (optional, but stealth protein)
Ricotta
1 t dried sage
1/2 t dried thyme
Pepper

Mix about half the shredded gouda with the remaining ricotta. Mash the tofu and combine well. Add spices and stir. I had last year's dried sage in the cabinet and thought I'd add another layer of flava, plus a little circle-of-life kind of vibe, since the fresh sage I used is also from my garden (and sage is a perennial, as I learned to my delight this year when it reappeared).

To build the lasagna:
Spray your lasagna pan with non-stick spray (or oil it lightly). Pour a scant third of the bechamel into the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of UNCOOKED lasagna noodles. Spread a layer of the squash on top of the noodles, then the ricotta mixture, then onions and kale, then a little shredded cheese. Repeat this sequence once. Add another layer of noodles and pour the remaining bechamel over the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining gouda, and bake for another 15 minutes.

Some notes: I always think I'm going to love squash + pasta more than I actually do. I think this is because in theory I love all the ingredients, but in practice the combination tends to be relentlessly rich. If you have some roasted tomatoes on hand, you might add a layer of those to this recipe. I think it's missing some acidity. Also, if you find that your squash is a bit dry after roasting, you can add some milk or water to help the pureeing along. The extra moisture will help cook your noodles thoroughly. Finally, salt your lasagna layers to taste. I skipped this step and had to add it afterward.

Test kitchen: Bob Barley Salad.

2009-06-18T12:55:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, the Brit asked me where we should go to get lunch and I said "somewhere where I can get a crapload of salads." My ideal refrigerator would be filled with combinations of beans and grains, veggies and vinaigrettes, fruits and nuts, olives and salty cheeses, and all I would have to do is scoop a bit of each one out onto a plate for instant meal mania. Unfortunately, sigh, I will only have that ideal fridge if I spend a bunch of money at the Whole Foods deli or make everything myself.

When I'm in the mood to make everything myself, this salad recipe from Anger Burger (which is a great read apart from the food stuff) is just the kind of thing I want to make. Hearty, light, tangy, full of delicious cilantro--and I'll just say right now that if you're cilantro-averse, move along right now; there's nothing for you here.

Sometime I'll make this exactly as the recipe says, but this time I used what I had on hand (which is, after all, what this blog is about). Here are my mods for this time around:

In the absence of red peppers I used about a cup of grape tomatoes and a big shredded carrot. I realize they are not at all the same thing, but they did add a bit of sweetness and crunch.
And I was scraping the bottom of my olive oil supply, so there's only 2/3 c in the dressing, which is just fine.
I used agave instead of honey, and the dressing is just a bit too sweet for my taste, so I'm guessing I can cut down on the sweetener.
I finished it with a squeeze of lime.
And I'm eating it with lettuce, because our CSA started last Wednesday and I now feel intense pressure to eat a lot of greens. I think this particular variety is called "Frizzy Headed Drunken Woman," so I'm happy to eat it.

Chomp chomp.

Better the next day: Curried Chickpea Stew.

2009-06-10T14:25:00.005-05:00

I didn't really learn to cook properly until I stopped eating meat, and I wouldn't have learned to cook very well at all without the Moosewood Cookbook (and its sequels). When I was a newly-minted vegetarian, Mollie Katzen's Gypsy Soup was one of the first recipes I ever tried, and my curried chickpea stew reminds me a lot of her recipe. Or maybe it's just a straight-up ripoff. You can decide. The Gypsy Soup recipe is also one of the only recipes I've ever managed to bollocks up twice in exactly the same way. That recipe calls for paprika; I inadvertently reached for cayenne, and the result was inedibly hot. (You'd think this would be a good argument for labeling your spice jars, but I still buy in bulk and go by smell.) My boyfriend at the time actually bought me two different fancy varieties of paprika after that, as a gently mocking gift--which reminds me, I really ought to buy more smoked paprika. It's delicious.

Anyway, you might call this a "stewp," since it starts out like soup and ends up like stew the longer it sits and absorbs the liquid. It's definitely more delicious the next day. And it is easily veganized, and goes great with nooch.

Curried Chickpea Stew
Olive oil for the pot
1 medium onion, diced
1 big carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 fat cloves of garlic, minced
1 fat inch of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 big can of tomatoes
2 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 can chickpeas, or 1.5 cups cooked if you are a good planner
1/3 c quinoa (optional: I had this on hand and like it for the extra protein and texture.)
1-2 T curry powder (this depends on your taste and your curry powder. I added 2 T and it is a bit much.)
1/2 c plain yogurt/soy yogurt (optional, but tasty)
2 good plops of ketchup. You may judge all you want, but ketchup might be the magic secret ingredient here. You could also stir in some tomato paste and maybe a bit of honey or agave, but this does need a little something sweet.
A big handful (really, as much as you like) of dark greens (kale, collards, spinach), chopped

In a big soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and saute until onions are translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for a minute or two longer.

Dump in tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, quinoa, and curry powder, plus an extra cup or two of water (start with one; you can always add more later). When it starts to bubble, reduce the heat and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are tender. Taste the broth and add ketchup and salt to taste. Stir in the greens and cook until wilted. Add yogurt last of all. Taste to adjust the seasonings and serve with crusty bread.

This soup makes excellent leftovers, as evidenced by this picture:

Note the sad office lighting and industrial desk. At least the food is tasty!

Advanced Green Smoothie: Grapefruit, Spinach, Avocado.

2009-05-29T14:55:00.005-05:00

I am very inspired by accounts of foraging for food at Riana's blogs, but so far haven't had many opportunities to get my forage on, apart from occasionally sampling whatever weeds I pull up out of the backyard. For a desk jockey like me, the kitchenette at work is the closest I really get to foraging--that's where all the leftovers from catered meetings end up.

Sometimes this works out really well for me, as it did last week when I realized no one was claiming the half dozen grapefruits someone had set out in a basket. It was the Friday before a holiday weekend, and darned if I was going to let this fruit go to waste! So I popped them all in my bike bag, and I drank up every single one of them in smoothie form, green or otherwise.

Grapefruits can be kind of pithy and intimidating, but if you have a decent blender, you can eat all that delicious fiber and barely notice that that's what you're doing.

Basic Grapefruit Smoothie
1 cup water
1 peeled grapefruit with the seeds popped out (I peel over the blender, so none of the juice goes astray)
enough orange-peach-mango juice to sweeten the deal (about half a cup)
ice

Blend and serve. Makes 2.

Advanced Grapefruit Smoothie
1 cup water
1 peeled grapefruit (see above)
1 half a small ripe avocado
1 handful of spinach
1 glob of your favorite liquid sweetener (I used honey, but agave would be preferable)

Blend and serve over ice. Makes 2 smoothies that I would describe as Hard Core (hence the need for sweetener).

Drink your veggies: Cucumber Pomegranate Green Smoothie.

2009-05-22T12:18:00.002-05:00

I love getting stuff in the mail, but delicious free stuff might be the best mail of all. Yesterday the nice people at POM Wonderful sent me a case of pomegranate juice to try. I was fresh off a very windy bike ride home from work (yesterday was one of those days when the wind is blowing directly at you no matter what direction you're facing) and in need of nutrition and hydration. So even though I'd already had a pile of veg in my morning green smoothie, I made another one.

If you're a green smoothie aficionado (or color theorist), you already know that mixing red fruits with your greens often yields an unappetizing color. This smoothie is no exception, but what's cool is that as the solids separate from the juice, you get layers of color that are quite lovely. And anyway, it tastes good, so if the muddled color offends you, you can close your eyes and enjoy all the same.

Cucumber Pomegranate Green Smoothie
1 cup water
1 cup pomegranate juice
2 handfuls of spinach (about 1 packed cup)
1 half a cucumber, cut into chunks
Ice (optional)

Combine in a blender and mix on high; pour and enjoy. Serves 2.

OH ALSO.

2009-05-14T16:40:00.001-05:00

I have a new stove. Will this make me a better food blogger?

Test kitchen: Wheat Pizza Dough.

2009-05-14T13:40:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, I made this Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza Crust and was very pleased with the way it turned out. It's an easy recipe, and the dough is easy to handle--rolls out evenly, stretches without falling apart, etc. I made one batch and we had pizza two nights in a row.

With caramelized onions, braised kale, rehydrated mushrooms, gorgonzola. A bit out of control.

We also had hearty little sweet rolls made out of the same dough one morning. I rolled out the leftover dough into a rectangle, dotted it with butter, and sprinkled on cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, rehydrated and chopped apricots, and slivered almonds. Then I rolled it up like a rug, sliced into inch-wide pieces, and baked at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Not too sweet, and very easy to grab on the way to your next Saturday morning chore. Seriously, I ate about 10 of them that day. But that also means I did a lot of chores.

My ongoing quest to be a better meal planner and to make as much from scratch as possible involves virtuous things like loading the new freezer with lumps of this pizza dough. I haven't done it yet, but I have high hopes.

Wheatberry Salad with Pears, Walnuts, and Arugula.

2009-04-12T12:47:00.008-05:00

Dear little food blog, I have missed you. I have taken many pictures of my food over the last few months, but these pictures have languished on my hard drive with no recipes to anchor them in the world of cooking. But it's spring now and time for a new leaf and all that, and I'm about to go unleash my latest creation on a crowd of assembled family members, so I thought I'd unleash it on you first.

What is a wheatberry, you may ask? A wheatberry is the whole dang kernel of wheat. You cook it like pretty much any whole grain: add water, boil, then simmer until the water is absorbed. Once cooked, it's chewy and nutty and delicious. It is also good for you. I used hard wheatberries, which are higher in protein and gluten, but soft would probably be fine too.

This salad has a mustardy vinaigrette and is studded with pear chunks, walnuts, currants, and celery, and topped with bleu cheese. If you want to keep it vegan, leave the cheese off and the salad is still super tasty. I know, because I tasted it at every stage.

Wheatberry Salad with Pears, Walnuts, and Arugula
1 1/2 cups hard wheatberries
4 1/2 cups water

Combine in a large saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the water is absorbed--about 50 minutes. While that's cooking, assemble the dressing.

2 T flaxseed oil
1/4 c olive oil
2 T maple syrup
2 T mustard
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
a pinch of dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together in a small bowl and set aside. Then prepare:

2 stalks of celery, diced
2 small ripe pears, cubed
2 handfuls of arugula, chopped
1 c walnuts (toast these first if you're fancy), chopped
1/2 c currants
1/2-3/4 c crumbled bleu cheese or gorgonzola

When the wheat is cooked and has cooled a bit, you can add the dressing right away and let the grains absorb the dressing until you're ready to put together the rest of the salad--before mealtime, or the next day, even. I did the grains the day before, and added the currants and dressing before popping it all into the fridge overnight. This helped to rehydrate the currants a bit.

About an hour before serving, mix in all the rest of the ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Let the whole thing come to room temp and enjoy.

(Update: the salad was duly housed by the whole family.)

Split pea soup for two.

2009-01-12T16:42:00.004-06:00

When I cook at home, I usually make a whole wack of food so that my manfriend and I have leftovers to take to work for lunch the next few days. But now that I'm working with a dorm-sized fridge and just one eater, I've cut things back a bit. This recipe uses the stuff that's in my pantry and cooks up a bit smaller than my usual soup stylings. It also looks quite unappetizing when photographed unless you happen to love poopy green colors the way I do, so please use your imagination for illustration.

Split pea soup
Olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 big cloves of garlic, minced
1 t basil
1/2 t oregano
1/4 t cayenne pepper
3/4 cup split peas, picked over and rinsed
1/4 cup brown rice
5 cups veggie broth (I used Imagine's No-Chicken broth plus an extra cup of water)
1/2 a package of frozen spinach
1/2 t liquid smoke
salt and pepper to taste
sambal olek or sri racha for extra spice

Saute the onions and carrot in olive oil over medium high heat until the onions are wilted. Add garlic and spices and cook a few minutes more, then add peas, rice, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for about a half hour, or until rice is cooked and peas are soft.

In the meantime, prepare your spinach according instructions and stir into the soup when done. (The soup could easily accommodate a whole package of spinach if you like; I just wanted to save some for a pasta sauce.)

Finish the soup with liquid smoke and remaining seasonings (if you so desire). This would also be great with a potato or two, with thyme and/or smoked paprika if you have it on hand, or with curry spices instead of basil and oregano.

This makes more than enough for two people and could probably feed 4 moderate eaters if you serve a salad and bread.

One-pot cooking.

2009-01-07T20:42:00.005-06:00

Since I last blogged at you, I've temporarily relocated for a 10-week job away from home. My new employer provides housing in the form of a cute little studio apartment a stone's throw from my office, which is excellent. Less excellent are the wee little fridge, wee little stove, and wee little countertop. But this wee setup is going to force me to get creative with my cooking while also simplifying things a bit. I couldn't bring every single staple with me and I haven't bought very much since I got here on Saturday. Here's what I'm working with:

Olive and canola oils
Garlic and onions
Ginger and scallions
Cumin, cayenne pepper, and curry powder
Liquid smoke!
Apple cider vinegar
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Canned beans and tomatoes
Quinoa and rice
Miso and tofu
Bogus sausage
Broccoli and carrots
Red cabbage
Frozen corn and fresh grape tomatoes
Avocado
Bananas and apples
Steel cut oats
Currants
Honey

On my first night here I was fed tasty Indian food. But the next night I made a spicy miso soup with some baby bok choy I'd brought with me from home, carrots, and sauteed tofu. I ate the leftovers the next day.

For last night's dinner and today's lunch, I sauteed onions, garlic, and a little red cabbage, and cooked quinoa with the vegetable mixture. When it was nearly done, I stirred in canned garbanzo beans and added broccoli florets on top to steam in the pot. I finished it up with crumbled fake sausage and the last of the Christmas pesto (yes there is such a thing). Pesto was my solution to not having any herbs yet. Fortunately, I discovered tonight that a colleague has four basil plants in his office! They kind of make his studio smell like cats, but at least now I can harvest fresh basil on the job.

Tonight's dinner/tomorrow's lunch followed a similar formula to last night's meal: some sort of bean + some sort of rice or grain + veg + seasonings. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a one-pot meal, since I had to cook the brown rice in a separate pot. But I sauteed onions and garlic with cumin and cayenne pepper, added canned black beans, tomatoes, and frozen corn, simmered it all with the cooked rice, and finished with scallions, liquid smoke, and a dash of cider vinegar.

I suspect I'll be doing a lot of this type of cooking while I'm here, especially since I am so enamored of the vintage Copco cast iron lidded casserole I brought with me as a (heavy) afterthought. I found it at a thrift store a few months ago and had never used it. But it's sure to be the most frequent One Pot for my one-pot meals. If I ever cook in broad daylight (hard when it's dark at 5), I'll take a picture for you.

I'm missing cinnamon, red pepper flakes, basil, and chili powder. Along with cumin and ginger, those are the key herbs and spices for me. I'm also missing greens, and I'm hoping I can find a good source around here for bulk spices and organic veg.

What are your staples in the kitchen?

Coconut-Almond Granola.

2008-12-17T12:24:00.003-06:00

Recently my boyfriend decided that he wanted to start snacking on yogurt and granola, so in response I've been honing my granola chops. My first attempt was too complicated and included quinoa and crystallized ginger and pumpkin puree and molasses, and in the end none of the delicious ingredients mattered because my stupid oven fried the stuff almost immediately. Let's say it was very dark brown and I'm the only one who ate any of it. Someday I'll make a gingerbread-inspired granola that I'm happy with.

But for now, simplifying is the name of the game. Here's what I came up with in my most recent attempt, and the results are pretty sweet and addictive.

Coconut-Almond Granola
Preheat your oven to 300. If your oven runs hot, like mine seems to, try 275 instead. If I were a more diligent cook, I would have a thermometer to help me determine the actual temp of my oven and you would get more precise instructions.

Mix dry ingredients together in a big bowl:
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup ground rolled oats (you can do this in a food processor or coffee grinder)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup almond meal (don't sweat it if you don't have any. I had some from making almond milk awhile back)
1/4 cup soy protein powder (always looking for stealth protein)
1/2 cup raw, unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup almonds--mine were slivered, but any old cut will do
2 t cinnamon

Melt the wet ingredients in a little saucepan over medium heat just until bubbly:
1/2 c virgin coconut oil
1 cup brown sugar (this produces a pretty sweet granola. Next time I'll cut down to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup water

Remove wet ingredients from heat and stir in:
1 t almond extract
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t salt

Let the wet ingredients cool a bit, then dump over the dry ingredients and stir until everything is thoroughly combined. Spray two 11 X 17 jelly roll pans with cooking spray and distribute the mixture evenly over the two pans. You can squeeze the mixture together to form delicious chunks. Toast for about a half hour, but check frequently (every ten minutes, at least) and turn the granola to keep it from burning. Store in an airtight container. Yield: about 8.5 cups.

Crockpot Oatmeal.

2008-12-10T08:34:00.003-06:00

With no apologies for my TWO MONTH ABSENCE in which I did TONS OF COOKING and even TOOK PICTURES but NEVER POSTED FOR YOU, I'm going to launch right in with a question: how is it that I've never told you about Crockpot Oatmeal?

Oh, I guess it turns out that I sort of did.

I have to tell you, though, I recently told some friends about the Crockpot Oatmeal and when I saw them a month later, they HUGGED ME. ABOUT THE OATMEAL. This is a true story. It's changed their lives (their words). I'm just saying.

And it's not hard to make. All you need is:

1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups liquid (water is perfectly fine, but sub in one cup of soymilk or ricemilk or what have you for extra flava), plus a bit extra
Spices and dried fruit to taste
A crockpot

Mix it all together, set the thing on low before you go to bed, and the next morning you will have a nourishing breakfast treat with an amazingly creamy, slightly chewy texture. I'm raving because I'm eating some right now. My current version used a cup of soymilk, a cup of spiced apple cider, two cups of water, a handful of dried apricots, a handful of currants, and a healthy dose of ground ginger. As god is your witness, you'll never go hungry again.

Cauliflower.

2008-10-06T13:09:00.003-05:00

Recently, I have had my socks knocked off by humble, nearly unadulterated cauliflower--twice. The first time, I roasted it, which I'd never done before, and was rewarded with tender, delicious, caramelized vegetable goodness.

The second time was Saturday night. I'd forgotten about last week's CSA cauliflower and had to use it, so I decided to steam and puree it. This is very easy: break a small head of cauliflower into florets and steam using a steamer basket or your other favorite method until very tender. You could boil them, too, but hang on to the water either way.

While the tender cauliflower is still hot, chuck half of it into the blender with about 1/4 cup of the steaming/boiling water and puree. Add the rest of the cauliflower and more water as needed (but not too much). Add about a tablespoon of good olive oil (or more) and puree again. The olive oil does this beautiful emulsification thing that greatly improves the texture. Sprinkle in salt, pepper, and curry powder (or other herbs) if you like.

The texture and flavor of this was incredible. Delicious, comforting, and super-duper easy. I realize dieters have known about pureed cauliflower forever. Don't let that scare you off.

Super Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake.

2008-09-29T20:02:00.007-05:00

We had a little going-away potluck for a friend last week and I volunteered to be in charge of the sweets, which is most unlike me. It's not that I dislike baking. What I don't like is how nearly-impossible it is to salvage baking mistakes, whereas cooking mistakes can usually be turned around with a little improvisation.

Fortunately, this cake was super-easy and possibly idiot-proof (and also praised by omnivores who love them some rich, fatty cake). It mixes quickly, bakes up beautifully, and goes down easy. I can't take credit for the recipe--it's just a slightly bastardized version of the Moosewood Restaurant's Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake--but of course I changed a few little things. There's half the sugar, less oil, more cocoa, and tons of deliciousness. I also think it would be amazing with cinnamon and cayenne pepper, or banana, and definitely with peanut butter frosting.

Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
3 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups cold brewed coffee
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 9 X 13 cake pan--I used Spectrum spray with flour. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. In another bowl, combine coffee, oil, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth, using a hand mixer to pump some air into the batter. Add the vinegar and stir to combine. The vinegar and baking soda will start to react immediately, so pour the batter into your prepared pan quickly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While it's baking, why not whip up some easy chocolate-raspberry topping?

Chocolate-Raspberry Topping
(I hate the word "topping," but this is neither frosting nor glaze.)
1 cup or more raspberry fruit spread
1 cup or more bittersweet chocolate chips
A few tablespoons of water

In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, warm the raspberry spread over low heat with a little bit of water, stirring until it is smooth. Add the chocolate chips and whisk until melted and thoroughly combined.

What you do next is up to you. Maybe you just want to take the sauce and go be alone with it. You could pour it directly on the (slightly cooled) cake, where it will fill in any cracks and drip down the sides. You could also chill it so that it thickens up, and then apply it to the cake more like a frosting.

I can also tell you that leftover chocolate-raspberry topping is excellent on plain, slightly salty wheat crackers.

Fun with cabbage: Stir Fry with Carrot "Noodles" and Thai Slaw.

2008-09-26T14:42:00.009-05:00

I am still happily in the CSA's thrall, and last week's box had a big, beautiful purple cabbage in it. We're splitting our box with another couple, so I only brought home half the cabbage, but even so, it is a substantial vegetable and I still have about half of it left. Here are two ways I used it.

Stir Fry with Carrot "Noodles"
For the tofu:
A little oil for the pan
Soy sauce, tamari, or Braggs
1 pound of extra firm tofu, drained, pressed (if you have the time) and cubed

Heat the oil and soy sauce together over medium heat. Add tofu, toss to coat, and fry until golden on all sides. Set aside.

For the veg:
Half a medium onion, sliced
A cup (or so) of purple cabbage, sliced and diced or shredded
Half a head of broccoli, broken into florets. Please include the chopped broccoli leaves and the peeled and sliced stalks--they are delicious
Any other vegetables you have on hand
Sesame oil
Rice vinegar
Soy sauce

In your recently-vacated tofu pan, add a bit more oil (canola, peanut, etc) over medium-high heat and chuck in your onions to soften for a few minutes. Add cabbage and broccoli and toss to coat. As the vegetables start to fry and cook down, add a bit of water (like a tablespoon at a time) to encourage the vegetables to steam. Sprinkle with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce.

For the "noodles":
2 large carrots, made into noodles with a good old fashioned vegetable peeler. I just set the carrot down on my cutting board and peeled away, turning the carrot to hit all sides and keep the peelings from getting too wide. Snack on the pointy leftovers.

Just before the stir-fry vegetables are done, toss in your carrot noodles and let them wilt and incorporate into the mix. Add the tofu back in and garnish with chopped scallions, sesame seeds, and Sri Racha sauce.

This would also be delicious served with actual noodles, though you might need more sauce.

Thai Slaw
This is one of the prettiest things I've ever eaten. The part about it being Thai is bullshit, but at least you know what flavor profile I am trying to evoke.

2 cups shredded purple cabbage
2 grated carrots
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 chopped scallions
a handful of chopped cilantro
chopped peanuts for garnish

For dressing:
Rice vinegar (cider vinegar would be just fine too, though you may want to adjust the flavors a bit)
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Sri Racha or other chili sauce
About a teaspoon of minced ginger (I have to admit that I bought a jar of this and it is extremely convenient, and inexpensive)

Mix together in pleasing proportions until you are satisfied. You can also dash in some balsamic and olive oil--this was left over in my cruet from the previous night's salad, and my "Thai" dressing mixed in to it deliciously. You want about a half cup of dressing for this amount of veg.

Mix all your vegetables together in a big bowl and feel free to adjust the proportions. Add the dressing and toss it all together. Voila! If you can let this sit and marinate for at least a half hour before serving, it will be much more delicious. Top with chopped peanuts.

(At this rate, it looks like I'm shooting for one post about every three weeks. That's a good way to please your vast readership, is it not?)

Spicy Potato Corn Soup.

2008-09-07T22:16:00.005-05:00

Unfortunately, my friends, it seems that summer has officially ended. September 1 rolled around and brought with it chilly evenings and blustery rain. Oh sure, today around 4 it was fabulous and perfect outside, to the point that running around the lake didn't feel like much of a chore at all. But I know that these days are numbered, and when the nights are chilly, a makeshift cook's thoughts turn to soup.

I've had potato soup on the brain for a few days, knowing that I'm a bit overloaded with potatoes at the moment and need to use them up. This soup whipped up quickly and easily with just a few ingredients and I can't stop eating it. Really, it's still on the stovetop and every time I walk past, I dip another half-scoop of it into my bowl. As soothing as mashed potatoes, but with the kick of jalapeno peppers and the sweetness of corn to keep things interesting.

Spicy Potato Corn Soup
Olive oil for the soup pot
One good-sized onion, diced
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
4 smallish carrots, diced (or two large ones)
3 big gloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp of cumin
About 2 pounds of gold potatoes (I used 10 medium), peeled (or not, if you like) and cubed
About 6 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup of frozen corn, though if you have fresh, by all means use it
Fresh oregano if you have it
A few handfuls of fresh spinach
2 scallions, chopped
Salt to taste

Chop your veg first. You are probably virtuous and you do this sort of prepping already, but too often I find myself having to chop another vegetable while I'm right in the middle of the cooking, and this recipe has a lot of potatoes which, between you and me, are a pain in the ass to peel and cube.

Then. Heat the oil in your soup pot and add the onions, jalapenos, and carrots. Saute until the onions are translucent and then add the garlic and cumin. Let that sizzle a few minutes more, and then chuck in your potatoes, stir to coat, and add the vegetable broth, which I suspect is what pulls this soup together. I made some from scratch awhile back and froze it, and this is what allows me to say smugly that making your own veggie stock is the way to go.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and let everything simmer until the potatoes are tender. At this point, use an immersion blender, blender, or old-school potato masher to puree some of the soup. If you forget to do this until later, like I did, the soup will still be delicious.

Add the corn and cook a bit longer. Last of all, add the fresh oregano, spinach, and scallions, stir it up, and turn the heat wayyyy down or off altogether. Salt to taste and let the soup stand for a few minutes to come together.

Serve with crusty bread, obviously.

Veggie Reuben.

2008-08-28T14:51:00.003-05:00

There are lots of vegetarian and vegan Reuben recipes floating around out there, and most of them use tempeh. I am all for it because I totally dig tempeh, but sometimes you don't have any at home and you want a big sloppy sandwich anyway. A Reuben-esque sandwich, even, despite the fact that you're missing some of the key ingredients.

Enter the Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlet, which I have referred to numerous times and even bastardized once with kidney beans. Every time I make these, I intentionally make enough dough to keep a wad in the fridge for later frying. So I fried up some cutlets with my leftover dough.

Also, I had no sauerkraut, but I did have a hunk of cabbage, so I sauteed the cabbage with some thinly sliced onions and a splash of cider vinegar until it was soft and starting to brown and caramelize.

Here's what you'll need if you want to replicate this sandwich, which was eaten so quickly I couldn't get a picture of it:

Dark rye bread or other delicious bread of your choice
A chickpea cutlet the size of your bread (google the recipe, which has been passed around the interwebs many a time)
Swiss cheese (or not)
Sauteed cabbage or sauerkraut
Thinly sliced green peppers, which I love on this kind of sandwich
Prepared Russian dressing or your own concoction of vegan mayo, ketchup, pickle relish, and horseradish, all mixed up together

Grill the bread in a little olive oil or butteresque fatty fat. Layer the cheese and cutlets on one piece of bread and cook over low heat until melted. Remove to a plate and pile on the rest of the ingredients. Eat with a knife, fork, and french fries.

Green Pea Hummus.

2008-07-10T11:53:00.003-05:00

My cooking and eating life have been completely consumed by the CSA box lately. The CSA box more or less dictates what I eat, and it's been really nice. But it's also been a lot of salads and slaw and stir-fried veg and sauteed greens with pasta, and not so much creative recipe action. Did you know you can eat pretty much any vegetable top sauteed if not raw? It's true. Here are some novel greens I have eaten in the last few weeks:

-Kohlrabi
-Radish
-Carrot
-Broccoli
-Cauliflower

I weep for all of the supermarket vegetables, denuded of their greens, and I weep for the many years I was too dumb to think of cooking and eating the greens attached to my vegetables. I'm telling you, you can eat just about anything sauteed in olive oil with garlic and some red pepper flakes and salt and pepper and maybe a squeeze of lemon.

In non-CSA ingredient news, I whipped up the following brilliant little snack a few weeks ago:

I've made green pea hummus two ways: with and without chickpeas. If you want a completely raw snack, do all peas; if you enjoy the chickpea action, use half chickpeas and half green peas. It's delicious either way, and a little lighter, sweeter, and springier than traditional hummus.

Green Pea Hummus
2 cups frozen green peas, thawed (I just soaked them in water for 15 minutes or so), or fresh ones if you're lucky and industrious (the shelling, you know)
2-3 tablespoons raw tahini
2 small minced cloves of garlic, or more to taste
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
a sprinkle of cayenne
olive or flaxseed oil as needed--not mandatory, but rather tasty and smooth

Whip it all up in a blender and serve with veggies, crackers, or your fingers.

CSA Week 1: Leafage.

2008-06-23T11:49:00.006-05:00

Last Wednesday marked the first delivery of my CSA share from Riverbend Farm. The spring has been so long and cool that it took a little longer than usual for harvestable veggies to start appearing, and some stuff, like the delicious broccoli, never got particularly big and robust, thanks to the cool weather. But the greens pulled on through!

Lots of things about buying a CSA share totally appeal to me, but one of the things I like the most is the surprise element. I'm not a total neophyte w/r/t to when certain veggies are in season, so I have some idea of what to expect. I guess what I'm saying is that the idea of preparing meals with whatever mystery veg is delivered on Wednesday appeals to me quite a lot (hence this blog).

So on Wednesday night I used the broccoli, tatsoi, some of the broccoli rabe, and scallions in a stir fry, and then I made a simple salad with the beautiful green and red lettuces and tender radishes.

It's not much of a recipe: fry the tofu in veg oil and Bragg's or soy sauce, separately. Smash a garlic clove and toss into a saute pan with olive oil and some crushed red pepper. Heat and add greens, sauteing until tender, adding water as needed. Season with sesame oil and a bit of salt or soy sauce, or just eat straight up with tofu. Top with scallions.

I also got a pot of herbs in my first CSA box--just need to divide and replant so that the couple we're splitting our share with can also enjoy the parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, basil, and chives.

Kidney Beans.

2008-06-05T13:24:00.003-05:00

This week's Quantity Bean is the Kidney, a powerhouse of fiber, protein, and iron. Here's what I've done with it so far:

-Made a vegan risotto with kidney beans and kale, using homemade vegetable stock (a first for me, how sad). I know, it sounds boringly nutritious, but it is actually quite good and settles like a ton of tasty bricks in your stomach. Use any basic risotto recipe and stir in kidney beans towards the end. Recommended for cold, blustery weather.
-Adapted the Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlet recipe that I am always talking about with kidney beans. I think this recipe would work well with any combination of beans and spices, really. It's magic.

Kidney Bean Cutlets
Mash together:
1 cup cooked kidney beans
2 T olive oil

Mix in:
1 medium carrot, grated fine
2 scallions, chopped
1 T of Braggs Liquid Aminos (I used 2 and it was too many, just FYI)
2 t adobo sauce
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup bread crumbs. I don't ever have bread crumbs handy, so I just toast a slice of bread and crumble it, and that works just fine.

Knead for a few minutes until the gluten strands form and the whole mass is holding together. Divide into four equal pieces, knead each briefly, and press into patties or cutlets or animal shapes, if you like, as long as they're flat and more or less uniform in thickness. Fry in delicious olive oil at medium-high heat until both sides are brown and the patties are firm. Serve with hot sauce and avocado.

I have made the Chickpea Cutlets many times, by the way, and have screwed up the recipe more than once, too, either by adding too much liquid or forgetting something, and it never seems to matter--they are always delicious.

Things to do with leftover rice #1.

2008-05-31T16:21:00.002-05:00

If your rice is already flavored with lime juice and cilantro, there's no point in trying to make rice pudding out of it. Instead, grate a carrot, chop some cabbage, add more cilantro and lime juice, a few chopped scallions, a splash of orange juice, a little salt, a little olive oil, and some diced avocado. Mix it up and eat it up.

More uses for adzuki beans.

2008-05-28T22:35:00.002-05:00

Here are some other things I have done with my recent Big Batch of Beans.
1. Bean dip. You can treat these little critters pretty much like black beans, which is to say: spice them with olive oil, garlic, cumin, chipotle peppers, lime, cilantro and/or leftover salsa and puree using your favorite pureeing machine. I did two different incarnations of bean dip for two different cookouts. The smokier, more chipotle-heavy one was a bigger hit. But some people like the cilantro-heavy first one.

2. Chili. Again, use in place of black beans in your favorite recipe.

3. Stew. I guess this wasn't really all that different from the chili, but I didn't use any chili POWDER. Sauteed onions and garlic and adobo sauce, added some tomatoes and the leftover beans and broth, realized there were hardly any beans left, and quick chopped up sweet potatoes and zucchini and simmered with frozen corn. I also fried some cubed tofu in oil, braggs, chili powder, cumin, and coriander, and sprinkled with lime juice. Served the whole shebang over cilantro-lime brown rice.

The adzuki beans are finally gone and it's time to move on to some other corner of my bean stash. I'll keep you posted.

Pasta Genovese.

2008-05-27T12:33:00.004-05:00

Hat tip to What the hell does a vegan eat, anyway, for depicting a version of this dish and sending me on an internet quest for more information.

Turns out not much information is needed. This is a one-pot meal with potatoes, pasta, green beans, and pesto. I added olive tapenade and Gimme Lean snausage for extra flava.

Pasta Genovese
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
8 ounces of pasta (a short cut of pasta--I used farfalle)
A few handfuls of green beans (I used frozen)
As much pesto as you need--at least 3 tablespoons, I'd say
Tapenade if you have it, or some chopped kalamata olives
Gimme Lean sausage, or your favorite alternative

Bring a big pot of water to a boil and then salt it. Add potatoes and cook until tender but holding their shape. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

While this is going on, heat a bit of oil in a saute pan and add your veggie sausage in little plops and cook until nicely browned.

About 3 minutes before the pasta is scheduled to be done, add the green beans. If you're using frozen, add them a bit at a time, so you don't interfere with the water boiling.

When everything is done, drain in a fine colander, reserving some of the cooking water. I didn't actually need any, but it's a good thing to have on hand in case your pasta plus adornments seems a bit dry or sticky. Pour the pasta mixture into a bowl and stir in the pesto and olives/tapenade and sausage. If cheese is your thing, add some parmesan too. Salt (if needed) and pepper to taste and chow down.

2 for 1: Greens, Tofu, and Adzuki Beans with Soba AND Broccoli Noodles.

2008-05-22T19:55:00.005-05:00

My first adzuki bean project for the week was a super-hearty noodle dish.

Greens, Tofu, and Adzuki Beans with Soba Noodles
For the tofu:
Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil and a few dashes of soy sauce (or shoyu, or tamari, or whatever) over medium-high heat. Add a package of cubed firm tofu and saute until all sides are golden and crispy. When done, set them aside on a plate.

For the noodles:
Boil water and cook noodles according to package directions. Don't overcook unless you like gummy soba.

For the veg (use the tofu pan!):
A bit more oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
1 bunch of stemmed, chopped lacinato kale (regular is fine too)
As many chopped mushrooms as you like
2 cups cooked adzuki beans and some bean broth
A few handfuls of fresh chopped spinach, why not?
3 scallions, chopped
Sesame seeds
Rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sri racha to taste

Heat the oil in the pan and add ginger and garlic. Saute quickly and add chopped mushrooms and a bit of water if the pan is too dry. Add chopped kale, and a bit more water and some soy sauce, and braise your delicious greens. When the greens are cooked, add adzuki beans and broth, and cook it all together, adding water whenever the pan is dry. Dash on some sesame oil and sri racha sauce, and add the tofu back in and stir to coat.

Serve over noodles garnished with scallions and sesame seeds.

Then! You have leftover noodles, and you want something like lo mein, and your co-op had house brand broccoli slaw for half price, so:

Broccoli Noodles
A bit of veg oil
A bit of sesame oil
A minced garlic clove
An inch of minced fresh ginger
A chopped leek
A ten ounce bag of broccoli slaw, or a bunch of peeled and grated brocc stems
A grated carrot
Some leftover noodles
Rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sri racha
A handful of chopped cilantro

Heat the oils and saute garlic and ginger for a minute or two. Add leek and saute until wilted and translucent. Throw in broccoli and carrots, and a few splashes of rice vinegar and soy sauce. Cook until the vegetables are tender-crisp, and stir in the noodles to coat and reheat. Add sri racha to taste and a wad of cilantro. Yummmm.

I love this because it ends up being mostly broccoli with just a few noodles mixed in.

Carrot Apple Beet Slaw with Chickpeas.

2008-05-21T21:54:00.003-05:00

It's been the week of the chickpea here at the makeshift kitchen. Several days ago I cooked up a huge batch with no real plan for them, but it's been nice to have cooked beans on hand to use as I wish (and with which to make yet more Chickpea Cutlets). I just cooked an even larger batch of aduki/adzuki/azuki beans, so stay tuned as I explore their manifold uses.

Anyway, this slaw thing just sort of came to me after I shredded a bit of beet for a variation on the house salad the other day. I love beets in all forms, but I have to say I haven't done a lot of raw beet goodness apart from the occasional trip to a juice bar (my favorite: carrot apple beet juice with lots of ginger). This recipe totally remedies that situation. It also made use of an old-ass apple I had in the fridge. You know that one apple? It's gotten a little too wrinkly to eat as a snack, but you only have one of them, so you don't want to make applesauce? Here's one way to use that apple.

Carrot Apple Beet Slaw with Chickpeas
Mix up a vinaigrette:
1/4 cup olive oil
a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
a healthy plop of dijon mustard
a few squirts of Braggs Liquid Aminos (or plain old soy sauce)
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/2 tsp basil

Whisk together in a medium bowl and add 2 cups cooked chickpeas. Let that all mellow together and work on your veggies.

2 large carrots, grated
1 medium beet, grated
(Note: I just scrubbed the veggies really well instead of peeling. They're organic and there's good stuff in the skin, you dig?)
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 rib celery, chopped, including the leafy bits, why not?
1 scallion, chopped

Mix it all together with the vinaigrettey chickpeas, add salt if you need it, and garnish with black pepper and pumpkin or sunflower seeds or serve over lettuce.

Chickpea Hash.

2008-05-19T13:44:00.002-05:00

I used to make this stuff all the time, especially when I lived by myself, and have no idea why it fell out of rotation because it's the easiest meal ever, endlessly adaptable to whatever you have on hand. The only thing you really need is chickpeas.

Chickpea Hash
Olive oil
1-2 smashed and diced cloves of garlic
A big pinch of chili flakes
A few big pinches of dried basil
A can of chickpeas, or a cup and a half of cooked ones
One big quartered and sliced zucchini
A few big handfuls of fresh spinach, chopped

Saute the garlic and herbs in olive oil. Add chickpeas and toss to coat, then add zucchini and cook until tender. Throw in spinach and saute another minute, just til wilted. Salt and serve. That's it.

The next day, I added to the leftovers a cup of frozen corn (cooked), a chopped fresh tomato, and a sliced Quorn cutlet. And some baguettes on the side, from the New French Bakery.

Chickpea Hash is also great with crumbled tofu, veggie sausage (cook separately and mix into saute), diced bell peppers (raw or cooked), a little chopped onion, salsa, chili powder and oregano instead of basil, feta cheese, etc. GO NUTS.

Sesame Ginger Rice Salad.

2008-05-12T15:11:00.002-05:00

I made this bomb-ass salad for Mother's Day potluck and it disappeared before I could photograph it, as did my Veganomicon Curried Carrot Dip.

Sesame Ginger Rice Salad
Pop 1.5 cups of brown rice into your rice cooker.

Meanwhile, start pressing the water out of a brick of tofu (wrap in a clean, lint-free towel or paper towels, set on a plate, and put another plate and a can of beans on top of it).

Meanwhile, clean a small head of broccoli and steam the florets until just tender, about 5 minutes. Peel all the fibrous stuff off the stalk of the brocc and slice thin. I left these raw for extra crunch.

Meanwhile, whisk together:
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp grated ginger
1 minced clove of garlic
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
A few shakes of red pepper flakes

Meanwhile, you can chuck your chopped brocc stalks in there. Also grate a carrot while you're at it, and throw it into the dressing.

Meanwhile, your tofu is pressed (but your rice is still cooking). Heat a little veg oil and soy sauce in a non-stick pan, cube your tofu, and fry the cubes until golden and delicious.

Meanwhile, chiffonade some spinach--a few handfuls, including the stems which you will chop into little pieces. Chop a few scallions while you're at it.

Combine everything when the rice is cooked and serve room temperature, if you can wait that long.

Curried Red Lentil Soup and Coriander Flatbreads.

2008-05-12T15:06:00.001-05:00

I accidentally got a subscription to Bon Appetit, which is less a cooking magazine and more a lifestyle magazine, although really what magazine ISN'T a lifestyle rag? What happened was, I bought something from Amazon's home and garden section and got to choose a free magazine. The last freebie I got was Domino and I have had enough of rolling my eyes at that particular wad of advertorial, so I opted for recipes instead.

So far there's little of real use in Bon Appetit, but this little recipe for Ground Coriander and Cilantro Flatbreads caught my eye because it looked super-easy AND I had an overabundance of plain yogurt that needed to be used. I altered it a bit because I didn't have any cilantro, but damn I bet it would be delicious. Just sub cilantro for parsley. Bon Appetit also calls for whole milk yogurt; use it if you have it, but lowfat worked fine too.

Coriander Flatbreads
1 1/2 cups (or more) AP flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup (or more) plain yogurt
Olive oil (for frying)

Sift dry ingredients together. Stir in fresh herbs. Add yogurt and moosh together with a fork until dough starts to clump together. Then knead in the bowl, adding more flour or yog as necessary, until you have a soft and slightly sticky dough. Turn out onto floured surface and knead for a minute. Divide into 8 pieces, roll into balls, and then roll out with a rolling pin (or my favorite makeshift, a wine bottle). Heat a generous plop of olive oil at medium high heat in a non-stick skillet and fry the breads three at a time until golden and puffed, about 3 minutes per side.

I made the soup to go with it on a day when I really felt like I had no food in the house. It just goes to show you how pampered and silly I am, because look at the bountiful soup I came up with! I think I'm just craving copious farmer's market veg and we're not quite there yet, weather-wise.

Curried Red Lentil Soup
Olive oil for the pot
1 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp garam masala or curry powder
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 cups red lentils
1 large sweet potato, cubed
8 cups of water
Fresh spinach (frozen is fine too)
Salt to taste

Rinse and pick over the lentils, discarding any foreign objects (duh). Drain in a fine sieve/colander.

Heat the olive oil in your soup pot at medium-high heat. Add onions and spices (feel free to improvise), and saute until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook a bit longer. Add sweet potatoes and stir to coat with spices. Dump in the can of tomatoes, lentils, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until lentils are tender and sweet potatoes are cooked through (20-25 minutes). Blend some or all of the soup in your blender or with an immersion mixture (optional). Return to pot, add chopped fresh spinach, and cook just until wilted. Salt to taste.

Serve with brown rice or all by itself, and definitely eat flatbreads.

Tart Cherry-Pear Crisp.

2008-04-29T20:32:00.000-05:00

I spotted some bags of home-grown sour cherries in the co-op freezer last week and grabbed a bag, even though I had no real plans for them. I thought I'd dump some in my green smoothies (which I just now remembered thinking about, so obviously I haven't done it yet), but instead I busted them out for a little dessert tonight.

Tart Cherry-Pear Crisp
For the filling:
About 5 cups of fruit (frewit). Peel, core, and cube the pears (I used two fat ones) and make sure your cherries are pitted.
1/4 cup of packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp cornstarch

For the crumbly stuff:
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup ground almonds (trying to use up my nut pulp. Nut pulp!)
1/4 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup Earth Balance
2 tbsp soaked flax seeds (I was trying to use these up also)

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix fruity ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Mix crumbly ingredients in another bowl with your hands until the butter stuff is incorporated and all is crumbly. Dump fruit into 8 X 8 X 2 baking dish and top with crumble, making sure it's all covered. Bake for 40 minutes.

This was totally delicious but needed ice cream. Also more buttery stuff in the crumble, or maybe some oil. Something fatty, in any case. Still, I ate it:

Also for breakfast, with yogurt:

Next time I shall amp up the fruit, fat, and ginger content.

Quick fix when you're illin': Miso Soup.

2008-04-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

It hardly seems worthwhile to post a recipe for something as adaptable and easy as miso soup, but I'm home sick today with a head full of snot (bon appetit!) and all kinds of aches and pains and miso soup is one of the only things I reliably want to eat when I feel crappy. It also uses stuff I always have in my kitchen and requires minimal preparation, which is perfect when you really only have the energy to lie on the couch and maybe moan a bit.

Miso Soup
For the broth:
2 cups or so of water, just off the boil
1 plop of miso, to taste--I use about a tablespoon
A squirt of Sri Racha or other Asian hot sauce, to taste
A dollop of sesame oil

For the soup's insides:
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of fresh ginger, minced
1/2 a brick of firm tofu, cubed
A little oil for the pan
Veggies: shredded carrots, scallions, bean sprouts, chopped spinach, chopped romaine, or whatever your sickly heart desires. Today I used spinach, carrots, and romaine.
Sesame seeds

Heat your water (in a teapot is best!) and heat the oil over medium-high heat in a saute pan. Add ginger and garlic and cook for a bit, then pat your tofu dry and chuck that in the pan too. Sprinkle a little soy sauce or Bragg's Liquid Aminos on the tofu, if you like (I like).

Meanwhile, chop your veggies into sweet little bits. When the water is hot, pour it into your biggest soup bowl and dissolve the miso in it. Add Sri Racha and sesame oil (if you have it). Stir well and taste it to ensure its deliciousness. Finally, scrape your saute pan into the broth and top with veggies and sesame seeds.

This is also delicious with noodles, obvs.

Arugula Salad with Carrots, Apples, and Pumpkin Seeds.

2008-04-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

The title of this post pretty much gives it all away, but I'll write out the "recipe" for this salad anyway. It's become a staple at our house because it is so simple, delicious, fresh, and easy to put together.

Salad!
Half a bag of arugula or mixed greens that include arugula (though this is also very good with spinach)
A smallish carrot, grated or better yet, shaved with your peeler until there is nothing left but a pile of carrot curls
A diced crunchy apple, like honeycrisp (our favorite) or granny smith
A handful of pumpkin seeds

For the dressing, whisk together a few tablespoons of olive oil or a mix of flaxseed and olive oils, a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar, a dash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos, and a squirt of Dijon mustard. It's also good with just the oil and vinegar, or with lemon instead of mustard, or with a squirt of agave nectar.

Toss it all together and serve it up.

Serves two enthusiastic eaters of salad, or one verrry hungry person who wants to make a meal of salad, or maybe three less enthusiastic eaters of salad.

Use whatcha got: Pesto Bean Dip with Zucchini.

2008-04-05T17:35:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make something savory for tonight's gathering--again, without visiting the grocery store--so I whipped up this dippy-dip based on what I had on hand, which is really what The Makeshift Cook is all about.

Pesto Bean Dip
1 can white beans--I had soybeans, so that's what I used, mostly drained
1 bunch fresh basil (about 1/2 cup, super-packed), roughly chopped
1 small zucchini, grated
1 clove garlic, pressed/minced
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
Fresh lemon juice and zest to taste
Salt and pepper ditto

Dump the beans and olive oil into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add other ingredients one at a time until incorporated. Feel free to add more olive oil or lemon juice as needed to get the texture you want. I used a blender, so I probably erred on the side of more liquid.

I swirled this together with the tail end of some delicious olive tapenade my sister brought me a few weeks ago (using up leftovers!!).

This stuff gives you the pesto flava without quite so much pesto fat, plus it has sneaky vegetables in it! Dip crackers, vegetables, pita chips, or your face into it.

BONUS: I used the leftovers as part of a pasta sauce. Leftovers in my house know who's boss.

Test kitchen + leftovers + kitchen travesty = Chocolate Salty Balls, take two.

2008-04-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

There is a gathering of the ladies tonight, and the Buckeyes a la Kickpleat I made for the clothing swap a few weeks ago were specifically requested. I love these particular ladies, so I am willing to do a bit of manual labor to deliver the treats they desire. However, I was low on crunchy peanut butter and only have Kashi Go Lean cereal, and wanted to avoid making a special grocery store run, since I feel like I'm constantly food shopping. AND I made another batch of almond milk today and have all of this nut pulp (another hilarious nut-related phrase) left over. There was also some date soaking water, which is sweet and syrupy, and that needed to be used up. So I decided to combine all of my seeming problems into a single solution.

I'm glass half-full, it's true.

I don't recommend making this recipe modification I'm about to drop on you unless you've just made some almond milk and have a bunch of ground up, squeezed out almond stuff left over. Or I suppose you could pulse your own almonds into meal status, but I can think of better things to do with almonds. I spread the nut pulp out on a sheet and dried it out in the oven at the lowest setting for about an hour before adding it to the mixture.

I also cut the amount of sugar by more than half, and that definitely affects the texture. I found that I needed something to soak up all the delicious fat, so I chucked in some oat bran and coconut. I'd probably skip the coconut if I do this again. It really starts to make this taste aggressively like a healthy treat.

ALSO, I had some chocolate problems. My little chips melted just fine, but the chocolate was so thick I knew I was going to run out. So I tried to thin it with soymilk and the chocolate seized up and became unmeltable. I ended up laying a veneer of it on top of the balls, which was actually far less messy than the dip/roll technique. It tasted exactly the same--it just wasn't glossy.

Overall, an experiment with mixed results. But here's the recipe anyway.

Chocolate Salty Balls with Almond Meal
1 cup natural crunchy peanut butter, room temperature
1/3 cup Earth Balance, ditto
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons date soaking water, if you happen to have any--otherwise just skip or add more powdered sugar to taste
1 cup Kashi Go Lean cereal, crunched up so that the long twiggy bits are nice and small
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups melted semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 tsp cinnamon (if you like)

Mix everything but the chocolate together in about that order. Roll into 1 inch balls and stick in the freezer to firm up (at least an hour). Melt the chocolate, but don't let it get too hot. Mix in the cinnamon. Dip/roll the balls in the chocolate and line them up on a tray for refreezing. They don't need to stay in the freezer particularly long--just long enough for the chocolate to harden thoroughly.

This version is less Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, more Hippie at a Potluck. It may not be the treat the ladies requested, exactly, but tis still delicious.

Kitchen hacks: Recipe calculator.

2008-04-02T11:28:00.000-05:00

In case you're ever jonesing for some nutrition information on that recipe you just made up, SparkRecipes has a sweet little calculator that allows you to plug in ingredients and amounts, determine the number of servings, and get yourself the nutrition info per serving. You have to register to save your recipes, but there's no reason you couldn't cut and paste the information and save it wherever you like. It's a handy little tool. Of course you may end up finding out that the Power Cookies you just made have 500 calories each, but you may choose to ignore that fact and carrying on eating them as before.

Test kitchen: Almond Milk.

2008-04-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

I'm experimenting with more raw and vegan foods these days, which has led to some new recipes, which is always good times. Last week I tried making my own Almond Milk from a recipe at happy foody and while I'm not sure I'm a total convert, it was super-easy. I used soaked dates to sweeten and good old fashioned gauze fabric to strain (since I don't own a nutbag, and seriously, how do people not laugh hysterically whenever they think about, mention, or use a nutbag? NUTBAG!!), and it worked just fine.

This almond milk has a thin texture that won't be a surprise to anyone who drinks rice milk, but it is thinner than the commercial almond milk I've tried. This doesn't really bother me. I'm also not sure it's more cost-effective than buying almond milk, at least if you're using organic almonds. But it certainly makes less waste and isn't really a drain on your time, so why not?

So far I'm liking it best on cereal and in smoothies. I haven't figured out yet what to do with the leftover pulp--maybe make a tart crust of some kind? Also, who knew that soaking almonds would make them so juicy and delicious? You might try that (with raw almonds, that is), even if nut milk (ALSO a hilarious phrase) doesn't interest you.

Sorry; I'm immature.

Curried Lentil-Rice Salad.

2008-04-02T00:45:00.000-05:00

Local co-op Mississippi Market has a few housemade treats that I get on a pretty regular basis: the vegan muffaletta, which is fresh and delicious, and the curried lentil-rice salad, which is full of curry goodness. I've been meaning to try my hand at replicating this recipe for ages, and I finally got around to it recently, with reasonable success. The main difference between mine and the co-op's is that mine was drier, even though I kept whipping up extra dressing and adding it in. I guess I'm condemned to buying and eating more of their salad in the service of stealing their recipe.

Curried Lentil-Rice Salad
1 cup rice
1 cup french green lentils
Half a head of cauliflower
1 red, orange, or yellow bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup currants
1/2 an onion, minced
3/4 cup cashews

Get the rice cooking and cook the lentils in a few cups of water until they are tender but not mushy. Break the cauliflower into little florets and lightly steam them--again, mush is not welcome here.

Then attack the dressing. Whisk together:

1/4 cup olive oil (the market's ingredient listing also uses peanut oil, but I didn't have any)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or rice vinegar--again, didn't have any on hand)
1 tsp of good quality curry powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
A healthy plop or two of apricot fruit spread. In fact, eyeball all of these measurements, because I was completely playing it by ear. The dressing looked like this when I made it:

Dump the currants into the dressing to rehydrate a bit. Get to chopping your veg, if you haven't already. I also whisked the onion into the dressing, to mellow it out a little bit. When the rice and lentils are cooked and cooled slightly, mix them together with the cauliflower and bell peppers. Pour on your delicious dressing, add chopped cashews, and salt to taste.

It was imperfect, but I ate this every day for a week. Serve room temperature or cold.

Green Smoothie Experiment.

2008-03-28T10:28:00.001-05:00

I have a strong immune system and I'm generally successfully at staving off illness or keeping it pretty mild when I do get sick. But for about the last month, I've periodically felt like I'm fighting something off, which is annoying. I know I'm not getting enough sleep, and that's job one. Locking the cat out of the bedroom at night, sad as it seems, is helping with that.

But I also don't think I've been eating as well as I could, and too often I find myself mindlessly gobbling down something that doesn't make me feel good (or that I don't even enjoy very much), and thinking that I need to make some changes. I can just tell that I'm undergoing some kind of dietary shift, which I posted about over on mavenhaven last week.

Enter the green smoothie.

There are eleventy billion raw food sites and green smoothie recipes out there, and advocates of particular high horsepower blenders--and while I have to admit that I sort of covet the Blendtec, the nice thing about green smoothies is that you don't really need any dietary philosophy, recipe, or special equipment to make them.

So I'm just adding a green smoothie every day, and I'm going to see how it goes. Here's what I am drinking today:

Green and Mean
Two handfuls of spinach (stems are fine)
A deveined leaf of dino kale
A deveined collard green
A handful of parsley
A kiwi, with some of the peel removed
A banana
1/4 cup applesauce (fresh apple chunks would be great too)
1/4 of an avocado
Water
(A blender of some description)

Blend leafage and water first, adding more water as needed to get everything well blended. Add fruits one at a time. Drink slowly, maybe not in a single sitting. The flavor is fresh, lightly sweet and fruity, with a grassy undertone. If that bugs you, add more fruit. This made about 24 ounces.

You'll notice I'm starting slow with the tougher greens. I'm not interested in instigating a bunch of toilet troubles, as my boyfriend likes to call them, so you're not going to catch me chugging these or drinking an all-kale smoothie any time soon.

This is day two of the experiment. I'll keep you posted.

Test kitchen: Vegan Nacho Cheese and Vegan Buckeyes.

2008-03-22T00:23:00.000-05:00

I have been a bad, bad blogger, but I have been cooking! Here are a few recipes I've followed lately, and then eaten:

Vegan Nacho Cheese Dip, from the (apparently abandoned) kid-friendly vegan blog, Shmooed Food. We have this non-vegan friend who is always raving about the home fries and vegan nacho cheese at the Triple Rock. I've never tried it myself, but I've been intrigued by the whole idea. The Shmooed Food recipe has gotten a ton of hits and positive comments, so I went for it. The result was pretty good, but didn't set my pants on fire, and believe me, I wasn't expecting it to be CHEESE, so that wasn't the problem. Also, I love nutritional yeast, so that wasn't the problem either. I think I would adjust the spice profile--maybe ease up on the garlic powder and cumin and add adobo instead, or in addition. We ate it with broccoli and cauliflower. Maybe that was my problem: I should have been eating it with chips. Or the aforementioned home fries. Oh heck, I might make it again.
Balls! To be exact, they were Peanut Butter Buckeyes from my friend Kickpleat's adorable food blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches. I made them for a clothing swap two weeks ago, and they were a HUGE hit. I even used healthy cereal in them (Kashi flakes) and natural peanut butter, so they were, y'know, healthy. Also vegan, incidentally. I sustained an impressive burn while melting the chocolate, the aftereffects of which I am still suffering. The bowl sizzled my middle finger right across my writing callus, and the wound tends to crack every time I bend my finger, thanks to winter dryness. I know, you're welcome. Anyway, I would most CERTAINLY make these again, even though they are messy and my ball-dipping technique (hee) leaves something to be desired. If you're anything like me, you'll call them Chocolate Salty Balls and spend the whole day singing that song from South Park.
Also from Kickpleat and IN PROGRESS, these vegan Power Cookies are awesome. She sent me some of her first batch in the mail and I ate them for two days straight, to the exclusion of other food. I have eaten two of the first sheetful of my batch, and will probably eat more. The best part so far is that the contents are customizable and I can envision tweaking the recipe any number of ways. I subbed chopped dried apricots and some currents for most of the raisins, and topped off my maple syrup with molasses (didn't have quite enough maple syrup). Also, the cookies can be eaten for breakfast--well, all cookies can be eaten for breakfast. But these have nutritional value!! So you will feel virtuous.

FYI: Dried Legumes.

2008-03-10T15:09:00.000-05:00

Dried beans, esteemed for economy, deliciousness, and long shelf life, are totally worth buying and preparing. That said, don't let your dried legumes sit around too long. I learned the hard way that yellow split peas that have been properly stored for...an embarrassingly long time will never soften completely, no matter how stinkin long you cook them, and your delicious curried yellow split pea soup with sweet potatoes and spinach will be an indigestible chore to eat, not to mention a waste of delicious ingredients.

Brought to you by my ineptitude.

Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese.

2008-03-07T15:11:00.002-06:00

I try not to devote much of my mental energy to hateration, because I want to put happier energy out into the world if at all possible. That said, I must admit to hating on Rachael Ray more than once, even, at a low level of hate, on this blog. For one thing, the branding of celebrity chefs--and the product tie-ins--make me nuts, especially since I would probably enjoy owning more orange cookware if it didn't have RACHAEL RAY emblazoned on it in a kicky font.

I'm just letting you know where I stand, though really it's neither here nor there because I snagged one of Ray-Ray's recipes as the basis for last night's dinner anyway.

Thanks to the Brit's love for the stuff, I have made many mac and cheese recipes over the last year or so. My favorite is still this one from the New York Times, which boasts a cheese-to-pasta ratio of 2:1 and requires no pre-boiling of noodles. It's not exactly what you want to eat on the regular, especially if you're cutting back on the dairy. Still, I might have made it last night if I'd had all the ingredients handy.

Instead, I took Ray-Ray's recipe and changed one vital thing: instead of a can of jalapenos, I added two minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, probably 3 tablespoons total, and used all cheddar cheese. Oh mama, was it good: smoky and creamy and hot. After I poured the sauce over the mac, I had to stand there and eat several bites before popping it in the oven to finish. I also used a full pound of macaroni. What's the point of making a twelve ounce batch?

Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese
Boil a pound of elbows or rotini or whatever until al dente. Drain well and dump into a casserole dish.

Melt 2 T unsalted butter in a medium saucepan. Add two minced chipotles in adobo sauce (or more to taste), and heat for a minute until the smell torments you with deliciousness. Add two cups of milk and heat it all over medium heat until it starts to boil.

In the meantime, mix 1/2 cup of milk with 2 T of cornstarch until smooth. Whisk this mixture into your saucepan once it comes to a boil, cook til it thickens, and then chuck a pound of grated cheddar in by handfuls, reserving one handful for the top of the casserole. The cheese will incorporate beautifully and delight you totally. If you think it needs salt, add some.

Pour the sauce over the pasta, mix to disperse, and stand there eating it like a crazy person while the broiler heats. Scatter the last handful of cheese on top and broil for a few minutes. Our stove is rabid and the broiler is best used with extreme caution, so I actually baked it at 400 for 8 minutes and broiled for 2.

I'd show you a picture, but I've eaten it all.

Tuna Pasta (aka, Pasta Arrabbiata with Tuna and Vegetables)

2008-02-29T23:35:00.000-06:00

This is the one dish that is a staple at our house (amid the profusion of improvised soups), mostly because the Brit grew up eating it and is always satiated by it. And it's a combination of things I wouldn't have imagined or come up with on my own, but I totally dig this dish too.

Tuna Pasta
Olive oil
Medium onion, diced
3 big cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
A few shakes of red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds (if you have them)
Two cans of tuna
A big can of diced tomatoes and their juice
A medium sliced zucchini
A chopped red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
Half a bag of fresh spinach
Chopped kalamata olives
Feta cheese
A box of penne, farfalle, or any short cut of pasta

Put a pot of water on to boil.

Saute the onions, garlic, and herbs in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add the tuna (drain the water into your cat's dish) and cook a bit longer, stirring to break up the tuna. Pour in the entire can of tomatoes and cook down for a bit. Add zucchini and bell peppers and simmer for a few minutes, until the vegetables are tender but not overcooked. Dump in the spinach and stir to wilt, and turn the heat wayyyy down. Sauce will be very thick and chunky.

Once your pasta's done, top with sauce, olives, and feta to taste.

You can make all kinds of modifications to this recipe depending on the vegetables you have handy, but I think zucchini and spinach are the most solid choice. Bonus: the leftover sauce makes amazing tuna melts, if you have a really crusty bread and some schmancy cheese.

Hot damn: Biscuits.

2008-02-26T11:11:00.000-06:00

I am not much of a baker--I can follow a recipe just fine but don't get into all the precise details of good baking technique, and I'm not likely to fabricate my own recipes for baked goods. However! I can type up a link with the best of them, so I'm going to send you over to the Homesick Texan's biscuit post. This was linked at Shelterrific last week, and as soon as I read the recipe I knew I had to try it.

The Brit and I are both off work this morning--he has to fly off to Vegas for biz this afternoon, and I don't teach until later in the day, so today was the day. This recipe is not at all intimidating, and took about a half hour, start to finish. And I didn't even have a rolling pin, so I just used a clean wine bottle out of recycling, and cut the biscuits out with my measuring cup. I mixed in a little whole wheat flour and baked them up in my wonky oven. The biscuits did not suffer one bit.

The result: buttery, flaky, tender biscuits, almost too rich. We ate them up with strawberry jam.

Perfect breakfast: Steel Cut Oats.

2008-02-14T15:16:00.000-06:00

About every other day, I make a pot of steel cut oats for breakfast. I can't get enough of their creamy, chewy texture, which is so perfect with spices and dried fruit. They take awhile to cook, but they keep and reheat well, so you can make a bunch one day and have instant breakfast the next day. They are also good for you.

Delicious Oats
1 cup steel cut oats, not to be confused with rolled oats or quick oats
4 cups water
two or three handfuls of raisins, cranberries, or mixed and chopped dried fruit
1/4 t ground ginger
1/2 t cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Combine oats and water in a pot and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add fruit and simmer 5-10 minutes more. Stir in spices and any sweetener you like, and serve topped with soy milk or yogurt or what have you.

You can also toast the oats in a little melted butter before you add the water. Or mix up the spices. Or add a teaspoon of vanilla at the end. Or sweeten with molasses.

I've also made this overnight in the crockpot, with the heat on low and about an extra cup of liquid and more fruit (dried apricots, specifically). It is divine. As are the grilled steel cut oats they serve at the Longfellow Grill with heavy cream and fruit compote.

Kitchen Hacks.

2008-02-13T10:33:00.000-06:00

As you've no doubt determined, I am not a kitchen pro or even really a foodie--I love food, but I only read a few food blogs these days (who has time?) and mostly just look up recipes when I need inspiration. My knife skills are decent, but kind of a moot point given that my knives are not so good. Aaaand, I have not maximized the efficiency of my workspace.

However, I do have a few tips for you, especially if you are still tentative in the kitchen.

Stainless steel gets the garlic stink off. I don't know about you, but much as I like cooking, I get tired of smelling like food. If you wash your hands while washing stainless steel (I usually use a knife blade--carefully--or a sink basin), the stink goes away.
Yes, use a garbage bowl. I am no fan of eternally perky Rachael Ray, but she does have some good ideas--like keeping a designated container on the counter for all of your peelings and odds and ends.
Don't futz around peeling garlic. You probably already know this, but smashing garlic cloves with the flat of your knife splits the skin apart and makes it very easy to remove. (I am of the bash and chop school of garlic prep--can't be bothered with a press.)
Master onion chopping technique. If you are at all like me, you use onions for just about every dish you prepare. It's worth it to use chef-style onion chopping technique. Cut the onion in half through the stem nub. Cut the pointy top off. Peel the onion--much easier to do at this point. Lay the flat side of one half an onion on your cutting board, with the stem end pointing away from you. Make several parallel cuts toward the stem end, but NOT all the way through it. Then rotate the onion and slice across the cuts you just made. If any of this made sense and you executed it correctly, you now have diced onions. Hooray!
Soup is the friend of the makeshift cook. Soup is forgiving. Soup is easy to stretch, alter, experiment with, tweak. I would have almost no cuisine without soup. Tomato-based vegetable soups couldn't be easier: chop up an onion, garlic, one carrot, and one celery stalk; saute in olive oil with any dried herbs you fancy; dump in a big can of diced or crushed tomatoes; add another can of water and some chopped up root veggies; add a can or two of beans, a handful of grains, and simmer; add leafy veggies or things like zucchini, summer squash, and bell peppers toward the end for best texture. As god is my witness, you'll never go hungry again.
Leftovers=easy lunches. I know, it seems like a no-brainer. But if you are trying to brown bag it more often, this is a very easy way to do it. As for me, having grown up in a family of six, I have no frame of reference for cooking single servings or even two-serving meals, so leftovers are a way of life for me. I always make a bunch of everything and pack it in my Mr. Bento for the next day or two.
Avail yourself of prep bowls and prep time. Here's an example: I had to work from home this morning, so I took a little break and chopped up my mirepoix for tonight's soup and chucked it in the fridge. This will streamline things when I get home later. If I'd had a bit more time, I would've chopped a bigger batch and frozen it. When I do the rest of the soup prep tonight, I'll put the remaining vegetable ingredients in bowls as I chop them, so that they're ready to add to the pot at the right moment. This really helps if you're working in a small space.
Boiling water? Put a lid on it. Simple, but effective. If you're heating water and you don't have a lid on your pot, you're wasting energy and lengthening the time it takes to boil. If you're going to salt the water, wait until it's already boiling--salt raises the boiling point of water (just as it lowers the freezing point, which is why the streets are coated with it in the winter). One of the few things I remember from science classes.

Bonus Post: Snickers Salad.

2008-02-12T15:02:00.001-06:00

It's not really a salad.

You need:
Chopped up snickers bars
Cored and diced granny smith apples
Cool Whip

Mix it up and serve to young and old alike.

Even making it is fun!

Onion Feta Risotto with Spinach and Lemon.

2008-02-12T14:11:00.000-06:00

Oh my my, oh hell yes.

In my continuing mission to use up pantry items, I decided to introduce some arborio rice to some feta cheese. I remembered an Onion Feta Risotto I made years ago, from a recipe from a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook, did a little internet scouting, and tweaked based on what I had. I am eating it right now and I have to tell you, people, it is delicious.

If you've never made risotto before, fear not! It doesn't require any special know-how--you just have to have about 20 minutes to stand in front of the stove and attend to your tender bits of rice.

Onion Feta Risotto with Spinach and Lemon
2 T olive oil + 2 T butter, or all olive oil, or all butter, if you like.
2 generous cups diced onion--Vidalia is great if you have it, but any onion will do because they are all sweet.
2-3 minced cloves garlic
1 t basil
1 t oregano
2 cups arborio rice
6-8 cups simmering vegetable broth (low or no salt). You can sub in plain water for some of this liquid, or some white wine.
1/2 to 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
A few handfuls of fresh spinach
Juice and zest of half a lemon
Black pepper

Heat the olive oil/butter in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add garlic and herbs and saute for a few minutes. Add onions and saute over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until wilty and translucent. Add rice and stir gently to coat the grains of rice. This is best done with a wooden spoon, so your grains don't break.

Add about a cup of your simmering liquid to the rice and stir gently and occasionally until it's absorbed--this will only take a few minutes. Repeat every few minutes until your rice is firm, tender, and delicious--about 20 minutes. The rice will look very creamy.

Remove from heat and add feta, lemon juice and zest, and spinach, stirring to melt and wilt. Top with black pepper and serve. This would be delicious with lots of green vegetables. Or chicken on the side, if you swing that way (I don't, but I always refer to chicken as "chaka khan." Just FYI.).

Eggplant Mushroom Lasagna.

2008-02-03T22:24:00.001-06:00

I was wandering around Super Target yesterday with no idea what I wanted to cook or buy. It was a stupid trip, but at least I didn't leave the store with a bunch of crappy shirts that I would later hate. Somewhere along the way, I picked up some no-boil lasagna noodles and that got the ball rolling. Produce at Super Target is generally Super Crappy, so I bought an eggplant and some baby bella mushrooms, and that was that.

Here's what I made up.

Eggplant Lasagna
1 eggplant, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
Olive oil, of course
Lots of garlic, like 4 or 5 big fat cloves, minced
2 tsp dried basil (use lots of fresh basil if you have it, lucky dog)
A few shakes of red pepper flakes
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 medium onion, diced
8 ounces of baby bella mushrooms (or portabellas or whatever), chopped
1 big can of diced tomatoes
1 tub of ricotta
8 ounces of shredded mozzarella and parmesan (I got this all bagged and premixed)
No-boil lasagna noodles

Salt the eggplant and put it in a colander to drain. This helps get the bitterness out. Then turn your oven to 400 to preheat.

Start your sauce by heating the garlic and olive oil over medium heat. Once you can smell the garlic, shake in your red pepper and add other spices. Saute for a minute or two, then add onions. After another few minutes, add mushrooms. Cook everything down for a few minutes more, then dump in the can of tomatoes and let everything simmer while you futz around with the eggplant.

The futzing goes like this: rinse the eggplant thoroughly and pat dry. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray if you use such a thing, or just smear it with some olive oil and line up your eggplant rounds. Bake for 15 minutes while your sauce simmers. Keep an eye on the eggplant--my oven runs hot and the eggplant was roasted mushy after 15 minutes. Then crank the heat back to 325.

Okay. Now you can assemble your stuff. I had a weird oval ceramic baking dish and had to trim the noodles to get them to fit, but my final product did not suffer at all. So if for some reason you find yourself without a 9 X 13 pan, all is most certainly not lost. Just break your noodles to fit the pan and jigsaw-puzzle them together. Cover the bottom of your pan with a thin (yet chunky) layer of sauce. Then layer on some UNBOILED noodles, then a schmear of ricotta, then eggplant, then shredded cheese, then sauce. Make sure the noodles are completely covered with filling, because this moisture will cook the noodles. Repeat until you have nothing left, making sure that there is enough sauce and shredded cheese to cover the top layer of noodles. With this recipe and my weird pan, I had three layers of noodles and plenty of stuff to cover them. I could have used more eggplant, actually.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for another ten.

Enjoy with cheap (or expensive) red wine.

N.B. If you are clever, you will have noticed that I didn't use any salt in this recipe. Between the canned tomatoes and the cheese, this dish is plenty salty. Don't take my word for it, though--taste your sauce and see if it needs salt. Yeesh.

Simple fruit salad.

2008-02-01T10:33:00.000-06:00

I'm eating a midmorning snack that is giving me great joy, and it is super, super easy.

Simple Fruit Salad
2 peeled and sliced bananas
2 peeled and sliced oranges (I like slicing them into chunks instead of sectioning them, because then the juice gets to flowin.)
1 cup of plain yogurt
a healthy squirt of agave, though honey would work too
1/2 t cinnamon
pumpkin seeds

Other fruit and nuts would be welcome too, as would soy yogurt. All I'm saying is, this ain't rocket science.

Mix it all up in a bowl, divide into portions, and pack in your and your honey's lunch. Enjoy at your desk when everyone else is eating gummy low-fat coffee cake from Starbucks.

By the way, "fruit" should always be pronounced "frewit," as in "frewit of the deville."

Dumb-ass Chili.

2008-01-31T14:04:00.000-06:00

This is one of my weekly go-to meals. It comes together quickly, is perfect when you are feeling lazy, and will feed you leftovers for a day or two. It is called "dumb-ass" because it is difficult to screw up and requires almost no culinary prowess whatsoever.

Dumb-ass chili
Some olive or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 or 3 peeled and diced carrots (or a sweet potato is good too)
A few smashed and chopped (or pressed) cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 or 2 chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped up; or a decorticated and diced jalapeno pepper, if you have it and like the hot. I really recommend the chipotle, though; most big grocery stores have it in cans, and you can puree it and keep it in the fridge for ages, and most of all it is delicious and smoky.
A tablespoon or so of cocoa powder (or a handful of chocolate chips, per Melinda's advice)--optional, yet tasty.
Other good spices (go easy until you know what works): coriander, cumin, even a little curry powder, mustard seeds, a pinch of oregano, etc. I used about a teaspoon of cumin seeds in last night's batch and it was fantastic.
2 cans of beans, any old beans you like. Rainbow Foods, our local big chain, now has organic store-brand beans, which I'm a fan of. I used kidney beans and black beans. Look for something without salt so you can adjust to your taste.
A big can of diced tomatoes
A pack of Boca grounds, or a few handfuls of TVP, or bulgur.
A cup of frozen corn, or however much you want.
A wad of fresh spinach

Put the oil, garlic, hot pepper, and spices into a cold soup pot and heat slowly, til you start to smell the garlic and spices. Cook at medium heat for a minute or two and add the onions and carrots. Saute until the onion is wilty and translucent. Add your cocoa powder (if using) and stir. If you're using chocolate chips, throw them in at the end.

Dump in all the tomatoes, beans, and probably the equivalent of a tomato can of water. If you're using a sweet potato, this would be the time to add it. Get it all simmering, check the spices, and make any adjustments. Throw in a handful of grains, if using, and let it all cook until the vegetables are tender, or until your grains are cooked, or until it tastes done. Add Boca grounds and corn if you're using it and give it another 5 minutes or so. Last, throw in a bunch of fresh spinach, stir to wilt, and salt it up according to taste.

Serve topped with avocado slices, chopped cilantro, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, or whatever your pleasure is. It will be even better the next day.

Broccoli and Tofu with Peanut Sauce.

2008-01-28T22:12:00.000-06:00

One thing you need to know about me is that I am not a methodical cook, nor am I a particularly organized one. I'm basically just intuitive and improvisatory and that works out fine for me and the people I feed. I tend toward one-pot meals because I am not practiced at coordinating the appearance of several unrelated dishes at once, all appropriately hot and done and ready to eat. I tend to cook things that don't suffer much from my non-optimal kitchen and failure to prep.

With this dish, I didn't really have my wits about me. My evening trajectory changed radically owing to the cancellation of a rehearsal, see, which meant that I stayed at work later than planned and abandoned grocery shopping and came home to practice and had to wedge dinner in there somewhere.

Before I started practicing, I put two cups of brown rice in the rice cooker and started pressing a tub of extra-firm tofu. I love tofu and am always looking for ways to make it more acceptable to the Brit. Pressing the water out makes it easier to handle and gives it a more interesting texture. I sliced the tofu brick through the long way, put it on a tray with a cutting board and some leftovers on top to weight it, and put it in the fridge.

Then I sang for an hour. I have a recital in two weeks and haven't even seen my pianist yet and have a whole lot of Norwegian to memorize. You don't want to bother with brown rice or pressing your tofu if you're really hungry. But if you can dink around on a music or art project for awhile while your rice cooks/tofu presses, by all means do it.

If you have some dried shiitake mushrooms, it would be a good idea to rehydrate them while you are dinking around. I like to simmer them over low heat for 15 or 20 minutes. Even though I am not a big mushroom fan, I love these little buggers. They're cheap at my favorite co-op, they impart a chewy texture and distinctive flavor to all kinds of dishes, the soaking water can and should be used in whatever you're cooking, and the Brit loves them.

When you're ready to get serious, dump the water off your tofu, pat dry with a paper towel (or clean linen/cotton one), and slice into whatever configuration you enjoy. You're going to dry-fry these in a non-stick pan over medium heat. The idea here is to cook as much water as possible out of your tofu, so that it is golden on all sides. You want the heat high enough to evaporate any water you press out of it, but not so high that the tofu starts to stick. As the tofu cooks, press down on gently and frequently with your spatula, to get more of the water out. Dry-frying will take awhile, so you can start it up while you chop your veg. (If you don't have time to dry-fry, cube the tofu and toss in a non-stick pan with oil and soy sauce, heat up to medium high and just plain fry it. Mmm.)

Mince:
An inch of peeled fresh ginger
2 big cloves of garlic
Dice:
A small onion
Some bell pepper, if you have any
The peeled stalk of your broccoli
Slice:
Your broccoli into florets (I used one medium head)
Your rehydrated mushrooms, if you have any. Reserve the water. If you didn't rehydrate any mushrooms, heat some water. You need it for your peanut sauce.

I don't have a wok and I'm pretty sure that's why my stir-fries tend to get a little limp. It's okay. They taste good. Put a few tablespoons of oil (not olive) in your saute pan or wok, and add the ginger and garlic to the cold pan. Crank heat to medium, so as to avoid burning the garlic. I did this after the tofu was done, so I could use the same pan. Here is Tofu Henge:

By this time my rice was cooked, too, and I was just la-di-da-ing around the kitchen.

Add your brocc and mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat up a bit. Cook for a few minutes and then add onions and bell pepper. If it seems like the veg is sticking or burning, it is okay to put a small amount of water in the pan, like a tablespoon or two. It will steam the veg.

Keep your eye on the veg and start multi-tasking in earnest. For the sauce:
1.5 c hot water or mushroom soaking liquid or broth
1/2 c peanut butter, the natural kind
a big plop of miso
balsamic or rice vinegar (I only had balsamic)
Sri Racha sauce, which is mandatory
1 tsp of corn starch dissolved in cold water
Some lime or orange juice
Soy sauce to taste

This sauce-making is an imprecise art. Do it in the mushroom water pan over low heat, so that the peanut butter melts properly. I just whisk everything together, tasting until I like it. Add the corn starch at the end and heat through, then decide that the sauce is too thick, and thin it by squeezing an orange into it, which is all you have on hand. Lime would probably be better.

Keep in mind that you want the sauce salty because when you add the veg, tofu, and rice, it's suddenly going to seem much less salty.

Add the tofu to the saute pan and cover the whole mess with peanut sauce. Serve over brown rice. I also had some leftover edamame, so I stirred those in too. It looked like this:

Bootleg Aloo Tikki.

2008-01-27T18:02:00.000-06:00

Today has been one of those wildly productive Sundays where you get a bunch of things done that you maybe weren't planning on or expecting, necessarily. It turned out that most everything was kitchen-related and it has left me with the rosy glow of accomplishment AND a full belly.

First up, I set some pinto beans to soak for dinner and ate my standard breakfast of delicious steel-cut oats and black tea. Then I had to locate the nexus of a refrigerator stench that has been plaguing us. I traced it to some elderly refried beans, which tend to smell more like a diaper the longer they sit, and I cleaned out the entire refrigerator, including removing and scrubbing the shelves. The inside of the fridge is now so lovely and pristine that opening the door to look inside is an aesthetic experience.

Okay, maybe that's not such a good way to introduce you to my culinary prowess, but at least you now know that I am not cleaner or more efficient than you are in the kitchen, though I am working on it.

At some point midday I prepared a delicious lunch for my boyfriend (the Brit), made of the last of the artisan bread from the New French bakery, split and piled with the last of the tuna pasta sauce (a recipe for another time) and feta cheese and zapped under the broiler. I really need to start photographing these things. I also did prep chopping for tonight's soup, which you will only read about if it turns out well. I did the intermediate steps for today's batch of No-Knead Bread. And then I was hungry again and on a roll with the using up of leftovers and here is what I came up with.

Bootleg Aloo Tikki
Typically made with potatoes, onions, peas, and spices, these are delicious little Indian fritters. I had leftover mashed potatoes and like a quarter of a cauliflower head languishing in my crisper drawer, so that's what I used.

3 cups mashed potatoes
A wad of cauliflower, cleaned and diced fine
Olive oil
1 t of garam masala or curry powder
1/2 to 1 t ground coriander
1/4 t turmeric
1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and diced
red pepper flakes to taste
2 green onions, white and light green parts and any green part that looks good, chopped up
1/4 c garbanzo bean flour, or bread crumbs, or get creative
Salt to taste

Chuck the cauliflower into a bowl with water to cover and zap in the microwave for a few minutes. In the meantime, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan on medium heat and add the ginger and spices. Drain the cauliflower and add to the spice mixture with a few shakes of salt, and cook down for a few minutes, until any moisture has evaporated out of the pan. Add green onions and saute for another minute. Scrape every bit of this deliciousness into your mashed potato bowl and stir well to combine.

At this point you'll need to assess whether this mixture is too wet to fry up properly (it probably is). This is when you'll either remember that you have garbanzo flour in the freezer (if you are like me) or you'll think of something else to dry out your mix and make it a bit more like dough. Arrowroot powder would work, or a little straight-up flour, or bread crumbs--I didn't have a speck of bread in the house at this point. Mix your stuff on in and form your dough into little balls.

Heat another 3 T of oil into your frying pan and press the balls into a patty shape. Fry them on both sides at medium-high heat until they are golden and crispy. Pat off the excess oil with a paper towel and don't forget to take a picture.

I'm working on that, too.