The Makeshift Cook

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:

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.

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!

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.)

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?)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.).

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.

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."

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.

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:

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.