Raw Tacos

If you are not familiar with Charlie Trotter, he is a genius, and one of his mottoes is "food doesn't have to be rich to taste good."  Instead of relying on butter, salt and cream, he takes the time to lift and support the natural flavours of the vegetables.  Charlie wrote an amazing book of impossible recipes simply titled RAW.  So when I ate at his restaurant in Chicago several years ago, I could have ordered the vegetable menu, one of two printed choices, but my friend dared me to ask for a raw menu.  I knew that for it to be truly raw, it had to be vegetarian, so I wasn't worried.  It was and is the best meal I've ever had.  If you are in Chicago, have money to burn, and want to spend 4-5 hours eating, then this is the place for you. 

More recently I had a delicious meal at St. Louis' first and only raw restaurant, Puravegan.  You really do feel a lot better after eating food like this.  It makes you wonder why you ever bother with the stuff that makes you want to lie down after you eat it.

So anyway, I totally ripped off this idea from a really great blog my friend alerted me to called My New Roots.  I'll let you get the recipe from her, but I made of few changes of course.  I forgot to buy cashews, so I used tahini in place of the cashew cream.  I used kale instead of cabbage as taco "shells."  I included zucchini and corn in the salsa.  And I was worried (unnecessarily) about not being full enough, so I also made a few with sprouted grain tortillas.  We both agree that the kale leaves were better than the tortillas for this particular taco filling.  And unlike so many raw dishes, this didn't take too long to put together.

Red Salad

My cousin in law always talks about her green soup, where anything green is a possible ingredient.  So I thought I'd apply that method to a salad with all red ingredients.  Ends up tasting like cole slaw no matter what you do, but that's a good thing.  This incarnation included red cabbage, red onions, red bell peppers, radishes, red beets - all shredded or julienned, and tomatoes in a red wine vinaigrette.  What other colors is this possible with I wonder?  Orange perhaps?  But I bet that would just end up tasting like baby food.

Big Salad

This is a favorite at our house and we eat it once a week.  I don't really like to plan it out too much.  I just throw everything salad-y in and it is always good.  The tofu is nice for it's texture but it's certainly not necessary with the chick peas and nuts covering the protein requirement.   Here are the ingredients:

Baked tofu (see shitake stir fry for recipe,) chick peas, crushed almonds, green onions from the garden, avocado, grape tomatoes, sliced carrots, shredded radish, fresh herbs from the garden, sliced red onion, thin sliced beets, julienne red bell pepper, cucumber half moons (not pictured,) bleu cheese (not pictured,) and your favorite dressing - mine is a simple vinaigrette made of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.   Toss all of this with the greens of your choice!  Sadly, my romaine lettuce has already bolted thanks to the heat.  So I used some leftover napa cabbage and spinach for the base of this salad.  Cabbage is more nutritious than lettuce any way, plus it is crunchier, so I highly recommend this for your next big salad!  These are all pretty sturdy ingredients, so go ahead and dress the whole thing, and throw the rest in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.  It will be different, but I quite like my veggies marinated over night. 

Side note, I ended up not using the beets in the salad when I got the idea to make beet crisps.  They were delicious, but I will wait to tell you all about it in a different post.

Pasta with Shitakes and Smoked Tomato Sauce

I still adore the basic preparation of Shitake pasta I posted back in May, but I wanted to try something a little different.  However, I had no plan, so I just started digging around the kitchen, hoping for inspiration to hit.

 Last summer was so hot that only the cherry tomatoes made it to maturity.  Fortunately though, this particular plant was a workhorse, producing twice as many tomatoes as we could eat.  I absolutely love my stovetop smoker, and tomatoes are my favorite thing to smoke in it, so every time there were excess tomatoes, into the smoker they went.  And every time there were excess smoked tomatoes, into the freezer they went!  Even though I recently moved everything from the old freezer to the new, I had forgotten I still had a container of smoked tomatoes. 


While waiting for the tomatoes to thaw, cook your favorite noodles, roast some garlic, and saute the shitakes until they start to get a little dry.  Once the tomatoes are thawed, puree them with the garlic, a fair amount of salt, and a little olive oil.  Heat the sauce in a saucepan, then plate the noodles, mushrooms, and sauce.  Or maybe the mushrooms on top, I haven't decided which is better.  I served this with some broccolini that I baked with a little oil and garlic for 20 mins at 350. 

Ligurian Potato Salad

We recently watched an episode of Lidia's Italy, where she made Insalata Patate Tedesca, or German Potato Salad.  She says it's a popular dish in Liguria on the northwestern coast of Italy.  Kurt suggested this be our contribution to our friend's Memorial Day Barbeque and I thought it a grand idea.  Especially since I needed an excuse to harvest a couple of scallions from the yard:

Below is Lidia's recipe, with my own changes noted:

2½ pounds red potatoes (she says to peel them, but I only peeled half of them for colour)
1 cup scallions , finely chopped
¾ cup sweet dill pickles, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces slab bacon, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 1/2 c red cabbage, 1/4 cup red onion diced finely (plus a tiny drop of liquid smoke)3 tablespoons German-style mustard
⅓ cup red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 

Put potatoes into pot with enough cold water to cover them.  Bring the water to a boil, and cook the potatoes until a knife can be inserted easily in the center.  Drain the potatoes in a colander and as soon as they're cool enough to handle, and slice into 1-inch cubes. Immediately toss the warm cubes in a bowl with the chopped scallions and pickles and 1 teaspoon salt.

Meanwhile, put the olive oil cabbage and onion pieces in a skillet, and set it over medium-high heat. Cook until onions and cabbage are browned.  Add drop of liquid smoke and allow it to be absorbed.  Whisk in the mustard and vinegar, and heat to a boil. Continue whisking until the dressing is smooth and emulsified, then pour it over the warm potatoes and toss. Sprinkle the chopped parsley, ground black pepper, and remaining salt over it and toss well.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Shitake Pasta

Every Saturday morning I take a short walk accross the street to the Tower Grove Farmers' Market and drop a tenner on a pick your own bag of Ozark Forest Shitake Mushrooms.  I first had these at the deeply missed Riddles Penultimate Wine Bar, who served local food way before it was the hip thing to do.  I fell very much in love with these mushrooms, and craved them fortnightly.  But the only way to get them was at restaurants, and what I really wanted was to experiment with them on my own.  Now, thanks to the ultra convenience of the farmers' market, I can do just that!  I've decided this is THE best way to prepare these mushrooms.  Too many ingredients just distracts you from the beautiful natural flavour of these amazing fungi.

Ingredients: 

• Approximately 10 medium sized shitake mushrooms sliced into thin strips
• 3-5 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/4 lb. whole wheat fettucini noodles boiled al dente
• 2 T butter (or 1 butter 1 olive oil)
• parmesan to taste
• truffle oil to taste
• salt

Heat the butter until bubbly and add garlic and mushroom strips.  Stir to get as many as possible in contact with the butter.  Continue to saute and stir until mushrooms release their water and it cooks off.  At this point, add a generous pinch of kosher salt and saute for about 1 minute.  Plate noodles and top with mushrooms.  Sprinkle parmesan and drizzle truffle oil over the top to taste.  So simply and an express ticket to umami city. 

Shaved Brussels Sprout Pasta with Tempeh

Shaved brussels sprouts seem to be all the rage at restaurants lately, so I thought I'd try my hand at a dish I recently had at Terrene.  

I shaved the sprouts and some garlic and onions on a mandolin slicer and sauteed them along with cubed tempeh in a little olive oil.  The pink things you see are actually Japanese turnips, but I boiled them with some baby beets hence the colour.  I'm usually a fan of brown rice pasta, but in this case, I wish I would have used a more sturdy whole wheat.  Salt and pepper.  This isn't really a recipe I realize, but you get the idea.  Saute stuff and toss it with pasta.  Sprinkle parmesan on top.

Rasika Dinner

Rasika is an Indian restaurant in DC at which I recently enjoyed a delicious meal.  It wasn't the standard Indian menu.  They had lots of unique offerings, like flash fried spinach with tamarind yogurt dressing.  I couldn't bring myself to do any frying last night, so we just had raw spinach with tamarind yogurt (yogurt mixed with samosa sauce.)  But the stand out dish of the evening was the Chestnut Fava Bean Korma.  Below is my attempt to recreate it.  It wasn't as quite as dreamy or nearly as creamy, but it was just the right compliment to the salad, aloo gobi, and black rice pictured above.

Clock wise from top:  Crushed almonds, shelled fresh fava beans, cardamon in and out of it's pod, shelled roasted chestnuts.

 

 

 

Chestnuts are hard to find sometimes, but I hoarded a few jars at Thanksgiving time.  I've also had some success finding them at the Asian grocery stores.  Strangely, I never seem to have trouble finding fresh fava beans around here.  But if you do, the canned ones are fine.  The cardamon seeds are what you want.  Break open the pods to remove the seeds, and discard the pods.  A pinch worth of seeds is all you need, as this spice is quite strong in flavour.  Rasika used cashews, but I didn't have any, hence the almonds.

Ingredients:
20 or so cardamon seeds
1 small onion, diced
20 or so roasted chestnuts
1 cups of fava beans
1 cup of chopped nuts (preferably cashews)
1 can coconut milk or cream
1 T oil, butter or ghee

Directions:
In a saucepan, heat oil and toast cardamon seeds for a minute or two.  Add onions and saute for about 3 minutes.   Add beans, chestnuts, and nuts and cook until onions are brown.  Add coconut milk and allow to stew for about 20 minutes.  Keep on low heat until ready to serve.

Raw Kale Salad

This salad is my current obsession.  I had it first at the Whole Foods salad bar.  But theirs has too much oil and too many cranberries for my tastes.  Mine is all savoury, uses less of a more flavourful oil, and is a blank slate for whatever crunchy additions strike your fancy.   Warning: It's so addictive you won't be able to stop eating it.  But it doesn't matter because there is no such thing as too much of this stuff.

Base Ingredients:
1 bunch kale (well washed in water vinegar solution)
1-3 T pumpkin seed oil (olive oil is also fine, just not as nutty)
2 T apple cider vinegar
2-4 cranks of sea salt
4-? cranks of black pepper (as much as you think you can handle, and the coarser the better)

Additional Ingredient Options:
(Here you see what I had on hand that day, but anything works.  I've tried the following with success.)
Carrots
Radishes
Tomatoes
Bell peppers
Onion
Almonds
Sunflower seeds

Directions:  Dry the kale as much as you can so the dressing can adhere to it.  Tear it into one inch pieces and place in a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle on the oil and toss.  Splash on the vinegar and toss.  Grind on the salt and pepper and toss.  Fire in the veggies and nuts and toss.  Taste it!  If it needs more of anything, add it! 

Seitan Stew

Take everything you see here (potato, celery, parsnip, onion, dried mushrooms, seitan, salt, bay leaf, carrot and garlic) and horse it into a big pot.  Cover with water and boil until veggies are cooked to desired tenderness.  Add vegetarian gravy granules and stir until dissolved.  I know using them is a cop out, but I can't think of any better way to get the broth to turn brown and "beefy."  Suggestions welcome.

Cauliflower Sauce

I used to be completely addicted to Fettuccine Alfredo.  But when I went to cook it for the first time, I was horrified by how much fat is involved.  So now, if I want the real thing, I go to a restaurant, and suspend my disbelief for the time it takes to eat it.  But I also really like trying out healthier versions of things and using bizarre substitutions.  This is one that turned out pretty well.  It doesn't really taste like Alfredo sauce, but it almost has the same mouth feel, and lots of depth of flavour. 

 Ingredients:
1 head of cauliflower (broken into florets)
1 cup of milk (I almost always use goat)
Parmesan cheese (to taste)
Horseradish (to taste)
Garlic (to taste)
Truffle Oil (to taste)
Olive Oil (for roasting)
Salt and pepper

Place florets and peeled garlic cloves in a baking pan and drizzle with olive oil and salt.  Bake until cauliflower is lightly browned and fairly soft.  Once cooled, transfer them into a blender with remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with your favorite pasta. 

Celariac Soup

 

Ingredients:

1 large celery root, peeled and cubed
1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 quarts vegetable stock

1-2 teaspoons sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Dry sherry

Directions:

Slowly saute onions and celery root in olive oil, stirring often, for about 20 minutes.  Add stock and boil until thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes.  Remove from stove and puree in batches in a blender and season with salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, place a dash of sherry in each bowl and top with cream or garlic crouton (shown.)

Bleu Cheese Souffle

I had never made a souffle before.  And the only reason I finally did is because I needed an excuse to buy more ramekins.  I served this as a 3rd course and put it in the oven just as we sat down to our 1st course.  Perfect timing.  Couldn't believe it.  I forgot to take the picture when they came out of the oven, so that's why this one isn't puffy. 

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the ramekins
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk, warmed
5 eggs, separated
Pinch salt
Ground white pepper
1 T dry mustard
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
Pinch cream of tartar

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare 4 (8oz) or 8 (4oz) ramekins by greasing them with softened butter.  Make a bechamel sauce base by melting the 3 tablespoons of butter over low-medium heat in a thick-bottomed pot. Just as the foam subsides, add the flour, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent lumps. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until flour is "cooked." Add the warm milk to the mixture and continue to whisk until smooth and thick. Remove from the heat. Beat in the egg yolks 1 at a time. Season with salt, pepper, and mustard.  Stir in the cheese until incorporated evenly.  Very small lumps ok.  Chill the mixture while whipping the egg whites.  In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and cream of tartar just until soft peaks form.  This takes a while.  Fold 1/3 of the beaten whites into the bechamel mixture.  Then gently fold in the rest.  Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and distribute the batter evenly.  Do not overfill!  Bake on the middle rack for about 25 minutes.  The souffle is done when it has puffed above the rim and the outside is golden. 

Quartet of Bruschetta

While in Montalcino last month, we had a very unexpectedly enjoyable lunch at a little wine store that you wouldn't even expect served food.  We had riboletta, bruschetta and a cheese plate, and it was one of the best meals we had in Italy.  So that's what inspired this little plate. 

 

Two are recreations and two are my own inventions.  Clockwise they are: 1) mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with thyme and sea salt 2) white beans and garlic seasoned with rosemary 3) chopped green olives, tomatoes and gorgonzola 4) artichokes with parmesan and little bit of mayonaise.  

Tomato and Barley Risotto

I recently discovered an extremely elegant vegetarian blog called The New Vegetarian on the The Guardian website.  And I'm always on the lookout for an alternative risotto like the cauliflower one I had at this amazing New York restaurant.  So while browsing through all of Yotam's beautiful recipes, I found this one, and it was going to make a perfect 5th course at my upcoming dinner party.  However, I really only used the recipe for inspiration, as I left out the sugar, feta and coriander, and added spinach and delicata squash.  And I only used 12 cloves of garlic, not TWO WHOLE HEADS like the recipe calls for.  Is he crazy?  I would have to stay in solitary confinement for a week.

Carrot Fennel Soup

I've been making the same curried carrot soup for so long that almost everyone I know has had it.  So I thought I would mix it up when I had my in-laws over for dinner.  I had a bunch of fennel in the fridge so I figured I would either make a fennel salad or soup.  Then the oven broke, and I needed another hot course, so that was that.  I was going to wing it, which has never done me wrong with soup, but then I found a Gourmet recipe and followed it (mostly.)  I added an apple I had laying around and I didn't bother making the fennel seed oil.  I used pumpkin seed oil I already had instead.  And a little sprinkle of paprika to top it all off.

Stuffed Tomato and Delicata Squash

Simple to make Sunday dinner. I wanted to make "Baked eggs in Tomatoes" but the husband is weird about eggs, so I swapped out the egg for a rice and mushroom mixture. I chose those because that's what I had in the fridge. You could stuff it with anything though. The delicata squash only appears for a few weeks every fall, so every year I mess with the recipe a little more. Serve these separately or together with a salad (frisee and arugala shown here.)

For the tomato:
Sautee mixed mushrooms with diced onion and garlic, mix with a little parmesan and cooked brown rice and set aside.
Cut off top and hollow out the tomato of all liquid and seeds. Then sprinkle the inside with salt.
Stuff tomato tightly with rice and mushrooms and place on oiled baking sheet.

For the squash:
Halfway mash some white beans with some finely chopped spinach and ricotta cheese. You could mix in an egg, but it's not essential.
Halve the squash and scrape out seeds. Pack in the bean mixture and top with panko breadcrumbs. Place on baking sheet.

Bake either or both at 400 degrees until tops are brown.

ONE jalapeno harvest

One jalapeno plant produces far more peppers than one person can possibly use. I picked a bag this big at least 4 times this summer. Most of the time I would just use one per night for dinner. I also did some jalapeno vodka infusions. But the bulk of them are going to my friends Bridget and Brian so they can make more of their delicious hotsauce, with which I liberally top most of my meals.

Tempeh Cakes

I have been obsessed with Terrene's tempeh cakes for some time now. These ones were almost as good. I served them with brussels sprouts and mashed butternut squash and spuds. It's also super easy to make if you are willing to be a little carefree with your recipe. You could pretty much use any vegetables (corn, peppers, olives) or herbs (nori, basil, oregano, sage) and steer the flavour in whatever direction you wanted i.e. southwestern, Mediterranean, Asian. I think I steered the flavour in a sort of home-style direction.

Ingredients:
I pack tempeh
3-4 ribs celery diced
1 large carrot diced
1 large dollop of vegan or normal mayonaise
1 T wholegrain mustard
1 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 T minced parsley and thyme
salt and pepper

Directions:
Reserve breadcrumbs, celery and carrots and place all other ingredients in blender and blend until almost smooth. If mixture is too thick, add a little olive oil. Transfer blended mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in reserved ingredients (reserving half the breadcrumbs.) Form mixture into cakes and dredge in remaining breadcrumbs. Place cakes on oiled baking sheet and bake at 425 until both sides are lightly browned. These can also be pan fried if you prefer.

Vegetarian Cassoulet

So I'm not going to lie and act like I made this up out of my head. Never let it be said that I don't give credit where it is due! I've never even had a regular cassoulet so I had nothing to draw from. The husband has been requesting I try to make a vegetarian one for over a year, so I used this recipe from Gourmet magazine. I did add some Field Roast sausages though, because I knew I would hear about it if I didn't. I served it with roasted brussels sprouts and toasted wheat bread with my guilty pleasure - provel cheese. Sorry about the unattractive squareness of it.