No, I don’t have any new posts of substance. I would just rather be eating and cooking than stopping to take pictures and then writing about it. I am not sure how to get the motivation back, especially in the summer since there is so much to do! Here is an example… this is what I was doing last Saturday instead of taking pictures or writing here:

I have pickled and frozen a bunch of stuff so far this summer. I also had surgery that kept me out of work for 6 weeks and I started a new job that is going to be higher profile.

There is also a lifestyle change that probably won’t impact the blog- I am no longer a vegetarian. Just after 4 years of vegetarianism (this time) I went back to eating meat. Over the past few years I have been moving to much more of a locavore way of life. I don’t have the numbers worked out (I really could not do all the measuring and tracking required), but I feel confident in saying at least 65% of my food is from local sources. I rarely set foot in a grocery store these days and when I do go to the store I am supporting my local businesses instead of the larger chains. My conviction in vegetarianism always came from my dislike of factory farming and the environmental implications. I do not consider myself a religious person, but this article in the NY Times Of Church and Steak: Farming for the Soul has stuck with me since I read it last year. No, it is not justification for my decision. I like meat. I always have. Now I know where I can find people that will raise it in a way I feel I can live with. I have me a lot of them at the farmers markets.

I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals but I have cut out the mass produced vegetarian convenience foods. When I eat meat, I want it to be something I can live with. Have I made exceptions to my locally raised policy? Yes- for some small local places that are owned by people in the community. At one place I was even around for the owner talking about issues with a meat supplier and I gave him some the names I buy meat from. I would be surprised if he changed anything, but we had a good discussion.

So, that is what has been going on here. And since I did not plan to post tonight I don’t have any pictures ready. Sorry about that.

So, without further ado….

The Omnivore’s Hundred

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you.ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)
4. Optional extra: Post a comment http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

To make the filling out of this form and generating the HTML for it a bit easier, reddywhp has played around with some PHP. Go to http://reddywhip.org/lj/foods/ and fill it out there. After filling it out, you will be given the code to copy and paste into your blog.

1. Venison- I grew up in a hunting area.
   
2. Nettle tea- I love stinging nettle (soup, pesto, nom, nom, nom….)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle- One thing that should be on this list instead of something more common like Huevos rancheros is Mexican truffle, aka huitlacoche, aka corn smut. I had some Tuesday night for the first time and it was good. Now that I know I like it and have some cooking ideas for it, I won’t be afraid to take it if it shows up at the farm again this year. Back to black truffle, I also got to sniff Alain Ducasse’s newly purchased truffle once (see #84).
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes- Plum
    
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes- nearly every day in the summer.
    
22. Fresh wild berries- I grew up in blueberry country, aka NJ.
    
23. Foie gras- I am really not sure I could from an ethical stand point. Not even if Eric Zeibold, Alain Ducase and Thomas Keller all mad them for me (also see #62).
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - Yeah, no one really needs to do this.
    
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters- not really a huge fan. Have had them raw and smoked.
    
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl- I don’t get how this is a good idea. I have had both New England and Manhattan clam chowders fresh in their native environments. I have had sourdough in San Fran as you should. They are really far apart. Why would you put two regional specialties created 3000 miles apart together like this?
33. Salted lassi- mmmm. Sounds tasty. Will keep an eye out for that.
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar- I cannot even stand next to someone drinking cognac, let alone drink it myself. I know, I have character flaws mostly involving brown alcohol that is not beer.
37. Clotted cream tea- nom, nom, nom
    
38. Vodka jelly- or Jello if you are in the US
    
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail- I have had buffalo tail. Fantôme Chocolat was disappointed and said it was not the same at all. Oxtail stew is on the agenda at some point this winter.
41. Curried goat- I had a Jamaican co-worker in college that let me try his once. Too much curry to actually taste the goat. I don’t think that was supposed to be the point.
    
42. Whole insects- I would rather not know what it was first.
43. Phaal- think this will probably be like the Scotch Bonnet.
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more- This will probably be wasted on me (see #36).
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear- the first time I had it was in Peru and it was divine. They put fresh slice on top of my fruit salad every morning at breakfast at this small hotel I was staying at.
    
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV- Yum.. Belgium.
    
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads- I am really not sure I could from an ethical stand point. Not even if Eric Zeibold, Alain Ducase and Thomas Keller all mad them for me (also see #23).
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frog’s Legs- my favorite BBQ joint in Miami always had them. My ex occasionally got them because he used to jig for frogs a lot growing up. Taste like chicken.
    
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake- mmmmm… fried dough.
    
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette- I have had tripe. Is the swine version supposed to be disgusting?
71. Gazpacho- Made a huge batch this weekend and just had some for dinner tonight. One of these times I really need to stop skipping the bread.
    
72. Caviar and blini- I have had caivar. And blini. Just never together.
73. Louche absinthe- I think I found a place for Fantôme Chocolat and I to go sip some locally one afternoon.
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill- I may have (see #1). I would prefer not to know before I tried it.
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant- I had a made-for-me vegetarian tasting menu at Plaza Athénée for free!! And Ducasse is not just any chef with 3 Michelin stars… he was the first chef with 3 restaurants with 3 Michelin stars in 3 cities. And Plaza Athénée is usually ranked as one of the top 20 restaurants in Europe.
85. Kobe beef- they feed them beer to stimulate their appetite. Otherwise they get depressed and stop eating
86. Hare- the kitties eat rabbit on a regular basis. I have never tried it myself.
87. Goulash- Hungarian. In Hungary.
    
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab- One of my favorites, nom, nom, nom.
    
93. Rose harissa- I am intrigued.
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano- I used to travel to Mexico a lot and tried to make it a point to have some each time I went.
    
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta- I usually always have some in the house. In fact, I have red and blue cornmeal at the moment because Vince and I are going to try to make purple polenta at some point.
    
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

According to Mark Bittman, the author, Boulangerie Potatoes is a classic French dish. Potatoes were left in the local baker’s oven with stock for a long time. The long cooking period causes the stock to form a glaze over the potatoes as it reduces. From some digging around I did, Chef Tom Colicchio relays a variation on this history in one of his books.

As I mentioned, the formula is simple- 3 cups of beans, 3 medium potatoes, and 1 cup of stock. You also use some herbs, spices and butter. The beans should be drained but still moist. I suspect if you use canned ones, they will turn very mushy here due to the long cook time.

For the first attempt at this recipe, we used pinto beans (the ones from the slow cooker in the bean post) and sweet potatoes (for those of you with the book reading along at home, we did not use all the suggested spices or sugar… I do not like adding sweet to my sweet potatoes, I prefer them on the savory side).

We started off with three cups of pinto beans seasoned with salt, pepper, homemade anchovy free Worcestershire sauce and…

… a tablespoon of fresh thyme (yum).

While I got the beans ready, Fantôme Chocolat thinly sliced some sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes were then layered on top of the beans and a cup of vegetable stock was added. More salt, pepper, and fresh thyme was added as well as some butter. (That is the recipe called for 3 tablespoons. It looks like a lot now and it tasted like a lot too… Fantôme Chocolat and I don’t use butter all that often and we could certainly taste it!)

Cover with foil and cook at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for another 45 minutes so the potatoes can brown and glaze. The dish can be served hot or at room temperature.

We made a salad to go along with this with some fresh carrot and cabbage I had around.

I had cut these in a shred and prepared them for a cold salad…

…but Fantôme Chocolat was in the mood for something warm so I sauteed the salad with some sesame oil and gave it a dash of rice wine vinegar.

In the end, this was a simple yet satisfying Sunday meal.

The following Sunday, I decided to make this again while doing some things around the house. Fantôme Chocolat never got to try this one because I ate it and all the leftovers during the week (and I am a reluctant leftover eater). This time, I used white beans, red potatoes, and leeks.

The leeks need to be trimmed, chopped and rinsed well. I opted to slice mine thinly in rings. Cook them in butter until they are very soft (20 minutes or so).

The potatoes also need to be thinly sliced. Cut them in half lengthwise then into half circles. The recipe says to peel them, but I did not.

The recipe here suggests white beans so I used great northerns. I mixed them with fresh thyme, salt and pepper.

Once the leeks were cooked, I layered them on top of the beans.

Then I layered on the potatoes, added a cup of stock, and seasoned with more salt, pepper, and fresh thyme. I put a little butter on top.

The same cooking instructions as above apply, 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes covered by foil the 45 minutes without.

I ate this one with a salad of greens and fava beans that I did not take a picture of unfortunately.

I have not decided what the next variation will be yet. Maybe I will skip the book ones and do my own… I see black bean and sweet potato coming!

Which is just what I did one Saturday afternoon.

There are many methods out there for cooking dried beans- quick soak, long soak, slow cooker, pressure cooker. I am sure there are more. I used two different methods, a quick soak method and the slower cooker method Fantôme Chocolat filled me in on.

The quick cook method I used was from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I used this for some black beans and great northern beans. First, you need to rinse and pick through your beans to make sure there are no pebbles, miscellaneous items, or otherwise discolored beans in the batch.

Place the beans in a large pot and cover them with cold water so the water rises 2 to 3 inches above the beans.

Bring them to a boil and let them boil for 2 minutes. Cover the pot with a lid and turn off the heat. Allow the beans to soak for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, check the beans for tenderness. They should be tender, but not completely done. If they are tender, season the water with salt and pepper and make sure the water level is about 1 inch above the beans. If the beans are not tender and still seem a bit raw, do not add any salt and bring the water level to 2 inches above the beans.

Bring the beans to a boil again then reduce the heat so the beans bubble at a gentle simmer.

Partially cover the beans with the lid. Stir occasionally and check the beans for the desired consistency every 10-15 minutes. Add water if necessary and if you have not previously added salt, add it when the beans start to turn tender. When the beans reach the desired tenderness, turn off the heat and season to taste.

I also cooked a batch of pinto beans in the slow cooker. I started with the water level about 1 inch above the beans per Fantôme Chocolat’s instructions.

I turned the slow cooker on low and let them go. At about the same time the quick cook beans were at the end of their 2 hour rest, I checked the slow cooker beans. They were about the same tenderness but running low on water so I added a little more. In the end, they took about the same time as the stove top beans (just over 3 hours). However, you end up with less cooking liquid in the end so if you are going to freeze your beans you may need to add some water.

One 16 ounce bag of dried beans will yield 5-6 cups of cooked beans (the pintos were closer to 5 cups, while the black and great northerns were closer to the 6 cup yield). You can use them right away, keep them in the refrigerator for up to five days, or freeze them into portions to use later. When freezing, a small splash of white vinegar or lemon juice is supposed to help keep them intact. I find the great northerns still like to slip their skins no matter what though.

As much as I like black beans and love having black bean tacos or burritos for a quick meal when I am hungry, it is great to always have fresh cooked beans in the freezer. They really do taste better than the canned ones and for some longer cook recipes they really hold up a lot better. Enjoy!

There are commercially produced Vegan Worcestershires out there. I just haven’t seen them carried in stores all that often and then I have to remember to order online, etc., etc.

Well, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian has a recipe! And I just happened to have fancy little bottles that Fantôme Chocolat’s sister had given me a while ago and I had absolutely no idea what to do with that would be perfect to put the sauce into.

Take a look at this line up of ingredients:

We have: Dulse, brown sugar**, soy sauce, tamarind paste, Chinese black vinegar (Chinkiang Vinegar), molasses, cloves, black peppercorns, red pepper flakes, and black licorice. Have you ever read the ingredient list on an actual bottle of Worcestershire sauce? Malt vinegar (from barley), spirit vinegar, molasses, sugar, salt, anchovies, tamarind extract, onions, garlic, spices (including cloves), and flavoring. So this recipe isn’t all that weird.

Now onto some of the more exotic ingredients… up first we have Dulse! I had to look it up. It is a sea vegetable (you can also use kombu).

It apparently is from the Maine area and that link, as well as the package, will give you lots of handy recipes on what to do with your sea vegetables including adding them to soups, salads, sandwiches, and stir fries. I found the dulse at my Whole Foods. I also picked up the tamarind paste there.

For the Chinese black vinegar, I actually went to the Asian grocery store in D.C.’s sad remnant of a Chinatown (development and the resulting rise in property taxes and rents has pushed most of the Chinese owned businesses out so now there are a lot of non-Chinese businesses with Chinese characters on them). I amazingly found parking on a Sunday and was amazed at the incredibly low price (I am sure I would have paid three times the amount if WF had it).

The recipe is fairly simple. Put everything except the soy sauce, molasses, and licorice (which is optional) in a pot and bring it to a boil.

Once it boils, remove from heat. Add the soy sauce, molasses and licorice. Steep until it is cool. Strain it and you are done.

You can store it for up to 6 months and refrigeration is optional.

As far as I remember, it tastes and smells like what I remember Worcestershire sauce tastes and smells like. I even had a really odd moment the other night when I threw it in something I was cooking and walked away for a minute- I caught the smell of it and for a fleeting second was reminded of steak (I used to frequently eat Worcestershire with steak in my omni days).

**The box of Domino’s brown sugar is for illustrative purposes only. It is so old that it was rock hard. I found out a while ago that Domino likely processes its refined sugar with bone char and I never did get a conclusive answer on the brown sugar. So instead I use the following substitute: 1 cup of known vegan sugar + 1 1/2 tablespoons of molasses for each cup of brown sugar required.

On January 27, The New York Times published an article by Mark Bittman called Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler. I have been contemplating mentioning it here but wasn’t sure what to say. I really wanted to focus on this one part of the article:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius.

In the event you missed it before, I am a vegetarian. However, I am also a realist- it isn’t for everyone. I am not going to preach that everyone should be or make you feel bad if you don’t convert- it is your decision. I will make food that looks tasty though which may encourage you one day to cook a vegetarian meal or vegan dessert. You could just as easily throw meat or chicken stock into the meals I show here. You may not even be willing to consider giving up 20% of your meat consumption. But, I am going to make you an offer.

Have you heard of carbon offsetting or emissions trading? If you haven’t, click on the link there. If you want the real quick overview, you give money to a company to do good in the world to offset the carbon/ emissions you contribute to the world for things like air travel. There are no formal standards yet for companies who do this kind of work so it is a bit of a crap shoot on what they are really doing with your money.

Well, according to the statistic from the article (and the whole article is worth reading… Bittman is not vegetarian so there is no hidden propaganda there on my part) my eating habits are the equivalent of 5 Priora on the road. And I am not some nebulous company without formal regulation… I am a fairly ethical person going on 4 years of vegetarian eating.

So here is my offer- I am selling four 20% shares of my eating habits for $200 each (I am keeping the 5th for myself). $200 gets you the right for one year from date of purchase to say that you have carbon offset 20% of your meat consumption. I pledge that I won’t eat meat. How does that sound? Seems like a bargain compared to the price of a Prius.

(Yes, I really am serious. I can invoice you via PayPal and can take credit cards on my PayPal account. Just leave a comment below if you want to talk about it some more. And in the interest of full disclosure- your money will go to buy me more tech toys, most likely an iPhone. Edit: Ok, while I really want an iPhone, that would be bad use of the money. If anyone is really crazy enough to take me up on this because you have some weird sense of guilt over eating meat and won’t actually do something about it, the money will be donated to Clagett Farm. You could of course donate to them yourself and get the tax deduction. Or, maybe join a CSA near you.)

Picture from Wikipedia.

1. Baking requires more attention to detail than cooking in terms of measurement. I pay attention to details all day at work. I don’t want to do it to that degree when I am trying to relax (as you can probably tell from the typos hre).

2. Baking lacks the flexibility of cooking. Once you start baking something it is very hard to change course once you start baking something and then decide you want something else instead. That doesn’t work well for me all the time.

3. Baking involves a level of science I am just not into. Mix up the ratios of baking powder and baking soda and you are screwed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love science. I took three science classes my senior year of high school as electives. But I equate baking with chemistry and I never took a chemistry class (in high school or college) that I was not required to take. I did do very well in the ones I was required to take though. And looking at the three reasons I gave for not liking baking, they all seem to read as variations on one theme- I see cooking as a way to experiment and be creative and baking as a process that must be followed in detail to achieve a specific result. Sure you can substitute ingredients here and there (swap some fruit or nuts for one another) but you can’t just throw your spices and oils around willy nilly. Well, at least I lack the proper knowledge to.

And speaking of high school… another thing I decided to do in high school, much to the frustration of my junior year history teacher, was not compete with my sister at things she is better at than I am. In my junior year, I gave up field hockey when she started high school because she is the superior athlete. My history teacher was one of the coaches and gave me a hard time for this decision all season. History was first period too… what a way to start the day! I am not sure when we knew she was the better baker, but if you even hint at the cake she made last September Fantôme Chocolat starts to drool all over himself. So, the baking is best left to my sister for the most part.

That doesn’t stop me from whipping up the occasional baked treat. I used to make basic bread a lot (until I made the connection that all that fresh yeast in my diet led to my need for the Purple Pill) and may start experimenting with bread again soon. Lately I have been saving recipes I see online for a lot of baked goods. I have no idea why. I am not craving them or binging on them… the pictures just look so good that I feel compelled to bookmark them. I decided this past weekend presented a fabulous opportunity to get it out of my system- I was going to a party so why not bake something. I could have just a little and force share the rest with everyone else.

But, what to make?

I wasn’t sure who was going (one other known vegetarian, potential there may be a vegan) and wanted to try some different so pulled out Veganomicon again (you remember the one… the vegan one with the Chickpea Cutlets) and started having a look. I settled on “Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies” (that is really the name).

Yes, I know what you are thinking- chocolate and blueberry? Not high up on my list of chocolate/ fruit combos (that would be chocolate/ orange followed by chocolate/ raspberry since I know you were dying to know). They did suggest you could use raspberry instead and I was highly tempted… but I decided to go as written.

Oh, you were actually thinking “vegan brownies??” Ok. Yes, vegan baking can be good. I promise. (Yes, it can also be really bad too.) If you are ever in DC you should really go to Sticky Fingers and get yourself a vegan cinnamon roll. They have a lot of good vegan baked goods. You can even order most of them online! And I did make a vegan chocolate cake once that a lot of people in my office ate. When my sister got married, I had people send recipes so we could start a cook book for her to give to her at her bridal shower (would you expect anything less from me?). My aunt in Alaska had sent a recipe given to her by her mother-in-law who had been one of the early settlers in Alaska. It was vegan out of necessity rather than choice and it was really good!

One more thing before we get to the pictures- Cookbook Errata! If, like me, you have a first edition of Veganomicon keep that link handy. It is the Post Punk Kitchen forum thread that tracks the typos they are finding in the book. Some are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Others, like adding the applesauce to the brownie mixture when it isn’t on the ingredient list, are things you will want to know about (there is no applesauce but people have added 1/4 cup and have liked the results).

To make the brownies, (finally) start off with chocolate chips, vegan sugar, the milk substitute of your choice (mine is almond, the recipe specifically lists soy but I don’t keep that around), almond and vanilla extracts, canola oil and a jar of blueberry spreadable fruit. If you can see chunks of fruit, blend it first to break those up.

A portion of the chocolate chips need to be melted. You could use the microwave. I am not a microwave fan and pretty much only use it at work (I need to get around to buying containers that I can use in the toaster oven) or when Fantôme Chocolat makes me defrost something I didn’t anticipate he would want to use in dinner. Or, you could set up a very simple double boiler.

Just heat water in the bottom and it turns into a fast acting melting machine! Set the chocolate aside to cool until later.

The remaining items will all be blended together. According to the recipe, this can take up to ten minutes with a hand mixer on high. With my (popular brand name) stand mixer, it took about two minutes on setting 2.

Next, we have all the dry ingredients. Oh, wow! Another item for my list! I don’t like sifting. Yes, it is necessary. And I have one of those cool sifting contraptions. I still don’t like it though.

The line up is the usual suspects for a chocolate baked item- flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Sift these ingredients into the wet mixture and combine. However, this can get thick so using a fork is advised. Also mix in the melted chocolate chips.

Once the mixture is blended, fold in blueberries and some more chocolate chips.

The batter goes into a greased 9×13 baking pan. If it does not cover the entire pan, it will spread during baking.

These bake at 325 Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. The usual trick of inserting a toothpick to test for doneness does not work here due to the moistness of the brownies so you have to trust the recipe. They are supposed to appear soft and crinkly on top when done.

If you are eating them right away, you are advised to let them sit for about 30 minutes first. Mine sat longer but still crumbled when cut. I can never seem to cut baked goods so they look as pretty as in other people’s pictures.

They were still good even if they didn’t cut perfectly. They received rave reviews, but if I made them again I would go the raspberry route.

Note: While copyright does not prohibit me from posting the recipe proportions (just the written instruction) for published recipes, I still feel a little odd about freely giving away work like that, especially in the realm of vegan. There are more and more resources out there everyday, but these women did a lot of work coming up with new and original stuff so it would be great if you supported them by buying their book. (That’s not to say you couldn’t possible find this recipe on the internet already via google or something.)

Despite being excessively hungry one night last week when I got home from work, I decided I just had to take the time to make stuffed butternut squash. As hungry as I was, I took a lot of pictures along the way too so I will let them do most of the talking.

First, carefully slice the squash in half lengthwise.

Then remove the fiber and seeds from the middle of the squash.

Place the squash in a baking dish, cut side up. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the size of your squash, it will take about 40-50 minutes to bake. While the squash is baking, prepare the filling.

Looking around my kitchen, I came up with a leek and a potato for my stuffing.

First I sauteed the leek.

When it began to soften, I added some vegetable broth, soy sauce, and the potato.

When the potato began to cook, I also decided to add some mock duck.

The squash is ready when it easily breaks apart when stabbed with a fork.

Using a spoon, follow the line of the hollow left from removing the seeds and fibers to remove most of the cooked flesh while leaving some still attached to the outer skin.

Mix the removed squash into the stuffing mixture.

Then, fill up the two squash halves. Cover with foil again and bake at 325 for about 20 minutes.

I decided my plate need to be livened up with some green so earlier I had taken some fava beans out of the freezer (I had preserved a few pounds in the fall since we were able to get them in abundance then for some strange reason) and mixed them with my Star Hallow Farm baby spinach and made a nice, bright green refreshing salad.

It was a fabulous and beautiful meal that was worth the wait.

First, if you do not read my entries directly from my website, please stop by and take a look at the Blogroll (the list down the left). I have recently updated it with more food blogs! I read all of those blogs as they are updated and they provide a lot of ideas and inspiration for cooking. I like them more than cooking shows. If you are looking for some things to read regularly or just need some food inspiration, give some of those a click and see what you turn up.

Now, for some cooking closer to “home”…

Magnio dropped me an email from Norway to follow up on her comment on the beet write up. She made some beets for the holidays from the recipe I sent her and they were a great success!

Fantôme Chocolat and I recently went to a fabulous wine and cheese party at the home of our friends, Nam and Chris. Nam, our fabulous hostess and also a regular reader here, made mascarpone stuffed dates sprinkled with fleur de sal. Wow! Fantôme Chocolat always knew when I was eating one because of the faces I was making. They were roasted in the oven so the date caramelized. They had a fabulous texture and were a wonderful balance of sweet and salty. Nam shared the recipe with me so keep an eye out for that coming soon!

And last, but most certainly not least, my dear friend Katja in London was feeling inspired by a few different recipes one cold winter night and came up with a recipe she is letting me share with everyone. So I leave you with “Katja’s Mango Tango”. Enjoy!

Katja’s Mango Tango

Slice up some Mangoes. Put on a tray. Sprinkle some light brown sugar on them, a couple of small flakes of butter and some lemon juice. Mix.

Pop in the oven at 350 degrees to heat them.

In the meantime, toast some coconut flakes in a pan until golden brown.

Once the mango mix is nicely heated through arrange on plates, pop a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Sprinkle coconut flakes and pop a basil leaf on top.

Seriously delicious and classy to look at.

And, of course, here is a picture for you!

Look for select products from Spectrum, ArrowHead Mills, or Hain Pure Foods for a special offer form. If you buy three products from these manufacturers with a combined total of $10 or more, send in your receipt and the form with the UPC codes filled in and they will send you a voucher for a cooking class valued up to $100. This website- Get Gourmet- provides more details… except for what type of classes they are. They will tell you which cities they are available in though. Classes may require additional supplies. (All terms and conditions are available on the site.)

I have my form filled out and ready to send in tomorrow!

And so this post isn’t “naked”, here is a picture of some food I took a while ago…

If you live in DC and are curious about CSAs but reluctant to make the financial commitment, well, I have just the thing for you. I recently found out about Star Hallow Farm on my neighborhood list serve and just took my first delivery from them today. They are part CSA, part personalized farmers’ market. If you decide to work with them, you do send them money in advance ($300 is their initial buy-in). However, unlike the traditional CSA model, this becomes a debit account. You then order products once a week (from 7am Wednesday through 7am Thursday… yes the site says 8-8 at the time I published this but they informed today this will be changing) based on what they have available. You can order a mixed “box” like you would get at a CSA or individual products. And what if you don’t want anything that week because you are out of town? Don’t order and your account isn’t charged. They then deliver your products to DC (Adams Morgan or Tenleytown) for pickup on Saturday.

I ordered their small mixed box and received 4 apples, a head of hydroponic lettuce, spinach (yay!), an English cucumber, some nice looking carrots (4 or so), 2 beets, 2 medium sweet potatoes and a few gold potatoes for $18. They let you know what is and is not organic- the lettuce is not and neither is the greenhouse grown cucumber. And the apples are not because there are not any organic orchards on the east coast (I believe they explain this somewhere on their site but the requirement might be that the trees have never been treated with chemical pesticide and due to the age of most east coast orchards none of them qualify since people have not been concerned about this for as long as they have been around). They also work with farms around their area. In addition to the box, I also ordered two of their cheeses produced from raw milk and was very happy to discover they were made with specifically vegetable enzymes (I was expecting the ambiguous “enzymes” label at best). Everything is wonderful so far so I will definitely stick with them in my CSA’s off season and maybe supplement my CSA’s share with them through out the season too especially if they have anything my farm does not grow.

Tonight I made a simple meal using some of the items I received as well as continuing to deal with the realization that I have too many leftovers sitting in my freezer (I am not good at eating leftovers). I don’t have step by step pictures because I did not do anything elaborate. From my Star Hallow haul, I decided to do a little salad of fresh lettuce, carrot and cucumber with a little onion I had around. I also took half of one of the sweet potatoes, cut it into wedges, tossed it with some olive oil, salt, black pepper and a dash of cayenne then baked them at 400 degrees (Farenheit) until they began to brown.

From the leftovers, I retrieved some black bean soup (this was made in the less than 72 hours I had between returning from international travel and having to get to my sister’s for the holidays so no documentation of me making this!) that I had reduced the other night into burrito filling and had added some Frieda’s Soyrizo to. I unfortunately found out I was out of salsa verde so I just used some store bought salsa and onions to make a burrito in a whole wheat tortilla.

It was a simple but satisfying meal.

One day after work last week after work I decided to give the Chickpea Cutlets a try. These are treated as an equivalent to tofu, tempeh and seitan and can be used as an entree or sandwich filling. It does not take nearly as long to make as seitan so it is nice when you don’t have the time. I try to also limit my processed soy consumption so it is nice to have another alternative (it is pretty inexpensive compared to what you will buy at the store too!).

The ingredients are staples if you do a lot of veg*n cooking- chickpeas, olive oil, wheat gluten, bread crumbs (plain is recommended but I only had Italian and no bread to make any), vegetable broth (you can use water), soy sauce, garlic, lemon zest and some spices (thyme, paprika and sage).

First, you mash the cooked chickpeas and oil together so there are no whole chickpeas remaining.

Then you add the remaining ingredients. Knead the mixture for about three minutes. Strings of gluten will begin to form when it is ready. This was a little hard to capture in a photo. Essentially, if you pull the dough with your thumb as shown below you will see the dough form small strings.

Divide the dough into four portions and shape it into about a 4×6 rectangle. You can either pan fry them in some oil or bake them. In a pan, they should cook until lightly browned on each side and firm to the touch (6-7 minutes per side). They can be baked at 375 degrees (Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes on one side and 8-10 on the other again until browned and firm.

I opted for frying.

My oil appeared to be a little to hot at first though.

In the end, all was well though.

I decided to have one with some sauteed butternut squash…

…that I mixed with the Green Beans Deluxe that I had left over from lunch the day before with Fantôme Chocolat at The Vegetable Garden (a fabulous meat free Asian inspired restaurant in Maryland’s DC suburbs).

The cutlet was interesting. The gluten (I think) gives it an interesting chewiness. I think I will have to eat this one more time before I decide how I really feel about it. I will have it again though (unlike the vegetarian sausage I picked up on a shopping trip the same day we went to Veggie Garden… those I am not fond of). In the end, it was a fairly good meal.

One day in the store during the summer before I started this site, I came across rice paper wrappers. Having always been a fan of the cold rolls in Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, I decided to give my own version a try. I found this useful site for tips on how to use the wrappers. I made many tasty batches of rolls with the summer vegetables I had on hand.

I had not made any for a while until I was inspired again one night flipping through my new copy of Veganomicon and there was a recipe for rice paper rolls using butternut squash, among other things. I decided to use the butternut squash and go from there.

I went to the farmers’ market but there were less vendors than normal since it was the Sunday after New Year. I picked up some butternut squash and red onions which I supplemented with some kale from the grocery store.

I also decided to thinly slice the kale stems to add in for a bit of crunch.

I cubed the squash and roasted it at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit) for about 45 minutes until it was cooked through and beginning to brown on the outside.

I decided to caramelize the onions and added the kale stems to the cooking onions. I cooked the kale stems with the onions the entire time and they retained their crispiness which was a nice contrast to the other ingredients.

I just lightly steamed the kale in some vegetable broth.

I also added one of my packages of mock duck that I mentioned in the grilling post.

Once everything is ready, mix and allow to cool.

I have used two different brands of rice roll wrappers and found each has its own quirks. The basic concept is you want to soften them in hot water, add the filling, and roll. I have found that as the water cools the wrappers will become harder to work with so I keep some water heating on the stove while I work so I can periodically refresh my soaking water. I set a plate out to contain the water to dunk the wrappers in.

One of the biggest tricks is to not let the wrapper fold back in on itself. Once it does, it will stick together. I leave them in the water long enough for the pattern on the wrapper to start to fade. Then I transfer the wrapper to a work surface covered with some wet paper towels. Add a few tablespoons of filling on the wrapper toward the bottom leaving about half an inch to an inch of free space to the edges of the wrapper (when I have spinach, I will put down some raw spinach first and the topping on top of it).

Then fold the sides of the wrapper in (there might not be enough contrast in this photo to see it easily).

And then roll up the remaining wrapper. If you see any holes, don’t worry- the rolling usually covers them up.

I keep mine in a large baking dish and put some wet paper towels between layers to prevent them from sticking to one another.

I may not make the prettiest ones, but they are good!

Typically when I make these I eat them all within three days at the most so I do not know how long they are really good for. I did keep some of this batch around for an unprecedented 6 days so Fantôme Chocolat could try them out (he had been sick so did not try them sooner). They seemed to hold up well enough, but it was quite a challenge not to eat them because this was a really good flavor combination.

For dipping, I usually go with some Thai Chili sauce or Fantôme Chocolat whips something up. I was filling inspired so mixed a dipping suace out of soy sauce, sesame oil, Thai chili sauce and rice wine vinegar that was quite tasty.

Six of them made quite a hearty and plentiful meal on their own!

I think tonight was the first night in the past 3.5+ years that I told my Mom I was sick and she didn’t automatically respond with “Get some chicken soup then go lie down.” (go Mom!). It is of course a natural motherly reaction since she eats meat and I have for more of my life than I have not. But that does beg the question- what kind of comfort soup should you give your sick veg*n? Well, I have the soup for you!

Sure, you could crack open a can of something. But if you are taking care of someone that is sick, isn’t it nicer to make them something homemade and comforting? I found this recipe two years ago and it quickly became my favorite comforting “sick soup”. It comes from A Beautiful Bowl of Soup: The Best Vegetarian Recipes which I highly recommend whether you are vegetarian or not (a lot of the recipes are vegan too or are easy to veganize by omitting some garnishes).

My comfort soup is the Greek Orzo and Spinach soup from the book. It is just packed full of healthy stuff for when you are sick as you can see from my ingredient line up.

There is orzo and spinach, of course. Also diced tomato (that is one of my packed jars from the summer), onion, parsley, red pepper, garlic, and lemon.

Now, you get to meet my cast iron dutch oven which I am quite fond of! I seasoned it myself. Here we have one coarsely chopped onion cooking in some olive oil. Cook the onion over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it is translucent (about 5 minutes).

Then add one finely chopped red bell pepper and some diced cloves of garlic. According to the recipe you should use 3. However, since I tend to make this when I am sick, I usually use 6 or 7. Cook this until the onion starts to brown and the pepper is soft (about another 5 minutes).

Add 5 cups of vegetable broth and 15 ounces of diced tomatoes with their juices. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.

Once the broth comes to a boil, add 1/2 cup of orzo, 6 ounces (about 4 firmly packed cups) of spinach (you can shred, tear, or chop it depending on your tastes), and 1/4 cup of diced fresh parsley. Reduce the heat so the liquid simmers and cover. Simmer until the orzo is tender (about 10 minutes).

When the orzo is cooked, add 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice and season to taste.

Voila!

I always keep extra lemons on hand to squeeze some more fresh juice in when I reheat the soup. I have eaten almost an entire pot of this in the past 24 hours. Hopefully my cold goes away soon because I think I am down to my last 2 cup container of soup!

Their vegetarian entree looked quite tasty and suitably challenging so I announced I would be bringing Pumpkin Stuffed with Vegetable Stew to dinner at Fantôme Chocolat’s sister’s house. I figured if I could not find a suitable pumpkin to stuff I would add some winter squash to the stew or figure something else out. As luck would have it, when I hit the farmers’ markets the weekend before to do most of our Thanksgiving shopping, I found a lovely 10 pound Long Island Cheese Pumpkin to use. From the information I have dug up on it, it is an east coast heirloom pumpkin which got its name due to its resemblance to a cheese wheel (they do tend on the flatter side). The flesh is a deep orange and it is supposed to be an excellent pie pumpkin. In general, pumpkin is high in antioxidants, beta-carotene and potassium and low in fat and calories. They also have decent amounts of Vitamin C and other nutrients, such as Niacin, Vitamin E, Calcium and Iron.

For the vegetable stew, you first need to make a roasted vegetable stock so I recommend not trying to make the entire recipe in one day since it is a bit time consuming (see the cooks’ notes at the bottom of the recipe… you can make this over several days if you want). Both the stock and stew use a nice blend of seasonal root vegetables with the addition of some Roma tomatoes in the stock.

Roasted vegetables for the stock.

After roasting the stock vegetables, the pan gets deglazed with red wine.

Deglazing the pan.

The vegetables, pan deglazing items, water, some herbs, dried tomatoes, and dried mushrooms are simmered for the stock. When the stock is complete, it is then added to a roux to make the stew sauce.

The stew has seasonal roasted vegetables (carrots, fennel, celeriac, parsnips, shallots), mushrooms, roasted red pepper and seitan. Oddly, I was having a really difficult time finding seitan that had not already been flavored/ marinated when I was shopping so I made my own. It takes some time, but is really easy and inexpensive. I highly recommend the recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen. I really don’t think I will be buying seitan again after finding out how easy it is to make tasty seitan at home. And, it is really easy to flavor it however you want (I made mine very plain, omitting the garlic and lemon zest in the recipe since I wanted it to pick up the stew flavors).

Overall, it was a lot of work if done all at once (which I did not do) but absolutely delicious and beautiful too. The pumpkin flesh fell out easily when scooped with the stew and was very good.

My Dad frequently reads Gourmet and had been intrigued by the recipe too so was curious to hear how it worked out. When I declared it a success he asked if I would make it for Christmas.

From the same issue of Gourmet, I also made a Coconut Tart for dessert since Fantôme Chocolat’s sister and I are both fans of coconut. The recipe was from their Asian inspired Thanksgiving menu.

It also was quite good, if I do say so myself. I am usually not that good with pastry dough, but I made it work.

Fantôme Chocolat made a bunch of veggies for the day.

He made mashed potatoes that were lightened up by and given some added nutritional benefit of mashed orange cauliflower. We used a very minimal amount of milk and butter and then added some roasted vegetable stock I had left from the stew as well as some braised garlic I had handy (yum! for the recipe see my entry on Romanesco Sauce).

He also made green and white beans with shallots that were cooked for a bit in some balsamic vinegar.

And brussel sprouts! I never ate brussel sprouts until Fantôme Chocolat made them for me. He does a really nice job with a sautée/ steaming combination and the addition of lemon and rosemary.

He also had a small amount of cranberries so we simmered them on the stove top. I think we threw in some agave syrup and probably some Grand Mariner.

For the omnivores, Fantôme Chocolat’s sister brined and roasted a chicken that looked quite tasty.

Overall, a very satisfying and healthy (except for the tart!) Thanksgiving dinner.

As I mentioned, my Dad requested I make the pumpkin again for Christmas dinner (we were a big group that day so it was in addition to a stuffed Turkey breast and Roast Beef). I was out of the country for work until the evening of the 21st and wasn’t sure it was going to happen. But when I went to the farmers’ market on the morning of the 23rd, I once again found a nicely sized Long Island Cheese Pumpkin so I began gathering the needed ingredients. It went over quite well. Both my Dad and my sis-in-law’s Mom enjoyed it a lot. Sis-in-law’s Mom was quite surprised at how much she liked it and requested some to go. My brother and sister (both quite picky about vegetables and food with “too many ingredients”) even tried it. Neither of them liked the texture of the seitan. My brother did try some of the vegetables but wasn’t thrilled. I am just thrilled both of them tried some of it. Here are the pictures of the Christmas pumpkin.

The Grill

I was very leery of the grill at first. First, it is a TV chef branded product (still the only one I own) but of all the things I saw at the store that day, the grill was the most appealing. Second, it came pre-seasoned. And finally, the instructions say to use soap on it! (I am adamantly against soap on my cast iron or wok.) However, after the initial fire-alarm-setting-off use, both Fantôme Chocolat and I have become quite fond of the grill. He even has one at his place now too. We both get a fair bit of use out of our grills.

A lot of the time, we just whip up a marinade and throw some fresh veggies on the grill. Another favorite is mock duck.

The “Duck”

This is a hit with both of us. Fantôme Chocolat got on a dangerous duck kick a while ago and finds this an acceptable low fat substitute. He says they have the flavor down but of course the texture is off. I think it is a tasty alternative to tofu. I try not to use it too much though because it is still a processed food. I know it is vegetarian, I am not sure if it is suitable for vegans though because I am not up on the vegan “gotcha” ingredients. If you are in the DC area and interested in trying it, I always find it at Terry’s Health Food in Rockville (now that I have tipped you off to it, just make sure you leave some for me!).

Mock duck and veggies on the grill.

For marinades, we use a number of combinations of items. I am always on the look out for sauces that are free of high fructose corn syrup and just mix a bunch of things together. My favorite starting point is probably Thai chili sauce. Whole Foods and, for DC people, Yes! Market are a good place to look for sauces if you want items without HFCS (I looked at a conventional grocery store one day and picked up 20 items easily and could not find one without HFCS).

After marinading a bit, just start grilling. Fantôme Chocolat has become quite good with the grill marks.

Fabulous grill marks.

The picture pretty much says it all.

On October 7th, Fantôme Chocolat and I went to the Mycological Association of Washington 2007 Mushroom Fair at Brookside Gardens. The picture is Fantôme Chocolat decked out in his ’shrooms shirt he got from Far West Fungi when we went to San Francisco in May 2006 and holding our door prize from the raffle- a bunch of pom pom mushrooms that we had for dinner that night.

Fantôme Chocolat and I both enjoy mushrooms (and truffles, but they didn’t have any there). I did snap some shots of the various mushrooms around, but most of the time we drooled over the mushrooms they were cooking. Since we weren’t members, we couldn’t sample. The neatest thing was watching them cook up the huge puffball that was foraged in the garden. If you slice it just right, you can cook it like a crepe and fill it with other mushrooms!

One of these days, I hope to go foraging with some of the people from the group. Unfortunately, this was not the year for it due to drought conditions in this part of the country. I was also just reading in the Organic Cook’s Bible that Fantôme Chocolat’s family gave me for Christmas that some varieties of mushrooms are a good indicator that wild asparagus might be growing nearby… what a yummy foraged dinner that would be!

In the mean time, enjoy the pictures from the festival! (I think I got all the captions right.)

Chicken of the Woods

I can’t remember what this one is.

Hen of the Woods

I can’t remember what this one is.

Some cooked mushrooms.

The puffball found at the garden and the subsequent slicing shots.

Back in October, I got on a kick of items I could freeze in ice cube trays to have handy to cook with. First I had a bunch of store bought vegetable broth that was going to expire. Then I made the Arugula “Pesto”. But what else? Everything started to point to Romesco.

First, it is one of those Millennium Cookbook recipes that when I have needed to make, I only need a small amount of it and am often left with a lot of leftover. Second, as I was driving to the farm to get my vegetables the day I was thinking about this, Lynne Rosetto Kasper was talking about Spanish food on the Splendid Table and took a caller question about roasting peppers and why you want to put them in a bag or closed container when you take them off the stove (it traps the steam and makes them easier to peel). Third, at the farm that day there were some gorgeous lipstick peppers so I took my pepper share as a pound and a half of lipstick peppers. And last, and probably most importantly, my stove top needed to be cleaned anyway.

Bowl of lipstick peppers from the farm.

I just learned something interesting doing the research for this entry. Traditional Romesco appears to be a roasted tomato and almond sauce with some pepper in it. The Millennium Romesco, which I have made a few times over the past few years, does not appear to be a traditional Romesco. Interesting. After encountering this in all the online recipes I saw, I even dragged out my copy of The Professional Chef (7th Edition) only to find they don’t address Romaesco at all. So… I apparently made Roasted Red Pepper Sauce? Well, on with it then!

One tasty tidbit I have picked up using the Millennium Cookbook is the braised garlic tip. Using their braised garlic recipe can actually reduce your oil usage in recipes requiring both oil and garlic (if you remember to keep it handy or have the time to make it). This recipe uses the braised garlic and does not require any oil. And since I have also recently found out that the only part of a recipe that can actually be copy righted is the instructions, I will tell you how to make it because it is awesome, not only in place of oil but as a spread on toasted pita (if you spread it on the pita before sticking it under the broiler, it will make it brown nicely too!).

First, take a few garlic bulbs and cut off about 1/2 inch of the tops.

Place the bulbs cut size down in a small baking pan with 1 cup of liquid (vegetable broth or a dry white wine). Add about a teaspoon each of fresh diced rosemary and thyme.

Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1.5 hours or until the garlic is soft and starting to brown.

Once the garlic is cool to the touch, squeeze to cloves out of the bulb. You can store it in the refrigerator for about a week.

You need to make this in order to make the Millennium Romesco. You also get to roast a pepper, or in my case, a lot of them since I made a bunch of this sauce to keep in the freezer. And, since I never get tired of the pictures, here are some pictures of the peppers roasting.