tylik

(Note, this is Pasta Primavera not because it fits the general tradition of such a recipe, but because it is a pasta dish that is a celebration of Spring. Particularly spring at the farmer's market this morning. The sauce is something of a mock alfredo, and owes something to phaedra_lari's)

Pasta Primavera

Vegan, gluten free

one bunch ramps, chopped (probably about two cups. yes, that's a lot of ramps. OMG, the tastey.)
1/2 pound blue oyster mushrooms, chopped
a really big double handful of kale sprouts, including buds (kale sprouts here denoting early spring sprouts off of last winter's kale, not sprouted kale seeds), chopped
1/4 pound pea sprouts (meaning very young pea vines - other tender pea vines should work just fine)
cashew cream - 1/2 c cashews blended with 3/4 c water until creamy
white wine
1 T kuzu root starch in a few T water
3-4 T nutritional yeast
pasta (I used one package Tinkyada brown rice pasta with rice bran - most awesome gluten free pasta ever, and a house staple even though neither of us particularly avoid gluten)
olive oil
salt and pepper, or, not

Do all the chopping ahead of time. In fact, just get everything ready to go - cooking is quick, and you don't want to overcook those lovely fresh spring greens.

Start water boiling for pasta.

Sautee ramps and mushrooms in olive oil over medium high heat for a few minutes. Add kale, sautee until kale is wilted. (Again, these are new sprouts, and fairly delicate). Add cashew cream, bring to simmer. Somewhere in here, the water will boil - add pasta. Add a couple of good glugs of white wine. Stir. (Though I think next time I'll add a little less white wine and a bit of lemon juice just at the end - brighter flavor.) Add kuzu root starch and the nutritional yeast, stir some more. Just as it's thickening, fold in the pea sprouts. Drain the pasta, and fold that in too. Add salt and pepper to taste.

As with most of my recipes, the ingredients are all about what I happened to have. Substitution is encouraged - pay attention to relative cooking times, though. For people without ramps (this was actually my first experience with ramps, having heard about them for years) I'd probably recommend garlic greens, or garlic chives. For people who eat dairy, a nice fresh organic cream would probably be great - and then one could use parmesean as well. (Though I'd still keep it a relatively light cream sauce.)

I really should be writing more about food. Especially since even though I've been sick and tired a lot, I've done some reasonable cooking.

Yesterday there were a bunch of reduced organic tomatoes and red bell peppers at the co-op, so I brought them home and made red-lentil yellow potato soup. Last night was particularly windy and kind of chill, so it seemed like a good soup night.

(Recipe: Brown an onion in a little olive oil. Add a bunch -- maybe a cup and a half? -- of dry red lentils, lightly brown them as well. Add 2-3 cups chopped tomatoes, and a few cups of water. Simmer until the lentils begin to soften. Add to this some fenugreek and Aleppo pepper, a chopped red bell pepper, a couple of chopped zucchini, a few stalks of celery, and four yellow finn potatoes (the latter two also chopped). Simmer until the potatoes are cooked and creamy (but not falling apart), add a bit of salt and you're done. See? Barely counts as a recipe.)

I noticed today that the spiced pumpkin butter I'd picked up had a rather jelly like consistency. So I added a spoonful of it to hot chocolate, in which it dissolved obligingly. This was a very good idea.

Also, the co-op has starting carrying Just Tomatoes' "Just Veggies". Which is to say crispy dehydrated vegetables. I used to buy these for backpacking (a lot of flavor for very little weight, and nutritionally useful, too.) But now I'm eating them as snack food. They are addictive. K and I are looking at splitting a six pound bag of them.

( DIY Microwave Popcorn )

( My favorite smoothie )

This is my standard part fresh ground rye risen with a levain bread.

stolen_tea asked for the recipe, and I'm attaching it as I wrote it to him, not all prettied up into something more formal.
( Daily Bread )

This possibly shouldn't be a food project post, because it isn't quick, but I'm way behind on food posts, and most of my cooking recently has been pretty utilitarian (or standbys that I've posted before). And it's good. ( sprouted wheat bread )

My kitchen taunts me... What's the trick to moving from "can cook a couple things" to "can cook enough to stay healthy"?

I don't think there is a single trick, but here are some tricks that have helped me:
( Read more... )

What's a good recipe for root salad?

Any roots in particular? My favorite one that comes to mind is very simple:

Take a bunch of beets. Roast them. Slip them out of their skins, chop into bite sized pieces, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.

I tend to roast the roots in this sort of thing, but that might be in part an artifact of having lived for many years with the brick oven. Carrots, parsnips, onions, jerusalem artichokes and beets respond well to that. Turnips probably do too, though I haven't tried them. I usually like bright, acidic dressing to contrast with the earthy tones of the roots. Lemon juice is probably my favorite, but vinegars could work. Hmm... a little ginger could go well in either base... or finely chopped lemongrass and a little mint, or horseradish. Oh, now I'm hungry.

What is the most important thing?

Goodness, I thought I was starting to sound pompous in the previous replies...

I think I shall be somewhat tautological, and say that it is find one's own sense of meaning. I don't believe that there is anything like absolute or objective importance, just as there is not absolute or objective meaning. Importance, like meaning, is something that we create. And therefore at the end we must find answers to these things ourselves.

That all having been said, one of the things that is interesting about meaning is that not only do we create it, but having found meaning in something we can describe it, and if we do a good enough job, and strike some kind of chord in other people, we can pass it around among ourselves, whether by means of art, persuasion or formulae. I don't think that meaning, being subjective, is somehow weak or worthless. And it can become something of a collective endevour. But even then it is not absolute.

Should I sell all of my books and move onto a boat?

I think the moving onto a boat sounds like a splendid idea, and it has worked very well for me. I don't know if you should sell your books or not. (Or the other, of course.) I've been cheerfully divesting myself of many of my worldly possessions, and I think there's a lot to be said for travelling lightly. But books are also very cool. Also, some boats are large, and/or cunningly arranged in terms of book storage. So the former might not require the latter (unless perhaps as a fund raiser?) Oh, my heavens, the palace of a house barge owned by my new neighbor...!

I haven't been keeping up with the food project particularly well, in part because so much of what I've been cooking seemed like a variation on things I've already posted. And really, this is a variation, too, but different enough that it entertained me.( Mango Rice )

This isn't particularly quick, but it's also not difficult... and more to the point, it provides a tastey base upon which all kinds of other dishes which are quick can be built.
( Read more... )

This is quick, and reasonably healthy, though it's unusual for me as I don't use noodles made out of refined flour much anymore. BTW, I'm currently tagging this stuff two ways -- recipes, which is for all recipes, and food project which is for food that is reasonably healthy, and quick, and/or particularly seasonable... this will also be where I stick more general discussions about cooking techniques, philosophy, or whatever.
( Read more... )

I need to post a couple of recipes, because I'm behind on my "quick and easy healthy food" project. This isn't really quick and easy healthy food (it's a little involved, and it's a rich sauce) but it was fun to make and it always cheers me up to make a dairy free version of one of my favorite recipes.
( Read more... )

( First, the basic recipe )
( A more specific recipe )
( Other variations )

I am inexplicably completely exhausted. Well, I also have just the barest beginnings of a sore throat... so I blew off a few things I meant to get done tonight to make a good dinner and get to bed early. (Early = as soon as this is posted.)

( Mushroom tofu )

( Collards )

By the way -- while a majority of people seemed to prefer having my post food stuff in my journal, several others were interested in posting in a food community. Are there people who would really prefer such a community not to start? And if so, could you tell me why? Otherwise, I'm leaning towards the community. Though I'm also lazy. Or busy. Something like that.

Another mostly for my reference post... nothing particularly special about this except the coconut milk.

Pumpkin Pie

Pie crust
2 cups pumpkin, roasted and then pureed
1 cup fairly light coconut milk
1 cup sugar
1 glug molasses
3 duck eggs
1-1.5 tbsp spices -- cinnamon (I used true cinnamon, not cassia), ginger, nutmeg, allspice, mixed as you will

Mix sugar into pumpkin. Add molasses, and then coconut milk. Mix in spices. Check to see if you like how things are tasting, adjust as needed. Beat in the duck eggs. Pour into pie shell and back at 375 for 50 minutes or until the center has risen like a souffle and just begun to set. Allow to set before eating. (Ideally, serve hot with ice cream.)

This is mostly for my reference, as I've been tweaking the recipe a bit, and think I've come up with a variation I like.

Pecan Pie

One pie crust, half baked*
1.5-2 cups pecans
3 duck eggs (four and a half hen eggs -- I'd say four big ones or five small ones)
1/2 cup sugar
5/8 cup honey + 1/8 cup molasses (okay, 3/4 cup total, one glug molasses, the rest honey)
2 tbsp melted butter (or in my case vegan shortening, or a good oil, or whatever)
1 tsp vanilla (or something like that)

Mix together sugar, honey and molasses. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in fat.

Pour pecans into pie crust. Pour everything else over them.

Bake at 375 for 50 minutes.

* I usually make a pie crust with shortening, refrigerate it so it's nice and cold, and then put it in the oven for a few minutes before putting in the pie filling. This is for a nine inch pie pan... or my smaller but much deeper pie pan.

Some years ago we had salmon chowder as the soup course at one of our Thanksgivings. I'd been wanting, you see, to incorporate salmon into the meal. Salmon was probably served at the first Thansgiving (not that I'm really interested in a strong connected with that) and more to the point is about as thoroughly northwest as you can get. And I like salmon.

The chowder was a great success, and I never served it at Thanksgiving again. The problem is that it is a rich, creamy wonderful soup, that really goes well with the bread we served with the first course. People at multiple servings of chowder. And then they were done. With turkey, lamb, stuffing, potatoes, and dozen other things yet to come. So, it's great chowder, but a lousy first course.

Not sure when next I'll be making this. I've made it a few times for Yule (I usually make a couple of vats of soup and lots of bread for Yule) but being off dairy does kind of take the fun out of it for me... (And while I eat fish, I don't eat it all the time.)

Salmon Chowder

A generous double handful of potatoes (yellow potatoes are my favorite)
Several stalks celery
An onion or two
1/2 to 1 head garlic
salmon (I usually pick up a decent sized filet and cut it into bite sized chunks)
whiskey
cream
roux (optional)
salt and pepper

Put potatoes in a pot, cover with water, simmer until they're just thinking about getting tender. Add onions, celery and garlic increase water if necessary, cook until tender.
Add salmon, and add a generous glug of whiskey. Simmer until the salmon is cooked, which is to say only a couple of minutes.
Add cream. More or less to taste, but hey, this is the tastey part, right?
Add a roux (or some Wondra...) if you'd like to thicken the soup.
Salt and pepper to taste.

I promised to post the borscht recipe from last night... a few explanatory notes first, though. This isn't a traditional family recipe. As far as I remember, I never had borscht as a child. I'd eaten it as a college student, though, and both enjoyed it in the simple straightforward happy tummy sense, and in the somewhat more abstracted good local seasonal food sense. It is all about late autumn or winter.

I liked having a soup course with Thanksgiving. I mean, hey, it's late November, don't you want soup? Maybe it's just me... So we tried a few different things. The tortilla soup was awfully tastey, though indifferently to non- seasonal. The salmon chowder... well, that's another story. Maybe I'll post that recipe next.

Anyhow, eventually I came around to trying borscht for Thanksgiving, and that really works for me. I mean, culinarily, seasonally, nutritionally... good stuff.

Borscht of no particular lineage

One bunch beets*, chopped into cm cubes
One to two onions, similarly chopped
One leek, chopped against the grain (optional, but I like leeks)
Half a large red cabbage, or all of a small one, chopped
One good sized bunch of carrots, also chopped.
Some vinegar
Salt

Put all the vegetables except for the cabbage into a pot and just barely cover with water. Heat to a gentle boil.
Add the cabbage a double handful at a time. Mix in carefully -- it will shrink a lot as it gets cooked, so don't worry if it doesn't seem to fit at first.
Cover, and simmer for at least an hour (two is also fine, borscht is sturdy stuff)
When all the vegetables are tender, and everything is beet colored, add a glug or so of red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar, or whatever you have on hand) and salt to taste.

This is traditionally served with a dollop of sour cream. (I don't do dairy, however, and I think it's just fine without.)

* If you have the beet greens, they also can be chopped and added into the borscht. Ours from last night were so ravishing that we sautee'd some garlic in a little olive oil, threw in the beat greens, and then a little red wine and had them as an afternoon snack.

Having just typed this up in

taxqueen's journal, I figure I should also post it here. This is the stuffing I grew up with, via my granpa (the one who is not actually a blood relative, but the only grandparent I really knew) who was from Alabama. Also contained within are notes about some of my more frequent modifications.

Amounts are approximate, because I never measured anything to make this. Though I think ending up with 2 parts bread and cornbread to one part everything else (three to one would also work) wouldn't be a bad rule of thumb.

Someday I really would like to try a New England Oyster stuffing, and an Itallian sausage stuffing... (Er, except the not eating meat part of things. And even then probably not on the same day.)

My Grampa's Cornbread Stuffin'

A whole bunch of cornbread, broken or cut into reasonable sized pieces
A bunch of wheat bread, also cut into pieces (I use a nice heavy peasant bread, the kind I make all the time)
A bunch of onions, chopped
A bunch of celery, chopped
A metric fuckton of mushrooms (he used button mushrooms, and probably just a plain old-fashioned ton of them, I usually use button mushrooms and boletes, but then I often have fresh boletesaround now) sautee'd in lots of butter (I use olive oil, and probablyless of it than grandpa did of butter)
A bunch of chestnuts, roasted, peeled, and coarsely crushed (not in grandpa's recipe, but I like them)
Some jerusalem artichokes, julienned (also not in grandpa's recipe, but they go well with the chesnuts)
A bunch of fresh garlic, pressed (optionally, about five times as much garlic, sautee'd with the mushrooms to tame it a bit -- don't remember if grandpa did it this way)
Broth(traditionally all the giblets were simmered with a halved yellow onionwith its skin left on to make this broth, and maybe a bay leaf or somepeppercorns, and salt)

Mix everything but the broth in a big bowl (I used a lobster pot, mostly) most particularly make sure you get every drop of butter from the mushrooms
Add salt, and then some broth (and toss the stuffing) and repeat until everything is slightly damp but not soggy and about the right level of saltiness (if theTurkey has been brined, cut *way* back on the salt)
Stuff Turkey

For dressing, follow all steps as described above except for the stuffingof the turkey. Put stuffing in a clay pot. Pour melted butter (or not, but grandpa did) over the top, and ladle a fair bit more broth over thewhole thing. Cover and bake.

Had a great weekend. Particularly in the hanging out with cool people, eating good food, practicing martial arts and shooting guns aspects. Need to cook more of the wonderful vegetables I have in the fridge. (I usually have a lot of veggies, but I'm at higher than even my normal levels... Even after the immense bowl of scrambled okra. I was already pretty much stocked up, but the giant bag of green beans just looked too good, and the organic eggplants, and the cute little zucchini... More okra for lunch, I think, and green beans and bamboo shoots in a fermented bean sauce tonight...)

BTW, a quick recipe, which was a dry run for Thanksgiving:

Salmon filet with a Hazelnut Crust:

Mix 2 Tbsp red wine into 3/8 cup honey. (1 part wine to three parts honey, adjust as need if you have a much bigger or smaller fish.)
Add a couple of tsp Aleppo pepper*

Place the salmon in an appropriate baking pan. Spoon or ladle the honey wine mixture over it, until the surface is thickly coated.

Sprinkle crushed hazelnuts over the surface of the salmon, until well coated.

Bake. (Time depends on the size and thickness of your fish.)

The idea here is that you need something wet and sticky for the nuts to adhere to, so you can use many other things to good effect. I was originally thinking something like apple jelly... but I didn't have any, and I have a dispositional weakness for using honey in recipes. (And a general weakness for Aleppo peppers.) I find myself thinking about what other things need nut crusts... thick slices of eggplant? Squash? Some kind of mushroom loaf? Hmmm...

* Aleppo pepper are a ground pepper preparation from Syria (as you might guess). It is sweet and just a bit hot. The peppers are ground with salt, and the resultant mixture is dark red, oily and a bit sticky -- not really a powder at all. I'd picked some up when I was in Turkey, and later discovered (to my relief!) that they were carried by World Spice. And then World Spice was unable to get any for some years after 9-11. They've only recently become available again. (Though in the mean time one could sometimes buy it from the Souk, upstairs in the market. The quality wasn't quite as good, but still pretty decent.)

( body log )

Because I've been promising to post this for a while...

Saute one half cup chopped shallots* in olive oil until just begining to brown.
Add 1 pound or two of birch boletes** continue to saute until everything is browned and begins to stick
Deglaze pan with a goodly dollop of cream sherry
Add about a quarter cup of water, and 2-3 tablespoons of cashew butter***. The cashew butter should melt into the water as it heats. Add more water as needed until a smooth creamy sauce is produced.
Add salt to taste, and possibly a little more cream sherry.

Serve over pasta

* Can also use some mixture of onions and garlic. And leeks probably wouldn't suck. For that matter, one could probably omit the alliums altogether and still get good results.
** Leccinum scabrum. Can also use most firm, flavorful mushrooms.
*** Or just cream, which you then cook over low heat until it thickens. I just don't eat dairy, and generally prefer to produce vegan recipes when I can.

jinasphinx and her consort, J, were over for dinner tonight. J is allergic to all alliums (onion family) which makes him particularly entertaining to cook for. (I often get lazy and rely too much on alliums to fill out the flavors of a dish.) Anyhow, made bread salad, spicy green beans with bamboo shoots, and a lentil soup that I'm tempted to call Thai-Mex Lentil soup, just because the idea is so wrong.

I really liked how the soup came out, both for a nice full bodied balance of flavors and some unusual combinations, so here's the recipe:

Soak one handful dried porcinni in warm water. Chop. (Okay, technically Leccinum scabrum, but most flavorful boletes would work just find.)
Saute porcinni in a bit of olive oil with 1-2 tsp finely minced fresh galangal
Add to the hot mixture .5-1 tsp whole coriander seeds, and a pinch of cumin, continue to stir
Add 1.5 c red lentils, continue to stir in with hot oily mixture until lentils very lightly browned (okay, the mushrooms got what little oil I used)
Add ~1.5 cup diced tomatoes (approximatly one can) and water enough to keep things moving (it's a soup)
Cover and simmer for half an hour, add water as necessary
Add ~6 medium tomatillos, chopped fine, and two medium peppers (two anaheims, one hot wax and one gypsy, whatever)
Simmer for a bit more, and salt to taste.

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tylik

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Entries tagged with recipes

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Pasta Primavera

Food

Two Silly Recipes

Daily Bread

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Answers III

Mango Rice

Beans with winter squash, tomatillos and peppers

Shiitake noodles

a vegan biryani

Spicy Green Beans (need not be spicy), theme and variations

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Pumpkin Pie

Pecan Pie

Salmon Chowder

Borscht

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Birch boletes in a Cashew Cream Sherry sauce

Fusion Lentil Soup

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