more pasta?

i don't remember when i looked at heidi's golden tomato sauce recipe, which she posted a few days ago, but i do remember my reaction - that looks good, but i'm not gonna go buy yellow tomatoes.

then i got to work, and discovered a box of golden cherry tomatoes. if i hadn't've looked at that recipe, i would've just snacked on them all day. but i saved them, thinking i'd make the sauce when i got home. that was monday. it's wednesday. i think on monday i had to make broccoli cheddar soup because i was supposed to make it sunday but my mom is way too active so we had to leave the house instead spending the day in the kitchen (my ideal sunday). and then last night i helped my new roommate move in and just didn't feel like cooking. (instead i had cheese and crackers and an artichoke for dinner. i hate artichokes but i'm trying to make myself like them. last night's was pretty good.)

anyway i made the sauce tonight. i followed the recipe exactly, using some delicious garlic my mom bought at the farmer's market in my home town, that was grown by the crazy garlic farmers who only grow garlic. crazy. it's SO GOOD.

i bought a basil plant at the grocery store last night and i've got some expensive parmiagiana reggiano, but i probably won't even use it because the sauce is so good on its own. four ingredients, and perfection.

oh, by the way - it took me awhile to figure out who left the tomatoes on my desk, but it was my boss, who doesn't like cherry tomatoes but they were in his farm share. which just made me jealous because i didn't get a farm share this year. next year! for sure.

pictures coming.

my camera sucks

so i got a new blackberry after my old one became a public health risk. but this one doesn't have a flash on the camera and takes shittier pictures.

however, i was in the mountains, and they're still pretty.

i guess i'll just have to stop cooking when it's dark outside.

pie

my mom was in town for her birthday so i baked her a pie. she wanted multi-berry pie, and frozen berries were on sale at the supermarket, so i used raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. i also bought cherries but didn't use them, so i guess i've got another pie to cook.

i got my friend's mother-in-law's lard and butter-free pie crust recipe awhile back and i haven't used anything since. (of course, she uses white flour and vegetable oil and i use whole wheat and olive.) the key, i think, is to roll out the dough between wax or parchment paper, otherwise the dough gets too dry.

here it is:

1 3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour (plus more if needed)

1 scant teaspoon sea salt

1/2 c olive oil

3 T ice water

mix, form into a ball, break in half, roll out 1/2 between wax paper, take off top sheet of paper, put pie plate over, and flip it, make sure it's all in, and then remove the other piece of wax paper and trim the edges. roll out the other half of dough so it's ready when you need it.

in the same bowl (so you do less dishes) combine 2/3 c each of:

raspberries

blueberries

blackberries

strawberries

i use frozen berries, and i don't thaw them out.

mix with 2 T cornstarch and 5 T sugar. (the berries kind of have a powdery coating.)

pour mixture into the pie plate. take one sheet of the wax paper off, and really quickly and as smoothly as possible invert it on top of the pie. press into the edges before removing wax paper, then trim and press the edges in.

bake in a 350 oven for about 40 minutes or until edges start to brown and the pie's definitely done its bubbling thing.

oh, and the pictures are of the half blueberry half strawberry pie i made. these pictures are sad because the fruit flies got to that pie before i was finished eating it!

i'm going to make a cherry pie soon.

beet risotto

i found this picture. it's pretty. from madison' book - how to cook everything vegetarian. i remember being very proud of myself for remembering every ingredient at the grocery store. yum.

pasta isn't soup? but it was served in a bowl...

the last time i was at my parents house i only got into one fight with my mom. she was trying to do something for me that i would rather do for myself - i can't even remember what. anyway, i was annoyed, and proclaimed, "I know what I want, and I take care of myself." I keep rethinking this sentence - it's so true.

yesterday I made some pasta. i used to make pasta sauce by browning tofurkey vegan bratwurst with fennel seed (and onion and peppers and whatever else), and then adding a can of tomato paste or sauce (and other spices)... but i didn't want to use anything canned (although i did buy some italian-style sausages - i did *not* feel like making sausage from scratch). i ended up just walking around the produce section picking out cheap things i like. i got some cherry tomatoes (on sale - i love august), a red onion, parsley, and 2 peppers - one green and one red (50 cents each) - and then got some black olives. last night i chopped things fairly uniformly and cooked them together(ish) and it was good... but i kept thinking to myself, "hmmm... i like this vegetable cooked this other way..."

so today i did it that way.

i roasted a whole red pepper and half a green pepper in the oven, peeled them and chopped them up. (i think i will only eat peppers that are roasted from now on.)

i cut the cherry tomatoes in half and roasted them in the same oven with the peppers. (like for the tortilla soup recipe! which were delicious.)

i caramelized half a red onion in some earth balance and olive oil, then added some whole garlic to soften it a bit before chopping it up.

i cut some pitted kalamata olives in half.

and i cut the sausage in quarters and browned it on each of three sides in my cast iron grill pan leaving pretty grill marks (and drying out the edges the way i like).

i cooked some fennel and herbes de provence and basil and cayenne in the oil after the onion was done cooking, and drizzled the pasta with hot-pepper-infused olive oil before mixing everything together.

i bought some expensive parmesan yesterday, but realized yesterday that i don't like combining tofu or seitan with cheese - there's something about it i can't get behind. so i left it out today.

and it was everything i liked, cooked how i liked it, and it was delicious.

oh, there was parsley too. and i sprinkled it with pepper. i don't think i've forgotten anything...

brocolli cheddar soup

cheddar has always been my favorite cheese. so, when i was visiting my sister and her husband in san francisco, and we stopped at costco, and they sent me to make a cheese decision, i chose the 3 yr old cheddar. which was a really really good choice. and ever since then, i've been buying cheddar, in small quantities, pretty much every time i go to the grocery store.

i probably didn't need to buy cheddar for this soup today, since i have some in my fridge already. in fact, i had 2 kinds of cheddar in my fridge - a boring kind i bought at the good-produce-no-fancy-cheese grocery store, and then some fancier stuff i bought at trader joe's. but today i also bought an $8 small brick of 2 yr old cheddar - not as good as the costco one, and not as cheap.

my philosophy on cheese in soup is that you need the one with the best flavor - when cheese is an ingredient in a larger dish, you want to have the most flavorful so that you can use less of it. and heidi only uses 2/3 cup, so i wanted to make sure it was really, really delicious.

(tortilla) soup

So, I really thought I had corn tortillas in the fridge, but probably should've checked before i left. i probably would've forgotten to buy them anyway since i forgot my grocery list.

anyway, i made tortilla soup sans tortilla. there's a story about tortilla soup. one of my favorite lunches to buy near my office is what qdoba calls "mexican gumbo" - basically a naked burrito (rice and beans in a bowl with) doused in their tortilla soup. their tortilla soup is the saltiest soup i've ever tasted. also, it tastes more canned than i'd like to admit. so. in the words of grandma sylvia "i could make better at home".

i've been intrigued by heidi's tortilla soup since i first saw it not too long ago. i followed the recipe with these basic changes:

1. i added two jalapeno peppers, chopped, with the garlic and onions. i like spice, and i love it to come from the produce and not the spice cabinet.

2. the canned tomatoes i used were the fire-roasted kind, and 1/2 of the sun-dried tomatoes i used were smoked. i thought this would add a depth of flavor, and i was right. sometimes as a vegetarian "smoked" flavored things turn me off. but this is delicious.

3. i added 2 cups of cooked brown rice and one can of black beans, to replicate the "gumbo" idea i love so much, after i blended the soup. excellent complimentary protein!

4. i didn't eat it with tortillas. it now occurs to me that i actually *do* have masa, so i could make tortillas, but standing over a hot cast iron griddle just doesn't appeal to me right now.

and, because today's the big cooking day, i have to go cook another pot of soup now!

pancakes or eggs?

i hate breakfast. i hate oatmeal. i hate cereal. i hate granola. actually, most of these things are ok, just not in the morning. i don't like anything in the morning. except espresso and soy milk.

tofu is actually something i've found i can handle in the morning. i can handle it always. tofu is one of my favorite foods because my stomach loves it. in the past, i've munched on baked tofu for breakfast - delicious, but somehow it felt wrong. not a breakfast food.

so mark bittman's recipe for tofu pancakes got me real excited. the first time i made them was a few weeks ago at my parents house. they were ok. not delicious, but ok. at the time, i kept thinking about isa/terry's recipe for revolutionary spanish omelet - my favorite of their recipes. it's basically an amazing saffrony egg-free omelet. it's delicious. and because it's mostly tofu, my stomach loves it. anyway, i combined the best of both, and made saffron tofu pancakes this morning.

1.5 lbs silken tofu (the kind that i normally thing is gross, but i keep a couple of the non-perishable packs around in case i make spanish omelet.)

1/2 c unsweetened soy milk

1/4 t saffron, crushed

big dash of cayenne pepper (mine was more like a teaspoon, which was an accident and also delicious)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour

olive oil

heat the soy milk and add the saffron, letting it rest for awhile. i love saffron. i let it rest for at least a half hour. blend everything except the olive oil in a blender or food processor. i used a hand blender. it's just easier that way. i added the flour last and stirred it in by hand.

heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and coat with a thin layer of olive oil. cook the pancakes for about for minutes on each side.

on a related note, i've finally discovered the secret of pancakes. it's patience. which i do not agree is a virtue. but, you've got to have it once in awhile.

i made home fries as well, first, in the same pan. the pan was a little hotter than it should've been for both, so i've finally realized that "medium" is actually a 3 on my little stove, not a four, as i'd previously thought. i was burning oil. it was not good. also, i used more oil than usual because the saffron omelet uses a ton of oil and is super delicious. i didn't flavor the tofu batter with olive oil, as isa/terry do, but i might the next time. and i'm pretty sure there'll be a next time.

pictures are coming.

ok, kristin, i'll keep up my stupid blog.

this blog only has one reader. but she's a hell of a devoted fan. so. safe travels. i'll do better this time, i promise.

easy as pie

earlier today i decided to make cookies. or more scones. but i lost the will before i pulled the ingredients down from the cupboards.

ten minutes later i started thinking about this delicious pie i always get before and after i go to the doctor. and then discovered the place i get it closed. and then had to make berry pie.

i didn't have any berries, but i searched the freezer and borrowed some from my roommate, who was surprised i was making pie since i didn't have the energy to make cookies. but pie is way easier than cookies.

seriously. it takes like 10 minutes to make a pie, then you just have to wait for it to bake. and cool.

here it is:

crust:

1 3/4 c whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 c olive oil

1 t salt

3 T ice-cold water

take more than half of it and roll it out between two sheets of parchment or wax paper, then throw it in a pie plate.

filling:

1 bag of frozen berries (mixed is my favorite, i had strawberries today, and some cranberries)

3 T sugar (depends on how sweet the berries are. use less than you think you need.)

3 T arrowroot powder or cornstarch or something similar.

mix it all together - with the berries still frozen - and put in the pie crust, and top.

bake for like 45 minutes or so... take it out before the crust browns. let it cool for awhile or it'll be way too runny.

if it's not sweet enough, serve with buttery bourbon sauce and soy dream (if you didn't eat it all earlier in the week...)

i forgot to take a picture before i smashed through the crust to taste it. it was prettier, i swear.

grapefruit scones!

nothing lightens the winter mood than baking and cooking with citrus.

mix:

1 1/4 c soymilk

1 T grapefruit juice

separately mix:

3 c whole wheat flour

3 T raw cane sugar

2 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/3 c olive oil

zest from 2 grapefruit

mix together, break into 2 parts and flatten a bit, then cut each in six pieces like pie.

bake 15 minutes or so at 350

now the genius:

the glaze.

unfortunately, i haven't quite perfected it. i mean, powdered sugar is on my sister's poison list - you may've noticed the scone recipe uses whole wheat flour and a small bit of cane flour and olive oil instead of... well, every other oil that is bad for you. i aspire to make glaze using just cane sugar and grapefruit juice. but i didn't have time to mess around today - it's a stressful week. there's an election on tuesday.

so some day i'll melt the sugar and then add the grapefruit juice and make a better glaze. but today i used earth balance and powdered sugar and grapefruit juice, and it's heavenly.

lentil soup

a few months ago one of my go-to lunch spots around the corner from work - which i simply called "the falafel place" - shut down. it reopened almost immediately as... a falafel place. (the old owner sold it so he could focus on soccer full time. or something. i don't quite remember.)

the new falafel place does a couple things better - they have wheat bread, for one. and pickles for falafel sandwiches, which is not standard but which i love.

the down side is their lentil soup isn't as delicious, and you get less for more money.

no problem though - last summer when i was working out of a different office and craving my stand-by lentil soup, i tried making it myself. it was easier than i thought - i actually overspiced it the first time or two, and now i've got it down to a science. the key is salt.

1. chop half an onion, throw it into a pot with about a tablespoon of olive oil, cook until tender.

2. add about a tablespoon or two of whole cumin seeds* that you've pummeled with your mortar and pestle and stir until fragrant, then

3. add a cup of red lentils and about 5 cups water.

4. cook until lentils are soft - less than 20 minutes.

5. add about a teaspoon of salt (to taste) and a quarter cup of lemon juice (to taste).

blending is optional. a little blending is nice.

* you can also add a little fenugreek, parsley, or turmeric. no more than 1/4 t of the fenugreek or turmeric, i'd say. and the cumin is the key ingredient, so make sure you've got plenty.

this pic is unfortunately of the less delicious new-falafel-place soup. it's not horible, it just makes me want to cook my own lentil soup.

the nice thing about this soup is that i almost always have all the ingredients in my cupboard/refrigerator, and it doesn't call for vegetable broth, which makes me feel good.

ice cream

sometimes you don't want to cook but you do want to curl up in bed and watch really bad television.

this is when you need buttery bourbon sauce and vanilla soy dream.

together, they totally make soup.

buttery bourbon sauce:

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c earth balance buttery sticks

1/4 of soy milk

bourbon.

melt the buttery sticks and sugar in a pan until it's blended. add the soy milk. then add bourbon to taste. i prefer at least 1/4 cup, but some people think that's overdoing it.

a batch lasts me awhile because i generally don't crave sweets, so i keep it in a jar in the fridge, and a carton of soy dream in the freezer, for emergencies.

i recommend just pouring the sauce into the carton.

i was going to make dal makhani

i was following the recipe to the best of my ability:

2.5 ounces of dried black dal i didn't have, so i used green lentils.

i boiled them until done with a big thing of ginger.

then i started reading the recipe, which called for a little cumin and a little garam masala. boring! plus it called for cream - and i don't use cream.

so. i had the lentils, i added 1/2 a can of kidney beans like it said, and then i took the leftover onion sitting on my cutting board, only partially chopped, and threw it into a saucepan with a tiny bit of oil, added some garlic, and when it was almost done cooking i threw in a bunch of this spice mix a friend gave me 2 years ago and i have no idea what it is. salty though. and has cinnamon and some kind of chili powder, for sure, but who knows what else. and i added it to the simmering beans with a tomato i had.

served over coconut rice i made last week (just brown rice cooked with coconut milk.)

then i put some of the lime creme i'm going to talk about in my other post of the day - which was freaking fantastic. way better than expected. probably even better than my actual dinner. it's just cilantro, lime juice, and yogurt, which added tartness and cilantro and cool soothing awesomeness.

kasha sauerkraut stew

three years ago, when my then-vegan sister bought me a copy of "vegan with a vengeance" for christmas, i thought i'd found heaven, and that isa was an angel sent to save us all. i mean, here it was - delicious food that happened to be vegan, instead of the then-typical recipes for "meat"loaf and "cheeze" and... other not-food grossness.

but now i'm just tired of the entire post-punk-kitchen vegan domination, and (with exceptions) my new attitude is to look at their recipes as jumping off points.

i tried the "kasha phyllo pie" from veganomicon a while back and was delighted with the filling - kasha and mushrooms, and then a middle layer of sauerkraut right from the jar. (sauerkraut is my favorite vegetable.*) but i had to wonder - why anyone would ruin such a good stew by putting it in a phyllo crust? the flakiness of the crust conflicted with the heartiness of the filling. not to mention the clashing flavors. and, the filling slid out. (i think a buckwheat pie crust may've been there.)

anyway, tonight i started with a plan to make it soup. after a long day and the knowledge of an even earlier day tomorrow - *saturday* - (and after realizing after two hours of being a bit chilly that the heat was off and it was 59 degrees in my apartment)... i decided i needed some soup.

halfway through i remembered i don't like mushrooms floating around in soup, and so i kept it thicker - i was thinking more like a stew, but kasha is almost a grain so it's more like a pilaf. and, it's delicious.

so.

1. cook an onion and a stalk of celery and a carrot in some olive oil until they brown a bit (in retrospect i would've added more carrot). add a ton of cremini mushrooms and cook until they lose their moisture.

2. add a couple teaspoons of caraway and a teaspoon of coriander and about a cup and a half of kasha and mix it around real good for a couple minutes

3. then add your liquid - i added about three cups of water and one bouillon cube (but if i had to do it over i'd throw in a half cup of dark flavorful microbrew or a red wine) and the kasha soaked it up in a flash. in fact, i almost burned it because i started writing about it before it was done cooking. i never looked to see how quickly kasha cooks. turns out, it's fast.

4. add some black pepper, and throw in about half a jar of STRAINED sauerkraut - i can't emphasize enough - the secret of good sauerkraut is controlling the acidity - the amount of liquid you let in the final recipe! too much liquid and it's gross. but, if you wash it off it doesn't have that delicious kick.

alright, i've gotta go read some tolstoy before i lose this warm russia-loving mood!

* we put together a cookbook of my grandmother's recipes about a decade ago, and the first four recipes in the "vegetables" section were all sauerkraut. and although i do love sauerkraut at least five times more than the average person, it's not my favorite vegetable. i actually can't remember what my favorite vegetable is. i'll figure it out some day.

it's just salad.

my problem with making and therefore eating salad is that it's not actually cooking - what's the fun of chopping up vegetables if when you're done chopping them you're done cooking?

anyway, someone who had mcdonalds for lunch saw me open this salad and turned up their nose at it.

fresh carrots and tomato and spinach! what could be more delicious! the whole thing made me miss my sister.

tamarind potato salad

there are a couple of weaknesses in the motto i inherited from my granma - "i could make better at home." what about indian food? and pad thai? and injera? these are all questions that threaten my very being. i mean, i've made some pretty delicious dal, and i own pretty much every spice known to man (and if i come across something i don't have i have to buy it) but i'd always rather go to an indian restaurant than make some malai kofta (although it's probably because i would NEVER cook with as much cream as i know must be in the best malai kofta.)

anyway, i finally faced my fears and pulled out the indian cookbooks my sister gave me when she was downsizing to a backpack (she's visiting the world - currently in argentina?) and made a grocery list. the first thing i tried was a recipe for potato chaat. i selected it because it looked and sounded ridiculously delicious, and it was something i had so i couldn't actually be disappointed. and i got to use the tamarind paste i've had for like a year. there were four different things to prepare, and then they were added together upon serving:
1. baby potatoes - baked until soft (i had some that i picked in september hidden in the back of the vegetable drawer)
2. tamarind paste mixed with tomato sauce and ginger and other spices, mixed into the potatoes after they bake
3. something i would definitely call generic basic salsa - onion, tomato, green chilies, to add to taste over the tamarind potatoes
4. equal parts yogurt and water, to be poured over everything right before serving.

i was pretty excited to use the tamarind. unfortunately, it wasn't fun. i poured boiling water over it. i shoved it through a sieve, getting much of the tamarind out... but... well, there's got to be a better way to get tamarind paste. i'm going to have to try again. maybe i'll do some tamarind-paste-internet-research this weekend.

the other thing i didn't like was that the chilies i used - i forget their real name - they were the long skinny ones. i was going to grab jalapenos or habaneros but i wanted to try something new. i left in the seeds which was fine, deliciously spicy, but the long skinny ones have a rough texture that i didn't like. they would probably be good if they were cooked in a soup and then removed, but they were raw in the salsa and the tough texture was unpleasant.

also, i tend to cook a ton of stuff to eat throughout the week, so i threw everything together in one bowl, which was delicious, but much grosser looking than anticipated. my mother's #1 principle of cooking is plate appeal, which is reasonable when you're serving others, but i could care less when i'm eating it myself (if i know what's in it, i don't have to see it.)

anyway, it was alright. i'm constantly in search of good mayonnaise-free potato salad, and i think i could use the basic principles of this one - tamarind and yogurt and lime juice would be a good marinade for fresh-cooked-potatoes, and then add in a tomato and a fresh jalapeno (or roasted, that'd be delicious too.) i will persevere.

or, maybe i should go back to making soup.

parsnips

the order of events in cooking is to decide what to make, buy the ingredients, and then, you know, make it. which is exactly what happened with this parsnip soup. only there was a six week gap in between the purchasing of the parsnips and cooking of the soup, mostly because i ran away to missouri before my south american vacation that gave me the stomach flu.

and all i had in the fridge was an onion and tons of parsnips. i didn't think i wanted parsnip soup - ever - because it's one of those bland blended vegetable soups that are more like baby food than deliciousness. so i opened every cookbook i own looking for the recipe that got me to buy 2 bags of parsnips. and i knew it the moment i saw it:

1. brown an onion and tons of parsnips

2. add the spices and keep browning - coriander, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne

3. add 5 cups of water and some bouillon cubes

when it's all soft, add 2/3 c soymilk and blend.

that part's boring - i mean, not too shabby on the tastebuds, but not that awesome.

this is the awesome part:

julienne 2 cloves of garlic, and cook it along with 2 teaspoons of brown mustard seeds until it just starts to brown (it'll continue to brown after you take it off the heat, so be conservative.) the recipe has the spice mixture going as the garnish, but i just mixed it all in.

the brilliance of this soup is that the mustard seeds and crispy garlic add texture as well as amazing flavor. and, parsnips are one of those vegetables whose flavor is so great they're best left alone - the simplicity of the soup really highlights the delicious parsnipness.