Sunday, November 18, 2007

New Cookbooks

This summer I got the new Peter Berley cookbook called Flexitarian Table. We have made about three meals out of this book and while all were successful they were all a lot of work. I am going to save this one for special Saturday night dinners for the two of us or for when we are entertaining.

This summer we went for a vacation in the Finger Lakes region. We camped in a state park and made most of our meals at the campsite. One night we ventured into Ithaca so we could try out Moosewood Restaurant. We really enjoyed our meal. I didn't have a positive recollection of their cookbooks but after the great meal we had I thought I would try again. This fall I got the Moosewood low fat cookbook because making good vegetarian food with a big hunk of cheese really doesn't count. This week I made 4 dinners from it (three vegan and one with cheese). They were all satisfying in a hearty hot dish kind of way and pretty easy to make. They did not have the elegance or beauty of the the recipes I had been following but I think they will add a nice mixture to our weekly menus. I found the Moosewood recipes did a nice job mixing in some interesting spices that made for some nice savory hot dishes.

Spinach Fettucini

There is probably some debt here to Andrea Immer who has a recipe for creamed spinach which she said you can make without the cream. I believe I was recalling that recipe when I made this up from food on hand. This served the two of us.

20 oz of bagged spinach
3 shallots, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
8 dashed red pepper flakes
fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
6 oz whole pasta
dash of olive oil
dash of sherry vinegar

Put water in pasta pot on to stove to boil. Boil one bag of spinach at a time. About a minute of boiling time. Drain, pressing out some moisture. Pile on large cutting board. When all spinach is on the board chop in 1/3 inch dice.

Saute shallot in oil in chef's pot until just browning. Add spices. Add the spinach to the shallots and add the pasta to the boiling water. Mix the spinach in well and cook off some water if necessary. When pasta is done drain and add to spinach. Toss to mix and add salt if needed.

Serve spinach pasta to plates. Drizzle each with olive oil and vinegar. I would guess it was about 1/2 tsp of olive oil and 1/4 tsp of vinegar.

We both liked this and liked it more the more we ate. I would be reluctant to serve it to others because normal people don't eat a whole bag of spinach at a meal.

What is in the pantry Chili

Here is a chili recipe I developed for what we had in the Kitchen. I think you probably do need to have the same brand beans and tomatoes for the same result.

1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 Cup bulgur wheat
2 onions, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 yellow or red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 hot pepper, seeds removed, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can 14oz Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes
1 can 14 oz Muir Glen fire roasted chopped tomatoes
1 can 14 oz Muir Glen whole tomatoes
1 can S&W black beans with liquid
1 can S&W white beans with liquid
1/2 tsp ground smoked paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 inch piece canned chipotle minced
1 tsp adobo sauce from canned chipotle

Heat oil in dutch oven. Add bulgur and cook until toasted. Add onion and shallot and cook until soft. Add peppers and cook a few minutes. Add garlic and cook one minute while stirring. Add the tomatoes and beans and bring to boil. Add spices. Adjust pan to simmer. Use a lid for thinner chili. At this point cook at least 15 minutes, adjust seasonings, serve. This is good with some corn chips.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Herbivore Sandwich - Take One

I have decided to try and develop a good herbivore sandwich. It should function like a sandwich, be good for you, and still satisfy like a meat and cheese and mayo sandwich that runs down your arm. Today is try one. This may be a year long process.

For encouragement I watched the Hungry Vegan video. See You Tube ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6N3xkDjrkk).

Today's Sandwhich - Makes 4 (serves 2)

8 slices Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Bread - Toasted
8 extra firm tofu slices - 2 oz each
10 oz baby spinach leaves
2 oz vegan mayo
1 oz hot salsa
1 garlic clove - minced
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Tbsp Mirin
1/4 cup water
1 dill pickle

Microwave spinach in covered bowl for two minutes, stir and microwave another two mintues, stir and microwave one additional minute if needed. Remove spinach to cutting board and chop well. Put spinach in strainer and press out water.

Place tofu slices in non stick pan over medium high heat and cook until browned. Flip and brown the other side. Mix soy sauce, mirin, water, and 2/3 of the garlic clove in a small bowl. When tofu is browned, add soy mixture to pan. Cook down to thick syrup flipping the tofu to keep it coated. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl mix the mayo, salsa, and remaining garlic to create sandwich dressing. Slice the dill pickle in to thin slices. Toast the bread.

Make sandwiches by spreading dressing on bread, adding 2 tofu slices, 1/4 of the spinach, more dressing, pickle slices, and dressing on top slice of bread. Enjoy with napkin at hand.

This pretty much held up as a sandwich but was a little runny with the dressing and spinach. Overall it had decent taste and texture but I was pretty hungry so may have to try again to check.






Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Another Ugly Dinner


This looked a bit like worms and chewed food on the plate but tasted pretty good. The picture is from my messy kitchen just before serving.

The green beans are from my parents garden but were getting a bit older so I picked a recipe with a longer cooking time. I used Bishop's Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes, Olives, Capers, and Basil from Vegetables Every Day (page 174).

For the green beans I followed the recipe except for I cooked the garlic in two tablespoons of red wine instead of the oil. When the liquid in the pan looked a little low I added a tablespoon of the brine from the olives.

The green beans were tasty but we knew they would be. This is a standard recipe for us. Sometimes I will double the sauce part of it and serve it with pasta with the beans on the side.

The warm broccoli salad was a creation based on what we had around.
In a large bowl I mixed:
1 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 green olives chopped
1 tablespoon of black olive brine
I boiled for about 5 minutes:
1 head of broccoli chopped in bite size pieces
In a colander I placed:
6 baby bok choy stems sliced
I poured the broccoli and water over the bok choy and let cool for a few minutes.
I mixed the vegetables into the dressing.
I then mixed in:
2 Tbsp of basil chopped
2 Tbsp of flat leaf parsley chopped

I liked this odd salad with the bitter and crunchy bok choy set against the soft broccoli. The mild tang of the vinegar went well with the Sauvignon Blanc we had with dinner. I think Matt just found it weird but I would say it has potential.

All of the herbs were from my parents garden - THANKS

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Dinner without Photos

The camera battery needed charged and I was too hungry to wait.

I tried the Chilled Tomato Soup with Shallots, Cucumbers, and Corn again from Berley's Fresh Food Fast (page 100). This time I made a half recipe and tried to just use a food mill. This didn't work and I had to dump the mess into the blender and then back to the food mill. So if you are making a whole recipe I suggest blending in two batches.

The soup was still good. I used a whole ear of corn for a half recipe and liked that. Again I didn't peel the cucumber but this one probably should have been.

I also made a side of pan grilled zucchini and summer squash. I cooked about 1.5 lbs sliced in long slabs lightly salted in 3 or 4 batches. In a separate pan I nearly caramelized a small red onion. I then returned all the squash to the pan with the onion and heated through. At the end I tossed in a small handful of chopped basil. The onion really helped this one out.

I had visions of staking these grilled slabs of squash into some sort of sculpture in the middle of my plate but I was hungry so I went for a pile next to the soup. It would have been a waste anyway since the camera was charging.

We indulged and had a little bit of bread with this meal which helped it feel more like a meal. I also had a glass of Moulin-a-Vent which while not really going with the meal is not a bad generic choice for food in general.

Monday, August 13, 2007

I finally wanted some Okra and I couldn't find it


I made the Three Sisters Stew with Okra and Leeks from Berley's Fresh Food Fast without the okra (page 105). I have never gone looking for okra so I didn't know it was hard to find. Berley notes in the intro to the recipe that you should make the recipe even if you can't find okra and I agree.


While this was cooking I made up some Spicy Summer Bean and Chickpea Salad with Harissa Vinaigrette from the same cookbook (page 125). I was planning for this to be for lunch the next day but it was so good we decided to have some with dinner. We were glad to have it also to have some variety of texture to the meal.

On the stew I left out the butter and the olive oil in the cooking and the sour cream in the garnish. This means we ate a soup of nothing but vegetables, water, and salt. It was excellent. I am going to guess it is the leeks that create the decent broth but the ripeness of the vegetables that carry it the rest of the way. If you can get the vegetables, I suggest making it tonight. In a month you may have missed your opportunity. The chopping on this is not to bad since most of the items remain large. I chopped as I cooked to save time.

On the beans I used 2 Tbsp of lemon juice instead of the 3 since I left out the olive oil. I also only used 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper. Maybe I will try a little more next time. We found that the chickpeas could use a little salt. Trimming the beans is the biggest time on this recipe.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Dinner with Jiffer


Tonight we made Jiffer eat weird food. She said it was okay.

This was menu 3 from the summer section of Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast (page 92). In the foreground is Seared Tofu with Spicy Black Beans and Mango Salsa and in the background is Chilled Avocado Soup with Lime and Jalapeño.

Avocado soup was super easy, quite unique, and pretty good. It is suggested to serve with a dollop of sour cream which we did not do. It also calls for some crispy fried tortilla strips on top. I did make these for Jiffer but I forgot to ask if she thought they added anything. This make 4 large servings. I ate the rest of the soup several days later and it was still a very pretty green. I want to try this soup again on smaller scale.

The black beans were on the bland side. Matt and I found they needed salt. The ginger smelled great when they were cooking but maybe they needed a little bit more. We used some organic black beans which are plain to start with so perhaps I would have had more success using S&W or adding some garlic and salt on my own.

The mangoes I had for the salsa where called Champagne Mangoes. Jiffer and I stood over the sink sucking every last bit off of them. These were the best mangoes I have ever had. I am glad we enjoyed them when we did because with the jalapeño in the salsa the enjoyment was not quite the same.

The recipe calls for staking the beans, tofu, and salsa on top of rice. I make a little white rice for Jiffer but Matt and I went without. The salsa was a little to spicy for me to completely enjoy. I am guessing if I had some rice that may have worked out to the right spice level.

The black beans and tofu rely on the salsa for the majority of the flavor. So anytime I have a ripe mango or two I would probably make this recipe again for me and Matt since the rest of the ingredients are pantry regulars. I don' think I will serve it to others. Thanks for trying it Jiffer.

Matt and I had an Albarino with this meal which appears to be about the right wine.

Cold Soup for Hot Weather


This week I went to an indoor produce market for most of my vegetables on Monday night called Pipkins. I had been up to Findlay Market on Saturday but it was too hot to do all my shopping. The meal we made last night was enough to tell me that Pipkins has some excellent vegetables.

We started the meal with Chilled Tomato Soup with Shallots, Cucumbers, and Corn from Berley's Fresh Food Fast (page 100). I actually used all the ingredients as listed since there was no oil and grains to try and weed out. In the herb options we went with all basil. I didn't peel the cucumber since we were using a thin skinned style.

As far as the procedure went we found that the tomatoes were too much to do in the food processor in one round. This we discovered after trying one round and getting tomato liquid all over the counter. We also found that a mesh strainer just held everything. We quickly reached for the food mill with good results. (The next time I did just try the food mill and found that you still needed some puree action prior. I was making a half recipe the second time so it fit in the blender then back through the food mill to remove the seeds.)

The results are a very tasty gazpacho like soup. The base showed off some excellent in season tomatoes and each bite was a pleasing mix of corn and basil. You really shouldn't make this soup any other time of year. I would say taste is a five and ease is a three.

We finished out the meal with some straight ahead bok choy. Started with Bishop's recipe for Braised Bok Choy with Plenty of Garlic from Vegetables Every Day (page 35). I only had 1.5 pounds from two small head so reduced the recipe accordingly. Also left out the oil and used water in place of the broth. We were quite happy to eat the bok choy but I won't be serving this simple preparation to guests. This particular batch of bok choy was low on greens. I will say taste two and prep three.

It took an hour and 25 minutes from start to table. This included some time in the middle to look up a bok choy recipe, clean up the kitchen, and enjoy some beer. We ate all the soup and all of the bok choy.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

What does a Herbivore take to a Pig Roast?

I decided on a Black Bean and Rice Salad. I don't now if there is a right answer to this question but I did learn a few things.



When cooking for a pig roast, here is what not to do:
1. Spend time going to farmers market for fresh vegetables
2. Make your own fresh vegetable broth
3. Make a double recipe (about 2 gallons)

Of course that is what I did. While the few who tried it said they liked it, I am still trying to get rid of it.

I used a recipe that I used to make 10 years ago as the base. It can be found at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/2369. I suggest checking out all the resources available at http://www.epicurious.com/ if you haven't been there.

I used brown basmati rice instead of white. I used home made vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I used lime juice instead of orange juice. I also added a little adobe sauce to kick up the spice. I only added a about a 1/4 cup total of olive oil for the whole recipe and a little bit of pumpkin seed oil.

Before I added all the rice and oil, Matt had some for lunch. I then took it to the pig roast. I then brought most of it home from the pig roast. I had some for a midnight snack. The next day I cooked up some spinach with garlic and mixed it in to a couple of servings and we had that for a late lunch. The next day I cooked up some frozen corn with garlic and mixed that into a couple of servings which we took for lunch (Matt ate his on top of a spinach salad). I took the big tub back to work to have with a lunch grill out. I looks like a little more is missing.

Hot Weather Ratatouille


It was too hot to turn the oven on and it was getting late. I opted for this easy one dish stove top recipe. It is called Tempeh Ratatouille and is in Berley's book Fresh Food Fast. He calls for oil and serving it on cracked wheat but we skipped both. I also only used half the tempeh.

I was not expecting much and found I loved it. Matt was remembering a recent Ratatouille we made from Berley's Flexitarian Table and could only say this one had potential. I really don't know what to expect from the dish so the ease and flavor won me over.

We do think more effort should be made to cook the tempeh longer but this was probably due to the lack of oil. Also this barely fit in my dutch oven so I don't know what kind of large skillet he has. I used the juice of lemon as the recipe called for but I probably should have reduced this since we didn't have the oil.

We enjoyed a very nice bottle of champagne. I was surprised to find the wine was great with the raw bits of vegetable I stole while chopping, in particular the tomatoes. It didn't do too well with the lemon juice and hot pepper in the final dish but there was not much wine left by that time anyway.

When Matt wasn't looking I used a piece of whole wheat bread to sop up the great liquid left on my plate. The picture is from half way through the meal.

We ate about half of this for dinner and took the other half for lunch the next day. I thought it made a great lunch.

Friday, August 3, 2007

The First Supper


The first day out was made much easier by the bounty of my parents' garden. We enjoyed some fresh green beans and zucchini. This one we cooked together.

For the zucchini I cut the squash in half length wise and then cut them into 1/4" slabs. I browned these in a single layer in a non-stick fry pan. This took three rounds and I just stacked them up on a plate until the end when I tossed them all back in the pan to bring them to temperature.

For the green beans we used Jack Bishop's recipe for Braised Green Beans with Soy and Sesame from Vegetables Every Day (page 173). I didn't have any stock so I just used water and added a stalk of celery while it cooked which I discarded when we served it. Instead of the sesame oil I used tahini. I left out the peanut oil and instead sauted with 2 T of water in a non-stick fry pan. At the end we removed the green beans and added a drained and rinsed can of white beans to the pan sauce as we cooked it down.

The zucchini was sweet and delicious. The green beans were great. The white beans were a bit mushy but made the meal more of a meal. The green beans were a new try and I think will become part of the repertoire. Matt did the prep on the beans and somehow this still took us an hour to make.

Double the C in Broccoli and Zucchini

We have been enjoying some vegetables from my parents' garden. Tonight we had zucchini and tomatoes from the garden augmented by broccoli and tofu from the local IGA.


For the zucchini I followed a recipe from Jack Bishop's Vegetables Every Day called Shredded Zucchini with Garlic and Herbs (page 370). I left out the olive oil completely and cooked it a little bit slower in a good non stick fry pan. Very successful.

For the broccoli I followed a recipe called Broccoli with Lime-Cumin Dressing from the same book (page 44). Again I left out the oil. I also reduced the shallot to about half since I wouldn't have the oil to mellow it. This was a good call. I also upped the lime juice to add some liquid and this was a bit to much. This one has potential.

For the tofu I followed the general directions I learned from Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. I used 12 oz of extra firm tofu cut into 8 slices. I cooked these in a dry non-stick fry pan until brown on each side. Then I added a mixture of 2 T soy sauce, 2 T mirin, 2 T lime juice, 3 T water, 1 clove garlic, and a good shot of hot sauce. Tossed the tofu and cooked down to a glaze. Probably worth going back to the source for a sauce but not bad.

Tomtoes were just sliced with a little salt ground on top.

Overall a very satisfying and quick meal. (I made it quicker by grating the zucchini and chopping the broccoli earlier in the evening). Couldn't really serve this to others and won't put this exact menu on heavy rotation. Glad to have the mellow dishes to sooth the tongue after eating the broccoli salad. These might be some good side dishes to know.

Made full recipes and had half each. With out the oil this is about 310 calories.

You have to start somewhere

Yesterday Matt and I began again on our pursuit of the healthy and sustainable diet. I mean sustainable in that we can sustain it but with an herbivore diet it also means the world can sustain it. Sustainable for us means that we can pull off the meal after work and that we enjoy eating it. I have been keeping notes on the sides of cookbooks and in a kitchen journal for years. I am going to try this blog as a way to keep them all in one place and to share with my friends and family.