Potage aux Pommes de Terre et Poireaux

A la Julia Child, avec Bruschetta a la Alton Brown.

Ingredients

For soup:

• 1 leek
• 1 onion (small)
• 3 large potatoes (5 c. potatoes)
• 3 c. water
• 2 bouillon cubes
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 c. Marsala
• 2 tsp olive oil
• about 1/2 c. milk (skim)
• cheese (we used Jarlsberg)
  

For bruschetta:

• 1 small loaf French bread
• a few T. olive oil
• shallot salt

Methodology

1. Wash and cut up all the veg. Cut them fairly small.
   
2. Saute the onion and leek in olive oil until they start to brown, then deglaze the pan with Marsala. When this is done and the water is hot, add the leek and onion mixture and the potatoes.
   
3. Cover pot and let it cook for about 10 min, until the potatoes are tender.
4. Puree some of the soup with a blender or immersion blender.
5. Cut the bread into small slices on the bias and stick under the broiler. Make sure the rack is close to the top, otherwise this will take forever.
6. When the bread has started to brown, flip it and go another 1-1.5 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, brush bread with olive oil, sprinkle with shallot salt.
8. Serving suggestion: put cheese on top of soup, then put a bruschetta on top. Mmm.

Notes

• Quite successful and simple. The onions plus the shallot salt was very nice. Although I overcooked the bruschetta a little (they got a bit overly brown) they were still very tasty.
  

How to Quiche

So. The other week my pal L. dragged me to the film Julie & Julia and I wound up tracking down the original blog The Julie/Julia Project. I can't claim to be that impressed by Ms. Powell's writing - she has some odd quirks which irritate me, although she does have a unique and interesting way of writing about food that doesn't just involve writing down her recipes. A week later I am still dreaming about food (this afternoon, for example, I dreamed of avocados. Weird.) and craving quiche. Mushroom quiche, specifically, until I tracked down this recipe online and decided that mushroom and leek quiche would be the thing.

No, I don't own a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I should probably amend that someday. But my goal for the year is to master Indian cooking, not French, so maybe next year.

Quiche aux Champignons et Poireaux

Ingredients

• Two leeks (white/white-green parts only - see note)
• 6-7 biggish crimini mushrooms
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/2 T. butter
• A few T. Marsala wine
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 c. skim milk (this - more than the vegetarianism or anything - is heresy to Ms. Child. And I apologize.)
• ~1/4 c. grated Jarlesberg cheese (I hated this until very recently - like our date night to a local Scandinavian restaurant last Friday. Apparently it is no longer nasty-strong. When did that happen?)
• A crust of some sort

Methodology

1. Pre-bake the crust. If you are me and using a pre-made pie crust, don't fuck it up, by which I mean, put it far enough up the sides of the pan that it won't shrink back when you bake it.
2. Saute the leeks and mushrooms in butter. Add a splash of Marsala to deglaze the pan. When leeks and mushrooms are tender, put them into the pie crust.
3. Whisk together the milk and eggs, add a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of cheese. Pour it into the crust. Here is an important tip: if the crust has shrunk, don't add so much milk that it overflows the crust and goes back into the pie pan behind it.
4. Sprinkle the top with cheese.
   
5. Put it in an oven preheated to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes (though our oven runs hot, it actually took this long to start getting brown on top.

Notes

• I always wonder how much of the leek to cut up, so I go to about two inches below the beginning of the first leaf, where it's green-white. Cut off the roots, then slit the leek down the center as far as this point and make a second slit perpendicular to the first. Then slice up the leek to the end of the slit and put the pieces in a colander or bowl. Wash now, because leeks are like the Catholic School girls of the vegetable universe - very dirty.
  
• Was that a poor simile? I've never actually met a Catholic School girl.
  
• Maybe I've met one. And she does have a pretty kinky sex life, but she wasn't at Catholic School for long.
• The quiche was excellent. Next time I'll use port instead of Marsala because it will have a slightly stronger taste. Also more salt.
• This page is about to get all sorts of weird Google hits. Oh dear.
  

Portobello Pepper Wraps

From this recipe on Epicurious, with some alterations.

Ingredients

• 2 T. olive oil
• 3 medium sized portbello mushrooms, washed, caps and stems sliced thinly
• 1 medium sized onion, minced
  
• 1 14 1/2-ounce can stewed tomatoes (originally called for "Mexican style", evidently this doesn't exist or doesn't exist at our supermarket.)
  
• 3-4 burrito-size flour tortillas (we used smaller whole wheat ones)
  
• about 2 oz. crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (we used Montchevre)
  
• 1 large green bell pepper, roughly chopped
  
• fresh spinach leaves, about 2 cups
  

Methodology

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan or wok over medium-high to high heat until it sizzles. Drop in the mushrooms and the onion and saute for about 10 min. until tender.
2. Open the stewed tomatoes and add them (see note below). Add the bell pepper and cook for about 10 more minutes, until some of the juice has cooked off. Season with salt and pepper.
   
3. Drain pinto beans and heat in a pan with cinnamon and other spices (we used Penzy's Turkish seasoning because it is awesome.)
   
4. Heat a tortilla in a pan until pliable, about 15 seconds per side. Put in some spinach and goat cheese, add beans and veg. Roll up. You may overfill them, we did.

Notes

• We didn't drain the tomatoes, but I would suggest draining out about 1/4 - 1/2 the juice.
• Because "Mexican style" was non-existent, we went with store-brand "stewed tomatoes". They were fine.
• Bryan seasoned his with pan-fried pepperoni. He said it added crunch and salt. I felt they were delicious without. But then I would say that.
• We had a definite problem with over-filling the burritos. You probably do want large size ones. But go with whole wheat.

Three-Bean Rainbow Chili

For all your chili needs. Based on this recipe from Epicurious.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 zucchini, sliced
  
• 3 large jalapeño chilies, seeded, diced
  
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 5 cups water
• 1 26.5-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 15-ounce cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 15-oz can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15-oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 3/4 cup bulgur (cracked wheat), rinsed
  
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. salt
  

Methodology

1. Cut up the vegetables or make some other people do that. Put the olive oil, carrots, onions, jalapeno and bell peppers, and zucchini in the pot and sauté over medium-high heat until tender, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Add the spices, then the rest of the ingredients. Stir, then cover and let it boil until the bulgar is cooked, about 20 minutes.

3. Serve with cheddar cheese and/or bread.

Notes

*The original recipe said that it made 6 servings, so to feed 6 people B and I decided to multiply it by 1.5. Now it makes about 27 15 10-12 servings. If you want to cut it back down, I'd suggest cutting the black and kidney beans to one can each and taking away the smaller can of tomatoes.

*Be careful when you serve it, since it will be quite hot. Try not to burn yourself or others, it is a little embarrassing to have your cooking experiments end in injury.

*The dish was well-received by all. 0/7 on the disaster index!

Random Vegetable Curry

Does that sound like kind of an apathetic title? Because this is kind of an apathetic recipe. Luckily it was delicious.

Ingredients

• 1/2 eggplant, chopped
• 1/2 sweet potato, chopped
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 1/4 blocks baked tofu, chopped
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1 tin nuoc cot dua (coconut cream or coconut milk)
• 1 T. red Thai curry paste
• 1 T. brown sugar
• 1-2 T. soy sauce
• 1 handful spinach
  

Methodology

1. Put veg in pot with a little oil. Add coconut milk and let it simmer.

2. Add curry paste and brown sugar. After a while, add in the tofu and the chickpeas. Cover and let everything boil until the sweet potato is tender.

3. Add the soy sauce (to taste). Throw in a handful of spinach at the end and let it wilt.

4. That's it.

Notes

*This came out well. Good with toasted pita.

*About 250 calories if serving 6, if 8 about 192.

*Needs more curry paste.

Eggplant Rolls

Some recipes on here start out as “I was hungry”. Some start out as “I was bored”, or “I was tired”, or “I needed to use up a bunch of vegetables”. This one started out as a sort of combination of all of these, and turned out to be something amazing. Don’t be put off by the lengthy prep procedure; it wasn’t really very hard, and the results were worth it. Inspired by this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 zucchini
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 tin diced tomatoes (~14 oz)
• 1 large crimini mushroom
• 1/2 package frozen chopped spinach
• 1 piece baked tofu (optional)
• 2 T. feta cheese (I used fat-free feta)
• Salsa, to taste (optional)

Methodology

1. Slice eggplant into “steaks” the long way, about half an inch thick. Lay them out on a plate and salt them on both sides with sea salt, then let them sit for a while (about twenty minutes?)

2. Chop other ingredients. Heat wok with oil of choice (I use garlic oil), add garlic and sauté a little. Add onion and mushroom, wait a few minutes, then add zucchini. Season with paprika, basil, salt, and pepper.

3. After that starts to look cooked (or dry, I guess), add spinach, tofu, and tomatoes. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally.

4. Heat up a frying pan with a little oil in it. Wash off the eggplant “steaks” and blot them dry, then put in the pan. Drizzle with a little oil, season with paprika, salt, and pepper. After about 3-4 minutes, flip them and let them cook on the other side. They will become sort of pliable and soft, but they should not become mush.

5. When all the eggplant is cooked, mix the feta into the sauce. Put one piece of eggplant on a plate and top with about 1/4 cup sauce, then use your fingers or a spoon to roll it up. This is something of a delicate operation if you are really hungry.

6. Top with salsa or pasta sauce.

Notes

*Makes about enough for three people if they are not too hungry, or two if they are (which is to say, if they’re me).

*This took about 45 minutes start-to-finish, including a little time-out to clean up after a cat, yell at him, sulk, and deal with him sulking.

*Fantastic and delicious. 0/7 on the disaster index.

*Next time I will try adding either rice or chickpeas, for more texture/carbs/protein.

Cauliflower Curry

I've been feeling kind of off my game lately. In a rut, so to speak. So I thought I'd try something much different - caulflower curry, or gobi aloo (I think this is its Hindi name). This recipe is based on a number of recipes I looked up, primarily this one. That said, if you're asking where the potato which crept in came from, the answer is I'm really not sure. A lot of the other recipes (though not all of them) called for varying amounts of potato.

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized cauliflower, cut into florets
  
• ~1/2 T. garlic powder
  
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/2 tsp red cayenne pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp coriander (dry, not fresh)
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin
  
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tin diced tomatoes (large-size tin, about 14 oz.)
• 1 T. garam masala
• 1 tsp. curry powder
  
• oil
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 2/3 c. rice and 1 1/3 c. water
  

Methodology

0. Start rice.

1. Cut up cauliflower and blanch in salted water - just drop it in for a minute or two until it is a little tender. Drain.

2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir-fry the cauliflower until it starts to brown. Remove and set aside.

3. Heat half a tablespoon or so of oil in the wok and add the garlic powder, then add the onion and sauté until transparent. Add the spices except for salt, garam marsala, and curry powder, then add the tomatoes and cook for a while. The original recipe said "until the oil separates", but I just waited until it looked kind of sauce-like, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the potatoes, the cauliflower, the garam marsala, some salt, the curry powder, and the brown sugar. And keep an eye on the rice or it will burn.

5. Add about half a cup of water and cover until the potatoes are done, about 5-10 minutes. Check periodically and add more water if necessary to prevent burning.

6. Readjust spices. Serve over rice.

Notes

*A really labour-intensive recipe, and the results were...not what I'd hoped for. I had some cauliflower dumplings (I think this is what they were referred to as) at an Indian restaurant a few weeks ago, and this was not the same. That said, it was edible, and certainly not the worst thing I've ever made for myself. It seems to be growing ever-spicier in the fridge, which is kind of neat.

*5/7 on the disaster index.

*Might have been better with bread, if I'd gotten my act together and made some rotis or something instead of the rice.

Warm Cabbage and Eggplant Salad

It seems disingenuous to claim that this recipe is somehow the same as this recipe, except in the sense of "based on" like Lifetime TV Movies are "based on" true events. So let's use the term "inspired by".

Ingredients

• 1/2 head napa cabbage (bai cai)
• 1/2 eggplant
• 1/2 onion
  
• 1/2 of a 28 oz. tin diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tsp. paprika
• basil, oregano, chili powder
• 2/3 c. rice
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 2-3 clove garlic
• a drizzle of garlic oil
  
• 1/2 cube bouillon

Methodology

1. Put rice, water, one clove of garlic and bouillon in a pot over low and leave it to simmer.

2. Put a drizzle of garlic oil in the bottom of a pot, then add onion, eggplant, and cabbage. Stir until it begins to be tender. (Keep an eye on the rice). Add garlic and cook another few minutes, then pour in the tomatoes. Cover and simmer for several more minutes, then add spices, plus salt and pepper to taste.

3. When everything is done, mix rice in.

Notes

*I didn't know how this would come out well at all. It was delicious, low cal, and made enough to serve 4 or 5. Hurrah.

*0/7.

Cabbage rolls

Recipe from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1/3 napa cabbage
• 5 baby carrots
• 2 sheets nori seaweed (sushi type)
• 2 oz. baked tofu
  
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 T. black vinegar
• wasabi paste, to taste
• sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. If you are starting with a head of cabbage, cut it in half, then cut one half into thirds. Take two of the thirds (2/6 or 1/3 of the entire cabbage) and put them in your steamer (it's helpful if you don't cut the bottoms off, so they're still connected). Cut the carrots into strips and add them to the steamer. Steam until tender, about 5 minutes. Put in refrigerator for 10 minutes or so. Cut tofu into long strips.

2. Get your equipment ready, by covering the sushi rolling mat with plastic wrap, etc. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, and wasabi in a small bowl and set aside (for dipping later).

3. Put down a piece of nori and cover with the leaves of cabbage in a single layer, leaving about an inch free at one end. You will probably want to blot the cabbage with a paper towel before you put it down, as napa (bai cai) holds a lot of water. At the end towards you, about two inches in, make a row of carrot slices and baked tofu.

4. Roll the sushi tightly. If it doesn't seal, dip your fingers in water and moisten the end. Cut into sushi, as wide as you prefer your sushi to be.

Notes

*Tasted mostly like cabbage, but very good anyway. Next time perhaps I will try stir-frying or roasting the vegetables.

*Too much wasabi may give you stomach trouble. But it is delicious.

*1/7. Very easy, minimal clean up.

Korean Vegetable Stir Fry with Pasta

A lot of the recipes I post here are things I've come up with knocking around in the kitchen with veggies to use up. This one is not only not mine, but almost entirely unaltered (well, a few changes, but not many). I'm posting it here mostly to help myself keep track of it, since it was delicious.

Original from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, found here.

Ingredients

• 1/4 box (2 servings) whole wheat pasta
• 2 oz. baked Thai-style tofu (it comes pre-made with peanut sauce on it) cut into bite-sized pieces.
  
• 1 T. dark soy sauce mixed with 2 tablespoons water
• ~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 yellow summer squash and 1/2 zucchini, halved and sliced into half moons.
  
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• handful matchstick carrots
  
• one bok choy, chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon brown
  
• ~1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Methodology

1. Start water boiling and cook the pasta. I broke it in half before I cooked it. Whatever, it's pasta. When it's done, drain and set aside.

2. Mix the red ingredients and set them in a dish with the tofu. When you're done chopping the veg, cook the tofu in a large pan until brown on one side, then flip. Add in most of the sauce. After a few more minutes, remove and set aside (you can put it with the pasta); not all of the sauce had boiled away yet.

3. Add the squash, onion, zucchini, and carrots to the pan and cook for a few minutes, until they start to soften. Add the rest of the veg plus the garlic and about 1/4 c. water and cook until everything is starting to soften and the bok choy is wilting a little. Mix the green ingredients and pour over the veg, then add in the pasta and the tofu and mix it all together, stirring until everything is heated.

4. Eat while reading The Corpse in the Koryo[1] by James Church. Get small flecks of gochujang paste on the pages. Feel this is somehow appropriate.

Notes

*Needs more tofu. I only used the one piece because it was left over from the week's salads, and everything else was frozen. The baked tofu came out quite nicely, though I think regular tofu would also have been fine.

*0/7 on the disaster scale. Delicious. Also not bad for the clean-up, despite the number of dishes used - the longer veg cook time gave me time to do the dishes mid-project.

*Excellent pre-race fuel.

*[1]: Fact for the day: the word Korea comes from the name Koryo, which in turn comes from Goryeo (Goguryeo), which was the most powerful of the 3 kingdoms which ruled the area we now call Korea in the 5th century CE. Koreans call their land Chosen, the land of morning calm. (How nice does that sound? I want to visit Korea now.)

*I picked up the gochujang paste at a little Korean grocery store (on South Park street). It was fairly cheap ($4.99 for a big tub) and it keeps forever; plus, I hadn't realized until I bought it that I'd been missing the taste. 很好吃！I totally recommend hanging around Asian groceries anyway, because they tend to be family-run (and so need support), and the food is often much cheaper than at big chain stores, plus it's not just Asian food that they sell. Also they sometimes have really neat stuff (this one had radish kim chi, so I bought some of that). So let me end this by encouraging you to check out your local Asian grocery store. Yay.

Sushi Weekend

Last Saturday, with Claire in Minnesota, my brothers and I decided to have a night in. So I decided to try making sushi.

Recipes adapted from sushiday.com, a fantastic site for all your sushi needs.

Ingredients

• 2 c. Japanese sushi rice
• 2 c. water
• 8 T. rice vinegar
• 7 T (minus 1 tsp.) sugar
• 6 sheets sushi nori
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/2 cucumber, cut into strips
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• some neufchatel or cream cheese
• mung bean sprouts
• matchstick carrots
• Sushi rolling mat

Methodology

1. Cook the rice in the water. Mix the vinegar and sugar and microwave or heat on the stove until the sugar is dissolved. When rice is cooked, spread it in pans (we used pie plates) to cool and pour the vinegar/sugar mixture over it. You can stick it in the fridge if you want.

2. Put the nori on the rolling mat and place a little more than 1/2 c. of rice on the nori. Spread it out in a thin layer, leaving about a 1" strip of seaweed uncovered at the far end. At the end near you, place your selected fillings on the rice - combinations include pepper and cream cheese; avocado and cucumber; avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese; cucumber and cream cheese; mung bean sprout and carrot...you get the idea.

3. Roll the sushi away from you using the mat. Cut it into pieces. Eat it with soy sauce and wasabi.

Notes

*Mung bean sprout and carrot was the least successful combination. But they all got eaten. In fact, all the sushi was eaten, though my feeling was that this was just enough sushi for 3 people.

*This looks intimidating, but it's actually really easy.

*1/7 on the disaster scale (points docked for the absurd amount of leftovers I had to deal with afterwards - not leftover sushi, just leftover avocado, pepper, cucumber, and what have you. I am a little nonplussed about that.)

Vegetable and White Bean Soup, or As You Like It

A typical sort of end-of-the-week soup.

Ingredients

• 1 head broccoli, chopped into florets, stem peeled and chopped
• 1 summer squash, halved and chopped
• 1/2 sweet potato, chopped
• a handful of baby carrots, chopped
  
• 1/4 green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 mushrooms (crimini), halved and sliced or quartered
• 1 15-oz. tin canellini beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 2.25 bouillon cubes
• ~4 c. water
• 1.5 tsp garam marsala
• about 1 tsp chopped garlic
  
• chili powder and cayenne pepper, salt and pepper
  

Methodology

1. Put water in a pot with bouillon and some garlic. Bring water to a boil and put in sweet potato, broccoli, and carrots. Let them boil until somewhat tender and add beans, mushrooms, bell pepper, and squash.

2. Add seasoning and taste. When sweet potatoes are cooked, the whole thing is pretty much done. Serve with toast.

Notes

*Eating this directly after a 6-mile run, I was so hungry I burned my tongue. The soup was good, but nothing fantastic - certainly not really anything to blog about. But today, eating the leftovers for lunch, I find that it has become a fantastic, spicy dish. The beans start to disintegrate and thicken the broth. So I recommend making this a day ahead. Also it uses a minimal number of pots and there's not much clean-up. Hurrah.

*Can probably be done with whatever veg you have lying around - I'd recommend bak choi, maybe some spinach. Tomatoes might be nice, too. I didn't have any.

*3/7 on the disaster scale.

Chinese Peanut Noodles with Gingered Vegetables

I've had China on my mind lately. (Claire pointed out that I always have China on my mind, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say I've had Chinese food on my mind.) This recipe isn't really Chinese, or at least it's not like anything I had in China, but it is delicious. Get your mates to help you cut stuff up, because it takes forever.

Adapted from here.

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce:

• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
  
• 2 to 3 tbsp stock
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp chili oil

Noodles recipe:

• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 8 ounces broccoli, tops cut into florets, stems peeled, cut into
  thin strips
• a bunch of small carrots cut into matchsticks
  
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 medium zucchini
• 1/ medium size summer squash
  
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
  
• 10 ounces Chinese tofu
  
• ~ 8 oz. buckwheat noodles (soba, e.g.)
• 1 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts

Tofu marinade

• 1 T. soy sauce
• 2 T. water
• 1/2 T. garlic oil

Methodology

1. Make tofu marinade in shallow dish. Blot tofu dry, slice into 1/2" thick "steaks" and put in marinade. Set aside. Make peanut sauce and set aside. Put water on to boil. Chop veggies.

2. Cook the tofu until brown, then flip and brown the other side. Set aside, retaining marinade. Put the ginger in the wok with about 1 T. of sesame oil. After a few minutes, add the broccoli and carrots and stir fry until almost cooked. Add the other veg, the cooking wine, and the tofu marinade. When cooked, add the tofu and stir until everything is warm. Cook pasta.

3. Drain pasta and put in a bowl. Mix in the peanut sauce, then put the veg on top. Top with peanuts.

Notes

*There wasn't really enough ginger in this, despite the fact that I cut up too much. Maybe it needs to be sliced smaller? I guess I chopped it kind of roughly. But the peanut sauce was extremely delicious and made up for the lack of ginger.

*It could use more chili oil or maybe some hot pepper. Something to give it a little more of a kick.

*2/7. Also it used a lot of dishes. Oh man.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Good for the vegetarians, too...bless them... (Gordon Ramsay)

I came home from work an hour later than usual. The cats were in a strop, and I'd missed my afternoon snack, so I was about ready to kill something with my bare hands for sustenance. Plus it was a lovely day out, and a very primal part of my brain was insisting that I should go out for a jog right the hell now.

What can you make in a hurry which is also very delicious? Broccoli soup! Recipe from Gordan Ramsey[1].

Ingredients

• 2 small heads of broccoli, chopped into florets
• 1 small baby bok choy, chopped
• water
• seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder)

Methodology

1. Boil water. Put in broccoli and bok choy, season, and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

2. When tender, put in the blender or cuisinart with a cup or two of the water you boiled it in and blend until smooth. Add more seasonings (about 1-2 tsp salt and pepper, 1/2 T garlic powder, a bit of cumin).

3. Serve with a little cheese grated on top - I used Irish Kerrygold "Dubliner" cheese, but cheddar would also be nice.

Notes

1. Gordon Ramsey has recently been in the news (well, on food blogs) because he has a new cookbook (he's been on some chat shows of late), and a show on Fox where he yells at stupid people. I haven't watched the show, but I'm in favour of yelling at stupid people. So apparently he used to have a show in the UK called "Gordon Ramsay Makes it Simple", which involved less yelling and more being adorable (see here). Anyway, I found the video of the soup on YouTube and had to try it.

2. It worked well, was super fast (I was out the door for my run by 19:00) and quite delicious. Serve with bread. 0/7.

3. Here's another Ramsay article, in case you are interested in him like I apparently am.

ETA:

4. Do not put curry powder in this dish, no matter how cool you happen to think curried broccoli soup might be. It's not a good idea.

Thai-style Ichiro's Rice

Who was Ichiro? My hypotheses aside, the rice dish that bears his name is an excellent way to use up leftover rice. And since I wanted curry, I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients

• 6 oz. tofu, marinated and cooked
• 1 baby bok choy
• 1 sweet potato
• 1/2 summer squash
• 2 dried crimini mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a trickle of oil
• 1 tin coconut milk (I used "lowfat organic", but I recommend the one that says "nuoc cot dua" or "coconut cream" for maximum goodness)
• 4 tsp. red Thai curry paste
• about 1 T. brown sugar
• about 1 T. of the marinade from the tofu (see above)
• leftover brown rice, about 3/4 c. (or however much you have)
• a sprinkling of ginger and cumin
  

Methodology

1. Heat garlic and mushrooms in a deep pan with oil (maybe a tablespoon or two, not much). When they sizzle, add the curry paste and the coconut milk. Heat until it boils, then add the veggies. Cover, stirring occasionally.

2. When the sweet potato is cooked, add in the brown sugar, the rice, and a bit of the marinade. You may also want to add some salt. Cut the "steaks" of tofu into bite-sized pieces and add those, too.

3. When everything is warm, taste and add a sprinkling of ginger and cumin. You may want to add more sugar or salt as well. It's done! Enjoy!

Notes

*I recommend serving with Sri Racha sauce and sweet chili sauce on top. If you use the lowfat coconut milk, this has very few calories. Actually, it probably doesn't have that many even if you use coconut cream. So go all out.

*0/7. This was delicious, and an excellent way to use some vegetables.

Veggies and Tofu in Brown Sauce （红烧豆腐蔬菜）

How do you tell someone you don't want to go on a date with them because they write awful poetry? What do you make for dinner after karate when you're really tired and out of sorts? When do these rhetorical questions become ridiculous?

I call this "brown sauce" because that's how it's always translated, but a closer translation is "red baked tofu and vegetables". Based on this recipe.

Ingredients

Tofu marinade

• 1/2 block tofu, cubed
• 1 T. garlic oil
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• about 1/2 tsp sri racha sauce

Vegetables etc.

• 1/2 sweet potato
• 1 summer squash
• 5 mushrooms
• 1 baby bok choy
• 3/4 c. brown rice
• 2 c. water
• a few cloves of garlic
  

Red Sauce

• 3 T. dark soy sauce
• 1 T. kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 cube bouillon
• 1 T. vermouth
• 1/2 tsp. sri racha sauce

Methodology

1. Cut up tofu and put in marinade. Cut veggies into similar sized pieces.

2. Start the rice. You can dribble in a little of the tofu marinade for flavour if you want. Heat a wok over high heat with a small amount of oil in it and drop the tofu in. Leave it to brown on one side, then flip and brown the other. You can put some of the marinade on here, too, and let it reduce, or just throw the rest away. When the tofu is done, remove it to a plate.

3. Put a bit more oil in the wok and turn the heat down slightly. Add the garlic, then the mushrooms. When they start to brown, add the bok choi, the sweet potato, and the squash. Stir fry it for a few minutes, then add about 1 c. water and cover; the water will boil, cooking the potatoes. This is especially useful if your pan is small.

4. When the sweet potatoes (the veg needing the longest time) are almost done and the water has boiled off, add the tofu and the sauce. Stir everything together and cook a while longer to let the sauce reduce some. Serve over rice.

Notes

*Good and healthy, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but while I wasn't displeased there also was nothing to make me sit up and take notice. Chinese dishes tend to use only one or two vegetables, which is frustrating for a vegetarian but tends to bring out more of the "essence" of those vegetables, as opposed to "a bunch of vegetables in a bowl".

*3.5/7. Middle of the road.

Pictures forthcoming.

Three Grain Passover Stew

Yesterday, Daniel, Claire, Sean, and I headed back to my parents' house for Seder. It was a nice meal, and then afterwards we all got food poisoning. Or possibly I got food poisoning, Daniel got the flu, Claire had a hangover, and Sean had...a migraine? Food poisoning? Who knows.

My illness began first (perhaps because I have this dumb, souped-up metabolism), and luckily this meant that I felt better first too, so by evening (and following a five mile run) I was ready to eat something. The only problem is Passover.

Luckily, I have my own take on how to keep kosher[1], and this recipe works well. It was meant to be kind of a "stash killer", using up a bunch of partial vegetables in the fridge, but I went down to the co-op and bought a whole bunch of other veggies, so that was not totally a success.

Three Grain Passover Stew

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion
• 3 large mushrooms
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 4-5 baby carrots
• 1/2 sweet potato
  
• 1/3 c. lentils
• 1/3 c. brown rice
• 1/3 c. red quinoa
• 1/2 cube bouillon
• 1 tin tomatoes (diced, 15 oz.)
  
• ~ 3 c. water

Methodology

1. Chop vegetables and throw into a medium sized pot over high heat with about a tablespoon of oil (I use garlic oil). Throw in some garlic as well, and season with chili powder and paprika, salt and pepper.

2. After a bit, put in the lentils, rice, and quinoa, the bouillion, two cups of water, and the tin of tomatoes. Stir everything together and cover. Let it boil over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water as necessary.

3. When cooked, put in a little more water and about half a teaspoon of garam marsala. Serve with buttered matzo.

Notes

1. I used to keep a really rigid sort of kashrut during Pesach, down to even high-fructose corn syrup, and all it did was give me an obnoxious superiority complex. Honestly, if you are vegetarian and do not care for eggs, Pesach can be really difficult, especially when you are running a lot (32 miles last week).

In Vietnam I ate one meal per day and kept Sephardic kosher, which-- I don't know. Generally my family keeps Sephardic kosher despite being Ashkenazim, which I think is okay. Lentils and rice are therefore acceptable in this soup, provided you feel vaguely guilty about eating them.

Anyway, my personal rules for Pesach, in case you were curious, are:

1. No bread, muffins, cookies, etc.
2. None of the five grains (wheat, oats, barley, spelt, rye).
3. Avoid as best I can corn and corn syrup. Other kitnyot like beans, rice, and lentils are okay. Peanuts are also okay.
   
4. Try to eat enough calories, because I will be really miserable if I don't.
   

Regardless of your interpretation of the rules, this recipe is Sephardic kosher and parve (depending on your bouillon, I guess).

2. This came out really full of tomatoes. It was wonderful. Be careful putting the carrots into the pot, as they roll and may try to escape from the cutting board in the wrong direction.

3. 1/7 on the disaster scale. \o/

Polenta and veggies, take II

Last time I tried this, the recipe came out so salty it was nearly inedible, so you'll probably understand when I say it took me a while to get back to the idea. But last Sunday, feeling exhausted after a long run the previous day, I wanted something delicious and easy, so I tried them again, this time with more success.

Ingredients

(for polenta)

• 1 c. yellow corn meal
• 1 tsp. salt
• a handful of raw spinach, about 1/2 c.
• 3 c. water

(for sauce)

• 1/2 zucchini
• 1/2 summer squash
• a few florets of broccoli
  
• 3-4 mushrooms, to taste
• 1/2 small onion
• 1/2 to 1 tin diced tomatoes
• a few cloves of garlic
  
• oregano, basil, chili powder, paprika

Methodology

1. Boil water, add salt. Pour in polenta, stirring constantly. There will probably be lumps. I'm sure there's a way to deal with this, but I just resign myself to it. When polenta has cooked into pudding (this is very quick), add in the spinach and stir until it's wilted. Divide into 12 muffin tins (or fewer if you want thicker cakes). Put in the fridge for about an hour.

2. Chop veggies. Put some oil in the bottom of a pot and add the garlic, then put in the onion and mushroom. Season. After a few minutes, throw in the squash, zucchini, and broccoli. When that starts looking cooked, add the tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

3. Split a polenta cake in half and warm it in the microwave. Spoon sauce over it and top with grated cheese (if desired). Eat.

Notes

*Very easy and ridiculously healthy - each polenta cake is about 40 calories, and the sauce is not much more. In fact, the main fat in this meal comes from the cheese.

*The polenta cakes keep well in the fridge for about a week, and are good with salad (I put vinegar and salsa on my salad, then leave it in the fridge at work until lunch, so it marinates), or with bottled pasta sauce if you are not feeling up to making sauce.

*You can actually make this "sauce" with any collection of veggies plus tomatoes. Experiment, it's fun. For a different twist, use whole tinned tomatoes (cut in half if you want).

*2/7 (if only I could get the lumps out of the polenta...)

Moroccan Stew

I found this on Runner's World's website. Since I had eggplant and zucchini to use up, it looked like a good bet. That said, I wouldn't call it an unqualified success; if you go look at the page I've linked to, you'll see that whoever wrote it has no idea how much stuff should actually go in - 3 cups of onion, 4 cups of zucchini? Serves 6? How much do these people eat?

On closer inspection, the photograph at the top of the article is obviously not the dish described. Maybe that should have been a warning sign, but what the hell - Runner's World is not exactly known as a source for gourmet recipes.

So I made some alterations, and then some more alterations. I'll write the ingredients list with the amount of stuff I cut up; see the notes section for more information.

Ingredients

• 1 biggish onion, chopped
  
• 2 T. garlic
  
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 9-10 baby carrots, chopped
  
• 1 large sweet potato, chopped
  
• 1 eggplant, chopped (I used 1/2 Japanese eggplant, 1/2 traditional aubergine)
  
• 3/4 zucchini, chopped
  
• 1 tin diced tomatoes
  
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1/2 cup raisins (I used a "raisins and cherries" mix)
  

Methodology

1. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a biggish pan and throw the onion in. Bring it to a boil, then add garlic and spices. Mix. Add the rest of the veggies, the tomatoes, and the chickpeas. Add the raisins.

2. Mix well and add about 1 c. water. Cover and let cook until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Serve with bread.

Notes

*Initially, this tasted like a big bowl of vegetables, and not a particularly inspiring one. There's no salt in the recipe, which makes it kind of bland. I would have said 5-6/7 on the disaster scale.

*After a couple of days in the fridge, however, this had somehow morphed and become a super delicious stew. With a pinch of salt on top and heated in the microwave, it made a great lunch at work, and probably it will be lunch today as well. 2/7.

*I have to admit that even my biggest pot wasn't big enough for the quantity of veggies I cut up. If I were doing it again, I'd use only 1/2 eggplant total, plus about 1 zucchini and a small onion. It might be worth using a smaller sweet potato, too. The spices were a good mix, but I'd add more salt earlier on. And less water; better just to keep an inch at the bottom and keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

*I'd almost recommend making this a day ahead of time.

Szechwan Eggplant and Tofu

I had some eggplant leftover from my earlier experiment with vegetable casserole, and the tofu needed to be used before it went bad or something, so I dug up this recipe for 四川茄子豆腐. It was marvelous; I wound up using a motley assortment of eggplants, which gave it some lovely different textures. Beyond that, I made only a few modifications to the original recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 12 oz package firm tofu (Chinese)
  
• 1 T. soy sauce (dark) [for tofu marinade]
  
• 2 T. water [for tofu marinade]
  
• 1/2 T. garlic oil [for tofu marinade]
  
• about 4-5 c. chopped eggplants
  
• 1 c. water plus vegetable bouillon
• 2 T. chopped garlic
• ginger, about 1/2 tsp.
  
• 1 T. vegetarian stir-fry sauce (oyster sauce)
  
• 3 T. soy sauce
  
• 2 T. rice vinegar
• 1 T. black vinegar (黑醋, can be found at Asian grocery stores)
  
• 1 tsp garlic oil
• 1 tsp kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce, found at Asian grocery stores)
• 1 tsp Sri Racha sauce or similar hot sauce
  
• about 1/2 tin tomatoes, diced
  
• 3/4 c. brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. water

Methodology

I was a little confused by the original recipe, mostly because I was rushing and not reading closely. I will try to make this clear-ish.

0. Put the rice and 2x as much water (so 3/4 c. rice + 1.5 c. water, or 1 c. rice + 2 c. water, etc.) in a pan and turn it on. Cover. It will cook on its own, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil dry - if the pan is quite wide compared to the volume of rice, you may need to add more. Don't let it boil over, either, it makes a mess.

1. Mix the soy sauce, water, and oil labeled "for tofu marinade" in a flat-ish dish. Pat the tofu dry and slice it into about 6-7 slices 1/2" thick (little tofu steaks). Dip each steak into the marinade and flip over, then put into an oiled wok[note 1] over medium heat. Do not touch them again right away - wait a couple of minutes until they are browned, then flip and cook the other side. When done, take them out and cut into about 8-10 pieces per steak. Set aside.

2. Wash and chop the eggplants [note 2]. Put in the wok with a little oil. After about a minute, add in 1 cup of water and the bouillon, then cover and leave it to cook. When it's about half done, add the garlic and the ginger, then re-cover.

3. Meanwhile, mix the stir-fry sauce, the soy sauce, the kecap manis, the oil, the Sri Racha sauce, and the vinegars. I threw everything into the same container that the tomatoes happened to be in, on the basis that vinegar is good for tomatoes [note 3] and the law of diminishing returns in dishes.

4. When the eggplant is done, add the tomatoes, the sauce mixture, and the tofu. Stir and heat until everything is warm. Serve over rice. Yay.

Notes

1. You really don't need much oil for this. Maybe a tablespoon.

2. I used 1/2 a regular aubergine, 3 small Thai eggplants, and 1/2 of a Japanese eggplant (see photo.) It came out to be about 4-5 cups of purple and green goodness; I love the different textures between the varieties.

3. I had about 1/3 tin of diced tomatoes left from the casserole, which I supplemented with about 3 whole tinned tomatoes (Asian Midway didn't have diced tinned).

4. This had an awesome flavour and I had no problems at all during the cooking process. 0/7 on the disaster scale!

5. The 1 tsp of hot sauce wasn't quite spicy enough for me (I'm a fire eater after all my time in Asia) but if I were making it for guests who are not quite so keen on the spicy, it would be a good amount for them - flavourful, but not overwhelming.