Posted by Kerry Saretsky, June 25, 2009 at 6:00 PM
This is the story of the ugly duckling.
I wrote last week that I was a vegetarian growing up, and this is how it happened. One night, I was staying at my father’s house, and he had already gone to sleep. But I couldn’t. It’s as if the New York stars and moon had aligned to keep me awake to witness this seminal moment that would direct my fate for the next decade.
I was flipping through the channels, but a seven year old late at night, I couldn’t find any Gem or She-Ra to watch. Too disappointing. Oh, but I did find these adorable little animals! They were minks, and the documentary was on how they went from being these nuzzling little weasels to the coat hanging in Mémé’s closet. If you’ve seen such a program, you know how awful it is, and why it’s on very late at night: so little girls like me won’t see them, have nightmares, and go vegetarian. But that’s exactly what I did.
I scribbled down the address, and sent away for information. It arrived, with more cute weasels, and fliers to hand out around my class. What a great idea! I figured. I called my headmistress, and asked if it would be all right if I handed out some anti-fur campaign materials. My school was all-girls and old, and in a fiercely pro-suffragette mindset, allowed us girls to get carried away with our hearts. I’ve always love that about that school.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, June 17, 2009 at 4:15 PM
I realize now I have kind of a thing for Chinese five-spice powder. Its combination of spices rescues nearly everything it touches, and certainly works wonders for this Chinese Five-Spice Noodles with Broccoli recipe I found on Fresh 365. Some vegetable stir-fry recipes can feel a little too light for their own good. I'm not interested in trying to count calories; I'm in it for the flavor. Five-spice adds a depth and aromatic punch that feel downright meaty, even though this is a completely vegetarian dish.
Though the broccoli and noodles grab the title, it was actually the carrot and cabbage that steal the show. They both wilt into glorious little bits that soak up all the sauce and yet still remain slightly sweet. I scooped them up greedily in a matter of minutes—I wish I had twice as much of the both of them. That said, the broccoli and noodles are still absolutely tasty.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, June 17, 2009 at 1:00 PM
In the introduction to Seven Fires, Francis Mallmann talks about the taste of burnt. He says that adding an element dissonance to a dish makes it interesting, and that many chefs are too hung up on harmonious flavors. He uses a tomato to illustrate this point: "A burnt tomato, for example, has a dark crust bordering on bitter, while the inside is soft and gentle in texture and in taste."
This recipe for Burnt Ricotta Salata, Tomatoes, and Olives takes the harmonious combination of ingredients and adds a dissonant element by charring the cheese and chiles. While Mallmann is a fan of burnt flavors, he is careful not to take the charring too far or else it will destroy the nuances of the dish.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, June 16, 2009 at 2:45 PM
When I was a girl, I had three little girlfriends: Kristen, Sarah, and Alexandra. Alexandra’s mother was called Medusa—at least figuratively. Every time I stood quaking before her towering frame in her frigid marble kitchen, I turned to stone.
One day I was in that kitchen doing something or other innocuous. Medusa asked if I’d like a cup of soda. My mother didn't permit me to drink soda. "No," I said simply, and turned to walk away, back to the puppet show we four were preparing in the other room. She grabbed by arm, the tips of her long, bony finger capped in blood red, razor-sharp tips. She hurt me. I turned, frightened, to look up at her. "Don’t be fresh," she snarled. And let me go.
I was shocked, but, moreover, I was bewildered. I was an only child, and I did not live in a world where grownups distrusted me or required some form of obsequious obeisance. I had no idea whatsoever what fresh meant. I turned back to her and said, with innocent raised eyebrows, "I'm not!"
Suddenly, one thin, penciled eyebrow arched angrily over her right eye. She raised her right hand, and that bony-fingered, red-tipped hand, quivering hot with hatred, looked like a hot iron brand ready to strike. I was saved only by the fact that she realized just in time that I was not her child. She slowly lowered her spindly arm and exhaled, turning away in disgust. If looks could kill, I would never have lived to star in that puppet show.
I have always been confused by the word fresh. Who could have known at the age of six that fresh meant "brash and irreverent"? It just doesn't make a stitch of sense. Neither, in my opinion, did the term crème fraîche, which I learned shortly thereafter. Yes, it could mean cool cream, but it also means fresh cream. It is just as nonsensical, for it is, in fact, soured.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, June 10, 2009 at 4:30 PM
When I was complaining last week about wanting some kind of egg pie to slice up for dinner, this is exactly and precisely what I meant. Though I've written about a Spanish Tortilla on Serious Eats before, it was a baked affair that was perfectly edible, but not very authentic. This recipe for tortilla espanola from Saveur is the real deal. All I needed to do was embrace the oil.
Oil covers the potatoes and onions, which are slow cooked for about 20 minutes until they are completely tender and infused with flavor. Some oil (just under 1/2 cup) is drained off, leaving the other half inside and making this not insanely unhealthy, but still in the questionable realm. But none of that oil matters once you take a bite. If you really feel bad then just do what I did, which was take a nice two mile walk afterward to feel better about myself.
You need the oil—it miraculously makes the tortilla taste like it has both cheese and butter running through its veins, though neither comes anywhere close. Each bite is succulent. Even the oil that is drained off is genuinely delicious. Save that stuff and use it.
I'm in awe of this recipe, and ate way more than the recommended serving size. I may start running more often just to have this guy once a week.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, June 10, 2009 at 1:00 PM
If you have ever eaten Indian food, chances are that you have had saag paneer. It's one of my favorite dishes—spiced, creamy spinach with chunks of a fresh cheese known as paneer. Paneer is so mild that it can easily be mistaken for tofu, but it has a pleasantly chewy texture that reminds you that it is in fact cheese.
Paneer can be purchased or easily made at home. All you have to do is heat a gallon of whole milk until almost boiling, add the juice of a lemon or two, and remove from the heat. Stir for a bit, and the milk will separate into curds and whey. Strain through cheese cloth, weight and press for an hour or so, and you have paneer.
Monica Bhide makes a great appetizer by pairing mild, creamy paneer with a sweet and spicy chutney in her recipe for Paneer with Orange-Apricot Chutney from Modern Spice. If you cannot find fresh apricots, Bhide recommends substituting 1 1/2 cups fresh mango in its place.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, June 9, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Photograph from scaredy_kat on Flickr
Roughly 80 percent of the population of India is vegetarian, so why is a burger one of the most popular fast foods there? Well, it's not a burger in the traditional sense, it's vada pav, a potato burger. Vada pav is eaten all over western India as a snack or a quick meal on the go.
Monica Bhide provides a great recipe for making vada pav at home in her new cookbook, Modern Spice. These spiced potato patties are dressed up with two chutneys and sev, thin, salted gram flour noodles for crunch. Bhide recommends using traditional Indian pav bread if you can find it, but if you can't, plain burger buns work just fine.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, June 8, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
When you’re attempting to cook healthfully and inexpensively in the summer, odds are zucchini will make frequent appearances. Plentiful, subtly flavored, and more versatile than Meryl Streep, the summer squash can be altered dozens of different ways for dang near any dish. Curried soup and ratatouille are among my favorites, but I’ll also take it in pastas, casseroles, breads, or grilled on its own.
Recently though, I’ve found zucchini—especially grilled—goes particularly well with quinoa. Together, they create a solid, sophisticated base for other stronger flavors. Last week’s Healthy and Delicious recipe was an example of this, mixing the ingredients with lime, cilantro, and avocado for a delicate grain salad. This week, we used cannellini beans, tomatoes, toasted almonds, and Parmesan to make a heartier main course.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, June 1, 2009 at 11:40 AM
From the tiniest two-person barbecue to the most massive of community cookouts, grill season hath officially begun, folks. And while burgers and dogs may abound, it’s important not to forget our beloved vegetables. They’re healthier, cheaper, and much less likely to stain your shorts when they fall from your flimsy-ass paper plate.
This year, I inaugurated the season with Quinoa and Grilled Zucchini, a lovely, mellow grain salad from the ever-gorgeous 101 Cookbooks. The recipe combines eggs, pine nuts, goat cheese, and a subtle avocado-cilantro dressing to tasty effect, and includes a large helping of flame-broiled summer squash for texture and a char-tinged flavor. Plus, it’s not half as hard to assemble as it looks. Trust.
I did alter Heidi Swanson’s original recipe a bit to lighten the caloric load. Changes included halving the pine nuts, taking out the egg yolks, reducing the olive oil to a single tablespoon, and swapping in low-fat yogurt for the full-fat kind. All in all, it was good stuff, and those switches are reflected below.
Happy grilling season, everybody! And remember—eat your veggies.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 31, 2009 at 8:00 AM
In Tom Valenti's headnote to this recipe in his brand new, really smart and inspiring You Don't Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook, he says that his version of Eggs in Hell was inspired by a recipe he read in the legendary California chef Jeremiah Tower's first cookbook. Valenti calls for reduced-sugar ketchup for obvious reasons, but if you are not a diabetic, feel free to substitute regular ketchup (I like Heinz).
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 29, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Grilling potatoes is no easy feat. Larger potatoes I sometimes will boil first to avoid charring the outside while waiting for the middle to cook, and the smaller, new potatoes I'll cook over a two zone fire, browning them over direct heat, then moving them to the cool side of the grill to finish up. Even with practice, I often find potatoes a challenge.
Case in point, I was grilling a batch of halved new potatoes for a salad recently using the two zone method. I waited to grill them until the fire burned down to medium, but even then the spuds started to char before I could move them all over to the cool side of the grill. Luckily, the charring wasn't deep, and with the strong vinaigrette and a squeeze of lemon that dressed the salad, they didn't taste off at all. Quite the opposite actually, the light char gave the salad a unique grilled flavor that otherwise may have been lost, and all worries I had of ruining such a beautiful looking salad melted as it slowly disappeared into grateful stomachs during the meal.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, May 29, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Photograph from adactio on Flickr
I have always intrigued by Welsh rarebit. Is it really Welsh? Why does the name sound so much like rabbit? What's a rarebit anyway? I did a little poking around, and here is what I've found. Welsh rarebit was originally called Welsh rabbit. Why rabbit? Well, in eighteenth century England, rabbit was the meat you ate if you were poor, and the Welsh were so poor that they couldn't afford rabbit, so they ate cheese. Unfortunately how rabbit became rarebit remains a mystery.
Lari Robling's Welsh rarebit from Endangered Recipes is a slightly dressed up version of cheese on toast. Using the best-quality English beer and cheese you can find will turn this simple dish into something really delicious. While sliced tomatoes are the traditional accompaniment, Robling likes to serve Welsh rarebit with a creamy tomato soup.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, May 27, 2009 at 3:00 PM
The following recipe is from the May 27 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
As you can probably deduce by its name, Pensacola Gaspachee Salad is one of the more region specific recipes from Lari Robling's Endangered Recipes. According to Florida food historian Wilmer Mitchell, this salad was inspired by Spanish and Italian sailors who would make gazpacho and dip their hardtack into it. Although I've never given much thought to sailors eating gazpacho, I suppose it would do a good job of keeping scurvy away.
Somehow soup and crackers evolved into salad with crackers. In Pensacola there are dozens of variations on this salad. Robling's version is a crunchy concoction of tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and bell peppers in a slightly sour mayonnaise dressing.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, May 27, 2009 at 1:30 PM
I have never been a picky eater. Growing up, I would eat anything; raw oysters, rare steaks, brussels sprouts, lima beans, no problem. Thinking back, there is only one food that I can remember refusing to eat, and that was borscht. There was just something about it that I just couldn't get in to.
As I've gotten older, my eating has only gotten more adventurous and now borscht is one of my favorites. It's versatile, hearty, healthy, and wonderful eaten hot or cold. Lari Robling's version of borscht from Endangered Recipes uses sauerkraut in place of the traditional fresh cabbage. Her borscht is meatless, and makes for a substantial vegetarian entree. You can beef it up with the addition of beef shin or short ribs—just cook it for an extra hour or two.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 22, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Someday I'll run out of pasta combinations. I mean, I've already done an eggplant and pasta recipe. Blake's made a pasta with zucchini. But neither of us has managed to combine the two into a pasta sauce that tastes nothing like either one. It's kind of remarkable.
This recipe comes from the New York Times, and pairs sautéed zucchini and eggplant with an herb-filled tomato sauce. Both of the vegetables were leftover from a recent batch of miso soup and I think they work much better here.
I tried to figure out why that was, before I realized this is basically just a ratatouille-style sauce. Of course, this will probably taste even better in the fall when all of these vegetables are actually in season. But tomatoes out of a can, especially ones from Italy, tend to do a good job while we wait.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 15, 2009 at 4:25 PM
I was searching for new ways to use black beans and somehow I ended up in Costa Rica. Its national dish is gallo pinto, and though it doesn't sound that spectacular on its own, I figured it had to be a national dish for some reason. The only ingredient that stood in my way was Salsa Lizano, a condiment apparently prevalent in that country. It sure wasn't available at my local grocery store, and I didn't have time to search for it, so I gave up. I thought I'd have to skip making this rice-and-beans dish, but nearly half a dozen recipes I looked at all mentioned that Worcestershire sauce—though, yes, not authentic or quite perfect—would do. Really? An English condiment in a Central American dish?
It worked. I don't quite know what Salsa Lizano would have brought to the party, but Worcestershire sauce added a complex aroma and a surprising subtle sweetness. I even added more to the dish at the table, and it got even better. This is the kind of dish I adore, humble and cheap, but aggressively flavored and completely satisfying. Add some fried eggs to bulk it out, if you want to. I don't think it needs anything else. I'm going to hang on to this recipe, and, who knows, maybe I'll run into Salsa Lizano one of these days.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, May 13, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Between the miso butter and the yolk that bursts atop this mountain of asparagus, this dish is rich and filling—certainly enough for a dinner. Of course, a recipe so gluttonous would have to come from fat-loving David Chang. This recipe doesn't contain his signature touch of pork, but you certainly don't miss it.
What's so odd about this recipe is that he takes something very traditional (and admittedly delicious) like asparagus topped with an egg and transforms it with a simple ingredient. In this case it's the miso butter, which is spread out on the plate so it can coat every spear of asparagus. I used a shiromiso, which is a lighter style miso paste. It packs the dish with umami, making this about the most hedonistic plate of asparagus I've had.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, May 11, 2009 at 10:45 AM
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen.
Last week, I posted about Avocado Chicken Salad, a moist, generally delicious summertime concoction that avoids using mayonnaise for flavor or binding purposes. This week, it’s another seasonal recipe that eschews the heinousness of mayo: Lemon Basil Pasta Salad. Lovely on its own or as a base for more elaborate pasta dishes, it’s a light, inexpensive alternative to your standard starch-based picnic sides.
The recipe is adapted from Party Line with the Hearty Boys, a show hosted by Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, the inaugural winners of The Next Food Network Star. I’ve made a similar dish from Ina Garten before, but it calls for two-thirds of a cup of olive oil, along with several more preparation steps. (It’s good, though.) Dan and Steve created a simpler salad in their straightforward lemon dressing–farfalle mixture. Reviewers subsequently expanded and improved upon it, suggesting additions like artichokes, diced red pepper, mushrooms, and Parmesan, all of which should work very well. Really, your imagination is your only limit. Well, and your budget, geographic location, and allergies, if any.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 8, 2009 at 8:00 PM
On Fridays, Joshua Bousel drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
Portobellos were the mushrooms I first tried when I decided to try and conquer my 'shroom aversion years ago, with my fiancée telling me they're just like a steak. For someone who loved steak and hated mushrooms, this was possibly the furthest thing from the truth. Although I still don't think I'll ever choose a portobello burger over a real burger, mushrooms have found their way into my regular diet and grilling is one of my favorite ways of preparing them.
I decided to try a grilled stuffed portobello for dinner this week, making the mushrooms an entire meal. Spinach was mixed with Boursin cheese to create a filling worthy to be a dip on its own. The mushrooms where then stuffed and grilled over indirect heat for twenty minutes and eaten right away.
The spinach and cheese provided most of the flavor, with the mushroom providing an earthy undertone and vehicle to get the filling from plate to mouth. Although you can't go wrong with this tasty, simple combination, it was definitely more of an appetizer than meal, leaving me and my fiancée grilling hot dogs over the remaining heat to add some real meat to go with our "steaks."
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, May 1, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Editor's note: On Fridays, Joshua Bousel drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
My recent failure at grilling stuffed peppers left a lingering desire for some that could fulfill my craving. Armed with my knowledge of does not work, I've been on the lookout for a recipe that would ensure success. I came across this one for stuffed poblanos that looked like it would fit the bill while hunting for Cinco de Mayo eats.
Luckily, my instincts were correct this time around. Undercooked rice absorbs the excess moisture from the beans, sour cream, cotija cheese, tomatoes, and scallions, forming a cohesive filling when cooked that has a pleasing, creamy texture. The cheesy filling also has plays nicely with the fruity poblano, which loses what little heat it had during cooking. These have now eased my hankering stuffed peppers, and will also make a great addition to my upcoming fiesta menu.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, April 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
Unlike some ardent carnivores, who tend to dislike its texture and seeming lack of flavor, I’ve never had a problem with tofu. My friend Heather introduced me to bean curd in college, and while I rarely seek it out, we’ve always been on friendly terms.
Recently, I’ve been thinking of going vegetarian for a month (just for kicks) and would like to incorporate some tofu into my diet. There won’t be anything crazy—no tofundue or from-scratch tofurkies—but a stir-fry or two couldn’t hurt. Unfortunately, having virtually zero experience preparing the stuff, I need to get on my game.
So, Saturday night, I hit up All Recipes for the best rated, most idiot-proof tofu recipe I could find. Hot and Spicy Tofu fit the bill, not least because it was submitted by a site member named RitalinCindy. “Hey,” I thought to myself, “if RitalinCindy can do this, I should be OK.”
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Posted by Blake Royer, April 16, 2009 at 4:45 PM
The inspiration for this dinner began when I came across David Lebovitz's post about authentic French Puy lentils ("the caviar of lentils"), a wonderful pantry staple for quick sides and light meals. French green lentils (especially the certified "de Puy" variety which are grown under specific conditions) have long been my favorite lentil for their nutty flavor and the fact that they stay whole while cooking rather than dissolving into mush. What I learned reading David's post is that all French green lentils are not necessarily "de Puy," so it's worth seeking out the real deal.
The last time I cooked green lentils here they were simmered with sausages and tossed with a balsamic-based vinaigrette to form a warm salad. Lebovitz's basic recipe prepares them simply with some sauteed root vegetables and a simple vinaigrette, but he also suggests variations such as adding hazelnuts and hazelnut oil or chopped bits of good thick bacon. Taking his cue to toss them with goat cheese, I also added some leaves of baby spinach, which wilted pleasantly in the residual heat. The result was a light, economical dinner.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, April 16, 2009 at 12:45 PM
These simple pickles from The Asian Grill are served at some Chinese restaurants before the meal to whet the appetite; they're also perfect when paired with the pork patty recipe featured earlier this week in a homemade banh mi. Pickling time is determined by the thickness of your sliced vegetables; the thinner the slice, the faster the pickle.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, April 15, 2009 at 3:00 PM
The following recipe is from the April 15 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Although is isn't quite corn season, I couldn't resist posting this recipe for a corn and edamame salad with walnut-miso dressing from Corinne Trang's The Asian Grill. This salad is a perfect example of the five-flavor principle sweetness from the sweet corn, a sour note from the rice vinegar, saltiness from white miso paste, a slightly bitter note from the walnuts, and a bit of spice from a red onion.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 8, 2009 at 4:15 PM
My infatuation with vegetarian Indian cuisine continues. Tadka dal combines masoor dal (red or pink hulled lentils) with a hell of a lot of onions and spices. It doesn't quite sound like enough to make a satisfying meal, but the result is a creamy, slightly spicy stew that is astonishingly good and hard to keep from downing in just one sitting.
I found this recipe in Saveur, and my only worry was finding the right kind of lentils. I finally tracked them down in the bulk section of Whole Foods. My only previous experience with lentils has been with the green variety, which can make a mean soup when paired with pork. But I've never explored their use in Indian cuisine. It's the star of this dish, and it breaks down after 20 minutes into a fragrant, luscious puree.
The only animal product to come close to this guy is butter—lots of it. Like a whole stick. Of course, you'll need to turn that into ghee, and here is a great recipe for doing so. It does take a little time, but it is relatively painless. I've also seen ghee sold in enormous plastic bottles at a local grocery store if you can't be bothered, but I don't really see the point. You could also safely just use butter, but it certainly won't taste as gloriously nutty and fragrant.
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Posted by Grace Kang, April 8, 2009 at 3:00 PM
The following recipe is from the April 8 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Grilling sandwiches is an easy way to make a bunch of sandwiches at once. Step 1: Grill ingredients. Step 2: Place ingredients on bread. Step 3: Eat. That's the condensed version of the recipe below, but it doesn't get much harder than that. Add some fresh basil and cheese and you have a hot, crunchy, cheesy country bread capsule of springtime goodness. If you can't find Vacherin, Colicchio and Ortuzar advise substituting any good melting cheese.
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Posted by Grace Kang, April 8, 2009 at 12:45 PM
I must confess that I don't like peanut butter, nor its classic incarnation in a PBJ. It sticks to your mouth! Why would I want something to stick to the roof of my mouth like that? Yes, there's milk, but I don't want to be forced to drink milk like that. It's just not right. Anyway, don't let my slight revulsion towards peanut butter dissuade you from trying this PBJ from ' 'wichcraft.' The recipe calls for you to make your own rhubarb jelly, but there's actually very little active time. Try something new for your next PBJ and be classy-cool with homemade jelly. Just remember, jelly side up!
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, April 3, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Just add water! And tofu, and spinach, and...
The best part of this recipe is that it is essentially just based on condiments and pantry staples I always seem to have around. Mark Bittman is so good at these impossibly simple recipes that have way more flavor than they should. I pulled this one for kimchi soup with tofu and spinach from his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian while looking for comforting soup. I'm so glad I found this.
About the only ingredient I don't normally have around is the tofu, which I've been thinking about changing. My aversion to tofu is the usual diatribe that tofu doesn't have much flavor. But it does a pretty amazing job of sucking up the flavor of whatever it is dropped into. And that's no different here—these half-inch cubes of tofu become little hunks of spice and heat. I was quite taken with them.
I added spinach because I had some in the fridge, and it lent the soup a little more body. It's not completely necessary, but when you're going for a vegetarian soup you might as well go all out and make it really healthy.
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Posted by Gina DePalma, April 2, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Editor's note: On Thursdays, Babbo pastry chef Gina DePalma checks in with Seriously Italian. After a stint in Rome, she's back in the States, channeling her inner Italian spirit via recipes and intel on delicious Italian eats. Take it away, Gina!
"I was so visibly excited by it, my waiter led me into the kitchen to shake the chef’s hand and learn how to make it."
Every now and then the intrepid eater will encounter a dish that can only be described as mind-blowing. My first bite of this spaghetti, served at a bustling osteria not far from Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce, almost made my head spin right off. I was so visibly excited by it, my waiter led me into the kitchen to shake the chef’s hand and learn how to make it.
Spaghetti All’Ubriaco translates as "drunken spaghetti;" the drunk part comes from cooking the pasta in a bath of red wine. The pasta takes on a purple-brown hue and sucks up all the wine flavor, and is then finished in a pan with a bit of butter, olive oil, toasted garlic and splash of raw wine.
Man, this is good stuff. I’m talking "off the charts, eat-it-right-outta-the-pan" good, standing up, hunched over your counter—a dish you want to keep on eating until a button flies away from your midsection.
All you need to reach a similar height of ecstasy is a decent bottle or two of red wine—nothing special, just good, drinkable red wine. In Italy, this is the sort of thing you would cook with sfuso, or loose wine that is sold, fill-your-own-bottle style by the local enoteca, consortium, or vineyard. Don’t blow a bottle of riserva on this recipe, but use a wine that you would not hesitate drinking.
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Posted by Blake Royer, March 31, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Staples like beans and rice are staples for a reason. Whether Cajun-style red beans and rice, arroz con frijoles negro from Mexico, or gallo pinto from Central America, sometimes two foods just go together. Beans and rice as a dish are not only delicious and nutritious but also economical. I've gotten into the habit now of cooking a big pot of beans every weekend, which make their way into breakfast, lunch, and dinner all week, most often paired with rice.
So I was quite excited to stumble on this new-to-me variation of the pair, hailing from Caribbean/West Indian cuisine. Rather than cooked separately, as I usually go about it, the rice and beans simmer together along with coconut milk and spices. The creaminess of the coconut milk gives the dish a thick, risotto-like consistency, and it's also a big help if you're starting from canned beans, since it makes up for the lack of bean cooking liquor to keep everything saucy.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, March 30, 2009 at 11:00 AM
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us.
As the first ramps and fiddlehead ferns pop up to herald the start of spring, we wave our fond farewells to the produce that’s held us over so well during the winter. Parsnips, you were so kind. Rutabagas, you provided our dinner tables with unparalleled merriment. And brussels sprouts; though you disgusted my mother time and time again, we raise our glasses to your complexity and ability to pair well with cheese.
Of course, our saddest adieu goes out to butternut squash. Delicious and substantive, you rose like the sun to cast your wondrous orange glow upon our tongues. It is in your honor, dearest squash, that we dedicate this final root soup of the season.
And could there be a finer send off? Like all superior soups, this Roasted Butternut Squash version is complex yet simple, savory yet sweet, and healthy yet deceptively rich. Flavored by slow-roasted garlic and a Vidalia onion the size of a small planet, it’s the kind of concoction that makes you say, "Sweet Bea Arthur, I did not truly know soup until this very moment.”
So, with full bellies, open minds, and four newly-frozen Tupperware containers of this stuff, let’s get this warm weather here, already.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, March 27, 2009 at 7:45 PM
With a big move happening this weekend, and my kitchen all packed up, I wanted to make sure there was some food that didn't require the use of utensils during the endless hours of packing. Along with some leftover tzatziki, another dip with chips seemed to fit the bill, and a recipe for a roasted onion and garlic dip jumped out at me while flipping through my cookbooks as they went into boxes.
I'm a sucker for grilled onions—I love the mix of sweet, caramelized outsides, with a bit of crunch still left in the middle. This recipe called for an onion grilling method that was new to me: wrapping onion halves and garlic into foil, then nestling them directly in the coals. After 30 minutes I removed the packet, and awaiting me when I opened it were beautifully browned onions that had my mouth watering already.
The onions and garlic then took a quick spin in the food processor with some standard dip ingredients, after which I took a taste with pitas that I grilled while waiting for the onions to cool. It was good, but to my dismay, the rich onion flavor that I was expecting was little subdued. So I stuck the dip in the fridge and went back to it the next day. Overnight it transformed into the perfect balance between onions and garlic, while mixing subtly with the remaining ingredients. It has now served its purpose of keeping me happily sustained for a week without a kitchen.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 27, 2009 at 4:30 PM
This may look like a mess, but I promise it all works out in the end. After last week's adventure with polenta I couldn't wait to get back in. It was such a brilliant base for the flavors of the kale that I had this crazy idea about making a red sauce loaded with mushrooms—sort of like a vegetarian ragu. Or at least that's what I thought.
Problem was, I couldn't find an all-encompassing recipe that I liked. Most recipes for the mushroom ragu involved pouring it over grilled polenta, which I didn't feel like doing. So I cobbled together a few different sources and created this dish of polenta with mushroom ragu. The directions for the polenta came from my previous recipe and I found the ragu recipe at How Stuff Works, assuming it would be fine over the polenta. In my version of the recipe I used oyster mushrooms that I snagged from the Korean Market. They have a much different texture than cremini or button, but either would work.
Though it's not exactly authentic, it ended up working out. It's a rich, satisfying main that's not too heavy.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 25, 2009 at 5:45 PM
I've been taking baby steps into Indian cooking, focusing especially on the all-vegetarian meals. Even though I'm a happy meat-eater, these dishes really do something for me. They don't taste like they're missing anything. Basically I'm at the point where I need a good beginners' guide to Indian cooking. I realize the subject is perhaps a little too vast. But I'm approaching the jumping-off point.
I'm past the bulk curry powder and am getting into toasting spices and combing them myself. Mahanandi is a good place to start. The site doesn't try to dumb down the process, and while recipes there might look like they have a lot of ingredients, most of them are familiar vegetables and spices I also have on hand. In adapting this cauliflower recipe, I had to cut a few things out, but it certainly didn't taste like anything was missing. This simple recipe was so delicately spiced and delicious I've been thinking of it ever since I made it.
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Posted by Grace Kang, March 19, 2009 at 1:30 PM
I'm a big fan of cucumber dishes, especially in the summer. It's super refreshing and has a satisfying crunch. A cucumber dipped in some gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) is my quintessential summer snack, but oftentimes I overload on the gochujang and end up feeling hot and flushed, exactly what I don't want in the summer heat.
Enter cucumbers in black rice vinegar. With just four ingredients and ten minutes, you can have a taste of summer. It can also be used as a condiment if you mince the cucumber. If you can't find black rice vinegar in your local Asian market, cider vinegar or a mild balsamic vinegar are reasonable substitutes, but not the same. Also, watch out for black vinegar—it is not the same thing as black rice vinegar!
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Posted by Blake Royer, March 12, 2009 at 4:15 PM
Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) is a dish found all over Italy, though the type of bean and pasta shape seems to vary from region to region, town to town, kitchen to kitchen. From borlotti with tubettini, to cannelini with ditalini, the only thing everyone agrees on is that it's a dish of peasant origin and it's wonderfully filling and hearty. And rock-bottom cheap.
Technically this recipe for chickpea and pasta soup would be called pasta e ceci, but the principle behind it—legumes and pasta—is the same. The key to its success is using generous amounts of herbs, both the rosemary that's cooked into the base of the soup and the parsley to finish. Without them, the result is monochromatic brown food—hearty, but bland. I doubled the herbs and added lemon juice to the original recipe from Jamie's Italy, giving it the needed punch; even chili flakes might be welcome next time. The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 9, 2009 at 4:00 PM
I've had so many boring versions of channa masala I was little flabbergasted when I came across a version that was delicately spiced, fragrant, and worthy of the spotlight. I was up on Devon Avenue in Chicago at Uru-Swati, an incredible vegetarian Indian restaurant on the north side of the city. I wanted this dish again, but I didn't want to have to make the drive. Could I make this at home?
Sort of. Though this wasn't quite right—it wasn't nearly as thick as it should have been—I still found myself really enjoying this recipe from Recipezaar. It's aromatic and spicy, and an easy vegetarian main when paired with rice. There are better ways, I'm sure. But for ingredients I just picked off my shelf, spice rack, and bottom of my fridge, it's hard to beat.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, March 9, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us.
Historically, I’ve always despised cauliflower. On my list of Things to Avoid in Life, it was located a few notches below corneal paper cuts and just above “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something. However, my disdain’s faltered lately, thanks to a one-two punch of Ina Garten’s Cauliflower Gratin and a simple Garlic Roasted Cauliflower from Allrecipes. Both dishes made me reconsider the ivory-iest of cruciferous vegetables, which was quite the coup.
Then, last week, a Cheap Healthy Good reader had to go and suggest Curried Cauliflower Soup with Honey from a blog called Sunday Nite Dinner. She claimed it converted her boyfriend into a full-fledged caulif-lover (or at least, caulif-liker), and that it could destroy the last vestige of my hatred.
And boy, did it ever. Smooth, deep, and spicy with an unexpected touch of sweetness, the soup retained cauliflower’s distinctive flavor without making me want to hurl. I would even go so far as to call it delicious. Naturally, with little fat, lots of veggies, and few ingredients, it’s both healthy and frugal, as well. Bonus.
Ultimately, thanks to the soup, I can’t claim to hate cauliflower anymore. But Deep Blue Something? That loathing is forever.
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Posted by Blake Royer, March 5, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I recently ate a bowl of phenomenal black bean soup at Bonita in Brooklyn and I've been on the hunt for a good recipe since. The soup was rich and deep with a healthy punch of spice and a mouthwatering acidity, and topped with a fried egg. It's easy to make black bean soup if you've recently cooked a pot of black beans from dry—the bean-cooking liquor is the perfect liquid base because it has all that body and flavor. But I wanted to find something that would taste great from canned black beans for a weeknight meal.
Many Cuban recipes I found had a long list of ingredients, too many to fit the bill. In the end, I relied on a simple recipe from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Bittman purées a cup of the beans to give it that body, and relies on simple pantry ingredients like chili powder for the kick. He stirs in the spices to the sautéeing onions, building the flavor early on, and uses lime juice for the acidity. The fried egg was my own addition, which I added instead of the called-for yogurt or sour cream garnish.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 4, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Me and tofu don't have much of a history, but I'm happy that this recipe brought us a little closer. The extra-firm tofu sucks up the spicy sauce, and transforms into impressively flavorful little bites that are far from the cardboard squares I sometimes find them as. They are paired with Chinese long beans, which are very aptly named. Regular green beans could probably be substituted, but they certainly aren't as much fun. These are longer than a foot and can stand up well to the high heat of the stir fry.
The recipe is supremely healthy, and a nice respite from the feasting I did last weekend. But I'm almost more intrigued by where I found it—theCanadian Food Network, which has a few different hosts and a different website altogether. Anyway, I don't know how I got there or what rabbit hole I went down, but I'm glad I came out with this recipe.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, March 3, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Each week Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Today, a variation on potatoes and peas.
As I delve deeper into nutritious, frugal cooking, I’m looking a lot more to other countries and cuisines for inspiration. Aside from the cost and health benefits, searching beyond U.S. kitchen traditions is a good way to vary my diet and learn about different techniques. Plus, there tends to be a lot more noodles. And that’s never a bad thing.
Recent forays into Indian food have yielded some good curries as well as my beloved sweet lassis, which I prefer to all other beverages except Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale. The Mediterranean has been a source of quite a few baba ghanouj and falafel recipes, along with dip after dip after dip. There have also been Israeli egg dishes, Thai-inspired noodles, and Indonesian stews that have expanded my consciousness like so much delicious culinary acid.
African food is still new to me, though. So, when I saw a recent Kitchn post on irio, I was immediately intrigued. A Kenyan side dish consisting mainly of potatoes and green vegetables, irio is usually served with steak and gravy. To me, it looked like a fun, healthy alternative to regular mashed potatoes. Which can get a little tired, even for a pale, freckle-prone Irish girl.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, February 20, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Continuing on my rolling trend, I decided to take this method to some vegetables. I saw a photo a couple years ago of grilled eggplant rolled with goat cheese, and it has been in the back of my mind ever since. A quick search produced a delicious sounding recipe, and then it was off to grill.
After salting and washing eggplant slices, they were grilled, sprinkled with chives and thyme, then drizzled with balsamic vinegar. The recipe says this part can be done up to three days in advance, which makes these as an excellent make-ahead option, but they looked so good, there was no way I was waiting that long. The final step is to spread some goat cheese on the eggplant and roll 'em up.
The sharp goat cheese melted on the tongue perfectly with the creamy eggplant, and the herbs and vinegar added a robust flavor. Although it all worked excellent together, I have an inclination that an herb goat cheese would heighten the flavor even more, which adds another roll-up on my to-grill-again list.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 19, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Quick-cooking red lentils are a favorite for soups, going from dried-in-the-pantry to tender in 10 or 15 minutes and forming an economical, healthy base full of fiber and protein. Though my very favorite lentils are the du Puy variety (otherwise known as French green lentils), because of their subtle peppery flavor and the way they hold their shape after cooking, they also take awhile to cook. And in a soup, it's not all that important that they stay intact: the lentils that break up during cooking just add to the soup's body.
Lentils can be rather plain-tasting, so it's key to use assertive flavors when cooking them or the result will be an earthy, but plain-tasting sludge. This recipe, adapted from a Bulgarian soup a friend served me recently, relies on a shot of paprika and fresh thyme, which keep the chunky, tomato-y broth interesting. I added a little cayenne as well to raise the stakes. It's a warming soup to guiltlessly fill up on.
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Posted by Michele Humes, February 19, 2009 at 3:15 PM
In my second month of culinary school, I decided it was time to get a job in a restaurant kitchen. After much Craigslisting, I scored my very first trail—cookspeak for "work for free for a night and we'll decide whether to keep you." My potential employer was a nouveau Southern joint, since shuttered, where the tasting menu was billed as "five courses plus pie." I showed up fresh-faced and quaking in my clogs.
I was told to break down a dozen chickens, roast trays of veal bones I could hardly lift, and julienne what seemed like a whole haystack of leeks. When that was done, I was put in charge of making all the cornmeal crêpes for that night's crawfish and andouille crêpe special. Only, my nonstick crêpe pan hadn't prepared me to man a cast-iron skillet, let alone three at a time, and certainly not under every-move-you-make scrutiny.
The crêpes—after the first ten or 15 duds—turned out great. Chef just needed them an hour ago. I didn't get the job, and I couldn't even look at a cornmeal crêpe for the next year and a half.
I'm glad I've achieved closure with cornmeal crêpes, because I really missed eating them. They're a little heartier than French crêpes, much yellower, and taste distinctly tortilla-like even while retaining the classic crêpe's pliant texture. Here, I've stuffed them with mushroom ragoût and a runny fried egg, but you could use ham, or cheese, or a quick "ratatouille" of sautéed vegetables bound with crushed tomatoes. Try them for dessert, too, spread with ricotta and honey and rolled up like cigars.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, February 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Leftover bowls of oatmeal often have a sorry fate. They get hard, look even more inedible, and don't reheat well. But this unglamorous stage of oatmeal life is actually perfect for oatmeal fritters.
Roll into balls, fry them up, and watch the goo transform its humble identity. Since the wad of healthy-tasting grains needed a little bite, I made a chimichurri dipping sauce with fresh parsley, cilantro, and crushed red peppers.
This is part of my campaign to make oatmeal more accepted in the savory community.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 17, 2009 at 4:45 PM
Due to unhappy experiences with licorice at Grandmother's as a child, I've long been an anisephobic eater. I don't think I'm alone—the flavor of black licorice is distinct enough to have long spawned lovers and haters. I was, and still am, a hater. And more than that, for a long time, even foods that vaguely tasted of the stuff (like tarragon and fennel) sent me running.
That all changed when I tasted roasted fennel. It's remarkable stuff. A good shot of high, dry heat and the crisp vegetable turns seductively sweet, just as the anise flavor mellows. This recipe, adapted from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper, roasts it with a couple pinches of chili flakes, which shoots everything through with spiciness and keeps the sweetness in check. A can of tomatoes stirred in for the last ten minutes of roasting turns the whole thing into a rich pasta sauce that's full of caramelized flavor.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 16, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Although I've had some incredibly good meatless sandwiches in my life, whenever I make them at home they tend to come out overstuffed, messy, and muddled. With the meat gone, I often add too many vegetables that don't play well together. I wanted a simple veggie sandwich but still one that would make me full. I thought back to one of my favorite sandwich shops in Brooklyn to see what combinations it used. I found Brooklyn Bread's menu online and came across this simple combination.
The components perfectly play off each other—the roasted red peppers add sweetness; the mozzarella, the creaminess; the broccoli rabe, a slight bitter note; and the argula, the kick of pepper. All that's needed is a drizzle of olive oil and salt to finish it off.
Although the title is long, the ingredients are few. And if you already have roasted red peppers, then all you have to cook is the broccoli rabe. I based the cooking of the broccoli rabe on Barabara Kafka's wonderful Vegetable Love. Otherwise, it is as easy as stacking ingredients on bread.
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Posted by Michele Humes, February 16, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Eggs-any-style chilaquiles is perhaps the quintessential Almost Meatless recipe, embodying almost everything authors Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond stand for—in the kitchen, at least.
It makes the most of eggs as an inexpensive protein source; it's suitable for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; it's customizable (you can cook the eggs any way you like, and you can toast the tortillas in the oven if you don't feel like frying them), and jalapeños, garlic, and shallots provide the bold flavor often lacking in meatless dishes.
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Posted by Michele Humes, February 13, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe is a hearty vegetarian chili, rich with cocoa flavor. There's no meat to brown, and the canned beans barely take any time to cook, so it's quick and easy enough to be made on a weeknight.
While some chili recipes call for stirring cocoa powder into the braising liquid, Scharffen Berger recommends that you first toast the cocoa, along with the herbs and spices, in hot oil. This way, the chili will take on a richer color and aroma.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 5, 2009 at 4:00 PM
In the middle of summer nobody is looking for something to stick to their ribs, but on a snowy evening nothing sounds better. That's one of the nice things about winter, at least when it comes to cooking—the suitableness of soups and stews. Mainstays of an economically-minded cooking life, they are a boon for those of us trying to save a little cash. Nothing stretches longer for less money, whether it's based on legumes, cheap cuts of meat, rice, or pasta. For this reason I've been making a whole lot of bean-based soups around my house, like Cuban black bean and pasta e fagioli. This one, from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries, is one of the highlights.
For the absolute most affordable preparation, dried beans are essential, but for the sake of this column I went with canned. The result was delicious, hearty and filling but made delicate and distinct by the addition fresh tarragon. Rather than a classic start of onions and garlic, the recipe calls for scallions and carrots, which I think adds something of a twist to the usual flavors one expects from a stew. This soup is a great candidate for a stick blender or food mill, but I just smushed it a bit with a potato masher to keep it slightly chunky. A drizzle of olive oil and a twist of black pepper added some spiciness and pungency and cut through the richness.
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Posted by Blake Royer, February 3, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Brown butter with sage is almost archetypal, but the deliciousness (and simplicity of preparation) of brown butter never ceases to amaze me. The process is simply to cook butter gently in a skillet until the water in the butter has evaporated, which allows the temperature of the fat to begin rising. If there were, say, onions in the pan also, the heat would transfer to them and they would begin to caramelize—but with nothing else but the butter, it's the milk solids that begin to brown. In no time, the butter takes on marvelous depth of flavor and a mouthwatering nuttiness. It can be used in any number of sauces, but something about it is just a perfect match for the woodsy flavor of sage leaves that crisp up in the pan.
The other classic combination here is to serve brown butter with pumpkin or butternut squash ravioli. But for a quick meal, it's an unlikely candidate. I find the quality of frozen tortellini is usually pretty decent, so it's become a quick lazy dinner. Filled pasta could also be replaced with a good spaghetti or other shape. The sage leaves can be left whole, or for less unwieldy mouthfuls, sliced into strips. I like to add a splash of lemon juice to balance the richness of the brown butter, and when I'm feeling reckless, a shower of Parmesan cheese doesn't hurt.
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, January 29, 2009 at 7:02 PM
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook by Bobby Flay, with Stephanie Banyas and Sally Jackson.
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 1/2 pounds assorted mushrooms, such as cremini, shiitake, and portobello, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 ancho chiles, soaked (See Note 1)
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (8 ounces)
12 (6-inch) flour tortillas
1/4 cup cotija cheese or Romano cheese (1 ounce)
Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook until golden brown and all of their liquid has evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove the anchos from their soaking liquid, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid. Stem, seed, and finely chop the anchos and put them in a bowl. Add the reserved soaking liquid and the cheese and mix to combine.
4. Place 8 of the tortillas on a flat work surface. Divide the cheese mixture and mushrooms among the tortillas and season with salt and pepper. Stack the tortillas to make four 2-layer tortillas and cover each with one of the remaining tortillas. Brush the tops with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with the cotija cheese.
5. Transfer to a baking sheet (you may need 2). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown and the cheese has melted.
6. Cut into quarters and serve.
Note 1: Place dried chiles in a bowl, pour boiling water on top, and let soak for about 30 minutes, or until soft.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, January 29, 2009 at 7:01 PM
- serves 8 -
Adapted from Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill: With More Than 125 Bold New Recipes by Bobby Flay and Joan Schwartz.
Ingredients
3 cups cooked or canned chick-peas, drained and rinsed
6 cloves roasted garlic (See Note 1)
1 chipotle pepper, canned in adobo
2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 teaspoons honey
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons tahini
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Procedure
Place the chick-peas, garlic, chipotle, cumin, honey, lemon juice, and tahini in a food processor and process until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil until emulsified. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper. May be refrigerated for 1 day; serve at room temperature. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Note: To oven-roast a head of garlic, first cut off the top. Rub the garlic with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, wrap it in foil, and place it on a baking sheet. Roast at 300°F until soft, about 45 minutes.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 29, 2009 at 4:45 PM
With half the continental U.S. blanketed in snow, maybe some of us are looking for a little comfort food. Something warm, tasty, and possibly cheesy? Macaroni and cheese is what initially came to my mind, but when I had a look at this Ina Garten recipe for a pretty straightforward cauliflower gratin, I realized that that's basically what this is. Switch out the pasta for chunks of cauliflower, which in this recipe are covered with a cheesy bechamel (aka Mornay sauce) before baking, and you're pretty close to macaroni and cheese. And it's a touch healthier—though it's all relative when you're talking about handfuls of cheese and butter.
No secrets to this recipe, really; a nice touch of nutmeg in the bechamel brings a distinct fragrance, but it's otherwise the traditional Parmesan and Gruyère combination and a crispy skin of bread crumbs and more cheese. Cauliflower takes particularly well to the gratin treatment. If you wanted to turn it into a main course with more protein, some chopped ham would fit in quite nicely.
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Posted by Michele Humes, January 29, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Essentially a fruit-studded baked custard, clafouti is typically eaten as a dessert. But its egginess, writes Nicole Rees, author of Baking Unplugged, also makes it ideal for brunch. The dish is especially suited to lazy Sunday mornings because it requires nothing more than a minute or two of whisking, and twelve minutes in the oven.
Brunch clafouti is more of a formula than a strict recipe because it will adapt to whatever fruit you have on hand, be it cranberries, blueberries, or chopped peaches. Whatever's in your liquor cabinet, from brandy to triple sec, will add a warm, boozy note, too.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 27, 2009 at 4:50 PM
I've long been on a search for a spectacular tomato soup recipe that doesn't achieve greatness by adding lots of heavy cream, the most common way to temper the acidity of tomatoes. I already love the variation using bread that I've already written about. But when I was flipping through The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper the other day, the book fell open to this recipe, and lightning struck. Nestled in the Provençal-perfumed broth (think basil, oregano, thyme, and fennel seeds) was a dollop of creamy goat cheese. Brilliant!
Sure, this soup would taste a lot better at the height of summer rather than the dead of winter (you could use fresh tomatoes instead of canned). But I really couldn't wait. Turns out, it's a skillfully flavored soup, with those classic spices plus an inspired addition of ground cinnamon and the herbal punch of dry vermouth. The chevre melts into the broth, adding a calming touch with that pleasant, familiar goat-cheese funk.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, January 23, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Read more about The Red Cat's Spicy Swiss Potato Soup on Serious Eats: New York as part of our series of recipes from famous restaurants in New York City.
Adapted from The Red Cat Cookbook by Jimmy Bradley and Andrew Friedman.
- serves 4 -
Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds Idaho potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes), peeled and quartered
3 cups low-sodium, store-bought chicken broth
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne
3/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese (about 6 ounces)
2 teaspoons hot paprika
2 scallions, white and green parts, finely sliced
Procedure
1. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and sauté until softened but not browned, approximately 3 minutes. Add the potatoes, chicken stock, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat so the liquid simmers. Cook until the potatoes are soft to a knife-tip, approximately 15 minutes. Pour the contents of the pot into a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl. Set the cooking liquid aside.
2. Pass the potatoes through a food mill or ricer. Return the potatoes to the pot over medium heat and add the milk, cream, and 1 1/2 cups of the cooking liquid. Whisk gently to incorporate, but do not overwork the potatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Finish by whisking in the remaining tablespoon butter.
3. To serve, put some shredded Gruyère in the bottom of each of 4 bowls, and ladle in the hot soup. Garnish with a dusting of paprika and the scallions.
Posted by Blake Royer, January 20, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I hesitated to write up this recipe up for two reasons: one, egg salad is as common as the white bread it's served on, and I figure everybody has their own version and isn't interested in somebody else's take. And two, there's no secret ingredient here that I'm about to reveal. This is just your straightforward egg salad (aka "egg mayonnaise" in the UK) with celery, green onion, mayo, salt, and pepper. So it's hardly a recipe.
Still, an egg salad can go from simple to sublime with attention to detail. I always make sure to chop all the celery finely and evenly, avoid overcooking the eggs so the yolks don't go green (they should be soft and custardy), use toasted white bread that's good and squishy, and make a quick batch of homemade mayonnaise. Together with good-quality ingredients, it all makes for a wonderful result.
In the opinion of my fiancée, who was served egg salad by her Estonian vanaema (grandmother) on a regular basis, the only way to eat egg salad is to cut the bread into quarters. She says it tastes better that way. And I have to say, I agree.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 15, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Last week I was singing the praises of Chez Pannisse Vegetables, and this Moroccan carrot salad is the next thing I cooked from it, which I made in order to use up a glut of carrots in the fridge. Though the recipe calls for pretty baby carrots with the stems still attached (not the peeled and cut "baby" ones at the grocery store, but actual young carrots), I cut up full-grown ones into half-moons and it was pretty delicious next to a roasted leg of lamb.
The spices are an unexpected blend of cumin, paprika, cayenne, and cinnamon. The recipe listed no quantities for the spices, so I experimented by using stronger amounts of cumin and paprika, just a little cayenne for heat, and cinnamon for its unique aromatic flavor. My guess is the next time I make this I'll improvise again. Otherwise, it's lemon juice for brightness, olive oil, and chopped parsley, with a clove of garlic cooked with the carrots to almost imperceptibly perfume them. The key is to allow as much time as possible for the flavors to mellow and marry; they are all strong and since they're never cooked, they can be harsh at first.
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Posted by Michele Humes, January 15, 2009 at 3:15 PM
When I was a little girl growing up in Hong Kong, it was a cold weather ritual to watch my mother, grandmother, and assortment of aunts wrap dumplings with deft fingers. I'd insist on joining in, but my crumpled parcels of pork and cabbage invariably leaked or fell apart.
Now a grown woman and living in Brooklyn, I like to think my fingers are just as deft as theirs were then. I don't have any family here with whom to share the wrapping process, but I've been known to make my guests wrap for their supper. (A glass of wine can be very persuasive.) Sometimes I'll stick with a more traditional filling of pork and napa cabbage, or I'll do a meatless version with edamame, kale, and cilantro.
Either way, I'm well within budget at just under $7.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, January 14, 2009 at 4:45 PM
Garam masala has become something of a selling point for me. Whenever I run across it in the list of ingredients I tend to stop and salivate. I don't know what it is about the blend of spices. So I was sold as soon as I stumbled up on this simple recipe from Vegetarian Concoctions. I was just searching for an interesting way to utilize an eggplant I had stashed in the fridge, but now I had a rich and fragrant dish to look forward to.
The only remotely difficult part of this recipe is cooking the eggplant. You could roast it in the oven for 30 minutes or so. But I've found that broiling it is quicker and produces fine results. You just need to keep checking on it, turning it over occasionally so each side gets cooked evenly.
About the only bad thing I can say is that there is a little too much onion in here from my tastes. I tended to pick around them to find the little nuggets of eggplant. I'd probably recommend using just one onion, and doubling the eggplant. But that's just me.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 13, 2009 at 4:45 PM
I was flipping through Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food the other day in a bookstore, and it fell open to this recipe—which wasn't really a recipe but a casual suggestion for tossing pasta with olive tapenade.
I decided to run with it, creating this adaptable dish using Kalamata olives, capers, a bit of dried oregano, and olive oil—all blended together and tossed with hot spaghetti and butter. I was pretty pleased with the result, a done-before-the-pasta-finishes weeknight dinner, may favorite kind.
I would definitely stress that this dish is adaptable. The dab of butter was a welcome addition, giving the pasta some creaminess and mouthfeel, but you could leave it out in favor of olive oil. While I was eating, the only thing missing was a little heat, so I'd definitely use chili flakes next time.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 8, 2009 at 5:15 PM
I received a copy of Chez Panisse Vegetables for Christmas and I can already feel it: this will be a book I'll return to again and again. There's something honest about a vegetables-focused cookbook with sections divided into: carrots, artichokes, beets, or whatever it may be. It seems obvious, but it has a delightful effect of stripping away pretension. Go to the market, pick what looks good, then look it up.
The recipes are in the same spirit of simplicity, depending on the quality of ingredients rather than complicated technique or spices. That's not to say the recipes are ordinary; they're not. But from what I've cooked so far, they're deceptively delicious. Even when I transformed this hearty dish into a quick meal by replacing dried beans with canned, the result was rich and deep, the quiet star of the meal.
If anyone has recommendations for other standout dishes from this cookbook, let me know in the comments!
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Posted by Barbara Hanson, January 8, 2009 at 2:00 PM
I couldn't find one saag paneer recipe that resembled another. I went for a rather simple, almost comfort-food version, but you can jack the spices way up if you'd like.
- serves 4 -
Ingredients
4 teaspoons butter, divided
4 teaspoons grapeseed or other neutral oil, divided
1 pound frozen paneer
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2" piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1-3 small green chiles, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon mild, medium, or hot curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 10-ounce packages spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt, as needed
Salt, to taste
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, optional
Procedure
1. Heat 1 teaspoon each butter and oil over medium heat in a large nonstick pan. Add paneer, frying until each square in browned on two or more sides, 12 to 15 minutes. Turn the paneer and shake pan occasionally. Remove from pan, set aside.
2. Wipe out pan. Heat remaining butter and oil. Add onion, ginger, garlic, and chiles. Fry over medium heat until onions are soft but not browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add curry and cumin, stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add spinach to pan, stirring until well blended. Transfer spinach mixture to food processor or blender and add enough yogurt to render the mixture creamy. If you prefer a coarser mixture, reserve 1/3 of the spinach before processing.
5. Return to pan, adding reserved unmixed spinach, if using. Add warm water, if needed, to thin.
6. Stir in paneer, heating gently until paneer softens somewhat.
7. Serve over Indian bread or white rice or even couscous (the last not authentic but quite good).
8. Top with cilantro, if desired.
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, January 7, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I picked out this recipe nearly two weeks ago while flipping through the January issue of Bon Appétit. I was immediately struck by all the winter vegetables, which I saw as a beacon of sane eating as soon as the glut of the holidays were over. Oddly, the genius of this recipe isn't the plentiful vegetables, but the addition of butter at the very end. It creates a wonderful savory edge to this decidedly meat-free meal.
The original recipe from Bon Appétit called for golden beets, something I didn't think was necessary to find. What are wrong with regular beets? Well now I understand. The plain red beets stained the whole dish pink, which wasn't necessarily a problem, but it certainly looked a little strange. If you don't happen to mind the tinge, then don't worry.
This also happens to be one of the first recipes I've seen that's called for the greens of the beet to be used. If your beets come with the greens still attached then go ahead and toss them in. If yours don't then don't fret too much.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, January 7, 2009 at 9:30 AM
The dawn of 2009 is upon us, and with the infant year comes millions (if not billions) of resolutions to eat healthier, get in shape, and save mad dough. For most of us (see: me), these newly acquired good habits will last until, oh, Friday. Still, a chosen few will hang on to mid-February, and for these noblest of stick-it-outers, I present an adaptation of Tomato Soup with Roasted Garlic and Herbs from FatFree Vegan Kitchen.
Good GOD, this soup is tasty. Hands down, it’s the best tomato soup I’ve ever made, and possibly the greatest I’ve ever had the pleasure of slurping down, period. It has just the right amount of spice, plus a depth of flavor completely missing from commercial brands. Even better, without the yogurt or croutons, it clocks in around 100 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per cup. That’s two points for you new or reinvigorated Weight Watchers out there, and just plain excellent for everyone else.
However, beyond the deep, hearty flavor, there are two things you should know about this soup. First, should your local supermarket lack diced or crushed Muir Glen tomatoes, you can pulse a can of whole peeled tomatoes in a blender until it reaches your desired consistency. Second, you have to be very, very careful during the puréeing process, as an overly filled blender (more than two-thirds) will cause an explosion of searing hot liquid all over your kitchen wall and favorite long-sleeved T-shirt. Don’t ask me how I know this.
Whatever happens, though, be sure to try the soup. You’ll have other shirts, and your New Year’s resolution might even make it to next Friday.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 5, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Most of the recipes I see for winter squash use it in casseroles and puréed soups, but when I picked one up recently I was looking for something simpler—something that would showcase the ingredient all on its own. I was tempted by recipes for ravioli and risotto, but eventually settled on something that would do nothing to obscure the wonderful flavor and texture, presenting the squash simply, as-is, braised with a little garlic then caramelized over high heat. It came courtesy of my worn copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.
My biggest hurdle was peeling the squash itself, because usually I just roast them skin-on and scoop out the flesh. The outer layer was too tough for a vegetable peeler, but my paring knife did the trick (though I narrowly avoided lopping off a finger). The next day I read about an even easier way: Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds, then cut each half lengthwise into 1-inch strips. It's then pretty easy to lay the piece on their sides and cut away the skin.
This dish would have been wonderful on its own, but to make it a full meal it ended up in a salad with shaved Pecorino.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, January 2, 2009 at 4:00 PM
I just needed a sandwich to pair with some soup, which led me to the good old-fashioned club sandwich. I looked into some of the classic preparations and somehow ended up here, with a sandwich that is as far away from a classic club sandwich as possible. I mean, goat cheese? Alfalfa sprouts?
I would never have picked this recipe had it not been approved by Martha Stewart. I don't, honestly, eat alfalfa sprouts that often, but I do love what they do here. Along with the radishes, they provide some much needed texture to balance the creamy avocado and cheese. Though different from a traditional club sandwich, it is still delicious, albeit in a meat-free kind of way.
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Posted by Blake Royer, December 30, 2008 at 5:00 PM
After a vegan friend came over for dinner, the shrink-wrapped package of tofu that she'd brought along to eat languished in my refrigerator. Frankly, I didn't know what to do with it. So instead of challenging myself to find a decent recipe, I ignored it for as long as possible, until the consume-by date loomed close. I hate wasting food, but it's possible that I hate tofu even more.
Eventually I landed at 101 Cookbooks, where I stumbled on this recipe for caramelized tofu with shredded Brussels sprouts. The tofu (preferably firm) is sliced into strips and seared with oil, garlic, and pecans, then finished with dark brown sugar to give it a fabulous sweet-savory coating. Then the Brussels sprouts go into the pan so they pick up all the good pan residue and become crisp and golden. The result was a lightning-quick dinner with very satisfying, balanced flavors. The only part I didn't like? The rubbery tofu. Oh well.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 29, 2008 at 5:00 PM
The original recipe from the Inquisitive Palate called for a slow simmering pork stew, punctuated with acidic tomatillos, soft hominy, and a mound full of garnishes, but I just didn’t have the time. So I got rid of the pork from the recipe and it went from taking nearly 2 hours to complete, to more like 45 minutes. More importantly, the resulting soup was light and delicious, and a perfect fit for for the two of us who needed a break from holiday over-indulgence.
Light certainly doesn't mean the same thing as bland. The chiles and toasted pumpkin seeds kept the soup lively and interesting. And if that isn't enough, we only hit the tip of the iceberg on garnishes. The wife and I only used radishes, oregano, and a little lime juice. But you can go crazy adding cilantro, onions, cabbage, chopped tomatoes, and even sour cream. It’s up to you and your schedule. This abbreviated dish worked wonders for us.
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Posted by Michele Humes, December 23, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Martha Stewart does this recipe an injustice by leaving "bacon" out of its title. The white beans are lusciously creamy, of course, and the mustard greens pleasantly peppery, but it's the five slices of bacon, diced and crisped, per 1 1/2 cups of dip that really make this dish sing.
Based on the flavors of caldo gallego, a homey Spanish stew of beans, kale and ham hocks, the white bean and mustard green dip is best served warm, and with breads and crackers rather than vegetables.
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five (5) copies of Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, December 22, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Put some holiday color on your plate, too, with Red and Green Recipes.
In my opinion, everything goes well with mashed potatoes, especially in the winter when all I want is something warming and heavy and comforting. Serve these two vibrant mashes together alongside any meal and you have instant holiday on a plate.
The Red Mash is stained with bright beet and flavored with goat cheese. The Green Mash is colored with Fines Herbes, a fresh herb blend of chervil, parsley, chives, and tarragon, along with crème fraîche. These mashes are very flavorful, and very potato-y, in that I do not add much by way of milk to loosen them up, which is how I prefer them. But by all means, as I indicate in the procedure, add more warm milk to achieve your desired consistency.
I think this is what Mrs. Claus serves Santa when he gets home on Christmas day.
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Posted by Blake Royer, December 16, 2008 at 4:30 PM
One thing I've come to love about Indian cooking is the masterly way they cook vegetables. There's something wonderful about the texture and spiciness of vegetable curries that tastes remarkably full and meaty. Even though I was first hooked by takeout standbys like chicken tikka masala, the soul of Indian cooking must be a vegetarian.
Saag, a common dish, is a kind of creamy spinach with mustard leaves that's served at a soupy consistency (saag paneer, with chunks of paneer cheese, is a common variation). Saag aloo is a version with potatoes. This recipe, adapted from The Best-Ever Curry Cookbook, is from Bengal and is slightly different. Mustard seeds are used instead of leaves, and the spinach isn't cooked down nearly as much.
Ginger and garlic, which begin just about every curry I've cooked, are caramelized with mustard seeds and fresh chili, then combined with water as the potatoes braise. During the process they melt into a sauce that's rich and spicy.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, December 15, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I conducted an informal survey on my blog last week, asking readers what kind of inexpensive, healthy recipes they’d like to see more of in the future. Overwhelmingly, they asked for easy main dishes that make good leftovers/office lunches. Convenience and nutrition don’t usually hang out at the same parties, so keeping this up for the long-term could be a challenge.
So far, though, it’s been a hoot. Last week alone, I found a few noteworthy recipes, including a solid Bean Burrito concoction that juuuust skirts Sandra Lee territory, and a fairly simple skillet meal from Cooking Light called Couscous with Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Edamame. My boyfriend, a burrito connoisseur par excellence, preferred the former dish, while I was nuts about the latter.
First, it’s tasty: spicy and vibrant, with a nice crunch provided by the edamame. Second, it has protein and fiber out the wazoo. Third, it’s delicious hot, cold, right after you eat it, three days later, as a main dish, and/or as a side dish. Finally, the recipe makes enough to feed me, my boyfriend, and our entire city block for a good decade. (Meaning: it’s a lot.)
Moving forward, if anyone has ideas about simple dinners with good leftover potential? I’m all ears. And to use my most-hated office terminology, thanks in advance.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 10, 2008 at 4:30 PM
This can best be described as a leftover meal. I had some extra onion and mushroom from another dinner, so I cooked them up, tossed them in a ramekin along with an egg, and then placed it in the oven. I initially was worried I needed some kind of sauce to tie everything together, but that's really what the yolk is all about. It oozed over the pile of goodness, making the very simple meal taste far more luscious than it had any right to be.
This is also the first time I've ever had any luck with baking eggs. I'd always get rock-hard yolks while the whites wanted to swim around my plates. It wasn't until I procured some ramekins that I decided to give the technique another shot. And I'm very glad I did. This is a perfect quick meal.
It is also obviously just one of thousand different fillings that can be piled into a ramekin. And while I loved it, it's probably just an easy introduction. Anybody have other favorites?
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, December 8, 2008 at 4:20 PM
I know most people wait until after the holidays to attempt to slim down, but I'm feeling the need to start now. After a plump Thanksgiving, I've kept my eating regimen running on high, and after a feast in Chicago's Chinatown, I needed to atone immediately. I dreamed of something light and bright and so good for me I'd instantly feel better.
I remembered these "tacos" from last year's Top Chef. Rick Bayless had challenged the contestants to create an interesting taco, and Richard Blais came up with this little number that uses thinly sliced jicama as the tortilla. The resulting "taco" is beyond light. There isn't an ounce of oil in the whole thing, and the only fat comes from the avocado.
They certainly won't be replacing my regular tacos, but as an appetizer or a light snack it's hard to beat these. They are delicious. And the filling is just as good as a dip with tortilla chips, if the whole healthy thing gets old.
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Posted by Michele Humes, December 4, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Today's recipe, reprinted from Simple Italian Snacks by Jason Denton and Kathryn Kellinger, is a gorgeous, jewel-toned salad just bursting with flavor and texture. I'm getting hungry just reading the ingredients list: pomegranate seeds, toasted almonds, chopped apples, smoked mozzarella, and roasted garlic?
The bountiful salad is built around farro, a chewy grain grown only in Italy. (If you have trouble finding it, substitute barley, quinoa or Israeli couscous.) Since it's a salad without greens, it can be dressed and refrigerated well in advance, making it an ideal dish for a party.
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In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five (5) copies of Simple Italian Snacks. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Blake Royer, November 25, 2008 at 6:00 PM
I don't cook with dried lentils often, but every time I do, I vow to use them more. A legume just like beans, they're a cheap, healthy, low-fat source of protein and fiber--but unlike beans, you don't need to plan ahead by soaking or cook them for hours. Usually I stick to the green puy lentil (also known as French lentils) for their tendency to stay intact while cooking and their earthy taste, but this recipe called for the red variety, known in Indian cuisine as "dal," which cooks in 15 minutes or so. "Dal" is also the name for this common dish.
The spices here are pretty basic Indian -- cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili, and garlic -- but I was thrown off by coconut milk, which I associate with Thai curries. I'm not sure if it was authentic or not, but it did wonders to the lentils, adding a subtle sweetness that brought out the same in the lentils. Even though the result looked a bit soupy and brown, its appearance betrayed the wonderful, comforting flavor.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, November 24, 2008 at 11:15 AM
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Today, a recipe that would be right at home on the Thanksgiving table.
Brussels sprouts have a complicated, spotty history in my family. We never ate them growing up, because Ma hated them with a vehemence most people reserve for Al Qaeda. We, her children, didn’t appreciate them either, because they came from the ground and didn’t contain any high fructose corn syrup. (Which, if you were a child in the '80s, you know HFCS was one of the four FDA-sanctified food groups, along with Pez, Bugles, and any breakfast cereal with marshmallow animals.)
The last few years, however, both my sister and I have taken a liking to brussels sprouts—so much so that we’re trying to get them on our 2008 Thanksgiving table. It’ll be tough, thanks to Ma’s six-decade-long vegetable vendetta, but we have a secret weapon: Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts, adapted from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks blog.
I’m used to roasting brussels sprouts, but I’d never made them on a stove top before discovering this recipe. Henceforth, it'll be the only way they touch my lips. The sprouts were thoroughly tender, evenly browned, perfectly savory, and mercilessly addictive. I ate three before they even made it to my dinner plate. There was no guilt involved either, as they’re cooked with very little fat and only a sprinkling of deliciously beloved cheese.
If you serve the sprouts for Thanksgiving (or otherwise), Heidi suggests using smaller, tightly closed brussels sprouts and changing the cheeses to suit your tastes or the season: gruyere or Gouda for winter, and Parmesan for sunnier days. Whatever you decide, you'll be happy. Promise.
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Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- serves 3-4 -
Adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. This recipe was featured in a Vegan Thanksgiving Menu.
Ingredients
2 1/2 to 3 pounds orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and winter squash *
1/3 cup regular or light coconut milk **
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 425°F (220ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pierce sweet potatoes and squash with a knife, place on baking sheet, and bake for 45–60 minutes (or longer, depending on size of sweet potatoes and squash), until very soft when pierced.
2. Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle, then remove and discard skins. In a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes and squash with remaining ingredients and use a hand blender (or food processor) to purée until very smooth (or transfer to a food processor to blend).
3. Season with additional salt if desired; if you want a thinner texture, add another 1–2 tablespoons milk and purée to incorporate. Serve warm, or reheat in baking dish until hot.
Author's Notes:
* I like to use a combination of 2/3 sweet potatoes and 1/3 squash; just ensure that at least half of the combination is sweet potatoes, since they add a smooth, rich texture and naturally sweet flavor.
** Regular coconut milk adds fat to the purée, providing a rich flavor. If using plain non-dairy milk, add 1–2 tablespoons olive oil.
More Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
Festive Chickpea Tart
Lemon Broiled Green Beans
Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- serves 2-3 -
Adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. This recipe was featured in a Vegan Thanksgiving Menu.
Ingredients
1/4 pound green beans, ends trimmed *
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/16 teaspoon sea salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Procedure
1. Set toaster oven or regular oven to broil. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Add beans and toss with oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
2. Broil for 7–11 minutes, tossing once or twice, until beans blister and are tender. Serve immediately.
* Author's Note: Instead of green beans, you can use yellow wax beans or dragon tongue beans, which may be purchased in whole foods stores or at farmers’ markets. Dragon tongue beans have a flat shape and light yellow base with purplish streaks. You may also substitute with asparagus; be sure to adjust cooking time accordingly to cook until just tender and retaining fresh green color.
More Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
Festive Chickpea Tart
Roast Sweet Potatoes
Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
This recipe was featured in a Vegan Thanksgiving Menu.
- serves 4-5 -
Adapted from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed *
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (optional)
Procedure
1. In a pot on medium-high heat, combine ingredients and bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have broken down. (Reduce heat is sauce is sticking or is simmering too rapidly.)
3. Once sauce has thickened, taste test, and add balsamic vinegar for a touch of sourness if desired. Serve warm or chilled.
* Author's note: Frozen cranberries can also be used; just continue simmering until cranberries break down into sauce and entire mixture thickens and becomes deeper in color.
More Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
Festive Chickpea Tart
Lemon Broiled Green Beans
Roast Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- serves 6 -
Ingredients
1 small head of garlic
6 to 8 large russet potatoes
3 tablespoons Earth Balance (or any vegan butter)
1 tablespoon rosemary
1/2 - 1 cup vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Procedure
1. Rest head of garlic on tinfoil, pour olive oil over it, wrap it up, stick it in the oven or broiler until garlic inside is soft, usually around 30 to 45 minutes.
2. While garlic roasts, clean and cut potatoes into large chunks, leaving skin on.
3. Put potatoes in boiling water and cook until soft enough to mash with fork, about 10-15 minutes.
4. Drain and put potatoes in a large bowl to mash with fork or masher.
5. Take garlic out of casing and add to potatoes.
6. Add remaining ingredients and mash till the potatoes are the texture you desire.
7. Serve warm.
Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- serves 4-6 -
From Halston Bruce
Ingredients
1/2 cup almonds, soaked for 12 hours
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 cups shiitake mushrooms
1 garlic clove (or 1/4 teaspoon powdered garlic)
Dash of Bragg Liquid Aminos
Water, as necessary
Procedure
1. In food processor grind almonds fine.
2. Add remainder of ingredients and process to paste.
3. Add water as necessary.
Posted by Linnea Covington, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM
- serves 4-5 -
From Dreena Burton. This recipe was featured in a Vegan Thanksgiving Menu.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced celery
5 medium–large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 14-ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained (reserve 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup walnuts
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon tamari
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/4 cups frozen chopped spinach
3 tablespoons dried cranberries
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 9-inch prepared whole-wheat pie shell thawed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon tamari
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped (for topping)
2 tablespoons lightly crushed walnuts (for topping)
Procedure
1. Add oil, onion, celery, garlic, salt and pepper in a skillet over medium heat. Cook for 7-9 minutes until onions soften.
2. In a food processor, add chickpeas (except reserved 1/4 cup), walnuts, lemon juice, tamari, and salt, and pulse to lightly chop (not puree). Remove about 1/2 of the mixture from food processor and set aside.
3. Add sautéed mixture, lemon juice, tamari, and sea salt to processor with other half of chickpea/walnut mixture and puree until smooth.
4. Transfer puree to a large bowl and stir in spinach, cranberries, thyme, reserved chopped chickpea/walnut mixture, and reserved whole ¼ cup of chickpeas.
5. Transfer mixture to pie shell, smoothing to evenly distribute. Combine oil and tamari, and brush or spread over top of filling. Sprinkle on fresh thyme and walnuts.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 33-38 minutes, until tart is lightly browned on edges and top.
7. Serve with cranberry sauce, a spoon drizzling of oil/balsamic vinegar slurry, or other sauce of choice.
More Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes
Lemon Broiled Green Beans
Roast Sweet Potatoes
Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Chocolate Pumpkin Pie
Posted by Kerry Saretsky, November 18, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Traditionally, the green beans in this classic recipe are what Americans might consider overcooked (very French), and are braised for the last few minutes with lemon juice and served with slivered almonds. This renovation of the classic keeps the haricots verts crisp, and uses lemon zest for the bright citrus flavor without the acidic, wilting punch of the juice, while the almonds are ground to a crumb that coats each individual French green bean. It’s a fresh and verdant but still lively and special break from the heft of Thanksgiving dinner.
Other recipes from the Thanksgiving, with a French Accent menu:
Provencal Turkey Roast au Riesling
Potato Grain and Stuffing Tarte
Pumpkin Brioche Bread Pudding
About the author: Kerry Saretsky is a Serious Eats intern and the creator of French Revolution Food, where she reinvents her family's classic French recipes in a fresh, chic, modern way.
Thoroughly Modern Haricots Verts Amandine
-serves 6-
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds of haricot verts, trimmed
2 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, cubed
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup of toasted almonds, pulsed in the food processor until they look like chunky almond crumbs
Procedure
1. To toast your almonds, scatter them on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool before chopping the food processor.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt it.
3. Drop the haricots verts into the water for 3 to 4 minutes—just until they are no longer raw.
4. Meanwhile, cut the 2 tablespoons of cold butter into little chunks and place them at the bottom of a large mixing bowl.
5. Drain the haricots verts and immediately toss with the butter, and the zest of the lemon, plus salt and pepper to taste. The heat from the haricots verts should just melt the butter.
6. Place into a serving bowl, and scatter the toasted almonds crumbs over the top.
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, November 10, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I already knew the local dining destination, Hot Chocolate, had one of the best desserts I'd ever laid a fork on, but I was astonished that their regular menu had so many gems as well. Nothing surprised me more than a simple bowl of carrot ginger soup. I declared, right then and there, that I'd make this soup at home soon. Less than a week later I found myself with an armful of carrots and ginger, wondering what on earth I should do next.
I didn't have much idea what I needed to do to make the soup really stand out. Most recipes for it seemed either too boring or too complex. I ended up using this one from Wolfgang Puck as a starting point. I got rid of most of the extravagant flourishes—the deep friend ginger and three different colors of carrots—while keeping the interesting flavorings: turmeric, honey, and red pepper flakes.
Instead of a bland blended soup, this one is dynamic, creamy, and a perfect hearty soup for the cold season.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, November 10, 2008 at 11:30 AM
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share a healthy, delicious, and budget-conscious recipe with us. Today, a recipe that would work well on your Thanksgiving table.
It’s a common misconception that in order to be healthy, you have to cut rich, calorie-packed ingredients from your meals. Unequivocally, this is the road to ruin. Generations of diets have been undone by deprivation; the elimination of dearly loved foods in favor of rice cakes, dry salads, and other lame substitutes.
Instead, healthy eaters must learn to use their favorite foods in moderation, while still drawing as much flavor from them as possible. It’s a vital principle of lighter cooking, and it’ll make meals desirable, as opposed to merely edible. To put it another way, no one’s ever going to crave a plain turkey burger, but Dijon turkey burgers with Gruyere cheese is a different story.
Adapted from The Kitchn’s recipe for Spaghetti Squash With Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts, this dish is a great example of this idea. At fewer than 200 calories and 11 grams of fat per serving, you wouldn’t believe it’s full of cheese, fried sage leaves, and toasted pine nuts. It’s true, though. It’s just that they’re built around a vegetable, and incorporated in such a way that they’re complementary rather than overwhelming. What’s more, the whole schlemiel is so creamy, savory and hearty, it’s difficult to tell it's low-calorie.
So, the next time you're looking to make a meal with heavier ingredients, go ahead and give it a shot. Just make sure to exercise some restraint with the good stuff. You'll still taste it, and there won't be any regrets in the morning.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, November 3, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Simon Hopkinson, author of this week's Cook the Book selection, Second Helpings of Roast Chicken, doesn't understand the concept of garnishing cream soups. "Why laboriously purée and sieve if you then put the lumpy bits back in?" Croutons, however, he believes are an exception, as they "do nice things to the inside of the mouth."
So is Parmesan Cream, which garnishes today's recipe for Fennel Soup ("lumpy it is not"). The fennel is stewed with onions in a combination of olive oil and butter for 20 minutes, which mellows the vegetable's intense taste. A dash of garlic, a splash of Pernod, and generous pour of white wine add even more flavor.
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Posted by Blake Royer, October 28, 2008 at 4:15 PM
The brilliant secret to this recipe, an unclassifiable number that's kind of a stir-fry but with none of the usual ingredients, is the way chickpeas will caramelize and turn nutty-brown if you heat them over high heat in a skillet. Nick's covered this territory before in Dinner Tonight, when he cooked them until they actually crisped into snacks, making a kind of alternative to popcorn. But it was the first time I'd done anything besides purée or simmer the humble chickpea, and I was amazed. The process deepens the flavor considerably and makes them taste almost meaty.
The inspiration came from a recipe at 101 Cookbooks, which I followed only loosely: I replaced spinach for kale, lost the tofu, and added chunks of roasted red pepper. I think the recipe would be pretty successful with any number of ingredients—frozen corn, for example, or chunks of feta cheese tossed in at the end. The key is a good splash of lemon juice off the heat to brighten it and keep the oil in check. Just cook the heck out of the chickpeas and its pretty safe to say the result will be delicious.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 27, 2008 at 4:30 PM
I found this recipe from Jose Andres Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America while searching Recipe Gullet for a way to use chickpeas. Though I already have a chickpea soup I quite like, I was lured here because of the paste made from the bread and garlic—and the use of paprika and saffron. I couldn't wait to use that latter spice, as I had just gotten it as a gift and looked forward to busting out the little red threads and seeing what kind of culinary ecstasy they could induce.
I was so excited about this soup that I probably built it up a little too much up in my imagination. It was a fine soup with a beautiful, deep red broth. But since I wasn't completely leveled by it, I came away a little disappointed. To be fair, the original recipe starts with dried chickpeas that are cooked from scratch, a step that would have certainly added more flavor but also one that would have taken a lot longer. Sadly, I took the short cut and ended up with a soup that I wished had just a little more flavor.
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Posted by Blake Royer, October 16, 2008 at 4:45 PM
I just came back from Italy (where I ate magnificent food all day long) with great arm-length wedges of cheese, guanciale for carbonara, and enough olive oil to bathe in. Homesick for a place I'm not from, I wanted to put all the ingredients to use right away before the lingering memory of all that good food began to fade. So I reproduced two of the simplest dishes I'd eaten and made a very satisfying dinner of it: polenta with olive oil and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the classic spinach alla Romana with pine nuts, garlic, and raisins.
Great polenta is an art, but pretty good polenta is darn easy with quality cornmeal. The spinach dish is also a no-brainer, as long as a few tricks are used: The raisins must be soaked to increase their plumpness, the garlic must be browned gently for at least 5 minutes to bring out its nutty flavor, and the pine nuts should be cooked until golden, but not burned. The resulting dish is hearty, punctuated with bites of sweetness and creamy pine nut, and imbued with savory garlic. With the polenta, it's a terrific dinner.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 3, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Though somewhat against my best intentions, I'm becoming something of a connoisseur of bell pepper salads. I don't usually have deep cravings for this dish like I do for, say, cauliflower. (Honest!) It's a vegetable I tend to have around quite often and one that can make a simple, flavorful salad without a single green leaf.
What's interesting about this particular version of pepper salad? The relative lack of ingredients combining to produce a very flavorful side dish. Though the garlic and parsley do play a roll, I think the main winner here is the cumin for adding depth and warmth. I got this recipe from Saveur, and all I removed was some preserved lemon. I'm sure it would have been wonderful but the local bodega didn't carry any, and the absence didn't seem like it'd harm the dish. Though Moroccan in origin, this recipe went mighty well with the Mexican cuisine I whipped up last night.
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Posted by Blake Royer, October 2, 2008 at 4:00 PM
The stuffed peppers I remember from childhood were green, filled with ground beef, rice, and tomatoes, and a staple at church potlucks. Warm, filling, comforting, and starchy—a classic American dish. But Americans aren't the only ones who saw a bell pepper and thought "edible bowl." It seems that you can stuff a pepper with just about anything. In this recipe, from Andrew Schloss's Homemade in a Hurry, it's a couscous and chickpea mixture spiced with Moroccan flavors, and inside the pepper waits a molten nugget of goat cheese.
If the whole stuffing-a-pepper enterprise doesn't appeal, it's not critical—the flavors of the dish are what shine, not necessarily the presentation. In fact, next time I might skip the stuffing approach and slap the peppers down on the burner to char them, slip off the skins, then chop them up and mix in with the couscous. It would take less time and taste just as comforting. But it might be a little less fun.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, September 26, 2008 at 4:45 PM
I suppose I subconsciously made this dish in reaction to my grand declaration that only roasted eggplants were worth eating. But it's just not true. I was initially attracted to this recipe for eggplant baingan kachri from Recipe Gullet because of the spice mix. The combination looked like no eggplant dish I'd had before. I didn't mind that the eggplant was sautéed—I just wanted to spruce up a weekday meal.
But it's the eggplant, not the spices, that is extraordinary. When done, the outside becomes crispy and crunchy while the insides turn luscious and velvety. It's my new favorite way to cook eggplant. The key is to use just a little oil and cook it for a long time—about 30 minutes in a pan over medium heat. It may sounds crazy, but you can't argue with results like this.
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Posted by Blake Royer, September 23, 2008 at 5:10 PM
This pasta is a peaen to the power of flour, milk, egg yolk, and pasta water. With small quantities of these four ingredients, it's possible--and relatively quick and easy--to create a sauce of rich creaminess. On top of that, this particular recipe from Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Italian Cooking calls for a pile of deep-fried zucchini strips and a handful of cheese. All said and done, this isn't exactly the healthiest dinner I've made recently.
But it was one of the most delicious, and next time, I'd make it healthier by forgoing the deep-frying in favor of a quick saute for the zucchini strips--which would be similar in texture, but would save time, calories, and the expense of all that oil. The key is to save lots of pasta water, which will bring out the creaminess if the dish is plated and gets too dry. It will also save you if the egg yolk begins to scramble in the pan, like mine did.
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, September 22, 2008 at 10:45 AM
On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share a healthy and delicious recipe with us. Today, a new dressing for eggplant.
Lately, one of my favorite online recipe resources has been Food Blog Search. Powered by the benevolent and all-knowing Google, it’s a database of thousands of meals, field-tested and approved by kitchen-savvy webfolk. All you have to do is type a few ingredients, and inside two seconds, the search engine will pull up a slew of suggestions from Smitten Kitchen, Wednesday Chef, the sorely missed Words to Eat By, and more.
I discovered Eggplant With Miso Sauce by way of Food Blog Search, on a site called Daily Unadventures in Cooking. Blogger Katerina pulled the dish from her old Moosewood cookbook and was impressed by the eggplant’s texture and easy prep. After trying it, I concur, though I’d peg the sauce as the definite highlight.
See, when it comes to healthy meals, reliable, dynamic sauces are vital. It’s their job to infuse foods with flavor, since vegetables and lean meats are generally cooked with so little oil and butter. This particular concoction is the perfect example. Here, the miso and lime create a sweet citrus counterpoint to the richer eggplant, without catapulting the dish into Paula Deen territory. At around 100 calories per serving, it’s ideal for dieters, but the sauce makes it palatable enough for their non-dieting brethren, as well.
So, next time you’re searching for a lighter dish, look for produce or protein paired with a tasty sauce. I bet Food Blog Search will have one or 12,000.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 21, 2008 at 1:00 PM
This week's Cartoon Kitchen features Serious Eats' cartoonist in residence Larry Gonick's spin on salad. —Ed Levine
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Posted by Blake Royer, September 18, 2008 at 4:15 PM
If beets aren't your thing to begin with, this recipe won't convince you otherwise. It's a butter-fried pancake made of nothing but shredded beets, flour, a bit of chopped rosemary, and good old salt and pepper. The flavor is earthy, rich, and sweet, but unmistakeably beet-y. The beets are treated like potatoes to make a Swiss rösti, with a little flour added to amp up the starch and hold the patty together. It can be served as a nice dinner along with a simple salad, or as an accompaniment to a main.
I found this recipe for beet rösti on Mark Bittman's New York Times blog Bitten and was attracted to its simplicity. The result is surprisingly hearty and filling as the butter it's fried in caramelizes the sugars and crisps the edges. The key is to use only enough flour to hold the beets together to prevent it from getting leaden.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, September 16, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Bread puddings—such as whiskey, chocolate, and berry—warmed and topped with whipped cream, are one of my favorite desserts. Lately, I've started to explore all the wonderful varieties of savory bread puddings flavored with sharp cheeses, eggs, onions, and vegetables. Today's Cook the Book recipe, excerpted from Olives & Oranges, is for a rustic, robust Roasted Corn and Brioche Pudding.
Chef and author Sara Jenkins prepares the corn in two ways to deepen the flavors and add complexity to the final dish. Half is pureed with cream; the rest is fried to a toasty crisp in olive oil. The pudding makes a lovely appetizer on its own, but you could also pair it with a bitter green salad for lunch, or a hearty pork chop for dinner.
Win 'Olives and Oranges'
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five (5) copies of Olives & Oranges. Enter for a chance to win here.
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