Grape-rosemary focaccia

This recipe from smitten kitchen had been on my to-make list for a long time. We moved into our new apartment last week, which means I finally had access to my stand mixer again. When I saw Concord grapes at the grocery store, I knew it was time to make this recipe! I made one for dinner on Sunday, and we took the other one to a concert in Millennium Park on Monday. They were delicious! It's more work than using the bread maker, mostly because you have to plan on being at home to do various stuff to the dough on a schedule. But darn it, they were tasty. They might work in a bread machine, too. I'll have to try.

I was initially disappointed with the Concord grapes I bought at the store because they didn't taste as Concordy as I thought they should. But the heat of the oven concentrated the flavors, and they were so good with the salt, olive oil, and rosemary. I'm not going to post the recipe because you can just follow the link at the beginning of the post. I made a few changes: I didn't have milk, and yogurt seemed to make a fine substitute. Water probably would have worked, too. I also added about twice as much rosemary for the second one. I thought the rosemary flavor was overwhelmed the first time. Next time, I'll probably add some rosemary to the dough as well. I baked mine on my pizza stone, and I think that (and the olive oil) made the crust really nice and crispy on the outside, but not hard through-and-through. We will probably use this recipe for other focaccias in the future.

I think I have mentioned my friend's blog The Weekly Pizza. Well, we've been inspired, and we're going to try to make weekly pizzas too. I love having structured projects like that, and one that leads me to eat more pizza is an extra bonus. Even though this is focaccia, I've decided that it counts as our first weekly pizza. Thanks for the inspiration, Golda!

I think I should close by gushing about how the kitchen smelled. While the dough was rising, there was a delicious yeasty smell in the air, which gave way to a buttery/olive oil-y bread-baking smell once it hit the oven. It was divine!

Don't expect leftovers.

Beet, basil, and cheese crackers

While Jon was waiting in line at the deli counter a few days ago, I spotted this intriguing Greek cheese called manouri. (you might remember it from the composed salad I posted yesterday.) The sticker near it said it was made with the whey from feta and sheep's milk cream. It wasn't very expensive, so I bought a little to try. We really enjoyed it. It's not as salty as feta, and it has a nice creamy texture that is kind of hard when it's still cold and gets very soft when it sits out a while. It's like a cross between feta and mozzarella.

These crackers were an after-dinner snack for me when dinner hadn't been quite enough, but I think they would also make nice summer party food. I think crostini would work in place of the crackers, too. I think beet instead of tomato on the cracker is tasty and a little different from what you might expect.

For two crackers:

2 Wasa or other sturdy crackers

4 slices manouri or other semi-soft cheese

4 leaves basil

1 medium beet, cooked, peeled, and sliced into rounds

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Top each cracker with 2 slices of cheese, 2 basil leaves, and half the beet rounds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and a tiny drizzle of olive oil.

Pasta salad

We took this salad to a lovely concert in Millennium Park. There is not much dressing but we found it to be plenty with the basil, feta and olives.

1/2 lb mini penne (I think shells or rotini would work well too)

2 big kale leaves

1/2 lb broccoli crown chopped small

20 grape tomatoes halved

10 olives (I used Kalamata and Alphonso) diced

feta crumbled

fresh basil sliced fine

Dressing:

1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

3 Tbsp olive oil

thyme

oregano

pepper

ground mustard

salt

Cook the pasta in salted water. Add the broccoli 2 minutes before it is done. Drain in a colander lined with the kale. Let cool. Combine the ingredients. Dress with the dressing.

Dressing. Combine all ingredients except the oil. Let sit. Add the oil and stir well.

Weird corn salad

This next salad was based on the fact that corn was on sale and I love fresh corn. One can make all sorts of great corn salads that are more or less bean-y and more or less salsa-ish. I wanted to do something different. It ended up tasting good because all of the components were good but it is not all the way there yet.

3 ears corn (these were smallish)

1/2 lb eggplant

14 grape or cherry tomatoes quartered

15 mint leaves finely chopped.

1/2 lime

Cook the corn. Cut it off the cob and let cool.

Slice eggplant and salt. Let sit for about 20 minutes. Rinse and then dice. Fry in oil. Put between paper towels to remove oil and let cool.

When cool combine the ingredients and squeeze the lime over the top.

Lessons:

Ev suggested removing the eggplant. She did not think that its texture worked. She also suggested adding black beans and avocado and maybe some basil. This would end up as a take on the classic bean-y corn salad with mint and basil in place of cilantro and grape tomatoes instead of usual tomatoes. It would probably be pretty good (classics get that way for a reason).

I, however, want to go big. Ditch the tomatoes (too acidic). Roast (or grill) the diced eggplant. Juice the lime separately and add honey to it. Add some diced chicken. I still feel like it needs something else. Can you help me?

We have not tried either of these variations.

Pasta salad

Here is a neat little pasta salad I made a week or so ago. If I were to do it again I would leave out the olives. Also some pesto might be nice in it.

12 oz Orzo
2 roasted red peppers diced
8 olives chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil (loose) chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
2 Tbsp pine nuts
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
Romano Cheese grated
salt
pepper

Cook the Orzo as usual (or maybe leave a bit more al dente). Mix oil, vinegar and basil. Mix the red peppers, olives, pine nuts and parsley. Dress with oil and basil. Add cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

Inspiration soup II

After my last batch of chickpeas, I had a ton of chickpea cooking water, so I decided to make an inspiration soup. It was a cold and rainy day, so I wanted something hearty and comforting. Instead of the vaguely Indian spice route I usually take, I decided to go Italian with some rosemary and Italian seasoning blend. I may have overdone it a little on the rosemary, but it was pretty good. I had a gorgeous bunch of Swiss chard to use, and of course some chickpeas. I also wanted something starchy. I decided on some "rice stick" noodles I had in the pantry because I didn't really feel like potatoes, and I didn't have much in the way of regular pasta. I think the rice noodles were perfect. They soaked up the broth flavors very nicely. My chard had pink stems, and the color leached out into the broth, giving it a gorgeous warm oragey hue. I think the carrot helped with that too.

I'll be busy most of the day tomorrow, so this is my last vegan month of food post. It was fun to eat a little more vegan for the month and learn a little bit about some vegan foods I had never tried before. I definitely ate fewer eggs and dairy products because of the theme this month, which was probably good for me and the earth.

Inspiration soup

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 carrot, diced
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and leaves separated, stems diced, leaves cut into thin strips
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp Italian seasoning (blend of thyme, oregano, basil, etc.)
2 quarts chickpea cooking water
1 tsp salt
1 cup cooked chickpeas
4 oz. rice stick noodles

Saute onion, garlic, carrot, and Swiss chard stems in the oil for about five minutes. Add spices and stir briefly. Add chickpea water, salt, and chickpeas. Bring to a boil. Add the noodles. When the noodles are almost soft enough for you, add the Swiss chard leaves. They will wilt very quickly. Stir through, make sure the noodles are cooked to the consistency you like, and serve. You might want to add a little salt at the table.

Thinning

My new veggies have started to sprout! I have kale, broccoli, beet, and carrot shoots out the wazoo. Of course, I am very excited, but it also means it's time to thin. Not my favorite. I know that the plants need space to grow, but I feel so bad about pulling up my babies. The carrots are going to be the worst because I had a little spill while I was planting them and ended sowing way more than I had intended. The various websites I've consulted differ, but I think I need to go to a spacing of at least 1/2" now, and I'll need to thin them a little more in a few weeks. I have already thinned the beets a little, but I'll need to thin more soon. I haven't touched the kale or broccoli yet. I will probably thin them to 4" now and a little more in a few weeks. I was going to do it last night, but I lost the nerve. At least the sprouts are tasty, so all is not lost. The kale and broccoli sprouts have a distinct broccoli taste, and the carrot sprouts have a carrot flavor without the sweetness. Like the flavor of an overgrown, bitter carrot. But also a lot of grassiness. It's neat. The beet sprouts don't taste like much, but they're bright pink, so that's neat. Now I'll leave you with a few other garden pictures taken with my new camera.

This is a volunteer dill plant along with some dill sprouts that came from grocery store seeds. I can't tell yet whether any of the cilantro plants have sprouted because the newest sprouts are too delicate for me to sample.



This is my purple globe basil, which, with a little help from the oregano, completely outcompeted the parsley and chives. I think the better herbs won.


This is my sorrel. I am very pleased that it made it through the summer. The tag that came with it said it didn't like the heat. It has sour leaves, and I think they're especially nice in salads with lemon-sesame dressing. The stems are nice in spring rolls. I think there is a traditional Jewish sorrel soup called shav, but we don't have enough to make soup.

And this is my favorite plant. I know that's like having a favorite child, but this is the volunteer basil plant that doesn't appear to be related to any of my other basil plants. It has smaller leaves than my Genovese basil and larger, less-purple leaves than Thai basil or purple globe basil. The taste is more floral than Genovese or purple globe, and I've convinced myself that it has some anise notes. My theory is that it's a hybrid between the Genovese and Thai basils, but it is still mysterious. It also seems to be very hardy, and it has grown like mad since mid-July when it first popped up. Also pictured: a little red pepper (left) and some beet sprouts (right).

Quinoa lentil salad

I made this dish kind of on a whim last Friday to use up some extra lentils we had. We liked it so well that I made up another batch of it this morning before going to school so we could have it for lunch. It is a really quick dish. I think it could definitely become a potluck/picnic standby for me. Although it has a lot in common with my famous lentil salad, it is much subtler. I think of it as lentil salad's sophisticated older sister. We used French green lentils, which might be called de Puy lentils in your supermarket. Regular brown lentils would work fine in here, too. I don't think red lentils would work very well because they get so mushy. According to wikipedia, quinoa is high in protein, fiber, and iron. It also has a pleasant taste and texture, similar to white rice or millet. I used 1/4 red quinoa and 3/4 white for a little color contrast, but I think the taste and nutrition of both kinds is the same.

Quinoa lentil salad

1 cup quinoa
2 pinches salt
1 1/2 cups cooked lentils (from about 1/2 cup dry, I would guess)
1/2 cup fresh herbs, finely minced (I used thyme and oregano, but rosemary, basil, dill, and even mint would probably be nice)
2 stalks celery and some celery leaves, chopped

Red wine vinegar
Dijon mustard
Black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil

In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa, salt, and 2 cups water to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until water has been absorbed. Mix together cooked quinoa, lentils, herbs, and celery. Whisk together a mild vinaigrette from remaining ingredients and dress the salad. I don't include amounts because I wasn't really paying attention when I made it. Just do what feels right.

Fall planting

I have a little garden on my balcony. I started it in March. I plantedherbs, including

dill and
mint. I also planted some vegetables like
tomatoes,
eggplant,
peppers,
lettuce, and
spinach.

Amazingly, most of it has survived for more than six months! I have been meaning to do my fall planting for a while now. The summer plants have mostly stopped producing, and now it's time for plants that can't tolerate the heat. On Saturday, I finally got around to it. Luckily, Houston doesn't have a hard winter, so I think the plants will survive despite my procrastination. I pulled out the remnants of lettuce and tomatoes that had gone to the big garden in the sky and poured new dirt into a bunch of my pots. I planted carrots, kale, beets, and broccoli. I don't know if all of them will make it, but I look forward to seeing their little heads poke up through the dirt in the next couple of days. I also planted some dill and coriander seeds from the spice section of the grocery store. I don't know if they will germinate, but it will be fun if they do. I have a lot of volunteer basil and dill plants that have started poking up in various pots and might be able to hang in there for the long haul. After I finished my planting, there was a gentle rain on and off for the next two days. I think that was a good omen.

Having a garden has really changed the way we cook, especially with herbs. The vegetables were fun but produced small fruits sporadically, so we couldn't base a meal on the tomatoes from our garden or anything. Each vegetable was a treat that we carefully bisected and savored raw. But the herbs have grown very well. I have always enjoyed cooking with fresh herbs, but when you buy them from the store, they usually wilt before you can use them all, so I didn't do it very often. I have gotten so much enjoyment from sprinkling fresh herbs on salads or wrapping them in spring rolls. I learned that I love the combination of carrot and mint. Fresh rosemary and basil are excellent on pizza. They all look beautiful as garnish, and it's lovely to sit on the balcony sipping wine and nibbling on mint and basil.

When I first started my garden, I was pretty sure I was throwing my money away, and I would have been satisfied if any of my plants had lasted a month. I have truly been blessed by the fantastic success of my garden. I love watching the miracle of new life sprouting up before my eyes, and I hope to see those fall sprouts soon.

Vegan mofo and plumcot spring rolls with basil dipping sauce

I decided to "officially" join veganmofo 2009, which I mentioned yesterday. I've never participated in a blog community thing like this before, so I make no promises. Considering I haven't yet made 20 posts in a month, I probably won't hit the 20-post goal. But I do have a nice list of vegan recipes I've made recently and not posted or want to try this month. I'm not limiting myself to vegan food posts this month either. I've got some other recipes to share as well. A few goals for myself this month: try some common vegan substitutes I haven't tried before, like nutritional yeast, flax meal for eggs, and tofu scramble. It should be fun.

First up, some spring rolls I made this past weekend, along with a simple but delicious dipping sauce. Of course, my award-winning* watermelon rind spring rolls are still the reigning champs of my spring roll world, but variety is the spice of life. This past weekend I had some plumcots and a bunch of alfalfa sprouts to use, so I decided to try a fruit and sprout spring roll. I rounded it out with yellow bell peppers and cucumber. I thought basil would pair well with it, so I made a basil dipping sauce. It was all really nice. I really like a bit of fruit in a spring roll. Mango, peach, or apple would be good in place of the plumcot. Or, of course, plum or apricot.

Plumcot spring rolls
No amounts here. Just cut up a little of everything, roll it up, and make some more if you're still hungry.

Plumcot
Yellow bell pepper
Cucumber
Alfalfa sprouts
Spring roll wrappers

Thinly slice desired amount of plumcot, yellow bell pepper, and cucumber. Soften one spring roll wrapper in water that is hot to the touch but doesn't actually burn you. Place small amounts of plumcot, pepper, cucumber, and sprouts on the wrapper and roll it up. Repeat as desired.

Basil dipping sauce (based on a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman)

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup basil (I used a mixture of Thai and regular), thinly sliced
dash of Srirachi sauce, or more to taste

Combine all ingredients. Bonus points if you make it an hour ahead of time so the basil can infuse the rest of the sauce.

*They got a "most creative" prize at a recent potluck.

Blueberry-thyme frozen yogurt that is almost awesome

The new HEB had blueberries at an amazing 97 cents a pint last week, so we bought three of them. I had been wanting to try to make frozen yogurt, and I thought blueberry would be a good flavor for that. I didn't want to use any sugar, so I decided to add an herb flavor to make it a little more sophisticated. A quick taste test on the balcony showed that thyme was the right herb for blueberries.
I think I've gotten a little cocky lately. Most of my recent culinary experiments have been smashing successes (chickpea flour crackers, red pepper-tangelo sherbet, eggplant basil, oversalted kasha stirred into scrambled eggs, etc.), so I decided I didn't need no stinkin' recipe or any guidelines for making frozen yogurt. I made up a recipe, using just a tiny bit of sugar, and froze it. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze very well in my little ice cream maker, so I had to put it in the freezer for a while, take it out and crank it, etc. After eating dinner, we dug into the yogurt, and it was great. It was pleasantly tart, the blueberry flavor was rich, and the periodic bursts of thyme flavor were lovely. Next time I might steep the thyme in simple syrup to increase both the sweetness and the thymey-ness, but overall it was very nice. After we ate our dessert, we froze the rest like we usually do.
Unfortunately yesterday when I got it out to have some, it was as hard as a rock. I'm sure it would have softened in time, but I had to leave again before it was soft enough to eat. I was able to scrape a few spoonfuls off the top, and they were quite tasty, but I couldn't get very much. I have some theories on what went wrong and how I might fix it next time.

1) I didn't use much added sugar or fat, which lower the freezing point, so the mixture is too much like ice. To fix this I can add more sugar and maybe some cream next time, or use thicker yogurt, which has more fat and less water.
2) The way I froze it, taking it in and out of the freezer, didn't incorporate enough air into the mixture, so it froze too solidly. To fix this, I can make sure the freezer isn't too full and the little cannister that's supposed to go in there gets cold enough. I can also try to whirl it in the food processor and see if that breaks it up and adds some more air.

Have any of you had this problem, or do you know more about frozen dessert science than I do? Any tips would be welcome.

Blueberry-thyme frozen yogurt
1 1/3 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, thick stems removed
1 tsp sugar
About 1 cup plain yogurt

Puree blueberry, thyme, and sugar. Pour into 2-cup measuring cup and add enough yogurt to equal 2 cups total. Mix thoroughly. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Eggplant with four basils

At the farmers' market a couple weeks ago, I found these beautiful tiny eggplants:
You can tell they are tiny because that's only two pounds. I should have included some sort of reference item in the picture. They were reasonably priced, a rarity at Houston farmers' markets, and I couldn't resist them. I knew I wanted to do something special with them. They couldn't be relegated to a pizza topping or baba ganoush, as delightful as it is, or a stir-fry bursting with other flavors. I had never made eggplant basil before, but I knew it was just what I wanted. When we go to a Chinese restaurant, Jon and I almost always get an order of it, but I had never tried making it at home. I looked at a couple recipes online, but they seemed too involved, so I just followed my instincts and made this up.
I used one pound just in case it was awful. It wasn't, so I made it again, with some variations, with the second pound a few days later. This week, I bought another basket of beautiful tiny eggplants and plan on making this dish again tonight. I used dark soy sauce the first time, which is why it's almost black in the picture, and light soy sauce the second time. Both are good. Dark soy sauce is a little thicker and sweeter. I also added tofu skins the second time. They were fantastic, but I also like the simplicity of the dish without it. I call this eggplant with four basils because I have four kinds of basil growing on my balcony garden. Thai basil, with its anisey kick, is the best, but unfortunately my Thai basil plant is petering out, so I supplemented it with my normal sweet basil, purple globe basil, and mystery basil that just started growing in one of my pots about a month ago. It doesn't look like any of the other ones. I think maybe it's a hybrid of Thai and sweet basil that somehow got started by being near my other basil plants, but I don't know. I love mysteries.

Eggplant with four basils
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 lb eggplant, preferably tiny succulent ones, halved or quartered lengthwise and cut into 2-inch chunks (if you're using regular supermarket eggplant, go for 2x1x1-inch pieces)
4 oz tofu skin, cut into 1-inch cubes, optional
1/2 cup basil or a mix of four basils, divided, roughly chopped if leaves are large
3 tbsp soy sauce, either dark or light

Heat oils in a wok or large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add eggplant pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes. Add tofu skins, 2 tbsp basil, soy sauce, and 2 tbsp water. Cover and steam until eggplant is tender, about 5 minutes more. Add more water if the pan dries out too much. Remove from heat and stir in most of the remaining basil. Serve over rice with a little extra fresh basil on top.

Pasta salad

I am a sometimes contributor to this blog. Recently I made a pasta salad. I am not usually a fan of whole wheat pasta, but I used a rotini that was half whole-wheat/ half regular and it worked. I like pasta salads in the summer because I like pasta and you can eat them cold, which seems to make sense in the summer.

The salad contains roasted peppers that led to Ev's now-famous Pyrex tragedy. Along with the mozzarella the roasted peppers make the salad. Next time I make this I might use spinach instead of kale.

Jon’s Pasta salad

12 oz. Pasta
Kale
2 roasted peppers (see below for roasting instructions), chopped
Fresh Herbs (basil, oregano and rosemary)
Mozzarella, cut into small cubes
Dressing

Cook pasta in plenty of water until al dente. Drain. Meanwhile, saute kale in a small amount of olive oil until just wilted. Toss all ingredients together with dressing. I dressed this with a mustard vinaigrette (olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, pepper and herbs). It was pretty good.

How to roast peppers safely

Place peppers in a broiler-safe baking dish on the top rack of your oven. Turn on the broiler. Carefully turn the peppers with tongs every five minutes or so, cooking until the skin is charred all over or your Pyrex explodes because you didn't heed the first instruction.

Asian-inspired watermelon rind slaw

I am kind of obsessed with the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. I make wallets out of plastic bags I've fused together using an iron. I recycle as much as I can. I use old coffee cans for pencil holders and wear my clothes for as long as possible before replacing them. In the kitchen, I work vigilantly to keep produce from going bad in the fridge, I eat the cores of apples, I candy citrus peels to make a delicious snack, and I compost anything I can't use. At the office, I have also become the composter. People sometimes bring me their compost, and at office barbecues, I collect the compostable waste and take it to a neighborhood garden near me. This story begins with a math department barbecue. Someone brought a huge, delicious watermelon. By the end, I had over five pounds of watermelon rind. I took it home, but instead of composting it, I decided I might try to make something of it. I love the idea of making something good from what is essentially trash. That's where most people would have put it, at least.

Of course, I have heard of watermelon rind pickles, although I've never had one. I looked at a bunch of recipes online and decided they weren't really up my alley. They all seemed excessively sweet and soft, when I was looking for something crunchy and sour. Watermelon rind has a lot of melony-ness, but it isn't sweet at all, so there's no reason it should be made into a really sweet pickle. My first attempt was not very successful. I just cut the raw rind into 1-inch cubes, salted and then rinsed it, and put it in vinegar with some dill and mustard seeds. (We use a similar method for making refrigerator cucumber pickles.) They were way too hard and aggressively sour. I also tried a modified version of a recipe I had found online where the rind is cooked in vinegar and sugar with some spices for about 45 minutes. It worked better, although now I'd like it crunchier. I am still working on a good watermelon rind pickle recipe. Stay tuned.

My kitchen in the middle of pickle and slaw making: two batches of differently-spiced pickles, some slaw in the making, and a bag of watermelon rinds

While I was lamenting the too-crunchiness of my original pickles and thought about how really hard vegetables, like carrots, are sometimes much easier to eat when shredded. Thus began the quest for a watermelon rind slaw. My first attempt was by no means a failure. It was very simple: watermelon rind, apple cider vinegar, just a touch of sugar, a little shredded carrot, and some mint. Not bad, not stunning. The shredded watermelon rind was very easy to eat, and it was pleasantly crunchy and mild. I can definitely see it standing in as a substitute for cabbage or even celery or cucumber. (When I experimented with adding celery seeds to the slaw, it tasted eerily like actual celery.) I was unsatisfied, however, with the slaw. It was kind of boring. It would have worked at a picnic as a side to barbecued things, but only because it was crunchy and cold.

The first slaw

This afternoon I was browsing through Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian looking for inventive slaw recipes that might be easily adapted to watermelon rind. I came across his Korean chive and lettuce salad. Basically, it's a bunch of chives with a soy sauce and sesame oil dressing mixed in with lettuce. In the variations, he suggests using shiso instead of the chives. I have never seen or tasted shiso, but apparently it's a Japanese herb that is a little basil-y, a little minty, and a little cinnamony. I decided to try the recipe with watermelon rind and assorted herbs from my garden.

Friends, I was not disappointed. I used some purple globe basil, which has very small leaves and has gone to flower already. I used the flowers as well as the leaves and stems. I also threw in some Thai basil, which has a pleasant anise flavor, and some chives. It was good. Really good. Jon, who has been very patient with me for keeping over six pounds (there was a second watermelon) of rind in the fridge even though it was already full, has been pretty skeptical of the whole project. He was underwhelmed by the original watermelon-carrot slaw, but he recognized the genius of this one immediately. It is crunchy, floral, and complex. While we were eating it and marveling at how awesome it was, I had the brilliant idea of making it into spring rolls. So we did. The sauce is quite strong, so it's like you have already put the dipping sauce in the spring roll. We loved it. We spent dozens of minutes talking about how great it was, and by extension how awesome I am.

Where amazing happens

I know that is a very long buildup to a recipe. And I feel a little bad because really, the watermelon rind is completely replaceable. Cabbage would be perfectly acceptable here. Probably carrots would too. Or celery or cucumber or any other crunchy vegetable. The herbs and dressing are what make this such a good dish, not the watermelon rind. The melony-ness is definitely overwhelmed by the other flavors, but darn it, it's free! Assuming you like watermelon (and I don't see how you couldn't), the rind is completely a bonus vegetable. I am still working on other good ways to use it, but I am very, very happy with this recipe. It's extremely likely that the dinner guests we are having tomorrow night will be eating it. Without further ado, here it is.

Slaw in a bowl

Asian-inspired watermelon rind slaw (based loosely on Bittman's recipe for Korean chive and lettuce salad):

About 1/2 pound watermelon rind, peel removed, grated with a food processor, about 2 cups
About 1/2 cup assorted fresh herbs, minced (I used purple globe basil and its flowers, Thai basil, and chives)
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
juice of 1/4 lime
1 tsp sugar
A tiny, tiny bit of Srirachi sauce, or more if you have a higher tolerance for heat than I do (trust me, you do)
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced or grated
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Wring out the watermelon rind with your hands over the sink. It's wetter than it lets on. Put it in a bowl. Add the herbs and toss. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, Srirachi, ginger, and sesame seeds. Pour over the rind and herbs. Marvel at your (or my) inventiveness. If you want to make it into spring rolls, just get a spring roll wrapper ready and put some filling in. You don't need a dipping sauce or any other ingredients.

Focaccia!

Yesterday Jon and I made the rest of our pizza dough into tasty, tasty focaccia. I served it with a Caprese salad (tomato, mozzarella, basil, black pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar) and used the bread to sop up the tasty juice leftover from the salad. When that was gone, I switched to pouring olive oil and balsamic vinegar onto the bread. Probably not the healthiest meal I could make, but it was delicious. I have a real weakness for bread dripping with good olive oil. Jon and I just switched to a better EVOO (he hates it when I use Rachael Ray-isms), and it made a real difference. For the record, it's Iliada brand. In case you were wondering about the weird tomato distribution, Jon wanted to try it, but I wanted to take a more minimalist approach.

Focaccia:
1/2 recipe pizza dough
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 thin slices yellow or white onion, separated into rings and chilled or soaked in cold water*
1 tsp coarse salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
tomato slices, if desired

Preheat oven to 400 F. Sprinkle pizza stone with cornmeal. Roll or toss or otherwise stretch pizza dough into a round that's a little thicker than you would make for pizza. Brush with olive oil, distribute onion rings on dough, and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 15 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, and tomato and cook for 3-5 minutes more, until crust is turning golden. Tear off pieces and drown them in olive oil.

*Chilling the onion rings or soaking them in cold water will keep them from burning too quickly in the oven. You could also put them on later. I used part of an onion that had already been cut and was being stored in the fridge, so I didn't do anything special.

Curried carrot raisin salad

I don't have a picture of this because my camera batteries died last night and I couldn't find another charged pair. But it's not much to look at anyway. I have always quite enjoyed Luby's cafeteria-style carrot raisin salad (shredded carrots, raisins, mayo, maybe some pineapple). The latest issue of Bon Appetit had a more mature carrot-raisin salad recipe, and I really like it. First of all, I prefer raw carrots to cooked, but they can be hard on the jaw. Shredded carrots are the way to go. Also, the mint really makes it sparkle, and the yogurt and lemon juice balance the sweetness of the carrots and raisins. I used to be somewhat against mint in non-dessert foods, but I've been coming around (having a ton of mint in my garden doesn't hurt), and I really like it in here. I don't think the amount they recommend is enough. Maybe just add that amount and keep adding more until you're happy with it. I think this salad would also be good, albeit very different, with any fresh-tasting herb in place of the mint. Parsley and cilantro are the obvious choices, although maybe basil or Thai basil could work too. I would like to experiment with it, but I like the mint so much that I might not be able to bring myself to try something else. I added a sprinkling of whole cumin seeds because I love cumin and can't get enough. The first time I made it, I added a little too much curry powder, and I think I added too little this time. But it's easy to just sprinkle a little more on at the table.

Curried carrot raisin salad, with my modifications in italics:
3/4 cup plain yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp fresh mint, minced (I would use about twice that much, or to taste)
3/4-1 tsp curry powder, or to taste
1 lb carrots, peeled and grated (food processor is best for this)
1/4 cup raisins, or more to taste
Healthy sprinkling of whole cumin seeds, maybe 1/2 tsp

Whisk first four ingredients together in medium bowl. Add carrots and raisins and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle with cumin seeds and serve.

I served it with tortellini with a creamy, cheesy pea sauce. They didn't go together at all, but it was just what I wanted. That's why I love cooking at home. Restaurants would never serve curried carrot salad with tortellini and peas. They're bullies.

Herbed cream cheese

I have a garden on my balcony. I grow lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries, peppers, and tons of herbs. The herbs are perfect for herbed cream cheese. There is really no recipe. I use a combination of dill, chives, and garlic scapes. Mince them finely and use a spoon to mix them into room-temperature cream cheese. It's hard to use too much of the herbs because you'll be putting the cream cheese on something (I hope), so get more herbs than you think you need. This is Jon's breakfast plate this morning. We also really love sandwiches made with a good layer of herbed cream cheese on each slice of bread and a thick layer of thinly-sliced cucumbers in the middle. It's divine.

Spring rolls

Since the blog is just beginning, I think I should have a post about something that went right: spring rolls! These were for a special dinner for Jon when he got back into town after being gone for a whole week.

First, I dry-fried some firm silken tofu. I just used a nonstick pan and cooked it until it was brown on each side. I had never tried that technique before, but I was really pleased with the texture.

Next, I laid out the other fillings: apples, carrots, kohlrabi, cucumber, lettuce, asparagus, herbs, and (self-sprouted) bean sprouts. To make each roll, we soaked a wrapper in warm water until it was pliable. Then we filled it the way we wanted to and rolled it up like a burrito. It was fun because each one was different. Jon made a little dipping sauce with Hoisin sauce, Sriracha, and some other stuff. I might try a peanut-based sauce next time.

To round out the meal, I served hot and sour soup, seaweed salad, and leftover mung beans in coconut milk with jasmine rice. It was a good way to welcome him home.