The first potato salad of spring

This is a potato salad I put together to use some homemade mayonnaise I made. I prefer my potato salad not to have much mayonnaise, I put just enough to lightly coat. There are olives to add some sharpness. I think the olives worked really well. The adzuki beans were fine but it would probably be better with kidney beans. It was a crisp salad so maybe boil dry kidneys instead of using canned ones. One note is that I put the just-boiled potatoes in lemon juice and a little bit of mayo to soak in the flavor while they cooled. I have no idea of how much of the ingredients I used except that I used 2 ribs of celery.

New potatoes

Green beans

Celery

Adzuki beans

cherry tomatoes

Alphonso or Kalamata olives

Mayonaise

Lemon juice

salt

black pepper

paprika

Another sign of spring: one of the first crocuses that popped up in our neighborhood last week.

Lentil loaf

After losing my veg blog cred with the fennel-tomato soup with sausage, I had to post about the total hippie lentil loaf we had last week. Renee posted about it a little while ago, and I was intrigued. I got these frozen chipotle-spiced sweet potato fries on sale recently, and then I realized that I don't make a lot of meals that go well with potatoes on the side. In fact, we have potatoes less frequently than I would like because I don't normally know what to serve with them. Beans are high in protein, but I often don't like the starch-on-starch taste of eating beans and potatoes together. While it is lentil-based, I didn't get the unpleasant starch-on-starch feeling with this loaf, so I think it will be my new go-to main dish when I want to have potatoes.

Anyway, this is a great loaf. It's vegan (in addition to using flax as an egg substitute, some of the lentils are processed to help with binding), high in protein from the lentils, fatty enough to be satisfying from the pecans, and just all-around delicious. It gets quite a few dishes dirty, but it's really not that big a deal. The recipe is from Oh She Glows, and I only made a few minor modifications. I used pecans in place of walnuts because I think walnuts are just wannabe pecans. I didn't have celery or apple, so I subbed fennel stems instead because I had them leftover from fennelfest. I used Panko crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs because we only have seeded rye around right now, and I didn't think the carraway would be good. And I used a store-bought barbecue sauce instead of making the glaze because it was easier. Next time I might decrease the salt if I remember; I thought it was a bit on the salty side. ETA: Made it again, halved salt, and it was good.

Buttermilk bonanza: baby, it's cold outside edition

Of course, it was a requirement to try buttermilk biscuits during our buttermilk bonanza. There are a ton of biscuit recipes out there, but we settled on Alton Brown's because we like him. We split the work on this one: Jon did the measuring and mixing, I did the shaping and baking. They were really good fresh from the oven, but they didn't age well. We probably should have halved the recipe. I included a picture of the spread on our table that night because it makes us look sophisticated: biscuits, lentil-kale soup, grapefruit-avocado salad, and grapefruit-gin spritzers with rosemary.

The day after we made the biscuits, we took a day trip to the Indiana dunes. I am filled with trepidation about my first winter in the midwest, and I am trying to take opportunities to enjoy the outdoors in the cold so I will not become a lump on my Ikea chair during the winter. We packed a nice picnic, including a thermos full of buttermilk potato soup. I based it on this recipe from Homesick Texan, but I basically made it less interesting by omitting the jalapeno, bacon, and cilantro. I did add a bit of smoked paprika to get some of the bacon smokiness, but I wasn't sad that the soup wasn't popping with flavors. It was a nice, warm, thick, creamy potato soup that made a picnic on a snow-covered picnic table much more delightful. For those keeping score, the soup called for 1/2 cup of buttermilk. By the way, we had a fantastic day at the dunes. If you like looking at goofy pictures of us, you can look at our facebook album of the trip here.

Buttermilk in today's recipes: 1 1/2 cups

Buttermilk bonanza total: 6 cups

Two experimental dals

A few weeks ago, Jon and I went to an Indian neighborhood in Chicago for dinner and grocery shopping. (Also window shopping at some very posh sari boutiques!) In addition to a variety of other products, we ended up with 24 pounds of various beans. Hence, I am on a mission to eat more dal. With the weather getting cooler and cooler, this seems like a good time for it.

The first dal I wanted to try was "val dal," which are apparently skinned and split lablab beans. Helpful, I know. I had never seen it before, and I was intrigued because the beans are bigger than most beans that are split but looked like they would cook more quickly than whole beans. I decided to go rogue on the val dal and just make something up entirely. I always feel nervous about coming up with my own spice ratios for Indian-type dishes because I'm worried I'll do it wrong. But I decided that was kind of silly, so I just went for it. I used "Balti" curry powder from Penzey's, which is not as fragrant as a lot of curry powders and I think works well with root vegetables, along with whole mustard, fennel, and cumin seeds. I might not have used quite enough spice overall, but I thought the ratio worked well.

Another experiment I did was comparing cooking times of a bean I had never made, beets, and potatoes. I didn't think they would all magically have the same cooking time, but I put them in at the same time because I didn't know which ones would be done sooner. It turned out that the potatoes basically melted into the sauce by the time the beets and dal were ready. Now I know.

Oh, one more thing: The Indian cookbook I have calls for mustard oil for most of the dishes. I had never seen it in a store, so I've always used generic vegetable oil instead, but I found it in the grocery store last night and decided to use it today. As I returned the oil to the pantry, I noticed that it is labeled "for external use only." I didn't want to either poison us or waste perfectly good food, so I looked up "mustard oil external use only" on google, and it turns out that some people think it's not safe due to high levels of some kind of fatty acid. Apparently it's been a big controversy. I'm in the "it doesn't seem to have killed the Indians yet" camp, so I left the dal cooking.

The end result was pretty good. I think I will spice and salt it more heavily next time, but it was nice to experiment a little, and I really liked the beets in with the beans. I think it would be great with kale or mustard greens, and I would probably ease back a little on the mustard oil because it's more pungent than I thought it was based on smell. On the whole, though, it was a pretty successful experiment.

The second bean I played with was "urad dal," which is split black lentils. I made a pretty simple dish with the dal, tomatoes, kale, and just some ginger, turmeric, cumin, and coriander to spice it. I couldn't quite decide whether I wanted it to be soupy or dry, so it's somewhere in between. Once again, I probably could have spiced it a little more heavily. I have trouble knowing what the ratio should be of water/beans to spice when I'm cooking without a recipe. Jon loved this one. It was good comfort food for a chilly night.

Val dal with beets and potatoes

2 tbsp mustard oil

2 tsp balti seasoning or curry powder

1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds

1/2 tsp whole fennel seeds

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp ginger, minced

1 large beet, cut into small cubes

1 medium potato, cut into small cubes

1 cup val dal or other bean

3 cups water

Heat the mustard oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the seasonings and stir to coat with oil. Add the onion and ginger and cook for a few minutes. Add the beet, potato, dal, and water. Cover, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until beets and beans are done to your liking. You may have to add more water during the simmering process.

We served this with curry powder basmati rice. It's very simple: melt 1 tbsp butter in a small saucepan. Add 1/2 tsp curry powder, stir to distribute, and then add 1 cup of rice and stir to coat with butter and curry powder. Add 2 cups water and 3/4 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook covered until rice is done.

Urad dal with tomatoes and kale

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 tbsp minced ginger

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 can whole tomatoes, including juice

1 cup urad dal

2 cups water

Heat the oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Add spices and saute for about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and juices, dal, and water. Raise heat to bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer, stirring and breaking up tomatoes occasionally, until dal is cooked to your liking, 30-40 minutes. You may want to add more water while it cooks. I don't think I actually measured, so the amount in the recipe is just an estimate.

This is one of our other treasures, that yummy breat-freshening stuff you sometimes get at Indian restaurants. It has candy-coated fennel seeds and other stuff in it. Yum!

Dosas with potato filling

I tried to make dosas a long time ago, and while they were fun, they were also kind of chunky and didn't spread very well. I intended to try again soon, and now a mere 18 days later, I have. This time I used a mix I found at a Chinese grocery store (not sure why they sell dosa mix, but I went with it). Instead of having to ferment the rice-lentil batter overnight, this one was instant. I just had to let it sit for 10 minutes. I still had trouble spreading the batter, but they were smoother. I really liked the potato filling I made up. The only time I've had dosas in a restaurant, the filling was way too spicy for me. This one was just right. I parboiled the potatoes before adding them to the saute with the rest of the veggies, and I think that was a good call. I also used some frozen veggie mix because I am in pantry/freezer elimination mode (moving to Chicago in about a month), and I had these veggies in there. I think fresh cauliflower would have been even better than this mix.

To complete the faux-Indianness of the week, I also got henna on my hand yesterday. It's very pretty. Do you see the bird in the design? In this picture, the henna paste is still on my hand. Today, the design is a dark reddish brown.

Dosas with potato filling

4 medium red potatoes, chopped into 1-inch cubes

Vegetable oil for sauteing

1 tsp whole mustard seeds

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 large onion, diced

1 1/2 tsp curry powder (I'm in love with Penzey's Maharajah blend-if you get the Penzey's catalog, you just got a coupon for a free 1/2 cup jar of anything. Try this curry powder. I think it's the most expensive thing they sell in a 1/2 cup jar. And it's tasty.)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups frozen vegetables (my blend was cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots) or fresh cauliflower or whatever needs using

Dosas, prepared using package directions

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until they are almost ready. Remove or drain, reserving some of the water.

In the meantime, heat oil in saute pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them sizzle and pop for about 30 seconds. Add onion and saute for about 4 minutes or until translucent. Add curry powder, salt, and potatoes and saute for a few more minutes. Add about 1/3 cup potato cooking water to deglaze the pan, then add other veggies. Cook until everything is hot and potatoes are completely tender, adding more potato water if necessary. Spoon potato filling into dosas and wrap it up.

Inspiration Soup III

It's been a while since I made inspiration soup, but a recent freezer reorganization reminded me of some neglected chickpeas and their cooking water. We also had some leftover potatoes Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes in the fridge from a previous root veggie roast, and I wanted to get them into something. In case you are unfamiliar with them, Jerusalem artichokes are not from Jerusalem, nor do they resemble artichokes in any way. They are very knobby and kind of look like ginger. The taste is very reminiscent of potatoes, but they are a little sweeter and hold their texture better than potatoes do. The soup itself is vegan, but I like to finish it with a little parmesan cheese or a poached egg, as pictured above.

Inspiration soup III (Return of the inspiration):

Makes about 4 servings

Vegetable oil

1/2 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 new potatoes, diced

1/2 pound Jerusalem artichokes, well scrubbed and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 quart chickpea cooking water

1 1/2 tsp salt

About 2 tsp total of dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and other such herbs you've got lying around

Big pinch cumin

Big pinch smoked paprika

Black pepper to taste.

1 cup cooked chickpeas

4 kale leaves, washed and coarsely chopped

Saute onion in vegetable oil for about five minutes. Add garlic, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, and carrot and saute a few more minutes. Add chickpea broth and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes are tender. Add cooked chickpeas and kale, and heat until kale is wilted.

Grilled potato salad

I don't mind being the vegetarian at the barbecue. There are a lot of good veggie burgers (I'm partial to the spicy black bean ones) that make for quick, easy additions to the grill that I can enjoy when everyone else is eating burgers. But grilling is a great technique, and I feel like I shouldn't always be stuck with processed patties and the occasional grilled peppers on top. Last Friday, some friends invited us over to grill burgers for dinner. They had a bean burger in the freezer already, so I was covered, but I asked them to pick up some potatoes and tomatoes for a salad I had envisioned. We didn't have quite enough charcoal, and we started late, so we didn't get everything quite grilled to perfection, but I think this salad has serious potential. It's simple, but the nice grilled flavors from the potatoes and tomatoes are awesome. I'm sure it would be good with roasted veggies too, but there's something about cooking outside in 95-degree heat that makes food taste better.

Grilled potato salad

4 large baking potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices (I made wedges, but I think slices will work better next time)

4 tomatoes, cut into four wedges each

Canola oil for greasing the grill

1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives

Juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary, or more to taste

1 tbsp olive oil, or more to taste

Salt and pepper

Prepare the grill. Parboil the potato slices by heating up a big pot of water and boiling them until they are a bit firmer than you'd like, four minutes or so. Toss with some canola oil. Grease the grate of the grill with canola oil and place potato slices in a single layer on the grill. Cook until potatoes have nice grill marks on the grill side, then flip them over and cook on the other side. Grills vary a lot, so I won't give a time recommendation. Remove potatoes from grill, cut into bite-size chunks, and place in a large bowl.

When potatoes have finished grilling, place tomatoes on the grill, cut side touching the grate. Cook until they start to get some nice shriveling action going, then turn so the other cut side is down. When tomatoes are done, cut each wedge in half and add to the bowl with the potatoes. Add olives, lemon juice, rosemary, olive oil, and salt and pepper, all to taste. Eat warm while grilling whatever else is for dinner.

Edamame soup

In honor of two friends visiting from San Antonio, I had people over last night for dinner. I decided to serve three soups, a salad, and homemade bread for a simple, cozy supper. The three soups I chose were butternut squash, beet, and this edamame soup. They are three of my favorite soups, and I thought they went together well. They are all pureed soups focused on a single vegetable, and the colors contrast nicely. Jon made an excellent salad, and I made some rye crescent rolls for the first time. The rolls burned slightly on the bottom, but they were still pretty good.

I had forgotten that one of our honored guests avoids dairy, but I was pleased to realize that our menu was already dairy-free, so we didn't have to change anything. It was a good reminder to me that it is very easy to make vegan soups that are flavor-packed and don't leave people feeling deprived. It was one of the easiest dinners I have had. I needed to make sure to put the ingredients in the bread machine early enough to get the rolls done on time, but other than that, I just dawdled around sipping wine and preparing three easy soups. The soups stayed warm for a while, and everyone seemed to like at least one of them. We had a total of about 2 cups of soup leftover at the end, and the salad and bread were both completely gone.

I got this soup recipe from 101 Cookbooks. Her recipe includes creme fraiche, but I have always just omitted it. I forgot to take a picture of this, but the one at the top of her page is a lot better than mine would have been anyway. This soup is very simple, and you really get the edamame flavor shining through. The potato thickens it and makes it hearty enough for a meal. Several times I have started to make the soup only to realize that I don't have as much edamame in the freezer as I thought. No worries, I just throw in some frozen lima beans or green peas to whatever edamame I have, and it's still delicious.

Edamame soup
You don't need to worry about dicing the onion or potato very small because they will be pureed. The smaller you dice them, the less time the soup has to cook, but it's not very time-intensive anyway.

1 tsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 quart vegetable broth
1 1/2 lbs. frozen edamame
salt to taste
chopped peanuts, optional
toasted sesame oil, optional

Saute the onion and potatoes in the oil for a few minutes, stirring often to prevent the potatoes from sticking. Pour in the broth and edamame. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are done, about 20 minutes. Puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender. Adjust salt or just let people do it at the table. Garnish with chopped peanuts and toasted sesame oil if desired.

Peas and potatoes and paneer

As promised, here is something you can do with the paneer you just made after reading my last post. One of my very favorite things to get at an Indian restaurant is saag paneer or palak paneer, spinach and paneer, usually in a creamy sauce. I've made a version at home, and it's good, but it's just not the same as what you can get in a restaurant, so I'm usually a little disappointed with it. One time I had made paneer, used half of it in saag paneer, and decided to branch out and try another paneer recipe in my Indian cookbook, mater paneer, or peas with paneer. It was really good. Saag paneer is still a favorite Indian restaurant food, but now mater paneer is my home paneer recipe of choice.

Last week, I decided I wanted mater paneer, but we also had some potatoes quickly going bad on the counter. A side discussion: I don't know how to store potatoes. I have had more "black liquid potato death" incidents than I care to admit. In the fridge, they get too wet and develop these soft slimy bits. Plus they take up a ton of room. In a cabinet they often develop black liquid potato death (not its scientific name) after being forgotten for a month. I think part of the problem might be my thermostat setting (87 F) and part might be the humidity. I think you're supposed to keep them in a cool dry place, but I don't have a cool dry place. I've settled on keeping them out on the counter so at least I can't forget about them for weeks on end. Plus the counter ailment seems to be losing moisture and going soft and limp, which is much less stomach-churning than the fridge and cabinet ailments. Anyway, I had these soft, lifeless potatoes that clearly weren't up to potato salad or being baked. I decided that they would work well in mater paneer. Boy was I right! The starchiness of the potato plus the richness of the cheese plus the sweetness and greenness of the peas is just excellent. We liked it so much that we made it again this week with the leftover paneer and fresh potatoes from the store. The freshness of the potatoes didn't seem to influence the quality of the dish, which is a perk. This is a good place for questionable tubers.

Peas and potatoes and paneer (based on the mater paneer recipe in Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Sumana Ray)

6 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups paneer (about 1/2 the standard recipe), cut into irregular 1-inch pieces
3 small potatoes, diced into pieces that are just a bit bigger than peas
1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped into pieces that are about as big as your potato pieces
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen peas, defrosted if you have time

Heat the oil in heavy skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Fry paneer pieces until golden brown. This is not a good time for shirtless cooking, especially if you're using freshly made paneer, because the water in the paneer can react violently with the oil. Turn paneer pieces periodically to get some nice browning on all sides. Don't worry too much about bits that stick to the bottom. A lot of them will come off when you deglaze the pan later, and they're quite tasty. After the paneer is cooked, remove it and drain on paper towels. Leave the oil in the pan.

Add the potato, onion, spices, and salt to the pan and saute until onion is translucent. Add water to the pan and try to get most of the burnt paneer bits off the bottom with a metal spatula. Cover pan and cook until potatoes are tender, 5-10 more minutes. Add peas and paneer pieces and cook until peas are heated through. Or if you're like me, get impatient and eat a couple still-icy ones.

Seedy potatoes

A friend brought some fantastic potatoes to a potluck one time. They were slightly sour, spicy, and Indian-flavored. I loved them. Unfortunately, she couldn't give me the recipe because they were from a deli, but my attempt to recreate them is not too bad. I was kind of in a hurry when I made these, so I boiled the potatoes first and then fried them a little in oil with the spices. It turned out pretty well, but I might try just frying them the next time. It takes longer and is more likely to stick/burn, but it would probably give it a very appealing crispiness. You might notice that there is no salt in this recipe. It's so intensely flavored that Jon and I didn't miss it at all, but don't feel shy about adding a little bit if you want.

1 lb potatoes (I used red-skinned), cut into bite-sized pieces
vegetable oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp whole mustard seeds (I used black mustard seeds, but yellow would be fine too)
1 tsp whole sesame seeds
1 tsp ground coriander (whole coriander seeds would probably be better, but I only had ground)
1/2 tsp amchoor powder (sour powdered mango, available in Indian markets)
red pepper, cayenne pepper, or whatever spicy-maker you prefer, to taste
juice of 1 lime

1) Boil potatoes in a bunch of water until mostly soft, about 10-15 minutes. They will cook more, so they can be a little underdone. Drain.

2) Put some vegetable oil into a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is pretty hot (it gets thinner and very shiny), add the whole seeds and push them around. They might start popping some. That is desirable, but if it gets too intense, take the skillet off the heat because you don't want them to burn. After about a minute, add the coriander, amchoor, red pepper, and potatoes and cook for a few minutes. Try to coat the potatoes in spices. After a few minutes, remove from heat and add the lime juice.