Double Coconut Shortbread

I made Smitten Kitchen's toasted coconut shortbread cookies last year, and I wondered whether coconut oil, another solid-at-room-temperature fat, could replace butter. I finally got around to trying it, and the result was delicious but delicate. The coconut oil gives them a really tender, melty mouthfeel and an incredibly deep coconut flavor.

Both the dough and the finished cookies were quite a bit more fragile than shortbread made with butter. I rolled the dough into a log before refrigerating rather than rolling out and cutting with cookie cutters as in SK's recipe. The dough was much more prone to shattering when I cut it off the log than regular shortbread is. I couldn't cut the cookies as thinly as I normally do for shortbread, which combined with the richness of coconut oil means you really just want one or two at a time, not seven. Whether that's a problem or a benefit is unclear.

After baking, the cookies were very liable to crumble completely, and I'm just eating them off of the cooling rack because they're too delicate to transfer. I'm guessing that there is some mixture of butter and coconut oil that will have the perfect combination of durability and tastiness. If you're in need of a vegan shortbread recipe, this is it. If not, you should try mixing butter and coconut oil for optimal durability.

Double coconut shortbread (adapted from here)

3/4 cup coconut oil, room temperature (or mixture of butter and coconut oil)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

generous pinch of salt

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup shredded coconut, toasted (the really small kind, about the size of breadcrumbs, not the big flakes)

In an electric mixer, mix together the coconut oil and sugar. Add the vanilla and salt and mix. Mix in the flour and then the coconut until it kind of forms a dough. I had to turn it out onto a cutting board and use my hands to get it to come together all the way. Roll into a log and refrigerate until hard.

Cut cookies onto a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Try to get them as thin as possible without the dough shattering, which for me was between 3/8 and 1/2 inch.

Bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes or until they look like cookies instead of dough. They won't brown as much as cookies made with butter, in my limited experience, so the usual "golden" cookie instructions don't apply.

Mustard, cumin, and coconut

Somewhat coincidentally, our dinner on Monday ended up being two dishes flavored with mustard, cumin, and coconut. I found both recipes online, but I modified them fairly significantly, so I'm including the recipes.

I have made the coconut greens recipe from 101 cookbooks before, that time with spinach (see above photo), and Jon loved it, so when I was trying to decide what to do with some leftover chard in the fridge, that came to mind. I also used coconut oil this time to enhance the coconut flavor (and because I just bought it for the first time, and I've been trying it in everything). We used both the stems and leaves of the chard. I just threw the stems in with the onion. Chard is more substantial than spinach, and I think it held up really nicely. I don't know which version I liked better.

The dal came up when I was looking up moong dal recipes online. I noticed that it had cucumber cooked with the dal, which I had never tried before. I also happened to have a partially rotten cucumber in the fridge. I cut off the rotten parts (most of the skin) and used the rest in the dal. It was a good use for a no-good cucumber, but we couldn't really taste any cucumberiness. I think it's omit-able, unless you've got some yucky cucumber to use up. The original recipe suggests squash as an alternative, and I think the effect would be similar. The recipe would be good without it, but it wouldn't hurt anything. Once again, I used coconut oil because I had it and to enhance the flavor.

For our salad, Jon tossed together a slightly unusual one: lettuce, red pepper, tomato, avocado, clementine slices, cashews, and coconut flakes. He dressed it with lime juice, honey, and olive oil. It was nice and tropical, a fitting complement to the dishes I made.

Spiced coconut greens (adapted from 101 cookbooks)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp salt

Pinch chipotle

1/3 cup minced onion

4 Swiss chard stems, chopped (optional)

4 Swiss chard leaves, chopped, or about 6 oz spinach, chopped

Lemon juice

1 1/2 tbsp shredded coconut

Heat coconut oil in a large skillet on high. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, salt, and chipotle, and cook until the mustard seeds start to pop. Immediately add onion and chard stems, if using, and cook until the onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the chard or spinach and cook, stirring often, until it is wilted.

Moong dal with cucumber and coconut (adapted from edible garden)

1 cup moong dal

1/2 cup chopped cucumber (about 1/2-inch cubes)

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 cup chopped onion

Cover dal and cucumber with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower heat to a simmer. Cook until dal is your preferred texture.

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.

Rice noodle salad (salad week begins)

Ev and I were in Utah for 25 days or so. We cooked a lot while we were there but we did not have many of our supplies, so we were kind of limited. We also did eat out more than we are used to. So when we got back on Tuesday we were craving a return to our usual food. So began our week of salads. This is a rice noodle salad, which is mostly uncooked. I resisted the urge to put eggplant in because lately I have been feeling that I add it to everything. As always with my recipes, the measurements are very approximate guesses. As you can see from the pictures, I arranged Evelyn's very artfully on a plate and threw mine in a bowl.

Rice noodle salad:

3 big leaves of kale torn into pieces

6 oz. rice noodles

grape tomatoes

r. pepper sliced thin

16 slices cucumber

extra firm tofu, pressed

sliced white mushrooms (my salad only; Ev doesn't like mushrooms that much)

Dressing:

2 in fresh ginger minced

1 1/2 Tbs soy

1 1/2 Tbs rice vinegar

1 pinch sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

Boil water and cook rice noodles.

Fry the tofu in a dry (un-oiled) non-stick pan over medium high heat. It will take a while for it to release its water, during which time it does not really brown. Continue until the tofu is brown all over (flip it occasionally of course). When done remove and turn off heat. Put the kale on the still hot pan. This should be enough to cook the kale if you make sure all parts spend some time touching the hot pan.

Combine the non-dressing ingredients. Then pour the dressing over.

Dressing:

Combine the first 4 ingredients and let sit. Add the sesame oil and stir well.

This was quite a good salad.

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.

Jerk miscellany

I gave away most of our pantry foods before leaving Houston, but spices are small and expensive enough that it was worthwhile to bring them up to Chicago. While I was cleaning out my spice cabinet, I discovered this jerk seasoning blend I had made, used once, and forgotten about, so when I got up here, I wanted to use it. We made this last week as a fridge clean-out meal. We had half a butternut squash leftover from an excellent risotto, some cooked rice from making burritos, and part of a bunch of kale that was on its last legs. Without the rice, I think this would also make a good filling for a savory pie. I've never actually had Jamaican meat or veggie pies, so I don't really know, but it seems plausible.

Jerk miscellany

1 tbsp oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 lb butternut squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
3/2-inch piece ginger, minced
5/4 tsp jerk seasoning
1/4 tsp salt
1 can black beans, or 2 cups cooked black beans (if using non-canned, add more salt)
1 cup cooked rice
5 leaves of kale, hard stems removed, leaves coarsely chopped

Saute the onion, squash, and pepper in the oil until the squash is almost tender. Add the garlic, ginger, jerk seasoning, and salt, stir to combine, and cook for one minute. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until squash is done and kale is wilted.

Grapefruit-Campari rocket pops

I have successfully moved from Houston to Chicago, so Jon and I are together again! The weather here has been a bit unpredictable. It was perfect the day I got here, rainy and cold for the next five days, sticky-hot for the next two, perfect again yesterday, and pretty good today, but on the hot/humid side. Our apartment has no air conditioning or fans, and because of the position on the building and the fact that we only have windows on one side, we get very little breeze, so the sticky-hot days were nearly unbearable. It's very strange for me. I am used to being warm, and I even like it. Except for a few days when my mom was visiting, I used no air conditioning in the summer of 2007, which I spent in Houston. But I had a fan and a great breeze coming in over my bed at night. Without those, it's really tough to make it through the summer. So we're going to have to invest in a fan or air conditioning, since we can't do much about the breeze thing.

Until then, we're eating these popsicles to cool down! I based it on this recipe in the most recent Bon Appetit, but I subbed grapefruit for orange juice and omitted the lemon juice altogether. I love grapefruit and Campari, both separately and together, so it seemed natural to me. I froze them in these cute rocket popsicle molds. The recipe made about twice as much liquid as the molds could take, so I still have some in the fridge for when we've eaten more pops. I had six molds, and they hold a little over 1/4 cup each, so if you make them, you might want to halve the recipe. The next time I make these, I might omit the simple syrup altogether. The pops are pleasant as is, but I have a high tolerance for bitter flavors, so I might like them without the sugar.

When I was a kid, my mom was the queen of juice popsicles. I think she used concentrated fruit juice and reconstituted it to about double strength and froze them in these great molds that had sippy straws at the bottom so as it melted, you could sip the juice out. The rocket molds lack that important feature. Getting out the last bit of juice invoves more contortions and has a high probability of a sticky face. I don't know how many popsicles she made every day during the summers. There were three kids, our friends, and my dad, who is quite the frozen dessert lover. I think she had at least four sets of six molds, and she probably went through them all several times a week, trying to keep us in somewhat-healthier-than-sugar-water popsicles.

Grapefruit-Campari pops

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 3/4 cups grapefruit juice

1/3 cup Campari

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Refrigerate syrup until cold. When cold, combine all ingredients, stir, and pour into popsicle molds. Freeze until frozen (ours were not quite ready at the four-hour mark, but we ate one anyway).

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.

Two broccoli salads

Last week, I flew back to Houston from France, where I had been for 9 days. The day after I got in, I was speaking at a conference, which was going on the next two days as well. Jon and I didn't have much time between conference activities to go grocery shopping and cook, but these two salads were perfect quick meals. Each one only takes about 15 minutes to prepare. Like the last time I returned from a long trip, I was craving lighter fare and veggies, and these really hit the spot. Both have pasta and broccoli as a backbone, but they are very different end results. I prepared the broccoli the same way for both salads-cut into florets and blanched in the water that would later cook the pasta. I don't like raw broccoli, but I find that just a few seconds in hot water takes away the sharp bitterness I dislike.

Israeli couscous is small round pasta. It's bigger than regular couscous-each piece is about the size of a peppercorn. The Israeli couscous salad began as an attempt to deconstruct one of my favorite broccoli preparations-broccoli with raisin vinaigrette. I thought that roasted broccoli pieces in Israeli couscous with raisins, pine nuts, and a cumin-spiked vinaigrette would be nice. Well, we ended up being in a big hurry when I made it, and we were out of raisins, so I decided to sub tangerines in there and blanch instead of roast the broccoli. I'd still like to try my idea with raisins, but this incarnation was good too. Be warned: it has a lot of cumin. Unless you have advanced to expert-level in cumin, you might want to cut it in half.

The soba and broccoli salad is even easier than the couscous, and it's great comfort food, served either warm or room temperature. I made it again this afternoon so I can have it for dinner tonight at school.

Israeli couscous with broccoli and tangerines

1 crown broccoli, rinsed and chopped into florets

1 cup Israeli couscous

2 tangerines, peeled, separated into segments, and each segment cut in half width-wise

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

Pinch of salt

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Toss in the broccoli. Almost immediately (10-30 seconds later), use a slotted spoon to transfer it to a medium bowl. When the water has come back up to a boil, add the couscous and cook until it is done (8 minutes or so).

In the meantime, put the tangerines in the bowl with the broccoli and prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together the remaining ingredients. When the couscous is done, drain it and transfer it to the bowl with the broccoli and tangerines. Dress everything with the vinaigrette.

Broccoli and soba salad

1 crown broccoli, rinsed and chopped into florets

1 bundle of soba noodles*

1/4 red pepper, diced

1-2 tbsp tahini-miso dressing

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Toss in the broccoli. Almost immediately (10-30 seconds later), use a slotted spoon to transfer it to a medium bowl. When the water has come back to a boil, toss in the soba noodles and cook until they are done.

In the meantime, put the red pepper in the bowl with the broccoli. When the noodles are done, drain them and throw them into the bowl with the broccoli and pepper. Dress with tahini-miso dressing to taste. The heat and water on the noodles will help the dressing spread out well, so make sure to dress it while it's still hot.

*In my experience, soba noodles are generally sold as several wrapped bundles in a plastic package. If you get them in some different increment, just throw in what looks like 2 servings.

Coconut pancakes

I have a TA session on Tuesday nights, so I spend the day until midafternoon or so at home. This morning I made myself these pancakes. The recipe is from the January 2011 issue of Bon Appetit. They're nice and coconutty without being very sweet. They also kept me full for a while, which is nice. As you can see, I topped mine with fresh blueberries, chopped hazelnuts, and a little agave nectar. I meant to plop some yogurt on it but forgot. Bon Appetit suggests a tropical fruit salad with mango, pineapple, and banana.

Have I ever mentioned that I used to think I didn't like coconut? I have never really liked coconut cake or coconut cream pie, and the sweetened shredded coconut that might accompany jelly beans at Easter is not exactly food. But like so many things in my life that I used to think I disliked (Mozart, I'm looking at you), there started to be exceptions. "I don't like coconut, but I like the curry at that restaurant." "I like the tom yum soup at that place." "I thought I wouldn't like the mung beans and greens in coconut milk, but it turned out delicious." I began to realize that the coconut dishes I liked were not the exception. I just don't really like sweetened shredded coconut. Now that I've realized I do like coconut, I've been making more coconut milk curries and soups and using shredded coconut in my granola. I haven't gotten around to it, but I'm also interested in experimenting with coconut milk ice cream and jus alpokat. I'm really glad that I was adventurous enough to try things I thought I wouldn't like because boy, coconut is good!

Coconut pancakes

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (mine was kind of the texture of coarse bread crumbs-I don't know if that was the intended texture, but it worked well)

3/4 tsp allspice

3/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 can (about 14 oz) coconut milk

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tbsp vanilla extract (I used some homemade by my cousin and given to me for X-mas!)

2 tbsp agave nectar (recipe called for maple syrup, but I didn't have any)

Mix dry ingredients together. If your baking powder is super old like mine, try to break up the clumps. Biting into a chunk of baking powder is not very fun. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir/whisk until the batter is somewhat pourable. I accidentally forgot the water at first, and since I had already mixed it quite a bit when I poured the water in, it was a little lumpy. Even if you do it correctly the first time, these will probably be thicker than your standard pancakes.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium. When skillet is hot, pour about 1/4 cup of batter on it and spread it with the back of a spoon until it's a normal pancake size. When the bottom is golden brown to brown and the top has little bubbles on it and has partially dried out, flip the pancake and cook the other side. Repeat.

Tahini-miso sauce/dressing/dip

What do tahini and miso have in common? They are both pastes that I almost always have in my fridge and don't use nearly as much as I should. So the other day I was making some soba noodles and trying to decide what to have on them. I was going to make this miso-basil salad dressing, but at the last minute I decided to see if Mark Bittman had any more ideas for me. I stumbled upon a really easy tahini-miso dressing, so I decided to make that. (I also had a surplus of tahini because a friend who was moving gave me half a jar of it.) The dressing was stupidly simple, but miso is such a complex flavor, and sesame is so nutty and rich, that it works really well. The only issue I had was that my tahini was kind of old and a bit dessicated at the bottom, so it took a lot of effort to get it smooth. I have had the sauce on a couple different soba noodle salads, and I think it would be fantastic on a dense green vegetable like broccoli, asparagus, or green beans. It could also make a good dip for crudites.

Later this week I hope to make some tahini-based cookies. Yum!

Tahini-miso sauce (from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman)

1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely minced or pressed

1/4 cup miso paste (I used white)

1/2 cup tahini

1/2 cup water

Whisk together using a fork or whisk. If your tahini is being stubborn, let it sit for a while. The water will help soften up any lumps.

Asian Risotto

This idea came to me when I added some of Ev's wonderful spicy spiced oil to leftover mushroom risotto. We don't do much fusion food, but here is our contribution to the genre.

Just a warning: all ingredient measurements are approximate.

Risotto ingredients:

1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

1/2 cup white mushrooms

2 oyster mushrooms

1 small onion

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cup arborio rice

Broth ingredients:

5 cups water

2 tsp Better than Bouillon mushroom base

2 star anises

1/2 tsp whole szechuan peppercorns

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 slices dried ginger

For serving:

Sauteed kale or (baby) bok choy

Spicy spiced oil

Soy sauce

Combine the broth ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a simmer and keep on low heat.

Reconstitute the dried shiitakes in about 1 cup of hot water. Drain and put the liquid in the broth.

Dice the onions and mushrooms. Heat the oil over medium heat in a wok or deep pan. Add mushrooms and salt. Cook until they have given up their water. Add the wine and rice. Cook until the wine is absorbed. Add broth to the risotto. Cook until the broth is mostly absorbed and add more broth (1/2 a cup at a time). Repeat until the desired consistency is reached.

Finish with some spiced oil and serve on a bed of greens. Season with salt or a little soy sauce to taste.

Braised tofu in caramel sauce

This was one of those recipes that seemed so unusual that I just had to try it. It comes from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I am not very familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, but he says that this sauce, which is caramel with lots of black pepper, is typical Vietnamese fare. It is really good! The caramel is sweet but a little bitter, and the salt from the soy sauce balances out the sweetness. 1 teaspoon of pepper is quite a lot. We aren't used to pepper being so integral to the taste of the dish. It's really nice.

The one thing I plan on changing next time is to add some vegetables. I am a vegetarian in part because I love to eat vegetables, and a meal of rice and tofu with brown sauce is not veggie-laden enough for me. The first time I made this, I made a side of kale, and it was really good. We had some spinach on the side last night when we had it, but while we were brainstorming, we decided that next time we're going to add some cubed eggplant to the sauce itself while it's cooking. I also think carrot and broccoli might stand up well to the sauce and be good additions. We'll let you know how it turns out.

Braised tofu in caramel sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tsp dulse, optional (makes the soy sauce taste a little more like fish sauce)

1/2 cup diced onion

1 tsp ground black pepper

Juice of 1 lime

1-2 lbs. tofu, pressed if you have time, and cut into 1-inch cubes

Cooked brown rice for serving

Put a large, deep (we used a Le Creuset pot) skillet over medium heat. Add the sugar and 2 tbsp water. Cook, occasionally shaking the pan and/or stirring with a wooden spoon, until the sugar liquefies and darkens. Turn off the heat.

Combine soy sauce, dulse, and 1/2 cup water. Very carefully, add the soy mixture to the caramel. It will bubble furiously. Don’t let your skin be too close to it. It’s a little scary. When it has stopped bubbling, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, stirring, until caramel has all dissolved into soy sauce liquid. It should only take a minute or so.

Add the onion and cook until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add black pepper, lime juice, and tofu. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tofu is heated through and seems to have taken in a lot of the caramel mixture. If you can’t tell, five minutes should be about right.

Serve over brown rice with a side of kale or other veggie.

Evelyn's Bob's Red Mill

Nothing major here. Just sharing a nice oatmeal alternative for chilly mornings. We call it Evelyn's Bob's Red Mill because we started eating Bob's Red Mill 5-grain cereal instead of oatmeal a while back. It's about $3/lb, but we discovered we can buy the rolled grains in bulk and have a similar experience. I think what I like about it is mainly that the rolled grains are thicker than regular rolled oats. I figure the mix of grains is probably healthy, too. The Whole Foods near me has these grains in bulk for prices ranging from $1.19-1.99/lb, so it's significantly cheaper than buying the packaged one. I think I've seen rolled triticale and quinoa in addition to the grains below, but they didn't have any on my most recent trip.

Here are the toppings I've been using recently:

-1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp ground flax seed, 10 chopped hazelnuts

-8 fresh raspberries, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp whole chia seeds, 10 chopped hazelnuts

I really like having the cold fruit because then I don't have to wait very long for the cereal to be cool enough to eat. The flax seeds and chia seeds add omega-3's and extra fiber. I'm not usually into supplement-ish food, but I saw these on sale, and I figure it can't hurt. Plus I like to feel like a weird health food nut every once in a while.

I hope I don't seem to be callously undercutting Bob's Red Mill. I find it to be a good, if sometimes slightly expensive, brand, and I often buy their whole grains and flours. It's just good to know there's a cheaper alternative to this particular product, and this is really what we've started calling it.

Evelyn's Bob's Red Mill

This is just a suggestion. Any combination of rolled whole grains would be good.

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup rolled wheat

1/2 cup rolled rye

1/2 cup rolled barley

1/2 cup rolled spelt

Stir together. Store in a sealed container at room temperature. To cook, bring 1 cup water to a boil and add 1/2 cup grains. Cook, stirring occasionally, until water has boiled off.

Split pea veggie patties with cabbage salad

I got this recipe out of the October 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times, and I’m going to come right out and tell you that it has an Achilles heel. Like many Vegetarian Times recipes, it doesn’t fill me up, at least not at anywhere near the suggested serving size. I think VT is very health-conscious, which is great, but their form of health-consciousness is a little different from mine. I think that by eating a wide variety of foods, mostly not-very-processed plants, I am doing OK. I am not trying to lose weight, and I don’t count calories. VT has a little bit of a war on calories. I think 350 Calories is their definition of “lite,” and I think they try to make sure a high percentage of their recipes come in under that mark. I am a hungry girl, and 350 Calories is not a meal for me! I halved the original VT recipe, which claimed to serve 6, and had a little more than a third of it for lunch. An hour later, I was hungry and ended up having a not very nutrition-dense snack of bread and butter. I had the rest of the recipe for dinner, and while I didn’t go to bed hungry, I wasn’t terribly full either. So the original recipe probably serves more like 2-3 people than 6. This is both an advertisement and a warning. This meal is yummy and full of good veggies, but it might not fill you up for long. (In case you were wondering, the recipe says that 1 of their servings, which is 2 patties and 1 cup of salad, has 190 Calories. If I had read that first, I probably would have known that I needed to increase the serving size dramatically.) If you are looking to cut calories and lose weight, this is probably a great recipe for you.

Now that I’ve ranted about VT’s mission to deprive me of satiety, let’s move on to the recipe. The patties are held together by leftover split pea soup and an egg, which I think is ingenious. I have made veggie patty-type foods quite a few times, and often they don’t hold together very well at all. The soup really takes care of that. Some carrot, sugar snap peas, and corn round out the patties. I like that the patties are flavored with sesame oil, soy sauce, and ginger, but those flavors are not overwhelming. It’s served on a terrific bed of cabbage and carrots. This might have been my first time to eat Napa cabbage. It is not exotic to me, but it’s something, like turnips or radishes, that I see all the time in the store and never eat. Napa cabbage is pretty awesome! I guess I kind of just thought it was expensive white cabbage, but it has a less bitter flavor, and the leaves are easier to work with than cabbage leaves. I guess it’s more like lettuce that way. I really liked the crisp texture of the cabbage in the salad.

Split pea veggie patties

makes about 6 patties, 3 VT servings, 1-2 Evelyn servings; multiply as needed

1 cup split pea soup (of course, you could use canned)

1 egg

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar snap peas, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen are fine)

1 green onion, chopped (both white and green parts)

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced or grated

Whisk together soup and eggs in a medium bowl. Stir in cornmeal, followed by the rest of the ingredients.

Heat a nonstick or your preferred frying pan over medium. Add some oil if you need it, and once the pan is hot, drop 1/4-cup scoops of pea mixture onto the pan. Flatten into disc shapes with a fork and cook 5 minutes, or until bottom is slightly browned. Flip and cook 5 minutes more.

Serve 4 patties each on a bed of cabbage salad, below.

Cabbage salad

makes 1 salad; multiply as needed

4 leaves Napa cabbage

1/2 cup grated carrot

2 tsp sesame seeds, toasted if you feel like

Miso salad dressing or other salad dressing (An Asian-ish one makes a lot of sense, but I think this would be fine with a vinaigrette or whatever you have. OK, not ranch.)

Thoroughly wash and thinly slice cabbage leaves. Combine with grated carrot and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Dress salad with 3 tbsp or so miso salad dressing (probably less of other salad dressings). Place 4 veggie patties on cabbage salad and dress with a little more dressing to taste.

Miso-basil salad dressing

I had the same package of miso in my fridge for well over a year, and I still hadn’t gotten around to making a salad dressing out of it. I really like miso salad dressings, so on Monday while I was waiting for my split peas to soften, I used the last of the miso to make a salad dressing for my salad at dinner. I love my lemon-sesame dressing, and I think it’s great when I’m in the mood for some Asian flavor on my salad, but I wanted a change of pace.

I figured Mark Bittman would have a miso salad dressing in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and I was right. I made his recipe with a few variations. First, I added some Thai and regular basil because I have a ton of it and it’s really bright, a nice foil for the richness of miso. I also added some soy sauce. Bittman says to use sake or water to thin the miso. 3/4 cup of sake seemed like too much. I didn’t want to be able to make a cocktail out of my salad dressing, so I used 1/4 cup sake and 1/2 cup water. The sake flavor adds complexity without giving it any alcoholic taste. Bittman uses no oil in the dressing, which means it’s low in fat, but it’s also very thin. In this form, I think it would be a great marinade or sauce for cooked vegetables, but I had higher-viscosity dreams for my salad. I added some sesame oil directly to the dressing and combined about 1/4 cup dressing with 1 tbsp vegetable oil for my salad that night. I recommend that you add some oil when you make it or as you go along if you want a typical salad dressing consistency.

Miso is delicious. Every time I eat it, I promise myself I will use it more often because it’s so rich and has a great slightly sweet, fermented, salty taste. Looking through my mountains of cookbooks and recipes, I see quite a few with miso, and I hope to be trying more of them soon.

Miso-basil salad dressing

makes about 1 cup before adding oil

6 tbsp miso

1/4 cup sake or water

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp sweetener (I used agave nectar; sugar or honey would be fine)

1/2 cup Thai or regular basil, finely minced

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, or more to taste

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Vegetable oil, optional

Combine miso, sake, and water and whisk with a fork until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients except for vegetable oil. Season to taste with rice wine vinegar. Add vegetable oil until your desired consistency is reached.

Split pea soup

Mm, green.

I am taking German right now, and I love it. Monday morning, my bike ride to school was pleasantly cool, so I declare that we have now entered Suppezeit! Suppezeit is a great time of year, albeit somewhat short in Houston. Only in a place as hot, humid, and long-summered as Houston would someone declare Suppezeit on an 86-degree day. But get this, although the temperature was 86 degrees, it only “felt like” 83 degrees, according to whomever decides these things. If you’ve lived in Houston, you know what a big deal that is. But I digress. The point is, I love soup, and I am very happy to be moving into soup season.

I made this soup on Monday after a long day at school. With just a little measuring, chopping, and patience, I had a warm, filling dinner and over a quart of leftovers. Stay tuned for a nice use of those leftovers in an upcoming post. While the soup is cooking, you can make a salad and some nice salad dressing (recipe also forthcoming). I also ate it with a slice of yogurt bread toast with a lot of butter.

I love the cumin-smoked paprika combo I used in this soup. Both spices add a lot of umami, which makes the soup really satisfying. Some vegetarian split pea soups are bland or way too salty, but I think the spices in this one give it some depth and flavor without adding too much salt. This vegetarian thinks that smoked paprika is a great substitute for the smoky, savory ham flavor in a lot of split pea soups. I put celery seeds in there because I didn’t have celery. They were fine, but add a diced celery rib if you’ve got one.

Split pea soup
makes 6 cups-ish, enough for at least 4 meals

2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery rib, diced, if you have it
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/4 tsp celery seeds if you don’t have a celery rib
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 lb split peas
6 cups vegetable broth or 6 cups water with 1 tbsp Better than Bouillon soup base

Heat vegetable oil in a soup pot over medium heat. When it is hot, add the onion, carrot, and spices. Saute until onion and carrot are soft and onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add split peas and broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook until peas are done to your liking, about 40 minutes.

Boozy fruit, an experiment (part 1)

Last week I saw an article in the New York Times food section about preserving fruit with alcohol. Alcohol is antibacterial, so according to the article you can preserve fruit without having to sterilize cans like you do with making jams. In addition, it just sounded intriguing to me. The article suggests that you can serve the fruit and liqueur with ice cream, custard, in trifle, or other dessert options, you can make a drink out of them or garnish drinks with them, or even make muffins out of them if you don’t mind a little buzz in the morning. It seems this is a great idea for gifts at Christmas or throughout the year.

The basic idea seems to be 1 pound of fruit, 1/2 cup of sugar, booze (at least 40% alcohol by volume) to cover, and 4-12 weeks of macerating time. I stared at my liquor shelf and came up with three combinations I wanted to try: gin and cucumber, strawberry and tequila, and plum or apricot and kirschwasser, which is a cherry brandy.

I went to the store and bought a pound of cucumbers, a pound of strawberries, three plumcots and three plums. I also picked up more gin (I didn’t want to use the good stuff for this experiment) and some regular brandy because I didn’t have enough kirschwasser, and the corner liquor store didn’t have it. I didn’t have any quart-size jars, and each pound of fruit makes about a quart, so I just used two smaller jars for each batch. This also gave me the opportunity to experiment with flavorings.

Tequila and strawberries

I paired these two because strawberry margaritas exist and are tasty. I washed the strawberries, cut the stems off, cut large ones in half, and cut all the soft or bad spots off. I figured bad spots would not fare well sitting in a cabinet for months. I divided the strawberries into two jars and added some lime zest to one of them. I added 1/4 cup sugar to each jar and filled with tequila.

Brandy with plums and plumcots

I picked this pairing because one of the recipes was in this vein and I had some kirschwasser I never used. I wasn’t really sure which stone fruit to use, cherry, apricot, or plum, but plums and plumcots were on sale at the store, so I went with those. I washed the fruit and poked it all over with a needle as advised in one of the recipes I had seen. I put the three plums into one jar and the three plumcots into another. To the jar with the plums I added 1/2 a cinnamon stick, some fragments of a nutmeg I had cracked previously, and 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste. To the jar with the plumcots I added 1/2 cinnamon stick and 1/4 tsp whole cardamom seeds. I added 1/4 cup sugar to each jar, divided the kirschwasser between them, and filled the jars the rest of the way with brandy. The plums didn’t fit in the jars very well, so I ended up cutting one of them in half in each jar for geometry’s sake. I am interested in seeing if this changes the taste or texture.

Gin and cucumbers

I paired these two because of my favorite drink, the Gordon’s cup. I was also a excited to have a reason to use juniper berries. I received some as a gift about a year ago and hadn’t figured out a use for them yet. Using my mandoline, I sliced two cucumbers into 1/4-inch thick slices. I divided them between two jars. Into one jar I also placed 2 tsp juniper berries. Into the other I added a little lime zest and 1 tsp coriander seeds. I sprinkled 1/4 cup sugar into each jar and covered with gin.

There was a good amount of undissolved sugar at the bottom of all the jars, so I shook them around. After an hour or so of shaking every once in a while, the sugar had all dissolved.

All the fruits I used are less dense than alcohol. The plums were wedged into the jars pretty well, so they were completely submerged, but the strawberries and cucumber slices were poking up. I didn’t think that was a good idea, and I didn’t want to spend the next month rotating the jars so all the fruit would be submerged regularly, so I searched my house for ways to hold them down. I ended up putting the two halves of my tea ball into two of the jars, the top of one of our cocktail shakers into another, and an empty sample-sized glass jam jar with no label into the last one. These were just tall enough to push down the fruit so it wouldn’t be exposed to air. I hope none of them are alcohol-soluble. My life isn't very exciting; my quest to submerge fruit made me feel like MacGyver.

Tea ball to the rescue!

Having dissolved the sugar and submerged the fruit, I rinsed the jars so they wouldn’t leave sticky rings and placed them in a corner of a cabinet, the closest thing I have to a cool, dry place in my Houston apartment. Unless I get too antsy, I plan on trying them in around six weeks, which will be November 9th-ish. I’m excited. I’ll let you know how they are and what I decide to do with them. At that point, if they’re good, I can make more batches that will be ready just in time for Christmas.

Refreshing Health Beverage/Red Rover

Have you ever tried cranberry juice? I don't mean cranberry juice cocktail or a blend of grape, apple, and cranberry juice. I mean the real stuff.

You can get it at most grocery stores. It's a bit pricey (from $4.50-$9 for 32 oz), but it's really sour, so you probably won't be able to drink much at a time. I was having some physical problems that I thought cranberry might be good for, so I decided to start incorporating some of the real stuff into my diet. (Side note: I'm generally not a fan of treating food like medicine, and I recognize that the small amount of cranberry juice I drink each day probably does nothing tangible for my health, but I wanted to feel like I was being proactive in some way, plus I like it.)

I find cranberry juice too intense to drink by itself, but a combination of cranberry juice and sparkling water is tasty and refreshing. I'm not a fan of drinking really sweet stuff with meals, so I like that this has some flavor but isn't sweet. Jon and I call my cranberry and seltzer combo "Refreshing Health Beverage." One night we were about to watch a movie, and Jon wanted a festive beverage to accompany it. He added rum to Refreshing Health Beverage, and I dubbed it Red Rover. You don't often see non-sweet rum drinks. I think the tartness brings out the flavor of the rum in a totally different way than most things.

Refreshing Health Beverage

1/3 cup 100% cranberry juice

8 oz sparkling water

Pour cranberry juice into a glass. Add water.

Red Rover

1/3 cup 100% cranberry juice

1/3 cup rum

6 oz sparkling water

1 lime wedge, optional

Pour cranberry juice and rum into a glass. Add water. Garnish with a lime wedge if you feel festive.

Celery and tofu salad

We have really been enjoying the spice oil! I have been using a mixture of it, sesame oil, and regular vegetable oil to saute onions and kale. Yum! Jon topped some popcorn with spice oil and salt the other day. The non-capsicum spices really came through on the popcorn.

(Sorry, it just looks like popcorn.)

We have also made the celery-tofu salad from the Minimalist column that originally gave us the idea to make the spice oil. We were quite underwhelmed with the recipe as written, but we made some tweaks that really takes it up a notch. Even when generously salted, I found Bittman's version hot but lacking in depth of flavor. We upped the flavor with ponzu sauce and sesame oil, and it's now quite nice. (Ponzu sauce is a Japanese condiment made from soy sauce and citrus juice.) I think the ponzu was key because it added both saltiness and acid, which the spice oil doesn't have. To bump up the calories a bit, we have also served this over rice noodles, but you'll still be chewing for a long time if you want to fill up on this. I'd recommend eating something more substantial with it to make a full meal.

If you haven't seen pressed tofu before, ours comes in a package like this.

And the bricks look like this.

(I forgot to take the picture until after I had sliced it, so I just stuck it back together.)

It is, as the name suggests, pressed until it is very firm. Some brands are also lightly spiced as well. The texture is really nice for dishes where you won't be cooking the tofu, like this salad or a spring roll. It's also good just cut up on regular salads if you want to pump up the protein a little.

Sorry, I don't include amounts on any of the ingredients. The amount of celery and tofu you use depends on how much salad you want to eat, and the other ingredients are all to taste.

Celery and tofu salad

Celery

Pressed tofu

Sesame oil

Chinese spice oil

Ponzu sauce

Rice noodles (the flat ones), cooked, optional

Slice celery into thin spears. I did this by slicing each rib into three pieces and then each piece into two or three pieces lengthwise. Cut the tofu into thin slices roughly the same size as the celery. Top with sesame oil, spice oil, and ponzu sauce to taste. Serve over rice noodles if desired. Chopped celery leaves are nice for garnishing if you're into that kind of thing.