Mushroom, Lentil, and Chestnut Ragù

A ragu is meant to be a little bit sauce-like, but mine was more solid. This is my version of the Myra Kornfeld recipe in my favorite cookbook, the Voluptuous Vegan. I bought my copy about 10 years ago and have slowly worked my way through ever since, triumph by delectable triumph. Allow yourself a generous 3 to 4 hours. It tastes like Thanksgiving! All the picky eaters in my family loved it. Serves 8 hearty eaters alongside the broccoli rabe polenta--which you could make a few days before because it keeps well--of the previous post.


1 Cup whole roasted chestnuts from a jar
1 1/2 Cups French lentils (they keep their shape, unlike some lentils I could mention!)
cheesecloth
7-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
7-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
12 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 large portabello mushrooms
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons shoyu or gluten-free soy sauce
2 onions, diced (2 Cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 celery stalks, cut into large pieces on the diagonal
salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 large lemon

1. Cover lentils with 8 Cups water in a pot. Add a bouquet garni (tied in cheesecloth) of 6 sprigs rosemary, 6 sprigs thyme, and 2 bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, about 30 minutes or until lentils are soft. Drain liquid, remove bouquet garni, and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to  375 degrees. Clean mushrooms. Remove stems. Cut the mushrooms into large chunks. Toss in a bowl with 4 Tablespoons olive oil and all of the soy sauce. Spread in a shallow baking pan and roast 30 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a very large saucepan, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add onions, garlic, and celery and saute about 10 minutes until softened. Salt it to taste.
4. Add the lentils to the onion mixture. Salt to taste. Add the mushrooms. Add the chestnuts, breaking them up by hand. Add about 1 Cup water. Simmer to marry the flavors and add any salt or pepper to taste. Turn off the heat.
5. Mince a teaspoon of rosemary, one teaspoon of thyme, and add it to the mixture along with the lemon juice. Serve immediately while wearing well-polished boots. 

Tortilla Adventure and Huevos Americanos

You have my deepest apologies for the ridiculously long absence. Unfortunately for my goofy cooking adventures, my career seems to be taking off, which means too much work, writing work. That wouldn't be such a problem if Goofy Toddler weren't also taking off, all the time, in every direction at rocket ship speed, and then keeping me awake half the night screaming, "nurse the OTHER boob! nurse the OTHER boob!"  How many times do I need to explain there are only two? You might perceive why my output has suffered.

Anyway, on to my most recent tortilla adventures! I have discovered that I live quite close to a tortilleria y panaderia (a tortilla and bread bakery).  The first time I waltzed in, I made a brief tour of the bakery, shelves overflowing with breads and pastries topped with candy-colored frosting. I didn't see any tortillas, though. I sashayed up to the counter and asked the woman behind it, Donde esta los tortillas? (I used my favorite sixth-grade Spanish sentence, Donde esta el banyo? then hacked in "tortillas," and guessed the article los was plural because of Los Angeles.)  The woman replied to me, in what I assumed was Spanish, one of those pesky phrases not covered in sixth grade. I looked at her blankly and gestured around the store, repeating, "Where are the tortillas?" The woman looked at me, resignation in her weary gaze, then went over to an unmarked cooler next to the tortilla-making-machine and took out some tortillas. She weighed them and told me how much they cost. I said, Muchas gracias, and then she moved on to a literate customer. 

The tortillas were still warm!  Joy coursed through my veins. I gave some to Goofy Toddler, who chewed one up and asked for another. After a week or so, the tortillas had vanished into numerous digestive systems. I returned to the tortilleria, armed with the knowledge of where the tortillas are.

I walked up to the counter and said to a (different) woman behind it, "Tortillas, por favor." With my hand I indicated how large the stack of tortillas should be. I felt quite clever at my language work-around. The woman, bored, replied in English, "Two pounds?"  I flushed. "Yes," I muttered. "Two pounds." I had no idea how high a stack of tortillas two pounds makes. Two pounds of tortillas turn out to be only so high, and they last most of a week at our house. 

I invented this recipe last week using our fresh tortilleria tortillas. George really loves this recipe, but I have to admit it's kind of a trailer park/Tex-Mex mash-up.  Don't serve it to your rich relations, is all I'm saying.

Huevos Americanos

Serves 2 to 4 people

You will need:

 a medium small fry pan with a lid

a slotted spoon

4 eggs

1 15 ounce can Old El Paso enchilada verde sauce, mild or medium

OR enchilada/ salsa of your choice

4 medium-size corn tortillas

4 slices American cheese

1. Pour can of enchilada sauce into fry pan. Heat gently until bubbling.
2. Carefully crack 4 eggs into the bubbling sauce, keeping them separate from each other. Cover.
3. Meanwhile, heat up tortillas in a toaster oven or on a dry fry pan, melting one slice of cheese on each tortilla,
4. When the egg yolks have filmed over and no longer jiggle, use a slotted spoon to scoop out each egg and place it on a single cheesed-up tortilla. Serve immediately with a friendly jiggle of your own.

Spring Sabzi, Persian Greens with Black-eyed Peas

In Farsi, the word "sabzi" means green and can refer to herbs or vegetables.  This version of Sabzi is hardly the last word on the matter and—although easy and quite delicious—is a far cry from the top-of-the-line meals I enjoyed at the home of my Persian friend Roshanak. Roshanak loves to cook together several kinds of greens and herbs into a dense stew, or ash (AWSH). Then her family spoons it over rice and mixes this delicious concoction with homemade yogurt. Although I haven't visited Roshanak in years, this Sabzi's combination of cooked greens, good creamy yogurt, and rice reminds me strongly of all the amazing meals she so graciously served me. The black-eyed peas are the real surprise here: their light freshness adds to the feeling of Spring provided by the mixture of leeks, parsley, spinach, and lemon juice.  And the unexpected sprinkling of cinnamon works magic, although I have no idea why it belongs in this dish!

I think I got a version of this recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I'm not sure.

Serve this dish with a side of refreshing tropical fruit like pineapple or mango, spritzed with lime juice.

Spring Sabzi

about 1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped and washed in several changes of water
12 to 16 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 Cup fresh parsley, chopped
4 scallions (white and light green parts), sliced
2 16-ounce cans black-eyed peas, rinsed
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juices
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
several gratings of fresh nutmeg

1. In an extra-large skillet or soup pot, heat oil. Add leeks and cook until soft, roughly eight minutes.
2. Add spinach, parsley, scallions, and 1/4 Cup water. Cook until spinach wilts.
3. Stir in the black-eyed peas, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat 5 minutes until through. 

Serve over rice and offer people good quality yogurt or wedges of lemon.

Mexican Vegetarian: Breakfast of Tortillas, Beans, Rice, and Eggs or Avocado

My neighbor Alicia from Mexico kindly invited me over for breakfast twice this week. It turns out that whenever she has time to make breakfast, it's naturally vegetarian (but not vegan). Alicia assured me that if I went to a Mexican restaurant for breakfast, they would always serve the same thing that she makes herself: eggs, beans, and rice with salsa spooned generously over everything and a pile of crispy tortillas for scooping. This sort of breakfast can keep you going all day, she told me, unlike cereal or pancakes. In my experience, that's true. If you don't like to eat eggs, slices of fresh avocado make a perfect—and, Alicia would agree—authentically Mexican substitute.

Alicia's Tortillas:
Alicia uses either corn (gluten-free) or flour tortillas and leaves them on the fry pan until they get crispy and bumpily shaped. Then she uses them to scoop the beans, eggs, or rice into her mouth. No forks necessary! she told me happily.

Alicia's Beans:
Alicia cooks dry pinto beans in water with salt. First she covers them with water in the morning. Then when she returns in the afternoon she boils them until soft. She drains all but a little water, cooks them in a little oil in a fry pan and smashes them with a hand-held potato masher. Sometimes she adds a little bit of dried Mexican oregano. At serving time she sometimes tops the reheated beans with grated queso fresco, a soft white Mexican cheese.

Alicia's Rice:
First toast the dry rice toasted with a little oil,  then boil it until soft in water and a bit of bouillon or stock. Add corn kernels at the end.

Alicia's Salsa:
Cook 10 or more peeled and rinsed tomatillos in boiling water until they change color and soften. Drain. Puree them with a small handful of dried chilies de arbol (tiny red chilies) and a touch of salt. You can soak the chilies in water for an hour to soften them, first, if it makes them easier to puree. Alicia's mother taught her to make salsa this way. It can be extraordinarily spicy and flavorful.

Alicia's Eggs:
She sautées together diced mushrooms, tomatoes, and white onion, and possibly a little jalapeño pepper. Then she adds some beaten eggs and makes either scrambled eggs or an omelette.


It seems like a lot of work for breakfast, but the truth is that the beans, rice, and salsa are usually left over from dinner the night before, and the tortillas are store-bought. Alicia can serve a steaming hot breakfast in about 15 minutes.

Mexican Vegetarian (also Gluten-Free): Enchiladas, Tamales, Empanadas, Chile Rellenos

I hope the title didn't mislead you; I don't have recipes for the above foods. What I do have is a neighbor, Laura, from Mexico who barely speaks any English and who cooks to order from her home. Her food is quite inexpensive so I've been experimenting almost weekly with vegetarian requests from her (and learning Spanish food words). This post will report on some vegetarian possibilities for Mexican-style home cooking in the States, and you can use the post to create your own recipes.

The Goofy Family has the double limitation that we are eating gluten-free this month for medical reasons. We aren't concerned about the minute level of gluten contamination that causes problems for people with celiac disease, which is why we can eat gluten-free from my neighbor. Otherwise, with my language abilities that would be out of the question.

Spinach Enchiladas

Spinach is espinacas in Spanish and the Mexican people in my neighborhood exhibit a lot of familiarity with it, even though my Mexican-American neighbor pretty much never cooks with it or with any dark leafy green. I brought Laura an enormous bag of fresh adult spinach still attached to the crown and asked her for a batch (hornadas) of enchiladas, which turned out to be a dozen medium-sized enchiladas. I think she sautéed the spinach with generous amounts of garlic and onion, then rolled the spinach mixture tightly into warmed-until-soft corn tortillas. She piled the enchiladas up in two layers on a platter, poured a mild sauce over them, sprinkled on grated queso fresco (a mild white fresh Mexican cheese), and topped everything with a beautiful chopped salad of lettuce, tomato, radishes and avocados. They looked spectacular. She gave me a side of a very spicy salsa verde (tomatillo-based).  Everyone loved the combination of sauce-soaked corn tortillas, crunchy vegetables, chewy succulent spinach, and spicy fruity salsa. The key is to stuff a lot of spinach into each tortilla so that it makes a satisfying bite. Also, you need to add the sauce last-minute so that the enchiladas don't fall apart.

Bean-and-Cheese or Poblano-Cheese Tamales

Katharina asked me if tamales are a very fancy food. I laughed and told her that tamales are the equivalent of peasant food. But it's true that tamales look quite appealing in their fragrant banana leaf packages. I asked Laura for a dozen cheese tamales, half with beans (frijoles) and half with strips of roasted poblano peppers (rajas). The tamales innards (the part that you eat), is soft masa, or corn meal, mixed with your specified ingredients. Laura packed the innards into fresh banana leaves and then steamed the tamales until the masa cooked. For the frijoles tamales, she made runny refried beans that mixed in an appealingly gooey way with the queso fresco.  The rajas tamales lacked the kid-friendly texture of the frijoles tamales but George and I appreciated the deep complexity of the roasted poblano. Because the tamales had such a mild flavor, Sally though they needed some salsa or hot sauce. George and I enjoyed them without.

Kale or Spinach Empanadas

l had on my hands an enormous bag of baby kale, which I washed and brought over to Laura. She didn't know the Spanish name for kale but she easily recognized it and knew how to cook it. I asked for a batch (a dozen) of kale-and-garlic (ajo) empanadas, and Laura nodded and mentioned tomatoes, onions, and a bunch of other Spanish-language flavorings (which I didn't understand) that she would add as a matter of course. In my cookbooks I had read a few recipes for empanadas and was concerned that she would put wheat flour (harina) in but she shook her head and said she only makes empanadas with masa.  Laura called empanadas "The Mexican quesadilla," which I found hilarious. Empanadas are stuffed crescents of dough; they have the shape of a paper plate or a pie crust folded in half. Laura deep-fried the empanadas in a large fry-pan and gave them to me very hot and fresh. The kale empanadas—pairing succulent chewy savory greens with bright corn flavor—were delicious,  but they didn't contain very much filling. I wondered if the empanadas were more difficult to maneuver around cooked greens without the flexibility of wheat flour in the dough. At any rate, they tasted wonderful both hot and cold but we all found the oiliness a little overwhelming. I know that there are baked version of empanadas which I would experiment with next time.

Chile Rellenos

We ordered this classic dish a few days before the gluten-free diet began, and the chile rellenos came in a fried batter, which contained wheat flour. Laura stuffed full poblano chiles with big blocks of queso fresco which somehow did not even get warm, let alone melt. Then she dipped the peppers in a batter and deep-fried them in a large fry pan. She poured a delicious thin sauce over the peppers that made what might have been a somewhat unsatisfying recipe into a pretty captivating meal. The good thing about making your own chile rellenos is that it is always, in my experience, extremely easy to peel off the fried batter. So if you're gluten-free (not celiac, obviously) or dieting, you can deep-fry your peppers, pull off the oily exterior, pour a warm delicious sauce over the whole thing, and dig right in.

I hope this post inspires you to try a little Mexican vegetarian cooking at home!

Mexican Vegetarian: Green Enchiladas

The Goofy Family is going gluten-free for two months to test for intolerance, so pretty much everything I'm posting for a while will be gluten-free. This coincides nicely with Passover, although the (Ashkenazi) Passover diet is much stricter. Let's compare gluten-free with Passover.

Gluten-free:

Nothing that contains wheat, rye, or barley.  Most oats are quite contaminated.

(Ashkenazi) Passover:

Nothing that contains wheat (except matzah). Nothing that contains rye, barley, spelt, or oats. No corn, millet, and sometimes rice. No legumes including beans, soybeans, lentils, and peanuts. Or anything made from any of those things.


So these enchiladas I just made definitely fit the gluten-free category, but they fail in the Passover category. To make these Kosher for Passover, you need to ditch the corn tortillas and serve the filling over rice (if you're cool with that) or quinoa, pouring the sauce on as a final touch. Plus, the sauce can only contain kosher for Passover ingredients.

I really "riffed" on this recipe, which is my first by Rick Bayless, famous famous cook of Mexican cuisine. I chose all the riffs because I am lazy to my core. The recipe that resulted certainly had its delicious components: a fruity and tangy sauce, the smell of fresh corn, and the satisfying chew of gently cooked spinach and mushrooms. Its Achilles heel was the texture of the tortillas, which I did not spray and bake in the oven until pliable like Bayless suggested. Instead I over-toasted them or under-microwaved them. Next time I'll probably cook them in oil in a huge fry pan so I can keep a close eye on their pliability. But the oven is definitely overkill in my opinion.

Green Enchiladas

The filling:

8 ounces button mushrooms, washed, stemmed and sliced
10 ounces fresh adult spinach, washed, stemmed and chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced

The sauce:

1 16 ounce jar (2 Cups) of tomatillo salsa
1 Cup No-chicken or other vegetarian broth
3 Tablespoons crema or sour cream or half n' half

12 fresh corn tortillas

Optional: grated queso fresco


Directions:

1. Heat the salsa in a pot for 7 minutes. Add broth and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in crema. Cover and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in a large frypan on medium high heat until browned. Add onions and saute a few more minutes until softened and translucent. Add 1/4 Cup water and then as much spinach as you can fit into the frypan at a time until all 10 ounces are wilted.
3. Cook the tortillas until pliable. You might need to use oil or a frying pan or the oven or whatever you need.
4. Dip each tortilla in the sauce. Lay it on a plate. Add 2 Tablespoons of filling. Add the cheese. Roll up seam side down. Ladle more sauce over the top of each tortilla. 
5. Serve 3 enchiladas on each plate. Do not shout "Olé!"

Kimchi Fried Rice

I thought this kimchi fried rice would be exciting and invigorating. Instead I felt comforted and warmed. The spiciness increases gradually from the back of your mouth, but the rice keeps the heat from overwhelming your palate.

Kimchi Fried Rice

adapted from one of my favorite recipe authors on Serious Eats, Nick Kindelsperger

Serves 4

vegetable oil
4 Cups kimchi, chopped into bite-sized bits (DON'T TOUCH IT for crissakes)
4 Cups white rice, preferably a day old
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon go chu jang, Korean red pepper paste
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
4 eggs

1. Heat up a little oil in a fry pan over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add the kimchi. 
2. Once the kimchi is warm, in about 2 minutes, add butter and go chu jang. Stir until completely coating the kimchi. 
3. Add the rice, breaking up clumps, and stir until evenly distributed through the kimchi.
4. Pour sesame oil over the rice and stir again. 
5. Allow the bottom of the rice-kimchi mixture to develop a little crust.
6. Take out the mixture and divide among 4 bowls. Cover with plates to keep it hot.
7. Turn down the heat in the frypan, add some more oil, and scrape out bits of leftover rice.
8. Break 4 eggs into the pan. Cook slowly. When the egg is still a little oozy, turn off the heat. Put one egg on top of each bowl of kimchi rice. Serve at once.

Bread Pudding Casserole

This casserole took me a whopping 4 hours to make!


…Are you still here?

Even without careful rationing the casserole fed me through three-and-half days of lunches and dinners, so it ended up saving me about 2 hours.  The picky Goofy Baby loved it, I loved it, and its gorgeousness warmed my hungry heart.  The bon appétit site from which I adapted the recipe tried to market this recipe as a vegetarian Thanksgiving centerpiece, but I don't think so. I would never serve a cheesy dish at Thanksgiving, let alone as the centerpiece. I know some families have a broccoli and cheese casserole tradition on that day, but not as a turkey substitute!

The vegetable ingredients stay in season for months, so you can enjoy this from November through March or even April.

* This dish adapts really well to the gluten-free diet because the baguette I used had to be toasted until it was completely crisp. GF bread has no trouble getting crisp. I think you could use toasted gluten-free bread or even large, unseasoned GF croutons as a substitute (The brand Ener-G makes some). Just be careful to use gluten-free alcohol.

Butternut Squash and Kale Bread Pudding

2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch cubes
olive oil
1 baguette, * sliced into 1 inch pieces and toasted until crisp.
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
7 large eggs
1 pint cream
6 tablespoons dry white wine, sake, or Chinese Shao xing wine
4 large shallots, chopped
1 pound kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped or torn into small pieces
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Toss cubed squash with 1 Tablespoon of oil. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until tender.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in cream, wine, and kosher salt. Add baguette pieces. Mix gently together and allow to sit for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. In a large pot, heat 2 Tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add shallots. Sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add kale. Cover and cook 2 to 7 minutes until kale has wilted a little but is still bright green.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer half of the bread from the egg mixture to the baking dish. Arrange it to cover most of the dish.
6. Spoon half of the kale-shallot mix over the bread.
7. Spoon half of the squash cubes over the kale.
8. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the squash cubes.
9. Repeat steps 5 through 8.
10. Pour remaining egg mixture over the bread pudding.
11. Cover the bread pudding with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered 20 minutes.
12. Cool and serve.

Greens and Quinoa Pie

I made this pie first thing after the major December holidays had finished up. For my recipe I adapted an old Myra Kornfeld recipe in the March 2010 Vegetarian Times feature on Passover.* Passover recipes in magazines usually fail to follow the rigorous dietary requirements of Ashkenazi Jews in one way or another, but I suspect that with a name like "Kornfeld," Myra figured out the rules the natural way. Anyway, this pie is ingenious because quinoa is technically NOT a grain—and technicality is everything in Jewish law. Quinoa, related to spinach and chard, has the added advantage of a complete set of amino acids and as a bonus, also lacks gluten!

Don't place this pie side by side with your grandmother's brisket because you will break the laws of kashrut. This pie features two kinds of cheese, so use the pie for a dairy Passover or any dairy meal during Passover, like on the fourth night.  But like I said, it's December right now and the recipe works really well for those of you who want something light and refreshing and festive.


*The other Kornfeld Passover recipes included a Chocolate Mousse Cake made with almond flour, Garlicky Leek and Artichoke Soup with basil pesto, and Tunisian Carrot Salad with radishes and olives. You might be able to look them up at the Vegetarian Times website.

Greens and Quinoa Pie

1/2 Cup white (not red) quinoa
1 large bunch escarole, curly endive, or chicory (about 1 1/4 lb.)
1 head Romaine lettuce
2 medium onions
4 to 5 scallions, washed
1/4 Cup fresh dill, washed
1/4 Cup (1 ounce) feta cheese, preferably marinated
1/4 Cup (1 ounce) Swiss-type cheese, grated
3 eggs
olive oil
salt

Special equipment: a 9-inch pie pan

1. Thoroughly rinse off the saponin (bitter coating) on the quinoa in several changes of water. Drain. Combine with 1 Cup of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Alternately, combine the water, quinoa, and salt in a rice cooker and set for the regular cycle. Fluff with the rice paddle.
2. Meanwhile, remove damaged outer leaves and core from escarole, chop roughly, and wash and dry. Set aside.
3. Repeat Step 2 with Romaine lettuce.
4. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add escarole and cook up to 5 minutes, or until mostly wilted, stirring frequently. Add Romaine and wilt that too. Transfer the greens to a strainer and push out excess moisture with a wooden spoon. Allow greens to continue draining while you complete additional steps.
5. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Peel and thinly slice onions. Heat some olive oil in a frypan over medium-high heat. Sauté onions about 10 minutes or until softened and browning. Allow to cool 
6. Chop your drained, wilted greens until they are in quite small pieces. Return them to the large pot (without heat). Add quinoa. Thinly slice scallions and add. Chop up dill and add. Crumble the feta cheese and add. Add grated Swiss cheese. Add cooled onions. Mix thoroughly all together.
7. Lightly beat the eggs and add to the pot. Mix again. 
8. Pour 1 Tablespoon oil into the pie pan. Place pan in oven for 5 minutes. Remove and swirl oil to coat the bottom. 
9. Put the quinoa-greens mixture into the pie pan and smooth the top. Bake 20 minutes.
10. Remove pie, drizzle with 1 Tablespoon olive oil, and bake another 20 to 30 minutes, until the pie is golden brown.
11. Eat hot or eat cold or eat from the pot nine days old.

Tangy Herbed Beans

I've been seeking a quick way to freshen up cans o' beans. My pantry overflows each week with cans o' beans, and I find myself occasionally—okay, often—bored at the thought of MORE BEANS. And worse, I don't really like beans cooked in pressure cookers or slow cookers because they don't allow me enough control over the tenderness. So I'm stuck with home-boiled beans or salty canned beans (or those Eden-brand canned beans preserved with seaweed, which taste odd in loads of recipes!).

I am still sad that Western cooks haven't jumped onto the idea of sweet bean treats, which in Japan was my absolute favorite way to eat both beans and desserts.

Luckily, I read a Vegetarian Times recipe for Southern California tacos invented by the winner of some show called The Cupcake Wars of all things (!), and then I read the amazon.com reviews of her recent cookbook, which commented that the chef asked for unnecessary amounts of oil. Keeping this plus the chef's obvious love for sweet desserts in mind, I pared down the recipe to about a fourth of its size and removed the oil, halved the sweetness, laughed at the request for cactus juice, and ignored the call for mushrooms once I realized that my box of mushrooms was hosting a fuzzy white fungus too. The result? A super quick, easy, fat-free, gluten-free (deep breath) delicious, tangy take on canned beans that I can't wait to make again.

If you are one of those people with the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, this recipe is not for you. Although…would you enjoy cilantro bubble bath? Just curious!

Tangy Herbed Beans

1 15 ounce can of either black beans or pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 Cup of cilantro, washed

1/2 Cup Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, washed

1/4 Cup lime juice

1 Tablespoon honey

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

a few good grinds of black pepper

1. Add all ingredients except for the beans to a blender or food processor until the herbs are in tiny tiny bits. 
2. Heat a fry pan. Add the beans and half of the blender sauce. Sauté 3 to 5 minutes until heated through, less wet, and the flavors have slightly muted.
3. Serve beans warm with extra sauce (all of it, if you dare!) spooned on top. Yum diddle dee dum!

Moong Bean Tomato Soup

Doug and I eat a lot of bean soups. After all, why not? Bean soups answer every need: cheap, healthy, filling, and comforting in the winter. Also, practically no one is allergic to them. The only problem is that bean soups bore the palate after a while, especially if you eat them for dinner every single night. Doug varies his bean soups by adding canned pumpkin or Italian sausage.  I like to revolve through a variety of beans. I make a tamarind-sour red lentil soup, a lemony split pea soup, a curried brown lentil soup, an eye-watering kimchi tofu and rice soup, and most recently a cozy moong bean soup.

The Indian people display a special genius for the legume family. I've never eaten a dal I didn't like. So when you grown bored with American-style beans, head over to an Indian grocer. Check out the rainbow of dals, both split and whole, that line the shelves. You may feel inspired to start making Indian bean soups. (Indian beans are still quite cheap.) If you don't live near an Indian grocer, order some Indian beans online. Dried beans travel well.
Some places online to buy Indian beans:
Indian Foods Co.
I Shop Indian
Indian Blend
Desi 911
Patel Brothers
Desi Mart

This particular soup was inspired by three fancier recipes created by Mark Bittman, who is not Indian and therefore tends to use more accessible ingredients in his recipes. I was able to make the entire soup in an hour. It won't take as long if you use split moong beans. I used whole. Whole moong beans are olive green in color with a tiny white stripe (see above).

Serves 4 to 8, depending on who's counting

Moong Bean Tomato Soup

1 Cup whole moong beans (dried)
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, washed
6 Cups or 48 fluid ounces of vegetable broth (I use Imagine No-Chicken)
salt and pepper

Equipment: 1 medium pot, 1 small pot

1. Wash the moong beans, being careful to pick through and make sure there aren't any small stones. 
2. Put moong beans and the vegetable broth in the medium pot. Heat on medium-high heat until boiling. Lower to a bare simmer, cover tightly, and cook 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, fill the small pot with water. Bring to a boil. 
4. Cut a small X in the bottom of the tomato. Blanch it in the boiling water by immersing it for 30 to 60 seconds. Take it out, let it cool a few minutes, and then peel off the skin with your fingers. Chop the tomato into small pieces.
5. Add the tomato to the moong bean soup—it doesn't matter where in the cooking process it is.
6. When the beans finish cooking, have a sip. Don't double-dip the spoon! Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy hot.

Optional additions: fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cayenne

Hot Beans

While on our three-week tour of the good ol' U.S. of A., I managed to sneak in a breakfast at Rick Bayless's Tortas Frontera. In the airport! I ate an egg and rajas torta with sides of smoky salsa verde and guacamole and a glass of lime juice. Crikey, it all tasted amazing!

So when I returned home, I felt very "F@*k yeah, Mexican food!" Ahem. So to speak. Then I invented this super super spicy dish, which I am sure Rick Bayless wouldn't even look at, he's so much cooler than I

May I take the liberty of suggesting three different approaches to my beans? First, you can use it as an extremely spicy, less fatty alternative to refried beans. Spread it on tortilla chips, top with sour cream. Or you can enjoy a simple bowl o' beans by heating it up with a cube or two cheese in the microwave. Finally, you may enjoy it as a spoonable snack. I find that two plain spoonfuls will kick my brain into gear, water all my ducts, and keep me going for at least an hour if not two.

Hot Beans by a Hot Mama (literally, I have all the fans and two air conditioners on)

2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 3 ounce can chilies in adobo sauce (find at your local Mexican grocer)
1 bell pepper, sliced up and sautéed in oil until tender.


Set aside 1 cup of the pinto beans. Put the rest of the beans, the can of chilies, and the cooked pepper together in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. You may have to add a little water. Mix the reserved beans in by hand.

Makes a lot of servings, depending on your heat tolerance

Bean Tacos

After making the below taco salad, my refrigerator overflowed with taco-friendly leftovers: sour cream, scallions, cilantro, lime, and avocado. So I bustled over to my local Mexican tienda and purchased fresh hand-made corn tortillas, a can of black beans, and some fresh tomatoes. As soon as I had laid taco fixings out on my kitchen counter, hungry neighborhood people began mysteriously drifting by, needing food. Luckily it takes only about a minute to make a nice bean taco once you have the fixings ready for degustation.

Five-Minute Bean Tacos

Makes up to 12 tacos

1 can of black beans, mostly drained but not rinsed
juice of 1/2 lime
a handful of freshly-washed cilantro
a few shakes of Old Bay or other preferred spice

Lightly purée the above ingredients together in a blender until cohesive but still chunky. Meanwhile, in a toaster over or in a dry frypan on a stove or in the oven, heat:

a bunch of corn tortillas

When the tortillas are pliable, warm, and cooked, spread the black bean mixture on them and top with any combination of:

chopped tomatoes
sliced scallions
sour cream
some ripe avocado

Fold and serve immediately with plenty of napkins.

Father's Day Taco Salad

When all six people in our family really enjoy a dish…well, that pretty much never happens. Except for this recipe. Imagine Tex-Mex taco innards, without cheese but with much more lettuce than usual, dressed simultaneously with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. In your mind's eye, crush the taco shell in your burly fists and crumble it on top. That is this salad: crunchy with lettuce and tortilla chips, gooey with avocado, sweet with corn, tangy with scallions and sour cream, fresh with cilantro, and earthy with beans.

I found a version of this salad recipe in an old Vegetarian Times issue for a bygone Father's Day. While I doubt their seitan Carolina 'cue sandwich made ol' Dad's dreams come true, this salad will definitely please men, teens, children, and man-children, depending on your family makeup. You won't find any odd or trendy ingredients here, and you can whip the whole salad up in about a half hour or less. The only downside is that it won't keep well, so you need to serve it fresh.

To please the largest number of people, purchase a very mild salsa. Tortilla chip shards can jab tender gums, so allow people to decide for themselves whether they want crushed tortilla chips on top; they are best added last in any case to keep them crunchy.

Taco Salad
Serves 8

2 Cups (approximately) chopped crunchy lettuce, such as romaine or iceberg
1 15 ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 Cup or 1 small container grape tomatoes
1/2 Cup defrosted frozen corn kernels
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 Cup cilantro, chopped
20 tortilla chips, hand crushed (optional garnish)

Dressing: 1/2 Cup sour cream, 3/4 Cup prepared non-chunky mild salsa, 1 ripe mashed avocado, and juice of 1 lime

1. Slice each grape tomato in half lengthwise, then into quarter lengthwise, then slice all four pieces in half to make eight small pieces.
2. In a large bowl, mix together lettuce, beans, tomatoes, corn, scallions, and cilantro.
3. Mix together dressing ingredients.
4. Add dressing to salad right before serving and mix thoroughly.
5. Either top with tortilla chips or pass around a bowl of crushed tortilla chips for people to add as they like.

6. Tell the father, happy father's day! Please enjoy this salad.

Sweet Potato Fries—Oven-Baked

When someone gives you a box of 16 waxed sweet potatoes, and you've only got 1 1/2 weeks to cook and eat it all, what strategy would you use? First, I pricked one and microwaved it about 5 minutes, then slit it open, mashed the flesh with a fork, and drizzled on a little bit of butter, salt, and pepper. That was good lunch for the two of us, but I didn't want to do that 15 more times in a row. So next, I peeled and cubed two sweet potatoes and steamed them until tender. Then I tossed them in a warm salad with spinach, rice noodles, hard-boiled eggs, and peanut sauce. Very satisfying. But after the salad, many steamed sweet potato cubes remained, but they tasted kind of bland and watery, not so great on their own. We couldn't bring ourselves to finish them. I hate wasting fresh produce, but I hate eating nasty produce even more.

I next attempted to make sweet potato gnocchi, served fresh with shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Following Mark Bittman's recipe, I mixed baked sweet potato with flour and grated Parmesan. Then I tried to get the gnocchi to be small and elongated, but the sweet potato was so gooey that it ended up in irregular lumps. This also turned out quite bland and watery, even with the cheese.

When I baked four sweet potatoes into wedge-shaped "fries," however, the fries vanished practically as soon as they hit the table. I used a recipe from Perfect Vegetables by the editors of Cooks Illustrated (I highly recommend this book for vegetable lovers). I oiled two baking sheets and heated them up in the oven until toasty. Meanwhile, I sliced each sweet potato into 8 length-wise wedges. I tossed them with a little bit of canola oil, some sea salt and fresh pepper. Then I spaced the wedges onto the preheated baking sheets and baked 15 minutes on each of the two flat sides of the wedges. Each wedge came out hot, tender, and with a little firmness on the flat sides. I served this with a dip of mayo mixed with curry powder. I would bake these fries again any day because they were quick, easy, way healthier than restaurant fries, and quite inexpensive. I wouldn't know from my own experience, but I bet these fries do the trick when you want your kids to eat their daily serving of beta-carotene.

Juicy Turnips

My neighbors cook many delicious things from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I also own this book, but I suffered several disappointments from it a few years back, and so it's been gathering dust ever since, even though I loved the meal I ate at Greens in San Francisco. 

My neighbors, however, have scored success after success from the orange tome, so I dusted it off and looked for a turnip recipe. I bought 4 large beautiful turnips at the farmer's market and hadn't the faintest idea what to do with it, even though my great-grandmother hailed from the Ukraine. Madison's suggestion of butter and fresh herbs worked well, but I think the addition of bread crumbs turned out to be completely unnecessary. So I slimmed down the recipe, and let me tell you, these turnips tasted sweet and delicious and burst with savory juices. I would make this again any time.

4 medium to large turnips, peeled
2 Tablespoons or more unsalted butter
2-3 heaping Tablespoons fresh chopped dill or other herb such as rosemary or tarragon
2 Tablespoons snipped fresh chives
salt and pepper

1. Cube turnips about dice-size.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
3. Add turnips and cook until tender.
4. Drain turnips.
5. Heat up butter in a fry pan until foamy.
6. Add turnips and cook on medium-high heat until slightly golden (about 8 minutes).
7. Add herbs and chives. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss about and turn off heat. 
8. Tell everyone, "Here come the Turnips! OH BOY." Smack your lips.

Serves 4 to 8 people.

Baby Bok Choy

I'm probably the worst bok choy cook on the planet. While I love bok choy at good Chinese restaurants, my own efforts invariably result in watery or over-cooked bok choy…usually both. After a while I figgered that me and the Big Bok Choy have irreconcilable differences, so I gave up trying.

Then George returned from Costco with a bale of baby bok choy.  I told him flat out, "I cannot cook bok choy." But he was all, No Sweat, and he cooked it himself. Apparently baby bok choy are way way easier to make tasty than adult bok choy. George's batch tasted so delicious that among the two of us and Doug and Julia we polished off every last choylet. And Bonus: bok choy has twice as much calcium as any other vegetable with a lot of calcium (I think maybe kale takes 2nd place).

Baby Bok Choy
several baby bok choy, washed, and halved lengthwise
juice of 1/2 lemon
vegetable oil

1. Heat up some oil to medium high. Cook the baby bok choy cut side down until browned, around 5 minutes.
2. Flip 'em over. Turn down the heat. Add the lemon juice to the pan, and cook until they become all soft and translucent.

If you serve these beauties to the right sort of guests, they will be super impressed and not realize at all that you put almost as much effort into these bok choy as you put into microwaving a bowl of peas. Good for you, you slickster!

Chanukah 2011

For Chanukah we're going to make the exact same thing as last year.
TRADITION, TRADITION. …… TRADITION! /fiddler-on-the-roof
The same latkes.
The same applesauce.
The same grated beet and carrot salad.
We're not awesome enough to make our own sour cream.

The same silverware.
The same chanukiyot.
The same candles. Okay, we conceded the basic nature of candles and bought new candles.


And we will use a new sparkly blue tablecloth from Julia; it's okay that it's new because it displays the Jewish colors.

Broccoli Fried Rice

"Broccoli" is such a weird word. Where the hell did it come from? Oh, Italian. Thanks, Wikipedia! Anyway, broccoli's a weird plant too. It looks like a bunch of trees stuck together; that's why the Italian word is plural. No wonder most children don't want to eat it--it belongs in the uncanny valley of foods.

I remember the first time I really enjoyed broccoli. In sixth grade everyone had to take Home Economics for about six weeks. At that time my cooking could best be described as hilarious. Home Ec straightened me out. I developed a lot of my food preferences during those six brief weeks, including which apples or cheeses I liked the most, that I hate cooking with raw animals, that cheese cake has way too much cream cheese in it, that I hate meringue and marzipan and rocky road pizza, and that I LOVE LOVE LOVE stir-fries (and soy sauce).

My stir-fry had crispy stalks of broccoli, water chestnuts, and baby corn and it was Totally Freaking Awesome. I was so proud of myself as I munched the miraculous goodness all the way home. If you have children who are vegetable averse, teach them to make a nice Chinese stir-fry and watch them poke around at all the curious little treasures they find in their tasty food.

This dish is in memory of you, Home Ec.

Broccoli Fried Rice
Serves 4 or 5.

1 head of broccoli, washed
12 fresh shiitake mushrooms or 8 oz. of any old mushroom, washed, destemmed, and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1 Cup or so cold-leftover rice
soy sauce (GF optional)
salt
pepper
juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1.  Slice the head of broccoli in half so that the florets have a much shorter stem. Separate the florets with your knife. Slice them lengthwise into quarters. Meanwhile, slice off the tough outer skin of the stem half. Cut the stem into 2-inch matchsticks quartered lengthwise.
2. Heat up a medium-large or large frypan with some vegetable oil. Pour in all the broccoli. Sauté about 8 minutes on medium heat or until cooked through and delightfully crisp. Remove from frypan and set aside in a bowl.
3. Add the sliced mushrooms. Cook on medium heat until they release their juices. Season with soy sauce. Push to the side of the pan.
4. Add the beaten egg and keep bothering it in the for about 40 seconds until it becomes not-quite-set scrambled eggs. Push to another side of the pan.
5. Add rice.  If it remains clumped together and too dry, add up to 1/2 Cup of water. Break it up with your spatula-turner. When it seems like a good texture and not too wet, season with soy sauce. 
6. Add the garlic. Return the broccoli to the pan. Heat through and mix everything together for about 2 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice over everything. Serve piping hot and watch those little imps scarf it down.

Fig Walnut Blue Cheese Pasta

Kay found the very first recipe I ever entered into my book of personal recipe successes. Even back then, she was an inspiring/ depressingly creative cook. We were 20 years old and I didn't know how to do anything except make toast, boil lentils and heat up canned tomato soup. Kay read the back of a dried Mission Figs bag and found this pasta recipe and realized its potential. So we made it together and it turned out to be a gourmet success. I was so proud of us! Julia also adopted this pasta recipe because even someone with her impeccable standards enjoyed it.

Skip forward 11 years. The other night I actually skipped the recipe and just ad-libbed with whatever we had on hand and it still turned out great. So I'm going to share this sloppier, easier version with you.  This fruit, salty, crunchy, gooey dish looks fantastic next to a side of broccoli or green beans.

To the Gluten-Free: This dish would be taste superb with Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta. I promise.

Fig Walnut Blue Cheese Pasta
Serves 4.

Ingredients:
8 ounces good-quality whole wheat spaghetti or brown rice pasta
vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced or chopped up
5-8 dried mission figs, stemmed and chopped small
3 to 4 handfuls of shelled walnuts, chopped small
2 or 3 handfuls of your favorite crumbled blue cheese

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender and toothy. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, slowly cook onion in a fry pan with oil until sweetened, soft, and a bit darkened.
3. At the same time, toast walnuts until fragrant in a dry fry pan.
4. Mix everything together and serve hot. Make sure all the good bits don't fall to the bottom of the mixing bowl. Tell your guests, "For you, my best."

The pasta actually tastes pretty amazing as a cold leftover too.