Food and Fun in San Francisco

Valentine's Dinner

2011-10-14T14:34:00.001-07:00

Valentine's Dinner, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Before Valentine's day rolls around again, I should probably post this picture of the last Valentine's dinner. We've been behind on posting as usual and I've been waiting for the Crusader to describe the dinner since he's the one that made it. According to him:

"The dinner was a dosa with a filling of a dry potato curry, topped with a coconut chutney, and served with a sambaar curry with rice. For desert, a carrot and cardamom kheer. The wine was a Hutch Gewurtztraminer from 2010, which was actually a dry grape that year."

This dinner was very special because it was a re-creation of the first ever meal that the Crusader prepared for me. Needless to say, the first and second time, I was very impressed.

Our cat of course loves to get in on the action whenever the camera comes out. I think that he is probably thinking about eating those roses more so than the dinner on the plate. He loves to eat flowers.

Chicken and ricotta soft tacos

2011-09-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

Easy and very tasty soft tacos.

Corn tortillas
Chicken breast boiled for 8 minutes and then cut up in pieces
Ricotta cheese mixed with herbs including mint and scallions and salt and pepper
Cut up radishes

Delicious.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Padron peppers in flatbread

2011-09-08T13:54:00.001-07:00

We got padron peppers in our csa box and had no idea what to do with them. Google came to the rescue with many links to variations on a simple preparation. We added flat bread and cheese to make it a meal.

Padron peppers in flat bread:
• Heat an iron skillet very hot and add just a little bit of oil (the amount of oil is really up to you- we found recipes that used anywhere from a teaspoon to a 1/4 cup). We used closer to a teaspoon.
•Cut off the woody stems and add whole peppers to the pan. Let them blacken a little bit and get soft. Stir them around so that all sides get a little blackened.
• When blackened and soft, remove from the pan and sprinkle with sea salt.
• Grill two small flatbreads per person. We simply put the flatbreads over a gas burner on the stove, but you could warm them in a grill pan or toast in the oven.
•Put some cheese on the flatbread (we used feta). Add the whole peppers. Sprinkle over some lemon juice, fold over flatbread and enjoy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2011-05-15T10:16:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Pie, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another strawberry rhubarb pie. Same recipe as last time. (Although in looking back it has been quite a while since I made the last strawberry rhubarb pie). For some reason I remember this pie being easier to make last time. This time I struggled with the crust, but in the end it turned out ok.

This pie tasted fantastic warm, but it slowly got less tasty as time went on. We can't eat a whole pie real fast, so next time we should try to share it while it is still in its super tasty phase.

Elderflower Lemon Pound Cake

2011-05-01T16:07:00.001-07:00

Elderflower Lemon Pound Cake, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Sometimes things just don't turn out well. This cake has a wonderful premise. Lemon and elderflower sound like they would be delicious with a pound cake. Lemon and elderflower syrup are delicious together, but they are not so good when combined with a mediocre pound cake.

I got this recipe from the Kitchn. The cake turned out a little dry and the middle fell in. Upon doing a little research, the Crusader discovered that if a cake is cooked at too low a temperature it can fall in the middle. If you would like to try this recipe, try cooking it at 350 rather than 325 for a little less time.

The cake tastes ok, but I am not sure that I want to waste the calories eating just an ok cake. I should stick with pie.

Asparagus and eggs

2011-04-01T12:37:00.001-07:00

Asparagus and eggs, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Spring has sprung and it is time for asparagus! Two weeks in a row we have gotten asparagus in our csa box. Not long ago we ate at Outerlands and we had a fantastic asparagus dish with poached eggs on top. As it turns out, this is fairly easy to make. We roasted the asparagus in the oven in a baking pan with olive oil and salt and pepper. Then we poached the eggs in some water with a little vinegar. I'm sure we've talked about poaching eggs before: add apple cider vinegar to water and bring to a boil in a medium size sauce pan, reduce from a boil to a light simmer, break egg into a small dish, create a whirlpool in the simmering water by stirring in a circular motion with the wrong end of a wooden spoon, stop stirring and plop the egg into the center--then let it cook for a few minutes (about 3) until the white is cooked through and the yolk is still runny.

Put the poached eggs on top of the asparagus and sprinkle with a little bit of gray salt and shave some parmesan on top. This is delicious. We recommend very fresh eggs for this--as fresh as you can get. We recently switched to very fresh locally farmed eggs and it makes quite a difference. The yolks are orange rather than yellow and taste fantastic.

Anyway, this is a delicious simple dish. The Crusader made his fake rice a roni again and it was a good compliment to the asparagus and eggs.

Oscar Night Snacks

2011-03-06T15:47:00.001-08:00

Oscar Night Snacks, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Cara cara oranges, cheddar cheese, piave torro del tempo stravecchio cheese, strawberries, honey, dates stuffed with goat cheese and pistachios, some extra goat cheese to eat with crackers, and cajun peanuts in the back.

Roasted Chicken and Fennel

2011-02-28T11:51:00.001-08:00

Roasted Chicken and Fennel, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is one of the best things we've made in a while. We found the recipe on the ever useful "Kitchn" from Apartment Therapy. The original recipe calls for chicken thighs, but we used chicken breast. We just put a probe into the chicken while it baked and took it out when it came up to temperature. The Crusader also made some wonderful mock riceroni to go with it by toasting some orzo and rice in a pan with some olive oil and then cooking it like regular rice--very tasty.

Blueberry Danish

2010-12-10T16:03:00.001-08:00

blueberry danish, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I used to make this blueberry danish quite a bit, but it relies heavily on a food processor and when our old cheapo food processor died several years ago, we didn't replace it. However, thanks to Costco, we now have a fantastic new food processor and we have been using it almost every day. I don't know why we just didn't get one as soon as the old one broke because we really do use it a lot.

The danish is from a food magazine from years go. It is fairly low fat, using low fat cottage cheese in the crust and low fat cream cheese in the filling. The dough and the filling are both made very quickly and easily in the food processor. What really makes this recipe is the blueberries--it requires a lot of fresh blueberries. The recipe specifically says "use only fresh blueberries." I was surprised to find fresh blueberries at this time of year, but they were very tasty. Perhaps I will make a few of these now that I have the tools to make it.

Favorite Breakfast

2010-10-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

favorite breakfast, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

As you may already know, I am a big fan of potatoes. I have discovered the fastest and tastiest breakfast that perfectly satisfies my potato jones.

The ingredients can vary depending on what you have one hand--onions, green onions, garlic, fresh herbs, etc.

But the basic recipe involves 1/2 bag of frozen hash browns, an egg, olive oil (maybe 1/2 a tablespoon) and some spices (and I always include catsup, but that is up to you).

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium/high heat until shimmering. If you are going to add onions or some other kind of fresh veggies, this would be the time to add them in the pan and soften them before adding the potatoes.

Add the potatoes and then add herbs and spices of your choice--one combo that the Crusader likes is a pinch each of cayenne, garlic powder, and paprika. Add salt and pepper to taste and then cook until the potatoes are done all the way through and slightly browned.

Then, crack an egg over the potatoes and then mix it in until the egg is cooked through. I just crack an egg in there, but the Crusader likes to lightly beat the egg before adding it to the potatoes.

When done, you will have a potato/egg mess that is pretty tasty. I then slather it with catsup as shown.

Egg, cheese, and chutney sandwich

2010-09-08T17:42:00.001-07:00

egg/cheese/chutney sandwich, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This combination may sound odd, but it is pretty good. We originally had something similar many years ago on a British Airways flight to Italy. Once again, it may sound odd that we are trying to emulate airplane food, but I think that it is just really a British influenced food.

The sandwich is very simple and contains only cheddar cheese, a scrambled egg (seasoned lightly with salt) and mango chutney. We've used a lightly toasted Oroweat potato bread, but you could really use any bread. I bet this would be good on a bagel too.

Long Time No See

2010-08-07T13:55:00.001-07:00

Kitchen Dahlias, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Wow! It has been a little while since we've blogged here. Sadly, we have no new food to talk about. The Crusader has been cooking meals regularly, but we just really haven't been thinking about taking pictures of our food. So, for this post, a picture of lovely dahlias in our kitchen will have to suffice. Dahlias are one of the only sign that it is summer around here. The weather has been rather gray and cold here in San Francisco, so perhaps that is dampening our interest in taking pictures of our food. I'm not complaining through since I way prefer 60 degrees to 100!

In somewhat food related news, we finally got a dining room table for our formal dining room, so perhaps we should start eating at it--although we still need some more chairs if we are going to entertain visitors. I've been obsessing about what color to paint the dining room. I tried a sort of muted pink--which we both decided that we hate. So now we are going to try a dark blue. We'll see if that works out.

Attack of the Killer Pine Nuts.

2010-06-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I made a "pantry soup" of carrots, celery, onion, 2 beets, cut into small dice and white kidney beans, all cooked with spring water, salt and pepper to taste, and a strip of kombu to add some nice amino acids. Because a little vinegar is necessary to combat the sometimes jelly-bean like taste of beets, I made a pesto of 1 clove of garlic, a few black peppercorns, 1/4 cup fresh oregano, 1/4 cup fresh mint, and 1/4 cup fresh basil. (This is the base to my "go-to" pesto, the oregano and mint really add some unexpected dimension to pesto.) In this case, since the soup was almost a borscht, I wanted something "pseudo creamy" to finish the soup so I added about 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts as a binder, and then mashed all this up in my mortar and pestle. I then finished the pesto with vinegar and lemon juice and water, instead of oil.

This makes a creamy nut-butter based pesto that thins out to an almost sour cream consistency when added to the finished soup, and the vinegrette-like flavor of the pesto vinegar hybrid went very well with the beet soup. It was exceptional and one that I thought should go on the food blog when I got a chance.

But that's not what I am writing about today.

I love pine nuts. If I toast any, I always toast up an extra tablespoon or so with salt to snack on while I cook. "It's good to be the cook!" I think to myself in these cases. Because I love pine nuts, I ALSO loved the pesto, it came out perfectly and I added an extra dollop to my bowl, because there was a lot of it and Optimistic was using it sparingly. I then went back and had another bowl, and added two dollops to that one, as well.

Not that day, not the next day, but the third day after eating the soup, I woke up and had a bowl of cheerios with blueberries, and then I made an espresso as I normally would. I had started a new can of coffee, and because of my financial situation, I had switched to a lower grade of coffee from Italy, and not my beloved Blue Bottle Roman Espresso. The cup of coffee was the WORST I have ever tasted, and I put the coffee aside thinking that I would take it back to the store, because assuredly it was bad. This cup was even more terrible than the carrot-cappuccino I made a few years back.

It tasted... Bitter. Not just a little bit bitter, but bitter like Satan had stuck his finger in my mouth. Bitter like Bitter married his sister, Bitterina, had an ugly baby, Bitterino.

That kind of bitter, but worse.

A little later on I ate lunch, and here is the odd part, it tasted... BITTER, which was strange, because it was a tofu dog and not normally bitter in the least.

In fact, everything I ate, (and everything I am still eating,) tasted bitter, and a persistent bitterness hangs out at the very back of my throat AT THIS VERY MOMENT.

I know that intensely bitter flavors are generally a biological warning, much like the color red on mushrooms. Three things are generally intensely bitter: 1) Italian after dinner aperitifs, 2) Poison, and 3) Bile, an indicator of liver malfunction. Since you don't mess around with the second two, I had the bright idea of Googling "Bitter aftertaste in my mouth after everything I eat, please by Odin's Beard make it stop."

This is how I found that a plague of second rate pine nuts has swept the nation, like a blight of tasty tasty toads, inflicting a vile, persistent aftertaste that exhibits three days after eating a largish dose of pine nuts, and lasts as long as two weeks. Some say that the nuts in question come exclusively from China, but I have no indication of where these particular nuts sourced from. Others say that any pine nuts that are old or have gone rancid will do this, and this could indeed be the case, since they were in a sealed bag in the produce section of Faletti foods and could have been there for time immemorial as far as I know. I do know that pine nuts of the past, sourced from Rainbow Grocery's bulk section, which has an incredibly high turnover, never produced such a bitter aftertaste before, so freshness is the culprit, in my opinion. (Chinese nuts coming over in steerage, are probably stale by the time they get to these golden shores.)

So how does one alleviate the suffering? Alas, I do not know, but others have suggestions. Mint tea and oranges are supposed to help. (This is not suprising, since mint and orange oil both contain terpines, or natural solvents, which might "cleanse" the palatte in a very literal way,) but the help is supposed to be temporary, lasting only until the next meal. (By the way, pine nuts ALSO contain terpines, and this may be the problem, they are not water soluble.) Alcohol is supposed to help, but I can vouch that it does not, red wine combines with the bitter flavor to make a taste kind of like bleach.

In any case, further reports as the situation develops. In the meantime, enjoy reading the following links reporting similar pine nut attacks.

Links:

Sensation of bitter taste in mouth What could it be?

Pine nuts left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The Pine Nut Menace

The Great Pine Nut Mystery

Bitter Taste After Eating For DAYS

The Bitter Aftertaste of Chinese Pine Nuts

Insidious Chinese Pine Nuts

EDIT: 07 Jun 10 San Pelligrino Aranciata soda does a really good job of neutralizing the bitterness for an hour or so.

When Life Gives You Mushrooms

2010-06-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

A friend whose husband works at an organic farm recently asked if I liked mushrooms. Of course, the answer to this is a resounding "yes." I like mushrooms like cats like cheerfully destroying the only thing that you have left that reminds you of your grandfather.

So the next day she came in with a bag stuffed full of king oyster mushrooms. "I hate mushrooms," she said, "and my husband is allergic. These were the leftovers that his farm couldn't sell. They give them away to the workers, and if you don't take them, no one will."

Of course, with king oysters currently fetching $18.99 a pound at Rainbow Grocery, I am going to gleefully say yes to this offer of a Big Bag O' Fungus. Of course, now the obvious question becomes, what do you do with a big old pile of free mushrooms?

Fortunately Eric Tucker of Millennium has answered this question on page 151 of his cookbook, "The Artful Vegan." He suggests "Oyster Mushroom and Tofu Remolade Po' Boy," which calls for a few metric tonnes of mushrooms.

Of course cooking from The Artful Vegan can sometimes be tricky as the recipes tend to unfold like those Matrushkas, those little Russian nesting dolls, with layer upon layer of awesome. What at first seems simple, turns into a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, surrounded by an enigma. Or in this case, "Millennium Oil Braised Garlic" (page 212,) wrapped in a few cups of "Tofu Aoili" (page 213,) surrounded by aforementioned Remolade (page 151) and you find yourself in the kitchen for two and a half hours for want of a sandwich.

But once those mushrooms are dipped in that aoili and then in breadcrumbs and dry fried:

OH, what a wonderful sandwich they make! (Seen here minus an ecstatic bite taken by Optimistic.)

Salmon Benedict

2010-05-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

We made this the other morning when we had a protein jones. It's pretty straight forward.

English Muffin + Avocado Slices + Poached Egg + Salmon (a filet prepped into long, 1 inch "fingers" and then cooked in a skillet with a bare drop of olive oil, right before it is flipped, I seasoned it with just a BIT of soy sauce and yuzu juice) + A swirl of sriracha = Salmon Bennedict.

Yes there should be hollandise, but we only had a few eggs.

Since there isn't much in the way of a recipe, I will offer a few cooking hints involving poached eggs:

1) First boil the water with a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar in it. This adds to the flavor, but it also helps the egg white cook more quickly and keeps the whole thing from becoming egg drop soup.

2) Crack your raw egg into a small bowl, so that you can dump it into the water very quickly and place it precisely in the middle of the whirlpool (more on that in a moment.)

3) Once the water comes to a boil, swirl the water quickly with the back of a wooden spoon until a whirlpool forms (kinda like a downspout.) Then quickly dump your egg right in the middle. The spinning water will hold the egg in the middle of the pot, and it won't allow the egg to spread out in the water. (Once the egg is in the water, you don't need to keep spinning the water.) By the time the water slows down, the egg has hardened up enough not to come apart.

4) Cook it from 3 to 6 minutes, depending upon how raw you like the middle. These eggs were cooked on the long side, about 4 minutes or so each.

Avocado Pizza

2010-04-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

avocado pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Sorry folks, it's been a while. We are still cooking on a regular basis, but we've just been too busy to take photos and blog.

One reason we have to keep up on cooking is that we are getting a CSA (community supported agriculture) box every other week. If we don't cook regularly, the produce piles up. It seems like some things come in waves and we tend to get a lot of one particular fruit or vegetable. For a while it was apples, and now we're been getting a lot of avocados in our box. They are good avocados, but there is only so much guacamole you can eat. So, we have been searching for avocado recipes to get out of the guacamole rut. With that in mind, we found "Fresh Tomato Pizza with Avocado" from Jack Bishop's "A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen."

When we looked at the ingredients we thought that it could not possibly be bad and we were right--it was delicious. The ingredients are: fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, a jalapeno chile, farmer cheese (we used goat cheese instead), avocado, lime juice, and cilantro. We got a frozen pizza dough so it was pretty quick to put together.

When Life Gives You Squash...

2010-02-22T22:29:00.001-08:00

One of the troubles of getting a box of produce from a local farm, is that you often end up with surplus veggies.

Such is the case with the farm we get things from, Farm fresh to you, although they have a nifty option where you can go online and go "enough squash already!" After you receive the seventh butternut squash.

Of course, by then you've had squash soup, and pumpkin pie, and squash waffles (yes, based on an Alton Brown classic,) and now (if you are like me,) you are looking at three squashes on the pantry and thinking "what is in store for you jokers?"

Couple this abundance of squash with a newfound muffin obsession, thanks to the absolute artistry of The Sentinel, a local lunchtime sandwich shop that secretly cranks out hot muffins made from seasonal ingredients every morning to sell to commuters with coffee. If you find yourself near Second and Market at 7:30 AM on a weekday, try them out, it'll be the best $2.50 you spend all day.

Anyhow, I am on a BUDGET, dern it, I can't be dropping $2.50 out of my budget each morning for muffins, and ALSO, I have all this squash! So I borrowed a page from the Sentinel's book and crafted a muffin recipe using these crazy squash.

Squash Muffins (No pics this time guys, maybe in the future... But don't let that stop you, this is a fun recipe.)

One medium to small butternut squash, sliced in half and roasted sliced side down on a foil covered cookie sheet at 400 degrees for an hour. (Putting the sliced side down keeps it from drying out.)

There's another advantage to putting it cut side down. The sugars in the squash will run all over the foil and carmelize. Pry the squash off, scoop out the seeds, and then scoop the squash out of the shell. You should have about 2 cups of squash.

Lower the heat on the oven to 350. Grease a muffin tin, or put paper liners in a cupcake tin. (This recipe will make about 9 muffins, or 18 cupcakes.) Whip the squash with a fork into a puree. Add 1 Cup brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon molasses, 2 egg yolks (put the whites in another bowl, and beat them to stiff peaks and put them aside,) 1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, 1/4 cup canola oil, and 1 cup of buttermilk, and mix this all up into a batter.

In another bowl, sift together 2 cups white flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix just to combine. Once combined, carefully fold in the beaten egg whites. These are super moist, super dense muffins, the whipped whites add a little airiness and keep the cake crumb from being, well... gooey.

Put this mixture into the tins and bake. Fill up each tin till just below the rim. (The difference between a muffin and a cupcake, is that a muffin goes over the top of the tin, so fill those puppies up.) You may have noticed the numbers are a bit off. You'll have enough to fill one muffin tin completely and another tin halfway. Cooking the half tin can sometimes be a problem, because the half filled tin tends to heat up too much, making the muffins dry. These muffins are uber moist, so you don't need to worry about it at all. (If you run across this problem with normal muffins or cupcakes, fill the remaining holes of the tin with water for more even heating.)

Cook these for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the tin for five minutes or so, then cool on a rack until completely cool. These will fall a tiny bit while they cool. You don't want to eat these muffins until they cool completely, or they will stick to the cupcake paper. As they cool, they firm up.

The neatest thing about these muffins is that they are actually better after they completely cool, and hold their texture for days in the fridge.

I've also found that a nice variant is to add some upscale bittersweet chocolate chips and a tiny pinch of powdered cloves. They'd probably also be good with orange or lemon zest.

Apple and Mint Souffle

2010-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

Second take on a souffle came out much better than the first. (And I didn't think there was anything wrong with the first one!) But these guys took off like rockets!

The souffle recipe is the same as the recipe from earlier, but the eggs were beaten just a bit longer, until the whites did not slide along the bowl when I tipped it. (That advice from the Herbfarm cookbook's "sidebar" section on souffles, which made the process that much easier!)

These were apple, mint and parmesian souffles. There is a sliced apple, fried in about a tablespoon of olive oil with salt and mint, which was added to the base just before the whites.

The Ghost of Christmas Pasta

2009-12-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

Forgive me, the pun had to be done.

This is our christmas dinner, in a bit of a fit of untraditional abandon, it's Lasagne.

This is a bit of an odd Lasagne, but it was relatively easy to create.

Semi-Long Mushroom Sauce:

2 T Olive oil
a healthy sprig of fresh thyme
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound crimini or button mushrooms, sliced
Salt
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water then strained, soaking water reserved, and after any extra grit is picked out of the mushrooms, they are then diced.
1 large can of strained imported italian tomatos. A can of tomato puree would also work. *
1 cup strong red table wine (In this case, a $3 Merlot that was languishing in the fridge)
1 T double concentrated tomato paste
a heathy sprig of fresh oregano **

In a large heavy bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat, add the garlic, red pepper and thyme. Once the garlic is golden, either remove it from the oil so that it does not get burnt and bitter, or if your pot has smooth sides like a bowl, push it up the side until it is off the heat. Add the crimini or button mushrooms and just a sprinkling of salt, and let this cook until just a bit browned. Add the red wine, cook for a moment, then the tomatos, and the garlic again, the soaking liquid, the diced porcini, the tomato paste and the oregano. Let this marry a bit at a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, partially covered so that you don't loose liquid. Adjust for salt and pepper for your tastes.

"Ricotta-Tofu" Filling: ***
1/2 pint skim ricotta
1/2 lb firm tofu, passed through a potato ricer
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, diced
healthy pinch of salt, pepper, and garlic powder
2 T minced Mint
2 T minced Basil
2 T minced parsley
1 Cup cooked long grain wild rice
(Optional: One egg.)

Mix all "ricotta filling" ingredients in a large bowl, adjust salt, pepper to your tastes.

Have some "instant" no-boil lasagne noodles ready, (Barilla makes them, they are lasagne noodles that are thinner than normal, and they cook in the sauce. They are excellent, a great time saver if you want lasagne in a hurry,) as well as three zuccini, sliced lengthwise into long thin strips and left raw. ****

In a 9 x 15 or so pan, layer the ingredients... Sauce, noodles, zuccini, filling, until you run out. I got three layers and was just missing enough sauce to coat the top, as is traditional. So if you guys want to double the sauce and have enough for the top of the lasagne, then save the rest for pasta, it will keep in the fridge for about a week.

Cover the pan, and cook this at 350 to 400 for around an hour. Let it sit for 15 minutes, covered, and then serve!

* Always use an imported italian tomato if you can get it. Make sure that the tomatos have no sugar and no citric acid added. The absence of these two extra ingredients usually means a good imported tomato. Italian san marzano tomatos are sweet, so any sugar is a tip off that you may not be getting the ripest tomato. Citric acid is added as a preservative, which they don't really need, because they are canned, ie: already preserved. So citric acid doesn't usually help there, but it actually does impart and acidic tone to the tomatoes that can add to any reflux issues that you may already have with tomatoes. In the best situation, the ingredients on your canned tomatoes should read, "tomato," and maybe one other ingredient like basil, or salt. I like it when a packager lets you taste the tomatoes for themselves and then decide whether you think they need sugar or salt or acid.

** Notice the order of adding the herbs to the sauce. Earthy, hearty herbs like thyme, rosemary, and sage, do well in a sauce at the beginning, to get their flavors into the oil. Fresher herbs with a lighter, gentler profile, (oregano, parsley, basil, etc) have milder flavors that tend to get lost as they cook, so they go in at the end, and they stand up much better. However, if the herbs are dried, they can go into the sauce sooner.

*** The filling takes the place of both the traditional layer of ricotta and herbs, and the seasoned meat in a meat based lasagne. The wild rice adds a grassy, herby, almost chocolate flavor that combines well with the herbs and gives some texture that would normally be lacking in a normal vegetable lasagne. If you want to simulate a more meaty flavor, add some nutritional yeast or even soy sauce in along with the rice.

**** The zuccini strips end up raw on top of the no-boil noodles, which while a great innovation, can sometimes be a little too al dente if your sauce thickens up too much, or if you don't make enough sauce to saturate the lasagne. The zuccini hold a ton of water in them, which will expell as the pasta bakes. Since the zuccini are right on top of the noodles, all that water will go into the noodles, ensuring that they get done.

Tomato and Pecorino Souffle

2009-12-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

Alton Brown needs to have an episode on Souffles (actually, it seems that he already has, so... So much for my "Good Eats" merit badge.

Anyhow, I've stayed away from souffles for ages, fearing that they were just beyond my abilities. I've heard a lot of horror stories. But after looking at several of our recipe books, I realized that souffles all start with equal parts flour and oil cooking on medium heat, with some herbs, onions, whatever you like... Then you add 1/3 cup of milk for each tablespoon of oil and flour and cook it till it comes to a boil and thickens up. Any of you country boys and girls out there know what this is ALSO the recipe for... You got it, GRAVY! So after all the intimidation and French pronounciations of stuff like roux blanc, etc, the base of a souffle is "make white gravy." Ladies and Gentlemen, I can handle that. Then, off heat you add one egg yolk for each tablespoon of oil/flour, put it back on the heat, and stir till incorporated. Then you take it off the fire and add whatever you are going to put into the souffle. (Like grated pecorino cheese and sliced cherry tomatoes in this case...)

Then whipped egg whites (stiff peaks) get folded in, and this is then baked in a little special dish called a "ramakin", which sits in another pan with water in it for 25 minutes. (The water is in the pan, the souffle is in the ramakin, the ramikin sits in the pan surrounded by water... This keeps the souffle from burning on the bottom.)

The last trick is to not mess with it in the oven, trust that it is done after 25 minutes, and serve it right away.

Oh yeah, it seems that 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/3 cup milk, 1 egg yolk, 1 egg white is the ratio for one little ramakin, so if you wanted to make 25, you'd just bump up that ratio times 25.

It was easier than I thought it would be, and very tasty!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic of our simple thanksgiving dinner, 2009:

Clockwise from noon, a simple salad of butter lettuce, avocado and apples, in a dressing of olive oil, ume plum vinegar, a tiny bit of dijon mustard and a dash of worchestershire sauce.

At 5 o' clock, twice roasted sweet potatoes with maple syrup and olive oil. The potatoes are roasted for an hour at 450 degrees until very soft. Then left to cool, peeled, and drizzled with Grade B maple syrup and olive oil and then roasted again at 450 for 20 minutes more.

At 7 o'clock, a "mock" cranberry sauce, which is 1/2 of a small red onion, diced, four tomatillos, diced, 1 serrano chili, again with the dicing, 2 teaspoons of lime juice, some salt, and a half cup or so of freshly squeezed pomegranite juice. This is all boiled until it has reduced by half and then thickened with 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder. Once it cools it should have the consistency of cranberry sauce, but be a little spicier and a little sweeter.

Finally, at 9 o'clock, to replace the turkey, a wild Coho salmon patty. (Specifically "Shogun Salmon Cakes" from page 148 of the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook.) We rarely eat salmon any more, but this is the third time we've had this particular recipe this year. These are very very good, and much less hassle than a complete turkey. These paired really well with the mock-cranberry sauce.

Apple Pie

2009-11-22T16:04:00.001-08:00

Apple Pie, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is my first apple pie in our new kitchen. Our new oven works great! We started getting a produce box from a local farm again and we ended up with more apples than we could eat. Pie seemed like the most logical choice. Hopefully there will be some left for Thanksgiving.

Gumbo Z

2009-11-13T14:47:00.001-08:00

Gumbo, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Gumbo was the first meal that the Crusader prepared in our new flat. It is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten at home. It comes from Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry and contains lots of greens (I believe we used collards, spinach, and maybe kale) and other typical gumbo ingredients like flour, onions, red bell peppers, celery, cider vinegar and a variety of herbs and spices.

This cookbook is great, but Bryant Terry is a proponent of "slow food" so almost everything in the book takes a while to make. Although I appreciate the thought behind slow food, it is not all that practical given how much people work these days and how little spare time most people have. However, if you do have some time here and there for cooking, this cookbook has some really tasty recipes in it.

Millennium Beer Tasting Dinner June 24th 2009

2009-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

One of the posts that got delayed due to our move was a post about the fantastic Belgian Beer Dinner we had at Millennium restaurant way back on June 24. We’ve posted about dinners at Millennium before; it is a really great vegan restaurant here in San Francisco. Their special dinners and prix fix dinners are the best way to experience the restaurant and the Belgian Beer Dinner was no exception. The Chef invited representatives of three local breweries to bring some of their best beers and the Chef created a menu to go with them.

Before dinner started we had a glass of Eel River Pilsner and some warm olives:

This beer was really light and crisp and was a good way to start the evening. The olives had a great earthy taste.

The first course was a Mushroom Cocktail paired with Firestone 31:

The beer was floral, hoppy and citrusy. I love a beer with a lot of hops flavor.

The Mushroom Cocktail included seared oyster, maitake and king trumpet mushrooms, avocado, horseradish vinaigrette, a crisp plantain chip, and toasted pozole. I scooped everything up on my plantain chip and that was very tasty.

The second course was Stuffed Roasted Morel Mushrooms paired with Russian River Sanctification.

The beer tasted of sour cherry and was very refreshing and tasted very Belgian. We were told that this beer is usually more sour than the one we tasted. I thought the it was about perfect on the sour level.

The Stuffed Roasted Morel Mushrooms were served with white bean sage puree, and a salad of shaved fennel, nectarines and wild arugula with walnut oil. Unfortunately the picture is not so good because I was too distracted by the food. The nectarines really added a nice balance to the smokiness of the mushrooms.

The third course was Pineapple Achiote Grilled Protobello paired with Russian River Consecration.

The beer was very dark and sour (but delicious). It is barrel aged for 6 months in cabernet sauvingion barrels. It was very complex and had notes of miso, wine, fruit, and yeast. The beers got darker as the evening wore on (until the dessert beer).

The grilled Portobello was served with cornmeal crusted tofu, tongue of fire beans, huckleberry potatoes, consecration broth, and chocolate ancho mole. The tofu was amazing. It was so tender and light inside with a nice crunchy crust. The broth had the consecration beer in it and was very delicious. I still had some sauce on my plate when I was done just because I could not get it all off of the plate. The young couple across the table from us had broken their tofu up so that it would absorb all of the sauce and I wished that I had done the same.

The fourth course was a Lentil-Bulgar Burger paired with Firestone 12 year anniversary ale. This course was the best of the whole night.

This beer is the most amazing beer I have ever had in my life. It was really dark and had all kinds of complex yummy flavors. It smelled a little of molasses and had flavors of caramel, mint, molasses and licorice. In fact it was so delicious that I asked for a refill when I had finished the glass (they were going around with another bottle of the beer). I have never had so much beer at one sitting in my life. Unfortunately this beer is a blend of many of the previous year’s beers and will never be available again. Once in a lifetime treat I guess.

The Burger included porcini mushroom confit, caramelized smoked onions, green chile cheese sauce, and pickled romano beans on the side. I must say that this was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my life. It went perfectly with the delicious beer and was just so amazingly good, I kept saying “this is so good” over and over (I’m sure the beer didn’t hurt my insane babbling about the wonderful food). This burger was so good that I still have dreams about eating it sometimes—and then I wake up and wish I had one. The “cheese” sauce was a cashew cheese sauce (since they don’t do dairy) and went so amazingly well with the porcini mushrooms. It makes me drool just to think about it. The crisp romano beans were a lovely refreshing side that cut some of the heaviness of the burger.

The last course (dessert) was a Nectarine Filled Almond Galette with Lost Abbey Carnival beer.

This beer was really nice and was almost like a wine. It was very light and crisp and a good note to end on. It smelled of acricots and tasted kind of grapey—almost like a prosecco because of the bubbles. It is a spicey Belgian “saison” style ale (a style of brewing that does not involve refrigeration), but uses American hops.

The nectarine galette was served with a roast apricot-blackberry swirl “ice cream” and honey crème englaise. This was delicious, but at this point, I was getting so full that I needed a little help finishing it.

After this amazing meal, I was a little tipsy from the beer and so full I could not move. We took a cab home and felt a little sluggish the next day, but this was one of the most delicious and amazing meals of my life. I lucked out in that it just happened to coincide with my birthday this year. Next year it will be a day or two off, but we will probably still try to make it.

If anyone reading this had the chance to go to this annual dinner, I highly recommend it. Millennium also has a similar wine tasting dinner that we have never been to, but would like to try at some point.

Pear and Goat Cheese Bagel

2009-11-01T16:59:00.001-08:00

pear goat cheese bagel, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Well, this isn't the most exciting thing to post after being gone for so long. It also isn't the first thing we made in our new kitchen, but it is one of the first fall recipes for this year. When you are sad that all of the sumer fruit is gone, this is a good pick me up.

Cut two pears into slices and mix with a tablespoon of maple syrup. Toast two bagels (plain or in the flavor of your choice) and then spread with goat cheese (we used a fantastic soft goat cheese containing fennel pollen and lavender). Arrange the pear slices over the goat cheese and then grate some parmesan over. Put the bagels back into the toaster oven or regular oven set on broil and cook until the pears get a little color on top.

This makes a great breakfast, lunch or snack.

More food to come...

2009-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Things have been quiet around the blog, but we bought our first place with a lovely remodeled kitchen, so there will be many pictures of food cooked on our new gas stove to come. I already took a picture of the first meal that the crusader cooked in our new place, but I still need to upload it. Things might continue to be slow here for a little while until we can get all of our stuff unpacked, but we'll be back soon.

Strawberry Crumble

2009-05-17T17:50:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Crumble, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I am usually not a fan of cooking strawberries, but this dessert actually turned out really well. Sorry about the blurry picture--I was standing on my tiptoes in order to get a view of the strawberries. The recipe is from a cookbook called Luscious Berry Desserts (another sort floor books find). I had 3 baskets of very tasty strawberries from the farmer's market and had to find a use for them (buy 2 baskets, get one free is too tempting).

The recipe is pretty easy--it mostly consisted of mixed sliced berries with breadcrumbs, vanilla, a little bit of sugar, a little bit of butter, hazelnuts, and some salt and then baking in the oven for about 20 minutes. The strawberries actually did not taste cooked and the full strawberry flavor came out. We served this with a little bit of vanilla ice cream and it was delicious.

Seitan Satay Salad

2009-04-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

This is a nice twist on the "Wheat Meat Satays with Spicy Peanut Sauce" in "Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes."

The satay looked awesome all by itself, but looking at the recipe reminded me of the times when Optimistic and her law school friends and I would eat at Vietnam restaurant in Philly. They would serve satay (or tofu, or spring rolls, etc) in a bowl with the grilled greasy stuff on top, disguising a mound of that awesome carrot and daikon pickle, and a lot of raw veggies, with warm, starchy rice noodles underneath. So I wanted something like that, and being 2000 or so miles from Philly made it hard to get stuff from Vietnam. But we are intrepid food explorers! We could make do!

So I made up some rice, and put about 1/2 a cup in the bottom of a bowl, and over it, I spooned about a tablespoon of the marinade from the Satay recipe. Then I topped that with the following salad:

1/2 cucumber, diced,
1 Large carrot, diced
1T diced red onion (sure doing a lot of dicing!)
Wedges from 2 or three peeled mandarins
10-15 basil leaves
6 to 10 mint leaves
butter lettuce, chopped.

Toss all this with 1T unfiltered sake.

Then I topped that with the Wheat Meat Satay and covered it all with a liberal dash of the Spicy Peanut sauce.

This was so good, and so very reminiscent of the dishes at Vietnam, that I penciled our salad variation into the margins of our copy of VM&P, just in case we get the craving again!

Three-Carrot Post

2009-04-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Right before spring we began to see all these really amazing heirloom carrots in the markets. We made three really good dishes from these over the course of late winter and early spring.

The first was a recipe for Umami Carrot Soup from the Herbfarm Cookbook. This amazing soup really amped up the carrot flavor, using 2 cups of fresh carrot juice and then added a couple of fantastic additions, toasted corainder seed, and a super strong peppermint tea.

We don't have a picture for the second or third recipes. (Sorry to say!) We were tired all winter, and it was usually late and by the time we thought of taking pictures, we'd eaten all the food! (This happens to us a lot.)

The second recipe was a Hijiki and Carrot Salad. For some reason, I'm not too good with making salads, unless they have no leafy greens in them, and then I usually do okay.

Stealing an idea from the Herbfarm's soup, we soaked the hijiki in a hot mint green tea combo until it softened up. Then we drained it. The hijiki was tossed with some sliced radishes (about 5,) some diced heirloom carrots (probably two or three,) a diced avocado, and then dressed all of this with about two teaspoons of ume plum vinegar and about a tablespoon of unfiltered (nigori) sake and finished with a single drop of toasted sesame oil. This was really fantastic. We had it with something else, but darned if I can remember what that was!

The third recipe was an Heirloom Carrot Ziti with Ricotta.

1lb heirloom carrots, cut into thin disks
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Shallot, minced
2 T olive oil
2 or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced, or a 24 oz can of chopped tomatoes drained of liquid. Save the liquid for another sauce!
1 or 2 T of drained, rinsed capers.
2 T chopped fresh mint (basil would work)
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup fresh sheep's milk ricotta.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Start some water to cook a pound of ziti. The water should be started while you prep the stuff above, and the pasta and sauce should cook at around the same time. When you drain the pasta, hold on to about 1/2 cup to a cup of the pasta water.

Heat the garlic and the shallot in oil on medium high heat until golden. Add the carrots and cook for a few minutes (at the end of cooking, the carrots should still be a bit crisp and sweet, so keep that in mind.)

Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until they begin to break down a bit. Add the capers and simmmer until it breaks down a little more.

Take the ricotta, the mint and the parsley and put them into a bowl large enough to hold all the sauce, and all the pasta. Add 1/2 cup of pasta water and wisk this until it's smooth-ish.

Once the pasta finishes, drain it (don't rinse!) and add the pasta and the tomato sauce. Toss, and season with salt and pepper to taste. This is good enough to eat at this point (and we did, twice!)... BUT

This type of sauce would traditionally add around a cup of grated parmigiano-reggiano and some grated nutmeg at this point and then have you stir that all in, but it really will stand up without that.

Yuzu Salmon

2009-04-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, sorry to say. This is a winter recipe, you can tell by the flash photo of the food. This was in the dark of winter, but the food was sunny!

We found a rare treat, some real yuzu fruit, in the Berkeley Bowl. These Japanese citrus fruits are almost never seen outside of japan, and even the concentrated juice is very expensive:

When you get such a strange thing, the question always is: "What do we make out of this?"

In this case, packet wrapped salmon with little slivers of yuzu, sliced shallot, and herbs. It's served here with a really simple salad and some baked potatoes, just with Goddess dressing.

Thanksgiving 2008

2009-03-09T18:52:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving 2008, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

No, you are not seeing things and we have not gone back in time. We are almost half way through March and I am posting our Thanksgiving meal. I notice that the pictures started piling up right around when I got my new job in November. Hm...

Since we often get stuck in a flavor rut, 2008's Thanksgiving dinner was much the same as 2007. Except this time we left out the mashed potatoes and made a different stuffing. The stuffing was a stuffing mix made by a local bread company. It looked pretty good in the bag as dry bread with herbs (about as good as dry bread can look) and it was even better with carrots, onions, and celery. Again the cranberry sauce was the bomb!

Sweet Potatoes and Jerk Tofu

2009-03-08T14:42:00.001-07:00

sweet potatoes and jerk tofu, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I am trying to clear out old food pictures that never got blogged. This meal was made way back at the beginning of November. The jerk tofu recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance and the sweet potato recipe is from either Vegan with a Vengeance or Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes (I am too lazy to actually find out).

The jerk tofu was pretty good, but the sauce was very strong and vinegary. We served it over a little bit of rice and it could have used a lot more rice to subdue the flavor a little.

The sweet potatoes were the real star. They were baked in the oven after being steamed. Before baking we mixed the sweet potatoes with a little bit of maple syrup, dried cherries, and roasted pecans.

The meal really could have used something green, but we didn't want to make another side dish.

We've both been sick, so there has not been much cooking going on. I'm hoping that when spring really rolls around we will get the cooking bug because of all the fresh produce. Even though we are luckier than most parts of the country in winter, I still really look forward to more variety.

We have a few more "old" food pictures that we will try to get through in the near future.

Lemon Cupcakes

2009-03-01T20:33:00.001-08:00

Lemon Cupcakes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We went to a party with my new co-workers and spouses on Saturday and I made lemon cupcakes and green tea cupcakes. You have seen enough of the green tea cupcakes I am sure, so today I feature the lemon ones.

The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance. They were very good, but a lot went wrong when I was making them. The recipe called for what seemed like a ton of baking soda. when I combined the wet and dry ingredients, the batter swelled way up and ended up being enough batter for 18 cupcakes instead of 12. The first batch was a little deflated out of the oven and got a little too brown. The second batch, which had to sit while the others baked turned out much better. (The cupcakes at the front of the picture are from the second batch.)

If it were not for the sprinkles that we found in our cabinet, these cupcakes would have looked pretty sad. They made up for their looks by being pretty tasty, so I forgive them.

Of love and sandwiches

2009-02-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, okay, it has been a while since we have updated this blog. We have both been really busy with work and we have had to put blogging on the back burner. Post may still be sporatic for a while, but I have to tell you about the best sandwich place in the universe: Ike's Place.

I saw this sandwich place featured on "Eye on the Bay." The sandwich that the guy on the show was eating looked so amazing that I absolutely had to find this place. As it turns out, it is practically next door (well, down the hill and next door in the Castro anyway). They have an amazing array of sandwiches--vegan, vegetarian, meat. We tried the Elvis Keith (halal chicken breast, teriyaki sauce, wasabi mayo, and swiss) and the Veggie We're Just Friends (vegan turkey, sweet orange glaze, avocado, pepper jack). They were so good! All I want to know is why has no one mentioned this place to us? Shame on you people for hiding Ike's Place!

So if you are in San Francisco, Ike's Place is a must eat place.

Blueberries!

2009-02-02T19:31:00.001-08:00

Blueberries!, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Lately I have been obsessed with blueberries. I have been eating blueberries with everything. The last few batches of blueberries have been super large, plump, and tasty.

In the pictured breakfast I had blueberries with a garlic bagel with herbed cream cheese. They don't sound like they go together, but they do.

My only question is why are blueberries so expensive? My thought is that blueberries are the new hip fruit to eat because they are so full of good-for-you stuff. I miss the days when blueberries were under $2 a basket--now I consider myself lucky if I can find an organic 1/2 pint for under $6.

Winter Squash Pasta

2009-01-24T16:02:00.001-08:00

Winter squash pasta, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I discovered this picture languishing in my flickr account. Sadly I cannot remember what recipe this was from, but I do remember it being good. It was a simple pasta dish with steamed winter squash (we used Kabocha squash I think), some of the pasta water to make a sauce and a little bit of cream. Onion, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and perhaps mustard powder were in there as well. If I actually find the recipe it came from, I will revise this post.

Black Eyed Pea Stew

2009-01-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

We are always looking for a way to cook black eyed peas for New Year's Day. I never mind, they are one of my favorite things.

This stew is modified very heavily from a starting recipe from the fantastic Lebanese cookbook Food for the Vegetarian: Traditional Lebanese Recipes.

Everybody into vegetarian cooking should snag a copy of this cookbook. The recipes need some "toning down" from time to time to suit our western tastes, but it serves as a fantastic jumping off point for new flavors and ideas, it's one of our favorites. (Then when you get it, you can cook the original version of this, which is quite different, titled: "Black Eyed Peas in Olive Oil.")

Black Eyed Pea Stew.

In a soup pot, heat up 2 T olive oil over medium high heat, and then add:
1 Medium onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake
2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic
2 teaspoons Fresh Thyme

Cook this until the onion begins to brown around the edges

Stir in,
1/2 teaspoon allspice
a pinch of salt

Then add 1/4 to 1/3 cup Laphroaig Scotch whiskey, (10 year old is fine.) This of course, is NOT part of the traditional Lebanese recipe, ~~(In Muslim lands, liquor is strictly forbidden,)~~ but is an addition of our own. (I've just learned that Lebanon doesn't forbid liquor, and I encourage you to read the comment from a thoughtful Lebanese reader!) In my Georgia days I had a lot of black eyed peas and the natural, slightly smoky flavor of the peas was usually accentuated with a little bacon. In the vegetarian world, bacon is out, and substitutes are sort of the holy grail. Unfortunately, most alternatives are loaded with nasty stuff, or difficult to obtain, or far too impractical being too pricey for the one time per year that you might need them. However, Laphroig has a strong, almost unendurable, smoky flavor that comes from the carbon interior of the charred oak barrels it's aged in. Laphroig also imparts a salty, oceanlike flavor. (Tasting Laphroaig is like: A smooth, sweet, carmel intensity that finishes with someone shoving a burnt sea urchin up your nose.) Anyhow, adding Laphroaig to black eyed peas and other recipes that call for bacon or liquid smoke, works really really well to impart a bacony flavor that will fool most hard core bacon lovers. The strong ocean and char flavors stay after the alcohol burns off. Plus, you look like a REAL MAN with Laphroaig on top of your fridge, it's seen in the whiskey world as sort of the MACHO whiskey. (You don't have to tell anyone it's just for cooking.)

Let the whiskey deglaze the pan and cook for five minutes or so, and then stir in:

2 diced tomatoes
4 T tomato paste (Or 2 T Italian Double Concentrated Tomato Paste)
2 Cans of black eyed peas, drained
4 Cups of stock or water
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes on low, until thickened up.

Finish with more chopped Parsley, the juice of half a lemon, salt to taste, and another generous pinch of allspice.

Serve over Basmati Rice with some cornbread and greens.

Christmas Pizza

2008-12-31T16:02:00.001-08:00

Christmas Pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another pizza in our long quest for the perfect pizza dough. This was really close, but probably not ready for posting the recipe yet.

In an effort to be Christmasy, we put lots of red and green peppers on the pizza and added some chopped olives and chevre cheese.

Israeli Couscous with Spiced Tofu

2008-12-25T17:24:00.001-08:00

Israeli Couscous with Spiced Tofu, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I used to hate couscous. I had couscous two different times when I was younger and both times it was terrible (or so I thought). I am going through a faze where I don't want to hate any food, so I am going through the things I really don't like and trying to like them. In the case of couscous, this has been a success. Recently we have had 3 or 4 different dishes that contained various types of couscous that have all been wonderful.

The first couscous dish that started my new found love of couscous was Israeli Couscous and Mushroom Pilaf with Spiced Tofu from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. The pilaf contains olive oil, cremini mushrooms, onion, Israeli couscous (a somewhat large size couscous), garlic, rosemary, dried cherries, and salt and pepper. The spiced tofu contains tofu, paprika, cinnamon, salt and olive oil.

The tofu was incredibly tasty and I think that I would like to have it just by itself for breakfast. The couscous was very tasty too and I really liked the combination of the mushrooms and dried cherries.

Now that couscous is on the menu, I have many many more recipes to choose from that I was avoiding for a long time.

tofu & potatoes

2008-12-15T06:38:00.001-08:00

tofu & potatoes, originally uploaded by steffan.

tofu scramble: mushrooms, tofu, onions, rosemary, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper and tumeric

potatoes: potatoes, steamed, salted and peppered then finished in peanut oil until golden on two sides, in the last three minutes add 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses and one crushed clove of garlic.

Broccoli Burritos

2008-12-14T17:35:00.001-08:00

Broccoli Burritos, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This burrito is an homage to the broccoli burritos that my mom used to make when I was a kid.

The beans are just refried beans from a can (Bearitos, Amy's, or Rosarita vegetarian brands are pretty good), the rice is just prepared jasmin rice, the avocado is just avocado mashed with a little bit of lime juice and salt, and the salsa is jarred salsa (in this case Amy's roasted veggie salsa). The broccoli is what makes these burritos special.

The broccoli is cleaned and cut into florets. Then we run it through a champion juicer without the juicing attachment on the bottom. This results in a fairly uniform shredded broccoli. You could probably duplicate this by running it through the shredder on a food processor or chopping it up pretty small with a chef's knife.

Once the broccoli is shredded, it gets added to a pan where chopped onions and a little bit of garlic have been softening in a little bit of oil or butter. A little bit of chili powder and soy sauce gets added to taste and then cook the broccoli until done.

All of these components then go into a tortilla and eaten. (There is a debate as to whether the beans or the rice should go onto the tortillas first--I prefer rice first, the Crusader prefers beans first, but you can decide that for yourself). You can also add some cheddar cheese and/or some plain yogurt (instead of sour cream) on top. These are very tasty even though they are not the prettiest burritos.

Fresh out of the oven

2008-11-26T19:35:00.001-08:00

More apple pie, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I have been craving apple pie like nobody's business. Thanksgiving seemed like a good excuse to make one again. This is again the recipe from that crazy religious cookbook Ten Talents.

I was much more haphazard when making this pie than I am normally. I barely looked at the recipe and just kind of threw things into the pot and into the pie. The pie is cooling now so we have not tried it yet, but it is bound to be cool soon given how cold it is in our apartment.

I'm sure it will be pretty good though because the apples that went into it were all good. I used half granny smith and half pink lady apples. Both varieties were really tasty, but the pink lady apples were a very pleasant surprise. I usually like to use half sweet and half sour apples in the pie. The old standby, granny smith, is always good for the sour apples. I chose the pink lady apples because they smelled amazing as I went by them in the store, but as it turns out their are not all that sweet. They are actually a perfect crisp, slightly sour, slightly sweet apple that should work well in the pie (even if it is on the sour side), but would also be very good just as a lovely crunchy snack. I am going to have to get some more of these pink lady apples.

Carrot Ice Cream

2008-11-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

It was time for a potluck at work, and usually I use this opportunity to experiment with odd ice cream flavors.

This time it was carrot, which was a really unique and tasty ice cream flavor. In order not to kill the raw carrot flavor, which is very subtle, I went with a gelato base, which used half and half rather than heavy cream.

2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup sugar until light yellow.
Mix in 1 and 1/2 cup half and half
1 cup of freshly juiced and filtered carrot juice
You should not use any of the commercial carrot juices, because thanks to the Odwalla lawsuits of the late nineties, these are now all pasteurized. Pasteurization, even flash pasteurization, makes the carrots taste coppery, and eliminates much of their natural sweetness.

Pour this into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

This will turn out well, slightly dense, like a gelato. But it will not keep in the freezer, and will ice up and solidify if stored there, so make this when you have enough people to eat a whole quart of ice cream, which won't be much of a chore in this case.

Beer Cheese Soup!

2008-11-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

This is a recipe from April 13th, 2007. We made it again recently, and it was just as tasty as before. This beer cheese soup is fantastic with a nice roll or two for dipping.

Cut up about four small potatoes, and start them boiling.

While the potatoes are boiling, sweat some aromatics.

Cut up a stalk of celery and one large, or two small, leeks. Don't forget the leeks.

Start some olive oil (About a tablespoon,) in the bottom of your soup pot. Add the leeks, the celery, and a teaspoon or more of fresh thyme leaves. A pinch of salt will sweat out the water in the aromatics. Cook these over medium-low heat until they have a tiny bit of color on the edges and are soft.

Crack open a beer. Pour a little into the pot, enough to just cover the bottom of the pot, lower heat and then let the leeks, etc simmer in the beer until very soft, 15 minutes.

At this point, (if the potatoes are done,) drain the potatoes, and reserve some of the water. (Two or three cups.)

Turn the heat up to medium, add the drained potatoes to the onions, and some chipotle paste...

What, you don't have chipotle paste? Here's what you do...

Take 1 can of Chipotle in Adobo sauce (available in the ethnic food aisle, in the Mexican food section, it should be about $1.40,) grind the whole can of chipotles and the adobo sauce (open the can and get all the stuff out, I mean,) anyhow, blend that into a paste in a blender or food processor. Put the resulting paste in one of those yogurt containers that you washed out and stuck into the junk drawer. (Yes, I know you do that.) Pour just enough canola oil over it to keep air off the surface. When you want to use some, pour off the oil, and use about a teaspoon to a tablespoon at a time, then pour the oil back on. When you get the paste out, use a CLEAN spoon, and don't touch the oil or the paste in the container at all. This will ensure that this will keep in the fridge as your new super-condiment for about 3 to 4 months. (Mix some with ketchup and dip your soy corn dogs or french fries in it. Killer.)

We now return to soup.

Like I was saying, add a teaspoon or more of the chipotle paste and the rest of the beer. (Or another whole one, if you already drank the rest of the first one.) Adjust the seasoning. It should be a little less than salty, because the cheese (you forgot about the cheese, didn't you?) the cheese is salty. Anyhow, cook this until the alcohol burns off, about twenty minutes.

Run all of this through a food mill, or blend with a stick blender until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add some of the potato water until it is the texture of your choice. (Or some more beer, or just normal water.)

Grate up some cheddar cheese, I'd say 4 to 6 ounces, add it a small handful at a time, stir constantly, until it melts into the soup, then add another small handful, etc. Repeat until all the cheese is incorporated into the soup.

Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking, and serve!

Pear Raspberry Pie

2008-11-09T15:57:00.001-08:00

pear raspberry pie, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We have a few homemade dishes to blog about, but instead I'm going to blog about this amazing pie we got last night at a place called Mission Pie, which, aptly enough, is located in the Mission district here in San Francisco.

I am a big pie lover--especially fruit pie and I have never found any pie place in San Francisco that made good pie (other than our own kitchen)--until now. We were talking about how much we wanted some pie, but neither one of us wanted to make any. So, out of desperation, I searched the internet again for the "best pie" in San Francisco. Mission Pie, a fairly new place, caught my eye.

So, with fairly low expectations, we drove down into the mission in the rain and found a parking space right across the street from Mission Pie (it is not an easy task to park close to your destination here in SF--I viewed it as a good omen). We went into the pie place and were pleasantly surprised by the choices. I originally wanted apple pie, but when I saw the pear raspberry pie, I had to try it. The Crusader got the walnut pie. As of this posting a substantial slice of pie is $3.50 and a whole pie is $18.00.

We took our slices of pie home and ate them with some peppermint tea. The pies were amazing. The pears were wonderfully tender and the tart raspberries were delicious. Much to my delight, neither pie was too sweet (which is a common problem with pie) and the crust was flaky and delicious.

From now on when we want pie and don't want to make it, we are going to get it from Mission Pie. What is really cool is that we will also be supporting Pie Ranch, which is affiliated with Mission Pie. Pie Ranch is an educational center that teaches young people about the full cycle of food production from farm to table among other things. Fun stuff and worth supporting.

Mac and Cheese and Salad

2008-11-06T15:53:00.001-08:00

mac and cheese and salad, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Comfort meals are all the rage at our place now that the weather is getting colder. The mac and cheese is from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook and is another winner. There is some cheese in the recipe, but it is mostly tofu, onions, miso, and some other ingredients blended up to make the sauce. The top of the baked mac and cheese should have more browning on it, but our oven is not so good at browning. Our landlord basically got the cheapest new model of appliances for our kitchen (but hey, at least we got new appliances). This worked out pretty good for the dishwasher and the fridge, but the stove is seriously lacking. It does ultimately do the job though, so we can't complain too much.

The cheese sauce for the pasta is actually is the last thing that our blender blended before it died. You may remember me complaining about our blender being not so great. Well, the motor didn't give out, but the plastic piece holding the jar to the base completely disintegrated (I blame the bad air in Philly when we lived there). It did manage to completely blend the cheese sauce before it died, so it at least had good timing. Now it is new blender time. We'll let you know how the new blender works out when we get it.

The salad that we had with the mac and cheese is just some store bought salad mix with a quickie dressing that the Crusader whipped up. He crushed some heirloom cherry tomatoes in a mortar with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some other tasty stuff (I think lemon juice was one of the things in there). It turned out really good, but then the Crusader has the magic food touch, so pretty much everything he makes is good.

Academy of Sciences Lunch

2008-10-28T14:47:00.001-07:00

academy of sciences lunch, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

After much anticipation, the California Academy of Sciences has reopened in Golden Gate Park. We waited a few weeks to go since it seemed like it would be a madhouse right after it opened. Well, it was still a madhouse on a Saturday, but we arrived early enough to enjoy the the academy before the huge crowds showed up. We worked up quite an appetite going through the amazing "rainforest" and new aquarium exhibits, so we stopped at the cafe for some lunchy snacks.

The cafe was filled with all kinds of yummy treats, but they were quite overpriced. I suppose you can't feel too bad when the profits are going to the academy, but be warned that this cafe is not cheap. The majority of the food was really healthy (I resisted the urge to get french fries). We tried to get a variety of things that would not be too filling. We ended up with veggie spring rolls, a veggie bun and a chicken bun, a strawberry tart, and a shared organic orange soda.

Everything was delicious. The spring rolls were filled with tofu, shiitake mushrooms, mint, carrots, and rice noodles and the accompanying peanut sauce was not to heavy. The buns were delicious and we suspect that they came from the Slanted Door since they tasted identical to buns we've had there before. The strawberry tart was an almond tart with sliced strawberries on top and it tasted as good as it looked.

So, if you are ever in San Francisco, definitely check out the Academy of Sciences because it is amazing. And if you are willing to spend around $20 for a light lunch for two, know that the food will at least be tasty for that price.

Ratatouille Open-Faced Sandwich

2008-10-27T11:57:00.001-07:00

ratatouille open faced sandwich, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We have a couple of new cookbooks thanks to the library book sale and so far so good. This recipe comes from the Horn of the Moon Cookbook. The Horn of the Moon was a vegetarian restaurant in Vermont, but it looks like it closed a few years ago. That is really too bad because the recipes in this book look really good.

The ratatouille open-faced sandwich is (in this case) a french bread roll topped with a lovely ratatouille mixture and jack and parmesan cheese. The ratatouille contains onions, garlic, basil, oregano, eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, tomatoes, olive oil, and salt and pepper. We have been getting really good oregano this year and it really made the ratatouille.

We had lots of the ratatouille mixture left over after making two really large sandwiches. We put some of it on an eggy crumpet for breakfast and it was super tasty. An eggy crumpet is just a crumpet soaked in an egg and then fried in a pan like french toast. It is very good in both savory and sweet applications for breakfast. I think that the rest of the leftover ratatouille mixture will end up in some pasta sauce tonight. This recipe is a pretty good one to stretch over many meals or will easily feed 4 people or more on the first go round.

Just a quick note: the posts on this blog might slow down a bit because I am once again entering the working world after a bit of a hiatus. We will do our best to keep up though and you might end up seeing some more restaurant food in the mix.

Lonely Cupcakes

2008-10-13T10:37:00.001-07:00

lonely cupcakes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I am not often a fan of chocolate, but I've had the apartment to myself for a week and for some reason all I wanted last night was a giant chocolate brownie. Since I didn't want to drive around looking for a brownie, I looked at what I had at home and found out that I had everything to make the basic chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I did cheat, however, and used left over buttermilk in the fridge instead of soy milk and vinegar as called for in the recipe so these cupcakes are not vegan. I also made a half recipe because I can't image eating a dozen cupcakes all by myself. I also didn't make any frosting because that would just be too decadent.

The cupcakes came out very well and when I crave chocolate in the future this will be a good recipe to turn to. The light in the kitchen was really weird because the kitchen light was reflecting off of the cookbook stand, but the picture is fairly representative of what the cupcakes actually looked like.

That reminds me to talk about cookbook stands. Before we got a cookbook stand, we struggled with getting our cookbooks to stay open when we cooked and the cookbooks always got really messy. We finally invested in a cookbook stand and it is one of the best purchases we have made for our kitchen. We use it just about every time we cook so it was a pretty good investment. If you use cookbooks when you cook a cookbook stand is a must have. The one we use is made by "clear solutions" and is cheapest at the container store if you are interested. It works great.

Tahini Broccoli Pasta Bake

2008-10-09T12:27:00.001-07:00

tahini broccoli pasta bake, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This recipe from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook is such a great comfort food recipe. We keep coming back to this recipe again and again. The broccoli is covered up by cheese and breadcrumbs in the picture, but there is quite a bit of it in there. The sauce is really delicious, but unusual too. Soft tofu, tahini, onions, and spices make up the creamy sauce that is blended in a food processor. The sauce is mixed with a bunch of broccoli and partly cooked pasta and then topped with breadcrumbs and cheese and baked until all the flavors meld and the cheese melts. We used a cheddar cheese on top that was not very melty, but really good none-the-less.

Crisp Tortillas with Pattypan Squash, Eggplant, and Tomato

2008-10-05T11:56:00.001-07:00

eggplant squash tortilla, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This dish from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen is the best thing that I have tasted in a long time. It is so simple, yet full of flavor. Everything really came together in order to make this recipe. Our local co-op had beautiful pattypan squash and lovely small firm white eggplants. In addition to these tasty veggies, the recipe contains lots of olive oil, garlic, chipotle chili in adobo sauce, tomato, cilantro, lime juice and the recipe calls for queso fresco, but we used feta.

Again this is a one pot meal (although we browned the tortillas in a different skillet) which was ready in less than an hour. Our white eggplants turned purple when cooked which I found to be quite interesting. We had lots of the veggie mixture left over so we had this again for lunch the next day. We heated the veggies in the microwave and browned the tortillas in the pan. It was just as good the next day.

Lentils and Wild Greens

2008-10-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

Italian Lentils, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

The greens that we used in this dish are sadly not wild, but no less tasty. This is another fabulous recipe from Verdura, Vegetables Italian Style. It contains mustard greens, lots of olive oil, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, fresh oregano, fresh rosemary, Italian parsley, basil, brown lentils, tomatoes, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

I usually think that lentils are just okay, but this dish came out really great. The bitter greens and lemon juice really make the dish, but it is surely a joint effort with all of the other tasty ingredients. This recipe is a throw everything into one pot recipe, which is nice and is ready in less than an hour. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but every recipe we have tried out of this book has been a real winner.

Baby Broccoli and Feta Pizza

2008-09-26T07:27:00.001-07:00

baby broccoli and feta pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Our pizza journey continues. This is the last of the huge batch of pizza dough so this should be the last pizza for a while.

The toppings here include baby broccoli (a tasty surprise at the store--this was the perfect use for this lovely tender stuff), cherry tomatoes, green olives, feta cheese, and of course, more jarred pizza sauce.

The process of getting the pizza dough to the pizza stone in the oven still needs some work so this pizza had some thin spots, but it was delicious. I have decided that baby broccoli is a perfect pizza topping.

Savory Asian Inspired "French Toast"

2008-09-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Maybe this should be called "French Colonial" toast. Optimistic wanted something savory for breakfast, and I wanted French Toast. Sometimes you just have to go where the journey takes you, even if it sounds crazy.

But sometimes crazy isn't all bad. This "experiment" was actually good, and not just a little bit good, but really really good.

First, make the avocado-tomato salad, mix the following in a bowl and set aside:

1/2 avocado, diced (we had a half an avocado, if you have a whole one, this recipe could easily utilize twice as much salad, so just double the rest of the ingredients.)
8 to 10 small grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 ume plum, removed from its pit, and cut into small bits, (or a teaspoon or so of ume plum paste)
1 teaspoon ume plum vinegar (sometimes hard to find, you could use any other asian vinegar, like brown rice vinegar, etc)
1 dash of yuzu concentrate (also hard to find, lime would probably provide a similar flavor)

For the toast, you'll need 4 slices or so of day-old Brioche, or another bread with a light profile, like Challah.

Take 2 Eggs, 1/4 cup soy milk, and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, and beat this together in a shallow dish.

Toast the following in a hot skillet until crisp:

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small diced shallot
1 small diced clove of garlic

Add the garlic last, so it doesn't burn. Once the shallots are crisp, remove the shallots and garlic from the oil and set aside for later. Leave as much of the oil as you can. Pour off the oil so that you can use it a little at a time, for each piece of toast.

Dip the bread briefly in the egg mixture on either side, and cook each in around 3/4 of a teaspoon of the shallot infused oil over medium high heat until browned, about 2 minutes per side. If it browns faster, turn down the heat a bit.

Top each slice with a quarter of the salad, and sprinkle a teaspoon or so of crumbled feta cheese over each slice.

Maple Mustard Potatoes and Green Beans

2008-09-12T08:02:00.001-07:00

maple/mustard potatoes and green beans, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I love potatoes, I love green beans, I love maple syrup, and I love mustard so this recipe was totally made for me. The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance and calls for waxy potatoes, green beans, onions, garlic, olive oil, maple syrup, and mustard. You toss is all together and then it gets roasted in the oven. Super yummy.

We've never roasted green beans before, but we probably will again. I was surprised by how good they are. We slipped some slices of Quorn roast in this bake so I'm pretty sure we made it non-vegan because the Quorn contains egg. If you have never heard of Quorn products, they are made out of some weird "mycoprotein" which I am assuming is somewhat like mushrooms. Regardless of what it is made of, it is darn tasty and was a good way to add some protein to this somewhat starchy dish.

Another attempt at Roman style pizza

2008-09-08T10:26:00.001-07:00

roman style pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This one has zucchini, cherry tomatoes, rughetta, olives and sauce.

Grape Pizza

2008-08-31T20:53:00.001-07:00

grape pizza, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is a very "Californian" pizza, showcasing the really tasty grapes that we've been getting lately. We've been experimenting with making a Roman style crust for a while, (this is why we've been making so many pizzas lately,) and we've come across a recipe that's very close, but we haven't achieved perfection yet, so I'll spare you the crust recipe till we get it right.

However, I will let you know how we topped the pizza, and then you can re-create it on your own crust of choice whenever you like:

Grape Pizza:
Enough jarred pizza sauce to cover the crust, (we use Muir Glen brand.) If you'd like to make a sauce, that's pretty simple too.*

Slice a shallot thinly and let it sit in about a tablespoon of Basalmic vinegar and about a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian, usually, (it generally contains anchovies,) but there is a vegan/vegetarian brand, "Wizard's" that's pretty close in favor to the "gold-standard" for traditional Worcestershire, Lea and Perrins brand.

Mince a clove of garlic and about a tablespoon or two of fresh thyme.

Slice about twenty or thirty red seedless table grapes in half.

Grate up four or five ounces of a strong aged cheddar. (We used "dubliner" cheddar, it's an outstanding cheese. It has all those fine salt crystals that you get in a really good aged cheese.)

Prepare your oven and your pizza dough of choice according to your normal instructions.

When you top the pizza, do so in the following order, sauce, your (drained) shallots, garlic and thyme, grapes, cheese.

The sweet grapes (cut in half so they don't turn into little heat-bombs,) are offset by the salty-sweet shallots and the sharp sharp cheese.

*If you'd like to make a sauce: Take some olive oil, and sautee some red pepper flake and about a clove of diced garlic until it just turns golden. Add about 8 oz imported italian crushed tomatoes, (careful, it may spit!) A whole lot of fresh minced oregano, three or four sprigs, and salt to taste. Cook for a half an hour or so on medium heat, stirring from time to time, until thickened considerably, and then add about 2 tablespoons of fresh diced basil at the very end.)

More Green Tea Cupcakes

2008-08-27T12:22:00.001-07:00

pink marzipan leaves, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Okay, this is (I think) the 3rd time we have featured these cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. But, these look really pretty because I actually made little pink marzipan leaves to go on these (store-bought marzipan with only 1 drop of red food coloring--that stuff is strong). I brought these to a knitting group and I wanted them to be extra special.

I'm also posting this up because I want to tell you all how important proper measuring is. We finally broke down and bought some dry measure measuring cups. We really should have bought these a long time ago because there is a huge difference between measuring dry ingredients in a measuring cup and in a dry measure cup. These cupcakes usually came out a little spongy with a rather runny frosting, but these came out perfect and it is all due to the dry measuring cups. Apparently you can get a lot more flour and powdered sugar into a dry measuring cup.

So, now we need to go back and make some baking recipes that didn't really work out to find out if our improper measuring is to blame (I'm looking at you scones from Veganomicon).

The moral of the story is that if you bake at all, get some dry measure cups! Believe me, the $20 or so will save you from lots of frustration later.

Black Kale Soup

2008-08-24T13:12:00.001-07:00

kale soup, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This was another soup to use up veggies that we had in the fridge.

Kale Soup

1 bunch black kale (also called cavolo nero), washed and torn into bite size pieces
2 carrots, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1/4 cup basil, cut or torn into smaller pieces
1 teaspoon thyme (run a knife through it once or twice)
3-4 yellow potatoes, diced
1 bouillon cube
6 cups water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Put the olive oil in a stock pot and heat on medium until shimmering. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent.
Add the carrots, celery, zucchini, thyme, and basil and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the potatoes and then add the water and bouillon cube.
Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer, half cover the pot, and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the kale and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the kale is tender.
Add salt to taste and serve.

The soup is very good on a cold night.

Chestnut Cake with Marscapone Cream

2008-08-21T14:13:00.001-07:00

chestnut cake with marscapone cream, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

So, I freaked out when I realized that if we didn't use our chestnut flour it would go bad. We looked around for recipes that used the flour and came up with this Chestnut Cake with Marscapone Cream from Dolce Italiano. It was kind of an early birthday cake for the Crusader. The cake was extremely delicious. This cookbook has some really good recipes in it and most of them are pretty easy. It is full of "sometimes food" though, so use sparingly.

(Oh, and now the rest of the chestnut flour is in the freezer until we can find something else to make out of it.)

Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy

2008-08-15T10:58:00.001-07:00

stewed tofu and potatoes in miso gravy, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We keep coming back to this recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance because it is just so tasty and comforting. However, we always forget just how long it takes to make. The recipe says that once the potatoes go in it will only take 20 minutes to cook from there. Actually it ends up taking over an hour--and we even cut up the potatoes into little chunks instead of halving them like the recipe calls for. You also need to stir the pot about every 5 minutes or this will stick like crazy! I wonder if something about the miso makes the potatoes cook at a slower rate. Even with the recipe errors, this tastes so great that I am willing to forgive them.

This recipe combines onions, garlic, mushrooms, tofu and potatoes with a yummy mixture of white wine, soy sauce, miso, and veggie stock. This is a great use for 2-buck chuck (our local $2 wine that is carried by most Trader Joe's across the country (although in some places it is more than $2)--it is hit or miss, but almost always drinkable and when it is really good you feel so clever for only spending $2 on a bottle of wine). Do note however, that you are completely killing all of the healthful properties of the miso by using it this way because the miso is cooked for so long. But again, the recipe is so tasty that I am willing to forgive it. We always serve it over rice so that all of the gravy goodness can be consumed.

Black Bean Pita

2008-08-11T17:36:00.001-07:00

black bean pita, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

These pitas may not be all that pretty to look at, but they are really tasty--especially if you are really craving a bunch of veggies. The recipe comes from a book called Vegetarian Sandwiches and is very easy to make. It contains black beans, heirloom tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, jicama, jack cheese, lime juice, cumin, and jarred salsa. You basically just mix everything together and put it in a pita.

If you have never had jicama before, you are in for a treat. It is very hard to describe, but it is juicy and crunchy and sweet (the white chunks in the photo are jicama). It is definitely worth trying at least once. It is good in salads of any kind. The only problem with it is that it is a little hard to peel, but underneath the peel is crunchy goodness.

Vegetarian Gumbo

2008-08-08T16:16:00.001-07:00

gumbo, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I always forget how long it takes to cook gumbo. Sure, the recipe says it will only take a little while to get the right color on the rue, but generally it takes quite a bit of time. This recipe is from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and I suppose is not really a true gumbo because it does not contain okra. It is very tasty though. It calls for onions, peppers, kidney beans, lots of paprika, and some kind of greens. We used collards--always a good green to use when you know your dish will be cooking for a while.

The rue is just flour and oil heated until the flour turns a deep shade of red. This is supposed to happen over very low heat, but we discovered that closer to medium on an electric stove is about right (the heat could probably be lower on a gas stove). Once we turned the heat up a little, the flour finally started to turn. It was supposed to take only 15 minutes, but we had it on the heat for easily 35 minutes. We didn't let it get to a really deep red because I remember from gumbos past that I thought the flavor was a little too strong. Instead we added the onions and stuff when the flour was a chestnut brown and the flavor turned out great.

We served the gumbo over rice (although you can't see it in the photo). Gumbo is very tasty, but just remember that it takes a while to make (even if the recipe says it is quick and easy) and don't add the rice to the leftovers for storage--the rice will get mushy. Although the gumbo was stellar the first day, the leftovers were not as good because of the mushy rice.

Egg and Potato Burrito

2008-08-03T11:35:00.001-07:00

egg and potato burrito, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This makes for a very quick and easy dinner. The egg part of this burrito is from a breakfast burrito recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and is just a ton of herbs, chile pepper, and some cheese mixed with scrambled eggs. We added the cherry tomatoes and a pan fried bag of breakfast potatoes with peppers from Cascadian Farm. Yes, this is supposed to be a breakfast, but we don't abide by such rules here when it just as easily makes a quick and easy dinner.

Porcini with Gremolata

2008-08-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

At the end of the spring Porcini season, Far West Fungi in the Ferry Terminal Building, was selling a pound bag of perfectly good Porcini musrooms for $10. So we picked up a bag.

Since we finally had enough of these mushrooms, and they were cheap enough, we could try eating them raw.

We chopped these guys, and tossed them with big shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice and Gremolata, which is a traditional Italian "condiment" (for lack of a better word.)

Gremolata is:

The zest of a lemon
About a tablespoon of fresh thyme and/or parsley
Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
A clove of garlic, minced or crushed.

Words can not describe how stellar this was. I love mushrooms, and I really love Porcini, and this way of serving them really let them shine. This picture was sort of last minute. I made this, and we sat down and tried it, just with some crackers, and before you knew it we'd eaten all most all of it! Optimistic was saying, "we should get a picture of this before it is GONE."

Buttermilk Bread French Toast

2008-07-31T08:59:00.001-07:00

french toast, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I had forgotten about this french toast. We made it with the buttermilk honey bread that I made and used the recipe from the Cafe Flora Cookbook. The secret to this recipe is tossing the french toast into some wheat germ after dipping it in the egg batter, but before putting it in the pan. The wheat germ browns up nicely and gives the french toast a great taste.

We served the french toast with raspberries and nectarines and grade B maple syrup (grade B maple syrup is the only way to go--it has way more flavor than grade A). Please ignore the other junk on our table.

Aromatic Potato and Arugula Soup

2008-07-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

arugula soup, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I never would have thought to put arugula in a soup, but this soup turned out to be pretty awsome. We had a ton of arugula sitting in our fridge left over from another recipe and needed a way to use it all up without making another salad (it has been a little chilly here). This soup fit the bill. The soup is from Verdura, Vegetables Italian Style, which I have learned was recently reprinted. This cookbook is definitely worth getting. None of the recipes have any meat in them, but occasionally there will be a meat broth of some kind (this recipe called for meat broth, but we just used a couple of vegetarian bouillon cubes instead). Most of the recipes are super easy like this one, but a few are pretty time consuming (although if they are all like the potato artichoke cake, they are worth the time).

This soup is so simple, yet tasted so wonderful. The recipe called for butter and olive oil (we used only olive oil and less than called for), onion, garlic, red chili pepper flakes, potatoes, broth, arugula, basil, italian parsley, arborio rice and salt to taste. The basil, parsley and arugula gave the soup a lovely "green" taste and the potatoes and rice gave it a great texture. This one is a winner.

Dirty Basil Martini

2008-07-28T16:43:00.001-07:00

Dirty Basil Martini, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We prefer gin as opposed to vodka in our martinis and the dirtier the better. The crusader put this martini together after a particularly yucky day:

Put a dash of dry vermouth into the glass and swirl it around-then pour it out and put some sliced basil in the glass. Put ice in a cocktail shaker with 2-3 ounces of bombay saphire gin (you can rough it with tanqueray, but your martini might end up tasting a little bit like an ashtray) and olive juice from a jar of olives to taste. Shake the shaker until frost appears on the outside of it (this may take a little bit--the myth of shaking bruising gin does not appear to be true). Pour the mixture over the basil in the glass and add a couple (or more) olives. Neither of us can handle much more than one of these every 2-3 months or so (we are lightweights), but it is a nice splurge every now and again.

Banana Pancakes with Coconut Syrup

2008-07-23T12:43:00.001-07:00

banana pancakes with coconut syrup, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

There used to be this really great cooking show on a no longer existing network in Seattle called "Two Hot Tamales." One day they made these delicious looking banana pancakes with coconut syrup. We tried them and instantly fell in love. Luckily I have managed to locate the recipe for the pancakes and the syrup out on the web. Our old copy is covered in splatters and really should be replaced. (Just a note: our original recipe for the syrup did not require blending in a blender so we never do it, but the new online version of the recipe calls for blending. Take your pick. Also, we always use low fat coconut milk instead of full fat--still lots of fat in the low fat coconut milk, but better than the full fat).

This recipe is a great way to use up overripe bananas and make some pancake syrup if you are all out of maple syrup but happen to have coconut and brown sugar.

The hosts of Two Hot Tamales (actually it may only be one of them--I am not too sure of the history) started a restaurant in Santa Monica called the Border Grill. Apparently these pancakes are served there for brunch. We stopped by this restaurant for lunch when we were in LA, but were not impressed, but then we didn't have these pancakes. Although you should probably take this with a grain of salt because I was coming down with the worst flu I ever had and the crusader was recovering from the same flu. Some day we will have to go back to LA when we are both not so ill. But I digress...

I have to say that these are the best pancakes I have ever tasted, so I highly recommend that you try them at least once.

Nectarine Plum Cobbler

2008-07-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

What do you make when you have a bunch of leftover buttermilk and 4 pounds of very ripe stone fruit? The most delicious cobbler in the universe! This was a very simple cobbler recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone that can be used with just about any kind of fruit. We had white and yellow nectarines and plums. The fruit got peeled and sliced and mixed with a small amount of brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon and nutmeg. The topping just had buttermilk, a little bit of butter, a little bit of sugar, flour and salt and I think that is it.

I was a little worried that we would be able to eat all of this cobbler before it started to get mushy. We ended up eating it is 2 days so I had no need to worry. The white nectarines were stellar in this. The plums kind of disappeared into a sweet sauce and the yellow nectarines married it all together.

Now a gratuitous shot of stone fruit carnage:

Buttermilk Honey Bread

2008-07-17T15:56:00.001-07:00

buttermilk bread, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

My second attempt at bread baking didn't quite turn out as well as my first. This recipe comes from another Sort Floor Books find, The Bread Bible. It is a great book that contains just about every kind of bread recipe that you can imagine. I wanted to start with something simple that could be used for sandwiches or toast with jam, etc and buttermilk honey bread contained minimal ingredients and seemed pretty simple.

The recipe is just fine and what this bread lacks in quality is all due to my limited bread making abilities. It was a little cold in the apartment the day I made this so it took a really long time to rise. I also think that I over-kneaded which led to the bread being a little chewier than I would have liked. The recipe makes two loaves of bread, but we only have one loaf pan, so I made the other loaf as a round.

The bread turned out okay, but there is much room for improvement. We made some pretty good French toast and pesto garlic bread out of it, but some of it did end up uneaten.

Next time I make bread, I will make the following changes: use the stand mixer (part of the reason that I needed to knead so much is that I was not strong enough to mix in all of the flour with a spoon), maybe half a bread recipe so there is not so much bread to eat, make larger slashes in the top of the bread so that it doesn't crack, pick a bread with some added whole grains or whole wheat flour so the bread isn't so "white bread," and perhaps pick a more rustic Italian style bread that is not so dense.

Curry Fried Rice

2008-07-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

curry fried rice, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Curry Fried Rice is another delicious recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop. There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but it is still relatively simple. The flavors are wonderful: coconut milk, lime, curry powder with tofu and egg and snow peas. The tofu and the egg each give the dish a different texture, so even though you wouldn't normally think to put both in one dish, they are both good here. The recipe actually called for sugar snap peas, but snow peas are so good in fried rice that we used those instead (plus they were cheaper at the store). We made rice for the recipe and then let is cool for a while, but this recipe is a great way to use up left over rice.

Steamed Earl Grey Artichoke, Miso Roasted Potatoes, and Soy-Yuzu Tofu

2008-07-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of stuff that Optimistic calls comfort food. She grew up eating healthy like this, and from time to time we have to bust out the potatoes and veggies to keep her optimistic, so to speak.

This is all original, so we can post the whole recipe!

Part One: Miso Roasted Potatoes

1 Tablespoon each of Honey, Yellow Miso, Cider Vinegar and Olive oil, (you might want to do two tablespoons of oil, it will stick less,) mixed together and set aside.

3 or 4 peeled cloves of garlic chopped in half
10 pearl onions, peeled, ends cut off
About a pound and a half of potatoes, cut up into dice. Nice waxy ones would be killer, but all we had were starchy plain old Russets. (We always have some Russets around. They keep remarkably well in the fridge, although Jeffrey Steingarten swears that they will convert more of their starch to sugar if left in the fridge... To be absolutely honest, I've never noticed a negative effect, or an overly sweet russet, but then again, they don't stay in there for long, because potatoes of any sort are in trouble if Optimistic is home.)

Toss the potatoes, onions, and garlic into an oven-proof pan. Pour the miso dressing over the potatoes and toss until evenly covered. I tend to line the pan with foil, and make a little packet, because this makes cleaning the pan easier. Close the packet and cook for 20 minutes in a hot oven (425 degrees or so.) Then open the packet carefully, shake the potatoes around, and finish until the potatoes are cooked, probably 20 to 30 minutes more. They will brown a little as well. They may stick to the foil.

Part Two: Earl Grey Artichokes.

Right after you open the packet on the potatoes, start the artichokes.

Steam the artichokes in whatever fashion you employ at your home, just add a tablespoon or two of Earl Grey tea to the steaming water. Steam the artichokes until a knife goes in easily. For monster chokes like these, that'll be about thirty minutes. Stop every ten minutes and add a little more water. The addition of the tea (with its tamarind-citrus evoking oil of bergamot,) does remarkable things to the flesh of the choke. They get so tasty that we eat them straight, without salt or mayo.

Part Three: Soy-Yuzu Tofu.

1 half pound of tofu, drained well and cut into 1 inch rectangles.
Marinade: 2 Tablespoons each of soy sauce, Nigori (unfiltered) sake, and worchestershire sauce (they make a vegan variety which is pretty good, but I do have a preference for Lea and Perrins, anchovies and all) plus two or three dashes of Yuzu concentrate and a crushed garlic clove.

Put the tofu slices into a container with the marinade. Let them sit for a while (the last 20 to 30 minutes while artichokes are steaming is pretty good, it only needs to sit for 10 minutes or so.)

So, about ten minutes before everything is done, heat around a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet, take the tofu out of the marinade and cook the tofu for five minutes per side, until brown. After you flip the tofu, you can opt to pour in the reserved marinade and let it thicken a bit into a sauce, but this isn't necessary, the tofu will be plenty tasty on its own.

Pizza from Pauline's

2008-07-10T09:58:00.001-07:00

pizza from Pauline's, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Pauline's Pizza is one of the best pizza places in the city. They have a garden in Berkeley and another near the Sierras were they grow their herbs, fruit and veggies, so the toppings always taste great and their crust is nice and tender. Here we have a summer squash and herb pizza with some kind of tasty smelly cheese but I can't remember what kind. We always order light cheese when we order pizza, but Pauline's is the only place that consistently gets the meaning of the word "light."

Pauline's also has a killer house red wine and makes great salads! Plus their signature vegetarian pesto pizza is fantastic and is what we usually get, but we wanted to branch out--we did not regret it. This pizza was delicious.

Smoothie and Bagels

2008-07-08T08:01:00.001-07:00

Smoothie and Bagels, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We discovered House of Bagels in the Richmond just as every grocery store seemed to start carrying their bagels. They make very good bagels. Here we have an onion poppy seed bagel with light cream cheese (mixed with a little onion powder), english cucumber, and of course those little orange cherry tomatoes. We needed to find the bagels to go with a big tub of cream cheese that we ended up with after helping a friend move. We also ended up with a large jug of apple juice, so a smoothie also seemed in order.

Yummy Berry Smoothie:

2-3 cups apple juice
half cup strawberries
half cup raspberries
1 banana
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (we used Spirutein)
half cup non-fat yogurt
1 tablespoon bee pollen

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

We almost lost a large amount of this smoothie through the bottom of the blender because it started to leak. Our blender sucks. We have suspected as much for about 5 or 6 years. We saved up for a nice kitchen aid blender that many years ago and immediately regretted it. The jar is too wide, there are always some little chunks that don't get blended, it is impossible to pour stuff out of it (we bought ours before kitchen aid decided to change the design of the top to make it easier to pour), and now it randomly leaks at the bottom. Note to self, don't buy another kitchen aid blender. However, it still works so we are not going to buy a new one until this one craps out. The motor seems pretty good, so that may not happen for years.

Tostadas

2008-07-07T14:39:00.001-07:00

tomatoes and cilantro, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

No, this is not a picture of tostadas, but these tomatoes ended up in some tostadas. We were so hungry on the day the tostadas were made that no pictures were taken.

The recipe is from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop and contained tomatoes mixed with cilantro, a little olive oil and salt (pictured above), spinach cooked with garlic, and goat cheese. Then these ingredients were strategically placed on 4 tortillas and baked until the tortillas were crispy. The tostadas were very good, but they do make for a light supper so it would have been nice to have a salad or something of that nature along with them.

You will be seeing more of these orange cherry tomatoes. They are so good this year and we have been getting them every time we get groceries. Lately we have had the choice of red, orange, or yellow cherry tomatoes, but the orange ones seem to be the most balanced in flavor--not too acidic and very flavorful.

Rhubarb Compote

2008-07-01T11:20:00.001-07:00

rhubarb compote, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

The Dessert Bible so far is turning out to be a winner. I had two large stalks of rhubarb (about 1/2 pound) and just a few leftover strawberries and the rhubarb compote recipe was the perfect use for these. This recipe is so simple--basically chop up the fruit, add a little sugar, lemon juice, and although the recipe didn't call for it, I added some cinnamon. Then this is cooked in a pot for about 10 minutes and it is done. Almost instant gratification. Here the compote is shown served with a spoon of non-fat yogurt, but we also had it on some frozen yogurt and some store bought shortcakes. The compote was a little sour because I used more lemon juice than the recipe called for and reduced the sugar a little bit, but it was still really tasty. I am a convert to rhubarb for sure.

Oatmeal Date Cookies

2008-06-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

oatmeal date cookies, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Most of you that know me personally know that I like to knit. I joined Ravelry a while back and it has been a great resource for thrifty people like me. Through one of the forums on Ravelry, I learned about Sort Floor Books. They have all types of books that are remainders, used, or have some minor damage that make them unsellable at full price. So, Sort Floor Books sells them at deep discounts (usually at least 50% off)--and the best thing is that there is free shipping if your order is over $15. Their selection of cookbooks varies depending on the day you look, but we have found a few real bargains. One such bargain was The Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball for $6. I got it because we don't have a lot of dessert books and I wanted some resources for what to do with leftover summer fruit. I'll post later about the fantastic rhubarb compote I made out of this book, but first we wanted to show you these oatmeal date cookies from the book. They are the best oatmeal cookies I have ever tasted.

These cookies are pictured on the front cover of the book and as the cookbook sat on our dining table for a few days, we both developed a craving for the delicious looking cookies. I generally dislike raisins in cookies so I was happy to see dates used instead of raisins (of course the recipe also includes instructions on how to make them with raisins). These cookies are very easy (other than the chopping of the dates, which can be a messy job), but you really do need to follow the instructions in order for them to come out right. The recipe requires that the cookies come out of the oven after 15 minutes even though they will look underdone. They are not really underdone and when they cool they end up having crispy edges and a nice chewy middle. Yum! We only made half a batch the first time, which yields 12 cookies, but then we had to make the "rest" of the cookies and cooked another half batch. They were just as delicious both times. And hey, there are lots of oats in these cookies, so they can't be all bad for us right?

Indian black eyed peas, corn, and dill

2008-06-27T10:45:00.001-07:00

Indian black eyed peas and corn, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another super simple World Vegetarian recipe that turned out really well. The original recipe called for dried beans, but we used two cans of black eyed peas and made this recipe in 20 minutes rather than 2-3 hours. So when the rice was done, the dish was done. Even with the dramatically reduced cooking time, this was really really good. However, it was stellar the next day. All of the spices really soaked into the black eyed peas and made them super tasty. We had some of the leftovers in a tortilla with some scrambled eggs in the morning and it was fantastic as a breakfast burrito.

If you want to know one of the secrets to cooking Indian food at home here it is: curry leaves. They are fantastic and give recipes that signature Indian flavor. We have only been able to find them at Indian grocers, so if you have one near you, buy a big bag of them and put them in everything!

Mock Lamb Curry

2008-06-25T14:16:00.001-07:00

Mock Lamb Curry, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Another recipe from World Vegetarian. This turned out fantastic even though I had my doubts about the texture of the seitan when it cooked for a few minutes longer than I usually cook seitan. As it turns out the texture was just fine and it had absorbed all of the yummy spices that are in this. It was really good with a little bit of non-fat yogurt on top.

Birthday Strawberry Mint Milkshake

2008-06-24T22:30:00.001-07:00

Today is Optimistic's birthday, and among other things, we made her a strawberry-mint milkshakes. I got one too, which is just an added bonus, since it isn't my birthday.

Blend a whole pint of strawberries, ten or so fresh peppermint leaves, just a tiny bit (two teaspoons or so) of Agave Nectar or your sweetener of choice, and an entire pint of your "ice cream" of choice. We usually use, Maggie Mudd's Soy Vanilla, which is a true masterpiece of soy based ice-cream, and the ENTIRE PINT has just 2 grams of fat. But this week, the soy vanilla was in short supply, so we had to settle for a low-fat frozen yogurt.

Visceral Cupcake

2008-06-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Return of the Green Tea Cupcake! This time we replaced the liquid in the frosting with the juice and fine strained pulp from around 20 deep red cherries from Twin Girls Farm, which I ran through a food mill, (the cherries, not the farm.) I don't recommend this method for juicing the cherries, the pits jump out of the mill and hit you in the face, leaving a fine spatter of cherry mist that would convince Dexter Morgan that you warranted his special attentions. (If you absolutely must try it, pit the cherries first.)

Anyhow, the end result, a rich, intense green-tea and cherry icing, was simply fantastic, and really set off the green tea cupcakes.

Unfortunately, with so much cherry juice, the consistency was less an icing and more of a glaze, leading to this sort of delicious mess.

Sweet and Sour Tofu Balls

2008-06-20T10:00:00.001-07:00

Sweet and Sour Tofu Balls, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Sweet and Sour Tofu Balls is an oldie but a goody at our place. It comes from one of the first cookbooks I ever purchased, Tofu Cookery. They are remarkably easy to make and are very tasty. The balls are a mix of tofu, peanut butter, flour, soy sauce, mushrooms (we used a ton of shiitakes--way more than the recipe called for), water chestnuts or celery (we used celery), green pepper and green onion. They are baked for 20 minutes and then covered with a sweet and sour sauce that contains pineapple juice, honey, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, arrowroot or cornstarch (we used cornstarch because we were all out of arrowroot), and garlic (the recipe calls for garlic powder, but since we didn't have any, we used a mix of fresh garlic and a tiny bit of garlic salt). The balls are served over rice and you can put some more soy sauce on them if they need a little saltiness.

Tofu Cookery is a great cookbook if you ever cook with tofu. It has some surprisingly tasty recipes. The danishes, bbq tofu, and tofu potato salad are some of our favorites.

Campanelle with Vodka Tomato Sauce

2008-06-18T12:04:00.001-07:00

Campanelle with Vodka Tomato Sauce, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This was supposed to be Ziti with Vodka Tomato Sauce. We had no ziti, so campanelle subbed just fine. Vodka tomato sauce is a classic recipe, but this vegan version is much less rich than the traditional recipe. This recipe variation comes from an old Vegetarian Times (but is excerpted from Totally Dairy-Free Cooking by Louis Lanza and Laura Morton). Soy milk is substituted for the traditional cream in the recipe. Other than that, the ingredients are pretty much the same as the traditional recipe: olive oil, garlic, chopped onion, basil, red pepper flakes, vodka (6 tablespoons), canned plum tomatoes, and pasta. If you start the sauce when you start the pasta water to boil, the sauce will be done when the pasta is done and you will have dinner in under 30 minutes. It may sound like there is a lot of vodka in this recipe, but it is cooked with the onions and all of the alcohol is cooked off. All you are left with is some vodka flavor. I know that vodka is typically known for having no flavor, but it really does add something to the recipe.

Indian Broccoli and Potatoes

2008-06-16T17:51:00.001-07:00

Indian Broccoli and Potatoes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is Broccoli with Potatoes cooked indian style from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. It is a very simple recipe that calls for boiled waxy potatoes and blanched broccoli that are then browned in a pan with Indian spices.

This turned out very well, but this is a lousy picture. What I don't get is that as of the time of this posting I had 37 hits on this photo on flickr--more than any other photo I have posted. What is up with that? The magic words must be Indian Broccoli and Potatoes. What is not to like about that combo?

Cottage Cheese and Nutmeg Pancakes

2008-06-15T17:41:00.001-07:00

pancakes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

These are from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I am always surprised by how many different recipes are in this book. This was a way to use up left over cottage cheese in the fridge and to eat our fresh market strawberries. This is a pretty basic buttermilk pancake recipe with the addition of cottage cheese and nutmeg. Unfortunately we didn't have any buttermilk, so we used some nonfat yogurt instead. It worked just fine and we've found that you can usually sub yogurt for buttermilk in most recipes that call for buttermilk.

Olive and Egg Salad Sandwich

2008-06-14T18:29:00.001-07:00

egg salad sandwich, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is a super quick and tasty lunch.

For two sandwiches you will need:

3 eggs
6 manzanilla olives (you can sub other olives if you wish, but these are pretty tasty--go for olive bar or jarred type olives, not canned)
1 tablespoon of soy mayonnaise (or regular mayonnaise)
1 teaspoon of yellow mustard
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
salt to taste
1 large or 2 small tomatoes
8-10 basil leaves
2 burger buns or bread of your choice

First make hard boiled eggs (put eggs in water and bring to boil, then cover and set timer for 10 minutes). Then chop eggs to your desired size. Pit olives if they are not already pitted (you can press your thumb down on the olives with a bit of pressure to squash the olive and the pit will be easy to remove, but you might squirt olive juice on yourself of your kitchen walls, so beware). Then chop the olives into small pieces and mix with the eggs. Add the onions, mayonnaise and yellow mustard. Mix and salt to taste. You can also add a little more mayonnaise or mustard if you wish.

To assemble, put the egg salad on the toasted bun or bread, slice a couple of nice slices of tomato and put that on top of the egg. Then place a few basil leaves on top of the tomato. Put the other half of the bun or slice of bread on top and enjoy.

Wow. I'm a little starstruck.

2008-06-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

We got a really nice comment on our last post from the author of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. It is really fantastic that Ms. Robertson would take the time to comment on our food blog. I'm just sorry it was in response to a disappointment rather than one of the many many successes we have had with her recipes. If you are still reading Ms. Robertson, we are still huge fans!

Disappointing Paella

2008-06-13T12:56:00.001-07:00

not quite paella, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Every now and then we make a dud. It is really rare and we are both very disappointed when it happens. This recipe had great potential and started really good, but somewhere in the cooking process something went horribly wrong.

I think the first mistake was that this is a slow cooker recipe. I'm pretty sure paella should never be cooked in a slow cooker. We have a slow cooker and rarely use it so we bought Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson (the same author of the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes cookbook). Then the book sat around for several months. Then we made some killer chili in the slow cooker using a recipe from the book. Then we decided to make another slow cooker recipe and this one just did not turn out.

This vegetarian paella recipe called for a ton of ingredients. It called for stock so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use the shiitake bottoms and all manner of fresh onion ends we had in the freezer. The stock turned out great. We added it to the pot with all of the ingredients including onion lightly browned in a pan, a green bell pepper, artichoke hearts, saffron, kidney beans, bay leaves and other stuff. It tasted fantastic all mixed together. Then it cooked in the slow cooker for 4 hours, making the apartment smell fantastic all day. After 4 hours we added the rice and cooked for another hour. This was perhaps another mistake since the rice was a strange new rice I wanted to try called baby basmati and I don't think that it needed to cook for an hour. Then at the end we added oyster mushrooms that were browned in a pan and some frozen peas (which I do believe might have been freezer burnt). We decided not to add the vegetarian sausage to the pot, but instead grill it on the stove and have it alongside. The vegetarian sausage was actually pretty good.

When we tasted the finished paella, it pretty much tasted like nothing (except for the oyster mushrooms, which tasted great). No amount of salt or mixing it with the sausage helped (although we never did try the suggested lemon juice, which might have helped a little). We still wonder where all of the flavor went. How can all the stuff taste good on the way in and then 4 hours later taste like nothing? Perhaps that artichokes and green peppers conspired together to make everything taste like tap water. Who knows. The worst part is that we had a ton of this stuff. We tried to save it by making some sort of paella patty coated with bread crumbs and browned in a pan, but these were also bland and unsatisfying. So we had to accept our loss and throw away the rest of the paella.

I guess one loss out of hundreds is not so bad. The slow cooker is back under the sink for a while and probably will not come out again except to make chili or something else that won't be damaged by cooking for so long.

Beets and Potatoes

2008-06-12T07:55:00.001-07:00

beets and potatoes, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This is Beets with Mint and Yogurt and Stir-Fried Beet Greens with Ginger and Green Chilies mixed with mashed potatoes made with the chioga beets and greens. Both recipes are from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey (although mixing the beet greens with mashed potatoes was my idea). We have had this book for quite some time and rarely cook out of it. I don't know why that is because most of the recipes are quick and easy to make and taste pretty good. The recipes don't call for much more than what their titles suggest is in them. I roasted the beets as I normally do, including adding balsamic vinegar, which didn't really go with the yogurt. However, as leftovers, the beets themselves were really good because they had soaked up a lot of the flavors in the yogurt. So in future, I will leave out the vinegar when making this recipe.

The best watermelon ever

2008-06-11T16:05:00.001-07:00

watermelon, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

The pictured watermelon is actually the best watermelon ever's little sister. We bought this mini yellow watermelon at the farmer's market a couple of weeks ago for $5 and it was so delicious that we went back for another one last weekend. The one we got last weekend was the best watermelon I have ever had. It was $8, but it was totally worth it. As you can see however, it is not more economical (at least around here) to shop for produce at the farmer's market. But, I do want to support local farmers and the produce tastes so much better. If you can get ahold of a yellow watermelon at a farmer's market this year, grab it--they are great this year.

The perfect light breakfast

2008-06-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

light breakfast, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Lightly toasted cinnamon swirl bread (store bought, made by Semifreddi's) and Rainier Cherries. When finished, go back for more cherries. Yummy.

These aren't golden beets.....

2008-06-10T06:44:00.001-07:00

chioga beets, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

We bought what we thought were more golden beets from the same farmer's market vendor as last time, but these turned out to be chioga beets. (I suppose we should have known they were not golden beets because they were quite a bit redder on the outside). Also tasty, these guys are red and white on the inside--almost like a pretty radish. They also have a completely different flavor from red or golden beets, but you can still tell that they are in the beet family.

Beautiful Porcini

2008-06-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the unique combination of cool climate and rainforest in Oregon and Washington state, we can get porcini in the spring and the fall. Last week some outstanding examples started appearing in the markets.

What do you do with these? Well, they make fantastic risotto for one, and an italian friend suggested that you should just eat them, raw, with olive oil, salt, parsley, lemon and parmesan. (LUXURY!)

But when life gives us porcini, we make pasta. We sliced this thin, and sauteed it with garlic and red pepper flake in olive oil, then added two large diced heirloom tomatoes, (which have also started appearing at the market lately) and about a tablespoon of minced nepitella, some salt and pepper, and then let that cook down into a sauce. (About five minutes.) Then we tossed it with a pound of angel hair pasta.

Blueberry Danish

2008-06-03T15:53:00.001-07:00

Blueberry Danish, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

It's been a few years since I've made this one, but it always turns out well. I just realized that I forgot one of the liquid ingredients in the pastry dough, but I've already taste tested it and it turned out ok even with the missing 1/3 cup liquid (although I was wondering why the dough was so dry when I rolled it out and it made the danish harder to shape resulting in a kind of wonky looking end result--but as long as it tastes good, I have no problem with it).

This is a low fat blueberry danish recipe from a years old cooking magazine (I want to say it is from Gourmet magazine, but it has been a while and I cut the recipe out). It is a clever recipe that uses low fat cottage cheese in the crust (instead of butter), low fat cream cheese in the filling and lots and lots of lemon. I would list the recipe, but I don't want to violate anyone's copyright (which is why I generally don't list recipes out of cookbooks).

It has been so long since we have made this one because for some reason blueberries have skyrocketed in price. The last time I saw blueberries at the co-op, they were $8 a basket (?!). We found some organic blueberries for $2.99 a basket at one of the markets we sometimes go to and had to dust off this recipe to celebrate the relatively cheap berries.

Pear and Potato Pizza with Mint-Oregano Pesto

2008-06-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here I am in action, so fast I can hardly be seen!

Cutting...

"Peace"-a pizza!

This is an older recipe, first dating from November of 2002! I've made it three times since then, and each time, this has been a winner.

This sounds odd, but it is a great pizza. The mint oregano pesto plays with the starchiness of the potato and the sweetness of the pear. The cheese compliments both. It was assembled out of leftover bits from our pantry when I was trying to avoid going to the store for groceries, and it was so good that we made it again, to see if it was a fluke. It wasn't.
The crust:
(This makes two crusts, freeze one, or make another pizza or cinnamon rolls. Halving the crust recipe has NEVER worked for me, the crust comes out horribly.) I've taken to using a focaccia dough for this, it has more oil, and gets crispier. For a less fattening crust, use a third of the oil... It isn't absolutely necessary for the chemistry of the bread, but it sure tastes good. By the way, a good olive oil is essential, I recommend a strong, flavorful estate bottled olive oil.)

1 and 1/3 cup of warm water (115 degrees or so.)
a packet of baker's yeast (about a tablespoon)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 and 1/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of salt

Place water, yeast and oil in the work bowl of a food processor, blend for a few seconds. add the flour and salt, run for thirty secnds or until the dough comes together in a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface, separate into two balls, and knead for about a minute. place each into an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place (about 80 degrees) for an hour. (If you lack an 80 degree place, put the bowls in an oven that was been heated to warm, (generally, this is 200 degrees) and then turned off, and let sit for about five minutes, so that the temp inside the oven is no greater than about 115 degrees farenheit. Any hotter than this, and you will kill the yeast. Let this sit in the warm oven for forty-five minutes.) If you lack a food processor, you can mix the ingredients in a bowl, then turn out onto a floured surface, and knead by hand for five to ten minutes, until the dough is soft and firm, but yeilding about the texture of an earlobe. Let rise as before.

The Potatoes:
two medium new potatoes (yukon gold are good)
a tablespoon of fresh rosemary, diced
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cracked black pepper
a half a tablespoon of olive oil

Slice two medium new potatoes into very thin slices, put in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper and rosemary, drizzle the oil over, and toss.
You have a couple of optins for cooking. You can grill these potatoes over high heat for 5 minutes per side on a grill pan or BBQ. This is fantastic and by far the recommended method. You can also opt to bake them:
Spread the potaotes out on a baking sheet, and if you don't have the dough in there, bake in a 350 degree oven for ten minutes or so, or until they have lost most of thier crispiness.

Once the potatoes or dough come out of it, the oven will need to be ramped up to five hundred degrees for at least a half hour before you put the pizza in. If you have a pizza stone, put it in before you heat up the oven.

The pesto:
1/4 loose cup fresh oregano leaves
1/4 loose cup fresh mint leaves
5 to 10 peppercorns
A pinch of salt
3 cloves garlic, diced
A dash of olive oil

Put the oregano, mint, garlic, peppercorns, and a pinch of salt into a mortar. Grind to a rough paste. The salt should pull the oils from the mint and garlic and make it a wet mix, if you have trouble, add a little of the olive oil to make a loose paste, but nothing runny. This pizza has enough oil as it is. You will only have about a tablespoon of pesto, do not be alarmed. This is plenty.

The onion base:
One half of a large sweet onion, such as a bermuda or vedalia or walla walla
A bit of olive oil for the pan
A sprinkle of salt
A half tablespoon of stone ground dijon mustard
A half tablespoon of cream sherry, mirin, sake, sweet vermouth or white wine

Slice the onion thin. Heat oil over a medium flame, and then add the onion and salt. The salt will pull the water from the onion, and it will begin to go clear, and then to brown, add the mustard and sherry , stir until the mustard wine sauce covers the onions, be careful, this may burn.

The rest of the assembly:
Three small seckle pears or one large bosc pear
A good cheese for pears and potatoes, like a blue cheese or goat cheese. In this incarnation, it was plain old goat cheese. I've used both a gorgonzola and "drunken goat" cheese, with fantastic results.
A dash of olive oil
Some salt.

Take the crust, and carefully stretch it out until it makes a 12 to 18 inch round (depending upon how thin you like the crust.) Add no more flour, and if the pizza is wonkily shaped, live with it! Don't ball it up and re-stretch, unless you plan on letting it rise in-between. Both of these things (extra flour after the last rise, and over-working the dough,) will make the pizza too tough. Place on a pie pan or pizza stone. If you want, you can let the crust rise again for about a half hour at this point. It makes the crust breadier. If you leave it as is, it will be thin, almost crackerlike. Regardless of your choice, after the bread has risen again or no, spread the onions evenly over the crust, arrange the potatoes in a a thin layer over the onions. (You may have some left over, after the pizza is done, put them back into the oven on the cookie sheet until they brown, they make a good snack.) Slice the pears into coin sized chunks and spread over the potatoes. You want about half to three quarters as many pears as potatoes. Take your pesto and put a dab here, a dab there, in little bits no larger than a penny, all over the pizza... use it all. Using a brush, brush the crust of the pizza with olive oil, and sprinkle a tiny bit of salt all the way around.
Put your pizza into a 500 degree oven for at least ten minutes, but more like 12, until the potatoes and crust are browning. Add your cheese at the end, after you remove it from the oven.

Golden Beets

2008-05-29T12:57:00.001-07:00

beets 1, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

I just realized that the beet salad I just blogged about may be confusing to some people because the beets are not red. They are golden beets. As you can see from the picture the are a little orangish before they are peeled and are a little more yellow on the inside. They do not stain as much as red beets obviously and their flavor is very different. The golden beets are more nutty and more reminiscent of the flavor of a carrot than red beets. They still have the earthy flavor of beets though and can be subbed for beets in any recipe.

Beet Salad.....

2008-05-29T12:42:00.001-07:00

Beet Salad, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

Also known as the best beet salad ever! This turned out so well. It is a modified version of Beets with Lemon, Cilantro, and Mint from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

The recipe calls for cooked beets, the zest and juice of a lemon, diced red onion, parsley, cilantro, mint, ground coriander, olive oil, salad greens, and oil cured olives. We followed the recipe except for a few modifications.

We cooked the beets in our usual way: peeled, cut into small pieces, put in tin foil with a little bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and baked at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. We also baked some carrots along with the beets. We made the dressing according to the recipe, but left out the parsley. Once the beets and carrots were cooked, we mixed them with the dressing. Instead of salad greens, we put the beets and carrots over purslain. Purslain looks kind of like thin succulent leaves and tastes kind of like a cross between arugula and cactus--but really it has a taste all of its own.

We were going to leave the olives out because of the added balsamic vinegar, but decided to add them at the end (after this picture was taken). We used kalamata olives instead of oil cured olives. The salad was already really good, but the olives made it out of this world. The baby beets from the farmer's market were so tender and tasty and the purslain worked so well with all of the other flavors. This salad was a real winner. It kind of reminded me of some of the salad dishes we have had a Millennium (which makes me wonder if lemon and mint is the secret to some of their salads).

Biscuits and Burnt Flour Gravy (with Melon)

2008-05-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

We were craving the biscuits and gravy from the sadly defunct Globe Cafe in Seattle, and since we are something like 500 plus miles and about a year too late to eat at the Globe, we decided to make our own, using Alexa frozen biscuits and a modification to my great grandmother's basic burnt flour gravy.

Burnt flour gravy is a really common thing in West Virginia, It's a good way to add some flavor to a meal and stretch a buck at the same time.

Burnt Flour Gravy:

1 Shallot, diced.
4 T Flour
1 T nutritional yeast (aka, Brewer's yeast.)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
generous dash of cayenne pepper
1 cup water

Mix together the flour, yeast, salt, cumin, and pepper until pretty well mixed up.

Heat 2 or 3 T Canola oil in a skillet until hot. (Traditionally this would be the hot rendered fat from fried chicken or roast beef, along with the browned bits of the meat, called "Drippings" in West Virginia, naturally this isn't vegetarian, so we use the shallots to take their place. the gravy doesn't miss the meat at all.) Add the shallots and cook until golden brown. Slowly sprinkle the flour mixture into the hot oil, like snow. Mix the flour into the oil with a wooden spoon until it becomes a bit of a dry paste. (this is called a roux.) Spread this out as much as possible and let the flour toast in the skillet. The longer this toasts, the darker the gravy will be. The gravy can range from a white gravy, (The Globe's was closer to a white gravy, made with mushrooms i addition to the shallots,) which is toasted just little bit, to a deep brown gravy, which is truly the burnt flour gravy. The burnt flour takes on a bitter, nutty flavor which is really the trademark of appalachian burnt flour gravy.

When the roux is a nice light brown, add the water in a slow stream and stir constantly. As soon as it hits the pan, it will steam up and mix with the burnt flour and form a thick starchy gravy, add more and more water till the gravy is at the desired thickness. Once it is there, take it off the heat or it will lose the water and thicken up more.

Serve the gravy on top of stuff.

EDIT: Here's a variation on the gravy that's very close to the Globe's Mushroom Gravy.

2 to 3 T Oil
4 T Flour
1/2 tspn salt
generous amount of black pepper
3 sage leaves minced
1/4 of an onion, diced.
5 or 6 crimini or button mushrooms, sliced thin

Heat the oil, cook the onions, mushrooms and sage until just beginning to brown, then sprinkle a mix of the flour, salt and pepper over the hot oil, just toast the flour a tiny bit, just until it's just slighly tan, then the rest is pretty much the same. We had it tonight over biscuits, and it was very reminiscent of the Globe's.

Beet Green and Parmesan Tart

2008-05-28T18:22:00.001-07:00

beet green tart, originally uploaded by mysterybridgers.

This tart was the best use of beet greens ever! It was made from a Swiss Chard and Parmesan Tart recipe from Jack Bishop's The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook (another cookbook winner at our house).

Beautiful beets were all over the farmer's market last weekend, so we decided to get lots of them to make some sort of roasted beet salad. Since we didn't want to waste all of the lovely beet greens we decided to make this tart. Beet greens can be substituted for Chard in just about any recipe because they taste pretty similar. However, I must say that I don't see how chard could be as good as these beet greens were in this tart.

The tart is kind of like a quiche--the beet greens are sauteed with garlic (in our case fresh garlic from the market--not to be missed if you can get your hand on it) and then mixed with some beaten egg and parmesan cheese. This mixture is then poured into a tart shell--we used the Olive Oil Tart dough recipe from the same Italian Vegetarian cookbook.

This tart is probably best served with salad, but we just ate the tart and had the leftovers for lunch the next day (it was just as good the next day).