Veggie - - Page 23

by gansie

Friday Fuck Up: Savory Yogurt Dinner

I often make my fiance buy a large tub of Greek yogurt when he makes his weekly milk and cereal run to the grocery store. I know not what I will do with said yogurt, but I know I will put the thick substance to use, be it mixed with fruit for lunch or turned into a sauce over a grain and vegetable salad.

But I’ve never thought about substituting chunks of eggplant, cucumbers and oven-dried tomatoes instead of peaches, blackberries and blueberries. And I should have stuck with that.

Instead, I shredded cucumbers into the yogurt, tossed in diced eggplant and roughly chopped oven-dried tomatoes. I sprinkled in salt and pepper and lemon thyme. During this incorporating period, I thought I was genius.

Then I took a few bites. It wasn’t terrible to start, but it just didn’t work. Especially the tomatoes. The tang of tomatoes and the extra oil that still clung to them made for a uncomplimentary creamy versus acid nightmare.

Both the Indians (raita) and Greeks (tzatziki) somehow make yogurt work at dinner, but this part German girl just couldn’t swing it. Any ideas how to turn yogurt savory?

in Veggie 3 comments

by gansie

Enjoy It Raw While It Lasts

Soon the days of easy prep meals will be over, when you could walk into a kitchen, slice a tomato, wash some greens and be eating in 5 minutes.

Instead, we’ll be forced to wait an hour as thick winter squash bakes to tenderness in a hot oven. In winter it’s easier to wait for dinner, as the cold air doesn’t tempt for evening walks and late-night drinks on a rooftop.

But while it’s still lovely outside, and the season’s produce remains quick to prepare, remember that a raw salad is pretty rad.

Raw Summer Salad with Smoked Whitefish

This salad is ripe for flexibility, so throw in what you’ve got in the fridge. The taste of raw vegetables are much different than their cooked counterpart, so it’s fun to remember the snap of a bell pepper and the nose-tingle of a raw onion. With produce so fresh I didn’t even need a dressing, especially as the fatty whitefish salad complemented the clean vegetables.

I sliced up a yellow roma tomato, half a cucumber (peeled), half of a mutli-colored bell pepper and one tiny, tiny onion. I heavily seasoned all of the cut pieces with kosher salt and pepper and then quickly charred a corn tortilla on the burner. I lumped a few spoonfuls of smoked whitefish on top and called it finito.

by gansie

All About the Quest

One of the best things about cooking is the quest. A dish can always be better. It can always be tweaked. And of course, it can always be fucked up. But the pursuit is worth it.

I thought I knew the tricks for oven-drying tomatoes. I tossed halved tomatoes, usually sun gold or cherry or grape, with oil, salt and pepper. I would line up the tomatoes, cut-side up on a baking sheet, and let them slowly shrink and deflate in a low-temperature oven.

I always admired the results. And then Chris Jakubiec, chef of Plume and The Greenhouse in the Jefferson Hotel in DC, told me a trick. Place the tomatoes cut-side down on a cooling rack, over a baking sheet to catch the juice. The tomatoes remained juicy and finished quicker.

And while this method may cut it this summer, I’m still searching. It’s all about the quest, ya know.

in Recipe / Veggie 1 comments

by gansie

Friday Fuck Up Redeemed: Tomato and Egg Success Story

On Friday I left you with my most recent Fuck Up (and a discussion on whether or not we should continue using the word fuck). I’m awfully glad I did, because we actually figured out why my open omelet, which I’ve successfully made before, turned to mushy, gross shit.

Last week I started the egg dish with the tomatoes warming on the pan, oozing out all sorts of acidic liquid. I added the eggs into that big, ol’ mess, and the eggs never set. I had no idea why. But from some reader advice here and on Facebook, I learned that I should add the tomato at the end.

Advice highlights:

Jenna: Did you de-seed your tomatoes? The omelet looks really watery, and the extra water from the tomatoes could cause the eggs to break like that. And then you’d be steaming the egg bits in their excess water, which would totally mess up the texture.

Friday Fuck Up: An Unsettling Omelet

I know, I know. How could I fuck up eggs?

Believe me, as I pushed each sad bite into my mouth I thought the exact same thing. I’ve made this dish before with great success. Well, a version of the dish. Last time I wanted to create an open omelet I played it safe: whipping up an egg, letting it set, adding cheese to finish. See, it’s beautiful:

My Shit Don’t Stink: Five Observations on a Vegan Diet

Charcuterie from the Downtown Grocery

Salad greens from Coger's Sugarhouse

I grew up in a meat and potatoes household. My father was (and still is) the type that had strong feelings about what went on the dinner plate, and if it didn’t moo or cluck it was considered a side dish. So imagine my culinary bafflement as I have undertaken a two-week chef gig to cook for a yoga teacher training at Good Commons, a boutique retreat center nestled in the rolling hills of Vermont.

Three meals a day and not an animal in sight. Not only are these yogis avoiding meat, but also dairy, soy and gluten. And I thought downward dog was tough.

It’s not that I don’t have experience or interest in cooking vegetarian dishes. I love connecting with the local farmers and menu planning based on what is coming out of the ground. But how much roughage can a person take? The answer—plenty.

I should qualify… I could easily be sneaking off to the local pizza joint for “Instructor Wings,” a winning combination of hot wings and barbecue sauce named after a special request from the snowboarders who work at Okemo Valley during ski season. Better yet, a mosey to The Downtown Grocery in Ludlow, where chef Rogan Lechthaler is doing some amazing charcuterie. But I’ve been feeling a bit too much junk in the trunk and thought a two-week meat sabbatical might do me well. So here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Top 5 Observations on a Vegan Diet

5. It’s more fun to chew a perfectly marbled strip steak than bite into a piece of “extra firm” tofu, no matter how well it’s seasoned or seared.

4. Kale is brilliant: it keeps for almost a week in the fridge and can be eaten raw, blanched, sautéed or even creamed with a vegan béchamel, which I made with Earth Balance (soy, I know!), gluten-free flour, almond milk and plenty of salt and pepper.

And That’s How I Fell in Love With Almonds

Fuck pine nuts dude. Now I don’t normally spite shit just because it’s expensive. I will pay for nice cheeses, maybe a duck salami, homemade cream cheese spun with sun-dried tomatoes. But I just can’t get into footing the bill for pine nuts.

And I’m glad, because then I never would have fell in love with almonds.

It was Bennett’s turn to cook. We thought of this baked orzo dish with lots of vegetables from the market. And pesto. A thick pesto sauce blanketing every little noodle.

I was typing in the bedroom. But couldn’t resist checking in on Bennett. I spied him cutting a pepper, letting almonds dance on a dry pan. And it smelled wonderful. Like warmth and butter.

Modern Man played out of his Android and I quickly wiggled my neck around, pursing my lips, dancing from the shoulders up.

He slid the almonds from the pan and into the blender, grinding them into crumbs. Honestly, we could have tossed the crumbs with oil and have been set. But we put the whole package together with salt and pepper and cheese and basil.

We threw the extra crumbs in the freezer, which have since been blended with Swiss chard and Colman’s mustard for a slightly bitter pesto (pictured above as a spread for a sandwich of oven-dried tomatoes and patty pan sqaush) and then combined with Parmesean to top a baked tomato stuffed with Jersey corn, jalepeno and scallions.

And that’s how I fell in love with almonds.

in Sandwich / Veggie 7 comments