Veggie

by gansie

This Needs to be Dal-ed Up

Granola bars. Chex mix. Water bottles. Single portion packets of Motrin. Tissues. Mini bottles of Jack and Bacardi. That was the contents of my friends’ Katie and Joe’s wedding gift bag. My gift bag, however, included two additional items: black mustard seeds and udad dal split matpe beans.

Just a few weeks ago Katie drove out to the ‘burbs of Virginia or Maryland, I forget which one, and hit up an Indian grocery. She picked up extra goodies for me but in the craziness that is the weeks before a wedding we weren’t able to meet up. Brilliantly, she decided to drop it my gift bag. (Future brides take note!)

For a dinner my friend Raya hosted I decided to try out my newly received lentils.

Now I don’t usually pay for iPhone apps, but Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is a gem. I googled around for dal recipes, even using its blog filter search, but I couldn’t find anything I wanted to try. I turned to Bittman. I trust him. And his laid-back, authoritative tone makes for good reading. Plus the app doesn’t require wireless to work.

Anyway, I used his “Simplest Dal” recipe as a guide.

And while I’m encouraged to play around with dal again, I haven’t mastered how to up the flavor. It didn’t have a great zing to it and at times tasted of tannins. Here’s what I did but please tell me what I should have done.

by gansie

Friday Fuck Up:This Tastes NOTHING Like a Chip

Clearly I was shaken up. Last week I welcomed the news of two engagements of very dear friends. The term “dear friends” is quite obnoxious, I know, but these are like super good friends, well, couples, and I am so excited. That must be the only excuse for this fuck up. Because unlike most other times I open up my oven to face a disaster, I actually followed a recipe.

My friend Hickey, of one of the engaged couples, came to DC from her home in Pennsylvania and I gladly made us dinner. I wasn’t actually sure what to put together but basically I stuffed a lot of crap inside this huge pumpkin-shaped eggplant. It was an elaborate, multi-step experience and while the inside concoction of corn, tomatoes, blended eggplant, ricotta and I forget what else was surely tasty, the outer shell of the eggplant did not cook fully and basically served the function of a ceramic bowl, which is of course not the point of baking food in something edible in the first place.

But that wasn’t even the worst part. Shit, the crappy Cook’s champagne wasn’t even the worst. T’was the kale.

in Veggie 8 comments

by gansie

Slow and Low Isn’t Always Preferred

For real, I’m not just trying to pimp out 100 Ways to Use a Tomato. I also am a tomato lover and need ideas on what to do with all of the tomatoes laying claim to my kitchen. Because I am a virtual worker I also have time to cook during the day, or at least be watchful of items while they are cooking.

This means I can finally soak and cook beans and not rely on cans. I can cook down tomatoes for a thick sauce. And while we’re on tomatoes, I can roast tomatoes in a low, slow oven. (And please give me suggestions for other dishes I can cook all day.)

I spied my inspiration in the third row, second column of the 100 tomatoes post: a parade of shriveled, red splotches.

in Recipe / Veggie 15 comments

by BS

100 Ways to Use a Tomato

OMFG, the tomatoes are finally here. Sure, they’ve been here all year round, but there’s nothing more disappointing than sinking your teeth into a mealy, watery, tasteless tomato, which is inevitably what happens nine or ten months out of the year. Then suddenly, in late summer, we head to the farmers’ market and find those beautiful, juicy specimens we’ve been looking for the whole time. Of course, we overbuy and end up with way more tomatoes than we can use. But you don’t have to resign yourself to cooking eight gallons of fresh tomato sauce, because we’ve got the goods on 100 other ways to use up all your perfect (or even not-so-perfect) summer tomatoes. You can poach tomatoes, stew tomatoes, roast tomatoes, and pickle tomatoes. We’ve got tomato sushi, tomato cobbler, tomato-tinis and tomato creme brulee. Oh yeah, and there’s pizza and stuff too…

Click on the photos for full recipes.

PS – What did we miss? Have a star tomato recipe? Drop your link in the comments. If your photo makes us drool, we’ll add it to the list.

Previously on ES:
100 Ways to Use Bacon
100 Ways to Cook an Egg
100 Ways to Use a Banana
100 Ways to Cook a Pumpkin
100 Ways to Cook a Sweet Potato

Plus…Thanks for the tips in the comments! Here are a few way to consume those ripe tomatoes:

in 100 Ways / Featured / Lists / Veggie 59 comments

by gansie

What the Hangover Ordered

Three bags of potato chips. Opened. Some stale. Some not salted enough. All next to me in bed. None of it curing my craving for pizza.

There was absolutely no way I could get dressed and leave the house for the second time that day. Not even to go downstairs to pay the delivery person.

>>>Mental Scan of Kitchen<<<
Day-old bread
Tomatoes
Cheese

While this may seem strange, I decided that cooking dinner was somehow less effort than buying it. I’m weird. I’m a food writer. What can I say.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 6 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– 65 percent of you say New York bagels are the real deal. Not that Montreal doesn’t have its defenders. Food Guy Montreal:

OUR bagels are tasteless? Smaller they may be. Crispier, perhaps, but they are NOT crispy in any way shape of form. Dry? Oh no no no no no no. They are most certainly not dry. They deliver the delightful chewyness that NY bagels do not deliver. I find NY bagels dough-ier if that makes sense. They are commonly referred to as “rolls with a hole” which is exactly what they are.

But rumblegut (great handle, btw) will not stand for such blasphemy:

in Rants & Raves / Veggie 0 comments

This Needs to be Dal-ed Up

Friday Fuck Up:This Tastes NOTHING Like a Chip

Slow and Low Isn’t Always Preferred

Artsy Photo of the Day

100 Ways to Use a Tomato

What the Hangover Ordered

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week