Since Everybody Could Use Another Potato Salad

Just in case a lack of words and pictures hasn't made it obvious, I haven't been cooking much lately. Or at least not much new or noteworthy, and if it has been new and noteworthy, there weren't any pictures to back it up. That, and I just haven't been able to come up with much to say.

But here's something. And I didn't make it, which makes me sad. But it's an idea, from a potato salad at Whole Foods. Something different for the last month of potato salads.

Grilled (or cooked however) potatoes, tosssed with crumbled blue cheese, torn watercress and sliced scallions in a vinaigrette of olive oil, red whine vinegar, shallots, dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper.

How's that for simple and different sounding? Not that I could get the proportions right. Maybe I'll try sometime this week. Or not.

Asparagus Salad

Spring is was in the air.
Those blue skies, pleasant breezes, temperatures in the 50s and 60s, the sound of lawnmowers, and the smell of green. But that's gone now. Today was overcast, gray, and okay, maybe the temperature was right, but the mood wasn't. Until dinner that is. This salad spelled SPRING. Maybe not really (I don't think there's any way I can make an acronym with it. I could try. Or an acrostic with: aSparagus, pecorino Romano, lemon juIce, bostoN lettuce, eGgs.)

It was a very green dinner we had tonight. And I'm referring to it's color. An amazing and light asparagus salad and pasta with arugula pesto. What better way to mark spring than that?


Roasted Asparagus Salad with Pecorino, Lemon, and Olive Oil
from Cooking Light April 2009

The link to it is here: Roasted Asparagus Salad

I actually followed the recipe exactly as written. So I think it would be illegal to rewrite it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mmm. Thanksgiving.
Actually, it's really not the tastiest holiday. I don't really like turkey, or gravy.

But cranberries. I do love cranberries. And oranges. Cranberries with oranges.
CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH!

Every since Mom first made this cranberry relish about 8 years ago, I've been wanting it every year. So, for the past four years, so ensure I get it, I've been making it.

But for some reason, I failed to double the recipe this year. Oops. I'll just have to make some more tomorrow. Leftover sweet potatoes are no good without cranberry relish on top.

The food isn't what I like about Thanksgiving though (relish aside). It's my family. And no, I'm not trying to be a Hallmark card. I'm serious. Especially after dinner when we play games. Last year we played Catchphrase. Hilarity ensued. But there's an odd number this year.


Cranberry Orange Relish
adapted from the November 2001 issue of Gourmet (I think Mom made the entire menu that year)
Makes about 2 cups

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
1 navel orange
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the cranberries, sugar, and cinnamon in the food processor. Zest the orange over the food processor, and then peel the orange and separate the segments from the pith and toss them into the food processor too (the segments, not the pith. That would be nasty.) Pulse until it's all chopped up.
Refrigerate for at least two hours to let flavor develop. And then hoard it.
Or be nice and serve it.

I'd recommend doubling this recipe if you have someone who relishes it as much as I do. Gourmet says it serves 10, but who are they kidding?

Simple Summer Veggie Boules

Yes. They require the stove.
But most of the work is chopping and hollowing out little rolls (if you can find them), so it's quite meditative. And the work on the stove is painless.

Last weekend I was at the library looking for a cheesecake book immediately following my yard-sale find: a mini cheesecake pan. I did find the book, but didn't check it out.
Instead, I checked out the Tassajara Cookbook because the picture on the cover of some sort of marinated tofu looked so fresh and bright. Or maybe it was just the overall look of the picture. I know, I know. Don't judge a book by the cover. But what else am I supposed to judge it by when I'm skimming the racks of new books at the library?

I picked out a few recipes from the book to try. The book mostly consists of spreads and dips and the likes (or at least the first two chapters, which is as far I read before having found things I wanted to try.) This also happened to be two days after cilantro, jalepenos and serranos were all suspect and before jalepenos were confirmed as the culprit, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find jalepenos or cilantro at the store. Which ruled out two of the things I'd wanted to try: Garlic, Cilantro and Chipotle Hummus and Anka's Roasted Red Bell Pepper Spread with Chiles and Lime (the latter being a double whammy.)

So I wrote a grocery list with three possibilities, depending on what looked good. I was really hoping to try the fig and kalamata olive tapenade since I'd had some tasty figs the week before, but that day the figs looked gross.

But I digress. I finally settles on two options: making the vegetable tapenade and stuffing it into hollowed out tiny rolls that I found in the deepest clutches of our freezer and caper-garlic hummus.

The vegetable tapenade is a keeper. Somehow, I didn't imagine it making so much, even though the recipe did say "Makes 4 cups." I think I may have ended up with more. I may have used more leek than it called for. Regardless of the quantity, it was tasty! And great wrapped in a lettuce leaf with fresh ricotta the next day. And wrapped in a lettuce leaf with leftover lamb the day after that.

What to do with it is up to you.

Sweet Veggie Tapenade
from Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics, and Appetizers


Note: I returned the book to the library before copying down the recipe... Not my brightest move. But the book is on amazon, and it is one you can "look inside" of.

Ten-Minute Tofu

I needed to use up some tofu in the fridge, and paging through Vegan Express at the bookstore, I saw what wasn't even called a recipe: it was simply a little paragraph on a page about simple tofu preparations.

Needless to say, I tried it with the tofu in the fridge, and it was super tasty. And super simple. I didn't even spend time pressing the tofu - all I did was blot it dry.

What was it?
Easy. Cut the block of firm tofu into 1" slices, blot dry, and cube. In a pan, heat about a tablespoon each of maple syrup (or agave nectar), soy sauce, and olive oil. Toss in the tofu, stir to coat, and continue to cook until browned.

See? Super easy. Serve with something (atop a salad, noodles, etc).

Kohlrabi: Purple is my favorite color

After taking two SAT subject tests Saturday morning (and I'm starting to regret not voiding them,) I wandered over to the nearby farmer's market in hopes of finding some rhubarb to make a rhubarb cobbler that I cut out of the paper a few weeks ago. I saw a few lonely stalks, but it seemed like what rhubarb there had been was gone.

However, on my second lap around the market, I saw an amazingly bright purple vegetable. I had to get it. I asked what it was. Kohlrabi. I'd heard of it, but I guess I'd just never seen it. It was gorgeous. (Apparently it can also be green, maybe that's why I'd never noticed it.)

But I didn't know what to do with it. The girl at the stand said she liked it raw with some salt, and that it as sort of like jicama. I thought it tasted more like a mild radish, but I guess that's kind of what jicama tastes like. It had greens attached to the top too, and she said I could use those like turnip greens or kale or any other big leafy vegetable. I was excited!

So tonight Dad and I took to the kitchen for Kohlrabi: 3 ways. It ended up being two ways, and with a side of what dad dubbed "Indian-Iranian shrimp."

We have the cobbler for dessert because I found some rhubarb at the grocery store, but I haven't tried it yet. It doesn't seem too promising.


Kohrabi Salad
Mom dubbed this "white salad" because other than the strips of basil dad put on top, it was all white. Dad said it needs some red, so I suggested red quinoa. Mom likes it the way it is. It was a really tasty accompaniment to shrimp.
Serves 3-4 as a side.

2 medium kohlrabi, peeled and diced
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
basil, optional

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Rinse quinoa five times (is this necessary? My computer was off and I'd never made quinoa before and the first recipe in my recipe binder said that. I'd love to learn more about quinoa.)
Add quinoa to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss kohlrabi with lemon and salt. Once quinoa is ready, drain, and toss with kohlrabi mixture. Top with basil, if using.

Spanish Class Project

For our project in Spanish class we had to find a recipe from a Spanish-speaking country for something we'd never made before. The day we were assigned this, the Good Eating section of the Tribune highlighted Mexican immigrants and Mexican cooking. There was a picture of nopales, or prickly pear cactus, on the cover of the section so my partner and I decided we'd make something with cactus.

Our group decided on ensalada de nopales (though I thought the stuffed fried nopales sounded good - but like they wouldn't hold up), and hoped it would be tasty.
Today we made it and nopales are well, kind of boring. The salad itself isn't assertive at all and other than a slight sour flavor, is pretty bland. I'm guessing either we did something wrong, though we followed the recipe, or we just didn't have good nopales or a good recipe.
Even though it was a simple and straightforward recipe, it still took us an hour to make the salad, so it's probably a good thing that we didn't choose something more complicated.

But in case you want to make this boring recipe, here's the recipe, straight from our project:

Ingredientes
• 6 tazas de nopales picados
• 1 taza de cebollas verdes
• 1 taza de rábanos
• ½ taza de cilantro
• 4 cucharadas de aceite de oliva
• jugo de 2 limes
• ½ cucharadita orégano
• sal y pimienta
• 3 chiles de serrano

Utensilios
• Una tazón
• Unos cuchillos
• Una cuchara


Preparación
Primero, píca y limpia los nopales. Segundo, ponlos en agua hirviendo. Lava los vegetales y pícalos. Escurre los nopales cuando termina cocinarlo. Mezcla todos de los ingredientes en el tazón. Revuelve y tira la ensalada para una hora. Servir alado de carne, pescado, pollo, o tortillas.

The recipe we used, in English, is at Mexico Connect.

I still have two packages of nopales, and I know my mom likes them, so maybe she can figure out something to do with them.

Roasted in Honey

I think there was a point in my life when the only way I liked my carrots were honey-glazed. Now, I run in the opposite direction. Honey-glazed carrots, be it coins or the "baby" carrots in the bags, are just so sweet and mushy and not at all pleasant. At least not to me. I prefer my carrots raw, or, if they must be cooked, hidden in a stew, soup, or pureed.*

So I am a tad bit surprised that flipping through Cooking Light when I ducked into Borders one day last month that I was attracted to this recipe considering it had both honey and carrots, and the name of the recipe didn't even hide it. But the full page picture and the shallot, glistening and caramelized made me reconsider honey and vegetables together.

So when I was invited to a New Year's Eve potluck, I knew what I had to make. It kind of helped that the top of the page said "office potluck" because the article was a collection of recipes to fit different occasions in December. It didn't matter to me that New Year's Eve was chocolate souffles, and my goal when I bought the issue halfway through the month was to try those recipes if time allowed (and I really was going to make the panini, but it didn't use anything we already had in the house.) But I digress. I made the roasted vegetables for the party, and I was happy. I liked them better than the oatmeal cookies I made right after them. Not that those cookies weren't good.

I brought home the leftovers, and served them along with a mega-raspberry scone made by almost following Heidi's recipe and some eggs cooked over sauteed spinach. Even though they were the only thing not fresh that morning, my aunt and parents liked the reheated vegetables. Not even the freshly baked crumbly scone overshadowed the somewhat-mushy mess that they'd become.

I'd take that as a sign. So last night, with a different combination of vegetables (I had two rutabaga in the fridge I'd worried about putting in the first time I made them because they smelled so sweet) based on what looked good at the store, I made it again, spread it over a layer of whole-wheat shells, and topped it with some grated pecorino toscano cheese. It then waited in the warm oven an hour for my parents to get home while I listened to books on CD (that sounds so wrong to me). And either we were ravished, or it was tasty enough that we ate up every last bit of it. Well, at least the vegetables - there was some pasta left at the bottom of the dish when the table was cleared.

*That was one of the first recipes I made. I followed it the very first time, and improvised the latter times. I made it for a friend once who was so disturbed by the carrots being pureed,as amazed as I was by the immersion blender, that she barely touched her carrots. At least she liked the chicken, one of the first, and I think it might be the only, chicken recipe in my repertoire. I was just starting to enter the kitchen and move beyond tortellini in an aglio-olio made with burnt onions from my impatience at a time when chopping garlic was daunting and it came minced in a little green jar. It was a staple in our house on the nights mom cooked. Now we always have cloves of garlic. Mom wanted it for her birthday... I probably should have made it for her. But I think she liked the squid. I think I'd forgotten most of that. I kind of want to make those carrots again now.


Honey Roasted Root Vegetables
adapted from Cooking Light
Serves 8 as a side-dish

6-7 cups chopped assorted root vegetables (such as sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and rutabaga), about 4-5 lbs or 10 medium-sized vegetables
4 shallots, quartered (halved if small)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup light-colored honey (I've used orange and orange blossom, they suggest tupelo)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450F.

Combine and toss all ingredients in a large bowl. Divide among two rimmed baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray (though that doesn't seem to make a big difference-I left a dark one unsprayed and it was fine.)

Place baking sheets in oven. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring and switching position of sheets halfway through.

If making the recipe below, roast in a 475F oven and remove after about 20 to 25 minutes, once browned.

Honey-Roasted Vegetable Pasta
serves 4 as a main
I'm not sure this even counts a recipe... but anyways

Honey Roasted Vegetables (see recipe above)
1/2 lb whole-wheat pasta, such as shells or penne
1 cup (about 2 ounces) grated pungent cheese, such as Pecorino Toscano (the smell of which reminds my dad of garegorut, which is this black stuff that started off its life as milk)

Cook pasta according to package instructions until its soft, but still has some bite.

Arrange in the bottom of a deep 9x13 backing dish. Sprinkle with about 1/3 cup of cheese. Top with vegetables and sprinkle with remaining cheese. And serve.

Or, it seems like it keeps warm well, so it could also be a great potluck dish.

Tart Simple Green and Red Salad

When I made butternut squash risotto earlier this month, I wanted something easy and simple to go along with it since I am not known for my efficiency in the kitchen. If a recipe comes with a prep time, I usually have to double or triple it to get a good estimate of how long it is going to take me to make it. So I wanted my salad to be something that I could make so I wouldn't have to rely on the rest of the family to make half of dinner for me like I normally do, and so that it would be different from our everyday salads that my aunt makes. That isn't to say that those aren't spectacular, but they consist of whatever vegetables we have on hand and usually oil, herbs, and vinegar or lemon juice in the dressing. I just wanted to mix things up a bit. And do no chopping.

I will admit though that the only reason this was super simple for me was because my aunt did end up helping me. I'm really mean and when someone offers to help, I usually give them the hardest job. (My grandfather grated the ginger and squash for a cake when he offered to help, and my aunt got to peel and remove the seeds from the pomegranate when she offered to help me. See what I mean. But they're also tasks that I need to get done and easily become frustrated by.)

But I digress. So, if you aren't the one to deal with the pomegranate this salad is really easy, really simple, and, despite the toasted pecans, takes no time at all and can be made and then just tossed right before serving. Though the pomegranate juice wasa bit of a splurge at the grocery store. I guess I've never bought Pom juice before.

Mixed Greens and Double-Pomegranate Salad
adapted from Cooking Light November 2007
serves 6 as a small salad

1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 5-ounce bag mixed greens*
2/3 cup pomegranate seeds
a hanful of toasted pecans, finely chopped

Whisk together pomegranate juice, vinegar, shallots, oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add greens and pomegranate seeds and toss to coat. If plating, sprinkle each serving with about 1/2 teaspoon chopped pecans. (I prefer topping with pecans because it keeps them from getting soggy.)


*I was going to use two, but my dad stopped me. I couldn't find any of the large 16 ounce clamshells. It would have been fine with more greens, there was enough dressing. the original recipe calls for 6 cups

Oven Love

I have a fear of deep frying. I've used an electric fryer (is that what they're called?) once to make shirini panjereyi, a fried cookie, with my cousin in Tehran, but the thought of tossing chicken in one and either a) not burning it b)not burning me c)getting it cooked through or d)not setting off the smoke alarm, seems rather slim. But maybe it is just an unrationalized fear.

But, with oven-fried chicken this tasty, who needs to worry about trying to figure out how to fry it? It can't be much easier than this....well, except that it might not need the breading if you left a crispy skin on...

Dinner last night was a group effort. It started on Thursday with Mom preparing the marinade and marinating the chicken while I made the ice cream base. Friday, Mom got caught at work and Dad at the dentist with my aunt, who had already helped by washing and cutting the kale-something that would have taken me at least half an hour. Mamanzari worked on breaking up the sausage and mixing in the onions for the stewed okra, Uncle Larry did the hard part of battering the chicken and arranging it on the roasting rack, and Aunt A brought over a cast-iron pan and helped whisk the ingredients for cornbread.

As to how the meal turned out... It wasn't our first time following the chicken or the kale recipe, though Mom made the kale last time and did most of the work for the chicken from start to finish. I think Nick may have helped her. I just made the grits... which were super cheesy and salty from thinking we'd had more grits than we did and grating far too much cheese.

This time though, it turned out a lot tastier. I followed most of the recipes (doubling the chicken and okra), except used cayenne instead of Tabasco for the chicken, bacon instead of ham for the kale, and italian sausage instead of breakfast sausage for the okra.

The cornbread, which was the easiest part of the meal, was a recipe from Uncle Larry. And it requires a cast iron pan, something we don't own. (I am definitely getting one soon. Ame wants to learn how to make the cornbread, and I can't show her without a pan. It's a good excuse.) I first had this cornbread two years ago while studying for finals. The girls, my mom, my aunt, and I, were on one side of the house reading/studying while the guys, my dad and uncle, watched a football game. For dinner we had chili and cornbread with a honey butter, I think. It was awesome.
We didn't have the honey butter last night, and the cornbread was dotted with scrambled eggs, but it was nevertheless delicious sopping up the stew.

Recipes (from October/November 2006 Eating Well):
Eating Well's Oven-Fried Chicken
Southern Kale
Stewed Okra & Tomatoes


Skillet Cornbread
recipe from Uncle Larry, but it says it is from Zinfandel Restaurant
Serves 8 if nobody wants seconds

2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal (also called polenta)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda.

Preheat oven with 8" cast-iron skillet in it to 425ºF.

Whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Whisk in buttermilk.

When oven is preheated, remove pan and add butter. Swirl the butter around. If the butter does not melt, the pan is not hot enough.
Swirl the butter to coat the bottom and sides of the pan, and whisk remaining butter into the buttermik and eggs. Whisk in cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. A few lumps are okay.

Scrape batter into the hot pan. It should start to sizzle and rise immediately.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Invert onto a plate or basket and serve it while its hot!

They're More Mellow in Yellow

Yesterday I was thrilled to find yellow tomatoes at the market. I don't mean heirloom tomatoes, but just your "ordinary" every day tomato in yellow, whatever that "ordinary" tomato may be. I'm not exactly a tomato aficionado. In fact, this may come as a surprise considering how often I eat them, but I am not much a tomato person. I've been slowly growing to like them, but sometimes it still depends on the day and the tomato. I'm not sure if these tomatoes were flavorless, or just milder, but I liked them. They were bright yellow and juicy, but not too juicy, which was just what I was looking for to make tomato stacks.

There's nothing original about them, they're just a more portioned way to make a caprese salad, I suppose. But it is simple and just so pretty! They aren't exactly spectacular, more of a refreshing taste, but I've been wanting to make some anyways.

Stacked Caprese
makes 4 5-tiered stacks (quite small, so serves one or two as a salad, or 4 as a light first-course)

2 medium tomatoes, such as roma
1 ball of ovoline fresh mozzarella, about two to three ounces
12 basil leaves
salt
pepper
balsamic vinegar

Slice of top of tomatoes and slice rest of each tomato into 6 slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Slice fresh mozzarella into 8 slices.
Staring with a slice of tomato, top with a slice of cheese and a basil leaf, another slice of tomato, another slice of cheese, another slice of tomato, and top with a basil leaf. Make 3 more with remaining ingredients.
Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve.

The Overnight Salad

The weather took a turn and now sitting outside is pleasant, almost springlike. As was my lunch. I realize it is almost July and I should be getting red for meals of red, white, and blue. Luscious raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, macerated atop a slice of angel food cake with a heaping dollop of freshly whipped cream.

Sorry, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. As well as not considering the limited possibility of that scenario occuring (my father's birthday cake) since I've been branching out and making him different things (last year it was a freeform plum tart). I won't say what I have planned for this year (though it will require some new pans) for fear he may actually read this.

But back to the weather. I'm sitting outside right now, so I can say with certainty, that in my backyard, the weather is enjoyable. And perfect. Bright but not sunny, cool but not cold, warm but not hot with an indifferent breeze. Not a stale breeze like those last week, but a slighly cool, almost indifferent one.

So it really does feel like spring is in the air. And the salad I ate at lunchtime, felt like late spring too, with green beans and a light acidic dressing. Though I'm ashamed to say, I ate it inside while reading the movie review for Ratatouille. I made the salad Wednesday night after dinner so that we could have it on Thursday before whatever we were going to have for dinner. I forgot that my parents would be gone, so there were just three of us and a nice large mixed-bean salad. I didn't realize how acidic it was going to be, but I liked it still, after I got over the slight shock. Part of it depended on if the bean had been actually sitting in the dressing, or was drier from the top since the salad marinated overnight. It was super simple to make and reminded me a bit of LMGs Just Grab It salads (at a Sunflower Market near you... if there is one).

Mixed Bean Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
serves 8
from Vegetarian Times May/June 2007 p36 by Patsy Jamieson

2 cups frozen shelled edamame beans (10-ounce package, but I can never find that size)
12 oz green beans, trimmed and cut in half crosswise (3 cups)
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 medium shallots, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 15-oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed


Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add edamame and return to a boil. Add green beans and cook for about 6 minutes or until edamame is tender and green beans are crisp tender. Drain and rinse with with cool water.

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, shallots, poppy seeds, mustard, and honey. Gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Stir in edamame, green beans, and kidney beans. Refrigerate overnight or up to two days, though beans will start to discolor after a day.