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19Dec

Slightly Demented Boniato Mash

Thanksgiving is a while past, but I’m still reaping the rewards of my slightly warped culinary imagination. In the lead-up to All Glutton’s Eve, I pondered how to make my volunteered dish – mashed sweet potatoes – less generic and predictable. As usual the farmers market provided inspiration, this time in the form of cheaper-than-yams boniata.

Boniato (plural -a) is a white-fleshed, pink-skinned tuber, common in Caribbean and Central American cuisines. Since I was cooking for people other than myself, I decided to make this dish for myself before the big day. Good choice!

In my initial go, I thought it’d be fun to add some spice to the mash, and added jalapenos and a splash of cider vinegar: due to an underestimation of the available peppers’ strength, this turned out to be too hot for even me to eat. Luckily, it makes a fantastic alternative condiment in like fajitas or burritos. I also learned that boniata are gummier than ‘regular’ sweet potatoes, and a bit drier too.

Deciding to tone this all down for a wider audience (who were probably less interested in garnish than starchy goodness), I made a couple more attempts before the final version, and ended up with a delicious one. Subtler in flavor than yellow sweet potatoes, and with a texture somewhere between the more common (orange) sweet potatoes and yucca, the boniato mash made a lovely addition to the Thanksgiving table. Leaving the skin on punctuates the dish with color and a little extra textural interest.

What I used:

6 boniata, well scrubbed
2 jalapeno peppers (optional)
2 cloves garlic (I wish I’d thought of roasting these, but it was good this way too)
About 2 cups whole milk
About 1/2 stick unsalted butter
Salt
White pepper
Nutmeg

What I did:

Cut up the boniata and place immediately in a pot of lightly salted water (they start to discolor quickly in the air). Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Boil until boniata are tender enough to mash (about 10-15 minutes). While that’s going, chop up your spices and measure out your milk and butter.

Now, drain the boniato and return them to the pot, mashing in the butter and then milk (adjust ammounts to your preferred consistency, but bear in mind: it gets gummier when cool!). Add a pinch of nutmeg, white pepper to taste (I used about 1/3 tsp), the peppers if you’re using them, and your garlic. Once that’s all mashed together, taste. Adjust seasonings as needed. Serve immediately.

This mash will keep a good while in the fridge, but again, bear in mind: it does dry out more than orange sweet potato mash, and gets gummier when cold. Still, a delicious leftover lunch!

– MAW

Permalink Filed under: Recipes Tags: Boniato No Comments
16Dec

Sweetgreen’s Holiday Quinoa Salad

Patricia McNamee of Sweet Green was nice enough to share this recipe. Thanks Patricia!

-JAY

———————

Sweetgreen’s Holiday Quinoa Salad

Red & White Quinoa with balsamic roasted sweet potatoes, roasted beets & kale, dried

cranberries, toasted almonds & chives.

Salad Ingredients:

1 cup red quinoa (rinsed)

1 cup white quinoa (rinsed)

1 large sweet potato, diced small

1 large red beet, diced into cubes

1 bunch Kale- flat leaf

2 tablespoons of dried cranberries

½ cup toasted almonds

Squeeze of fresh lemon

Extra Virgin Olive oil

1 cup balsamic vinegar

Freshly chopped parsley or basil

Garlic Salt

Pepper to taste

½ pound of baby arugula or baby spinach

• Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the rinsed quinoa.

• Lower heat to a simmer and let cook until the water is absorbed (about 15 minutes). About 5 minutes before it is done.

• Remove from the heat and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Allow Quinoa to cool in large separate bowl.

• Coat sweet potatoes and beets with balsamic vinegar and roast in oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Then add to quinoa mixture

• De-stem the kale and cut into ribbons ½ inch thick. Add to warm quinoa mixture. The heat from the quinoa will wilt the quinoa.

• Add cranberries, toasted almonds, parsely or basil. Give it a squeeze of fresh lemon, drizzle with a little olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

• Add garlic salt and pepper.

• You can either mix in a handful of baby arugula or spinach.

Permalink Filed under: Recipes Tags: quinoa, sweet green No Comments
26Nov

Pre-Thanksgiving Hangover Braise

Summer’s been over a while, and my food habits had gotten lazy. I needed a jolt: some dish that could pull me back to caring about food enough to spend the time to cook it. Discovering YDFM‘s bloody fabulous unpasteurized Parmesan was a good start, but it mostly just lead to Alfredo comas and suspicious decisions involving grits. Fall, it seems, was wasted on me.

But then came October and, better yet, Oktoberfest. Having drunk myself…drunk…all month, I ended up finding myself with a couple leftover bottles of Paulaner’s delightful seasonal. For reasons best left to everyone’s imaginations (quiet, you!), I realized they’d probably not get consumed in time, so I decided to try something a bit strange with some veggies, also nearly past due: I braised them. In beer. And put Parmesan on top. It’s like a very, very bougie ratatouille, and was bloody delicious, and easy, and a nice way to slide out of fall. I plan to keep on making until I get sick of it, which may be never. And it’ll be a great accompaniment to my Thanksgiving spread.

Here’s the stuff:

Preheat your oven to 350 while you chop.

Fresh fennel, washed and cut into big bits (quarter the bulbs, etc)
Yellow onion, similarly cut
A couple handfuls diced carrot
A couple handfuls diced red bell pepper

And prep:
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Enough Paulaner Oktoberfest to cover the rest
Parmesan cheese (unpasteurized, though you could use pasteurized too, as long as it’s not from a green cylinder)

Put everything except the cheese into a baking dish, and bake, uncovered, for about 15 minutes (less if the beer is not cold). After that time, take the dish out of the oven, stir things around, and sprinkle some cheese over top of the veggies. Now crank up the oven up to 400 and put the dish back in for 8-10 minutes, until the veggies are cooked. If you’ve used the right amount of beer, the cheese will get all nice and melty and brown, but if you’ve used too much, it’ll just melt into the liquid, which isn’t as elegant but may also be very tasty.

Eat, preferably accompanied by the rest of that giant bloody beer you opened.

Bonus: sopping up the clearly excessive quantities of braising liquid with hearty Bavarian rye bread. For dessert. Or breakfast. Possibly with all that leftover turkey.

-MAW

Permalink Filed under: Ingredients, Recipes Tags: beer, braise, Thanksgiving, vegetables, winter No Comments
24Nov

After the Feast: Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers

Washingtonian tagged us here in their recent article about using Thanksgiving leftovers. I gave a bunch of ideas, and this was the one they asked me for additional information about. They tagged about a dozen local food bloggers.

-JAY

“Tired of Pumpkin Pie Yet?

• Jason, DCFud.com

Cranberry Parfait

“I like to use my homemade cranberry sauce as a topping on vanilla or chocolate ice cream. If you want to bring it to the next level, make a parfait out of it with yogurt and granola or crushed cookies. Gingersnaps, lemon cookies, oatmeal cookies, or even cubed pound cake will work. Layer the vanilla yogurt, cranberry sauce, and your granola or crushed cookies. Make two layers of each ingredient. Serve the parfaits in something glass, like a large wine goblet, so you can see the layers.””

In my communications with them, I had actually included this cranberry sauce recipe as well:

* Boil 1 cup of water with 1 cup sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved.

* Reduce heat to medium.

* Add one bag of cranberries (12 ounces) and cook it for about ten minutes, until the berries pop.

* You can then add 1/2 to 3/4 of a teaspoon of freshly grated orange or lemon zest.

A variation that I enjoy is to add two chopped pears to the hot dissolved water/sugar for 3 minutes and then add the berries until they pop.

Permalink Filed under: Etc, Recipes Tags: cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving leftovers, Washingtonian 2 Comments
20Nov

Vegan Apple Crunch-Top & Pumpkin Custard Pies

I ran into Debbie Miller of Art of Compassion at an art opening. She isn’t the first person to ask for vegan representation on DCFUD, but she was willing to provide some…in the form of some upcoming events and this pie recipe. Thanks for the article Debbie.

-JAY

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Thanksgiving. For a vegan looking for a delicious, cruelty- free way to celebrate Thanksgiving, the internet is an invaluable too. Thank goodness for Google searches and Yahoo searches and any searches really. Type in Vegan Thanksgiving and up pops 12 million plus hits.

For those in DC who wish to celebrate with like-minded folks, here are two such celebrations that come to mind. Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary will host its annual Thanksgiving with the Turkeys potluck this Saturday, 11/21 from noon to 4:00. Of course the animals eat first, and the amazing food brought by DC area vegans will knock your (cotton) socks off.

The Vegetarian Society of DC will host its annual Thanksgiving feast in Bethesda (almost DC…) on Thanksgiving Day from noon to 5:00. (You must arrive no later than 1:00.)

For those who prefer a more homespun, “traditional” Thanksgiving feast, there are plenty of healthful, cruelty-free ways to celebrate. Truth be told, most regular Thanksgiving sides – yams, squash, roasted veggies, various casseroles, stuffing, etc – are pretty delicious and are already vegan or easy to veganize by subbing Earth Balance for butter, soy creamer for heavy cream, and Ener-G egg replacer or whizzed-up tofu for eggs.

Really, it’s so unnecessary to kill the bird to get wonderful food on Thanksgiving. But, if you really feel as though Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete with out a “centerpiece” food dish, there are a ton of easy and delicious turkey and meat alternatives. Tofurkey (don’t laugh…), Field Roast, tempeh, seitan, Portobello mushroom anything, are all easily available. Again, the internet is a great recourse for shopping tips and recipes. Of course you might not get the tryptophan-induced drowsiness, but heck, that’s what wine is for.

To me Thanksgiving dessert means pie! Really, it’s my favorite part of the meal. Below are recipes for a pumpkin custard pie, courtesy of www.cancerproject.org, and an apple crunch-top pie which I have been making for 25+ years. Most store-bought pie crusts are vegan. (Actually, a lot prepared stuff you already eat is vegan, you just might not be looking as closely at the label as I do.)

Pumpkin Custard Pie

(Serves 6)

In this recipe, cornstarch replaces eggs as a thickener.

Filling:
1-1/2 cups soymilk
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1-1/2 cups cooked pumpkin
1/2 cup raw sugar or other sweetener
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Fat-free pie crust: (Honestly, you can make your own regular pie crust, purchase a frozen store-bought crust, or make this crust-less in a 9 X 12 Pyrex baking dish – it’s all good!)
(makes one 9” crust)
1 cup Grape Nuts cereal
1/4 cup apple juice concentrate
Preheat oven to 350° F.

Mix the Grape Nuts and apple juice concentrate. Pat into a 9” pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then cool before filling.

For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 375° F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the soymilk and cornstarch until smooth, then blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into pie shell (recipe follows) and bake for 45 minutes, or until firm. Cool before cutting. Serve with vegan whipped cream or soy ice cream.

Nutrition information per slice: 203 calories, 3.6 g protein, 47 g. carbohydrate, 0.6 g fat, 3% of calories from fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 347 mg sodium.

Apple Crunch-top Pie

(Serves 8)

About 6 large tart apples (I like Granny Smith)

1 Unbaked frozen pie crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (don’t crunch up too fine, some larger pieces are good)

1 cup sugar or succanat

½ cup flour

½ chopped pecans

¼ to ½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ to 1 whole stick of Earth Balance butter spread (use less if you’re worried about fat/calories)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Take one pie crust out of freezer and place on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. This is a messy pie, and this step will spare your oven.

Peel, core and cut the apples into 1/8, then cut each 1/8 into 1/3 or ¼. Put the apples in the pie crust until they create a nice mound above the rim of the crust.

Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar (or succanat), flour, pecans and cinnamon in a bowl. Using your hands, add on top of the apple mound and pat down.

Melt the Earth balance and slowly drizzle on top of the pie.

Bake at for 1 hour.

Serve as is or with vegan whipped cream or soy ice cream.

I have no idea what the nutritional information is, but I know this is one damn good pie. Note: The topping is great for those times you have fruit about to go bad. Put in a baking dish or pie crust. Add the topping. Bake. Yum!

Go online (wait… you already are online if you’re reading this) and type into your search engine your favorite Thanksgiving food with the word “vegan” in front of it. Chances are you will find a really wonderful, easy to prepare vegan recipe to take to your family gathering. Here’s the really fun part, don’t tell anyone it’s vegan. I bet even your rotund, carnivorous uncle Harold with the napkin stuffed in his collar won’t even know the difference.

Whether you’re concerned with animal welfare, your health, the planet, are trying to cut costs, or you just want to try something new, treat yourself this Thanksgiving to a meal free from animal products. You’ll be thankful for the good karma points you get.

–Debbie Miller

Permalink Filed under: Etc, Recipes Tags: Apple Crunch-Top Pie, Art of Compassion, Pumpkin Custard Pie, vegan 1 Comment
09Nov

The Neelys, Michael Hanratty & Some Recipes

The Neelys presenting on the big screen.

I attended the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show yesterday. I attended two Presentations.

The Neelys:

The Neelys had a good crowd and took questions; someone gushed about how great it is to see an example of “black love” on TV. They are an awesome couple. The Neelys worked together well and are a great example of a healthy and playful married couple. They also asked Neelys trivia and gave the trivia contest winners bottles of their BBQ sauce.

At one point, six or so women had asked questions, and Pat asked “Where are the men?” and there I was, next in line to ask a question.

Pat: “Where’s you wife?” (I look around playfully like I’m looking to find a woman to marry.) “Do you cook?”

Me: “Yes and I’m a food writer.” (He looked suitably impressed.) The women were asking a lot of “touchy feely” type questions so I went the more logical route with “What are some ingredients you feel are underutilized in the home kitchen?”

Gina: “Tofu. Oh, you didn’t mean a meat did you?”

I don't remember what he said that got her mad. They play around like that a lot. 🙂

Me: “That isn’t meat.” (I gave her a big smile and she smiled back.)

Gina: “Right. It’s vegetarian.”

Pat: “Hickory. And, paprika, which we love so use a lot, but I don’t think is used much in people’s homes. People should cook what they like. We cook what we like.”

He isn’t into broadening his taste buds as much as I would have expected.

Gina (to me): “Hey, were you in Miami?”

Me: “No.” (I didn’t realize this was a routine of hers and had started to leave the question line.)

Gina: “He’s walking off.” (So, I got back to the mike so she could finish her routine.) “I was dancing on tables in Miami and someone taped it and put it on Youtube. Was that you?”

Me: “No, but the second I get home, I’m doing a web search.” (She laughed.)

They were awesome and I had a great time talking to them. They make you feel like part of their family.

The birthday girl next to me had been invited to the stage for samples and she returned with three; she brought back one for her, one for her sister, and one for me. It was a cheese fritter and was crispy, but under seasoned. It must be difficult to cook and perform before a camera at the same time.

————-

Mike Hanratty of "Mie n Yu" all set up and ready to cook.

I also watched Mike Hanratty of Mie N Yu doing a presentation at another cooking stage. He made a Moroccan beef dish with vegetables and a fruit sauce. It was delicious and he was nice enough to email me the recipes to share with you. He said that he uses a variety of cuts for this dish including short ribs or brisket.

Moroccan Style Braised Beef

Serves 6

Ingredients

4 lbs. boneless beef chuck cut into 2” wide pieces

2 quarts water

1 lb. pitted prune

½ cup olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

½ cup ginger, chopped

1 bunch parsley

1 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ cup sherry wine

2 teaspoons garlic, sliced

1 bunch oregano (or 2t dry)

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Combine onions, garlic, ginger, herbs, and spices in a blender. Blend until the mixture is pour-able. In a deep dish or pot, pour mixture over the beef. Mix beef into the marinade with your hands to make sure it is well covered. Let stand in the refrigerator overnight. The next day remove the meat from the marinade, scraping off the excess. Save the marinade. Heat a large bottomed pot, add the oil and begin to brown the meat on all sides. Add the water, marinade, and prunes and simmer on the stove top, or in a crock pot for 2 ½ hours. When the meat is tender, remove it from its cooking liquid and lay it out on a baking sheet or plate. Allow the liquid to cool and return to the blender. Blend thoroughly and then pour the liquid through a strainer. Re-combine the beef with the finished sauce. Serve with roasted vegetables, fruit and sliced almonds.

Moroccan Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients

1 pound potato

1 pound carrot

1 pound turnip

2 ounces olive oil

½ bunch cilantro

1 teaspoon garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

Cut the vegetables into pieces about half inch wide. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and toss together with the vegetables. Line a baking sheet with paper and cooking spray. Spread the vegetables evenly onto the sheet. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. When finished the vegetables should be slightly brown and tender enough to pierce with a fork.

Moroccan Fruit

Ingredients

1 pound golden raisins

1 pound dried apricot

1 pound pitted prune

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup honey

1 ½ cups white wine

2 cups water

¼ ounce saffron

2 cinnamon sticks

Place the fruit in a medium sauce pot. Add the water, wine, sugar, cinnamon, and honey. Bring to a simmer. Cook on a low simmer for 20 minutes. Add the saffron, check to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot. Add more water if needed and cook for 20 more minutes. Remove from the heat to cool. The finished product should be plump pieces of fruit with golden yellow syrup.

Permalink Filed under: Etc, Recipes Tags: metropolitan cooking and entertaining show, michael hanratty, mie n yu, the Neelys 3 Comments
21Jul

Summer Treat: Mamey

Before they appeared at my farmer’s market recently, I’d never seen a mamey in the US. Having had (and loved) them in other places, of course I had to buy one and see what I could make of it.

The times I’ve had mamey before it was usually in or on ice cream, or part of some elaborate fruit plate concoction. I had no intention of attempting to make ice cream, and I didn’t have any at home either. A fruit concoction was tempting, but living alone I knew that would lead to too much leftover growing tasteless in the fridge. And, it being Tuesday, an impromptu dinner party was unlikely. So it was to be a single-serving affair.

For those who’ve never had this amazing fruit: it looks like a small, gray football, and has gorgeous orange-pink flesh and a seed that’s toxic and wonderful for making insecticide. It tastes…like mamey. I’d almost describe it as a milder papaya, vaguely pumpkin-flavored with a hint of coconut, but that wouldn’t help anyone even if it was accurate. Trust me, it’s delicious. (But also trust: don’t eat the seed, or even the flesh that’s right next to it just to be safe…you don’t want to know what it does.)

I decided to could make something quick, delicious, and just weird enough to make me happy. What did I do? I cut up the mamey, sprinkled it with lime juice (not very much), and added sichuan peppers. Sweet, hot, and flavorful, this was a winning dessert that might even qualify as a healthy pre-gym snack.

-MAW

Permalink Filed under: Ingredients, Recipes Tags: mamey, summer, treat, tropical fruit No Comments
07Jul

Chili-Cream Sprouts

This is one of those dishes that just crept up on me – building from a variety of ideas drifting through my head all day, looking for purchase. I’d had the sprouts for a while, and they needed eating. I’ve been roasting the sprouts with garlic, to lovely effect, but knew even when I bought these that this time, I wanted something different.

Watching Bourdain scarf down a gorgeous-looking soy green soup with chili sauce in Shanghai, I wanted chili sauce.

Here’s what I did:

Clean and halve the sprouts. Toss them in a pan with about 1.5 tablespoons mirin, over medium heat, and cover. Leave them to caramelize, stirring every 5 minutes, until they’re almost done. Now toss in your garlic.

While cooking, add about 3 teaspoons of chili sauce and equal volume cream to a glass or small mixing bowl and stir like hell to emulsify. Add fish sauce if you’re so inclined (I did).

Turn up the heat on your pan to medium-high (maybe a bit more) and stir in the sauce – it’ll scald fast, and that’s good. Let it cook till it’s just a sticky coating on the sprouts, and they are just barely done. Transfer to a serving vessel, and cover. Now, deglaze your pan with rice wine, letting it reduce about 3/4 to a nice rich sauce. Pour that over your sprouts.

I ate mine over scrambled egg whites, because I felt like it. The eggs sopped up the extra sauce, which was lovely, and also made me feel better about all that cream, by not having yolks.

– MAW

(Photo by Johnsu)

Permalink Filed under: Recipes Tags: chili, cooking, recipe, sprouts No Comments
09Jun

Lavender. Sweet, sweet lavender!

What can’t you do with lavender?! There are the obvious conventional uses; as fodder for honeybees, as an essential oil for your incense burner, and the blossoms are all too familiar in potpourri assortments. But there are some other, less predictable uses. Sachet away!

I recently infused some vodka with lavender. Delicious. And for a party, I made a lemon cake drenched in lavender infused cream. What a hit! I stock up on the flowers any time I’m at my local co-op. It’s something unique to sprinkle on baked goods, and a surprising addition to various concoctions. Just Google “lavender recipes” and over 2.5 million entries will be available for your enjoyment.

I urge you to experiment with herbs in unconventional ways. And let me know what surprises you discover!

AEK

Permalink Filed under: Ingredients, Recipes Tags: herbs, lavender No Comments
19Mar

Brunch Musings

By Andrew Kohn

I’m in love with brunch – that is, every other day except the traditional Sunday feast. Why must I wait until 2:00 to eat? And who ever thought it was a good idea to drink juiced-down cheap champagne instead of a heartier, potentially infused, vodka drink? I’m over it! Simply put, brunch is breakfast for lunch. Don’t get me wrong; this is a meal plan I can believe in! I’m also a huge advocate of breakfast for dinner. But why do we limit this culinary event to once a week? Every human being I’ve ever met – yes, all of them – loves breakfast food at any time of day. (And usually more for lunch or dinner that for their actual breakfast.)
Brunch is an excuse for weak people to eat foods they really crave at the time most socially acceptable to their peers. I’m here to tell you that it’s ok to eat omelets for dinner. It’s ok to put poached eggs on your dinner salad. And it’s perfectly acceptable to use your waffle iron on a Wednesday afternoon. It won’t blow up. Join me as I celebrate freedom from traditional food roles. Breathe deeply, grab your whisk, and show that Large Brown Cage-free Omega-3 doped egg who’s the boss.
Here is a “brunch” recipe from our friends at Bon Appetit magazine. If you follow it word for word, it’s probably wonderful. With a few slight modifications, it becomes delicious! This sausage, roasted red pepper, and spinach torta rustica works well with vegetarian sausage (my hands were tied because of a guest) and with any commonsense cheese substitute. The baguette transforms into a quasi-French toast – a quality I’m eager to explore further on my next go-around. Cook it up tonight and enjoy! The brotherhood of breakfast lovers fully supports you and your brave decision.

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