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The cabbage is rendered tender but still crunchy by salt-wilting it, then it is gently warmed in a sauté pan with a mélange of soft cooked leeks and green garlic. This method brings out the sweetness of the cabbage which works well with the sweetness of the alliums and makes a great foil to the silkiness of the leeks and garlic.
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It seems the majority of people I tell about sautéing cucumbers balk at the idea, yet never think twice about eating sautéed zucchini. Bearing in mind that summer squash are a New World import, all those Chinese dishes with zucchini in them probably used cucumber originally. When cooked well, cucumber has a pleasantly mild flavor that plays well with other flavors, and can retain its pleasing crunch while softening up at the same time. Some partners to consider are King Oyster and regular oyster mushrooms, snap and snow peas, chicken, sweet carrots, fish or scallops, or mild soft greens such as spinach. The version here is kept very simple to showcase the cucumber flavor and lovely marriage with the basil. Consider this as a bed for poached or baked chicken, or fish or sautéed scallops, or gently sautéed pork chops.
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Something to go with Middle-Eastern themed dishes, but it would work with South-West or Mexican style dishes as well.
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I like the idea of using vegetables to make sauces. I feel it can make for a lighter dish with unusual flavor combinations, and it allows me to get another vegetable on the plate in some instances. I frequently make a carrot sauce using carrot juice which I reduce to a glaze, but I wanted something less sweet, and more directly “carroty”, and light. This is the result. This was used with grilled sturgeon that was dusted with curry powder, and served with a quenelle of mint yogurt.
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This is based on a traditional Indian recipe, but I have simplified it a fair bit. One thing that is different is the addition of garlic, which I have found is usually not used in Hindi cooking. This dish is good as is, but can also have garbanzo beans added to it to make it more substantial. The optional garnish of fried shallots is not necessary but does taste great.
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This soup has a rich and creamy texture, and a light body. It is a little on the sweet side from the onions and squash. If you wish to add substance to it, you could add cooked rice- Forbidden or wild rice would be nice for color and texture- and various vegetables such as carrots, mushrooms, spinach, etc. If you wish, you can roast the squash or steam it instead of sautéing it.
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These are inspired by Indian koftas, but they are more of a croquette in that they use egg and flour, not chickpea flour as many kofta recipes do. The bell pepper usage resulted from having halves in the refrigerator, and I think cooling bell peppers, mint, and yogurt make a wonderful contrast to the hot zucchini fritters. Serve these hot or room temperature, but be sure the yogurt is cold.
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This stock is used in the same way you would use a dark chicken stock or other meat stock. It works well as a base for sauces and soups, and if you are feeling under the weather it is nice for when you don’t want to actually eat, but want some nutrition. It is really nice heated up with some fresh ginger in it. In meat stocks, the agent that thickens it is gelatin. In vegetables, the equivalent is pectin. By charring the onions and sautéing the rest of the vegetables, the pectin is catalyzed and so more readily available to the stock. Konbu* is a type of kelp. Seaweeds are used commercially as a thickener in many things, from toothpaste to ice cream, and is used that way here.
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Tagged with: broth • carrots • celery • dairy-free • gluten-free • leeks • mushrooms • onion • parsnips • rutabagas • soup • stock • turnips • vegan • vegetarian
This is a basic for any Japanese kitchen. In fact, dashi plus miso and some shreds of vegetable equals “miso-shiru”, or miso soup. There are various styles of hana-katsuo (dried bonito flakes)-some are smoked or dried over wood fires, others are not. I especially like using the smokey ones for miso soup as the year turns cool. Look for these flakes in Japanese or oriental markets, some “health-food” stores, and better groceries. In Watsonville, look for them at Yamashita Market. You can find them online as well.
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One of the traditional renditions of pasta with pesto is a Genovese iteration that includes filet beans and tiny potatoes. Here is a de-constructed version of that dish, minus the pasta. Using Sangre potatoes here will make for a very colorful dish, but other types of waxy potatoes would work as well.
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INGREDIENTS:
2 large, 4 medium Delicata squash, split lengthwise and cleaned
½ pound lean ground lamb or beef
2 cups zucchini, cut into fine dice
¼ cup onion, cut into fine dice
1 cup chard stems, cut into fine dice, washed and dried
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Tagged with: beef • chard • cheese • delicata squash • lamb • oregano • swiss chard • tomatoes • winter squash • zucchini
These can be done in stages ahead of time up to the final cooking if you wish, and they are quite flexible in terms of what you use. Instead of lamb and currants, use pork and a fine dice of apples. Skip the meat entirely and add in some cheese, firm or pressed tofu, or chopped nuts.
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This is a good thing to have in the freezer as it can be used as a “spread” out of the refrigerator for things like sandwiches and crackers with smoked salmon, or use it to top grilled salmon or steamed chicken as an instant sauce. Slip thin slices under the skin of a chicken to be roasted and you get a moist buttery chicken with lots of fresh herb flavor. It is great for making a pan sauce as well; after sautéing some scallops or fish, de-glaze the pan with some white wine and/or lemon juice and add small cubes of this compound butter to form the sauce.
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Very simple, but with bright flavor that is great with lightly smoked fish such as salmon, trout, sable, etc. It is excellent on toasts with avocado or with cucumber, and crackers. It was originally part of a sushi roll called the Norway Roll from my restaurant. The roll had this, smoked salmon, cucumber spears for crunch, paper thin slices of Meyer lemon, and additional dill minced and scattered on the outside of the roll. Once made, the dill flavor will permeate the cream cheese.
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This is a riff on the Double Cooked Potatoes already on the site. A classic preparation of Pesto calls for tiny potatoes and filet beans to be added to the pasta, and it tastes great. This recipe is inspired by that traditional preparation.
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No, not “twice baked potatoes”! These potatoes are steamed or boiled just enough to cook them through, then they are smashed and roasted. The result tastes like a cross between mashed potatoes and French-fries, and is really good. The recipe works especially well with potatoes like Romanze, Yellow Finn, and Yukon Gold. This recipe works best with potatoes around 3 inches in diameter.
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I’m a big fan of coleslaw, and this is one of the best I’ve tasted. My friend Elaine’s passion is her art, and she’d much rather be in the studio with her clay than in the kitchen. This means she prefers streamlined cooking, but she also likes things that taste good. This is an example. She took the original recipe and cut back the mayo and sugar so the slaw is lighter. I think if you had a dictionary with definitions you could taste, this would be what you’d find for “coleslaw, with mayonnaise dressing”. Essential, flavorful, it exalts cabbage.
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This gratin is quite simple to assemble, and easier to cook. It can be assembled earlier in the day and then cooked, or you can cook it off and serve it at room temperature or re-heat it. It is even good cold. It makes a great vegetarian sandwich-just smear a soft roll with tapenade and lay in some of this gratin. This gratin is really fun if you have various colors of squash to play with as it yields a nice colorful dish. Although the instructions seem long, they are not really, and once you have done this you will find a hundred variations spring to mind.
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Ohitashi are a classic of Japanese cuisine. Typically, they spinach is marinated in a broth based on “dashi”, which is a broth made of dried smoked bonito flakes and seaweed. This is a simpler version using water. To make this even easier, simply remove the stems entirely from the dish, then microwave the spinach to wilt it. This keeps in the refrigerator for a couple days.
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Tagged with: sugar peas
…and maybe other things too, if you wish. You could add chard and chard stems, or just stems if you have them left over from another dish. Olives, artichoke hearts, beans, mushrooms…Serve with avocado chunks, labne (I use it instead of sour cream), some fiery hot sauce and slabs of toast.
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This is an all-in-one dish with eggs, vegetables, and grains. It works without the grains, too, but if you make them the night before or have leftovers, it is even easier. Carrots add a sweetness that counters the sometimes almost tannic mineral quality of chard. The eggs are baked “whole”, not mixed in as a batter like a quiche, so the yolks act as a sauce and make for a pretty dish.
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This is a great way to get more vegetables into your life, and this dish is great for breakfast or for dinner. Cooking the eggs so the yolk is still runny provides a silky sauce for the earthy kale, and runny yolks contain lecithin, which helps counter the effects of cholesterol in the body. If you wish, you could add bits of prosciutto or mushrooms to the kale, or scatter the ramekins with some cheese a few minutes before they come out of the oven.
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