Summer Corn Chowder!!

By now, if you're a fan of Panera's Summer Corn Chowder, you realize that the summer is slipping away too quickly, and they're just not afraid of breaking all of our hearts. It doesn't look like they're bringing it back this year at all. So I took matters into my own hands and scanned Pinterest for some copycat recipes. There are lots there, so I combined two or three of them, and have just the thing to tide us over-- or at least to feel like we broke up with Panera first. Maybe this tastes TOO good, or the vegetables are TOO fresh, but I'm pretty confident you'll be happy.

Kickass Summer Corn Chowder!

Heat 2 Tb. olive oil with 1 Tb unsalted butter and add a whole onion and one celery finely diced. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until both are nice and soft.

Stir in 3 Tb. flour and cook for 3 to 5 more minutes.

Add 5 cups of vegetable broth and 2-3 diced potatoes. I used a couple of russets and a couple smallish Yukon golds. They both cook down nicely. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Then add 4 c. corn kernels (I used frozen), 1/2 each of a red and green bell pepper, finely diced, 1 c. half and half, about 1 Tb. minced flat leaf parsley, salt & pepper to taste. Cover that bad boy up, lower the heat, and let it simmer for at least 10 more minutes. The longer you can wait, the better, since the potatoes start to thicken the broth more. If you're lucky enough to have some roasted green chiles, throw about 1/2 c. of those chopped bad boys in there too!

Serve with a little parsley garnish on top and some crusty bread with butter. This is no longer something that's just for summer, and we're no longer captive to the whims of the Panera seasonal menu!

BONUS: I get to stay home with the dogs and cats and have all the seconds I want!

Our New Thing: Weekly Whole Wheat Breads

One of the very best things I received as a gift has been Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  I adore baguettes and ciabatta more than most things, and have relied on those Take and Bake loaves they sell in grocery stores for more than a decade. Well, NO MORE.

The recipes in Artisan Bread are awesome for me, because I am incredibly impatient and imprecise. With these recipes, you just throw ingredients into your mixer (I also received a KitchenAid stand mixer as a gift from my parents. I'm so happy to say I use it weekly, and it's covered in flour on a regular basis) and mostly forget about it for a couple hours. I've since acquired professional baking sheets and silpat that no one else in my household is allowed to touch, a pizza stone, and purchased one of those plastic Sterlite shoebox bins specifically to store dough in (maybe a dough rising bin will be a next purchase).

From the book, I've basically used four or five pages. The recipe and instructions for a basic boule, then the instructions to use boule dough to make a baguette, ciabatta, and pita bread:

I've also used and tweaked the recipe for light whole wheat bread (it uses 5 parts white flour to 1 part whole wheat flour. I've gotten it up to 2 parts whole wheat to 1 part white flour, and it's delish!

The olive oil pizza dough for a KICKING white pizza (I'll have to dedicate an entry to the recipe for this, because we haven't been out for pizza ever since I've gotten this one down!). I even learned how to stretch a pizza pie (this guy helped a lot):

And finally, our 100% whole wheat sandwich bread. Zips loves toast with breakfast. This bread is hearty, wheaty, slightly nutty. Unlike some of the other artisan breads, this one doesn't require any baking accessories besides a bread pan (the usual 9" x 4"), and you don't have to crank your oven any higher than 350.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread 

(adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day)

3/4 c. lukewarm water
3/4 c. lukewarm milk
3/4 Tbsp. granulated yeast (1 packet)
1/4 c. honey
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

Mix these together then add

3 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
Mix until completely incorporated into a sticky dough with your stand mixer's dough hook or food processor's dough attachment. This will take a couple of minutes. You might need to scrape the sides of the bowl down.

Leave dough in the bowl and mostly cover (I use saran wrap, but leave a gap to let the dough breathe) for 2 hours. If you're not going to bake immediately, after this initial rise period, you can store the dough in the fridge in a lidded (but not airtight) container.

When you're ready to bake, prep your loaf pan with some nonstick spray, sprinkle the dough and quickly shape it into a loaf by gathering the sides of the dough to the bottom. Pull the sides to the bottom, rotate the dough, and do it again until it looks smooth on top. I keep my hands floury so I don't accumulate too much sticky dough on my fingers as I do this. I also try to shape it into an oval or football shape so when I drop it into the loaf pan, it takes up most of it. If there's a gap at one end or the other, that's okay. You're going to dust the top of the dough with a little more flour and then give it a couple of shallow slashes with a serrated knife.

Let it rise another hour to hour and a half. The cookbook says 1 hr 40 min. I let mine go just over an hour, and it passed being a lovely rounded loaf to looking a bit like an inverted flat tire. You'll know when it looks like you should throw it into the oven.

Have your oven preheated to 350. Since you're not using a pizza stone, you can pretty much bake as soon as your oven gets to temperature. Bake for 45 min-1 hour. Again, you'll know when it looks right. The longer you keep it in, the more deeply it will brown (until it, you know, burns). Let it cool a little and turn it out of the pan. It will nearly kill you, but for best results, let it cool completely before cutting it into slices. After I've sliced it, we actually keep ours in the freezer in a ziploc and take out individual slices each morning to toast. It's very wheaty, a little crumbly, but hearty and delicious. And we have only purchased a single loaf of bread in the past five months.    

Happy baking!

Cheesy Quinoa!

Cheesy Quinoa!

So I'm always trying to put quinoa in things to eat it more often. I hear it's good for you, right? So how would it fare in a comfort food recipe like Mac and Cheese to make that slightly healthier than The Worst Thing For You That You Love To Eat? Turns out, it's pretty damn good. I'm not calling it Mac and Cheese, it really deserves to be called its own thing.

1c. quinoa cooked in 2c. water (bring both to a boil, cover it, and let it simmer 25 min. until absorbed)

Meanwhile, make a roux with

2 Tb. butter

1 Tb. flour

and gradually stir in 1/2 c. milk (I used plain soy milk. It's all I had around, and it worked just fine!) and 1/2 c. vegetable broth

Then add in 1/2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 c. chopped fresh spinach

and the cooked quinoa.

salt and black pepper to taste

Divide into individual baking dishes (I used 3 mini-tart pans) and top with sprinkle of breadcrumbs (I made my own!! From my own bread!!), grated Parmigiano, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. 

This is a great size for a side dish for 2 or 3 eaters (if I'd made more--I could probably get myself into a lot of trouble). It has 2x the protein as regular mac & cheese!

Bánh Mì Chay for Lunch!

I've been craving a good vegetarian Vietnamese sandwich for eons now. A few weeks ago, I visited my parents who live in Albuquerque. When running errands, my mom and I ended up at Talin World Market, an absolute godsend for stocking up on Asian groceries in these parts. Its lesser-known neighbor, Talin Supermarket (the white building on the south end of the parking lot) is actually a little deli that serves bánh mì and other Vietnamese delights. Their vegetarian sandwich is stuffed with marinated, sauteed tofu, cucumber, cilantro, and thin slices of fresh jalapeno. Back at home, I've found the fresh baked bolillo loaves at the local Mexican grocery have exactly the right crispy crust and light crumb inside for a fantastic bánh mì, so my lunch plans were set!

Bánh Mì Chay!

2" chunk of an English cucumber. Thinly sliced.
1/4 c. cilantro
julienned carrots
1 fresh jalapeno chile. Thinly sliced.
Mayonaise
Maggi or Bragg's or other soy sauce
1/2 package of extra firm tofu
1/4 c. vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce

Slice the tofu block in half lengthwise, and marinate in the vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce. It can be for as short as 10 minutes. This was a new ingredient for me. I took it at my mother's insistence, and she almost always uses it to marinate tofu. It's a bit like a sweet, dense soy sauce. If you don't have any, I'd probably just use soy sauce with a little bit of sugar dissolved into it.

After marinating the tofu, brown it in a pan with a little vegetable oil. Turn it so that each side gets browned. Remove from the pan and drain on some paper towel. Then slice into uniform slices. Mine were about 1/4" thin.

Prep the bread with some mayo on each side. Not to much here. I used Japanese Kewpie mayo, because using our Veganaise seemed a little weird to me.  Then give it a squirt of Maggi or Bragg's or soy sauce. Again, not too much. I basically drew a line in soy across each side of the sandwich. You don't want to saturate either side!

Then pack it with your fixin's. I laid out the tofu slices on one side of the bread, then layered carrot shreds, cilantro, cucumber slices, and chile slices on the other and squeezed it shut. I actually used a tiny serrano chile from the humongous harvest I had all summer last year. I have a TON of tiny, fiery serranos in my freezer still. My mouth is burning, but it was totally worth it!

When I do this again (probably tomorrow), I'll probably pickle a little of the carrot shreds with some cucumber shreds in some rice vinegar and sugar and salt. My only complaint today was that it was just a tad dry. But I am thrilled I won't have to wait until my next road trip to ABQ to enjoy one of my favorite things!

New Eats: Vietnamese Meatless Meatballs (Xiu Mai Chay)

Okay, since I'm playing some catch-up here, I'm going to go in for a two-fer-- offering both a restaurant recommendation and a fantastic drool-inducing recipe. First off, Zips and I are newly back from the Oakland area. We had an academic conference in early November, and the culinary highlights included not only managing to find our way back to Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco, but also finding some amazing new digs in Old Oakland. We actually stayed at the exact same (closet-sized) hotel we stayed at two years ago, but went the other direction in our explorations of the local environs. In contrast to the Vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant (with the cool neon sign blazing in the window, you know... the one we didn't care for...), Zips found and took me to Le Cheval, a wonderfully elegant Vietnamese restaurant that has a robust vegetarian section on its menu. 

  

It has an airy, spacious dining area. 

The veggie goi cuon were delicious. I had lemongrass tofu, and Zips enjoyed her vegetable curry. The Vietnamese coffee was to die for (as my mom would say).

Now that I've spent some time in the bay area surrounded with, no steeped in multiple Asian American food traditions, I'm a little wistful. So to satisfy my own longings, I'm offering up an excellent recipe I cobbled together back in July.

The Vietnamese meatball can be used as a filling in a lettuce wrap (which we did) or alternately in a baguette sandwich banh mi xiu mai chay (which I will definitely be doing soon-- when I have success, I'll post it here!). They're typically made with chicken or pork, and nước mắm, but we use Quorn chik'n tenders and a soy sauce-based nước mắm recipe. This one's nearly vegan, but I used an egg to bind the ingredients together. If you're a clever vegan, I'm sure you already know a work-around.

Xiu Mai Chay (Vietnamese Meatless Meatballs)

12 oz. bag Quorn chik'n tenders defrosted in a microwave until room temperature. Chop in a food processor and squeeze out excess liquid
3 cloves fresh garlic minced
1 Tb. minced lemongrass or fresh ginger
1 Tb. chopped fresh mint
3 Tb. chopped cilantro
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
salt and pepper
2-3 Tb. Nước mắm chay*  

Mix everything together and add 1 beaten egg. Shape them into meatballs about 2" in diameter.

Here's the super-ultra secret ingredient trick: **Roll the meatballs in sugar. I put some sugar out onto a plate and rolled them around. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.


Voila! The sugar caramelizes in the oven. They're savory, fresh, moist, a little sweet, and perfect to wrap in lettuce and dip in nuoc mam chay. Enjoy!

*: Oh yeah, while I'm at it. I have adapted the quintessential Vietnamese sauce, Nước mắm to a delicious, fishless variation. Having traveled in Vietnam as both a carnivore and as an herbivore, I assure you, this one passes muster with my Vietnamese relatives! Zips refers to it as our

"Righteous Indignation" Nước Mắm Chay

1 garlic clove minced
juice and pulp of 1 lime
2 Tb. rice vinegar
2 Tb soy sauce (we use low-sodium kikkoman most often)
1 tsp. garlic chili paste (Sambal Oelek)
1 tsp sugar

These are the ingredients I always use. Once you get a feel for how spicy/sweet/salty you like it, you can certainly fudge the measurements. You can also add scant shreds of carrot to garnish it. This is a perfect dipping sauce for the meatball lettuce wraps, or for cha gio chay.

New Year! New Treat! (Happy Early Spring!)

It's been far too long since I've posted something new. As a matter of happy coincidence, I found myself baking last night. Zips had had a nibble of some delicious orange cranberry mini tea scones from Trader Joe's over the weekend. Wanting to have some tea and scones with our new evening ritual of watching Downton Abbey, we found ourselves without any kind of sweet treat. We combed the grocery store's bakery section for something tea/muffin/scone-oriented. Resolving to find something to cook at home, Zips came up with an excellent vegan cranberry orange scone recipe for which we already had everything we needed! (When I make these again-- and I will-- I'm going to add a tsp. of vanilla and some sliced almonds!)

Vegan Cranberry Orange Scones are freaking delicious!

Preheat oven to 425.

2 c. flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 c. dried cranberries

(2/3 c. chopped walnuts-- we left these out. As I said, I'd add maybe 1/2 c. sliced almonds instead.)

Mix these together and set aside.

1/2 c. veg./canola oil

1/2 c. maple syrup

2/3 c. orange juice

zest from 2 oranges

(I'd add 1/2 to 1 tsp. of vanilla extract here too)

Mix wet ingredients together. Then combine wet into dry ingredients until a thick dough forms. You can spoon these by large tablespoons onto a cookie sheet, or pat into a rough rectangle and cut into wedges (yields about a dozen). Bake for 12-13 minutes until lightly brown.

We drizzled a glaze over the top that was made of powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. It really made these zingy!

Because these are vegan, I'm sure they're far better for us than the Trader Joe's (whose ingredients include both butter as well as buttermilk). And ours are freaking delicious! They're crumbly and chewy instead of hard and hollow (as some scones can be). And although we omitted the walnuts, I think because of the whole wheat flour they also have a nice vaguely nutty flavor. We're already going to need another batch. We're only up to episode 5 of the first season and we only have 6 scones left.

Extra Citrus? Make some candy!

All of the holiday-themed magazines out right now are chock full of special goodies to eat and gift. Fudge, rum balls, cookies, breads-- Zips has caught the fever!

So in one of them (one of Martha Stewart's?), there were instructions for candied citrus peel. We have some excess lemons, a couple of oranges, and a new bag of limes. I only wish we had some grapefruit to add to it!

Candied Citrus Peels

Citrus! (2 grapefruits or 3 oranges or 4 lemons, or some of everything and throw in a lime while you're at it!)

4 c. sugar

water

The instructions are fairly simple, cut six slices into the peel of the fruit (but not through the fruit part) and peel away. Then use a small knife to slice away as much of the spongy, bitter white pith as you can. Slice into thin strips and cover in a pot with cold water. Bring it to a boil, dump the water, and repeat until you've brought it to a boil 3 times. Remove the peels and reserve in a bowl.

Then mix 4c. sugar with 4c. cold water. Dissolve and bring it to a boil, stirring and making sure the sugar doesn't crystallize on the sides of the pot. When it's boiling, add the citrus peels and lower the heat. Simmer (don't boil) without stirring until the peels are translucent (this takes about an hour). Turn off the heat and let them cool down. Remove peels and pat dry with a paper towel (you can reserve the sugar water-- you've just made a quart of citrusy simple syrup!). Then toss the peel strips into some sugar and spread out in a single layer on a wire rack for 30 minutes to dry.

I understand now that those jelly citrus candies I used to eat are basically a synthetic version of these candied peels!

We like them so much, they may not make it into the gift bags!

New Summer Food: Bun Xao Chay

After a month in Vietnam, I've picked up a couple of tricks and dishes. I tried to keep an eye out for things I could replicate/duplicate once I got home. My aunt made Bun Cha Gio Chay (I'll try making it when it gets cooler so I can fry spring rolls without dying of heat), my cousin made a vegetarian version of Banh Xeo for me, and we went to countless restaurants and food carts all over the southern half of the country.

One of my favorite things that I couldn't wait to make at home is a cool beef noodle salad called bun xao. If I'm correct in my tiny knowledge of the language, bun refers to the rice noodles, and xao suggests the stir-frying of whatever protein is in this. I've made it now with both vegetarian beef and chik'n chunks (I use Trader Joe's meatless beef strips and Quorn chik'n tenders. Morningstar used to have a Meal Starters steak strips that's similar to the Trader Joe's, but I haven't seen it lately).

Bun Xao Chay

Heat 1 Tb. veg. oil and add a minced clove of garlic (or 2!) and some lemongrass. Because I haven't been able to find fresh lemongrass here, I bought lemongrass paste in a plastic tube next to the flat pack herbs in the produce section. I used maybe 2 Tb of the paste-- add it to the oil and garlic and saute for a bit. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Then add your protein-- and continue sauteing until it's browned and coated in the lemongrass mixture.

In the meantime boil a pot of water. When it's boiling, add 1/2 a package of rice vermicelli noodles. Turn off the heat and let the noodles soak for 3-5 minutes. Once they're tender, drain them completely. It's fine if the noodles cool while you're prepping everything else.

The dressing is a vegetarian version of nuoc mam-- substituting low sodium soy sauce (preferably Vietnamese soy sauce, but we can't have everything) for the usual fish sauce.

Nuoc Mam Chay (also great with cha gio chay)

(all of this can be adjusted to taste, esp. the hot stuff)

1 minced garlic clove

juice and pulp of 1 lime

2 Tb. rice vinegar

2 Tb. low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic chili paste (the stuff like Sambal Oelek, not Sriracha)

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 c. warm water

The rest is lettuce, mint, thai basil, cilantro, shredded carrots, thin slices of cucumber, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts.

Assembly is a little messy. Usually each component is placed independently, rather than tossed together. Put down the greens and herbs, then a pile of noodles, then the protein and finish with bean sprouts and crushed peanuts. I topped mine off with some finely sliced jalapenos that went red on the plant. They were sweet and had just a little bite of heat. My relatives would probably throw on a ton of those tiny red and green bird's eye chilis. This is my humble approximation.
I topped everyone's serving with about 3 Tb. of the nuoc mam chay. I also added a little of my own pickled carrots and daikon radishes (just let them marinate in some rice vinegar, sugar, water and a little of those finely sliced chiles for at least an hour-- up to a couple of days). Pickled veggies were always present at every meal! I'm thinking of sauteing tofu with the garlic and lemongrass next time. We've had it twice in the past two weeks, so I guess everyone else likes it too!

Zipper's Homemade Spiced Applesauce

As promised, during my month-long absence, Zips learned how to make applesauce with just a microwave and a food processor! Armed with a 5lb bag of apples and a couple of lemons and spices, we've had fresh applesauce 4 or 5 times in the two weeks I've been back. It's become a breakfast staple for me (with toast and peanut butter) and at dinner time too. It tastes like apple pie without anything bad! And no baking! And virtually no cooking!

Zip's Spiced Applesauce:

peel, core, and cut up 4 apples (your favorite crisp, tart variety)

place in a microwave safe bowl with

1/4 c. water

3+ Tb. sugar (to taste)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

And for the intrepid, add whatever other apple pie spices you like.

Cover and microwave for about 10 min. or however long it takes for apples to get tender. Pour spiced apples all the liquid into your food processor and process to desired saucy texture. Enjoy warm or cooled. Keeps for 3 or 4 days in the fridge. You'll never ever buy it in a jar again!

How did I live this long without eating this?! Zips has never even liked applesauce before now!

New Quinoa Side Dish & Zipper's Divine FroYo (but not at the same time!)

With dinner tonight, we needed a side to accompany baked Quorn chik'n cutlets and haricot verts. Seeing our bin of dry quinoa, Zips scoured the internets for a recipe for me to try out and found one that we improvised off of. The original called for diced bell peppers, which we swapped out for diced onions, and called for walnuts which we omitted. I also added parsley. It's fantastic, has subtle flavors, and makes a tasty, healthy side to your lunch or dinner. I bet it'll be good cold too!

Cranberry Coriander Quinoa (side dish)

Add 1 c. quinoa to 2 c. of boiling water and simmer for about 10 min. until the liquid is absorbed. While that's simmering, saute:

3 ribs celery diced finely

1/2 c. yellow onion diced finely

in 1-2 Tb. olive oil

and add

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt & black pepper

Saute until onions and celery are tender then add to the cooked quinoa. Toss in

1/4 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. chopped parsley

and serve warm.

Afterward, we had planned on just macerated berries (that's fancy talk for slicing berries and tossing some sugar over the top and letting them sit until they get all juicy) for dessert, but Zips really outdid herself in deciding with all the yogurt we have in the house, it's a shame we've never tried to make frozen yogurt. So she did, ignoring all the imperatives she found online that you have to have full fat yogurt. We didn't, and it turned out just fine with the non fat Greek yogurt we have on hand.

Divine Blueberry Lavender Frozen Yogurt

2 c. plain fat free Greek-style yogurt

12 oz. (2 packs) fat free blueberry yogurt (we have Chobani)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 Tb. vanilla extract

1 Tb lavender buds

Mix all the ingredients together until you're sure the sugar has dissolved. Then dump it all into your ice cream maker. The result is floral, tart, sweet, and heavenly (not to mention fairly guilt-free!)

I'm sure this is only the beginning of much experimentation in the FroYo genre of desserts I can't wait to see what she hankers for next.

Midnight Baking!

Summer has officially landed. We've had more than one 90 degree day and I've just finished my last official commitment on campus until fall orientation starts again in August. This explains why, at 12:22am I found myself hunkered over my oven waiting for a batch of muffins to rise.

Vegan banana raisin muffins discovered by Zips on stumbleupon (I tell you, it's an addiction!). She happened upon a wonderful vegan foodie blog that I've fallen head over heels for. In any case, "Super Skinny Banana-Pecan Muffins" definitely turned my head. Since we're cutting down on nuts for a bit (something complicated having to do with L-arginines and L-lysines and myelin sheaths), I swapped the pecans for raisins. We're going to have them for breakfast!

Skinny Banana Raisin Muffins (vegan!)

preheat oven to 350

1 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. oats

1/4 c. raw sugar (I just realized while typing this that I forgot to use raw sugar!)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

pinch of salt

Mix these together and in a separate bowl, mix together:

1/3 c. soy milk

1 egg replacer (the original on Crunch & Chew uses flax "eggs," I use ener-g)

2 Tb. veg. oil (the original uses applesauce instead, which I don't have)

1 large overripe banana mashed up (we had 2 medium sized, so I used them both)

mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then add 1/3 c. raisins (or pecans, walnuts, etc) . Spoon into muffin pan and bake 15-20 minutes.

I accidentally spread a bit of veg. margarine onto one and ate the whole thing without chewing. I don't know if I'll even sleep tonight. It smells so good in here. Think I'm crazy? Go make some of these in the middle of the night and see how you do!

Decadent Dessert (toppings!)

With Memorial Day weekend coming up and holiday weekend movies starting tomorrow, we decided to beat the rush and have a cookout today (Wednesday). After gorging ourselves on potato salad, veggie burgers and corn grilled over the fire, we scraped together change from the couch for some fresh strawberries and heavy whipping cream for dessert. Zips missed the episode of Barefoot Contessa I caught that featured her summer berry pudding (to be attempted sometime soon!) that she tops with some rum whipped cream. We still have some dregs of Bacardi, so we figured, why not?

Rum Whipped Cream (thanks Ina!)

half pint of heavy whipping cream

3 Tb. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tb. rum (the original calls for dark rum, I say use what you got!)

Since I've never actually whipped cream, I decided to be good and put the stainless steel bowl, the cream, and the beaters for the mixer in the freezer for about 10 minutes (this is supposed to be helpful). Beat the cream by itself until it's beyond frothy and starts to actually thicken. Then slowly add the rest of the ingredients and continue beating until stiff peaks form and all that. Goes GREAT with fresh strawberries. Would also be excellent on anything chocolate or coffee flavored. I'm interested in trying this with brandy instead of rum. We'll see. Enjoy!

Pineapple-Soy Glazed Tofu recipe that Zips stumbled upon

So Zipper has stumbled upon the web discovery engine StumbleUpon.com and is completely hooked. It's her new evening pasttime. She's clicked off Vegetarian Recipes among her fields of interest, and so stumbled upon the basis for our new dinner adventure: Pineapple-Soy glazed tofu.

The original recipe called for pineapple preserves, orange or pineapple juice and diced pineapple chunks. Having just peeled and cored our first perfect pineapple of the summer, I just substituted finely minced pineapple for the preserves and juice portion. One of the user comments also suggested adding 1/2 c. sweet and sour sauce, which we don't have. So I looked up several recipes for that too, which I'm including. The result is deeelicious. I'm only sorry we didn't have any more bell pepper (used it last night in the tagine) or green onions. We agreed that cashews or peanuts would also be a great addition to this. But once you have the sauce down, you'll be great to go!

Sweet & Sour Sauce

1/4 c. ketchup

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. white vinegar

1/2 tsp. granulated garlic

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1-2 tsp. soy sauce

1 Tb. cornstarch

Mix these together in a microwaveable bowl and heat it for 1 min. Stir and heat it 1 more minute until cornstarch is "cooked" and the sauce is glossy. Yields about 1/2 c. (would also be great with spring rolls!)

Pineapple-Soy Glazed Tofu

1 package firm tofu cut into cubes or slices (I sliced mine and pressed it to drain out the liquid-- lay them out on several paper towels, cover with another paper towel and set a cutting board on top. Then add weight to the cutting board to press the tofu)

1-2 Tb. oil (I used half sesame and half veg. oil)

2 cloves minced garlic

After the tofu has been drained/pressed for 10 minutes, heat the garlic in the oil and brown the tofu on both sides. Lower the heat and whisk together:

1/2 c. finely minced fresh pineapple (and whatever juice leaks out of the fruit while you're chopping it)

2-3 Tb. soy sauce

1/2 Sweet & Sour Sauce

Pour these into the tofu and add 1/2 c. diced pineapple (cut it the same size as the tofu). Now would also be a good time to add other veggies-- bell pepper, baby corn, whatever strikes your fancy. Simmer tofu and pineapple in the sauce until well incorporated and heated through. Serve over brown rice with sliced green onions and cilantro.

New Summer Tagine Recipe

(First off, let me admit I do not own a tagine. Nevertheless, this is delicious and easy to make.)

Driven by the usual summertime necessities (65% poverty, 35% laziness) I found and tweaked a wonderful Moroccan-inspired chickpea/chik'n recipe for dinner tonight:

1 12 oz. bag Quorn Chik'n Tenders

1 14 oz. can vegetable broth

1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes

1 14 oz. can garbanzo beans

1 med. yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

1 bell pepper, diced

2 Tb. olive oil

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

In your tagine (or dutch oven or other large-ish heavy-bottomed pot) saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for about 5 min. Then add the quorn tenders spices and saute for another 5 min. or so. Pour in broth, tomatoes (and juice from the can), garbanzos, and bell pepper. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until everything is nice and incorporated and the aroma of everything drives you insane. Salt and pepper to taste (but you probably won't need it at all).

While that's happening, bring to a boil 1 1/4c. vegetable broth, a little of the juice from the canned tomatoes, and a sprinkle of cumin, coriander, and chili powder. Stir in 1 c. of whole wheat couscous. Cover and turn off the heat immediately, and allow the couscous to absorb the liquid (5-8 min).

Serve the "tagine" mixture over the couscous, and don't be stingy with that sauce. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

Another good protein, low fat dinner that we didn't even have to leave the house for!

Summer Fever!

We went to the local farmer's market yesterday morning and found it swung into high gear already. Locally grown produce, starter plants for herbs and flowers, a lady selling agua fresca, long lines for kettle corn. It smells like summer. We've got it bad. Just planted tomatoes and basil for the patio garden. Then, covered in dirt, I built a fire in the fire pit and grilled some veggie dogs and corn. Rather than buying that lady's agua fresca, Zips bought me a small locally grown watermelon (it's a little early in the season), and cut out all the flesh, whizzed it up in the blender, and strained it twice-- creating an entire pitcher of juice for the same price as a single styrofoam cup filled with melting ice and a little melon juice! Wanting to contribute more (and not overindulge in charred processed veggie meats), Zips found a recipe on the label of a can of garbanzo beans that looked good. The recipe is called "Rockin' Moroccan Pita" and involves cooking chicken breasts in cumin and chili powder, then tossing with garbanzos and stuffing it all into pita pockets topped with yogurt. All the elements are there for a new twist on a bean salad, so Zips took a 12oz. bag of Quorn chick'n tenders and grabbed a couple of ears of roasted corn and invented:

Mexican Double "Chick"pea Salad

blend together

1 Tb. ground cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

4 Tb. olive oil.

and toss in chick'n tenders, coating them thoroughly. Heat chick'n tenders in a pot (you can add 1/2c. water-- we did this in a pot over the fire and heated it until most of the water evaporated).

In the meantime, combine

1 16oz. can of chick peas (drained, rinsed)

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 tomato, diced

1-2 cobs worth of roasted corn, de-kerneled

1/2 c. parsley, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

drizzle of olive oil

Combine seasoned chick'n to the bean mixture and serve warm or cooled.

I realize the bean company called this "Rockin' Moroccan," but with the cumin and chili and roasted corn, we agreed this tastes decidedly south of the border. The "Double Chick" comes from the combination of chick'n and chick-pea (and it's more fun to say than chickenchickpea salad) It's delicious!

My other obsession this weekend is the memory of the crepe suzette haunting me from La Creperie in Chicago. I already had a crepe batter recipe, so looked around for a Suzette a la Germain that resembled the orange-y goodness that we enjoyed. I settled on one, and realized partway through it that I had misread the directions, so improvised what I think is an AWESOME sauce:

Crepe Zipzette a la Germain (just the sauce)

Juice of 5 oranges

zest of 1-2 oranges

2Tb. sugar

1 Tb. butter

Heat these in a small saucepan about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in 2 Tb. Grand Marnier. Once I'd made a batch of crepes, I folded one in half, dipped it through the sauce and folded it again (now quartered) onto the plate. Drizzle with more sauce, and sliced strawberries, bananas, orange, and some whipped cream.

Try not to let your eyes roll back in your head too much!

New Soup: Zuppa di Zipper

It's the week before payday again and I have the added hitch of having been teaching for 5 weeks now without somehow having been *hired* for one of my classes. So I received only 2/3 of my paycheck and am s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g my resources. In rooting through my pantry, my fridge shelves, and scouring recipes online, I decided to concoct an Italian-ish garbanzo soup that I figured would be high protein, low fat, comforting, and absolutely not costing me a dime. Everyone's really happy with the results, so I give you my

Zuppa di Zipper (Starving Artist Minestrone)

Saute 1/2 diced yellow onion with 1 minced garlic clove in about 1 tsp. veg. oil.

Add

2 medium peeled, diced potatoes

1 qt. vegetable broth

1/2 28 oz. can of whole tomatoes. I squished them in my fingers as I added them to the soup and also added half of the juice from the can.

1 can garbanzo beans (drained, rinsed)

1 carrot, diced

1 rib of celery, diced

1" whole sprig of fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. dried thyme

Simmer these for 10-15 min. until the potatoes and carrots are tender. I also added about 1/4 cup of leftover cooked penne pasta noodles that I cut in half. Once these are heated and all the veggies are cooked and the herbs all mingle, you're ready to go. Garnish with fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste, and maybe toss in a little parmesan cheese. When I do it again, I hope to have some zucchini in the fridge (or breadsticks!), but this will tide me over just fine!

Baby it's c-c-c-cold outside (Happy Lunar New Year!)

It's record-breakingly freezing in southern New Mexico. We have our second snow day from the university-- not necessarily because of the weather itself, but because of the power company's inability to support keeping us all warm. During our two hour rolling blackout last night, all I could think of was what could I make to eat when the lights came back on. We lit candles all over the house and I laid under a blanket with a cat purring on my lap and though of soup.

So I decided to come up with a vegetarian variation on a Vietnamese comfort food: chao ga, or chicken and rice soup (also commonly made with crabmeat and corn, and also often called congee in English). When I traveled to Vietnam with my Vietnamese mother nearly eight years ago (almost exactly-- we were there for lunar new year!), I got sick with a persistant hacking cough (maybe it was SARS?). I loved rice soup. I haven't had it again since, so I sleuthed around for common ingredients and came up with my own.

Chao Chay (vegetarian Vietnamese rice soup)

3 c. vegetable broth

1/2 " piece of fresh ginger (cut into slices)

1/2 clove of fresh garlic (leave it whole so it can be taken out)

1/2-1 c. frozen corn

1/2 c. quorn chik'n pieces (or cube some naked cutlets)

1 Tb. soy sauce

1 Tb. corn starch

1/2 tsp. garlic chili sauce (sriracha)

1 egg (optional)

1 c. cooked jasmine rice

white pepper to taste

chopped cilantro

chopped green onion

Add ginger and garlic to veg. broth and bring to a boil. Add corn, chik'n, dissolve cornstarch in water separately and whisk into broth until clear and thickened a little. Season with soy sauce and sriracha to taste. Scramble raw egg in a bowl and drizzle in to the broth while stirring (pretend you're making egg drop soup). Add rice and bring to a simmer. When you serve, add white pepper, green onion, and cilantro. **note: the rice will suck up all the broth, so if you have leftovers, you'll want to add more broth to get it soupy again.

I googled "chao chay recipe" before posting this and used the translate function on a recipe. My favorite portion of the clunky translation was at the end:

Cook for instance, remove the seaweed and fried tofu and oyster mushroom give up no end. Tasting eating and asked to draw a bowl add pepper, and coriander on top for flavor. This soup is very cool food and supplements!

Wish appetite.

Wish appetite! ngon lam! and Chúc mừng năm mới

What's for dinner? What's in the fridge?

Of course the down side to having a break from working is having a break from getting paid. It's dinner. We're out of everything. We've got a fruit bowl with oranges (3lb. bag on sale for $1) and some bananas. We have some frozen stuff we've stocked up on, but very little produce. We're sick of Boca burgers. I can't believe I'm out of soy sauce. (I can't believe I can't afford to buy soy sauce right now!) We have dry goods like rice and lentils but no broth.

So I did a little internet recipe searching and came up with:

Orange Sesame Ginger Chik'n with Brown Rice

Throw some brown rice (jasmine, basmati, whatever) in the rice cooker and whisk together this marinade:

2 Tb. sesame oil

1 Tb. soy sauce (I had 3 packets from a take out sushi from one of our travels)

2 Tb. honey

juice & zest of 1 orange

2 cloves garlic minced

1 Tb. fresh ginger minced

I thawed out a 12 oz. bag of frozen Quorn Chik'n Nuggets and marinated them for about 30 minutes. Then sauteed a little bit of onion (thinly sliced) and one more garlic clove in some sesame oil, threw in the marinated chik'n chunks and browned it, adding all the marinade. I sprinkled a teaspoon of corn starch so the leftover juice would thicken into a sauce (or at least a glaze).

Serve over the rice with some cilantro. Here I've pickled a little bit of red cabbage and carrot with rice vinegar, sugar, and a little sriracha garlic chili sauce.

It was a hit. And I didn't have to leave the house or do any shopping. Just gotta get to Friday!

New Quinoa Recipe for the New Year

I'm so happy to have a little time to cook and try out new things. I have only a week before school starts again, so I'm going to try to get a lot in!

We got the latest issue of Vegetarian Times in the mail and it has recipes submitted by students, including an excellent quinoa salad. Which I made. And am eating as I sit here typing this. It has a lot of tabouleh/arabic salad components, which of course are Zipper's favorites. And it has the added bonus of quinoa's magical properties and toasted pine nuts for crunch.

Quinoa Salad (from Veg Times with Zipper modifications)

Boil about 6c. of salted water and add 1 1/2 c. quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is tender (about 15 min). Drain quinoa and rinse with cold water. Drain again.

Toast 1/2 c. pine nuts in a dry pan. Don't let them burn.

Finely dice

1 english or 2 regular cucumbers (peeled, seeded) (2 1/2 c.)

2 tomatoes (3/4 c.)

1/2 red onion (about 1/2 c.)

1 bunch parsley

Toss quinoa, pine nuts and veggies. Add zest and juice of 2 lemons, 1/4 c. olive oil.

Salt & black pepper to taste.

Makes a large batch (it's supposed to serve 12). It'll be great next time I have to bring something to a potluck!

New Fall Soup: Potage de Crecy

It's the time of year again when I could essentially live on a liquid diet. Soup weather! Accordingly I wanted to share an excellent Carrot Soup recipe. I know, I know, it doesn't sound that glamorous, but it's simple, silky and luxurious and fantastic garnished with croutons or eaten with some crusty french bread. And speaking of the French, apparently the carrots grown near Crecy are the most delicious in the country! (Which Crecy? I guess there are several villages with that name-- I don't know. It makes a good story, though). We're adding this to our Thanksgiving Feast this year. Unless I can convince everyone to try out the Butternut Squash soup recipe I've got!

Puree of Carrot Soup

In a big pot (I use my enameled dutch oven Zips gave me for a present), saute:

1 Tb. butter

3 Tb. olive oil

2-3 cloves of garlic (since they're cooked down, the flavor gets toned down and subdued)

1/2 onion, chopped

9 carrots, chopped (this isn't set in stone. If you use this many, you'll have a thick, hearty soup. If you use, say 7 skinny carrots, you'll have a thinner, but no less delicious soup)

Saute these together over medium heat, being careful not to burn the garlic or onions. Then add:

4 c. vegetable broth

1 c. plain soy milk

1-2 bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

1tsp. - 1 Tb. grated fresh ginger (this depends on how ginger-y you'd like your soup. Even though I LOVE ginger, I use closer to 1 tsp. so it doesn't dominate)

Simmer all of these until the carrots are tender. Once they are, remove the bay leaves and carefully puree everything until smooth. I use an immersion blender. You could also do it in batches with a regular blender. Just be careful not to splatter the soup and burn yourself!

Return the smooth, pureed soup to the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. I don't usually add salt, just black pepper. Garnish with chopped parsley and possibly croutons.

Bon appetit!