Green Juice

Hope everyone's 2018 is off to a good start! With the long weekend, I had a little time to catch up on some things I'd had on my list to do forever, including getting back into juicing. I used to use my juicer regularly, and then totally fell away from it the last few years. 

I had a lot of greens in the fridge this weekend, though, and thought it would be a good opportunity to try out making a green juice. Green juice just instantly makes me feel healthy. A mason jar of this in my bag tomorrow seems like a good way to transition back to work after a three-day weekend with a little extra energy, right? 

Green Juice 

Adapted from a couple of recipes in The Juicing Bible, second edition

Four servings

3 apples, cored
6 stalks celery
8 sprigs parsley*
3-4 handfuls of spinach
1 bunch of kale (about 6-8 stalks)

Turn on juicer before adding any ingredients. Once juicer is running, add in all ingredients.

Juice can be stored in a container (mason jars work well) for several days in the refrigerator. Add in still or sparking water for a less intense flavor.

* Please note that parsley should be avoided during pregnancy or in causes of kidney inflammation

Roasted Delicata Squash Kale Salad with Maple Tahini Dressing

It's been a difficult couple of weeks news-wise, and for me, often a carefully-planned and satisfying meal is the best comfort. This week, I made a salad with roasted delicata squash, and it really hit the balance between rich comfort food and being healthy. 

Have you tried delicata squash? I first tried it a few years ago, and now it's the epitome of autumn to me. It's super easy to cook -- you cook it with the skin on, and it's delicious roasted -- and has a great squash flavor.

What's also great about this recipe is that the different components are super versatile and could easily be used in other dishes -- the maple tahini dressing has a really interesting, nutty flavor, and the roasted squash is great on it's own. 

Also, a podcast to try out while you cook. I thought the "Anna in Somalia" episode was really moving, and made me re-realize I still need to read Anna Karenina. 

Roasted Delicata Squash Kale Salad with Maple Tahini Dressing

Makes 3-4 large servings

1 medium delicata squash
1 T olive oil
1-2 T honey
salt and pepper
dash of chili powder
dash of garlic powder
dash of paprika
1/3 C goat cheese, crumbled
About 3 cups baby kale or chopped regular kale (no ribs or stems)
1/4 C dried cranberries
1/2 C chopped walnuts

Dressing

1 small clove garlic, peeled and grated
½ cup olive oil 
¼ cup tahini (sesame paste)
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon molasses
dash of paprika  
3/4 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper or white pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Slice squash in half and clean out seeds with spoon. Slice each half into C-shaped pieces by slicing horizontally. Place on baking sheet or 9 x 13 pan. Drizzle 1 T olive oil over squash, along with 1-2 T of honey, and then season to taste with salt and pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Squash pieces should be lightly coated with oil, honey, and spices.

2. Bake squash for about 15 minutes on each side (about 30 minutes total); leave in oven until golden brown. 

3. Prepare dressing by mixing all dressing ingredients; a mason jar with a lid works well for shaking to mix ingredients. 

4. Assemble salads: on a bed of the kale, add roasted squash, goat cheese, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, and drizzle dressing over it all. 

Enjoy! Happy fall! 

SaveSave

Blackstrap Molasses Walnut Ice Cream

I think this molasses ice cream recipe by Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is my new favorite holiday ice cream. I was a little surprised that it could have such a rich taste, since it's not a flavor that at first I thought would stand out as much in comparison to peppermint or chocolate, but there's something about the simplicity but depth of this that makes it really stand out. It kind of tastes like a molasses cookie distilled into ice cream. So if you are looking for a Christmas recipe, consider whipping some of this up! There are so many interesting things I think you could accompany this with: a chocolate-orange sauce or cookie, a glass of egg nog, or a plum or apricot sauce. Or just eat while sitting by your tree.

Hope everyone has a lovely holiday and some delicious meals! :) See you in 2015!

Molasses Walnut Ice Cream
From Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes about one quart
(requires an ice cream maker)

Ice cream: 

2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch 
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened 
1/4 t fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 c blackstrap molasses 

Blackstrap walnuts:

1 cup walnuts,  halved
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1. For the ice cream, mix about two tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. For later, fill a large bowl with ice and water. 

2. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar and molasses in a four-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for four minutes (the mixture may appear curdled from the acidic molasses, but it will come back together in the finished ice cream). Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. 

3. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about one minute. Remove from heat. 

4. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a one-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes. 

5. Meanwhile, for the blackstrap walnuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the nuts with the remaining ingredients in a bowl, tossing to coat. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for about eight minutes. Stir, and then bake for another five to six minutes, stirring twice. The nuts should look bubbly and somewhat dry. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, stirring the nuts every couple of minutes to break them up (they'll harden togeter if left sitting for too long). 

6. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy. 

7. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, folding in the walnuts as you go. Press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, about four hours. 

Ginger-Melon Hydrating Recovery Juice

A short post with another running-related recipe. This is a quick juice that you can make in a blender using cantaloupe (or another melon) and ginger. Melons have a higher glycemic index than other fruits and high water content, and ginger has anti-inflammatory properties, so they make a good post-running combination. Plus, the ginger is really refreshing. Use more or less ginger based on your preferences and enjoy! I think this could also be good mixed with some sparkling water for carbonation.

Ginger-Melon Hydrating Recovery Juice
From realbuzz.com

2 chilled melons, skinned and seeded
1-2 T skinned and chopped ginger
8 crushed ice cubes

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Stovetop-Baked Eggs over Vegetable Stew

 

I have been running a lot recently, since I'm training for a half marathon in mid March. Even though I've been jogging since high school as a workout, this is really the first time that I've worked on increasing my mileage and the first period I've ever regularly run more than four or five miles at one time. So I've been hungry. I'm running with a training organization, Team in Training, and we have our long training runs early on Saturday mornings, so I've gotten into a pretty regular routine of coming home and making a huge brunch on Saturdays.

 

I thought it could be an interesting tangent to add running recipes to the blog- the longer I do this the harder of a time I have of coming up with new ideas, so I thought this could be a good new topic! So watch for similar posts in the future.

I was curious, first, to do a little research on what a good post-running meal should include. None of it is super surprising, but I found some good reminders.

 

Cooking After a Long Run

 

Post-running recipes should have a couple of main components:

Carbohydrates

Protien

Antioxidants

Says Discovery Health, "A run that lasts an hour or more taxes your body in such a way that you need to give it carbohydrates and protein in a particular proportion -- ideally, a 4-to-1 ratio of carbs to protein -- that will maximize immune function while restoring energy and rebuilding your muscles better than before."

So, protein and carbs are obviously both very important. I thought it could be a good challenge to come up with a vegetarian protein-rich recipe, since a vegetarian protein is typically more environmentally-friendly than a meat protein.

The resulting recipe was a modification of something I'd read about on another cooking blog and had been wanting to try. It's heavy in eggs and vegetables, which is good:

Eggs: From Runner's World: One egg fulfills about 10 percent of your daily protein needs. Egg protein is the most complete food protein short of human breast milk, which means the protein in eggs contains all the crucial amino acids your hard-working muscles need to promote recovery. Eat just one of these nutritional powerhouses and you'll also get about 30 percent of the Daily Value (DV) for vitamin K, which is vital for healthy bones.

Vegetables: Research shows that eating a combination of antioxidants [found in vegetables including bell peppers and onions], such as beta-carotene and vitamin C, may lessen muscle soreness after hard interval workouts by reducing the inflammation caused by free-radical damage (from Runner's World).

 

The recipe is pretty simple once you have everything chopped up, and an added bonus is that it makes a LOT. Which is nice when you're using it as a post-running meal, since you can eat a lot and still have leftovers. I ate it with a sliced wheat baguette, since I felt like it needed something to sop up some of the liquid and balance out the flavor. I was really happy with it in the end- basically a nice way to eat a lot of different types of vegetables at once, and good flavor from the stewing. I think you could really do some creative, things, though, and use any vegetables or cheeses you have around.

 

 

Stovetop-Baked Eggs over Vegetable Stew
adapted from katechristensen.wordpress.com

1 onion
1 red bell pepper
1 8-ounce package of baby Portobello mushrooms
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped and mashed
2 medium zucchini, chopped
1 T hot red peper flakes
4 eggs
1.5 C shredded parmesean cheese
about 6 C chopped baby arugula
"jot" of half and half (a few tablespoons)
sprinkle of paprika
salt and pepper
1-2 T olive oil

1. Chop the onion, mushrooms, and red peper. Saute these with the chopped garlic in a large oven-proof skillet with the olive oil until vegetables have softened but are not fully cooked.
2. Add the chopped baby arugula and let it cook until it wilts down to almost nothing. Season with the paprika, red hot pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Stir and let simmer uncovered for five to seven minutes, until the vegetables are tender, and then sprinke parmesan cheese over it in a layer.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Crack four eggs one by one onto the surface of the vegetables and pour a jot of half-and-half over each egg yolk.
6. Remove the skillet from heat and put in the oven. Cover and let bake until the egg whites are just barely set and the yolk is still runny.

Serves approximately six.

**I ate this with some baguette, which worked really well. This soaked up some of the liquid from the dish and balanced out the flavor and richness of the eggs and cheese.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange and Feta - end of winter Sunday night dinner, part 2

Although I write this with the windows open and after spending most of the weekend outside in the summer-like weather, I'm returning to my "end of winter" Sunday dinner theme, so that I can finally get to part II of the last post. This dish would actually work for almost any season, since it's so fresh tasting, so don't let the "winter" in the title scare you off.

To accompany the apple chicken curry, I roasted Brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar, orange juice and zest, and melted in feta cheese at the end. Delicious. This is an incredibly simple dish, and I really like the roasting method, because it creates crispy leaves on the Brussels sprouts.

I think I used the adjective "earthy" at least once in the last post, but really, it's the best word for the combination of this dish with the apple chicken curry (and yogurt sauce if you make it). The citrus flavors in this dish work really well with the savoriness of the curry, and the whole thing is faintly fruity.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Orange and Feta

2 lbs Brussels sprouts
4 T olive oil
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T fresh orange zest
1 T plus 1 t balsamic vinegar
2 T orange juice
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese (could be omitted for vegan version)

1. Rinse Brussels sprouts and cut in half length-wise. Pre-heat over to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix Brussels sprouts with all other ingredients, except feta cheese, in medium bowl. Pour all into 9x13 baking pan.
3. Roast Brussels sprouts for 30-35 minutes, or until leaves of Brussels sprouts start to get brown and crispy.
4. Remove from oven and add feta cheese while still warm. Mix all together.

Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Some successful dishes are based on reading a recipe, being inspired by an idea you wouldn't have thought of, and perhaps having a new experience. Alternatively, others are based on a random flash of a thought that illuminates a hole in your food world and makes you crave an inexplicable food experience, or even emotion, and trying to create a recipe to fill that void.

This recipe is in the later category, as a couple of weeks ago I became obsessed with the idea of making a sweet but also spicy breakfast burrito sauce. I was thinking of making a homemade breakfast burrito sauce, and all of a sudden had a very specific image come to mind of a sauce that would combine different elements from a breakfast plate (picture maple syrup mingling with the huevos racheros). I ended up starting with a smokey tomate-chipotle sauce, and adding in maple syrup, cinnamon, and fruit preserves to try achieve this savory-sweet goal.

This recipe included an ingredient that I've been curious about, but haven't used before, canned chiles chipotles en adobo. They're basically a very smokey-tasking canned chile. The flavor is definitely kind of strong, so I would use them sparingly, but I liked the flavor.

I was really happy with how this sauce turned out; this is mostly a spicy sauce, but the sweet and fruity flavors come through, making it a more complex addition than the typical sauce to whatever you put it on. Honestly, I envisioned this as a breakfast burrito sauce, but I mostly ate it with fried eggs and cheese on toast. And it was pretty amazing, especially after sitting for a few days. I think pretty much how I pictured.

Breakfast Burrito Sauce

Adapted from Rick Bayless's Essential Quick-Cooked Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

Makes about 2 cups

3 canned chiles chipotles en adobo

4-5 garlic cloves

1 1/2 lbs (4-5 medium) tomatoes 

1/2 t salt

1 T olive oil

2 T apricot preserves

1 T maple syrup

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1. On a heavy, ungreased skillet over medium heat, roast the unpeeled garlic, turning occasionally, until blackened in spots and soft, about 15 minutes. Cool, slip off the papery skins, and roughly chop. 

2. Lay the tomatoes on a baking sheet and place about 4 inches below the top of the oven with the stove set to the broiler mode. When they blister, blacken and soften on one side, about 6 minutes, turn them over and roast on the other side. Cool, then peel, collecting all the juices with the tomatoes. 

3. Scrape the tomatoes and their juices into a food processor and add the canned chiles and garlic. Pulse the food processor until the mixture is nearly a puree. 

4. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot enough to make a drop of the puree sizzle, add the mixture from the food processor, as well as the apricot preserves, maple syrup, and cinnamon, and stir for 5 minutes as it sears and concentrates to an earthy, thickish sauce. Lastly, add the salt. 

Keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator.

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup

It's been really cold in DC the last couple of days, and so I had a craving to make a huge pot of soup. This soup turned out really well - it's comforting and filling, and the addition of the feta adds a very crucial salty component. I also thought that this recipe was interesting because it's a recipe with pumpkin, but that doesn't have the typical spices that usually go with it, like cinnamon or nutmeg.

(By the way, I'm going to take a break from monthly theme idea that I've been doing so far this year. I have a little writer's block with idea, and also, it's fall, one the best food times of the year, so there is no shortage of recipes to try.)

And a reminder from a prior post (the most blog's most viewed/found from Google post!): the more bean recipes you like, the better, since beans are such an efficient source of energy compared to meat.  

Note: I ended up roasting pie pumpkins instead of using canned pumpkin as the recipe says. I roasted two pie pumpkins (different than carving pumpkins) by the following method: cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds; either leave pumpkin cut in half, or cut in smaller pieces to decrease baking time, and lay pumpkin pieces in a large baking dish along with 1/4 inch of water; bake at 350 F for 45-60 minutes, until tender (check with a fork as baking time will depend on pumpkin size). I pureed the cooked pumpkin in a food processor. 

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
from Gourmet

Makes about 9 cups

Three 15 1/2 ounce cans black beans (about 4 1/2 cups), rinsed and drained
1 cup drained canned tomatoes, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup minced shallot
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 16-ounce cans pumpkin puree (or about 3 cups of roasted pureed pumpkin)
3 to 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Garnish: crumbled feta cheese

1. Coarsely puree beans and tomatoes in a food processor.
2. In a large soup kettle, saute the onion, shallot, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper in the olive oil over moderate heat. Stir until the onion is softened and beginning to brown. Stir in bean and tomato puree. Then stir in broth and pumpkin, and simmer for about 25 minutes, until think enough to coat the back of a spoon.
3. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with feta cheese.

Roasted Tomato - Jalapeno Salsa

July/August Theme: Homemade summer

Well, Readers, summer, and "homemade summer" here on the blog, are both coming to an end. I've tried to come up with some creative ideas for food items to make yourself over these last two months.

And while I think all of them turned out to be really interesting and are recipes that I'll continue to use, I will say this: if you decide based on this series to start making only one thing from scratch, I think it should be salsa. Because aside from all of the environmental reasons for cooking from scratch previously discussed, homemade salsa is just so much better tasting than store-bought salsa. I feel like the two should not even really be in the same category.


When I make my own salsa, I usually make a really simple tomato, onion, and cilantro salsa, but I decided to try and do something more ambitious. This recipe has pretty much the same basic ingredients, but you roast the tomatoes, garlic, and jalapenos before blending them in a food processor. This brought up a couple of new techniques for me: broiling tomatoes in the oven to roast them, and roasting unpeeled garlic along with jalapenos until they are blackened.

The result?

The roasted flavor is really good - it adds a lot of complexity to the flavor of the salsa - and I am also now questioning whether or not there is that much that smells better than garlic being roasted over a flame in its papery skin. So you don't want to miss that.




I made a double batch of this and after five days or so of eating it, mixed it with two avocados (so one avocado per recipe as below) to make a pretty amazing guacamole.

Lastly, I forgot to commemorate this at the time, but the blog was one year old as of July! The first post also happened to be a do-it-yourself recipe just like this one: homemade honey-mustard-ginger vinaigrette salad dressing.


Roasted Tomato-Jalapeno Salsa
From Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavor of a World-Class Cuisine 

Makes about 2 cups

1 pound (2 medium - large round or 6-8 plum) red, ripe tomatoes
2 large fresh jalapeno chiles
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
salt, about 1/2 t
1/2 small or 1/3 medium white onion, finely chopped
1/3 C loosely packed chopped cilantro
1 1/2 t apple cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lime

1. Cut the tomatoes in half, and lay on a baking sheet and place about 4 inches below a very hot broiler. Roast until blistered and blacked on one side, about 6 minutes; with a pair of tongs, flip the tomatoes and roast on the other side, about another 6 minutes.
2. While the tomatoes are roasting, roast the chiles and unpeeled garlic directly on an ungreased griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat. Turn occasionally until both chiles and garlic are blackened in spots and soft, 5-10 minutes for the chiles, and about 15 minutes for the garlic (remove the chiles from the pan once they are done). Cool, pull the stem off the chiles, and peel the papery skins from the garlic.
3. Once tomatoes are done: cool them, then peel the skins off, collecting any juices with the tomatoes.
4. In a food processor, grind the chiles (including seeds), garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt to a course paste, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. Add the tomatoes and pulse a few times until you have a course-textured puree. Transfer the salsa to a serving bowl, and stir in any reserved tomato juices.
5. Stir the finely chopped onion into the salsa, as well as the vinegar, other 1/4 teaspoon of salt, cilantro, and lime juice.

The salsa comes into its own a few hours after it's finished. Keeps in the refrigerator for at least a week.

Pasta Salad with Homemade Caramelized Leek & Goat Cheese Dressing

July/August Theme: Homemade summer

Since July is almost over, and really, in DC July and August tend to blend together into one hazy heat-filled period of time, I'm going to combine July and August's theme into one. True to form, it has indeed been heat-filled here lately, which is when I start to fixate on dishes that are served cold, a favorite being pasta salad.



The classic versions I think of are made with either mayonnaise or Italian dressing along with cubes of cheddar cheese and broccoli. Usually, when I make pasta salad, I go in a completely different direction from those. But I thought that it would be interesting to try to make something in the spirit of those pasta salads, but with a homemade dressing made of more unique ingredients and sans mayonnaise.

The cool thing about this recipe is that I started with the base of the dressing with the pasta, and then added in the other elements somewhat experimentally based on what I had. So you could do a lot of different things with it if you changed which vegetables/fruit/protein you added to it. Other ideas I had included asparagus, zucchini, and almonds.

The dressing might sound complicated, but is very easy as long as you are willing to caramelize the leeks. The flavor that comes out is very interesting and somewhat rich, which then plays off of the vegetables, etc well.





Working on this dressing got be thinking about other summer staples that are often store-bought, but that are easy to make from scratch- salsa and meat marinade in particular came to mind. So the theme for July and August will be summer recipes that you might usually use a store-bought ingredient (in this case, the dressing for the pasta salad) with an easy homemade version. I'll also be doing a post about the topic of homemade versus processed food products in general, looking at some of the advantages to making things yourself instead of buying them. Happy summer!







Pasta Salad with Homemade Caramelized Leek & Goat Cheese Dressing

Makes a large batch, so consider halving if only want a few servings

1 T olive oil
touch of salt
6-7 radishes, sliced very thin
1 bunch broccolini or broccoli(about 2 C chopped)
4 C dry pasta, such as macaroni
1 15-ounce can chick peas
2 medium Granny Smith apples

Dressing
Juice of one lemon
1 t salt
1/2 t ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
1.5 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 T honey
4 ounces goat cheese, softened
2 medium to large leeks (about 2 C chopped), caramelized

1. Remove dark green tops and root from bottom of leeks. To wash, halve leeks lengthwise and thinly slice crosswise in large bowl of cold water. Wash leeks well and lift from water into large colander.
2. Heat 1 T of olive oil in large frying pan over medium heat, add leeks and stir to coat. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Turn to low and cook for 20-30 minutes until brown and caramelized.
4. In meantime, boil large pot of water, about 4 quarts with salt added. When water is boiling, add pasta. Cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.
5. Slice radishes into very thin slices. Chop apples into small cubes.
7. Once leeks are done, chop brocollini or broccoli into small pieces, and saute lightly in same pan as leeks were cooked in. Cook only until lightly sauteed but still crisp.
8. Set pasta, fruit and vegetables aside.
9. To make dressing, combine caramelized leeks, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, honey, and softened goat cheese in food processor, and combine until ingredients are finely ground.
10. Combine dressing with pasta. Once pasta is room temperature, come both with fruit, vegetables and chick peas. Put in refrigerator until cold. Serve chilled.

Garlic Cloves Confit

February Theme: Indulgence.



I'm packing to go on a work trip, so this will be short! And simple: garlic slow-cooked in olive oil-- and that is the whole recipe. And yet, this dish is really something in-and-of itself. Plus, it's very indulgent: it doesn't even really fit into any one meal, so you basically need to let yourself have an appetizer or snack of this in between your normal meals. Even though the flavor relies on just garlic, because of the way it's prepared, the flavor is unique. The garlic is slow-cooked to the point of being as spreadable as butter, and the flavor is earthy and rich. It's great alone on baguette, or added to a sandwich.





Garlic Cloves Confit

1/2 C peeled garlic cloves
About 1/2 C olive oil

Put garlic into a small heavy saucepan and add enough olive oil to cover garlic. Bring just to a simmer, reduce heat, and cook at a bare simmer until garlic is tender, about 25 minutes. Let garlic cool in oil.

The garlic keeps, in the oil, for up for two weeks, covered and refrigerated.

Slow-Cooked White Bean Gratin

[Belated] January Theme: Making Beans, an Efficient Energy Source, Taste Richer Than They Really Are



Upon ringing in 2011 I had lots of new thoughts about the blog; about new recipes to try, and about how to integrate the recipes better with the food policy ideas... and then somehow the whole month of January went by. Mostly somehow sucked up by work. But, moving on. What I want to try to do is have changing umbrella themes or topics that the recipes fall under, and change it month to month.

So even though January is actually over as of today, I DID actually make something to fit into the new plan this month, I'm just super late in posting it, and so am going to pretend it's not quite February yet.





My idea for January was to do some really simple recipes to go along with the clean-slate feeling of a new year, and also tie this back to a past post about the environmental effects of eating meat by showing some satisfying, interesting recipes with one of the most efficient forms of protein that you can use: beans. Plus, beans seem like a good ingredient to use at the start of a new year, when lots of people are resolving to spend less money, because they are so cheap, but can be really good when played-up.

But beans can seem kind of boring. I tried to get around that with this recipe, which requires slow-cooking the beans to make them tender and more flavorful than usual, and then putting them in a gratin, which makes the white beans taste surprisingly rich, and like a dish in and of themselves.





Slow-Cooked White Bean Gratin
Adapted from Gourmet

1 pound (2.5 C) dried white beans
4 cups onions, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 sprigs rosemary
10 C water
1 bay leaf
1 T salt
2 carrots, diced
1 T olive oil
3 t white wine vinegar
1 T garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to season
1 C bread crumbs (I used whole wheat)
1/2 C Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 C Gruyere cheese, grated

1. Put beans, water, rosemary, bay leaf, and garlic in 5-quart heavy pot. Cover and slowly bring to a simmer over low heat, which will take about one hour. Then simmer beans until tender but not mushy, about 35-45 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool, covered, for about 15 minutes.
2. Drain almost all cooking liquid from beans but while reserving cooking liquid. Discard rosemary sprigs and bay leaf and mash any intact garlic cloves into beans. Add salt.
3. In a saute pan, use 1 T olive oil and saute chopped onions, garlic, and carrots for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
4. Combine 1 C of cooked beans, 1.5 C of left-over cooking liquid, 1 T olive oil, white wine vinegar, and salt to taste in a blender or food processor and puree. In large bowl, stir puree into remaining whole beans, and then add in onions, garlic, and carrot mixture. Pour mixture into 3-quart baking dish or other shallow baking dish.
5. In small bowl, mix together bread crumbs, Gruyere, and Parmesan, and sprinkle over gratin. Bake gratin at 425 degrees F until top is browned, about 20 minutes.

Sweet Potato, Cardamom & Coconut Spread

Whether or not I've cooked with cardamom before, which I'm having trouble remembering, I did learn this while cooking this recipe: it smells amazing while it's cooking. Spicy and sweet and somehow really woodsy-smelling, it kind of made me want to cook up just milk and cardamom for the smell in my apartment, especially now that it's cold and dark outside.

So I was already really into the recipe because of the smell, but I'd say that the taste lived up to it. It kind of tastes like pumpkin pie in a spread, but with the uniqueness of the cardamom and coconut.

One thing about it is that it's pretty sweet, so it tastes much better with something savory that cuts the sweetness somewhat, such as goat cheese. You can combine those on baguette.

Another idea: all week, I've been eating it with peanut butter in a sandwich for lunch at work. It's really good.









Sweet Potato & Coconut Spread

2 pounds of sweet potatoes
2 C milk
1 C white sugar
1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1.5 t vanilla extract
3/4 t ground cardamom
1 C dried unsweetened coconut

1. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into small pieces, about 1-inch or less to a side. Put in a large, heavy pan over medium heat. Add the milk, sugars, cinnamon, vanilla, and cardamom.

2. Cook over medium heat until the sweet potatoes are soft and tender. Keep an eye on it, as the milk foams up. After the milk comes to a simmer, it will be about 15 minutes before the sweet potatoes are soft. Once the sweet potatoes are soft and tender, mash them into a pulp with a potato masher. Stir well as you do this.

3. Keep the heat on medium and continue simmer, stirring frequently. When the mixture is reduces and thick like a jam, remove from heat. Keep a close eye on it so it doesn't burn as the milk reduces. This takes between 20 and 30 minutes. Stir in the coconut and let cool before serving. Store in refrigerator.

**Try with goat cheese on bread or crackers.

Orange, Walnut & Feta Beet Salad

I've been moving over the past week, which has meant that my kitchen has been in upheaval, and I haven't been able to really cook. And after several nights of take-out or eating whatever is easy to find in the boxes, and feeling generally a little under-the-weather, I feel a little off. Which is how I knew: it was time for beets.



Because beets are what you need when you have that hard-to-put-your-finger-on-it feeling that you're not getting quite what you need food-wise. When fruits and vegetables start to seem even more delicious because you haven't had enough of them lately, or when you feel like you're losing touch with the more natural and earthy foods.

The fact that this salad mixes oranges in with the beets makes the salad taste even fresher, and the roasted walnuts add a great nutty flavor.

I'm also including the method I've been using to cook beets of late, which I think works really well. It involves cooking them with the skin on, and then removing it after you've roasted them, when it's much easier to remove.




Orange, Walnut & Feta Beet Salad

3 medium/large beets
2 T shallots, chopped
3 T olive oil
1.5 T apple cider vinegar
1 T fresh orange zest
1 orange, peeled and sections sliced
1/2 chopped walnuts
1/2 crumbled feta cheese
salt and pepper

1. Roast beets according to the following method:

Cut stems off of beets, and slice each in half. Lay sliced side down in baking pan. Add about 1/4-inch of water to bottom of pan, and cover with tightly with tin foil. Cook at 400F for about 50 minutes, or until beets are tender. (Watch out for steam escaping from the foil when checking on beets.) Let beets cool, and then run under running water while peeling/pushing skin off. It should slide off fairly easily.

2. When beets are almost done, put walnuts in a small baking dish with a bit of olive oil. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 400F, until toasted.

3. Make salad dressing: in small bowl, mix together chopped shallots, orange zest, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Once walnuts are done, let cool for a few minutes. Let beets cool, and then slice into medium-sized chunks. Mix beets, dressing, walnuts, and chopped orange in bowl. Before serving, add feta cheese.

Brined and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

In honor of Halloween this weekend, an easy, salty and kind of sassy (thanks to Worcestershire sauce) recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds:



I tried something new with this recipe in that I first brined the seeds (boiled them in salty water) before roasting them in the oven, which I'd seen in a couple of recipes.





And after trying them, I think I'm into the brining. It seems it makes them a bit crispier because it kind of puffs them up before you bake them.

It's unfortunate that more seeds don't come in one pumpkin, because it's pretty easy to eat the whole batch yourself.

Brined and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

seeds from 1 medium-sized pumpkin
1 T olive oil
1.5 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T salt
(amounts may chance depending on quantity of seeds in your pumpkin)

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut pumpkin open and scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy parts, and rinse the seeds.

2. Measure the quantity of seeds that you have, and add 2 cups of water for every half-cup of seeds, and half a teaspoon of salt for every cup of water, to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain seeds.

3. Spread the seeds in a roasting pan. Add 1 T of olive oil and 1 T of Worcestershire sauce for every 1 cup of seeds. Mix all together, and spread seeds in pan so that seeds are in one layer.

4. Bake seeds for 20 minutes, until the seeds begin to brown. Watch carefully as they burn easily. Let cool.