The Freezer Must Overflow

If you've ever been to my house before, you'll notice I like to hold onto things. Piles and piles of books, papers, toys, ephemera, just things that I like and want to remember. I feel this way about summer, and in turn, its fruits and vegetables, too. Its hard to let go of the good good.

This summer, from strawberry to raspberry to marionberry and blueberry, to peach to pear to plum, I picked. And picked. And picked.









My freezer is filled with summer.

Shaking the Pickle (or How I Spent My Summer Vacation)

I was going to write about my new lunch date main squeeze, but instead, I'm gonna riff on Kittee's post, as it talked about topics that are most dear and true.

I got a ton of jars on top of my fridge. Right now, the count is 7 (and if you're reading all your mofos, you know how many I started with! Test!) Those be well-loved jars of kombucha-making joy. But note! They will become jars of lovin coconut kefir soon enough, as did you know, you can make a vegan kefir? I did not until I went to this summer's mosh pit ferment orgy known as our first Portland Fermentation Festival. Within, in addition to every fermentite I know, there was water kefir aplenty, and it was delicious. To describe: like coconut water, like kombucha, but like neither and both. In order to make those jars into something other than air catchers, I need to obtain fancy kefir crystals. And with my head in my books, I don't see that happening in the immediate future.

Ah, summer. The summer of rivers. The summer of vegetables. The summer of pickles. First up this summer was dilly green beans. I was really excited about these, and my goal was more to put them out rather than put them up. One way to tell that I love you (and thankfully, not the only way!) is that you went home with your own jar. Then a bunch of other things followed: cucumbers (though I made lots of varieties, I have nothing spectacular to say about these), pears that I picked ma own self, yada yada. Let's skip to the creme de la creme of pickles, shall we? Proceed to the next paragraph.

Beets! My co-op has a woman with a tatooed beet on her head, does yours? I have more beets put up than you, I promise. There are three layers of beet pickles in this picture!

And they are all SPICY! These were also the best to make because I made my friend mamakim's special life-changing recipe (well, it's in The Joy but I didn't know about it or that book until Kim) and I made them with lots of help from my pickle cousin, Kittee. They are going to be groovy, and I'm going to wait until the darkest, rainiest night of all time to pop open my first put up.

It's hard to top the joy of spicy pickled beets, but I did. After a wonderful lunch at guess who's house in which I consumed a belly ache of the best store bought spicy Indian pickle I had had in a while, I soon got to work on some Green Mango Pickle. All it takes is time and light, and the best part, a shake or two each day for 15-20 days, and you can have your dream pickle.

I used Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for "Green Mango Pickle" from World Vegetarian, one of my favorite books of all time.

Here I am, shaking the pickle. When I think of the end of summer, I think of this most:


Runner-up in fun is Kohlrabi Pickled in Two Misos, and though I admit that I haven't even tried one yet (huh?) it was the second most fun to make. There are two layers of cheesecloth, two layers of miso, and one layer of cut kohlrabi on this plate!

Here I am, applying biological principles to the pickle lab.


Can someone photoshop me with some goggles?

His Imperial Majesty

Today I ate the kind of food to wake this blog from the dead.

One of my favorite restaurants in NYC, well, I should say The Bronx, was a place in my dad's old neighborhood, Pelham Parkway, where I worked for 5 years. On the corner of Lydig and White Plains Blvd., it was called H.I.M., which I always have to be reminded, cause I have a weak memory for abbreviations, means His Imperial Majesty. They served Ital food, and it was greatness. I try not to think about NYC too much, and my old job even less, but that was really good eating. When you live in a place like Portland, you don't even hope to eat Ital food, let alone good Ital food, so you stop thinking about it.

But today that part of my brain and heart that gets activated by the smell and taste of plantains and peas and greens dreams of the next time I get to go to one of Portland's yummiest food carts: Assase Ital Palace. I won't say much more because I have a friend who's got that one in the works, but I will leave you with all the dishes I got to try, all of which I recommend: The Red Red, Green and Gold, Jerk Fish and Rice, plantains, Veggie Chicken Drumsticks, Fry Bread, and more delicious and creamy than the best milkshake -- the Pure Niceness!

p.s. "ah -sah - see"

Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza

Almost a week into the beginning of our holiday festivities here, I was very inspired by this post and then this post which shows a way creative take on the much-loved thanksgiving leftover sandwich. And we have lots of leftovers -- from our pre-thanksgiving potluck on Sunday, our thanksgiving celebration with friends, and a post-thanksgiving leftovers party on Friday -- we're pretty stuffed with stuffing and all the works, and so with this pizza, I was hoping to put all of it to rest. And I did! Now, except for the leftover pizza (and gravy!), we only have real food in the fridge. I can't wait! But for now . . .

The Spice Must Flow's version of
The Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza


On a baking sheet topped with a layer of corn meal, add (in this order):
- rolled out pizza dough
- 4-5 tbs. leftover cranberry sauce
- layer of mashed potatoes
- stuffing (cut or broken into small pieces and distributed evenly across the pizza)
- seitan loaf (cut or broken into small pieces and distributed evenly across the pizza)
- 4-5 tbs. gravy dribbled evenly across the pizza

Bake for 12 minutes in a 450 degree oven. It helps if the ingredients are either warmed in the oven, or at least not ice-cold out of the fridge, so that everything will heat evenly in the oven.

Caught with gratuitous extra gravy on the top!


Yay fikustree/lazy smurf for this great idea!!!

Vegan MoFo: Krautsuppe

The best music to make krautsuppe to could only be, of course, krautrock. Perhaps it would be the best thing to reheat your leftover krautsuppe to, as I ended up getting sucked into talk radio as I made this super quick and easy soup. And before I knew it, soup was done!

Krautsuppe...can you guess? Is German Cabbage Soup. I was determined to make it hook or by crook, but a couple of things sealed the deal for Aaron. When I first mentioned the idea of cabbage soup, AA was skeptical, since neither of us are really cabbage fans, but then when I told him of my plan to listen to krautrock, eat krautsuppe, and then watch German Expressionism films, he was convinced.

And when I read him the description in Olive Trees and Honey where the author describes "Although non-Jews commonly flavored their cabbage with pork or sausages..." rather than react with distaste as he (or I) often might when hearing overly-meaty descriptions, his face lit up, recalling the sausages we had in the freezer. Uh... I think we might have just hit a "soup and fake meat" phase in our diet. Who knows what kind they are as their label is long gone, but thank the blog gods for that freezer meme. Now is anyone gonna tag me for it or am I gonna have to beg? I know you wanna see my "cleaned out" freezer?!

Off to eat soup and watch Nosferatu or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or something else good and German. But in all honesty, I wish I were well enough to make kittee's "Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares" from Papa Tofu like I planned and go to my friends' Halloween party!

Tomorrow...Rasam! The Indian Jewish "penicillin" -- Who knew?

Vegan MoFo: Three Soups by Thursday

Yesterday AA asked me what kind of food I wanted, and I suggested miso or pho, but both of those soup ideas intimidated him for some reason, and he got a tinkering with his own ideas, and soon enough, we were eating a delightfully brothy and throat clearingly yummy Kale-Yam-Potato soup.

Since that's two posts in a row without photos, here's a picture of me voting yesterday. My last foray outside! I should really go on at least a short walk today.

So far, I'm only really drinking kombucha and tea (and not even so much tea), and eating soup, so if you've got any other "get well" suggestions, send them my way!

Today, I'm dipping in to my latest excitement, a new cookbook gifted to me by kittee and dazee this past week, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World. I'm way excited by this book, and already I've written down all the Ethiopian recipes found within the covers, as I can't wait to have a big Ethiopian yum-fest once I'm well.

But one cuisine I'm surprised has caught my eye so intensely are all of the recipes from Georgia. Admittedly, I knew very little about Georgian cuisine before cracking open this book, but something about the ingredients and techniques are really resonating with me. One soup in particular caught my eye so that even with the foggiest head, I managed to soak the required little red beans (and some big, cause I was running low on little) for a "Georgian Red Bean and Walnut Soup." Are you intrigued, too?

I will post about it later today, once it's been cooked, photographed, and eaten. If I can manage it . . .

Vegan MoFo: Feed a Fever, Feed a Cold

I couldn't remember which one gets starved and which one gets fed, but luckily, there's wiki answers! Ha!

While it's true I'm not all that hungry, I know that starving whatever I have -- a cold or a flu -- who knows, is not the way to go. Problem is, whenever I'm sick, I'm the least reliable source on what to do to get well. It's like the part of my brain that knows this information completely shuts down. And then the part that I remember, I'm too lazy to pull into action.

So far: we've got split pea soup, and AA is heating that up for lunch for me right now. I didn't mention in it in my last post, but split pea soup is historically a sick/comfort food for me cause it's the soup of "Ellen's Good For Ya Soup" in The Farm Cookbook and "Chicken Mama's Special Soup" in Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey, two of my old-school vegan faves. These were the soups I first made for myself in college, in the face of my mom, pleading with me over the phone (as I lived 8 hours away -- seems like next-door now!) to just eat chicken soup, just this once.

There's a late victory to that story, though, as my mom recently became a vegan "for health." Though it didn't stick (she was eating the same giant pot of kasha, beans, and cooked vegetables every day for lunch and dinner. terrifying!), I don't think she'll be inclined to question the health value of veganism anymore. But thankfully, my parents have been mostly supportive on that.

But when you're sick, it's a huge bummer. Your veganism can't protect you in a fight like it can when you talk about heart disease and cancers. You're a vegan, and you're sick, and the things your mommy made you always stay with you -- the "egg in a basket" (what was healthy about that?), the chicken soup, etc. -- even though they're gross, cause all I'd like to do is just stay in bed and have my mom do all the worrying for me.

In other news, it's a beautiful day that I'm mostly missing, though I just came back from the walk up and down the block to vote at our local Obama campaign headquarters. That felt good. Why'd it take so long?

I'm trying to drink a lot of kombucha, something I fell behind as I waited for my last batch to brew, and more tea. But what else? What do you guys eat and drink and take when you're sick?

Vegan MoFo: Southern-Style Split Pea Soup and Greens

Dazee, known by many of you as Kittee's man-wife, was in town for a few days, and although I think we ate only a handful of meals together (he was downtown on conference for much of his visit), we talked about food a bunch a bunch.

I think it was Sunday, but it could have been another day, we were walking down my street to the coop, and Dazee puts the idea in my head to break out our ham tube (really a brick, but the name stays) and make a traditional-type split pea soup with ham. Oh yes, it was Saturday, cause it was the member discount day at the coop, and I took the opportunity to buy a bunch of green split peas, one of the few types of split peas I do not have. Except for masoor dal cause we're OUT!!!

As Kittee pointed out, blogging (and most interesting cooking) kinda stopped once Dazee got here, and not even for any particular reason. Just cause. Well, on Sunday I made some mac and cheese and some ham tube sandwiches with chipotle mayo (cause the ham tube was defrosting for the soup!), though that wasn't exactly a health-supporting meal, and sure enough, Monday I woke up all sicky. Not cause of the food of course, but had I known, I would have made the soup and greens I made today a couple days earlier.

Yesterday, we were all talking about cookbooks and "low brow" vs. "high brow" cookbooks (this came out of a discussion about fiction and film, first) and we were suggesting different contenders and Dazee says "I think Kittee's zine is highbrow." I pull it out to have a look-see, and out pops the recipe for collard greens, saying "So easy, even Dazee can make it without help." That made us laugh.

So, Dazee on the plane (I hope he got there in time!) and us getting a little hungry and me being home from work and still feeling ragged, I walked to the coop to pick out those collards for easy greens making. But I wanted to make 2 bunches cause I wanted a whole wack of greens, and they were running low but were expecting some more later in the day (farm direct! wooh!) but I wanted some now, so I picked some mustard greens, too.

Then I walked a little further to the mexican store for canned chipotles. My thinking was I'd make a morph of a Joanna tester split pea soup and a couple split pea and ham soups designed for ham-eating folks I found on the internets, and then add more vegetables like more carrots, celery, and potatoes, also some shallots, too, and have at. While the split pea soup cooked, I sauteed the ham in some oil and tamari and in another pot, I cooked the mustard and collard greens, using the Papa Tofu recipe, also found here!

The split pea soup we made was awesome -- we added lots and lots of extra chipotle peppers, liquid smoke, smoked paprika, and lots of nice and soft veggies for that healthy and comforting mush-bowl I was going for, and the cubed fake ham added that special somethin' somethin'. The greens were awesome, of course. Our fakin' bacon packet is beyond expired and it just didn't matter, that good. FAKE MEAT FER LIFE@@!!@@

Not that I've ever really been to the south save for a yucky trip to Fort Law-duh-dale way back when (and that doesn't count, besides), but I think this was authentically southern, to my imaginary southern sensibilities, at least.

I wonder who else would find this post interesting other than Kittee, but I put it out there, and sign off.

Vegan MoFo: Vegan Medford Donut

They've got vegan donuts in Medford, Oregon. So now you know. Too bad I forgot to ask which store. Perhaps ask once you're in town. You've probably got the time, you're in Medford! Actually, that was unfair, I've never even been to Medford. It was a really good donut. Thanks to Dazee for sharing it with us!

We also ate really good Vietnamese food at one of my favorite restaurants in Portland, Nhut Quang. I'll have to remember to write about that more in depth soon, cause it deserves it.

Vegan MoFo: Mushroom Hunting

On Saturday, I went to the woods, searching for mushrooms. Believe me when I tell you that it gives me pains not to be able to visit the woods more often. I need to get my fix on Forest Park, and it's good (believe me, it is goooood), but I don't know, not quite the same.

So we went out in search of the kind of mushrooms that you can eat before they eat you (beware false chanterelles!), finding way more in the way of funny-to-look-at and or looking-deadly-poisonous than juicy bites of joy. We checked out a couple of places with no clear leads, just enjoying the things we saw. Woods nerds.


Third place, we finally saw some lobster mushrooms, but we were hesitant about their quality. Little did I know, given my relative inexperience (my claim to fame is falling on top of a huge chicken of the woods and some random morels on a walk, mostly), that there is a dirty little secret in mushrooming. I'm not going to tell it to you.

But I will tell you that we discovered on Tuesday when we started to prepare our mushrooms for Wild Mushroom Lasagna (!!) we only were able to use a small portion of our delicious lobster mushroom and rushed to the coop (well, more like casually strolled for the second time) to get chanterelles for that full-on wild mushroom feeling. The combination of those is one I know well and love, and it didn't disappoint. Sharin taught me to dry roast the mushrooms, something I never tried, and that was super cool. We added fresh thyme from our backyard pot and then added them to the lasagna filled with cashew ricotta, pine nut cream (both from Veganomicon if you didn't already know), and gf lasagna noodles and spinach, topped with fyh and Yellow Rose parmesan, and baked for 40 minutes. Best lasagna OF MY LIFE! I mean it this time!

I forgot to take a picture while it was light, and I'm not going to show you a crappy picture of awesome lasagna, so check back tomorrow afternoon, k?

I leave you with...

nipple mushroom.

eta!

Vegan MoFo: Eating Out

Eating out at a friends house is a ton more fun than actually eating out. On Sunday I ate some of the best brunch food I've had in a long time, cooked by Kevin and served at Isa and Justin's house. It's been really good to have him here.

Tonight we just got back from Jennifer's night to cook at her house, but no pictures, cause I somehow only remember to take photos when I'm with other people who take pictures of food. She made a delicious meal of vegetables cooked in a cashew-creamy sauce, served over rice, with a delicious side salad. It is good to have friends who cook. It is good to have friends.

Vegan MoFo: Iron Chef Challenge: Thank You For Frying the Sushi

I'm dead tired and full up on fried sushi. Seriously, you don't even know. But we managed to get the sushi plated and in our mouths by the end of Sunday, though barely. Anyway, this is really Kevin's story -- a story of fried sushi triumph. I'll let him tell the lot of it, so check his blog for the deets. So many cameras!


So much sushi!
So much fun!
Thank you for frying the sushi, Kevin!

Vegan MoFo: Making Something Out of Nothing

This is a backdated post, it's true.

On this day, Susie came over to hang out and cook food, and as often is the case when we get together, we had a fun project. This time, we would make something out of the varied vegetables in my fridge into something of sustenance, and with any luck, we would make tasty sustenance.

First we pulled out the bins to have a look-see. Never underestimate the depths of those vegetable bins -- Just when you think there is NOTHING inside, out comes all kinds of glorious delights. We found lots of peppers of various kinds, shiitake mushrooms that were very dry that we believed we could hydrate, kale, broccoli florets, leek....


On the left is Susie, clearly in the running for cutest vegan ever, though if that were an actual contest it could get very complicated, as all the vegans I know are completely adorable.

We composted all that we couldn't save and then displayed the rest on the table, pulling out possible condiments we might use. Like so. Though this picture was taken after most of the vegetables we decided to use were chopped. Anyway.

Then we decided we wanted to eat some tofu to go with, so we went to the coop, picked up the tofu, a free ear of corn, and some other sundries, and we had at. It was pretty late until we had a meal (and this would be the first of four late meals in a row for me) but it was fun and worth it, even if the results were iffy.

The quinoa we made had an interesting flavor-dimension cause of the dried shiitakes, all puffed up and beautiful upon contact with the quinoa-cooking water. But the quinoa never fully cooked, remaining crunchy through to the end, even when we returned our quinoa portions to the pot and added more liquid and cooked some more. The vegetables, cooked in a sesame-oil marinade were quite tasty, though not without price. The scent of sesame oil filled the house for hours and made it difficult for Aaron to fall asleep! Of course, the winner was the tofu, the one thing we went to the coop and bought, the one thing we didn't have in the fridge. The marinade for that baked tofu was a quick one, featuring garlic chile paste and this sweet orange chili mustard from the farmers market.

I'm almost glad that I've got insomnia at this unthinkable hour of the night (remember, this is written in the future), cause this post is reminding me to try to recreate that tofu before I forget.

And now that Susie has a two-zone bus pas, it won't be long till we can do it again!

Vegan MoFo: I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)

My brother-un-law, Alex, once told us awhile ago that if he were running for office, he'd like to borrow his political slogan from Darrel Hall and John Oates.

At the time, we just laughed, but lately, I get that song in my head whenever I read or hear about something particularly juicy this election cycle. These next few weeks are going to be nuts.

Anyway, the title serves as a handy summary of today's little blog topic: stuff I can eat but can't cut with a knife.

The first is an onion. I decided last night that that was the last onion I was going to cut in a while. I'm not just a wimp for the tears, it just really makes me feel like hell until I get the residue off of my hands. Maybe, I'll cut a shallot, because they are tastier and I'm kind of in to roasted shallots right now, but I'm definitely not cutting any of these into small pieces. This 1/4 cup nearly killed me.

The second is butternut squash. I always forget until I start cutting that I have a contact allergy to it, and I only remember when my skin starts to get red and feel taut and puffy at the same time. It turns out I have butternut squash dermatitis! The first time it happened I really panicked, but somehow I knew it was just the skin I was allergic to, and went to eat the squash as I always do, no problem. But I really shouldn't be touching it when I can avoid it (it's the liquid that comes out once it's cut that's the problem, so I can still cull them at the coop, lest anyone was worried I'd fall back on my produce duty), and I'm writing this down again so that I can remember and not cut it up next time. Luckily I remembered (well, my skin remembered) half-way through, and AA took over. Good thing, or else we wouldn't have eaten this:















Ok, perhaps a more substantive post next time.

Vegan MoFo: Temporary Blog Malaise (Survey)

I haven't had anything I especially wanted to write about for the past couple of days, but then I checked Jess's blog and saw this survey. Here ya go.

1. What was the most recent tea you drank?

Belgian Chocolate Rooibos (hot), Kombucha (cold)

2. What vegan forums do you post/lurk on? If so, what is your username? Spill!

I'm michelle c. on the ppk.

3. You have to have tofu for dinner, and it has be an Italian dish. What comes to mind first?

Is there another answer other than lasagna? Hmmm...stuffed shells?

4. How many vegan blogs do you read on an average day?

It really depends, but just a handful. Some I check everyday and some I click through to on a hot lead. There's lots of great stuff that I'm not reading.

5. Besides your own, what is the most recent one you’ve read?

I opened Jess's and Kittee's at about the same time and saw this survey on Jess's. So Kittee's post is open right now, half-read, and I cut and pasted Jess's post into a blank document so that I could fill it out, and I'm reading it now as I go along. That was a longer answer than it needed to be.

6. If you could hang out with a vegan blogger that you haven’t met, who would it be, and what would you do?

I've met my favorites already, so let me think on this.

7. If you had to base your dinners for a week around one of the holy trilogy – tofu, seitan or tempeh, which would it be?

Bulk Tofu. But I want to say that I wish I could choose "beans" or "split lentils" cause that's what I eat the most.

8. If you had to use one in a fight, which would it be?

This was definitely a question cut out for the bulk frozen tempeh they sell at the coop (!) but I'm gonna stick with bulk tofu. I know where they keep the bins at the coop, and if I could get enough momentum and lift, I could toss the whole bin of tofus, water included!

9. Name 3 meals you’d realistically make with that tough protein of choice!

AA's Sumac Nasturtium Tofu, Miso Soup, and some kind of Feta/Salad topping

10. What’s a recipe in vegan blogland that you’ve been eyeing?

I was eyeing this Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe that I found by following a link to the ppk. It's probably one of the most beautiful pictures of lasagna that I have ever seen. Lasagna is delicious, but it usually photographs poorly. It made me want to eat it, even though I was formerly hesitant to try the butternut and lasagna combo together, hence why I never tested it for Joanna's cookbook. But now that I was game, I felt like I should try Joanna's recipe first since it was my introduction to the idea, and so I did. But I would love to try vegan foodie's cashew cream version next!

P.S. Did vegans invent the idea of squash lasagna or is it a vegan-ization of something that already exists? It's crazy food. Delicious, but crazy. I'll post a picture tomorrow, but know right away that it will be just an average picture of delicious food.

11. Do you own any clothing with vegan messages/brands on them?

I've got a few: "steak is wack," "please don't eat birds," "wings are for flying, not frying," "eat like you give a damn," "please don't eat me, i love you," and a herbivore logo hoodie.

12. Have you made your pilgrimage to the 'vegan mecca' yet? (Portland, duh)

yes.

13. What age did you first go vegan? Did it stick?

I became vegan when I was 21. We stick like glue.

14. What is the worst vegan meal you’ve had? Who cooked it?

I'm having trouble remembering any particularly bad meal.

15. What made you decide to blog?

I was inspired by craft blogs first. One of the first ones I ever read was My Paper Crane.

16. What are three of your favorite meals to make?

1. Ethiopian food!
2. Indian food!
3. Salad!

17. What dish would you bring to a vegan Thanksgiving-themed potluck?

For my first vegan thanksgiving we baked pumpkin pie, and I still often like to bring that (same recipe we used then, from Louise Hagler). My dad's apple pie and tricked out green bean casserole with fancy mushrooms are also good choices. The surprises are the most fun, though.

18. Where is your favorite vegan meal at a restaurant? How many times have you ordered it?

My favorite vegan meal is Ethiopian food, and I can't count how many times I've eaten it.

19. What do you think the best chain to dine as a vegan is?

I can't think of one.

20. My kitchen needs...
better lighting, more space, a paint job. And maybe an immersion blender.

21. This vegetable is not allowed in my kitchen!

I'm in the process of relaxing these rules, and so I think everything is game at the moment! Except that I feel a (renewed) onion kaibosh coming on, but until then, I will try to use it, though I hate hate hate cutting it up.

22. What's for dinner tonight?

Butternut squash lasagna!

23. Add a question here!
What would you like me to write about in future entries?

Vegan MoFo: Ham Tube at Tube

Eating three fake ham sandwiches is pretty hardcore, and yet, I'm sure I'm not the one who ate the most of those that night.

Vegan MoFo: Roasty Fancy

When some friends were over for dinner a few nights ago, we were talking about how lucky we were that they didn't have any serious vegetable or herb dislikes or food allergies since we forgot to ask them before we cooked the meal. There were enough cashews and cilantro to harm or turn off many of our friends. I'm always assuming that if someone has an allergy or a serious dislike that they will tell me, but you never know, so I've got to be careful about that.

AA likes to talk about how we're pretty "easy" as vegans go, but that's not really true. He'll eat most anything vegan that you make him, but around here, he's very selective about how much garlic, onion, and shallots he will eat. For me, there's fennel -- and fennel seeds*, anise, and anything licorice tasting -- though I often forget how much I dislike that flavor until I bite into a christmas cookie.


People rarely try to serve me fennel, and since I didn't grow up eating it, it's one that I've never given a fair shake cause it smells too much like those christmas cookies. But when I saw it at the coop yesterday, looking really fresh and pretty and hailing from a farm I particularly like, I figured it might be worth giving it a try again.

It seemed to call out to be roasted, and a look through my cookbooks confirmed that, and so I put some olive oil on my hands and rubbed the fennel, dropped it in a pan, and put it in the hot oven. Then I started to envision all kinds of roasted goodness and sought out my farmers market brussel sprouts, beets, and then, as an afterthought, some shallot and some kale, rubbed all in oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, ground fenugreek and mace.

While all the vegetables were roasting, I got to thinking about how I could complement the roasty vegetables with something crunchy and something tangy. Right away, last week's Iron Chef Challenge came to mind again! I sliced one of the Gourmet Golden apples we got yesterday -- an apple that at the tasting AA exclaimed "That's fancy!" -- and microplaned some ginger over them. In retrospect, the ginger would have been even better had it roasted with the beets, but this was the kind of lunch that just kind of develops as its made, and by then, the beets were almost done roasting.


When everything was done roasting, I piled it all -- beets, brussels, fennel, shallots, crispy kale, gourmet golden apples and ginger on top of baby romaine from the market. On mine, I drizzled a little fig vinegar, and cause I still have lots, I sprinkled hazelnuts on top.

When I asked AA which parts he liked best, he said the surprises -- the fennel and the shallot. Turns out, roasted fennel and roasted shallot are both delicious. I was already on to shallots, and now you can call me a fennel convert, too, but still, there's nothing better roasted than brussel sprouts and beets. They're the best thing my oven can do -- better than cookies.

If you're reading this and thinking of commenting, might you include what vegetables you avoid, or what vegetables you used to avoid and now you love? I'm curious, yes, but if I happen to find myself cooking for you one day, it'll help me know what to leave out!


*I usually sub ajwain or almost anything else when one of my Indian recipes call for fennel seeds, but I picked up some of those the other day, too.

Vegan MoFo: Iron Chef Challenge: Pears and Nuts

Today was the second day of Portland Nursery's Apple Tasting (I have this post to thank for reminding me), and since our late morning resulted in us missing another farmers market, we thought it was a good day to sample apples! And pears!

I get just as excited about the pears as I do the apples, and I especially love to sample the variety of asian pears. Usually 20th Century is a good pick, but this time we found a different one we like, Hosui, a variety that's apparently especially apt to Willamette Valley growing conditions. In addition to Hosui pears, we picked up lots of cute little Seckel Pears (pictured) and just two (why just two?) Cascade Pears, a variety native to the Cascade Range.

After a solid week or more of heavier dishes, both AA and I were craving salad. When we got back to the neighborhood after our tasting adventure, lugging bags of apples and pears all the way home, I stopped by the coop to get celeriac and a block of tofu cause I had a particular salad in mind.


When I was testing for Joanna's first cookbook (that's "me" on the right!), I tested a salad that never made the book but that I came to love: "Celery Root and Apple Salad." I think that the combination of lightly cooked celeriac and crisp fruit works so well, and I was excited by the idea of trying this out with our cascade pears, super fresh and very firm.

I made the "Sunflower Feta" that she suggests to top the salad, but instead of sunflower seeds, I used local hazelnuts from Freddy Guy's. It's not a subtle change -- the hazelnuts become super prominent -- but I think the sweet nuttiness complimented the sweet pears so well. And because the theme of this weekend is fenugreek just might be the answer to everything, I sprinkled some on top!


So here it is, my entry in this week's Iron Chef Challenge: Pears and Nuts. With pear as the state fruit and hazelnut as the state nut, this dish is so very Oregon!

While I'm kinda bummed that we're already out of cascade pears, I've still got lots of apples. We got Beni Shogun Fujis, Gourmet Goldens, Mutsus, Smoothie Goldens, and Winter Bananas. I've got enough apples to make me want to go back and do last week's challenge!

If you're local and you decide to head out there, don't let the long line at the tasting tables intimidate you. They move pretty quickly. But whatever you do, don't just head to the market section to buy the ones you liked last year. Some of our favorites from last year like King David and Spitzenberg tasted just "so so" to us this year.

Vegan MoFo: Tea

There's been a little re-organizing going on around here, and the teas finally got the upgrade they needed: a whole shelf of my cabinet! I hoard tea like I hoard herbs and spices, so I've got a lot.

I don't even really drink "tea" -- none of the stuff I like is actually Camellia Sinesis, so if you were thinking of schooling me in the ways of tea, no need. The caffeine in real tea doesn't work for me, and except for some white tea every now and then, I pretty much avoid it. But a warm cup of water with herbs floating in it makes my day.

My fave is rooibos, also known as African Red Bush Tea. Usually this is a red tea (as you'd expect) but my favorite rooibos is Green Rooibos, an unoxidized, milder form of the tea. But since the red one is the most common, a lot of my favorite tea blends use the red.

One tea I really like is this tea that I got up in Olympia when I visited my sister. It's called "Belgian Chocolate Rooibos" and I got it at a shop called The Tea Lady. Another cool one from that shop is Rishi Ginger Lime Green Rooibos. I'm practically out of that one cause I drank it all the time last year.


In this picture: green rooibos with honeybush by Numi Tea, an old Celestial Seasoning collector box filled with random tea bags, Metropolitan Tea's Chocolate Rooibos, Peppermint Tea from the farmers market, Townshend's (local tea shop) tin filled with red groats tea, Pumpkin Rooibos, Eve's Temptation (apple spice tea) from Tetsubin, a shop near where I grew up in Nyack, NY, Chai Masala from Dowel's on 1st Ave in NYC, "Hello Earth" tea, blended by a vendor at our local Last Thursday, Cramp Bark from an herbal shop, Echinacea Goldenseal from the spice shop near me, Rishi Ginger Lime Green Rooibos, Jing Mai White from Tao of Tea, White Peony from the shop near me, Cardamom Cinnamon from Republic of Tea, etc. etc.

I don't really drink a lot of tea during the spring and summer, preferring kombucha, iced minty sun tea, or water, but it just got cold, and I just made tea.


This time I combined the chocolate rooibos I described above with some chai masala from my favorite spice and lentil store back in NYC. And this here is my work tea pot that I brought home last summer and keep forgetting to bring back. I'm putting it by the door right now.

Vegan MoFo: East African Food

It's not just the spices that flow (and overflow) around here, but the beans and dals and grains, too. I'm thinking my next few posts will go into that some more, bit by bit. Of the things I have way too much of, I have had 1 1/2 jars worth of teff flour for quite a while now, and it's high time that I make injera.

I headed to my copy of Kittee's fabulous zine Papa Tofu, super convenient and awesome when you want to tap into Kittee's food brain but don't have the juice to make it to the internet, but then I felt stuck. I didn't know how to come into sourdough starter, so I wrote her and she directed me to this post on how to start the starter and make awesome teffy injeras!

But, I kinda wanted injera . . . today.

Then we went on a walk (it's a day off for me, see), and we passed our cheapy Ethiopian restaurant. My stomach grumbled a little as we passed and peered into the window (not open yet). We walked some more, started heading back east toward our house, and we were within range of one of our new favorites: an East African (Ethiopian, Somali, and Kenyan) restaurant called Burqitu. The prices are still great, and the portions are large.


Our vege platter held a mild wat and spicy wat, collards, carrots, a fresh lemony-tomato-green salad in the middle, and my favorite: ground beet stew. It had a particular wonderful fragrance and flavor, and I asked her about it, and she told me that they start with oil and garlic, onion, and ginger. Then they cook it up with fenugreek -- that's all. We've made an ethiopian-style beet before, but never added fenugreek, so perhaps that's the secret ingredient? Well, if it is, I've got plenty of it so I am set!

On the back of their menu, they list the composition of their injera, which really intrigued me, so I copied it down for you: 60% teff flour, 25% barley flour, 10% rice flour, 2.5% corn flour, 2.5% self-rising flour, and 2 tsp baking powder. Were I into figuring out the math of that I would be all over this. Their injera is really good, but honestly, I'm not sure I've ever had bad injera.

It's a good place -- not fancy at all, ranking pretty low on the ambience, but high on flavor and friendliness, and I must say, most of my favorite places are like that. I didn't buy anything in their shop this time around, but they've got spices, different types of pickle and relishes, and some other good things.

I'll start a sourdough starter soon once I have the time to look at the directions a little more closely, and by then, I'll be finished with my kombucha teas that are using up my big bowls.

Tonight I'm thinking about joining some folks who are planning to go to a lebanese restaurant that I've passed several times but have never been. I have plenty of food to last me, and eating out twice in a day seems wasteful, but it's hard to resist the call of lemon and parsley and cumin and sumac and thyme...

Vegan MoFo: A South Indian Feast

Clockwise, starting at the white blob front and center (it was dark and we were hungry by the time we ate, so we didn't spend too much time setting up the shot): Pacchadi (a South Indian-style yogurt with banana from World Vegetarian), Eggplant Tomato Chutney, Green Mango Pickle, Coconut Rice, Bean Dal Poriyal (dry curry), and Vegetable Medley (salad), all from Dakshin, a vegetarian South Indian cookbook that we love.

Last month, our friends invited us to a South Indian meal at their house. It was a dreamy, late summer night and we drank tea, ate curries and sweet desserts, and biked off full and giddy with spice. We knew then that we had something wonderful, and we would have to return the favor and invite them over sometime soon.

Last night these friends came over for a South Indian meal at our house, and we were very excited to try out some new recipes with them. The night before we made a trip to our corner ethnic food market, picking up toor dal and a big bag of coriander seeds before we walked to the coop to pick up some vegetables, rice, yogurt, and other ingredients we needed for our feast. When we got home, we made Mysore Rasam Powder for our first stab at a homemade rasam, and we went to bed with the spell of coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mustard seeds, fennel, and ground chiles wafting throughout the house.

When I got home, AA was already soaking toor dal for a Bean Dal Poriyal and tamarind and coconut for the soupy spicy melange that is Mysore Rasam. Rasams are soupy like Sambars, but thinner. And while they're often considered more mild than sambars, in this case that was not so, as Mysore Rasam is substantial and strong. Poriyals are "dry curries," whereas more saucy curries are called Kootus. We've made Poriyals before, and while they never were very saucy, they never seemed quite dry either, so the distinction confused me. Not so with this poriyal: we were to cook the dal until it was dry and crispy like breadcrumbs. When AA first started, it seemed impossible that the sticky dal would ever undergo such a transformation, but sure enough, it broke up and became the most delightfully fragrant crumb.

I took charge of the dessert, making a Coconut Cashew Payasam (not pictured), a pudding-like dessert made with soymilk (substituted for "regular") with lots of fresh-grated carrots and seasoned with crushed black cardamom. It looked more like a creamy soup going into the freezer (I bypassed the fridge as it was already getting late) but it firmed up into a pudding by dessert time. We probably didn't even need dessert, because the yogurt we made (a pacchadi) had banana added right before serving, a sweet counterpoint to all of the spice and chile of the meal. And besides, we were deathly full by dessert, but during the meal, the cooling yogurt was most welcome.

Right before they came, we cooked up some jasmine brown rice and added coconut, cashew, and all kinds of tempered spices to make the richest coconut rice I've ever had. It was good, but really, a plain rice would have been just as good for such a thick meal. But oh, coconut! How can you resist!

The easiest to prepare were the pappadums: the ones we ate come already made in a package to just heat one by one in the pan, flip when they start to bubble and crisp, heat the other side, and that's it. Once the pan is hot, it's about one pappadum per minute.

Our friends brought awesome food to go with: eggplant tomato "chutney" (they referred to it as a "goop" -- neither soupy nor thick, it was an accurate description for something so incredibly delicious), salty green mango pickle, and Vegetable Medley, a South Indian salad of all kinds of vegetables and tempered spices. Everything worked so well together, and I knew from the first bite of eggplant goop that our love affair with eggplant was far from over.

It was good to see them and to enjoy our shared excitement about South Indian food with them again. There's a lot that makes South Indian food particularly special, and I have so many ideas for future dinners: vadai (lentil donut) and sambar nights, dosa nights, big buffet potluck nights. We had to stay up till forever to wait for our stomachs to die down, but it was worth it.


And here, Mysore Rasam, Bean Dal Poriyal, and Coconut Rice leftovers in my lunch tiffin. Best work lunch ever.

Vegan MoFo: Food lately

Today we're making jackfruit tacos, and after searching the buzz on these internets, I gave AA a list of spices to pull out. I told him to put them all in a bowl, and for the sake of ease, in equal proportions. I forgot that one of them is cayenne. I'll admit, I'm a little worried.

But everything else is waiting patiently for the jackfruit to seep in all the spices and cook down to a soft and palatable texture (last time I tried these, the jackfruit was probably not cooked for long enough and way too tough).

We've got: pink beans, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cilantro, teese, corn tortillas, and limey sour cream (not pictured).

The food life has been good lately. Other things we made over the weekend include sweet and sour okra and chickpeas from World of the East on saturday, and eggplant caponata on Sunday, Kittee's family recipe! Both were delicious and beautiful, but I'm too lazy to look for the pictures right now. You'll have to trust me on this. And then to top off our Italian Sunday, lasagna at Jess's.

I am so excited to try these tacos and tell you about them, but I couldn't wait to post since I know once the debate happens, it will completely absorb my mind, so here's a post for you!



Update: I'm surprisingly unabsorbed! So here's the picture of what we ate:

The jackfruit wasn't too hot, even though we cooked it with all that cayenne in medium-spiced salsa. It was perfectly spicy but not too much that the flavor didn't come through, and the jackfruit was melty and delectable. We finished them off in front of the tv, something we never do, and it felt decadent and out of character but fun.

Oh! I forgot to say that I used two containers of tribal sun salsa, local here, free cause it was past date. Score!

Vegan MoFo: The Spice Must Overflow: Sumac

There must have been a point one time in my life where I ran out of sumac. Clearly, it had a lasting effect on me.

Sumac is the operative ingredient in zaatar, a blend of spices and sesame seeds popular in Jordan, Syria, and Israel, among other places (but those are the kinds of zaatar I have right now). Zaatar is the coolest thing you could mix with olive oil and put on a piece of flatbread. Sumac is also an important part of any really good tabouleh. Otherwise, it's just tabouli. Ok, now I'm just goshing with you.

Anyway, when we first moved to Portland, we made the same complaint every time we went to a middle eastern restaurant and tasted it in our food: why is there no sumac in this town? And then we'd say, well, they obviously have it, so where do they get it? But then not ask. And then forget to look anywhere else but the coop and New Seasons. But I don't think we've ever been out of sumac, ever. We just needed to look in our cupboards, which this weekend, I finally did, and 6 bags of sumac I did find. Now they're all together in one bag, so if I ever complain to you and say I'm out of sumac, shake me and say:

"No! No you're not!"

Vegan MoFo: Okra

Okra is one of those things you either love or hate. There's all kinds of tricks you can do to reduce or eliminate its mucilaginous nature, but I like it just fine the way it is.

We had the cutest baby okras from the farmers market with some chickpeas tonight.

Vegan MoFo: More Eggplant until it's gone

So I spoke about this in a pre-mofo post, but up until recently, I really wasn't buying or eating much eggplant except for the once-in-a-blue-moon eggplant in baba ganoush served on my mezze plate or the bharta served at Indian restaurants. I think improperly cooked and seasoned eggplant can be really sucky.

Now that I think on it, I have a bunch of vegetables in my fridge right now that, improperly cooked and seasoned, are due to make me gag: more eggplant, brussel sprouts, and okra. Perhaps that's my theme for the next few days -- doing it right so I don't gag.

Ever since I picked my own fresh last month, I've eaten eggplant at least 5 more times since then. For whatever reason, I've been in a cookbook mood as of late, so all of my eggplant dishes have come from cookbooks. The cold peanut dressing eggplant from Hong Kong in World Vegetarian that I talked about yesterday, the "Baghara Baigan" (I mistakenly called it "Bharta" in my previous post) cooked in the Hyderabadi Style from World of the East and today's eggplant, "Khatte Baigan," sour eggplants from Kashmir.

Those last two eggplants were my favorite as I really favor the spicing of that region. Today's eggplant called for whole fennel seeds, but I used ajwain, a spice known for its aromatic qualities (used in India and Pakistan a whole lot) but also for its digestive properties. Before we even started to mix the spices, my heart was racing at the smell of the ajwain. It also called for cumin seeds and "black cumin seeds," which is really the spice "kala jeera," which I'm lucky enough to have from some well-timed trips to the spice market. Rounding out the flavors were ginger, turmeric, cayenne, tamarind (one of my favorite flavors ever), and a pinch of asafoetida. Did you know it's prononunced more like "asapetida?" Now you do.

I made the rash decision to peel the eggplants since poor refrigerator placement yielded moisture marks on the skin, and then I fried slices of these. While it's true that sliced and fried eggplant is delicious on its own, in a dish such as this where the eggplant gets stewed with all of these delicious spices in a paste that also included oil, I felt like it was an unnecessary step.

We paired our Khatte Baigan with Chana Dal with Cucumber, also a Madhur Jaffrey recipe, though in truth we really used our own instincts with this one, minus the addition of cucumber which is an unusual (but surprisingly delicious) addition. Since we were running out of chana, we used half chana and half mung dal, and it was creamy bursting with ginger, cayenne, cumin, and curry.

p.s. Eggplant just might be one of the least photogenic vegetables every. Moly.

Vegan MoFo: World Vegetarian Day: taking it literally, one day late

If you're reading this, you probably know Kittee or at least "know" her. It's common knowledge that Kittee is awesome. Now Kittee is someone who when she speaks about food, I always stop and listen. She speaks my culinary language.

For example, the other day:
Kittee: I just made a dish from WORLD.
Me: World Vegetarian?
Kittee: Yup.
And then she went on to tell me about something awesome that she made.

When my other, also culinarily fantastic friend Stacey wrote me on Tuesday to wish me a Happy World Vegetarian Day, I remembered my conversation with Kittee, and it came to me right away that it had been far too long since I had taken up the World Vegetarian project of our youth (well, two years ago). Back when Stacey and I both lived in New York City and had little else to do, we were cooking dish after dish from this most awesome of vegetarian tomes. This, and one of my first cookbooks ever, The World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, are two of my favorites of all time, but it wasn't until I met Stacey that I checked out World Vegetarian from the library for the first time. After renewing and returning over and over, my mom finally sent me a copy of my own. Reunited!

Neither of these books are vegan, but almost all of the recipes including dairy and eggs are in a separate chapter of the book, and if I don't look in that chapter, I forget they are there. I have learned a ton about the cuisines of other countries through these books, and what I've learned has definitely influenced my own flavor and spice experiments in the kitchen.

Anyway, I already had beans a cooking (this time, fresh "haricots tarbai" from the farmers market, mixed with parsley/coriander pesto) so I waited until today to break open this old favorite. Today we made Cold Eggplants with Spicy Chinese Peanut Dressing (p. 181) and Bean Curd with Hot Sauce (p. 100) (above). The spicy peanut dressing really complemented the soft and creamy baby japanese eggplants we scored at the market nicely. The bean curd (tofu!) wasn't all that hot, but it was certainly flavorful. The heat from both dishes came from the sambal oelek, a ground chili paste found at most asian markets, and it's a good thing to use for heat when you don't want to chop up lots of chiles. All of it came together right quick, which was great, cause soon after we headed out to a party to watch the VP debate and laugh at Sarah Palin, neither worldly nor vegetarian.

Vegan MoFo: Butter Beans: are so vegan

On Saturday we went to the farmers market for the first time in a while. The stall we've often referred to as the "fancy farm" (Viridian, for locals who know their farm names) was offering fresh beans in lots of flavors: unshelled butter beans, cannellini beans, and haricots tarbai, among others. On Monday we shelled the butter beans, gave 'em a quick rinse, and then proceeded to cook them for under half an hour.


Here they are, sauteed with maitake mushroom, paprika pepper, and tatsoi (also from the market) with lemon juice, oil, salt, ground pepper, thyme, and fresh rosemary.

The next day we cooked them with the rest of the maitake, another paprika pepper, and this time, with broccoli florets, and that was even better. Butter beans are magically delicious.

Now that I've had them fresh, I have no idea how I'm going to cope with their canned counterpart. Not that I've looked around the world or anything, but I've never seen them for sale in the bulk aisle or in prepackages, so I'd only had them canned before. So this was a serious treat.

Expect more from me and beans because it looks like we're back in crush mode, sure to start up another one of our torrid October-March affairs. But even in the summertime, beans (and particularly all kinds of lentils and dals) are probably my main source of protein, more so than tofu, tempeh, or seitan, surely.