Sep 3rd, 2010 by Kishori Rajan
Check out more of Kishori’s cooking on his blog, I Can Be Jell-O.
Happy September! Really and truly, isn’t it a happy time? Even though I was born in the summer, I am always grateful for the end of August – that plodding, humid month that’s really (let’s be honest) a lengthy prelude to the best season of the year. I love fall: the abundance of apples, baked and fresh; the need for coffee and tea in its natural hot form (so much better than iced!); and of course, the quiet hum of energy as school swings back into session. Although I’m not in school anymore, I do find that I miss the reliable traditions that come with its new year: fresh notebooks, new shoes, and a vacation schedule set in stone.
Of course, there are plenty of benefits to being an adult, and not a kid, in autumn. Ignoring the sales on turtlenecks and sweaters, for example, and splurging instead on a too-expensive but lust worthy coat that will only be useful for a few months before the down-feathered bulky one needs to be dragged out of the closet… now that’s a freedom I don’t wish to hand back. And here’s another one that I truly don’t miss – the brown bag school lunch.
I have nothing against the pb&j sandwich, the granola bar, the mysterious looking pizza that the cafeteria served. But as a post-adolescent human being, my favorite lunch is almost always getting to have leftovers from dinner. It’s filling, it’s warm, and most of all, it’s comforting. Continue Reading »
Tags: dal, Indian, lentils
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These gloriously yellow pickles single-handedly set off my canning kick this summer. I tasted a jar of them at a friend’s while cooking other, fresher things, and I immediately knew that I not only had to have the recipe, but I had to have a jar (or two) of my own. This friend then generously offered up her kitchen, and enlisted her canning-pro sister, to churn out a big batch of delight. And delightful they are; by the time these babies are ready (you have to let them sit for at least three weeks before eating), the mixture is practically a chutney, full of sunshiney, golden flavor.
As Liz demonstrated a few weeks ago, canning isn’t actually all that hard. It seems intimidating at first, but once you’ve gathered the basic equipment and given it a few goes, you’ll feel able to whip up a batch of pickles in no time, with no stress. Sunshine pickles are a good place to start, I think, because not only are the ingredients super cheap (so, unlike jam, you don’t have to worry so much about screwing up and wasting precious pints of berries), but I’ve never seen anything like this for sale. And that, really, is the beauty of self-canning: not just thriftiness, but also inventiveness. Continue Reading »
Tags: canning, cucumbers, ginger, onion, pickles, pickling, raisins, sunshine
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I have been on a real eggplant kick lately. This happens to me every so often, especially this time of year, when I find myself reaching for them reflexively at the farmers’ market, dazzled by their many shapes and jewel-like purple (purple!) skins. Whatever prejudices you might harbor about their taste, they are surely some of most pleasing vegetables to look at.
Eggplants are not, however, the most tractable of the late-summer vegetables. They are easy to cook badly. They cook down to a flavorless mush, or they guzzle all your olive oil and then, spitefully, burn anyway. Their beautiful skins harden into undigestible hides. I know these things; they have all happened to me. Repeatedly. And yet…
And yet, there is something that appeals to me about their recalcitrance. Eggplants must, we are told, be ceremonially salted ahead of time; they have to weep out their bitter tears before working their magic. (There’s more poetry in that than you’ll find in an obliging tomato!) When eggplants are treated with a little care, they melt in your mouth and ooze with flavor, at once briny and smoky. When they are cooked well, they become, I think, the perfect food.
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I had an avocado, a cucumber, some chicken stock. I had just received a hand-me-down blender. It was a scorchingly hot day; I had a little time to make lunch, but not much, as I was anxious to leave my house for an air-conditioned coffee shop. And, I had just perused the latest issue of Canal House Cooking, featuring a recipe for Avocado & Cucumber Soup. The stars were aligned.
The soup was perfect. Ferociously simple (no peeling or seeding of the cucumbers required); exceptionally green; refreshingly cool. Continue Reading »
Tags: avocado, cucumber, soup
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I love a good elote loco: Corn-on-the-cob (elote) slathered in crema (Mexican creme fraiche), drizzled with lime juice, and dusted with cheese, salt, and cayenne pepper.
They are delicious, but certainly messy to eat. Normally I don’t mind being a slob in the name of good eats, but when I’m cooking for other people, I like to provide less messy options. That’s what led me to try a version of the elote loco that could be eaten with a fork. It was a huge succes, and I thought I’d hit on a great idea.
Well, I had, but so had Mexico hundreds of years ago. They call the dish esquite, and when I was in Mexico – not even a week after I made this dish – I saw it everywhere. So, while I don’t get any points for originality, I’m still glad to be able to share this tasty dish with you.
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Tags: corn
Posted in Cheap, Quick, Vegetarian | 5 Comments »
Aug 20th, 2010 by Elizabeth Jordan
Having been in Europe for spring and most of summer, I missed the opportunity to sign up for a CSA share. I was devastated until I saw an announcement for a fruit-only CSA, only just starting in August and being distributed quite close to my new Brooklyn apartment. In a euphoric fit, I signed up for a half-share. I saw lots of stone fruits in my future (so does Cathy from Not Eating Out in New York!), as well as a few peach capreses. But what to do with all that other fruit? Enter canning!
I signed up to take a class at the Brooklyn Kitchen with a professional canner. As scary as it seems at first glance (fatal food poisoning! Lots of boiling water!), it turns out that if you follow a few simple rules of thumb, your chances of accidentally growing botulism or causing yourself any other harm are actually quite low. The rules are: keep the acidity of your food high (or the pH low), keep the temperature of the food high, keep all of your surfaces clean, and keep the food in whatever form of processing you use for a sufficient amount of time (if applicable). Continue Reading »
Tags: blueberry, canning, honey, jam, lemon
Posted in Recipe, Tips, Vegan, Vegetarian | 1 Comment »
Appetizers, hors d’ouvres, small plates – whatever you want to call them, I love them. I think I like them so much because appetizers are often more adventurous than your average main course. They’re an opportunity for chefs – or home cooks – to experiment safely: If the experiment goes wrong, there’s still an entree coming to make up for it.
I also love beets. They’re an odd, brightly colored, and healthy vegetable, and I will eat them just about any which way. So the odds were very good that I was going to love this dish, which is an appetizer involving beets. Yes, please.
The cooking time here is long, but nearly all of it is totally hands off. The main step in cooking is “throw everything in a food processor,” and you don’t exactly need to be Jean-Georges to pull this one off. So take the plunge and start making some appetizers at home if you don’t already. This spread is the perfect place to start: The experimenting has already been done for you, and I can promise good results.
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Tags: appetizers, beets, dip, roasted red peppers, spread
Posted in Raves, Recipe, Tips, Vegan, Vegetarian | 1 Comment »
I am a hoarder. Or, to use a more endearing term, a pack rat. Living in Minneapolis (ie with lots of space and a kitchen all to my own) has only encouraged this habit. All I can say is, if the Apocalypse (or a really big snow storm) comes, I’ve got plenty of sugar and flour. And toothpaste. For some reason, lots of toothpaste.
What I realized today, though, as I was spinning handful after handful of basil leaves into golden pesto, was that these days there is one socially acceptable (in fact, socially encouraged/deified) form of hoarding. I’m talking, of course, about canning/preserving.
If you haven’t heard that canning/preserving is in, then you must somehow be in the midst of an Apocalypse yourself. It’s everywhere, and was last summer too, but as the media catches up to the Great Recession, it’s really everywhere this summer. And as I surveyed my bounty (thus far) this afternoon, I felt an uncontrollable satisfaction, somewhat like the Ant must have felt. Two quarts of corn chowder tucked away in the freezer, two pints of somewhat ungelled but properly sealed strawberry preserves, one quart of dilly beans/carrots, and two quarts of “sunshine pickles” (recipe forthcoming). And now, four half-pints of pesto in the freezer, and a bunch more frozen basil on top of that. Continue Reading »
Tags: asiago, basil, garlic, hoarding, parmesan, pecorino, pesto, preserving, walnuts
Posted in Cheap, Recipe, Tips, Vegetarian | 2 Comments »
One salmorejo is never enough, so here’s Bonnie’s take on Gazpacho’s lesser-known brother.
My favorite thing about traveling is, by far, the food. With food as your excuse, you get to take a break from wandering though endless museums and churches and other famous monuments that Lonely Planet of Rich Steves insisted that you had to see. You get to relax, taste the culture of the city you’re in, and people watch. It gives you time to slip your camera into your backpack, toss it under the table, or over your white tennis shoes that give you away as an American tourist at first sight.
Because I like the food aspect of traveling so much, Spain is just about my favorite destination. Spaniards are known for taking multiple breaks throughout their day to sit back and enjoy their food. And with a cold beer under the sunny skies of Seville, kicking back in the plaza at lunch time, I did just that. And, I discovered something wonderful: Salmorejo.
Salmorejo, you ask? So did I. Everyone’s heard of, and probably tasted on multiple accounts, Gazpacho– a cold tomato and vegetable soup, famous for cooling you down on a hot summer day. Depending on where in the world you order it, it may come with the fixings (typically diced cucumber, onion, and tomato, and maybe some bacon bits or croutons) already tossed in, or they may be presented on a trendy platter on the side. But few, I think, have heard of Salmorejo.
Though I don’t know why. It’s quicker, faster and requires fewer ingredients. Plus, I think it’s more flexible, and even more delicious than Gazpacho.
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The other day was shockingly cool here in Minneapolis (70 degrees or so, rather than the last few days’ 90). I had a refrigerator bursting with produce, most overwhelmingly including eight ears of corn, but also potatoes and onions from the farmer’s market. And cream, and milk that I meant to turn into ricotta but never did, and celery that I had purchased for some now-forgotten reason. And bacon, lots of bacon, in little ziploc baggies in the freezer (my new way of storing bacon in my one-person household).
In other words, to my happy amazement, I had (almost) all the ingredients for corn chowder. Plus, I had a backlog of podcasts on my computer, including the NPR broadcasts from the Newport Folk Festival. I don’t think it gets more fitting that that. Continue Reading »
Tags: bacon, chowder, corn, potatoes, soup, thyme
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