Gettin' Jiggy Like That

I dunno if I've told you guys this, but I bought a house. It is awesome. It was built in 1952. It has lots of brick as well as asbestos. A kitchen window. A fireplace. It has a shed in the back yard, covered in ivy, that I will make paintings in.

I've been sanding floors, staining things, painting all the weird beige-colored walls white. I found sawdust in my underwear yesterday. I'm not kidding.

So basically, I'm qualifying my week of silence - los siento, mi hombres y mujeres. My brain is frying from all the nesting instinct hormone its producing. Do forgive.

Buuuuut anyway - I'd love to get you lovelies to check out this pile of awesome, vegan delish over at my pal Ensley's blog - The Preppy Vegan - where I'll be doing a post a week of simpler (but still delish) meals while she's doing her Teach for America thang.

Vegan Migas are my new obsession. Come and see how many toppings you can fit on there before you can't see the tortillas any more. It's fewer than ya think!

Strung out on Strawberries

I've been having a blast hanging with some rad local-to-CLT foodbloggers over the past month. For lots of reasons.

One, it's a myriad of walks - teachers, photographers, personal chefs, fitness-minded-ers, food writers,  well...maybe we're not all THAT different, but diverse enough that the conversation's pretty awesome. I like to pick brains, and everyone's been AOK with that.

Two, I have no pals, save a couple, that do their own bloggy thang, so I can make nerdy, trite blogger jokes about basements and pajamas and get at LEAST an annoyed eye-roll.

Three, the potlucks we've had so far have been AMAZING, because everyone knows what they're doing in the kitchen x infiniti. And even more awesomely - they're cool with the couple of us that don't eats the meats, and have been schleping vegan and near vegan nosh to the park so that we can all partake.

 
And since I know that several of the CLTFBs are pretty into bacon and bar-b-que, it's pretty sweet of 'em. At this particular shindig, there were 7 of us and neon-nikon Crosby.

Strawberry Salsa. Hulllll-ooooo. This simple, fresh treatment was my fav of the day (and there were some serious contenders, believe you me). Brought to my mouth via Allison aka WishUponAChef. So good - lime, cilantro, jalapenos and sweet, sweet strawberries. Fantastic.

Check this mother out:

Yes. That's a sicknasty, huge, strawberry cream pie. And yes, I eschewed my summer veganism and had a messy, awesome slice. Thanks Julie!

VEGAN ARTICHOKE DIP ALERT - this was a close second to my stoked tongue. Cheezy, gooey, awesome. Maybe if you're stupendously sweet to Ensley, she'll share the recipe. Maybe she already has! We're talking about doing some super awesome guest posting this summer. Stay tuned, daaahlings.

And then of course Mr. Mathis (sounds like a spy name, amirite?) brought something awesome - sweet potato salad. Hulllll-oooo again, delicious.

(and seriously, I ate the weight of my arm in fresh cherries, thanks to Crosby) 

Friggin awesome fignewtonbrownies - yup -

(Katie, you're a goddess)

And let's not forget the lovely Diana, rockin' some cous cous tabbouleh. Yes. I ate lots.

So why all the 'berries, you ask? A couple of Sundays back was National Strawberry Picking Day - and to commemorate that Holy Day by staining our hands and straining our backs (I know I sound like a cranky old lady here, which I secretly am) we all converged on Miller Farm just over the state line in SC. Place was a bit picked over, but who cares.

6 years? 7? since I last PYO threwdown on some berries. Tomatoes are more my jam, and they're on their way in now. I'll be back.

Still, we got a friggin' gallon of the little, misshapen, tumorous, leftover suckers:

(alright not ALL of them were tumorous, there were a few primo specimens that we'd pick, get all excited over, and show off to each other)

Here's awesomefignewtonbrownie Katie with her haul:

And Julie, rockin' the smaller box and some shade:

Random sky panorama, was a lovely day:

There was no way those little red orbuses were going to last until I cookeried them on Saturday, so I saved a few for fresh noshing and froze the rest. Sunday morning rolls around and I, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, strawberry crazed, went to town on the gallon or so frosty in the freezer. Two things happened:

Strawberry Balsamic Sorbet. Simple, tart, a little watery, but interesting. I basically followed this recipe and tripled the balsamic - next time, I might just double it, as the tartness was almost overwhelming.

More excitingly - check this tart out. She's a looker.

The idea was to do a caprese tart, only with 'berries rather than 'maters. It was pretty awesome. Maybe even very.

Topped with balsamic reduction and some arugula, the feeling was that you we're noshing on your old pals mozz, tomato, basil, garlic, vinegar, greens - and then the strawberry would pop through and surprise!

Neat.


Strawberry Caprese Tart

sliced, serves 6-8

1 batch garlic-basil pastry for crust (I used this recipe to a T, gotta love Ezra!)
8 ozs fresh mozz, sliced thin
8 fresh or 12 frozen strawberries, sliced thin
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Large handful fresh arugula

Easy peasy. Set your vinegar assimering in a non-reactive saucepan while you make your pastry - 10 minutes on medium heat should get it nice and syrupy.

Make your pastry - Mr. Poundcake did his in the food processor (GASP) so I did too. Doing it by hand will yield a flakier crust - it's up to you.

Butter a tart pan and roll out your (chilled! an hour! trust me!) dough thin - 1/8 inch or thereabouts. Carefully lift the dough onto the pan, press down, and let the pan cut the edge nicely (mine is sharp enough to do this, and reminds me of that fact every time my fingers get too fiesty with pastry-edge-pressing).

Lay your sliced mozz over your pastry, then your sliced strawberries. The correct term is scattering, I'm told.  Bake for about 30 minutes in a 375f oven, until your cheese is a little browned.

Cool your tart for about 20 minutes before attempting to remove it from your pan. Run a butter knife, gently, around any problem spots, and invert over a large, flat plate. Should loosen easily.

Drizzle that sucker with balsamic and plop a big ol' handful of fresh arugula in the center, and serve.

See you next year, Strawberry Mania! See you next month, HUGE PIG AWWWWWR.

oink.

Burrito Algebra and Veggie Powdery

Oh, burrito season is upon us. It is perennial in my brain, but somehow, when it warms up a bit, those suckers taste even better.

Sarah + Co. (aka Tastespotting Brain) did this whole savory oat thing last month - risottos, pilafs, yowza - and since the only abnormality that showed up when we got our blood test results back last week (because, wow, now you have to give blood to get health insurance, hifive big brutha) was Erk's bad cholesterol - a teeny bit high. And so, I've gone and jumped on the salty oat wagon.

Three times now, we've gone with steel-cut oats rather than rice in our brekkie/dinner burritos, and three times, have been all "Damn, that was tasty". Lighter, somehow. Pleasantly piecey texture, like grits. Amenable to color and flavor sponginess, like rice. Totally a non-annoying substitution.

Of course, Egg + Cheese + Sour Cream + Fakon - Rice + Oats ≠ Healthy Cholesterol-free Burrito, but maybe just a teeny tiny bit of its badboyness is canceled out. Most importantly - supa delicious.

Yellow Oats 
makes 2 grande burritos

1 cup steel cut oats  (the quick-cooking kind, don't give me that face)
3 cups water
1 cube Chik'n boullion
Dash safflower strands
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
Dash sesame oil
1 tsp butter or earth balance
Pinch turmeric
1/2 cup frozen peas and corn

Easy peasy - bring your water to a boil, add all ingredients, cover, and simmer 8 minutes. Uncover and stir and continue simmering 1-2 minutes more, until the oats have thickened to a thick, almost sushi-rice consistency. Add frozen peas and corn. Mix well and plop down as layer one of a slightly classy, yet bad boy burrito.

Eaten with a pile of black beans - also lovely. Turmeric and safflower (a cheaper sister of saffron and available here if you'd like to play) are colorants, so you can consider them optional. 

You know I'm all about a properly assembled burrito, so I started by steaming the tortilla (12 or 14 inch plz, fellow crown-towners can find them here) like so:

Just fold it up a bit and gently lay it into the colander, set over a pan of simmering water, cover, and cook 1-2 minutes. Flip and do the other side too - just one minute'll do.


Start with oats, then beans, then eggs, then fakon, then cheese (keeping all the warmness in the southern hemisphere) moving onto salsa, sliced avocado or guac, sour cream or yogurt, then greens (julienned lettuce, sprouts, chopped cilantro). Quickly roll that sucker up and wrap in foil, if you aren't eating immediately. If you are, go at it with napkins at hand.

yes plz

And yay, I get to announce the winner of my little giveaway! Thanks for caring, lovelies! I didn't really know what I was doing, so I wrote everyone's name on a piece of paper, cut it into 4 even pieces, put them in some kid's punk rock fedora that's randomly been in my car for two weeks, and pulled one out.

Hooray Pretend Chef! You'll be getting some super-cool Spinach and Tomato powder in your mailbox sometime next week. If you guys want to pick some up for yourselves, check out this link! 


Thanks for playing my darlings! That was fun. We'll have to do it again soon. Until then, eat lots of burritos and think of moi!

Good Luck Brekkie

Remember how I said, long ago, that brunch was my favorite meal of the day?

It still kinda is, but we've been trying to eat fewer eggs lately. I dunno why. Just have been.

And with this meal, eggs are optional. Not needed, but one crispy-fried on top of the bean pile makes for a lovely little detail. Since the rest of the meal is vegan, this is an easy one to convert - so please do.

This began as a meal for a client and turned into dinner for us as well - the next night. Brekkie for dinnie is a big deal around here, but with a crunchy piece of chicken-fried tofu on top, this little ditty will transition seamlessly to nighttime. It's even awesome by its lonesome, as the leftovers I ate for lunch can attest to.

There's a little foraging-magic in my batch, thanks to a favorite springtime heralder - Onion Grass.

Very closely related to Chives, I use this stuff all the time. Our lawn's never been treated with any chemical, so I don't stress. Not quite as aromatic as chives and a little tougher, I tend to use this grass in stews, instead of raw. In the summer, once the lawn is cut, you can smell onion for hours. Hilarious.

Hoppin' John, as ya'll know, is an inexpensive dish - black eyed or crowder peas, a ham hock, an herb or two, spoon over white rice, finito. I fancied this up a bit since I can't help myself. If you're looking for a more basic version, the Tubes have many, many recipes for you to peruse.

Good Luck Brekkie (aka - Veggie Hoppin' John over Soysage Fried Rice with a Fried Egg on Top)

makes 2-3 servings

For the beans:

12 ozs fresh or frozen black eyed peas - look in your store's frozen veggie section
2 tablespoons olive oil
Handful mushrooms, chopped
1 medium white onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
Chives or onion grass, handful, chopped
Thyme, dried, 1/2 tablespoon
Ton of black pepper
4 cups vegetable stock or water (if using water - add salt to taste)
Smoked salt, 1 tsp
Dash sesame oil
Pinch cayenne

Heat your oil in a medium soup pot. Add carrot, onion, pepper, and celery. Saute until onion starts to turn translucent - about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, herbs fresh and dried. Saute another 3 minutes. Pour in your stock or water, and add remaining ingredients, including beans.

Bring to a boil then lower heat to medium-low - simmer, stirring frequently, for an hour, until beans have softened and some have broken down, making a killer potlicker.

Meanwhile, the rice:

2 cups day-old rice, brown or white, cooked, chilled (the key to fluffy fried rice - chilling it!)
3 soy sausage patties or a 1/2 fist sized chunk of seitan, diced small
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoons sesame oil + 1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup mushroom or faux-chicken broth, warmed

Heat your oil in a wok over medium-high heat and add sausage - cook until browned on a side or two, about 6-7 minutes. Add scallions, rice, and toss, mixing well. Add stock and quickly stir rice continually, until all stock has been absorbed. Cover and set aside.

If you're preparing another protein to accompany your John, go right ahead. If not, serve your stew atop a spoonful of fried rice. Garnish with parsley and if you're super-hungry, eat with boiled cabbage and sliced tomatoes.

Your gramma'd be so proud!

Pizza Eggs and Red Sauce

I make at least one batch of tomato sauce each week - I'm like a little red sauce machine.

I keep it simple and affordable, especially during the winter when fresh tomatoes are a joke - but have been known to peel and seed 10 pounds of 'maters in the summer for the same recipe (and as you can imagine, it's super delish, but time consuming).

I digress.

So, red sauce obviously has a place in a gazillion dishes - lasagna, pizza, pasta and (lentil, soy, reg) meatballs, stuffed shells...

I love making those little stuffed pockets of amazingness. I only do the one layer of sauce, a lot of it at casserole bottom, and float the shells atop it, all covered in cheese, islands of gooey, cheesy awesome. But the thing I'm eating most often with ze Red Sauce lately is pizza eggs. Because breadcrumbs + eggs are a really neat textural trick, and I can't get enough.

So for the Sauce, here we go: (makes 3.5-4 cups)

2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 small red onion, diced
1/2 handful fresh or frozen basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp dried Oregano
1/2 cup bitey red wine
10 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1.5 tsp sugar
1.5 tablespoons sea salt (varies based on what brand of tomato you're using - I use only the no-added-salt variety
2 tablespoons olive oil

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute onion and garlic 4 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add wine and boil a bit, to release alcohol - then add remaining ingredients MINUS tomato paste, stir, cover and simmer 40-50 minutes, until tomatoes have liquified, or are close. Stir often.

I keep the paste out of the pot until the end because it thickens the sauce enough to make it cook more slowly - the wetter the liquid around your crushed maters, the quicker they'll turn to mush, which is what we want.

Add your paste and thoroughly mix. Taste for sweet/salt and adjust as needed. For pizza and pizza eggs, you want a thick sauce, but for pasta and lasagna, slightly thinner - so don't be afraid to add a teeny bit of water if you're making the latter.

The eggs are fairly easy - you'll need:

1/2 cup red sauce
1/4 cup breadcrumbs, mixed with 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated mozz
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
1/2-1 tablespoon butter, depending on how well-seasoned your skillet is
2 eggs

In a cast-iron skillet, melt your butter over medium-high heat. Turn your broiler on High.

Crack the eggs into the skillet, letting them collect into palm-sized pools (I do this by tipping the skillet ever so slightly, the wall helps). After the bottoms have turned to white, break the yolks, once, with the edge of your spatula. Spoon sauce over the middles of the eggs, spreading gently, and cover with mozz and parm, leaving a small edge of egg between the sauce, cheese, and pan, so you don't get spill over. Quickly dust with breadcrumbs and stick the skillet under the broiler for 45-60 seconds, until the mozz has melted a bit and just started to brown.

Carefully slide them onto a plate and serve with more garlic powder and red pepper, as needed. Hella awesome breakfast and super quick! If you kept the yolks runny enough, these babies would be heavenly over pasta, methinks.

GF pastry - it CAN be done!

...but only with a mix of butter and shortening, according to my several failed attempts. Not so healthy.

You know me - not the biggest sweettooth. So, these little crusties are getting filled with cheese and egg. Oh so delicious. And look how well-behaved they are! All staying intact, folding into the cupcake tin, flexible and buttery and ready to go. Awesome.

They even brown up well, almost regular pastry-like. And they're flaky and light. Success!!


Gluten Free Pie Pastry for Quiche, etc.

1 cup GF all-purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons cold butter, chopped
1 tsp xantham gum
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Dash sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4-1/2 cup milk or water

The process is identical to regular pastry. Process the dry ingredients in a food processor, add your shortening and butter, and pulse 3-4 times, quickly, just until the mixture resembles chunky breadcrumbs. Then add your egg and 1/4 cup milk - pulse until the dough balls up. Add additional milk as needed to make the dough gather.

You MUST chill this dough for at least an hour before using it - or you can even freeze it at this point. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for 45 minutes and then the fridge for the last 15.

Dust a cutting board or large surface and rolling pin with GF all-purpose flour and go at it - either roll a large pie crust out, or make mini-crusts as I did (I cut them out using a 2 inch biscuit cutter). Carefully move the dough to a greased pie plate or cupcake pan (I used vegetable oil to grease) and fill as desired. If you're doing a fruit pie, pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes at 425 before proceeding.

I cheated on a couple of the quiches and just grabbed a ball of dough and pressed it into the tin to make a crust - no rolling. And even THOSE came out well. So this, thankfully, is a non-cranky dough. Yay.

Anyways! If you're making quiche:

6 eggs
1/2 cup cream or milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Put about a tablespoon of cheese into each crust. Mix your egg, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl with a spout. Carefully fill each crust to just below the top of the crust. Bake in a 375f oven for 20 minutes, until each quiche is puffy in the middle. Remove them from the pan to cool - slide a butter knife around the side of each mini-quiche and they should pop out easy-peasy.

Makes 12 cupcake-sized quiches. Enjoy!

Latkes! Encore!

Since we're all unabashed potato lovers in this house (that's right, I even PEEL them half the time), I'm often looking for new flavors to pair with earthy-starchy.

We still had several pounds of VA apples from our camping/foraging trip last weekend, so I started off by simmering them with a little molasses and brown sugar, a la this recipe. And since we'd also brought home 3 pounds of the biggest, gnarliest taters I'd seen in many moons, well, Latkes were on the menu again. What a tragedy, eh?

The fun thing about these was surely the secret filling - folded slices of brie, all melty and creamy. Man. I think I ate 5 before I realized what I was doing. Add a little applesauce on top, and there's some serious flavor play happening here. Yum.

Brie-Stuffed Latkes

4 large potatoes, parboiled and peeled
2 large eggs, scrambled
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2/3 pound Brie, rind on
Handful of all-puropse flour
1 tsp baking powder
Dash of milk, soymilk, cream, or water
Salt and pepper, to taste

Vegetable oil, to shallow-fry

We're following this technique almost totally - the only difference is the stuffing part, which happens in the pan, so procede as decribed - parboiling, peeling and shredding your taters - shredding the onion over the same disc, adding your minced garlic, salt and pepper, then mix. Add your eggs, flour, baking powder, mix, and then a tiny pour of milk, until you see batter thinly coating each shred of tater.

Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy iron skillet to medium. Have your cheese at the ready. We're keeping the heat a little lower than usual to give us time to make and stuff three latkes at a time.

Fork about a tablespoon of batter into the pan and flatten it with the back of a spoon. Quickly press a piece of brie into the batter, leaving a border of pancake free from cheese all the way around it. Fold it to fit if need be. Fork an equal portion of batter over the cheese, making sure to enclose it completely. Procede to make 2 more latkes in this way - by time you finish the third, it'll be time to flip the first.

When you flip these babies, press down slightly to compress, but be gentle. You don't want to squash your cheese out of its pocket.

Continue making latkes until the batter is gone. You'll have 10-12 large pancakes.

The cheese replaces the traditional sour cream accompaniment, at least for me. I didn't have any on hand, so I didn't try. Could be magic, who knows?

Enjoy.

50 mile breakfast! - Latkes, herbed goat cheese, ruby relish.

I was telling my Gramma the other day what I've been doing for work lately. Since, you know, not-for-profit work in CLT is incredibly difficult to come by these days. "Yeah, I've been cooking food for people." I told her. "Vegan and vegetarian stuff with a local focus."

She found this totally amusing - turns out my great grandpa was big into cooking to, which was news to me. There really aren't a ton of "happy" cooks in my close fam - my aunt, me, and.... yeah, that's it. "He made amazing latkes." She said, kinda wistfully.

Basically, I've had a tater pancake craving ever since. Ze time to satisfy is at hand!


Bjinte Potato Latkes 

Everyone's got their little secrets when making latkes. Mine is kind of a wimp out.

Cook the potatoes first.

None of this soaking business (adds too much liquid). None of this raw, crunchy mistake stuff (if you just go to it with freshly grated 'taters, you could end up with uncooked shreds at the center of your cake). Make it easy. Parboil!

5 medium potatoes such as Bjinte or a good, sturdy baking potato
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tsp salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
2 eggs
Dash milk or cream
A fistful of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons butter

Boil a pot of water, add your unpeeled taters, and cook 10 minutes. Set them in a colander under cold running water for a couple of minutes to cool. Peel 'em with a vegetable peeler.

In a large bowl, grate your potatoes, then onion. Add garlic, salt, pepper, mix well with your hands. Add your eggs, beat them where they land a little, and mix it all together.

Add your flour and baking soda and mix, then add a dash of milk. You want a coating on each shred of potato, but no pooling batter, like in the photo above. Add flour then milk, little bit by little bit, until the consistency looks good.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet until the foam subsides. Reduce heat to medium, and using a slotted spoon, spoon about a tablespoon of batter into the skillet. Repeat 3-4 times, depending on the size of your pan.

See how it's holding its shape? Yay.

Cook 2-3 minutes a side. You'll smell their toastiness and know it's time to flip:

Cook until browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

And on the side, we have...

Herbed Goat Cheese

5 oz fresh goat cheese
Dash cream
Large handful chives, chopped

Mix it all together, with a fork. Set aside.

Ruby Relish

1 pear, sliced thin
1/8 red cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
Splash sherry or bourbon
1 tablespoon honey
1 tsp Salt
2 tablespoons butter

Melt your butter in a small saucepan and add onions and cabbage. Over medium-high heat, get a little browning happening. Add your sliced pears, cook 2-3 minutes. Add your bourbon, honey, salt, and a splash of water. Lower heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, adding water as needed to prevent sticking.

Once everything is nicely softened, throw it in your blender and pulse 6-8 times, until things are uniformly small. Return to saucepan and heat to serve.

Best way to go at these babies is with a schmear of both goat cheese and relish on each bite, but to preserve crispness, serve your sauces on the side and let your pals do their own.

Caprese Breakfast Pizza

A good way to scarf the last of the Glorious Summer Tomatoes. And simple to boot. Despite being a tad hungover this morning, I had this puppy finished in about 40 minutes.

(Sometimes I feel like such a cheat using the huge aperture trick all the time, do forgive)

4 roma or medium tomatoes, ripe
5 leaves fresh basil
1 pound freshly graded mozzarella
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan 
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon salt
Fresh black pepper, ground
1 fist sized ball of pizza dough, either made from this recipe, or storebought (nova's! P+P's!), at room temperature
Small pinch cornmeal
5-6 eggs

I used mushrooms in ours, since we had a ton that needed using. Saute them in a little olive oil and salt for 4 minutes, until they sweat.

Roughly dice your tomatoes and toss them with the salt, pepper, and garlic in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl on a warm surface (or, like me, in the middle of your recently sauteed mushrooms) and let them release their liquid for about 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 500f. Toss your cornmeal over your pizza stone or pan. Shape your crust and place on the pan. Squeezing them thoroughly, scatter your tomatoes over the crust. Mushrooms, squeeze gently and do the same. Scatter mozz and half the parm over the tomatoes and mushrooms. Using your fingers or a large spoon, make little indentations where you want your eggs to go. Crack eggs into each indentation and scatter the remaining parmesan over the top of it all.

Bake in upper part of your oven for about 15 minutes, until crust edges and cheese are starting to brown. The eggs will be runny - you can adjust their firmness by broiling them a minute or two, right at the end.

Chiffonade your basil and toss over the top. If you've let yours flower a bit, eat them too! Let cool 5 minutes, slice and serve.