Eggplant salad with ume-tahini dressing

The salad as served on an 8" plate to company.

We recently had friends come for dinner and I planned an Asian-inspired meal with seitan and broccolini in a sweet and sour sauce over rice. I wanted to have a salad first, even though raw vegetables aren't usually found on Asian menus. I wanted the salad to have some connection to the main course so I looked through a Japanese cookbook, and found a recipe for eggplant salad — just eggplant, no greens. It had a dressing similar to one I used to make when I was following a macrobiotic diet and I was using many traditional Japanese condiments, like umeboshi. I decided to pan-grill (in a regular cast iron pan since I don't have a grill pan) the eggplant and serve it at room temperature on top of salad greens, with a umeboshi-tahini dressing and toasted sunflower seeds.



Some people blanch when they see "weird" ingredients like "umeboshi paste" listed in a recipe. It sounds so exotic and obscure. But is using umeboshi really so different from using all the other wonderful foods and condiments we've adopted from other countries? It's just another powerful flavor source that's good for your health as well as your palate. Look at all the Mexican foods like chipotle in adobo, or salsa verde, or Middle Eastern foods like felafel or tabooli. At one time they were considered exotic and strange.


The dressing.

Umeboshi plums and paste are made from a very small, round fruit closely related to the apricot, that is pickled with salt and shiso leaves. You can buy them whole or as a more convenient-to-use paste. It may seem expensive but it goes a long way, and I don't buy it very often. It has a salty-sour taste that goes especially well with the bitter flavor of tahini. (I even have a fabulous recipe for tofu cream cheese that uses umeboshi and tahini.)

The eggplant was cubed, soaked, patted dry, pan-grilled and cooled to room temperature before hitting the greens. The dressing was drizzled over all, and the salad was topped with toasted sunflower seeds. (I'm going to put in a plug for the Bob's Red Mill sunflower seeds I recently purchased. Maybe I was just lucky but these are the smallest, freshest, sweetest sunflower seeds I've ever bought. They're delicious raw or toasted and I love them.) I made enough salad for four people but the ingredients are flexible so use whatever quantities you wish. The dressing is very flavorful and goes a long way, but if you like your salad loaded with dressing or want leftovers, you can easily double the recipe.


The salad (missing carrots) served in a big bowl to me for lunch.

Eggplant salad with umeboshi-tahini dressing

• 1/2 medium eggplant (cut the whole eggplant in half lengthwise)
• canola oil
• salad greens
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin sticks
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted in a pan
• 1 teaspoon umeboshi paste
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup or maple syrup or 1-1/2 teaspoons brown rice syrup
• 1 tablespoon water, more if needed

1. Cut two 1/2" thick steaks from the eggplant half. Cut each steak into 1/2" cubes and soak the cubes in water for 10 minutes. This is supposed to get rid of bitterness. Drain the eggplant and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Place about 1 tablespoon of oil into a cast iron (or other heavy) pan and heat. Add the eggplant and brown on one side over medium heat about five minutes. Turn and brown the other side. Remove eggplant to a plate and let cool to room temperature while you make the dressing.
3. Place the umeboshi, tahini, lemon juice, sweetener and water in a small dish or measuring cup. Mix to a smooth and creamy consistency. Add more water if necessary to achieve a creamy dressing that will drizzle from a spoon. The amount of water depends on the texture of your tahini.
4. Toast the sunflower seeds.
5. Place the salad greens on four individual plates or bowls. Divide the eggplant into equal portions and mound in the center of the greens. Artfully arrange the carrots. Drizzle dressing over all. Top with sunflower seeds.

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Day-glo bread and other misc. stuff



Here's a bread to which I added turmeric to give it a golden hue (and because it's supposed to have so many health benefits). It actually came out a lot more golden than I expected, and looks kind of weird. (I haven't photographed the inside but believe me, it's BRIGHT.) It tastes good, though. It's got rye flour in the dough for a little extra flavor, and sesame seeds on top.



I've been making English muffins from my no-knead bread dough, and having sandwiches for breakfast. I'm trying to eat more in the early part of the day and less at night, and these hearty breakfasts seem to really stick with me. I've found that a thinner muffin bakes up more successfully so pat your dough to no more than 1/2" thick. This particular sandwich had a veggie burger, avocado, English cucumber and Russian dressing. Just looking at it now gives me hunger pangs. I've also had muffins with cannelini beans, avocado and salad greens. My current vat of day-glo no-knead dough seems a little too wet for successful English muffin making, so I'm using it for regular loaves. The muffin above was made with the previous batch of dough, which explains its normal hue.



This is kablooey — a tester recipe for Celine and Joni. It is kind of like tabooli but made with buckwheat.

Pop pop popcorn popper

It seems silly to spend too much time thinking about popcorn, but ever since I found myself popcorn-maker-less, I've been devising ways to make my favorite snack without actually buying another hot air popper when I already have one — even though it's far, far away in another state. I tried microwaving it in a paper bag, popping it in a stainless mixing bowl and making it in my wok. The microwave was disappointing, and I gave it up. The bowl, once I adjusted the amount of oil and salt, worked well but required aluminum foil, which seemed wasteful. Plus it was awkward holding and shaking the bowl. The wok wasn't bad, once I learned to spread out the kernels in a single layer instead of a pile. But there was still the pan-shaking and the slowness. My son, who is very picky about his kitchenware and cooking, kept telling me that the Whirley Pop he got at Goodwill (brand new and still in the box — he's lucky that way) was the best way he's ever found to pop corn.



The next time I was at Goodwill I found one, but it was in someone else's cart, and, well, good manners forced me to leave it there. Recently, I found another one at Goodwill and this time it was on a shelf! The inside was perfectly clean — much cleaner in fact than it is now — though there was a little oil residue on the lid, but I handed over my $2.99 and took it home. I cleaned it up, did a little Internet research into the fine points of using a Whirley Pop, and got popping. My son was right — this IS the best way to pop corn.



Honestly, the popper looks like a piece of junk — it's so thin and lightweight you'd expect it to burn up with the kernels — but it works just as the Whirley Pop Web site says it will. You turn a little wooden handle in the lid, that's connected to a thin thingyjig that sweeps the kernels around the bottom of the pot so they don't burn. It takes no time at all for the corn to start popping, and within two or three minutes it's all popped fluffy and tender. I love it. You can pop the corn with as little as one teaspoon of oil so you're not adding that many calories. I had to do a little adjusting of the metal latches and spinner of my used popper, but it works perfectly, now. So, would I abandon my old Presto Air Popper? Probably not. It's easier, and I'm profoundly lazy. But, duh, I might just get used to this whirley-thing.



I made a batch of no-knead bread dough (basic recipe in "Healthy Bread in Five" subbing 1 cup potato starch for one cup unbleached, 2 teasp. yeast, 2 teasp. salt) and made some of the finished dough into an English muffin. Used a cast iron pan and it was ready in under 10 minutes. It tasted just like an English muffin, only better!



Here's another of my "big bowl" lunches. It consisted of broccolini, mushrooms, dried tomatoes, soy curls and rice noodles in the last of the dashi. I could eat this every day, except maybe the soy curls. I like soy curls, but not every day!

English muffin casserole bread / chocolate cake

I've been digging around in the old recipe box again looking for forgotten favorites that I haven't made in years. I found one that surprised me the first time I made it, 100 years ago, because it tasted exactly like its name — English muffin bread. When I made it last night I decided to convert it to whole grain and see if the taste would still hold up. It's still got the open texture and slight tang of an English muffin, and when you toast and slather a slice with margarine, well, yes, it's very muffiny. I think the unbleached version is closer to a true English muffin, but the whole grain is so much healthier, and really good. It's got that chewy, slightly spongy texture and vaguely sour flavor that English muffins are known for.

The original recipe was made in an electric mixer, but my mixer gave up its spot on the kitchen counter to the bread machine, and now resides in the basement. I was making the bread after a long day at work and didn't feel like hauling the mixer up to the kitchen so I beat it by hand with a wooden spoon. Honestly, its been so long since I've used this recipe, I couldn't say if not using the mixer made any difference in taste or texture. I'll give the original directions and let you choose whether to follow them or not. The recipe was cut from a magazine that I no longer recall, and was attributed to Lavonne Willard. If the author happens to see this, I apologize for stealing her recipe!

English muffin casserole bread

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (I use instant yeast)
• 2-1/2 to 3 cups white whole wheat or unbleached white flour, stirred well or sifted
• 1-1/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon sucanot (evaporated cane juice)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• cornmeal

1. Combine yeast, 1 cup flour, salt, sugar in mixing bowl.
2. Heat water until just warm.
3. Add water to dry ingredients. Beat with electric mixer (see story above) at low speed for 1/2 minute, scraping bowl. Beat 3 minutes at high speed.
4. By hand, add enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.
5. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease surface.
6. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 hour. Punch down. Let rest 10 minutes.
7. Grease a 1 quart casserole and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place dough in casserole and sprinkle top with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 45–60 minutes.
8. Bake in hot 400˚F oven for 40–45 minutes, or until done.
9. Remove from dish to cool. (You may have to loosen the sides with a knife.)

Chocolate marshmallow cake from eat'n veg'n

Since I'm on the subject of baking, might as well tell you about this cake. It's a recipe I got from this post. Considering that I have an underdeveloped sweet tooth, am not a chocolate addict and have never missed marshmallows, I can't explain my immediate fixation on this cake. From the moment I first laid eyes on its picture, I knew I had to have it. So the task of finding the ingredients became my mission. The challenge was Ricemellow, and no one in town carried it. I knew I could get it from Vegan Essentials* in Waukesha, but that's an hour away and I wasn't inclined to make the trip. My husband found a package of Sweet and Sara's vegan marshmallows at our local food coop and that's what I sliced and used.

With my apologies to Diann and my huge respect for her cooking, here's what I changed. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour. I used 1/4 cup of oil plus 1/4 cup of vanilla soy yogurt for the fat, and I reduced the sugar (sucanot) slightly to 3/4 cup. As noted above, instead of Ricemellow, I sliced several vegan marshmallows, and for the chocolate frosting I used about 1/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips, sprinkled over the hot marshmallow topping and swirled with a knife after they melted.

Even with my changes, this cake was seriously addictive, and it didn't last long at our house. Much to my dismay and relief, my son gobbled it up before I had a chance to eat (a lot) more than I should. Bake the original version or this one for a delicious chocolatey indulgence. Thank you Diann!

side note: Our food coop decided to carry Ricemellow and I now have a tub of it sitting in my pantry. As soon as I have a chance to try it, I'll post a review.

*We visited their warehouse once. Whoa!