Recipe testing / tofu and cabbage /Texas caviar

Where oh where has the week gone? Wherever it went, it went quickly. I can't even remember eating but I've got the photos to prove we did. I tested more recipes and threw together random meals, and I'll share those with you but as far as personal, creative cooking. Ha. Nothing. At the top of the page you see a butternut squash-pasta bake tester recipe.



Above you see a super-fast baked seitan tester. Too bad I can't share this!



Some of the seitan was used to make a seitan and kale stir-fry that was delicious. It was served alongside the baked pasta and squash.



This was a thrown together lunch of humble origins but wonderful taste. I stir-fried extra-firm fresh tofu cubes with a small amount of tamari. When the tofu was sizzling and brown, I added a prodigious amount of grated ginger and some finely sliced green cabbage. The cabbage was cooked to the crisp-tender stage and the the dish was further seasoned with a grind of pepper. You can really pull a lot of flavor out of simple ingredients when necessary.

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Texas Caviar: black-eyed pea salsa

Way back back in 2007 when I first started blogging, I ran a recipe for a traditional black-eyed-pea dish that's supposed to bring good luck if you eat it on New Year's. You can find the original post here. I hope the two people who may have read that post will forgive me for posting it again. I love this dish and think everyone should make it!

Texas Caviar
2 cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
4 scallions, finely sliced
3 jalapenos, minced
1/4 cup cilantro, minced
1/4 cup olive oil,
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Fresh gound peppercorns

Rinse and drain the beans and place in a bowl with the scallions, cilantro and peppers. Put the oil, vinegar, lime juice and salt in a one cup glass measuring cup and mix together. Add the liquid to the beans mixture and combine. Place in a shallow glass (or other non-reactive) dish. Cover and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or a few days. Mix occasionally to distribute the marinade evenly. Grind some peppercorns over the top just before serving.

notes: I thought the mix looked a little too green and beige so I went looking in the refrigerator for a few grape tomatoes to chop up. They were gone so I got a few slices of the tomatoes I dried last summer (and keep in a sealed freezer bag in the fridge). I chopped those up and added them for color and tang. I also used jalapenos from last summer's garden. I always freeze bags of whole, hot peppers from the garden to use in cooking during the rest of the year. This was the first time I tried to use them uncooked. Couldn't tell they weren't fresh.

Fresh squeezed lime juice makes a superior salad but I would understand if you kept a bottle of lime juice (like Santa Cruz organic) in your refrigerator for "emergencies." The beans will still taste great.

I like to rinse and drain canned beans in a wire wok skimmer that I got in an Asian market years ago because I liked the way it looked. It's easier to clean than my fine mesh strainers and holds about one can of beans at a time.




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Today we're heading south towards warmer and, hopefully, dryer weather. I won't be cooking much but I'll photograph our culinary adventures to share when we return. Until then have the happiest of holidays and remember to share your bounty with those who have less.

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Oh, and by the way, we watched the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and I wasn't scared witless. In fact, I slept very well after seeing it. Still, it's a cool, cult classic that you might want to watch.

Crispy salad and easy cupcake topping

Sometimes I get to the end of the week and it just seems impossible that a whole week has passed. I know we've been eating but I can't think what we ate. The weekend was just as hectic with more company than we usually have in 3 months, and everyone knows you shouldn't try out new recipes (especially if you're making them up) on company. Noooo. So all the food has been familiar old stuff.

I did throw together a new combo of ingredients (for me at least) for a salad dressing and it was quite delicious. I had to be creative at the last minute because the dressing I was planning to make depended on ingredients that I didn't realize I didn't have. Instead, I used fresh squeezed orange juice and one of the wonderful vinegars I purchased a while back at Vom Fass. It was a Waldburg balsam cherry vinegar. I'm not expecting anyone to actually have this vinegar on hand — just use a mild fruity vinegar of your choice, or a plain rice vinegar, which I would have used if we'd had any. To go with the dressing, I made a salad of mostly finely shredded cabbage with a handful of baby greens and assorted other stuff, and it was so fresh and spring-like. It went perfectly with a mildly spicy peanut stew. I also came up with a new ULTRA EASY cupcake topping that worked amazingly well. And if it appears anywhere else on the Internet, I don't even want to know. I want to feel clever at least for a little while longer.


Mixed salad with orange-Waldberg cherry balsam dressing

• baby greens
• finely shredded red and green cabbage from a bag (about 1 part baby greens to 3 parts cabbage- use enough for 4 people)
• shredded carrot (1 large)
• 1-2 thinly sliced green onions
  
• crystallized ginger bits (about 1/4 cup)
• kalamata olives
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts (raw ones toasted in a pan)

Dressing (4 servings)

• Juice of 1 small orange (about 3 ounces)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons Waldburg cherry balsam vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• pinch salt

Mix the salad ingredients, including half the walnuts, together. Add the dressing and toss thoroughly. Toss the remaining walnuts on top.


Easy cupcake topping
Take the cupcakes out of the oven and remove from the tins. With one hand make a ring shape with your thumb and third finger and place atop a cupcake. With the other hand drop a bunch of vegan chocolate chips into the ring. It takes about 3 seconds for the chips to adhere to the warm cake. You can give them a gentle press if you think they're not sticking. Do all the cupcakes, and then go back and stick individual chips in spots you think need a few more. The chocolate chips will soften but they won't lose their shape. As the cupcakes cool, the chocolate chips will harden again. That's it. They looked so cute I wanted to kiss them!

Pierogi, (and pizza and pasta)

pirogi with a grind of black pepper

As soon as I saw Maureen's post about pierogi, I knew I was going to have to make some. In fact, you might say I became a little obsessed. She claimed Ukrainian ancestry and I claim Russian. Either way, these dumplings make great eating.

Back in the days when I was young, and before I became lazy, I used to make my own noodles on a regular basis. I had, (and still have—somewhere) a hand crank Atlas pasta machine. Mostly the noodles were really successful, but there is one horror story that pops into my head when I contemplate stuffed noodles. It involved a very large dinner party and homemade ravioli assembled before the guests arrived, and stacked in a big bowl. Of course, the ravioli stuck together and turned into one massive bowl-shaped noodle. I'll let you imagine the poor frantic hostess salvaging what she could ... And I can't help thinking about the leftover pirogi in the refrigerator dish as I write this. But, of course, they are cooked and not sticky ... Right?


pierogi in the refrigerator— not sticking together

I followed Maureen's dough recipe with the following exceptions. I used white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, and I used two teaspoons of salt instead of two tablespoons. Also, instead of rolling out the dough and cutting the circles the traditional way, I took small pieces of dough and rolled each into a circle like I would a tortilla or chapatti. I rolled them pretty thin and made each circle about 4 to 5 inches in diameter.

I had some leftover Bolivian cabbage and potatoes that I made into a filling. I sautéed three chopped onions and eight ounces of mashed-up tofu until it started turning brown, and mixed it with the cabbage and potatoes. If I hadn't had the leftovers, I might have sautéed shredded cabbage to mix with the onions, or baked some potatoes to mash with the fried onions.


pierogi happily boiling at the water surface, refusing to sink.

I boiled the dumplings five at a time in a big stock pot of water for 10 minutes. I guess they are supposed to sink and then rise to the surface when done, but mine never sank, thus the timer.

I made at least two dozen good-sized dumplings before I ran out of filling, and still had a chunk of dough left over that I'll probably make into noodles. (I ran out of patience long before the filling ran out, but that's another story.) I guess my dumplings don't look like "real" pierogi but so what. They were good, good, good! Thanks, Maureen.

The stock left over from cooking the pierogi was so tasty that we used it to make soup for dinner. (Couldn't eat any more pierogi - or much of anything else.)

I seem to be on some sort of carb-fest lately. Here's a glimpse of some other stuff I've recently cooked. I used the last of my refrigerated no-knead bread dough to make a mushroom pizza with vegan cheese. The dough had been in the refrigerator almost two weeks and developed a nice sourdough tang which bumped up the flavor.



It was accompanied by the rest of the bow tie noodles. I wilted a big bag of spinach from our CSA, then added some roasted tomatoes (from a can) and the noodles for a simple but delicious supper.



Ever since I roasted our garden tomatoes and made ranchero sauce, I've been using Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes instead of plain ones. I actually used them straight from the can for the pizza with just a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of oregano. Using roasted tomatoes makes a big flavor difference.

Spicy Bolivian cabbage and potatoes

It's gotten to the point that I feel a little crazy on airplanes. I'm still able to appear normal, but deep down inside I really can't stand to be strapped into that tiny space, squished next to who knows who, knowing I can't leave if I want to. I can't concentrate, so I can't read books, and even listening to music makes me edgy. There are only three things I can do to keep myself calm — sleep, read magazines and munch snacks. And "reading" the magazines puts me to sleep. Remember, I said I can't concentrate, so the magazines have to be the kind with lots of pictures and very short text. Good design is important, too, because I'm not really reading for information, just looking at pages, and I need them to look good.

The first thing I do when I get to the airport is hit the biggest magazine stand. I used to head for the gardening mags but even they have gotten too detailed for my airplane-malfunction, and now I grab the cooking magazines. Cooking mags work well because there are so many pictures, and I can think about cooking and blogging, and it keeps me distracted. (Sometimes I even get a copy of Real Simple because it's so pretty and—so simple. Ugh.)

Before I read the magazines I've just purchased, I look at the free airline ones in the seat pocket. There are usually some interesting photos (with captions that aren't too long!) and I skim the articles. Then I read the juicy SkyMall catalog for cheap thrills. I mean, who doesn't need a Pachelbell's Canon wind chime, color-changing gazing ball, windchill misting fan, inflatable movie screen or a motorized grill brush. Woohoo.

Anyway, all of this is leading up to an excellent recipe, which I found in a copy of Vegetarian Times brought back from a trip. VT has become my favorite airplane distraction, and as a bonus, I always find good stuff to cook. I'd consider subscribing, but then what would I do on those stupid airplanes?

Bolivian cabbage and potatoes
• 8 cups shredded cabbage (1 small head)
• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1" chunks
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon organic sugar
• 2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 yellow, orange or red bell pepper, chopped
• 5 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1-2 jalapeños, finely diced (or hotter peppers if you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro or parsley
• sliced vegan sausage, if you have some

1. Cook potatoes in boiling water 5-7 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water. Dissolve tomato paste and sugar in cooking water and set aside.
2. Heat oil in large pan, dutch oven or wok. Add onion, bell pepper and sauté 5 minutes. (We added some sliced, homemade vegan sausage.) Stir in tomatoes, jalapeño and tomato paste mixture. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cabbage and potatoes. Cook 5-6 minutes or until cabbage is wilted and potatoes are heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with lime juice and cilantro and serve.

cabbage with tapenade

I was just about to write that I seemed to be binging on stir-fries when I realized that "binge" and "stir-fry" don't really belong in the same sentence. Binge on ice cream, binge on chocolate, binge on linzer cookies...but stir-fry? So, I'm on a stir-fry kick, streak, obsession...or maybe it's a stir-fry rut. I've been making stir-fries for days because they're so fast, only use a wok and maybe another pot to boil or steam a grain. Easy, easy, easy. And endlessly versatile, allowing me to use whatever I find in the pantry. I posted the first one, the second was made in ten minutes and eaten while watching American Idol before I could photograph it. (Yes, I admit to being hooked on AI) The third was the weirdest but best tasting of all. I've gotten really fond of adding prunes to the wok so I added those, and while looking for interesting ingredients among my husband's almost empty jars of things, I found green olive tapenade and black olive spread. (One of these days, Ricki, I'll make the actual tagine instead of just borrowing parts of it.)

I started with thin slices of tofu, since it was leftover from the past few nights, and stir-fried it with leftover bun salad sauce (strained of solids and stored in a glass jar) and a spoonful of sucanot. I shredded hard green cabbage with my santoku and stirred it in with two chopped green onions from the garden, dried tomatoes from last summer, the aforementioned cut-in-half prunes, a few sliced mushrooms and some thinly sliced baby carrots. With everything still crispy, I added the two olive spreads. I served it over thin rice noodles. This tasted delicious, even heated at work the next day for lunch.

Rice noodles taste really good are are fast to make. I put on a pot of water when I first started to cook and by the time the veggies were crisp-tender, the water was boiling. Pop the noodles into the pot and WATCH CAREFULLY, testing every 30 seconds or so for doneness. Don't turn your back as these noodles go from perfect to goo in a very short time. Drain them and add to the wok to soak up the sauce. Now, I promise not to write up any more stir fries.

Quinoa soup

You can have delicious quinoa soup in about a half hour, more or less. It's one of my favorite fast dinners. Quinoa is really good for you and so easy to make.

I first had quinoa soup in Quito, Ecuador in someone's home. It was so delicious I had no idea it was so easy to make. I wanted to be able to make an authentic version of the soup back home so I brought back achiote (annato seeds) so I could make the red oil used in Ecuadorian cooking, and bottles of the hot sauce we put on just about everything we ate there. I still have the seeds somewhere and I think we used all the hot sauce. For a quick, easy and delicious soup, read on.

Quinoa soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 cup chopped onion (it's good if half of it is green onion)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup floury potatoes cut into small cubes (peeled at your discretion)
1 cup shredded cabbage
several "baby" carrots from the ready-to-eat bag, sliced into strips
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup rinsed quinoa
5 cups water


optional but good
sliced ripe avocado
2 inches of a tempeh block sliced crosswise into thin strips and browned
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
green onion for garnish
hot sauce for adding at the table

Rinse the quinoa well in a fine strainer under cold running water and set aside to drain. (The rinsing is important so it won't be bitter and bad-tasting) Sauté the onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, oregano and tempeh (if using) in the oil until the onion is wilted and the tempeh brown. Add the quinoa, salt, potato, cabbage, carrot and water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the frozen corn, stir it up, garnish as desired and eat.

note: In Ecuador we did have the avocado slices and I recommend it. The lemon juice gives it a nice tang and the green onion is a nice touch especially if you're not using the avocado. Also in Ecuador, we had rounds of corn on the cob (yes, ON the cob) in the soup. It had been cut crosswise into one inch rounds. We picked it out and ate the corn kernals off and I think there was a bowl on the table for the cob pieces. In the summer when fresh corn is available, I do this. But the rest of the year I reach for that handy bag of frozen corn that's always in my freezer. Also, you can substitute different veggies for the cabbage - you could use zucchini or kale or as you see in the photo, cauliflower. (Some recipes call for chopped tomatoes or you can add mushrooms if you want.) I like the cabbage best but didn't have any the day I made the soup.