Cooking with Crucifers!

Not much left in the walk-in after the long weekend, but we pulled off a pretty delicious spread. (I'm even more impressed with the Tuesday crew, who did just as well with even less!)

Spring Mix with Garden Tomatoes

and grapefruit pomegranate dressing

White Rice

Long grain white rice, rinsed and warmed in a little oil before adding water; brought to a boil in one of the heavy pots, then turned off and left alone. Seventeen cups rice to twenty two cups water; the same ratio as short grain brown. Almost perfect, if you're into that sort of thing. Thank you, Christie! Again. :)

Red Lentil and Almond Soup

This one seemed extremely promising when I read the recipe, but I found it to be pretty disappointing. I love red lentil soup, and I love almonds, but somehow this didn't quite come together. The almond butter made the soup seem heavy instead of hearty, and I couldn't get the acidity quite right. Note to self: if you need a pulse with an east asian meal, do something with black beans or even the moosewood pineapple pinto beans. No more lentils!

Asian Slaw

Shredded green cabbage, carrots, and garden mint. With spicy fish sauce dressing (lots of garlic and fresh hot peppers in three parts rice vinegar, one part fish sauce, and a splash of agave) and quick coconut peanut sauce. I liked the two dressings; the peanut sauce also went well with the main dishes.

Stir Fried Peppers with Red Cabbage

and plenty of green onions, garlic, and ginger, and five spice soy marinade left over from the tempeh.

Five Spice Tempeh

Yummy, yummy, yummy tempeh. Soaked in a soy-mirin-five spice marinade, then stir fried in the small woks.

Stir fried chicken

Boneless skinless chicken breast strips, marinated in a little rice vinegar with salt, pepper, and ginger. Kind of boring, but worked well with the rest of the meal.

Roasted Broccoli

Thinking about this makes me want to run down stairs and make it again. I love broccoli, and this might be my current favorite way to eat it. Evie chopped all the broccoli that we had into florets and sticks, and we put them on lightly oiled sheet pans and roasted them in really hot ovens for maybe forty minutes, until they were intentionally just beginning to burn. Then we dumped them all in one bowl and tossed them with a little lemon juice and a tiny, tiny bit of sesame oil. With toasted sesame seeds on the side.

Vegan Sweet Potato Blondies

Because we had so many sweet potatoes in the glass fridge, and I'd been eying the recipe for a while. But, like the soup, these were kind of a disappointment. Much as I love the Veganomicon (and, as best I can tell, every other book that team has ever been involved with), their non-cupcake desserts are usually too sweet for me, and this one was no exception. Perfectly executed by Evie, they were more like candy than cake, and the house didn't even get through one pan. Note to self: Find cupcake book. There are never leftover cupcakes.

And we're back!

Green Salad with Tomatoes and Carrots

Grated Beets and Orange Juice

Pork Roast with Bacon Rosemary Stuffing

from Frank Stitt's Southern Table

This was really good and really easy; I would make it again for the house or at home. I started by cooking some bacon in the oven, adding some finely chopped onions when it was almost done, baking both a little longer, then breaking up the bacon and mixing some small cubes of bread and dried rosemary into the bacon, bacon fat, and onions. All of this got stuffed into an 8.5 lb pork loin that I had cut into four little roasts and burrowed some holes in. These went into a 450 degree oven for half an hour, then the temperature was lowered to 350, and they stayed in for almost another hour. Pork on pork!

Italian Baked Tofu

from the Veganomicon

This is a good recipe that didn't fit well with the rest of the menu. It would be delicious with a pasta dish, or tomato sauce.

Mushroom Stuffing

vegan and traditional

The vegan version was better. Cubed bread, mushrooms fried with onions and garlic, veggie broth, flax seeds, and water, baked for about an hour.

Braised Cabbage with Carrots and Onions

from All About Braising

Evie made this, and used more red pepper than I would have. I loved it, especially the onions!

Roast Potatoes, Fennel, and Green Beans

from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, by way of Susie Smart

This was a huge success, despite the fact that it came out a little late thanks to a broken oven. Just potato rounds, fennel wedges, green beans, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and (eventually) a very hot oven. The printed recipe lacks fennel, but has asparagus and parmesan; the version I ate in Massachusetts had all three. Ours was not quite as tasty, but possibly better for the house; I don't think that shaker cheese would have improved the dish. More green beans definitely would have, though, as would asparagus in the spring.

Tapioca Pudding

from the Joy of Cooking, with

Wine Poached Figs

from Baking From My Home To Yours

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen,

goodbye!

(for the summer)

Four Salads

spinach and garden flowers with mustard dressing; carrots with lemon and parsley; beets with orange and cilantro; celery with apples and vegan mayo

Little Bites

millenium tofu spread; butter braised beets; spicy chicken livers; acme bread (thanks, Sasha and Carl!)

Main Dishes

Veganomicon leek and white bean cassoulet à la Megan Williams avec ses biscuits vegetaliennes; Chicken and tofu with mushrooms, tarragon, onions, and tomato

Whole Grain

Millet with onions and garlic

Veggie Side

Steamed Asparagus

Cheese Plate

California chevre, goat brie (yum!), and blue cheese

Dessert

Eivor's chocolate mousse with strawberries, cream, and extra chocolate

Brisket Birria

Barely more than a list this week, because I'm too tired from making this dinner to write about it!

Green Salad: Spinach, greens, parsley, apples, onions, mangoes. Surprisingly good cider vinegar cilantro garlic agave dressing.

Purple Salad: Purple cabbage and green onions with a cilantro and mayo dressing (from Smitten Kitchen). Perfectly executed by Ida, but I was not impressed.

Drunken Beans: kidney beans cooked in beer with carrot and soyriso. These tasted awful while they were cooking, but were fine by seven.

Spicy Beans: black beans with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and spices. By Megan Williams. This would have been way too spicy if they were our only beans, but they weren't, and they were delicious.

Manchamanteles Lentils: Tomato, pineapple, banana, garlic, onion, sesame, lentils, and spices. Not bad for off the top of my head.

Chipotle Pineapple Tofu: Tofu marinated in pineapple juice, chipotle powder, garlic, agave, soy sauce, dried oregano, and garlic and baked. Disappointingly bland; I was over cautious with both the chipotle and the roasting. If I were to do this again, I would try for a hotter oven and throw some actual pineapple pieces in the food processor with some non powdered chipotle for the marinade. Plus garden oregano and more garlic, if time allowed.

Brisket "Birria"

Quick Pickled Veggies: Carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, left over from last night, but prepared by Ida in a very different way. These were excellent.

Grilled Asparagus

Limey Yogurt: perfect with Megan's beans

Brown and White Rice

Corn Tortillas

Margarita Cupcakes: Not the prettiest vegan treats we've ever produced, but that didn't matter once you were eating them. Megan had the great idea of adding coconut. This is the second week we've gone off book and the second week it's worked out well.

Bacon Cupcakes Take Over Our Kitchen

Green Salad

Mixed greens, red peppers, flowers and arugula from the garden, and blood orange dressing (five whole small blood oranges, one red onion, red wine and balsamic vinegars, olive oil, salt, and a tiny squirt of mustard, all in the food processor).

Brown Rice

Lentil Salad

3 quarts French Lentils, simmered in 4 quarts water until tender with bay leaves, dried thyme and a couple of onion halves. Lightly caramelized minced onions with a ton of garlic, and roasted carrots added at the last minute. Mustardy dressing (equal parts mustard, red wine vinegar, and olive oil), toasted walnuts, and feta on the side. Next time, either boil the carrots, or start roasting them earlier, and get a soft goat cheese if possible.

Asparagus and Mushrooms

2 ways: steamed asparagus mixed with sauteed mushrooms, and roasted in candied bacon fat. The second preparation was less amazing than I had expected. The first, thanks to Ida, was perfect.

Beets

Scrubbed, chopped, tossed with salt and olive oil, and cooked at about 425 for about an hour and half. This is not my favorite beet preparation, but it is very easy and very good, and complemented the rest of the meal.

Lemon Garlic Tofu

Slices of tofu marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, a lot of garlic, some garden herbs, and a little soy sauce and maple syrup, then baked, swimming in the extra marinade so that they wouldn't dry out. Started at a very high temperature, then down to about 300 degrees once they were browned. These puffed up in a kind of funny way, so I was a bit worried about them when they came out of the oven, but they were great.

Grilled Mahi Mahi

Salt, pepper, lemon, olive oil, and Megan Williams's grilling magic. I don't know exactly what her algorithm for the fish was, but it was very tasty. Some of it was a little overcooked, but this was my fault for insisting on "American done."

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

with cream and butter ganache, and maple bacon. I thought that this would be a cute way to make a meaty dessert, and expected them to be no better or worse than unbebaconed cupcakes, but they were amazing. These may be my new dinner party dish: plain vegan cupcakes from the vegan cupcake book with chocolate chips melted into butter and cream, topped with bacon bits made from baked maple coated bacon. Wow. I am not, in general, and oh-my-god-bacon person, but: Wow.

(Note - Tuesday Morning - this would probably have been a better sauce for the fish than the thin aioli that I made with the hand blender, and it uses whole eggs!)

Falafel falafel falafel!

(To the tune of the Mexican Hat Dance)

Okay people, I admit it. I'm getting lazy. This menu is a mostly a repeat. But it's hard to get motivated to try something new when you know that lamby meatballs will be so good.

Green Salad

Greens and mushrooms and red peppers and dressing. Last week's salad was delicious, so I was very happy to find the same veggies in the fridge today. This time it didn't seem quite as good to me, though. This is probably because I was halfway through dinner by the time I managed to dig my salad out. It's really hard to compete with eggplant and lamb and fried onions.

Cauliflower Soup

Roasted cauliflower with onions, turmeric, almonds, and dried apricot. I loved this.

Lentils and Quinoa and Onions

There was a lot of leftover quinoa from last night, so instead of making our own grain, I mixed some of it with lentils and some gorgeous caramelized onions. Unfortunately, this was done early, and I burned the finished dish a bit trying to keep it warm on the stovetop because all of the ovens were occupied. Fortunately, it was mostly salvageable, so we just had less.

Meatballs: lamb and turkey

Baked, with parsley, garden mint, onions, cumin, coriander, and ginger. The recipe from Arabesque also called for fresh cilantro, but I forgot to order any. I don't think that the dish suffered too much. We did 8 lbs of meat: 5 of lamb, 3 of turkey and it was just a little more than we needed. I expected to like the turkey version, because I usually love turkey meat balls, but they were not that good; I think that 6 or 7 lbs of lamb would have been ideal, and that 5 lbs of lamb plus an extra tray of falafel would have been better than doing turkey.

Falafel (falafel, falafel)

Again, baked. So easy now that we have big food processor! (And Ida to do all the boring assembly work!)

Grilled Eggplant

Cut by Ida, grilled outside by Megan W. I would have cooked them a little longer if I was at the grill, but then Megan would have thought that they were overdone. There's just no pleasing the two of us when it comes to vegetables. These were still very good.

Homemade Pita

From The Bread Bible. I multiplied the recipe by five and substituted half whole wheat flour. Four times the recipe would have been enough. The flour substitution was perfect. Really time consuming.

Accompaniments

Raw red cabbage with tomatoes, pickled green cabbage with parsley, shredded cucumbers and garden mint, tahini garlic sauce, pomegranate yogurt sauce. (No hot sauce - ran out of time. Hot sauce would have been good.)

Strawberries and Cream

Whipped by hand by Megan W.

Le Retour

Inspired by the Restaurant des Arcenaulx's

"menu léger" on Holy Saturday in Marseille. And by the contents of our walk-in.

Green Salad

with red peppers, white mushrooms, and blood orange vinaigrette. Simple, but excellent. The dressing was about one to one blood orange juice and olive oil, with one red onion, a tiny bit of mustard, zest from the oranges, and a little salt. This went really well with the veggies that Megan Williams chopped. Plus bacon on the side.

Celery Salad

Celery and carrots, chopped small and mixed with raisins, lemon juice, and yogurt. Tim asked us to use some celery, and this is what we came up with - a hybrid of a couple of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone recipes and Ida's good sense. Much, much better than I expected. I would happily eat this again. Almonds on the side.

Tilapia

à la Meunière et sans farine avec moutarde. The original plan had been to do fish packets with a nicer white fish, but CK shorted us the fish. So we went with tilapia. I thought that the gluten free version was disgusting, but this was a quality of the fish and not the preparation (although, to be fair, maybe I could have done a better job in masking it). The bit I tasted was so awful that I couldn't bring myself to even try the flour and butter one, but I hear that it wasn't nearly as bad. Red pepper white wine sauce on the side.

Tofu

Fairly large chunks, baked in a chaffing dish with red peppers, onions, lemon, and soy sauce. it was in a very hot oven for a very long time, but I kept an eye one it. Not bad. Would have been better cut into smaller pieces and with a lot more vegetables.

Eggs Baked with Mushrooms and Gorgonzola

This wasn't done on time, and then I started talking at dinner and forgot about it, and it got a little over done. The flavors were all exactly right: lightly sauteed onions and mushrooms with just a little garlic, gorgonzola sauce made with milk and butter, salt and pepper on the eggs before going in the over, green onions when they came out. However, next time I would use fewer eggs, so that it will cook more quickly and evenly. This might be better for a dinner party than for the house, and in that case I might just do soft boiled or poached eggs served instead. Extra gorgonzola sauce on the side.

White Beans and Mushrooms

Vegan, lower fat alternative to the above. Unremarkable, but tasty.

Quinoa

Sweet Potatoes

I heart sweet potatoes.

Asparagus

Steamed. Plain, not overdone, for Megan. I heart these, too.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Blood Orange

Megan did this, and it was very, very, very good. This recipe, with a little less crumble and a lot less sugar. I picked up some heavy cream to have whipped cream on the side, but forgot all about it.