Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

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

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

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

Monday, May 3, 2010

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.

Monday, April 26, 2010

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!)

Monday, April 19, 2010

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.

Monday, April 12, 2010

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.


Monday, March 15, 2010

The Artful Chicken

Today's menu was a simplified and scaled up version of one in The Artful Vegan. With some chicken. I've wanted to do a whole menu from one of the Millennium cookbooks for a some time, but I most of them seem like a bit much for a shift. This one worked out really well, thanks to Ida and Ian, although we didn't have time to get to dessert.

Salad
Greens and garden flowers with my new favorite dressing: equal parts lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and olive oil, with red onion, mustard, salt, and pepper. I let the minced onions hang out in the acid for a while, then mixed the whole thing up with an immersion blender right before serving. An old artichoke heart jar worked well for this.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Two sheets of well roasted cauliflower, two large onions, lightly caramelized, veggie broth, lemon juice, soy milk, and nutmeg. Would have been a lot better without the nutmeg; next time, maybe roast some garlic with the cauliflower? This was really, really close to perfect the minute before the nutmeg went in. Oops.

White Bean-Filled Phyllo Casserole
Ida took care of this; we followed the recipe pretty closely, except that we didn't have as many mushrooms as we should have, and no Marsala. And we made phyllo topped casseroles instead of purses, and left out the optional vegan sausage (which we instead served separately). I think that all of the changes were good. If I did this again, I might make one more, and cut down the nutmeg here as well.

Seitan Sausage
I made this ahead of time, basically following the Millenium recipe for the dough, but doubling all the spices. Then I braised it Veganomicon-style because I was too lazy to deal with cheesecloth, and Ida fried it up right before serving it today. This will make good leftovers, and I'm glad that we kept it separate from the beans.

Braised Chicken Thighs
Browned in cast iron (with some dramatic flaming) and then baked for an hour and a half covered in some stock that I made last week. I should have defrosted these earlier, and taken the time to season them yesterday evening, but they were still pretty good. They might also have benefitted from a more flavorful broth; even just some onions and carrots and garlic. Not my favorite meat (I could come up with something new to do with ground lamb every week), but the work-to-deliciousness and cost-to-deliciousness ratios are pretty good.

Polenta
Plain, and with cashew-sage cream. Started in two batches on the stove top (1 gallon water to 1 quart polenta) and then finished in the oven. This is a good method, and people seemed to like the cashew polenta, despite the lack of cheese.

Reheated Carrot Raisin Rice
From last week. Because it was really good, and on its last legs. For anyone who didn't want polenta.

Porcini-Zinfandel Sauce
This was significantly different from the recipe in the book, due to CK's non delivery of our button mushrooms. To replace the mushrooms in the sauce, I pureed the dried porcinis that I had used to make stock, which meant that the sauce was already thick and couldn't really take a roux. And I used a Trader Joe's Cabernet for the wine. Not a disaster; we ended up with more than we needed, but it was pretty good. Unlike the seitan, though, I'm not sure how this can get used.

Grilled Broccoli and Rapini
With a garlic balsamic glaze. Ian took care of these and did a wonderful job.

Grilled Pears
With a little balsamic here as well. Also Ian. These were fantastic. I'd forgotten how magical the grill is.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Afghan Adventure, and Falafel Fest recap

Salad
Greens, Carrots, and Beets with pomegranate balsamic dressing

Red Lentil Soup with Ginger
Red Lentil Soup is always yummy, but I thought that this one was a little weak. I used water instead of veggie broth because of the gluten, and did the onions, garlic, and ginger by eye. It could have used more of everything.

Afghan Squash, three ways
Plain Squash, Lamby Squash, and Nutty Squash. These were all delicious, but it was definitely not worth the effort of peeling the squash, or the fat and sugar of the fancy prep. The control group squash was just as good.

Brown Basmati Rice
Plain, and with carrots, onions, raisins, and cumin

Slow Cooked Spinach
With green onions, dried dill, and fresh cilantro. My favorite dish of the night. We should have made less of the lentils and more of this.

Roasted Eggplant and Cauliflower
with pomegranate yogurt sauce, and minty yogurt sauce

Almond Rosewater Cupcakes


Last week (March 1):
Falafel, Lamb Balls, Quick Pickled Cabbage with Parsley, Raw Red Cabbage with Grape Tomatoes, Fried Eggplant, Lemon Tahini Sauce, Harissa, Apricot Lentil Soup, Salad, Bulgur with Parsley and Mint, Store Bought Pita, no cupcakes

Monday, February 22, 2010

Another Apology

Dear Megan W,

I'm sorry that you missed this meal, because it was delicious. And Jack did all the dishes before hand, so there were plenty of put away containers.

I planned some coconut free cupcakes so that you wouldn't be missing out on too much, but Jack accidentally made coconut frosting. Oops.

Love, Meghan A

Both of the regular Monday assistants took a break this week, but both found great replacements. To say that Jack and Angel were assisting would be unfair. I went into the kitchen with this


and came out with a fantastic meal. My attempt to channel Rachel, whose consistently delicious dinners (often loosely based on this book) I miss. I think that we did a really good job.

Dishes below are marked with the initial of the person in charge. There are more notes for mine, just because I know better how they were made. Everything vegan except for the meat. Tree nuts on the side, peanuts in the frosting. Gluten everywhere (I need to be more careful about it; this time I forgot about the veggie broth) and coconut in two dishes (once intentionally, and once due to a miscommunication).

Salad
Greens from a bag with shredded fresh carrots and boiled beets (J), with tamarind lime dressing (A)

Recycled Rice
Leftover rice, frozen beans, olive oil (J&A). Note: I was against doing this, because I had just realized that we didn't have a whole grain and I wanted what we did have to be as wholesome as possible. But they both seemed very enthusiastic about fried rice, so I trusted them on it, and am glad I did.

Couscous
Done by eye. Too much water left the stuff at the bottom somewhat block-like. Not a disaster, but the rice was better. (M) Next time, maybe try making it with hot water from the hot water tap?

Callalo
Amazing spinach and coconut curry. Secret ingredients: seaweed and miso. The original called for oyster sauce. I could eat this all day. (J)

Veggie Tagine
Roasted root veggies stewed in African spices, with olives and raisins. Almonds and parsley on the side. Used up some half prepped vegetables from last night, along with some odds and ends from the walk in. My favorite dish tonight. (Perfect how it was, but I added more raisins to my own plate anyway. I'm a sucker for raisins in otherwise savory dishes, although I try to hold back when cooking for the house.) (A)

Braised Chicken Thighs
With bones and skin, salted and well browned in two cast iron skillets (this took a long time; I probably should have done it in three), then braised in a mixture of veggie broth, lemon juice, capers, diced red onion, fresh garlic and ginger, and ras el hanout in an oven that claimed to be at 350 degrees for about 2 hours. I loved the method, but was too cautious with the spices. Also, I suffered a very large number of very minor burns. Next time: long sleeves. (M)

Tofu
Diced and marinated in the Moroccan glaze from one of the Millenium cookbooks. An hour in a hot-as-it-goes oven left these slightly over cooked; I need to keep a better eye on them. They didn't seem ready at 6:45, but the ones at the edges were burnt at 6:50. Maybe next time I should just add water? (M)

Chickpeas
Meant to go in the tagine, but kept separate due to some house members' well publicized chickpea intolerance (s?). Just plain. (A)

Harissa
Whole coriander, cumin, and caraway toasted in a dry skillet. Ground a bit in food processor, then blended with lots of garlic and olive oil and some salt. Then a little paprika and a lot of chili, and water to get a good consistency. I burned my mouth testing it, but it was good and, HiPsters, there is a lot left. (M)

Mild Sauce
The Moroccan glaze from the tofu, with some extra tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice. (M)

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Coconut Frosting
Banana. Cupcakes. With peanut butter and sugar. How could this not be a good idea? (J)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Dear Megan Williams

Sorry about the dinner put away. I promise to do better (less) next time. Love, Your Head Cook

Monday's Menu:

Green Salad
Actually just spinach, thanks to the Monday holiday and a very empty walk in. I suppose I could have boiled some beets.

Coconut Apple Lentils
From a recent Minimalist column. Half red lentils, half yellow split peas, coconut milk, and 8 chopped apples. Still tasted like a horrible disaster of blandness at 6:30, but was saved by salt, lemon juice, and

Coconut Mint Tarka
made from unsweetened dried coconut fried with garlic, ginger, and dried mint in a ton of olive oil, with some minced spring onions from the garden added off the heat. Fantastic.

Crazy Rice/Quinoa
A well worn favorite: white rice or quinoa, caramelized onions, cinnamon, turmeric, frozen peas, and raisins. Somewhat out of character, I actually prefer craisins here, but we were out. This also usually has

Roasted Cauliflower
mixed in, but there was no room in the dishes, and no time to stir it in anyway, so we served it on its own. Boring, but possibly my favorite boring vegetable.

Garam Masala Turnip Fries
These were meant to be the main vegetable. I was excited about them, because I love roasted turnips and thought that we were being good co-opers by using up some of the less glamorous root veggies, but they were just okay and didn't really get eaten. They were made like roasted potatoes: steamed for about twenty minutes, and then baked on big sheets with a lot of preheated oil for maybe forty more. However, we had a lot of things that needed baking today, so they were sharing an oven with the tofu, and didn't get crispy. I'd do these again, but only if I could devote a whole oven to them. I'd also probably make fewer of them, and let them drain a bit from the steaming before throwing them on the baking trays.

Spinach, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes with Indian Spices
From the Ajanta book. This was super delicious, but probably the thing that I should have cut. All three of us were working full steam this shift and we still went 15 minutes over.

Tandoori Chicken (and Tofu)
From Julie Sahni's Classic Indian cooking. The chicken would have been better if I hadn't been so busy with everything else and had therefore been able to keep a closer eye on them. And the tofu would have been better if I had put it in earlier, or if the oven hadn't been so over worked. However, the recipe is perfect for the house. It's so easy, and so much tastier and prettier than just salt and pepper roasted chicken thighs.

Steamed Greens
Cauliflower and Kale: this was just using things up. They didn't really get eaten, but I am optimistic about their fate as leftovers. They are so plain that they'll be very easy for people to work into lunch food.

Raita: Regular and Vegan
a la Megan Williams. Perfectly executed, but next time we should do one with mint in it. And maybe skip the vegan one, but put aside some yogurtless spiced tomatoes and cucumbers for people who don't do dairy.

Coconut Vegan cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting
My third favorite of the vegan cupcakes so far. Maybe second. (Maybe I need to do a side by side comparison with the margarita cupcakes...)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Meatening

Pick yer Protein: Ham, Chicken, Tofu
All baked with maple syrup and sage

Brown Rice, Roasted Potatoes
Steaming the potatoes worked really well, but the roasting step could have used a bit more oil.

Brussels Sprouts in Butter
Take that, vegans! (Okay, actually, just look behind you. There are naked sprouts on the stove.)

Salad with beets and pears and blue cheese dressing
Take that again! (or just take some of the citrus dressing)

Squash and beans
Nobody seems to love this as much as I do...

Magical Ian dal
Chickpeas, garlic, onions, broccoli

Brooklyn Brownie Vegan Cupcakes
Shockingly, there were leftovers, something I have never before witnessed with the cupcakes.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Moving to Mondays

A bit of a stressful evening, because the delivery didn't come until 4:30. We started the shift with beets, squash, tofu, and some kidney beans that I'd soaked. We didn't even have onions! In a bit of a panic, I had Megan W. start prepping all the beets that we could fit in the oven, and Ida started some butternut squash for soup. Then the food arrived, and we made everything I had originally planned, minus dessert, plus beets and squash. And were fifteen minutes late. Not my best meal, but we're just getting settled in...

Green Salad
with pears, nappa cabbage, and a choice of yesterday's dressing or the tofu marinade

Spring Roll Salad
Rice noodles, shiitakes baked in tamari and olive oil, mint, cilantro, with nappa cabbage, bean sprouts, and scallions to the side. (Note: putting rice noodles in boiling water bag by bag works, but is not the best method for cooking them, because it takes a lot of time and there's a very high risk of gumminess. I think that just soaking them for a lot longer in hot tap water works. Also, it might be possible to do the herbs in a food processor, if we were willing to do some kind of simple dressing, which might be good for the noodles anyway, although Ida's carefully minced herbs were pretty awesome.)

Peanut Sauce
Caramelized onions, two parts coconut milk, one part peanut butter, vegan sugar, tamari, lime juice. I thought it was possibly the best peanut sauce I've ever made, although I didn't get any compliments on it, which is unusual for peanut sauce.

Tamarind Sauce
Tamarind, lime, sugar, garlic, tamari. Should have had hot pepper, but I couldn't find any in the walk in.

Naked Beets
Baked in water for twoish hours, then peeled and chopped. Yay beets!

SatayRendang Lamb
Lamb Stew meat with a satay spice rub (garlic ginger sugar coriander cumin) cooked rendang-style (sear and simmer in water). The searing was a little dicey, because the sugar in the spice rub wanted to burn, but it all worked out fine. I trimmed the meat a little, but not too carefully.

Tofu
with Soy, Lemon, Garlic, and Ginger. Three quarters of a box because is what fit in the container that I had set aside for marinating. We could have eaten a whole box. Baked as hot as the oven would go until it looked nice, then kept in the oven at a low temperature until serving time. I think that Tim has a new tofu supplier; the tofu was less grainy and almost fluffy, while still firm enough not to fall apart when I was rough with it. I love Sac Tofu, but this did seem to be of a higher quality.

Brown Rice

Steamed Bok Choy
quartered, and steamed in a colander over the thin pot of water, along with the tougher parts of the Nappa we used for the salad.

Honolulu Beans
From Moosewood Restaurant cooks for a crowd. Kidney beans with hoisin and pineapple and onions and tomato. I would make them again iff I were making this or a similar meal. They were not the best beans that I have ever had, but they were solid B beans that fit in really well with the rest of the menu.

Butternut Squash and Coconut Puree with Ginger
This was one dish too many, and I thought that it was a bit heavy, but everyone loved it. Baked squash, sauteed onions, veggie broth, coconut milk, ground ginger. Credit to Megan W for insisting on processing the hot squashes; I wanted to give up and just serve them as squash. Without this dish, we probably would have been on time, but the reception that it got indicates that it was worth the delay. I don't know if it was worth all that her hands went through, but I'm glad she did it.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Spooning

Green Salad

Beet and Turnip Salad with Pineapple Dressing (Veganomicon)
Good, (dressing was great) but as a matter of personal preference, I think I like cooked beets better.

Polenta
Well, cornmeal mush. Would have been better with polenta, but nice for a change, and the corn goes well with gorgonzola sauce.

Brown Rice for the Corn Haters

Black Eyed Peas with Caramelized Onions and Thyme
I thought that this was excellent. It took a lot of salt, and could maybe have used a little more thyme.

Cauliflower Greens with Garlic

Roasted Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts
about half an hour, the first at 400 degrees, the second as hot as the oven would go. Could both have used a little more time.

Nine Hour Lamb (spoon lamb)
Wow. Took a little prep time in the morning, but that's what head cooks get the extra time for. Veggie Broth, Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Turnips, Rosemary, Salt, Pepper, Lamb, 300 degrees all day long.

Gorgonzola Sauce
Gorgonzola cheese and milk, a little thinner than I would have liked, simmered for maybe half an hour.

Tomato Sauce
1 can tomatoes, 1 head garlic, oregano, bay, cinnamon, simmered the whole shift.

Vegan Rice Krispie Treats with Peanut Butter Chocolate Sauce
Floppy but tasty.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A Salmon of Doubt

Rumor around the house was I'd be getting a salmon today, so
I wanted to repeat my old mustard salmon and red wine lentils
this evening, but the fish never showed. Oh well. Still damn
tasty, despite a few complaints about the meatless meal.
Two new assistants this evening, with two very different styles,
but both very good!

The menu:

Salad with Pears, Pickled Onions, and Balsamic Dressing

Soy and Mustard Glazed Salmon

Beet and Tomato Stew
with feta and walnuts

Lentils with Red Wine and Mushrooms
needed more mushrooms

Brussels Sprouts
Halved, and roasted in the hottest possible oven,
watched carefully, perfect. Maybe forty minutes?

Cauliflower
Cooked the same as above. Next time, should use cooler
oven if possible. And more salt!

Cauliflower Greens
We tried steaming these pretty much whole, and
it didn't work too well, so the second half got fried.
Next time: chop finely, then steam?

Brown Rice and Acme Bread
Not together

Banana Bread from the Veganomicon
with chocolate chips. Super good.