SAVORING the MOMENT

Peculiar Produce

2007-03-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a reprint from last year, by special request. It utilizes a fruit and a vegetable most abundant this time of year. Use an extra special olive oil for best results. There are many small-production organic brands to choose from. They cost more than the olive oil you're used to cooking with, but the flavor and high-quality monounsaturated fatty acids make them well worth the splurge. Keep a bottle on hand for raw uses, such as the one described here.

Over the years, I have learned to cook many strange fruits and vegetables. Strange to me, that is. In some parts of the world, such things as starfruit and lotus root are perfectly ordinary.

Anyhow, being a rather fanatical foodie, I'm interested in all members of the vegetable kingdom and forage for the unusual at my favorite produce market. It has expanded my culinary horizons to invite peculiar produce into my kitchen and see what I can make of it.

My inspiration might come from cookbooks, TV chefs, the Internet, or restaurant meals I have relished. My experiments aren't always successful, but sometimes they're stellar. Case in point: blood orange and fresh fennel salad. I've been enjoying it for years, since I ate a mind-blowing version one Spring afternoon at the birthplace of "California cuisine," Berkeley's Chez Panisse, which is now an all-organic (though not all-vegetarian) restaurant. [Speaking of splurges, this one is a must for serious foodies.]

The dish is based on very simple Mediterranean flavors and is light and refreshing, yet somehow deeply satisfying. I use an Asian mandoline to slice the fennel very thinly. It is made out of hard plastic and comes with various metal blades for cutting different shapes. If you don't have such a tool, simply use a sharp knife and slice the fennel as thinly as you can.

If you can't find blood oranges, you can use tangerines or naval oranges instead. The salad will still be very, very good to eat. The one shown here includes no onion-y flavor note, but you can snip on some chives or sprinkle on some minced shallots, if you so desire. Sometimes I arrange a handful of Nicoise olives on the plate, as Chez Panisse did, which provides another delicious layer of flavor. Some shavings of Parmesan or a bit of crumbled blue or feta cheese are other great additions. Play around and see what you like.

Here is the process:

1. Trim off the base of a fennel bulb and discard the outer layer, which is usually discolored and rather tough. At the other end, trim off the leafy stalks. Using a mandoline or a very sharp knife, slice the remaining bulb crosswise into very thin shreds. Make a bed of the fennel on a large serving plate or platter.

2. Slice off both ends of 2 or 3 (depending on their size) blood oranges . Using a very sharp paring knife, cut off the peel of the oranges, along with the white layer and the membrane that covers the orange segments. Slice the blood oranges into about 1/4-inch thick slices and arrange them in concentric circles atop the bed of fennel.

3. Sprinkle on a bit of salt and grind on some black pepper. Drizzle a really good olive oil evenly over the oranges and fennel. You don't want a big puddle of it on the plate, but don't skimp.

4. Scatter some whole leaves of flat-leaf parsley over the salad and serve at room temperature.

Ramen Revisited

2007-03-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

I go way back with ramen, those dried noodles sold in little celophane packages in every supermarket in the world (it seems). When I was about 11, my mom started taking occasional nights off from the bother of cooking for her less than appreciative husband and three kids, and told us to make ramen for dinner.

So I'd boil some water, drop in the noodles and the contents of the "flavor packet," and wait for everything to be done, about 4 minutes. It was easy, it was quick, and it was pretty darn tasty to my as yet undiscriminating taste buds.

We'd serve Mom a steaming bowl and then sit down to slurp our own, and all was well

Today I don't want to go anywhere near that little foil packet of chemicals. I avoid MSG whenever possible and am suspicious of any flavors that don't come from recognizable foods. But the noodle part I still love.

Give me pasta for lunch or dinner any day of the week -- actually I limit myself to only a few pasta-based meals per week from sheer force of will. I love Italian pasta (pesto or pomodoro or con funghi or a dozen other sauces), Thai pasta (pad thai), and Chinese pasta (chow mein). Then there's Vietnamese pasta (pho), steaming bowls of rice noodles served in fragrant broth with any combination of yummy morsels on top.

Beef pho is traditional, but I am lucky enough to live in the vicinity of a restaurant run by Vietnamese Buddhists who serve up incredible rice noodle bowls and dozens of other traditional foods, sans the meat.

I still eat ramen, too, dried Chinese egg noodles I cook in vegetable broth with my favorite Asian ingredients. Today it was tofu, broccoli, thinly sliced onions, fresh shiitake mushrooms, and lots of grated ginger. Spiked with soy sauce and sprinkled with togarashi -- a Japanese table condiment made of ground peppers, sesame seeds, and sea vegetables -- it's a delicious and nutritious meal in a bowl.

I keep organic Asian noodles in the pantry these days, buckwheat and rice varieties as well as wheat, and enjoy my ramen nights even more now that I did as a kid. Wish mom was still around to share them.

Blessings and bon appetit!

vegetarian food cooking ramen shiitake mushrooms togarashi

More Vegan Apps

2007-03-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Do you feel stuck when it comes to vegan appetizers, perhaps because your parents' coffee table was always laden with cheese and crackers and clam dip and chips whenever guests arrived?

Well, there are a LOT of yummy spreads to serve with raw veggies and bread/chips/crackers to start a vegan dinner party with panache. For instance:

#1. Most everybody loves hummus. I like to lighten and liven up the classic version by adding well steamed carrots to the food processor along with the garbanzo beans, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, parsley, and salt. A little cumin and cayenne are always welcome, too.

#2. Dried tomatoes in a jar are delicious mushed up with garlic and green herbs. Parsley works fine, but I love using mint, rosemary and a small amount of chile flakes. The result is a little bit tangy, a little bit sweet, and a little bit spicy.

Serve the two together for a nice color and flavor contrast.

You may come to love these two spreads so much that now and then graduate from appetizer status to become lunch or dinner unto themselves.

Blessings and bon appetit!

vegetarian food cooking hummus
dried tomatoes vegan appetizers

Pear Pinwheel Salad

2007-01-13T23:35:00.000-08:00

Here is my idea of the perfect winter salad. It is somehow light and substantial all at the same time, and provides a mostly raw experience without being too cooling to the system.

Although the blue cheese isn't essential (vegans, take note), it adds a creamy and tangy note that I find delicious. The dressing I recommend is made of apple juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Here are basic proportions for a few servings:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons apple juice
2 teaspoons dijon mustards
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
scant salt and pepper

The salad ingredients could vary somewhat, but I highly recommend this exact combination.

Start with a bed of spinach, add some shredded red cabbage and cooked brown rice. Slice a perfectly ripe pear and toss with a little lemon juice, then arrange some slices in a pinwheel design on each salad. Add a few raw or roasted walnuts and a sprinkling of a creamy blue cheese. Drizzle on the dressing and enjoy.

It's a simple and scrumptious lunch for you and a friend.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking salad tacos

spinach blue cheese

A smoothie boost

2007-01-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

It might seem counter-intuitive to have a cold and creamy beverage on a cold winter day, but in fact it makes some sense. A smoothie, as it happens, is a great medium for lots of "boosters," ingredients that have special nutritive powers.

Pictured here is a four-fruit smoothie. The base is equal parts grapefruit juice (freshly squeezed is best) and plain yogurt. This went in the blender, to which I added a cut-up apple (unpeeled if organically grown; the skin carries fiber and vitamins), a banana (peeled, of course), and a cup of frozen raspberries.

Now come the boosters. I sprinkled in a teaspoon of vitamin C crystals (powdered ascorbic acid) and a couple of tablespoons of ground flax seed (for its fiber and omega-3s). Then I added 2 ounces of aloe vera juice (soothing for the digestive tract) and squirted in some echinacea tincture (legendary immune booster). The latter tastes very bitter on its own, but is perfectly palatable in the smoothie context.

Those are apple wedges on the rim of the glass, BTW, but lemon or orange also make nice garnishes, and/or a sprig of fresh mint.

Drink nice and cold, if that appeals, or pour it into tall glasses and let it sit around for a while. Let it come to room temperature and it won't chill you to the bones. Mother Nature will take care of that!

There you have it, a very simple and immune-boosting breakfast or lunch.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking smoothie tacos

aloe vera flax

5-Minute Tacos

2007-01-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of the slow food movement? Some folks in Italy started it several years ago to promote the idea that eating and cooking should be honored as meaningful traditions to be savored and celebrated. It's the polar opposite of the fast food mentality.

I'm a slow foodie, for sure. Yet sometimes the clock gets in the way. Some days, that slippery eel called time wiggles out of my control and suddenly I've got maybe half an hour to eat, brush my teeth, and get out of the house for a meeting or movie or poetry reading at the local bookstore.

These tacos are for just such occasions. They're also great for when we're just plain famished and want some wholesome food in our stomachs as soon as possible.

Here's how:

1) Heat a dab of oil in a small pan. Add a few shreds of finely chopped onion and mushroom and cook for 2 minutes over medium-high heat.
2) Now add half a can of your favorite veggie chili (or 3/4 cup of cooked beans and a teaspoon of taco seasoning), a handful of baby spinach leaves, and a drizzle of water.
3) Keep the heat medium-high and let it bubble for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring every so often, while you heat up a couple of corn tortillas, which I generally do by laying them one at a time on the grill of a gas burner on my stovetop, turning 3 or 4 times as they warm and puff up slightly.
4) Fill the tortillas with the bean mixture and add some salsa and cheese, if desired.

You've cooked a meal in no time flat, now slow down and enjoy it. Yes, breathe between bites and really taste what you're eating.

Buddhist philosophers like Thich Nhat Hahn would call this mindful eating. If we're present for each moment, our minds focused on the sensory information contained in the here and now, we can experience true peace and pleasure.

And that's the best thing about being a slow foodie.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking slow food tacos

Thich Nhat Hahn

Satisfying sukiyaki

2007-01-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

I adore Japanese food. The flavors are light and simple, the ingredients wholesome and fresh, and the presentation at restaurants quite lovely.

The Japanese have made cooking an artistic and even spiritual pursuit, and I feel deeply nourished by the aesthetics of a Japanese meal as well as by the food itself.

Sadly, I know many vegetarians who steer clear of this particular ethnic cuisine, thinking it is all about fish or meat. In fact, there are lots of vegetarian options on Japanese menus, and I've found restaurants that will happily make substitutions or honor special requests.

In the home kitchen, many traditional Japanese dishes can be adapted to the meatless diet. Sukiyaki is one example. The vegetarian version might not pass muster with a Samurai chef, but it's delicious just the same.

Sukiyaki is traditionally made with thin slices of beef, but tofu makes a great substitute. The only other ingredients are veggies, broth, and a few Asian seasonings. Oh, and brown rice as accompaniment, so be sure to cook up a batch.

I'm lucky to have a huge Asian grocery store in my neighborhood, where I frequently shop for shiitake mushrooms, tofu in an amazing array of forms, Asian vegetables like choy sum and diakon radish, and all manner of condiments. For this recipe, the specialty ingredients you'll need are mirin, a sweetish rice wine, soy sauce, and dark (roasted) sesame oil. Fresh ginger is a nice addition, but not essential.

The preparation couldn't be simpler.

1. Begin by heating a little dark sesame oil in a saute pan, than add thinly sliced vegetables of your choice. For this version I used onion, carrot, and yellow bell pepper. Add a pinch of salt and saute for a few moments, just to start sweating the vegetables.
2. Add a couple of cups of vegetable stock and freshly grated ginger to taste, plus a slosh of soy sauce and mirin. (The traditional recipe calls rice wine and sugar, so if you can find sake but not mirin, you're in business. Go very light on the sugar though, for best results.)
3. Add slabs of tofu, which should be submerged in the broth, and add a layer of coarsely chopped or sliced shiitake or oyster mushrooms, cover, and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes.
4. Pile on your favorite leafy greens. I like spinach or the aforementioned choy sum. Bok choy and mustard greens are other good choices. Cover and simmer another few minutes.
5. Ladel over brown rice in a bowl, garnishing with chopped cilantro and/or togarashi, if you wish. (Togarashi is a combination of sesame seeds, chile flakes, sometimes seaweed, and other seasonings served as a table condiment with soups and other dishes. Highly recommended if you can find it.)

That's it, a quick and simple and light and lovely ode to Japan.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking sukiyaki tofu

togarashi

Broccoli rabe

2007-01-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

I'm welcoming 2007 with lots of healthy cooking, including soups, sautes, grains, and greens. In my part of the world, the weekly farmers market operates year-round (except in pouring rain) and these days large leafy bundles of winter greens are regular offerings.

I especially love bitter and spicy greens, and rapini, aka broccoli rabe, probably tops the list. Its mildly bitter flavor pairs well with all things Sicilian, such as olive oil, tomatoes, pasta, and black olives. In fact, this very combination of ingredients is one of my old standbys.

Rapini also makes a wonderful side dish. Simply saute some minced garlic in olive oil with a pinch of chile flakes, pile the chopped broccoli rabe on top and add a couple of tablespoons of water. Sprinkle with salt and cover the pan tightly. About 6 minutes later, the greens will have wilted into a delicious mound. A little lemon juice or vinegar creates a nice balance of bitter/spicy/sour flavors and aids in the digestion of the calcium contained in those dark green leaves.

I wish you good health and pleasure at the table all year long...

vegetarian food cooking broccoli rabe rapini

Let Them Eat Soup

2006-12-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

We're having a cold snap here in the SF Bay Area. I know it's nothing compared to what folks in other parts of the country and world are going through, but cold is cold. So the super-spouse and I decided to huddle together, watching a good movie (Who Killed The Electric Car?) and slurping a steaming, spicy soup.

Some of my blog visitors have said I eat an awful lot of soup. Yes, as a matter of fact I do. It's good for you, plus I love making it, plus it's one of my favorite things to eat. So yes, soup again, and soup almost all the time in the colder months.

And also brown rice again, because it's on my top 5 list of nutritious and versatile ingredients that are so convenient to keep on hand. I cook a pot of brown rice once a week (sometimes twice) and eat it as breakfast gruel, wrap it in chapatis with veggies and sauteed tofu for lunch, and serve it under roasted veggies with miso tahini sauce for dinner.

But today it was soup, with cooked brown rice and cabbage and cauliflower and chickpeas and tomato and coconut milk and curry powder and lots of garlic and ginger. It was so delicious and warming and nourishing and easy to digest.

And BTW, the movie IS great, and important, and infuriating. Let's all go out and buy electric or at least partially electric cars tomorrow, okay? Because if we do, the global warming problem will be taken care of and the urban air quality problem will be taken care of and the foreign war problem will be largely taken care of. And then let's all put solar panels on our roofs so we can charge our cars without burning coal or building more nuclear power plants!

Or at least let's make delicious vegetarian soups for ourselves and our loved ones, so we can all stay warm and healthy.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking vegetarian soup brown rice chickpeas

Vegan appetizers

2006-12-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

When it's party season, it's helpful to have a few festive appetizers in one's repertoire that are simple to make and never fail to please. Here are three of mine.

Carrot/Garbanzo hummus: I often make a lightened up version of hummus by steaming carrots and combining them with cooked and drained garbanzos in equal parts by volume. The other ingredients are tahini, garlic, lemon juice, salt, cumin, and cayenne to taste.

Dried tomato/artichoke spread: My favorite festive red spread is made by combining oil-packed dried tomatoes (well-drained) with drained artichoke bottoms (sometimes called crowns), garlic, Herbes de Provence, pepper, and salt if needed.

I generally serve these spreads together, with slices of baquette alongside, and include raw cucumber slices as a fresh and crunchy counterpoint.

Now for something more "composed" and quite suitable for an elegant meal. It serves well as an appetizer, but has a gentle sweetness so could also make a light and lovely dessert.

Start by blending tofutti (or light cream cheese for non-vegans) with enough honey or maple syrup to achieve a slightly sweet flavor. Add a good pinch of allspice and mix well. Mound small portions of this "cheese" on whole dried apricots and top each one with a walnut half. Sweet, creamy, chewy, crunchy -- these are complex in texture and really yummy. My party guests always ask for the recipe.

Holiday blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking hummus dried apricots vegan appetizers

Come to umami (shiitakes again)

2006-11-30T16:01:00.000-08:00

I probably wouldn’t be such a wild mushroom fanatic if it wasn’t for my good friend called Anna Morel. A biologist by training, she became interested in mushrooms a couple of decades ago and has been an avid forager ever since. At (somewhat) regular intervals, my fridge is replenished with freshly-plucked chanterelles, boletes, maitake, morels, and other delicious and health-enhancing forest fungi.

Many wild mushrooms have healing powers, but lots of people I know never eat them. Perhaps the fact that some species can kill you scares them off. They prefer to stick with those pale but exceedingly safe supermarket buttons, which are not without merit but can’t hold a candle to their intensely flavored country cousins.

Even if you don’t have a mushroom expert in your life, you can enjoy the exotic flavor and immune-boosting qualities of fungi by eating shiitake mushrooms often. The shiitakes we find in urban markets these days are domesticated specimens, not picked in the wild, but they’re potent nonetheless. If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, by all means buy a shiitake-inoculated log sometime and grow your own. It’s a very cool science project if you have kids in the house.

The photo is of one of many Asian style sautes I've made recently. Simple, delicious, and beautiful to look at. Shiitakes, tofu, green beans, ginger, garlic -- and those are strips of roasted red pepper on top.

BTW,there's actually a good scientific basis for the wonderfully satisfying taste of shiitakes. They naturally contain two nutritive compounds, called glutamate and guanylate, that provide an intense umami flavor.

That is not a typo. Umami is the fifth taste, dontcha know. Our tongues are not restricted to tasting sweet, sour, salty, and bitter – as was believed for hundreds of years. We can also distinctly detect when a food is deeply savory, and that taste was named “umami” by one of the Japanese scientists who made this discovery.

Other umami foods include Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, certain shellfish, green tea, sweet potatoes, and soy. Monosodium glutamate is an umami-enhancing condiment, but because of its high concentration of the glutamate, many health experts consider it harmful.

Live long and prosper. Eat your (wild) mushrooms!
vegetarian food cooking umami shiitake mushrooms

Un-Turkey Stock

2006-11-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

This morning, I knew that all over the country, people were tossing turkey carcasses into stockpots, along with some aromatic veggies, to make a batch of stock for leftover-turkey soup. I watched my mother do it every day-after-Thanksgiving during my childhood, and used to do it myself.

Today I had no turkey carcass, of course, but I wanted soup. So the super-spouse and I cut up some potatoes and carrots and celery and onions and put them all together in a big pot. We added some shiitake and chantarelle mushrooms, chard leaves and stems, garlic cloves. Seasonings included allspice berries, fresh rosemary sprigs, peppercorns, and half a lemon.

All this was submerged in lots of filtered water, then brought to a boil. I turned down the heat and simmered the lot for about 45 minutes, then strained out the veggies, pressing out as much liquid as I could. The yield of our minimal labors: a few quarts of this deliciously rich and beautifully brown stock, some of which is stowed away in the freezer for future use.

For tonight's healthy and warming repast, I put some of the stock in a saucepan, added cooked brown rice and cubes of tofu, and simmered for a few minutes. Just before serving, I added 2 sheets of nori seaweed snipped into little squares and a tablespoon of miso diluted with a bit of water. That's coarsely ground cayenne pepper sprinkled on top.

Said super-spouse and I found this humble Japanese country soup as satisfying as any meat- and noodle-laden concoction our mamas might have made.

Now it's official, you know. The holiday season has begun. I vow to not go crazy with it all, to keep my life and my cooking simple and wholesome. Unless I consciously decide to go crazy and cook something truly extravagant now and then. Which is likely.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking seaweed soup vegetable stock

"Big Night" Thanksgiving

2006-11-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

We've all been thinking about Thanksgiving, haven't we? -- pondering how to make a very special meal without succumbing to the national passion for roasting birds. Among the vegetarian cooks I know, hosting Thanksgiving dinner is an enjoyable challenge. It's a great time to pull out those complex recipes we've always wanted to try and pull off a fabulous non-traditional feast that will impress even die-hard carnivore uncle Hank (or aunt Louise or brother Bill -- doesn't every family have at least one member for whom meat is a must?).

I've been known to make autumn vegetable "lasagna" on Thanksgiving, using thin layers of polenta in place of noodles. One year I made a lovely veggie-filled roulade from Anna Thomas's classic, The Vegetarian Epicure. Anything labor-intensive, even downright difficult, will do.

This year I'm contemplating making my first giant timbale. I've made small ones in the past (a corn timbale with blackberry sauce comes to mind) but never the big Sicilian pasta-filled pastry traditionally stuffed with meatballs and diced salami and veggies, all bound together in a rich bechamel sauce before being wrapped in a piece of pastry dough and shoved in the oven. I'm thinking a vegetarian version could be very nice, with artichoke hearts, cubes of roasted eggplant, green beans, cauliflower, dried tomatoes, baby mozzarella balls, etc. Just thinking about it puts me in the cooking mood.

If you're having a hard time picturing such a thing, you must rent the movie Big Night, which is one of the best food movies ever made. The little photo (which I borrowed from lex culinaria) will give you the idea -- keep in mind that that beehive-shaped thing is the size of a large inverted salad bowl.

On the side, a spinach salad with dried cranberries, maybe, and toasted walnuts, and pears or persimmons -- like the one I made last night. It's wearing honey mustard vinaigrette. And I'll serve pumpkin pie for dessert. That's one part of the all-American menu I always include, because I love it so, but maybe for a little twist I'll make cinnamon and orange zest-laced whipped cream to go on top.

In my mind's eye, it's a beautiful spread and delicious repast. HOWEVER, let's not lose perspective during this time of feasting. Eating very simply when the rest of the country is gorging would be a fine Thanksgiving tradition. We could even try not eating at all -- taking a healthy break from our patterns of over-consumption.

Whatever we eat or don't eat this Thanksgiving, let's take a long moment to really be quiet and consider how interdependent we are with all the plants and animals (including, of course, people) that share this planet. Are we not blessed to have plenty of nourishment in our lives -- especially that heart food called love?

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking vegetarian Thanksgiving timbale spinach salad

Frozen curd

2006-11-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Almost always, I have a package of tofu in my freezer -- never opened, just as it came from the store. That's because I love what happens to it when it's been frozen and then thawed. What was once a lump of smooth and succulent soybean curd becomes chewy and spongelike. Can you see the difference in the photo? And even more so than with fresh tofu, it soaks up flavorings and adds a very satisfying texture to a saute or soup.

There's nothing to it, really! Take the package out of the freezer and let it stand at room temperature for a few hours before you plan to use it. Then remove it from its packaging and very gently squeeze it over the sink to remove most of the water. Then dice or cut into thin strips and use anywhere you'd use regular tofu.

This time out, I sauteed some onion and oyster mushrooms in roasted sesame oil with strips of thawed bean curd, splashed in some soy sauce, then added garlic and ginger. Sauteed for a time, adding water as needed to keep the mixture barely moist. When the mushrooms were almost done, I added some cooked brown rice and cilantro (at which point I took the accompanying pic), then piled on some chopped choy sum, which is a close relative to bok choy, the more common Chinese green. Put on a lid and let cook for another 5 minutes or so. Delicious!

If you're a vegetarian and eat a lot of tofu, as I do, variations on the bean curd theme are always welcome. I encourage you to try the frozen/thawed version, if you haven't already. It may open up a new window of inspiration.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking frozen tofu bean curd oyster mushrooms

Working late

2006-11-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

In the writing and editing business, deadlines rule the day (and week and month...). Though I most enjoy lingering with loved ones over a long, luxurious supper, many times I make due with a quick and simple one-dish wonder and then go back to work.

And then there are times when I don't even stop working to eat.

Last night was such a night. I knew I needed to work another couple of hours on the editing job at hand, but my energy was slipping and I knew I couldn't put off eating that long. Frozen gyoza to the rescue! I have made gyoza -- the Japanese version of potstickers -- from scratch, and they're the most delicious little morsels. But of course that is a labor of love, not to be undertaken when other love-labors are pressing.

Luckily, I live just a few blocks from a massive Asian grocery store that stocks many different varieties of gyoza in the freezer case. Pork and chicken and shrimp are most popular, apparently, but they also sell varieties filled with mushroom and spinach and chives and tofu. Trader Joe's sells a perfectly good vegetable gyoza, in case you don't have an Asian market nearby.

For an added flavor kick, make up a little dipping sauce to go alongside. Mine starts with equal parts tamari soy sauce, rice vinegar, and the Japanese rice wine called mirin. Then I add about a teaspoon of roasted sesame oil and a short squirt of that bright red Asian chili sauce. It's a quick and really delicious condiment.

I love those same Asian flavors in salad, too, so I tossed together some shredded red cabbage, thin coins of carrot, red onion bits, and fresh arugula. For dressing: a splash of tamari, another of rice vinegar, and a few grinds of black pepper. Scattered some toasted sesame seeds over the top, and done!

It came together in about 10 minutes and I ate it ravenously, accompanied by a tiny cup of warm rice wine. Did the trick, and good thing... I ended up working until almost midnight!

I don't recommend the latter, but I do suggest you try whatever frozen veggie gyoza you can find. It sure comes in handy when time is short. Then someday, when it isn't, maybe you'll be inspired to make your own.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking gyoza potstickers dipping sauce

Gourmet gruel?

2006-11-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

The word gruel doesn’t conjure up images of fine food for most people, and for good reason. Historically, it’s what poor people ate because they had nothing more appetizing in their cupboards. But this peasant food can be a very pleasant food if you use your culinary imagination, and it’s a great way to ground and balance ourselves during the change of seasons.

Porridge is another word for grains cooked in liquid to a thick soup consistency. Oats and wheat and corn porridges are enjoyed around the world for their hearty substance, if not their outstanding flavor. Probably buckwheat makes that list somewhere in Eastern Europe, but it’s generally an under-used grain in the U.S.

Now I love to experiment with under-used foodstuffs. So in honor of the change of weather in my corner of California (last night we had our first rain), here’s a buckwheat soup that just might change your ideas about porridge.

It’s a recipe from my latest cookbook-in-progress, Longevity Cuisine. For the actual recipe, and for regular postings from that project, please bookmark http://longevitycuisine.blogspot.com. For the foreseeable future, I'll be food blogging there more regularly than here.

And speaking of my other blogs, I’ve just launched a new one, where I’ll be posting regular (daily?) excerpts from a young adult fantasy novel I helped my friend Barbara Leal finish before she died a few years ago. Now it is fully edited and ready to be shared with the online world. My hope is that soon some wonderful print publisher will discover its magic and give it a home… http://tandariltree.blogspot.com.

So, see? Even though I’ve been AWOL from this site for a while, I’ve been keeping busy. Hope you enjoy my latest offerings.

Blessings and bon appetit!

Sweet and sour(kraut)

2006-10-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Recently, I put together two seemingly disparate foods -- sweet potatoes and saurkraut -- and it worked! If you wonder why anyone would even think to try such a thing, read on.

My Dad was an Army officer and I spent my toddler-hood in Frankfurt, Germany. My brother and I ate a lot of bratwurst while we were there, often paired with pickled cabbage by our housekeeper and cook, Johanna. Later in life, I encountered the Reuben sandwich -- chock-full of corned beef and saurkraut -- at a Jewish deli and it became a favorite of mine for a few years.

Now, of course, I eat neither bratwurst nor corned beef, so how do I get my saurkraut fix? I eat it straight out of the jar, or combine it with non-meat foods. Here, I braised some slices of sweet potato in olive oil and added some saurkraut just before I hit the pan with a splash of white wine and put on the lid. Added a good bit of freshly ground pepper (using the pepper grinder my mother bought in Frankfurt and bequeathed to me), and it was good. The sweet of the tuber and the sour of the kraut made a very satisfying combination.

If I'd had a package of tempeh on hand, I'd have topped this dish with toasted tempeh cubes. A bit of a crunch would have made a nice texture contrast.

Saurkraut is a health food, you know. It delivers friendly bacteria to the digestive tract to keep things processing smoothly. It's a live food, like miso and yogurt, and a few bites can help settle a queasy stomach. Some brands are really salty, but this is easily remedies. Just rinse the kraut briefly and drain well before adding it to the dish.

Blessings and bon appetit!

vegetarian food cooking saurkraut sweet potato

Okay, okra

2006-09-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is it, the season of okra, the time when those strange-looking plants produce their strange-looking pods and we can partake of their succulence. If you are not fond of this vegetable, you really must give it another chance. There's a lot about it to love.

For instance, that slime it produces. Oh, you say that's exactly what you HATE about okra? I suggest you get hip to that stringy secretion and let it work for you. In a soup preparation, like gumbo, the okra slime is a very efficient little thickening agent. In a saute combining sliced okra with fresh corn kernels and chopped fresh tomatoes -- other harvest season specialties -- it creates a great consistency if you also throw in a handful of cornmeal to soak up the slime.

Yesterday I found beautiful okra at the market for a reasonable price. Tonight there was a decided chill in the air, so I decided on gumbo. I have heard that "gumbo" actually means "okra" in some African dialect, so naturally my culinary imagination traveled in that direction.

And yes, I mean vegetarian gumbo. If you are a true Cajun, you will think this idea very unappealing, but bear with me. Also, it's a lowfat gumbo, another strange thought if you hail from Louisiana. Of course, the key to controlling the fat is not to include meat (duh!) and to use a dry, rather than wet, roux.

Roux is the browned flour that helps thicken and flavor a pot of gumbo. Southern cooks brown the flour in lots and lots of vegetable oil until they have a dark and nasty-looking (but apparently quite tasty) sludge. I simply put a few tablespoons of regular all-purpose flour in a dry pan over medium heat and stir it around while it browns for a few minutes, turning a medium shade of tan. Simple and it really works. It adds a special depth of flavor to the broth as it -- along with the gumbo -- thickens things up.

I used tofu and garbanzos as the "meaty" elements in my gumbo tonight, and of course used the traditional file powder and Tabsaco sauce to season things up. See the photo for the aromatics (onion, celery, bell pepper, carrot) I sauteed in olive oil before adding the browned flour, file powder, and a good quantity of veggie broth. Then I put in some garlic and bay leaves and a small can of diced tomatoes, slightly drained, plus salt and pepper. Brought it to a simmer, then added the tofu cubes , garbanzos, and okra. Simmered for about 30 minutes, until everything was nice and thick and smelling really good, then added several dashes of Tabasco (you can always add more to the bowl, so if you're not big on spicy foods, be conservative).

Meanwhile, cook up a pot of brown or white rice. Put small amounts of rice in bowls and ladle on the steaming gumbo. Top with some chopped parsley or cilantro, if you like.

Apologies to those of you who have been cooking up a traditional gumbo for decades. I'm not saying this version is better than your spicy, oily, sausage- and chicken- and seafood-laden recipe. It's just different, and quite tasty in its own right. And just maybe a little better on the arteries. And I get to call it gumbo because it's all about okra.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking okra gumbo tofu gumbo

Keen on quinoa

2006-09-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

I've been eating more of the ancient Aztec grain called quinoa (keen-wah) lately, tossing it in soups, steaming it to go with stir-fries, and letting it star in salads. It makes a great alternative to brown rice, which is my long-standing whole grain of choice for various and sundry dishes.

Because the quinoa grains are so small, I finely chop up the veggies I'm combining with it -- going for a confetti effect with the shapes and colors. Then I toss it all together with a simple vinaigrette and serve it on a bed of greens. Today I added wedges of sweet and succulent just-picked garden tomatoes.

It does make for a beautiful meal, doesn't it?
vegetarian food cooking quinoa salad

Soup heals

2006-09-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about my soup lust. I crave it often, for its soothing and warming and comforting goodness. And especially when cold and flu season rolls around, because soup heals.

There is something absolutely curative about a steaming bowl of homemade soup. Many mothers know this, and when the little ones get a tickle in their throats, out comes the soup pot. Chicken soup is a mainstream favorite, but vegetarians can make just as potent a concoction with nothing but vegetables, water, and a few seasonings. It really helps if you include a good quantity of love and other immune-boosting ingredients.

My neighbor LJM, of peach pie fame, has come down with a nasty chest thing and feels rotten. So I decided to cook up a pot of soup, to cure what ails her and to prevent the super-spouse and me from coming down with it.

Fortunately, I had a fridge full of GREAT veggies, so I didn't have to make a run to the store. I just chopped up some onion, celery, yellow squash, green beans, broccoli, and garlic and put them in a stockpot with a pretty good quantity of veggie broth. Added coconut milk, some homemade curry powder, and some tamari and brought her to a simmer.

That's when I added the soba noodles. I usually use rice noodles in a soup like this, for a Southeast Asian touch, or some cooked brown or basmati rice. This time I wanted the earthy goodness of buckwheat, though, and found a half package of soba in my pasta basket. Perfect!

Bear with me now. When the soup had come back to a boil, I added some white fish fillets. LJM said she needed protein and she had some fresh fish on hand that needed to be used, and so I used it. (NOTE: This soup would have been just as good, and better by some standards, without it.) Just laid the whole fillets right on top of the steaming soup, and then mounded a bunch of chopped chard on top of the fish. Put on the lid and simmered for about five minutes.

When I lifted the lid, the chard had barely wilted. I stirred it gently into the soup, and in the process the fish broke up into perfect bite-size pieces.

The final touch: lots of fresh ginger. I used my trusty microplane zester and in a flash I had added a good tablespoon or so of ginger "paste" to the soup. Another gentle stir and it was done.

It was delicious. I know the three of us are much better for having eaten it, fish and all. And I'm already looking forward to my next soup, maybe spicy lentils with cauliflower and spinach. I still have some beautiful veggies on hand.
vegetarian food cooking soba soup

Peach pie perfection

2006-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

Back from my summer vacation, it's time to put nose to grindstone and get back to the old routines. Well, that's not really how it feels in the cooking department. Being back in my home kitchen, with all my favorite cookware and serving ware and implements around me, feels like playtime!

And the produce in the market is so lovely right now. The best tomatoes and corn and beans and squash. Big fluffy bunches of basil so I can make up enough pesto to fill up the freezer so I can enjoy a taste of summer during the cold months.

And the fruit! OMG, the figs and berries and grapes and peaches! I could never decide which summer fruit is my favorite, but the peach is pretty near perfect. It's juicy and sweet and such a stunning color. And ephemeral. A peach can go from lovely to rotten in the matter of a few hours on a hot day. When you find a perfect peach, you must eat it immediately. I recommend standing in the yard taking big bites, with juice running down your chin, or baking succulent slices in a crust to make a pie.

My neighbor LJM did the latter recently and kindly shared it with the super-spouse and me. She used very little sugar, letting the peaches speak for themselves, and thickened the juice with a sprinkling of tapioca pearls. The pie tasted of sun and satisfied a deep hunger in us all.

It made me feel a bit wistful, though, because now I know summer is on the wane. Peach pie brings a message: Summer is passing and winter is not far off. Wake up! Savor the moment!

Not one to dwell on thoughts of the cold and the dark, though, I'm going to squeeze every dazzling drop out of summer. I'm dancing into the kitchen right now to play with my food!
vegetarian food cooking peaches pie

Retreat report

2006-08-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

Marin County sits just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. It is a hiker's paradise, encompassing both Mt. Tamalpais and Point Reyes National Seashore, with their hundreds of miles of trails and breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.

My women's group of 20 years has an annual get-together at a healing retreat center in a remote corner of Marin County. We convened there this past weekend, ten friends who know how to be present for each other without judgment or agendas. These few days a year when we gather together from our now widespread hometowns is such a delight!

We walk, frolic on the beach, meditate, swap stories, dance, sauna, sing, and do crafts together. We shed a few tears and laugh a lot. And of course we feast. My cooking contribution this year was Saturday night's meal.

My partner in the kitchen, who shall be called Lulu Coyote, shopped at her local farmers market and came bearing a cornucopia of beautiful fresh veggetables -- eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and squash -- in many sizes, shapes, and colors.

I made a filling of saffron rice, fresh herbs, garlic, and the suateed innards of said veggies, with which we filled the scopped out vegetables before baking them. Also on the menu: roasted green beans with peppers and sweet red onions and an arugula salad with heirloom tomatoes, basil pesto vinaigrette, and toasted pine nuts. Appetizer: Carrot garbanzo hummus I'd whipped up at home, with pita chips. Dessert: A birthday cake for Felicidad -- banana yogurt "pudding" spread between layers of yellow cake, the whole thing topped with berries and fresh peach slices -- made by C & D.

The meal was a succulent celebration of summer produce -- light and luscious and lovely to behold. However, I took only one photo -- of the wild and wonderful cake --being so caught up in the present moment that I couldn't be bothered with camera duties.

I'm home now, back in the big city, missing the silence of the woods and the crash of the sea, the closeness of my sisters. No doubt about it: such getaways help me stay grounded and happy with my lot.

May you nurture such friendships and celebrate them for years to come!

Tempeh, ole!

2006-08-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

There's a lot in the press these days about the downside of soy. After years of being told by nutritionists that it's good for us, we've been hearing lately that there are adverse health effects from eating soy products regularly.

Some of the "dangers" being reported have to do with thyroid problems and estrogen-driven cancers. If you have such health challenges, you should study up and make a truly informed decision about whether or not soy is good for you.

As for me, I plan to continue eating soy foods on a regular basis until the day I die at a ripe old age. Since I've been eating tofu, tempeh, edamame, soy sauce, and miso for decades with no ill effects, I feel perfectly comfortable keeping them in my diet.

Are there any tempeh virgins out there? This firm and chewy nutty-tasting soybean "patty" has Indonesian roots and pairs deliciously with all Asian seasonings. Sometimes, though, it's fun to bend the boundaries and take it in a different ethnic direction, like I did with the taco filling pictured here. It contains lots of different vegetables and seasonings from the Mexican flavor family: oregano, chili powder, and cumin. Also has a serrano chili chopped up in it and some cooked brown rice stirred in. The dish in the background is a chunky guacamole and some hot corn tortillas are wrapped in that towel. It was a delicious and, yes, health-enhancing repast.

Tempeh is a fermented product, meaning it contains live enzymes in abundance. That's always a good thing for our digestive systems, but other soy foods have their own claims to good-health fame.

Of course, folks who don't eat meat need good lowfat sources of protein, and soy fits the bill. That's one major reason to enjoy it in abundance.

My common sense tells me that the benefits of soy way outweigh the risks. I'm no doctor, but Andrew Weil is. So if you don't want to take my advice, here's some of his:

All told, based on the evidence to date, I see no reason to worry about eating soy foods, whether fermented or not. I still recommend consuming one to two servings of soy per day, an amount equivalent to one cup of soy milk, or one half cup of tofu, soy protein (tempeh) or soy nuts. -- Andrew Weil, M.D.

You can read lots more about the joy of soy at his website.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking tempeh vegetarian tacos soy

Hooray for frisee

2006-08-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

I'm in love with a frilly little lettuce called frisee (pro-nounced free-zay). As a member of the chicory family, it has a decidedly bitter flavor note. And we all know bitter greens are good for us, right? They stimulate digestion and help the secretion of bile, which keeps the liver working smoothly. (Over-simplified explanation, but that's the basic story as I understand it.) Chicory also provides good doses of fiber, calcium, and iron.

I like working with the bitter greens, learning to balance their palate-bracing flavor with sweet, salty, sour, and piquant notes. The goal of such experiments is to achieve a pleasing symmetry of taste, where no one flavor predominates.

Tonight's salad was a deliciously successful combination: frisee, red cabbage, and juicy golden heirloom tomatoes. Delicious with a quick and simple fresh basil and honey vinaigrette.

Here are basic instructions for making the latter (quantities approximate):

1) Put a small handful of fresh basil leaves in your blender.
2) Add about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar, and a teaspoon of honey, along with a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper.
3) Puree, then taste and correct the seasonings, if necessary.
4) Toss with your favorite bitter green salad mix.

I hope you'll start to play with frisee in your own kitchen.

Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking salad frisee chicory

Summer's essence

2006-08-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, as a matter of fact, it has been a month since my last blog. I can't believe it myself. I have a hunch, though, that there are many other bloggers like me, who somehow get extra busy in the summer and just don't find time to blog. I'm going to do better now, cross my heart.

So it's mid-August already. Cool, crisp, tart, refreshing. These are the hallmarks of my favorite summer foods -- salads, lots and lots of salads.

I eat other things, too, when the weather is warm. Corn on the cob, for instance -- briefly steamed and served plain, or with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of salt and ground chile, as the Mexicans enjoy it.

Also sandwiches, especially open-faced avocado sandwiches with fresh tomatoes, or with a bean spread or baba ghanoush. Or I'll saute some finely chopped fresh greens with lots of garlic, which are delicious piled on toasted baguette slices. Throw some pinnuts in with the greens and they're even better.

One particular salad combination that shows up regularly on my table is cucumbers and tomatoes, with olives and/or basil, and plenty of garlic. I keep the dressing very simply, with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice,salt, and pepper.

It tastes like the essence of summer to me. I know for sure these super-fresh foods nourish me with their vitality. Blessings and bon appetit!
vegetarian food cooking salad tomatoes