hi ho cherry o

remember this board game from when we were little kids? it was always one of my favorites. i loved the smooth, spherical plastic cherries and the way they nested so gently in the holes cut out of the cardboard tree. i can't remember much about the rules or logistics of the game but the tactile pleasure of those tiny fake cherries has stayed with me for a long time.

i desperately love real cherries, too. up until a few years ago, i had only ever eaten your standard bing cherries (mostly from the regular grocery store and often lacking pizazz), but through my old job at capogiro, i was exposed to a nice array of local cherry varietals, usually in the form of perfect vegan sorbets. over the past few summers i have allowed myself to splurge on an organic quart or two from the farmer's market, and relish each bite into the taut skin of the fruit, and the adolescent fun of spitting the pit into the garden or out of the window of a moving car.

so what an unpleasant surprise it was when the heaping quart of blushing sour cherries from our CSA proved to be too sour to snack on! i wanted to buck up and make myself enjoy their intense mouth puckering tartness but i just couldn't force it. like in so many other desperate times, i called in for back up: butter and sugar to the rescue!


this cobbler, which is about a million times easier than making a pie, is everything i could have ever asked for out of these crimson beauts. seriously! the bright, piquant sourness of the raw cherries are tamed into a mysterious submission by the other ingredients and hang time in the oven. the topping, which is just the right amount of rich and sweet, keeps the whole thing from being too damn serious.

Sour Cherry Cobbler
adapted from an old ass Gourmet Magazine (RIP)
~takes about 1.5 hours, including baking time
ingredients:
4 cups of sour cherries, rinsed, drained and pitted - save any and all juices from the pitting process!
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour, or any other decent baking flour of your choosing (spelt might be nice!)
1 teaspoon double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using vegan margarine)
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter or Earth Balance
- preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

- combine the pitted cherries and their juices with the cornstarch, 2/3 cup sugar, orange and lime juices, and almond or vanilla extract. stir well to combine and set aside.


- in a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and the 2 tablespoons sugar. add the butter or margarine by breaking it off into little pieces with your fingers and dropping it into the dry ingredients. using a pastry cutter, a fork, or just your fingers mix it all together until the dough is kind of coarse and sandy.

- add 1/4 cup boiling water to the dough and gently stir until it's just mixed. set aside.

- put the cherry mixture into a pot. bring it to a gentle boil over a medium flame. stir to dissolve any remaining sugar and take off the heat.

- pour the warm cherry mixture into a lightly greased oven proof pie plate, an 8-inch cast iron skillet, or any other baking vessel you like. drop the cobbler dough in small, rough pieces on top, covering as much of the cherry filling as possible (see image above).

- bake on the middle rack of the oven for 45-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the crimson insides are bubbling.

- allow it to cool a bit, then dish it up. a tiny scoop of ice cream sends you on a rocket ship to the planet Summertime. good for an indulgent breakfast, too!

love,
emily

evil twin

on a whim the other week, i brought a nice cache of fresh fennel back from the superfresh (goddamn, i miss the farmer's market). once breaking two lovely bulbs down, i realized it was just too much fennel for one dish. well, it would've been the perfect amount for tomato soup with two fennels, but we were in the midst of a spell of warm weather, and i was feeling kinda souped out.

so in the interest of diversification, i tried two very different approaches to preparing this licorice scented beaut. the first was a crunchy, tangy salad that plays the clean, citrusy flavors of grapefruit off the clean, sharp flavors of the fennel. a handful of thinly sliced red onion added a pungency which popped against a backdrop of tender lettuce leaves. i then dressed this pink and purple melange with a light shower of orange juice, mild honey, red wine vinegar and xvo. this salad brought a fierce brightness to the plate, which is just what a winter salad should do. it would be a great compliment to a rich entree of stew, pasta, or braised protein.


i reserved the other half of the fennel slivers for another night, which, in typical spring fashion, was as cold and rainy as the previous night had been warm and breezy. so, i decided to take a totally opposite direction, with an easy, fuss free recipe from the stellar The Essential NY Times Cookbook by amanda hesser. the fennel is steamed for just under ten minutes, and then sauced with a chile-infused olive oil, and a touch of salt and pepper. i lined the plate with a bed of arugula in a half assed attempt to squeeze some more greens into my diet.

i really love vegetables that are equally good cooked and raw, and fennel really wins in both cases. it's so hard to imagine when eating it in its sweet and crunchy raw state that it can also be transformed into a silky version of itself. these two wildly different treatments of fennel reminds me of that always enthralling narrative theme - the evil twin. like, the raw fennel salad is cheery, sweet and straightforward, while the spicy, steamed fennel is mysterious, rich, almost musky. ok, i'll stop personifying my food and just get on with recipe already.

Steamed Fennel with Spicy Olive Oil
adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser
~takes about 15 minutes~

ingredients:
1-2 fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced thinly (i mean, really you can make this with as much or little fennel as you'd like - just adjust the amount of olive oil)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes, depending on how much spiciness you enjoy

- place the fennel in a steaming basket over a pot of gently boiling water. steam until tender, 5-7 minutes.

- in the meantime, put the olive oil in a small pot over a very, very low flame. after it is gently warmed, turn the heat off and swirl in the red pepper flakes. set this aside. if you are in the habit of making your own olive oil infusions, this would be a wonderful opportunity to skip this step entirely and use your ready-to-go flavored oil.

- when the fennel is done, plate it as artfully or messily as you care to. gently drizzle the infused olive oil over it, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper, to taste.

while you eat it, listen to this song and think about all the awesomely dangerous, selfish and lascivious things you would do if you had an evil twin.

love,
emily

go go romesco

i'm starting to think all dressings, sauces, purees and dang near anything else that will eventually "dress" another food, should have nuts included. we've recently come into a good quantity of almonds (thanks costco!) and raw cashews (thanks even more, tffac!), and using them up has been glorious. i don't know about you guys, but nuts in this house are a major commodity - expensive, nutritious, and sure to enhance everything they touch.

lauren brought home some lovely little new potatoes from the italian market yesterday, the kind that are smaller than eggs and perfect for roasting. even though the weather has been warmer lately (praise be!), we're still a few months away from the sweltering summer when turning the oven on is nothing short of masochistic.

so we cut the cute taters in half, prepped some zucchini, onions and carrots, and tossed the whole mess with olive oil, paprika, s&p. slid the pan into a 350F oven for 20 minutes. it should always be this easy.

but naked veggies (even ones gently roasted to perfection, thank you a-very much) are for especially lazy days, and we were both feeling more motivated last night. after thumbing through a few cookbooks, inspiration struck: romesco sauce! this almond, hazelnut, and/or pine nut-based sauce is thick and robust, and a super classy alternative to ketchup to accompany potatoes. and best of all, it's so easy. don't let the fancy name or european roots of this dude mislead you; it is not one bit harder than making hummus or bean dip. romesco is a cousin of pesto and tapenade in that it wears many food hats: it can be thinned out and tossed with pasta, spread as a sandwich condiment, spooned onto crackers or extra spicy as a dip for vegetables.

or just eat it straight out of the bowl!

if you have the ingredients in your pantry (and i'd bet you do), consider making an extra large batch - some for tonight's dinner, and some to have on hand for the coming week. believe me, it will give you many happy returns when you're standing at the open fridge pondering "what little snacks await me?"

Salsa Romesco

adapted from "The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen" by Donna Klein

~makes about 1.5 cups~

~takes 10 minutes~

ingredients:

1/2 cup nuts - any combo of almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, or pine nuts

2-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small dried chili pepper or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or more to taste)

2 medium tomatoes, fresh or canned (she says to seed them, but i don't think it's necessary)

1 tsp paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup olive oil (extra virgin, or not)

1-1.5 tbsp red vine vinegar (i bet red wine + a squeeze of lemon juice would be good, too)

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (fully optional)

-in the toaster oven (or real oven at 350F, if you must), toast the nuts. take care not to burn them! i used to always burn nuts when i meant to toast them. it sucks. let them cool a bit.

- put the nuts, garlic, chili and salt in a food processor and pulse til ground.

- add everything else and let the processor run until you've got a nice, red, nutty sauce. you might need to scrape down the sides a few times to make sure it's well combined.

- if you have the time, let the romesco cool, so the flavors can meld. or if you don't have time, don't worry!

- added bonus: i'm reasonably sure that a small scoop of romesco sauce atop half a roasted new potato counts as "tapas," and would be an awesome addition to an at-home happy hour!

love,

emily

3 for the week

whoa! hey guys...where have i been? it's been nearly 2 months since my last post, a wee statistic i'm not so proud of. but i have a few good reasons for my absence, as listed below:

1. laziness and inertia. these factors simply cannot be discounted, for they are powerful and can creep in without you hardly noticing.

2. like sissy lauren, i too have been enjoying some dairy products in my diet. and so i've been asking myself, "what to do about this vegan food blog?" while it has been fun to experiment with new ingredients, a lot of the food coming out of our kitchen is still totally vegan. nevertheless, i have been second guessing myself about writing here. like - do i disclose? and if so, how? and should we rename the blog, or just keep on keepin on? i can sometimes overthink things. anyway, looks like i just came out, so at least that part is out of the way. as for what to do with/call this blog, well that is still under discussion. i will just assert that the mindful addition of milk, eggs, and cheese to my diet has really been fun and exciting, and the lil pangs of guilt i felt at first are long gone.

3. i got a new job! a really good job, one far away from cappuccinos and customer service. a 9 to 5er, in fact! my livelihood is now earned behind a small desk in a tiny, cozy office that's mine all mine. i keep the heat cranked to 70 F, drink french press coffee, do my work, listen to music and stare at a computer all the live long day. so when i come home, often the last thing i want to do is look at another screen. i'm sure many of you can identify. the day-job has led to other wonderful quality-of-life improvements, including evenings and weekends full of freedom. from this stable schedule, healthy things have arisen - namely going to the gym more and cooking way more than i used to.

in fact, one of my new favorite traditions is using sunday night as my alone time/recovery from the weekend revelries, preparing things to eat throughout the week. see, i made this pact with myself that i would only buy lunch out once or less a week. and for the past 8 weeks, i've totally stuck with it! going out for lunch just adds up too quickly, you know what i'm saying? it's also an easy way to eat all kinds of crap that you don't even want.

so while ryan is at work, adam is at band practice, and lauren is out potluck-ing, i pad around in my pajamas (even at 8PM! what a funny old lady i'm becoming), thumb through cookbooks and make food until i am simply too tired to continue.

for the past few sundays, i've made three things for the week: granola, a soup, and an entree. usually i eat some of the entree for dinner on sunday too. there's nothing like instant gratification, especially when good smells have been circling around you for a few hours.

this process is so meditative for me. i listen to a succession of records that i pull from the shelf without even looking - everything sounds good when you're alone and cooking. if i'm feeling jaunty (and not too hungover), i'll nurse a glass of wine or vodka soda. with any luck, i have my ingredients out and a plan at least half formulated in my head. if not, i figure it out as i go.

this past sunday, i started with a "braised tofu" recipe by mark bittman. i use the quotes to highlight my skepticism - ok, i don't even really know what braising is, but i don't think it is the right bit of vocabulary for this recipe. i'd just skip the pretense and call it a coconut tofu curry, since that sound great to me (i crave something with coconut milk in it at least weekly). regardless, the recipe starts with a cool technique that i've never used before to start a curry: you puree canned tomatoes with onion segments until it's all, you know, pureed up. this mixture the base for what i came to think of as indian gravy.


then you heat it over a medium flame and stir in a touch of olive oil, S&P, and 2 tablespoons of curry powder (i used 1 tblsp of garam masala and 1 of "bawa spice," a homemade curry made by our dearest halimah). i put some jasmine rice on at this point, since to me a curry without rice just seems naked. you know how to make rice, right? cool.

let the curry gravy briskly simmer for 15 minutes. then add 3 cups of chopped vegetables (in this case blanched cauliflower, broccoli and peas) and 1 pound of cubed tofu. cook longer, 7 more minutes?

the final and best step is adding in the can of coconut milk. it's so extravagant pouring the silky, rich cream all through the pan. my cast iron was almost overflowing! i had to resist the urge to sip right from the side of the cast iron.


lunch & dinner for the week! next time, i might add some red pepper flakes for a little more kick, but it's alright. big red aka sriracha peppered this batch right up.

as that was finishing up, i started a tomato soup, also from bittman. full disclosure: 99% of the recipes i've been making since christmas are from mark bittman's "how to cook everything vegetarian." it is so, so good, and extensive, and clear, and he's got this funny dad sense of humor that i find touching. so the tomato soup was from there, and pretty basic, and i will choose not rehash every step of the process here. but, come to think of it, it turned out super well, so i'll just copy the recipe below...anyway, what makes a better lunch that tomato soup? there is nothing better.

so as discussed in the past, the granola part is easy; i don't even use a recipe anymore. i just dump some oats in a bowl and stir in a drop of vanilla extract, a splash of veggie oil, a bigger splash of maple syrup, the tiniest pinch of salt, and whatever else we have around (this week it was hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas and golden flax seeds). spread the mixture out on a pan, and toast at 350F for 20 minutes, stirring every once in awhile. these twenty minutes provide a good time to have a small dish of the curry and/or soup.

when it's all done, i admire the lovely simplicity of the fresh granola. screw a $5 box of cereal.

at this point, maybe 9 or 9:30, i'm usually on the last round of dishes. even though we have a dishwasher in this house, i kind of look forward to doing the dishes, as the act brings some closure on my kitchen session. everything is packed nicely in tupperwarees in the fridge, and i feel accomplished. the food in those containers is a gift that the me of sunday is giving to the me of all week. and, there is a certain feeling of safety that comes with knowing that there is a stash of well made food in your possession that is ready to go when you are. it makes the dawning of another monday not something to dread, but something to anticipate. well, anticipate lunch time, at least.

Tomato Soup by Mark Bittman, from "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian"

ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme, or (more likely) a big pinch of dried thyme leaves
S&P
3 cups of diced canned tomatoes
2-3 cups of veg stock or water
soy/rice milk, creamer, cow milk, heavy cream, or sour cream (optional)

- heat the olive oil gently, and add the tomato paste. stir it around for a minute or two.

- add the onions, carrots, and turn the heat to medium. stir and heat this mixture up for a few minutes. add the thyme, and S&P.

- pour in the tomatoes, juice and all, and bring the mixture up to a low boil. lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. the tomatoes should start to break apart.

- add the stock or water and let it get hot again. try it. are the carrots and onions tender? if so, the soup is done. if you like creamy soup (and how i do), put your immersion blend to work. then if even creamier is your goal, slowly add a vegan or non vegan creaming agent until you acheive your desired shade of light red. i added in two very small dollops of sour cream, which helped to smooth out the flavor in a subtle way.

- obviously, if the veggies aren't tender yet, keep cooking it til they are. and if you're in the middle of other stuff, or have the time to develop a deeper flavor, you can keep this soup on a very low simmer for as long as you want. i let this batch go for 20 or so extra minutes.

it sounds too simple to be true, but this soup is tomatoe-y perfection...best comfort food!

love,
emily

honey i squashed the salad

squash usually signifies fall cooking to me. i mean, sure, there's a whole category of "summer squash" but really, zucchini is just something that tastes good on the grill (zucchini, baby, i didn't mean it, i love you). but oh, the bounty of fall, the family of "winter squash", these truly warm my heart and my belly in a time when i need it most.

kicking off the fall squash-ables is this delectable roasted pumpkin salad sent to me by my culinary confidante mary. this recipe reminds me of her cooking that i miss so much, i knew i had to make it asap. pumpkin (or squash) and shallots (or onions) are roasted until squishy and caramelized, then tossed with wild rice and a cilantro-sunflower seed dressing. pretty darn simple when all you really do is prep the veggies and then roast 'em for 45 minutes and the rice takes 45 minutes too! in the last few minutes you throw the dressing together in the food processor, mix everything up and eat! dinner in under and hour, and leg work comes in at under 15 minutes. enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Salad
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

3 cups butternut (or any winter) squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt

12 small shallots, peeled
2 cups cooked wild rice*

1/3 cup pumpkin (or sunflower) seeds
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Toss the squash with olive oil and salt and put on a baking sheet. Do the same with the shallots and put those on a separate baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, giving them a good shake every 15 minutes or so to evenly roast. Everything should be nice and soft and caramelized by the time it's done.

Now get your wild rice going, because it takes about 45 minutes too! Rinse 1 1/2 cups of the wild rice. Bring the rice and 4 1/2 cups salted water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for 40 minutes or until rice is tender and splitting open, stirring occasionally. This makes a little extra, but you'll find something else to put it in!

Now that the rice is simmering and the veggies are roasting, you have about 30 minutes to do whatever. Go watch the simpsons, but make sure to give everything a stir during the commercial breaks. With about 5 minutes left on everything, get going on the dressing. With a hand blender or food processor puree the pumpkin seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and honey until creamy. You'll probably want to add a few tablespoons of warm water to thin the dressing a bit. Stir in the cilantro, saving a little for garnish. Taste and adjust for salt.

In a large bowl, toss the wild rice with a large dollop of the dressing. Gently toss the squash and onions into the rice. Finish with another drizzle of dressing and any remaining chopped cilantro. Enjoy the taste of fall.