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

no stress baking!

i love recipes where you start with a solid base and then can just throw in whatever. usually this kind of laid back approach is confined to cooking, not baking. baking, in fact, is one of those things where people are all, "you HAVE to follow the recipe or it's gonna get all messed up." yeah, i respect that some forms of baking employ a certain careful chemistry that burritos or a stir fry do not, and that's cool. sometimes it's really satisfying to follow every step of a recipe to a T, and produce a flawless sponge cake or a beautiful cream pie (though i don't think i've actually ever made a sponge cake or cream pie...).

but some kinds of baking break away from that stringent, sometimes stressful chemistry and allow for wiggle room. let's call this "casual baking," good for quiet afternoons and any other situations when you want kitchen time to be relaxing, not intense or super focused. for instance, the cookies i made today: they resemble granola in the kaleidoscopic possibilities of fruit, nuts, and sweets that could go in them. and with banana, rolled oats and whole wheat flour, they are the closest to a healthy cookie you can really get without heading into the territory of wheat germ, kelp powder, hemp seeds, and the like. to the simple batter, i folded in chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, chocolate chunks, and a tiny bit of shredded coconut that was hiding out under some brown sugar on the baking shelf. i topped each cookie with the dregs of a bag of pecans and they turned out so well! any kinds of dried fruits, other seeds or nuts, carob chips, etc. would be great too...see below for the recipe.



"tim's** variation to pat walton's oatmeal cookies"
from the tassajara cookbook
~~makes about 4 dozen small cookies~~
~~takes about 1/2 hour, start to finish~~

-preheat the oven to 375 F.

- mix together 1/4 cup soy or rice milk with 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar. set aside.

- cream together 1 mashed banana, 1/4 cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons molasses, 3/4 cup liquid sweetener (brown rice syrup, honey or agave nectar), 3/4 tsp vanilla and 2.5 cups rolled oats. when all that is well combined, add in the soymilk and cider vinegar mixture.

- in another bowl, combine 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground clove.

- add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir gently to combine. then fold in 2.5 cups of whatever morsels you like. the original recipe calls for 1 cup of chopped pecans, 1 cup of chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup flaked coconut. but don't feel held to this! seriously, throw in all kind of odds and ends, the more the better.

- drop rough tablespoon sized pieces of batter on a well oiled baking sheet. your silpat, or any silicon baking sheet (or even parchment paper), is perfect for this, too.

- bake for 12 minutes and immediately transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack.

love,
emily

** who is tim? i don't know, but i like his style.