The Culinary Questionnaire

Inspired by the "My Stuff" questionnaire in Vanity Fair magazine, which usually features famous artsy types talking about their favorite linens and perfumes, but this month featuring Chef April Bloomfield (of NYC's Spotted Pig - yum!) talking about food, I submit the following culinary favorites of mine.  You?

Spice-Cabinet Must-Haves:  cumin, cayenne, cilantro, coriander, cilantro, cinnamon (do we see a pattern here?)

My Go-To Recipe:  Thai coconut curry

Favorite Cookbook:  Jacques Pepin's La Technique/La Methode

Must-Have Kitchen  Tools:  My carbon steel chef's knife with the wooden handle, sharpening steel, cutting board, blender.

Dream Kitchen Tools:  Kitchenaid mixer, a proper-sized food processor (as opposed to my mini Cuisinart)

Yay, Bugs!

Every year, I release upwards of 10,000 ladybugs into my garden to fight those pesky little white flies called aphids that munch on my rose bushes.  You can buy ladybugs at the garden store - I get mine at Sloat Garden Center and release a couple thousand of them every month.  It's way easier than crushing the aphids with your fingers or spraying stuff all over the plants.

Turns out, one in five flowering plants are attractive to ladybugs and other beneficial insects.  Sloat has a recipe for planting a "Good Bug Tub" which includes flowers native to California:

Blue bedder penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus var. purdyii)
Dwarf blue lupine (Lupinus nanus)
Seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus)
Coyote mint (Monardella villosa)
California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Tidy tips (Layia platyglossa)

 More details on the Sloat website:  http://sloatgardens.com/custom_garden_design/good_bug_tub.htm

Awesome Sauce Redux

Rice paper salad rolls with a side of Awesome

Biz gave me this recipe a few years ago. It's fresh, lively, and herbal. Biz, our friend Tim, and I ate it on everything for an entire summer: salad, cooked veggies, rice, quinoa. Play around with the herbs, and throw in handfuls of whatever's handy.

It's basically a pesto, sans diary, and it's vegan, if you replace the honey with a hippie sweetener (agave, maple, etc.). I always think I've made too much, but then it disappears in a couple of days.

One batch = about a pint

 Recently, I found my original hand scratched recipe (no doubt dictated by Biz over a bottle of wine on her porch, on a lovely summer evening in Woodacre). I thought I'd share the written recipe, instead of typing it out. The paper version is so homey and used; I love it.

You can make substitutions where you see fit, and make it thinner or thicker by adjusting the water (I use just a tablespoon or two), just don't leave out the orange juice (squeeze it yourself), ginger, or garlic. Substitute avocado for the oil, if you want. You can exclude the soy sauce, and up the salt (or not). Also, I add four or five cloves of garlic. Is one clove ever enough for anything? And I throw in loads more herbs than the recipe calls for.

The original recipe, c. 2006 (you won't need that much water!)

Instructions: Chop up the herbs by hand first, then throw everything in a blender. I always start with the garlic, ginger, and seeds, so I can be sure they are blended to a fine consistency, then add the herbs and liquids. Blend until smooth. Awesome Sauce will thicken, and the flavors will meld in the fridge, but you might not be able to wait that long. Keeps for about 5 days. Enjoy!

Kale, No Excuses

OK, one more kale recipe - this one's got a fantastically light yet flavorful peanut dressing.  We have now gathered here no fewer than four, count 'em, four delicious recipes for kale, ensuring you have plenty of options and no excuses for not getting enough dark leafy greens, a crucial source of calcium, fiber, iron, and a million other good-for-you things.

I promise to move onto another food group with my upcoming posts, but this one I couldn't resist sharing.  Thank you, Judy Lewenthal Daniel, for turning me on to the website TheKitchn (www.thekitchn.com) from whence this recipe and the accompanying photo hail.

When I make this salad I screw around with the ratio of kale to peppers to carrots depending on what I have in the fridge, but recommend you always have one of the sweet red/orange variety to balance the bitterness in the kale and the acidity of the vinegar.  The dressing recipe is perfect, so don't mess with it.

This salad is so freakin' delicious!

Kale Slaw with Peanut Dressing
serves 6 to 8
2 large bunches curly or lacinato kale, about 2 pounds
2 red bell peppers, cleaned and cut into fine strips
1 large carrot, peeled
3/4 cup roasted, salted peanuts, divided
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon packed light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
Fold each leaf of kale in half lengthwise and slice out the center rib. Discard ribs. Roll a stack of the leaves up and slice in half lengthwise, then crosswise into very fine ribbons. You will have 10 to 12 cups of finely chopped kale in the end. Wash and rinse thoroughly in a salad spinner.
Toss the kale with the sliced bell peppers. Slice the carrot very thin, either by creating curls with a peeler, or by running the halved carrot lengthwise down a mandoline. Toss with the kale, red pepper, and 1/2 cup of the peanuts.
In a chopper or small food processor, briefly puree the remaining 1/4 cup peanuts, oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper flakes. Pulse it just a few times; the peanuts should be partially pureed, but with some nibs and nubs still left in the dressing. (The texture difference between the whole peanuts, ground peanuts, and pureed peanuts in the sauce is one of the things that makes this slaw so wonderful.)
Toss the dressing with the slaw and let it sit for at least a few minutes before serving.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

My friend Biz turned me onto this recipe a few years ago, and I've tried many variations. I believe hers called for Medjool dates (probably soaked in water for a few hours) as a sweetener, but I like to use raw agave nectar because it's convenient, and there's always a bottle on hand in my kitchen. You could probably just as easily use honey, brown rice syrup, or regular old sugar to make this incredibly easy, surprisingly delicious chocolate mousse. Whether you're a diehard raw food enthusiast, or you just like rich desserts, this one is a crowd pleaser.  Your dinner guests won't be able to guess that it took 5 minutes to make, and that it's good for you.

2 very ripe avocados
1/3 C cocoa powder
1/2 C agave nectar
optional:
almond or rice milk (to thin the mixture, if desired)
a little vanilla (bean or extract)
couple Tbls of coconut oil (if you wanted to use it to frost a cake)

Raw ingredients, and almost TOO easy!

A high-speed blender works best for this recipe, but you can whip it up in a food processor or a regular blender, too. I suppose you could even do it by hand, but blending makes it silky smooth like regular mousse. I use about 1/4 C of almond milk, and make it in two batches in my blender, because my old Osterizer was made back when my parents were in grade school, and it won't blend very well, unless I add liquid. If you wanted to use dates instead of agave, you would want to use the date water to thin the mixture. Refrigerate the mousse and let set for a while. I've heard you can freeze it like ice cream, too, but have never tried that.

It just took me twice as long to write this post as it did to make the mousse. Try it out next time you over-buy avocados. It's super rich and yummy. I like it with some crushed walnuts sprinkled on top, or with a sliced banana. Enjoy!

Makeshift Greenhouse

Who knew that a north-facing laundry room could double as a greenhouse? 

When I planted these babies during that hot spell in late February, I was rolling the dice, figuring that if spring had arrived early, I'd have quite a jump on tomato season.  (I am so smart, thought I.)  If it turned cold again and killed everything, I'd have only wasted a couple of plants.  Well, winter returned with a vengeance and in a fit of insanity, I brought all of the potted plants indoors, covered the laundry room table with a tarp and hoped for the best. 

Ta-da!  Check out my tomato plants - they're growing like crazy!  And, this, in a room that the sunshine never hits.  Apparently there's just enough light to keep everybody alive - two tomato plants, parsley, cilantro and a couple of random house plants - woo hoo!

What's in Your Fridge?

My refrigerator is about a thousand years old, missing the bottom shelf, and is held together with duct tape. It's on the List of Things to Replace, but it's gotten me this far, so a new one is not very high on the list. The exterior of my house needs a serious paint job, and two trees need to be removed from my property; a new fridge will have to wait. I think a refrigerator says a lot about a person. It's akin to looking through someone's music collection, or underwear drawer.

It looks like a jumbled mess, perhaps, but I know where everything is, and I'm fanatical about throwing things away, so it's pretty clean. The bottom drawer is problematic, since it's missing its glass cover/shelf, causing the massive pile-up of fruits, and veggies. You gotta dig around a little.

Eat your veggies!

Must-haves: Almond milk, lemons, baby foo-foo lettuces, and Anchor Steam Beer

My freezer, on the other hand, is more easily navigated. It contains exactly six things: coffee, sweet potato fries, home made vegetable stock, steel cut oats, tempeh, ice. Sometimes, there is vodka.

Siberia.

At least it's clean, right?

The outside of one's refrigerator often tells a story, too, of course. Although, since most people have stainless steel refrigerators these, days, I might be the last one with magnets, old pictures, and grocery lists on the front of mine.

Peach comes from within.

What's in your fridge, Sissy? (No fair staging it first!)

Franny, is this a competition?  'Cause I think I win... Erin

Always on hand: eggs, kale, cabbage, carrots, leftover mashed potatoes, Veuve Cliquot and St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc.

Why there are two copies of the same photo of Dad up there, I'll never know.  You and I have the same taste in fridge magnets.

Crazy Fijian ingredients that Suli keeps in my awesome bottom drawer freezer plus endless loaves of gluten-free bread and some Amy's frozen dinners, just in case.