spring salad

Last week I was shopping at Tony's Finer Foods, the grocery store that's only a quarter mile from my house. I go there a lot. It's strengths are dirt cheap, freshly made corn and flour tortillas; a huge produce section that includes everything you would want for Mexican or Central American cooking; a wide array of dried beans. It has a pretty good selection of general grocery items, but there are certain things you will never find there. You can't swing by and pick up quinoa or rice milk or kale, or flour tortillas made without vegetable shortening. (They actually do have rice milk, I think, but it's so expensive that I doubt anyone ever buys it.)

The produce isn't exactly local or seasonal, but they do have good citrus all winter from Florida and California. Last week I scored a huge bag of ruby red grapefruit. So sweet and juicy! I used it in a Simple Spring Salad, following the recipe on 101cookbooks.com but leaving out the red onion. This is a terrific basic salad that we ate all week. It's good without the nuts and olives, too.

I realized that it's a variation on my favorite fall and winter salad. For that, I use cubed, roasted butternut squash, toasted walnuts or pecans, and a dressing of walnut oil or olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vingegar, apple cider, a little minced shallot, and salt and pepper. If I was feeling ambitious, I might reduce the apple cider for a more intense flavor. A nutty cheese, like manchego, would be a nice addition.

Really, any salad made of freshly toasted nuts, some baby greens, and a light vinaigrette is going to be a winner; just add seasonal produce that has some sweetness. This would definitely work with apples, raspberries, beets, strawberries, and other winter squashes. Roasted sweet potato. Dried fruit, definitely. What wouldn't work? Parsnips, carrots, summer squash, white potatoes, pineapple. Tomatoes, cucumber, turnips, rutabega . . . the list goes on. Maybe the criteria should be "fruits or vegetables that you could use to make a pie." (That would cut beets right off the list, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice in order to come up with a universal rule.)

Freshly roasted nuts, like freshly squeezed lemon juice, are laborious but worth the effort. I ususally roast mine in the oven at 350 degrees, stirring every five minutes until fragrant and just golden brown. When they are almost done, I check them every two minutes. You can also make them on the stovetop in a skillet, but I tend to burn them when I go that route. If you try it, watch those nuts like a hawk. People swoon over freshly roasted nuts, especially pecans.

Jamaican patties, peanut butter and jam calzone

I was going to make something else for dinner Friday, but as soon as I saw this recipe for Jamaican veggie patties on 101cookbooks.com, I changed course. They are awfully cute and I love anything with coconut milk. Plus, I had most of the ingredients on hand, including some cabbage and frozen peas that were burning a hole in my pocket. Plus also, the season finale of Battlestar Galactica was on, and this seemed suitably festive. More festive than rice and vegetables, or whatever other humdrum dish I'd had in mind.

The little pies turned out very tasty and rich. Between the coconut milk in the filling and the coconut oil in the crust, the fat content is pretty well up there. But coconut oil supposedly contains a fatty acid that's rare in the American diet, so I always feel good, if not virtuous, about eating it. (There's even a "coconut oil diet," which is one of the more delicious-sounding fad diets out there.)



The next day, Mike and I went hiking at the Morton Arboretum. Hiking might be putting it strongly, because the arboretum is extremely well manicured, more like a park than a forest, and it costs eleven dollars to get in. But it does have many miles of hiking trails, and we didn't want to deal with the muddiness of a state park. We took the leftover pies for lunch, and they make decent hiking food: compact, high calorie, sturdy. But it seems a pity to schlep a relatively elegant and subtly spiced savory pie around in a backpack and devour it while sitting on a stump. It at least deserves reheating and a plate. No, hiking calls for rustic and childlike dishes: peanut butter sandwiches, trail mix, apples, oatmeal cookies.

This gave me an idea. I envisioned the perfect hiking food: a hand pie filled with peanut butter and jam. A fat-and-flour pie crust would be too greasy, so I thought a yeasted crust, like a calzone, would be the way to go. I had to give it a try.

Peanut Butter and Jam Calzone

I started by making a batch of basic whole wheat bread dough, which I do every week anyway. I used the recipe from Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day, which is very similar to a recipe on orangette that I've made before. The first recipe is "no-knead" and has to sit for at least a couple hours; the second requires kneading; both have good results. After making your dough and either kneading it or letting it sit for a while, refrigerate it for at least an hour. This will make it easier to work with. Position a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven and preheat to 450 degrees. (If you don't have a pizza stone, try baking the calzones on a greased cookie sheet. I bet this would work fine.)

Roll out the dough as if you are making a pizza to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Then cut out circles of dough, using a small bowl as a guide. (My bowl is 3-4 inches in diameter.)



Next, top your dough with a tablespoon of peanut butter and about the same amount of jam, or less.



Fold over the dough into a semicircle, and crimp the edges:



To prevent puffiness, slash or prick the top of your pie, creating a hole for steam to escape. Using a pizza peel, slide the pie into the oven and on to the pizza stone. Check it after ten minutes; mine took about twelve minutes to bake after the stone was fully heated up. When the pie is golden brown, it's done. (If you use a cookie sheet, the baking time will be longer.)






It occurs to me that these would be perfect for a child's lunchbox, like a homemade version of Uncrustables. Or would they mortify a child who just wants a sandwich like everyone else? And really, why go to all this trouble when you can make a peanut butter sandwich in about two minutes?

Don't get me wrong, I think they are awesome. I just ate two. I couldn't help myself, and now I'm full and feel like taking a nap even though it's only midmorning. Here are my tweaks for next time:

1. Roll the dough as thin as possible.
2. Use more peanut butter and jam.
   
3. Do not overcook.

This batch of pies has a high bread-to-filling ratio, and the bread is rather chewy, so I might try to shift that ratio. Also, I'll try baking on a cookie sheet to see what that does to the texture.

esoteric flours

It's the twentieth day of the month, the first day of spring, and we've spent all but about $20.00 of the food budget. It's an extremely ambitious budget, less than half of what we were spending on food previously, and we'll probably just decide to run over. Or I could go for the gold, using up ingredients on hand like dry pasta and beans, brown rice, and flours, and buying only the cheapest of produce to round it out. I'm sure we could survive, but by the end of the month, we would be having some dreary and carb-heavy meals. So no, I'd rather revise the budget upward. Maybe I'll allow myself 50 more dollars. It will still be a big improvement over previous habits, which involved filling little cardboard boxes at the Whole Foods hot bar with madras tofu and cooked greens, and tubs of Cedars of Lebanon hummus.

I am trying to chip away at my collection of esoteric flours. Last summer, I undertook several baking projects that required the purchase of white rice flour, corn flour, barley flour, oat flour, amaranth flour, and quinoa flour. I've used up the quinoa flour, which makes great pancakes. The rest are taking up space in my refrigerator, and I'd like to consume them before they grow stale. To that end, I made Oatmeal Snacks and Barley Spice Muffins, from the back of the Arrowhead Mills Oat Flour and Barley Flour packages, respectively. The Oatmeal Snacks are cookies, and they turned out quite delicious. They fall apart easily, as baked goods made with oat flour tend to do, but they are meltingly buttery and unctuous. The Barley Spice Muffins are perfectly good and serviceable muffins, and have a nice texture. Immediately after baking them, I didn't think they were especially great, but the next day they tasted wonderful. I don't know if they improved overnight, or if it's just me. Mike likes them and has been taking a few to work each day for breakfast.

Oatmeal Snacks
based on the recipe from the back of the Arrowhead Mills Organic Oat Flour package

1 egg
1/2 c. melted butter
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. brown rice syrup*
1 c. oat flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. cardamom
1 1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. Beat egg; add other liquid ingredients and blend thoroughly. Stir dry ingredients together, making certain there are no lumps. Add to liquids and mix well. Stir in oatmeal and nuts. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes.
*The original recipe called for 1/2 c. honey; I ran short and subbed rice syrup.


Barley Spice Muffins
based on the recipe from the back of the Arrowhead Mills Organic Barley Flour package

1 c. barley flour
1 c. oat flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. sea salt
2 t. cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. honey
3/4 c. soy milk, mixed with a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar*
1/2 c. raisins

Preheat oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients together. In separate bowl mix wet ingredients together well. Combine the two mixtures, being careful not to overmix. Add raisins. Fill oiled muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until done.

*original recipe called for 3/4 c. buttermilk



I can now congratulate myself on having used up the oat flour and barley flour. I may tackle the amaranth flour next.

orangette's lemon cake and frozen yogurt

I find orangette's blog extremely comforting. I have no idea if the real person Molly Wizenberg has a life that feels like the blog does, that has that urbane tone, or even if it's possible for a life to be like the blog that chronicles it. The blog brings into existence a world and a narrator who are about beauty, pleasure, leisure, and fulfillment. I guess correspondence to reality is beside the point. Narrative in general is comforting to me, even if some of the details are upsetting. Orangette definitely has that spark of narrative magic.

One great benefit of unemployment is that I've had ample time to read. It's great. I've torn through a couple books this week, and I love the drug of getting swept up in narrative. Also, I've been making use of the public library, so the pleasure is guilt free. No books accumulating around the house; no shameful amazon packages arriving. I read Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte and All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels. Both are enjoyable reads. Giffels is quirky and brilliant and a terrific writer. Hesser's a well-known food journalist and the book has recipes, none of which I've tried yet, but they look good.

I've been dipping into Orangette's recipes, as I read her archived posts. I recently made her French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon. Actually, I made it twice, once using eggs, another time eggless (replacing eggs with extra yogurt and some Ener-G Egg Substitute, if I remember correctly). The eggless version tasted good; the texture was crumblier than the egged version. It's a simple cake, not flashy. I love the fresh lemonyness of it, clean and elegant. I did jazz it up with a side of frozen yogurt, which is the easiest possible frozen dessert and delicious.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

4 cups Brown Cow Cream Top Plain yogurt
1/4 cup agave syrup (you might want to start with less and add more to taste)
1 t. vanilla extract

Whisk the yogurt with agave syrup and vanilla extract. Taste and add more syrup if necessary. Freeze in ice-cream maker according to basic instructions. I use agave syrup here because it mixes directly into the yogurt and has a nice clean taste. Honey or maple syrup would be tasty too, but would contribute more flavor to your final blend. Or you could use presweetened vanilla yogurt. I haven't found a yogurt that I like as well as Brown Cow.

juicy pizza

Homemade pizza is my security blanket dinner to serve to guests. Just about everyone likes pizza, and I've made it many times. It's pretty hard to ruin if you have a pizza stone or hearth stone. My vice is overloading the pizza with too many toppings and too much sauce. I know an authentic and artful pizza is restrained, even spare, in its composition, but I like the excess of a big, heavily laden piece.

This past weekend we had house guests, and I had all my pizza-making ingredients ready. But we went out to dinner at the sublime Spacca Napoli, and didn't feel like having pizza a second time. (Besides, who wants to be second act to pizza made in a stone oven imported from Naples?) So last night I made a batch of pizza for just Mike and me. I didn't try to make it pretty or round. I never do. I like the rustic look of oval or kidney-shaped pizzas.

Often I use Follow Your Heart soy mozzarella, but our lousy, inadequate Whole Foods was sold out. (Harsh? Maybe, but this Whole Foods has serious problems keeping stuff in stock. Also, it was famously closed down for days by the Department of Health due to rat droppings. It's not exactly a flagship store.) So I used cow's milk mozzarella and soft goat cheese on a couple of pizzas, and made another one cheeseless.







These have red and green pepper, artichoke hearts (the kind you get frozen at Trader Joe's, defrosted and seasoned with a little white wine vinegar), mushrooms, a light sprinkling of kalamata olives, and thick red sauce. I know this is wrong, but I use a simple marinara sauce on pizza. It's just chopped garlic sauteed with a heavy sprinkling of dried or fresh oregano and thyme, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, plus a large can of crushed tomatoes, simmered together for at least twenty minutes. The heavy layers of mushrooms, peppers, and sauce make the pizza relatively juicy. I usually make a crust from bread flour, but this time I used mostly whole wheat flour, and it was delicious and tender, not at all heavy. It may have helped that the dough sat in the refrigerator for five days, giving it plenty of time to ferment or for the enzymes to act, or whatever magic happens to bread dough that sits for days.

This is the same pizza I've made at least a dozen times. Next time I resolve to branch out, but there's something to be said for a big fat overloaded pizza, dripping with sauce.

happiness project

I really like Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project blog and website. I'm happiness-challenged, and I think it would be good to make some happiness resolutions and follow them. Especially now that I'm not working and won't be interacting with my coworkers on a daily basis.

I can tell after only a quick scan of the Happiness Project site that there are plenty of things I might do to be happier. The one thing I do absolutely right is get enough sleep. I'm pretty good about getting in a solid eight hours.

Here's a truly happy individual, Mars, the most beautiful one-eyed, two-toothed cat in the world.

bad falafel, good falafel

Last night I made falafel, with misgivings. Because you can get inexpensive, expertly made falafel at any Middle Eastern restaurant, why slave over them at home? But I don't live near a ready source of falafel, and I was inspired by some chickpea-based veggie burgers that turned out really good.

I used the falafel recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance as my base. I then tried to saute, rather than deep fry, the falafel patties in a cast-iron skillet. This didn't work at all. The surfaces of the patties became golden brown, but the insides stayed wet and mushy. I then decided to retrench and fry the falafels as directed in Vegan with a Vengeance. Big mistake. I don't know if the fact that the patties were previously sauteed caused big problems or what, but the patties fell apart and became a big greasy mess.


Ugh. I hate frying food. The hot oil smell makes me feel queasy, and it creates a huge mess. Mike and I picked at the soggy, greasy falafel for a few minutes before throwing them away. Even though the falafel were disgusting, there was still something hypnotically compelling about them, crying out "eat me!" as all fried foods do.

I still had half my falafel batter left, so it was time for Take 2: Baked Falafel. With some help from the resourceful Ellie Krieger, I baked the rest of the patties for about 3o minutes (her recipe calls for 40 minutes, but after 30 they seemed well done). Finally, good falafel. These held together, tasted right, and made a great sandwich. Serve in a pita, with chopped tomato, lettuce, and tahini dressing.



All-purpose tahini dressing

1/4 c. tahini
juice of one lemon
one clove garlic, finely minced
2 T. white or yellow miso
1-2 T. chopped parsley
1-2 T. sesame seeds
1/4 c. water

Combine the above in a clean glass jar. Shake until well combined. Taste, and add as needed: soy sauce if not salty enough; more water if too thick; more lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if not tangy enough. If you are using a very salty miso, start with less. Or leave out the miso entirely and replace with 1 T. soy sauce in the original recipe.

This is good on salad and as a topping for sauteed kale as well as in pita sandwiches.