Summertime Corn and Vegetable Chowder
What do you do with a head of wilted lettuce languishing in the fridge, half frozen because your German mini-fridge can’t seem to maintain any temperature between equatorial and arctic? Make a corn and vegetable chowder of course! After my not-so-positive experience eating baked lettuce in Bertinoro, Italy, I was a bit skeptical about the whole cooked lettuce idea, but decided that I’d give it one more try. After all, I trust Peter Berley, and this is one of the first recipes in his cookbook Modern Vegetarian Kitchen.
- 3 ears corn, kernels scraped, cobs reserved (use 2 if they’re very large)
- 2 cups peeled and diced new potatoes, about half a pound (I needed more, about 3/4 of a pound to get 2 cups)
- 1/2 cup of peeled and diced celery root
- 4 cups cold water or vegetable broth
- 2 Tbs. olive oil or unsalted butter
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- salt and pepper
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 carrot, quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 pound diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 small head tender lettuce, cut into ribbons
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
- In a medium-large saucepan over high heat, combine the corn cobs, potatoes, celery root and water, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the potatoes crush easily, about 30 minutes. Let cool.
- In a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat, warm the butter. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onion is soft. Stir in the corn kernels, garlic, carrot, and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.
- Discard the corn cobs from the broth, then puree the remaining vegetables with a handheld blender. Add the puree to the other pot, and thin with water if necessary. Raise the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Stir in the lettuce and basil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes.
Yields 8 to 12 servings.
The original recipe called for celery, but I couldn’t find any at the market so I subbed in celery root. It also called for fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded, but I didn’t have any at the time. I was also low on basil, so just threw in a few slivered leaves of Thai basil. The quantity of corn kernels obtained from 3 ears corn was enormous. The soup was definitely dominated by the corn. I would not have known there were potatoes or celery root in the soup, but the puree added a base of flavor and a thick, stewlike quality that Derek really liked. He doesn’t normally care for soup, but he ate this one enthusiastically on at least 4 separate occasions (it made a lot of soup).
Although I was nervous about the cooked lettuce, I quite liked it in the soup. It had a silky quality similar to escarole, and a very mild green flavor. In the leftover soup, however, it got kind of stringy and unappealing, I thought. Derek didn’t seem to mind, but next time I might add the lettuce only in the portion to be served at each meal.
Although I liked this soup a lot the first day, I found the leftovers entirely unappealing, and not just because of the stringy lettuce. If I make it again, I’ll definitely cut the recipe down to make a smaller batch, and probably use fresh tomatoes, more basil, and less corn.
Derek commented: “This is the best vegetable soup I’ve ever had. Well, maybe not as good as at a super fancy gourmet restaurant, but definitely the best vegetable soup that you’ve ever made.”
Rating: B
Derek: B+
Better than S’mores
When Derek went to Cambridge last month, I asked him to bring back some H
obnob’s, the delicious oaty, not too sweet British “biscuits.” He couldn’t find Hobnob’s but brought back a similar oaty biscuit made by Mark and Spencer. These oat cookies have a certain similarity to graham crackers: a crumbly, almost flaky texture, with just a touch of sweetness. I love the graham cracker and chocolate part of Smore’s, but I was never too fond of the marshmallow component. Besides, most marshmallows aren’t really vegetarian. Despite its failings, the marshmallow does fill an essential S’mores role: you need something ooey gooey to hold the biscuit and chocolate together. Instead of marshmallows, I suggest peanut butter: it’s less artificial, contains less sugar, more protein, and is much, much tastier. Smear one Hobnob biscuit with a thin layer of all-natural, salted peanut butter, and top with a square of dark chocolate. Please, use a good quality dark chocolate, not a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar; that stuff is just sugar and paraffin wax. I recommend Scharffenberger’s nibby dark chocolate. If you want the chocolate a bit soft and melted, give it a second in the microwave or a hot oven, or (my preferred, all-natural method) just leave your better than S’mores sitting in a sunny window for 10 minutes. These peanut better than s’mores are probably the simplest, tastiest, most satisfying desserts / snacks I’ve had in a long time. Plus, each one is only slightly over 150 calories (hobnob = 60, 1/2 Tbs. peanut butter = 50, one large square of dark chocolate = 50).
Rating: A-
Smoked Mozzarella Polenta
A few years ago we were invited to a friend of a friend’s house for dinner, and one of the side dishes they made left an indelible impression. It was a simple white bean dish made with smoked gruyere, which both Derek and I really liked. Smoked gruyere is hard to find, so I tried to replicate it once with smoked gouda, but it was a disaster. The cheese was all stringy rather than creamy, and the flavor wasn’t right at all.
Last week Derek bought smoked mozzarella at the local cheese shop, and when trying to figure out what to do with it he suggested putting it in polenta. I only had cornmeal, not coarse polenta, so we improvised this dish, which ended up having many of the same delicious qualities of that original bean dish: smoky, savory, and very creamy.
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 4 cups of water
- cayenne
- paprika
- salt
- 1/2 ball smoked mozzarella, torn into small pieces
- olive oil or butter?
- Add the cornmeal to a 2 quart pot, and pour in the water (cold). Mix, then turn on the heat to high and bring to a boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to the minimum, and add the spices. Simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. You may need to stir occasionally or put the lid on to avoid splatters.
- When the polenta is ready, added the shredded mozzarella and olive oil or butter if you want a richer dish. Stir to mix. The cheese should melt completely, and you should be left with a perfectly smooth, uniform porridge.
- Serve immediately, and top with garlicky greens or oven-roasted mushrooms or another vegetable of your choice. A vegetable medley with white beans would also be nice.
Rating: B+
Derek: B
Zucchini and Tofu in Roasted Chili Paste
This is currently my favorite way to eat Thai roasted chili paste. This recipe from Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott is simple and satisfying. For more color, use half yellow squash, but add it slightly before the zucchini as it’s slower to cook. Alternatively, throw in a handful of halved cherry tomatoes when you add the tofu.
- 10 – 14 ounces medium-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 tsp. – 3 Tbs. vegetable oil
- 1 Tbs. coarsely chopped garlic (4 to 6 cloves)
- 1 large onion (about 10? ounces), cut lengthwise into thick strips
- 3 medium or 2 large zucchini, cut into 1/4 inch rounds (about 1.5 pounds?)
- 3 Tbs. roasted chili paste
- 1/4 cup vegetable stock
- 2 tsp. soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt (omit or reduce if your vegetable stock is salted)
- Heat a wok or a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook until shiny, fragrant, and softened, about 1 minute. Add the zucchini and cook, tossing occasionally, until shiny, tender, and a brilliant green, about 2 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the chili paste, vegetable stock, soy sauce, and salt. Toss well. Add the tofu and cook, giving it an occasional gentle toss, until it is heated through and evenly coated with the sauce, about 1 minute. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot or warm.
Serves 4.
Rating: B+
Derek: A-
Shriveled green beans, red pepper and tofu in thai roasted chili paste
This is a tasty summertime recipe that’s very quick to make (if you already have the chili paste made). Just put on your rice a little while before you start prepping, and by the time it’s done dinner will be ready.
- 2 tsp. vegetable oil
- 1 medium red onion, cut into thin rings
- large bag of green beans (1 pound?), stemmed and long beans broken in half, washed, and dried well
- 1 Tbs. palm sugar or brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 – 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 3/4 pound medium-firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 Tbs. coarsely chopped garlic (4 to 6 cloves, optional)
- 2 Tbs. thai roasted chili paste
- 1 Tbs. water
- 1/2 cup loosely packed Thai basil, ribboned
- Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed 9-inch skillet over high heat. When hot, add the red onion, stirring frequently until just beginning to soften, about 2 minutes.
- Add the green beans, keeping the heat on high. Next add the sugar and salt, and mix well. Stir constantly, until the green beans start to brown and shrivel up a tad, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, red bell pepper, the tofu, the chili paste, and the water, and gently stir to combine. Cover, turn heat to medium-low, and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes, until the red pepper is shiny and beginning to wilt.
- Sprinkle with the ribboned basil, and serve immediately, with brown rice.
Serves 3-4 as a one-dish meal, with brown rice.
Notes:
The green beans will be slightly shriveled and brown with this recipe–adding the salt and sugar early on helps draw out the moisture, and carmelizes the sugar. To make them even more like the green beans served in a Chinese restaurant, I want to try either pre-salting them, or roasting them in the oven briefly before stir-frying them.
The Thai basil is really essential: it adds add a fresh bright floral note on top of the tangy explosive sauce. If you can’t find Thai basil perhaps try substituting regular basil or mint.
Cutting the tofu into very large cubes helps keep them from breaking up too much, and adds visual appeal. Make sure to use a Chinese-style tofu that’s firm but not too firm. Many of the brands available in organic stores in Montreal and Germany were hard as a rock, and sour, and would be awful in this dish. If the tofu doesn’t taste good raw, leave it out.
If your sauce is really fiery, you’ll want to serve this with a refreshing beverage, like tamarind juice or iced tea or ginger lemonade.
Rating: B
Derek Rating: A-
Thai Roasted Chili Paste
A few years ago I made the Roasted Chili Paste (Nahm prik pao) from Nancie McDermott’s cookbook Real Vegetarian Thai. We used it in a recipe with butternut squash and spinach, and everyone enjoyed it. For some reason, however, I never made it again, until this summer. I gave my mom my big Kitchenaid spice grinder with the washable bowl, since it won’t work in Germany, but she didn’t know what to do with it, since she already had a normal coffee grinder. I suggested she make Thai roasted chili paste in it, and she wanted me to show her how, so we cracked open her pristine copy of Real Vegetarian Thai, and made half a batch of Roasted Chili Paste. After tasting it and discovering how utterly delicious it is, we felt foolish for only making half a batch!
- 3/4 cup loosely packed small dried red chilies such as chilies de arbol or chiles japones (about 48), stemmed, halved crosswise (about 3/4 ounce)
- almost a cup of unpeeled shallots, cut lengthwise into chunks, about 4.5 ounces
- generous 1/3 cup unpeeled garlic cloves (12 to 15 large cloves), about 2 1/4 ounces
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (my mom uses 3/8 cup, and the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup)
- 1/4 cup palm sugar or brown sugar
- 1/4 cup tamarind liquid
- 1.5 Tbs. soy sauce
- 1.5 tsp. salt
- Measure out the chilies, shallots, and garlic, and cut the shallots as specified.
- In a wok or heavy skillet, dry-fry the chilies over medium-low heat until they darken and become fragrant and brittle, 3 to 5 minutes. Shake the pan and stir frequently as they roast. Remove from the heat and transfer to a plate to cool.
- Increase the heat to medium and dry-fry the shallots and garlic, turning them occasionally, until they are softened, wilted, and blistered, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to the plate to cool.
- Stem the chilies and shake out and discard most (but not all) of the seeds. Break any large chilies into smaller pieces. Trim the shallots and garlic, discarding the peel and root ends, and chop coarsely. Combine the garlic, shallots, and chilies in a mini processor, blender, or spice grinder, and pulse to a coarse paste, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add 1/4 cup of the vegetable oil and grind to a fairly smooth paste.
- Pour the remaining 1/4 cup oil into the wok or skillet. Place over medium heat until a bit of the paste added to the pan sizzles at once, about 1 minute. Add the ground chili paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until the paste gradually darkens and releases a rich fragrance, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- When the paste is cool, add the sugar, tamarind, soy sauce, and salt and mix well. The paste will be quite oily, and must be stirred before each use. Transfer to a jar, cap tightly, and refrigerate for up to 1 month. Use at room temperature in recipes or as a condiment.
Makes 1 3/4 cups.
Notes:
I love this versatile sauce, as did my mom, and Derek. It’s spicy, sweet, salty, and just a tad sour from the tamarind. Make a big batch and keep it in the fridge, and you’ll be glad. It’s quite a bit of work, but it lasts in the fridge for a month. With this sauce it’s super easy to whip up a quick Thai weeknight dinner, that tastes like something you’d get at a Thai restaurant. My mom and I used it in a dish with zucchini and tofu, which we scarfed down. Derek and I made a green bean, tofu, and red pepper version which was almost as delicious. The original recipe I tried was a vitamin packed butternut squash and spinach hot pot. I’ll post the recipes separately.
If you have a thai mortar and pestle you can make the paste the traditional way, adding oil little by little to grind the sauce to a fine paste.
You can buy Nahm prik pao in an Asian grocery store, but it will ususally contain fish sauce and dried shrimp.
Open a window and turn on the stove fan if you can while frying and seeding the chilies–otherwise your whole house will be spicy and everyone will be coughing all day.
This version gives a rich, tangy chili-tamarind paste softened by the brown sugar. For a more pure, fiery version skip step 6.
How to make tamarind “liquid”: To get the required tamarind paste, soak 1/2 cup of tamarind pulp/seeds (the kind that comes in a hard brick) in 1 cup warm water for 30 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to break it up a bit, then use a wooden spoon to push the pulp through a fine mesh sieve, getting out as much tamarind paste as possible. You’ll have extra tamarind paste leftover–store it in the freezer. It won’t freeze, but will stay soft and ready to use at a moment’s notice in any Thai or Indian dish, or as a substitute for lemon juice. Pour boiling water over the remaining seeds and stringy paste, and let sit for 30 minutes. Strain it and use it for a nice cooling Thai beverage–tamarind juice/tea. Add a bit of honey or maple syrup if it’s too sour for you.
The first time I made this with my mom I was religious about getting out all the seeds, and the final paste was delicious, but totally without heat. The next time I was less conscientious, and the paste was appropriately fiery. Derek ate a few Tablespoons of it and then sat around in a numb daze after dinner.
The original recipe yields a very oily sauce, and then all the recipes that call for it have you cook the vegetables in more oil, which results in very tasty but overly greasy dishes. So I reduced the oil a bit the second time I made it, and although the final dishes were still oily, they weren’t unpleasantly greasy.
Try to choose peppers that aren’t too tiny, as the tiny ones are really hard to seed.
I was initially hesitant because the recipe seems to call for a lot of salt, but you only use a few Tbs. of this sauce in a whole dish, so it doesn’t end up being too salty. Really.
Rating: A- (soon to become an A?)
Derek Rating: A
White Flour Tortillas
Back in the 70’s, when my parents lived on a farm in Tennessee, my mom used to make hundreds of tortillas. She stopped making them once we moved to Austin, where tasty and cheap tortillas are readily available. Thus, I never learned how to make tortillas myself. However, the quality of tortillas available in Saarbruecken is quite low. I’m sure like other Texans I’ll get homesick for tortillas, so I asked her to show me how to make them.
- 1 cup white wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. oil
- 6 Tbs. water
- Whisk dry ingredients together. Add oil. Mix with wooden spoon, mixing as little as possible. Over-working the dough will result in a stiff dough and tough not tender tortillas. Add 3 Tbs. of water all at once and mix. Add remaining 3 Tbs. of water and mix again. Next use your hands to form the dough into a ball. If the dough is sticky add a little more flour. If there are bits of dough that won’t stay incorporated into the dough ball, add another teaspoon or two of water. Divide dough into four or five balls.
- Preheat cast iron skillet on medium heat.
- Sprinkle flour on counter. Roll one dough ball around to lightly coat with flour. Press ball into a flat four-inch disk. Use a rolling pin to roll the disk into a thin circle, sized to fit your skillet, about 8 to 9 inches in diameter. Use the same method to roll the dough as is used to roll out a pie crust: always roll from the center of the disk.
- Place tortilla in dry, pre-heated skillet (still on medium heat), and cook until the top starts to bubble (about 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on how hot your skillet is). Flip. Cook for 30 seconds on second side.
- Eat immediately or stack and cover with a lightly damp cloth. To keep warm, wrap the tortillas in foil and place in a warm oven.
Makes 4 to 5 tortillas. Tortillas will be thicker and slightly larger if you make four, and thinner and slightly smaller in diameter if you make five.
My Notes:
I really enjoyed these flour tortillas. They’re just like the Austin tortillas I grew up on: a bit puffy, nice and chewy, and browned in just a few spots. They’re pretty easy to make too, if you don’t count getting the flour off of everything.
My sister Hanaleah really liked them too. Her comment: “I want another one. Why’d you only make four???” So the second time we made them we doubled the recipe, but everyone was still pining for another even after their second tortilla.
The homesicktexan recipe I link to above is similar to this one except that they use milk instead of water, and they use three times as much baking powder. The also knead the dough briefly and then let it rest for 20 minutes. I’m curious to see how their tortillas differ from this one. We also want to try making whole wheat tortillas. Stay tuned.
A month of travel
I left Montreal at the end of July, visited all three U.S. coasts, then finally arrived in Germany a few days ago. In my month of travels I made and ate lots of tasty food:
- I had my first all-raw meal, at Pure Food and Wine, in NYC, with my friend Alekz.
- I made lots of Thai food with my mom: we experimented with lots of Thai curries, a thai satay peanut sauce, and a marvelous Thai chili paste that was great on zucchini and tofu
- My mom and I also tried our hand at veggie sushi, with brown rice, and a wasabi “mayo”
- My mom and I made (twice) the most recent recipe in our food club: a zucchini, onion, tomato gratin from Cook’s Illustrated
- My mom showed my sister and I how to make flour tortillas from scratch
- Alekz and I made another batch of Thai lime and chili peanut butter cookies, and also attempted a vegan version, with some advice from my mom
- My friend Amira bought a huge box of peaches from the “Old Man Retirement Project” farm, near Sacramento. We attacked the box of peaches and made peach chutney, pickled peaches, peach jam, peach tea, and peach butter. I added peaches to pico de gallo, and cheekily dubbed it “peacho de gallo.” Amira’s husband Jack made us peach pie, and Amira made a tasty salad with peaches. Probably my absolute favorite peach concoction, however, I created from the the delicious, extremely fresh trail mix Amira made for our hike. I topped the trail mix with one chopped peach, a big splash of whole milk, and a dash of cinnamon. Best “cereal” ever.
- I had a lovely meal at Cha-ya, a japanese vegetarian restaurant in the mission. Their yamagobo roll was excellent, and I enjoyed my curried noodle soup, although it could have used a tad more vegetables.
- I got a chance to eat at Ajanta restaurant in Berkeley, and talk to the owner and cookbook writer. I asked him if there was any way to speed up his carrot halvah recipe, perhaps by using cream instead of milk. He said the carrot wouldn’t get as caramelized and it wouldn’t be as good. Sadly, there was no carrot halvah on the menu at the restaurant. The owner said it was because a) people see carrots on a dessert menu and get turned off, and b) people have had lots of sub-par carrot halvah and have low expectations. For my main dish I ordered a mixed-squash curry, with potatoes. The sauce was very good, but the zucchini and yellow squash didn’t add much. I liked the potatoes much more. We asked the owner for the recipe for the sauce, and he gave me a rough estimate of what to do. Later in the week Amira and I tried our hand at re-creating it, but using cauliflower instead of squash. It didn’t quite come out like the one in the restaurant–a bit too sweet and the spices weren’t quite right. I’m going to try it again though and post about it here.
- My friend Amy took me to Vic’s Indian supply store in Berkeley, and I was shocked to discover that I’d never heard of about half the items on the shelves. After all these years eating Indian, I had no idea that there are so many kinds of dal I still haven’t tried.
- At Tacubaya in Berkeley I had a very simple, fresh, and delicious bowl of mexican pinto beans with all the fixings. I also took a look at their cookbook and I’m excited to try to vegetarianize their recipe for tortilla soup. It looks very promising. I scribbled down some notes, but if anyone has the original recipe and would like to share, please send me an email!
- Katrina made me a delicious salad with watermelon, tomato, radishes, mint, and feta, and a very tasty spread made of greek yogurt and feta and mint.
- Together Katrina and I made beet greens, and another night bok choy. Both times we cooked them with ginger and garlic and they were impossibly good.
- I tagged along with Katrina on a wine tour in the Napa Valley. My favorite was Sterling Vineyards. We got to taste and compare three different years of the same wine, and get a better understanding of what happens to wine as it ages.
- Katrina and I took a tour of the Sharffenberger factory. The whole building smells delicious, the tour was really interesting, we got to try lots of samples, and we managed to snag the last two boxes of chocolate nibs in the store, as well as lots of great chocolate bars. Derek really liked the milk chocolate bar with almonds and sea salt that I brought him. He said “this is better than any chocolate I’ve had in Germany”!. My favorite was the nibby chocolate bar, both milk and dark. Now I’m reinspired to make the Sharffenberger chocolate cookies from Alice Medrich’s cookbook, that I made and loved many years ago. Unfortunately, none of my cookie sheets will fit in my oven in Germany, so I’m going to have to buy new cookie sheets or borrow someone’s kitchen with a bigger oven.
- I returned to Gobo in the Village, but sadly I couldn’t remember which dish it was I liked so much the last time we went. If only I had written a review!
- Once in Germany, Derek and I made a very tasty pasta salad: whole wheat pasta, mint, feta, roasted tomatoes, and broccoli prepared Cook’s Illustrated style. It was delicious.
