Two fall recipes from Fresh Food Fast
In the past month I’ve made a number of really tasty recipes from the Spring section of Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast. This week I tried two from the fall section. I know it’s June not September, but it’s been a cool Spring and there are very few locally grown vegetables at the market. I figure if I’m buying vegetables from Southern France, Spain, or Italy I might as well buy cauliflower, tomatoes, and mushrooms. However, after trying these two recipes I regretted the decision to stray from the spring menus, as I didn’t like the two fall recipes as much. I’m going back to the spring menus. Next up: sesame noodles with tofu “steaks” and baby bok choy.
The first recipe was for a wild mushroom fricassee over farro. First, there are a few minor problems with the recipe.
- The ingredient list calls for 3 Tbs. of olive oil, but the instructions only ever say to use 2 Tbs. of the oil (with the mushrooms). The onion is cooked in butter, so I’m not sure where the last tablespoon of olive oil is supposed to go. I simply left it out.
- The header says that farro is another word for spelt. From what I can tell, farro is not spelt; it is a different variety of wheat called emmer wheat. However, there is clearly some confusion about the name, and it’s possible that in some locations/times the name farro has been used to describe spelt as well as emmer wheat.
- The header says that farro can be cooked on the stove top in about 25 minutes, but my farro was more than al dente after about 25 minutes simmering on the stovetop. My farro took about 40 minutes to soften. Also, even after cooking the farro for 40 minutes I had water left. I would try 3.5 cups of water for 1.5 cups of farro. Is it possible that my heat was just too low, and if I had raised the heat the farro would have cooked in 25 minutes and used up all the water?
The recipe came out as I imagine it was supposed to taste–roasted, slightly chewy mushrooms in an earthy, wine-y sauce, seasoned with herbs of the forest (rosemary, thyme, parsley). I only cut the fat down slightly, using just under 2 Tbs. of olive oil and almost the full 2 Tbs. of butter. Despite all the fat, the dish didn’t taste particularly rich to me. (Certainly not like the rich mushrooms I’ve gotten as appetizers at restaurants.) The dish simply didn’t excite me. I don’t think there is really anything wrong with the recipe, it just didn’t suit my palate. Derek liked it a little better than me, but wasn’t excited enough to seek out the leftovers.
This recipe has a certain similarity to the mushroom-wine flavored stroganoff in Vegan with a Vengeance, but this one has more mushrooms and less sauce. Although I liked the higher proportion of mushrooms, I prefer that recipe over this one. In that recipe the intensity of the wine and herbs and mushrooms are balanced by the addition of a little mustard, soymilk, and nutritional yeast, and the addition of seitan adds textural variety. This recipe was just too strong and uniform tasting for me to eat as a main dish. As a few bites in an appetizer it would have been fine, but I got sick of it quickly. One thing that I liked in this recipe (more than the VwV one) was that more of the mushroom’s texture was preserved. Nonetheless, despite being able to recognize each of the mushrooms, I was disappointed to find that I couldn’t taste the individual mushrooms at all. I had splurged and bought a number of expensive mushrooms like chantarelles, oysters, and shiitakes, but in the end they all tasted exactly the same to me. I felt like I had wasted my expensive mushrooms. I don’t think I’ll make this recipe again. I did like the combination of the farro and mushrooms though. Next time I make the VwV stroganoff recipe I’m going to try serving it on farro instead of pasta. I might also try cooking the mushrooms for the stroganoff dish in the oven instead of on the stovetop.
The second recipe I made from the fall section was pasta with spicy cauliflower, chickpeas, and cherry tomatoes. I was intrigued by the idea of cooking a pasta sauce on a baking sheet in the oven, and I had all the ingredients except the delicata squash (which I’ve never seen in Germany) so I thought I would give it a shot, substituting green beans for the squash. I was a little nervous about leaving my baking sheet in a 500 degree oven without anything on it. I’m not sure what the coating is on the baking sheets that came with my German oven, but if it’s some kind of non-stick stuff then maybe leaving it empty in a 500 degree oven is not the best idea. I did it anyway.
The ingredient list is a little vague. (What is a “small” cauliflower, or a “medium” red onion or carrot?) The instructions say that the vegetables should fit in a single layer on the baking sheet. My baking sheet was very large, yet still my vegetables seemed to be too crowded. I’m not sure whether I would say that they formed a single layer or not, but I felt like it was too much for a half pound of pasta. I was surprised to find that Berley has you toss the vegetables with 3/4 white wine before putting them in the oven. The blanched vegetables contributed a bit of water of their own (despite being drained), and in the end the cookie sheet seemed to have too many vegetables and too much liquid on it. Nonetheless, I put the cookie sheet in the oven. I was watching the thermometer in the oven, and the temperature quickly dropped after I had put in the vegetables, from 500 to around 300. I thought it would come back up but even after 15 minutes it had only gotten to 350 (I had to open it once to stir the vegetables, according to Berley). I don’t know if this temperature drop is a problem, or normal. My oven is brand new and a good quality brand. Whatever the reason, my vegetables ended up steaming a bit. They still got browned on top, but when I pulled them out the colors were a bit muted, and everything was still a bit soupy. The onion was particularly faded looking and unappealing.
I tossed the vegetables with the pasta and added the garnishes, but it just didn’t taste that good. I couldn’t detect either the saffron or the cumin, or the acid from the white wine. Mostly it just tasted like somewhat sodden vegetables and oil. Despite reducing the oil from 8! Tbs. to 6 Tbs., I found the dish to be too greasy. Derek didn’t care for it either.
I’m guessing that if my cookie sheet had been less crowded. my oven had been able to get back up to temp, and I had used all the oil, then this recipe would have come out better. But I don’t really have any confidence that I would be able to carry it off with another try. Even if I could, the seasoning is a bit boring I think, and there’s too much oil. I won’t be making this recipe again. I’d prefer to make a cauliflower curry, an oven-roasted tomato sauce, or even the saffron flavored broccoli and cauliflower recipe from 101 cookbooks.
Two other complaints about the (otherwise quite excellent) cookbook. The index is, as always, incomplete. Here are just a few examples: When I look up asparagus I find only one recipe mentioned, but I know for a fact that asparagus is an ingredient in at least four menus. I couldn’t find sugar snap peas under either peas, sugar, or snap. There’s no entry for mint, despite the fact that the tabouleh recipe calls for 2 cups of it! I remembered there was a harissa dish but couldn’t find it under either harissa or Moroccan. Also, I would like it if the recipes came with at least a short introduction–something about why Berley likes the recipe, or chose to put it in the book, or a story about the recipe. Some of the recipe headers are about the recipe, but many are not. Instead, they often provide comments about one particular ingredient, or list variations or substitutions.
Roasted tomato pasta sauce
Sitting on my counter yesterday were a number of cherry tomatoes that had started to go a bit soft. They were still good, but not fresh enough to eat out of hand. I thought I would turn them into a nice (and fast) pasta sauce, by roasting them in the oven on a cookie sheet. I roughly followed the instructions in a Cook’s Illustrated recipe, but I halved the recipe and made a few changes.
- 1 small shallot, sliced thin
- 2 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 pound cherry tomatoes (about 1.5 pints), each tomato halved pole to pole
- 1/4 tsp. salt + extra for pasta water
- 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
- 3/4 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
- 1/3 pound whole wheat rigatoni
- 2 Tbs. torn basil leaves
- parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, gently toss the tomatoes with 5 tsp. of oil, salt, pepper flakes, black pepper, sugar, vinegar, and garlic. Spread in even layer on rimmed baking sheet (about 17 by 12 inches). In the same bowl, toss shallots with 1 teaspoon oil; scatter shallots over tomatoes.
- Roast until edges of shallots begin to brown and tomato skins are slightly shriveled (tomatoes should retain their shape), 35 to 40 minutes. (Do not stir tomatoes during roasting.) Remove tomatoes from oven and cool 5 to 10 minutes.
- While tomatoes cook, bring 2 quarts water to boil in large stockpot. Just before removing tomatoes from oven, stir 1 tsp. salt and pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain pasta and add to the large bowl you used for the tomatoes. Using a metal spatula, scrape the tomato mixture into the bowl on top of the pasta. Add the basil and toss to combine. Serve immediately, sprinkling cheese over individual bowls.
My changes: The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of pasta but I think that’s too much for the amount of sauce, so I made 1/3 pound. I didn’t have quite enough cherry tomatoes so I also used some small, dark-brown tomatoes I had bought for sandwiches. I missed the shallot instructions, and just mixed them in with all the other ingredients, rather than lying them on top of the tomatoes. I didn’t measure my balsamic vinegar, just sprayed some on top of the tomatoes.
My tomatoes cooked significantly faster than they were supposed to. I think it was due to a combination of factors: I halved the recipe, so the cookie sheet wasn’t as full; I left the fan on in my own; and my cookie sheet is a very dark black. According to CI, the halved recipe was supposed to serve 2 to 3, but I thought that the amount of sauce was a little skimpy even for two people. For two people I think next time I would use 1.5 pounds tomatoes, and up all the other ingredients by 50%, except the olive oil.
The sauce was quite good–the tomatoes were still quite pulpy and clung to the pasta, but despite not really being saucy they did taste like a sauce. I was afraid that the tomato skins would be tough or annoying, but I didn’t even notice them. The sauce had a very roasted flavor, from the browned bits of shallot and tomato skin. I would make this recipe again, but next time I would serve something else substantial and low-calorie alongside it. I think I could eat infinite bowls of pasta and this tomato sauce without feeling full. Maybe a white bean soup or a chickpea salad would be a nice accompaniment, or a big bowl of steamed vegetables tossed with lemon juice and fresh herbs?
On a second try I doubled the recipe, and it still didn’t really fill my cookie sheet, so next time I’ll try 2.5 pounds of tomatoes. I didn’t have shallots, so used a small red onion instead, which was also good. I served the pasta sauce with polenta and a dish of zucchini and eggplant and egg in a little Thai red curry. It was a nice dinner.
Thai-ish tofu and green beans with whole wheat pasta
I threw together this dish for lunch today, with various things I scrounged from the fridge. I didn’t measure, so all amounts are a guess. This recipe is similar to one I posted last year for green beans, red peppers, and tofu in a Thai chili paste, but its less fiery, and the addition of pasta and nutritional yeast and sesame seeds makes it taste a bit more co-op pan-Asian and a bit less Thai.
- 2? Tbs. toasted sesame seeds
- 2-4? tsp. oil
- small onion
- 1/4 – 1/3 pounds very firm tofu
- salt
- nutritional yeast
- black pepper
- 2 scallions
- about 3 cups of green beans
- 1/4? cup white wine
- 1? Tbs. soy sauce
- 1/4? cup water
- 1/2-1? tsp. Thai red curry paste
- 2 cups of cooked, chunky, whole wheat pasta
- 1/2 cucumber (with peel), cut into 1-inch chunks
- a small handful of mint and a small handful of basil, torn into small pieces
- Wash and snap green beans. Slice the onion into rings. Cube the tofu into 1-inch cubes.
- In a medium pan (I used a 3 quart slope-sided pan), toast the sesame seeds over medium-high heat. When the seeds start to brown and smell fragrant, pour them onto a large plate or bowl.
- In the same pan, add enough oil just to lightly coat the bottom. Heat the oil on medium-high until hot, then add the tofu and onion rings in a single layer. Sprinkle on salt and nutritional yeast, and let cook until the bottom has browned. Meanwhile, chop up a few scallions. Use a metal spatula to scrape up the tofu and stir it around so another side gets browned. When the tofu is brown enough for your taste, add the chopped scallions and sprinkle on more yeast and some black pepper. Fry briefly just to wilt the scallions, then remove the tofu and onions to the plate with the sesame seeds. Use your metal spatula to try to scrape up any cooked on tofu bits, but you won’t be able to get them all. That’s okay.
- Keep the pan on medium-high and add a little more oil to the now-empty pan, and when the oil is hot add the green beans. Stir-fry the beans briefly, until all the beans are slightly browned. Then add the Thai red curry paste and the cooked pasta. Stir to distribute. Add a little white wine, soy sauce, and water to deglaze the pan. Immediately cover the pan and let the green beans steam for a few minutes, until they’re just tender crisp. Meanwhile, cut up the cucumber and tear the herbs. Remove the lid and cook on high until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, and all that’s left is a bit of glistening glaze. Remove the pan from the heat, throw in the tofu and onions and sesame from the plate, the cucumber, and the torn mint and basil leaves. Stir to coat everything with the glaze.
- Serve immediately.
This dish made a very satisfying lunch for two. The basil was essential I thought. The mint and basil combo was good, but if you just have basil that would work as well. (Thai basil would be especially good.) The onion added a little depth and sweetness, and the little bit of curry paste added a nice bit of spice. I also liked the earthiness that the sesame seeds added. It might seem odd to add cucumber to a cooked dish like this, but it adds a moistness and crunch that is a nice contrast to the cooked green beans and soft tofu. If you don’t have cucumbers, radishes or halved cherry tomatoes might also work well. If I make this again, the only thing I might add is a little garlic when I add the green onions.
I wouldn’t make this recipe with white pasta. It really needs something more hearty. If you don’t have whole wheat pasta, then maybe just serve it over brown rice or another whole grain. If you don’t have curry paste probably any chili paste or even dried chili flakes would be fine. If you don’t have white wine then maybe use a little mirin or rice wine vinegar to add a bit of acid. If you don’t have a very firm tofu, you might want to press some water out of your tofu. The lack of moisture in the tofu really helps it to brown well. Otherwise you’ll need to cook the tofu at a lower temperature and allow more time to cook all the water out, so that the tofu can brown.
I removed the tofu and onion from the pan before adding the green beans because I thought that if I didn’t the pan would be too crowded, and the green beans wouldn’t brown, and the tofu and onions would become soggy when I steamed the green beans.
Derek said this dish was delicious. The vegetables were nice and crisp, the onions added a nice depth of flavor, and the tofu was excellent. It was the essence of simple, ingredient-oriented cuisine. “If only I could get this sort of thing at a restaurant in Saarbruecken,” he lamented. Rating: A-.
Moroccan tempeh tagine with spring vegetables
I finally found tempeh in Saarbrücken. I’m so excited! It’s a beautiful tempeh too: big and fat and covered in a soft white layer that looks almost like paper. I tried to take it off at first before I realized it was part of the tempeh. Rather than use the tempeh in one of our old tempeh recipes, we decide to try a new one from Peter Berley’s Fresh Food Fast. We chose one of the spring menus: charmoula baked tempeh with vegetable couscous. Apparently charmoula is a spicy moroccan marinade. Derek was worried, as he claims not to like moroccan food but I thought the combination of spices looked good.
Basically you make a marinade with olive oil, cilantro, lemon juice, garlic, paprika, cumin, coriander, and cayenne. You cube the tempeh and place it in a large skillet, then pour the marinade over it, cover, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. After the suggested simmer time, however, our liquid was only half absorbed. We decided to eat it anyway. I’m glad we didn’t keep cooking it, because the marinade was really tasty! In any case, I can’t imagine the tempeh ever absorbing all that liquid, no matter how long we cooked it for. Tempeh is simply not that absorbent.
Berley’s spring menu 2 also calls for a spring vegetable couscous, but I used bulgur instead. I screwed up though, in that I added the vegetables with the bulgur, and by the time the bulgur was cooked the vegetables were all faded looking instead of a pretty bright green. I forgot how much longer bulgur takes to cook than couscous. Next time I’d cook the bulgur separately and just add in the cooked vegetables once it was done. The bulgur dish had onions, mushrooms, asparagus, and snow peas (we couldn’t find sugar snaps). It made a really nice base for the tempeh dish–the bulgur absorbed all the sauce nicely and the vegetables added a bit of crunch.
Our tempeh had a great texture. I’m not sure if it’s the brand I bought, or if it’s the process of simmering it in the marinade, but it was meltingly tender–not a texture I associate with tempeh. The flavors in the marinade completely masked the strong tempeh flavor that I don’t care for. To me the soupy marinade really did taste Moroccan, just without all the typical carrots etc. in a Moroccan tagine. The asparagus, mushrooms, and snow peas were actually a really nice combination with the moroccan flavors. I’d definitely make this dish again. I think it would be a great dish to serve for company, especially for someone who’s never tried tempeh before. Next time, however, I’ll find couscous.
The one thing I didn’t like about the dish was that after cooking the cilantro turns a sort of putrid green color. I think I will add some more fresh cilantro once it’s done to brighten the dish up. Also, as always, I think the salt and fat need to be reduced. We added 1/3 cup olive oil instead of 1/2 cup, and 1 1/4 tsp. kosher salt instead of 2 1/2 teaspoons. Even with these reductions the dish is still very rich and very salty. It tasted like restaurant food!
One last comment: In FFF the recipe is called “charmoula baked tempeh,” but the tempeh is simmered on the stovetop not baked. I wonder if that’s a mistake, or if Berley simply has a loose definition of baking?
Berley’s menu also includes a carrot mint salad with currants. I really like the combination of the carrots and currants, and the bright orange salad contrasts nicely with the green vegetables and darker colors of the tempeh. However, the salad was just a tiny bit bland, in my opinion. I could barely taste the mint, so I added another tablespoon, but it still wasn’t very minty. Next time I would double the mint. The currants add sweetness, and the lemon juice adds acid, but it still wasn’t quite as peppy as I would like, so I added a touch of pineapple juice, which added both a little more sweet and a little more acid. I also tossed the salad with some aleppo pepper (maybe 1/2 tsp?), which added a warm heat that I enjoyed. This salad is definitely a good start, but it needs a bit of work to be perfect, I think. I might also try cutting out the olive oil, since the tempeh dish already has plenty of fat for one meal. Also, I would double the recipe and make 2 pounds of carrots, especially if you own a food processor. Carrot salad makes nice leftovers.
Update June 14, 2009:
I made the tempeh dish again, but I multiplied it by 1.5 because we had 4 people at lunch and I was hoping to have some leftovers. I didn’t make extra of the bulgur, however, as we had too much of it last time. The proportion of bulgur to tempeh was better this time, although still we had a little too much bulgur I think. Since I had so much tempeh, I didn’t have a pan large enough to fit all the tempeh squares in a single layer. I decided to use my dutch oven to cook it instead of a skillet, because I was worried that even a 12 inch skillet wouldn’t be bit enough. Even though the tempeh wasn’t completely covered, the texture was still quite nice and soft. I made sure to stir it a few times so that every tempeh square got his “5 minutes of fame.” I cooked the tempeh for about 25 minutes, but I think it was too long because almost all of the liquid was absorbed. (And I said it couldn’t happen!) Next time I’ll just cook it for the suggested 15 minutes. Also, next time I make the tempeh I’m going to try cutting the oil even more, and see if the recipe is still as good..
I couldn’t find sugar snap peas so I just used real peas from the farmer’s market. They worked well. I cooked the bulgur ahead of time so that the vegetables didn’t get overcooked. I added a skimpy 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt to the bulgur, but I think next time I’d add a full 1/2 tsp, as the bulgur was slightly undersalted. I’d also add a little salt or soysauce to the vegetables while they cook.
Update August 14, 2009:
I’ve now made this recipe four times! The last time I threw in some frozen spinach and just ate the tempeh with the spinach. It was good, and the spinach helped brighten up the muted green and orange colors. The last two times I cut the oil to 1/4 cup and used the full 1 pound of tempeh (my tempeh blocks here are only 12-14 ounces). The tempeh was definitely not as rich tasting, but still was extremely tasty. I think both 4 Tbs. of oil and 5.33 Tbs. of oil are good–it just depends whether you’re in the mood for really oily and really tasty, or less oily and a little less decadent. Again, I forgot to save a little cilantro for the end for the bright green effect. I’m sure I’ll be making this recipe again, and I’ll try to remember to add some cilantro at the end next time. We didn’t quite have enough sauce these last two times. I think next time I might try adding a little extra water to make sure that there’s enough yummy liquid leftover.
This time I served the tempeh over quinoa, which was excellent. The flavors went well together, and the quinoa effectively sops up all the great sauce. I also made the sweet spiced chard that I recently posted to my blog. We liked the combo a lot, although I did miss having something raw and a little crisp. If I’m inspired next time, I might make the chard and the carrot salad!
Update Sept 12, 2009:
After making this recipe a half dozen times I figured I better post the recipe! Below are my version of the ingredients and instructions, slightly modified from Berley’s original recipe. This recipe makes 7 medium-sized servings.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 to 2/3 cups olive oil (depending on how rich you want it–Berley calls for 7/8 cup! I usually use 1/2 cup)
- 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh cilantro (not tightly packed)
- 7 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 cups of water
- 2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 Tbs. + 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
- 1 Tbs. + 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
- 1 3/4 tsp. coriander seeds
- 3/4 to 1 tsp. cayenne
- 1 3/4 pounds soy tempeh, cut into 1-inch cubes
Instructions:
- In a 3 or 4 quart pot, mix the olive oil, 1 cup of the cilantro, the lemon juice, the garlic, the water, and the salt. In a spice grinder or mortar, grind the paprika, cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Mix the ground spices into the olive oil. Cube the tempeh, and add it to the pot, stirring to cover all the tempeh with the marinade.
- Over high heat, bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the cover, stir to submerge any tempeh that’s not in the liquid, and simmer for another 5 minutes, until the liquid is slightly reduced. You want it to be pretty soupy, however, so don’t reduce all the liquid.
- When the tempeh is soft, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, and serve over a grain which will absorb the delicious “pot liquor.”
On my last attempt I served the tempeh with the carrot salad, plain quinoa, and a simple mix of steamed green vegetables. It worked well.
Rating: B+
Derek: A
Scrambled eggs with spinach and sweet onions
Last night we tried another recipe from the Spring section of Fresh Food Fast. The recipe actually called for dandelion greens, not spinach, but I’ve never seen dandelion greens in German (except perhaps by the side of the road), and the recipe says other tender greens like spinach and chard can be substituted. I also cut down on the oil and cheese in the original recipe, and simplified the recipe a bit. Here’s my modified version (for 2 people):
- 1 Tbs. olive oil
- 1/2 large onion, chopped
- 1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 pound washed leaf spinach, coarsely chopped
- 4 large eggs
- 2 ounces crumbly goat cheese
- 1/8 tsp. salt
Instructions: Warm the oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion and red pepper flakes. Meanwhile, chop the spinach. When the onion starts to brown around the edges, add the spinach and saute briefly, until the spinach is wilted. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, goat cheese, and salt. Raise the heat to high and pour the egg mixture evenly over the vegetables. Scramble the eggs, turning off the heat just before the eggs appear done, so that they’re not overcooked. They’ll finish cooking in the pan.
For the original recipe, buy the cookbook. You won’t regret it!
I halved the oil and cheese in the recipe because 1 Tbs. of olive oil and 2 ounces of cheese per person just seemed a bit excessive, especially if you also have oil with your baby artichokes (the other recipe in this spring menu). With bitter dandelion greens the fat would help to cut the bitterness, but with mild spinach that much fat is simply not necessary. We couldn’t find baby artichokes, however, so we paired this dish with some leftover lentil chili instead.
Berley says that spinach can be subbed for the dandelion greens, but he doesn’t say to skip the blanching step. I understand blanching dandelion, which can be very bitter, but I can’t imagine blanching spinach for 2 to 3 minutes! I wonder if this is simply an omission, or if he really would blanch spinach and chard as well?
The scrambled eggs didn’t taste very eggy. The predominant flavor was actually the onion, which tasted very sweet. I could also taste the spinach, but the egg was in the background, and I couldn’t taste the goat cheese at all, although I’m sure it added to the richness of the dish. After my first bite my first thought was “tofu scramble,” (but not in a bad, day-glo turmeric way). Derek said that the dish actually reminded him a lot of egg foo young, which is apparently a very fried Chinese egg and onion omelette.
Scrambling the eggs with the onions and spinach in the pan prevents large, fluffy curds from forming, so the texture wasn’t very scrambled egg-ish. Next time I make this I will try what cook’s illustrated suggests when making a “hearty scramble”: remove the vegetables from the pan before adding the eggs, and cook off any moisture left in the pan, as too much water makes scrambled eggs weepy and rubbery. Then gently fold the vegetables back into the eggs. I’m worried that it will be hard to distribute the vegetables, and the flavors won’t permeate the dish as well, but I’ll try it and report back. Also, since I couldn’t taste the reduced amount of cheese, I might try subbing the cheese for 1/4 cup of milk. (According to CI the water and fat in the milk keep the eggs from becoming tough by getting in between the protein strands, and preventing them from joining too tightly, and helping to incorporate pockets of steam into the eggs as they are folded.) A bit of goat cheese could be crumbled on top of the dish for flavor.
One more note about salt. This was the first recipe in FFF where I didn’t feel the need to halve the salt. The salt level was perfect for me, but Derek thought it was a bit low. However much salt you use, make sure to salt your eggs before cooking, as CI says that salt affects the electrical charge on the protein molecules in eggs, and reduces the tendency of the proteins to bond with each other, which means a looser network and more tender eggs.
The basic scrambled egg recipe we use, from Cook’s Illustrated, except slightly less butter:
Ingredients
| 4 | large eggs |
| 1/4 | teaspoon table salt |
| Ground black pepper | |
| 1/4 | cup milk |
| 1/2 | tablespoon unsalted butter |
Instructions
- Crack eggs into a medium bowl. Add salt, pepper, and milk. Whip with a fork until streaks are gone and color is pure yellow; stop beating while the bubbles are still large.
- Meanwhile, put butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet, then set the pan over high heat. When the butter foams, swirl it around and up the sides of the pan. Before foam completely subsides, pour in beaten eggs. With a firm plastic or silicon spatula, push eggs from one side of the pan to the other, slowly but deliberately, lifting and folding eggs as they form into curds, until eggs are nicely clumped into a single mound, but remain shiny and wet, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.
Rhubarb compote
We had a friend staying with us a while back who was raving about a very simple rhubarb dessert: stew the rhubarb with a little sugar and water until it falls apart. To serve, add to a small bowl and pour cold cream around it. I liked the flavor combination of the sour rhubarb and sweet cream, but the texture was quite odd. The rhubarb was kind of stringy and a little gelatinous. Derek, ever couth, dubbed it “rhubarb snot.” After that, I had trouble finishing the rest of my dish.
In Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast there is a recipe for rhubarb compote with maple syrup and crystallized ginger. He says to simmer the rhubarb for 5 to 7 minutes until the rhubarb is tender, but not falling apart. Since he says the rhubarb shouldn’t fall apart, I figured it was safe. Derek tried to stop me, arguing that the texture was going to be just like the previous attempt, but I wanted to give it a try. After five minutes, however, my rhubarb had again reached the “snot” stage. What am I doing wrong?
Berley’s recipe calls for chunks of crystallized ginger. The recipe doesn’t say so explicitly, but I thought the chunks were supposed to dissolve into the compote. In 5 minutes, however, they had only softened. The toothsome chunks seemed odd in the soft rhubarb stew. Berley says to serve the compote with creme fraiche or sour cream. I served mine with creme fraiche, and thought it was tasty, better even than the cream. I’m not sure I could tast the maple syrup though, and unless I bit into a ginger cube I didn’t really taste the ginger.
Rating: D (Unless I figure out the snot thing)
Lentil-ish Chili or Chili-esque Lentil Soup
I love chili, and so I was intrigued when 101 cookbooks posted a recipe for a vegetarian chili made out of lentils and chickpeas and grains. Despite being a bit skeptical about a chili made from lentils, I immediately wanted to try it.
I followed the directions except that I couldn’t find a serrano so subbed in a jalepeno pepper (with seeds), and I haven’t seen whole chipotle peppers here (canned or dried), so I used 1/2 tsp. chipotle powder instead. Finally, I haven’t seen crushed tomatoes in Germany, so I used a can of whole tomatoes, breaking them up with my hands before adding them to the soup. I used a combination of big, pale green lentils and tiny black lentils. I used some kind of fast-cooking German barley and medium grind bulgur wheat. For the vegetable broth I used a mixture of salted and unsalted Rapunzel bouillon cubes, but I ended up adding another 2 tsp. of kosher salt as well.
My lentils took more than 45 minutes to cook–more like an hour. Perhaps my “simmer” was too low, but I was having problems with all the liquid rising, and the bottom of the pan drying out and burning. You really need to stir this every five minutes or so to keep the bottom from burning.
After the lentils were cooked and I tasted it, I decided my whole tomatoes didn’t cut it and added another small can of diced tomatoes. I would have added even more but that’s all I had. It also didn’t taste enough like chili, so I added more chili powder and more cumin. I added the final 2 cups of water as well. After that it tasted pretty good. I really wanted to add some salsa, because I thought it needed some acid and punch and more tomato flavor, but I didn’t feel like opening one of my precious few jars of salsa. The chili was a bit spicy, but I probably could have added another 1/2 tsp. of chipotle powder without it being too hot.
As warned, this made a huge pot. My 6 quart dutch oven was full to the brim after my final additions. Really I should have used an 8 quart pot. Six quarts of chili is a lot. I think if I made this again (and I’m likely to), I would make only half or three quarters of the recipe, depending on if I am having company or not. Overall, it didn’t quite seem like chili, but it didn’t quite seem like lentil soup either. The recipe lies somewhere in between the two. Whatever you call it, it’s hearty and satisfying and pretty healthy. We ate it with a big salad and cornbread / corn muffins, and it was quite a nice meal I thought.
The chili was quite tasty with feta, but I liked it best with creme fraiche.
Rating: B
Derek: B
