What I’ve been eating lately

September 17, 2012 at 8:51 am (Menus, Uncategorized)

I’ve gotten two requests recently to update my blog and let my reader’s know what I’ve been making these past few months.  I know I haven’t posted much lately.  But don’t worry, I have been eating lots.  Here’s the  answer to your question about what I’ve been making/eating.

• My mom’s tofu chili recipe, except the last time I made it I didn’t have any corn and instead added about a pound of chopped mushrooms.  I didn’t notice them at all (either flavor or texture) in the final dish, but they added some good nutrition.  I think next time I’ll try 2 pounds!  In any case, the chili was delicious.  Even Derek really liked it.  I made 1.5 recipes (about 5 quarts of chili), and ate almost all of it.  There’s just one quart left in the freezer.
• Winter squash is finally here, and I’ve been roasting it whole and eating the round parts filled with the chili, and the other parts either plain, or cold in salads.  So far I’ve roasted several butternut squashes and what they here call Hokkaido but I think in America is called a red Kuri.  Derek even roasted some squash on his own the other night, and it came out perfect.
• Diane’s Mexican Quiche, except not Mexican.  I left out the green chilis and jalapenos and instead added a pound of chard and some nutmeg.  It came out quite well, except that the middle was a bit undercooked.  Next time I’ll make sure that all of the top is browned.  One pound of chard was perfect, and I did like the nutmeg flavor.  But next time I think I will try the chilis and jalapenos and the chard (but no nutmeg)
• I had friends over for a mid-week dinner and served black bean and zucchini quesadillas (one of Derek’s favorites) with a salad and miso tortilla soup (with avocados and lime and cilantro).
• With the leftover tortillas (actually tortilla chips) from the tortilla soup I made another one of Derek’s favorites, chilaquiles.
• With some leftover avocados I made stuffed hashbrowns, another of Derek’s favorites, and one of my mom’s recipes from my childhood.  In addition to the avocados I stuffed them with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and mushrooms.  Delicious.
• Last night I made a version of Mario Batali’s cacio e pepe (unlike this one, without cream) except that I only made 2/3 of the recipe, I cut the oil down a bit, and I added about 1.25 pounds of chard sauteed with garlic.  Very tasty.
• The Turkish store near me recently has had purslane(!), and I’ve been eating  the leaves in salads.  I want to try it in some cooked dishes next, or maybe try adding it to smoothies or raita.  This page (from Rose’s prodigal garden!) has some interesting looking recipes.
• I’ve started buying kefir occasionally, as it’s a convenient post-workout drink to have in my bag after I go to the gym.  I want to try to make it myself, but haven’t sourced the kefir grains yet.  Instead, I tried my hand yesterday at homemade yogurt.  It’s been in the fridge all night, and I need to see how it came out.  I don’t have a yogurt maker, crockpot, or cooler so I tried using the “oven with light on” method to keep the yogurt warm, but my oven wouldn’t stay warm enough.  I had to keep turning it on briefly to warm it up to 110 F.
• I made the passover spinach lasagne again, but with whole wheat pasta noodles instead of matzoh.  I didn’t pre-cook the noodles and yet it turned out great.
• I had a “sauce” dinner party in which I served steamed green beans, roasted beets, and four different dressings (Annie’s tahini dressing, carrot ginger dressing, a sweet wasabi dressing, and a lemon mustard dressing).  I also made my mom’s baked tofu recipe, but tried making it ahead of time and then reheating it, and it came out kind of dried out and tough.  I also made five-grain croquettes, except instead of teff I used extra amaranth and instead of millet I used pre-cooked hulled barley.  They turned out well, but I decided that even with the amaranth and quinoa and barley they are mostly white rice, and nutritionally pretty void.  I’m not sure I’ll be making them again soon.
• The Asian store near my house recently starting carrying paneer, and I made a recipe for saag paneer which turned out very tasty, but very rich.  I will make it again soon, and then blog the recipe.  I also want to try to make my own paneer.
• I made a recipe for tofu marinated in lemon and rosemary  from the Angelika Kitchen cookbook.  It was very easy and Derek liked it quite a bit, but I wasn’t too excited.  I want to try it again before I blog about it.
• Derek’s been making a simple lentil salad recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated light cookbook.  The salad is supposed to have walnuts and scallions, but he leaves these out and just makes the vinaigrette, which is quite strong tasting from mustard and sherry vinegar.  He loves it!  We’re still struggling to get our lentils to cook uniformly though, and not fall apart.
• I’m eating a lot of peaches, and mourning the end of the peach season.  The peaches this year were excellent!  Now it’s time to switch to apples and pears, but I’m a bit sad because I’m more of a summer fruit girl.
• I never did get around to blogging about the ginger ice cream we made, but it came out very well.   We’ll definitely make it again. I only wish it had had a little bit more of a bite.  The recipe says to boil the ginger briefly in water, then discard the water before boiling the ginger in milk.  Maybe next time I’ll try skipping this step.  I tasted the water and it wasn’t bitter, just very intensely gingery.
• Another non-recipe that I’ve been eating a lot of lately is roasted summer veggies with taleggio.  Taleggio is so strong that a little goes a long way.  I’ve been slicing up zucchini, tomatoes, and leftover chard stems, distributing them on a cookie sheet, dotting on a bit of taleggio (sometimes also a little olive oil salt and pepper), then putting the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes.  It turns out great and makes a great quick breakfast.  And it’s an easy way to get a lot of vegetables in.  Sometimes I add other veggies like mushrooms or onions or cauliflower too.  You just have to figure out what size to cut things so that all the veggies are cooked in the same amount of time.  (Tomatoes seem to cook faster than everything else!)

So that’s my update.  I know I still owe a number of blog posts, but this week is pretty busy.  Hopefully next week I’ll find some time to at least write up some of the new dishes I tried (the lentil salad recipe, the tofu marinated in lemon and rosemary, the palak paneer, the cacio e pepe with chard, the ginger ice cream, the homemade yogurt, and the wasabi dressing).