How Green Was My Dinner?

Those of you who know me (or who have taken the time to read all the way down to the "About Me" section of my FB profile) know that my favorite color is green.

It also ended up being, quite accidentally, the unofficial theme of Spring Quarter: Week 2's menu. I didn't do much cooking last week (there's only so long one can stretch out Syllabus Day before the actual teaching has to start) but I managed to make a couple of very nice dinners.

I also had a gloriously shining moment of sheer genius.

Yes, those are rubber bands holding a cooking magazine to the cupboard door above my sink. Yes, it freed up precious and much-needed counter space. Yes, I made Roomie get up off the couch to come bask in my amazing cleverness. Yes, I'm sure someone has already done/invented this. No, I don't care.

The first dinner of the week was adapted from the back of a Hodgson Mill spaghetti box. It was originally called "Winter Green Pasta" but this made me think about toothpaste and gum, and what pasta might taste like so-flavored. Highly unappetizing.

Not-Mint Pasta

1 pound spinach spaghetti (or other long pasta)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

2 green onions, green and white parts, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup vegetable broth

1 pound fresh spinach, sliced in ribbons

2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed into 1/4 cup cold water

Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet or frying pan. Add the ginger, onions, and celery. Cook over medium heat until just beginning to soften. Don't brown. Add the salt, broth, and spinach. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until all the veg is cooked to your liking. Stir in the cornstarch-water mixture. Cook until the mix is hot again (don't boil or the cornstarch will get all clumpy-thick).

Drain the cooked pasta and return to the pot. Pour the veggie mix in and stir well to coat. Serve with more cooked veg (or dump a can of tuna on top like Roomie did).

***

The next dinner was more prep-intensive, but since this was my Sunday Supper, I didn't mind spending an extra couple of hours in the kitchen. Next time I'll probably make some of the pieces parts ahead of time just to have on hand.

What took a bit of time was my first-time experimentation with steaming some artichokes. I brought about 3-4 inches of water, a quarter of a lemon (squeezed into the pot, then tossed in), bay leaf, 2 crushed garlic cloves, and 1/4 cup white wine to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Then I just put the artichokes in, covered, and let steam the 45-60 minutes I was making the rest of the dinner. They turned out pretty good served with the following dipping sauce (and now I have two artichoke hearts to turn into something else delicious!)

Quick & Tangy Dipping Sauce

3/4 - 1 cup vegan mayo (regular or fat-free)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

3-4 basil leaves, chopped very fine

1 teaspoon cheater garlic

1 teaspoon vegan parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast (optional)

salt & black pepper to taste

Whisk everything but the salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Taste, season, whisk again, and serve.

The main dish was a variation on a broccoli recipe from the April 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times. It's a broccoli pesto that contains no basil. Weird, huh? But since technically the word pesto is Italian for "pounded" (by way of the Latin "pistare" ie: mortar & pestle), I guess it really doesn't matter what you're pounding as long as it turns into sauce you serve over pasta.

Bresto Orrecchiette

sounds fancy, don't it?

1/2 cup raw, slivered almonds

2 cups broccoli florets

1 1/2 cups loosely packed flat-leaf/Italian parsley

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup mint leaves

4 teaspoons lemon juice

grated zest from 1 small lemon

5 big garlic cloves

drained capers (for serving)

16 oz. orrecchiette pasta (or some other little pasta shape (farfalle, gemelli, conchiglie) that will hold up to a nice thick sauce)

Steam the broccoli in a pot of boiling water for about 3 minutes or until just soft and bright green. Rinse under cold water, drain, and set aside.

In a food processor or blender, pulse the almonds, parsley, mint, garlic, and lemon zest. Note that if you are using a blender, it will help if you chop up the garlic and herbs first.

Add the broccoli and lemon juice and pulse/blend again, scraping the sides as needed.

With the blender/food processor running on low-medium, slowly add the oil. Blend until the mixture is smooth but not liquid-y. You may need to add a little warm water if it seems like it's getting to thick, especially if you're using a blender.

(You could stop right here and just stick the bresto in the fridge for a couple days. Return to room temperature before mixing with the pasta, though.)

Boil the pasta according to package instructions (don't overcook!). Drain and return to the pot. Add the bresto and stir well to coat. Scoop into shallow bowls and top with as many capers as you like. If you don't like capers, you may want to throw a teaspoon or so of sea salt into the bresto.

***

I'll warn you now, friends and enemies, there's a good chance I won't be cooking anything during Week Three. I have my first round of response papers to grade, Roomie's first big away regatta is coming up, my first lifeguard course is this weekend, my cousin The Wild Child is coming for an OU street Fest....

...actually, I'll probably need to cook, just to stay sane.

The Veganification! Begins

Hi and welcome, friends and enemies, to the first of an every-now-and-then sub-series, new to my blog in 2010: The Veganification!


That's right, I said The Veganification!


What is The Veganification! you might be wondering? And why should you care? All good questions. Here are the answers.


Because I had very little "serious" reading to do over Winter Break, and because I am easily distracted by shiny things, I bought and read a good number of glossy-covered, mainstream cooking magazines this winter. Gourmet, Imbibe, Bon Apetit, Martha Stewart's Living, Food+Wine (the latter two my mom gets in the mail) etc. It was so refreshing to read magazines that are written and published by people really truly exited by food and eating, and not trying to push some sort of socio-political agenda. No space wasted talking about which company is poking rabbits and pigs in inappropriate ways, or snarky op-ed pieces about feeling smug at the family Christmas dinner table. Just entertaining articles about trends in food, cooking, spirits, and mixology that focus on taste and presentation rather than morals. I'm far more interested in the bottle vs. can debate in the world of beer than I am in tofu vs. tempeh arguments.

As such, I'm letting my VegNews subscription expire and getting Bon Apetit and Gourmet instead. And (one of) my New Year's Resolutions is to veganify at least one recipe from all of these non-veg magazines a month. And I don't mean just swapping out real dairy for the soy-based stuff. I'm talking about not being daunted by a recipe with great flavor potential just because the main ingredient is meat. Or a good dessert that relies on heavy cream and egg whites. Moroccan Beef Tagine? Poblano Albondingos? Sour-Orange Yucatan Chickens? Shitake-and-Scallion Shrimp Lo-Mein? Apricot & Basil Shortbread? Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks? Chocolate-Nut Tart with Dried Fruit & Clotted Cream?



Bring it on.



So, here is the first veganified meal of 2010. I decided to try this sauce first, as my mother was making veal meatballs (I don't care how vegan I get, I will always love the smell of cooking veal) and this dish originally called for veal shoulders. It's a "notable dark and glossy ragout, the constituents of which**" are as follows:




Not-Veal Pasta Sauce
from Food+Wine, October 2009


1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground fennel (I ground whole seeds)
1 1/2 cups dry red wine (I used Terra d'Oro 2005 Amador Zinfandel)
Two 28-ounce cans Italian whole tomatoes, drained and chopped (see note)
4 cups vegetable puree/stock (see note)
1 1/2 tablespoons minced rosemary


Note: Even if you can't find the whole Italian-style tomatoes (I found mine in the specialty-foods section of Kroger), make the effort to drain and chop whole regular tomatoes. There's too much liquid in the pre-chopped ones and this is a thick sauce. For the vegetable stock, I used my mom's new immersion blender to blend leftover vegetable soup. This resulted in a creamy vegetable puree rather than a traditional stock. Since there isn't any meat in this recipe to absorb extra liquid, I think this helped thicken the sauce. If you use broth, you may want to boil the sauce a little longer to reduce it. Maybe disolve some cornstarch in the broth before adding it to the mix. Or just make some soup and puree it.


In a large soup pot or casserole dish, heat the oil over medium heat.
Add the onions, garlic, fennel, coriander, and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
Add the wine and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue to boil until reduced to 1/3 cup. This should take 5-8 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes over medium high heat.
Add the veggie puree and rosemary. Return to a boil. Let boil for about ten minutes or until the sauce reduces a little more.
Reduce heat to low, partially cover the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes.


Serve the sauce over a hearty pasta (rigatoni, fettucini, pappardelle) with a big room temp glass of Remirez de Ganuza 2001 Rioja, one of the best reds I've had in a long time and totally worth the price. It's strong enough to hold up against the spice of the sauce, but not in an over-powering way.


And since the non-veggies in the house all went back for seconds, I consider The Veganification! a resounding success.


**Bonus The Veganification! points if you can place the quote. Trade them in for cool The Veganification!! merchandise, homemade veganified snacks and my continued admiration!!**