Recipes: May 2006 Archives

It's always unfortunate when a great dish gets type-cast, but there are few tear-jerkers more depressing than the case of miso soup. This broth is rich in culture (both historical and microbial) and is one of the best hangover cures. But the way Americans stereotype miso as a cheap sushi appetizer and an alternative to salad, is criminal. Here, we spruce it up and drink it like morning tea, with a plate of oven crispy curry fries--oil being the next best hangover cure.

Curry Fries
4 sweet potatoes (or yams)
1/4 cup. canola oil
4 Tbs. curry powder

Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees while you prep. Peel the potatoes, leaving some skin for texture and cut each in half once. Add taters to a large, boiling pot of slightly salted water. Boil for 8-10 minutes, making sure the potatoes remain a bit crunchy, then strain and run under cold water for a minute to cool.

Once cooled, cut the sweet potatoes in long strips--makes large-cut fries--and toss them with the curry powder in a large bowl. Once evenly spiced, coat a baking sheet with the oil and spread the fries out. Shake to coat evenly with oil. Shove them in the oven for 20-30 minutes (or until crisp) tossing occasionally.

Miso
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 small bulb ginger, minced
1 white onion, chopped
2 cups edamame (soy beans), shelled
4 Tbs. canola oil
4 Tbs. miso paste
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. sesame oil
6 cups water
4 green onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Mix the sesame and canola oil in a medium sauce pan and place on medium heat. Sauté ginger, garlic and white onion for 5 minutes, covered. Then add the soy and rice wine vinegar, letting it cook off for 3 minutes. Add all of the miso paste, and add the water in slow increments, stirring to help it dissolve. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, covered.

Right before serving, add edamame (not frozen) and cook for 1 minute. Then remove from heat, dish into small soup cups or mugs, and garnish with green onions and cilantro.

Beverage: Water
Soundtrack: George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh

The New Mexico state motto is "The Land of Enchantment," and we believe it. If you've ever had a batch of fire-roasted green chile from Hatch, New Mexico you believe it too. See, that state's big open sky and unimaginably arid climate make for the only proper place to grow authentic green chile--like what native medicine men used to use like crack, not the shit that comes on your Denny's omelet. And while it may make cooking with this New Mexican gold hard to do, fuck it. Cuz if you could grow this stuff anywhere, where would the enchantment be in that?

Here, we've fried up these critter-free fritters and served them with a cilantro aioli. The result is almost like a New Mexican hush puppy. If you can't take a road trip to the Land of Enchantment, don't fret. Use the wussy Ortega stuff with a roasted jalapeno to make up for it in spice.

Green Chile Fritters
1 tube polenta
6 cloves garlic
6 spears asparagus
1 yukon gold potato
1 cup green chiles, diced
1/2 white onion
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup beer (pale ale)
1 jalapeño
2 Tbs. salt
1 Tbs. pepper
1 tsp. cumin
2 cups canola oil
2 eggs

Cilantro Aioli
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbs. water
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. mustard
1 bunch cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil and toss in the potato. After 5 minutes, toss in the asparagus and let boil for another few minutes, until they turn bright green. Remove, strain and set aside.

Roasting your jalapeño is simple: Turn on a gas burner and hold the pepper over a high flame with tongs, turning it slightly every 30 seconds. You want to char the skin. Once the entire pepper is charred black and bubbly (about 5 minutes) dump it in ice water, let sit for a minute and then remove the filmy pepper skin to reveal a dark green pepper. Chop finely.

In a large mixing bowl dump the polenta tube and mash aggressively until it resembles corn mush. Add salt, pepper and cumin. Chop the asparagus, potato, garlic and onion and add them to the mix (the smaller the chop the better). Add the chiles and the jalapeño. Stir thoroughly, then add the flour and beer in small increments until mixture is soupy but thick. Add egg and stir again. Heat 2 cups of canola oil in a wok or a deep frying pan. Should be sizzlin' before you start. Then drop big blobs of batter, about the size of a small fist, into the oil. Turn after 2 minutes, or when crispy. Remove and set on paper towels to blot. To make the dipping aioli, combine ingredients, whip and serve.

Beverage: Poleeko Gold Pale Ale
Soundtrack: The Sea and Cake's self-titled.

Nets suck, but if there's anything that we love more dearly than dolphins it's a good tuna melt. Thanks to the gem of Indonesia-i.e., the fermented soy cake that is tempeh-being compassionate doesn't mean you can't enjoy this staple of comfort fare.

Here we whipped up a batch of vegan tuna salad without even using Vegenaise (though it's worth a try) by enlisting tahini instead. The result is a bowl full of good, rich, unfolds-in-your-mouth kind of mush. We then blew all our good vegan cred (and maybe our no-kill karma) by spreading this batch on an open-faced Swiss melt. This stuff is amazing. Do what you will.

Tuna-less Salad
1 package tempeh (about 8 oz.)
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 PInk Lady apple, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup basil, chiffonaded (cut into thin strips)
1 small bulb young ginger, finely chopped
1/2 cup tahini sauce
4 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. Brewer's yeast (optional)
1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs. curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

Open-faced Melt
2 slices wheat bread
4 oz. Swiss cheese
1 bunch alfalfa sprouts

Thaw tempeh if frozen, unwrap and chop in fine, little cubes. Heat the oil in a large skillet and when hot throw in tempeh. Place on medium heat and toss every 2-3 minutes to keep from sticking. Add half the soy sauce, half the Brewer's yeast (optional) and all the vinegar. After 5 minutes add the rest of the soy sauce and yeast (and a couple Tbs. of whatever beer you're swigging on-for us it was North Coast's Red Seal) and remove from heat when tempeh seems fully browned.

Combine all chopped ingredients in a large mixing bowl along with the curry and tahini. Mix well. Add a touch more olive oil if it seems too gunky. Then season with salt and pepper and you're done.

Now shred some Swiss cheese (we used Comte which is a nice gruyere) and top your bread with it, followed by a large scoop of the tempeh salad. Grill it for 4-5 minutes or until golden and melty. Top with sprouts.

Beverage: Red Seal Ale
Soundtrack: Yo La Tengo's The Sounds of the Sounds of Science

Summer is upon us. Gazpacho season. So get your blenders ready cuz it's about time to open fire. Everybody has their own recipe for that ubiquitous summer soup that's easy to make "well" but hard to get just right. So you also know that there is, without fail, always about 2 cups too much of the stuff lurking in the fridge three days after because everyone's tired of cold soup.
Invention is indeed the mother of necessity friends, and Hot Knives are like the Frank Zappa of leftovers (OK that analogy ran away from us).
Take your leftover Gazpacho--whatever recipe you swear by--and turn it into a whole other meal, in these easy steps...

2 cups leftover gazpacho
4 hamburger buns
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 onion, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Condiments of choice

Throw the soup in a blender or food processor, especially if you're one of these chunky gazpacho dudes. Put soup on thorough blend for 1 minute. Place a sieve or fine mesh strainer over a large mixing bowl and dump the blended soup into it. Using a large spoon, masher or mallet, apply pressure to the mixture to press all the liquid out of the vegetable bits. This may take a few minutes, so be patient. The goal is to strain all the liquid into the bowl, leaving just a squishy mash of vegetable. Dump this into another large mixing bowl, and set liquid aside.

Add the onion, egg and bread crumbs to the veggie remains and form into patties. It should make 4 smallish patties. Season appropriately.

In a large skillet heat the oil. Gently slide patties into the pan and turn every 2 minutes with a spatula, being careful not to squish them. Fry twice on each side for a golden crispness. Then remove, blot, and serve on toasted bun with condiments of your choice.

The liquid you've saved is essentially a gazpacho couli (meaning any strained liquid) though you may want to give it another strain for good measure (if you have cheese cloth this is the time to use it!) Serve still chilled in glass cups.

Chili Scramble

2 russet potatoes
1 leek, diced
1/2 can corn
1/2 can kidney beans, strained
1/2 cup salsa
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 green onion. chopped
1 Tbs. cumin
1 Tbs. hot sauce
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring the olive oil to medium heat in a large skillet. Add the garlic, leek and tomatoes. After sautéing for 5 minutes, add the spices. Slice the potatoes in half and nuke 'em in the microwave for 3 minutes. Then slice 'em into big chunks and add them to the skillet, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to the pan.

After 5 minutes add the salsa, hot sauce, corn, beans and cilantro. Let it stew for another 5-10 minutes. Heat up some corn tortillas and serve the scramble like morning tacos, topped with green onions.