Recipes: October 2007 Archives

When our friend Molly recently returned from a yearlong hiatus in the Iberian Peninsula she was totally infused in the mellow vibes of Spanish cooking. Unlike the tedious scenester bustle you find at just about every eatery touting itself as a tapa house, the world of Spanish food is an utterly simple and pleasant one that doesn’t need to cost arms and legs. All that needs doing in the Spanish cooking oeuvre is a solid commitment to flavorful olive oil, tart and salty tidbits, and the deep desire to spend time with your friends in the kitchen.

One tactic that Molly now insists upon when she cooks with us, which is happening more and more, is the tapa duty. No matter the size of the meal being prepared, one of the cooks in the kitchen should be devoted to making snappy snacks for the other cooks.

This new rule of our favorite domain sparked the flames for this recipe. While this little ditty from Molly’s not exactly homeland is neither vegan, nor vegetarian (its got anchovies dudes) the basic technique can be applied sans flipper'd friends and goats milk. It just won’t taste as…Spanish.

Finding Boqerones, White anchovy fillets, and the Peppadew pepper, a super sweet little killer from South Africa, might require one of those hated trips to Whole Foods or Gelsons. Your tragic toiling in awkward aisles will be absolutely rewarded by your mouth. The goat cheese balls you'll make yourself are basically copy cats of a Catalunian cheesemakers' creation known as Gotes Catalanes, which you also might find in a specialty store if you’re feeling lazy. IF you have leftover Gotes, take a hint from their originator and store them submerged in extra virgin olive oil in a sealed jar. They will only get better...

Gotes y Boqerones

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
6 sprigs flat leaf parsley, minced
One hefty pinch of salt
½ of an 11oz. log of chevre
¼ lb peppadew peppers
7 white anchovy filets
Capers for garnish

1. In a metal mixing bowl combine the garlic, shallot, salt, parsley and the goat cheese. Mix with your hands until you've got a uniform paste.

2. Take a pinch of the chevre mixture, about the size of a sugar cube, and roll it into a ball using your palms. After a number of balls, you'll prolly wanna rinse your hands: the collected chevre can make it hard to form perfectionist spheres.

3. Carefully place the rolled Gotes into the hollow centers of the peppadews.

4. Blot the oil and vinegar off of the anchovy fillets with a paper towel, then cut them lengthwise into thin strips with a very sharp knife. Roll each strip into a tight little pinwheel.

5. Gently press each anchovy pinwheel into the top of each goat cheese sphere. Then manhandle a caper a little bit between your thumb and index finger to loosen the leaves a little. Place the caper in the center of each anchovy and serve to the nearest cook. They'll be pumped.

Beverage: Moylan's Irish Red Ale
Soundtrack: The Clash "Spanish Bombs"

Did we say soup season? Naw, we meant stew season. The Halloweeny vibes of deep fall and early winter demand beany substance and spongy protein chunk, not purees or sprinkled garnishes. With that in mind, we pursued an old cobwebbed recipe for goulash — the spice-spiked Hungarian stew that brightens the lives of all the Kafka-reading saps in Eastern Europe. That beefy glop hinges on tough muscle tissue that is browned in butter. We started the same way but with homemade seitan chunks.

Still, that sounded kind of drab and, well, brown. So we pulled a mash-up and injected our goulash with a shot of borscht — the eerily pink-red beet soup also intimately part of the depressing weather palate. The beets and dill heighten the flavor from just being dank, while still keeping it earthy. Best of all, you can store it for up to a week and every day the stuff gets more and more fuchsia. Just make sure to wear a bib and clean your knives.

Goulash-Borscht Stew

(Serves 8-10 people)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 small block seitan (roughly 10-12 oz)
2 white onions
3 stalks of celery
6 cloves garlic
1 small bunch heirloom carrots (8-10)
1 russet potato
2 whole beets
1 Tbs. paprika
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 cups mushroom stock
1 cup kidney beans
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 cup Swiss chard, chopped (beet greens will work)
1 Tbs. dried dill
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1 tsp. fresh black pepper
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup red wine

1. Brown the beef! Put a large soup pot on high heat and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom (about half total amount). Cut your seitan into medium-sized cubes, peel and chop one of the onions and toss both into the oil, stirring every couple seconds. Cook until seitan cubes are slightly crispy (about 5 minutes). Remove seitan (leave as much remaining oil as possible in the pot) and set aside.

2. Prepare the other veggies: peel and chop the second onion, slice thin pieces of celery, chop garlic, cut thin circular carrot discs and carve thick chunks of potato. Add all to the pot. Peel your beets, hack into thick cubes, and toss in as well. Season with paprika(s) and cumin and man the pot, stirring thoroughly for about 10 minutes.

3. Add mushroom stock (hot, not cold) followed by tomatoes, Swiss chard, dill and seasonings. Bring stew up to a boil and let simmer for no less than one hour. In the last five minutes, add your red wine.

4. Ladle out portions and top bowls with the still warm seitan cubes on top, this way it’ll limit how squishy it gets from the soup.

Beverage: Great Divide's Yeti Imperial Stout
Soundtrack: Godspeed You Black Emperor! Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada

What with our guest contributors beating us to the punch and declaring it official Soup Season, we decided to hurry up and follow suit. Unfortunately, some of us don’t have foggy Tolkien-esque mountain fjords abloom with woody fungus bounties, so we had to make due with just pillaging our SoCal farmers markets. We came up with asparagus. Mixed with potato and a little soy milk, this soup is a little more asparagus than cream, which is how we like it. An "alternate ending" using a simple vegan roux could rule too though.

Creamy Asparagus Soup

12 oz. asparagus (two small-sized bunches)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1 white onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 medium-sized potato
1 Tbs. fresh rosemary (half if dried)
1 tsp. Cayenne pepper
4 cups mushroom stock
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
Salt and fresh black pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water (2 Tbs. salt) to a rolling boil. Cut off the base ends of your asparagus spears and then add all spears to the water for 30 seconds to 1 minute — just enough to soften and greenify ‘em. Fish them out and rinse with cold water.

2. Peel your garlic but don’t chop! Put your soup pot on medium heat, add olive oil and once hot, toss in your garlic cloves. There should be enough oil to half submerge them. Turn heat to low if sputtering, and let roast for 15 minutes. Then remove cloves, set aside and use remaining oil.

3. Toss in your chopped onion and celery. Let cook until translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Finely chop the cooled asparagus, saving the 1-inch tips for later. Add asparagus to the pot. Dice your potato into chunks and add to the pot along with rosemary and cayenne pepper. Let cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes.

4. Add the mushroom stock (we like Better Than Boullion) but make sure it’s room temperature or hot — never fridge temp, or it’ll cool your pot. Bring back to a rolling boil and then let simmer for 30 minutes.

5. At this point, it’s time to blend and creamify. Turn off heat for a few minutes to cool. Then add soup (in increments if you have to) to your cuisinart or blender. Pulse for a few seconds, until thoroughly blended. Return to your pot.

6. The potato will add a mild congealing effect but you’ll have a slightly soupy texture still. If that’s fine, just add your luke warm soy milk to pot and stir. (Alternate ending: If you’d prefer an extra creamy texture, simply make a small roux out of margarine and flour in a small sauce pan. Once mixed add your soy milk and stir. Continue from here by adding this cream roux to your pot.)

7. Bring blended soup up to a rolling boil again and throw in your asparagus spears, saving a couple for garnish. Stir and serve.

Beverage: Green Flash’s Tripple Belgian-style
Soundtrack: Burning Spear’s “Down By the River”

Every so often we like to turn over the blog buttons to friends who have a kitchen secret or a standout recipe. The latest comes from Portland natives and recent restaurateurs Ali and Evan. We’ve known them for years and highly recommend peeps check out their new peppermint dreamboat of a shop, the Little Red Bike Café. Hit up their bike-thru window for vegan ice cream, get jacked on Courier Coffee and savory bread puddings, or just dribble at their high-res food porn. When you go, just promise you'll smack 'em one for Hot Knives for putting so much bacon on their menu! Take it away Ali and Evan...

So, we’ve got a problem. A real bad problem. But you know what they say; admitting is the first step. So here it goes. For quite some time now we have been…sigh…addicted to mushrooms. Yes, it’s true. Button, Morel, Shitake, Lobster, Porcini, Trumpet, Chanterelle. You name it we’ll eat it. Traces of the addiction can be found throughout both sides of the family so it’s really no surprise that we wound up like this. That said, when fall time hits and we’re itching for a fix we know who to call. We have a dealer, I mean friend, we’ll call him “Todd,” that has a nasty habit of uh…illegally foraging wild forest mushrooms. In our fungus-induced haze, we aid in the smuggling by providing the “mule”, our beloved Le Creuset soup kettle. Yes, fall time is when our addiction is at its peak and it means three things in our household: wood burning fires, lots o’ red wine and soup. Here’s how it all goes down…

Vegan Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced (any mushroom will do but we particularly love chanterelles with this recipe)
1 1/2 tsp dill weed
1 Tbsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 tsp caraway seeds
4 garlic cloves, coarsely minced
3 Tbsp tamari
2 cups vegetable stock (Imagine’s Organic No-Chicken Broth)
2 Tbsp vegan margarine
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup soymilk/soy creamer
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2-3 Tbsp red wine
Fresh cracked pepper

1. In a soup pot, sauté onion in oil until soft, about 5 minutes

2. Add mushrooms, dill, paprika, caraway, paprika, and cayenne then saute for 5 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp of the tamari and stock, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. While soup simmers, melt the margarine in a separate saucepan and add the flour. Cook one minute, stirring constantly, then whisk in the soymilk/creamer ‘til smooth.

4. Once smooth and simmer roux (yes that’s right you just made a vegan roux) over low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.

5. Once thick, whisk in the last Tbsp of tamari and then transfer to the mushroom mixture and stir in. Add garlic. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Just before serving stir in the lemon juice and red wine, finish off with cracked pepper.

Beverage: Cedar Creek pinot noir (OR bitchez!)
Soundtrack: Gotan Project’s La Revancha del Tango

The latest in our Sunday Sabbath series, recently we kicked back with some serious Mezcal (and beer and tequila and horse tranquilizers) and spent 4 hours cooking what amounted to a tiny lunch and a cute dessert.

Using some leftover, garlic-spiked harrissa paste we pulsed a bright red sauce to dapper up some wintery, but color-free, baby artichokes and Brussels sprouts. As an experiment we did the Lima beans two ways (one with red things, one with yellow things) to see if we could dye the beans to desired colors. It didn’t make much of a difference visually, so we just elaborated here on the yellow version: a tawny port, golden beet and saffron brothy mixtcha'.

Finally, to match our tequila vs. mescal taste test, we threw together a port cherry melon plate that slew minds and blew men. Errr... Just watch the video above and recreate, but keep your Sunday wide open.

Roasty Harrissa

(Makes about 1 cup)

1 large tomato
1/4 cup fresh harrissa paste
4-6 roasted red pepper strips
Salt and fresh black pepper to taste

1. Simply flash blanche a tomato: bring a small pot of water to boil, toss in tomato for about 30 seconds and remove. Peel off skin under cool water.

2. Take your garlicky harissa 1/4 cup fresh harrissa paste">(directions here) and toss it in a food processor or blender. With the tomato and add some roasted pepper strips (directions here). Pulse for a minute and add extra olive oil if it seems dry. Season as desired.

Winter Limas and Braised Buds

(Serves 4)

1 red onion, chopped
1 head garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs. tawny port
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cups Christmas Limas
1 Tbs. saffron
1 golden beet, peeled
1 Tbs. sea salt
6 baby artichokes
6 brussels sprouts
1/8 cup sherry vinegar
1/8 cup cooking vinegar
2 Tbs. whole grain mustard

1. In a large pot, sauté half the onion and garlic in oil for about 8 minutes and then add the port, stock and limas. Give it about another 8 minutes before adding the saffron and the beet (give it a chop). Season as needed and let it simmer till beans are soft, about 30-40 minutes.

2. As for the braised artichokes and Brussels, just start a hot pan with a little more oil and follow the video and the above ingredient allocations. After searing the little buddies, toss the rest of the onion and garlic into the pan with some mustard. Saute for a couple seconds to get a tasty sauce.

3. Smear the harissa on the bottom of the plate, and pile beans first and then braised veggies.

Port Cherry Melons

(Serves 4)

1 cup dried cherries
1 cup Spanish port
1 Tbs. all spice
1 small cantaloupe
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 fresh basil

1. In a large bowl, let your cherries sit in the port and all spice for at least 1 hour.

2. Once sweet and juicy, prepare the rest of the plate. Slice your melon in half, then in quarters. Then cut along the rind to separate the fruit in a long slice. Make vertical cuts so that you’re left with little rectangles.

3. Place on plate with wider end on the bottom. Top each piece with a single cherry.

4. Cut the basil into cuesty little squares by chiffonading the basil leaves and then turning the organized leaves 90 degrees and cutting again. Add to the agave nectar. Dollop on the plate for a dipping sauve and garnish.

Beverage: Mezcal
Soundtrack: Randy Newman’s Sail Away