One recent rainy night, between downing several pints of stout and an entire bottle of Laphroaig scotch, we invented a sublime, fatty fall concoction — roasted eggplant and potato mashed with sweet Thai basil and stuffed into fragile squash blossoms, caked with flour and pan-fried until crisp. This unexpected but opportune flavor mash-up led to one of the best questions you can ask inside a kitchen: “What else could we do with this?”

Well, lots of things. For starters, we thought: ‘Japanese yams instead of potato.’ Rather than mashed by hand, pureed in a food processor led to a much more luscious goo. What with the zen-mountain vibe of this creamy mixture, we tried piping it into egg-wrapper dumpling skins. While steaming, the dumplings become translucent, letting you see their vivid yam guts. We steamed and fried them, but that’s your call. Popping them in soup could work.

Meanwhile, the perfect recipe for those rainy-day squash fritters is still in the works. You can’t rush perfection.

Zen Yam Dumplings
(Makes 20)

2 Yams
2 Japanese eggplants
4 stalks lemongrass
2 – 3 scallions
1 cup purple basil
1 jalapeno
20 egg wrappers
1/4 cup kimchee (optional)

1. Peel your yams (if that isn’t a soul song waiting to happen, we don’t know what is…) and cut into large cubes. Add to a medium-sized pot of cold, well-salted water and put on high heat. Slice 2 stalks of lemongrass into 3-inch pieces, add to the pot for flavoring. Once you hit a rolling boil, turn down the heat and let sit in hot water for 5-10 minutes..

2. Set the oven to 400 degrees. Slice the eggplants in half, place face down on a well-greased baking tray or roasting pan. Stick in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until skin is brown and flesh is mushy to the touch. Remove to cool.

3. Strain the water retaining just yam pieces, and toss the lemongrass. Place yams in a food processor along with chopped scallions. When eggplants have cooled, peel their skins off and put just the meaty flesh into the food processor. Pulse for several minutes or until creamy.

4. Dump the yam-eggplant mixture into a mixing boil. Add kimchee for moisture and flavor if on hand. Thinly slice jalapeno and chiffonade your basil, adding bowl to the mixture and stirring well. Salt to taste, you wanna balance out that sweetness.

5. Put a large pot of water on to boil, adding the remaining two lemongress stalks and the sesame oil for steam-flavor.

6. Remove your egg wrappers and fill one-by-one. Place about 1.5 teaspoons of filling in the center of each wrapper, fold two opposite tips together to form a triangle and use a fork to press down the sides and corners around the filling. Set aside. Once all your dumplings are assembled, spray down your steamer or pot insert with canola oil to prevent sticking and place each inside delicately. Steam for about 10 minutes or until insides are blazing hot and skins are wrinkly and transparent.

7. To finish, carefully remove dumplings and let cool for several minutes. Heat a skillet or cast iron with canola oil and pan-fry the dumplings several at a time until brown on each side. Serve with a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and wasabi or ginger paste.

Beverage: The Bruery’s Coton
Soundtrack: Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith covering “Sweet Jane”

Fall is all up on our asses in Los Angeles, with rain and mist and stormy skies bearing down. This weekend at our farmers market, some dramatic “El Greco” light seemed to shine down on the bountiful fall vegetables. We grabbed mountain yams, dirt-crusted fingerlings, Brussels sprouts, red-skin Bartlet pears, fennel tips and big, beautiful ribbed-for-our-pleasure heads of radicchio.

So, in the first of probably many installments of us playing with fall vegetables, we spent the last week roasting radicchio for salads — salad you can slurp — and discovering how to tease the most sweetness out of it.

First, know this: There will be bitter. Radiccio is a bitter lettuce. However, with the help of a marinade of fresh orange juice, oil and fennel seed and a secondary dressing of mustard, cider vinegar, wine and sugar, that bitterness is tempered. The two sauces merge in the pan with a sizzle. Cooked salads. Interestingly, the fennel, with the heat of red jalapenos lends this salad something akin to the taste of a rustic slice of pizza, something we still can’t explain but what are we, doctors?

Hot Radicchio Salad
(Serves two)

1 large head radicchio
1 orange
1 Tbs. tangerine oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1 red jalapeno
1 small carrot
Half a white onion
6-8 oz. seitan
1 Tbs. cornmeal
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 Tbs. whole ground mustard
1/8 cup red wine
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. white sugar

1. Quarter your radicchio, removing the core’s stem. Peel the leaves off one quarter at a time, and place leaves in a mixing bowl. Juice your orange and to the juice, add tangerine oil and fennel seeds. Dump this mixture onto the radicchio leaves and stir well with tongs.

2. Slice your onion and red jalapeno into half moons and matchsticks respectively. Mix together mustard, wine, sugar and vinegar. Add a tsp. of water and stir. Marinate the onion and pepper sticks in this dressing.

3. Slice the seitan into neat, right triangles about an inch long. Fill a large plate with cornmeal and pat the seitan with a cornmeal crust. Heat a large skillet on high heat, add canola oil, then toss in seitan. Cook evenly on both sides for several minutes and remove seitan from pan, resting on a plate.

4. Still on high heat, add the marinated radicchio to the skillet and stir, followed by the marinating onions and dressing. Stir every so often for 4-5 minutes, letting the radicchio cook down (it should wilt like cabbage leaves). Serve on a large plate by twisting the salad into a neat ball, as high as you can. Slice carrot matchsticks and add for garnish and color. Finally, place 4 or 5 seitan triangles along the salad.

Beverage: Pretty Things’ St. Botolph’s Town Rustic Dark Ale
Soundtrack: The XX’s “Hot Like Fire”

1 lbs. red seedless grapes
3 Tbs. kosher salt
1 cup red vine vinegar
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 tsp. olive oil
8 grape leaves in brine
8-10 oz. fresh chevre
1/4 cup goat yogurt
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. pumpkin seed oil
fresh chives
salt and pepper to taste
1. Prepare your pickled grapes, at least two days before. Remove grapes from the stem and wash and dry. Dissolve kosher salt in about 2 cups of water. Place grapes in jar and cover with salt water, add more water until they’re covered. Store out of sunlight for a day.
2. Once grapes have cured in salt for 24 hours, drain them and prepare a vinegar bath. Add both vinegars to a small saucepot placed on high heat. Once you attain a boil, add sugar and stir. Let simmer for a couple minutes. Add any flavor enhancers as desired (cinnamon stick, bay leaves, mustard seed, chili peppers…) Return grapes to clean jar and cover with still-hot vinegar solution. Let sit in fridge for at least another 24 hours.
3. To prepare salad day of: wash and dry cherry tomatoes. In a bowl, dress with olive oil, salt and pepper. Let sit while you roll grape leaf packages. Spoon a tablespoon or so of chevre into the center of each grape leaf, bundling them up by closing one edge after another. Conserve one serving of goat cheese for dressing. Bind the packets using chives as twine–when you sear them the chive will permeate the cheese.
4. Make yogurt dressing by combining with pumpkin seed oil and the tablespoon of remaining chevre, whisking together until creamy. Add chopped garlic clove and oregano and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Heat a pan on high heat, add a touch of grapeseed or canola oil for frying. Once smoking hot, pan sear the goat cheese packets for about 30 seconds on each side, just enough to make them hot.
6. Plate the salad. Start with a 2-tablespoon dollop of goat yogurt dressing, and spread by pressing down with the spoon making concentric circles to widen its mark on the plate. Place 5-6 cherry tomatoes down inside the yogurt circle. Then rinse and dry your grapes and place on top of tomatoes, gingerly. Rip up chives and place as garnish. Finally, slide two grape leaf-chevre packages onto the salad and serve with an extra dash of pumpkin seed oil.
Beverage: Consecration #3
Soundtrack: The Slits’ “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”

1 head of kale
2 large lemons
1 quart filtered water
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 carrots
1 cup Veganaise
2 tsp. fresh black pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
quarter of a red cabbage (garnish)
1. Prepare the kale for its rub-down: take each leaf and remove the stem by either slicing a “V” shape and separating the two green sides from its spine, or simply pulling off the leafy green in chunks. Discard the stem. Throw the large kale leaves into a strainer. Rinse and let sit.
2. Zest both your lemons into a large mixing bowl, making sure to get every last inch of yellow goodness. Save zest for the dressing. When complete, slice and juice lemons into a separate container. Fill a large bowl with water, and add only half the fresh lemon juice to the water.
3. Submerge kale in lemon-water and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Take a small bunch at a time and massage the kale by scrunching as hard as you can, releasing and taking a new handful of kale. Repeat for several minutes
4. Remove kale and let dry in a colander, or spin dry. On a cutting board, slice each large chunk or leaf like you might chiffonade basil. If the leaves are not big enough to get long, coleslaw like slices don’t fret. Place kale in a container with a lid to store overnight. Combine the rest of the lemon juice (should be close to 2 Tbs., if not juice another lemon) with a Tbs. of olive oil. Let sit in fridge overnight, but before you clean up make dressing for tomorrow.
5. Combine Veganaise with black pepper, sugar, salt and lemon zest and whisk to make dressing. Add a half-teaspoon of lemon juice if needed to whisk, but no more. Save for service.
6. After kale has sat all night, drain liquid and spin dry. Grate carrot and shred cabbage. Toss together with dressing and serve cold.
Beverage: Craftsman Brewing’s Heavenly Hefe
Soundtrack: Talking Heads’ “This Must be the Place”

Vinegar Base
1/4 cup hot water
1 Tbs. brown sugar
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs. paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp black pepper
1. Add brown sugar to hot water and stir to dissolve. Combine with cider vinegar in a small pot over high heat.
2. Add spices and whisk thoroughly until mixture reaches a boil. Remove from heat and cool.
BBQ Sauce
1 white onion
1 Tbs. butter (optional, sub oil for vegan)
1 Tbs. olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. cumin seed
1 tsp caraway seed
2 cups Peach Ketchup
3/4 cup vinegar base (above)
1/2 tsp. Dijon
2 Chipotle peppers
2 Tbs. molasses
1 Tbs. maple syrup
1 tsp. liquid smoke (optional)
1 tsp. salt
3. Measure out all your wet ingredients and whisk together in a measuring cup, including the vinegar base. Set aside.
4. Mince the onion. Bring a large sauce pot on medium heat, add the butter and oil. Add onion, cooking until onions are translucent but not caramelized, about 3 min.
5. Chop the chipotle peppers, then add to the onions with the garlic, cumin and caraway. Cook for 3 minutes.
6. Pour in wet ingredients and give a heft stir. Let cook on low for 20 minutes, stirring every five. The goo should be sputtering. Remove and use cold or hot.

Soundtrack: Os Mutantes’ “Meu Refrigerador Nao Funciona”
Beverage: Buckeye Brewing’s ’76 IPA

Peach Ketchup
1 large white onion
12 oz. can peaches in syrup
2 cups peeled tomatoes in sauce
6 oz. tomato paste
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1. Chop the onion and sauté in a large saucepan on medium heat with a touch of canola oil to keep from sticking. Cook until tender and see-through, about 8 minutes.
2. Add the peaches with their syrup, and the tomatoes with sauce. Stir and add tomato paste, sugar, vinegar and bay leaves. Cook for about an hour on low heat, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Watch for it to reduce by about a centimeter, and thicken. Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes before blending.
3. Place cooled sauce in a blender and pulse for several minutes until consistent. Refrigerate and use once cold.
Radish Remoulade
8 radishes
1/4 cup Veganaise
1 bunch chives
1 lemon
2 tsp. black pepper
Salt to taste
4. Scrub and trim radishes of tips and butts.
5. Prepare a mixing bowl with 3 or 4 cups water. Juice half the lemon into the water.
6. Slice radishes with a mandolin, or as thin as possible with a chef’s knife. Now line them up and julienne as thin as you can (they should look like tiny matches.) Let your julienned radishes sit in the lemon-water for 5 minutes.
7. Wash and mince the chives.
8. Combine black pepper, chives, the juice of the other half of the lemon, and the drained radishes with the veganaise. Season with salt to taste.
Fried Oysters
2 lbs. oyster mushrooms
1 tsp. smoked salt
1 tsp. smoked paprika
canola oil spray
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbs. corn meal
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground white pepper
1 tsp. Aleppo pepper (or chilie powder)
12 oz. pale ale
9. Pre-heat oven at 375 degrees. Prepare mushrooms by splitting large caps into thin strips. In a mixing bowl, coat the mushrooms with smoked salt, paprika and spray thoroughly with canola oil. Then place the spiced mushrooms on a sprayed cookie tray and slide into oven. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until slightly crackled and brown. Remove and set aside to cool.
10. While they cool, prepare a fry batter. We went with an all-purpose Southern “fry dredge” as dictated by the Lee Brother’s excellent Southern cookbook along with a simple beer batter. Start by mixing fry dredge: 1/2 cup of the flour, the cornmeal, the salt, pepper.
11. Next make the batter, really just a slushy mix of 1.5 parts ale to one part flour that you’ll use to wet the mushrooms.
12. Once the mushrooms are cooled, get your fry oil ready. Empty 6-8 cups canola oil into a deep pot and set on high heat for at least 10 minutes.
13. Batter the shrooms: take each one and dip into beer batter, shake off excess and then dredge in flour mixture, patting off the excess as well. Reserve on a plate for once the fry oil is hot enough.
14. Fry 5 or 6 at a time for about 30 seconds or until crispy. Fish them out with a spider or slotted spoon and let drip dry on paper towels. Keep on top of the oven so they stay warm.
15. Serve by opening each bun and pinching out about a teaspoon of extra bread to make room for your oysters. Slather with ketchup first, then place shrooms down, and finish with a dollop of radish remoulade and the top bun.
Beverage: Buckeye Brewing 1776 IPA
Soundtrack: ” “ Indian Jewelry’s “Going South”

1 and 1/2 cups Coconut milk
2 Fresh vanilla beans
1/2 cup Honey or Agave Nectar
4 grams Agar Agar
1 cup Water
1 Tbs. Balinese Long Pepper (optional)
1. Empty the cans of coconut milk into a medium sauce pot and heat on low.
2. Split and scrape the contents of the vanilla beans into the milk, add the ‘spent’ pods as well. If you have any Long Pepper (find it already!) add them now. Continue to heat for 10-15 minutes until the milk begins to bubble — do not boil. When its hot and sudsy, remove from heat and set aside to cool. When the milk is cool (20-30 minutes) it will be well infused with the vanilla and pepper.
3. Make sure that you have all the vessels for your finished product clean and ready to go before you proceed. ( We gelled ours in little glass bowls, but you can try letting them set in rammekins and turn them out onto plates (the more traditional way. One benefit of a agar gelled non dairy panna–it wont melt at room temperature.)
4. In a smaller sauce pot, heat the cup of water on high heat until it boils.
5. Reduce the heat to just below a boiling point and add the agar while stirring rapidly. Agar melts at a very high temperature, but if you boil it you’ll loose volume of the water your melting it into (which will offset the ratio). If you have powder add it all at once and stir until it seems to have melted/dissolved into the water. If you have sticks; break them off into little chunks (you can jam them in a food processor to make it quick) and do the same.
6. Fish out/strain out the vanilla pods and peppercorns).
7. Combine the hot agar gel with the coconut milk and whisk thoroughly. Dump equal servings (about 1/4 cup) into each serving vessel, and place in the fridge to cool. Depending on your fridge temp; this should take not much longer than 30-60 minutes.
8. Garnish with fresh fruit, cracked pepper, or shaved chocolate.

Beverage: Uncommon Brewing Co.’s Siamese Twin Double
Soundtrack: Sonic Youth’s My Friend Goo