Veeegs: October 2007 Archives

As the first chills of Los Angelean “winter” gave way to 90 degree heat today, and apocalyptic fires throughout our surrounding areas, a last vestige of the summer-fall mash up finally got mushy after a week of incubation: The Great California Avocado.

Instead of making the generalized guacamole, which highlights the color of perfect avocadoes but invariably masks their flavor and decimates their sublime texture, we opted for a plate of perfect pickups for the one-pound monster we’ve been ripening on our counter for the past ten days.

While you can get less than decent avos from Trader Joe’s until the proverbial Peruvian cows come home, the real nature’s butter beauties herald from our harrowed surroundings in SoCal. While some of the more flavorful varietals are just coming out of season, Hass’ drop all year round. The next time any non-californians sit at your table, celebrate the glory of the golden state with this fancified green god programme.

Half Hour Salsa

2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 pound assorted baby heirloom tomatoes
2 bunches Mexican scallions
½ bunch cilantro: leaved picked, stems reserved
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lime
A splash of tequila
1 Serrano pepper, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, arrange your scallions around the outer edges, and place the tomatoes in the center of the scallion circle you create. Pile the cilantro stems on top.
2. Add the oil; turn the heat to medium and cover.
3. After 15 minutes, add the garlic, salt and pepper, and cover.
4. After 15 more minutes add the cilantro, Serrano, and the tequila, and cover.
5. Check your seasoning, and add salt as desired, the puree the salsa.

Heirloom Pico De Gallo

1 pound assorted baby heirloom tomatoes
2 shallots, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
½ bunch of cilantro, chopped stems and all
The juice of one lime
The juice of one lemon
2 Serrano chilies diced
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste.

1. Slice the tomatoes in half, and combine with all other ingredients in a large bowl. Let sit for at least fifteen minutes for the flavors to marry.
2. Toss the salsa, and then adjust your seasoning.

Bite Sized Tortilla Chips

10 corn tortillas
5 cups canola oil
Salt

1. Heat your oil on medium heat in a wok or large frying pan.
2. Using a 1” biscuit or cookie cutter, punch out as many chips as you can from your tortillas.
3. Check the heat of the oil by tossing in a scrap of un-shapely tortilla: if it floats and covers itself with bubbles then you’re good to fry.
4. Fry the chips in batches, depositing the finished ones first in a metal bowl for tossing in salt, then to a paper towel covered plate.

To Serve

A perfectly ripe avocado
All of the above components

1. Slice the avocado in half, top to bottom and around the pit, and then quarter it.
2. Gently peel away the skin, starting at the top of each quarter.
3. Place each quarter face down in the center of your plates, and make diagonal slices orienting the start of your slice 45 degrees downward from the center of the avocado.
4. Fan out each slice, stack chips vertically in the center of each avocado section, and garnish with your awesome salsas.

Beverage: Port Brewing’s Hop Wave
Soundtrack: “Flash Gordon Meets Luke Skywalker” Jammy, Scientist, The Roots Radics

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

When the weather starts to turn, there is nothing that will warm you to the core like a plate of hot potatoes. These wee tubers braised in sherry will certainly heat your chest cavity and the heady fried sage mayo will surely stick to your ribs.

Hard day at the rat race? This stuff will put you down like a bong rip through apple cider.

If you have a dutch oven, now's the time to use it. If not, any large pot will do, but remember: the thinner the bottom of the vessel the more you have to watch your potatoes to avoid burning.

Sherry Roasted Pee-Wees

1 lbs. pee-wee potatoes
8 cloves of garlic
2 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. sherry vinegar
1 cup cheap sherry, divided in half
2 hefty pinches of sea salt

1. Heat your vessel on medium heat while you peel your garlic.

2. Slice the butts off of each clove of garlic, and scrub your potatoes with cold water.

3. Toss the potatoes and garlic into the now warm pot and cover.

4. After five minutes add the olive oil and sherry vinegar, then cover. Keep a watchful eye on these little guys as they roast: stir the pot every four or five minutes or so, but do it quickly so you don't loose all the steam-heat the potatoes are producing.

5. When the potatoes are just starting to soften, after around 15 minutes, add 1/2 cup of sherry and reduce (to original level), then add the second half cup and re-reduce. Turn heat off, but keep 'em warm. Serve on a slather of fried sage mayo.

Fried Sage Mayo

3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
12 leaves of fresh sage
1/2 cup Veganaise
1 Tbs. Freshly ground Pepper

1. Heat the olive oil in a small pan on medium high heat while you thinly slice eight of the sage leaves.

2. Throw the sliced sage and the four remaining whole leaves into the hot oil and let sizzle for about three minutes. Deposit the fried sage sections, and any excess oil, into a bowl to chill. Reserve the whole leaves for garnishing.

3. After the oil has cooled, about five minutes, add the veganaise and black pepper to the fried sage and whip to combine.

Beverage: Unibroue's Le Fin Du Monde
Soundtrack: Brian Eno's "The Big Ship"

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