Veeegs: November 2007 Archives
After the haze of another thanksgiving wore off, we found ourselves at the farmer's market with little drive to buy anything but green vegetables. Not knowing until later, when drunk on the Internet, that our little score of zucchini blossoms were literally what we were looking for we were psyched to see the vibrant colors of dwindling summer in the chilly air of another almost winter day.
This dish is a super simple way to enjoy the afternoon after the third day of heavy leftovers. Romantificate your post-worktime freedom with this little plate, a friendlier friend, and a high abv beer.
Stuffed and Steamed Squash Blossoms
serves 2
4 baby zucchini w/ their flowers attached
4 hearts of palm, quartered, sliced thin, minced
2 shallots, minced
4 sprigs of fresh dill, picked and diced
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 Tbs. whole grain mustard
1/2 Tsp. sea salt
1 Tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup viognier, or a non-oaky chardonnay
1. Gently wash the squash blossoms.
2. In a salad bowl combine the mutilated hearts of palm, shallots, dill, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
3. Spoon filling into the bottom center of each blossom and pack to the brim, using the outermost points of each flower petal to seal the deal.
4. Heat a sauté pan on high. Carefully place each stuffed squash into the pan. Count to ten and add the wine. Cover for about one minute.
Two Side Salads
2 packed cups of assorted salad greens
2 Yellow boy tomatoes, sliced thin
The juice on one lemon
4 Tbs. Extra Virgin olive oil
2 pinches of salt
Shisho leaves for garnish
1. Wash your greens.
2. In a salad bowl, whisk the olive oil into the lemon juice. Add the greens and toss.
3. Slice the tomatoes, and place the slices atop your shisho leaves. Finish with salt.
4. Gently place the now steamed squash blossoms on top of small piles of greens. If you have tongs (you should) pinch the blossoms at the base of each stuffed flower, with the zucchini dangling below--this will keep the stuffing in each blossom during the brief trip from pan to plate.
Beverage: Rochefort 10
Soundtrack: Copulatin' Blues
Shazzzam! Our favorite food holiday is all up on us, and we’re getting hungry. The tradition around our homes the last few years has been what can only be described as Orphan Thanksgiving. (In Portland, we hear they celebrate something similar called Sharksgiving?) Whatever you call it in your town when a bunch of ragamuffin vegans are left to fend for themselves on Thanksgiving with no families in town, we want to help! So we cooked up a new podcast — download the podcast after the jump below — to lend a hand in the kitchen this year. Listen in on how to make spiced seitan cutlets with root stuffing, and be sure to consult the following written recipes for specifics.
Click Here to Download The Hot Knives Thanksgiving Podcast
If that’s not enough Hot Knives jabber for you this holiday season, don’t worry: Our local radio-foodie-geek-show "Good Food" invited the two of us on their program last weekend to babble about winter beer, gravy recipes, and avocadoes the size of babies’ heads. The show is here, and our spot is toward the middle of the hour-long program (or scroll down for the spot by itself!)
Hot Knives Thanksgiving Menu
Root Stuffing (recipe below)
Mashed Sunchokes or Squash Mash
Beverage: Flying Dog's Wild Dog
Soundtrack: The Second Marriage Records Compilation
Root Stuffing
Bread-less, wheat-free stuffing is a good way to lighten dinner plates that are already carb-laden from seitan, or other fake meats. Don’t get to caught up with finding Kohlrabi or weird roots if you’re stuck in a suburban supermarket with skimpy produce. Use what you can find: for instance parsnips could be replaced with turnips, rootabegas or even just a potato and a carrot. The important thing is the love with which you roast it!
(Serves 4-6)
2 stalks of celery
2 golden beets
2 parsnips
1 green apple
1 bulb celeriac
1 yam
1 Kohlrabi (optional)
1/2 lbs. raw cashews
1/2 lbs. raw almonds or pecans
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1/2 Tbs. fresh black pepper
1 Tbs. fresh sage leaves
2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs. pomegranate molasses glaze (optional)
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Peel your roots, but do it “rustic” stylez by leaving on half the skin. Then chop all your ingredients roughly, except the raw nuts. Toss them with the olive oil and lay on a baking sheet — one that’s large enough that the stuffing isn’t piled too deep, you want it to roast evenly. Season, cover with aluminum foil, and stick in the oven.
2. After 20 minutes, remove pan and check to make sure nothing is smoking (turn your oven down) or sticking (scrape with a spatula and add a couple more Tbs. oil). Then douse with vinegar, and pomegranate glaze if desired. Remove the foil, to let it roast harsher, and return to oven and for another 30 minutes. If at any point the stuffing looks like it's drying out, have a Tbs. or two of vegetable stock handy to soak the pan. Once the yam is sufficiently cooked (gives way easily to a fork jab), remove and serve alongside seitan.
A Huge and Endlessly Reverberating Shout goes out to Meghan Delehanty, the genius behind our crystal clear pod cast glory and the Merrill Bros. for our new bitchin' ITunes system. Without them we are cavemen throwing rocks at typewriters.
Here comes the comfort food, and unfortunately, that means a lot of mashed potatoes are about to be all up in our face. We like taters and all, but honestly, if you open a restaurant and all you can come up with for your dinner menu is garlic blue cheese mashed potatoes, you shouldn’t even be given a business loan.
We tried mashing squash last week as a sort of preemptive strike against mashed potatoes, and it worked pretty well. Gourds are right up there with goblins and witches, in terms of things that feel Octobery, so that’s a bonus. Here we roasted three kinds of pretty gourds and whipped their flesh into a hot, sweet and savory mash that could easily replace spuds beneath an entrée or swim alone in mushroom gravy. The recipe’s still a work in progress: you can use any combo of different squashes, also feel free to de-veganify by replacing the margarine with unsalted butter, and the soymilk with heavy cream or crème fraiche.
Squash Mash
(Serves 8)
1 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
1 spaghetti squash
3 Tbs. olive oil
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1 white onion, peeled and chopped
1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1 tsp. fresh black pepper
1/8 cup celery leaves, chopped
2 cups yellow chard, roughly chopped
1/2 soymilk
1. To roast squash, preheat your oven to about 400 degrees. Cut all of them in half, lengthwise and scoop out innards. Place squash on one or multiple trays, rub each piece with olive oil and dab extra on the tray. Roast until completely cooked and a fork yields no resistance (about 40-50 minutes).
2. A few minutes before your squash is ready you can start the other veggies for the mash. Bring a large soup pot with the vegan margarine up to high heat. Once bubbly, add the onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes, and then add wine. Reduce for a few minutes and add all your spices and the stock.
3. Bring up to a boil before adding chard and celery. Bring to a simmer until squash is ready to join.
4. Pull out the squash pan and start separating the flesh from the gourd skins (you can keep some of them, but beware of crunchy shards in the mash). Using a large spoon or knife, simply run along skin and scoop out all usable squash meet. Place in a large mixing bowl and mash together.
5. Then add to the pot, stirring thoroughly and adding soymilk (or cream) as you go. The consistency should be gloppy like slightly wet mash potatoes, add more stock or soymilk as necessary. Serve as you would mash potatoes or sculpt with an ice cream scoop.
Soundtrack: Jacob Smigel's "Mandarin Oranges"
Beverage: Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine
