Category: Vegetarian & Vegan

Cranberry Citrus Granita


Granitas are a lovely, light alternative to ice cream or sherbet that contain no dairy at all and are super simple to make; if you’ve never tried one, it’s time. This version highlights the tart sweetness of cranberries and citrus and is, quite frankly, stunningly pretty.

So, we’re highlighting cranberries. Why? ’cause we typically just we haul them out once a year or so for the holidays, and that’s not right. Cranberries incredibly tasty, make gorgeous food, and are darn good for you as well. They’re not only rich in Vitamin C, but have excellent infection fighting properties as well, as anyone who’s had a urinary tract infection knows. Cranberries contain compounds known as condensed tannins, which are potent antioxidants with known anti-inflammatory properties. Cooking does not degrade tannins, so here’s a delicious little fruit that’s remarkably healthy even when we do stuff to ’em. Here’s how you granita.

1 Cup Water
3-4 fresh Navel Oranges
1 each fresh Lemon and Lime
1 1/2 Cups Cranberries, fresh or frozen, washed and sorted
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar or Honey

Thoroughly rinse cranberries and citrus. If your citrus has been waxed or treated, put them whole in a bowl containing ¼ cup white vinegar mixed with 4 cups cold water. Allow them to soak for about 15 minutes, then rinse in fresh water and dry with a clean towel.

Zest all citrus, then juice each into separate small bowls or cups.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-high heat, add;
The water,
Cranberries,
1 cup of orange juice,
1 teaspoon lime juice,
1 teaspoon lemon juice,
The agave nectar or honey,
1/2 teaspoon of orange, lemon and lime zest.

Heat to a fast simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries start to pop, (about 5 minutes).

Remove pan from heat and purée the ingredients with a stick blender; be careful, the blend holds heat well and is sticky.

Carefully pour the mixture through a steel mesh strainer, into a glass baking pan, (around 9″ x 12″ is right, and a half cookie sheet with sides will work if you don’t have the pan).

Press gently on the mix with a spatula; you’ll end up with some skins and zest that won’t make it through the strainer.

Slide the pan into your freezer for at least 4 hours, (and overnight is fine), along with 4 margarita or Marie Antoinette champagne glasses. Freeze until the granita is completely set.

Scrape the granita carefully towards with a fork while holding the pan steady, until you’ve got a nice shaved ice consistency.

 

Scoop granita into the chilled glasses, garnish with a Rosemary sprig, and serve immediately.

Et voilà!

 

Indigo Grafted Tomatoes


Ah, spring, the time when all garden fancier’s thoughts turn to planting. Here in the Great Northwet, the snows are receding, rains are nourishing the soil, and it’s time. Our planting beds, resting under straw all winter, are begging to be turned and filled.

If you’re a lover of great tomatoes, then fact is, you simply must be a grower of great tomatoes. Whether you occupy acres or square feet, there’s always room for your favorites and if, as for many of us space is an issue, tomatoes that bear well in a compact space are best yet. Which brings us back to the love of those little globes of wonder. Enter the Indigo grafted tomato.

First and foremost, one wonders, why grafted? The simple answer is, because it works. Grafting is neither new nor done as a novelty; it’s sound practice with a long history of success. The technique, as applied to these Indigo tomatoes, involves mating the root stock of one variety with the leafy stem of another.

My hands down favorite college horticulture course focused on grafting. That was back in the late ’70s and I hate to admit it, but even though our back yard apple tree is a grafted wonder offering four distinct varieties, I’d not thought much of the technique in terms of tomato plants until these Indigos came along. My Professor at the University of Washington, fondly referred to as Master Nishitani, explained that the Japanese had been successfully experimenting with grafting herbaceous edibles since the early 1900s. Still, grafted veggies been slow to catch on in this country, due predominantly to the supposed greater advantages offered by green revolution dependence on chemistry and standard hybridization techniques. Thankfully, a general return to sound environmental practices has lead naturally back to grafting as well

What grafting provides, in a sustainable and eco-sensitive manner, is the marriage of hearty rootstock to a bearing variety chosen for flavor and high yield. The rootstock variety offers a larger, more vigorous root system bred with greater resistance to fungi, bacteria and parasites; truly a godsend, given many tomato varieties susceptibility to such ills. Customized rootstock furthermore yields plants that can and will thrive in a myriad of environmental conditions, a gift any gardener can appreciate.

Indeed, and so it is with these wonderful little Indigos. Monica and I were blessed with several plants from our dear friends at Log House Plants. We picked them up and admired healthy, happy starts, but apparently nothing out of the ordinary, yet… It was after planting and those tenuous weeks of waiting for things to happen that we first noticed a difference; not just blossoms, but lots and lots of blossoms! As fruit began to form, these compact plants, topping out at about 2 1/2′ here in our little USDA Zone 7b garden, were absolutely loaded. I place purposeful emphasis on the word compact; regardless of the space you dedicate to tomatoes in your garden, these Indigos will provide enviable bounty and variety.

And such fruit! The Indigo varieties are named for that hue, naturally occurring in tomatoes, fully expressed in these little guys. Right away the colors just floored us; perfect little globes of deep purple-black, yellow-gold and seriously rich reds. Any honest lover of tomatoes will admit that color and shape have darn near as much to do with desirability as taste. These things were like candy as they matured, the colors becoming deeper and glossier as the days progressed. Photographing them wasn’t a chore, it was a treat.

Our favorite thus far is the Indigo Rose, a stunning blend that starts out purple-almost-black with brilliant green highlights, and matures into a deep purple-red with stunning crimson flesh. This first true purple tomato also contains anthocyanins, a potent antioxidant found in blueberries, raspberries and cranberries.

The real treat, of course, is the taste. These Indigo varieties are simply amazing. Plucked off the vine and popped into your mouth on a cool, quiet morning, this is the kind of rich, complex taste that forms lasting memories. cooking, preserving and eating these beauties is a joy, and therein lies the only other impetus you should require for growing your own Indigos. Variety is indeed the spice of life; these hardy, high-yield varieties offer the perfect home grown, home cooked solution.

Do yourselves a favor, and look these little guys up by name. Chances are a nursery near you will have them, and if not, you can find an online source to hook you up. If you have any problem finding them let us know and we’ll get you squared away.

So, type in the search terms ‘tomato’ and ‘green tomato’ up there on the little search box to the right; you’ll find lovely recipes featuring these wonderful Indigos, including a tomato and onion tart, chutney, relish, and some ideas on preserving your bounty as well.

Happy planting, harvesting, and cooking!

Spuds Three Ways


Ah, potatoes;
Do we ever get tired of them? Counting all the ways they’re enjoyed for all three daily meals, I’d say not.
Maybe you’re stuck in a rut for variety, though, and need a little push? I got yer back on this. Here’s a delicious trio to try, one over the top, one pretty healthy, and one in between.

 

Twice Baked

4 large Russet Potatoes
1 Cup heavy Cream
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1 Cup Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
4 ounces Butter
4 strips thick cut Bacon
4 Green Onions
Sea Salt & fresh ground Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dash of Tabasco

Preheat oven to 325° F

Rinse your spuds and pat dry with a clean towel.

Coat whole spuds with olive oil by hand, place in a glass baking dish. Season the skins evenly with salt and pepper.

Slide the spuds into the oven and bake for about an hour, until the spuds are fork tender.

Fry bacon, dry on paper towels and chop to a 1/4″ dice.

Rinse, strip roots and any nasty stuff from green onions, and chop those to a 1/4″ dice.

Grate cheddar cheese.

When the spuds are ready, pull them out of the oven and let them cool just long enough to handle with a clean towel, (in other words, still quite hot).

Reduce oven heat to 250° F.

Cut the spuds into lengthwise halves, then carefully scoop the guts into a mixing bowl, keeping the skins intact.

Add cream, sour cream, half the cheese, bacon, onions and butter to spuds and blend thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Refill the skins with the spud mixture, top with the remaining cheese and slide those guys back into the oven; bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve hot. Great by themselves, or with a nice salad. Pair with a nice Fumè or Dry Reisling.

 

Roasted

8 – 10 small potatoes, (try a red, white and blue variety)
1\2 Sweet Onion
1-2 cloves Garlic
1 small sweet Pepper, (red, yellow or orange as you please)
2″ sprig Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
Sea Salt and fresh cracked Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Rinse and field strip onion, garlic and pepper, (in case you’re new here, ‘field strip’ means remove outer skin, cores, seeds and membranes, as needed.)
Rough chop onion and pepper into about 1″ pieces, quarter the garlic cloves.

Rinse, pat dry, and halve potatoes.

Toss spuds and veggies into a large mixing bowl. Add a couple tablespoons of EVOO, ( Extra Virgin Olive Oil), and toss to incorporate. Strip leaves from rosemary and add to bowl with thyme, salt and pepper. Toss to blend.

Throw everybody into a glass baking dish, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until potatoes are fork tender.

These are a great side for broiled fish, roasted game or bird.

 

Latkes, (AKA, best potato pancakes ever)

5 medium Russet Potatoes
2 medium Sweet Onions
3 medium Eggs
1/4 to 3/4 Cup Flour
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper
1/2 to 3/4 Cup Oil

For the flour, unbleached all purpose is fine, but try whole wheat pastry as well, it’s very nice indeed.

For the oil, stick to Sunflower, Canola, or Corn; they won’t add any heavy flavor notes to the latkes. And speaking of oil, oil temperature is critical to good results when frying; oil maintained at 350° F will ensure nice light, crispy results that don’t taste and feel soggy. Use a candy thermometer to track oil temperature, and always add foods to be fried sparingly to allow the temperature to stay where it needs to be.

Peel your spuds and toss them into a large mixing bowl filled with enough ice water to completely submerge them.

Skin and trim ends from onions. Toss them into the ice water with the spuds.

Add oil to a frying pan over medium high heat; you’ll want about 1/4″ of oil or so. Have your thermometer handy for gauging oil temp.

Drain your spuds and onions and pat dry with a clean paper towel.

Grate the potatoes and onions with the finer side of a hand grater, or use a food processor or blender if you prefer. The hand method gives the best results for my mind. You want a nice, consistent size and blend of spuds and onions.

Check your oil and adjust heat so you’re sitting right at 350° F.

Place a platter lined with paper towels in your oven and preheat to Warm.

Toss the spud and onion blend into a colander lined with paper towels and gently squash the mix to remove excess water.

Dry off that large mixing bowl and toss your spud/onion blend in.

Lightly beat the eggs by hand and add them to the spuds and onions, then add the salt and pepper.

Add flour 1/4 cup at a time until the mixture holds together on its own, like a chunky pancake batter.

Fill a large soup spoon with a heaping hunk ‘o batter. Slip that puppy into the hot oil and gently squash it down into a cake. Fry one side for approximately 3-5 minutes, until golden brown, then and fry the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes. Look for that nice golden brown on both sides.

Now slide those little golden beauties onto the paper towel covered platter in the oven and keep fryin’. Add a little more oil if needed and watch that oil temp.

Serve nice and hot with the applesauce and a little dish of sour cream, crèma or crème fraîche. Latkes deserve to be a meal and they won’t disappoint; pair with a local sparkler or hard cider.

Cilantro Pesto II


We posted a pesto special a while back, but last night we did up this variant. It was so good, we decided we’d better share it pronto. This has a wonderful balance between the orange and onion with the savory cilantro and cheese is wonderful.

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1 Cup Cilantro, well packed, with the large stems removed
1/4 Cup lightly toasted Hazelnuts (or Almonds)
1/4 Cup extra virgin Olive Oil
+/- 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
Juice & Zest of 1/2 to 1 Orange
2 Tablespoons Shallot
1 clove fresh Garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

If your hazelnuts have skins, preheat your oven to 350° F. Place nuts on a cookie sheet and roast for 15 minutes, or until nuts start to darken notably. Pull them out, toss them into a clean, damp kitchen towel and rub briskly until the skins come off.

Zest and juice orange.

Process everything but the oil, salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender until thoroughly incorporated.

With the processor or blender running, (Low speed if you’ve got one), add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream.

Stop when you hit the consistency you like.

Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired.

Freeze leftovers as needed. Pesto works great in an ice cube tray, frozen. Just pop out a cube when you need one.

Indoor Herbs


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Basil, Sage, Rosemary and Thyyyyyyyyyme,
And Oregano, too!

When it comes to great home cooking, herbs are the key to separating the ho-hum for the UH HUH! And when it comes to great herbs, fresh beats dried hands down.

Having what you love as indispensable herbs available year round means growing your own, especially when a sort-of-but-not-really little plastic thingy of herbs from the store runs $5…
Fortunately, it’s not hard to grow your own, doesn’t take much room, and is well worth the time and money needed.

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You do not need to make this a fancy or expensive venture, but you can get as elaborate as you like. Let your imagination be your guide on a cold weekend and have some fun: All you really need is a decent sized pot, some potting soil, and a few seeds or starts. You should also have a nice sunny spot, of course; herbs dig direct sun and warmth, just like us.

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You may want to go to a decent nursery to find a decent selection, and your chances are better for finding starters there, which have obvious speed of enjoyment benefits over seed.

Choose a variety of herbs that you like to use most. The five choices I opened with are our faves, but get what floats your boat; nowadays, you’ll not just find thyme, for instance, but varieties like lemon, lime, or lavender. Same goes for Basil, Oregano, Sage, Marjoram and a bunch more great herbs.

Buy a large, deep plant pot, 12″ to 18″ around and a good 8″ to 12″ deep. Keep in mind the growing habits of your choices when you select pot size; sage grows tall, basil and oregano fairly bushy, while thyme is a creeper. Make sure its got drainage holes in the bottom and buy a nice deep saucer to handle runoff.

Get a bag of decent quality potting soil big enough to fill your pot and have some left over.

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Scrounge some gravel, river rock, or pot shards to line the bottom of your pot; they’ll aid in drainage by making sure the holes don’t get clogged with soil.

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When you get everything home, fill the pot up with soil, stopping about 3″ inches from the top.

Moisten the soil lightly but thoroughly and mix it well by hand.

If you bought starters, make your holes about 1 1/2 times the size of the soil the plants came with. Gently pull the plant from its container and carefully loosen the soil around its roots. Don’t tear the roots, just give them some breathing room. Plant your starter, pack about 1″ of your potting soil over the dirt and roots and press everything down gently but firmly. Give each plant a couple of inches room from each other. Water thoroughly when you’re finished planting but don’t drown the little guys.

If you’re planting seeds, follow the directions for starting them, as to depth, water, germination time, etc.

Set your pot on its drainage saucer and pick your best growing spot; again, most herbs like full sun, and in the cold months, they’ll take as much of the weaker weak winter sun as they can get.

Don’t overwater; when your little buddies look parched, (droopy dull leaves are a sign), give them a nice drink. You do not want the soil saturated, nor should there ever be standing water in your drip tray. You can certainly give them a little plant food if you like. We find that herbs dig Superthrive, which is a great, well established growth supplement.

Speaking of growth, keep an eye on that and trim as needed for meals and to keep things fair in the jungle. When you want some herbs for cooking, cut top leaves first. If you trim to a junction rather than just in the middle of a stem, you’ll encourage better health and regrowth.

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Once it gets warm again, you can set plants outside or leave them in as you see fit. Personally, the closer the ingredients to the pot, the happier I am.

Enjoy!

Beans-R-Us


You know the rest, right?

😉

Beans are truly a superior food, as most of the world knows; they’re cheap, versatile and really good for you. Beans are high in antioxidants, fiber, protein, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and zinc. There’s some argument that including beans regularly in your diet may help reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and colorectal cancer. And beyond all that, they’re genuinely filling and delicious.

So is there such a thing as a fartless bean? Well, sorta, yeah. Soaking dry beans overnight definitively works, as does cooking beans in the left over liquor from the last batch you cooked. Lately, there are reports that a couple of probiotics, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum added to beans will cause them to produce less fartáge, but I’ve not tried that. Soaking them overnight, (8 to 12 hours), actually starts the germination process, breaks down some of the complex bean sugars and thereby causes less hot air.

When it comes to shopping, you’ll get better quality and flavor out of dried beans then canned, as well as more beans for your buck. Now, if you see a killer deal on canned beans, don’t pass them up; I snagged a dozen 15 ounce cans for $6 at my local store the other day.

To get the best out of canned beans, definitely rinse them before you use them. The liquid in canned beans contains a bunch of starch and salt that you just don’t need. Rinsing that out with plenty of nice, cold water will get rid of the crap, improve flavor, and helps remove the metallic taste you sometimes get with a canned bean.

Now for dried beans: Although soaking really isn’t a big deal, if you just don’t have enough time for a proper overnight soak, you can do a speed soak: Rinse your beans thoroughly in cold water, then toss them in a pot and cover with 3+ inches of nice, cold water. Bring ’em almost to a boil, until little bubbles are forming around the edge of the pot like when you scald milk. Pull ’em off the heat and let them sit uncovered for an hour. Drain ’em and then cook ’em. I always like low and slow as possible when cooking beans, they can develop flavor and marry whatever you put in with them.

If you’re using lentils, split peas or little bitty beans of some other variety, you can just toss ’em into a soup or stew with no soaking and let them do the low and slow with the rest of the gang. So long as you’ve got a few hours cooking time, they’ll end up just fine.

And speaking of varieties, stock up folks! We keep the following in our pantry at all times: Kidney, Pinto, Great Northern, Black, Garbanzo, Split, Lentils (red, white and green), Pink, and Cannellini. There are a bunch more out there, especially with the resurgence in heirloom varieties these days; try ’em, you’ll like ’em.

Like baked beans? Make your own, they’ll beat the tail off of anything from a can. Great Northerns are one of my fave legumes. They’re the big, white ones with a nice firm texture and delicate flavor; they are perfectly suited to soaking up all the rich flavors of a great baked bean.

1 Pound Great Northern Beans
1/2 Pound thick cut Pepper Bacon
1 medium Sweet Onion
1-3 Jalapeño Chiles
2 Cups Pork Stock, (Chicken or veggie is fine too)
1 Cup Tomato Purée
1/2 Cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Blackstrap Molasses
1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Soak your beans overnight in a glass container. Use enough water to cover the beans by a good 3″ to 4″.

Preheat oven to 250° F.

Cut bacon into 1/4″ cubes or pieces. Mince onion, field strip and dice jalapeño.

In a large oven-safe casserole or pot over medium high heat on your stove top, cook the bacon until it starts to get crispy. Remove the bacon and set it on a pepper towels to drain.

Add onion and jalapeño and onion and cook until the onion starts to get translucent.

Add the tomato purée, sugar, molasses, and salt, blend well; reduce heat to low.

Drain the bean liquid into a measuring cup; keep 2 cups of that.

Toss the drained beans into the casserole. Add the 2 cups of bean liquor, the pork stock and the salt. Return to medium high heat and bring everything to a rolling boil.

Slide that baby into the preheated oven and allow to cook for at least 6 hours, and 8 is better.

Hands down, our favorite version is a classic Tex-Mex bean; here’s how we do ours,

Go-To Tex Mex Beans

1 16 ounce can (Or 16 ounces dry) Black Beans
1 Cup stock, (Pork preferred, beef or Veg OK)
1 Tablespoon Shallot, minced
1/4 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, cored and minced.
1/4 Roma Tomato, stemmed, cored, seeded and minced.
1 strip Bacon, diced
1/2 teaspoon ground Coriander
Sea Salt & ground Pepper to taste

If using dry beans, soak overnight per directions, drain and rinse. If you used canned beans, pour them into a sieve and rinse until the water runs clear.

Heat stock to rolling boil over medium-high heat, reduce to low as soon as it gets there.

Throw everybody into the pot and cook low and slow, covered, for at least an hour, and more is better. If things start to get a bit thick, add more stock to desired consistency. We like the jus to coat a spoon, like a thin soup.

Salute!