Tuesday: "Snow" peas?? In the middle of June? Take that, Al Gore!

 

 Stir-fry of purple snow peas, carrots, crimini mushroom and tofu, served over rice.

If you have vegetable odds and ends on hand, a stir fry is usually within reach.  We actually bought these beautiful purple snow peas in contemplation of a stir fry, so we picked up some mushrooms as well.

Tuesday: Gingery watercress-topped tofu

 

Gingery wild watercress-topped tofu.

This recipe comes from Elizabeth Schneider's Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini:  we simmered tofu slices in a mixture of dashi, soy sauce and sesame oil, and then set the tofu aside.  The cresses were tossed in a bowl with cornstarch and a little sugar, and then added to a skillet in which we had already fried ginger and scallion.  Finally we added the stock back in and allowed it to thicken, adding sesame seeds as a final touch.

Wednesday: Yet another vegetable that can be purple, continued

Stir-fry of purple bok choy, tofu, and roasted cashews.

Bok choy (which you may also encounter as "pak choi" or other variations thereof) is yet another member of the illustrious brassica dynasty.  We think all the brassica go well with cashews, so we roasted a few and threw them in to this improvised stir-fry, which was also flavored with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. 

We couldn't let these particular bok choy go because they were purple:

We had never encountered this color before.  Like many purple veggies, these leaves shed their color into the dish during cooking.  As you can see up top, the tofu ended up a little worse (or maybe just weirder) for the wear. 

Tuesday: Kinpira redux

Carrot-burdock kinpira with pan-fried tofu and rice.

Kinpira has already appeared on the blog: we're officially on the market for another burdock recipe, though this one is pretty great. 

In other burdock-related news, we were walking through the park the other day and realized that a few plants looked strangely familiar.  In fact, they looked just like the burdock tops we cooked recently.  As it turns out, burdock is growing all over the park!  We found several first-year plants, with their smaller, edible leaves, as well as a few second-year plants, which send up a huge stem and grow flowers and burrs.  One of them is about our height. 

Tuesday: Burgers and pickles, vegan-style

Beet and tofu "hamburgers" on Portuguese sandwich bread bun, served with dilly bean and green tomato pickles.

So we've had this nutritional yeast sitting on our spice rack for an embarrassingly long time. We bought it at the insistence of author Crescent Dragonwagon, whose tome Passionate Vegetarian was one of our very first cookbooks. Although she wanted us to put it into everything from omelets to stir-fries, we never really got into the habit. (Supposedly it's a good source of vitamin B12.) Finally, with this recipe, the opportunity arrived.

We also added some of our smoky paprika, which provides nice depth of flavor to dishes you wish you were cooking over live coals.

Both varieties of pickles seen here are courtesy of our winter CSA. The green tomatoes had an amazing flavor - almost saffron-like, though we never quite figured out what had given them that flavor. The pickled wax beans had a great summery crunch.

Monday: Cashew Curry

Coconut milk cashew curry on basmati rice.

For some reason unknown to us, cashew nuts go extremely well with cruciferous vegetables. In fact, a nice way to punch up plain broccoli or kale is a topping of chopped, toasted cashew nuts. This curry takes advantage of that natural pairing, adding green beans, tofu, and coconut milk. Served on basmati rice, it was a filling and straightforward almost-one-pot meal.

Super Bowl Sunday (with Gumbo!)

Vegetarian gumbo with homemade crackers.

Gumbo is a thick soup, really more of a stew, which puts the natural sliminess of okra to good use. It comes to us from Louisiana, and so we felt it was appropriate to make as we cheered on the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV.

We had always thought of okra as the defining constituent of gumbo, but Wikipedia informs us that either okra or filé powder can be used as the thickener. (Filé powder is dried, ground sassafras leaves - we have yet to add it to our spice collection.) The recipe that we (loosely) followed actually called for both. Apparently this is not very authentic, nor is the addition of tofu. Gumbo would typically include shellfish, pork, or poultry.

In addition to the okra and/or filé powder, a roux base is used to make gumbo just a little bit thicker. To make a roux, flour is cooked in butter or oil over medium-low heat until it reaches the desired color, which can range from golden (a light roux) to copper-brown (a dark roux). Here, we started the gumbo with a dark roux.

To go with the gumbo, Giselle made crackers following Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything. These made use of our half-white flour from Cayuga Pure Organics, and they were topped with salt and nigella seeds.

Friday: This is your brain on tofu

Scrambled tofu with bell pepper, green beans and carrots.

By "scrambled tofu," we really just mean a stir fry with hard tofu crumbled in and cooked gently until warmed through. This is an easy way to use up odds and ends of vegetables you have lying around. In addition to a little ginger and garlic sauteed to start, we seasoned with some soy sauce at the end.

Friday: D4SA Dumplings

Cabbage-carrot gyoza dumplings with fried tofu and rice.

Another D4SA first - homemade dumplings. Gyoza are Japanese dumplings typically filled with pork and scallions, shrimp, or other meats. (Their Chinese incarnation is often called "potstickers.") Usually they're light-colored - ours are brown because we used the half-white flour we got this week from Cayuga Pure Organics. This isn't really a weeknight meal, but they're much easier to make than their cute shape might imply.

VEGETARIAN GYOZA DUMPLINGS

For the dough:

In a bowl, mix 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup water. When it comes together, turn out and knead the dough on a floured surface for about 3 minutes. Then shape into a ball, cover with a damp towel, and let rest 10 minutes. After that, knead for 3 more minutes and then roll the dough into a long snake about one inch in diameter. Cut that roll into 24 pieces - each piece will make one gyoza wrapper.
For each piece, press it with your palm to flatten, and then use a rolling pin to roll it into a pancake about three inches wide. You can cut it with the rim of a glass if you want a nice round shape, but it's not really necessary.

For the filling:

Meanwhile, chop up one small head cabbage and a bit over half a pound of carrots. Cut the veggies very fine: the cabbage should be sliced thinly and should not be in very long strips, and the carrot should be cut into very thin, small sticks. (You just want them to be small enough to fit inside the dumplings easily!)
Heat peanut oil in a skillet, and when it's hot add the carrots and saute for several minutes until they have begun to soften. Then add the cabbage and saute for about one minute. Add four teaspoons soy sauce and two teaspoons mirin, and stir and fry for about five minutes, until the vegetables are wilted and melded together. (You could vary this by adding some grated ginger, crumbled tofu, toasted sesame seeds...etc.)

To make the dumplings:

Take a round of dough and place a little of the filling in its center. Fold the circle in half to surround the filling and gently pinch it closed at the top of the half-moon. Then (this is the hardest part) "pleat" the dough on one side of the half-circle to close the dumpling. This is hard to describe without pictures, so we recommend you check out this site to see how it's done.
From this point, the dumpling can be either steamed or pan-fried. We steamed our dumplings in a typical steamer basket for about ten minutes total. They have to be in a single layer in the basket, so it might take a couple batches to finish all your dumplings.

Sunday: Cabbage and Tofu

Green cabbage and tofu cooked in mirin-shiitake-soy sauce, on rice.

We confess that this humble Japanese dish sustained us through many desperate veggie-less winters, before we discovered the world of winter CSAs. Now that we aren't horribly sick of it, it's nice to have from time to time.

This was a standby of ours primarily because cabbage is one of the few vegetables that can be found in decent condition in almost any grocery store, and the strong flavors of mirin (a Japanese sweet cooking wine), soy sauce, and shiitake give the dish enough interest to make it a satisfying one-pot meal.

For any of our dear readers who are starting to crave something green, here is our version of the recipe, adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East:

Cabbage and Tofu

3 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1 package (14 oz.) firm or extra-firm tofu
1 small-to-medium cabbage (approx. 2 lbs, but doesn't have to be exact)
4 tbsp peanut oil (or other clear oil)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp mirin
4 tsp Japanese soy sauce

1. Soak mushrooms in 3/4 c hot water while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Press the tofu to remove excess moisture. This can be done by wrapping the tofu in paper towels and resting something heavy, like a plate, on top.

3. Remove cabbage core and slice into shreds, about 1/4 inch wide.

4. Remove mushrooms from liquid, discard stems, and slice the caps into strips.

5. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pot (or wok, if you have one) over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the cabbage and mushrooms. (Depending on the size of the pot, you might have to add cabbage gradually.) Stir and fry for a few minutes until cabbage wilts.

6. Turn heat down to medium and crumble tofu into the pot using your hands. Also add the salt, soy sauce, and mirin. Stir and fry for another 4 - 5 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Monday: Light lemongrass soup

Tofu-lemongrass soup with pak choy and dried shiitake mushrooms.

This Thai-style soup featured a very strongly-flavored and interesting broth due to the combination of lemongrass, shiitakes, brown sugar, soy sauce and cayenne. It reminded us of a sweet-and-sour (and spicy) soup.

Yes, occasionally we do just follow random recipes from strange internet sites....but only when they look good...

Tuesday: And now for something completely different

Lemongrass-quinoa pilaf with Italian cabbage and tofu.

You can probably tell from the above description that this meal was...a little random.

This dish came about because we were looking for recipes which could incorporate the lemongrass we had picked up at the market. We found a suitable lemongrass-flavored quinoa pilaf in Didi Emmons's Vegetarian Planet, and decided to substitute our mystery-varietal cabbage for the broccoli it called for. Hey, they're both crucifers, right? As it turns out, the much stronger flavor of cabbage probably didn't meld quite as well with the lemongrass as broccoli would have, even though it went well enough with the tofu and quinoa elements. In any case, the dish was certainly interesting and wholesome.

The cabbage was too pretty not to show you - the farmer we bought it from specializes in Italian vegetables, and he told us it would be similar in taste and texture to "cavolo nero," also known as dinosaur or Tuscan kale ("black cabbage" in Italian).


Feed me, Seymourrrr...feed me all night looong...

Monday: Kohlrabi-slaw

Kohlrabi-carrot slaw with baked tofu.

Since it consists of shredded carrots, kohlrabi, and vinegar, plus the flavors of anise seed and dill, this dish bears a resemblance to cole slaw. It's no coincidence that "kohl" sounds like "cole" - both those prefixes derive from the German word for cabbage. (The "slaw" part is derived from the word for "salad," which is itself actually derived from the word "salt" - making "cole slaw" "salty cabbage salad.")

As for kohlrabi, it's a cruciferous vegetable which grows a bulbous enlarged above-ground stem. The leaves are edible if you happen to find them in good shape, but they don't keep well. The kohlrabi "bulb" itself has a fibrous outer layer that varies in thickness, so it's not enough just to peel off the skin - you have to be sure to cut down deep enough to remove the portion with an unpleasant grain. The soft interior is greenish-white in color, and has a consistency similar to broccoli stems, with a fresh, slightly green, crisp taste.

Kohlrabi tastes pleasant raw and is a good fresh green vegetable in the winter months; it can also be braised or used in soups, where it reaches a softer, smooth consistency.

Tuesday: An old favorite

Brussels sprouts and tofu with ginger and sesame, served with rice.

Brussels sprouts are one of those vegetables that every red-blooded American child knows that she's supposed to hate. And for years, I obliged. But now I realize that adults are just fostering that expectation in order to keep all the brussels sprouts for themselves. Well played, adults.

This is our favorite thing to do with brussels sprouts, and probably one of our all-time favorite recipes. The sprouts are boiled first and then thrown into a skillet with ginger and oil and tossed briefly with a honey-sherry-salt mix. Freshly toasted sesame seeds are sprinkled over the sprouts after they're taken off the heat. To make this a little more substantial, we usually pan-fry tofu slices in the oil before proceeding with the ginger and sprouts.

The recipe above comes from Elizabeth Schneider's "Vegetables: From Amaranth to Zucchini" (see our goodreads widget at right). We highly recommend this book - it's both an excellent reference and a reliable cookbook.

Friday: Cousa soup, special swine flu edition

Simple soup of Cousa squash, tofu and tomato.

We know we've been doing a lot of summer squash-tomato soup recently, but a warm soup sounded good to Giselle when she was sick, and those cute little Cousa squashes were begging to be used. Since we only had a little fresh tomato left, we actually flavored the broth of this soup by using tomato paste - not a bad method when you just want a tomato flavor to permeate your dish. We recommend buying tomato paste in tube form, which is how it's typically sold in Italian shops. Though you can buy it in little cans in every grocery store, it's hard to use a whole can at once, so the tubes make much more sense storage-wise.

Thursday: Mispoona Two Ways

Buckwheat noodles, mispoona, and radishes with tart tofu-mispoona dressing.

Mispoona is a cross between mizuna, a Japanese mustard green, and Tatsoi, another brassica family member. This was our first time cooking with it.

In this recipe, mispoona greens are blended with soft tofu, lemon juice, and lemon zest to make a sour, bright-green dressing. The remaining mispoona is chopped coarsely and used as a bed for the soba (Japanese buckwheat) noodles. Radishes and sesame seeds act as garnishes. Interestingly, although red radishes are relatively spicy on their own, they are completely tamed by the tofu-based dressing. (Dairy seems to have the same effect.)

Most importantly, this recipe provides an opportunity to show off our stacking pyrex bowl set. Here's the mise-en-scene:

Tuesday: Tofu Jalfrezi

Tofu jalfrezi (tofu with bell peppers and tomatoes).

This is another Mahanandi recipe. It might be more traditionally made with paneer (the soft Indian cheese), but in a lot of Indian recipes, tofu actually makes an admirably good substitute for paneer. We sometimes make saag tofu when the idea of making paneer from scratch feels too daunting.

Tuesday: yet another vegetable that can be purple

Garlic-sauteed purple long beans with pan-fried tofu and sesame.

Meet the long bean. You may have seen it before, but probably only if you shop in South or East Asian groceries:



They resemble green beans in flavor (Giselle actually prefers them), but their texture is slightly firmer and as you can see they are.....longer. This is the first time we've ever found long beans at a farmers' market, and the first time we have EVER seen purple long beans anywhere. Hooray!



Unlike purple green beans, they also retain their color when cooked. (For this meal, we blanched them for about four minutes, followed by a brief stir-fry.)

Monday: Mustard Night

Spicy gingered mustard greens, tofu sauteed with soy sauce and garlic scapes, and brown rice.

Garlic scapes, the green shoots of young garlic bulbs, have to be removed to enable the bulbs to continue growing. Scapes look a bit like curly scallions, but they have a definite garlic flavor. They can be substituted for garlic in stir fries, salads, and other dishes. We had been slowly working our way through a pound of scapes that we bought several weeks ago, which held up admirably:



As for the mustard greens: we bought the curly-leafed variety, which is a beautiful bright green in color. This is one of our favorite preparations for this type of mustard green. Grated ginger and carrot (we used yellow and purple, as you can see below) are sauteed in sesame oil and then the greens are wilted along with sesame seeds. Finally, a honey-miso-rice vinegar-soy sauce paste is added and everything is tossed together.

Here's the mise-en-scène:



Dramatic sesame seed close-up:

Saturday lunch

Usually on weekdays, lunch consists of leftovers from previous nights' dinners. But when we get back from the market on Saturday afternoons we often make a light meal out of something we need to use up or something that won't store well.

Today: a stir-fry of broccoli and tofu, flavored with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce; plus the leftover quinoa and summer squash dish. This local broccoli had lots of big, dark-green leaves, which we chopped up and tossed in. Broccoli leaves are apparently very nutritious, and we can vouch that they're tasty - they're flavorful and comparable to kale in texture.

Importing a tradition from the Simmons-Thrall household, this was followed by lunch dessert:



A fruit salad of local raspberries, blackberries and peaches.