Jenmenke

Road Warrior

meatless monday

Dare Me?

Meatless Monday Eight Prequel.

I’m home alone.

I’m making dinner for tonight’s Meatless Monday.

No, no. I haven’t turned over a new leaf. I have bookclub tonight and a busy afternoon of kid stuff. So I’m being proactive.

So yeah, maybe I am turning over a new leaf. But just for today.

I’m making this really old family favorite potato soup recipe. And you know how I love to use up stuff from my pantry…

So anyway, do you dare me?

(you would think Dave would wise up and start reading this blog, if only to protect himself.)

Meatless Monday Seven!

And Valentine’s Day wrapped up in one.

Dave gave me two cookbooks for Valentine’s Day. One was an Indian cookbook and the other was a vegetarian cookbook. Which proves that even though he is pissing and moaning about Meatless Mondays, he is – in fact – encouraging me to continue.

I was very excited. I made an Indian pork dish for our Valentine’s Day dinner. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, being that most Indians don’t eat pork, but apparently a few in the south do (The Christian ones, the recipe states). It was delicious. Even my daughter’s friend — a notoriously picky eater — liked it. And that’s saying something.

So, for Meatless Monday Seven, I decided to cook something out of the other one. The vegetarian one. Both cookbooks have lovely pictures — a must, for me. I know there are many, many, many fabulous cookbooks that don’t have pictures. They just don’t appeal to me anymore. Maybe I don’t have the time to really delve in. I don’t know. I judge cookbooks-by-their-covers and that’s all there is too it.

The point is, these both had lovely pictures.

However, after cooking out of both. The Indian is in the lead. The vegetarian one has two fails so far. And I’m wondering:

Can I return it and say I don’t like it after having used it? Like you supposedly can with make-up you have already opened? Even though I don’t actually return make-up I have already opened and hate? Because it just seems wrong? Then I’m mad and vow to stop buying make-up at the drugstore from now on. When I should just return it. Anyone else suffer this same madness? Madness as in — mental illness?

Anyway.

I wonder what Barnes and Nobel would say if I brought it back and said, “The cellophane noodles called for in the recipe for Thai Spicy noodles are clearly NOT cellophane noodles in the photo. I want my money back!”

Because that really bugs me.

Don’t take a picture of the finished dish and make it look better with different noodles than the recipe calls for. That’s FRAUD!

Being that I am generous and forgiving in nature, I did not give up on this cookbook for that obvious failing. I generously cooked not one, but two recipes from it: 1) Refritos Gateau and 2) Sage Buttered Parsnips.

Let’s start with 2), because it’s faster: Sage Buttered Parsnips are, well… sage. buttered. parsnips. That’s the “recipe.” Cook parsnips, drain and mix with sage and butter. I fricken’ kid you not. But still I made them. I even followed the recipe for once! Oooh. Aaah. They were AMAZING. Ohh. ah. This cookbook. Is. Amazing!!

Moving on to 1) Refritos Gateau. It sounded quite promising. In the end though, it was little more than refried beans with melted cheese and sour cream. All the other stuff in the photo at the top? That was my attempt to cover up the ghastly-looking patties so that my family wouldn’t barf when they sat down to dinner. I’m sure it wasn’t any coincidence that caused the editors to skip Refritos Gateau when selecting recipes to photograph for the cookbook.

It tasted just fine. It was even good. It simply did not deserve 1 hour of my time when I could have just as easily opened three cans of beans, popped them in the microwave with some cheese and served them with sour cream, avocados and other miscellaneous accouterments.

Because that was what it tasted like. Nevermind the sautéed onions, eggs (? Yes. eggs. which were a complete waste of delicious fresh eggs) and the other blather called for in the recipe. Dividing it, baking it, in two springform pans (!), assembling it, warming it in the oven, spreading it with sour cream, back into the oven, blah blah blah, waste my time no more!

I will not give up on this book yet. I will give it more chances and report back. But if it continues on this downward path, look out. Hell hath no fury like a cook scorned. And I will unleash that fury with ratings anywhere and everywhere I can. (Just ask the poor sods who sent me the wrong furnace filter and made me pay the return shipping.)

(Valentines Day is not just for people)

Meatless Monday Six

(Sorry Guys, No Exclamation Mark for this One.)

Meatless Monday Six was non-blogworthy. We had baked potatoes and broccoli.

Yep. That’s it.

That’s what we had.

I even had a plan for it. Knew what I was gonna make. Tweeted about it.

I’ll be honest: I might not have allotted enough time to make what I planned to make, but that’s water under the bridge. Because I didn’t get to make it.

Know why?

Out of all the days in the year. In my marriage, really, Dave decides this is the day he is going to tell me what he would like to have for dinner.

And that would be, potatoes.

Plain baked potatoes.

With broccoli on the side.

When I tried to overrule him, he simply said: “You ask me all the time what I want to have for dinner. Well, I am finally telling you. Tonight, I want baked potatoes.”

He is a man of brief and true statements. But come on. Like I can write a post about baked potatoes and broccoli!

I don’t even know what to say. I am rendered speechless. And I have to wonder if this was the plan all along.

Meatless Monday Five!

Basil “Ricotta” Ravioli with Sage, Walnuts and Browned Butter

As usual, a few disclaimers.

1) yet another scramble at the last minute*

2) very few photos of process

3) very tough day**

* It wasn’t supposed to be a mad scramble. I had the butternut squash in the oven by 3pm to use as filling for the ravioli. However I failed to discern that my parents would be joining us and…  My dad hates squash. He seriously hates squash. I have gotten him over many other food hurdles (like an irrational fear of eggs benedict), but he has been very stubborn about squash and sweet potatoes.

**We put our beloved Buzz-dog down on Monday and while I know the show must go on — especially for Meatless Monday — my heart wasn’t really in it, I spent a lot of time crying and the rest of the time writing his tribute… And I by the time I was done with that, well, I just didn’t give much of a rat’s ass about taking photos of the recipe’s progress.

Anyway, regarding the necessity for a last-minute butternut squash substitution — you will love this — I found a ravioli filling in a cookbook that called for ricotta and basil. I had neither ricotta or basil, and since we all know _____________ (please fill in the blank), substitutions were necessary.

Morgan was groaning, “Mom, just go to the grocery store. Why won’t you just go to the grocery store?!” While my mom was saying “Oh for crying out loud, I’ll go to the grocery store, what do you need?”

blah blah blah

We don’t need no stinkin’ trip to the grocery store! We have COTTAGE CHEESE, for heaven’s sake. It’s the same thing! (Morgan said, “It’s not the same thing!”) And for basil, I have this handy SQUEEZE TUBE STUFF, circa May 2009! **more pissing and moaning from the 15 year old**  **more reprimands from the mother**

Ignoring their pleas, I zipped cottage cheese around in the food processor to make it more like ricotta and tasted the “fresh” basil paste. Seriously fine. No mold. Tastes like basil… Check. Check. I whipped the pasta dough up in the food processor, and got the pasta roller out.

Meanwhile, my mom and dad, sipping their wine and seated at the island watching me, finally asked, “What are you doing? …Are you making homemade pasta?!”

Seriously people, this is what I deal with. I mean, what did they think I was doing?

Certainly, it takes more time than buying it at the store, but once again — and repeat after me — then you can’t BRAG ABOUT IT and ACT SMUG. Isn’t that why we cook?

The whole ravioli making process took an hour, start to finish, and that includes making the sauce, setting the table, dealing with the stupid butternut squash and heating up a baguette and some kale from the freezer. An hour. That doesn’t really seem that bad for homemade ravioli, does it?

One more thing: The sage I used was from my freezer. Last fall, needing to cut back my gangly sage plants before digging out for the winter, I just threw whole branches into the freezer. I had completely forgotten about them until a couple weeks ago when I was trying to organize the mess and found them. I was too lazy to walk up to the barn to cut fresh sage (which isn’t looking so great this time of year anyway) and used the frozen leaves. They worked AWESOMELY. (Did I just use the word awesomely?) You could not tell at all. So I will be cutting more sage for the freezer next fall!

Fresh Pasta Dough
  • 6 eggs (or as needed)
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 T olive oil

Split into two batches when making in the food processor to ease strain on the machine. Process 3 eggs with 2 cups flour and 1 T oil until moist and crumbly. When squeezed it will form a ball. If your dough is too dry, dribble water in by the teaspoon until the right consistency. Briefly knead until ball forms a cohesive mass. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. Then process the other half. You will then have two large balls.

Split balls into four equal pieces and cover with a towel until ready to roll.

Follow directions on pasta roller. And roll to a thickness of “6” (one less than the thinnest setting. Set sheets aside on a lightly dusted surface and cover with a towel until ready to fill.

Basil “Ricotta” Ravioli Filling
(makes 48 ravioli)
  • Leaves from one bunch of basil chopped fine (OR 3-4 T basil paste)
  • 1 T olive oil (omit if using basil paste)
  • 2 cloves garlic confit (or 1 clove fresh, minced)
  • 1 1/2 c ricotta (OR use cottage cheese and process in food processor until curds are broken up well)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together.

Place one rolled pasta sheet on work surface and spoon small rounded teaspoons of filling on to pasta sheet 1 inch in from the sides and 2 inches apart from each other in two strips (like an egg carton). Using a pastry brush, lightly moisten the pasta on the edges and in between the mounds with cold water. Cover with a second sheet of pasta and press firmly all around the edges and between the mounds. Cut with a ravioli or pizza cutter (or knife) Approximately 2 -3 inches is the best size. Store in a single layer between waxed paper in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

Butter, Walnut and Crispy Sage Sauce
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or substitute pine nuts, pistachio, pecans, etc.)
  • 6-100* sage leaves
  • Grated parmesan

Before beginning the sauce, bring a big pot of salted water to boil so that the ravioli are done at the same time as the sauce. If you have to cook the ravioli in batches, turn the oven on to 200 and store the pasta, tossed with either the finished sauce or some olive oil in the oven until all the pasta is ready. Then re-toss and serve.

For sauce: in a large saute pan, combine butter, nuts and sage over high to medium high heat until the butter melts and begins to brown and the sage turns bright green and crispy. The key to the flavor of sauce is that the butter MUST begin to turn brown, but over brown. Immediately toss with ravioli, top with parmesan and serve.

* I’m only partly kidding about using 100 sage leaves. We love them. The kids hoard them. And I never seem to have enough. The recipe called for 6. I used the big pile shown in the picture above.

Meatless Monday Four!

Indian Daal, Naan, Fried Rice… HOMERUN!

Well, I finally did it. I spent some TIME and I PLANNED a Meatless Monday meal. And now I know why I didn’t do that before:

It takes a lot of time.

I blew the whole morning looking at recipes. The whole morning. Part of that might be because I got lost in about a hundred YouTube videos by this Indian lady (really, really good videos) who — in order to be very, very clear — talked very, very slow. The videos were very clear and very slow.

I think my hemming and hawing and inability to just pick a recipe and be done with it were due, in part, to my general feeling that vegetarian Indian dishes were not going to truly satisfy our dinner hunger.

That, and — let’s be honest — photos of chickpeas swimming in brownish sauce with chopped spinach really aren’t all that inspiring.

(More on this later)

Anyway, I was WRONG!

Everything was fantastic.

We ate till we were sick.

Indian is the new Beef.

Some things to note:
1) I don’t have photos of the process. It was a mess. Indian cooking is messy. Pouring liquids into oil, cumin seeds popping out of pans like popcorn, hitting me in the face, Garam masala? I don’t have garam masala. What can I use instead? What is asafetida? Someone google asafetida… Is oven on? Oh shit, I forgot to add the lentils… you get the idea. The Canon had no place in the chaos. No place.

2) The photos I have are not particularly appetizing. In fact, the photos I saw and the videos I watched of Indian food were not particularly appetizing in general. At least not to me. It leads me to the conclusion that perhaps vegetarian dishes are not very visually appealing to me at all. Could that be part of my resistance to vegetarianism? Maybe the allure of these ugly photos starts to happen as you fall in love with new tastes and get to know that this awful looking food is actually delicious and the ugly photos start to look beautiful? Like when you look at a pool of chopped spinach and beans you go: “ooooh, yummmm?”

Instead of: “I can’t serve that for dinner.”

That makes sense, I suppose. But consider it a warning. Unless you are already a brainwashed vegetarian, you will probably think my photos look gross. But trust me when I say they are NOT gross. In fact, as I write this, my daughter is eating the leftovers before soccer practice. I asked for a bite and she said no. (And now it’s the next day, as I finish writing this, and I’m actually considering making it again tonight for dinner.)

3) I got my recipes from manjulaskitchen.com. Of course I did a bit of tweaking, because of course I didn’t have everything oh hand. What is asafetida, anyway? Plus, I had gone to the trouble of buying red lentils — why I thought I needed them, I have no idea — and dammit, I was gonna use the stupid things. But in general, my recipes are her recipes. And each of them was so delicious that I can promise I will be going back for more. I encourage you to do the same.

Spinach and Chickpeas with Red Lentils (Daal*)

*Completely unclear on this Daal thing. From what I can gather, anything comprised of beans is Daal. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever, because I think daal is the Indian word for lentil. Anyone?

  • 1 15oz can of chickpea
  • 3/4 cup red lentils (these were my add. Not in her original recipe)
  • 3 cups finely chopped spinach (palak)
  • 2 cups (or more) water (her recipe, without the red lentils, calls for 1/2 cup)
  • 2 medium tomatoes (I used 1 cup chopped frozen tomatoes from garden)
  • 1/2″piece ginger grated
  • 1 green chili
  • 3 tablespoon oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon asafetida WHAT? (I omitted this.)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seed
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (adjust to taste)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (I didn’t have this. I used a tiny bit of cumin, chili powder, cayenne, nutmeg & cinnamon. Though garam masal has a lot more spices in it than that, I think)
  1. Drain the liquid out of the chickpeas and rince the chick peas well.
  2. Blend the tomatoes, green chilies, and ginger to make a puree.
  3. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if seed cracks right away oil is ready.
  4. Add the asafetida and cumin seeds.
  5. After the cumin seeds crack, add the tomato puree, coriander, turmeric, red chili powder and cook for about 4 minutes on medium heat.
  6. Tomato mixture will start separating from the oil and will reduce to about half in quantity.
  7. Add spinach, and salt, lentils and and water and let it cook covered for 10 minutes on medium low heat covered.
  8. Add the chickpeas and mash a few of them lightly with a spatula so they soften Note: add more water as needed to keep the sauce consistency to your liking, and let it cook on low heat for 7 to 8 minutes until the red lentils are soft.

Yellow Fried Rice with Peas

  • 1 cup basmati rice
  • 1/2 cup green peas
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • Pinch of asafetida (I omitted)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seed
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seed
  • 4 whole red chilies
  • 2 bay leaves
  • About 1inch piece of cinnamon stick
  • 1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  1. Wash rice gently and soak it for at least 15 minutes prior to cooking.
  2. After cooking rice expands to about three times in volume, so be sure to use the proper size pan.
  3. Drain the rice and put into the saucepan. Add the water, green peas, 1 teaspoon of oil, and salt, bring to a boil and turn the heat to low, and cover the pan.
  4. Cook about 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the water has evaporated. Turn off the heat and fluff the rice with a fork.
  5. (I used 3 cups of cooked jasmine rice from the night before and frozen peas and started the recipe at the next step)
  6. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high. Test the heat by adding one cumin seed to the oil; if seed cracks right away oil is ready. Add asafetida, cumin seeds, and mustard seeds.
  7. After the seeds crack, add red chilies, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick and stir-fry for few seconds.
  8. Add rice, turmeric, and cayenne pepper to the spices in frying pan. Mix it gently.
  9. Stir-fry for about 5 to 6 minutes.

Indian Naan Bread*

*Amazingly, this is cooked much like my rosemary cracker bread, on a baking stone in a very hot (500 degree) oven. I felt right at home! I’d love to do a video, but am conflicted about it being of someone else’s recipe. Seem’s not cool. Comments?

  • 2 cups of All Purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (I used instant)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Pinch of baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons yogurt (My yogurt expired in June of 2009 — not kidding — I used sour cream w/a little milk as a substitute)
  • 3/4 cup lukewarm water
  1. Dissolve active dry yeast in lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes frothy. If using Instant Yeast, as I did, mix instant yeast with the dry ingredients, not the water.)
  2. Add sugar, salt and baking soda to the flour and mix well. (Add instant yeast here)
  3. Add the oil and yogurt (or sour cream or buttermilk) mix, this will become crumbly dough.
  4. Add the water/yeast mixture (or just plain water if using instant yeast) and make into soft dough.Note: after rise dough will become little softer.
  5. Knead until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough and keep in a warm place for 3-4 hours. The dough should almost be double in volume.
  6. Heat the oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone for at least thirty minutes so stone is hot. Using a pizza stone will help to give naan close to same kind of heat as clay tandoor.
  7. Knead the dough for about two to three minutes and divide the dough into six equal parts.
  8. Take each piece of dough, one at a time, and roll into 8-inch oval shape. Dust lightly with dry flour to help with the rolling.
  9. Before putting the Naan in oven, lightly wet your hands and take the rolled Naan, and flipp them between your palms and place onto your baking/pizza stone into the oven. (yeah. good luck with that. Mine were a wreck going onto the stone, but turned out just fine. She makes it look so SIMPLE in the video!)
  10. You can place about 3 Naan on the stone at a time. The Naan will take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook, depending upon your oven. After the Naan is baked (Naan should be golden brown color on top).
  11. Take naan out of the oven and brush lightly with clear butter or ghee. (yes, you guessed it, I just spread it with regular butter.)
  12. wait 2 to 3 minutes before baking the next batch of naan. It gives oven the chance to get heated again to max.

I am very happy with Meatless Monday Four. The only downside, is that it will be a tough act to follow.

Meatless Monday Three

Ridiculously Simple Miso Soup

This is not the Meatless Monday recipe I had planned to share. It is, I admit, a really LAME recipe to share, given it’s simplicity. And the fact that it hardly constitutes a meal.

I think many would say, “Why even bother posting Miso Soup?”

Well. I’ll tell you why.

Warning: Tangental information approaching.

I love miso soup, but I only ever get it when I go to have sushi. Which isn’t very often. I knew I could make it, but didn’t figure it was that practical, having miso paste and tofu in my fridge when I am the only one who would probably ever eat it. But with the advent of Meatless Mondays, it would make the perfect easy Monday lunch! So I set about to gather up the ingredients to have on hand.

And I looked.

And I looked.

It was not nearly as easy as I was led to believe it would be.

I am spoiled with the availability of ethnic ingredients at even the po-dunk grocery stores I frequent. Twenty pound bags of jasmine rice, real — from Thailand — green curry in a can all ready to go for a quick evening meal, etc. And by the way, I know it’s from Thailand because a good friend of mine lived there for several years and turned me on to it! It’s Aroy-D brand.

Anyway, the miso paste was elusive. Byerlys and Lunds were out of it the two times I was there during December. Cub didn’t carry it. I finally found it at Byerlys after the holidays. I figured the seaweed in the miso soup was just nori, but it could be Kombu (?). Who knows. Nori would have to do because everyone has nori. Dashi, a type of fish stock used in miso soup, however, I STILL can’t find!

Lord knows I am not going to make a special trip to an asian grocery deep in the heart of Minneapolis just for dashi. So, last Monday, I wondered if I could just go ahead and make it without the dashi. I gave it a try, instead giving my miso a dash of fish sauce, which I always have on hand. And threw some other stuff in that isn’t normally found in miso soup. Or at least the miso soup I have had up until now.

It was really, really good!

So, I snapped a picture and attached it to a post on twitter.

I have something to say about twitter. I should probably write a whole post on twitter. (In fact, maybe I will do just that). But here it is in a nutshell:

GIVE ME A TWITTER BREAK.

It is NOT the “oh-so-touchy-and-feeley-connection experience” you keep hearing about. At least it isn’t for me. And I don’t believe for one minute that it is for half the people who are saying it is. In fact, it INFURIATES me because I feel like there is something WRONG with me that I don’t seem to have the success and good feelings about it that everyone else seems to. And I’ve been on it for almost two years! I was way ahead of the curve! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? *pant, pant*  Rant over.

I do have people I follow and who follow me that I genuinely like and have fun little interactions with. A few. Like about 20. That’s 20 people out of somewhere around 350.

People are always saying how “valuable” it is and how amazing it is that you can ask a question and get instant answers.

Really?

Not me.

Two weekends ago I tweeted

“Desperately need new jeans. Used to wear 501’s. Switched to Lucky Riders and Lil Maggie. Need v long inseam but not too tight. Recommend?

Not one reply. Not one. No one even made fun of me, which I surely deserved.

Most of the time I feel like I am tweeting to no one.

So what’s the point?

Oh who the Hell knows. And yet I keep on doing it. Probably some egomaniacal need to blast out personal information. Yet another chance for psychoanalysis, for sure.

(I told you it was an unrelated tangent).

But bringing it back around, like I always do: last monday I tweeted a picture of my miso soup and said

“My first attempt at miso soup ever. So good! Even with no dashi!”

And I got a TON of (well. a ton compared to normal) replies asking for the recipe, which I gave out — in less than 140 characters, because it is that easy:

“2T red miso paste, 2c H2O, 1T nori-flamed, 1/4c diced soft tofu, dash of fish sauce, salt, chili flakes, sesame oil, green onions!”

So I figured if there was interest on Twitter, there would be interest here.

Plus — and this almost never happens — we are not able to sit down to dinner as a family this entire week. And I’ll be DAMNED if Dave is going to miss Meatless Monday again, being that book club was on monday, soccer was on tuesday and he is out of town the next two nights. So I am holding off on a true-blue, full-blown, meatless monday recipe until I can torture us all. Together. As a family. As it should be.

So, without further ado,

Ridiculously Simple Miso Soup (without the Dashi!)

(this makes quite a bit for just one person’s lunch. If you want less, halve the recipe like I did the next time)

  • 2 T Miso Paste (Mine is red, because that’s all they had. I have no idea what the difference is)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 T thinly sliced nori (first “toast” it by running it over a flame (stove burner) a few times until it is bright green)
  • 1/4 cup (or more) SOFT tofu diced into 1/4″ cubes (you can use firm, but I had soft for the first time and it is WAY better than firm in miso.)
  • dash of fish sauce
  • 1/4 t chili with garlic sauce (or a dash of red chile flakes)
  • 1-2 T sliced green onions
  • dash of sesame oil
  • Anything else you might want to add: edamame, rice or cellophane noodles, side of rice…

Add the miso paste to the water and heat, whisking to dissolve the paste completely. I think some recipes call for you to strain the broth after this step, but I didn’t. Because I’m lazy. And it was just fine.

Once dissolved, add nori, tofu, fish sauce and chili (add frozen edamame and noodles here if using). Simmer gently for about 4 minutes. Add the green onion and simmer for another minute. Then drizzle with sesame oil and serve.

Resist the urge to tell your son, when he asks what it tastes like, the thought that immediately pops into your head:

Dirty feet.

Yum. I love miso. But that is, indeed, what popped into my head.