Monthly Archives: March 2012

Homemade Vegetable Stock

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

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Homemade Vegetable Stock

I might use 2 to 3 quarts of vegetable stock per month, maybe more in the winter, which isn’t really a lot. But at almost $4 for a quart of the good stuff, that’s over $100 per year. Meanwhile, I’ve been throwing away all my fresh vegetable scraps. I finally realized, it doesn’t add up. Now that I know how to make my own delicious no-sodium vegetable stock, I’m feeling clever four times over: one for the money, two for the waste, three for the salt, and four for the taste!

Vegetable stock is less of a recipe per se and more about knowing the theory and then improvising for the occasion. There’s no consensus on the right way to make stock, every cook finds her own. Here’s what I’ve learned from reading tons of recipes and finally just doing it my way…

The Foundation: The one thing everyone does agree on is that a stock starts with three key aromatic vegetables: onion, celery, and carrot. In French cuisine, this holy trinity is called mirepoix (meer-PWAH) which loosely translates to “some French Duke who hired a really good chef.” You might see leeks instead of, or in addition to, onions. Same with parsnip and carrots. But some version of mirepoix will be the base every time.

Herbs: The two other elements that you’ll find across the board are peppercorns and bay leaves. Also very popular are garlic and parsley. The stems of fresh herbs are perfect for stock. So if you’re using the leaves off a bunch of parsley or cilantro, you’ll be able to use the other half that isn’t leafy here. If you have fresh thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, or basil – toss some into the pot!

Fats: In about a quarter of the recipes I’ve seen, people use butter, olive oil, or both. I don’t use any fats because stock is always an ingredient in something else, and I’d rather measure the fats for the final recipe.

Salt: Just like with fats, I don’t add any sodium because the stock is not the final product. But lots of people do put salt and/or Tamari in their stock. If you do want to try, start with 2 tsp salt per quart of water and adjust to your liking.

Brightness: You’ll see this less frequently, but it’s something I usually do: add some white wine or lemon. It’s easier to overdo the lemon – half of an already squeezed one per 2 quarts is enough. Wine, on the other hand, adds richness as well as brightness – anywhere from a quarter to a full cup is great.

Everything Else: The woody part of asparagus, bok choy butts, broccoli and cauliflower stems, chard or beet greens, sweet potato peelings, fennel stocks, zucchini and summer squash, the top of one red bell pepper without the seeds – all great additions to increase the complexity and balance of flavor. But the two I would be loath to leave out are mushrooms and tomatoes, both for the umami they add, thereby rounding out the flavor experience and reducing the need to over-salt in the final dish.

Cooking Technique: Some folks oven roast the mirepoix and other hearty pieces first, drawing out and deepening flavors. If you do this you will need to use some type of fat. Other people toss everything into a pot of boiling water and walk away. My approach is in the middle: I do cook the onion, garlic, and herbs in white wine for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients and enough water to just cover them, about 2 liters. However you choose to start, we’ll all end with simmering our ingredients for 45 to 60 minutes and then straining out our very own homemade stock!

Storage: Stock will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3 months. A great idea is to freeze it in ice cube trays, then transfer into a freezer bag so you can easily thaw just the portion you need.

Watch-outs: Always use fresh ingredients, never anything that’s spoiled. Stock will not hide bad ingredients, it will amplify them. Rinse everything well and use organic if you can. Never let anything burn. If you’re making stock for a specific use, consider tailoring your mix of ingredients to complement that recipe (rosemary for Italian dishes, but not Mexican, etc.). On the flip side, consider avoiding flavors that are very distinctive if you’re making a batch for general/TBD use. I’d be careful with peppers – if the top of one mild red bell pepper makes its mark on the flavor profile, I can’t imagine what jalapeno scraps would do.

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The Dirty Dozen & Clean 15

26 Monday Mar 2012

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Certain kinds of produce carry a heavy toxic load if they are grown with conventional methods that include pesticides. Others, for different reasons in how they are raised or what kind of skin/rind they form, do not. This PBS article has more detail but here are the two lists for quick reference.

We should only buy these “Dirty Dozen” organic:

  • celery
  • peaches
  • strawberries
  • apples
  • domestic blueberries
  • nectarines
  • sweet bell peppers
  • spinach, kale and collard greens
  • cherries
  • potatoes
  • imported grapes
  • lettuce

These “Clean 15” are safe to consume conventionally:

  • onions
  • avocados
  • sweet corn
  • pineapples
  • mango
  • sweet peas
  • asparagus
  • kiwi fruit
  • cabbage
  • eggplant
  • cantaloupe
  • watermelon
  • grapefruit
  • sweet potatoes
  • sweet onions

Besides the direct toxic effects of pesticides on our bodies, there are plenty of other reasons to support balanced organic farming. But if we’re looking for a place to start, this list is a great one!

Sweet Potato Hummus

26 Monday Mar 2012

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Sweet Potato Hummus Ingredients

This recipe is based on one my friend Dena gave me months ago, which I finally got around to making. My loss, because it’s great! A nice flavor twist on traditional hummus, which I make all the time. And sweet potatoes add nutritional density that you don’t get from beans alone.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Large Sweet Potato, boiled until soft and then peeled
  • 1 Can Garbanzo Beans, drained and rinsed well
  • Juice from 1 Lemon
  • 3 Cloves Garlic
  • .25 cups Tahini
  • .25 cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 tbsp Brown Sugar
  • 1 tbsp Dried Sage
  • 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
  • 1 tsp Cumin
  • Salt & Pepper to Taste

Place all ingredients into a food processor or blender until smooth. Great on wraps, as spread or for dipping.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup

25 Sunday Mar 2012

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Curry Butternut Squash Soup

This has been a family favorite for years. It’s a beautiful soup course to accompany holiday meals, but also hearty enough to be a main course served with salad and bread any time of the year.

One large butternut squash will yield enough meat, or use a regular sized one and supplement with a small acorn squash. You can either peel the squash and put raw chunks in the pot, or cut it in half and roast it until you can more easily scoop out the meat and then reduce the time in the pot. Of course, this recipe becomes significantly easier if you purchase pre-chunked squash, but the tradeoff is no seeds for garnish.

No matter how you cut it (Ha! Ok sorry.), this is a really wonderful dish. You can easily substitute oil instead of butter for a vegan version – but if that’s not your thing the butter does add richness.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups Butternut Squash, peeled and seeded and cut into half-inch chunks – save the seeds
  • 2 cups Onion, diced
  • 2 cups Apple, peeled and cored and cut into half-inch chunks
  • 4 cups Vegetable Broth
  • 4 tbsp Butter
  • 1 tbsp Grape Seed Oil (for the seeds)
  • 4 tsp Curry Powder
  • 1 tsp Salt, plus more to taste
  • 1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper, plus more to taste

Instructions:

  1. In a large stew pot, melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the curry powder, salt and pepper. Then add the onions and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. In the meantime, rinse the squash seeds until clean, pat dry and toss them in grape seed oil plus a little salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven at 300° until golden brown.
  3. Add the squash, apples and broth to the curry and onions. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the squash is tender through. Remove from heat.
  4. Use an immersion blender directly into the pot to blend all the ingredients until creamy. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can also use a regular blender or food processor – it’s just messier and takes several batches.
  5. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Serve soup garnished with toasted seeds.

Homemade Vegetarian Wontons

24 Saturday Mar 2012

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Homemade Vegetarian Wontons

I’ve recently become involved in my local Wellesley alumnae club – such a great group of women, wish I had dialed in sooner. One of the regular events is a Supper Club, and this month it was at my friend Irene’s house (here’s her blog) where she taught us to make wontons.

Wontons aren’t hard to make once you master the technique that separates a wonton from a blob. But the process is time consuming, so it’s common for families or groups of friends to sit around and chat while stuffing and folding these little pockets of yum. So wontons are really an experience, not just a food.

You can stuff wontons with almost anything, although too much moisture in the filling can compromise the integrity of the wrapper. Irene advised purchasing square wonton wrappers rather than trying to make them yourself, so as far as I’m concerned store-bought is authentic.

Our vegetarian stuffing included:

  • Acorn Squash, roasted and finely diced
  • Shiitake and Button Mushrooms, finely diced
  • Nori Seaweed, cut into small pieces

How to fold wontons

Here’s the folding technique she taught us – which is one of many styles, but I think a particularly cute one:

  1. Lay the wrapper in the palm of your hand and wet two adjacent edges with water using the tip of your finger.
  2. Scoop a “cubic quarter” of filling into the center – a tablespoon or less. Don’t overstuff or your wrapper will break.
  3. Fold the two dry edges over to meet the two wet edges and press them to seal.
  4. Wet one of the new corners created by folding. Now this is the hard part: Take the two matching corners in each hand and draw them together, crossing one over the other and press them together so that the water can seal them. I think of it like the two corners are wrapping around to hug the belly of the wonton.
Homemade Wontons

Pro tip: Make extra wontons when you have helping hands to get the job done faster. Arrange on a tray and freeze. When frozen, transfer them from the tray to a freezer bag so they’re ready when you need a fast meal, as they cook very quickly.

Gently cook the wontons in a large pot of boiling water for about 3-5 minutes if fresh (between 5 and 10 minutes if frozen), testing as you go so as not to overcook. Scoop out with a large slotted spoon or mesh skimmer, discarding any that split open.

The wontons themselves are the centerpiece of an incredible meal. Irene had an impressive array of condiments and complements ready for us to customize our wonton bowls:

  • Soy Sauce
  • Rice and Red Wine Vinegars
  • Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce and Chili Garlic Sauce
  • Chopped Fresh Cilantro
  • Chopped Fresh Green Onions
  • Julienned Fresh Ginger
  • Strips of Fried Scrambled Egg
  • Sautéed White Onion
  • Steamed Baby Bok Choi
  • Steamed Napa Cabbage

I can’t wait to host my own wonton party. It was a delicious meal and delightful evening – and everybody went home absolutely stuffed, some of us holding our bellies like little wontons ourselves!

Broccoli Barley Risotto

16 Friday Mar 2012

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Broccoli Barley Risotto

One of my friends recently learned that she’s allergic to wheat and rice, along with a huge list of other ubiquitous ingredients like soybeans, milk, garlic, tomatoes and certain nuts. I looked through my recipes for things that could help her new allergy-free diet, but she needs to really customize recipes to eliminate all the different baddies on her list.

Then I remembered hearing that you can make risotto with pearl barley instead of Arborio rice. That could be a great building-block for her since risotto is wonderfully flexible, so I tried it out and was pretty happy with the results.

Barley releases less starch and takes longer to do it, so the final product gets maybe 80% of the way toward the classic risotto texture and you have to work a little harder for it. Still, with a significant difference in the amount of dietary fiber and the glycemic load, barley risotto is definitely making it into the rotation in my household.

Pearl Barley Arborio Rice
Total Carbohydrates

15%

18%
Dietary Fiber

24%

0%
Iron

12%

15%
Glycemic Load

19

30

[Nicole, if you’re reading this, I didn’t make my barley risotto totally safe for you because I did use garlic, butter and cheese. Omit the garlic and see if nutritional yeast plus additional oil will make it cheesy/creamy enough. Also, vegetable broth usually has tomato in it, but you can easily make your own without them. Good luck on your new program, I hope this helps!]

broccoli barley risotto ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup dry pearl barley
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 diced onion
  • 6 minced cloves of garlic
  • 1 cup sliced mushrooms
  • 2 cups broccoli or broccolini florets (here’s something fun you can do with the stems!)
  • .25 cups pine nuts
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • .25 cups grape seed oil
  • .5 sticks butter (optional)
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • .5 tsp Celtic salt
  • .5 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Instructions:

  1. Warm the broth in a separate pot so it’s ready to ladle into the risotto
  2. In a large high-edged pan heat the oil over medium heat and season with the thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper
  3. Add the onions and stir until they begin to turn translucent, then stir in the garlic, pine nuts and mushrooms
  4. Add the pearl barley and stir in so that it absorbs any oil and cooking juices
  5. Add wine and stir until absorbed
  6. Add broth one small ladle at a time until absorbed, stirring constantly
  7. Add the broccoli florets when you have the barley about half done absorbing liquids – wait a little longer if using broccolini as it’s more delicate
  8. Stir in parmesan cheese and butter
  9. Garnish with additional parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil

Hearty Mushroom Quiche

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Hearty Mushroom Quiche

Another savory pie in the countdown to Pi Day. Quiche is like the risotto of pie crust: once you get the basic formula down, you can put almost anything in it and something wonderful will come out of the oven!

Most quiche recipes call for a significant amount of milk or cream mixed with the egg to form custard. I don’t do a lot of milk so I just increased the number of eggs and the result was great – less on the fluffy side, more on the hearty side. Perfect for dinner.

Hearty Mushroom Quiche Ingredients

Ingredients:

  • 1 9” pie crust
  • 2 cups sliced mushrooms – I used baby Portobello
  • .5 cups finely chopped onion – I had a couple small scallions and some green onions left over so in went a blend of those
  • .5 cups diced red bell pepper
  • 3 cloves finely chopped garlic
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme
  • .5 tsp fresh ground black pepper + more to taste
  • .5 tsp kosher or Celtic sea salt + more to taste
  • 1 tbsp grape seed oil
  • .5 cups shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
  • 5 eggs, lightly beaten with a tablespoon of water

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° and prebake the pie crust for 10-15 minutes while the oven heats up.
  2. In a pan over medium heat, sauté the garlic and thyme, salt and pepper for 3 minutes. Add the onion for 2 minutes, then the pepper for another 2. Finally, add the mushroom and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring consistently so that the juices can reduce as much as possible.
  3. Put the mushroom mixture in the crust, top evenly with the cheese, then pour the egg on top.
  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

So yum. If you have a favorite quiche filling, please share!

Savory Squash Pie

12 Monday Mar 2012

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Savory Squash Pie

As the countdown to Pi(e) Day continues, I’ve made a couple of savory pies for dinners. The first is an adaptation of this recipe that I substituted in several places with what I had on hand. Turned out great, and will be a general formula for future savory pies for sure!

Ingredients:

  • 1 9” pie crust
  • 2 acorn squash (or 1 butternut squash) , seeds removed and meat cut into chunks an inch or less
  • 1 onion, diced
  • .25 cups grape seed oil
  • .25 cups dry white wine
  • .25 tsp salt + more to taste
  • .25 tsp fresh ground black pepper + more to taste
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs
  • .5 cups walnuts, chopped
  • .5 cups shredded Parmigiano Reggiano

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400° and toss the squash chunks in half of the oil plus the salt and pepper. Roast the squash on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes until golden. You can simultaneously prebake your pie crust for 10-15 minutes if you like.
  2. In the meantime, sauté the onion over medium heat in the other half of the oil. After 5 minutes, add the white wine and cook it down for another 5 minutes or so.
  3. If you’re making homemade bread crumbs, toast 2 to 3 pieces of bread until they are dry, break them into chunks and toss in a food processor. You can also add the walnuts and cheese as these three together will make the crumb mix.
  4. When everything is done, mix the roasted squash, sautéed onions, lightly beaten egg, and half of the bread crumb mix together in a big bowl.
  5. Scoop filling into the crust, sprinkle remaining bread crumb mix on top, and bake for 30-40 minutes until the crust is golden. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

Make sure to also: wash those squash seeds, toss them in oil, salt and pepper and roast them on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Yum!!

“Cold” Spaghetti

11 Sunday Mar 2012

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Cold Spaghetti

The pasta itself is warm – it’s the sauce that’s cold. And it’s the perfect dish for spring and summer – fresh and beautiful.

I’ve had, and loved, this recipe for years. It came from my childhood bestie’s family and I’ve been making and adapting it since I was in high school. In other words, it’s easy and never gets boring – because it’s incredibly flexible.

Cold Spaghetti Ingredients

Here’s the basic recipe, followed by some of the ingredients that you can add to customize it:

  • 2 cups diced fresh tomatoes – I recommend roma or cherry
  • .25 cups chopped green onions
  • .25 cups minced parsley
  • 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped – less if you aren’t in love with garlic like we are
  • .25 cups extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp dried oregano or mixed Italian herbs
  • 1 tsp kosher or sea salt plus more for pasta
  • 2 tsp fresh ground black pepper plus more for pasta
  • .25 cups shredded Parmigiano Reggiano plus more for garnish

Some additional ingredients – I usually add at least one of these to make the flavor more complex:

  • Olives, diced – I prefer black pearl olives for this as kalamata or green could overwhelm in my opinion
  • Artichoke hearts, chopped
  • Sundried tomatoes, chopped
  • Flavored oil such as basil or garlic
  • Red pepper flakes (start small!)

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl. Taste as you go and adjust to your preferences. Refrigerate for at least two hours so the flavors can marry. Serve over hot spaghetti or angel hair pasta that has been tossed in more oil, salt and pepper. Garnish with additional cheese.

Enjoy!

Creamy Tahini Dressing (vegan)

08 Thursday Mar 2012

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Creamy Tahini Dressing Ingredients

This dressing is similar to the Annie’s Goddess dressing that’s so popular and delicious. It’s creamy enough that you do not miss having feta or goat cheese in a salad. I recommend it on a spinach salad with cucumbers, garbanzo beans and sunflower seeds…or on pretty much anything else, it’s that delicious.

This recipe yields a fairly thick dressing, so if you prefer something thinner you can add more lemon juice or even a little water.

Put the following in a blender until the garlic has been fully incorporated:

  • .5 cups tahini
  • .5 cups extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice from 2 large or 3 small lemons
  • 2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tsp fresh ground pepper or more to taste

Note: If you don’t have red wine vinegar on hand, I suspect that apple cider vinegar would be a good substitute and contribute a little different but comparable brightness.