Summer Means Guacamole

Sometimes I'm not in the mood for a real meal, and would rather just nibble. In the cold weather this might mean bruschetta or quesadillas, in the summer it means guacamole. Knowing how much I love it, my mom even got me this beautiful guacamole bowl.



There are a million guacamole recipes out there, and mine has evolved over time. The one constant is that I only use haas avocados, because they are much more flavorful. Florida avocados work just fine in a lot of recipes, but I think they just taste watery in guacamole.

Last week, the Big Kahuna whipped up a batch of this on a night when I just didn't feel like cooking. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures during the process.

This recipe makes a party-sized bowl of guacamole.

Ingredients:

5 haas avocados
3 plum tomatoes
1 onion
Juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste

The Recipe:

1. Dice the tomatoes and onion into the smallest pieces possible, and place in a large bowl
2. Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits and skins. Coarsely chop the avocado and add it to the bowl.
3. With a fork, begin to mash the avocado, and mix it with the tomato and onion.
   
4. Add the lemon juice and salt, and continue to mash with a fork until the guacamole reaches the desired consistency, tasting and adjusting the seasonings as you go.
5. That's it! You can also add cilantro or jalapeño peppers if you want an added kick.

Bonus:

I don't know much about wine, and usually buy whichever bottle looks most fun. This one caught my eye and I couldn't resist.

CSA Inspirations

This week's CSA share included two of my favorites from last year: white salad turnips and rainbow chard.

I spent the last few days trying to come up with a unique way to use them both together, and I finally settled on soup. This soup has a lot of things in it, but it comes together pretty quickly so it's good for a weeknight.

This soup is miso-based, which is one of my favorite types of soup. If you haven't used miso paste before, here are a few notes: The miso is added at the very end of cooking, which means you can't really taste and adjust the seasonings during the cooking process. Don't worry, it all comes together at the end. Some miso pastes are mellower or more flavorful than others, so add the miso one or two tablespoons at a time, making sure the paste is fully dissolved and then and then add more as needed.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of oil
2 cups of turnips (about 6) diced small
2 carrots, sliced
3 scallions, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
A thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced
1/4 package (about 3 ounces) tofu, cut into tiny cubes
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons miso paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
8 cups of water
1 bunch of rainbow chard (about 10 stalks) -

• coarsely chop the leaves,
  
• finely mince 5 stems
  
• (reserve the remaining stems for stock, or discard.)

The Recipe

1. Heat the oil in a large pot.
2. Saute the turnips and carrots until just tender, about 8 minutes.
   
3. Add the scallions, chard stems, and cubed tofu. Saute until the scallions and stems are tender.
   
4. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.
5. Add 8 cups of water and the chard leaves.
6. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5-7 minutes, until the chard leaves have wilted.
   
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the miso and soy sauce, making sure the miso is fully dissolved.

I served this with toasted onion naan on the side for dipping. Yum.

Tomato Tart

The inspiration for this recipe came from these yellow tomatoes I discovered at the farmer's market.  I wanted to make something to show off their beautiful color, and a salad just seemed boring.

I made a basic flakey pie crust, but added a few tablespoons of rosemary for flavor.  I don't actually own a tart pan, so I made this in a pie dish instead.  It worked out alright, but I thought it was too thick, and the filling overpowered the tomatoes.  My mother asked why I didn't just fill the dish up halfway.  Ummmm..... that seems so obvious, how did I not think of that?

Anyway, the filling was tofu ricotta.  I'm still working out the recipe, but it was very light, seasoned with lemon, and more rosemary.  

I put thin slices of tomato all over the top, and baked for 40 minutes.

It came out of the oven smelling incredibly fragrant from the rosemary, and the filling had an almost quiche-like consistency.  The multi-colored tomatoes made a beautiful presentation - definitely a nice change from the green/brown palate of most of my meals.  This recipe is  a keeper, but I still need to work out the kinks.  

Happy Belated 4th of July!!!

A crappy picture of a delicious cake.

Chocolate blackout cake with vanilla frosting and berries.

When the Big Kahuna's Away...

The Big Kahuna is away at a conference for four days this week.  That means I've got the kitchen all to myself, and I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to make all the crazy recipes I've been dying to try, but he just wouldn't eat.

First up:  Mac Daddy from Veganomicon.  I actually have made this one before, and it is completely addictive.  This time, I added a few cups of CSA kale, so at least I've got some greens in this otherwise junk-foody dish.  It turned out better than ever, but no picture since the sauce is a rather unappealing shade of yellow.

Next:  Tempeh Hot Wings, from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk.  

I actually think the Big Kahuna would probably like these, since he loves anything that comes with a good sauce. Unfortunately, he's been scarred by a bad experience with tempeh in the past.  I had no idea you had to boil the bitterness out of tempeh before using it, so completely screwed up my first recipe using it.  I know better now, and love the stuff.  Sadly though, tempeh is now referred to as "that gross stuff."

I followed the recipe except I used maple syrup in place of agave nectar in the sauce.  

Finally:  Julie Hasson's Spicy Italian Sausages.  I've been wanting to try these forever, especially since the base recipe is so versatile and adaptable.  The Big Kahuna has eaten and enjoyed seitan in the past, but I thought it would be best to experiment with these on my own first, since I don't want a repeat of the tempeh debacle.

I halved the recipe, and ended up with 5 decently sized sausages.  There's a crazy number of spices in these, but the result is surprisingly authentic.  This was my first ever attempt at making seitan, and I was nervous because I'd heard it can be finicky, but these sausages came out perfect.  So let me be the millionth person to declare that Julie is a genius, both for the recipe and the method.

Tonight for a quick dinner I sauteed a bunch of escarole with garlic, and then sliced and browned one of the sausages.  Spicy and delicious.  

Urban Foraging

Around the corner from our apartment is a giant blackberry tree on the patio of a Mexican restaurant.  The branches hang over the sidewalk and falling berries have turned a few squares of pavement a lovely shade of purple.  Every time I walk by I think it's such a waste of delicious, beautiful berries.  

So yesterday I decided to do something about it.  And since I'm a bit too short to reach the branches, I dragged the Big Kahuna out with me.  He was a really good sport about it, though I think he was mildly embarrassed to be standing out on a street corner picking a tree bare as the neighborhood brunch-goers ambled by.  

The best berries were way up high out our reach, but we picked until our hands were died purple, and ended up with enough to make a berry crisp, which was my goal.  

I also had a basket of local farmer's market strawberries.  Red all the way through, and flavorful - the way strawberries are meant to be.  Not those sad, watery, white-in-the-middle supermarket strawberries.

I used both berries to make the Berry Coconut Crisp from Veganomicon.  It was delicious, and even more so because we had to work a bit for it.

Now I'm just going to have to pluck up the courage to ask the restaurant (and tree) owner if I can come back with a ladder and get the rest of the berries down.

First CSA Delivery

My local CSA started which means lots of organic greens this month.  (And I'm a bit behind on posting, since week 2's share is currently in my fridge.) The first share included garlic scapes, broccoli, broccoli greens, red spinach, red lettuce, cilantro and peas.  

Red Spinach

The scapes

I had a couple of thoughts for the garlic scapes - either pesto, or a garlicky bean dip - so I ended up incorporating both ideas, and more CSA vegetables, into a new recipe.  It's ridiculously easy to make, and only takes about ten minutes.  The Big Kahuna and I ate this alone as a light supper, but it would also make a nice side dish with something more substantial.

One note - this is VERY garlicky, so if you are not as much of a fan of garlic as we are, leave out one of the scapes, or add more cilantro.  

Butterbean Salad with Cilanto-Scape Pesto and Sauteed Broccoli Greens:

Ingredients:

2 15 oz cans of butter beans

1/2 cup cilantro

4 garlic scapes

1 tsp salt

2 cups broccoli greens, coarsely chopped

olive oil

The Recipe:

1. Put the scapes, cilantro and salt in a food processor. Process for a few seconds to chop up the cilantro and scapes into small bits.  
2. With the processor running, pour in the olive oil a little at a time until it forms a paste.
3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the broccoli greens.  Saute until greens are wilted and tender.
4. Pour the beans into a bowl, add the pesto, and toss until the beans are coated. and the pesto is 
5. Fold in the greens, and mix so they are well-distributed.  
6. That's it!  Serve and enjoy.