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15 Oct Ole!

A couple of weekends ago, after a lovely hike high above Truckee with a dear friend and her absolutely adorable baby, we stopped into a grocery store for dinner supplies. We didn’t have a plan for the meal, so while we wandered the aisles, I quizzed my lovely host about some key details that helped me shape a vision. (It sort of reminded me of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books:”Do you want Indian flavors, Italian flavors, or Mexican flavors?” “Okay then, do you want tortilla chips, tortillas or a cornmeal crust?” etc.) The result was a super simple and hearty dinner, perfect after a hike, perfect for that late summer, early fall transition with fresh cooked vegetable wrapped cozily in warming spices and light layers of beans and tortillas.

Some of the things I especially like about this recipe:

It’s a nice balance between fresh vegetables and canned food, making it a good go to if you have a well-stocked pantry.
It’s sort of a no brainer. In other words, there are no fancy sauces to make, no special techniques. Chop, grate, saute, stir, spoon.
The spicing is really versatile. You can easily make it hot spicy by using spicier salsa, or adding chili powder to the beans and/or veggies, or you can make it deeper spicy by adding more cumin, oregano and basil, maybe some garlic powder, etc. Too much salt is probably the only unforgiving experiment.
You can use any combination of vegetables you like (e.g. try adding mushrooms, sweet potatoes, or butternut squash).
This is also a great way to use up stems of greens. I made good use of the broccoli stems, but could easily have added kale or chard stems saved from other recipes that just used the leaves.

Mexican Vegetable Casserole

6 corn tortillas
8 oz jack cheese, grated (pepper jack, if you want this spicier)
1 medium stalk of broccoli, florets and stem diced (peel stem and cut off tough, fibrous end, if necessary)
1 largish carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 red bell pepper
1 small or 1/2 larger onion (I used red for the sweetness), diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 1/2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes, regular, Mexican or Italian style
1/4 C (plus a little extra) favorite chunky salsa
4oz can of green chilis or equivalent amount of salsa verde (optional)
1/2-1 t cumin, to taste
1-2 t oregano, to taste
1-2 t basil, to taste
sea salt, to taste
olive oil
1 avocado, sliced or diced
yogurt or sour cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Find a small casserole dish, ~8in (preferably round).

2. In a large pan, saute onion and garlic in a little olive oil over medium high heat until onion begins to soften. Add pinch of salt.

3. Add all other fresh veggies and saute until tender. Season with cumin, oregano, basil and salt, to taste. (You can use a taco seasoning instead, but it’s hard to find one that doesn’t have a lot of nonsense added to it, e.g. maltodextrin.) Add green chilis (the first time I made this, I used salsa verde instead, which was perfectly fine – I also think this bit is entirely optional, but you’ll likely want to increase the other spices if you skip).

4. While the vegetables are cooking, mash half of the black beans with the back of a fork or spoon. Combine the beans with the diced tomatoes (including the juice) in a medium pot. Add 1/4 C salsa and pinch of salt, to taste, and heat over medium until warmed through. (Be sure to check your veggies, and adjust seasoning to taste.) And, if you haven’t already grated your cheese, now is a good time (trick: toss the cheese in the freezer before you start doing any of other prep – that’ll be just enough time to make it extra firm for faster grating, without making it a icy brick).

5. When vegetables are tender and beans are heated through, you’re ready to build the beast. Pour a little salsa or juice from the bean/tomato mixture into bottom of your casserole dish (maybe ~2 T – just enough to lightly coat). Put down a layer of tortillas (my dish used 1 whole tortilla, plus one split in half, the halves arranged to provide a full layer of coverage). Then add a layer of vegetables, a layer of beans, and a layer of cheese. Repeat. Top the final layer with tortillas and then a last sprinkle of cheese. (It’s important not to make the veggie layer too thick, or the wedges you cut and serve layer will fall apart.)

6. Immediately place in oven and bake for 15 mins. (If you assemble while the veggies and beans are still warm but don’t bake right away, your tortillas will get soggy and the top layer will curl up in weird ways. So, if you want to prep this ahead of time, wait until everything has cooled at least to room temperature and either assemble right before you’re ready to eat or store built casserole, covered, in the refrigerator. Realize, you’ll probably need to keep bake it a little longer to heat the inner layers all the way through again.)

Use a large serving spoon to cut/scoop pie-like wedges. Serve with sliced avocado, extra salsa and yogurt or sour cream, as you like. Takes around 45 mins to an hour – from first chop to serving, depending on how fast you chop and how well you multi-task. Serves 4-6.

07 Oct Tomato Chutney…

Tomatoes are late this summer (okay, sure it’s officially fall, but I live in San Francisco, so summer just started) and, oh, happy day. My house has been swimming in marinara and all things tomatoey. One fine Saturday a couple of weeks ago, I can home from the farmers market with a backpack filled to the tippy top with heirloom, organic cherry tomatoes. I quickly got to work slicing them all in half – a fair amount getting laid out on trays for the dehydrator (have you had dehydrated cherry tomatoes? So sweet and goooood!!) and the rest tossed into a huge pot for making chutney.

I spliced together a bunch of chutney recipes. I didn’t want anything too sweet, but rather a nice combination of sweet and savory. The key to the final product below is the panch puran. As far as I can tell, it means “five spices” in Bengali. I found a few different versions of panch puran, each using a different mix of spices. The formula below reflects what was already in my cupboard (warning: the recipe measurements makes ~1/2C, but you only need a few tablespoons for this recipe, so either reduce the amounts to make just what you need, or be excited to find other ways to use the leftovers).

This is the perfect project for a day when you’re settled in at home, as the chutney takes a while to cook down. (You could potentially do this in a slow cooker, but the lid will make it harder for the liquid to evaporate and for the chutney to thicken up.)

What I especially love about this recipe:

Its adaptability. In other words, it’s completely to taste. Want it sweeter, increase the molasses or add some honey; want it spicier, add more chili pepper; etc.
Molasses. Blackstrap molasses is the darkest type of molasses. Whereas sugar – regular old white table sugar – is completely void of nutrients, molasses is the nutrient-dense liquid byproduct of the process of refining sugar cane into table sugar. Molasses is rich in manganese, copper, iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. In addition, it is a good source of vitamin B6 and selenium.
No additional sweeteners.
Simple. Six ingredients. Okay, more if you need to assemble your panch puran, but once that’s done and you have a stash of it, you’re all set.
Makes the house smell sweet and spicy (but not cloyingly sweet, the way curry can get).
Versatility. Pour over a log of goat cheese for an appetizer; use as a spread on a sandwich; use to dress up sauteed greens and whole grains; serve on pasta for a twist on “marinara”; use instead of salsa on a veggie quesadilla; etc.

Tomato Chutney

~12 C tomatoes, quartered (halved, if using cherry tomatoes)
~1 C raisins (I prefer golden raisins, but dark raisins work fine)
~1/4 C molasses, or more to taste
1 small chili, fresh or dried
2 generous pinches of sea salt, or more to taste
3 T panch puran (1/4 C fennel seeds, 1 T each crushed cardamon pods, sesame seeds, mustard seeds and corriander seeds)

1. In a large pot, toast dried chili (if using fresh, slice in half lengthwise and clean out seeds and membrane, unless you want the chutney hot-spicy) and panch puran for a few minutes, until the spices become aromatic.

2. Add the tomatoes and salt and bring to a simmer. Cover to expedite the initial break down.

3. Once the tomatoes have broken down – should be very, very juicy in there – add the molasses and raisins. Start conservatively with the molasses and add more as the chutney begins to cook down and thicken. Ditto for salt and panch puran (although, I don’t think you’ll need more of the latter).

4. Simmer with lid off and reduce tomatoes (and the juices) to at least half the current volume. This will take some time (e.g. my “quickest” batch reduced for 6 hours). You’ll have to decide how thick you want your chutney.

5. The skins of the tomatoes will shrivel off the flesh of the fruit as it cooks down. If you want a smoother chutney, use tongs to pull out the skins. It’s tedious work and I only do it until I get bored, largely because it’s tedious work that bores me and because I like the extra texture that the skins give to the chutney.

6. Makes around 6 half-pints worth of chutney. I canned them in sterilized jars and a water bath (clearly the pic below was taken for a much larger batch). I love canning! I love the process and then being able to revisit favorite sauces throughout the year. You can also freeze extras you don’t end up using right away.

20 Jul Holy Corn on the Cob!

I don’t know why I forget every year – until I sink my teeth into my first ear – how much I love fresh corn. It’s always, without fail, a total surprise. A brilliant, delightful surprise. I grew up with boiled corn. Often boiled forever. It was a revelation when my mom toned that down – a mere three minutes in the pot, then done. The corn tasted fresher and crisper. Love. Then my dad started grilling corn. Pre-soaking the ears in water and having to take care that the leaves wouldn’t catch on fire, took some of the grilling joy out of it for me. Tasty but too high maintenance and not really practical for those of us without a grill (or grilling weather – I’m looking at you June gloom).

Deb of the Smitten Kitchen is a inspiration in many, many ways. This summer she published a recipe for charred corn and zucchini tacos that you really should go make right now. Seriously, my ode to corn can wait, go make her tacos and come back.

Hi, again. So, where was I… oh, yes. It was while reading Smitten’s recipe that my brain blew open – you don’t need a grill to roast corn! You just need a flame. Like the one on a gas stove. Inside, in my kitchen. Whoa. So, this summer, instead of waiting for pots of water to boil, or shaking my wool gloved fist at San Francisco’s cold, gray, not-BBQ-weather-at-all skies, I’ve been having my own little grill-outs inside. Best part – besides the smokey flavor – is that I don’t have to wait for the ears to cool like I do with boiled corn. I can chomp and savor the roasted outside and fresh barely cooked inside immediately. (Note, if you’re entertaining for a crowd, this would not be terribly efficient – even if it is delicious. Best for one or two people, unless you let everyone roast their own, like marshmallows.)

Stove Grilled Corn on the Cob

1-2 ears of fresh corn

1. Clean corn; you can keep the leaves and stems on (peeled back to use as a handle of sorts is nice, especially if you don’t have tongs). I am not meticulous about stripping off every last strand of silk for two reasons: first, in general I don’t care if a few strands are left behind, and second, the gas flame will burn off the little bits and pieces anyway. If your corn is already cleaned entirely of leaves and stems, that’s fine, but you’ll just want to use tongs for sure.

2. Turn on gas burner to high. Using tongs or your leaf and stem handle to hold the bottom end of an ear, patiently hold ear of corn over flame, rotating every 30 seconds or so, much like a marshmallow. You can go ahead and set the corn on the burner (again, rotating every 30 seconds or so), but stay close and pay attention so that bit of the corn doesn’t completely burn.

3. When ear is evenly roasted, stop. Serve. Eat. Love.