Lentils and Shells with Cilantro-Scented Onions and Spinach

This was a really unexpected and unusual direction to take lentils and pasta. It runs a little more along the mexican flavor spectrum than the italian, featuring lime, cumin, cilantro, and mint. It's easy and delicious. You don't need anything else with it except a nice spicy wine and maybe some bread. I used the french green lentils with this and it really had a lovely color and visual appeal. Plain brown lentils would be a little too drab.

Here's what you do:

Rinse 1 cup green lentils, and simmer them in 6 cups water, along with 1 bay leaf, 1 celery rib, and 2 thyme sprigs. (You'll want to remove the aromatics later, so you can tie them together if you want.) Let them cook until very soft but not mushy, about 35 minutes.

While they're cooking, start water boiling for the pasta. Wash and trim 1 bunch spinach. Slice 2 large onions. Chop 1 cup cilantro and 3 T. mint. Heat 2 T. olive oil or butter (or a mixture). Add the onions and cook until golden, about 20 minutes. Stir in cilantro, mint, 1/2 t. ground cumin (or more). Turn off heat and squeeze the limes over the onions. Season well with salt and pepper.

When the pasta water boils, add salt and 1/2 pound small pasta shells or other short type pasta. Cook until al dente. When finished, scoop them out of the water and put them directly into the lentils. (Remove the aromatics first.) Add the spinach to the boiling pasta water and cook until wilted. Scoop it out and add it to the lentils and shells.

Toss the lentils, shells, and spinach with half the onions and a little extra olive oil. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Spoon the remaining onions over the top. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and a little extra cilantro.

Things I'd do differently next time: Deborah's recipe called for spinach crowns, which are the rosy base of the plant including a few inches of the stems. They're usually thrown out, but she says they're delicious and very pretty. I left them out because I couldn't find any. In fact, I couldn't even find heads of spinach and I used baby spinach instead. Any kind of spinach is fine, I think. You could even use other kinds of tender braising greens if you wanted. I have lots coming in from the farm right now, so I might try it with other greens.

Approximate cost to prepare:

1 cup french green lentils - $1.00

1 bunch spinach - $1.25

2 large onions - $.50

1 cup cilantro - $.50

1 lime - $.25

1/2 pound pasta shells - $1.00

mint, cumin, olive oil, aromatics - negligible

TOTAL for 4 people - $4.00

A nice spicy but fruity red wine would go great with this. Try a Santa Barbara Syrah.

Brown Rice Supper with stir fried carrots and roasted peanut sauce

Have you ever been to a vegetarian restaurant of the 70s, hippy variety where all the food tastes bland and the texture is a little like cardboard? Where everything is whole wheat, no salt, no fat, and healthy in a way that makes you never want to eat healthy food again?

I was worried that this dish would be like that, but it is bright and popping with flavor. I didn't think I liked cooked carrots, but these are sweet and tender without being mushy. The peanut sauce is so fabulous, I couldn't stop sneaking little spoonfuls of it after the meal was over. The peanut sauce isn't the kind you find on satay in thai restaurants. It is made with lots of cilantro, mint, and lime which makes it very green and fresh. This dish is filling, comforting, and amazingly delicious. I'm really looking forward to making it again. If you don't like tofu, or you're craving some other type of protein, you could easily make it with chicken.

Here's how:

Rinse 1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice and put it in a pot with 3 3/4 cups water and 1/2 t. salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook until done, about 40 minutes.

Then make the peanut sauce. Toast 1/2 cup raw peanuts in 1 T. peanut oil in a skillet on the stove. Put the peanuts and the oil in a food processor, along with 1/2 c. chopped cilantro (I used about 1/2 a bunch with the stems cut off and let the food processor do the chopping for me), 1 T. chopped mint leaves (about 6 big leaves), the zest and juice of 2 limes, 2 garlic cloves, 1/4 t. chipotle powder or 1 serrano chile (I used the chipotle powder), 1 t. soy sauce, and salt to taste. Thin with water until you have the desired consistency.

Peel and cut 5 large carrots into mouthsized chunks. Peel and slice a 1-inch knob of ginger into thin strips. Heat 2 t. peanut oil in a skillet. When hot, add the ginger, then the carrots. Stir fry for several minutes and then add a few teaspoons soy sauce and stir fry for another minute. Pour in 1/2 cup water, cover the pan, and cook until the carrots are tender (5 minutes or more). While they're cooking, cut 4 scallions on the diagonal, including some of the greens. Remove the lid and add the scallions, cooking until the liquid is reduced to a glaze. Taste a carrot and season with salt, if desired.

Cut 1 carton of tofu into triangles or rectangles. Fry in a little peanut oil with a little salt until all the water cooks out and the tofu starts to color nicely. Cook on both sides. Add a little soy sauce to the pan to glaze the tofu.

Serve the rice, the carrots and the tofu, layered and arranged on plates. Dollop peanut sauce in several places and garnish with a little cilantro. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Approximate cost to prepare:

1 1/2 cups rice - $.75

5 large carrots - $.60

1-inch knob of ginger - $.25

soy sauce, peanut oil - negligible

4 scallions - $.25

1 carton tofu - $1.25

1/2 cup peanuts - $.50 (maybe less)

1/2 bunch cilantro - $.25

mint from my garden

2 limes - $.60

garlic and chipotle powder - negligible

TOTAL for 4 people = $4.45

Star Anise Glazed Tempeh

January 9th, 2010

I am largely unfamiliar with tempeh as an ingredient. I've used it a few times, but not enough to regularly put it on my shopping list. Wikipedia tells me that tempeh is a soybean cake made by fermenting cooked soybeans, which are formed into a firm, dense, chewy cake with a yeasty, nutty flavor. My tempeh was called "5 grain" which makes me wonder if it was made out of other grains. In any case, it is high in protein and pretty good for you if you get organic tempeh.

I chose this recipe because it had a really pretty picture. As it turns out, this would be a nice dish to make for company - it is super yummy and very pretty. I'm sure you meat eaters could substitute chicken or something for the tempeh.

This is basically a stir fry, served over rice. I used basmati rice (because I already had it in my pantry), but Deborah suggests black rice, also known as forbidden rice. I would like to try that next time.

This dish is pretty easy - though it still took me almost an hour start to finish, including setting the table. First you start the rice. Then you make a marinade of 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup mirin (Japanese cooking wine), 2 T. brown sugar, 1 T. maple syrup, 1 cinnamon stick, and 2 star anise. You cook this mixture "at a lively pace" for 4 minutes. I assumed this meant that you bring it to a boil, but not a big boil and let it cook for a couple minutes at the little boil stage. Not sure if that was right, but it seemed to work out.

While the marinade is coming up to temperature, I cut the tempeh slab into 4 quarters, and then cut each of those in half diagonally to make 8 triangles. (Next time I would cut the big slab in half lengthwise so it isn't so thick and so you get more delicious little tempeh pieces on your plate.)

You turn off the heat to the marinade and put the tempeh triangles in to soak. Meanwhile, you chop up 1 garlic clove, 1 bunch of scallions (slivered diagonally), a handful of cilantro, and you grate 1 T. fresh ginger. I found out that if you grate ginger on a microplane grater, it turns into a thick liquid - not what you want for this recipe. The regular large grater you use for cheese works much better. Then you slice (not dice) 4+ cups red cabbage, 1 red pepper, and 1 yellow pepper. I'm glad I used the red and yellow, because the red, yellow, purple cabbage color combination is really pretty.

Remove the tempeh from the marinade. She says it only needs 4 minutes of soaking, turning once in the middle of the soaking time. I left it for the length of time it took me to chop the other ingredients. Heat up some oil in a wok or skillet (I used peanut oil, which was a perfect flavor combination with the rest of the dish), and cook the tempeh triangles about a minute on each side. Then add a few tablespoons of the marinade and let it glaze the tempeh. Set aside the tempeh and wipe out the pan.

Heat up some more oil and stir fry the garlic, ginger and scallions for 30 seconds or so. Add the veggies, season with salt & pepper, and stir fry until just wilted. Reserve about half a cup of marinade for serving at the table, and pour the rest over the veggies and add the chopped cilantro. Cook for 30 seconds or so.

Mound rice on plate, top with tempeh triangles, add stir fry over top, and top with roasted cashews. I bought raw cashews and had to toast them myself. I had forgotten that they went in this dish at all, so my serving was delayed by toasting the cashews.

This dish is gorgeous, super-yummy, and nice enough for company. I will make this many more times. The wine pairing suggestion was a Mendocino sparkling rose. I found a French sparkling rose, but it was a little too intense for the dish. I think a light pinot might work well, too.

What I'd do differently next time: I'd toast the cashews toward the beginning and have them standing by, or I would buy roasted cashews. I would cut the tempeh slab in half lengthwise to make it less thick. I would store the leftover rice separately from the leftover veggies, tempeh, and cashews. The rice absorbed all the juices and got too soggy.

Approximate Cost to prepare:

Tempeh - $2.80

Cabbage - $.85

Cilantro - $.20

Red & yellow bell pepper - $2.95

Scallions - $.50

Ginger - $.15

Cashew - $1.00 (I used more than was called for)

Rice - $.50

Marinade - unknown. I had all the ingredients in my pantry. Maybe $1.00?

Garlic, oil, salt, pepper - negligible

TOTAL without wine - $9.95

Sparkling wine - $8.99

This served 2 people, with enough leftovers for another meal.

Black-Eyed Peas with Coriander and Greens

January 5, 2010

I chose this dish to start with because I associate black-eyed peas with the new year. Someone once told me that they are supposed to bring good fortune, but I think that only applies when you eat them on New Year's Day. I missed by 4 days, but perhaps the gods of fortune will smile on me anyway. I figure I get extra points with the kitchen gods because I cooked my own organic peas from scratch, rather than using frozen as the recipe suggested.

I'm going through the book in a completely random manner, by the way. I'm hoping to utilize ingredients when they are in season. This dish came from the chapter entitled "Hearty Cool Weather Suppers". In the introduction, Deborah Madison talks about supper as distinct from dinner. She says that it doesn't carry the formal expectation that dinner does. Supper is for when you bump into a friend at the farmer's market and invite them over to share the bounty. It's for a Sunday night or a Thursday. It can be far more casual and simple. This appeals to me.

The black-eyed peas dish, however, took me about an hour and a half to prepare. This is largely because I forgot to soak the peas earlier in the day. Here's how the evening went:

I rinsed the black-eyed peas and put them in a pot with boiling water to soak for an hour. Meanwhile I prepared 2 bunches of chard, coarsely chopping the leaves and finely chopping the stems. I used one bunch of rainbow chard and one bunch of red chard. The addition of the cut up stems was a great idea. I loved not throwing them away and they provided a lot of nice texture. The recipe also called for wild greens, which I didn't know where to find. The recommendations were amaranth, blanched nettles or wild greens. Does anyone know how to safely incorporate these into your cooking? Can you really just go pick dandelion greens from your lawn and eat them? Somehow this seems hazardous to me.

I then diced one onion, whacked up half a cup of cilantro and half a cup of parsley, diced a couple cloves of garlic and set all that aside. Then I started cooking the bulgur.

One of her tips for how to make cooking more enjoyable and economical is to use what you have. I already had course bulgur, so I used that instead of the fine or medium bulgur that was called for. By this time, my peas had been soaking for about 40 minutes, so I decided to just start cooking them.

I then cooked the onions in some olive oil until tender, added the cilantro, parsley, garlic, and diced chard stems and let that soften a bit. Then I added 1 T. tomato paste, some paprika, and the chopped greens, and seasoned with a little salt. I then put the cover on, turned down the heat to very low and let the greens cook until they were "meltingly tender" - her words - much more lovely than "falling apart" - my words. This took about 25 minutes.

When the peas were soft, I added them to the chard mixture along with some of their cooking liquid. I actually made a double batch of black-eyed peas and froze them so that I would have them on hand the next time I made this dish or a soup or something. Her recipe says to use 3 cups of water to cook the frozen peas in and then add all the water, so you know just how much to put in. I guessed. I checked for salt and pepper (usually one of my failings as a cook, but I remembered this time.)

By then the bulgur was done and I served the peas and greens over the bulgur, with a spoonful of greek yogurt on top. With the yogurt, this dish makes a complete protein. Without it, the dish is completely vegan.

This is a very unpretentious looking dish. It reminded me of the look of some Indian food. The flavors, however, are more Greek, so she recommended a spicy Greek red wine to go with it. I couldn't find one easily or cheaply, so I substituted an Italian red (2007 Terra Mia) from the Abruzzo region of Italy. That's where the earthquake was in April of last year. George and I visited this area and it is stunning. We raised a glass and wished for prosperity and healing for the Abruzzo region, and toasted our first sit-down, candle lit dinner of 2010.

The dish was SO delicious. It's interesting that it has coriander in the name of the dish, but no coriander seed - just cilantro. I always think of them as different, though I know they are the same plant. I guess half a cup of cilantro is quite a bit and it must have contributed significantly to the flavor. I would definitely like to make this one again. I think I could do it in under an hour using my extra peas in the freezer and my ever developing chopping skills.

This recipe serves 4, so we had leftovers that went into the freezer. I'll let you know if the freezing works out well.

If I made this dish again: I would soak and perhaps cook the black-eyed peas ahead of time, or use frozen peas. Otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.

Cost to prepare:

1 cup black-eyed peas - .65

2 bunches chard - 4.60

cilantro - .20

parsley - .20

tomato paste - .20

bulgur - .45

onion - .50

Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, paprika - negligible

TOTAL without wine = $6.80

Cost of wine - $8.99

Served 2 people, plus leftovers for another meal!