Vegetable Lo Mein (aka Crunchy Hippie Pasta with Veg and Spicy Peanut Sauce)
from Julie Jordan's Cabbagetown Cafe Cookbook

This very flavorful dish is made with pasta (regular or whole wheat) and vegetables tossed with a garlic sauce. Any vegetables you have on hand are good--these are just suggestions.

Sesame Garlic Sauce

8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
1/2 cup peanut butter (the natural kind)
2 tsp dark sesame oil (I use Kadoya)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar or juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne

Lo Mein

1/2 pound spaghetti or linguini
1 head broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces (6 cups)
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces (4 cups)
1 medium zucchini or yellow summer squash, cut into bite-size pieces
2 carrots, grated
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chibes or scallions
1 cup Tamari-Roasted Almonds (chopped or not)

1. Prepare the sauce. Mix together the garlic, ginger, peanut butter, sesame oil, vinegar, tamari and cayenne. Set aside.
2. Cook the spaghetti until al dente.
3. Prepare vegetables, either by steaming, blanching, or sauteeing. Mix cooked vegtables together with grated carrots.
4. Mix together all ingredients in a large pot, and reheat for a few minutes, until piping hot.
5. Serve sprinkled with almonds.

Serves 4.

Urban Legend Cookies (aka Neiman-Marcus Cookies)

(Recipe may be halved):
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal**
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla


Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375º F. Makes 112 cookies.

** measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.

Reward

I was wildly productive today (bought insulation for pipes, stopped at two Walgreens, got oil changed and car washed, plus stopped at Goodwill for a browse), and am rewarding myself with this marvelous dinner.

Tibetan curried potatoes (from Salon, Nov 2000)
 

A recipe with a history, to be eaten shamelessly.

In preparing the dish, the single most important thing to remember is that the potatoes have to be mouth-meltingly soft. You'll know they're approaching that stage when neighbors start pounding on the door, drawn by the intoxicating smells that have seeped out of your kitchen. Lock the door, if you haven't already, and stir in the garnish.

(Serves four.)

1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 stubby piece of fresh ginger, about 2 inches long, peeled and finely minced
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne (or other fiery pepper)
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) clarified butter (see note)
6 medium Yukon Gold or Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and parboiled for 15 minutes, then cut into cubes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
To garnish:
1 scallion, including the green part, trimmed and minced
Several sprigs of fresh cilantro, minced

Heat the Sichuan peppercorns in a small, ungreased skillet over medium heat until they begin to darken and release their aroma. Turn them into a small mortar or onto a chopping board and pulverize to a coarse powder.

Mix the pepper powder, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cayenne and salt together to form a paste. Heat the clarified butter in a large skillet and blend in the paste. Cook, stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon, for a few minutes, to let the butter become fully seasoned. Meanwhile, toss the potato cubes in the soy sauce until it has all been absorbed.

Add the seasoned potatoes to the skillet and turn up the heat to medium high. Cook until the potatoes have a crunchy brown coating on the outside and a meltingly soft interior. Use a spatula to turn them constantly so that they brown on all sides. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes over medium-high heat.
When the potatoes are as described, toss in the minced scallion and cilantro. Continue cooking for one more minute to allow the garnish to wilt and cling to the potatoes. Turn everything into a serving bowl. Then, as the Tibetans say, "Ngotsa manang ni choe" -- "Eat shamelessly."
 

Cook's note: Clarified butter (ghee) is easily made by putting the half-stick of butter in a heatproof measuring cup and setting this on the rack in a preheated warm oven. When the butter has melted and the solids have separated out, remove the measuring cup from the oven (with a potholder -- it will be hot!) and carefully pour off the clear liquid into the skillet, letting none of the solids escape. (Discard these or, as I do, eat them mopped up with a little piece of bread.) This pure butterfat can then be used for frying, and it will not darken the way whole butter does.

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lb Brussel sprouts

3 TB extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt (or less)

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Soak Brussels sprouts in cold water for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain, trim ends, and cut each sprout in half. Toss sprouts with olive oil, salt, pepper. Transfer them to a lightly oiled sheet pan and roast, turning once or twice, for 20 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned and crisp outside and tender inside. Serve hot.

Tonight, I am having these as sides to broiled tilapia, but any feature protein (or not) would suffice.

Stuffed Squash

This is a recipe that takes a lot of improvisation. What follows is simply tonight's version.

Bake a halved, scooped butternut squash, rubbed with a little oil and placed open-side down, in a 350º F oven for about 45 minutes or until mostly soft. Meanwhile, cook a cup or more of rice--just about any kind will do, but I like a medium grain brown rice.

Chop a 1/4 cup of almonds and toast them lightly in a small (cast-iron?) pan. When done, remove from pan, and saute a small chopped onion and half a chopped apple, until soft. A little coriander and salt are good here.

Today I added some dried cranberries and about a 1/4 cup of crumbled Wensleydale with Cranberry cheese. A sharp cheddar is also very good.

When the squash is cooked most of the way through, take out of and carefully scoop most of the soft flesh to mix with the other ingredients. (Leave some flesh in so the skin holds form.) Then spoon the mixed mix back into each squash half. Sprinkle extra cheese over the top, and return to the oven for ten minutes or so. The filling is just as good served alongside something else, however.

Menu for a Rainy October Sunday

Vegetable Curry

This is a mild curry I made up. Serve with rice, and a side of sour cream or plain yogurt.

Cut into bite-sized pieces:
onion
green beens
carrot
red cabbage
red pepper

Start onion and pepper sauteeing in canola oil. When these are soft, add:

2 Tbs garam masala
1 Tbs cumin
1 Tbs coriander
1/2 tsp dry yellow mustard powder
1/2 tsp chile powder
salt

After a few minutes, add the rest of the cut up veg, and some cooked, drained chickpeas.

Add a half-cup of orange juice, and let this mixture simmer until most of the liquid has gone and the vegetables are tender.

Tilapia in Lemon-Garlic Sauce

Marinate tilapia in the juice of one lemon, two cloves crushed garlic, and a bit of melted butter. Bake at 350º F until fish is white a flaky.

Pumpkin Bread

Wet:
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1 cup water
2 cups pumpkin puree (canned works well)

Dry:
3 cups sugar
3-1/3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl, mix the dry ingredients in another. Pour dry into the wet slowly, mixing the entire time. Bake for one hour at 325º F in three small loaf pans (or two regular bread pans).

Migas: bacon, egg, and heaven

I made this tonight, having read about it at Centrs' journal, and it was out of this world.

6 strips of bacon
6 eggs
1 small onion
4 corn tortillas
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar

cook the bacon, saving the drippings. set the bacon aside on a paper towel to drain. slice the onion into rings. cut the corn tortillas into strips. cook the onions and tortilla strips in the bacon grease until the onions start to caramelize. while that is cooking, whisk the eggs with a little water or milk with salt and pepper to taste. remove the tortillas and onions from the bacon grease and put on paper towel to drain. drain most of the remaining bacon grease from the pan. pour the eggs into the pan and start to scramble. when the eggs are about halfway done, mix back in the tortilla strips and onions. cook until the eggs are done. turn the heat down to low, sprinkle the shredded cheese on top and use the time it takes to melt to set the table.

serve with the bacon and warm tortillas if you like. some recipes call for adding salsa to the eggs while cooking, but since tastes vary, i just let each person put the kind of salsa they like on top. Serves 2.