Albion Cooks

Mushroom Cooking Class January 2011

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

2011-11-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Looking for a different way to serve sweet potatoes?

This is a total cheater recipe that packs a lot of flavor into a very short cooking time. I used Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce to impart wonderful chile-coconut Thai flavors into this soup and then added fresh vegetables and herbs. It was delicious and only took about 20 minutes to prepare. Perfect for a rainy day lunch!

The recipe includes not only sweet potatoes but sweet potato leaves:

I found these at my local Asian market and have also found them at Farmers Markets. They have a slightly nutty taste and are spinach-like, but firmer. If you can't find them, use your favorite green leaves.

This recipe makes two servings.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup:

20 oz vegetable broth
1/4 cup Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups sweet potato leaves (or your fav green)
1 cup broccoli florettes
5 white mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 TBS chopped cilantro
1/2 TBS chopped basil or Thai basil

Heat up the vegetable broth with the diced sweet potatoes. When it comes to a boil, turn down to a simmer and add the Thai Red Curry Sauce. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the sweet potato leaves and the broccoli and cook 3 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Add the chopped herbs. Cook one more minute and serve.

If you want a garnish, chopped peanuts would be the way to go!

Tofu French Fries

2011-11-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

My kids and I love to snack on my Salt & Pepper Tofu, a super easy and delicious way to get this high-protein vegetarian food into our diet.

I added a little whimsy this time around, by cutting the tofu into French Fries. Everyone loved them! They are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and take less than 10 minutes to prepare. For grown-ups, add a fab tofu aioli - lemon, chile, shiso.

I can't wait to make them again. Here's the super easy recipe.

Tofu French Fries

Grapeseed oil
Super Firm tofu
Sea Salt
Pepper

Heat the grapeseed oil in a non-stick pan. Grapeseed oil has a high smoke point, making it perfect for this preparation.

Cut the tofu into french fries. When the oil is hot, add the tofu fries to the pan and cook until brown on all 4 sides. Add salt and pepper while you are cooking and add more as you turn the tofu.

When golden, remove from the pan to a plate covered with paper towel to absorb any oil. Add sea salt and serve!

Squash Blossom, Roasted Tomato & Cilantro Quiche

2011-11-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

I just made it to the San Rafael Farmers Market today and although I was thinking fall vegetables and dodging fat rain drops, I couldn't resist the awesome heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and colorful squash blossoms.

I love squash blossoms, but their life once picked is so brief I wanted to find a dish that would preserve them for a few days. My answer was this beautiful quiche. Eggs, cheese, and pastry met my need for comfort food for a rainy day and I knew a quiche would highlight the squash blossoms beauty.

There were awesome sweet cherry tomatoes everywhere, so I decided to roast them with olive oil and salt & pepper (400 F for about 20 minutes). I knew these would add a sweet pop to my quiche.

I really wanted to keep things simple and highlight my main ingredients so I used scallions, goat cheese and cilantro to round out my flavors. The result was delicious. Be sure to roast more tomatoes than you need for the quiche and serve them as a side.

Squash Blossom, Roasted Tomato & Cilantro Quiche :
9 inch deep dish frozen pie crust
12 large squash blossoms
4 scallions, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 cup roasted cherry tomatoes (tomatoes, olive oil , S&P)
3 oz crumbled goat cheese
2 eggs + one egg yolk
1 +1/4 cup half and half
salt & pepper as desired

Preheat the oven to 400 F degrees. Combine cherry tomatoes, olive oil, S&P in an oven proof dish and cook for 20 minutes. Remove and turn oven down to 350F degrees.

Soak the squash blossoms in water and rinse 3 times to remove any bugs etc. Remove the stamens and stems, including the hard base, so just the petals are left. Heat a frying pan with the olive oil and fry the scallions for 1-2 minutes. Add the squash blossoms and saute for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Remove the frozen pie crust from the freezer and place on a baking sheet. Place 1oz of the crumbled goat cheese on the bottom. Add the roasted tomatoes and about half the squash blossoms/scallions and cilantro. Add another 1 oz of crumbled goat cheese.

Best the 2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk with the half and half. Add some salt and pepper. Pour the custard over the other ingredients in the quiche. Top with the final 1 oz crumbled goat cheese and spread out some pretty squash blossoms.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife in the center of the quiche shows firm.

Serve with salad and roasted cherry tomatoes.

Millennium Cooking Class: Chile Class 2011

2011-10-18T11:22:00.001-07:00

So, let's start this Millennium Cooking Class post off with a pop quiz, a classic "What am I?" Can you identify the items in the green bowl pictured above?

If you have no idea (I had no idea), the next picture probably won't help, but here's another shot:

The answer: Physalis peruviana. Eric referred to them as Pohas, which I'd never heard of. That's the Hawaiian name, but they are (perhaps) more commonly known as Cape Gooseberries.

To me, they tasted like a tomato crossed with a lime. These came from Tierra Vegetables and I'm thinking I might take a drive to visit their farm stand very soon! (Also, check out Millennium's website for info on their special dinner at Tierra Vegetables Oct. 30th.) An obvious complement to chiles, the pohas were used beautifully in a mushroom ceviche in class, but I'm thinking exciting salsa!

OK. Pop quiz "What am I?" #2:

Here's a clue: has a strange floral, soapy, gasoline smell!

Answer: Epazote , a Mexican herb that is traditionally used to flavor beans or dishes with huitlacoche (corn smut), with the added benefit that it reduces gas associated with eating beans. We used it in the Smoky black bean mix, along with huitlacoche.

So I spent another happy Sunday in the kitchen at Millennium, exploring new ingredients and recipes with an inquisitive and energetic group of home cooks! The class featured chiles and also October's favorite ingredient, pumpkin.

The plate above shows our lunch menu: two versions of corn flour Araepas, mushrooms ceviche, pumpkin seed sauces, and also a smoky black bean puree.

The Araepas are a thick corn cake made with masa. One version used Tierra Vegetables corn flour in a 1:1 ratio with dried corn masa. Corn kernals were added to the combo version. Here two home chefs form the dough:

The araepas were then steamed:

and pan seared for crispiness.

We made two versions of the pumpkin seed sauce - a red version with tomatoes and habanero, the other a verde version with tomatillos and anaheim and poblano chiles (I worked on this version - recipe is at the end of this post)

We also enjoyed a colorful roasted squash salad with sweet chipotle dressing and raddichio:

With two versions of pumpkin seed brittle (the chewy version with baking powder seen below):

We also transformed soaked mung lentils:

With the help of the deep fryer:

Into delicious golden lentil vadas:

The vadas were paired with two versions of charred eggplant puree, two versions of mung dal (one made with cashew cream and one with coconut cream), and two fresh chutneys:

The second meal was paired with a simple and refreshing Sharlyn melon soup:

Dessert was a decadent combo of pumpkin crepes, hazelnut chocolate sauce (think vegan Nutella) and a knockout rose geranium sorbet:

Another great cooking experience! Many thanks to Eric, Thomas, Alison,my dear cooking pal C. and all my fellow cooks!

As promised, here is the recipe for
Pumpkin Seed Chile Verde:
2 cups pumpkin seeds
2 cups tomatillos (husked, but leave whole)
2 cloves garlic
1 yellow onion, small dice
3 anaheim chiles, rough chop
1/4 olive oil
Juice of 5 limes
2 bunches of cilantro (we blanched one bunch and added the other fresh)
1/4 cup vegetable stock
salt to taste

We later added more chile to punch up the flavor:
2 poblanos, rough chop
1/3 yellow onion, small dice
2 cloves garlic
salt to taste

Toast pumpkin seeds and set aside. Combine the tomatillos, 2 cloves garlic , anaheim chiles with a little oil and "char the crap out of them (= 40% char). Blend in a blender with the toasted pumpkin seeds with additional olive oil and lime juice. Salt to taste.

Then we decided we needed to up the chiles and sauted two poblano chiles in oil with 2 garlic cloves and an additional 1/3 yellow onion. We then put this through the blender and stirred it into the salsa verde.

Eric suggested a tomato version with carrots and fennel for a bolognese sauce.

Here's links to the previous 19 Millennium cooking classes I've had the pleasure of attending:

July 2011 Class

Mushroom Cooking Class January 2011

Green Bean, Potato & Olive Salad

2011-09-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

Every Saturday, my family and I head out to a local horse ranch (where my son rides) and share a picnic lunch with friends. As a result, I'm always on the look out for new picnic foods. This Green Bean, Potato and Olive Salad is a tasty vegan riff on the Salad Nicoise and very easy to prepare! The saltiness and depth of the herb-marinated olives packs plenty of flavor and the combination of creamy baby Dutch potatoes and crunchy green beans provides substance and freshness.

I dressed the salad in a very simple lemon olive oil, which made this an awesome light dish for a hot day. Next time, I'll try a vinaigrette of lemon olive oil, champagne vinegar and a little mustard to soak up with baguette!

This is a great shared dish and easily prepared in 30 minutes. Put the baby Dutch potatoes in a saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium and cook until the potatoes are just soft to a sharp knife. Add either fresh or frozen Haricots Verts (tiny whole green beans). Cook until the beans are cooked, but still have some crunch. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Once the potatoes and beans are cold, mix with your favorite herb-marinated olives and lemon olive oil (or olive oil and lemon juice). Salt to taste with sea salt and pack for your picnic!

If you eat eggs, wedges of hard boiled egg can be added at serving time.

Udon Noodle Soup with Greens & Tofu

2011-09-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

The inspiration for this dish is ironically some delicious-looking, street side, fresh noodle soup shown on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations . As you probably are aware, Tony has a disdainful attitude towards vegetarians, but everyone has their foibles. This delicious udon noodle soup is very easy to prepare, full of fresh colorful vegetables, and a perfect vehicle for tofu.

For me, the fresh jalapenos and fresh cilantro are critical to the success of this dish. Also, I think the spinach, added at the last minute, really adds a freshness and texture that would be sadly missed. I have to admit, I've made this soup five or six times in the last month. It's one of those dishes that is easy and tastes so healthy, you just can't resist making it again and again. For me, you have to eat it with chop sticks and drink the broth directly from the bowl.

Udon Noodle Soup with Greens & Tofu:

1 large garlic clove, very thinly sliced
Fresh ginger (size of a large garlic clove), peeled, and finely chopped
1 tsp grapeseed oil
32 oz vegetable stock (I used Wolfgang Puck's, it's salty than most and has less of a celery flavor)
1 large carrot, sliced thinly on the diagonal
sliced fresh green jalapeno (as desired)
1 cup broccoli florettes
1 cup snap peas
4 scallions, roots removed, sliced on the diagonal
1 package udon noodles and spice pack if included.
8 fresh white mushrooms, finely sliced
6 oz tofu (I've used smoked tofu, plain firm tofu, deep fried tofu puffs - all are good!)
2 cups baby spinach
1/2 cup cilantro

Heat the grapeseed oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and saute the ginger and garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and carrots and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the sliced jalapeno. Cook 1 minute and add the broccoli, snap peas, scallions and udon noodles. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the tofu and mushrooms. Cook 2 minutes. Add the spinach and cilantro and turn off the heat.

Serve as soon as the spinach is wilted.

Other vegetable options - frozen peas, kale, leeks for a fall/winter version.

Millennium Heirloom Tomato Dinner: Aug. 31st, 2011

2011-09-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Last night, I had one of the most delicious meals I've ever eaten. The setting was Millennium, my favorite restaurant in San Francisco; the company, foodie friends as stellar as the meal we were served. Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker and his staff created a spectacular vegan Heirloom Tomato Dinner featuring tomatoes from Eatwell Farm.

The special menu began with the Amuse above; early girl tomato & roasted pimenton tartare, crisp tomato skins, carpaccio of Aunt Ruby's green tomatoes, grilled olive flatbread, tomato leaf aioli (yes, tomato leaf), smoky fig & tomato pate.

In addition to the wine pairing, there was a Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar. As this was my first Bloody Mary experience, I understand from my friends that I am now ruined for life as far as Bloody Mary's go. There were three mixes: Traditional (Sons & Daughters of New Zealand Pink Paste Tomatoes), Exotic Traveler featured below (Thai Curry Green Zebra Tomato & Melon) and Don Juan (Gold Tomato with Habanero). Below are images of the many tomatoes, herbs, and additions that you could build into your Bloody Mary:

I split my vodka into two glasses and tried both the Traditional (I added red and yellow tomatoes, jalapeno, and cilantro) and the the Exotic Traveler (I added green tomatoes, cilantro, and shiso). Eric stopped by at the end of the meal and told me I had to try the Don Juan and brought me another set-up. All three were spectacular - the traditional was wonderfully savory, the Exotic Traveler, very fresh and, well, exotic tasting, and the Don Juan was hot!

Move over Libby's - I'm truly inspired to experiment making my own tomato juice concoctions!

OK, back to the food.

The salad course consisted of Grilled Peach & Radicchio on a Skewer with gold tomato, crisp polenta crouton panzanella with gold balsamic vinaigrette (hiding in the back, but the best polenta ever!), ground toasted hazelnuts, fennel pollen & cacao nibs (!), basil leave and basil oil:

And my favorite dish of the meal: Fresh Corn Masa Sope with cashew-achiote "cheese", sweet & spicy tomato-habanero sauce, gold cherry tomato & nopales salsa:

The sope (a thick masa pancake) was so creamy and tender with fresh crunchy corn, the richness of the "cheese", the fresh salsa, and the beautiful presentation - I could eat this every day.

Diners had the choice of two entrees: I chose the Shady Lady Tomato Coconut Masala, with a butterball potato-chickpea cake (with the most wonderful chunks of potato), roasted Lobster mushrooms, cauliflower, zucchini & romano beans, melon-cherry tomato salad and red onion pakora (on top -incredible!):

The other option was Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Provencal with tofu custard, cinnamon scented tempeh-walnut sausage, stewed tomatoes with chartreuse & caramelized fennel, chrysanthemum greens and pistachio-mint relish:

And, finally dessert: Marzano Tomato-Pineapple Upsdie Down Cake with roasted gold blossom tomato, aged black garlic ice cream, candied tomato & watermelon relish with jalapeno-black garlic brittle and and pink pepper anglaise:

What's truly amazing to me is the tremendous wealth of ingredients utilized in this menu, not just the extensive varieties of tomatoes, but the incredible and complex details that were part of every dish. If you want to experience these special menus, get on the Millennium mailing list and book early. The place was hopping for this incredible menu and the service was, like the rest of the experience, stellar.

Millennium Cooking Class July 2011

2011-08-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

The last day of July took me back to Millennium, the high-end vegan restaurant in San Francisco, for another vegan cooking class.Taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker, I was really excited to work with one of my favorite summer ingredients, squash blossoms. The picture above shows two versions of tofu-stuffed squash blossoms. At one o'clock, traditional cornmeal-encrusted deep-fried squash blossoms with a spicy cilantro sauce and cucumber salad; at seven o'clock, an asian-riff stuffed squash blossom with charred corn and eggplant salad; and at eleven o'clock, a chickpea flour pannisse with an almond garlic sauce.

Following tradition, the cooking class divided into two teams who cook variations on the basic menu dishes. Classmates are invited to the Saturday Ferry Building Farmers' Market and are offered the opportunity to provide input into dishes on the Sunday Cooking Class menu. This time around, we focused on gluten-free dishes.

My team opted for the non-traditional treatment of squash blossoms. Typically, squash blossoms are treated in a Mexican style, stuffed with a cheese filling, and floured with corn meal and deep-fried. There is no doubt that this is a delicious treatment and the other team used a tofu-cheese and followed the typical presentation. Our team decided on an Asian treatment, our tofu cheese incorporated toasted sesame seeds, along with nutritional yeast to add that cheesy element. Squash blossoms are incredibly attractive:

We then brushed the tofu-cheese stuffed squash blossoms with soy and toasted sesame seeds:

And finding the broiler full, Eric demonstrated the cheat-broil using the blow torch (we also got to try our hand at this):

I have to say, I loved the charred result:

But, damn, it's hard to beat the deep-fried cornmeal encrusted version with an amazing spicy cilantro sauce and a super fresh cucumber-red onion salad:

Not familiar with panisse? It's a chickpea flour, fried polenta-like dish from France, gluten-free, and just incredibly delicious. My team added a fair amount of oil to the recipe, along with the recommended summer savory.

With the rich Almond-Garlic sauce and eggplant & tomato agrodocle, this was just incredible:

I wish I had worked on the incredible Tofu custard dish, made with Hodo Soy soy milk. It had an elegance, a simplicity, that I think is rarely found in food:

We paired it's coolness with charred snap peas and fried yuba (tofu skin):

We did two version of risotto with vanilla-marinated grilled abalone and oyster mushrooms - one with potato and the picture version with sunchokes:

With a side of romaon beans with garlic and green olives:

And, I have to say, even though I had no part in the dessert, the Spelt Zucchini Rum Cake with Rose Geranium Sorbet and Lemon Verbena Sorbet, put a whole new spin on Spelt. My experiences with spelt bread have been seriously awful, but this cake rocked! And the sorbets were to absolutely die-for.

Many thanks to my classmates, Eric, Ann, and Thomas for another wonderful vegan cooking experience!

Postscript: Here's a link to Jennifer Chen's write-up of the class on the Veg News Blog : Veg News Blog: Millennium Farmers Market Cooking Class

Here's links to my previous 18 classes:

Grilled Vegetable & Yuba Napolean

2011-07-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

I was very excited to find Hodo Soy's Yuba (tofu skin) now available in stores. I learned about working with Yuba at Millennium.Taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker, these classes have really opened my mind to vegan ingredients and techniques (There's a class this Sunday, July 31st - I'll be there!)

Some of the yummy yuba dishes we've made in recent classes:

Yuba rolls stuffed with seasoned butternut squash puree, sauteed mushrooms, and sushi rice:

Bahn Mi with marinated and sauteed yuba with sesame tofu mayonnaise, plum anise hoisin, pickled carrots, sliced jalapeno:

Delicious Pea and Cilantro Puree-Stuffed Fried Yuba Ravioli with sesame seeds:

So I was swimming when I got this idea for a Grilled Vegetable and Yuba Napolean. In place of cheese, I fried the yuba in olive oil with garlic. I grilled eggplant and tomato on my Griddler by Cuisinart. I salted the vegetables and griddled them with olive oil. The garlic crisped yuba subsitiuted for a a creamy cheese element and I topped the yuba with with pesto. A super-easy and satisfying summer dish worthy of good company!

Enjoy!

Tempeh, Mushrooms & Peas in Tomato-Caper Sauce

2011-07-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

While I much prefer tofu to tempeh, I just had to try the Lemon-Pepper Marinated Tempeh Strips. I sauteed the strips then combined them with marinated mushrooms and peas in a zesty tomato-caper sauce.

I served this cold at a picnic to non-vegetarians and everyone enjoyed it! It's really packed full of flavor and the peas offer a fresh contrast to the zesty ingredients. Delicious with bread, it would also be an awesome sandwich filling.

Tempeh, Mushrooms & Peas in Tomato-Caper Sauce:
1.5 TBS grapeseed oil
1 package of Lemon Pepper Tempeh
1 tsp olive oil
2 large cloves of spring garlic, thinly sliced
14 oz can fine diced tomatoes
3 kalamata olives, cut in quarters
2 tsp capers
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup marinated mushrooms (I used Trader Joe's), cut into halves or quarters
2 large leaves of basil, juilienned
pepper to taste

Heat the grapeseed oil in a skillet over high heat and saute the strips of lemon pepper tempeh on both sides until browned and crispy. Cool and cut into 1 inch pieces.

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a skillet. Add the sliced garlic and saute until brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for 4 minutes. Add the olives and capers and pepper and cook for 5-7 minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Add the peas and cook 2-3 minutes, until the peas are tender and bright green. Add the mushrooms and tempeh and cook 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Add the julienned basil.

Spinach, Garlic & Basil Soup

2011-05-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

The inspiration for this wonderfully smooth and zesty soup was "food as medicine". To minimalize the severity and duration of a serious head cold was my culinary challenge. Garlic and lots of it, was my answer.

Actually, spring garlic and lots of it. Spring garlic is immature garlic that has a bulb, and has a milky, milder flavor than fully matured garlic. I found mine at the Farmer's Market:

I have to say, I think it's rather lovely.

Usually to offset a cold, I go for sinus-busting jalapeno. Perhaps it was the "warding off evil" quality of garlic that made it spring (ha!) to mind. Although garlic is, perhaps, better known as an anti-bacterial and an immune system enhancer, it is also said to have anti-viral properties.

What's great about this soup is that it requires very little time to prepare, is soothing, and easy on the stomach. It tastes and feels very healthy... in a good way.

I made a small batch and ate it for my first meal, so the following recipe produces about 6 cups. It's also one of those recipes you can rift on forever. I'm going to try adding some Indian flavors too. I thought the bright green color would fade, but it's still going strong. Lovely.

Spinach, Garlic & Basil Soup:

1 TBS olive oil
3 bulbs of spring garlic
32 oz vegetable broth
salt
black pepper
14 oz organic spinach
basil as desired ( I used 1/3 cup)

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed large saucepan. Chop the spring garlic bulbs, removing any papery skin. Saute the garlic over medium low heat for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, cover, and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes. Add the salt, black pepper and spinach and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the basil and cook for one minute. Remover from the heat and use an immersion blender to blend. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Enjoy!

In Memory of Jason Dunbar

2011-05-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Millennium's Sous Chef, Jason Dunbar, spent his last day in Yosemite on Friday May 13th, his favorite place outside of the kitchen, with people he loved, people who loved him. He and Eric Tucker created the menu together for the past five years and he had been with Millennium since February of 2004.

Although I never got to know Jason, I always had the sense that he was a special person. He emanated presence: serene, grounded, but always had a mischievous twinkle in his eye! He would come in the last hour of my many cooking classes at the restaurant, cast a watchful eye on the state of the upstairs kitchen (my classmates and I regularly trashed it), and head downstairs to start prepping for the Sunday dinner service. I'd often go downstairs for some final ingredients and find Jason and the staff laughing and joking around as they worked. To me, he represented the joy of a self-actualized life and an easy connectedness with others.

Millennium, to me, is so much more that a restaurant and a place to learn about vegan cooking. There is such a strong sense of family there, and even though I may be a cousin, twice-removed, I have always felt welcomed into that family with open arms. I've met so many wonderful people who have become good friends at Millennium cooking classes. Jason was a big part of that family.

Jason emulated qualities I totally respect: he was extremely talented, passionate about and dedicated to feeding people delicious food that did not do harm in its making.

Jason left us too soon, and he will be missed deeply by everyone who knew him.

I invite you to take a moment to to send healing thoughts to Alison, his life-partner, his parents, family, and friends, Eric and his extended Millennium family.

Quinoa and Red Lentil Kitchari

2011-04-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

Instead of focusing on eggs this Easter, I decided to focus on renewal. This delicious vegan Quinoa and Red Lentil Kitchari is based on a recipe forwarded to me by a friend and I do not know the original source. It includes Indian spices, carrots and kale and the resulting dish is comfort food at it's vegetarian best.

Kitchari is an Ayurvedic dish, high in vegetable proteins and easy to digest. It is commonly used as a fasting or cleansing dish and is considered to be dosha-balancing. The proteins vary from mung beans, millet, brown rice, quinoa and lentils. This version uses red quinoa and red lentil and you know as soon as you taste it that this is really good food. Comfort food that's really good for you - bring it on!

Quinoa & Red Lentil Kitchari:
1 TBS olive oil or ghee
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1 pinch coriander seeds
1 pinch cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 carrots, sliced (and halved if the carrots are large in diameter)
1/2 cup red quinoa, rinsed and soaked in water for 1 hour
3/4 cup red lentils, rinsed and soaked in water for 1 hour
3-4 cups of water
1/2 bunch kale leaves, chopped
sea salt to taste
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add the chopped onions and cook for 2 mintues. Add all the spices and stir well. Add the carrots and cook 2 minutes. Add the quinoa, lentils and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the kale with additional water as needed. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add salt to taste. Continue to simmer uncovered until almost all the water has been absorbed (should have a very thick soup consistency). Add the cilantro and cook 1 minute. Adjust the salt.

Happy Easter! May you be renewed.

Matzo Lasagna for Passover

2011-04-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

Looking for a tasty recipe for Passover? Check out this recipe for Matzo Lasagna. It's a crowd pleaser!

Like any great lasagna, this recipe includes ricotta cheese, spinach, mozzarella, Parmesan, tomato sauce, garlic and fresh oregano:

But it uses Matzo in place of the pasta sheets:

The trick is to soak the matzo in warm water (or wine), so it's not too dry and crumbly. Otherwise, you could follow any vegetarian lasagna dish and simply substitute soaked matzo for the pasta.

MATZO LASAGNA

9 pieces matzo, softened in warm water or wine
Your favorite marinara sauce
1 pound ricotta cheese, part skim if possible
5 cups of spinach - chopped fine
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 cup Parmasean cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Put the ricotta in a bowl and mix with the spinach, spices, 1/4 cup of the parmesan and 1/4 c. of the mozzarella.

Cover the bottom of a baking pan with some of the matzo. Cover with some of the sauce. Cover sauce with 1/3 of the cheese mixture.

Put some more matzo on top of the cheese and continue the process until all is used up making sure that top of lasagna is matzo and some sauce.

On the top, spread the remaining mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Enjoy!

Hungry?

2011-03-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo of a wonderful, inexpensive cheese and tomato dream sandwich. Makes your mouth water doesn't it?

By lunchtime today, I was "starving"! As I sat down to enjoy my lunch, I read this article by Mark Bittman in the New York Times, which changed my perspective. The House budget bill (H.R.1) is proposing huge cuts in the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), Food Stamps, and International Funding for Food and Health Aid (Check out the World Food Program's call to action at Take Action.) Hungry people don't have much of a voice in our political system. Let's raise our voice for them.

I encourage you to write to your representatives and oppose these cuts in support of all the hungry people. No need to fast, but, if you can, donate some food to your local food bank and feed some hungry people. Thank you.

Creamy Vegan Coleslaw with Nut "Mayo"

2011-03-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

This recipe is adapted from a new raw cookbook, Rawlicious: Delicious Raw Recipes for Radiant Health by Peter & Beryn Daniel. The book has lots of great photos, tasty sounding recipes, and excellent introductory information on the benefits of raw food, how to be successful with raw and encouragement on growing your own food.

I was especially excited by all the flavorful and varied sauces, pestos, and pates so the first recipe I chose was "Mock Mayo", a nut-based mayo that can be used watered down and used as mayo or left thicker as a delicious dip for fresh veggies (or crackers, if, like me, your main interest is adding raw food to your diet vs. going raw). Some other wonderful sounding recipes include garlic white sauce, almond gravy, Thai sauce, and Indian Korma Sauce. The cookbook also has some delicious looking recipes for tortillas, quiches and pizza, but they require a dehydrator. They look so good, I'm considering the purchase!

The authors recommend a power blender for the sauces, but I made the mayo in my mini-prep. If you use a mini-prep, add the liquids slowly.

Here's the adapted recipe for the mayo:
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup macadamias
1/2 cup water
1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar
3 TBS olive oil
1 TBS tamari
1 TBS lemon juice
1 large garlic clove
Himalayan pink salt to taste.

Place all the ingredients in a power blender and blend to desired consistency. This recipe produced a fairly thick texture. Add water to produce a more mayo-like consistency.

The recipe also called for 3 pitted dates, but I did not include them and I loved the result. The garlic flavor is really wonderful.

My recipe for the coleslaw is for one generous serving:

1/2 cup grated red cabbage
1/2 cup grated green cabage
1/3 cup grated carrot
4 spring onions, white area and a little of the green, chopped
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
Himalayan pink salt to taste
2 TBS nut mayo
water to desired mayo consistency

Toss together all the vegetables and vinegar. Water down the nut mayo to a watery consistency. Salt as desired.

This was really delicious and super healthy!

Enjoy!

Indian Cauliflower, Potato & Pea Soup

2011-03-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

The Indian dish Aloo Gobi was the inspiration for this deliciously warming soup of cauliflower, potatoes, peas and Indian spices. Although Aloo Gobi is a dry curry dish, the magnificent organic cauliflower I had, and the rainy weather, made me think these flavours would make an excellent lighter soup dish. I couldn't have been happier with the end result! I added some garbanzo beans for protein.

Indian Cauliflower, Potato & Pea Soup:

2 TBS grapeseed or vegetable oil
1/2 large onion, finely diced
pinch of cumin seeds
pinch of coriander seeds
1 large clove of garlic, pressed
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and very finely diced
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/3 tsp coriander powder
pinch or chili powder
sea salt
1 russet potato, peeled and finely diced
1/2 large head cauliflower, cut into small florettes
32 fl oz vegetable stock
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup cooked garbanzo beans, drained

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot. Add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and coriander seeds. Cook 2 minutes. Add the turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder and chili and stir well for 30 seconds. Add some salt. Add the potato, stir well to mix, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add the cauliflower florettes, stir well to mix, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and cover. Bring stock to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 8 minutes. Add the frozen peas and garbanzo beans. Cook 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt as needed.

Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro if desired.

Fiesta Cashew Spread & Raw Collard Green Burritos

2011-02-16T14:47:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the delectable Raw Beet Soup I've been loving for breakfast for the last couple of weeks, I decided to continue my exploration of raw vegan food. First off, I made this delicious Fiesta Cashew Spread. Fabulous with crackers or fresh vegetables (my 12 year old was eating this with a spoon!) , the spread combines the richness of cashews with the freshness of peppers and cilantro. Easy to make with a mini-prep, a nice switch from hummus, here's the recipe:

Fiesta Cashew Spread:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 8 hours (or as long as you have), then drained
water
1 medium red bell pepper, white removed and chopped
1 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp corriander
1/4 tsp nutritional yeast
lemon juice to taste (I probably used about 1/4 tsp+)
salt to taste

Add the cashews to a mini-prep and process with water until broken down to a smooth consistency (taste - it may look grainier than it tastes). Add some lemon juice and salt (adjust later). Add the chopped peppers and process. Add the spices and nutritional yeast and process. Taste and adjust the lemon and salt. Add the fresh cilantro at the end and process. Makes a little over a cup. Keep refrigerated.

I've noted a couple of folks using raw collard leaves to make wraps (most notably, the fab and frugal vegan chef Melody over at Melomeals) so I decided to use my Fiesta Cashew Spread along with guacamole, fresh peppers, and lettuce to create Raw Collard Green Burritos:

I couldn't believe how hearty and filling these were! Not to mention, delicious! These could turn into an addictive lunch item for me. I was expecting the collard greens to be tougher and much less tasty than they were. (If you find them intimidating though, use a large lettuce leave instead).

The thing I love most about raw food is that it inspires you to really pay attention to what you are eating, to notice all the flavors and textures you're enjoying. I'm looking forward to exploring this cuisine more. Enjoy!

Raw Beet Soup & Hemp Seed Pesto

2011-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Albion Cooks 5th Birthday! I thought I'd celebrate with two raw recipes.

January often finds us enthusiastic about healthier directions. I would definitely like to be healthier and lighter this year. A couple of friends are on a "cleanse" and have inspired me to check out a variety of diets and cleanses. There's an awful lot of differing opinions out there, but everyone seems to agree that the more raw fruits and vegetables you eat, the better. And there seems to be some consensus that a smoothie or juice is gentler on your digestive system, giving your body more energy for other things.

I wasn't too psyched about the idea of smoothie/juice meals, until I found the recipe for a raw "Beet Soup" in Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day by Erica Palmcrantz & Irmela Lilja. Given my current love affair with Borscht, this recipe tempted me. And, the result was incredibly satisfying! In addition to great taste, beets are full of antioxidants and considered anti-inflammatory and detoxing.

The recipe is this simple: Peel two beets and dice. Place them in a blender with water and blend until smooth. Add a chopped apple and more water, as needed. Add an avocado and water to desired consistency.

The taste is a wonderful blend of earthiness, sweetness, and creaminess. Most notably, it is substantially satisfying and the vibrant color adds a zing to a cold winter morning.

I highly recommend Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day if you are interested in incorporating more raw food into your diet. The recipes are simple and do not require you to invest in expensive dehydrators or juicers - you use your oven or regular blender. Lots of lovely photographs too! I already have my eye on a beet-pistachio raw burger recipe for next time.

I've wanted to make this "Hemp Seed Pesto" ever since I enjoyed it at Cafe Gratitude.

The recipe is adapted from their cookbook I Am Grateful. Hemp seeds are nutritional gold mines: high in protein, fiber, omega 3 & 6, phosphorous, potassium, and Vitamin E. This pesto is easy and quick to make and taste great on crackers or raw veggies or as a vegetable-bean soup garnish. I'm planning to use it as a topping to tofu.

Hemp Seed Pesto
1 cup basil leaves
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp meyer lemon juice
sea salt
1/4 cup + 1 TBS hemp seeds

Place all ingredients but the hemp seeds in a mini-prep and pulse until blended. Add the hemp seeds and pulse to desired texture. This made 1/3 of a cup.

Thanks to all of my readers for visiting Albion Cooks over the last 5 years! Here's to a happy and healthy year!

Millennium Mushroom Class Jan. 2011

2011-01-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

Well, first of all, a belated Happy New Year to everyone! Although I've been cooking, I haven't blogged about it lately. Partly due to the fact that my natural light for photographs is gone by dinner time and partly to the fact that I've been making a lot of Borscht. I just can't get enough of the stuff!

That said, it was all about the mushrooms yesterday at my 18th vegan cooking class at Millennium.Taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker, the cooking classes at Millennium are seriously hands-on. The format is that class members break into two teams and prepare different variations of dishes, which maximizes participants' learning opportunities to twice the amount of food they are able to prepare in the approximate 6 hours of hands-on cooking. We worked with a variety of mushrooms including the familiar crimini, velvet pioppine, and oyster mushrooms as well as the rarer black chanterelles, hedgehog, and candy cap mushrooms.

In addition to prepping dessert, the first part of the class involved making two salads that riffed on a classic seafood salad of calamari and potato in a strongly lemon vinaigrette. This involved one of Eric's favorite cooking styles "grilling the heck out of" mushrooms, brussels sprouts and radicchio. The lemony vinaigrette beautifully complimented our two versions of this salad: below the radicchio version:

We also used Hodo Soy's delicious fresh Yuba (tofu skin) to create Yuba rolls stuffed with seasoned butternut squash puree, sauteed mushrooms, and sushi rice:

Here's the lunch plate showing two versions of the yuba rolls, and the radicchio and brussels sprouts salad:

The second half of the class involved two versions of mushrooms pierogies. We used two flour blends of AP with two Eatwell Farm wheat flours: Gaba di Farro and Bianco Fuerte with either crimini mushrooms or a crimini - shiitake blend. The pierogies were boiled then sauteed - here they are in the saute pan::

They were served with a grainy mustard cream (made with cashew cream)and a smoked apple hash:

The other team made hedgehog mushroom stuffed tamales using two different corn blends, served with an Ancho chile Nogata sauce (with cashews and toasted hazelnuts).

Finally, I had noted a black lentil ragu was to be served with beet ravioli on an upcoming wine dinner at Millennium. Being a big fan of lentil dishes, I asked Eric if we could incorporate a black lentil ragu dish into the class. Always super accommodating, I got the opportunity to make a black lentil ragu with black chanterelles, which I have to say was absolutely delicious:

Here's the recipe:

3 shallots, finely chopped
1.5 TBS olive oil-grapeseed oil blend
1/2 TBS each fresh thyme and fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small parsnip, peeled and finely diced
3 TBS tomato sauce
1.5 cups vegetable stock
2 large handfuls of black chanterelle mushrooms
2 cups cooked black lentils
3-4 TBS red wine
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
3 large pinches nutritional yeast
1-2 large pinches of salt and pepper to taste

Heat the shallots and oil in a pan and saute. The black chanterelles need to be cleaned meticulously to avoid grit. Break open the mushrooms and agitate in warm water, draining and re-rinsing 7 times or until there is no sign of grit in the water.Then finely chop the mushrooms.

Add the fresh herbs to the shallots and the root vegetables and saute for a few minutes until the veggies start to soften. Add the tomato paste and the vegetable stock and cook over high heat until reduced by 40 % (10-15 minutes rapid boil). Add the mushrooms and continue to cook over high heat until reduced another 20%. Add the wine and reduce. Add the cooked lentils and reduce until most of the liquid has cooked off. Taste the dish and flavor with soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast and S&P.

So, how do you work mushrooms into a dessert dish? Sweet ground candy cap mushrooms infused the "crumb" and the "sugar" of a delicious Candy Cap-Apple Pyhllo Strudel with vegan cinnamon ice cream. I really don't have a sweet tooth, but this dessert was really fabulous:

Many thanks to Eric, Ann, Thomas, Warren and Alison for another fabulous cooking class at Millennium.

Here's links to my previous 17 classes:

Portobello & Lentils with Pesto

2010-11-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to do a lentil and pesto recipe for a few weeks now, but today the inspiration came in the form of some excellent portobello mushrooms that couldn't wait another day to be used. This was incredibly easy and fast to prepare and so full of flavor! Plus, an elegant vegetarian or vegan appetizer (depending on the pesto you use) that is fairly low fat and protein-packed.

I used Trader Joe's pesto (contains cheese) and Trader Joe's Cooked Black Lentils for this dish. All I did was peel and slice the portobellos and saute them with a little oil, garlic, salt, pepper and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. It's hard not to resist just eating them out of the pan! I then added the lentils and a little pesto to the pan and gently combined. Served on a slice of fresh French baguette with a little basil leaf from the garden and voila!

Borscht

2010-11-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

As the weather cools and those heavy-meal holidays approach, my mind naturally turns to soups that make a complete meal. I crave simplicity, lots of healthy vitamin-filled vegetables, comfort and heartiness, in a way that won't weigh me down. This beautiful Borscht - a soup of beets, potatoes, and red cabbage - is such a stunning dish! And, it's few ingredients are packed with goodness. Beets are a great source of Vitamin C and full of antioxidants and along with red cabbage are great detox support foods. A little potato makes this soup a satisfying yet low-cal meal.

Borscht:

1 TBS vegetable oil

1/2 onion, peeled and diced

3 medium beets, peeled and diced

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1/2 red cabbage, chopped

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup water

sea salt to taste

apple cider vinegar to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add the beets, cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. Add the potato and some salt and cook for 3 minutes. Add the red cabbage and cook for 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil (uncovered). Turn down to a low simmer and cook until beets and potatoes are just tender (10-15 minutes). Adjust salt and add apple cider vinegar as desired (I used 2-3 tsp).

The Food Lover's Companion says Borscht "should always be garnished with a dollop of sour cream". It does add a wonderful creamy contrast, but I skipped it this time. Either way, this is a dish your body will love you for enjoying.

Spicy Pumpkin Thai Soup with Red Cabbage & Cilantro

2010-10-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

This spicy pumpkin soup takes it heat from fresh red chili and Thai Red Curry sauce, a red chili, ginger and coconut sauce. I used fresh pumpkin and pumpkin puree with vegetable stock and light coconut milk. Added the red cabbage in after partially pureeing the soup with an immersion blender, and the cilantro right at the end. Garnish with very thinly sliced jalapeno and a pinch of cilantro and red cabbage.

Spicy Pumpkin Thai Soup with Red Cabbage & Cilantro:

1 TBS olive oil

1/2 large white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1/4 small pumpkin, scraped, peeled, and diced

2 little potatoes, peeled and diced

16+ fl oz vegetable stock (or as needed for desired consistency)

3-4 fl. oz Thai Red Curry Sauce (I used Trader Joe's - vegetarian, but not vegan)

1/4 cup light coconut milk

1/4 cup white wine

salt as desired

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup red cabbage, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

jalapeno, thinly sliced to garnish

Heat the oil in a thick bottomed saucepan and sauted the diced onion and pressed garlic for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes, cover and cook 2 minutes. Add the diced pumpkin, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the pumpkin puree, Thai Red Curry sauce and coconut milk. Adjust salt as desired. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the wine (optional, but I felt it needed acidity) and cook until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the heat and puree with an immersion blender (I left mine chunky). Return to the heat and add the red cabbage. Cook for 3 minutes and remove from heat (cabbage will still be crunchy!). Add the cilantro and stir well. Adjust salt.

Serve garnished with thinly sliced jalapeno! Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Bruschetta with Caramelized Shallots, Apricots, Goat Cheese & Cashews

2010-10-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

So I have to admit, making a tasty and original dish with pumpkin is a challenge. It really needs to be imparted with flavor and beautifully complimented to make a great dish.

This very tasty Pumpkin Bruschetta with Caramelized Shallots, Apricots, Goat Cheese and Cashews takes its inspiration from an amazing dish prepared by T. for a Mom & Kids Swim party this summer. My daughter (1o) decided to be a vegetarian about a year ago and has inspired a number of her friends to adopt a vegetarian diet. T., a very cool mom who used this as an opportunity to expand her culinary expertise, made an phenomenal dish of goat cheese with caramelized onions, sweet peppers, and cashews that I found completely irresistible. This pumpkin bruschetta was inspired by that dish.

I caramelized shallots with a combo of olive oil and butter. Added some white wine as they began to brown and let them do their thing. At the end of cooking, added a few drops of balsamic.

I peeled and finely diced sweet pumpkin and sauteed it with olive oil and pressed garlic and cooked until tender. Added a generous pinch of sea salt to finish it off.

I toasted some olive whole wheat bread. Combined the sauteed pumpkin, caramelized shallots, chopped apricots, crumbled goat cheese and a drop of olive oil. Topped the toasted bread with the mixture and added a drop of balsamic vinegar at the end (post photo).

This is my favorite pumpkin recipe to date. I'm planning a pumpkin quesadilla for tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Pea Bean Bruschetta Calda on Olive Bread

2010-10-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Italian pea beans cooked with tomatoes, garlic, kalamata olives and capers over toasted olive sourdough bread. I mixed up the dish a bit with chopped cilantro, probably my favorite herb, but use Italian parsley or basil if you prefer.

Being a Brit, I like to think of this as Fancy Beans on Toast!

This is a variant on an earlier post Cannellini Beans in Tomato Olive Caper Sauce. I just can't get enough of this tasty low-fat combo.

Of course, feel free to drizzle olive oil as a finishing touch if you like! I heated the beans (thus the "calda"), but it works cold too.

Enjoy!

Millennium Class Sept. 2010

2010-09-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

This beautiful Chilled Green Curry Melon Soup with a Melon, Cucumber & Cherry Tomato salad, made at yesterday's cooking class at Millennium, was the perfect dish for our suddenly sweltering Indian summer weather. The soup was cool, complex, and creamy and the salad added a wonderful acidity and freshness. Taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker, students made a Green Curry Based from scratch with lemongrass, Thai chili, Kaffir lime leaves, and black fermented soy beans, to name just a few of the ingredients. Combined with melon and coconut milk, heated with the curry, then chilled, this was probably my favorite soup we've made in my 17 classes, and I never make or order chilled soup. Change is good!

This time around, we made the majority of the dishes before lunching. They included this Gigantic Bean and Sweet Pepper Salad:

A Nopales (Cactus) & Radish Salad - the nopales were charred, scrapped, then boiled to remove their gelatinous quality:

A trio of salsas - Guac with Poblanos, Spicy Tomato, and Huckleberry Salsa:

And a King Trumpet & Abalone Mushroom Salad with Carrots:

Here's the plated shot with the fresh maza tortillas:

Like I said, it was a big lunch. I was very excited to make an expanded version of a dish I always order at Millennium: Deep Fried Corn-Encrusted Oyster Mushrooms. As you can see, we also deep-fried thin green beans, thick-cut onions, firm tomatoes (green weren't to be had)and zucchini strips.

It's hard to see, but in the center is a wonderful Lovage Remoulade ( a Vegan version of the classic French caper & herb spiced mayonaise). Made with tofu and miso, I think it's worth attending a Millennium class simply to learn how to make one of these incredibly tofu mayos. No way can you tell it's vegan! We switched from a cornmeal based dust to a garbanzo bean flour dust (the darker items) - both were delicious:

A couple of gratuitous shots of my deep-fried darlings (fried in rice bran oil) Zucchini & Oyster Mushrooms:

Thin green beans and onions:

Needless to say, there were no leftovers!

After lunch, we made dumplings or giant mezzaluna filled with a creamy blend of purple peruvian potatoes, leeks, cashew cream and herbs, including lovage. These were served with a Smoked Chili Oil (Chipotles) and a Braised Lobster Mushroom and Fresh Shelling Bean side (we used Cranberry & Marrow Fat Fresh Beans). The lobster mushrooms had a "seafood"-like flavor, created by adding saffron (Iodine quality), scraped vanilla bean pod and white wine. My lousy photo doesn't do this amazing dish justice:

Dessert was Panna cotta made with agar and kuzu. As you can see, it's not the easiest gelling agent to work with, although I think the less set version actually tasted a little better:

Superbly complemented with vegan -chili-clover blossom honey, two very different apple compotes, and candied sweet chilis. Just when you think you can eat no more.....wow!

As always, many thanks to Eric for another superlative class. Thanks also to Thomas, Veronica and Intern Mike! It was also great to see several friends from previous classes and, of course, to meet new people!

Ann - we missed you! See you next time.

Here's links to my previous 16 classes:

Black Bean & Corn Soup

2010-09-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

So Fall is here and we're enjoying a pleasant mixture of hot and cool weather. This soup reflects that - a spicy tomato based soup where sweet fresh organic corn, fresh green peppers, fresh jalapeno and a whole bunch of cilantro combine with hearty canned organic black beans and sliced black olives. I threw in some dinosaur kale to round it out nutritionally. It was delicious!

I've been cooking a lot more with tomatoes lately, and adding tomato sauce to a soup was a new move for me. The tomato sauce made it a little sweet to my taste, so I'd probably use less sauce and more vegetable broth next time. Still, a nice combination of light and hearty!

Black Bean & Corn Soup:
2 TBS olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, deveined and chopped
1 jalapeno, deveined, seeded and cut very small
14 oz can organic tomato sauce
16 oz vegetable broth
4 oz water
3/4 cup of torn dinosaur kale, stems removed
14.5 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
small can of sliced black olives
kernels from 2 ears fresh corn
1 bunch cilantro, leaves only, chopped

In a heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the diced onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add the sliced garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add the green pepper and jalapeno and saute for 3 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes and add the kale. Cook for 5 more minutes and add the black beans and sliced olives. Cook for 5 minutes and add the corn and chopped cilantro. Cook 3 minutes and serve.

Indian Eggplant with Spicy Tomato Sauce

2010-09-16T20:54:00.001-07:00

Last week I had a rare opportunity to attend our local Thursday Farmers Market. I was thrilled to find a vendor with tiny Indian eggplants (shown above). I couldn't resist buying them, but then, as often happens, I found myself with an ingredient that was at it's prime without a specific dish planned.

No way was I letting these tiny eggplants pass me by. So I searched one of my favorite newer cookbooks, India's Vegetarian Cooking: A Regional Guide and prepared the recipe for Eggplants and Potatoes with Peanut Sauce:

While the dish was delicious, I think there may have been a typo in the recipe which called for only 2 teaspoons of ground peanuts with a sauce of a 14 oz tomatoes. Although the dish was very tasty, it was very mild on the peanut flavor. I plan to rework this sauce in a number of ways, specifically I plan to try increasing the ground peanuts from 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons to help the peanut flavor develop.

My favorite thing about this recipe was that it required so little oil. Most eggplant recipes involve frying them in oil, which they absorb readily. Here, they were cooked in the spiced tomato sauce with only 1-2 TBS of oil. The eggplant and potato were tender and beautifully spiced, I just wish the peanut flavor hadn't been lost in the tomatoes and spices. Still, a very tasty eggplant dish:

Fresh Garbanzo beans from the pod

2010-09-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

So here's a fresh garbanzo bean just plucked from it's pod. I just ate them straight up. Wonderful!

What am I?

2010-09-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

Look what I found at the farmers market today! I didn't know what it was - do you?

July 2010 Millennium Cooking Class

2010-08-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

So this summer I thought wouldn't it be a good idea to learn how to make bread from scratch. It's seems such a basic human cooking skill, but one I was put off from as a teen. Why? Well, I sincerely tried to make a bread from scratch when I was 16. Alas, it didn't rise, but I optimistically baked it anyway. Result, a bread that bounced off concrete without a chip. A serious brick. But, I blinked, and summer is almost over and the yeast hasn't been touched...

Happily, my July cooking class at Millennium, taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker, saves the day by providing the opportunity to make a quick-rising French style baguette. I naturally jumped at the opportunity to prove my hopeless bread-baking skills wrong with the help of some expert advice. It was a simple fast-raising, french bread making recipe for Bahn Mi sandwiches. I measured, I mixed, I kneaded. And, by golly, this time it worked! After allowing the dough to rise over good heat, we broke it into baguette sandwiches. See Chef Eric displaying the results above.

Inside this delicious sandwich was Yuba (fresh tofu skin marinated with a Lemon Grass-Shallot glaze):

Here's the crisp and delicious fried version. I can't believe we put this in a sandwich. I can't believe I didn't eat it before the bread was baked:

And tofu marinated and grilled with the same glaze:

And on the hot grill with onions:

So, I think this was the most filling "lunch" I've eaten at a Millennium cooking class:

The Bahn Mi also boasted sesame tofu mayonnaise, plum anise hoisin, pickled carrots, sliced jalapeno. Oh, yes, the salad. Let me tell you about the salad.

A seaweed based salad with Arame, Mendocino Sea Palm Fronds, and Kelp Noodles:

The sea noodles were combined with avocado, plums, and fresh herbs and dressed with a Plum Ume & Shiso dressing:

One class participant was interested in novel uses of potatoes. The result was a potato and corn "risotto" made creamy with cashew cream:

It was then served with Vanilla-glazed Maitake mushrooms:

The mushrooms were delicious!

We then made a South Indian vegetable filling for Buck Wheat Dosas with cumin, curry leaf and asafoetida::

Topped with a mint chutney, these were delicious:

Dessert was typically over the top - shortbread cookies with nectarines, macadamia nut cheese, and a lemon-verbena caramel:

Many thanks to Eric, Ann, Thomas and my classmates for another memorable vegan cooking class.
Here's links to my previous 15 classes:

Summer Vegetable Salad with Kelp Noodles

Cannellini Beans in an Tomato-Olive-Caper Sauce

2010-07-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

In cooking, often the simplest recipes yield the best results. Here's a primo example of that - Cannellini Beans in a simple tomato sauce of tomatoes, olives and capers. I made this for a picnic crowd today and everyone loved it. I love it when simple, easy recipes are winners. This recipe is easy, super-flavorful, vegan, and low-fat.

Cannellini Beans in an Olive-Tomato-Caper Sauce:
1 tsp olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
14 oz can fine diced tomatoes
8 kalamata olive, cut in half
1 tsp capers
2 large leaves of basil, juilienned
pepper to taste
I4 oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Heat a teaspoon of oil in a skillet. Add the sliced garlic and saute until brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for 4 minutes. Add the olives and capers and pepper and cook for 5-10 minutes until sauce begins to thicken. Add the julienned basil and turn off the heat. Drain and rinse the beans. Add the sauce to the beans.

Keep in mind, this tomato sauce can be adapted to many uses. I plan to use it for a baked tofu dish as well. So much flavor and so little fat!

June 2010 Millennium Cooking Class

2010-06-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

How's this for an outrageous dessert! A vegan dessert "burger" of Oatmeal Zucchini Cookies, filled with Avocado-Coconut ice cream with sliced nectarines in a Rose Geranium syrup. Two versions of cookies - one cake-like, one crispy:

Both totally rocked!

Yes, another fab Sunday Vegan Cooking Class at Millennium taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker. We had a great menu today utilizing the best of seasonal produce: stone fruit, corn, zucchini, and avocado.

Cooking classes at Millennium are serious hands-on, jump- in cooking classes. You're busy the whole time, you're learning new techniques, new combinations, new ingredients. I have to say, I was in awe of my classmates today. They were all serious, knowledgeable cooks with good instincts and generous with technique tips. Now I know the easy way to peel ginger is to scrape off the skin with a spoon! The camaraderie of working with others on the recipes makes the classes a very cool experience.

We made dessert first, 'cos it involved baking and freezing. For lunch, we made an incredible summer vegetable salad of julienned diakon, carrots, cucumber and sea kelp noodles. We added mint, Thai basil, and cilantro and a new-to-me salty succulent , Agretti. The amazing dressing was made of blended pluots, ginger, chile, agave nectar, rice vinegar, grape seed oil and salt. We also made a Vadouvan Oil, a French curry spiced oil, that was incredible! We topped the salad with toasted peanuts spiced with coriander, chili, sugar and salt. I could eat this salad every day:

After lunch, we focused on corn griddle cakes (two versions: one baked, one pan fried) with Heirloom bean salad with grilled Nopales (Cactus) and spicy tomato-chile salsa. The beans were amazing - Rancho Gordo Indian woman and vallarta beans, cooked with clove-studded onion and epazote:

We also had two versions of a pumpkin seed pesto. The corn griddle cakes included roasted corn, corn and AP flours, and had some serious cumin flavor and incorporated soy yogurt for a buttermilk effect:

Then two versions of amazing porcini mushroom pot pie - the crust made tender with palm shortening, the filling an amazing blend of leek, carrot and celery mirepoix with porcini (and other) mushrooms, English peas, red wine or sherry, vegetable stock, nutritional yeast, cashew cream, nutmeg and fresh herbs. To die for:

Thanks, as always, to Eric, Ann, and Thomas for creating another fabulous Sunday Cooking Class at Millennium. Also thanks to my classmates for making this another entertaining, friendly, and educative class.

Addendum:
Classmate Beth, a professional chef, has three posts related to this class at her blog The Smug Chef with really gorgeous photos and beautifully stylized dishes. Check them out!

Good Herb Karma

Corn Cakes

Here's links to my previous 14 classes:

Asparagus, Preserved Lemon Pizza at Pizza Antica

2010-05-23T20:39:00.001-07:00

As I was looking up locally lunch eateries today, Pizza Antica at Strawberry Village in Mill Valley showed up in my search. As a lover of unique pizzas, I should really be more of a regular here. Great pizzas, friendly service, non-pizza options. And the place has style! Even the coffee service was elegant.

My uber-light pizza included shaved asparagus, preserved lemon, tarragon and parmesan. The crust was very thin and the combination of flavors was truly delicious. A pizza right off the menu (you can build your own), this was fresh tasting and wonderfully light.

Pea & Fava Bean Salad with Feta, Green Garlic & Pine nuts

2010-05-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, a happy gardener brought bags of fresh fava beans to our outdoor activity in Nicasio. Which spurred the question: what do you do with fava beans?

That question inspired this recipe - a very fresh and tasty salad of fava beans, fresh English peas (also in season), green garlic, feta cheese and pine nuts with the perfect lemony backdrop.

So, the most important thing to know about using fresh fava beans: you have to pod and peel them. It's fiddley and time-consuming, but the skins have a bitter taste that will probably put you off unless you cover them up with a heavy sauce. I use a small sharp knife and slice into the side and the peel comes off quite quickly. Here's a picture that shows the podded unpeeled fava, the partially peeled fava, and the peeled fava:

The peeled fava is tender and can be eaten raw. I sauteed them with lemon olive oil and butter and minced green garlic, along with the podded English peas. The garden-fresh favas were so tender they cooked faster than the larger English peas. I added a very light white wine to the mix and some fresh lemon juice (don't skip the lemon juice!) Sauteed in a pan for about 5 minutes, added a pinch of sea salt, then moved to a bowl and added finely crumbled feta cheese and toasted pine nuts.

Topped the mix with some freshly snipped chives and the result was completely satisfying and healthy. If you want a more substantial salad dish, some cooked farro would be a winner here.

OK, so what's your favorite way to enjoy fresh fava beans? Post your fav in the comments!

Millennium Spring Cooking Class 2010

2010-04-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

Classmate Sekhar got the glory for making these delicious Pea and Cilantro Puree-Stuffed Fried Yuba Ravioli with sesame seeds at yesterday's Spring Cooking Class at Millennium taught by Millennium's Executive Chef Eric Tucker. Of course, the recipe was Eric's great idea and I think Sekhar got some help from classmates, but the most important thing is that they tasted totally fabulous! The yuba, a.k.a tofu skin, were purchased from Hodo Soy at the Saturday San Francisco Farmers Market. Highly perishable, you need to plan your yuba dish in advance, but this one was really awesome!

A variant on this recipe involved a Korean Chili Broth, with maitake mushrooms and peas:

with the same Pea-Cilantro puree added to crispy risotto-style rice cakes:

A plated close-up of this dish:

Shiso , or Perilla, is a member of the mint family:

We garnished a thickened up version of the broth with shiso and used it as a sauce:

Simple and delicious Daikon pancakes with scallions were a hit with a garnish of pickled cucumber:

A plated close up of this dish:

A fresh Fava Bean and Grilled Spring Onion Salad provided a fresh side salad. Eric's view: don't mess too much with fava beans. These were peeled and blanched and their freshness shone through.

Terrines are a nice Spring item and we did two versions - Mushroom and Walnut Terrines with marinated maitake and portabello mushrooms:

and adjusting for a mushroom-free classmate, a roasted carrot and walnut terrine (the sweeter version):

Also acquired at the SF Farmers Market, freshly milled flour from Eat Well Farm. Two of their fresh flours were used to make flatbreads - whole wheat and Triticale, a lower-gluten flour:

Here's a close-up of the grilled flatbread with a Sundried Tomato-Spring Garlic Butter and the mushroom terrine:

My photos of the incredible Kale & Bean Salad do no justice to this amazing dish. The dinosaur kale was blanched, marinated with balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper and grilled. The number one thing I learned is this class is that grilling kale gives it an incredible smokey, meaty taste:

And, although I'm no sweet tooth, I always eat dessert at Millennium. Are you ready? Cashew Crust Tartlets filled with Black Pepper Vanilla Cream (made with Spectrum palm shortening), topped with Grand Marnier Marinated Strawberries and Thyme Ice Cream:

Worth a second gloriously indulgent picture, don't you think?

Thanks, as always, to Eric, Ann, Veronica, and Thomas for creating another fabulous Sunday Cooking Class at Millennium. Also thanks to my classmates for making this another entertaining, friendly, and fascinating class.

Here's links to the previous 13 classes:

Making the dish in the June 2009 class

We chatted about favorite dishes in the class so, as promised, here's a couple of links to one of my favorite dishes: Edamame Gnocchi with Shiso Aioli:

Dining at Millennium

Spring Vegetable Melange with Green Garlic

2010-04-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

The rainy weather almost persuaded me to make a soup today, but I had all these lovely fresh baby vegetables and it seemed a shame to drown their prettiness. So I kept it amazing simple: melted some Kerrygold Irish butter in a sauce pan and added small cut potatoes and a green garlic cut into slices. Cooked covered until the potatoes started to get tender. Added the rest of the vegetables (baby radish, fresh English peas, baby carrots, precooked Brussel Sprouts, alba mushrooms) and another sliced green garlic and finished with a little champagne for sweetness. A pinch of sea salt and I was done.

I just love the mild flavor of green garlic. See the previous post for other green garlic ideas.

Happy Easter!

Green Garlic Easter Recipes

2010-04-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to pick up some green garlic at the Farmers Market this week! It's mildness is wonderful with eggs, so it's perfect for Easter recipes. I'm still musing on what I'll make with it this year, but thought I'd share some previous recipes that would be ideal for the weekend. Above is a vegan recipe for Green Garlic Soup with Fresh English Peas

One of my favorite Easter recipes: Scrambled Eggs with Green Garlic in a Roast Potato Base

The roast potato base is adapted from a recipe by Gary Rhodes (British Chef) called Cheesy Fondant Potatoes on a Bed of Soft Leeks from the March 2002 Good Food magazine (put out by the BBC).

Potato base:
1 large russet potato per person
2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1 bay leaf
2 + garlic cloves
pepper
olive oil
butter (optional)

Put the water, milk, bay leaf, garlic cloves, and pepper into a wide saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the mixture steep.

Peel your potatoes and keep them in a bowl of cold water to avoid them discoloring. Using your peeler, shape the ends of the potatoes so they are nicely rounded. Cut a shaving of potato off one long side so the potato has a stable base. On the top side of the potato, use a sharp paring knife to cut an oval shape down into the potato, leaving about 1/2 '' around the edges (err on the side of edges being too thick). To remove the cut oval of potato from the top, cut the oval into quarters and use your knife to "pop" out one quarter and then cut out the others. I then used a zester to remove and shape the inside (this worked great). Then I tidied up with a grapefruit spoon (which has serrated edges). You'll then have something that looks like this:

Put the potato back in the water and repeat with each potato.

Heat your oven to 400. Put olive oil into an ovenproof dish large enough to hold your potato bases and put it in the oven to warm up as your oven heats.

Turn the milk mixture heat on to lowest simmer and carefully place the potato bases into the milk mixture. Simmer very gently for about 10 minutes until the potato is just becoming tender. Carefully remove the potato bases with a slotted spoon and put on a plate to cool for a moment. Carefully remove any liquid that is trapped inside the crevice.

Put the bases bottom down into the hot oil in the ovenproof dish,dot the centers with butter or a little oil, and cook for about 25 minutes. When the bottoms are starting to brown and crisp, turn the bases upside down to crisp the top and pour the hot oil over the sides. Check in 10 minutes and try to turn the potatoes on their sides and cook for 5-10 minutes each side.

Take the ovenproof dish out and let it sit for 5 minutes. Remove the bases onto a plate with a paper towel to absorb any extra oil. Place on a foil-covered baking sheet and keep warm in the oven at lowest heat (but not for too long).

A simple dish with some sophisticated flavors: Scrambled Eggs with Peas, Green Garlic & Humboldt Fog Cheese

Not familiar with green garlic?

Green garlic is immature garlic that has not yet formed a strong, pungent mature bulb and flavor. It is wonderfully delicate and mild and perfect in this springtime soup. It looks like a small leek or a big spring onion:

Happy Easter!

Brussels Sprouts, Cashel Blue Irish Pizza for St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

I've been introducing all my friends to the delicious, creamy Cashel Blue cheese from Ireland. When I made my Kale, Apple & Cashel Blue Cheese Salad, I thought this cheese would be really amazing with Brussels Sprouts. That thought inspired this amazing pizza: a base of sauteed leeks and dinosaur kale, topped with steamed and sauteed Brussels Sprouts and a generous portion of grated Cashel Blue Irish Cheese. The result is an incredibly rich and hearty pizza that celebrates delicious deep green vegetables with an indulgent dose of creamy blue cheese.

If you're a Brussels Sprouts fan, you're really gonna love this one!

Brussels Sprouts, Cashel Blue Cheese Irish Pizza:

pizza dough for one 11 " pizza
olive oil for brushing
1 leek
1/2 bunch dinosaur kale, stemmed
1 TBS sparkling/sweet wine
2 teaspoon salted butter (I used Kerrygold)
11 brussels sprouts
2 pinches sea salt
3 oz Cashel Blue Irisch Cheese
pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 450. Roll out the pizza dough, brush with olive oil and bake on a pizza stoned for 8 minutes (deflate puffiness with a knife.

Slice and clean the leek and dinosaur kale. Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in skillet and saute until tender (6-8 mins). Add sparkling wine after sauteing for 4 minutes. Season with a pinch of sea salt.

Trim stems from Brussels spouts and cut in half. Place in a ziplock bag (half sealed) with a TBS of water and microwaver for 3 1/2 minutes. Remove carefully (hot!). Melt 1 teaspoon butter in a skillet on high heat and quickly saute the sprouts until browned.

Roll out pizza dough. Brush with olive oil and bake for 7 minutes (the dough will puff up - pierce it with a knife and press down).

Top the curst with the sauteed leek/kale mix. Top with the Brussels Sprouts (flat side up) then grate Cashel Blue cheese over pizza. Bake for 5 minutes, adding pine nuts (if desired) after 3 minutes of cooking.

Serve and enjoy!

Kale, Apple & Cashel Blue Salad for St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, I've been musing on a new dish that incorporates Irish ingredients. This delicious kale salad with crisp fresh apple and creamy and mild Irish Cashel blue cheese really hits the spot!

I wanted to tenderize the dinosaur kale beyond a raw kale salad (can be a little too bitter) and found the perfect solution. I placed the kale leaves in a colander and poured boiling water over them (my favorite way to barely cook spinach). The result was perfect - a tenderized kale that still maintained it's texture. I then removed the stems and chopped the leaves.

I created a citrus vinaigrette using a citrus-champagne vinegar with a high quality extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt and pepper. I tossed the kale with cubed crisp apple, hazelnuts (filberts), and crumbled creamy but pungent Cashel Blue cheese and the vinaigrette. What an amazing salad combination taste and texture wise! And, a healthy option!

It's been quite a while since I posted to Albion Cooks. As regulars will know, I broke my arm which really limited my cooking adventures. Then I had an awful bout with the flu and was shamefully living off microwavable cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Thanks to all for their kind inquiries and well wishes! I'm back!

This Cashel Blue cheese is so good, I plan to do another couple of recipes with it. It would be so good with Brussels Sprouts!

And I highly recommend it spread straight on an oaty cracker! Enjoy!

Onion Rings at Buckeye Roadhouse

2010-01-29T17:03:00.000-08:00

Crispy Onion Rings with Mustard Seed Ketchup

A cast-off (my wrist) celebration dinner last night was my first meal at Buckeye Roadhouse in Mill Valley. I'd always thought of it as a meat place, but there were plenty of delicious vegetarian options. Everyone I mentioned my dinning location to raved about the food and had a favorite dish to recommend. D. sold me on the mountain o'onion rings featured above. L. told me the Pan Roasted Artichoke with Creamy Tarragon sauce was excellent - it was, and I love artichokes! There was a time (in my extreme youth), when I ate two artichokes for dinner every night!

We also loved the Iceburg Wedge with Point Reyes Blue Cheese Vinaigrette (no bacon). The service was excellent.

Fellow foodie, and awesome dessert chef, D. and I had a lovely girls night out. I love going out and sharing a selection of dishes with friends.

No arm twisting required to make another visit to Buckeye! Items to try next time: P recommended the garlic fries! D. loved the Portobello tart, and that English Pea lasagna calls to me!

You can download the menus from the website: Buckeye Roadhouse

What Am I?

2010-01-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

Guess in the comments!

Postscript:
You guys really are good! This was indeed Grilled Turnip Cake, a vegetarian version made with sweet turnips, mushrooms, and rice flour, from the Dim Sum brunch menu at Harmony restaurant in Mill Valley. I'd never had this dish before. Creamy with a slight crispness to the outside, sweet, yet savory. Delicious, and a huge portion compared to the other items. Loved the pea shoot dumplings, but why only two tiny pieces :-( I could eat 6 of those no problem!

Harmony is a little pricey, but the food and service are excellent, and there's plenty of vegetarian option.

Lydia's Kale Salad

2010-01-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone!

I'm starting the new year on a vegan diet. My plan had been to avoid premade foods and focus on some new recipes. But, as Fate would have it, I broke my wrist ice skating the day after Christmas. Fortunately my left wrist, but I can't peel and chop vegetables, sort of basic to my style of cooking.

Thank goodness, this delicious organic raw kale salad is available at my local Whole Foods! A product of Lydia's Organics, a local business out of Fairfax, this kale salad has carrots, arame, sesame seeds and a delicious sesame ginger dressing. I'm hooked! It's one of those foods that makes you feel healthier by the mouthful. And it's a beautiful looking salad.

Here's to a happy and healthy 2010!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pine Nuts & Blue Cheese

2009-12-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

I've become completely addicted to roasted Brussels Sprouts this season!

Just trim, cut in half, place in a pan with olive oil and roast at 400 for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to keep them from sticking and burning.

The pine nuts and blue cheese crumbles made this a glorious Christmas side dish! Vegans - skip the cheese and add a little toasted sesame oil!

I've been roasting my Brussels Sprouts with shallots or garlic cloves too! And a touch of hard apple cider (the beverage not the vinegar) or white wine makes a pleasantly sweeter result.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash with Basil & Pine Nuts

2009-11-24T17:46:00.000-08:00

As the holidays approach, with the seemingly inevitable threat to my waistline (even without the turkey!), my mind is focused on light and tasty vegetable dishes! This spaghetti squash recipe was inspired by a recipe from the November issue of Food & Wine , Spaghetti Squash Salad with Pine Nuts & Tarragon.

Spaghetti squash is a pretty cool vegetable. You bake it in the oven, then remove the flesh with a fork, and the spaghetti strands hold up well as a pasta substitute. I loved the fact that the squash was baked facedown with a mixture of white wine and water! It gave the squash a very slight sweetness and depth. I chose to use basil instead of the more astringent tarragon and skipped the thyme and the cheese. I also used a citrus champagne vinegar and ate mine warm!

Spaghetti Squash with Basil & Pine Nuts:
1 spaghetti squash
extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
ground black pepper
1/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup water
2 TBS chopped fresh basil
1 tsp citrus champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1/4 tsp lemon zest
squirt of lemon juice to taste (a little more if you are using white wine vinegar)
red chili flakes
1/4 cup pine nuts, pan toasted

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and loose fleshy strings. Drizzle the insides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place cut side down on a baking dish with a rim. Mix together the wine wine and water and pour it over the squash. Bake for 50 minutes.

Remove the squash and allow to cool enough that you can work with it (or you can wrap it up and put it in the fridge for a day if you are planning ahead). Use a fork over a large bowl to scrape out the squash in strands. Add the lemon zest and basil, and toss. Combine the vinegar and lemon juice and toss with the spaghetti squash. Add red chili flakes and pan-toasted pine nuts. Adjust seasoning and serve!

Vegan Turkey Cutlets for Thanksgiving

2009-11-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Looking for a delicious and fabulous vegan alternative to Thanksgiving turkey?

I'm repeating my favorite Thanksgiving/Christmas vegan main, Vegan Turkey Cutlets from Ann Gentry's Real Food Daily Cookbook

I loved the taste and texture of these and I'm not really into faux meats. They're made of a combination of tofu and tempeh and they're easy to make!

Vegan Turkey Cutlets (adapted from Real Food Daily Cookbook):

8 oz tempeh
6 oz tofu
4 tbsp miso
1-1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1-1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cut up the tempeh and tofu and blend in a food processor until crumbly and well mixed. In a small bowl, mix together the miso and mustard. Set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and fry the onion until soft (6-8 minutes). Add the sage, Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and stir for 30 seconds. Add the tempeh-tofu mix and the miso-mustard to the pan and saute for 8-10 minutes, until starting to brown. (My mixture was moist, rather like tuna salad, but it did brown). Remove from heat and allow to cool. When the mixture is cool enough to touch, form into 4 patties with your hands. Brush the patties with olive oil and bake from 25-35 minutes until golden brown. (Gentry says the unbaked patties can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days if you want to make these ahead).

See the original post.

Red Lentil Pate with Sun-dried Tomatoes & Olives

2009-11-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

Another recipe from Detox by Sara Rose, this red lentil pate with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, garlic, scallions and black pepper packed plenty of healthful flavor. I modified it to include some olive oil and a little red wine as it was too dry for my liking and water wouldn't have given it the right consistency, from my perspective.

Still, a high-protein, low-fat recipe that makes an excellent lentil pate - a nice alternative for hummus lovers like me.

I've never been a big fan of sun-dried tomatoes, but they really worked for me here - not overpowering at all.

A pretty simple and easy vegan recipe, a great pate for crudite, crackers or even as a high-protein sandwich spread. I'm also thinking this might work on pizza with enough olive oil!

Red Lentil Pate with Sun-dried Tomatoes & Olives:
3 scallions, white parts, thinly sliced
1 large clove of garlic, minced (more if you want it garlicy!)
4 kalamata olives, stoned and chopped
2 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
water if needed
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp red wine
black pepper
pine nuts to garnish

Place half the vegetable stock in a sauce pan with the scallions, garlic, olives, and sun dried tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer until the scallions are tender. Add the remaining vegetable stock and lentils and cook until lentils are tender (add water as needed to avoid the lentils drying out).

Place in a mini-prep or blender and add olive oil, red wine and black pepper. Puree, adding olive oil or water until you reach your desired consistency.

Serve in a bowl topped with pine nuts and a little olive oil.

Pumpkin Recipes for a Happy Pumpkin Day!

2009-10-31T17:52:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Cashew Curry

Hot Halloween Stew

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Just in case you have some leftover pumpkin to cook with.

Happy Halloween!

Zucchini & Tomato Salad with Basil-Kale Pesto

2009-10-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

This surprising tasty salad was inspired by raw dishes that use zucchini in place of pasta. I've never done much with zucchini. It's always seemed too bland to be the center piece of a dish. Baked and stuffed with a tangy cheese is the biggest nod I've given this vegetable. But here, raw, and very thinly sliced, combined with chopped heirloom tomatoes and a tasty basil-kale pesto, it works as a magically fresh and light pasta substitute.

A very simple and attractive dish, this salad packs hearty flavor without weighing you down. Definitely, a salad I'd make for company!

Zucchini & Tomato Salad with Basil-Kale Pesto:

2 medium zucchini, very thinly sliced on a mandolin
1 orange and 1 red heirloom tomato, finely chopped
12-15 basil leaves
I large leaf of dinosaur kale, stem removed
olive oil
sea salt
pine nuts
lemon juice
pinch of sugar if needed

Combine the thinly sliced zucchini and chopped tomatoes in a bowl.

In a mini-prep, combine basil leaves, kale leaf, a generous pinch of pine nuts, olive oil and salt. Puree. Add lemon juice to taste and if the kale gives it a bitter taste, add a little sugar. Puree adjusting oil, lemon juice, and salt until desired texture.

Combine pesto with the zucchini and tomato mix and add a few pine nuts if desired.

Millennium Chile Class Oct 2009

2009-10-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

What the heck! Let's start this post with dessert first, just as we do in cooking classes at Millennium. On the decadent dessert menu this time, Peanut-Chocolate Torte, Sweet Potato Ice Cream with sugared jalapenos, and two "Bacon" -Chile Caramel sauces (smoked apples provide the "bacon" flavor).

I worked on the sugared jalapenos - aren't they lovely?

Sugar and water boiled together, sliced jalapenos added, cooked for 5 minutes, then pulled the jalapenos and rolled them in sugar. Saved the liquid and used it for the thick unstrained "bacon"-chili caramel. Yum!

A selection of chiles from the ingredients tray:

A gorgeous cauliflower mushroom:

which was one of the ingredients to the Mushroom- Corn filling:

for amazing Plantain Empanadas:

Yes, the dough was made of roasted, processed plantains and salt.

Lunch was Steamed Buns with Tea-Smoked tofu and Yuba Pancake with hoisin sauce, chile sambal and blackened arbol-shallot salsa:

Close-up of the Yuba pancake (yuba from Hodo Soy):

The buns were made with pastry flour, yeast, scallions, baking powder, and sesame seeds:

A persimmon salad with a scotch bonnet kick:

Dinner was peppers stuffed with a potato-pea curry and chard saag (made two ways, with cashew cream and coconut milk):

Cooking buddy C & I managed to ruin our potato-pea curry beyond salvation by adding fenugreek towards the end of the dish. Opps...it was supposed to be ground fenugreek. Here's a lesson I'll never forget. We added the grainy fenugreek near the end and those grains just stick in the pits of your teeth and make a previously delicious curry, a mouthful of bitterness. Well, it was my 13th class!

We had a mass of chile sauces to enjoy of varying degrees:

And beer-drunken beans with smoked onions made an additional side:

So vote in the comments for the recipe from this class you'd most like to have!

Many thanks to Eric Tucker, Chef and Teacher Extraordinaire, my enthusiastic classmates, and Thomas, Veronica, Jason and Ann for making this another fab Sunday class at Millennium.

Look at classmate Kate's flicker for more photos at:
flickr.com/photos/katedollarhyde

Here's links to the previous 12 classes:

Roasted Red Pepper & Lentil Soup

Potato & Lentil Salad

2009-10-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Ever made a recipe because you couldn't imagine how it would taste? That was part of the impetus behind making this potato and lentil salad from a book called Detox by Sara Rose.

A friend and colleague is doing a special 3 week Cleanse recommended by Gwyneth Paltrow and is bringing in all sorts of tasty detox salads. So I shared the recipes from Roses' book with her and decided to try this very simple potato salad with lentils, scallions, olive oil and balsamic. I added a sprig of rosemary to the Lentils du Puy, and peeled the potatoes, but was pleasantly surprised by how tasty and satisfying this dish was.

It may not be beautiful to look at, but for a low-fat, high protein potato salad, this is a winner. I would definitely make this for a picnic/potluck or as a tasty packed lunch treat. The recipe below is for two servings.

Potato & Lentil Salad:

8 oz baby potatoes
1/4 cup Lentils du Puy
sprig of rosemary
3 scallions
high quality olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt
Black pepper

Boil the potatoes until soft all the way through. Drain, peel, and cut into quarters lengthwise.

Boil water and add the lentils. Turn to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes then add small rosemary sprig. Cook 10-15 minutes more. Drain and rinse.

Chop 3 scallions, roots and green tops removed.

Combine potatoes, lentils, and scallions with a little high quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add sea salt and black pepper and serve.

Light Vegetable Soup with Spinach

2009-09-07T18:19:00.001-07:00

Continuing my spinach soup adventures, this simple vegetable soup included baby potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, snap pea, peas, corn, with the spinach thrown in right at the end after the heat was off.

I really loved this light, fresh soup! It's the kind of meal you can feel 100% good about and it's quick to make to boot!

Light Vegetable Soup with Spinach:

1 TBS olive oil
1/3 onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 pinch Herbes de Provence
5 baby potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 carrots, thinly sliced and cut in half for larger pieces
1/2 cup cauliflower florettes
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup peas (I used frozen)
1 cob corn kernels
1/2 cut snap peas, cut into 4
2 big handfuls of baby spinach
S & P

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the onions, and cook for a few minutes until they start to soften. Add the minced garlic and Herbes de Provence, stir well, and cook for 1 minutes. Add the potatoes and carrots. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring to avoid sticking. Add the cauliflower the last minute.

Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. Add the peas, cook 3 more minutes. Add the corn and snap peas and cook 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the spinach. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Roasted Red Pepper, Lentil & Spinach Soup

2009-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Spinach is making a splash in my culinary life right now. I'm particularly interested in soups with spinach. Not cream of spinach soup but rather soups where the spinach is barely cooked, just thrown in at the end so you can really taste it.

This spinach variation on my Roasted Red Pepper & Red Lentil soup (see recipe variants below) was suggested to me by my work colleague, S.

I made a lighter version of the original recipe, reducing the lentils and eliminating the potatoes. The result was a wonderful combination I wouldn't have thought of myself! And this soup is full of healthy vegan protein!

Here's the recipe and I'd love to hear about your favorite vegetarian spinach recipe in the comments.

Roasted Red Pepper, Lentil & Spinach Soup:

1 -1/2 TBS olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp of ground cumin
generous pinch of cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of ground coriander
generous pinch of coriander seeds
salt
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups of water
1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
7.5 oz jar roasted red peppers or 2 large roasted red peppers, skinned and seeded
1/3 jalapeno, deveined and finely chopped
spinach, baby, stems removed (as much as desired!)
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook the onion for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently (avoid browning) . Add the the cumin, cumin seeds, coriander, coriander seeds, and a pinch of salt and stir well. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, water, red lentils and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the roasted red peppers and jalapeno. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until lentils loose their shape.
Remove the soup from the heat and puree using an immersion blender.

Adjust seasoning and add the spinach. Stir until wilted.

Other roasted red lentil soup recipes from Albion Cooks:

Roasted Red Pepper, Lentil & Corn Soup

Red Lentil Soup with Ricotta Dumplings

Mushroom Pasta Salad with Parmesan

2009-08-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist the Chef's Sampler Pack of mushrooms on my last visit to Whole Foods and wanted a simple dish that really highlighted the delicious pioppini's and King Trumpet mushrooms. I also wanted a dish I could share in a picnic setting with others.

This very simple pasta salad with mushrooms and parmesan hit the mark!

I sauteed the mushrooms (cutting the larger Trumpets into slices) with olive oil, minced garlic and some very finely chopped fresh rosemary. The pasta was cooked al dente and I added a little of my best quality olive oil. Fleur de Sel salt and freshly ground Terricherry pepper and some microplaned Parmesan and the dish was complete and wonderful!

Beet Salad with Beet Greens, Feta & Walnuts

2009-08-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

I love beets, but had never used the beet greens, mostly because they rarely look fresh. However, I got a nice bunch of beets at the Farmers Market yesterday and the leaves looked pretty good, which led me to include them in this otherwise, common blend of beets, feta and walnuts.

I cooked the beets in a 450 oven, wrapped in foil, for about an hour. I stemmed the beet greens and cut them into julienned slices and sauteed them with a little olive oil and minced garlic, just until wilted (which only took a couple of minutes). I combined the greens and the beets with a little delicious lemon olive oil (Sciabica's found at the SF Farmers Market). I tasted them and was about to add salt, when I realized feta was a better answer. A few crunchy walnut pieces for texture and this was a very tasty little salad. The beet greens were like a mild kale and shared kale's texture, but with only the faintest bitterness.

And, although it was hard to get a clear shot of this dark pigmented salad, I think it is very pretty. And good for you too!

Black Bean Salsa Soup

2009-08-08T19:12:00.000-07:00

With all those lovely heirlooms around, I have to admit, I haven't cooked much lately. But this smoky soup with corn, peppers, and tomatoes requires minimal cooking and makes good use of all that fabulous summer produce. It's a crowd pleaser, vegan, and full of nutrients!

Black Bean Salsa Soup:
1/2 large onion, cut into medium cubes
1 tsp olive oil
1 large jalapeno, deveined, seeded, and chopped
1 red bell pepper, deveined, seeded and chopped
2-3 small mulit-colored peppers, seeded and chopped
1 large poblano pepper, roasted, skin scrapped, deseeded and chopped
16 oz vegetable broth (I used Imagine organic)
salt
2 medium large tomatoes, chopped
1 corn tortilla, julienned ( I used Food for Life's Sproutd Corn Tortillas)
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 large ear corn kernels

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan and cook the onions for 4-5 minutes over low heat. Add the jalapeno, red bell pepper, multi-colored peppers and the roasted poblano pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the tomatoes, corn tortilla, and black beans. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the cilantro and corn kernels. Cook 2-3 minutes, the serve!

Millennium Cooking Class: July 2009

2009-07-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

From one o'clock: Rice crepe with marinated tofu and vegetables;corn-potato cake with spicy cilantro sauce; potato cake with cashew-cream shiso sauce; sauteed fresh chickpeas; yellow curried vegetables and, center, Indian-stuffed okra.

The bounty of another fun and educational Sunday cooking class in the kitchen at Millennium, the gourmet vegan restaurant in San Francisco, with Eric Tucker, Executive Chef, presiding.

I was pretty focused on the recipes I worked on for this class. I was delighted to make two versions of the potato scallion cakes, as they reminded me so much of the potato cakes my grandmother used to make for supper from Sunday lunch leftovers. She'd serve them with a fried egg and salad.

The fluffier corn version were made with Little Farms Carolla potatoes, boiled then broken by hand with fresh corn kernels and scallions. The cakes were then pan fried and served with a green sauce was a combo of cilantro, serrano chili, pan toasted macademias, water and salt. Very easy and incredibly delicious. We used Yellow Fins for the potato only version, which produced a much denser cake.

I have to admit, I completely missed the making of these wonderful rice crepes filled with marinated tofu and vegetables:

My cooking buddy C tells me they were made with tapioca flour, rice flour, soaked white rice (8 hrs), minced scallion and coconut milk. Perhaps one of our classmates would care to post/email me the details? They were totally amazing and filled with marinated tofu and vegetables:

We also enjoyed a summer vegetable yellow curry:

and Indian-spiced stuffed okra with caramelized onions:

Stuffed broccoli leaf rolls filled with either broken up tempeh or walnuts with cooked brown rice, shiitake mushrooms and fermented black beans, wrapped like dolmas with a spicy lemongrass tomato chutney:

And several variants of this melon, tomato, and endive salad with a coconut-methi (fenugreek) vinaigrette ( with radish, with purslane, or with mint)

I regret that I missed photographing dessert: a peach flan (one version with pureed corn) with either rose geranium ice cream (one of my all time favs) or sungold tomato ice cream with basil syrup swirls.

This class had a particularly wonderful group of cooking students, who all adapted quickly to the format and were keen to learn and get their hands dirty. Many thanks to Thomas and Veronica for their assistance, to Ann for her encouragement, and to Eric for sharing his expertise.

This was my 12th cooking class at Millennium. Here are links to previous Millennium cooking class write-ups:

Roasted Red Pepper & Cilantro Soup

Farmers Market Finds: Pizza Mista & Pretty Peppers

2009-07-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

After a high-stress root canal in San Rafael yesterday morning, I was elated to decompress by strolling around the Thursday morning Farmers Market. In addition to this delicious petso mozzarella "pizza mista" with colorful heirlom tomatoes and kalamata olives, I found sugar plums, pea shoot pesto, lemon cucumbers and these attractive multi-color sweet peppers:

Vegan Pizza: Squash Blossom, Cashew Cream & Pea Greens

2009-07-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome visit to the San Rafael Farmers Market today at the Civic Center. I got lots of wonderful ingredients: pea greens, squash blossoms, heirloom tomatoes, vegan tofu products. It was a really exciting visit and my first in many months.

This awesome vegan pizza just goes to show you really don't need cheese to make an incredible and indulgent pizza. I used Il Fornaio pizza dough fresh from the restaurant and topped it with a cashew cream-jalapeno sauce. On top of this I added very quickly sauted yellow globe zucchini and squash blossoms, sauted with olive oil, salt and a little lemon juice. I let the olive-oil brushed pizza crust bake at 450 for 7 minutes, then topped it with a cashew cream sauce, cooked with garlic, chopped jalapeno, salt, white wine and nutritional yeast. I topped that with the zucchini and squash blossoms and cooked an additional 5 minutes. Removed from the stove and topped with a super light pea green pesto (pea green leaves, olive oil, and salt pureed in a mini prep).

The result was creamy, fulfilling and a wonderful blend of fresh flavors.It also captured the wonderful crunchy sweetness of the squash blossoms. The pea green puree added a wonderful freshness - don't think of skipping this.
I think this is my best vegan pizza to date.

New to Me: Mango Nectarines

2009-07-07T18:03:00.001-07:00

When I found these Mango Nectarines at the store, I thought I'd discovered a new cross-fruit. But actually, they are a nectarine variety, and a voluptuous mouthful that really tastes like mango. The Mango Nectarine is a cross between two pale nectarines by Craig Ito of Ito Packing.

The mango nectarines have a short season: July-August. Keep your eyes open for these! Apparently, there is also a honeydew nectarine variety, which I would love to try. If any Marin locals know where I can find them, please leave a comment!

I found these babies at Paradise Foods in Corte Madera.

For a little more information, check out this NY Times article

Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber Salad

2009-07-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

I was going to add fresh corn, avocado, cheese, herbs, maybe olives to this salad, but I'm so glad I held back.

This salad was simply organic Heirloom tomatoes, English cucumber, red onion, my best olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt (Fleur de Sel) and black pepper. It was perfect.

The two things I'm glad I added:

delicious bread to soak up the leftover juices.

a nice glass of Merlot

Happy Summer!

Roasted Red Pepper, Lentil & Corn Soup

2009-06-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, more roasted red peppers and sweet corn!

This soup is a lighter summer variant of one of my most popular soup recipes, Roasted Red Pepper and Red Lentil Soup.

In this version, I reduced the lentils to 1/2 cup and used two fresh roasted red peppers. I also added chopped cilantro and jalapeno and 2 ears of corn kernels, lightly pan fried with a little oil and lime juice.

Light, delicious, and plenty of vegan protein in this dish. For vegetarians, get a little wicked and grate some sharp cheddar cheese into the soup and bring out the tortilla chips!

Roasted Red Pepper, Lentil & Corn Soup:

1 -1/2 TBS peanut oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 russet potato, peeled and finely diced
1 tsp of ground cumin
generous pinch of cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of ground coriander
salt
2 cups vegetable broth
3 cups of water
1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
2 large roasted red peppers, skinned and seeded
1/2 large jalapeno, deveined and finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 ears of corn kernels
Juice of 1/8 lime wedge
salt to taste
cilantro garnish

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook the onion for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently (avoid browning) . Add the potato, cover, and cook for 4 minutes (stirring to avoid sticking). Add the cumin, cumin seeds, coriander and salt and mix well. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, water, red lentils and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and add the roasted red peppers and jalapeno. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until lentils loose their shape. Add cilantro and cook 1-2 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and puree using an immersion blender.

Using a little oil, pan fry the corn kernels over high heat for 1 minute. Add the corn to the pureed soup.

Return to the heat and add salt to your taste.

Other roasted red pepper soup recipes from Albion Cooks:

Corn, Red Pepper & Potato Soup

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Millennium: Beautiful Appetizers

2009-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Roasted Beets with hazelnuts, thyme, hazelnut oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Cornmeal Fried Summer Squash, spicy Creole remoulade, arugula, roasted corn & leek confit salad. Nothing dull and tasteless about this zucchini dish.

Seared Snap Peas with fermented black bean & ginger, sweet soy.

I love the fact that the Millennium menu has so many small plates, salads and starters - 15 diverse possibilities. And it's so hard not to order the oyster mushrooms every time! I loved the cornmeal fried summer squash. Gotta try this!

Millennium Cooking Class: June 2009

2009-06-23T15:25:00.001-07:00

A beautiful salad lunch plate from Sunday's cooking class at Millennium, the gourmet vegan restaurant in San Francisco, featuring two versions of Seared Butter Bolete Salad with Walnuts & Stone Fruit and Indo Tempeh - Long Bean Salad.

Executive Chef Eric Tucker created an excellent and diverse menu of dishes for the class to prepare last Sunday in the Millennium kitchen, combining the best picks of Saturday's Farmers Market with specific requests.

I loved the coconut and lemongrass coating on the Indo-Tempeh:

The Chinese long beans were seared and dressed with lime juice, shallot, and kaffir lime leaves. Very easy with a wonderful flavor, finding the kaffir lime leaves is the hardest thing about this recipe! We added mango to this version, the other salad had cherry tomatoes.

And now for the magical Butter Bolete mushroom:

It turns blue when you slice it!

A little heat and they turned green then yellow.

A cousin of the porcini, these mushrooms remain firm and were the star feature of a salad with mixed greens, walnuts, walnut oil, mango or nectarine, and a light dash of vinegar (see photo above).

My special request was to make the Edamame Gnocchi with Shiso Aioli that I enjoyed so much at the restaurant. I'd never made gnocchi before so this was a fabulous learning experience for me. The dough is made from 3 large baked potatoes, peeled and put through a ricer, 10 oz of shelled edamame, blanched until cooked through, cooled, then pureed, salt to taste, and 2/3 cup flour. This is kneaded into a soft dough.

Then rolled into 1/2 inch rope, pinched and cut into little butterfly shapes:

Then rolled on a fork, while pressing your thumb into the back, to create the traditional shape and look:

I made a double batch and became quite good and this last step, which was quite tricky at first. Thanks to Thomas for his help on this. We did a test run on a handful, then froze the gnocchi for an hour. We then boiled them gently in salted water until they floated.

For the final dish, the gnocchi are pan fried until blackened with spring onion and julienned snap peas are added to the pan right at the end. The gnocchi are served with shiso aioli and macro shiso leaves: delicious!

English Pea Griddle Cakes made with oats and chickpea flour provided a gluten-free savory cake that tasted like giant fresh pea falafel:

Grilled pizza dough with a variety of fresh toppings with cashew cream - miso cream sauce and a wonderful chevre-like macademia nut cheese:

Big Bean Tagine with Zhug (a Yemenite spice paste with chili, cilantro and cardamom):

I always forget to save room for dessert! This Nectarine Napoleon (the wafers are made of filo with chopped hazelnuts) with a Ginger Pastry Cream made with coconut milk (on top), a lower fat tofu-based caramel cream sauce (on the nectarine) garnished with fruit syrup and thyme and ginger-infused caramel sauce, was spectacular, surprisingly light, and the perfect celebration of nectarine summer days:

Many thanks to Eric, Thomas, Ann and Alison for making this another incredibly tasty learning experience.

This was my 11th cooking class at Millennium and they've all been incredible. See below for links to previous class posts.

Enjoy!

Links to previous Millennium cooking class write-ups:

Corn, Red Pepper & Potato Soup

2009-06-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

This summery soup was a delicious combination of sweet corn, roasted red peppers, potatoes, kale, cilantro and fresh jalapeno. Smoky and fresh with a jalapeno kick!

The inspiration for this soup was, in part, a need to use up extras that were taking up precious refrigerator space. We've been enjoying buttery, sweet corn on the cob, but I bought so much I had a couple of ears left to use. Home-roasted red peppers are now a staple for me and the kale was left over from the raw kale salad (see previous post).

I was also craving comfort food with a kick. I have been slowed down by a broken toe and it's made me grumpy! This soup put a smile back on my face. Enjoy!

Corn, Red Pepper & Potato Soup:
2-3 TBS olive oil
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
5 baby potatoes, diced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 large red pepper, roasted, seeds and skin removed, cut into pieces
1/4 fresh jalapeno, finely diced
1/2 bunch of dinosaur kale, stems removed and cut into 2" strips
2 ears of corn kernels
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
salt

Heat the oil and cook the onion for 5 minutes until starting to soften. Add the minced garlic and diced potatoes and stir well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to avoid sticking. Remove the cover and add the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, then add the red pepper, jalapeno and kale. Cook for 8 minutes and add the corn. Cook 2 minutes, turn off the heat and add the chopped cilantro. Adjust seasoning.

Serve with quesadillas or chips and guacamole.

The addition of black beans would make this soup a meal in itself. If using canned black beans, be sure to rinse them well.

Raw Kale Salad

2009-06-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

I love kale, particularly dinosaur kale, but wouldn't have thought of having it raw in a salad unless I had been inspired to recreate the "I Am Giving" Marinated Kale Salad from Cafe Gratitude, a raw, vegan restaurant. The recipe is in their cookbook, I Am Grateful, and is quite simple and very healthful.

I don't think they use dinosaur kale in their recipe and on first making this dish, some of the kale was a little too bitter for my taste. I'll have to try it with other types of kale and see if it makes a difference. It keeps remarkably well, maintaining its crispness, and 3 days after making it, it is still good and there's none of the original bitterness. I winged it a bit on proportions and my version came out a little too oily to my taste. Beyond eating it straight up, I think adding some sweet raw red peppers and plain tofu would move it beyond a side dish. Also, try stuffing it in a pita with your favorite hummus. Next time, I'll add some sweet, juicy snap peas!

Raw Kale Salad: adapted from I Am Grateful.
2/3 bunch of dinosaur kale, stems removed, cut into small ribbons
5 button mushrooms, sliced and marinated in lemon juice and soy sauce (the original recipe calls for shiitake, but I'm not keen on them)
1/3 julienned carrots
3 inch English cucumber, julienned
sesame seeds to garnish

Marinade:
1/6 cup of olive oil (I used 1/4 cup and thought it was too much)
1/8 cup orange juice
1 TBS soy sauce
1 1/2 TBS rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
salt to taste

Whisk together the marinade ingredients. Combine the kale, carrots, mushrooms and cucumber in a bowl. Toss with the marinade. Serve garnished with sesame seeds.

Roasted Red Pepper & Cilantro Soup

2009-06-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

This soup is the perfect summer appetizer! Simple, fresh ingredients! Delicious both hot and cold, this recipe makes one perfect portion!

1 roasted red pepper, blackened skin scraped off and seeds removed
2 TBS chopped white onion
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1 slice white bread, crust removed, soaked in white wine
dash of extra-virgin olive oil
dash of white wine
sea salt

Puree the roasted red pepper with the white onion and cilantro. Place the fluffy white bread in a little bowl and soak with white wine.

Add the soaked bread to the red pepper mixture. Puree. Add a dash of olive oil and a little white wine to the desired consistency. Puree. Salt to taste. Serve hot or cold. Garnish with cilantro.

Artichoke Pizza & Red Pepper Corn Pizza (vegan)

2009-05-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

I had another fab evening cooking in SF with my friend, C. I met C. at one of my Millennium cooking classes and we have had many a good old time cooking and eating vegan food, both at the classes and outside. Above, C. put together a lovely little appetizer plate of roasted baby beets, roasted red peppers, olives, and sliced baby artichokes cooked with capers, meyer lemon and olive oil.

Due to my bounty of baby artichokes, we made this hearty Artichoke Pizza with a cashew-cream white sauce with garlic, capers, and white wine. The rich sauce was topped with chopped tomatoes, artichokes that were sauteed with lemon olive oil, garlic, white wine, and a light dusting of flour, and julienned basil:

This was the appetite pleaser without the heaviness.

This much lighter pizza was made with a roasted red pepper sauce (2 roasted red peppers, processed with a large spring onion), uncooked corn kernels, chopped tomatoes, and a cashew cream-cilantro sauce (cashew cream, cilantro, olive oil, fresh jalapeno, lemon juice) that was added after cooking:

I loved the fresh tastes of this pizza and it was an excellent light partner to the creamy Artichoke Pizza. The cilantro sauce gave the freshness a nice zip!

I'm thinking maybe red pepper soup for dinner!

Baby Artichokes with Garlic Breadcrumbs

2009-05-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today I was gifted with baby artichokes. The very small baby artichokes are cool because the choke has not yet developed, so there's less waste. This simple vegan recipe combined trimmed artichokes with garlic, lemon, olive oil and white wine with a topping of whole wheat garlic breadcrumbs. For a non-vegan version, some crumbled goat cheese would make an excellent addition.

Baby Artichokes with Garlic Breadcrumbs
5 small baby artichokes
water with lemon juice and salt
2-2.5 TBS olive oil
sea salt (I used fFleur de Sel)
juice of 1/2 meyer lemon
4 small cloves garlic, minced
3 TBS white wine (I used Pinot Grigio)
1 slice whole wheat bread, crust removed

First trim the artichokes: remove the outer bottom leaves, remove the stalk and cut off the top 1/2" of leaves. Remove any lower leaf tips with kitchen scissors. Cut artichokes into quarters lengthwise. Place the cut artichokes immediately into a saucepan with cold water with lemon juice (to avoid discoloration) and salt. Place saucepan on the stove and bring water to a boil. Boil until artichokes are just tender (about 5 minutes). Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Heat 1-2 TBS olive oil in a saute pan and cook 2 small minced garlic cloves with a pinch of sea salt until just starting to brown. Add the drained artichokes and saute quickly over medium hot heat for a couple of minutes. Add the white wine and cook until evaporated. Remove from heat and toss with lemon juice and another pinch of salt. Place in an oven proof dish.

Turn on the broiler.
Break the bread into small pieces and process along with two small garlic cloves to fine breadcrumbs. Heat a little olive oil in a saute pan and toast the breadcrumbs until light brown.

Top the artichokes with breadcrumbs (add crumbled goat cheese at this point, if using). Place on lower shelf of oven and broil until lightly browned.

Serve immediately!

Caesar Potato Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

2009-05-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

This recipe for a Caesar Potato Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Radish comes from the June issue of Bon Appetit. I was inspired by the colorful photograph of this salad and the fact that I would never have come up with this recipe by myself.

Steamed small potatoes, snap peas and raw radish with a little red onion are dressed with a mustard-lemon juice vinaigrette. The recipe says to blend grated Parmesan into the dressing, but I added it afterwards with grainy sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The potatoes (I used baby red potatoes and little Yukon creamers) are cut into 1/2 inch slices, then steamed for about 10 minutes. They came out absolutely perfectly! I can't wait to try my beloved recipe for French Potato Salad with White Wine with pre-cut, steamed potatoes.

I think this recipe would be an original crowd pleaser for a Memorial Day party! Check it out!

the girl & the fig

2009-05-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

For the last day of university friend A's visit, we took the short drive to Sonoma to have lunch at the girl & the fig in the Sonoma Hotel, right on the corner of the main square.

The restaurant was small and packed when we arrived for a late brunch. We liked the brown paper table covers, stamped with the restaurant's name, that covered the tablecloths, the green fabric-covered bench seating and all the natural light from the windows, but we found the artwork distracted from the quaintness, both in style and quantity.

We both started with the soup de jour, a mild and delicious parsnip soup made with roasted parsnips and onions, garnished with green garlic olive oil and chive flowers:

I followed with the pea pancakes, served with shaved carrots and an amazing carrot-ginger beurre blanc:

The pancakes were packed with fresh peas and the this dish had a wonderful spring freshness to it, both in taste and presentation. I thought it was really unique and inventive and look forward to trying my hand at the beurre blanc!

We had an exceptional meal here and well worth a drive to Sonoma. I look forward to trying their food again.

We took a stroll around the main square and happily noted a chocolate tasting sign. We discovered Wine Country Chocolates, where we tasted both apricot and cabernet ganache. We couldn't resist a small and pretty selection that included The Elvis (peanut butter), Green Tea with Lemon Honey, and Orange Grand Marnier:

Millennium-O-Rama

2009-05-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

Millennium is my favorite restaurant.
Executive Chef Eric Tucker is both a great teacher of vegan cooking skills and also the mastermind behind the most sublime vegan dishes, their complex flavors are hard to describe.

Last night, I took my dear friend A. to Millennium. A. is a friend from my university days, visiting California from England for the first time. She's not a vegetarian, and self-describes as a gal who likes a nice steak. She was blown away by the satisfying vegan food. And, honestly, so was I. Seems like everytime I go to Millennium, the food just keeps getting more amazing.

We sat at the bar, which was a great experience, thanks to the very friendly and well-informed bartenders, Kyle and Leo. Kyle recommended the excellent McDowell Valley Grenache. A. looked up Millennium in her Time Out San Francisco and they were described as having one of the best organic Wine Lists in the U.S.

Above, Tempura Snow Peas & Spring Onion with cucumber and citrus ponzu sauce from the fixed-price menu - fresh, light, and the sauce was perfection.

Below, slightly blurry version of the Indian Spiced Red Belgian Endive & Avocado Salad with chiogga beet, mint, cilantro, grapefruit with a rhubarb & cucumber chutney and a creamy coconut-curry leaf vinaigrette. I'm not an endive fan, but this was amazing - gotta get that chutney in every mouthfull:

Green Garlic Risotto Cakes with wilted mustard greens, grilled oyster mushrooms, green olive vinaigrette and crisp fried fava beans:

The eternal deep fried oyster mushrooms:

Wicked Potato & Butter Bean Enchiladas with ranchero sauce, corn tortillas, morel mushrooms, smoked onion & pasilla negro cream with a strawberry-cabbage slaw (this was such an incredible dish, again from the Fixed Price Menu I'll be petitioning to make this in a future class):

A delicious Indian flavored dish of Teff Crepes with an asparagus and lemon tofu filling, ginger & mustard seed coconut cream, South Indian red lentil dal (perfect!) and agretti:

Housemade Fazzoletti with English pea and caramelized onion filling, roasted fennel and fiddlehead ferns, maitake and King trumpet mushroom sugo, meyer lemon "cream", pinenut gremolata and truffle oil:

Aren't you just amazed by the menu descriptions of these dishes? These dishes are creative and complex and an experience to eat.

A. ended with an a drink, aptly described as Nocturne, organic vodka, espresso, chocoate ganache, chilled straight up:

Enjoy!

It's fun to Eat at Millennium too!

2009-04-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

While it's fun to learn how to cook great vegan food at Millennium, it's also a great place to dine. I have to tell you, I've enjoyed two great meals there since my Sunday cooking class and I already have a reservation for next week!

These photos are from an early dinner. Above the delicious gold dusted frites with smoky ketchup. Below, flatbread with "gorgonzola" cashew cream, black olives, chile and oregano with radicchio salad:

And the glorious Edamame Gnocchi with seared snap peas, spring onions, shiso aioli, Sencha tea and sesame salt.

This is such an incredible dish, I think we have to learn how to make this in an upcoming Millennium cooking class! Although I don't have photos, I also enjoyed:

Seared Brassicas with a smoky almond romesco
Sesame Crusted Oyster Mushrooms
Fava Beans with macedona almonds
Housemade pickled vegetables
Miso broth with soba noodles and marinated tofu

Millennium Spring Cooking Class 2009

2009-04-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, I enjoyed my 10th Vegan cooking class at Millennium (see links to the last nine at the bottom of this post). Taught by the incredibly knowledgeable Executive Chef Eric Tucker, 10 students spend a good part of the day in the Millennium kitchen, learning about vegan ingredients and creating a host of vegan gourmet dishes!

This class had a lot of great technical information and I was glad I took my camera into the kitchen with me and took a few production shots.

We made dessert first and made two wonderful variations of a Coconut Cardamom Cake with a sticky topping (agar flakes and syrup made it sticky) of pine nuts with either dried fruit or kumquats with spices. We had this with a Coconut Vanilla Cream made with coconut milk and palm shortening, agar, and kuzu. Both were rich, indulgent, and delicious, but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the desserts.

For lunch, we made two variations of a Green Garlic and Spinach Tart: one used cashew cream and one tofu "cheese". Like many ,eggs often come to mind when I think of Spring recipes, so I was psyched to learn how to make the tofu cheese version which made a tasty and moist tart, with seasonal green garlic and spinach and a scrumptious dough crust that was pressed directly into the tart pan.

The tofu cheese, a combination of tofu, soy yogurt, EVOO, nutritional yeast and lemon zest, made an awesome vegan "quiche":

I also had the opportunity to make the Indian spiced tomato sauce which was served with this: a combination of spices, chaat and tomato paste. I've included the recipe at the bottom of this post - a great little sauce that would be a welcome additional to many recipes.
The other group made these crumbly shortcrust pancake versions of the tart:

This was a "fix" as the dough was overworked and the fat melted creating a crumbly texture. One of the great things about the classes is that if something goes wrong, Eric always has a winning and tasty "fix".
We lunched on the tart, pancakes and a delicious simple salad with tahini dressing:

After lunch, it was back to the kitchen to make this elegant Potato and Fava Bean Terrine with Mustard Aioli:

Basically, a delicious potato salad, made beautiful by using the classic technique of wrapping the salad in blanched leek leaves, which were "molded" to the terrine pan with plastic wrap:

Here Eric demos how to cut and plate the terrine:

We also made this amazing Mushroom Tofu Chowan Mushi on toasted bread:

These were such a wonderful combination of smooth tofu, sauteed mushrooms on crunchy toast. A selection of mushrooms (including black chanterelles and morrels) were sauteed with sesame oil, ginger and tamari. They were placed in the bottom of flexible molds and topped with a blend of tofu, arrowroot, miso and mushroom ginger stock, thickened with agar flakes to make a custard, then baked:

The molds were inverted onto toasted bread and topped with curly watercress (providing a nice snap):

Then finally topped with sauteed oyster mushrooms with a healthy dose of garlic:

These were a little more labor intensive, but so worth it and definitely something I would consider making for a party (now I've taken the class and know what to do!)

Incredible baby artichokes braised with white wine, tomatoes, garlic and fresh herbs - we ate these with our fingers!

And finally Artichoke with Puntarella and Tempeh Sausage:

Puntarella was a new ingredient to me:

A chicory, it is also known as Italian dandelion. It has long pointy greens and small fennel-like bulbs which were sauteed and added to a delicious smoky tempeh sausage:

With the braised artichokes and finished in the pan under the broiler, this was a hearty and delicious dish.

If you like hands-on cooking and want to learn about vegan techniques, I really can't say enough good things about Millennium's cooking classes. I've really learned a lot and you don't have to be a vegan to appreciate the classes or the delicious food served at the restaurant (more on this very soon!)

OK. This post is long enough. Without further ado, here's the recipe for the Indian spiced tomato sauce:

Indian Spiced Tomato Sauce:
1/2 white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, whole
vegetable oil
1 TBS whole cumin seeds
1 TBS Indian Chaat
2-3 TBS tomato paste
1TBS balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable stock, to create a ketchup consistency
salt to taste

Heat the oil and slowly char the onion and garlic. Add the cumin and chaat and cook to infuse flavor. Add tomato paste and combine well. Add enough vegetable stock and cook to a ketchup consistency.

Links to previous Millennium cooking class write-ups: