October CSA Ideas

I don’t have a recipe to post this week, but wanted to share some ideas for CSA cooking. My full Potter Hill Farm share this week included tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, husk cherries, shishitos, turnips, lettuce, chard, perpetual spinach, and mustard greens.

Got tomatoes? Red and green? The recipe booklet at the bottom of this post has an excellent tomato and chickpea curry with coconut milk (plus many other great ideas for tomatoes). Roasted tomato and eggplant soup is a dream, even if the color makes you think otherwise. I’ve been eyeing these fried green tomatoes, mostly because the sauce looks incredible (and every sauce needs a vehicle!). Charred green tomato salsa is also an excellent option.

Greens on your mind? I have big plans to make this spanakopita pie with my wealth of greens (I always use couscous, and it soaks up the extra liquid perfectly). Bok choy rice bowls are so easy and flavorful.

Root vegetables have your heart? This roasted carrot and farro salad is excellent as is, or with other root veg mixed in. Celeriac and apple slaw is refreshing and crunchy – a perfect side with roasted chicken or grilled pork chops.

What fall delicacies are you cooking?

CSA Meal Ideas

I’m enjoying the woods in NH so I am skipping my CSA this week, but I wanted to pass along some ideas anyways. Last week the share had arugula, kale, rainbow tatsoi, purple kohlrabi, bok choi, salad turnips, and French breakfast radishes, so this week will probably have similar offerings (this photo is from a June CSA share last year, so it doesn’t match exactly – arugula, radishes, kale, yokatta na, lettuce, and perpetual spinach).

Arugula is my favorite sandwich green, and it also makes an excellent light salad. Just toss it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and use it to balance something really rich, like a slice of quiche or pizza (in fact, I would put the salad right on top of the pizza). It also basically disappears if you stir it into pasta, either by itself or as a pesto.

This could easily be an all kale all the time blog, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Kale, potatoes, and eggs topped with hot sauce is my dream breakfast, but I’ll also take a great kale salad any day. Kale also makes a great pesto, but I would sub the roasted cauliflower for a grilled vegetable.

Let’s talk about greens. I use most of them interchangeably, so don’t feel like an Asian green can’t be cooked in an Italian dish (or vice versa!). The greens that top your radishes and turnips should also be eaten, and they last best if removed from their taproot right when you get home. Chicken meatballs filled with greens are great for green lovers and haters alike (though right now I’m feeling more of a yogurt sauce with those than the tahini sauce). Basic rice bowls always hit the spot and are a flash to throw together.

Radishes and turnips are perfect as is sliced on top of salads with a simple vinaigrette, or you could gussy your salad up and make fattoush. They are also perfect wherever you are looking for a nice, fresh crunch, like thinly sliced to top some tacos or a grilled piece of fish.

What have you made with your first CSA veg?

Cooking Through Corona

In this very bizarre time when it is essentially my job to stay at home and interact with others as little as possible, I am so glad that cooking is my main hobby. Besides literally powering my household, it gives me a concrete thing to do every day that doesn’t involve a screen. Meals can be as creative and complicated, or utilitarian as I’m in the mood for cooking (which I’m not always, so then there’s always an opportunity to eat Five Guys sitting in the backseat of my own car in a parking lot – a real quarantine happening). I’m also extremely grateful that I am quarantined in my own apartment, with all of my beloved implements and pantry items.

After doing this for a month now there are some definitely patterns emerging and things I’ve realized:

Cooking what I know brings me comfort. That’s not to say I haven’t been trying new recipes, but I have been relying a lot on old favorites I know I’ll have the pantry ingredients for. When I’m trying new recipes its from cookbooks I’ve used before from cuisines I’m familiar with, so I’m not trying to source a lot of new spices.

Ordering food online is a small joy. In the past I’ve been reluctant to order food online, so if I haven’t been able to find something in a store I’ve just gone without. With “online” becoming the most accessible version of most things now, that barrier doesn’t exist in my head anymore, so it has been fun to order a specialty products I’ve been eyeing (like yuzu kosho, dried chilis, heirloom dried beans, and fancy-ass pasta).

I used to grocery shop way too much. I love meal planning. I love grocery shopping. In normal times I would do both weekly – flipping through cookbooks, bookmarking recipes from Instagram, or getting recommendations from my mom to build a meal plan and making a huge list to fill it. I might do this without fully regarding what was in my fridge, or leaving open nights to improvise with what I have. I’d even suggested we should get a smaller fridge so I would be forced to pare down. I was also in the habit of putting things in the freezer but rarely using things from the freezer, causing for 80% of it to be full of mysteries and only the front 20% items actually getting used in a reasonable time (mostly stock, bread, and tomato paste). Now without other options I’ve actually used a ton of stuff from the freezer (The too-salty ramen broth I made! 3/4 of a pork butt! That random bread!) so I can easily find things AND fit new things in (WHO AM I?). The fridge is a similar situation, with there always being food but never to the point where I am wasting food because we just have too much.

There are many food experiences I am eager to have again: a leisurely shopping trip that includes a stop at the cheese counter, impulse purchases, and maybe a wine tasting, a cookbook club dinner party, eating in an environment that is not my own apartments. But maybe there are also some changes to my buying, cooking, and eating that will stick.

Photo at top is a Caesar salad with my favorite dressing, spicy chicken thighs seasoned with chili powder, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika, and croutons made from leftover foccacia.

Truly Great Vegetarian Sandwiches

Today I went to an event for work that included a catered lunch. It was a classic sandwich spread: turkey with lettuce and tomato on a sub roll, ham and cheese on swirled rye, a vegetable wrap, salad, chips, and cookies. I took a half of each the turkey and the vegetable wrap. The turkey sandwich was an assemblage of things that were in function a sandwich, but the individual ingredients were indistinguishable and mostly devoid of flavor.

I had higher hopes for the wrap, which turned out to be a swipe of hummus, a piece of lettuce, and then just a mass of shredded carrots studded with sliced black olives and red onion (far more olives than onions…so many olives). While I can say there was at least texture from the carrots, it struck me as exactly the vegetarian sandwich that a person who has never in their life eaten a vegetarian sandwich would make: Just put a bunch of vegetables in it! And hummus for protein! Vegetarians love hummus!!!

This is not 1998, and we have so many more interesting an innovative meatless sandwiches to entertain our taste buds. Here are a few of my favorites:

This beet and sweet potato sandwich with feta (pictured at top) has raw vegetables that are pickled, cooked vegetables, herbs, and salty feta which make for a riot of flavors and textures (that post also has tons of tips for building vegetarian sandwiches).

If we’re going to talk about the recipe I’ve made the most times in the past two years, it just might be this tofu shawarma. Taking tofu, squeezing it dry, and then crumbling, spicing, and roasting it was a revelation to me. The small irregular pieces leave a ton of surface area for crisping. The warmly spiced tofu with a creamy, garlicky yogurt sauce in warm pita with crisp vegetables is the dream I wish for every time I fall asleep.  I often add in some other spices like turmeric or cumin, and serve it with whatever fresh and pickled vegetables I have around.

It is impossible to go wrong with burritos, and these burritos with black bean spread are a flash to put together (which I just use canned beans for).

I’m not actually against hummus wraps. Sure they are not the most interesting, but they do serve a great need of vegan, healthy, easily transported food (as you can see). But I like a mix of raw/cooked/and pickled vegetables, and another sauce for some punch (like pesto!). Sprouts make a great addition too.

If you’re not into hummus or just looking for something different, make these wraps with turmeric tahini sauce which have a great variety of ingredients, plus a zippy sauce to pull it all together.

Do you have a favorite vegetarian sandwich? Or another terrible vegetarian sandwich experience to share? Do tell!

 

Date Night Menu for Anytime

Five years ago yesterday, I was on my way home from my fifth date with Will. We had gone to see a free movie screened at a local college, and I kissed him for the first time on top of a parking garage (I know, I am great at romance). During the drive I asked him when he wanted to get together next:

Will: “How about Friday?”

Me: “…..Isn’t that Valentine’s day?”

Will: “Yeah. Who else would I spend it with?”

I’ve never had any particular affinity with this weird Hallmark holiday, but I assumed anyone on their fifth date would be wary of spending a sixth on a high pressure holiday in a forced romantic environment with someone they weren’t sure about yet. But I was wrong. Thankfully, we both had the same vision for a great Valentine’s Day: dinner at home. We could be exactly as romantic (or awkward) as we wanted to be, and not have some terrible and expensive prix fixe meal.

And thus, our first Valentine’s Day together was also the first time I cooked Will dinner. We’ve done something similar every year since. No cards, jewelry, or boxes of chocolate. Just an excuse to enjoy a great dinner at home and each other’s company.

This is the menu I made for that Valentine’s Day. Just to be clear, I don’t make crackers for our date nights regularly (I guess I was just feeling extra that first time). That first year I tasked Will with bringing a bottle of white wine and dessert. I don’t repeat the same menu every year, but I usually make something a little special or different. One year it was steak frites, and this year I’m going to make either these cumin lamb chops of Korean-style fire chicken. Let’s reclaim Valentine’s Day as an excuse to have a great date night in. And if it doesn’t work for you to celebrate this week, there are 51 others in a year so take your pick!

Appetizer:

• Crackers with goat cheese and tomato jam
• Grapefruit and gin cocktails (I leave out the Aperol)

Dinner:

• Chicken Piccata and rice pilaf (both from I’m Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown)
• Kale salad (there is some debate over this and I can’t remember what I made, but Will’s insists I made a kale salad….which would be very like me)
• Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling

Dessert

• 1 slice of chocolate cake and a chocolate bar (both purchased from Wegmans)
• Rock Art Russian Imperial Stout (we still have the bottle from this, which is pictured at the top)

A Strong Opinion on Nachos

There is a plague upon our nation. It has infected restaurants and homes coast to coast. People, everywhere, are eating terrible nachos. The start with a base of vibrantly tri-colored chips that are red, black, and white, which are always under-salted and have more in common with cardboard than corn. The chip base is piled high and then topped with huge handfuls of shredded cheese, as if the chips are a fire the cheese is trying to smother, so the majority of the chips are cheese-less and then a select few are drenched. Sliced black olives, which always taste reminiscent of the can they came from, are strewn about and cemented to the cheese, so they are impossible to extricate. There may be some protein, like a cup of chili or shredded meat dumped on top. Tiny cups of salsa, sour cream and guacamole are served alongside (or worse, dolloped on top where they create soggy sections and are hard to evenly distribute), but are never in appropriate proportion to the nachos.

Why do we live like this?????????? The concept of nachos is so simple. Perfect, even. Crunchy chips, melted cheese, flavorful toppings. Mix and match sides that can add heat, spice, and more flavor. Infinitely customizable and perfect for crowds.

WE CAN DO BETTER. I am not of the opinion that nachos require a recipe, but following some basic principles can ensure you make great nachos no matter what toppings you choose.

It all starts with cheese: Monterey jack, pepperjack, and mild cheddar are all nice, mild, and melty cheeses. I am not into making cheese sauce for nachos because that’s a big step for a dish I prefer to make out of leftovers, but you could do that too.

Add some heft. Black or pinto beans, beef, chicken, carnitas, and chorizo are all excellent protein options (or go for a combination like chicken and beans). Whatever it is should be precooked and chopped small. This is an excellent time to use something leftover from another meal.  If necessary you could leave protein off, but this is one of the components that really takes nachos from good to great.

Be bright. Have you watched Salt Fat Acid Heat yet? Samin tells us that all foods need to be balanced by an acidic component and she is right. All of that heavy cheese, protein, and chips can fall flat without it. My favorite additions are pickled jalapenos and pickled onions. Canned green chilis could work in a pinch too.

Contrast is good: Crunchy shredded lettuce or cabbage are great additions after cooking. Chopped cilantro is also welcome.

Plain, not mountain. Mountains make it very difficult to get an even distribution of toppings on all chips. Lay this chips in a single, flat layer so they are just slightly overlapping. Two layers of chips if you really must, but there better be cheese in between.

Wet equity. Everyone deserves to top their nachos with exactly the wet toppings they desire. Serve salsa (various heat levels if you can), guacamole, and sour cream or Greek yogurt on the side with spoons. That way the chips don’t get soggy, and all eaters can apply their perfect topping ratio to their own chips.

The nachos pictured above were made with shredded cheddar and leftover carnitas. When they came out of the oven I topped them with chopped pickled onions, pickled cabbage, and cilantro. Salsa, guacamole, and sour cream were on the side. All of the toppings I used were taco leftovers, just add chips and cheese.

 

 

Call me crazy, but I planned the food for my own wedding: what we actually did (Part 2)

(The first post in this series is here.)

When planning a wedding, it is important to accept that your initial vision might not completely pan out. I planned my ideal menu, but taking into account the amount of time, help, and space we had, I realized that I couldn’t execute roasting chickens for 90 people.

When discussing what we would do for our rehearsal dinner, we explored ordering BBQ from a nationally renowned smokehouse that happens to be about 20 minutes from where we live.  Their half pans of brisket, pulled pork, and smoked chicken feed 30-40 people apiece and cost $100-150 each.  So we started thinking about that for the wedding instead of the rehearsal. That would be $365 for the main dish for 90 people. BBQ sides would be easy. I have a standard set of favorite side (many I cooked here) and by nature they are easy to make in bulk and stand up to sitting out.

While my initial plan for appetizers was just meat, cheese, and pickles, my mom volunteered to make a bunch of our favorite dips to include as well. I asked all three of my aunts to make desserts, and planned to make the cake myself.

We revised our menu to look like this:

Appetizers:

• Salamis from Short Creek Farm (6)
• Various cheeses from Wegmans and Costco (cheddar, brie, bleu)
• Smoked salmon dip (Mom)
• Charred onion dip (Mom)
• Hummus (traditional) (Mom)
• Hummus (Sweet and tangy – my favorite) (Mom)
• Roasted eggplant caponata (Mom)
• Marinated ciliegine (Mom)
• Bits and pieces party cheese ball (Mom)
• Hot pepper labne (from Soframiz)
• Bread from Birchtree

Dinner

• Pulled pork (from BTs)
• Brisket (from BTs)
• Smoked chicken (from BTs)
• Cornbread (2 orders – 90 pieces)
• Marinated green beans (Mom)
• Coleslaw (me)
• Baked beans (without the bacon, so it could be a vegetarian main) (me)
• Mustard potato salad (Mom)

Desserts

• Coconut cake (me)
• Peanut butter balls (Auntie Judi)
• Black Russian Cake (Auntie Judi)
• Anise ring (Aunt Sandi)
• Nut tarts (Aunty Ann)
• Lemon bars (Aunty Ann)
• Seven layer bars (Aunty Ann)
• Forgotton meringues (Aunty Ann)
• Mrs. Buerschaper’s molasses crinkles (Aunty Ann)
• Gluten-free brownies (Aunty Ann)

Drinks

• White wine
• Red wine
• Champagne
• 3cross Ronde apricot blonde
• Cold Harbor Indian Summer
• Season of Love Saison (a beer we made at Incredibrew in Nashua, NH)
• Basil lemonade
• Water

While the names listed after the recipes were the main orchestraters, there were still a lot of other hands moving behind the scenes. My mom planned, tested, shopped for, and executed all the dishes she made, as well as helped me source and organize all of the serving pieces. My mom’s boyfriend, Ken, juiced 80 lemons for the basil lemonade, rolled up all the silverware in napkins, and prepped all of the cheese and salami for the apps.

Will’s parents, Helen and Dave, were with us in the kitchen for the 2 days before the wedding scrubbing 30 lbs of potatoes, trimming 10 lbs of green beans, chopping up peppers and celery to go with dips, getting everyone lunch while we were setting up, running out for forgotten ingredients (how could I forget the Vermont maple syrup?????), and picking up the BBQ. My aunts from both sides of my family, Judi, Sandi, and Ann, made all of the desserts, but also brought the dishes to serve them on and set them up.

(And just to be clear, this is only a list of who helped with food-related tasks. Many other family members and friends helped us sourcing, lending, and setting up speakers, chairs, tables, flowers, lights, etc.)

We did the majority of the shopping on Wednesday, the meal prep on Thursday and Friday, and then all that was left for Saturday was to frost the cake, pick up the BBQ and keep it warm, and set out all of the sides (which I hired catering staff to do). That’s enough on the menu for now, but in my next posts I’ll talk about quantities we actually made, the timeline for all of these dishes, cost breakdown, and what I would change if I did it all again (not much, but you always learn something!).

Photo by Dean Cerrati.

CSA Cooking

We’re about six weeks into the Potter Hill CSA and I wanted to check in on my fellow CSA members (and members of other CSAs elsewhere!). How are you using up your bounty each week? We’ve just entered my favorite month: August 15-September 15. (Yes, I’ve defined my own month.) Summer produce is still coming in hot, fall produce starts creeping in, and the days cool off a bit. This week I received tomatoes, zucchini, celery, Swiss chard, bok choy, lemon basil, parsley, beets, and 2 heads of baby lettuce.

I slow roasted some tomatoes (2 hours at 275F) for this gorgonzola lentil salad, which also used some red onion leftover from last week and parsley from this week. Tomatoes and lettuce went into this barbecue chicken salad (pictured above), which I made with my standard bleu cheese dressing instead of the goat cheese ranch because I had extra gorgonzola from the lentil salad to use up. I’m going to use the lemon basil on top of urad dal instead of the cilantro. The fate of the zucchini is either zucchini carbonara or succotash (or maybe I’ll buy more and make both!!). Last time we got celery I made my favorite stir fry, and I’ll probably just make it again because I think it is celery’s highest calling (and it is so far superior with intensely vegetal farm celery than it is with watery supermarket celery). The beets are destined for a labneh dip from Dinner. And the greens are obviously going into another round of greens with eggs, garlic yogurt, and chili butter because how could I not?!

Don’t forget all of my weekly CSA recipes are under the Potter Hill tag.

Done is better than perfect

Sunday night I was surrounded by cookbooks, making a list of all the dishes I HAVE to cook this month. It is peak harvest in New England, and every year at this time I constantly feel like I am missing opportunities to eat the best, freshest produce in the all ways I’ve been dreaming of since December. Everything I love ripens at once – raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, nectarines, peaches, plums, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, green beans, greens, and every herb you can imagine.

I’ve joked before about taking the month off just to cook and eat, but this year I took real action and took a day off from work later this month with no plans other than to cook. But I can’t take every day off (and also, I like my job), so I’ve also tried to be more realistic about what I can accomplish on a weeknight.

This is surely not a new revelation. But I am an obsessive cook who takes immense pride in making things from scratch. When I have people over for tacos, I make the tortillas. I went on a camping trip and fried Scotch eggs to bring with us. This is not meant to be boastful, but just to help you to understand the level of crazy I generally operate on. There are many nights when I’ve taken on more than I can chew, and I stare at the mess of an unfinished cooking project around me at 10pm and wonder “HOW DID I GET HERE?”

So when I see a recipe with three sub-recipes like these pambazos, I see myself making enchilada sauce, refried beans, and pickled onions, and THEN frying eggplant to make the sandwiches. I do have some idea of my capacity for cooking projects on a weeknight, so I think I will have to wait for a Sunday. But then there are only four measly Sundays in August, and way more than four elaborate meals I want to cook. Which means that this will get pushed on to my list for next year, when the same thing will happen again, and then five years from now I will finally make this sandwich and wonder “How did it take me so long to do this????????”

But no. Instead, I looked at this recipe, and added refried beans and enchilada sauce to the shopping list. I pickled the onions last night while I was waiting for Will to get home from the grocery store with ingredients I needed to finish yesterday’s dinner. I relaxed after work by sitting in the AC, writing, and drinking a Miller High Life. Then I meandered into the kitchen around 6:00pm, fried up the eggplant, snacked on a few pieces as I made them, and put together these beast sandwiches that hold everything I love between two slices of bread and then are coated with enchilada sauce. Would this sandwich have been better if I had made the refried beans and enchilada sauce myself? Maybe. But as they say, a sandwich in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or something like that.

Vegan Favorites

After last month’s vegan puddle debacle, I felt that vegan food needed to be redeemed. Despite what my disappointing soup suggested, vegan food should not be bland and boring. It should be a celebration of flavors and textures in the most nourishing way. To remind myself how great vegan food can be, I returned to some old favorites and tried out a few new ones that have become fast favorites.

Curried Lentils with Coconut Milk – When made with red lentils this becomes much looser than the curry shown made with brown lentils, but it is no less delightful. The coconut milk makes for a rich dish that is heavily flavored (but not overpowered) with cumin, coriander, and turmeric. I like to serve this with some roasted or sauteed veg to mix in as well and give a bit more texture to the dish, like cauliflower or cabbage. The curry and a veg can be made in the time it takes you to make brown rice, so dinner is on the table in 45 minutes. (I’ve been cooking through Small Victories bit by bit and I am liking it so far. Julia’s lasagna is a revelation.)

Goodness Wrap – This is everything I look for in a vegan wrap: various textures, the bright acidity of a pickle, and a sauce to tie it all together. I made this in the same week that I made the curried lentils and just made some extra rice to include, but honestly I didn’t feel it added that much to the wrap. I also added in some chickpeas for extra heft, which felt necessary to power more active bodies. These were so, so good.

Thai Chopped Salad with Tofu – This salad is the most refreshing thing to eat a lunch on a hot day. The crunchy veg and slightly sour dressing are spot on, and the tofu marinade with curry paste is so flavorful you might forget you’re eating tofu.

Thai-ish Cauliflower Rice Salad – Sprouted Kitchen again with a wonderful mix of colorful vegetables in a Thai slaw. The cauliflower rice was a bit weird to me, and didn’t go with the texture of the rest of the dish (it just coated the other things in mush). Next time I would just roast the cauliflower to include, as there will definitely be a next time. I made the same roasted tofu as in the salad above to bulk it up and the flavors went really well together. The crunchy vegetables were nicely coated in the peanut sauce. This is definitely an indulgent dish as it calls for a lot of ingredients that are not always easily found, but so worth the time.

Summer rolls with peanut sauce (pictured at top) – Now seems like a good time to remind everyone that peanut sauce freezes super well so you make make a big batch on a colder day and then have it at the ready for those nights when turning on the oven would be torture. I just picked up some brown rice wrappers at Whole Foods that I am pumped to try with rolls this summer.  I use any mixture of chopped raw veg (collard, kale, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, beets, summer squash, etc, etc), herbs (mint, cilantro), and leftover protein in my rolls on hot nights to make the best cold dinner.

A story of three failures

I

A few weeks ago I made spinach pasta on a Sunday night. It wasn’t a particularly complicated recipe, but it involved cooking the spinach, straining and chopping it, then adding it to the dough as you made it, resting the dough, rolling it out, and cooking it. Since that didn’t seem like a particularly hard project (many parts, but none difficult), I was also prepping a few other things for the week ahead.

But the evening got away from me, and by the time I was actually cooking the pasta it was much later than I expected (almost 9pm). Since fresh pasta is often promised to be a transcendent and simple meal, I hadn’t planned to dress it with more than some butter, olive oil, and Parmeggiano Reggiano. I tasted some from the pan and was instantly disappointed by the blandness. Where was my transcendent simplicity????????????

This failure exacerbated stresses that were building for the work-week, and led to me sobbing over my terrible pasta that I had put so much effort into. (While I was finishing crying, Will excavated some pesto from the freezer and started defrosting it to save my dinner, and therefore wins Husband-of-the-Year one hundred times over.)

II

The next week I wanted to try a simple (catching a theme here?) vegan soup that involved a vibrantly green and thick herb coconut broth, broccoli, snap peas, tofu, and rice. In the cookbook photo the author used black rice noodles, which were incredibly dramatic and contrasted beautifully with the green broth. The photo of this dish makes you feel cleansed and restored just from looking at it. Like you’ve achieved absolute purity and suddenly understand why vegans forego meat and are ready to give it up forever too.

My first failure was in the liquid. A high speed blender was called for to combine the coconut milk, broth, and herbs. I don’t own a $500 blender, and I figured my stick blender could stand in as it usually does for pureed soups. Since the coconut milk/broth/lemongrass mixture is supposed to steep off the stove I tried to use my stick blender directly in the bowl it was cooling in. After a small wave covered my counter, I switched to the food processor. No amount of time processing would yield the thick, uniformly green broth the photo. Instead I was left with a thin broth with flecks of cilantro throughout. Given I wasn’t using the right equipment to start I wasn’t too dissuaded.

The recipe notes said to serve it with rice noodles or rice, and I happened to have black rice! I cooked some up, made my meager broth, and added in the vegetables and tofu. When it was time to serve, the rice went into the bowl, and was topped by the soup. But I had not rinsed the rice thoroughly enough. What had been a passable green broth, was now the color of mud.

I’m not one to judge a meal by its looks. But the photo I had for comparison was just so beautiful, and I was staring down at a puddle. I hoped taste would change my mind, but what I was eating did not live up to my expectations. It was thin, herby, flat, and very……healthy tasting. Like something I should always eat, but would never want to. It tasted like how people who hate vegan food on principle expect vegan food to taste. (I make vegan food on the regular and it can be overwhelmingly delicious, but this was not one of those times.)

III

Last week I knew I had an especially long work-day ahead of me, so I planned a fool-proof and almost effortless meal: tortellini with pesto and roasted asparagus. I was NOT making the pasta this time (it came pre-made from Wegmans). The pesto would be the last from the stash in the freezer that I was reminded about when Will used it to save my previous pasta dinner. The asparagus would go in the oven at 425F with salt, pepper, and olive oil for 15 minutes.

I put the asparagus in the oven and put the water on to boil. I had a double pack of tortellini, but decided to cook both in case we needed extra meals later in the week. This was a total of eight servings of pasta, which is way more than I usually make, but figured it would be useful when I had to work over the weekend.

The water on to boil, and put asparagus went in the oven. I put about the same amount of water in the pot I use for a pound of pasta, and didn’t think twice about it. The tortellini was in two separate but attached packs, and when I put the first in the pot was almost full, but it seemed like more could fit in. Partway through the addition of the second pack the water came dangerously close to the top, and I was in trouble. I took out a measuring cup to remove some of the water, but couldn’t remove enough of it in time. the tortellini threatened to boil over, and I knew the rest couldn’t fit in the pan…but I tried anyways.

Had I never made pasta before? Did I not understand that doubling the amount of pasta you make means you should also double the size or number of vessels you cook them in?

It was too late in the game to criticize myself; I just had to fix the problem. Some water went into the kettle to boil quickly, and I moved some of the pasta into a small pot. The tortellini monster was subdued for the moment. Eventually everything was cooked but somehow not overcooked, and I returned to the glass of wine I had hurtfully ignored.

The asparagus, by the way, was perfect.

IV

At work I teach kids cooking classes. Cooking with children is always an adventure, and often times they are doing something for the first time ever with me as their guide: cracking an egg, using a knife, measuring the flour. I always leave room for error in these situations and tell them this: sometimes when we cook we get delicious food, sometimes delicious food and a lesson, and sometimes just the lesson. But no matter what, you walk away with something.

Recent Cooking and Reading

Hey! How are you? What have you been cooking? April was a whirlwind, and half of the month was spent traveling around England visiting family and friends (more on that soon). Here are a few things I’ve been eating and reading.

Spaghetti Puttanesca (Serious Eats) – This whole year has been a building love affair with Serious Eats. Their recipes are so varied, reliable, and always delicious. This recipe has a quick turnaround, and the finished product has more flavor than it seems possible to produce in such a short period of time. I suppose putting capers, olives, anchovies, and garlic in a dish will do that. Even if one of those ingredients scares you, please still try this. They reach amazing harmony together, and no one ingredient overpowers.

Street Cart Style Chicken and Rice from Smitten Kitchen Every Day (adapted here) – I first made this dish in December, and can’t for the life of me figure out why I waited until last week to make it again. I’m even struggling to describe why it is so good. The mixture of spices? Slight acidity? Hit of heat from hot sauce and harissa? Creamy yogurt sauce? Crunchy salad? Just make it, and then again soon.

Everything bánh mì. Will and I finally found out perfect bánh mì spot (here if you live in MA!!!!). But, it is a longer drive than I find conducive to weekly bánh mì consumption. So instead I made this lemongrass bánh mì (but with chicken by accident…because I forgot to put tofu on the grocery list) and this breakfast bánh mì with the leftover daikon/carrot slaw, cukes, and cilantro. You can’t go wrong with either.

Green falafel (101 Cookbooks). Falafel is my Achilles heel. Every time I’ve tried to fry falafel at home it has disintegrated in the oil. Yes, I’ve baked them to some success, but they are never as good. This recipe is definitely a ways removed from what you would get at a falafel joint, but easy to make, actually sticks together, packs in an impressive amount of greenery, and pan fries nicely. I think I can say I’ve found my go-to falafel recipe.

The New Noma: Frequently Asked Questions. I don’t know what I am going to do when Pete Wells retires. Who will I look up to???? He simultaneously makes me want to eat everything he does, and be a better writer so when I do eat at places like Noma I can write about them like this. I love how he switches up the formats of his reviews. (Do I even need to direct you here? If it’s your first read, YOU’RE WELCOME.) They are clever, playful, but also deeply appreciative and thoughtful.

A Long Answer to a Simple Question: How Do You Eat a Slice of Pizza? While out for pizza last Friday night I pulled this up to reread and was laughing out loud. Read the whole thing, preferably with a slice in hand.

The most memorable things I cooked in 2017

The last year was a busy one, so I didn’t spend as much time planning out and executing elaborate recipes. I cooked a lot of stand-byes, like pizza, big salads, and tofu bowls. These were the recipes that stood out the most in my memory (many new, one old).

Sicilian Pizza with Spicy Tomato Sauce. This is, without a doubt, the best pizza I have ever made. The fussiness of the dough and the indulgent nature rule it out as a weeknight regular, but as a special pizza it will forever have a place in my kitchen. You douse the pan in olive oil before stretching out the dough, which essentially fries the bottom of the pizza making for a perfectly crispy crust. I experimented with a few pepperonis and can’t say I found the natural casing pepperoni (which was suggested) to make that much of a difference. I would focus first on using the best pepperoni you can find.

Spaghetti Puttanesca. The amount of flavor packed into this pasta with such a short cooking time is incredible. I suppose you are starting with some punchy ingredients, but the cohesion in the final dish that is not overwhelmed by any one particular flavor is perfect. I also loved the method of cooking the pasta in very little cold water to make an extra starchy water for sauce thickening (plus, water conservation!). I did add in the tuna which was a nice bit of protein, but wasn’t so essential that I would need it every time.

Burrito bowls. I keep falling back on this recipe, at home and elsewhere. I coordinated an event at work where we were making lunch for 15 people, and everyone prepped a different part of the recipe. I also roasted a chicken that we pulled the meat off of, and made some cumin cabbage slaw. We left the yogurt out of the sauce and used 1/2 cup of oil total to keep it vegan.  Everyone built their bowl with what they liked. Depending on how you built your bowl, it could please vegans, vegetarians, gluten intolerants, and meat lovers alike.

Corn dogs. I can’t quite believe I am admitting to making these, but here we are. My roommate asked me if it was possible to make corn dogs, and I thought I would try it as a fun surprise. They were insanely easy (though my batter was way too thick as first, but a little more buttermilk solved everything), surprisingly delicious, and such a crowd-pleaser.

Instant Pot Minestrone. It’s true, I too have jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon. I eased into use by just cooking single ingredients (such as beans or hard boiled eggs), and this recipe was my first attempt at making a whole meal in the pot. You start sauteing the aromatics (With the saute function!! Take THAT slow cooker!) and then add dried beans, water, and potatoes. Tomatoes and kale are stirred in at the end, and I also added pasta and a swirl of pesto when I served it. The fact that I started with dried beans and water, and ended with cooked beans in a wonderfully flavored broth an hour later, was just magical. Electric pressure cookers do have their limitations (mainly size – I could make a much bigger pot of soup on the stove), but their strengths make them a worthy kitchen edition.

Fried butterbeans and pizza beans. Two recipes, one (new to me) excellent ingredient: lima beans. This giant beans have been dubbed “potato beans” in our house. They have a fluffy, creamy interior and are an excellent vehicle for herbs, feta, and pizza toppings (though not all at once). I made these recipes about 6 months apart, and after the pizza beans was asked “Why don’t you make these beans more often??” The people have spoken, and more big beans will be cooked.

Call me crazy, but I planned the food for my own wedding: the initial plan (Part 1)

Will and I got engaged in August of 2016 at the Athenaeum in Providence (the scene of our second date, and a most delightful place). While we did debate having one, we ultimately decided we did want to have a wedding. We’d both been to enough weddings to know the feel we wanted for our own: a comfortable, casual celebration. While we did want to have the big party, we didn’t want to get sucked into the wedding vortex and lose sight of the fact that a wedding is just ONE day (a very special day, but still just one). We wanted to host the people we love in a place we love, and share our favorite things with them as we declared our love for each other.

We decided to get married where I work, which is a farm with a large barn and a commercial kitchen. Not being a traditional wedding venue gave us more freedom in how we could run the event. There were no specific list of caterers we had to use, or minimum cost per guest. My mom did a ton of research on other venues, and from what she found I saw the more “wedding” specific a venue was, the less work you had to do to plan but you also were much more restricted in your vendor options. Places like where we got married are not as common, especially if you just use “wedding” as a search keyword, but they do exist. In the end, we couldn’t beat the convenience of getting married where we did, plus we have a personal connection to the place.

We started with a strict budget (about $8,000, which I think it is important to know because no one talks about how ridiculous wedding costs are), and stuck to it very closely. Being fairly cheap people, we planned to do the majority of the set up and clean up ourselves with help from very loving group of family and friends. Neither of us read any wedding planning books, but I did read One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding and Something New: Tales of a Makeshift Bride which both emphasize that a wedding should be just what you and your partner want it to be. We picked the traditions and trends we liked, and ignored the rest.

We sent emails for the save the date and invitation, only registered for about 10 things we really wanted, didn’t buy any decorations besides a few strings of lights, and used Spotify playlists for the music (except for the procession, when our roommate played her accordion). We used what we had or what our friends and family had whenever possible, including platters, tablecloths, speakers, and an arbor. We did rent some essentials we couldn’t borrow, including a tent, tables, and chairs, and hired a bartender for the night. My mom and I grew the flowers for the tables and bouquets, which admittedly was made significantly easier for me because I work on a farm and had access to a small section of land to use (but I have a friend who grew her flowers for her wedding at her house, so know it can be done). We had both the wedding and reception on site, and asked two of our friends to co-officiate.

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to have a heavy hand in the food.  Planning menus is what I do for fun, and cooking for crowds didn’t intimidate me, especially with the help I knew would roll in. We decided to cook all the food ourselves. This was my initial menu:

Starters

• Bread and butter
• Antipasti with olives, preserved peppers and eggplant
• Pickles (scapes, cauliflower)
• Hummus
• Cheeses (brie, more brie, cheddar, bleu)
• Salamis

Drinks

• Beer
• Wine
• Signature cocktails made with whiskey (Will) and gin (me)
• Champagne

Dinner

• Vegetable minestrone
• Leek bacon salad? Other salad?
• Whole chicken piccata with baked rice pilaf or baked polenta
• Roasted vegetables with chickpeas (also serves as veg main)

Desserts

• Variety of items made by my aunts

Everything was simple and could be done in large batches. There would be no tiny passed appetizers, and all of the foods could be prepared beforehand and would stand up fine to reheating.

(A quick side story. The first time I cooked dinner for Will was on Valentine’s Day. We had gone on our first date about a month prior, and then had gone to see a movie a few days before the fateful couple’s holiday. As you do on the 4th or 5th date, we were discussing when our next would be and Will suggested Friday (VALENTINE’S DAY). I had assumed he would completely ignore the fact that Valentine’s Day was happening and expressed that to him. His response was along the lines of “but why wouldn’t I spend it with you?” (And see why I married him?) I made gin and grapefruit cocktails with rosemary sugar, he brought a bottle of his favorite white wine, we had Alton Brown’s chicken piccata (one of my favorite dishes) for dinner, and chocolate for dessert.)

And this is why I was determined to serve chicken piccata at our wedding. We both love it, but it is not a dish meant for entertaining as you pan fry the chicken and make the sauce in the pan right before serving. So my idea was to make a dish with roasted whole chicken (also the most economical way to buy chicken) with the flavors of the dish (lemon, capers, herbs). As the year went on and we got closer to the date, I was under pressure to figure out the logistics of this. How many chickens would I buy? How would I break them down? Where would they fit into my cooking timeline? What would I roast them in?

Since this post could go on for another 1,000 words, I’ll stop here and be back later with what I actually ended up doing. (Here is Part 2!)

Thanksgiving Menu 2017

Do you have your Thanksgiving menu planned yet? This year I will be at my mom’s, and she and I are splitting most of the cooking duties. If you need ideas, both Serious Eats and NYT Food have great menu planners.  Sam Sifton and Melissa Clark (both of NYT Food) were on On Point today discussion The Big Day. My favorite new piece of advice was to use a bit of stock to warm the turkey after carving and right before serving. Sam Sifton has many other great ideas (and even more opinions) in Thanksgiving: How to Cook it Well, which is worth seeking out as much for the writing as it is for the recipes.

Breakfast (Don’t forget breakfast!!!!!!!)

• Bagels, cream cheese, and lox. This pleases everyone in the house, and doesn’t require actual cooking (there is enough of that going on).

Appetizers (all cooked multiple days in advance)

• Bit and Pieces Party Cheese Ball: Mom made this for our wedding, but neither Will nor I actually got a chance to eat it. The reviews were great.
• Shrimp cocktail: A classic, in case the rest of our experiments fail.
• Hummus Masabacha: A new hummus variation (at my request).
• Chicken Liver Pâté: I’ve never made pâté, but I thought a meal with many other stars would be a good time to try it (so if everyone hates it, they will have many other options).

Dinner

• Spatchcocked Turkey (prepped and cooked day of): Flat and fast!
• Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce (cooked many days ahead): My mom has made this before and really liked it.
• Dressing (not stuffing, because we NEVER put it inside the bird) (prepped the day before, cooked day of): I’m wavering between the one I linked to, and the dressing in Thanksgiving (which I made last year and is very similar, just sans sausage plus apples).
• Giblet Gravy (cooked day of): I make the gravy after the turkey roasts with the drippings and giblets, following the recipe in Thanksgiving.
• Mashed potatoes (cooked day of): Maybe now is a good time to tell my mom that I got some purple potatoes to include in here…
• Brussels sprouts (prepped the day before, cooked day of): I may go with Sam Sifton’s recipe (also in Thanksgiving…have you bought a copy yet?), which has bacon and cream. If not, I may go with a simple roast.

Dessert

• Cranberry Pie (prepped and cooked the day before): I’m sure this is considered Thanksgiving blasphemy, but apple and pumpkin pie don’t really excite me. This cranberry pie is the only pie I crave annually. Last year I made it for myself the week after Thanksgiving just because I wanted it that much.  (The photo above is this beloved pie over Greek yogurt for breakfast, or, my dreams come true.)

Drinks

• Cranberry Black Pepper Shrub (cooked many days before): Shrubs are excellent for non-alcoholic cocktails with just some sparkling water, or with sparking wine.
• Four Roses (perfect, as is): Because, as Sam says, the day should end with a glass of whiskey.

If you need even more inspiration, this is my game plan from a couple years ago. And don’t forget to be creative with your leftovers! Above are mashed potato cakes, Brussels sprouts, and an egg.

 

 

 

2017 Food Resolutions

The tradition continues! Here are my 2015 and 2016 food resolutions. But first, how did I fare on my 2016 resolutions?

Cook better with others. This may be a lifelong resolution, but I did make a concerted effort to just let things happen in the kitchen with others (though I maybe didn’t seek out as many of those situations as I could have). The biggest way I improved here was when cooking with kids. They learn so much more experimenting themselves, so I did my best to give them the basics and step back to see what happened.

No longer be afraid of fermenting – I’m not! I made a lot of sourdough bread, and tried my hand at sourdough cornmeal and waffles. I attempted kimchi twice, and full lacto pickles once. My bread ferments were far more successful than my veg ferments. The first kimchi was too salty, and the second too mushy because I left the veg in the brine too long. The pickles were indeed pickles, but I should have tested them sooner and they got softer than I would have liked. So I think it is fair to say I’m no longer afraid, but now I really need to work on being better.

Wasting less in the kitchen. Figuring out how to roll leftovers from one meal into another has become one of my favorite cooking challenges. I’ve been better at checking the fridge to see what should be used up before I plan my meals for the week, and leaving a night unplanned as an opportunity to use up extra leftovers. It has also helped to be less obsessed with everyone having a complete planned lunch (and all three of us eating the same thing). There is always enough for everyone to eat, even if things might be a bit more haphazard than my usual leftovers. I did fall victim to the times something would be pushed to the depths of the fridge and were forgotten about. The next level of this goal is having a fridge that looks like Heidi Swanson’s.

On to 2017 resolutions!

Take on long-term projects. This starts in the kitchen, but translates also to the blog and the rest of my life. It is so easy to focus on short term projects that are quick and satisfying. I want to take more time to do things that can’t be done in a day or a week, whether than involves cooking, writing, or something even bigger.

Read and cook from more diverse books. 2016 put an especially bright spotlight on the need to interact more with people unlike ourselves. The day after the election I was at a loss of what to do with myself, but craved tangible, achievable projects. I made a simple salad with dressing, and then gave my cookbooks a new home (we had moved weeks before and they were all sitting in boxes). I realized I have cookbooks from an incredible variety of cuisines, but the majority of them are by American or British authors writing about another cuisine (such as Julia Child, David Leibovitz, Fuschia Dunlop, Andy Ricker). These voices are still incredibly important, and in many cases brought cuisines and recipes that had never been translated for an English audience. But now the availability of books being translated from other languages is only getting better. Food is a great uniting force, and learning about other cultures through food can only help to lessen our cultural misunderstandings.

Books!

I somehow still keep pushing off The End of Food….but 2017 will be the year! I also didn’t tackle more of The Art of Eating but I have it at the ready.

New this year, it is time for a reread of The Third Plate, plus Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, and Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. 

Any resolutions in your kitchen? Awesome books from interesting cuisines I should cook from? Books to add to the reading list?

2016 in my Kitchen

Last year I wrote about my kitchen trends, and I’m glad I did because now it is so easy to see how they led into this year. While there were plenty of standbys that will probably by in my kitchen forever (eggs with hot sauce, lots of homemade pizza, and big salads), these were the items that newly rooted themselves amongst the ranks of regulars.

Tofu bowls. A vegan meal I crave monthly, if not biweekly. I don’t like to repeat meals often, but I find myself craving these far more than other meals. Last year I wrote about roasted tofu, which features prominently in these bowls and I marinate them with a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha, and garlic/ginger if I have it. I almost always use this miso tahini sauce, which unites rice, tofu, and any manner of vegetables into a delightful and filling bowl. I try to have a mix of raw and cooked vegetables. Raw are usually shredded carrots, radish, cucumber, or cabbage, and the cooked are literally whatever is around, roasted or stir fried. They are easy to adapt, please everyone, and always satisfy the craving for a healthy meal. Their one drawback is sometimes with so many components they take a bit to pull together, but I never regret spending the time.

Collards. If 2016 was defined by a vegetable, it was definitely the year of the collards. I planted some in the garden this year, and they thrived. They were ready to pick before anything else, and sprung up all over the place (within the tomatoes, outside the garden fence, 10 feet from the garden by the driveway…). Since they were growing outside my door they were always fresh, and never taking up space in the fridge wilting. People always seem confused by how to cook collards, but I just use them as I would any other green like spinach, kale, or chard. Sometimes I would pick a few leaves to saute and eat with eggs in the morning. We had them with whipped feta on crostini, with peanut butter, in tofu bowls (see above), in vegetable soup, in place of kale with potatoes and eggs, in chana dal and an eggplant gratin, in a frittata, in saag paneer (or, collards paneer), with cold sesame noodles, in salad, in beans and greens….do you believe in the versatility of collards yet??????????????

Canned fish. Last year anchovies were my gateway to canned fish. This year that world opened up to me even more. Will and I were lucky enough to go to a Portuguese food and wine class (here, and I highly recommend) and one of the beginning food and wine pairings included sardines. HOLY MOLY. Where have these been all my life?!?! We started having them on hand for easy dinners and picnics. One of my coworkers started bringing me back Portuguese tuna from the south coast of MA and it made me love canned tuna again. I had long ago given it up because big league tuna fishing is bad news and the watery canned stuff just didn’t do it for me anymore. This stuff is line-caught, packed in olive oil, and is actual chunks of fish. I just drain it now and put it on salads for a special treat.

What did you discover or cook the most in 2016?

A few things I was obsessed with this year that weren’t food: Upstate Rubdown, cloudspotting (because of this book and the awesome Facebook page), All the Single Ladies (seriously, no matter who you are: read this book), and explosively juicy IPAs from Brick and Feather (In Absentia) and Cold Harbor (Indian Summer).

Beer Advent Calendar

If you need a great gift for a beer lover, a beer advent calendar is hard to beat. Many liquor stores or specialty beer stores (like Craft Beer Cellar) sell single bottles or make your own six packs. (Looking on the Craft Beer Cellar website right now it even looks like they sell something to make a beer advent calendar…but you can do it on your own!) Find 24 distinct beers, keeping in mind the preferences of your beer drinker, but also the fact that you are buying single bottles of beer which is an excellent opportunity to take some risks. I went with 12 ounce bottles and a few 16 ounce cans, but if you are a big spender you can go for 22 ouncer bottles or bombers. It’s fun to make at least the final beer a bomber, and last year I ended with Culmination (which pleased me greatly). I used paper grocery bags to wrap them and just wrote a number on each, but you could get even fancier (that effort would have been lost on my recipient, so I did not bother).

I love the calendar concept for a gift, even if beer is not your chosen medium. Mix it up with other beverages, chocolates, love notes, or anything else. Combine the childhood delight of getting a new gift every day with your expanded adult tastes (or just make one for a kid, they will still love it). Will liked this so much that we decided it would be an annual tradition and switch off making them for each other (which greatly simplifies the process, because buying and storing beer in secret in this house is HARD).

Another huge benefit of the beer advent calendar (besides maybe getting to partake in the consumption yourself), is the entire prep is done before Decemeber even starts, so you’re immediately ahead of the gift game. Instead of dealing with crowds Black Friday, spend a couple hours curating an awesome gift that lasts all month. Cheers!

Eating in August

The best month of the year for eating is finally here. It feels like I’ve waited much more than 10 months for tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers from the garden and nearby farms. Here are a few recipes I hold off on making all year, because they are truly their best right now.

Tomato salad. There are hundreds of ways you can go about this. The classic version my mom always made was just chopped tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Dress and toss the salad a few minutes before eating, so the tomatoes can release some juices and create a dressing with the olive oil. You can of course add cucumbers, red onion, peppers, mozzarella, feta, balsamic….I could eat a version of this salad every day of tomato season.

BLTs. There is a reason people make this sandwich again and again. It is the perfect intersection of salty fat, mild acid, and crispness. And with so few ingredients, freshness and quality are everything. Now is the time!!

Sweet cherry tomato and sausage bake. I’ve raved about this before…and will continue to do so forever more. So simple, SO GOOD.

Eggplant parmesan pizza with crispy capers. While this can’t quite top a traditional eggplant parm, it gets damn close. The crispy capers are a brilliant addition of crunchy saltiness.

Roasted eggplant and za’atar pizza. If eggplant parm isn’t your thing, then give this pizza a shot. The creamy tahini base does wonders for herby eggplant and cheese.

Roasted corn, zucchini, and black bean enchiladas. This dish is a bit more involved, but makes a ton of food that you can easily reheat with a salad, freeze, or share. It is a main and vegetable in one and can easily stand on its own if you are too tired to make other things.

The tomato crostata, tomato jam, and tomato curry from The Yellow House’s most excellent tomato diary (which comes along with some wonderfully provoking thoughts on the local food movement).

If you haven’t eaten pasta with fresh pesto before the end of summer, then I will go so far as to say you haven’t really had a summer. if you have a food processor, then dig it out, otherwise a knife and a little time will do you just fine.

Baked orzo with eggplant and mozzarella. A delightful one dish meal.

Fish fragrant eggplant. After I read Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper last year, I dreamt of this dish for months. It is delightfully spicy and sour, plus makes excellent use of eggplant’s sauce absorbing powers.

Peach and tomato salad. Not the tomato salad I grew up eating, but one I’ve very happily added to the rotation.

It is National Farmer’s Market Week, a time of wonderful abundance, the perfect time to support farmers, and eat the most delectable vegetables.

Tofu Marinating Hack

Marinating and roasting tofu has become my go-to preparation. When I first started cooking tofu I would cut it into cubes and painstakingly fry it so that each side was perfectly golden. Often I would hover too much and try to turn them before they had time to crisp and they would break apart. I didn’t own good tongs so I would try to turn them with my fingers which led to inevitable burning (sorry, Mom).

I owe my much improved method to the Thug Kitchen cookbook, which calls for tofu to be cut into thin planks, marinated, and then roasted at 450F for 30 minutes, flipping and topping with extra marinade at 15, 10, and 5 minutes. I roast mine on a silicone mat to ease cleanup, and the result is firm but slightly crispy tofu with concentrated flavor. You can serve the planks as is, or cut then into small strips (my usual preference).

The flaw in this execution is the marinating container. I don’t own a bowl that exactly fits the tofu, so the marinade only comes part way up and I have to flip the planks around to get them evenly marinated. I’ve been doing this for years. Last week I was wishing once again that I had a container exactly the size of my tofu to marinate it in, so that I could use the minimum amount of marinade to cover maximum surface area. And then it dawned on me that I have been buying my tofu in said container every single time and then throwing it in the recycle bin before struggling with inferior containers. Really, Tori? REALLY?

So I fished the little container out of the recycle bin, washed it, put my tofu planks right back inside and covered them with the marinade. Immediate, complete coverage. Hallelujah!

This method works great with cutting the block into planks because they just snug right back up against each other. It would be a bit more of a puzzle to put together if you prefer to cut into cubes, but still possible. If someday down the line I start making my own tofu I will be right back to the container drawing board, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. (There is a tofu recipe in The Homemade Kitchen I’ve been eyeing, but I haven’t taken the plunge.) For now this simple solution makes a favorite cooking process even better. I’m sure this has been thought of before, but I can’t believe it hasn’t be written into every recipe that calls for tofu marination. Let’s change that!

(The tofu marinating in the photo is from the Thai chopped salad with tofu I made last week. I followed the recipe for the marinade, and then used the Thug Kitchen method for cooking.)