Sesame Tempeh Burger with Asparagus

1, approx 6" by 3" piece of tempeh, cut in half width-wise, then sliced lengthwise through the thin side (does that make sense?)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/8 cup tamari
1/8 cup water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Mozzarella, hamburger buns, arugula, tomato slices

With the tip of a knife or a fork, poke small holes into the tempeh slices. Then, place the slices into a plastic bag along with garlic, tamari, water, sesame seeds, pepper. Shake it up and marinate for 1/2 hour

Heat 2 tb olive oil in a skillet. Remove tempeh from marinade and place it onto the hot skillet. Cook 3-5 minutes per side. Melt mozzarella onto 2 of the 4 tempeh slices (or all 4!).

Layer the burger like this:
top bun
condiment of your choosing
tomato
tempeh slice without cheese
arugula
tempeh slice with cheese
bottom bun

Serve with asparagus, if you please. Here's the simple way I usually make it.

1 bunch asparagus, tough ends trimmed
2 or 3 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Boil asparagus for 1-2 minutes. Plunge it into ice water to stop the cooking. Heat the oil and toss in the garlic. About 30 seconds later, add the asparagus and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until warmed through and beginning to char a bit.

Buttermilk Cakes

I made both of these cakes last weekend and they were both totally delicious.


(this one with blueberries)

French Radish and Aged Goat Cheese on Ciabatta

As the title says, plus salt and pepper.

Whole Grain Buttermilk Biscuits

I've been doing a lot of baking lately. Baking and ordering take out. I've been way too busy to go to the grocery store (which sadly means I'm majorly missing out on Spring! Spring! I've waited all year for Spring! What am I doing!?), but I've still had time in the evenings that I've been filling in the kitchen, cooking down my pantry/freezer stock. Maybe this is some kind of Summer-glancing catharsis. Baking away Winter's debris.

And that's the end of kitchen counter psychology for today. Here's the recipe for these biscuits, except that I used wholegrain pastry flour instead of AP + cornstarch. They were fally-aparty, flaky, buttery. They were good.

Pesto

There was this really good-looking basil at the store last week. So I made this pesto (with pine nuts) straight from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a recipe which, lo!, is also available here.

Does good basil mean it will be Summer soon?

Chocolate Chip Blondies

(via)

Pizza Dough, Sauce

After a recent viewing of America's Test Kitchen, I tried upping the water content in the pizza dough I make. And it turned out so well! The dough was chewy and airy, bubble-filled and resilient. It was the best pizza dough I've ever made. Here's what I did:

2 cups warm water
4 teaspoons yeast
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more

Stir the yeast into the water and let sit for about five minutes. Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor or a mixer bowl. Process/whisk to combine, then with the mixer or processor running, pour in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. If using a mixer, switch to the dough hook at this point and slowly pour in the yeast solution. Knead in the mixer/processor for a few minutes.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl. The dough will be extremely sticky, so, to help this along, you might want to oil your hands as well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, non-drafty place for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F at least half and hour before you wish to bake.

Once risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and work it into some kind of pizza shape. My pizzas were decidedly non-circular. The dough's a bit hard to work with because of the water content, but it's totally worth it. Next time, I'll try to be more patient and make the dough a bit thinner. Top as you wish, perhaps beginning with this pizza sauce:

1/2 onion, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon dry basil
2, 14 ounce cans tomato sauce*
1 teaspoon sugar

Over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onions soften. Stir in the basil, tomato sauce, and sugar. Cook for about 30 minutes or until reduced by about half.

* A super basic tomato sauce that comes in cans at the grocery store. It's made of pureed tomatoes and maybe some sea salt. This is not pasta sauce.

Morel Season

Check out these delicious morels that my dad found! These (+ more) are drying now, so I can use them until morel season rolls around again next Spring. To dry morels, set them in a well ventilated place, on some kind of permeable surface (my dad uses an old window screen propped on a couple chairs). When you're ready to use the mushrooms, rehydrate them in some warm water for about 10 minutes prior to cooking. You can also save the soaking water to use as stock for any number of mushroom-based sauces, soups, etc.

Raspberry Mango Smoothie

It's soft foods week! And it's Friday! That calls for a liquid lunch. And in these times, preferably one that won't get you fired. This shouldn't, unless your place of work has some kind of zero-tolerance smoothie rule.

1 cup frozen raspberries
1 mango, peeled and fruit cut away from the pit
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2-1 cup orange juice

Blend the ingredients together. Blend them good. One caveat: this smoothie has a lot of seeds which might not be such a great idea if you've had your wisdom teeth out today. It had been 4 days since the extraction when this was served. If you want to go for it earlier, you could try straining after blending.

Smooth foods bonus: what record cover appears in the background of the above photo?

Corn Pudding with Ramps

It's soft foods week! Here's a dish you can mash against the roof of your mouth with your tongue! (Too far?)

(adapted from Deborah Madison's The Greens Cookbook)

2, 15 ounce cans corn
1/2 cup milk
5 or so ramps, greens and all, root end removed and coarsely chopped
4 or 5 eggs
3/4 cup cream
3 ounces cheddar or other cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
black or white pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

If you can't chew, put all the corn into the blender with the milk and ramps, then blend to form a smooth puree. If you can chew, reserve about a cup of the corn.

Beat the eggs with a whisk, then stir them into the corn puree along with the cream and cheese. (You could stir in the reserved corn now). Season with salt and pepper.

Grease 6 ramekins or one larger baking dish. Pour the custard into your baking dish/es and then place those into a larger dish. (You could also sprinkle the reserved corn on top of the custard now). Fill the larger dish with water that rises about halfway up the sides of your custard-filled dish/es. Bake the pudding for about 1 hour and 10 minutes if using a single dish, and about 50 to 55 minutes if you are using ramekins.

Sweet Potato Cauliflower Mash with Caramelized Shallots

It's soft foods week! No teeth, no problem!

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish cubes
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into chunks sized similarly to the potatoes
4 shallots, peeled and sliced width-wise into thirds
4 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups whole milk
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the sweet potatoes and cauliflower until falling-apart-soft. Meanwhile, over low heat, cook the shallots in the melted butter until they're browned, sweet, and soft. Mash the sweet potatoes and cauliflower with the shallots and butter. Stir in the milk, salt, and pepper.

At this point, I used a hand blender to make everything super smooth which was desirable for my husband who recently had his wisdom teeth (but not his wisdom!) extracted.

If you can chew, I'd recommend leaving these a little chunky and, rather than blending the shallots in, topping the sweet potatoes with the caramelized shallots and some hot sauce.

Apple Cinnamon Cream of Wheat

It's soft foods week! Chewing: out!

For this cream of wheat, I followed the directions on the bag. EASY! Ok, well actually, I did have to throw the first batch out because I didn't follow the directions well enough and dumped the wheat into the water too quickly. Lump-town.

So, then I did it again and followed the directions with more accuracy. I poured the wheat in very slowly, whisking all the while.

Then, because this is how my dad used to do it, I poured it onto a plate and spread it around. The genius of this move is that it provides more surface area (for sugaring). The not-so-genius of this move is that it cools down rather quickly. But I really like sugar, so whatever. Speaking of sugar, that + cinnamon + applesauce topped this cream of wheat. Applesauce: genius! Thanks to Mike's mom for that one.

Garlic Celery Root Mashed Potatoes

My husband just had his wisdom teeth out. You know what that means? It's soft foods week here on Meals; for Moderns. Get ready to drink your dinner!

4 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 celery root, peeled and cut into slightly smaller pieces than the potatoes
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons butter
1.5 cups whole milk
salt and pepper to taste

I go for broke here with the fat content, since I want to make sure Mike's getting enough calories. You could slim this down a bit, but it won't be as delicious. Just saying.

Boil the potatoes and celery root until falling-apart-soft (or, less soft, if you have, you know, full use of your teeth). Meanwhile, over low heat, cook the garlic in the melted butter for a couple minutes until it's just barely begun to brown. Mash the potatoes and the celery root with the garlic butter. Stir in the milk, salt, and pepper. You could stop here, but to make these super creamy, I used a hand blender to get out every last chunk. No chewing required!