I have a creamy soup problem. If I could pour half and half into everything, I'd be a happy girl. Ben, however, would be sad, because there would be no half and half for his coffee. Before we met, I didn't even think of keeping heavy cream or half and half in my house, as I'm one of those odd folks who never acquired a steady coffee habit. You see, real cream just seemed too decadent. My old method for making soup creamy was pureeing white beans and stirring them in. White bean puree is great, particularly when my pants stop fitting well, but real cream is better, and a dash here and there of some half and half or heavy cream kept my soups rich and delicious. Then, thanks to the good people of the Moosewood collective, via their Daily Specials cookbook, I found out that one could drop some softened Neufchatel* (or old-school cream cheese) into a brothy soup, whirl it up with an immersion blender**, and produce a deliciously creamy and wonderfully rich soup super fast. Ben utilized the Neufchatel, but not the immersion blender, to make the lovely soup below.
Creamy Potato-Corn Chowder 4 servings Please note that Ben is more of the chunky dice rather than the small, tidy dice. To make it his way, you'll want a fairly irregular and thick "dice".
1-2 Tablespoons cooking oil 1/2 cup chopped onion 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 carrot, peeled and diced 3 cups diced potatoes 2 cups water 1 bell pepper (your choice), chopped 1/2 cup corn kernels 1 medium zucchini, diced 1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes 1 ounce Neufchatel 1/2 cup sharp cheddar or "Mexican" cheese blend 1/2 cup milk
Heat the oil over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the onions, spices, oregano, and salt and saute for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent.
Add the carrots, potatoes, and water, bring the whole thing to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add the peppers, corn, and zucchini and cook until all the vegetables are tender - 10 to 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes. Take about half of the vegetables and combine them with the milk, cheddar, and Neufchatel in a blender. Puree the mixture and add it back into the rest of the soup. Serve it up, ideally with a crusty bread or cornbread and a little salad on the side. *Let it be known that the Neufchatel mentioned in this entry is the less chi-chi, but quite wondrous, American Neufchatel. Almost just like old-school cream cheese, but with 33% less fat and a bit softer than the original, this is one of the few less-fat dairy products that I will stand by with pride. Real Neufchatel is different, French, often shaped like a heart, and quite yummy.
**Have I ever mentioned that Charlton Heston has inspired me only once in this lifetime? When, you ask? When I exclaimed, "I'll give you my immersion blender when you take it from my cold, dead hands."
The Saturday that I've been waiting for is almost here: the opening day of the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market. Now, don't get me wrong, the smaller, more diverse little market at 38th and Meridian is my favorite. But they don't open for a few weeks. So, until then Broad Ripple has my heart.
Unfortunately, I won't be at the Broad Ripple Farmers' Market this Saturday from 8 am to noon with everyone else who loves vegetables, because I have to conduct a training about youth development. The good of helping adults work better with young people is greater than the good of stocking my refrigerator with delicious, fresh veggies. Right?
My kitchen doesn't offer much wall space for art-type stuff. Considering my out-size love for the affordable print, this is a sad situation. Here's what I might be hanging up this week, if'n we had the space.
Spoon show poster by Hammerpress Get it, a Spoon poster - in a kitchen - where you use spoons. I slay me.
Does anyone else feel weird about the idea of having a show poster for a show you didn't attend? Am I beyond average in terms of keeping it real with show posters? Just wondering...
The NYTimes has a frightening article on bisphenol-A (BPA), a substance used to make hard plastics. BPA is found in many plastic containers with a 7 in the little can't-recycle-it-here information triangle and a lot of those containers are meant for children. Unfortunately, BPA is also linked to cancers in lab rats and accelerations in physical development. Eek.
More happily, Shelterrific has begun a little story on beekeeping with setting up the hives. With bee populations experiencing unexplained drops, beekeeping is a great hobby that will support our food crops.
Are you planning any late-spring-feels-like-summer gatherings? Well, with first Friday approaching and weather allowing, I'm hoping to have some good outdoor entertaining on May 2. I've been busy searching for al fresco party ideas. Here are two of my favorites today. First up: this snazzy recycled glass cold beverage container (via A Browner Brown). With a pool in our backyard, my parents threw at least one big summer bash a year, along with lots of smaller gatherings. Without fail, when the temperature rose above 80 degrees, my mom would make sun tea in something like one of these. Isn't the very idea of sun tea kind of amazing? It's also quite green, so I plan to bring it back this year.
Outside parties are a great time to welcome families, particularly for childless folk who are less inclined to have a pile of toys inside to keep children occupied and parents stress-free. One great activity that always makes the kids in my life happy is bubbles. Martha Stewart has a fun little tutorial on creating a homemade bubble station. What do you think is essential for good times out of doors?
A couple of very nice ladies said some very nice things about our little picnic. I wanted to share my inspiration for our little outing, which was a much more inspired picnic. Over at Oh Happy Day, Jordan posted about a friend's birthday party that she helped design stuff for. Check out how cute it all was:
I really, really wish that someone had a summer birthday in my immediate family. I suppose that I can figure out some other reason to celebrate life and to imitate aspects of this great-looking celebration.
Yesterday, working hard at work and looking longingly out my window, I had a great idea. Great ideas don't happen often, so when they do, it's important to latch on. The great idea in question: a picnic with my #1 guy. And latch on I did. The results can be found below.
Over the lunch hour, I ran home, gobbled up some leftovers and made Lobio, a yummy Georgian red bean salad that happily tucks into pita pockets (recipe below), modified from a recipe in Moosewood's Daily Special cookbook. After work, in the hour between my arrival and Ben's arrival home, I made a quick chilled pea-spinach soup and a simple vegetable salad of cucumber, tomato, radish, and feta, as well as a tahini-lemon dressing. I picked up a quick little dessert of pumpkin bread (it may be spring, but it will always be autumn in my heart) and a macaroon from the Monon Coffee Company. Five minutes before Ben got home, the soup was dispensed into my favorite pretty thermos and the meal was packed into my trusty picnic basket.
I didn't tell Ben where we were going, and he didn't figure it out until we pulled into Holliday Park. The park was full of families, couples, and kids. Everyone was happy, with the sunny weather and good cheer that spring's arrival creates. Ben was truly surprised, we both enjoyed the food, and I found myself wondering why we don't do this more often. So, my new goals are to get out to parks more, to eat outdoors more, and to take a bit more time planning simple pleasant moments with my guy and my friends and my family.
But before we can all picnic together, friends, a recipe for Lobio: Lobio serves 2 (multiply accordingly)
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts 1 14-ounce can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed (or, of course, your home-cooked beans) 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 Tablespoon olive oil (extra virgin, ideally) 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley leaves 1 teaspoon coriander (or less, to taste) 1 pinch of crushed red pepper, more or less to taste salt and pepper, to taste
In a small skillet, over medium heat, toast the walnut halves until they are fragrant, stirring often.
In a bowl, combine the beans, garlic, vinegar, oil, herbs, and coriander. When the walnuts are done, stir them in. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the bean-walnut mixture develop for at least 30 minutes before eating.
To serve, place the beans on salad greens, ideally with radish and tomato. Or, as we did, serve in pita pockets with feta, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes or any other topping you would like. Lobio should be cold.
Slate tries and fails to let us know why the food press doesn't care about our pocketbooks as they continue to print high-cost recipes despite the state of our economy, but Slate does a better job letting us know about some alternate cheap-eats sources of information.
John Sellers interviews Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi at Time Out New York and she's kind of boring as she tries not to be boring. Maybe this boring-ness is the reason for the Lakshmi-Rushdie split and not their age difference or his interest in other-izing women, a tendency that only spoils his latter works, by the way.
For gardeners-cooks, the New York Times answers a difficult problem with aplomb: selecting shade-tolerant vegetables.
Have you read Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl? It's a lovely, quick, and personal book that reveals Reichl's life as a disguise-wearing, star-granting New York Times critic. Each time I picked it up to read a few pages (often while hanging out with Basement Kitty in the basement - anyone need a great cat?), a hunger developed for whatever sort of food she was discussing.
Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.
What? The only mass-market soda that I'll even consider is the Doctor or his secret-agent cousin, Mr. Pibb. Pepsi? Uh, not in my (blue in a red state) family. And I like bourbon, too. Uh, oh - I'm voting all wrong for my drinking choices. And since I buy my arugula on sale and tend to cook at home a lot, what should I make of this snippet?
“He [Obama] has more of the arugula vote,” Mark Penn said in an e-mail message last week. “Senator Clinton’s voters are more likely to be making ends meet and so they do a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating out at expensive restaurants.”
Marketing, food preferences, and politics seem like an odd trio to me.
Some great foods reads from the interwebs this week:
Thekitchn explains a bit about sourdough science, as well as a link to a previously-published piece on the topic of starting your own sour starter. Chemistry is fun to begin with, but relating it to food makes the science so much more compelling.
Heidi Swanson once again defends the honor of soy products with her cumin-spiked & grilled tofu recipe. This is a great recipe for anyone looking to fire up the grill and gain a few tips on selecting the right bean curd for your dish. One extra step not mentioned by Heidi, if you have the time, is freezing and then pressing the tofu - it makes for a lovely chewy texture that is soul-satisfying.
Chow dishes on how kitchens deal with food allergies and other "dietary bombs" like a diner being vegan. It's a fun article and one that reminds me of why claiming to be allergic is a smart technique when asking to dine meat-free. But the article also points out a practice that's a little more gracious to your chef and servers: calling in advance.
from Simply Recipes
Doesn't rhubarb sound lovely? It's been on my produce list for weeks, but none of the long red stalks have looked fresh - oh farmers' market, you can't come soon enough! In any case, the ginger-rhubarb galette above from Simply Recipes looks delicious. The galette, as well as rhubarb bars and an interesting curry from the cookbook pile, are making me long for the good sweet-tart stuff. Let me know if you've seen good rhubarb, won't you? Have car, will travel - for good rhubarb!
Uh oh! Cindy McCain's "family recipes" seem to come straight from the Food Network archives. Check out the mess that develops when lies, politics, and food get all tangled up like so much capellini. I love when my political science degree proves useful for food bloggery.
Facing dreary, rainy days this weekend, I turned to Shepherd's Pie. Admittedly, the vegetarian version of this should have a different name - Tiller's Pie or Potato-topped Pie or Quick and Easy Dinner or something - but it doesn't, at least not today.
This is a dish that can be modified more than 1,358 ways. It's basically a thick stew topped by mashed potatoes and cheese, so the results and flavor combinations can be determined by the contents of your vegetable bin and/or freezer shelves. Use a melt-able soy cheese and appropriately vegan mashed taters for a vegan version. If you're of a more meaty taste profile add some browned meat to the mix. If you have an idea for a great variation, please comment away!
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie serves 4 to 6, depending on sides
Ingredients 1 cup lentils - I like the French black lentils, but brown works just fine. 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 2 carrots, peeled and diced 2 celery stalks, diced 2 cloves garlic 1 14.5 ounce can of chopped tomatoes (or whole tomatoes that you chop) 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 cup fresh or frozen corn 4 ounces fake ground beef crumbles* salt and pepper to taste 2 cups left-over mashed potatoes (or more if you'd like) shredded sharp cheddar, to taste paprika
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. To save energy, you can actually do this when you add the tomatoes to the vegetable mixture.
Rinse the lentils and put them in a small pot with 2 cups of water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until fully cooked. You want a tender but not mushy texture. Add more water to keep the lentils covered as necessary.
While the lentils simmer, head the oil in a large skillet that has a lid over medium heat. Once the oil is heated (it should shimmer) add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for two minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook one minute. Add the tomatoes and dried oregano. Cover the skillet and reduce heat to medium-low and cook until all the vegetables are tender. Add the crumbles and cooked lentils. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture seems very dry, add a bit of vegetable stock or water to loosen it slightly.
Transfer the vegetable mixture to a casserole dish. A 3-quart dish should work well. Spread the potatoes over the top - heating the leftovers makes spreading them easy. Sprinkle the shredded cheddar over the top and dust lightly with paprika. Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes or the cheese is nicely melted and the tomato is bubbly. If the cheese browns too quickly, cover lightly with aluminum foil and continue to bake. Let cool for at least five minutes before serving, unless you're foolhardy like me and don't mind blowing on each bite.
*If don't like fake meat, you can add 1/4 to 1/2 cup more lentils or a can of kidney beans.
Ben and I tried a new-to-us place today for brunch - Oh Yumm! Bistro. To sum up the general feeling, the name does not reflect our dining experience.
What we ate: - Ben ordered the "California Eggs Benedict" and coffee. - I ate the Breakfast Burrito (minus the bacon) and drank the "fresh-squeezed" orange juice.
What was good: - The service - The water - The eggs in the burrito were light and airy, which combined very nicely with the pepper jack. - The pineapple that served as the side was nicely ripe.
What was bad: - The eggs benedict, which had Boar's Head turkey and avocado, was served on a grilled English muffin. The halves were super-skinny and a bit overly toasted. Ben reported that the avocado was underripe. What little of the orange-chipotle hollandaise appeared on his plate tasted neither of orange or chipotle. But the greatest crime to the benedict was the over-poached eggs. Perfectly poached eggs should have firm whites and yolks that are just beginning to harden at the edges. These eggs were at least three-fourths hardened - way to far!
- The burrito had an excessive amount of red onion and seemed to be missing avocado that the menu promoted.
- Maybe I'm incredibly cheap or perhaps just ridiculously spoiled by the many other good brunch spots (City Cafe, Hoaglin's, Taste, Zest!), but I sort of expect to get a little bit of carbohydrate with my breakfast. Or at least with eggs benedict. Not here. We could have spent a bit extra to buy a side, but already a bit underwhelmed, did not.
- If that was fresh-squeezed juice, then the oranges must have been less than fresh. The coffee was weak.
Overall perspective: We love a local spot, especially for a lazy weekend morning. But Oh Yumm! will never see us for a morning trip again.
How's it going? It was so nice to see you last night - it had been too long! I hate to bring down the mood, but something happened last night that made me a little sad. Well, really, there are two things that got me a bit down last night.
But first, let me tell you a bit about why I will always love you. Your bibimbap and ginger-cinnamon cooler delight me. They are heavenly, refreshing, full of new flavor combinations, and just plain good. Your sushi is yummy, too, if not my favorite in town. Really, though, it's about the bibimbap, a dish that makes me so happy that I took one dining companion's half-eaten food home last night, without a shred of decency or shame.
Now, the unfortunate things must be addressed. Do you know how depressing it is to make a reservation and discover that it has somehow not been recorded? I didn't know until last night, when your chipper hostess looked at me blankly as I told her my name, but it is not fun. It is especially not fun to have this reservation disappearing act when one has accepted the responsibility of organizing the location duties for a monthly dinner group. Thank you, though, for quickly seating us despite this oversight on your behalf.
Unfortunate thing two revolves around the environmental duality that you have set up for yourself. Let it be known that I'm glad that you've expanded and created a lovely bar space. Your new room is pretty and in keeping with your minimal but exuberant interiors. I liked it a lot, at least at first. But then, a bit into our meal, my dining group of five women somehow were transported into a semi-cheesy bar atmosphere. The lights dimmed and the music swelled as girls with increasingly glossed lips and revealed bosoms entered the room. Conversation become more difficult. Food became less of a feature. The music, loud and not that good, proved to be a serious distraction.
Honestly, the food is almost good enough to happily ignore these kinds of things. However, when we left, my heart sank a little as I realized we'd been put in the half of the restaurant reserved for young-young adults. In the original half of the space, no blaring dance club beat prevented diners from happily carrying on long conversations and enjoying their food in relative calm. It felt, well, like a place for adults to enjoy dining, rather than a place for girls to look hot.
the adult space
In short, darling Naked Tchopstix, this is not a dear-John letter. Rather, I wanted to let you know that you have too good of a kitchen to devote half of your restaurant to pleasing people who will be jaunting off to the Monkey's Tale after (possibly) under-appreciated your food. Can't they just be given a back closet? It just kind of breaks my heart that you'd devote that much energy to people who may not love you for the right reasons. But hopefully it will keep you and your generally lovely staff in a good financial position. After all, college kids can buy plenty of sushi and cocktails on their parents' credit cards.
A few very lovely people have mentioned Middle West Meals in their blogs and, since I'm finally done blushing, I thought I should give them each a very special shout-out. Because, as this Hazel Nicholls' print from Keep Calm says:
Let the shout(back)-outs commence:
It all started with Midwestern yogurt directory and some kind words about my writing. Thanks Kate. Your commitment to fro-yo is unparalleled and I love that you have a Montana business listed, as it is the state of my birth.
Then, the good folks at Worth Your Attention sent me a love letter in the form of a vintage cookbook. Maybe they don't think of it as a love letter, but I do. I'm a little emotional that way. What did I do to deserve this? I just shared my warm feelings about the Broadripple Brew Pub's veggie sloppy joe. Worth Your Attention is trying to bring a bright, positive light to all things good and great about our fair little city.
And today, I read that I may have played some small part in getting Susan (of indieats glory) to pick up and devour (and share, good-hearted lady that she is, I barely even shared with my own husband) some of the goods at the Flying Cupcake. My favorite entry ever from indieats features Hooters, a fact that is pretty astonishing given my die-hard third-wave feminist badge. But really it just demonstrates Susan's impressive, fun, and compelling writing.
It's enough to make a girl want to go celebrate with a girls' night out. Which I am just about to do.
Why would Williams-Sonoma go and make an adorable cakelet* pan (via love it a lot) that creates itty-bitty vegetable-shaped baked goods? Because they totally have my number but have no concerns for my bottom line.
I shake my fist at you, Chuck E. Williams, for making me completely shiver in excitement that such a cakelet* pan exists.
*If the word cakelet doesn't completely charm you, I don't know what sort of person you are.
At last Friday's party, we really did not hold back with garlic. And, since everyone snacked, everyone was in the same boat. Also, no vampires bothered us. The cornerstone of the green + garlic fest may have been the arugula-spinach dip that we served with root vegetable chips. It also proved pretty handy on the night before the party - we used the little bit that didn't fit into the overnight storage container to toss with pasta to delicious effect!
Most important: our guests ate it all. It was completely gone by the end of the party.
8 ounces of baby spinach 4 ounces of arugula 2 ounces of basil leaves 2 cloves of garlic 3 Tablespoons of pine nuts 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup of olive oil salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to rapid boil. While it comes to the boil, prepare a water bath in a large bowl by mixing cold water with plenty of ice cubes. In a pinch I often use my freshly cleaned sink for this, submerging a colander in the water. Add spinach to the boiling water. Wait 30 seconds and then add the arugula and basil. Cook until all the greens just wilt - about 45 seconds. Remove the greens from the pot with a slotted spoon or skimmer-strainer and put them in the water bath. This process of shocking the leaves will not only prevent them from overcooking, but it will also help them maintain their color. The submerged colander comes in handy at this point, because you can more easily remove the greens and not lose any precious little bits of flavor.
Wring out the leaves to remove most of the water and place them in a food processor. Add the garlic, pine nuts, and vinegar. Puree, adding the olive oil through the feeder in a stream until the mixture becomes smooth. Add salt and possibly pepper to taste.
Optional variations: Add Parmesan cheese, but you'll want to take it easy with the salt. Lemon juice can also be added, if you think the flavor needs brightening.
Up until Earth Day, I'll be posting several little "Green Your..." entries, trying to highlight simple ways to be a little more environmentally friendly when it comes to food consumption. First topic: grocery bags. Back in the old days when Ben worked at a health food store, I would happily load up on paper bags at the grocery. Why? Because they all made their way to the health food store, to be re-used. But knowing that reduce is better than reuse is better than recycle, I decided to pick up some EnviroSax. The EnviroSax are great - strong, sturdy, pretty, and conveniently packaged in a cute little carrying case that accommodates five bags. The individual bags roll up and have a snap, making them plenty compact enough to fit in your purse or man-bag. For Christmas, my sister received a pack of the monochromatic. For her April 8th birthday, my mom got a pack of the Flora series. For in-town folks, At Home in the City stocks most of the patterns and has also had single bags. There are plenty of other bag options. At Creature Comforts, you can find an entry about Rootote's bags. Jordan at Oh Happy Day posted about Baggu bags, which come in super-saturated colors.
baggu bags, available at Rare Device
Life is so much better without plastic bags. Did you know that 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the USA? Or that only 2% are recycled? Or that some inks used in the bags contain toxic lead? This Salon article is one of around a gazillion that will demonstrate the negative impact of plastic bags, as well as the negative side of paper bags.
But a word to the wise: not every check-out person is happy when I pull out my bags. I tend to make jovial apologies and smile a lot, which works in most cases. Just expect that, if you mix the high and low in your shopping, some cashiers won't be as familiar with the bring-your-own-bag concept. You do the bring-your-own-bag movement a service by being super-nice about introducing the practice.
I like DeCecco Pasta. A lot. I'm fine with tossing some Barilla into a pot of boiling water, especially the Barilla Plus*. But with its al dente stylings and variety of fun shapes, DeCecco won my heart a long time ago. Yes, more impressive dried pastas exist. Yes, fresh pasta can be truly amazing. But for everyday consumption, DeCecco is my hands-down favorite. Only two things prevent me from eating it all the time: finding it in not-just-penne shapes and finding it at a good price. Enter my good friend, Big Lots.
Some people may turn their nose up at my discount shopping paradise, but they probably don't have the unfortunate combination of a non-profit professional path and a desperate need for good food. Big Lots is a great place to pick up strange and surprising ingredients. Of course, it's not like you can go there and know what you'll be getting. But, if you have a sense of adventure and a bit of luck, you might pick up organic canned tomatoes and soups (great for busy weeks at work), organic cereals, special import foods (Anna's ginger cookies, I'm looking at you), and, on those most special of days, DeCecco pasta for significantly less than the $2-plus range that it often costs. The picture above is my haul from a recent trip to the store on North Michigan Road.
How does the food get here? Small sellers or distributors go out of business. Big companies need to off-load crates of close-to-date foods. Product packaging gets overhauled. Case in point from a few years ago: a certain NBA player whose face may have been plastered all over a certain brand of chocolate-hazelnut spread may have become embroiled in an alleged-rape scandal, all of which may have led to half-price jars of said spread!
Be forewarned: Though the good people at Big Lots work hard to keep post-date food off the shelves, you really ought to look at the date. I only buy food that has a stable shelf-presence.
*The Barilla Plus is not only superior to normal Barilla in nutrition but also, in my opinion, in texture.
Last week's first Friday party was fun and full of small-ish and full-size folk. With Spring emerging, I served pink, green, and lemony foods. (Have I mentioned my thrill about this new season? All of the possibilities and changes that Spring offers get me riled up and almost panicky with excitement.)
The menu included a ceci puree, inspired by this recipe from Epicurious, which we served it with toasted sourdough baguette slices. I found the frozen green chickpeas in this recipe at Trader Joe's a few months back. The frozen chickpeas are significantly better than their canned counterparts, with an almost nutty, edamame-esque flavor and a really smooth texture. Chickpeas can sometimes be a bit grainy, but these little green ones were like a dense cannelini bean in texture - perfect for pureeing into a dip. With their more assertive flavor and creaminess, the frozen chickpeas also required less oil and seasoning.
Recipe: Spicy Ceci Puree (adapted from Rick Tramonto) 2 cups frozen green chickpeas 2 garlic cloves 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 cup tahini 1/8 cup olive oil, plus additional to top puree juice of one lemon 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, possibly more to taste 1 teaspoon agave nectar (or use slightly more honey, to taste) Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste 1 Tablespoon toasted pine nuts 2 Tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley Lemon juice (and oil, as above) to drizzle
Bring 1/2 cup of water to boil in a medium sauce pan. Add frozen chickpeas, stirring until heated through. After a bit of time, you may need to reduce the heat to prevent boiling.
Mince the garlic and add the salt on top of the minced garlic. Using the side of your knife, press the salt into the garlic on your chopping board. Run your knife over the garlic. Repeat until you have a garlic paste.
Combine the chickpeas, garlic paste, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, pepper flakes, and agave nectar in a food processor. Puree to create a texture similar to thick peanut butter, adding more oil or, if you're looking for a lighter dish, water to reach the right consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. As you puree, scrape down the sides of the processor to prevent chunks. At this point, you can refrigerate the puree to serve later. Bring it to room temperature before serving.
To serve, sprinkle the parsley and pine nuts on top of the puree, as well as oil if you'd like. Add more lemon juice to taste. Serve with crostini, bruschetta, pita chips, or any other sturdy starch (or vegetable) that you'd like.
Lemons, garlic, and greenness abound for our First Friday cocktail party. Details, pictures, and recipes to follow soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak-peek.
If you know little people well, you've probably seen J. Otto Siebold's work. He's a great illustrator of children's books. And based on his short, serious, and good-natured comments over at Inspiration Boards, he seems like a cool person. And he reminded me about something good -- being awesome. Check it out: Some awesome things:
The onion rings (donuts?) at MacNiven's, ideally dipped in the London Pub Steak and Chop sauce
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I have a creamy soup problem. If I could pour half and half into everything, I'd be a happy girl. Ben, however, would be sad, because there would be no half and half for his coffee. Before we met, I didn't even think of keeping heavy cream or half and half in my house, as I'm one of those odd folks who never acquired a steady coffee habit.
Creamy Potato-Corn Chowder
