Tag Archives: food

Baked Potato Nachos with Cilantro Pesto

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Planning to be snowed in for a few days, I swung by my local grocery store earlier this week.  I got milk and bananas–what are your family’s core needs?  I considered mine, then added an armful of limes, a handful of green onions, and two bunches of cilantro to my cart.  There.  That should hold us until the weekend.

I know that those of you in other parts of the world might scoff at us Seattleites when four inches of snow paralyze the entire city.  When the airport closes and the local government opens late and the Seattle public schools have been in session for only two hours this week.  But the fact is that it doesn’t snow here that often, and we are just too busy having fun to go to work or school when it does.  The streets (yes, streets) are full of sledders and skiers.  There are snowmen and snow angels to make .  And there is hot chocolate to drink.  With marshmallows.

Times like these call for comfort food.  Also, I had that big pile of cilantro.  I considered making nachos but by the time we’d done a jigsaw puzzle and put the kids to bed early there weren’t many chips left.  I baked a few potatoes earlier this week and love the combination of potatoes and Mexican flavors, and hence these “baked potato nachos” were born.  The key ingredient is the cilantro pesto (my brother’s recipe), which you should probably make in huge batches and freeze in ice cube trays so as to have it available all the time.

First, the Cilantro Pesto: buzz a big clove of garlic, a big pinch of salt, and 1/4 c. pine nuts in your food processor until chopped, then add a bunch of cilantro (stems and all), 1/2 c. grated Parmesan and 1/2 c. olive oil and puree.  Taste and adjust the flavors to perfection.

Then pile up your nacho plate. These, of course, are Baked Potato Nachos, but if you’re not trying to use up your leftover baked potatoes, I can heartily recommend a pile of just-roasted potatoes with these toppings as well.  Either way, layer your diced cooked potatoes with shredded cheese.  (I tossed cold potatoes and cheese into the microwave to heat, but if you’ve just cooked the potatoes you can skip this step since the hot potatoes will melt the cheese.  Doesn’t it taste good just to think about?)  Then pile on your toppings: a good salsa, that cilantro pesto, green onions, some chunks of avocado, maybe a spoonful of sour cream.  Serve with a crunchy salad–the one pictured above is shredded cabbage with a touch of olive oil, a big squeeze of lime, more green onions, and a good sprinkling of the chile verde salt I couldn’t resist at SugarPill.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

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Ok, so maybe they’re only Chocolate Chocolate Cookies.  The point is, they’re CHOCOLATEY.  I love chocolatey.  At this point I could say something like, “but given their dimunitive size (as compared to one of those cake-sized cookies you could get at the mall in the 1980s, say, or a watermelon), they make a perfect sweet bite after dinner or a nice after-school snack for the children with a glass of milk.”  But that would be disingenuous.  Because, let’s be honest, what I really plan to do with these cookies is sit down and eat a whole plateful.  Or at least two.

I have been thinking about a good chocolate cookie since I saw this post the other day.  I have made, and I do love, that cookie recipe.  But these are something a little different.  The Clinton Street Bakery Cookbook calls them “Brookies,” as in a cross between a brownie and a cookie, and the description is pretty perfect.

Perfectly chewy, with a crispy edge, these Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cookies are worth getting 3(!) bowls dirty for.  First, combine 1 c. chocolate chips, 1 Tbsp. canola oil and 1 tsp. butter and melt in the microwave or a double boiler.  In a large bowl, whisk 2 eggs with 3/4 c. brown sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla.  In a third bowl, combine 1/2 c. flour, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour mixture.  Fold in another c. of chocolate chips, then pop the batter in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up.  Bake well-spaced 1-Tbsp. scoops of dough on parchment or a buttered cookie sheet at 350 just until the tops are dry and cracked, about 8-10 mins.  Let cool completely before attempting to move (read: eat) them.

National Soup Swap Day is this Saturday!

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Are you ready?  This website has everything you need to know to make your Soup Swap a success.  If you miss Saturday…well, there’s the rest of the year.  But aren’t you ready for a freezer full of soup?

Wondering what to make?  I’m making this Lentil Soup with Rosemary.  But the Best Soup of 2011 wouldn’t be a bad option, either.  Or a great vegetarian chili.

Happy soup swapping!

Light as Air: Yeast-Raised Whole Wheat Pancakes

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We usually make our pancakes with at least some whole grain flour, and we like the hearty texture of whole grains.  But in these yeast-raised pancakes the whole wheat flour is barely detectable; they bake up airy and light.  Which is delightful for those of you trying to “sneak” more whole grains into your family’s food–and also for those of us who aren’t sneaking them at all.

These Yeast-Raised Pancakes have a well-developed flavor and are fun to make because you start them the night before by mixing 2 1/4 tsp. yeast (1 pkg.) and 1 tsp. sugar with 1/4 c. of warm water and mixing well.  In a separate bowl, combine 2 c. warm milk with 1/2 tsp. salt, then stir in the yeast mixture when it is nice and foamy.  Whisk in 1 1/4 c. whole grain flour and 1 1/4 c. all purpose flour.  Cover overnight (you can leave the bowl on the counter if the room is cool, or refrigerate if the room is warm).  Then in the morning all you have to do is roll out of bed, add 2 Tbsp. sugar, 5 Tbsp. canola oil (or melted butter), 2 beaten eggs, and 1/2 tsp. baking soda.    Cook them up with a few eggs for a great weekend–or snow day!–breakfast.

This recipe, like many of my favorites, is from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Remembering Summer: Fish Taco Spread for a Snowy Day

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It’s charming to be cooped up by a rare Seattle snowfall.  For about three hours.  Snowball fight, check.  Snowman, check.  Snowy tromp through the neighborhood, check.  Hot chocolate.  Um, is the snow starting to melt yet?

Apparently not.  Apparently there is more coming.  It’s gorgeous, of course, and I’m sure we’ll have more fun family adventures in the snow tomorrow–but for tonight we channeled summer, drank beer with friends, and ate fish tacos.

This Fish Taco Spread isn’t the kind of authentic that will transport you to a San Diego beach, but it hits the spot in mid-winter in Seattle.

First, start your quick-pickled onions and hot peppers: combine a small, thinly-sliced red onion with strips of jalapeno in a non-reactive pot and add 1 c. seasoned rice vinegar, the juice of half a lime, and a tsp. of salt.  Bring to a bare simmer and stir for a minute, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Make a lime crema by combining equal parts sour cream and mayonnaise with a big pinch of salt; zest in a lime and then thin the mixture with lime juice to taste.

Prepare your fish (we used a couple of cod fillets) by making a rub of 1 tsp. oregano, 2 tsp. cumin, 1 Tbsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and a Tbsp. or more of brown sugar.  Rub the fish with oil and then pat the spice mixture all over it.  Bake at 400 until the fish flakes (this will depend on the thickness of your fish); turn on the broiler for a minute or two at the end to caramelize the spice mix if it isn’t already bubbling.

Heat plenty of corn tortillas (you can toss them in the oven with the fish for a few minutes) and serve them wrapped in a towel with the fish, pickled onions, crema, grated cheese, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and a good salsa or two.  Everyone grabs a couple tortillas, breaks off chunks of fish, and adorns their own plate of fish tacos.

 

Winter Vegetarian Chili

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The chili purists bicker about beans, no beans, veggies, no veggies, whatever.  This recipe is not for them.  They’d flip out over this one. It’s smoky, meaty, tomato-y, all the things a good chili should be–but it’s vegetarian.

This is a secret, shh, but this chili has wheat berries* in it.  I know, it’s crazy.  But they’re great.  They are combined with black beans to give the chili texture and rib-sticking density, while the flavor is anchored by chipotles and cumin and elevated by lime and cilantro at the end.  This is my go-to winter chili.

To make this Winter Vegetarian Chili, start by cooking about a cup of wheat berries in water to cover by an inch and a teaspoon of salt.  (Cooked wheat berries freeze well, though, so why not make more while you’re at it?)  Bring them to a boil and simmer for about an hour, until pleasantly chewy.  Meanwhile, get your chili going: saute a chopped onion with a chopped red pepper for a few minutes, then add 5 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. oregano and 2 tsp. each of chili powder and cumin.  Once the spices start to get toasty, stir in 1-2 tsp. of pureed chipotles until fragrant (I buy canned chipotles in adobo and puree the whole can with the adobo sauce; the puree keeps in the fridge forever, as far as I can tell).  Then add a big can of chopped tomatoes, 3-4 c. of cooked or canned black beans (with some of their liquid, if you cooked them yourself), some of the liquid from the cooked wheat berries, a Tbsp. of brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for a while and then add your drained cooked wheat berries and cook for a few minutes longer.  Squeeze in a whole lime at the end.  I first found this recipe in Eating Well, which basically means it’s health food.  But don’t let that stop you from topping your bowl with some grated cheese and sour cream in addition to avocado, a lime wedge and cilantro.  And you can never go wrong with a chunk of corn bread.

*What’s a wheat berry, you ask?  It’s the whole wheat kernel, it looks a little like brown rice, and it cooks up into a nutty, chewy, delicious little bite of good-for-you-whole-grain.  Wheat berries make great salads, I’ll tell you about that another time.  And when you’re shopping for them, pick hard red wheat berries instead of soft white ones–but if white wheat berries are all you have, don’t worry, they’ll work just fine.

Falafel For Dinner

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When I was growing up, our family had a dance that we did on falafel-for-dinner nights.  It was called the “falafel-for-dinner dance.”  Weird, huh?  Other than that we were a pretty normal family.  But moving on…

The thing that matters in a spread like this is the condiments.  Get your falafel going first–we baked them from frozen but you can also pan-fry or bake them from a mix.  Or, you know, you could make them from scratch, but that’s not how we roll these days.  Tonight, our Falafel Platter included sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, crisp lettuce leaves, hummus, ajvar (roasted red pepper and eggplant spread), olives, greek yogurt mixed with crumbled feta, pita bread, and, of course, sweet chili sauce.

The joy of eating like this is in assembling each perfect bite–or one big sloppy sandwich with a bit of everything.  I like using the lettuce leaves as wraps and the cucumber slices to scoop up extra hummus.  (The leftover tomatoes and cukes went into the remaining yogurt/feta mix to be eaten as a salad tomorrow.)

As you can imagine, this meal demanded a cold beer.  Luckily we filled our growlers with Mannys at Georgetown Brewing Company just today!

 

Zippy Noodle Curry with Tofu, Sweet Potatoes and Chard

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J and I spent a week taking cooking classes in Chiang Mai once when we were kicking around Thailand for a few months.  (We also spent a week taking foot massage classes in Bangkok.  Both were pretty nice weeks.)  We love Thai food and occasionally dig into the freezer and pantry to bring the scents and flavors of Thai cooking into our home.

One of my favorite foods in Thailand was a rich, creamy noodle curry called khao soi.  This is not a recipe for khao soi.  You should definitely get yourself a bowl if you find yourself in Chiang Mai, though.  THIS is a very simple recipe based on the Big Curry Noodle Pot recipe in Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking.

In Zippy Noodle Curry with Tofu, Sweet Potatoes and Chard, “zippy” refers to both the flavors and the speed of making the dish.  (I’m funny, huh?)  Saute an onion, 1 big cubed sweet potato (I steamed mine first, but I think it was unnecessary) and some chopped garlic in a glob of heavenly-smelling coconut oil with 1-2 Tbsp. red or yellow curry paste.  Add a cubed block of extra-firm tofu and a few handfuls of chard leaves sliced to ribbons and stir to coat.  Pour in 2 c. veggie stock, 1 can of lite coconut milk, 2 tsp. turmeric, 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp. sugar and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft.  Meanwhile, cook 8 oz. fresh egg noodles in a separate pot.  Add cooked noodles and the juice of a lime to the curry.  Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions and peanuts, and serve with chopsticks and a spoon.  Thai chile flakes, soy and/or fish sauce, and lime wedges at the table will let everyone perfect the dish according to their own taste.