Freddy Kugel

Kugel. What is kugel? I think most people imagine baked egg noodles with raisins and cream cheese. So what happens when you take out all of those ingredients.. is it still a kugel? Sure. I'd say kugel translates to casserole, and since casserole is a French word for pan -- I think if you cook it in a pan, then you can call it a kugel.  So here is a kugel recipe.

2-3 lb winter squash

3 apples

1/4 c arrowroot powder

3 T maple syrup

1/4 c coconut milk

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

First, roast your squash. You can roast it whole but cutting it in half expedites cook time. 30+ mins at 425F typically does the trick, depending on size. It's okay to be impatient here since you are just going to cook it again anyway.  While the squash is roasting dice the apples and in a bowl combine with remaining ingredients and mix.  Let sit while the squash is roasting, stirring occasionally.  Once the squash is sufficiently roasted and cool enough to handle scoop out 2+ cups and mix with your apple mucus.  This mixture will fit nicely into a pie pan - or whatever casserole [dish] you want. Bake at 375F for an hour or so. Let cool.

Kale Salad for Dummies

Can't say I've met a kale salad I didn't like. Crunchy, creamy, or cooked.. I'm kind of a kale fiend.

A few rules of thumb:

Rip it! Small pieces are easier to enjoy and absorb.. and frankly a little more becoming to eat. Instead of cutting out the ribs and chopping the leaves into small pieces just rip small pieces right off the stalk - it's much less time consuming.

Rub it! Massaging kale in an acidic solution (orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) breaks down the leaves. The abrasive nature can be off-putting for some and a quick caress can really go far. Make sure your dressing has some sort of acid and take 5 minutes to aggressively rub in it.

Douse it! Unlike the more pansy greens like spinach, arugula, and romaine, kale is a toughy. It can handle whatever you throw at it. So throw a lot at it. Do you know how much dressing it takes to move from a kale salad to a kale soup? I think we should push the limits.

Faghettabot it! Never, ever throw away a kale salad. The longer you wait, the better it tastes.

Ok, now let us apply these tools.  Here is a simple recipe that gets the job done.  A lot people have basic salad rules (i.e. fruit, nut, cheese) but its pretty hard to go wrong.

1 bunch kale*
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil or flaxseed oil
2 t wet mustard, dijon preferrably
1/2 t salt
1/4 c raw dehulled pumpkin seeds, aka pepitas, which in Spanish means "little seed of squash" FYI
1/4 c dried cranberries
1/4 c red onion, sliced thin

Rip your kale, add your dressing ingredient, and thoroughly massage until wilted.  Throw on your toppings (and anything else you'd like to add) and voila. Easy as kale salad.

*Do you ever stand in the produce section perplexed by the endless varieties of kale?  Basically, the best for raw salads is dino kale, aka dinosaur kale, lacinato kale, tuscan kale, black kale, and probably a dozen other names.  Go for the one with the most flat leaves. If unavailable the standard curly kale, or scots kale, is a solid choice - just be sure to diligently massage it avoid eating like a horse.

Pumpkin Porridge

Sometimes I struggle with breakfast.  I love big elaborate breakfasts but, just like everyone else in the world America, don't have time to make something new and exciting everyday. Still I do by best to switch it up from week to week so I don't get too bored or too burnt out on one thing (no more chia seed pudding, bla!).

Enter fall! All the allure of brilliant fruits and vegetables and the hustle and bustle of the weekly daily farmers markets has since passed - but the plethora of seasonable vegetables available is better than ever.  Maybe summer has the most freshness, but fall has the most flavor.  Spices are drying, citrus is turning, the squash are HUGE, the parsnips are finally done growing... and don't even get me going on my love affair with persimmons. It's all just lovely. Not even sure where I was going with that. Anyway.. this is what I've been eating for breakfast lately:

1 c cooked pumpkin, mashed
2 T almond meal
1 T flax seed, ground
1 t maple syrup
salt
1/4 c almond milk

Occasionally I throw in some cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg for kick.  It's been tasty. It's been real.

Soup.. Soup soup ba doop.

Hey - I wanna soup, baby. Here I go, here I go, here I go again.

Sorry. So after a handful of requests for this recipe recently I thought I'd share. They all be like, "Don't know how you do the voodoo that you do so well, its a spell, hell, makes me want soup soup soup."  Ok so nobody is rapping Salt n Pepa to me, but boy if they were I'd certainly make them soup. This recipe is really simple and easy to make and seems to get rave reviews everywhere it goes.  Here ya go:

1 butternut squash
1 apple
1 onion
1 tbsp coconut oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp thyme
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup coconut milk

Chop squash, apples, and onions into cubes and coat with oil and roast until.. Roasted... Usually 30-45 minutes at 450F or so.

Put roasted goodies and everything else in a blending device and let her rip!  I recently made it sans nutmeg and vegetable broth and subbed in more coconut milk and I have to say it maybe even made it better.  Enjoy.

Waffle Monster

I recently acquired a cast iron waffle.. iron.. and I'm totally obsessed. Waffling things is so cool.. and you can just about waffle anything - eggs, burgers, falafels.. Waffalafels. I've been experimenting a bunch which has involved a lot of burnt crap and intense sticking.  Most interesting probably was these paleo waffles from coconut flour that ended up so pliable you could probably use it as a swim cap. This recipe written below is the secret to success for waffles with my specific iron. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.. doesn't stick. Amazing.

1 1/4 cup flour combo (garbanzo, rice, buckwheat, etc)
1/2 c starch (arrowroot, tapioca, potato)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 T flaxseed, ground (or 1 egg)
1 T sweetener (sugar, maple syrup, etc)
1/4 c fat-like non-fat (applesauce, banana, sweet potato, pumpkin)
2 T real fat (coconut oil, avocado oil, etc)
1 c non-dairy milk + a few T more as needed for texture

For sweeter waffles you can up the sweetener to 2 T and for savory waffles it can be omitted altogether.  From this base recipe you can add goodies, like fruit or chocolate, or spices - dirty chai waffles anyone?  I typically like to make a boring-ish plain waffle then doctor it up with topping. Savory mushroom ragu was a favorite.

Get waffling!

Galettes

Thin savory pancakes. I might have a thing. I've been experimenting recently with a wide variety of savory pancake-like accompaniments. It's been kind of a worldly adventure. Some worked really well: Socca, a garbanzo flatbread native to southern France and Banh Xeo, a Vietnamese savory cake made from rice flour and coconut milk, being my favorites.  Other attempts didn't fare as well, namely Injera, a fermented Ethiopian bread made from teff flour, and Dosa, a wafer thin crepe of rice and fermented lentils popular in Southern India.  There is a big world out there of inherently gluten free and vegan alternatives to the traditional French wheat and egg crepe.  My understanding is that a galette is essentially a crepe made with solely buckwheat flour.  I personally love the flavor of buckwheat flour, but at times am hesitant to use it since it can be heavy and dense. Chickpea flour on the other hand has a mild, albeit slightly bitter taste but is ideal for creating a light, airy, or crispy product - it's quickly becoming a mainstay for me in my baking endeavors.

So when I had the urge to make savory crepes this morning I tried out a blend to see how it'd fare and - as my friend Liz would say - BLAMO!  I think this mix might be the best of the savory pancakesque products I've made so far!  Here's how it all went down.

1/4 c buckwheat flour
1/4 c chickpea dba garbanzo aka gram flour
1 t corn starch
smidgen salt
1/2 T olive oil
1/2 c + 2 T almond milk

This was exactly enough to make four equally sized galettes, which is not much batter - so I mixed it in a liquid measuring cup so it was ultimately easier to pour.  I made these in a hot cast iron skillet, and increasingly find that not using oil at all results in the least sticking, burning, and smoking out your dinner guests. You do you. But pour 1/4 c of batter on your cooking surface then spread it thin in a circular motion until its 8+" in diameter, taking care not to rip what's cooking in the process. Less difficult than it sounds.  Once it's sufficiently bubbled (less than 2 mins for me) give it a quick flip and it's pretty much ready to go - to be stuffed with innards or stuffed in your mouth, your choice.

Sarah's Cardi-O's and Musings

A couple weeks ago some friends were discussing the merits of eating offal and concerns that certain organs bioaccumulate certain toxins, like heavy metals.  The answer, it seemed, as is the answer to pretty much everything else, is that it's not that cut and dry and has both benefits and draw backs.  Animal organs are dense in both valuable nutrients and environmental toxins, so everything in moderation, right?  Anyway, as part of this conversation our friend Sarah said she had a recipe for buffalo heart that tasted EXACTLY like Spaghetti-Os. I was very intruiged, because come on, who doesn't LOVE Spaghetti-Os?  Since Spaghetti-O's are essentially just tomatoes and high fructose corn syrup I'm not sure how they have such a distinct memorable flavor, but wow do they really bring it back.  To my pleasant suprise the next week she brought me a jar of this delish mess. Guess what. It really tasted exactly like Spaghetti-Os. Exactly. Somehow.. in spite of the lack of pasta, cheese, and high fructose corn syrup.

Sarah got her beef heart from a local ranch just outside of Sacramento from a dude (dude is most appropriate for ranchers, right?) who raises grass-fed and finished cattle.  This precipiated quite an interesting discussion with JT, who wouldn't eat it.  My primary motivation for very rarely eating meat is limiting my impact on the environment, so for me, the methodology in which this animal was raised, slaughtered, then transported (not very far) is ideal.  In comparison to organic dairy products or commerical free-range eggs, both of which I currently choose to abstain from consuming, the impact from such an operation is minimal.  My other (well, only essentially) source of meat is buffalo from Wild Idea.  They are based in South Dakota and pasture-raise, -finish, and -slaughter all their bison on native grasslands. Did you know native prarie grasses sequester more carbon per square foot than a rain forest? That makes me SO excited - and encouraging the preservation and resortation of the Great Plains' grasslands makes me feel slightly less guilty about my existence in general, which is worth the world to me! JT and I visited the ranch last summer and it's something we are both pretty passionate about supporting.  Of course now that we live in California, our fancy buffalo has to travel another ~ 1,000 miles for us - which voids some of the offset guilt, but you have to let it go at some point.  There is a vast difference between raising and grazing a cow and a buffalo (some of which you can read about in this awesome book, Buffalo for the Broken Heart) but after some thought, I was a double thumbs up for Sarah's beef.  As the discussion between JT and I progressed, it became apparent that JT's real issue was not so much with the beef source, but rather that she was simply freaked out by eating a heart with no logical explanation of how it drastically differed from eating a shoulder or a thigh or a butt. It happens. Kombucha mothers freak me out. Animal hearts freak her out.  That's more understandable.

Moving on - I mean isn't this supposed to be a recipe blog!? - I very much enjoyed the heart Spaghetti-Os and wanted to recreate them! So I ordered some of my very own buffalo heart (and liver!).  There is this other appealing survialist aspect of eating offal that makes it feel like recycling the unwanted parts. And recycling is AWESOME!... and again lightens some of that crushing existence guilt (why such a capacity to feel guilt?! You'd think I was raised Christian?). Gosh, can we talk about something more uplifting - recipes, jeeze! Let's eat some organs!

Here's my replica version of the recipe which I thoroughly enjoyed (alone):

One (1) 3 lb (!!) buffalo heart
~5 lbs tomatoes (I used 6 big heirloom tomatoes)
1/4 cup fresh basil
2 Tbsp fresh oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast (as an optional afterthought)

Chop it all, slow cooker, low, 8 hours, magic. You could also throw some cooked pasta in, which would really round out the Spaghetti-O experience. My version lacked that nostalgic tang, but it was still really quite delicious.

Grilled Tofu with Salsa Verde y Roja

Threw together this dish last weekend without significant forethought and it turned out better than most of the tedious, time consuming dishes I make.  The tanginess from the tomatillos was so beyond delicious. I have to say this is probably one of the best meals I've made in recent history.

First, press a pound of tofu. Must. Do.  I think a lot of tofu-adverse people are turned off because they have only eaten unpressed tofu which has been steamed or deep fried.  I also find this style of preparation quite unappealing and wish everybody could just give the soy bean curd a second chance.  Just press it. Press it real good.  This involves draining the block and sandwiching plates together then placing heavy items (liked canned goods) on the top plate and squeezing all the water out.  An hour is sufficent but 8 is best, especially for a grill type situation.

Marinate the (pressed) Tofu.  I used the following marinate from Veganomicon:

1/2 c white wine
2 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T tamari
2 T lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
pinch basil, marjoram, and thyme

Make the Tomatillo Sauce.

8-10 tomatillos
1 jalepeno, stemmed, seeded and diced
3 T cilantro
1/3 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp oregano

First roast the tomatillos. About 8-10 minutes at 400F then flip and bake another 8-10 minutes. Let coolish.  Combine with the remaining ingredient in a food processor.

Make the Garlic Hot Pepper Sauce. You can use any pepper you see fit to make this recipe.  A friend had just gifted a variety of peppers so I used 1 habanero, 1 serrano, 3 anaheim and 1 pimiento. I think.. I don't know for sure.

5-8 various hot peppers, stemmed
4 cloves garlic
1/3 c onion, chopped
1 t tamarind paste
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T sugar
2 T olive oil
1 t salt

Place everything in a food processor into a fine mush.  I didn't remove the seeds from any of the peppers and my sauce actually didn't end up anywhere remotely hot, but I think that's just luck of the draw of whatever pepper you use. It was still delicious.

After the Tofu has been marinating for at least an hour or so, heat your grill and rub some oil on the grates to avoid sticking.  A friend gave me some tips on alternative tofu grilling techniques which included pregrilling the tofu then marinating the "par-grilled" tofu and grilling again later -- but I was going to minimal effort for this meal so I skipped experimenting with that for now.

Once hot, grill the tofu on each side for 7ish minutes.  Be sure not to disturb the tofu steaks between flipping and you'll be sure to get some fancy grill marks.  Add the leftover marinate on top of the steaks as they are cooking.

I placed the tofu atop the warmed tomatillo sauce topped with the hot pepper sauce and some basil for good measure.  I served this dish with marinated mushrooms, eggplant, and zucchini grilled on skewers and wild rice.  Observe.

Ooh Mommy! Burgers

It's grillin' season. That means at this point I've been through so many varieties of veggie burgers my eyes might fall out. Bland, goopy, crumbly.. most veggies burgers have some major malfunction that makes them impossible to properly stick together, let alone handle the grill (especially when you take out the magical ingredient that helps bind them). After countless iterations -- I've found THE one. The burger. And it's grillable. Done.

I was attemping to explain "umami" as we were enjoying a trial run of these guys and my mother, who was thoroughly enjoying them, exclaimed, "Of course, these definitely have umami, I eat them and say 'Ooh mommy, ooh mommy this is good!'".  It entertained me at the time so I've decided to brand these the "Ooh Mommy Burgers".

1 c almonds
1 c cooked lentils (~1/2 c dried)
1 c cooked whole grain (I used millet but quinoa or rice would work great, again 1/2ish c dried)
1/2 c onion, medium diced
1/2 c sundried tomatoes, diced
1/4 c kalamata olives, cursorily chopped
2 T tamari
2 T tomato paste
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, cursorily chopped
1/2 t rosemary
1/2 t tarragon
1/4 t liquid smoke

First put just the almonds in a food processor (fitted with an S blade) and chop until reletively fine.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse to mix well then run the processor until somewhat smooshy but still defined.. i.e. the lentils should be less than whole but almond pieces should still be distinguishable.  Throw the whole processor bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes then shape into patties and GRILL 'em.  You could of course fry them or bake them as well. But come on.

Zucchini Noodles with Marinara Sauce

As a new Sacramento transplant, I have to say I really like this place. It has so many redeeming qualities and I could see myself enjoying life here for the indefinite future. I'm still adjusting to the nuances of a new places, particularly in the kitchen.  Baking at 30 feet versus 6,000 feet has a measurable impact, a kombucha batch takes about a week less, and holy hell, Batman, do NOT turn on the oven on a summer's eve or you will never be able to sleep.  While we do have central air, I'm a bit militant about actually turning it on.  By a bit militant I mean we've only turned it on once and I ceded because it was JT's birthday. Anyway, a perfect way to combat the blazing heat is to enjoy a cold beverage and a cold dinner. Enter raw foodstuffs!

Zucchini is pretty awesome. It grows so abundantly even if you don't have a plant you are sure to be bombarded with neighbors' and coworkers' excess throughout the summer. Zucchini is great grilled and sauted and really really great as a raw pasta. You can cut it into lasagna slabs or peel wide noodles off or you could go wild a buy a spiralizer. Do you need one? Absolutely not. Would you like one? Probably.  It may seem a bit excessive but I don't even want to discuss statistics about recent temperature trends here. It's fun. However you slice it (pun definitely intended), zucchini pasta makes for a refreshing summer dish.  So here is a recipe for marinana sauce and noodles. Another GREAT variation is a with a mint pesto.

2 zucchinis, thinly sliced (with a vegetable peeler) or SPIRALIZED

1 tomato
1 red pepper
8 sundried tomatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 c fresh basil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/4 t dried thyme
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1/4 t salt
1 clove garlic (optional, it can be intense)

Put all but the zucchini in a food processor (or blender) until creamy.  Mix with zucchini. Garnish with chopped nuts, fresh basil, sliced onions., or pretty flowers (like nasturtiums!). You'll probably need a glass of chilled rose.