combustication

This is a very easy recipe to put together if you have some overripe bananas in the kitchen. I was trying to cut the fat down from my usual banana bread recipe that I adopted from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook circa 1999 and managed to only use 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, with some very moist and tasty results. I made one large loaf and two mini loaves for my neighbors and the initial report is that this is a damn fine banana bread.

Sunday Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3 overly ripe bananas
1 egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup oats (not instant)

To Do:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Beat the eggs and add the sugars, yogurt, oil and applesauce. Smush the bananas and mix with the wet ingredients and add vanilla. Sift the flour and baking soda together in a separate bowl and add slowly add to the wet mixture. mixing just a bit - over mixing makes the bread rubbery. Add oats and mix till incorporated.

Bake for about an hour - until the loaf is a golden brown. Test the center with a skewer to make sure it’s done. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan and then pop the bread out and cool completely on a baking rack.

After browsing through Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” at a friends apartment while job hunting in September, I fell in love with the man. Oh, I’ve been a fan of the Minimalist NYT’s column, but How to Cook Everything was thick tome full of delicious, yet easy, sounding recipes. Bittman recently came out with “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian” and after much deliberation (do I really need another cookbook), I bought it and I am really glad. The book is full of clever tips, excellent flavor combinations and a great section on legumes and grains. Last night I made potstickers using Bittman’s dumpling dough recipe and my own filling and they were fantastic. I also made the Green Tea Broth with Udon Noodles recipe and really enjoyed the interesting flavor combo of green tea and starchy noodles. Very simple, very easy and very very good. I highly recommend giving this one a shot.

Green Tea Broth with Udon Noodles (adopted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Ingredients:
water
1/4 cup green tea leaves (I used Japanese Sencha Green Tea - very hearty flavor)
8 oz. udon noodles
salt
freshly ground pepper
mirin, soy sauce or sugar (to taste)

To Do
Put 7 cups of water in a large pot and bring to a rolling boil. Let sit for a few minutes and then add 1/4 cup of the green tea leaves. Let steep for 5-10 minutes, until you have a golden and fragrant (broth) (I did it for about 12 minutes) and then strain the tea, throwing away the leaves. Bring to a rolling boil and throw in a couple of pinches of salt. Add the udon noodles and bring to a boil, then add 2 cups cold water and bring to a boil again. Cover and simmer until noodles are done, about 7-8 minutes. Grind some pepper, taste for salt and add the mirin, sugar or soy sauce if you want.

Bittman then goes on with a list of things you can add to the soup (just one example of how versatile this book is). I added some chopped up local tofu and scallions to the soup during the last 2 minutes of simmering and a couple of dashes of tamari and then a squirt of red chili paste for heat. Once again, a very simple and delicious recipe.

Lest you think there has been no cooking or baking in the place, I present you with this delicious photo and recipe (below). There has been bread baking, red velvet cake and cookie baking and some bi bim bop making. All delicious.

Indian Spiced Butternut Squash with Quinoa & Chickpeas

Ingredients

1 medium butternut squash
2.5 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion (sliced into crescents)
1 tsp. cardomom powder
2 tsp. red curry powder
1 tsp. coriander
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
bits of dried mango (optional)
1 can chickpeas
garam masala powder
salt
pepper

To Do

Preheat overn to 400F. Rinse and let chickpeas drain while you cook the other stuff. Put 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and sautee the onions for a few minutes. Add all of the spices and a bit of salt and pepper and let simmer while you tackle the squash.

I find that the best way to cut and cube a squash is to use a heavy duty Y-vegetable peeler and peel all of the skin off. Then, cut slices into the neck and cube those slices. Chop the bulb part in half, scoop out the seeds and string with a spoon. Slice and cube. Nice and easy.

Place the prepped squash in the frying pan and cover it with the onion and spice mixture. Place in an baking dish and cover with a lid (or tight fitting foil) and bake until squash is tender - about 30 to 40 minutes.

Remember the chickpeas? Pat them dry with a paper towel if they are still a bit moist. Place in a bowl and add the 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and the garam masala powder and mix well. Place on a lined cookie sheet and bake with the squash for about 30-40 minutes - bake longer if you want them crunchy.

The last bit is the quinoa. Rinse it under cold water and strain and then toast it in a dry skillet. Boil two cups of water, add a pinch of salt (the mango too!) and quinoa. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes or until the water has been absorbed.

Everything should be finished around the same time! Place quinoa in a bowl, top with butternut squash and chickpeas. Enjoy!

I’m back. For real. Specifically, in a lovely apartment in Brooklyn with tons of light and a fantastic kitchen. After the bike trip and the ranch, Phil and I bravely attempted to survive living in the suburbs while we looked for jobs and an affordable apartment. For the record, I really hate commuting on Metro North and I am much happier to deal with NYC’s subways and buses. Regardless, I’m cooking/baking again and will be posting up pics and recipes soon. In the meantime, take a look at the new kitchen and examine the fliers for two upcoming MiG shows for this week. One is a crazy loft party (BYOB style) and the other is Stereoactive/Hot Rocks party with a ton of good bands and drink specials and free beer. Whoo!

Tonight Phil and I leave for Seattle to start our bike adventure. I have been busy training (falling while attached to my clip pedals), moving and partying it up before I leave. I have a book of postcard stamps and I’m not afraid to use ‘em, so if you want a postcard, please e-mail me your address (email is found on the about page).

Of course, I’m looking forward to this trip, but a little scared. The thought of biking about 800 miles is pretty nutty right now and I’m sure it will seem even crazier after our first day of biking. We’ll be leaving Seattle and biking to Portland on July 1st - wish me luck!!

I don’t know where the idea of grilling pizza came from. I remember reading about it a few years ago and giving it a shot and it being completely amazing. Grilled pizza has a delicious and slightly charred bottom and a great (slight) charcoal taste. If you like pizza and BBQing, this is the summer recipe you must try. The above pizza was made during some Memorial Day shenanigans - I think we made six pizzas or something with various toppings. Who needs burgers?

Grilled Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (make your own, use store bought, or buy from a pizzeria – they will be happy to sell some to you and it’s super-fresh)
Olive oil
Mozzarella (or cheese of your choice)
Tomato sauce (use your own or get a small can of tomato sauce for pizza – it’s a little thicker than usual)
Toppings (basil, rosemary, olives, sautéed mushrooms, olives, whatever)

To Do:

First, heat up your BBQ. You can use a gas grill or charcoal – I prefer charcoal, but use what you’ve got.

In the meantime, stretch out the pizza dough to pie size of your choice (don’t make it bigger than your grill!) and form a crust. If you’re using store/pizzeria-bought dough, divide the dough in two and shape one pizza. Put the remaining dough under a damp towel until ready to use.

Dust the underside of a cookiesheet with flour and place the pie on top. Brush the top of the pie with olive oil and turn the cookiesheet over the BBQ (so that the olive oil crust-y side is facedown on the grill). Brush the top of the pie with more olive oil and using a metal spatula flip the pizza. Now you should have the crust-side facing up, begging for toppings.

This is the fun part! Ladle on some sauce and spread it around like a pro. Add some cheese. Put the toppings on. IMPORTANT!!! DO NOT OVERLOAD YOUR PIE! It will be tough to get off the grill and the dough may tear leaving you with a cheesy mess. Remember, you have another ball of dough waiting to be used, so don’t overdo it. Cover your grill with the lid and just chill for a few seconds. Have a sip of beer or lemonade. Open lid and look at your pizza. Is this cheese all melty? Does it look delicious? If so, take it off the grill and serve; if not, put the lid back on and cook for a few minutes or keep the lid off to keep an eye on it. This is BBQing, not rocket science.

Serve your pizza to amazed guests. You can BBQ anything!

Some combinations to try:
- Cheddar cheese, soy crumbles (or meat) and salsa for a Mexican-style pizza
- Olive oil, goat cheese and basil for a fresh pizza
- Mozzarella, tomato sauce, pineapple (and ham) for Hawaiian pizza
- Anything you ever wanted to get on a pizza but were to afraid to ask for

It’s been too hot in NYC to cook or bake really. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it - not so fast. There are some things that I’ve made that should have been posted a while ago, but remember, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity…or something.

I present to you the Watermelon Boozer. Perfect for sipping on a terribly moist day. You can even omit the booze, but it’s not as fun.

Watermelon Boozer

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped up seedless watermelon that’s been in the fridge a few hours
6 ice cubes
as much vodka as you can handle

To Do:

Put the ice cubes in a blender or food processor and blend a bit.

Add the watermelon and vodka and keep blending until you get a nice slushy consistency. Add more ice, watermelon or vodka as needs be.

This is not a crazy recipe and will serve two people - or one very hot person.

Fiddleheads are not people obsessed with fiddles, although it could happen. Fiddleheads are young fern leaves of the ostrich fern. How they got fiddleheads from ostrich is beyond me (ah, it refers to how the leaves look like the end of a fiddle), but I’ve been reading about them on many a food blog and got curious. Why are they so special? For starters, they are a very season-specific item, which gets foodies all in a twitter. They’re also super-expensive, which is funny because you can apparently just pick them from the side of the road in Maine (see Millwhistle for some Maine/Brooklyn sassiness). The Coop had them for about $4 a pound, which is a lot cheaper than $8+/lb (at the farmer’s market too). Another seasonal and very expensive item is ramps. Ramps are a member of the leek and onion family and are another foodstuff I’ve been hearing a lot about. The Coop also had them at a much more reasonable price then elsewhere, so I got some. Not a lot (because they were almost all out), but some, and they are awesome.

Cleaning the fiddleheads well can be a pain in the butt, but it’s not as bad as some people make out.

Once clean, the fiddleheads and ramps are a snap to prepare – just sauté them in a bit of olive oil and butter and a dash of salt. I made a very light sauce to go with them for dinner and the whole meal was pretty great. The ramps were really flavorful – a mix between onion and garlic and a little bit of bitter greens all at once. The fiddleheads were okay. They tasted like the ends of asparagus and looked really cool, but I wouldn’t pay a gazillion dollars for them.

Fiddleheads, Ramps and Onions – oh my!

Ingredients:

1/2lb fiddleheads
as many ramps you can get your hands on
½ red onion, very finely chopped
olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons water
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tahini
juice of 1 lemon
brown rice or couscous or some nice grain
cooked lentils (optional)

To Do:
Start off by boiling a large pot of water. Clean the fiddleheads by trimming the ends off close to the coil and placing them in a large bowl of cold water. Swish ‘em around and rub off any brown bits. Drain and repeat the swishing and rubbing. Drain again and place in the boiling water for 10 minutes – this is to guarantee against any harmful bacteria. Drain and plunge into ice-cold water to shock them. Set aside.

Trim the ends of the ramps and take off and leaves that are inedible. Roughly chop the leaves, but keep the bulbs intact. Sauté ramps with a bit of olive oil and salt. Place them on a plate and keep any oil in the pan. Add some butter and then sauté the red onion on low heat until it caramelizes. Throw in the fiddleheads and sauté with the onions for about 5 minutes on medium heat.

Make the sauce by whisking the yogurt, water, tahini, lemon juice and some salt and pepper to taste. The sauce should be on the thin side, so add more water if necessary.

Assemble a plate by placing brown rice (or other grain) on the bottom. Place lentils on top of the rice (did this for protein, but you don’t need them) and then add the ramps on top with the fiddlehead mixture. Drizzle with sauce and serve.

For those of you interested in cooking news, recipes, tips and general fun, Serious Eats is a great website. A bit NYC-centric (which is fine by), they’re trying to branch out and definitely have a friendly vibe. How friendly? They have cookbook contests like crazy! In fact, I won a cookbook from Serious Eats! WHOOO! I really like cookbooks. Sometimes I don’t use them as much as I feel like I should because I like to improvise, but I love looking at recipes and pictures and imagining flavor combinations…

Anyways, I managed to win a copy of The 25th Anniversary Silver Palate Cookbook and I am pretty psyched to try some of the mousses - Lime Mousse and Ginger Pumpkin Mousse to be precise. Updates will be posted.

In other fun recipe news, if you’re a Harry Potter fan and always been intrigued by Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes and other delicacies that haven’t been co-oped by JellyBelly, check out this website that has a whole bunch of crazy Potter recipes. I kinda dig her Peppermint Toads.

Food in books has always been interesting to me. I’m trying to think back about books that have made me want to get up and make something, but I can’t think of anything offhand. A high tea is something I’ve always wanted. Ideas people?

There is actually a book that compiles recipes from literature. Anyone want some Dump Punch from Pride and Prejudice?

I remember reading about this recipe quite a while ago from Clothilde’s awesome blog Chocolate and Zucchini (she’s also just come out with a cookbook that looks fabulous) and never quite got it out of my head. Apparently, yogurt cake in France is to chocolate chip cookies over here - a simple childhood recipe. I tweaked the recipe a little bit and added some berries and fresh whipped cream (see below) for a quick and summery dessert. The cake was perfect. Super moist with a lovely crumb and a slightly crisp top makes for good nibbling. It’s pretty much a one bowl affair and takes less than 10 minutes to prep and only 35 minutes to bake. Perfect for summertime!

Yogurt Cake w/Blackberries and Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

For cake:

2 eggs at room temperature
1 cup of lowfat vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnut oil (or vegetable oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or just use a total of 2 cups AP flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder

For whipping cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp vanilla

blackberries

To Do:

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a large tart pan or 9-10″ cake pan. Mix the flour and baking powder together in a two cup measuring cup and set aside. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl and then throw in all of the other wet ingredients (vanilla, oil, rum and yogurt). Once combined, add the flour and baking powder mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring slowly until just incorporated. Do not overbeat. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 35 minutes. The top should become a golden brown (emphasis on golden). Insert a toothpick in the center to make sure the cake is set. Put the cake aside to cool.

In the meantime, if you want whipped cream, chill the bowl and beaters of a mixer for about 10 minutes. Place cream in the chilled bowl and mix on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until you get your desired whipped cream consistency.

Serve a slice of cake with a dollop of whipped cream and some berries. Summer on a plate.