סעלעריע װאָרצעלעך Celeriac Tendrils

I was very excited to get hold of this celeriac from Lucky Dog Farm at the Union Square Greenmarket.  It differs from most celeriac you are likely to find in two related particulars.  It is really clean, and all the little roots are still attached.  Having washed and peeled countless celeriacs while translating, annotating and adapting Fania Lewando's Vegetarian Cookbook I can tell you this makes life much happier, and we need every tendril of happiness we can grasp.  I am planning to  to use the bulb of the celeriac in one of the stuffing/dressing dishes, and to make tiny little celery French fries with the roots.

Collard Greens with Spices and Ginkgo Nuts

These thrilling greens are adapted from a recipe The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi that calls for greens cooked with either plantain or parsnip. It seemed likely that plantains and parsnips are dissimilar enough that I just might dare try something else. What plantains and parsnips have in common, I thought, was richness, starchiness, mild sweetness, and protein. Ginkgo nuts have all of these, as well as a luxurious satiny texture that combines beautifully with all kinds of mixed vegetables. I harvested these ginkgo nuts by shaking a couple of trees immediately in front of my building. Local food cannot get much more local than this.

Collard Greens with Spices and Ginkgo Nuts

4 ounces ginkgo nuts (40 nuts)

1 bunch collard greens or other greens

6 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

3 tablespoons chickpea flour (gram flour, besan)

½ teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon sweet paprika

1 rounded teaspoon kosher salt.

Roasted salted almonds (optional)

Lemon wedges (optional)

Remove the outer husks of the ginkgo nuts, and shell and cook them according to the instructions here.

Wash the greens well and remove the stems. Cut the leaves into a fine chiffonade. Bring salted water to the boil and cook the greens until they are quite tender, and strain. This will take 25-35 minutes for collards, less for other greens. You can drink the pot liquor or reserve it for another recipe.

Melt the butter in a wok or wide kettle. Add cumin, mustard seeds and chickpea flour and cook, stirring for about five minutes, or until the flour has darkened, and the seeds pop and sizzle. Add the nuts, turmeric, paprika, and salt and cook for another few minutes. Add the drained greens and toss and cook until everything is nicely hot. Serve with lemon wedges and chopped roasted almonds, if you so desire.

This recipe is my contribution for Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging (founded by Kalyn) and hosted this week by Winnie at Healthy Green Kitchen

Dragon's Langerie Beans

Pretty snazzy eh? These heirloom beans are sweet and flavorful raw, and will lose their distinctive striations when cooked, but I still prefer cooked beans. On Sunday I will be preparing a recipe, possibly involving these beans, from What Did You Eat in loving memory of Sher,
whose remarkable work and generous spirit will continue to be an inspiration to me as long as I cook, write, and eat.

ETA: OK, Here's what I did. I cooked them in boiling salted water for eight minutes along with two large garlic cloves (and subsequently used the bean-water for pasta, ans then the bean-pasta water for sesame sauce for the pasta. When the beans and garlic cooled I sliced the beans, diced the garlic, minced half a bunch of curly-leaf parsley from Monkshood farm, and drizzled everything with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Salt to taste. Stripey they are not, but delicious and life-giving they are, this bean I had never seen. Have you sen these, Sweetnicks??We waited for shabes to indulge in these delicious tender beans so we could make a shehekheyonu. It truly is a remarkable this when life allows you to taste a new type of bean. Submit to the wonder.

Hemp Shtshav (Schav) שטשאַװ מיט קאָנאָפּליעס

There is nothing in the world like shtshav (I didn’t say there is nothing better; I just said there is nothing like it). The word shtshav in Yiddish refers both to the delicate lemony herb sorrel (rumex acetosa) and to the cooling and restorative soup in which it is most famously employed. Shtshav is high in oxalic acid, and is best enjoyed along with something high in protein and fat. In its most familiar version, shtshav is cooked with eggs. In this deconstructed version, hardboiled eggs are served alongside. I thought it was about time to try a vegan and non-allergenic alternative, and hemp seeds seemed to be the ideal medium to enrich a pareve shtshav. This worked even better than I thought—I will make it again even when I do not need to be keeping vegan. Other cooling herbal creations are to be found at Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging, this week at Briciole.

Hemp Shtshav (Schav)

2 or 3 bunches of sorrel (about 1 pound)

1 cup ( 6 ounces) hemp Seeds

about 1 tablespoon salt, more to taste

1 diced summer onion

diced Kirby cucumbers (about 5)

lemon wedges

Wash the sorrel well, and trim the stems. Even if you share my enthusiasm for stems in general, you need to remove stems from sorrel.

Put the sorrel, hemp seeds and salt in a pot with about two quarts of boiling water and cook for about forty minutes. Puree very thoroughly in a blender. Serve cold with, diced cucumbers, summer onion, and lemon wedges.

שטשאַװ מיט קאָנאָפּליעס

2 אָדער 3 בינטלעך שטשאַװ (אַן ארך 1 פֿונט)

1 טעפּל קאָנאָפּליעס

1 לעפֿל זאַלץ

5 אוגערקעס, צעשניטן

1 זומער־ציבעלע, צעשניטן

רעפֿטלעך לימענע

װאַשט'ץ גוט די שטשאַװ, און נעמט'ץ אַראָפּ די שטענגלעך. טוט'ץ שטשאַװ אַרײַן אין אַ טאָפּ מיט קאָנאָפּליעס, זאַלץ, און 2 קװאַרט װאַסער. קאָכט'ץ אַ 40 מינוט און מאָלט'ץ זײ גוט אָפּ אין אַ בלענד־מאַשין. דערלאַנגט'ץ מיט אוגערקעס, ציבעלע, רעפֿטלעך לימענע און אַ ביסל יאָגורט, אױב סע גלוסט זיך.

Peas de Resistance

These peas are so named because even as part of a lavish menu, they really stood out as something unusual. Like my other favorite pea preparation, this recipe uses the richness of ground nuts as a foil for the tender juiciness of the peas. You can use English shelling peas, sugar snap peas, or a combination of the two.

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging, now more herbal than ever, is to be found this week at Sidewalk Shoes.

Peas with Pistachio and Parsley Sauce

1 cups shelled peas (from about 1 pound peas in the pod. You can double the amount of peas if you have more)

½ cup pistachios

1/3 cup yogurt

salt

leaves from about 6 branches of parsley (loose ½ cup)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic scape, chopped (or one scallion, or a clove of garlic)

½ teaspoon salt

Line a strainer or colander with cheesecloth or paper towels and allow the yogurt to drain while you prepare the other ingredients. Blanch the peas briefly in boiling water. Decorticate the pistachios, or skip this step, but it is lovely if you do. Place half the pistachios in a blender or processor with the yogurt, about ½ teaspoon salt, parsley, olive oil, and garlic scape. Blend, drizzling in a few spoonsful of water as needed to make a smooth sauce. Mix the peas and sauce in a shallow baking dish. Chop the remaining pistachios and scatter them on top. Bake until bubbly and slightly browned. The original recipe suggests 15 minutes at 500F. I gave them half an hour at 375F with a minute under the broiler.

Vegan Jambalaya

Well, my visit to New Orleans was very productive and great fun. It was hot, but not nearly as hot as I feared it might be. Thanks to some very unusual meteorological anomaly, it was actually hotter in New York than in New Orleans the week I was away. I ran into Paul Prudhomme in front of his restaurant. We met seventeen years ago at the Fancy Food Show in New York (“Chocolate Lady!” he shouted, “Where’s the chocolate?”). He didn’t remember, of course, and he has slimmed down so radically I almost didn’t recognize him either. I do hope he is enjoying the best health.

This recipe was a bit of a seat of the pants improvisation to make something inspired by my Louisiana sojourn and use as many of this week’s greens from my CSA as possible. It falls somewhere on the spectrum between Jambalaya and tsholnt (chulent). I bet you didn’t know such a spectrum even existed. I will be trying variations to bring this recipe a little closer to something recognizably Cajun, perhaps adding celery and green peppers, but this first attempt turned out to be so delicious I need to record it anyway. This is wonderful the day it is made, and a little better every day after that as long as you have some. If you want to divide the recipe in half to make a more manageable amount, that should be fine. Other herbal hybrids are to be found at Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Joanna at Joanna’s Food.

Vegan Jambalaya

1 pound (about 2 cups) Camellia brand red beans (or other red beans)

3 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

1 tablespoon kosher salt

5 garlic scapes, cut into 1-inch lengths, or tops of green onion

olive oil (be very liberal)

2 large onions, diced

1 28-ounce can of tomatoes (I used Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes), crushed

1 pound oyster mushrooms, broken up

radish or Japanese turnip greens from 1 or 2 bunches of radishes or Japanese turnips (6 to 12 ounces chopped leaves),

1 bunch mustard greens (about 6 ounces chopped leaves)

1 pound (about 2 cups) brown popcorn rice

a bit more salt

1 ½ teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

1 or more teaspoons Cajun spice mix from Kitchen Witch or other seasoning

Crystal brand Louisiana hot sauce

Soak the beans overnight. Drain them and put them in a pot or slow-cooker with salt, bay leaves, garlic scapes, peppercorns, and water to cover. Cook to a satiny creaminess. This took about two and a half hours for me.

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep kettle, and cook the onions. Break up the oyster mushrooms. Leave the caps whole, and dice the stems. Add mushrooms to the onions and cook until deeply fragrant. Add the rice, greens, and tomatoes, and crumble in the seasonings. Stir and cook for a few minutes and add 2 quarts of water. Continue cooking, stirring now and then, until the rice is almost done. You may need to add more water. I am afraid I did not keep track this time of how much water was needed. Add the beans and their liquor and cook slowly until perfect.

Herbed Parsnip Soup with or without Matzo Balls

Parsnips are at their sweetest and most intense in the early spring, and I have always felt they are particularly well-suited for peysekh. This was the soup I made for the last days of Passover this year, and it proved an amenable home for matzo balls. Other vegetables I love at this time of year are celeriac and parsley root (not the same vegetable as parsnip), both of which you may add if you have them on hand. As usual, I prepared a very large pot of soup. The recipe should be fine if you want to make only half. Find other restorative herbal brews at Laurie's amazing Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska (you really want to see this wonderful blog!).

Herbed Parsnip Soup

Olive oil (be liberal)

2 or 3 largish onions, sliced

5 cloves garlic, sliced

2 medium carrots, diced

5-7 ribs celery, diced

2 pounds parsnips (about 7 parsnips), sliced or diced

1 parsley root (optional), peeled and sliced

1 celeriac (optional), peeled and diced

¼ bunch parsley (about ¼ cup minced leaves)

¼ bunch dill (about ¼ cup minced leaves

1 fresh chile (optional)

salt, pepper and paprika

matzo balls or hemp seed balls (optional)

red pepper puree (optional)

cream or milk (optional)

Prepare the vegetables. Since everything is going to be pureed, you need not make the slices as uniformly perfect as usual. Heat olive oil in a wide, heavy soup kettle. Add sliced onions and cook for ten minutes over low to moderate heat until soft and translucent. Add the remaining vegetables and continue to cook another ten minutes or so. Add about three quarts of water and a tablespoon of salt. Raise heat until the soup boils, and then lower the heat and simmer, adding more water if needed, for close to an hour, or until all vegetables are quite relaxed. Puree the soup in batches, adding the parsley and dill. Taste for seasonings. If you wish, you may add some cream or red pepper puree, or both, and, of course, matzo balls or gluten-free hemp seed balls.

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Spiced Black Lentils with Cilantro

I was thinking I wanted to make something like Girgir Aloo (lentils with potatoes), but I did not have any aloo, and I didn’t really have any garden variety girgir either. My very last lentils of the year were some exquisite black beluga lentils. Tiny and very pretty and flavorful. Lovely with basmati rice—on our way to a kitnyes-free household

Spiced Black Lentils with Cilantro

Olive oil (be liberal)

2 medium onions, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ teasppons whole cumin seeds

2 cups black lentils

1 cup prepared tomato sauce (or 6 ounces tomato paste)

1 ½ teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons paprika

salt

½ bunch cilantro (1/2 cup minced leaves)

Heat oil in a heave saucepan and cook the onions over a moderate flame until soft and translucent, about fifteen minutes. Add the garlic and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant, another five minutes or so. Wash and pick over the lentils, and add them to the pot with the spices. Give a stir and add five cups of water and about two teaspoons of salt, and cook for about an hour or until the lentils are quite tender. Stir in the cilantro and taste for seasonings. Serve with rice, or whatever else you are finishing up before peysekh.

Have a look at Weekend Herb Blogging, back home at Kalyn's Kitchen this week, for other seasonings of the season.

Hemp Seed Cookies (Gluten-Free)

This dough is vegan and wheat free, but most decidedly not sugar-free.

Wheat-Free Vegan Dough for Cookies or Tart Shells

2 cups (12 ounces) raw almonds

4 ounces hemp seeds

2 tablesppons golden flax seeds (or regular flax seeds)

¼ cup chickpea flour

1 cup sugar (These were quite sweet. Less sugar would probably be just fine)

½ cup coconut oil

Grind the almonds to a fine meal in a processor or grinder. You will have about 2 ½ cups of almond flour. Toast the hemp seeds to a light golden color and grind them to a fine meal. Grind the flax seeds (or you can buy ground flax meal to start with). Combine the ground nuts and seeds with the chickpea flour in a processor with the sugar and coconut oil, or mix by hand to form a cohesive dough. Chill the dough for an hour or so. This makes a delicious sable-type pastry. It will not hold together quite well enough for homentashn, but you can make wonderful thumbprint cookies (prune filling will be a nice match) or tart shells.

Kalyn provided the original inspiration for this recipe with these adorable almond cookies. See all the Weekend Herb Blogging entries by Ramona at The Houndstooth Gourmet this week.

Prune Filling (Povidl) for Cookies, Tarts, or Homentashn (Hamentashen)

Plum illustration from Knoop's Pomologia, Nuremburg, 1766, reproduced from Pomona's Harvest by H. Frederic Janson, 1996

For this filling, I specifically bought prunes with the pits in, because I recall reading or hearing that you get more flavor if you cook stone fruits with the stones. I can’t really tell if this is true or not without doing two batches of prunes side by side (perhaps this is a good project for peysekh, the joyous holiday currently hurtling towards us like a barn owl who has just spotted a dormouse). In order to give the correct measurement for pitted prunes, I weighed the pits after I removed them. I would only do this for you.

Prune Filling (Povidl)

12 ounces (about 2 cups) prunes with pits (or 10 ½ ounces pitted prunes)

1 bay leaf (optional)

grated orange and lemon zest (optional)

part of a vanilla bean (optional)

1 tablespoon slivovitz (optional, but really nice)

½ to 1 cup honey or agave

put the prunes in a saucepan with 3 cups of water and the bay leaf or vanilla bean or citrus zest if you are using them. Bring to the boil and cook for about ten minutes. Cover and leave the fruit to steep several hours or overnight, adding a bit more water if everything is not quite covered.

When the prunes are cool, they will be very soft and you will be able to remove the stones easily. Remember as well to remove the bay leaf or vanilla bean, if you added them earlier. Pit the prunes, and grind the pitted fruit together with the cooking liquid and some honey or agave in a processor or other grinding-modality. Stir in some plum brandy (slivovitz) if you wish.

Find other herb-scented seasonal sweets at Weekend Herb Blogging, this week in the capable hands of Katie at Thyme for Cooking.

Herbed Hemp Seed Balls

These turned out a bit more like falafel balls than that other kind of ball (this makes me think it might be worthwhile to try hemp seed falafel next time), but they are still delicious on their own as finger food, and really just perfect along with pasta and sauce.

Other herbals and herb balls for the weekend are to be rounded up by Kel at Green Olive Tree.

Herbed Hemp Seed Balls

¼ cup (2 ounces) golden flax seeds, or regular flax seeds

1 ½ cups (8 ounces) hemp seeds

olive oil (be liberal)

3 or 4 onions, diced

5-7 cloves garlic, minced

½ bunch parsley (1/2 cup minced leaves)

½ teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled between your fingers

salt, pepper, and paprika

Cover the flax seeds with ½ cup water and allow them to soak several hours or overnight. Grind the soaked flax to a paste. Toast the hemp seeds in an iron skillet until light golden brown. Lightly crush or process the seeds to a rough meal. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the diced onions until soft and translucent. Add the minced garlic and continue cooking until soft and fragrant. Mix together the hemp and flax seeds, cooked onions and garlic, minced and crushed herbs, and seasonings, adding more water as necessary to make the mixture hold together. Form into walnut-sized balls.

Put the hemp balls in an iron skillet or other ovenproof vessel, and drizzle them with olive oil. Bake at 350 for forty minutes or until they are nicely brown. You can also try cooking them on the stovetop, but this did not work quite as well.

Get Dressed and Cook Something (Red Lentil Soup)

You can see the soup here in a Colombian clay pot. It is unlacquered—that’s the black river clay itself. I got it a beloved shop on Greenwich Avenue called “Be Seated.” The fabric on which it is sitting is a jacket I bought in the same shop. So you see, Be Seated sells clothes and pots, but no chairs. They should really call the store “Get Dressed and Cook Something”

This recipe, like almost all my soup recipes, makes a very large pot of soup. You may halve or third quantities to get a more manageable amount. It started out as a vegetarian adaptation of the Minestra di Esaù in Edda Servi Machlin’s Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews, but it has become almost unrecognizable. I really should have written about this wonderful soup by now. It is one of the reliable workhorses of the rotation. I make this all the time. Other herbal staples are to be found at Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Lia from Swirling Notions.

Red Lentil Soup with Parsley and Garlic Paste

3 cups red lentils (1 ½ pounds)

olive oil (be liberal)

4 onions

3 or so carrots

½ head of celery (about 7 ribs) peeled and destringified

(optional) 1 or 2 dried red chiles, such as chilcostles

2 6-ounce cans tomato paste

½ bunch flat parsley

3-5 cloves garlic

coarse salt

Wash and sort the lentils. You may set them to soak while you prepare the vegetables, if you like. Heat oil in a large soup kettle. Cut the onions into quarter-inch dice and add them to the oil. While the onions are simmering, dice the carrots and de-stringified celery. Add them to the pot, along with the chiles, if you are using them, when the onions are quite soft. Continue stirring and cooking until the vegetables have relaxed. Add the tomato paste and stir and cook a while longer. Now add the drained lentils and about four quarts of water and some salt. Simmer for about an hour, removing the foam from the surface and adding more water as necessary, until everything is tender. When the soup is just about ready, mince together the parsley and garlic with some kosher salt. Stir the herb paste into the soup.

Hemp Seed Filling for Tarts, pastries, and Homentashn (Hamentashen)

Well, of course I am beginning to think of poppy seed fillings, even if we have (blessedly) an extra month to think about them this year, and it seemed to me that the qualities of richness, mild bitterness, and just general seedlikeness (seediness?) that makes mon, or poppy, such an ideal pastry filling all work in favor of hemp seeds too, maybe even more so. My very first hemp seed filling is so delicious that I will be making many more, possibly a hemp and poppy mosaic sometime. Erin from The Skinny Gourmet will be hosting Kalyn’s Weekend Herb Blogging, where you will find all manner of plant-based sweetness.

Hemp Seed Filling for Tarts, pastries, and Homentashn (Hamentashen)

2 cups hulled hemp seeds

1 cup milk (in this recipe, you can easily substitute soymilk or coconut milk)

½ cup agave (or honey)

4 cardamom pods

2 pinches salt

Zest from one largish lemon, grated or microplaned

Toast the hempseeds in an iron skillet to a light golden brown, stirring constantly. Do not toast them quite this dark, because they are headed for a little further cooking. When the toasted seeds have cooled a bit grind them to a coarse meal in a processor or grinder. You could probably leave them whole too, if you feel like skipping this step. Put the ground seeds in a small saucepan with the milk, agave, cardamom pods, and lemon zest. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring until the mixture has thickened. Allow the filling to cool and for heaven’s sake don’t forget to remove those cardamom pods! You can now use the filling for homentashn, strudl, or little tartlettes like these, made with Maida Heatter’s chocolate shortbread dough.

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Bamboo Honey Vanilla Pudding (Japanese Knotweed)

I have been making this pudding, or something like it, almost every week for the last three months. Bamboo honey is made from Japanese knotweed, or Polygonum cuspidatum which looks like bamboo, but is unrelated. The knotweeds are related to buckwheat, and the honey, like buckwheat honey, is dark, spicy, and rich in life-giving antioxidants. Bamboo honey is milder and fruitier than buckwheat honey, and perfectly suited for any desserts made with milk, cream, or yogurt. The Yiddish word for knotweed is גריקע (grike), so Japanese knotweed is probably יאַפּאַנישער גריקע (yapanisher grike). The word in Chinese is 虎杖 Hǔzhàng. Ulrike will be rounding up other herbal gifts of the weekend at Kuchenlatein.

Honey Vanilla Pudding

6 cups milk

1 fat bourbon vanilla bean

1 ½ cups bamboo honey, or other honey, or agave

pinch salt

2 1/2 ounces cornstarch (1/2 cup, lightly spooned)

2 eggs

2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla-scented bourbon, or vanilla, or bourbon, or neither

Pour five cups of the milk into a large, heavy saucepan. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the milk. Add the vanilla pod, honey, and salt, and bring to the simmer, stirring with a flat-bottomed whisk, or other suitable implement.

Combine the remaining one cup of milk with the cornstarch (if you have a medium-sized bowl with a pouring spout, that is just the ticket), and whisk well. Add the eggs and whisk to combine.

When the hot milk begins to boil, ladle two or three cups into the cornstarch mixture, whisking constantly. Now pour the tempered cornstarch mixture into the saucepan, and continue whisking until it thickens and returns to the boil. This will take about five minutes and is the only little bit of effort this recipe demands. Remove the pan from heat, but don’t stop whisking just yet. Add the butter and bourbon if you are using it and whisk to combine. Pour the pudding into about eight little bowls or glasses, or a serving bowl. This is the part of the recipe where almost all cookbooks will advise you to cover the surface if you do not want the pudding to form a skin. Whom do they think they are fooling? Of course you want the pudding to form a skin! The skin is really the whole point of the exercise. And the honey and vanilla, of course. Chill the puddings and serve as is, or with cream, or even just with some wonderful organic whole milk. If you happen just to have made some chocolate agave glaze, I don’t see how that could hurt. You may also substitute agave for the honey to make a lighter, low-glycemic version that is also wonderful.

I get bamboo honey from Tremblay Apiaries at Union Square on Fridays, and Bourbon vanilla beans and extract from The Vanilla Company.

Vanilla-Scented Bourbon בראָנפֿן מיט װאַניל

קאָן זײַן אַז איך בין אַ ביסל צו צאַרטפֿיליק, אָבער עס טוט מיר טאַקע װײ אַז מען זאָגט אַז װאַניל איז פּראָסט אָדער פּשוט. װאָס גײט זײ אָן?

אַז עץ האָט שײטלעך װאַניל פֿון מאַכן מאָראָזשנע, אָדער פֿערשקע־זופּ, אָדער עפּעס אַזױנס, קאָנט עץ אײַנװײקן אין קענטאָקעװער בראָנפֿן (װיסקי). עס לאָזט זיך אין מױל אַרײַן. עס איז גאָרנישט פּראָסט אָדער פּשוט אין דעם.

בראָנפֿן מיט װאַניל

1 פֿלאַש קענטאָקי אָדער טענעסי בראָנפֿן

3 שױן אױסגעקרײצטע שײטלעך װאַניל

װײקט'ץ אײַן די שײטלך אין בראָנפֿן אײן מעת־לעת (24 שעה)

מען קאָן נאָך נוצן די שײטלעך אין װאַניל־צוקער.

Perhaps I am a little too fragile, but I feel just terrible when folks refer to vanilla as “plain.” What could they be thinking?

When you have vanilla pods left from making ice cream or gaspeacho, you can use them to make some wonderful vanilla-infused bourbon. Use the bourbon in recipes, or enjoy as is. There is nothing plain about it.

Vanilla-Scented Bourbon

1 bottle bourbon or Tennessee whiskey

3 scraped vanilla pods, rinsed and dried

Infuse the pods in the whiskey 24 hours. Rinse and dry the pods and add them to your vanilla sugar.

Other perfumed creations are to be found at Weekend Herb Blogging, wafting towards us this week from Anna’s Cool Finds.

שױט
pod

שײטל
small pod, matrimonial wig

װאָס גײט זײ אָן?

What could they be thinking?

Twice-Baked Squash with Sage

I was in at the Conuco farm stand in Union Square, about to purchase that handsome Musquee de Provence from Stephanie, and fancying myself unobserved when I was spotted by a keen-eyed neighbor. “Are you buying squash?!?” She cried, shocked and appalled in equal measure, “you want more squash? I’ll give you squash!”

My neighbor’s reaction is more reasoned than you might at first guess. We are both members of the CSA of Stoneledge Farm, and even for our always miraculous farm, this was mamesh an annus mirabilis for squash. I have lots of leftover cooked squash, the better to make this cozy little gratin, for instance.

See Kalyn’s Kitchen for this weekend’s roundup of herbal strategies.

Twice-Baked Squash with Sage

Cooked squash

Butter

Parmesan

Salt

Pepper

Sage leaves

Additional butter

Butter a baking pan of the appropriate size. Fill it halfway with cooked squash, sliced, diced, or gently fork-mashed into shape. Dot with butter, grated parmesan, and salt and pepper liberally. Fill the dish with more squash, and top with additional butter, salt, pepper, and parmesan. In a small skillet, fry some sage leaves in butter (12 sage leaves will cover a 1 ½ quart dish nicely). Pour the sage leaves and their butter over the top of the squash and bake for about 30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

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antioxidant-rich foods,

Herbed Chestnut Dressing or Stuffing

This is the first time I have cooked with dried chestnuts. This is also, no lie, the first time I have ever cooked with any kind of chestnuts at all, so I have never yet done the whole chestnut-peeling operation, a trial I imagine I will have to face sooner or later. I first learned about dried chestnuts from Clotilde at Chocolate and Zucchini. She used them to make this carrot soup and these interesting little galettes. Chestnuts have been on my to try list for a while, and the dried version seemed like the easiest kind to use, so I was especially glad to find organic dried chestnuts at my local grocer last week. Even right out of the bag these guys have a deep woody, nutty aroma, which becomes mellower and even more wonderful once they are cooked.

Yippee! I finally cooked chestnuts! will certainly be using them again.

Herbed Chestnut Dressing or Stuffing

Olive oil

1 onion, diced

7 ounces shallots (or another onion), diced

1 pound carrots, sliced

8 ounces dried chestnuts (1 ½ cups), or substitute 8 ounces raw chestnuts, or one pound cooked chestnuts

3 fat pinches dried thyme

8 sage leaves (1 teaspoon dried sage)

salt

8 cups or so torn or cubed bread (I used half a challah and two whole grain rolls)

1 pound (2 packages) wild rice tempeh, or other tempeh.

½ cup balsamic vinegar

yet another onion, finely diced

6 eggs

salt, pepper, and paprika

dry sherry

Heat oil in a large kettle and add the shallots and onions. Cook and stir a few minutes and add the carrots, chestnuts and herbs. Continue cooking and stirring until the onions and shallots are quite soft, about fifteen minutes, and pour in water to cover and add about one and a half teaspoons salt. Allow to cook until the chestnuts are soft, adding more water as needed, about forty-five minutes.

Toast the bread-bits in the oven until quite crisp and brown.

Heat some more oil in a large iron skillet. Crumble the tempeh into the skillet and cook over high heat until deep golden on all sides. Pour on the balsamic vinegar. Sizzle sizzle sizzle.

Beat the eggs and season with salt, pepper, and paprika. When they are cool enough to handle, combine the toasted bread, braised tempeh, and stewed chestnuts and carrots in a large bowl. Add the eggs, sprinkle on a bit of dry sherry and mix, mix, toss, toss.

You can use this dressing to stuff a pumpkin like this beautiful musquee de Provence, or just bake at 350 it in an oiled ovenproof dish, covered, for about 45 minutes.

See other herbal dreams fulfilled in Vanessa's Weekend Herb Blogging roundup at What Geeks Eat.

The Yiddish words for chestnut are קעסט and קאַשטאַן (kashtan and kest) The elegant and graceful chestnut tree is the symbol of the city of Kiev.
Food and Drink, Recipes, Cooking, Food, Vegetarian, vegetables, antioxidant-rich foods, Weekend Herb Blogging, whb,

Dinosaur Tibias (Delicata Squash Pakora)

One thing you just gotta have around your kitchen, especially if you sometimes cook for the wee’ans, is chickpea flour. You need the chickpea flour, also called besan, or gram flour, because it is a miraculous protein-rich ingredient that will provide a base for your batters without making them starchy or floury. It will create meltingly crackling crisp crusts for pancakes like these zucchini latkes, and you will be able to make instant fritter batter, or pakora batter without wheat, eggs, gluten, or dairy products.

I recently got some delicious delicata squashes from my CSA and, I could not but notice when I cut into them, that the cross section of a delicata squash looks exactly, but exactly, like the cross section of a dinosaur tibia, and we already know that some members of my family are much more likely to eat food if it looks like a dinosaur (or some part thereof). I remarked as well that the donut-shape is the universal ideal fritter shape and so I made these relatively quick and easy squash fritters. Real pakoras would have a more delicate and complex batter with ghee and many other spices, and you would sift the flour before measuring, but when you can’t do that, and you need fritters now, you want to have this recipe up your sleeve.

Dinosaur Tibias (Delicata Squash Pakora)

1 delicata squash (about one pound)

1 cup chickpea flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cumin

oil for frying

Slice the squash crosswise about ¼ inch thick. Remove the seeds and fibers (use these for toasted squash seeds).

In a bowl, mix the chickpea flour with salt and cumin about one half cup of water. Add a little more water a tablespoonful at a time until the texture is creamy and comfortable for dipping and coating the squash slices.

Heat oil in a wide skillet or wok. Dip the delicata rings in the chickpea batter and shallow-fry them on both sides until golden brown. Drain on brown paper or towels.

Look at them sizzle! Ah, what isn’t better for being batter-dipped and fried?

See the roundup for Weekend Herb Blogging at The Expatriate’s Kitchen.

Hemp Seed Tabouli (and a Belated Introduction to the Hemp Seed Project)

So, what’s with all the hemp seeds, already? My enthusiasm for these rich little seeds has bewildered some of you, and I admit I did not know anything like this was going to happen when I began developing hemp seed recipes a little over a year ago. These guys are close to miraculous in their protein content, omega 3-6-9 profile, fiber and, of course, antioxidants. None of this would be of any interest to me at all if I could not also make them delicious.

You can look up information on hemp seed nutrition at Manitoba Harvest, Nutiva, and Living Harvest. I wish I could refer you to site that did not also sell hemp seeds, but so far the otherwise comprehensive USDA nutrition reference site has taken no notice of hemp seeds. One very reasonable explanation for this is that hardly anyone eats them, and the reason for that is they just don’t have enough good recipes. This is what motivates the hemp seed project In Mol Araan. A few traditional hemp seed recipes come from Lithuanian Cuisine. I have made up some recipes ex tempore based on what was most fresh and plentiful at the time, like these awesome, crisp, meltingly tender zucchini pancakes. I made other recipes, like this tabouli-inspired salad, by jumping off from preparations traditional in other cuisines. This hemp seed tabouli has the advantage of being even more delicious than traditional tabouli, as well as being wheat-free, gluten-free, low-glycemic, and high in protein and antioxidants. See Sweetnicks for similarly virtuous creations.

Hemp Seed Tabouli

2 cups hemp seeds

¼ cup olive oil

4 sprigs fresh mint (¼ cup mint leaves, minced)

½ bunch parsley (½ cup parsley leaves, minced)

3 cloves garlic (I used roja garlic this time)

juice from two lemons

salt

Tabasco sauce

Tomatoes, peeled and seeded (you may use no tomatoes or up to four or five)

Lettuce, if you wish

Put the hemp seed s in a bowl and pour in enough hot or warm water to cover them. Allow to soak half an hour or so. Drain the seeds, reserving the hemp-milk for baking, soup, or smoothies. Mince the herbs together with the garlic cloves and one teaspoon salt. Dress the hemp seeds with oil, minced herbs, and lemon juice. Cut the peeled and seeded tomatoes, if you are using them, into medium dice, and mix them into the hemp salad and scatter a few on top. Serve the salad on some pretty lettuce leaves or just a pretty little bowl.

This recipe appeared in Yiddish here.

דער רעצעפּט געפֿינט זיך אױף ייִדיש דאָ

Peasant Farming in Muscovy, by R. E. F. Smith (London and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977) lists hemp among the taxable grains in 17^th century Russia (193). I just have to add that from a footnote on the same page we learn that the pairing of one unit of rye and two of oats was known as yuft’. It just bakes my potatoes to learn that there is a word for one unit of rye and two of oats. I am just going to be using that word at every apropos moment.

Uchiki Kuri Squash Soup with Lentils

Holy cow! I like winter squash, in fact I like winter squash a whole lot, but I have never before been the least bit tempted to try it raw. Just before I left I got this smashing uchiki kuri squash from my CSA. As soon as I cut it open the fresh, sweet, fruity, and completely irresistible smell filled the kitchen and I just had to slice off a bit and have a bite. The dense flesh is juicy and sweet. I cooked them anyway, but these kuris present a whole new level of squash possibility, clear, pure, and beautiful. This Beverly Sills of squash will make you smile from ear to ear and fill your heart with sunshine.

Sometimes these are orange all over, but look at those snazzy green speckles! The skin is tender, so you don’t need to peel them.

Late October Lentil Soup with Uchiki Kuri Squash

1 dense-fleshed squash such as uchiki kuri or kabocha, about 1 ½ pounds after trimming

3 cups lentils

olive oil

3 medium or largish onions, diced

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds

several stalks of celery, peeled, destringified, and sliced (just one stalk is fine. So is a whole bunch)

salt and pepper

leaves from one bunch of parsley, chopped

parmesan rinds, if you happen to have some

lemon wedges, ditto

Cut the squash open and remove the seeds and fibers. Cut the flesh into cubes or oblate parallelepipeds that will fit comfortably in a spoon, and set aside. Wash and pick over the lentils. If you like, you can let them soak a bit while preparing the vegetables. Heat oil in a soup kettle and add the diced onions and cumin seeds. Stir and cook until the onions are relaxed and add the celery. Add the drained lentils and about three quarts of water. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat and simmer for thirty minutes. Add the squash, parsley, and parmesan rinds if you are using them. Cook for another half hour or until the squash is quite tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. You may serve this soup with parmesan, or lemon wedges, or both, and it is just right on its own.

See Nami Nami, where Pille will be rounding up this Weekend's Herb Blogging creations.

Food and Drink, Recipes, Cooking, Food, whb, Weekend Herb Blogging,
antioxidant-rich foods