Mexican Mocha Coconut Sorbet

Sorbet experiments have become a weekly indulgence around our house as the temps have warmed up. If you have an ice cream maker, pull it out of the cabinet and dust it off: now is the time to use it! Coconut milk makes a quick and easy (albeit high-cal) base for dairy-free frozen dessert. Ingredients:

• 1 Can of full fat coconut milk
• 2 T (or more, to taste) of Ibarra chocolate para mesa
• 2 T Sugar
• 1 T pink peppercorns, crushed plus extra for garnish
• 1/4 vanilla bean - seeds scraped from bean only.
  

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in bowl, taking care to reduce any coconut milk chunks.
2. Taste for level of sweetness and spice.
3. Add to ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions. Mine took about 25 minutes.

Simple & Memorable Salad Dressings

The weather is getting warmer, so many vegetables are traveling shorter distances on their way to your plate. It's salad season!

We have concocted a list of summery, savory salad dressings to get your taste buds buzzing and hopefully inspire you to try some of your own.

Lime Dressing – A dressing with a soft tang.

• Juice of one Lime
• A couple tablespoons of oil (olive or walnut)
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Dijon-Maple Dressing – A heartier dressing.

• A couple tablespoons of oil (olive)
• One big teaspoon of dijon mustard
• A splash of vinegar (I have been using the sherry wine vinegar lately)
• One teaspoon of maple syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves, chopped
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

Smoked Paprika - A robust dressing.

• A couple tablespoons of oil (olive or walnut)
• A splash of sherry wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Focaccia

We hosted another dinner party last night for a handful of friends who are visiting.

Justine baked a magnificent focaccia, based on a recent recipe from Saveur. Baking in the iron skillet is usually a success. We had the baking stone in the oven as well, and the overall cooking time was a little over half what the recipe stated.

A Short Rant About Bulk Food and Whole Foods

One of the biggest negatives (and there are many) to Whole Foods’ monopolization of natural food in the United States is their decision to not sell foods in bulk.* Overuse of packaging in food products has been one of the major problems with food quality in this country, and it also has significant ramifications for health and nutrition and, of course, environmental degradation.

Buying food in bulk, though certainly not a silver bullet, reduces one’s carbon footprint by reducing the use of harmful plastics and scarce tree resources and encourages the purchase and consumption of healthy amounts of calories. You buy just what you need, not what the manufacturer decides is the most profit-efficient amount to sell you.

As I was growing up, part of the natural food store experience was perusing the bulk bins. It was easy, economical and actually even fun to shop that way. Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco has wonderful bulk food sections. In my neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, The Garden and Tops both have meager bulk sections… but I still try to buy whatever I can from there, since even a tiny bulk section is a rarity in New York City.

On a related note, we recently picked up some mind-blowing maple syrup from Green Wind Farm in Vermont (grade B of course), and it comes packaged in a mason jar, which encourages reuse of containers and the purchase of bulk food. Great idea! Now we need soymilk in traditional, returnable milk bottles.
*Other than some meats and fresh vegetables which are not pre-packaged at WF. Trader Joe’s, on the other hand, only sells pre-packaged fresh vegetables and should be condemned for it.

Carrot Beet Moroccan Salad

Moroccan Carrot Salad is always a hit at summer dinner parties and picnics. There is something clean and striking about fresh carrots, some spice, lemon juice and olive oil. Simple, but compelling flavors.

Here is a twist on that salad, using beets and smoked paprika. The end-of-winter beets are lightly steamed so as to better match the consistency of the marinated carrots, while the smoked paprika adds a more complex flavor update to the merely-hot traditional cayenne or crushed red pepper. A winter vegetable + a summer favorite makes a bracing spring dish!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound carrots, cut into thin discs
  
• 5 medium beets, cut into thin discs
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 lemons' worth of fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

Method:

1. Steam beets for 6 minutes. Remove from steamer and dunk in cold water to prevent overcooking.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients. Taste for spice & seasoning and adjust if needed.
3. Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Served chilled or at room temperature.

Baked Oatmeal with Curried-Caramelized Onions

A couple days ago I made baked steel cut oats, inspired by a Bitten blog post. It came out quite good, with a less-consistent texture than the typical boiled oatmeal. Then, I topped it with some caramelized onion that had some basic curry powder (maybe 2 tsp) and a pinch of salt mixed into it, inspired by Tea & Cookies blog. The slight-sweetness of the onions combined with the bitter tones in the curry combined nicely.

This savory, simple and healthy breakfast trend that I've bandwagoned onto is making the usual before-work breakfast rush into something a little bit better. Check out both those links for more great ideas. Bitten blog is a must read!

Dark and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies (vegan)

I stumbled across these delicious cookies by adding molasses to my normal chocolate chip cookie recipe. I was a little nervous about it at the time, so imagine my surprise when I got to work and received a text that they were the best in a long time. Just goes to show, sometimes (and just sometimes) when you do something impulsively in the kitchen it turns out well. This, however, can not be said of attempts at a grapefruit, chocolate, chili turnover (using week old pastry)... live and learn.


Ingredients:

1 cup Butter (this time I used Earth Balance instead of Spectrum)
1 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup White Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg-Replacer
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 Tbspn Molasses (generous)
2 cups Chocolate Chunk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Firstly, blend the butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl until you have a nice sticky sweet paste. Then, add vanilla and egg-replacer and blend until smoothly and evenly distributed.

Nextly, using the same large mixing bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Try your best to blend until all is incorporated. Still looks dry, right? This is when you reach for the molasses and drizzle about a tablespoons worth over the dough. Mix that in well and…Eureka! The texture is just like the cookie dough you grew up with. Toss in the chocolate chunks and you’re golden.

Lastly, pull out that baking sheet and place dollops of cookie dough on it. The shape I go for is roughly the size of a large chestnut. Squish the dough down a little bit, fill up the sheet, and stick it in the oven (middle rack, always middle rack with cookies). Mine took about 12 minutes to bake, but you’ll probably want to check after 10 minutes on the first batch just to make sure, you want the bottom edge to look a bit darker.

Let them cool once their out and then enjoy!

A very tasty cookie with a definite future in ice cream sandwiches.

Vegan Pie Crust

VEGAN PIE CRUST
Not as hard or counter-intuitive as you might think…

Double crust:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbspn sugar (or preferred sugar substitute)
16 Tbspn (2 sticks or apprx 1 cup) shortening*
1/2 tspn salt
6 (about) Tbspns ice-cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

To begin: measure out all the dry ingredients, pour them into a large mixing bowl and blend it all together. Once you feel the sugar and salt are both evenly distributed you can add the shortening(room temperature); incorporating it with slicing and fluffing motions rather than stirring. I usually just use one or two butter knives, arming each hand with a knife allows double slicing action. The result you’re seeking is an almost pebbly texture…the flour and butter have come together to make small pellets.

Add the ice-cold water one Tbspn at a time, making sure to use your knives to sort of “fluff” as you blend. You want to add just enough water so your pellets get bigger (pellets to pebbles to small rocks) and everything gets moist.**

Form your pastry dough into two even balls. Place the one intended for the bottom half of the pie onto a well-floured surface (and I mean well). Smoosh down the ball to make a thick pancake and then flip over, revealing the floured side (making sure to flour below once more). Take your well-floured rolling pin and, as steadily and evenly as possible, roll the pastry dough out from the center. Switch directions every so often to ensure an even crust and symmetrical circle (ish); you’re trying to achieve something roughly 11 inches in diameter. To get the pastry off the surface and into the pie plate I use a very thin, long metal spatula, slowly easing it between being careful not to lift until you’re sure it isn’t sticking anywhere. Flip the pastry in half and then again (so you have a folded quarter of a circle left) and place that in the pie plate, very carefully unfolding so as not to tear.***

Add the filling and repeat the same process with the other ball. Once the top crust is on be sure to seal your edges and if you’re ambitious you can make them wavy by using your finger tips to shape the ridge.


*I recommend using vegetable Crisco…I can sense your hesitation, but really I've experimented with many different forms of shortening (butter, spectrum palm oil, and earth balance; never canola oil...but I've heard terrible things). This makes the best pie crust, just don't go spreading it on everything or eat a whole pie daily and poor health side effects shouldn't come into existence.

**Beware of adding too much water as this will make paste instead of pastry, but don’t under-hydrate either as this will make crumble. But don't give yourself a headache thinking about it because that makes bad pie karma.

***If you do tear you can press it back together and it should be fine. If it’s too dry and won’t stick dip your finger in ice water and smooth it over the break.

Mixed Berry Pie

Mixed Berry Pie

4 cups berries (blackberries and raspberries are nice)
3/4 cup white sugar (or preferred sugar substitute)
4 – 5 tspns cornstarch*
2 Tbspn maple syrup
Some dots of margarine
Small handful of flour
Couple pinches of brown sugar

Double Recipe of Vegan Pie Crust

Over preheated to 375 degrees

Combine the berries, white sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl and mix gently (folding rather than stirring) with a wooden spoon.

Prep the bottom of the pie shell by sprinkling a bit of flour and brown sugar to absorb some of the moisture from the berries (avoiding a super soggy bottom).

Pour in the berry mixture, then drizzle maple syrup (I love maple syrup and try to put it in as many things as possible) on top, and randomly throw on some pellets of vegan margarine (just to give the taste some more body) but no more than 2 tspns worth.

Place your pie crust lid on top. Here, I’ve used the “lattice” technique, which basically means I sliced my rolled out pastry into strips and strategically placed them on top.**

Then place in the oven (middle rack) and bake for about 35-45 minutes. You want your pastry to brown and get crisp. If it looks as though the crust is browning faster than the rest of the pie you can pull it out of the oven and cover just the edge with tin foil (making a halo out of it).

Let cool completely before serving…it tastes real nice with some ice cream.

*this is a guess-timate, I might have used more than that and I’ll let you know how it came out

**My first time!

Semi-sweet cornbread from Post Punk Kitchen

Friend Matt turned us on to this vegan, non-sweet cornbread version from the Post Punk Kitchen (which is crucial reading, by the way). Awesome results from baking in the iron skillet.
This is a great quick fix for Sunday morning... or make it on Tuesday night and savor it with coffee before work over the next couple days. Use it to accompany your homemade chili or Mexican-style soup concoction. It will become a standby. Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups soymilk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350, line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper or spray the bottom lightly with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, wisk together the soymilk and the vinegar and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt).
Add the oil and maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Whisk with a wire whisk or a fork until it is foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix together using a large wooden spoon or a firm spatula. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Slice into squares and serve warm or store in an airtight container.

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=39

My modifications to the recipe included using an iron skillet instead of a baking pan. I replaced the maple syrup with sugar, since I was out of maple syrup. I also increased the baking powder by 50%, and used corn oil to grease the iron skillet, as I was out of Pam. Turned out wonderful! I suggest baking with your iron skillet as much as possible.

Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa

One of my classic recipes; it is always a fave at parties and potlucks. It is a very basic, intensely-flavored tomatillo + chipotle gesture that you can use as a base for perpetual salsa experimentation... just don't add bacon or olive oil to your salsa or I will hunt you down.

This salsa and all salsas are best with authentic tortilla chips (Californian "totopos"), which if you've never had them are deep-fried corn tortilla triangles, salted afterwards. Anything else masquerading as a tortilla chip is simply not. Corn tortillas are made out of corn, water and lime.
Such chips are easy to make yourself, though quite labor intensive. As far as I can tell, impossible to buy in NYC, but west coasters should find them in most supermarkets - Casa Sanchez makes a great product. If anyone knows a brand or location to buy 'em in NYC, get in touch with me asap!!

RECIPE: Tomatillo-Chipotle salsa

MAKES: a lot

INGREDIENTS:

12 Tomatillos - shucked and washed.
1 bunch Cilantro - wash and remove stems.
2 - 5 Chipotle peppers (dried) - stems removed.,
May be found at mexican markets or gourmet stores (Whole Foods)
3 - 4 green onions (white onion can be sub'd)
salt, to taste

METHOD:

1. Add tomatillos to large saucepan, cover with water and put on high heat for 12-15mins until tomatillos are tender.
1B. Extra Credit - Roast tomatillos in oven rather than boiling.
2. Carefully blend tomatillos in blender or food processor in small amounts. If cores remain chunky, separate those out with a spoon and blend again separately, or discard.
3. Refrigerate pureed tomatillos for 15 minutes. (This step is optional, but it is easier to salt and spice the salsa to taste if it is cool.)
4. Grind dried chipotles in blender, food processor or bladed coffee grinder. Should be coarse - 1/4" granules. Larger chunks are fine. For more smokiness and less heat, break chipotles in half and discard seeds prior to grinding.
5. Finely chop 1 C of cilantro leaves. Coarsely chop 1/2 C of cilantro.
6. Remove root end and most of green part from green onion. Finely dice white and pale green part.
7. Stir cilantro, 3 T of the chipotle and green onions into pureed tomatillo.
8. Chill in refrigerator until room temp or colder.
9. Salt to taste (don't overdo it if eating these with salty tortilla chips) and add more dried chipotle if additional smoke/heat flavor is desired. Additional onion and cilantro may be added to taste.

Note: Since this is a semi-fresh salsa, the flavor will deepen and combine as it sits. It is ready to eat as soon as it has cooled, but be prepared for pleasant flavor shifts. It will probably get spicier over time.

Tangy Ginger-Lime Cookies (vegan)

These vegan cookies can be as intense as you want them to be depending on how much ginger and lime you add.

Fresh Ginger Cookies:
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbspn freshly and finely grated ginger* (I usually put in more like 3)
3 or 4 vigorous shakes of powdered ginger
3/4 cup butter (I use the Spectrum Palm oil shortening)
1 cup White sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg (or egg replacer mix)

*I use the micro grater for the ginger, but I think any fine grate should be fine...bigger chunks would give it a bursting kick.

Lime Icing:
1 Lime
2 cups powdered sugar (and maybe a little more)
1 Tbspn soy milk OR juice of one lime

FOR THE COOKIES: Preheat oven to 350 degrees

As with most cookie recipes, first combine sugar and butter until it all gets smooth and pasty. Add molasses and grated ginger to the paste. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients (if you want to get fancy you can sift the flour to remove lumps). Combine dry with wet (adding to the wet bowl seems easier) and mix until you have a even texture and it all sticks together and on to the spoon. Lastly, add the egg replacer (advice from Rob) and stir vigorously (the wetness should help if the cookies look a little toooo fall-aparty).

Take out your cookie sheet and place it on the counter. Dig your fingers into the dough and extract a small bit (a little larger than the size of a chestnut) and roll between the palms of your hands to make a nice small ball. Place ball onto cookie sheet and flatten a bit using your palm or your fist to make a healthy looking disk. Repeat this process until you've filled your baking sheet (I'd say leave a good 2 inches between your disks since then tend to spread out in the oven).

Bake 10-12 minutes or until the cookies begin to look a tad crispy. Remove and allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

FOR THE LIME ICING:
Grate all the green skin off the lime (micro grater again) accumulating a pile equivalent to 2 loose Tbspns. Now, either juice your lime and use the liquid for moisture in the icing, or discard and use milk instead (one results in super tangy and the other in not-so tangy). Measure out powdered sugar (starting with less is usually a good idea) and briskly mix in your liquid of choice, adding in small increments until your icing is a sufficiently wet. I tend to make mine a bit runny because it hardens and glazes the cookie nicely (also, the icing is very very sweet and too much can cause a tooth ache)

Once the cookies have cooled a bit you can drizzle your icing on top to make a nice thin puddle on top. Extra icing can be stored in the fridge and used for other things like cake.