Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Pad Thai

I made this delicious pad thai dish last week and for the first time in my efforts, I finally got pad thai right.  I love a good tofu pad thai, but in the past, things never really came out the way I had hoped.  However, this dish, which I consulted a variety of recipes for before coming up with my own, was a huge success.  My husband loved it as well and it yielded plenty of leftovers that were quickly gobbled up. Tamarind paste is an essential ingredient for any pad thai sauce.  I love the tangy flavor of tamarind in a variety of dishes, and it lends a nice flavor to the pad thai sauce here.  I got mine in Curry Town at Foods of India.

Sasha's Vegetarian Pad Thai
12 oz (one package) dried flat rice noodles (pad thai noodles)
3 T tamarind paste
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 T Sriracha (spicy chile sauce)
1 bunch scallions
2 small onions
1 package (15 oz) extra firm tofu
1/2 cup canola oil
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
 5 large eggs
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts (chopped)

Soak the noodles in boiling hot water until softened, about 25 to 30 minutes.  Make sure they are done before you combine them in with the dish.

To make the sauce, combine the brown sugar with the tamarind paste, sriracha and soy sauce and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.  Set aside.

Cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes.  Cut the scallions and onions.  Saute the onions in a tablespoon of canola oil on low heat until browned, about seven to eight minutes.  Set aside.  Lightly scramble the eggs with a 1/2 tsp of sea salt and cook the eggs in a wok until cooked through.  Break up into chunks and set aside. Stir fry the scallions, cooked onions and garlic for about a minute in a bit of canola oil.  In a wok, add about 6 T of the canola oil and fry the tofu cubes on all sides until browned.  Combine the tofu, egg, noodles and onion mixture.  Add the noodles and sauce and combine well.  Finally, mix in the chopped peanuts and serve.

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Pad Thai

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian White Pizza

As you probably know by now, I am a big fan of homemade pizza. I wish we had a grill so I could try grilling it on the crust as well, but we've been making some pretty delicious pizzas on our pizza stone for awhile now.  Making your own pizza at home doesn't take as long as you think.  You just need a mixer to combine the dough quickly and an hour of time for the dough to rise, and from there it's pretty smooth sailing.  A couple weeks ago, my friend Robin was visiting from Seattle and we made this pizza together using plenty of tasty vegetables.  The peppadew peppers (pimentos) were a nice touch - they add a bit of mild spice to the vegetable flavors.  This might be one of my favorite homemade pizzas yet!


Sasha's Pizza Crust
1 cup warm water
2 packages dry active yeast
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt


Sasha's Vegetarian White Pizza
broccoli, diced
1/4 lb peppadew peppers (pinentos) diced
1/2 large red onion, chopped
3 T Shop Rite's basting oil with herbs
1 package park skim milk mozzarella, shredded
1 package monterey jack, shredded

Combine the ingredients for the dough.  Before combining, activate the yeast with the sugar in the warm water for about 10 minutes until it bubbles and is frothy.  Allow the dough to rise in a well oiled bowl, covered, for about an hour.

Stretch the pizza dough onto a pizza stone.  You can make your own pizza stone as well, a project I've been itching to do - out of a piece of granite from the hardware store.  Dust the pizza stone with cornstarch first!  Top with the cheese (I mixed in the ShopRite basting oil with all kinds of great herbs into the cheese mixture).  You could also buy fresh basil, thyme and parsley and other herbs and cut them up and add to the cheese.  It makes the pizza - trust me!  Top with the broccoli, pimentos and red onion.  I also considered adding some yellow zucchini but felt it didn't need it.  Bake in an oven preheated to 400 for 30 minutes.  Cut into slices and enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian White Pizza

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Mushroom Soup

I haven't made a recipe from Ad Hoc at Home in awhile, but it is a great Keller cookbook, so I decided to give another one of his soups a try. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about mushroom stoup, but this soup, made with a homemade mushroom stock, was an absolutely wonderful vegetarian soup, and a nice, healthy soup. Surprisingly, making mushroom stock is actually quite easy and far less time-intensive than making a homemade chicken stock. The soup itself calls for Hen of the Woods mushrooms. There are no other mushrooms quite like these - they are extremely flavorful, funny looking and fantastic. I've cooked with them before when I got them at Wegmans, but this time I couldn't get my hands on them in time. It's Ok though, because just as Keller suggests in the book, oyster mushrooms are a perfectly reasonable substitute.

Thomas's Keller's Mushroom stock from Ad Hoc at Home (this is 1/2 of the original recipe)
2 lbs button mushrooms
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
greens from one leek, chopped
3 quarts of cold water
1/4 head of garlic, crushed, skin left on
1/4 bunch flat parsley
1/4 bunch thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 T black peppercorns

Keller suggests pureeing some of the vegetables  (specifically the mushrooms), but I decided not to do that, and just left them as is in the soup. It worked out fine and the broth had a fantastic mushroom flavor that soaked it up from the mushrooms. Put all of the vegetables in a stockpot and add the water, then bringing to a boil. Add the garlic, herbs, bay leaves and peppercorns and put the pot on simmer. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Then, strain the soup, keeping only the stock. Keller suggests doing this using an ice bath, but you don't really need that either. Measure the stock. If you have more than two quarts, reduce it in a saucepan, simmering. The mushroom soup recipe on page 119 of Ad Hoc at home (see below) requires eight cups (two quarts) of the mushrooms stock, which is why I cut the recipe in half.


Thomas Keller's Mushroom Soup from Ad Hoc at Home
Canola oil
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced leeks
1 cup diced onion
kosher salt
1 1.2 tsp minced garlic
1 small bunch of tuscan kale (cavolo nero)
1 1/4 pounds (2 or 3 large) yukon gold potatoes
1 sachet (1 bay leaf, three sprigs of thyme, 10 black peppercorns and 1 clove garlic)
2/3 lb hen of the woods or oyster mushrooms
1 1/2 T butter
1/4 cups minced shallots
1 T fresh thyme
8 cups homemade mushroom stock
freshly ground black pepper
5 to 6 T garlic puree (I used five)
1 to 2 T red wine vinegar (I used one)
extra virgin olive oil

Heat three T of the canola oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, leeks, onions and a pinch of salt. Cover with parchment paper and cook slowly for about 25 minutes. The vegetables will have released their liquid, Keller says, but will not yet be tender.  Take off the parchment lid and add the garlic. Cook for another ten minutes until the carrots are tender. Remove the ribs from the kale and set aside for later.

Peel the potatoes and slice crosswise into large pieces, then quarter. Put the potatoes, herb sachet (which you can make using cheesecloth) and 2 tsp of salt in a saucepan. Simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, which took me about 15 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.

If using hen of the woods mushrooms, break them apart. If you are using oyster mushrooms, you will not need to do this. Heat some canola oil and add half of the mushrooms, seasoning with salt and cooking for about a minute to let the mushrooms absorb the oil. Add half of the butter, shallots and thyme and saute until mushrooms are browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Then repeat with the other half of the mushrooms.

Add the mushroom stock to the stockpot with the carrots and other vegetables and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Blanch the kale in a large pot of salted water until just wilted and tender. Add the mushrooms, kale and potatoes to the pot, and add the vinegar at the end. Serve hot.

Sasha's Kitchen: Ad Hoc's Mushroom Soup

Sasha's Kitchen: Spring Vegetable Risotto

Spring is in the air, which means that Passover is around the corner - no leavened bread or items that can be used to make bread for eight days (or in my lazy case, six or seven). This also means no rice, grains, corn etc. But, before Passover starts tomorrow tonight, I decided to get in one more fabulous grain dish, and one that is just *oh*so*perfect* for spring, a spring vegetable risotto. Thus, this was our Sunday night dinner. Risotto is fairly simple to make and vary recipes once you get the technique down of slowly cooking the risotto while reducing the wine and chicken broth. At that point, you can pretty much add just about anything to risotto. I have made the gamut of risottos, from tomato thyme risotto to asparagus risotto to various mushroom risottos to even truffle risotto. This time, I decided to prepare a risotto that is inspired by the spring - one that uses just about ever fresh spring vegetable that I could get my hands on (plus some pattypan squash, which is more of a summer vegetable, but I couldn't resist). This turned a delicious risotto that is perfect for the springtime, and also pretty healthy as well.

Sasha's Spring Vegetable Risotto
1 1/2 cups arborio (risotto) rice
4 cups of low sodium chicken stock
2/3 cup white wine
2/3 cup thinly sliced sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
1 1/2  cups sweet peas or English peas
1 1/3 cup thinly sliced pattypan squash (stems sliced off)
1 large handfulls fresh baby spinach
8 stalks white asparagus, chopped into small pieces, bottom ends of stalk discarded
2 cloves of garlic, diced
4 T olive oil
6 sprigs of thyme
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

First, prepare the vegetables to they will be read to add to the risotto at the right time. The different vegetables will take different amount of times to cook, so it is important to add them in the proper order. First, slice the sunchokes and saute over medium to medium-high heat in 2 tablespoons oil for about ten minutes. Then add the pattypan squash and saute over medium heat for another five minutes before adding the white asparagus, garlic and peas. Saute until everything is just cooked (but not overcooked and mushy) for about 5 to 10 more minutes. If you need to, you can add additional olive oil to the pan.

Meanwhile, prepare the risotto by adding the arborio rice to the remaining tow tablespoons of olive oil, cooking for a couple of minutes over medium heat. Add the white wine over medium heat and allow the wine to reduce for about five minutes, at least by half, before adding the first cup of chicken stock. Simmer over medium heat to reduce each cup of chicken stock before adding the next. You should need about three and a half to four cups in total (about one quart). Once the last cup of chicken stock is almost reduced, stir in the vegetables. Add two large handfulls of baby spinach, which will shrink a couple minutes after it is added to the pot. Continue until the chicken stock is reduced to the texture of risotto (not too runny) and then stir in the parmesan cheese (you can leave this out if you prefer ). Serve hot. Note: you can use vegetable or mushroom stock in lieu of chicken stock to make this dish vegetarian.

Sasha's Kitchen: Spring Vegetable Risotto

Sasha's Kitchen: Sweet Pea Pesto

Pesto time - one of my favorite pasta dishes, and each time I make a pesto, I like to try something a little bit different. A few months ago, last time I made a pesto dish, I was visiting my parents in Rochester and we made a spicy pesto with caramelized U12 scallops, which was delicious. Yesterday, I received my most recent shipment of food from ShopRite as part of the Potluck Blog Panel. Each of the shipments have a theme, and the theme this month was the 40th anniversary of the ShopRite Can-Can Sale which was a winter sale on canned food that started in the 1970s after the holidays where customers would stock up on canned food for the winter.

This is the perfect time of year for some quality canned products in the dead of winter in the northeast (hello, I think blizzard number two is coming this weekend) since fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce this time of year. I was planning on making a simple fettuccine pesto for dinner, but decided to jazz it up with the delicious can of sweet peas that I found in the box. I had never head peas in my pesto before, but it was a perfect combination and a wholesome and delicious dish. I made my pesto from scratch. I like to experiment with different pestos, including a hazelnut pesto, but this time I did a traditional basil pesto. If you wish, you could add caramelized scallops to this dish, but I kept it vegetarian this time, and mixed in some goat cheese, which adds a light and creamy texture to the pesto and is much healthier than heavy cream.

Sasha's Sweet Pea Pesto
Bunch of fresh basil, stems removed
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
4 oz fresh vermont goat cheese, crumbled
fresh pasta (I bought fresh fettuccine rather than the boxed kind for this recipe)
salt and pepper to taste
1 can of ShopRite little gem sweet peas

First prepare the pesto in a food processor by pureeing the olive oil with the basil and pine nuts until smooth. Set aside and cook the pasta and warm up the sweet peas in a pot. Mix in the sweet peas and goat cheese with the pasta, and mix the pesto to coat. That's it - this is a nice and easy dish which is perfect for wintertime and is simple, easy and heathy, too!

Sasha's Kitchen: Sweet Pea Pesto

Sasha's Kitchen: Parsnip Apple Fall Soup (and an upcoming product review)

CSN Stores has offered a product for review through their site, which offers a world of great products, from cookware like Le Creuset to barstools and I look forward to reviewing a product from their store. I have been using a very old ice cream maker for many years (truly old school) and I look forward to reviewing a new, updated and automatic ice cream maker from CSN Stores.  I can't wait to try it out to make some fall pumpkin spiced ice cream.

Pumpkin soup is one of my favorite fall soups. Last year, I made two delicious pumpkin soups - a pumpkin cashew soup and a pumpkin pear soup.  Nothing is better in the fall then a delicious root vegetable soup. Although I plan to get back into the pumpkin soup groove soon, this time I decided to try making a soup with one of my favorite root vegetables - parsnips. What better combination than with fresh New York fall apples? I was inspired to create my own parsnip-apple soup by the recipe for parsnip-apple soup in Tyler Florence's new cookbook. However, my recipe is totally different. Tyler adds oysters and bacon which are totally not needed in my vegetarian rendition. I found the paprika to be a great complement as well, and I much preferred the crisp tartness of honeycrisp apples - my all time favorite apple. The result is slightly, but not overwhelmingly sweet - it is a natural sweetness from the apples, as I did not add any sugar. It also has that wonderful fall crispness. This was a real treat and a soup I will surely make again. Be sure to use farmer's market fresh apples and parsnips. This soup is all about your starting material so it is imperative to use the best local produce!

Sasha's Parsnip-Apple Soup
2 1/2 lbs of parsnips
2 large honeycrisp apples (use three if the apples are small)
2 large granny smith apples
2 cups of heavy cream
2 quarts of low sodium chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
paprika to taste
parsley to garnish
4 T olive oil
1 onion, diced

First, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pot with the peeled and chopped parsnips and the diced onion. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes until the parsnips are softened.  Add the peeled and chopped apples and cook over medium heat for another ten minutes. You may need to add the rest of the  olive oil at this point.  Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then add the heavy cream and cook over medium heat until the parsnips and apples are full cooked.  Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before pureeing in batches in the blender. Season with salt, pepper and paprika, and garnish with a bit of parsley.

Sasha's Kitchen: Parsnip Apple Fall Soup (and an upcoming product review)

Emily's Parents' Kitchen in Connecticut: Impromptu Soup

This is my first post for A Kitchen in Brooklyn! My kitchen is officially in Seattle, but I am writing from the Keeler outpost in Groton, Connecticut.

So, I am all about "intuitive" cooking. I like to taste my way around the kitchen, scouting out ingredients like a culinary bloodhound. I go around like this: Aha, apples, yes, and sweet potato, okay, hmm carrots, yes, curry? Cheddar cheese? Perfect.

After my mother came home annoyed with my father and me for not thinking about dinner (my father is retired and I work from home), I decided the next day to actually think about things in advance, and by advance I mean about 10 minutes. Here is the result of my kitchen scouting: an impromptu soup of beta carotene-rich vegetables sweetened with apples, topped with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and homemade roasted chickpeas (croutons or pumpkin seeds would also be nice). If New England had a regional dish, this would be one of them. This version fills about four regular bowls. Just up the proportions if you want more.

Please note: I typically do not measure things. My teachers used to comment to my parents that I was a good student, but I never followed directions. So this is nothing new. I am putting down suggested measurements, but I recommend honing your intuitive cooking skills and trusting your own taste buds. (I sort of went overboard with the cayenne pepper in my version anyway.)

Impromptu Soup - Harvest Vegetable Soup Accented with Cheddar Cheese

Serves 4

1 tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, chopped into small pieces
4 or so carrots, chopped into small rounds
2 apples (I used Gala but I imagine Granny Smith would be splendid), peeled, cored and chopped
About 6 cups water
About 1 tsp. curry powder
About 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
About 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
About 2 tsp. salt, or to taste
Optional: about 1/2 cup of soy milk or cream to soften things up a bit, especially if you've added too much cayenne pepper
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese - as much as you like
Croutons, roasted chickpeas or pumpkin seeds for garnish

-Heat up the oil in a soup pot, then add the onions and garlic. Stir and let sit with the cover on for 5 minutes or until you're tired of waiting!
-Add the chopped sweet potato, carrots and apples.
-Stir everything together and add the desired spices.
-Now add the water. Add just enough so that the water level is about even with the ingredients in the pot. Too much water will yield super soupy soup. You can always add more water, but it doesn't work the other way.
-Put the lid on, let it boil, and go watch a half hour of television. After the soup is at a boil, bring it down to a high simmer. Check it periodically (like during the commercial breaks) and pierce the vegetables with a fork. The carrots are the last things to get soft. After about 30 or 40 minutes you should be in business, but rely on the fork-pierce test to determine the readiness of the vegetables.
-Take the soup off the burner and get your immersion blender ready. Alternatively, throw the soup, in batches, into the food processor or your Magic Bullet. A potato masher also works, but things won't turn out as creamy.
-Blend the soup.
-Taste it and adjust the seasonings. Choose to add cream, milk, or vegan milk if desired.
-When you're ready to serve, ladle soup into bowls. Top with cheddar cheese and/or desired toppings. Serve with hearty bread.

Emily's Parents' Kitchen in Connecticut: Impromptu Soup

Gilly's Kitchen in Queens: Vegan Pumpkin Pie

If you are vegan (or just allergic to certain ingredients), store-bought pumpkin pies are most likely just a hazy memory. I experimented with several recipes just prior to Thanksgiving and settled on this particular pumpkin pie recipe. Please note that this pie does not taste like a store-bought pie, which may tend to have a very dense filling and a very certain taste (I cannot describe it, but store-bought pumpkin pies all seem to taste the same delicious way). This filling, which is also somewhat dense, has a slightly different taste -- still perfectly pumpkin-y, however -- so you might need a few bites to adjust. As usual, my vegan pumpkin pie passes the stepson test (it is also pareve), and is therefore worthy of publication.

This recipe comes from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "The Joy of Vegan Baking."

You will need:
a pie crust (I used a 9-inch pre-made graham cracker crust from the supermarket, but you should feel free to make your own -- and if you do, 9 inches should be the absolute minimum size)
12 ounces silken firm tofu
2 cups pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a food processor, blend the tofu, pumpkin puree, syrup, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger and cloves until smooth and creamy. Scrape the bowl if necessary to get everything fully blended. (my own note - my food processor was actually a touch too small to hold all of the ingredients, and I therefore had to make some creative mid-recipe ingredient adjustments, but it turned out well because generic, store-bought pie crusts tend to run a bit small sometimes anyway.)
3. Pour the mixture into the crust and smooth as necessary. (my own note - to get the "homemade" looking swirls as in my photo, don't smooth the mixture perfectly in the crust. Store-bought pies are always perfectly smooth, probably because they are made by machines.)
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned and the outermost inch of the filling appears to be set. The remaining filling towards the center will firm up a bit as the pie cools.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. (my own note - I left the pie in the pie pan and just put the pie pan itself on a wire rack to circulate the air.)
6. Let the pie cool until it is at room temperature and then put the pie in the fridge for 1-2 hours to set.

I find that this pie holds well in the fridge for at least 3 days. For all I know, it holds even longer, but we always eat it all by day 3!

Gilly's Kitchen in Queens: Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Dinner Party and Simple Winter Squash Recipe

My husband and I had a vegetarian (or vegetable-oriented, perhaps a better term for it) dinner party last night with some friends of ours here in Brooklyn.  Here was the menu:

Appetizer: Baby Acorn Squash (recipe below)
Caesar Salad
Green Apple Risotto (My husband, Brad, prepared this and will post the recipe soon)
Sweet Potato Chipoltle Latkes (Pancakes) with Lingonberries
Rainbow Frosted Honey-Vanilla Cupcakes
Mini Chocolate Souffles (prepared by our friends for us, but something I plan on making for this site very soon)

Below is how to prepare the baby acorn squash, a perfect appetizer or side dish for a fall or winter dinner.  This recipe serves four, but they are so good, that you might want to prepare extras.

2 medium sized acorn squash
4 T butter
4 T brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

And a second variation of the dish, incorporating apples that I will be preparing this weekend for another dinner party:

Diced honeycrisp or gala apples, mixed with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a 1 tsp of lemon juice

Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Fill with the butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. Add the apple mixture too, if making that variation.

Bake at 350 F for an hour and a half.

The end result is a very simple, but delicious farm fresh seasonal treat, best prepared using organic or local produce. I really enjoy cooking vegetarian-style. It's not that I don't enjoy meat and fish - I do, and plenty of it. But too much of our eating revolves around the meat entree, and it doesn't always need to be that way. Sometimes it is nice too cook without meat, and it enhances the fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses, grains and other ingredients that you are using. I find that I have learned a great deal of how to better work with these ingredients by occasionally leaving meat out of a meal.  Not only is it healthy to occasionally skip out on meat, but it enhances the experience we have eating everything else, as well as the quality of the produce.  I believe this is why I am such a big fan of the farm to table approach to cooking. I plan to do another vegetable-oriented dinner party next weekend, as well.

vegetarian
squash

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Dinner Party and Simple Winter Squash Recipe

Sasha's Kitchen: Green Pasta & Vegetable Medley

When I was in college at Haverford College, once a month or so, the Haverford dining center has a dinner special called Pastabilities, that just about the entire student body looked forward to.  Pastabilities basically involved stir fry pans where students could pick their own ingrediants to be mixed in with the pasta of their choice, to create their own pasta dish.  This was by far and away the most popular night at the dining center (yes, even more so than chicken tender night).

My concept for dinner tonight reminded me a little of those days.  I decided that I wanted tonight's pasta to be as green as possible (which meant no juicy red tomatoes), so I basically took every vegetable I could find in the kitchen that was green, yellow or white.  I diced them all together and cooked in our saute pan with some olive oil and spices. 

All of the senses are pretty important when it comes to food.  Taste and smell are the obvious ones - you're not going to eat something that tastes or smells unappealing.  However, our sense of sight when it comes to food is underrated.  I wanted to create a visual appeal with this dish by the use of color, having a strong sense of fresh green, created by various vegetables from our local market (I can't wait to make this again when the farmer's market returns in the late spring).  For this reason, I felt the presentation would be better without the use of red tomatoes (though perhaps yellow tomatoes would have been a fine addition, had they been seasonally available).  Also, my husband sometimes finds tomatoes to be a bit harsh on his stomach.

4-5 T of olive oil (I used Napa's Round Pond Estate's Blood Orange Oilve Oil, my favorite olive oil)

 1 onion, diced

2 shallots, diced

1 head of broccoli, cut up into small pieces

1/2 cup sugar snap peas

About 15-18 smallish artichoke hearts

5 large sprigs of thyme

1/2 an anaheim chile (not spicy, just flavorful and pretty)

2 zucchini

1/2 tsp saffron
salt and pepper to taste
juice of half of a fresh lemon
box of penne

To prepare the dish, saute the onions, shallots and anaheim chile to the olive oil,  and cook on medium high, until soft.  Add the sugar snap peas, broccoli, artichoke hearts and zucchini, and cook for about 10 minutes, until all of the vegetables are cooked to your liking.  Mix in the saffron, thyme, salt and pepper towards the end.  Aftertaking off the heat, mix with the juice of half of a lemon, squeezed fresh, and stir in the penne.  Serve hot.

 The use of the spices here is key.  While a lot of other spices might be overpowering, saffron and thyme give a perfect, unique flavor to this dish, and the lemon provides an excellent pick-me-up freshness.  This dish is obviously a great kosher, vegetarian, or otherwise healthy meal, and I highly recommend it with farm to table ingredients from a local farmer's market sometime other than the dead of winter.  This was a pretty off-the cuff experiemental recipe for me, especially the choice to use saffron, but it was a huge success.  I plan on making this healthy vegetable medley again, very soon!

Coming soon from my kitchen to this site: how to make limoncello, honey-vanilla cupcakes, date spread with goat cheese, berry tarts and carrot-potato souffles.

organic

Sasha's Kitchen: Green Pasta & Vegetable Medley

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Another Squash Soup

Perhaps it's the season, or the fact that it hasn't been above 40 degrees in six weeks here in Sun Valley, or that squash from Idaho's Bounty is incredibly inexpensive, but I've made another squash soup.

I started with a small butternut squash (one that was almost acorn-squash-shaped rather than oblong), cut it in half, removed the seeds, and placed the halves in a baking dish. I added about a tablespoon of butter in pieces, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and heavy sprinklings of cinnamon and red pepper powder (still trying to use up the joint spice cabinet). I baked that at 350 for, oh, two hoursish? Until it smelled really good and was soft to a fork, anyway. When that was done baking, I removed the dish and let it cool.

While the squash was cooling, I sauteed about half a white onion, two or three shallots, and half a head of garlic (all chopped fairly fine) in about a tablespoon of olive oil and half a cup of white wine. Once the onions were half sauteed, I added more cinnamon and some smoked paprika (probably about a tablespoon or two of each). Once the whole mess was lightly browned, I put it in the Cuisinart. I added the flesh of the squash, and about three cups of the pureed potatoes that were such a failure in that last post (they had been in the freezer).

As the contents pureed, I added a bit of heavy cream. Probably less than a total of a cup, but I'm not sure, I just poured until it looked right. Out of the Cuisinart and into a medium-sized pan, I added a bit of vegetable broth to thin out the consistency. Again, probably a total of a cup or so, but I'm not sure. Also, a teaspoon or two of black truffle oil. As you can tell, I tend to cook by the seat of my pants, (today, the new jeans I won from Lee off Facebook!) which makes me a poor baker.

There was some toasting and buttering of San Francisco sourdough slices going on as I served up the soup. Thinking about visual and textural contrast, I diced up some cilantro left over from our elk fajitas last weekend. That went onto both bowls, and some grated reggiano onto my bowl (but not the fiance's). He said the cilantro could have been sliced finer, as it created too much of a textural inconsistency, but I liked it. Eh, to each his own.

For another soup recipe, check out Kelly's Carrot Soup, by clicking here.

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Another Squash Soup

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: When life gives you 5 lbs of carrots for $.98

After living in Chicago for 7 months, one of my colleagues let me in to a secret. She was eating a ginormous peach with juice dripping down her chin- she said "I got this at Stanley's and it was 10 for a dollar!"

About 6 months later, I finally got over there, and she wasn't kidding! This place always has such crazy deals. It so crowded, I try not to go when it's daylight. Once, at 8 at night, the parking lot was completely full of cab drivers doing their shopping. I'm not sure what's up with that.

It's completely changed the way I cook. Just this week, they had tangerines on sale 7 for a dollar and 3 heads of cauliflower for a dollar, and 5 lb bags of organic carrots for $.98. Game on!

This is one of my favorite recipes. I love simple soups and this one is particularly good. It was published online in the New York Times recipes for health Pureed Carrot Soup.

Things that I think make this especially good are

1. The onions are sauteed for 5 min and the carrots are added and sauteed for 10 minutes in a little butter and olive oil, which develops some deep and caramelized flavors before adding the broth.

2. The thickening agent for this soup is different than most- arborio rice, which gives it a heartier consistency.

But I'm just happy when I get to use my immersion blender. I love that thing.

My dad likes to make this too, only thickened with a potato and with some creme and ginger added. He's the one who got me the immersion blender a few years ago. Thanks dad!

Check out some other fabulous carrot recipes from this site, including carrot-papaya cupcakes and carroty latkes.

Kelly's Kitchen in Chicago: When life gives you 5 lbs of carrots for $.98

Gilly's Kitchen in Queens - Vegan Chocolate Mousse Pie

Vegan chocolate mousse is perfect for dark chocolate lovers, who find themselves drawn to the bitter side of the spectrum. This is rather obvious, given that dairy milk and dairy chocolate are clearly missing from the equation.

This recipe only requires 4 ingredients, 5 if you count the crust, and takes a matter of minutes from start to finish. No baking is actually required, and this is therefore the perfect recipe for when you need a fabulous dessert but you have no time to make one (but please note that the mousse must set in the fridge for at least an hour before serving).

I made this vegan chocolate mousse for our kosher Thanksgiving dinner. Every single guest tried one, and every single guest finished it. My stepson declared the mousse one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. If you have guests that are tofu-phobic, you might want to refrain from mentioning the ingredients until after they devour it.

For elegant presentation, do not put the mousse into the crust, but rather put the mousse into clear glasses (such as small wine or champagne glasses, as they typically do in restaurants). For beyond elegant presentation, put some berries on top.

This recipe comes from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "The Joy of Vegan Baking."

You will need:
1 cup nondairy chocolate chips
12 ounces silken tofu (soft or firm -- I generally use firm)
1/2 cup nondairy milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional - for a chocolate mousse pie, I use a chocolate graham cracker crust. Berries can also be added on top of the pie or the mousse in cups.

Directions:
1. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and heat for 1 minute, stir, and then heat for another minute (until melted). If you feel like doing this the slow way, melt via double broiler.
2. Put the tofu, milk, vanilla and melted chocolate into a blender or food processor, and watch as chocolate mousse is created in seconds right before your eyes. You may need to scrape chocolate from the side of the bowl and process some more. Process until entirely smooth (this should only take a minute, if that).
3. Pour the mousse into the crust, or put into individual cups, and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Dessert is served.

Gilly's Kitchen in Queens - Vegan Chocolate Mousse Pie

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Cauliflower Casserole

As I mentioned in a previous post, I ate at a wonderful organic vegetable and fruit centered restaurant last fall when my husband and I visited Napa Valley, Ubuntu. Since that delicious meal, I have been inspired by head Chef Jeremy Fox's Michelin-starred cuisine to create my own vegetarian dishes using the best organic fruits and vegetables that I can fine (which obviously pale in comparison to the fruits and vegetables he harvest from his organic garden in Napa).

Tonight, I was inspired to create my own casserole using cauliflower based on a cauliflower casserole that is one of the signature dishes on his menu. I did take a look at his recipe for the basic outline (the cauliflour, butter, curry and whole milk), but from that point on, created my own recipe. Below is the recipe I created and adapted. Tonight was a test-run on the dish for a vegetarian dinner I will be hosting for some vegetarian friends in early January and it was a success according to my taste buds.

Ingredients
2 heads of plain cauliflower
3 T extra virgin olive oil (I used Round Pond's Blood Orange Olive Oil, another treat form the Napa trip)
2 T curry powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
2 star anise
4 oz of butter (1 stick)
2/3 cup whole milk
1/2 cup non-dairy almond milk
1/8 tsp almond extract
parsley for decoration
salt and pepper to taste
toasted french bread
small amount of colored cauliflower for decoration

First, cut up the white cauliflower into small pieces and mix well with the olive oil and a little salt. Roast at 350 F until slightly charred and tender.

Melt the butter on medium heat until foamy and then take off the heat and add all of the various spices (this was my improvised spice mix which was delicious, as the flavors mix nicely). Let sit for about 30 minutes so the flavors absorb into the butter. Add this mix to a pot with the cauliflower from the oven and add both the whole milk, the almond milk and the almond extract (sparingly). Cook on medium until completely soft.

Then, bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes. The mixture should not change too much and should look almost kind of soup like when you take it out. It will have a beautiful texture. Before you bake, sprinkle some of the colored cauliflower on top.

I served in bowls because I only have large souffle/casserole dishes. Ideally you would want to bake in individual casserole dishes.

Put a little parsley and pepper on top and it should be delicious.

To learn more about cooking with cauliflower, click here for a dish from Amasea's kitchen in Sun Valley.

Sasha's Kitchen: Vegetarian Cauliflower Casserole

Sasha's Kitchen on the Road: Food & Wine Tour of Napa and Sonoma

Tonight I thought I would write about a two week trip my husband and I took last September to California, including some time in Napa and Sonoma. Now, while I enjoy a nice glass of wine, and may be a foodie, prior to this trip, I was by no means a connoisseur of fine wine. However, the combination of the sustainably grown, organic local foods (from cheese to figs), the locally produced, family-owned boutique wineries, and the beauty of the natural surroundings completely sucked me in. I spent months planning exactly what wineries and restaurants we would visit on our trip, and was not disappointed. In this article, I will review some of the wineries and restaurants we did visit, and why I believe a trip to Napa and Sonoma is essential for anyone who enjoys good fresh food, natural beauty, sustainable agriculture, and of course, wine.

Certain varieties of wine are common to different parts of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Without getting into extensive detail of what is grown where, I note that the following wine varieties are commonly produced in various parts of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (though probably inferior to the Pinot produced in the Willamette Valley in Oregon), Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Syrah, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc. These varieties account for the majority of the wines we tasted on our trip.

First, I will touch on the food. We ate at the following restaurants of Note: Cyrus, Ubunto, Auberge du Soleil and Girl and the Fig. We did not eat at the most expensive and best known restaurant in the region, French Laundry, but we loved the places we did go to. (From what I heard, the food and the garden at French Laundry are amazing if you can get a reservation and have $800 to spend on dinner for two).

We had the seven course tasting menu at Cyrus, where the food was absolutely incredible, along with a glass of Pinot Noir from Copain Winery, in Healdsburg, which we toured the next day. The food was fresh, ornate and delious. The people at Copain were really nice - they arranged for a last minute private tour after I told them how much I had enjoyed their Pinot Noir at dinner at Cyrus the previous night. We enjoyed seeing the winemaking facilities at Copain and tasting a number of the excellent red wines, including Pinot Noir and Syrah.

We also enjoyed Ubuntu, an entirely organic vegetarian restaurant in Napa Valley that was able to create masterpieces with fruit and vegetables that I never thought were imaginable. All of the produce at Ubuntu used in the dishes is biodynamically grown, local produce. A copy of the restaurant's current menu is found here. What I love most about this restaurant is how the food is an art form of local California produce, all grown in its natural environment with a commitment to sustainable agriculture. Inspired by this restaurant, one of the projects I hope to explore with my own cooking is how to work with vegetables and fruit in ways I never imagined were possible - without any need for meat. It has and will be an inspiration for my cooking, and is one of the best meals I have ever had. The restaurant chef is in his early 30's (a new top chef) and has earned a Michelin star for his work.

The food at Auberge du Soleil was also very good - wonderful lamb and mushroom risotto, the night we went. The view of the Valley at Auberge at sunset from the outdoor table I had reserved two months prior to our dinner was breathtaking.

We visited a number of wineries in both Napa and Sonoma. In this article, I will discuss a number that we visited in addition to a couple that we did not visit, but would love to on a future trip: Cakebread Cellars, Frog's Leap Winery, Honig Vineyard, Goosecross Cellars, Elizabeth Spencer Winery, Terra Valentine Winery, J Vineyards, St. Francis Winery, Ferrari Carrano Winery, Chateau Montalena, Copain Winery, Kuleto Estate, Round Pond Estate and Sterling Vineyards.

Cakebread Cellars has long been famous for its Chardonnay, which is known to be among the best, if not the best, in Napa Valley. Cakebread is a boutique, family owned winery in Napa Valley. Personally, I loved the Reserve Chardonnay that we tasted in the tasting room, but we also purchased their Rubaiyat (a blend of Syrah and Pinot Noir named after a famous poet who wrote about wine in one of his poems), as well as their Syrah. I know I have not written much, but the Reserve Chardonnay is definitely the best I have ever tasted, hands down.

Frog's Leap Winery was probably my favorite of all the wineries we visited. Don't let the cute frog on their website fool you, the folks at Frog's Leap know how to make some amazing wines. The Winery is located in Rutherford, CA in Napa Valley and has 130 acres of organically grown grapes, used in preparing all of their wines. The winery is 100% committed to the use of sustainable agriculture in producing their wines, as well as all of the produce on the winery. The winery is also 100% solar powered, LEED certified, and uses various organic techniques to produce all of its grapes. During our tour of the winery, which was like touring an organic farm at the same time, we were given cute straw hats to wear on the tour (for the specific purpose of blocking the sun on a 90 degree day). We tasted, in addition to fresh grapes that were being used in "the crush" that was taking place at the time, freshly picked mission figs, strawberries, tomatoes and peppers. We also learned about the process of making wine on this tour and several other of the winery tours. All of their wines are amazing, but my favorites are the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot and an amazing dessert wine called Frogenbeerenauslese (try saying that six times fast), which is a late-harvest Riesling, more typical of Western New York. I am generally not a fan of desert wines, but this wine is the exception to the rule in my book. It is great with a homebaked blueberry pie. This reminds me that it is definitely time to order more!

Honig Vineyards, also located in Rutherford, is also 100% committed to producing amazing wines using sustainable agricultural techniques. Honig produces exclusively several varieties of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favorite Sauvignon Blancs, while the late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc (another dessert wine) is also wonderful. We tasted the wines at a picnic table outside in the middle of the winery's breathtaking natural beauty. This winery, like some of the others I have or will mention, is a small, family-owned boutique winery, which was the type of winery we focused our trip on. We skipped all the large, better known commercial wineries in the region.

Goosecross Cellars is another family owned, tiny botique winery committed to the use of sustainable farming in producing the grapes used in their wines. The wines are terrific, and you feel totally at home in the beautiful, close-knit winery.

Chateau Montelena, in St. Helena, which we unfortunately did not get a chance to visit, is one of two wineries that put Napa Valley on the map during the famous 1976 Paris Wine tasting (the other being Stag's Leap). This is chronicled in the movie Bottleshock. The movie reminded me of all the things I love about Napa and Sonoma, and true to their reputation, their Chardonnay is out of this world. We will have to check out the winery itself on our next trip.

Elizabeth Spencer Winery is a small winery owned by a couple, Elizabeth and Spencer. We hadn't originally planned to visit this winery, but we wound up making a stop there at the suggestion of our driver for the day from Beau Wine Tours, and were glad we did. The tasting room was nice and unpretentious and the wines were great. We did several days of wine tasting, and one day we went to five wineries using a professional driver so that my husband could enjoy drinking the wines without having to spit at the tastings. This was a great decision that will make your wine tasting trip more enjoyable.

J Vineyards in Sonoma County (Healdsburg) has a bit more of a party atmosphere, but is a fun place to visit. Healdsburg is in Sonoma County and is a bit of haven for foodies in Sonoma (it is also the site of Cyrus Restaurant and Dry Creek Kitchen). We were in Healdsburg during our trip for a wedding of friends of ours, John and Alison (at nearby Trentadue Vineyards), which was the reason we organized the entire trip in the first place. J Vinyards is known best for their sparkling wines -we took home the J Brut. Their food and wine pairings have also been quite popular.

Kuleto Estate and Terra Valentine Winery are both located on top of mountains, thousands of feet above the rest of Napa Valley. Kuleto Estate, which we visited is owned by Pat Kuleto, who owns the acclaimed restaurant Boulevard in San Francisco (in a word, amazing - we dined here earlier in the week with our gracious San Francisco hosts Peter and Jill), as well as a number of other high-end California Restaurants. We actually saw Pat Kuleto driving a four-wheeler (or some other type of ATV) around his beautiful winery during our tour. The winery is located on top of a mountain on top of St. Helena. It is a bit tricky to get to, involving long and windy roads up and down the mountain and punching in a gate code at some point. We learned of this winery from reading an article in Conde Nast Travel. However, the natural scenery of the winery and the view were simply breathtaking. We enjoyed the wine and food pairing very much, especially the Zinfandel. However, it was good that we made the visit to the winery our last of the day, given that we both felt a little carsick after driving down the winding road down the mountain after the tour.

Sterling Vineyard, in St Helena is known for the fact that you have to take an aerial gondola to get to the winery, where you can taste the Sterling wines. I was a little nervous about this, being afraid of heights, but enjoyed the ride nonetheless. This winery may be a tad more commercial (I have recently seen a few billboard ads in New York) but the gondola ride to the tasting room is a great way to take in the views of Napa Valley. The wines are terrific too - I enjoyed the Chardonnay the most.

Ferrari Carano Winery is a pretty popular Sonoma County (Healdsburg) winery to visit because of its breathtaking landscaping and gardens. The white wines here are also pretty good - especially the Pino Grigio and the Chardonnay. We also discovered that their wines were among the local wines served at our friends' wedding later that evening.

Finally, Round Pond Estate operates both a winery and an olive mill. We visited the olive estate on our last day in Napa and learned how olive oil is made. During our tour we were treated to a wonderful buffet lunch of their products and various delicious local California foods. Who knew that olive oil tastes absolutely amazing on vanilla ice cream? My favorite of their olive oil are their Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon olive oils. The estate here is also gorgeous and was another good tip from Conde Nast Travel.

We also visited several other wineries that I have not written about here, but were also quite good - Plumpjack Winery (a trendy winery owned by San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom) and Copain Winery (where we had a nice private tour). At Plumpjack Winery, we enjoyed their store where we purchased Cabarknet cookies for our dog (hence the picture of my pug at the top), and enjoyed paging through the pages of the book "Winery Dogs."

Finally - one new winery that we did not visit - Quixote Winery - is an architectural paradise. I had wanted to visit this winery (which I am told has excellent Petite Syrah and uses the Napa-famous screw top method of bottling wine). This winery is designed by the architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser and basically looks like Dr. Seuss designed a winery. Unfortunately we will have to save the tour of this amazing place for our next trip.

The trip was a culinary and gatronomical adventure where we truly ate and drank our way through Napa and Somoma, before heading inland to Yosemite National Park.

Sasha's Kitchen on the Road: Food & Wine Tour of Napa and Sonoma

Sasha's Kitchen: Pad Thai - Chicken and Vegan Versions

Tonight I made pad thai for the first time. My dinner and subsequent post were delayed by having to attend a long and boring condo board meeting. However, the pad thai actually didn't take long to make and turn out great. Tonight's pad thai recipe has plenty of wonderful flavors. I also think that I have worked out a wonderful vegetarian variation to this dish as well, which I plan on making for an upcoming dinner party we are having in January with some vegetarian friends.

Thai food is one of my favorite ethnic cuisines. Thailand is one part of the world that I would love to travel to (the closest I've been was a trip to Australia and New Zealand in 2004). My mother spent three weeks in Thailand a couple years ago and I would love to go back with her on a mother daughter trip in the next couple years. She loved visiting the elephant preserve, as well as the different types of thai dishes she ate in Thailand, which has encouraged me to experiment with some different Thai dishes, including pad thai.

Here is the recipe for Pad Thai. Note that I included a vegetarian/vegan variation on the recipe that I made tonight.

Sasha's Pad Thai

8 oz extra firm tofu (16 ox if you are making a vegetarian dish) cut into small cubes
2 8 oz skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into pieces (obviously omit if doing it vegetarian style)
2 T peanut oil
salt and pepper (for seasoning the chicken and/or tofu)
2 shallots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 T ancho chile powder
1/4 cup water with 2 tsp concentrated tamarind paste (reconstitute the tamarind paste in the water according to the instructions on the tamarind paste you use)
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 T fish sauce
2 T brown sugar
2 T peanut butter
1 package pad thai noodles, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
4 oz bean sprouts
1/4 cup cashews, toasted
1 T sesame seeds
2 T truffle olive oil
1/3 cup sauteed pineapple (optional - not included in the dish I prepared today)

Season and grill the tofu and/or chicken separately until cooked through for the chicken or slightly charred for the tofu. Set aside.

Heat 2 T of truffle olive oil in a medium saucepan. Note that truffle oil, if you have it, might work as well. However, I have never had the privilege of cooking with truffle oil, as it is extremely expensive. A smallish bottle of truffle olive oil, which I did use, will cost you about $10.

Add the shallots and garlic and cook until soft. The add the ancho chile powder, tamarind water, vinegar, peanut butter, fish sauce, brown sugar and peanut butter. Bring to a boil. When the sauce has a nice not-too-thin but not gooey consistency, you can turn the heat off. If it gets a little too gooey, add a bit of extra water to thin.

Add the sauce to a large bowl with the chicken and/or tofu. Add the pad thai noodles and sesame seeds and mix.

As I said above, do not be afraid to make a vegan/vegetarian version of this dish. I love tofu even though I am not a vegetarian. I find it extremely rewarding to cook with since it basically adapts the flavors of the other ingredients that are used in whatever sauce it is cooked with. Preparing this dish with tofu, along, rather than combining with chicken, would help highlight the other flavors in the dish - namely the truffles, tamarind, and peanut butter. I think that some sauteed pineapple would also potentially be a welcome addition to this pad thai, which I might consider adding in the future.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pad Thai - Chicken and Vegan Versions