Hits and misses

Over the weekend I warmed up for MoFo with a few smaller items. Some of them-- revisiting old friends-- worked, and some of them-- unknowingly putting a new spin on said old friend-- didn't.

This summer was a pisser in Portland. I think it only got into the 90s (Fahrenheit) twice. Hell, it only got into the 80s a handful of times. My tomatoes suffered.

To me, the best use of a few tomatoes is a fresh (aka lazy) tomato sauce. You just roughly chop tomatoes, onions, garlic and simmer for as long as you've got. The tomatoes melt into a bright, sweet sauce that's perfectly summery. I made some earlier in the summer, and a few weeks ago with Shetha-- that one was a lovely big batch with gorgeous tomatoes from her garden, not my sad, piddling amount. Well someone at work brought in a bunch of good, sturdy plum tomatoes, and I thought I'd make more fresh sauce.

Lest you, too, think this is a good idea, allow me to point out the glaring problem: plum, or paste, tomatoes must be skinned. My previous fresh tomatoes worked because they were eating or slicing tomatoes with thin skins. Tomatoes meant to make sauces are drier, with thicker skins that never disintegrate in the heat of simmering. So my sauce had chunks of tough skin. Ew. That one's the miss.

My other two little cooking projects shown here are the hits. They are, respectively, peanut butter cups and roasted tomatillo salsa. Go try those recipes immediately-- you can't mess them up!

Martin Yan-inspired long bean stir-fry

It's that time of year again-- Vegan Month of Food! The timing couldn't be better. We're finally falling into a bit more of a routine now that I've been back to work for two months, the baby is five months old, and he's settled into daycare. It's also the best time of year for cooking, when it gets cooler out so the oven can stay on for longer, and produce is at its peak in the Pacific northwest. While I don't have a plan for the MoFo, the name of the game (where the game == dinner) is now fast and easy.

On Sunday I went to Lents International Farmers' Market for the first time, which was tiny and charming. As a bonus, the mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, was there and announced that the market would move to Friday nights starting June 15-- with a beer garden! The market specializes in unusual veggies that you normally wouldn't find in an American supermarket, and the first thing that caught my eye were gorgeous bunches of Chinese long beans.

My first thought, of course, was a Chinese dish-- from my trusty Martin Yan Quick & Easy. I found several recipes with long beans, notably "Long bean & tofu stir-fry" and "Fish & long bean stir-fry. I used the simple sauce from the former, and faux fish as a nod to the latter. The sauce consisted of veg broth, fish sauce (I used gluten-free tamari), chili garlic sauce (I was out, so I used sriracha and pressed garlic) and sugar. It was a bit mild in flavor for me, but I enjoyed trying more traditional methodology.

Pumpkin muffin tops with pecans

Just when I thought I couldn't be any more free, I've had to eliminate soy, beans and legumes for the week. Egads! Although I enjoy the vegan and gluten-free challenge, soy was not something I wanted to do without.

My first day, Monday, was a bit painful. I mostly ate single foods, like cherries for a snack and boiled butterball potatoes (with olive oil, smoked sea salt and freshly ground pepper) for lunch. Not enough to fill my belly or satisfy my appetite. So of course I turned to baked goods.

The recipe calls these "pumpkin hermits," but I've never heard that term. As soon as I read the description and ingredients, I knew I had to make them-- and they're more like muffin tops than cookies.

Here are the substitutions you will need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour: 1 C of Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour, plus 1/3 C each quinoa flour, coconut flour, and tapioca flour or potato starch, plus 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
  
  You could also use 2/3 C each of the single-source flours.
  
• 1/4 cup butter: 1/4 C soy-free Earth Balance
  
• 1 large egg: 1 Ener-G egg (follow package instructions and whisk til foamy)
  
  You could also try ground flax seed or mashed banana.
  

I left out the dried fruit and added about 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg. They turned out delicious and wonderfully spiced, great for breakfast, a snack or dessert!

Pad Thai Salad

One of my new year's resolutions is to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own. Hopefully reading through and trying so many new recipes will inspire my cooking creativity and expand my go-to recipe repertoire.

Technically, this doesn't count because I've already made a dish from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's latest book, Appetite for Reduction. But I've barely had time to cook at all, and mostly been making my simple, recipe-less go-to meals (burgers and sweet potato fries, flavored mac & cheez, various pizzas, etc), and it was a full month ago that I pulled out the stops to make a lovely meal of TWO new recipes to impress my favorite dinner guest.

While the other dish was much more involved (I'll post that one separately) this was the favorite of the evening. It's straightforward but with bold, recognizably Thai flavors that really make for a stand-out salad. And I'm decidedly not a salad person, especially at home. Add rice noodles and baked, marinated tofu (or tempeh), and this would be a very satisfying meal. I will make this salad again, likely for esteemed guests or to take to a party.

Gretchen's Cuban bowl

Gretchen often asks me about recreating the Cuban bowl from Laughing Planet. The basic ingredients are brown rice, black beans, plantains, sweet potatoes and pico de gallo, and I always get the tempeh add-on. Usually when I make this at home it's because I have plantains that are about to go bad-- I like them sweet and so I wait til the last moment to use them up. They're not always available at my grocery store, either, so if I see them I usually buy them.

This particular incarnation got a fancy three-part treatment, a real work out for my sole non-stick frying pan. The first and second layers are straight forward: brown rice and fresh spinach. The next is tempeh that has been steamed, dredged in a little bit of egg-replacer slurry and then in seasoned (cumin, coriander, chile powder, chipotle powder, salt) store-bought gluten-free breadcrumbs, and fried.

On top of that we have fried sweet plantains, and then a layer of a quick sofrito (onions, garlic and bell peppers sauteed until soft and caramelized) and Trader Joe's incredibly handy canned Cuban-style black beans. Top with fresh cilantro, avocado, and your favorite salsa (I'm a sucker for anything with roasted tomatillo). Now that's a Cuban bowl!