Preserved Lemon and Pistachio Tapanade

I love making tapanades.  They're a great addition to veggies or just spreading on a thick piece of rustic toast. This one packs a punch and you don't need much to add flavor to your dish.  Just steam some greens or zucchini and mix in a spoonful of tapanade.  Serve over brown rice.  Super delicious!


Preserved Lemon and Pistachio Tapanade


1 cup unsalted, shelled pistachios
1 T capers
1 T preserved lemon rind
Olive oil


Rinse and remove rind from preserved lemons and chop up into 1/4" pieces.  Rinse capers under water.  Add pistachios to a mortar and smash with pestle to break up nuts.  Add capers, lemon rind and enough olive oil to grind into a chunky paste.


You can use a food processor, but I really like the consistency you get from a mortar and pestle... and it's really fun to use.

Preserved Lemons

If you have a lemon tree or get boxes of lemons from a generous neighbor, and you don't know what to do with all of them except make lemonade, this recipe is for you.  Preserved lemons are a great addition to many dishes and lend a wonderful, almost warm, mild, lemon flavor without that citrus tang.  They are used often in Moroccan cuisine, adding the rind to tagine dishes and the pulp to sauces.  I made this jar about a year ago from my next door neighbor's tree that produces the fruit twice a year.   Here's how you do it:


Preserved Lemons


lemons
lemon juice
kosher salt


I didn't put exact amounts because it all depends on many lemons you have.  Cut lemons in half, liberally coat in kosher salt.  Stuff lemons in a jar and pour in additional salt to cover.  Now add enough fresh lemon juice to cover.  Refrigerate for at least 3 weeks before using.  They will keep for a heck of long time in the fridge... I still use mine from last year!


It sounds like a ton of salt, but don't worry.  You're preserving the lemons.  All the salt gets rinsed off before you cook with them.

Mellow lemony goodness.

Mango Pistachio "Ice Cream"

I got my Vitamix!  I got my Vitamix!  March 4th was the day.  I opened up the box and there staring back at me was a beautiful, shiny, black and silver, state-of-the-art blending machine.  Come to me baby and let's see what magic we can make.

Here's one of the first things I made.  It's really fast to whip up and uses up a bunch of those frozen, over-ripe bananas we all have in the freezer.

Mango Pistachio "Ice Cream"

1/4 cup almond milk, and extra for desired consistency

1 cup frozen banana chunks

1 cup mango chunks

1 T agave nectar (optional)

2T unsalted pistachios

Although you can use any type of blender, you'll get a creamier texture with the vitamix.  Pour in the milk and then the fruit and agave.  Wizz it up.  You'll probably have to turn the blender off a few times and moosh the contents around due to air pockets.  Add more almond milk until you get the desired consistency, but not too much or you'll end up with a smoothie.  Then add the pistachios and give it a final blend until the nuts break up a bit.

Notes:

To freeze bananas, peel and cut the very ripe fruit into 1" chunks.  Place bananas in a large plastic bag and arrange in a single layer.  Freeze for at least 24 hours.  I always have a bag of these going in my freezer.  When the bag gets low, I just add some more.

As far as the almond milk goes, you can substitute any non-dairy milk product.  I like almond milk because it has a thick, creamy texture.

If you don't have agave nectar, use honey, or omit it all together.  If the fruit is sweet you don't really need it.

Words escape me.

Looking forward to my Vita Mix!

At the end of this week I get to open my brand spankin new Vita Mix blender.  It's one of those fancy variable speed doo-hickies.  If you can't tell, I'm having a hard time waiting.  I've been dreaming about all the sauces, smoothies, nut butters, and soups I'll be making.  Last weekend I made a delicious vegan "nacho cheese" dip, using my trusty 20-year-old Waring blender.  (That thing is a work horse!)  It went great with black beans, and cilantro all topping a big plate of corn chips.  My only thought was that it could have been creamier and thicker if I only had that Vita Mix.  Needless to say, I'll make the dip again and post all it's deliciousness here.  (My mouth is watering already!)

Mixed Greens with Orange Vinegar, Fruit & Nuts

No arm twisting needed here!

On my latest trip to Trader Joe's I picked up a bottle of Orange

Muscat Champagne Vinegar. When I was ready to cook with it, I

realized the rest of the ingredients I chose from the pantry were

mostly from TJ's too! They have an great selection of dried fruit

and nuts and nice big bags of mixed greens. Here's what I

ended up with:

Mixed Greens with Orange Vinegar, Fruit & Nuts

2t olive oil

1 shallot, finely minced

2 garlic cloves, also finely minced

2T pine nuts, TJ's

2T golden raisins, TJ's

pinch of salt

1-2 large handfuls of mixed greens, TJ's

Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar, TJ's

a pinch of brown sugar

Heat oil on medium and saute shallots and garlic. (Be careful

not to burn the garlic so it doesn't turn bitter.) Add raisins and

nuts and a pinch of salt. Saute a few more minutes. Add greens

and cover with a lid until they wilt, another minute, or so.

Sprinkle with vinegar and brown sugar. Turn with tongs to mix

everything up. And you're done! You can serve it over a whole

grain or eat it all by itself.

Trader Joe's vinegar.

You can sprinkle with parmesan cheese or make these delicious

breadcrumbs instead.

Garlic Breadcrumbs

1-2t olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely minced

2T breadcrumbs

pinch of salt

In the same pan the greens were cooked in, heat the oil on

medium. Saute the garlic for a minute, add the breadcrumbs

and salt. Continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the

breadcrumbs are slightly brown and deliciously toasty.

*You can use store bought breadcrumbs, but why bother? Just

freeze the heals of your bread and grate or whiz up in the food

processor to make your own!

Finito!

Pizza!

Chef Brooke and Chef Chloe

The other day my daughter, Chloe, and her BFF, Brooke, wanted to make homemade pizzas. I checked out what we had in the fridge and whipped up some pizza dough. That afternoon we all had gourmet, personalized pizzas! (And I used up some leftovers in the fridge too!)

Mark Bittman has a very simple and basic pizza dough recipe in his absolutely awesome cookbook, "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". The book is over 900 pages long and filled to the gills with vegetarian and vegan recipes... Love it!

Mark Bittman's Pizza Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons instant yeast

2 teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, separated

couple pinches of cornmeal (for dusting the cookie sheet)

Combine flour, yeast, and salt in food processor. Process and add 1 cup water and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky.

Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for a few seconds making a smooth, round ball. Put the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a bowl, put the dough ball in the bowl, and cover with plastic or towel. Let it sit for an hour or two to rise until it doubles in size.

When the dough is ready, turn dough out onto a floured surface, form into a ball and cut into quarters. Cover and let rise again for an additional 20 minutes.

Their master pieces!

Now you can roll out and shape dough into pizzas! This is what we did with ours:

The girls topped each one with Good Grub Basil Pesto. Then they rummaged through the fridge and found some salami, parmesan cheese, a can of sliced olives, and a pack of sun-dried tomatoes. (Totally acceptable and equally delicious without the meat and cheese... of course.)  After baking the finished pizzas at 500 degrees for 8-12 minutes, they brushed the crust with olive oil and gave it a final sprinkling of kosher salt. (That way the crust gets eaten too!)

* Prepare cookie sheets by sprinkling them with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Place pizza doughs on the cookie sheets before adding the toppings.

Lunch for me and Marco.

For Marco and myself I topped ours off with the basil pesto, fresh slices of tomatoes, kalamata olives, and parmesan cheese for the hubby. We ate ours with a delicious salad of lettuce greens (from my very own veg garden!), blueberries, pine nuts, and a light lemon dijon vinaigrette (recipe to follow in a future post).

They go together quickly and bake quickly, but you have to account for the time it takes the dough to rise (up to 2 hours). Even though I call these "personal size" pizzas, they are super filling and can easily be shared.

Bellissima!

The Veg Bed

Last weekend Chloe, Marco, and I put together a raised vegetable garden.  We filled it with, what felt like, a ton of soil.  About 1 1/2 cubic yards, actually.  It was a mixture of organic soil and organic compost.  Mixing it all up was quite the workout!  I really wanted to go completely organic, but the plants were sitting right there in front of me at the nursery and I was dying to see something in the dirt, so I just bit the bullet and bought them.  They aren't organic plants, grown from organic seed, but they are in organic soil and I won't be feeding them any chemical fertilizers.  

I have a small bin with soil, dried leaves, and kitchen scraps.  I've mixed it all up and covered it up with plastic so it can "cook" for the winter.  (An experiment complete with gnats!)  The hope is that it will turn into beautiful dark, rich soil I can use in the bed.  Next, a vermiculture!  Oh, I also have carrots, beets, basil, bok choy, and spinach seeds on the window sill.  They should be ready to plant outside in a few weeks.  I plan to have my second raised veg bed ready by then.

I think I overdid it with the plant buying, since we had to takeover a patch by the bedroom backdoor.  The soil has a ton of clay, which we mixed with soil from the bed, so it'll be interesting to see the difference , if any, in size, appearance, and flavor of the veggies.  Now, it's just a matter of keeping them watered, covered for the frost, and protected from the dog.

Oh yes.  Lulu has rediscovered her favorite past-time.  I thought she had past this phase years ago, but I guess you can't teach an old dog... well, you get it.  The veg beds are now covered in a plastic mesh to deter Lulu from digging them up.  So far, so good.  (But this is getting expensive!)

So, the veg should be ready to harvest by January, maybe a few things by Christmas, fingers crossed.  That's when I plan to start some plants from seed, tomato, zucchini, bells, and more.  I'll be trying out some organic seed from Burpee or The Seed Savers Exchange.  I can't wait to taste it all!