By Sharon Troy •
June 19, 2008
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My husband recently turned 30, and to celebrate the momentous occasion, we treated ourselves to a dinner at our favorite restaurant, Millennium. The all upscale San Francisco eatery frequently wins awards for best vegan restaurant, wooing a largely non-vegan clientele who don’t miss the meat. They use organic, local foods when possible, and recycle and compost.
The dishes have such complex flavors, in combinations I’d have never thought up. One of my favorites was a lemon basil sorbet we had for dessert that was outstanding. They sell several cookbooks, but I’ve always shied away from it, as I’ve heard (and would have to imagine) that the recipes would be too complicated.
Instead during our meal this weekend, I tried to guess how some of the dishes were made and see if I could emulate them myself. This recipe is based on an appetizer we had, but I paired it with a side salad as a full meal.
By Jennie Love •
June 16, 2008
Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden.
With the rising costs of food (and everything else to boot), I’m sure I’m not the only one who has vowed to be more frugal with menus by using up what’s already in the fridge before heading to the market. To this I say, “here, here!!” That was until I started looking around my own fridge and realized I should have taken on this resolution about four months ago - moldy cheese, sad-looking shriveled carrots, and dried out halves of onions that I was sure I’d use up the next day but forgot all about and ended up cutting a fresh onion. Frugal I am not.
Instead, those bright and shiny new bunch of beets I’d plucked from the farmer’s market immediately caught my attention. I know I had opened the fridge with the intention of salvaging something that might otherwise go to waste, but as it was, I thought I’d give the beets a chance before they too shriveled up in the crisper drawer. After all, the spring beet season is fast drawing to a close.
While any red-blooded foodie enjoys a veggie burger now and again, it can get tiresome to keep chowing down on the same prepackaged bulgar patty as meat-eaters feast on a vast array of grilled options from shrimp skewers to pulled pork, salmon sides and steaks. What is the vegetarian-minded BBQer to do amidst the seemingly endless parade of imitation-meat options? Sick of soy and tired of tempeh, I’ve turned to halloumi cheese as my protein source of delicious grill flavor.
Halloumi has a high melting point which allows it to keep its shape and firm consistency when cooked. It is a fresh cheese, prepared much like mozzarella from goat’s or sheep’s milk. While it comes from Cyprus and is common throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, I first encountered it when I lived in Brazil where it is served as a beach snack. A good place to look for Halloumi is a Mediterranian or Middle Eastern grocery, but some supermarkets have started to carry the cheese. I’ve even found it at my farmer’s market, where one of the vendors is like-minded when it comes to grilling. Preparations after the jump.
The fresh berry season seems so short to me. I really try to eat more seasonally and regionally, but I must admit that I buy frozen organic berries to use mostly in fruit smoothies (see below) during the sad non-berry season.
Growing fresh berries may be the most exciting - especially if you have a local bear that becomes familiar with your crop! Until our current house, I’ve always had some berry bushes and enjoyed the picked-off-the-bush freshness of berries for breakfast AND dessert! I tried container strawberries on the deck in the last couple of years, but it was such an unbelievable chore to keep them from the critters, that I gave up, surrendered my succulent beauties to some very happy chipmunks and whoever else was enjoying them.
I love to buy fresh local berries or even pick them myself from some of the U-Pick farms in my area (Northern New Jersey). Knowing that berries often get the worst kind of pesticides sprayed on them, I’m kind of careful of how they’ve been grown. I almost never buy them non-organic out of season in the grocery store as they often come from South America, where they are allowed to use more pesticides. (not sure about current trade laws, but it used to be that we (US) weren’t allowed to use DDT on our own crops, but we still produced the stuff, sent it down to Mexico and S. America, where THEY used it on various crops, and turned around and sent it back to us - this may not be the case any more, but it is so emblazoned in my little mind, that it is very difficult for me to buy any berries from the supermarket that are NOT organic).
Wow. There’s a berry rant for you! Click on to see my favorite ways to eat berries!
I live mini pumpernickel bread, but I have had a hard time finding it without preservatives. I have tried making it, but it never turns out the same. During a recent trip to San Francisco, I was excited to find natural pumpernickel cocktail loaves at Whole Foods, although they were not organic. I bought a couple of loaves, and we made vegan cucumber and pumpernickel hors d’oeuvres for my daughter’s last day of school celebration. This recipe is so easy that I am not even sure it qualifies as a recipe since there is no cooking involved. My daughter was able to help me make them, and they quickly disappeared at the school party.
Super Easy Vegan Cucumber and Pumpernickel Bread Hors d’Oeuvres
Ingredients:
- Cocktail pumpernickel bread
- Sliced organic cucumber (leave the skins on!)
- Fresh basil and/or dill (optional)
By Lisa Kivirist •
June 12, 2008
June ushers in the busy summer season at our Wisconsin farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity. But while our schedule may be hectic, I confess, the breakfast menu is not. I’ve discovered a culinary formula over the past dozen years living the B&B lifestyle: The fresher the ingredients, the simpler the recipe can be. By showcasing what’s in season in the garden, I can get away with just a handful of tried and true, easy B&B recipes with variations based on current garden harvest.
This baked omelet role (recipe after the jump) ranks a classic example of easy, versatile breakfast dishes.
By Sharon Troy •
June 11, 2008
Well, after my last post on eco-friendly junk food, I feel like I need to redeem myself a bit with another healthy salad. (See, my Kale, Quinoa and Avocado Salad recipe for the first installment of this series.) This recipe came about when I had a craving for home made spring rolls, but couldn’t find any sheets of rice paper in the five block vicinity of my apartment that I was willing to walk.
I changed up the ingredients a little bit, and Spring Roll Salad was born. Depending on what you’re in the mood for, you can make this more of a green salad and go heavy on the lettuce and cabbage, or more of a pasta salad, heavy on the vermicelli.
I’ll simply list my ingredients and let your taste guide the quantity.
I was over at my lovely mother-in-law’s house yesterday, and I noticed how well her window box full of herbs (a gift from my husband and me) was doing. The basil was out of control–in a good way. I asked her what she was going to do with the basil, and she said she didn’t know.
“You should make pesto,” I said to her. “It’s really easy.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
Today, I tried out a local sandwich shop I’d never tried. Their veggie sandwich promised tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and pesto, one of my favorite combinations. Unfortunately, their idea of “pesto” was mayonnaise with dried basil flecks in it. What? The blasphemy! Are there really that many people who don’t know the awesomeness of pesto?
By Jennie Love •
June 9, 2008
Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes
designed to showcase produce gathered
from local farms or grown in my own garden.
Kohlrabi season is upon us! Rejoice and partake! And it looks like I’m not the only one finding locally grown kohlrabi in the kitchen. I am ridiculously fond of kohlrabi, perhaps somewhat in part due to its alien appearance. It’s crisp and refreshing when sliced thin and eaten raw or grated into a slaw, but I actually like it even better when sauteed. It releases its juices and becomes almost buttery in texture.
As for the squash, it’s not quite here yet in the Northeast so if you don’t have it locally grown, just use the kohlrabi by itself or add another in-season vegetable. At the time I created this recipe, I was desperate to use up as much squash as possible. I figure I’ll give you a head start with ideas for this summer’s onslaught!
I went to an unfamiliar greenmarket today and had the pleasure of meeting a whole new group of farmers. One vendor was not a farmer at all, but a forager. In fact, he has an entire network of foragers throughout Canada who trade products, enabling a far longer season than would otherwise exist (the man still has fiddleheads at his disposal!) While his mileage greatly outnumbered that of the other farmers at market, I felt that his overall carbon footprint was probably comparable. Afterall, he hasn’t cleared any forest to plant his crop, or used petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides, trucked in soil and feed or used mechanized harvesting tools. Considering this, I didn’t mind helping myself to his bounty.
I was immediately intrigued by a match-stick thin vegetable that looked like a bean with tentacles. The vendor informed me that this was called ’sea asparagus’ and handed over a sample. When I popped it into my mouth, I was immediately taken with its crispiness despite the wilting heat, but was subsequently distracted by a gush of sea water flavor. It was provocative, but overwhelming. How could this ingredient blend in a dish?
Following my goji berry coup in Chinatown last week, I found myself with an embarrassment of riches. What to do with all of these berries? Where before I meted out a small handful to enjoy at the bottom of a tea cup, I was now free to make recipes that included whole cups of goji.
I was inspired by this combination of chocolate and goji, but decided to make an ice cream. When I found out that a vegan friend was coming over, I surveyed my non-dairy ingredients and came up with this frozen dessert, which was surprisingly creamy and quite delicious. The combination of chocolate and goji is reminiscent of black forest (chocolate-cherry), but more herbal and less saccharine.
Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream:
