North Africa

North Africa has always evoked to me thoughts of Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, stunning architecture, bustling markets where you haggle for some fascinating trinket. Now, however, if its possible, its mystique has grown even greater for me watching ordinary people rising to a challenge and being unbelievably brave in their demands for democracy.

Also, the food, obviously. Has anyone read A Cook’s Tour, Anthony Bourdain’s underappreciated second book in which he travels the world in search of the perfect meal? He goes to North Africa in search of spit roasted lamb and other delicacies and is served couscous and tagine over and over and over.

I am more than happy to eat couscous over and over and over.

 

Plus, hello weeknight dinner: it takes like two minutes to make.

For this extremely tasty bowl, I just dumped boiling water on some Trader Joe’s whole wheat couscous and some sun dried tomatoes; let them sit, covered, for five minutes or so; and tossed with roasted veggies.

 

To make this next guy I followed the same basic method and threw in some slow-roasted tomatoes (ooh tangent! Steve said “I have some not very good tomatoes, can I come over and you can figure out what to do with them?” which is obviously a huge compliment to me. I consulted How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, natch, and he said toss with a few tablespoons of olive oil and roast 45 minutes. Et voila, they tasted great). I topped it with that fabulous cheese we got at Lebanese Butcher.

Rounding out that meal, I attempted to recreate a stellar Eating Well recipe I’d made last winter for roasted squash and pears with chili and brown sugar but rather than doing squash and pear slices have a big squash hunk stuffed with pear… since my pears were slightly mushy… and it was pretty but not actually very good.

Stick with the original. The original is VERY good.

 

Another thing I associate with North Africa: fava beans!

On sale at my favorite hole-in-the-wall health food store. Like all hole-in-the-wall health food stores, it is outrageously overprice, so I only buy things when they’re on the half off shelf.

You definitely get a good bang for your buck with fava beans- look at the difference in size between the raw, unpeeled bean and the peeled and cooked bean:

 

For a recipe I turned, duh, to Mark. How did I live before How to Cook Everything Vegetarian?!

I ended up pureeing my beans… since, uh… they kind of disintegrated into mush. It probably was because of my unorthodox soaking technique… Rather than using cold water, I soaked them in hot water leftover from making some pasta, because I abhor dumping water down the sink.

Anyway, seasoned with za’atar (!) it made a very tasty puree.

   

It is super fun having a big bowl of dip for lunch! It makes for a very leisurely pace, ripping off slices of bread and dipping them in the rich, slightly smoky dip.

I also had yogurt with apple and cinnamon…

I also had some leftover shredded kale and brussels sprouts salad which I’d made for a dinner a few nights prior.

WOW it was good. I used like a fifth of the oil called for in the initial recipe. It was still DELISH.

 

However, though the fava bean puree was good, what I did with the leftovers was even better.

Like, so so so amazing.

Step 1: threw some onion (1/4 c?) and a carrot, chopped up, onto a cooking spray’d baking sheet, into my toaster oven til golden

Step 2: toasted some walnuts (3 T), chopped small, and cumin seeds (1/2 t) in a hot pan

Step 3: Add to hot pan with walnuts and cumin seeds: the roasted onions and carrots, chopped up; last of the fava bean puree (had about 3/4 cup left?); the rest of a can of black eyed peas I’d opened earlier (1 1/4 cups?); and perhaps half a cup of water. Then it was WAY too thin so I added the last of some dried mung bean dal I had (they’re yellow and teeny tiny and cook fast). Ee’rbody cooked together (I ended up adding hot water periodically to keep it from sticking to the bottom) for about half an hour. And just for kicks I threw in some chopped up apple… a couple tablespoons?

It. Was. So. Good!

  

Note to self: play with texture more. Three beans are better than one!

dealing with it

I have had a

totally. insane. week.

I knew coming into it it was going to be a very BUSY week, due to work.  I am normally part-time but since my direct supervisor is in Thailand on holiday and it is the busiest week of the year for our food bank and food banks in general, I was expected to work full time and step into her (frighteningly capable) shoes.

I was planning a very low key weekend prior to the serious feat of organization that was coordinating deliveries for holiday meals, extra food for extra days, extra donations, packing responsibilities, working with volunteers, blah blah blah, work work work. That didn’t actually happen.

Instead, after a rather disconcerting visit with my grandmother in which she woke up and looked me in the eye but uttered no words, I heard from my dad and his family that she was no longer accepting food and drink and wasn’t expected to last more than a few days.

That turned out to be one day. Expecting Sunday to go to my grandmother’s room and spend time with my family and all deal with her imminent passing, instead I got a phone call from my aunt that it had already happened.

I”d already made baked goods for the family bonding day I’d envisioned… so not knowing what else to do, I brought them.

Autumn Glory Muffins, which contain green tomatoes.

They are inarguably green.

Which, I mean, IS my favorite color.

 

And pretty tasty. My aunt said it “kind of tastes like a bran muffin… Yeah, Ileana, these are pretty weird.” But my dad ate two, hahahaha.

Things stayed relatively calm until 6 am Wednesday, which was 5 am in New Orleans, where my sister goes to college. She rang to announce that despite being treated with intravenous fluids, Tylenol, and Phenergen the previous day for what her campus health service had diagnosed as a stomach flu exacerbated by stress, she had woken up with a fever and horrible abdominal pain. My mom told her to go to the hospital.

A few hours of uncertain diagnosis later, a CT scan confirmed that she had appendicitis and needed surgery imminently.

Thus my Wednesday afternoon was spent frantically trying to book my mother a flight the week before Thanksgiving while she frantically tried to wrap things up at work to get to New Orleans. A word to the wise: don’t try to use Expedia when you’re trying to find a flight in less than eight hours. They post those flights but don’t actually let you book those flights, as the useless customer service representative being paid some god-awful wage in a developing country informed me when I called them.

But make it she did. And it’s sort of a relief to have a task to distract yourself and help someone out.

I buckled down and gritted my teeth through the rest of the busy week. Holiday deliveries actually went very smoothly and I was proud of the work I did.

And so Saturday arrived.

I woke up after some mediocre sleep despite having taken Nyquil the previous evening. Cheered myself up with a trip to the farmer’s market, mentally planning recipes to nourish my recovering sister and I’m sure exhausted mom upon their return.

Later in the day, I headed out to be with my dad’s family. Lacking any religious background, they decided to do a simple tea at her friend’s home as a memorial for my grandmother.

I brought the best banana bread in the world (in my recipes tab!) and let it be noted that you can cut down sugar to 1/2 a cup, make half the flour white-whole-wheat, and sub ground flax for 1/3 of the oil and it is equally delicious.

And spending time together was nice.

  

Life is what it is. When it rains, it pours.

Things coming in are mixed- what looked like progress yesterday seemed to go backwards today when my poor sister had to go back on morphine because her pain was so awful.

Flights are up in the air (hah look at me being punny), who knows what Thanksgiving will look like.

If you are lucky, in these situations, you feel grateful. You feel grateful for the people to whom you are close (even if not we are not geographically so). You realize that money, jobs, plans, are just not that important; and when the big stuff happens all you want is for the people you love to be all right. You want to tell them you love them and you want to help them however you can.

For example, my mom is on a bit of a mission: she’s been making daily trips to a juice bar down the street from the hospital to try and find something to entice my sister, who’s still on a liquid diet. (Thus far, they’ve all made her feel sicker :( Ugh, my poor sis. Being nauseous is the worst).

On that walk, my mom passes a pet store where there are three adorable black and white kittens in the front window. Her mission (and yo: if there is anyone who happens to know a guy at the pet store near Ochsner Baptist Hospital, you let me know!) is to get some adorable kittens in to cheer up my sister.

When I’m stressed I tend to reread books I love; one of my favorites is Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl. She was previously the editor of Gourmet and is a wonderful cook and writer. Her book reminds me of how integral cooking and food can be to someone’s life.

It’s how you nourish the people you love, it’s how you nourish yourself, it’s one of nature’s most simple coping mechanisms (as evidenced by my need to eat large quantities of chocolate chips and pecans with the latest less-than-stellar update from the hospital).

So last night my boyfriend, whom I love, came over, and I cooked.

It tasted great. We talked. It’ll all be okay.

Being in the period 40 days before Christmas (known as Advent), my church has entered a meatless fasting period. But I still wanted comfort food.

What is more comforting than gravy?! So vegetarian (actually vegan, as is this whole recipe) gravy, which I began by sauteeing mushrooms, onions, and garlic…

Reconstituting dried shiitake mushrooms to make a broth…

Thickening with flour…

 

And enriching with seasonings to make a rich gravy.

Meanwhile, some unphotogenic ingredients whirred together in my food processor to make a shockingly tasty and easy-to-work-with meat substitute.

I was initially suspicious that this would cook properly, since it was QUITE sticky. But I scooped it with a cookie scoop (one of my favorite kitchen tools! But a spoon would certainly work too, though I recommend spraying it with cooking spray).  

I then cooked up cookie-sized scoops of the mix on my griddle, flipping them around for even browning on all sides. They actually were INCREDIBLY easy to work with and told me when they were ready for me to flip them :D

And voila! Tofu “meatballs”! Don’t they look bizarrely real?!

  

Though you certain won’t fool anyone into thinking this is meat, I didn’t consider that the point of this recipe when I made it. What I wanted was just to make something yummy, filling, and comforting, which I did. The meatballs have a great flavor from the garlic and parsley; a nice texture from the almonds, some of which stayed in little chunks that make for an unexpected and pleasant crunch; and a nice meatiness from the tofu and soy sauce.

And the gravy was great. Gravy is always great. And this is guiltless gravy!

I genuinely love cooking for Steve; he has such appreciation for when I get a little eccentric and creative in my food experiments. I am also pleased that I’ve figured out that I can send him away from my dinner table full! It just takes some extra carbs.

This particular evening, I took a cue from my mother (and her mother) and cooked him up some orzo in browned butter. Not as good as theirs, but is brown butter ever bad?

 

Adding to the adorability of fake “meatballs”, I also made some fake “spaghetti” out of spaghetti squash.

Along with a simple but lovely salad of farmer’s market greens with a simple parsley vinaigrette.

   

In the week’s final tragedy, I knew that my immune system would prefer if I did NOT enjoy a glass of wine with this beautiful meal. But, I slept for nine blissful Nyquil-induced hours last night and am cautiously optimistic this cold may not turn full blown. So… it was worth it.

Anyway, this meal was pretty great on its own.

 

Tofu “Meatballs” with Mushroom “Gravy”

Gravy
3 T or so dried shiitake mushrooms (or other dried mushrooms; or just use more fresh mushrooms and use vegetable broth instead of mushroom broth)
1 cup or so boiling water
1 fresh mushroom
1/6 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp. oil
1 T or so flour
2 or 3 T ketchup
1 tsp or so Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp or so balsamic vinegar

Cover dried mushrooms with hot water to rehydrate mushrooms and make a mushroom “broth” In a food processor, blend fresh mushroom, onion, and garlic until finely minced. Meanwhile, preheat a small frying pan to medium heat. Put oil in pan, and stir and fry mushroom, onion, and garlic mixture until browned and fragrant. You may need to add the mushroom broth to prevent veggies from sticking and burning. When veggies are fragrant, add the flour and toss around until it is absorbed into the veggies and no longer visibly white and raw. Then add the mushroom “broth” and mushrooms, as well as the ketchup. Let the mixture cook until it has reached your desired thickness. Then add the mustard and vinegar to taste (adjusting flavors as you wish), and keep warm to serve over the meatballs.

Meatballs
7 oz or so silken tofu, pressed by wrapping it in a clean kitchen towel and putting a heavy pot or cookbook on top of it for an hour or so
¼ cup (1 oz) almonds, toasted
½ tsp garlic powder
2 tsp. mushroom soy sauce
1/4 cup oats
¼ cup parsley leaves
1tsp. dried onion

Blend ingredients in a food processor (just rinse it out from before!) until smooth. Using a cookie scoop or a spoon (grease either with cooking spray to make scooping easier), scoop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a nonstick griddle preheated to medium high (or a nonstick frying pan, or a frying pan with oil in it; this recipe is pretty flexible). Cook, turning frequently, until “meatballs” are warmed through and brown on all sides. Serve with gravy.

Enjoy this comfort food with someone you love, and count your blessings!

signs I am not a normal person

There are many signs I am not a normal person, but this is the first time I am posting them officially- totally ripping off the brilliant posts in The Smart Kitchen.

I just came up with a collection of all the crazy things I had done (with recipes) lately, and it seemed a fitting post.

The fact that I was Princess Leia for Halloween is not a sign I am not a normal person. Everyone loves Princess Leia, as evidenced by how everyone LOVED my costume (as well as Han’s, of course).

 

It is a sign that my boyfriend is not an entirely normal person that he was bored one time and made a life sized cardboard Chewbacca.

The first sign that I am not a normal person is that the main reason I wanted to be Princess Leia (well, okay, like, the third main reason after a general love of Star Wars and a particular love for Han Solo that liked very much the idea of seeing my boyfriend as him) was so I could use these for my hair:

:D Steve snacked later in the night.

Anywhere on the Eastern side of the United States will recall how dreadful the weather was Halloweekend.

Being an abnormal person, I took it as a delightful opportunity to wear my Russia Hat!

 

Now, it is normal to carve a pumpkin into a Jack’o’lantern on Halloween. (A Darth Vader o’lantern? Borderline…)

It is also normal to roast the pumpkin seeds from its interior (I took a clue from Carrots n Cake and tossed this with Worcestershire sauce and garlic powder, which was yummy)

 

Not normal at all?

Bringing pumpkin oatmeal to a Halloween party.

But guyyyyyyys, October 29 was National Oatmeal Day! And I hadn’t had any that morning! Don’t you see that I had NO CHOICE?!

Also, as people at the party consumed increasing amounts of alcohol they became increasingly entertained by the fact that I knew it was National Oatmeal Day.

Obvi, there was plenty of other decidedly junkier food.

Sam, our hostess, made Crunk Cakes. They involved Malibu rum and jello mix. Steve ate like fifteen.

I couldn’t step away from the pumpkin dip. Canned pumpkin, cool whip, and melted vanilla ice cream (she was supposed to use pudding but didn’t have any- um, COOL WITH ME!). There were ginger snaps for dipping, but what DIDN’T I dip in this?!

It was also great on pumpkin oatmeal! :D (I was definitely the only person to eat it)

And there was just a general cornucopia, with pizza (not pictured), focaccia (have you ever watched a drunk person try to cut focaccia? It was the funniest thing ever. It was like watching a baby with a bread knife, only less scary and dangerous. I, who had half a glass of wine over the course of the whole evening, sliced a random stranger’s bread for him. It felt very maternal).

Also: a squajillion ice cream toppings, many in individually labeled lovely mason jars. Why?

 

Erica, one of Steve’s coworker, is in some Wii product… marketing… club… thing? She basically got money from Wii to have a party. And make people play Wii and take pictures for them.

In exchange for getting the all time high score in the skipping stones game (!!), I got to take home a complimentary ice cream kit.

Bowl and scoop.

Another sign I am not a normal person:

I love my job. No no no, I don’t mean that is totally abnormal. Hopefully there are still some people left in this world who are 1. Employed and 2. Enjoying what they do.

No, I am not a normal person because I went into work on a Friday, the day I have off, to participate in a macaroni and cheese competition:

I mean… whatever. I had to. (Well, I also had to meet with my supervisor since she went to Thailand for two weeks and I am currently filling in her position, eesh! So it was a good reason to be at work anyway :D)

I made it more indulgent than usual, cause cmon, this is a competition.

To me, this meant lots of butter.

I also love when my mom blends up an onion in the food processor so it gets crushed into really small pieces and gets this great jam-y caramelization thing happening when you slow cook it in butter.

I attempted to do this with onion, leek, celery and carrot in the food processor.

 

It smelled positively incredible as I sauteed it on medium low.

 

Then I added flour to make a roux and it was more of just a… lump.

 

I was initially gravely concerned as I started adding milk to the flour and veggies to make a white sauce, as it made just kind of a… lump!

 

But gradually, sauce it was.

Albeit slightly troublingly green sauce.

 

Unconventional (not normal, even?) additions to my sauce:

Pasta water, because I use it to starch-ify all my Italian pastas, so why not mac and cheese?

And I had a leftover egg yolk in my fridge from a previous kitchen project so I was sure that would have a richening/thickening effect AND I could whip it together with my secret ingredient: HORSERADISH!

I tempered that with hot pasta water and added it to the sauce along with my pasta, which was not in fact macaroni:

 

But penne.

Entirely normal: lotsa cheeeeeeeeese! I just used cheddar, cause we have a huge block of it.

   

I made some horseradishy breadcrumbs by heating some oil and butter, stirring some horseradish in, and then tossing it with breadcrumbs.

A trip under the broiler made it competition ready.

 

And then I got there and saw David’s bathtub-sized vat of pasta and was just like… forget it.

No, that’s not sausage on the top. That’s golden brown cheese that BURST out of the top of his unbelievable jam-packed dish of amazingness.

  

And what do we think that black pepper mixture is on the top?

And how do you get that kind of DENSITY?!

 

David works in the warehouse, but apparently has an on-the-side business catering. I want to hire him for like… my life. I want to have some kind of special occasion just so David can cater it.

Because along with being MAMMOTH in every sense of the word, it was also THE BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I’VE EVER TASTED.

I think the secret was garlic. When biting in, I was reminded of my grandmother’s recipe for artichoke dip which involved minced garlic and a tonnnn of cheddar.

The vat was way too big to fit in our microwave, so we reheated… slabs on plates.

I mean that CRUST!

 

That CHEESE! Oh my gracious.

I do have to respectfully mention the other very very good contributions to this competition. (I have, you will notice, quit talking about my own. Mine is small potatoes macaroni).

Adrienne contributed a classic mac that was quite good:

And Grace, my boss, made a sort of unreal concoction that involved stuffing cheese into ziti AND doing an extra hidden layer of GOAT CHEESE UNDER THE BREADCRUMBS, and it was great.

But David… oh David. You are a champion.

And everyone in my office ate four servings of mac and cheese for lunch!

Here’s a beautiful demo plate, which I made for Destiny, who had to be manning the phones at the time. I asked her how much she wanted as measured in tennis balls, and she said just one tennis ball containing one or two bites of each variety.

Feast your eyes on all the cheesy goodness:

 

The mac and cheese off was also a half birthday party for my very very sweet coworker Amy (not my supervisor Amy- we have Two Amys, which is also the name of an extremely popular pizza place in DC).

Soooo I decided it’d be a great time to make a fun dessert, reappropriating some slightly ghetto garden huckleberry jam (great flavor, weird texture; it’s safe to say jam making is not for me) as well as some mini phyllo tart shells that had been sitting in my cupboard forevvvvvvvvvvvver and they were already old which is why my sister got them 50% off.

 

They made, I must say, extremely and elegant looking tarts.

 

Everyone seemed to like them, but the real star was Adrienne’s TRIFLE!

She actually tried to make chocolate cupcakes but they stuck to the pan and were a mess so she reappropriated them into trifle with layers of chocolate pudding and whipped cream and crumbled Oreos on top!

Whoa mama.

 

I got seconds. That was entirely normal :D