Dinner For One, My Take

Almost Vegetarian has a fun thread going right now about Dinner For One. I have a great affinity for those secret favorites, the ones you would probably never serve to company but can be so satisfying when you have no one to please but yourself. For example, here is one that I made a bunch of times a few years ago, when I was discovering how much I love Brussel sprouts if they are cooked properly.

Of course, if you don't care for Brussel sprouts, which many people don't, this recipe is your worst nightmare. If you love them, your mouth is probably watering and you are considering putting down the book and running out to the grocery. It doesn't much matter. There are several important things to notice about this recipe. First of all, it is much harder to write down then it actually is to do. The point is not for you to memorize it and repeat it, but to free up your imagination and your palate to eat what you enjoy. Second is that you can actually think with your taste buds. If you stop and consider can you see that this dish is nicer with a whole wheat bread than say a country white, or a baguette? Can you tell that it works better with Brussel sprouts than, say, broccoli? Wait, that's a trick question. It works better for me with sprouts, but you might love it with broccoli. You can also imagine variations. Would you like to add a squeeze of lemon juice? Toasted hazelnuts? Some fresh-ground black pepper or chili flakes? Olive oil instead of butter? Do whatever appeals to you, and taste the result in your imagination first. Finally, especially with simple dishes, the quality of the ingredients matter. Oh, it will be perfectly edible even if you used frozen sprouts, cheap salted butter, iodized table salt, and a national brand loaf of bread. And sometimes that might be the best choice available to you, either due to expense or availability. But if you can use better quality ingredients, that is generally what turns a dish from edible to sublime.

Brussel Sprouts for Me
Serves 1 with a good book or a rainy night

About 10 medium size Brussel sprouts
Good quality sweet (unsalted) butter
Sea salt
Crusty whole wheat bread

Cut a couple of nice slices of the bread, and put them on to toast so they get lightly browned. Trim the stems off of the sprouts and remove any ugly leaves. If you like, cut a cross in the bottom. Rumor has it this helps them cook more evenly, but I can't tell much difference. Microwave them on high for 2 minutes, or simmer them in a 1/8" of water in a covered saucepan until tender but still bright green. While they are cooking, push the bread down again so it dries out a little more. Dump the cooked sprouts in a bowl and add a healthy pat of butter and a generous sprinkle of salt, and swirl them around a bit. Grab the bread, and enjoy using it to soak up the buttery juice and scoop up stray bits of sprouts.

Eating Vegetarian in Ethnic Restaurants Part 2 - Thai Food

Please see the Overview for the general introduction to this series.

Thai food can be heaven for a vegetarian as long as you know a couple things to watch out for. Almost any dish  can be made with Tofu instead of chicken, beef or shrimp. The biggest problems are fish sauce and shrimp paste. Also, as with most cuisines, soups are made from meat-based stocks.

The fish sauce issue is fairly easy to deal with because it is typically added at the last minute, so as long as you can communicate with the waitstaff you can ask for it to be left out. The Thai name for the sauce is "Nam Pla".

Shrimp paste is harder because it is often in the prepared paste for most of the curries (red, yellow, green, massaman, panang, etc). You will have to ask a lot of questions to feel confident that you can get a curry without it. So as a fallback position if you feel that all you can communicate is "no fish sauce", your best bet is probably noodle dishes such as Pad Khee Mao (drunken noodles), the well known Pad Thai, or fried-rice style dishes.

Occasionally you will find a Thai restaurant that specifically caters to vegetarians, such as the wonderful Tawon Thai in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. Any dish that can be made completely vegetarian is labeled on their menu with a "J" (for Jain)! If you make it there, I highly recommend the Kao Soi. OMG is that good, but don't wear your nicest white shirt!

Flaky Biscuits!

You've got your tender biscuit people and your flaky biscuit people. I'm most definitely a flaky guy. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right. Anyhow, there was an unbelievable biscuit recipe in the May 2007 issue (#85) of Fine Cooking magazine. I don't want to reproduce their recipe here since it is copyrighted, but I can tell you how it differs from your standard buttermilk biscuits. The basic thing is that you don't blend the butter into the flour. You simply cut it into small cubes, maybe 1/4" on a side, and toss them in to separate. And when you roll them out, you fold the dough into thirds and reroll three times to create a lot of layers. You absolutely have to bake them on a cookie sheet with a rim and parchment! They leak a little butter and I can tell you from previous experience that if you skip the rim, you might have an oven fire. Mini-me thought that was cool. The friends came for breakfast and we had the biscuits with baked eggs (filled with potato cubes, braised greens and Appenzeller cheese), u-pick-em blackberries and a green salad.

Update: Fine Cooking published the Flaky Biscuit Recipe on their website. Be sure and follow the directions closely to get the best results.