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.

Summer, Finally

Too tired to write a real post tonight. We were at South 47 Farm today, took Mini-Me for a hayride and picked amazing cucumbers and blackberries and summer squash, and then went to our neighborhood farmer's market in the afternoon and scored the stunning basil pictured above.  If you can see basil that beautiful and not make pesto, you are a stronger person than me. We had it on fresh fettucini also from the market and cubes of the summer squash, and summer is here.

Eating Vegetarian in Ethnic Restaurants Part 1 - Overview

I've been a vegetarian for 22 years, and I've always enjoyed eating foods from around the world. America is a country of immigrants, and virtually every group that has come here has opened restaurants. I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. In the 1970s the only ethnic foods we knew about were Italian, Mexican, and Chinese. (Side note: "ethnic" sounds silly. Everyone has an ethnicity right? Someone please clue me in to a more accurate term that means "not your run of the mill American food"). Now when I go back to visit Louisville I'm thrilled by the terrific Vietnamese and Middle Eastern restaurants. I've lived all over the country and wherever I go there has been a tremendous growth in the number, diversity, quality and authenticity of these restaurants.

I think a lot of vegetarians are skeptical about eating cuisines they aren't familiar with because they aren't sure whether there are safe options for them. That is a real shame because they can all be accessible and offer a variety of amazing flavors, often at ultra-reasonable prices. So I thought it would be useful to walk through some of these cuisines. I'll point out places where animal products are likely to be hiding and which dishes are generally vegetarian. And I'll mention some of the classic foods from each country that you should try if it is your first time.

First some caveats. I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian (which means I eat dairy products and eggs). So I don't feel qualified to comment on what dishes are vegan.

Also, conditions may vary in different parts of the country. A taqueria in East LA serving mainly a neighborhood clientele is more likely to have the traditional lard in their refried beans than one in Berkeley! And of course the food may be dramatically different when you travel to other parts of the world, especially the home country of a given cuisine. American restaurants of a given culture tend to all serve the same core of dishes which in turn becomes our stereotyped expectation. Traveling, whether it is to Rome, the Yucatan, or Delhi will show you a much more nuanced and regionally specific repertoire, and you will have the pleasurable opportunity to re-examine your knowledge.

Also, there is a wide variation in what people who describe themselves as vegetarians will eat. Some won't eat a french fry if it is possible that a piece of breaded fish was fried in the same oil, or would avoid a red dye not because of the health danger but because it might be made from cochineal. Other folks have more of a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to the whole issue. And for some it basically means nothing more than that they don't eat beef. I tend towards the more serious end, but I do make an exception for rennet used to make cheese. In practice most rennet these days is made from a vegetarian microbial culture, but it is impractical to find out what is used in a particular cheese at a restaurant. I'd suggest that if this is truly upsetting to you, you probably have to go vegan.

In all cases, what I can tell you is only a guideline based on my experience. The very best thing to do is go and try to find someone who speaks English (or even better, bring a friend who is a native speaker), and ask lots of questions!

That's it for the introduction, next time we'll start with a look at Thai food.

Nishino - Let Me Count The Ways

Snacky Pants and I just got back from a lovely date-night dinner at Nishino, which is our very favorite Japanese restaurant in Seattle. (My wife is still deciding what nickname she wants to go by on the blog. So for tonight it is Snacky Pants.) Located in an unassuming little shopping center next to a fitness club in Madison Valley, when you enter Nishino you find yourself in a soothing and elegant room decorated in a modern Pacific Northwest style, with sparse Japanese furnishings and stunning paintings. The service is always on point but mellow, and we immediately find ourselves relaxed, knowing that we will be well cared for.

Tonight's meal was typically excellent. We started as always with the Asparagus in Yuzu Miso. The asparagus is simply blanched and served cool in the salty / sweet / citrusy sauce with a few sesame seeds.  Our second dish was a special, the Tempura Walla Walla Sweet Onions and Parsley pictured above. It was served intentionally unseasoned, so that you could sprinkle on the sea salt and togarashi chili mix to your own taste, and squeeze on a bit of lemon. This dish really sums up the restaurant's genius. The sweet onions are a Washington state specialty, the fried parsley a nod towards the legendary Herbfarm, and the lemon squeeze a reference to good ol' American fried fish. But the tempura batter and the chili salt is pure Japan, and somehow the whole comes together to create something both familiar and exciting at the same time. If I had one quibble this evening it was that the tempura could have been fried just a little darker, but it was still outstanding.

Our next course was Nasu Dengaku, broiled eggplant with a rich miso sauce and garnishes of pickled bean sprouts, red cabbage and lotus root. And then we moved on to sushi. Snacky Pants (who isn't a vegetarian) had a  California Roll, and we shared an Ume Shiso maki (a classic roll of pickled plum paste and shiso leaf, otherwise known as Perilla or Beefsteak plant) and an Oshinko maki. I had a futomaki (fat roll) of egg, spinach, and shiitake mushroom that was outstanding.

For dessert we had espresso-ice cream filled mochi and a refreshing shiso sorbet (really more of a granita) which brought out the piney aspect of that herb.

Amazingly, with one premium Umenishiki sake, a bottle of San Pellegrino, tax and tip, the whole meal came to $80. While not cheap I think this is one of the outstanding deals in Seattle dining. For most dinners of comparable quality I would expect to pay more like $120.

Knives for the Vegetarian Kitchen, Part 1

If you love to cook, you are probably going to fall in love with knives. I've had many of them over the years, but I've pretty well settled on the set above. I'll walk you through them and tell you what they are and what I like about them. I think a vegetarian kitchen has slightly different ideal knives than a meat-oriented kitchen. Clearly you don't need a carving knife or a big meat cleaver. And also you might find that thinner, more precise knives are better suited to cutting vegetables neatly.

You certainly don't need all of the knives above, so I've organized them from left to right in terms of priority. (Knives on a magnetic block should normally be pointing down so that if you reach for one and something falls it won't be on your hand, but I can't do that in my kitchen because it is the only place for my crock full of quick-reach utensils).

Global 8-Inch Chef's Knife
An 8 or 10 inch chef knife is the foundation of any kitchen. It is the workhorse that you will use to chop, slice, mince, julienne or chiffonade just about any product. This Global is my very favorite knife. It was given to me by my old buddy John Krystynak. Anything you want to know about Internet advertising, you read his blog, GotAds. It holds a razor edge, feels great in my hand, and rocks back and forth beautifully. The blade feels thin, but still perfectly sturdy. When you are holding this knife, you just know that you aren't being limited by it, only by your own skills. Lately it has been very fashionable to switch to a Santoku as a main knife. I tried one for awhile and didn't really love it because the straight edge doesn't allow you to rock back and forth.

Unnnamed paring knife
Henckels Pro-S paring knife
Obviously you'll use a paring knife for those smaller jobs, like coring a tomato or hulling a strawberry. I'm not including a link to the first one of these because it isn't labeled or to the second one because I really wouldn't buy Henckels knives anymore. I had many of them for years and I just find that they don't hold an edge for long enough. But for paring knives these are fine and I'm not in a hurry to replace them. You really only need one paring knife, but it is handy to have two in case a friend who isn't comfortable with larger knives comes over and wants to help in the kitchen.

Henckels Twin Pro S 8-Inch High-Carbon Stainless-Steel Bread Knife
This is the last knife I'm going to say you need. I guess you don't really, you can mash your bread with your chef's knife if you want, or with a garlic press if it makes you happy. But really a serrated knife is the way to go. The purpose of a serrated knife is to create a sawing action with each stroke, instead of trying to neatly cleave apart cells the way a straight knife does. Didn't I just say I wouldn't recommend Henckels? Well, I take it back, I've had this knife for at least 15 years and it still works just great. If you don't get the next knife, you can use your bread knife on tomatoes too.

Unnamed tomato knife 5"
From here out we are clearly in the territory of stuff that is handy to have, not required. I pretty much only use it for tomatoes, but it is also handy if your bread knife happens to be dirty and you need to make a quick sandwich to tide you over.

Unnamed 6 inch utility knife with flexible blade
I don't know if the blade on this knife is flexible just because it is cheap, but I find it useful for a few things, like removing the rind from melons slices. It bends around the curve a bit so less goes to waste.

Global 7 in. Wide Chef's Knife
I bought this thinking it would be my main chef's knife. The wider blade gives a lot of clearance for your knuckles. But I just never quite bonded with this knife. It always felt awkward and overly heavy. Then I realized it is great for those heavy jobs  like halving an acorn squash, where a little more weight is welcome or you fear you might damage your main knife.

Henckels 6" utility knife
Can't really tell you why I like this knife, it just has this satisfying sort of in-betweenness, neither a paring knife nor a chefs knife nor a lender be. So I keep it around and use it to slice pies and cakes.

Japanese cleaver (Caddie brand)
I keep this around for purely sentimental reasons, because it belonged to my mom. It was my one-and-only for the first several years that I cooked. When I inherited it, it had a few nasty nicks in the edge that had to be ground out, so it is about 1/4" narrower than as designed. It is just a cheapie but notice it does have the rounded front tip. That means you can do a nice rocking action with it, but it doesn't have a point you can use for piercing.

So those are my knives. Bottom line is I really like the Globals and more than likely I'd go with them for any new knife I'd buy.  We'll come back to knives soon and talk about care, sharpening, and accesories.

Random bit of news for the day. I just learned that my friend and Adobe colleague in Delhi, Ayusman Sarangi, has a blog of his own, also with foodie in the URL:  http://ayusman-foodie.blogspot.com. Check it out, it is pretty fun to see what is going on in restaurants half-way around the world! Good luck decoding the local acronyms like PVRs and CP. (The latter is Connaught Place, a central landmark in the city).

Review: Duck Soup Inn, San Juan Island, WA

Last weekend we were up on San Juan Island in Puget Sound with my wife's folks and a couple of their friends. At the (very fine) farmer's market in Friday Harbor on Saturday morning, one of our crew bought a few zucchini blossoms and the woman in line behind her bought all the rest that the stand had remaining. Turns out that woman was Gretchen Allison, chef of Duck Soup Inn, where we had reservations for that very evening. And that auspicious omen turned out to be very accurate indeed, it was one of the most enjoyable meals I've had in a long time. And that is saying a lot because I had been suffering from pretty bad stomach cramps all that day!

Duck Soup Inn is tucked in off a rural road between Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor. Inside, it has a rustic and sort of casual... ok, dated... decor of wood and forest green walls. Don't let that worry you.

For our first course we had those zucchini blossoms, filled with goat cheese, tempura battered, and deep fried. Mind you I'm in the camp that feels you could deep fry a raquetball and as long as the oil was hot enough and you sprinkled some sea salt on at the end, it would be delicious. But these were really nice.

All entrees at the Inn come with soup and salad. The soup of the day was a vegetarian chocolate, chili and walnut puree. I had a bit of trepidation that I was about to be served a cup of mole (the sauce, not the small mammal or Avogadro's number of walnuts), but I shouldn't have worried. It shared some of the same flavors, but balanced perfectly so that it whetted the appetite without leaving you full. My wife is allergic to nuts, so they gave her the previous day's mushroom and chili soup which was also tasty. I'm not sure if the soup is always vegetarian.

The salad was noteable for containing several edible flowers (grown in their own garden) which also made an appearance as a garnish on most every plate. Each one was perfect and arranged carefully on the plate, not just an afterthought or a tired trend, but a really attractive complement to the meal.

My entree was a very well made chili relleno, served over a red-pepper polenta and with a cumin tomato sauce and an avocado salsa. Once again the flavors were spot on. Unfortunately this is where my GI situation got the better of me and I was only able to have a few bites before standing down. Until dessert. Somehow I managed to eat a properly brittle-topped creme brulee and sample a cobbler and a hot-fudge sundae. What can I say.

Service throughout the meal was attentive and kind without being at all obtrusive, perfectly fitting the atmosphere of a lovely restaurant. I can't tell you the tab since an angel took the check, but entrees run $25 to $35 dollars. Keeping in mind that that is inclusive of a soup and salad so you don't really need an appetizer, I think it is a fair price for a very pleasing experience.

Bonus Friday Harbor recommendation: The Market Chef on A St. has carefully made deli sandwiches, salads and bakery treats, available to dine in or take out. On a nice day you can sit on their back porch. I had an intensely flavored potato salad with capers and a dijon vinaigrette that I need to replicate real soon now.

Heirloom Caprese and a Grilled Zucchini and Tofu

I don't think anyone needs a recipe for these, just use your best olive oil for the caprese and your best balsamic and parmesan for the zucchini and tofu. I really need plain white plates for these to look right. The caprese was inspired by that beautiful tomato, and I realized a good if obvious trick. If you cut the slices parallel to the equator instead of top to bottom, then they aren't marred by the cut where you remove the core. 

Grilled Peaches with Ras Al Hanout and Ginger Beer Reduction

This sounds fancy but is actually a slam dunk to make, especially if you use a packaged spice mixture. The combination of sweet, pungent and spicy is pretty addictive. You could serve it as an appetizer or as part of a light dinner with a salad or a meze. It seems like it would enjoy a nice assertive piece of cheese. (Tip: if you have trouble skinning the peaches, these relatively new serrated peelers are excellent on soft foods).

Grilled Peaches with Ras Al Hanout and Ginger Beer Reduction
Serves 4

1 bottle of Ginger Beer (Reed's is nice)
1 T Ras Al Hanout spice mixture, pre-made or make your own
4 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into thirds
Sea salt (Red Hawaaian Alaea salt works well here)

1. Put the ginger beer in a saucepan with a pinch of (kosher, not Alaea) salt and bring to a boil, then lower heat and reduce until syrupy
2. Give the Ras Al Hanout a quick, low toast in a skillet to bring out the flavors
3. Heat a grill pan (or grill), and grill the peaches for about 30 seconds on each side. You want to get some nice grill marks and heat them through, but not turn them to mush.
4. To serve, put about 1.5 T of the syrup on a rimmed plate, put down 3 peach pieces, and sprinkle with a healthy teaspoon of the Ras Al Hanout, or more if you like. Distribute a pinch of the sea salt and serve.

Obviously there is lots of room for improvisation with this dish. Here are some other ideas:

- use a different stone fruit (nectarines would rock)
- use a different spice mixture (how about Chat Masala? Or Dukkah?)
- use a different sauce (make your own ginger sauce, or pomegranate molasses, or a fine balsamic, or something with honey)
- use a different salt (Maldon is always nice)

Making Mozarella at Home

I've made ricotta and yogurt cheese a few times at home, but I've never tried to do anything that involved (vegetable) rennet before. I had read that mozzarella was fairly tractable, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Casting about google for recipes turned up New England Cheesemaking Supply which sells rennet, citric acid and anything else you would need to get started, as well as a pretty nice visual recipe.

First attempt: got my package in the mail and of course I had to make it the same evening. I ran over to our local market which has just started carrying some organic products, bought a gallon of whole milk and got started. And something went horribly wrong, the curds wouldn't set up but became something more like ricotta. It took me awhile to realize I'd bought UHT (ultra-high temperature pasteurized) milk in spite of the directions warning you  multiple times that it wouldn't set up. Bummer! I thought UHT milk always came in those brick cartons similar to soymilk, I guess not :(.

Second attempt: things went much more smoothly this time. Because I was a little skittish from the last effort, I did everything to the max. Maximum citric acid, maximum rennet, maximum resting time. Now I got nice big curds, and sure enough you cut them up, microwave them, knead them and pour off the whey, repeating a few times, and presto, you've got mozzarella! I have to say I was elated when the texture suddenly changed and it was obvious I'd really made cheese. Very cool.

This batch turned out more like a good grocery story mozzarella, really stretchy and stringy and suitable for melting on pizza, not something you would make an insalata caprese with. It tasted better after resting overnight, but still wasn't something that is probably worth the trouble of doing regularly.

Things to try for next time:

• Don't let the curds sit so long before cutting
• Knead more gently so more moisture stays in
• Reheat in hot water or whey instead of microwave
• Try using a culture instead of citric acid. I think this will give a better flavor and it is the traditional way
• Maybe use a little bit of goat milk in the mix? or better yet, water buffalo, but I don't think that is available in the Seattle area. I hear a rumor there are herds in Florida.
• Try making a burrata-style mozzarella, following the directions at Sex and the Kitchen

Vietnamese Sandwiches

Banh Mi Chay - Vietnamese Tofu Sandwich

If you are already an afficionado of Vietnamese sandwiches, aka Banh Mi, you probably don't need to read any further. But if you haven't had them, you have been missing out on one of the all time delicious and cheap eats. My wife and I have been known to roll out of bed in the morning and say "Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch? Yep!".

A typical sandwich is on an 8 inch crusty French roll (an imperial legacy). It contains julienned cucumber, carrot and pickled daikon, cilantro, optionally slices of jalapeno, a little light mayonnaise-based dressing, lots of black pepper, and the filling of your choice. For meat eaters there is a wide variety of choices, but there is always a tofu option, Banh Mi Chay. And the best part is that this treat usually costs about $1.50, rarely more than $2.00. One sandwich is pretty filling, but at that price if you are hungry you might want to split three among two people. You generally order at a counter and wait a few minutes while they are made, which gives you time to check out the other prepared foods and grocery items to tempt you. Always on offer is fresh-made Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk.

So where do you find Vietnamese sandwiches? If you happen to be in the Seattle area I've listed a few places below. If not, look for a Vietnamese deli or grocery, they will either have them or know where you can get them. Most Vietnamese restaurants *don't* sell them, because they are take-out food, not a sit-down meal.

Favorite Seattle options:

Saigon Deli (picture above is from there, my favorite)
1237 S Jackson St, Seattle
(206) 322-3700

Seattle Deli
225 12th Ave S, Seattle
(206) 328-0106

There are tons of other small shops along Jackson that also offer Banh Mi. If you have a different favorite, please add a comment! Also Baguette Box offers a slightly non-traditional but delicious version at the wildly overinflated price of $4.25 :). The nice thing is that it gives you options outside of the international district and a hip vibe.

1203 Pine St (Capitol Hill)
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 332-0220

or

626 N 34th (Fremont)
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 632-1511

Mexican Panzanella Salad

The idea for this is based on a Rick Bayless recipe title, but I didn't have it in front of me this weekend. Hmm, and actually looking at his chayote-based recipe now, they really have nothing in common. We were in Friday Harbor Washington, which is on San Juan Island in Puget Sound, on S's parent's boat. It served 6 with one other dish and lots of leftovers, so you could easily cut it in half for a side dish.

Mexican Panzanella Salad
Serves 8 as most of dinner
Vegetarian and vegan; to make gluten-free use corn tortillas instead of the bread

5 small limes, juiced
3/4 c. olive oil, minced
2 cloves garlic
1 T. kosher salt or sea salt
2 t. mild ancho or other chili powder
1 t. cumin powder
5 poblano chilis, roasted, peeled, seeded, and sliced
6 medium heirloom tomatoes, diced or 3 pints sweet cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, seeded and cut into medium dice
3 ears corn, roasted or microwaved 3 minutes
1/2 red onion or sweet yellow onion, sliced thin
1 loaf of bread (I used a ciabatta), either stale or toasted, cut into medium dice
3 ripe avocados, cut into medium dice
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

• Whisk together lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, chili powder and cumin to make the dressing. It should be pretty salty.
• Prepare the poblanos, tomatoes, cucumber and onion and place in a large serving bowl
• Remove the corn kernels from the cob and add to the other vegetables
• If you like the bread to sop up the juice, add it now, otherwise wait til close to serving time
• About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve the salad, combine the dressing, vegetables, bread (if you haven't already), avocado, and herbs, and toss gently but thoroughly
• Let rest a few minutes then taste and adjust seasoning

You could certainly add some jalapeno or other hot peppers if you want to amp this up, and of course change the vegetables to suit what is fresh and in season. It might be nice to add some zest from the limes to the dressing as well.

Cucumber, Zucchini & Mint Salad

This is a salad I made up  when a friend invited me to a barbecue with 45 minutes notice. The combination of cucumber and zucchini was a happy accident; if I'd been designing this recipe from scratch it probably would have been only one or the other, but I didn't have enough of either. It is very light and refreshing.

Cucumber, Zucchini & Mint Salad

Serves 6 as a side dish
Vegetarian, Vegan, and Gluten free

 

1 large cucumber (preferably English), peeled, seeded and cubed
5 small zucchini, cubed
½ medium red onion, sliced very thin
a few leaves of fresh mint, bruised and minced
2 t. dried or fresh thyme
¼ c. "O" brand California Blood Orange flavored olive oil
    or ¼ c. extra virgin olive oil, 1 T orange juice, and 2 t orange zest
3 T. mild rice vinegar
2 t. kosher salt or more to taste
1 t. fresh ground black pepper or to taste
 
Whisk the herbs, liquid ingredients, salt and pepper to make a dressing and toss with the vegetables.
 

Battle of the Network Food Battles

Let's stipulate up front that I know I shouldn't be watching this garbage. In spite of that, my wife and I eagerly await all three shows each week. At least we have TiVO.

What garbage you ask? You were probably doing something intelligent like pruning your hedges while we watched the current crop of "reality" shows The Next Food Network Star, Hell's Kitchen, and Top Chef.

The Next Food Network Star is probably the worst of the lot. It is all about finding a personality to host their own show on Food Network. The regular judges are Food Network execs, with one of their current celebrities as a guest host each week. The actual cooking content is very light, with most of the focus on teaching the contestants to look at the camera, smile, and explain what smoked paprika is without scorching themselves or curdling the cream sauce. In this year's crop there is only one guy, Jag, that seems to be really talented. And sadly they keep asking him to dumb down his food.

Hell's Kitchen (on Fox) is a star vehicle for legendary British screamer Gordon Ramsay. Most of the trials he puts the contestants through are aimed at training them to be effective line cooks. They are divided into two teams, and each week they have a short challenge. The winning team gets a reward, and the losers get to do unpleasant things like scrub all the grease traps. In the second half of the show, they attempt to complete a service at the Hell's Kitchen restaurant venue in LA, and Ramsay yells, bullies and belittles them, dumps food in the trash and on their jackets, and generally attempts to break them down. To me it just seems kind of funny, I can't imagine it would really bother me. Some of the things people do under pressure are fairly amazing, including one woman who pulled spaghetti back out of the garbage and tried to serve it. My hero this year is Julia, a short order cook at Waffle House who is holding her own against the others who supposedly have a lot of fine dining experience. If you've ever watched the Waffle House cooks handle a full after-church crowd perfectly with no written tickets and a bunch of waitresses shouting orders at them in code, you wouldn't be surprised. By the way, if you like this show you should probably read his recent tell-all, Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection.

And finally, on Bravo, there is my favorite, Top Chef. Hosted by Tom Colicchio (chef of the Craft mini-empire in NYC) and Padma Lakshmi (who is primarily known as a model, and actress but has also written a cookbook and is married to Salman Rushdie). The funniest thing about this show is the absurd level of product placement. Padma is always saying thngs like "you'll have 30 minutes in the Kenmore Elite kitchen to complete your Kahlua Coffee Liqueur inspired appetizers". On the plus side, after they wash out a few obvious losers the remaining candidates are all very skilled cooks who can both invent and execute beautiful dishes in record breaking time. Most of the problems occur when they can't play nice with others or when they try to work with unfamiliar ingredients. On the first couple of seasons they had a lot of gag challenges, like making them cook with only ingredients from a vending machine, but now it is mostly all "real" food. If you were going to give one of these shows a look in hopes of actually learning a technique or flavor that you might want to use in your own cooking (and thus assuaging your guilt at watching the tube) this is the one.

Guest Chef on The Waterfront

Tonight was our 3rd anniversary, and we celebrated at Farestart's wonderful Guest Chef On The Waterfront fundraiser. Incidentally, did you know that the 3rd anniversary gift is traditionally leather? Neither did I.  So I guess for the vegetarians it is our vinyl anniversary. Oh the possibilities.

Anyhow, for those of you who don't live in Seattle or aren't familiar with Farestart, they do an amazing job of training homeless men and women to work in the food service industry, and providing them with the life skills and services they need to succeed. They operate on a social enterpreneurship model, supporting the programs through running a great restaurant at 7th and Virginia in Seattle as well as providing low-cost meals to shelters (over 400,000 last year!). I can't possibly say enough about them except that you should join them for lunch, for guest chef night most Thursdays, or to volunteer or donate.

Guest Chef On The Waterfront itself was a rousing success, with over 1000  attendees, dozens of restaurants, and over 40 wineries on hand.  My favorite vegetarian items were Osteria La Spiga's Piadina with Stracchino Cheese and Argula, and the Watermelon Gazpacho from the chefs at Bell Harbor Conference Center. (Incidentally, Osteria's Piadina, which is a flatbread, used to be made in the traditional way, with lard, but since they moved to the new location they switched to olive oil).

I could barely begin to sample all of the wine, but my favorite of the night was the 2003 Rockblock Syrah. Special props to the nice folks at Rhone Rangers who slipped your loyal correspodent an extra bottle of the 2003 Snoqualmie Syrah. Tactical plan for next year: take a taxi, drink more wine. Which incidentally would have added to the experience of riding the mechanical bull out on the pier!

Coconut Water

A few months ago I read Raw Food / 100 Recipes To Get The Glow and had a very brief moment of fascination, enough to drag out my dehydrator for a couple days before realizing that lasagna made from pasta is way better than lasagna made from thin sliced zucchini, and god knows raw macadamia nut cheese sounds revolting. Anyhow I remember they had a bit of an obsession with coconut water, which I've always liked. (Coconut water is the liquid you get when you open the "eyes" of the coconut and drain it; it is thin and almost clear. Coconut milk is made by pureeing the coconut flesh.) I saw this Harvest Bay Coconut Water at my local co-op and thought it sounded refreshing, but it doesn't taste nearly as good as the fresh thing. I tried two containers of it and both of them had an unpleasant sourness. Not recommended.

Review: Merenda Restaurant and Wine Bar, Bend, Oregon

We were down in Bend, Oregon this past weekend for a little R&R while mini-me spent some quality time with her Noni. On Saturday we wandered into Merenda Restaurant and Wine Bar at 5:30 and asked if we could reserve an outdoor table for 6:30. The hostess was very gracious and said she would do her best to seat us outside, and when we arrived back it was waiting for us.

Merenda has an extensive wine list including over 500 bottles and 60 wines by the glass and about 10 flights of 4 wines each. I had a very nice Northwest Premium Reds flight, which was only slightly blemished by having to ask twice for the list of the wines that were in front of me.

For appetizers we had a well made heirloom tomato caprese, and an outstanding Summer Vegetable Salad that included a riot of perfectly tender-crisp young vegetables stacked on thin slices of the house-made bread crisped with olive oil, black olive tapenade, and a light vinaigrette. At this point we thought we had stumbled into a real find, a top-notch yet comfortably casual restaurant in a town that we love to visit, with lots of vegetarian options.

Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse with the entrees. First of all, they came before we were done with the salads, and the server just said "oops, these are already ready" and plopped them down. My  Wild Mushroom Ragout over Green Pea Polenta was very decent. The mushrooms were mainly chanterelles and morels, which is nice, no bulking it up with a bunch of criminis, but they were a bit tough, probably because not enough stem had been removed. The polenta was kind of odd, with a coarse and yet loose texture. Still, I ate it all and enjoyed.

My wife's entree went a lot worse. She's not a vegetarian, and she ordered grilled salmon. It came out very undercooked, sushi inside. The waitress, to her credit, acknowledged this right away and took it back to the kitchen. Ten minutes later out came... the same piece of fish! Now I don't even cook fish, but common sense tells you that you can't re-fire the same piece. For one thing, it is tacky. For another, it has cooled off from the outside, and in order to get the interior cooked properly you are going to burn the exterior, which is exactly what happened. So now she had to send it back again. The next time they made a brand new plate, cooked and seasoned it perfectly, and she was pleased as punch. Mind you, neither one of us is one to send back food,  I don't think we've done that twice in the 4 years we've been together.

To make matters worse, the restaurant didn't comp any part of the check or send a manager over to acknowledge the problem. And their website doesn't provide an email address, only a form where you can fill in about 20 words of text!

The total for 2 appetizers, 1 glass of wine, 1 wine flight, 2 entrees, tax and tip came to $120.

So what's the bottom line? Merenda is a nice place to eat and especially drink, and you will probably have some delicious items but be prepared to stick up for yourself if inconsistencies rear their ugly head.

Details:
Merenda Restaurant and Wine Bar
900 W. Wall St.
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 330-2304

Two Great Mexican Cookbooks

How about a Avocado-Mango Salad with Fresh (or Blue) Cheese and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, does that sound any good?!? I've been aware of Rick Bayless for awhile as he often makes appearances on Food Network or gets mentioned in Food & Wine. But somehow I didn't have any of his books on my shelf. I recently picked up his classic, Authentic Mexican and his latest, Mexican Everyday, and I'm reading them simultaneously. Talented, I know. Well, ok, not simultaneously, but Authentic is upstairs in the "drifting off to sleep" pile, and Everyday is downstairs in the "I finally have 5 minutes to sit down" pile.

The thing that makes Bayless great is that he is trained as a cultural anthropologist, so his focus is on accurately reporting what cooks throughout Mexico actually make, instead of some theoretical ideal. So for example when he discusses the spice mixtures used in the Yucatan, he'll tell you right up front that most cooks buy them prepackaged, but then give you the recipe in case you do want to make them from scratch.

I find both of the books to be well worth owning. Authentic is going to be my go-to cookbook when I want to know how to really make a tamale or corn tortillas from scratch. Everyday is not so much one I will cook a recipe from start-to-finish, but it is full of fantastic ideas that will inform my cooking. For example yesterday I made a vinaigrette with a roasted dry ancho chili, pan roasted garlic, lime juice and olive oil that was inspired by one of Bayless' recipes. Everything in it is geared towards meals you can realistically make on a weeknight.

Of course Mexican cuisine does involve lots of meat and fish, but both of these books have many meatless dishes, and suggestions for how to make others vegetarian. Highly recommended, and when I pick up Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico I'll let you know how they compare.

The Vegetarian Foodie Manifesto

I said I was a vegetarian. I didn't say I wanted a frickin' plate of your mixed side dishes or some sad Sysco Pasta Primavera! This blog is for all of you out there who are passionate about delicious, well prepared, beautifully presented food that just happens not to have been walking about prior to becoming dinner. We'll talk about restaurants, recipes, travel, books, kitchen equipment, or anything else related to great veggie eats.

By the way, here is my Technorati Profile.