Vegetarian Minestrone - Recipe

 
Vegetarian Minestrone

Homemade minestrone has got to be one of the best rainy day foods in the world. Living in Seattle we've got ample opportunity to test that theory. It is certainly miles beyond the canned version. Add a glass of wine and a couple of big garlicky croutons to soak up the broth, maybe a salad, and you have a whole meal. 

The version of minestrone I always come back to is based on Marcella Hazan's Minestrone alla Romagnola recipe in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I've just streamlined it a bit  (soaking zucchini? why?) and omitted the beef broth to make it vegetarian. I think you will find that it is equally delicious with the simple tomatoey broth, especially if you include the parmesan rind.

The what? That's right, the parmesan rind. You know when you buy a piece of parmigiano-reggiano, there is always that piece at the end that is too hard to grate? Scrub those a bit and throw them in the freezer. Then, when you are ready to make minestrone, toss it in the pot. While the soup simmers, all that incredible flavor extracts out, filling the soup with umami. (Of course you can omit this for a vegan version.)

You can toss this soup together and let it simmer for just an hour, and it will be good. But if you can let it simmer for two or three hours, the flavor will truly develop. Even better, make it a day ahead of time and reheat it. I haven't been able to track down the science behind it, but umami rich foods, and tomato-flavored foods in particular always improve after 24 hours. If anyone has seen any research on this, please let me know.

As Marcella points out, this is one of those lovely dishes that doesn't require perfect advance preparation. You can easily prepare and cut each vegetable as the previous one is added to the pot and sauteed. I find that the recipe below fits just right in my beloved 5.5 quart Le Creuset pot.

Vegetarian Minestrone
Serves 6-8 as a main course
Vegetarian; gluten-free if you omit the crouton; vegan if you omit the cheese

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1-2 medium carrots, small dice
• 3 stalks celery, small dice (reserve leaves for garnish)
• 2 cups small diced waxy potatoes, skin on
• 1 handful green beans, ends trimmed, cut in 1/2" lengths
• 3 medium zucchini, small dice
• 3 cups finely shredded cabbage (Savoy or green)
• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable broth powder; I like Seitenbacher (double check gluten free / vegan status if important to you). Don't be tempted to use a thick vegetarian broth; you can use a pre-mixed one as long as it is a clear brown type that tastes good.
• 1 parmesan rind (see above)
• 1 15 oz. can good quality whole Italian tomatoes with juice
• salt
• 1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano
• 1 15 oz. can cannelini or white navy beans, drained and rinsed
• big garlic-butter croutons for serving (optional)

1. Heat the pot and the olive oil over a medium-low flame. Add the onion and a big pinch of salt and saute for 3 minutes. Add each of the following ingredients in turn, tossing and allowing to cook for 2-3 minutes after each one: carrots, celery, potatoes, green beans, zucchini, cabbage. Cook for 5 more minutes.
2. Stir the broth powder into 6 cups of water and add to the pot. Add the parmesan rind. Add the tomatoes and their juice, and break them up a bit. Taste and add a little salt, with caution.
3. Cover the pot and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cook for at least another 30 minutes and preferably up to 2 1/2 hours.
4. Uncover, add the cannelini, and simmer for another 15-30 minutes. If it is getting too thick, add a bit more broth or water. If it is too thin, raise the heat just a little - don't boil hard or the vegetables will break up.
5. To serve, discard the parmesan rind and stir in the grated cheese; taste and salt as needed. Ladle into soup bowls, garnish with the reserved celery leaves and a couple of the garlic-butter croutons. Pass more grated parmesan at the table. You might also like a little additional drizzle of good olive oil.

Whopper Cake - Book Review Plus Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

"Today is Grandma's birthday
and Granddad has an itchin'
to bake a whopper chocolate cake
and traumatize the kitchen"

They had me at "traumatize". Whopper Cake, by Karma Wilson and Will Hillenbrand, is a great children's book. The story is of a Grandpa who wants to make a cake for his wife, but has a little bit of trouble following the recipe. It is just too tempting for him to scale it up a hundred-fold or so. A delicious mess ensues.

The book ends with a (normal-scale) recipe for Whopper Cake. With my daughter's birthday approaching and the book in nightly rotation, it was obvious that we should make it for her big day. I can confirm, it makes a very moist, tasty chocolate sheet cake. You should buy this book for any kid that loves to cook with his or her family. Or any kid that loves cake.

The recipe didn't specify a frosting, but I was faced with three simple facts: (1) we had a lot of leftover cream cheese (2) my wife loves cream cheese frosting (3) cream-cheese frosting is super easy to make. Here's what I came up with:

Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
Enough for a 9"x13" sheetcake
Vegetarian and gluten-free (the icing, not the Whopper Cake!); not vegan

• 12 ounces good quality chocolate chips (Ghiradelli works well)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 ounces cream cheese (I used the whipped kind, but a denser one should work fine too, just break it up into cubes), at room temperature
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Melt the chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler or microwave. To microwave, combine in a microwave-safe bowl and cook 1 minute at a time, stopping to carefully stir in between. This is my favorite way to do it, you just have to be sure not to overcook or you can scorch it.
2. Allow to cool a bit, so it won't cook and curdle the cream cheese.
3. Whisk the cream cheese and salt into the melted chocolate. Keep whisking until smooth.
4. Refrigerate for an hour or so until firm enough to spread.
5. Yum.

Interview with Jill Lightner, Editor of Edible Seattle Magazine (But Keep Reading if you Live Elsewhere!)

Edible Seattle magazine first caught my eye at our co-op last year, and I subscribed right away. How cool is it that we have a local magazine devoted to the farmers, chefs and artisan food creators around Puget Sound? I knew I was hooked when I found the Icebox, a regular article by Bethany Jean Clement in which she visits a local chef's abode, rummages through their refrigerator and subjects them to an entertaining grilling.

Better still, Edible Seattle is part of a network of dozens of Edible Communities magazines from Queens, NY to Ojai, CA. These folks are doing yeoman work in getting out the word about great local food.

Jill Lightner, the editor of Edible Seattle, was gracious enough to answer a few questions:

MN: So how did you land such a plum job, editing a magazine all about the amazing local farmers, chefs and food artisans around Seattle?

JL: I’m the luckiest food writer in town. I started freelance writing about 10 years ago and it didn’t take too long to feel limited by being primarily a restaurant critic; I think it’s a lot more fun (and interesting) to get the extended story behind food, rather than simply describe what I ate. Alex Corcoran, the publisher, and I connected a couple years ago over Craigslist (he was also publishing Edible Rhody at the time) and I had seen Edible Brooklyn. We worked together for about eight months before publishing the first issue of Edible Seattle.

MN: What is the magazine's mission?

JL: I like to say that I want farmers to be as famous as rock stars. But it’s not just farmers—it’s also fishers, food artisans, wine makers and brewers, bakers, cheese makers…you get the idea. The real mission is to promote sustainable food at all levels of our local economy: healthy farmland, rivers and oceans, lower use of fossil fuel, a living wage and safe working conditions for those in the food industry, and keeping as many dollars within the community as is feasible.

MN: I see you have already gone from quarterly to bi-monthly after just a year of publication. Are you finding a receptive audience in Seattle?

JL: It’s so satisfying, we really do feel appreciated. One of my favorite parts of the job is meeting folks who don’t normally feel a connection to any media, and hearing them talk about how they love the magazine. When we ran a story about FFA, it gave a voice to teachers and students in tiny towns all over Washington, and I was getting emails from grandmothers sharing their pride. At the same time, urban shoppers love it, too—and nobody seems to miss restaurant reviews. I hear constantly how fun it is to go ‘behind the scenes’ into the kitchens of the chefs we write about. Being embraced by people across the political spectrum means a lot; the opportunity for urban Green Party members to find they agree on politics with a small-town rancher is really remarkable.

MN: How is Edible Seattle connected to all of the other Edible publications, from San Francisco to Rhode Island?

JL: Officially, there are somewhere around 50 publications affiliated with Edible Communities. While some share a publisher, most operate independently. The national connection is a way to access a number of benefits, some financial (group advertisements) and some editorial (book excerpts from Barbara Kingsolver, for one example). Each publication makes individual decisions about which national programs they want to participate in, and each publication precisely tailors their content to their region. Ours covers all of Puget Sound; another covers all of Chesapeake Bay, but some are quite small—just two counties. A new one in New Mexico will be the first bilingual Edible Communities magazine; there are also two published in Canada.

MN: What is your favorite story that you've published so far?

JL: My favorites are the ones where I learn something, and the ones that cover a topic not typically seen. Heidi Broadhead wrote a three-part series looking at different levels of agricultural education, that series stands out for me. The “Field and Forest” department is a favorite, too—wild foods give such insight into the natural history of our region, and the cultures tied to the land.

MN: What is the best thing you've gotten to eat on the job?

JL: I am getting completely spoiled. Farmers love to feed people, and honestly whatever I’m eating at the moment is probably my favorite. If I had to pick one thing, it’s a homemade apple pie from Jon Rowley and Kate McDermott. They spent about four years developing their pie recipe, testing everything from the type of butter in the crust to the baking/tasting qualities of apple varieties. It’s the best pie I’ve ever eaten—I was picking up the edge of the crust and eating it like a biscuit.

MN: What changes can we look forward to in this second year?

Some of the changes will be subtle. The price of food has become more of an issue, so we’re looking at ways of communicating that farmers’ markets are real bargains. Because of budget cuts relating to social services and increased demand at food banks, we’ll be continuing our work at promoting food-related nonprofits, including the King County Fair, which nearly disappeared this year thanks to county cuts. Lastly, I have tremendous concern about our salmon populations, and feel the need to more actively discuss the broad environmental and social concerns that relate to effective fishery management. It’s a fine line between being an active voice and being the nut on a soapbox—we want to encourage folks, not anger them, but there are urgent issues our fisheries face.

MN: What are you featuring in the May/June issue?

JL: The May/June issues has some of my favorite recipes yet, by the way—including a gluten-free brownie topped with ricotta and sweet cherries. It’s delicious. I can’t wait for cherry season. To paraphrase Emma Goldman, if I can’t eat it, it’s not my revolution.

Thanks Jill! I hope all of you will take the opportunity to subscribe to the Edible Communities publication in your area. They are well worth supporting and I think you will find the magazines, informative, inspirational, and appetite inducing.