Less talkin, Moroccan

PS. That is not an editorial comment at the previous post!

in other news

We figured out that I have sensitivities to garlic and onions (in the same plant family), as well as dairy. Did you know that it was even possible to have trouble with garlic and onions? There's pretty much nothing on the web about it, except for a couple forum discussions. It probably hasn't gotten the popularity of gluten-free and dairy-free diets. So the last several months have been a bit challenging as I feel as if I'm relearning how to cook.

Basically my favorite way to cook veggies: sauteed with olive oil or butter, salt and lots of pepper, one or two additional herbs or spices. In this case, Mexican squash (not much different than zucchini) with paprika, toasted walnuts and rice. It's a very simple meal. I would usually add an egg, but the egg went in with the rice--I beat the egg, added rice, salt, pepper, oregano, and then scooped and dropped in a pan to make rice cakes.

Kale for the first time! Sauteed with salt and pepper, sprinkled with almonds, it was so good.

Mark Bittman's pad thai--except it was "ghetto" because we don't have tamarin paste, so I added lemon juice. And I used mung bean noodles instead of rice noodles. It was good, but it would probably be better if I followed the recipe more closely and if we had had cilantro on hand. I left out the garlic and scallions. With omitting garlic all the time (garlic is in the flavor base for pretty much everything!), I'm making an effort to draw more from other herbs and spices. We made the investment and went in on a bottle of white truffle oil, but I'm trying to save that for sauces and things, and for other things build complexity with other ingredients. Asian and Indian-inspired foods have been easier to modify and get that complexity than with Italian or French-based recipes.

Sweet potato stir-fry, another Mark Bittman recipe. I love sweet potatoes. Once again, the garlic was left out. Cayenne, lots of black pepper, cumin went into the seasoning, and once cooked, the stir-fry had lemon juice squeezed over top. This was Shanna's plate, so she got chopped scallions too. Peanuts, rice, baked mexican squash, fried egg finished it off---and the weather was nice enough to eat outside!

The leftover stir-fry got mixed with egg and pan-fried into patties. Yummy!

The same egg-and-pattie treatment with leftover wild rice pelof, zucchini and mushrooms.

Shanna made this pureed roasted pepper soup for me. So far pureeing has worked the best for making soups without onions and garlic. Otherwise the broth just doesn't seem very interesting and the veggies float around forlornly without the flavors locking together.

Roasted chick peas, baked sweet potato and rice. The chick peas were so much fun to bake and to eat!

Eating out of the house is tricky because onions and garlic are in everything; it's difficult to enjoy anything containing them when you know you're going to feel awful afterwards. But over spring break, the three of us went to Seattle. We ate at favorite vegetarian-vegan restaurant of Shanna's family--the food was all so fresh and simple that it was easy to get the garlic and onions left out. The food was very good: the bell peppers were stupendous, perfectly cooked, with good flavor. And the plating was well done.

Easter:

One need not blog to live, but one must eat . . . and how we've been eating! Easter breakfast

Pancakes (thanks to Shanna) with butter, jam, peanut butter, syrup, ricotta cheese and bananas for topping (syrup-bananas-ricotta combo, oh, so good) with mimosas, fried eggs, and orange and grapefruit slices. Can you believe we thought of dinner after such a meal?

But we did . . .

Lauryl cooked up salmon, Shanna roasted beets, and I made wild rice pelof.

And Lauryl made up a whole other entree! She cooked herself out. Shanna and Lauryl gave up cheese for Lent, so Easter had to include something with cheese: a sort of primavera lasagna, ricotta in the layers, asparagus, mushrooms, peas and zucchini. We were stuffed. We skipped dessert.

Beef and Porter Pie, give or take

Butter and olive oil for sauteeing
Half to 2 pounds ground/any type beef
1 onion, chopped
Middle of the garlic head/a few huge cloves, minced
2 carrots, sliced
2 celeries, sliced
7 big baby bella caps, chopped
1 bottle porter or any dark beer
Some water
Few pinches of thyme
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
IT butter and IT flour for roux (optional)
Pie dough

Cook meat, saute veggies, pour liquid into veggies and simmer for ages or add a roux. Put it all together and bake at 425 until crust looks good or someone bites your arm. Eat with peas and cheese-covered cauliflower for optimal effect.

Mushroom Pillow Pasta! In Reverse!

Soupy Things

The blender is probably the scariest appliance in our kitchen. It is big. It is loud. And it turns perfectly solid food into mush. I try not to go near it. Love and hate relationship, you know the sort. But soup I wanted and soup it would make.

Asparagus makes wonderful soup, nice and unsweet but naturally yummy. I also like the colour. This soup was a mixture of frozen and fresh Asparagus and a homemade stock. I forgot to add salt to the stock and came close to oversalting the soup itself.

The real exciting part was the presentation. I cooked the tips of the asparagus and made an herbed whip cream. The whip cream had Sage and salt and white pepper in it. Although I took the photo very quickly, the cream had deteriorated something awful soon as it touched the hot soup. I guess the soup burned the whip cream.

Bon Appétit!

Oasis World Market in Blacksburg, VA

Red bean flavoured popsicles, fufu flour, mint drinkable yogurt (delicious), jarred lotus rootlets--

strawberry puding mix (or in English, pudding)--

and inordinate carrots.