Cook Books

I got some great cook books for Christmas such as Pok Pok and Vegetable Literacy which I'm very excited about. Unfortunately for this blog that means I'm cooking and experimenting with a lot of new dishes so I won't be posting any recipes until I'm comfortable with them and think I have something worth sharing.

Spinach and Feta Sandwich with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Garlic

This was one of my favorite sandwiches from a bakery/cafe I used to work at. It's a simple sandwich with very few ingredients but it can be a little tricky to get the balance right so I'll try to explain it as well as I can. What's difficult about it is that every bite needs to have feta, spinach and tomato in it or it won't taste good. These three ingredients together play off beautifully and create a really nice experience but if one is left out you'll be in trouble!

Warning: You need a panini press for this recipe. You can simulate this effect by putting the sandwich on a hot pan, putting something heavy on it and then turning it over after a few minute to cook the other side.

I made two sandwiches here but I'll just give a recipe for one sandwich and you can double or triple it (and so on) as you like. Oh! I made this on a multrigrain bread but it tastes great on a crusty baguette as well.

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
1 handful of baby spinach (see picture below)
Butter/oil or Earth Balance to spread on bread.
2 slices multigrain/baguette
2 packed tablespoons sun dried tomatoes sliced thinly (you can buy these in big jars at Cosco and they last forever)
1.5 tsp olive oil to fry spinach
Enough sliced or crumbled feta to cover your sandwich (see picture below)

The first thing you'll want to do is prep your garlic, tomato and feta.

This is how much spinach you'll need for a single sandwich:

Saute the garlic and olive oil over medium low heat, it should just be sizzling a bit, for about 30 seconds. You're just releasing the aroma and flavor into the oil before you throw the spinach in. Ok throw in the spinach and stir it and fold it over itself so it cooks as evenly as you can get it. Spinach burns if you look at it funny so you want to be VERY CAREFUL not to overcook it. The spinach will continue to cook once you remove it from the heat so you really only want it to wilt a bit before removing it from the heat.

This is how your spinach should look when it's done frying:

Seriously, that's it. Put in on a plate with a paper towel while you begin to assemble the sandwich. Butter one side of each bread slice and arrange one of them butter side down in front of you. Using a fork, lay the spinach on the unbuttered side of the bread in a thin, even layer. Don't overdo it or the bitter spinach will overpower the rest of the ingredients. See picture.

By the way, see how much more cooked it's gotten just from sitting around? OK now layer the sun dried tomato and cheese, again check out the pictures.

Put the second slice of bread on top, buttered side up and panini press that dude. It's done when the cheese is a bit melted. 

I love this recipe. It's just a few ingredients but when combined the flavors just work soooo well together - the sweet tomatoes, the bitter spinach and the salty/sour cheese. 

permalink: http://arlingtonhomecook.blogspot.com/2013/12/spinach-and-feta-sandwich-with-sun.html

Update

Added two more groceries to Useful Grocery Stores. I'll have another recipe up tonight or early tomorrow (edit. Ok that turned out to be a lie, THANKS CHRISTMAS). If you know of a good ethnic grocery store in NoVa, send me the information at grocersubmissions@gmail.com and I will post it.

Thing I learned today: How to make proper garlic croutons

I made a Vegan Ceasar Salad last night which was great and I will probably post the recipe at some point but I had a revelation when it came to croutons. The method described here: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/the-best-caesar-salad-recipe.html for making the croutons yielded the most garlicky, evenly cooked crunchy croutons I've ever made. The secret is soaking garlic in olive oil and then straining the garlic out before coating the bread squares with the oil. That way the garlic doesn't burn and make your croutons bitter when you put them in the oven. BRILLIANT.

Vegan Shepard's Pie

Vegan Shepard's Pie. OK that sounds a little ridiculous I am willing to admit. Shepards pie without meat? WELL believe it or not LENTILS are the solution. Mushroom too, but mostly lentils. The best thing about this recipe is that if you have lentils, onions and potatoes you can pretty much throw in whatever other vegetables you want and the pie will taste fantastic. The reason it works is because lentils have a fairly earthy, hearty flavor by themselves but when you cook them with the seasonings in this recipe they just explode with flavor and bring the rest of the dish along with them. 

I'm going to write down my IDEAL Shepard's Pie recipe but honestly I don't know if I've ever actually had all of these ingredients on hand and that's OK. Want to use celery instead of carrots? No problem. No mushrooms? It's all good. Need to use up some turnips or sweet potato? Go for it. The foundation of this dish is so solid you can really go nuts with substitutions or even take some stuff out and it will still taste great. The one thing you do need (and if you're vegan you probably already have some) is nutritional yeast. It's one of those ingredients like shrimp paste or anchovies that tastes terrible by itself but brings out incredible flavors in other foods and you really need it for this recipe. I THINK you could probably replace it with miso paste or marmite if you absolutely had to but I've never tried it.

I cooked the Shepard's Pie in a dutch oven but if you don't have one you can do all the cooking in a pot and then transfer the mixture to a deep baking dish before you layer on the potatoes.

I'm missing a few things from this picture and again, the recipe I'm writing down is the idealized version of what I actually cooked. Also, yes, baby carrots I know - they were from a party and I'm using them up DON'T JUDGE ME. There's wild rice in the picture because I thought I wouldn't have enough lentils but I ended up not using it.

The Filling

3 carrots chopped

1 large onion chopped

1 package button mushrooms chopped

1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)

3 tbsp soy sauce

1.5 cups dry lentils 

3/4 cup nutritional yeast (you can buy this from MOM's or Whole Foods)

splash of red wine 

3 cups vegetable stock

4 cloves garlic pureed (either chop very finely or use a garlic press)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary 

2 tbsp neutral oil

2 tbsp tomato paste

Mashed Potato Topping

3 large potatoes peeled

4 tbsp earth balance

1/2 cup soy milk (UNSWEETENED)

1. First you want to peel those potatoes and boil them. Cut them so no pieces are larger than a fist and boil them about 40 minutes, with no lid. Conventional wisdom is that the potatoes are done when they slide off a fork when pierced  but just to be clear they have to be mushy all the way through or else you'll get hard bits in your mashed potatoes. So they have to REALLY slide off your fork there should be no resistance.

2. While the potatoes are boiling chop your onions, carrots and mushrooms and fry your onions and carrots in the dutch oven on medium high heat with the oil.

Fry them till the onions are translucent you start to get some caramelization on the bottom of the pan, about 8 minutes. At that point splash some wine in there and rub the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to mix the caramelized stuff in with the wine then put your garlic and mushrooms in.

3. Fry the mushrooms for a few minutes then add your spices, soy sauce and tomato paste. Stir that a minute then add your lentils and peas.

Wait another minute then add the vegetable stock and nutritional yeast, bring to a boil then cover and change heat to low. Wait 20 minutes.

4. Those potatoes should be done soon so when they are get them out of the water, put them in a large bowl and add the butter and soy milk. Mash them with a fork until they are creamy and fluffy, add more milk/earth balance if you need to. Add salt and pepper to taste. It's hard for me at this point not to just eat those mashed potatoes because I'm normally starving but just hold on you're almost there.

5. After 20 minutes of cooking in the dutch oven the lentils should be done so take a look. Set your oven to broil. There will probably be a bit of excess liquid so I like to let that cook down a bit until the filling is dry enough to easily hold the mashed potatoes on top. Spread your mashed potatoes on top of the filling then get a fork and make some ridges in the potatoes. Throw that in the oven until the potatoes get a bit crispy AND YOU'RE DONE. In the picture I garnished with some fresh rosemary I had lying around and also added fresh chopped rosemary to the mashed potatoes which was pretty tasty.

This would be more aptly named SAVORY VEGAN PIE but Shepard's Pie sounds better. The combination of soy sauce, tomato paste and nutritional yeast makes this incredibly rich, balanced gravy that all the vegetable and lentils cook in and soak up. I'm a huge fan of this recipe because of how malleable it is and also how much fun it is to cook and then eat on a cold winter day. Questions or comments? Let me know at arlingtonhomecook@gmail.com and I'll post them.

permalink: http://arlingtonhomecook.blogspot.com/2013/12/vegan-shepards-pie.html

Vegan Black Pepper Tofu

Alright last night I made Black Pepper Tofu from Serious Eats (good website for inspiration) and it was pretty damn great so let's do this.

I cut their recipe in half because I didn't have that much tofu and changed a few ingredients to what I had on hand. I also used Earth Balance instead of butter to make it vegan. Normally I'm leery about replacing butter with Earth Balance as a frying oil because Earth Balance burns at a lower heat than butter but if you start it on medium low heat and increase it to medium in this case it works. I also used agave nectar instead of sugar because it's easier to work.

1 package (15 oz) extra firm tofu cut into 3/4 inch cubes
Cornstarch to dust the tofu
1.5 tablespoons neutral oil
2 tablespoons butter
6 shallots thinly sliced
3 fresh green thai peppers, thinly sliced, or less to taste
3 dried Japanese peppers, whole
6 cloves garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
1.5 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
1.5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon Agave Nectar
1 tablespoons coarsely crushed black peppercorns (use a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder)
8 small and thin green onions, sliced or shredded
Cooked short grain white rice for serving

1. First you'll want to get the rice started and press the tofu before you cube it. I like to soak short grain rice so it's not super super sticky once it's done by putting it in a strainer and leaving the strainer in some water. Change the water a few times. Technically you want to keep changing the water till it's clear but I don't have time for that - it takes forever - just change it once and let it soak while the water heats up to a boil then cook the rice as directed on the package. You're gonna be frying the tofu and so it needs to be fairly dry or you'll have a lot of oil spatter and that is a huge pain to clean up so press your tofu. I wrap it in a towel and set a few heavy pans on it for 5-10 minutes but if you have the time let it sit for longer. 

2. Once your tofu is reasonably dry cube it and sprinkle some corn starch on it and rub that in. The corn starch will help the sauce stick to it once you combine everything and also aid in the formation of a crust. Get a seasoned wok and fry the tofu... you want it to be cooked and a bit crispy but still soft in the middle. Don't fry it all the way through that's gross.

3. Set the tofu on a plate with a paper towel. Chop your vegetables (leave the dried red peppers whole) and combine the soy sauce, agave nectar and pepper in a small bowl. Assuming the oil didn't burn while you were frying the tofu, add 1 tbsp Earth Balance to it and use it to fry your ginger, peppers, shallots and garlic on medium heat till soft. 

4. Crank up the heat to medium high, add your sauce(make sure the black pepper hasn't settled to the bottom) and stir 30 seconds then add the tofu. Mix well till the tofu is well coated then throw in your second tbsp of Earth Balance and stir till the mixture is glistening. Add 3/4 of your green onions and cook that for a few minutes till the green onions are wilted AND YOU'RE DONE

You'll probably want to fish out the dried red peppers but you don't have to

Just scoop the tofu and sauce on some white rice, garnish with a handful of green onions and serve. There are a few things I really like about this recipe. First is that you get to use a buttload of shallots and that is just awesome. Most recipes are like "yo use 1 shallot or 2 shallots" but this one they are a major flavor profile and you get SIX! (or 12 if you're doing the Serious Eats version). Second is it tastes like good Chinese take-out but with all the flavors and freshness dialed up to 11. It's got a subtle sweetness matched with this delicious peppery spice balanced with fresh green onions. I hope you like it as much as I did!

permalink: http://arlingtonhomecook.blogspot.com/2013/12/alright-last-night-i-made-black-pepper.html

Hello World!

Hello World!

I'm starting to fill in the Useful Grocery Stores section, which I'm very excited about because I haven't been able to find anything else like it on the web. As soon as I figure out a way to let people contact me without destroying my inbox with spam I'm going to set up a way for other NoVa residents to submit Useful Stores to be added to the list.

edit: ok you can submit them here: grocersubmissions@gmail.com