The Daily Grind, Chop and Fry

This recipe from an old “Canadian Living” Christmas book is in danger of falling into obscurity. After looking for it for a few years, I finally found it in a forum post from 2001. The name of the recipe is no exaggeration; if you want a simple, unadorned shortbread recipe, you will do no better than this.

The original recipe is barely sweet. You can increase the sugar a bit, but I wouldn’t add more than 25% more than the original amount. The texture is so perfect, so tender, that I’m afraid that changing the balance too much will alter the melt-in-your mouth quality of the cookies.

You can’t skip the refrigeration step, so you need to plan ahead when you want to make this. The dough has to be cold when you put it in the oven, otherwise the butter will melt before the cookies set. If you like, you can cut the sheet of dough into triangles instead of using a cookie cutter. I’ve found that to be much easier. Double the recipe – you won’t be sorry.

Simply the best Short Bread

1 cup butter, softened
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4c. icing sugar
1 3/4c. all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy: gradually beat in cornstarch, then sugar. Beat in the flour, about 1/4 cup at a time.

On a lightly floured surface or pastry cloth, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using floured fluted 2 inch round cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Place on waxed paperlined trays;***** each cookie 3 times with a fork. Freeze until firm ( Shortbread can be prepared to this point, transferred to freezer bags and stored in the freezer for up to a month.)

Place frozen rounds on baking sheet; bake in 275 deg. oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until firm to the touch. remove from baking sheet and let cool on racks. (Shortbread can be stored in airtight containers for up to 2 weeks). makes 24 cookies.

I wanted to make a new post for you all, but the recipes I’ve worked out recently haven’t been photographed yet. Thanks very much to Hannah of Cooking Manager! Her site is really useful and practical – she does a great job.

Thanks for the clicks, and I hope you find something you like here. (Ha – I just saw “Easter Dinner” as one of the suggested links on this post. Maybe you’ll find something else interesting here!)

I’ve been making the man I love happy with Gazpacho for 20-ish years. It’s great that he loves it, because I do, too.

Bright-tasting, incredibly fresh and cool, a happy red with little pools of olive oil floating on top – what is not to love? I’ve made the same recipe almost every August for two decades, and decided that was silly. This one really tempted me. It hit the mark, and its unexpected color was an extra treat.

Gazpacho from Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America by José Andrés, Clarkson Potter

For the gazpacho:
2 pounds ripe green heirloom tomatoes, or  green unripened tomatoes
8 ounces cucumber (about 1 cucumber)
3 ounces green pepper (about 1/2 bell pepper)
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 garlic clove, peeled
3/4 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

For the garnish:
1 tablespoon Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice rustic white bread
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 pearl onions, pulled apart into segments
2 tablespoons Spanish extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Sea salt to taste
4 chives, cut into 1-inch long pieces

1. Cut out and discard the core at the top of the tomatoes, and chop the tomatoes roughly into quarters. Place in the blender.

2. Peel and seed the cucumber and cut into chunks. Add to the tomatoes in the blender. Cut the pepper in half, and remove the core along with the seeds. Again, chop into large pieces and place in the blender. Read more »

I’ve wanted a Chinois, a French piece of kitchen equipment that is a standard in good restaurants, for years. I finally splurged and got one for myself for my birthday. I wasn’t satisfied with my first attempt at this recipe, and knew that straining it would solve some of its problems. This fine-mesh strainer soared to the top of many foodies’ wish lists after the The French Laundry Cookbook was published about ten years ago.

The book is beautiful, and another thing on my list. I love cookbooks about methodology, and this one has plenty of Thomas Keller’s techniques illustrated and explained. At French Laundry, they never pour something from one container to another without passing it through a strainer – even mashed potatoes. Maybe potatoes are a little extreme, but soup stock is certainly one thing that would benefit from this policy.

Blueberry puree has a few problems. The first is the seeds – there are many tiny white seeds, and they really show up in a puree. The second is the stems, which are easy to miss. And the third problem is the biggest – the skin. Blueberry skin doesn’t puree readily, while the flesh is soft and is pretty thoroughly pureed within a minute. And, as with grapes, the skin has a lot of tannin, which can cause your puree to taste bitter and woody.

It’s a little time-consuming and tedious, but straining the puree created a far more pleasant base for this refreshing sorbet made with Matcha, the tea used in the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. Read more »

I use the word ‘easy’ on this site a lot. I really value easy when it comes to everyday meals, and it’s not because I am lazy. It’s because I think that getting delicious unprocessed food on the table every night is worth doing and difficult, and we need as much help as we can get.

For many people, ‘easy’ means opening the freezer door and popping something in the microwave. For the last few years I’ve made an effort to do that less often – much less often – and I’ve made substantial progress. I rarely visit the frozen foods aisle any more, and I only notice it when I’ve gotten home and am putting things away.

In my opinion, serving honest-to-goodness fresh food that your family really likes makes you something of an unsung hero. The very nature of feeding a family can be so tedious – ‘What, I just made dinner yesterday!’ – that it is a huge act of love. And while you are giving everyone, yourself included, the nutrition your bodies most need, you are also building family traditions and giving your children the ability to go out and feed themselves intelligently later in life.

So here is another easy vegetable recipe, part of a series. Grab some carrots instead of frozen peas the next time you are looking for a veg. The recipe here is for beets with tamari and pickled ginger, but you can use carrots with fresh ginger and orange zest or juice with the same method.

Pureed Beets or Carrots

2 pounds beet roots and/or carrots*
1 tsp. tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp pickled ginger
1 tsp olive oil, optional

Wash vegetables and gently scrub with a little brush. Peel away any funky skin; carrots will hardly need to be peeled at all, but beet skin, especially on larger roots, can be tough. Use your judgement, keeping in mind that you’ll be pureeing at the end. That hides a lot of flaws. Wear gloves if you want to avoid staining your skin.

Cut the roots into medium-sized cubes or rings and put in a large saucepan. Just cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook over medium-high heat until easily pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes for beets and 15 for carrots. For some annoying reason beets boil over very easily and can get dark red juice all over the place, which is why you need a large pan.

Drain, add seasonings and puree with handheld blender or in blender. Serve right away.

If you have the extra time, roast the whole uncut vegetables in foil for about an hour rather than boiling them. It takes no extra prep time other than cooking, and the results are firmer and tastier. Beets can be easily peeled after roasting. Carrots will need orange juice or another liquid added at the end.

*other root vegetables such as parsnips and turnips can be used, alone or in combination.

I was in a dark mood and wanted to make the broccoli look menacing. Why? Because I detest broccoli. In the last few years I’ve gotten myself to eat the stuff about once a week, since it’s so fucking good for me. But, bletch – same for its abhorrent cousins, cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts. When I saw that they had identified a gene that made some people be able to detect an enzyme in many vegetables, and those people invariably hated it, I felt vindicated. They demonstrated it to a classroom of kids, maybe 8 years old, and their parents. Some of the parents said their kids hated vegetables, and they were kind of giving the kids dirty looks – looks I recognized. Then the kids got a taste of the enzyme, which is tasteless to everyone else, and they all instantly made the same face – the Yuck Face. I saw this, and I wanted to yell “Ha!” at someone. I’ll bet my sister has it, too.

But I’m getting my revenge. I slowly learned a few things that made it at least bearable. I peeled it. I had to cook it perfectly. The fresher, the better. Salt or tamari helped. Then I had a Brussels Sprouts revelation at an Italian restaurant, asked the waiter how to make them, and cooked them at home a couple of times until they were perfect.That’s this recipe here, Browned Brussels Sprouts. The next thing that happened was I saw that you could roast broccoli. That sounded really promising, so I tried it. Voila. I like that broccoli. That was my last trick – you have to roast your broccoli. And then put lemon juice on it. I actually look forward to it.

Promise me something. If you make your kids eat their broccoli, make it as palatable as possible. Promise me you’ll do that.

This preparation is on a list I’m doing of 7 vegetable dishes that are as easy to prepare as they are delicious – upcoming post. If you don’t have to peel your broccoli, there is nothing to it. And if you already like broccoli, you are going to flip for this.

Per person:
3/4 cup broccoil florets, cleaned and dried*
Approx. 2 tsp olive oil
salt & pepper
Crushed red chili flakes, optional
1 wedge lemon
Parmesan cheese, optional

Preheat oven to 350

Put broccoli in shallow baking dish or cookie sheet, and sprinkle with salt & pepper and chili flakes, if using. Drizzle olive oil over broccoli and toss to mix and coat with oil. The oil won’t cover everything, so don’t worry trying to get it all even. Arrange in single layer and bake in center of oven for 15 – 20 minutes, depending on how big the pieces are and how done you want them. Serve with lemon and some shaved Parmesan cheese. You can use a peeler to shave it – it comes out great.

*And peeled. Ha, just kidding.

We all have to start somewhere. Whether you are living on your own for the first time, want to learn a few things so you can pitch in around the house, have kids and realize you can’t do frozen food and drive thru every night, or just want to get started learning to cook, there are some simple recipes that you can start with.

This is a collection of staple recipes that are easy, delicious and can get you through many nights once you’ve become comfortable with them. Having a repertoire of vegetarian crowd-pleasing dishes that almost everyone is familiar with will serve you well, and will give you confidence to try more ambitious recipes.

If you are really starting at square one, check out this series on cooking basics to learn how to do things like read a recipe, measure, and do produce preparation (or “prep”). You can also check out the Resources section of this site.

More recipes like these are categorized under “Basics”.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Crispy Tofu Cubes from refresh
Buttermilk Biscuits
Basic Vegetable Soup
Bean Burgers
Fresh Vegetable Sauté
Delicious Corn Bread
French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme
Roasted Acorn Squash

Enchilads are usually sauced up pretty liberally, and I always like that when we are eating out. Yet when I make them at home, I take it easy on the sauce. I use it to coat the bottom of the baking dish, and I do pour a little over everything before it goes in the oven. The reason is that I really like the tortillas to be a bit chewy rather than soggy, and you can always add sauce after you transfer them to the plate. This also keeps them from falling apart while you are serving them.

This is an easy dish that looks good on the plate, and it tastes great. People love it.

Serves 3

I recipe Mexican Vegetables
2 cups prepared black beans
8 taco-sized flour or corn tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
1 can or jar red enchilada sauce

Pour a layer of sauce in a 9X13″ baking dish
Spoon vegetables and black bean in a line in the center of a tortilla, about two tablespoons of each. Putting the filling a little to one side makes it easier to roll up. Roll each tortilla into a long thin tube, keeping it neat and a little tight. Place in dish with the loose end down. Repeat with each tortilla. Don’t crowd them too much or they will be difficult to remove from the pan – use two pans if need be.

When the enchiladas are in the dish, pour as much of the remaining sauce on top of the enchiladas as you like. If any is left, heat it and let people use it at the table. Sprinkle cheese on top of the whole thing, and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Serve gently so they don’t fall apart.

Whenever I make these vegetables, I think “I should put these on the blog, but they are so simple that it wouldn’t be a real post.” But I’m doing it now for several reasons. The first is, ever since I started making them over ten years ago, everyone who has them raves. The second is, now I use a method I learned in a Thai cooking class, and I want to pass it on.

The method was for mushrooms, but it works really well for eggplant, too. Both vegetables are pretty spongy and full of water. Cooking them without first drawing out some of the water can leave them a soggy mess. They can soak up way too much oil when they are being sauteed. Eggplant can be a little bitter and unpleasant. But if you fry them in a dry, unoiled skillet before you start to use them, they will be browned and dehydrated a bit. They are able to join their partners in the dish without losing their integrity. And the eggplant comes out sweet and fragrant. I didn’t know eggplant was good until I tried it this way.

The technique is simple. Slice the mushrooms, or cube the eggplant. Cook them in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Both of them shrink by about half in the process. If you like, you can put a little salt into the pan once things are cooking to pull out some extra water. When they are as browned as you want them to be, take them off the heat. The salt can also help to keep things from sticking if that is a problem, but I’ve never had trouble with things sticking.

This does change how you cook with them later. Ordinarily mushrooms and eggplant need to go into the dish relatively early so they have a chance to cook, but now they get added late. They are already cooked and ready to contribute their concentrated flavors to the dish.

The great thing about this particular vegetable mix is how versatile it is. I made it originally for a burrito filling, and it makes great Vegetable Enchiladas. Now if I make it I always make extra. Once I’m done with the dish I am putting them into, leftovers are good in scrambles, mixed in macaroni and cheese, or put in a quesadilla.

Mexican Vegetable Filling

1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 zucchini or yellow summer squash, cubed
1 sweet pepper (you can use a jalapeno pepper or two, if you like), diced medium
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp chili powder

Fry eggplant as described above. Remove from pan and set aside. Add oil, garlic and onions, saute until onions are translucent. Add the chili powder and stir to coat, then add pepper and eggplant – saute about 1 more minute. Add squash and cook for another minute or two, until squash is still bright-colored and cooked but not soft. Check to taste for chili powder, and add more if needed. Use in Enchiladas or Burritos.

It’s been ages since I’ve posted a new recipe, or anything else for that matter. I’ve been cooking, often from the recipes here. I wanted to do this blog so I’d have the resources I need to never have to fuss about what is for dinner again, and my plan worked like a charm. I still fuss sometimes, but that’s only because I’ll find myself at home with a missing ingredient or two. But it turns out that the recipes on this site are really all the family standbys I need. There are some summer recipes that I’ve never posted because we didn’t have summer last year and it’s not looking too promising this year, either. When I go to the beach in August I swear I’ll make gazpacho and other hot-weather things. I also hope we do get a good stretch of hot days here; I want to make Soba, a traditional it’s-too-hot-to-cook Japanese noodle dish. You can always use another Japanese noodle dish, right?

Part of my brilliant plan was to make the recipes easy to get at from my phone, and I’m happy to say that has worked, too. WordPress has a nifty tool you can use that streamlines the site when it is viewed from an iPhone. It’s really lightweight and easy to search. So if you see me in the produce section of the store, fiddling with my phone, I’m thinking, not Tweeting. I should look to see if they have something similar for other platforms. Edit – Done! It should work on any mobile device.

I am making new things, but they are so simple I feel silly posting them. Like last night, I had an extra beet so I cooked that and a couple of carrots in a little water, and pureed them with some pickled ginger and a splash of Mirin and tamari. Whoa, that was really good. Very colorful, too. I made a purple coconut curry with eggplant and cabbage that was tasty. We also had, in the last few nights, a fritatta, pasta with sundried tomato pesto, and some udon. Different meals, of course. Tonight I’m making the refresh Rice Bowl, tomorrow it will be enchiladas, and I’ve got stuff to make Pasta Puttanesca and a Caribbean black bean dish (that I’ve been meaning to post) in the coming nights.

But I haven’t been idle. Since cooking is an expression of our creative sides, and I’ve been creative in other ways, I put a little slide show of some of my Flickr photos on the sidebar over there. → And now that I’ve written a new post, don’t be surprised if Black Bean Enchiladas and Corn Fritters show up here soon.

That’s all for now. If you do look at the photos, please enjoy.