favorite fennel salad

I got a nice fennel in my vegetable box and decided to make my old favorite, fennel-grapefruit salad. Here’s the recipe:

1 medium fennel
2 grapefruits
A pinch apiece (to taste) of cumin, Aleppo pepper, and salt
Olive oil, a couple of tablespoons

Slice the fennel nice and thin. I used a mandoline, but that’s a little tricky and scary so be careful if you do it that way. Let the slices rest in a bowl of cold water with a couple of ice cubes added—this transforms them from leathery to crisp.

Meanwhile, supreme the grapefruit and add it to your salad bowl. Squeeze the juice from the membranes into the bowl before eating or discarding them.

Toast the cumin. I used Wild Mountain Cumin, which is both very aromatic and very small, so it doesn’t really need to be ground after toasting. If you use regular cumin, crush it lightly before adding it to the grapefruit along with the chile and salt.

Drain the fennel and give a spin in your salad spinner, then add it to the grapefruit and stir it up.

That’s it!

more kimchi

Inspired by my success with the cabbage kimchi, I made a couple of other kinds. The middle one is pineapple, a quick, unfermented kimchi from Koreatown. It's already ready to eat, so I've tried it--it's zippy and funky, and pretty spicy but not as hot as you'd guess from its color. The other two jars are both stuffed cucumbers from my old standby, The Kimchi Cookbook. I made a half recipe, following it exactly except that I added a little chiffonaded basil that needed using up. It has to sit out for a couple of days before it'll be ready, but I expect it to be good. It was pretty quick to make considering its fancy appearance. It's resting in my new pickle kit I got at my favorite grocery store.

yummy kimchi

I haven’t made kimchi in quite a while,  but my grocery store no longer carries the two good kinds I used to get (Kimchee Girl and Britt’s Pickles) so I had to either make my own or trek off of Capitol Hill to find some to my liking. Kimchi’s quick, fun and easy to make—much more so than sauerkraut— so I opted to make my own. I wound up going on an outing to H Mart anyway, for my napa cabbage and Korean chives, but ended up with almost a gallon of kimchi!

For a long time I made kimchi and it was sour and spicy and tasty, but never ‘stinky’ like you hear it can be. I always kind of longed for the stink, and then six years ago I got The Kimchi Cookbook and discovered the secret: you just make a little porridge by cooking a small amount of sweet rice flour  in a larger amount of water, then add that to the mix! It’s a really nice cookbook, with lots of recipes for unusual kimchis like butternut squash, and Asian pear, as well as recipes to use your results. I’m going to make kimchi tofu stew tonight for my upcoming work lunches.

best-yet maque choux

Every year I make maque choux for our Fourth of July picnic, and every year Annie tells me that it’s my best ever. This year I think she may be right! I did a couple of things differently from what I’ve done in the past, and thought I should record it for posterity so that it’s just as good next year. (The maque choux is on the very bottom of the above photo of Rachael’s plate)

The things I did different were minor—I parbaked the corn for ease of shucking and cutting the kernels off, used fancy fake butter instead of oil, and added a pinch of  pimentón to simulate bacon. 

Yummy, Yummy Maque Choux

5 ears of corn

Oleo or Miyoko’s cultured vegan butter

Small onion, diced

Green bell pepper, diced

Garlic to taste, minced

14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes in pulp 

Salt

Black pepper

Pinch pimentón dulce

Bake the unshucked corn for about 10 minutes at 425°F. 

While it cools, sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic in the oleo in a big pot with a lid.  

Shuck the corn, getting as much of the silks off as you can. Cut off the kernels into a big bowl, then scrape off the cobs with the back of the knife to get any remaining pulp. Add it to the pan, stir it around for a little bit, then add the remaining ingredients. Give it a last stir, let it come to a simmer, then cook covered, on medium-low, for 5-10 minutes. Taste for salt (canned tomatoes vary a lot in their saltiness), and it’s ready to serve. Good hot or at room temp. 

2015's Xmas cookies

This year's cookies are pretty much the same as last year's--windmills, pandan-flavored spritz from Betty Crocker, cinnamon roll cookies, and the best-ever pfeffernüsse from The Spice Cookbook. I intended to make some halvah cookies too, but couldn't find any halvah on such short notice (I had to do all my baking on the 23rd). I was resigned to only making four kinds of cookies when I noticed, on the page right next to the pfeffernüsse recipe, spiced pecanettes! They're just like Mexican wedding cookies with pecans for the nuts and a very subtle addition of spice. They were a hit with Annie and Rachael, and pretty quick and easy to make.

long-delayed lemon bar recipe

I first made these low-starch, vegan lemon bars for Rachael's birthday (she had a Harry Potter themed dessert party, which they didn't quite fit into). I wanted to write down the recipe for you all right away, but had trouble with the formatting of my blog post and eventually abandoned the idea. Yesterday's mango sorbet post--done entirely in my phone--turned out so well that I decided to try again. Here goes: 

The crust is an adaptation from this recipe, while the filling is from Veganomicon, one of my favorite cookbooks. 

Crust:

     3/4C (60g) dessicated coconut (the unsweetened kind in little shreds)

     2 1/4C (185g) almond meal

     pinch of salt

     3T maple syrup

     3T coconut oil

Whiz everyting together in a food processor till it begins to look like dough. Scrape out into a greased 10"x10" pan, press in with your fingers till it's nice and flat with no holes and goes up a little at the sides, then bake for 14-16 minutes at 350F°. Let cool while you make the filling.

Filling:

     1 1/3C water

     1T agar powder (You can get it from Amazon or in Chinatown. I usually get Telephone Brand or Gold Cup Brand, 99¢/25g) 

     1 1/4C (245g) sugar

     1/8t turmeric

     2/3C lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons, depending on their size and juiciness)

     finely grated zest from two of  the lemons

     3T arrowroot

     1/4 milk of your choice. (In the photo below I used almond milk, while in the one above I used hemp milk. Maybe that's why it's a funny greenish color? 

Boil the water, agar, sugar, and turmeric together till everything's dissolved. Add the remaining ingredients, turn the heat down, and simmer, stirring constantly, till it's nicely thickened--about five minutes. 

Pour the filling over the crust and let cool off for a while till it stops steaming, then put it in the fridge for at least an hour. These keep their texture best when chilled.

yummy, yummy mango sorbet

There are bargain boxes of mangoes at the Viet Wah lately, so Annie and I keep winding up with 14 mangoes to get through in a hurry. An easy way to use up five or six is to make a batch of mango sorbet. Here's my recipe:

To make a little more than a quart, peel, deseed, and roughly chop 1500g ripe mangoes. Thoroughly whiz in your blender along with 150g sugar (white sugar will look prettiest; palm sugar will taste nice but detract from the bright, clear mango orange), the juice of two lines, and a tablespoon of tequila or rum (I've tried it with both and think I like the rum a little better). Transfer to a bowl, cover, and chill. Once it's really cold, run it through your ice cream making machine. Transfer to tupperwares to harden up a little in the freezer. So yum!