Green chutney

This is a different take on the ubiquitous green chutney that shows up as a sad accompaniment to those boring papad crackers at like every Indian restaurant. I know you've seen them. Crispy round things served with red and green sauce? They are the chips and salsa of the Indian restaurant world.

My green chutney includes cilantro, cucumbers, peanut flour and sesame oil, so I call it cilantro cucumber chutney. It can be stored up to 1 week in the fridge in an airtight container. I think it's great with roasted potatoes. I used peanut flour because I found dehydrated peanut butter at the grocery store, and wanted to try the peanut flour in smoothies. It tastes like peanut butter, and it makes cleaning the blender easier. However, peanut flour can be easily replaced with about 2 tbsp of whole peanuts, or plain, unsweetened, peanut butter can be used. Have you seen peanut flour, or used it? Thoughts?

Cilantro cucumber chutney
Yield: 3/4 cup, can be stored in fridge for up to 1 week. 

Ingredients:
1 bunch cilantro, as fresh as possible
4" piece cucumber, peeled and seeds removed
1 whole jalapeno, cut into segments, remove seeds if you want a mild chutney
1/2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled
juice of 1/2 of a large lemon
2 tbsp peanut flour (dehydrated peanut butter?)
1 tbsp peanut oil
1-2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 - 1 tsp salt

Special tools: cutting board, vegetable peeler, colander, and blender.

Directions:
Step 1: Wash and drain the cilantro. Trim off any dead looking parts. If you use the freshest cilantro you can find (use same day you buy) it should be fine. Add the cilantro to the blender. Trim the cucumber, peel it, and remove the seeds. Place it in the blender.

Step 2: Trim the jalapeño and peel the ginger. Cut both into large segments, and add them to the blender. For a spicier chutney, leave the jalapeño seeds intact.

Step 3: To the blender, add the lemon juice, peanut flour, peanut and sesame oils, and salt. Add in a few tbsp of water if needed. Blend until well combined (about 2 minutes).

Watermelon margarita

Heirloom watermelons and I have got a few things going.  I think I'm smitten with their red ripe juice, and their pretty bulky bodies. Even the seeds have something sassy to say to me. So I blended them up and shushed them with fresh lemon, tequila and simple syrup. 

Omit the tequila and simple syrup if you just want a variation of a watermelon cooler. These watermelon margaritas are delicious, simple, and refreshing. 

The heirlooms available to me are moon and stars (gorgeous!) and Charleston grays. 

Watermelon margaritas

Yield: 2 margaritas

Ingredients:

2 cups watermelon, optional to remove seeds, plus a few small wedges for garnish

1/4 cup simple syrup (directions below)

handful ice cubes

freshly squeezed lemon juice from 1/2 of a large lemon

3 oz tequila

Directions:

1. Fill a low-ball cocktail glass with ice and water. Set aside. 
2. Cut up the watermelon from the rind into large chunks, remove the seeds if desired, and place into a blender. 
3. To the blender add in 1/4 cup simple syrup and ice cubes.
4. Top with freshly squeezed lemon juice and tequila.
5. Blend together until combined well. Meanwhile remove the ice and water from the cocktail glass. 
6. Strain into chilled cocktail glasses, garnish with a few ice cubes and a watermelon wedge. If the seeds are left in they will fall to the bottom, but they give a nice flecked appearance when served immediately.

Note: to make simple syrup add an equal part water and an equal part sugar in a small saucepan. Heat the sauce pan over medium-low heat stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store in a glass jar in the fridge for several weeks. 

Lemon and limes

It's been a challenging few months. From Belgium to Barcelona, I have decided to move again. This time, I took it home stateside. I can't really complain too much. I'm camped out near a beach with warm sunny weather. I have been on a role with the sparkling sunny weather beverages. Lest anyone be confused that I only drink Belgian beers (imo - the world's best), I love lime and lemon based sparkly mocktails.

Owning a SodaStream has been the inspiration for nearly all of these fine sparkly beverages (fine bevy of beverages, too much?). I use the device to make sparkling water.

I'm sitting on a patio wearing a seersucker jumper and making notes to myself to not have dairy. If you can digest lactose, fresh ripe cantaloupe and vanilla-bean ice cream blended with a bit of milk is a delicious milk shake. I've had so much fun reading all of the lovely bloggers that show up daily/weekly in my reader, sometimes I really do feel like I should lay this whole thing to rest, but you give me so much inspiration from gorgeous bags, to more lemon-lime yummies, to ex-pat travel delights from Germany, and vidalia onion soup which has me remembering how cold it could be in Belgium, to new cookbooks I am looking forward to ordering.

I did, upon returning, rejoice that I would be reunited with my kitchen appliances, and to that effect, I've decided that to root myself to a place for a while, I'm going to do some variety of canning adventures to bring the Americana back in me. Stay tuned and hopefully suntanned (somewhere).

Limeade with mint and blueberries
Yield: 1 serving, in a lowball glass (or another)

Ingredients:
half of a fresh lime
few mint sprigs
1 tsp sugar (optional)
ice
sparkling water
blueberries for garnish

Directions:
Squeeze half the lime in a glass and add 1 tsp of sugar. Stir to dissolve (will still be grainy). Muddle in the mint by crushing the mint sprigs with a spoon with the lime-sugar juice. Place ice cubes in the glass, and top it all off with some sparkling water. Give a quick stir, garnish with blueberries and serve immediately.

A simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water heated in a small sauce pan to dissolve all the sugar) can be made ahead of time and placed in the fridge.

Elderflower Mojitos

I love these vintage-y Stella Artois glasses, especially to showoff this awesome elderflower-gin mojito based cocktail to celebrate the arrival of second summer. Seriously, take a look at this weather:

Elderflower Mojito

Ingredients: listed in order of use

Yield: one cocktail, 25 cl, or about a 8 oz glass

bunch of sprigs of fresh mint

1 shot, or approx. 1/8 cup cold gin (I'm going to assume vodka or rum would work as well)

1 shot, or approx. 1/8 cup elderflower drink concentrate/syrup. You can buy the elderflower stuff at IKEA.

1/3 cup ice cubes, crushed if possible

wedge of lemon

sparkling water to fill to top of glass

Directions:

1. Fill the mint leaves at the bottom of the glass and muddle them together with a back of a spoon, or with a pestle. Top with the gin and elderflower. Mix together. Top with ice cubes, a lemon wedge, and enough sparkling water to top off the glass. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

Potato and Leek Soup with Parsley-Garlic Chutney

Being unemployed means having plenty of spare time to cook and then take dorky cooking pictures of whatever it is that I’m cooking, which then accompanies these intros.

Which brings me to a new outlook: no excuses.

1. Small changes can make big differences. Sounds lame but, por ejemplo, I cook beans from scratch all the time. I let them soak overnight and I cook them in the morning. The difference between being employed and being unemployed is the method in which the beans cook. As a student, or when I was working, I would either cook soaked beans in a crockpot, or soak beans during the day and nuke them in the pressure cooker once I got home (pressure cooking beans takes all of 20 minutes). Now, I can soak them overnight and cook them in the morning, or soak them all day, and cook them along with dinner. Beans are important foods to a vegetarian - they provide protein, and they aren’t processed. I still buy canned beans for those oh crap moments, but I have found my new routine to have less of those moments. These small changes can have excellent benefits. Having cooked beans in the fridge during the week makes throwing last minute meals a reality (as opposed to my new found addiction to the Dr. Oetker’s mushroom pizza).  

2. Cook meals at home and try to do it everyday. Living in a country with limited ethnic food options has improved upon my cooking skills. If I want Indian, I cook it at home (I am not interested in spending my week’s grocery bill on one measly thali).  Craving Mexican? Cook it at home. Thai? At home. Vietnamese? At home.  

3. Plan your weekly meals. I like cooking and eating so I plan meals. This does a number of things, it allows me to plan to use whatever is already in the fridge and pantry. I can cook more of one thing (increase the pot of beans) to be used in multiple dishes, and I can prep vegetables all at once.  It helps me maximize my food dollars. I buy whatever foods I want, but I make sure to use them in dishes that I will cook that week or the next.

4. Get someone in your household to start baking bread everyday.

Today, I had leftover leeks from a week ago (who knew they stored so well), parsley, and some potatoes that were starting to grow. Ew. So, I decided to procrastinate from my CV writing (let’s see how I can translate this “no excuses” mentality into all aspects of my life?), and instead make potato and leek soup. This is good, tasty, hearty, filling, and healthy. 

Leeks are like overgrown green onions, except they are milder and sweeter.  You can cut up the leeks into 4” sections and fan the layers through water. The leek layers tend to be filled with dirt, so if still gritty, place trimmed chopped leeks into a large bowl of water.

Leeks

Peeled potatoes

Leeks ready to be chopped 

Leeks and carrots

These will make a great chutney to top the soup

Potato and leek soup

Potato and Leek Soup

Yield: 4-6 servings
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
3-4 cups chopped leeks, from 1-2 large leeks Use up to 2” of the green parts on the leeks
1 medium carrot, chopped into 1/4” dice
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp oregano, dried
1 tsp dried onion flakes
1 tsp dill, dried
4 medium to large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups (1 quart) vegetable broth plus 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup soymilk, you could also use 1/2 cup of either cream or milk



Directions:

1. In a large soup stockpot (one that can hold 4 quarts) heat up olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Once hot, add in leeks and saute 5 minutes.
2. Add in bay leaf and carrots and continue to cook 5 minutes, stirring often.
3. Add in oregano, onion flakes, and dill. Stir to combine.
4. Add in potatoes and vegetable broth plus water.
5. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover slightly and let simmer 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, the potatoes should be cooked through.  Take a potato masher and lightly mash the potatoes until you have a chunky soup. You could also puree half of the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender. The potato masher method is the most convenient requiring far less cleaning than using the blender or immersion blender.
7. Stir in soymilk, cream if using, or milk, and continue to heat 10 minutes until thickened.
8. Garnish with parsley or serve along with parlsey-garlic chutney (see recipe below).

Parsley-garlic chutney
This is more like a tapenade than a chutney; it is delicious and brightens up the soup.



Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 tsp grated lemon rind
2 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese (choose a regular, shreddable kind, it can be basic, nothing fancy see note below.)
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup parsley, finely minced to yield 1/4 cup parsley
salt and pepper to taste



Directions:

1. Combine everything together and season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Spoon a teaspoon over the soup before serving.

Note: there is a cheese shop, called The Cottage, in town that I really enjoy purchasing cheeses from. The owner and I were chatting and he was telling me how he cannot tell the difference between the regular parmesan and the fancier parmesan reggiano, except for the price between the two. He said they both are salty enough, but the parmesan reggiano is drier and aged longer. This works for me.

Roasted Cauliflower with Red Kidney Beans and Capers

If you buy cauliflower thinking you'll do something with it, and then find it after a week, this is a nice way to use it up.  This is an excellent dish to serve with other tapas.

Ingredients:
1 medium head cauliflower, chopped into rough pieces
1/2 zucchini, sliced into quarters
1 14 oz can red-kidney beans, rinsed and drained
6-8 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 T capers, rinsed
juice of 1 lemon
2 T olive oil
2 T mint or parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together cauliflower through olive oil. Add about 1/2 tsp of salt and mix together. 
3. Place the cauliflower mixture in a large roasting pan, and bake for 25 minutes. Cauliflower is done when golden-brown.
4. Top with mint or parsley and season with pepper. Adjust taste for salt (I find that lemon and capers  do a fine job seasoning and choose to omit most of the salt).

Greek Zucchini Fritters

Recipe is from the New York Times' health and wellness section, Recipes for Health

It feels odd cooking with zucchini in the dead of (what seems like) endless winter, but these reminded me of gardening, which then reminded me of squash borers. Ugh. Then I sighed, and started shredding the zucchini, and learned the Flemish word for them courgette. This is pretty much my train of thought whenever I cook.

Beware that while this dish is delicious and will be devoured immediately (and probably without leftovers) it takes a while (2 hours) to prep. First you have to drain and squeeze all the water out of the squash, and then refrigerate the mixture. It's a fried dish. Mmmm, but with healthy ingredients, so it makes you feel better. Of course I thought it was too much olive oil and reduced the amount - only to be left with gooey-undercooked insides. Use the recommended amount - they'll cook faster and absorb less oil.  Serve with yogurt or tzatziki sauce.

To make a proper meal, I served with some roasted potatoes:

Roasted potatoes:
5-6 small to medium organic potatoes, quartered
1 onion, sliced
1 T fruity olive oil
1/4 cup chopped green beans
1/4 cup mixed green olives (mine contained roasted peppers and pearl onions)
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium skinny chili peppers (like Thai chili peppers)
1/2 of one lemon to be used at the end

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Put the potatoes and onions in a roasting dish and drizzle olive oil on top. Mix well and roast for 20 minutes until either soft or just barely golden.
3. Fold in green beans, olives, and chili peppers and season with salt and pepper. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes. When golden and cooked, remove and squeeze in lemon juice. Adjust salt and pepper if needed.

Sage chard with lemon feta rice

Sage is fried in some butter, then added to some stir-fried swiss chard, onions and tomatoes. The sage-chard mixture is served along with some brown arborio rice. It tastes like inside out grape-leaves. The chard and tomatoes come from the garden.

Get the rice going first. Then prep the swiss chard, onions and tomatoes.

Ingredients

1 T butter
6-8 sage leaves
1/2 onion, diced
1 bunch swiss chard, stems and leaves chopped and separated.
1 cup cherry tomatoes
fresh black pepper

For the rice:
1 cup brown arborio rice (you can use white too)
1 quart of water
1/3 cup feta, crumbled
juice of 1 lemon

Directions.

1. Heat water until boiling and then add the arborio rice. Cook over medium-high heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prep the chard, cut up the onions, and leave the tomatoes whole.
3. Heat butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Once hot, fry sage leaves until fragrant or about 1 minute. Set the fried sage leaves aside.
4. Add in chopped chard stems and diced onions to the same skillet. Cook 8 minutes.
5. Stir in the chard and continue to cook another 8 minutes.
6. Add in tomatoes, and turn down heat to low. Continue cooking another 8 minutes. Now focus on the rice.
   
7. Place feta and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl.
8. Once rice is cooked, add it into the mixing bowl and toss together. Season with pepper.
9. Top the chard mixture with the fried sage leaves and serve alongside the rice.

Notes: I didn't add salt because the feta is salty/brine-y enough.
For the chard - wash and dry the leaves. Separate the stems from the leaves. Chop the stems like you would chop celery. For the leaves, place the leaves one on top of the other and then roll into a "burrito" then slice across into 1/2" ribbons. This will give you nice chard ribbons.