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Posts from the ‘Vegetarian’ Category

Sep 21

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Once Upon A Fig

There was a fig tree in the backyard of the house where my grandfather was born in Yaguajay, Cuba. I know this because he told me the story-often. Having moved with his family to Havana, he found himself in the province years later and decided to knock on the door of his old house. He asked the family living there if they had a fig tree, and they brought him through the house and showed it to him.  Only then did he tell them who he was and how he knew it was there.  I always wondered why they’d let him go through the house in the first place and pictured their polite confusion while they waited to see Read more

Sep 1

Corn at Last

I’ve wanted to try this corn tart recipe from Lourdes Castro’s Simply Mexican for weeks.  Unfortunately, I’d only remember this when I’d just left the market cornless, mid-pool at the gym, or ten minutes before I fell asleep.  With summer winding down, I realized it was now or never if I wanted to take advantage of the piles fresh summer corn that were getting smaller each week.  Similar to a soufflé but less temperamental, I had it with the achiote chicken roasted in banana leaves.  Having read it cover to cover, I should have known the tart would be easy to make.  A straightforward collection of recipes, it’s a great introduction to cooking Mexican at home.  Read more

Aug 27

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Oh Fig!

A friend coined the term produce shopaholic on her blog, Mindy’s Recipe for Disaster.  If I’d read her post earlier, I may have recognized the symptoms before I went on a why-not-bender at the Park Slope Food Co-op yesterday.  Though I love figs, I rarely buy fresh ones.  I have plans for tarts and compotes, but the slightest delay and they’re past all use.  Still, I couldn’t resist when I found organic Calimyrna figs.  I reasoned that the green ones would at least give me a head start, and they were so cute and plump I had to take them home.  A quick search online and through my books gave me a couple of ideas.  I had some this morning drizzled with peppered honey and Spanish goat cheese with sweet olive oil crackers.  It was sweet, spicy, flowery and creamy all at the same time.  The recipe from Bon Appétit could not be easier, so there is no reason to put off using them straight away.  I also found an interesting recipe for fig compote with red wine and spices among the formidable 1080 Recipes, one of my favorite cookbooks/step stools that I’ll try next.  Now that I’m hooked, I’ll need more figs.

For the complete Fresh Figs with Goat Cheese and Peppered Honey recipe click here.

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Aug 12

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Yucassoise

I’ve had waxy brown yucas on my counter for a couple of weeks.  There were so many things that I wanted to make with them – salads, empanadas, croquetas – that I ended up doing nothing at all.  My absolute favorite way of eating yuca is on Christmas day, standing around my aunt’s kitchen while she fries up perfectly golden batches of fries using the boiled yuca left over from Noche Buena.  Dipped in garlic aioli, it’s impossible to let it cool long enough before diving in, but worth the burn.  With Christmas months away, I flipped through a few books to see how I wanted to use the increasingly reproachful yuca I’d been putting off.  That’s when I found Alex Garcia’s recipe for yucassoise from In a Cuban Kitchen.  There is nothing suave about barklike, starchy yuca so I loved the idea of transforming it into a smooth, cold soup. Read more

Jul 20

Ajo Blanco

I’ve wanted to post a recipe for ajo blanco since my friend Félix Ortiz told me about it several weeks ago.  Waiting out the garlic scapes and spring varieties in the farmer’s market, I finally tried it when the first full formed garlic appeared.  Trying to incorporate the mashing with the blending with the right amount of water, I ended up with three consecutive batches of garlic milk.  If you haven’t tried garlic milk, don’t.  Consulting Anya Von Bremzen’s The New Spanish Table, I was able to figure out what went wrong.  Without a mortar and pestle large enough to really work the oil into the bread and almond mixture, it didn’t emulsify the way it should, either too thin or too grainy.  I switched over to the blender after making the initial paste and it gave me the right consistency in a few whirls.  The final result was smooth, refreshing, and easy.  Typical of Málaga, this creamy white gazpacho makes a great light, mid-summer meal.

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Jul 6

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Aurora’s Tortilla de Patatas

Given the option to spend a semester abroad in Madrid, I decided to go for the entire year, not realizing just how far I would be from everything and everyone.  The family I had been assigned to live with at random didn’t help.  From the first day, they made me feel like an wandering hobo or stranded motorist who’d washed up to their grim house to use the phone (except I wasn’t actually allowed to use the phone).  For the next two months, I had a terrible case of homesickness.  The city I’d dreamed of seemed completely closed to me.  Family in Spain and a few friends got me through, but it wasn’t until I broke up my year with a trip home for Christmas and arranged for new housing that the spell finally broke.  Mostly because of Aurora. Read more

Jun 30

2 Comments

Zucchini-Blossom Quesadillas

If I seem preoccupied with eating flowers lately, it’s because the farmer’s markets are only just getting into their too beautiful weeks now.  This Sunday I found the zucchini blossoms I’d been waiting for since April to try this recipe for Zucchini-Blossom Quesadillas again.

I’d made them for the first time last year with store bought tortillas.  I loved the filling but wanted to make them with the uncooked dough called for in the recipe.  I made this batch with masa harina, fresh masa that has been dried so that you only add water to form the tortillas.  I used this tutorial by Chef Iliana de la Vega who explains Read more

May 12

3 Comments

Cuban Potatoes

I should confess that when I admitted to my host family, during my year abroad in Madrid, that one of my favorite dishes from home was tortilla de plátanos maduros (fried ripe plantain omelette), I thought they might ask me to leave…the country.  I don’t think they would have been so shocked if they knew that for Cubans, plantains are as ubiquitous as the potatoes they put in their own tortilla de patatas. Read more

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