Boring but good

Here you see veggie 'meatloaf', roasted butternut, mashed cauliflower and mushroom gravy. Luckily the plates in this kitchen are colourful, because otherwise this was just a plateful of orange and brown.

 

The loaf is an Adventist style dinner loaf made with beans and rice (unfortunately the magical loaf studio seems to be down at the moment, but you can find the basics of the recipe there). This was my first attempt at mashed cauliflower and it was pretty good, but I think a stick blender might do a better job at making a creamy puree. The potato masher left it a bit chunky.

I'm really missing my electrical kitchen gadgets. There's no blender here, or food processor, or hand mixer, or anything like that. I hadn't realized how often I used those things. Needless to say I was very pleased to find the potato masher buried in a drawer.

Knifeworthy

This was a meal worth buying a knife for.

Today I had a craving for butternut pumpkin. I bought one, and then realized that there was no way in hell that I could cut that thing with the blunt knife in the kitchen here. Hence, new knife.

Here you see roasted fennel and butternut, and pasta with a simple bechamel (or mornay, I guess) of roux, soymilk, water, nutritional yeast, fake parmesan, salt and pepper. (Clearly I am still a fan of the fennel + butternut + bechamel combination.)

Emergency pho

Pho is the answer to a tough day.

The local supermarket is, shall we say, a bit inadequate. Here is pho made with ramen noodles, mushrooms and broccoli, and my usual recipe for the broth.
Did you know this product existed?
Me neither. (As I'm sure you can guess, canned bean sprouts have a very soft texture, and they really don't work very well in pho.)

No wood pulp!

In case you can't make it out, the first sentence of the second paragraph reads: Light buns are made with oat fiber, and no wood pulp!

Roughing it in Westhampton

There's no camera, and no internet, and not much in the way of kitchen tools here at the beach. But I made sure to pack my spices and my copy of 660 Curries, and so we're eating well. Here's a crappy snapshot (taken with my computer's camera) of last night's dinner: Eggplant and Okra with Fenugreek and Mustard (left) and Chana Saag (right). I also made Malabar Parantha, which ended up kind of like a cross between naan and paratha.
All three recipes are from 660 Curries (though I made a few changes to the Chana Saag (no ginger or onion paste on hand, and I used diced turnips and turnip greens rather than spinach)). I had to roll the bread out using a jar!

Here's a bonus non-food shot of the view from the balcony:

Postcard from Long Island

I had to vigorously refuse a ride to the grocery store today. The grocery store is a five minute walk away.

The kitchen here is not often (never?) used for cooking. The one knife is dull, and the pots and pans were dusty. If you ever find yourself in this situation, and you're tired and hungry, I recommend Japanese curry mix. You throw a random assortment of veggies in a pot with some water, bring to a boil and then simmer until they're cooked. (Today's mixture: onions, sweet potato, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, chickpeas). Then take it off the heat, and stir in the curry cubes. Done!
For the full experience, eat on a glass table with white faux bois legs while reading Star magazine.