Paper plates and smoked salt

After a strenuous day of watching the movers pack our stuff, we retreated to the couch for a dinner of ramen noodles followed by ice cream. The ice cream was burnt caramel flavoured No Moo from Herrells, and it was just okay.

Actually, I didn't really like it much at all -- although it smelled good, the flavour was pretty weak. That is, until I added some smoked salt. I thought it might be good, but I was amazed at how it punched up the flavour.
Oh Japanese smoked salt, is there anything you don't improve?

Last days in the Noho kitchen

For dinner tonight we had something I've been meaning to try for at least a year, ever since I borrowed Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf's book Artichoke to Za'atar from the library: Portobello Mushrooms Baked Between Vine Leaves.
You wrap the mushrooms up in the grape leaves like a parcel, and the leaves keep all the tasty juices in as the mushrooms bake/steam. (Apparently Elizabeth David also has a recipe like this: she recommends grape leaves as a way of improving the flavour of cultivated mushrooms (or as this link puts it, providing them 'a tasty bosky pedigree').) This worked out very nice -- I cooked it for a bit longer than the recipe suggests because it seems to be written with smaller mushrooms in mind. I had expected to discard the baked grape leaves, but they tasted good (almost like kale chips).

We also had okra cooked in a style I learned from 660 Curries: the okra is blistered on a hot pan and then removed, then you cook your spices (in this case, cumin seeds and chile flakes) and onions, then add the okra back to the pan with some tomato and water, cover and simmer until the okra is tender.

In the background of this photo you can make out an office chair. We sold all our other chairs!

Corn, basil and coconut soup

Hot soup on a hot day... sometimes it seems like the right way to deal with the heat. I found this soup while randomly googling for uses for corn stock. Mine included corn stock, coconut milk, lime zest, ginger, jalapeno, veggies (zucchini, chard, carrots, corn, onions), yuba knots, and ramen noodles, plus basil and lime juice.

Grilled peaches

Peaches, vanilla sugar, basil, cashew cream.
(The cashew cream came together surprisingly well: ground cashews, 'coconut milk', sugar and vanilla extract. Usually when I make something like this I blend silken tofu with the cashews. I doubt that soy milk would work well, but I think the coconut milk has some special properties (guar gum, perhaps) -- the texture immediately became quite creamy once I started blending it.)

Corn chowder meets leek and potato soup

This was good. The soup started with sauteed leeks, some corn stock (corn cobs, leek tops, onion, carrot tops) and a diced potato, cooked until the potato was soft. I added a little bit of mimiccreme and pureed it, then added 3 ears worth of corn kernels, another diced potato, and a cup of this unsweetened coconut milk beverage (which tastes better than you might expect something labeled a 'beverage' to taste) and simmered until the veggies were done. Yum!

Please pass the almond butter of wisdom

I know, I know, making fun of the little ads in the back of the New Yorker is like shooting fish in a barrel, but really: the almond butter of wisdom!

Market haul

Finally, tomatoes! (Though I must admit I'm most excited about the fresh beans.)

New Orleans / New England

For dinner tonight we had gumbo z'herbes, made with kohlrabi greens, carrot greens, kale, callaloo (amaranth) and beet greens. I used this (apparently inauthentic) recipe. I liked it, but I think the spices were a bit off, or it was missing something. Still, pretty good. We had it with Chesapeake tempeh cakes from Vegan Brunch, which I thought were just okay (but I made a few substitutions -- for instance, I didn't have enough panko -- so they deserve another try, I think).
For dessert we had grape nuts ice cream. It was really good! Apparently grape nuts desserts are a New England thing. I used this recipe, though I didn't add cinnamon and did add a caramel swirl (inspired by what I read about the brown bread ice cream at a shop called Scoops in LA).
I used one cup of mimiccreme, and two cups of oat milk. Since the recipe called for all cream, I added a bit of xanthan gum to thicken the mixture up slightly. I added more sugar than the recipe called for, because I wanted more of a contrast with the slightly bitter caramel, but it ended up a bit too sweet. (The caramel sauce recipe is from The Perfect Scoop. I made 1/3 of the salted caramel sauce recipe, replacing the cream with mimiccreme.)

Cans save the day

I threw this soup together using various canned goods from the pantry, and it was good. Tomato, hearts of palm, okra and field peas, plus some leftover brown rice. We had it with soda bread, made with a mixture of flours (mainly spelt and oat). (I'm trying to empty out the pantry before our upcoming move -- all the little bits of random grains are getting ground up in the spice grinder.)
In the soup there was also some corn stock that was made in the pressure cooker (6 corn cobs, about 4 cups water, 20 minutes on high pressure, natural release). I had been intending to make high intensity polenta with the corn stock... that'll have to wait for next time we have a bunch of corn cobs.

I got the canned okra and field peas from the local discount shop, and they were brands I'd never seen before (maybe they're from the south?). I'd never had field peas before, and it looks like the name can refer to any number of peas. These ones were tiny and red, and I liked them.