Biscotti

Food routines are funny. As a kid, I would eat the exact same thing in my sandwiches every day, until suddenly I would demand some other thing, and have that every single day. While you're in the middle of your obsession, it feels like it will never change, but it always does.

With that in mind, here's one of our current favourites: biscotti. We are steadily going through a batch a week, dunking them into our tea and coffee. Always almond, sometimes with some walnuts, and this time with some chocolate sprinkles (brought back from the Netherlands). (Recipe modified from the green tea and walnut biscotti from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.)

One day we won't be obsessed with these; I don't really believe it.

Fenugreek

I am really only into gardening in so far as it involves things I can eat. At the moment I have a few herbs growing (lemongrass, basil, thyme, mint, oregano, and cilantro/coriander).

On a whim, and to fill in some of the empty pots -- where some casualties of my not so green thumb used to reside -- I raided my spice drawer and planted some fenugreek seeds. I half assumed that the seeds would have been irradiated, and hence wouldn't grow, but was pleasantly surprised:

It's sort of weird to realise that the seeds in your spice jars are actually, you know, seeds.

Carrots with peanut and coconut sauce

I must admit that I usually find carrots kind of boring, but this recipe from 660 Curries is a winner. It's Carrots with Wilted Spinach in a Peanut-Coconut Sauce. The peanut and coconut sauce is outstanding.

Bagels

Oh I love me some boiled-then-baked breads. Last time it was soft pretzels, this time: bagels.

I used the recipe for Montreal-style bagels from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, with a few changes (no egg, 1/4 of the white flour replaced with whole wheat, less sugar/honey). Now, I LOVE Montreal bagels (from Fairmount Bagel, please) but I was sort of aiming for a NYC-Montreal hybrid here, to satisfy the Long Islander.

This recipe is great. You can have fresh bagels out of the oven less than an hour after you wake up! The secret is that you mix up the dough a day or so (even up to a week) earlier, let it rise for a couple of hours and then stash it in the fridge. When you want bagels, you take the dough out, form it into balls, let them rise for 20 minutes, shape them, boil them, and then bake for about 25 minutes.

Pretzels

These were so good.

I used the soft whole wheat pretzels recipe from Papa Tofu, with a few small changes (halved the recipe, used half white flour and half atta flour, added a couple of tablespoons of lively sourdough starter, let them rise a bit longer than suggested, made 6 pretzels).

When it came time to twist the pretzels, I forgot how to shape them. Luckily it turned out that R's pretzel eating expertise extends to pretzel shaping.

Thai green curry

Sometimes I feel sorry for our boring meals, the ones that don't make it onto the blog. So this post goes out to all the Thai curries we've been eating recently: so wonderful, so easy, and so easy to take for granted.

Here you see a green curry with veggies (bok choy, Japanese pumpkin, onion, peas), alongside pineapple fried rice with grated carrot. Usually some tofu gets thrown into the curry too, but not this time. I use Maesri brand green curry paste. Oh, and now that we have Asian food stores aplenty, and I've become reacquainted with kaffir lime leaves, I've resolved never to make a green curry again without adding some. They're that good! (Any recipe that says you can replace kaffir lime leaves with regular lime juice or zest is lying to you.)

Rice Krispie Treats Cookies

We had (1) some store brand Rice Krispie knockoffs that didn't taste that good, and (2) homemade vegan marshmallows that worked out kind of dense. I wanted to make cookies, and was inspired by this recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar's cornflake, choc chip and marshmallow cookies. And so I bring you Rice Krispie Treats Cookies:

 

I based the recipe on the Cowboy Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, simply replacing the oats with the rice krispies, adding a marshmallow on top, and leaving out the coconut, chocolate and nuts. These were really good: incredibly sweet and butterscotch-ish, with a bit of crunch from the rice krispies.