vamptables

If you've been planning to have a passionate love affair with vegetables to get you through this winter, right now is a great time to begin the seduction.

Being a vegetable lover is kind of like being Bella Swan. Everybody else snubs the vegetables (read: the vamps), but you're drawn to them, especially that one that's likeohmygod so pretty and sparkly. (Fine, my metaphor has holes. I don't know of any vegetables that actually sparkle in the sunlight.) You don't know what it is, but those vegetables make you feel funny. They make you feel good. You decide you can't possibly bear another day without them. In fact, you'll go into a deep depression if they leave you. So, yeah, you decide that vegetables are the center of your universe and you'll orbit around them for the rest of your days. Plus, now that you've declared your love for veggies, you're totally going to live for, like, ever. And you convert all your friends and family to your vegetable-loving ways. The end.

Anyway, sorry, I got a little carried away there with my love for, ahem, vegetables. My point is this: they're good. I don't know why people are always snubbing them. Probably because folks don't know how to cook them. They don't know the miraculous sweetness brought out in roasted cauliflower, or the delicate crunch of a broccoli stalk. Today is a great day to get to know the sweetness of vegetables. Here are some of our favorite vegetable recipes, as well as some we've been meaning to try for quite a while. Even if vegetables don't sparkle in the sunshine, they can be pretty darned gorgeous.

Eggplant Slices with Pomegranate, Yogurt and Tahini
Garden Peas and Paneer in Chili-Tomato Sauce
Good-for-What-Ails-Ya' Beet Slaw
Fresh Pea Salad
Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts

How's the week of Sugar Freedom going for you so far? Thoughts? Comments? And what's your favorite way to sink your pointy teeth into veggies?

-Kylie

*For more tongue-in-cheek Twilight fun, see Yes, I Read It. It's Still Stupid. It's made me LOL more times than I can count.

a return to vegetables

If you've been reading Thin Crust Deep Dish lately, you might think that Adriana and I barely eat anything besides desserts, that we're always baking but never cooking. I've felt a bit like we were working on a baking blog instead of an all-food blog. This is partially true for Adriana. She's in the midst of her Baking and Pastry section in culinary school, and she churns out crusty breads and flaky doughs each night. I, on the other hand, have been doing a lot of roasting and sauteeing. It just seems that my more photogenic projects are always the sweets. Plus, my weeknight cooking rarely uses a recipe. We might roast some Brussels sprouts or a chicken with vegetables, or create impromptu tacos, but it's rarely something that seems worthy of showcasing for you.

I've been going out on limbs, though, with my cooking. I'm trying new things, and I want to share more with you. Earlier this week I made Heidi's garlic soup, which exceeded my expectations. Instead of sopping up the soup with a baguette, I toasted a slice of Ezekiel sprouted grain bread, slathered it in butter, and dipped. The resulting meal was satisfying and comforting.

The last time I was back in Seattle, I coaxed my mom into letting me borrow her copy of Arabesque, Claudia Roden's elegant book exploring the foods of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon. This is one of those cookbooks from which you want to cook everything. Each recipe contains spices and foods that I wouldn't have thought to combine on my own. This eggplant recipe is one of those. It is a wonderful, surprising combination of flavors. It's also a beautiful dish, one that I would love to serve at a dinner party or on a holiday. I'll attest that it tastes just as good served on a weeknight after you just got home from the gym.

Eggplant Slices with Pomegranate, Yogurt, and Tahini
(Batinjan Bil Rumman Wal Laban)
Adapted from Claudia Roden's Arabesque
Serves 6 to 8

The dressing of pomegranate molasses and vinegar gives the eggplant slices a sweet-and-sour flavor. Serve them hot or cold, with the yogurt and tahini topping at room temperature.


4 eggplants (about 2 1/2 pounds)
Extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 Tbs. pomegranate molasses*
1 1/2 Tbs. red or white wine vinegar
2 cups plain whole milk yogurt
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 Tbs. tahini
1/4 cup pine nuts

Cut the eggplants, lengthwise or crosswise, into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Place them on an oiled sheet of foil or a Silpat on a baking sheet or tray. Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Place in a very hot oven preheated to 475 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes, until they are soft and browned, turning the slices over once. Arrange on a shallow serving dish.

Mix the pomegranate molasses*, vinegar, and 2 Tbs. olive oil, and brush the eggplant slices with the dressing. Beat the yogurt with the garlic and tahini and pour over the slices. Fry the pine nuts very briefly in 1/2 Tbs. olive oil, stirring to brown them very lightly all over (be very careful not to burn the pine nuts), and sprinkle over the yogurt.

Variation: Sprinkle the dish with the pink seeds of a fresh pomegranate in addition to the pine nuts.

-Kylie

*You can find pomegranate molasses at Middle Eastern markets and upscale gourmet shops. If you don't have any (as I did not), you can replace it with the juice of half a lemon whisked with 1 tsp. of honey. I thought it worked excellently with this substitution.

cast iron cooking

This weekend, I discovered the magic of cast iron cooking. I'm now hooked. I've been wanting to start cooking with cast iron for a few years now, and I even have an old cast iron skillet that I purchased at an antique store sitting in the bottom of my closet at my mom's house. I mean to bring it back to New York every time I visit home. Somehow, though, at the end of each trip, I talk myself out of lugging the hefty iron mass back across the U.S. in my suitcase, and the pan remains there, un-seasoned though not unloved, for another several months.

Enter Crate & Barrel. Mary and I have had a gift certificate from there burning a hole in our pockets ever since we moved into our apartment, and we finally got into the city to shop this weekend. With it, we picked up a french press for making coffee and herbal infusions, the Baked cookbook (oh yum), and a sizeable, pre-seasoned cast iron skillet. 

After a day of cooking together, my skillet and I are tight. It has far more benefits than I previously thought. My original desire for a cast iron pan was born from a need for cookware that could go from stovetop to oven, as we previously had none. That was only scratching the surface of this pan's great qualities. Cooking with cast iron is actually an excellent way to add iron to your diet, a nutrient which almost fifty percent of Americans, mostly women, lack. In addition, cast iron that has been seasoned is naturally non-stick and does not contain any of the carcinogens in modern non-stick cookware. Add to these qualities that it conducts and retains heat beautifully, and you can understand why I'm smitten.

So why isn't cast iron cookware more popular today? It's cheap, versatile, health-promoting, and makes delicious food. The thing about cast iron cookware is that it can last multiple lifetimes if you care for it properly. For marketers, this is a downside, because it means they sell fewer pans. For the rest of us, this is great. As long as you practice some routine maintenance, you can enjoy a lifetime of happiness with your new pan.

Unless the cast iron pan you buy is pre-seasoned, you must season it yourself before use. Calm down: it's not hard. Mark Bittman gives simple instructions here. You are then ready to cook. After cooking, just remember not to wash with soap. I use hot water and a hard-bristled brush to scrape off any left-behind food. Note that while most cast iron enthusiasts warn against using soap on your cast iron, others swear a mild soap is fine and, at worst, will only cause you to have to re-season it before the next use. After washing, dry the pan immediately to prevent rust and apply a thin coat of oil such as grape seed or coconut to the cooking surface, wiping away any excess. Store your cookware in a dry place, and you can look forward to a long and happy life together. 

Now that cast iron has found its way into our home, I was finally able to make this frittata that I've been lusting after. I don't need to give you the recipe, as Tea has provided an excellent one here, which you can alter to your liking.

-Kylie

The Little Things

Sometimes, when life gets you all stressed out, you need to take a moment, breathe in (and out), and think about the little things that make you want to jump up and down with joy and exuberance. I've been stressed lately, and so I've spent the entire evening thinking of things that make me want to do just that. In doing so, I realized that summer is a terrific time to be delighted by small things. Convenient. I also realized that I should do this more. It's fun! For instance, while washing the dishes a few minutes ago, I realized that my toes were really enjoying the dimpled fuzziness of the rug beneath them. See? It's the little things. Here are a few more things I thought of. Oh, and by the way, what's on your list?

1. Cherries are in season. Hold me back.

2. A young feminist blogger declared August Self-Esteem Awareness Month. Yeah! Young people rock!

3. The fantastic progressive comedians who work tirelessly to keep our silly culture in check.

4. Hugs. Big ones, small ones, good ones.

5. The fact that one of my favorite bloggers is involved in a New York-style thin crust pizza endeavor in Seattle, officially starting August 12th.

6. After a ridiculous amount of patience, my hair is finally long enough to put in a ponytail. (Thanks, Terra.)

7. The IKEA 2010 catalog has finally arrived! It seems I am the only person who is really excited about this. I feel as if I should be embarrassed by the extent of my excitement, but I'm not. Not at all.

8. The way The Maybelles wrap me up in their lilting, witty tunes.

9. Getting letters in the mail. Isn't that just the best?

10. The best herb store I've found in New York is right off the Q train in Brooklyn

11. This salad is so yummy and fresh, and it reminds me of one of my best friends.

Israeli Salad with Basil and Mozzarella

Serves 2

1 cucumber, preferably from the farmer's market

2 tomatoes, the tastiest you can find

4 basil leaves, julienned

2 Tb. olive oil

The juice of one lemon

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Several slices of fresh mozzarella

Dice the cucumber and tomato as finely as possible and place in a bowl. In a small cup, whisk together olive oil and lemon juice. Pour over vegetables and mix together. Add salt and pepper to taste. I served this over fresh mozzarella because we had some, but I would usually eat this with hummus and pita, scrambled eggs, or anything else, really.

-Kylie