Day 101 - The Persian

The Persian

The Persian features the Pistachio Rose Water Cookies filled with Rose Water flavored Vanilla Ice Cream and rolled in chopped pistachios.

No one has tasted this, not even me, so I can't attest to the flavor of this one, but it's certainly easy enough to assemble, and it's a pretty sandwich, with all those chopped pistachios....

I'm waiting to serve this one to Alysha, the rose water queen, since this has rose water in both the cookies and the ice cream.

But I'm going to hazard a guess, based on all the other ice cream sandwiches and say that this one gets....

SFO: 10

Day 100 - BBQ Black-Eyed Pea-Collard Rolls, Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake, Vanilla Ice Cream, and The Classic

BBQ Black-Eyed Pea-Collard Rolls

Now, who'da thunk that you could use collard green leaves to roll things up just like you use cabbage, lettuce and grape leaves? I always assumed collard would be too tough, too assertive-tasting, but the truth is, these leaves are perfect for stuffing! I+T have you boil them covered for six minutes, and once cooled and drained, they are wonderful, huge, pliable (though somewhat delicate) foundations for a roll.

This recipe uses yesterdays Backyard BBQ Sauce as the binder for a filling that also includes black-eyed peas, mushrooms, and chopped collard greens.

Following the directions exactly yielded me twelve beautiful rolls, which tasted great with the chive-y mashed potatoes I made.

My ex-neighbor and friend, Darcy, loved the BBQ sauce and the rolls (and brought me those amazing lilies you see in the background)!

SFO: 8

(As much as we loved these, I think they might be a little scary for your average omnivore. It's a lot of green up front, and then nothing too familiar inside. Maybe for a Southern omnivore, I'd up this to a 9.)


Vanilla-Yogurt Pound Cake

My second try at Veganomicon pound cake!

The first one, with rosewater flavoring, was relatively successful, although there was that lump of undercooked batter at the bottom...

This one also had an undercooked lump, although a much smaller one. I admit, I kept that sucker in the oven until the skewer came out absolutely clean, but I guess I could have left it in another few minutes.

My guess is that this is a result of what I consider to be an unusual instruction in the recipe: "beat with electric beaters for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, until a very thick batter forms. Don't overmix."

I have to say, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in my book is already way overmixed. Typically in a recipe like this, the instruction would be to mix just until combined, which in my experience is maybe 30 seconds. Next time I make this, I'm going to try that....

That said, it's a pretty loaf, and a tasty one.

SFO: 10


Vanilla Ice Cream

Back to the ice creams...

I still haven't been able to achieve a great texture since the peanut butter ice cream, but this certainly gets the job done. Flavor is fine, and as a filling for an ice cream sandwich, the texture issues slide by unnoticed.

SFO:7
(People are tough on off-texture ice creams...)


The Classic 

What could be bad? Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies filled with Vanilla Ice Cream and rolled in chocolate shavings!

Actually, I was a little concerned that these delicate, not-quite-crispy, not-quite-chewy cookies might not be able to withstand being the bread for an ice cream sandwich, but they performed quite well! In fact, they were unusually light and made for a dainty frozen dessert. I really liked this one!

SFO: 10
(I realize I gave this ice cream a 7 for texture issues, but in this context, they don't bother me.)

Day 99 - Backyard BBQ Sauce

Backyard BBQ Sauce

I love making things like this, sauces that usually come in jars but when you make them from scratch, they obliterate the memory of the jarred versions.

I'm not sure about this one, though....

It's easy enough to make. And I cooked mine for a good long time. I pureed it for a nice, even consistency. But the flavor was... um... weird.

I think I'm going to blame the liquid smoke. It's a hefty amount to add, 2 teaspoons. That stuff is strong. And it gave the sauce a fake, otherworldly kind of taste, at least to me. (Note: when I served it to my friend Darcy - see tomorrow - she did not have the same reaction.)

Also, the tomato presence seemed overwhelming, so at the end of the process when I was invited to "adjust the flavors," I did add a little more sugar and vinegar. But just a little.

Note to those sensitive to heat: that teaspoon of red pepper flakes packs a wallop. It doesn't kick it into the realm of the inedible, but at that level, this is not a mild BBQ sauce. If you just want a background heat, I'd consider reducing that measurement by a half.

SFO: 10

Day 98 - Spinach-Noodle Kugel

Spinach-Noodle Kugel

This is how unobservant a Jew I am. I didn't even think to make this kugel recipe until my friend Daniel asked me if there were any Passover-related recipes in Veganomicon. Didn't even occur to me to look! Well, he asked just in time for me to run out and get a box of matzoh so I could make this on the second night of Passover. Right after I got home from that movie screening. (FYI, I performed in a concert on the first night of Passover - I warned you I'm unobservant!)

Before

I've never used rombi pasta before. It's so cute. It's like mini lasagna noodles, torn in random pieces. It'd be sweet to make a mini lasagna with them. But for now, it's all about kugel.

I didn't grow up with savory kugel. Well, maybe there were a few potato kugels, but the noodle kugels were always sweet, with cottage cheese and raisins. Mmmm. Still, I was very interested to see how this would taste....

Survey says: meh.

I think it's all that matzoh. Matzoh is amazingly unflavorful. It's OK as a vehicle for butter, but so is tire rubber. And the tofu just doesn't do what eggs would have done to bind this casserole. This whole dish seems to have a blank space where flavor is supposed to be. 

Some extra salt helped, but....

After

Wait, stop everything!!

Typo alert! I'm rereading the recipe as I'm writing this, and I've just discovered I've made a giant mistake. As have I&T. There's onion in this recipe! But it's hidden/invisible! First of all, it's incorrectly indented in the list of ingredients, so it's really easy to miss. And it's nowhere to be seen in the instructions. I'm sure if I&T meant there to be onion in this, they would tell us to sauté it, but there's no mention of sauteeing, or of onions at all, in the recipe. But now this makes perfect sense - onions would certainly leave a blank space where flavor was meant to be. 

Argh! Typos!!!

SFO: 5
(in this version without onions, it's not really safe for anyone...)

Day 97 - Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

Spinach Linguine with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes

Yesterday, I was wondering how I was going to use my new Basil-Cilantro Pesto... Duh! In this, of course! Thank god I didn't waste half of it, slathered on some random piece of bread!

Everything I&T write in the intro to this recipe is true:

1) "You will be craving this from now on, mark our words."
2) "...red onions add just a hint of sweetness, color, and texture. Don't replace the red onions with regular ones unless you really have to."
3) "This also makes a great fast and fancy meal..."

a) It is delicious and crave-worthy.
b) The red onions are amazingly sweet - not maple sauce sweet (boo!), but just sweet enough to make you think, Wow, is all that sweetness coming from the onion? and then you run through the list of ingredients and realize, Yes!
c) This does come together in a snap and seems a lot more labor-intensive than it is, i.e. great effort/results ratio. Definitely worth pulling out when you want to dazzle but don't have much prep time.

For the record, when assembling the pasta and pesto, I had to add quite a bit of pasta water to loosen the pesto. I was adding it by the tablespoonful, and I would say I probably ended up adding
around 1/2 cup, all told.

In conclusion, yum and yummer! As much as I love parmesan and want to put it on everything, this dish was completely satisfying and delicious without it, and I can't recommend it highly enough!

SFO: 10

Day 96 - Basil-Cilantro Pesto

Basil-Cilantro Pesto 

I thought it would be nice to replace the memory of another recent pesto with this one....

And what a great idea! This is a much more familiar and happy-making pesto for me. The addition of cilantro is nice. (As long as you're not one of those people who taste soap when they eat cilantro - I'm not.) And the substitution of almonds in place of pine nuts is completely successful. I went easy on the fresh garlic - one large clove. I think the lemon juice here accomplishes what the parmesan covers in regular pesto - a little bit of zing. 

This pesto is nice and bright and yummy! Now, what am I going to put it on....

SFO: 10

Day 94 - Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew

Kabocha-Udon Winter Stew

Given that spring is already upon us, I figured I'd better cook this before it got positively balmy!

Unfortunately, it seems as if kabocha squash has run its course this season. The only winter squash options for me at the store were butternut and acorn, so I went with butternut because it's easier to peel. (I know that supposedly you don't have to peel kabocha, but I don't enjoy eating that skin...)

I appreciate the reference in the recipe to the joys of shopping in Asian markets, because I definitely have the experience of oohing and aahing over everything and then going home either empty-handed or with stuff I already know how to use. So it was fun to pick up a few new things for this dish. Namely, fresh udon noodles and fried tofu pouches! 

I think I may have made a little mistake in the tofu pouch dept. I bought the ones that are pre-seasoned to make inari, those sweet, rice filled pouches you get in sushi restaurants. Ah well, so my stew was a little sweeter than it should have been. What with the shiitake mushrooms, kombu, and shoyu, there was plenty of umami to counterbalance it.

One of the recipe directions I was confused by is the one regarding the preparation of the leeks: "1 large leek, washed well and sliced into 1/2-inch lengths." I'm pretty sure if they meant 1/2" half moons, they would have said. So I literally cut 1/2" wide strips the length of the leek, about 4 or 5 inches long. It seemed weird at the time, but once they were cooked in the stew, it didn't seem so crazy anymore.

As warned, the butternut took longer than kabocha to cook to tenderness, but there didn't seem to be any ill effect to the rest of the ingredients. 

This stew was amazing! Salty, sweet, lots of depth, but also really clean-tasting, like all great Asian stews. This is nothing like the American or European stew tradition - no unctuousness whatsoever. Just a clear broth with lots of flavor, beautifully cooked vegetables, and some tofu pouches for fun. Oh, and udon noodles! How could I forget! Those thick, white noodles - fatter than any noodle should be, but fun to slurp. I love this!

SFO: 9
(some omnivores might be scared of the tofu pouches, but they can pick around them)