Roasted Vegetable Salad w/ Garlic & Rosemary

 The sun shines deceptively through my windows.  As I close my eyes, I let the glass of the kitchen window act as a conductor and feel the warmth kissing my cheek.  But one simple motion...pressing the button on the screen door and descending onto the top step...reveals that sneaky trick that the sun is playing.  The day that I can go out and till the garden is still a few weeks off, but I am glad that I still have some good end of winter tubers and some some veg from the market to roast up.  I don't mind sitting by the window with the sun streaming in and playing along with this deception...as long as I can have a bowl of this and a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine to keep me company.

Roasted Vegetable Salad w/ Garlic & Rosemary

adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

serves: ~4

1 large russet potato, peeled & cut into 1" cubes

1 large sweet potato, peeled & cut into 1" cubes

1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks

1 yellow onion, cut into bite-sized chunks

2 c. mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, halved if large

10 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

¼ c. olive oil

1½ Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar

Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil.  Add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Drain and let sit in strainer for a minute or so.  Preheat broiler.

Toss potatoes with all of the rest of the ingredients except the vinegar.  Spread veggies on a broiler pan that has been lined with foil (so that you can keep all of the gorgeous juices that escape the veggies).  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and broil for 10-12 minutes, stirring halfway through.  You want the veggies to be slightly crisped and brown at the edges.

Pick up the foil by all four corners, taking care to keep all of the juices in the center, then pour the roasted vegetables and any accumulated liquid into the bowl.  Toss with the vinegar.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

Serve this as a main course with some good bread and cheese...perhaps some warm, sweet cherry tomatoes from the vine in summer.  Or serve as a side dish with a simple fish or bean dish.

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Fried Eggs on Garlicky Fried Rice w/ Chile Vinegar

Fried eggs perched atop garlicky fried rice?  Oh yes, it's what's for breakfast.  Or lunch.  Or possibly even dinner.  Yes, I feel for garlic the way some people feel about chocolate.  It makes me happy.  If I see a recipe, article, blog post, book, tv show...whatever!...with some form of the word garlic in it, I have to investigate.  One of these years I hope to get to a garlic festival so that I can roam free amongst my own kind.  Fortunately, the hubs is one of us.  But wouldn't it be great to feel the affirmation of those around me?  To be welcomed by the soft yet sharp, subtle yet pungent whisper of garlic riding the breeze.  Perhaps I should look into the public school system and living conditions in Gilroy.  Hmmm.  I'm off to do a little research while you enjoy a plate of garlicky goodness.

Garlic Fried Rice w/ Chile Vinegar & an Egg

adapted from (My Favorite Philippine Breakfast) Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant

makes 2 svgs.

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 large garlic clove, sliced thinly

2 c. cooked Brown Basmati rice

2 eggs (or more if you wish)

coarse salt, to taste

chile vinegar (mine is jalapeños & de arbol in cider vinegar), to taste

Heat oil in large skillet or wok and fry the garlic pieces until barely golden.  Remove garlic and reserve.  Stir-fry the rice until hot and well coated with oil.  Take off heat and stir in reserved crispy garlic slices.  Remove to plates and quickly fry up (or cook however you wish) the eggs and slide them on top.  Sprinkle with salt and serve with the chile vinegar so each person to splash on as much as they like (or take a chile from the vinegar and eat it with the rice).

Black-Eyed Peas with Kale and Sweet Potatoes

Do you ever walk around the kitchen.  Craving something.  Yet you just don't know what it is that you're craving.  You check the cupboards.  You check the fridge.  You check the freezer.  Then you check the cupboards again.  And you check the fridge again...and so on.  When this happens to me, it seems my body needs either citrus (think sweet, juicy orange or fat, puckery grapefruit) or dark, colorful food (like deep, orange sweet potatoes and bitter, peppery greens).

The past few days...maybe even a week now...I've felt this way.  I went for a tangelo (aka mineola) first.  Nothin'.  A few more days and a bit more wear to the linoleum (ssshhhh...I tell myself it's tile, but really it is linoleum) and I knew I had to hit the market in a bad way.  I miss being able to run over the the community garden and come home with a big basket of kale.  Hurry up summer!  Fortunately the market had some good looking kale and a decent bin of sweet potatoes.  I found a recipe that I could not get out of my head in one of my Moosewood books, so that was on the docket for today.  Although the original recipe calls for pigeon peas, I used black-eyed peas because that's what I had in the house.  And to be truthful, I've never seen pigeon peas around here.  So that is for another day.  Subbing in some deep purpley-red onions for regular and olive oil for vegetable oil, the meal came together in a quick and ultra-crave-satisfying manner!

Black-Eyed Peas w/ Kale & Sweet Potatoes

adapted from a recipe in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

serves: ~4

1 large sweet potato (~2 c.), peeled & diced into ½" cubes

1 medium red onion (~1 c.), chopped

1 Tbs. olive oil

~~

~1 lb. kale (a huge handful)

~3 c. black-eyed peas, drained if in liquid

salt

freshly ground black pepper

~~

tabasco, pepper vinegar, &/or cider vinegar, to serve

Bring a couple cups of water to boil in a pot, salt it and then add the sweet potato cubes.  Cook for ~10 minutes or until barely tender.  While potatoes cook, sauté red onion in olive oil in a large skillet until it is translucent.  

Remove the tough bottom parts of the stem from the kale, then slice lengthwise through the leaves and chop them pretty small.  Add kale to onions and sauté for a couple of minutes, or until the kale is bright green.  

Scoop about 3 Tbs. of sweet potato cooking water into the pan to help the kale steam and cook.  Drain the sweet potatoes and then add them to the skillet along with the black-eyed peas.  Toss everything and stir, cooking for a couple more minutes, or until everything is heated through.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.  

Serve immediately, offering Tabasco or vinegars at the table...for a little somethin' extra.

I liked the combo of pepper vinegar and the green pepper Tabasco on mine.  Tangy with a slight, lingering heat.  And I don't feel like I'm lost anymore.  Craving officially satisfied.

*MLLA is being hosted at Ammalu's Kitchen this month.

Tomato Garlic Soup w/ Cheese Tortellini

I know we've talked about this before, but I just love it when I get the chance to EXCLAIM! at how much I love the smell of garlic on my fingers. That's right. I get excited when the scent of a stinking rose bouquet permeates my skin and sticks around for a whole day or so. Even after multiple washings. And just for good measure, I may or may not dab a little bit of that sticky balm behind each ear when I'm done mincing a good-sized pile.

So, it probably goes without saying that any soup with a Garlic Broth base, is a soup meant for me. Don't skip out on making the broth. Seriously. You may look at the (double-) recipe and think "naaaaah." Don't be hasty. Don't jump to conclusions. It's actually super simple and takes almost no time at all to make both the broth and the soup. But the flavor. Ooooh, the FLAVOR! Rich and garlicky and creamy broth (yes, I said creamy broth...I don't know if those two words normally go together, but it works in this case) with sexy bites of cheese-filled pasta.

Curried Fried Rice

Okay.  I've found another top-notch meatless meal!  Seriously, it's almost knocking my two front-runners out of their top spots.  This is super-filling, super-satisfying, just plain SUPER-DEE-DUPER (sorry, total Flanders moment).  I know that the point of eating healthier is not over-stuffing yourself, but I have to admit that I was feeling the need to loosen my button by the time I was done eating.  And I only had one serving.  That makes me happy.  

I want to give a shout-out to my friend Natashya for her awesome Moosewood Mondays idea.  It's been far too long since I cooked anything-Moosewood-related and even then I wasn't too familiar.  I'm pretty excited about hangin' out~ Moosewood-style☺.

Curried Fried Rice

makes ~4-6 svgs.

1 Tbs.olive oil

4 lg. eggs, lightly beaten w/ a pinch of salt

~~

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbs. curry paste

2 medium tomatoes, diced

handful of orange bell pepper, diced

handful bean sprouts

1 scallion, sliced thin

4 c. cooked brown basmati rice

1½ c. fresh or frozen green peas

2 Tbs. soy sauce + more to taste

2 tsp. fresh lime (or lemon) juice

~~

for garnish:

bean sprouts

scallion, thinly sliced

chopped, toasted nuts (I used almonds, but I think cashews would be awesome here, too)

Start by heating the tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and pouring in the beaten eggs.  Basically, you're making an omelet here.  As edges of egg begin to set, lift the edges and tilt the pan to let the uncooked egg flow underneath.  After a minute or two, when bottom is set, flip the omelet.  Turn off the heat and let sit for a minute.  Slide onto a cutting board and slice once in half and then into ½" strips.

In a wok or large non-stick skillet, heat the two tablespoons of oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and curry paste and cook for a minute, stirring.  Add tomatoes and spinach and other veggies,.and cook another couple of minutes.  Add rice and peas and cook until heated through.  Stir in eggs strips, soy sauce, and lemon/lime juice.  

Adjust soy sauce to taste and serve!

note:

I think this would be good w/ some pressed tofu...or if you decided you were in the mood for a little meat, some leftover chicken (chop or shred) would taste great stirred in w/ the rice and peas, as well.

-adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home