Red Cabbage Glazed with Maple Syrup

I adore snow.  People up here think I’m crazy.  I was convinced that everywhere but New York City would see more snow than me this winter and I assumed it was my fault.  I tend to repel snow (except the infamous blizzard of Christmas 2010 where Chesapeake/Virginia Beach got over a foot of snow, stranding Robbie and me from Christmas, Part Deux with my family – luckily my parents didn’t give my gifts away).

Last winter (my first winter here) was one of the mildest winters in New York City and this winter seemed to be heading in the same direction.  We’ve had some really cold spells but I don’t mind the cold either.  I have a jacket that looks like I’m walking around in a sleeping bag so I can cope.  I can’t hear anything and my peripheral vision becomes obsolete but that’s ok. 

There were rumblings at the beginning of this week about snow at the end of the week.  I got semi-excited.  But then, when I heard Al Roker say “Nor’easter” and “Clipper” in the same sentence, I immediately perked up.  This could be big.  We went from the 3 – 6 inches range, to the 3 – 30 inch range (quite a range), to the 12-18 inch range and ended up in the 6-12 inch range.  Enough to make everything pretty and white and not so much that my weekend is ruined.  I’d say it was a pretty perfect situation.  Side note – I have yet to step outside since yesterday afternoon so I may change my mind the first time I step out into the street into what appears to be asphalt and is actually six inches of dirty snow water . . .

Here’s something else I love that may seem strange – cabbage.  And when you bake cabbage with maple syrup and apples a wonderful thing happens.  It becomes sweet and soft with a wonderful tender texture.  Throw an egg on top and you have yourself a complete meal.  And that striking red from the cabbage looks great against the backdrop of a snowy evening.  

Red Cabbage Glazed with Maple Syrup

Adapted from the Essential New York Times Cookbook

5 slices bacon

1 onion

1 medium firm, tart apple (I used a Granny Smith)

1/2 a head of a good size-red cabbage (or as much as you want, you could use a lot more if you like)

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup maple syrup (the original called for 1/2 cup maple syrup but you don't need this much if you use just 1/2 a head of cabbage)

salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice your bacon and then saute until crisp in a cast iron skillet (or some other ovenproof casserole dish).   Mince your onion and slice your apple.  Prepare your head of cabbage by removing the outer leaves and the core.  Shred the remainder.  Add the onion and saute until translucent.  Add the remaining ingredients, cover with foil, and transfer to the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes.  

Tomato Pie

When I was a kid, I used to hate tomatoes.  I would only eat them in my mother's spaghetti sauce or in pizza, transformed into the tomato sauce that really just served as a platform for cheese and sausage.  I would infuriate my father by picking them out of a dish and arranging them around the side of my plate so that there was a ring of red clumps standing triumphantly at the end of the meal.  I can still see the shaking of his head in embarrassment when the waiter came and took the plate away.  I don't think I started enjoying tomatoes until college.  While others were exploring new hobbies and social scenes, I was expanding my horizons in vegetables.  

Which led me to this recipe I found in my church cookbook.  Tomato Pie.  Could something sound more perfect for the end-of-summer bounty of tomatoes?  The beauty of local cookbooks is that you know the recipes are solid enough to have someone put their name by it knowing that the audience enjoying the recipes will see them on a regular basis and can challenge them should something go wrong.  The sometimes challenging side of local cookbooks is that the recipes are often classics that have been adjusted throughout the years -- changes that may not have made it to the cookbook.  Eventually recipes are memorized and the original recipe card long forgotten until one thinks to add it to a compilation cookbook at which point the changes aren't listed.  I've learned that one should always be encouraged to adjust, improvise and be ready for some quick thinking when it comes to making something from one of these homegrown works.  This recipe, for instance, just said to 'prebake the crust.'  I tend to need explicit directions when it comes to recipes so this led me to a frenzy of trying to figure out how long does it take to 'prebake' a crust?  What temperature should the oven be at for this step.  Do I use beans/rice/pie weights? And so on.  Googling really helps in these instances.

Once any kinks are worked out, and the adjustments fine tuned to your family's taste, you know they will be solid addition to your recipe cache.  After all, even if a cookbook hasn't been through the months' of recipe testing that the mass produced cookbooks have, they have been through a lifetime of enjoyment for some family you know and therefore as legit as Martha Stewart's.  

Tomato Pie
Adapted from the Beth Eden Lutheran Church Cookbook, Volume 1 

Note - the amount of mayonnaise and cheddar cheese below are adjusted to what I think would work since the original amounts were not enough to cover the entire 9 inch pie - hence the thinness of my topping in the photos.  I imagine greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or some other base would work as well with the shredded cheese.

1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust, unbaked

3 large tomatoes, peeled; sliced*

Salt & pepper to taste

1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

3/4 cup mayonnaise

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Partially bake pie crust and let cool (I did this for ten minutes, uncovered, using pie weights, but would probably recommend 12 - 15).  Layer tomatoes in bottom of pie crust.  Sprinkle tomatoes with salt, pepper and basil.  In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise and cheese.  Spread mixture evenly over tomato slices, sealing edges of pie crust.  Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown and the top of the pie seems set.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

*The original recipe called for 4 large tomatoes but I quickly realized I would only need three of the big ones I bought.  I used the boil-for-thirty-seconds-then-dump-in-ice-water method to peel them.  I also seeded them to try to get as much moisture out of them as I could.  As I cut them I put them in a strainer to let any extra moisture out.  I was very concerned about a soggy crust and although my crust wasn't as flakey as I would've liked -- I chalk this up to the cooking time needing to be longer than the original 30 minutes the recipe called for.  

Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad

Labor Day is a week away!  How did that happen?  And how did my ‘summer of plenty’ turn into cooking rushed dinners that didn’t take nearly enough advantage of the produce available.  My mango soup even seemed to be autumn-happy since it suspiciously has the color of butternut squash soup . . .

Anyway, speaking of plenty, I picked up this cookbook the other day (Let’s be honest, I ordered it on Amazon.com where I ‘picked up’ two more thanks to their “Buy All-three-together-and-save!” campaign.   And don’t even get me started on the ‘1-click-buy’ option.  Amazon.com knows my weaknesses better than I do).  The book is absolutely beautiful.   As an omnivore, I was hesitant to buy a book featuring only vegetables (or buying three books featuring only vegetables – see previous parenthetical) but I had read a lot about Yotam Ottolenghi and was curious.  He is based in London and, besides holding a billion degrees (comparative literature, philosophy, etc.), he is a trained chef as well. 

 

Everything in this book makes my mouth water and gets me excited about the potential that veggies offer – more so than the frozen peas I usually have.  So I thought I would share one of his recipes, adapted to the folks around my dinner table’s tastes.  This salad is effortlessly sophisticated (quinoa automatically does that to a recipe) and the homemade croutons are a game changer.  It is a chameleon of a salad in that it tastes slightly different a day after it is made as the flavors continue to meld.  If it even lasts until the next day. 

Quinoa and Grilled Sourdough Salad

Adapted from Plenty

¼ cup quinoa

4 slices sourdough bread

1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to brush the bread

salt

a bit of minced garlic (I used the bottled variety)

4 ripe medium tomatoes

3 small cucumbers, unpeeled

4 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 ½ tablespoon chopped mint

2 tablespoons chopped parsley (I used regular curly)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¾ tablespoon red wine vinegar

black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.   Cook the quinoa by putting the quinoa in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 9 minutes or until tender.  Drain in a fine sieve and rinse under cold water.  Leave to dry.  Go on and prepare yourself for the fact that sieve will take a while to clean thanks to the curlicues of the quinoa.

Brush the slices of bread with olive oil and smash some minced garlic onto the tops of the slices.  Sprinkle with salt.  Lay the slices on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, turning them half way through.  Make sure the bread is completely dry and crisp when done.  Remove from oven and let them cool before breaking them into bite-sized pieces.

Dice the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Place both in a mixing bowl.  Add all the remaining ingredients plus the quinoa and cucumbers.  Stir gently.  Adjust seasoning as you see fit.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato

Happy New (Detox-time-of) Year! After averaging six desserts per day between December 15th and January 2nd, I am ready to put a bit more balance in my diet. This realization is quite promising since it suggests I do have a limit on how many cookies I can consume in a set time period. Alleluia.

I arrived back in the Big Apple on a day when the high was 29 and I realized I wasn't in North Carolina anymore. I took a moment to ask my first New York winter to be gentle on me and jumped into a cab destined for our apartment where I was ignored for eight hours by Newt-the-cat (who was punishing me for boarding him over the holiday) and the sounds of the steam radiators (as they worked as hard as they could to heat the apartments on the fifth floor). But I was glad to be back. I was sad to be further from my family and hometown but I was happy to get back to my little (super-tiny) corner of New York.

And back to a routine where I'm not constantly tempted by red velvet cake and fudge made by my dad's clients, Momofuku Milk Bar goodies that Robbie had sent to Newton ahead of our arrival, and an incredible variety homemade cookies my mom had gathered through the prior week's cookie swaps and holiday parties. Having plowed through these treats quite well while at home, I now turn to simple meals like this one - stuffed baked sweet potato. A touch of sweetness and yumminess that isn't nearly as unhealthy as my third apple pie cake truffle (nuked in the microwave for six seconds as only the professional Milk Bar aficionados do). This recipe can be made to taste and I encourage you to add sweet or salty as you see fit. I imagine maple syrup would be just as delicious as brown sugar, or swap sour cream for cream cheese. Or, if you were me two weeks ago, throw in maple syrup with the brown sugar and top it off with some cream cheese frosting. And have it at 5:30 in the evening as an appetizer.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato

Adapted from my own, sweet-obsessed mind.

1 Sweet Potato

Olive Oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons walnuts

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons cream cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub some olive oil into the potato and wrap in foil. Bake in oven for about 45 minutes or until soft (may want to check it at 35 - 40 minutes). While your potato is baking, mix vanilla, walnuts, brown sugar, butter and cream cheese. Once the baked potato is baked through, cut it in half and scoop out the meat, adding it to your bowl of other toppings. Mix thoroughly and divide it back into your empty potato skins. Place the skins back into the oven to bake for another 5 - 7 minutes or until heated through to your liking.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I am paranoid with jinxing things -- sports games, a stroke of good luck, a big commission check at work, even the weather. That's why, when we had that freak 65 degree day in February, I kept my mouth shut and still wore my heavy wool coat. Even last week, with its 70 degree days and Masters commercials featuring a picture of Amen Corner abloom with azaleas, I still refused to believe Spring was here.

However, after a beautiful day today and with the Easter weekend looming before me, I can conceivably see that the cold, 33-degree rainy Winter just may be a thing of the past. Therefore, I found these bright green veggies a perfect welcome to the warmer weather.

Something you should know about me -- I do not necessarily enjoy my fruits and veggies. But I'm learning. Starting with these roasted yummies. Yes, they are Brussels sprouts -- a veggie my mother never even attempted to ask me to eat, and here I am in my mid-twenties thoroughly enjoying a bowl of them. Who knew?

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

discovered on FoodGawker from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Brussels Sprouts

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut off the hard bottom and any leaves that look wilted. Cut larger sprouts in half to speed up the cooking time and ensure all pieces are relatively the same size.

Blanch the Brussels sprouts (boil water, add veggies without making water lose its boil, let veggies boil about 4 minutes until almost done, submerge in bowl of ice water -- sorry if this seems obvious but I had to look up how to do this).

Toss the sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper until well coated. Add a bit more salt than you would normally add for other vegetables. Roast for about 20 minutes. Once they are nicely brown and tender, remove and enjoy!