Vegetarian Feijoada

Feijoada is Brazil's national dish and is traditionally made with black or brown beans and many different kinds of fresh and cured meats. It is usually served with rice, a shredded green, such as mustard greens, and with fried pork chops, farofa (manioc crumbs with spices), orange slices, and caipirinhas to cut all the fat and heaviness in your stomach. It is truly a well-designed meal that satisfies!

In the US, it's not easy to find farofa, nor is the many kinds of meats seen as acceptable. So instead of these ingredients, I use bread crumbs and hickory-baked tofu. This version of feijoada is very good and satisfying and is also appropriate for my vegetarian lunch group at work.



Vegetarian Feijoada
Serves 8

1 pound dried black beans
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
dried red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
12 ounces baked tofu (hickory or savory flavor), cut into small cubes

Soak beans by covering beans in a bowl with the boiling water, 2 inches above the beans. Let sit for an hour or until the beans have doubled in size. Rinse and drain. Place the beans in a large pot with 4 cups water. Bring water to a boil and cook the beans for 2 hours.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft. Add cumin, red pepper flakes, and salt. Heat until the onions are starting to brown and the spices become fragrant. Add tomatoes and cook until they are soft and incorporated into the mixture. Turn off heat and set aside.

When the beans are finished cooking, they should be soft. Take a cup of beans from the pot and mash with a fork. Return the mashed beans to the pot and mix them well. The gives the dish a creamier texture. Add the cooked onion mixture, the vinegar, the tofu, and adjust salt to taste. Bring back to a bubble and simmer for another twenty minutes or until the stew has reached its desired consistency. Serve with the following:

Mustard Greens
Serves 8
1 bunch mustard greens, washed and sliced as thin as possible

Steam the greens in a bamboo steamer and saute in a skillet with some olive oil and salt. I often also add garlic and red pepper flakes here to taste.

Garlicky Rice
Serves 4, Double to serve 8
1 tablespoon butter
2-3 cloves garlic
1 cup rice
2 cups water
Pinch of salt

Melt butter in a small pot. Add garlic and cook over medium-low heat until soft. Add rice, increase the heat a little, and cook until the rice is translucent. Add the water and salt. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Bread Crumbs
Choose a few slices of a good bread. I used sourdough this time. After all, we live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Add bread. Turn off the oven and let it cool. Take out the bread and place in food processor. Process until finely ground. You can add salt and spices, such as oregano.

Sliced Oranges

Autumn Pizza with Eggplant, Leeks, and Oyster Mushrooms

As you can see by our posted weekly menus, we make pizza quite often. I found a favorite pizza dough, which I will post here. I used to cook the pizza on a pizza stone by dividing the dough to make two smaller, round pizzas, but I found that I actually prefer how the dough tastes when cooking it as one large pizza on an oiled cookie sheet. It cuts the time in half, and the dough gets a different, crispy sheen on the bottom from the cookie sheet (non-stick).

I vary the toppings depending on what I have on hand. Here, we had leftover leeks and eggplants and 3 bunches of fresh oyster mushrooms, the fruits of Autumn. I used the homemade marinara from earlier this week, which I had frozen to keep fresh and thawed for use. Drizzling the top of the pizza with a little olive oil, Parmesan, and oregano makes all the finishing difference.



Autumn Pizza
Serves 4

Pizza Dough (for 2 small pizzas or one large pizza)
1 package yeast (2 /14 teaspoons)
1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/3 cup white flour
2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (a special kind of wheat, white wheat, makes a lighter flour than red wheat and is fantastic for breads)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Autumn Toppings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small Chinese eggplant, chopped
1 leek, halved and sliced
3 bunches oyster mushrooms chopped
1 cup homemade marinara sauce
2 cups 5 cheeses mix (Parmesan, Asiago, Provolone, Mozzarella, Romano)
Oregano

For the dough, activate the yeast by combining the yeast with the water in a large bowl for 5 minutes. Add the flours, oil, and salt, and knead and slap down on a wooden cutting board for 10 minutes until light and elastic. Place back in the bowl, cover with a damp towel, and let rise for 1 hour.

In the meantime, heat oil in a non-stick skillet and saute leeks until tender. Add eggplant and mushrooms and a sprinkling of oregano and cook until the eggplant have turned brown and the mushrooms have released their water. Turn off heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. When dough is ready, punch down and spread with fingers on a lightly oiled 9 by 13 inch cookie sheet so that the edges have more dough to hold in the sauce. Spread the marinara sauce evenly over the dough and top with sauteed vegetables. Top with cheeses, more oregano and a drizzle of olive oil. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

Baked Halibut, Brazilian style

We're finally back from Brazil (I didn't want to leave!), and now I have a cold. Nothing will stop me from cooking, though! My Nonna (grandma) cooked us wonderful lunches, and I'm trying to replicate these before I forget them! Most of the food down there is not vegetarian, but there are a few pescetarian recipes. Nonna is Catholic, and eats fish on Fridays, so this was our Friday lunch. Lunch in Brazil is a much bigger affair than dinner, and it makes sense. Eat most when your belly's fire burns and when your metabolism is at its peak! Most of our lunches started with a pasta dish and was followed by meat, a cooked vegetable, and a raw vegetable. Every meal ended with dessert consisting of fruit. I felt so good eating these satisfying midday meals that I want to continue it here in the US, but it's so hard to make yourself such a lunch when you work all day! I can try to continue the tradition at dinner, but in smaller quantities.

This dish was a creation by Nonna based on a Portuguese dish where white fish (salted cod) is baked on top of potatoes so that the potatoes can absorb the fish's liquids and salts. She used raw tomatoes and a thin, delicate white fish and layered everything in a casserole dish, topping it with cheese. She used olives to replace the salt not found in her fresh fish. My version is a little different, because I'm not fond of white fish and because I happened to make some fresh marinara today. I used Halibut instead of white fish (such as tilapia) and marinara instead of tomatoes, onions, and garlic. My husband thinks it turned out better than Nonna's, but it's really just different :-)



Baked Halibut with Potatoes, Red Peppers, and Marinara
Serves 3 or 4

olive oil
1 1/2 cups fresh, homemade marinara (I used a recent recipe from Cooking Light and substituted canned tomatoes with 5 pounds of fresh, peeled tomatoes and chicken broth with veggie broth. I am using the rest of the marinara for other dishes)
3 small potatoes, peeled, boiled, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 red pepper, cored and sliced
green olives
1 pound halibut fillet
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In an 8 inch square baking dish, coat the bottom with olive oil. Place a small amount of marinara to cover bottom. Top with a layer of potatoes (using all the potatoes). Then layer 3/4 of the red pepper, olives, and more marinara. Settle fish fillet in the dish and top with remaining red pepper, olives, and marinara. Top with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cheese has browned and fish is cooked through.

This Week's Menu

I feel like I'm finally back into the swing of things, back to my old cooking habits. I'm not sure what happened during the past couple of months. It could be that I started a new job and was just too exhausted to think about a menu. It could be that I'm not as inspired by summer produce...Or is could be that receiving a weekly CSA box was actually stifling my cooking creativity. I usually plan a menu based on cravings and what's in season, and I somehow found it difficult to wait until the middle of the week to receive half of my produce, never knowing exactly what I would receive.

We've decided to stop our CSA subscription until at least next January or February. We'll be traveling to Brazil soon, are we're tired of the boxes. Last week, a green caterpillar dropped out of our vegetables when my husband was putting them away, and he didn't notice that it was crawling on him until an hour later. I think that in itself freaked him out. I had also, a few weeks ago, placed a bunch of rose geranium that we received in a glass of water, as suggested, to allow the roots to sprout so it could be planted. The plant seemed to be doing well, but after a couple of weeks, I noticed quite a few dropping around the plant that didn't seem to be part of the plant. All that time, a little green caterpillar had been eating and growing in there!! So, we're going to give this a break for now, and I'm not so sure how we'll fare. To be honest, I already kind of miss it when reading the produce list for next week, but my inspiration and creativity with my cooking seem to do better when I can choose my veggies and fruit for the week by what's most appealing.

This is what we bought this week:


Baby Spinach, Pink Pearl Apples, Blackberries, Ollaliberry Preserves, Basil, Early Girl Tomatoes, Crimini Mushrooms, Red Bell Peppers, Long Beans, Lobster Ravioli, Spinach Pappardelle

In any case, I do have a menu for this week using our new produce and leftover produce from last week:

Dinner
Soft Polenta with White Bean, Squash, and Sage Ragout, served with sauteed garlicky Chard (From The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen)
Lobster Ravioli from the Farmer's Market
Chicken with Poblano Cream Sauce and Cilantro Rice (From Everyday Food: Great Fast Food (borrowed from a friend, and the recipes look yummy!) Yes, I know, it's not pescetarian! My husband has decided to temporarily eat meat because of our trip to Brazil and to appease my grandparents there. So we're eating poultry almost once a week for now)
Palak Paneer with Chapati or Naan
Wild Rice and Mushroom Empanadas with Long Beans
Halibut with Artichokes and Potatoes (From The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Cookbook)

Lunch
Sweet Pepper Sandwiches (side to be determined)

Breakfast
Bagels
Strawberry, Lox, or Plain Cream Cheese
English muffins with Ollaliberry Preserves (from the Farmer's Market)
Pink Pearl Apple Sauce

Multi-grain Penne Rigate with Goat Cheese and Ricotta Salata

On Friday nights, I'm exhausted by the work week I've just completed. I'm always happy to see that I've planned an easy and comforting meal for those nights. The ideal for me is to have a warm meal in minutes and watch a movie wrapped in a blanket.

This week, I left the planning somewhat open, but I knew that I had penne rigate in the cupboard and tomatoes and veggies. From other recipes, I had goat cheese and ricotta salata left, so a new pasta dish was born!

The beauty of pasta is that you don't need to know much about cooking to prepare a sauce of your choice with the pasta shape of your choice. It's always a wonderful fall-back.

We usually buy fresh pasta from our hippie friend at the farmer's market, but he told us the week before that he'd be spending some time in Amsterdam. We always miss his presence! He's become our weekly friend, the only person who noticed my husband's new glasses, the only person who could sense that my husband and I had been fighting one week (he said, "you guys need a vacation"), and the only person who asked how we were holding up after having my parents visiting for the weekend. So this week, as an alternative, I bought multi-grain dried pasta at the store. It's good, but not like the fresh pasta from a friend!



Penne Rigate with Goat Cheese and Ricotta Salata
Serves 4

14.5 ounces dried penne rigate
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 sun-dried tomato Tofurky sausages, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts
3 multi-colored heirloom tomatoes, chopped
1/2 jar pasta sauce
4 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons ricotta salata, grated
1/2 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, add pasta and cook according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and heat until fragrant. Turn up heat to medium-high and add sausages and cook until slightly browned. Add red pepper, red pepper flakes, and pine nuts and saute until pine nuts are slightly browned. Add chopped tomatoes and cook until heated through. Add sauce and cook again until heated through. Mix in parsley and take the sauce off the heat.

Combine pasta and sauce in a large bowl. Serve immediately with 1 tablespoon each of goat cheese and ricotta salata per serving.

Millet and Sweet Potato "Polenta"

Here's another treasure from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. This technically isn't polenta, I suppose, because it isn't made with any sort of corn or meal. However, the texture is very similar, and it fries just the same. I personally prefer the taste and texture of this polenta because it's much creamier and cooks with a yummy crisp on the griddle. The recipe in the cookbook called for serving it with sauteed onions and peppers, but I think anything you usually serve with polenta will go well (pasta sauces, mushroom sauces, cheese, moist vegetables, etc.). The only draw-back is that this version takes slightly more time, but it's well worth the effort!!




Millet and Sweet Potato "Polenta"
Serves 4

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup peeled and diced sweet potato
1 small onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 (or more) sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 cups water
1 cup millet, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
Fresh parsley for garnish

Warm the oil in a heavy 2 to 3 quart sauce pan or deep saute pan over medium heat. Add the sweet potato and onion and saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon to prevent browning. Add the garlic, thyme, and bay leaf and saute for 3 to 4 more minutes. Add the water, millet, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan, and cook for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring several times to prevent sticking. Remove millet from heat when it is soft and creamy (at this point, you might try mashing some of the sweet potato into the millet to make it creamier). Discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Set the millet aside to rest, covered, for 5 minutes. Lightly oil an 8-inch square baking dish and pour the polenta into the dish. Set aside to cool at room temperature and then refrigerate, uncovered, about 40 minutes or overnight. Slice polenta into 1/2 inch slices. Heat griddle over medium hight heat with olive oil and fry polenta until crispy on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Serve polenta topped with veggies or sauces.

Favorite Pesto Sauce with Basil and Almonds

It's late summer here, and basil is abundant....It's a shame when it goes to waste, so the best way to store basil is in a high quality pesto sauce. I love this pesto for it's flavor and texture. It isn't too liquidy, and it spreads easily on sandwiches. I was surprised when I realized that the recipe didn't call for Parmesan, but I now realize that pesto absolutely doesn't need it! This recipe comes from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, by Peter Berley. To be honest, I have had much luck with this cookbook, but this one recipe is a gem and is good reason to buy it! The pesto is versatile, and may be used as a sandwich spread, cracker spread, dip, pasta sauce, dressing for vegetables....you name it. Whatever you have that needs to pack a little more protein can use pesto. Ok, so here's the recipe:

Basil-Almond Pesto
Makes 2 cups

1 1/2 cups whole almonds, peeled and lightly toasted (I used slivered and toasted almonds)
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt (a favorite of Peter Berley's)

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, grind the almonds to a meal. Add the basil, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest and puree (don't worry if it doesn't puree completely at this point; it will have a change after you add the olive oil). Slowly add the oil and process until smooth. Blend in 1 teaspoon salt and adjust seasoning to taste. Serve at once. Cover and leftover pesto with a film of olive oil in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.