A Garlic Eggplant Stir Fry

It’s officially Fall! I harvested and cooked my first squash of the season and I pulled the rest of the beets and eggplant before the frost warning. My counter looks like a vegetable display at the grocery store - not a bad thing.

Today I volunteered at the Arboretum for the fall apple tasting - if you are interested, lot 1492 was the people's favorite but MY favorite was lot 1850 - it was smaller, crisp, semi-sweet and delicious - we’ll see what the final tally is.

I love being at the Arboretum, today I worked with 3 Master Gardeners, something I’d like to pursue when I retire. They gave me pointers and suggestions about applying, the classes and opportunities when you are done, there are so many to choose from. I don't think I'll be bored when retirement comes.

I’d have to say that this year was filled with garden surprises, eggplant was one and beets was the other.  The beets were one of this year’s experiments - they did ok. We had several meals and I gave some away so I’d say that’s good but overall they were small. Maybe it's the soil, maybe I didn't thin them enough or maybe it was the variety, not sure. 

The eggplant harvest was amazing and it lasted for over a month, we started picking them in late July and I pulled the last one off the vine on Friday afternoon. Last year we planted them as one of our experiments and they were so so with respect to yield but this year they went crazy, neither of us is complaining - eggplant is a favorite here. We’ve made baba ganoush, we’ve sautéed, roasted, steamed and stir fried all delicious. 

When we were in New York a couple weeks ago I had an amazing garlic eggplant dish and I wanted to recreate it. With all that eggplant it was pretty easy. I started by finding the peppers (from the garden), onions, eggplant and tofu in the fridge and then washed, chopped and sautéed. 

I put Dan to work on the tofu - because no one makes tofu like Dan. As a matter of fact I refused to eat tofu when I first met him, because every time I had it, it was too squishy (I’m all about texture). When Dan makes tofu it’s crisp on the outside and perfect on the inside - he’s my tofu hero. 

The garlic sauce is this dish has the perfect combination of sweet and salty. I may have added more garlic and ginger than necessary - you can scale the spices up or down to meet your taste buds. 

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onion - in chunks

5 - 6 Japanese eggplant 

2 - 3 peppers - mine were small and I used a combination of red, green and ancho.

1 package of tofu

Garlic sauce:

5 cloves of garlic -minced

2 tsp ginger - grated

2 T soy sauce

1 tsp of corn starch

2 tsp sugar

Instructions:

Chop onion, eggplant and peppers. Combine garlic, ginger, soy sauce, corn starch and sugar in a small bowl, stir and set aside. Drain tofu and cut in small cubes, place on paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible. In a saute pan heat oil and fry eggplant until it is crisp on all sides. Remove from heat and drain. 

Add oil to a large pan and fry eggplant, in a single layer, turning once until brown on both sides, remove from pan and set aside. Add a little more oil to the pan and stir fry the onion and peppers until crisp tender. Add soy/garlic sauce and stir until it starts to thicken. Add the eggplant and tofu and stir until they are coated with the sauce. 

We served the stir fry with brown rice and a nice glass of wine/beer. It hit the spot and did not disappoint.  

In the Fridge Soup/Stew

I’m going to start by saying we had a fabulous weekend in New York and the fact that it fell over my birthday weekend was the best. The flights we so so, but the city was as amazing as ever. We went to a conference, toured the 911 memorial, had some amazing dinners, went to 2 museums, reconnected with friends and family, and saw Beautiful; The Carole King Musical - it was magical - I’d forgotten what an amazing songwriter she was!

We’re back home and as expected, the weather is turning to fall, which by the way is my favorite season (I know I say that every year - but it is true). I love the smells, the colors and the feel of flannel and my favorite sweaters and sweatshirts. Bonfires, birthdays, pumpkin, apples, chai and soup - warming, delicious soup. 

Which brings me to dinner. It started out as a soup and then kind of evolved into soup/chili as a way to use up what was in the fridge and pantry before I make that next trek to the garden. I can see there are more tomatoes and peppers anxiously awaiting my arrival and I know that the beets, kale, squash and collards need attention too.

Ingredients:

1 large onion - diced

2 stalks celery - diced

2 carrots - peeled and thinly sliced

1 yellow pepper - diced

1 banana pepper - seeded and chopped

1 spicy red pepper - seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups cabbage - shredded

1 cup kale - stemmed and shredded

1 can black beans - drained and rinsed

1 can garbanzo beans - drained and rinsed

1 can white kidney beans - drained and rinsed

2 large tomatoes - roughly chopped

2 quart bags of tomatoes - one regular and one spicy

I didn’t measure the spices, I dumped, tasted, added more, tasted and said “yep that works.” I added:

cumin

chili powder

garlic powder

cayenne

red pepper flakes

salt

pepper 

Instructions

Add 2 T olive oil to pan and saute onions, celery and carrots until onions are translucent. Add peppers, cabbage, kale and saute an additional 5 - 7 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and spices and simmer approximately 20 minutes until flavors combine. 

Serve with free bread and a nice glass of wine - it’s good to be home. 

Dinner for Four

Have you been outside today, September 15th and the temperature is 91 degrees - yes I did say 91 degrees - crazy! Normally, at this time of year I’m thinking about chili and cornbread, or portabella stew or a nice spicy curry not so much these days. I’m looking for something cool and fresh tasting.

We continue to harvest tomatoes and last week I thought they were coming to an end but my harvest on Thursday night said otherwise. We’re harvesting peppers, beets, cabbage, kale, collard greens and soon - squash (my favorite). So what to do with ALL THOSE TOMATOES? Good question. We’ve had sandwiches, marinated tomatoes with feta and basil, I’ve even been known to grab a handful and have them for a snack. 

Last night was movie night but before I get to that I want to show you a picture of my Thursday harvest so that you can see what I was up against and how I came to the dinner we served. See 2 heads of cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, beets, and the last of the green beans. 

Movie night -  we’ve been getting together with our friends Gerd and Maria once a month for a few years now. They bring the wine and movie and we make dinner - and we appreciate that they are willing to eat whatever we make. Most of the time, dinner is driven by what we’re harvested from the garden so some meals are more creative than others. 

With all those tomatoes, I decided we hadn’t had bruschetta in a while but I wanted to try something a little bit different than the traditional tomato, garlic and olive oil rendition. We had a nectarine and some ground cherries so I took a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes, cut up a nectarine and threw in some ground cherries. I added a splash of balsamic vinegar and put it under the broiler for about 10 minutes; until some of the tomatoes burst. I toasted some french bread and we inhaled it. The reviews were excellent. 

Photo credit for the appetizer goes to Maria. 

For dinner I decided on a tofu, veggie, cabbage and cashew stir fry. And since it was Dan’s birthday on Wednesday, I made him an apple pie (thanks to our neighbors Teri and Dennis for the apples from their tree). 

As we were going through our pictures this morning it seems neither of us remembered to take a photo of the stir fry - sigh. We do have a picture of the pie.

Veggie and tofu stir fry

Ingredients:

3 stalks celery - diced

2 carrots cut into small matchsticks

8 ounces of mushrooms - quartered

2 small onions - medium dice

~ 2 lbs green cabbage - chopped

1 1/2 red peppers - julienne 

1 cup whole cashews

~ 1/2 cup white wine

1/3 cup soy sauce

3 dashes sesame oil

2 T cooking oil

garlic powder to taste

pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a wok or large deep skillet, heat cooking oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry onion, celery, and carrot for about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, pepper, and cashews, and stir-fry another 3 minutes.

Add wine, soy sauce, and cabbage. Stir well, cover, and steam until cabbage wilts slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir in sesame oil and garlic powder.

Continue stirring until cabbage is done to your liking. May season with black pepper if desired. 

Dan cooked up a package of tofu (he is the best tofu cook on the planet) and added it to the stir fry for some added protein. We served it with brown rice and fresh strawberries and cantaloupe on the side. Now what to do with the beets, kale, collards, peppers and other heads of cabbage just waiting for me to come back to the garden and get them?

A Night as a Sous Chef

Sometimes you’re the cook and sometimes you’re the helper. 

We’ve been making our way through this years garden bounty; cucumbers, beans, peas, tomatoes, tomatoes and did I say tomatoes? Now we’ve moved into peppers, eggplant, cabbage, beets, kale, collards and in the not to distant future - squash; acorn and butternut. 

We’ve made 3 batches of tomato sauce; regular, spicy and super spicy, I can’t wait to use them over the winter months. It will be like brining a bit of summer to those cold and stormy days. And making collard greens stuffed with a tofu and veggie mixture is just around the corner; another dinner to pull from the freezer on a night when cooking doesn’t sound fun - although I don’t that will happen for a while. 

We were at the farmers market last weekend - a little crazy I know - but we don’t have everything in the garden. We were searching for okra to make bhindi masala. Then we got home life got in the way (ok well all that other produce got in the way) and finally last night it was  okra night but we had so many other things to use like eggplant, peppers, onions all begging to be cooked up and eaten.

So we took pity on all those veggies and started chopping, sautéing and simmering up a batch of curried eggplant and okra, this time I was the chopper and Dan was the cook. 

Ingredients:

4 Japanese  eggplants, sliced on a bias

2 c. okra, stems sliced off

2 yellow onion, chopped 

1 1/2 bell peppers, cored and sliced - I used a mixture of red, yellow and green

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 - 2 tbsp red curry paste

1/2 c. coconut milk

1/4 c. water

Juice of 1/2 lime

Sea salt, and pepper to taste

2 tbsp coconut oil, separated

Instructions:

This is essentially a stir fry so having all ingredients chopped in advance makes the cooking time shorter and keeps the veggies from getting over done. 

Over medium high heat, melt a tablespoon of coconut oil. Add the okra and cook until just beginning to brown (be careful to not over cook the okra or it will get slimy). Remove the okra from the pan to a bowl and set aside. 

Fry the eggplant until golden brown, remove from the pan and set aside. If the eggplant has absorbed the oil add a little more to pan and add the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the onions and saute until softened. Add the curry paste (if you like things a bit spicy you can add additional curry paste) and cook until the onions are well coated. 

To the onion mixture add the bell peppers and stir fry until crisp tender 1 - 2 minutes. Slowly add the coconut milk, water and lime juice scraping up any browned bits. Reduce heat to low and add the okra and eggplant into the pan. Simmer for 3 - 4 minutes and serve over brown rice. 

It was delicious - thanks to Dan for being the saute to my chop. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Indian Whole Roasted Cauliflower

The new kitchen has been humming this week I’ve been working on preserving the harvest (to have summer in the dead of MN winter), searching for new recipes to try and making some favorites - I’m totally enjoying my new kitchen. 

I was at the farmers market last weekend and found a beautiful head of cauliflower. My initial reaction was to make buffalo cauliflower - because I have developed an intense like of buffalo cauliflower - but I decided I wanted to try baking/roasting in my new oven. 

Most of my adult life I’ve had an electric stove but with the remodel, Dan wanted to switch over to gas. I had my reservations, after all I had the steaming of veggies on my electric stove down to the minute to create the perfect result. It’s not tragic, I just need to devise a new “perfect system.” 

But back to the cauliflower. A few years ago I was riding back to the airport in Dallas with my then boss Anne Lapkin and she was telling me about this delicious recipe for a yogurt and spiced cauliflower. It sounded really good and I tucked the idea in the recesses of my mind to pull out for a rainy day. That day was last week. 

I was searching for a whole roasted cauliflower recipe on Pinterest and came across a number of them that looked delicious and then that memory returned so I refined my search a bit and found an amazing recipe on Pure Wow’s blog. I made some adjustments based on dietary and ingredients we had in the kitchen. The end result was delicious and we had the leftovers for dinner tonight. I even got a “You should make this again it was delicious” from Dan. 

If you want the Pure Wow recipe go here 

Here is my recipe with some changes.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 head cauliflower

1½ cups plain coconut milk yogurt

1 lime juiced (I had tiny key limes and used  1 1/2)

2 tablespoons chile powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

2 teaspoons sea salt 

1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 400° and lightly grease a small baking sheet with vegetable oil. 

2.  Trim the base of the cauliflower to remove any green leaves and the woody stem.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt with the lime juice, chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, curry powder, salt and pepper.

4. Place the cauliflower in at the prepared baking dish. Slowly pour the marinade evenly over its surface making sure to cover the entire head. 

5. Roast the cauliflower for 40 - 50 minutes until the surface is dry and lightly browned.  The marinade will make a crust on the surface of the cauliflower.

6. Let the cauliflower cool for 10 minutes before cutting it into wedges and serving.

We served ours with a salad of corn, cukes, tomatoes, and a field roast sausage. On leftover night we served it with a green salad and fresh fruit. 

I’m so happy to be back to blogging and cooking - thanks for stopping by!

A Vegetarian for One Year is Back

I’m back and it feels so good. Never in my dreams did I expect a kitchen remodel to take 15 weeks. It’s been hell but I must say I love the end result. On the flip side, I’ve missed blogging and connecting with all of you. It doesn’t mean I’ve not been cooking, I have but it hasn’t been glamorous  - mostly microwave, toaster oven and some grilling. It’s so nice to have a stove and a dishwasher whose name is Whirlpool (Dan’s been excited to give up that role) who does all the work.

This years garden is doing well. We’ve been eating tomatoes for a while now - in salads, with feta, basil and balsamic, in bruschetta and on sandwiches. My last trip to the garden landed 6 beets, 3 cucumbers and a shirt full of tomatoes - thank goodness to friends and neighbors who like veggies. 

We tried a new cherry tomato this year; Rapunzel. It is a small cherry with a deliciously sweet flavor and a light skin. Our neighbors planted them last year and I had a few tastes while taking care of their dog. I was hooked and made a note of the type so that I was sure to get a plant or two for this year. They take a little longer to mature but they are worth it. 

We’ve made it through bean and sugar snap pea season - there are a few beans lingering out there which I’ll bring in with today’s run and we had our first cabbage, which we turned into curried cabbage and onions. My experiment this year was beets and they are delicious, I can’t wait to turn a few of them into Beet Rubens with my home made marinated vegetables (in place of sauerkraut). 

Our first entertaining in the new kitchen will be on Tuesday and we’re having the newlyweds (Alona and Nate) over. So stay tuned for my first food blog. In the interim I’ll post a couple pictures of what we’ve been eating since I’ve been away. 

A Cook Without a Kitchen!

Hello Hello, it’s been too long since my last post. LIFE. IS. CRAZY. BUSY! We’ve been working our way through the kitchen remodel, Dan’s daughter’s upcoming wedding, planting the garden, work travel and just normal everyday stuff. 

The remodel is going pretty well, demolition is done, electrician is nearly done and we’re waiting to iron out a few things with the plumber. Next up inspections and sheetrock. Once the walls are back up cabinets and countertops should go pretty quickly so we’re excited and looking forward to cooking in the new kitchen. 

In the mean time we’ve put together a make-shift kitchen in the bar downstairs and we’ve been using the grill, hotplate and microwave for our meal prep. A couple pictures of some of our cooking adventures are below; grilled salmon with onions and zucchini, veggie stirfry with vegetarian Field Roast sausages and our favorite - the giant salad.

We have eaten out a few times, although not as often as I thought we would and I’m happy about that. I also spent 3 days in Dallas for work, it was a nice construction break and I got to see my coworkers - new and old - who I haven’t seen for a couple years. 

On the wedding front, I am sure it will be a beautiful day, regardless what Mother Nature decides to give us. Alona and Nate have planned a lovely ceremony, at a local park, with a large picnic shelter. Dresses are purchased, food is organized, flowers and cakes are ordered all that is left is the fun part. 

I’ve been asked what is the first think I will make in my new kitchen - aside from a mess I’m thinking I’ll roast some seasonal vegetables, make some vegan cheese and a loaf of focaccia - I can taste it already. I’ve also been eyeing some vegan sausage recipes on Pinterest and of course by the time the kitchen is ready the garden will be in full swing. 

We’re looking forward to getting back to normal and posting regularly on the blog again. 

Thanks for stopping by.