Oh, how I love the falafel.
June 23, 2008
Let me count the ways… All right, there aren’t many ways, but I do love the falafel. The best falafel I ever had was in Austin, Texas. Ah, Austin, home of many vegan delights… Yes, it was silly – but we had driven from Minneapolis to Austin, and after Iowa it gets hard to find much to eat on the road besides meat. I needed a break, and it was so good. The little patties were crispy on the outside but tender, savory and flavorful on the inside.
Falafel made from scratch at home has always eluded me. But I’ve had to keep trying because the place by my house that has falafel on the menu serves up these mini falafel pucks that only serve to make me wish that I was in Texas. Or knew how to make it myself. It seemed that every time I tried the little beasts would explode or suffer from some sort of garbanzo bean plate tectonic syndrome. Soon there would be little fried bean bits floating and bursting into flames in hot oil, victims of the unfair and unstable universe on which they lived. And I didn’t have a clue why.
“It’s street food for crying out loud! It can’t be that freakin’ hard,” I’d cry to Marv who would just roll his eyes over my falafel incompetence. Then, while I was on a plane, I read a description of falafel that said it was a dough made from garbanzo beans and spices that’s fried in oil and served in pita bread with cucumber sauce and lettuce. A dough. Doh! All the recipes I had tried were basically bean patties with nothing holding them together.
Armed to the teeth with this new information – I had another go. And it worked beautifully. Yea! Falafel for me!
Falafel
Tasso.
September 22, 2007
Marv says to me, “I think I’m going to make some tasso next.” I say, “Okay. What’s that?” Cajun ham, very dense and flavorful, kinda like prochuitto but it’s cajun so it’s crusted spices on the outside. Hm. Sounds okay to me.
It’s better than okay. It’s super easy to make, incredibly flavorful and versatile. I’ve been using it as a less fatty bacon, in salads, pasta, on sandwiches in soup. You don’t need very much to add flavor and interest in foods. Marv took 3lbs to work and watched it disappear. (He doesn’t really work with enough people for that to be reasonable.)
Tasso is made from pork shoulder butt. It’s brined for a week or so and then rubbed with a spice mixture that has cayanne and garlic in it and then smoked for a relatively short amount of time – 3 to 5 hours or so. But, I suspect there are as many ways to make this as there are people making it.
Tasso, the Recipe
10+ lbs pork butt roast
Brine
1 3/4 c Tender Quick
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T black pepper
1 T ancho pepper
2 T onion powder
2 T garlic powder
1 gallon water
Rub
2 T ground mace
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
1 T black pepper
1 T paprika
1 T chipotle powder
1 T dried sage
1 T dried thyme
2 T honey
Bone your pork butt if it’s not already boned. (Crikey, that’s a bad sentence.) Slice butt into large chunks 3″ x 3″ x however long the meat is. Combine all the brine ingredients and mix well. Put pork into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and pour the brine over it. Let it rest in your refrigerator for 5 days to a week.
Remove from refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry. Mix together rub ingredients and rub thoroughly. Hot smoke – 225°f – 250°f until internal temperature is 160°f – 165°f.
It will keep in your refrigerator for 1 – 2 weeks or you can freeze it for much longer.
Tasso Green Bean Salad
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Everybody’s doing it…
September 18, 2007
Yes, folks it’s the ubiquitious crusted goat cheese salad. I know – it’s pretty much a culinary cliche at this point – but it’s yummy, so who cares? Not me!
I did switch things up a little bit though. I decided to turn a little Japanese. I used panko for the crusting material and created a wasabi vinaigrette to contrast with the goat cheese.
Crusted Goat Cheese Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette
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Roasted Beet & Gorgonzola Ravioli
July 11, 2007
My mom’s neighbors left her a bunch of cheese from their refrigerators before they high-tailed it north for the summer. (They are clearly very smart people.) Then, my brother left some asparagus in the fridge. I had been thinking about making a salad topped with beet ravioli – I just decided to use the leftover cheese to make two different versions of the ravioli. In this one I just filled it out with the Gorgonzola and then made the salad an asparagus & spinach salad. (The next ravioli will be goat cheese, chive and beet. You can make it for me if you want.)
Gorgonzola & Roasted Beet Ravioli
Got your crazy ass lookin’ ravioli right here!
2 medium beets
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
olive oil
3oz cream cheese
4oz Gorgonzola
1 T balsamic vinegar
1t cream
pinch salt
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped
won ton skins
egg, lightly beaten
Preheat oven to 450°f – 500°f. Peel and cut beets into 1/4″ slices. Toss them lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, tossing them occasionally until tender. (If the oven begins to blow oatmeal raisin cookie smell at you, don’t worry, it’s just the cookies your brother made a week ago. Heaven only knows why it decided to hang onto it for a week. But it’s super weird to be roasting beets and smelling cookies.)
Shouldn’t all fillings be bright pink? (Ooh, perhaps this would make the perfect dish for a Samanda eviction.)
At the same time cook onions in a bit of olive oil over medium-low heat until well on their way to being carmelized.
In a food processor, process cream cheese, Gorgonzola, balsamic vinegar, cream and salt together. Transfer to a bowl.
Once the beets and onions are done. Transfer them from their cooking vessels to something else and let them cool down a bit. Let the oven cool down to 375°f and use it to lightly toast the walnuts. (This does not take very long so keep checking and shaking pan.) Once cooled cut beets into to smallish coarse pieces and mix into the cheese mixture add in walnuts and onions. Taste to check the flavors and adjust if necessary.
Put a large pot of salted water on high heat to bring to a boil.
Lay some won ton skins out on a cookie sheet. Brush outsides of skins with egg and spoon filling into center. You want to keep the filling pretty low and flat while making these because touching it makes pink come out the sides. Top with a second skin and press it together with the bottom skin, manipulating it to match the bottom. Make sure they’re well sealed to not sacrifice any filling to the boiling water gods.
When they’re all done, slide them carefully into the water and boil for 4 – 5 minutes or until they’re floating and the skins are tender. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top, sprinkle with some Parmesan and enjoy!
Tasty little culinary bruises wrapped up and saved for lunch at a later date.
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
May 23, 2007
In the interest of science I’m continuing with my taste testing of different varieties of sweet potatoes. This time I decided to make roasted a potato salad with them. This is a new toss up of an old recipe – I didn’t have a few (or really, any) of the ingredients on hand so I made a new variation. This one has walnuts, dried blueberries and chives.
Each potato variety stood up to the stringent challenge of this test. And, really, they tasted quite nice together. Each lent it’s own nice flavor contrast to the others. It worked for me.
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
3 sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
2 T pomegranate or raspberry vinegar
1T Cuisine Perl’s Late Harvest Riesling vinegar(or other wine vinegar)
1 T honey mustard,
1/4 c light mayo
1 T reduced fat sour cream
salt to taste
chives coarsely sliced
1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped
2 – 3 T dried blueberries, chopped
Toss sweet potato bits in olive oil and roast in 450°f oven until they are easily chewable. Allow to cool to a point that they are easy to handle.
Whisk the liquid ingredients together. Add in the liquid mixture into the sweet potatoes until it reaches the consistency you want. Toss in the chives, walnuts and bluberries and serve. Or you can serve this as a cold salad, just let sit in refrigerator for an hour or more and add in optional ingredients and toss again before serving.
Asian & New Jersey Garnet sweet potatoes nestled happily together on my fork before they meet inevitable but tasty doom.
Kickin’ free radical bootie with slaw
March 14, 2007
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved red cabbage. I think it was mostly the bright purple color and crazy squiggly shape thing, but I also loved the taste. It and the blue cheese were my favorite parts of the tossed salads I was served.
Of course, as an adult, I had to make a dish from my favorite bits, the red cabbage and blue cheese. Then come to find out the thing is actually healthy.
There is some evidence that red cabbage may cut Alzheimer’s risk. Not only that but it may even reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Pass the slaw, please!
Free Radical Bootie Kickin’ Slaw
1 head red cabbage
1/3 c coconut (or other fruit flavored) vinegar
2 T good quality hot honey mustard
1 T mayonnaise
pinch salt
2oz blue cheese, crumbled
Thinly slice cabbage and set aside in a big bowl. In a small bowl mix together vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise and salt. When thoroughly combined, add in blue cheese crumbles. Pour over cabbage and toss together. Let sit for 15 minutes and toss again. Serve and enjoy in good health!
Sweet potato salad, mucho yummo
December 18, 2006
4 sweet potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 bunch scallions finely sliced
2 T Golden Whisk Pomegranate Vinegar (or other fruit vinegar)
1T Cuisine Perl’s Late Harvest Reisling vinegar(or other wine vinegar)
1 T honey mustard,
1/4 c light mayo
1 T reduced fat sour cream
salt to taste
1/4 c walnuts (optional)
1/4 c golden rasins (optional)
Toss sweet potato bits in olive oil and roast in 450°f oven until they are easily chewable. Allow to cool to a poin that they are easy to handle.
Whisk the rest of the ingredients together, except the optional ones. When potatoes have cooled add in half the whisked ingredients, and toss. Keep adding in the liquid mixture until it reaches the consistancy you want. You can serve this as a warm or cold sald, if you want it to be cold, let sit in refridgerator for a half hour or more. Just add in optional ingredients and toss again before serving. If you want to serve it warm add in the optional ingredients and serve.
Feed me! 
