Tiny Kitchen Blog

London Eats

helendear — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:55:00 -0400

Above: Definitely a “London tourist” kind of photo. Too bad there are no fish and chips pictured.

A few weeks ago my mom and I went to England to visit family. It was a lovely trip, despite it being quite chilly outside for most of our stay. So we had all the more reason to stay inside, drink lots of instant coffee, and eat! Everyone in my family is an excellent cook, so I ate more than my share of roast lamb, new potatoes, risotto, creamy leeks, and chocolate biscuits throughout the week (though not all in one sitting).

Above: Poppy Cottage’s front gate. Poppy Cottage is my aunt’s new house in Shrewsbury — it’s a converted piggery! Now home to people and terriers, but no pigs.

Above: Poppy Cottage’s back garden. Barren now, I’m sure it will be beautiful come spring. My aunt Deborah is a great gardener, and the previous tenant had been growing a whole range of flora. Look past the green fence to the sheep grazing in the far field!

Above: Potatoes in cream at Poppy Cottage. Part of a supremely delicious roast lamb dinner.

My mom and I also spent two nights and a day in London, which was a great mini-adventure. It was exciting to see more of the city than I ever have before — sadly I don’t have many memories from my London toddler days. We managed to visit four museums (the British Library, the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Art, and the Tate Britain), eat at two great restaurants (more on that below), and did a short walking tour past several iconic London buildings (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament). We also walked through St. James’s Park and were lucky enough to witness a changing of the guards ceremony! Did you know you that the London guards must be men, and the horses must be black? Looks like Blaze and I are out of the running.

Above: Can you believe that my mom used to LIVE in one of these apartments? Back in the day her share of the rent was only £80 a month or some similarly depressing amount of money. My sad vinyl-sided three-story building just does not compare!

I didn’t know much about London cuisine, but I knew there had to be great Indian food around, so dining at an Indian restaurant was high on my list. There’s a pretty large Indian population in London, and while we didn’t go to the more Indian-centric neighborhood (Hounslow, pretty far outside of central London), my mom found a two-block mecca chock full of Indian restaurants not too far from Euston Station.

Based on its online reviews, we chose the vegetarian buffet at Ravi Shankar. And it was incredible. I have never seen such a wide range of vegetarian Indian dishes, even at some of the very authentically Indian restaurants in Jackson Heights in New York. Check out my plate below — we feasted on mini dosas, channa masala, saag paneer, naan, papadums, roast potatoes and peppers, couscous with kidney beans, vegetable pakoras, various crisp salads, and a delicious mango chutney. This meal was unforgettable — aside from one spicy dish, everything was more aromatic than hot. I highly, highly recommend this restaurant if you find yourself in London with a craving for Indian food! The buffet had a great lunchtime deal of only £6.75 per person.

As anticipated, the desserts at Ravi Shankar were decidedly weird, but still enjoyable. The little square is a carrot halva, and the circle is some sort of gulab jamun relative.

For dinner we headed to a very cute neighborhood called Covent Garden. It was nice to be in a neighborhood that I could visualize myself living in — the amount of cute little bars and restaurants definitely reminded me of trendy Brooklyn ‘hoods. There was also a theatre district that had lots of lights and neon signs…sort of the Times Square of London, but 100% classier.

We ate at a wonderful Tapas restaurant, La Tasca, that was very busy but still had a great atmosphere. They had giant paella pans hanging on the walls, and offered a great selection of gluten-free fare. My mom and I shared several small plates, some wine, and a fantastic chocolate cake for dessert. The menu very clearly indicated which tapas options were gluten-free (many of them!), and none of them were more expensive than the other choices. Together we had a spanish tortilla with red pepper tapenade, roasted pork belly with rosemary and white beans, paella of the day (chicken and chorizo), and salted grilled shrimp with lemon.

Our meal at La Tasca was delicious — every dish was perfectly prepared, and the portions were ample yet tapas-appropriate. La Tasca was also very well-priced for its quality of food and the part of London we were in.

So, as you can see, it was quite a wonderful trip. I’m sad not to be able to visit these restaurants on a regular basis — so I guess it’s time to start cooking Indian food again at home, and seeking out a good tapas restaurant in NYC!

Grilled Eggplant with Harissa Paste

helendear — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:14:00 -0400

Have you ever heard of Harissa? I hadn’t until last week, when I was browsing through one of my Grandma’s magazines and stumbled upon a few recipes that featured this spicy red paste. Since I am a fan of all things spicy (and things that require me to use my lovely food processor), I resolved to try making Harissa paste as soon as I returned to my Tiny Kitchen.

For those not in the know — Harissa is a spicy North African condiment made with red chillies and various aromatic spices. Apparently North Africans use Harissa for everything — a base for your soup or stew, a spread for your sandwich, a marinade for your lamb — it’s akin to Americans and their ketchup (and perhaps me with Sriarcha). NPR has more to say about Harissa here.

Harissa Paste is:

♥ 1 red pepper
♥ 2 red chilies*
♥ 1 tbsp coriander seeds
♥ 1 tbsp cumin seeds
♥ 3 tbsp olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
♥ 1 tsp salt
♥ juice of 1 lemon

♥ Step One: Roughly chop up red pepper and red chilies. Place in food processor.

♥ Step Two: Toast coriander and cumin seeds in a skillet over a low flame for about three minutes. Watch the pan closely; these can burn easily.

♥ Step Three: Add these toasted seeds to the food processor, along with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and lemon juice.

♥ Step Four: Puree until a paste forms.

As you can see in the photos above, I slathered some of the paste on sliced eggplant, then grilled in a George Foreman for about 2 minutes each side. Stuffed in a whole wheat pita with arugula and greek yoghurt, it made for a very tasty dinner.

*Notes on spice: using two fresh red chilies from my local Asian market made the Harissa paste pretty spicy — as in, medium-to-hot spicy. Not unbearable. For less spice, maybe use less of these chilies, or use jalapenos instead. De-seeding would also be a way to reduce spice.

Harissa paste is a very versatile condiment or base for many dishes — check out all these recipes I found that feature the paste!

♥ Harissa-spiced Lamb Burgers from BBC Good Food

♥ Harissa Spaghettini from 101 Cookbooks

♥ Spicy Sausages with Harissa and Couscous from Time For A Little Something

♥ Lentil & Veggie Burger from Akshayapaatram
♥ Zucchini, Harissa & Herb Pizza from Om Nom Ally

Salmon Success!

helendear — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:00:00 -0400

Well, I am pleased to report that Round 2 of salmon-cooking was much more successful than Round 1. This time was much more thought-out: we followed Mark Bittman’s simple four-spice salmon recipe, and I had Asher do the actual cooking of the fish, while I focused on the kale & brussel sprout salad.

If you’re not familiar with Mark Bittman, then you really need to be. He is a great chef and author of several cookbooks (“How to Cook Everything” and so on), as well as a New York Times Dining section writer. His video series, The Minimalist, is not to be ignored. His recipes are very simple, often feature seasonal fare, and focus on the true flavor of the food rather than adding a bunch of add-ins to disguise it.

We watched the Minimalist video for four-spice salmon, and followed it pretty much to the tee. The only way we differed was the cooking time — Marky B suggests 2-3 minutes per side, but we needed more like 5-7 minutes per side. We also cut each fish chunk in half to facilitate faster cooking. The added cooking time was definitely necessary for me, since I prefer my fish to be fully-cooked — the original recipe is for salmon that is partially raw in the middle. Fine, but not for me.

See? So perfectly flaky and fully-cooked!

We paired this salmon with a great Kale and Brussel Sprout Salad:

♥ juice of half a lemon
♥ 1 tbsp dijon mustard
♥ 1 tbsp minced shallot or onion
♥ 1 garlic clove, minced or grated
♥ 1/4 tsp salt
♥ 1/4 tsp pepper
♥ 6 oz brussel sprouts (one large package of fresh brussel sprouts)
♥ 1 bunch of kale (or 3-4 cups of pre-shredded kale)
♥ 1/4 cup olive oil
♥ handful slivered almonds
♥ 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. Combine lemon juice, mustard, shallot/onion, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk.

2. Cook brussel sprouts in microwave — about six minutes in a covered pyrex dish.

3. Combine brussel sprouts with kale in large mixing bowl. Toss with lemon juice etc dressing. Add parmesan and almonds. Toss again and serve!

(If you can’t tell from the quantities above — this makes a LOT of kale and brussel sprout salad! Cut this recipe in half if you don’t want it go very far, or be prepared to eat it for the next few days. I’ve been eating it for lunch every day this week with a veggie burger!)

Sesame Cabbage Salad & Crispy Baked Tofu

helendear — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:26:20 -0400

When I was younger, I would religiously order Sesame Chicken at Chinese restaurants. Something about the crispy chicken and sickly sticky sauce really resonated with my uber-picky palate. Since then I’ve branched out a bit, and will try (albeit not like) just about any food. For those of you laughing about this statement, please note that I have tried shredded Beef Tendon and cold Jellyfish in the past few months!

Anyway, I still enjoy food that has a crispy crust and a sticky sweet sauce…and I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to make at home (and is much better for you than restaurant fare). I paired my crispy baked tofu with a fresh and crunchy cabbage salad — far healthier than a blob of white rice. The Tofu Glaze brings tanginess to the dish, and adds the flavor that tofu often lacks.

There are three parts to this dish. Don’t be overwhelmed by the somewhat lengthy ingredient list! The Cabbage Salad’s dressing and Tofu Glaze ingredients are virtually the same:

PART ONE: Cabbage Salad
♥ 1/2 head red cabbage, sliced into thin (1/4” strips)
♥ 1/2 head green cabbage, sliced into thin (1/4” strips)
♥ 1 cucumber, chopped
♥ handful cilantro, chopped
♥ sesame dressing:
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp honey or agave sweetener
- 2 tbsp sesame or peanut oil
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- salt & pepper
- 1 tbsp (about 1”) grated ginger
- 1 tsp (about half a clove) grated garlic

Toss cabbage, cucumber, and cilantro with sesame dressing.

——————

PART TWO: Crispy Baked Tofu
Press, marinade, slice, and bake tofu according to directions here or here.

——————

PART THREE: Tofu Glaze
♥ 1/2 cup mirin
♥ 1 tbsp soy sauce
♥ 1 tbsp sesame or peanut oil
♥ 1 tsp rice vinegar
♥ 1 tbsp honey
♥ 1 tbsp grated ginger
♥ 1 tbsp grated garlic
♥ 1 tbsp sesame seeds
♥ 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water

Combine all ingredients, except for cornstarch goo, in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until sauce begins to boil. Immediately turn off heat, add cornstarch goo, and whisk to combine. Drizzle over tofu.

Weekend Breakfast

helendear — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:36:39 -0400

After hosting a mini-bachelorette party for my lovely coworker on Friday night, I woke up on Saturday morning needing a good filling breakfast. I was inspired by a post my friend Maggie had pinned earlier this week — a Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion, and Eggy dish. This meal was super easy to pull together: I caramelized the onions in a skillet on the stove in the time it took to microwave chopped up sweet potatoes in a covered Pyrex dish (about 8 minutes). I then scrambled two eggs, threw it all together, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika. It needed a healthy dose of Sriracha (but what meal doesn’t?), and I wish I had had some greens in the mix, but overall I very much enjoyed this quick, filling, healthy breakfast.

Speaking of weekend breakfasts — Graphic Designer Liz Fabry has a wonderful series of weekend breakfast photography on her blog. Her photos are beautiful, and the food she prepares are always looks delicious and inventive!

"Crispy" Salmon

helendear — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:21:15 -0500

Well, Curry Paste Meal #2 sadly did not turn out as well as Curry Paste Meal #1 did. As you can see above, the curry paste burned into quite the crispy crust on the salmon. I will say that it tasted better than it looked, and I know I’ll be reading up on how to properly cook fish for next time.

I “enjoyed” this fish with a side salad of arugula + a sprinkling of parmesan + lemon juice, plus some sliced zucchini sauteed in soy sauce.

Weekend Prep: Curry Paste

helendear — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:52:29 -0500

Sunday is officially my new day of rest and food prep for the week. I’ve been devoting the last few Sundays to an enjoyable routine of exercising, grocery shopping, lunching, and prepping food for the week. This includes anything from making a full meal for my Mon-Wed’s work lunches, to chopping/roasting/par-boiling food for future meals, to making a big batch of cookies.

This past Sunday I decided to make some Curry Paste for the week. Some weeks I really enjoy planning out every meal, while other weeks I like just buying food that can be prepared in different ways dependent on what I feel like on a particular night. I figured this Curry Paste would be a good base for any meal — veggies, meat, or fish. And I was right! It didn’t take long to make this Curry Paste on Sunday, and having it on hand certainly diminished the cooking time of the veggie dish you see above.

To make the Curry Paste (adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks), I combined the ingredients below, and pulsed in my food processor until they made a puree:

♥ 1/2 onion, chopped
♥ heaping handful chopped tomatoes, or 2 tbsp tomato paste/puree
♥ 1 tsp ginger powder, or freshly grated ginger
♥ 1 tsp chili or cayenne powder
♥ 3 tsp garam masala
♥ 1/2 tsp salt
♥ 2 tbsp peanut oil
♥ 1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
♥ 1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted

(makes a little over one cup of Curry Paste)

And to make the dish above, I first sauteed the other half of the onion (chopped) until soft and golden, then added pre-cooked cauliflower, green beans, and chick peas from a can. I let those guys warm up in the skillet (over medium heat), then added about half a cup of the Curry Paste. Be careful not to over-cook your veggies (especially green beans!) if they’re already cooked. I then added some chopped cilantro, a small pot of plain greek yoghurt, the juice of half a lemon, and some salt to taste. This cooking time was about 15 minutes — pretty good for a Monday night!

I’m excited to try the rest of the Curry Paste on some fish or chicken later this week. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Philly Eats

helendear — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:32:00 -0500

This post is long, long overdue, and I don’t have much of an excuse. Rather, my excuses are pretty pathetic — just your standard “work is busy, it’s freezing outside, and all I want to do is snuggle down with three blankets, my imaginary cat, and a laptop full of Friends re-runs.”

This post has been planned for some time — Asher and I visited Philadelphia for a few days after Christmas, and we’re popping back down for a day trip the first Saturday in March. It was my first time in Philly, and I liked it a lot — a great art and culture scene, cool and affordable restaurants, a bustling Chinatown, cute shops, lots of history, and a more relaxed vibe than NYC (of course). If I weren’t so enamored with (and employed in) New York, Philadelphia would definitely be a city I’d like to live in.

Our main point of the trip was to visit the Barnes Foundation. This museum is the result of a recent transplant of Dr. Albert Barnes’ incredible art collection from his estate in Merion, PA, to an impressive modern gallery in the heart of Philadelphia. The building itself is magnificent, and the art on display is like none other — HUNDREDS of paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, Goya, Manet, Matisse, and the like are hung in intimate gallery spaces in the same layouts that Dr. Barnes first envisioned for his estate galleries.

But I digress. This is a food blog, so here are some photos of what we ate over those two days (yes, we ate in Chinatown twice — totally normal for us). Philadelphia has a diverse array of restaurants, and we enjoyed every meal we had there.

Philly Eats 1: Sang Kee Peking Duck House
Sang Kee Peking Duck House is very highly-rated on Yelp — the reason we went — and the reviews are spot on. We stopped in on a snowy afternoon for a late lunch, and were not disappointed. We enjoyed hot tea, wonton soup, steamed veggie dumplings, and the peking duck two ways: first in light pancakes with hoisin sauce, then in a stir fry with lots of green pepper and bean sprouts. This was my first taste of peking duck, and it was delicious. This duck was markedly less greasy and salty than our regular NYC Chinese joints.

Philly Eats 2: Reading Terminal Market
If you’re in Philadelphia and want to sample various local, authentic Philly fare on the cheap, Reading Terminal Market is the place to be. This bustling (crowded at peak hours) market is packed with specialty vendors — Philly cheesesteaks, Greek food, pizza, seafood, meat, and LOTS of baked goods and candies from the Pennsylvania Dutch folk. We split a Philly cheesesteak with mushrooms and hot peppers from Carmen’s, which we were told had the best cheesesteaks around. Apparently the title of “best cheesesteak” is quite the hot topic, and very much disputed, but I thought this one from Carmen’s was delicious. We also shared a fried fish sammie from Beck’s Cajun Food. A bit heavy on the mayo, it didn’t surpass the cheesesteak, but was still pretty yummy. And lots of fun to sample so many different kinds of food in one place. The cannoli and chocolate pretzels we got were sadly consumed before they could be photographed.

Philly Eats 3: Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House
Our last meal in Philly was at Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House. After a full day of walking around in the freezing cold looking at historical landmarks, this huge bowl of pork noodle soup was just what I needed. Asher ordered the Shredded Beef Tendon as an appetizer — I had one bite and enjoyed the spicy marinade, but was a little repulsed by the texture. Anyway, this Noodle House has top-notch noodles (as you may expect), some oddities on the menu, and really great prices. Definitely worth a visit.

Not pictured:
We also got food to go from HipCityVeg. HipCityVeg is “fast food” that is all organic and wholesome foods. Many of the options are vegan. I had a great Fajita Wrap with Chik’n and a chipotle sauce, while Asher had the Udon Noodle Salad. We shared the sweet potato fries with a cilantro - black bean dipping sauce. The girl that worked there (plus another customer) recommended that we stop by Food And Friends for some craft beer to go. Then we enjoyed our HipCityVeg meal with our Food And Friends beverages back in our fancy hotel room (and watched some trashy TV). This is a meal I would recreate on a regular basis if I lived in Philly!

Whole Wheat Hamantaschen

helendear — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:25:00 -0500

This weekend is Purim, a Jewish holiday celebrating how the Jews avoided persecution under a mean ruler, Haman. Purim is a very festive Jewish holiday (many of the other holidays are more about reflecting than having fun); there is even a mandatory decree to imbibe a lot of alcohol! One of the commonly eaten foods during Purim (see others here) is Hamantaschen, cookies shaped like the villain Haman’s three cornered hat (or ear, some believe).

Since I am not Jewish, Purim is just a fun excuse to make some sweet treats. Though these Hamantaschen are not even all that sweet — there’s only three tablespoons of sugar in the whole recipe. But the apricot jam helps, so you end up with a dense, rich cookie with a burst of flavor in the middle.

I followed Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Hamantaschen pretty closely, only deviating in a few ways (marked in bold below). My folding technique, however, was pretty distinct from hers — due to the all the folding recommendations in the comments.

Hamantaschen are:
♥ 8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
♥ 3 oz cream cheese
♥ 3 tbsp sugar
♥ 1 egg
♥ 1 tsp vanilla
♥ 1/2 tsp orange zest
♥ 1 1/3 cup plus 4 tsp whole wheat flour
♥ 1/4 tsp salt
♥ apricot jam — I used 1 tsp (NOT tbsp) per Hamantaschen

You will need: a rolling pin (or beer bottle), a cup/glass with 2-3” rim diameter, a cookie tray lined with foil or parchment paper, a large mixing bowl

♥ Step One: Combine cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. I used a hand mixer to make this happen.

♥ Step Two: Add sugar, mix for another minute. Add vanilla, egg, orange zest, and salt — at this point you can probably just stir to combine.

♥ Step Three: Add flour. Stir. A lump of dough should form; it will be quite sticky. If too wet, add more flour. I found mine was a bit too dry, and left some flour crumbles in the bowl.

♥ Step Four: Wrap dough ball tightly in plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for one hour.

♥ Step Five: Divide dough ball into two parts. Take Ball #1 out of the fridge and roll out on a floured surface. Roll to about 1/4” thin. I never really know how thick my dough ends up being, so I would suggest rolling it pretty thin, just barely thick enough to be substantial and not look like it’s going to break.

♥ Step Six: Find a cup that has a rim with a diameter of 2-3”. My cup’s rim was 2 1/2” in diameter. Use this cup to cut out discs of dough. Follow the folding directions below to form your Hamantaschen. Instead of pinching up to make “walls,” fold the dough over the jam. Almost as if you are tucking the jam into bed. It will get easier as you go along. I found it most efficient to transfer the flat disc to your (lined) cookie sheet, then plop on the 1 tsp of jam, then fold it up. Pinch those corners tight to avoid jammy leaks!

♥ Step Seven: Repeat Steps Five and Six with your second ball of dough. Once all Hamantaschen are formed, bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Be aware — the corners brown much faster than the rest of the cookie!

♥ Step Eight: Cool and enjoy!

Sesame Tofu & Broccoli Stir Fry

helendear — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:13:00 -0500

This stir-fry would be a pretty easy weeknight dinner — the only step that takes time is making the sauce for the tofu, and it’s well worth it. I made it this weekend for my lunch for the week…and it’s 10am and I’m already looking forward to eating it.

Sesame Tofu & Broccoli Stir Fry is:
♥ 1 carton of tofu, drained and pressed
♥ 1 large head/2 small heads broccoli, with the head chopped into florets and the stalks diced into half-inch/bite-size cubes
♥ 1 spring onion, chopped, whites and greens divided
♥ 1 cup brown rice, prepared
♥ Sesame seeds, to garnish

Sesame Tofu sauce is:
♥ 1/3 cup honey
♥ 4 tbsp soy sauce
♥ 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
♥ 2 tbsp hoisin (plum) sauce
♥ 1 tbsp ginger powder
♥ 2 tbsp oil (sesame, peanut, or regular olive)
♥ 2 garlic cloves, minced
♥ 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Whisk to combine above ingredients to make sauce.

♥ Step One: Press the moisture out of your tofu — after draining it, place tofu on a plate, cover with paper towels, then rest several books or other plates on top. Let sit for 20-30 minutes. This will squish the water out of your tofu, meaning it will crisp up more easily. The Kitchn has good tips here.

♥ Step Two: Cook brown rice (1 cup rice + 2.5 cups water, bring to boil, then simmer for 40 mins). If you start cooking the brown rice at the beginning of this meal prep, it’ll be done by the time you need it.

♥ Step Three: Cook broccoli. I steamed mine in the microwave (place florets in glass/ceramic bowl with lid, fill bowl halfway with water, microwave for 3-6 minutes).

♥ Step Four: Once your tofu is pressed, slice into strips 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Toss strips in about half of the sauce. Be gentle; tofu is floppy and will break!

♥ Step Five: Line a baking tray with tin foil, and scatter the sauced tofu strips on the tray. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 425F for 30 minutes, flipping the tofu at the halfway mark. Bake for longer if your tofu doesn’t get crispy.

♥ Step Six: Combine rice, cooked broccoli, spring onion whites, and baked tofu strips in a large frying pan or wok. Add remaining sauce, and cook over low heat for 5 mins or so. Scatter spring onion greens. Stir to combine all elements.

♥ Step Seven: Enjoy!I added sesame seeds and some bean sprouts before serving.

Creamy Red Pepper Hummus

helendear — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:39:42 -0500

I’ve been making a lot of hummus recently — remember this post? Now that I’ve got the basic version down, I’m starting to experiment with different variations. This Saturday I made Red Pepper Hummus, and it did not disappoint. The added step of roasting the pepper can happen while you’re boiling the chickpeas and doing other prep work, so it doesn’t add much additional time to this recipe.

I followed Oh She Glows’s recommendation for roasting red peppers — though I “roasted” my red peppers in the toaster oven instead.

Red Pepper Hummus is:
♥ 1 tin (cooked) chickpeas; rinsed and drained
♥ 2 cloves garlic, smashed
♥ 1/2 tsp salt
♥ 4 tbsp lemon juice
♥ 4 tbsp tahini
♥ 1 red pepper
♥ sesame seeds, paprika, cumin, or cilantro as garnish

♥ Step One: Rinse & drain your chickpeas. In a saucepan, cover your chickpeas with one inch of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to simmer. Simmer chickpeas for 15 minutes.

♥ Step Two: Smash your garlic. Throw garlic, salt, lemon juice, and tahini into food processor.

♥ Step Three: Heat your toaster oven to the “broil” setting. Cut your red pepper in half and remove the seeds. Squash each red pepper half so it lies flat (or flat-ish). Drizzle olive oil on top. Toast red pepper in toaster oven for 10 minutes, then remove.

♥ Step Four: Remove red pepper from toaster oven. Carefully peel the skin away (removing the skin will ensure your hummus is super creamy), and discard. The more blackened your peppers get, the easier the skin will be to pull away.

♥ Step Five: After chickpeas have simmered for 15 minutes, remove from heat. Drain, but don’t throw away all of the water they’ve been cooking in — save a cup-ful of this water.

♥ Step Six: Now it’s time to skin the chickpeas. Removing the translucent, ghost-like outer layer (skin) of the chickpeas will ensure your hummus will have a smooth consistency. To skin the chickpeas, just take a chickpea and pinch with your forefinger and thumb — the chickpea should shoot out (dark yellow in color), leaving the ghostly skin stuck to your hands. Throw the skins away.

♥ Step Seven: Add your skinned chickpeas and red peppers to the food processor. Blend until creamy. If hummus seems too chunky or dry (which it most likely will), add the chickpea cooking water one tablespoon at a time.

♥ Step Eight: Serve hummus, garnishing with sesame seeds, paprika, cumin powder, or cilantro. Serve with carrot sticks, other sliced veggies, pita chips or toast.

Little Falafels & Lemon Tahini Sauce

helendear — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:41:00 -0500

As I mentioned in a previous post, my new food processor has radically improved my kitchen abilities. Instead of endlessly chopping veggies that are still not really small enough for little cakes and patties, I can now puree away to my heart’s content, and make veggie cakes that actually stick together.

This weekend I made Naturally Ella’s Chickpea and Spinach burgers, substituting kale for spinach. They were delicious in a burger context, but I thought they might be better suited to a salad-and-rice kind of meal. After all, these burgers are basically falafels. So last night I made the burgers 2” wide instead of 4”, called them falafels, and ate them with a delicious lemony tahini-yoghurt sauce, salad, and brown rice. The sauce is so tangy that it really brings the flavor up a notch — the chickpea patties are tasty in and of themselves, but the sauce really completes the meal.

Little Falafels are:
♥ 1/2 cup chickpeas, rinsed and drained
♥ 1/4 cup onions, diced
♥ 1 cup spinach/kale/other green, packed
♥ 1 tbsp olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp soy sauce
♥ 1 tsp oregano/italian seasoning
♥ 1 tsp paprika
♥ 2 tbsp sunflower seeds
♥ 1 egg
♥ 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
♥ 1/2 cup bread crumbs
♥ pinch salt

(Feeds 4)

♥ Step One: Combine chickpeas and onions in food processor. Blend to break chickpeas up — do not blend til smooth. Add your greens, olive oil, soy sauce, paprika, oregano, and sunflower seeds. Blend a little more.

♥ Step Two: Add egg, salt, flour, breadcrumbs. Blend until mixture looks cohesive and evenly-mixed.

♥ Step Three: Scrape this batter into a medium-sized bowl. It should be wet enough for patties to stay together when formed. If too wet, add more flour; if too dry, add water a tablespoon at a time.

♥ Step Four: Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Roll batter into 1-2” balls, then flatten with your palm to form patties. Cook patties in skillet for 4-5 minutes each side, or until sufficiently browned. Careful, patties will burn if heat is too high!

♥ Step Five: Enjoy these little falafels with a side of brown rice and salad. Drizzle Lemon Tahini Sauce on top.

Lemon Tahini Sauce is:
♥ 1/2 cup plain green yoghurt
♥ 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
♥ the juice of one lemon
♥ 2 tbsp tahini
♥ 3 tbsp water
♥ salt & pepper

♥ Combine all ingredients in food processor. Blend til smooth. Add more of certain ingredients to taste. Thin with additional tablespoons of water if necessary.

Below: my larger, burger-sized falafels.

Cornbread Quiche: a satisfying breakfast

helendear — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:38:00 -0500

99% of the time, I’m a granola-bars-for-breakfast kind of person. Granola bars at my desk, with my coffee, while I catch up on last night’s emails. But after two years of the professional granola-bar-eating, email-returning pattern, I’ve started to get a bit bored. And also? Sometimes granola bars just aren’t that filling. Or are full of sugar. So this weekend, I decided to make a change: prepare this Cornbread Quiche on Sunday, wake up seven minutes earlier, and enjoy a slice on my couch before I leave for work. It’s been a pretty nice change — I’m enjoying feeling more full in the morning (especially on the commute), and I don’t miss my granola bars much at all.

The great thing about this Cornbread Quiche is how it can be adapted and varied a thousand times over. I made my Cornbread Quiche with kale, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, and chicken sausage, but there are many other variations I’d love to try:

spicy soyrizo + pepperjack cheese + spinach
ham + swiss + caramelized onions + mustard greens
broccoli + cheddar

The original recipe is from Caitlin of Healthy Tipping Point, and she does lots of variations on this recipe. Check her recipe out here, and my adaptation below:

Cornbread Quiche is:
♥ 1 box Jiffy cornbread mix (prepare according to directions on back of box)
♥ 5 eggs
♥ salt & pepper, to taste
+ whatever “fillings” you want. here I used:
♥ 2 cups kale
♥ 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
♥ 2 small chicken sausages, sliced
♥ small handful goat cheese, crumbled

♥ Step One: Preheat oven to 425F. Prepare cornbread mix according to directions on back of box.

♥ Step Two: Pour almost all* of the cornbread mixture into a greased oven-safe dish and bake for 10 minutes. My dish was approx 9x9”. *All of the cornbread mix was a bit too much, so leave out about a 1/4 cup of the mixture.

♥ Step Three: Wilt kale, or other greens. To do this I put my kale in a skillet, added 1/4 water, put a lid on, and let it steam for ~5 mins. Remember the kale will continue to cook, so don’t wilt it too much! And of course, remember that different types of greens will wilt at different rates.

♥ Step Four: Saute anything else that needs sauteeing. Here, I wanted to crisp up my chicken sausage slices (they were pre-cooked so didn’t need cooking fully). Of course, if you’re including meat, make sure it’s fully cooked before adding to the cornbread. The cornbread will cook in the oven again, but not enough to fully cook your meat safely.

♥ Step Five: Remove cornbread from oven. Evenly scatter your kale, tomatoes, sausage, and goat cheese on top of cornbread. If the cornbread isn’t quite set, and your toppings slip down into the cornbread, that’s OK!

♥ Step Six: Beat eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper. Pour eggs on top of cornbread + toppings.

♥ Step Seven: Bake again, this time for 20 minutes (still at 425F).

♥ Step Eight: Remove from oven and let stand for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

♥ Step Nine: Enjoy with hot sauce!

What variations on Quiche Cornbread would you like to try?

Simple Tomato Soup

helendear — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:51:00 -0500

Notice a theme here? As much as I love laboring over a cheesecake or multi-course Indian meal, most nights I just want to throw together an easy dinner. It has to be wholesome and able to render some lunch-appropriate leftovers, however, or else I’m tempted to run off to Triangolo Pizza and grab a Grandma Slice.

This Simple Tomato Soup is a great weeknight meal. I have made this soup twice now — once by roasting the tomatoes, as the original recipe indicates, and once with plum tomatoes from a can. Both styles are equally delicious, though clearly the tomatoes in a can method is much faster.

Simple Tomato Soup is:
♥ 2 1/2 pounds Roma tomatoes, either roasted* or from a can (two large cans)
♥ 1 medium onion, chopped
♥ 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
♥ 1 cup basil, chopped
♥ 4 cups vegetable stock
♥ salt & pepper to taste
♥ heavy cream, to “garnish”

♥ Step One: If not roasting: heat 2 tbsp of Olive Oil in stock/soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, cook for 3 minutes or so. Stir in garlic.

♥ Step Two: Add tomatoes. Break up tomatoes with your spatula. Add basil and vegetable stock. Cook for 15-20 minutes over medium/low heat.

♥ Step Three: Pour your soup into a food processor, and puree until smooth-ish. I like to leave a few chunks. Season with salt and pepper, and add cream if you want to make the soup richer. Drizzle a little bit of cream on if you just want to create a swirly effect when you serve.

♥ Step Four: Serve & enjoy with some greens and grilled cheese!

*To roast: Preheat oven to 400F. Cut tomatoes in half, and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Rub salt and pepper over both sides. Roast in oven for 45 minutes, turning tomatoes over at the 20 minute mark.

Simple Hummus

helendear — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:59:00 -0500

Top right photo courtesy Chelsea.

For Christmas I received this wonderful Hamilton Beach Food Processor. It has significantly changed my life, in the best way possible. Pureeing and otherwise breaking down large amounts of food is now a breeze. No more endless slicing of garlic, smashing of walnuts, or grating of ginger for this girl!

One of the foods I was most excited to make was hummus. Hummus is something I buy on a weekly basis, so the thought of saving $3 per week was pretty attractive. And hummus comes in endless variations — red pepper, pine nut, cilantro & jalapeno, extra tahini, basil — that keep me from being bored with this food. While I’m looking forward to trying these different blends (and exploring some of my own), I knew I had to figure out regular hummus before throwing anything too crazy into the mix.

The recipe I followed was very straight forward, and requires few ingredients. This hummus probably takes 25 mins to prepare, including cooking the chickpeas for 15 minutes.

Simple Hummus is:
♥ 1 tin (cooked) chickpeas; rinsed and drained
♥ 2 cloves garlic, smashed
♥ 1/2 tsp salt
♥ 4 tbsp lemon juice
♥ 4 tbsp tahini
♥ sesame seeds, paprika, cumin, or cilantro as garnish

♥ Step One: Rinse & drain your chickpeas. In a saucepan, cover your chickpeas with one inch of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to simmer. Simmer chickpeas for 15 minutes.

♥ Step Two: Smash your garlic. Throw garlic, salt, lemon juice, and tahini into food processor.

♥ Step Three: After chickpeas have simmered for 15 minutes, remove from heat. Drain, but don’t throw away all of the water they’ve been cooking in — save a cup-ful of this water.

Left: skinned chickpeas. Right: ghost skins.

♥ Step Four: Now it’s time to skin the chickpeas. Removing the translucent, ghost-like outer layer (skin) of the chickpeas will ensure your hummus will have a smooth consistency. To skin the chickpeas, just take a chickpea and pinch with your forefinger and thumb — the chickpea should shoot out (dark yellow in color), leaving the ghostly skin stuck to your hands. Throw the skins away.

♥ Step Five: Add your skinned chickpeas to the food processor. Blend until creamy. If hummus seems too chunky or dry (which it most likely will), add the chickpea cooking water one tablespoon at a time.

♥ Step Six: Serve hummus, garnishing with sesame seeds, paprika, cumin powder, or cilantro. Serve with carrot sticks, other sliced veggies, pita chips or toast.

Zucchini Boats

helendear — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 10:00:38 -0500

These Zucchini Boats are definitely more of a summer side dish, but this recipe is still worth sharing. You can most likely still find zucchini in your supermarket at this time of year, though it is a summer squash. So, either cook this dish now with your out of season squash, or bookmark this recipe for next summer, when there will be zucchini aplenty (and so cheaply) at your local farmer’s market.

Perfect as a side dish, I paired these two Zucchini Boats with leftover mushroom risotto. They would also be good as a small lunch.

Zucchini Boats are:
♥ 1 zucchini, sliced horizontally
♥ 4 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
♥ 1/2 tomato, cut into 1/2” chunks
♥ 1 tbsp Olive Oil
♥ salt and pepper, to taste

♥ Step One: Carve out the inside of each of your zucchini halves, following the directions above. Place the zucchini “innards” (the flesh you have scooped out) into a small bowl.

♥ Step Two: Mix 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese and 1 tbsp Olive Oil in with the zucchini innards. Add salt and pepper to taste.

♥ Step Three: Divide the zucchini mixture into two parts. Place one part back into each zucchini half.

♥ Step Four: Place chopped tomatoes on top of zucchini halves. On top of tomatoes, add the remaining 2 tbsp of Parmesan cheese.

♥ Step Five: Broil or toast* Zucchini Boats for 5-7 minutes, or until the top of the Boats has browned. Remove from oven and enjoy!

*I used a toaster oven, and it worked well.

Nom Wah Tea Parlour

helendear — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:10:00 -0500

My rule for eating out is that you must go somewhere that makes food that would be impossible to recreate at home. Sticking to this rule is probably why most of the time that I eat out, it is at a Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, or Thai restaurant.

Of course there are many, many American and Italian restaurants whose food quality far surpasses anything I could ever make in the Tiny Kitchen, but ethnic foods seem to be the ones that contrast the most with my own pad thais, curries, and stir fries.

I am lucky that in New York, many of my favorite ethnic restaurants are also very affordable. Take Nom Wah Tea Parlour, pictured above. The two of us shared:

♥ Chinese greens in oyster sauce
♥ Scallion pancakes with special sauce
♥ Salt and pepper shrimp (with eyeballs still intact)
♥ Rice noodles with short rib
♥ Pork dumplings
♥ Beer (Kirin and Tsing Tao)
♥ Tea

All for a little under $40.

Nom Wah is definitely less greasy and overall a little higher-quality than many of its Chinatown neighbors. The interior is kind of like an old-school diner, which is hilarious, and many of its menu items are small plates, dim-sum style. Definitely a better-than-average Chinatown eatery (not to put the rest of Chinatown down — Big Wing Wong and Hop Kee remain my two other favorites).

Chocolate Saltine Toffee

helendear — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:51:44 -0500

These Chocolate Saltine Toffee treats make for a great small gift — make a bunch, break ‘em apart, divide them amongst your friends and family, and save a few for yourself. There are also endless variations you could do with these little guys, though my versions were not very adventurous. Considering how easy they are to make (only a few low-cost ingredients, very short prep and cook time), I plan to make them year-round.

The recipe is originally from Averie Cooks. It’s easy to swap out ingredients to make these treats gluten-free, like I did for one of my batches, and she offers directions for making these treats vegan, too.

Before we get to the recipe, let me emphasize the importance of lining your 9x11” pan with tin foil and greasing it very well. The first time I made these treats I used grease-proof paper, and it was a total disaster: in the “peeling-off” step, the grease-proof paper ripped and did not peel off easily at all. Luckily my friends were on hand to help me “clean up the mess,” by way of eating all the treats, paper stuck to the bottom and all. Everyone needs friends that will happily ingest paper for them, right?

OK. On to the recipe. Chocolate Saltine Toffee is:
♥ 1 cup brown sugar
♥ 2 sticks/1 cup unsalted butter
♥ 30ish saltine crackers*
♥ 1/2 tsp vanilla
♥ 1.5-2 cups chocolate chips

♥ Step One: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9x11” pan or cookie tray with tin foil. Grease the tin foil well — either with cooking spray or by running a stick of butter back and forth over the tin foil, so you leave a buttery residue (ensuring no sticking). Place saltine crackers on top of foil, making them as close to each other as possible.

♥ Step Two: In a small saucepan, combine butter and sugar over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boil is reached, turn down heat to low and let the mixture simmer for 3-5 minutes (minimal stirring), or until it thickens. Beware of heating it for too long; butter and sugar can burn, which is not pleasant to smell or taste. The 3-5 minutes should be ample.

♥ Step Three: Remove butter/sugar saucepan from heat. Wait 1 minute, then add the vanilla. Stir to combine.

♥ Step Four: CAREFULLY pour this mixture over your saltine crackers. The force of pouring the butter/sugar will make your crackers float around a bit, so try to pour the mixture slowly. If crackers do get out of place, you can quickly use a fork to move them back, or just not care.

♥ Step Five: Bake saltines (now with butter/sugar all over them) in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling.

♥ Step Six: Remove saltines from oven. Let pan sit for 3 minutes. Then sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over pan. Let sit for an additional 3 minutes. Then, use a spatula to spread chocolate chips over the saltines. Add any toppings (chopped nuts, crushed candy canes, sprinkles, etc).

♥ Step Seven: Place pan in freezer, and let harden for 2+ hours.

♥ Step Eight: Remove pan from freezer. You can now cut your giant bar of chocolate saltine toffee into small ones! I found it easiest to stand the giant bar up on one end, and peel the foil off before cutting into smaller pieces.

To make Gluten-Free Chocolate Saltine Toffee: Replace regular saltines with Gluten-Free crackers. I used a round-shaped cracker, and my results were really no different from when I used the square saltines. The Gluten-Free crackers were substantially thicker than the saltines, which was welcome addition to the chocolate and the toffee layers.

Additional toppings could include:
♥ Chopped walnuts (what I used in one batch)
♥ Chopped hazelnuts (what I used in the photos above)
♥ Toasted almond slices
♥ Any kind of chopped nut, really
♥ Crushed candy canes
♥ Sprinkles of all kind
♥ Sea salt
♥ Orange zest

Enjoy, and let me know what you top your Chocolate Saltine Toffee with!

Almond Olive Oil Cake

helendear — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:15:00 -0500

I’m not sure what originally led me to this recipe, but it has become my fall go-to sweet treat. I think the olive oil keeps the cake from being too sweet, and the crunchy almond topping is just such a nice contrast to the soft inside.

I found this recipe on A Cook Grows in Brooklyn, and made just a few tweaks. If you don’t have almond flour, I think this cake could be similarly delicious with regular flour, though clearly not as almond-y. Toasting the almonds for the topping is a very necessary step, however.

Almond Olive Oil Cake is:
♥ 1 cup flour
♥ 1/2 cup almond flour/almond meal
♥ 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
♥ 1 tsp salt
♥ 3 eggs
♥ 1/2 cup sugar
♥ 1/2 cup and 1 tbsp Olive Oil
♥ 1 tsp vanilla
♥ zest of one orange
♥ 1/2 cup orange juice

And the topping:
♥ 1 handful sliced almonds, toasted
♥ 1/2 cup powdered sugar
♥ juice of one lemon
♥ zest of one lemon
♥ water, added in 1tbsp increments

♥ Step One: Heat oven to 350F. Combine flours, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

♥ Step Two: Break eggs into a medium sized bowl. Whisk. Beat in sugar until blended. Add vanilla, orange juice and zest, and olive oil. Whisk/stir to combine.

♥ Step Three: Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until blended completely and no flour lumps remain.

♥ Step Four: Pour mixture into a well-greased (buttered) bread/loaf pan. The one I used was about 4x9”. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Check at the 25 minute mark! Sides may brown before top does.

♥ Step Five: While cake is baking, toast almonds. I spread mine out on a piece of tin foil and put it in the toaster oven for about five minutes. Keep an eye on them — they will go from brown to burnt very quickly!

♥ Step Six: Remove cake from oven. While letting cake cool, make the icing: add lemon juice and a little bit of water (1 tbsp at a time) to powdered sugar, until icing is runny but has some thickness and whiteness to it.

♥ Step Seven: Once cake has been removed from pan and is completely cool, drizzle the icing over the cake. It’s OK if it runs down the sides! Then sprinkle toasted almonds to cover the top of the cake. As the icing dries the toasted almonds should stay in place. Slice & eat!

Fall treats

helendear — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:38:00 -0400

This Saturday I did some volunteer photography for New York Cares, which necessitated waking up “early” (not actually early for many adults, but early for me on a weekend). I built in enough time to deal with two finicky trains, and ended up with plenty of time to sit down and enjoy a tasty fall treat: the Pumpkin Spice Crunch doughnut from DunWell Doughnuts in Bushwick. I’d read some good reviews about DunWell, plus seen some friends’ yummy-looking Instagrams of the doughnuts, so was excited that where I was supposed to be photographing was around the corner from DunWell.

I’m not too fond of cinnamon flavored foods, to be honest, and I was a little nervous that this doughnut would be heavy on the cinnamon (since cinnamon + pumpkin is such a common combo). But it wasn’t at all — the glaze was sweet with a hint of spice, while the doughnut itself wasn’t overly sweet and so fluffy. I’m a pretty loyal fan of Peter Pan Donuts in Greenpoint, but DunWell sure gives Peter Pan a run for their money.

I’d love to try more of DunWell’s flavors — check out all their different flavors below:

I think these flavors all rotate, but a few traditional ones are always available. Photo from DunWell’s website.

So there you have it — 200 words on one doughnut. The next time you find yourself off the Montrose L train stop on a chilly fall morning, stop by DunWell and try a doughnut for yourself.