Tyrolean Gnocchi with Cabbage and Sometimes Bacon

Ahoy Foodies!

Don't know about your neck of the woods, but it is bitterly cold here. So cold, in fact, I am reminded of a fabulous driving trip I took with Mr. Tofu to Northeastern Eatly, er, I mean Italy.
It wasn't snowy and cold yet when we were there in September, but the farther north we got, the more the villages and landscape looked like scenes from the Sound of Music and the cozier and more German-inflected the language and food got. In pine timber lined dining rooms in front of flagstone fireplaces incongruously situated in the center of the rooms, we ate cozy dishes that married the finesse of Italian cooking with the heartiness of Austrian and German cuisine.

Dishes like this rib-sticking gnocchi. The word gnocchi has German roots and roughly translated means "knot of wood, " probably because of their little round shapes. Though the word has Germanic roots, Italians all over Italy pair the potato-based dumplings with traditional pasta sauces like tomato, basil pesto and the like. But further north, you're just as likely to find the tender little pillows of dough tossed with nutty cow's milk cheese, speck (smoked bacon), caramelized onions, cream, butter, and even tender cabbage.

While I love to use Niman Ranch's stellar smoky applewood bacon in this quick weeknight dish, my vegetarian husband Mr. Tofu does not appreciate the pork. So after I point out to him what he is missing (and he ignores me), I toss half of the gnocchi with the rich sauce sans bacon. Then the remaining gnocchi and onion-cabbage sauce gets the bacon treatment for me.

On a good day, I make my own gnocchi, I really do. (Email me if you'd like the recipe.) But on busy days, I buy frozen gnocchi from Sheridan Fruit Market in Portland, Oregon. They taste of potato and have a nice light texture, plus you can boil them from the frozen state, so dinner can be ready in about 8 minutes, if you play your cards right. If you're not lucky enough to live here, try Trader Joe's gnocchi. They aren't half bad; not too gummy with a rich flavor akin to the real deal Italian gnocchi.

Gesundheit!


Tyrolean Gnocchi with Cabbage and Sometimes Bacon
Serves 2 to 3

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium clove garlic, thinly sliced
5 cups thinly sliced Savoy cabbage
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway seeds
Freshly ground pepper
1 cup mild vegetable broth (I like Imagine No-Chicken Broth)
2 strips Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Bacon
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
2/3 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1 pound fresh potato gnocchi

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the onions and saute, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until the onions are light brown, 3 minutes more. Add the garlic, cabbage,caraway, and 3 grinds of pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the cabbage is wilted, tender and beginning to brown, 7 minutes. Add the broth, bring to a simmer, reduce heat and cook until liquid has reduced by half.

While the sauce is cooking bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and preheat broiler. Microwave the bacon until crisp, reserving some of the fat; set aside. Add the gnocchi to the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface and are tender when bitten into, about 7 minutes for frozen gnocchi. Drain the gnocchi.

Vegetarian: Toss half of them with half of the cabbage mixture and transfer to a gratin dish. Top with half of the cheese.

Toss the remaining gnocchi, sauce, and bacon with 1 tablespoon of rendered fat together in another gratin dish. Top with remaining cheese. Place both gratin dishes under the broiler and broil until cheese melts, 3 minutes.

A Break From Pumpkin Pie

Ahoy Foodies!

I heard a great quote the other day from Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor: "The best pumpkin pie you've ever had isn't that much different than the worst pumpkin pie you've ever had." In a few days, you probably won't want to see it again for quite some time. Thus, this week I give you another wonderful, autumn-errific dessert to follow up your cozy holiday feasts: Hazelnut Apple Crisp with Calvados.

Calvados, if you've never enjoyed it, is a distilled apple cider brandy from Normandy (the French region renowned for its apples) that is aged in French Oak barrels. It is a strong eau de vie that is good as an aperitif, but is even better when paired with pork dishes and apple crisps like this one.

The brandy-meets-caramel-meets-apple cider flavor of Calvados enhances the tart granny smith apples and the sweeter honeycrisp apples in the base of this not-too-sweet dessert, so it's really worth seeking it out. For the crumbly topping, I use rolled triticale flakes (a wheat/rye hybrid) because they add a nice texture and more substantial flavor than rolled oats. Toasted hazelnuts add a buttery crunch, but if you're allergic, it's fine to leave them out. If you happen to be vegan, use ice cold Earth Balance buttery sticks instead of butter and proceed with the recipe as directed.

I learned how to make this and other crisps at the apron strings of Helen Manning, nee´Pickett, my beautiful Irish-American grandmother. Apples, pork and potatoes came as naturally to her as breathing. She patiently showed me how to blend the flour and butter with just my finger tips so the butter wouldn't melt, taught me how to skin toasted hazelnuts by rubbing them together in a kitchen towel, and educated me on the art of peeling apples with a paring knife so the peel comes off in one long, coiled piece. Throw the peel over your shoulder, she instructed, and whatever letter the peel formed on the floor behind you will be the first initial of your husband-to-be. I don't recall if my peels ever displayed an "M" for Mister or a "T" for Tofu, but I do remember how much fun she made mundane chores like peeling apples. Every time I smell a crisp a'bakin', I know she's in my kitchen, at least in spirit.Hazelnut Apple Crisp with Calvados
Serves 4 to 6

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
2 tablespoons Calvados
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup triticale flakes
1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I like Vietnamese Cinnamon)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (dried)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced and chilled for 30 minutes
Vanilla ice cream or soy ice cream

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 10 x 6-inch or 8 x 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Toss the apples, Calvados, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and nutmeg together and pour into baking dish.
Combine the remaining sugar, flour, triticale flakes, hazelnuts, cinnamon, and ginger in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the sugar mixture until small clumps form when the mixture is squeezed and the butter in is pieces no larger than a pea. Chill in freezer for 10 minutes. Sprinkle sugar-butter mixture over the apples and bake until the top is golden brown and apples are bubbly around the edges of the baking dish, 35 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or soy ice cream.

Thanksgiving For Every-vore

Ahoy Foodies!

If you are like me, then the food magazines emblazoned with perfect golden turkeys and picture perfect pies have been crowding your mail box (and then your coffee table or bedside table) since last month. It's so fun to flip through them and visualize the infinitely time-consuming feast you'll be cooking for your family and friends for Thanksgiving. It's quite a meal, what with the giant bird, brining, stuffing, mashing, whisking, fluting, and gravying. So cooking a whole separate entree for the vegetarian or vegan in your life while juggling EVERYTHING ELSE can be the straw that breaks the camel, er, cook's back.

I feel your Thanksgiving mixed-diet pain. And I've got a solution for you. I've written a guest post for The Kitchn.com based on a recipe from my book, The Adaptable Feast to help you out. It goes like this: Make my recipe for moist, delectable cornbread stuffing. Stuff some into Delicata squash boats. Stuff the rest in a butterflied turkey breast. Bake them together, serve with shiitake mushroom gravy (made with mushroom stock) and you've got T-day sorted out. For the recipes, click here. For everyday adaptable recipes, buy The Adaptable Feast here.

Gobble Gobble!

Thai Yellow Green Curry with Shrimp or Tofu

Ahoy Foodies!

From the Shameless Self Promotion Department: Come get a signed copy of The Adaptable Feast this Sunday, November 15th at 2pm at Powell's City of Books and meet me and the famed Mr. Tofu. We'd love to see you there!

A few years back, I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks in various kitchens in Thailand. There, I was indoctrinated into the cult of homemade Thai curry pastes. For weeks my palate was swimming with the exotic flavors of galangal root, keffir lime zest, and shrimp paste. Sure, it was fun to learn how to take all those sexy ingredients and bash out all my frustrations with a mortar and pestle. BUT, like everyone else I am busy busy busy. There are nights when all I want a curry and I want it with minimal effort, so I reach for a good ol' can of Maesri curry paste. However, I can't help but doctor it bit to make it taste more authentic.

For this recipe, I mash some fresh garlic and the fragrant roots of cilantro together with the canned green curry paste. Cilantro roots, pictured on Blazing Hot Wok's blog here, are thin, filamenty roots sometimes found still attached to bunches of cilantro. They add a subtle,earthy flavor that is something like cilantro crossed with parsnip. (You can sub finely chopped cilantro stems in a pinch, but they don't give you quite as lovely of a flavor.) When you do find cilantro roots, snap up a few bunches with the thinnest roots (they are more tender and flavorful) and freeze them for up to 3 months.

Fortunately, Mr. Tofu is not a very strict vegetarian, so he'll concede to having a touch of fish sauce in his Thai food now and then. Just in case that's not true in your home, I've written the recipe so that the veggie portion is seasoned with Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of the fish sauce. The liquid aminos are a bit saltier than fish sauce, with a sort of amber yumminess that's hard to describe. Add it to taste and counter it with just a bit of lime juice to balance the flavors.

Thai Yellow-Green Curry with Shrimp or Tofu

Serves 4

4 small cloves garlic

Four 3-inch long cilantro stems (or 2 tablespoons finely chopped stems), finely minced

2 tablespoons green curry paste

1 1/2 tablespoons mild curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon canola oil

Two 13.5 ounce cans coconut milk (I like Chaokoh brand)

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 stalk celery, thinly sliced with leaves

3 mild red chilies (such as red jalapeno, seeded), julienned

1 cup bamboo shoots, drained and rinsed

3 tablespoons sweet and condensed milk

4 teaspoons palm sugar

4 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

Bragg's Liquid Aminos, to taste

Juice of 1 lime (use to taste)

4 teaspoons fish sauce

3/4 pound peeled and deveined shrimp

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, for garnish

1/2 cup Thai basil, chopped, for garnish

4 keffir lime leaves, rolled up tightly and very thinly sliced into ribbons (chiffonade)

In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and cilantro stems until they are a paste. Add the curry paste, curry powder, and turmeric and pound until smooth and well combined.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the curry paste mixture, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is fragrant, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium; add the coconut milk. Add the onions, celery, peppers, and bamboo shoots, and simmer gently until the vegetables are tender, 15 minutes.

Stir in the sweet and condensed milk and palm sugar, stir to combine and dissolve the sugar. Vegetarian: transfer 1/4 of the curry to a small saucepan, add the tofu, and season with Bragg's Liquid Aminos and lime juice to taste. Keep warm over medium-low heat.

Add the shrimp and fish sauce to the remaining curry in the wok, simmer until the shrimp are pink and cooked through, 4 minutes.

Garnish with the curries with the cilantro, basil, and lime leaves. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Idli with South Indian Butternut Dal

Ahoy Foodies!

This week I am giving you a bit of science experiment-type recipe. You know the kind: a project that you can tinker with over a rainy weekend that takes a bit of soaking, peeking, grinding and then fermenting. They're idli, a south Indian invention of spongy rice-lentil cakes that are made from hulled black lentils (urad dal) and rice that are soaked, ground, fermented and steamed. Idlis have a slight fermented flavor (think Ethiopian flatbread, only milder, white and puck shaped) and a comforting texture that lends them to the breakfast food or a snack category in India. I serve them as a starch with a coconut based dal (lentil soup) for lunch, dinner, and if there are any leftovers, breakfast too. The recipe is adapted from Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through The Great Subcontinent, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, my idols.

Making the batter involves soaking the little white lentil bits (available at Indian markets) and the rice overnight in separate bowls. Next you drain them, grind with a touch of water and leave the batter to ferment at least overnight, if not for 24 hours. That part is pretty flexible, the longer you ferment them, the more flavorful and puffy the idli, but even 4 hours yields a pretty tasty rice'n'lentil puck, especially if you add a few tablespoons of plain yogurt to add a sour note. In the summer the fermentation takes place all by itself, but in the winter idli need a little help. I've found that if you place the bowl of batter on a heating pad set on low, the batter will ferment quite well. It will begin to look a bit bubbly and puffy and it will smell a tiny bit yeasty. It sounds crazy, but it's really simple, and the fermenting not only adds loads of flavor, it also breaks down some of the indigestible starches, making the dal easier to digest.


Idli are usually steamed in an ingenious little stacked unit of metal plates (see above) that have shallow indents in them, or a plastic microwave version of the same. I paid a whopping $12 for mine. You can find idli steamer racks or "trees" at Southeast Asian and Indian stores, or you can use an egg poacher or custard dishes stacked in a bamboo steamer instead.

If the idli experiment is too much for you, just try mt creamy, exotic flavored dal recipe, it's wonderful ladled over plain bastmati rice. Or you can buy idli mix (no science lab necessary) at Indian groceries, just add water and steam. But really, what is the geeky food-chemistry fun in that?

Idli with South Indian Butternut Squash Dal
Serves 6 (makes 16-20 3-inch idli discs)

For the idli:
1/2 cup urad dal (hulled, split black lentils, which are actually cream-colored)
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons melted ghee or butter

For the dal:
3 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1o fresh curry leaves
1 black cardamom
1 1/2 cups minced onion
1 cup chana dal (dried split, hulled garbanzo beans), soaked for 4 hours, drained
3 cups grated raw butternut squash
4 cups water
1 can coconut milk
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 serrano chile, minced

Make the idli. Rinse the urad dal in several changes of water, cover with water and soak for 8 to 12 hours. Drain and rinse. Do the same with the rice in a separate bowl. Blend the drained urad dal and 1/2 cup warm water in a blender, stopping to scrape down sides. Process until mixture is smooth paste. Pour into a glass or plastic bowl. Add the drained rice to the blender, add all but 2 tablespoons of the remaining warm water to blender and blend until smooth. Add to bowl with ground urad dal, using the remaining water to swish out the blender. Stir in the salt, cover with plastic and nestle the bowl onto a heating pad set on low heat. Allow mixture to ferment for 8 to 24 hours. Peek once in awhile and inhale the fermenty goodness. Make sure your heating pad doesn't get too hot or you will cook the batter!

About 1 hour and 20 minutes before you want to eat, make the dal. Heat the ghee in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds and cook until the mustard seeds have popped, about 1 minute. Add the cardamom, curry leaves and onions and cook until onions are beginning to brown, 8 minutes. Add the drained chana dal, squash, water, turmeric, coconut milk and 1 teaspoon of salt and bring to a simmer. Cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently until the dal is tender, about 1 hour.

Thirty minutes before the dal is done cooking, steam the idi batter. Sprinkle the baking soda over the batter and very gingerly fold it into the batter. Try not to knock too much air out of it or the idli will be too dense...you want them to be puff-puff-puffy. Brush the idli indents liberally with melted ghee. Ladle about 2 tablespoons of the batter into each indent, stack the steamer and place it in a pot with about 2 inches of water in the bottom. Put the pot over high heat and when the water in the bottom has come to a boil, cover the pot, reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the idli are springy to the touch and cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Season the dal with the additional 1/2 teaspoon of salt, if necessary. Use a small off set spatula to loosen the idli from the steamer. Serve the idli with a bowl of dal. Sprinkle with serrano chile if you like it a bit of spice. (In the unlikely event you have leftover idli, store them in a ziplock bag once cool in the refrigerator. Reheat by microwaving with a damp paper towel over the top.)