Cantaloupe Salad

As a way to show off how hard it is to mess up a salad I decided to do something a bit counter intuitive.  I happen to have a farm fresh cantaloupe that needs eating and more salad to make so I just put the two together!   I made the exact same salad I did last time with: corn tomato onions and garlic.  When I thought about it The idea of adding cantaloupe to this mix just seems wrong so I came up with two plans.

1) I would make the same salad and use a cantaloupe salad dressing

2) I would add chunks of cantaloupe to the salad and use the cantaloupe dressing

I will admit, the main reason I came up with two plans is because I assumed adding cantaloupe to the salad was a mistake. . .but ti wasn't and we will get to that more in just a bit.

First I want to elaborate on the cutting corn in half before you de-cob it.  This little trick works for any round thing.  Round objects are hard to cut, they always try to roll away and if you manage to get it in a non-roll-away position pushing too hard with your knife will send it rolling! Of course an obvious solution is to get a super nice knife that is so sharp you dont need to press hard.  The other is to make on simple cut to create a flat side.  A lot of the food we will cut will have a side we need to cut off anyway.  Here I cut the top off the tomato

which simultaneously gets rid of the 'stem' and gives me a surface to rest the tomato on.  Now slicing it into strips is easy!

The same feat is achieved with corn by breaking it in half so you don't have to balance it on point or stem.

Since I want the cantaloupe flavor to be noticeable in the dressing I switch from balsamic vinegar (which brings its own body and sweetness to the dish) for a red wine vinegar.  This vinegar is a bit more sour so we can get away with using a little less but more importantly it does not have a HUGE unique flavor that will fight with the fruit.  Chances are I could do it with balsamic but it turn the cantaloupe into an undertone.  I cut the seeds and the skin from the flesh of the cantaloupe and dice it finely until it is almost a mash.

This mash is added to the garlic/olive oil/ coconut oil  portion of the salad dressing.  I grind some pepper in and add a pinch of salt (yes I made it to the store).  Red wine vinegar goes in and we use a fork to whisk it up putting a little extra oomph in to try and mash up the melon more.  I made way too much salad dressing!  I mean just look at that. . .the acid is way out of proportion to the fat!  Well not really. . .the melon naturally sinks into the acid layer and makes it look bigger, so either get the ratio to your liking before adding melon or actually measure it out (which I dont suggest, you want to develop a feel for the tastes you like without measuring).

Well after a few bites my fears were assuaged.  The melon offers a soft sweetness and a delicate flavor which I love! My big concern was the texture but it really was similar to having chunks of avocado in a salad and felt normal to me.  really this reminds me of the character of a salad.  Most of the cookign we do blends flavors into one dish one network of tastes but a salad. . . a salad is really separate flavors that are brought together with a  dressing.  There are chunks of bell pepper and onion and corn and lettuce and when you eat them you know each one.  Each flavor could stand alone but on top of that one thing is the dressing which transmits the flavors so your bite of tomato, which tastes like tomato, has a hint of onion and cantaloupe and garlic.  this makes it so when you get that bite of cantaloupe with a  hint of tomato onion and garlic it does not seem out of place but fits in the musical collection of notes that make up your salads composition

.

Soft Tacos!

I get home from a two hour drive and a full day of movin' and shootin' in the sun only to realize. . .I have not eaten all day!  I mean sure I had a hand full of granola here and a few almonds there but really not nearly the calorie count I need to be as active as I am!  Solution, Soft Tacos from heaven!  These bad boys are made with rice and beans, peach salsa and wilted chard.  The extra body comes from braised bell peppers and zucchini.  Lets break it down a little bit more.

The beans were a quick job.  After cooking two cups of beans in a pressure cooker for almost an hour, I took a few spoon fulls (probably a cup cooked beans) and simmered them with garlic powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and coconut oil (though olive or safflower would have been fine).  After they simmered enough that they began to mush I tossed in a hand full of corn kernels (cut off the cob by a lovely housemate) and turned off the heat.  

The rice was brown and delicious! 2.5 cups of rice with 5 cups of water, a healthy pinch of salt and a few tomatoes diced up small.  I salted the rice but left it relatively plain so I could use it as a flavor gradient [that is if the beans are on one side and the salsa is on the other the rice takes on the flavor at each end and provides a balance in the way they mix]  

For the wilted chard we will have to ask Emily but she 'over slated' them and I thought they were perfect

the zucchini was a seat of my pants braising!  Get your cast iron SUPER hot with just a bit of oil, toss in your zucchini so it sizzles then add a dash of balsamic, a squeeze of braggs and a hint of vegan Worcestershire suace.  All that wet cooks away fast so turn down the heat and let it 'burn' onto the zucchini to give a quick-grill-feel.  

Peach salsa was a bit of a sham since I forgot the lime AND the Cilantro (which davey will be happy about).  Diced tomatoes, sliced onions, minced garlic, minced jalapeno, a dash of apple cider vinegar (in an attempt to make up for missing lime) and one average peach diced up.  Mix and let it sit long enough that the flavors really mix together (10 minutes minimum).  

Putting all this in a little tortilla is hard but that is why I have six tacos!  And look at that, I got to top it with a lovely slice of avocado!  

Early Summer Pasta

This was quite possibly the best thing I ate in the last month!  

The kale salad was made with fresh corn, thin sliced red onion and avocado; it was dressed in a lemon vinaigrette made with coconut oil.   The balancing of flavor s was exquisite and the acidity was a bit high whit I really loved when it mixed with the creamy mellow of the avocado or the sweet crisp of the corn.  

The broccoli was a simple light steam dressed with olive oil,salt and pepper.  It was left simple and a bit firm.  The natural flavor was the key component but if a bit of that lemon vinaigrette splashed on it it added a bit of a lip smacking zing to it that I really enjoyed

The main was an angle hair pasta dressed in a garlic butter dressing.  The 'butter' in this case was the earth balance coconut spread (making the whole meal soy free) blended with minced fresh garlic a pinch of salt and a dash of olive oil.  For flavor and color there is also diced parsley, chopped green onions and chunks of heirloom tomatoes.  

What surprised me about this meal, what I wish I planned, is how the flavors all blended so well.  Each item could be mixed with one of the others to make a new flavor combination (though mixing all three was just too much flavor). the kale added some awesome body to the pasta.  The pasta with the broccoli gave a tootyness and a freshness that was like spring time!  Some day I hope I am better at planning flavor combinations like this.. . for now I am happy with the coincidental discoveries! 

Southern Comfort

     Nothing quite says comfort food like Biscuits and Gravy. . . unless it is biscuits and gravy with a side of grits and french fries.  While I was hitting the blue ridge mountains I was lucky enough to get in in my friends tiny kitchen and cook a vegan meal southern style.  

     The gravy is my pretty standard mushroom gravy (which I still want to try and make wheat free).  Caramelize some onions in oil (i like coconut oil for this because it does add some flavor so feel free to go with olive or safflower) , toss in diced garlic and sliced mushrooms.  while those are browning you can prepare a rue by whisking hot vegetable stock with white flour. I make my broth with the vegetable paste 'better than bullion' and for gravy I will add some soy sauce, vegan Worcestershire sauce and a dash of braggs.  The amount totally depends on how much gravy you are making but be careful it is pretty easy to make the rue too salty.  You can always fix it by adding more water and flour but too far will start to dilute the taste.  

     The fries are also my regular midnight snack of potatoes cut and tossed in olive oil (no peanut oil in this house but olive oil does wonderful!) and baked at 425 for 30-40 minutes.

     Grits. . . basically polenta which are both corn meal based.  The finer details don't trouble me much because we can get the 'feel' or 'taste' in the cooking process.  starting with the intended product may make it easier but a bit of kitchen trickery and I doubt you could tell which witch is which.  The recipe I followed for this grits (starting with grits) surprised me as it called for a tablespoon of sugar!  The slightly sweet grits were really quite good but I made them again alter in the week and went for a savory gris and like dhtat a bit more.  here is how both go:

3 C water

3 C almond milk (for creamy sweet) or 3 C Vegetable broth (for savory)

6 Tbs Butter ( used earth balance coconut whip so they were soy free)

2 tsp salt

3 Tbs sugar (leave out for savory)

2 Tsp pepper (leave out for creamy sweet)

1/4 C nutritional yeast (leave out for creamy sweet)

1 1/2 C Grits

mix everything together, let the butter melt in then stir in the grits simmer for 5 minutes and you are golden!  

[This recipe comes from a quick google search (http://southernfood.about.com/od/gritsrecipes/r/breakfast-grits.htm) ]

     For the biscuits. . .well you know how I am with baked goods.  There is so much detail to include and precision needed for great baking that I will have to do a biscuit post some other time.  For now Enjoy grits, enjoy gravy and always eat well.

Not quite Summer Pasta

It is late enough in the year that we are out of preserved tomatoes and not yet time for tomatoes from the garden!  Of course I could pop over to the store and get a can of sauce but sometimes food is enough work that going to the store makes it too much work!  It is also fun to be creative with food. . . to explore within the restrictions of the kitchen.  So I present to you a lovely pasta dish sans tomato.  This is essentially an garlic butter sauce on fusilli pasta (spirals).  Ironically we were also out of olive oil (my first choice in making a garlic sauce) and earth balance (my second choice though i usually like to cut it with other oils).  I 'resorted' to coconut oil.  since cocnut oil has a distinct flavor I dont like to use it when making sauces unless I am looking for a coconut flavor but it is still a perfect choice for this pasta.  Just having a bowl of pasta with garlic and oil is great but I like to toss in some color and flavor.  If you did want to go for the basic start with pressing or finely dicing garlic into a dish and mixing it with the oil so the flavor can diffuse. Cook and drain your pasta, lightly salt and pepper then toss with your garlic oil.  Different people have different enjoyments of oil so the amount can really vary but if this is your principle sauce you want a little less than a table spoon of garlic oil for every cup of pasta. I encourage you to start with less and slowly add.  Remember adding oil to pasta is easy taking it back out. . . .well.

To add some oomph I tossed in some diced broccoli, sliced kalmata olives, some kale stems I had been saving and then a handful of beans left over from making chili.   Adding these accoutrements doesnt just give you a bit of green and protein for your diet, it also adds color and texture and flavor.  I know it is important to keep things like calories, fat and protein in mind when you eat but damn it eating should be fun your food should be pretty and taste great!  The fact that this dish has a good mix of nutrients is just a bonus.

(and again I wish I had an avocado handy)