Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I finally found the perfect way to eat butternut squash.

I had a perfect squash sitting on my sideboard for more than a month. I bought it in the height of autumn, in the frenzy of pumpkin, scarves, furry boots and butternut squash. I bought it even though I knew that as far as squashes go, it's really not my favorite. Actually, I don't like squash much at all except for kabocha no nimono. So there it sat, through the unchanging greenery of the trees (thank you SoCal), a hot and sunny Christmas, and a watery first week of January. The recent and welcome deluge brought it to the forefront of my mind again, as I craved autumnal and wintery tastes, and a warm and cozy bowl of soup.

A straight puree of butternut squash did not sound appealing, but the deep and rich flavors of a roasted squash sounded delightful.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 three-pound butternut squash
1 large onion
1 head of garlic (Or less, depending on your taste or what's available. But if you like garlic even just a little bit, do the whole head. Trust me.)
2-4 cups stock
salt & pepper
1-2 tablespoons cream (or more, to taste)

Instructions
If you're making this in advance: Preheat oven to 350°F. Roughly mince your garlic. Cut butternut squash in half; remove seeds. Cut onion into chunks. Toss onions with the garlic, salt, pepper and oil/butter. Put squash on roasting pan, cut-side up. Rub generously with oil or butter, then season with salt and pepper. On the same roasting pan, put the onions onto a square of aluminum foil with the sides crimped up to make a shallow bowl. Or, put them into a separate casserole/oven-safe dish. You just want to make sure to catch the juices. Bake at 350°F for 1.5 hours or until fairly soft and carmelized-looking. Poke the squash in the thickest parts to ensure even cooking. Once it's finished, remove and let cool. Refrigerate the squash halves and onions for up to 3 days. When you're ready to make the soup, scoop the flesh of the butternut squash out.

If you're not making this in advance: Seed, peel and cut the butternut squash into 2 inch chunks. Toss with onions, garlic, salt, pepper and oil/butter. Add to roasting pan and pour about 1 cup of stock (depending on the depth of your pan) over it. Bake at 350°F for 1.5 hours or until fairly soft and carmelized-looking.

Add squash to a large pot, along with the roasted onions and garlic. Add at least 2 cups of stock or more--enough to cover the squash and onions. Cook for about 20 minutes over medium-low heat, or until the squash begins to fall apart.

Remove from heat, and puree using a hand blender or a regular blender in batches. Once pureed, add back to pot and add cream/butter. If you like your soup on the thinner side, add more stock until you reach desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with pine nuts and goat cheese, or just sip it straight out of the ladle from the pot because it's that good.

Original roasted butternut squash recipe from Serious Eats

Tofu Ground Beef

I am not a fan of fake meat. I've tried it, admitted that it wasn't bad, and subsequently never ate it again. For me, there is little point in being vegetarian if you spend your meals pining after that which is forbidden. Rather, I enjoy vegetables and grains and legumes on their terms--as vegetables, grains and legumes.

However, like all things, there are exceptions. One dish that I sorely miss is mabudofu: hearty, slightly spicy, totally delicious and belly warming. Unfortunately, the main ingredient is ground beef. Besides ground beef, there are chunks of tofu, and green onions for garnish. All this served on top of steaming, hot rice. I tried making vegetarian mabudofu once. I opened up the packaged, forewent the ground beef, and just added tofu.

It was a disgusting mess.

Since then, my desire for good, but quick vegetarian mabudofu has only increased. This was a childhood favorite for me and a quick standby for my parents. We'd often have a roll of frozen ground beef in the freezer, and our fridge was always stocked with multiple boxes of tofu. I would also heavily encourage my dad to make it whenever I saw we had ground beef (i.e. almost every week). I was nothing short of obsessed. I probably still am.

So there a few obstacles in my way to obtaining a good recipe for veg mabudofu. One, a ground beef substitute. I could, of course, go the fake meat route. For reasons outlined above, I'd rather not. Although it may be my Plan Z, should all other options fail. Trader Joe's sells a meatless ground beef, though I've yet to try it. However, there is something I have found that sounds perfect: tofu ground beef. Now, this is not a store-bought soy product chemically manipulated into looking like and tasting like ground beef. Rather, it's a seemingly straightforward and simple way to give tofu a ground beef texture. I found it buried in a cookpad recipe. I've yet to try it, but I'm writing about it and posting it so that I'll hopefully get around to trying it out sooner rather than later.

Tofu Ground "Beef"

Ingredients
1 block of firm tofu (Probably the firmer the better, although some experimentation is certainly in order to determine whether extra-firm [sold in the plastic tub filled with water] or super firm [sold vacuum packed without water] would be better. The original recipe recommends the extra-firm sold in water.)
Sesame or neutral oil
Soy sauce

Instructions
1. Wrap the tofu in paper towels, place on microwave-safe plate and microwave for 2 minutes.
2. Drain off the excess moisture completely.
3. Heat up sesame oil (or neutral oil) in a pan over medium heat. Add the tofu, then scramble. Chopsticks probably work best for scrambling them into ground beef sized pieces. Keep scrambling and browning them until it begins to resemble ground beef.
4. Add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce, stir fry quickly (a bigger utensil would probably better at this point, once it's been broken up into pieces), then remove from heat.
5. Serve in place of ground beef in mabudofu.

Crispy Tofu from kitchentreaty.com

I'm dying to try this recipe I just found on kitchentreaty.com when I was looking up flatbread recipes. Sounds like it turns out with a great texture!

Crispy Salt & Pepper Tofu

Ingredients
1 block extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper (or to taste)
Additional salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Press tofu to remove excess moisture. To do so, line a plate with several paper towels. Place tofu on paper towels and top with two or three more paper towels. Place three or four more plates on top of the tofu, making sure they're well-balanced. Drain for 20 - 30 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure plates are still balanced (toppling plates = bummer!)

Remove tofu from paper towels. Place on cutting board and cut tofu into squares or rectangles, as desired.

Add the vegetable or canola oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to a large plate or shallow baking dish. Mix.

Working in batches, dredge the tofu in the corn starch mixture, turning to coat evenly.

Carefully add tofu to hot oil in skillet. Cook over medium-high for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally to brown all sides.

Remove tofu from pan and place on several paper towels, blotting to remove excess oil.

Serve as desired.

Food Swap - Round II

Second edition of the food swap! The haul: some yummy baked goods, like chocolate chip pumpkin bread, brownies (already baked this time), and some cumin-spiced Indian butter cookies. We also got something neither of us have tried before--dried jujubes! They're very chewy, and kind of like a very dry date, but a bit firmer and tougher. The brown airy flesh has a pleasant, slightly fruity, but not overwhelming sweet taste. Also in line with the sweet items was a tub of whipped cinnamon butter--oh my god amazing. I could eat that stuff straight.

We also got some homemade thyme, oregano, garlic croutons made from the most amazing bread ever from BREAD Artisan Bakery in Santa Ana. Also in the bounty is a nice big bag of homemade granola.

Some ready-to-eat items were a cold orzo salad, hummus and salsa. The salsa had oregano in it, which I never understand because it makes it taste like pasta sauce instead of salsa (Trader Joe's has a salsa that they add oregano too as well... Bought that once, never again). So I tossed it all in a pot (we got 3 containers of it!), added a can of tomatoes, some tomato paste and herbs, and made a great pasta sauce for the spaghetti squash I cooked up last night (and had no idea how I was going to eat).

On a side note, I'm not really convinced that spaghetti squash is all that great. It's pretty bland, the texture is meh, and it has a pretty high moisture content, making the resulting dish kind of soggy. I think I'm going to try to put the leftovers into a casserole with a hearty sauce. I much prefer regular pasta over squash, but it was fun to try! Also, the shells of the squash are fascinating and I want to figure out something to do with them. They're almost like a very thin, hard plastic material. Maybe a planter for bromeliads?

Back to the bounty: peach salsa (Jim wanted this--I'm not a huge fan of peach salsa), salsa verde (delicious!), prickly pear jam (wasn't able to try it but sounds intriguing), and nut "chorizo!" Very excited about the salsa verde and the chorizo for breakfast this week. We also just coincidentally made some pico de gallo on Saturday, which will be great with all of that too.

I've also tasted just about the best mustard I have ever had in my entire life. It's the Oktoberfest beer mustard in the picture. We got 2 jars of it because it's soooo good. We got a couple of pretzel rolls that they sell at TJ's ($.99 each!) and just dipped chunks of bread into the mustard. Amazing. We also got another jar of mustard that was only so-so; it had a really spicy kick at first and then it mellowed out and had an almost sweet aftertaste. I'm going to let it mellow out some more in the fridge for awhile; it must have been freshly made.

From the same woman that made the beer mustard came infused kosher salt: sriracha and pinot noir. The sriracha salt is so good! We dipped some of the pretzel rolls in the sriracha salt with the mustard and I swear you couldn't tell the difference between that and a real pretzel.

On the non-edible (but still delicious-sounding) side, I got a bar of cucumber-avocado soap and a small jar of coffee facial scrub. Actually, the facial scrub is edible, although it probably doesn't taste very good.

And finally, a bottle of bouquet garni vinegar that I'm not really sure what to do with but am excited to have! All in all, a very successful swap. However, I did feel like at the last swap, there was a better selection or at least some more exciting items. At this one, there were only a few items that I really, really wanted. The rest of them were otherwise fairly meh. Although, maybe that serves as a good reminder to bring good stuff. The pomegranates were, surprisingly not as popular as we thought they'd be, although that may have been due to the fact that someone else had also brought pomegranates (and pomegranate wine, and pomegranate arils...). What WAS popular (and surprisingly so) were the green apples from Jim's dad's backyard! I think there were a couple factors that helped the apples: (1) telling people that they were sweet green apples, as opposed to tart and (2) offering samples to prove our point. We ran out of apples by the end, except for the few we wanted to save for ourselves. We had probably 6 small pomegranates and 4 large (which we never set out anyway) left over by the end. My 3 jars of pumpkin spice syrup I easily traded away, although I think it was better that I didn't bring a whole bunch of jars. They weren't quite as popular as I thought they would be, though people still seemed excited about them. All in all, a lovely day :)

Pol Roti (Sri Lankan coconut flatbread)

Here is a lovely, crispy-outside, soft-and-chewy-inside pol roti recipe. I could eat these every day and never get sick of them. These are thicker than chapati, but not as thick as naan and less fluffy. Definitely more dense and chewy than naan, but in a good, hearty way. So easy to make and so delicious. 

Pol Roti
Yields approximately 8 rotis

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat atta flour (or regular whole wheat flour)

1 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut (fresh is best but you can also use frozen fresh or dried)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon oil/ghee

Lukewarm water, less than 2 cups

Instructions

If using dry coconut, soak it in a small amount of lukewarm water, just enough to rehydrate it. Let soak about 5 minutes. If using frozen coconut, defrost until soft. 

Sift together the two flours and salt. Work the ghee into the flour. Add the coconut; mix. Add the water a little bit at a time, mixing each time after adding water. Go slowly. You don't want the dough to be too wet or shaggy. It should be a solid ball that doesn't stick to your hands much. 

On a floured surface, divide dough into eight or so small balls, about golf ball sized. Heat skillet over medium heat. If you're not using a non-stick pan (e.g. cast iron or stainless steel), add a small amount of oil to the pan. If you're using a non-stick, oil isn't necessary. 

Flatten a ball of dough to about 1/4 in or 1/2 cm thickness. You can flour or wet your hands if the dough is sticking. Place flattened dough on the skillet. Let cook for a few minutes, then flip. Cook on both sides, flipping occasionally. Cook until both sides are golden brown, with a couple of dark spots; about 5-7 minutes total.

Serve with parippu or your favorite curry.

Parippu Hodi - Sri Lankan dal

I've been thinking about Sri Lanka lately. I think part of it has to do with reminiscing this past weekend about my time spent studying abroad there, telling stories about my host family and my little host sister, or nangi. My host family was really fond of this white bread that you could find at any corner store. It had a tough, thick crust and a soft, white inside. Most oddly, it was very tall and narrow, meaning you got about as much of the soft, white inside as you did of the crust. 

Tall and skinny pieces of Sri Lankan bread.

My favorite part was the crust. It was tough, so it soaked up all the flavors of the soupy curries most excellently, and softened without becoming too soggy. My nangi, on the other hand, loved the soft, inner white part. The time I traded the insides of my bread for her crust, she was incredulous. "Aki (older sister), are you sure??" Even my host mother, Ami, seemed skeptical that I actually wanted the crust. 

Dushyanti, my nangi. Self-portrait. 

But as much as my host family loved that bread, my favorite by far was the pol roti, or coconut flat bread. My new comfort food after coming back from Sri Lanka (once I taught myself how to make it in the States) was parippu hodi and pol roti. This was one of my favorite breakfasts in Sri Lanka. Simple, nourishing, and delicious. 

Parippu hodi, with a curry leaf on top.

I was craving that simple, nourishing food today. Rich, coconutty, curried lentils. Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside pol roti. This parippu recipe might seem a little involved. If you want to skip the tempering step, you can just add all the spices at the beginning and cook them all together with the lentils. The tempering, though, just adds a different flavor, and you should try it if you can.

Parippu Hodi
Serves 2-3.

Ingredients

1 cup red split lentils, washed and picked over for any stones

4-6 tbsp ghee/coconut oil/mustard oil

1 white or yellow onion, diced, divided in half

8 cloves of garlic, roughly minced, divided in half

2 tsp ground turmeric

3 tsp curry powder

10-12 curry leaves

1 cinnamon stick (~3 in.), lightly smashed into large pieces under a knife

1 can coconut milk (14 oz)

1 1/2 cup room temp water
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander

Instructions for the curry
Heat ghee/coconut oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add half of the diced onion, half of the minced garlic cloves (4 cloves), and salt to taste; stir for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. 

Add 2 tsp turmeric, 3 tsp curry powder, 5-6 curry leaves and the smashed cinnamon stick. Stir for 1-2 minutes. 

Stir in 1 cup lentils for 2-3 minutes, then add 1 1/2 cup room temperature water. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a low simmer. 

Add the coconut milk, and bring to a low simmer again. Let simmer for about 20-30 minutes until lentils are falling apart and dhal has thickened. While simmering, make the temper. If the parippu finishes before you finish the temper, turn down to the lowest heat and leave on the stove. 

Instructions for tempering
In a dry pan over medium low heat, toast the 1 tsp cumin seeds for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Set aside. 

Heat ghee/coconut oil/mustard oil in the pan on med-low heat. Add 2 tsp mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the other half of the diced onion, the rest of the garlic (4 cloves) and salt to taste. Stir until fragrant (about 30 seconds), then add the 1/2 tsp coriander and the rest of the curry leaves (5-6). Add a few chili flakes if you like it spicy. Stir on heat for 2-5 minutes. 

Final steps
Once the temper is finished, stir it into the thickened dhal. Serve with pol roti (Sri Lankan coconut flatbread), naan or rice.

Vegetarian soft foods

Some more ideas about what to eat while I'm on this baby food diet.

Creamy polenta - http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/creamy_polenta/

Avgolemono - http://greekvegetarian.blogspot.com/2013/08/avgolemono-soup-greek-egg-and-lemon-soup.html

Rajgara ni Raab - http://www.7spice.net/drink-beverages/rajgara-rajgira-ni-raab-recipe-amaranth-malt-recipe/

Moong Osaman - http://www.tarladalal.com/Moong-Osaman-(-Eat-Well-Stay-Well-Recipes-)-33481r

Creamy potato and leek soup

Missing front tooth.

Braces.

What am I, like twelve?

My tongue is rubbed absolutely raw on one side from the metal bracket on my molar. This means that even swallowing is painful, since my tongue does this inadvertent bobbing motion whenever I swallow. I imagine everyone's tongue does it, you just don't notice it until you start bleeding because of it. Both sides of molars are still sore from the spacers they put in some three weeks back, so chewing is pretty much out. Suffice to say, I'm on a soup binge this week. And probably next week.

I've always wanted to make potato and leek soup. I love the simplicity and the heartiness of it. Potatoes and leeks! So much flavor from two ingredients.

This is a recipe I lifted (almost) directly from my newly discovered How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. It's everything I've dreamed of and more. Just like this potato and leek soup recipe.

Creamy Potato and Leek Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
3 medium potatoes, any type, peeled and cut into small cubes (the smaller, the quicker this'll be ready)
2-3 leeks, white and light green parts only, well washed and sliced into thin rings (Trader Joe's package of 2 leeks are perfect for this)
salt and black pepper
1 tsp white pepper (optional, but great if you have it)
4 cups vegetable stock, warm
1/2 to 1 cup of cream, sour cream or yogurt
chives, for garnish (or parsley, basil, chervil, etc)

Instructions
Heat the butter in a large, deep pot over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the leeks and potatoes. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper (and white pepper if using) and stir, cooking for 2-3 minutes.

Add the warm vegetable stock and cook until the potatoes and leeks are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat. Using an immersion blender or regular blender in batches, blend the soup until thoroughly pureed. Stir in the cream/sour cream/yogurt. If you're using yogurt, don't let it boil. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with minced chives.

Variations
If you want vichyssoise, cool the soup completely and garnish with chives just before serving.

Vegan vichyssoise: Use oil instead of butter. After you've pureed the soup, let the soup cool a bit, then stir in coarsely chopped ripe flesh of 1-2 avocadoes instead of the cream. Chill thoroughly before garnishing.

Cook about 1 cup of shredded carrots or cabbage along with potatoes and leeks. Increase stock proportionately so the soup doesn't become too thick.

Grate a little parmesan over the finished soup.

Add another vegetable in place of a portion of the potatoes (Bittman recommends asparagus or peas).

Chapathi

Chapathi
Yields about 15 chapathi

Ingredients
2 cups durum atta flour (or whole wheat)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm milk (or water, but milk will result in softer chapathi)
2 tbsp ghee/coconut oil/melted butter/other neutral oil

Instructions
In a large bowl (a shallow and wide pan is good too), add the flour and salt.

Add about half of the milk, then knead. Add milk as needed until dough is sticky.

Add the 2 tbsp of ghee and knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Your hands should have barely any flour on them at this point.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a clean surface/cutting board (not floured). Knead more until dough is uniform and smooth, not sticky or shaggy. The longer you knead, the softer the chapathi will be.

Return to the bowl, cover and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Break dough into golf ball sized balls, rolling with your hands until balls are smooth and no cracks are visible.

Set up a wide shallow bowl or flat plate with a bit of flour. Also, heat a pan over medium heat with 1/2 tsp ghee.

Roll a single ball lightly in the flour. Place on a clean surface (unfloured) and press it down into a disc with your hands. Once it's flattened down a bit, place it in the flour again, flipping it to get flour on both sides.

Then roll it out with a rolling pin. It should take about 2 rolls each way (up down, up down then side to side, side to side). They should be fairly thin, about the thickness of a tortilla.

In the heated-up pan shake the ghee around the pan to distribute it, then place the rolled out chapathi in the pan.

The chapathi should start to puff up and inflate, with air bubbles forming inside. After about 15-30 seconds, flip the chapathi. Using a blunt spatula, gently press down on the edges of the chapthi, encouraging more air bubbles to form. After another 15-30 seconds, remove from heat and let cool, or eat hot.

Notes
* I've found these to always taste better as leftovers, rather than fresh. I'll typically make a large batch, let them cool, then freeze them. This can be done easily by stacking the chapathi and placing a square of parchment paper in between each one so they won't stick when you want to heat up just one or two. Put the stack into a freezer ziploc and heat up on the stove or in the toaster.

Super fluffy, moist and yummy (with just a little bit of crispy) whole wheat pancakes

Ingredients
2 cups buttermilk or 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar + room temperature milk to the 2 cup line
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp baking powder
scant 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions
If using apple cider vinegar + milk, begin by bringing milk to room temp (microwave just barely). Add apple cider vinegar, and let sit a few minutes, or until curds begin to form.

Beat eggs until uniform. Mix in canola oil, buttermilk and vanilla until evenly combined, then add sugar and mix.

Sift together dry ingredients. Also, heat up a pan over medium heat and add some oil/butter. While the pan is heating, add all the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir until just barely mixed, leaving lumps of batter. Don't overmix or let the mixed batter sit for very long, otherwise the pancakes will be flat and gummy. Depending on how you did with the milk and vinegar, the batter will probably expand significantly.

Ladle batter onto hot, oiled or non-stick pan over medium/med-low heat. Thicker pancakes are better, but not too thick! Fill the pan so the batter is not too thin at the edges. When bubbles form, flip and cook until both sides are golden brown. Serve immediately. These are delicious enough to be eaten plain, or you can lightly butter them, or eat with jam.

Or, freeze and reheat in the toaster.