Taïm

The Israeli-Vegetarian restaurant Taïm was recommended to me by a friend when she found out I'd be working on West 14th Street over the summer. When I finally made it I got a date-banana smoothie and this falafel sandwich - though they have some other selections on the menu that look equally tantalizing. The tiny restaurant has a line out the door most of the day, but if you can go at 3pm on a weekday you might get a seat at the window counter....

My falafel sandwich on whole wheat pita

Sorry for the poor picture quality and for the fact I was too busy eating to take a picture of the brilliant green insides of the falafel (they also have red and yellow varieties, with slightly different flavoring). What sets this falafel apart from others, for me, is that all the ingredients are really fresh, including falafels fried "to order." No stomach ache after this one.

Chiyono

Chiyono is a tiny restaurant in the East Village specializing in what they call "Japanese homestyle"cooking. The menu is small and everything seems to be prepared with a lot of care. There are literally only two tables in the restaurant - one long table, where multiple parties can be seated, and one 2-person table in the window.

Dessert:
Sesame pudding, fruit, red bean sauce, and vanilla ice cream

The vegetarian plate:
I don't know what half this stuff was, but it was all delicious and tasted very healthy

Court St + Sahadi's

Having read about Monteleone's Bakery in a book, I decided to check them out recently. They have a nice selection of cookies, but the counter service was eternally slow, so I left and headed down the block, where it turns out there are a number of old Italian bakeries, some with windows selling Italian ices, like this naturally colored pistachio ice...

Further down, Court St runs into Atlantic Ave, home to several stores selling Middle Eastern food and wares. One such is Sahadi's, a venerable old store. There are always crowds inside checking out their enormous bulk section (dried fruits, nuts, olives...) For the Atlantic Antic festival, Sahadi's set up a sidewalk cafe...



I wasn't sure what to expect from their deli counter, but everything I got was delicious and inexpensive. Creamy hummus, a nice eggplant salad, vegetarian grape leaves, and a feta, cucumber and tomato salad. The focaccia bread, also good, was from a bakery on Court Street.

Park Slope Farmer's Market

I wouldn't exactly call South Park Slope a "food desert," but it is a bit tricky to find good produce, and next to impossible to find organic fruit and veggies. The PS Farmer's Market, which takes place on Sundays, is not all organic, but the produce is largely pesticide free, and beautiful. They also have a few vendors of prepared foods...

A Finnish "rye"

Kale and chard

Corns

Beans

Collards?

Purty eggplants and peppers

Nori Chips

This recipe for nori chips from Mark Bittman has been in my "to try" file since I first saw it last fall. Finally got around to making the chips, and I agree - if you like the taste of seaweed, these are a good snacking alternative. I'm enjoying the taste more on day two than the day I made them, and they're just fine without the sesame oil.


I don't think I had seaweed until college - which was when a friend from California finally introduced me to sushi. Now I like it in a number of different forms, and I think it has also increased my appreciation for other seafood, like raw oysters, that really taste of the sea.

With buckwheat soba for a light lunch.

Cookbook Experiment: Cusines of Mexico

Number two in The Cookbook Experiment is Diana Kennedy's Cusines of Mexico (1972). Well, number three really, because number two should have gone to Ann Clark's Fabulous Fish, but I forgot to take a picture. It happens sometimes.

Cusines is a fairly intimidating book, and I flipped through it for a while trying to find a recipe that looked simple enough for me to prepare without too much extra shopping or prep. Finally I settled on a cold squash salad, or ensalada de calabacita, garnished with pickled onions called cebollas encurtidas.


The recipe called for zucchini and also a chayote squash, which I'd never cooked with before. According to Kennedy, the light green ones that we see most frequently are also the least prized of three different varieties of chayote.

The pickled onions, with oregano

A three-sisters dinner: corn tostadas, pinto beans, and the salad, with queso fresco
(and carrots from the farmer's market)

Closeup!

The salad was ok, but I'm still working on my taste for chayote. It's certainly an expressive vegetable, though.

Food on Screen: Fresh

Thanks to my St. David's peeps for putting together a wonderful screening and potluck for the new food documentary Fresh. It was really inspiring to see such a big crowd gathered, and hear about the success that local farmers are having with CSAs. The two organizations who came to the screening were Johnson's Backyard Garden and Farmhouse Delivery, both of which have blogs and post recipes.

Check out clips from the movie here. (Embedding was doing funky things to my blog's formatting)

One thing I learned from the film is that produce sold in supermarkets today has 40% less nutrition than in the 1950s - due to agricultural practices. Yet another reason to buy organic and local if possible.

Baked Stuffed Poblanos

I don't usually post recipes on here because most of the stuff I make is from other people's recipes. But I made up this baked poblano dish this past week (after researching baked peppers, rice pilaf, and Mexican rice) and I was so dang proud of how they turned out I thought I'd share.

INGREDIENTS:
2 lg poblano peppers
3/4 of a large white onion
2 scallions
2 lg cloves garlic
1 lg carrot
2 c. vegetable stock
1 c. canned chopped tomatoes (1/2 can)
1 c. long grain white rice
1/3 c. chopped toasted walnuts
1 c. shredded jack cheese
chopped parsley to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Roast poblanos and set to steam
3. Chop vegetables (I made mine pretty small). Put large saucepan over medium heat; add oil. Let it get hot, then add the onions and garlic. Saute for a minute or two, adding salt to taste. Add the rice and carrot and cook for a couple more minutes. Add a little more salt, especially if your veggie broth is unsalted. Then add 1.5 cups of the vegetable stock and all the tomatoes. Cover and cook the rice until done (about 10 minutes after it boils). Then remove from the heat, fluff the rice with a spatula, and let sit covered for 10 more minutes. Stir in the cheese, walnuts, and parsley.
4. Peel the poblanos, cut off the tops, and make a slit down the side. Remove seeds and ribs.
5. In a 9x9 baking pan, lay down a layer of the rice mixture. On top of that, lay the poblanos, which you can stuff with the remaining rice and reclose. Pour the remaining 1/2 c. veg stock into the bottom of the pan. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes.

Serve with black beans and or as a taco/burrito filling. Serves approximately 4.

Potato Zucchini Pancakes

Potato pancakes, or latkes as we sometimes called them when I was growing up, were one of the first things I learned to cook when I left home. The recipe I have, typed and sent by my mom to me at college, is spattered with oil. I always loved latkes, both because they're kind of like a glorified French fry, and because they have the same name as a great Andy Kaufman character.

I haven't made latkes so much in recent years, mostly due to the amount of oil involved in frying them. And the fact that frying is tedious and messy, especially in a small kitchen. But recently I decided to try pan frying--and it worked pretty well. These are very simple--grated potatoes and zucchini, egg, and seasonings. Even better with a little cheese melted over the top...

Fish Tacos, Home "Assembled"

I'm not going to be doing much cooking this summer, with a less-than-frosty AC and 103 degree days... But these tacos didn't require too much heat in the kitchen. Mostly assembly--I used frozen fish fillets, which could be heated in the toaster oven. Store bought tortillas and chips (not that I ever make those).

Not bad, but the next time I'll have some kind

of creamy sauce on them as well.

Taco!

I was especially proud of the cabbage slaw, having never made anything with cabbage before. This was green cabbage, cilantro, onion, lime, and salt. I think I put a little honey in with the lime juice too. It was really good when first made. Next time I'll ask for a quarter cabbage instead of a half though--a little goes a long way!

June at the Farmer's Market

June always means lots of wonderful fruits and vegetables--the kind that are really best grown locally, and in season, like peaches and tomatoes. What better place to explore the bounty of the month than the farmers' market? Last weekend I went to Sunset Valley to buy a few things, but mostly just to admire what the farmers had grown.

Entry to the market, 10 AM

Corn, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers

Squash, peaches

Beets, squash

Bell peppers, squash

Onions

Cabbage, carrots

Squash! (under a yellow awning)

Mushrooms

About half of the vendors at the market are farmers; the other half sell hand-made goods, or prepared foods. This vendor, Empanadas La Boca, always has tempting pizzas and baked goods.

However, I was more in the mood for a mango-chile popsicle.

Just the right mix of sweet and salty

Ahhh, refreshing on a hot morning :)

Eat Your Veggies: Kale Chips

One of the least-anticipate side effects of being mostly vegetarian, I've discovered, is random cravings for vegetables. You'd think it would be the opposite--random cravings for hamburgers or pork ribs--but surprisingly often I think, "Wow, what I really want is a big helping of really tasty veggies." 

Until recently, those cravings were never for kale, but that may be changing. Kale belongs to the leafy green family, those miracle plants that are supposed to be so good for you yet are often intimidating in their leafiness and "healthy" taste. Having enjoyed kale in a stir fry a few weeks back, I came across this recipe for kale "chips" (or crisps, if you prefer) and decided to give it a shot.

In the pan

On the plate

They are very good. In fact, I ate them all in one sitting (about one small kale head's worth). Very delicate and crisp. Highly recommended! I kept mine in the oven a little longer than the recipe called for, about 30 minutes.