indian diced potatoes with greens

I’ve made and loved this recipe for years—it’s a variation on one in Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking.  You can find both the mustard seeds and the garam masala at Summit Spice & Tea Co. (1120 E Huffman Rd #4, in Anchorage), or in the gourmet spice section at most grocery stores. I usually serve this with garlicky yogurt sauce (recipe follows)—it’s the perfect combination, and it’s really very easy. I don’t think you even need to serve rice alongside (because of the potatoes), but it’s good with brown basmati rice (recipe also follows) or pita bread.

2 pounds waxy potatoes (e.g., Yukon Gold)
sea salt and kosher salt
1 to 2 pounds collard greens or kale
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon whole black or brown mustard seeds
1 to 2 large onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice mixture)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
garlicky yogurt sauce (optional; recipe below)

1. Bring 2 ½ quarts of water to a boil. Peel potatoes if you like (I don’t bother) and dice into ¾-inch cubes, then add to boiling water with 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil again. Cover, turn heat to low and cook potatoes until they are tender—about 6 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain. Spread potatoes out and leave to cool.
2. Bring a large pot of water to boil, and salt it well.
3. Cut the long stems away from the collard or kale leaves. Stack the leaves on top of each other and slice the leaves into 1-inch wide ribbons.
4. Plunge the greens into the pot of boiling salted water, and cook until tender. This could take as long as 8 or 10 minutes, but could be much shorter. Start tasting after 5 minutes. Drain the greens and set aside.
5. Heat oil in a heavy, 12-inch, preferably nonstick skillet over a medium-high flame. When very hot, put in the mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds begin to pop (this just takes a few seconds), add the onion and 1 teaspoon of salt. Turn heat to medium and fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Onions should turn very lightly brown at the edges. Add the garlic and fry for another minute or two. Now put in the chopped greens and keep stirring and frying for another 10 minutes. If the greens aren’t meltingly tender, add a cup or so of water and let them simmer on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the cooked potatoes, the garam masala, and the cayenne pepper. Stir and mix gently until potatoes are heated through. Taste for salt and add more as necessary.  Serve with garlicky yogurt sauce, and rice if you like!


garlicky yogurt sauce (raita)

2 cups plain yogurt
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

Put the yogurt in a bowl. Whisk until smooth and creamy. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well, taste for more salt, and chill until needed.


brown basmati rice
I learned this technique from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven, a great cookbook with lots of healthy, simple vegetable recipes. The rice is cooked using lots of water, which I find works perfectly for brown basmati—it’s never gummy or undercooked this way.

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown basmati rice
2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt

1. Fill a medium-sized pot with 10 cups or so of water (it doesn’t need to be exact) and bring to a rolling boil. Add the rice to the water, turn down the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the rice is just tender.
2. Drain the rice in a strainer over the sink, and immediately dump rice back into the hot pot. Cover tightly with the lid and let steam OFF THE HEAT for 20 minutes. Fluff the rice.

spicy lentils with roasted squash and greens

This recipe is based on one in Peter Berley’s book, The Flexitarian Table. But instead of cooking the squash or pumpkin in the lentils for the last 20 minutes, as he does, I like to use leftover roasted winter squash cubes. You can do it either way, but the roasted squash is yummier--and it looks pretty as a garnish, instead of being cooked in the soup. (Not that I’m all about pretty food, but I’m trying to convince you to do the roasted squash cubes recipe. You’ll never go back.) You can get the smoked paprika (and other spices) from Summit Spice & Tea Co., at 1120 E. Huffman Road. Of course I like to make a double batch, and then I freeze half before adding the kale and squash. This is a complete meal on its own.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, diced
2 tablespoons hot or sweet Spanish smoked paprika
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted in a skillet and freshly ground
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, toasted in a skillet and freshly ground
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup French green lentils, soaked for 2 to 24 hours
28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, with their juice
1-2 pounds of leftover roasted winter squash cubes, or raw squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound lacinato or regular curly green kale, tough stems discarded

1. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and cook the onions until starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the spices and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Drain the lentils and add them to the onions, along with the tomatoes and their juice. Add enough cold water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. If you’re starting with raw squash, add the squash cubes after the lentils have cooked for 25 minutes, and cook them with the lentils for the last 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the kale and boil for 3-6 minutes, until tender (keep testing!). Drain and chop coarsely.
3. When the lentils are quite tender, add the kale to the lentils and season with salt and pepper. If the soup seems a little bitter, add a drizzle of honey to take the edge off. Just add a little at a time, though! Sometimes the collards and the smoky paprika can be a bit much, and the honey really mellows things nicely. Also, don’t be afraid to season nicely with salt.Simmer for another 3 minutes while you heat the leftover roasted squash (I use the microwave). If you’re using the leftover roasted squash, serve the lentils with a dollop of roasted squash in the center of each bowl.

roasted winter squash cubes

Smooth-skinned squashes (like butternut and banana squash) are easiest for this recipe, because it’s very easy to peel them before they are cooked. When I make this recipe, I usually roast two pounds of squash because the cubes make such great leftovers.

1 pound piece of banana squash, or 1 large butternut squash (at least a pound)
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel and seed your squash and dice it into ½” pieces (the pieces don’t have to be square).
3. Coat a large baking sheet with non-stick spray or oil. (This makes clean-up a lot easier.)
4. Toss the squash cubes with the olive oil and salt. Spread them out in a single layer on the baking sheet.
5. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until starting to get brown and slightly shriveled. Remove the squash from the oven, keeping the oven on, and drizzle a little honey over the squash. Toss the cubes with the honey and return to the oven. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes more, until the squash is browned.

soft and chewy gingerbread men

This recipe is based on a back issue of Cooks Illustrated (November 1999), and these cut-outs are way yummier than the usual hard, dry gingerbread men.  There is plenty of butter in them, so if you don’t overbake them, they remain soft and chewy—the way I like my cookies! Just bake them a bit longer if you prefer crunchy cookies.

The dough is quite soft when you make it, so it’s very easy to smoosh and then roll out between sheets of parchment paper. Don’t try cutting the dough into shapes right away, though—it’s way too soft until it’s been frozen. The key is to have the dough FROZEN solid. (Wait until a cold day like we did—it was zero degrees and the dough chilled nicely on the back porch!) Because you roll out the dough between pieces of parchment paper, and don’t add extra flour, you can keep re-rolling the dough scraps as necessary, and the cookies don’t get tough.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1½ sticks butter (12 tablespoons), cut into 12 pieces
¾ cup molasses
2 tablespoons milk

1. In a food processor bowl fitted with steel blade, process flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda until combined, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture and process until butter is incorporated, about 15 seconds. Dump in the molasses and milk and process until the dough is evenly moistened and forms a soft mass, about 10 seconds.
2. Scrape dough onto a piece of parchment paper, and divide in half. Working with one portion of dough at a time, roll out somewhere between 1/8-inch and ¼-inch thick between two large sheets of parchment paper. This is a little bit tricky, since the piece of parchment on the bottom side will tend to wrinkle up as you roll the top. Just keep flipping it over, and straightening out the wrinkles. It’s also challenging to know how thin you’re getting the dough, since you can’t see it very well—but it doesn’t much matter. Just do the best you can to get a fairly even layer, and don’t get too obsessive about it. Leave the dough sandwiched between parchment layers, and place on cookie sheet. Freeze it on the cookie sheet until firm, at least 30 minutes, or overnight.
3. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. If your cookie sheets aren’t non-stick, coat them with cooking spray, or line them with parchment paper.
4. Remove one dough sheet from freezer; place on work surface. Peel off top parchment sheet and gently lay it back in place. Flip dough over; peel off and discard second parchment layer. This first step is genius (pre-peeling the parchment off the dough, then putting it gently back on). It lets the dough come off the bottom sheet easily after you cut the shapes out.
5. Cut dough into desired shapes, transferring shapes to cookie sheets as you go. If it’s really frozen, the dough will stay in the cookie cutters when you pick up the shapes, which makes it easy to poke them out onto the cookie sheet—but only if you use the metal cutters that are open at the top. I wouldn’t recommend using closed-top plastic cutters with this recipe, since I think it would stick badly, and as soon as the dough warms up, it’s very soft and gooey. If the dough stays on the parchment when you cut it out, transfer them to the cookie sheet with a wide metal spatula, spacing them ¾-inch apart; set scraps aside. Repeat with remaining dough until cookie sheets are full.
6. Decorate the cookies with raisins or nuts or whatever else suits your fancy.
7. Bake cookies for 7 to 8 minutes. They will be soft in the center, and just firm at the edges. Do NOT overbake. Cool cookies on sheets 2 minutes, then remove with wide metal spatula to wire rack; cool to room temperature.
8. Gather scraps; repeat rolling, chilling, cutting, and baking. Repeat with remaining dough until all dough is used.
9. Store the cookies in an airtight container with sheets of waxed paper or parchment paper between the layers.

green salad with pears, fennel & pear vinaigrette

This salad is one of my absolute favorites—and it’s great with winter pears. It’s based on a recipe from Annie Somerville’s Everyday Greens. I love fennel, but the key to eating raw fennel is slicing it really thinly. It’s quite a tough vegetable when raw, so if the slices aren’t thin, you really get a jaw workout. I use a mandoline—a fancy slicer that allows me to get paper-thin slices—but if you’re careful to use a very sharp knife and take your time, you can get thin enough slices by hand. (If you want more justification for buying a mandoline, see my recipe and story for the cabbage & fennel salad with apples & raisins.)

The dressing is really fun, too—it’s just pureed pears with some pear vinegar and a little olive oil and salt. SO tasty, though, and it’ll keep for a couple of days in your refrigerator if you have leftovers. I’ve found a couple of different brands of pear vinegar in grocery stores and specialty stores in town, but if you can’t find any, you can substitute 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons apple juice.

Dressing

1 medium pear, peeled, cored, and chopped coarsely
6 tablespoons pear vinegar
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
sugar, as needed

Place the pear in a blender with the vinegar and salt; puree it until smooth. Drizzle in the oil while the blender is running. Taste for salt and sweetness. If your pears weren’t very sweet, you might want to add a little sugar to the dressing, or you can add more olive oil to tame the vinegar’s sharpness. Refrigerate until ready to serve the salad.

Salad

2 large heads of lettuce, or about 10 cups of baby salad greens
1 large fennel bulb, cut in half, cored, and sliced very thinly crosswise
1-2 ripe pears
Optional garnish in winter: ¼ cup pomegranate seeds

1. Wash and dry the greens and make the dressing.
2. When you’re ready to serve the salad, cut the pear(s) in half, cut the core away, and slice thinly.
3. Put the greens and fennel into a bowl and toss them with dressing to your taste, then add the pears and toss gently. Arrange on individual plates, and if pomegranates are in season, top with their seeds. 

roasted sweet potato or yam slices

This recipe is based on one from Cook’s Illustrated.  First, let’s get our terminology straight. Sweet potatoes like the ones I’ve used in this recipe are usually called yams in the grocery store—for example, garnet yams.

Starting the sweet potatoes in a cold oven keeps the temperature lower at first, to allow more of the starches in the sweet potatoes to convert to sugars. Then the 425-degree final temperature browns and caramelizes them. Trimming the small ends of the sweet potatoes prevents them from burning. If you prefer not to peel the potatoes, just scrub them well before cutting.

3 pounds yams or sweet potatoes (about 6 medium), ends trimmed, peeled, rinsed, and cut into 3/4-inch thick rounds
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1. Toss sweet potatoes in large bowl with oil and salt until evenly coated. Grease a large rimmed baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray.
2. Arrange sweet potatoes in single layer on baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Adjust oven rack to middle position and place yams in COLD OVEN. Turn oven on to 425 degrees and cook sweet potatoes 30 minutes.
3. Carefully remove foil, and return sweet potatoes to oven and cook until bottom edges of yams are golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes. If they are very tender and brown, they are already done! (Whether they are done or not will depend on how fast your oven heats up.) If not tender yet, go to Step 4.
4. Use a spatula to flip slices over. Continue to roast until bottom edges of sweet potatoes are golden brown, and they are quite soft in the center, 10 to 20 minutes longer.
5. Remove from oven; transfer to platter and serve.

broccoli with parsley pesto

You can make this recipe with my parsley pesto, below, or just use prepared pesto from the store. Either way, it’s great with the sweet potatoes! And it’s great left-over, as well.

2 pounds broccoli
½ to 1 cup Parsley Pesto
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly-ground pepper

1. Make the pesto, and put a generous dollop of it in the bottom of a large bowl. If already made and frozen, put a nice-sized hunk of frozen pesto in the bottom of a large bowl to thaw. (I usually put it in a big ceramic bowl and nuke it for a minute in the microwave.)
2. Peel the broccoli stalks if the skin is tough, starting from the bottom of the stem, using a paring knife—the thick skin will peel away from the stalk. Then slice the stalks into coins less than ¼” thick. Cut the florets into bite-sized pieces.
3. Put about an inch of water in the bottom of a pot that you can put a steamer basket in. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil. When the water boils, put the broccoli stems in the steamer basket and steam for 4-6 minutes until barely tender. Check them every minute after 4 minutes, poking with a sharp paring knife.
4. Remove the stems, shake excess water off, and toss them in the bowl with the pesto.
5. Put the broccoli florets in the steamer, and steam for 3-5 minutes until just tender, keeping a close eye on them. Toss them with the stems and pesto. Taste for more pesto and add more if you like. You’ll need to use more parsley pesto than basil pesto, since it’s not quite as pungent as basil pesto. Season with salt and pepper if needed, and serve!

Parsley Pesto
This recipe makes more than you’ll need for the broccoli recipe, but you can very easily freeze the extra. Make sure to label it “parsley” because you don’t want to mistake it for basil pesto, later.

2 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
4 cups packed parsley leaves
½ cup pine nuts
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

1. In a food processor, chop the garlic with the salt.
2. Add the parsley leaves and pine nuts, and turn on the motor, beginning to grind the parsley. It’s OK if all the leaves aren’t incorporated yet.
3. While the motor is running, pour in the olive oil gradually. Let the blade run for a while to puree the mixture. It won’t be very smooth, but I find it impossible to get the parsley pesto smooth, anyway—the leaves are too tough. But it’s still delicious! 
4. Taste for salt, and add more as needed.
5. Use what you’d like for tonight’s dinner, then scoop the rest into a freezer ziplock bag and freeze flat.

tomato soup with croutons

This tomato soup is a revelation: it’s yummy, creamy and rich without any cream or butter in it! It’s based on a recipe in Peter Berley’s book The Flexitarian Table. I think it makes a difference to use really good canned tomatoes and tomato paste, and I like Muir Glen. Another reason I love this recipe is because I can use gobs of local Alaskan carrots and onions! For a meal, serve this soup with any kind of a simple green vegetable or savory salad. I like to make a double batch and then freeze the extras for a fast meal later, when I’m cold and hungry!

You can just toast the bread in the toaster for the croutons, and cut it into cubes (that’s what I did today!), or you can get fancy and make the garlicky croutons if you aren’t already starving-hungry, and can wait 20 minutes for them to toast in the oven.

The Soup

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups thinly sliced onions (3-4 medium)
sea salt or kosher salt
1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 medium carrots (peeled if the skins are tough), sliced
large pinch of red pepper flakes, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes or diced tomatoes in juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water (I use broth left over from cooking white beans with onion and garlic)
two 2-inch strips of orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 teaspoon dried sage

1. I slice the onions and carrots in the food processor—this is especially time-saving if you’re doing a double batch of soup. Just cut off the stem end of the carrots and push them down through the narrow feed tube, pushing with the pusher cup.
2. In a heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, until the onions have softened—5 minutes or so. Add the garlic cloves, carrots, and pepper flakes, lower the heat, cover, and cook until the vegetables are sweet and juicy and tender, but not browned, 20 minutes or so. Check and stir occasionally, adding a few tablespoons of water if the vegetables are dry.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the stock or water, orange zest and sage and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and discard the orange zest. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender. It’s easiest to do this if you’ve let the soup cool for a while first. Season with salt if you like, but I didn’t find it necessary because of the salt already added to the onions and in the canned tomatoes. Reheat the soup before serving, and add water to thin the soup if it seems too thick.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with croutons, and serve.

The Croutons

5 slices hearty whole-grain bread
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed in a garlic press
¼ teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the garlic with the salt in the bottom of a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the olive oil. Cut the slices of bread into ½” cubes and toss them in the garlicky oil until the oil is thoroughly absorbed and distributed.
2. Spread the bread cubes out on a baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes, until the croutons are crispy and golden-brown.

delicata squash filled with wild rice, golden raisins, and pine nuts

This wonderful recipe is one of my very favorite things to do with delicata or sweet dumpling squashes. You can also use acorn squash for it, if you can’t find the other kinds. This recipe with either celery or fennel—extra-special with the fennel, but the crushed fennel seeds make up for the lack of fennel. It’s perfect for a Thanksgiving feast--or for anytime!! This is our contribution to the Nelson’s feast. (Along with fresh rosemary sourdough bread, of course, from our bakery!)

This stuffed squash recipe is based on one from Annie Somerville’s Fields of Greens, one of my favorite books for soups and salads and vegetable dishes.

The Squash

3 or 4 medium sweet dumpling or delicata squash
olive oil
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly-ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the squash, cut them in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Brush the flesh with olive oil and place the squash halves cavity side down on a baking sheet.
2. Bake for about 20 minutes, until just barely tender. (The squash will finish cooking after it’s filled.) Remove the squash from the oven, turn it cavity side up, and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. While the squash is baking, prepare the filling.

The Filling

½ cup golden raisins
½ cup dried currants
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup wild rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large or two small red or yellow onions
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, quartered lengthwise and diced (about 1 ½ cups) OR several stalks celery, diced, OR a combination of both, to make 1 ½ cups
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed in a mortar & pestle
½ cup dry white wine
zest and juice of one orange
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted over low heat in a small skillet

1. In a small bowl, combine the golden raisins and currants; cover them with boiling water and set aside to plump. 
2. Bring 1 ½ quarts of water to boil in a medium-sized saucepan. When it boils, add ½ teaspoon salt and the wild rice. Lower the heat to a gentle boil; cover and cook until the grains are tender but still chewy, about 30 to 35 minutes. Drain the rice.
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan; add the onions and ½ teaspoon salt. Saute over medium heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes, then add the fennel and/or celery and the crushed fennel seeds. Saute the fennel and/or celery for about 5 minutes, until it’s starting to soften, then add the garlic. Saute for a minute or two longer, then add the wine and simmer until the pan is nearly dry and the fennel/celery is tender.
4. In a medium-sized bowl, toss the rice with the sautéed onions and fennel; drain the fruit and add it to the rice mixture, along with the pine nuts, orange zest and juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. The filling should be very well seasoned.
5. Divide the filling among the squash halves and place in a baking dish with ¼ inch of water in the bottom. Cover with foil and bake until the filled squash is hot and steamy, about 30 to 40 minutes.
6. Serve hot or warm. These make fantastic leftovers, too, heated in the microwave.