Sometime I can’t resist buying produce because of it’s color: neon-green cauliflower, fire-red carrots or golden beets.  This time it was an old friend, purple cabbage.  I knew I shouldn’t have bought it for the meal I was making because I’ve only used it with German or Eastern-European meals in the form of sweet and sour cabbage with apples.  I was making pasta.  But after thinking it through I came up with a stunningly easy and versatile dish that was the star of the meal.  I’ll be making it over and over again this winter, either with red or green cabbage.  For the sweet component that purple cabbage harmonizes so well with, I used balsamic vinegar.  Although I got a little tired of balsamic vinegar for a while, I realized I was getting what I paid for, which was not much.  These days I’m still not buying aceto balsamico tradizionale, but I’m splurging for a better bottle, and using it thoughtfully.

singe-broiled cabbage

Core cabbage and cut into thin ribbons.  Toss in a bowl with just enough oil to lightly coat.  Scatter  on a foil-lined broiler pan and/or an old sheet pan in one layer -cook the cabbage in batches if necessary. Place under the broiler for a few minutes, stirring once, remove when just the edges have turned dark brown, a few caramelized pieces are nice. (If cooking in batches transfer the cabbage to a non-plastic bowl, cover with foil and set aside until all the cabbage is cooked.)
Toss the cabbage with sea salt or fleur de sel, freshly ground pepper, and some syrupy balsamic vinegar, all to taste.

Last year before the neighbors cut down their apple trees (sigh), I went onto their property without asking (maybe that’s why), and picked up fallen apples, cut off the bad spots and made the most delicious applesauce I’d ever tried: just apples, fresh lemon juice, and a few gratings of fresh ginger.  I came into some more apples and made it again, this time, I had run out of lemons and fresh ginger, so I used bottled lemon juice and dried ginger.  Such a sad pot of applesauce.

As much as I had been looking forward this year to repeating that first applesauce I had made, I bought some nice plums at the farmer’s market and threw them in.  At first I regretted it.  When it was hot, the flavors were off with a strange aftertaste.  I added a little honey with the lemon juice and ginger.  I still wasn’t impressed, and resigned myself to being a purest.  The next day when I pulled it out of the refrigerator though, it was changed: full of flavor, no unpleasant aftertaste.  It actually tasted quite beautiful.  The plums added an end-of-summer flavor that bridged the fall flavor of the apples.  A very timely applesauce that made me realize there’s lots of room for improvisation with top-notch ingredients.

plum applesauce
I left the the plums unpeeled (they become tender), but you can peel them if you like.  Cut an X across the bottom, and place in boiling water for 30-60 seconds.  The peel should slip off.

5 lbs. cooking apples, peeled, cored, chopped
2 lbs. plums, peeled (optional), stones removed, chopped
honey or brown sugar, to taste
fresh lemon juice, to taste
fresh ginger, to taste

Put the apples and plums in a large pot and add an inch or two of water.  Cook over medium heat until the fruit begins to break down, stirring and adding more water as needed.  Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer until the fruit is cooked through, mashing with the back of a spoon for a chunky texture, or putting in a food processor for a smooth texture.  Add the ginger, and continue cooking five more minutes.  Turn off the heat and let cool to room temperature.  Add the honey and lemon juice to taste, refrigerate and serve chilled.

Inexplicably delicious and blissfully simple.  It can’t get any better than that.  Oh, wait: my kids were fighting over bites from my bowl the next day.

This is a great basic recipe -perfect on it’s own, but it is also great for improvising if you’re into that.  You could go very Latino with this dish, adding cilantro stems or epazote to the beans while they cook, frying chopped tomato with the onions for the tiganissi, or topping the dish with avocado.  Or you could use black-eyed peas and chard and flavor it with lemon (skip the honey), as in my original inspiration for this dish (Cypriot Black-eyed Peas and Swiss Chard from World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey.)  The basic formula is cooked beans and greens with a splash of something sour, topped with fried onions and garlic in oil.

black beans and kale with tiganissi

Tiganissi is a type of garnish I’ve found in recipes from Cyprus, in which onions and other vegetables are quickly fried in plenty of oil and poured over a dish, resulting in unbelievable amounts of flavor.

for the beans and kale:
1 1/4 cup black beans, uncooked
1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves chopped into small pieces
salt, to taste
1/4 cup lime juice, or to taste
small spoonful honey (or agave for vegans)

for the tiganissi:
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of red pepper flakes or 1 jalapeno, minced
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced

cooked rice, to serve

Put the beans in a large heavy pot, cover with several inches of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are almost cooked through, about 2 hours, but start checking sooner.  Add the kale and salt, to taste. Simmer until both the beans and kale are tender. Add the lime juice and honey to taste, as well as more salt if needed.

Heat the oil for the tiganissi in a medium frying pan over fairly high heat. Add the red pepper flakes or jalapeno, and stir for about 5 seconds. Add the onion and garlic. The temperature of the oil is important. You want the onions to turn brown around the edges. If the temperature is too cool, the onions will caramelize evenly, which is not what you want for this dish. The cooking should not take very long. Pour the tiganissi over the beans, and serve mixed with rice.

I don’t know if I’m the only parent who routinely forgets to save food for the kids.  Around here it happens at least once a week: I get carried away enjoying my food and *expletive* it’s gone and the kids are still hungry.  After managing to cook a meal for the family, while keeping 2 eyes on the kids, I have to come up with something else.

Well, I like making my own gnocchi, but the evening inevitably ends with me staring in the fridge wishing I hadn’t been so selfish.  Doubling the recipe isn’t really an option, because of the labor involved in cooking them.  Perhaps I just haven’t gotten a good system down, but it doesn’t really make a difference at this point.

So I tried packaged gnocchi, and I’m not ashamed to say I like it.  And I can easily cook enough for the whole family with a little leftover.  This is one of those meals that I look forward to making because cooking goes so fast, it’s the perfect balance of light and filling, and bursts with flavor.

gnocchi with broccoli, tomato, olives, capers & pine nuts
serves 4

1/3 cup olive oil, plus 3 tablespoons, divided
1 3/4 lb. ripe tomatoes, chopped
generous 1/4 cup green olives, chopped
2 spoonfuls capers
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 cup pine nuts
1 3/4 lb. broccoli, broken into bit sized pieces, stem peeled and chopped as well
2 lbs. packaged potato gnocchi
big handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Heat 1/3 cup of the oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.  Drain the excess juice from the tomaotes, if any, and reserve. Add the tomatoes to the pan and fry until tasty.  This may be as quick as 1 minute if the tomatoes are ripe and in season.  Add the capers, olives and reserved tomato juice.  Heat through.  Remove from the heat and cover.

In a small frying pan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil over very low heat.  Add the pine nuts and garlic, and fry very gently until first the garlic is cooked through, then the pine nuts and garlic turn golden.  Remove from heat and reserve.

In a large pot of salted boiling water,  cook the broccoli until crisp-tender.  Remove with a slotted spoon or spider whisk.  Add the gnocchi to the same water and cook according to package directions, about two minutes or until they float to the top.  Drain.

Toss together the gnocchi, broccoli, tomato mixture, pine nut mixture and parsley and serve.

Around the world, there is a great divide between local restaurant cuisine and local home cooking.  And maybe I’m biased because I’ve never been able to afford three star Michelin restaurants, but I’m a home-cooking girl.  Sure there are great affordable restaurants everywhere, but they have their limits.  At the end of every day, wherever I am, I really just want a home-cooked meal.  If I can’t have it, I’ll settle for a plate at a restaurant with varying degrees of satisfaction.

So if I tell you that I didn’t fall in love with Spanish food after living in Spain 6 months maybe you can forgive me, because I never got a home-cooked Spanish meal.  I had some unforgettable fare, to be sure: my first Spanish tortilla, fried eggplant, tapas at a crowded bar, bocadillos with jamón Serrano or chorizo and churros with thick hot chocolate.  But honestly, the best Spanish food I’ve had has come from my kitchen these past couple of weeks.  Mostly because of Penelope Casas’ extraordinary book La Cocina de Mamá: The Great Home Cooking of Spain.  I’ve already remade every recipe I’ve tried, and can’t get enough.

So here’s a paella recipe from the book, like nothing I tried while in Spain.  My adaptations of using a short-grain brown rice instead of white Bomba rice and a cast-iron pan instead of a traditional paella pan make it slightly less authentic, but it’s everyday home cooking and it’s delicious.

Isabel’s vegetable paella

adapted from La Cocina de Mamá: The Great Home Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas

I honestly prefer brown rice here, just be sure to use a short-grain variety.  And a quick tip that I’ve used here: to substitute brown rice for white rice, bring a generous pot of water to a boil, add brown rice and cook for 10 minutes, then drain.  Use as directed for white rice in nearly any recipe.

2 carrots
2 small celery stalks, or the heart with leaves
1/2 medium onion
4 oz. shitake mushrooms cleaned, stems only (reserve caps for the paella)
1 clove of garlic
4 cups water
1/8 teaspoon saffron
salt, to taste

Roughly chop the vegetables, and put in a saucepan with the water.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 20-30 minutes.  Remove the vegetables and discard.  Add salt to taste.  Add the saffron, cover and turn the heat down very low, or off completely.

1 1/4 cup short-grain brown rice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup frozen lima beans, thawed
1 medium carrot (3 oz.) scrubbed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
reserved shitake mushroom caps, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 lb. green beens, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (about 35 beans or 1 heaping cup chopped)
2 red bell peppers, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
6 oz. zuchhini, choppeed into 1/2 inch cubes (1 1/3 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped whole canned plum tomatoes
1 teaspoon pimentón de la Vera- sweet smoked Spanish paprika

In a large saucepan, bring a generous amount of water to a boil. Add the rice and cook, continuing to boil for 10 minutes.  Remove any scum that comes to the top. Drain. Let continue to drain in a colander until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 400 (gas) or 450 (electric).  Heat the oil in a large 12-14 inch cast iron pan over fairly high heat (just one less than the highest setting).  Add all the vegetables except the garlic and tomato.  Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly until the vegetables pick up some nice color and are crisp-tender.  Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more, still stirring.  Add the tomato and paprika, and continue cooking for a minute more.  Taste for salt.

Add 3 cups of the broth and the rice, reduce the heat and simmer about 10 minutes, until the rice is getting relatively soft.  If needed, add the remaining broth.  There should be enough to finish cooking the rice.

Transfer to the oven, and cook about 10(gas) to 15(electric) minutes more, until nearly al dente.  Remove from the oven, cover with foil and let sit 5-10 minutes until the rice is cooked.  Return the pan to the stovetop and cook undisturbed over high heat for about 3 minutes until a crust (the socarrat) has formed on the bottom .

When I saw a recipe for “Snobby Joes” in Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, I rolled my eyes.  I don’t like Sloppy Joes, and I don’t like imitation anything.  But then I read the clever intro about Snobby Joes feeling superior for not eating meat, and when I saw they were based on lentils, they got me.  The best part is that I actually like them far more than any meat version I’ve tried.

But I’m a little  embarrassed to be talking to you about Sloppy Joes.  And I’ll be honest: if I hadn’t just come back from vacation, I probably would have waited to find a more impressive recipe to post.  But I think you are getting the good end of the deal.  This recipe hits the spot and comes together fast for a weeknight meal.

I did change up the spices a little here.  I didn’t mean to, but the first time I tried this I was out of chile powder, and used a mole-inspired spice blend with ancho.  The results were delicious.  The traditional flavor of Sloppy Joes came through, but the cocoa powder added some depth and the spices gave it some intrigue.

vegan Sloppy Joes (a.k.a. Snobby Joes)
adapted from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

2 cups dried lentils
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 green peppers, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons  cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
2 teaspoons salt
15-16 oz. can tomato sauce
6 oz. can tomato paste
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
8-12 rolls, to serve

In a medium-large pot, cover the lentils with approximately 8 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until lentils are just soft, about 20 minutes.  Drain, and return to the pot.

In the meantime, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion and green pepper.  Cook over medium heat until softened, about 7 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook one minute more.

Add the vegetables to the lentils and stir in the spices, sugar, cocoa powder, tomato sauce and tomato paste.  Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture starts to meld.  Stir in the maple syrup and mustard, cover and let rest off the heat for 10 minutes more.

Serve on toasted rolls.

I take bean dishes for granted. To me, they are the go-to meal-foundations that boneless skinless chicken breast recipes used to be, before I came to my senses. When I don’t know what to cook, I put on a pot of beans, like I used to defrost a chicken breast or two. Beans take a little more planning if you cook them fresh, but there’s no nasty raw meat mess to carefully clean up, and they taste better. Sure, the chicken breast might have a chance if it weren’t stripped of the dignity of skin and bones, but as-is, it’s beans every time for me. Plus the beans cook unattended with plenty of time to figure out what to put with them. And a tip: you don’t have to soak them before cooking. You might end up with a few broken beans, but who cares?*

My bean routine is as follows:
-measure out about 1/2 cup of dried beans per person (main dish portion)
-cover with about 3 times as much water, (less if they have been soaked)
-bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, let cook on low for 2-4 hours
-salt ONLY when they are almost cooked through (salt toughens the skins and prohibits the water from softening the beans during cooking.)
-check every hour, as convenient, to make sure the water is covering the beans, and stir

The creative part is adding aromatics to the beans while they are simmering. This time I added dried New Mexican style chiles, (a good substitute for the sweet Spanish Nora chile), plenty of unpeeled garlic, and a few sprigs of herbs. A couple of onions got caramelized, some eggplants braised until silky smooth in just enough tomato sauce, and some no-knead bread was popped in the oven.  Chickpeas on their own have an amazing pot liquor, but the chiles made for a deeply flavored dish that I couldn’t get enough of.  I just about cried when Romeo offered the leftovers to his dad.

If you are having trouble getting excited about chickpeas or pintos, check out Rancho Gordo’s heirloom beans.  Steve Sando’s enthusiasm is contagious. (And adding “heirloom” to any ingredient makes it sexier, not to mention “Indian woman.”)

*Cannellini (not to be confused with navy) beans are the exception -they fall apart- so soak them first for salads.  Other applications should be fine.

Spanish-style chickpeas and eggplant with caramelized onions

2 cups dried chickpeas
7 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 sprigs parsley, plus more for garnish
3 New Mexican dried chiles
10 sprigs thyme
2 onions, sliced
2 large eggplants
14 oz. can whole plum tomatoes or 6 fresh plum tomatoes, chopped
olive oil, about 1/3 cup, separated
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Put the beans in a heavy pot and cover with plenty of water (about 6 cups.) Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Add garlic, parsley, chiles, and thyme. Cover and let cook for 3-4 hours, but check after two. (The time can vary depending on the age of the beans.)

Caramelize the onions: heat a frying pan over a medium-low burner. Thinly coat the bottom with olive oil and add the onions. Cook slowly until the onions first become very soft, and then pick up a reddish-brown color. Set aside.

Peel (if you like) and chop the eggplant into slightly large bite-size pieces. Cook in a generous amount of oil with a sprinkle of salt. When the edges soften and the flesh is glossy, add the tomatoes and juice. Cover and simmer for 1 hour or until very soft.

When the beans are approaching tender, add salt to taste -don’t be shy. Let cook about 15 minutes more, then remove the garlic, parsley, chiles and thyme stems. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins and scrape the flesh of the chiles, return both back to the pot.
Add the beans to eggplant mixture, check for seasoning and let simmer 15 more minutes. Top with caramelized onions and flecks of fresh parsley leaves.

Cantaloupe has finally found a home in my kitchen.  After years of half-hearted tolerance, I can now say I love the melon and its lovely floral flavors.  Maybe I’ve been alone for years in detecting an off flavor that just doesn’t hit my palate right, but I don’t think so. Hasn’t any one else been disappointed at nearly every restaurant fruit plate composed of 50% cantaloupe?

Well, when Romeo starting chunking up my least favorite fruit and making a smoothie out of it, I wasn’t thrilled.  But we drink smoothies all the time.  One mediocre drink wasn’t gong to ruin my day.

Then I tasted it, and was blown away. The key is in balancing out the flavors with the pineapple and raspberries.  All the beautiful notes come out, and all the ugly ones fade away.  I don’t know what the carrot adds exactly, since I couldn’t taste it, but this smoothie has got it going on, and I’m not messing with it.

Cantaloupe Smoothie
1 lb. cantaloupe (about 3/8 of a small melon)
1/3 pineapple
5 oz. (half a bag) frozen raspberries
1 carrot
1 cup 100% juice fruit punch blend (or more depending on your blender)
5 ice cubes

Chunk up the melon, pineapple and carrot - you know your blender so you decide the size of the pieces.  Put everything in the blender and whiz until very smooth and a little frothy, adding more juice if necessary - you want a pourable consistency.  Makes 2 smoothies, but you might want to drink them both yourself.

Hearty but not gut-busting, summer is a great time to install chickpea flour in your pantry.  With Mark Bittman on my side (or am I on his side?) it might already be there.  Toasting it like a roux creates a deeply nutty flavor base and thickener for soup.  It’s the perfect new friend for broccoli, which usually can’t drag itself away from cheese and cream, which are loyal friends, but sometimes it needs to mingle with others.

While I was waiting for my second planting of cilantro to grow, I thought it might be fun to experiment with the blossoms of the first planting.  They are so pretty and have a distinct flavor, like green coriander - unexpectedly different from cilantro leaves.  The combination of lemon balm and coriander blossoms is perfect- spicy and refreshing.  But if you can’t get both lemon balm and coriander blossoms I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to make this soup with basil.  It might be less exotic sounding, but no less delicious.  And  the soup actually lends basil a really special note and revives its sometimes over-used flavor.   So it’s up to you- basil or lemon balm and coriander blossoms.

broccoli and toasted chickpea flour soup with lemon balm and coriander blossoms

8 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chickpea flour
2 lbs. broccoli, trimmed and chopped
salt, to taste
7 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 1/2-2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup lemon balm leaves, chopped
10 heads coriander blossoms, chopped, plus more for garnish

Put the water in a tea kettle, and bring to a boil.  In the meantime, heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat.  Add the chickpea flour and stir, scraping the bottom until it becomes a shade darker.  Very slowly add the water from the kettle, using a whisk and stopping to beat until smooth when a thick paste forms.  When all the water is added, put the broccoli and salt in the pot and bring to a simmer.  While the broccoli is cooking, toast the garlic on a comal or cast iron pan until the skins are charred and the inside is soft.  Peel the garlic and mash the cloves with a little water from the soup pot.  Taste the soup for salt -you may have to add quite a bit- making sure it’s tasty (although it will get better soon).    Squeeze in the lemon juice, and add the lemon balm, coriander blossoms, and mashed garlic. Puree in a blender or use an immersion blender.  If it is too thick add a little more water -you want it to be the consistency of cream of broccoli soup.  It it is too thin, let simmer until it thickens.  Serve alongside bread with a head of coriander blossoms floating in the soup.

I don’t know about you, but I’m done with doctored up tomato sauces.  I only want three things in my tomato sauce: olive oil, garlic and tomatoes.  Ok, and a little salt - that’s four.  Everyone is looking to add that secret ingredient that sends their version over the top.   But have you ever had a pure homemade tomato sauce?   Every time I make it, people ask, “what did you put in this?”  Not much, but it’s surprisingly delicious.

Here’s a simple recipe to try.  Don’t feel bad for all those times you went crazy with other batches of tomato sauce.  With the first tomatoes of the season just around the corner, give yourself a fresh start.  This is the perfect all-purpose sauce to make and preserve.

perfect tomato sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can of good quality whole plum tomatoes (I’m not overly impressed with San Marzano, but also don’t like many generic brands) or 2 lbs. peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes
salt, to taste

Heat the oil in saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook until soft.  Do not let it pick up any color.  Add the tomatoes and juice, as well as a pinch or two of salt.  Cook for 20 minutes or so, smashing the tomatoes against the side of the pan, or alternately, use an immersion blender and puree.  Taste again for salt.

Once you really enjoy this sauce, I admit, you can play with it a little.  But every addition should mean something, and I wouldn’t add more than one or two extras.  I might add lemon zest if it’s going with ricotta cheese, a minced shallot if it’s going with other vegetables or a splash of wine with meat.  Most of the time though, I don’t want anything else.