Shawarma-Spiced Tofu Pita Wraps

These are our take on Al Basha Falafel wraps using shawarma-spiced tofu instead of the falafel. Even though it does seem like a lot of ingredients and stuff to make this is easy and fast and you definitely don't need all of the sauces for a good wrap.

 Shwarma-Spiced Tofu Pita Wraps

 Tofu recipe from Epicurious

• Pickled Turnips Or:  1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced, and 3 Tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar 

For Tofu:

• 2 (14-oz.) blocks medium tofu, drained (this makes enough for 6 hungry people)
  
• 6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 tsp. ground coriander
• 2 tsp. smoked Spanish paprika
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more

For Pitas

• 6 pitas, warmed
• 3 Persian or mini cucumbers, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 1/2 tomato, sliced
• sliced lettuce
• sliced red onion
• hummus
• Red Hot sauce if desired
  

Yogurt sauce (optional): (this one is not on the Al Basha rolls but I thought the kids might like it so I am keeping it here to try next time)

• 1/2 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
  

For Best Tahini sauce (simplified recipe from cookie and kate):

• 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ½ cup tahini
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• Pinch of ground cumin
• 6 tablespoons ice water, more as needed

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. 

2. If you don't have pickled turnips, Toss onion and vinegar in a small bowl to coat; set aside. 

3.  Squeeze tofu over a medium bowl, gently at first, then more firmly to expel some of the water (like squeezing out a big sponge). Don’t worry if it starts to crack a little but be careful not to crush it into crumbs. When no more liquid comes out, tear tofu into 1" pieces. Arrange in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Toss with oil, then add coriander, paprika, cinnamon, and salt. Toss well to coat. Roast tofu, turning once or twice, until crispy around the edges and well browned, 20–25 minutes (the tofu will get crispier as it cools, so don’t be tempted to take it too far and dry it out in the oven).

4. Make Yogurt sauce, if desired, by stirring yogurt and garlic in a small bowl; season with salt. 

5. Make Tahini sauce:

1. In a medium bowl, combine garlic, lemon juice, tahini, salt and cumin. Whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
2. Add ice water 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking after each addition until smooth. (It may seize up, don’t worry.) After about 6 tablespoons, you will have a perfectly creamy and smooth, light-colored tahini sauce.
3. If desired, thin with additional water for a more drizzly sauce. 

 6. Assemble Pita as follows:

    1. Rip pita bread around the edge into 2 pieces. Place on plate, overlapping any holes. Place ingredients on the half sitting on top.

    2. Spread the top half with hummus. 

    3. Add lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onion, and pickled turnips. 

    4. Add tofu. 

    5. Drizzle with Tahini sauce, red hot sauce if desired, and yogurt sauce if desired. 

    6. Roll up and enjoy!

 

 

 

Chickpea flour crepes with mushroom pea cream sauce filling

OK this is a bit of a crazy conglomeration that adds up to a fast-ish healthy-ish dinner that I am hoping the kids will eat. They already like the chickpea flour crepes, I tried the recipe for Socca, a Nice specialty from David Lebowitz. But it needed some vegetable component that went with them. So I went with another french classic, vegetables with bechamel sauce. Peas are not a classic crepe filling but my kids both eat them so I am using that. This recipe I think will make enough for one meal for our family.

Socca with vegetable cream filling

-- 2 cups chickpea flour
-- 2 cups plus 4 tablespoons water
-- 1 teaspoon salt

-- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

-- 3 tablespoons olive oil 

-- 1 package crimini mushrooms, cubed into 1/2-inch cubes

-- 1 cup peas

-- 2 T. butter

-- 2 T. flour

-- 2 cups milk

-- salt and pepper to taste

-- fresh herb of choice, maybe thyme would be good here? or parsley? or mint?

To make the crepes:

1. Mix together the flour, water, salt, cumin, and olive oil. Let batter rest at least 2 hours, covered, at room temperature. (or in my case, 10 minutes max)

2. Oil a frying pan pan with some olive oil and heat the pan on high heat on your stove.

3. Once the pan is hot, pour enough batter into the pan to cover the bottom, swirl it around. It should bubble up if the pan is hot enough.

4. Cook until the socca is brown on the bottom, then flip and cook more until more brown spots appear on the other side. These are easy to undercook, and if they burn a little are fine, so err on the side of cooking them more. 

5. Put the finished socca on a plate, cover with tin foil to keep warm. You can eat them plain or with filling.

6. Cook the remaining socca batter the same way, adding a touch more oil to the pan between each one.

 To make the filling:

1. In a pan on high, fry the mushrooms in the butter until they are browned on all sides and smelling and tasting good. 

2. Add the peas to the pan, as well as the flour. You want the flour to incorporate with the butter left in the pan if at all possible. If this is hard you can always add in more butter. Let the flour cook at least 60 seconds to eliminate any raw flour taste. 

3. Whisk in the milk. Let it all bubble up and cook until thick, approx. 3-5 minutes or so. If the sauce gets too thick you can always add in more milk. 

4. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

To serve, just fill the center of each crepe with maybe 1/4 cup of the vegetable cream sauce mixture, fold in the sides, and yum!!

Mushroom bolognese

I love meat bolognese sauce, but because my husband and son are vegetarian I never make it at home. Plus, it's not that healthy. When I saw this Eatingwell vegetarian version that uses mushrooms instead of the meat, I had to give it a shot. This isn't going to convince anyone it's real meat sauce but the recipe is easy to make, healthy, and has at least an echo of that bolognese flavor/texture in it (more if you add lots of Parmesan cheese). So, worth remembering.

from Eatingwell

Ingredients

• •  5 ounces spaghetti
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 large shallots, finely chopped
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
  • 10 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped
• • ⅛ teaspoon salt, or to taste (I used more than this)
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes (or blended diced tomatoes)
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (I used 1/2 teaspoon dried)
  • Parmesan cheese, for serving

Directions

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Cook pasta until a little less than you want it done. Reserve 1 cup pasta water, drain pasta.

 

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots, carrot, mushrooms, salt and pepper; cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms have wilted and the juices have evaporated, about 12 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and oregano and cook, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. 

 

3. Add the pasta to the sauce with some reserved pasta cooking water and let bubble for about 1 minute to cook some of the sauce flavors into the pasta. 

 

4. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.  

• Make Ahead Tip: Make the sauce (Step 2), cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

homemade barbecue sauce

Homemade Barbeque sauce

I just made this and now I can't find the link so I want to write it down while I still remember what I did because it tastes pretty good.

BBQ SAUCE

-- 1 cup ketchup
-- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-- 1 Tablespoon Worchestire sauce
-- 2 T. minced onion (the original recipe called for fresh, but I used dried fried onion)
-- 2 cloves garlic, minced, or 2 t. dried fried garlic
-- 2 T. molasses
-- 1/4 t. cayenne pepper, or to taste

1. mix all ingredients in bowl
2. microwave for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until thick and fragrant. You can also boil it on the stove.

chocolate sauce (small serving)

I have been making up David Lebovitz's chocolate sauce for a while, with great results. But lately, I will eat one serving of it and then the rest sits in the fridge and goes bad. So today I tried to scale down the version to make a single-size portion in the microwave, with OK results. I tend to eyeball amounts, that's why I've included 1/2 Tbsp measures in here (and also why my chocolate sauce was too sweet today!). But if you like to measure exactly, 1/2 Tbsp. = 1 1/2 tsp.

The best chocolate sauce
makes 1 large or 2 small servings

-- 1 1/2 Tbsp. water
-- 1 Tbsp. sugar
-- 1/2 Tbsp. light corn syrup, agave nectar, or glucose (or just add in another 1/2 Tbsp. sugar if you don't have these)
-- 2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
-- approx. 10 bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips.

1. In a bowl, whisk together the water, sugar, corn syrup (or agave or glucose or sugar), and cocoa powder. You can do this with a fork if you are lazy
2. Heat in microwave about 60 seconds or until very hot. Mix some more with fork.
3. Stir in chocolate chips until melted.

ode to gravy

GRAVY

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1. With a chicken or turkey dinner
2. Poutine
3. hot turkey or chicken sandwiches
4. ???

Well, that's three ways anyway. Somehow I thought it would be more. I do love gravy!

Everyone should learn how to make homemade gravy. Why?

1. It is easy to make!
2. It is cheap to make!
3. It is fast to make!
4. It makes everything taste better!
5. Gravy is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things to make homemade. Any store bought gravy is just not as good tasting. Even most restaurant gravies are not up to par.

About this time you should be asking SO HOW DO I MAKE ME SOME GRAVY?? Well here is my recipe:

Homemade Gravy
makes about 2 cups or so

-- 1 pan with roasted chicken or turkey drippings, or chicken bullion, or you can be all avant garde like my mom and use a combo of beef and chicken bullion cubes -- basically we are looking for any combo of meaty liquids that equals about 2 cups.
-- 2 T. flour
-- 1 cup water
-- salt and pepper
-- gravy darkener, or instant coffee grounds (optional if you want darker gravy)

1. PREPARE YOUR LIQUID -- take your pan drippings, if you are using them, and strain them to get any gross fatty chunks out. If you can make the gravy IN the roasting pan itself that is the best because you can scrape up the roasty brown chunks which are what make gravy the most delicious. You can let the drippings settle and then pour off the fat if you want a lower-fat gravy, it still tastes just as delicious. One thing is that if you have brined your chicken or turkey, you may not be able to use the drippings as is because they can be too salty. When that happens, I usually just add water to the drippings until the salt content is fine. If you don't have that much liquid, add bullion cubes and water so your total liquid equals about 2 cups. OR you can always just use 2 cups worth of bullion and water and forget the drippings altogether, but your gravy will be not quite as delicious.

2. BOIL THE LIQUID -- put the liquid in a pan over med-high heat and boil.

3. MAKE FLOUR/WATER SLURRY -- Anytime you get to make a slurry is a good time. Just saying the word is fun. Slurry. Slurry. Slurry. Yeah. Get about 1 cup of cold water. Add 2 Tablespoons of flour to the water, and mix it up super well with a fork or whisk. You want to make sure there are NO LUMPS IN THIS so mix well.

4. WHISK WHISK WHISK -- Whisk the boiling liquid in the pan. Mix the slurry one more time and pour in a thin stream right into where you are whisking to make sure to get it super whisked into the hot broth BEFORE it starts to cook. Lazy whisking is what causes LUMPY GRAVY which is a misdemeanor in some states, so tell your children to step away and GO CRAZY with the whisk. Keep whisking ask the mixture comes back to a boil, and you will notice as the gravy boils it thickens up very quickly. Make sure the gravy is as thick as it is going to get before you stop whisking.

5. CHECK CONSISTENCY -- Depending on how thick or thin you like your gravy, either thin it out with water, or add more slurry until your gravy becomes as thick as you like. I tend to make it thin because it thickens up as it sits.

6. CHECK FLAVORINGS -- Taste your gravy. Does it need salt and pepper? If so, add some. My mom always used to use the commercial gravy darkeners to make her gravies look better. Sometimes I just throw in a little instant coffee and it does the same thing.

Enjoy! And soon you will be writing your own Ode to Gravy!

Baked or pan-fried Falafel with tahini sauce

We are big fans of falafel, BUT it is typically deep-fried, so for the first time I tried making a pan-fried version at home. It came out very good (for healthy falafel, anyway) and I really loved the tangy sauce on the sandwich. Mahesh said he would like the falafels to have more flavor but I just thought they needed a little more salt so I have doubled the soy sauce below, but I also might try increasing the parsley, spices and/or onion and garlic too (not sure by how much though). The recipe below is based on the recipe in this video:

For the Falafels:
1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, washed and drained (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 T lemon juice
3 T onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coriander
2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 cup garbanzo flour (also called chana flour, I found this in the bulk section of a health store)
1/4 tsp baking powder

For the Tahini Sauce:
Yield: 2/3 cup
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
a few grinds black pepper
3 T tahini (a fermented sesame seed paste, can find it in the middle eastern section of stores)

Plus:
4 pita bread
4-8 lettuce leaves
1 cup chopped tomato
16-20 slices of cucumber
red hot sauce

For the Falafels:
Put all ingredients except the garbanzo flour and baking powder into a food processor. Process everything until it becomes smooth but not quite a puree. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse until mixed in. Scoop by tablespoon and form into balls. Flatten them slightly (about 1/2 inch thick). At this point you can deep fry them, pan fry them, or bake them. Deep fry in 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes OR Pan fry in lightly oiled pan on medium-high heat until browned on both sides OR Bake in 400 degree oven for 40 minutes turning them half way through the baking process.

For the Tahini Sauce:
Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

To Assemble the Pita:
Cut 1/2 inch off the top of pita. Open pocket and insert lettuce, 2-3 falafel balls, 1/4 cup tomato, 4 slices of cucumber, 1-2 tablespoons of tahini sauce, and red hot sauce to taste.

 Enjoy!

Becky's Black Bean and Corn Salsa

This is a famous recipe from my sister Becky, healthy and delicious! It also appeared in the Memare cookbook, a collection of family recipes.

Becky's Black Bean and Corn Salsa

-- 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained (or 4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes)
-- 2 cans black beans, drained
-- 1 can corn, drained
-- 1 large purple onion, chopped small
-- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
-- juice of 1 lime
-- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped small

Combine everything together and let set for at least 1 hour before serving, if possible.

Leftover Halloween Candy chocolate sauce

I just read a blog post encouraging parents to allow their children an extremely limited amount of Halloween candy, and then to THROW OUT the rest of the candy. This bugs me. I think it is a waste to have kids collect candy only to throw it out. But on the other side, I do see that it could be quite unhealthful to allow kids to eat a pound of chocolate on Halloween. But you don't need to throw out the excess candy, make it into something else -- one idea? chocolate sauce!

LEFTOVER HALLOWEEN CANDY CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 5 ounces (about 150 grams, or 13 mini chocolate bars) leftover chocolate candy, chopped up (can use: Reese's cups, M+Ms, any kind of chocolate bars, perhaps even tootsie rolls)
  

Directions:

In a heavy saucepan, bring whipping cream to a boil. Remove from heat, then add the chocolate, stirring until smooth. That's it! You can drizzle this on ice cream or all sorts of desserts, add liquor such as Amaretto to taste, use it in a Fondue (as long as the chunks are pretty small). If you are chocolated out because it is Halloween, this sauce freezes well and can be reheated slowly on the stove when you are in need of some chocolate sauce.

A few other ideas to use up leftover Halloween Candy:

Halloween Candy Cookies

Leftover Halloween Candy Pie

Deep Fried Halloween Candy

A bunch of other ideas -- including trail mix!

good vegetarian mushroom gravy

http://joelens.blogspot.com/2010/01/mushroom-masala-gravy.html

BUT

-- Added in about 3 T. minced shallots
-- used 1.5 cups veggie broth instead of 3 cups chicken broth
-- needed more flour to thicken
-- added in a bit of cream at the end, and fresh parsley/thyme minced

Very good! Next time deglaze the pan with marsala, let cook down a bit before adding broth

garlic scape pesto

OK so in the past I have mostly been against making pesto since it is half oil, but upon making this one, I realized a few things:

1) it is REALLY GOOD
2) you only use a little in your pasta
3) you can substitute some water for oil, and have a little less rich pesto

Anyway delicious!!! I sauteed some mushrooms and the flowers from the scape and added them into the pasta as well. Based on these results, I think we'll be seeing a lot more pesto around these parts.

better spicy peanut sauce

OK this one is way better than the one I was making previously:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rotelle-with-Broccoli-and-Spicy-Peanut-Sauce-11875

Would be good with added ginger too, but watch the soy sauce, I followed the recipe and it was WAY too salty, try half next time.