Wednesday Food Blogging

French White Bean Soup

Serve it with Armanac. Why not?

When we stopped at a supermarket in France on the way home from The Netherlands, I went a little crazy in the produce section.

Like I mentioned below, I bought white asparagus on spec, but I also picked up courgettes, fresh spring garlic, fennel bulbs, and a lovely pot of basil. Our car smelled wonderful as we crossed the Channel.

A few days later, I soaked the cannelloni beans I've had for a while, determined to make a soup with many of my fresh French foods.

It came out beautifully. I especially liked the texture boost added by the baguette slices floated on top. They soaked up the fennel-flavored broth, just enough to make them cut-able with a spoon. The next night I decided to cut back on the oil, so I toasted the slices in a toaster instead of frying them in oil. Equally delicious, more toasty than oily.

Even if you don't go to France to get the ingredients, you can still make this at home. Here's how:

White Asparagus with Vegan Hollandaise Sauce

Frou frou asparagus, in a frou frou dish

When I saw white asparagus at the French supermarket for 99¢ (about $1.59) I couldn't resist. I placed it gently in my shopping trolley, and brought it home across the Channel.

But I remembered reading somewhere that something special had to be done to white asparagus, unlike green asparagus.

I Googled and discovered that white asparagus has to be peeled, and then cooked for 20 minutes. So I peeled each stalk, a time-consuming process, and even then, I don't think I got all the peel off. After boiling it for 20 minutes, it still was tough and stringy, especially toward the bottom of the stalk. I should have broken them off, like I do with green asparagus, but instead I'd followed instructions to only cut off the last inch.

But the Hollaindaise Sause, made with French soya cream, was delicious. So I'm posting this recipe, with a caveat that white asparagus just isn't worth the effort. It doesn't have as much flavor as green asparagus, and takes a lot longer to prepare. Kinda makes me wonder why European farmers go to all the trouble of piling up the earth around the stalks to prevent them from turning green in the sunlight.

I also really wanted to show you my new serving dish I got at one of the frou frou shops in Noordwijk. It was 50% off, so I guess it was only frou.

De Waaghals in Amsterdam

De Waaghals, on Frans Halsstraat in Amsterdam

I have to say the highlight of my trip to Amsterdam was eating at the vegetarian restaurant De Waaghals. This is partly due to poor planning, and partly due to the fact we only spent part of the day in Amsterdam. After finding the line for the Anne Frank house too long, and being run out of Westerkirk, and then finding the canal boat tours booked until late evening, and the Heineken Brewery across the street closed until September, we ended up successfully checking off the last item on my list of Things To Do In Amsterdam: eat at one of its many vegetarian restaurants.

De Waaghals is located very close to the Heineken Brewery, so, finding our options limited, we walked by, hoping to secure a reservation for later in the evening. Not only could we do that, but it turned out the place opens at 5 p.m.—an opening hour virtually unheard of in the rest of Europe, but welcome to Americans weary of walking Amsterdam's lovely streets.

The menu, while not particularly vegan friendly, was a welcome change from the British vegetarian restaurants, where the thinking seems to be that cheese and dairy are best in large quantities. I was a bit leery of the "French Specialty" which is currently featured on the ever-changing menu, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to have very little dairy—a hint of Gruyere in the stuffed courgette, and a Hollandaise sauce over the spring vegetables. Since living in Europe, I've reluctantly become a 98% vegan, which means I make exceptions when eating out. Otherwise, I'd be limited to eating in very few restaurants here—even British Chinese restaurants aren't at all vegetarian friendly. So, knowing I wouldn't be dealing with a plate drenched with cheese, I happily ordered the French Specialty, which came with lentil and watercress soup, a courgette stuffed with walnuts and Gruyere, a mushroom croquette, potato and leek terrine, and the aforementioned vegetables.

My husband had the de Waaghals classic: "saffron-flavoured pasta with truffle cream, mixed vegetables stewed in red wine with sun-dried tomatoes, beans and olives, and roasted onion with almond and cheese stuffing, spinach and endive stir-fried in garlic oil with pine kernels". There was also an Indonesian dish on the menu, which may very well be vegan. Incidentally, Indonesian food is plentiful in The Netherlands, as Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony.

Both our meals were excellent, and of sufficient portions to make a typical TGI Friday's meal look skimpy. The selections were refreshingly creative enough to make this jaded vegetarian compliment the proprietress, who happened to be British. Actually, I begged her to return to Britain and open a restaurant. My biggest complaints with British vegetarian food is its heavy reliance on dairy and its lack of any innovation, a problem not in evidence here. In fact, I had the pleasant dilemma of trying to decide between several dishes and appetizers that all sounded intriguing.

I'm convinced, if all vegetarian food were this interesting and well prepared, more people would be tempted to give up meat for good.

So now I have many reasons to return to Amsterdam: visit the Anne Frank house, take a canal boat trip, climb the tower at Westerkirk, tour the Heineken brewery, and visit de Waaghals again. Because who knows what will turn up on their menu next time?

For photos of our meals, peek below.

Chili Pie

Chili Pie: Fits the bill.

Requirement: Must be easy to make, and involve at least two cans from my overstuffed pantry.

Result: Delicious Chili Pie, ready in less than an hour.

Next time, I'll serve this with a dollop of Chipotle Remoulade. And maybe some red enchilada sauce. But for now, this fit the requirements perfectly.

And there's plenty left over for tomorrow, when I'll be busy packing for my trip.

Food news...

...when you ain't got nothin' else.

Test tube meat is closer to reality than I thought: "Meat grown in giant tanks known as bioreactors would cost between $5,200-$5,500 a ton (3,300 to 3,500 euros), which the analysis claims is cost competitive with European beef prices." I'm not sure if I would ever eat it, but it's not nearly as gross as the thought of eating dead animals.

Let them eat cake...or bread. It all costs the same: "What all that means is that if you think bread is already pricey, think again: it will almost certainly go higher. A loaf of Hovis Classic White, that staple of school lunchboxes, now goes for around £1, already far above what it fetched a year ago. But the company behind Hovis, Premier Foods, warned last month that it would have to raise prices again."

John McCain's favorite family recipes...lifted from The Food Network? And isn't Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Slaw just a bit...ummm, elitist?

If you want to multitask, you should eat better fuel.

For a flat belly, fill up on whole grains.

Should you drink 8 glasses of water a day? Maybe. Maybe not.

Some people like to do weird things with food, and then take pictures of it.

Watch a 20 minute preview of the movie King Corn.

People still think it's weird that you can make delicious cupcakes without eggs and dairy. Even the Washington Post is getting in on the act.

Eggplant and Tofu Balti

Another thing to do with tofu: Make a balti.

A balti is a stir fry dish that was most likely invented not in Pakistan but in Birmingham. It's a pretty popular dish in England, served in balti houses—cheap restaurants.

I don't know how authentic this vegetarian version is, never having had a real balti, but it is a hot curry-style dish, made without the coconut milk of most curries.

I used red curry paste, which can vary in heat. (Make sure you read the label, and avoid ones that contain fish sauce.) It's a simple dish to make, with very little prep involved, making it ideal for a busy weeknight meal. Quicker, even, than running off to the nearest balti house.

Prepared for disaster

I hoard food the way some people hoard cats. I often joke that I could survive 6 months of nuclear winter based on the contents of my pantry. Except it's not just my pantry, it's my cabinets, my lazy susan, my laundry room, even my living room has food stashed here and there. (We keep the heat off in there, so it's the perfect place to store some semi-perishables.)

Finally, thanks to Cottontimer, I can calculate how long I can actually last should I ever become trapped in my own home. I estimated I have around 500 pounds of food. Fortunately, it was time to overhaul my kitchen anyway, so I actually counted the contents of my various cupboards.

Some statistics: 20 cans of black beans. 21 tins of tomatoes. 25 boxes of pasta. And I think 17 containers of soup gives new meaning to the phrase "soup for days."

The way food prices are rising, maybe it's not such a psychological failing to hoard food in such quantities. Those baked beans could be like gold in a year's time.

Try it yourself. How long could you last, if say, a bird flu pandemic hit and you couldn't leave your house?

Created by OnePlusYou

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you can wait long enough, let them cool on a wire rack.

When making vegan cookies, I like to use flax seed instead of eggs. That way, I replace the cholesterol and saturated fat with healthy fat, cancer-fighting lignans, and fiber. Granted, not a whole lot—well, unless you eat the whole plate.

Fortunately, these cookies are good enough that you'll want to eat the whole plate. The texture is perfect—crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. And enough chocolate to count. The coffee enhances the flavor.

Eat them while they're hot. Although they're not bad the next day, either.

New! Exciting! Innovative! Or not.

I just updated the Recipe Index. There are now over 150 recipes listed, a dozen of which contain the word "chocolate". Seems balanced to me.

All are vegan, though one or two of the accompanying photos contain goat cheese, which my daughter hasn't yet weaned herself from. (Must be because we used to call her a kid!)

After all these years, my dishes are starting to seem boring to me. How many ways can you cook risotto, and is there any root, stalk, or leaf I haven't tossed in there? And what's with all those soups? Is that a reflection on the weather here, or am I just too lazy to clean more than one pot? (Yes, to both.)

I think the problem is I've lived here too long. Every food magazine I pick up has the same recycled recipes, nothing new or innovative. Restaurants here are sorely lacking in innovation as well, at least when it comes to the vegetarian side of the menu. There's a new Indian restaurant in town that's supposed to be good, so maybe I'll gather my pounds and try it soon.

I'm also due for a trip across the Channel, specifically to The Netherlands toward the end of the month. Anyone know a good Dutch veggie place?

Hmmm...Dutch food. Now that could be exciting!

That lemony orange look!

This, believe it or not, is a lemon. I was told it was by the grocery manager, who was stocking when I asked for a lemon. It has a label on it that says "Meyer" but I've had Meyer lemons before, and they were yellow. They weren't very tart, and the rind was soft and thin like a tangerine. The flesh was light orange coloured.

Has someone been fooling around with lemon genes?

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble

I don't cook with rhubarb very often; in fact, this is only the second time I've bought it. I couldn't resist those long, red limbs.

Making a crumble seemed like a good idea, so that's exactly what I did. But I also has had* (LOL cat I am not!) strawberries. While raspberries and other fruits are more often found in crumble, there's absolutely no reason not to have strawberries. And rhubarb.

For instructions, peek below.

Update: Crumbs! I hate typos!

Risotto with Arugula and Peas

Risotto, this time with arugula

Here's the thing: If you know how to make basic risotto, your repertoire is virtually endless. Think of risotto as a template, to which you can add any content you wish. This time around I had some arugula, and frozen peas always live in my freezer—way back in the back, near the frozen pumpkin I saved since October.

You could also toss in some spinach, or asparagus, or tomatoes instead of the red peppers. I used Vialone Nano risotto rice, but you can use whichever you can find. (Most supermarkets carry arborio risotto rice, but there are other varieties out there.) I also, I am ashamed to say, used a sweet German wine. But as my husband commented, you really couldn't taste the sweetness. Or maybe the peas were sweet enough to overpower the wine.

For instructions, peek below.

Some food news for Wednesday

Chris says rheumatoid arthritis sufferers may do better with a vegan diet. (Even though Chris himself would never consider it. Let's hope he never develops RA. /smug)

The NY Times, meanwhile, says that skipping breakfast isn't a good idea: "Why eating breakfast should lead to fewer unwanted pounds is unclear, but the study found that breakfast eaters consumed greater amounts of carbohydrates and fiber, got fewer calories from fat and exercised more." See? Carbs (especially non-refined carbs) are good for you.

Got rBST? The New Pennsylvania Attack on rBST-Free Milk Production.

The Washington Post provides a vegetarian Easter meal. Actually, it sounds like a good meal for any day, not just Easter. (Especially the Smoky Slow-Cooked Roman Beans.)

Peaceable Imperatrix tells us how to organize a week's worth of menus. She also gives us tips for making flaky biscuits. (I haven't tried it yet, so cannot give this the official Flake Seal of Approval.)

Did you know there's an herb that will fight cancer?

Ten percent of Ohio's population is on food stamps. And the jobless rate is 5.3 percent. File this under: The economy sucks.

And finally, a recipe for Chris: Tournedos d'Seitan with Fig Confit, Braised Carrots with Tarragon, and Roasted Potatoes.

UPDATE: You can have dinner with Barack Obama. No, really!

Chocolate Loaf Cake with (or without) Strawberries

Forget plain old pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Why not add chocolate, and make it a real dessert?

This loaf was easy to make, in the oven in about 10 minutes. I used soy yogurt instead of eggs, but other egg substitutes could be used as well: whizzed tofu, or banana.

By itself, the loaf was delicious, but with strawberries popping up in my green grocer's shelves, and Soyatoo whipped cream on my refrigerator shelf, I easily imagined something even more spot on.

Continue reading to see how it's done.

Red Lentil and Carrot Patties

Food that's been mooshed together, lightly fried, and presented on a bed of lettuce.

Well, these were tasty little patties, rissoles, if you will. Red lentils, carrots, peas, and other goodness all breaded and lightly fried.

They'd make a nice appetizer or starter, too, but I liked them as a main. I think a nice sauce, maybe a horseradish sauce, might be good. I'll think of something like that for next time I make them.

As always, click below to read how to DIY.

Apricot and Hazelnut Flapjack

Apricot and hazelnuts, surrounded by oats

If you order flapjacks in Britain, you’ll get a granola bar made from oats and golden syrup. If you want pancakes, you must order American pancakes, and then you’ll be told that isn’t on the menu. I’ve never seen American pancakes anywhere here except on Shrove Tuesday, or at Tesco wrapped in plastic like crumpets.

So the other day I adapted a recipe for British flapjacks and added apricots and maple syrup instead of golden syrup. I also tossed in some hazelnuts, for extra yum. These are good for breakfast, or a snack when you’re hiking. I suppose you could also eat it for dessert, maybe with some soy ice cream.

Next time we'll discuss the trans-Atlantic differences in the waffle, or How the Waffle Crossed the Atlantic and Became a Cookie.

Food News, now with video!

Twinkies: You can't skimp when it comes to your children.

The road to well-being is steeped in tea.

Foie gras a faux pas, says Prince Charles. Now if only he could issue a royal edict and ban it everywhere.

The History of War through Food. You have to watch this, it's the neatest thing, wherein the hamburgers (U.S.) beat up the sausages, etc.

Some stuff you probably didn't know about "naturally raised cows."

Nigel Slater has an indecent amount of fun with his vegetable box. (Wish I'd written that. I haven't had much fun with mine, ever since I cancelled the service.)

Joss Stone is a vegetarian. Here she talks about her diet. If you haven't listened to Joss Stone, you don't know what you're missing.

Not Your Mama's Moussaka

Mixing cultures

This colorful riff off moussaka is actually more like a shepherd's pie, that ubiquitous British dish with mashed potatoes and sadly, a filling made with my friends. Red lentils and aubergine (eggplant), a typical moussakan filling, give an exotic twist to to the humble casserole.

But if humble's your thing, you could always stick with brown lentils. Or add a Continental flair with French le Puy lentils.

This made enough for four generous servings, and was even better the next day. I served it with crisp green beans, blanched and sautéd briefly with pine nuts.

Jam Roly-Poly

Like a biscuit, only roly.

You know how biscuits are cookies, and scones are biscuits in England? Well, there’s this thing called a “roly-poly” which is also like an American biscuit, only in log form.

Think of it as a Swiss rolled biscuit, if you will, filled with jam instead of jelly (which is actually a gel-like candy). Saves you having to split the biscuit and spread the jam. Cracker Barrel might do well to look into this concept.

Just to further confuse the nomenclature: in England, “pudding” is actually a catchall word meaning “dessert”, and a roly-poly is a pudding, or “pud” for short, served with the requisite custard. (Alpro makes a vegan custard, available in many supermarkets.)

It you’d like to try this out, either for breakfast or dessert, click below to find instructions.

Food News Happens, Even When It's Not Wednesday

Wondering what to do with all that club soda left from your party? Things you can do with food other than eat it.

The campaign heats up: Obama Bean Cakes.

Yes, we read Foreign Policy magazine. Doesn't everyone? Especially for ground-breaking articles like this: The world loves chocolate! Really! (Hard to believe, but true!)

Food prices: going up as demand for corn, wheat rises. (Stop eating animals that eat corn and soybeans, why don't you?!)

Interesting demographics on veg*ns.

How whole grains are used to make belly rolls.

After previously reporting that fruit eating is overrated, WFB is now reporting the opposite: Eat fruit.

I'm as happy as anyone to have a healthy cookie, but isn't this taking it too far?

Finally, don't miss this: The round-up of soup recipes from No Croutons Required I posted about previously. I could eat one a day and still not be out of recipes by the time it's summer. All are vegetarian, and all look supremely delicious.