Wednesday Food Blogging

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!