Food for the cold

I’ve eaten bolognese maybe a handful of times in my life. And that’s a guess, because the meals weren’t particularly memorable. Actually, I’m really just going off of this photo from the summer my family spent a month in the south of France when I was 17. As evidenced by this photo of me eating what looks like pappardelle bolognese (with Sam, though clearly I was more interested in my meal at the moment), I’ve always loved food. Though back then, I didn’t know a thing about it. (Case in point: When I ordered spaghetti carbonara in Nice and was served a plate of pasta with a raw egg perched on top, I thought the chef was totally deranged, and possibly trying to kill me.)

I became vegan shortly after coming home from this trip, for reasons unrelated. Though the vegan thing didn’t last, I haven’t eaten meat in almost ten years—so no more bolognese.

The other week, Austin’s approximation of winter finally descended (for a few days, anyway, then it got warm again). In addition to relishing in the opportunity to wear socks and a jacket, I started wanting cozy winter food in a big way. Soup, definitely, and a really hearty, filling pasta that would make me curl up on the couch afterwards and fall asleep.

I thought of pappardelle bolognese, with the wide, chewy noodles and sauce so thick you could barely call it that. And the super-concentrated tomato flavor, and lots of salty cheese on top. This lentil version, made richer with ground walnuts, is the outcome, and I urge you to try it.

I don’t know how close it is to “real” bolognese, but delicious and deeply satsifying. Quicker and cheaper to make, too, which is always nice. I’ll be turning to it throughout the next few months whenever winter comes around. 

Lentil Bolognese

I used a Grüner Veltliner because it was what I had around, but any clean, mineral-y white wine works.

1 cup green lentils

1/3 cup walnuts

1 medium onion, quartered

2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 cup white wine

1 cup vegetable stock

Salt and pepper

Place the lentils in a medium pot with enough water to cover by about an inch. Cover, bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tender.

While the lentils finish cooking, put the walnuts in a food processer and process until very finely chopped, like a coarse flour. Set aside in a bowl. Add the onion, carrots, and garlic to the food processor and process until very finely chopped.

In a large, deep skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the vegetable mixture with a big pinch of salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the lentils, walnuts, and tomato paste with another pinch or two of salt and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Pour in the wine and vegetable stock, stirring until the tomato paste is evenly distributed. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Taste for seasoning.

Spoon generously over hot pappardelle, linguine, or any other pasta and garnish with plenty of grated Parmesan. 

Sallies for Sally

The holidays are a time of joyful overindulgence. Why make one type of pie when you can make three? One main dish is nice—but why not two, so everyone can try a little of each?

Nowhere is this more true than with Christmas cookies. This month, most of the big food magazines have entire features devoted to cookies alone, and we all know a holiday cookie platter isn’t complete unless it includes at least three different kinds.

We all need to let loose sometime, right? And I’m all for it.

But what if you could only make one kind of Christmas cookie? Clearly, it’d have to be a knockout, and it would also have to include all the wonderful flavors that make this time of year so warm and toasty—regardless of the weather.

I set out to do that, and these sweet, spicy, ginger-flecked gems are the result. And not to brag or anything, but if these were the only Christmas cookies I got to eat this year, I’d be okay with it. Happily, it doesn’t have to be that way, and I can bake and eat and share as many different Christmas cookies as I want. But these will still be my favorite.

And the name? I have no idea. Well, I do, but it doesn’t make much sense, at least the Sally part. I was watching Mad Men last night and while baking this morning, poor, misunderstood Sally Draper popped into my mind. I’m sure Betty would flip out if she found her daughter snacking on any kind of treat, but Sallies sound like a sort of wholesome, classic name for a cookie, right? Right.

Pecan-Spice Sallies

If you don’t have pecans on hand, walnuts make a good substitute. But then you’ll have to change the name!

1/2 cup pecans

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 large egg

Zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup crystallized ginger, very finely chopped

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Place the pecans in a food processor and process until very fine. Transfer to a medium bowl along with the flour, spices, and salt. Mix well to combine.

3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the honey, egg, and lemon zest and beat 1 more minute. Add the dry ingredients in batches, mixing until just combined. The dough will look slightly crumbly, but will hold together if you pinch a piece between your fingers. Fold in the crystallized ginger.

4. Roll the dough into gumball-size balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. (The cookies won’t expand, so there’s no need to worry about spacing them very far apart.) Bake 15 to 16 minutes, or until just set. They’ll look slightly underdone on top, but the bottoms will be lightly brown.

5. Allow cookies to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before rolling in the powdered sugar. Once cooled completely, they’ll store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes about 30 cookies

A big improvement

I could probably write a book about all the delicious things I’ve eaten in California. But today I want to talk about veggie burgers. Before Sam and I went to Los Angeles so he could look at grad schools during the spring of our senior year of college, I’d eaten plenty of them. But they’d all been the frozen, microwaveable type that you eat purely for convenience, not for taste or even nourishment.

One night on our trip, we had dinner at M Café because we heard it had great vegetarian food. Our meal was sort of hijacked by an Adrien Grenier sighting, but I’ll never forget the veggie burger, because it was a revelation. It had brown rice and actual vegetables and seaweed and avocado and some amazing secret sauce. It was not microwaved. And it was the first time I realized that veggie burgers could actually be something delicious that people might set out to eat, rather than settle for in a moment of desperation.

Since that trip, I’ve had some other excellent veggie burgers, and not just in Los Angeles. (If you’re ever in Austin, Kerbey Lane, Mother’s, and 24 Diner all have great ones.) I also found M Café’s recipe online and tried to recreate it a few times, along with tons of other different recipes. They’re all delicious, and they’re all a HUGE pain, because you have to cook about 10 different ingredients in 10 different ways, committing to a two-hour prep time and using up every clean pot and pan you have. No thanks.

Happily, I figured out that it didn’t have to be that way. That you could have a really, really good veggie burger and not spend all night making it. With these, the only thing you have to prep in advance is the lentils, and they only take 20 minutes or so. After that, it’s another 15 minutes to mix up the ingredients and cook the patties in a cast-iron skillet. Not a lot of fuss or mess, but a really great sandwich.  

Lentil-Mushroom Burgers

I was feeling fancy, so we ate these on Sprouted Kitchen’s wheat brioche rolls. Make them if you have time, but store-bought ones are good, too.

1 cup dried brown lentils

2 tablespoons dried porcini mushrooms

3/4 pound cremini mushrooms, stems removed

1 shallot

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 to 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs

Salt, to taste

Grapeseed or canola oil

6 whole wheat rolls

Sprouts or lettuce and sliced avocado, tomato, and red onion

Ketchup

1. Cook the lentils in a small stockpot until tender, about 20 minutes. While the lentils cook, pour boiling water over the cremini mushrooms and soak until soft.

2. Add the cremini mushrooms to a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add the lentils, porcinis, and shallot and pulse to form a homogenous mixture.

3. Transfer the mushroom-lentil mixture to a bowl. Add the peanut butter, soy sauce, and thyme; use a fork or your hands to mix well. Mix in a big pinch of salt and 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs—you’re looking for a mixture that’s still moist but that holds together easily. If it seems a little wet, add the remaining breadcrumbs.

4. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. While the skillet warms up, form the mixture into 6 flat patties, about 1/2 cup each. Drizzle a tablespoon or two of oil into the skillet and add the patties (in batches, if your skillet is on the small side). Cook 5 to 6 minutes, or until a thick, crisp crust forms on the bottom. Flip and cook 3 to 4 more minutes, until burgers are firm. Serve on whole wheat buns with lettuce or a big pile of sprouts, avocado and other fixings, and your favorite ketchup. 

Makes 6 burgers
 

Smitten Kitchen Appreciation Day

If you asked me about the first food blog I ever read, I don’t think I’d be able to give an exact answer. It could have been 101 Cookbooks, or Orangette, or David Lebovitz. Or it could’ve been Smitten Kitchen. Back in early 2006, there might’ve been a few more choices, but not that many.

By the time I was a freshman in college, I’d already sort of become obsessed with food. Trouble was, I was living in a shared dorm at a small school in the suburbs, and it was way before the days when your average college had any interest in serving food that was even mildly appetizing. (In fact, during my first semester, I found a piece of cooked bell pepper on my plate still had the sticker on it. I almost had a nervous breakdown.) I couldn’t cook in my living space, and didn’t even have a car to drive off-campus to eat somewhere else.

That year in school, I remember eating a lot of flavorless black bean soup and stale bagels with peanut butter. So looking back, reading blogs was probably my way of vicariously savoring food that was delicious—and maybe also a lifestyle that didn’t involve sharing a postage stamp-size space with a roommate who’d plant thumbtacks on the floor next to my bed. I’m not kidding.

Until very recently, there was a while where I didn’t have much time to read food blogs often anymore. So I found out from my friend Shannon that Deb Perelman was coming to our local bookstore this past Friday. For some reason, I tend to hold off on buying the things that I really, really want for a long time (and instead buy things I realize I don’t want that much…I bet there’s some interesting psychological work going on there), so I didn’t actually pick up a copy of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook until Thursday. But I’ve been reading and re-reading it ever since, and getting to see Deb talk in person on Friday just made me love her book even more.

The first thing I made was her Apricot Breakfast Crisp, with a few tweaks to have it make sense for fall. I hit on the idea of dessert for breakfast about a year ago, and it seems like Deb and I are on the same page.

Don’t feel bad about eating this first thing in the morning. It’s too delicious for debate.

Comice Pear Breakfast Crisp

Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

For the fruit

1 1/4 pounds Comice pears, peeled, cored, and chopped into 1/2-inch cubes

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

1 tablespoon white whole wheat flour

Pinch of nutmeg

For the topping

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Lightly grease a 1-quart baking dish with butter.

2. Add the pears, sugar, flour, and nutmeg to the baking dish. Use your fingers to toss the pears until they’re completely coated.

3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the sugar, then the oats, the flour, the salt, and the walnuts. Mix to combine.

4. Dollop the topping over the fruit evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and pears are soft. Serve warm