Veggie Dinner

What do you do when you're drowning in organic produce and can't cook fast enough to use it before it spoils? My solution was to make veggie broth followed by a three-course vegetarian dinner. Still adjusting to the time change and battling off a cold and the freakin' rain storm, inside cooking all day Saturday was just what I needed. Whatever peace and tranquility I harvested from cooking all day was surely usurped by Sunday's activities. I love my brother, Brian, and am so proud of him for running the L.A. marathon in one of the worst storms I have ever seen in Southern California, but if he pulls this again next year he can take a frigin' taxi home! Just playing. Fighting the chaotic rain-drenched crowd in Santa Monica at the finishing line was kind of fun and I was compensated with Umami burger so no complaining on my part.

The Pastrami Burger

Okay back to the VEGGIE dinner. The first thing that I did was make an unconventional veggie broth from onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, shallot, cauliflower, and bay leaf. The parsnips and cauliflower gave it a subtle sweetness that I wanted to use to cook risotto with. After about 5 hours of simmering I had a rich golden broth.

Sometimes Boz tries to help but when I let him handle the food this type of thing always happens.

Then he says somthing like, "cooking is tiring, gonna cuddle mommy; peace out beatch."

Mission: Fill the dishes shown below

Purpose: Distract myself from the incessant rain and my cold

Outcome: 

     First: Shitake Miso Soup

     Second: Warm Potato Pave and Mixed Wild Green Salad with Barolo Vinaigrette

     Third: Spicy Fig Glazed Tofu Steak on Mushroom Risotto

For the miso soup I didn't stray too far from tradition. I had some frozed dashi that I made awhile back. Combined it with white miso paste (I would have put in some red paste too but I was out). Paper thin shitake, green onion, and tofu.

The next course was inspired by a potato pave in Thomas Keller's, Ad Hoc, cookbook. After slicing peeled golden potatoes, I soaked them in cream and layered them in a loaf pan. Every two layers or so got some butter and salt. The parchment lining in the pan served as a cover and aided in steaming the potatoes, it also helped to extract them after two hours at 350 in the oven.

A quick sear in some canola oil yielded these gorgeous puppies; yes they were as good as they looked. The greens were fava bean greens, arugula, and pea shoots and leaves. The vinaigrette was made from one of my favorite vinegars, Barolo Vinegar, shallots, canola oil, and S & P.

The risotto was okay but perhaps a little under-seasoned. I wanted to let the veggie broth shine through and was lighter on the seasoning than usual. The risotto had butter-browned shitake mushrooms, cream, Parmesan cheese, and a little S & P.

I wanted to try to sous-vide something but should have taken my maiden voyage with meat. The firm tofu I used did not change much in texture. The method is said to transform the connective tissue in meat into a beautiful tender consistency and tofu is already that so all it did was infuse the marinade, which is a lot really. After heating through the tofu were moved to underneath the broiler and allowed to brown. After a quick brush with a fig and chili soy glaze they went to sleep on a fluffy bed of risotto before they were violently awaken by the chomping of teeth and the shredding and the ripping... Damn, not sure where that came from; let's carry on.

Thanks for reading.