Vegan Sloppy Joes + Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution

Seriously -- this show rocks. We really liked it, but then a seemingly premature wrap-up last week left us feeling a little bereft. We wish there was more show! Anyway, here's the link to the Food Revolution episodes; they are definitely worth watching today if you're stuck in this weird, siren-punctuated storm just like we are.

Inspired by the vegetable-y, but still basically meat-based ones that Jaime served at a Huntingdon, West Virginia school cafeteria, we recently made our own vegan sloppy joes. They were a hearty and great way to eat a bunch of vegetables.

Vegan Sloppy Joes

20 ounces of any combination of mushrooms, diced

1 white onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 1/2 cups of prepared lentils

1 Not-Beef bouillon cube

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup ketchup

5 dashes of vegan Worchestershire sauce

olive oil

salt and pepper

4 whole wheat Kaiser rolls (or buns)

Sauté the mushrooms in a few tablespoons of olive oil until browned and liquid has evaporated. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, sauté the onion and the bouillon cube until onion is translucent. Deglaze the pan with white wine. Add the carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Cook on medium until carrots have softened -- about 5 minutes.

Return mushrooms to the pan with the vegetables and add all remaining ingredients. Turn heat to low and stir and heat the mix through. Salt and pepper to taste. Spoon onto warmed Kaiser rolls and have some napkins ready.

Vegetarian Pot Stickers (Two Ways)

I made these after spotting the recipe in Food and Wine magazine last week. They became an instant classic in our house. I know we will make these again and again because they are so easy and, as Gail would say, so tasty.

I looked at the recipe and sort of followed what it said, but as you know if you follow this blog, I cannot follow a recipe to save my life. Luckily for you, the nice folks at Food and Wine have the recipe and a step-by-step slide show online; click HERE to see it.

Mushroom and kimchi filling:

10 oz cremini mushrooms, finely chopped

3 spring onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic (smoked garlic if you have it)

drizzle of sesame oil

tablespoon of olive oil

Sauté the ingredients together in a hot pan until most of the moisture has evaporated and the mushrooms are nice and brown. Stuff each dumpling with a small spoonful of the mushroom mixture and a pinch of chopped kimchi.

Tofu and cress sprout:

1 block firm tofu, crumbled

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

1 Not Chick'n bouillon cube

tablespoon of olive oil

Sauté ingredients together in a hot pan until most of the moisture has evaporated and the tofu is nice and brown. Stuff each dumpling with a small spoonful of the tofu mixture and a pinch of chopped fresh cress sprouts or watercress.

Man v. Mushroom

I have gone head-to-head with both of these unusually large mushrooms and come out on top. Tomorrow I go mushroom foraging with Matt Crone. We are on the lookout for morels and chanterelles. Wish me luck.

Southern Hot Milk Cakes

One of the best things about hanging out at estate sales nearly every weekend is going through the stacks of beloved vintage cookbooks. While today's bounty included a set of Russian nesting dolls, another day yielded Marion Brown's The Southern Cook Book, in which she says getting the "guarded recipes of the Southern household" proved most difficult. This plain vanilla cake is one of those well-kept secrets, and here it is for all of you.

I needed a base for the strawberries I joyously overbought at market, and I needed something quick to make on a Sunday night. I made some adjustments (the duck eggs and the vanilla paste) to this 1951 recipe by a Mrs. Eugene Shaw of Raleigh, but I stuck to the recipe's straightforward and simple richness.

Southern Hot Milk Cakes

1/2 c milk

1/2 stick butter

3/4 c raw sugar

2 duck eggs

1 c AP flour

1 level tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla paste

Heat milk, but not to boiling. Add butter and wait a minute. Whisk them together in a bowl with sugar. Combine flour and baking powder. Separately, beat the eggs. Add dry and wet ingredients alternately, stirring after each. Add vanilla paste. Brush silicone muffin cups with canola and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden around edges. Let them cool and then add macerated strawberries and some cream.

Market Day Pea Tendril and Nasturtium Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

It's finally here! We rolled up to the first Memphis Farmers Market of the season at 7:20 a.m. yesterday, and to say it didn't disappoint would be a wild understatement. The vendors looked so happy to be back, and the crisp morning was the perfect backdrop. Strawberries from Jones Orchard were a major find, as were Van Cheeseman's pea tendrils...not to mention the hydroponic tomatoes from Micmak Farms and nasturtium flowers from the wonderful family at Dodson Farms.

We made a salad with shelled peas, pea tendrils, and the flowers. I liked this easy dressing.

Champagne Vinaigrette

Squeeze of one lemon

1 tablespoon champagne vinegar

1/2 tbsp. honey

1 tablesppon olive oil

Fleur de sel and cracked pepper

All you need to do is whisk it all up together until it's emulsified and drizzle over salad.

5-Course Vegetarian Dinner at Bari

Tuesday evening April 20th at 6:30pm Bari is having its first-ever vegetarian wine dinner. Chef Jason Severs will be preparing 5 vegetarian courses that will be paired with 5 wines from Delta Wholesale. The cost of the dinner is $50. This is exactly the type of thing I love to support, so I will be there. I hope to see you there, too.

Reservations can be made at:

www.Barimemphis.com

or by calling 901-722-2244.

The Menu:

First: Fresh spring vegetable salad, with roasted garlic honey marinated grilled tempeh, currents, portabella mushroom crisp

Second: Chilled spring pea soup, with basil crema, parmigianno-reggiano biscotto di sale

Third: Roasted potato gnocchi, with wilted spinach, cremini mushroom, caramelized onion, shaved piave vecchio fi anno

Fourth: Oven roasted red bell pepper stuffed with tomato , roasted fennel, buffalo mozzarella risotto, drizzled with balsamic reduction

Five: Spring strawberry torte, with vanilla crema, balsamic gelato, strawberry reduction, black pepper

eaTABLE Secret Revealed

The first meeting if the eaTABLE Supper Club was a success. If I said any more it'd be bragging, so I'll let Stacey tell you all about it. Click HERE to read the Fertile Ground review.

Click HERE to read about the wine that Michael Hughes selected for the dinner.

Also leave me a comment and let me know if you'd like to be involved in the eaTABLE Supper Club movement.

Bringing Poppies Back

Who uses poppy seeds anymore? We do! They have a faint floral-sesame flavor, and they offer

a crunchy note and a pretty look to these recipes. We tried out some Meyer lemon and poppy seed shortbread cookies and a simple poppy seed dressing in order to resurrect poppy seeds from their mid-80's heyday and welcome them back to the plate.

Meyer Lemon-Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

(adapted from the recent Family Circle bake sale for Share Our Strength article)

1 1/4 AP

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 c soy margarine or butter

1/3 c raw sugar

1 small egg (discard half the white)

1 tsp. Meyer lemon zest

juice from one Meyer lemon

1 tbsp. poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First, whisk the dry ingredients. Next, use hand mixer to combine softened butter and raw sugar until it looks creamy. Add egg, zest, and juice and blend on high. Fold in poppy seeds and dry ingredients. Make dough into a roll or patty and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Then roll out dough with a little flour and cut circles with a cup or shapes with those hidden-away cutters you never seem to use. Bake at 350 for 10 min. or until edges are lightly browned.

Poppy Seed Dressing (for two salads)

2 tsp. honey
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. poppy seeds
1 tsp. cornstarch
squeeze of half a lemon
sea salt and crushed pepper

Whisk it up and drizzle it over anything green; we used frisée, shelled peas, grapes, Neal's Yard Shropshire blue cheese (!), and toasted walnuts.

eaTABLE Supper Club

Tomorrow night!

Buckwheat Pancakes

We finally found pancakes that we both like! There's more to them than just flour and sugar, and the texture that the buckwheat adds is great.

Buckwheat Pancakes

(adapted from How it All Vegan, a copy of which is so well-loved around here that it is completely falling apart)

1 cup of buckwheat flour

1 cup AP flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup applesauce

2 cups water

Mix dry, add wet, and stir until just blended. Add a little butter to a medium-low griddle, and use a 1/2 measuring cup to pour on batter. Wait until they've stopped bubbling and then flip. We added some warm cinnamony bananas, macerated strawberries, maple syrup, and brown sugar whipped cream.

Trolley Stop Market this Saturday

We stopped by Keith and Jill's new place, the Trolley Stop Market, last Saturday, and it's looking great! How exciting to look forward to all the fun stuff that's going to be happening there. Vendors will be there on Saturdays for a couple of weeks before the big reveal. While we were there, we picked up some sorrel, peach preserves, and one freakishly giant mushroom. Head downtown to 704 Madison tomorrow and show your support!

100% Handmade Pizza

For this amazing pizza I made everything (and I mean everything) from scratch. The cheese was made using THIS simple recipe. The sauce is simply peeled and seeded roma tomatoes that have been tossed in olive oil and roasted in a 400 degree oven. The crust is my own recipe for beer-spiked pizza dough. Finish it with fresh basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

The weird shape can be blamed on a drop of olive oil on my pizza peel.

Soba Noodles with Baked Tofu + Toy Choy

This is one of my favorite lunches. It's filling, delicious, fast, cheap, and healthy. What more could you ask for?

The recipe is that there really is no recipe. Take any good vegetable broth and spike it with some soy sauce, grated fresh ginger, minced garlic, a pinch of cinnamon, and a splash of mirin. Bring that up to a boil and drop in the greens of your choice. You could use spinach or kale or mini bok choy as I have here. Remove the greens after a few seconds and set aside.

Cook soba noodles directly in the broth rather than plain water for more flavor. They only take a few minutes to cook so keep your eye on them. Remove noodles from the broth and place them into a soup bowl. Arrange greens and other toppings on to the noodles. Chopped tofu makes a good topping, but I also like a fried egg on this as well. Garnish with sliced green onion or sprouts then add the broth. Serve with sriacha for an extra kick. You will need both a spoon and chopsticks to eat this dish.

A word on soba noodles: soba are Japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour. They're more toothsome and hearty than rice noodles, and they have a dry texture that is quite appealing. I buy the packaged ones from the Asian market. They are about 3 bucks for a two-month supply, and I think they are delicious. When we had some friends over the other night, I tried to get all fancy and make my own soba noodles. It was a kitchen disaster. The noodles were a gross, soggy, falling-apart mess. It was the first time I had ever made them from scratch...I'm sure I"ll figure it out eventually. Until I get my nerve up to try hand-made soba again, the inexpensive, store-bought kind will do just fine.

Spicy Fruit Salsa Brunoise

I needed to practice my brunoise skills since they were getting kinda rusty.

Ha! Really, I have never brunoised properly before, but since I just learned the basics of how to do it, I amuse myself by dropping brewn-nwah' into conversation. And I like the tiny-perfect-squares result, too. So even though my try is with fruit, not veg, and my squares are still a little clunky, it made for a very uniform (and eventually spicy) fruit salad.

We'd recently picked up a pale green and purple-striped pepino melon from the big international section of the remodeled Kroger at Poplar and Kirby. (Everyone kept raving about this place; it really is neat.) I had been thinking about using the pepino as a starting point and had to come up with something to build around it.

The melon took a while to ripen, so that was brunoised along with strawberries and English cucumber. Tara's really, really spicy fruit salad (with jalapenos!) from last summer was on my mind, too. For this, though, I added a couple of tiny pinches of cayenne, plus agave nectar and a squeeze of lemon to round the salsa out. We had it with salty tortilla chips for a nice contrast, but I think it could be a good spring dessert, too.

Grilled Marinated Artichoke Hearts

Here is a fast way to spruce up pasta night. Grab a few whole marinated artichokes from the olive bar and split them lengthwise with a sharp knife. (I think the large ones with the stem attached are prettier.) I found these at The Fresh Market. Throw them cut-side-down into a hot cast-iron grill pan. Allow them to cook for about 3-4 minutes per side or until they are nicely marked and heated through. Place them atop any simple pasta recipe with some chopped parsley and shaved parmesan. There you have it! In three minutes, you've gone from plain ol' spaghetti to pasta with grilled artichoke hearts.

I'm excited to announce that The Chubby Vegetarian (www.thechubbyvegetarian.com) is featured on 101 cookbooks' list of favorite websites. I consider it an honor. Click HERE to view the entire list.

Olive + Clementine Pita Wrap w/ Toasted Almonds

This sandwich is so simple to make, but the flavor is very complex. The idea was born from a salad I like to make to go along with paella or empanadas. You are just a few ingredients away from a hearty, vegan lunch.

5 sicilian olives (quartered)

1 clementine (peeled and segmented)

1 parsley sprig

a few thin slices of red onion

lettuce mix

a drizzle of olive oil

6 toasted almonds (roughly chopped)

1/4 lemon

whole wheat pita

Mix the first six ingredients in a bowl making sure the olive oil gives everything a shiny coat. Place mixture in the center of a warm pita, top with almonds, squeeze the lemon on top, and roll it up. This sandwich has a wonderful sweet and sour flavor profile. It may or may not need salt depending on how salty your olives are. This delicious and quick sandwich is a must-try.

Delicata and Acorn Squash + Sage Lasagna

I've been wanting to make a white lasagna for a while now, and I've seen delicata squash crop up as a new ingredient, so, this weekend, on a long, interminably boring afternoon when TCV was away on a shoot, I thought, here we go! Here is Martha's recipe, which I used as a starting point.

This was one of those first stabs at a dish that worked surprisingly well, possibly due to my liberal use of olive oil every step of the way. Be forewarned that this takes a good long while to make; I didn't eat lunch until 3:00 in the afternoon since I had to give all the squash a thorough oven-roasting first. Dealing with my hunger headache was worth it, though, in the end because this lasagna actually tastes a lot lighter and more interesting than the typical and meaty red-sauce version.

The squash layer:

1 acorn squash

2 delicata squashes

olive oil

salt and pepper

3 tsp. dried sage

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Next, carefully cut each squash down the middle. (Ideally you would do this by slicing off a bit of the rounded side of each squash in order to have it lie flat and then, using the safe-bagel-cutting method of placing a hand on top to steady the lying-flat, horizontal squash and cutting horizontally.

Then you can de-seed the halves, brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them face-down in a baking dish at 400 degrees for one hour. Once they cool off, scoop out the insides and whisk them all together with a tablespoon of olive oil, dried sage, and more salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

The ricotta layer:

1 15-ounce tub of part-skim ricotta

1/4 cup grated mozzarella

1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Grate the two cheeses and mix all the above ingredients; set aside.

Layering all the layers:

olive oil

flat no-bake lasagna noodles (I like the Whole Foods store brand in the small green box)

fresh sage leaves

Brush your baking dish, preferably ceramic, with olive oil, and set down 3 noodles. Spread the squash mixture, then 3 more noodles. Spread the ricotta mixture in one layer, and then, of course, more noodles. End with the squash layer and more noodles and grate some mozzarella and parm on top. Arrange 12 or so fresh sage leaves on top. Drizzle top -- especially hitting the sage leaves for a fried effect -- with a little olive oil and cover with foil. Bake for an hour until top is browned. Let it cool and serve, or refrigerate after cooling. We thought it worked well reheated for dinner, so you could very well make it ahead.

Meyer Lemon-Vanilla Madeleines

Our high-minded little selves are catching up on our Proust this week. (Okay, okay, so we're starting with just an excerpt.) This is due to the recent acquisition of our first-ever madeleine pan, a nonstick one, with a good starter recipe on the packaging.

So, honestly...how good could these little cakes be? Are they worthy of the very pretty paragraphs and endless modern-day references that they spawned? Yeah, well, they kind of are that good. They are mostly butter; it's impossible to go wrong there. They are light and spongy like cake but with the crunchy browned edges of a cookie. They take about two seconds to make. And they were so transporting that we devoured them all immediately, hence the pic of just the empty pan.

Meyer Lemon-Vanilla Madeleines

1/3 cup flour

1/8 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla paste

small pieces of zest from one Meyer lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brush the pan with a little canola oil. Whisk dry ingredients together, make a well, and then add butter, beaten egg, vanilla, and lemon zest. Fold until just mixed. Fill indentations in pan about 3/4 full. Bake for 10 minutes or until springy to the touch and slightly brown around the edges. They pop right out, and you can sift some powdered sugar over them once they cool a bit.

Breakfast at Au Fond

Just ate breakfast at Au Fond in Cooper-Young today. After our plates arrived and we'd started our meal, we so wanted tell everyone who came in after us how excited we were for them because we knew they were going to be thrilled, too.

Breakfast is tough in this town. You can wait in line at one of the two mainstays on Southern or Summer, or you can take the easy route and just fix it yourself at home. There was such a relaxed, homey vibe at Au Fond, and the sophisticated take on food was curiously different from what we've ever had before at a breakfast joint in Memphis: an airy, giant wheat pancake with scattered berries, a cup of pimento cheese grits, egg sandwich made like a panini but on a soft bun, housemade cinnamon roll, perfect eggs, biscuits and red-eye gravy, herbed potatoes, and our own container of French press coffee at the table...I guess you could say we indulged. You should, too. Reluctantly, we refrained from talking feverishly about all this to the people at the other tables, but we just had to tell you!

20-Minute Tamales

I love tamales, but they are time-consuming to make. Even just steaming them takes an hour to an hour and a half. I knew there had to be a better way.

One day while cleaning out my fridge, I came across some leftover grits that had taken on the form of the container in which I had stored them. I took them out and heated them up, but they remained in that stubborn tupperware shape. That is when it hit me. Why not cook the masa, the corn grits used to make tamales, on the stovetop and then roll it in the corn husks with the filling? I gave it a shot, and it worked perfectly. Using this method knocks a good hour off the time it takes to make this dish. It goes a little something like this:

8 cups water

1/4 cup olive oil

zest from one lime

2 tsp. ancho chile powder

2 Not Chick'n bouillon cubes

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 cups masa (for tamales)

24 corn husks (soaked until soft)

3 cups tamale filling of your choosing (I used THIS)

Bring water to a boil and add the oil, lime zest, chile powder, cubes, and baking powder. Stir and then add masa a little at a time so you don't get any lumps. Cook masa for 20 minutes stirring often to develop a creamy texture. While masa is hot, spread about 1/4 cup on the center of a corn husk, place two spoonfuls of filling in the center of the masa, and roll it up. I didn't even fold the ends up because the masa was so thick it stayed in place. Allow them to cool. To serve simply heat them in the microwave for a few minutes, top with hot sauce, and enjoy.

The Baking Cabinet Transformed

I'm far too embarrassed to show you what my baking cabinet looked like before, but look at it now. It's all neat and organized. Now the trick is to keep it this way.

Sea Bean Cakes with Lemon Aioli

I saw them. I just never picked them up. They were right there next to the mushrooms. I think maybe I was distracted by the blue foot, hen of the woods, or the fresh chanterelles. I'm talking about sea beans. They are a funny-looking little vegetable that reminds me of coral in form. The flavor is intense; they taste like the sea. The briny, bright flavor is a great addition to the vegetarian cook's bag of tricks. Here I pair the seafood-like texture of king oyster mushrooms with the seafood-like flavor of the sea bean to create a delicious vegetarian version of a crab cake.

1 cup king oyster mushrooms (diced)

1/2 cup sea beans (diced)

1/4 cup fresh parsley (minced)

1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1 1/2 tbsp mayo

1/4 green bell pepper (small dice)

1 egg (beaten)

3/4 cup bread (torn into small pieces)

1 1/2 cups panko or cracker crumbs

olive oil

pepper

Cook mushrooms in a frying pan over medium heat for a few minutes until tender then set aside to cool. Fold all of the ingredients except the panko together in a large mixing bowl. You want it to be light so don't over work it. Portion mixture with an ice cream scoop, roll in panko, and pat into a flat disk. Repeat. Set cakes on a tray and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This will help them stay together as they cook. Fill a non-stick frying pan with about a 1/2 inch of oil and place over medium heat. Remove cakes from the freezer and pan fry in batches until golden. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon into a 1/4 cup of mayo, add pepper, and mix. Serve this on the side of the sea cakes.

Cilantro Almond Soup

It's nice to see my girl Ruth Reichl land squarely on her feet. After Gourmet ended, I knew I would miss her, but now, I am glad to be able to watch her new series, Adventures with Ruth. I mention this because I saw her make a version of this soup on the show last week when she was in Mexico. I thought it was something really weird, something I'd never made before, so of course, I had to try it myself. Using cilantro as a base and not just are garnish -- what? Really? The result was surprising in that it tasted like a very flavorful cream of broccoli soup. Click HERE for her recipe. Below is my vegan version of the soup.

Cilantro Almond Soup

2 leeks, roughly chopped

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1 bunch of cilantro, blanched and shocked

2 tsp. flour

1 Not-Chick'n bouillon cube

handful of fresh spinach

1 tbsp. olive oil

juice of one lime

salt and pepper to taste

sliced green onions and Mexican hot sauce for garnish

Sauté the leeks in olive oil until tender, about 10 minutes. Next, push the leeks to the side of the pan and put the flour and tbsp. of olive oil in the middle. Stir to create your roux. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes to get rid of the raw flour flavor; you'll start to smell the toastiness that indicates a good roux. Add top of cilantro, almonds, bouillon cube, and spinach with just enough water to cover. Using an immersion blender, blend all ingredients until very smooth. For a more sophisticated soup, you can strain it, but I like it kind of chunky. Garnish with dots of hot sauce, a squeeze of lime, and thinly sliced green onions.

Vanilla + Lychee Lemonade

The can of lychees hid in the back of our crowded cupboard for an inordinately long time. I thought about them; I had a vague idea to add them to champagne one day when something celebratory was called for, but it just never happened.

Lychees are funny, flowery, perfume-y little things. Stripped of their tough outer layer, they look a little transparent and a lot naked. It's best to blend them up and add a couple of flavors that enhance their oddness. Lemon and vanilla worked well and created a new flavor that you can't find even in the best juice aisle.

Vanilla + Lychee Lemonade

1 can of lychees

Half a lemon, juiced (thin slices reserved)

Squeeze of agave

2.5 ounces of vanilla vodka

Strain lychees and discard the syrup. Blend them with about 1/4 cup of water until smooth. Pour the lychee juice, lemon juice, agave, and vodka into a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into two glasses, and add a very thin slice of lemon so it floats. This is a great way to start the weekend.

Fresh Lychees

POPSICLES!

Yes, we realize that it is absolutely freezing cold outside. Yes, it's a fact that it's only mid-February, and regrettably, spring still seems imaginary at this point. And, horror of all horrors, we've resorted to using fleece door pillows to block all icy drafts from outside. (Even our dog finds that unacceptable -- she has secretly torn apart two out of three of them.)

But...popsicles are eternal. And we are back to making them with a vengeance. We're cooking up a little plan for relief once the heat rushes back into town and makes itself known through October. Here is a preview of our test flavors:

olive oil honeycomb

strawberry + cherry balsamic

banana + sunflower seed

Our Valentine's Day Tradition

To Start

Warm Edamame with Fleur de Sel

Seared Tofu Spring Rolls with Sriracha Peanut Sauce

To Continue

Kombu and Miso Soup with Fresh Spinach

Romaine Salad with Ginger Dressing and Heirloom Tomatoes

Sushi Two Ways: Enoki Mushroom with Cream Cheese

and Seared Shiitake with Pickled Carrots

To Finish

Dark Chocolate and Frangelico Fondue

Smokin' Grilled Romaine Salad with Roasted Romas & Ricotta Dumpling Croutons

This is the first time I've ever set off the smoke alarm making a salad. However, this is no regular salad. This is a warm, smoky salad that works perfectly as an entrée on a cold night. I got this crazy idea to play around with the classic components of a cold salad by using heat and smoke to transform them into something completely different.

I choose roma tomatoes and romaine lettuce because I knew both ingredients could take some heat without wilting and falling apart. Next I decided to make dumplings for the top rather than croutons. I thought dumplings would be richer and more filling than croutons -- plus the creamy texture paired nicely with the crunch of the romaine.

Makes two servings.

For the salad:

4-6 roma tomatoes (blanched, peeled, and halved)

4 sprigs of fresh oregano

1 whole heart of romaine lettuce (split lengthwise)

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

parmesan cheese

Toss tomatoes together with a few tablespoons of olive oil and the fresh herbs. Roast in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. I roasted the garlic for the dumplings at the same time. Pop the tomatoes under the broiler for a few minutes to get some color on them before serving. Get a cast iron grill pan screaming-hot on your stovetop. Dress romaine with equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Grill each piece cut-side-down for a few minutes or until nicely charred. This is where a lot of the nice smoke flavor comes from. You will know you're doing it right if the smoke alarm goes off right in the middle of making this.

For the ricotta dumplings:

1 small head of garlic (roasted until soft)

1/2 cup ricotta

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

olive oil

Mix roasted garlic, ricotta, egg, and salt until well incorporated. Fold the flour into the cheese mixture. The more you mix it the tougher the dumplings will be so be judicious about it. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Pat dough into a 1/4-inch thick cake on your floured work surface then cut into 1/2 inch cubes using a pastry cutter or butcher knife. Drop the dumplings into the boiling water and keep an eye on them. Once they float to the top, they are ready to be removed and drained. For a crunchy texture, sear them in a hot pan with some olive oil for just a few minutes.

To plate this dish, place a piece of grilled romaine next to a few roasted tomatoes. Top that with some fresh ricotta dumplings, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and a little grated parmesan cheese.

Salad will never be the same.

Tapioca Pudding Wars

Tapioca is so simple to make, but you can do so much with it. I secretly like boxed instant tapioca, and I make it often -- especially when my sister and my niece are in town. We had it after the pho and bahn mi lunch TCV cooked in their honor on the day they headed back to the Northwest.

(Honestly, I disdained tapioca when I was growing up and even deemed it 'fish eyes'. Oh, how tastes can change over time!)

So, here's the key tapioca question: from the box or the real thing? Usually I am of the mind that from scratch always trumps a shortcut, but recently, I decided to put the two types of tapioca head to head and judge on taste alone.

The whole tapioca pearls from the cassava plant have to be babied. You will not be eating tapioca in 20 minutes if you use these needy granules. First, they require an overnight soak in water. Then you heat the soaked tapioca with milk, and you have to separate the eggs next. Finally, it's time to add the hot milk mixture to the yolks, and the yolks to the milk and cook it all together until it thickens. So my question this week was...is all of this really worth it? Does all the extra labor and time make a difference?

No. I've decided that it really doesn't matter. The 'real' tapioca pudding I recently labored over for a day and a half sat in my fridge. I avoided it and finally threw most of it out. The texture was too heavy, too eggy, and too weird. The measure of a good dessert in our house is simple. If it is still around the next day, something's wrong with it.

You can have a simple vanilla tapioca with nutmeg on top or make a dark chocolate or citrus version. I like it slightly chilled and with a little nutmeg and sugar on top. I just made it using coconut milk, and that was a nice twist, too.

Grab a little red box of tapioca (it's in the pudding aisle, usually hiding in plain sight way up on the top shelf) and follow the recipe on the back. It's a surprising comfort to make something that tastes so good and takes such little effort.

Vegan Pear-Ginger Olive Oil Crumble

I like how pears ripen quickly but then stay pretty good for a while. I stuck a couple of them in the fridge and soon decided to make little creme brulee dishes of crumble. These are vegan due to the use of olive oil margarine, which complemented the olive oil drizzle on top before baking.

The filling:

3 Bosc pears

3 Granny Smith apples

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 pieces crystallized ginger, minced

pinches of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg to taste

Peel apples and then pears. (I like to cut off the top and bottom in order to stand them straight up to peel imperfectly -- a little skin left on here and there is fine -- and then I cut off four sections to dice. You want to end up with rustic chunks the size of a bouillon cube.) Pour in half the lemon juice and stir to prevent browning as you go. Mix the rest of the lemon juice with cornstarch and add it. Sugars, ginger, and spices can be incorporated next.

The crumble:

1/4 cup olive oil margarine for dishes and to chop up in crumble mixture

1 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. raw sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

olive oil

Butter the dish or dishes you will use, add filling, and set aside. Mix together all other ingredients except olive oil and sprinkle it on top of pears and apples in your dish. Drizzle with olive oil and bake crumble at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until it's cooked down and top is light brown. You could top this with Greek yogurt or soy ice cream, but we just had it plain in all its gingery, spicy glory.