My CSA started up again three weeks ago, and it’s even better than last year. So many great veggies! This week alone I picked up turnips, radishes, snowpeas, kohlrabi, spinach, mesclun, green onions (only they were purple!), herbs, and…ummm…I think I’ve forgotten a few things.

For the first couple weeks I got a lot of bok choy, though. Enough that I couldn’t possibly eat it all before it went bad. There are only so many stir fries a girl can eat! So I started trying to figure out other ways of using bok choy, and that’s when I had brain storm #1 — kimchi. Could I make bok choy kimchi, rather than nappa cabbage kimchi?

Why yes, yes I could.

Having lost my original kimchi recipe (which was a little underwhelming anyway), I did some research and decided to make this one instead, which is from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook. I replaced the cabbage with kimchi, the daikon with cabbage, and doubled the red pepper.

I also made one other substitution, and that’s brainstorm #2. My last kimchi was okay, but not as rich as I’d have liked. I want kimchi like I get at HoSu Bistro in Toronto — it’s rich and slightly fiery. It occurred to me that star anise might add a nice flavour, and considered adding a few stars to the soaking brine.  Then I realized I was missing an obvious resource. Just two days earlier I had made veggie pho from scratch, and still had some yummy, yummy pho broth — a heady mix of ginger, garlic, and star anise flavours. (This is my favourite broth recipe of all time, by the way; just page down to find it.) Why not use this as part of my brine?

So I did. I replaced two cups of the water used for the brine with pho (which I boiled first just in case, though I wasn’t sure this was necessary).

Five days of countertop fermentation later, I had kimchi ready for capping and refrigerating. Nom nom nom! It’s much better than the last recipe I tried, and the pho definitely adds a lovely complementary taste. The bok choy holds up well, and the turnips are actually quite nice this way. Next time I will slice them much thinner, though, and use all pho broth for the brine. I’ll also likely double the red pepper too — did I mention I like spicy kimchi? =)

So there ya go, Korean kimchi with a Vietnamese flair, using mostly local ingredients. Yum!

It’s been an interesting excercise on many levels, though, and one I’m ultimately grateful to have gone through. As I’ve packed things away, I’ve had to spend a lot of time considering what’s ‘essential’, what’s merely nice to have, and what’s just plain junk that needs to leave…permanently. The kitchen did not escape this process unscathed, and an interesting post today on Unclutterer made me decide to write something similar — my own list of kitchen essentials.

Currently left in my show-home kitchen:

• One rice cooker/vegetable steamer
• One pretty, stainless steel electric kettle
• One Circulon cookware set (three lidded pots, steamer insert, double-boiler insert, and two lidded frying pans)
• Two stainless steel colanders
• Four cutting boards (2 wood, 2 plastic, ranging from tiny to average size)
• Two good knives (one 8″ chef knife, one paring knife)
• One bread knife
• One very battered baking sheet
• One broiler pan (stays with the house)
• One spring-form cake pan (not sure how this survived the culls — I’ve only used it once in five years!)
• One microplane grater
• One stainless juicer
• One french press coffee maker
• One 8-cup pyrex measuring bowl
• One large stainless mixing bowl
• One set stainless measuring cups
• One set stainless measuring spoons
• One bamboo sushi rolling mat
• One half drawer full of assorted cooking utensils
• Oven mitts

Some of these things survived the multiple culls because they’re quite frankly pretty. They’re definitely not essential. In fact a lot of those things aren’t essential. I don’t need four cutting boards — one will do. I don’t need a rice cooker — I can make rice in a pot. On the other hand I’m missing some things that I do need in the long run. Baking pans, for example. A life without brownies, cupcakes, muffins, or the like? Unthinkable.

So after living with what I both have and don’t have for a couple weeks, here’s my essentials list. I’ve defined ‘essential’ as things I need to cook the way I like to cook, but with as little duplication of items as possible:

• One electric kettle
• One cookware set, preferably oven safe for double the usefulness
• One colander
• One large cutting board
• Two good knives (one 8″ chef knife, one paring knife)
• One baking sheet
• One muffin pan
• One 8″ square cake pan
• One french press coffee maker
• One large measuring bowl
• One large mixing bowl
• One set measuring cups
• One set measuring spoons
• One bamboo sushi rolling mat
• One kitchen scale
• Oven mitts
• Utensils: A ladle, a ‘flipper’ (what I used to call a spatula), a wooden spoon, a silicon spatula (I looooove these things), a decent can opener, and scissors.

I’m probably wrong, but I think that’s it. If I move to another country, or go any great distance, these are the items I’d either pack or replace as soon as I arrived. I can make 90% of everything I normally cook using these items without feeling deprived.

Not on that list? Small appliances (except for the electric kettle). Yes, I definitely miss my microwave. I hate firing up a full-sized oven to make food for just little old me (in the past I used a toaster oven). I’ll miss the stand mixer the next time I want to make seitan. The point, though, is that I can make do without these things. In fact there are only a few small appliances that I can’t replace with other things. My VitaMix, for instance. Nothing really blends like a blender…but I don’t use it all that often. My slow cooker…well, I can make all the same dishes on the stovetop, but I can’t do them overnight or while I’m out. Maybe the slow cooker would eventually find its way back into the kitchen.  Realistically I’d probably reintroduce the toaster oven before anything else. And it’s still not essential.

What about you? What’s on your list of things you can’t live cook without? What’s useful in your kitchen, and what’s just clutter?

One of the ways you can use a freezer to help with meal planning is by vacuum sealing foods you buy in bulk. If you don’t own a product like a FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer, using freezer-safe zip-top bags and squeezing out as much air as possible can work as well. To get the air out of a zip-top bag, close the bag except for an inch at one of the corners. Submerge the exterior of the bag in water almost to the top of the bag. Let the pressure of the water release air from around your food, and then quickly close the last inch at the top of the bag. Be careful not to let any of the water into the bag and onto your food.

Simple…and eliminates the need for one whole gadget. (I’m moving in a couple months, so decluttering is my current obsession!)

I also particularly like their suggestion for shopping from the freezer before hitting the grocery store — such a simple idea really.

Bak'n, kale, and tomato bagel

It’s official, I no longer miss bacon, because I’ve found something better.

My friend D shared her amazing fake ‘bacon’ recipe with me last week. Omg, sooooo good. I’ve been trying to take some pics, but always end up eating the entire batch before the camera gets involved, so today I made a double batch so enough would be left over for pics.

Here you see the ultimate creation — one lightly toasted Montreal bagel, several rashers of ‘bacon’, some Sheese, cherry tomatoes, and crispy kale (lightly pan fried with the bacon). This is what BLTs dream of becoming when they grow up.

Damn, now I’m hungry again.

The fluffy flakes have me thinking wistfully of hot drinks. Hot chocolate. Mulled cider. Tea. But really, my not-so-secret vice is coffee. I love good coffee, and I’ll take it over pretty much anything else. Mmmmm, java.

Over the years I’ve tried pretty much every way of making and (I think) drinking coffee. The best cup I ever tasted was made using ‘vaccuum‘ technology — very good, but far too complicated for everyday brewing. At home I use a French press — it seems to best balance my needs for flavour and quick/easy preparation. If I can’t make a pot of coffee when I’m half asleep, what’s the point?

I drink the stuff black. Originally I started doing this to try and cut back on the amount I was drinking. That backfired — I just learned to love it that way. But I also started tweaking what went in the press. My favourite addition is ground cinnamon. A healthy couple shakes added to the grounds makes a fabulous combination — somehow richer, definitely more fragrant.

Today this staple got a new tweak in the form of — ready for it? — dried cranberries. Not a lot, maybe a tablespoon or so, but just enough to add a slightly fruity note to the coffee. Yum! It’s probably not for everyone, but I love the combination. So while it snows outside, I’ll just cozy up here with a warm cup held in my hands and think happy thoughts.

So keeping things short, all I really wanted to say was ‘boo, Fall!’ We said goodbye to our most wonderful CSA last week, picking up a wonderful last haul of leeks, parnips (big enough to club someone with! or possibly juggle!), and squash. I’ll miss seeing the same group of friendly faces each week, as well as the lottery-like suprise of finding out what veggies were in.

One lasting goodness in particular stands out from a summer of CSA-supplied veggies; it’s broken me of my lifelong habit of fitting food to my whims. In the past I decided what I wanted to eat, then went out and bought it. Now though, my cooking follows a different pattern: What’s fresh this week? What can I make with it? There are a lot more experiments, and there’ve been a lot of tasty surprises. Tonight’s involves gnocchi with a cashew-squash sauce. Mmmmmm. (I hope.)

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be back in less than four weeks.

One of the perks of joining a CSA is that you get to try new vegetables. This summer mine brought me my first ever ground cherries, and more recently tomatillos. I adored both, especially the way that they come in little papery husks that you peel off to find the fruit itself.

At about the same time the tomatillos arrived I also found myself with a few cobs or corn needing a tasty home, as well as some caramelized onions, eggplant, and cilantro. All together these spelled salsa. I decided to roast the veggies first to bring out the sweetness of the corn, and generally add a richness to the flavour.

Roast vegetable salsa

• 2 banana peppers
• 1 hot pepper
• 2 small purple eggplant
• 2 cobs corn
• 1 lb tomatillos
• 1/2 lb tomatoes
• 1/2 cup caramelized onions
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 to 2 T balsamic vinegar
• ~1/2 cup water
• oil
• salt and pepper [to taste]
• Smoked paprika, mushroom powder, or other seasonings [to taste]

To make the salsa, first roast your veggies:

1. Cut the top off the bulb of garlic to expose the tops of all the cloves. Wrap the bulb in foil, drizzle with oil, then seal the foil packet. Bake at 350F for approximately 30 minutes.
2. Slice the tomatoes and tomatillos fairly thickly and spread out on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. (You might need two pans to hold all the veggies.)
3. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds, put on a pan with the tomatoes.
4. Prick the eggplant all over with a fork and put it on the pan too.
5. If you like, you can drizzle a bit of oil over the veggies and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Husk the corn and wrap both cobs in foil to form a well sealed packet. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or so of water just before sealing this up.
7. Bake at 375F for around 30 min.
8. Let the garlic and veggies cool. If you like, you can lightly oil the roast corn and then put it under a broiler for a few minutes to blacken it and get an even richer flavour, but watch it carefully!

Then make your salsa:

1. Once cool, cut the roast eggplants in half and scrape out the middles.
2. Pulse all the veggies (but not the corn!) together with the garlic, onions, cilantro, and balsamic vinegar in a food processor until just combined. Add water a little at a time until you reach a good consistency.
3. De-nibble the corn. =)  Add the niblets to the salsa and stir in. You want to do this after using the food processor so that you get whole niblets in your salsa.
4. Taste and adjust the flavour with whatever strikes your fancy. I like the smokiness I get from adding smoked paprika, and find mushroom powder balances the acidity of the tomatoes. YMMV — experiment!

At home it was time to harvest my own little balcony garden. The chard and brussel sprouts and tomatoes are still out there (quite a few cherry tomatoes still hoping for a few more frost-free days), but I dug up the potatoes and picked the last few beans. The turnips yielded a few tubers, though I waited just a few days too long and their greens went all straggly before I could harvest them. The peppers did well, both hot and sweet types. There was even one huge cucumber tucked away in a corner. All in all, a tasty and satisfying yield that helped make our Mabon dinner special.

Still to do, picking the last of the beans I left out to dry, so that I can use them for seed next year. Also beheading the dead marigolds and calendula, likewise hoping for seed. And then it’ll be time to start planning next year’s garden. =)

I looooove udon. Noodles in general, but udon in specific. They’re chewy and tasty and full of yum. And also, it turns out, just about the most fun thing ever to make. Why? Because you get to dance on your food!

Seriously! I used this version of the recipe, because after mixing and kneading your dough you wrap it up well in plastic and a towel, drop it on the floor, and start dancing on it. You use your entire body weight to knead it. It sounded a little complicated at first, but proved to be a super-easy recipe. I made them the day before the potluck, boiled them, then tossed them with a little sesame oil to keep them from sticking. The next day I used them in a random stirfry of beet greens, ‘frenched’ yellow and green beans, green onions, and sesame seeds, all tossed with a sauce made up of garlic, ginger, tamari, sesame oil, and vegan oyster sauce. Everybody loved it. I’ll be making these again…a lot.

Homemade udon

Recipe notes: Half the recipe fed five people handily as a side dish. The only alteration I made was in the amount of water, because my dough needed twice the amount of recommended water to shape up.

Zucchini cherry bread

To make a dent in the zucchini I tried making a zucchini cherry bread today. It’s really just a veganized version of this recipe, but with dried cherries in place of walnuts (I was all out). The bread turned out quite well, if a bit sweet. Next time I’ll add walnuts (but keep the cherries!), reduce the oil a titch, and reduce the sugar by a quarter or third. Cranberries might work nicely in this too — their tartness would help balance the sweetness of the bread.

Zucchini cherry bread

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 3 T soy milk or other liquid
• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp egg replacer powder
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 cup dried cherries

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Lightly oil a bread pan.
2. ‘Cream’ the oil and sugar together until a little fluffy.
3. Stir in the zucchini, vanilla, and soy milk.
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt, and egg replacer powder. Stir into the wet mixture.
5. Quickly fold in the cherries.
6. Pour batter into the loaf pan, and bake 60 to 70 minutes.

* If using a flax egg or other egg substitute, just replace the egg replacer powder and soy milk in the above recipe.