The Continuing Bacon Saga

Three new "bacon" product lines for me to try - I can't vouch for these yet, but will be reporting back.

The Baconnaise People sound like miracle workers. They carry bacon flavored spread, bacon salt, bacon popcorn, and bacon ranch - apparently all vegetarian and kosher. I can't wait to buy some of this stuff. Their motto is everything should taste like bacon.

Bacos - these are actually made of TVP! Again can't vouch for them as have not purchased yet.

Bakon Vodka - whoa.

Acorn Squash Custards

Living with a CSA box in winter means you have a never ending supply of winter squash. I wanted to stuff the squash to be more entree-ish, but I didn't want to add more carbohydrates to my meal, so I came up with custard. Fancy and easy!

Acorn Squash Filled with Custard
Serves 2 (Double the recipe for 4)

1 acorn squash
2 eggs
1/4 Cup Milk or Cream (I think you could use plain soy milk here)
1/4 Cup Parmesan
1 Tb chopped sage
1 Tb Butter
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the acorn squash in half and remove the seeds so that you have two bowl shaped pieces. Put the squash in the oven with half tablespoon of butter in the cup of each and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Let the squash cook while you prep the custard. In a bowl, or better yet pyrex liquid measuring cup with pour spout, crack your two eggs and mix them with the cream, parmesan, sage, salt and pepper. You may want to add the parm or cream slowly because you will want a bit less than a cup of total liquid. Keep the cheese and milk to equal amounts. Take your squash halves out of the oven and place them on an oven safe pan - I actually used a muffin pan so I could keep them even, you don't want your custard to pour right out. Once you've got your halves positioned, pour the custard in to the top, don't go over. If you have extra custard, you can cook it in a buttered ramekin. Bake the custard filled squash halves for 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Delicata Latkes

I love latkes. They are such a versatile way to use root vegetables, you can even use combinations of different roots. Since I'm steadily cooking down my cache of winter squashes, I thought I'd try out squash latkes. Added bonus, served alongside Morningstar "bacon," they are still kosher

Delicata Latkes
Serves 2-3

Half a medium delicata squash
2 eggs
2 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Flour
salt and pepper

Warm the oven to 250 to serve as a holding spot for finished latkes. Peel the squash, remove the seeds and cut the delicata into slices you can put into the food processor. Shred the squash. Move the shredded squash into a large bowl, mix in two cloves crushed garlic, add a generous shaking of salt and grinds of pepper and crack the two eggs into the bowl. Mix it all together. Add flour to bind the egg to the mixture. The mixture should hold together, you don't want it runny.


Spoon the latke mix on to a frying pan at medium heat - i used cast iron, but this was a bit too hot as you can see from the blackened marks on my latkes. You want to form patties that are 2-3 inches in diameter. Place four, wait 3 minutes, then flip them for another 3. Put cooked patties in the oven to keep warm while you cook the remainder. This recipe made 8.

Bacon!

I found a decent bacon! Let me be clear, this is still not bacon exactly, but the flavor is much closer than the other products I've tried. The texture is still not quite right and still probably a bit low fat, you need to oil the pan to fry it. But the flavor is good! It's smokey.

The winning fake bacon: Morningstar Farms.
 

Green Curry Revisited

This might have been the perfect curry. The sweet heat ratio was spot on and the combination of vegetables worked amazingly well. And I have to say it's definitely better on white jasmine rice. The aromatics of the rice match the curry perfectly. Also Elizabeth introduced me to brocolette, which I'd never had before and now adore. It's like broccoli, but with a stem that is thinner and reminiscent of a green bean or asparagus. Now that I've discovered the perfect ratio of sweet heat, I think next up will be getting the curry to look greener.

 

Vegetable Green Curry on Jasmine Rice
Serves 4

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
6 cremini mushrooms
1 bunch brocolette
3 sprigs basil (thai is best if you have it)
1 can coconut milk
1.5 Tablespoons of Mae Ploy Green Curry paste
1 Tablespoon Sugar*
2 Cups Jasmine Rice (you will probably have leftover rice. Technically one cup should be enough for 4, but it never is, and 1.5 is annoying to make.)

Add rice and 2 cups water to rice cooker. Chop all your vegetables in to large bite sizes. In a saucepan, warm the coconut milk, add curry and mix well. Add sugar, stir to mix in, then add vegetables and a 1 Tablespoon of water. Simmer for ten minutes or until vegetables are a bit soft. Add basil, stir for one more minute or until rice is done. Serve curry over rice.

Ideas for leftover rice - fried rice, sauteed with garlic and olive oil, rice balls, or see the post i did on lentils.

* A note about the sugar. Elizabeth had this awesome sugar, which I had never seen before and was quite impressed with. It was especially good in this curry. It struck me as kind of a mix between brown and white sugar, kind of like sugar in the raw. It's Wholesome Sweetener's Fair Trade Organic Sugar, see picture. Incidentally, this is the same company that makes the blue agave syrup, which is delicious, but not as effective in the curry recipe.

Pumpkin Curry and a Side Note to the Ladies

Thanks to our Full Circle Farm CSA Box we've enjoyed a lot of winter squash this fall, but I'm a little tired of using it in the archetypal autumnal recipes. I thought I'd spice things up with a little pumpkin curry inspired by Rice and Spice on lower Queen Anne.

Pumpkin Curry on Brown Rice
Serves 4
Winter squash - use either a medium delicata or half a butternut, I happened to have an eighth of a butternut on hand that needed to be finished, so I combined that with half a medium delicata for this recipe.
1/3 lb Green Beans
1 package Tempeh*
2 sprigs Basil
1 Can Coconut Milk
1/4 Cup (less depending on spice tolerance) of Mae Ploy Green Curry Paste - You can make your own, but it involves a lot of specialized ingredients that you may not want to buy much of. I have only ever done this when we were snowed in because our walk to Safeway doesn't sell green curry paste, so I had to make it from scratch. Some curry pastes have fish products in them, so do check.
0.5-1 Tb brown sugar or agave syrup
1 Cup Long grain brown rice

Put the rice in the rice cooker and cover with two cups of water. Turn it on. Peel your winter squash and cut it into spears, save the seeds for roasting later if you like. Put the squash spears in about an inch of water and set it to med-high. See picture below.
 
While your squash is cooking, prep your green beans by washing them and trimming the ends off. You might want to cut your green beans in half. Open up your tempeh, coconut milk and curry paste. When the water is almost simmered off, add the green beans for blanching.
 
Now that the water has nearly evaporated, pour in the coconut milk. You can tell if your squash is done because you should be able to easily slice them in half with your cooking spoon. Add the green curry paste and sugar/agave and stir it so that they blend into the coconut milk. Add tempeh, which is precooked and only needs to heat up.
 
Your rice should be about finished and if so, divide into four bowls (or two bowls and save some rice and curry for tomorrow), toss basil in with the curry and top the rice with it. Add a leaf of basil for sophistication. AWESOME.

About the sweet heat:
If you like your thai curries sweeter, use the full Tablespoon, if not stick to the half. If you like your curry hot, use the full 1/4 cup, but if not go down to as little as 1/8 of a cup, but no less. If I do this again I will probably use about mid way between the two. Charlie thought this was pretty spicy.

What is agave syrup you might ask? It's a natural sugar substitute from the same plant they make tequila with. It's becoming popular because it doesn't have the same glycemic reaction that sugar does. I have been using it and like it a lot. I found it at Costco, but I'm sure it's available in a ton of places.

*And the side note for the ladies. I am finding that after a month of veggie living that my monthly cycle is a bit off (as in a very early false start, followed by delay of game), I expect that will not last long, but it is annoying none the less, and for the first time since I started being veggie, I *really* want some meat, which is why I used tempeh instead of tofu in this recipe. Tempeh seems to have a meatier quality to it. Anyway, TMI, but if anyone out there is thinking of becoming a vegetarian, this info might help you.

Buddha's Hand

 

Fascinating new produce spotted at QFC. According to Wikipedia it doesn't actually have a lot of edible uses, but is more for offerings at temples. It is edible though and can be used for it's rind and zest in the same way you would use a lemon. I haven't decided if I am going to shell out the $13 for it. Also I'm not sure that this really belongs on the green blog as it was probably shipped from far away. Our QFC is renovating and clearly is trying to shed it's ghetto image by upgrading what's available and diversifying the product line, Buddha's Hand is clearly a part of this.