I got this very easy recipe from Jesse Cool (1,2). (This was a really nice lunch that involved my brother, her son, and a terrible mishap with a tray of olives but ask me about that later).
Clean and prepare 2-3 cups of cilantro. Two bunches from Blue Moon would cover this. Remove nice-quality leaves from the main stems.
Grate 1-2 cups of sharp Italian cheese. I usually mix 2:1 cilantro to cheese to start and adjust to taste and use a mix of romano or reggiano parmesan. Take care not to use a cheese that is too salty because this can overwhelm the taste. When in a rush, I do this all in the food processor so first grate the cheese and then dump it out before replacing the blade with the chopper.
In the food processor with the dicing or chopping blade:
Dice 3-4 cloves of garlic and 1 to-2 red chili peppers. Vary this to suit your taste- don’t be afraid to add lots of garlic. I would use 2-3 hard neck-cloves and 1.5 dried peppers if they are hot.
Add the cilantro and pulse to coarsely chop the leaves. Do not over do this.
Add the cheese and olive oil (1/4 to 1/2 cup) pulse to blend to make as smooth as you like. I leave it so different pieces of the ingredients can be distinguished.
We usually toss this with warm pasta but our first introduction to it was as a layer inside lasagna. The point is, feel free to invent. I have seen folks do variants by add lots of oil and spinach before blending to make a runny bright green dressing. The cilantro pesto goes really well with a sharp or sweet side, sun dried tomatoes and or balsamic vinegar.
This is a really fun way to visit with friends. Look on line for real Chinese hot pots or use your fondue pot to heat broth used for cooking. Prepare broth, dipping sauces and chop veggies and meats you will eat in advance.
Prepare a vegetable or chicken broth with a generous or possibly even excessive amount garlic and ginger. I add in some MEMMI noodle soup base, shoaking cooking wine, and light soy sauce. Top with chopped green onions, cilantro.
Cube tofu, set rice vermicelli noodles in a bowl, clean and slice shiitake mushrooms, separate white oyster mushrooms
Clean and separate leaves that are hand sized (4-6 inches) napa cabbage leaves, bok choy, any type of greens including spinach and arugula, quarter and slice carrot, leeks, potatoes
Very thinly slice eye of round steak, pork or chicken
Crust: (Tart Dough recipe from “The Greens Cook Book” by Deborah Madison)
1 cup white flour
3/8 tsp salt
4 Tbs cold unsalted butter cut in cubes
1.5 Tbs solid vegetable shortening (I am going to try substituting cream cheese)
2.5 to 3 Tbs ice water
Make this first so that it can prebake while you prepare the filling. Combine 1 & 2 then add 2 and 4, mix well with hands or in the food processor. Add ice water by feel if mixing by hand, until the dough just starts to become mealy. Flatten into a disc and cover with wax paper. She suggests you let it rest for 30 minutes in fridge and then roll out after warming but I just go for it, rolling between sheets of wax paper after dusting the surface with flour. Place in buttered baking dish, and prebake at 425. If you want a perfect crust, line the bottom with buttered foil and pie weights. Poke the crust if it swells as a result of steam.
Filling:
3-4 carrots
3 medium potatoes
6-8 turnips
1 large onion
1 large pepper
1/4-1/2 cabbage
oregano
1/4-1/2 cup veggie broth or water and a veggie bouillon plus a dash of noodle soup base.
* if you want this to be moister double the amount of broth and add to this 1 tsp of corn starch
*You can add broccoli too- chop and add with the cabbage
Clean and coarsely chop 1, 2 & 3. I microwave the carrots and potatoes for 6 minutes to hurry things along. Dice 4 & 5 and saute in a large pan, add herbs and spices to taste. Add in 1/4 cup veggie broth and chopped cabbage, cover to steam the cabbage. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl before placing into the baked pie shell. Cover with foil to retain moisture and prevent the shell from getting too dark. Bake at 350 for 20 (if you precooked 1 & 2) or 60 min.
Clean turnips, remove tops and cut in halves or quarters to make approximately 1.25 inch diameter pieces. Coat with olive oil and bake in a ceramic baking dish and bake for 15-30 minutes until soft (350- 400 degrees). The time and temperature can be adjusted to cook along with other things (squash or potatoes). Salt and pepper to taste.
If you bake along with other veggies (carrots, potatoes, onions) the turnips will be very soft by the time the carrots are cooked. This is good, but if you want them to be ‘done’ (remain intact) at the same time you can partially cook the potatoes and carrots in the microwave before combining and baking. Again, clean, cut into pieces of a similar size, place in a ceramic dish, cover and then nuke for 4-6 minutes depending on the quantity.
This was modified from the ‘Sopa de Lima’ recipe that is in “Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant” in the section written by Lisa Wichman of the Moosewood Collective. This cookbook is great and was published by Simon and Schuster 1990.
1 – 2 onions chopped
4 large cloves garlic (3 if hard neck garlic)
3 Tbs olive oil
½ tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
A ¾ gallon bag of cleaned peppers (often these are frozen in soup ready bags); mix typically includes the following:
1-2 cubed Habaneros
1-2 cubed Jalapeno
1-2 cubed Seranno
2-3 cubed Pablanno
2-3 cubed Anahiem
2-3 cubed Sweet red (Gypsy or Carmen)
2-3 cubed Green, Red, or Yellow Bell Pepper
3-4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
3 cups vegetable stalk. I just add two veggie bouillon cubes and a table spoon of tamari to water.
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
Salt to taste
Saute onions and garlic in oil, add herbs add peppers followed by the stock. Add chopped tomatoes to this. Cover and heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the tastes have merged, add lime. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
To make a heartier soup I add a can of white hominy
Top with
Grated cheese
Tortilla strips: cut tortillas into strips and fry in 1 inch deep hot oil then drain on paper towel
Chopped cilantro.
To prepare peppers for freezing wash well, remove tops, split and seed them. Slide halves into a freezer bag and combine the varieties in a mix of heat and color that suits your tastes. The frozen peppers are easy to chop. I remove from the freezer, rinse, chop and throw these straight into the oil.
1/2 red onion sliced very thin or white onion, soak in water and discard the water to remove heat
1/4 cup to half cup of cilantro chopped -
combine
coat with olive oil
add white balsamic vinegar to taste
salt (sea salt coarse is nice) and pepper
*I am not sure, but suspect this is my variant of Alice Waters’ receipt (Chez Panisse Vegetables) which uses white wine vinegar, less cilantro and additions lime juice and jalapeno peppers.
Clean turnips, remove tops and cut in halves or quarters to make approximately 1.25 inch diameter pieces. Coat with olive oil and bake in a ceramic baking dish and bake for 15-30 minutes until soft (350- 400 degrees). The time and temperature can be adjusted to cook along with other things (squash or potatoes). Salt and pepper 