Neat loaf, part deux

Neat loaf is one of my favorite things to eat. Seriously! It's so good! I first had it at the SF restaurant Ananda Fuara - kinda weird atmosphere, but everything I've had there is fabulous and it's right around the corner from Symphony Hall. Neat loaf tastes nothing like meat loaf, but it does taste like heaven. I like it with Greek potatoes and some token vegetable. Om nom nom. When I had previously blogged about it, I linked to an online recipe. Imagine my horror when I found that link to be broken!! So, I realized I must post the recipe here myself. I've changed a few things, so I'm not being a total copycat. Here goes:

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
Start making rice, if you don't have any leftover. You will need 1/2 c cooked brown rice.
While the rice is cooking, start sauteeing 1 small onion, chopt, and ~3 large cloves garlic in EVOO.
In a separate bowl, beat 4 eggs.
Whisk in 2/3 packet of onion soup mix (I use Lipton - check the ingredients as sometimes these include sneaky meat) and 1/4 c EVOO.
Stir in 1/3 lb (~2/3 cup?) ricotta cheese and 1/3 lb soft tofu, crumbled. Mash it with your whisk to make sure it's reasonably well incorportated (small clumps are fine.)
Stir in your onion and garlic mixture, 1/2 c cooked brown rice, 1/2t oregano, 1/2t basil,  and 1/4t rosemary until well incorporated.
Gently stir in 4c bran flakes.
Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1h at 300. Note: if you're making potatoes in the same oven, and you've ever made potatoes before, you'll know that it will take them A YEAR to cook at 300. I'll often bump it up to 350, 375 or so and just take the loaf out after 40 min or so. It seems to do fine - the sauce (below) hides any dryness caused by cooking it at a hot temperature.

While the loaf is cooking, make your BBQ sauce. I've never tried using store-bought BBQ sauce, but I bet it would work fine, too - just don't get one with a really out there flavor, like "ginger soy teriyaki bbq sauce" or something.
In a small bowl (a 2c measuring cup is an efficient way to do this), whisk together:
1/4c ketchup
1/4c tomato sauce (you can do all ketchup but it makes it super salty)

1/8c Dijon mustard
1/4c molasses
1/8c+ apple cider vinegar
1 pinch cayenne pepper (I do ~1/4t)

After the loaf has cooked for an hour, pull it out of the oven and pour the BBQ sauce on top. Let it cook for 10 more minutes. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before eating.

Superbowl noms

In honor of the Ravens' big trip to New Orleans, we had a small superbowl party with a large spread of delicious noms! I made sure to have lots of Baltimore specials, including hot crab dip w/ old bay, Ravens eggs (see below), Natty Boh, Heavy Seas beer, Ravenswood wine (techincally form California but I feel like it counts), and Bergers cookies, along with traditional Superbowl foods, like veggie chili and (faux) wings 'n' things w/ blue cheese dressing. I'm including a few of my new favorite recipes from last Sunday's festivities below:

Chunky blue cheese dressing
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking
Note: the original called for mayo, but I didn't have it, and I really liked the result

Process the following in a food processor until smooth:

• 1-2 garlic cloves (to make 1t minced garlic)
• 1c low fat sour cream
• ~2T red wine vinegar
• ~1T soy sauce 
• ~1T dried parsley (or 1/4c fresh)
• salt, black pepper, & old bay to taste

 Stir in 5 oz crumbled blue cheese and process until desired consistency.

I served it with wings, things, and other crudite.

Ravens eggs
Adapted from a TV news story and this recipe.
Note: these didn't taste quite as good as regular Ravens eggs, but they were fun to have for the game.

Make 6-7 hardboiled eggs (I follow the Joy of Cooking instructions)
Remove the yolks and reserve.
Boil the white halves in 1/2 bottle Ravenswood wine (the Zinfindel has a good purple hue)
When the whites have taken on a good purple color (5-10"), remove from the wine with a slotted spoon and refrigerate to set.
Make the yolks with old bay - we mashed them with the following:

• 2T mayo
• 1-2T sour cream
• squirt mustard
• salt, black pepper, & old bay to taste

Assemble eggs and sprinkle with paprika to serve.

Legend has it that these eggs are good luck if consumed before the end of the 1st quarter and bad luck if finished after that. We debunked that theory on Sunday however - we left a few for the 4th and the Ravens still won. So slow down, folks!

Hot & creamy crab dip
Adapted from this recipe from the Old Bay website

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl or food processor, mix 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 1c mayo, 2t Old Bay, 1 squirt mustard until well blended.

Gently fold in 1 lb backfin crabmeat (we used fresh Virginia crab - delicious!)*

Spread this mixture in a 9" pie plate. Sprinkle w/ 1/4c grated cheddar, bread crumbs, more old bay, and chives to taste.

Bake for 30" or until hot and bubbly.

I served it with tortilla chips & crudite. I bet crackers, fresh french bread, and/or bruschetta would be great, too!

*The result of a small miracle: our neighborhood store had fresh seafood that day

If you want a less creamy dip, this other recipe from the Old Bay website may be a good alternative.

Go Ravens!!

Dal / daal Makhani and the Haven

Hello all! This week has been amazing - I matched for residency, my dear friend/roommate got married to a great guy, I ate at my favorite hoagie restaurant in New Jersey (let the gloriousness of this moment not be underestimated), the Ravens are going to the super bowl, and Obama got inaugurated. Pretty hard to beat. Not unsurprisingly, Monday afternoon felt like a bit of an anticlimax. How do you top all that awesomeness?! With an unnecessarily elaborate Indian supper, that's how! I love Indian food - spicy, delicious, and (much of it) vegetarian. Now that I am comfortable with the basics of Indian cooking, I LOVE making it at home - all the great flavors of an Indian buffet without all the salt, butter, cream, and MSG.

If you're into Indian home cooking, Anupy Singla is a great resource. She is an Indian-American author with several cookbooks, none of which I own (sadly). She specializes in Indian slow cooker recipes as well as healthy vegan recipes. She has a great blog, Indian as Apple Pie. None of the recipes I have tried from her site have been duds - none. Today I made her Dal Makhani. I followed her recipe pretty closely, but I made enough changes that it bears a re-write here:

Rinse 1.5c dried lentils and 3/4c dried kidney beans. Black lentils are ideal, brown OK. Soak overnight.
Cover the beans and lentils with water and simmer with 1 cinnamon stick, 6 balls allspice or 3 cloves, 2 bay leaves, and 1t turmeric powder for about 1 hour, until soft enough to eat. Turn off and leave covered when done.
When the beans are done, process 4 cloves garlic, 1 onion, 1" fresh ginger, and 1.5 jalapenos (I left the seeds in - use your judgement depending on how much spice you like).
Next, heat 4T butter or EVOO in a saucepan.
Toast 1t cumin seeds until they sputter, ~1".


Add the garlic/onion/ginger/jalapeno mixture and saute until it becomes fragrant and slightly browned, 3-4".
Add 6 oz tomato paste and stir. Add a little water if needed to keep the mixture from sticking to the pan.
Put the lentils/beans and the contents of the saute pan into your slow cooker.
Stir in a few shakes of cardamom powder and salt to taste (~1t).
Cook for about 6 hours on low. Stir in 1/4 cup coconut milk at the end.

I paired it with garlic naan, saag, and raita. Note that if you get lazy with that saag recipe, you can replace most of the spices with a few shakes of garam masala and call it a day.

Pictures of the best hoagie place on the planet:

Hoagie Haven, Princeton, NJ. Can't get the photo to rotate =(

Grease stains in front of the bench out front: this is how you know it's good.

Fennel, Bean and SAMBUCA soup - our 500th post!

I thank Suzanne and Jody for putting me back in Chez Toby's good graces so that I can post this soup, which I cut out of the Post years ago and made today for Suzanne and Reeves.

Soak a bag of white beans in a big pot.  When they're soaked, drain the water, pour in enough vegetable stock to cover, and cook them for an hour.

Meanwhile, you can slice the 2 bulbs of fennel in the FP, which gives you 1/8" slices if you push hard and fast on the bulbs.  Recipe calls for 1/4" slices but so what.  Spread them out on 2 greased or lined trays, sprinkle and toss with 1/4 cup roasted almond oil or some non-California wannabe oil, along with 4 big cloves of unpeeled garlic and roast at 350 until they are a bit crisp - - maybe 30 min or more.  At the same time, saute 1/2 sliced onion in some oil until soft.  When the beans are tasty, add the roasted fennel, the garlic extruded from its peel, and the onion to the pot and cook for 10 min or so.  Run this thru the FP (will require a repeat).  Add white pepper, and, once the puree is reasonably cool, 4 T. Sambuca or Pernod, and, if you like, 1/2 cup half and half.  I didn't so I'm not going to dignify this with bolding.   REcipe calls for topping with 1/4 c crumbled blue cheese.  We used parmesan.  Recipe calls for toasted walnuts in the bottom of the bowl.  That or hazelnuts would be a lovely surprise.  You can put a fennel frond atop.

Indian Peas & Tofu (Vegan Sukha Mattar Paneer)

Just tried this delicious recipe from Anupy Singla's blog, Indian as Apple Pie. Fabulous and flavorful - a tofu dish that is easily as good as paneer! The only thing I changed was that I blotted the tofu prior to cooking to ensure maximum flavor absorption. Not sure if this is necessary, but I prefer a firmer tofu.

Mexican Fiesta, Part Quatro: Huevos Rancheros

Today, I will share with you my favorite dish of that weekend of Mexican delights. On Sunday morning, we made huevos rancheros. I love this dish. It would be a perfect follow-up if you had too much tequila with your Mexican feast on Saturday.

I did not have huevos rancheros until our trip to Mexico last year. Yes, it took me until age 25! You might be surprised to learn that Northern Virginia is not known for the quality and variety of its Mexican cuisine.

Huevos in Mexico. With agua di pina.

It has that perfect combination of spicy, crunchy, and creamy. I love how it looks perfect on your plate and then the moment you touch it with your fork the egg yolk explodes all over everything.

Here's my take. All ingredient values are per person:

Huevos Rancheros
Turn on your oven's broiler.
Brush two corn tortillas with EVOO. Place under broiler for 2-3 minutes, or until crispy but not burnt.
Meanwhile, fry two eggs over medium-high heat.
Heat a generous scoop of black beans in the microwave.
Place the crispy tortillas on a plate. Top with your two eggs, the beans, a big spoonful of salsa, a few slices of avocado, and some grated cheddar.

Huevos in Baltimore.

Mexican Fiesta part tres: Black Bean Tacos

I love this black bean recipe. They turn out thick and flavorful, perfect for tacos or serving with rice.

Black Bean Tacos
Reanimate 1 1 lb bag of black beans, set aside
Saute 1/2 onion over medium heat, chopt
After the onion softens, add 6 cloves garlic, diced and hot peppers to taste, diced. We used 1 jalapeno and 1 red habanero. Not for the faint of heart. The (excessive?) heat was well-balanced by the rice and tortillas, though. Chipotle peppers would do well here, too.
After ~ 1 minute of cooking, add the beans and barely cover with vegetable stock.
Stir in 2T tomato paste.
Sprinkle in 2T cornstarch and stir.
Season with cumin, oregano, black pepper, and salt to taste.
Simmer until the dish thickens to a consistency of your liking.

I served it with cilantro-lime rice, corn tortillas, avocado, cheddar, salsa, and chipotle hot-sauce. Queso fresco and fresh tomatoes would be good, too.