Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage with Feta (and Tofu)

Please don't laugh at this title and ingredient list. It's basically an Eastern / Central European - inspired sweet and sour red cabbage dish, bulked up with tofu, and garnished with Balkan seasonings and feta. You don't really taste the tofu, and could omit it to make this a side dish, or replace it with chicken if you're not concerned about mixing meat and dairy. It was surprisingly good, and I'll be making it again.

Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage with Feta (and Tofu)

1 lb firm tofu
2 tbsp canola oil, divided
1 large onion
1 small head red cabbage
1/2 cup grapefruit juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp honey -- optional. (I added this and found it too sweet.)
6 dried tomatoes, soaked, drained, and diced
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 large pinch fennel seeds

Drain the tofu and cube it. Heat 1 tbsp oil over high heat in a large frying pan. Add the tofu and brown lightly on one or two sides only (it will keep browning as you add other ingredients), about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the onion, and core and dice the cabbage. Add the onion and cabbage to the tofu, along with remaining 1 tbsp oil, and continue to cook over high heat, stirring occasionally.

After about 8 minutes, when the vegetables have begun to wilt, add the grapefruit juice, vinegar, fennel seeds, and dried tomatoes. Continue to cook over high heat until just about all of the liquid has evaporated and the cabbage and onions are tender, 10-15 minutes.

Turn off the heat. Add the dill and feta; mix well. You can reserve some feta for garnish.

Serves 4 (with nothing else) or 6 (as part of a larger meal).

Yemenite Flatbread (Lachuch)

This is the first time I've ever made lachuch/lechuch/lahoh, a Yemenite flatbread that's sort of like injera. While this is likely not the most authentic recipe around -- cobbled together from several other sites -- it is definitely delicious. Still needs some tweaking; the batter was not as runny as I hoped, causing thicker breads that didn't cook quite evenly, but I couldn't resist posting it now anyway.* Eat with soup or stew, wrapped around tomato salad, with Yemeni fenugreek dip (not that I know how to make that), with za'atar, or with a drizzle of honey.

Lachuch
2 cups white flour
2 cups warm water (next time I will experiment with 3 cups water)
1 heaping tbsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Combine warm water and yeast in a large bowl until the yeast begins to dissolve. Mix in other ingredients together well, until creamy. Cover loosely and let rise in a warm-ish place for two hours.

After two hours, the batter should have at least doubled in volume. Stir it several times to deflate.

Very, very lightly grease a cold frying pan. Scoop about 1/3 cup batter into the pan, and then place it over medium heat. When the top of the bread is pocked with bubbles that pop and do not close and has taken on a cooked look, and the bottom is golden brown, use a spatula to lift the bread onto a clean kitchen towel to cool. Turn off the heat and either allow the pan to cool or run it under cool water to cool it off -- this is very important. (When I experimentally did not do this, the bread did not bubble correctly.) Repeat until you have used up all the batter.

Makes about 6-8 breads.

*I have now (3/28) determined that 2.75 cups of water is TOO MUCH!

Spicy Sweet Potato-Black Bean Soup

This is a favorite of my spouse. It is rich-tasting, full of warm spices, and very delicious, although not particularly attractive. I've made two big batches in the past two weeks, to take advantage of the last cold weather of the season.

If you have any leftover beans lying around -- e.g., half a can of refried beans -- just dump them in.

Spicy Sweet Potato-Black Bean Soup

2 large sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and diced
2 cans reduced-sodium black beans, well rinsed
1 medium or large onion, chopped roughly
4 cloves garlic, diced (or not; it'll just get pureed anyway)
1 tbsp olive or canola oil
3 tbsp cumin
3 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp Sriracha (or to taste)
1 pinch dried oregano
(1-2 tbsp honey -- depends on the sweetness of the sweet potatoes)
Water -- lots
salt & pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, cook the onions in the olive oil over medium heat while you are peeling and dicing up the sweet potatoes, about 5 minutes, adding the garlic in the last 2 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and beans; add about 8 cups of water (until the vegetables are covered), and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, add the remaining ingredients except the honey. Boil until the sweet potatoes are very soft, 30-45 minutes, adding water if it runs low. Puree using an immersion blender. Taste, and add honey if you think it is necessary. Thin with more water if you'd like a thinner texture.

Serves at least 5.

Creamed Onions

I have always surmised that I would love creamed onions. We had heavy whipping cream left over from a chocolate-ganache/caramel tart this weekend, so I finally had the opportunity to make them (what, waste good cream?). Turns out I do love them. So, so, so good.

I adapted Simon Hopkinson's recipe from Roast Chicken and Other Stories to fit the ingredients I had on hand, and wouldn't make it any other way. We modern folk aren't that used to eating things made with heavy cream, though -- it's unbelievably rich (even after I cut the butter in half), so I might just try making it with whole milk some time.

They look like nothing special, definitely not photo-worthy, but are impossible to resist.

Creamed Onions

3 large Spanish onions, sliced thinly
4 tbsp unsalted butter (original recipe: 8 tbsp)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or 1/3 cup white wine vinegar and the remainder white vinegar, if that's all you have like me)
1/4 cup extra dry vermouth
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (might try only 1 cup next time)
salt and pepper
pinch dried rosemary

Cook the onions in the butter, with salt to taste, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 30 to 45 minutes (it's a lot of onions -- just barely fit in our largest saute pan until they cooked down). Add the vinegar and reduce until evaporated; add the vermouth and reduce until evaporated. Add the rosemary, lots of pepper, and cream; cook another 10 minutes or so, until thickened.

Makes about 6 servings.

Recommended serving suggestion: for a great dinner for one, eat onions with Ak-Mak crackers dipped in Trader Joe's Bulgarian eggplant garlic spread.

Reasonable Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

While I normally have no problems with cookies that are dessert, with sugar and butter aplenty, sometimes that's not what I want. On a cold day, when I didn't have much for lunch and wanted a more substantial afternoon snack, it made sense to make a more, well, reasonable cookie. Very good with tea. We have about ten bags of cranberries crowding the freezer, so I used chopped cranberries, but raisins would be more traditional and would make a sweeter cookie.

Reasonable Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 stick butter, at room temperature
1 egg + 1 egg white
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 to 2/3 cup chopped cranberries, or raisins
Cinnamon to taste (several dashes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, additional egg white, and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients, then the fruit.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon or your hands, drop small cookies onto the baking sheet, about 1.5 inches in diameter (or larger if you'd like). Bake 10-15 minutes, until the edges are colored but the cookies are still soft.

Makes 2 dozen or possibly a few less.

Rice Pudding

Continuing on the pudding trend, I made two batches of rice pudding this weekend by special request from my charming associate. For the first (for a dinner party), I essentially followed this recipe, which calls for whole milk and two eggs for a double batch. Just too rich -- not how either of us thinks of rice pudding. So today I made another batch, using skim milk, one egg, and less sugar -- just right. It worked out even though I accidentally used only 1/2 cup of rice instead of 2/3, so I'm leaving it as 1/2 below -- but I'm sure 2/3 would be just fine. (And it's a perfectly acceptable breakfast -- it's just milk, rice, some egg, and a little sugar.)

Rice Pudding

1/2 cup white rice
5 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 green cardamom pod
1/3 cup raisins

Bring the rice, milk, cardamom pod and salt to a boil in a sturdy saucepan, stirring frequently so that it does not stick to the bottom and burn. As soon as it boils, turn the heat to low and simmer until the rice is cooked, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir frequently. When the rice is cooked, beat the egg together with the sugar until smooth. Add several large spoonfuls of the hot rice mixture to the egg; beat after each addition. Then add the egg mixture to the rice mixture and stir well. Add the raisins. Cook about 20-30 minutes more, stirring occasionally, over very low heat, until thickened. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir well. Eat hot, at room temperature, or chilled; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Serves about 4 in medium portions or 6 in small portions.

Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding

I was really impressed by how this turned out -- puffed and golden, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, rich and tasting of mushrooms and onions and cheese.

I'm sure it would be delicious if made with whole milk or cream and white bread with the crusts cut off, but it tasted pretty spectacular made with what I had on hand -- skim milk and whole-wheat "double protein" sandwich bread (and I didn't cut the crusts off). If I'd thought ahead, stale bread would probably work better as I'd prefer a slightly drier pudding, but YUM.

Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding

8 oz. crimini/"baby bella" mushrooms, washed and sliced thinly
1 medium-large onion, diced (about 3 cups)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
5 eggs
2 cups skim milk
8 slices whole wheat sandwich bread, cut into cubes of less than an inch
1/2 to 2/3 cup grated Swiss cheese
black pepper
cayenne
salt
1/2 tsp dried sage
2 tbsp butter

Grease a 1.8 quart casserole dish with a little of the butter. Heat the rest in a frying pan over medium heat, and saute the onions in it until they have softened and released some of their liquid, about 5 minutes. (Use this time to wash and slice the mushrooms and cut up the bread). Add the mushrooms and garlic and continue to cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have softened, released their liquid, and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes more. Season with salt, pepper, and a couple of dashes of cayenne. Remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until well blended. Beat in the milk. Add about a half teaspoon of salt, a half teaspoon of pepper, a couple of dashes of cayenne, and sage; blend. Mix in the bread cubes and then the onions/mushrooms, making sure it's well blended.

Pour into the greased baking dish. Top with the grated cheese. Bake 55-65 minutes, until the top is puffed and well browned.

Serves at least 4.