Rich Spanish Lentils with Quinoa
These lentils are so rich, hearty and satisfying – they can be served alone in a big bowl as a standalone Winter meal, or offered as a tasty first course to a larger meal, as it is often served in Spain. The addition of quinoa was inspired by the commonly used Spanish technique of starting many vegetable dishes by frying chunks of stale bread, or breadcrumbs in lots of olive oil, garlic and pimentón – the sweet, slightly smokey, Spanish paprika. The Castillian Sopa de Ajo, (Garlic Soup), is traditionally made this way. So it got me wondering what would happen to start with a base of quinoa, rather than bread…
So this soup is a hybrid between Sopa de Ajo Castellana, and the Andalusian Sopa de Lentejas, with my Californian non-gluten twist…
Spanish Lentil Soup with Quinoa – Serves 6 – 8
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 t. high quality, high mineral salt
- 1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 cup dried quinoa, rinsed very well and soaked one hour or more
- 2 t. sweet paprika
- 2 t. Spanish pimentón
- 6 cups water or vegetable stock
- 1 T soy sauce
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 2 T nutritional yeast
- 1 t. ground cumin
- 1 t. salt
- 1 cup brown lentils, rinsed and soaked one hour or more
- 1/4 green bell pepper, or 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 potato, peeled and cut into larger chunks
- 1/4 c red wine, to taste
- 1/2 t. umeboshi vinegar, or Braggs Amino Acids (optional)
- 1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
Saute the onion with olive oil and a pinch of salt in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot, until golden brown and starting to caramelize - about 10 minutes. Add garlic, carrots, celery, salt and pepper and saute gently for about 10 more minutes until completely cooked, stirring occasionally and deglazing sides and bottom of pot with water every once in a whole as needed to keep it from sticking. This long slow cooking process at the beginning sweetens the vegetables and is what gives richness and depth to the soup, so make sure to put the time in here.
Stirring constantly over medium flame, add quinoa, paprika and pimentón, toasting the quinoa for a few minutes in the hot oil. Add water/stock, bay leaves, cumin, soy sauce and nutritional yeast, and 1 t. salt, lentils, green peppers, sweet potato and potato chunks. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 30 -45 minutes, or until lentils are cooked but firm and potatoes can be cut with a fork.
Taste and add red wine and a splash of umeboshi vinegar or Braggs amino acids. (These give the “6th sense flavor” which the Japanese call umame. Soy sauce can also be used). Thin with water if necessary to desired consistency. These lentils can be served thin and soupy or very thick, piled up in a shallow bowl, depending on your preference. Adjust salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix in fresh parsley just before serving.
These lentils are great with a side salad and thick slices of toasted garlic bread, or served alongside Tortilla de Patatas (a Vapor!).
Spanish Tortilla de Patatas (a Vapor!)
No vegetarian has ever gone to Spain without overdoing it on the ubiquitous “Tortilla de Patatas”. It’s basically a thick potato omelette which is served on it’s own, as a side dish, as a tapa, and in sandwiches everywhere in Spain. I usually avoid them when I travel, (viewing them as an emergency bus-stop lunch item), but if you can find someone local to make you a a really good tortilla de patatas, fresh, it can truly be a sublime experience.
Here is the catch: after pestering many of our local Andalusian neighbors to show me how to make the real thing, I discovered that what makes the really good tortilla so delicious is that they are basically deep-fried from the inside out. Cut potatoes are slow cooked in massive amounts of olive oil for a long time, before being mixed piping hot with beaten egg and fried again slowly to set into the iconic tortilla shape. And I have to admit that when I am in the Suryalila kitchen, staring over the shoulder of a skilled Andalusian who is enthusiastically deep-frying hand-cut potatoes in a big sarten of homegrown olive oil, it all seems just fine… like the most natural thing in the world. But back here in my own kitchen in NYC, the thought of deep-frying potatoes in cups of olive oil sounds worse than appalling.
So I decided to see if I could make an authentic-tasting potato tortilla using steamed potatoes instead of fried. And… it’s good! Not sublime… but almost as good as the real Andalusian thing, still using a high quality extra virgin olive oil but with no deep-frying required at all.
Why is this important? In addition to a lot of controversy olive oil becoming unstable when heated to smoke point, there is also a carcinogenic chemical called acrylamide which is produced during high heat cooking of certain starches, like potatoes. Keeping cooking temperatures under 248°F reduces acrylamide levels significantly, so steaming and boiling potatoes is much healthier than deep-frying or baking.
Tortilla Español with Steamed Potatoes – Serves 8
- 2.5 pounds potatoes (around 5 – 6 medium)
- 1 onion, sliced
- 6 eggs
- 3 T. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 t. salt
- 1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
Cut potatoes into small pieces: In Andalusia, tortilla makers turn each potato in their hand, slicing off small evenly sized scallops from around the top edge with a paring knife and allowing each piece to drop into a bowl of cold water. This gives an interesting shape and allows the egg to slip between the cracks in the final tortilla. Steam the potatoes for 10 – 15 minutes until very tender, but not mushy. Keep hot.
Meanwhile, in a 8″ – 9″ heavy non-stick sauté pan with steep, curved sides, sauté onions in 1 T olive oil and a pinch of salt until soft, sweet and golden brown. Add steamed potatoes to the pan and sprinkle with 1 t. salt, tossing gently lightly to coat. Remove from heat.
In a large metal mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, 1 t. salt and pepper until completely combined. Add hot potato-onion mixture and mix gently to combine.
Clean sauté pan and reheat with 1 T. olive oil until it shimmers on medium/high heat. Add potato/egg mixture all at once and immediately even out potatoes, pressing middle of tortilla down firmly in the middle and allowing the outer edges to creep up the pan. 
Lower heat to low/medium and run your spatula around the sides, pushing the egg/potato mixture down the sides of the pan towards the middle, rounding the edges and compressing the tortilla again. Repeat this squishing down and scrunching up movement a couple of times in order to ensure that the egg is releasing from the bottom of the pan, and also to put the maximum amount of egg in touch with the hot pan and potatoes. Allow the tortilla to cook slowly on low heat for 5 -10 minutes, peeking in after 5 and reducing heat to make sure the bottom is not getting too brown.
For a nice video showing how the Spanish handle a tortilla (in full fat glory!) please see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvlkYYdIBV0
Flip the Tortilla: When one side is golden brown and has been cooking for 8 – 10 minutes, it is time to flip the tortilla. This takes a bit of practice, not because you need skill, but because it takes confidence to perform a whole-hearted flip. So, if you psych yourself into it, you can do it perfectly on the first try. Ready? (Watch the above video again, then put on some Paco de Lucia to get into the vibe, then go for it!)
Find a rimless plate or a large pot lid that is at least an inch or two larger than your saute pan and one which is relatively flat( slightly curved towards the middle is fine, but you need to be able to slide the tortilla off the plate so no edges…)
Run your spatula around the edges of your pan and jiggle it a bit, to make sure the tortilla is completely free on the bottom from the pan. then put the plate, upside-down, on top of the tortilla, and in one bold move… FLIP IT OVER. Do this fast and with complete commitment… and maybe also over a sink. The worst thing that will happen is that you get a bit of egg on you, but most likely, you will remove the pan and end up with a beautiful golden brown, half-cooked tortilla on your plate.
Return the pan to the heat (wipe it clean), add the remaining 1 T olive oil, bring it to a shimmer and slide your tortilla – raw side down of course – back into the pan. Do the smash and tuck thing a couple more times, gently, then reduce the heat and allow to firm up for another 10 minutes or so. Poke the tip of a knife into the middle and squish the spatula down to make sure the middle is firm, and cook a bit longer if any liquid comes out.*
Remove pan from heat and take a peek at the bottom to decide which side of the tortilla is the better looking, and then either slide or flip onto a serving platter, depending on which side is more gorgeous one (and how much you just want to flip that thing again…)
Allow the tortilla to sit out on the plate for at least 15 minutes to firm up or allow to cool to room temperature before serving.
*The egg in the middle of the tortilla should be just moist and slightly shiny – not cooked all the way through. The Andalusians really take this seriously and like it …wet. So, find what you are comfortable with, but if you find it’s too wet, you can always slide it back into the pan for a gentle reheat.
If to be served on it’s own, cut into 8 pieces and try it alongside the Rich Spanish Lentil Soup with Quinoa and a tossed green salad.
Enjoy leftover tortilla in other ways:
- As a Bocadillo (sandwich): serve a warm slice of tortilla topped with a whole roasted green pepper in a split fresh baguette. (yes… I saw this one at the Madrid Airport).
- As a Tapa: cut tortilla into smaller, two bite squares and serve open face on a 1/2″ round slice of lightly toasted baguette, topped with a piece of smoky red piquillo pepper and a sprinkle of parsley.
For a vegan version of this recipe, check out my (utterly inauthentic, but still good) Spanish Tortilla..with a Twist!
Creamy Beet Borscht with Horseradish Swirl
Borscht is one of those things, like art, that everyone has an opinion about, but really, what is it? My friend, the artist John Fadeff, who I think is also qualified to speak on this by nature of his fine cooking ability and Russian last name, told me that borscht in his family was anything that started with: 1 onion, 1/2 head of cabbage, and 3 beets, and then they would put all sorts of stuff in it afterwards, greens, beans, even meat. Really, anything goes with borscht - look it up in Wikipedia – there are a bazillian varieties out there and everybody’s got one (they even make it in China, with tomatoes instead of beets), but anyway, per Mr. Fadeff: 1 onion, 1/2 cabbage and 3 beets is the basic ratio I always start with.
This borscht is the hot, thick and creamy kind – which I was recently told is the Hungarian variety, as opposed to the chunky Russian kind, or the chilled ones with dill and egg, or all the other variations there seem to be out there. The horseradish addition I am crediting to my friend Katherine, from Kosmic Kitchen, who used to do a horseradish sour cream to top a delicious red root soup (also a borscht, I guess: beet soup – with the addition of carrots, parsnips, ginger and all sorts of sweet rooty deliciousness.) I also adopted the ginger from her because I really like the warm spicy complexity it adds. This soup is all about balance of opposites: sweet, sour, spicy, smooth, hot, cold and creamy. It’s a perfect with a loaf of hot whole grain bread and salad.
Creamy Beet Borscht for 8
- 2 large onions, in 1/2″ slice
- 1 smallish head of cabbage, cut into 1 – 3″ pieces
- 1 T. olive oil
- 3 huge beets or up to 6 medium ones, sliced thinly
- 1/2 t. white pepper
- 1 – 2 t. Himalayan or other high mineral salt
- 2 whole bay leaves
- 6 -8 cups water
- 2 t. balsamic vinegar
- 1 t. apple cider vinegar
- 1 – 2 t. maple syrup
- 1/2″ fresh ginger, chopped coarsely
In a large, heavy bottomed soup pot, saute onions and olive oil with a pinch of salt until sweet and slightly caramelized. About 5 minutes. Add cabbage, salt, pepper and bay leaves and continue to cook over medium flame, with the top half on, until the cabbage softens and also starts to caramelize, about 10 more minutes. Stir occasionally, and add a little water as necessary to deglaze the pan and keep it all cooking away. Add beets to the pot, and then add water (eyeball it) to about an inch or two over the vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until the beets are thoroughly cooked though.
Remove bay leaves and blend with ginger in Vitamix or blender until completely smooth. Return to pot adjust for salt and pepper, then add vinegars and maple syrup, cautiously. The soup should be both sweet and slightly sour, and how much you add will depend on how naturally sweet your veggies are, how patiently you caramelized them, and how acidic your type of vinegar is. In any case – if it is not already “mmm… wow” ad this point, keep adjusting.
(This soup freezes really well – I do a large batch and freeze half of the batch for later).
Serve with a scoop or swirl of Tangy Horseradish Yogurt Sauce or Vegan Horseradish “Sour Cream” in each bowl.
Tangy Horseradish Sauce (Vegan and Non)
When I was growing up, my Japanese grandmother – whom we all called “Granny” - used to make a sauce with Best Foods Mayonnaise with a bit of soy sauce in it and serve this as a salad dressing on sliced tomatoes. I know – it sounds weird…(Japanese meets 1950′s style middle American food culture!), but actually, you know, it’s a great combination. I ate “Granny’s Best Foods Sauce” on everything when I was growing up – it was my favorite dip for steamed artichokes (still basically is) and its also great with asparagus spears, whole blanched green beans, spears of broccoli or broccolini or broccoli rabe… this sauce totally makes veggies fun!
Over the years I played with adding other flavors like horseradish and capers, and started cutting the mayo with sour cream, then yogurt, and then finally, eliminating it all together in favor of a raw vegan version. At any given time I usually have a couple of versions of this sauce in my refrigerator – maybe one with cumin and lime to drizzle over anything Mexican, and usually a horseradish or caper version for artichokes or any other steamed vegetable. I also float a spoonful of this in my Creamy Beet Borscht soup recipe….
Tangy Horseradish Yogurt Sauce
- 1/4 c whole milk yogurt, (or Greek yogurt, or sour cream)
- 1 T mayonnaise (I grew up with Hellman’s/Best Foods and nothing else tastes right to me)
- a few drops of soy sauce (really, about 1/8th teaspoon – this makes it, and no one will know)
- 1 t. horseradish (fresh, grated, if you can get it, or prepared is fine – look for “hot”)
Whisk together well in a small bowl. Serve with anything!
Vegan Horseradish “Sour Cream”
- 1 c cashews, soaked 4 – 6 hours
- 1/2 c water
- 1/4 olive oil
- 2 T lemon juice
- 1/2 t salt
- a few drops of soy sauce (really, about 1/8th teaspoon – this makes it, and no one will know)
- 1 few drops of umeboshi vinegar (optional)
- 2 t. horseradish (fresh, grated, if you can get it, or prepared is fine – look for “hot”)
Blend all ingredients, except horseradish, in a Vita-Mix until completely smooth. Mix in horseradish. Thin with water if needed to achieve desired consistency.
Play with it!
- Add cumin and lime juice – use it alongside salsa and guacamole to top tacos, tostadas and anything else vaguely Mexican.
- Replace horeradish with chopped capers, ad a bit of garlic and fresh lemon for another nice artichoke sauce.
- Leave out horseradish and serve plain.
Silky Ginger Carrot Soup
It’s starting to get blustery and cold in New York City, and all I want to do is hole up in my cozy apartment and make soup! This soup is very versatile – I made it simply ginger for an Asian-y accompaniment to my vegetarian “Chinese Chicken” Salad and Sesame Scallion Buns meal last fall, but it can just as easily be Mexican-ed up by replacing the ginger with cumin and adding a pinch of oregano.* (And for an awesome raw version, check out this one: Warm Winter Carrot Soup.)
The secret of this soup is to get it really really smooth – it will be ok done in a blender, but it is divine when made in the Vitamix…
Silky Ginger Carrot Soup for 6
- 2# carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 medium onions, sliced evenly
- 2 T olive or coconut oil
- 1 t. Himalayan or high mineral salt
- 1/t t. white pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 cups water or vegetable broth
- 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 2 hours and drained**
- 1 – 2 cups water
- 2 – 3 T. fresh ginger, grated
- 1 – 2 t. maple syrup (optional)
- 1/2 t. umeboshi vinegar or squeeze of lemon (optional)
In the bottom of a heavy-bottomed soup pot, saute onions with salt and pepper in oil over medium heat until starting to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add carrots and bay leaf and sweat them another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, with a lid loosely on the pot. Add enough water to cover carrots (about 4 cups, but you can eyeball it), bring to a boil, and cook until the carrots are tender enough to cut with a fork, but still bright orange. About 10-15 minutes, depending on how thinly you have sliced them. Remove bay leaves, add cashews, and blend in Vitamix very well, being careful to start slowly with the top securely on. You can bring the soup up to the highest speed and then leave it there for at least a minute. I walk away…
Add grated ginger, ume vinegar and 1 – 2 cups water, slowly, thinning to desired consistency. Add maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste. Finish with a splash of umeboshi vinegar, or a squeeze of lemon. Rewarm lightly if not serving immediately, but do not boil.
Serve garnished with a few sprigs of fresh cilantro, or thinly sliced scallion tops.
*This recipe can also go East Indian if you do ginger, cumin, coriander and turmeric with the onions, or Moroccan if you do all of the Indian spices but add cinnamon and a pinch of saffron in the with carrots… play with it!
**You can replace the cashews and 2 cups water with almond milk, or hemp, soy or oat milk.
Sesame Scallion Buns
These are really fun buns – stuffed with scallions and rolled up like a big green jelly roll. I went with Asian – scallions and sesame – to make a meal out of “Chinese Chicken” Salad and Silky Ginger Carrot Soup, but you can really stuff them with whatever you want. I have been known to use any extra dough for tomorrow morning’s cinnamon sticky buns…Mmmm…
Sesame Scallion Buns
(about 12 large)
- 1 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 t. honey
- 2 t yeast (1 packet or fresh cube)
- 4 cups flour (up to 2 cups white whole wheat, or 1 cup whole wheat)
- 1 t. salt
- 1/2 bunch scallions, sliced thinly
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 2 t. sesame oil
- more sesame for sprinkling (black is nice!)
- flaky salt for sprinkling
Dissolve yeast in warm water and honey - proof for 5 minutes. Add flour with salt slowly, beating well with a wooden spoon to activate gluten at around 3 cups. Knead dough 3-4 minutes, adding a small amount of flour if necessary. Let rest a few minutes and then knead for 5 – 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic, (about 10 – 15 minutes total knead and rest time).
Let proof in a lightly covered, oiled bowl for 1 – 2 hours, until doubled in sized. On a board scattered lightly with sesame seeds, pat dough out into large rectangle about 1 inch thick. Toss sliced scallions in sesame oil with a pinch of salt and scatter evenly over top of dough. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup sesame seeds. Roll dough up into a tight jellyroll, lengthwise. Slice gently with a lightly oiled, serrated bread knife and place 2″ apart on a well oiled, or parchment-lined sheetpan. Sprinkle tops with a little flaky salt and black sesame. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 – 2 hours, until doubled in size.
Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven until fragrant and golden brown on top – about 15 – 20 minutes. Serve warm!
Purple Avocados and Honey, Hawaii-style
photo credit: Kevin Smith
Nostalgia Alert: When I was a kid, I lived with my mom in Northern California during the school year and spent the holidays and summers with my dad. It was a good deal, especially since my dad worked as an art professor for the University of Hawaii, so many of my holidays and summers were spent on the islands of Oahu and Kauai. On Kauai, there is an amazing valley on the Northwest side, in the Na Pali Coast called Kalalau, which at the time you could only get to via an 11 mile hike or by inflatable Zodiac boat. (I think now even those are not allowed). Also it was a state park, so visitors are only given licenses to stay for a few days at a time. Luckily for us, we were good friends with both the rangers and “Captain Zodiac”, the owner of the island’s one boat company, so we were able to boat in and live at the ranger’s camp for weeks at a time. Kalalau Valley is mythically beautiful, and you can easily get lost for hours or days at a time climbing up into the sheer Na Pali cliffs. My childhood memories include sand so soft and fluffy you sink to your knees in it, a wonderful crazy lady named Bobo who lived deep in the valley, wore no clothes, and had the most impressively scarred body I have ever seen, as well as long afternoon hikes through the sun-dappled valley, searching for elusive wild orange groves and wild avocado trees.
Wild Hawaiian avocados are small, stringy, and bright purple, and the locals eat them as a fruit, with honey. I can’t tell you how delightful an avocado can be when you go beyond the guacamole typecasting and consider it as the fruit that it really is! Also in Hawaii you can get tubs of naturally crystallized honey which has a thick beeswax foam on the top. It tastes much less sweet than liquid honey and can be spread like butter on bread. The closest I can find in the states is something called Really Raw honey and it is delicious. Here is my favorite breakfast…
Avocado on Toast, with Creamed Honey – for 2
- 4 small slices high quality whole grain bread (walnut is awesome)
- 2 – 4 teaspoons high quality raw honey, local if you can get it
- 1 perfectly ripe avocado
- pinch of Himalayan, Celtic grey or other high mineral natural salt
Toast the bread slices and spread each with 1 – 2 teaspoons of honey. I like it light.
Cut avocados in half, remove seed, score the flesh and scoop out 1/4 avocado per toast slice. Spread evenly and give a wee sprinkle of salt.
Enjoy!
“Chinese Chicken” Salad
This is an old recipe of mine, which I used to do a lot and then forgot about until recently. It’s a bit labor intensive, and slightly evil (if deep-fried tofu qualifies) but it’s a serious crowd-pleaser and gets people into eating heaps of salad so I think it’s worth it.
Vegetarian “Chinese Chicken” Salad for 8
- 2 # tofu
- 1 -2 cups peanut oil (for deep-frying)
- 2 cup water
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- pinch of red chili flakes
- 1/4 t. white pepper
Dressing
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- high quality salt
- white pepper
Salad
- 2 romaine heads, cut into 1″ strips
- 2 cucumber, sliced thin
- 1/2 green apple, sliced paper-thin
- 1/2 red pepper, in thin strips
- 2/3 cups toasted almonds
- 2/3 packs rice or bean thread noodles (optional)
- 2/3 cups thinly onions or shallots (optional)
Make the tofu “chicken” by cutting tofu into thin strips - roughly 1 x 3 inches in diameter and about 1/4 inch thick. Deep fry in small batches in hot peanut oil, draining well on fresh paper towels as you go. As you fry, combine water, soy sauce, maple syrup, yeast, chili and white pepper in a large deep skillet or braising pan, bring to a boil. As you fry, add well-drained batches of fried tofu to the simmering liquid, mixing in as you add each new batch. Continue to boil the tofu in sauce, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid in the pan is absorbed and the tofu just begins to caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Watch it carefully here and pull off just before it browns or starts to burn. There should be a nice slightly thickened glaze coating all the tofu, and some tofu pieces will be a bit crunchier than others – that’s all good. Transfer to a sheet pan or baking sheet and cool completely.
Once the tofu is out, deep fry handfuls of dry rice or bean threads very quickly in the hot oil just until they puff up. Drain on towels. Fry onions or shallots if using.
Whisk together all dressing ingredients to combine. Set aside.
When ready to assemble, combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl, topping with cooled tofu and fried noodles, and toss lightly with some of the salad dressing. Serve immediately while the noodles are still crisp, passing the remaining dressing at the table.
For a great almost-Fall meal, I serve this with sesame or scallion buns, and a hot (or chilled, depending on how almost it is) ginger carrot soup…
Gazpacho Andaluz!
Hola from España! I am back at Suryalila and midway through cooking for about 45 people on another Yoga Teacher’s Training with Vidya. Everyone here is studying very hard right now and I am again in the Suryalila kitchen, where our team has happily hit cruising altitude and is flying smoothly through meal after beautiful meal.
What could be more appropriate for September Equinox in Southern Spain than Gazpacho Andaluz? Here is my favorite recipe – when I made it the first time I was here I was shy about how truly “Andalusian” it was, (especially with my obvious deviations, like fresh ginger!) but since then I have gotten the big thumbs-up from our local friend Manuel and many of our neighbors, so I now can proudly say it’s been officially sanctioned. The hard-boiled egg topping, “huevo duro”, was the only suggestion from Manuel – and it’s a great one – so I have added as an optional third condiment.
Gazpacho Andaluz - for 10
- 4 cups fresh sweet tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 cups cucumbers, peeled (seeds ok), in pieces
- 1 cup sweet red bell peppers, roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 small red onion, cut small
- 1 T fresh ginger, cut small
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 t. balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 t. freshly ground pepper, or to taste
- 1 T high quality sea or Himalayan salt
- 2 T honey or coconut sugar, or to taste
- 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in 2 cups water
Mix together all ingredients in a large bowl, then blend in batches in a Vitamix until completely silky smooth, adding tomato soak water if necessary to blend, or a little ice as necessary to keep cool. Adjust for salt and sweet, and chill well before serving.
Serve well chilled in a big bowl, along with small bowls of toppings…
- Homemade Garlic Croutons (or leave out, for gluten-free)
- Mixed Veggie Topping
- Huevo Duro (or leave out, for vegan version)
Homemade Garlic Croutons
Please do not use prefab croutons here! Once you try these you will never go back.
- 8 slices of whole grain bread, torn or cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1/4 cup high quality olive oil
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 t freshly ground pepper
- 1 T crushed garlic
Mix garlic, salt and pepper into olive oil in a large bowl, combining well. Add bread all at once and toss vigorously to coat all the bread as evenly as possible. Taste and adjust, adding more oil and salt if necessary. It should be delicious already. Toast slowly in a dry stainless or cast iron frying pan, stirring occasionally until browned and crunchy on all sides (my favorite method, since they stay a little soft in the middle) or toast in a 325° oven until crisp through.
Mixed Veggie Topping
- 1 large red or yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 small red onion, diced
Combine together and toss with a little olive oil and salt just before serving.
Huevo Duro (optional)
8 high quality eggs, hard-boiled for 10 minutes and diced.
A Note on Eggs…
Please make sure your eggs come from happy, pastured hens, or forget about using them. Seriously, this soup is fantastic without the huevo duro, and the only reason I am including it is this is how they do it here in Andalusia. Everyone who lives here seems to have chickens pecking around in their back yards, and happy, sun-drenched hens make for very good eggs. So please just skip the eggs if you can’t vouch for the happy hens.
Food + Art
This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the very first Food Book Fair in Brooklyn with my friend Katherine from the Kosmic Kitchen. I only attended a couple of panels but those were so so fantastic that I am still ecstatic from the experience!
The Sunday morning session – yes, Sunday morning at 10am… (truly unfortunate scheduling because this was a brilliant session which should really be highlighted next year). Anyway, the ridiculously early Sunday morning session was called Food + Experiments and was actually an exploration of the intersection between food and art. You know…not the next chocolate piano, but Art art: totally creative, slightly insane, done for the sake of doing something totally insanely creative kind of art… using food as a medium. It was incredibly fun and truly inspiring and I am so glad I made it.
Yael Raviv kicked it off, introducing the Umami: Food and Art Festival, a nonprofit, biennale event which she started in 2008 as a platform to support and broaden the horizons of food and/as art. Unfortunately, we just missed the last one in April, but I am looking forward to seeing what they do in 2014.
I loved the work of Emilie Baltz, who grew up in a traditional French family in America, and as a result is doing some brilliant works/reflections on American food culture – exploring the fear factor around food (Porcelain Dust Mask Bowls ) and the idea that junk food is a truly and uniquely American Cuisine (24 karat gold guilt hamburgers and twinkies in American Dream)… not to mention the Jello Boob, a mold of her own, featuring hand-squeezed peach juice jello, with a hand-squeezed watermelon nipple, and filled with a “dirty” lapsang souchong infused panna cotta. Ummm….wow!
JELLO BOOB by Emilie Baltz
Also stand out were some crazy events by Michael Cirino of the blog, A Razor, A Shiny Knife, who is responsible for the recent “A Casual Sunday Lunch” event, which was not casual at all, but a extravagant 6-course sit down meal served on the L Train. Check out the video – this is really a fun ride!
(Hmmm… Alcatraz? I can’t wait!)
La Baguette Enorme, containing one 6 foot long shark…
Moving the Baguette Enorme on broomsticks…
Best of all were some of the “Orphic Feasts” presented by Doug Fitch. This guy is brilliant. For one event, called Baguette Enorme en Gala, he and his co-creative Mimi Oka got permission to join a town festival in France, and offered to feed the entire town (400 villagers) – they then built a HUGE oven and made a 2,000 pound baguette, which all the villagers brought things to put inside. This included everything….it was a fishing village so there was lots of seafood including an entire 6 foot long shark, an assortment of various French grannies’ homemade concoctions, a variety of fresh fruit as well and cutlery and cloth napkins and coins…all baked into this enormous loaf.
OK. So then… how do you move such a thing?
So the villagers went home, got broom and mop handles, picked the whole thing up like pall-bearers, and made une grande procession to the center of town, where everyone dived into the bread. Apparently it was quite an anthropological event just to eat the thing, probably made even more lively by the inclusion of money and cutlery. Then the leftovers when to a local pig farmer for next year’s sausage, which then inspired “Orphic Memory Sausages“, another art event by Doug and Mimi at…the Umami Food Festival. How cool is that? Art begets Art, with Food, bringing people together again and again in the most creative way.
French village devouring Baguette Enorme
Doug Fitch’s Baguette Enorme Recipe
1000 kg flour
20 kg yeast
a pinch of salt
1 shark
17 mason jars filled with whatever
33 liters of water (or 1 case of beer)
vegetables
140 Francs (or 32 Euro) in centimes or coppers
20 pineapples
198 kumquats
Build oven, light fire, and heat till hot. Grease 5731″x16″x 4″ pan. Mix ingredients and let rise. Punch down. Cook until done.
Lastly, there followed only enough time for two questions, and they were the perfect ones. One was:
“How do you get funded for doing these kind of things?”
This is the perennial question for artists everywhere, of course. But when it comes to food, it is even more interesting because food, until very recently, had not been considered an art medium, no matter how creative or talented the chef is. Probably simply because chefs traditionally get paid. So it is inseparable from the question: “What is the relationship to art and money?”
Doug gave a really interesting example which highlights this: An Epilogue to the Baguette Story…
Apparently Doug and Mimi did not charge for the meal/event – they just did it, cleaned up and left – leaving the villagers to wonder what just happened. So a few weeks later the villagers started freak out a bit and called several several town meetings to discuss whether they had been inadvertently infiltrated by some kind of cult or sect. (!) In my mind, that kind of group paranoid egoic backlash is as close as you can get to proof that it WAS a truly transcendent art event, and it probably would not have happened if they had charged a centime for the “food”.
So it really makes you think about the relationship of money to art.. and food. Do you really have to not charge for what you do, to be called an artist?
And the other question asked was, “Do you ask permission before you do things like this, or do you just do it?”
What do you think? 
