Hello Again, Meat

I thought my first taste of meat after five days of vegetarian eating would be nirvana. And while I didn’t have any major cravings during our meatless week, there were a few moments where I just wanted to rip into a burger. We decided to indulge this weekend at Max Burger in West Hartford, figuring if we were going to eat beef, we’d do it right.

We committed the faux pas of ordering virtually the same meal (Kobe Fun Guy: with medium-rare Kobe beef, truffled cheese, French onion aioli and au poivre dipping sauce – hold the mushrooms for me.) And when the burgers arrived, they looked as gorgeous as they did in my dreams.

But something was off. As Rob tore into his and pronounced it the best ever, I found myself treading more lightly. Yes, it was incredible. Yes, that meat was utterly perfect, juicy and the ideal pink-red through the center. And yes, the rich aioli and earthy truffle cheese elevated the decadence factor. At the same time, it was almost a little too much for me, after a week of grains, vegetables and tofu. I ate half and brought home leftovers – something I hadn’t planned to do.

I guess I should have known what was coming when the restaurant’s “Grateful Veg” burger – with quinoa, sunflower seeds and lemon-tahini vinaigrette – looked especially good that night.

No way am I going full vegetarian, but I think we’re going to continue on this part-time meatless kick. We both agreed the experiment made us feel better; gave us more energy. (I fit in five workouts in seven days; almost unheard-of for me.) I didn’t feel sluggish in the late afternoon like I normally do.

And I had a much more successful round of tofu-cooking last night. Several people told me they’d had better results when freezing the tofu first, and they were absolutely right. It took extra time to drain it, but once it dried out, it pan-fried up beautifully. We planned to save a portion of the unmarinated slices for future meals, but we couldn’t resist – it all disappeared in a matter of minutes.

This week, I’ll be fashioning some kind of black bean and butternut squash chili, and a potential red-lentil soup. I may even make quinoa meatballs again. And there’s a lonely eggplant in my fridge, wondering when it’ll get its time to shine. Suggestions?

December 5th, 2011 | | 7 Comments »

Small Boston Kitchen’s Quinoa Veggie Meatballs

Before...

The best thing about this experiment has been the feedback from friends and readers. Who knew so many of you were into vegetarian cooking and eating – even occasionally? Even legendary meat lovers (hi, Dave’s Cupboard!) have come out of the woodwork to admit they like tofu.

The fun part has been searching for recipes and inspiration online. For Tuesday dinner, I looked to Twitter friend Katie’s blog, The Small Boston Kitchen, remembering that I’d seen several delicious-looking meatless options on there when I first started following. (Katie and her boyfriend, Richard, also run The Skinny Beet, a catering/private chef service in the city.)

With a bunch of leftover cooked quinoa from Monday’s dish sitting in my fridge, I lit upon Katie’s Quinoa Veggie Meatball recipe. I followed it as closely as possible, with a few substitutions: leaving out the mushrooms (I still can’t get into them,) the pine nuts (I had some in my cupboard, but couldn’t locate them quickly enough) and using Swiss chard for spinach. I didn’t have a fresh red pepper on hand, so I sauteed some frozen bell pepper strips from Trader Joe’s.

I also threw in a tablespoon of minced garlic and left out the rosemary. The oregano was key, though, adding a little extra infusion of Italian flavor. Basil or marjoram (fresh or dried) would have been great, too.

After.

I had my suspicions about the outcome. Would they be bland? Mushy? Dry? Overly crunchy?  Would I miss the meat? But I should learn to just sit back and enjoy, because these were fabulous. With a basic Trader Joe’s tomato basil marinara, the “vegballs” were more hearty, moist and subtly spiced than I ever expected.

I served mine in spaghetti-and-meatballs fashion, with a side of roasted broccoli. Katie served hers on a grinder roll with marinara and mozzarella, but suggested making smaller veggie balls as a potential party appetizer. I think that’s an excellent idea.

This recipe is certainly open to customization, and it’s a great way to pack tons of vegetables into the mix. I predict this will be a frequent staple in our kitchen from now on. Thanks, SBK!

November 30th, 2011 | | 2 Comments »

Vegetarian Adventure Day 2: Lemongrass Tofu

I’m not exactly a type A personality. You’d recognize that immediately if you saw the disarray of my closet. But I do have this annoying perfectionist tendency, where I feel like giving up if I can’t do something right the first time. And in the kitchen, sometimes that means bailing on ingredients or techniques.

And sometimes that means I get frustrated too easily. Remember the ciabatta, which turned out to be a blockbuster? I was about to go the same route with tofu tonight.

Starting out with an extra-firm block, I drained the tofu and then pressed it to remove more of the moisture. I must have pressed too hard, because the center of the block crumbled inward, and there went my visions of cutting perfect domino-sized slices for my stir fry.

But after a little research, some Twitter crowdsourcing (and if we’re being honest, some creative brainstorming for obscene tofu-related epithets) I was able to slice the remaining intact section of the block. To drain it further, I placed the slices between two cutting boards, with a paper towel to sop up the water, topped with a heavy frying pan for weight.

It worked well, and the drier slices later pan-fried beautifully in a little vegetable oil. Once the tofu finished cooking, it went into an amazing soy sauce marinade with fresh ginger, lemongrass, garlic and shallot. I really love the way tofu soaks up flavor.

Served atop quinoa with steamed broccoli and red pepper (and sauteed mushrooms for Rob), it was quite the surprising success.

That doesn’t mean my pre-Thanksgiving craving for a burger has disappeared, though.

November 29th, 2011 | | 1 Comment »

A Little Vegetarian Adventure

We have a running joke in our house. When I’m trying to plan dinner, I ask Rob what he wants to eat and he always responds, “Chicken.”

And no, we don’t really eat an exorbitant amount of chicken. It’s just that more often than not, we typically default to the old protein-starch-veggie kind of menu, and keep a lot of meat in the house. Any day of the week, I would be easily able to whip up some sort of chicken dish. Or chicken sausage. Or pork tenderloin, or ground turkey.

But lately, we’ve been reconsidering that. We’ve realized that we’re just eating too much animal protein. So we’re trying out a week of vegetarian cooking – embracing beans, lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, squash, sweet potatoes, green vegetables and tofu.

Here’s my first entry: Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers

(Recipe isn’t totally exact; feel free to change ingredients and preparation to your own liking.)

  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 sweet potato, roasted and chopped
  • 1 canned chipotle pepper, diced (with 1 tbsp of adobo sauce)
  • 1 poblano pepper, roasted and chopped
  • ½ onion, chopped and sauteed
  • 5 cloves of roasted garlic
  • 1 cup of baby spinach, sauteed
  • ½ cup of oats (I used quick oats)

Mash black beans and sweet potato into a paste. Add other ingredients; shape into patties. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

I froze the burgers slightly before cooking, and it firmed them up a bit. I served these on hard rolls (bulkie rolls if you’re from Massachusetts) with lettuce, tomato, goat cheese and avocado. Seriously tasty. The peppers added great spice and smokiness, enough that Rob said it reminded him of chorizo.

This veggie thing? It’s not a full lifestyle change. It’s more of a challenge for me to expand my kitchen repertoire, learning to let go of expensive meats and exploring the versatility of other ingredients. I hope to come out of this with several new go-to recipes and techniques, a renewed appreciation for vegetables and maybe a new love of soy proteins.

But I will not give up the dairy. You’ll have to pry the cheese from my cold, dead hands.

November 27th, 2011 | | 1 Comment »

Pizza Stone Bites The Dust

WTF

An unexpected outcome to Saturday night pizza: one of our stones cracked right in half as I pulled the second of our two pies from the oven.

Don’t worry. The pizza was salvaged. (That would have been a true disaster.) But I was still left utterly puzzled.

Amid several Moses/golden calf jokes, my Facebook and Twitter friends began to share their own broken-stone stories. Apparently this is relatively common. And when I thought about it, the now-shattered stone was the one we used when making pizzas on the grill. I guess it wasn’t sturdy enough for high heat.

We do have another stone – a pretty high-quality round Pampered Chef one that I received for my birthday last year. But I’ll be looking for another one soon, now that I’m obsessed with making pizza dough with quality 00 flour. Recommendations?

November 20th, 2011 | | 2 Comments »
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