I’d originally planned something much more elaborate for dinner, but once I’d made about 8 spring rolls, muhammarah (Mediterranean red pepper and walnut spread), last night’s leftover curry sauce, and wasabi peas for 2 people, I sort of wondered if anything more would be excessive.  Appetizers aren’t anti-establishment if they replicate a pattern of North American excess, or whatever.  Also, this was my first attempt at spring rolls, and rolling them gave me exhausting performance anxiety.  So I just decided to take a deep breath and stop there.  

The curry sauce was even better the next day, and makes a wonderful dip.  It’s a bit time consuming because it involves blending and sieving, so the next time I make it I’ll be sure to double the recipe and save some in the fridge.  I think this sauce would be amazing with white fish or vegetables.  It’s good both warm and at room temperature.  

Curry Sauce (makes 1 cup)

• 1/2 cup onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1/2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp salt
• a bit of pepper
• 1 to 2 tbsp cold butter, chopped into bits

1. Heat olive oil in medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions, carrots, apples, and celery and saute for about 5 to 7 minutes, until vegetables are soft.  
2. Add curry, garlic, salt, and a few turns of fresh ground pepper, continue cooking for about 1 minutes.
3. Add 1 cup water and bring to a boil, turn down the heat and then simmer about 5 minutes.
4. Transfer to a blender and blend til smooth.  Rinse out your saucepan, then force the mixture through a sieve, back into the pan.  I found that this took forever, but I think it really benefits the consistency of the sauce.
5. Over low heat, whisk the bits of butter into the sauce one at a time.  

Last night, I wanted something light but nourishing, so I immediately thought of Soupe au Pistou, a fragrant Provencal soup.  It’s essentially minestrone spooned over pesto.  The heat from the soup lightly cooks the raw garlic and basil in the pistou, releasing their flavour.  I made the pistou with basil, garlic, lemon zest and pine nuts, but you can vary it however you like.  For the purposes of this soup, it’s good to leave most of the oil out of your usual pesto recipe.  Unlike when used in sandwiches or on pasta, the pistou doesn’t need oil to spread or coat anything. 

Soupe au Pistou

(Adapted from Vegetarian Times, Nov. 2008)

Serves 4.

Soup:

• 1/3 cup dried chickpeas, or other dried beans (white beans make a nice substitute)
• 1/2 small can chopped tomatoes
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 to 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 potato, cut into 1/2″ dice
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup frozen lima beans
• 1/4 cup forzen green beans
• 1/2 cup orzo noodles

1. Place chickpeas or other beans in a large pot, covered with water.  Bring to a boil and cook, covered, 10 minutes.  Let rest, drain, and rinse.
2. Return the beans to the pot; add tomatoes, onion, carrots, bay leaf and stock.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium low and season with salt and petter.  Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. 
3. Add pototoes, garlic, and thyme.  Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.  Continue to simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
4. Add frozen beans, peas, and orzo.  Cook an additional 10 to 15 minutes.  Check the pasta and frozen ingredients for doneness.  Adjust seasoning.
5. Serve, laddled over 2 tsps. of pistou.

Pistou:

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 handfuls pine nuts

Blend pistou ingredients in a processor, or chop by hand.  You may need to add some oil or water to get the processor to do its work, or to get the pistou to hold together loosely.

But the main problem with them is that they’re still pancakes.  This is something I scarcely want to admit to myself: I don’t like pancakes.  Breakfast is my favourite meal, yet I hate eggs (including french toast), don’t like pancakes, and I’m not crazy about hashbrowns either.  I sometimes like waffles, but that’s because they tend to be lighter and crispier than pancakes. 

The major problem with pancakes is the consistency of the batter; it’s usually soggy and flavourless.  Adding syrup and butter helps with the flavour issue, but worsens the sogginess issue.  These pancakes are definitely a flavour improvement (thank you, pumpkins!), but they’re even denser than your usual pancake.  The syrup, however, is delicious!  I am going to brainstorm other things to use the syrup with.  Suggestions?

To return to the topic at hand, the first of my New Year’s resolution vegetables was beets.  I decided to do a sort of Scandinavian style marinated beet and celery root salad.  I followed this recipe but with pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts.  You could easily make the salad with pickled beets instead of roasted ones, but my cleanse precludes pickled food.  I do think that the roasting makes for a better taste, but it also takes about an hour.  In fact, this salad is really labour-intensive all around what with all the matchsticks, and requires a bit of forethought because it really needs to marinate for a while.  For those reasons, and because it keeps well in the fridge, I’d suggest making a big, big batch of it.

The finished product is lovely.  The celery root takes on a vibrant pinkish color, a bit softer in color than the beets themselves, while the sweetness of the beets is balanced out by the lemon in the dressing.  There’s something about beets that just feels very healthful and nourishing.  So good!

I’m starting a detox diet tomorrow. (No doubt I’ll be posting about it here at length.) But in the spirit of not setting oneself up for failure, I’ll have to avoid the food porn for the next 12 days.

Yesterday, I had some friends over for Bacon- and Squash-Filled Crepes with Salsa Verde.  (I substituted sour cream for the creme fraiche, thyme for rosemary, and used lean back bacon instead of regular.)  J. and I spent the afternoon working on it, but although it was labour-intensive, it was really fun and, um, educational.  For example, we learned that I’m far too nervous to flip crepes properly.  I was more than happy to derogate that responsibility to J.  And although we already knew this, we learned again that it’s a total pain to peel an uncooked squash.  But it was totally worth it, even just for the smell of the bacon and squash cooking.   And it tasted good too.  Everyone seemed to like it; at least, there were no leftovers.