BKEats

Last night was fun... I had a beer with my neighbor on our respective stoops... We were talking about dinner.. I have these black chickpeas I am making a chana masala with, my neighbor says.. It doesn't happen to be vegan, i ask... Because I am making making collard greens, rice and a salad, maybe we can team up? So, I brought out a folding table and the 4 of us sat outside and had a little pot luck... I made basmati rice and a salad with peanut butter/soy dressing... It was a fun night!

made pizza yesterday... Stretched the dough over a cast iron plancha... I covered the bottom in olive oil, the other side I covered in spicy hariss... Then I added the roasted tomatoes, onions and dill that I roughly chopped.. I also had some eggplant that I had left sitting in salt to drain.. Then cut and added to the pizza...I also added potatoes that I boiled and chopped, fresh thai basil and also a cashew ricotta and carrot top pesto. The pizza was so damn good!

So, the tasting notes are lemon, garlic, olive oil, cashew, salt and a bright grass. I also added a bit of fresh Thai basil, but tiny. I wouldn’t say it’s a main attractions. But especially when tossed with those hot salty creamy potatoes, it cooks a bit and then the cashews adds that mouthfeel and rounds it all out. It’s more just like, why not. Even if you make your regular pesto and use it as filler, why toss it. It’s edible and free. But it’s bright and Grassy. I juiced some with whole lemon, lime, ginger and jalapeño. I made a pizza dough, I’m thinking of like a Harrisa base and then those roasted tomatoes in maybe a Stromboli or something. Cashews ricotta or tahini

Mix platter from green market: 1)three types of lettuce with carrots in a Chinese mustard,sesame oil, lemon, sweet soy dressing 2)green beans boiled in salt water and lemon with a preserved garlic oil 3)roasted sweet potatoes with mustard seed and whole cumin seed and ginger 4)chana masala 5)and IndoChinese yellow split pea daal with 5 spice 6)whole boiled potatoes with a carrot top and cashew pesto. tossed hot. The guy at the market will give you as many carrot tops as you want 7)brown rice cooked with cardamom Then some roasted tomatoes, onions and dill with garlic and oil.. 220 for a few hours.

I suffer a similar problem sometimes.. What I have found is, just to cook the things.. Just put them in play.. A simple prep, just so they can be added to dishes or create dishes around them. I had these sweet potatoes laying around..I had no plans but, I just roasted them while the oven was on.. Eggplant, whenever I have an hour or so I am going to be in the kitchen, I take my eggplant and cover in salt.. I get all the moisture out and then will cook it in a pan or bake in the oven with a tiny bit of olive oil and some garlic. Just for until it's cooked through.. Because it was salted, you know have nicely structured and cooked eggplant that can be fried, or rebaked, or quickly srtir fried in a starchy chinese sauce. Now, I am more prone to just add these cooked vegs to something, sometimes so unsuspected I surprise myself.. The sweet potatoes from tonight, I actually ended up tossing in cumin seed ginger oil with some jalapeno. I will eat that with rice tomorrow at some point.. Or the green bean salad from tonight, i had a big old bag.. So, I boiled in salt water.. they are ready to be added to a salad or a dish at a moments .. the fennel salad tonight, i just chopped whatever vegetables I had. Sadly, I tossed out a fennel bulb as it went bad. But, yeh, if I can make a suggestion, just cook the things in a simple prep so they can be added to something quickly and spontaneously. when all else fails, make stock, or turn it all into juice.

Tonight I made yellow split peas with ginger, garlic, jalapenos, tomatoes, tomato paste, garam masala, sriracha and this spice mix from Kaluystans. Cooked for about 30 or 40 minutes.. I also made brown rice, I had leftover green beans that had been boiled in salt water, tossed in garlic, lemon, basils, olive oil, I served that cold.. Also made a salad from carrot, fennel, onion, lemon, jalapeno, red pepper flakes and salt. It was really good. living on the edge, i added a little five spice at the end.

Yes, exactly... I just wanted to add a little clove in there..

When I was a kid, I use to love baked ziti. We would order it usually from a place called Dusal’s in my hometown. Or actually, I would get a chicken or veal parm and the free side was always baked ziti. Never reading the menu, it was my go to order. “I’ll get the chicken parm and a side of beg ziti”. One day I was out to dinner with an old friend, Andrew Horlick and he noticed me order my “beg ziti”. “Do you call it beg ziti”. I say yes, begged ziti, what do you call it. He replied “baked, it’s baked ziti”. Only years later would I also learn the right correct way to say mozzarella. This is when an Italian man in Florence sang it back to me whole overly articulating the word. It was so shocking and beautiful, a light turned on for sure Here’s my vegan begged ziti with roasted red peppers, eggplant, roasted tomatoes, basil, cashew ricotta and a very little vegan mutzahrell In terms of recipes. I don’t really use any. I took some tomatoes, salted and olive oil and spiked with cloves. Roasted cut side down at 300 for an hour along side an onion treated the same way. I had also cut eggplants into pieces and covered it salt for a couple of hours And drained then cooked with garlic and oil. I also had roasted red peppers that had been sitting in garlic and a little balsamic. Cut all of that into manageable pieces. Mixed with the pasta. Added cashew ricotta, a pesto, Calabrian Chile’s, lots of fresh basil, then sort of fake mozzarella, little tomato sauce baked for like 30 minutes covered and then broil the last little bit.

i came home last night around midnight and what does one do at midnight? why, they embark on a mission to make chana masala... I having just made a large pot of bean the day before and having recently received the mango powder in the mail, i just had to do it. Some where along the way, i felt the need to tweek the dish. So, i added peanut butter. Peanut butter you say? Why yes, peanut butter. I figured it would be like India meets Thai meets, high guy in brooklyn. To tell you the truth, it's actually pretty good... Locally foraged cilantro.

Pesto Polenta with slow roasted tomatoes, squash, corn and peppers. roasted these bargain tomatoes for about an hour at 325. I bought maybe 8 of them at a farm for 3.99.. They had sage and rosemary, salt and garlic.

I think I messed around and accidentally made a grain bowl. Quinoa mixed with rice vinegar, sesame oil, sweet sauce and little dollops of chinese mustard... Little broccoli cooked in salt water mixed with sherry vinegar. Three lettuces, thinly sliced fennel of the pungent green market variety, mixed with just salt and a lot of rice vinegar and grilled squash with a ginger peanut sauce. No sort of planning, it all came together.

I made a curry for breakfast... A vegan curry in order of operation. Oil, onions, salt, ginger, garlic, scotch. Bonnet, tomatoes, all spice, black pepper, lemon, bell peppers, coconut milk, curry powder, tomato paste, lemon, sugar, salt, baby broccoli, green beans, tofu, pea shoots, a whole can of ackee, cut up squash blossoms, served and topped with scallions and a little Thai basil. The squash blossom flower was dragged through the sauce at the end and was delicious: I also did the trick with the tofu where I froze and defrosted, froze and defrosted... It gave the tofu a wonderful texture.

I have really only ever heard of beef being used but, anything works.. If I didn't have my own beef stock, which I only have turkey, lobster and shrimp in the freezer at the moment, i would most likely make a vegetable stock or mushroom stock or just go with a lot of wine, some tomato paste and bay as my stock. But the wine stock with a couple of spoons of demi would be my ideal version.

https://www.cookinglight.com/news/what-is-caulilini

I acquired these cauliflower broccoli guys... It looked like bolted broccoli ... It was good.. I made a spicy sauce for three garlic cloves, one half a jalapeno, a punch of red pepper flakes, some tomato paste that i left in a clump and let brown.. then added some wine and reduce a bit.. I had a little left of the cauliflower in the bag.. I decided to use the whole bag. The rest of the cauliflower I had precooked in salted boiling water.. these few pieces below i just cooked with the sauce. It reminded me that serving the same vegetables at different doneness in the same dish adds a depth. I added the broccoli and married the sauce.. then the paste, a thick .spaghetti.. then almost a whole bunch of chopped mint and some pasta water , a little squeezed lemon and a little olive oil.. my pepper grinder is broken so, i smashed some black pepper on top. I was trying to make up for anchovy. It could have used bread crumbs. it was over worked and spicy and it hit the spot. definitely not a refined plate of noodles but delicious none the less. a bagel for breakfast, two beers for lunch, a plate of pasta for dinner. total dad bod diet.

my neighbor is operating on a different level.. He always seems to have a little pep in his step.

So, i threw down with my neighbor last night... I have not seen him in like three months and well, i had a couple of beers and then we sat outside at his house and had a couple of more.. I said my good nights when he got out the whiskey.. But, yeh, even with like 3 beers and two shots over the course of a couple of hours, i felt horrible this morning... Not to mention, when I got home, having had skipped dinner, i feasted on some pizza... So, needless to say, i felt like garbage all day and starved myself because I had over eaten I am sure... Anyway, i got home from work and was ravenous.. I felt like a remedial japanese curry sandwich somewhere some reason.. I went to the store, bought a roll.. Made the curry which consisted of water, soy, sweet soy, curry powder, salt, sugar and corn starch.. I put a spicy West Indian Yellow Curry i purchased from Thew thin slices of the homemade Seitan in and cooked to heat and soften... Then I tossed my concoction onto a toasted deli roll... I had never made this type of sauce before and I only tried that boxed japanese curry a few times but, it was essentially the flavor.. I could have used a mushroom stock and added ginger or tomato paste but, this was like only a few minutes to put together and this almost got to the same place. At that point the extra hour of sophistication would have been wasted on me. This was almost an emergency. A new self is born the other self dead. it was a simple curry, it hit the spot.. i guess this is vegan junk food.. I was craving a burger but, this had to do.. pretty much same results, but really i feel much better than if I had a burger. edit: the more i think about this sandwich, i could make a sauce with hot soy bean paste and broccoli.. and of course some fried wontons would be fun.

I do consider myself lucky in this regard as, I am a good cook and live in a city that is incredibly accommodating to any diet.. But when I was in the suburbs of chicago last week, it felt very under served.. My hotel had no options outside of fruit, the restaurants in the area only had fries or avocado slices with chips and a side order of potatoes.. There were two restaurants that had vegan food with fast food style dining.. I am sure after a few days of eating falafel and vegan cheesesteaks, it would get old quick. I had friends over the other day and made everything vegan and just tossed them a steak.. They were unaware that the meal up until; we had separate entrees were vegan. And even though they liked the dry aged medium rare steaks, the sides were clearly the best thing served. But yeh, eating vegan just involves more cooking and more skill I think.. It's very easy and very rewarding to just throw a chicken in the oven, or a piece of meat on the grill. You have to work a little more and the vegetables need more care.

just a vegan joke, i am over a month in... In all actuality, i am sitting here reading about dry aging beef at home. And while I miss cooking meat, I don't miss eating it just yet.

Still alive and kicking on the plant based diet... Last night I made my own Seitan. Chickpea flour, Vital Wheat Gluten and some spices, mainly my tears. Mixed it up into a dough, made a broth of soy sauce, sweet soy, sugar, xaoxing cooking wine, kombu, some other fun things.. The broth was amazing.. Various Mushroom and thin slices of seitan. Cooked in the broth that I made simmered the seitan in... Then added rice noodles. It was really good Simple salad with yuzu, soy, sesame... Refreshing. Lovely dressing actually.

Here is a beyond sausage on a portuguese roll with pickled peppers and mustard... I think the beyond sausage is a fantastic product. Especially the farther I am from eating pork based sausage

i mean, the person should have tried them next to their real offerings.. Are we assuming that the meat versions of these monstrosities are good?

I have been cooking vegan for the last month and usually cook vegan meals a few months out of the year.. I have purchased nutrional yeast but, never used it.. My favorite snack is this company called Bjorn Corn which uses nutritional yeast in their popcorn but, have yet to make something that i felt was missing a flavor.. But, i recently purchased some vital wheat gluten to make my own seitan and the recipes all include nurtional yeast so, i am happy to finally have a need for it.

I like to treat sesame oil in two ways... one where you definitely know it's there and one where you don't... but since the quar, i would say i use it at least every other day.

Tonight i stopped by my shop.. There was this huge beautiful heirloom tomato that was just about to burst.. If someone mishandled it, truly would have just leaked all over the place.. I took it home and squeezed it all out in to a bowl.. I added two chopped cloves of garlic, salt, sugar, olive oil, mint, basil, red pepper and black pepper. I made a ricotta from cashews.. Soaked a cup of cashews in water, then blended, added salt, sugar, olive oil and lemon a little mint... Cooked the pasta, tossed in the raw tomato salsa. Added the cashew ricotta.. It was truly, truly, truly amazing. http The name escapes me now, but it's the certain raw pasta sauce that normally has almonds.. the cashew ricotta was next level.. So creamy, i have been vegan way too long.. Here is the empty bowl of the salad.. I made a dressing of white vinegar, oregano, sugar, salt and olive oil presoaked the onions in that.. Made croutons from a loaf of sesame bread. Then added cucumbers and three types of lettuce.. .