Cooking With Mollie #15: Maple Mustard Brussels Sprouts

Look, Ma, more Brussels Sprouts! You'd think I'd get sick of them. Nope. I never do. I really do eat them almost every day during the season, and I'm sorry to see the season go.

Yes, I'm a freak.

Fortunately Mollie Katzen has given me a bunch of new, delicious recipes from her book - "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."

Once again, the recipe is online at Culinate.

The process is easy. Peel the ugly leaves off the outside of about a pound of sprouts, and cut them in half if they are big, in quarters if they are giant. But try not to buy giant sprouts - the bigger they get, the more tough and bitter they are.

Saute a little minced onion in a large frying pan (I used my faux-wok), then add the sprouts and saute for 5 minutes.


Add 4 Tbsp water, put the lid on and saute until the sprouts start to get tender, another 5-8 minutes. Stab one with a knife and you can feel whether it has gotten softer (but still a little firm).

Meanwhile, mix up 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard and 2 Tbsp of real maple syrup (don't go for the fake stuff. Please, don't) and some pepper into a smooth emulsion.

I made a mistake at that point, thinking somehow that 2 Tbsp was the same as 1/4 cup. It's not - 1/4 cup is 4 Tbsp, so I accidentally doubled the maple syrup. It was still pretty tasty, though a little sweet. But I'm an American. We LOVE our sugar.



Pour this over the sprouts and cook just til heated through.


I used less than one pound of sprouts, so mine was kind of saucy. I think with 1 lb, it would make the perfect amount of sauce.

You can serve this hot, warm or cold. It will please any sprout lover. It is zippy and a little sweet. I'll never lose my love for roasted Brussels Sprouts, but this is a refreshing change of pace. It would be a nice side dish with ham, I'll bet.

Cooking With Mollie #13: Parmesan Nut Crusted Portobello Fritters

Most of the recipes I have made so far from Mollie Katzen's "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without" have been vegan or practically vegan. This is the first one where I have had to bust out the eggs that have been languishing unloved in my fridge for a few weeks.

That isn't unusual. I use maybe 6 eggs every 6 months. I don't bake a lot and I like eggs better if someone else cooks them for me, usually into a tasty breakfast burrito.

This recipe is super simple, especially if you get some almond meal, which is, thanks to our wacky Paleo diet friends, increasingly easy to find. (Paleo friends, I jest. And admire your muscle tone).

Slice some big portobello mushroom caps in 1/2 inch slices. One big mushroom per person is more than enough.

For four mushrooms, mix 1 cup of almond meal and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Just a guess, but you might want to throw in some garlic salt or fresh herbs, too. Mix it up and put it on a flat plate.

Beat some eggs - 3-4 eggs does it for 4 mushrooms. Put them in a flat dish like a pie plate.

Dip the flat edges of the mushrooms in the egg, then press into the nut mixture. Fry them for 5 minutes a side on a well-oiled skillet over medium heat until they are lovely and browned. Remove to a wire rack.


Good golly, Miss Mollie, they are tasty!

You can serve these hot, warm or room temp. I put a few drops of spicy vinegar on mine. Mollie suggests mayo and/or capers, but I bet a really garlicky aioli might be good, too.

Bon appetit!

Cooking with Mollie #12: Wasabi Peas

Wasabi Peas

I'm making progress getting through Mollie Katzen's magical vegetable book, "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without." This is recipe 12, so I figure I'm about 1/10 of the way through. It has been a tasty, delightful, palate-enlightening pleasure so far (mostly).

The recipe is for Wasabi Peas. No, not the crunchy kind in the can, though I love those, too. I especially love when you get a can where the wasabi is very unevenly distributed, so you eat them and 9 peas are mildly spicy and the tenth is OH MY GOD MY BRAIN IS ON FIRE WOW MY SINUSES, WAIT, IS THAT JESUS?

That's fun.

But I have to admit I've never been much on regular peas. I grew up on mushy, canned, grey-green peas, or overcooked frozen peas, so as a kid, I couldn't imagine anything worse. As an adult, I just tend to forget they exist. Too many other vegetables.

The hardest part about this recipe is finding fresh peas. Mine came from Guatemala (well, actually from Trader Joe's, but they started out in Guatemala). Mollie says you can use frozen. I say "No, thank you."

Then it's pretty simple. One might even be tempted to say easy PEAsy, if one had a sick, punny sense of humor. Ahem.

Saute some onions. I used shallots - I'm a rebel. And I had some shallots that were about to go bad. Meanwhile, make a sauce of wasabi paste, olive oil, and water. Mix with the peas. Put the whole mess in with the shallots and cook. That's it. Oh, and let it sit 15 minutes before serving.

Did I like it? Not at first, but then again, I didn't wait 15 minutes. It really did help the flavors to combine. I don't think I used enough wasabi paste, and I think the stuff I bought was a little old. I got it at an Asian market that is really more a liquor store with some Asian stuff. So it was a little funky to me.

I'd like to try it again, either with real fresh Wasabi (which is rare and about $40 per pound when you can find it) or at least fresher wasabi paste.

But yeah, it's a nice way to zip up peas. I ate it cold at lunch, and I can't say that was bad, either. Thumbs up! Bon appetit.

Cooking with Mollie #10: Pea Shoots with Garlic

I took a couple days off. Of writing, not of cooking. So here I am, back to share my latest discoveries from Mollie Katzen's "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."

Pea Shoots with Garlic is a pretty simple recipe. It is, in fact, exactly what it sounds like. Pea Shoots sauteed with garlic.

The problem arises in the Pea Shoots part. Unless you have an Asian market, a Farmer's Market with at least one grower of Asian specialties, or your own pea vines, you'll probably have trouble finding the key ingredient.

Even here, where we do have an Asian specialties grower (lemongrass! Thai basil! Daikon!) pea shoots have a brief season, so when they appeared, I sprung into action.

Wash the pea shoots and remove any big stems. Dry them. I use a salad spinner:


Mince some garlic, heat some oil (Mollie recommends roasted peanut oil, which I did not have, so I used olive oil), throw in the shoots and the garlic, and toss about. Saute five minutes, more or less.



Voila.



They have a delicate, slightly sweet flavor and make a nice change from sharper-flavored greens like mustard, heartier ones like kale, or chard, which always tastes a little muddy to me. These are fresh and the very essence of spring.

Enjoy your bowl of greens. I ate mine with my fingers.

Cooking with Mollie #4: Sesame Leeks and Cabbage

Do not turn away. I know it's cabbage, but man, this dish is good. It's one of those simple things that will leave you wondering "Why didn't I think of that?"

How simple is it? You don't even need a recipe, really, though you definitely should buy Mollie Katzen's book, "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."

No, she isn't paying me to say that. I'm just hoping for a dinner invite when I get done with this. Yeah. We saw how well that worked out for Julie in the Julie Julia movie. (If you didn't see the movie, there is some indication that Mrs. Child was NOT pleased at Julie's blogging efforts about Mastering the Art of French Cooking.)

Back to how simple the recipe is: You slice some leeks and wash them. Coupla leeks if you can get the big fat ones like I get from the organic farm, probably 4 or 5 if you can only find small ones. You chop some cabbage, 4 cups more or less.

Saute the leeks with some oil in a deep pan for about 10 minutes, then throw the cabbage in, cover, voila.

Saute, stirring occasionally, until everything begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, so you'll have some lovely browned bits mixed in.

Salt. Pepper. A drizzle of dark sesame oil. A sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. You're done!

Except I wasn't done. I cooked up some noodles from a yaki soba package (throw the nasty seasoning away) and sauteed tofu chunks to mix with the cabbage for a nice hot lunch.

I thought of a great alternative to this recipe, too - instead of a drizzle of sesame oil, use roasted walnut oil and chopped walnuts. This would be especially good if you could swap out the cabbage for the delicate crinkly Savoy cabbage. Savoy cabbage season lasts about 3 weeks around here, so I'll have to try that next year. I can't wait.

Bon appetit.

Cooking with Mollie: Green Beans Almandine

Recipe Two from Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without," Green Beans Almandine. I don't like this recipe. There's nothing wrong with it - the flavors are fine, and it is a classic. Green beans. Almonds, butter, olive oil, garlic. What's to hate? It's the interface. Green beans and almonds are the wrong shape to stick together. So you end up eating green beans with a few shreds of almonds stuck to them, and have a pile of almonds left at the end. What do you do with them? Scoop them up off the plate in the kitchen with your fingers like a savage? Well, yeah, of course. Here's how it looks - pretty! Recipe is online here.