Cooking with Mollie #3: Spicy Brussels Sprouts Pickles

You either love Brussels Sprouts or hate them. If you're in the second category, it is my life mission to convert you to the Cult of the Sprout. I love them. I love them steamed, boiled, roasted, shredded into confetti and sauteed...but until this week, I had never loved them pickled. It's simple. You start with about half a pound of fresh sprouts. Peel off the ugly outside leaves. I always peel the outside leaves even if they aren't ugly, because that's where dirt and aphids hide. Cut them in half if they are large (and most sprouts that I can find lately are large). Then you cook them for just a couple minutes in a large pot of boiling, salted water. I always cook vegetables in heavily salted water because Thomas Keller does, and well, THOMAS KELLER. Drain and rinse them in cold water: They will be a beautiful bright green. Enjoy that color now, because it's about to change. Ah well, c'est la vie. Then you submerge them in a pickling liquid that is made of 2/3 of a cup of hot water with 1 tbsp of honey mixed in (you could use sugar, too) and 1 tsp of salt. Mollie says to use seasoned rice vinegar, but I had a better idea! I used my spicy peppered vinegar from the Asian market. The spicy vinegar (the one on the left) was perfect. It added a nice zippiness. Someone suggested you could include these sprouts in a Bloody Mary and to that I say yay, yes you could. If you can't find spicy vinegar, you could probably just toss in a teaspoon or two of red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you wanted them. I put a plate on top of the sprouts to ensure they stayed submerged in the pickling liquid. A few hours later, they looked like this: They are a great little snack. You don't want to eat too many at once, just one or two with a sandwich or cheese plate. Store them in their liquid in the fridge in a glass or ceramic container. Recipe adapted from Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."

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.

A New Project: Cooking with Mollie Katzen - Leek Chips

As a food blogger (even a VERY occasional one), you have to love the Julie Julia movie and consider what it would take to cook your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

For me, it was a no-brainer - as a vegetarian, I'm not willing to dive into calf liver and poached fish, no matter how much it would improve my cooking technique. Still, the idea simmered in the back of my brain...cooking my way throught a whole cookbook...but what book?

Recently my friend Brenda gave me The Book. I let it sit on the shelf for a while, not realizing it was The Book, but then I started flipping through it and realizing I wanted to make Every Single Recipe.

Here it is: Mollie Katzen's "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."



It is just about 100 recipes, all vegetarian, mostly vegan. I have tried four so far, and they have all been excellent. I'm inspired again, which is a welcome change from the rut I have been in for so long.

My favorite of the bunch is Leek Chips, which are just leeks cut into rounds, washed well (pesky sand is a particular problem with leeks), tossed with olive oil and baked in a slow oven.
The recipe is online here.
They go from this:


to this:


I think may have overcooked them slightly, but they were still good. I ate them ALL. They're a great substitute to calm my craving for onion rings or canned French Fried Onions, both of which are calorie bombs.

They do have some...digestive effects, so Beano is a must here. My mouth tasted like onions all day, but it was so worth it. Thanks, Mollie.

What is a vegetarian to do?

 I had been looking forward to lunch at this restaurant for months. Located in a nice hotel in Santa Barbara, I expected this restaurant to knock my socks off. I finally had a day off and went up to Santa Barbara for the morning. I fotzed around town, waiting for lunchtime.

At 11:30, I finally walked over to the hotel and found the restaurant. It was completely empty. Just me and a bunch of helpful staff. I looked at the menu. Hm. Hm. Nothing for vegetarians. One green salad. All of the other salads had meat or fish. No pasta. No starches. No tofu, no vegetable soup or stew or chili or tagine or casserole. Nothing.

 I thought the server might be able to help. We WERE in Santa Barbara, for goodness' sake.

 "I'm a vegetarian. What do you suggest?"
 "Do you eat fish?" I managed to hold back from asking my smartass question: "Is a fish a vegetable?"
 "No."

 "Well..." she regarded the menu. "We have this green salad that is very good....I think maybe they might be able to make you a grilled vegetable sandwich or...well, the green salad. We have that. Or the cobb salad is very good. We could leave off everything but the egg and cheese..."

 I didn't mention that I loathe hard-boiled eggs. I figured it was just too much. "Or this Caesar salad," she said, pointing to the menu. "Well, it just has fish, with the anchovies..."

"I guess I'll have the green salad," I said. "And the citrus-marinated olives. And a glass of sauvignon blanc."

The wine took the edge off. The olive plate was giant and very good. I ended up taking 3/4 of it to go and giving it to a very grateful homeless woman.

But that was lunch. Green salad and olives.

Believe me, I left hungry, and more than a little sad. I felt like something I had wanted and had anticipated had let me down so much.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I was, that in 2012 a fine California restaurant would show so little regard for its vegetarian clientle. What would you have done?

I went crazy buying vinegar when I visited 99 Ranch Market, an Asian grocery, in Las Vegas. It's not a bad addiction - three bottles were less than $5. The winner is the Spicy Vinegar. It is sharp and really, really spicy. The Palm Vinegar had a nasty musty odor and went down the drain. You win some, you lose some.