The marriage of rhubarb and strawberries is known and accepted throughout the land. The stalk and the berry reign side by side through May and June, and no one thinks twice about it.

But might something be wrong?

Sure, the pudgy, red-faced Strawberry can get involved with his pick of shortcakes, jams, or pies, and have private get-aways with any number of air-headed whipped toppings. But the rhubarb is practically banned from the table without her seedy chaperone. Did anyone ask the blushing, green stalk if this is what she wants? Might she harbor a secret wish to roam free?

I urge you: give your rhubarb a choice this year. Offer up the chance for her own private pie, or a cozy crisp. Start with this compote.

Please — just try it. Do it for the the rhubarb, and green young things everywhere.

(recipe after the jump)

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This dish made its debut at a picnic at the Arboretum a few weeks ago and I have been politely but persistently asked to post the recipe ever since. This is a millet-based version of my basic fried rice recipe, and is similarly flexible.

The one thing you may be wondering is: what, exactly, is millet? So glad you asked! It’s a golden-colored, protein-rich grain that you can boil just like rice. When dry, the kernels are tiny spheres.

I think Epicurious describes millet well, though I disagree on the bland taste. It has a nutty, corn-like flavor that gives it more character than other grains you may be used to.

The flavor is strong enough to bring millet from the stuff you put stir fried veggies over to an integral part of the dish. You can use it for pilaf or hot cereal, or even try it in pasta dishes (e.g. toss with extra virgin olive oil, fresh mozz, tomato, and basil). I also like throwing a few tablespoons of uncooked millet into bread dough.

Well, enough intro from me. Here’s the recipe (after you jump the jump!) Continue reading →

As promised in the last post, here’s a recipe with ramps. My take on this new-to-me ingredient was “eh.” They are tasty, but no more so than a mixture of carmelized onions and garlic, sauted shallots, or the “onion grass” I used to harvest from our yard and use like chives. So go for the ramps for this recipe, or experiment a little on your own, but don’t expect heaven to drift down and alight on your table.

The name of this recipe comes from the fact that I just do not like to make crust. It takes too much work and heartbreak, and for what? Something made with white flour (usually) and shortening that most people don’t even notice because they’re so into the filling.

But that being said, you can make this with a prepared crust just as easily. Or, if you have the touch and the patience, feel free to use your own crust recipe and know that you are a better man than I.

By the way, you could probably make this crust with a number of other soaked whole grains like buckwheat, millet, or quinoa. If you try any of those, I’d love to know how it comes out!

Note that all of the vegetables should be thoroughly washed before preparing. Ramps and greens are especially good at harboring grit.

Okay, on to the recipe (after the jump). Continue reading →

Crêpes is crêpes. Generally made with white flour as the binder and best known in their sweet form. Now how about buckwheat, that nutty, bluish grain best known as the main ingredient in soba noodles? I first made buckwheat crêpes during an Iron Chef kind of competition at my dining co-op at Oberlin.

Our challenge was to use local potatoes and greens to whip up a delectable meal. One of our team members had a really tasty recipe for vegan buckwheat crêpes–made with tahini thinned with water in lieu of the eggs and milk–which we wrapped around the greens. Buckwheat made the pancakes substantial and savory and, of course, unique enough to satisfy my pink haired chef mentality and fit the spirit of the contest.

I made a lacto-ovo version of these (oh, how the pure have fallen), but you can feel free to experiment. The filling is vegan and the cheese sauce is pretty easy to make vegan–use soy milk and margarine and replace the cheese with an equal amount of nutritional yeast flakes.

But before I get to the recipe, I have to say I don’t like the way my photo of this dish came out. Thus, I am adding a nice but uncalled for photo of a slice of cucumber with goat cheese and a sprig of dill:

And another one of the first snow drops of spring, taken back in February:

Thanks. You may now proceed to the recipe.

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Remember those Total commercials? Where they stacked up the bowls and said this is how many you’d have to eat of such and such a cereal to get as much vitamin A as Total, and you’d have to eat that many bowls of the other cereal to get as much beta hydrodalius or whatever? Well, that may all be true, but they fail to mention that you’d have to eat one of those huge stacks of ANY cereal to stay full for more than 20 minutes.

Even if you’re an avid cereal eater, you’ll eventually have to face this fact: cereal–and most breakfast bars, yogurts, and other breakfasty foods–will not hold you over until lunch. Not only that, but with all the superfoods they’re adding to cereals and dairy products to justify jacking up the price, soon the average breakfast is going to cost more than dinner at The Palm. Continue reading →

They’re not pancakes, and they’re not quite croquettes. So “panquettes” it is.

They were born of an overwhelming need to make something quickly and without the need of a cutting board. No knife brandishing is going to happen at 9:45 p.m. with tummies growling for dinner and homework waiting to be conquered. And besides, there was cooked sweet potato that needed to find its way out of my fridge and rice bread that was proving a very bad experiment indeed and also needed to be expunged.

So here’s how to make ’em, if you happen to be in the same jam as I was or just want a sweet but substantial latke-like meal. (Jump the jump for the recipe…) Continue reading →

A version of this post is also at The Jew and the Carrot. I am officially a Jewish foodie writer!

As yet another chunk of lamb careened toward a dinner guest, the scene at that Shanghainese table started to feel very familiar. At that point in my two-week trip to the city, I had seen the Chinese version of Jewish Geography, discovered that latke-like potato cakes are a staple of Shanghai’s street food, and received motherly offers of housecleaning and space heaters.

As H’s aunt’s chopsticks moved from serving plate to individual bowls, clunking down pieces of meat in front of people who she thought should eat them, I decided something that I’d been pretty sure of all along—that eating Chinese food on Christmas is not the only thing that bonds Jewish folks with our friends in the Far East. Continue reading →

You’ve trapped, gutted, and cooked your own pumpkin. Good for you! But now you’ve eaten the yellowy orange flesh for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and even baked it into a large batch of cookies. You considered making pumpkin pie, but then realized that crust is not your bag. What to do?

Sitting next to the ex-gourd is another sorry sight. You made a large batch of black bean burritos but, since you never measure, have a few cups of filling left over. Weekday mornings are not the time for heuvos rancheros—the best use for black beans as far as you’re concerned–and the leftovers aren’t calling to you for lunch or dinner. Qué problema!

And then there’s the tatsoi you got at last week’s farmers’ market, a yummy Asian green that isn’t going to stay lush forever.

Just above the tatsoi, an orange that selflessly gave its zest to a batch of scones now looks up at you, pith exposed, asking what will become of it. Do we have a problem? Hai!

What is the answer? A visit from the Leftovers Gourmet! Continue reading →