fire in the sky
vegan nachos, the fried cheese salad, and the onset of zucchini season
Hello my friends. Is it feeling apocalyptic where you are? It isn’t here, not yet, but it is a bit reminiscent of the start of a horror movie: where everything seems really nice but there’s something indescribably off and unsettling and you’re waiting to see how it’ll all falls apart. Sorry if that’s depressing but I get so anxious when it hasn’t rained in awhile (fingers crossed with these cloudy skies), and seeing the chilling realities of our collective climate emergency as our country literally burns down is definitely not helping. As most of us on the west coast are now unfortunately veterans of fire season, my tips to any of you dealing with significant wildfire smoke for the first time are: drink lots of water, wear a mask outside (eye protection is a good idea too if the AQI is very high), and keep your windows shut if you can. Oh, and try to put out some fresh water for the birds and other small creatures near you, who will be suffering too.
Jeff’s away from Friday to Sunday in Portland for a friend’s bachelor party, and while he’s gone I will be eating dinner in front of the tv and enjoying my favourite dairy-filled things he can’t eat. I wish I were going to go have fancy drinks in Portland, too, but living my best dirtbag bachelor life will be a decent consolation prize. And Iain has a long layover here on Saturday before his flight to Whitehorse, so we’re meeting up for beers in Mount Pleasant in the afternoon, just a couple of guys being dudes. But please someone make sure I still clean the bathroom this weekend like I’ve been telling myself I’d do all week.
Somehow I’ve collected a whole bunch of beets in the produce drawer once again, so on Sunday I made a batch of the beet burgers from Isa Does It, which are primarily lentil- and rice-based. We were looking after our nephew that day, and he was disconcerted by how very red the patties are, but as a meatless burger connoisseur (his mom is vegan), he gave them the thumbs-up. Personally I love veggie burgers that are just allowed to be veggie burgers, and aren’t trying to be just like meat— I do enjoy a Beyond patty sometimes, but I consider that to be its own thing.
But regardless of your feelings on fake meats, these taste great and are a little unique because of the crushed fennel, but not too intensely earthy. I usually add an egg to the patty mixture so I can skip the 30 minutes of refrigeration time, but if you need them vegan and only use the almond butter as a binding agent I can confirm they’ll still work! And they hold together on the grill— the lentils and beets have a fair bit of moisture so the patties don’t dry out and crumble the way some veggie burgers like to do with high heats. If I haven’t convinced you, let Jeff do it: he is lukewarm on beets generally but gets so excited to make and eat these. And we still have, uh, a lot more beets in the fridge so maybe I’ll make another batch for the freezer.
Local zucchinis are just starting to show up at the produce store, so I can still get excited about them. Remind me to look at this post in August and remind myself how young and innocent I was. Anyway, I bought a couple of yellow ones and made this lemony orzo with kale, herbs, and parmesan for the first time this season. This is a standby for me during zucchini season, and I love making orzo this way in general: it comes out a little like a risotto, creamy and satisfying, but with much less time and effort involved. I usually make a half batch since the original recipe produces a truly staggering amount (though you could freeze some if you have a lot of zucchini you want to use up). Usually, I add the lemon zest and juice in at the end instead of at the point of adding the broth, so the flavour is brighter and more summery. I used oregano, thyme, and basil for this one.
One of the things I picked up on our Trader Joe’s run a few weeks ago was a block of halloumi, because it was a few dollars cheaper than it usually is at Save-On, and I wanted to make this fabulous cauliflower and halloumi salad again. The notes for the recipe have a lot of possible variations and substitutions, because really, the only integral elements are the cauliflower, cheese, and raisins (controversial, I know). I haven’t gotten around to making preserved lemons again, because I’m lazy and lemons aren’t as cheap as they used to be, so I used fresh lemon zest and juice in the dressing and a little extra honey and salt to balance out the tartness. My avocados weren’t ripe when I wanted to make this, so I used castelvetrano olives again, which I really liked, especially since it adds a bit of the briny element you’d get from the preserved lemon in the original dressing.
I used kale and green lettuces for the base because every time I buy a container of arugula, I seem to use half of it and end up throwing the other half away as wilted slime four or five days later (and it’s taking its time coming up in my garden, so I can’t go that route, either). Use cast iron and high heat for the cheese so it gets browned and crisp on the outside without melting, and cook it when everything else is basically ready to go, just before the cauliflower comes out of the oven. That way the cheese will still be warm and soft inside when you serve. I messed up the timing the first time, but this one was perfect. I also think the spiced cauliflower from this would be really nice on its own as an appetizer or part of a tapas plate with some lemony tahini drizzle.
To use up the rest of the lentils I’d cooked for the burger patties, we had a vegan nacho night! I actually kind of like these better than non-vegan nachos a lot of the time. This is built using a few elements from Isa Does It, again: seasoned ground lentil meat from a taco recipe, and cashew queso blanco from a bean and rice bowl. Sometimes I make guacamole and pico de gallo too, but we had some of the Trader Joe’s pineapple salsa (it’s not spicy, but it is delicious), and the avocado wasn’t quite the perfect texture for mashing, so I just scattered pieces of it over the chips instead. Anyway, it is so satisfying to eat just slightly too many nachos, because you have to make sure you save one perfectly loaded chip for last.
After making the huge apple-rhubarb cobbler last week, we had extra cobbler dough left, so we’d wrapped it up and put it in the fridge for future use. Jeff reminded me that I’d frozen pie-quantities of sliced apples last summer when the bounty from the tree in our yard was too plentiful, and helpfully written on the bag how much sugar and spices to add, and how long to bake. Thanks, past me! To go with it we picked up a pint of vegan vanilla ice cream from Earnest, who apparently finally heard my plea to make one. Their vegan flavours are excellent, but if you’re looking for something to have alongside a rhubarb pie or lemon cake you definitely don’t want cookies and cream or peanut butter chocolate pretzel. Now if only they’d make this one of their mainstays instead of a seasonal feature.
One thing I’ll say for cobbler versus pie using frozen fruit, though, is that with pie, you can rely on the bottom crust to soak up some of the moisture, whereas cobbler will be a lot juicier. So while this came out of the oven perfectly browned and tasting great, the bottom of my oven did take some damage where the juices had bubbled over and burned. If I have more of these apples in the freezer, I’ll be sure to put a security baking pan on the lower rack next time, because is there any more cumbersome chore than cleaning the oven?
Finally, I haven’t been writing about our pizzas much lately, even though we’ve still been making them pretty much weekly, because they’re fairly similar week to week. We used to do this on Mondays, but Jeff reworked his dough fermenting schedule so that it would be ready for Thursday or Friday after I explained that those are the days I’d prefer someone else take the wheel, since I’m often too occupied or mentally exhausted from the week to want to think of and then make something. So we’ll end up eating takeout or grilled cheese or frozen nuggets or whatever. Which isn’t bad necessarily, but not always great, either.
Now we have a bit of a routine where I come home from work on Friday and heat up the pizza stone, and when Jeff finishes working he stretches the dough and does the sauce while I cut up vegetables and grate cheese and take jars of olives out of the fridge, because I can do these things without thought. It’s great because I often hate doing prep since I’m usually doing the cooking after, but with both of us doing different things at the same time, the whole process goes a lot faster and feels more manageable. Funny, that.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. Finally, are you interested in some tiktok food drama? I’m truly inspired by the level of spite here.