there she goes, my beautiful world
perfect tomato sauce, more corn, and a powerful veggie burger
Last weekend, I did the unthinkable and socialized on both days (the smoke was clearing by the time we ventured outdoors). On Saturday, Jeff and I went to another outdoor acoustic jam where we got to enjoy some home-brewed beer, a lot of laughter, the presence of chickens, and a visit from a friend I hadn’t seen in nearly two years. And of course, the marvellous tunes— the multi-part harmonizing to “Dead Flowers” and the post-midnight sing-along to “Copperhead Road” were highlights. On Sunday, my aunt had organized an outrageous Star Wars-themed birthday barbecue for my uncle, complete with a piñata and loot bags. There was way too much food (as is generally the case at my family’s events), and I came home with bags full of burger buns, chips, and slices of pizza.
I was excited to see the rain arrive on Sunday night and throughout Monday, and cooler weather overall this week. Summer isn’t over yet, but not being blasted by a humidex in the 30s every time I open the door gives me a little feeling of hope for recovering from this literally and spiritually destructive summer. It’s nice to have rain feel refreshing instead of relentless (remember January?) and to be reminded of times when sunshine feels pleasant instead of ominous. I don’t know about you but I’m kind of exhausted— it seems like this brutal summer has been going on forever, and yet I can hardly remember a single thing that happened in July. I’m happy enough watching my garden produce dozens of tomatoes at the moment, but I’ll be even happier when I can start ignoring it again.
It seems unbelievable that there are still recipes left for me to try from Isa Does It, but even more unbelievable that one of them could be a veggie burger recipe. I was craving a burger, but didn’t have pre-made patties and didn’t feel like going through the fuss of cooking beans or lentils and rice first, or shredding things in the food processor. The porcini-tofu burgers seemed like they would be equally satisfying for a lesser amount of prep: grind dried mushrooms into powder in a blender or mortar & pestle, crumble tofu with your hands, and mix them together with a few seasonings and some breadcrumbs. Ideal for a Tuesday night.
I did have a good laugh in the group chat over the recipe notes, though, in which Isa specifies that she prefers these with “mayo instead of ketchup.” First of all, everyone should be in agreement that mayo is the default base condiment for burgers, and also, this isn’t the Great Depression! We can use multiple condiments! But I can see how ketchup might detract from the intense umami of this burger patty: lightly crusted in panko crumbs and pan-fried, with wonderful mushroom flavour absorbed into the tofu along with soy sauce and nutritional yeast. I loved this with sweet heirloom tomatoes and sour dill pickles on top.
I think this would be a great dish for people who want to like mushrooms but aren’t into the texture of them fresh. I happened to have dried porcinis leftover from something else, but they can be expensive and not always easy to find (Italian delis or bulk food stores usually have them). Dried shiitakes are almost as good, more common, and a lot cheaper; just know that the stems will be almost impossible to grind, so cut those off first. Oh, and if you want to know what condiments I used, I went with a classic mayo/mustard combo, though I think a not-too-sweet pickle or tomato relish would also work. But if you really love ketchup, don’t let the book be the boss of you.
Last week, while searching for the perfect thing to make with corn, I actually found two salads I was equally interested in making. So I got more corn this week to make the second of these, a romaine and grilled corn salad with herb and feta dressing. This would have been quick to make if I hadn’t been completely unmotivated to cook on the day I planned to make this, but I managed to get it done. I was simply too lazy to make the dressing the manual way as described in the recipe— I just threw everything into the mini food processor (my usual method for dressings). I found the dressing on the light side, though I did use Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk, which may not be as rich in flavour. The jalapeño I used was also a bit small, so maybe I should have used 2.
I believe grilling is the way to cook corn on the cob. For eating it as a side, I usually prefer to remove just some of the outer husk layers, gently peel back the rest to remove the silk, and then butter and salt the corn before replacing the remaining husk for grilling. The char flavour comes through from the husk (think of roasting a pepper), and you get a more tender, juicy result. But I digress— for salads like this I love to get char on the actual kernels by removing the husk, and it cooks faster this way, too. At the same time, I grilled the green onions for garnish, and the jalapeño for the dressing. Since the burger recipe from the previous night made extra patties, we cut one up to serve with it. The rich, salty flavour of the patty was excellent with this crisp salad and sweet bits of corn.
Our tomatoes have stopped blossoming and started ripening like mad, so this week I had a wealth of Romas to make into sauce. Smitten Kitchen’s naked tomato sauce is a fave: since it’s somewhat labour intensive with the blanching and seeding of the tomatoes I tend to go all in and only make it if I have a lot to use (I used six pounds to make a double batch, and froze half). I also like Samin Nosrat’s pasta alla pomarola from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat— it produces a similar sauce with the addition of onion, and is still worth it when you’ve got a smaller amount of tomatoes. A half recipe uses two pounds, and is a little easier to manage because you can just pull the skins out of the saucepan once the tomatoes start to cook down. Both of these produce a rich-tasting sauce that’s supremely delicious as is, or to use as a base to which you can add other vegetables or meat.
Late last week Jeff made a gravy with the pan drippings from the chili chicken, so we made a hasty poutine with oven fries this week to use it up. We didn’t have cheese curds and instead used a mix of mozza and feta (shocking and illegal, I know, go ahead and arrest me). The gravy was of course the star: it had loads of flavour from the marinade and was perfectly spicy— that is to say, not so spicy as to be distracting, but spicy enough to be noticeable and somewhat novel for a gravy.
Media:
This week I’d like to share two (I think) definitive pieces about recurring online food battles. First, this from Karen Taylor on cultural appropriation (if it’s paywalled for you, try an incognito browser). The author discusses the controversy and backlash surrounding Breakfast Cure, a white-owned meal prep company marketing congee. She argues that both the appropriation and many aspects of the outrage are problematic: we cannot allow the idea that white people are magically able to improve upon traditional dishes from other cultures, but we also cannot allow dishes that have rich cultural history within their place of origin to be so rigid and set in stone that any changes to them are seen as blasphemous.
“Taylor’s sin was not putting blueberries into congee — she’s not even the first to do so — but was instead claiming that her version, which she said had been modernized for the Western palate, was somehow superior to traditional congee from China. […] Even though the idea of cultural theft is the thrust of these stories, the real issue is disrespect: the way this kind of appropriation links Westernization and whitewashing with sophistication and value, while deeming nonwhite cultures to be less refined. It perpetuates the corrosive notion of “exotic” food that must be tamed for American consumption.”
This expresses the heart of the issue with food appropriation and the so-called global pantry: that food from racialized cultures isn’t considered worthwhile until white people deem it to be so.
On a lighter note, I revisited this perfect parody piece from March of last year, when the tide of people complaining about recipe bloggers surged again as people who normally don’t do so as much found themselves forced to spend time making food at home. If you’re reading this newsletter, chances are you understand that the stories prefacing recipes on food blogs are how the creators get hits to their sites, generate ad revenue, and stay relevant with key search terms… and if you don’t know, now you know. But if you still find yourself getting annoyed by long-winded tales about bread, the author does provide a few helpful hints for what you can do to get to recipes without having to read a personal essay first! (Spoiler: you never have to read the essay. You just have to not be a piece of shit online about it.)
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. Next week will mark one year of writing this newsletter, but Jeff and I are celebrating our three-year wedding anniversary on the 26th (and lucky thirteen of being together!) so I’ll return to your inbox on September 3rd. Finally, here is a very good post for the terminally online like me (if you are a normal person, you can click here for context).