would that not be nice
arugula time and my ultimate chocolate cookie
Last Saturday was Knit in Public Day, which is kind of a silly thing since I already bring my knitting practically anywhere I go. But, it’s a fun excuse to get together with some other knitting friends and hang out in the park. First we went to Bells and Whistles on Fraser for a patio brunch— my celiac friends love it because the chicken & waffles there is gluten-free. I had the standard breakfast which was really good; the eggs were cooked perfectly to order and I appreciate the fast food style hash brown patties they have. They also have a soft serve machine and lots of build-your-own-sundae options, so we pretty much had to get the rare post-breakfast dessert. I just got the twist without any toppings, because their flavours are vanilla and Nutella which is good enough for me.
A quick aside though: if we’re going to continue pretending the pandemic is over, can the places still using QR codes please go back to printed menus? Maybe this isn’t such an issue for other people but I’ve finally pinpointed what I dislike about viewing menus on a screen, and it’s that I have a much harder time making a decision when I can’t see all the options at once.
It still feels like stubbornly like early spring even now at the midway point of June, and I’m watching my tomato plants struggle to grow in the cool weather. The wind actually took down our hanging planter of cherry tomatoes, breaking off almost all the blossom vines and spilling dirt all over the walkway, ruining my day. And the arugula in the garden is starting to bolt, which always seems to happen so fast! One day I have a row of baby arugula, and then what feels like only a few days later it’s shot up to two feet tall and the bees are buzzing around the little white flowers at the top. So I’ve been looking for ways to use it before I pull them up and re-seed, other than just making arugula pesto again (I still have some in the freezer from last year).
On Sunday I made a basil pesto and potato pizza, which turned out really nice. I sliced a couple of Yukon Golds super thin on a mandoline, then mixed with thinly sliced onion, lots of olive oil and salt and pepper, and piled them evenly over the pesto-coated dough. It needs 5-7 minutes longer in the oven than my usual pizzas in order to fully cook the potatoes, but they have enough moisture that the crust doesn’t get overly crispy. While the pizza was baking I made a big arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette (I use the method in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) to put on top. The weather still feels too cool and grey to fully enjoy a salad on its own, but I love arugula on pizza and the lemony contrast to the creamy potatoes was just lovely.
We had more potatoes to use up, since Jeff found a bag of baby Warba potatoes on the dollar rack at the produce store, but they didn’t look like they’d last long. The weather on Monday had been pretty nice, so when I got home from work I set about boiling them for a mustardy, pickle-y potato salad. The recipe in the Veganomicon is the one I loosely follow— usually a half batch or less, since the original makes, as specified, “a boatload”. I tend to skip the grated carrot and add celery instead for extra crunch without the sweetening aspect of carrot, and letting the cucumbers sit in the dressing to absorb the vinegary-ness of it is what really makes this salad special. I sometimes add a little chopped dill pickle, too. It’s good on the first day but even better on the second!
By the time the salad was chilling in the fridge, the weather had turned grey and windy, and I had to put on a jacket to go outside and grill the veggie burgers I’d intended to serve with this. Does “fake it ‘til you make it” apply to acting like it’s summer until the season actually agrees?
On a day I didn’t feel much like cooking, I made a really tasty and quick pantry pasta which also managed to use a big handful of arugula. I started with a small can of oil-packed tuna, flaked into a big bowl with lemon juice and zest, more olive oil, capers, chopped olives, and lots of chili flakes and black pepper. A few grape tomatoes sliced into quarters and torn pieces of the arugula made this feel a bit more spring-like, and provided colour and variety. I just heated the mixing bowl over the pasta pot while it’s coming to boil to wilt the arugula and tomatoes slightly, and the rest warms up enough with the addition of the hot noodles (I used casarecce). I think this would still be quite good even without the tuna, maybe adding some toasted chopped walnuts or pine nuts instead.
Sometimes, we receive a mountain of kale in the produce bin and I feel extremely tired of all the things I would usually make with kale. But I happened to turn up this Smitten Kitchen recipe, which had my back: chickpea and kale shakshuka. A delicious but unassuming stew becomes a rustic centerpiece in no time through the simple magic of putting an egg on it.
I added sumac and aleppo pepper flakes to the seasoning, and used a can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes for a richer flavour. I love the feta here for a little extra fat and acidity (although the full cup the recipe calls for might be overkill), and while I wished we had a thinner flatbread for scooping, the Greek-style pitas that were in the freezer did the job well enough. Shakshuka leftovers always make a great breakfast — especially if you maybe had a little too much wine the night before — and it’s one more opportunity for me to work on my egg-poaching skills.
Finally, this week when I had a desire for chocolate but no remaining chocolate in the house (Jeff is half Swiss so it’s rare we don’t have a bar of Lindt somewhere), I revisited the vegan double chocolate cookies I tried making a few months ago that weren’t quite what I wanted. To my delight they came out absolutely perfect after just a couple of adjustments: chewy in the centre with rich chocolate flavour, and crunchy flakes of salt. I’d gotten some dark chocolate chunks at Bulk Barn last time I was there for the sole purpose of using them in these; I really recommend chunks or a chopped bar instead of chocolate chips to make these cookies feel really decadent. But if chips are all you’ve got, they’ll still be good! Find my recipe below, and please share your results with me if you try it.
VEGAN DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
115g (2/3 cup) coconut oil, melted
105g (½ cup) each white and brown sugars
pinch of tapioca, potato, or corn starch
60ml (1/4 cup) non-dairy milk, at room temperature, or microwaved for 15 seconds*
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp vanilla
200g (1½ cups) all-purpose flour
50g (½ cup) dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
80g dark chocolate, chopped (or use chunks or chips)
Maldon salt or fleur de sel, for topping
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. Whisk together the coconut oil, sugars, starch, milk, and flaxseed, until it looks creamy and caramel-like. Stir in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients in two batches. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks, using your hands if necessary to disperse them evenly.
Scoop out and roll into about 1½” balls (heaping tablespoon size), and flatten slightly with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies have spread a little and seem cooked at the edges but still soft in the centre. Let stand on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a rack to cool (but don’t forget to taste one while they’re still warm). Makes about 2 dozen.
*note: if the milk is too cold, the coconut oil will re-solidify. If your mixture of wet ingredients looks a little separated, just microwave it for 10-15 seconds to soften the oil back up (or rest the bowl on top of the preheating oven for a few minutes) and then whisk back together.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please smash that like button below, or 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. And lastly, we know that 99% of TikTok comments are a nightmare too cruel to behold, but every once in awhile, there’s a little gift in there.