VeggieTalk

Fingerling Fries

Here’s a quick and clever way to make potato fries without a lot of peeling and cutting. Fingerling potatoes, if you’re not familiar with them, are small potatoes with a long, narrow shape—hence their name. They come in several varieties; I like to use organic golden fingerlings like Russian Banana. These are ready, from start to finish, in about 20 minutes. For 4 to 6 servings, use 1 1/2 pounds fingerlings.

Scrub the fingerlings well. No need to peel them, but do peel away any overly dark or knobby spots, of which there should be few. Cut each potato into quarters lengthwise, which results in a short, chunky fry shape. Place the cut potatoes in a nonstick skillet with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and cover.

Simmer steadily for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the potatoes can be pierced with a knife but are still quite firm. Drain any excess water from the skillet.

Set the skillet back on the heat and drizzle in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook the potatoes, stirring frequently, until touched with golden brown on most sides, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and paprika, or any other seasonings you might like. I added a splash of flaxseed oil before serving.

My family’s favorite grain these days is quinoa. For anyone not familiar with this great grain, pronounced KEEN-wa, it’s an ancient food indigenous to the South American Andes. Considered a “superfood” for its superior nutritional profile, it was revived for the American natural foods market in the 1980s.

Quinoa has more and higher quality protein than any other grain aside from amaranth. It’s also rich in minerals, B-vitamins, and vitamin E. Best of all, I appreciate the fact that quinoa cooks in a mere 15 minutes, and its fluffy texture and nutty flavor and aroma make it extremely versatile:

• Use it as a bed of grain for bean or vegetable dishes in place of rice
• Use it to make pilafs with nuts and dried fruits
• It’s great for stuffing vegetables
• Make tabbouleh-style salads with it
• Just use it simply, as a nutrition-boosting side dish

I like to put it on the plate in the shape of a timbale, as shown above. I don’t have timbale cups, so I just use a 1/2 cup measuring cup! Here are the basic cooking tips:

1. Rinse the quinoa in a very fine sieve.
2. Combine with water in a 2 to 1 ratio in a small saucepan (I usually do either 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa, or 3 cups water to 1 1/2 cups quinoa, depending on how much I want to have at a given meal). Add a bouillon cube (I like Rapunzel salt-free vegan bouillon) for added flavor, if you’d like.
3. Bring to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat and cover. Simmer gently until the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
4. Add Earth Balance margarine or a fragrant nut oil as desired and salt gently.

To this basic formula, I have sometimes added finely chopped steamed broccoli; toasted pine nuts; minced scallion; steamed frozen green peas; steamed frozen corn kernels; sauteed garlic; or any combination of two or three of these items.

OK, please indulge me—here’s one more photo from my recent trip to Paris. This is a display of tomatoes at Le Grand Epicerie, a major food emporium connected with the department store Bon Marche. The tomatoes were on the expensive side, but I thought that most of the produce was quite inexpensive compared to what I pay here—about half the cost for twice the quality.

Here’s a fast dish of beans and tomatoes that will have you eating in no time. This goes well with a simple preparation of pasta with broccoli or any grain dish, and a salad of greens, orange sections, and slivered almonds. The recipe is adapted from my book, The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet.

Cannellini with Fresh and Dried Tomatoes

6 servings

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (oil-cured or not), cut into strips
• Two 16-ounce cans cannellini (large white beans), drained and rinsed
• 1 to 1 1/2 pounds ripe flavorful fresh tomatoes, diced
• 3 to 4 basil leaves, sliced into thin strips, or 1/4 cup minced fresh dill
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

If using non-oil cured dried tomatoes, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes and drain.

Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan and cook gently until heated through, about 6 to 8 minutes. Or, combine the ingredients in a heatproof container, cover, and microwave until heated through, about 5 minutes, and serve.

I truly believe that global warming is one of the most critical issues of our time. Generally, I don’t use this blog for such commentary, but this morning, as I was driving back home on the last leg of my trip to France, I heard an interview with the president of the Ad Council on the radio. This is the organization that brings important issues to the public eye with simple slogans like “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.” Their latest campaign is on global warming.

Curious, I went to that subsection of their web site, Fight Global Warming. While their suggestions to reduce energy consumption in the home and on the road won’t hurt, I am continually perplexed as to why mainstream environmental organizations ignore the one thing people can do to help reduce global warming: Cut down on, or give up, meat and other animal products.

Since you are here at my blog, I am assuming that you already have given up or cut down on meat, and in effect, you are doing more for the earth than most. Good for you, and pass along the message!

I quote from EarthSave: “By far the most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas is methane, and the number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture.

Methane is responsible for nearly as much global warming as all other non-CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2 … arguably the best way to reduce global warming in our lifetimes is to reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal products. Simply by going vegetarian (or, strictly speaking, vegan), we can eliminate one of the major sources of emissions of methane, the greenhouse gas responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting the planet today.”

Read the entire report at Earthsave.

Tomorrow we will be heading home from an action-packed week in Paris and Bruges. Foodwise, it’s hard to go wrong in Paris. Even a common cafe will offer an incredible salade vegetarienne. But we did focus on a few entirely vegetarian places, and our favorite is Le Potager du Marais. It’s unique in that you will get a more French experience than in other veg places, with terms like tarte, gratin, and pate on the menu—more often vegan than merely vegetarian. And everything is organic, too.

Tonight I had a curried celery puree for a first course and Wendy had a warm goat cheese tart (I’m the vegan, she’s the vegetarian). For entrees, we shared seitan with paprika “cream” and a vegetable gratin. And for dessert, poached pear with bittersweet chocolate sauce and toasted almonds, as well as an apple tarte tatin, featuring deeply caramelized apples in a soft tart crust. I think this may be the only place in town to get traditional French pastries in vegan versions!

If you happen to be in Paris, visit Le Potager du Marais at 22, Rue Rambuteau, 75003 (very near the Centre Georges Pompidou, my favorite Parisian museum). Call 01 42 74 24 66 if you plan to be there after 7:30 pm.

Seeing this appetizing display of leeks at a market on Rue Mouffetard in Paris reminded me of how much I enjoy leeks in the spring. Of course, there is the classic potato and leek soup, perfect for chilly spring evenings, and later in the spring, I like them in warm potato salads. Here’s a simple side dish that is a delightful companion to pasta and grain dishes.

Wine-Braised Leeks, Red Peppers, and Shiitake Mushrooms

4 to 6 servings as a side dish

• 2 large or 3 medium leeks
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, wiped clean, stemmed, and sliced
• 2 medium red bell peppers, cut into narrow, 2-inch strips
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Trim away the bottoms and large green leaves of the leeks. Use the white and palest green parts only. Cut the leeks lengthwise down the center, then into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Transfer to a colander and rinse well until all grit is removed.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or stir-fry pan. Add the leeks and half of the wine. Cook, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the leeks have softened. Add the mushrooms, bell peppers, and the remaining wine. Cook, covered, for 6 to 8 minutes more, or until the mushrooms have wilted and the bell peppers are tender-crisp.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve at once.

Today was a chilly, soggy day in Paris, but true to form, my friend Wendy and I slogged on and walked 1,000 miles anyway. A big disappointment was Fauchon, supposed to be the epitome of a Parisian gourmet emporium, but which turned out to be quite boring. I’d much rather do the street markets (as described earlier)—so much more soul.

One of today’s highlights was having lunch with Clotilde Dusoulier, a young Parisian food writer working on her first cookbook for Broadway Books (the same publisher who has done my recent books). She also runs a fabulous blog called Chocolate and Zucchini—one of the most delicious, content-rich food blogs you’ll find.

On this and last year’s, trip to Paris, Wendy and I enjoyed a lot of great meals at veg and veg-friendly restaurants in Paris, but we both agree that our favorite is Le Potager du Marais on rue Rambuteau (near Centre Georges Pompidou). Their mission is to present traditional French cuisine with a veg twist —and to do so with organic ingredients. I found more of a choice of vegan offerings than at the other veg places, and certainly more vegan desserts. I had a poached pear with a bittersweet chocolate sauce, toasted almonds, and whipped soy cream that was just unbelievable. We would love to go back tomorrow night for our last dinner in Paris, and if we do make it back there I will report further.

Once you’ve wandered a good urban produce market, like the Greenmarket in New York City, or any of the many street markets in Paris, even the best of produce departments begin to look sorry indeed. The scents, the multitude of languages, the breadth of products, the contact with the growers is all missing, making for a quiet and rather sterile experience. I know that when I go back to my favorite natural foods store I will weep when I look at the fruits and veggies.

This morning my friend Wendy and I spent a long time at the huge Richard-Lenoir market. Though I could have done without some of the fishy scents and the sight of uncooked meat, muchof the market was just bursting with the most gorgeous produce.

Strawberry season has arrived here. They are enormous and so sweet that the first taste really took me aback. I’ve rarely had any like these in my life. We bought half a kilo and walked to the exquisite Place de Vosges and had them as a snack, along with some fresh whole wheat olive bread from the same market. What a heavenly way to spend a Sunday morning …

Bonjour from Paris, where I am on vacation this week. My friend Wendy and I are doing a lot more walking than eating, but since this is a food blog, I will focus on the latter. On this trip, I wanted to check out a few more of the veg restaurants than we did on our last trip. There seems to be a kind of style of food presentation in many of these places that I really appreciate. These are called “assiettes,” which are platters that have a number of raw and cooked dishes presented quite asthetically. You’ll rarely find, in an sort of eatery, big heap o’ something on a plate, as is often the case in American restaurants (no matter what kind).

What I also didn’t find, in these veg meals, were any spicy or even big flavors. Everything is rather simply prepared, but very good, since the food is so fresh. Here is one such presentation, one of the platters we ordered to share at Le Piccolo Teatro on Rue des Ecouffes in the Marais. Yesterday we had a similar experience at Le Grenier de Notre Dame on Rue de la Bucherie, close to the famous Anglophone bookstore Shakespear and Co., and indeed across from the Notre Dame Cathedral

Last year, my good friend Wendy and I went to Paris at the end of March. We had such a great time that we decided to go again! We’re leaving this Friday and I can’t wait! Last year we hit all the big sights, but this time I am more interested in the details—the neighborhoods, the roving markets, the tiny parks, and specialty food stores. Contrary to popular belief, Paris is a vegetarian/vegan paradise. We went armed with a long list of veg restaurants, but we hit only a couple of them. It seemed that anywhere we were, we could find a place with plenty of veg choices, whether it was a Tibetan, Italian, Indonesian, or Middle Eastern cafe. They all shared a certain French sensibility—fresh food, exquisitely presented.

This photo is from the very large outdoor market on Blvd. Raspail in the Montparnesse district, that I took last year. So many beautiful varieties of olives, so many gorgeous kinds of garlic and asparagus, so many, many kinds of every type of produce. When I returned home and went shopping at my usual (organic) natural food store, I wanted to weep when I saw the tired looking produce. Ah well, I can’t always be in Paris, but I try to tap into the Paris state of mind when I can …