Meatless Monday: Sweet Corn & Squash Soup

For Christmas, my brother- and sister-in-law got me The Wine Lover's Page-A-Day Calendar. Every day, the author offers a wine recommendation or a unique fact, quotation, or multiple-choice question about wine. Some days, it's pretty interesting; others, not so much and I quickly toss the page in the recycling bin. Recently, though, I revealed the new page for the day and was inspired! The page gave a recipe for corn soup. Perfect! I had 6 more ears of sweet corn in my CSA box and didn't know what to do with them. I had already recently made cornbread, and my husband's not all that fond of corn on the cob (it just never measures up to the fresh corn from his parents' farm, . . . even though ours is fresh from a farm too), so I was left scratching my head trying to think of something new and yummy to make.

Sweet Corn and Squash Soup
Recipe

The recipe on the page-a-day calendar was kind of boring sounding and didn't give solid enough directions, so I dug around on www.myrecipes.com to find this one, which was perfect because it also called for yellow squash which I had in my CSA box too. I skipped the squash blossoms, added a little bit of garlic when I sauteed the onions, and added more salt and black pepper than was called for. The additional black pepper added a nice little kick. If you'd like even more kick, you could always add a little jalapeno pepper to your onions when you saute them. The wine-a-day calendar suggested adding cream, but a) I didn't feel like buying a whole container of cream when I was only going to use a small amount (I've wasted too much cream that way), and b) I thought the consistency of the soup was already nice and naturally creamy after putting it through the food processor.

It can sometimes be difficult cutting the corn off of the cob; the ears can be slippery to hold and cutting down into a bowl is awkward. My mother-in-law can take care of several dozen ears with the help of a meat slicer in less time than it'll take you to blink an eye, . . . but she's what I'd call an expert when it comes to all things corn-related, so I wasn't about to attempt that. Instead, I used a trick I learned from watching the Food Network. You tip a small bowl upside down inside a large bowl (I used the smallest and largest of my nesting bowl set) and rest the leveled bottom of the ear on the small bowl. When you cut down the side of the corn, all the kernels falls neatly around the small bowl at the bottom of the big bowl. The small bowl provides great stability for the ear, you don't have to worry about hitting the sides of the bowl when cutting or trying to cut at awkward angles, and the kernels don't fall all over the counter like they would if you held the cob higher. Great solution!

My wine-a-day calendar suggested having the soup with a glass of chardonnay. I agree that would have gone really really well. Chardonnays often go nicely with dishes that have distinct buttery flavors (e.g., I love it with boiled lobster). Next time, I might try one of our go-to chardonnays (Edna Valley, often on sale at the local grocery store), but, this time, we happened to have a bottle of pinot grigio already open, so we went with that. Not bad. In fact, I think any soft white would be a good complement. For instance, I can imagine a sauvignon blanc or fume blanc working really well too.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Pan-Roasted Corn-and-Cumin Corn Bread

Over the past month, I've been reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, which discusses the "politics, perils, and pleasures of eating." I'm about 2/3 of the way in now and have learned a lot (despite Pollan's clunky writing style) about industrial vs. self-sustained farming and the ubiquitous of corn in our American diet. I started the book on a flight to the Midwest, which was interesting timing because we spent 4 days of our trip on my inlaws' farm. Their type of farming falls in line with what Pollan would consider industrial farming - i.e., bad for the environment and for consumers' health. It was awkward to be reading about crop chemical run-off getting into the water reserves as my father-in-law tried to downplay officials' warnings about high algae counts in the nearby lake. (He wanted to take us out on his boat.) Part of me wanted to recommend the book to him (I mean, why not? He suggested The Dawkins Delusion to us!), but I thought better of it because there are parts of the book I find offensive and am sure he would too - e.g., this quote from a farmer who practices self-sustaining farming:

"Part of the problem is, you've got a lot of D students left on the farm today. . . . The guidance counselors encouraged all the A students to leave home and go to college. There's a tremendous brain drain in rural America. Of course that suits Wall Street just fine; Wall Street is always trying to extract brainpower and capital from the countryside. First they take the brightest bulbs off the farm and put them to work in Dilbert's cubicle, and then they go after the capital of the dimmer ones who stayed behind, by selling them a bunch of gee-whiz solutions to their problems."

I don't think my father-in-law would take kindly to being referred to as "dim." He and my (college-educated) brother-in-law are very smart people and farm their land intelligently and responsibly. My mother-in-law is one in a line of farmers (or farmer's wives) who also happened to be valedictorians of their classes, and she and her husband produced two PhD sons. These people should not have to defend their intelligence and Pollan should be ashamed for perpetuating the stereotype of the "country bumpkin."

. . .

In any event, it was also funny to be in the Midwest reading about the evil's of industrial corn farming at the same time that the first few ears were ripe enough to pick and eat. People, there is nothing better than eating such fresh, sweet corn. And, when we returned to California, we found more fresh corn in our CSA box. How could I bring myself to eat corn without feeling guilty after everything I'd just read? Easy. The corn at my in-laws' house and from my CSA box wasn't the industrial type of corn that travels hundreds of miles or goes through a mirade of processes to turn it into different chemical compounds. I was eating it directly:

"To eat corn directly (as Mexicans and many Africans do) is to consume all the energy in that corn, but when you feed that corn to a steer or a chicken, 90 percent of its energy is lost - to bones or feathers or fur, to living and metabolizing as a steer or chicken. This is why vegetarians advocate eating 'low on the food chain'; every step up the chain reduces the amount of food energy by a factor of ten, which is why in any ecosystem there are only a fraction as many predators as there are prey."

This is what I decided to make from some of the corn we got in our CSA box - a great side for any Mexican dish or chili:

Pan-Roasted Corn-and-Cumin Corn Bread
Recipe

As can sometimes happen, I made a big blunder when putting the ingredients of this recipe together and somehow managed to forget to add a key ingredient - flour! Yikes! I also didn't have an 8-inch pan that was safe to go from the stove to the oven, so I was spreading the corn bread mixture out a little more thinly in an 11-inch pan. The result was something less like bread and more like . . . well, I don't know really. It was thinner, certainly, and a little crispy. And, you know what? I REALLY LIKED IT! Oftentimes, messing up a recipe can lead to disastrous results (like the time I mistook the powdered sugar for the flour when making turkey gravy for Thanksgiving - Ooh Nelly, yes, it was as bad as it sounds), but every so often, you get lucky. Yay for happy accidents!

So, feel free to make your own corn bread as the recipe suggests or to skip the flour as I did. If you cook it like I did, though, you'll just want to leave it in the oven for less time. I think I took mine out at the 15-minute mark. Whichever way you choose to make it, I think you'll like the results. The roasted corn and cumin work well together to create a different flavor than you experience in your typical corn bread - not drastically different, but just different enough to be refreshing, I think. Yum.

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Southwestern Quinoa Salad & Sangria

If you've never had quinoa, you're missing out, people. Not only is it really versatile in terms of what kinds of dishes you can make with it, it's considered a 'super food' and a 'complete' protein with nutritional value that easily beats out other grains. I find it a nice substitute for rice or couscous, have used it as a base for lots of dishes and a main ingredient in salad, and hope to try it in soup sometime soon. This particular recipe is a new favorite.

Southwestern Quinoa Salad
Recipe

The recipe doesn't suggest to do this, but I enjoyed using the lettuce leaves to make little wraps with the salad as I ate it. You might consider trying that too. I also used vegetable broth instead of water when cooking the quinoa. I found it enhanced the flavor of the dish just a bit. And, of course, as usual, I skipped the cilantro, but you obviously don't have to.

Another substitution you can consider is using a little cayenne pepper instead of jalapeño chili. I ended up having to do that because I didn't find out until it was too late that my chili had gone bad and was unusable. If you decide to do the same, I would recommend incorporating the cayenne pepper with the lime juice, oil, and cumin at the beginning so it gets distributed evenly throughout the dish when you mix it all up. And, remember, a little cayenne goes a long way, . . . but you know you're heat tolerance better than me!

We decided to have sangria with our salad and it turned out to be a fantastic pairing. If you're interested, I highly recommend trying the recipe we picked up at a Hip Cooks cooking class -

Sangria
2 bottles Charles Shaw shiraz (a.k.a. Two-Buck Chuck)
3 oranges, thinly sliced
3 limes, thinly sliced
½ a bottle of mango passion fruit juice (or other tropical juice)
A dash of Citronge

Combine all ingredients and muddle.

(You can find quinoa, Two-Buck Chuck, and mango passion fruit juice at Trader Joe's.)

Got any favorite vegetarian or vegan recipes?? Please share!

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Meatless Monday: Potato-Corn Cakes

I've decided to institute "Meatless Mondays" in my home as a way to be a little healthier and to help out the environment. Yes! Another excuse to buy way too much at the farmers' market on Saturdays. :) (Have a farmers' market near you? Not sure? Check out this site - Farmersmarket.com.)

Since we'll be cooking more vegetarian dishes now, I thought I would introduce a new regular post type on this site called "Meatless Mondays" in which I'll share some of my favorite vegetarian recipes. Here's one I found at Sunset.com which I tried out over the weekend:

POTATO-CORN CAKES
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=682759

I love almost any recipe with cumin, and this one was no exception. These are soo delicious! They make a great main attraction for a brunch menu or a crowd-pleasing side dish for lunch or dinner. (Note: I skipped the cilantro because I think cilantro tastes like toilet. If you don't like cilantro either, like with most dishes, you can just do without it or substitute parsley.)

Got any favorite vegetarian recipes?? Please share!

Related Post: Lamentations of a Non-Vegetarian

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