Adapted from Ethiopian Food
A cool salad is the perfect counter point to all of the spicy stews and is the standard complementary dish for an Ethiopian feast. It may not be “Ethiopian,” but this salad cries out for garlic and just a bit of spice.
Karl’s Timitam Salata
Ethiopian Tomato Salad
(at 1 and 7)
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
Adapted from Jolinda Hackett, About.com Guide
For this Sunday’s feast I am making Jambalaya. Jambalaya is really a one pot meal, but it is heavy on the meats and starch. I wanted a green vegetable side dish to balance out my meal. Jan and I are in complete agreement about okra. It may be one of the classic Cajun/Southern vegetables, but despite our Southern roots (Virginia and Mississippi) we both dislike it. Many of the things calling themselves “Cajun vegetables” on the internet were just regular veggies with some Cajun spice thrown on top. I finally decided on collard greens, another classic Southern vegetable. I would not, however be cooking it in the Southern fashion, the way our mothers did, boiling it down to a sludge. California-Style, braising until just tender, is my plan, with a little red pepper for color.
Karl’s Braised Cajun Collard Greens
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
Tonight’s dinner was jiaozi (gee-aw-za, dumplings). This was a weekday meal so I did not make them myself. Jiapzi making is a major operation. The rolling out of dozens of little bits of dough becomes a social activity for a gathering (it is not really possible to make just a few jiaozi). To the Chinese, it is very similar to Mexicans and Christmas tamales, an activity that brings people together. For an everyday meal the Chinese cook will run down to the corner, where a jiaozi seller has parked their bicycles truck, and pick up enough for their meal.
Karl’s Spicy Chive Stem and Giant Bamboo Stir-fry
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
This week is barbecued lamb for Easter and the kids (except Eilene) love mushrooms. I am frequently trying to find new ways to spice them up.
Za’atar is an herb blend found (in various blends) throughout the Middle East. Apparently no one agrees on how to spell the translation (there are 9 variations) or which herb go into it (there are 4 possibilities for the primary herb, depending on the region of origin), but everyone knows they love it.
Karl’s Greek Mushrooms
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
Spinach seemed like a good vegetable to go with my Greek Easter Feast. I have been wanting to try to make spanakopita, but for several reasons I have hesitated. First of all, Jan generally does not like dishes made with fillo (actually she does, but all the butter used to make it flaky doesn’t like her). Also, the two ways of making this dish gave me problems. Struggling with the thin sheets of buttered fillo to make little triangles seemed too fussy. The second way, as a pie, buries all that buttered fillo under the spinach so that it never gets flaky What is the point? There has to be another way.
Karl’s Spanakopita Rolls
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
In making my Moroccan Oxtail Tajine I trimmed a bunch of artichokes down to their bases. This left we with a pile of leaves and stems that I was loathed to just throw away.
My mother, Claudia, raised me to not waste food. I feel like it is an absolute sin when, for example, a recipe for chicken stock has you boil a whole chicken with vegetables and then instructs you to throw away the “solids.” These are recipes written by people who have never been hungry a day in their lives. I simply cannot do that!
Karl’s Moroccan Artichoke Dip
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
I needed a vegetable side dish to go with my twice-cooked tofu. In China, it is a very poor household indeed that has only one dish to go with their rice. Variety is the spice of life and the Chinese take their food very seriously. Like the French, if they are not eating, they are talking about food or thinking about food.
To make a change from what I made to go with the twice-cooked pork, I used celery as the foil to the giant bamboo in my side dish.
Spicy Giant Bamboo and Celery
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
I needed a vegetable side dish to go with my twice-cooked pork. I wanted something with spice, color and crunch. I had some daikon radish, red bell pepper and green onions left over from another meal that would add the color. I only needed some chili garlic sauce to add the spice and some giant bamboo for the crunch.
Stir-fry on the right
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
I have always struggled with making latkes. I am forced to limit the amount of oil that I cook with because of Jan’s dietary restrictions. As a result, fried foods are not a common occurrence in my household. Without enough oil in the pan to half-deep fry the potatoes the centers of the latkes never quite get cooked before the outsides are nearing burnt. Thank you cooking shows! I noticed that professional cooks sometimes “finish off” pan-fried dishes to avoid this problem. Ten minutes in a 350° oven insured that they were cooked and did not destroy the crispness of the latkes.
Karl’s Sweet Potato Latkes with Apple Sauce
Filed under Breakfast, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
Adapted from Sinful Curry
My son-in-law, Chris, just got back from two weeks in Shanghai, so he wanted anything but Chinese food for this Sunday’s dinner. I decided on Indian and I was trying for 5 dishes: Chicken Dopiaza (Chicken and Onion Curry), Chana Peshawari (Piquant Chickpeas), Split Red Gram (lental) Dal, Saag Paneer, and Pulao Rice. I have never made the first three dishes and they are definitely works in progress to be posted later. Last year I started making my own Palak Paneer. Once you have made fresh palak paneer you will find it hard to go back to any of the commercial imitations that are available.
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
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Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 