This Sunday I decided to go with a Japanese feast. A Japanese dinner is not complete without a selection of Japanese pickles. With a constant need to experiment, today I choose to add fujisawa aosako—dried green laver seaweed flakes—to my cucumber pickles.
Karl’s Japanese Cucumbers Pickles with Green Seaweed
Filed under Pickles, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I am making a barbecued chicken with French flavors and I wanted a vegetable side dish. Ratatouille came to mind, but a quick scan of common recipes turned up some problems for my family. Almost all of the recipes called for alliums—garlic, onions and leeks, etc.—which daughter Miriam is “off.” Most of the recipes for ratatouille also called for eggplant, which my entire family is unable to digest.
Karl’s Ratatouille without Alliums or Eggplant
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Adapted from a Food and Wine recipe
Daughter Miriam asked for Spanish tri-tip for her birthday dinner. Looking for side dishes to go with the beef, gazpacho would be an obvious choice, but Miriam has been “off” garlic and onions lately—and gazpacho is really just salsa (tomatoes, onions, chilies, cilantro, and garlic) that has been blended into a cold soup. Searching the internet, I found a recipe for “white gazpacho“—made with apples, grapes, almonds and cucumber. A little tinkering and it would meet Miriam’s dietary needs.
Karl’s White Gazpacho
Filed under Side Dishes, Soups, Vegan, Vegetarian
Note: I mentioned these treats in an earlier post and I felt I could not mention them without giving the recipe.
While I am sure that my mother was not the inventor of this dish—wife Jan insisted that her mother’s name be added to the title—it was a common holiday treat in our house growing up. Sweet Medjool dates stuffed with crunchy peanut butter and dusted with powdered sugar says “Christmas” in my house. These are easy to make, but they do not last long—even when there are no children around.
Claudia’s & June’s Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates
Filed under Desserts & Treats, Holidays, Vegan, Vegetarian
I make my parsley potatoes almost exactly like my mother—with the exception of almost everything. My mother would use White Rose potatoes that she would cut into small pieces. I use small Dutch yellow potatoes cut into larger chunks. My mother would use one clove of garlic, one green onion and one tablespoon of parsley. I triple all of these ingredients. Today, I had some leek left over from making my meatloaf and I decided to add that as well.
Karl’s Improved Parsley Potatoes
Filed under Potatoes, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian, Weeknight
I’m making a simple broiled salmon—with just a little lemon juice and salt—for a weeknight meal, but I wanted something more than plain rice to go with it. I had some left over rice in the refrigerator, so I thought that fried rice would be nice. Tonight I decided to try to make it like Chinese restaurant rice with the finely diced vegetables.
Karl’s Restaurant Style Stir Fried Rice
Filed under Pork, Rice, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I’m making Japanese curry for dinner and, in reading Just One Cookbook’s recipe, I learned that fukujinzuke is commonly served on the side. Fukujinzuke is the Japanese version of a chutney to compliment the curry—a cooling, crunchy contrast to the soft and spicy main dish. While this dish may have four main ingredients—daikon, eggplant, lotus root and cucumber—it may also have up to seven in homage to the Seven Lucky Gods. I cannot eat eggplant, wife Jan does not like lotus root, and daughter Eilene does not like shiitake mushrooms—another common ingredient—I adapted the recipe and used what I had on hand.
Karl’s Fukujinzuke
Filed under Pickles, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I’m making broiled salmon and steamed broccoli for a week night dinner. Looking for something different for a starch I thought about a wild rice pilaf. I happened to have a bruised apple on my counter—one that I was not going to put in someone’s lunch bag—that I needed to use up. Throwing it into the pot turned out to work very nicely.
Karl’s Apple Wild Rice Pilaf
Filed under California Fusion, Rice, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
I was making a very meat heavy meal with Coca-cola pork and I wanted to work in more vegetables. I added shredded cabbage to my potato salad, but I wanted one more dish. While I am not fond of cooked carrots, my family loves them. Glazing the carrots with the pork’s cola sauce seemed a reasonable next step.
Karl’s Coca-Cola glazed Roasted Carrots
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
Daughter Miriam asked for tomato soup and melted cheese sandwiches for Sunday’s dinner. I thought that a salad would go well with this meal. Some time ago, Miriam introduced me to balsamic vinegar strawberries and I had the notion that would these would pair well with spinach.
Karl’s Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Filed under Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian
karllueck
Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 