How to cook beans from scratch & classic refried beans

Beans! They're the perfect food: cheap, delicious, versatile, easy, abundant, suitable for both vegetarian and vegan diets, and healthy. There is literally nothing not to love. So let's talk about how to cook a pan of dried beans from scratch and create a lovely pot of deliciousness.

How to cook beans from scratch

Dried beans should generally be soaked overnight. It's possible to do a quick soak using hot water, but that may require a longer cooking time later. I prefer the overnight soak.

Measure out the amount of beans you plan to cook, keeping in mind that they'll swell to twice their size after soaking and cooking. For this demonstration, I used a 1-lb bag of pinto beans.

Sort your beans before soaking them. Just pour a handful of dry beans onto a plate or other surface and quickly look through them. If you see any chunks of dirt, rocks, or beans that look really past their prime, pick them out and throw them away. Repeat this until you've looked through all the beans. It may seem ridiculous to look through all your beans, but it is 100% possible to find rocks! Get them out of there and avoid cracking a tooth, okay?

Put your sorted beans into a mixing bowl and cover them with twice their depth in tap water. Cover loosely and leave on the counter overnight, or for at least six hours. The beans will absorb the water and get bigger.

When you're ready to cook, pour out the soaking water and replace it with new water, covering your beans by at least an inch. Pour the whole shebang into a large saucepan with a lid. Add a bay leaf (optional, but nice) and bring the pot to a boil.

Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer gently for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until your beans are tender. Your beans are done if their skins split when you blow on them. The taste test is also reliable.

Now you are the proud owner of a pan of lovely cooked beans in their own broth. What will you do with them?

I decided to make classic refried beans with my beans, and to freeze the leftover bean broth for future soup purposes. If you want, you can also freeze your beans in their broth. It works beautifully.

Classic refried beans

olive oil or butter
onion
jalapeño or other hot pepper
salt, red pepper flake or dried chile of choice, cumin, oregano
cooked pinto beans
bean broth or water

In a wide skillet or saute pan, warm your oil or butter on medium heat. (For ultra-classic refried beans, I hear lard is the fat of choice.) Add a diced onion or two and saute until softened. Finely mince your jalapeño and add it to the pan. You can use as many jalapeños as you desire, depending on your spice tolerance.

Season with salt, red pepper flake, cumin, and oregano to taste. You'll want to be a little heavy-handed with all the spices because the beans are otherwise a big bland neutral palette.

When your onions and jalapeños are both softened, add your beans and enough broth or water to make everything a bit sloshy. Reserve a little liquid to add if needed. Cook your beans together with your onions and jalapenos, stirring frequently.

After everything is hot through, start crushing your beans with the back of a large spoon or with a potato masher. Mix and mash until your beans are the texture you desire; add more liquid if necessary. Taste and correct the seasonings, and you are done.

Classic refried beans are good in tacos, burritos, enchiladas, tostadas, or quesadillas, among other things. I used mine to make 16 bean and rice burritos (flour tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, scallion, cheese), which I put in the freezer for future dinner endeavours. The rest got eaten in quesadilla form almost immediately. So good.

What would you make with a big pan of freshly cooked beans?

Chicken and vegetables veloute

After a roof leak, a furnace replacement, a refrigerator breakdown, an influx of mold, and many bouts of sneezing, all within the past six weeks, I was more than ready to eat some serious comfort food last weekend.

We went to the store and got some basic ingredients: chicken, celery, carrots, onions. We put them all in a pot. We cooked them. We made a simple sauce. We mixed it all together and threw in some noodles. And then I ate an entire bowlful and trundled off blissfully to bed.

If you are currently buried in snow, you will definitely want some too.

This chicken and vegetable dish could not be easier, and yet it is the kind of food that completely satisfies. It's grandma cuisine: no-fuss, country-style, hearty, easy, tasty food, made of plentifully available ingredients, and offered in abundance. And yet you can absolutely make this for a big Sunday dinner and impress everyone at the table.

We adapted this from a Jacques Pepin & Julia Child recipe for chicken pot pie, which in itself is clearly a totally classic basic. Instead of making a pastry crust, we decided to toss the whole shebang with egg noodles, for a super-comforting and simple feast.

If you want to make an entire chicken, go for it. If there were any meat-eaters besides me in the house, we would have. Just double all the veg (or even triple them, for extra everything) and get going. Any leftover chicken, vegetables, and broth can be refrigerated and transformed into chicken soup (or sandwiches, or risotto, or an amazing variety of other things) the next day.

Chicken and vegetables veloute
Adapted from Comfort Food. Serves 4.

1/2 chicken (at least half bone-in dark meat)
1/2 head celery
2 carrots
1-2 leeks
2 medium yellow onions
salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaf
2 cups dry white wine or dry vermouth
plenty of water
10-12 button mushrooms
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
egg noodles or rice to serve
parsley to garnish

Put your chicken into a large pot -- 5.5 quarts or more. We used a bone-in leg and thigh piece, skin on, and a separate breast. This was more than ample to make four servings. If you're doubling the recipe and cooking a whole chicken, leave it whole.

Wash and trim your vegetables. Cut the head of celery in half vertically. Scrub or peel the carrots. Split the leeks and rinse them well under running water. Tie the celery, carrots, and leeks into a bundle with a loop or two of butcher's twine. This will make it easy to remove them later.

Peel your onions and cut them into eighths. The mushrooms can wait a few minutes.

Put all your vegetables into the pot with the chicken. Season the pot with salt, pepper, a good palmful of thyme, and a bay leaf or two. Add the wine or vermouth.

Now fill the pot with enough water to just cover all the contents. Make sure the chicken is submerged -- weigh it down under some of the vegetables if necessary.

Bring your pot to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. While you're waiting, wash your mushrooms. You can cut them in half or leave them whole.

Next, add your mushrooms to the pan. Bring everything to a boil again, cover, and reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting. Leave the pot to simmer very gently for 45 minutes to an hour, or until your chicken is completely cooked through.

At this point you will have a lovely pot of chicken broth full of nicely poached delights. Taste the broth and correct the seasonings. Remove all the meat and veg from the pot and slice them into bite-sized pieces. (If you don't want to bother with the rest of the recipe, you can simply add the pieces back to the broth and serve it as soup right now.)

Make the veloute. In a separate pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk vigorously to create a roux. Let the roux cook for a minute or two, whisking occasionally. Then begin adding your poaching broth to the roux, whisking it in ladle by ladle. We used about 6 cups total, but you may want to use a bit more or less broth, depending on the amount and thickness of sauce you desire. Butter + flour + broth = sauce veloute.

Mix your chicken and vegetables into the sauce, taste and correct the seasonings one last time, and you are done.

Serve over egg noodles, rice, mashed potato, or your choice of other grain, and garnish with a handful of chopped parsley.

You can also get fancy (sort of fancy, anyway) by topping a casserole dish of chicken, veg, and sauce with a pastry crust or a recipe's worth of drop biscuit batter, and baking the whole thing until lovely and brown. Or just ladle everything into individual bowls and butter a pile of toast for dipping. It's all good.

Are you relying on huge vats of hot, simple food to beat the storm? What comfort food are you eating this week?

Green curry with tofu and CSA veg

When I find myself in need of a spicy, delectable, and comforting dinner, my thoughts turn lightly to coconut milk curry.

Curry is one of those dishes that can take anything you throw at it. This makes it particularly vital as a tool for coping with the weekly CSA onslaught.

For instance, in this pan, we have:

- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 purple kohlrabi, peeled and cubed
- 1 small white turnip, peeled and cubed
- 1 random broccoli stem, peeled and cubed
- 1 purple bell pepper, chopped
- 1 handful mixed green bush beans and scarlet runner beans, chopped
- 3 green onions, whites only, chopped

With cubed, seared tofu, coconut milk, and green curry paste, plus a base of jasmine rice, this made a totally delightful dinner. And, as an added bonus, the crisper was substantially roomier afterward.

Hooray for curry!

Green curry with tofu and CSA veg

1 block firm tofu
peanut oil
1 medium to large onion
2-3 cups mixed vegetables of your choice (or as above, if you happen to subscribe to my CSA)
1 cup coconut milk
~2 tbsp green curry paste, adjusted to taste
scallion greens or cilantro to garnish
your choice of grain or noodle accompaniment

Start an hour or two ahead of time by pressing your tofu. Cut your block of tofu in half, creating two thin, wide slabs. Put your tofu between two cutting boards and weigh it down with a heavy cast-iron pot or a bowlful of water. If you like, put a towel under one end of the bottom cutting board to keep the whole contraption at a slight angle. Let your tofu press for at least an hour to eliminate excess water.

When you're ready to cook, slice your tofu into cubes. Heat a wide saute pan, preferably nonstick or cast-iron, on medium to hot. Add a generous slug of peanut oil. Sear your tofu cubes, turning occasionally. When your tofu is golden brown on all sides, remove it to a plate and set it aside.

Now it's time to tackle your vegetables. Chop your onion into 1-inch chunks and add it to the residual oil in the pan. Cook, stirring or shaking the pan occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes, or until the onions begin to soften.

While the onions are cooking, start peeling and chopping all the rest of your vegetables, beginning with those that take the longest to cook. After your onions are tender, add the longer-cooking vegetables to the pan. Cook them for about ten minutes before adding any delicate vegetables. I started with kohlrabi, turnip, and broccoli stem, and reserved my peppers and beans until the end.

When all your vegetables are just barely tender, it's time to get your curry on. Add your coconut milk and curry paste to the pan and stir to mix. Bring everything to a simmer. Put the lid on the pan, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for about five to ten minutes. Taste and correct seasonings as necessary.

Add your reserved tofu to the pan for the last two to three minutes of cooking. When the tofu is hot through, you are done. Hooray!

We ladled our delightful green curry over big spoonfuls of jasmine rice and garnished it with scallion greens. You can eat yours over any grain you choose, or over a pile of slippery rice noodles if you prefer. It's all good.

What strategies do you use to transform your kohlrabi and turnips into a feast?

Serious catch-up catch-all

Where am I? What's going on?

Someone got a nice fancy tray of surprise breakfast in bed. I made migas and coffee for ultimate delight.

Note that the tray was too small to hold an actual plate. As such, that is a very full salad plate.

If you have both leftover rhubarb syrup and a garden bed full of mint, you will end up making a mojito or two. Definitely very refreshing on a hot hot afternoon.

I also drank a good pitcher of iced black tea with spoonfuls of rhubarb syrup in each glass. VERY good idea. Possibly an even better idea than the mojitos.

LUNCHTIME.

This kind of melange is so typical that I don't normally bother to take pictures. Seared chicken sausage, green beans, summer squash, parsley, and some red pepper flake, all mixed up with a handful of spaghetti.

The leftovers were good for pre-dinner I'm-way-too-hungry snacking.

On Sunday afternoon we had more green beans for feast spectacular, along with the first apricots and nectarine of the season and a wedge of very crumbly raw aged cheddar.

There was also a baguette and a lot of hummus (not pictured).

Speaking of the first of the season, how about some peas? Boiled, drained, buttered, and eaten.

The tilapia was super simple too. Toss in seasoned flour, sear in butter, cut a wedge of lemon for garnish. The end.

What delicious dishes have you been throwing together and forgetting to post about?

Chickpea coconut curry with kale, carrots, and peas

Who wants curry? I, of course, always want curry. Let's have curry!

So I explored the pantry and came up with a can of chickpeas and one of coconut milk. Perfect.

Chickpeas always benefit so much from a long, hot bath in something super-flavorful, which makes them a natural match with coconut milk. Then all you need to do is check out the crisper and see which vegetables to add. I found a bunch of kale, a couple carrots, and, hiding in the back of the freezer, a bag of peas. Chickpea coconut curry, here we come.

Normally when I season a coconut milk curry I go straight for the curry paste. This time, however, we were out, so I went for ultra-simple spicing and just used hot curry powder. Hey, it worked with the coconut milk chicken that has somehow become a huge hit on Pinterest! (Seriously, how? Those pictures are awful.) And it also worked here. Hooray!

Chickpea coconut curry with kale, carrots, and peas

peanut or other oil of choice
1 onion
1-inch knob of ginger
1 jalapeno or other hot pepper
2 small carrots or 1 large
1 can chickpeas
~1.5 cups frozen peas, defrosted
1 bunch kale
1 can coconut milk
salt, curry powder (or your choice of individual spices)
rice or your choice of grain to serve

Start by sauteing a chopped onion in your oil of choice in a wide saute pan. Mince your ginger and jalapeno; scrub and slice your carrots. Add all of these to the softened onion. Give the pan a pinch of salt, stir, and cook over medium for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next, drain and rinse your can of chickpeas and add them to the pan. Shake your coconut milk well before opening it and adding it as well. Season with curry powder, stir everything together, and bring the pan to a gentle simmer. Let cook over medium-low for at least ten minutes, so the coconut milk begins to reduce and the chickpeas have a chance to absorb plenty of flavor.

While you're waiting, prep the rest of your vegetables. Defrost your peas by submerging them in warm water, letting them soak for a few minutes, and then draining them. Wash, destem, and chop your kale leaves.

When the coconut milk has reduced by about half, add all the rest of your vegetables to the pan. Adjust your seasonings and cook for about five more minutes, or until your kale has wilted and become completely tender and your coconut milk has become a thick sauce coating your curry. Taste, add a bit more salt if necessary, and you're ready to serve. Yay!

I had my curry over short grain brown rice, because that's how I roll, but practically any grain you like would be an excellent match here. Garnish is not really necessary with such an array of beautiful vegetables, although a little cilantro wouldn't hurt. But really, all you need to do is get it into a bowl and eat. Super simple.

CURRY. Such an excellent, hearty, and cheap dinner. And did you notice it was vegan as well? It's vegan. Yay!

What quick yet tasty dinners are you conjuring up out of the dark recesses of the pantry?

Zürcher geschnetzeltes with chicken

I had never heard of Zürcher geschnetzeltes until last week, when someone mentioned it randomly on ravelry. The translation is just "sliced meat Zurich style." That's not very descriptive, so it's a good thing the reality is much more enticing: a rich and fragrant dish of sliced veal and mushrooms in a white wine and cream sauce. SUPER EXCITING. This clearly needed to happen, if only so I could pretend that it's actually winter here in drought-ridden California.

There was just one catch. Our usual grocery store didn't have any veal--and honestly there isn't a lot of red meat happening at our house anyway. So I decided to make this with chicken.

Yes, chicken, arguably the most boring of all meats! And yet, I like chicken, and I thought it would be excellent in a white wine and cream sauce with mushrooms and sage. What better way to avert the biggest problem with chicken--dryness--than to smother it in sauce? With some attention to size and cooking time, it worked out very well.

I made the mistake of not thinking about what I was going to serve this with until it was entirely finished and ready to go. Evidently the traditional Swiss accompaniment is rösti, which would be pretty amazing. A steaming spoonful of egg noodles or hot mashed potatoes would also work well. But I ate mine all by itself, with a little bread to sop up the copious sauce left on the plate, and was still well content.

Since I'm the only meat-eater in the house, I just made enough for me, but you can double or triple at your leisure.

Zürcher geschnetzeltes with chicken
Adapted from traditional Zürcher geschnetzeltes.

1/2 lb chicken, skinned (about 1 chicken breast or 2 thighs)
flour to coat
butter AND olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
10 sage leaves
12-14 large button or brown mushrooms
1/2-2/3 cup of dry white wine (enough to deglaze)
2/3 cup cream
salt, pepper, paprika

Start by slicing a chicken breast (or whatever cut you like--deboned thighs would certainly be easier to keep moist here!) into pieces about 3/4-inch thick. Toss to coat in a couple tablespoons of flour, tapping off any excess.

Heat a wide, heavy-bottomed saute pan on high. Add a pat of butter and a small slug of olive oil. When the butter foams, add your chicken pieces in one layer. Sear quickly for about three to five minutes per side. While you're waiting, cut your onion into thin half-moons and your garlic into slices. Slice your sage leaves into thin strips, reserving a few leaves for garnish.

When your chicken has a beautiful golden-brown crust on both sides, remove to a plate. Don't worry about the meat being fully cooked at this point! You just want a nice sear.

Turn the heat down a touch, add another bit of butter and olive oil to your pan, and throw in your onion, garlic, and sage. Saute for about five minutes, or until the onion has begun to soften.

Cut your mushrooms into wide slices and add them to the pan with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes. Then add your wine to the pan, stirring to deglaze. Finally, add your pieces of chicken and their juices, as well as some salt, pepper, and paprika.

Mix everything together and cook until your chicken is done, being careful not to overcook. Mine was ready in about five minutes, but the timing is going to depend on exactly how big your pieces are. Cut a thick piece in half to check.

At the last minute, add your cream to the pan. Stir together and cook for another minute, or until warmed through and just beginning to bubble.

Voila! A beautiful dish of tender chicken and mushrooms in a savory cream sauce! Serve over the noodle, potato, or grain of your choice, or just fill up a bowl and eat it by itself.

You clearly want a green vegetable of some type on the side if you can possibly swing it. My first choice would be a big pile of simple steamed spinach with butter and salt. I wouldn't say no to a big spoonful of baby peas, either. And a big crispy salad is always a nice contrast. It's all good--just get something green in your face.

This was rich enough that I couldn't eat it all at once, and thus I can report that it's also excellent eaten cold out of the fridge the next morning. Hooray, leftovers for breakfast!

What thick, hearty stovetop dinners are warming you up this winter?

Twice-baked sweet potatoes with black beans and broccoli

More comforting food at its finest!

Winter is definitely the best time for those dishes that require you to run the oven for multiple hours. Twice-baked potatoes are a prime example. First you bake the potatoes whole. Then you hollow them out, stuff them with filling, and bake them again. End result? A toasty warm kitchen and a plateful of soothing starchy goodness. Perfect.

The standard twice-baked potato is generally seen as a side dish, but I make mine into the star of the show. How? By adding not only cheese and vegetables, but protein, generally in the form of beans. This creates an entire little mini-casserole stuffed with every good thing, and perfect for a one-dish meal. Add a salad on the side and you're completely covered.

This time I picked out a couple of beautiful sweet potatoes, added some refried black beans, broccoli, and kale, and topped the finished product with some chunks of herbed goat cheese. This made for an intense & delicious winter dinner combination.

Not the best pictures, but the potatoes in question are still delicious. Let's go.

Twice-baked sweet potatoes with black beans and broccoli

sweet potato
onion or garlic
cooked black beans, refried or roughly mashed
broccoli
kale
salt, pepper, paprika or cayenne
optional cheese

Scrub your sweet potatoes well under running water, pat dry, and stab all over with a fork. Bake at 400F for 45-60 minutes, or until they're cooked through. You can also choose the quick method and microwave them for about 6-7 minutes if you happen to own a microwave. I don't, so the oven method always wins.

Let your potatoes cool enough to work with them. Cut them in half longways and scoop out the cooked sweet potato flesh, leaving behind a thin but intact shell.

Mix the flesh with some chopped onion or garlic, a few big spoonfuls of black beans, some diced broccoli (including the peeled stems--and if you have a random kohlrabi lying around, peel that, cube it up, and throw it in too. Kohlrabi: it's totally a big, round broccoli stem.), and a few leaves of kale. You can definitely go for either all broccoli or all kale, but I had a few odds and ends lying around and I wanted to use them all up at once. That's the beauty of a stuffed potato--practically anything goes.

Season your stuffing mixture with salt, pepper, and paprika or cayenne to taste. If you want cheese, go nuts; if not, no problem. I've mixed in a few handfuls of grated sharp cheddar to excellent effect. This time I decided to rebake my potatoes sans dairy & garnish with cheese at the end.

Stuff your potato shells with the filling mixture, dividing it up as evenly as possible. Arrange them on a baking sheet and bake at 375F for about a half hour, or until heated completely through. If you want to, you can throw on a few handfuls of grated cheese and finish them under the broiler; otherwise, you can just call them done when hot.

Serve with salad or soup for a full and hearty lunch. Garnish with anything you think sounds good. I added chunks of goat cheese, which melted nicely as I mashed them in with my fork. Some fresh chopped parsley or a spoonful or two of thick Greek yogurt would be excellent too.

Hooray: potatoes. Don't you feel better?

How are you eating your potatoes lately?

A totally normal dinner

Who wants immediate dinner? I definitely do. Check out the contents of your crisper and let's go.

First, put some brown rice in the rice cooker (or use a pot, whatever). Turn it on and let cook until done.

Chop up some onion, mushroom, orange bell pepper (these have been big in our house this season because they are cheaper than red or yellow but taste nearly the same), and parsley. Wash, destem, and roughly chop a bunch of spinach. Throw the washed stems in the freezer to save for veg stock. Do you have other veg you want to use? If so, go for it.

Add some oil or butter to the wide frying or saute pan of your choice. Throw in the onion and cook to soften. Add the mushroom; season with salt and paprika, stir, and cook. Give it up to ten minutes, stirring occasionally, for the mushrooms to cook down and start turning golden.

Add the bell pepper and any other herbs or spices you think sound delicious. I think I put some marjoram in this one. Marjoram is one of the most underused & delicious herbs out there, in my opinion.

When your bell pepper is cooked, add all the spinach to the pan. Stir everything up and cook until the greens are wilted. This should take maybe a minute total.

Turn off the heat and stir in your parsley and a substantial grinding of black pepper.

Serve a scoop of rice and top with veg. If you have some parmesan around, you can grate a big cloud of it over your serving. Or you can cube some mozzarella or other mild white cheese and bury it in your veg to let it melt. Grind some more black pepper over all.

Eat.

You'll notice that this pan of veg could totally take some cooked chickpeas or white beans. You would be correct. This time I wanted cheese, but beans are absolutely another good way to bulk this up and make it a complete & potentially vegan dinner.

In conclusion, hooray! Hot delicious dinner!

Brussels sprout, onion, and apple hash

One thing about Portland is that it's actually cool outside. The sky is grey. It rains occasionally, although I for one am finding it surprisingly dry so far. And that means the seasonal vegetables actually feel seasonal.

In California, we're often eating broccoli and kale while it's still 75F outside. Here, not so much--and it makes the winter veg taste so much better.

What I'm saying is: I made some brussels sprouts and they were great.

Sprouts definitely have a few natural partners in the food world. Onion, apple, and bacon all play extremely well with them, or really with any dark winter green. So it was lucky for me that all four of those things happened to be in the kitchen one night when I was looking for dinner. I chopped everything up, threw them in a hot pan, and was eating a big plate of dark green hash in under fifteen minutes. Hooray!

The amounts in this recipe are really flexible. You want maybe 1 slice of bacon per dinner-sized serving, roughly equal amounts of onion and sprouts, and a touch less apple. And if you don't do bacon, you can always use butter or the oil of your choice, and then add a bit of liquid smoke to the pan at the end of cooking--or just eat it as-is. It's not like brussels sprouts and onions aren't going to be delicious, right?

I considered frying an egg to put over the top of my finished hash. If you're in the runny egg yolk club, you should definitely try this out. Rich egg yolk over a smoky, hearty, veg-filled hash is clearly one of the greatest things in life.

Brussels sprout, onion, and apple hash

bacon/oil of choice
onion
brussels sprouts
apple
salt, pepper
optional sage, thyme, maybe some smoke seasoning

Start by chopping a piece of bacon into small bits. If you prefer to use oil or butter instead, that's cool too--just be prepared to spice a bit more heavily later.

Put your bacon into a hot frying pan or skillet of your choice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat is rendered and the meaty bits are starting to crisp.

While you're waiting, dice an onion. Add the onion and a pinch of salt to the pan and continue to cook.

Wash, trim, and slice your brussels sprouts. I quartered mine and then cut any particular big pieces in half again. If you want to go for the thin shred, you can do that too--the pieces will just need less time to cook.

When your onion has softened, add your sprouts to the pan. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, while you dice up half an apple.

Add the apple to the pan along with some salt and pepper. If you didn't use bacon, you may want to add some other spices, such as sage and thyme; I just let the bacon be my main seasoning.

Cook for another three to five minutes, or until everything is done to your tastes. If you want to top your hash with a fried egg, now is the time to fry it.

Serve, either alone or with egg on top.

I found this to be excellent with a beer on the side for dinner, but it could take a cup of strong coffee for breakfast equally well.

What fall veg are you cooking and eating lately?

Sweet potato soup with black beans, corn, and jalapeno

It has actually started to get chilly here in scenic NorCal! You know what that means: SOUP. On the other hand, "chilly" in NorCal really means "highs of under 80F during the day, with lots of sun," so while the fall vegetables are certainly emerging, we still have tomatoes and corn and zucchini and hot chili peppers everywhere. Okay! Let's make a hearty soup full of both late summer and fall produce!

I took some inspiration from Joanne's sweet potato corn & jalapeno bisque and made this soup. The catch is that we needed protein, but that was easy enough to fix with the addition of bean broth and black beans. It also balanced out the serious sweetness of the potato and corn.

So, to sum up: this is an easy, delicious, filling, spicy vegetarian main dish soup with protein and seasonal vegetables. And if you use oil instead of butter, it's vegan! Convenient as hell.

I wanted a big vat of thick, creamy puree studded with bits of barely-cooked corn, so I reserved the corn to add at the end. If you want a more highly textured soup, you can always add the whole black beans to the pot after your puree the potatoes and broth, or you can just hold off on pureeing altogether. It's delicious in every case.

Sweet potato soup with black beans, corn, and jalapeno

butter/oil of your choice
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2+ hot peppers
cumin, oregano, red pepper flake
salt, pepper
2 big sweet potatoes
3-4 cups veg and/or bean broth
2 cups black beans, refried or whole
2+ ears fresh corn (frozen also ok)
lemon or lime juice to finish
garnishes of your choice: curtido de repollo, sour cream, cilantro, green onion, lime wedges, corn tortillas, avocado...

Start by warming a good slug of oil over medium-high heat in the large soup pot of your choice. Dice up your onion and add it to the pot, stirring to coat with oil. Smash and mince your cloves of garlic and add them as well.

Destem and mince your hot peppers. I used one garden jalapeno and one random red hot pepper from the farmer's market; you can use whatever combination you so desire. I imagine these hot peppers would be a particularly great addition if you roasted them and flaked off the skin beforehand, but I was in the WANT FOOD NOW zone and so didn't bother.

Add your hot peppers to the pot. Season with cumin and oregano to your taste, and add a sprinkle of salt. If you want extra spice, you can add in some red pepper flake as well. I used some hot red hatch chile flake, because that's how we roll, and also because my parents brought us a gigantic bag of it last year, and we're still nowhere near making a dent even though we use it all the time.

Stir everything together and cook, lowering the heat a bit if necessary, to soften. In the meantime, peel and cube your sweet potatoes.

When your vegetables have softened and the onion is golden brown, add your broth to the pot. I used a mix of frozen pinto bean broth and vegetable broth; the bean broth adds protein and the veg broth adds flavor. If you're on the meat boat you can use chicken stock, but it's really not necessary. (Now I'm having a horrible flash of what "the meat boat" might look like. Curse you, personal slang!)

Add your sweet potatoes and black beans to the pot and bring everything to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer until your potatoes are cooked through. This took about 20 minutes for me, but the time will vary depending on the size of your potato cubes.

Pull your pan off the heat and puree with an immersion blender until the soup reaches your desired texture. Taste and correct the seasonings. You may want to add some more broth or water if the soup is too thick for your tastes.

Put the pan back on the heat and let it simmer gently while you husk your ears of corn and cut the kernels off the cobs. Add the corn to your soup, stir, and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes, or until your corn kernels are hot and delicious. Take the pan off the heat, add any final sprinklings of pepper, and mix the juice of a lime or half a lemon into the pot. Done!

Serve your soup with the garnishes of your choice, preferably of the "fresh and crispy" category. We had ours with big whacks of well-drained curtido de repollo, which provided an excellent crunchy contrast plus some extra acidity. A wedge of extra lime and a stack of corn tortillas charred over the gas flame are also good ideas.

The best part? We had enough soup to feed us for two dinners, plus a few extra servings to stash in the freezer. Hooray!

How are you bridging the gap between summer and fall?

Giant tofu stirfry with mixed vegetables and peanut butter

A little while ago I had a delightful noontime visit from my friend Chrissy, who had driven over the mountain from Santa Cruz to go to multiple interviews in one day. YIKES. Clearly, she needed some relaxing downtime in the form of a delicious lunch she didn't have to think about at all. So I broke out the biggest frying pan I have, turned on the rice cooker, and turned out a huge batch of vegan tofu stir-fry stuffed with shredded cabbage and carrot, nice chunks of broccoli, and sweet red bell pepper. Hooray!

I used peanut oil because it has a high smoke point and I like the flavor it adds to the dish. If you're serving someone with a nut allergy, you can simply switch out the peanut oil for vegetable oil and eliminate the peanut butter. Something like tahini or sunflower seed butter might be a good substitute, depending on the specific allergy. But this is also great with no nut content whatever. No worries.

Giant tofu stirfry with mixed vegetables and peanut

firm tofu
peanut oil/veg oil
soy sauce
sriracha sauce
sesame oil
onion
garlic
fresh ginger
carrot
broccoli
red pepper
cabbage
all the other veg in the house
peanut butter
rice wine vinegar

Start in advance by pressing your tofu. Slice the tofu in half horizontally, keeping both pieces as even as possible, and sandwich them between two cutting boards. Weight the whole business down with a pot full of water or something similarly heavy, and let sit for an hour or so. I like to put a towel under one end of the bottom cutting board and hang the other end over the lip of the sink, so all the liquid drains into the sink itself.

When you're ready to cook, slice your tofu into 1-inch cubes. Brush on both sides with a sprinkling of soy sauce, sriracha, and sesame oil. Heat a frying pan to medium-high, add a few dabs of peanut oil, and rotate to coat. Then slide in all your tofu. Fry, tossing occasionally, until your tofu is golden brown and delightful on all sides.

While your tofu is cooking, slice up all your aromatics and vegetables. You can use practically any veg you have in the house for a stir-fry of this nature. I used everything in the ingredient list; things like bok choy, mushrooms, or green pepper would be great additions as well.

When your tofu is done, tip it out of the pan and set it aside. Add another dab of peanut oil and tip in the onions. Cook until golden, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another few minutes. Then start gradually adding in your main vegetables, starting with those that take longer to cook (broccoli, carrot) and ending with those that don't take so long (cabbage, red pepper). Season the pan with soy sauce and sriracha (and powdered ginger, if you don't have fresh) with your first vegetable addition.

When all of your vegetables are tender, add a big spoonful of peanut butter to the pan, along with a bit more soy sauce and sriracha as needed. You might want to add a little bit of water to help melt the peanut butter as well. Add your cooked tofu and toss together over slightly lowered heat until the peanut butter has melted and coated everything and the tofu is hot through. When everything is ready, take the pan off the heat and stir in a splash of rice wine vinegar.

Serve over rice or your choice of noodle. Udon would clearly be pretty great. I think I'd make a spicy peanut-soy sauce separately instead of pouring small bits of everything right into the pan in that case, though.

We ate our stirfry over long-grain brown rice, and then Chrissy went off, full & happy, to her next appointment. Such a satisfying lunch.

What kind of dishes do you love to serve your friends?

Baked pasta shells with basil ricotta cream

What happens when you're 2/3 of the way through making lasagna and you open the pasta box to discover you have only 5 lasagna noodles?

Well, if you're us, you make a lasagna anyway. You just don't use those noodles.

We had a bag of small shells just waiting around in the cabinet. So what was on the menu instead of lasagna? Baked pasta with ricotta cream. It's just like lasagna! Really! The noodles are a slightly different shape, but who cares? Everything else went exactly as planned.

This is a fairly standard vegetarian not-lasagna except for one thing: fresh basil.

You know how you can add a bunch of chopped spinach to the ricotta mixture when making lasagna? Okay. What if you replaced that spinach with basil? Huge handfuls of beautiful fragrant fresh summer basil?

It's pretty amazing. You should try it.

Baked pasta shells with basil ricotta cream

Sauce: Saute a handful of chopped garlic cloves and a diced onion in olive oil until soft and delicious. Season with salt oregano, basil, and red pepper flake. Add a chopped red pepper (and whatever other veg you like) and continue to saute for another five minutes, or until all the vegetables are tender. Add 2 cups of tomato puree or chopped tomatoes in juice and cook together, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is done to your liking. Taste and correct for seasoning and puree with a stick blender as needed.

Cheese: mix 16 oz ricotta (or the closest size container you can find) with 1 egg, a cup or so of grated mozzarella and parmesan, and the chopped leaves of half a bunch of fresh basil.

Pasta: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook 3/4 lb of pasta until al dente. Drain.

To assemble: Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix the cooked pasta with the sauce. Spread a layer of saucy pasta over the bottom of a large casserole dish. Spoon on a layer of cheese, distributing it as well as possible with clean fingers. Repeat, layering pasta and cheese, until they are both used up, ending with a pasta layer. Top the whole business with a couple big handfuls of grated mozzarella and/or parmesan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until delicious and golden brown on top.

Eat as swiftly and enormously as possible. You'll probably want a salad or something else green on the side. We had spinach.

The leftovers are pretty amazing, especially when rewarmed. Personally, I am ok with eating cold leftover pasta. I think it's pretty good in any form. However, this was miles and miles better when reheated than when left cold. The basil in the ricotta just glows. It's so good.

So I ate the leftovers for two more meals in a row, once with garlic-sauteed green beans and zucchini and once with another salad, and I was well satisfied.

How are you using your fresh summer herbs? Plentifully, I hope.

Veg fried rice is so nice

Today I was ready to sit down and write a blog post when I discovered that Blogger is having issues with their editor in Chrome. After several hours of frustration, I discovered that hey, if you use your problem-solving skills and try things in a different browser like a competent user, sometimes they work! ZOMG EXCITE. Ahem. Yes. How was your afternoon?

So! Who wants to hear about fried rice?

This is a dinner for the nights when you want nearly instant food and have some leftover rice (or whatever grain), as assortment of veg, and a few eggs in the fridge. It can take nearly any vegetable you throw at it and remain delicious. In this case, I had carrots, onions, broccoli, and cabbage: perfect.

Needless to say, this isn't authentic. It's just good and easy and fast. You will also notice that it looks like a giant mess, and not just because I took the pictures well after dark. That's ok, though; the worst-looking food usually tastes the best, and this is no exception.

Vegetable fried rice

peanut oil/flavorless oil of your choice
onion
green onion
ginger if you have any
a optional hot pepper
assorted veg: carrots, broccoli, cabbage, peppers, bean sprouts, mushrooms, etc.
eggs
leftover cooked rice or other appropriate grain
soy sauce, sriracha, sesame oil

Chop up all your vegetables and have all your other ingredients out and ready before you start cooking. Fried rice can go very quickly over high heat.

Okay. Start by warming a slug of peanut oil on medium-high heat in a wide saute pan or wok.

Throw in your chopped onion, the whites of green onion, ginger, and hot pepper. (If you don't have any fresh ginger, add a bit of ground ginger with the eggs later.) Fry quickly and vigorously, stirring or tossing frequently, for two to three minutes.

Add any vegetables that need longer cooking time. In my case, this meant broccoli and carrots. Continue to stir-fry for a few minutes, and then add the more tender vegetables. I was using a massive amount of shredded cabbage: RECOMMENDED. I love cabbage, and it's so underused. More cabbage for everyone. Continue cooking until your tender veg is mostly wilted.

Add the rice, season with a bit of soy sauce and sriracha, and stir to combine. Give it a minute to warm up and mingle with the veg. While you're waiting, crack your eggs into a separate bowl, add ground ginger if needed, and whip with a fork until combined.

Turn the heat down to medium and add the eggs to the pan. Stir immediately and thoroughly, so the egg is distributed well throughout the veg and rice. Keep stirring as the egg cooks.

When the egg is done to your liking, turn off the heat and stir in a few drops of sesame oil. Serve your fried rice as instantly as possible, with a garnish of green onion greens. I added some more sriracha and gomasio, because I like heat and the sesame seeds add a nice toasty crunch.

Hooray! Dinner!

You wouldn't think fried rice would be great left over, but it turns out to be pretty good if you warm it up on the stovetop. Who knew?

What are you guys conjuring up from leftovers?

The anti-bagel: sourdough, cream cheese, avocado

I love bagels. I love going to the bagel shop for a spontaneous lunch. I love how low-pressure, inexpensive, and easy the whole experience is. I love picking out the exact combination I want--one day sun-dried tomato with basil schmear, and the next pumpernickel with copious dill. I love how it never gets old.

However, I am also a big cheapo, and I often want a higher vegetable content in my cream cheese. Thus the anti-bagel was born.

I've been making my own cream cheese schmears for quite some time. It's super easy. All you need is cream cheese, vegetables and herbs of your choice, a spoonful or two of yogurt, and some pepper.

In this case, I wanted a super-green and herbal cream cheese, so I grabbed several sprigs of parsley, some green onion greens, and a couple handfuls of arugula. A few minutes with my trusty knife produced this:

Then I just mixed my mass of finely chopped green with a chunk of cream cheese, a little plain yogurt, and a sprinkle of pepper. The yogurt makes the mixture a lot more workable, not to mention a bit more tangy and complex. You could use a splash of milk instead.

Cream cheese can take much more vegetable content than you might think. I actually used about a third again more greens than cheese, and I could have added even more. You can absolutely just keep mixing in more chopped veg until your schmear is bursting with all the chlorophyll in the land.

Then just toast your bread of choice, spread on your cream cheese, and add whatever else you'd like. I had an avocado in need of use, so I sliced it up and layered it on. I also added a bit more pepper and a pinch of salt, because what avocado doesn't benefit from a bit of seasoning?

Voila! Now you have your very own customized anti-bagel. Eat it in good health and good conscience.

Other options for amazing schmears:

- green olives and lemon zest
- sun-dried tomato, basil, and a little crumble of feta
- chard, beet greens, and toasted almonds
- cilantro, hot pepper, and a couple cubes of cooked sweet potato
- all the sprouts in the land!
- herb spectacular: parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
- dill, capers, and red onion
- dried cranberries, orange zest, and toasted sesame seeds
- dried apricots, pistachios, and lots of black pepper

The possibilities are endless. GO FORTH.

How do you guys customize your bagels and bagel-like sandwich concoctions at home?

I win Thanksgiving leftover breakfast!

For Thanksgiving leftover breakfast, I made an omelet. Okay, really it was a scramble. It consisted of egg, mashed potato, chopped olives, artichoke hearts (not from Thanksgiving but in the fridge) and parsley. I grabbed a handful of lettuce and made myself a little side salad with red wine dijon vinaigrette.

Then I put a lot of hot mushroom gravy on my omelet. (Er, scramble.)

What? It was one of the best breakfasts ever.

Vegetarian baked beans

It's raining! Rain in California! Fall is actually here! HOORAY!

This is clearly the best possible time of the year to make a gigantic pan of delicious, hearty, warming goodness. I'm talking about baked beans.

Baked beans are traditionally made with navy beans or similar small white beans, plus onion, bacon, and a molasses-heavy sauce that would probably be excellent on barbecue. (Mental note: make a batch of actual barbecue sauce soon.) But the real essence of baked beans is the bean itself, or maybe the bean plus molasses. So, since our household is half vegetarian, we took out all the meat components and added in some liquid smoke and lemon juice. The result was more than satisfactory.

These take hours upon hours to cook, so they are excellent to make on a grey weekend when all you want to do is putter around the house. Nothing is better than a bubbling pot when it's cold and damp out, right? Soak the beans the night before, boil them in the morning, bake them right after lunch, and you should be all set by dinnertime. Bonus: delicious baked bean fumes delicately wafting through the house all day!

Vegetarian baked beans
Based on Boston Baked Beans

2 cups dry white beans
bay leaf
an onion
3 tbsp molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp mustard powder
several good shakes of liquid smoke
juice of 1/2 lemon
butter/olive oil

Start the day before you want to eat by sorting and soaking about two cups of dry white beans. Leave them overnight, loosely covered. The next day, change out the water and simmer the beans with a bay leaf until tender. Depending on the age of your beans, this can take up to two hours. When done, drain your beans, reserving the broth. You can also cook your beans in advance and refrigerate them, or substitute canned beans.

When you're ready to make the beans, preheat your oven to 325F/165C.

Break out a dutch oven or other large, deep, oven-safe casserole dish. Chop up a large yellow onion. Fill the dutch oven with alternating layers of beans and onion, ending with beans.

Next, make the sauce. In a pan, combine the molasses, ketchup, brown sugar, salt, pepper, mustard, liquid smoke, and lemon juice. Smoke seasoning is really potent, so be careful with it! Add a little at a time, and definitely don't drop the bottle.

Bring the pan of sauce to a boil, stir to dissolve any recalcitrant lumps of sugar, and pour it all over the beans. Then add enough of your bean broth to cover the beans entirely. (Freeze the leftover bean broth and use it in soups later.)

Dot the top of your bean dish with chunks of butter or a scattered drizzle of olive oil. Don't skip this--the fat in the oil or butter is going to carry the flavors of the sauce and onion to make the whole dish meld together. It's taking the place of the bacon fat in the original recipe.

Bake your beans, covered, for about two hours. Then take off the lid, check your liquid level, and continue to cook for another hour or two, or until the beans are amazing and delicious. It's done when you think it's done.

Hooray! Baked beans!

We had our baked beans over bowls of rice, but I would definitely be up for a biscuit and gravy or cornbread application. Hearty greens, either steamed or sauteed, would be perfect on the side.

What dishes do you love to make when it's dank and rainy out?

Potato green bean vinaigrette, deviled eggs, & fresh summer tomato

Swiftiest of Meals
w/ ref to A. E. Housman.

Swiftiest of meals, the salad now
holds all the veg I will allow;
potatoes, beans, and mayonnaise
softly sate my tongue's malaise.

Now in my kitchen's steamy den
lunchtime will soon come again.
Take from the fridge a loaf of bread,
an egg, a pear, and I am fed.

And since I love to eat my fill
I'll mix the dressing, fire the grill,
and set the table fork by knife
to serve my tastes for all my life.



This summer I seem to have forgotten about potatoes until just recently. Why? Potatoes are great, especially in summer salad form. So are hard-boiled eggs. So are fresh summer tomatoes, although no one has forgotten about those.

This combination would clearly make the most optimal picnic ever. Let's eat it!

Potato green bean salad with oregano vinaigrette

For the salad:
boiling potatoes
green beans

For the dressing:
red wine vinegar
dijon mustard
fresh oregano leaves
garlic or shallot
salt, pepper
olive oil

Start by bringing a large pot of water to a boil. While it's heating, scrub and chop your potatoes into more or less bite-sized chunks. When the water boils, add your potatoes, slap on the pan lid, and let cook for about a half hour, or until tender. (If you're making deviled eggs too, you can totally put the raw eggs on to boil with the potatoes and just fish them out when the time is up. I do this practically every time.)

While your potatoes are cooking, wash and trim your green beans. You want a roughly equal amount of potatoes and beans. Cut them into inch-long pieces and set them aside.

Next, make your dressing. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix a tablespoon of dijon mustard with a roughly equal amount of red wine vinegar. Add about eight or ten leaves of fresh oregano, finely chopped, and a clove of crushed and chopped garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Now whisk with a fork while slowly pouring in a stream of olive oil. You'll want maybe 1/4 cup of oil total per tablespoon of vinegar. This makes enough dressing for about two large potatoes' worth of salad.

If you don't have access to fresh oregano, it's fine to substitute chopped parsley, basil, or whatever other soft green herb you like. However, fresh oregano is AWESOME, so I strongly recommend that you try it.

When your potatoes are almost cooked, it's time to cook your green beans. You can either steam them over the potato pot, or just add them to the water and cook them with the potatoes. If you care about things like "shocking your green beans to keep them bright green," I'd recommend steaming. Otherwise, go ahead and throw them in the boiling water. Either way, the beans take about three to four minutes to cook through.

When both your beans and potatoes are cooked, drain them completely (you can always stick the potatoes back in the pan over heat for a second if they seem overly wet) and put them into a bowl of your choice. Immediately pour the dressing over, stirring to mix well.

Voila! A beautiful salad!

Deviled eggs

eggs
mayonnaise
dijon mustard
scallion greens
salt, pepper, paprika

These are totally standard deviled eggs. Sometimes you just want the classics, right?

Start by hard-boiling your eggs. Put your raw eggs in a pot, cover them with water, and put the whole shebang on the stove. Bring the pan to a boil, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let your eggs simmer for eight minutes. When the time is up, immediately take the eggs out of the hot pan, run them under cold water, and put them in a bowl of ice and cold water to stop the cooking. Let the eggs sit for at least ten minutes, adding more cold water if needed.

When cool, peel your eggs, cut them in half, and remove the yolks to a bowl. If you've timed your eggs perfectly, there should be just a little dimple of dampness at the center of the yolk, and certainly no grey-green oxidized business around its edge.

Mix your yolks with a large spoonful of mayonnaise, a small spoonful of mustard, and chopped scallion greens, salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. The proportions of these are entirely up to you. Want your eggs creamier? Add more mayo. Want them spicier? Add more mustard.

Scoop your yolk mixture gently into your egg halves. Garnish if you like. A sprinkle of paprika is pretty traditional here, but some chopped herbs or maybe a slice of green olive also work.

Hooray! Deviled eggs!

Tomato

1 good summer tomato
knife
salt

Cut up tomato. Sprinkle with salt. Eat.

Perfect! It's tomato!


(Also, if you have leftover potato salad and deviled eggs, guess what you can do for lunch the next day? Cut up your eggs, mix them into your potato salad, and have a completely delicious mess. Yes! I know you guys can't possibly have any leftover tomato.)

Tofu scramble and potatoes rösti

This weekend our friend Chrissy came up from Santa Cruz to hang out. At our house, "hang out" includes not only staying up until all hours gossiping, but also getting up in the morning for a delightful farmer's market expedition and a massive brunch at home. Best brunching forever!

This time, we decided to make a vegetable-heavy tofu scramble and a panful of rösti.

Tofu scramble is obviously pretty widely known as the breakfast of vegetarians and vegans--but what is rösti? Well. It's a Swiss potato cake that bears a reasonable resemblance to hash browns. Essentially, it's grated potatoes cooked in butter or oil until they form a delightful cake. Who wouldn't want one of those at brunch?

Wikipedia tells me that rösti is only eaten in German-speaking parts of Switzerland, but this seems off. For one thing, I first heard of it in a book of essays by Laurie Colwin, a longtime denizen of NYC. For another, we've watched Jacques Pepin not only make a rösti but also tell us what it's traditionally called in France--pommes paillasson, which translates to "doormat potatoes"--so obviously rösti is also made in French-speaking areas at the very least. The finished cake does indeed look like a doormat! It's just a much tastier doormat than you can find just about anywhere else.

Let's go!

Tofu scramble with fresh garden veg and basil

olive oil
scallion/other onion of your choice
tomato
bell pepper
hot pepper
chard or other greens
firm tofu
turmeric, oregano, marjoram, salt, pepper
fresh basil or parsley

Start by sauteing chopped scallion or onion in some olive oil in a frying pan of your choice. When it's soft, start adding any other vegetable you think would be tasty. I put in a bunch of various sweet peppers, a tomato or two, and a jalapeno. Keep any greens and fresh herbs to the side for last-minute addition.

While your vegetables are cooking, prep your tofu. In a large bowl, break up a block of tofu roughly with a fork. Season with a little turmeric, some oregano and marjoram, and salt and pepper. If you want to go for a totally different spice mix, that should work too. Anything that works with your vegetables should turn out fine.

When your vegetables are cooked through, add your tofu to the pan and stir to mix. Add a couple big handfuls of chopped greens of your choice too. When the tofu is hot through and the greens are just wilted, taste for seasoning and take the pan off the heat. Stir in a couple handfuls of fresh chopped basil right before serving.

Hooray! Scrambled tofu for all!

Rösti aka Pommes Paillasson aka Doormat Potatoes

boiling potatoes
scallion greens
olive oil
salt, pepper

Start by prepping your potatoes. Peel them, grate them, and squeeze them in a dishcloth (or over a bowl) to remove as much liquid as possible. The secret is squeezing out all the water in the potatoes! Be thorough!

Chop up some scallion greens or other onion device of your choice. Add them to the dry potato shreds and season well with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Now heat up a large frying pan of your choice on medium-high. Cast iron is probably the best choice here; we used a large nonstick pan. I'd choose the widest pan you can manage, keeping in mind that you're going to have to flip the potato cake eventually. The thinner you can make your potato cake, the better.

Pour a large slug of olive oil into the pan and swirl to coat. Then lay in your potato mixture, pressing it down firmly as you go. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until your potato cake is dark golden brown on the underside. This should take somewhere around eight to ten minutes, depending on your stove.

Now it's time to flip. Wear oven mitts while you're doing this. Essentially, you want to cover your pan with a similarly sized plate or platter, hold the two together, and turn the entire thing over to release the potatoes onto the plate. Add a bit more oil to the pan before sliding the potatoes back in, uncooked side down. Hooray! You did it!

Continue cooking until the underside of your potato cake matches the golden brown of the top. Slide the finished cake onto a cutting board, cut into triangles, and eat.

Rösti cries out for a variety of delicious garnishes. (Or is "garnish" already a mass noun? Hmm.) Anything you put on a traditional potato pancake will be great here. Applesauce? Yes. Sour cream or creme fraiche--maybe with some chopped dill or more scallion greens? Yes. Chopped hard-boiled egg and crunchy salt? Yes. Capers and finely chopped red onion? Yep. Smoked salmon or caviar? Sure, if you like that kind of thing. All of the above at once? Well, maybe not applesauce, but everything else--yes.

Hooray for brunch! What do you guys like to cook on lazy weekend mornings?