The Breakaway Vegetarian Burger

Stuart over at Toque Blanche recently requested that I take a shot at a vegetarian burger. I’m not fan of attempting to make foods look like other foods, especially where meat is concerned, but, since I’ve never had a veggie burger that I’ve actually liked, I thought it might be fun to give it a try. The problem with most fake burgers isn’t really taste — I’ve had some homemade ones that tasted pretty good — it’s texture. They’re always kinda mushy and overprocessed, or something. So my biggest challenge right off the bat was getting a texture that really felt like ground beef, and all its crumbly, juicy glory.

As usual in my kitchen, I didn’t set out with a fixed idea. I had some leftover brown rice in the fridge, and some leftover cooked red beets. That seemed like a promising beginning, since it would give it a crazy color (good), be crazy healthy (good), and would cost just pennies. It would of course require large does of umami to taste good, so I had to think about that, too. That’s why I always have a jar of pulverized shiitake dust sitting around. Sauteed onions are almost always a good thing too, so they would be part of it. I think I had the taste aspect pretty down, but I was worried about texture.

It turned out that the following four ingredients, in equal proportions and diced very finely, gave me the just the crumbly meaty texture I was after:

cooked red beet
cooked brown rice
sauteed onion
TJ’s English muffin bread (though I’m betting almost any bread would work), soaked in the juice of one meyer lemon

To that I added one egg, a handful of chopped fresh oregano, a tablespoon of shiitake dust, and a tablespoon of flour. I then stuffed a half-cup measuring cup full of the mixture to shape it, and toasted both sides in a hot cast iron pan. It held together beautifully, and tasted great — such a nice change from a regular beef burger! The bun was the same TJ bread, lightly toasted, served with mustard and chutney, with a side of pickled ginger and pickled carrots.

Some of you know this, but I’m hard at work on a vegetarian cookbook, which I hope to finish by spring. Lots more on that to come! In the meantime, if anyone has specific requests that they’d like to see given a breakaway treatment, please let me know. Also: would love feedback on the title. For now it’s The Breakaway Vegetarian Cook: An Umami-Intensive Journey Into Vegetables.

Posted by Eric | 5:42 pm 10/16/2009 | Posted in Dishes | 12 Comments »

Got a Great Breakaway Idea? Guest Posts Welcome!

When I first started writing about cooking with Japanese ingredients in unorthodox yet simple and delicious ways, way back in the 90s in Japan, I knew that I couldn’t be the ONLY person interested in cooking this way. I knew that using global ingredients to breathe fresh life into simple dishes we already know how to cook — eggs, salads, rice dishes, simply prepared fish and meat dishes, pasta, etc. — was fun, nourishing, liberating, healthy, and even life-changing — because our steady stream of really happy guests confirmed it. Busy people who grew up eating “ethnic” cooking in restaurants were especially open to simple combinations of great produce/meats/fish with “ethnic” flavors like miso, tamarind, lemongrass, umeboshi, etc., with recurring starring roles from ace ingredients like Greek yogurt, pickled ginger, flavored salts, fresh herbs in large quantities, good oils, etc. Sometimes in my cooking classes I hand out the above schemata just to give the whole idea a slightly more visual flavor.

I’ve been encouraged by all the comments, emails, and feedback I get from readers. It’s kind of a cool little tribe we have here, and I’m grateful to the entire breakaway community.

My idea du jour: I’d love to open up this space to anyone who’d like to contribute a short essay and photo on some aspect of breakaway cooking. If you’ve got a killer breakaway dish, idea, or even experience that you think the community would enjoy, just let me know. I will of course continue to do most of the writing, but the parachuting of our baby daughter into the world sometime around November 21 means, perforce, that I’ll have a lot less time on my hands! Lots more on that development later!

Posted by Eric | 8:46 pm 10/13/2009 | Posted in Admin | 8 Comments »

Sayonara Gourmet, Baka Yarou Chris Kimball

By now everyone is probably tired of hearing about the demise of Gourmet magazine. I don’t really have much of an opinion on it, other to say it never appealed to me in the first place; I found it tame, full of the commonest of notions on culinary wisdom, full of travel stories of places that, if I did manage to visit there, my visit would have zero in common with whatever unaffordable direction they inevitably took it. I’m actually amazed it lasted as long as it did, with their custom of sending teams of stylists, photographers, writers, and editors for extended assignments in every nook of the globe.

What prompts me to say something about it is the execrable op-ed in today’s NY Times by Christopher Kimball on the demise of Gourmet. Kimball, the publisher Cook’s Illustrated and bow-tied caricature of a Vermont marm-pedant, somehow imagines that food writers on the internet, including bloggers “without the need for credentials or paid membership,” to be responsible for Conde Nast pulling the plug on Gourmet. Internet scribes, according to Kimball, have not only mortally wounded the fine writers at Gourmet, they have dumbed down ALL food writing.

He is the Gatekeeper, the Scribe, who is not at all happy about the direction food writing has taken. Kimball loathes the everyman, the noncredentialed, those not in the Club, where standards for membership are awfully rigorous. Quite remarkably, he even speaks laudably of those with “good breeding.” Yikes! Incredible as it sounds, he seems to imagine the food writing world as a sort of culinary Princeton or Harvard, of several generations ago, where only the “right” students — the patricians — could even hope for membership.

I was prepared to just write off the op-ed as a jumbled muddle of incoherence and move on to something more interesting, but Kimball had to bring Julia Child, through supertortured logic, into his fold:

“Julia Child, one of my Boston neighbors, epitomized this old-school notion of apprenticeship. As her dinner companion one evening, I watched as she became frustrated by the restaurant’s dim lighting, grabbed a huge watchman’s flashlight from her pendulous satchel and proceeded to illuminate her main course. She wanted to investigate her food before eating it, the waiter’s recommendations notwithstanding. This act of spontaneous journalism evolved from a lifetime love of education and reverence for true expertise. Her first question upon meeting a young chef was always, “And where did you train, dear?”

At which point I started to get upset. Julia, of all people, epitomized as a blue-blood! I don’t think so! She was almost single-handedly responsible for the wake-up of American home cooking, the one who encouraged EVERYONE to give good (French) food a try at home. Her “training” consisted of a short stint at Cordon Blue to escape her drudgery as a housewife to a diplomat. The “training” Kimball attempts to invoke through Julia would actually resemble a hardcore apprenticeship of sadistic chefs at starred restaurants, the French equivalent of Japan’s own form of culinary sado-masochism: sweeping floors, scrubbing pots, and sharpening knives for a twelve-year (or so) span before being allowed to actually cook food. Julia did none of that, and had no aspirations toward chefdom; she was a home cook!

Stick to seven-page explanations on why your fried chicken is the absolute, nay, the ONLY way to properly cook fried chicken, won’t you, Chris? If somebody — especially someone unqualified — showed you an actual better way, you wouldn’t hear it anyway.

Posted by Eric | 10:37 pm 10/08/2009 | Posted in Miscellaneous | 29 Comments »

Pickled Carrots, of a Thai Persuasion

Lots of cultures pickle carrots. Mexicans do a phenomenal job with their carrot-laden escaveche, and Japanese carrots pickled in nuka (rice bran) and sake-kasu (the dregs leftover from sake making) are to die for; the carrot kazu-zuke from Berkeley-based Cultured Pickle Shop are dreamy-good. The Thais do it too, but typical pickled carrots in Thailand are made simply with rice vinegar and white sugar. So I thought it would be fun to make a carrot pickle with a serious Thai flavor blast.

I like to salt these pickles first. Salting them (with kosher salt) draws out tons of moisture from the carrot, leaving it in a distinctly crispy, snappy, and pickly state right from the get-go. Just spread the sliced carrots out in a sieve, and toss a few liberal pinches of kosher salt on them, set aside for a while (30 minutes is usually enough), in the same manner that one would salt eggplant to draw out some of its water. Then just rinse them in cold running water (to remove the salt), and wrap them in a clean tea towel. Wring out as much water as you can from them, and transfer to a Mason jar. You could also blanch them very briefly if you prefer a softer pickle, but I really like the snap of these guys and the salt method.

Next make a simple brine. Here’s what I use — no heating necessary, just combine in a bowl and whisk:

complex sweet (ginger syrup is superior, though you could use agave)
tangy (lime juice and rice vinegar)
hot (a few fiery Thai chiles, sliced in half)
herby (kaffir lime leaf, torn)
umami (Bragg’s amino acids)

to suit your own palate and pour it over the carrots.

They’re pretty intense, so you only need a few. Spiceheads will really enjoy these, but chile-sensitive people should probably use just one chile.

They’re ready to eat a few hours after making them, and only get better with time. They’re good for at least a month, refrigerated, but mine never last that long. They’re especially good alongside meat or fish, since they act as a mini palate cleanser between bites.

Give them a shot. And if you’ve got another good way of pickling carrots, I’d love to hear about it.

Posted by Eric | 3:38 pm 10/07/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 7 Comments »

Umami Corn Broth Udon with Summer Veggies

It all started with corn on the cob.

I must have been a Depression child in another life, because I can’t bear to throw away corn cobs. They make a brilliant corn broth, simply by filling a pot with water and adding three or four cobs (to be clear, I mean already-eaten cobs, with no corn kernels on them, or cobs that have been shaved; you can use some of the shaved kernels in the soup), and simmering for an hour or so, though the result is even tastier if you make the broth in a pressure cooker. I often throw in a few dried shiitake, maybe a dried apricot or two, possibly a cut-up carrot if I’m feeling energetic.

But what made this broth really special is what happened next. I was planning on having a simple udon dinner; just for fun, I thought I’d up the umami quotient quite a bit by adding a drizzle of fish sauce, soy sauce, and Bragg’s amino acids (this hippie crap is my new umami-in-a-bottle), and simmer it down a bit while the udon cooked in a separate pot (the reason for the separate pot: cooking udon throws off tons of starch in the cooking water, and I didn’t want my beautiful corn umami broth sullied with starch). I picked a few kaffir lime leaves off the tree and tossed those into the broth as well, to give it some brightness.

Meanwhile, I sauteed some starburst squash, red onion, a small amount of young ginger, corn from one shaved ear, and a carrot. It all went into warmed up bowls, and got topped with turmeric chips.

I think I could eat this soup every day.

Posted by Eric | 5:27 pm 10/01/2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Turmeric Chips

I’d never really thought about slicing up fresh turmeric root, which seems to be increasingly available in lots of markets these days, and frying it up til crispy, until I tasted one of Jehanghir Mehta’s brilliant creations on Iron Chef. They are beyond delightful just sprinkled on top of just about anything. The taste is milder than you’d expect, with distinct earthy and savory tones. I’ve been floating them on soups, tossing them in salads, on top of fish, and even just snacking on them. I like to fry them in a combo of walnut oil and butter, topped off with plenty of good sea salt and black pepper. My next assignment: turmeric tofu!

Posted by Eric | 4:38 pm 09/27/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 11 Comments »

Spicy Green Papaya Salad, Breakaway Style

Green papaya remains mysterious to many of us. Why would anyone eat unripe fruit? Won’t it be astringent, bitter, and cause stomach aches or worse?

With some fruits all of that might be true, but for papaya, no. Is there a difference between green papaya and regular papaya? No — green is just unripe; it turns yellow, and sweet, after a while. But seriously, why eat unripe papaya? Because it has a fantastic, slithery, snappy texture, and tends to absorb whatever flavors you toss at it. It seems especially at home with citrus and chiles, which is what I’ll describe below.

But before describing how it was made, a word about prepping the papaya. Choose a firm, young-looking one; it shouldn’t look tired and old (which, alas, seems to be a common way of presenting them, at least at many of the Chinese markets around that routinely stock them). First, peel it with a vegetable peeler. Then slice it lengthwise and, using a spoon, scrape away the seeds. Slice each half again lengthwise, and proceed to shred the fruit via your favorite method. I find that a cheese grater works well, but I’m just as likely to begin slicing like mad with a sharp knife. You want thin strips, as in the photo above.

If it’s a young, lithe papaya, the seeds will be white-ish. If it’s middle aged or older, the seeds will be black, and the flesh will be slightly more yellow than its younger brethren. We can still happily eat an older one, it just won’t have the snappy texture of its youth. The always-informative Andrea Nguyen has an excellent little primer on green papaya here. She says that the slimy slippery dewy enzymes (papain) that the fruit gives off when prepping it make for a great exfoliant/facial, so you can give that a shot as you practice your knife skills in prepping the rest of the salad.

There is one extra somewhat fussy step you must do before proceeding to build the salad though. Place the shredded papaya in a colander, and liberally sprinkle with kosher salt (Andrea and Vietnamese culinary tradition call for sugar here as well, but I omit it). Let it sit for a few minutes, as you would salted eggplant, to draw out as much moisture as possible. Though it sounds counterintuitive, rinse the papaya with running water to rinse the salt away, transfer it to a clean tea towel, bunch up the corners, and squeeze the hell out of it. You want to wring as much moisture out as you can, so that the fruit will absorb, sponge-like, whatever flavors we’d like to inject into it.

Transfer the papaya to a bowl, and fluff it up a bit with your fingers to liberate it from the dense squeezy shape of the towel. Then add the following and gently mix with your hands:

several limes, zest plus juice
drizzle of oil (I like using walnut oil)
drizzle of agave nectar, or your preferred sweetener
handful of sliced radishes (I’ve used watermelon radish here, but any radish will do)
jalapeno, de-seeded and de-veined, then sliced thinly
habanero, manzano, or other fruity insanely spicy chile, de-seeded and de-veined and sliced thinly
small piece of sweet bell pepper, any color, julienned
at least a cup of mixed herbs — try Thai basil, mint, and parsley
pickled ginger, chopped
chopped nuts on top for extra crunch — I like pecans here
edible flowers, just to make it pretty (pansies are used above)

This salad should be SPICY. In that sense it’s probably more like a som tom (Thai spicy green papaya salad) than a Vietnamese one. Supergreat in hot weather.

Posted by Eric | 1:20 am 09/25/2009 | Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Insane Spicy Beer Nuts

I’m a nut man. I don’t think I’ve ever met a nut I didn’t like (yes, Delia will concur that I have a rather large number of eccentric friends).

But sometimes you just gotta go beyond reaching into the bag and munching.

My fast-growing kaffir lime tree prompted me to trim it back it a bit, so I had a pile of leaves sitting on the counter, with a bag or roasted almonds next to them. Hmm. I wondered what it would taste like if we combined them, along with some olive oil from garlic confit, a little dried habanero for some kick, and a handful of almonds tossed into the processor for texture, and then roasted for 15 minutes?

The answer: they turn into CRACK!

Top with kaffir lime salt.

Beer of choice: icy cold IPA. Oh my, this is a good combination.

This will probably work with other nuts too. Just follow the formula: kaffir + garlic oil + dried chile + nut of choice. And report back, please!

Posted by Eric | 1:44 pm 09/21/2009 | Posted in Cooking ideas | 4 Comments »

Late Summer Udon — Cool, Easy, Perfect

We’re having a mini heatwave again. You’ve got to love a climate (northern CA) that gets its best weather in mid to late September! When it gets this hot, I immediately think of cool, slippery, chewy udon, the thick wheat noodle from Japan that can be enjoyed both hot (usually in a dashi-based broth) or cold (read on).

I’ve found that dried udon, cooked like pasta, is far superior to the frozen udon sold in bags at Japanese markets. Cooking udon until al dente, draining, and then rinsing under cold running water produces a clean, slightly chewy noodle that takes beautifully to light, vibrant sauces. Imagine fresh figs mixed with fruity green olive oil in the blender; that pesto-like sauce is then gently tossed with the cool udon and topped with good salt and pepper. You could do the same with plums, apricots, pluots, nectarines, or any other summer fruit. It’s the coolness of the fruit and olive oil against the cool noodles that makes it so refreshing.

Another favorite is a sauce made from plenty of herbs, lemon (Meyer lemons work especially well here) and young ginger to really wake it up. Combine about a cup of mint, a cup of fresh coriander, a teaspoon of diced fresh young ginger, the juice and zest of a lemon, some olive oil, and perhaps a little yogurt to ensure that the blender can do its job. The dish is so light and vibrant, it almost floats away! The entire dish, start to finish, should take no longer than 15 minutes.

Can you imagine any other combinations for udon? Try some, and report back here!

Posted by Eric | 8:36 pm 09/17/2009 | Posted in Dishes | 4 Comments »

Hot Summer Salad — Cauliflower "Rice"

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that flummox people. Everyone I know seems to have some negative associations with childhood memories of brutally overcooked (i.e. overboiled) florets, yet, when presented with an actual tasty cauliflower dish, everyone likes it! The simplest way to cook cauliflower well is, I think, to spray it liberally with olive oil/sea salt/black pepper and roast in a hot (425) oven till it turns golden brown.

But that can get old, too. So here’s another way I really enjoy eating cauliflower. The idea is to chop it up finely, so finely that it resembles rice, and then to imagine it as rice! This simple little summer dish hits all the right buttons for me: healthy, spicy, fruity, creamy, crunchy, all in one! Here’s what went in it:

one large head cauliflower, trimmed, stemmed, and diced
1 small torpedo (or other) onion, chopped
1 manzano (or other) chile, deseeded and chopped
handful of “shishito” (or other) peppers
2 fresh plums, chopped
handful of semi-dried tomatoes
slices of avocado

Anyone else have any favorite ways to prepare cauliflower?

And PS — I think I’ve got gremlins in my email subscription server, to quote Karena. Sigh. I apologize to all who’ve received repeat posts, and will do my best to fix this annoying problem.

Posted by Eric | 3:14 pm 09/16/2009 | Posted in Dishes | 15 Comments »

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