Cauliflower & Couscous

Ah, I've been reveling in one of those increasingly rare weekends without a packed social calendar. When not out and about, as you might expect, I thoroughly enjoy a good weekend cooking fest. So, last night, I whipped up some cauliflower and Israeli couscous.

What would I do without Dani, my trusty

assistant cook? She loves learning about

making Israeli couscous, one of her favorites!

My goal for the weekend was to cook without going grocery shopping- using everything we have in the house. Re-visiting one of my favorite new cookbooks, Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi, we prepared the roasted Saffron Cauliflower with Red Onions, Raisins and Olives. I've been more than a little obsessed with saffron lately, so this dish provided a fix of saffron and it just so happens that we picked up a cauliflower at River Valley Market this week. We didn't have olives, so I subbed in a mix of capers and caper berries. With the addition of russet potato and tomato it came out wonderfully. We had a little heavy cream, so, I also made a Saffron Cream sauce to drizzle over the cauliflower dish for a little extra sauciness and sassiness!

The cauliflower was a perfect counter-balance to another dish, Israeli couscous with Porcini Mushrooms and Chestnuts. We really dig porcini and chestnuts. Two true stories:

True Story One: Half of our grocery shopping budget was spent at RVM's Member Appreciation 10% off sale by buying six containers of porcini mushrooms. Believe it or not, I never had porcini until about 5 years ago when our friend Stephen whipped up a fabulous Pasta with Porcini Cream Sauce for us in Atlanta.

True Story Two: One of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes is our friend Eric's Jerusalem Artichokes with Chestnuts. Tucking into this about 7 years ago is where the love for the almighty chestnut all began.

So, there it is: Cauliflower & Israeli Couscous

We also had a Mediterranean salad of cucumbers with greek yogurt, scallions and cilantro. It was seasoned with aleppo pepper, cumin, salt, pepper and garlic.

Mediterranean Cucumber Salad

Tofu & Miso in Love

I am wholly enamored by the rich umami flavor of miso, frequently featured in soups, stir fries and more complex Japanese dishes. To delve more into the world of umami flavor, I recommend this airing on umami from NPR. We mostly enjoyed miso when eating meals out until just recently, when we picked up  South River Sweet White Miso at the River Valley Market Co-op.

Award winning South River Miso is heralded as an exceptionally high quality product. Lucky us, it just so happens that it is locally produced in Conway, MA. And, as their website suggests, their miso does indeed nourish the spirit. Here is their story.

South River also makes miso with azuki bean, brown rice, barley or chickpeas. We'll surely be experimenting with the garlic red pepper miso paste in the near future. One of the many redeeming qualities of miso paste is that it lasts for an extraordinarily long time in the fridge. Seriously, you can keep an opened tub of miso in the refrigerator for two years or longer. Apparently, it's invincible.

Our tub of Sweet White Miso

We decided to make Fried Tofu with Miso Sauce over Basmati Rice. Here is our go-to recipe from Food Network for pan-fried tofu that actually tastes delicious through and through. Making a miso sauce is easy and is excellent with tofu, pan-fried noodles or as a marinade for fish. Whisk together 3 Tbsp each olive oil and miso paste, 1 Tbsp white vinegar and 3 Tbsp water for the marinade. 

 Sliced Tofu

 Blue panfrying the tofu

After panfrying the tofu, mix in miso paste and continue stir-frying on medium level heat for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, stir fry basmati rice with a mix of olive and sesame oil until well-heated. Serve tofu over rice, garnished with chopped peanuts, chopped cilantro and lime wedges. Add Sriracha if you would like some heat. 

 Peanuts waiting to be pulverized

Miso Tofu over Rice

The New Sensation: Ottolenghi

I have to admit the biggest of all my cookbook obsessions. My favorite "genre" of all cookbooks are those by London food writers, chefs and restauranteurs. Every cookbook I've picked up with a London connection has been a winner, turning out great recipes every time. And, these cookbooks often feature the most glorious of food photography and highly interesting cultural detail.

There has been a huge recent recognition of the fabulous restauranteur, Yotam Ottolenghi, and three of his cookbooks, Plenty, Ottolenghi & Jerusalem. Here is a link to his website, which features recipes, a foodist shop, books and a blog. There are also links to his three Ottolenghi restaurants and NOPI Soho.

The Ottolenghi cookbook features fantastic recipes used in the Ottolenghi restaurants. Obviously, Jerusalem explores Israeli cuisine and Plenty features all vegetarian dishes. These vibrant recipes are organized by vegetable and range from simple recipes to more complex, multi-layered dishes. If you belong to a CSA or frequently find yourself at farm stands in the summer, you might want to pick up Plenty by the spring. If you order from the Ottolenghi site you can get an autographed copy.

After 5 perusals of Plenty at our local bookshop, Booklink Booksellers, I finally picked up Plenty. By the way, I would like to give a big shout out to Booklink, as the staff is always fabulous and their book selection is fantastic. I am awed at the carefully cultivated selection of fine Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cookbooks in this little bookshop at Thornes Marketplace in downtown Northampton. They also have a non-advertised book club, so you can get discounts. Stop by and see them sometime!

With a little time to make a Sunday dinner, I tried out recipes from Plenty. I made a soup and salad: Garlic Soup & Harissa and Beet, Orange and Black Olive Salad.

The soup was easy to prepare, especially since I skipped making homemade harissa instead used this fabulous high quality Moroccan harissa from Mediterranean Gourmet. Also, I made the soup a bit more hearty by adding basmati rice to the soup.

The addicting, spicy, Moroccan Harissa

From Mediterranean Gourmet 

I doubled the recipe, therefore 50(!) cloves 

of garlic were thinly sliced

Celery and Shallots in the pot simmering away

 in Crete olive oil and butter

Here is the final product, the full bodied,

spicy and flavorful harissa and the spring-like

bite of cilantro bring perfect balance to this dish

Everyone loved the soup, and we plan on making this again in the future. A big thank you to my niece Dani, who peeled all that garlic and did a fantastic job at herb duty! 

Blue adored the Beet, Orange and Black Olive salad. I'm not surprised, because she likes beets almost as much as cheese. This is a recipe that will surely be in heavy rotation when CSA season arrives. Also, I am planning on preparing a tapas version of this for an upcoming Mediterranean Tapas event. I'm looking forward to turning this recipe into little hand-held morsels. 

All of my lovely veggies came from the River Valley Market Co-op and the beets are locally grown by Winter Moon Farm.