Potluck!

Last week, I saw this bunch of carrots and couldn't resist:
Aren't they gorgeous? So, I had invited about ten friends over for a potluck last Saturday, and wanted to make dishes that really showed off the flavor of these carrots. I tried a bit raw before I started cooking and they were delightfully fresh, and much sweeter and more delicate than supermarket carrots. I decided to make carrot-cake cupcakes and a pasta with carrot ribbons and a lemon/ginger sauce. Word to the wise: do NOT make both of these dishes in the same night. I literally spent an hour grating and making carrot ribbons. First my wrist cramped up. Then my wonderful roommate took over. Then her wrist cramped. This had better be good, we thought. And it was: Basically, all you do is saute some ginger and lemon zest in butter (or olive oil, which is what I did to for some vegan guests) add the carrots and some yellow pepper (which I'd actually leave out next time), and mix it with linguini and freshly grated parmesan. The full recipe is here.

The cupcakes got snatched up so fast I only got a chance to take a picture of the very last one ;) The recipe wasn't vegan, but I veganized it by subbing vegan margarine for butter and soy yogurt for eggs. As far as vegan egg substitutes to, I'm not a fan of the powdered egg replacer stuff, since I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible. Soy yogurt makes baked goods taste so moist and rich. The mascarpone/orange zest frosting I made was (obviously) non-vegan, so my vegan friends really had muffins rather than cupcakes. Hence the name "mupcakes," which stuck.Other delectable dishes included Roomie's roasted butternut squash with sage
and a dish my boyfriend invented that prominently features sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, and crunchy potato chips on top. It was quite the hit and provided a nice counterpoint to my "healthy" cooking.The full spread:
And, last but not least, I tried out this bottle of wine: 2008 Falernia Pedro Ximenez (11.95) from the Elqui Valley in Chile. The Pedro Ximenez grape is usually used to make sherry and other fortified dessert wines, but in this case it was a nice white table wine with almond flavors and good, crisp minerality that complemented the carrots' sweetness.

Tonight, I'm cooking a pre-theater dinner for my darling sister. It's going to feature these beautiful radishes from this
morning's farmer's market:

A New Year's Blog

Two "firsts" for me this week:
1. My first time blogging.
2. My first time cooking turnips.

You see, one of my vague New Year's resolutions was to go to the farmer's market more often. Another was to eat less cheese and more veggies, fewer double-chocolate brownies and more fruit, less wine and more ... well, never mind. So early of a Saturday morning, I headed to the downtown Austin farmer's market, drank some coffee, ate some tangerines, bought some turnips. Although I have an abiding love of maligned vegetables (brussels sprouts and beets are among my top 5,) I had never cooked turnips, and only tried them for the first time over Thanksgiving, in Marfa.

So I floated the idea by my boyfriend: I was going to cook a turnip-themed dinner. If the turnips were that awful, we could order pizza. Flying back and forth from the stove to the cutting board in the living room to the pots and pans by the front door (tiny kitchen ... I dream about islands and ample counter space) I declared, spatula in hand: "I think I'll start a blog about this!" It was quite the Julie Powell moment. The idea was that every week I'd go to the farmer's market, and cook a meal with what I'd found there, going for new and challenging vegetables whenever possible. I should add that I'm a vegetarian, so while the F.M. may feature really awesome local meats, I shan't be blogging about them.

So, were the turnips awful enough to drive us into the arms of a large veggie with extra cheese? Thankfully, they weren't:
Despite my poor photography skills, this is a turnip, leek, and blue cheese gratin that was so good we took it in our lunches the next day! I had to supplement the farmer's market turnips with some from Central Market, and let me tell you, the difference is huge. The f.m. turnips were tender, slightly sweet, with just a subtle bitterness. You can use any blue cheese you like, but this is Saint Agur, a mild, creamy blue cheese imported from France. The full recipe is in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
Next, I made a first-course of turnip greens chopped and boiled with pasta, topped with breadcrumbs (use fresh if you can - I was too lazy) and olive oil sauteed with garlic and lots of red pepper.
All of this deliciousness was paired with a Jackson Estate's Green Lip Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (14.95). It had less herb flavor than most Sauv Blancs I've tried, with hints of basil and lots of citrus. It was kind of a delicate straw color, which is obscured by my spice jars in the back ground, and a faintly sweet flavor that cut the bitterness of the turnips a bit. And, it was great drinking on its own the next night when I finished off the bottle.

Stay tuned for kohlrabi and kale...