sf street food festival

this past weekend was the san francisco street food festival. kris and i headed over to the four blocks crammed with food trucks and restaurant stands to have ourselves a nibble-y grazing lunch.

we got down there pretty early and it was already getting packed with some crazy long lines. there were tons of food options but when you cut that down to only the vegetarian ones and then even more to vegan options, our choices were pretty much made for us. which is fine by me cause i would have felt overwhelmed otherwise....and probably would not have been able to walk home from being so full (and yes, we still have to wear coats in august...unless you're super tough like that red shirt dude).

our first stop was aziza which also happens to be one of our favorite restaurants. we got a little cup of spicy roasted chickpeas (yum!) and a super refreshing mint lime (i think) soda (which was really more like tea). off to a good start!

next we ran into a whole foods make-your-own trail mix table. we stuffed our little bags with banana chips, almonds, pumpkin seeds and cashews. didn't eat them yet though....they're coming with us on the long plane ride to europe later this week (thanks whole foods!).

the next stop was the highlight for me. several months ago erin sent me an article about a falafel truck called liba in the bay area. besides having supposedly amazing falafel they also have a toppings bar. sadly, i never made the trip to try one. but on saturday there they were! and no line....what's wrong with people?! anyway, the falafels were, in fact, amazing. i might go so far as to say they are the best in san francisco. they even come close to the falafel at l'as du falafel in paris which is incredible. perfectly crunchy on the outside and nice and light on the inside...mmmm. our only regret is that we only go the taster and not the sandwich.

the good news is that they are now downtown some days so we will definitely get these for lunch and soon!

our last stop was tacos.

i really should have written about (and probably eaten) this before the falafel because it is a tough act to follow. i've seen this truck around but never stopped before. it wasn't amazing but it was definitely tasty. the green salsa was actually super yummy!

and that concluded our street food tasting. it was a lot of fun and i look forward to going back next year.....and getting liba falafel asap!

-d

tagine cooking

my mom sent kris a tagine for his birthday which means, really, she sent us a tagine. we have several tagines hanging around, like these cuties for salt and pepper...

or these for bracelets

but i'm so happy to finally have one for cooking!

after going through the seasoning process of soaking (in which we learned it's extremely difficult to form a water tight seal over our kitchen sink drain) and then baking the empty tagine this beauty was ready to cook us some dinner!

we made this on a sunday night because, i'm not sure why, i thought it was going to take a long time to cook. but with about 5 minutes of chopping prep and 30 minutes-ish of cooking this would make an awesome weeknight dinner! we usually have farmer's market veggie medley dinners on tuesday but i predict a chunk of those dinners are going to end up in the tagine now. tagine tuesdays! i like it.

i looked at recipes as guidelines but didn't really end up following any of them exactly. what i took away from my brief research is that tagine cooking is pretty forgiving and if you fill it up with things that you like you're going to end up with an end result that you love. one thing i'll remember for next time is to add a bit more seasoning than i think it'll need. oh and one more thing, if i was doing this combination again (or any where one vegetable is likely to cook much faster than another) i would add the potatoes and then maybe halfway through add the zucchini because the poor zucs were a little too cooked i think....still yummy....but not perfect. i must say though, for a first attempt at tagine cooking this turned out great! here's what we put in ours:

moroccan tagine

ingredients:

2 cups water

potatoes, chopped

zucchini, chopped
tomato, chopped
onion, chopped

green olives, pitted

dried apricots, chopped

toasted almonds

cous cous

moroccan spice mix*

place the water in the tagine and sprinkle some spices on top (i'd say i put 1-2 tablespoons) chop up the potatoes, zucchini, tomato, onion, olives and apricots and place in the tagine. sprinkle some more spice mixture on top. here it is all ready to go....

put the lid on and cook on medium low heat for about 30 minutes until potatoes are tender and the water in the bottom has thickened and turned a bit saucey. serve over cous cous and top with toasted almond slivers. like this!

*i know, having this already on hand this made it almost too easy. if you don't have a premade moroccan spice mix here's what's in it: cumin, coriander, parsley, chili, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, sugar, salt and pepper and orange oil. so basically throw in a little of nearly every spice you have.

-d

happy international beer day!

yum.

-d

tofu salad

that's tofu salad as in egg salad. i have yet to purchase a tofu salad that i love. i don't try premade ones very often because 1. they are most often drenched in fake mayo and - real or fake - i really dislike mayo* and 2. celery? meh.

so i decided to make my own tofu salad that would solve these problems and oh my goodness did i ever succeed! seriously, this turned out better than i hoped. i love it. i ate it open faced on toast with a salad for dinner, then had it again for lunch. the longer you can let it sit the more the flavors will come out and the more deliciousness will come out but you can also eat it immediately after you finish stirring it all together (as i did) and it's quite a treat then as well.

i solved the mayo problem by using tahini sauce instead. i like the crunch that celery gives but wanted to get it from something that i enjoy....something like chopped cabbage! throw in a bunch of other stuff and you have tofu salad that is similar to egg salad only not gross. win!

tofu salad
ingredients:
1 lb. firm tofu
1 cup chopped green olives
1/4 red onion, chopped
chopped cabbage, roughly 1/4 of a small head
1/2 cup tahini sauce (roughly 1/4 cup tahini thinned with water)
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black salt**
salt and pepper to taste

crumble the tofu into a bowl and add the olives, onion and cabbage. mix together the tahini and water and then whisk in all of the other ingredients. pour over the tofu mixture and mix well. taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

*perhaps it stems from a time of enjoying mayo sandwiches as a child? it makes me shudder just thinking about it now.

**there a few different kinds of black salt out there. the one you want here is indian black salt and you'll know it's the right kind cause it smells like eggs. if you can't find it this will still be yummy without, just increase the other flavors. i have a gigantic bag of the stuff and if i could share with you i certainly would. if you do use it, i went a little on the light side cause i didn't want an overwhelming egg-y flavor, more of a subtle backdrop, but if you do you'll want to increase it by quite a bit.

-d

coconut green beans

this is a recipe that i ripped out of a magazine oh i'd say....nine months ago (at least) and promptly stuck on the fridge. i've been dying to make it since the minute i saw it (well....obviously not if it's taken me this long) but whenever i thought of it i was always missing one ingredient. most recently that ingredient was mustard seeds which i actually remembered to buy this past weekend. then while strolling the farmers market yesterday i saw green beans and it was on!

i'm a big fan of simply prepared green beans - steamed until just tender and tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and maybe some sauteed garlic - but man, if you're looking to dress them up this recipe is the way to go. they are crisp, mustard-y, a bit spicy and have the most delicious toasted flavors from both the coconut and the cashews. kris and i gobbled them down and they are definitely going in the rotation.

coconut green beans
(a padma lakshmi recipe)
ingredients:
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 tablespoons cashew pieces
4 whole dried red chilies
1 1/2 lbs. green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
salt, to taste

heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. add the mustard seeds. when the seeds start to pop, add the cashews and chilies.

once the cashews are toasted, add green beans and stir. cover and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. add coconut and salt.

cook another 8-10 minutes (mine only took about 5 minutes) while stirring. when green beans are cooked through but still crisp, remove from heat and serve.

TCT soba bowl

this, like so many of my dishes, was created as a cleaning out the fridge dinner. my main ingredients to work with were tempeh, cabbage and tiny tomatoes which made me think it's almost at TLT....but since there's cabbage instead of L i'll call it a TCT soba bowl (yeah, i put it all on top of soba).

so, that's one T for marinated tempeh, C for cabbage slaw and the last T for teeny tiny tomatoes...maybe it should be called TC(TT)T. oh and also toasted pecans because...why not? yum! i really really loved this (for dinner and again for lunch today). the slaw was very simple with a hearty dose of lime juice giving the whole dish a nice tart kick. the tempeh and noodles got a bit of heat from hot sauce, and tomatoes, well, they're amazing right now and can do no wrong. plus some crunchy toasted pecan bits? delicious! i feel like i so rarely recreate these fridge cleaning dinners that i make but this is one that i would really love to make again.

here's how it went down (i apologize for the lack of measurements but you're a smart bunch, you can make it to your taste):
TCT soba bowl
ingredients:
for the marinade:
soy sauce
hot sauce
olive oil
cumin
coriander
crushed garlic cloves

mix together all the ingredients in a shallow dish. cut the tempeh into strips and marinate for as long as you've got (mine were probably in there for about 20 minutes).

while the tempeh is doing its thing make a super simple cabbage slaw:
i thinly sliced about half of a small head of cabbage and tossed with the juice of 2 limes, olive oil, (big) salt and pepper.

halve or quarter (depending on their size) a handful of tiny tomatoes and set aside.

back to the tempeh. cook with a little olive oil and an little marinade added to the pan until browned on both sides. remove from pan and cut into bite sized pieces.

cook the soba according to package instructions. mine cooked for six minutes (and i found that starting soba and the tempeh cooking at the same time worked out well).

when the noodles are done cooking drain and toss with some of the remaining marinade.

assemble bowls with soba on the bottom topped with cabbage slaw and tempeh and tomatoes.

add some chopped toasted pecans on top. enjoy!

-d

soft tofu ceviche tacos

we recently brought back our good friend soft tofu for a super easy, fast and - most importantly - delicious no-cook taco filling. rather than cooking the tofu we opted for a ceviche-ish approach of marinating it in a limey mixture before eating.

as i was eating these tacos i just kept thinking how refreshing they were. sounds weird i know...even i, with my extreme love of tacos, don't normally find them to be refreshing...but with the marinated soft tofu these were citrusy, cool and smooth and that my friends makes for one refreshing taco.

you could certainly eat these as soft tacos but i liked the crunch from the crispy shell paired with the filling. top with your favorite taco toppings - we did lettuce, avocado and tomato which was simple and delicious. you can adjust the marinade to your liking (which you will have to do since i didn't measure) but, roughly, here's how it went:

soft tofu taco filling
(for one pound of soft tofu)
ingredients:
juice of 8 limes
a few glugs of olive oil
several dashes of hot sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
coriander
cumin
salt
pepper

combine all ingredients in a bowl large enough to hold your tofu. taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

drain your tofu and pat it dry. scoop spoonfuls of tofu into the marinade and gently toss so that all the tofu is covered. let sit for as long as you want...i did this first and just let it stand while i prepared the rest of the taco ingredients.

-d