asparagus with "anchovy" breadcrumbs
Hello and happy birthday to Miss Edna Lewis! Today is a good day to recommend her asparagus recipe, which blessedly skips all the blanching and shaving you’ll find below. But I also feel that anything seasonal and vibrant is nice to eat in her honor.
I have been enjoying Emma Laperruque’s asparagus with soft-boiled eggs and anchovy breadcrumbs, and wondered about fishless options. I hoped this would be a good application of
’s vegan anchovy paste, and it was! I honestly couldn't tell the difference unless I was focusing on it. And then the difference was mostly clear because my version of Tausch's paste was very half-assed… I tossed the paste ingredients in the skillet without combining first, and my umeboshi paste was quite old and crusty with big salt crystals from evaporation I guess. Still worked fine! This was a victory to me, because some vegan salads are too light and don't hit me over the head with umami the way I prefer. Happily, this checked my boxes for fat, calories, umami and depth.Eaten with eggs—not trying to lie to the internet with the photo (although that is fun), just got a better shot without eggs. And it was 2am on Saturday night and I was questioning my life choices about why I was concerned about getting an acceptable pic for my blog.
more eating
Mole with Tzintia, and a lesson in draping the tortilla with care.
Shaved asparagus salad from Bryant Terry’s Vegetable Kingdom. This recipe incorporates fun visual techniques (shaved asparagus, shaved walnuts that look like cheese). I was disappointed that the shaved asparagus seemed to lose half its volume as soon as tossed with the lemon and dressing… might try a less acidic dressing next time.
Vegan baked egg dish based on Mana Shamshiri's kookoo sabzi. I flew too close to the sun in terms of clearing the fridge out on this one—used a bit too much dill for my tastes. I think I followed the custard aspect faithfully, but didn't achieve a very firm set. Would welcome any advice especially related to flax/garbanzo custards!
Full of Plants okonomiyaki fries for freezer and fridge clear-out. Tried baking the fries, which were half freezer burn, on an oiled rack over a sheet pan for the first half of baking, followed by on parchment for second half (B’s idea when I asked him what I might do so they didn’t drown in freezer burn), it worked out!
It's our five-year anniversary (basing the date on the cherry blossoms on Lake Merritt). I'm most of the way through making
’s toasted sesame and citrus wedding cake—it’s currently wrapped up for two days in the fridge before frosting. Made as a third batch in a 9x3” round pan, this cake also serves as testing for a friend’s wedding. As says, when life gives you lemons, host!reading/watching
Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Ikebana (1957).
’s “Let's talk about palm oils. The real palm oils.”’s “Grocery Update #61: The Tariff Shell Game.”Writing advice from Julia Tausch, Alicia Kennedy and Lucy Sante.
Thanks so much for the shoutouts and for being the vegan anchovy paste's number one stan! I typically also just throw it together in the pan, haha! And I also love it in breadcrumbs.
My humble two cents on the flax custard thing: I would never use flax seeds in this way, I just can't imagine it working! I see that it does work for Shamshiri, so I don't want to poopoo the technique out of hand, but it just seems like it'd be more straight forward to get something akin to Kookoo Sabzi by adding more chickpea flour instead of flax as it would firm up much more easily (I think Hetty McKinnon recently did a riff on it where she did that)?? I'd also consider adding to the chickpea mix some watered down pumpkin seed butter or tahini for an eggyness, or even a little blended silken tofu, and maybe a smidge of baking powder to lighten the whole thing up. But in my humble opinion flax eggs work best doing the binding work of eggs in cookies, sometimes cakes, etc. and not in custardy applications. Of course I could be wrong, I can't say I've tried using them this way very often!! Sorry if that was more than two cents, lol.
(By "today" for Miss Lewis's birthday I meant yesterday! Written at the night job and intended to get it in before midnight.)