Gazpacho

           ANN ARBOR NEWS GAZPACHO (R3A2 VERSION)
               A Make-Ahead Day-Before Recipe

2 large or 3-4 Roma tomatoes, peeled and seeded (see step 1)
1 large cucumber, peeled (seeded, too, if you want)
1/2 large red onion
1 large red pepper, seeds and membrane removed
2 large stalks celery plus 1 small inner stalk with leaves
2-5 stems parsley, leaves only
46 oz V-8 juice
1/4 c. olive oil
1/3 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp Tabasco, or to taste
1/8 tsp ground black or white pepper
1 T (about 1/3 lemon) fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt to taste (I omit it: the V-8 is salty enough)
Optional Garnish: finely chopped cucumber, red onion, or parsley

1. Prepare the vegetables as indicated. To peel the TOMATOES: combine ~1 c. ice cubes and water in medium bowl to make ~1.5-2 cups ice water. In small saucepan, bring ~4 c. water to a racing boil, add 1 tomato, boil for 30 seconds and remove to ice water bath for 30 seconds. The peel should slip right off. Repeat with the other tomato(es). To seed the TOMATOES and RED PEPPER (and CUCUMBER if you wish), vertically quarter and scoop out seeds, pepper membrane, tomato jelly, etc.

2. Optional: Reserve and refrigerate a small piece of cucumber, onion or parsley to use as a garnish.

3. Have ready a ~4 qt. bowl or pot with a cover. Cut TOMATOES, CUCUMBER, ONION, RED PEPPER, CELERY and PARSLEY into blender-friendly pieces, no dimension more than ~1.5 inches. Put 3/4 c. V-8 JUICE in the blender, add ~2 cups loosely packed vegetable, and puree. Transfer to bowl and repeat until all the remaining juice and vegetables are used. If you have vegetables left over, chop fine and add to bowl.

4. Stir in any remaining V-8 JUICE and all other ingredients: OIL, VINEGAR, TABASCO, GROUND PEPPER, LEMON JUICE, GARLIC, and optional SALT. Chill for 2 hours or more. I chill overnight.

5. Optional: When ready to serve, chop the veg you reserved in step 2, or similar from the fridge, to garnish each serving. It looks pretty but the taste is great without, too.

6. Serve. Refrigerate any leftovers. The soup lasts several days in the fridge, maybe longer but we consume it too fast to know.
             Serves 8-12, maybe more.

7/16/99; 8/8/03; 6/18/11; rev for blog 7/7/18 rjm

Three Cans (fast, easy, vegan, parve, cheap, tasty, low cal, packable lunch)

THREE CANS

R3A2 Three Cans
(makes 1 to 3 servings, depending on how ravenous you are)

If you just eat a third of the mixture of the three cans, then
Preparation time:1 minute and
Calories: 175
1. Drain a ~one pound* can of each of the following:
     Green Beans
     Tomatoes
     Beans
*These days typical cans are 14.5 to 15.5 oz but sometimes you can still find a 16 oz. can.

2. Mix together in a bowl, one you can cover and refrigerate if you have leftovers. I use an 8" vintage Corningware with a glass cover. Eat!

Lasts in the fridge for a week, maybe more.

VARIATIONS

A. If you want to get fancy, add one of these:
     a dash of Tabasco
     juice from a slice of lemon, Meyer lemon, or orange
     1-2 Tb oil and vinegar dressing

B. If you want more protein:
     Vegan: sunflower seeds (the roasted and salted kind are least likely to taste rancid)
     Vegetarian: Cheese - I favor pre-shredded asiago, or I cut up an ounce or so of extra sharp cheddar
     Pescatarian: Tuna - another can (3-7 oz) or a 2.5 oz bag to avoid having to drain

C. For more greenery, to improve presentation, or just for a change:
     * Serve THREE CANS on top of torn lettuce or arugula or a handful of salad-in-a-box
     * Pull off the leaves from a sprig or two of dill or parsley or both and stir in
     * Dice and toss in some carrot, maybe one baby-cut carrot per serving or an equivalent amount of regular carrots
     * Use leftover THREE CANS in an omelette


Notes on cans

GREEN BEANS: I prefer cut rather than French style, and I never get the low salt version because it tastes like the can to me. If you need to watch your salt, THREE CANS may not be for you.

TOMATOES: I usually use diced or petite diced. Spicy foods help me eat less volume and less fat, I think. My favorite these days is Del Monte Petite Diced with Zesty Jalapenos.

BEANS (not the green ones): Most of the time I use pintos, red or white kidney beans, northern beans or chick peas aka garbanzos. Except for chick peas, the taste is pretty much the same so my preference is really just a matter of appearance: color and size. Black beans and black-eyed peas are also fine, and they do have different tastes. My favorite brand of beans is Bush's. They still sell 16 oz. cans and their quality control is excellent. I have never used canned lima beans although maybe I will try them one of these days. Sometimes when I use plain tomatoes I mix them with spicy beans: S&W Pinquitos are delicious.

THREE CANS can be made in a hotel room if you can get to a supermarket. It can be made in advance and taken on a trip. With all the variations, you can probably lunch on THREE CANS several times a week for months and not get too tired of it. Or anyway, I can.



How I Came to Invent Three Cans: I once signed up for a web-based diet called Fat Loss for Idiots. It let you eat all you wanted of a few specified foods, 4 meals a day for 11 days. To start the program, you went through a list of foods and checked the ones you liked.* Then the software whirred and out came your personal meal plan.

For one meal I could eat all I wanted of certain vegetables. That day I was feeling too lazy to cook or chop. I did not want to use any extra bowls or knives. I looked in the pantry and selected THREE CANS. The rest is, well, both history and this recipe: a low calorie, tasty, vegan, parve dish you can make in almost no time. You can also take it with you on a trip, eat it at your desk, and dress it up when you need variety and are willing to dirty a knife and cutting board.

* The Fat Loss Program: If you checked off meats on their list, then your meal plan included "slices" of that meat: chicken, ham, turkey, beef. Did that mean I would have to buy those salty processed sliced meats in packages, or did the diet creators just assume that Americans can't cook? Maybe the word "slices" was used as shorthand for trimmed of excess fats and skin? But the diet had other oddities: "shrimp" was always listed as "Delicious Shrimp." No other food came with a sales pitch.

rjm 5/1/2014, rev 5/11/14

Orzo Salad

                Roberta's Revised and Annotated

          Phil's Aunt Shayna's Friend Joy's ORZO SALAD

Can be made a day ahead.  Or more than a day.  Vegetarian.  Vegan if you use soy cheese.  Firm tofu might be fine too, but R3A2 Moosewood Tofu Salad, to be posted soon, is my first choice with tofu.

     1 box orzo (16 oz)

          I prefer the rice shape to the teardrops.

          You can use any noodle, but orzo makes it easy to

          serve with a single big spoon.  

     1/2 big red onion, chopped

     1 pint kalamata olives, halved to remove pits. 

          Or sliced into smaller pieces. You can slice pitted 

          ones, but I find they have less flavor.

     3 Tb dill, fresh    )

     3 Tb parsley, fresh ) stems removed and chopped

          Who can accurately measure dill or parsley?

          I use 4 or 5 good-sized sprigs of each.  More is fine,

          too.

     12 oz feta (I like Bonfiore brand), crumbled by hand

           In Israel, cubes of white Bulgarian cheese work fine.

     4 Tb lemon juice

     1/3 c olive oil

     Salt to taste (I use very little, < 1/4 tsp, because feta 

            is very salty)

    

Start boiling the water and then do the chopping while the noodles cook.  When the noodles are al dente, rinse them but not so much that they get cold.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the warm noodles and mix. The warmth of the noodles melts the smaller crumbles of cheese and blends the flavors.  You could serve immediately but I refrigerate and serve cold or at room temperature. 

"Serve with tomatoes" wrote Joy but I never do.

Still tastes great a week later, if you have any left.

                           Laptop versions 5/7/01; 1/5/03; 4/29/05; 1/3/11 rjm

Texas Caviar

                 HALF* RECIPE OF TEXAS CAVIAR (VEGAN)

Combination of Nina's A2News recipe and a web recipe on Hints from Heloise

Per Heloise:   Serving Size: 12   Preparation Time : 24:00

     *Divided in 2010 because the original makes way too much

     compared to the other salads for New Year's.  Some

     additional notes were added on the printout of 2004 over

     the years and are incorporated here.

8 oz Pace brand picante sauce, medium hot (half a 16 oz. jar)

1 can (15.5oz) blackeyed peas, drained

half a (15.8 oz) can white hominy, drained (~1 cup?)

1/2 medium green pepper, diced

1/2 medium white onion, diced

2 roma tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced

cilantro - about 1/4 cup, finely chopped

     (=~ 1 oz before removing stems)

1/2 medium jalapeno ‑‑ seeded and chopped

2 scallions, chopped, white and green both

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 T sugar (or less)

1/4 tsp salt (or less or none)

1 T black pepper ‑‑ coarsely ground (or more **)

1 T cumin powder (or more**)

1 1/2 T lime juice (or more**)

Mix all ingredients together and marinate in refrigerator for 24

hours or more.  A few hours might be enough if you need Tex Cav in a hurry.

** In 2010, I was following the full recipe and forgot to divide these ingredients in half, so used 2 T each of black pepper and cumin, and 3 T lime juice.  It was fine.

                       rjm 9/2;11/23/02;1/4/03;11/11/04;1/3/11

Broccoli Salad

 
PHIL'S AUNT SHAYNA'S BROCCOLI SALAD
(R3A2 VERSION)
(This is approximately 1.5 times Shayna's recipe.  The original was never enough for our New Year's Eve party.)
Fine if made a day or two before - but see WARNING

PREPARATION - THE BROCCOLI

     2-3 broccoli crowns (about 3 qts after cutting)

Cutting:  Divide crowns into tiny trees, 1/2 to 3/4" tall, by cutting the stem at branch points and then cutting or tearing to divide.  Slice the remaining stem portions very thin and cut larger slices into 1/2" squares.
Cooking:  Shayna said to steam the broccoli for 1 minute. I prefer to blanch it.  Fill a dutch oven or other large pot ~ 2/3 full with water. Add salt if desired, maybe 1/2 tsp. Bring to boil. Throw in broccoli and cook (high heat) for about 3 minutes.  This will be approximately the time it takes for the water to begin boiling again (not necessarily big bubbles). Broccoli should be bright green but crisp rather than soft.  Drain, cool down with cold water, and drain again. Immediately refrigerate until ready to serve. I cover the broccoli while it is in the refrigerator because broccoli does smell.

PREPARATION - THE DRESSING
Mix the following ingredients together in a bowl with a cover and refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.
     1 1/2 c. sunflower seeds (or pine nuts)
I prefer sunflower seeds to pine nuts for this recipe, and not just because they are cheaper.  I like their taste, crunch, and appearance better. I also prefer raw to roasted-salted but have used both. Check for rancidness, though, especially with raw seeds, before using. I store seeds in the freezer to keep them unrancid longer.
     1 1/2 c. dried currants (or raisins or dried cranberries or
               cherries)

I like currants best, although they weren't in Shayna's version, because they are about the same size as the sunflower seeds and their sweetness is concentrated.  But I've used all the other dried fruits, too, and they're fine. Dried cherries are probably my second favorite, but then I lived in Michigan a long time.
     1/2 large red onion, diced (~ 3/4 c. if you measure)
The red onion turns the dressing pink.  If you don't care about this so much, you can use some other color onion.  I like red, myself.

     1 heaping c. Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
            (1 1/8 c. if you measure)
My husband likes Miracle Whip better so that's all I ever buy.  It also happens to have less fat than either regular OR light mayonnaise.

     3 T. red wine vinegar
(I once used fancy pino gris white wine vinegar and it was lovely.  The red of the vinegar does not affect the pink color of the dressing that much.  That's really from the red onion.)

      1/2 c. sugar

      1-2 T. lemon juice (juice from about 1/3 average lemon)

      Salt (especially if you do not use salted seeds)

      Black Pepper (maybe about 1/4 tsp)

WARNING:  NEVER mix broccoli with dressing until ready to serve. The dressing, because of the acids in the vinegar and lemon juice, bleaches the broccoli to an ugly olive green.  That means that leftovers will look ugly but by then you won't mind because you will know that the salad tastes great.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

When ready to serve, dump dressing into large serving bowl and then mix in the broccoli by one cup scoops. The broccoli should be spread evenly through the dressing.  You could put in the broccoli first, or put all the broccoli into the dressing at once, but those both seem to make it take longer to achieve the right appearance.  Sometimes I forget this, and then I learn it again.
This salad looks very pretty and is a very popular item on a buffet table.

The original recipe had proportionally more mayo and sugar, with Shayna's advice to "use less." It also had more onion.  I've  tinkered to suit my taste.

PARVE. VEGETARIAN.  If made with egg-free mayonnaise, VEGAN.

Laptop versions 12/4/01;1/5/08;4/25/08;3/29/09;01/03/11 rjm
typo corr 10/17/12