Boxing Day Comfort Food

After a decadent two-day winter feast, today is a noodle soup, fried potato, onion sandwich kind of day.

I need groceries.

No farmers' market Saturday for the holiday weekend. No farmers' market last Saturday because of the blizzard. Six days, and then I can buy brussels sprouts and celery root and kale and apples and potatoes and mushrooms and leeks and lentils and other good things.

But the winter hibernation has been good.
We went out for a Christmas Day feast at Su Xing House, and yesterday, feasted on leftovers.

We got two big platters to share. The first features a sweet, smoky sauce that you have to try to believe.

Crispy Soybean Steak with Chef's Special Sauce

See that sexy green vegetable there? I'm not sure what that is. I kind of think it's baby bok choy, but it doesn't say that on the menu. (Update: No. I Googled it and looked more closely - that's not baby bok choy, but I don't know what it is.) The menu calls it "sanhai green." I Googled that. No such mention. Is it a typo? Did they mean Shanghai? Is that bok choy? If you know, let me know. Whatever it was, it was full of flavor.

Chef's Specialty #10, "As You Wish" (bean curd wraps stuffed with braised mushrooms, with asparagus on the side)

The flavor of these wraps was delicious, but I wasn't wild about the chewy texture. Too much mushroom in one bite? That's hard for me to imagine, as one of my favorite dishes at Su Xing is the Mushroom Delight, but maybe the mushrooms combined with that bean curd wrap was too much for me. If you're not that influenced by texture, or if you don't mind foods with a springy, spongy, chewy texture, then I would recommend this. In fact, I can imagine myself having this again someday; that's just how good the flavor is. My other complaint, though, is that I need a sauce with it. No problem in this case, because we combined all the foods together and ate it with the unbelievably sweet, smoky, delicious sauce from the soybean steaks. The Soybean Steak Platter was a clear favorite at our table.


All of this was served with miso soup (shown above), plenty of brown rice, a plate of honeydew melon and pineapple, and of course hot tea.

Our bill came to $37.15 ($45 with tip), and we had enough leftovers for a whole meal the next day. Nothing like Chinese leftovers on Boxing Day.

Ready to go into the oven

Ready to eat

Happy hibernation, happy solstice, happy holidays. At a time of year when people tend to think of giving, sharing, refocusing, and changing, all more pointedly than usual, I encourage you to ask yourself if you can do something for the animals (including humans) and enjoy your future feasts with harm to none.

Cookware, 23" of snow, and Potato Parsnip Soup

Well. Where should I begin?

We couldn't go to the farmers' market this weekend, on account of we had a blizzard. This is only an assumption, but I'm betting there was no Clark Park farmers' market this weekend. It was the second biggest snowstorm in Philadelphia's history. 23.2" of snow fell on the city starting around 1 a.m. Saturday and continuing through about 6 o'clock this morning.

Like all good citizens, we scurried out on Friday to gather in things we imagined we might need during the storm. Things like bread, potatoes, chocolate cookies, tofu, and wasabi peas.

We had a hunch there would be no farmers' market, but that was OK. We got potatoes, onions, and bread at a little store called Milk and Honey (ironic place for vegans to shop, but they do have good bread and limited fresh produce). At Fu-Wah, we got mushrooms and instant noodle soup. We still have good kale from last week. We still had some cauliflower and parsnips, and plenty of garlic.

One thing we forgot: Beer. So, we had to go out for that yesterday.

See what I mean? Probably no farmers' market.

Now, this is interesting. You know how, when I make blended soups (i.e. Indian Red Lentil or Potato-Leek), I always have to blend it in batches in my small blender (i.e. my smoothie maker)? And you know how I was saying I wanted to get an immersion blender?

So, on Friday, I went out onto the porch and there was a box addressed to me. It was a shipping box, like from Amazon, so no return address. I took it upstairs and opened it. It was a Cuisinart Immersion Blender. There was no name anywhere on it, on the packing slip or anything. I suspected my parents. Called my mom, she had no idea what I was talking about. Hmm. Must have been one of the sisters. So I was going to check, but I mentioned the gift on my other blog, and the sender claimed responsibility. Turns out to have been from a lovely friend named Jen, who knows the virtues of the immersion blender, because she also likes to make Indian Red Lentil Soup, and in fact, gave me a recipe for it a while back. (Remember?)

This blender is sweet. It comes with a chopper/mincer, and a whisk. This is it:



This is not the only recent addition to our kitchen.

*drumroll*

The old frying pan and saucepan are retired. After a long journey to Target on the 64 Bus on Wednesday, we are the very pleased owners of a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel saucepan with a glass lid (pictured above). I am thrilled with all of these new tools. Thrilled. Food tastes so much better cooked in cookware that doesn't interfere with it. This cast iron skillet is already the love of my life, and I expect us to get closer over the years.

OK, on to the soup. Using all of my new toys, I made the most delicious and filling soup this morning. It's a potato soup. I started with 12 small Yukon gold potatoes (very small, like golf balls). Cut them up and -- oh, also at Target we got two new, sharp knives, woohoo! -- put them in water in the stainless steel pan, to boil.

In the cast iron skillet, I poured a little olive oil and started heating the other ingredients for the soup: a yellow onion, two cloves of garlic, curly kale, cauliflower (about half of a smallish head), baby Portabella mushrooms (4-5), and the unexpected superstar of the soup... three parsnips. Parsnips taste like carrots, only stronger, with more bite. I had forgotten we had them, but I came across them and decided to add them, and I'm glad I did.

(kale, chopped, ready to add)

(everything together in the skillet - except the potatoes)

The potatoes had long since come to a boil and been turned down to simmer. When they were soft, I added the other ingredients, put the lid on it and let everything simmer together for a bit. For seasoning, I added salt, pepper, rosemary and parsley.

When I decided it was done... (I really don't know how long these things take... it's done when things seem soft enough and it tastes good... or however long it took me to feed the cats and make tea... if you need help timing it, you could call me and ask me to feed my cats and make tea, and I'll call you back when I'm done and you'll know it's time to take the soup off)... It was time to use my new toy. I didn't think to record this from the beginning, but here's how it works.

You want to be careful not to lift the blending part of the blender (the tip) above the surface (or even to the surface) of the soup. Submerge the tip of the blender and then turn it on, obviously. It's tricky because the blender pulls you more than you think it will. It seemed to keep suctioning to the bottom and I wasn't even supposed to really have it touching the bottom. Once, in trying to pull it up, I accidentally broke the surface, and the soup kind of exploded a little bit (no real damage done), and all the cats got interested and thought I was cooking something demonic on the stove. That's right, cats. That'll teach you.

I got the hang of immersion-blending after just a few moments, and it was super easy. After using the blender, you can remove the blending attachment (the other part is just the motor and you can attach the whisk or the chopper to it), and rinse it.



This soup was surprising and delicious. What made it surprising is that the strongest flavor was the parsnip. That's why I'm calling it potato parsnip soup. It gave the soup a crisp, fresh taste that perfectly offset the heavier, foodier, more wintry taste of potatoes.

We had it with slices of bread with Vegenaise, which we also stocked up on at Fu-Wah, in preparation for the blizzard.


The texture was airy and creamy and perfect. Much more inviting than a soup blended in a smoothie-maker. Because the soup contains kale and mushrooms, it's going to be a good source of protein and will fill you up. The kale and cauliflower and parsnips give you vitamin C, other vitamins, calcium, and other minerals.

Happy holidays, everyone!

If you have snow, enjoy it, and I hope something fun and useful turns up on your doorstep, too.

Roots and sunshine

So, I bought this root today at the farmers' market called Sunchoke, also known as Jerusalem Artichoke, although it is neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke. In the year 1621, the English gardner John Goodyer had this to say about the Sunchoke:

" which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men."

Nonetheless, I bought them out of curiosity, and I plan to cook them up and give them a try. Maybe in the years since 1621, their cultivation has been refined, and if not, at least they're a good source of iron.

I'm more excited about another root that I bought for the first time today: Celery Root (or Celeraic), which you see pictured above. It is said to have a celery flavor and can be used in soups or stews, eaten raw in salads, steamed, sauteed, or even mashed like potatoes. No mention anywhere of it ever tormenting the belly. That's good.

Saturday Shopping List

1 celery root

3 Sunchoke roots

1 stalk of Brussels sprouts

1 Roman cauliflower

1 head of green leaf lettuce

1 pint of white mushrooms

4 medium-sized parsnips

4 yellow onions

4 shallots

a bunch of green onions

3 bulbs of garlic

1 loaf of French table bread

Total: $29.85

It's cold and brilliant outside today. It was officially only around 20 degrees when we went out this morning, but it's not a bone-chilling cold, it's just a finger-and-toe-freezing cold. The air is biting but you can feel the heat of the sun. No precipitation in the forecast for today. It feels just like it looks in this picture.

We still have lots of chestnuts, potatoes including sweet ones, beans and lentils, and part of that giant cauliflower from last week. I can't wait to try some of these new roots. I'm really falling for winter vegetables, "which way soever they be dressed and eaten." As for the paining and the tormenting, I'll let you know how it goes.

Chinese food and winter vegetables

Mark and I went out for lunch yesterday at Su Xing House, one of our favorite restaurants.

My fortune said: Good news will come to you in the mail.

Mark's fortune said: The night life is for you.

Once, at Kingdom of Vegetarians, a less upscale but still yummy place in Chinatown, where we had our first date, Mark got a fortune that said: A nice cake is waiting for you. Actually, I believe that happened on our first date. Come to think of it, I'll take that as a compliment.

Not long before that, I was at a coffee shop on South Street that gives fortune cookies with your check, and I got the fortune: It tastes sweet. I still have this in my wallet.

Yesterday at Su Xing House, we ordered two lunch specials and split the main courses: Sesame Seitan and Mushroom Delight. We always have the Sesame Seitan; this was our first time ordering the Mushroom Delight. Three different kinds of mushrooms, snow peas, and a delicious brown sauce that has a "comfort-food" taste. On the side were brown rice, miso soup, and spring rolls. This place is amazing. It's fairly cheap, delicious, and it doesn't look cheap. The decor makes you feel like you probably shouldn't be there, but the food assures you that you should.

And from Huffington Post, here is a good, quick guide to winter vegetables available year-round at farmers' markets. Complete with beautiful photos and links to recipes.

I love winter vegetables: roots and cabbage and cauliflower, red beets, yellow and orange and dark green squash, many colors of potato, and of course deep dark sweet soft mushrooms for rich, protein-heavy, comforting goodness. Add to that chestnuts, beans, and lentils, and I am learning that there's no need to change my shopping habits in wintertime. Nature provides.

First Farmers' Market in December

Here it is, December 5th. First snow in the forecast. And we've just come back from shopping at the farmers' market.The Clark Park market was back, after its unnerving hiatus last week. It was 66 degrees on Thursday. Today it's in the 30s. Kind of exciting and cozy. We bundled up and walked down to the park. It was raining a drizzly rain, but the air is so cold it bites your face a little bit, and my boots did not sink into the mud the way they do in summer and fall. It feels like winter out there, for sure. It smells like winter. Yesterday, we rearranged and cleaned the living room. Now that we're back from shopping, the plan is not to leave the house again.

So what do you get at a farmers' market in December?

Saturday Shopping List

about 3 pints of chestnuts

1 quart or so of yukon potatoes

1 bunch of curly kale

1 head of green leaf lettuce

1 stalk of brussels sprouts

1 giant head of cauliflower

1 quart of white mushrooms

a lot of purple carrots

7 smallish red tomatoes

4 yellow onions

2 green peppers

a jar of strawberry jam

1 loaf of white bread

1 loaf of red onion sourdough bread

3 chocolate-banana muffins

total: $52.45

On the way home, we stopped by a small grocery for bagels. That's what I had for breakfast, with sauteed tofu and onions. Still have red lentils and plenty of beans, along with sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, broccoli and some dark kale. The dark kale actually makes a good salad green if you shred it up. I had a dark kale salad last night, with onion, garlic, mushrooms, and topped with tiny bits of crispy fried potatoes, with poppy seed dressing. Have also been eating a lot of rice noodles (Thai Kitchen instant noodles), topped with sauteed peppers, mushrooms, onions, broccoli, whatever we have. A staple lately has been brussels sprouts with sauerkraut. The only seasoning it needs is garlic and a little bit of salt.

Thursday night, we had a pizza from Papa John's. The first time they delivered it, it was mistakenly covered with cheese. By the time they delivered the correct pizza (tomato sauce, mushrooms, onion, black olives, green peppers, and banana peppers), we were starving and the pizza was delicious.

I'm watching HGTV for the rest of the day.

Sunday shopping in Center City

Apparently, the Clark Park Farmers' Market closed for the holiday weekend. We hope that's what happened. We hope it will be back next week.

I went walking down there with my shopping bags yesterday while Mark walked down to Woodland Building Supply to grab some heavy cardboard cylinders to make tunnels for the cats.

When I got to the park, I found it empty. That was jarring. I thought we would never have food again.

This called for desperate measures: shopping more than three blocks from our home.

Today, we took the trolley into Center City and visited the Fair Food Farmstand inside Reading Terminal Market. It was more expensive than the Clark Park market. We still only spent around $30, but we didn't get as much food.

Saturday Sunday Shopping List

1 pint of Brussels sprouts

a bunch of dark kale

a bunch of broccoli

about a quart of fingerling sweet potatoes

3 or 4 red potatoes

3 or 4 Gold Yukon potatoes

a few shallots, because they didn't seem to have onions

5 Empire apples

1 giant loaf of multi-grain bread (I mean, giant)

Total: $29 and change

The bread was from a place we hadn't heard of, called Four Worlds Bakery, which happens to be closer to our neighborhood than it is to Reading Terminal. That's neat. That makes the trip even more worthwhile, because now we know that bakery is there. The bread is good, too. I had a couple slices of it with my Brussels sprouts and sauerkraut hash and rice noodles when I got home.

It was kind of nice to go downtown shopping. We took the opportunity to stop in at a couple other places we had wanted to go for clothes. I went to Buffalo Exchange for pants that can pass as dress pants and a couple of nice shirts, as I'm about to start a new job, and we stopped at an Army surplus store for long underwear. My favorite part is that at both places, we checked our bags. [beat] Our bags of produce, you understand. Hope nobody snacked on them.

Thanksgiving Part III

I'm thankful for animals.

Thanksgiving Part II - "We were very tired, we were very merry"

We made our second Tofurkey of the season last night. This afternoon, we feasted on leftovers.

What you see here is the Tofurkey ready to go into the oven. Around it, you see red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onion (and there are whole cloves of garlic in there, too, you just don't see them.) It's basted with a mixture of olive oil, orange juice, soy sauce, and seasonings. With it, we had stuffing and homemade gravy. Mark made the gravy. The stuffing was from a mix. The gravy has mushrooms and I don't know what all.

Here's a plate of food from last night.

Notice that it's quite different from last week's early Thanksgiving meal.

Two different, similar meals, two different kinds of day. Last week, it was an earlier, lighter meal. This week, we ate late at night after spending a long time preparing the meal, after taking a long trip in the rain to get the roast because everyplace convenient was out of everything or closed. We were hungry and then we got very, very full. And it was good.

Here's the preparation of last night's feast. Please excuse the messy kitchen.