Meatless Monday: Steak, It’s What’s for Dinner

That’s right, steak, but the vegetarian variety. I’m talking Cauliflower Steak.

I only recently caught wind of this dish, but recipes for Cauliflower Steak have been kicking around the internet for a few years now. I recently read a bunch of the recipes I found, got the drift and came up with one of my own. It was the perfect thing to make during our latest cold spell.

One head of cauliflower yields two good “steaks,” two smaller ones, and some broken florets. All will roast nicely, but if you are serving dinner for four, you might want to double the recipe to make things easier. Any leftovers will warm up just fine.

Oven- Roasted Cauliflower Steak 

Ingredients

• A large firm, head of cauliflower.
• One large, red onion.
• Olive oil.
• Salt, pepper, and your favorite herbs.
• Juice of one freshly squeezed lemon.

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Remove the leaves at the base of the cauliflower.
• Trim the stem close to the head in a straight cut. 
• Stand the head on its end.
• Starting in the center, cut into four thick slices. You will end up with two large “steaks,” and two smaller ones. Inevitably, a few florets will break off. Save these. 
• Halve the red onion and cut into thin slices.
• Sauté the onion in olive oil in a heavy duty skillet, a large cast iron one if you are lucky enough to have one.
• When the onion is tender, add the steaks and florets. 
• Sear the steaks for four minutes.
• Turn over carefully with a spatula and sear the reverse side for four minutes.
• If you are NOT using a cast iron skillet, carefully transfer the cauliflower to a lightly oiled baking dish.
• If you ARE using a cast iron skillet, you will be able to place the skillet directly into the oven for roasting.
• Sprinkle the cauliflower with salt, pepper, and your favorite spices. [I used 1-1/2 teaspoons of Penzey’s Balti Blend, a salt-free exotic mix of spices including coriander, charnushka, and chilies.]
• Roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Carefully turn over.
• Roast for an additional 15 minutes.
• Pour the lemon juice over the steaks.
• Roast for 5 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and serve. 
• Be careful. A black cast-iron pan will be very hot and will stay hot for some time.

This satisfyingly “meaty” entrée. If you serve it with a hearty protein-rich quinoa on the side, you will have a complete meal.

Cauliflower is a vegetable in the Brassica family.  A very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Potassium and Manganese, it is also a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Magnesium and Phosphorus and very low in calories.

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well. 

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Shorts : A Bright Side to the Cold?

The Winter of 2014 has been one to remember – with record cold throughout most of the northern tier of the Midwest and the Northeast. With both heating bills and winter fatigue on the rise, it’s hard to see an upside to these Arctic temperatures, but there may be one.

There has been some speculation that the cold temperatures of this December and January may have killed off some of the invasive insects that have plagued us in recent years, particularly the Emerald Ash Borer. University of Minnesota researchers floated the idea that this winter's historic cold could be the tipping point in the war against the Emerald Ash Borer Agrilus planipennis (EAB), the tiny, beautiful beetle that threatens the nation’s ash trees. They speculate that the harsh winter can halt the spread of EAB to the heart of the state where most of Minnesota’s ash trees are located. That would give the surrounding communities time to remove diseased tress, and perhaps halt the devastation. 

The beautiful, destructive, EAB

The USDA Forest Service published a paper predicting that when EAB larvae “reach -17.8°C (0°F), 5% will die; at -23°C (-10°F), 34% will die; at -29°C (-20°F), 79% will die; and at -34°C (-30°F), 98% will die.”

Residents of the Twin Cities experienced 84 straight sub-zero hours, with the coldest temperatures in the range of -20°F to -26°F. [Brrr, that's cold!] In my mind, things are looking pretty good for Minnesota.

Our cold temperatures in Connecticut are nothing compared to these, but we’ve certainly been below 0° and EAB is not as firmly entrenched in our state as it is in Minnesota.

The jury is still out on what the EAB larval death toll from this cold snap will be. We should have a better idea come spring. It is nice to contemplate the possibility that some good may come from these far lower than normal temperatures.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Act Now to Save Greater New Haven’s Trees!

New Haven area residents love their trees. For the past five years the City of New Haven has participated in the TreeHaven 10K campaign, with the goal of planting 10,000 trees throughout the City by the end of 2014. Through the Request a Tree program, managed by the Urban Resources Initiative, thousands of trees have been planted in neighborhoods where residents have asked for trees and promised to care for them. 

The Garden Club of New Haven is doing all it can to repopulate the City with American Elms. 

So, you can imagine the uproar when United Illuminating (UI), the electrical provider servicing much of the greater New Haven area, unveiled its Vegetation Management Plan in November, the utility's response to the power outages due to falling trees and tree limbs in the state’s recent super storms. This action plan sets new guidelines for preemptive tree trimming. In the past UI has trimmed trees in a “V” fashion, allowing for an 8 feet clearance on either side of the power lines. The new guidelines call for an 8 foot clear zone from the ground to the sky. Any vegetation infringing on this path will be removed.

In early December The Garden Club of New Haven launched a vigorous protest to UI’s plan on the club’s website.To support their stance, the club posted a fall photo of Edwards Street in New Haven with a Photoshopped version of the same spot after ground to sky trimming as well as a PowerPoint presentation “Trees and Power.”  

Edwards Street in New Haven

Same view after ground to sky trimming

Garden Club of New Haven spokesperson Mikey Hisrchoff stated in a December 10 interview with Mark Zaretsky in the New Haven Register that ‘“in New Haven, this would mean the lost of 50% of its street trees.” 

The Vegetative Management Plan was approved by CT’s Public Utility and Regulatory Authority (PURA), is already underway as a pilot program in Orange, and is slated to begin in Hamden in the very near future. Hamden residents have expressed outrage at recent public forums on the plan. 

On January 17, Thomas MacMillan reported in The New Haven Independent that newly-elected New Haven Alder Mike Stratton has proposed legislation blocking the enforcement of the 8 foot clear zone and requiring UI to approach tree pruning on a “tree by tree” basis under supervision of the City’s tree warden. Urban forester Chris Ozyck of URI called Stratton’s proposal “a good start.” He also speculated that the plan might be overly aggressive since many of the weakened trees and limbs have already come down in the State’s recent storms.

If the image of future Edwards Street is not enough to alarm you, check out this site for information on the value of trees. Some of the benefits are:

• A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, and can sequester one ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.
• For every five percent of tree cover added to a community, storm water runoff is reduced by approximately two percent. 
• According to the USDA Forest Service, “Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and save 20-50 percent in energy used for heating.”

There is a tool for calculating the value of a particular tree in your yard or on your curb. Enter your zip code, followed by the tree name and its diameter, and you will be rewarded with a pie chart indicating a number of values from the CO2 it removes to the dollar amount it adds to your property value. 

Greater New Haven’s trees are already at risk from tiny invasive insects including the Emerald Ash Borer, discovered last summer in Hamden, and the Asian Long-Horned Beetle, which has invaded the neighboring states of Massachusetts and New York. It is difficult to mobilize against a danger so hard to detect.

But collective effort should be able to prevent, or at least temper, this newest threat of the human kind. We can clearly see it coming, and we know its intended targets.

If you live somewhere in Greater New Haven, I hope I’ve got you good and worked up by now. As Randall Beach opined in the New Haven Register on January 16, “If we want to save our trees…the time is now.” 

Martin Luther King Day is meant to be a day for action and civic involvement. Take a few moments today to let your local officials, and your tree warden if you have one, know just where you stand on this issue.

If you were expecting a Meatless Monday post, you will have to wait until next week. This was too hot a topic to ignore.

I am a New Haven resident and have been a Connecticut Master Gardener since 2012. On Mondays I normally blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Butternut Squash Hash

We are well into January now, and it’s time to use up any winter squash remaining from last fall’s harvest. If the stems are intact and you’ve been keeping it in an evenly cool place, your winter squash, particularly butternut, should still be in good shape. If you wait much longer, however, the squash could dry out and become stringy.

Winter squash must be cooked before freezing. 

Baking is one method. 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Cut your squash in half.
• Remove the seeds. 
• Brush a bit of oil on the cut surface.
• Turn squash upside down on a baking sheet. 
• Roast until tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes.
• Let it cool.
• Scoop out the insides.
• Mash.
• Eat or freeze. [Ziplock bags work well. Be sure to squeeze out any excess air.]

I prefer roasting.

• Preheat the oven to 400°
• Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds.
• Peel. [This is the most difficult part. You might find it easier to cut the squash into smaller pieces before peeling.]
• When the squash is all peeled, cut it into 1” cubes.
• Toss with 2 T olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
• Spread in one layer on a baking sheet or in a black, cast iron pan. 
• Stir with a spatula once or twice.
• Roast until fork tender, about 30 minutes.
• Eat or freeze. [See above.]

Here is my favorite way of serving my baked butternut squash. My inspiration for this original recipe is my usual order at Georgie’s Diner in West Haven, Connecticut. [I enjoyed some yesterday!] 

BUTTERNUT SQUASH HASH

INGREDIENTS

• 1 good-sized butternut squash
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Rosemary, sage, or thyme.

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat your oven to 400°.
• Prepare the squash for roasting. [See above.]
• Toss the cubes with the olive oil, salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon of herbs. I use thyme. Georgie’s uses rosemary and sage. 
• Spread in one layer in your pan of choice. [A cast iron skillet works really well.]
• Roast for 30-40 minutes, stirring at least twice.

This makes an excellent entrée for brunch or a light supper when served with eggs and sliced toast.

I like it with two poached eggs on top, with Chabaso Bakery’s Cranberry Pecan Loaf, sliced thin and toasted, as shown here.

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well. 

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: Tiny Cardboard Pyramids

Packing “peanuts”? Bags of air? Bubble wrap? Wadded up rolls of brown paper?

If you shopped online over the holidays, you probably received vast quantities of these items along with your purchases.

If you are like me, you popped a few of the bubbles for fun and then and shipped out as much of this stuff as you could when you packed your gift boxes [likely to the chagrin of those on the receiving end.]

If Jeff Boothman has his way, peanuts, paper, and air bags will soon be replaced with his product, ExpandOS, a system of cardboard pieces, punched out of a sheet, and folded into pyramids.

Joseph Flaherty speculates in a recent issue of Wired that ExpandOS could make bubble wrap obsolete. 

ExpandOS is purported to be:  

• 20% less expensive than bubble wrap and
• Up to 40% faster to use than foam-in-place packaging

According to the sustainability section of the company’s website, ExpandOS products are 

• Made from first quality, post industrial waste
• SFI Certified
• Reusable
• Recyclable

Flaherty interviewed the product’s inventor, William Oliver, who spoke of the box ExpandOS ships to potential customers. The box contains a brick, a coffee mug, and a lightbulb. Oliver reported that he had only heard of one mug breaking in shipment.

This YouTube video demonstrates ExpandOS in action. 

ExpandOS is proof that “necessity is the mother of invention.” William Oliver, a former designer of machine tools for Ford and Mercedes, needed to make a living. He pursued his dream of creating a flat pack solution for shipping. After a number of false starts, he was able to develop “a machine tool that could cut, fold, and lock millions of paper triangles.”   

If you have something fragile to ship, and you want to give ExpandOS a try, you can find ready-to-use bags of ExpandOS Protective Packaging at retailers including Lowe’s for $8.49. Keep that in mind the next time you want to ship a brick, a coffee mug, and a lightbulb to your favorite person…

Have a nice rest of the weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Pottage for Prosperity

We did not jump from a chair. Nor did we eat twelve grapes or drop molten lead into cold water. We did, however, ring in the new year with a glass of bubbly. And much later in the day we enjoyed a traditional, steaming hot bowl of lentils. 

The recipe was a simple one — Esau’s Pottage — from the vintage cookbook The Frugal Gourmet, by Jeff Smith (1984). Smith, who died in 2004, was one of TV’s early celebrity chefs.

The recipe’s name is a reference to the story in the Book of Genesis in which Esau, the firstborn son of Isaac and Rebekah, hands over his birthright to his brother Jacob in exchange for a bowl of Jacob’s lentil stew. 

This lentil recipe is as simple as the Biblical story is complex.

INGREDIENTS

• Water
• Two cups of lentils
• 4 chicken (or vegetable bouillon cubes)
• 1 cup sautéed yellow onions
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil

DIRECTIONS

• Rinse the lentils and place in a pot. 
• Add 1 quart of water. 
• Cover the pot.
• Soak for 3 hours.
• Simmer for 1 hour, or until lentils are barely tender.
• Add the remaining ingredients.
• Stir well to be certain bouillon cubes have dissolved.
• Place in an oiled casserole dish.
• Bake at 325° for one hour.

This easily serves 12 as a side dish, but can also be transformed into a main course. 

I used my batch of Esau’s Pottage as the base for three hearty meals for the two of us.

The first night I served the lentils over farro and topped them with shredded cheese. We had baked acorn squash as a side.

The second night I warmed a large serving of lentils in the microwave and served them over farro topped with carrot coins dressed with butter, curry powder, and honey.

I had thought to freeze the third batch, but they tasted so good, and it is so cold outside. I opted instead to make life easy and warmed up the remaining leftovers and served them over quinoa with a side of steamed baby spinach.

The word “frugal” is an antonym to “wasteful.” 

If frugality is one of your new year’s resolutions, this delicious, economical, high protein dish is a perfect way to celebrate the first Meatless Monday of 2014. All you need is a bit of time for soaking and cooking on the first day.

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well. 

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”