Milk frothers are an underappreciated tool

Little battery-powered milk frothers are super useful, and underappreciated. Our top uses:

1. Quickly aerating red wine so you can drink it without waiting around for it to open up in a decanter.
2. Breaking up all the lumps in matcha without resorting to your thumb after a normal whisk proves insufficient.
3. Making a flaxseed egg replacer - the whisking helps it get nice and thick.
4. Hot chocolate - first breaking up the lumps with a it of hot nondairy milk, then frothing the top once it's all mixed

Oat milks: the new class

After the infamous Oatly shortage of 2018, it seemed like there was a huge untapped market for oat milk. As a result several companies scrambled to put together a product, and by spring 2019 there were quite a few competitors vying for that demand.

Sarah did not like Oatly; she found it too sweet. I thought it was OK, but not really worth buying. But when Sarah's mom bought some of the Silk oat milk and we liked it, we knew it was time for an oat-off (all with unsweetened varieties):



Here's the verdict:

Quaker Oat Beverage:
Last place. The first problem is that it settles out to such a degree that you'd need one of those paint shaker machines to get it mixed up properly. Otherwise you shake it hard for about a minute and there's still a bunch of gunk on the bottom. Then you drink whatever you've got, and it's super chalky and thick (like eggnog almost). Has a nice mild oat flavor, but it's not a good drink. Note the avoidance of the term "milk" on the label - probably wise given all the lawsuits and rules changes in Europe and the US.

Silk Oat Yeah Oatmilk:
This was the one that Sarah really liked initially. It's thinner than Quaker (still thicker than normal soy or almond milk), has a stronger oat flavor, and is somewhat sweeter. Surprisingly didn't really work with hot chocolate, despite the sweetness. Still tasty and worth drinking.

Plant Oat Oatmilk:
This was the dark horse. It's a company we'd never heard of, and it was a full dollar less than the other options. To our surprise, this was the winner; originally Sarah didn't even want to try anything other than Silk but w/ a blind tasting she preferred this one. It's got a pretty mild oat flavor, was the thinnest of the bunch (more like normal plant milk), and has its own flavor somehow a little bit reminiscent of cow's milk (which I don't like, but was OK here). Unfortunately, it had the lowest vitamin content, and since Sarah relies on her plant milk for calcium that was a real downside.

So Sarah's back to drinking Bolthouse Farms unsweetened pea milk, and I'm back to drinking water.

Review: The Fancy Radish

The Fancy Radish is the new upscale vegan restaurant in DC from Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby of Philly fame. After two visits, Vegan Lady and I are ready to share our review.

Though pricey and hard to get reservations, it's definitely worth it. They are clearly still working out a few kinks from some dishes, but others are spot on. Here's the blow-by-blow, but if you just want to know what we recommend you order, look for the 👌 symbol:

APPETIZERS AND MAIN COURSES:
Rutabaga fondue w/ soft pretzel: 👌
Damn. This is really phenomenal. The texture is velvety and fondue-like, but the taste is neither real cheese nor vegan fake-cheese, but it's own (delicious) thing. There's a bit of nutritional yeast in the flavor but not too much. And the pretzel is amazing - fluffy and soft inside, with an outside that's almost crisp. The fresh mixed pickles (cauliflower, carrot,etc.) are good too, but not key to the beauty of the pretzel and fondue.

Fancy radishes:
This was fine, but not worth the opportunity cost of something else on the menu. There were four kinds of radishes (black, 'purple ninja', watermelon, and a fourth I forget) each of which paired with 1-2 other flavors (like shisito peppers, or shredded zucchini with sesame seeds, etc.). Of the lot, they were all good, but only one was great.

Chiogga beet picnic:
This was really nice, better than expected. It's beets with a BBQ-ranch theme, including brussel sprout slaw and lovely little toast points. It tastes like something you could make at home, but done very well.

Peruvian potatoes:
This was the only real dud we had. The potatoes are thinly sliced, really oily, and crazy salty (although we had this after they'd only been open a week or two, maybe they fixed it). The other flavors were good but in short supply - mostly you just got the salty potato flavor.

Langos👌
This was just incredible through and through (it's the bottom dish in the image above). Again the skill of the baker shines through in the soft and light yet slightly crispy potato bread in the form of a pizza crust, and it's topped with leek 'sauerkraut ' (which is creamy rather than vinegary), fried smoky mushrooms with the spot-on texture of fried bacon, and little shreds of horseradish. It is salty and very strongly flavored, but those flavors are all the best. You could honestly eat this on top of pasta or a slice of bread and still be in good shape.

Miso butter noodles:
Other than the Peruvian potatoes, this was also fairly disappointing. The noodles are oily but really mild - you get the nori and not much else. If you like really subtle flavors this may be a good pick but otherwise save your appetite for the more tempting options.

Chermoula grilled tofu:
This was really good, although it came at the same time as the langos so it suffered by comparison. Basically you have nicely done tofu w/ North African eggplant sauce, and a tiny carrot salad that provides a really great flavor combination but in too small a quantity to round out the dish as we would have preferred. With maybe double the salad this would have been a keeper.

Seared maitake:👌
This was our favorite 'main course' although the second time it wasn't quite as good. You get a good chunk of maitake mushrooom (hen of the woods) seared in olive oil, a celeriac fritter (like a hush puppy) with some minced celery 'relish' and creamy celery sauce. Everything tastes wonderful and works really well together - this dish highlights the concept of Vedge and Fancy Radish really well (letting vegetable foods shine). The second time we came the dish was a bit too salty, and the fritter slightly mushy, but it was still great.

DESSERT:

Sticky toffee pudding:
This is off the menu now - it had a great flavor but was wayyy too sweet. It was like a butterscotch brownie with caramel sauce, and was supposed to come with smoked cedar ice cream but actually came with halwa ice cream, although the waiter insisted it was cedar our taste buds were in accord so they must have run out).

Sorbets and ice creams:
We got a mix of three - uber luxe (deep rich chocolate with crispy bits, pea shoot ice cream, and I forget the third but it may have been yuzu sorbet). All were good, but none were totally mind-blowing, so given the other desserts I'd skip this next time.

Sour cherry jellies:👌
This sounded like it couldn't possibly work: sumac jelly doughnuts, halwa ice cream, and a cherry blossom shooter. But it was a real delight. The 'doughnuts' were really more like beignets on a cherry-sumac sauce, but they had a great texture and flavor. The halwa ice cream tasted like you'd expect and complemented the sumac and fried dough really well. The cherry blossom shooter was some sort of kombucha or something - light and acidic and also worked with the rest of the dessert. Sarah found the overall dish too sweet, however.

Chocolate bar:

Basically a dense chocolate fudge on a crispy chocolate brownie / cookie crust, topped with elderflower-infused pecans and served with lavender ice cream and blackberries. It was rich, decadent, and the floral flavors kept you a bit off balance but I ended up licking my plate clean. Sarah has less tolerance for floral flavors in her food so liked the main bar but not the ice cream.

Blueberry tart:
OK, the tart had a bottom crust almost an inch thick, which was a shame, because everything else was superb - the blueberry filling, the sorrel ice cream, and the lemon curd. But there was way too much crust, and the texture on the bottom suffered for the thickness.

DRINKS:

Peridot meteor:👌
Made with gin, celery, hot bitters, and olive oil this sounded gross but too weird to miss but ended up being a very pleasant surprise. The bitter celery flavors were dialed back, something sweet was in there to round it out, the oil was also pretty light, and it all blended really well.

Woodmaze:
This is an earthy-smoky party made with bourbon, pu'erh tea (a very earthy and smoky high-grade fermented Chinese tea), and Manzanilla sherry. It was complex and tasty, but to be totally honest the flavors didn't go that well with the meal so would be better as an after-dinner cocktail.

Raphanus shade:
Another one I had to order for the sake of weirdness - it's rye with black vinegar, a slice of raw black radish, and Amaro Ferro-Kina (an Italian apertif). The vinegar really comes through on the nose - as I lifted it to my lips I definitely had regret as it seemed like I was doing a kimchi shot. The flavor was more mild and well balanced than I expected, I ended up enjoying it enough to finish it, but definitely wouldn't order again as for me to vinegar was just too much.

Thai pizza (or Caribbean jerk pizza) with coconut crust

I've been making both Thai pizza and Caribbean jerk pizza (with tropical mango / pineapple salsa) for about 20 years, and it finally hit me: why not a coconut pizza crust!



So the recipe for both Thai pizza and Caribbean jerk pizza is available at http://food.sciencejon.com
http://food.sciencejon.com

The only thing you need to change is to substitute 1/4 cup melted coconut oil for the 1/4 olive oil. The flavor is really lovely, and it's a bit more flaky and tender than normal pizza crust. In the Thai pizza above I also added some powdered galangal, ginger, turmeric, and lemongrass.

Next time I make the Caribbean pizza I'll try the coconut crust and add a photo here.

Kitchen hacks that make cooking easier and waste less food

Kitchen hack #1: Plan your meals

When I found out my husband (then boyfriend) only bought food that he had a specific plan to use in the next week, I thought, who lives that way?  What a restrictive and hard way to live!  I believed I could never live like that - that the advance planning would take the fun and spontaneity out of life.

I can report that, 11 years later, cooking and life is actually just as enjoyable when you plan your meals in advance.  Surprise! As a bonus, we waste a lot less food and eat a more balanced diet.

Each week we look through cookbooks for recipes we're interested in and add the ingredients we need to the groceries list in the app Our Groceries.  We have a separate list called "meals this week", where we list the recipe name, the cookbook abbreviation, and the recipe page number.  We plan everything down to the exact number of onions we'll need for that week.  Why can I do this but am unable to get birthday cards mailed on time?  A good question.


Kitchen hack #2: Hang your measuring spoons

If you're tired of sifting around in a drawer for the right size measuring spoon, get yourself some inexpensive command hooks and hang them all up!



Kitchen hack #3:  Onion Goggles

I have super sensitive eyes, so when either I, or anyone near me chops an onion, it hurts.  I bought these onion goggles years ago, which have a seal around your face to prevent the fumes of the onion from reaching your eyes.  They still work perfectly.  I love them.

I'd also like to note the 2 bag system we have for garlic.  We have newer garlic in the bag to the right, and then the older garlic in the bag to the left.  This is good for when you have garlic from last week and newer garlic and you want to know which one you should use first so you don't end up letting old garlic get past its prime.  The largest bag is for onions and potatoes and looks kind of gross and stained, but it's really useful.  The stretchy nature of these three bags allows us to store more stuff in them than you would think possible..



Kitchen hack #4: Freeze veggie scraps for vegetable stock

We'd heard of storing veggie scraps in the fridge, and yes, we've tried it.  What is the result?  A bowl of slimy, rotting veggie scraps judging you for not getting around to making vegetable stock in time.  The solution?  Freeze 'em.  What is a suitable veggie scrap?  Pieces of onion, garlic, mushrooms, carrot peels, leek stems, sweet potato peels.  What is disgusting?  Beet peels, kale stems, or putting in too much onion and garlic.  The freezer doesn't keep these scraps good indefinitely, but it keeps them good long enough for us to get around breaking out the Fagor plug-in electric pressure cooker to make stock.



You can freeze the resulting vegetable stock in 2-3 cup containers for later use in recipes.

Kitchen hack #5 Freeze unused pastes and sauces

Hot pasta is draining in the sink. You grab that half used pasta sauce from the fridge before the pasta starts sticking together, only to discover it's growing mold.  Yep, we've all been there.  But not anymore!  The minute you use the first half of the pasta sauce, break out your ice cube tray (go buy one for crying out loud), and pour the second half you're not using into the tray.  Once they are frozen, remove them and place in an air-tight tupperware. You're not done yet!  Now grab a rubber band, masking tape, and a sharpie.  Wrap the masking tape around the rubber band, and then write "pasta sauce" on the masking tape, and put the rubber band around the tupperware.  I've tried lots of methods of labeling my frozen cubes, and this one works out the best.



What half-used things should you be making ice cubes out of?

• Pasta sauce
• Tomato paste
• Thai curry paste
• Dijon mustard
• Diced ginger (moisten diced ginger slightly to get a better ice cube)
• Chipotles en adobo
• Applesauce (for baking purposes)

Things which have not worked out so well are: lemon zest (get too dried out and tastes like nothing), lemon juice (I don't know why, we just can't seem to remember it's in there). For a while we had a whiteboard on the fridge listing what we had, but the magnets broke and we haven't replaced it.


Kitchen hack #6: Don't let your cilantro go bad!

You don't have to buy some silly plastic container that holds hardly any cilantro like I've seen in some kitchens.  As long as you have a coffee mug, a knife, and a plastic bag, you got this.

Make sure you're buying decently fresh cilantro - no yellow leaves, no rotting leaves, no black areas.  Yuck.  This only keeps good cilantro good, it's not making zombie cilantro out of your half rotting cilantro.

Moving on.  Take your just-purchased green and healthy cilantro and chop the very ends off.  This ensures that if the ends have hardened and can't take in water anymore, you're removing them and leaving a stem which can absorb water.

Fill a mug halfway to 2/3 full with water, and put the cilantro stem down into the water.  Make sure the cilantro stem ends reach the water and have a little leeway in case of evaporation.  Cover the mug and cilantro with a plastic bag, and put in the fridge.  Yes, I said put in the fridge.



Your cilantro will stay better so, so much longer.  You'll eat tacos or baingan bharta, and everyone will be happy.

Kitchen hack #7 Cook on the couch
Feeling too lazy to do all of the chopping and prep work for a nice meal? Rather than giving up, move the washed veggies to peel & chop to a cutting board on a coffee table in front of your couch. Sit on your butt and chop while watching Netflix or listening to music or chatting or something, then head to the kitchen with everything pre-chopped. You feel like you're on a cooking show with everything all ready to toss in!

Review of new vegan (non-dairy) Häagen-Dazs ice cream

OK, so this week Häagen-Dazs dropped four new vegan ice cream flavors, and I couldn't find any reviews online. So we decided to give then a try. Sadly the locator page on their web site is misleading, it found three stores that should have had them but didn't (none of the staff had even heard of the new flavors) and failed to show the Target down the street that did (I heard that Target is the only place selling them other than Häagen-Dazs stores. But eventually we picked up all four flavors: coconut caramel, peanut butter chocolate fudge, chocolate salted fudge truffle, and mocha chocolate cookie:



OK, so what was the verdict? The key thing is that this is really intense, rich, sweet ice cream. Compared to most other vegan brands it just has a much denser and heavy feel. But they are delicious! The mouthfeel is better to me than the new Ben & Jerry's (which feels a bit more crystalline), but it's also so dense it's almost a bit chewy (especially the coconut caramel). I think So Delicious and other brands incorporate more air or something for a smoother and less intense flavor. But if you are the kind of person that likes chocolate lava cake or triple chocolate mousse / cake /etc. this should be right up your alley.

My favorites were the chocolate truffle (very fudgy and intense) and the peanut-butter chocolate (also very intense, but the PB and chocolate made for more balance). I also liked the mocha cookie quite a bit but the texture of the chocolate pieces in the truffle was way better to me. Coconut caramel was OK but to me was too sweet (similar to So Delicious Dulce de Leche, while the chocolate truffle was like their old Purely Decadent flavor with chocolate swirl and chunks, but even richer).

Vegan Lady liked mocha and PB&chocolate best, then truffle, and coconut last. Our neighbor and her daughter came over and liked the coconut best followed by mocha, but also liked them all.

So I'd say that if you like ice cream, give these a try, but be sure to find some people to split them with, as if you eat the whole pint you will be in pain!

Nicoise salad with collard green seed pod "beans"

We let our collard greens flower and go to seed this year, and have been curious to try eating the "beans" which are good and tender if you get them when they're still small:


We ended up putting them on top of a Nicoise salad, which was tasty: