Scherer - Moosewood restaurant naturally delicious drinks and dishes : 15 of the most-requested recipes from one of Americas best-loved restaurants

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Contents

Introduction

Moosewood Restaurant has been serving delicious food for forty years now with a menu that changes at every meal. We have written a dozen cookbooks that all together contain about 3,000 recipes. Sometimes at book-signing events, Moosewood fans say, Another one? How can you come up with more? Well, for us, theres truth in that old Italian saying, A tavola non sinvecchia, which translates as You never grow old at the table or It never grows old, being at the table. After spending most of our adult lives cooking, searching for food ideas, experimenting, learning, evolving, and cooking some more, were still eager to taste something new and to think about how we might improve something old and beloved.

During Moosewoods forty years, the culinary landscape all around us has changed dramatically. In 1973, when Moosewood began, yogurt was advertised as a newly discovered secret-of-longevity food from Siberia, where the majority of elderly people were reported to be centenarians. Many of our customers tried it for the first time at the restaurant. In the mid-1980s, when we were putting together New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, coconut milk was unusual and unavailable enough that we included a recipe for how to make it from fresh coconut. Now you can easily find low-fat and full-fat and organic coconut milk, and even coconut water, in many grocery stores.

In our first few cookbooks, we hesitated to call for fresh herbs exclusively in a recipe, because in many areas of the country you could only find dried herbs in little cans, and fresh herbs, when you could find them, were very expensive. Many of us remember vividly the first time we tasted cilantro. It was so emphatically a brand new flavor, often tasting at first like either soap or aluminum, and then after the third or fourth exposure, like something we never wanted to do without again.

Moosewood Restaurant Favorites is a collection of some of our customers favorite recipes, selected from our menus throughout our forty years, cooked the way we cook them today at the restaurant in Ithaca, New York. Some are hearty and filling, some are light and low fat, and many are quick and easy. Some are elegant enough for a dinner party, plenty are vegan, and some we know to be kids favorites. Our emphasis, though, is on everyday meals that will bring Moosewood Restaurant right into your home. Most of the recipes are the kind that we think youll use again and again.

Nourishing and beautiful food has immediate rewards, of course, but we also recognize the long-term pleasures of the kitchen. Cooking can be a lifelong interest and occupation, a satisfying and empowering craft that enhances your life every day. Cooking at home offers opportunities for learning and teaching. As a basis for sharing culture and good times, it brings people closer together. Is it possible to feel both old and young at the same time? Oh yes. But at the table? Always young.

APPETIZERS

Roasted White and Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Aioli

Most of us love chipotle aioli with its spicy, smoky flavor, and nothing could be simpler to make. Roasted potato wedges are one of our favorite platforms for it.

Yields about 23 cup

Serves 4 to 6

Time: 30 minutes

ROASTED POTATOES

2 large white potatoes

1 large sweet potato

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

teaspoon ground black pepper

CHIPOTLE AIOLI

1 or 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1 tablespoon olive oil

cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon chipotles in adobo sauce

1 tablespoon fresh lime or lemon juice

Preheat a convection oven to 425F or a conventional oven to 450F. Oil a rimmed baking sheet.

Scrub the white potatoes and cut them lengthwise in 6 to 8 wedges. Peel the sweet potato and cut it lengthwise into 6 to 8 wedges. If the potatoes are very large, cut the wedges in half. Toss the potatoes with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer and roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender and browned. Turn the wedges over with a spatula after about 10 minutes of roasting.

While the potatoes roast, make the chipotle aioli. Cook the garlic in the olive oil in a microwave oven or on the stovetop, just until it sizzles. In a food processor, whirl the garlic and oil with the mayonnaise, chipotles in adobo sauce, and lime juice until well combined. Add more chipotles to taste.

Serve the potatoes hot, with chipotle aioli.

VARIATIONS

You can make this with only one kind of potato or change the proportion of white and sweet; just have 7 to 8 cups total.

Before roasting, toss the potatoes with garlic and minced fresh rosemary or thyme.

SERVING AND MENU IDEAS

In addition to serving Chipotle Aioli with roasted potatoes, an all-time Moosewood favorite appetizer and side dish, we drizzle it on steamed vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, and asparagus.

Edamame-Wasabi Spread

This is a lovely green spread with a little kick from the wasabi. Bored with hummus? Give this silky spread a try.

Edamame are soybeans, sometimes available fresh, but widely found in the frozen food section of natural food stores and supermarkets. For this recipe, make sure you buy shelled edamame, which may be called mukimame or muki edamame.

Yields 123 cups

Time: 20 minutes

2 cups fresh or frozen shelled edamame

2 teaspoons wasabi powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon light miso

2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

13 cup water

salt

1 tablespoon chopped scallions (optional)

Cook the edamame in salted water to cover until tender, 5 or 6 minutes for fresh beans or according to package directions if using frozen ones. In a colander or sieve, run cold water over the edamame until cool and then transfer to the bowl of a food processor.

Combine the wasabi powder with an equal amount of water to form a smooth paste. Add it to the bowl of the processor along with the oil, miso, ginger, rice vinegar, and water. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed. Add a little more water, if necessary, for a smooth spread. Add salt and more vinegar and wasabi paste to taste. If adding the scallions, either pulse them at the end, or sprinkle them on as a garnish. Chill the spread before serving.

VARIATION

Substitute fresh lemon juice for the rice vinegar.

SERVING AND MENU IDEAS

Edamame-Wasabi Spread is especially good with rice crackers and crudits. It also makes a fine pita sandwich with tomato slices and greens.

SOUPS

Potage Jacqueline

(Creamy Sweet Potato Soup)

Potage Jacqueline is so easy that you can come home from work and whip it up pronto! When your sweet potatoes are that deeply sweet and velvety variety that shows up in the market once in a while, this soup is positively ambrosiawith run-of-the-mill sweet potatoes, its still a food thats fit and delicious for anyones dinner. Its velvety, velvety.