Pamela, Author at Pamela Salzman

In the Vegan Kitchen: Christmas with Jenni Kayne and The Chalkboard

One of my favorite things to do is plan menus for special occasions and holidays. I’m sure you gathered from my multiple enthusiastic posts leading up to Thanksgiving that I really enjoy the whole process, but my main goal is to pull together a celebration that I can enjoy with everyone else. So when my friend and student Jenni Kayne and the team at The Chalkboard asked me to teach a Christmas cooking class as part of their “In the Vegan Kitchen” series, I was very excited!

First of all, I loooooooove Christmas! But not all the commercial nonsense. I love getting together with my enormous family in New York and celebrating all of our fun traditions. I have the best time decorating my parents’ tree with my kids and listening to all the little ones singing carols from song books my oldest daughter made when she was in 3rd grade. Totally true! And I always look forward to indulging in my Aunt Maria’s multitude of unbelievable cookies. Just for the day, of course!

But Christmas at Jenni’s house would be different. Although I place a major emphasis on plant foods on this blog, in my classes, and at home, I am no vegan. If it weren’t for feta cheese and eggs, I could probably do it. Regardless, my task was to create and teach a fabulous vegan Christmas menu for some fabulous ladies. Besides Jenni, a few of my regular students attended including Shiva Rose (do check out her blog — I always learn so much from her), Lauren Soloff from The Granola Project, Nicole Simone (a gorgeous woman with a gorgeous voice), Ambre Dahan, design director of Joe’s Jeans, as well as some newbies like Lauri Kranz, a woman after my own heart with her incredible business Edible Gardens LA, and Rachel Craven, who designed some of the beautiful linens Jenni used for the meal. Speaking of Jenni, if you haven’t checked out her amazing blog, Rip + Tan, you must. She is so stylish and chic, and I admire everything she pulls together. Lucky for us, she reveals all her amazing sources on her site.

Back to the menu, I wanted to teach recipes that are delicious and healthful whether you are a vegan or not. We started with one of my favorite hors d’oeuvres, Beet, Butternut Squash and Apple Skewers. It’s basically a few of my favorite winter salad ingredients roasted, skewered and then drizzle with a simple balsamic vinaigrette. (If you’re not vegan or dairy-free, feel free to add a cube of feta. Shhhhhh!) These are so easy that usually I get my kids to make all the skewers for me.

My mom always serves stuffed mushrooms as a side dish on Christmas. So for the main meal, I came up with Creamy White Bean and Spinach-stuffed Portobello Mushrooms. I made a really meaty, substantial and flavorful filling for the mushrooms based on pureed white beans and roasted garlic which also added a little protein to the dish. Next I made a fun Quinoa and Arugula Salad with Avocados, Grapes, Almonds and a Smoked Paprika Dressing. When I tested this on my family they all loved it, except Mr. Picky who still has yet to try salad with vinaigrette. I just served him all the salad components separately, except the arugula. And the quinoa. One day. Although I think everyone’s favorite was the Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Shallots. They really are delicious and cook very quickly so you can prep the sprouts in advance and cook them at the last moment.

Lastly I showed the class a delicious and beautiful Pear and Cranberry Tart which I am planning to make for my family’s Christmas this year. All the recipes were also gluten-free since Jenni is GF. That wasn’t a factor until the dessert, but I was able to use Bob’s Red Mill GF oat flour with success. I tested the tart with both coconut oil and Earth Balance in place of butter. The coconut oil was perfect in the crust and worked fine in the crumb topping, but I think Earth Balance was much better in the topping. But overall, this was a really natural, not-to-sweet seasonal dessert which I think Kate was going to sneak home so she could eat it for breakfast the next day!

It was a lovely time that I shared with some amazing women! For more photos and all the recipes, please check out the post “In the Vegan Kitchen: Festive Holiday Feast” over at The Chalkboard. And Jenni has meticulously detailed everything from flowers to flatware to recipes on her blog ripplustan.com. I will be posting at least one step by step of the recipes in the next week or so, mostly likely the tart. In the meantime, I can’t wait for Christmas!!!

Rice and Arsenic — What You Need to Know

I first heard of arsenic from the movies. It was an effective way to poison someone, and it went with old lace. Recently, we were warned about arsenic content in apple and grape juices, and now Consumer Reports has published findings about “troublesome” levels of arsenic in rice and rice products, from baby cereal to pasta. Reports such as these often lead people to question what foods are actually safe these days—and specifically with rice—can we still eat it?Continue reading

Gingerbread cookies recipe

Mr. Picky asked me the other day if I would make cookies with him and I was this close to saying “Not today, sweetie. I’m too busy.” That would have been absolutely true. We’re all so busy. I don’t know anyone whom I have asked lately “How are you?” that hasn’t responded, “Really busy! How are you?” It’s not just this time of year either. I feel like we’re running around at 90 miles an hour all year long.

In my classes and on my blog, I try to emphasize balance and moderation, yet I’m not so sure I practice what I preach with respect to finding downtime. And as I had that thought, my daughters came home from school. That is to say, they pulled into the garage in a car driven by Daughter #1 who turned 16 two months ago. They walked in and all I could see was a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. I used to hate it when people told me kids grow up so fast, but the cliché couldn’t be more true. It goes by in a nanosecond. I can’t say my daughters have asked me recently to bake cookies with them, instead they invite their girlfriends over to stay up late and eat the cookie dough I keep in the freezer. Believe me, I’m thrilled they even hang out at our house! So last week I skipped writing a post that I thought would get published last Friday and instead baked cookies with my favorite little dude. Totally worth it.

Mr Picky is a funny kid. Some people joke with me that a boy who eats lentils and beans cannot be labeled “picky.” And every year he adds more and more foods to the still narrow “approved” list. But he doesn’t seem to like what most kids do such as buttered pasta, macaroni and cheese, pizza or sandwiches, not that I’m complaining. His favorite cookies don’t contain candy or sprinkles, but instead are gingerbread. And that’s what we decided to make last week.

Gingerbread cut-out cookies are a commitment. It’s not like make a batter and spooning drops of it onto a baking sheet. There’s chilling the dough, rolling it out, cutting it into shapes, decorating the cookies. It’s a fairly simple dough to make and I don’t hold back on the spices. But these cookies aren’t spicy, they’re just really flavorful. Whole wheat pastry flour can be substituted with a gluten-free flour blend such as the King Arthur Multi-purpose GF Flour plus the addition of 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour. Mr. Picky’s favorite part is decorating which I always keep pretty simple with raw sugar, currants or mini-chocolate chips.

We had the best afternoon. It was so nice to have one-on-one time with him and chat about school, football and his favorite new book. We also talked about the mystery of Santa and that this was definitely going to be the year that he stayed awake to watch him leave gifts under my parents’ tree. Sweet. Spending time in the kitchen with my son was such a gift and a reminder to me that the biggest joys in life don’t come from checking off my to-do list.

Gingerbread Cookies

Pamela

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Ingredients

4 cups whole wheat pastry flour or your favorite gluten-free flour blend +1 tsp. xanthan gum
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon allspice
a few grinds finely ground black pepper optional
1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup dark natural cane sugar i.e. muscavado, or dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2/3 cup unsulphured molasses not blackstrap unless you like that bitterness
large grain sugar for decorating or mini-chocolate chips or currants

Instructions

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.
In a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand), cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix again until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Blend in the eggs one at a time and then the molasses. Add the flour mixture in two additions either by hand or on low speed. Divide the dough in two pieces, wrap each in plastic and chill for at least an hour.*
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper or Silpats.
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop to about 1/8-inch thick and cut with cookie cutters of your choice. ** Reroll the scraps and continue to cut additional cookies. Decorate with sugar crystals, dried fruit or chocolate chips before baking. For softer cookies, roll out a little thicker. Transfer to baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes for 3-4-inch cookies (less for smaller cookies, more for larger.) I like to see a little tinge of golden color around the edges of the cookies. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes and then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

*Dough can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.

**If you are not comfortable rolling on your countertop, roll the cookies out on a piece of parchment cut to fit the baking sheet. Remove scraps. Then transfer the parchment and cookies to the sheet and bake.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Cauliflower fritters recipe

“Wow.” That’s what I said a few days ago when I woke up and it was December. DE-CEMBER. I’ve got no holiday card in the works yet. I went to the movies on Black Friday and I worked through Cyber Monday which means I am waaaaaay behind on my Christmas and Hanukkah shopping. The only December task I have checked off my list is getting Mr. Picky’s suit let out so I wouldn’t have to go out and buy him another for Christmas Eve. But I’m not worried about Christmas quite yet since that’s a good 3 weeks away. Hanukkah, on the other hand, starts on Saturday. This Saturday!

As you might have learned from reading this blog, my family is Italian and my husband is half Jewish and half Puerto Rican which means a lot of holidays and a lot of food! But thankfully, and I mean that, I am off the hook for preparing the annual Hanukkah dinner and gift exchange with my husband’s family. My mother-in-law has that one mastered so she will be making dozens of potato latkes for us to enjoy when we celebrate this weekend. Traditional foods on Hanukkah include anything fried in oil to symbolize the miracle oil in the temple in Jerulsalem. For most, this means potato pancakes (latkes) and doughnuts. Ugh. Not the most healthful foods on the planet. I usually indulge in a latke or two since my mother-in-law makes the absolute best. But the Jews love a holiday and many of them last 8 days, Hanukkah included. So my kids and my husband nudge me to make latkes a few more times during the week. They know better than to ask me to make doughnuts.

To mix it up a bit, I always cook up zucchini latkes at least once during Hanukkah and the kids love them, especially Mr. Picky. This year I am also going to make these delicious Cauliflower Fritters during Hanukkah because to me they taste kind of latke-ish, they’re cooked in oil, they’re made with CAULIFLOWER and my family is obsessed with them! There may not be any potato in there, but I bet you could grate a fresh potato and fold it in there and call it a Cauliflower Latke! I’ve seen many recipes which use cauliflower in place of potatoes or rice. Cauliflower is rather neutral in flavor and mashes up nicely to a soft texture so you really have no idea there is cauliflower in these patties.

What I love about these Cauliflower Fritters is that the batter can be made earlier in the day and the fritters made just before you are ready to eat. My husband loves them on top of a pool of warm marinara sauce, Mr. Picky squirts mustard on his, and I like to eat them with a crisp salad. Since there is flour in the batter, I treat these fritters as if they were a starch and I make another vegetable side dish for dinner. Once you taste these, you’ll be making them all year long!