Ruffage

A Practical Guide to Vegetables 100+ Recipes and 230+ Variations

Chronicle Books LLC

Contents

strong pantry

A pantry is like a quiver of arrows, at your back and at the ready. Having a shelf of even a few dependable staples is the single best thing you can do to ensure that you can always make a quick, varied, and delicious meal at home. This chapter is dedicated to what I keep in my pantry and reflects the majority of ingredients used in the recipes outside of the primary vegetables. This list, intentionally, can be sourced from a neighborhood corner store or small-town grocery. There are a few ingredients that I love using that aren't available in all stores; I've noted substitutions by each one in the recipe.

Relying on a stalwart set of supplies improved my cooking for three reasons.

One, by keeping key ingredients on hand, you'll never be dissuaded or disappointed by a recipe because you don't have something you need. You will always have a good substitution on hand. If a recipe calls for feta, you can either go to the store, give up, or use the Parmesan you already have instead. It won't be the same, but it will be similar enough. Understanding how each ingredient functions within a dish gives you an immeasurable amount of control to transform a recipe to your own tastes.

The single change that has made me utilize my pantry is to look regularly at what I have there. I transfer the grains from their packaging to clear jars and store those jars on open shelves. I also label most things, because the one time I grabbed sushi rice instead of risotto rice was enough. Seeing the ingredients not only reminds me of what I have on hand but also that I was excited enough to buy them. So I should use them.

Two, you will be able to make faster meals because your tools are in place (with less time spent shopping). Similarly, dinner is always partially prepped because you can mix and match from a handful of condiments and sauces. Having these on hand is great; making them regularly enough that it doesn't feel like a chore is even better. It will take some time, but developing a new skill always does. The secondary benefit is that when it seems like you really don't have anything in the house and are tempted by takeout, you can always whip up something — like pasta dressed with chili oil and garnished with sunflower seeds. Your quiver is full of quick fixes.

Three, by cooking faster, easier, and more delicious meals — regularly, you'll increase the likelihood of making meals you enjoy at home — meaning you're more likely to continue to do it and increase your appetite for experimentation. This has a positive effect on your budget, relationships, and health. As a society, we will never stop going out to eat, because restaurants serve an important social function as a third space to develop community outside of the home and work. That said, I do believe that there has been an undermining of home cooking to sell a packaged food product or push the idea that you must be trained as a chef to know how to cook. Yes, our time is valuable, and outsourcing our food preparation is reasonable as long as it is a deliberate choice and not one made out of fear or ignorance of the process. When you know you can use your precious time to make good food, it restores the luxury of bringing people together or celebrating the ease of letting a restaurant do it for you.

This pantry list is a lot to go out and buy in one fell swoop. Instead, I urge you to simply read through this book and find the recipes that use ingredients you already like and have on hand. Start there, then add more items as you go. I found that I initially spent more to stock my pantry, but then spent less on average because I wasn't buying random ingredients scattershot at the whim of a recipe I found online.

My golden rules for buying ingredients are: buy only what you are excited about, use it up, and if you can't remember if you have it on hand, don't buy more — you probably have something you can use in its place.

oils

I try to always buy oil in glass containers, because when oil is in plastic it seems to go rancid more quickly. This is not scientifically proven, so it's a science feel on my part, but I really think it is true! Plastic and clear bottles allow oxidization as well. Dark glass or metal containers will help preserve the integrity of the oil. If you have very old oil, smell it before using. If it has gone rancid it will smell flat and musty. Throw it out. Moral of the story: if you don't cook often or prefer butter to oil, buy small amounts and store them in the refrigerator.

When considering which oil to use and when, think about flavor and smoke point — the temperature at which the oil will begin to burn. Neutral oils have less inherent flavor but a higher smoke point, making them well suited to high heat cooking like roasting or grilling. Oils with more delicate flavor, like nut or fine olive oils, generally have a lower smoke point, and the hotter the oil gets the less nuanced the flavor. Also note that unrefined oils tend to contain more particulate matter, making them more flavorful, but with a lower smoke point. Save nut and other high-quality oils for finishing vegetables or a salad.

I also think about whether the flavor of the oil is important to the dish. If the other ingredients are strong, like herbs or spices, I use neutral oil because it is generally cheaper than the others. Use olive oil if you want its added depth of flavor. That said, if you want to make chili oil and all you have on hand is olive oil, feel free to use it. These are all rough guidelines and things that make a difference in the high volume/low margin world of restaurants — less important to a household budget.

NEUTRAL OIL

I use this term to include any sort of high smoke point, flavorless oil. I use grapeseed, rice bran, or safflower oils because they are not grown as a monoculture in our country. If you have access to these I encourage you to do the same because it creates demand in the market. If you don't have access, you can use any vegetable oil.

I also use neutral oils when making something with very strong flavors like herb or chili oils. I used to use olive oil for these but didn't taste the olivey-ness and so couldn't justify the cost.

OLIVE OIL

Look for extra-virgin and cold-pressed. There is fraud in the labeling practices of olive oil, so if you can get a taste of it before you buy it, all the better; if not just keep trying them until you find one you like. I look for an oil that tastes buttery and doesn't have a bitter harshness at the finish. I like Colavita and the Turkish Zaytun brands.

I use a lot of oil in my cooking, so I buy the big tins. If you do too, use a can opener to cut a small air hole on the nonspout side of the oil tin — it will make the oil pour more evenly.

If you have access to very good olive oil from a specialty shop, use it to dress salads and over fresh cheeses. Heat kills the delicate flavor of oils, so it is a waste to use it for frying. I don't generally buy flavored olive oils, but if you like them, go for it.

NUT OILS

Walnut and hazelnut oils are increasingly available. I use these as finishing oils to add a delicate nut flavor to a finished dish. As with olive oil, heat will kill the flavor, so don't cook with these. Nut oils are also very volatile and should be refrigerated.

COCONUT OIL

Only recently has coconut oil become more available. You can use it in place of any of the oils in this book, but it will lend a distinctly buttery and tropical flavor note. I love it for roasting cauliflower but didn't include it in any recipes because I had trouble finding it in all stores.

acidity

Second to seasoning, acidity is the most important flavor to balance a dish. Each recipe has some form of acidity. Remember the mayo experiment in the introduction? A dish lacking acidity may taste good but can become great with a squeeze of lemon or dash of vinegar. Beyond vinegar and citrus, wine, pickley things, and fermenty things can add the same level of brightness and feel new and exciting when you are expecting the traditional splash of lemon. Bottom line: if it makes your mouth water or pucker, it can be used to brighten up a dish. Add a touch, taste it, and decide for yourself.

LEMONS + LIMES + ORANGES

Citrus is regularly available at even the smallest store. If you don't have access to fresh citrus, substitute 2 Tbsp (30 ml) white wine vinegar for each lemon. It won't be the same, but it is way, way better than using the presqueezed, metallic-tasting citrus juices.

If you can get your hands on organic citrus, buy that. Conventional citrus holds pesticides and herbicides in its skin even after washing.

To zest, I use either a Microplane grater (for fine pieces) or a vegetable peeler (for large strips) depending on how the zest will be used.

WINE + HARD CIDER

Vinegars are a sour version of these drinks. The milder versions add a gentle level of acidity to the base of a recipe. You won't taste it and think, Oh, white wine! but it will make the finished dish taste brighter and lighter than if you'd skipped it.

The "cooking wines" at the grocery store are mediocre and won't add nearly the level of complexity that a cheap drinking wine will add. I tend to buy boxed wine and keep it in the kitchen. I want it to be inexpensive but of decent enough quality that if someone dropped in and I had nothing to offer them, I could offer a glass of the wine I cook with and not be too embarrassed.

FERMENTED THINGS

There has been a huge rise in small-batch, artisan-fermented products in the market the past few years — which is great! Long gone are the days of poorly made sauerkraut that smells like dirty sponges.

Fermented products (be they cabbage, carrot, pickles, beets, and the like) should taste tangy and bright and not at all astringent. The acidity comes from the creation of lactic acid as bacteria ferment the sugar in the vegetable.

I add sauerkraut or fermented carrots or pickles to rich dishes for bright pops of acidity. Kimchi or curtido (a Latin American fermented cabbage relish) can be used anywhere you would use sauerkraut, but remember that they're spicier.

CAPERS

Capers are the bud of the caper plant, harvested before they flower, then pickled or salted to preserve them. They lend foods a briny, salty, herby flavor.

I keep a jar of the brined ones on hand; I find them easier to use than the salt-packed ones that are more floral in flavor but must be rinsed of excess salt before use. I don't use capers often, but have found myself roughly chopping and adding them to a dish that I can't make taste just right.

PICKLES

Pickles — vegetables preserved with salt and acidity (usually in the form of vinegar or through fermentation) — are a great way to inject brightness into a dish. Add a splash of pickle liquid or a roughly chopped handful of pickles into a dish. All of a sudden what you're making feels new and interesting. Pickles keep for a long time on the shelf, so there's no reason to not have a jar on hand in case you find yourself without a lemon or good vinegar.

To pickle your own vegetables requires a whole 'nother book, but for pretty decent results you can always bring 1 cup (240 ml) vinegar (except balsamic), 1 cup (240 ml) water, 1 Tbsp (21 g) sugar, and 2 tsp (12 g) salt to a boil, then pour it over 1 qt (1 L) of vegetables.

I'm also a big fan of boiling the pickle liquid left in the jar after all the pickles are gone and of pouring it over fresh vegetables. You will have some weird flavors, but it is a great way to get a quick pickle, avoid wasting any of that liquid, and not have to measure anything.

spices and seasonings

To be honest, I have always been a little scared of spices. Always afraid I would add a skosh too much and everything would be ruined. Instead I've relied on herbs, which add a less dangerous punch of flavor (see page 37 for their fanfare). But hey, caution to the wind, there are myriad spices out in the world; these are the ones I use the most. Once you get a handle on the flavors you like, you can add spices with more abandon, but start slowly so as not to overpower.

Blooming spices is critical to unlocking their full scent and flavor profiles evenly. There are two methods: One, heat them in a dry frying pan over medium-high heat until they smell fragrant, then add them to whatever you are cooking. Two, heat a glug of oil until just about smoking hot, remove from the heat, then add the spices. I often burn spices when toasting in a dry pan because I never let myself stand there and watch them, so I tend to use the second method.

SALT (KOSHER, CRUNCHY)

The type of salt that you use will dramatically affect your finished dish. All of these recipes were tested with Morton kosher salt. I like kosher because it is coarser than iodized and contains fewer additives (including the iodine, which can taste metallic). I like Morton because it is easier to find than other brands.

Morton salt tastes "saltier" to me than other salts, so if you are using another brand or a fine sea salt, know that you will probably need to add more salt. I often double the amount of salt if using something other than Morton. Add it at the end, a pinch at a time, until it tastes good to you.

I also keep a large-crystal sea salt on hand to finish dishes — I like Maldon or the salt from JQ Dickinson Salt-Works of West Virginia. These can take some work to source, but even small grocery stores are starting to carry coarse sea salt. Buy a few and give them a try to see if you like them. If you don't, you can always use the salt to season pasta water or soups, or to de-ice the driveway (JK: don't do that).

BLACK PEPPER

Always grind your pepper freshly. Just as fresh-ground coffee beans make the best cup, this is the single best thing you can do to have flavorful pepper. Freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper tastes a world apart from the tins of dry, preground pepper dust of my childhood.

I have had trouble finding a great pepper mill that won't break with a few weeks' worth of heavy use. My family finally found that Turkish coffee grinders work very well and last longer than any other mill I've found. Plus, they are generally copper or brass and beautiful to look at even when not in use. Luckily whole peppercorns (and their mills) are more and more ubiquitous. I've seen little plastic pepper grinders in grocery stores (and even gas stations); these are a good option if you don't want to invest in a permanent mill.

CHILI FLAKES AKA CRUSHED RED PEPPER

I love all sorts of hot peppers, but it can be difficult to find the more esoteric peppers. If you can find chile de árbol, Aleppo, Urfa, or bird of paradise pepper, by all means use them. All of the recipes here were developed with chili flakes like the ones on the tables in pizza joints (in jars with the lid left unscrewed as a prank).

Chili flakes are the spice with the greatest variation in spiciness from one jar to the next. The fresher the flake, the spicier it tends to be. If the chili flakes are soft and moist, they are probably fresher and spicier. If you find your jar is particularly spicy or mild, write that on the label to remind you the next time you use them.

CUMIN

Cumin seeds lend an unmistakable earthy depth of flavor to many a dish. Buy whole seeds for recipes that call for them; they are small enough to tenderize in cooking.

CURRY POWDER

Curry powders vary widely from brand to brand and blend to blend. Some are sweeter than others, some spicier.

I find I use curry powder more if I buy a blend I like rather than trying to make my own. In general, I look for one that is yellowish-orange and contains some form of hot pepper. If you want to make your own, I'm sure it will be delicious — and if that makes you want to use it more, all the better.