Saturday, September 20, 2014

Creamy Split Pea Soup (Vegan)

When I came back to Malta from my vacation in Rome, my first week back was a rough one. Each visit makes the distance that much harder. Each visit provides another incentive toward closing the distance and finding a sustainable career within a quarter time-frame.

Working full-time and finishing graduate school the first half of my time in Malta was a difficult one. For the first time in my life I struggled to assimilate into the culture, or make friends outside of work. I essentially became a recluse, struggling with living on my own and by myself, being hit hard with various life experiences and triggers, exhausted and emotionally fatigued. 


But it seemed like I came back to a new Malta, and all it took was a vacation and a shift in priorities.

Since returning from break, I strived to take care of myself, and to honor myself in every sense of the word. I focused on honoring what my body needed, especially with meals.

Throughout my time publishing recipes, I’ve internally lamented how I’ve ignored soups and stews, especially blended soups. I always have the tendency to overthink or overdo simple meals, and since my continuing research and activism in sustainability, I'm working to simplify my palate in the sense that every flavor becomes complex and satisfying. 


Creamy Split Pea Soup (Vegan)

250 g Split green peas, soaked overnight in water with apple cider vinegar
1 Celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 Med. Carrot, coarsely chopped
1 Yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 Garlic clove, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp. Olive oil
Water, hot*
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Black pepper
1 Bay leaf

Place the split green peas in a pot and top with water and apple cider vinegar to soak eight hours or overnight.
Drain the water and set the peas aside.
In a medium to large pressure cooker, set the heat to medium-high and drizzle with olive oil.
Sweat the vegetables until translucent, and then add the peas, seasonings, and the 2 tbsp. of olive oil.
Pour the hot water into the pot until it is just covering.
Place the pressure cooker lid as instructed for your model, lower the heat to medium-low, and cook for at least 30 min.
Turn off the heat and let the pressure naturally subside.
Use a stick blender or regular blender** to blend until smooth.
Pour into bowls, and serve hot.

Makes 2 – 4 Servings.

Note: This recipe is perfect for leftovers (just add water!), and super easy to double depending on the amount of servings you want.

*There’s really no measurement for this, as it ultimately depends on how thick or thin you want the consistency to be. After adding the peas to the cooking vegetables, I poured the water (hot, from the electric kettle) until it just covered the peas.
** Be mindful that hot stuff in the blender tends to come up back at you if you aren’t too careful. I’d recommend adding a little at a time to be safe.

Monday, September 15, 2014

When in Rome, make a Cheese Plate (Part IV of V)

While I didn’t finish writing up the cheese plates by the time I left for Malta to resume my internship, I did hold on to my notes of the cheeses for the remaining two. For both plates, I struggled with pairings, if only because many sites reference wine and cheese pairings and not necessarily food and cheese. I paired the cheeses with mostarda and jam, but it seemed like these cheeses all paired with the tomato sauce the best. Everything else was a mediocre combination.


The other struggle I had was the time limit. I only had a week to finish three, and so the last two were rather rushed. That, and I wanted to spend as much time with CK without the camera lens between us before continuing on with the long distance (LD) status.

And we did.

The fourth cheese plate combines two regions that aren’t near each other whatsoever; they aren’t even connected to Italy’s mainland. The two I’m referring to make up Insular Italy, Sicily (Sicilia) and Sardinia (Sardegna).

As with many of these regions, I didn’t know much about either. They are Italian, but they are also immensely proud of being Sicilian or Sardinian. As they are not connected to the mainland, they are culturally different in many ways. And one of many things that distinguish these two regions is the food culture.

Since they are not connected and nowhere near each other, their cheeses were profoundly different. Both were saltier than any of the cheeses CK and I had tasted so far. We also picked two cheeses for both regions, of which one was represent with a DOP cheese and the other a cheese that happened to be offered in Eataly.


Now… about the wine. I couldn’t find Sardinian wine, sadly, so I chose a Sicilian wine to pair with both. I was rather disappointed with the pairing, to be honest. It didn’t fit with any of the cheeses, and following the cheese plate we realized that it just wasn’t a wine we preferred. It seemed too sour, and equally too pithy, for our liking. The wine we had was a 2011 Irmana Il Nero d'Avola E Il Frappato, from Sicily. Perhaps it was meant to be a table wine for a certain type of dish, but as I said, we just didn’t enjoy it like we had the others.

For Sicilia, we chose Ragusano (DOP) and Secondo Sale. The Ragusano is a dry cheese, but its buttery flavor was a lot like the butter Mama Dazz ordered from the Amish. It had a sour, pungent aftertaste that wasn’t exactly smoky, but reminded me of cooking over an open fire. The Secondo Sale, or “Second Salting”, was sharp and smoky cheese with glorious bits of whole black peppercorns throughout the cheese. It was so buttery, the natural oils beaded on top of the cheese.


For Sardegna, we chose Fiore Sardo (DOP) and RE Priamo*. The Fiore Sardo had also beaded natural oils onto the surface, and while sour, it wasn’t as pungent as the Ragusano. The RE Priamo, or whatever it is actually called, was the softest cheese on the plate as well as the most mild. It was sweet and buttery, but not tasteless, and had notes of tomato.


As mentioned, I really struggled with the pairings, if only because these cheeses were meant to be topped on some homemade tomato sauce. I was a bit discouraged with how it came together, and I’m still flinching over the presentation of the last one, but the cheeses were quite delightful. The lesson here is that I really want to travel to these different regions to taste their cheeses, although Eataly had definitely opened my eyes to what is out there.

* To this day I am still confused about the name of this cheese. Its name was on display as I’ve typed it here, and it says it originates from Sardegna. If anyone knows anything about this cheese, please comment below!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

When in Rome, make a Cheese Plate (Part III of V)

After three cheese plates, CK and I started to see patterns. With the first cheese plate, we saw an array of fresh and soft cheeses. With the second, we saw cross-cultural appreciation of creaminess and hints of blue marble. Now, with the third, we saw hardness, aging, and Italy’s best-kept secret food combination.

Northeast Italy is made up of four regions: Emilia-Romagna; Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige; and Veneto.


This was an interesting cheese plate to create. It was simple, rustic, highly cheese-focused in comparison to the others. It was also the easiest to make (it took longer to pick out a wine than it did finding the cheeses). I was quite proud of the fact that, one, I was able to find all four region’s cheeses and, two, they all have PDO/DOP status. You may also notice that there were only three pairings on the plate along with the cheeses. This is because every cheese could be and was paired with vinegar or honey. The Grana Padano was also eaten with olives, just to be different.

This was also the first cheese plate that the wine went beautifully with all four cheeses and the pairings. The wine was a 2011 Allegrini Palazzo della Torre, from the Veneto region. It is a lovely wine, with a balance in sweetness and fullness that isn’t overpowering and absolutely luscious in between bites of cheese dipped in honey or balsamic vinegar.


From Emilia-Romagna came the fantastic and infamous Parmigiano-Reggiano. It’s a popular cheese here (as in, it completely fills an entire shelf unit in Eataly’s cheese department), and has similar notes to Parmesan or Grana Padano (strong flavors, a great pasta/topping cheese). A sharp cheese with a sweet end-note, it brings a smoky, almost spicy finish to any dish you can think of. CK and I thought the combination of this cheese with the honey was a match made in heaven. This was the secret I was telling you about. Pairing honey with this cheese was something of a cheese nirvana moment for me, sort of like the apple and peanut butter in the dairy world. And we all know how much I love that combination.


Montasio represented Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It’s a very mild cheese with a tantalizingly rounded aroma that reminded us of a mild swiss. This cheese is very similar to Trentino’s Asiago, only less pungent just slightly harder. It went beautifully with both pairings. Alas, I believe I was turned around in taking the photos, as I photographed the Montasio twice… Anyway, Asiago is quite the surprise. It has a similar aroma to Gruyere, only more mild in pungency and spicier.


Finally, Veneto’s Grana Padano, another popular cheese. Like Parmigiano-Reggiano, it had its own shelving unit stock-full of huge wedges. It isn’t a strong as the other cheese, but it does have a sharp quality that is more savory than it was sweet. When paired with honey, the cheese seemed to take on the sweetness as its own flavor, becoming a sort of honey fudge to me. It was delicious and rather rich, but we both felt that the vinegar paired significantly better with it.

I noticed that there was a spectrum to the pairings’ compatibility. We tried the cheeses with both the vinegar and the honey separately, sipping on the wine in between. Two of the cheeses excelled with both pairings equally (Montasio and Asiago), while the other two remained loyal team-vinegar (Grana Padano) or team-honey (Parmigiano-Reggiano) through and through.



So although it wasn’t necessarily the prettiest cheese plate, it was a satisfying one nonetheless.