An ode to the end of summer

The end of summer should be a season on its own, right? It’s my favorite for sure, and to celebrate it I’m sharing a recipe.

Over the years, and the more I became absorbed in the cooking world, the concept of a recipe brings up mixed feelings. While I do see the point and the convenience of having a recipe and following it, I also see an obstacle, a restriction every time a recipe is involved in my cooking process. Most of what I cook doesn’t really come from a recipe, it comes from convenience. If it works, I might repeat it, maybe tweak it and then turn it into a recipe.

This time, I had just spent the morning surfing, I was hungry, it was hot, and I didn’t want to wait a long time to have a deliciously comforting and nourishing meal. At first sight, a can of sweet corn and a courgette do not look like the most delicious lunch. Surely, I could have chopped and sautéed the courgette, added the corn some herbs and made it into a nourishing salad, but that wouldn’t have looked very comforting and satisfying. Pasta definitely screams comforting but I didn’t have it at home and it felt a bit heavy anyway. Plus, even if I had it, it still takes a while – around 15min - to boil the water and cook the pasta. I was 15-minutes-is-too-long-to-wait kind of hungry. So, I drained the corn from the can, placed it in a small pot with a splash of plant-based milk and brought it to a boil. In the meantime, I grabbed my mandoline slicer and attached a special cutter to make linguini-sized courgette noodles, which I seasoned and quickly sautéed in some olive oil, all the while pouring the hot corn, with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and olive oil in a blender. It took me listening to Nirinjan Kaur’s Chattr Chakkr Vartee to get to this point, after which I only had to pour the sauce over the noodles and sprinkle with chopped mint and coriander and some forgotten roasted pine nuts I had in the fridge. 

It completely exceeded my expectations of a deliciously comforting and nourishing meal: it was all that, plus light, creamy and fresh, and it looked like a sort of healthy carbonara – if there were such a thing. And if I hadn’t been asked for a recipe I might have just left it like that. But no, I decided to repeat it, and tweak it, and turn it into a recipe. 

 A little note on corn

Loved by birds, kids and half of any cinema audience; hated by the other half, and neglected by everyone else - unless you live in the Americas, where you have access to incredible varieties of corn - it has recently come to my attention that most people might like corn more than they want to admit or even realize, myself included. To make corn more appealing it needs a change of scenery though, or a make-over. Like moving it away from grated carrots and canned tuna, and having it mingling with Feta cheese, roasted hazelnuts and mint. Using it less whole and more blended, to show off its soothing pale yellow color and its rich, creamy texture, which was exactly what I aimed for with this quick cooking experiment.

The recipe trade-off: a bit more sophistication requires a bit more time and effort

I tried to keep the simplicity of the original dish, but the resemblance to a creamy carbonara was just too loud to ignore, so I started working around that, keeping out everything that was green, so no courgette peel (the yellow ones would work perfectly here) and no herbs, and adding some umami to make up for the bacon. Tiny slow roasted cherry tomatoes seemed like the perfect candidate to complete this end of summer trio of courgette – corn – tomato. Apart from the slow roasted tomatoes, which you can forget about in a low temperature oven for a few hours or make it ahead, and the additional step of peeling the courgette, everything else was kept simple and straightforward. Maybe the creamy corn sauce could be even tastier if blended with a sautéed onion, or if the corn comes out of a grilled cobb, but I’ll leave those extra steps for you to try it and let me know if it’s worth it or not.

Summertime Carbonara

For the slow roasted tomatoes:
250g cherry tomatoes
A drizzle of olive oil
Salt & pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 130ºC. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place them cut side up on a baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 2h, until they've nicely caramelized in their own juices. Reserve at room temperature until ready to use or store them in the fridge in case you're making this step a day or two in advance.

For the corn Carbonara:
2 courgettes, medium size
1 jar or can of sweet corn (230g), drained
6 tbsp plant-based milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
A squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 handful of toasted pine nuts, finely ground*

Peel the courgettes and cut them into thin linguini-like strips using a mandoline slicer. Reserve them in the fridge until ready to use. Place the drained sweet corn in the blender with the plant-based milk, lemon juice, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast, if using. Blend very well until completely smooth. With the blender motor still running, pour the olive oil slowly in so that it emulsifies with the corn cream. Place the courgette linguini in a large skillet over medium heat. Season with salt and let it soften for 1-2min. Add the corn cream and stir well, until the courgette linguini is completely coated with the cream and everything is perfectly warmed. Finally, add the roasted tomatoes and serve immediately with freshly ground pepper and the ground pine nuts.

*I grind mine in a coffee grinder

Serves 2

A handful of ideas

Being a life-long introvert, self-isolation has been my modus operandi as long as I can remember, especially so over the last few years when I decided to move to the countryside and work as a freelancer. I understand that the current distancing behavior can be hard for some people because we are social creatures after all, we love sharing, touching, talking, being listen to and seen. Yet good things can come from some time spent by ourselves: we can catch up on reading and podcast listening, rest and practice more self-care, and I think it’s the best time to pick up a new routine or heathy habit, given that there are less distractions in our daily schedule. 

Anyway, I thought I’d share a handful of ideas, some practical, others that allow for exploration, which hopefully will help you through the next few weeks.

Tips to keeping your fruits and vegetables fresh

 I’m sure that by now your pantry and freezer are well stocked on non-perishable and frozen food, but we all know that the best source of vitamins and minerals is in fresh produce. After being harvested, plants remain alive for some time – a few days in the case of leaves, a few months in the case of stored potatoes – and it’s the plant’s continued metabolic processes that may cause some of their loss of flavor, and that eventually makes them deteriorate. Here are some general tips to help slow down the deterioration process, keeping your fruits and veggies in good shape, and your trips to the supermarket to a minimum:

• Plant foods are best kept in restricted places like refrigerator drawers, bags and containers, lined with absorbent paper, to slow down moisture loss and capture condensation;

• Ideal storage temperature is different for different fruits and vegetables: those from temperate climates keep best at or near the freezing point and the ones from warmer regions keep best at 10ºC, sometimes even at room temperature (like melons, eggplants, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans);

• Refrigerator drawers and fruit bowls should be regularly cleaned to reduce microbes;

• Mushrooms, berries, apricots, figs, avocados, papayas have a naturally high metabolism and deteriorate faster than apples, pears, kiwis, cabbages and carrots;

• Some fruits like bananas, avocados, kiwis, mangoes and pears can be picked when mature but still green and will continue to ripen after picking.

Fast and simple pantry-style meals

Most of the meals I’m making now are smoothie bowls and soups. I’m making them as nutrient dense as possible and I love the fact that they’re easy to digest - which is good if you can’t be walking around.

My main tip for the smoothie bowls is having them at room temperature or warmer if the ingredients allow for it. Right now, I’m more concerned with having functional smoothies than super tasty ones so I tend to avoid sugar or syrups of any kind. Instead, I’m using licorice tea, which is naturally sweet, and fresh bananas. I then top them with more fruit, bee pollen, seeds and nuts.

As for soups, lately I’m using a lot of garlic and onions, ingredients I wouldn’t normally use because of its effects during meditation but that I now give privilege to in order to build a stronger immune system. To these two I’ll add another “pantry-style” ingredient, like a cup or two of beans (canned is fine), a jar of roasted red peppers, a sweet potato, a chunk of pumpkin or half a pack of frozen veggies, pour enough water to barely cover everything, cook, blend and serve, topped with fresh herbs or kimchi. Here are a few ideas, starting with a base of onion and garlic, add: 

• Sweet potato, ginger and curry spices, top with lots of chopped fresh coriander

• Frozen peas and leaks, top with lots of chopped fresh mint

• Sweet potato and roasted red peppers, top with lots of chopped fresh parsley

• Red kidney beans and smoked paprika, top with homemade or store-bought kimchi

Also, there’s a general recommendation to drink plenty of warm water, with or without lemon juice, and herbal & spices infusions along the day. I’m making licorice and ginger, fresh thyme tea, and chai with plant-based milk every day, having at least 2L in total.

Give your body some extra love with an Ayurvedic morning routine

Ayurvedic morning routines have always seemed too complex for me, even though I love morning routines. But remember what I’ve said above, about now being the perfect time to pick up a new habit? I’m giving it try now. It takes close to an hour, depending on how much time you want to practice yoga and meditate, and it follows this order (click the links for instructions):

1. Dry brushing

2. Oil massage followed by a warm shower

3. Breath work (I’m doing 6 cycles, each cycle is an inhale from the left nostril, and exhale through the right, and then a inhale from the right nostril and an exhale through the left)

4. Yoga (I’m adapting these series and doing 6 sun salutations, 3 standing poses, 3 sitting poses, including at least o1 twist, 1 shoulder stand and 1 bridge to compensate, and finishing with 5 minutes of Shavasana)

5. Meditation (I tend to practice Vipassana meditation, but I sometimes do other mediations, see tip bellow)

Spiritual and mental care with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield

At unpredictable times like this, it wouldn’t be unusual to feel some anxiety and fear. Both of these emotions are perfectly understandable as long as they don’t paralyze us or make us panic. Jack Kornfield was just at The Tim Ferriss Show last week, sharing his wisdom on this pandemic in specific, and Tara Brach has a beautiful podcast too, with many guided meditations and with a couple of talks focusing on fear, like this one and this one.

Expand your knowledge by enrolling in a MOOC

Another option to keep your mind busy and making the most of your spare time is learning something new. I’ve been a fan of edX almost since their launch in mid 2012. With thousands of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC’s) to choose from, it will be hard to pick just one. What I normally do is enroll in three or four courses, browse the materials (check if the videos aren’t too boring), and then focus and finish just one. This gives me time to really dig deep into the subject that I chose and a feel sense of accomplishment after I finish the course.

This is it for now. I’ll keep on writing about the second trip I took to Asia last year, share it very soon. Take care, stay safe.

Japanese pancake for breakfast

Most people call Okonomiyaki a Japanese pizza. I think it’s more like a Japanese pancake. A good thing is that you can have both pancake and pizza for breakfast.

Okonomiyaki’s main ingredients are cabbage, flour, eggs, bacon and a lot of toppings like mayo, sweet sauce, seaweed and fish flakes. Here, I’m mixing cabbage with fennel for more aroma, using rice and tapioca flour instead of wheat flour, ditching the bacon for some sprinkles of smoked paprika and making my own homemade avocado mayo.

This is the kind of recipe that looks like it’s not going to work, in all sorts of ways. You will wonder if eggs and cabbage make a good food combination or how will all the veggies stick together to form a solid pancake. Let me give you a few tips on the latter.

First, your cabbage and fennel have to be very finely shredded. If you don’t own a food processor you have to put your knife skills to use. Then, it is crucial to have everything very well mixed before cooking, and last, a non-stick frying pan is recommended (much better than a cast iron one).

Japanese pancake - Okonomiyaki

2 cups finely shredded cabbage
1 cup finely sliced fennel
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, organic preferably
Olive oil

Mix the cabbage, fennel, flours and salt in a bowl, until the vegetables are well dusted with the flour. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs lightly and add them to the vegetables. Stir very well, until all the flour is incroporated. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and pour the mixture, pressing and flatening well all over the pan with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Let it cook at medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until golden. Grab a plate and slide the pancake to the plate, flip it over and return it to the frying pan to cook the other side.

Avocado mayo

1 avocado, ripe
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. If needed add some olive oil to achieve the consistency of mayo. Pour into a squeezing bottle and refrigerate until ready to serve.

To serve

Toasted flaked almonds
Fresh chives, finely chopped
Smoked paprika

Drizzle the avocado mayo on top of you pancake, sprinkle with the toasted almonds, chives and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Serve immediatly.

Serves 1-2

My new go-to chocolate cake

For years I've followed Molly Wizenberg's chocolate fondant recipe every time I wanted to eat chocolate cake. Now I've got a new one, a plant-based one.

Chocolate and Courgette cake

For the cake:
1 cup oats
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 courgette, chopped
1/2 cup date paste
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Grease and flour a cake tin (with coconut oil and coconut flour). In a blender process the oats at a high speed until they reasemble a fine flour. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the cacao, the salt and baking soda, and mix well.
Add all the remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

For the icing:
2 tbsp + 2 tsp maple syrup
2 tbsp + 2 tsp tahini
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp cacao powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients until smooth and even. Spread over the cooled cake.

Serve at room temperature.