Karina Does Betty Does!

I have a lovely and impressive friend, Jesse Silver, who recently teamed up with other lovely and impressive women to start the online magazine, Betty Does.

Betty Does is a new San Francisco collective publication celebrating women and their work.

I had been following their posts and reading their interviews since they began a few months ago, so to say I was thrilled and flattered beyond belief when Jesse asked me to be her first interviewee is an understatement.

She asked to interview me about my cake making, food blogging, and acting, and we decided it would be fun to make a cake in the process. Since the lovely and impressive Betty photographer, Margo Moritz, was also coming over to document the interview, I offered to make them both dinner as well...



Like so many people out there, Jesse has a gluten intolerance so I decided to recycle an old idea I had of using shreddings of zucchini for a pasta rather than wheat noodles.


I made a vegan pesto by blending raw cashews I had soaked overnight with a few handfuls of organic basil, several cloves of garlic, a squeezed lemon, olive oil, sea salt, cayenne and pepper in the food processor.


I wanted to make some type of protein in the form of a "meatball" for the pasta, so I quickly improvised with the left over quinoa dish I had made the night before. I started by chopping some carrots, raw almonds, and sunflower seeds in the food processor.


I added a cup or two of the leftover quinoa dish I had made that consisted of quinoa, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, spinach, apples, vegan sausage and the lot of my usual spicing (salt, pepper, cumin, curry, cayenne, cinnamon, braggs and lemon.) I also threw in a few spoon fulls of organic re-fried beans I had open to help bind the mixture when it came to forming balls.




I heated up sunflower oil (good for high heat) and lightly fried them on all sides until they were crunchy on the outside.


I then set them on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.


I boiled water in a pan and cooked my "zuc noods" for a few minutes until soft and then drained them.


In another pan, I sauteed an onion, some garlic, and several shitake mushrooms in olive oil and then salt and peppered them.


I threw the mushrooms and onions in with the pesto and "noodles" and mixed well.


I made a fresh salad of lettuce, spinach, orange segments, avocado, snap peas and almond slivers and tossed with a tahini-tomato dressing.


The Betties seemed quite pleased! Jesse brought a lovely Riesling to accompany the meal and it all made for a perfect appetizer to the Mango-Ginger-Sage cake that was made! (Coming soon in the Betty Does article!)

Karina's Corn Tortilla Taqeria...

I few weeks ago I invited my friend Sophie over to join the roommies and me for dinner. I had some leftover fake gound beef I wanted to use up, so I decided to have a taco night!


I noticed I was out of corn tortillas, and as I was about to head out the door to buy some, the idea to make them from scratch popped into my head. I had never taken this challenge on before, I wondered if it might be easier than I imagined...


I happened to have some left over Bob's Red Mill Masa Harina (golden corn four). I looked on the back to see what its recipe called for, and was in disbelief at its simplicity:

• 2 cups Golden Masa Harina Corn Flour
• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups Hot Water
  

Mix salt into the masa harina corn flour. Slowly pour the water into the dough to get a good consistency. The dough should be firm and springy when touched, not dry or sticky. Let rest for about an hour, covered.

Preheat a griddle or flat surface. Divide the dough into 2 inch balls. Press dough between two pieces of waxed paper, or flatten according to a tortilla press directions. Place flatten dough on a hot griddle or flat surface and cook until the top of the tortilla starts to look cooked, about 1 minute. Flip to the other side and heat for a few seconds. Makes 12 – 6 inch tortillas.

I, of course, took the liberty of adding some cayenne pepper and cinnamon...


At first I tried it with just my hands and no wax paper but it was really difficult to get them to stretch wide enough and not fall apart. Then i decided to try rolling them out with a jar. This worked better but to get them not to stick to the jar, I brought out the wax paper and then it worked perfectly.


Sophie jumped right in to help so I could get back to the other elements of the meal!



I had begun cooking some orzo pasta on the stove and decided to saute onion, a bunch of organic spinach, chopped peaches, cherry tomatoes and lastly, pistachios.



Once the orzo was cooked and soft, I drained it and added it to the spinach/peach saute pan. I spiced with some sea salt, pepper, cayenne, oregano, thyme, cumin, and a dash of cinnamon. Lastly, I added some chunks of leftover vegan (almond) pepper jack cheese and let it melt in!


I had also sauteed some onion, garlic, and chopped up carrots in another pan before adding the fake ground beef to it. I spiced this with sea salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne...



I took my other peach and some ripe avocados and made a peach-guacamole by adding lemon, sea salt, cayenne and a splash of olive oil.


I took my non-stick saute pan and heated it up for several minutes until it got really hot. Without oil or anything, you simply place a tortilla in it and move it around with your fingers in a small circular movement until it starts to turn golden brown and even dark brown in spots. Then you just flip it and do it on the other side. SO EASY!




I still had some roasted corn hummus I had made earlier in the week so I set that out as another taco topping...

We assembled and devoured. By far the best (and most personally satisfying) tortilla I've ever had. That equals one heck of a taco.

Karina Celebrates a Sunbursting Vegan Roast....

Working at a restaurant that feeds me organic, delicious food everyday (The Plant Cafe) obviously has its perks and I save a lot of money, but it makes finding opportunities to cook exciting meals at home for myself that much more difficult. I had a rare evening off last week and decided to walk down to my favorite Haight Street Market and find what fresh local ingredients I could get my hands on to make, what I considered, a well-deserved feast.

The first thing my eyes jumped to was a huge pile of gorgeous, organic sunburst squash. I had never cooked with them before so I jumped at the opportunity.

I also was tempted to splurge and buy one of my favorite fake meat products on the market: Vegan Field Roast's Celebration Roast. If you are not familiar with Field Roast's products, by all means click on that link and find out where you can get them! Their "meat" is dense and delicious and has no hard-to-digest soy like so many veg options out there, but rather grains and vegetables. I usually go with the sausages (my fav is the apple sage) but every blue moon I splurge and go for the squash, mushroom and apple stuffed celebration roast.


I decided to keep it simple and roast my squash in the oven with some olive oil, onions and garlic. I did this at 350* until they were cooked through and starting to golden, but not get completely limp. I spiced with lemon, pepper, and cayenne while roasting and splashed some brags and lemon on them at the end.



I sauteed some more onions and garlic in olive oil with a handful of sliced crimini mushrooms and spiced with salt, pepper, lemon and oregano.




I sliced a few inch-thick pieces of my celebration roast, layered on my mushroom mix, and threw it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes to heat it up and make it almost crispy on the edges.





I also bought a bunch of fresh, organic fixings (butter lettuce, broccoli sprouts, an apple, an avocado, and some tamari-roasted almonds from the bulk bins) and tossed them with lemon, olive oil and brags for a killer salad to go with the meal.




This was so simple and quick, but made me feel like royalty to sit down to with a crisp glass of Gruner Veltliner.




I'll celebrate with this vegan roast any day!

Karina and Alma "amuse" their "bouche"....

We've all been in the state where we are by no means hungry or even capable of eating a full meal, but crave something unique and delicious to satiate the taste buds. Some may call these mini-meals munchies (or simply snacks), but this particular evening Alma and I were in need of something extra special; so we used the french term "Amuse- Bouche".

Amuse Bouche actually translates to "mouth amuser" and it is often sent out to VIP tables from the chef in restaurant before their meal. Wikipedia told me that "it is distinguished from other kinds of hors d'œuvres by three characteristics. It is small, usually just one or two bites. It is the same for all of the guests at the table. And finally, it is not ordered by anyone; rather it is offered free of charge."

We had a few ingredients at my house and ran to the market and picked a few more to improvise with. We got garlic, of course, an avocado, a prepared tube of organic polenta, Quorn vegetarian Chicken nuggets, and a pomegranate to garnish with.

First we turned the oven on 400* and put the whole bulb of garlic in to roast for about 45 minutes. We sliced the cooked polenta into 1/4 inch thick circles, and spread them out on a cookie sheet with the faux chicken nuggets. We added these to the oven when the garlic had about 15 minutes left. We sprinkled them with salt, pepper, lemon and cayenne before popping them in to turn golden brown and slightly crunchy.

We mashed the avocado up with some vegan sour cream I had, lemon, salt and pepper for a delicious and creamy sauce. We took our baked ingredients and stacked them together with the sauce and roasted garlic and sprinkled them with pomegranate seeds and fresh cayenne pepper.

Only problem with these "amuse bouche".... Although they did indeed make us feel like ultra VIPs, there was no way to stop after just one! (I'm not sure if they qualify for the term after eating the entire tray between two of us!)