KarmaFree Cooking

Pumpkin Polenta

I am a fan of Italian flavors… and this recipe fits very well with the flavors of autumn. We do not have autumn here in Puerto Rico, but pumpkin is a favorite of mine and I wanted to do something that would highlight the flavor and nutrition of the pumpkin. Plus, I still had some pumpkin seeds in my fridge I wanted to use up…

Pumpkin Polenta

PUMPKIN POLENTA

1 ½ cups of pumpkin, peeled and cubed

4 tbs quick cooking polenta

½ cup of water

½ cup of milk

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

¼ cup pumpkin seeds, toasted – as garnish

First we steam the pumpkin… place in a steamer for about 10-15 minutes to cook thoroughly. After the pumpkin is done, mash it well and place it in a colander lined with a coffee filter or a paper towel and let the moisture of the pumpkin drain out a bit. This can be done well in advance before moving on to the rest of the steps.
Then we make the polenta… I heat the water, milk and salt in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Add the polenta while stirring to avoid getting lumps. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue stirring until the desired consistency, which is like a smooth cream of wheat. I’ll be honest; I follow the instructions on the polenta package I buy. If the instructions on your package are different, follow the instructions on your package, but what I do is to replace ½ the water the recipe calls for milk – makes a creamier polenta, in my opinion.
When the polenta reached the desired consistency, add the drained pumpkin puree, the grated cheese and season with pepper. Stir well for the cheese to melt and the pumpkin to combine well with the polenta cream.
Serve warm and sprinkle with the toasted pumpkin seeds.

Great vegetarian alternative for Thanksgiving lunch or dinner… don’t you think?

Tags: cheese, cornmeal, food, polenta, pumpkin, vegetarian

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Categories From my CSA box, main courses, Thanksgiving

A Vegetarian in Paris… Unexpected Finds

28 Oct

Being a traveler involves some planning ahead to make sure that you don’t miss something you want to do due to lack of certain knowledge (check out my adventures trying to locate a famous ice cream shop and a favorite falafel stand in Paris), but also means being flexible and being able to throw away all your plans and walk a city without a specific purpose to see where fate leads you…

This is how we found St. Michel and Passage du Panoramas…

notre dame 2

St. Michel is an area right over the Seine on the Rive Gauche/Quartier Latin right across the Notre Dame cathedral. How we came about it, I can’t even remember. We got off from our L’Open Tour bus and were walking and I saw a small street that looked like it had a lot of movement… I asked Annie Mariel if she felt we should go that way… and we did.

St. Michel is an area with small pedestrian streets filled with restaurants from all over the world – French, Spanish, Middle Eastern, Italian, you name it… we decided to go for fondue that night. Not the best fondue we have ever had, but the reason why we were drawn to this particular restaurant was because it mentioned vegetarian options. A testament that not all vegetarian restaurants are good indeed… we had fondue with salade, potatoes, and bread. Could not believe the bread was stale. Sadly, the worst meal we had in Paris.

fondue 3

fondue - pommes terre

Another night we were a bit tired, but not so much to stay in, so we decided to go see a movie close to our apartment. It had to be in French and without subtitles. We had a great time… we understood the movie theme, but only got 50% of the dialogue. But, that’s part of learning and immersing yourself in a new language and culture, right?

After the movie, we walked a bit trying to decide if we were hungry enough to eat something. And then we saw this little passageway with lots of restaurants and decided that at least we had to sit down and try something. We were mesmerized by the insistence of this Croatian woman who kept inviting us to eat her delicious Coquilles St Jacques or scallops. I knew I was never going to please her by ordering the scallops, but she was charming enough to be our favorite spot there.

passage de restaurants passage panoramas

I ordered a fromage de chevre with tomates sechés au soleil (sun-dried tomatoes) with a salade and potatoes provençal. I really should have ordered these vegetables in a puffed pastry, but was afraid if they were made with some kind of stock…

chevre et sundried tomates pommes de terre provencal

For dessert, I tried the Tarte Tatin and Annie Mariel the profiteroles. The Tarte Tatin was warm and the whipped cream delicious. I need to try this soon for you guys… I took a stab at it before but was not very successful…

tarte tatin profiteroles

Goes to show you that letting things flow allows you to find the true heart and soul of a city… Bonne soirée.

Tags: france, paris

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Categories MY EDITORIAL, Travel

A Vegetarian in Paris… Fine-Dining in Paris

26 Oct

Annie Mariel and I love good food… so we knew we had to experience some of the fine dining Paris has to offer, vegetarian style.

We were extremely lucky to score some tickets to the premiere of the French opera Mireille, at the Opera Garnier. We had wanted to buy tickets to this show for about 3 months prior to our trip, but it was not until 1 hour before the show that we actually got tickets… So it was only fitting that we celebrate this achievement or lucky strike with a nice dinner.

COSTES

We were recommended Costes by the concierge at the Intercontinental Hotel right in front of the Opera. Located in fancy Rue St. Honoré, the choice could not have been better. I was pleasantly surprised the menu included true vegetarian options. This is what I ordered: A salade caprese with tomates cerises and buffalo mozzarella fromage, a quinoa risotto with asparagus tips and a sorbet made of fruits rouges. Truly delicious… costly, but exquisite.

COSTE - salade caprese

COSTE - Quinoa risotto

COSTE - Sorbet

Aside from the restaurant’s food, the ambiance is really nice. Our server was super nice and cheery, putting aside all the rumors of Parisian people being rude. Nice-looking people frequent this restaurant, so it’s nice for people gazing. And for a night cap, the bar has a great atmosphere too.

BUDDHA BAR

Annie Mariel was keen on going to dinner to Buddha Bar. It was a favorite of hers from a previous visit to Paris. So I followed suit. I was a bit unimpressed by their vegetarian options… if it’s vegetarian it also spicy and I do not do spicy well. Because the menu is sushi-heavy, I though the best bet was to order some vegetarian rolls… NOT!

I had to almost “threaten” that I was merely going to watch my friend eat before I could convince the server to ask the sushi chef to make some vegetable rolls for me. He almost argued with me the sushi rolls were already made and that was the reason I could not request anything specific… sushi rolls already made?!?!? Is this Buddha Bar or the sushi counter at Costco or my local supermarket??? Really?? Please!!

After much negotiation and convincing, this is what I finally ordered – Vegetable Spring Rolls and a custom-made vegetable roll, with asparagus, cucumbers and some other pickled vegetables I could not recognize. It would have been better with cream cheese in it, but I was not about to piss-off the server and chef once more… and I got about 3 huge spring rolls, I guess he took seriously my threat that I would not eat anything there and tried to put as much food on the plate from the stuff I did order.

BUDHABAR - Spring rolls BudhaBar - Sushi

We were sitting right in front of the Buddha statue… the music a bit too loud for my taste. The bar extremely expensive – we paid 15€ for a drink each. The French guys who go there, super nice thanks to Pierre and Matthieu. They were great company and because their Spanish or English was so-so, we were able to speak French almost exclusively with them. Superbe!!!

Traditional French cooking is not very vegetarian friendly, but a vegetarian can still find great eats fine-dining in Paris, even if we need to “threat” a few people for it.

Tags: fine dining, france, paris

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Categories MY EDITORIAL, Travel

A Vegetarian in Paris… Snacking in the Champs Elysées

23 Oct

With all the walking we did in Paris, we had to do our three meals and a few snacks in between… these were a few of our favorites from our week in Paris.

champs elysees 2 champs elysees 1

Frites and Orangina at the Champs Elysees

I love French fries and it was a real pleasure to sit down at a café to taste a small plate of frites with ketchup and Dijon mustard. You could taste these did not come from a frozen bag.

frites orangina

Orangina was my beverage of choice during my week in Paris. I remembered it well from my first trip to Europe. It’s a natural soda with orange juice and pulp. It’s refreshing… not something to drink every day, but certainly, a vacation treat.

A picnic at the Tour Eiffel

One of my dreams was to go to a street market, buy fresh fruits, cheese, bread and take it to a Parisian park to enjoy the company and the views. When we drove past the Tour Eiffel and the Champs de Mars I immediately knew this was the location for our picnic.

Our initial plan was to visit the Marché Breteuil , open weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays, and then head for the Champs de Mars. The thing was the market is open and available early in the morning, so when we went at about 3PM for our afternoon picnic snacking, there was nothing there except the empty area where usually the market stands are. Lesson learned there.

Alternatively, we went to a small market on our way to Champs de Mars and bought our fixin’s – crackers, fromage de chevre, Roquefort, strawberries, and the very Parisian BBQ flavored Lay’s potato chips. It was truly wonderful… a dream come true. It was a bit chilly, but very enjoyable.

picnic 1

picnic 2

Next time… a picnic somewhere we can see the Seine.

A few things to eat at home

Because we were staying at an apartment with a full kitchen… – full in the sense that had everything we needed, but super small according to US or PR standards. – We headed to a supermarket to gather some “munchies” and breakfast alternatives.

We were amazed by the amount and variety of cheeses in the cheese case. To cheese lovers like us, we felt as if we were in cheese heaven. We just could not bring ourselves to choose… Among our purchases: whole grain baguette, citrus juice, goat cheese crottins, comte cheese, some nectarines and peaches, among a few other necessities.

fromage supermarche 1 fromage supermarche 2

It was really nice to arrive to our apartment, relax for a bit watching some French-language TV and enjoying French cheese, French bread before heading out to a late dinner… felt really Parisian, just like we wanted. But please do not dare ask me how many pounds we gained in just that week… OK?

Tags: cheese, france, paris

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Categories MY EDITORIAL, Travel

A Vegetarian in Paris… Crepes

20 Oct

Something I knew was on my TO EAT list when I arrived in Paris was CREPES!!!!

I love crepes… I eat a spinach, cheese and walnuts crepe almost every Saturday when I attend my French classes at L’Alliance Francaise. But I love them all… savory (salé) or sweet (sucré)… going to Paris and not eating crepes is like going to NYC and not eating a slice of pizza… right?

Just like in NYC there are hot dog stands in almost every corner… the same applies to crepe stands in Paris. Even cafes or bistros have a small window facing the street where they can fix crepes to any hungry person passing by.

With only a week in Paris, there were not as many opportunities as one would like to taste all the flavor varieties available… but let’s go chronologically…

My first crepe of this Paris trip was in Montmatre… I had the munchies after climbing all those stairs from the Metro station up to Sacre Coeur. I also wanted to eat away my sorrows after finding a spectacular painting I loved, but too expensive for my budget… so how better to compensate than eating crepe and cheese together??

Sacre Coeur montmatre

I ordered a crêpe au fromage with gruyère cheese. The thing… the cheese was not inside the crepe, but on top. It was more like a crêpe gratin… the crepe was soft and the cheese was salty. Super nice start to my crepe adventure…

Crepe Fromage 1

When we went to Versailles, we wanted to have lunch where the locals eat. We wanted to walk away from the Palace and the rest of all the tourists and were pleasantly surprised to find a maze of streets filled with small cafes, stores and creperies for us to choose from… We selected a creperie with a special offering 1 crepe salé + 1 crepe sucré and a beverage for a fixed price… And look at the menu of options for the crepes!!!! There were at least 50+ varieties of savory and 50+ varieties of sweet options to choose from. Granted, not all the choices were vegetarian, but still impressive, don’t you think?

creperie versailles

I loved the savory crepes, also called gallettes, which were made with Sarracene wheat or buckwheat instead of regular wheat flour. I ordered mine filled with spinach, potatoes and cheese. Annie Mariel did not steer too far away and ordered a potatoes and cheese crepe. They were delicious…

Crepe epinard 1

For dessert, I ordered my new favorite flavor for desserts – caramel beurre salé with vanilla ice cream. Annie Mariel, true to her passions, ordered a crepe topped with chocolate syrup topped with café glace. My toffee was inside the crepe, the chocolate in turn was on top of the crepe… apparently there is no consistency of where the crepe accompaniment will be placed. But what you can be sure of is the accompaniment will help bring that thin crepe to a whole new place…

crepe caramel beurre salee

crepe au chocolat

And so far, I’ve had crepes sitting down in restaurants… granted, the tables I ate them were in sidewalks, but still I was sitting down and ate them with a fork and knife. But how about trying out one of those street-side crepes??? While walking down the street on Avenue St. Germaine we decided to stop by Les Deux Maggots… but my mind was on the creperie across the street right in front of the St. Germaine de Près church… I had to order the classic Nutella, which is very much Italian, but perfect to eat inside a French crêpe… it was so cool to see the crêpe being made right in front of me. Super thin and perfectly golden after just a few minutes… they give it to you wrapped in paper ready to take a bite right then a there…

crepes a la rue 3 crepes a la rue 1

crepes a la rue 2 crepes nutella

Next time you visit Paris, be sure to try your favorite flavors of the ubiquitous crepe… I am sure you’ll fall in love with them as much as the city itself.