In case you haven’t guessed, this is my nod to parochial British Cuisine.  I decided to pull out all the stops and put everyone’s favorite British items into one dish.

I lived in Manchester (England’s third most populous city) for a year and there are a few food memories I have from there that I shall, for better or worse, never forget.

Better:
-The curries of Rusholme
-Chips on a pita: I mean, they put french fries on a pita and call it a sandwich.
-Good beer, all the time.

Worse:
-Rusholme’s after-dinner fennel-and-herb mix: it was simultaneously dubbed by friend and I to taste somehow exactly like Toilet Bowl Cleaner.
-Calling Spaghetti Bolognese “Spag Bol.” That iched my eyeteeth about as much as the British pronunciation of al-loo-min-ee-um. I’m pretty charmed by this Spagbol website, though. It’s a freaking dot org!
-This breakfast
-Good beer, all the time

I’m not going to lie to you. When I was living in Manchester I never tried mushy peas. Upon reflection and being now older, wiser, and much more of a plagiarist, I’m making the peas into a “burger” and crusting it with my personal faves: Salt and Vinegar chips. (The world can be divided by those that like S&V chips, and those that don’t. As long as the divide leaves the chips on my side of the chasm, I’ll be a happy muncher.) I’m topping the whole thing off with a slice of cheddar and a cute tea-sandwich toast setup. You can further enhance this Brit-fare experience by adding a dollop of chutney.

Without further ado:

Serves: Makes 10 small “burgers” feeding 3 - 4
Time: 1 hour

Salt and Vinegar Chip Crusted Mushy Pea Tea Sandwich “Burgers”

2 cups peas, fresh or frozen
2 medium carrots, cut into small dice
2-3 Tbsp finely minced onion
1 Tbsp grainy mustard
2/3 cup oatmeal
1 cup salt and vinegar chips, crushed very fine
salt and pepper
olive oil for frying

Accessories: toasted bread with the crusts cut off (or buns), sliced cheddar, lettuce, tomato, grainy mustard, ketchup/chutney/marmite.

Steam the carrots for a few minutes then add the peas and cook until tender.

Drain the veggies, put them in a bowl with the onions and mustard and blend together lightly with a hand-blender or food processor.  Mix in the oatmeal.

Shape the mixture into small patties. Coat with the chips; pressing chips into the patties.
Heat some olive oil over medium high heat and brown the burgers for a few minutes on each side.

Assemble each burger with chutney and mustard spread on a half-slice of toasted bread (with the crust cut off, of course) topping the burger with lettuce and tomato.

This past Saturday was a glorious Spring day in Brooklyn - weather in the 70s with full sunshine all day. Forget raindrops on roses and even whiskers on kittens; sunshine and vegetarian food are two of my favorite things. Put them together and you’ve got is, in the words of Yogi Bear, a pic-a-nic.

Spring rolls make the perfect picnic food - light, fresh, easy to pack and fun to dip. Add a pasta, potato or fruit salad and you’re good to go for a day of frisbee and wallowing in the sun.

These spring rolls are my contribution to the new blogging event hosted by Real Epicurean, A Slice of Cherry Pie, and Cherry’s English Kitchen called “In The Bag.” The idea is that the hosts spotlight a few seasonal ingredients that go “in your bag” and you make a seasonal dish with them. Eating seasonally is great for a number of reasons, the most immediately gratifying of which is that fresh food at the peak of it’s growing season just tastes better! So kudos to these folks for starting such a great event.

Makes about 12 rolls to serve 4 as a main dish or 6-12 as an appetizer
Time: 30 minutes

Asparagus and Green Onion Spring Rolls

2 bunches of asparagus
2 bunches of green onions, sliced
1 16oz block of extra firm tofu, cut into 1/4 inch dice
2 cups of pea shoots or a carton of your favorite kind of sprouts
1.5 cups slivered almonds
15 spring roll wrappers (round rice paper wraps)

Wash the asparagus and snap off the woody part of the stems. Steam by placing a bundle (tied with a rubber band or string) upright in a large pot filled with an inch of boiling water. Cover and steam for 5 - 8 minutes. When the asparagus are bright green, take them out and plunge into a bowl of cold water. Drain and set aside in a bowl.

Prepare separate bowls of the chopped green onion, tofu, sprouts, and almonds.

Prepare your choice of dipping sauce(s). You can use the ones below or your favorite homemade or prepared sauce or dressing.

To work with the spring roll wrappers first find a shallow dish that’s large enough to soak the wrapper without folding it. Heat a kettle of water until almost boiling. Fill your dish with a half inch of water and gently submerge one spring roll wrapper being careful to keep all the edges soaking equally. Soak for a few seconds, until the whole wrapper is just translucent and pliable.

Place the wrapper on a large cutting board or table. In the bottom 1/3 of the wrapper place lengthwise two thin or one large asparagus spears. Sprinkle over some green onions, tofu, sprouts, and almonds. Holding the filling tight, fold over the bottom part of the wrapper and start to roll the filling upward, then fold in the sides and keep rolling tightly.

To store the rolls, place in a casserole dish with a moistened towel on top.

The rolls can be served whole or cut in half on an angle for a fancy look.

Truffle Dipping Sauce

truffle oil
lemon slices
sea salt
freshly grated pepper

Give each guests a small dipping bowl with a bit of truffle oil and have them squeeze in lemon and add salt and pepper to taste.

L’il Sis’s Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce

3 Tbsp peanut butter - chunky or smooth
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 - 3 tsp sugar or honey
1 tsp hot sauce
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

This sauce is jotted down in the L’il Sis’s food diary. I have no idea where she got it but it’s perfect for dipping or over a Thai-style salad.  Just mix all the ingrediants together.  Sometimes it mixes better if you heat it up in the microwave or over the stove.

Yes yes, “courgette” is just a fancy way of saying zucchini. But the alliteration of “curried courgette” works a little better than “curried zucchini,” so I’m not apologizing.

I often think of zucchini as the overabundant autumnal crop that people foist upon on each other like a harvest-time fruitcake. “Oh, here’s a pretty basket of zucchini for you. And here’s some more for your mom.” “Why thank you! To show my gratitude, won’t you please take these dozen loaves of zucchini bread?”

The courgette, on the other hand, sounds much more refined: creamy but strong, little but not to be taken lightly. It takes centerstage in this springtime dish paired with Indian spices. The soft and absorbent texture of the squash works great with Indian flavoring, though strangely enough zucchini and other squash are naturally native only to the Americas. Go figure.

My cousin, who was in town visiting from Nashville, was very impressed with this dish. He said it was both warm and cool, soft and crunchy, flavorful and fresh, filling but light. What can I say? He’s right.

Serves: 4
Time: 45 minutes

Curried Courgette Wraps with Radish

3⁄4 cup red lentils
1 1⁄2 cups water
1⁄2 tsp turmeric
1⁄2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp peanut oil or 1 Tbsp oil, 1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1⁄2 tsp cumin seeds
4 small zucchini, cubed or cut into 1″ rectangles
3⁄4 tsp garam masala
1⁄2 tsp ground coriander
pinch of asafetida (optional)
3⁄4 - 1 lemon, juiced
3 large radishes, grated
1 head of romaine or curly-leaf lettuce, washed and separated into whole leaves
To serve: hot sauce, cooked basmati rice

The plan of attack here is to start your rice, clean and chop your veggies, and measure out your spices before you start cooking. Once you start it goes pretty quick.

To make yummy Indian rice, per 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice add: 1 1⁄2 cups water, 1⁄2 Tbsp butter, 1⁄2 tsp salt, 3 whole peppercorns, 3 whole cloves and 2 cardamom pods and a pinch of saffron (optional) and cook in a rice cooker or on the stove.

To make the curry:

Cook the lentils, water, turmeric and 1⁄2 tsp salt in a saucepan over medium heat. The lentils should be soft in about 10 minutes.

In a large skillet heat the butter and oil (or just oil) and stir-fry the ginger and garlic for a few minutes before adding the cumin seeds. Heat until fragrant. Add the zucchini and sauté for 5 minutes or until almost cooked. Stir in the lentils, garam masala, coriander, asafetida, and lemon juice. Cook together for a few minutes until the zucchini is tender and the lentils are coating the zucchini. You may have to add a touch more water if your lentils have dried out.

Taste and adjust for salt.

To assemble the wraps put a little rice and zucchini curry on a leaf of lettuce. Top with the grated radish and hot sauce, if desired.

This pasta is the companion dish to Creamy Chickpea Soup. Both are simple and unpretentious dishes, elegant in the way that Italian dishes just can’t help but be.

A key ingredient of both recipes is garlic. In the Creamy Chickpea Soup the garlic gets mellowed and sweetened by long slow stewing. In this pasta dish the fried-crisp texture and zippy flavor of this golden garlic make more akin to a spice than an herb.

I’m addicted to the emerald color, jazzy shape and peppery taste of arugula. I’d say it’s the poor man’s watercress, but it’s so good it’s poor man’s nothin’. And you’re hooked on arugula like I’m hooked on arugula, it would behoove you quite a peppery bit to check out these recipes:

A beautiful Arugula Salad with Beets and Goat Cheese from Elise’s never-ended supply of perfect recipes.
Catherine and I are on the same page pairing pasta with arugula and cheese – check out her Strozzapreti with Arugula and Arina Goat Gouda.
Urban Vegan makes a full-flavored Rasta Pasta without the cheese. Fantastic!
And if VeganYumYum ever invited me over I’d eat a good baker’s dozen of these Spaghetti Squash, Shitake, Arugula and Pistachio Spring Rolls

Serves: 6
Time: 20 minutes

Arugula Pasta with Golden Garlic

4 small bunches of arugula, well-washed, de-stemmed, and chopped roughly
1 lb tubetti pasta (can use ditalini or macaroni in a pinch)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp red pepper flakes
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt, pepper

Prepare your arugula by washing it well, disregarding any stems and wilted leaves. Chop it roughly.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet or saucepan, heat up the butter and olive oil. Toss in the minced garlic and cook slowly, stirring continuously, for 5-10 minutes or until the garlic starts turning brown. Add the red pepper flakes and take the garlic off the heat when it’s almost golden (not later!) as it will continue to cook on it’s own for another minute or two.

When the pasta water starts to boil add the pasta and cook for 8 minutes. When the pasta has 1 minute left add the arugula to the boiling water and finsh cooking the rest of the 60 seconds.

Drain the pasta and arugula well and put in a large bowl. Pour over the garlic and oil, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

Serve with more red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese.