K.R.A.K. is in the current issue of BUST Magazine! Check it out at a newstand near you! (page 27)

Three Dinners in Milwaukee

There will be three K.R.A.K. meals in Milwaukee this Fall! Check them out! All will be "Pay what you WANT", BYOB, and RSVP at yummyaskrak@gmail.com.

Hello Milwaukee

My best bud Davey drove out to Milwaukee with me. Here he is at the Bayview Farmer's Market overseeing flower arrangements being made for my Mom and Grandma.

I live in Riverwest. My favorite part of the neighborhood has always been the Riverwest Film and Video Co-op. Not only do they rent out some awesome movies, but they rent filmmaking equipment, sell 16mm and 8mm film, as well as fake blood and break-away bottles for making your own movies. On any given night, there might be a man wearing black and a dark moustache playing Scott Joplin on the piano while Charlie Chaplin slaughters a rabbit on the big screen as a very large yellow toothbrush watches.

Goodbye Garden, Goodbye Brooklyn

Well, this image will always be my favorite memory of Brooklyn. Mr. Tascha in the Garden. I can't tell you how much I miss being able to walk across the street to pick kale whenever I wanted some.

And below was my last goodbye before I got in the truck and drove away-- Miz Hazel Haines. She was burning hair off of pig's feet with her gas stove when I paid her a visit. I just lost it. I cried the whole way out of New York.

Dinner Saturday August 23

Limequat-ginger caipirinhas with sage-infused cachaca

Raw spinach bisque w/ yellow-pepper-avocado cream and garlicy sunflower seeds

Braised slivered collards, roasted beets, goat cheese, vidalia onion rings, buckwheat honey, and black pepper

Stuffed poblanos with chana dal, sweet corn bread, smoked tempeh, ancho-chile-basil sauce, salsa fresca

Mexican chocolate brownies with homemade rum-raison icecream

7:3o at the KRAK den, $40

Email yummyaskrak@gmail.com if you want to come

--who's coming with you (max three guests)

--dietary needs/restrictions

--why do you want to come get KRAK?

--if you had a garden, what would you grow in it?

Summer in Pictures (The best news? It's not over yet!)

Summer rolls made exclusively with veggies from the garden and rice products from Chinatown.

We lit meringue on fire in Matt and Jess' garden, among doing other delicous things....

A large and gorgeous crowd came out for a stunning evening on the roof of Adelaide House.

It was all part of the scheme, "Best Summer Ever". It wasn't just the moonshine that put the rosy glow in people cheeks and the stars in their eyes....

It was a collective effort: Adelaide House made home-distilled moonshine with rhubarb-gooseberry juice, Erika made scrumptuous pickles, Alec made mulberry wine ("Lomax Nouveau"), from the mulberry tree that also presided over the dinner, and Kate brought the rest of the grub.

We watched the sunset, and after dinner "A Bout de Souffle" on the big screen.

Dinner for one: The beauty of a small harvest, baby red onions and beets

Garden-infused cocktails have been a big hit: Here is Lila Dobbs with her blood-orange basil infused vodka cosmo.

Summer started right with a face-off: Brandon Hinman of the traveling supper series Wink visits Kate Strassman's KRAK table. Together they decide to buy eachother five ingredients plus one wild card. B bought K lambs quarters-- it's a weed, not an animal part--, ouray raw cow's cheese, shitake mushrooms, juniper-berry kraut, kohlrabi, wild card: garlic scapes. K bout B Georgia sweet corn, maitake mushrooms, watercress, golden beets, thai young coconuts, wild card: fresh curry leaves. They each made three small plates, enjoyed tapas style. Long story short, it was an epic night to remember that ended in the wee hours of the morning at Maximillian Bell's on Nostrand drinking chardonnay on ice with a cocktail straw and rocking out to early Whitney Houston. For real. Brandon was thrown for a loop with ingredients like young coconut meat and curry leaves but came out triumphant and strong, and Kate learned a lesson or two on elegance and simplicity.... Here are some favorites from the menu:

Juniper berry kraut with tempeh bacon-avocado tea sandwiches

Mitake mushrooms and cold chickpea miso 

Marinated golden beets layered w/ ginger, curry leaf, beet puree, and young coconut sauce

Kohlrabi salad w/ sauteed shitakes, omlette slivers, thai-basil-chili-garlic sauce, and cashews.

Dinner Tuesday August 5

It is easier for me to update my blog than my website, given how unpredictable my garden is. If you would like to come to this dinner, please email me at yummyaskrak@gmail.com. This dinner will be at the KRAK DEN, $40, 7:30. *'d means it is home grown...

Rosemary-lavender* infused sake with lychees

Homemade summer rolls with tomatos*, green beans*, mint*, carrot, and Kate's peanut sauce

Marinated kohlrabi salad with smoky portabellos, curry leaf spicy mustard, curried fried cashews

Spicy thai basil* eggplant, lacinato kale* Kate's Magic tofu, sprouted wild rice

Three plum tart with chestnut honey

Eat more sea vegetable, please. With beets.

This salad will never disappoint. Arame is an incredibly delicious and nutritious mild sea vegetable, and I really enjoy eating it with beets. If the beet greens look good, slice em up and put them in! Bok choy is also fantastic in this salad. If you have avocados on hand as well as crunchy seed (sesame, sunflower, pumpkin...) to sprinkle on top, you will be one happy eater.

Marinated Beet and Arame Salad

3/4 cup arame
4-5 beets

dressing:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup peanut or sesame oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbspns brown sugar or maple syrup
4 large garlic cloves minced/crushed
pepper
chili flakes (optional)

The beets can be peeled, diced and boiled. But they are better if you oven-roast them. In that case, coat them with some peanut oil and a little salt, and let them bake in the oven at 400 for half an hour or so. Check on them after 20 minutes, and if they are to your liking, take them out. If not, let them get a bit more crispy.

Put arame in a bowl and cover it with water. Let it sit for about 15 minutes to hydrate.

Drain the arame, combine with beets in a tupperware. Pour in the dressing, add in the chopped bok choy and/or beet leaves, sesame seeds.... Put on the lid, shake, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. Garnish to your heart's content, and enjoy!

Beltane Photos

Beheading the Ramps

A Proud Mother: Happy Baby Cherry Tomatos and Basil
(Do you want some? My garden plots will not hold this many tomatos...)



Arugala, Broccoli, Laciano Kale Seedlings in the Garden

... Beltane Feast photos to come!

Vegan and Non-Vegan Pear Kuchen Tart!

I made this tart, which is one of my mom's old recipes, for one of my winter dinners and it was met with raving reviews. I wondered if I could make this tart equally delicious in the vegan world, and have succeeded! I tested both versions on my neighbors Bob and Jane, and they approved both tarts with enthusiasm. And you can trust Bob and Jane.

This recipe requires a food processor. If you like cooking and you do not have a food processor, I highly recommend you make the investment. Your life will be richer, more complete, and full of happiness. (Buy a real one, not a dinky little one. Also, blenders are not food processors.)

So, here's the recipe, and vegan substitutions are in (***).

Pear Kuchen Tart

crust
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, well chilled but not frozen, cut into 6 pieces (I use vegan stick margarine for both versions)
3 tablespoons whipping cream (3 tablespoons fatty coconut milk)
3 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teasp ground ginger
1/4 teasp grated nutmeg
1/2 teasp cinnamon
1/4 teasp salt
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup oats

filling
4 large firm but ripe pears (won't be good if overly ripe... aim on the crispy side), peeled, cored, sliced thin lengthwise
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream (1/2 cup coconut milk)
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3 egg yolks (or equiv. 4 eggs made with egg replacer aka tapioca flour w/ some other stuff-- buy the box of egg replacer, and it will last in your freezer for a lifetime if you're at all interested in vegan baking...)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
(I added a pinch of turmeric for the vegan version so the custard wasn't so white and pasty. The egg yolks give it that buttery custard color... The truth about turmeric? For all that color, it really doesn't have a very strong taste. So, believe it or not, the coconut-turmeric-lemon-fake egg custard tasted delicious, and puffed up when baked like a charm.)

For crust: Position rack in center of oven and pre-heat to 375 degrees. Butter 9-inch round tart pan with removable bottom (spring form pans work too).

In food processor, combine flour, butter, cream, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, spices, and salt blend until it resembles a coarse meal. Press 3/4 of this mix into the bottom of your pan. Prick holes in the crust with a fork and bake until crust is lightly brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 350.

For struessel topping: With the little pit of flour mixture still in your food processor, add the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar, oats, almonds, and maybe some extra margarine. Pulse until everything is coarsely ground, resembling chunky buttery granola. STRUESSSEL! Taste and see how delicious it is! Scoop out of food processor and set aside.

Prepare filling: Slice pears very thin, 1/4" or thinner. Squeeze lemon juice on them if you want or if you're worried about them getting brown.

For custard, combine sugar, cream, flour, yolks (or non-yolks and turmeric), lemon juice and vanilla in food processor (clean it after you make the struessel...) and blend 20 seconds, stop and scrape down bowl, and then blend 20 seconds more.

Take out crust, pour a little bit of custard on the bottom, and arrange sliced pears attractively on top. Pour remaining custard on top of pears, sprinkle on struessel, and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Let kuchen stand at room temperature 10 minutes before removing sides of pan. Serve with ice cream, schlag, or a lemon-cream(coconut)-sugar sauce drizzled on top.

Vegemite Love

Today at the FARM, Franny brought the vegemite and I brought the avocado for a taste bonanza of Francesco's Vegemite Madness. The consensus? 

Toast + butter + vegemite + avocado + poached egg + honey =  frickin amazing, blow my mind, best egg sandwich EVER!

Modern Day Urban Pagan Eating, Anyone?

So, I've been doing my research about Spring Food, and just recently I googled "Spring Pagan Food" (which I highly recommend doing), and I found this. It is from a website for Cauldron Farm in Central Mass, and they are part of Asphodel, which is a pagan religious community. I am thoroughly obsessed, not in a cultish way, but in a fascinated/understanding kind of way. This article I found maps the Pagan seasonal calendar and describes what our ancient ancestors ate during these times. I really like the consideration of applying this to my life now in 2008, in Brooklyn. Who wants to be a modern day urban pagan eater with me? We are just ending the season of Imbolc, which is that nasty cold late winter/early spring time. It is also the time of the egg. At work this weekend, my Sicilian/Australian friend Francesco brought in his Vegemite (a weakness of mine) and as we had our early morning Vegemite, butter, and toast he told me his concoction of a recipe for how this famous trio is enjoyed best: You add avocado and a poached egg. Ever since then I've been dreaming of eating this, and it is going to happen this week. I will document it for sure. I'm not even much of an egg person, but my palate has definately been craving gooey poached eggs, and now I know why. Because I am a Pagan, it is the time of Imbolc, the time of the egg. K.R.A.K.'s Spring season will be right on time for Ostara and Beltane, so get ready to rock the greens with me. Read on (scroll down until you see Imbolc and Ostara mentioned if you want to know what I'm talking about, but the whole article is really cool-- thanks Raven)

http://www.cauldronfarm.com/asphodel/articles/feast_and_fast.html

Pumpkin Toor Dal Soup w/ Avocado Tahini Puree

I don't know about your bodega, but mine sells pre-slaughtered pumpkin pretty much year round, which is AWESOME. It is always on special for 99 cents a pound. Flatbush Ave. between Maple and Midwood. Go get some.


Today at the bodega, I asked a lady who was checking out if she ever cooks with pumpkin, and she said Yes. I asked, "What do you make?" and she said, "I make pumpkin rice and pumpkin soup...." Then her eyes drifted to the piece of pumpkin I had picked out and she shook her head, handed her friend her wallet and said, "Hold on, you pay for this stuff while I help this girl find a better piece of pumpkin."

So don't pick a piece with soft edges, even if it is the smallest piece and you don't want too much. Go for the firm, pointy-edged, pre-cut pumpkin that has a nice light orange hue. This lady was awesome; I think I remember her name was Marlisha, she was a Pisces (I gathered from her Pisces earrings), and she didn't like to have her picture taken. Marlisha makes some bad-ass pumpkin rice, which I made her tell me the recipe for:

Grate a piece of pumpkin, like you're grating cheese, and put it in the pot as you're cooking your rice. Add a little bit of olive oil, salt, and some coconut milk. She uses her natural herb shaker to give it some flecks of green when she's done. I'm totally making this. Here's a really unflattering picture of Marlisha and me: She is going, "Fine, I'll be a sport, take the damn picture," and I'm going, "Heck yeah, Pumpkin Rice!"


This is the recipe I set out to share with you in this post. It is adapted from Yamuna Devi's "Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking," which is my Bible. You should buy it if you're remotely interested in Indian Cooking, for real. Look, I'm giving you a REAL recipe!

2/3 cup toovar dal or yellow split peas
6 1/2 cups water
2 cups peeled pumpkin
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 onions
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (not as necessary if you don't have)
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon jaggery or maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon asafetida powder
12 curry leaves, minced
minced cilantro

Rinse toovar dal by swishing it around in water in the pan and draining off water about three times before you add ~6 cups and bring it to a boil on your stove. Add pumpkin, ginger, lemon juice, bay leaves, turmeric, some oil and some salt, and boil it covered until the toovar dal is soft and the pumpkin get mushy, about 45 minutes.

Coarsely mince your onions. Heat some peanut or canola or coconut oil (or ghee is yummy too) in a skillet, and put in mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and red chili flakes. Stir a little bit until mustard seeds turn grey and start to spit around like Mexican jumping beans and cumin seeds get brown. Throw in asafetida and curry leaves, then onions. Saute until onions are caramelized.

When soup is done, turn off heat, pick out bay leaves, and whisk until smooth and creamy. Stir in the onion mixture and some salt. A little garam masala can be good too as a little finisher, which I think I do. I like this soup to have a real pureed texture, so I put it in my food processor. Add minced cilantro.

To make the avocado tahini puree: Halve avo and put it in the food processor with two tablespoons tahini, some lemon juice, salt, pepper, and one raw garlic clove. Add a little bit of water, and blend until it is smooth and creamy. Add the water very slowly bit by bit so it is not too thin. It's best to have a sour cream consistency. Put a dollop of this on your soup, garnish with some pumpkin seeds, and WALLAH!

Roman Kale

Tonight I was going to cook a grand meal, but decided I was more in the mood for just a pile of greens. I bought some fun, spiky purple kale at the co-op today along with a block of parmesean cheese because I'm going to make some fennel pancakes.... that's right, stay tuned for some fennel pancakes...

Anyways, I made this dish for my first winter dinner, and it was met with much enthusiasm by my guests. This is a very old and traditional way that Romans prepare spinach, but I like making this one with kale.



This is what you do: Rinse and mince/tear up kale. Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium heat and brown some minced garlic (2-3 cloves) in the oil. Add the kale and saute the kale for a few minutes (kale does not take long) until it has wilted down. I like my kale a little al dente, but it's totally up to you how long you cook it. Remove from heat and toss in a bowl with a splash of balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. My favorite way to deal with parmesean is to buy the whole block (it's so much better this way than the pre-grated stuff) and to grate it nice and fat by hand with a vegetable peeler, not with a cheese grater. Toss with toasted pine nuts and parmesean cheese. If you want to get a little more fancy with this one, you could make a balsamic reduction. To do that, you heat balsamic vinegar on low in a saucepan, stirring regularly until it thickens and gets syrupy. This does change the taste of the balsamic, as it gets more tangy and sweet. And syrupy. It's delicious, but sometimes it takes too long for just a quick meal. Either way, this is some good kale.

a.k.a. Jesus Christ

So over the phone I learned that last night at Easter dinner in Milwaukee, my drunk, happy, and Catholic family came up with a new name for my restaurant: "The Father, the Daughter, and the Holy Spirit". It took me a second, but after a while, I do have to admit I thought this was funny. Especially considering that I got a comment this week that my concept of K.R.A.K. "... sounds like something Jesus would do...." Oh Lord, help me.

Perhaps there will be a "Last Supper" themed spring dinner. Maybe I'll serve unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and hardboiled eggs.

Ok, I'm going to post some more recipes starting tomorrow

The Spring recipe scheming begins...

Kate's Renegade Aboveground Kitchen is about to complete a fantastic first winter season, and I am already scheming for the seasons around the corner. Spring '08 will focus on lots of delicious spring veggies like fennel, beets, and young vidalia onions.... Plus, the K.R.A.K. kitchen will be moving around to other people's homes just to spice things up a bit. My friends in Prospect Heights have a large rustic loft with a wood burning stove, and we are planning a Medieval Banquet-style Spring pagan dinner. It will be quite a feast, and we're planning on brewing our own mead. Get ready!

Here's something I cooked up last night with spring in mind: It is a beet pancake with cashew-garlic sauce, layered with steamed green kale, millet, and curried green lentils, with a few caramelized leeks on top. My roommate Alex and I agreed it was totally excellent and surprising-- sumptuously sweet, zesty, and complex! I do want to work on the presentation a bit, but it will definitely find its way onto the spring menu in some shape or form.


Millet is an amazing little whole grain, and one that is worth having around in your pantry. Very few cooks use whole grains directly, and I want to endow you, my readers, with a healthy diverse knowledge about the world of carbohydrates. There is a reason why grains are at the base of our food pyramid, and despite this nation's recent aversion to carbs, we NEED whole grains to provide fiber, B vitamins, and folic acids for healthy digestion. Slowly, I will teach you all about my favorite whole grains that are not wheat, soy, or corn. (I have nothing against wheat, soy, or corn, but they are SO overly grown, done, and pumped into most of the food we eat....) There is so much more out there, and YOU should cook it! Wow, my first blog post and I'm already standing on a soap box and YELLING!

Fun millet facts: The ancient Chinese ate millet as a staple crop before they rice became the dominant crop! Millet is the primary ingredient in bird seed! (Am I telling you to go buy a bag of birdseed and cook it up for dinner?.... Well, maybe I am.) Also, millet is super easy to digest and is gluten free!

Ok, enough is enough, here's the god damn recipe. This is a great way to prepare millet as a side dish, which is how I made it for the pancake. It has an uncanny resemblance to this breakfast dish that I ate a lot at Raghava's house in Bangalore...

South Indian Style Millet:

Spread a cup of millet onto a baking sheet and toast at 300 degrees (toaster ovens are wonderfully suited for this type of stuff if you have one...) until you start to smell a nutty aroma. Millet does not need to be toasted, but it helps keep the grains intact when you boil them and prevents a mushy texture. I think it also improves the taste.

(I don't measure my water for millet, but let's say two cups to start....) Add the millet to a pot, and add about two cups water. Boil for 20-30 minutes, check to see if you need to add water or drain some out once millet is soft.

Chop up a medium size onion, de-seed and mince a few green chillies (you could also use red chili flakes), and mince up about 12 curry leaves. Heat about two tablespoons of coconut oil in a skillet. Add about a half tablespoon of black mustard seeds, throw in the chillies, and let seeds sputter and turn a bit grey. Sprinkle in the curry leaves with a dash of asafaetida (optional, but authentic...) right before you toss in onions. Saute with a dash of turmeric until the onions are a bit caramelized, and stir in the millet. Add salt to taste (salt is very important here... don't forget it...) and serve!

Baffled by some of these ingredients? Well, the park slope food co-op has all of them, but before I joined I shopped a lot at the little Indian grocery on First Ave (between 5th and 6th I think...) in the East Village, in Little India/Jackson Heights/Queens (Patel Brothers), or on Lexington Ave. in the mid 20's. Go get ye some Indian cooking staples! I keep my curry leaves and little green chillies in my freezer so they keep longer and I always have them on hand.