This soup is pretty basic, which is part of the reason I like it. If I saw it on a menu, I probably wouldn’t order it because… how good could white bean soup really be? Well, i’ve been ladling off the broth and drinking it cold. It’s really good. But what elevates it is the brussel sprouts and the bread.
This is a little different baked semolina - somewhere between a pasta and a fritter. Some call this kind of thing a roman gnocchi. The dish is creamy and crispy, savory and vegetal. It’s a light dinner or appetizer.
Dumplings:
Sauce:
Today I plan to whisk you away to a magical mountainous trail through Liguria where people seem to subsist on pillowy pasta filled with an abundance of wild greens and foraged herbs. This recipe is surprisingly hearty and full-flavored as a result of mixing the heady aroma of black walnuts with the umami of the braised greens.
Good gnocchi is one of my favorite things. Here it’s seared, and that’s the most popular these days in America. I like it even more boiled and then tossed into a braise or soup or baked into a casserole-like thing and i’m sure i’ll have a recipe for that soon. It’s also traditionally vegan - like the recipe in Artusi (pictured) - however it’s commonly enriched with egg.
This dish got put up on vegansaurus last spring, but I’ve been working on perfecting the gnocchi itself so I’m posting it here with an new and improved recipe. Most importantly, 00 flour is essential. 00 denotes the finest-milled wheat flour available, although I’ve heard that the gluten content of 00 varies considerably. Every professional i know uses caputo brand which you can order online, although i just picked up what they had at Claudio’s and it worked well. I used to think that the structure of a good gnocchi came from the gluten bonds, but now it seems to me the flour is mainly there to add heft to the potato scaffolding. I mention this mainly to say that kneading should be very limited and that oil basically deflates this dough, making it useless. I’ve weighed out the cooked pureed potato and the flour, which also makes this recipe exponentially more reliable. Lastly, I’ve given up on freezing raw gnocchi - it still ends up fine; its just very different and i prefer the fresh.
serves four to six
Ingredients
Gnocchi:
I have to admit I haven’t spent much time cooking outside of work lately. I keep trying to get around to perfecting my potato-and-flour gnocchi recipe, but that will just have to wait a few more days. But I saw this on the modernist cuisine blog and it‘s really good and quick. Cooking tofu correctly can often be very similar to cooking white fleshed fish like tilapia or cod correctly. It’s not just about heating it up. In this case, it’s about achieving a silky texture in the middle with a slight chew on the outside and infusing it with flavor. Chinese steamed fish dishes have always intrigued me but steaming can be a pain in the ass. So the people in the modernist lab did some testing and came up with a pretty damn good recipe. Even with good tofu, I think we need a little more strong aromatics in there than they do for the fish, so I looked at some other Chinese steamed fish recipes and came up with something I really liked. This takes about 15 minutes to prep and 6 to cook. If your plan isn’t to eat it like a midnight snack (which I highly suggest), I would suggest serving it with a heartier grain like farro or a good brown rice cooked sticky style like they do at Chinese restaurants. Beyond the fact that microwave steaming seems ridiculous, the idea of steamed tofu is not particularly appetizing, so i can’t really figure out a good name for this, but it’s awesome.
Microwaved tofu, in the style of a chinese steamed fish (seriously):
Lightly score the surface of the tofu with the tip of a sharp knife. Lay the tofu in a single layer on a microwaveable plate, and season lightly with salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Crush 3 of the scallions with the back of a knife. Spread the ginger, orange, chile, vinegar and fermented black beans on top of the tofu. Lay the scallions over top of everything Wrap the whole plate very tight with plastic wrap. Microwave on medium power for 6 minutes. While it’s microwaving, slice the rest of the scallion greens. When it is done cooking, unwrap it carefully and discard the scallions. Then cover it with the sliced scallions greens. Heat the peanut oil to until it’s just smoking and pour over the tofu. Mix the toasted sesame oil and soy sauce and drizzle evenly over the dish.
Chopped salted chiles:
These are wonderful to have on hand at all times, but they do take a while to if your in a rush, just use some Chinese chile paste, whichever you can find that has the least number of ingredients. You can even just leave this out of the steamed tofu and just add some chile flakes for spicyness This recipe is from the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop:
Cut off the stems and tips and chop coarsely. In a bowl, mix the chiles with 3 ½ tablespoons of the salt. Place in a glass jar and cover with the rest of the salt. Seal with a tight-fitting lid. Leave in a cool place for a couple of weeks and then refrigerate after opening.
I was originally planning on celebrating valentine’s day this upcoming Saturday - at work we’re doing a tasting for the holiday and I usually work Tuesdays anyway. But I got a text a little after midnight on Saturday with a schedule change. After I groggily figured out what day it was (Sunday morning) and which week my boss was referring to (this one) I realized I’d be around for valentine’s with my partner and started thinking up a menu. Beets are Sam’s favorite and since I had one dish pretty down pat (red wine-braised tempeh with apples and bowties), I figured I could go out on a limb and do some beet-filled agnolotti which I had never done before. The look is great for valentines day, but the flavors are immense anyday.
Check out this incredible Italian vegan recipe blog. This cat really knows some stuff and has a refreshingly different take on food than a lot of what is out there. Every recipe is provided in Italian and English and he even provided me a tiramisu recipe prior to posting it up on his blog because Sam’s pignolis have created a deep, deep hunger in my soul for more real italian desserts.
SEITAN-BALLS with TOMATO SAUCE
(scroll down for english text)
ingredienti per 2 persone:
• 130 grammi di seitan• 1 cipolla rossa
• 8 cucchiai di pane grattugiato
• 1 cucchiaio di olio extra vergine di oliva
• 1 cucchiaio di tamari (salsa di soia)
• 1 cucchiaio di arrow root
• 1…
The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.
The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’
Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called ‘this perception we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly’.
‘Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties’, he told a questioner at an on-line forum. ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans’.
But research by the Bureau has found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children. A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days. Because the attacks are carried out by the CIA, no information is given on the numbers killed.
Administration officials insist that these covert attacks are legal. John Brennan, the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, argues that the US has the right to unilaterally strike terrorists anywhere in the world, not just what he called ‘hot battlefields’.
‘Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al- Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces,’ he told a conference at Harvard Law School last year. ‘The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to”hot” battlefields like Afghanistan.’
State-sanctioned extra-judicial executions
But some international law specialists fiercely disagree, arguing that the strikes amount to little more than state-sanctioned extra-judicial executions and questioning how the US government would react if another state such as China or Russia started taking such action against those they declare as enemies.
Related article: A question of legality
The first confirmed attack on rescuers took place in North Waziristan on May 16 2009. According to Mushtaq Yusufzai, a local journalist, Taliban militants had gathered in the village of Khaisor. After praying at the local mosque, they were preparing to cross the nearby border into Afghanistan to launch an attack on US forces. But the US struck first.
A CIA drone fired its missiles into the Taliban group, killing at least a dozen people. Villagers joined surviving Taliban as they tried to retrieve the dead and injured.
But as rescuers clambered through the demolished house the drones struck again. Two missiles slammed into the rubble, killing many more. At least 29 people died in total.
‘We lost very trained and sincere friends‘, a local Taliban commander told The News, a Pakistani newspaper. ‘Some of them were very senior Taliban commanders and had taken part in successful actions in Afghanistan. Bodies of most of them were beyond recognition.’
Related article: Witnesses speak out
For the Americans the attack was a success. A surprise tactic had resulted in the deaths of many Taliban. But locals say that six ordinary villagers also died that day, identified by Bureau field researchers as Sabir, Ikram, Mohib, Zahid, Mashal and Syed Noor (most people in the area use only one name).
Yusufzai, who reported on the attack, says those killed in the follow-up strike ‘were trying to pull out the bodies, to help clear the rubble, and take people to hospital.’ The impact of drone attacks on rescuers has been to scare people off, he says: ‘They’ve learnt that something will happen. No one wants to go close to these damaged building anymore.’
The legal view
Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University, said killing people at a rescue site may have no legal justification.
‘Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution’, she said. ‘We don’t even need to get to the nuance of who’s who, and are people there for rescue or not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that case.’
Waziristan residents hold up missile fragments from drone strikes in October 2010 / Noor Behram
The Khaisoor incident was not a one-off. Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN,Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.
It is notoriously difficult for the media to operate safely in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Both militants and the military routinely threaten journalists. Yet for three months a team of local researchers has been seeking independent confirmation of these strikes.
Eyewitness accounts
The researchers have found credible, independently sourced evidence of civilians killed in ten of the reported attacks on rescuers. In five other reported attacks, the researchers found no evidence of any rescuers – civilians or otherwise – killed.
The researchers were told by villagers that strikes on rescuers began as early as March 2008, although no media carried reports at the time. The Bureau is seeking testimony relating to nine additional incidents.
Often when the US attacks militants in Pakistan, the Taliban seals off the site and retrieves the dead. But an examination of thousands of credible reports relating to CIA drone strikes also shows frequent references to civilian rescuers. Mosques often exhort villagers to come forward and help, for example – particularly following attacks that mistakenly kill civilians.
Other tactics are also raising concerns. On June 23 2009 the CIA killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud, a mid-ranking Pakistan Taliban commander. They planned to use his body as bait to hook a larger fish – Baitullah Mehsud, then the notorious leader of the Pakistan Taliban.
‘A plan was quickly hatched to strike Baitullah Mehsud when he attended the man’s funeral,’ according to Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick, in his recent bookThe Triple Agent. ‘True, the commander… happened to be very much alive as the plan took shape. But he would not be for long.’
The CIA duly killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud in a drone strike that killed at least five others. Speaking with the Bureau, Pulitzer Prize-winner Warrick confirmed what his US intelligence sources had told him: ‘The initial target was no doubt a target anyway, as it was described to me, as someone that they were interested in. And as they were planning this attack, a possible windfall from that is that it would shake Mehsud himself out of his hiding place.’
Up to 5,000 people attended Khwaz Wali Mehsud’s funeral that afternoon, including not only Taliban fighters but many civilians. US drones struck again, killing up to 83 people. As many as 45 were civilians, among them reportedly ten children and four tribal leaders. Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud escaped unharmed, dying six weeks later along with his wife in a fresh CIA attack.
A funeral for victims of a US drone strike.
Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-US legal charity Reprieve, believes that such strikes ‘are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.’
Christof Heyns, a South African law professor who is United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra- judicial Executions, agrees. ‘Allegations of repeat strikes coming back after half an hour when medical personnel are on the ground are very worrying’, he said. ‘To target civilians would be crimes of war.’ Heyns is calling for an investigation into the Bureau’s findings.
One of the most devastating attacks took place on March 17 last year, the day after Pakistan had released American CIA contractor Raymond Davis, jailed for shooting dead two men in Lahore. Davis had been held for two months and was released after the payment of blood money said to be around $2.3m.
A case of retaliation?
The Agency was said to be furious at the affair. The following day when a massive drone strike killed up to 42 people gathered at a meeting in North Waziristan, Pakistani officials believed it to be retaliation.
The commander of Pakistan forces in the area at the time was Brigadier Abdullah Dogar. He admits that in drone attacks in general ‘people invariably get reported as innocent bystanders’. But in that case he has no doubt. ‘I was sitting there where our friends say they were targeting terrorists and I know they were innocent people’, he said.
Related article: Get the Data: Obama’s terror drones
The mountains in the area contain chromite mines and the ownership was disputed between two tribes, so a Jirga or tribal meeting had been called to resolve the issue.
‘We in the Pakistan military knew about the meeting’, he said, ‘we’d got the request ten days earlier.’
‘It was held in broad daylight, people were sitting out in Nomada bus depot when the missile strikes came. Maybe there were one or two Taliban at that Jirga – they have their people attending – but does that justify a drone strike which kills 42 mostly innocent people?’
‘Drones may make tactical gains but I don’t see how there’s any strategic advantage’, he added. ‘When innocent people die, then you’re creating a whole lot more people with an issue.’
Growing tensions
Drone attacks have long been a source of tension between the US and Pakistan despite the fact that the Pakistan government gave tacit agreement, even allowing them to fly from Shamsi airbase in the western province of Baluchistan, while publicly denouncing the attacks.
In return the US made sure that some of the terrorists killed were those targeting Pakistan.
However the relationship has been stretched to breaking point, first with the raid to kill Osama bin Laden in May and subsequent US accusations of Pakistani complicity, then the NATO bombing of a Pakistani post in November, killing 24 soldiers. In December Pakistan ordered the CIA to vacate the Shamsi base. For a while drone attacks stopped but they resumed two weeks ago.
The US claims the drones are a vital tool that have helped them almost wipe out the leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan. But others point out they have stoked enormous anti-American sentiment in a country with an arsenal of 200 nuclear weapons.
Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Initiative at the Brookings Institution, points out the operation has never been debated in Congress which has to approve sending US forces to war.
So dramatic is the switch to unmanned war that he says the US now has 7,000 drones operating and 12,000 more on the ground, while not a single new manned combat aircraft is under research or development at any western aerospace company.
After a remarkable lack of debate, there is starting to be unease in the US at the lack of transparency and accountability in the use of drones particularly as the campaign has expanded to hit targets in Libya, Yemen and Somalia and until recently to patrol the skies in Iraq.
Three US citizens were killed by missiles fired from drones in Yemen last September. Anwar al Awlaqi, an alleged al Qaeda operative, was deliberately targeted in what some have described as the US government’s first ever execution of one of its own citizens without trial. His colleague and fellow citizen Samir Khan also died in the attack. Two weeks later Awlaqi’s 16 year old son Abdulrahman died in a strike on alleged al Qaeda militants.
Such unmanned war is a politician’s dream, avoiding the inconvenience of sending someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, into harm’s way.
The fact that the operations are carried out by the CIA rather than the US military enables the administration to evade questions. The Agency press office responds to media inquiries on the subject with no comment and refusal to give names of those killed or who are on the target list.
Until Obama’s comments last week, the White House would not even confirm the programme existed.
‘We don’t discuss classified programs or comment on alleged strikes’, said a senior administration official in response to the findings presented by the Sunday Times.
Lawsuit
The ACLU filed a lawsuit last week demanding the Obama administration release legal and intelligence records on the killing of the three US citizens in in Yemen.
Privately some senior US military officers say they are extremely uncomfortable at the way the administration is carrying out these operations using the CIA which is not covered by laws of war or the Geneva Convention.
The use of drones outside a declared war zone is seen by many legal experts as setting a dangerous precedent. Aside from allies such as Israel, Britain and France, other countries have drone technology including China, Russia and Pakistan. Iran recently captured a downed US drone.
Heyns, the UN rapporteur, said an international legal framework is urgently needed to govern their use.
‘Our concern is how far does it go – will the whole world be a theatre of war?’ he asked. ‘Drones in principle allow collateral damage to be minimised but because they can be used without danger to a country’s own troops they tend to be used more widely. One doesn’t want to use the term ticking bomb but it’s extremely seductive.’
Additional reporting by Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar, Pakistan
Christina Lamb is the Washington Bureau Chief of the Sunday Times
I’ll admit - this is almost straight out of the new york times. The picture is theirs too, although mine looked even better. Lasagna is difficult for me just because it is one of few particularly fond food memories from growing up and so if the texture is too different - even if it’s good - it’s wrong. I don’t even remember where I ever had really good lasagna, but somewhere in my memory is the perfect combination of crispy, fatty, crumbly, creamy, chewy, and, of course, silky pasta. The problem with vegan lasagna in particular is that there is very little that we have which is creamy, melts, and caramelizes, so you have to think a little about the different components and the way they work together, which is why I have yet to figure out a really good tomato-based lasagna. Whatever - whenever I crack the code of vegan baked pastas, I plan to open a vegan lasagna kiosk where we serve 6 different kinds of Grade A lasagna (and a ziti!). This one will definitely be on that menu.
The hazelnuts in this - while obviously not resembling grated parmesan at all, seem to fill the same role: textural contrast; sorta-chewy, tasty fattiness. All the creaminess comes from the béchamel so the consistency of that is real important - I highly suggest weighing out the ingredients to the gram. A word of warning - the end of this recipe isn’t difficult but it takes awhile because it’s best layered, rested, cooked, rested, and reheated to serve so plan in advance.
Pasta:
Bechamel:
Mushrooms:
Pasta:
Place the flour, salt, and rosemary in the bowl of a stand mixer with the dough hook. Mix it for 30 seconds on low, then add the water and continue mixing for 5 minutes, intermittently scraping down the sides and kneading it together with your hands. Keep mixing and kneading until it’s a solid ball, homogenous and smooth feeling - no graininess on your hands when you mix it. Then roll it in the oil. Wrap it up tightly in plastic and let it rest for 45 minutes or however long it takes to do the rest of the prep. Roll out the pasta on your machine into sheets, cut to the size of the baking pan. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the pasta for about 90 seconds, till it’s cooked through. remove from the pot onto an oiled sheet tray and spread them out so they don’t clump up.
Bechamel:
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour gradually, avoiding clumps. Add the shallot, herbs, porcini. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly so that the roux (the mixture of flour and fat) takes on color evenly. When it becomes a deep khaki but not quite brown, vigorously whisk in the soymilk, trying to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer, making sure it doesn’t boil over, and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
While the béchamel is simmering, heat the oil for the mushrooms in a large skillet over high heat. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Cook, agitating once every minute or so until they start to brown on all sides. Add the shallots. Cook until the shallots just aren’t raw anymore. Add the wine and let reduce till the pan is almost dry. Remove from the heat. When the béchamel is done simmering and the mushrooms have cooled for a couple of minutes, pour the béchamel through a fine mesh strainer into the mushrooms. Mix well and taste the mixture. If needed, season this with salt, pepper, and the red wine vinegar.
Put the hazelnuts in a plastic bag and seal it. Lay the bag on a cutting board and smash it with the bottom of a pan. Try to get even sized pieces, each about ¼ the size of a hazelnut, but it will be messy. Just make sure none are left whole.
Layer the lasagna in a baking pan from the bottom up like so:
Mushrooms/Pasta/Mushrooms/Hazelnuts/pasta/mushrooms/hazelnuts/pasta/mushrooms/hazelnuts/pasta. On the top layer of pasta, you’ll want to spread some béchamel from the bottom of the skillet without any pieces of mushroom and then sprinkled with hazelnuts. The layers of mushrooms should be pretty thin, and the hazelnuts are really just sprinkled throughout, not even like a full layer. If you would like, you can add some small torn pieces of radicchio in the layers to add color and a real vegetable.
Wrap in plastic and let sit for awhile - anywhere from an hour to a day. Take off the plastic and cover with aluminum foil. Preheat the oven to 350 and pop the baking pan in. Cook for 30 minutes. Take off the aluminum foil and put under the broiler just until the top is lightly browned. Set off the heat and let sit for about an hour or up to a day, refrigerating if it‘s going to be sitting for more than 2 hours. When you’re ready to serve, heat the oven to 300. Cook the lasagna for about 30 minutes, just till it’s heated through, and serve family style.
I’m a line cook in Philadelphia. When I started digitizing my recipes I decided I might as well share them. Here are the foods I make and the thoughts that go through my head .
