A moment to savor: I am less than one week away from the end of a Month of Meatlessness.  Cue the shock. The horror! Why?! Well, after eating a few great vegetarian meals recently, my steak-obsessed boyfriend was interested to continue the trend. Out of a sincere desire to experiment with minimized meat consumption (combined with high-reaching ambition and some serious self-delusions), he audaciously proposed an entire month of vegetarianism. Within about 9 painful days, he was found ravenously destroying a blue cheese- draped venison burger at Borough Market. I, however, despite my love for all things bacon, took it as a personal challenge to finish the month without letting a piece of animal flesh cross my lips. To be fair – it actually hasn’t been too much of a lifestyle change for me.  I cook almost exclusively vegetarian at home and can be completely satisfied with a veggie entree when eating out. I only found myself mourning my meat-freeness once or twice when an entire side of smoked salmon tried to seduce me from the fridge and when an entire table of Malaysian meat dishes taunted me from a communal table while I sobbed quietly from the corner.

Near-misses aside, I’ve relied heavily on Yotam Ottolenghi’s new vegetarian book, Plenty, which I bought as presents for 3 people before finally purchasing for myself.  It’s so good and so beautiful, I think the man might be a genius.  He, like me, is a dedicated meat eater who also revels in the beauty and flavor of meatless dishes that showcase everything from the humble onion to the unexpectedly sexy baby radish. Inspired by his ‘Very Full Tart’, I made a similar but oh-so-very-slightly-less-full-on tart with creme fraiche instead of double cream and leaving out the ricotta.  You can really use almost any vegetables you like here. At a cost of only about 10 pounds, a tart this size could last at least 3 meals for 2 people, although it’s good enough that I ended up eating it straight out of the pan after an entire slice and a half. Prepare at your own risk….

A Very (slightly less than) Full Tart

Adapted very slightly from Ottolenghi’s Plenty cookbook

What You Need:

1 large yam or sweet potato, cubed

Working on my knife skills

2 zucchini, sliced

1 red onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 large handfuls spinach

a few glugs of olive oil

1 package rolled shortcrust pastry (easy to find in a British supermarket, maybe use a pie crust without sugar in the States?)

350ml creme fraiche (or, you know,  a small container’s worth for those of you too busy to convert things)

3 eggs

1 small package feta (200g for you particular people )

salt and pepper

assorted herbs and spices – I put in a little cayenne and some mixed herbs that were lying around, but it’s totally up to you

1 small container of cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

What You Do:

1. Toss the yam in some olive oil and whack it into a pre-heated oven at about 350F and after they get slightly soft (about 10-15 minutes ), chuck in the zucchini slices.

2. While those vegetables are roasting, saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil. Once soft, add the handfuls of spinach and saute until cooked, then remove from heat.

3.  Unroll the pastry and place in a tart pan or rectangular tray, then prick all over with a fork to prevent from bubbling up. Once the vegetables are nice and soft and lightly browned to your preferred degree of doneness, put the empty pastry shell into the oven for about 10-15 minutes to brown.

P. S. I didn’t grease the pan and it was fine.

P.P. S. If you’ve got dry beans and are a big overachiever, you can weigh down the pastry and blind bake it. If you don’t and you’re lazy like me, just make sure to prick the pastry well and keep an eye out while baking and poke any big bubble.

The uncooked tart, tomatoes upright and smiling.

4. Beat the eggs into the creme fraiche and crumble in the feta cheese. Add some salt and pepper and any herbs and spices you feel like.

5. When the tart crust is a nice light golden color, take it out of the oven and dump all the cooked vegetables in.  Pour the eggy cheesy mixture around them, then take the tomatoes and arrange them sliced half up so the can be seen all red and pretty on top.

6. Chuck the whole happy deal back in the oven for 30-40 minutes or so.

7. When the filling is golden and only very slightly jiggles when shaken, take the tart out. Let cool for as long as you can stand it, then slice and eat. Try your best to save some for breakfast and maybe even lunch, you won’t regret it…

I know it might seem like those three jars were the three reasons, but I have three more in case you aren’t satisfied.

First reason: making pickles is ridiculously easy. Here’s the recipe: combine 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (also known just as rice vinegar), 5 or so TBS of sugar, 2 or so TSP of kosher salt with 1 cup very hot tap water. Stir to dissolve the solids, and pack your picklee into a mason jar or tupperware. Cover the produce with the brine, cover, and refrigerate. That’s it. I’m not kidding.

Second reason: almost any kind of produce, be it fruit or vegetable, super-fresh or a little on the old side, can be made into a delightful pickle. Trimmed, julienned, or sliced, vegetables like beets, carrots, celery, cauliflower, fennel, shiitake mushrooms and cabbage make great pickles. Fruit makes great pickles too: try cherries, or chunks of plums, pears, or watermelon.

Third reason: lots of different spices can make your pickles more distinct and complex. We’ve been thinking about coriander seeds, fennel seeds, chinese five spice, cloves, and cinnamon

The pickles will be at their height of flavor in about four days. However, you’ll probably still be amazed by their flavor when you sneak into your refrigerator later that day and try one – or just take them all out on to the porch and stuff your face like we did.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking, “Irene, this recipe has four ingredients including water AND about 3 steps: you’re asking a lot of me. Measuring spoons, refrigerators – this is far too hoity-toity for my tastes.”

That’s why there’s an even quicker, easier recipe: combine sliced cucumbers with three parts sugar and 1 part salt: for 2 cucumbers, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt. Toss and let them sit for 10 minutes. If they’re too salty, rinse them. And then gorge yourself on the easiest pickles you’ve ever made. Just beware, we’ve only tried this with cucumbers – I’m not totally sure if it would work with all the other produce we’ve listed, but feel free to give it a try and make sure to slice really thin.

This recipe is just one in a series adapted from David Chang’s Momofuku, a much beloved cookbook documenting the rise of the small but mighty Momofuku restaurant empire in New York City’s East Village.

At the last Rambling Restaurant of 2009, we served a trio of richly colored dips – chickpea hummous, beetroot hummous, and carrot cumin dip. So pretty in pink.

For maximum dippability, we prepared straight-out-of-a-hot-oven-and-onto-the-grill flatbreads. Take Moro flatbread recipe (recipe below), multiply by 15 (eek!) and you have a lot of steaming hot fresh bread  in your future. Also a lot of rolling pin action. Stop whining, it’s good for the arm muscles.

I know making your own bread for a meal sounds thoroughly unrealistic, but this pita-like bread only needs about 20 minutes to sit. This means you can take about five minutes to make the dough, let it sit while you chop vegetables or prepare something else, and have WOW-YOU’RE-AMAZING homemade bread to accompany your meal. Even if it’s only yourself you’re impressing, it’s totally worth it. Especially when you fold it over and stuff it with sauteed spinach and halloumi cheese and roasted eggplant and other such delights.

We followed up the onslaught of foldable starch and pretty bowls of mush with a Turmeric Lime Chili Chicken over a Roasted Eggplant, Pomegranate Seed, Scallion, Parsley, Mint, Tomato Fattoush with a dollop of Cumin Yogurt Sauce. It’s a lot of ingredients that somehow all work in symbiotic grace to produce a happy mouthful of amazing.

But a discussion of odd-sounding ingredients that don’t really seem like they’d work together but actually will blow your mind would not be complete without Chef foodrambler‘s dessert: Orange Blossom Almond Polenta Cake with Coriander Syrup.  You might not think you like coriander, but I DARE you not to like this cake. I like this cake so much I am actually going to make it right now for a Christmas Eve Day Brunch.  I also like you enough to show you this pretty picture which does no justice to the rich, moist, exotically sweet and just a touch of spicy cake perfection.

Garnish with a twist of orange, a sprig of cilantro, and a spoonful of honeyed syrup with dots of coriander seeds.  Staring at this picture makes me very happy that this cake is only several hours in my future.  For those of you gluten-free people out there (sis Irene Bean is testing out a potential gluten allergy),  this cake is made with polenta and not flour. Woohoo!

Now go find yourself some cake too. Happy holidays!

Moro Flatbread

What You Need:

1 cup flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp dried yeast
a bit less than 1/2 a cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp olive oil

NOTE: this amount makes about four small-plate size flatbreads, enough for one very very hungry carb fiend like me, or two normal people. Multiply appropriately depending on your eating party’s level of carbophilia.

What You Do:

1. Mix the flour and salt in a big bowl and activate the yeast in the water, if necessary.

2. Slowly pour the water and yeast into the flour and incorporate by hand. Once all the liquid has been mixed in, punch the dough around for a few minutes. If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour. Add the oil and keep kneading until you have a single ball of dough with a relatively smooth texture and a bit shiny with oil.

3. Let sit, covered with a damp tea towel, for about 20 minutes.

4. Pull off small balls, larger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball, and roll them out to your desired thickness onto a sturdy floured surface. A good rolling pin is handy here, but floured wine bottles work just as well.  We decided to go super-thin at Rambling Restaurant, but I like the thick and fluffy kind too.

5. Once the dough has been rolled out, you can either put them on a lightly floured baking tray or a lightly oiled pan. At RR, we decided to do both – stick it in a hot oven until they puff up and lose their wet doughy sheen, then finish off on a griddle pan for some tasty brownedness. Either way is delicious.

6.  Cook until puffy, browned, and yearning to jump into your mouth. Dip in something tasty and pat yourself on the back for having produced your very own homemade bread. That is, if your hands aren’t busy tearing apart your creation and stuffing it in your mouth.

like you enough to leave you with a picture so you can start drooling yourself.