Dinner for Dirt Candy

**Updated - see below!

One of my favorite restaurants in this city - or anywhere, for that matter - is the brilliant and exceptional Dirt Candy. In the nearly two years since it's been open, it has garnered high praise, and I'm definitely in agreement. Although I'm a lifelong vegetarian, most vegetarian restaurants leave me cold - I'm generally not interested in eating fake versions of meat nor do I want to eat something that's cold, raw, or devoid of fat and other flavors. Dirt Candy, however, eschews all those stereotypes and delivers food that celebrates vegetables and also doesn't attempt to be healthy. I could go on about how much I love this place, but that's not the point of this post.

Yes, I am aware of the fact that the top part of the logo is supposed to
be a starlight mint, but I was going for a post-modern interpretation. 

That, or my fondant skills are low and I was in a rush (note the mangled 

spoon on the left sepal!) so I decided to play it safe.

Quinoa with Green Summer Vegetables and Herbed Yogurt Dressing

My fridge is overflowing with CSA produce – a result of having been out of town for many weekends in a row – and it is too hot to even think about how to creatively use it all, much less turn on the oven or have the stove turned on for longer than absolutely necessary.

As much as I love the crispness of raw summer produce – sugar snap peas, green beans, tender zucchini – sometimes you just want it to be cooked a little bit. However, heating up a pot of water to blanch green beans or using a skillet to sauté the zucchini would make our already-hot apartment even hotter and, after having blanched a few sets of vegetables last night (in addition to boiling pasta), I was not in the mood to have sweat dripping off my forehead and my shirt soaked through again tonight. And that’s where the microwave comes in.

Currant Yogurt Muffins

As much as I love being a CSA member, some weeks I get things that have minimal utility. Case in point: loads of curly cress (it's so strong and peppery that you can't use much of it) and last week's quart of fresh currants. You can't really eat them like grapes or other berries - they're super tiny and very tart - so the only thing you can really do is bake them or add them to savory dishes that could benefit from a little tartness.

I used my currants two ways: first in an eggplant caponata (which is all about agrodolce - sweet and sour - so the currants were an excellent addition) and later in these muffins. The tart currants melded beautifully with the yogurt and their flavor was accented by a bit of almond flour and extract. A touch of orange zest lent these a wonderful fragrance (reminiscent of the classic cranberry-orange flavor combination) and freshly ground fennel seeds rounded out the mix, providing a bit of mild savoriness.

Pasta with Fava Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, and Pistachio Pesto

It was 103 degrees in NYC yesterday so there was no way in the world I was going to stand in the kitchen any longer than absolutely necessary.  We live on the 4th floor of a small walkup building and it gets – and stays – really hot in our apartment.  Combine that with the fact our air conditioners are small units that are not really capable of cooling down a 100 degree room and you have a recipe for a very hands-off dinner.

Eating out and a big salad were not options (the former because we have so much produce from our CSA share and the latter because we had already had one for lunch), nor were turning on the oven or anything that needed more than 20 minutes on the stove so as to not overheat the apartment or the person standing over the stove in the kitchen (which would be me).