My favorite way to cook calves' liver

Slowly cook an onion or leek with a little salt until it begins to caramelize.
Throw in some chopped carrot and a healthy sprinkle of dried rosemary, maybe half a teaspoon.
While the carrot cooks, thinly slice a head of savoy cabbage.
Once the carrot has softened, turn the heat up to high and quickly saute the cabbage until wilted, along with a minced clove of garlic. Remove to a bowl.

Meanwhile, chop 1/4 cup pecans and toast in a dry pan.

In the same pan as the cabbage was cooked, melt a tablespoon of butter.
Over medium-high heat, cook 1/4-inch slices of liver for about 30 seconds per side, or until just cooked through.
Remove liver to a plate.

Add 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan. Bring to a boil.
Add the cabbage mixture to the pan and toss briefly to reheat.

To serve, place cabbage on a plate, top with a few slices of liver, then sprinkle with toasted pecans and another splash of balsamic vinegar.

My favorite way to cook rapini

Very fast, very easy: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop in a pound or two of rapini and simmer for a couple of minutes, then pull it all out. Let the water come back to a boil and drop in a pound of whole-wheat pasta.

While that's cooking, add the following to a pot over medium heat, in this order:
Olive oil
Garlic
A sausage, cut up (optional)
The blanched rapini, coarsely chopped
Sundried tomato, coarsely chopped
Pine nuts
Salt and pepper

Cook, stirring occasionally, until rapini is tender.

After pasta has cooked, return to pot and grate several tablespoons of cheese over. Can also add a tablespoon or two of broth or cooking liquid from the rapini. Serve rapini mixture over pasta.

My favorite Meyer lemons

I very much enjoyed the Lemon Confit Shortbread Tart from the New York Times, although it wasn't to everyone's taste. Although preserved Meyer lemons are delicious, it almost strikes me as a waste of their Meyeriness to salt them to death and then just cook them with chicken -- though now that I think about it, the Meyer aroma does come through.

The amount of shortbread seemed like a lot to me, but it's necessary in order to muffle the lemons, which tend to shout otherwise.

To make the crust, mix 3 cups flour, 1 tsp lavender salt, 1 cup sugar, and 2 sticks butter in a bowl, until it forms flaky crumbs. Throw in 1 egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 2 tbsp lemon juice, and mix until it starts clumping together. Refrigerate.

Thinly slice 7-8 Meyer lemons, minus the ends, and toss with 3/4 cup sugar. Marinate for a couple of hours. Then bring to boil in a saucepan, and cook down until the lemons are candied and the remaining liquid is somewhat syrupy, about 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into halves and roll them out to a little over 9 inches in diameter. Place one in the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan. Pour the confit over and spread it around. Top with the other half of the dough. Bake at 350F for about 35 minutes. Dust the top with 1/4 cup sugar and return to the oven for about ten more minutes, until the top gets a bit brown. I threw mine under the broiler for a bit too long -- it got dark brown in spots, but the sugar turned out nicely crunchy.

My favorite baby bok choy

Splash of olive oil, few drops sesame oil. Heat pretty high, then drop in a clove of crushed garlic and some baby bok choy and toss rapidly until bok choy starts to wilt. Throw in a dash of soy sauce and a dash of Tabasco sauce, then quickly pop a lid on and turn off the heat. The bok choy will finish cooking by steaming in the water from the soy sauce for the next few minutes, as long as you don't take the lid off too soon.

My favorite carrots

Preheat oven to 400F.
Peel and chop carrots into 2-3 inch strips or fingers.
Toss with olive oil, rosemary salt and balsamic vinegar.
Roast for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and add more balsamic vinegar, then roast for 10 more minutes or until carrots can be pierced with a fork.
Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

My favorite turnips

Peel turnips and chop into 1-inch cubes.
Braise in the greasiest, savoriest, saltiest chicken broth you can find. If it happens to be next to a roasting chicken, that's great as long as there is enough broth to cover most of the turnips. Otherwise they tend to roast rather than braise, and I find them sort of hard and too chewy unless roasted to a crisp.
Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and serve.

My favorite quick butternut squash

Chop an onion and saute it in olive oil with a pinch of salt in a large saucepan.
Peel, de-seed and cube one butternut squash.
Add squash to saucepan and add chicken broth to cover.
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to maintain a simmer.
Add a tsp of dried thyme or other tasty herb.
Simmer until squash can be pierced with a fork but isn't mushy, about 15-20 minutes.
Puree in batches in a food processor.
While puree is still hot, add a tablespoon or two of butter and stir.
Serve with sour cream or chopped cilantro or chives.

Quick brown rice

Add 1 cup brown rice and 2 cups water to a saucepan with a dash of salt.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute an onion or leek in olive oil in a separate pan.
Add 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp salt and a tiny pinch of cinnamon.
Add about 1/4 cup almonds and 1/4 cup water or broth and simmer uncovered for about ten minutes.

When the rice is done, mix together, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve.

My favorite sweet potatoes

Preheat oven to 425F.
Peel sweet potatoes.
Chop into either fries or 1-inch chunks (fries cook somewhat faster but can be limp).
In a large bowl, mix 2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp fine salt, 1 tsp garlic powder if available, and 1/4 tsp fresh pepper.
Toss the freshly sliced sweet potato chunks, which should be ever so slightly damp, with the powdered spice mixture so that they are evenly coated.
Spread the spiced sweet potato chunks in a baking pan.
Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over them and toss gently to distribute.
Roast for 30-40 minutes or until soft.

My favorite quick spinach side dish

With ungraded bunch spinach:

Dump spinach into a bowl of water in the sink.
Remove dead or bruised leaves from the outside of each bunch and cut off the root end to separate the leaves.
Change the water in the bowl at least once to remove mud and grit.
Drop washed spinach into a colander or salad spinner and let water drain away.

Heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium-high heat in a wok or large saucepan.
Mince 1 clove garlic and saute for about ten seconds.
Throw in spinach and stir briskly until wilted but still bright green, about 45 seconds.
Add a pinch of fine sea salt, a grind of pepper, and a squirt of lemon juice if desired and serve.

New series: my favorite ways

Due to the way I've structured my grocery purchasing habits, I almost never go shopping with the intent of picking up the ingredients for a particular recipe. Instead, once a week an assortment of plant parts comes to me, the content of which I have no control over; once every week or two I pick up an assortment of plant parts that are in season; and once every four to six weeks I refresh my supply of frequently-used, long-keeping staples.

This means that when I come home at night and want to make dinner, I first look in the fridge to see which plant parts seem most eager to be eaten. Usually leaves are at the head of the line, then fruits (peppers and tomatillos) and buds (broccoli and cauliflower), then roots and durable fruits like winter squash when everything else has been used up. Once I've selected a victim, I poke around in a cookbook or online to find a new recipe that showcases the vegetable. This is a fun process, but lately I've started thinking it takes too long. Also, I rarely make the same thing twice, and this seems inefficient.

Instead, I want to amass a collection of short recipes that serve as the best quick way to dispose of any given vegetable. I'll still post other tasty recipes that I'm moved to test out, but hopefully over the course of a year I'll cover ways to prepare each vegetable as it comes into season (and other ingredients too).