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Moosewood Recipes

©Van Zandberg Photos

The Moosewood Collective: From left to right (front row): Eliana Parra, Laura Branca, Ned Asta, Myoko Vivino, Lisa Wichman, Jenny Wang, (middle row) Wynnie Stein, Nancy Lazarus, Neil Minnis, Sara Robbins, David Hirsch, Joan Adler, David Dietrich, (back row) Susan Harville, Penny Goldin, Linda Dickinson, Kip Wilcox, and (not pictured) Tony Del Plato.

On a cold, windy, rainy Saturday in the spring of 2006, I found myself being treated to lunch by at Moosewood in Ithaca. We arrived early--around 11:30. Good thing, because, by noon, the place was entirely full, everyone happy to be indoors eating great food.

Mollie Katzen was one of the original members of the Moosewood Collective. The restaurant is named for Acer pensylvanicum, a maple with silver-striped green bark that grows in the understory of local woods. The restaurant opened in 1973 on the first floor of the DeWitt Mall, a renovated school, and is still there today, though the restaurant itself has gone through many transformations.

Mollie compiled recipes from the restaurant's original menu and named the cookbook The Moosewood Cookbook. The original edition had relatively few pages and a spiral binding. (You can still find used copies in local used book stores and at booksales.) The book was expanded in 1977 and issued in both hardcover and paperback editions. Mollie then moved to California and went on to write a number of other popular cookbooks. Since that time, eleven more books of great recipes have come out of Moosewood Restaurant, written by the Moosewood Collective.

My neighbor, Nancy Lazarus, is the current president of the Moosewood Collective. I'd like to thank her for helping me get permission to publish a selection of recipes from its books. The comments to each recipe are hers.

Recipes

Chocolate Cherry Clafouti

Kasha & Orzo with Portabellas

Moosewood House Dressing

Spicy Broccoli Soba Sauté

Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad

Tibetan-style Seitan Burritos