Utterly divine veg dinner for one, a little bit of kitchen magic

My obsession with platters appears to be reaching a problematic state. I love platters. LOVE them. Of all shapes and sizes, earthily organic or modern as can be, unfinished or perfect, with a hint of decor or none at all. And today I may have bought one more. It was on sale, and I am sure to use it, but the stack in my basement closet (hee-hee, T never looks in there; it's like a tiny wifely-embezzlement nook) is quite tall. But this platter is so lovely, and I've been eyeing it for months, and it went on sale, and so I jumped. It's possible I bought a matching baker, but that's an admission for another day.

I did not get to any of the cooking on my list today, but I did manage to make myself a marvelous dinner for one: pumpkin ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce; and warmed Yotam & Sami leftovers from two nights back. Everything saved beautifully; in fact, it was all better tonight which is not really a surprise. Fried onions get better over time, and tahini sauce is a sit-in-the-fridge-and-improve champ. Yotam's tahini sauce is lovely, and in making it I am always amazed by the way disparately viscous ingredients can come together so uniformly. That sort of magic is one of the elemental reasons I love cooking. Try this yourself:

From Jerusalem:

3½ tablespoons light tahini paste 4½ tablespoons Greek yogurt 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed 2 tablespoons water

Place all ingredients in a medium bowl, add a pinch of salt, and whisk well until you get a smooth, semistiff paste.

Could.that.be.simpler?! No. And when you first put everything in the bowl and start whisking, you'll think, this biz ain't ever gonna come together into a paste. But it does, beautifully and smoothly, and in this rich ecru color that you want to paint your walls with, and that's the magic.

Last night's chard stew, yogurt-tahini dressing recipe

Although it's hard to photograph gloopy looking food, this was quite yummy and perhaps you get a sense of that despite the yogurt-tahini-slicked chard leaves, stems, tomatoes and potatoes. I'm about to go post the dressing recipe now.

Roasted celery root! Yogurt-tahini dressing! Chard!

Why I've never oven-roasted celery root before is beyond me, but doing so results in a fabulous, new way of enjoying this root veggie. I peeled and cubed one celeriac bulb, tossed it with olive oil, salt and a mince of herbs and roasted it on a baking sheet in a 375 or 385 oven. Truly delicious. Did Mark Bittman recently mention working with celery root in this way? If so, he was right to suggest this method. Not a fab pic, but definitely a fab product.  Oliver and I went to the market today after his school let out because he HAD TO HAVE cinnamon graham crackers. That kid eats graham crackers like it's his job so at least the cinnamon option provides some variety. In any case, I came across this stunning bunch of chard and had to buy it. Also, I assumed I might finally get around to making one of the many flagged recipes in Jerusalem, and Yotam likes chard. Isn't this a show-stopper bunch? Nature's fluorescent spectrum can't be beat.

It turned out that I lacked time and energy for and at least one ingredient from every recipe under consideration, so I ended up making a chard stew of sorts with sumac, tomatoes, potatoes and an unreal yogurt-tahini dressing. I will post that recipe tomorrow and suggest putting it on everything from falafel to bread to steamed potatoes and dipping other veggies in it with abandon!