Pad Thai and Breakfast

Last night I made Pad Thai using the excellent guide at Chez Pim. It wasn't particularly photogenic (biting my tongue on a "your mom" joke... must grow out of adolescent, ie. graduate school, humor) but it was dangerously addictive. I'm a slow eater but I inhaled my plate and then threatened my friend with my fork over the leftovers.


Also, I've been digging making oatmeal for breakfast with fruit and some homemade almond oat crumble on top. Hearty, healthy, heavenly. Three wins.

Lemon Lentils

Quick, simple and delicious.

Ingredients

1 T oil
1 tsp butter
1.5 cups of red dal
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 onion chopped
3 slices ginger minced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tomato chopped
3 cups broth
Cilantro chopped
Salt to taste
1/2 lemon juiced

Directions

• Wash lentils.
• Heat oil and butter over medium in a large pot.
  
• Add onion, ginger and garlic. Sautee until fragrant
• Add garam masala. Fry 20 seconds.
• Add tomato and stir 30 seconds
• Add lentils and sautee a few minutes
• Add in hot broth to cover. If you need more water, then add enough to cover.
• Add salt to taste. Bring to a simmer and simmer with lid on for 15 min.
• Check the dal. Add more water for thinner dal. Stir in lemon juice and garnish with cilantro

paring down

The past six months has been an intense time for me. I was finishing up the last pieces of my research for my dissertation, working on a journal paper, writing my dissertation (well, it's almost done) and spending too much time inefficiently looking for jobs. My activities were pared down to doing these four things at least 12 hours a day and maybe one or two small adventures a week like rock climbing and tango. Then things heated up even more in the last month as I was getting incredible amounts of new data and learning more than I ever have in the same time period. Back in December, when I was just starting all this, I felt a dread in me. I didn't know if I wanted to do all this or if I could or if I would be completely unhappy and if so, how the hell would I be able to work a job as a post-doc or in a solar company? And it turns out that I... have been doing just fine. I've been really really surprised by this. I work crazy hours, I'm exhausted, I'm on a continuous roller coaster of feeling stupid one minute and very clever the next. I have had to ask for so much help which I usually shy away from doing and it has been stunning how willing people are to help out and how much I have learned from other people. I haven't been unhappy. I'm not always happy either. I guess I'm feeling focused and okay with being so focused. The little amounts of time that is usually distributed between lots of activities is now mostly focused on one big chunk. I'm making a plan to keep this focus for a while, even after I defend.

In the past month, there has also been another big change in that our lease ended for the house I've lived in with wonderful roommates for the past 4 years. I was incredibly sad about moving out as it was such a clear delineation defining the end of a period of my life and foreshadowing the changes that will also come in a couple of months. It was a great time to start paring down the things I carry around with me too. I gave away a lot of things and it felt great. I moved into a sublet for the summer and haven't unpacked much from my boxes. I've been trying to live very simply, only unpacking a small subset of clothes and still putting many things in the "give away" box. This simple idea has also carried through to cooking. I don't have much time for the elaborate desserts that I dream about making. But I've always been interested in seeing if I could eat just very simple foods, mostly produce and things not from packages. This week has been so interesting. I've cooked without salt or pepper, onions or garlic all week and find that the food tastes just as good. This morning I made a tofu scramble that tasted so fresh. Another pleasant surprise. Here are some things I've made. These are all single servings.

Pepper, corn and pine nuts
- 1/3 cup pinenuts
- 1 cup sweet corn kernels
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 1 T oil

Toast pinenuts until fragrant and light brown. Heat oil over med-high. Add pepper and corn. Sautee until peppers started to get a little browned. Stir in pinenuts.

Simple Tofu Scramble
- 1/2 block firm tofu squished between my fingers
- 1 carrot grated
- 2 big fistfuls of spinach
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 T oil

Heat oil over med. Throw in carrots and tomato. Cook 3 minutes. Add in spinach and tofu. Cooked until tofu loses the beany flavor (5-10 mins?). Eat.

Pea shoots

Spring is the time for pea shoot tips. They are a delicious green - just a tad bitter like arugula but also quite sweet. It takes about 10 mins to whip up this dish. Put the rice on to cook before preparing the greens since they are likely to be done sooner than the rice.


1 lb snow pea tips
1/2 lb snow peas
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
2 T canola oil

Wash and dry pea tips and snow peas. Crush garlic with the flat of knife. In a large pot, heat oil on med-high heat. Add garlic and sautee until fragrant (1 min). Add pea tips and snow peas and stir fry until snow peas are bright green and pea tips are wilted (3-5 min). Sprinkle salt and stir. Serve over rice.

Asparagus pea pasta

1 bunch asparagus (1.5 lbs), woody stems removed and chopped into 2" long pieces
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/3 cup pecans chopped
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup peas
1 cup corn
salt and pepper
3/4 lb angel hair pasta

1. Cook pasta and drain. Heat oil and butter on medium. Add garlic and pecans. Sautee until fragrant about 1 minute.

2. Add asparagus. Sautee until the asparagus begins to turn bright green (2 mins).

3. Cover and let asparagus steam for a while (3 mins?).

4. Uncover, stir, add white wine. Cover and steam again until barely crisp done. Uncover and add in peas and corn. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in pasta and sautee until warm. Sprinkle or generously mound dish with cheese.

Italian Flat Beans

This dish also came about because of the weekly farmer's market. One of the stands I always like to visit is run by a farm up in Lincoln University. Later in the summer they start selling italian flat beans. These beans are huge and flat but the pod is still edible. To me they taste more buttery than string beans. There's also a huge variety of heirloom tomatoes at the market. My favorite one was the zebra tomato, sadly shown gutted here in a bed of basil:
Putting these two together made an awesome combination. The recipe was something akin to this one but from the evidence below, it appears that I decided to drown the dish in Parmigiano.

Stuffed Peppers and Sauteed Fennel

Pics here. Words to come. X my heart.

Vegan Dumplings (Jiao Zi)

Dumplings popped into my mind last week. I don't know why since the next Chinese holiday is pretty far away. Plus it's the hot hot middle of the summer when few people want to eat boiling hot pasta encased meat. But I'm surrounded by Chinese lab mates who miss real Chinese food and usually will go to far extremes to get their food fix. I've even heard of some driving two hours away to check out a new restaurant. Well, I called some of them up and got enthusiastic responses so Dumpling Fest was born.

The first thing to do was have a pow wow with my mom about the recipe. I've only rolled out the dumpling skins but never made the dough or the filling. After an hour long very intense discussion, I have my game plan and shopping list. There were going to be two fillings - one pork and one vegan.

The morning of dumpling fest, I mixed up the dough and let it sit all day to develop the smoothiness (I'm guessing it's the gluten). I made most of the filling before folks arrived. Then we had a rocking kitchen of dumpling skin rollers and dumpling fillers. Once the dumplings were ready to go in the pot, someone was designated dumpling maker and the rest of us chowed down on the dumplings with much satisfaction. For some reason, my dumpling filling tasted a lot more "healthy" and less fatty than my parents. Maybe it was the cut of meat I used or because I added water chestnuts which made the filling lighter and slightly crunchy. I don't know. I just know they were delicious. We didn't get around to making the vegan dumplings so I'll have to do that tomorrow.

Dumplings (enough to feed 5 people)

Dough:
2 lbs all purp flour (I used Eagle Mills Brand that is a blend of whole wheat and white and it turned out beautifully)
2 cups water

The night before or the morning of the day you want to make dumplings, prepare the dough. Put the flour in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of water. Mix the water in with a spoon or chopsticks. Then continue to add water 1 T at a time until there is no more loose flour in the bowl. You do not want it too wet or it will be difficult to roll out. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes. The dough should feel slightly stiff. Place dough back in bowl and cover well with saran wrap or a towel and a plate. Let the dough rest for at least a couple of hours up to overnight. Alternatively, buy dumpling wrappers. Okay, next

Filling:
Part 1
1.5 lb ground cooked seitan or smoked tofu (I used my meat grinder for this. Stop making that face! I have a meat grinder for my cat! Hmm, I guess that sounded just as crazy. TVP may also work for this)
1/2" ginger minced
2 stalks scallion minced
2 T soy sauce

Part 2
1 head napa cabbage using green/leafy parts only, chopped very fine (the white stems can be reserved for broths or sauteed on their own)
1/3 cup water chestnuts chopped fine (food processor would be great for this and the next two ingredients)
1 cup shiitake mushrooms chopped fine
1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped fine
1 T sesame oil
1 T salt
2 t sugar
black pepper

Mix all ingredients in part 1 together in a large bowl and let marinate for 30 minutes. Add all ingredients of part 2 in and mix well. Test a spoonful (30 seconds in the microwave) and adjust seasonings. Cover and set aside.

Making the wrapper
Take the dumpling dough and knead it a few times. It should become very smooth. Tear off a piece about the size of tennis ball and knead it into a smooth ball. Make a hole in the center and squeeze into a donut shape. Keep squeezing the hoop until the hole in the center is very large. Find a thin spot on the donut and tear the dough there to make one long log. Roll and squeeze the log until it is about the diamater of a quarter. Take one end in your fist and start tearing off bits of dough about 1/2" to 3/4" long. Try to tear the dough off quickly to make a clean tear and to avoid stretching the log. When the entire log is in pieces, roll the pieces in flour and start flattening them.

Once they are all flattened, take a dumpling rolling pin (resembles a french pastry rolling pin but much smaller) and roll into dumpling wrappers in the following manner:

1. Hold the edge of a flattened piece between thumb and index finger (let's call this hand A). Hold rolling pin against the opposite edge of the dough with only the palm of your other hand (hand B). All your fingers should be on top of the pin. Ie. your thumb should not be wrapped around the pin but resting on top.

2. Apply pressure to the rolling pin and roll it up to the center of the piece of dough. You should now have a piece of dough that is really flat on one half.

3. Using hand A, rotate the dough a quarter turn.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the dumpling wrapper is roughly 2.5" - 3" in diameter. Ideally, you want the middle to be thicker than the edges so the filling doesn't fall out.

Finish rolling the rest of the pieces before moving on to shaping --->

Shaping dumplings

Now take a wrapper and place it in the palm of your hand. Add about 1T of filling to the center. Fold the wrapper in half. Now you can either

1. Pinch the wrapper in 3 places along the edge and then squeeze the wrapper fully shut using the long part of your thumb and the side of your knuckle next to your thumb.

or

2. Pinch the wrapper slightly shut and then proceed to make pleats. Finally squeeze the edge with the pleats to make sure it's sealed.

Put the dumplings on a floured plate or styrofoam tray. Boil up some water with ginger and left over napa stems. When the water is at full boil, drop in the dumplings. They are done when the float again (5 mins???).

Sunny dinner

Buddha Fire Salad

2 handfuls of mesclun salad
lay half an avocado sliced on top
1 tomato cut into wedges arranged around side of salad
handful of sunflower seeds sprinkled over the top

Dressing:
whisk together
1 T olive oil
1 t balsamic vinegar
1/2 t dijon mustard
1/2 t sugar

Drizzle dressing over salad. Yum.

Sesame Seitan

My roommate D made some seitan using the VwaV recipe but she added in caramelized onions, liquid smoke and soy sauce. Such an amazing idea.

1 chunk seitan sliced
sesame seeds toasted

Sauce (adapted from fatfreevegan):
1 T apricot preserves
1/2 t soy sauce
1/2 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 t sriracha

Fry up seitan slices until nicely browned on both sides. Mix all ingredients of sauce together in a small bowl. Heat in microwave until the preserves are melted. Mix well again. Spoon sauce over seitan and use back of spoon to distribute the sauce evenly. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

A Yum Yum Dinner

It's spring break which doesn't affect me too much except that I don't have classes on top of my long days in the lab. This means I can actually come home and cook myself something healthy and good such as this tofu and kale dish from Vegan Yum Yum. I substituted collard greens for kale and found that I really like the subtle sweetness of the collard greens. I also used soba noodles instead of rice noodles. It turned out delicious and made me feel so healthy.

Pepita Fettucini with Spinach and Cranberries from VeganYumYum

Tonight for dinner I tried this dish from VeganYumYum's blog. This pasta is amazing. There only eight ingredients but mixed together they become a bonafide taste explosion dish. You should give it a go too.

Saucy Apple Tofu

In celebration of fall and apple picking time up here in the Northeast.

Saucy Apple Tofu

1 lb tofu

2 hours before cook time, press tofu (between a cutting board and baking sheet with a big book on top) for an hour. After pressing, cut tofu into 1/2" thick slices. Make the marinade in a rectangular dish or tupperware:

Marinade:
1/2 c soy sauce
3 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 c apple cider
2 cloves garlic grated
1/2 in. ginger grated

Mix it up well and layer in the tofu slices. Marinate for 1 hour, turning tofu slices so they all get their fair share of marination time. Now go prepare:

3 T oil
2 T good mustard
1/2 c apple cider
1/2 apple, sliced thin
1/4 c raisins, dried cranberries or dried cherries
6 scallions chopped
1 T arrowroot or cornstarch mixed into 1/4 c water
3 T brown sugar

Whisk mustard and cider together. In a large pan, heat oil over med-high heat. Take tofu pieces out of marinade (keep the marinade!) and add to the pan in one layer (do two batches if they don't all fit in the pan). Pour in the mustard cider. Cover and cook until golden on both sides, about 3-5 min each side. Turn heat down to medium. Pour the marinade over the tofu and add in apples, dried fruit and scallions. Cover and simmer for 5 min, turning the tofu slices over halfway through. Take tofu and fruit out of pan and add in the arrowroot slurry. Mix until glazy and thick. Pour over tofu, sprinkle with brown sugar and y voila.