Author Archives: Kes

Char Siu-tan

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I tried making my own seitan today.  Man is it time consuming.  Yes, it’s cheaper to make it from your own flour…much cheaper…but I think the time saved might just make it worth buying it premade.  Plus the texture of the stuff I made was somewhat gelatinous…like the fat on meat, but not fatty tasting.  But in case you’re curious and want to give it a shot, the recipe I used is in The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (the quickest recipe I found), but there are also other recipes online, like this one.

For all the bad rap gluten gets nowadays (yes, there are people who are celiac and extremely sensitive, but I think at least in the bay area fear of gluten has gotten out of hand), seitan a pretty decent meat substitute.  If you fry it with a bit of oil on it, it’ll get crispy on the outside.  If you microwave it, it will puff up and then shrink down into little chicken like chewy bits.  It’s sort of bland on its own, but does well with sauces or seasonings mixed in.

Today I used my homemade seitan to make vegan Char Siu.  The process I used was ridiculous and not efficient.  First I boiled the seitan for a bit in some broth, then I marinated it in a homemade char siu marinade, then I steamed it for a bit, then I put the marinade and the seitan in a pan and cooked it while reducing the sauce, glazing it…then I removed the glazed seitan and washed the pan, added oil, and crisped the seitan up in that.  Way. Too. Complicated.  But here was the result:

I think the process would be easier and quicker if a) you used premade seitan b) just marinated and fried it, then glazed it a la this nice-looking recipe by The Wayward Oven.

Well, it was a fun experiment…and I know what recipe to look at next time I want char siuness.

A Random Vegan/Vegetarian Products Review

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Last weekend I decided to do it…to just try to go 99% vegetarian.  Meaning there are only exceptions for holidays and maybe sushi a few times a year. While I am generally a fabulous cook and can make some darn good vegetarian unprocessed stuff myself (lentil loaf, lentil meatballs, chili from dried beans, etc.), my grad student life style means I don’t have a ton of time to prepare food from scratch all the time.

As such, I’ve been buying more vegetarian fake meat products.  In order to not eat a metric buttload of calories, I need a lot of protein.  Soy products suffice.  I’ve also been curiously trying vegan things, just for the sake of trying them, knowing that a vegan lifestyle is generally most sustainable for the environment.  Here’s a review of what I’ve tried that was memorable from the past few years up to more recently:

Frozen Meals/Quick Food:

  • Kashi frozen meals -  Mayan harvest bake, Three Cheese Penne, Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas.  The first and the last are better than the middle.  Kashi’s frozen meals retain a good texture and taste wholesome and satisfying, with complex flavors you wouldn’t usually find in frozen meals.  Only downside is that the instructions for cooking are a bit more complicated than some other frozen meals (2 to 3 step rather than 1 step).
  • Sukhi’s Naanwiches, Garden Vegetable – Very good flavor, especially with the naan.  Probably best if toaster ovened though.  Not super filling.
  • Fortune Avenue Vegetarian Potstickers – presteamed, so they’re quick to cook.  You can microwave these in a minute and a half.  These are my favorite vegetarian potstickers.  They don’t taste like meat, but they have a nice rich flavor and good texture and chewy veggies in there!
  • Amy’s Tofu Scramble Breakfast Wrap – Avoid!  How can something taste so much like cardboard through the entire bite?  Bleh.
  • Trader Joe’s Black Bean and Cheese Taquitos – These are addictive and surprisingly fairly low calorie.  They make a great snack or meal when paired with some salsa to dip them in.  A bit dry, but good flavor.
  • Trader Joe’s Paneer Tikka Masala – While this has a great flavor and good texture, it’s just not enough to keep me full.  I like the green rice with it though, and the tikka masala sauce is good.
  • Trader Joe’s Eggplant Parmesan – Good flavor, but not enough in the meal to keep me full.  And definitely not enough cheese for an eggplant Parmesan!
  • Trader Joe’s Tarte d’Champignon – A flatbread pizza type thing with cheese and mushrooms.  Amazing and rich and so good.  Bring it to a foodie potluck and people will be amazed.  Wait no, bring me one please.

Meat Substitutes:

  • Gardein Beefless Tips – The *best* beef substitute.  Hands down.  I’ve used them for many things, from stew to sliced and browned in vegetarian pho.
  • Gardein Chick’n Scallopini – a decent chicken substitute.  It has a good texture, but the flavor is a bit celery-like.  Browns nicely.
  • Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo – uh-maaaay-zing.  Same flavor profile as the meaty version but with less fat.  Great scrambled with eggs.
  • Tofurky Peppered Deli Slices – skip these.  Go for the Hickory Smoked and add your own fresh ground pepper.
  • Tofurky Hickory Smoked Deli Slices – the best fake meat lunch meat.  It has the best texture and a rich flavor and a slight hint of smokiness. Enough protein to be satisfying.  I make my sandwiches that I eat on the train out of these!
  • Trader Joe’s Chickenless Strips – I didn’t let myself eat chicken strips before.  Now I do.  These are healthier but also tasty.  They also make great sandwiches.
  • Gardein Chipotle Lime Chick’n Fingers – yuck.  It tasted someone dipped chicken fingers in lemon cleanser.  No taste of Chipotle at all.  Gardein should retire these or reformulate them.  They have a nice texture of crust on the chick’n though.
  • Morningstar Farms Bacon Strips – eh.  They’ll work in something (like deviled eggs) if you really have a hankering for bacon, but they’re not that great by themselves.  Salty for sure.  Texture is kind of crunchy, vaguely cardboardy, but none of the chew of meat bacon.
  • Morningstar Farms Grillers Veggie Crumbles – these are fine.  Nothing to rave about really.  They add the meaty texture to whatever you’re cooking (chili, shephard’s pie, veggie sloppy joes) but wouldn’t stand by themselves as much.  You could just as soon just get TVP and do the same thing for cheaper.
  • Morningstar Farms veggie sausage products – Skip the links and go for the patties.  The links don’t have a great texture.The spicy patties are hard to find but particularly good.  Better than the fake bacon.
  • Whole Foods 365 Brand Veggie Sausage Patties – good flavor, but not low on calorie.  Nice spices and seasonings, good texture.  A little spicy but not too much for me!

“Dairy”:

  • Trader Joe’s Soy Mozzarella – Trader Joe’s does it again.  This soy cheese has a great texture and melts well, without the soy flavor of some vegan cheese substitutes.  However, it does contain casein (a milk protein) so it’s not truly vegan.  However, it didn’t bother my lactose intolerant tummy.
  • Trader Joe’s Soy Creamery Chocolate Chip and Cherry – Love Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia?  Lactose intolerant or vegan?  This is like crack.  No overwhelming soy flavor.  You will have to stop yourself from eating the whole dang tub.
  • Trader Joe’s Coconut Strawberry frozen dessert – Pretty good.  Tangy strawberry flavor, slight hint of coconut, good mouth feel and moderately rich flavor.  Different from strawberry ice cream, but in a good way.  It’d probably make some good summer cocktails if blended with rum!
  • Daiya Vegan Mozzarella/Cheddar Shreds – tastes like processed cheese product.  If you like Kraft singles, you’ll probably like this.  It melts well, but the Mozzarella and Cheddar kind of taste the same just with different colors.  However, works ironically well in scrambled eggs… (I can see some vegans face-palming right now!)
  • Pacific Organic Plain Unsweetened Almond Milk – almond milk generally works much better in coffee than soy or rice milk.  The latter curdle. Yuck!
  • Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Cream Cheese – Bleh.  Can the Daiya people make some cream cheese substitute?  It’d definitely be better than this.  This faux cream cheese has that cardboardy overwhelming soy flavor and texture that I dislike. This will probably sit in my fridge for a long while…maybe better in desserts though.

Seasonings/other:

  • Better than Bullion Vegetarian Beef Bullion: kind of flat and honestly doesn’t taste much different than their vegetable bullion (which is still a nice bullion substitute).  Salty like a good beef bullion with a fair amount of umami, but adding it to vegetable broth and adding some mushrooms (crimini or porcini) will make the flavor better.
  • Nuoc Mam Chay/Vegetarian Fish Sauce – similar funk to fish sauce, similar saltiness, but not fish sauce.  But it will do in a pinch for Thai and Vietnamese cooking.  Find it at Vietnamese grocery stores.
  • Vegetarian Oyster Sauce – oysterless, but still great on broccoli.  Stir fry with Gardein’s Beefless Tips and some chopped broccoli and satisfy your broccoli beef craving in no time!
  • Amoy-D Curry Paste: Most Thai curry pastes are not vegetarian (most of them contain some shrimp product).  However, Amoy-D is.  It lacks a bit in the umami depth of the shrimpy curry pastes, but it works fine to make a good curry at home.
  • Hummus: Trader Joe’s is the best.  Sabra (sold at Costco and Safeway) is okay.  It’s easy to make your own though if you have a food processor or blender and some canned garbanzos.

I hope you enjoyed those reviews above and avoid the things I’ve advised you to avoid!  Unless you’re desperate, I guess.

As a side note, my mom (one of my greatest inspirations and person who I have to thank for my cooking capabilities) may be making a guest post sometime in the near future, so keep your eyes open for that!

Springy Nettle and Green Garlic Soup

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As you may remember from my previous post on nettles, I very much like them and find them a refreshing and more springy alternative to spinach.  I have a fond memory of picking them with my dad.  Being back in the urban jungle, nettles aren’t really something you see and can harvest yourself.  However, I happened upon some at the farmer’s market yesterday and was excited.  It means that winter, that mopey and dark season overrun with cabbage and root vegetables, is almost gone…and the cheerful vegetables and fruits of spring and summer are almost here!  Just the thought of tasting them made me feel happier.

Photo by James Bowe.

The guy at the stand asked me “What do you do with your nettles?” and I said “eat them like spinach”.  Which is true, but this time I decided I wanted to do something different.  I also impulse-bought some green garlic because it also tastes cheerful and like spring.  I could just imagine in my head how these would go great together but didn’t really solidify my idea until I Googled  a few recipes and came upon this recipe for nasslesopa — a Scandanavian nettle soup.

Photo by Andrea Nguyen

I thought to myself– chives and garlic eh?  Green garlic is a fantastic substitute for both those things with a cheerful, slightly sweet springy flavor when sauteed in butter.  Huzzah!  Thus the idea for this soup was born.  I just had a bowl and it is hearty and cheerful, great on a cold spring afternoon.

Springy Nettle and Green Garlic Soup
Makes about two big servings.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 3 stems green garlic, the younger the better (if they have a purpleish hue on the outside, they’re a bit old)
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp flour (Or less, depending on how thick you want the soup…the potatoes will already thicken it.  You could also exclude it and use a bigger potato if you want the soup to be gluten free.)
  • 1 medium sized potato, peeled (the starchier the better: red or yukon gold will give you the smoothest texture)
  • ~ 3 cups milk (the higher fat content, the richer the soup.  I used fat free and it was still delicious)
  • ~ 5 cups fresh nettle leaves
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan

(I used lactaid milk…I’m admittedly fairly lactose intolerant, but parmesan and butter don’t bother me much because they don’t contain much (if any) lactose.  So if you’re lactose intolerant too, using lactaid milk should make this creamy soup not bother you much.  )

Chop your potato into very small chunks (no more than 1/2″ cube in size) so it will cook quickly.  Rinse and chop the green garlic (removing the root end and leaving some of the tough tips out).

Sautee the green garlic with the nutmeg, salt and pepper in a pan until the green garlic softens.  Don’t let the butter burn– keep it over a medium low heat.

Add the flour mix it all around so it absorbs the butter and coats the green garlic.

Add the milk and potatoes and simmer it until the potatoes just become a bit soft.

Gradually add the nettles to the soup, stirring.  You can see here I used nettles with stems– don’t do it! The tips of the nettle plant are best and you don’t want ones that are flowering.

When all the nettles are added and wilted like cooked spinach, add your 1/2 cup grated parmesan.  Your potatoes should be fully cooked.  Now, if you want a chunky soup where all the ingredients are separate, you can stop here as long as you used just nettle leaves.  However, if you want a pureed soup a la vichyssoise, you can proceed on to the next step.

Turn off the heat and let the soup cool for a minute.  Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth.

Garnish with a little finely grated parmesan, nutmeg, and black pepper.  Enjoy!

 

(P.S. Thanks to the folks who posted their great photos on Flickr with a creative commons license so you can get a better look at the raw ingredients! )

http://scandinavianfood.about.com/od/souprecipes/r/nettlesoup.htm

The Saga of Takuan-Zuke, Part 3: The untimely end.

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Well, the takuan-zuke experiment was stinky and interesting, but ultimately a failure due to inadequate storage environments.  I was going to store them outside in the cold where it would have been more consistent of temperature, but opted not to because I thought the smell of fermenting daikon would offend my neighbors.  So I kept it inside…where it was too warm…and surprise, surprise– they grew moldy friends.

At first it was just white mold on the top of the daikon greens on the top of the crock, which I’ve heard is generally harmless, so I skimmed that off and kept it going.  But then when I was ready to take them out, the top layer of rice bran had blue and white mold.  Not being able to tell whether or not that kind of mold was poisonous (because I’m not a scientist with a microscope!), I just had to err on the side of caution and ditch it all.

Sad.

Very, very sad.

But that isn’t to say that I didn’t try a couple tiny slices from some of the daikon that were farthest away from the mold.  Ultimately, they were too salty.  This is probably because I kept adding salt to the top of the crock in an (obviously unsuccessful) attempt to ward off the mold.  However, they did turn that odd yellow color and taste like rice bran.

So, the moral of the story is…if you’re going to make takuan-zuke, store them somewhere cold while they ferment, like a cellar.  I also wouldn’t weight it quite as much as I did (I had a lot of pressure squishing the whole thing down) because my daikon got sort of compacted and dry and had a weird texture.  Otherwise you’re just going to waste a lot of daikon. Well, at least the whole experiment probably cost me less than five bucks since I grew the daikon. The thought of those beautiful daikon going to waste just makes me sigh. At least I can grow more and it cost me less than five bucks.

But I don’t like to end on a sad note, so here’s a picture of some orange juice I made with oranges I got for free from someone’s tree prunings!:

Thanks, random lady down the street for trimming your tree and then telling me which of the oranges on the pile of branches were tastier.  You rock.

I haven’t posted any recipes or anything lately. I guess I’ve been somewhat lazy.  I did make some larb gai and recommend this recipe highly if you’re looking for some Thai.  This week it’s back to being primarily vegetarian, though, so maybe you’ll see more recipes.  I’m thinking lentil soup?

The Saga of Takuan-zuke, Part 2

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This post continues the saga of my daikon pickles from home grown daikon.  The first post can be found here.  Now it’s been two weeks and my daikon are pliant and wrinkly.  They’ve also shrunk tremendously.  Step one has been successful.

Now is step 2, pickling them for at least a month.  Today I put them in the rice bran with all of the other ingredients to sit and pickle until they are good and yummy.  Here’s how I did it, as per the book:

Mix rice bran with dried chilis, salt, brown sugar, and I added a little dried ginger for extra flavor.

Put a layer on the bottom of your pickling container, along with dried persimmon or other fruit peels (I used persimmon and pear) and kombu chunks.  I’m just using my Japanese pickle press.

Layer the daikon and their dried leaves in a circular pattern.

Then add more rice bran, fruit peels, and kombu.  Repeat as necessary.  I only had two layers.  Add more rice bran and top with copious amounts of dried daikon leaves.

Press and let sit!

And as a bonus for people who actually read my blog, here’s my best Daikon Zoidberg impression for you:

Ho Ho Ho!

 

Vegetarian Squash & Kale Stew

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The daikon are still drying.  I have thusfar been able to find an unstained wooden pickling vessel, so next week they’ll likely get packed into a crock.  Until then, here’s a recipe for a fantastic stew I made tonight that was so nice on a cold evening with a glass of red wine:

Kabocha and Kale Stew with Mixed Beans

Measurements are approximate, use your best judgement.

  • 3/4 plastic carton vegetable broth
  • 1 1/2 cups soaked mixed white and black beans (I had navy, pinto, and black beans I think)
  • 1/2 kabocha squash, seeds removed, peeled and cut into 2″ chunks (Japanese pumpkin, but you could probably use hubbard, turban, kuri, acorn, or butternut [somewhat in order of recommended varieties])
  • 2 1/2 cups of chopped kale (I used Trader Joe’s precut, prewashed organic tuscan kale)
  • 1/2 cup mirin
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • salt and pepper
  • crusty bread to serve with the stew

First boil the beans in the broth.  If using previously dried soaked beans, boil them for a bit until they reach the desired softness, testing occasionally.  (If using canned beans, you can add the squash instead and then add the rinsed beans when that starts softening.)

Add the squash chunks and boil until that starts to soften, about 5-8 minutes. Add the soy sauce, mirin, kale, and spices.  Simmer, mushing up some of the squash chunks with your stirring utensil so that it thickens the broth.  Stir occasionally.  When the beans and squash are the right consistency for your tastes and the kale has softened, it’s done!  Sans prep, this probably takes about 20 minutes cooking time total.

Deceptively simple, but the earthy spiciness of the kale works so well with the sweet richness of the pumpkin and the starchy earthiness of the beans.

Here’s a handy tip I learned about dealing with dried beans: you can soak them in advance and freeze whatever you don’t use of the soaked and rinsed beans for easy cooking next time!  A nice alternative to canned beans.

The Saga of Takuan-zuke, Part 1

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In the continued spirit of over-ambition, I grew my own daikon this year.  The original purpose was to make kimchi with home grown organic veggies, but my green onions and napa cabbage failed miserably (which I figured out through soil testing was due, apparently, to too little potassium and phosphorus).

However, my daikon grew quite well.  Beautifully lush, with bright, almost glowing white roots.  Their eventual destination is takuan-zuke, a classic Japanese pickled daikon, made at home without preservatives or food coloring.  The guide I’ll be using is my trusty book, a gift from my mother a few years ago, Quick and Easy: Tsukemono – Japanese Pickling Recipes.  This book is highly recommended and available on Barnes and Noble for under $10.

The first step to transform these beauties:

…is to let them dry for a couple of weeks until they are pliable.  The book says “in the sun”, to which I respond “Oh?  Can you bring some please?  We’re a little lacking right now.”  So they’ll have to deal with being inside, stinking up my cozy little home until the sun comes out next.  (Which is supposedly Monday, but only for one day, according to the weather report.)  Here’s a beautiful picture of how happy these daikon would look if it wasn’t raining continuously and we were in Japan.  I’ll try to put them out in the sun for a little bit at least though, so they can be endowed with the flavor of happiness and joy before being forced into a pickling crock (or some hippie nonsense like that).

This is going to take quite a long time.  This first step takes two weeks, and then the daikon pickle for at least one month, if not two.  And then, only then, are the takuan-zuke ready.  So stay tuned to see how this experiment turns out.

Folded Hands

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The road to 酸辣抄手 (suanla chaoshou) this week was an odd one.  I’m finally starting to feel better after two weeks of being sick, and it was apparently time for some cooking therapy.  After a week of craving anything 麻辣 (mala, numbing spiciness), I finally got around to making my own 麻辣油 (mala you).  Mala you is a flavored oil that is herbal, spicy, and numbing all at the same time.  There were no visions of any kind of dumpling in my mind at the time, but you know how things go.

Characteristically bright red and spicy, it’s made by infusing oil with a variety of spices.  I pretty much went by the Wikipedia list: “The sauce is made primarily of dried chili peppers, chili powder, douban paste, Sichuan peppercorns, clove, garlic, star anise, black cardamom, fennel, ginger, cinnamon, salt and sugar. These ingredients are simmered with beef tallow and vegetable oil and for many hours, and packed into a jar.”   I packed all the herbs and spices into a crockpot with canola oil.  It took a lot of most of the spices to make and at first I definitely added too much garlic, making it kind of funky tasting. It took a while to get the balance right; I had to taste the oil every hour or so and add whatever seemed to be missing.  I think it would be hard if you hadn’t tasted mala you before to know what I mean.  The crockpot definitely worked nicely, though, for infusing the oil without a big mess.

Actually the funny thing is that after I put everything in the crockpot, I realized I didn’t have douban paste or black cardamom, so I had to trek through the rain on a fall morning to the Vietnamese market downtown.  After slowly bumping through throngs of people down the crowded aisles of the market (at 10 am nonetheless!) and awkwardly ramming into the counter with my shopping basket like a good klutzy geek, not only did I return with doubon paste and cardamom, but also dumpling skins.   Gosh, I’m such a sucker for anything that is a dumpling or a pickle.   Well, I thought they were dumpling skins…until I realized they were actually wonton skins (square instead of circular).

After letting my mala you stew for about 6 hours in the crockpot, tasting it frequently until the balance was right, I strained it through cheesecloth.  Later that night, I somehow got inspired to try to make dumplings with the wonton skins.  At 9:30 pm.  Gosh I’m weird.  They definitely didn’t work for dumplings, so I gave up and made wontons until 11 pm or so.  But then it all ended up coalescing nicely, because I could use the mala you on the wontons…thus making them 酸辣抄手 (suanla chaoshou, a type of dumpling with sauce from Sichuan Provence said to resemble folded hands).  Voila!

My wontons, however, were vegetarian and uncharacteristically extremely flavorful.  Here’s the recipe-ish, off the top of my head, with approximations.  You can use them for the hot and sour dumpling recipe from Sichuan or put them in wonton soup.

Vegetarian Chaoshou

素食抄手

  • 1 package of wonton skins, medium thickness
  • 1 1/2 cups of lotus root coins
  • 5 green onions, washed with bottoms removed
  • 4 reconstituted shiitake mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup reconstituted cloud ear/wood ear mushrooms
  • 2 peeled cloves of garlic
  • 2 coins of fresh ginger
  • 1 small carrot
  • 1 tbsp douban paste (hot bean sauce)
  • 1/2 block of tofu
  • 2/3 cup dry textured vegetable protein (helps bind it together and gives it a more appealing texture)
  • 1 tbsp five spice powder
  • soy sauce to taste

Combine the garlic, green onion, lotus root, ginger, carrot, and mushrooms in the food processor and chop until very fine (or chop finely by hand).  Then add the tofu and textured vegetable protein, douban paste, a bit of soy sauce, and five spice powder and chop it all up until the tofu is no longer in big chunks.  Mix with a spoon as necessary to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

Take a wonton skin out of the package and lay it flat on your hand.  Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle. Put water around the edges and fold wonton style (here’s a video that helped me).  Repeat until all filling is used up.  Should make anywhere from 40-60 wontons.  You can freeze them, but they do tend to stick together.

To serve them suanla (hot and sour) style, mix vegetable broth and black Chinese vinegar (50/50 ratio), a few spoonfulls of mala you (spicy oil), a spoonful of douban paste, and a bit of soy sauce and set that aside.  Steam as many wontons as you intend to eat in one sitting. (I just put a bit of water in a frying pan, add the wontons, then cover it with a lid and let it cook for 5 minutes or so until the skins are slightly transparent.)  Place the steamed wontons in a bowl, dump the sauce over it, garnish with whatever you want (cilantro, green onion, more hot peppers or sichuan peppercorn powder if you’re masochistic).

These are so tasty on a cold rainy day.  And now I have copious amounts of mala you to make everything from dandan mian to hot pot.  Hooray!

 

Under the In-Flu-ence

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Despite getting my flu shot dutifully this year, I still have some sort of flu-like virus thing that’s caused an upper respiratory infection. Currently under doctor’s orders to stay home and strangely sort of on top of things for one day of my life, I’ve been pondering under the influence (of cough syrup).  I warn you that this will be a rant rather than a post with recipes and pretty pictures.

My diet when I’m sick is awful.  Not only does any attempt at vegetarianism go out the window, it usually consists of top ramen and maybe some fruit.  This week it’s been top ramen, hot dogs, quesadillas, canned chicken soup, frozen meals, and orange juice straight out of the jug.  I threw some frozen peas in the ramen, but it’s been largely devoid of vegetables.  I’m starting to crave veggies but don’t have much energy to do all the dishes required to get to where I have space to prepare them.  Sad day.

It seems like I buy my groceries with the best intentions often but they don’t get eaten. My freezer is full, but I’m still not entirely sure how. There are noodles, ravioli, pesto, fruits, peas, and chili I made 2 weeks ago that actually didn’t come out tasty (sadface.).  I have piles of dried beans and pasta.  …But it seems like I never have the energy when I come home to cook something healthy and satisfying.  When I’m sick after work and school, it’s even worse.  During weekdays, I also have to eat a cold lunch scrunched up in a train seat while I commute to or from work just about every weekday, not really lending itself to creativity.   Life is just leaving me drained.

There are plenty of people who say that students should be able to work really hard and get out of school with minimal or no loans.  True, there are lazy students…but as a student working 20+ hours a week and going to school full time right now, I’ll tell you up front: you have to make a lot of sacrifices.  Your health.  Your nutrition.  Your sleep.  Your sanity.  How can you expect students to work 40 hours a week just to break even?  It’s not a healthy way to live…and not sustainable. What about students who have kids?

Why would anyone wish this on someone as they were trying to better themselves and contribute to society? It baffles me how people can see tuition going up 10% every year (5x inflation) and point fingers at students.  The system is broken, folks…broken like the yolk of an egg that you hastily cooked when making breakfast.

I can’t wait for the day when I have time and energy to make a balanced meal with an entree and sides almost every day again someday.  I miss it.  I really miss having that time to create something good and creative that provides my body with fuel as well.  To think about my food and be mindful.  To make food for others.  It’s very fulfilling when you have the time.

I guess your food reflects the state of your life and the gains and problems of society, it’s as simple as that.

 

The Spice of Life

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I suspect until December, you’re going to keep hearing about how busy my life is.  Rest assured I have been cooking delicious things and not just subsisting off of only instant  ramen.  The garden is still going, with peppers and carrots and herbs currently and beets and daikon in the works.  However, my slow cooker has become one of my best friends.  I can throw stuff in there and leave it alone while I study and have delicious food for the week.

One of my favorite recipes I made recently in the slow cooker was slow cooker lasagne.  Here’s the original recipe.  I’ll admit, I did use jarred spaghetti sauce because I was short on time.  However, I mixed zucchini, poblano peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and fresh basil into the ricotta mixture and that made it quite tasty and special.  Easy as pie, except that it’s sort of hard to fit lasagne noodles into an oval shaped slow cooker.

Another favorite recipe I tried was lentil meatballs . I substituted laughing cow cheese for ricotta and add a ton more fresh herbs, but they came out fantastic and were freezable in individual ziplocs for whenever I heated up jarred sauce.

I’ll admit that on the part time vegetarian front as of late, I’ve been a little slackery.  Making the kind of vegetarian food I like takes time, which can be lacking.  I’ll keep trying, though, because there are too many reasons and benefits to not at least reduce my meat consumption.

Along that line, I recently discovered a brand of Thai curry paste that doesn’t contain shrimp paste (like most curry pastes do): Amoy-D. My only beef with it is that I always have to add sugar to the curry because the curry paste itself is more savory than the ones I’m used to.  Today I made panang curry with fried tofu, butternut squash, apples and mango.  This time the fruit helped sweeten it up so I didn’t need to add sugar.

Curry is so versatile…you can put just about anything in it really, sort of like fried rice.  Why fried tofu? Because frying gives it a better texture and allows it to soak up more sauce/curry/whatever.

I made a big batch for my lunches for this week, because that’s what I do nowadays…make huge batches of something tasty and force myself to eat it for 3-5 days.

  • 1 cup of extra firm tofu cut into dice-sized cubes
  • 1-2 cups of vegetable or peanut oil for frying
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup panang curry paste (more or less, depending on your tastes)
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled with seeds removed and cut into large chunks (3″ or so)
  • 2 carrots, cut into half coins
  • 3 lime leaves (preferably kaffir, but if you have regular lime leaves it’s better than nothing)
  • 3 coins ginger or galangal
  • 2 small red peppers, cut into rings
  • 1 bunch green onions
  • 1 apple, cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks (or fresh)
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • 2/3 cup Thai basil leaves (substitute regular basil if you have to I guess)
  • 2/3 cup cilantro leaves

First, dry the tofu and cut it into the dice sized cubes.  Drying it is important!  This way it won’t splatter quite as much when you fry it.  If you want to be extra careful, you can squeeze as much water out of the tofu as possible and then dry it after you cut it into dice cubes too.

Heat the oil in a pot or wok until a drop of water added to the pan splatters.  Add tofu, stir constantly until tofu is golden brown and looks sort of like little sponges.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Set aside.

Add the coconut milk to a good sized soup pot and add water to thin it to the consistency somewhere between paste and milk.  Heat on medium. Add the curry paste and blend it in with a spoon or spatula.

Add in the harder vegetables: butternut and carrot.  Also add the lime leaves and ginger coins.  If using non-kaffir lime leaves, smoosh them up a bit in your hands before adding to the pot to release more of the essential oils.

Let this simmer until the butternut squash starts to get a bit soft, then add the peppers, apple, green onion, mango, and peas.

Let this cook for a couple of minutes at a low simmer, until the butternut is cooked to where it is soft enough to be cut with a fork.  Then add in the herbs (basil, cilantro) at the last minute.  Turn off the heat and mix well.

It doesn’t look glamorous, but it tastes fantastic.

A thank you to whoever actually reads this blog.  May all your tasty dreams come true!