Asian Persuasion

I'm not sure if it was because I have been drowning in literature about economic reforms in Laos during their transition from communism to a market-based economy, but when I saw a recipe for an Asian inspired Salmon Udon Soup in the Globe this weekend I immediately decided to make it...with a few modifications of course ;)

Word of warning: You will have to make an extra trip to the store for the stuff in this recipe. But it's cheap, delicious, and worth it!

Alas, I give you Tofu Soba Soup!

It is quite delicious. If you are a meat eater, follow the recipe exactly as directed, but replace the tofu with salmon (this is how it was originally written).

Ingredients:
Marinade --
3 tbs low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
2 tsp grated ginger

Tofu (or Salmon) --
1/2 block extra firm tofu, thinly sliced
6 cups vegetable stock
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 cups baby bok choy, end trimmed and broken into leaves
4 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
4oz soba noodles (the original recipe called for udon noodles, so feel free to use those instead - I just used soba because I had some)
handful coriander sprigs
Chili flakes to taste

Directions:
Combine 2 tbs soy sauce, sugar and 1 tbs ginger in bowl. Brush (or pour) over tofu slices. Set aside.
Heat vegetable stock (or if you are like me, boil your water and add in your veggie boullion cube). Add in remaining 1tbs soy sauce and 1 tbs ginger. Simmer over medium heat.
Add onions and simmer for 1 minute. Add baby bok choy and muchrooms, and cook another minute. Reduce heat to medium, add tofu and cook 30 seconds longer...or whatever.
Garnish with coriander sprigs and a sprinkling of chili flakes.

Oh, and before I forget, this recipe for Maple Sponge Toffee was in the paper the other day, and it looks uber yum.

Zucch-Alors!

Why vegetables are cool....

This recipe is dedicated to Chef James, who inspired me last weekend to to use my zucchini in a whole new way. This week: zucchini "noodles". Perfect "green" dish for our happy "green" day tomorrow.

Super easy...and SO. DAMN. GOOD. I even made my roommate taste it and she agreed and immediately demanded that my recipe be posted on our fridge. I'm too cheap to buy ink for my ridiculously expensive printer so I promised I'd put it up here and send her the link. So now you all get to enjoy.

Alright, so in this recipe we are making "noodles" out of shredded zucchini. A healthier twist on pasta. The best thing is it's super easy, and super quick, and requires no "special" equipment - except a carrot peeler, which is not even remotely complicated. So no complaints (eric!).

You need:

1 large zucchini

2 tbs olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, sliced (I used leftover roasted garlic from last night's pizza)

rosemary

thyme

basil

oregano

5-10 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chickpeas

lemon juice

S&P

Directions:

1. Clean zucchini well. Use carrot peeler to make long, thin, fettucine-sized shreds of the zucchini. Keep shredding it out, until you hit the core with the seeds. If you want to make it prettier try and get a little bit of the green on each shred. They obviously don't have to be perfect, but it is fun to see how much you can get it to resemble pasta. I went about half-way around my zucchini. For a large appetite, or for 2 peoples, use the whole zucchini (just toss the core and seeds).
2. Add olive oil to a small saucepan, and heat to medium-low. Add in sliced garlic, and sautee a few minutes until the oil has soaked up some of the garlic flavour and you can smell the delicious garlicky aroma in the air :) Add in your zucchini "pasta", season with the herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano - as much or as little as you want) and sautee a few more minutes, until it starts to heat up, soften, and the white part turns ever so subtly translucent. Try not to overcook the "noodles" as you don't want them to get mushy. Transfer all to your plate/bowl.
3. In the same saucepan, add chickpeas and halved cherry tomatoes. Add enough lemon juice to cover the bottom of the pan (probably a couple tablespoons worth). Sautee the chickpeas and tomato for a few minutes, until all of the lemon juice is absorbed.
4. Top your zucchini "pasta" with the sauteed chickpeas and tomato. Season with extra oregano, and S&P. If you are not vegan (that would be...lets see, all of you), a sprinkling of parmesan would also be enjoyable with this.

Stay tuned to see how I use my zucchini in a whole new way next week.

Nomnomnom. :)

Peace 'a' Pizza

El Delicioso "Rustic Roasted Vegetable Pizza"!




I never thought vegan pizza could be remotely tasty..... blah blah blah, I was surprised how good it ACTUALLY is.

Here's your recipe. As far as the toppings go, you can basically improvise and put on whatever sounds good to you. But here's what I did, and it was delicious!


Crust:
Option A: Buy One
Option B: Make it yourself (this is what I did, with a recipe very similar to this one, except I used 1/2 whole wheat flour)

Now the fun part...

Toppings:
Roasted Veggies:
5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 green pepper, sliced into smaller pieces
1/4 red pepper, sliced into smaller pieces
3 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/4 to 1/3 garlic bulb (depending on how much you like garlic)
handful of pine nuts
rosemary, oregano (or italian herb mix) for seasoning

Base:
pizza/pasta sauce (homemade, storebought, whatever)
pesto (homemade, storebought, whatever)


Directions:

1. Crust: Make/buy your crust. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
2. Roast the vegetables: First, place your sliced veggies into a medium-sized bowl. Brush or drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle on some rosemary and oregano to season. Next, toss them, or spin them around in the bowl so that they are coated with a then layer of the oil and herbs. Put them onto an oven-friendly dish or tray, and bake them on the *top* rack in your HOT oven for 10-15 minutes (maybe more), checking every few minutes, until they begin to brown and soften up. Feel free to get in there with a spatula or a spoon to move them around a bit to cook them more evenly. The peppers may even get a couple dark, burnt spots - this is okay. After you feel they are sufficiently roasted, remove the tray and transfer the veggies to a new plate or bowl.
3. Make your pizza: First, the preliminary pizza sauce slathering - you know how that goes. Next, put a few large dollops of pesto sauce randomly onto the pizza. Layer on your roasted veggies. Top with pine nuts, and season with rosemary and oregano, and S&P if desired. Bake all this in your 500 degrees oven for about 10 minutes, until the crust begins to brown.
4. Remove from oven, cool for a few minutes on a cutting board, slice away...and enjoy!!! If you have a small-normal appetite this will last you 2 meals :)
   

Liquid Lunch

So I went to the gym and did a lot of running around this morning, and came home around lunchtime feeling very hungry and craving some vitamin c!

I have been experimenting lately with smoothies (mostly just with putting greens in them), and thus, liquid lunch seemed like a great idea.

Here's what I did:

2 cups chopped, rinsed kale
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
1 banana
1 small-to-medium orange, separated
1 scoop protein powder, if you have it (I use Heartland Gold Brown Rice Protein)
Water (or milk, soymilk, etc if you don't have protein powder)


Put it all together in a blender (kale at the bottom, followed by protein powder, berries, orange, banana, and just a bit of water - you can always add more later) and whiz away! (I can't believe I just said 'whiz away'). You might find that you have to stop blending and push the fruit down a bit. Just don't do this while the blender is running (TRUST ME.) and you, and your smoothie, will be fine.


Now the great part - I get to tell you about all the fantastic things in this smoothie!

First off, I want to point out that this smoothie packs 2 servings of vegetables (kale) and 3 servings of fruit (orange, banana, berries). That's almost all your recommended fruit and veggies in one meal! Best of all, you get your leafy greens in a highly digestive format (blended) and you can't even taste them with all the other yummy stuff in the smoothie.


Second, I discovered this website that calculates the nutritional info of recipes. I plugged in this smoothie's contents (minus the protein powder, because they don't have it on their list). Here's what came out:



Nutrition Facts
Calories 280.8
Total Fat 1.7 g
Saturated Fat 0.4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.6 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.2 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 69.9 mg
Potassium 1,309.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate 67.1 g
Dietary Fiber 12.9 g
Sugars 8.8 g
Protein 7.6 g
....plus a whole whack of other vitamins, including
Vitamin A 7 16.3 %
Vitamin B-6 56.9 %
Vitamin C 339.3 %
Vitamin E 12.6 %
Calcium 28.0 %
Folate 26.0 %
Iron 18.0 %


My protein powder adds 80 calories, 2g fiber, and 16g protein. So my smoothie had roughly 360 cal, 15g fiber, and almost 24g protein. Not bad!

Brioooooooche

Nasya, I saw this tonight and thought of you!!

* * * * * *

Brioche
1/2 Cup Garbanzo Bean Flour
1 3/4 Cups Plain Soymilk
1 .6-Ounce Cake Fresh Yeast
4 Cups Bread Flour
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Black Salt
1 Teaspoon Table Salt
1/4 Cup Plain Soy Creamer
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Margarine, Cut into Small Cubes

Place the garbanzo bean flour in a medium saucepan and stir in a small amount of the soymilk to form a paste. Once smooth, add in the rest of the soymilk, and whisk thoroughly. Cook over medium heat for about 5 - 10 minutes, until bubbles begin to break on the surface and the mixture feels significantly thickened. Turn off the heat, and continue to whisk occasionally for the next 10 minutes to help it cool down without forming a skin on top. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the garbanzo mixture, and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, until just barely warm to the touch.

In your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, crumble the cake of yeast into the flour, and mix briefly to incorporate all the pieces. Add in the sugar and salts, and mix once more. Once cooled enough that it won’t kill the yeast, (less than 120 degrees F) scrape the garbanzo and soymilk “pudding” in and begin to mix on low speed. Combine the soy creamer and vinegar together before introducing them to the main mixing bowl as well.

Once you have all of the dry and wet ingredients incorporated but the dough is still weak in structure, begin to add in the margarine, a few cubes at a time. They should get folded in to a point that you can’t see them any more, but be patient because it takes time. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes once it seems smooth.

After it has rested, dump the dough out onto a clean surface. DO NOT use extra flour here, despite how sticky the dough is. Simply use a bench scraper if you can’t get it off the counter. Kneed it briefly by hand, stretching and folding it to strengthen the structure, for about 10 minutes. Roll the dough into a ball, place it in a lightly greased bowl, and cover it lightly with a towel. Place it in the fridge and let it rise overnight, between 8 and 12 hours.
In the morning, cut the dough in half, and then cut each half into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a smooth ball, and then place 3 balls all lined up evenly in a lightly greased 8 x 4 inch loaf pan. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover with a towel again, and let the loaves rest in a warm place for around 2 1/2 hours, until doubled or tripled in volume. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees as your loaves near the end of their rising time, and lightly brush them with vegan egg wash. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until well-browned and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the loaves rest in the pans for 5 minutes before turning them out onto wire racks to cool.

Makes 2 Loaves.

Got it from http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/bread-with-a-heart-of-cake/

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