Modified Gomaae (Cold Spinach Salad)

A couple weeks ago (has it been that long?! I was supposed to post this up the following week!) I posted about my lunchtime inari. Inari is a fried sweet bean curd that is cooked in noodles, salads, and also split open partway and stuffed. On that one occasion, I stuffed the inari with seasoned brown rice, then a variety of toppings, including a kimpura endive and gomaae which I had modified by utilizing what I had on hand, cashew butter in place of tahini / sesame paste.

I don't usually order gomaae in restaurants since it is so overpriced, and almost always, it is some sort of fail - too small a portion, too little sauce, too much sauce, sauce is bland, sauce is watery, or spinach is too leggy.

Being that is so simple to prepare and customize, I've been known to go through Costco sized bags of baby spinach in a week, just eating gomaae. Its been so true that I've had to manage my Costco shopping trips so that I don't OD on vitamin A, vitamin K, or iron. (You laugh, but it is true. Vitamins A and K are fat soluble, meaning they, along with iron can acccumulate in your fat stores and, in high enough concentrations, cause toxicity issues. Spinach also contains oxalates, which bind calcium. This can contribute to kidney stones. Thus the Asian belief that spinach shouldn't be eaten with tofu; however this is only partly true - tofu does not contain considerable amount of calcium unless calcium sulfate is used in its production; GDL or other coagulating agents are used in different methods.

Try to use baby spinach; otherwise, trim the stems off of older spinach leaves, as it will affect the texture of the final product.

Ingredients
1 bunch spinach, washed thoroughly and trimmed, or 6 handfuls of prepackaged baby spinach
2 t cashew butter
1 t water
1/2 - 1 t sugar
salt to taste
1-2 drops sesame oil
1 t sesame seeds

Method
Bring to a boil a large pot of generously salted water. Blanch prepared spinach 1 minute; quickly drain and rinse with cold water.

Prepare dressing - blitz cashew butter, water, sugar, salt and sesame oil in a small food processor or magic bullet until combined. Adjust with cashew butter or water to desired consistency (depends on your brand of cashew butter).

Squeeze water out of cooked spinach. If you used a bunch of spinach (instead of baby spinach), you may want to roughly chop the squeezed spinach. Arrange in dish or on a plate and pour a teaspoon or so of dressing over top. Garnish with sesame seeds. Makes about two servings, although I have been known to down two recipes in one night...

Simple, isn't it?! You can adjust the seasonings, using tahini instead, adding soy sauce or tamari instead of the salt, or adding other flavourings, but I like it in its simple form the best. The dressing is also nice on other steamed or raw vegetables like cherry tomatoes, celery, carrots, and bell peppers.

Itsa Pizza Party! (Roasted Vegetable & Goat Cheese Pizza)

A couple weeks ago, I took part in a noodle party featuring Korean yam noodles / dang myun. Participants were to blog about their favourite noodle recipe, try something new, or...anything, just as long as the recipe included the yam noodles. A couple days later, Jeroxie suggested a pizza party, and the ball got rolling.

Participants this time (to be changed periodically once this post is live - list is from Jeroxie) are:

• Penny - Jeroxie - Addictive & Consuming - Serpent Pie with Pizza Sauce (Happy Birthday and Thank you for Hosting!)
• Divina – Sense & Serendipity - Breakfast Pizza
• Christine – Christine’s Recipes - BBQ Chicken Pizza
• Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write - Pizza w Lemon Asparagus Pesto
• Trix – Tasty Trix - Langos, Three Ways
• Conor – Hold the Beef - Poached Pear Pizza
• Shirley – Enriching your kid - Healthy Spiced Dough Vegetable Pizza
• Natasha – Five Star Foodie - Plum Pizza Pie
• Ozoz – Kitchen Butterfly
• Agnes – Off the spork - Pizza Pie (Literally! And cute pizza toppers on lemon cupcakes.)
• Joanne – Second Helping - Mushroom & Taleggio, Signore Lupo
• Celeste – Berry Travels - Lasagna Pizza Pie
• Mark – Cafe Campana
• Steph - Momofuku for 2 - Pizza 4 Ways
• Shao - Fried Wontons for You
• Ahn – A food Lover’s Journey - Chicken and Kimchi Pizza
• Cherry – Sweet Cherry Pie
• Tangled Noodle - Irish Pan Pizza

For my contribution, I kept in my "meatless" theme and went with an old favourite: roasted vegetable and goat cheese pizza. The crust is crisp, light and thin, and the vegetables are complimented by the tang of goat cheese. I forgot to add olives here, but they really add to the dish - calamatas please! :)


Ingredients - Crust (makes 2)
2 t yeast
1 1/4 c warm water
1 t sugar, syrup, or honey
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 t sea salt
1/2 t thyme leaves
1/2 t rubbed oregano

In a large bowl, mix together yeast, warm water, and sugar (or syrup or honey). Set aside for 10 minutes.

Add olive oil to bowl. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 1/2 c of the all purpose flour, all of the whole wheat flour, salt, thyme, and oregano. Gradually mix flour mixture into yeast mixture. Dough will be slightly sticky and moist. Add in remaining all purpose flour by hand.

Generously flour a working surface and hands. Knead for 10 minutes, adding flour if necessary to avoid stickiness. Place in well-oiled bowl; flip to coat surface. I covered the bowl and left it to proof for a good long while (I was away at work. :)

Punch down dough. Allow to rise for 1 hour.

Divide dough into two parts. With floured hands, on a floured surface, form the dough into two rectangular or circular bases.

Usually, I dust the pizza pan or baking sheet with cornmeal. In addition to adding lots of texture to the finished product, it prevents the crust from sticking to the pizza stone, baking sheet, or pan. But M is anti-cornmeal. So I dusted a piece of parchment paper with flour and used that instead.

Ingredients - Toppings (Yields about one pizza-ful; double to make enough to use up the dough)
1 small each red, green, orange bell peppers, or about 2 colours of your choice, cut into wedges
4-5 sliced mushrooms (I used shitaake, although this would be nice just with a mixture of mushrooms and asparagus!)
4-5 spears fresh spring asparagus cut into 3-4 inch sections
1/2 t garlic powder
1/4 t red chili flakes
1/2 t basil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t balsamic vinegar
3 T olive oil
Tomato sauce
~150 g goat cheese / chevre

Preheat oven, with pizza stone, to 440ºF.

In a medium bowl, toss together vegetables, garlic powder, chili flakes, basil, salt and pepper, and olive oil. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Smear tomato sauce onto reserved and shaped crust; top with seasoned vegetables. Drizzle any remaining olive oil mixture over top of pizza. Crumble goat cheese over pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust bottom is lightly browned and toppings are cooked.

Enjoy!

I've enjoyed this with eggplant, portobellos, wilted spinach, and fresh summer tomatoes - it is just so good. Do give it a try and let me know how you like it!

BTW - this is not only limited to veggie toppings. M seemed to have assaulted his half of the pizza today with some cooked ham. C'est la vie!

Bento of the Day: Vegetarian Bento w Inari

I'm trying to eat a little healthier at home to counter balance my dining out. Since I've moved in with M I've taken on a lot of his bad eating habits, including eating meat at (nearly) every meal, serious snacking in front of the television, and generally eating richer foods. Before, I used to go through packages of whole wheat pasta fast, and ate more vegetables, being that my breakfasts and lunches were generally meat-free.

Here is my lunch for today - vegetarian, and my first time playing around with inari. I've never had them at home, only in combinations and takeout from the nearest sushi bar. A friend got me hooked on them. Initially, the sweet flavour really didn't resonate with me, but as time went on I actually craved it! The bonus? Paying $4-6 for 12-16 of them at T&T, versus paying per piece in restaurants for $1.50 to $2.50 or more.

Four pieces of inari, stuffed with brown rice mixed with seasoned rice vinegar. Left to right, one is topped with kinpura Belgium Endive, gomaae, watered down gochujang, and one simply sprinkled with togarashi. I completed the meal with a simple green salad and campari tomato (I had some sesame dressing at work).

As I only had white sushi rice at home, I used regular brown rice instead. Gross, I know. But it worked for me. I was surprised how the toppings worked - I think I'll be making more kinpura vegetables from now on. It is a simple method of frying the shredded vegetable, then seasoning with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and sake. As Belgian Endive is generally bitter, the sugar and sake, paired with the natural sweetness of the inari pocket was a good combo (for me anyways). The brown rice added some nuttiness, although the texture (as it was regular rice) was not favourable.

The gomaae also worked - as I was eating I remembered that I had neglected to add sugar to the cashew and sesame dressing, but again, the sweetness of the inari worked well. If I had added sugar to the dressing, it would have been too sweet. Two for two! How was the gochujang? It provided a much needed "savoury" flavour to the meal. Although the sauce was still slightly sweet, there were touches of spiciness from the Korean chili pepper. As for the final one, it was the only one which needed any soy sauce.

So, do you stuff your own inari at home? (Gosh that sounds dirty.) What do you use? I want some ideas!

Previous bentos:
Hainanese Chicken
Quichie-Quichie Bentos
Holy Meatballs!
Healthy Bento
His and Hers Bentos
Plushie Bentos (My favourite!)

Recipe: Zucchini and Carrot Pappardelle with Parsley Sauce

Sunny days call for sunny recipes! . . .too bad this is being posted a day late. Vancouver had a sunny weekend that extended two days into the work week. Unfortunately, this morning it gradually clouded over.

Although, while it was sunny, I had the chance to whip out the pasta machine again and made a batch of pappardelle, a thin, wide ribbon pasta accompanied by equally wide ribbons of tender zucchini and carrots that were sliced thin on my handy mandoline.



I brought the veggies and fresh pasta together with a fresh (and raw!)parsley sauce blended together in my handy magic bullet (this entry should be a kitchen gadget entry!).

Ingredients

2 small zucchinis, trimmed and sliced with a mandoline to 1/8" (~0.3cm) thick
2 small carrots, peeled, trimmed and sliced with a mandoline to 1/8" (~0.3cm) thick
1 pasta dough recipe

1 bunch parsley
1/4 cup piave vecchio, parmesan, romano, or other hard cheese
Juice of half a lemon
5 cloves of roasted garlic
3 T olive oil
2-3 T hazelnuts or pepitas
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup water

Method

Divide the pasta dough recipe into three portions. Roll each portion out with the pasta machine. Start with the lowest setting, run the dough through once, fold the dough into thirds, run through the machine again, and repeat.

Increase the thickness setting and run the dough through the machine; dust lightly with flour if necessary, and run through twice more. Repeat this step with all the thickness settings until you get to setting 6. Dust the pasta strip with more flour, fold or roll loosely into a bundle, and cut into approximately 3/4" (~2cm) strips. Dust with more flour, and hang on suspended wooden spoon handles to dry slightly while you roll out the rest of the dough.

For the sauce, blend together the last 7 ingredients together in a blender, food processor, or magic bullet. Taste for seasoning; add more cheese, salt or pepper to taste. Set sauce aside.

Slice the vegetables with a mandoline to about 1/8" (~0.3cm) thick. Slice the strips lengthwise in half if necessary.

Bring a large stockpot of generously salted water to a rolling boil. Quickly blanch the vegetable strips for 30-60 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon to an ice bath. Drain and reserve in a large bowl for later.

In the same large stock pot, bring the water back to a rolling boil. Drop in the dried pappardelle and stir to loosen and separate the strands. Cook for 5-8 minutes, or until desired doneness. Remove with tongs or a pasta fork to bowl of blanched vegetable strips.

Add parsley sauce to pasta and veggies, toss lightly, and serve!

Be sure to enjoy in the sun. :) It makes all the difference in the world!

Recipe: Thai-Inspired Lettuce Wraps

I had a craving for some lettuce wraps. Me and the boy have gained weight since...well, since we moved in together, partially due to inactivity, partially due to poor eating habits. We are seeing the signs of a slowing metabolism...nooooo!!!!

What better way to combat that than to make a flavourful, but healthy lettuce wrap?



Ingredients
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
1/2 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
4 green onions, chopped
3 lemongrass stalks, white part only, outer woody layers removed, chopped
1 1/2 T ginger, minced
1.3 lb ground pork (~600 g)
Juice of 2 limes
2 shallots, chopped
2 T fish sauce
1/4 c hoisin, or to taste
Cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Lettuce leaves for serving



Method
In a wok, heat 1 T of oil over medium heat. Cook ground pork, lime juice, and fish sauce together, breaking pork up into smaller pieces. Remove and reserve when meat is cooked all the way through.

In the same wok, heat 1 T of oil. Cook white onions, carrot and celery for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add lemon grass. Stir and cook for two minutes more. Add cooked pork, ginger, and shallots. Cook five more minutes, stirring in hoisin to taste.



Season with salt and pepper as necessary. Serve on lettuce leaves with extra hoisin if required (I found mine to be seasoned nicely already).

The meat mixture is also nice served on top of rice, couscous, or on top of a salad.