Produce Drawer Spaghetti!

Folks, the last year has been a journey.

I get "Photo Capsule" emails of my Flickr photostream via Photojojo. In the last email there were photos from an event at Regional Tasting Lounge that I went to with M last year. In an instant, our visit to r.tl last year seems like a long time ago, and at the same time it seems like it was only days / weeks ago. And a lot has changed.

Two weddings ago (Rs, and the Ms). One engagement ago (my cousins). A 10-10-10-10-10 baby (born at 10:10pm, on October 10th, 2010) ago. Three funerals ago. A job ago...

A mixture of emotions (good, bad, and ugly) have come and gone; a couple seasons have past...I've made a lot of new friends and there have been a hobby or two that I've picked up along the way. :)

I'm going to try to ease into this blogging thing again - tonight, it was produce drawer spaghetti. I believe that my new career (as in, career, something that I love versus a job where I just show up to work...) has changed some of my eating habits. As you may have remembered, I embarked on a self-imposed meat ban late last spring . . . it seems that that simple fact transitioned me into the company where I am now.

I am not vegan, nor even vegetarian at this point - but I am definitely living a more conscious, awakened lifestyle (or so I like to believe). I have even gone jogging a couple times this month already. Lets see where this everchanging journey takes me.

Tonight, it was produce drawer spaghetti. This is not vegan - I used butter and topped it with finely grated piave mezzano, a cows milk cheese that is aged within a range of 60-180 days. The taste is slightly sweet, with slight bitter "barnyard" flavours that are associated with a baby parmiggiano, but without the same intensity.

There are no real rules to this "recipe". Slice up some onion. Melt some butter over medium heat with a couple swigs of olive oil. Saute. Add sliced veggies (I used mushrooms, green beans, and leftover cauliflower - yes, I still love my cauliflower). Sprinkle with some salt, chili flakes, oregano, and fresh ground black pepper. Add some more oil or butter if you have to. Splash with something alcoholic (sake used here). Splash with leftover stock or leftover tomato puree from the fridge. Add cooked pasta, mix in sliced olives. Twirl around your tongs to transport to a shallow pasta dish; grate with piave and love yourself for going easy on a Monday evening.

<3 Jessica

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.

Recipe: Pumpkin Ravioli with Pecans and Butter

I promised in my last jaunt with ravioli making that I'd post a couple more photos and possibly a recipe. Here she is!

I opted for a pumpkin ravioli this time as I found the crumbly meat mixture to be difficult to work with last time. The pumpkin, on the other hand, held together nicely and didn't provide too much air in the way of vacant space inside the raviolis themselves.

This time, I used the same pasta dough recipe, and made the raviolis by running them through the pasta machine a number of times. I ran a quarter of the pasta dough recipe through the pasta machine at a time. For the first few passes, I folded it into thirds and ran it through again. I ran it through each thickness setting at least three times before increasing the thickeness setting dial.



I prepared a filling by mixing together:
1 c cooked pumpkin (I suppose cooked butternut squash would work wonderfully as well!)
1/4 c grated piave vecchio cheese
Pinch nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste



The rolled pasta dough was placed onto the ravioli form; I then placed the corresponding piece over the dough and pressed slightly to create an indent in the sheet of pasta dough.





About two teaspoons of the pumpkin filling was spooned into each indentation, and, after water was brushed around the edges of each ravioli, another sheet of pasta dough was placed and pressed into place.





A rolling pin was used to cut the dough against the ravioli form, and the individual ravioli were gently popped out and dredged heavily in flour. The raviolis were allowed to dry at room temperature for a good half hour before being dredged in more flour and stored between sheets of parchment paper in the fridge.





When I was ready to eat some ravioli, I removed them from the fridge and boiled a large pot of salted water. Once the water came to a rolling boil, several (about six per serving?) raviolis were dropped into the water, and immediately stirred to separate from one another.

Concurrently, I melted about a tablespoon of butter over medium heat, and toasted some pecan halves for about 2-3 minutes, stirring to prevent burning. I seasoned the mixture with salt and pepper, and also a pinch of ground thyme. Once the ravioli had cooked for about five minutes and floated to the top of the pan, I removed them with a slotted spoon and dropped into the hot butter. I continued to stir the raviolis and walnuts for a couple of minutes, then plated and served, garnished with some chives and freshly shaved piave vecchio.

It was rich, but so good. And vegetarian to boot!

I've also had the ravioli in chicken broth, and with some of the meat mixture from my lettuce wrap recipe since. It makes for a hearty, yet healthy meal. :)

Yummy, Dinner!

We went to Seri Malaysia and had a delicious lunch on the weekend. And, you know. Some goodies to go. (Malaysian food is SOOOOO good!)



From left to right, we have some steamed rice (M insists on making it - he made it a little soggy that night), beef rendang (and such a great deal! $11.50 for a large portion of meat stewed in delicious spices), and pepper sprouts (they were 99 cents for a large bag at Donald's Market, across the street from Seri Malaysia).

I sauteed the sprouts in a little bit of oil and half of a shallot, sliced. I also added some salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

I am lucky lucky lucky!

I got home late last night, after meandering through the thick fog that has been covering Vancouver for the past while. At times, it was so thick in certain areas that I could not see the lane lines!

I've always said that Canada should have "cats eyes" - the yellow reflector lights along lane lines. Our neighbours to the south have them, and they are helpful on dim nights or rainy days where you need a little extra help staying in your lane!

But no. Vancouver doesn't have them. Probably has something to do with snow ploughs digging up taxpayer money.

The boy made an assortment of goodies for dinner last night, some old (I'd been craving steamed eggs!) and some new (I told him stories of how I *hated* Chinese meat "cake" when I was little - it just tasted like old people food. But I didnt' mind his :).

He also made mapo tofu, which means pimply-old lady tofu. I'll be adding some sauteed mushrooms, bell peppers and eggplant to that for tonights' dinner. Can hardly wait.