Cold Asian Noodle Salad

Hello! I am now not only in my new apartment WITH internet but have also finally bought the correct cord to charge my camera with here across the atlantic. I have made a few meals that I was sadly unable to document with photos in the zwischenzeit (the in between time) and thus will be bringing you today a dish that I made months ago back in Lancaster. It is a rather summery recipe, so I apologize for not being consistent with the time of year, something that I think is actually rather important. But in any case, even if it seems summery it is still a good recipe. Especially good for bringing with you to school or to work for lunch! Here it goes:

Cold Asian Noodle Salad

1 package Soba Noodles (japanese buckwheat noodles)
about half a pound of green beans
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
3-4 stalks green onion
package of tofu
juice from 2-3 limes
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

I am sorry that these measurements are not very exact, but I did not actually write down what I did and thus am guestimating from a recipe I made a couple months ago. SORRY. I will try and be more professional in the future.

Anyway! Cook the soba noodles as instructed on the package, drain, and allow to cool. Meanwhile, bring another pot of water to a boil and blanch the green beans (I cut off the two ends, although you can leave them if you would like) in very lightly salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes. You want them to be cooked but still a bit crunchy. Cut the tofu into squares of desired size, maybe an inch or half an inch cubes. Also chop the green onions. Once the noodles are cooled, combine all ingredients in a bowl, adjusting the amounts of lime juice, soy sauce, and sesame oil to taste. I used the juice of 2 limes in my recipe and thought that it was maybe too much, but my sister tasted it and thought it could use more lime! So really, it is completely up to you. Also, you want to use fresh bean sprouts, not bean sprouts from a jar, if possible. You can usually find them at asian markets packed in bags in the refrigerator. This recipe is great as I said for a work lunch, or for a lunch buffet, or a picnic etc. Very delicious and easy AND good for you.

Papaya Pinapple Delight Cookies/ Dessert Bars

I would like to thank Rachel first for her creative genious in making this amazing blog and second for allowing me to contribute! I feel honored :) I also have to apologize that my photos are not nearly as artistic and beautiful as Rachel's but hopefully they get the point across. So anyway, I thought it was about time for some dessert. I was feeling somewhat inspired after finishing my stats final today (what better way to celebrate than with cookies?!) I made a kanten with the juice for which the cookies are named (papaya pinapple delight) the other day but was feeling that it lacked the pizazz that I was really craving at the time. So I decided to get down to business this afternoon. I am typically not inclined to follow or even use recipes when I bake (or cook for that matter) but for the sake of everyone else I will try to approximate what went into these delightful little treats.

1 cup whole grain pastry flour (or whatever kind of flour you might happen to have at the time)
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread (You can also easily 1/4 olive or other type of oil. I really don't want to advocate this stuff because it does have palm oil and is probably not the best but if you're really craving some high fat buttery goodness you can't go wrong here and at least it doesn't have hydrogenated oils)
1/2 cup date sugar (or agave nectar, brown rice syrup or some fun combination of all three)
1/2 cup soy, almond, rice or hemp milk (add as you mix- you will have to add more or less depending on the desired consistency- if you remember the concept of titration from chemistry class, they totally stole that concept from bakers)

Optional:
chopped walnuts or other nuts
1 tblsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup kanten (pick a juice of choice, mix 1 tblsp agar-agar for every cup of juice and bring to a boil until agar-agar is dissolved. Mixture will gel as it cools for a delicious jello like treat that can be enjoyed alone or on top of these cookies)

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cream Earth Balance, vanilla and sweetener in another bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the buttery mixture alternatively with your milk of choice until desired consistency is reached.

Spoon onto baking sheet and if planning to place Kanten on top, create depression on top of each cookie with your thumb. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes depending on how big you made your cookies!

Variation: Spread into baking pan for delicious dessert bars!

I had a lot of batter and only one baking sheet so thats why what would normally have been the second batch became dessert bars instead. I discovered that, like Rachel, having relocated from an optimally stocked kitchen to a new, remote location, you don't always have the desired ingredient, utensil, or container but I did the best I could. I could have sworn I at least had a wisk here but I made due and mixed with a spatula :-P Cullen just got us a food processor (super sweet!) it was one of the cheaper models but its working awesome so far I used it to chop the walnuts and Cullen made some delicious hummus (also super simple so I'll just throw the recipe up here)

H-Amazimg Hummus
1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix it all up in a blender or food processor and voila! You can also get creative and add whatever you want like red pepper, kalamata olives, pine nuts, pesto you name it! Yum!

Ok that's all for now! Enjoy! :)

Baked Tofu and Nishime Vegetables with Millet

A few weeks ago I picked up a cookbook called The Healthy Hedonist. I had roasted, fried and boiled tofu many times before but a recipe in the book for baked tofu sounded really good. It was simple a block of tofu (pressed for 30 minutes between two plates with a can of soup on top to weigh it down) cut into triangles and marinaded for 30 minutes in sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, apple juice, mirin, shoyu and toasted sesame oil. The recipe called for a very small about of toasted sesame oil, but I didn't have any regular sesame oil and thus used about 3 tablespoons of it, replacing the regular. Myra Kornfeld, the author of the cookbook, says not to cook with toasted sesame oil and juts to use it as a condiment. She might be right but I've been using it all Summer and appear unscathed. A little goes a long way, however, so using regular and just adding a small about of toasted sesame oil is more economical. It is then baked at 375 for 40 minutes. Really good.

To accompany this I cooked up some Nishime vegetables. This is a popular cooking style in macrobiotic cooking. In a large heavy bottomed pot, place a piece of Kombu sea vegetable. Then layer different types of vegetables that you would like to eat. Seasonal, local vegetables are of course best and if you are eating macrobioticly you of course want to pay attention to balancing yin and yang qualities. You could layer them from the most yin to most yang or just put the hardiest vegetables at the bottom. I used red onion, yellow squash, carrots, white button mushrooms and spring onions. The last of these might be a bit odd but I had them and wanted to eat them.

Millet was my grain of choice for this meal. I like millet a lot, but mostly because it makes a really delicious porridge the next morning. Just put it in a pot with a little soy milk or water, add any nuts or dried fruits you want just like you would with oatmeal and wait for it to heat up. So good.

Berlin

I am now in Berlin, currently sitting in an apartment that I will be inhabiting for one month before moving into another until the end of June. It is a very nice place, in Prenzlauerberg with lots of cool cafes and shops and things but unfortunately no internet aside from some untrustworthy wireless that can only be reached from my roommates room. And it is there where I sit now nursing my cold. I have some more recipes and things from the Summer I would like to publish but the connection here is too slow for picturse so I will have to wait and go to a cafe this week.

Summer Salad

It's labor day and my sister's wedding as well as my departure to Germany are fast approaching. It is hard to believe that it is September already. My sister and her fiance to Lancaster from Philadelphia yesterday for a week of preparations and are staying with my parents and I for a few days before moving to the bed and breakfast. My dad had bought some delicious and fresh local lima beans from market a week ago. He also asked me on Saturday to pick up three pounds of green beans for the week which, in combination of the lima beans, reminded me of a recipe I had seen in Nigella Lawson's cookbook Forever Summer. Nigella Lawson is basically my idol. I adore her. She is very real, very beautiful, has amazing recipes and great stories to go along with them. She is passionate about food but not annoyingly over enthusiastic and her recipes, aside from sometimes including odd britishy ingredients (less so in her newer books), are simple and wonderful. How to be a Domestic Goddess was pracitcally my bible growing up. But back to the point! I had seen a recipe for Squash and Two Beans Salad and now just had to make it for the first night of wedding week. I used:

2 medium yellow squash
2 zucchini
a medium bowlful of green beans
a pint of lima beans (shelled just as Nigella insists upon)
olive oil
basil
mint
salt and pepper
1 or 2 lemons

I cut the squash and zucchini into thirds, then halved the thirds, and then made thick sticks out of these pieces following Nigella's suggestion. I threw them into a roasting pan, drizzled enough olive oil overtop to make a shallow pool in the bottom of the roasting pan (Nigella says 1/3 of a cup but measuring just creates one more thing to clean in my opinion) and mixed it about so everything was nice and saturated. I pinched somes sea salt overtop and put it in a 350 oven for half an hour. In the meantime I boiled the green beans and lima beans in salted water in separate pots until they were done to my preference. I think the lima beans were about 5 minutes and the green beans about 7 but just taste them and see. When each was done I drained it and then plunged the colander into a bowl of ice water, swishing it around so that the beans would get a nice cold bath but I wouldn't have to go fishing for them in the bowl after. Now it's time to peel the lima beans! After they are cooked the covering comes of very easily, just pinch it and it pops out leaving a nice soft bright green (sometimes white) interior.

After the squash cools, gently mix the squash and beans together in a bowl. Squeeze the juice from a lemon or two over the salad. Nigella calls for one lemon but I ended up using two as they were small and I thought it could use a bit more zip. Next chop up a handful each of mint and basil and toss with the salad. Nigella just used basil, but I had some fresh mint and think that it was a very nice addition. Add salt and pepper to taste. I had this salad sitting out for a good 5 or 6 hours before we ate it, which was not a problem at all. I could say it made it better becuase everything had a good long time to marinade, but that could just be a lie since I only sneaked a bean or two right after making it.

Later I made a great marinaded tofu dish to serve alongside the salad, but I will have to tell you more about that another day. Have a great holiday!

Fig and Pear stuffed Acorn Squash

Last Tuesday, just like most Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, I was in downtown Lancaster at the Central Market and was compelled to pick up an acorn squash and also a small rosemary plant. When I got home I saw that my Dad had picked up some figs there himself and as I went for a run that evening I thought of how well these things could go together. He had also picked up the first pears of the season, delicious, and so I thought I could incorporate these as well. The result was super delicious, although I will give more credit to the delicious local produce, especially the figs, than I will to my culinary skills.

Here is what I did:

Cut 1 acorn squash in half. I used just one half because it was just for me, but you could cook both halves at the same time. I scooped out the seeds and rubbed my chosen half with olive oil, then took some pieces of rosemary and stuffed them in and around the squash. I placed it facedown on a foiled cookie sheet and cooked it in a 350 degree oven until it was soft (poking it with a fork is a good way to test). It takes 40-50 minutes but keep testing.

Meanwhile I sliced up about a quarter of a red onion, 1 pear, 4-5 figs (quartered). Once the squash was done I took it out and let it sit while I took care of the rest. I sauteed the onion in some butter for a minute or two until they started to get soft, then added the pear and figs and some cinnamon. I let this cook for about 5 minutes, until it got good and juicy and delicious smelling. I mixed the fig and pear mixture with a mixture of brown rice and rye grains that I had been cooking while the squash was in the oven. Then I filled my acorn squash, sprinkled some chopped roasted almonds on top and put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

I stuffed way more into my acorn squash than looks good or is necessary, but I only cooked up half a squash and did not want to waste the delicious filling. Cooking for one is difficult! I was thinking it would be fun to try other grains, like quinoa, or couscous. The fig, pear, squash, rosemary and cinnamon was a great combination though!

And in the beginning there was...

Hello! Wilkommen to my blog. I have been an avid baker my entire life. I have always been very interested in cooking as well, but since I have also been a vegetarian since I can remember aside from some recent forays into the world of meat it was hard for me to know where to start or what to cook. A friend of mine gave me a book a couple of months ago got me interested in Macrobiotics and this, along with a lot of time on my hands as a recent graduate of college with three months to kill, opened my eyes to a lot of great cooking possibilities. I hope to use this blog to keep a log for myself of the things I have been cooking and also share them with others. See you around!