Chilled Noodles with Vegetables and Crushed Peanuts

Labor Day supposedly marks the end of summer, but the end of our summer’s heat is nowhere in sight. I’m really not complaining since this summer has been so much less intense than last year, but at this point in the season, no matter how relatively mild the year may be, it’s still been hot for many, many days in a row. So, as I was going through old recipe files the other day, something that understandably caught my attention was an old article about chilled noodle salads. Nice, cold, crisp salads are always welcome on hot days, but don’t chilled noodles make a salad seem even colder? Maybe they retain their coldness longer than vegetables do, or maybe I’m just imagining that. Either way, I was convinced that chilled noodles and vegetables was the way to go for a few late summer meals. That article I found in the files was just a starting point. From there, I went on to look up noodle salads in a few books and eventually found the recipe that I worked from for this dish in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The cooked and cooled noodles were mixed with a rice vinegar dressing made with ginger and chopped chiles, and then I served it as a composed salad with the vegetables arranged on top. The changes I made to the original were only out of convenience. Rice noodles were easier to find than mung bean noodles, and I had some arame which I used instead of buying the suggested dulse.

The skinny rice noodles were covered with boiling water and left to soften which only takes a couple of minutes. Then, they were drained, rinsed under cold water, and transferred to a big mixing bowl. By immediately tossing the noodles with some dressing, they’re less likely to stick together in a big clump. The dressing was made with rice vinegar, vegetable oil, a little sesame oil, a scan teaspoon of sugar, a big pinch of salt, grated fresh ginger, and finely chopped serrano chiles. I added some chopped peanuts and cilantro leaves to the noodles before tossing with the dressing, and then the bowl was refrigerated while the vegetables were prepped. The dried arame was soaked in cold water for a few minutes until soft, and carrots, cucumber, red bell pepper, and another chile were julienned. Green onions were sliced on a diagonal, and the salad was ready to be composed. A trick I learned from Martha Stewart years ago is to separately dress each item of a composed salad. So, after noodles were placed in bowls for serving, each type of vegetable was tossed in a bowl with a little of the dressing before being placed on top of the noodles. Last, more cilantro and crushed peanuts were used for garnish.

The contrast of crunchy vegetables and peanuts with squishy noodles was a good one, and the ginger and chiles offered pops of flavor. Icy cold, chilled noodles will be a great remedy to our ongoing heat until whenever summer really ends.

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Sesame Tofu and Steamed Cabbage with Peanut Sauce

It was the week of St. Patrick’s Day, last week, and I had a great, big, gorgeous head of green cabbage from Farmhouse Delivery, and oh yeah, I’m mostly Irish. Still, I sat there with that cabbage wondering what to do with it. Somehow, the obvious solution of Irish cooking with cabbage wasn’t clicking for me, so I did a quick recipe search for something different. I found just the right dish in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. As usual, when looking for ideas for cooking a particular vegetable, you can find several from Deborah Madison. This was a dish built around steamed cabbage, and the flavors are Asian-influenced. The recipe actually calls for savoy or napa cabbage, but I proceeded with a head of round, green cabbage instead. And, I know, we’re talking about tofu and steamed cabbage here, but trust me, even Kurt liked it. In the book, the dish is presented with options. The tofu could have been left plain and simply steamed with the cabbage, but there were suggestions to try a sesame marinade on the tofu or to fry the tofu rather than steam it. I did marinate the tofu, and then I roasted it in the oven while the cabbage steamed. Most importantly, both the cabbage and the tofu were topped with a quick peanut sauce and garnishes of cilantro and chopped peanuts. So, simple cabbage and tofu became vehicles for big flavor.

The tofu should sit in the marinade for at least an hour but the longer the better. The sesame marinade was a mix of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar, chili oil, and finely chopped green onion and cilantro. The tofu was cut into slabs, placed in a wide, shallow dish, covered with the marinade, and placed in the refrigerator. I turned the tofu pieces after a few hours. I decided to roast the tofu in the oven to make it more hands-off than frying. So, while it roasted, I cooked rice and steamed the sliced cabbage. The peanut sauce was a quick version from the front of the book, and it included natural peanut butter, rice wine vinegar, chopped cilantro, minced garlic, soy sauce, light brown sugar, and chile oil. It seemed a little thick when mixed, so I added a tablespoon or two of water to make it drizzleable. The steamed cabbage was spooned onto a base of cooked rice, and it was topped with chunks of tofu, drizzled with peanut sauce, and sprinkled with cilantro, sliced green onion, chopped peanuts, and sliced dried chiles.

The flavors here literally built up from the base going from simple rice to cabbage, then from marinated tofu to peanut sauce. It was fresh, healthy, simple and savory, bold, and spicy all at the same time. I love finding a different way to use a vegetable, especially when it turns into something this good.

Deborah Madison, What Are You Reading?

I had the pleasure of meeting Deborah Madison at a book signing held at Boggy Creek Farm a few weeks ago. The signing was for her new book Seasonal Fruit Desserts from Orchard, Farm, and Market which I’m looking forward to using from one season to the next. For the last year, I’ve been enjoying cooking from her book Local Flavors, and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is a classic of hers I reference often. Deborah was a student for eighteen years at the San Francisco Zen Center where she was head cook, guest cook, and private cook at different times. She also cooked at Chez Panisse before opening Greens restaurant which was a leader in offering farm-driven menus. Her many award-winning books inspire a way of eating that connects us to our food sources. Deborah is on the board of the Seed Savers Exchange, has been involved with Slow Food for over ten years, is the co-director of the Monte del Sol Edible Kitchen Garden in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and you can find her on Culinate. I asked Deborah, what are you reading?

Deborah:

The book I am reading is called Oak, the Frame of Civilization, by William Bryant Logan, who wrote one of my favorite books, Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth.


"Oak" is a small but pretty, pithy book that in fact does frame civilization in terms of the habitat of the oak tree and the fact that it didn't adapt to a specialized niche.

To me both of these books are completely about food. Soil is essential, and it helps to understand it. "Oak" is about culture, but much of the oak culture is in fact about food, about gathering acorns, claiming trees and branches, harvesting, sharing, processing, cooking. But it's bigger than acorns. And food is bigger than recipes; it's about how we arrange our lives with others, and with nature, too.






Thank you for participating, Deborah! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

Previous WAYR posts:
Jaden Hair
Michael Ruhlman
Monica Bhide
Michael Natkin
Sara Roahen
Andrea Nguyen
David Lebovitz
Rick Bayless
Tara Austen Weaver
Mollie Katzen

Sourdough Corn Bread Bowls with Winter Vegetable Chowder

My sourdough starter just turned one year old. I’m proud of everything it did in that first year, but I think it can do a lot more. Out of fear, I stuck pretty closely to the Breads from the La Brea Bakery book all year since that’s where it all started. I followed the instructions in that book for making the starter, and I’ve only used that book for baking bread. It hasn’t failed me yet. I’ve made the bagels several times, and just this morning I was branching out by adjusting that recipe to include some whole grains. But, now that a whole year has gone by, I’m ready to start attempting some other sourdough breads. When I saw these sourdough corn bread bowls at Wild Yeast, they went to the top of my list. I loved the idea of cornmeal and corn flour used with sourdough, and a bread bowl for a winter soup was perfect. I followed Susan’s instructions carefully, and everything went fine. I think it’s going to be fun to keep trying new and different sourdough recipes. For the soup, I had a hearty vegetable chowder in mind, and I found just the thing I wanted in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

The sourdough corn bread was a breeze to mix. I combined bread flour, corn flour, coarse corn meal, water, salt, a little butter, and sourdough starter in the bowl of a mixer and let the dough hook do the work. The dough was transferred to an oiled bowl where it fermented for two and a half hours. It was then divided into six pieces which were left to rest for 30 minutes. Then each of those pieces was placed in a soup bowl, covered, and refrigerated until I was ready to bake. I let the dough come to room temperature while the oven pre-heated. Just before sliding the little loaves into the oven, they were slashed around the tops. The oven was spritzed, and I placed the loaves directly on a baking stone. The circular slash on each loaf made a good cut line for removing the tops and turning them into soup bowls.

The soup was even easier to prepare. First, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, sliced onion, peppercorns, and juniper berries were steeped in milk that was brought to a boil. That was covered and set aside while chopped leeks, carrots, turnips, rutabaga, celery, and potatoes were cooked in melted butter. After about 10 minutes, flour was stirred into the cooked vegetables, and then water was added. That was left to simmer for 25 minutes. Last, the milk was poured through a strainer into the soup, and seasoning was checked and adjusted.

A simple meal of bread and soup with some great cheese and olives seemed like a feast. The cornmeal and corn flour brought a little sweetness to the bread, and the crunchy crust gave way to a chewy, tasty, light yellow interior. The soup was a showcase of fresh, local, winter vegetables that was thickened just enough from the flour, starch from the potatoes, and the milk. As the soup disappeared in the bowl, it was easy to drag your spoon across the inner surface and bring bits of bread through the remaining chowder. Even better than that was pulling the bowl apart and eating the whole thing.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

Cabbage and Mushroom Galette with Horseradish Sauce

I had a big, lovely head of green cabbage from my CSA, and I wanted to use it for something other than slaw. At first, I considered this Hungarian cabbage strudel, and I still may try that eventually. But, then I saw the recipe for cabbage and mushroom galette in Vegetarian Cooking for Everone, and that was how this cabbage was meant to be used. This savory galette is made with a yeasted tart dough, filled with sauteed cabbage and mushrooms, and given a little kick with the horseradish sour cream sauce. I have to tell you about the dough first. It’s a lot like a pizza dough except that an egg is added. The dough was mixed and left to rise for about an hour, and that one, little egg made the dough very tender. It was less elastic than pizza dough when being shaped, and it was flakier than pizza crust once baked. This was a tart dough I’ll definitely use again.

For the filling, minced onion and sliced shitakes were sauteed in butter with thyme and dill. Then, the sliced cabbage was added with a little water, and the saute pan was covered while the cabbage cooked for about 15 minutes. The cover was removed, and the heat was raised to evaporate remaining moisture from the pan. Last, parsley, a chopped hard-boiled egg, and some sour cream were stirred into the vegetables. At this point, I transferred this mixture to a bowl and left it in the refrigerator for a few hours. I had also rolled out the dough into an oblong, rectangular-ish shape, placed it on a baking sheet, covered it with a kitchen towel, and placed that in the refrigerator as well. At dinner time, I assembled the tart while the oven warmed. The filling was placed on the tart dough leaving a border of a few inches. The border was folded up and over the filling and was brushed with melted butter. For a savory tart, I like to spinkle the top edges with sea salt. The tart baked for about 30 minutes while I made the horseradish sauce.

The recipe in the book suggests peeling and chopping fresh horseradish root and then partially pureeing it in a food processor with water. Then, it was to be drained and combined with the other ingredients in the sauce. I took a lazier approach and simply peeled the horseradish and grated it on a microplane into a bowl of sour cream. Then, I added chopped chives, salt and pepper, and white wine vinegar. You could also just use prepared horseradish and skip the added vinegar in the sauce, but I do like the bite of just-grated, fresh horseradish. The sauce was perfect with the cabbage and mushroom filling, and this hearty galette was perfect for fall.

Pozole Rojo

Pozole, also spelled posole, is a stew made from hominy, or nixtamal, which is dried corn. The dried corn itself may also be called pozole or posole rather than hominy. Cooked, canned hominy is also available, but for this stew you’ll want to start with the dried kind. When our weather finally changed, the dark, rainy sky made it seem like time for a slow-simmered stew. I stole ideas from two different recipes, and just to complicate matters, I changed a thing or two. First, I had read Deborah Madison’s pozole recipe in Vegetarian Cooking for Everone which starts with soaked pozole simmered in water with a few dried guajillo chiles, some smashed cloves of garlic, chopped white onion, and dried Mexican oregano. I also looked at Rick Bayless’ recipe in Mexico One Plate at a Time which is a pork and hominy stew. I wanted to skip the pork entirely, but I was interested in the addition of some stock once the corn is cooked to a tender state. Also, in that recipe, some ancho chiles are rehydrated and then pureed. That puree is strained into the stew when the stock is added. After picking and choosing and changing this and that, I ended up with a mix and match pozole rojo. Stick with me on this, most of the time involved is spent reading a book while the stew simmers, and the result is worth every minute.

The day before I started cooking the stew, I poured boiling water over the dried pozole and left it to soak until the next day. From reading the information in Mexico One Plate at a Time, I understood that the longer the pozole could cook the better. Bayless points out that it’s often left to simmer overnight before fiestas. I drained the soaked pozole and began cooking it in fresh water about five and a half hours before I planned to serve it, and I would guess that three hours would be the minimum cooking time. The goal is to cook the corn to the point at which it flowers, or the kernels begin to open somewhat resembling popcorn. I added the chiles, garlic, onion, and oregano as suggested in Deborah Madison’s recipe. After three and a half hours of cooking, I added a couple teaspoons of salt. An hour later, I added some chicken stock and pushed the pureed ancho chiles through a strainer into the stew. That was left to simmer for one more hour. During that last hour or so, you should taste the stew a few times and consider adjusting the seasoning. I ended up adding almost two tablespoons of salt before the corn and broth were well seasoned. Bayless explains that the corn absorbs a lot of seasoning, and extra salt is usually needed.

Last, but certainly not least, are the toppings. Pozole is presented with any combination of the following: thinly sliced cabbage, thinly sliced radishes, dried Mexican oregano, tostadas, sliced jalapenos, cubed avocado, lime wedges, cilantro leaves, diced onion, crumbled queso fresco, and sliced meat such as the grilled chicken that I served. A warm bowl of tender, cooked corn with a fragrant, deep red broth is topped with whichever of those items you choose. And, it happens to be delicious served with crunchy tortilla chips and the roasted salsa verde from Mexico One Plate at a Time.


Pozole Rojo
combined, adapted, and adjusted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Mexico One Plate at a Time

3 c dried pozole
½ onion, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
3 dried guajillo chiles, washed, stemmed, and seeded
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
6 ancho chiles, washed, stemmed, and seeded
2 quarts chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste

toppings:
4 c thinly sliced green cabbage
3 limes, cut into wedges
5 radishes, thinly sliced
2 jalapenos, thinly sliced
1 c cilantro leaves
2 c sliced, grilled chicken
1 avocado, peeled and cubed

-in a large, heat-proof bowl, cover dried pozole with boiling water so that water’s surface is two inches above top of pozole and let stand until the water is room temperature; place bowl in refrigerator overnight
-drain soaked pozole and place it in a large stock pot; add four and one half quarts fresh water, the chopped onion, smashed garlic, guajillo chiles, and Mexican oregano; bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer; simmer for three and a half hours or longer if time allows; stir occasionally; add two teaspoons salt after about three hours and stir; continue simmering
-meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring two cups water to a boil; add cleaned ancho pieces to boiling water and remove from heat; once anchos have rehydrated and cooled, place them with some of the steeping liquid in a blender and puree until smooth; place a strainer over the stockpot and press ancho puree through it into the simmering stew; add two quarts rich, homemade chicken stock to stew; add a tablespoon of salt and stir to incorporate; taste the stew a few times as it simmers for another hour to hour and a half and add salt to taste (possibly as much as another tablespoon)
-serve bowls of stew with a platter of toppings, some tortilla chips, and a bowl of homemade roasted salsa verde

I'm sending this to the Mexican Fiest at aromas y sabores.

Black Bean Soup

Black bean soup had been on my mind for quite some time. I had seen delicious versions at Noob Cook and at A Southern Grace, and I kept thinking about how I needed to buy a big bag of beans and make some soup. I finally did that and used some of those beans for tostaditas as well. This particular black bean soup is from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, and it’s very much just about the beans themselves. It’s a simple soup with no spicy edge and minimal garnishes, but it is pointed up with Madeira and enriched with cream. Sadly, it’s not a very pretty-looking soup, but I seem to have a knack for cooking up unphotogenic bowls of goodness.

To begin the soup, onion, celery, carrot, diced green bell pepper, bay leaves, chopped rosemary, and thyme were sauteed in butter. Tomato paste was added and briefly cooked before the beans were placed in the pot and covered with water. This was left to simmer until the beans were tender. Salt was added, the bay leaves were removed, and then two-thirds of the soup was pureed. The puree was added back to the pot and stirred into the remaining soup. I liked this result of varied textures with some thickness from the puree and some whole beans. At this point, a half cup of Madeira and a half cup of cream were added. I served the soup with a little crema and some chopped parsley.

I, of course, love black beans prepared in a southwestern style with lots of fresh and dried chiles, but this simpler approach was a nice change of pace. The herbs and vegetables provided a foundation for the flavor of the beans, and the Madeira brightened it up. Naturally, cream never hurts a dish, and here it made the puree seem even smoother. It sounds so basic because it’s just black bean soup, but this is surprisingly flavorful and filling and deliciously so.