Making sushi

     Yesterday, for the third time in my life, I made sushi.  Only this time it was at home and all on my own (with Scott's help, of course).  Sushi is one of my favorite foods in the whole world.  However, with its high cost, it is a food that I enjoy quite rarely.  Last night, making it at home and including the raw cost of the equipment needed, I calculated that it only cost us about $12 a plate to eat as much sushi as we could desire.  How, you may ask?  Well, let me tell you, it is quite easy indeed.
     To start out with, you need the right type of rice.  Sushi rice is short grained and sticky enough to stick to the nori and itself when rolling out the sushi.  Scott and I didn't read the instructions far enough in advance to do the "proper" technique with the soaking of the rice for an hour or so so we used the "cheater" recipe on the back for Lundberg Sushi rice (Lundberg being the brand).  Here it is.

Lundberg Sushi Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups Lundberg California sushi rice, rinsed and drained well
3 cups water
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Procedure:

Bring water and rice to a boil in 2 quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer until all liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes (we used a rice cooker).  Place vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small sauce pan.  Heat slowly until salt and syrup dissolves.  Place hot, cooked rice in a wide, shallow glass bowl (not metal).   Toss (do not stir) rice gently with vinegar mixture using a plastic spoon.  The sushi rice is now ready for use in your favorite sushi rolls.

     Once that was made, the rest was pretty easy.  Lacking a glass bowl, I used a glass pie pin.  And used chopsticks instead of a plastic spoon.  The effect was the same, although I perhaps could have mixed it together a bit more as I got some clumps of slight sweetness.  The rest of the sushi making was assembling the materials.  Here is what I used:

Ingredients for sushi

Nori sheets
Sashimi/sushi grade tuna (We bought ours at Staff of Life. I would recommend definitely getting it from a store you know that you can trust!).
Carrots, peeled and cut into thin long strips
Cucumber, cut into thin long strips
Green onion and avocado, same as above
Rice vinegar
Bamboo rolling mat

Procedure:

1) Put nori sheet down on rolling mat, rough side up.  Handle with dry hands 
2) Place a thin layer of rice all over the nori except for one edge.  Wet hands work best to prevent the rice from sticking to your hands.
3) Layer a line of your ingredients across the rice.
4) Roll using the rolling mat, putting a thin layer of rice vinegar at the edge to keep the rolls stuck together.
5) Cut into bite-sized pieces using the sharpest knife you have, rubbing the knife with rice vinegar between each cut to prevent it from sticking to the nori.
6) Enjoy!

The bite sized pieces of vegetables for the maki rolls

Sticky rice in my glass pie pan "bowl"

Assembling the roll



The finished product.  Okay, so I'm no sushi chef




Scott's much nicer finished product.  Do you notice the difference in our rolls?




Enjoying sushi




Love this picture!



Farmer's market fare

     How I love the Farmer's market and all the fresh food that you can get there!  Needless to say, I have been making a lot of recipes that have been all/mostly from the farmer's market.  First there was the dinner saturday night; fresh red snapper with zucchini and sweet potatoes.  Lunch the next day was homemade pickles, a tempeh reuben sandwich (the best sandwich ever!), sugar snap peas and a dessert bowl of fresh berries with whipped cream.  For dinner, it was rice pilaf with beans and tempeh and artichokes.  So delicious!  Here are some of the recipes:

Kosher Pickles the Right Way



Makes about 30 pickle quarters or 15 halves
Time: 1 to 2 days

Ingredients:
1/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup boiling water
2 pounds small (“Kirby”) cucumbers, washed (scrub if spiny) and cut lengthwise into halves or quarters
At least 5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 large bunch dill, preferably fresh and with flowers, or substitute 2 tablespoons dried dill and 1 teaspoon dill seeds or 1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Procedure:


1. Combine the salt and boiling water in a large bowl; stir to dissolve the salt. Add a handful of ice cubes to cool down the mixture, then add all the remaining ingredients.
2. Add cold water to cover. Use a plate slightly smaller than the diameter of the bowl and a small weight to hold the cucumbers under the water. Keep at room temperature.
3. Begin sampling the cucumbers after 4 hours if you’ve quartered them, 8 hours if you’ve cut them in half. In either case, it will probably take from 12 to 24 or even 48 hours for them to taste “pickle-y” enough to suit your taste.
4. When they are ready, refrigerate them, still in the brine. The pickles will continue to ferment as they sit, more quickly at room temperature, more slowly in the refrigerator. They will keep well for up to a week.

     I first made these at Camp Cazadero during our vacation.  They came out tasting wonderful and I have been looking for pickling cucumbers ever since!  I was glad to see some at the Farmer's market and so bought quite a few (I don't think it was 2 lbs worth), quartered them and made this simple recipe.  I don't have fresh dill, so I just used dried dill with no seeds and lots of spicy garlic.  Mmmm... crisp and spicy. 




Kosher pickles

 Tempeh Reuben sandwich

Ingredients:
tempeh, grilled and cut into slices
Swiss cheese, sliced
sauerkraut (I used a kosher dill pickle from the Farmer's market)
mayonnaise
pickles, cut into tiny pieces
ketchup
bread

Procedure:

1) Cut up the pickles and combine with the mayo and ketchup until it tastes like thousand island dressing.  I can't give exact proportions for this, I just combines them all together until it looked/tasted like thousand island dressing.
2) Grill the tempeh (I used a Foreman grill).
3) Assemble your sandwiches: Lay down your thousand island dressing on both sides of the bread, top with the sliced tempeh and cheese and finally the layer of sauerkraut.  Grill until all the cheese is melted.  Again, a Foreman grill works wonderfully.
4) Enjoy the best reuben sandwich ever!

     What can I say?  This really was the most delicious Reuben sandwich I have ever tasted!  Scott agrees too!  And with the tempeh instead of the traditional corned beef or pastrami, it is a lot healthier for you too!  The sauerkraut has a lot to do with the taste, so get the freshest sauerkraut you can find!  Make your own!  I originally got this recipe from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellex Katz.  Here is a link if you want to check out how to make sauerkraut. http://www.wildfermentation.com/resources.php?page=sauerkraut



Tempeh reuben sandwich with sugar snap peas,
fresh pickles and a bowl of berries.  Best lunch ever!

      My final recipe is one that I made up myself.  I have been really enjoying this rice pilaf idea, so I tried to do something off of that (see previous entry and use no chicken chicken stock).  I figured that beans and rice make a complete protein, so I thought I would add some cooked beans into the mix.  I used the rest of my leftover black and red beans, soaked them overnight and cooked them separately from the pilaf.  I then used the rest of the grilled tempeh leftover from the Reuben sandwich and added that in with the beans at the end.  I also used leftover brown rice and wild rice.  I suppose it was a leftover kind of night!  My only complaint was, as usual (and even with soaking) the beans took forever to cook.  The rice pilaf took a long while too, although maybe that was because I followed the 1 part rice to 3 parts liquid instructions for the wild rice.  I think I could have gotten away with a 1:2 ratio.  A little no chicken chicken stock helped add in flavor and there you go!

A close up of rice pilaf with beans, wild rice and tempeh.

Easter dinner

     Easter dinner... posted a week late. Ah well! A week ago today Scott and I went to the Cabrillo farmer's market to pick up food for our Easter/Anniversary dinner. I knew that I wanted was lamb chops so I could try lamb and mint jelly. This is kind of a running inside "joke" (phrase?) between Scott and I almost since we started dating (now 4 years!). From early on, Scott would sometime say that I smelled like lamb and mint jelly. I had never heard of that combination, so I was excited to finally try it. We bought goat and lamb chops from one of the farmer's market stalls (couldn't resist the goat). When I bought the vegetables, I knew just what I wanted to make. Here is our menu: lamb/goat chops with mint jelly, rice pilaf, roasted winter vegetables and Old Fashioned baked custard (since we had a lot of fresh eggs from our chicken-sitting duties lately). I love going to the farmer's market and having a meal spring up before your eyes! So, here are the recipes:


Rice Pilaf

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups brown rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock

Procedure:

1) Place the butter in a large, deep skillet which can be covered and turn the heat to medium-high.  When the butter melts, add the onion.  Cook, stirring, until the onion soften but does not begin to brown, 5 to 8 minutes.
2) Add the rice all at once, turn the heat to medium, and stir until the rice is glossy and completely coated with butter, 2-3 min.  Turn the heat down to low and add the liquid, all at once.  Cover the pan.
3) Cook for 30 min or so (it might have been longer, I don't remember).

Roasted Root Vegetables

Ingredients:

olive oil
1 1/2- 2 lbs mixed root vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, shallots (leave whole), and onions, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 to 2 in chunks (I used onions, turnips, carrots and celery)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 head garlic, broken into cloves (no need to peel)
Italian seasoning

Procedure:

1) Preheat the oven to 425.  Put the chopped up vegetables in a baking pan and coat them with olive oil and seasonings.  Place the pan in the oven.
2) Cook for about an hour, shaking every 10 minutes or so. Raise the temperature up to 450 if they don't start to brown after 30 minutes.

Old-Fashioned Baked Custard

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs plus 2 yolks
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt

Procedure:1.) Put the cream and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until it just begins to steam.
2.) Beat the eggs and yolks with the sugar until pale yellow and fairly thick. Heat the oven to 300F and put a kettle of water on to boil.
3.) Gradually add the cream to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Put the dish in a baking pan and pour hot water into the pan to within about 1 inch of the top of the dish. Bake until the mixture is not quite set - it should wobble a little in the middle - about 45 minutes.  Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold, within a day.

     You may wonder why I haven't included a recipe for lamb chops.  That is because, as is usually the case, I let Scott cook the meat.  He pan-broiled it and they came out delicious!  What a difference to get fresh organic meat!  Yum!  The mint jelly was an interesting side with them but I felt it was too sweet and kind of took away from the flavor of the meat rather than added to it.  The rice pilaf came out a little under-cooked and bland (part of this is that I substituted brown rice instead of white and didn't make sure the chicken stock was all mixed in).  The roasted vegetables were to die for!  Oh my goodness!  They were INCREDIBLE!  I will definitely have to make that recipe again, especially since it was so easy!  The custard was great, too!  It definitely made me wish I had an electric beater, as I only have hand-held ones.  Even with the turn the handle double beater, my hands/wrists sure got tired!  However, it was amazing with fresh eggs from our friends' chickens.  Scott said it was the best custard he had ever had.  Come to think of it, it was probably my best custard also!  Especially cold the next day!  Yum!

Roasted root vegetables



Rice Pilaf.  The black stuff you see are seeds from the mixed rice I had to add in to supplement the brown rice.



Our Easter dinner plate. Yum!



Scott enjoying his lamb and mint jelly.



Enjoying my food in my night gown... gotta love cooking at home!



Old fashioned baked custard.





Vegan chili

     I have been so flipping busy lately that I haven't had time to write in my blog at all.  Of course, the fact that I was away from home (for work and vacation) hasn't helped, either!  The point being that I am finally writing the blog for food that I cooked on March 29th.  Exactly a month later.  Anyways, here goes...
     This recipe is from Mark Bittman's food matters cookbook.  It is called Chili con poco carne, although it is truly Chili con non carne as I was serving it for my co-workers (one of whom was a vegan).  It is the first time that I made chili and it came out delicious!  My co-workers were so hungry that they kept trying to rush me and eat is but I told them to wait.  The extra cooking time just gave all the flavors a chance to marinate and it was wonderful.  I would definitely do it again.  I would share the recipe with you, but it was from a library book that I have since had to return to the library.  But it had lots of veggies and stuff.  Here are pics to enjoy (note they are all foggy from the steam).



Chili con non carne




So delicious!



Typhoon the vegan of the bunch.  :-D



Noixium enjoying chili





We've seen this face before!



Homemade microwave popcorn

This recipe blew my mind!  Who knew it was possible to make your own popcorn at home in a microwave?  I have been looking for a popcorn maker for months (if not a year plus) as I am addicted to popcorn.  However, I know that the chemical/processed microwave popcorn that you buy is not the healthiest for you.  Thanks to the Food Matters book by Mark Bittman I learned how to make my own!

Homemade microwave popcorn

Ingredients:
1/4 cup popcorn
1/4 tsp salt
whatever toppings you want

Procedure:
1) Put the popcorn in a brown bag and fold the top many times.  Microwave it for 3-4 minutes until there are 4-5 seconds between pops.  Add your toppings, shake and enjoy.

Delicious and nutritious!  Popcorn by itself is really healthy and low calorie.  Even if you add your own butter and salt it is still way better for you than any microwave version!  Thank you, Food Matters!

Eating to change the way I live

     So I've been reading a lot of books about food and our food industry lately.  Some of it is pretty scary stuff, opening my eyes to what I thought was doing right was actually still kind of wrong.  In the past couple of weeks, I have read The Omnivore's Dilemma  and Food Rules by Michael Pollan and Food Matters and The Food Matters cook book by Mark Bittman.  I am just about to start In defense of food also by Michael Pollan.  I won't go into the details here, but the basic synopsis is to eat more plants and whole grains and fewer animal products.  Oh, and that even things that you think are "good" for you or the environment (like organic or free range) aren't always necessarily so (that was the scary eye opening part).  Michael Pollan kind of talks about how all this happens and Mark Bittman talks about recipes you can make within  this "diet."  So, with these books in mind, I am trying to eat in a more health conscience and environmental health conscience way.  I already do for the most part, but I am going to try even harder.  Every journey starts with a first step.  My first step were the following two recipes:

Cold Noodles with Cucumber, Avocado, and Crab

Makes: 4 servings 
Time: 30 min

Ingredients:
3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and grated
1 tbsp minced ginger
8 oz rice, buckwheat (soba), or wheat noodles, preferably whole grain
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 avocado, skin and pit removed, chopped or sliced
8 oz lump crab meat
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
lemon wedges
soy sauce, for serving

Procedure:

1) Bring a large pot of water to boil and salt it.  Put the cucumbers and ginger in a colander, sprinkle with one tablespoon salt, and toss well.  Let the mixture sit in the sink for about 15 minutes, then rinse with cold water and set the colander aside to drain.

2) Cook the noodles in the boiling water until they're tender but not mushy.  Check them frequently: the time will vary from a minute or 2 for thin rice noodles, to 5 minutes for soba, or up to 12 minutes for wide brown rice noodles.  Drain the noodles, rinse with cold water, transfer to a serving bowl or platter, and toss with the oils.  Top the noodles with the cucumbers, avocado, crab, cilantro, and peanuts and toss again.  Serve, passing the lemon wedges and soy sauce at the table.

 Brown Sugar-Glazed Butternut Squash



Notes: A sweet glaze underlines the best qualities of roasted butternut squash, but only if the squash cooks evenly and the flavors are in balance. Here’s what we discovered:


•For the sweet element of the glaze, tasters preferred the complexity and depth of dark brown sugar to plain white sugar.


•Salt and pepper perked up the squash without overwhelming it, and a little melted butter added nutty richness and tied the glaze together.


•How the squash is cut affects how it caramelizes in the oven. We settled on 1-inch cubes, which had enough surface area to brown well yet were small enough to cook to full tenderness in a reasonable amount of time.


•A splash of cider vinegar after the squash came out of the oven countered the sweetness of the glaze and gave the dish some zing.


Brown Sugar-Glazed Butternut Squash


Serves 4 to 6


We like the deeper flavor of dark brown sugar in this recipe, but light brown sugar can be substituted.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks


1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (see note)


3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted


1/2 teaspoon salt


1/4 teaspoon pepper


1 teaspoon cider vinegar


Procedure:

1. PREPARE PAN Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat lightly with cooking spray.


2. ROAST Toss squash, sugar, butter, salt, and pepper in large bowl until well coated. Transfer squash to prepared baking sheet. Roast, stirring every 15 minutes, until squash is well browned and completely tender, about 45 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack, sprinkle squash with vinegar, and stir to coat. Serve

     Both dishes were really easy to make and really delicious. I learned a few things about soba noodles: one, they are very expensive if you get them 100% buckwheat ($9 for 8 oz, really?).  Two, they cook really fast.  I used a little too much ginger so I sometimes would a get a really gingery bite every once in a while.  I guess that's what you get for not measuring!  I just threw in the ginger, peanuts and cilantro in the food processor and pulsed until they were all chopped up.  Thank goodness for food processors!  I did use artificial crab meat as I happen to love it and real crab wasn't available.  Either way about it, I recommend this dish.
     The butternut squash was amazing!!!  I couldn't stop eating it.  It had a delicious sweet roasted flavor.  I think I overcooked it as it just kind of mushed together (look at my pictures).  However, it just had such a great taste that I really didn't care!  I would definitely make this recipe again although at first I was complaining about all the prep work involved in skinning, chopping and seeding a butternut squash.  It was totally worth it.  Amazingly enough, I've had this same squash for months and it is still good!  Amen for winter squash!  Yummy yummy yummy!





Cold noodles with cucumber, avocado and crab





Close up



Brown sugar-glazed butternut squash fresh out of the oven



Golden deliciousness



Our dinner plate (the chicken drumstick came from Scott)





Scott's birthday dinner, part 2 (Lasagna and Green beans)

     It figures that I would post the sweet before the savory.  Or perhaps I am posting the most difficult before the easier.  Either way about it, these next two recipes were quite easier to make. 

Classic Lasagna, Italian-American-Style

Ingredients:

package of lasagna, cooked but underdone
container of tomato sauce
ground bison
3 cups ricotta cheese
3 cups mozzarella, shredded
1 1/2 parmesan, shredded

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.  Brown the bison, drain it of fat and mix it with the tomato sauce.
2. Butter a 9x13 pan.  Lay down 3 lasagna noodles at a time right next to each other but not touching.
3.  Add ricotta cheese, then meat sauce, then mozzarella, then parmesan. 
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have made your lasagna.
5. Heat in the oven for 20-30 minutes until it is bubbly.

Julia Child's green beans

Ingredients:

Green beans
2-3 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
parsley

Procedure:

1) Prep green beans (remove ends) and set 6-8 quarts of water to boil.
2) When the water is boiling quite vigorously, put the prepared green beans in the pot and cook until they are just done (about 5 minutes).
3) Drain in the sink and cool with running water for three minutes.
4) When ready to serve, put the green beans back in the pot with no water and heat them up.  Keep shaking!
5) When warm, add 1-2 tbsp butter, pinch of salt, pepper, juice of 1/2 lemon and a little more butter.  Toss with some parsley and serve immediately.

     These two recipes were much easier to make.  For those of you who are truly astute, you will notice that I have not mentioned the kale chips.  This is because Scott remains the master of kale chips and so makes them almost every time we have them.  Best of all, we had two friends (who should look familiar) come over and help celebrate with wine and a game of Munchkin.  What a wonderful time!




Lasagna with bison



Green beans Julia Child style



Jeremy, Christian and Scott enjoying jalapeno poppers that Jeremy brought over.  Yum!



Our dinner plate



A wonderful birthday dinner with friends



A celebratory picture taken after too much wine and champagne :-D