Tasty Bytes

Even chefs can get into a routine. Though I constantly search for new dishes for my personal chef clients sometimes I get to making the same things at home. Lentils are a favorite staple in our house. I usually make soup but had a request from one of my clients for a lentil salad. She even bought the lentils (little black ‘beluga’ lentils) complete with recipe on the back of the package. It’s got yogurt in it so it’s not dairy-free but tasty nonetheless so here is the recipe with a few adjustments:

Curried Lentil Salad with Toasted Walnuts and Apples

3/4 c lentils (you can use any kind: beluga, french green, brown…)

1/2 c yogurt (my favorites: Strauss or Pavel’s – go for the whole full fat!)

2 Tb lemon juice (apple cider vinegar would make a good sub)

2 stalks green onion, thinly sliced

1 medium apple, diced with skin (any variety)

3/4 c walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/2 c raisins (any type: thompson, currants, golden…)

1 tsp curry powder

sea salt and pepper to taste

If you can, soak lentils overnight to aid in digestion and shorten the cooking time. Cook the lentils until just tender in any type of broth or water. It should take about 20 to 30 minutes depending on the type. Drain and cool. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Adjust seasonings and you are Done!

This salad would also be great with diced celery, diced jicama and/or grated carrot. Maybe crispy Asian or Bosc pear in place of the apple? Vary the nuts, mmm pine nuts or …sub cranberries for the raisins …be creative, use what you have on hand. I’ll be serving it up with one variation or another (with yogurt on the side for those that are dairy free.)
Enjoy!

Wednesday’s New York Times featured an article by Mark Bittman on easy puddings. Since I was having a dinner party Friday night and wanted a simple dessert I thought I would try out the chocolate pudding recipe – only without the milk.

In place of the milk I used a 50/50 blend of homemade nut milk and coconut milk. Since coconut milk has a natural sweetness I halved the sugar. I toyed with subbing the sugar with something more healthy but figured this was dessert so I splurged. As my Mom says, “It’s just a little bit…only once a year!” I only had semi sweet chocolate on hand so that’s what I used – next time I would use a really dark chocolate.

The dinner guests loved it. Here’s the recipe:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Chocolate Pudding – No Dairy

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
2 1/2 cups nut milk — or coconut milk or combination
1/3 cup sugar — more or less to taste – you can sub sucanat, rapadura or stevia
3 tablespoons cornstarch — organic (add another Tb if you like a thick pudding) – other thickeners may also work but may take some experimenting
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces dark chocolate — chopped into small pieces

Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a 3 quart sauce pan. Put over medium heat and continue to whisk until thick and bubbling.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and chocolate. Divide into 6 small cups.

Cover tops with a small piece of parchment to avoid having a skin form. Skip this step if you like the skin. Refrigerate.

Serve chilled.

Source:
“Based on recipe in the NYT by Mark Bittman Feb 21, 2007”
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Talk about the power of suggestion… I was over at my fiddle teacher’s house the other day for band practice and she had a package of Thomas English Muffins on her counter…at least I think it was at her house I saw them. In any case, those crispy nooks and crannies set me on to the path of “must make english muffin.” So here they are…

I started with a recipe from this blog. They were a lot easier to make than I thought. Nice because you don’t have to use the oven – these are cooked entirely on the stove with a cooking time of less than 15 minutes.

To my taste they were a bit too sweet and not salty enough so the following recipe has those adjustments. I also wanted to add some fiber so used whole wheat for part of the dough. I think these would also make nice burger buns which has been my latest craving…reminder to defrost some of that grass fed ground beef sitting in the deep dark corner of the freezer.

Next time I may try out a cinnamon raisin version. When I was a kid, I loved to toast up cinnamon raisin english muffins with a slice of Kraft American ‘cheese’ on top…those were the days of ignorant bliss…

* Exported from MasterCook *

English Muffins – Sourdough

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole wheat flour — more as needed
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
cornmeal

Combine starter with 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. Stir thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight on your kitchen counter (about 7-10 hours).

Add the baking soda, salt, sugar to the dough and gradually add the 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons at a time. Dough should be sticky but workable. You can use more or less flour as needed. The looser the dough the more holey the muffin.

Turn dough out onto a generously floured surface and pat out to about ½ inch thick. Use a lightly floured 3″ biscuit cutter to cut the dough. You can press together the scraps to make more rounds

Place rounds on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal. Leave enough space between each round so they don’t spread and stick together. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cornmeal and leave them to rise, loosely covered with plastic wrap or a clean dishtowel, until doubled in size. Any where between 45 minutes and 1 1/2 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Heat a cast iron skillet (or other type of non-stick pan) over medium heat until hot.

Cook the muffins for about 5-7 minutes on each side, turning only once. The muffins should be a medium brown so adjust heat as needed.

Transfer to a rack to cool.

Enjoy!

It’s taken a bit of time but here it is – the recipe for the Dan Dan Noodle Salad I brought to the Food Blogger’s picnic back in August and that I made for my nutrition class summer gathering. I’d love to give more background on the ingredients but I am madly preparing for another nutrition talk. Rather than wait until I had time I figured I’d post the recipe and answer questions as they arose. Here is some info on the inspiration for the dish which came from last year’s trip to Chongqing, China.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Dan Dan Noodle Salad – Chongqing Street Style

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
**Marinade for Meat or Tofu**
2 teaspoons shaoxing wine or sherry
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons chinkiang vinegar — Chinese black vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons Xinjiang Spice Mix
5 ounces ground pork — or chicken or turkey or crumbled extra firm tofu
2 teaspoons oil
**Sauce**
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 each scallion — sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons Xinjiang Spice Mix
2 tablespoons cilantro — roughly chopped
1/2 cup broth or shiitake mushroom soaking water or water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/4 cup Chinkiang vinegar or Chinese black vinegar
2 teaspoons sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
**Noodles**
2 tablespoons oil — divided
1 ounce dried shiitake mushroom
1/2 cup chopped pickled chinese vegetable (ya cai or mustard) — optional
12 ounces yam noodles
**Garnish**
4 each scallion — sliced
1/4 cup cilantro — roughly chopped
1/2 cup peanuts — roasted, unsalted & roughly chopped

Marinate meat or crumbled tofu for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Heat a 10″ saute pan with the 2 teaspoons of oil and brown meat or tofu. Set aside.

Squeeze excess water from shiitake and roughly chop. If desired, save the mushroom soaking liquid for the sauce. Heat a 12″ saute pan with 2 tablespoon of oil. Saute shiitake until lightly brown. If using, add the pickled chinese vegetable. Saute for 2-4 more minutes.

To make sauce. Warm sesame oil in a 2 quart sauce pan. Add scallion and Xinjiang spice mix. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add remaining sauce ingredients and bring up to a simmer. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Cook yam noodles. Boil 4 quarts of salted water. Add noodles and simmer for 6-8 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain 2-3 times to remove any excess starch. Put noodles in a large mixing bowl. If you do not use right away (within 10-15 minutes – drizzle a little sesame oil on it to prevent from sticking together…and believe me – it will stick together and then some!)

Putting together the salad. Add to the noodles in the bowl: sauteed meat or tofu, shiitake, preserved vegetable and sauce. Mix together. Season to taste. Serve in one large bowl family style or in individual bowls with the garnish of scallion, cilantro and peanuts scattered on top.

Here is the recipe for the Xinjiang Spice Mix:

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1/4 cup cumin seeds
2 tablespoons ground chili pepper — Sichuan chili if you can find it
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon sichuan peppercorns
1 tablespoon ginger — grnd
1 tablespoon garlic — powder
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Toast sichuan peppercorns til fragrant. Toast cumin until lightly browned.

Grind sichuan peppercorns, cumin, chili flakes and black pepper in a spice grinder

Stir in remaining ingredients.

Enjoy!

Mochi’s favorite snack these days. As soon as she hits the back door her figdar is on. She methodically sweeps the yard – first by the garage they back behind the tool shed. She gets her fill of fallen figs and sometimes brings one in the house to save for later. Two Falls ago we noticed her tooth was purple. Being the over protective Mom I panicked and thought she had damaged her tooth. I insisted on taking her to the vet. The doc did a thorough exam and found nothing. Short of taking an x-ray she was at a loss so we took her home and kept an eye on the tooth. Lo and behold, after a week or so the tooth returned to it’s normal white. Sheepishly, I had to admit to P that I over reacted to Mochi’s fig stained tooth – an expensive lesson.

P and are making our annual trips with 12 foot ladder in tow to M and T’s yard to pick pounds and pounds of black mission figs. This year we’ve been enjoying them fresh in addition to gingery fig chutney (to accompany my Dosa addiction, where btw I ended up purchasing a griddle…shhh, don’t tell P) and a batch of fig gelato based on this recipe. Tomorrow’s bounty will probably get dried in our 8 tray food dehydrator and vacuum packed to enjoy through out the year.

So the gelato? After making an adjustment to make it non dairy…I liked it. Though if I make it again I will cut back a bit on the sugar. Here is the recipe that I ended up using (based on an LA Times recipe):

1/2 pound figs, stemmed and cut into quarters
1/4 cup sugar, organic raw
1 tablespoons raw honey (I love Marshall’s)
1 tablespoon orange liqueur like Grand Marnier or Cointreau
1 3/4 cups cashew nut milk (see recipe below)
Pinch salt

Put figs and sugar in a small pot and place over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring often. Cook until figs are soft, about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients. Chill in the refrigerator or in an ice bath, then freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Cashew Nut Milk

1/2 c raw organic cashews soaked overnight
2 cups filtered water

Blend until very smooth. Strain if desired. I generally don’t strain my nut milks since the blender that I use makes everything so smooth.

Here is the ice cream maker that I used. It doesn’t make the best ice cream in the world but it’s a pretty cool little toy which I picked it up for $10. For delicious ice cream in the SF Bay Area run over to 4th Street or College Ave.