Cauliflower and Leek Pasta

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Why do we keep buying cauliflower? I don't even like them! Anyway, our orange cauliflower was in the fridge staring back at me. So I had to cook them. Something simple maybe?

You will need:

• 1 head of cauliflower (I used orange cauliflower), tough stems removed
• 1 medium leek, white part only, sliced thin
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter or butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)
• 1 tablespoon apple cinder vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• chopped parsley for garnish
• 1 pound whole wheat pasta

In a medium pot, melt butter or butter substitute with olive oil. Add leek and garlic. Saute gently until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add cauliflower. Stir. Add dry white wine and vinegar. Bring mixture to boil and then turn down to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain. Toss pasta with cauliflower mixture and toasted pine nuts. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

I think the orange cauliflower was sweeter than regular. I like it more than regular cauliflower. But it's been years since I've had a regular white cauliflower that I struggle to remember what they actually taste like. VB thinks that I actually like cauliflower but for some unknown reason have denied that fact most of my adult life. Maybe I just need something to hate on. I mean, I can't like to eat everything, can I? Can I?

Oh, remember kohlrabi? We liked it so much that we bought it again at the farmers' market. This time, I peeled them and sliced them thinly along with a couple of granny smith apples. Then I tossed them simply with some vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. It's fresh, slightly sweet, crunchy and really delicious as a side salad/slaw.

Beet Goat Cheese Ravioli

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After many nights of Chinese food, it's time for a change. VB mentioned some beets ravioli that he had at a restaurant. I thought, why not?

*Warning: This takes a lot of work. Just saying. But it sure looks pretty. And tastes good!

For this beet goat cheese ravioli recipe, you'll need:

• 5 small (or 3 medium) beets
• 1/2 cup goat cheese
• 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
• juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
• zest from 1 lemon (about 1 teaspoon)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 tablespoons butter or butter substitute
• salt to taste 
• freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
• chopped chives as garnish
• 1 portion of pasta, recipe below

For fresh pasta, you will need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 extra large (or 4 large) eggs
•  pinch of salt

Begin by dumping flour on a clean work surface. Make a well in the flour and add eggs to the well. Using a fork, lightly beat the eggs and slowly incorporate enough flour to make a slurry. Then cut the flour to incorporate all the eggs into a shaggy dough. Knead the dough until smooth, about 5 to 10 minutes. Place dough in a large bowl and cover with damp paper towel. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes. For more details on how to make the pasta dough, check out my previous pasta making adventure.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Clean and trim ends off beets. Wrap them in aluminum foil and place into a baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes. At that time, check the beets by inserting a pairing knife into the beets. If the knife goes through without resistance, beets are done. Otherwise return them to the oven and continue to check every 10 minutes. Unwrap cooked beets and allow them to cool until they can be handled. Peel beets and quarter them.

Add beets to a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Add goat cheese, ricotta cheese, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. Pulse until mixed. Do not over process. Set aside.

Cut the pasta dough into approximately 8 equal pieces and pass each though a pasta machine. Make sure that each piece and the pasta machine are well floured. I did not get the pasta to the thinnest setting because I like my pasta with more bite to it. You should get 8 2-foot strips. Brush the surface of 1 strip gently with egg wash. Place about 1 tablespoon of beet mixture about 2-3 inches apart. You can get about 5 dollops on each strip. Gently layer another strip on top, pressing the air out of pockets one raviolo at a time. Cut out each raviolo. I used a biscuit cutter, but a knife and square ravioli will do just fine. Gently press out any air pockets. Repeat the process until you use all the pasta strips.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Season with salt. Drop 5 ravioli at a time. In a non-stick skillet, melt 1 tablespoons of butter or butter substitute over medium heat and allow it to brown slightly. After about 5 minutes, strain out ravioli and place into skillet with browned butter. Toss quickly to coat with butter. Serve with grated parmigiano reggiano and chopped chives. Repeat until all ravioli are cooked. You should be able to make about 20 ravioli with this recipe, but you will get more if you do not discard your scrap dough.

Zha Jiang Mian (炸酱面)

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VB brings his lunch to work almost everyday. One of his co-workers was curious about my version of Dan Dan Mian, but declared that Zha Jian Mian is better. Specifically that she makes a good Zha Jian Mian. Sounds like a challenge! I love a good challenge.

Unfortunately, I think I may have failed this one. Well, I guess if I had to grade myself, this version of Zha Jiang Mian would be given a C-. Number one reason? Zha Jian Mian should be saucy, as the name implies (it literally means "fried sauce noddles"). Mine is a bit on the dry side. It's one thing to make something like... oh say, Indian pizza. There's no right way; it just has to taste good. But it's much harder to make something that's steeped in tradition and childhood memories. This one just didn't quite measure up.

Sadly, you can tell that it's not saucy enough.

The problem was the vegetarian ham that I used in here. It soaked up all the sauce and became mushy. If there's anything that I hate more than a dry Zha Jian Mian, it's mushy fake meat. So I made the decision to forgo the sauce part and focus on getting a more meaty texture. I think this Zha Jian Mian would be good with a fake meat product like Harmony Valley Vegetarian Hamburger Mix, something that's pre-soaked and unflavored. Otherwise it's also okay just to leave the fake meat out entirely.

I do think the flavors were good. But the end result wasn't good enough to post a recipe for it. Maybe one day, I can make an A+ Zha Jian Mian.

Dan Dan Mian (擔擔麵)

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There are noodles in there somewhere...

Over the years, I have purchased quite a few Chinese cookbooks written in Chinese, but I find them a bit hard to use. They never account for the fact that some ingredients are hard to find in America. And they use kilograms instead of ounces or cups as measurement, forcing me to use all the 4th grade math that I can't remember. So, for years, I wished for an authentic Chinese cookbook written in English for American cooks who are not interested in orange chicken or General Tso's anything.

For Christmas, I got Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop. They are the cookbooks that I've been hoping for. I find the recipes to be authentic. VB and I also like this style of Chinese food because the spices make vegetables much more exciting than just plain.

I found this Dan Dan Mian recipe (VB calls it "Dan and Dan Noodles"... eh, close enough) in Land of Plenty. I couldn't find ya cai (芽菜) in my local Chinese supermarket, so I substituted with finely chopped zha cai (榨菜). I also used finely chopped vegetarian ham instead of ground pork and added some blanched bok choy for freshness. The result was pretty darn delicious. I can't wait to try more recipes from these cookbooks!


p.s. Generally, I don't post recipes from cookbooks and I always link to online recipes unless I made substantial changes. I hope that would encourage people to buy these awesome cookbooks that someone spent months, if not years, to write. Obviously that sentiment is not shared by all food bloggers. So without any further comments on this point, I'm going to gently point to where you can find this particular recipe online.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

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I've had a love-hate relationship with gnocchi -- I love to eat them, but hate the ones that I make. There are a couple of times that they turned out alright, but most of the times, they're either mushy and weird or really dense. I was stubborn about making them with nothing but potatoes and flour. But I can never quite get the dough to stay together in boiling water. Or I end up overworking the dough and turning out little hockey pocks. Now, for the first time ever, I made gnocchi that I find acceptable. I dare call it... good! The key, as you probably guessed, is egg. A beaten egg added to the dough made a whole world of difference. I actually made fluffy gnocchi! For a change!

This sweet potato gnocchi is perfect for fall. Slightly sweet, it pairs so well with a sage and butter sauce. I'm not gonna lie -- this recipe takes some time, but most of it is spent baking sweet potatoes. Otherwise, it's actually fairly easy and has very few number of ingredients. I think you will like it.

For this sweet potato gnocchi, you'll need:

• 3 small to medium garnet sweet potatoes
• 1 medium Russet potato
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 sprigs of sage, leaves only (about 12-16 leaves)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• salt to taste
• chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
• grated Parmesan cheese for garnish (optional)

Perforate potato and sweet potatoes on all sides with a fork. Bake in 400 degree oven until you can easily pierce them with a fork, about 45 minutes. Let cool until they can be safely handled but still warm. Peel and chop into large chunks. Pass chunks through a ricer and into a bowl. Add beaten egg, flour, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Mix together. Once the dough comes together, gently knead a few times. If the dough becomes sticky again, add a little bit more flour. Turn dough out to a floured work surface. Roll dough into a long thin roll about 1/2 inch in diameter. You may want to work in batches.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to boil. Season with salt.

Portion the dough so you'd get pieces of dough that are roughly the size of a Sour Ball. Roll each piece gently in your hands to form a ball. Press each ball down lightly with a fork. Remember to dust with flour liberally so dough doesn't stick to work surface. Drop gnocchi in boiling water. Boil for 3-5 minutes. They will float once cooked. Strain and set aside.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a nonstick pan. Once butter has melted, add about 4 sage leaves. Let the butter brown slightly and sage leaves get crispy. Toss in about one quarter of the gnocchi that you've set aside. Quickly coat gnocchi with butter. Repeat. You should get 4 portions out of this recipe. Garnish with grated Parmesan and/or chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Happy Halloween!!

The Healing Bowl

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It seems like everyone is sick. I am too. I hate mucus. When I'm sick, I want hot soup with noodles. This dish will make you feel better. I had this dish in Mendocino at the Mendocino Cafe. When I got sick, I craved the rich broth and soft noodles. So I made it at home. Yes, it did make me feel better.

You'll need:

• 6 dry shiitake mushrooms
• 3 slices of fresh ginger
• 1 stalk of green onion, chopped into long segments
• 1 whole Thai chili pepper
• 6 cups water
• 2 servings of soba noodles
• 1 bunch kale, stem removed, thoroughly cleaned and sliced into strips
• 1 block firm tofu or bean curd, diced
• 6 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 6 tablespoons miso (I used white miso, which is less salty. If you use darker, saltier miso, you will need less)
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Begin by soaking dry shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain. Bring 6 cups of water to boil. Add rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, fresh ginger slices, green onion, Thai chili pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, gently pan fry diced tofu in a non-stick frying pan until golden brown on 4 sides. Set aside.

Strain out and discard everything, leaving just the broth. Add miso, one tablespoon at a time. Make sure to taste the broth so it's not too salty. Whisk gently to dissolve the miso. Add rice wine vinegar. Just prior to serving, bring broth to boil. Add kale, fresh sliced shiitake mushroom and soba noodles. Boil until soba noodles are cooked. Add tofu prior to serving. Serve hot.

Southwestern Pasta Salad with Roasted Pepper Chipotle Sauce

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First food post in a long time! I got tired of eating boxed frozen meals and takeout, so I decided to try cooking for a change. Imagine that. It's simple, healthy and fast. I think this makes a very good side dish (or main, if you've only got so much time on hand to cook like me).

You'll need:

• 3 chipotles in adobe sauce, roughly chopped
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 pound of pasta, cooked according to package instructions and cooled to room temp
• 1 15-ounce can of corn, drained
• 2 medium Roma tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste

Begin by roasting red bell pepper whole over open flame until skin is completely charred on all sides. If you don't have a source of fire, you can broil on high for 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Place bell pepper into a bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside for 15 minutes. Remove bell pepper and rub off charred skin. Remove stem and seeds. Rough chop. Blend together roasted pepper with chopped chipotles, lime juice, olive oil and 1 tablespoon of water. The resulting sauce should be relatively smooth. If not, add more water. Season with salt.

Toss pasta together with sauce, corn, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and green onion. Serve cold or at room temp.

Our Bounty

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Remember a long time ago, we planted some tomatoes? Well, we finally have some fruit to show for it. And they are good lookin'! These are called pineapple heirloom tomatoes and they come in vibrant yellow and orange. We still have a couple on the vine (and one got stolen... it looked that good!) but this is the bulk of our bounty. Oh yeah, a couple of green zebras snuck in there.

Look at the pretty colors! I kept this really simple. Whole wheat pasta tossed with gently cooked tomato, some garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, sugar and chopped parsley. And we have stunningly fresh and simple dinner.

Homemade Pasta

Pin It Happy Fourth of July! I wish I can say that we're doing something fabulous today, but I caught a cold (yes, in the middle of summer... weird) and feel pretty lousy at the moment. So no big barbeque for us today, but I did try my hands at making fresh pasta a few days ago and here are photos from the process.

3 eggs and 2 cups of flour.

After incorporating enough flour with the eggs, I cut the egg mixture and flour together to form a shaggy dough.

Kneaded the dough for a few minutes into a smooth ball.

The dough rested for 30 minutes and then cut into 4 pieces. Then each piece was passed through the pasta machine.

I could only get the pasta to the second thinnest setting (6). Close enough. Then the pasta sheet was cut into strips.

Boil pasta immediately for 3 to 5 minutes. Mix with pesto, baby arugula and paper thin shaved fennel. Ta-da!

It turns out, making pasta is not as hard as previously imagined, although it did take a lot longer than I expected. The hardest part by far was trying to get a thin sheet of pasta without the pasta sticking to itself. Setting 6 was good enough for me. I actually wanted a thicker pasta after tasting the final product. So maybe it doesn't have to be paper thin. Overall, great success! Certainly heck a lot better than our last attempt. Let's never speak of that again.

Szchuan Sesame Noodles with Five-Spice Tofu

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Northern California seems to be a bit behind this year -- it's June and still in the mid-70s. But I think that's warm enough for some cold noodles, right? This is a Szchuan classic -- a bit sweet and spicy with lots of crunch from shredded cucumbers, carrots and bean sprouts. I added some roasted five-spice tofu to boost the protein in this dish.

You'll need:

• 3 cups cooked Chinese-style noodles, drained and chilled
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup shredded seedless cucumber
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts
• 1 cup firm tofu, diced
• 1 tablespoon five-spice powder
• 2 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 portion spicy sesame sauce, recipe below

For the spicy sesame sauce, you'll need:

• 3 tablespoon sesame paste (tahini sauce), well mixed
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce, adjust for desired heat (I use Sriracha)
• 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup water

Pre-heat oven to 375. Toss tofu with five-spice powder and canola oil. Roast for 30 minutes. Stir once half-way through the process.

Mix sesame paste, hot sauce, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce together. Stream in water to thin the sauce to a a consistency that allows you to drizzle it on the noddles.

Toss together shredded carrots, cucumber, bean sprouts, noodles, roasted tofu and sauce. Serve cold.

Soba Noodles with Soybeans, Tofu, Nori and Miso Sauce

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It's pretty rare that I come up with a recipe that doesn't require hours and hours of work. But I've done it this time -- simple and flavorful soba noodles with lots of protein in under 30 minutes!

You'll need:

• 2 servings (6 ounces) soba noodles (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
• 2 tablespoons dried nori, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes then drained
• 1 cup frozen soy beans, thawed
• 1 block (6 ounces) baked tofu curd, medium cubed
• 1 portion of miso sauce, recipe below
• sliced scallion for garnish (optional)
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

For miso sauce, you'll need:

• 2 heaping tablespoons miso paste
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 teaspoons mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less, depending on your preference)
• 1 teaspoon tahini paste

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Whisk together until all ingredients are well integrated. Set aside.

Boil soba noodles according to package instructions. Combine with all the other ingredients. Toss together with miso sauce. Garnish with scallion and/or sesame seeds. Serve warm or cold.

The key to this simple dish is definitely the sauce. It brings all the flavors together with its savory, nutty, sweet and spicy goodness. And! This is actually something that is completely do-able after a long day at work (assuming that you have all the ingredients lying around like I do).

Noodles and Mushroom Kelp Broth

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One of VB's favorite dishes from Taiwan is this brothy noodle with all sorts of fixings on top -- Chinese celery, minced fake meat, pickled mustard greens, bok choy, mung bean spouts, hot sauce, sesame oil. But the star of the show is definitely the mushroom kelp broth that everything is boiled in. So simple and flavorful -- just a piece of kelp with dried shiitake mushroom, slices of ginger, scallion, and some soy sauce simmering in a pot of water for an hour. The result is a perfect broth for noodles -- savory and flavorful. This is a nice, simple meal for days I'm (almost) too lazy too cook.

Orecchiette Two Ways

Pin It I made some mao er duo (cat's ear noodles), the Chinese cousin to orecchiette, Italian little ear pasta. That got me curious about the Italian orecchiette. I gotta say that these were not very successful, possibly because I accidentally used corn meal instead of semolina since I never got around to labeling everything my pantry. Ahem.

Anyway, I made orecchiette with broccoli by simply sauteing broccoli with some shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes and red wine vinegar. For a different take, I also made some orecchiette with some roasted butternut squash, pine nuts, and fresh herbs. I think both were equally delicious, but certainly would be better if my pasta come out a bit better.

Live and learn. And organize pantry!

Harissa Kale Penne

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Christmas is about receiving... er, I mean, giving. For Christmas, I gave VB (and indirectly, myself) a tube of harissa, a spicy North African paste that is super delicious. He's been curious to try it ever since Jeffrey Saad (remember him?) hawked it on the Next Food Network Star. There are different brands of harissa out there, some are spicy and some are not. You can even make it at home. I used Dea Harissa Hot Sauce, which is spicy (but not overpowering) and has a coriander flavor that makes it unique.

I tossed together some harissa (okay, a lot of harrisa) with whole wheat penne, kale, pine nuts and black olives for a quick and easy dinner. You can find the recipe here at 101 Cookbooks. The only modifications that I made were to cut back on the olive oil to only 2 tablespoons and increase the amount of harrisa to 1/4 cup.

Our "Harvest" + Creamy Tomato Fennel Pasta

Pin It When we planted tomatoes a few months ago, I had fantasies of making awesome sauces and chutney from plump, sweet tomatoes that we grew ourselves. Or that I would can them and enjoy delicious tomatoes year round. Or that I would make my own ketchup or barbeque sauce for family and friends. Or all of the above. I just imagined baskets and baskets and sweet tomatoes, so much so that we'd joke about opening our own farm stand. Basically, I hoped to be a pig-in-shit happy, except with tomatoes. Instead, we got this --

This is truly pathetic. In fact, perhaps one of the most pathetic in the history of harvests. Thank goodness we have day jobs that enable us to actually buy food instead of relying on our "farming" skills to feed ourselves. I blame the poor result in part on the weird weather pattern this year. We hardly had much of a summer at all, then it got ridiculously hot for two weeks in September and now the temperature has plummeted to the 50s and 60s. Also, we planted way too late into the season. There are still a few that may ripen over the next week or so, but the plants are slowly dying and we still have a lot of green tomatoes that may never ripen.

Well, at least we can get something out of this, right? (besides a cautionary tale of "what not to do next year.") I made this delicious pasta dish to showcase the freshness of these tomatoes. Unfortunately, I had to supplement our "harvest" with store-bought and canned tomatoes. Big sigh.

For this creamy tomato and fennel pasta, you'll need:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of butter or dairy-free butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 fennel bulb, diced
• 5 medium tomatoes, diced
• 16-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1/4 cup of cream, half-and-half, milk or soy milk (I used unflavored, unsweetened soy milk)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 pound of dried pasta, cooked
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, saute diced onion in olive oil over medium heat until softened, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add diced fennel and stir to combine. Add white wine and lemon juice and allow liquid to reduce to half. After the liquid has reduced, add fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium high and cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Stir frequently. Stir in cream/milk/soy milk. The sauce should be a nice bright pink color. Cook for another minute or so. Just prior to adding pasta, stir in butter/butter substitute. Toss with pasta and serve.

Potato and Fava Beans (Maybe) Empanadas

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Food people are obsessed with names, labels and categories. If you call your dish something, then it'd better really be that something. Otherwise, you're in big big trouble, mister! You see that on all the cooking competition shows. I remember on Chopped, an ill-fated attempt at banh mi was publicly called out as being so not. On Top Chef, one of Tom Colicchio's biggest pet peeve also has to do with what a contestants calls one dish versus what s/he actually delivers.

But does it really matter? Especially if it's delicious?

To me, the bigger crime is always bad food, not poorly named food. The point of called a dish something is to set up some sort of boundary in defining what it is, like if I grilled corn I wouldn't call it fried rice. But whether the boundary is fuzzy or firm is up to the listener. If everything we cook is subject to strict scrutiny, then we should just all stop cooking. Because there's no way that my Chinese food is as authentic as my grandma's.

I like to cook food that's out-of-the-box and hard to categorize. I'm not so concerned that Gordon Ramsay is going to call me a donkey for making unconventional, improper food. But I do want to make delicious food. Here, I made a potato and fava bean stuffed something. I struggled with what I wanted to call this. It's sort of like a perogie because it's stuffed with potatoes. It's sort of like a ravioli but I didn't boil them. It's sort of like an empanada but I didn't use puff pastry. It's sort of like a pot sticker, but I didn't pan fry it. It's sort of like a dumpling, because I used dumpling wrapper. And on and on that went in my head...

I ended up with something totally unique and defies categorization. What I should call this bizarro creation is up for debate. But it's really delicious with the lemon herb sauce that I made. The original recipe that inspired this monster of a dish can be found here.

White Bean Pasta with Chermoula

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If you look up vegetarian recipes, you'll find lots of side dishes, appetizers, salads and soups. But not as many entrees. It's hard to turn vegetables into a meal, generally because a protein component is often missing. So in order to turn vegetables into an entree, I often add bread, pasta or rice to turn something that would otherwise be considered as a side dish into a main course. This recipe is a perfect example.

I found this white bean with pesto recipe in the New York Times and thought it would be an interesting dish to try. But being (generally) capable of only serving one dish a meal, this had to be the main course. So I tweaked the recipe by adding pasta and other components. It turned out to be a somewhat unconventional pasta dish, but delicious nevertheless.

You'll need:

• 2 cups of cilantro, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup of parsley, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 15-ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 of a medium red onion, diced small
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1 pound of pasta (I used fusilli)
• lemon wedges for garnish
• salt and pepper to taste

Start by mixing cumin, coriander, paprika, and cayenne pepper. You can gently toast it on the stove for a couple of minutes if you want. Otherwise set aside. Add parsley, cilantro and garlic into a food processor. Pulse until the herbs are chopped fine. Add lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, spices, salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. Set aside.

Begin boiling a large pot of water for the pasta. Once the water reaches boiling point, season with salt. Add pasta and cook to just short of al dente. Reserve about a cup of pasta water. Drain.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a large skillet and turn to medium high heat. Saute onion until softened. Add tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes or so. Add white wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half. Add cannellini beans and 3 tablespoons chermoula pesto. Cook for 10 minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken. Stir occasionally. Add the reserved cup of pasta water and toss together with cooked pasta. Add the remaining chermoula pesto. Stir to combine. Adjust seasoning, if necessary. Serve with a wedge of lemon.

This is a very earthy and rustic dish full of body and flavor. The key is to add some freshly squeezed lemon juice on top. The acidity really brightens the dish and brings out the spices. 

You can find the original recipe for white bean with pesto here and the recipe for chermoula here.

A Public Service Announcement

Pin It I urge everyone out there reading this blog (all THREE of you) to go home and spend a few hours organizing your pantry. No, it doesn't sound exciting or fun or sexy. Yes, you probably have a lot to do already and that's probably at the bottom of your to-do list (if it's even on the list). But one day soon, you will thank me for this.

Because you never know when your significant other will decide to make pasta from scratch using the flour contained in a jar labeled "all-purpose flour." And s/he will not know that you had dumped rice flour into the jar because you ran out of containers and couldn't be bothered to change the label. Then s/he will seriously wonder why the dough has the density and elasticity of a damp rag. And then as s/he stands in the kitchen scratching his/her head as to what happened ("but I followed the recipe exactly!!...."), you'll have to sheepishly admit that you screwed up, thank him/her for valiant effort and apologize profusely.

No fresh pasta for you! And you're out of rice flour. All because you couldn't be bothered to find a sharpie and a label when you had to.

Yeah....

Well, at least it's not rat poison.

The more you know... *Rainbow*

Cat's Ear Noodles (Mao Er Duo 貓耳朵)

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This week is VB's birthday week, which is always filled with lots of his favorite foods. Last night, I made 'beef' noodle soup for him again. But this time, I thought I'd step it up a notch (it is his birthday week after all) and make noodle from scratch to go with the soup. This particular noodle is called mao er duo or cat's ear. No, it's not my friend Cat's ears or Tangerine's or Raisin's. It is a traditional Chinese noodle named for its resemblance to cat ears. In bizarre coincidence land, the Italians also call a similarly shaped pasta "small ear" (orecchiette). I'm not saying that we're the innovators and they're just the imitators... I'm only implying it. Please don't send me hate mail!!

Wherever the origin is, these noodles are delicious and -- for lack of a better word -- "toothsome." They "bounce back" as you chew them. Fair warning though, these take a bit of work. It's probably good to make ahead and refrigerate before use.

You'll need:

• 2 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Combine flour with salt and make a well in the middle of the flour. Pour cold water into the well. Mix into a slush and then slowly integrate the rest of the flour. Knead for 10 to 15 minutes by hand. No cheating! If one hand gets tired, use the other. The dough should be smooth and just a little bit tacky.


Cover the dough and let it relax for at least 15 minutes. Roll out the dough into a sheet that's about 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. Use a knife and slice the dough into 1/4 inch squares. Take a square, and with your thumb, gently push down and forward on one corner until the pasta rolls up into a cone like shape. At this point, try to enlist some innocent bystanders to help you. Otherwise it's going to be awhile. Try not to put them in a big pile like I did -- they stick together. I learned the hard way.

Toss the pasta into boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. They will not float when they are done, so the timer is your best friend here. Pair them with your favorite broth or soup and you've got a delicious meal!

'Beef' Noodle Soup (素牛肉麵)

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Before I met VB, one of my favorite things to make for myself was Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup. It's so comforting and evokes so many good memories. Eating a good bowl of beef noodle soup is like going home, minus the 13-hour flight. Now I'm re-creating a vegetarian version of this dish. And to my surprise, it's pretty darn good! I love the rich broth and all the spices. I think it's as good as 'beef' noodle soup can get without the beef.

I made my own seitan to replace beef as the main source of protein in the dish. You can use store bought seitan, of course. To make seitan, you'll need:

• 1 cup of wheat gluten
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of ginger powder
• 3/4 cup of ice water
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 onion, sliced thin
• 2 slices of ginger

Mix wheat gluten with garlic powder and ginger powder. Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce with ice water. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix well. Knead by hand for 10 to 15 minutes. In the meantime, boil water, remaining soy sauce, sliced onion and sliced ginger in a large pot. Allow seitan to rest for 5 to 10 minutes and then knead it a few more times. Tear seitan into small pieces. Seitan will swell to more than double its uncooked size, so take that into account when portioning seitan. Add seitan into the boiling water. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

For the 'beef' noodle soup base, you'll need:

• 4 whole star anise pods
• 8 cloves
• 3 dried red chilies
• 1 teaspoon (about 8) of Szchuan peppercorns
• 2 slices of fresh ginger
• 2 Thai chilies, minced
  
• 2 tablespoons of black bean paste
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine
  
• 3 plum tomatoes, cubed
• 4 cups of water
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• salt to taste
  

In a large pot, heat up vegetable oil and, over medium-high heat, saute star anise pods, cloves, dried chilies, Thai chilies, Szchuan peppercorns and ginger until fragrant, about 2 to 5 minutes. If you have a tea bag, you can put spices in it and return the bag to the pot at this time. It will save you the trouble of flossing them out of your teeth later. Stir in black bean paste, soy sauce, and cooking wine. Cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are softened, about 5 minutes. Add water. Bring soup to boil. Reduce to simmer and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.

When the seitan is ready, remove from the pot. Use the remaining liquid in the pot to cook dry noodles and blanch vegetables. I used Chinese broccoli for this dish. To serve, ladle soup base into a bowl about half way up. Add cooked noodles. Place seitan and blanched vegetables on top. Ladle more soup into the bowl until soup completely covers noodles.

Generally, the soup base is the most important element in beef noodle soup. I think my soup base was pretty dang good even without any beef or chicken stock. I feel especially happy that I can share my favorite dish and childhood memories with VB.