Creamy Asian Noodle Salad

Yes, you read that right:  creamy.  Don’t worry, there isn’t any dairy in here.  It’s the tahini that gives this a creamier mouthfeel.

A great lunch or dinner for the warm spring days and hot summer ones to come (ok, it’s hot here already…).  For me, this salad is a very refreshing meal.

I have to add a note here, now that I am finally posting this: I’m thinking some avocado would be pretty tasty tossed in here as well.  Just thinking…

Creamy Asian Noodle Salad

• 1 lb soba noodles
• 3 T tahini
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 t fresh ginger, minced
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1 T maple syrup
• 1/2 t rice vinegar
• 1/4 c toasted sesame seeds
• 1-2 T sesame oil
• 1/4 lb Shiitake mushrooms
• 4 scallions, chopped
• 1/4 lb peas, shelled
• 1 cucumber, quartered and sliced thin
• 1/4 c chopped cilantro

Cook the noodles according to the package directions, drain and rinse.

Soak the Shiitakes in warm water for 20 minutes (if you use dried, use this time to rehydrate them).  Press into a collander or between paper towels to wring out.

If not already toasted, doctor up your sesame seeds.  I usually do this in our toaster oven keeping a CLOSE eye on them.  Really, don’t take your eyes off them, they will burn.  You don’t want that.

Combine all the saucy ingredients (excluding the Shiitakes, peas, cucumber, scallions and cilantro).  If you have a small food processor, that is a great way to whip things together.  If not, just do it in a bowl 🙂

Toss the noodles with the dressing, Shiitakes, peas and cucumber.  Sprinkle the cilantro and scallions over the top and serve.

Fallen Berry Muffins

I don’t make muffins very often because, for me, they are an awfully sweet way to start the day.  Besides, if I am going down the sweet breakfast road, I’m much more inclined toward pancakes and waffles.  D loves muffins, though.  I recently made some banana muffins out of Heidi‘s wonderful book Super Natural Cooking only to discover (after almost 8 years of marriage!) that D is not fond of banana in baked goods.  He does like banana bread, though…hmmm…

Anyway, I felt I owed him some of his kind of muffins.  These are them.

I wanted to make blueberry muffins, but discovered we had only a few blueberries left in the freezer.  Fortunately, we also had some strawberries, so I combined the two.  I decided to add some sour cream too because I wanted to offset the sweetness of the muffins (which we all know are really cupcakes in disguise, right?).  I started with a recipe out of the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion and sort of winged it.  They turned out darned good, if a little flat on top.

Fallen Berry Muffins

• 8 T butter
• 1 c sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 2 c AP flour
• 1/2 c milk
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c strawberries, roughly mashed (I used frozen)
• 1/2 c blueberries (again, frozen)
• 3/4 c sour cream
• cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Add the salt, baking powder, cinnamon and then the flour alternately with the milk.  Add the strawberries, but don’t do any more stirring than necessary.  Stir too much and the muffins will get tough.  Now, gently and gingerly, stir in the blueberries and vanilla extract.

Dole the batter out into muffin tins. (With liners, if you prefer.  I do).  My batch filled 12 muffin cups.  Take the sour cream and dollop the top of each muffin with about a teaspoon (but, really, don’t bother measuring).  Now smoosh the sour cream down into the center of the muffins with your spoon or a finger.  Whatever works.

Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with cinnamon-sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove them from the oven and cool in the pans for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. (KAF tells me that muffins left in the pan will steam, creating a tough crust).

Yum 🙂

Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Soup

I am not sure if there is still anyone out there reading this lil’ blog anymore but, in the spirit of my original intent of posting recipes for my own recollection down the line, here we go again.  D and I both loved this soup and so here it shall be scribbled (typed?) down for us to refer back to.

I know, I know…you never thought I could do it, could get back to this.  In some ways, neither did I.  I’m working on a small goal of just 1 post every 2 weeks.  I should be able to do that, right?  We shall see…

This recipe is something I threw together on a week night really very quickly.  Usually, when I come across recipes that claim to be easily prepared in 30 minutes I grumble under my breath.  I’m not a fantastic sous chef (my knife skills could use some speed work) and things rarely come together that quickly.  This did, though.  And, since broccoli is in season (or heading out of season if you live here), now is a great time for some broccoli soup.

Also, I should tell you (should I?) that I took this photo the next day, on the floor, next to a playing baby right before I gobbled it down.  I ate it cold and it was still delicious.

Creamy Broccoli Mushroom Soup

• 3T olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 pound cremini mushroooms, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound of broccoli florets
• 3 c vegetable stock
• 1 c sour cream

Sautee the onion, mushrooms, and garlic in oil until softened.  Add the broccoli and vegetable stock.  Cook until the broccoli is tender (this took me about 10 min.).  Stir in the sour cream.

Allow the soup to cool a bit (the cold sour cream helps with this) and puree in a blender.  If you are cooler than me, puree with an immersion blender (and don’t worry about waiting for it to cool).

Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.  That’s it!!

p.s. I just want to comment that I totally agree with Andrea: I love using parenthetical asides because it really makes it feel like an intimate conversation (don’t you think?), rather than me just typing willy-nilly on the internet…

Grapefruit Avocado Spinach Salad

To continue the citrus theme, I’ve got a grapefruit recipe for you this week.  After requesting suggestions in my last post, Dear Cousin Shiela gave me a rough outline of a recipe that she is fond of.  The original recipe comes from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites.  I don’t have this book, however, so I sort of winged it based on Shiela’s description.

I prepared the dressing first, and separately, so it would be ready to go once the rest of the salad was.  Overall, I think I put too much garlic in the dressing, so the ingredient list below reflects a more toned down version.  You’ll probably have left-over dressing for use in other yummy salads.

I used a bunch of Bordeaux Spinach that I got in my CSA share and it was yummy and added some color.  Of course, I think the original recipe probably utilized plain old green spinach.  We had this for lunch with some fresh bread and brie – the combination of bitterness in the salad (grapefruit, garlic and spinach) and the slight sweetness of the bread and brie was divine.

Grapefruit Avocado Spinach Salad

• 1 grapefruit, sectioned and cut into smaller pieces
• 1 avocado
• 1 bunch spinach
• 1 clove finely chopped garlic
• 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper to make the dressing.  Set aside.  Toss together salad ingredients and drizzle with dressing.

Lemon Bars

When I start thinking about favorite yearly events I always come up with two related to our lovely little lemon tree. The first, in spring when the tree is in bloom. That heavenly, intoxicating citrus bloom smell. I can hardly wait! The second, early winter when the lemons from our tree (and all the other citrus, for that matter), are ripe and ready to be enjoyed.

Several years ago, when we were living in Seattle, I encountered my first lemon tree in bloom at a nursery. Right then and there I decided that I would someday own a lemon tree. I may have to build a green house, but I would own a lemon tree. As such, when we moved to Tucson getting a lemon tree was a no-brainer.

We have a dwarf Meyer Lemon, which produces some of the most fragrant decadent fruit you can imagine. It’s a cross between a lemon and an orange, so it’s slightly sweeter than a straight lemon. We actually only got one lemon off of the tree this year (apparently citrus trees cycle up and down with their abundance of production). Because Meyer’s are so perfect for lemonade, I saved ours for that purpose.

The lemons for these bars came from next door. Our neighbors Malcolm and Barbara were lovely enough to plant a full-sized lemon tree next to the wall we share. It’s still small (they only put it in last year), but it produced a copious amount of lemons this year. Because they won’t be back in town until mid-February, we took the liberty of rescuing what lemons we could reach to save them from an ill fate. So, thank you Malcolm & Barbara!

It is already starting, but soon there will be more citrus than we can consume. The folks on the other side of us have an orange and a grapefruit. They usually take care of the orange but always have lots of extra grapefruits. Hmmm…grapefruit bars? If you have a yummy grapefruit recipe, please share 🙂

For now, I’m thrilled to have these Lemon Bars to wash away any cold-weather blues we may have been feeling. The dough that makes up the bottom of the bars is basically a shortbread, the top essentially a custard or curd, if you like. I sweeten the custard/curd with honey instead of regular sugar because I love the way lemons and honey go together. These bars are bright and tart, but not too tart. They taste like lemons in the best possible way!

Lemon Bars

• 1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temp (16 T)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 t almond extract
• 3 c all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/8 t kosher salt
• 7 large eggs
• 1 c honey
• 2 T lemon zest
• 1 c lemon juice, fresh squeezed
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350° and greasing a 9×13 baking dish.

Cream together the butter, sugar and almond extract. Gradually add in 2 c of AP flour and all of the salt. Press the resulting dough into your baking dish. It’s likely that the dough will get really sticky, more so the warmer your hands are. If it’s hard to work with, stick the dish (dough and all) in to the fridge for a few minutes to help it firm up. It will be a lot easier to work with once it’s chilled. Prick the dough with a fork once it’s all pressed into the dish.

Bake the shortbread bottom at 350° for 25 minutes, until it begins to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool.

Beat together the eggs, honey, zest, juice and remaining 1 c of AP flour.

Pour the curd mixture over the shortbread and bake (still at 350°) for 25-30 minutes. You want everything to be firmly set before you pull it from the oven – no jiggling. I baked mine for 30 minutes, but you oven could run hotter, so check at 30.

Cool completely and cut into squares or triangles, depending on your preference. I used my dough scraper, sprayed with cooking oil, to slice even bars. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

Early last fall one of my coworkers surprised me by bringing in two large buckets filled with mesquite pods she had collected from her property. She knew that I have a baking habit and thought I might be able to use the pods. All I had to do was take them to get ground into flour/meal. In Tucson we have a great organization called Desert Harvesters who set up at several locations around town in the fall to grind mesquite pods. Sadly, I managed to miss two different weekends when they had set up to mill the pods. In the end, the lovely pods that I had been gifted became infested with some sort of bug while sitting in my garage. I can not tell you how wasteful I felt. I had such a great opportunity, and I blew it.

Fortunately, acquiring mesquite flour isn’t terribly difficult in Tucson. Mesquites are the most common shrub/tree in the desert Southwest. The pods, ground into a flour or meal, have been a part of local cuisine for hundreds of years. In fact, several studies have show that, like many other desert foods, the sweetness of the meal is deceiving. In truth, mesquite flour can be wonderful for controlling blood sugar levels. Obviously, this is a boon to people with diabetes, but I think it’s really great for all of us.

I picked up some flour from my beloved Native Seeds/SEARCH. It is also available here, here and here. It’s a little pricey, but is used in smaller quantities and in combination with regular flour.

These pancakes have no sugar in the batter. In the picture, they are show with honey as a topping. For the gluten-free folks out there, just substitute your favorite gluten free flour mix for the all-purpose portion of this recipe and you’re all set!

Mesquite Flour Pancakes

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup mesquite flour
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups milk, maybe slightly less
• 2 eggs, well-beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, melted

In a large bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, mesquite flour, salt and baking powder.

In a separate, smaller bowl whisk together the eggs, butter and milk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. There will probably be some lumps, but if you mix too much your pancakes will get tough.

Pour your batter onto a hot , lightly greased skillet in 2 T increments for silver dollar sized pancakes or in 1/4 c dollops for full-sized pancakes.

Serve with warm honey, maple syrup or fruit preserves.

___________________

UPDATED 1.7.09:

Check out Peter’s comment below if you are planning to make these gluten free.  The picture below is his and shows the difference between waffles with mesquite flour subbed in using his method and plain GF flour waffles (looks like moslty just color to me).  He offers some experience with GF flour mixtures that I don’t have, hopefully it helps!

Fresh Dill Bread

I was recently blessed with A LOT of fresh dill as part of my weekly CSA pickup. I know most of the rest of the country is buried in (or melting out of) snow. I know, a fresh herb seems out of the question for you all. I guess this is one of the good sides of Tucson. Talk to me in June or July…I’m sure we’ll be able to find something for you to hold over my head…

Anyway, my dear friend Kim makes a fabulous dill bread that is yeasted, but has a very wet dough, so it’s really kind of like a quick bread. I wanted to try and create the same delicious dill flavor, but in a straight-dough yeasted loaf. I started with this recipe from King Arthur Flour (one of our standard favorite loaves) and changed things around quite a bit.In the end I was VERY satisfied with the result. So were Dylan and Kim 🙂

Yeasted Dill Bread

Sponge

• 1 c lukewarm water (8 oz)
• 1/2 t instant yeast
• 1 1/4 c bread flour
• 1/4 c white whole wheat flour

Dough

• all of sponge
• 1 c fresh dill, chopped (~2 oz)
• 8 oz plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t instant yeast
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c bread flour
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour

Mix together the sponge ingredients and let sit covered, at room temperature for 3 to 12 hours. The longer you let it sit, the more interesting and complex the flavor of your loaf will be, but you can definitely do a short fermentation and still have a yummy loaf.

Once you are done fermenting, stir down the sponge and mix in the dill, water, yeast, salt and flours. You’ll probably do best if you add the flour in 1/2 c increments. You’re shooting for half bread, half white whole wheat flour, so keep that in mind when you are adding in flour.

Knead for 5 minutes (at speed 2 in a stand mixer). Let the dough and gluten rest for 10 minutes and then knead 5 more minutes.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let rise 1 hr, or until doubled in size.

Deflate the dough and shape into whatever form you’d like. I’m a fan of free-form round loaves (often called Boules) because they are really easy. For the batch I photographed here I actually made 2 Boules.

Let the shaped loaf (or loaves) rise again for 45 to 90 minutes. I usually check after 45 because it’s always pretty warm in Tucson. Be sure to start preheating your oven to 475° about half-way through your expected rise time!

About 10 minutes before you’re ready to bake fill a shallow dish (Pyrex baking dishes work great) with about 1 inch of water. Set on the very bottom rack in the oven.

When your dough is ready to bake, turn the temperature in the oven down to 425° and insert the loaves. If you have a baking stone, I reccomend using that. Set the loaves on an upside down baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes. CAREFULLY remove the pan of water. Continue to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, until a tap sounds hollow.

Remove and cool on a wire rack for (if you can) at least 2 hours.

One more thing…I’m submitting this bread for this week’s YeastSpotting over on Susan’s Wild Yeast Blog.

Pear Gingerbread

Every year, without fail, we receive a box of Harry and David Royal Rivera Pears. Sometimes we get two. One year we even got three! They are the most delicious pears in the world, but we can only eat so many between the two of us!

Because we find ourselves faced with too many pears, I keep my eyes open all year long for recipes that involve them. This year, I came across several gingerbread/pear combo cakes. After perusing a few of them I came up with this cake.

There isn’t too much sugar in this recipe and, while I really liked the level of sweetness, Dylan said he would have liked it sweeter. If you do want a sweeter cake, sprinkle some brown sugar in the bottom of the pan (on top of the parchment) before you lay the pears down. Overall, I think it’s a welcome treat that won’t push you over the sugar edge, which was a good thing for me!

Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread

• 3-4 pears, peeled, cored and sliced in 1/8 segments
• 1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c butter
• 1/3 c molasses
• 1 egg
• 2/3 c milk (I used 2%)

Line the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan with parchment paper. I did this by removing the bottom and tracing it onto the paper. Then I cut out my circle.

Lay your pears in the bottom of the pan. Try to cover all of the space in the pan, if you can.

Sift together the flour, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the molasses and the egg and beat well.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter and mix in gently. Add 1/2 the milk and continue to mix. Add the second 1/3 of the dry ingredients, followed by the remainder of the milk. Finally, add the remaining 1/3 of dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Your batter won’t be especially runny.

Spread the cake batter evenly over the pears. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with whipped or ice cream.

Red, White and Green “Lasagne”

I am honored and excited to announce that today’s post is part of Andrea’s Off the Shelf series over at Cooking Books!

Andrea’s blog features delicious recipes she has prepared out of a wide variety of cookbooks.  I first discovered her space on the web through a mutual interest in Pflaumekuchen.  A few internet exchanges later we learned that we actually went to the same college – it sure is a small world!  Andrea makes such a wide variety of interesting, unique and tasty recipes that I look forward to each of her posts.  This is my attempt to fit in on her site!

The book I am cooked from, Kurt Beecher Dammeier’s “Pure Flavor,” is one I picked up this past summer when we were up in Seattle visiting friends.  The moment I saw this recipe I knew I wanted to try it – and this was the perfect excuse!

Please click through to Andrea’s blog to read the post for this yummy and unique “Lasagne!”

Crows Mill Sandwich Bread

When we were growing up Nini and I had several calabash aunties. These women we called “Aunt XXX” were not related to us by blood, but they were definitely part of our family. I have fond memories of all of them. After all, it takes a village, right?

Aunt Becky was an especially close to me. She lived in a corn field outside Springfield with my mom and I when I was very young. Becky was on my team. I mean, heck, she used to finish my milk for me when my mom’s back was turned (according to my mom, though I’m not so sure, since Becky is actually lactose intolerant). As I grew up, we would visit her in Springfield during our summer “vacations.” My sister was even named after her (middle name).

I don’t see Aunt Becky very often anymore, but when we do get a chance to catch up (occasional stolen time while her kids draw on mirrors, longer than we have time for phone conversations) I am always reminded how much I love and admire her.

The year after Dylan and I got married Becky and Bob (her husband) gave us a beautiful handmade cutting board and several bread recipes as a Christmas gift. On the recipe card for this loaf she shared:

“Your mother and I met while working at a bar and restaurant called Crows Mill School. This is the bread I used to bake there when you were a baby. It’s a good, dense sandwich loaf.”

When I first started baking bread I tried making a good whole wheat loaf several times. Getting the loaves to rise was a true challenge for me, though I kept at it (even if sporadically).

This recipe rises up well and, while dense, is really a perfect solid sandwich loaf.

Crows Mill Sandwich Bread

• 1 1/2 c lukewarm water
• 1/4 c canola oil
• 2 T honey
• 2 T molasses
• 2 1/2 c whole wheat flour, divided
• 2 c bread flour, divided
• 1/2 T instant yeast
• 1.5 t salt

Start by mixing together all of the wet ingredients, the yeast, and 2 cups (1 of each) of the flour. Stir to evenly incorporate all of the ingredients. Let this mixture ferment at room temperature for 2-8 hours (or overnight in the fridge). When it’s ready to go you will see that it has developed a lot of bubbles and increased in size dramatically:

Stir your dough down and gradually mix in the salt (don’t forget the salt!). Begin to add the remaining flour. You may need to wait to use the dough hook on a mixer until you’ve gotten enough flour in for it to grab on. If you are kneading by had, just go for it.

Knead 5 minutes, let the dough rest 5 minutes, and then knead 5 more minutes. Place the dough in a well oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover loosely (I just lay a plastic bag over the bowl) and let the dough rise in a draft-free environment (I like the microwave) until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

You will know when your dough is ready when a gentle poke leaves an indentation in the dough.

Roughly flatten your dough into a 8×12 inch rectangle on your counter. Really, don’t be a perfectionist about this. I never am and my loaves turn out fine. Fold into thirds, pinch the ends and place in a 2 lb loaf pan.

Preheat your oven to 350°. Allow your loaf to rise again until doubled in size, 45 minutes to an hour. Your dough will be ready when it just barely crests the upper lip of the bread pan, like this:

To get a shiny crust, use an egg wash (1 egg, 1 T water) on the top of the loaf. Slash the top of the dough cross-wise to allow steam to escape during baking. Place in the center of your oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a tap on the top sounds hollow.

I’ll be sending this into Wild Yeast for this weeks YeastSpotting. Too good not to share.

Sandwich anyone?

Yes, this is a leftover turkey and cranberry sandwich with horseradish and cream cheese. Originally, I had intended to get this post done before Thanksgiving so you’d have a good loaf for your turkey sandwiches. Now you’ll have to be more creative. What’s in your favorite sandwich?