roasted squash and beet bruschetta

Inspired by Kahakai Kitchen's "eggplant and mint bruschette" (and she used a Jamie Oliver recipe), I knew I had the eggplant, mint (from my garden), and seasonings, and already had parsley on my list. The kiddiewink-beans and I were headed to the grocery store anyway, so I just picked up a baguette and feta cheese while there. (Feta wasn't in the recipe but I wanted this to be a main dish.)

So when I got home I realized my eggplant had seen better days, but my yellow crookneck squash and beets were ready and willing to sacrifice themselves up for greatness.

I don't have a grill but just roasted the veggies with olive oil, then dipped them in the marinade of olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, parsley, mint, and garlic. I used a one-to-one ratio of oil to vinegar and we really enjoyed the spikiness of it. After a final quick toasting in the oven, everything was ready to be ooohed and ahhhed over.

The parsley and mint were superb and the feta added a nice creamy saltiness. With some roasted green beans (from a friend's garden), this was a filling and terribly tasty supper.

Too bad I forgot about the bottle of Pinot grigio in the fridge--it would've been perfect with this.

zucchini fritters

'Tis the season for zucchini, and even though my own zucchini plants are not happy this year, I've had a hankering for them and so my grocery store gets my zucchini business. Smitten Kitchen's zucchini fritters (with baking powder!) are great, as is her lemony garlicky sour cream (I used yogurt) topping.

And yes, I pulled the cast iron pans out of our rental basement (we're allowed to use any of the stuff that was here, which is nice) and scrubbed them with hot water and salt (don't use soap!) for this recipe, and yes, the cast iron made a lovely crust on these fritters. I'm keeping them in my kitchen now...all three sizes. I'm dreaming of cornbread in cast iron...

peach-blueberry-ginger pie

I'd been hankering to make a two-crust pie for ages and after a very busy (but fun) Friday morning last week, decided to hit up Costco for some organic Washington peaches and (Canadian) blueberries. Friday afternoon was devoted to the pie (check out my able helpers below).


It was my first time ever to do a double crust and I know next time I'll be faster and more confident as well. Anyway, it was a super-fun experience.

If you've never worked much with pastry, check out Pam's pie tutorial over on The Pioneer Woman's stomping grounds. I loved her very practical method of using two sheets of parchment paper and rolling the crust between them.

I used Pam's recipe and went with all butter and only 1 teaspoon of sugar in the crust.

(Her suggestion to mix an egg with some water and brush on top did make a nice shiny glaze.)




For the filling, I just went with my intuition and mixed 3-4 peaches (can't be sure how much went into the pie because of those helpers I had!), a couple of cups of blueberries, 1/3 c. brown sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch, and powdered cinnamon and ginger. (I heart ginger and it gave it such a nice perky extra kick.)

After I added the filling, I also went with Pam's idea to squeeze half a lemon over the fruit and then dot with butter. Lovely.

Pam's tutorial does not need to be repeated here, but for posterity I will share my three biggest mistakes:

1. I let the butter warm up too much (again, I had small helpers who are very tactile). One website I used as a resource says that if you are using a food processor, you can even freeze the butter. (I also ran with their idea of mixing equal parts flour and sugar to sprinkle on the bottom crust before adding filling so it creates a non-soggy barrier, and I think that did work well.)

2. The crust got rolled too thin and the top crust tore in one spot as I placed it over the filling. As a result a bit of juices cooked through. No biggy but it wasn't exactly perfecto.

3. Pam suggested turning down the heat after the first part of baking, which I completely forgot to do. So even though I covered the pie with foil after that first segment of baking, the outside edge of the top crust browned too much for my liking.

And in spite of those foibles, the pie was deeeeeee-licious! Can't wait to try my next one. We'll be apple picking in October so I wonder what the next filling will be...

sweet figgy green smoothie

So simple and so yummy. Just blend oh-so-sweet California figs that were a gift from your neighbor's fruitful tree, almond milk, orange juice, bananas, and a head of organic romaine lettuce.

(See how I used the same figs last year in a baked figgy ricotta honey almond treat.)

mac and "cheese"

Veg4Health's "cheese" sauce has us all over the moon--one of our kiddiewinks ate two helpings right off the bat and the rest of us ate sizable amounts as well and completely fell in love with this stuff. There's not an iota of dairy in it but what it does have is mega flavor, folks: cashews, garlic, potato, carrot, red sweet pepper, onion, lemon juice, dijon mustard. Nummers.

She said it took her 9 years to perfect this recipe and the yum factor makes it all worth the while and wait. I paired it with whole-grain rotini and some parsley--this is the new black. (What? Anyway, whatever it is, it's going to be rotating frequently on our menu. You betcha.)

You'll need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• ½ red, orange or yellow sweet pepper, chopped (I used red)
  
• 1 T fresh garlic or 1 tspn garlic powder (fresh was superb)
  
• ½ C raw cashews
• 1 ½ t lemon or lime juice (used lemon)
  
• ½ - 1 t Dijon mustard (didn't have so opted for spicy brown Gulden's)
  
• 2 T Earth Balance (butter or margarine)
  
• 1 t salt

Do this:

Make sure you double the ingredients, to start with. You want as much of this as possible.

Then cook the potato, carrot, onion, and sweet pepper in water till tender. Place the remaining ingredients plus 1/2 C of the veggie cooking water into your blender and blitz till smooth. Add the cooked veggies (with no broth) and blend again. (Save that leftover veggie cooking water to use for soup later--I froze mine in an ice cube tray.)

I have absolutely no idea how this is possible, but this was the cheesiest non-dairy food I've ever had. The color was red-cheddar-ish and the consistency was oh, so creamy.

Try it NOW. Or you'll be orange with envy.

Midnight snack?

carrot-almond pâté

I guess you could call this a poor man's pâté (who wants to splurge on geese livers?), but it's definitely not low on flavors--earthy from roasted almonds, bright with cilantro and fresh lemon juice, and the steamed carrots add a lovely sweet dimension. Not to mention all the spices: cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Yum on a bun. (Or bakery bread, as the case may be.)

And we added dates to go with.

The recipe comes from a free Delicious Living magazine I got at my local grocery store and I only tweaked it slightly.

You'll need:

• 1/3 cup whole almonds (I used tamari-flavored ones so went easy on the salt)
• 2 large carrots (8 oz. or 250 g), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds
• 1/4 t. salt (I used half of this)
• 1 t. each ground cumin and ground coriander
• 1/8 t. each ground turmeric and ground cinnamon
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 c. packed fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 t. fresh lemon juice
• I also added coarse black pepper
  

This is easy but takes some prep stages--just do each step as you have time. You must cool the toasted almonds and steamed carrots, so either do this in advance or if you are pressed for time as I was, throw them in the freezer a few minutes to chill down to room temp.

Do this:

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C and toast the almonds on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes or so, until crunchy. Cool them down and in the meantime, steam your carrots until tender and then cool them as well.

Throw all the ingredients into your trusty food processor and mix until blended (it will still have some texture to it).

The magazine suggested serving the pâté on a bun with cheese, roasted red peppers, and cucumber, which would've been delish, but I had The Essential Baking Company sliced bread (our fave) and toasted it, spread with Earth Balance (like butter), and then topped with the pate, sliced tomatoes, sliced cukes, and spinach.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is to at least double or triple the amounts. I want MORE.

Pâté yourself on the back for this one, folks--it's that good.

(Pssssst. Even the kiddiewinks tried it and liked it!)

yakisoba

Yakisoba is not an okazu, not something you plop on rice, but with fried pork, veggies, and noodles, there's not a lot to complain about, eh!

And just like the gyudon, you add a wee bit of beni shoga (pink pickled ginger strips) and the taste just noodles its way into Japanese foodie nirvana. Reminds me so much of summer festivals (natsu matsuri) and the yakisoba food stalls. Taste of summer - yum.

Now all we need are the big ol' amazing Japanese fireworks!

Just grab a pack of yakisoba noodles from Costco (or your favorite Asian market), and in veggie oil, pan fry some thinly sliced pork (or chicken), onions, carrots, cabbage, and whatever other veggies you like (I also threw in some red pepper, green onions, garlic, and ginger). The Japanese packets of yakisoba that you buy in the grocery stores there come with a seasoning pack, but the kind I buy here in Seattle at Costco just have the noodles, so I also pour in some okonomiyaki sauce, which I tend to keep on hand. Add the noodles last and stir with your long cooking chopsticks till well combined. It's pretty yummy to let it all sit over high heat for a minute or two (after combining) so it gets a kind of deeply flavored darker crust.

Fireworks in a bowl!

harumi's gyudon

Raise your hand if you love Harumi Kurihara! (I do! I do!) She's an amazing cook/cookbook writer/housewife and seems to really enjoy sharing her recipes for Japanese down-home dishes. Mama-style. And of course, Mamatouille can't resist meals made with Mama-love.

Gyudon has got to be one of the quintessential Mama-meals in Japan: It's basically very thinly sliced beef simmered with plenty of sweet onions, soy sauce, mirin, and that's about it. When we first arrived in Japan in 2001 and I was overwhelmed as a new wife and gaijin to boot, I bought packet gyudon that you could just pour over some rice. It was OK but is nothing like the real thing, baby!

For Harumi's special dish (from Harumi's Japanese Cooking), you'll need:

• 500 g (a little over a pound) onions
• 200 ml (1 c.) white wine (I use Chinese "rice cooking wine")
• 100 ml (1/2 c.) water
• 500 g thinly sliced beef (I get my favorite butcher at Better Meat to slice it for me)
• 150 ml (3/4 c.) soy sauce
• 150 ml (3/4 c.) mirin
• 4 T. caster sugar
  
• 600 g hot cooked rice
• pickled ginger (beni shoga) to taste

Do this:

(With a window open) cut the onions in half lengthways and then slice into very thin half moons. In a saucepan, boil the water and wine, then add the beef and simmer a few minutes. You'll have to skim the scum from the top every once in a while. Splash in the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar and cover with an otoshi buta (or piece of aluminum foil, cut and folded to fit exactly into the pan, resting on top of the ingredients). (I can't find my own trusty otoshi buta so foil it is for me for the moment!)

Simmer a few more minutes and then add your onions, simmering again till the onions are soft.

Put some rice in each bowl (this makes four servings) and your gyudon on top. Don't forget to add some of the pan juices and also a mound of the reddy-pink pickled ginger.

This is Mama-cooking at its finest and most comforting. Can't you just taste that tender beef with the umami flavors of soy, mirin, and just a hint of sugar-sweetness to round it off?

Okazu. Me likey. I love rice and anything that goes on top is just icing for the ricing.

(And more coming up on the blog this week!)

pbj obento

Joel had a peanut butter and jelly "3" sammie for his age, a dinosaur, and a bear (just use cookie cutters!). Some cashews and dried cranberries, too.

Now watch this. Layer up...


And the chocolate car cookie we made earlier rests happily on car and train dividers...

That's all, folks!

onigiri/omusubi obento

On a recent zoo trip when we were meeting some friends for lunch and animal-visiting, I packed some obento for the kiddiewinks and me. The beanies each had a fish and a star onigiri (also called omusubi) with tuna salad inside, tamago (egg) furikake on top, and wrapped in nori (seaweed). (I have onigiri molds in all kinds of fun shapes! It's also easy to make small bite-sized rice balls by taking a bit of rice and filling and then twisting it in a piece of plastic wrap.) They also got treated to some ginger carrots, dried cranberries, and some of our favorite snacks: ginger cookies in the shape of pretzels.


You can see my mama-bento in the back: triangle-shaped onigiri with tuna salad inside, ginger cookie-pretzels, and ginger carrots.

These obento gave us plenty of energy to run around with friends, go hunting for animals, and climb like crazy in the Zoomazium.

It's a zoo out there. Better have your obento.

i think we're turning japanese...

When we miss Japan (which is a lot, to be honest), I pull some of our old favorites out of a hat. Our tummies are warmed and in turn, our hearts.

You can't beat red (aka) miso soup with a stick, but stick your chopsticks in and slurp right up. This batch had enoki mushrooms, collard greens, daikon radish, carrots, onions, and our newest obsession: Island Spring organic tofu, made across the Puget Sound on Vashon Island. Gorgeous stuff.


Gyoza.


Salad with greens from my garden, grated carrots, tomatoes, edamame, and Japanese sesame dressing.


Ginger carrots, though not necessarily Japanese in origin, go really well with a Japanese meal. I used to follow the recipe from More with Less but I've made it so often I just wing it now: Boil some chopped carrots, drain the water, then add butter, powdered ginger, and either honey or brown sugar.

And you can never, ever have a Japanese dinner without a big bowl of sticky white rice.

More Japanese food coming up soon, including a couple of obento and okazu...

4th food

I realize it's now the 9th but better late than never, right?

We had lovely sweet organic watermelon, braided honey-wheat pretzel sticks, corn on the cob--freshly shucked by Hubby Bean and Joel Bean, homemade coleslaw, organic chemical-free beef hot dogs, homemade hamburgers (organic ground beef, eggs, breadcrumbs, seasonings) that my friend said were the best and moistest she's ever had, kosher dill cocktail pickles, fresh tomatoes from the vine, lettuce from my garden, oven fries, sparkling lemonade and sparkling pomegranate juice.

Dessert: individual angel food cakes with coconut-water raspberry sorbet and coconut-water lemonade sorbet, blueberries, homemade raspberry sauce (the little bit of fresh lemon juice really made it outstanding), and mint from the garden.

Sunflowers to grace the table...

simple asian-inspired dinner for two beansprouts

If you're pressed for time, as I was when I made this meal, have no fear! Mamatouille's here!

Luckily Seattle's full of Asian markets and our closest and favorite is HT Oaktree Market, on Aurora Avenue/Highway 99. The Japanese and Korean sections are close to each other so it's a simple matter of buying white sticky rice (I have a rice cooker), furikake (seasoning for putting on top of rice), and Korean nori (our favorite seaweed--it's cooked with sesame oil and salt).

I can also hop on over to the produce section for tofu, and for this "recipe" (I use the term loosely because I just threw it all together in a few minutes, with no guide whatsoever) I used the firm kind ("cotton").

So basically I cooked the rice in the rice cooker, and while that was steaming I drained the tofu as much as I could and then dried it with paper towels, chopped it into bite-size pieces, and pan fried in some sesame oil and seasoned salt. Then I just topped the rice with furikake, opened a packet of seaweed, dripped a bit of okonomiyaki sauce (sweet/tangy brown sauce) onto the kiddiewinks' plates for tofu dipping, and that was it.

You could go further and make ginger carrots (which our guys adore) or some roasted kabocha/Japanese pumpkin (our market also sells whole kabocha in the produce section for a pretty sweet deal) but do whatever you need to do to maintain sanity and your schedule.

Itadakimasu!

chocolate-avocado pudding

Somebody I know is refusing green smoothies lately. I'm not naming any names...

I'm at my wit's end trying to get some green stuff into the kid and a friend gave me Deceptively Delicious a couple of months ago. I'm still not sure how I feel about "sneaking" healthy stuff into sugary recipes (i.e. chocolate pudding), but the beans did see me make the avocado puree and then put it into the pot with the rest of the ingredients.

I had to add some rice milk to the puree to get it into a good consistency...


But maybe adding avocado to chocolate pudding was just what the doctor ordered--for flavor and creaminess, anyway.

And I did add less sugar than the recipe called for. Oh, and I substituted dark chocolate cocoa powder for regular--that's healthy, right?



I'm afraid somebody (a few somebodies) really liked it.

You'll need:

• margarine (I used butter)
• avocado puree
• confectioners' sugar
• unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark)
• vanilla extract
• cornstarch

It's a simple one-pot stovetop recipe, and the taste and consistency were absolutely divine, but I'm just not sure how far I want to go with this. Disguise fruit and veg with sugar? Hmmm.

That said, I will probably make this again. I just happen to have two more cups of avocado puree in the fridge.

And it was pretty yummerlicious.

As you can see, I'm conflicticated.

setsuko sensei's nerikiri class

Through Nikkei Concerns I had the opportunity to take a nerikiri-making (Japanese sweets) class today with a pastry chef named Setsuko. She has her own business called Setsuko Pastry (based here in Seattle) and all of her creations look amazingly delicious.

The treats we made today were balls of sweet red bean paste (homemade by Setsuko) wrapped up in a neat little package of mochi (glutinous rice flour, water, sugar, and food coloring mixed with white bean paste, also homemade).

Setsuko Sensei made these as an example...


And this was one of the ones I made (they even brought sweet little boxes for us to put them in!)...

It was so much fun to knead the mochi/sweet white bean paste (shiroan) till smooth, add the food coloring and knead again, wrap up the anko (sweet red bean paste), and create fun shapes and styles. The one above was shaped by wrapping it in plastic wrap, tightening it, and twisting (the same way you can make some savory onigiri rice balls, which I have done before for the kiddiewinks).