Ja Jang Myun

Last night I made Ja Jang Myun aka Korean Noodles with Black Bean Sauce. The closest recipe to what I used that I could find online is from Beyond Kimchee. I use a recipe I printed out, so I'm unsure of the source.
In any case, since we're vegetarian, we forego the meat and do not opt for the oyster sauce. Also, Ebon doesn't like the chunky vegetables as much, so I try to pare those down as well - but I like them so usually there are more than he likes anyway.
I purchase my black bean paste or jajang [I've also seen chun(choon?)jang] and fresh noodles  at the Korean market, either Reliable Market in Union Square or H Mart.
I've initially followed the recipe - frying the bean paste, but I have an issue with the residue it leave in the pan, and then I feel like it burns the potatoes etc. So now, I saute the veggies first, then I fry the black bean paste with the sugar, then add in the soft veggies, then the water and cornstarch mix.
While this is going on, the water is boiling and noodles cooking.
The noodles go in big bowls then the sauce gets spooned on top of that. I've garnished it with some green onions if you want to be fancy. The dish is usually served with pickled radish (daikon?)- the yellow pickles that are fairly sweet.
Yum! Ebon seems to prefer the store-bought version because I put too many veggies in mine. He'll deal!

Lentil, Potato and Chard stew

We have had an abundant CSA share this week, so I'm scrambling to cook everything before it goes bad. Last night I made Lentil, Potato and Chard stew based on THIS recipe I found on epicurious.com
I added and subtracted items as I had things on hand, for me the ingredient list looked more like this:

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 garlic scapes, chopped
• 1/2 medium Ailsa Craig onion with green parts, roughly chopped
• 3 cups water with 2 heaping teaspoons of Korean "bullion"
• 1 cup lentils, rinsed, picked over
• 3 "small" red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 a large bunch of chard, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

I also added a bit of water at the end for the desired consistency. I thought it turned out great and I'm really glad I added the cumin, I think that added the right spice punch. And we got to use up onion, potato and chard from the share. On to Cabbage - so much to use up!

Beet and Arugula Salad with Baked Tempeh

I'm trying to go through the veggies I got in our CSA share before we get the next one. The veggies are all wonderful, but it's a weekly struggle to figure out what to make. Earlier this week, I used the kale in a smoothie. It was the Tuscan kale, and I realized I really prefer that in sautes or in the greens gratin. It is a little too stringy/hearty for smoothies - or I need to remove the ribs/stem.
Anyway, on to tonight's meal. Overall, it took a bit longer than I expected. I decided that we needed a beet and arugula salad with beets from the CSA and arugula from the garden. I popped both red and golden beets in the oven to roast at 450degF before I walked to the garden with Leela on my back and Spartacus on leash. The arugula was going a bit crazy and most if it has started to bolt, to heck with it, I still used it. I also picked one head of lettuce, as it was ready and I knew that Ebon wasn't too keen on an entire salad with arugula - "too bitter" he says.
I got back and the largest beet still wasn't done, so I decided to make candied walnuts. The recipe I found online was pretty easy.
I did some more searching and based my salad recipe loosely on Giada's Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula salad. Of course, I made some changes based on our serving size and what was on hand.
I skipped the shallots and just went with red wine vinegar and olive oil for the dressing, which I only used about half of. I used about 2 cups of lettuce torn and about 2 cups of arugula torn, stems from the leggy almost-bolted leaves removed. I threw in a handful or about 1/4 cup of the candied walnuts and skipped the dried cranberries. I tossed the lettuce mix with the dressing, walnuts and then added the beets, which I peeled and chopped, and the goat cheese (I used an herbed version).
Also while waiting for the beets to finish, I used a fork to poke holes in a block of tempeh and marinated it with soy sauce, sesame oil and vinegar. I stuck it in the oven with the beets for about 20-25 min.

When everything was finally done around 8pm, we all ate with gusto. I thought everything turned out great, but I would definitely try to do a bunch of the steps before hand, so I could just toss things together in the end.

Creamy Pesto Tortellini

I threw together dinner last night in about 30 min.
Store bought cheese tortellini
3 basil cubes (from the garden last year, blended with a bit of water and olive oil then frozen in ice cube trays)
a splash of heavy cream (probably ~1/4 cup)
~1/3 tomato coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Served with steamed snow peas.

The heavy cream was a nice touch and made the pesto creamy. Leftovers got drier and drier though.

Long Overdue Strawberry Shortcake

Last weekend we went strawberry picking and at the 11th hour (almost literally) of this weekend, I finally got around to making a strawberry shortcake with all the strawberries that we picked.
Red Fire Farm has an annual Strawberry Soiree, where they have strawberry varietal tasting and strawberry shortcake and chocolate covered strawberries for sale in addition to picking our yearly allotment of strawberries for our CSA share.
I was a bit disappointed in the strawberry shortcake at the farm, it tasted more like a biscuit - more salty than sweet- and it was harder/crunchier than I like.
In our Food and Wine recipe pull, there was a recipe for Strawberry shortcake. In all my procrastination glory, I decided to make it starting at 9pm on Sunday night. Overall it wasn't too involved, but required some planning ahead. For example, the strawberries were supposed to macerate in the sugar for ~3 hours. It ended up being more like 1 hour, but there was enough juice for it it to work.

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened (I used Ben and Jerry's- it was on sale)
3 cups self-rising flour - I used the King Arthur conversion of 1 cup AP flour, 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of cold unsalted butter cut in chunks

1 quart hulled and sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon honey (I used sugar)

1. Preheat oven to 450degF
2. Soften the ice cream in the fridge or on the counter and pour into a large bowl.
3. Pulse the flour (mixture) and butter in a food processor until you have a course meal. I had to do this in two lots because my food processor isn't big enough for 3 cups of flour.
4. Pour the flour-butter mixture in with the ice cream and mix until combined.
5. Knead the dough with your hands until everything has come together.
6. Spread the dough out evenly in a 9x13 pan and bake for about 20 min or until golden brown.
7. Combine the strawberries and sugar in a med bowl to macerate for about 3 hours (mine were mixing for about 1 and it tasted OK).
8. Make whipped cream with the cream and sweetener.
9. Cut the shortcake into 12 squares and serve with Strawberries and whipped cream.

Yum, it was delicious! The shortcake was soft, moist, and just sweet enough. I think this was my first successful try at making whipped cream with my stand mixer. It was amazing and so easy!

I did try eating the shortcake without the accouterments. I wouldn't recommend it as a dessert on it's own.

Provoleta

We get Food and Wine magazine every month due to some glitch or because Ebon likes to spend points or miles on magazines or something like that. In any case, I enjoy looking through it and Ebon and I have been in the habit of bookmarking the various recipes we want to try out. The recipe for Provoleta with Oregano and Tomatoes stood out for Ebon because it involved bread and cheese - his favorites!
I've made it a couple times so far.
The first I got the cheese from Sessa's in Davis square and got the Supremo Italiano brand provolone cheese. We didn't have the grape tomatoes and I excluded the crushed red pepper so Leela could eat it too - she hasn't mastered spicy food yet. I followed the recipe otherwise.
It turned out great - burnt and melty cheese tastes so good.
The second time, I had run out of oregano, so I used a bit of marjoram and paprika. I used Bel Gioioso Picante provolone, it was much greasier and tasted saltier than the first go round. Maybe it was aged a bit too long- the note in the recipe says a sharp cheese that is 8-9 months old is best. I think the Supremo Italiano is a little younger, so maybe we just like the young cheese better. I had the tomatoes on the 2nd try and they are a must.
In any case we ate both with a baguette or crusty bread.
I think this is meant to be an appetizer, but we've eaten the whole thing between the two(three with Leela/four with Sparty?) of us as a meal. This will go into our regular "quick meal" repertoire!

Spring Panzanella

2 posts on a week - I'm on a roll!
Ebon bought a baguette at the farmer's market on Tuesday, so it needed to be used up before it was too hard to chew. I wasn't in the mood for pasta, so I suggested a bread salad - aka panzanella. I had tried the recipe from 101 Cookbooks before and it was pretty good. I had attempted it again a month or two ago, but - heaven's to Betsy, I used wheat bread and canned peas. Ebon didn't want to have anything to do with it. I will admit, I didn't like canned peas either - much better with fresh or frozen - but they were in our pantry taking up space, so I thought I would use them. This go around was much more well received.

I followed the recipe - mostly. I cut up the 'white' baguette in ~1" cubes and in a large bowl coated the cubes with olive oil and dried thyme. Looking back, I should have also put the garlic in with the bread, as stated in the recipe, but I was more or less going from memory. I put the coated bread on a baking sheet in the oven preheated to ~350degF for about 15-20 min or until they are golden/crispy on the outside. I also flipped/mixed up the bread, maybe half way through.
I pan fried/roasted the asparagus with a little olive oil and I threw the garlic in after I flipped the shoots after 3-5 min. When the asparagus is tender, remove from heat and cut into ~1-2" pieces on the diagonal.
I cooked frozen peas in another pot in a bit of water until they were warmed through.
I had some grape tomatoes on hand an thought they would be good, so I cut them in half, coated them with a little olive oil, and roasted them under a low broil for about 5 minutes to warm them up and bring out a bit of the sugar.

Throw everything in a bowl and add about 1/3-1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. I also added about 1 teaspoon of dried basil.

I skipped the shallots, fresh basil and spinach and didn't miss them.