At Market...Lemongrass & Ginger

One of my favorite things about our local farmers' market is that there is a vendor that carries all kinds of interesting greens, herbs and vegetables used in Asian cooking. They usually are gone from Christmas through the month of January. But this year, they didn't make their return until last Sunday. Their long absence was slightly traumatizing, to say the least, so when I saw them again, I did a little happy dance and filled my bag to the brim with their fragrant offerings, including lemongrass and ginger root. Did you know that ginger root is usually imported from East Asia? I find it thrilling that I can find it at our little market here....it's the little things, people!




Armed with a glass of wine and my Vegetarian Planet cookbook, I decided to play around a bit with with a lemongrass quinoa pilaf recipe, because I just don't know how to leave well enough alone. And while I can't testify as to the flavor of the original, this version was outstanding! Shot through with heat from the minced ginger, and a brightness from the lemongrass, cilantro and mint, it was just the dish we needed to get our healthful eating back on track. We enjoyed it warm as a main dish for dinner, but it was equally delicious cold when we devoured the leftovers for lunch. If you omit the cubes of tofu, it would make a fine side dish to accompany grilled fish or chicken as well.



Lemongrass Quinoa Pilaf

This quick meal was not only nutritious, but also flavorful and immensely satisfying. Omit the tofu and it becomes a wonderful side dish.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes, plus marinating time
Yield: serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed well in a fine sieve to remove any bitterness
2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
dash of cloves
dash of ground ginger
1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, bulbous end only with outer leaves peeled, minced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 12 ounce package of firm tofu, marinated for 1 hour in soy sauce (or Asian marinade)
1 medium head of broccoli, florets separated and stem sliced thinly
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 bunch of spring onions, washed well and thinly sliced
handful of cilantro, chopped
handful of mint, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Bring the 2 cups of stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rinsed quinoa and return to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the broth has been absorbed. Remove from heat and set aside

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the pepper, cloves and dried ginger and stir. Add the ginger, garlic and lemongrass and cook for one minute, until it becomes fragrant. Add the tofu and stir-fry for about three minutes or until it begins to brown slightly. Add the broccoli and 1/4 cup of water and cover the pot. Let the broccoli steam for 3 minutes, then remove cover.

Add cooked quinoa to the broccoli and tofu in the skillet and stir to combine thoroughly. Toss with chopped cilantro, mint and spring onions, season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately or at room temperature.

Fail to Plan...

I need a plan. Things are always better with one, right? At least I will have a direction, a goal, an idea of what the heck is supposed to come next. Though I am referring to the bigger picture, a plan for my dinners the next few nights wouldn't hurt either. Take last night, for example. A plan would have helped me get something edible, if not delicious, on the table. But after driving up and down the freeway for two straight hours, dropping and dropping and retrieving and retrieving little boys from baseball practice, all I could do was pour myself a bottle of wine...I mean a glass (or two). The kids ate quesadillas with hunks of watermelon (again) and we ate, though I am deeply ashamed to admit it, Panda Express, which wasn't half bad (I must have been really hungry).

So this morning, in between getting a filling re-filled (popcorn kernel incident) and walking my stinky, but adorable, shaggy dog, I will make a menu and grocery list, just like the organized and responsible housewife I'm supposed to be. If you like printable lists to help you stay on track, check here. Or if you are like me, maybe you just scratch a list out on the back of your kid's old homework page (reduce, reuse, recycle). Gotta do what works for you, right? Just make sure you have a chance to use that list before you recycle it...not that I'm speaking from experience or anything.

When all is said and done, here is what my menu plan for the weekend is shaping up to be.

Thursday: Grilled chicken and sesame noodle salad

Friday: Pizza of some sort, maybe on the grill if it's too hot to heat my oven

Saturday: Grilled sausages that my dad is bringing from a little butcher near his house in northern California, broccoli salad and pasta salad

Sunday: Fresh pasta with fresh f.m. veggies

Four day's worth of meals is about all I have in me. Plus, hopefully I will be inspired by my purchases at the farmers' market on Sunday morning...that is, if I can make it. My son has a baseball playoff game that starts at 8 a.m. which is highly disturbing to say the least. Drive-thru Starbucks here I come.

Tonight's sesame noodle salad is perfect for a hot evening. There is just the right amount of creamy peanut flavor to temper the heat of the chilis, and the fresh veggies keep it light and fresh. It will be perfect with our grilled chicken (that has a soy balsamic marinade...I'll share that another time).

Sesame Noodle Salad

serves 4

1 pound spaghetti, cooked according to package directions

1 head broccoli, separated into small florets

12 oz. sugar snaps, de-stringed and cut in half

5 scallions, cut diagonally

1/2 C peanut butter

1/4 C red wine or rice wine vinegar

1/4 C soy sauce

1 t sesame oil

1 t chili garlic paste

1 T freshly grated ginger

1 clove of garlic, minced or grated

1 T toasted sesame seeds

1/4 C hot water from pasta pot

Cook pasta according to directions on package. Meanwhile whisk peanut butter, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, ginger and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside.

When pasta is finished cooking, drain in a colander. Add broccoli to boiling pasta water and cook until crisp tender (about 1-2 minutes). Remove and set aside. Add snap peas and cook for one minute. Remove and set aside. Toss pasta with peanut sauce in a large bowl. Add veggies and toss well. Sprinkle top with sliced scallions and sesame seeds. If pasta seems very sticky, add up to 1/4 C of hot water from pasta pot. Toss again. Let cool to room temp and serve.

What's for Dinner?

For some, the eternal questions run deep; What is the meaning of life? Where will I go when I die? Is there a God? Do I have a greater purpose? For me, this quest has always had a decidedly gastronomical rather than spiritual focus--what's for dinner? This question has plagued me since I was a child when I would pester my poor mother practically from the moment I got up in the morning. Mom, what are we having for dinner? I would ask. You haven't even eaten breakfast, she would sigh, already exhausted by the prospect of spending a day with a persistent redheaded girl who asked a lot of questions. It's no different today, when I still wonder the same thing, except for the unfortunate detail that I am the one who is in charge of meal planning and preparation. So, of course, it falls to me to both present the query and the answer. Ugh. I hate that sometimes.

Today was no exception--all day long I fretted about dinner; what I should cook, if I needed ingredients at the market, and if I needed to look up a recipe. I was uninspired, uninterested and underwhelmed by the idea of cooking. I like it so much more when I've assessed what I have purchased at the market and I set aside time to make a plan. The good news was that even though I lacked a menu for the week, I did have bagfuls of fresh farmers' market produce looking to be put to good use, and some tofu in the freezer. So I pushed through my inertia and nearly overpowering desire to order take-out, and made dinner after all. A spring veggie stir-fry with brown rice.

Healthy and satisfying at once, this dish really is an easy one to fall back on, provided you have plenty of fresh veg. The sauce works with just about any produce, so use what is freshest and what is seasonal, and most of all, what you have on hand.




Quick Hoisin Stir-Fry
serves 4

1 T freshly grated ginger
1 small head broccoli, chopped (including stems which can be thinly sliced)
5 carrots, scrubbed and sliced
2 small bunches bok choy, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound sugar snap peas, de-stringed
1 bunch scallions, washed well and sliced into 1-inch segments
1/2 block tofu, cubed
Brown rice, cooked according to package directions
Toasted sesame seeds

For the sauce:
Combine 2 T soy sauce, 2 T hoisin sauce, 1 T rice wine vinegar, 1 T sherry or white wine, 1 t chili garlic paste, and 1 t cornstarch.

Heat 2 T vegetable oil in a large wok or saucepan over high heat. Add ginger and stir-fry until fragrant (1 minute). Add tofu and stir gently until lightly browned. Toss in broccoli and stems and carrots and fry for 2 minutes, then add the remaining vegetables and stir well. Pour in 1/2 C water and scrape up any dark bits from the bottom of the pan. Cover pan and let steam for 1-2 minutes or until veggies are crisp tender. Uncover, pour in sauce and stir until thickened (1-2 minutes). Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with soy sauce on the side.

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

Unfortunately I have a backlog of photographs on my computer, waiting for their day in the spotlight, and too little time to catch you up on all we have been eating. You see, baseball season has started for my two sons. And two nights ago, my dear husband sat down with the calendar and wrote down all the dates we will be at the ball field for games (starting this Saturday). It's thirty four, from now through the end of May, plus playoff games. That does not include the three nights a week of practice which lasts from four until dark.

Right now, I am suffering from shock, I think, and fearing that we will have to subsist on frozen meals from Trader Joes, or that awful snack shack fare (think canned chili and deep fried everything). But I can overcome this obstacle, I know I can. I just think that it will require some serious meal planning and creative use of kitchen appliances, namely the crockpot.

But that is not what I am posting about today. Today I will tell you about the dinner we ate last night; roasted broccoli with shrimp and saffron rice. I had never roasted broccoli, but know that other vegetables take very well to this method (like carrots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts) and was game to try it after reading several blogposts about it and the recipe that started all the fuss in the NY Times. While I appreciated the concept, I did not care for the author's choice of spices, so I altered the recipe a bit to suit my own tastes. But most recipes are like that; they can be altered quite easily with much success.

So I tossed some broccoli and peeled, de-veined shrimp with olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and threw in some of my preserved Meyer lemons. She started her broccoli first, and added the shrimp after 15 minutes (cooking everything for a total of 30 minutes), but I found that the broccoli was done after 15 minutes (I like mine crisp tender) and the shrimp only took about 8 minutes total. I served the pile of roasted goodness with some saffron rice, which looks and sounds impressive, but is so very easy to make and looked so lovely with the green and pink of the broccoli and shrimp. The meal was easy, only dirtied one baking sheet (plus the rice pot) and tasted pretty good too. If my version doesn't sound good to you, please feel free to experiment with your own!

Roasted Broccoli and Shrimp

1 pound peeled and de-veined, wild-caught, local shrimp (I like jumbo...16 count)

2 crowns of broccoli, cut into sections

1/2 t red pepper flakes, or to taste

4 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

4 slices of preserved lemon (pulp discarded), chopped (or the zest of one lemon)

juice of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss broccoli together with the red pepper flakes, olive oil, salt, pepper and preserved lemon. Roast in a large baking sheet for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, and toss shrimp with broccoli mixture, taking care to coat the shrimp with the seasonings. If it seems a bit dry, drizzle on some more olive oil. Spread shrimp and broccoli out into a single layer. Return pan to oven and continue to roast for about 7-8 minutes more, or until shrimp is cooked through and broccoli is crisp tender. Squeeze over fresh lemon juice and serve with saffron rice.

Saffron Rice

2 c jasmine rice

3 1/2 C chicken stock

large pinch of saffron

Heat stock and saffron together in a saucepan. When they come to a boil, add rice, turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 18 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes more. Uncover, fluff with a fork and serve.

At Market...Gai-Lan

Each week, when I am at the local farmers market, I try to buy something that I have never prepared before. One benefit of buying directly from farmers themselves, is that questions can be asked about the produce; everything from what the vegetable or fruit is, to how best to prepare it.

There is one particular vendor at our market who drives all the way from Fresno, which is a good 2 1/2 hours away. The entire family comes to help, including their teenage sons, and they sell many interesting varieties of vegetables and herbs. Their produce is so beautiful and fragrant, and all of it is grown without pesticides. I love to go to their stall and just smell the gorgeous herbs; lemon basil, cilantro, Thai basil, purple basil and lemongrass. They are true "poly-culture" farmers and have an astounding variety of produce throughout the year including English peas, pea shoots, snap peas, yellow, purple and green string beans, Opo squash, tiny eggplants, Chinese spinach, spicy Thai chilis, corn, tomatoes, watermelons, pumpkins, zucchini, and lately Chinese broccoli or Gai-Lan.

Gai-Lan is very similar to broccoli rabe and belongs to the crucifer family as do cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. It has a dark green, leafy stalk with little green or yellow buds resembling broccoli. It is slightly more bitter than broccoli and its tough, stringy stalks need to be peeled before cooking. I thought that instead of sauteing it with an oyster sauce, as is the typical preparation in Chinese households, I would substitute it for broccoli rabe in the famous Italian dish from Puglia, Broccoli Rabe with Orecchiette. I'm happy to report that the results were delicious! Here is the recipe.

Pasta with Spicy Sausage and Chinese Broccoli

1 bunch Chinese broccoli or broccoli rabe

1 pound of spicy Italian sausage
1/2 C chicken broth

1/4 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 pound of pasta (orecchiette is traditional but small shells, mini fusilli or farfalli work well too)

Set plenty of salted water to boil for pasta. Wash Gai-Lan, peel stem ends and slice into one inch segments. Set aside.

Meanwhile, slice open sausages and remove from casing. Break apart in frying pan over medium heat and brown. After sausage is cooked add 1/2 C chicken broth and simmer gently for 5 minutes.

When pasta water for pasta has come to a boil, add pasta. Set timer for 5 minutes before the pasta should be finished cooking. When timer goes off add Gai-Lan to the boiling water and cook together with the pasta for the remaining cooking time. Drain pasta and Gai-Lan and add to frying pan with browned sausage and toss to combine. Sprinkle cheese over and serve.