January 20th: Country Style Tom Yum Soup
Somewhere around the end of January, it started getting really, really cold. It snowed a few days in a row. It was miserable. It seemed that the only answer to any of this was a trip to one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever eaten at - Bankok Thai House right around the corner from my apartment. The food there is consistently delicious, and there is something about the rich hardiness and spiciness of thai food that is sometimes the only thing that can melt the icicles off your innards.
Mark and I got country style tom yum soup from them two days in a row (regular tom yum is typically made without coconut milk, at least according to Bankok's menu) and on the third day, decided to mind my wallet and make it all at home.
Mark and I got country style tom yum soup from them two days in a row (regular tom yum is typically made without coconut milk, at least according to Bankok's menu) and on the third day, decided to mind my wallet and make it all at home.
The beauty of soups is that they are surprisingly easy, especially this one.
Ingredients I used:
2 cans of coconut milk (I use one regular and one light, because full-fat coconut milk is where all the real comfort comes from)
1 box of low-sodium organic vegetable broth
2 cups of water
1 can whole straw mushrooms
1 can baby carrots (cut in half)
1/2 head broccoli (cut in florets)
1/2 head cauliflower (cut same as broccoli)
1 shallot, as many heads of garlic as you like
2 cups fresh green beans (halved)
extra firm tofu (cut in 1" squares)
one medium onion (also cut in 1" chunks)
lots of Sriracha (which I use on just about everything)
fresh basil (to taste...I used a really big handful)
coriander
lemongrass (essential ingredient!!)
lots of lime juice
some green onions for garnish
The three things you HAVE to have in this soup for it to taste the way it's mean to are: lemongrass, coriander and lime juice. No if's, and's or but's about it.
However, the beauty of soups is that unless you are trying to replicate something exactly, you can modify them with any ingredients you like. This soup is also great with the addition of fish sauce, chicken (which makes it more like tom khaa soup), shrimp or any assortment of vegetables you want to include (we also added in cubes of fresh green zuchinni and carrots). If you're one of those poor souls (awwww...) who can only cook from a recipe, here's one I recommend for you.
January 22th: Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you want to know exactly how good these cookies are, just ask my friend Adam Swinbourne: Canadian, ultra-nice dude and illustrator/gigposter artist extraordinaire. I sent him a tin of these back at the beginning of January, and as a testament to how damn good the recipe is, the cookies made it all the way through Canadian customs (who knows how long THAT took) and they were still moist and delicious when Adam stuffed them down his gullet.
Super easy to make and quick to bake (6-8 minutes), these made me happy for days and days and days. Here's the original recipe from my favorite site, VegWeb.com. NOTE: Read the comments to the recipe at the bottom, as I found them quite helpful. I modified my version of the recipe as I don't particularly like things with a ton of sugar in them, and used only 1/2 cup of sugar and upped the peanut butter to a 1/2 cup instead. Again, another recipe that is easy to modify. (These would be equally delicious with currants, raisins, raspberries, dried cranberries, blueberries, etc. added in with the chocolate chips.)
February 2nd: Italian Ragout, Meet Mograbieh
Moghrabieh (spelled various ways), also known as Lebanese Cous Cous, is an interesting member of the starchy pasta family that is an amazing ingredient in all kinds of cold salads, hot dishes and soups. Living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which has a large population of Arab families, I have great access to hoards of Middle Eastern grocery items you might not find at your regular corner store. (There are at least a handful of Arabic grocers on 5th Ave. in Bay Ridge alone.) I was introduced to this particular item back in 2007 when I'd first moved to this neighborhood and my friend JJ (aka Jimmy Johnson) from my days in Chicago came to visit. He'd spent a lot of time in Israel and Pakistan and spoke fluent Arabic, which was hilarious in context coming from the mouth of a white, Jewish, 6' 4", 200 pound former High School Michigan Judo champ visiting Bay Ridge (the shop owner where we purchased the Moghrabieh looked shocked when JJ exercised his Arabic chops).
To the point, two years later (I'm a terrible person), I still had half a bag of the Moghrabieh left in my cabinet (store some things right and they never go bad!) and was walking home from the gym wondering what I could make that would involve mostly things I already had at home (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, blue cheese, balsamic vinegar, cherry tomatoes, spinach, onion, garlic...) and would satisfy my desire for an easy, yet warm and delicious dish. I passed the pizza shop; had subsequent craving for Italian. Contemplated making some kind of mushroom linguini thing, didn't want to buy any new pasta. Didn't want to put an italian ragout over brown rice (meh...not that into it).
Suddenly it hit me: Moghrabieh! Big enough in size to not seem awkward as the base of my dish and something I already had sitting at home! What resulted was a delicious and easy "sautee everything in olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a pan, dump on cooked pasta" dish.
Ingredients I used:
sliced button mushrooms (a whole package)
torn spinach
sliced sun-dried tomatoes (cut into thin strips)
a big dose of fresh garlic (diced)
handful of fresh basil (torn)
lots of fresh garlic (sliced, diced, crushed...whatever floats your boat)
one whole small to medium red onion (also sliced or diced)
halved cherry tomatoes
thin-sliced red bell pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
crumbled blue cheese
**The amounts of all those ingredients are totally subject to your own tastes.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil to cook your Mograbieh, dump those babies in when water is at rolling boil. Cook 15-20 minutes, tasting once every five minutes after cooking for the first 10 min. (got that?) to check if it's done.
About 10 minutes after you start cooking your Mograbieh, take your sun-dried tomatoes, bell pepper, garlic and onions, sautee them all in olive oil on med-low heat until they soften. Add in all your mushrooms, sautee until they reduce. Season with salt, pepper...whatever additional spices you want. Splash in vinegar to taste (vinegar deglazes the bottom of your pan, helping to incorporate all the good, carmelized crust on the bottom into your food...*not just for meat dishes!*). Then you throw in all your veggies that don't take so long to cook (spinach, basil, cherry tomatoes) and stir in to the pan with garlic, etc. Cook until spinach starts to wilt (not very long for me, as I prefer my veggies to be on the more raw side). Volia! Dinner. When your Mograbieh is done, drain, and serve with ragout in pan. Top with blue cheese while still hot; stir in for melty goodness. ("Melty" - the chosen adjective for everything Taco Bell sells.)
One important note on cooking Mograbieh: Every time I cook this I'm tricked by the size of this pasta. You'd think that it wouldn't take very long to cook, but if you do, you're highly mistaken. I find it generally takes at least 15 to 20 minutes for it to be cooked entirely through. If you don't give them enough time, you'll be gnawing on something that tastes starchy and obviously undercooked. If you overcook them, you'll they'll be mush in your mouth. Part of the joy of Mograbieh is their texture; if you even question for one minute their done-ness, cook them just a minute or two more. Ideally, they should have the taste consistency of those tapioca balls in bubble tea or rice dough balls in Patbingsu (Korean red bean shaved ice desert, which I get from a Korean bakery on 33rd street in Manhattan. Insanely delicious.)
If you want to learn more about Mograbieh, check out Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (blog with recipe!) where they also think that little ball of happiness is oh so awesome.
Whew! We made it! Stay tuned for the next update in the works: Phun with Phyllo!
February 2nd: Italian Ragout, Meet Mograbieh
Moghrabieh (spelled various ways), also known as Lebanese Cous Cous, is an interesting member of the starchy pasta family that is an amazing ingredient in all kinds of cold salads, hot dishes and soups. Living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which has a large population of Arab families, I have great access to hoards of Middle Eastern grocery items you might not find at your regular corner store. (There are at least a handful of Arabic grocers on 5th Ave. in Bay Ridge alone.) I was introduced to this particular item back in 2007 when I'd first moved to this neighborhood and my friend JJ (aka Jimmy Johnson) from my days in Chicago came to visit. He'd spent a lot of time in Israel and Pakistan and spoke fluent Arabic, which was hilarious in context coming from the mouth of a white, Jewish, 6' 4", 200 pound former High School Michigan Judo champ visiting Bay Ridge (the shop owner where we purchased the Moghrabieh looked shocked when JJ exercised his Arabic chops).
To the point, two years later (I'm a terrible person), I still had half a bag of the Moghrabieh left in my cabinet (store some things right and they never go bad!) and was walking home from the gym wondering what I could make that would involve mostly things I already had at home (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, blue cheese, balsamic vinegar, cherry tomatoes, spinach, onion, garlic...) and would satisfy my desire for an easy, yet warm and delicious dish. I passed the pizza shop; had subsequent craving for Italian. Contemplated making some kind of mushroom linguini thing, didn't want to buy any new pasta. Didn't want to put an italian ragout over brown rice (meh...not that into it).
Suddenly it hit me: Moghrabieh! Big enough in size to not seem awkward as the base of my dish and something I already had sitting at home! What resulted was a delicious and easy "sautee everything in olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a pan, dump on cooked pasta" dish.
Ingredients I used:
sliced button mushrooms (a whole package)
torn spinach
sliced sun-dried tomatoes (cut into thin strips)
a big dose of fresh garlic (diced)
handful of fresh basil (torn)
lots of fresh garlic (sliced, diced, crushed...whatever floats your boat)
one whole small to medium red onion (also sliced or diced)
halved cherry tomatoes
thin-sliced red bell pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
crumbled blue cheese
**The amounts of all those ingredients are totally subject to your own tastes.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil to cook your Mograbieh, dump those babies in when water is at rolling boil. Cook 15-20 minutes, tasting once every five minutes after cooking for the first 10 min. (got that?) to check if it's done.
About 10 minutes after you start cooking your Mograbieh, take your sun-dried tomatoes, bell pepper, garlic and onions, sautee them all in olive oil on med-low heat until they soften. Add in all your mushrooms, sautee until they reduce. Season with salt, pepper...whatever additional spices you want. Splash in vinegar to taste (vinegar deglazes the bottom of your pan, helping to incorporate all the good, carmelized crust on the bottom into your food...*not just for meat dishes!*). Then you throw in all your veggies that don't take so long to cook (spinach, basil, cherry tomatoes) and stir in to the pan with garlic, etc. Cook until spinach starts to wilt (not very long for me, as I prefer my veggies to be on the more raw side). Volia! Dinner. When your Mograbieh is done, drain, and serve with ragout in pan. Top with blue cheese while still hot; stir in for melty goodness. ("Melty" - the chosen adjective for everything Taco Bell sells.)
One important note on cooking Mograbieh: Every time I cook this I'm tricked by the size of this pasta. You'd think that it wouldn't take very long to cook, but if you do, you're highly mistaken. I find it generally takes at least 15 to 20 minutes for it to be cooked entirely through. If you don't give them enough time, you'll be gnawing on something that tastes starchy and obviously undercooked. If you overcook them, you'll they'll be mush in your mouth. Part of the joy of Mograbieh is their texture; if you even question for one minute their done-ness, cook them just a minute or two more. Ideally, they should have the taste consistency of those tapioca balls in bubble tea or rice dough balls in Patbingsu (Korean red bean shaved ice desert, which I get from a Korean bakery on 33rd street in Manhattan. Insanely delicious.)
If you want to learn more about Mograbieh, check out Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (blog with recipe!) where they also think that little ball of happiness is oh so awesome.
Whew! We made it! Stay tuned for the next update in the works: Phun with Phyllo!
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