Vegetables + Salads – Page 11 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Dirty Rice with Brussels Sprouts and Tofu

Southern cuisine’s “dirty rice” gets its name from the offal pieces they add in their rice. Comfort food often contains more than its fair share of fried stuff as well as heavy starches and some people say “dirty” is also taken from that. I honestly fucked this dish up so I had to literally scramble and rename it “dirty”. I stir-fried the Brussels sprouts and carrots with the salted black beans and then browned the tofu. When it was time to turn the tofu over, they just fell apart. Fuck it, I thought, and I just mixed everything together.

Mark Bittman recently featured canned black beans and I immediately recognized them as the 89-cent cans I see in Chinatown. Filipinos call them tao-si because the black beans come from long string beans we call sitaw. Reverse that and you get taw-si. The spelling changed to make it sound more Chinese. Oh, those Filipinos! I knew they were salty–the beans, not the Filipinos–but not that salty, so I added rice to the dish to fix it up. Sometimes, the most wonderful dishes come out of mistakes made in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
2 small buckets of Brussels sprouts, hard tips sliced off, quartered
a handful of baby carrots, julienned
1 package of extra firm tofu, sliced into strips
1 can of salted black beans, drained
2 cups of steamed white rice
juice from 1 lemon
1 onion, finely chopped
oil

1. In a large skillet, heat some oil. Sauté onions until translucent. Add black beans and cook for 1 minute. Add Brussels sprouts and carrots and stir-fry until carrots are tender. Set vegetables to the side and make room to fry the tofu.
2. Add some more oil if necessary. Brown the tofu on one side. When turning tofu over to cook the other side, they may stick. That’s okay. You can mix them up with the vegetables and make a scramble. Add rice and continue to mix until fully combined. Add lemon juice to control the saltiness of the black beans.

Spinach Potato Gnocchi

These came out looking more like mini-sausages than authentic gnocchi. I’m sure any Italian grandmother will freak out if they saw how I made these at home. It seems like a lot of work but after you mash the potatoes, they kind of form themselves with just the help of some extra flour. It’s helpful to have a Bravo TV marathon on in the background.

If making ahead of time, prepare them on a baking sheet and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Then transfer them to a Ziploc bag and keep in the freezer until ready to boil. Do not thaw them out; just throw them in a pot of boiling water when ready to serve.

Ingredients:
6 medium-sized Yukon gold potatoes, washed
2 bunches of spinach, thoroughly washed, chopped
1 cup flour, and more for dusting
1 egg
oil, salt, pepper

1. Cook potatoes in a large stock pot with boiling water, about 25 minutes. Remove from water and let cool. When cool enough to handle, peel by gently shredding the skin off with a fork. In a large bowl, mash potatoes. Add flour and egg to the mashed potatoes and combine well. Season with salt and pepper.
2. On a clean table surface dusted with flour, form medium-sized logs using hands. Keep sprinkling flour as necessary to avoid potatoes from sticking to hands. Slice off small quantity of dough and form mini-sausage-shaped “dumplings”.
3. In a large pot of boiling salted water, add the gnocchi and remove to a paper towel-lined plate using a slotted spoon when they float on top.
4. Heat some oil in a skillet. Fry the gnocchi until light brown on all sides. Remove to a serving plate and top with pesto.

Smoked Tofu and Celery Salad

You can find smoked tofu from your Chinatown’s refrigerated aisle next to the regular tofu. I order a spicier version of this salad whenever I’m in a Sichuan restaurant because I like the combination of spongy and crunchy textures. The tofu brings down the spiciness of the other dishes while the celery cleanses the palate. With a dash of red pepper flakes, this salad makes a good starter for non-Chinese dishes.

Ingredients:
1 package smoked tofu, sliced thinly
5 stalks of celery, cut into matchsticks
a splash of soy sauce
a splash of rice wine vinegar
red pepper flakes
peanut oil
salt

1. Heat peanut oil in a large skillet. Add the celery and stir-fry for 4 minutes. Add the tofu and continue to stir-fry for another 4.
2. Add a splash of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Sprinkle some salt and red pepper flakes. Toss and cook for the last 2 minutes.

Dilled Vegetables with Lentils

You can use almost any vegetable to make this dish at home. I chose potatoes and carrots because they are hefty enough to keep me full for a couple of hours. The spinach, I think, is a must–don’t be afraid to use frozen spinach leaves if you want to skip the chore of washing them. Add some roasted butternut squash and you’ll be more than set for autumn.

I made my own ginger-garlic paste and froze them in batches. Store leftovers by spreading a small bit on Saran wrap. Top it with another sheet of Saran. Repeat until you have a small stack of ginger-garlic paste separated by Saran in sheets. Store in a resealable plastic bag and put in the freezer. If you want to skip that step, just add 2 tbsp of ginger cut in thin strips and 3 cloves of minced garlic.

Ingredients:
3 bunches of spinach, rinsed thoroughly, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled, quartered
half a bag of baby carrots
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cup of lentils, washed and drained
a handful of dill leaves, chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt, oil

For ginger-garlic paste:
cloves from 3 heads of garlic, peeled
1 large ginger root, peeled, chopped

1. Make ginger-garlic paste. Blend ginger and garlic together until smooth. Set aside.
2. Cook lentils. In a small saucepan, boil some water and add lentils. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Remove from pan using a slotted spoon, reserving some of the water for later.
3. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil. Add the cumin seeds and toast until light brown. Then add a tsp of ginger-garlic paste and mix.
4. Add all the vegetables and the lentils. Season with salt. Add turmeric and mix. Put 2/3 cup of the lentil water, cover, and cook in low fire for about 35 minutes. Stir occasionally until carrots are tender. Some of the vegetables will be mushy.

Broccoli with Cumin and Black Mustard Seeds

I don’t like broccoli but these sure were tasty, was one of the comments I received after including this in my first Mother Hen project for some of my co-workers. They were my favorite, too, because they came out bright green and perfectly tender. If you need to eat more greens, this is a good dish to start with.

Ingredients:
3 bunches of broccoli, separated and cut into small florets
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt, oil

1. In a large skillet, heat some oil. Add the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the cumin and toast until light brown. Then add and sauté garlic. Add turmeric and mix.
2. Add the broccoli and season with salt. Add 2/3 cup of water and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Uncover and check if florets are tender. They should still be a bit crisp. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving plate using a slotted spoon.