Vegetables + Salads – Page 12 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup Glaze

I started what I call Mother Hen Project at work where I cook Monday lunch for up to five people for $5 a pop. I call them omakase bento so that I don’t have to promise a menu ahead of time. They’re stored in these neat lunch boxes I picked up from a Chinatown stationary store. I have plans to have a life, so I decided to do it only once a week. The demand’s pretty good right now and I only have a few slots until the end of May to fill up. I hope they all like what they get.

This sweet potato with maple syrup glaze recipe is matched with dilled vegetables with lentils, a seared Swai fillet and broccoli with cumin and mustard seeds. It’s a tad sweet to clear the palate off the Indian spices.

Ingredients:
3 sweet potatoes, rinsed, ends trimmed, peeled, cut into 3/4-inch rounds
1/4 cup maple syrup
a small knob of butter
a pinch of thyme leaves
salt, pepper, oil

1. Toss potatoes with oil in large bowl; season liberally with salt and pepper. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush foil with some more oil. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place potatoes in oven, and heat oven to 300º. Cook potatoes for 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and continue to roast potatoes until they begin to soften slightly, 25 minutes longer.
2. In the meantime, make maple syrup glaze. Heat maple syrup, butter and thyme in small saucepan over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Remove sheet from oven and increase oven temperature to 400º. Once oven reaches 400º, return potatoes to oven and cook until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 12 minutes. Remove pan from oven and brush tops of potatoes with half of glaze. If glaze becomes too stiff to brush onto potatoes, reheat it briefly.
4. Return sheet to oven and cook until bottoms of potatoes are golden brown and glaze begins to darken, 8 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and, using thin metal spatula, flip slices over. Brush second side of potatoes with remaining glaze. Continue to roast until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, another 8 minutes. Let potatoes cool for 5 to 10 minutes, transfer to platter, and serve.

Tossed Tofu and Brussels Sprouts Salad

After a family friend had a small heart attack this past week, my mother didn’t necessarily start running on the treadmill. The family friend is, thankfully, okay, but now he has to change his diet. That at least made sense to my mom who bought a few packages of tofu to change hers. Well, at least, begin to change. She asked me for a recipe that’s easy and quick to do.

I want my parents to know that altering their traditional diet to a healthier one requires not much more work than what they’re used to. If they start their meal with a light salad like this, then maybe they would be apt to eating less during the main course. At the least, there’s a variety on their table when I eat with them.

I always have Brussels sprouts on hand so I used a tub of them here. I sliced them in ribbons so that they would cook in less time and they could match the shape of the sliced tofu. This would be excellent with fried pancetta chunks, but I left that off just to teach my mom a lesson. At the end, the leaves were bright and the almonds added some crunchy texture for no more than 20 minutes of prep.

Ingredients:
1 package of extra firm tofu, drained, cut into small and thin chunks
1 small tub of Brussels sprouts, tips cut off, then sliced so they are like ribbons
2 cloves of garlic, minced
half a bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
a handful of sliced almonds
salt, peanut oil

1. In a large skillet, heat some peanut oil and sautÃ© garlic until golden brown. Add Brussels sprouts and season with salt. Toss in the almonds. Cook for about 5 minutes, setting them aside in the skillet after 3.
2. Add a little bit more oil and fry the tofu. Gently turn them over to cook the other side. It’s okay that some of the tofu get crushed. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle in cilantro and toss everything together. Transfer to a salad bowl.

Bubble and Squeak

There was half a cabbage head in the fridge that I didn’t want to go to waste. I remembered the Dr. making us bubble and squeak throughout our stay in Iceland, making use of the expensive cabbage and potatoes available in the grocery stores we drove by. Locked up indoors because of a nasty bug, I made my version and tucked in with a bowl of it in front of The Millionaire Matchmaker. Vegetarians can make this without the pancetta, and vegans can skip the heavy cream if they roast the cabbage and the potatoes longer towards the end.

Bubble and squeak is an English dish traditionally made with leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. I’m being traditional here because, hey, that cabbage was from the corned beef I made. Funny how cabbages last forever! I’m not quite sure where the name comes from. I think the bubble is from when the dish is bubbling hot. And the squeak? Well, we all know what a lot of cabbage does to you!

Ingredients:
half a head of cabbage, sliced in ribbons
4 medium potatoes, halved
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 chunk of pancetta, chopped
1/2 cup of heavy cream
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt, pepper, oil

1. Boil the potatoes in a pan filled with salted water until tender, about 25 minutes. Remove potatoes from the water. When cool enough to handle, slice the potatoes thinly.
2. Preheat oven to 350Âº. Using an oven-safe skillet, heat some oil and render the pancetta. SautÃ© the garlic and onions. Add the cabbage. Season with salt and pepper. Toss and cook everything together until cabbage is soft. Spread the potatoes on top, covering the cabbage. Pour in heavy cream.
3. Roast in the oven for about 10 minutes or until bubbling hot. Remove from the oven, toss and serve with gherkins.

Cook’s Illustrated’s Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

I don’t cook like this.

But because I was testing a recipe for Cook’s Illustrated, I knew I had to follow their instructions as much as I can to get the results they were trying to achieve. When I first got this recipe in my inbox, I thought, No meat? I was ready to reject the test but decided at the last minute that maybe a meatless recipe (well, except for the pancetta chunks) will be more of a challenge for me. Besides, I still shudder when I look at mushroom pleats, so I thought this was a good attempt to overcome my so-called fear.

America’s Test Kitchen’s goal with this stuffed portobello mushroom recipe was to get an intense mushroom flavor without the gumminess of other recipes they’ve tried. I think I achieved that when I tried it at home, but it sure did take a lot of time and ingredients to try and get everything right.

After cooking, I answered the questions associated with the recipe and put in my two cents. I noted the adjustments and substitutions I made. I used more oil than the recipe suggested when brushing the mushrooms for roasting. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted, so I eliminated the required salt when I was rendering the pancetta. It also called for lemon juice, but I didn’t see it used in the steps. An honest mistake? Perhaps. It could have been a test to see if I was paying attention. I realize now that writing recipes that everyone will interpret correctly is a difficult job. What makes sense to me may not mean the same for other people. I wonder how many people out there try the recipes on my blog and get confused? Are you one of them?

Below is my edited version of their recipe. Click any of the photos for the complete set.

Ingredients:
6 portobello mushrooms, stems removed and reserved, caps wiped clean with a paper towel
3 slices of white bread, pulsed in food processor to make breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of pancetta, diced
cheddar cheese, chopped to fill 1/2 cup
2 tbsps heavy cream
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp butter
salt, pepper, oil

1. Move the oven rack in the upper-middle position. Preheat oven to 400Âº with a baking sheet inside.
2. Make a criss-cross slit on each of the 4 portobellos. Brush both sides with oil. Chop the other 2 and set aside for later. Place the 4 mushrooms on the pre-heated baking sheet, pleats side up. Roast until their edges are a bit brown, 10 minutes. Carefully flip them over and continue to roast until the liquid has evaporated, another 10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the oven and heat the broiler.
3. Using a large skillet, heat some oil. Add the butter and swirl in the oil until melted. Add the breadcrumbs with a pinch of salt, stirring frequently until golden brown, 6 minutes. Transfer crumbs to a large bowl.
4. Wipe down the skillet with a paper towel. Heat some oil and add the pancetta until some fat is rendered. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta and transfer to another large bowl.
5. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook in the rendered fat without stirring for 3 minutes. Add 1 tbsp more of oil and continue to cook the mushrooms for another 3 minutes, stirring this time. Season with some salt. Transfer to the bowl with the pancetta.
6. Add more oil to sautÃ© the onions and the garlic. Stir in sherry and cook until almost no liquid remains. Stir in thyme, parsley, cheddar cheese and heavy cream with the pancetta. Season with salt and pepper and toss until cheese is melted. Your filling is done.
7. Flip portobello caps. Spoon this filling onto the mushrooms. Top with breadcrumbs. Broil mushroom until the crumbs are golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Makizushi with Pickled Vegetables

Among my purchases at the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey, were Japanese produce I rarely see outside of New York City’s Sunshine Mart off St. Mark’s Place. I was so excited to see yamagobo, or Japanese pickled burdock, because I have never eaten those outside of Sushiden. The pickled radish, or takuan, was more familiar, and of course, so were the shiso leaves.

These three ingredients inspired me to make my own makizushi at home. I learned to order them from the Dr. after every sushi and sashimi meal at Sushiden. He just asks the chef for the three ingredients, and voila, small hand rolls are served. A few months ago, I had picked up some soy skins in lieu of nori, or Japanese roasted seaweed, and I was glad to finally use them here. (Don’t worry, I’m not turning vegetarian. I bought them because they looked really pretty.) They didn’t add anything special to the rolls and I still preferred the nori over them, but they made colorful presentation when served with fried lotus root.

I’m not going to get into the proper way to make sushi rice and all that, but you’ll need a Japanese bamboo mat to make respectable rolls. In a pinch, you can user Saran wrap, too, just don’t let your Japanese friends know.

Ingredients:
yamagobo, drained, chopped
takuan, drained, julienned
shiso leaves, chiffonade
sushi rice, cooked
mirin, or rice wine vinegar
nori
wasabi, optional

1. Place nori on a Japanese bamboo mat. The mat should lie so it rolls away from you, not from side to side. Keeping your hands moistened with vinegar-water, put a scoop of sushi rice in the center of the nori and spread evenly on top of the seaweed. Spread a streak of wasabi across the middle if using, then add a layer of the vegetables across the center of the rice.
2. To roll, fold the bamboo mat so the filling is enclosed in the center of the nori, then moisten the top edge of the nori and seal the roll tightly so that it won’t fall apart when sliced.
3. Remove the mat from around the roll, seam side down. Slice the roll into one-inch rounds straight down using a sharp knife or serve as small rolls to eat with hands.