Panzanella Salad (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)

Ethan made my favorite salad with the french bread I picked up the other day.  What a great way to use stale bread.

Korean and Indian Leftovers (Friday, May 14, 2010)

We had a combination of Indian and Korean leftovers plus a new tofu dish.  I reheated the curried cauliflower, the vegetables from the Indian chicken dish (I ate all the chicken), chickpeas, and we also had Ethan's homemade kimchi, dried seaweed, salad.

Here's my plate with food piled on.

Chickpeas with spinach (Wednesday May 12, 2010)

Tonight we had beer with orange slices:

With chickpeas, spinach, and sun dried tomatoes

And leftover pumpkin jook.

Pumpkin jook and homemade kimchi (Tuesday May 11, 2010)

Yesterday we made pak chok kimchi. The recipe said that it is meant to be eaten right away, but it was a bit too bitter, so we decided to stick it in a jar and let it ferment a bit.

I added a bit of Thai fish sauce and let it sit out overnight before sticking it in the fridge.

That was enough to get rid of the bitterness and soften it. It tastes like kimchi!  This the first batch I've made (aside from an unfortunate oi [cucumber] kimchi).

The recipe for the kimchi called for much more grated pumpkin than could be possibly correct. So I saved the extra pumpkin and made some pumpkin jook (porridge).

We had it with some gochujong potatoes, leftover skate salad, and fried rice.

And strawberry rhubarb cobbler for dessert.

Ethan's dinner (Friday May 7, 2010)

While Janet was eating out at Han Bat with a friend, I had some homemade Korean food.  I made fried tofu, broccoli sautéed in sesame oil with garlic and hot pepper, shredded daikon (with salt & mirin), and gaji namul.

Lunch (Saturday April 17, 2010)

For lunch we had Bi Bim Naengmyeon noodles--which is a cold noodle in guchujang sauce. I pretty much love any dish that features guchujang (Korean spicy/sweet paste). The noodles were topped with asian pear, pickled radish, & sunflower sprouts.

We also had sigumchi namaul (spinach), kimchi, and some refrigerator radish pickles that I had made the day before.

The spinach & sunflower sprouts came from our local farmers' market.

Chickpeas With Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach (March 9, 2010)

Ethan made this dish a couple weeks ago and it's so good! This was a recipe Ethan modified from Mark Bittman. This is definitely going to be a regular dish for us.

Chickpeas With Tomatoes and Spinach (Feb 26, 2010)

Tonight I used a recipe I adapted from a recent Mark Bittman column.

His recipe is for chickpeas fried in olive oil with Spanish chorizo and spinach. I followed his recipe but substituted olive oil marinated sun dried tomatoes for the chorizo.

We had it with salad, yellow & red beets, and wheat berries

And apple crisp for dessert

Chou Rouge a la Limousine (Feb 23, 2010)

I've been noticing that I only had one French meal in the labels to the left. So I was determined to up that number and get another vegan notch on the cooking spoon, too. So I looked through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and, after eliminating all the recipes that called for butter or cream or veal I was left with red cabbage braised in red wine.

It's actually an interesting recipe... It cooks very slowly (5+ hours) and calls for red wine, carrots, onions, apples, and chestnuts. Also bacon, goose fat, and beef stock--but I substituted olive oil and vegetable stock to keep it vegan-legit.

The french title for the dish provoked a few thoughts. Limousine, I gather, means chestnuts... Who knew that high school students have been going to proms in stretch chestnuts? I figured out a few years ago that choux creme is French for cream puffs (because that's what the Japanese bakeries call them). But now I'm guessing that the puffs are being compared to cabbages (which kinda makes sense, I guess).

Anyway, here's the cabbage pre-five-hour-braising:

Here's after the cooking:

Julia Child's recipe mentioned that the acidity in the apples & wine help keep the cooked cabbage red. Yeah, and I think the red in the red wine didn't hurt either!

Plated (along with some potatoes) and ready to eat!

Dubu ganjang jorim (Feb 22, 2010)

Tonight we have dubu ganjang jorim (seasoned tofu) with brown rice, gim (seaweed sheets), kimchi, leftover potatoes that I seasoned with guchujong (chile paste), shreaded daikon, and lettuce.

I (Ethan) had some sake that my dad had sent:

And we pretty much ate everything in sight:

Salt-Baked Rutabaga (Feb 9, 2010)

We had leftovers from last night plus a salt-baked rutabaga. We had a salt-baked rutabaga the last time we went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns and LOVED it! I've been wanting to try salt-baking so I thought I'd try to replicate what we had.

I mixed salt, flour, fresh thyme, and water to a make a dough. I rolled it out and wrapped it around the rutabaga. 

Looks pretty, doesn't it?

Unfortunately it was gross--way too salty. I think the problem was that I used a wax-coated rutabaga. I had to peel off the rutabaga's skin along with the wax. I had noticed that Blue Hill had left the skin on their rutabaga--I think that kept the moisture in (so that it wouldn't dissolve the salt) and much of the salt out. 

Barley Dolmadakia (Feb 08, 2010)

We're on a bit of a health kick right now...or rather, I'm on a bit of a health kick, but I think this has been a fun little challenge for Ethan.  Coming up with healthy alternatives isn't easy and it generally doesn't taste as good, but Ethan is certainly making some pretty amazing and very tasty, healthy recipes!  As mentioned before, I just finished The Kind Diet book by Alicia Silverstone.  Not to worry, I'm not about to go vegan, but I am on a mission to loose some jiggle.

Here's what we ate for supper tonight:

Roasted cauliflower with curry spices and onion

Stuffed grape leaves with whole grain barley, pine nuts, currants, onion, garlic, and cilantro

 Inside the grape leaves

Recipe from The Splendid Grain
by Rebecca Wood

Banchan Day of Sweet Potato, Tofu, etc (January 23, 2010)

Tonight we had rice with lots of banchan: seaweed, kimchi, yams, seasoned potatoes (gamja jorim)...

seasoned zucchini (hobak namool)...

seasoned tofu (dubu ganjang jorim)...

The zucchini is sauteed with garlic for a few minutes in sesame oil, then green onions and a bit of salt is added and about another minute of cooking.

The tofu is sauteed in oil until brown and then garlic, a tablespoon of corn syrup, a tablespoon of soy sauce are added and cooked for about another 30 seconds (until the liquid evaporates). The dish is finished with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

And as a sort of dessert we had a slice of the most amazing white bread that Janet picked up from a Japanese bakery...

Crunchy Kimchi Fried Rice, Plus Banchan (January 26, 2010)

Tonight our banchan (small dishes) were kimchi...

and gaji namul (eggplant banchan)...

This was the first time I made this eggplant dish... the recipe comes from Maangchi's Korean food blog:

Our main dish was kimchi bokkeumbap (fried rice)...

I love kimchi fried rice... not only because it's tasty, but because it's a great way to use leftovers. This batch leftovers included white rice, pearled barley, brown rice, whole grain barley, broccoli, seasoned black beans, and lotus root.

To make it a bit like dolsot bibimbap, I brown the bottom of the rice get it a bit crunchy...

Banchan with Veggie Mandoo (January 17, 2010)

Sunday is generally the day when I cook, but considering the over abundance of food we've consumed this weekend I really wasn't up for cooking much tonight.  Let me start by saying we started the day off eating at Bon Chon (Korean fried chicken).  Since we both agreed that we get carried away when we go to the grocery store (mostly me) on an empty stomach, we now try to eat before we go.  Well, we ended up eating an abnormal amount of fried food before our grocery trip to Hmart.  I can't seem to find the balance between starving and being completely stuffed.

So needless to say, by the time dinner came along, both Ethan and I (mostly Ethan) were still a bit full.  Here's what we had tonight...some of it was pre-made:

• White rice with some added pearled barley
• Steamed chinese broccoli
• Marinaded black beans
• Lotus Root
• Toasted seaweed
• Kimchi
• Veggie Mandoo
• Barley tea

Lotus root, black beans, kimchi and Chinese broccoli

Veggie Mandoo