on the menu : sweet chile fried rice

SWEET CHILE FRIED RICE

INGREDIENTS:

• Garlic Clove
• Ginger
• Organic Ketchup
• Dried Red Chile
• Soy Sauce
• Nori Seaweed
• Peanuts
• Honey
• Whole Grain Rice
• Dried Shrimp (Optional)
• Oil
• Salt + Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cook the rice according to package either on the stove top or in a rice cooker.
2. A few minutes prior to the rice being done, drizzle oil into a wok.
3. Finely chop up the garlic.  Peel and grate the ginger.  Add both to the oil.
4. If you’re adding the dried shrimp, add it to the oil with the garlic and ginger.  Allow these ingredients to simmer in the oil.
5. Place in a blender the seaweed, peanuts, honey, and water.  Purée until a smooth paste forms.
6. Raise the heat on your wok to medium and add the cooked rice.  Sauté with the garlic, ginger, and shrimp.
7. Add the ketchup and soy sauce as you continue to toss the rice in the wok.
8. Add the nori paste you blended to the rice and mix in well until combined.

on the side : beets + quinoa w/ ginger miso dressing

BEETS + QUINOA W/ GINGER MISO DRESSING

Sometimes you want to make a sweetly composed, soft dish.  When I think of delicacy, my mind immediately races to Japanese cuisine.  I’ve taken some Japanese flavors to form the backbone of this dish, but fused in the beets and quinoa to make it more my own.  Also in the Japanese culture, we eat a lot of rice with an array of toppings (like pickled radishes, cucumbers, sea vegetables, etc. etc.).  I’ve married that concept here by marinating the beets and pairing them with the fluffy quinoa.

And really, how often do you see a pink-hued dish?  Put this in your back pocket for when Valentine’s Day rolls around.

INGREDIENTS:

• Beets (4)
• Ginger (1-inch knob)
• Miso (1 tbsp)
• Sake (1 tsp)
• Honey (1 tbsp)
• Quinoa (1 cup)
• Salt + White Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Roast the beets in advance by wrapping them in foil and cooking them in the oven.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the grated ginger, miso paste, sake, and honey until combined.  You may wish to do this in a microwave-safe bowl so that you can put some quick heat through it to ease the whisking.
3. Quarter and slice up the beets.  Add them to the marinade you just whisked and toss to combine.
4. Allow the beets to marinade for a good 30 minutes (or longer if you have the time!).
5. Cook the quinoa according to the package.  Once cooked, fluff with a fork and season with salt + white pepper.
6. Combine the cooked quinoa with the beets and the marinade.  Mix well.  Serve warm or chilled.

on the menu : sweet potato dengaku

SWEET POTATO DENGAKU

I have so much fun with Japanese fusion dishes.  This one is a play off of nasu dengaku – a sweet miso glazed eggplant Japanese tapas/starter dish.

Instead of just using eggplant, turned the dish into a meal with the sweet potato.  I also added some crunchy snow pea shoots for volume.  The flavors of the sweet miso glaze are still there but I’ve made the eggplant more of a topping than the star.

Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

• Sweet Potato (2)
• Eggplant (1)
• Snow Pea Shoots (Handful)
• Scallions (2)
• Sesame Seeds (1 tbsp)
• Soy Sauce (1 tbsp)
• Miso Paste (2 tbsp)
• Cooking Sake (2 tbsp)
• Honey (1 tbsp)
• Nori
• Oil
• Salt + Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F for the sweet potato.
2. Cut the sweet potatoes in half, wrap in foil and place in the oven.  Allow the potatoes to bake for about 50 minutes until fork tender.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the soy sauce, miso, sake, and honey until combined.
4. Peel the eggplant and cut into cubes.  Place in a bowl of salted water and allow to soak.
5. Drizzle oil into a sauté pan.  Drain the eggplant and add to the pan.  Raise the heat to medium, season with salt + pepper and allow to heat through.
6. Pour in the sauce you whisked to coat the eggplant.
7. Add the snow pea shoots, sauté with the eggplant for a minute.  Remove the pan from the heat.
8. When the sweet potato is fork tender, remove from the oven (but leave the oven on!).
9. Open up the potatoes and fill with the eggplant/snow pea shoot filling.
10. Place the sweet potatoes back in the oven to roast for another 15 minutes.  Finish off with some sesame seeds and nori.

on the menu : curried cabbage sauté

CURRIED CABBAGE SAUTE

General rule of thumb for vegetables is that they taste better and are more nutritious in raw state.  Cabbage is no exception, but unlike some other vegetables, tastes just as great and almost like a different vegetable when cooked through.  Putting a little heat through cabbage allows you to get creative and compose fun dishes given its natural ability to suck in other flavors.

An example of flavor that pairs well with cabbage?  Spice.

Once in a while, I get strong cravings for Indian food.  BUT it’s always the same routine.  I go to a restaurant to fulfill my cravings and leave feeling so utterly full those cravings don’t come back for a good month.  It must be all the rice, naan and fritters that do it.

Luckily, I’ve found a dish that kills those cravings without the aftermath of glut.

To pair with the spiced up cabbage, I’ve added some creamy avocado and summer sweet orange.  A dish sure to warm your soul but keep things fresh through the heat.

INGREDIENTS:

• Green Cabbage (1 head)
• Orange (1)
• Avocados (2)
• Curry Powder (3 tbsp)
• Turmeric (2 tsp)
• Soy Sauce (2 tbsp)
• Oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Julienne the cabbage.
2. Drizzle oil into a large sauté pan and add the cabbage.  Raise the heat to medium and allow the cabbage to cook.  Season with salt + pepper.
3. Add to the cabbage curry powder, turmeric, and soy sauce.  Mix to combine and add more spices if necessary.  When the cabbage cooks, it will become more “glassy” and should take on a orange-y hue due to the curry.
4. Remove the skin off of the orange and cut up the flesh into cubes.  Add to the sauté pan and mix into the cabbage.
5. Cube up the avocado as well and add to the pan.  Again, mix into the cabbage and oranges and sauté everything together.  Continue to season with salt + pepper.

on the menu : hijiki + quinoa salad

HIJIKI + QUINOA SALAD

If you are a fan of seaweed salad but have never tried hijiki, I encourage you to pick up a bag at your local grocer (or order offline).  Hijiki is in short a sea vegetable grown in parts of Asia like Japan, China, and Korea.  Dark brown in color in its ready-to-eat stage, hijiki is a pretty popular food staple in the Japanese culture. Rich in minerals and fiber, hijiki also contains more calcium than any other sea vegetable.

For those of you who have just googled hijiki out of curiosity, let me quickly address the elephant in the room.  There have been concerns from several government food safety agents claiming that tests indicate higher levels of inorganic arsenic in hijiki compared to other sea vegetables.  Their mission is to discourage consumers from eating hijiki, period.  While we cannot discount scientific research, it is important to note that hijiki is a great source of alginate; a polysaccharide that aids in removing toxic metals from our bodies.  Thinking long term – for those concerned – hijiki is more likely to remove toxins than add them.  Also, despite these claims, no arsenic-related illnesses (such as anemia and liver damage) have become prevalent in long-term consumers of hijiki to date.

I am still a fan.  If you are feeling discouraged, I suggest the following:  Soak the hijiki in water and after you drain it, rinse it thoroughly with water.  Squeeze ALL of the excess water out.  Consume hijiki in small amounts and always buy this sea vegetable from a reputable seller.

INGREDIENTS:

• Hijiki (1/2 cup)
• Zucchini (1)
• Tomato (1)
• Green Peas (1 cup)
• Scallions (2)
• Yuzu Juice (2 tbsp)
• Miso Paste (1.5 tbsp)
• Sake (1 tbsp)
• Honey or Brown Rice Syrup (1 tbsp)
• Soy Sauce (1 tsp)
• Sesame Seeds (1 tbsp)
• Quinoa (1 cup)
• Oil
• Salt + Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Soak the hijiki in a bowl of water for a good 20 minutes.
2. Cook the quinoa according to package instructions.
3. Quarter the zucchini and slice up thinly.  Place in a large salad bowl.
4. Chop up a tomato and add to the zucchini slices.
5. Add oil and yuzu juice to the salad bowl.  Toss zucchini slices and tomatoes together.  Season with a little salt + pepper.
6. Add the pre-cooked (frozen is fine) green peas.  Toss with the zucchini and tomatoes.
7. Finely dice up the green parts of your scallions and add to the bowl.
8. In a small bowl, whisk together the miso paste, honey or brown rice syrup, sake, and soy sauce.  Set aside.
9. Drain and re-rinse the hijiki.  Squeeze all of the excess water out of the hijiki and transfer it directly to the salad bowl.
10. Also add to the salad bowl the cooked quinoa.  Toss everything together until completely combined.
11. To finish off, toss in the sesame seeds and pour in the sauce you whisked together.  Again, mix everything well and season with a final bit of salt + pepper as necessary.

on the side : oven roasted stuffed persimmons

OVEN ROASTED STUFFED PERSIMMONS

About a year ago, I visited a vegetarian Korean fusion restaurant (Hangawi) in NYC.  Everyone in my party opted for the tasting menu and what came out of that was quite memorable.  One of the starter dishes was a stuffed persimmon.  I remember taking a bite and thinking – this is absolutely genius.  I’m not sure why it took me so long since then to do my own rendition of the dish, but I was recently inspired by local blogger Nirit Yadin (Princeton Eats) as she posted a baked persimmon dish that sparked a chord in my gustative memory.

What are persimmons?  They are fruit that come in two different types.  One kind is the pointed-bottom Hachiya.  These guys are incredibly, inedibly astringent until the fruit are entirely ripe and soft.  Trust me, you do not want to bite into an un-ripened pointed-bottom Hachiya – its high tannic acid content will wipe out your taste buds in the most unpleasant manner (not that I would know… ).  The other variety are flat-bottom Fuyu persimmons which, unlike its pointed counterpart, are not astringent and edible even when crisp.

If you’re staring at the pointed-bottom Hachiya you so excitedly purchased and they’re still firm, you can remove their astringency by doing a bit of a sous vide technique on them.  Vacuum-pack the Hachiya persimmons and keep them warm at about 100 F for at least 24 hours.  Still… a bit of work.

I think my recipe could work with either type of persimmon as long as you use one that is ripe.  The sweetness of the persimmon makes a beautiful play on the otherwise bland quinoa.  The chestnuts come through as the textural contrast and added layer of nutty sweetness.  The Japanese-reminiscent flavors of the filling may be likened to nasu dengaku (stuffed eggplant) though I’ve opted for maple syrup as my sweetener in the place of sugar – just adds a bit more festivity and aromatic oomph.

SO next time you’re craving a stuffed ‘something’ dish, try out these stuffed persimmons!  Come up with your own yummy rendition and please share back your creations!

Fresh out of the oven, I added a bit of spiced apple compote to pair:

INGREDIENTS:

• Persimmons (2)
• Chestnuts (4)
• Scallion (1)
• Ginger (1-inch knob)
• Quinoa (1/2 cup)
• Miso Paste (1.5 tbsp)
• Soy Sauce (1 tsp)
• Mirin/Cooking Sake (1.5 tbsp)
• Raw Maple Syrup (2 tsp)
• Salt + White Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Roast your chestnuts in advance.  I roasted mine in the oven – make cross hatches on the round side of the chestnut and place on a baking sheet in a 400 F oven for about 20 minutes.  Peel them as soon as you’re able to handle them as it becomes difficult to peel once cooled completely.
2. Cook quinoa according to package.  Season the cooking liquid with salt + white pepper.
3. Pre-heat oven to 350 F for this dish.
4. Finely chop up the scallions and chestnuts.
5. Peel and grate the ginger.
6. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, mirin, maple syurp and grate ginger.  Once well combined, add the scallions and chestnuts.
7. Cut of the tops of the persimmons and a sliver of the bottom (for standing support).  Carefully hollow out the flesh.
8. Make sure you remove whatever core and seeds are prevalent.  Chop up the flesh and add to the mixing bowl.
9. Add the cooked quinoa to the mixing bowl.  Mix all ingredients together.
10. Re-fill the hollow-ed out persimmons with the filling and place in an oven-proof dish.  I would leave the tops off until the last few minutes of cooking to avoid burning the leaves.
11. Pop the stuffed persimmons into the oven for about 25 minutes.  Place the tops back on about 5 minutes prior to them being done.