Cold Soba Noodles with Ginger Sauce

1. Start a pot of water to boil

2. In a large bowl where you will toss the soba noodles:

• finely grate too much ginger 
• add wasabi powder (to taste. a tbl. is usually what i like)
• tamari soy sauce (proportions are up to you. usually about 1/4 cup or more)
• maple syrup (to balance the heat and tang. usually about a shy tbl.)
• handful of dashes of rice wine vinegar
• taste and adjust

3. In another pan, saute up some thinly sliced fresh shitake mushrooms if available (optional)

4. Slice up some black kale if you want to add to noodles (optional).  If you are using, place kale in the bottom of the colander that you will use to drain the noodles.  The hot water will cook it perfectly.

5. Once water is boiling, put soba noodles in the pot.  You have to stay close to this and scoop off the starch as it foams up otherwise you will have an overflowing mess).

6. After about 3 minutes (depending on the brand and type of soba), pour the boiling water and noodle mixture into the colander to drain and cook the kale if using.

7. Run cold water over noodles if wanting cold noodles.  (They can also be left hot).

8. Toss with dressing you made in big bowl.  Add mushrooms if using.  Serve in small bowls.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and sliced green onion if desired.

I almost forgot that I like to make food for friends

When I left my marriage and moved into a shack, I stopped hosting dinner parties.  Cooking for others was such a source of pleasure and fun.  Yet the transition required a lot of solo quiet time and my skills got reduced to whatever could be made in one pan or pot and/or the toaster oven.

Tonight two of my besties came over and I found myself so delighting in the slicing and dicing.  I had almost forgotten the joy that comes from the co creation of food with love.

eggs and kale and veggies

I can't really get enough kale.  And eggs are my good friend.  This is for 2 peoples.

1. Slice up a leek, two carrots, a bulb of fennel.
2. Add your favorite fat to a wide bottom skillet. Once melted, add the vegetables and stir and begin to saute.
3. While they are cooking a little, slice up some kale (chard or any other green will do).  Rinse and add to veggies before they are super browned.
4. Open 4 raw eggs on top.  (2 on one side of pan, 2 on the other.)
5. Cover and steam cook eggs for about 5 minutes or so.  (This depends a lot on how you like your eggs.  Lately I like them firm.)
6. When eggs are as you like them, scoop onto a plate.  
7. Sometimes I make a mustard caper dill sauce.  Sometimes I just sprinkle a little white balsamic vinegar with salt and pepper.

Latest Ashram Breakfast

1. Add ghee (latest fav is niter kibbeh which is ghee flavored with garlic, ginger, onion, turmeric, cardamom  cumin, fenugreek, cinnamon and cloves) or other fat to small pot that you might cook rice in.
2. Once ghee is hot, add sliced leeks.
3. Stir and saute after a little bit, add a cup or less of white basmati rice.
4. Add 1/2 a vegetable bouillon cube and mix up.
5. Add enough water to cook rice (usually less than you think) and bring to a boil.
6. Add sliced kale on top and 2 raw eggs.  
7. Cover and bring to a simmer, cooking about 10 - 13 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.  (Lately I like them pretty stiff.  If you like runny eggs, give rice about 3 to 4 minutes before adding kale and eggs.
8. Simply scoop into a bowl.  I like a little white balsamic vinegar sprinkled on.  And salt.

Spiced Pear Relish

• 6 Firm Barlett or Anjou or whatever pears you can find. Core, peal and finely chop.
• 1 medium onion, very finely chopped. I like white.
• 1/4 cup kosher or other big grain salt.
• 2 large jalepeños.  Seeded and Minced.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1.5 c golden raisins
• 1 Tbl minced, peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp yellow mustard seed

1. In a large bowl, toss the pears w the inion, salt and jalepeñeos. Cover and refridg over night.

2. Drain pears into a colander and rinse the.  In a large saucepan, combine the pears with the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.  Simmer over low heat for 25 minutes or until thickened.  Let the pear relish cool.  Serve cold or at room temp.

3. Sometimes I add a little mint or brightener...

mac and cheese, first go

last summer chad was having the good idea that someone should make mac and cheese for thanksgiving.  i teased him a lot for this.  so today, i made a go at mac and cheese to bring to thanksgiving.

1. cook pasta
way ahead of when you want to make the mac and cheese, cook your pasta.  i used strangled priest.  once i drained it, i put it in the fridge in a bowl. it could be there as long as over night, but at least 4 hours or so.

2. start to heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. fry pasta
put way too much olive oil and butter in a dutch oven like pot.  (i love my crueset pot).  when hot, add the pasta and stir and fry until you have a satisfactory amount of "crunchy brown" pieces.


4. mash garlic
using a masher or knife, mash about 4 or 5 cloves for 1lb of pasta.

5. grate cheese
tonight i used gruyere.  whatever the size is they sell at my local market, rainbow bridge.

6. add garlic and some of cheese
when pasta was close to done, i added the garlic and stirred.  i added some of the cheese and stirred.  i also grated parmeson cheese into frying pasta.  i removed from heat.  if i was not "making mac and cheese" i would have stopped here and eaten this.  yum.

7. make creme sauce
melt butter and add equal parts flour.  stir until roux is light blond  color.  slowly pour in milk or creme.  (tonight all i had was half n half, so i used that).  add the rest of grated cheese to milk mixture.

8. mix, salt and bake
pour creme cheese sauce onto pasta.  stir.  gruyere is pretty salty, but i added some smoked salt too.  i grated some more cheese onto top of pasta and put it oven for 20 minutes.

Extreme Ginger Carrots

Old recipe, new method and new flavor angles:

1. peel and cut carrots  into shape you like. tonight i did them the way ed brown taught me.  slicing as i roll them to get some interesting shapes.  tonight i used 3 farmer's market sized bunches.

2. heat olive oil or preferred oil in a pan and brown the carrots.  i like them so the look like they were roasted.

3. while browning, finely grate a lot of ginger.  tonight i think i added too much, maybe close to 1/2 cup, but no one seemed to mind.

4. finely grate 2 oranges.  squeeze the juice from these two oranges.

5. mix orange juice with some tamari soy sauce, maple syrup and cayenne to taste.  proportions depend on your desired taste.

6. once carrots are browned to your liking, stir in the ginger. then eventually add the juice mixture.  allow to come to a boil, then turn heat way down, cover and let simmer on low until desired softness of carrots has been reached.  usually about 45 minutes or so.

7. tonight the balance of ginger and cayenne was a little intense, so i added a smidge more maple syrup.  also, the sauce was super potent.  to tone down, i might have added a little water to the juice mixture.

8. in the past, i have minced up shallots and added with the ginger.  tonight i fried up the shallots separately like in Vietnamese cooking. then to serve, stir in a little of the fresh orange rind.  chop up some mint and scatter on top with fried shallots.