Brown Rice and Tofu Salad

Dear KDP Fans (Hi Mom),

It's been far too long.
I've been in an amazing directors workshop for the past 3 weeks, meaning I never had time to make food, much less blog about it.
Things happened in the past 3 weeks (including the now infamous String Cheese and Toast Dinner ). Our dear Mags officially turned old and celebrated by eating cookies and drinking whiskey (true story). Juneau has apparently had the worst summer ever and I still haven't bought an AC.
All in all, it's been busy. But here's a make up, back log post about a salad that I didn't really like.

Enjoy!
Hannah

Too much cookies and whiskey

Baked Tofu (From The Moosewood)
16oz firm tofu
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 garlic clove- minced
2 Tbsp fresh ginger- minced
1 1/2 c bread crumbs
2 Tbsp parsley
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
cayenne
red pepper flakes
3 Tbsp white flour
6 Tbsp cold water

-Cut the tofu into sticks- so you have about 24 total. Arrange them in a single layer in a baking dish
-Mix together the soy sauce, rice vingear, garlic and ginger. Pour over the tofu sticks, let marinate for at least 30 mins.
-Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly oil a baking tray.
-In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper and spices. In another bowl, mix together the flour and water.
-Dip each marinated tofu stick in the flour mix and coat well. Then dunk it in the breadcrumbs mix and make sure it's covered. Arrange the sticks on the baking tray. Bake for 30 mins, until crisp and hot.

Brown Rice Salad 
1 1/2 to 2 cups short-grain brown
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped scallion
1 small or 1/2 large red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped or shredded celery
1/4 cup finely chopped or shredded carrot
baked tofu
6 tablespoons miso paste
3/4 cup warm water or sake
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon mirin or honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar, or more to taste
2 sheets of nori, lightly toasted (optional- I don't actually know how to do this and forgot about Google for a second).
2 tablespoons black or white sesame seeds, toasted.


- Cook rice. Drain, rinse in cold water, drain again, then combine with vegetables and tofu in a large bowl.
- Put black pepper, miso, water or sake, sugar, mirin or honey, and vinegar in a small bowl, and whisk together. Taste, and add more vinegar and a pinch of salt, if needed.
- Combine rice mixture with miso dressing with 2 big forks, fluffing rice and tossing gently to separate grains. Crumble nori (if you figured it out) over salad and sprinkle with sesame seeds.


Verdict: While I'm sure this was a stunning brown rice salad, I am not a huge fan. Too salty/soy saucy, I usually ended up just eating the tofu. The tofu is good (thus proving that if you add bread crumbs to anything it will make it taste like bread crumbs).
I also realized that I was so underwhelmed by the final product that I never took pictures. 
Imagine it looked like this:

In more uplifting news, Passion Pit has come out with their new album Gossamer, you can hear it on NPR First Listen for a few more days.
I'm in love. These are not only my cooking jams, but also my walking, working out, working, rehearsing and living jams. I'm like the blonde that listens to an audio tape that tells her to breath in and out, but my life line is Passion Pit. It's incredibly textured and each song rings of extremely detailed and precise work.
It's also about a failed romance, so I'm adding it to my "Sit in a hammock, drink PBR and cry" list.
You know the one.
Someone else described this album as a "tortured beast, wrapped in a hard candy shell"
Totally my groove.

Not the best food blogger.

Welcome to the dark, seedy underbelly of the food blogging craze. 

Sometimes I don't eat homemade, vegetarian, healthy and highbrow meals. 

Sometimes I make myself string cheese and toast for dinner. 

Didn't even melt it. 

In other news, I'm in an intensive workshop and haven't had time to cook, much less post. 

But never fear! Things will happen soon. 

Gettin' creative with salad.

I eat a lot of salad, especially now that it's too hot to turn on the stove, I'm too busy and poor to make something new every night. 

So I mixed a couple of recipes from The Moosewood New Classics, threw in some left overs, got some beets and tomatoes to add color and voila! 

A curried tofu and corn salad that's worthy of any high class vegetarian/vegan restaurant. 

In other news, I'm in major lack of grill depression. I don't have the balls to put one on my fire escape, so if you have one in NY,  I will trade many, slightly charred, tasty things in exchange for a grill take over. 

Curried Tofu (from Moosewood New Classics)
1 packet firm tofu
1 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves- pressed
1 c onion- minced
1 jalapeno- seeded and minced
2 tbsp curry paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp braggs liquid aminos

-Press the tofu for 15 mins. Cut into bite sized pieces.
-Heat the oil in a skillet, saute the garlic, onions and jalapeno until the onions are golden, about 15 mins. Mix in the curry paste, turmeric, cumin and soy sauce.
-Add the tofu to the skillet and cook on low heat for 10 mins, stirring often, until heated through.

Curried Corn (adapted from Moosewood New Classics)
1 c shallots- chopped
1 jalapeno- seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves- minced
2 tbsp olive oil
4 c frozen corn
1 tbsp curry powder

The actual recipe calls for coconut milk. I omitted it because I didn't want to the corn to be over saturated with liquid going into the salad (read- I didn't have any). 

-warm the oil in a sauce pan, add the shallots and jalapeno and saute for 3 mins. Stir in the curry powder and saute until the spices darken, about another 3 mins.
-stir in the corn. Saute until heated, add salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble curried tofu and corn salad (a Hannah original (patent pending))
1 c quinoa

3 bell peppers- chopped

grape tomatoes- sliced in half

4 beets- chopped

-Put everything in a big bowl. Mix around. 

-season with salt, pepper, sriracha and curry powder to taste. 

I've been on a major RadioLab kick. 

I spend most of my commute listening to podcasts, but I've run into the unfortunate problem that sometimes Ira Flatow's soothing voice and dense topics on Science Friday puts me to sleep and I get too distracted by the various MTA characters/subway drama to really commit to an episode of This American Life. And the TAL stories often make me cry, which can be mildly embarrassing and unwanted attention getting at 10am on a Wednesday. 

RadioLab is the perfect medium, a mix of science and story, weird soundscapes that jolt one awake and make you stride that fine line between being intrigued and thinking too much. 

Plus, I'm in awe of the online community they are making through social media. 

And let's be honest, the only reason I listen to Science Friday is for the rare and priceless times when Ira F gets pissed off. 

Black Bean and Roasted Tomato Soup

It's not soup season in New York right now.
It's turned into a sauna... a furnace... a sweat lodge... a manure pile... I've got a million of these.
But at 52 and rainy in Juneau right now, soup season never ends. So enjoy.
I'm going to go hang out in the free AC on the subway.

Black Bean and Roasted Tomato Soup

2 lbs tomatoes- halved
2 15 oz cans, or 3 c uncooked black beans (cook them first).
2 red peppers- whole
3 dried chipotle peppers (soak in hot water for 15 mins before)- whole
2 carrots- peeled and diced
6 garlic cloves- peeled
1 1/2 red onion-sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
Black pepper
2 c uncooked rice
2 c (at least) vegetable broth
1 c frozen corn


-if you need to, cook the black beans (soak in water for 6-8 hours. Put in pot with 3 c water and some seasoning (I used onion powder and black pepper), let boil, then simmer until cooked, about 45 mins).

- Roast the vegetables- heat over to 350, cover a baking sheet with foil. Put the tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions and garlic on the tray, splash with olive oil and pepper. Roast for about 55 mins, stirring occasionally, until they're brown.

- cook the rice.
-Take out the vegetables, let them cool enough to handle. Seed the peppers.
-Put half the vegetables in the food processor, add in 1c vege broth and 1 c beans. Process until smooth. Transfer to soup pot. Do the same with the remaining vegetables, 1 c vege broth and 1 c beans.

-Once all the vegetables have been processed and put in the soup pot. Add the remaining beans and bring to boil. Reduce heat, add in corn and rice. Let simmer and get good for about 10 mins, adding in more broth if needed.
- Season with salt, pepper, avocado, a little cayenne (if that's your style), serve with sour cream, yogurt or whatever your little heart desires.

Things have been busy and I'm epically failing to keep up with all the new music coming out.
Billboard posted the top 10 summer songs from 1985 to 2011 and not to be outdone, NPR quickly followed suit with the top summer songs from 1962 to 2011.

I've tried to top them all by creating my own ultimate summer playlist.
Good for every summer from here on out.

(I don't actually know what constitutes a summer playlist... so here's a list of songs I'll probably be listening to until my deathbed).

Paul Simon- Graceland
Simon and Garfunkel- Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Carly Simon- You're so Vain (In honor of my summer working selling cheap t-shirts to tourists, where we literally listened to this song on repeat, for 3 months)
Rick Springfield- Jesse's Girl
Old Crow Medicine Show- Wagon Wheel (in honor of every Allen Marine summer)
LMFAO- Party Rock Anthem
Nickel Creek- Scotch and Chocolate
Tune-Yards- My Country
Punch Brothers- Rye Whiskey
Rilo Kiley- Teenage Love Song
Daft Punk-Around the World
The Decemberists- Don't Carry It All
Jurassic 5- Freedom
M.I.A- Paper Planes

And to be completely honest. I spent the summers from ages 14 to 18 listening to this on repeat.

Curried Lentil Dip

Liz bought me a copy of The Moosewood cookbook for Hanukkah (in April, but it's the thought that counts).
It brings me back to my childhood. I remember my mother skimming the recipes, looking for kid friendly vegetarian meals. I also remember abhorring everything the cookbook stood for (that we weren't going to have hot dogs and mac n' cheese for dinner).
But the circles have turned. I own my own copy. I use it on a regular basis. I read it when I'm bored.

I'm turning into my mother.


Curried Lentil Dip (From The Moosewood)

1 c red lentils
2 1/2 c water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 c diced onions
1 1/2 c apples- peeled, cored and diced
3 garlic cloves- minced
1/4 c raisins
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 c coconut milk
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt

-Boil the lentils and water. Lower heat and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 20 mins.
-heat oil in a skillet, saute the onions, apples and garlic for about 5 mins. Add the raisins, curry powder and garam masala and saute for another 10 mins.
-Put everything in the food processor. Process.

This is amazing with tortillas, vegetables and fruit.
Hummus, you finally have some competition for that special place in my heart.

I've talked about Black Prairie (The Decemberists side project) on here before, but they've come out with a new album, The Storm in the Barn.
It definitely feels like a concept album, but I'm not totally sure what the concept is.
This trailer cleared it up for me:

So there's that.

In other news, I listened to Fiona Apple's new album on NPR First Listen. Girl is still angry.

Pizza Dough, Wine and Body Paint

Make your own pizza parties are a regular occurrence here at KDP (see here).
I came across a new pizza dough recipe that claimed to be "no- knead, no-fuss".
That was kind of a lie.
To be fair, 4 glasses of wine tends to be my "this is too hard" threshold and that was greatly surpassed on this ladies night

No-Knead Pizza Dough from (Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery and pizza spot Co)
Makes six 10"-12" pizzas
Start at least 24 hours early!

7 1/2 c all purpose flour (plus more dough shaping)
4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast

-Whisk flour, salt and yeast in a medium bowl, with a wooden spoon.
-Add 3 cups of water, stir until well incorporated. Gently bring it together and form into a rough ball.
-Transfer to a large, clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature (I use the oven) for 18-24 hours.

-Transfer dough to a floured surface, break apart into 6 even portions. Working with 1 at a time, mold into a ball and set aside. Repeat with the 5 other balls. Let the dough rest, covered with plastic or a damp towel for about an hour.
-Working with 1 ball at a time (and lots of flour, it's really sticky), gently shape into a round 10"-12" disc with hands.
-Put things on the pizza. Be creative.

-If using a pizza stone- place the stone on the oven rack, preheat oven to 500 degrees F. When oven is ready, turn to broil. Place pizza round on the stone. Broil pizza, rotating halfway through, for 5-7 mins, until the bottom of the crust is crisp and the top is blistered.

-If using baking sheet- preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Put the pizza's on the baking sheet, bake for about 10 mins, until bottom is crisp and top is blistered. 

I liked this dough, despite the planning ahead. It's very soft and doughy and had I had more patience, I might have rolled it out to the correct size, shape and thickness. These pizza's ended up being blobs of dough/bread with yummy stuff on top. Which is a first world problem. 

The Best Part

For this party, we had:

Peanut Sauce, Pesto, Tomato Sauce and Olive Oil

Onions, Black Olives, Green Olives, Mushrooms, Basil, Oregano, Sprouts, Carrots, Cilantro, Peanuts, Tomatoes, Sundried Tomatoes, Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Mozzarella, Parmesan and Feta

Dessert Pizza- fruit and goat cheese

And about 10 bottles of wine (hence the progressively bad photos, the overcrowded kitchen and the pizza triangles). 

Note: pizza toppings also make excellent hungover omelets for the next morning. 

I have vague memories of listening to Vertical Horizon and playing 10 fingers, neither of which are terribly blog worthy (sorry VH, you bring up too many awkward and emo flashbacks to 14 year old me). 

So I'm currently listening to Goyte's 2011 album, "Making Mirrors" 

I kind of love it, it's widely ranged and versatile. I go into the album expecting atmospheric, emotional easy listening, but am constantly side swiped by the 80s pop ballads. The album takes you on a journey and isn't 45 minutes of the same sound, which I find refreshing every once in a while. 

This is great. especially when you compare it to the following, from the same album:

Let's be honest here, sometimes the best break up songs don't send one running for the hammock, a PBR and Vic Chesnutt, Bon Iver and co. Sometimes you have to dance it out a little. 

Plus, I'm a little jealous of whoever had to do the body paint for the video. 

Kimchi- the introduction

I was at my neighborhood grocery store (called Food Ranch and for some reason open for 24 hours, which is strange, no one in Forest Hills walks the streets after 10pm (not because it's dangerous, but because they're all in bed)) and noticed that they sold kimchi.

I'd never had kimchi before, never cooked with it, not quite sure what it was. But it was late, I was tired and thought to myself "ADVENTURES IN FOOD?!?"

So here is the low down:
Kimchi is a Korean fermented cabbage.
I've broken some cardinal rule by buying it instead of making my own, burying it in a glass jar and letting it ferment for years in the backyard.
Korean food tends not to be very vegetarian friendly.
Unless properly packaged, the kimchi juices will get EVERYWHERE.

Against these odds and through some crafty Internet research, I found some recipes for kimchi noodle salad and decided to try my own.

Kimchi and Soba Noodle Salad


10 oz kimchi- chopped (save the left over liquid).
1/2 head red cabbage- chopped
1 english cucumber- sliced into thin pieces
3 green onions- chopped
5 basil leaves- chopped
1/2 onion- chopped
1 package soba noodles- cooked
3 Tbsp braggs liquid aminos
3 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp rice vinegar
sesame seeds
cashews

-cook the noodles. Rinse in cold water.
-put the vegetables, oil, vinegar and braggs in a bowl. Mix around.
-add the noodles to the bowl, use your hands to mix it all together.
-garnish with sesame seeds and cashews

Couple of things:
You are going to have really rank breath after.
The salad gets better (or worse?) over time. More fermented, more juicy, more bad breath.
When handling kimchi, don't touch your eyes!
Legit, pack a mint. You're going to have really, really bad breath.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. I think I'll leave the kimchi handling to the pros, but this curiosity didn't kill me (this time).

I am way behind in music land. There is a ton of stuff that has come out lately that I've loved loved love. 

Instead of trying to play catch up and write about Norah Jones and Danger Mouse, Sara Watkins, Eliza Rickman or  Steel Wheels , I decided that this space of the Internet was better used talking about David Bowie!

This man can do no wrong. He marinates like tofu, he just gets better with age. 

My love for Mr. Bowie goes so far to include semi-embarrassing and totally awesome dance parties whenever my phone rings ("Oh You Pretty Things") to dressing up at the Goblin King from Labyrinth for Halloween (complete with 2 socks as stuffers). 

But seriously, a living artist who has a period classified as their neo-classicist era?! How can you not love that. 

I could listen to David Bowie for every event in my life. I'm going to walk down the aisle to "Suffragette City" (just to stick it to the man). 

This blog post is a paltry attempt to convey my love. I'm failing at that, so I leave you with this:

and this: