Archive for August, 2012

Beet stir fry

August 28, 2012 at 5:23 am · Filed under general soup, stir fry ·Tagged , , ,

I’ve been in beet heaven of late with our CSA baskets. Again, though, sometimes they are more of a radish texture and light orange in colour. Regardless, they are très délicieux. Here, Yusuke combined the beets and greens in a lovely stir fry with abura-age (deep fried tofu sheets. Pronunciation, sort of: ahboorah-ahgay).

He first sauteed the beets in sesame oil and cooked them a fair bit (about 80%). Then he added the age and the beet leaves and stems. The seasoning was: 1 tbsp of mirin, a bit of dashi, and 1 tbsp soy sauce.

The abura-age and beets made the dish subtly sweet.

On the side, we had soup with a Better than Bouillon brand veggie stock (thanks, Mom!): about 2 tsp in 1.5 or so litres of water and a pinch of black pepper. The veggies were:

  • Baby potatoes
  • Fresh sweet carrots
  • Glistening red/purple onions
  • Green leaves of onions

Comments off

Fish

August 25, 2012 at 6:16 am · Filed under fish ·Tagged

So…I seem to have lost a stack of the little notes that I take while we’re eating dinner…so I’m left with just photos of what we ate and very little memory of the specifics. Oops. I guess it will be “create your own adventure” food blogging for a while chez nous.

This here is trout. It was probably cooked in a frying pan or possibly in the oven. We tend to buy the full fish intact and Yusuke proceeds from there. In this case, we just split the fish in half and ate with chopsticks. I recall “dressing” mine with minced ginger and soy sauce. Or possibly balsamic vinegar. Either would be excellent.

Comments off

Kale-carrots-cauliflower

August 22, 2012 at 6:08 am · Filed under stir fry ·Tagged , , ,

I don’t believe that I’ve written about cauliflower on this blog before, as Yusuke isn’t too keen on it. Luckily for me, however, it was included in one of our CSA baskets. He incorporated it in a stir fry with other farm-fresh gems as follows.

  1. Saute garlic scapes in canola oil until fragrant
  2. Add chopped:
    • kale
    • carrots
    • cauliflower
  3. Season with:
    • sea salt
    • pepper
    • a tiny bit of soy sauce
    • oyster sauce
    • cooking sake
    • dashi dissolved in a bit of water
    • a tiny bit of sugar

And that’s it. The fresh carrots were very sweet and the kale nicely carried the saltiness of the soy and oyster sauces. And fortunately, the garlic wasn’t overpowering.

This was quite the vitamin powerhouse, with four of World’s Healthiest Foods favourites. Cauliflower, for example, has excellent cruciferous properties, with vitamin K, vitamin C, antioxidants, fiber, etc. etc. etc. Fingers crossed for more this summer!

Courtesy of Flickr user clayirving. CC BY-ND 2.0

Comments off

Cold pasta

August 18, 2012 at 9:09 am · Filed under pasta & noodles ·Tagged , , ,

We don’t have pasta super-often in comparison with near-daily rice, and so this dish ended up looking pretty fancy with all CSA basket veggies.

First, Yusuke sautéed chopped beets and their greens in olive oil and fresh garlic. The beets were not the stereotypical red/purple that we would expect, but were rather more orange and especially crunchy.

Next, he sliced gorgeous deep purple onions and soaked them in water to reduce bitterness.

After draining the onions, he mixed them with the beets and fresh basil and added balsamic vinegar, soba sauce, and lime juice.

It was all served over the room-temperature pasta, spaghettini to be precise. Most tasty for summer.

Comments off

Carrot greens furikake

August 14, 2012 at 7:57 am · Filed under Misc. ·Tagged

Furikake (pronounced foo-ree-kah-kay, sort of) is a dried seasoning to be sprinkled on rice. It often includes seaweed, fish flakes, sesame seeds, and more.

Yusuke made a variation on the theme here using the bountiful carrot greens from our CSA baskets. (Yes, for anyone who is keeping track, “carrot tops” are GREEN!, not orange. Hmph.) The greens are so lovely, but they’re not exactly easy to use. In the past, I’ve tried to include them in my erm, eccentric green smoothies, and while they taste good, they tend to get tangled around the blender blades. It’s a shame to throw them out, though. So…a furikake experiment was undertaken.

  1. Pull the leafy bits from the tough stems
  2. Sauté the greens with 1 tbsp each of: sesame oil, soy sauce, and mirin
  3. Add sesame seeds and katsuobushi (flaked tuna)
  4. Sauté until it’s all dry

Then, sprinkle a bit over rice and eat!

When Yusuke tried this again the next week, he upped the mirin content and lowered the soy sauce, which made the taste tangier like “real” furikake.

There a tons of good nutrients in carrot greens, and this is a great way to use them up!

Comments off