January 6, 2012- Food Blog

This food blog is one day late and I’ll explain why later in the post. Yesterday started off with a session with Pam as I was lucky enough for her to make an exception and come in on Friday. Quinn and I had our normal breakfast.

Breakfast

Quinn’s Purple Mooshie

See January 1, 2012 Food Blog

Lunch

Becca’s Lunch Salad (Vegan, but as my client Jean reminded me, depending on the dressing) 

8oz spinach

40z Arugula

1-2 tablespoons Gorgonzola and White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Dinner

Vegetable Udon Saute

1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms

2 tablespoons dry sherry or sake

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 cups water

1 medium onion

2 red or yellow bell peppers

1 pound fresh asparagus

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

1/2 pound udon noodles

2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water

2 0r 3 scallions sliced on the diagonal

In a small sauce pan, combine the shiitake mushrooms sherry or sake, soy sauce and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot.

While the shiitake simmer and the water heats, peel and thinly slice the onion. Seed the peppers and slice into long thin strips. Snap off and discard tough ends of the asparagus, then diagonally cut the spears into and tender stalks into two inch pieces.

Drain the shiitake and reserve the liquid. Slice off and discard the shiitake stems and thinly slice the caps. In a non-stick skillet, saute the onions in the oil for 5 minutes. Stir in the peppers, shiitake caps, and ginger and cook until vegetables are just tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally, adding some of the reserved shiitake stock if needed.

When the pot of water is boiling, ease in the asparagus and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Remove them with a sieve or slotted spoon and set aside. Then cook the udon noodles in the boiling water for 7 to 10 minutes until al dente. Drain an rinse the noodles in cold water to remove the starch.

Add the remaining shiitake stock and the dissolved cornstarch to the vegetables and simmer until sauce thickens. Stir in the asparagus and cooked noodles and gently toss to coat and heat the noodles. Sprinkle with scallions and serve.

Notes. I never use non-stick skillets. They are LOADED with chemicals and if you cook at the proper temperatures with a good pan, things don’t stick. People cook things way to hot.

I failed on this recipe. I started simmering the shiitake mushrooms and boiling the water. I was surprised that even though I turned down my burner to low the mushrooms kept rattling a away at a rapid boil. I was very confused by this because we have an electric ceramic cook-top and one of the things I love about it is its ability to gently simmer like a whisper and to heat without boiling even the most delicate of sauces. Meanwhile, though I had cranked the heat up on the boiling water, it was taking forever. I’m sure you  have guessed what I didn’t realize at the time. I had turned up the wrong burner and turner down the other. This lead to an abnormally reduced shiitake stock.

Once that was done I started work on the veggies. Not reading carefully (or perhaps finding the directions unclear) I added olive oil to the skillet and proceeded to simmer the onions. I followed directions as best I could adding the peppers, and ginger. We used dried ginger because we didn’t have fresh. All was going as planned. We cooked the asparagus with no issue and added udon. Meanwhile, I searched frantically in the recipe for where in the hell the sesame oil went. I read it three or four time until I realized the “oil” I was supposed to saute the onions in was the sesame. Fail.

In Quincy, we are lucky enough to have a very large Asian population and therefore an easy abundance of all things Asian in the food store. As such, our local Shaw’s carried FRESH udon noddle in the veggies section. But being a slave to the recipe, I failed to use MY noodle and realize that most likely the recipe authors would be cooking dried udon. (the also say you can use linguine) So I boiled my very fresh udon for 7 minutes. At which point it was a squishy, sticky mess. But I persevered. I finished out the recipe adding the cornstarch to an already pretty thick sauce (remember I way over boiled the shiitake mushrooms) and voila Veggie Udon saute!

The veggies were the best part. They were crisp and yummy. The udon was a mess and even though my husband and sister in law said they liked it, I say this was a fail. 1) I have no interest personally in finishing the left overs. 2) I didn’t quite clean my plate 3) This was, in my opinion, a pain in the ass to cook. I say that for a few reasons.

It used at least three pans, two cutting boards, two knives and a few mixing bowls. Things have to be AWFULLY good when they make that many dishes. I have to clean those up later.

I had no time to think. This was NOT leisurely cooking, where I can relax and do things at my own speed. Hence my many mistakes.

This had 313 calorie a serving. Compare that to my lasagna.

It only made 3-4 servings. Compare that to my lasagna.

For people who don’t want a lot of actual cooking time this might be a great recipe. If you were good at it I think you could whip it up fast. The lasagna and the chili both need minimum of an hour to actually cook. But they are harder to screw up. Last night I was lucky to have my sister-in-law here watching Quinn while I cooked and my husband to help me. And it was still a disaster. Imagine cooking that with a two year old tugging at your pants and demanding things while you try to pay attention to what you are doing. It is easy to see why so many parents just pop something  frozen in the microwave.

This makes me understand why I gravitate to my crock-pot. Quinn takes a nap and I use that time to prepare dinner. Sure it takes me a while but it will feed us for a week, its healthy and its ready when you are. Pop the leftover in the freezer and eat them when ready. I’m thinking of my chili, a perfect meal in my mind. So easy. So healthy. Tastes better after marinating in the freezer for a month. The veggies, though cooked, leech their vitamins into the sauce, which you in turn eat. Its hot and fragrant, a little spicy, and no matter how blocked your bowels may be they won’t be by the next morning. But in a pleasant way.

After my udon fail, my spirits were pretty low. I love udon and I wanted to love this recipe. I felt like I blew my whole day. So my husband took me out for a drink at Remick’s, the bar I stared my food blog at. I ordered a Grey Goose cosmo with Cointreau, fresh lime and light on the cranberry. Having been a bartender and having used speed pours, I know that a cosmo is a six count of vodka, three count of triple-sec and a 1 1/2 count pour of lime and cranberry. Well I’m pretty sure, its been a long time since I bar tended. This was more like six counts vodka and Cointreau and a splash of lime and cranberry. It was a Cointreau cosmo. (Have I mentioned that I have abstained from liquor this week?)

So pretty much two sips in I was feeling quite pleasantly tipsy and a little hungry as I didn’t finish my plate of udon. Once I have the drunchies, (thanks Jo for teaching me that word cause I love it) there is pretty much no way of appealing to my rational side and before I knew it a plate of steaming hot wings were ordered and in front of me. Remick’s apparently won best wings from somewhere in 2011, and now I know why. They were pretty amazing; super crunchy and spicy, which I solved by drowning them in the mysteriously amazing blue cheese they were served with. They then brought us a finger bowl of lemon water to wash our dirty wing fingers in. Have I mentioned I like this place? Go give them your money so they can stay open and I can keep eating there.

It’s clear why I was unable to blog last night, right? I was full of wings and vodka which pretty much put me to sleep as soon as I sat down next to our cheerily burning stove in the basement. Also I am incapable of making rational decisions under the influence of Cointreau so my rationale of “oh I’ll just blog that tomorrow” seemed completely reasonable.

So what have I learned from all this? 1) I was very smart to abstain from liquor this week as I make poor food choices under its influence. I will be resuming my abstinence. 2) I just can’t drink the way I used to and think I may now be comfortably classified as a light weight. I think I need to realize and embrace this. 3) I won’t be making that udon again. 4) That I need to go elliptical of the 1000 calories of wings that I consumed last night.

-Rebecca Garrison

Here is a little about Remick’s