Thai Noodle Soup: street food recipe

Still enjoying the Lonely Planet Street Food cookbook. Travel photos, stories of food culture around the world and recipes... combines some of my favorite things. This one is a tasty easy soup-- a staple in Thai street food and home-cooking.
My recipe...
Boil chicken stock (32 oz) (or veggie stock, but add a bit of oil).
Add white pepper and ground ginger, 1-2 tsp each.
Add 1 cup of sliced mushrooms.
Drop in meatballs (1 in. in diameter) made with pork or turkey, or a mix of both, or use tofu.
Let meatballs boil 5 min.
Add rice noodles, which you have already soaked for 5 minutes.
Boil 5 more minutes till noodles are soft and meatballs are done.
Garnish each bowl with cilantro, green onion, Bamboo shoots, and lime juice.

Yummy breakfast I made for Mia the next day... half of a mini chocolate croissant, ham&cheese scramble and melon. The picture is too delicious not to share.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Korean Tofu Salad with Citrus Dressing

When I was in Korea, I had this amazing salad at the Hancook Restaurant at Seoul Tower. So I tried to recreate it. Thinly sliced firm tofu, fried in a bit of oil, then cut in triangles. Very thinly sliced green peppers (and red and yellow and orange if you like) and red onion sauteed for just a few minutes to soften them just a bit. The dressing was veggie oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar and lemon juice. Toss it all together and let it sit in the fridge to marinate as long as you want. I served it over a green salad.
Mine wasn't as good as the one I had in Korea. Their dressing was a bit sweet. Maybe I'll add agave or brown sugar next time I try to make it. I've also read about some soy+sesame+orange juice dressings -- that sounds good too. Happy cooking.... <3

Passover Dinner: delicious foods for the whole year

I had a small Seder at my house on Friday. Just the family. But I cooked a LOT of food and we read the first half the PASSOVER HAGGADAH. ©Rabbi Amy Scheinerman, then we feasted. It was a great celebration and even though I eat dinner EVERY night at the table with my family, it was special. Here's a look at our dinner. 

1.Roasted vegetables (carrots, yams, sweet potatoes): Chop, toss with a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper, lay out on a cookie sheet, bake at 400 for 45 minutes, turning half-way through.

2.Matzo ball soup: Manischewitz mix. (Use half the soup mix, twice the matzo ball mix and add your own veggies.

3.HAROSET! The sweetness to erase the bitterness. I use an Ashkenazic recipe from the Jewish Holiday Kitchen by Joan Nathan (LOVE IT!): diced apples, raisins, wine (or grape juice), slivered almonds, cinnamon, zest of one lemon, and sugar. Eat with Matzo.

4.Green Veg: sauteed asparagus...

5.Instead of Gefilte Fish, we had salmon cakes. (Substitute matzo crumbs fro bread crumbs.)

Anf for the finale...Matzo Toffee Crack for dessert!!!!!!!!!
O, so good! Food.com recipe here

It was great. Happy Passover or Easter to you if you celebrate the holiday. Happy cooking to you all!

Panzanella and Sweet Potato Pancakes

More Delicious Vegetable Dishes!!

Eat this as soon as you possibly can. I actually made it twice in the last week. It's just too good.

Panzanella is a Florentine salad of bread and tomatoes popular in the summer. It includes chunks of soaked stale bread and tomatoes, sometimes also onions and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. It is popular all over central Italy. I had it at a potluck last spring and searched out the recipe.

It's totally vegan. But you can add some diced fresh Mozz if you want it to be richer and a bit heavier. I like it both ways. FRESH FRESH FRESH is what this salad is.


I also made Sweet Potato Pancakes this weekend.  The best thing EVER to do with leftovers... fry them up. :)

Mash sweet potatoes, add some chopped onion, and egg/egg-substitute, some flour; fry in veggie oil till golden brown.

Tomorrow, my fashion/style/sewing report is back.
See you then,
Happy New Year,
Trista

Veggie Delights

More yummy vegetarian cuisine cooked up at my house this week.

recipe from Appetite for Reduction:
Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes & Apples

1 pound apples, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (2 average sized)
2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon agave (optional, see note)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger, see note
Cooking spray
Preheat a 4 quart pot over low heat. Spray with cooking spray, then add apples, sweet potatoes, water and salt. Cover pot and sweat the apples and sweet potatoes for about 20 minutes, stirring often. What this means, is just to cook them slowly and let them steam. You want to coax the moisture out of them, but if you make the flame too high they’ll burn and cook unevenly.
After 20 minutes, you can turn the heat up just a bit. Add a little more water if needed. Cover and cook 20 more minutes, paying close attention so that they don’t burn, and stirring often. When they’re very tender, they’re done. Mash with a potato masher. Add the agave, cinnamon and ginger, and mash some more. Taste for salt and seasoning. Serve warm.
                                    *****

Veggie Chili aka "Tortilla Chip soup" (but we enjoy ours with rice and cornbread, not chips):
recipe from How it all Vegan--

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

3 c vegetable stock or water

28 oz diced tomatoes or 5-8 fresh tomatoes, diced and 1/4 cup water

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

tortilla chips, crushed (garnish);avocado slices (garnish)

 

In a large soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in oil on medium heat until onions are translucent.  Add the stock, tomatoes, paste, jalapenos, cumin, and chili powder.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Garnish with crushed chips and avocado slices.                                    *****

I will be offline for a week most likely, due to the holidays. But I'll be sewing, styling, crafting, and cooking up a storm, so I'll lots to share with you in the new year.

Happy Holidays!!!
Love, Trista

Cooking Bonanza!

Last week I made a BUNCH of new stuff and haven't taken to time to share it all with you...
Check this out!
1. Made my own butter. Basically, you just shake heavy cream and eventually you get butter. Kinda cool. (We used the separated buttermilk for pancakes.)

2. Put home-made butter on home-made Cheddar Cornbread. Delicious.

3.AFR recipe! Lentil Eggplant Mole Chili - recipe here, from Appetite for Reduction. Holy Mole! It was so good. Part-time vegan, full-time veggie lover.  You can't go wrong with this fancy chili. We served it with rice. Thank you Matt for your comments in the book on how awesome lentils are.

 4. Homemade Almond Brittle. Delicious.

 5. Pear Crisp! I had the pears, so I just diced them up, tossed with some sugar, and improvised a topping of "crumble" -- some rolled oats, granola, sugar, margarine, cinnamon, and a some juice. Bake 40-50 minutes.

I hope you find this inspiring for your weekend! Happy Cooking!

Delicious Dishes

Two fantastic dishes were cooked up this week (at my house, by me :)
1. Pasta Ponza (recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' book Giada at Home)
Instead of capers, I added chopped zucchini, and instead of Romano I used Mozzarella. It's not quite the same dish, but I wanted to use what I had in the fridge. And it was still delicious!

2. Cottage Pie (aka Shephard's Pie)
Boil 5-6 chopped potatoes for your mashed potato topping.
In a large skillet, melt 4 tbsp. butter; brown a diced onion for 5 minutes or so, add chopped carrots (3-4), then add 1-2 lbs of ground turkey or soy crumble if you want to go veg. Brown the meat. Add 1/2 - 1 cup of chicken stock or veg. stock, and 1 bag of frozen corn and 1 bag of frozen peas. Cover and simmer on low for 10-15 min. Dump the meat and veggies in a large casserole dish, cover with mashed potatoes (I mashed mine with 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1-2 tbsp of butter). Sprinkle the top with shredded cheddar if you like. I like.

Happy dining!

Chile Stuffed Chicken

I tried this recipe from my favorite cooking blog. It was so delicious. What I love about Pam's blog most (besides good recipes) is her food photography. It's great. I'm still practicing on food styling. It'll take me quite some time to get where I want to be with that. But in the meantime, let's enjoy some good food!
Eat this: 

I roasted my own pasilla and poblano chiles. So good! And I used Mozzarella instead of jack because that is what was in the fridge. Use what you got! Improvise! I had an extra chile so I just stuffed it with cheese and some corn and tossed it in the pan with the other chicken breasts. It was amazingly delicious.

Bon Appetit!

Fresh cookin'

Because I don't just style my outfits, I style my life, I want this web-log to be about all kinds of creations. Last night I made a simple dinner. Nothing fancy - green vegetables, lightly steamed, with bow ties and alfredo sauce. What made it so special was the home grown zucchini. The pleasure and satisfaction that came from eating my own cultivated food was lovely. You don't need a lot of space to grow some food. Do it if you can. And enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor!

(I used a ready-made sauce, but I have made my own alfredo and it is far superior to any store-bought. Try this recipe for a simple, rich, delicious sauce. )

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Melt the butter slowly in a saucepan (low-med. heat), then stir in cream, let it warm. Then stir in cheese. Cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally till cheese melts and it starts to bubble. Turn down heat, let it simmer for 1-2 minutes.