Spicy Peanut Sauce

A Mongolian grill recently opened in town and it's become the latest hotspot.  It's a welcome break from meat and potatoes.  It's also the closest we can get to Thai food.  I've only been to HuHot once, and while it was good, I don't foresee myself really going back there too often.  Much like sandwich places that never change the gloves after touching roast beef and salami (Subway), this place throws everything on the same grill.  They clean it off between customers, but it still bothers me a little.   Another reason I may not return anytime soon, is that I can master stir fry myself.  It's not that hard or expensive.

I wasn't sure, though, if I could master their spicy peanut sauce.  But I sure wanted to try.  So tonight, I looked up an easy Thai spicy peanut sauce recipe to try out for myself, before cooking it for anyone else.  Usually, I have a good sense if I make something that it will come out at least decent.  I wasn't so sure with this.

Tonight was the perfect night, since  I had run out of stuff to make sandwiches-- my default on nights when I'm alone.  But I always have frozen vegetables and lots of pasta, just in case.  I could work with that.  I steamed frozen broccoli and sugar snap peas, and boiled some organic whole wheat angel hair pasta.  In the meantime, I combined a few ingredients that I happened to have on hand to make the peanut sauce:

-- 1/4 cup of peanut butter (or 4 tablespoons)
-- 1/4 cup of water
-- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
-- 2 tablespoons of lime juice
-- sriracha (to taste)

Sriracha is a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, salt and sugar. It's named after a province in Thailand, where it was first made.   If you like hot, spicy foods, this is a must!  And luckily, you can find this at any grocery store.  I may have gone a little overboard on it with my peanut sauce, but I like the kick!

The original recipe calls for two tablespoons of rice vinegar, which I didn't have.  But two tablespoons shouldn't really make a difference either way, so I didn't bother with it.  I figured sriracha already had vinegar in it, so that technically counts.  (I love my logic.)

Combine all those ingredients in a small sauce pan on the stove over low heat.  It will first become very watery, but don't worry.  It will eventually harden after a few minutes.  I continually added sriracha to the sauce as I cooked it, to make it spicier.

After about ten minutes, three songs on my iPod, and several text messages to my mother-- who was also cooking-- it was done.  After draining the pasta, I returned the noodles back to the large pot and tossed them with vegetables and peanut sauce.

Let's just say, I can now open up a restaurant and put HuHot to shame. I actually think it was better than any restaurant that serves peanut sauce-- even authentic Asian ones.  It was fantastic!!  Now, I know I say that about all the things I cook, but that's because I only post my successful recipes!  (With the exception of my hummus.  Still a failure.)  If it wasn't good, why would I want to share it?  Trust me on this one, though.

I have been cooking now and experimenting with recipes for two years (I didn't cook in Los Angeles or Washington, D.C.), and I surprise myself every time.   I'm not only surprised my food is edible, but that other people actually like it.  I never really considered myself to be a good cook, but the more I do it, the better I get.  And the happier I feel that I'm successful at it.

Broccoli and Edamame Soup

When I say it's cold in the Northern Plains, I mean it's cold-- like the National Weather Service issues Extreme Cold Warnings and the wind chill is -45 degrees.   When the weatherman tells you an exposed piece of skin could get frost bite within minutes, the last thing you want to do is go outside at all.  The first thing you want to do is get warm and stay warm.  For me, that means cranking up the heat, putting on my thickest sweats, and filling my body with something hot.

The other night I experimented with creamy broccoli and edamame soup.  It would have been vegan, except I sprinkled cheddar cheese on top of it to make it look pretty. (Or to make it taste really good).  I found a recipe on Vegetarian Times, and decided to alter it just a bit.  As with everything I make, I never really measure my ingredients.  Fortunately, it worked out in my favor.

Here's the recipe in loose measurements:
-- 2 teaspoons of olive oil
-- 1 large onion, diced
-- 4 to 6 cups of vegetable broth (much like my tortilla soup earlier this week, I used only 4 cups)
-- an entire bag of frozen shelled edamame
-- about a pound of broccoli (frozen or fresh)
-- one can of cannellini beans
-- garlic
-- black pepper
-- shredded cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top (optional)

Heat oil in large pot over medium heat and add diced onion and some garlic.  Let that saute for about ten minutes.  Add in the vegetable broth and throw in steamed broccoli and edamame.  (If you want to, save some of the small broccoli florets and add them to the soup at the end).  Do not throw the white beans in just yet.  Bring the mixture to boil and then reduce heat to medium, stirring constantly.  Let that cook for about twenty minutes.

Then, transfer the soup to a blender or food processor.  I have a tiny one and this is a lot of soup, so I had to do it in batches.  Add in the cannellini beans and blend until creamy and smooth.  Return all the soup to a pot and let it simmer on low heat.  When you're ready to serve, sprinkle a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese on top, while it's still warm.

The soup ended up being thick and hearty.  I was impressed that I could make a creamy broccoli soup without butter or milk.  I think the beans added that creaminess instead.  This meal contains a lot of protein with the cannellini beans and soybeans.  Since it's pretty much just green vegetables pureed into soup form, it's super healthy!

Death by (Hot) Chocolate

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I have a sweet tooth.  I could eat an entire bag of Lindt truffles in one sitting. (No, those are not vegan).  But I don't.  And I think the reason why is because I don't deprive myself of what I want.  And that's probably why I've moved away from vegan to more of a lacto-vegetarian, who eats cheese.  It was too hard to cut it out completely.  So I incorporated it back into my diet in small doses.  Well, that's kind of how chocolate is.  If you eat a little bit every now and then, you won't binge eat because you feel deprived.  I like Caramellos and Hershey's Cookies and Cream bars every now and then, and sometimes I give into them.  But my face always breaks out, and my stomach always hurts, and I'm left with a bit of regret.  So to get some sweetness without all that, I'll go for organic dark chocolate, splurge on a Crev all-natural truffle bar, or grab a chocolate raspberry Luna Bar (which I think tastes exactly like Godiva chocolate raspberry ice cream).  And when it's really cold out, I like hot cocoa.

Instead of spending close to $4 on a Starbucks hot chocolate with soy milk-- and without drinking nearly as many calories-- I like to make my own non-dairy version.  I buy organic chocolate soy milk, nuke it for two minutes, and then add in a teaspoon of Penzey's Hot Chocolate mix, which is sugar, natural cocoa, cinnamon, and real vanilla beans.  If you don't have a mix, you can simply heat up the soy milk.  It doesn't taste as chocolatey, but it still has a nice flavor to it.   Other brands to try: Green & Black's, Dagoba, or Lake Champlain.  Stay away from Swiss Miss, Nestle and the Cold Stone Creamery ones.  They have nonfat dry milk, corn syrup, gelatin (if marshmallows are included), "natural flavors" (which we could mean anything, as we learned earlier), and a bunch of chemicals I can't even pronounce.

If you want to make your own organic, dairy-free mix, here are the ingredients:
-- 1 cup of organic dry powdered rice or soy milk
-- 1/4 cup of quality organic cocoa powder
-- 1/2 cup of vanilla sugar: made with 2 cups of organic, unbleached raw cane sugar and one minced vanilla bean, blended together in a food processor

Mix all ingredients together by hand.  Add 1/4 cup of the mix to one cup of boiling water.

La Sopa es Buena

I don't speak Spanish.  I wish I did, though.  If I ever move back to California or to Texas, I vow to learn the language.  While backpacking through Europe I did, however, learn some of the important phrases: where is the train station, where is the bathroom, and another beer, please.  Otra cerveza, por favor?  I also learned how to make sangria and paella in Barcelona.  Of course, that was a special cooking class with an instructor and a team atmosphere.  And "cooking" was a loose term.

I've always had an interest in ethnic cuisines: Indian, Japanese, Cuban, Greek, Ethiopian, Thai, Brazilian, Caribbean, and Mexican, to name a few.  And I mean real Mexican, not Taco Bell.   When I lived in Los Angeles, I had real Mexican and other South American variations.  My fellow USC classmates and I reported in South Los Angeles (formerly South Central), and our curious minds led us to many places, including local eating establishments-- some sketchy, some greasy, some authentic, some not.  I remember two of my little, skinny friends ordering a dish of shrimp wrapped in cheese and bacon and then deep fried and covered with more cheese.  I'm not really sure what type of cuisine that dish was supposed to be.  Their stomachs hurt the rest of the day, though.

When I first moved to North Dakota, I gave up on Mexican and other ethnic foods because those things just don't exist here.  (We didn't get a sushi restaurant until recently, and now I go once a week!).  Then again, neither do a lot of things that I was used to eating, and that didn't stop me from finding a way to make them myself.   So I figured I could do the same thing with specialty foods (see: Havana Feast).

For the record, I do not count chips and salsa as Mexican cooking.  I do count the amazing vegan tortilla soup I made last night, though.  It was around three degrees last night-- the perfect weather for something hot.  I knew I wanted to make soup, but it wasn't until I got to the store when I figured out what kind.  I've always wanted to try tortilla soup, but it always seems to have chicken in it at any restaurant.  For the record, most soups-- even the ones that sound vegetarian-- probably are made with either chicken broth or beef broth.  (I am still upset that French onion soup has beef broth!!)

This soup requires a few key ingredients and a big pot to throw them all in.  Boil four cups of vegetable broth (the original recipe called for six cups, but the stock came in a smaller quantity, and I didn't feel like buying a second container of it), one and a half cups of water.  Add in corn, black beans, diced onions, green peppers and red peppers.  Now spice it up with some garlic, chili powder, and a pinch of dried epazote (pronounced eh-pah-zoe-TAY)-- which I learned was a Mexican herb used to counteract the gassiness from eating beans.  Yes, I just wrote that.  It's also poisonous in large quantities.  Anyway, reduce the heat and let the veggies and broth cook for about fifteen minutes and then add in a half jar of your favorite salsa.  I chose a spicy, organic one.  Simmer for at least ten minutes.  Much like my favorite new stew recipe, the longer it cooks, the better.

This soup was flavorful and substantial, and was enough for three very filling meals.  I had a bowl for lunch today and I think it tasted even better the second time.  I will definitely add this to my list of go-to meals.  I know it's not "authentic," but if I was going to make authentic ethnic cuisine I would have to be in my uncle's basement with my mom and cousins rolling pierogies.

**FYI: I did take photos of the soup, but they didn't turn out so well.  To be quite honest, it's hard to make a mishmash of vegetables in brown broth look appealing.  I had also wanted to put one organic blue tortilla chip in it for garnish, but I didn't want to open an entire bag and let them go to waste.

Shrimp Toast

We have a summer home on a lake in the Adirondack Mountains.  As I kid I always dreaded going up there because it meant that I couldn't hang out with my friends.  (Unfortunately there weren't many tweens around that area).  A couple of times I brought some friends with me up to the lake, and we'd get into the typical adolescent mischief:  stealing wine coolers from my aunt, pretending to lose our paddle boat so the cute older boys could pick us up on a jet ski (who just "loses" a paddle boat in the middle of the lake?), and even jumping off the 65 foot trestle into the water-- everybody did that.  As I got older, I realized the value in going to our camp.  It was a place to unwind and relax.  There wasn't much to do but sit outside and soak up some rays, and catch up on summer reading-- and that's exactly the beauty of it.  Not to mention, you could drink a beer in the middle of the afternoon and not be judged.

There are certain things that I will always associate with the Lake:  R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, which were particularly scary then because we were in the woods; kayaking for what felt like hours to see beautiful waterfalls; walking on the railroad tracks to explore a strange, manmade lake with dyed blue water (it never fully developed); Sandy, the friendly mutt who visited every house on the lake daily; and of course certain foods that my mom never made anywhere else-- like shrimp toast.

I like shrimp.  I like bread.  I like salsa.  And I like cheese.  But for some reason,  I was always a bit wary about my mom's shrimp toast.  Maybe because the spicy shrimp bruschetta is a combination of seafood, Mexican and Italian dishes, and it just seemed wrong.  Regardless, one day I actually started liking them.  I still think the combo is a bit strange, but they taste really good so I don't care about that anymore.  They're also easy to make with only four ingredients.

Take a freshly baked baguette and cut it into slices about an inch thick.  Put them in the oven for a little while to soften, but not toast.  The key to this is to make sure the bread isn't too soggy before you add on the shrimp mixture, which is a bit watery. (Disclaimer:  I'm not entirely sure what temperature to use for baking anything, so I always put everything on 375 degrees and it seems to work out fine.)  Meanwhile, on the stove, throw a can of your favorite salsa and some chopped, raw shrimp in a skillet on low. My family uses Newman's Own Hot Salsa, but I like to use any organic, generic one from the grocery store.  The shrimp will turn pink when they're done and they juices will all mix together.  Divide the mixture evenly onto the baguettes and throw them back into the oven.  When they look like they're almost done (it won't take too long), add some shredded mozzarella on top and pop the tray of shrimp toast back into the oven for a minute or two, until the cheese melts.

We've tried this with mild and medium salsas, and found that the hotter, the better.   Again, it's kind of a weird appetizer, but somehow it works.  The more I think about it, it would probably be a good dish to serve at a Super Bowl party, and a welcome change from the typical chips and salsa.

Another favorite summertime treat up at the lake?  S'mores.  But you don't need my advice on those.  If you can't figure out how to roast a marshmallow and put it between two pieces of graham crackers and chocolate, I can't help you.  (Note: marshmallows contain gelatin, which is an animal byproduct.  There are a few different brands of marshmallows that are vegan friendly like Dandie's Classic Vanilla Air-Puffed Vegan marshmallows.  I've never tried them, but I've read a lot of reviews saying they taste like the real thing, and are good for s'mores and Rice Krispie treats.)