first things first:
a few recipes, as promised.
For thefourthvine,
Ming Tsai's Dipping Sauce
1/3 c soy sauce
1/3 c rice vinegar
1 t sugar
1 t fresh ginger
1 t shockingly pungent (thank you, Barbara Tropp) crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 c scallions, sliced v. thin
Mix ingredients together in a clean jar and shake until thoroughly incorporated. Taste for heat and sour/salty/sweet balance.
The recipe originally came with Ming Tsai's recipe for scallion pancakes, with which the sauce is most tasty. It also makes a delectable marinade; I plunk tofu in it and stick the result in vegetarian sushi (♥), in stirfrys, and sometimes just in a container for a snack. And it is tres yummy mixed up with hot brown rice and spinach, which is why TFV is getting it tonight.
For spuffyduds,
Q's Sluttish Hummus*
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained
1/4 c tahini, well stirred
1/8-1/4 c warm water
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 lime, cut in quarters (or half a lemon, halved again)
2 T olive oil
your favorite hot sauce to taste
sea/kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste
Put the first four ingredients in a food processor and whir until reasonably well mixed. Juice the lime or lemon into the mixture and whir again. Keeping the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil until completely incorporated (most food processors have a hole in the top of the work-bowl cover that allows this pretty easily). Continue whirring away until the hummus has reached the consistency you want, adding more water if you think it necessary. Once you’ve got it to your preferred consistency, add the seasonings to taste. Stored well covered, this keeps a week or so and is awesome on good whole-wheat bread, pretzels, and fingers.
Q’s notes:
• The best hot sauces for this are those in which the base notes aren’t particularly assertive-i.e., those of which the principal point is hot, rather than, say, tomato or cider or molasses. If you think your favorite hot sauce is going to be too dominant, use ground red pepper to taste instead.
• If you like, add 1/2 t cumin to the hummus when you’re adding the seasonings at the end.
• If you like, use either roast garlic or garlic that’s been steeped very slowly in olive oil until soft. It mellows the garlic taste considerably.
*so named because, according to a good friend who is an excellent cook and acquired her hummus-making skills at the knee of an elderly Lebanese lady, it was the elderly Lebanese lady's expert opinion that only sluts use unpeeled chickpeas in their hummus. turns out that hummus is not actually supposed to be particularly assertive in either taste or texture. instead, it's meant to be a smooth, creamy, mild spread, roughly equivalent to butter, for use as a spread on the local bread in climates in which butter doesn't keep but hummus does. this means that, amongst other things, classic Lebanese hummus requires that one peel the chickpeas, to preserve the textural unctuousness of the finished product. based on very recent experience (as in earlier today), I can testify that peeling chickpeas is both easy and surprisingly fun, and the resulting hummus is beautifully smooth and tasty. I don't think I'll change my normal hummus-making habits, but YMMV.
And finally, for coffeeem,
Granola Bars
1 1/2 c rolled oats
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c almonds, toasted and chopped
1/4 c dark chocolate chips
1/2 t cinnamon
2 T ground flax seeds
2 T and 1 t vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 c honey
1 t vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or oil a cookie sheet, preferably one with rims. (A Silpat sheet would probably also work here.) Mix first four ingredients together in large bowl. Beat cinnamon, ground flax seeds, and wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl. Scrape wet mixture into dry and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Turn mixture out onto cookie sheet and shape into a rectangle roughly 7” x 9”. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into bars, and separate the bars slightly on the sheet. Return to oven and bake further, checking every 3-5 minutes, until bars have achieved your desired level of crunchiess. Store in a tightly covered container for five days or so.
Q’s notes:
• These taste pretty good, especially when compared to some of the other breakfast alternatives bounding about out there. The one problem I’ve had with them is that they don’t always adhere to themselves as much as I’d like, making eating them a rather crumbly prospect. Areas in which I’d like to experiment further: (1) another egg? Or another egg yolk? (2) Brown rice syrup or maple syrup for the sweetener? (If the latter, sub raisins for the chocolate chips?) (3) More honey?
• Hm. Right, okay, one other problem I’ve had: if you don’t keep a weather eye on the timer after the initial bake, the bars go quite swiftly from crunchy to rather overbrowned. I myself prefer things like this well done, but I don’t like them burnt, and that is a risk if one’s not careful.
Right. Now, quelle surprise, I'm hungry. Off to snarf roasted cauliflower and figure out something to do with the bit of leftover pasta I got out a while back.
For thefourthvine,
Ming Tsai's Dipping Sauce
1/3 c soy sauce
1/3 c rice vinegar
1 t sugar
1 t fresh ginger
1 t shockingly pungent (thank you, Barbara Tropp) crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 c scallions, sliced v. thin
Mix ingredients together in a clean jar and shake until thoroughly incorporated. Taste for heat and sour/salty/sweet balance.
The recipe originally came with Ming Tsai's recipe for scallion pancakes, with which the sauce is most tasty. It also makes a delectable marinade; I plunk tofu in it and stick the result in vegetarian sushi (♥), in stirfrys, and sometimes just in a container for a snack. And it is tres yummy mixed up with hot brown rice and spinach, which is why TFV is getting it tonight.
For spuffyduds,
Q's Sluttish Hummus*
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained
1/4 c tahini, well stirred
1/8-1/4 c warm water
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 lime, cut in quarters (or half a lemon, halved again)
2 T olive oil
your favorite hot sauce to taste
sea/kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste
Put the first four ingredients in a food processor and whir until reasonably well mixed. Juice the lime or lemon into the mixture and whir again. Keeping the processor running, drizzle in the olive oil until completely incorporated (most food processors have a hole in the top of the work-bowl cover that allows this pretty easily). Continue whirring away until the hummus has reached the consistency you want, adding more water if you think it necessary. Once you’ve got it to your preferred consistency, add the seasonings to taste. Stored well covered, this keeps a week or so and is awesome on good whole-wheat bread, pretzels, and fingers.
Q’s notes:
• The best hot sauces for this are those in which the base notes aren’t particularly assertive-i.e., those of which the principal point is hot, rather than, say, tomato or cider or molasses. If you think your favorite hot sauce is going to be too dominant, use ground red pepper to taste instead.
• If you like, add 1/2 t cumin to the hummus when you’re adding the seasonings at the end.
• If you like, use either roast garlic or garlic that’s been steeped very slowly in olive oil until soft. It mellows the garlic taste considerably.
*so named because, according to a good friend who is an excellent cook and acquired her hummus-making skills at the knee of an elderly Lebanese lady, it was the elderly Lebanese lady's expert opinion that only sluts use unpeeled chickpeas in their hummus. turns out that hummus is not actually supposed to be particularly assertive in either taste or texture. instead, it's meant to be a smooth, creamy, mild spread, roughly equivalent to butter, for use as a spread on the local bread in climates in which butter doesn't keep but hummus does. this means that, amongst other things, classic Lebanese hummus requires that one peel the chickpeas, to preserve the textural unctuousness of the finished product. based on very recent experience (as in earlier today), I can testify that peeling chickpeas is both easy and surprisingly fun, and the resulting hummus is beautifully smooth and tasty. I don't think I'll change my normal hummus-making habits, but YMMV.
And finally, for coffeeem,
Granola Bars
1 1/2 c rolled oats
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c almonds, toasted and chopped
1/4 c dark chocolate chips
1/2 t cinnamon
2 T ground flax seeds
2 T and 1 t vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 c honey
1 t vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or oil a cookie sheet, preferably one with rims. (A Silpat sheet would probably also work here.) Mix first four ingredients together in large bowl. Beat cinnamon, ground flax seeds, and wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl. Scrape wet mixture into dry and stir until thoroughly incorporated. Turn mixture out onto cookie sheet and shape into a rectangle roughly 7” x 9”. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into bars, and separate the bars slightly on the sheet. Return to oven and bake further, checking every 3-5 minutes, until bars have achieved your desired level of crunchiess. Store in a tightly covered container for five days or so.
Q’s notes:
• These taste pretty good, especially when compared to some of the other breakfast alternatives bounding about out there. The one problem I’ve had with them is that they don’t always adhere to themselves as much as I’d like, making eating them a rather crumbly prospect. Areas in which I’d like to experiment further: (1) another egg? Or another egg yolk? (2) Brown rice syrup or maple syrup for the sweetener? (If the latter, sub raisins for the chocolate chips?) (3) More honey?
• Hm. Right, okay, one other problem I’ve had: if you don’t keep a weather eye on the timer after the initial bake, the bars go quite swiftly from crunchy to rather overbrowned. I myself prefer things like this well done, but I don’t like them burnt, and that is a risk if one’s not careful.
Right. Now, quelle surprise, I'm hungry. Off to snarf roasted cauliflower and figure out something to do with the bit of leftover pasta I got out a while back.