A Moveable Feast of One Foodie's (mostly) Vegetarian Adventures
We leave tonight. How I will miss this town.
I am leaving part of my heart here.
But I’ll be back to get it soon.
Besos besos besos…
Please forgive the radio silence for the next few weeks as I’ll be bouncing around the great US of A, visiting friends and family and rolling around the aisles of Whole Foods in ecstasy.
This recipe came about because I basically have to clean out my cupboards. You may have heard. We’re leaving Buenos Aires.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about all this — I really love it here, the hombrecito is in an amazing jardin (nursery school), it’s a beautiful friendly city and we have a group of wonderful friends. But I am also REALLY excited to go home (I can’t believe it will be a YEAR to the day since I’ve set foot on American soil). I get to see my family, friends and do crazy things like wander the aisles of Whole Foods and buy everything. And life is an adventure and change is good, yada yada yada…
Anyway, I seemed to have an entire bottle of rice vinegar and quite a bit of sesame oil lying around. And bonus, I found some rice noodles tucked away in the darkest reaches of that awkward corner cabinet. And I had a boatload of fresh veggies crying out from the produce drawer, “Use us before we rot, please! We know, we’re a whole bunch of scallions and some of us probably will end up rotting, but that’s okay! Some of us will make it to the Promised Land…an actual dish eaten by people!” You mean you don’t have imaginary conversations with your vegetables? Really. Huh.
So, naturally, I needed to make an Asian flavored rice noodle salad. Normally, I’d make a sesame noodle type sauce with peanut butter, but for those that have been reading along, you won’t be surprised to hear that peanut butter has (poof!) disappeared from my daily existence. Yes, I can get it in Barrio Chino, but going there is what got me into this overdose on Asian condiments in the first place and it’s not super close to my house either, so there you go. No peanut butter. But it was actually fine. Delicious in fact. Sweet, salty, tangy, hot. Really refreshing and light, but still a substantial salad with the addition of tofu and lots of veggies to the rice noodles. And I did manage to get a peanut product in there after all, which gave it just a bit of crunch.
Okay, now what am I going to do with three jars of curry powder?
Notes:
Normally, I would julienne the veggies, but with the kid, I need to make smaller pieces, so whatever you call julienned and cut in half (“medio-julienned”?) is what I do. For those of you with adult eating skills and larger mouths, have at it. Julienne to your heart’s content. You can also use whatever veggies you like; add some sprouts, whatever. I think the cabbage is kind of essential though.
Generally, rice noodles should be soaked in hot water for about 20-30 minutes, then cooked in a bit of oil in a wok on high heat, occasionally adding water and covering to steam/soften the noodles for about 10 minutes. If you don’t feel like dealing with all this, you can just use regular spaghetti or fettucini (or some other long, thin pasta).
About the tofu: I didn’t marinate all of it because I didn’t have room in the bowl and I didn’t want to use up too much dressing, plus I wasn’t sure the kid would like it that way vs. plain; turns out that was an unfounded fear, so next time I’ll probably marinate all of it or just make a little more dressing.
Asian Rice Noodle Salad
400 g rice noodles
1 cucumber, peeled and julienned
2 carrots, peeled and julienned
3/4 red pepper, julienned
1/3 head of cabbage (about 1-1/2 cups), shredded
2 scallions, green and light green parts diced (you can use the whole thing, I just thought it may be too strong for the kiddo)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1 block firm tofu, diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Dressing:
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 inch ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, finely minced or passed through a press
Juice of half a lime
Squirt of siracha sauce (optional)
Sesame seeds (optional) — damn, I have a whole bag of black sesame seeds and didn’t realize it until now
Cook the noodles according to directions on package.
Make the dressing and add half the tofu and let it sit for a couple minutes. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and add the marinated and plain tofu. Let it sit in the pan for a bit, then turn the cubes to brown on all sides (or at least 2 or 3; this can get a little tedious). You want the outside to caramelize and get crispy.
While that’s cooking, chop your veggies and add to a large serving bowl (or in my case, the bowl to the salad spinner. Classy with a “k” — or is that klassy with a “k”? Eh, you get the idea.). Add a bit of dressing to the veggies, then add the cooked tofu, rice noodles and the rest of the dressing. Mix well. Add the chopped cilantro and peanuts, reserving a bit of each to use as a garnish for each serving.
Wow. I’m really sad to be typing this. But it’s done. Decisions have been made. The wheels are in motion. And it’s official: we are leaving Buenos Aires. I can’t believe a year has already gone by and while it was our original plan to stay for just one year, we had debated about staying longer and I really thought that might happen. Alas, it is not and very soon I’ll be leaving on a jet plane…and I really DON’T know when I’ll be back again. Sigh.
The good news is I know we WILL be back. Argentina — the country, the food, the people — is now in my blood. And it’s in my family’s as well…when I think back to all the memories (the panaderia, the first trip to the ER, the beach in Uruguay, visits from friends and family, just living life in a foreign country and all that entails), I think about how much we’ve done and seen and how much there still is to do and see.
Most importantly, it’s the people I will need to see. Two of my closest friends here are expecting their second little munchkins, and I must come back to see them and everyone else that has so affected our lives for the better while we lived here. There is a warmth and affection that porteños have that is unique to this country. It’s not unusual to see a teenage boy and his father walking hand-in-hand down the street. There’s a lot of kissing going on and let’s not forget the food and how the sharing of it expresses a special kind of love.
Plus, there’s so much of this huge country we still haven’t gotten to, so another trip WILL happen.
For now though, we need to look forward. We’re heading back to NYC for a short time and I’m not sure if we’re staying or heading out on another great adventure. We’re taking it one day at a time.
I’m also not sure how the blog is going to change seeing as how this whole thing started with me trying to navigate the Land o’ Meat with a couple of vegetarian amigos…but please keep coming back and we’ll find out.
Hasta luego…
I make hummus a lot. This is another recipe that reminds me of my dad. He used to make hummus a lot too, except he went CA-RAZY with the garlic. Like, I mean, cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs crazy. But as long as everyone was eating it, then it wasn’t too bad. Otherwise, watch out! I’ve toned mine down a bit. Plus, I’ve noticed that the garlic in Argentina is a lot stronger than the garlic in NY. Isn’t that weird? I can’t figure out why, but I seem to use one clove when a recipe calls for two down here. Maybe it has something to do with the latitude? Or is it longitude? Perhaps I’ll never know. I also add a lot of lemon because I like the bright, acidy contrast to the creamy nuttiness of the tahini. I’ve also given a range on the amount of olive oil because some people may want to go easy on it and that’s fine. Also keep in mind that if you use beans that you soaked and cooked (and you remembered to save some of the cooking liquid), you can use more of that and less oil. You just need enough to blend everything together and hold it there. Hummus does not have to be oozing olive oil…not that there’s anything wrong with that.
This is another of those recipes (this seems to be a theme!) where you can use any old bean you have lying about and it will be great. Try cannellini or even black beans. Also, if you don’t have tahini, then just leave it out. It’s okay. We won’t tell anyone.* Just make sure you have good dipping items about — bread, crackers, tortilla chips, carrot sticks, I could go on…you get the idea. Wing it!
Lemon Hummus
1 14-15 ounce/210g can chickpeas, rinsed
1/4 cup of the liquid reserved from the can (or cooking liquid from beans that have been soaked and cooked)
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tahini
Zest and juice of one lemon
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
Put the first five ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse a bit. While the machine is running, slowly pour the olive oil in through the feed tube (weird that it’s called that). Add salt to taste and blend until you have the consistency you like (some like it chunky; others go for super-smooth — your call).
You can serve it with a little pool of olive oil and a few bright flecks of lemon zest on top. Other fun toppings: a smattering of Tabasco or some other hot sauce, like hot chili oil (yum), a dash of dried oregano, fresh chives, a few whole chickpeas, olives, roasted red peppers…okay, I’ll stop now.
* But you should know that the combination of the tahini with the chickpeas makes hummus a complete protein. So if you are a vegetarian and are looking for those pesky complete proteins, then use the tahini…in good health!
Some of you may be very happy to hear that Gourmet magazine, which was closed last year by publisher Conde Nast, has been revived in the form of an iPad app. Dubbed Gourmet Live, it will debut in Q4 2010. Users can access recipes and other content (both old and new) and there will be some Facebook/Twitter-ish social networking elements, including something similar to Foursquare where there’s additional content that can be unlocked (this is where the paid content comes in). Speaking of Twitter, Ruth Reichl, Gourmet‘s former Editor in Chief, who’s not involved in the project, tweeted this today, “Re: Gourmet; they’re reviving the brand, not the magazine. Pity.”
You can watch the video and read more about it here and here.
Full disclosure: I worked at Conde Nast a few years ago. My feeling is Gourmet is a great brand and there is some amazing content from the magazine that they’re obviously trying to monetize. What will be interesting to see is whether people will use it and whether they’ll pay for it. There’s already so many other ways to get some of this content (epicurious.com, also owned by Conde Nast, has tons of Gourmet recipes and photos and it’s free) and lots of other food-related content (like this blog). Time will tell…