Toni's Post-Session Stew

This stew has a few Japanese ingredients like seaweed, sake, and panko bread crumbs thrown into a pot with potatoes, crimini mushrooms and (!) chickpeas. This was another 'whatever's in the kitchen' experiment that became a cold weather favorite! It's very filling and satisfying, especially after mountain biking or surfing when I'm feeling hungry enough to eat my own leg.

2 cups vegetable broth
3 red potatoes, cubed
1 can chickpeas
4 sliced crimini mushrooms
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 pound tofu, pressed (optional) not necessary to deliciousness but more filling if you have it
1 large carrot, sliced
1 cup sake
1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1/8 cup shredded dried green seaweed
1/4 cup bonito (fish) flakes (optional)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. Asian chili oil (optional)
freshly ground black pepper

put a large pot of the veggie broth to a boil. add the potatoes and carrots. Meanwhile saute the mushrooms. after about 15 minutes add everything but the panko. simmer for about another 15. stir in the panko and serve.

serves 4-5

Lemon Chicken Penne with Braising Greens

At first glance, this dish doesn't seem very mad science-y. Come on, chicken and pasta? The reason I am posting this is to make you all use your noodles (pun intended) whenever you think you don't have enough in your pantry to cook a kickass meal.
I thought I had no food in the house and was about to go waste 20 bucks at Saturn Cafe when I remembered the braising greens I had just bought at the farmers market. I didn't really know what to do with them and had bought them simply because they contained something called "dinosaur kale". I'll admit I didn't and still don't know what "braising" means, but to me it sounded like quickly stir-fried or something along those lines. I remembered then I had a bag of frozen thighs in the freezer I bought for a (failed) teriyaki chicken attempt. The best idea seemed to be to throw it all on top of penne pasta and see what happened. I loved the outcome and hope you will too!

2 cups dry penne pasta
2 chicken thighs
1 1/2 cup braising greens (or just use kale)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 tsp. salt
black or lemon pepper

boil a pot of salted water and add the penne. While it's cooking, heat a skillet with a little oil and add the chicken. squeeze the lemon juice onto the chicken during the last 5 minutes of cooking. once the chicken is cooked add the braising greens, pepper, marjoram, and salt to the skillet. Cook for only about a minute and a half longer; you want the greens to be a little crunchy. serve on top of penne with a drizzle of olvie oil and parmesan cheese.

serves 2

Raw Ahi Tuna in Coconut Milk

This is a delicious, boyfriend/girlfriend-pleasing mixture of raw Ahi Tuna, coconut milk, and spices. I had just enjoyed yet another Ahi Poke from Aloha Island Grill and was looking up recipes for Fijian Kokoda when I knew I had to make this.

YOU WILL NEED:
1/2 pound raw Ahi Tuna, preferably sushi grade
1 "mini" can coconut milk or half of a normal-size can.
2 green onions, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1/8 cup crushed Macadamia nuts
1 Tbsp. curry powder
Sea Salt
Sriracha Sauce
1 cup Jasmine Rice

On a clean, smooth surface and with the sharpest knife you can possibly find, cut the tuna into small cubes. Mix with the coconut milk, curry powder, green onions and salt. Cover and refrigerate the mixture for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the rice. When it's done, serve the tuna on top of the rice topped with carrot, macadamia, and Sriracha.

I found this tip for cooking with Ahi Tuna on someone's blog. I wish I remembered the name so I could credit this person. "Serve with the receipt from the Tuna."

Plantain Soup

I tore this recipe out of a copy of Latina magazine at the doctor's office about 2 years ago and have just now tried making it. I was so overcome with grief over my entire life spent without this soup that I could barely eat it! Hopefully you're better about keeping the floodgates closed because really, it's delicious!
The article outlined three ways to make it: Traditional, healthy, and fast. I combined healthy and fast (traditional calls for frying the plantains instead of baking them, and fast just means buying pre-packaged soup base veggies and using a food processor instead of a mortar and pestle.

2 large ripe Plantains
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 medium rib celery, finely chopped
(again, you can speed up the process if you buy pre-chopped "soup base" veggies. It includes all three of these)
Nonstick cooking spray
6 cups chicken or veggie broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 lime cut into wedges

Peel and thinly slice plantains. Place slices in a large bowl of cold, salted water for 30 minutes, then drain and pat dry.
warm vegetable oil and saute the veggies until the onion wilts, about 3 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350, spray a baking sheet and bake plantains about 20 minutes, turning them once halfway through. Mash them into a thick paste with a food processor or mortar and pestle.
In a large pot, heat broth over medium heat. Add the sauteed veggies, then stir in plantain paste gradually. Add salt and pepper and simmer until smooth and creamy.
Serve with a lime wedge and some salsa or hot sauce. The recipe doesn't say this, but I like to warm some flour tortillas for dipping.

Popovers!

If you don't think you've ever had popovers, you're probably wrong.

Now that we've gotten that initial harshness of reality out of the way, I'll let you know you've probably had popovers except they were called Yorkshire Pudding. It's seriously exactly the same thing except popovers are more commonly associated with breakfast, at least for me. MAKE SURE ALL THE INGREDIENTS ARE ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE BLENDING!

Preheat oven to 400. You will need:

6 eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. butter
2 cups flour

beat eggs and milk until blended.
combine flour and salt, cut in butter.
add flour to egg mixture and gradually blend.
fill well-greased custard cups or popover pan (looks like a really deep muffin tin) a little more than halfway full.
Bake for 1 hour. serve with strawberry jam or whatever you want because once again they're your creation! MUHAHAHHA!

TIP: Place cups or popover pan on top of a baking sheet before putting it in the oven to protect against the inevitable spillage.

how to make infused olive oils

I read something about spruce tip-infused olive oil and thought I would try it since there are a lot of evergreens in santa cruz. I found a "christmas" tree on my bike ride home one day and harvested a couple handfulls of the bright green new baby tips. The oil turned out amazing! you can make this with just about anything fragrant that you want your oil to smell/taste like. I've been going through a homemade pizza phase lately and I must say this spruce-flavored olive oil tastes just right sprinkled on top of a pizza! I'm also excited to try it on salmon some day.

You will need:
1 bottle extra virgin olive oil
enough spruce/evergreen tips (or whatever herb you want your oil to taste like) to fill the bottle about 1/3 full. if the spruce tips have any papery brown skin stuck to them, remove it.

pour all the olive oil into a pot and heat slowly.
meanwhile, rinse pine tips/herbs and dry thoroughly. stuff it down the neck of the bottle.
Once the oil reaches about 130-140 degrees, pour it into a glass/pyrex measuring cup with a pouring tip.
Pour the oil into the bottle until it's full again. Screw the cap on and refrigerate for 2 weeks, shaking the bottle gently every couple days or whenever you think of it. Use it in salad dressings, marinades, or whatever you feel like using it in because it's YOUR CREATION!

The most amazing thing I've ever done

OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM.....nom.