Japanese Salad Dressing

I just made this salad dressing in order to use up some fresh lime that was about to be not so fresh, and because I'm tired of my old standby, honey mustard.  It goes something like:

a cm of fresh ginger
the juice of 1/2 a lime
a  tbsp daikon, shredded
1 heaping tbsp miso paste
1 1/2 heaping tsb mayo
tsp soy sauce
dash of rice vinegar

Mix that shit together in a jar.

I blanched the ginger for about 3 minutes, but it was still so spicy and strong that I ended up using maybe as much as a mechanical pencil eraser.  I smashed and ground it.  Perhaps dried ginger freshly ground would be better, but certainly not ginger powder.  I also thought of using pickled ginger but was afraid it would be too cloying.  The daikon doesn't add much flavor but it adds a certain coolness and a nice weight and texture to the mixture.  My salad consisted of romaine, roma tomato, shaved carrots, red onion, red pepper, and an avocado that actually sent me to the emergency room (two stitches where my pinkie meets my palm, and thats why me da always told me to cut away).  Three hours after I started to make the salad (most of it spent in the waiting room), I finally got to try it and it was out of this world! My roommate Malcolm called it, "fucking delicious and I'm not just saying that" if I remember correctly.  If Joey brings any wasabi paste back from Mitsuwa in Chicago, then I would really like to try spicing this recipe up!

Baby's first pickles!

So neither Joe nor I have ever made pickles and sometimes we're just not really into recipes, so this recipe is still in development.

"BreadnButter" or Something Pickles
1.5 English Cucumber
1 red onion
1.5 square inch fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic
shit-ton of salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar

Actual prep time: 10 minutes
Wait time: 2 hours
Makes two jars worth of pickles

1. Slice the cucumbers into 4 large rounds, then julienne those (about the thickness of a slice of onion).
   
2. Slice the onion into long strips (about the same length as the julienned cukes).
3. Put these in a bowl and cover it with salt.
4. Crush and mince garlic and ginger and put it in the same bowl, adding some more salt.
5. Leave these in the fridge for like 30-60 minutes (I could barely stand to wait longer than 30 minutes).
6. When these come out, they will be about half the size by volume that they were originally.  
7. Mix the two types of vinegar and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. 
8. Stuff the vegetable matter in a mason jar and pour the vinegar/sugar mixture over it. Lid it and put it back in the refrigerator for an hour.

January cleaning prompts separate pickle shelf (yes the labels are necessary)

Results: So I know that I didn't do the proper sanitation procedure for canning, but these pickles were gone within two days because they were so good. Another thing is that they were less crunchy each day.  I think maybe this had something to do with the fact that I used iodized salt instead of canning salt.  I'm not actually convinced that canning salt is any different than table salt, maybe someone can shed some light on that topic for me.  As for the taste of the pickles, the ginger infused the cukes and onions so thoroughly that it made me want to cry with joy every time I took a bite.  I think four cloves was just the right amount of garlic too, although these were pretty small cloves.

Not Tofurkey

Man fuck tofu on Thanksgiving.  It's not that I'm not thankful for it, but it's not a substitute for meat!  It's a protein meritorious enough not to be disguised as something I for one wouldn't want to pollute my body with anyway (yeah I said it, although you probably don't even want to fight about it because you're too tired from your tryptophan and over-eating induced siesta).

So me and Joey made a variation on a common holiday theme: stuffed squash.

HolyshitI'msothankful for Harvest Vegetables!

1 butternut squash cut in half (be careful!)
4 oz of nice semi-soft chevre
1 honey-crisp or other apple that can stand up to medium high heat
1 red onion
1 beet
4 tbsp olive oil or butter
4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
a few sprigs of thyme
fresh nutmeg
1 clove garlic
1 in. cube fresh ginger

1. The first thing to do is get the squash and beets a-roasting cuz that shit takes forever.  Preheat oven to 400 while you cube the beets.  I always leave the skin because in it, 'all the virtue of the vegetable is contained.'  Toss them with olive oil and vinegar and roast until they pass the fork test.
2. While that's going on, scrape all the seeds out of the squash, and also about an inch wide trench in the long part.  These can be roasted in a glass pan with a 1/2 inch of water surrounding the bottom.
   
   
   
3. Dice the onion, get that browning in large skillet with a couple tbsp of olive oil.
4. Add crushed ginger about 5 minutes before the onions are tender.
5. Add a splash of vinegar and the crushed garlic about 3 minutes before the onions are tender.
6. Add the leaves of thyme and cubed apple bits.
7. Add grated nutmeg about 2 minutes before everything is all tender and starting to really mingle.
8. Stuff the squash with the mix, and sprinkle chunked chevre over it.

This can easily be wrapped and popped in the oven or microwave around the time that your meat-eating family members are nearly ready to take the turkey out.

Results:  I like this better than the version I usually make with acorn squash, although I like the look of acorn squash better because it's like an individual bowl, and this you have to share and divide in weird ways.  The beets are the most beautiful fuschia against the yellow of the squash, and they taste exceptionally sweet and tasty with the apples.  The tarter the apples the better I say, and that tartness is emphasized by the vinegar.  I think next year I will use a balsamic reduction instead of apple cider vinegar.  A lot of people asked me rather pointedly just what our entree was at this past Thanksgiving, but even with the enthusiastic and elaborate descriptions I'm partial to, this dish just really needs to be tasted.