Favorite Cookbooks: Asian Noodles

One of my 2019 resolutions is to go through the huge cookbook collection, and give away the books that I am not using. That process has had the happy side effect of surfacing well-loved books that have fallen into disuse.

I bought Nina Simonds' Asian Noodles cookbook so long ago that the where or why is lost in the mists of memory. Maybe we heard about it on NPR, or read about it in Gourmet magazine? No idea. But it's been a favorite for going on 20 years because every recipe I make from the book is easy and delicious. There are precious few books in my collection that can make that claim. Over the years, I've made a few alterations here and there as Asian markets become more common and authentic ingredients plentiful; for instance I no longer have to substitute scallion greens for garlic chives. But on the whole, it still brings me as much pleasure as it did in 1997.

The recipe for Saucy Garlic Pork Lo Mein is so well-loved that the page is stained and the ingredients list is barely legible. As with recipes of this type, the prep is the bulk of the work; the actual meal comes together in minutes. I reduced the amount of liquid, and added the cabbage and red pepper to boost the veg factor. It doesn't hurt that is makes it prettier, too.

Saucy Garlic Pork Lo Mein

1 pound pork loin, trimmed of fat and cut in strips

Garlic Marinade
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine or sake
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

10 dried Chinese black mushrooms, softened in hot water, drained, stems removed, and caps very thinly sliced
1/3 pound garlic chives, cleaned and ends trimmed
1/2 medium Savoy cabbage, rinsed and cut crosswise into strips
1 red pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
3 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 1/2 tablespoons rice wine or sake

Sauce
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
5 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine or sake
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 pound flat noodles (Chinese noodles, if available, or substitute linguini), cooked until tender, rinsed under cold water, and drained.


1. Add the Garlic Marinade to the pork and toss lightly with your hands to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Remove and discard the stems from the black mushrooms (if using) and cut the caps into very thin shreds. Cut the garlic chives into 1-inch lengths.

3. Bring 3-quarts of water to a boil, add the noodles, and cook about 10 to 12 minutes, until near tender; drain in a colander, rinse with cold water to remove the starch, and drain again thoroughly with a colander.

4. In a large measuring cup with a spout, mix all of the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch. Put the cornstarch in a small bowl, then slowly add about 1/2 cup of the cold liquid, stirring until you have a slurry. Add more liquid as necessary until it's pourable. Add it to the measuring cup.

5. Heat a wok or large skillet, add 2 1/2 tablespoons of the oil, and heat until very hot but not smoking. Add the pork strips and stir-fry over medium-high heat until they separate and are no longer pink. Remove with a handled strainer or slotted spoon and drain. Wipe out the pan.

6. Reheat the pan, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, heat about 20 seconds, and add the ginger, garlic, cabbage, and red pepper strips and stir-fry until wilted. Add the garlic chives. Stir-fry over medium-high heat briefly, then add the rice wine or sake, and cook about 1 minute. Stir the sauce in the measuring cup, then then add to the pan and cook, stirring continuously to prevent lumps, until it thickens. Add the cooked noodles and pork and toss lightly. Transfer to a large dish and serve immediately.

Serves 6.

Low Iodine - Potato and Green Chile Stew

Cool weather will be upon us soon here in the mid-Atlantic, and vegetable soups of all kinds are perfect for a low-iodine diet. Try this tasty stew from noted author and vegetarian Deborah Madison if you want a little something different - use homemade chicken stock or water and leave out the sour cream. Go ahead and double this recipe, as it reheats very well.

Ingredients:

1 or 2 long green chiles or poblano chiles, roasted and peeled

1 tablespoon sunflower seed oil or other vegetable oil

1 small onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 garlic clove, minced

1 large russet potato, peeled and chopped into 1 1/2-inch chunks

Salt and pepper

1 cup chicken stock (homemade with uniodized salt) or water

Sour cream to finish (leave out for low-iodine)

Chopped cilantro to finish

 

Directions:

1. Chop the chiles coarsely. Heat the oil in a wide pot; add the onion and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, garlic, and potatoes, followed by the chile along with 1/2 teaspoon salt and give a stir. Cook together of a few minutes, then add the water or stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.

2. Cook and cover until the potatoes are completely softened, about 25 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. At this point you can mash the potatoes, or at least a few of them to give the dish a creamy sort of background, if desired.

3. Pour into a bowl, and add the cilantro. (I also add a squeeze of lime)

Grilled Chicken With Herbs - from the 60 Minute Gourmet

Pierre Franey's long-running New York Times column, The 60-Minute Gourmet, was a treasure. This simple grilled chicken, from a column published in August of 1981, has been one of my mainstays since cutting it from the newspaper. All these years later I have made only two changes. In the original recipe, the chicken is brushed with butter just before serving. I omit the butter in favor of a drizzle of good olive oil, and add a sprinkle of minced flat-leaf parsley for a little herbal brightness. This combination of flavors really works.

Chicken breasts grilled with herbs

4 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 1 1/2 pounds or slightly more
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
Kosher salt to taste, if desired
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 Tablespoons olive oil (originally 1/4 cup hot melted butter) for serving
Minced parsley for serving      

                   

1. Preheat a charcoal or gas grill to a desired degree of heat for grilling.

 

 2. Cut each chicken breast down the middle in half. Cut away and discard any extraneous membranes or cartilage.

 

 3. Put the oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a flat dish and stir to blend. Add the garlic, coriander, pepper flakes and oregano. Stir to blend.

       

4. Add the chicken pieces and turn them in the marinade. Cover with foil and set aside until ready to cook. (I marinate for about an hour, while making the rest of dinner.)

 

 5. Add the chicken pieces to the grill and cook three or four minutes on one side. Turn and cook two or three minutes on the other side. Continue cooking, turning often, for a total of about 10 minutes.

 

Transfer the chicken to a warm serving dish. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with rice and a quickly cooked vegetable such as asparagus or corn on the cob.

Cool Summer Soups

A friend asked me to do a cooking demonstration at the Bloomingdale Farmer's Market this morning. What fun! I decided to do two cool summer soups: Cucumber with yogurt and herbs, and Peach Buttermilk. Both are easy-peasy, and take advantage of what is fresh and delicious at the market right now.


Buttermilk Peach Soup

2 ½ lb ripe peaches, peeled and chopped
1 cup buttermilk (whole or low-fat, not fat-free)
2 T. lemon juice, fresh
1 T. Honey (or brown sugar)
⅛ t. ground cinnamon
¼ t. salt
Fresh mint, or basil


Peel the peaches with a sharp vegetable peeler over a large bowl, then chop coarsely. Save all the peach juice.

Add the peaches to a blender jar. Add buttermilk, lemon juice, honey, cinnamon, and salt. Put the top tightly on the blender jar, and set the blender to its highest setting. Process for about 3-4 minutes, or until it looks smooth. Taste and add more honey or salt if necessary. Add up to 1 cup water if the soup seems too thick. Pour into a clean pitcher with a lid, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Chill six soup bowls. To serve, stack mint or basil leaves, roll into a cigar shape, then cut into thin ribbons with a sharp knife. Pour the cold soup into the chilled bowls, and garnish with the mint.


Chilled Cucumber Soup with Yogurt and Herbs

4 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 shallots, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup plain yogurt
¼ - ½ cup good quality olive oil
⅓ cup loosely packed dill, plus 1 T. for garnishing
¼ cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 Tablespoons loosely packed tarragon leaves
2 T. sherry vinegar
1 t. salt
¼ t. white pepper


Add half of the cucumbers to a blender jar with half of the yogurt, half of the olive oil, 1 garlic clove, 1 shallot, and half of the herbs. Blend at high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until very smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Add the remainder of the cucumbers, yogurt, olive oil, shallot, garlic, and herbs to the blender jar, and process at high speed until smooth. Pour into bowl. Whisk in the sherry vinegar, salt, and pepper. Taste and correct the seasonings. Pour into a clean pitcher and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Chill six soup bowls. To serve, mince once tablespoon of fresh dill. Pour the cold soup into the chilled bowls, and garnish with the dill.

Low Iodine: Indian flavors

The cookbooks I turn to again and again on the low-iodine diet are almost all Indian. Many, many Indian recipes can be adapted for the low-iodine diet. Up until 2 years ago, when I really began researching gourmet recipes for the low-iodine regime, I had a picture in my mind of Indian food being full of dairy. Then a cursory page-through of one of my favorite books turned up a dozen recipes that could be made without substitutions. The complex spicing and fresh herbs wake up everything.

"Indian cuisine" is a pretty generic phrase. "Cuisines" is more accurate, as modern India encompasses a huge area and over a billion people.

This recipe is truly satisfying, especially with a small portion of Basmati rice.

Masoor Dal

Ingredients:

1 cup whole red lentils
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp kosher salt
2 - 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup light olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 - 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger root, grated
2 green chilies (I use serrano) seeded and minced
1 bunch coriander, washed, spun dry, and roughly chopped
Water

Preparation:

• Rinse the lentil thoroughly in several changes of water
• Put the washed lentils into a large saucepan with 3-3.5 cups of water with the turmeric, garam masala, and kosher salt
• Bring to a simmer, then turn down the flame and cook on low for 30 minutes, stirring often, adding more water as necessary to keep the texture creamy.
• Heat oil in wok. When oil is hot, add onions and cook until tender and translucent but not browned.
• Add garlic, ginger and chillies. Continue to saute until garlic is fully cooked. Add garam masala and chili powder.
• Do not allow spices to burn. Keep stirring until mixture starts to stick. And immediately pour this over the cooked dal.
• Stir and let simmer to blend in the flavors. Taste and add more salt if needed.
• Garnish with chopped coriander.

Low Iodine: Hooray for Hummus!

I went low-iodine shopping at Whole Foods today, mostly for the usual salt-free chips, lots of vegetables, decent olive oil & balsamic vinegar, tahine, salt-free garbanzo beans...blah. Just for kicks I cruised down the prepared food aisle where the dips & spreads are, looking at forbidden goodies - or so I thought. I picked up a container of Cava Mezze hummus & read the ingredients: pureed chickpeas with tahine, lemon juice, fresh garlic, and kosher salt...wait, what? Kosher salt? That means I can eat it! How amazing to find something quick and flavorful that I don't have to make myself.

All of their products specify kosher salt, which I can trust to have no added iodine. Hummus, tabbouli, and a tub of fiery harrissa came home with me. Thank you, Cava Mezze Foods. You made my day, week, and month while I'm on this crazy diet.

Baked Beans

Recipe of the week.

Dark, porky, and rich, with a slight bitterness from the molasses, this is as Boston as it gets, and the taste of these beans resonates in my umpteenth-generation native New England soul. Seven ingredients and deliberate inattention give fabulous results.

Boston Baked Beans (Adapted from the Fannie Farmer cookbook)

2 cups navy beans
about 1 tsp. salt
1/4-1/3 lb. salt pork
2 tsp. dry mustard
5 Tbs. dark brown sugar
5 Tbs. molasses (not blackstrap)
1 small onion, sliced

Wash beans, and soak overnight in enough water to come up one inch over the beans.

Drain the beans and reserve the liquid. Preheat oven to 225F. Distribute sliced onion and 1/2 of the salt pork over the bottom of an ovenproof, lidded pot. Add the beans to the pot. Blend the mustard, sugar, salt, and molasses with the reserved bean liquid, and pour over the beans. Slice the remaining salt pork and distribute over the top of the beans. Set the pot on the stove over medium-high heat, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, cover tightly with foil and the lid. Set in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for at least 8 hours. Mine went in the oven at about 10pm, and stayed in all night. If you happen to get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water, or to let the cat out, go ahead and give the pot a stir or add a little water, but honestly, it can go until morning without being fussed over.

In the morning, take off the foil and lid and put the pot back in the oven for a couple of hours. Stir it from time to time, and add a little water if it looks too dry, but the goal here is to reduce the sauce so don’t go all crazy with the liquid. Take the pot out once they have reached the desired consistency, fish out what’s left of the salt pork. Taste and correct the seasoning, then add a tablespoon or so of cider vinegar to wake up the flavors.

The beans can be served right away and be delicious, but letting them sit for a couple of hours won’t do them any harm.

If you want to really provide an authentic experience, consider making a batch of brown bread.

Boston Brown Bread (adapted from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
The traditional accompaniment to baked beans. It’s worth seeking out a real metal coffee can in order to make this from scratch, but it’s possible to find a passable version made by B&M at some grocery stores. This bread is related to a loaf called “Rye & Injun” made by early New England settlers.

1/2 c. rye flour
1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. molasses (not blackstrap)
1 c. sour milk (I have used buttermilk with good results)

Mix the flours, cornmeal, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the molasses and sour milk and blend well. Butter a 1-pound coffee can (or a 1-quart pudding mold, if you have one)and fill no more than 2/3 full. Cover tightly with foil, tie a string around the foil, and put the can in a deep kettle. Cover, add boiling water halfway up the mold, and steam over medium heat for about 2 hours. Add boiling water as necessary to keep the water level consistent. Remove from the mold.

The original recipe says to cut slices with a string while the bread is hot, but I prefer to let it cool and spread it thickly with butter.