Vegetarian – Page 2 – Goboroot.com

Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

It’s getting a bit difficult for me to create yet another rhubarb recipe after having already included several in my blog. Nonetheless, I came up with this cornmeal muffin idea in a delightfully whimsical manner.

I knew I wanted to cook some rhubarb from the garden so I started daydreaming and burrowing my face into the fur of one of my Labradors. If you are a dog owner, you know what I’m talking about! “Oh, you smell like cornmeal behind your ear…” Yes, the light bulb went off! Another strange coincidence was when I opened my food recipe journal and the first thing I saw was this old wrinkled handwritten recipe that read “Blueberry cornbread muffins.” I’m not kidding you here. It must be a 12 year-old-recipe because I used to hand copy recipes from food magazines just after I came to Canada for the sake of improving my English! I don’t remember ever having baked it though. Haha, it’s really funny… it appeared at just the right time to give me a clue as to what recipe I should share next.

mint_tea

Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

Makes 12 small muffins

2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces

6 tablespoons cane sugar

½ package (250g) cream cheese, room temperature and cut into cubes

¼ cup sugar

1¾ cups cake flour (I used this instead of all-purpose because it ran out)

¾ cup cornmeal (fine textured)

2/3 cup cane sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 cups 2% milk

1 large whole egg plus 2 egg whites

2 tablespoons canola oil

Place rhubarb and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook to dissolve sugar and continue until just before the rhubarb loses its shape. Strain the excess juice for another use (see below). Let cool.

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda well in a bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Then, pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Mix just until all the ingredients are moist. Add the rhubarb and lightly mix with a spatula.

Pour the batter into a muffin cup-lined tin and spoon a big dollop of the cream cheese into each muffin cup. Bake until golden brown, for about 20 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. Let cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Mint Tea

A bunch of mint leaves

Hot water

Wash the mint and cut into 1 inch pieces. Place the mint in a teapot (a jar in my case), pour hot water over top and steep for a few minutes. Strain into individual cups.

Rhubarb Refresher

Ice cubes

Extracted rhubarb juice (from above recipe)

Dash of lemon juice

Carbonated water or club soda and/or rum!

A sprig of mint leaves

Freestyle to accommodate whatever one’s heart desires.

Nira-Tama (Garlic Chive Omelette)

Garlic chive is one of vegetables I started to grow due to a lack of organically grown supply at my local market. It is important for me to know where food comes from and how it is grown (or treated) before it comes to my kitchen, and ultimately ends up on my plate. That’s one of two reasons why I started my garden, beginning with a 12 x 15’ community garden plot and expanding to my current front and back yard spaces. The other reason? I LOVE growing plants, and I love talking to my plants. Besides, how can I go back to conventional produce after tasting freshly-picked tomatoes still warm from the sun’s energy or sweet, brightly coloured carrots that I have just dug from the ground myself and which possess the concentrated flavours of home?

Garlic chive is a staple ingredient in Japanese/ Chinese cuisine; toss it into miso soup with thinly cut abura-age (deep fried tofu), stir-fry with pork liver and mung sprouts, or combine with cabbage for gyoza or to create aromatic dumplings.

Nira-Tama was my childhood favourite when my grandma used to make it, and later became a before-pay-day meal when I was in a college. Now with home-grown garlic chives, it has become an easy, quick and nutritious dinner solution when I am in a hurry.

old-note

Nira-Tama with Ankake (Sweet & Sour Sauce)

I used an ankake recipe that I had jotted down on a piece of paper so many years ago and that I recently rediscovered in my cooking journal. It is probably from my colleague in Tokyo who made amazing meatballs that were dunked in this sauce.

Serves 4

6 eggs, room temperature

Salt and pepper

1 bunch garlic chives, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Ankake

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

6 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons sugar

1/3 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons good quality ketchup

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

3 teaspoons corn starch

Make ankake by placing all the ingredients, except the cornstarch, in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar and salt.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch well with 3 teaspoons of water. Add to the boiling sauce and stir constantly, cooking for a couple of minutes. Cover and remove from heat.

Place a well-seasoned or non-stick medium sized pan (mine’s a 9-inch skillet) over high heat and warm up the oil until smoky hot.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and add a hearty pinch of salt and pepper.

Sauté the garlic chives in the pan until wilted. It will only take a minute or two. Then spread the chives evenly on the pan.

Pour the eggs over top, swirling to cover the chives and ensuring that the mixture reaches to the edges of the pan. Turn the heat down to medium, cover and cook until the bottom of the eggs become golden.

Flip carefully with a heat-proof spatula, being careful not to break the eggs. Cover and cook until raw egg whites have just set. Don’t overcook because you want to keep the eggs nice and fluffy!

Serve hot with ankake on a large platter or cut into pieces for individual plates.

Halibut with Lemon Herb Salt

Where is your sacred place where you can calm your mind, relax, be alone, disconnect the noise, think through daily happenings, or seek solace? For me, it is my garden. I may crawl under a fruit tree or hide behind a lush growth of raised beds in order to find a peaceful space now and then.

A few years ago, I got a little ahead of myself and had too many gardens to look after (thanks to my friends who trusted me and offered me their piece of land). This caused me to have to divide my attention amongst each garden. It goes without saying that I did not have time to truly appreciate any of them, but instead felt constant frustration and pressure to catch up with the growth of the vegetation.

After dropping all the other gardens in order to concentrate exclusively on my own garden at home, I began to truly re-appreciate the reality of having a garden. I spend more time there now, especially when I need to calm my mind. Stroking the leaves of herbs, feeling the grass on the back of my feet, thinning spinach seedlings, eating, weeding unwanted plants and picking slugs (oh, so satisfying!), listening to birds, feeling the warmth of light, smelling the air… I cannot list all that I experience in this space. It is sacred. It is a natural medicine. I hope everyone out there can have access to such a place or find their own place to call sacred where they can be themselves…alone.

herb_salt

Lemon Herb Salt

Herb salt is so easy to make yet so useful, and makes a great homemade gift for your foodie friends. You can use any herb of your choice, aside from those mentioned below, as long as it has a solid texture (eg. rosemary, oregano, lavender and even lovage). I use herbs that have begun to spill onto a garden pathway, out of control! Use for any recipes that call for salt, but if you perform this substitution you might want to omit garlic and lemon.

Makes a small jar

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sprouts discarded

2 tablespoons Kosher salt

½ to 2/3 cup mixture of marjoram, sage and thyme

Lemon zest from 1 organic lemon

Wash the lemon and herbs well and pat dry. Strip leaves from the herbs and discard or compost hard stalks.

Roughly chop garlic on a large cutting board. Add the salt and continue to mince garlic until it becomes fine textured. This will transfer the aroma of garlic to salt.

Grate lemon over the mixture, add herbs, and continue to mince.

Spread the salt mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dry until garlic and herbs are crisp. I place weights on the corners of the paper so that I prevent the salt mixture from being blown away by accident, especially when I dry it outside.

Store in an airtight container.

Halibut with Lemon Herb Salt

Serves 2

2 pieces halibut, washed and patted dry

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon Herb Salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

Sprinkle black pepper and lemon herb salt both sides of the halibut pieces.

Warm up a well-seasoned or non-stick pan over medium high heat, and add the butter and oil.

When the butter is hot, fry one side of the fish until it turns golden, pressing gently down on the pan in order to encourage the herb salt to stay intact.

Flip and repeat until the centre of the fish becomes opaque and flakey.

Serve with green salad.