Soup's On! (Homemade Veggie Miso-Ramen Soup, that is)

This weekend the Pope came to Philly, and I went to Syracuse. I thought about staying in the area and maybe even trying to join the throngs for a glimpse of Pope Francis waving from his Fiat, but I decided that, on the whole, it wasn't worth it. So instead I had myself a Popecation and went to visit my friend Dan. It was a tiny bit chilly, fall creeping in just enough to make hot soup sound like a plan. So we made ramen. 

When I think of the ideal ramen I think of a hole-in-the-wall in the east village where my dad and sisters and I had the best dinner ever on a frigid night in February a couple years ago. Granted, I think most warm things would have tasted fantastic that night, but there was something particularly marvelous about the steamy, salty, choc-full-of-flavor bowls. Nothing I make could live up to that. Nonetheless, I enjoy cooking up my own soup. It's easy and healthy (except for the sodium of the miso) and, of course, it's delicious. We used ingredients we had around-- feel free to vary up the veggies with whatever you like/don't! We ended up with too much broth and veggies for the amount of noodles we made, but it's easy enough to cook more noodles for leftovers. The broth gets stronger overnight, so leftovers are super delicious!

Also, as a little disclaimer, I have no clue how real ramen and real miso soup are made. I don't know if my cooking methods are as off base from what's authentic as General Tso's Chicken is from what you'd find in Beijing. But I know that what I make tastes good, so I'll take it. Maybe you will too. 

Ingredients 

• 4 oz ramen noodles-- not the instant kind (although perhaps those would work in a pinch?). You may have to go to an asian grocery store for these, although we found them at Wegmans. Soba or udon could also work well for this dish. 
• 1 TBS sesame oil (or regular canola oil, if you don't have sesame)
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly but not diced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 scallions, chopped (whites and greens)
• 1 hot pepper, chopped small (optional)
• 1/3 container of firm tofu, pressed and cubed
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup broccoli, stems and florets, chopped
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bell pepper (ours was yellow), diced
• 1 cup kale, thick stems removed, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, julienned
• 1/4 cup miso-- We used red. Each color has its own flavor. Experiment and see what you like!
• 6 cups water
• soy sauce to taste
• 2 eggs 

Procedure

• There are 3 pieces to this: eggs, noodles, soup. 
• Eggs and noodles can be done before you start the broth or while the broth is simmering, whichever is easier
• Soft boil the eggs. If you have a preferred method, lovely. We put them in cold water and cut the heat after 3 minutes of boiling, then rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking process.
• Cook the ramen according to package directions. Rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process. 
• 
• For the broth, begin by heating the sesame oil in a medium pot.
• Add the garlic, ginger, hot pepper, and scallions and cook over medium heat until fragrant.
• 
• Stir in the tofu, onion, broccoli, and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Add a little more oil if they start sticking. 
• Gradually add in the water and the miso paste and stir. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil, then lower to simmer. 
• Stir in the pepper and kale. Allow the broth to continue to simmer for at least 15 minutes, until the flavors begin to meld. Add the carrots almost at the end so they stay nice and crisp. Taste and add soy sauce or a little more miso if the flavor isn't strong enough. You can also add hot chile oil if you want a spicier soup.
• When the veggies are cooked and the broth is as flavorful as you want it to be, peel the eggs and slice them in half. Place some noodles into a bowl with half an egg and ladle the veggies and broth overtop. Mix, slurp, and try not to burn your tongue.

Breaking the Fast, and Breaking into Autumn with Whole Wheat Millet and Oatmeal Bread

              

Yesterday was Yom Kippur. It's not the easiest day to be a Jew, and it's especially not the easiest day to be a rabbinical student. Most of my classmates, like me, fasted while conducting services or serving in other leadership roles. I actually had a good bit less to do than many of my colleagues. The Hillel where I work only holds Kol Nidre (evening) services. On Yom Kippur morning I song led for a children's service and was then able to go to a synagogue of my choice for a few hours of adult services. Then it was back to my Hillel campus for an afternoon study session, ne'ilah (concluding) services, and break fast. The worst part of my day by far: realizing at 4:30 that we'd forgotten to purchase a few necessary items for the break fast. Y'know what's not fun? Grocery shopping on Yom Kippur. Nonetheless, it was a good day and I feel really awesome going into this new year.

Yesterday was also the Equinox and the First Day of Fall! I adore that the timing lined up like that. It's so cool to have been able to start a new season in the secular calendar at the same time as this new year begins in earnest with the end of the High Holidays.

Fall to me means many things. I love pumpkin spice lattes as much as the next person, but fall also means that it's legitimately time to bake. Summer baking always feels a little less awesome than autumn baking. Feeling a slight, crisp chill in the kitchen as I pre-heat the oven makes stuff taste better. It just does.

I grew up with parents who baked fresh bread. Not all the time-- we had plenty of store-bought-- but enough that it wasn't a rare occurrence. My folks had (and still have, I think) a falling-apart copy of the Tassajara Bread Book. They grew up in the Bay Area, not far from the monastery where Edward Espe Brown lived and baked. The original edition made huge recipes-- 4 loaves at a time-- and my parents did the same. I have strong memories of my dad punching down what seemed an impossibly large amount of dough in an impossibly large ceramic bread bowl.

The year that I graduated from college, the book, which had been difficult to find in stores for some time, was published in a new edition, and my parents bought me a copy. It was the beginning of my love for bread-baking, and even though I've ventured into many a sort of loaf since, I always find myself coming back to Tassajara. It's simple and wonderful, and everything about it feels like home.

Mr. Brown provides an excellent base recipe (cut down in the new edition from 4 loaves to 2) for yeasted whole wheat bread, but he also provides an amazing assortment of variations on that theme. I don't typically follow a straight-up recipe anymore. Instead, I riff off of it. This isn't a task to undertake on an "out of the house from dawn til dusk" day, but it's perfect for a "I need to do a few small things that take an hour or less each" day.  So, basically, this won't have you standing in the kitchen for hours, but it will have you standing in the kitchen for 5-20 minutes several times over the course of 5-6 hours.

Tassajara Yeasted Bread (with Emily's modifications)

Ingredients:

Yes, King Arthur is better. There, I said it. 

Stage 1:

• 3 cups wrist-temperature water
• 1 1/2 TBS active dry yeast
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS maple syrup (you can also use 3 TBS of one or sub in some brown sugar or molasses)
• 1 cup dry milk (omit for a vegan loaf)
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups millet + 3/4 cup hot water

Stage 2:

• 4 TBS salt
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 cup whole wheat flour, plus an additional 1-2 cups for kneading
• 1/2 cup oats

Stage 3:

• (optional) sunflower seeds or nuts to sprinkle on top of the loaves

You'll also need a large bowl for mixing, a counter space for kneading, and 2 loaf pans. While these loaves probably could be baked free-form on a baking sheet, I've never tried it. If you do, let me know how it goes!

Procedure:

Stage 1: (approximate hands-on time: 5-10 minutes)

• Put the water into your large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top
• Mix in the sweeteners and the dry milk
• Add the flour one cup at a time, stirring briefly after each. You can use more white flour or all whole wheat. I find that using a little white flour helps the dough come together a little more without sacrificing any of the delicious whole wheat flavor.
• After all 4 cups are in, beat vigorously for about 100 strokes.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for 45 minutes. The dough will likely get very very bubbly.

• Place the millet into a bowl and pour the 3/4 cup of hot water on top. Let soak until stage 2.

Stage 2: (approximate hands-on time: 10-20 minutes)

• Fold in the salt and the oil, followed by the soaked millet. Try not to add any of the water that the millet didn't soak up!
• Stir in the oats and 1 cup wheat flour. 
• Dump the dough onto the counter top and dust liberally with flour. 
• This is where the fun begins. Kneading this is not like kneading challah or pizza dough. There are no eggs to make this supple. There is very little white flour. Whole wheat flour takes work. You will dump a shaggy mess onto the countertop. It will soak up flour by the handful. It will fall apart. It will get everywhere. Yes, you will have to sweep your floor. And possibly mop. There will be millet and flour on the stovetop, under the toaster, and quite possibly in your hair. Keep kneading, feeding the dough as much flour as it needs but not any more than that. Small little finger handfuls are best. In maybe 5 minutes, the dough will begin to behave as though it's entertaining the possibility of becoming a cohesive unit. You should be able to ease up on the flour input, although you'll still need to feed it a little. Keep kneading for another 5 minutes or so. At some point, the dough will stop being sticky and become merely tacky, digging into your hands without coming along for the ride when you move your hands. The dough will begin to smooth out and take direction. 
• Oil the bowl and place the dough into it, turning it so that all the surfaces get oily. Cover the bowl with plastic-wrap (you may want to also oil the side of the plastic wrap that will be in contact with the bread) and a dishtowel, and place somewhere nice to rise. 
• In 50-60 minutes, or when it's doubled in size, uncover the bowl and punch the dough down. 



That's only one punch. What will a couple dozen do??




Ohhh it'll do that. 



Not so pretty, but it did its job!

• Re-cover the bowl and let rise for 40-50 minutes, until it's doubled again. 

Stage 3: (approximate hands-on time: 10-15 minutes)

• Cut the dough in half and shape it into loaves. To do this:


• Cut the dough in half, shape each half into a ball and let it sit for about 5 minutes



I said "try." I realize that this looks more like a mountain than a rectangle.

• Take one half of the bread and knead it for about a minute, flattening it out slightly towards an ovular/rectangular shape. If it's still quite sticky you can add a tiny bit of flour, but try not to. You don't want to dry it out. 
• Roll the dough into a log shape, placing the "seam" on the bottom. Use the back of your hands to flatten out the top and even out the ends into square-like shapes. 
  
  
  
• Place seam-side up into a well-oiled loaf pan, flatten the dough with the back of your hands again, tip out of the pan, flip so that it's seam-side down, replace in pan, and flatten the dough again. 
• Repeat for 2nd loaf. I know this sounds confusing, but don't worry too much about it. Even if you don't follow these instructions to the letter, you'll likely end up with an attractive and delicious loaf. :)
• Cover the loaves with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise 20-25 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
• Make 3-5 half-inch deep slits in the top of each loaf to let steam escape.
• Sprinkle the loaves with sunflower seeds (you may have to press them very lightly into the loaves for them to stay)
• Bake for 50-60 minutes, until tops are golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when rapped. 
• Remove carefully from loaf pans (a butter knife slid around the edges of the pan can help to loosen the loaves) and let cool on a wire rack. You shoooould let the loaves cool for at least an hour before cutting in order to get clean slices. But you could also cut a slice or two right away and douse them with butter and it might be the most delicious thing ever. Just a thought. 

This bread is fantastic plain, makes incredible grilled cheese, works nicely for PB&J, and really I'm sure would be quite delicious in a variety of circumstances. Go bake and see! Fasting is over and autumn awaits!

What? Of course I didn't cut into the loaf as soon as I took it out of the oven. How silly would that be?

Granola! You Should Make it!

 


This is less a recipe than a PSA. No, really. You should make your own granola. You need to make your own granola. No granola you buy at a store will be as good as the granola that you make in your own oven. You might think it looks good in the box, or even in the local co-op bulk bin, but what you make yourself will be better.

Doesn't it look better?

You get complete control over what goes in it, for one thing. Hate raisins? Don't put 'em in! Can't decide whether you want almond or pecan granola? Add both! Concerned about fat and sugar? Use less! Granola is versatile and forgiving. Each batch is a little different and delicious in its own way.

And it really is easy. It's one of those things that seems like it might take some effort because there can be so many ingredients, but the hands-on time is 10 minutes max. And that's if you pour and measure real slow. So, I won't offer you a recipe. Instead I offer you a template. Go. Make granola.


Ingredients: 

• 4 cups oats (GF if that's your thing, not if not)-- old fashioned work best, but quick will work too. I'd stay away from instant
• 3-4 cups dry mix-ins. This is where the fun begins. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, etc. Some possibilities (with asterisks next to what I used for the pictured batch):
• walnuts
• almonds*
• pecans*
• cashews
• macadamia nuts
• hazelnuts
• flax seed*
• sesame seeds
• sunflower seeds*
• millet*
• quinoa (raw, not cooked! gives nice protein and crunch!)
• wheat bran
• oat bran
• raisins
• dried cranberries*
• dried apricots (I like to slice these up)
• dried coconut*
• dates
• dried mango
• candied or crystalized ginger
• dried cherries
• anything else that sounds delicious!!
• 2 TBS brown sugar (this is optional but it does something good to the texture to have that tiny bit of solid sweetener in there)
• spices of choice-- cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc. I also like to add a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 TBS water
• 2-4 TBS liquid sweetener (honey, agave, maple syrup, etc) 

Procedure:

• Pre-heat the oven to 325°F
• Put your oats in a big bowl
• Mix in your dry mix-ins EXCEPT for the dried fruit! 
• Crumble in the brown sugar and add spices
• Stir together the oil, water, vanilla (if using) and liquid sweetener. (I like to use a liquid measuring cup where it's easy to see how much you've put in and mix at the same time).
• Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix well.
• Dump the granola onto a large baking sheet with raised sides (so you don't get granola all over the oven floor.
• Bake for 20 minutes, then pull out, stir around the pan, and add the dried fruit. Bake for 20 minutes more. Let cool.
• The granola may not be crisp at the moment it's removed from the oven but it will crisp up as it cools. If you like crazy crispy granola, bake it til the oats start to turn ever-so-slightly brown.
• Mix into yogurt or ice cream, top with milk, eat by the handful-- it's up to you. :)

Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry

Before I was a rabbinical student, I was a college student. Back when I was starting college, I decided to study Mandarin. I knew I wanted to learn either Mandarin or Arabic, because at the time my life's ambition was to be a diplomat, and I figured that experience with a critical language would be helpful. As it turns out, Arabic definitely would have been. It would have helped me with Hebrew and potentially offered me opportunities to live and study in the Middle East prior to beginning rabbinical school. I wish I were proficient in Arabic and it's number two on my list of languages to study (Hebrew being, by necessity, at the top).

Yet, despite Arabic's obvious ties with rabbinical school, I'm so glad I made the choice I did. Studying Mandarin, and the deep engagement with Chinese cultures that accompanied that study, was an incredible part of my college years and early twenties. I got to spend a semester in Beijing and a year in a village in northwest Yunnan, places the rabbinic path may never have taken me. There's a lot more I could say about that, but, for now, I'm focused on food.

When I lived in China, I ate a whole lot of broccoli. It was delicious and nutritious and available most of the year, and stir-fried with a bunch of ginger and garlic there was really nothing better. I might not eat quite the amount of broccoli now that I consumed back then, but it remains my favorite vegetable, and I still love to stir-fry it now and again. Adding tofu to the mix and eating it over rice makes for an easy and relatively quick dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice and 2 cups water
• 1 container of tofu, drained, pressed, and sliced into triangles
• 2 cups chopped broccoli florets and stems
• 3-6 cloves garlic (big range, I know, but I love garlic more than your average joe). Chop one clove roughly into larger pieces and mince the rest.
• 1-2 inches of ginger (see above-- if you like ginger, go for the larger amount). Chop a half inch roughly into larger pieces and mince the rest
• 3 large scallions, minced
• several glugs canola or peanut oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 TBL soy sauce, plus more for serving
• 1 TBL sesame oil
• 2 TBL sesame seeds
• Sriracha to taste (I usually put a small swig into the wok and then top off my bowl)

Procedure:

• Set up your rice to cook. I imagine you know how to cook rice already. I like to put mine in a rice cooker and press the "white rice" button or "brown rice" button and go about my culinary business. ;) 
• Prep your veggies, separating out the roughly chopped garlic and ginger, along with a few pieces of scallion, to flavor the oil.
• Get out a large pan (preferably a wok, if you've got one), heat it over medium high, and coat the bottom in oil. You'll probably need a tablespoon or two, depending on the size. Add the larger pieces of garlic, ginger, and scallion, and a pinch of salt, and swirl them around. This will make the oil, and your food, delicious.
  
• When the pieces start to brown, remove them (you can toss them or put them back in later, or munch them while you cook), and add your tofu triangles. You want the bottom of the pan to have enough free space for flipping, so you may need to do this in batches. Fry the tofu until golden on the bottom, then flip (carefully! you don't want to leave the crust on the bottom of the pan!) and repeat til it's golden on the other side. Remove to a plate and repeat if necessary. 
  
• Add another tsp or so of oil, just enough to swirl around (the pan should be plenty hot still), and add the broccoli and minced garlic and ginger. Toss around, keeping the heat medium high, until it starts to crisp up a little bit (with the wok this hot, that shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes), then add 2 TBL of water, quickly cover the pan, and let it steam for a couple of minutes more. The broccoli will turn a beautiful vibrant green and still keep its nice crunch. Uncover and add the scallions. Toss around for another minute. Taste the veggies and make sure they're cooked enough. 
  
• Return the tofu to the wok, add the sesame seeds, and toss around for about a minute. Then turn the heat to low. 
• Stir in the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha (if using). Give it all a good stir and taste, adding more of any condiments you'd like. 
  
• Serve over rice (or rice noodles would be good too), with extra soy sauce and sriracha. 

First-Week-of-the-Second-Half-of-Rabbinical-School Pasta

This seems to happen every year. In the Fall, I get grand ambitions of the food blogging that I shall revive, of the recipes that I shall post, of the deliciousness to be documented. And then, inevitably, school and work take over, and the blogging stops almost before it starts. Well, not this year. It is now my second half of rabbinical school. I can do things like chant Torah and talk about modern Jewish history and even maybe tell you what month it is in the Hebrew calendar. I can keep up with this blog, and I shall.

To begin, I'll be sharing a First-Week-of-the-Second-Half-of-Rabbinical-School Pasta.

My lovely roommate works for a synagogue that hosts a CSA pick-up. It's a great idea! As a nice bonus, when there's leftover produce from the boxes, Sara gets to take some of it. Last week she brought home beautiful eggplants and red peppers, and she was nice enough to share them with me.

Eggplant is delicious. Often when I get eggplant, I'll make a Chinese dish called 红烧茄子 (Hong Shao Qiezi), which is just about the most delicious way to eat eggplant ever. But, not knowing that Sara was going to be bringing eggplant home, I'd bought my own a few days earlier and already cooked up a batch, so I was looking for something different.

I experiment in the kitchen. Most cooks do, I guess. For me, it's a creative outlet and something very tactile in a life that's largely not. Much of my day consists of reading and listening and talking. I like reading and listening and talking very much! But I also have to find ways to keep my body engaged. I knit in class. I fidget. I play with my hair (curly hair makes it easy). Often, when I get home after a long day, the possibility of going into the kitchen and playing with my food is about the most enticing thing there is.

So, without further adieu, here's what I came up with. It's vegan unless you add parmesan at the end, and if you sub gluten-free pasta it'd be gluten-free. :)

Ingredients:

• several generous glugs of olive oil
• 1 large globe eggplant, sliced into finger-sized pieces
• 1 small red pepper, diced
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2-5 cloves of garlic, diced (I love garlic. If you don't, put in less)
• 1 handful of mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil (if you have fresh, all the better!)
• 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 lb pasta of choice
• salt and pepper to taste
• (optional) parmesan cheese
• (optional) fake meatballs-- or real ones, if you don't keep kosher/do eat meat

When I set out to make this, I had limited time because I had only about a half hour at home before a dinner-time (but not dinner) meeting. So I  got home from school, chopped my veggies, threw them in a box in the fridge, and drove off to work. 

Once I got back, it was play time. There's an eggplant dish called "pasta alla norma" that's pretty delish. I like to use a light variation on Jamie Oliver's recipe. I started out with this much the same way, cooking the eggplant in batches, but then I got all excited about my other ingredients and went off-book. Approximate procedure is below, but, as always, play!

Procedure:

1. Fry Your Eggplant: heat a large skillet over medium, give it a nice drink of olive oil (probably a couple of tablespoons), and add as much of the eggplant as you can fit in a single layer. (You may need to do two batches.) Stir some, but you want to leave it still long enough for the eggplant to brown. Once the eggplant's beginning to soften and turn golden, add a little salt and the basil and oregano. You may also need to add a little oil if it starts to stick. Keep tossing it around so it all cooks evenly. You can use the back of a spoon or a spatula to smoosh the eggplants and release some of the oil back into the pan. If necessary, remove the first batch and add in the second.
2. Once the eggplant is starting to look mostly done, add it all back in, along with the onion and garlic. You may need to turn the heat down a tad at this point so that the onion doesn't scorch. Let it cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to soften, then add the pepper and mushrooms. 
   
3. Cook the veggies until the shrooms are shrunken, adding a touch more oil if needed to prevent sticking. Taste the veggies and add salt and pepper to taste. This is also a good time to get the water for your pasta going.
   
4. Add in the can of tomatoes, along with a few tablespoons of water. Stir so that everything is incorporated. If you're using frozen meatballs (or fake meatballs), add them in now so that they can cook. 
5. Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes. If it gets too thick (and it probably will), stir in some of the cooking water. Taste for spice and adjust as necessary. 
   
6. Once the pasta is done, drain, reserving a little of the cooking water in case the sauce is still too thick. Spoon pasta into bowls, top with sauce and cheese (if desired), and dig in.