Veggie (and peanut free, in this case) Pad Thai

So last week, two of my friends had a baby. Their first! He's the cutest peanut there ever was and I'm so in awe of the fact that my peers (and not, y'know, people a decade older than me) have produced this incredible little life! And he's a lucky dude to have his incredible parents.

The rabbinical school that Jake (Dad) and I attend can be amazing when it comes to community, so it's no real surprise that another friend had the smarts to organize folks to bring the new family dinner a few times a week.

I just got back from meeting the baby and seeing my buddies as no-longer-expectant parents. And all I had to do was make Pad Thai.

Good. Trade.

This recipe is a little unorthodox, because it needed to be peanut-free. If you want to, you can definitely sub peanuts for the cashews. Also, because I'm a vegetarian, I don't use oyster sauce. The recipe that I was working from calls for about a TBS added towards the end. It thickens the sauce slightly. If you use oyster sauce, cut back on the soy sauce a tad.

Ingredients

• 2 TBS canola oil 
• 1 block tofu, pressed and cut into thin triangles
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp tumeric (optional, but nice)
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced 
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped into florets
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 medium green pepper, cut into strips
• 1 inch piece of ginger, sliced thinly
• 1 lb rice noodes
• 1/3 c. water + 2 TBS rice vinegar
• 3 eggs
• 1 TBS maple syrup
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• 1/3 cup cashews, smashed up into bits (it's ok to be violent with your food)
• 2 TBS lime juice
• 2 small carrots, peeled (if you like) and julienned
• 4 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
• sriracha to taste
• salt to taste
• lime and cashews to garnish

Procedure

• Fry your tofu!

• heat the oil in a large wok over medium heat. 
• sprinkle the tumeric over the oil, turning the pan so it's evenly distributed
• place the tofu triangles in the wok in a single layer (you will likely need to do two batches), let them sizzle and get crispy for a couple of minutes, then flip. Sprinkle in some salt and let them crisp on the other side. Remove to a paper towel so the grease can drain and repeat with the second batch if necessary. Try to scrape most of the bits out of the wok so they don't burn later.

• Cook your noodles according to package directions. Err on the side of them being just sliiiiightly underdone (maybe a minute less than recommended). Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water, then mix with 1 TBS of soy sauce
• While cooking the noodles, cook the broccoli and mushrooms

• heat 1 TBS oil over medium-high heat and add the broccoli and 1/3 of the garlic. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes, until the edges are looking a little crispy, then add 2 TBS water and cover the wok so it steams. 
• When the water has evaporated, add the mushrooms and stir-fry for about two minutes. If the noodles are done at this point, just keep going. Otherwise, remove the wok from the heat until the noodles have caught up. 
• Put the whole shebang together!


• Turn the heat back on if you had to cut it.
• Add a little more oil and the garlic, ginger, and pepper. Stir-fry for about a minute over medium-high, then turn down slightly and add the vinegar-water mixture and noodles, and tofu. Let everything cook, stir-frying away, for about 3 minutes
  
• Turn heat to medium low. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk them together. Push everything to the side to create a space for the eggs in the wok and pour in. Scramble them until they're basically solid and then fold in with everything else

• Add the maple syrup and soy sauce and stir together

• Add the carrots, scallions, cashews, lime juice, a dash of sriracha, and a bit of salt. Taste and add more lime juice or soy sauce if needed. Serve immediately with additional soy sauce, sriracha, lime juice, and cashews to garnish. 

Fairy Tale Eggplant Pasta

Did you know that Fairy Tale eggplants are a thing? Because if you don't, you should.

Fairy Tale Eggplants are not your ordinary eggplants. In addition to being incredibly-over-the-top unspeakable-adorable, they cook up quickly and beautifully, and they are sweeter and creamier than their larger siblings. They're a true treat with a pretty short season, so when I found them at the market this morning I snatched them up.

Fairy Tale Eggplant rock. Here's something to cook with them. Ingredients are pretty approximate. This is quite forgiving. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb pasta-- I used whole wheat spaghetti, but anything would do
• several fairy tale eggplants. I had 8, but depending on how itty bitty they are anywhere from 5-10 could likely work just fine.
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• two generous glugs of olive oil
• 1 sprig fresh basil, minced (stem too!) or 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 14 oz can pureed tomatoes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 oz parmesan cheese
• additional freshly grated cheese for the top 

Procedure

• Cut eggplant into quarters, for smaller ones, or 8ths, for larger ones. Throw a glug of oil into a large pan and let it heat, then add the eggplant. Try to do as close to a single layer as possible. If you have too much eggplant, do this in two batches. (I did!) Meanwhile, put up water to boil and cook the pasta once it does.

• Let the eggplant caramelize over medium-high heat, turning as needed and adding a touch more oil if it sticks. When they're nice and soft (this shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 minutes), add the garlic, oregano, a little salt, and the tomatoes. 
  
• Turn heat to medium low, or all the way to low if it won't stop sputtering at you. 
• Let the mix come together gently, adding the fresh basil after a minute or two. 
• Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan, adjusting salt and pepper to taste.
• 
  
• Serve with additional cheese. Yum yum!
  

October Soup

Oh hello again, blog. It's been a while. A very long while. Anybody still out there?

A lot's happened since last we spoke. I've moved from California to Philadelphia and spent two years in rabbinical school. I'm on year 3 of 6 now. I've been busy. Really busy. I've made time for cooking but not for blogging about it.

The other day, though, I had this thought: what if I took blogging back up and talked a bit about cooking and Judaism? We'll see if it takes. Mostly, it's Thursday afternoon, it's been a long week, and I'm eager to decompress a bit.

This afternoon I made soup. I needed to. I had a butternut squash that was sitting on the corner of my pantry shelf looking mighty lonely.

As I started cooking, I threw in a bunch of other October ingredients. The result was quite scrumptious. There are no pictures of the cooking process, because I didn't think about blogging until after the fact. Hopefully you'll enjoy anyway.




Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 2 TBS butter or oil (soup is vegan if using oil)
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large apple, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup dried red lentils
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• approximately 5 cups stock or broth
• 1 cup apple cider or juice
• salt to taste

Procedure

• pre-heat oven to 375°F. Slice butternut (carefully!) in half lengthwise, oil a baking sheet, place cut side down and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Squash should be soft at the edges but still a bit firm in the middle
• when squash is cool enough to handle, melt the butter or heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Add the apple, lentils, and sage and cook for several minutes more. If lentils look like they're going to burn, add a little stock. 
• scoop as much of the squash pulp as you can into the pot (this may take a minute or two), stir in, and add the rest of the stock. Raise heat to high until the soup comes to a boil, then turn to low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the squash is falling apart. 
• use an immersion blender to puree the soup (or blend batches in a blender). Stir in cinnamon and cider. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes more, or until the soup is thickened to your liking. Stir in salt to taste. Serve and be merry.