The Kitchen Illiterate

Soba Noodles with Bok Choy and Tahini

When I got my first bundle of bok choy from my CSA, I started searching around for new ways to prepare this Asian green. I must admit, I’ve been getting a wee bit tired of garlic-sauteed greens and rice, so I wanted something unique. Unfortunately, the Great Google turned up many, many of the same recipe: bok choy sauteed or steamed, and seasoned with toasted sesame oil and soy sauce, with some ginger thrown in for extra flavor. Of course, that sounds delicious, and I made it once or twice, but when I wanted to branch out, it took me awhile to find something different.

I’m glad I searched so diligently, because this Tahini sauce has become one of my new favorites. It’s reminiscent of a peanut sauce, but a little more bitter. It’s easy as heck, but could probably be fancied up, too. And it is filling and delicious.
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Grains and Greens

[Updated: I added some mini-recipes to Flickr. If you click on the photos, it will take you to my Flickr page, where you can see some very basic instructions and ingredients for each of these very, very tasty dinners. Enjoy!]

The radio silence over here was unintentional, but I’ll be honest, it’s proving challenging to talk about (and photograph) my endless meals of grains and greens. So far, my CSA has been almost entirely made up of greens, with some lovely little radishes, and this week, baby beets, thrown in for variety. And I do love the greens, but the thought of continually typing out “saute spinach in a tablespoon of oil” every other day wasn’t that appealing. And, well, these meals all look the same. Namely, not that interesting. They are delicious and filling and lovely, but they don’t photograph well.
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Mushroom and Broccoli Lentils

This might not look all that exciting, but assure you, it was. It was very exciting. And do you know what makes a big bowl of lentils exciting? Well, I’ll tell you: It’s Worcestershire sauce and aged farmhouse cheddar. These two simple ingredients make a big bowl of lentils positively mind-blowing. When I cooked up this little dinner I didn’t think much of it. I certainly didn’t think it would be worth sharing here. This was a simple weeknight dinner, to be consumed while catching up with my DVR or reading some dorky librarian’s magazine. But then I tasted it and knew it deserved so much better than that.
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From the farm: Pea Shoot Pesto

I got my first box from West End Farm this week, which was very exciting. It was full of green things, many of them unknown to me, but thanks to the handy dandy newsletter, they were quickly identified. Tis the season, apparently, for pea shoots and baby greens and spinach and lettuce and teeny, tiny radishes, not to mention wonderful smelling mint and green onions. And all of it looked so unbelievably fresh and lovely. And green. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with all of those greens, but the newsletter recommended making pesto with the tiny, delicate pea shoots, and I figured it was high time I get over my fear of making pesto and give it a shot.
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Mediterranean Braised Chard with Farro

The last half of April ended up slipping by in a blur of airplane travel and hot barbecue: I spent a good portion of the end of the month in South Dakota, where my family gathered to mourn the loss of both my Grandma and Grandpa within six days of each other. It was an exceedingly difficult time for all of us, but it was tempered by the joy we found in being together. Having grown up in California, far away from my mother’s side of the family, this was the first time I’d seen some of my cousins in many, many years, and being together, remembering our childhoods visiting Grandma’s house and laughing about our parents’ stories of their wayward youths made the sadness we all felt a little lighter.

One thing that didn’t make anyone feel a little lighter, however, were the dozens and dozens of hot dishes, meat platters, dips and chips and beans and cookies and bars that I think every single person in my Grandparents’ small town brought to the house. It was amazing to see the outpouring of care that came from neighbors, church members, and old high school friends, and they all came with comfort in the form of food. And what was a little challenging for me was that almost all of that food had meat in it! The pinnacle of meat-laden hilarity came when I opened up a tray of raw vegetables with a dish of vegetable dip in the center, after a week of craving something green, and discovered that the dip was full of bacon. I mean, it was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but I would not want to attempt to be vegan in Madison, South Dakota.
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Spicy Citrus Shrimp and Spinach

I don’t use a lot of citrus in the kitchen, though I have been eating clementines nearly every day this winter. I don’t actually use a lot of fruit in my cooking at all. Fruit is sweet and therefore my savory-loving self has a hard time intuitively understanding how it fits into dinner. But when I saw this recipe for Grilled Shrimp with Citrus-Sambal-Oelek dressing in April’s Food & Wine, I was intrigued. The idea of something bright and spicy is very appealing this time of year, when summer taunts at every turn. What I ended up with was slightly different from the original recipe, based on what I had in the kitchen, but holy moly, it was so good I think I’m going to try introducing citrus to my pots and pans more often.
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Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart

I saw this glorious tart on Smitten Kitchen a few weeks ago and was instantly obsessed. She made it sound transcendent, and I knew it would have to grace my kitchen at some point. But it sounded so rich, so decadent that I just wasn’t sure when. Well, this past weekend a girlfriend of mine was coming to the Walla Walla for a visit and it just seemed like the right time. I gathered all the needed ingredients, even ordering truffle salt online to be sure the tart could reach the peak of deliciousness that the recipe promised. And then we went wine tasting, and by the time we got home and I was ready to make dinner, I realized a complicated recipe like this was just not going to happen. I made some Puttanesca instead and we called it a night.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this tart, though, and I did have all the ingredients. So I decided to make it Sunday for a late afternoon lunch instead. And yes, it lived up to its promise. In fact, it lived up to its promise so well I really, really wished I’d found a way to make it for my friend. This meal is truly a treat, an indulgence of the highest order. It would have been perfect after an afternoon of wine tasting. If I’d only thought to make it ahead of time…
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Broccoli and Dill Wild Rice

I think dill is my new favorite herb, thanks to this bowl of rice and broccoli. When I started pulling things out of the refrigerator to make lunch, I had no idea I was going to love what came out of the pot in the end as much as I did. And it’s all because of the dill. Well, and the walnuts didn’t hurt. And I always love broccoli. And Worcestershire sauce adds a great kick to wild rice. So really, this was just the perfect combination of ingredients.
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Bulgur with Roasted Turnips, Carrots, and Kale

In my quest to discover new and interesting grains, I decided to give bulgur a try, and it is a new favorite. It is what I wanted quinoa to be like (so far, I just haven’t been able to get into the quinoa). Bulgur is parboiled wheat berries, ground to various consistencies. It’s similar to couscous, in that you cook it by soaking, rather than simmering, but it’s a whole grain. And it has a lovely subtle, nutty flavor and good chewy texture. And like many grains, it’s a great blank canvas for all kinds of flavors. In what I’m hoping is one of the last of the root vegetable-based dishes of the winter, this bulgur dish is made with roasted turnips and carrots, and some sauteed kale. Delicious and filling and warming and good. I love the bulgur.
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Spicy Shrimp with Buckwheat Soba Noodles

It’s always amusing for me to go back to the early archives of this site and realize how little I knew about cooking. And I posted everything, no matter how lackluster the final product. A lot of these early culinary endeavors, despite being executed poorly, do hold some promise, and I’ve been having fun re-creating them and trying to improve where I went wrong back in the day. One of these improvements turned out so much better, and was so easy, that I suspect I’ll be making it more often: The Spicy Shrimp and Red Onion Pasta of 2007 became the Spicy Shrimp with Buckwheat Soba Noodles you see here, and they were much more palatable this time around. It was all about the balance of ingredients, and using the right kind of noodles.
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