Pandas and plum sake

I just got back from Japan! As a lifelong Sanrio devotee I was beyond excited to go on this trip. I drank tropical drinks on picturesque beaches, saw whale sharks and manta rays, poured over stationary and adorable home goods and freaked out over characters and design. I also got food poisoning from Pizza Hut and killed my trusty camera by subjecting it to Okinawa’s typhoon season weather. Oops. I loved Japan and would gladly endure 12 hours of gastrointestinal hell again if it meant I could be back there right now. Now that I’m home I want to explore some Japanese cooking and make more art inspired by what I saw on the trip. So far that’s meant buying some sake and a panda tokkuri and making what is basically a white wine spritzer. Baby steps, my friends.

Sake ‘n seltzer

1-2 shots of dry sake (chilled)

Seltzer ( I used Polar Ginger Lemonade seltzer)

Lime wedges

Fill a collins glass ¾ full with ice, pour in the sake and then top off with seltzer

Stir and garnish with a lime wedge or two

Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Tofu Tacos

It’s Cinco de Mayo! And the Kentucky Derby! All in one day! Why is this important you ask? Because now at long last you can combine your two true loves: Mexican food and bourbon. Try these sweet potato tacos for a healthier (and tastier) alternative to the usual cheese with a side of cheese dish you get at your local tex mex place. The recipe is based on Kim Barnouin’s Black Bean and Yam Tacos from Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook, which is a pretty fantastic book even though the title sometimes makes me want to roll my eyes over and over like a sarcastic animated gif. No offense, Kim. I cooked a batch of brown texmati rice to serve with my tacos, but if you don’t feel like adding rice you don’t have to. If you sense that pairing tacos with a mint julep is a terrible idea, you’re not wrong and should drink a paloma instead.

You’ll need:

Makes 4-6 servings:

1 ½ tbsp olive oil

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

¼ block of firm tofu, pressed and cut into small cubes

¼-1/2 large red pepper, diced

about 6 baby portobello mushrooms, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ C onion, diced

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp oregano

soft taco sized tortillas

spinach, siracha and feta cheese for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups cooked brown texmati rice (optional)

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high. Add the sweet potato and tofu and sauté until the potatoes are almost soft about 9-10 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic, spices and mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the beans and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Take the pan off the heat and warm a couple of tortillas in a frying pan for a minute or two (or nuke them in the microwave for about 30 seconds on a damp paper towel). Build your taco like so: rice, spinach, potato and bean mix, and a sprinkle of feta cheese topped with siracha. Ole.

Paloma Cocktail (makes 1 serving)

2 ounces tequila

1/2 ounce lime juice

pinch of salt

grapefruit soda (or half Sprite half grapefruit juice)

Lime wedge

In a collins glass, mix the tequila, lime juice, and salt in a tall glass. Add ice, top off with the soda, and stir. If you're fancy, use the grapefruit soda from the international aisle at the grocery store. If you're thrifty just use Squirt or Sprite or 7up and some grapefruit juice. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Hello, Polenta

The premade polenta at my local grocery store is tucked away in a weird tower of baskets by the deli. It seems as though they’ve been put there as an afterthought, which is too bad since polenta can be made into a zillion tasty treats. I tried out this recipe from Martha Stewart Everyday Food the other night and although the overall result was beyond salty, I think with a couple of minor changes this could be really delicious. I subbed out real sausage for the fake soy sausage (the Gimme Lean variety) which could have been the super salty culprit, but who knows. Next time I’ll tweak the recipe by swapping in some carrots and zucchini for half of the sausage to balance it out more. The most time consuming part of this was the prep work, other than that it’s easy to throw together and you get to buy two food items that come in tubes, which is fun in a severely limited sort of way.

Makes 4 servings:

2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (I just used some fat free cooking spray)
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1 lb sweet italian sausage, casing removed (I used Gimme Lean veg sausage-again I’d recommend reducing this to half a pound)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3/4 C marinated artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped (I just used regular canned artichokes)
Coarse salt and ground pepper (I’d leave out the salt and just use pepper, plus oregano and basil)
1 tube (18 oz) prepared polenta, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
1/3 C chicken stock (I used veggie stock instead)
1/4 C fresh parsley coarsely chopped (I left out the parsley)

I also would suggest adding:

6 baby bella mushrooms, diced

1 quarter of a red pepper, diced

1 small zucchini, quartered

3/4 C carrots, cut into rounds

Preheat your oven to 400. In a large skillet, heat oil or spray over medium high. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until it starts to smell yummy, 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and stir in artichokes, mushrooms, peppers, carrots and zucchini; season with pepper, oregano and basil. In a 2-qrt baking dish, layer polenta rounds and spoonfuls of sausage mixture in a domino-like formation. Pour stock over top and bake until bubbling and polenta is pale golden, 20-25 minutes.

Springtime Summer Rolls

Do you like buying tasty and fresh produce at your local farmer’s market? Of course you do. Do you like opening your refrigerator at the end of the week and seeing half of your delicious veggies staring back at you with sad, wilted eyes? No you do not. Take a break from boring salads and save your food from a neglectful death by making these easy summer rolls.

You’ll need:

Rice paper wrappers from the international aisle or your local Asian market

Dipping sauce (you can make your own or you can use store bought hoisin or plum sauce)

Pick your roll fillings:

Carrot and cucumber slices (cut into matchsticks)

Zucchini, cut into strips and sprinkled with salt and pepper

Avocado slices

Shredded lettuce

Fresh basil leaves

Fresh cilantro

Fresh mint

Cooked vermicelli rice noodles

Pan fried tofu

Fresh mango slices

Cooked shrimp

Cooked chicken

Peanut sauce

2 tbsp peanut butter (creamy or chunky both work)

2 tbsp warm water

1 tsp soy sauce

Lime juice to taste

Siracha to taste

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl

My favorite combo is carrots, cucumbers, basil, avocado, mango, vermicelli and tofu.

Be careful not to put too much of your fillings in your wrapper-the more stuff in your roll, the more difficult it is to roll it up neatly.

Slice and prep your fillings and soak the rice wrappers in warm water for about 5 minutes. Lay a wrapper on a plate or work surface and place your ingredients on the bottom third of the wrapper, leaving enough room on the sides that you’ll be able to fold them over (see illustration). Fold the sides in first and then fold the bottom up over your ingredients and roll the whole thing up! Dip in your sauce of choice and enjoy. Rolls kept in tupperware in the fridge will stay fresh for up to two days.

Chicken-less Chicken Soup

I recently started taking public transportation on a daily basis again which means I recently got a cold. Woo! I was craving chicken noodle soup, but am not a fan of the saltiness and questionable looking meat that comes in most canned varieties. A quick surveying of my pantry made me realize I could make my own version-weird chicken shapes not included!

You’ll need:

1 ½-2 tbsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No Chicken base (adjust according to how chicken-y you want your soup to taste)

3 large cloves garlic, minced

¾  tbsp fresh ginger, minced

1-1 ½ cups bowtie pasta (depending on your ideal broth to pasta ratio)

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup frozen broccoli

½ cup frozen corn

½ cup chopped red pepper

Fresh baby spinach

In a medium saucepan, cook your pasta until it’s slightly underdone (I cooked mine for 8 minutes). Drain and set aside. In a large pot, combine the bouillon with 5 cups water and simmer for a minute or two. Add the garlic, ginger and carrots and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the frozen broccoli and corn and cook for another 4 minutes. Throw in the red pepper and the pasta and let simmer for a minute while you get yourself a nice big noodle bowl. Serve yourself and stir in a handful of fresh baby spinach. You can also mix in a little siracha for extra spicy congestion busting power.

The best chocolate chip cookies in the entire universe

If I could only eat one thing for dessert for the rest of my life, I’d choose Mark Bittman’s perfectly chewy and crispy chocolate chip cookies. I use semisweet chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate and usually halve the recipe so I am not tempted to gobble fistfuls of cookies everyday. Because that would be terrible. And also amazing.

Makes: 3 to 4 dozen

1 /2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 /4 cup granulated sugar

3 /4 cup brown sugar (I like to use dark brown sugar-it makes the cookies flatter)

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 /2 teaspoon baking soda

1 /2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups chopped good-quality semisweet chocolate (good quality semisweet chocolate chips are fine)

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer; add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the dough, beat together, then add the vanilla and stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Drop tablespoon-size mounds of dough about 3 inches apart in rows and columns on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before transferring to a rack with a spatula to cool completely. The cookies will stay fresh in tupperware or a ziplock bag for a couple of days (they also freeze well).

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything which you should go out and buy right now

Easy Home Fries

Are you tired of spending all of your money on brunch? When did a couple scrambled eggs, toast and home fries turn into a double digit outing? Let’s face it, the only thing that stands between you and whipping up your own diner worthy breakfast is homemade home fries. Don’t sweat it! Make this recipe (and a poor man’s Bloody Mary if you’re so inclined) in half the time it would normally take you to drag yourself to your favorite breakfast spot.

Easy Home Fries (Serves 2)

5 or 6 small yukon gold or white round potatoes

1/8 cup onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, diced

salt

pepper

crushed red pepper

2-3 tbs of butter, margarine or earth balance

slice the potatoes into ¼ inch rounds

melt the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat

add the potatoes and cook covered for 10 minutes

uncover and add the garlic, onions and seasoning

cook the potatoes for another 5-10 minutes to desired doneness

serve with scrambled eggs, toast and real or fake bacon

Poor Man’s Bloody Mary (Serves 1)

 V8 Hot & Spicy

Vodka

Hot sauce (optional)

Fill a pint glass with ice

Add a shot and a half of vodka

Finish with the V8

Add a tsp of hot sauce if you want

Stir and enjoy