vegetarian sushi

The other day, I bought a sushi kit from the HIT. It was about 20 leva, which is like $14. It seemed a bit expensive, but since I love sushi and have wanted to try it out, I decided it was worth it for the experience. Then it sat on my shelf because I didn't have the time to make it for any upcoming dinners and the HIT didn't have good avocados for a while. But tonight was the night. So, I opened up my sushi kit and more or less followed the directions. Lindsay may have pointed out that I was not doing a very good job rationing my rice out, as is evidenced by some of my jumbo sushi rolls. Whatever. I called it TEXAS Style Sushi - because everything's bigger in Texas.

 And the first, Texas Sized roll, with my hand for scale:

It was actually a very simple process, maybe because I was using a box. But still, it seemed well within my abilities except that the bagged rice helped me overcome my general inability to handle cooking rice.

1. Cook rice
2. Mix in sushi rice vinegar (whatever that might actually be)
3. Let rice cool
4. Lay seaweed out on bamboo mat
5. Scoop out a *reasonable* mound of rice into center of seaweed
6. With wet fingers, press rice out across seaweed, leaving a border
7. Lay goodies in the middle - I used cucumber and avocado
8. Roll away from you, pressing roll together as you go
9. Voila! Sushi

So I made one giant roll, one normal roll, and another giant role. Portion control difficulties with the rice. But all's well that ends well, and we all found it pretty yummy and satisfactory. If I could easily get my hands on some more sushi rice and seaweed wraps, I would definitely do it again. Very fun and yummy and pretty easy. 

noodles with tofu

I am not really quite sure how to call this sauce. The ingredients included garlic, peppers, cilantro, brown sugar, and lime juice. It was quite yummy though. I bought a sushi kit and finally had time/initiative/ingredients to use it tonight (see post), so I decided to make another asian flavored dish for the main course. As it turned out, this was ready first, so we followed our tofu noodles with sushi, but no one really complained. I liked this recipe though, even though I couldn't make the sauce as recommended with morter and pestle and just used our hand mixer, which didn't seem to work fabulously. I also have yet to find a decent onion at the HIT in like, 6 months. I'm not exagerrating. I had my eye on the recipe for a while, but the HIT has consistently been out of cilantro altogether and good avocados (for the sushi), so the stars were not aligned until tonight for this meal.

12 ounces / 340g dried soba noodles
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus a bit more for the tofu

16 oz / 450g extra-firm tofu, drained and patted dry

3 medium cloves garlic
scant 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 small/medium shallots - as mentioned, no onions/similar, so I just skipped this
3 small serrano peppers, minced - I wasn't sure what the Bulgarian equivalent was, so I used jalapenos
1 bunch (about 4 handfuls) of cilantro, stems trimmed
1 teaspoon natural cane sugar (or brown sugar)
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice - I think I used a bit more
3/4 cup / 180 ml extra-virgin olive oil  - I definitely used less than this, but I didn't measure

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously, then cook the soba noodles per package instructions, being mindful to not overcook them. Drain, run under cold water for a minute, shake of as much extra water as possible, then toss well with the olive oil. Gently work the olive oil through the noodles. Place the soba in a large plastic bag and refrigerate overnight, or until you're ready to use them - up to a few days. [I left mine plain, no olive oil, and used it about 10 minutes after rinsing.]

Make the dressing using a mortar and pestle OR a food processor. [As mentioned, I used my hand immersion blender, with moderate success, but it was okay.] Pound the garlic and salt into a paste, then work in the shallots one at a time, then the peppers. Then the cilantro a handful at a time. The mixture should be quite smooth. Add the sugar, then the lime juice before stirring in the olive oil a bit at a time. Taste and adjust the flavors if need be - more salt, sugar, lime juice, etc.

Cut the tofu into slabs, rub gently with olive oil and place on a medium-hot grill. Cook until golden brown on one side, flip, and grill the other side as well. [I cooked it in a pan in some olive oil until the sides were a bit browned.]

To assemble, toss the soba noodles with a good amount of the dressing, reserving enough to drizzle generously on top of the tofu. Place the tofu on top of the noodles, and drizzle with more dressing. [I served the noodles plain, added the tofu, the steamed broccoli, and then drizzled the dressing on each dish and let everyone mix their own.]

noodles with peanut sauce

So I am a big back logged on the recipes I have made recently, but in an effort to catch up, I will go out of order and just post the one I made last night for my Monday dinner. Of course, recipe from SK and it turned out delicious. I was sort of nervous because I haven't really cooked Asian cuisine in any way before, and of course getting the ingredients in Bulgarian is a bit of a toss-up, but it all turned out well. I don't know if I got the exact right noodles, but they looked similar and were in the Asian section (very small that it is) and they tasted good. It was a cold dish which I don't normally like with pasta, but it was quite tasty. I added broccoli and mushrooms and less peppers because I prefer those vegetables.

For peanut dressing
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 medium garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons Asian toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes or a splash of the hot sauce or chili paste of your choice

For noodles
3/4 lb dried soba nooodles (dried linguine fini or spaghetti will work in a pinch)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 head of broccoli, cut up and steamed
4 mushrooms, cut up into slices
Half a seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 cup tofu, cut up

I put the dressing ingredients in a bowl and then used the immersion blender until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain in a colander, then rinse well under cold water. Whatever pasta I made cooked really quickly, so if it is the soba noodles or whatever, I would advise having everything ready before putting them in.

Add pasta, scallions, bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, cucumber and tofu to dressing, tossing to combine. Serve immediately.