Zucchini noodles with shrimp

For the past couple of weeks, I have been seeing zucchini noodles in the blogosphere.  Somehow people were using zucchini as noodles.  What? Personally, I am not a huge fan of zucchini.  One summer full of one too many from the garden... My dad had given me yet another zucchini from the garden, though, so I decided to try making zucchini noodles myself.

First I cut the zucchini into thin slivers, as closely resembling noodles as possible.   I think that a potato peeler would have done a nice job here, but since I didn't have one, I used a knife and did the best I could.

 

 After the zucchini was sufficiently sliced and diced, I blanched it in boiling water.

Then, I sauteed the "noodles" with olive oil, shrimp, tomatoes, onion, and Cajun seasoning.

 

It turns out that zucchini noodles taste like, well, zucchini. The Cajun seasoning and tomato sauce couldn't hide that distinctive flavor.  Maybe if the noodles were cut thinner they would lose their taste?  One can only hope...

Spaghetti Squash

I've used spaghetti squash in a couple of my posts so far.  Here I will explain exactly how to quickly prepare spaghetti squash. The first step is to cut the squash in half. Then, scoop out the seeds in the middle like you would before carving a pumpkin. 

 

The next step is to cook the squash.  This can either be done in the oven or in the microwave.  In the oven, it will take at least half an hour.  In the microwave, each side will take 3-5 minutes. I have used both methods before.  The squash comes out exactly the same either way.  It really is a matter of preference.

 

Once the squash is cooked, use a fork to scrape the "meat" out into spaghetti-like noodles.  This may sound confusing, but once the squash it cooked, it easily form noodles.

You can use the spaghetti squash as you would use spaghetti in a variety of dishes, from simple spaghetti and marinara sauce to more complicated meals.  If you are sticking to a gluten-free diet, it is a great substitute for pasta.

Here is a picture of a spaghetti squash meal that I packed during my vegan week.  There is (starting at the top right corner and going clockwise) tomato sauce, fresh diced tomatoes, spaghetti squash, and seitan (decidedly not gluten-free).  It microwaved very well, and was a nice change of pace.  What's your favorite way to cook spaghetti squash?

Shrimp Stirfry

 

When I've made stirfries in the past (see this post), I've always made them vegetarian or used chicken.  Tuesday night I had a craving for fish, but had none in the freezer.  Instead, I made up this shrimp stirfry.  

Here are the ingredients (from bottom left): one giant garlic clove, one half of a green bell pepper, one head of broccoli broccoli, one quarter of an onion, and ginger. Not pictured are olive oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, cooking wine, pepper, and sriracha.

 

And of course shrimp.  I had some frozen shrimp in my freezer which I put in water and then in the fridge before going for a run.  When I came back they were thawed.  I ended up using ten shrimp in this dish.

 Then, all I did was cook everything together in a pan on medium heat for about ten minutes.  I started with only the vegetables because they took longer to cook than the shrimp.  Once the broccoli and pepper were tender, I added in the shrimp and seasonings.

And voila! Here is my shrimp stirfry.  It is so fresh you can see the steam in the picture. 

When I made this dish, I intended to make enough for two servings and have leftovers for lunch the next day.  It turns out this stirfry was so good that I ate it all in one sitting.

Japchae and Kimchi

Kimchi seems to be one of those foods that people either love (with a passion) or hate (with a passion).  I am on the loving front. I was first introduced to Korean food about 15 years ago, when I took piano lessons in Rockville, MD.  In the same plaza as the piano store, there was a little Korean restaurant we used to go to after lessons. I don't know the real name of the restaurant, and it is unfortunately no longer there.  My family called the restaurant "noodle man" because there was a window into the kitchen where we used to watch a man make noodles. It was here that I first fell in love with Korean food.  

One of the staples of Korean food is kimchi.  Kimchi comes in many varieties, but is most frequently (in my American experience at least) spicy pickled cabbage.  It can be bought in Korean grocery stores for just a few dollars, or in American grocery stores for much more.  Inspired by the sale on cabbage (30 cents/pound!), I decided to take a stab at making my own kimchi, using a spice packet from an Asian supermarket.

 The first step was to soak the vegetables (cabbage and radishes) overnight in salt water.

The next morning, I rinsed the vegetables and mixed them with the spice packet.  Then, I put them back in the refrigerator to cure for two more days.

 

 As you can see, while curing the vegetables shriveled up, taking up about 2/3 of their original space.

The kimchi smelled spot-on, spicy and tangy.  However, after tasting the kimchi, I realized that my calculations were off.  I used twice as much salt in the first soak as was recommended.  The kimchi turned out extremely salty.  I will have to try this again, paying closer attention to the instructions.  

To make up for my failed kimchi, I decided to try my hand at another Korean dish: japchae.  Contrary to many people's preconceived notions, not all Korean food is spicy.  Japchae is a pretty mild noodle and vegetable dish.  The first step in making my japchae  was to boil noodles.  Traditionally, japchae is made with sweet potato noodles.  I did not have any sweet potato noodles, nor have I ever seen any sweet potato noodles, so I used mung bean noodles instead.  Rice noodles would work fine as well.

While the noodles were cooking, I cut up the vegetables I had on hand: green bell pepper, scallions, and onion, along with some tofu.  This was not the most exciting vegetable combination ever.  If I had planned to cook this dish, I would have picked up more vegetables.  While I do not know what vegetables traditionally go into japchae, I think that mushrooms, peppers, snap peas, carrots, or any other colorful vegetable would go well in this dish.

In a large pan, I sauteed the vegetables with garlic in olive oil (obviously),  sesame oil and soy sauce.  After the noodles were cooked, I drained them and tossed them in sesame oil and soy sauce, and added a little raw cane sugar. Then, I combined the noodles with the vegetables in the large pan and added even more sesame oil and soy sauce.

The recipe I used, modified from a post on www. herbivoracious.com,   created a ton of food.  I happily had japchae for lunch most of the week.  It was especially good when spiced up with some sriracha!

Pad Thai

One of my very first posts on easy dinners included Pad Thai.  Since that post, I have gotten more adventurous with my Pad Thai.  Initially I only used prepackaged Pad Thai sauces, but I have found a simple Pad Thai recipe that, as my boss puts it, has the perfect amount of tang.  Why has my boss tried my Pad Thai?  Good question.  At work we have a lunch club of about 15 coworkers.  Every other week, one member of the club cooks lunch for the rest of the group.  This week was my turn. As you can see, I made Pad Thai...and a lot of it. About half of the club is vegetarian, so each week the meal is either vegetarian, or has a meat option and a vegetarian-friendly option.  I opted to make mine entirely meat-free.

The first step to making Pad Thai is to soak the rice noodles according to the directions on the package.  While the noodles are soaking,  start preparing the rest of the dish.  First, scramble an egg (or two, or three, or four, depending on how many you are serving) in some olive oil.  Then, add in whatever toppings are going in your Pad Thai.  This time I used a yellow pepper, an orange pepper, a red pepper, frozen broccoli,  snap peas, onion, and edamame for some protein. I cooked these until they were tender.  Here's a close up of all the vegetables:

 

 As you can see, there were a TON of vegetables involved. After they were cooked, I needed to expand to my wok and largest pot to add in the noodles. 

 

After the noodles were added, I also added the sauce, made up of fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar.  The final step is to add in bean sprouts.  I love how bean sprouts give the dish that little bit of crunch. Finally, serve with some fresh cilantro and lime.

Spring Rolls

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with two of my friends about cooking.  We decided that we wanted to try making dumplings and spring rolls. None of us had ever tried to make either of these before.  Well, last night I decided to give spring rolls a try.  It turns out my mom has a recipe from an old family friend in her book You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free!, so I gave that recipe a shot.  It worked! The recipe contained a warning about the spring rolls breaking while frying, but all of mine came out in one piece. The first step is to prepare the filling. I used cabbage, onions, and shrimp, along with the seasonings.

While that was cooling, I soaked the spring roll wrappers (which you can buy at an Asian grocery store) in water.  They are actually made out of rice flour, and are gluten-free.  Which would make sense considering I found the recipe in a gluten-free book...

Then, I wrapped the filling in the wrappers, and fried for about ten minutes.

I also found a recipe for sauce in her book, and then kicked it up a notch with some siracha.  Yum.

My attempt at a vegan dinner

Every Saturday morning, I like to go to the farmer's market by my apartment.  This week, I decided to make my Saturday dinner (almost) exclusively from ingredients bought at the farmer's market.  I ended up having spaghetti squash sauteed in olive oil and garlic with broccoli.  I bought the squash, broccoli, and garlic at the farmer's market.  The olive oil came from my pantry. How can you go wrong with olive oil and garlic? This meal was surprisingly tasty and filling!

In case you don't know how to prepare spaghetti squash (I didn't until this fall), it's actually really easy.  You cut the squash in half length-wise and then either roast the squash in the oven for about 45 minutes or cook it in the microwave for about 5 minutes.  Then, once a fork inserts easily into the meat of the squash, run the fork across the surface of the squash, with some pressure.  The squash will come out as noodles, or "spaghetti", hence the name.