Comfort pasta: Yaki Udon in a miso sauce

I'm not going to go into what life is like right now, except to say that this last month has been a shit-storm ... and then it got a whole lot worse.

There is a dire need for comfort food in my life right now.  Something comforting, high in energy, but also healthy enough to keep me going.  Unfortunately, there has been zero opportunity to go shopping, so the pantry is getting sparse.  Thankfully I have a garden full of growing things.  

Comfort food for me starts with pasta.  You can have the chocolate and icecream.  I'm keeping the pasta.  

When I saw the udon noodles hidden under the chickpeas, I knew that's what I needed.  Yaki udon (basically meaning fried udon) sprung to mind.  Yaki udon always has cabbage, a protein and a sauce.  Usually a specific kind of sauce... a sauce that got used up weeks ago.  Too hungry to think of a better meal plan, I decided to improvize.

I found a wedge of cabbage at the back of the fridge, cut off the bad bits and shredded up enough for one serving.  The garden donated carrots, cauliflower, and green onions.  But what to use to make the sauce?  I have miso on the mind right now... so why not give it a try?

The results were delicious; albeit not photogenic.

Yaki Udon in a Miso Sauce 

(serves one)

1/2 brick of udon noodles

drizzle sesame oil

1/2 cup of shredded cabbage

1 small carrot, sliced thin

1 floret of cauliflower, sliced thin

1/2 tin tuna, drained

2 Tbs sake

1/4 tsp soy sauce or soy sub

1/2 tsp honey

1 tsp + miso or soy-free miso paste (chickpea miso tastes best in my opinion)

one green onion, chopped into rings

• Bring a small pot of water to the boil and par-boil the noodles for about one min (this is a good time to chop the veg while you wait).  Strain the noodles and place to one side.
• In a small fry pan or wok, fry the veg in sesame oil on high, until starts to brown a little around the edges.  Stir in the tuna and cook another minute.
• Add the noodles and everything else except the green onion.  Stir well and simmer at medium-high until the sauce reduces.  Stir frequently.
• Just before serving, mix in the green onion.
• Enjoy!

Fast food:  All in all this took me less than 10 minutes.  That includes digging everything out of the cupboard and garden. 

Healthy treat:  All the ingredients are good for you.  The miso, honey, veg, even the tuna.  Of course, some of these ingredients are not so health in large quantities... the salt in the miso, the sweet in the honey, the whatever-it-is in the tuna... but truthfully, these are not large quantities.  Besides, it's comfort food. Any healthy that happens is purely accidental.

Affordable: 50 cent for the noodles (if you buy the expensive ones), Somewhere between 20 to 50 cents for the rest of the stuff.   Let's round up and call it a dollar per serving.

Cooking with allergies:  This is easily customizable to accommodate allergies.  I mentioned using the soy free miso and sauce, but you can change anything you want.  Gluten free?  Just use other noodles.  Vegan? Replace the honey and tuna with (vegan friendly sweetener) and tofu.

One pot pasta comfort food or Un-recipe for pasta pottage

I've been in desperate need of comfort food lately, and when it comes to comfort food, there is nothing more soothing than pasta for me.

The trouble with pasta (aside from me eating too much) is that it's fussy.  Pasta wants specific timing, and water and sauce, and draining.  All of which requires my attention and additional dirty dishes.

Then one day I saw this recipe where you can cook the pasta and the sauce in the same pan at the same time!  Revolutionary!  

As soon as I realized that it was possible, I set about finding a way to this recipe my own.  For starters, I cut down on the volume so that it's just enough to feed one hungry farmer.  I even started cooking it in the bowl I would eat it in - a special korean ceramic bowl specifically for cooking on the stove.

The beauty of this is that it's simple, doesn't mind being left cooking for an extra two hours, and of course, it's delicious.

My un-recipe for Pasta Pottage:

1. Get a small handful of pasta from the cupboard and put it in the pot.  Add water so that all the pasta is covered.
2. Go to the garden and fetch something that looks yummy.  Beans, tomatoes, whatever.  Chop them up and toss them in.
3. Go to the cupboard and/or fridge and fetch something that looks yummy.  Sundry tomatoes, capers, olives, pre-cooked chickpeas or lentils, can tuna drained, leftover chicken breasts.  Chop it up and toss it in.
4. Spice it up.  Salt.  Pepper.  Fresh or dry herbs.  A few drops of Spicy Rooster sauce. All of the above.  Whatever floats your boat.
5. Put a lid on it.
6. Cook on medium low for at least 20 minutes, or it comes to a boil and the pasta is tender.
7. Add cheese.
8. Mix it all up.
9. Enjoy.

There you go, nine simple steps to delicious pasta.

It is an awful lot like an old fashioned pottage.  Only, unlike the pottage of old, this cooks up in as little as 20 minutes, not 6 hours.  Although, I have been known to leave it cooking for up to 3 hours.  The pasta is a bit mushy by then, but the flavour is great.

Affordable?  I think so.  Because I cram so much extra veg and stuff in the pot, I don't use much pasta.  Maybe a quarter cup at most.  And as for the additional ingredients, when I do the purely store bought stuff, I use two sundried tomatoes, half a teaspoon of capers, quarter teaspoon of chopped olives, and a few drops of spicy rooster.  Unless I have some other protein in it, I use about two tablespoons of cheese.  Somewhere between 50 cents and a dollar for a hearty meal.  Include leftovers and garden veg, replace some of the pasta with pre-cooked chickpeas, and the price plummets.  

Healthy?  That all depends on what gets tossed in the pot.  I use wholesome and simple ingredients, most of which were living plants just prior to cooking.  Of course I'm sure there is a way to make this unhealthy, but you would probably have to try really hard.  

I think this would be great for camping.  One dish, everything tossed in together: This really should be called pasta pottage.

How about allergy friendly?  A simple un-recipe like this is very simple to modify for dietary needs.  Chances are the pantry is already stocked with things you can eat, and probably also things you like to eat.  It's just a matter of going to the cupboard and finding something good.  By the way, pickles taste great in this for some weird reason - if you can find a pickle you can eat.

I think this is a fantastic dish for making use of local resources and therefore a great transitional food.  Of course when the balloon goes down, or up, or whatever they say, I imagine that dry pasta would be harder to come by as it's manufactured and shipped from far away.  But when that happens we can go back to the more traditional pottages of beans with a smattering of fresh pasta tossed in at serving time.

 

Pasta Day, one pot udon

Hey all,

I'm still around just very, very busy these days.

Family is taking top priority and most of our time.  But there is also the rush to get the garden ready and seeds in the ground growing.  Sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, alpacas and llamas all have their demands, and we love them all.  Last of all, there's the bit where we have to make the farm earn it's keep.  This involves marketing and selling, plus adding value where we can - for example preparing and spinning the wool into yarn.  This marketing part takes the most energy out of us - I grow and cook things, I find self promotion exhausting, but if I want to make this work, I need to at least try.

With all this going on, it's tempting to cancel the internet subscription for a few months while we try to catch up.  The internet is full of so much temptation  - what if I just spend a moment and look up this thing... and hours later all the conflicting opinions leave one more confused and unsure than when we started.  The internet is the tool of procrastination.  ... maybe just transfer to dial up agian... but then I would have even less impulse to blog... but is blogging simply procrastination or another form of marketing?  The former I think, otherwise I would go out and find readers for my blogs.

Lately I've had a huge craving for fresh vegetables and small fish.  Just simple meals that can be made quickly while I try to tend to other things.  I've been using spicy rooster sauce with dashi (broth made from tiny fish or seaweed) to make a really tasty broth for one pot meals.  Toss some fresh veg in the pot with half a block of udon or other noodle, then cook on medium till I remember it's there or it boils over, and it's done.  The little fish on the left are quick fried till crunchy.  They are oily and full of tiny bones, but oh so good.  If it's fried right, the bones are the same texture as the rest of the fish and it feels like eating an exhotic potato chip in your mouth, only worlds better.  Not certain what they are, but I suspect they are like sprats or maybe huge anchovies.  If you get a girl fish, they are full of thousands of eggs, the boy fish taste a little bit bitter but fry up chruncier.

I like this little Korean ceramic pot, it's the perfect size for making one person meals.  Oven and stove safe, makes it really flexible.  I eat the meal right out of the pot because the pot retains the heat and keeps the food warm - I'm a slow eater so it's nice not having to eat cold food - and it has a little lid that I can put on top of the food if I get called away in the middle of a meal, which is more often than you would think.

The only thing with these ceramic pots is not to change the temperature too drastically.  So one should really wait for the pot to cool before rinsing it in water.

Affordable, yep.  One only needs a small amount for this kind of meal to fill up on, and it will accommodate whatever is in the fridge or garden at that time.  Between 1 to 4 dollars depending on what goes in the pot, a lot less (as in under 50 cents) if I use homegrown veg and a more simple starch like rice instead of pasta.

Fast Food: as in it takes very little actual prep time to toss everything in the pot, yes I think it qualifies.  Though, because I'm using a ceramic pot, I don't like to start it on high, so it takes a while to heat up, but also because it's not on high, I don't need to wait around and stir it.  It's very forgiving.  Start to finish, 4 or 5 min of prep and 10 to 20 min of cooking, depending on what you put in the pot.

Great for an Emergency meal, you know the kind when you are dizzy with hunger and need something healthy and satisfying in a hurry.

This is one heck of a lot healthier than may of my goto emergency foodstuff.  It satisfies my need for veg, warm meal, and starch.  The only thing it needs with it is some added protein, thus the fish or a hunk of cheese.  Very accommodating to what veg are in season at the time.

I know, I know pasta day was yesterday, but we can fudge it a bit, this is the internet after all.  We can pretend that my timezone hasn't caught up to the rest of the world yet.

Pasta day: Ricotta and Chard stuffed tubes

I found these pasta tubes in a store and I thought to myself, "hmm... I've never tried that before, but I bet it will go well with chard."  Without a solid plan, I brought them home and set to work making myself a treat.

A few minutes playing with google, and I didn't find any recipe that appealed to me, so I gave up and just went with my gut instinct.  That was the best decision I made all week.  The pasta turned out So Friggin Fantastic!

The filling:  Ricotta, which ended up being home made, with chard from my garden that has been boiled and finely chopped.  Salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne.

The sauce: onion, garlic, a carrot (first of the winter carrots from the garden).  Tomato sauce, wine, spicy rooster sauce, basil, salt and pepper.

Crispy fried bacon chunks for the top.  And some more whine in the dish to help the pasta cook through.

Sorry guys, it smelt so good and I was so hungry I couldn't wait to take a good photo.

Next time I think I'll put a thin layer of sauce under the pasta tubes to help them cook evenly all around.

There are some tubes left and I have a craving to somehow combine them with squash.  hmmm... have no idea how to pull that off.

Pasta Day - Garlic pasta with garden fresh salad

Garlic pasta is basically noodles, garlic lightly fried in butter and cheese.  The salad is cucumbers and tomatoes from the garde, with a few balls of mini motza (bocconcini?), sprinkle of salt and a generous helping of olive oil.

I think that I would like to start posting (and therefore taking photos of) my Friday pasta meals.  I think it would inspire me to make more beautiful food and explore a greater variety of pasta sauces.

Pasta Day - Japanese noodle soup

Japanese noodles (dry udon I think) with dashi broth, ume pickled plums, green onions and spicy sprinkles.

Probably not the most impressive pasta dish in the world, but excellent for soothing an upset stomach.

I used Kombu Dashi which has no fish in it (basically you simmer some seaweed), so this version of noodle soup is vegan friendly.  Probably the most expensive part of this dish is the ume at about $1.25 each, but it wouldn't be any good without it. All the other ingredients come in at under a quarter, so in total, $2.75 per bowl.  Not the most affordable, but for how calming this is on the tummy, well worth it.

A special meal for a special day

I'm not big on holidays, unless they create a good excuse to cook up something special.  Today\s not an official holiday, but it is a special day for me.

I even made myself a present:

Okay, so it's not the most visually appealing meal in the world, but it sure is yummy!  I could have, and probably should have added some greens.

Duck Confit, apples stewed with rosemary in cider, and a quick and simple fettuccine with ham.  Of course a pint of cider goes really nice with the duck and the pasta.

It was extra delicious and a perfect treat for myself.

pasta bolagna

 Pasta Bolognese, or pasta bolagna as some people I know call it, is one of my favourite sauces.   It's perfect for after a long stressful week.  I kick everyone out of the kitchen, blast some music and make my favourite dinner.  There is usually enough sauce left over for later, and it only improves in taste the next day.

I use the recipe from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Food Revolution , with a few small changes (of course).  I'm not going to write out exactly what I do for this recipe because I think that everyone should go out and acquire a copy of this book.  It's my favourite recommendation to those new in the kitchen.  Just about every recipe uses things that (should be) are already in a standard kitchen.  There's no running around town searching for that specific olive that you will never use again.  In stead, this book is good, wholesome, everyday, easy to do, cooking.

Hurry up, I'm hungry.

well, if I'm putting wine in the sauce, why not poor a glass for the cook?

mess in place, or whatever the 'real' cooks call it

Today I used 1/2 pound of ground goat, and 1/2 pound of ground pork.  Omitted the celery, added extra garlic, used 1 large sweet onion instead of two regular ones, used goat cheese instead of parmesan, replaced the water with red wine, and changed the spices.

I don't have any dry oregano on hand, or any fresh basil.  So instead, I used fresh thyme.  This was amazing!  I kept taking photos trying to capture how great this was when frying up, but then I realized, it wasn't the image I was trying to capture but the smell.  Finely chopped fresh time with onions and bacon sizzling in a pan filling the house with the overwhelming feeling that a master chef had come to call.  I wish I could capture it and share it with you.

can you smell the bacon?
Such a small amount but makes all the difference
Veg and herbs waiting patiently to one side for their turn

This is what I'm talking about with the smell of the thyme.

steamy kitchen love

But other than those minor changes, I think I followed the recipe pretty close for a change.

Usually I would like to make fresh pasta with this sauce, but there wasn't enough room in the kitchen, so I did the next best thing:

Affordable cooking: oh, that depends on how much you pay for the meat.  Personally I have an extreme distrust of ground meat, so I spend extra money and only get it from somewhere I trust.  About $1 to $1.50 for veg and herbs, $3 for the tomatoes, let's say another $4 for meat = about $8.  This will server at least 6 generous servings, and this particular pasta costs about 50 cent for a serving.  That's about $1.80 to $2 per serving.  Which considering how incredibly yummy this is, isn't half bad.

Allergy friendly:  there are some potential problems with the dairy and some people have sensitivity to garlic, &c.  But so long as you can include the onions, tomatoes, and meat, the recipe is actually easy to adjust for allergies.

This is neither vegan or vegetarian friendly.  I've seen quite a few vegan versions of this sauce, but quite frankly, the meat substitute tends to distract from the overall taste.  If I wanted to cook a rich tomato sauce for a vegan or vegetarian, I would grab a good cookbook and start again from scratch instead of trying to imitate meat.  There are so many good vegan friendly pasta sauce recipes out there.  But that's just my
opinion.

 

Hoto Noodles with loads of yummy, yummy veg

As we quickly move toward the shortest day of the year, it seemed like a good idea to make a bright and cheerful udon soup hotpot.  What I love best about this are the colourful veg - actually, that's not true, what I like best is the taste and the texture.

To make the dashi (stock)

A couple of inches of Kombu (kelp) seaweed
2 Tbs dry mini anchovies (see end of recipe for how to make this vegan friendly)

• place them in cold water and let soak for half an hour
• slowly bring to the simmer (not boil as this can change the flavour of the soup) and simmer for about 5 min
• Remove the kombu from the stock and slice really thin, use as a veg for the noodle soup.  I like to leave the fish in the soup as I think it gives a nice flavour and added calcium 

To make the noodle soup

1 section of dry udon noodle

4 plants of komatsuna

2 green onions

1/2 a carrot

1/2 inch of daikon raddish

a bit of squash

some little flowers that they put in japanese soup sometimes

1 Tbs Red Bean Miso (soy free) paste

• Place the carrots and radish in the dashi and simmer for about 5 min.  
• Add the squash and noodles, simmer for 4 min
• Add the rest of the veg, and simmer for a couple of minutes
• Take a bit of the dashi stock and mix it in a bowl with the soy free miso paste, then add to the hot pot
• Serve piping hot.

This could easily be made vegan friendly by using a kombu only dashi stock.


This recipe was inspired by the Cooking With Dog video, Hoto Noodles.  The video has all sorts of extra goodies like mushrooms and napa cabbage.  I just made mine with what ingredients I had on hand and some komatsuna I found at the local Japanese food store.

where I find some soy-free miso paste and eat pasta on Friday

Scroll down for recipe for very quick, Cry-Baby Cucumber Pickles.

If you ever are in a grocery store and you see a person with a foolish grin on her face cradling a bottle of something in her arms as if it's a precious and fragile as a baby chick, then you probably saw me yesterday.

I've looked everywhere I could think of in town for No-Soy Miso.  I'm surprised by how little miso is for sale in town these days, soy or otherwise.  Finally took a long shot and went across town to one final health food shop.  Thought I would have to beg for them to order it in, but nope.  As soon as I got inside I saw a huge double fridge full of miso, with one whole shelf dedicated to South River non-soy Miso paste.  Absolutely thrilled.

I choose a chickpea miso as it's the one everyone seems to talk about.  There is no soy in it.  It's made with salt, rice, koji and chickpeas.  It smells and tastes a lot like I remember white miso paste and tastes relatively mild.  It has a chunky texture with the occasional whole chickpea in it.



Once I got home, I realized that it's been over a decade since I've used miso.  I stopped cooking with it even before I knew I had a soy sensitivity due to the stomach ache.  I couldn't remember what to do with it.

I took a small taste and the first thing that came to mind is that it would taste good with popcorn.  It's the oddest food intuition I've ever had and I don't know if it is something I want to try, but there you have it, first reaction.


Instead of popcorn, I took a spoon full in a small mug, finely chopped some chives and added boiling water.

It was Okay, but tasted a lot like I remember miso tasting.  Since my body is use to getting sick from eating traditional, soy based miso, it was difficult to get over the negative physical reaction my body has to miso soup.

The South River's miso is very chunky in texture and I don't think this is the best way to eat it as it tasted like hot water, with flavourful chunks in it.  I think if I wanted to make an 'instant' miso soup I would mash this up quite a bit more.  Might add a pinch of Shio Koji if I were to make some miso balls.



I don't know if it's a function of his age, but The Ancient has a bit of a mean streak and usually takes it out on me.  I call this the dinner of tears as I needed comfort food after one of his insensitivities.

Chick Pea miso soup I talked about before, some anise bread, salami, garlic pasta (because it's Friday) and  cry-baby cucumber pickles.

Cry-Baby Cucumber Pickles

Half a young cucumber
small pinch of salt
1 drop sesame oil
pinch of sesame seeds

• Thinly slice the cucumber in half moon slices.
• In a bowl, massage cucumber with salt until they start to weep.
• With your hands, squeeze out your frustration and excess moisture from cucumber.
• Gently massage one or two drops of sesame oil in with the cucumber slices.
• Top with tear drop shaped sesame seeds.

How to make Fresh Pasta

Farm fresh eggs have a bright orange yolk and delightfully rich taste.  The breed of the hen, the health of the chicken, the diet, the environment and especially the happiness level of the bird all influence the taste and texture of the egg.  No flat, single egg taste here, but instead, undertones and overtones in the flavour of the egg tell the hen's story with every bite.  That's what farm fresh eggs means to me - and this is coming from someone who doesn't like eggs all that much.

It's been several years since I made pasta from scratch.  How did I managed to not make fresh pasta when I have such delightful eggs?  Why did I wait so long?

If you have one of those machines, pasta making (in small batches) can be the work of minutes.  It takes longer to set up the equipment than it does for me to actually make the pasta.  For some reason, cleaning up this time was way easier than I remember it .  

I use the recipe from The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia which is pretty standard.  The book goes into more detail than I do here, but I haven't seen it published for a few years, and it can be quite costly to get your hands on.  So if you see a copy of this book, snatch it up quick.  It is AMAZING.

Fresh Pasta

Makes enough for 2 to 4 people.

2 eggs

1 cup flour plus more for dusting

pinch of salt

• Combine flour and salt, make a well for the eggs.  Add egg and mix until a stiff dough forms.  Break the dough into two or three pieces.  We will work with one piece at a time, repeat for the other sections of dough.
• With your pasta maker on the thickest setting, pass the dough through the rollers.  Dust with flour if it becomes sticky.  Fold the dough in three, then pass through the rollers again.  Do this four or more times until the dough starts to go stiff.
• Change the setting on the pasta maker to be one thinner.  Pass the dough through the rollers.  Then make it one setting thinner again, pass the dough through the rollers... repeat until the sheet of pasta is thin enough.  I usually stop at setting 7 of 9, but if I want really fine pasta, I'll go thinner.
• Dust lightly with flour and leave that section to rest while you do the same with the other sections.
• Pass the pasta through your pasta cutter rollers.  Lightly dust the pasta with flour if sticky then either hang the pasta on a pasta hanger or make little single portion birds nests like I did.
• You want to leave the pasta to dry at least 15 minutes before using.  

If you dry the pasta completely you can put it in an air tight container and keep for up to two months in a cool dark place (cupboard).  Or you can keep it for two or three days in the fridge as is before using.  Just make sure you 'package' them in single serving sections otherwise it's a real challenge to seporate later on.

To cook the pasta, make certain you are absolutely ready for it with the sauce and plates and everything!  Bring the water to a full rolling boil and put the pasta in all at once.  Stir around so it doesn't stick together and keep a very close eye on it.  Fresh pasta can take as little as 15 seconds to cook, but usually takes about a minute at full boil.  

Note: if you pasta maker starts squeaking, put a few drops of olive (or other food safe oil) in the joints.  

Fresh pasta tastes so decadent compared to dry store bought pasta, that I often wonder at them being called the same thing.

Happy Friday

A Corn Moon rises

Last night I saw the full moon rising among the trees.  It was one of those run-back-inside-and-fetch-your-camera moments.  I'm always amazed at how the moon rises in a different part of the sky every full moon. And I am always saddened how my camera is unable to capture the clarity of the moment.

If I remember correctly this moon is called a Corn Moon in England.  Corn being an old English word meaning grain.   Thinking about grain reminds me how much I want to make some pasta from scratch using the farm fresh eggs.  I've never made pasta from my hen's eggs, but given how rich and delicious they are in everything else, I know it's going to be something extra special.  Maybe this Friday I can set aside some special pasta making time just for me.