Category: Vegetable

Corona Protection

Worked well until December 2022

Bake rice: Oven 375º. Square, lidded Pyrex dish. 2 cups short grain brown rice. 3 cups boiling water. Salt. Around a tablespoon of oil. Combine and bake for 50 minutes.

Bake chicken: Square, lidded Pyrex dish. 4 chicken breast halves. Salt and pepper. Cover and bake for 25 minutes in oven with rice.

Make sauce: Around a 1/2 cup of soy sauce, a heaping spoon of cornstarch. Combine. Then add around a 1/3 cup rice cooking wine, a good splash of sesame oil and a few pressed garlic cloves. Stir together.

Cut vegetables: 1 onion sliced into stripes. 3 carrots sliced on the diagonal. 1 red and 1 yellow pepper sliced into stripes. Small head of cauliflower cut into florets. 2 small heads of broccoli cut into florets.

Chicken: Remove from oven when ready and cut into cubes.

Make stir-fry: Heat lidded pan/wok with a little oil. Add onions and maybe a little salt. Sautee for a few minutes. Add carrots and a little water. Cover for a few minutes. Add cauliflower and a little water. Cover for a few minutes. Add peppers and a little water. Cover for a few minutes. Add broccoli and a little water. Cover for a few minutes. Uncover and add chicken, add sauce, add more water if needed, turn up heat and stir until sauce thickens. Serve over rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Summer Roll

I make 3 per person. Here I’m making 12. Sometimes the ingredients get a little tilted by the end. I usually run out of avocado first.

For this three person version, you’ll need:
1/4 of a 14oz package of rice stick noodles
36 shrimp peeled and deveined or frozen
1 carrot julienned
1 cucumber julienned
Rice vinegar
2 cups cabbage (Napa, Savoy, Green…) sliced thin
1 Avocado halved and finely sliced
24 sprigs of cilantro
24 basil leaves
12 25cm extra-thin spring roll wrappers (or 22cm look for Dynasty brand)
Sweet chili sauce for dipping
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Cooking equipment I used:
9×9 Pyrex baking dish
4 quart saucepan

2 cups boiling water in a 9×9 casserole dish or something close to that. Break up a quarter of a 14oz package of rice stick noodles and soak for about ten minutes then drain in colander. Cut up a bit with scissors.

36 shrimp. 3 for each roll. I buy frozen medium size wild-caught white shrimp and flash them in lightly salted boiled water for 3 minutes (turn burner off as soon as shrimp are in. Then drain in colander and remove tails).

On a big cutting board with prep bowls if needed:
1 carrot julienned (I have a hand-held Japanese Kinpira julienne tool thing)
1 cucumber cut lengthwise and seeded. Julienne half. Thinly slice other half and put in bowl with some rice vinegar.
About 2 cups of cabbage finely sliced (Napa, Savoy, green, or whatever)
1 avocado cut in halves and sliced thin
Cilantro leaves and tender stalk
24 or so basil leaves

12 25cm extra-thin spring roll wrappers.

With enough space on cutting board to roll and a 9×9 casserole dish with hot water next to it, rotate wrapper through hot water, place on cutting board and begin to load about a third of the way down the wrapper: basil leaves and shrimp next to each other and then everything else on top. Tuck in sides and roll.

Serve cucumber slices in small dishes topped with toasted sesame seeds and sweet chili sauce for dipping. I usually make sushi rice as a side.

Copyright © 2018 MRuesen • All rights reserved

Flu Prevention Diet

Worth the time. And the red stained hands.

6 medium or 4 large beets stems and greens removed
1 small yellow onion finely diced
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
4 to 6 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Cooking equipment I used:
8 quart stockpot

Cut stems and greens from beets. Place in pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Continue on a slow boil until knife pierces beet easily. Half hour or so for small/medium and sometimes an hour for big ones. When done, reserve 1 cup of beet water. Set aside to cool.

In a small saucepan, combine beet water, a small yellow onion finely diced, one cup white wine vinegar, quarter cup sugar, four to six cloves, teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for around five minutes.

Meanwhile, trim ends off beets, pull skin off, slice or dice beets however you want. Combine beets and sauce in covered container and refrigerate overnight. Pull out a few hours before eating to let them warm up a bit.

Serve with hot tea and an orange.

Copyright © 2018 MRuesen • All rights reserved

Cucumber

When life gives you cucumbers….

This is best made a few hours before serving. Start with this basic recipe and then see how it tastes. I usually end up adding a little more vinegar or sugar. You can also add chopped fresh dill or red pepper flakes for a different take. Or more garlic.

4 cucumbers, skins removed and seeds scooped out, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed or put through a garlic press
salt to taste

Copyright © 2017 MRuesen • All rights reserved

Tabbouleh

The first time I had this was in a Persian restaurant in Washington DC. A salad of parsley. It’s a bit of a pain to make, especially since I don’t like parsley stems, but foolproof.

1 1/2 cups bulgar wheat (medium or coarse)
2 big bunches of parsley
1 small red onion
2 large tomatoes
1 cup lemon juice (4-5 lemons)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh or dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste

Start proofing the bulgar wheat. There are many ways to do this. I’ve settled on putting it into a mesh strainer fitted into a saucepan—shown above—and running hot water over it to wet the grains until the water reaches the top. I sit it by the sink and about 45 minutes later it’s all puffed up and you can just pick the strainer up and let the water run out.

While this is going on, get out a large bowl, the biggest one you have. Finely dice the tomatoes and put them in your bowl and sprinkle with salt. Set aside.

In a 2 cup measuring cup, add a half cup of olive oil and stir in the mint; finely minced if using fresh. Squeeze the lemons and add to the olive oil.

Now finely dice the red onion and add it to the olive oil and lemon juice mixture.

Now the parsley. I don’t like stems so I painstakingly pluck the leaves and then coarsely chop them. But you can do this however you want.

Once the bulgur is drained and ready, add everything to the bowl with the tomatoes. Add freshly ground pepper to taste or not.

Watch it disappear in less time than it took to make.

Copyright © 2017 MRuesen • All rights reserved