April 29, 2013: Chilled Tofu

Oh, dear…I’m afraid I may lose some of you with this one. [sigh] Well, who must do the hard things? Those who believe they must!

Chilled tofu is probably not your first choice of foods. In fact, drawing from a quick poll of friends and fellow-workers provided info that it was no single persons first choice of foods! But it is (often) MY first choice and I hope to tell you why. I can particularly hear my sister Mary Lou’s voice in my head “TOFU…bleeech!” Well, I will make a deal with Moo and the rest of my readers. Make it through this one, and I promise to concoct one very rich and decadent recipe at some point in the future (…and yes, I will entertain suggestions!)

Ok. So tofu….now wait….giiiiiive it chance!….tofu has a number of things going for it. Shall I list them?

Healthy: Yes, tofu is so healthy, that it has been virtually a cliché connected with health since…well…forever! As tofu has a naturally neutral flavor on its own, we are always tempted to either fry tofu or add gravy (sometimes both) all of which reduce the natural health factor. Instead, I find a light sauce, spices or just tasty veggies add flavor to tofu without adding excess calories. My litmus test for a healthy food is any one that I can eat and immediately go on my 5 mile run. Raw tofu, fresh fruit, and a chilled salad are the only meals I know that I can easily do this.

Variety of Texture: Tofu comes in a many textures to appeal to individual tastes. I prefer a very firm texture, but if you like softer textures, you can go for a silken tofu which is very much like custard in texture. Every texture between firm and silken exists.

Speed of Preparation: Preparing raw tofu is a quick two-step process: wash tofu and put under a press for about 10 minutes to remove excess water. The only added time is limited only by the time needed to prepare the food served with the tofu.

Decorative: Raw tofu adds a white base that combines well with other bold colors to make a simple, but attractive hors d’oeuvre.

Versatility of Tastes: As tofu takes on the tastes of any food it is served with, that means you have practically an infinite variety of taste combinations.

I can hardly consider the meal I made above to be a “recipe” per se, it was so simple. I cleaned and pressed tofu and cut fairly large pieces. I grated a carrot, chopped a spring onion, and grated a small piece of ginger. The sauce is half a commercial “spicy, brown, bean sauce” and half shoyu. As I mentioned, the variety of things you may add is limitless. My other favorites: toasted sesame seeds; thinly sliced nori; steamed, drained, cold spinach; grated daikon; and hot sauce.

I believe the reason many people hate tofu is because they have never had a good brand. Sadly, the stuff they sell in super markets are the worst examples. The best you will find is the home-made kind found in a Chinatown kind of market. The next best you can buy is at a health-food store.

Chilled tofu is wonderful on a hot Summer day, delicious with green tea, beer, or sake.

September 07, 2012: Matchstick Salad

Here’s are super-simple, super-light, super-healthy salad for the last hot days of Summer.

Skin and matchstick three medium carrots and a small jicama (or daikon, Japanese white radish). Wash and matchstick two stalks of celery and a small zucchini. Wash and matchstick a small eggplant; rinse, salt and let sit for 20 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Dry eggplant on paper towels. Skin, de-seed and matchstick a small cucumber. Thinly slice a mild red pepper. This makes about 4 C. veggies. Add 1/2 C. rice vinegar and one Tblsp. mirin to veggies. Chill. Top with toasted sesame seeds and crumbled toasted nori.

May 01, 2012: PSA Green Potatoes

Green Potaotoes...save them for your spud-cannon. NOT for eating!!!

A couple of weekends ago I went to a friend’s house to celebrate his birthday. In the course of the day, his 9-year-old daughter, knowing things…well…could be better for me these days, kindly gave me a bag of potatoes. I t was a very appreciated gesture, particularly coming from someone so young.

Last weekend I endeavored to work upon a baked potato recipe with these potatoes for the blog, however after I baked the potatoes and cut them open to put the finishing touches on the recipe, I discovered they were green below the surface, so in our first PSA, The World of Okonomy is spreading the dangers of green potatoes.

Potatoes, like tomatoes, and eggplant are part of the nightshade family, and as such can prove poisonous under certain conditions. The green under the skin of potatoes happens when potato tubers are exposed to light. The green that you see is chlorophyll, which is in itself harmless, but a dangerous neurotoxin, solanine, is tacked onto the chlorophyll. Solanine poisoning can cause headache, hallucinations, vomiting, diarrhea,  cardiac dysrhythmia, and in great amounts ingested and/or a weakened state of the afflicted, even death.

The  solanine production is the plant’s natural defense from being ingested by insects or animals. Keeping potatoes in a cool, dry and dark environment is the best way to counteract solanine poisoning. My house is naturally pretty dark, but still I store my potatoes in a clementine box covered over with another box to keep light to a minimum. This keeps them dry, cool, and dark yet allows me to smell if any potato goes off. The potatoes can last sometimes a month or more. Their eyes will sprout, but I just pull them off, scrub the potato, and cook.

You don’t have to worry too much if you get an odd potato chip that has a green spot, just be sure that you are not serving whole green potatoes to the family, particularly, kids and older people.

What to do with my excess of poisonous spuds. Well, a few years ago I spent an afternoon with my nephew launching potatoes out of his spud-cannon into a field, that was more fun than I would’ve ever imagined. Green potatoes: cannon fodder, YES! Eating, NO!

November 09, 2011: Salad Dreams & Copper

There’s a little boy on my front stoop. The strong, low angle of the Autumn sun filters through his blond lashes to light his beautiful young face, so light in color, that it almost hurts to look at him. Harrison is 5 years old, and his mouth is slightly smudged with the chocolate donut with sprinkles he is munching. Alternate to his bites, he is gulping from a small container of milk that he cradles with two hands and this makes me wonder at what point in our life do we gain the confidence to grasp our containers with the one hand, and what measure of innocence do give up along with that particular transition.

Lisa, Harry’s mom, has surprised me with a spontaneous visit, just when I thought the highlight of the day was to reduce a pile of wood, from fallen trees of last weekends’ storm, to kindling. She has kindly brought donuts and coffee, junk food that is, these days, almost devoid from my diet. As we soak in the unseasonable warmth and sunlight, Harry, way ahead of the adults meandering, has wolfed down the donut and is sorting through the limestone gravel of my driveway and proclaims that he has found “gold”…actually a yellowed, weathered piece of limestone. This prompts an impulse that sends me inside to search my nick-nack shelf and I am pleased to find a genuine piece of raw copper that I can hand over to Harry with the explanation of the difference of the two metals. Harry pockets both the limestone and copper in his red fleece.

We walk around back, first to see a pile of wood from the huge branches that fallen around, and through my deck. Kind neighbors have helped clear the branches from the deck, but the devastation remains. Harry, weirded out by the wreckage, will not step upon the remains of the deck, despite our assurances that it is safe…now. Remembering how just a few nights earlier, when both oak and pine fell inches from where I was sleeping, with massive destruction, and after a night of worrying that a larger branch would squash me like a bug, I get Harry’s hesitation.

Harry has a goal today: he is on a quest to find a particular “Ninjago” an obscure (to me anyway) Lego toy and we are off to Target. Now, I must have been in a Target before, but I really don’t remember a better time shopping anywhere. I tease Lisa that I have the best times in her company, and it is a double pleasure when Harry is along. I don’t know what I find more entertaining: Lisa being startled by the automatic toys firing up as we pass by, or Harry’s ease and knowledge of how they work.

It is a kind of relief to find that the original recipes that I make for this blog, come from a familiar source. Whether a good photograph idea, a recipe, and even these days, that story idea, it’s all from  that creative essence that comes in quiet times. Running, a shower, the dreaming fugue just before sleeping, spark the source and ideas just flow. The other night, before sleeping, I was musing how I could use the last of the supplies from my friend Pamela. The salad just had to have Pam’s canned beet slices and her magnificent find from her CSA: Watermelon Radish. Musing, the recipe just coalesced in my mind.

I had a shopping list for materials for the salad, still just in my imagination, without any real means to buy them. Between rounds of tag around endcaps with Lisa and Harry, Lisa put a basket in my hand and shooed me off towards the food aisles to “get what I needed” and the salad, thanks to her kindness, could then reach the reality phase.

After, we were off to the Wayside candy store. I helped Harry get his rainbow dose of multi-colored M&Ms, Lisa got some penuche fudge, and I, on my quest for the perfect soft licorice, tried theirs. We then tried to walk in for lunch at the Wayide Inn, but being a warm Autumn weekend, we were out of luck. We had to settle on pizza and eggplant parmesan at a local pizza shop (more junk food!) A perfect visit, on a perfect Autumn day!

For the salad, preheat the oven to 350°F. On tin foil, roast walnuts, turning often, for about 20-30 minutes, until toasted. Cool. On a base of Baby Spring Mix salad, I added slices of Pam’s beets and Watermelon Radish. I had never heard of this radish before, until Pam brought me some from her CSA. This radish is delicate in taste, without the heat of our smaller radish, but with enough zip for a unique addition to a salad. It’s got just the tiniest bite, a real snap in texture and is very pretty. Just remove the skin and slice thin. I topped the salad with craisins, chunks of blue cheese, and the toasted walnuts. I finished with the following vinaigrette and ground pepper and a sprinkling of Herbs de Provence.

Vinaigrette:  Add 1 Tblsp. Balsamic Vinegar to 3 Tblsp. Olive oil and 1 Teasp. Honey. Mix well.

October 22, 2011: Shredded Daikon

My friend Pamela gave a slew of fresh veggies last week, from her CSA. All have been very delicious, but the most interesting was four daikon radish. Daikon is a larger (generally about 6″-1′ long by about 2-3″ circumference) white variety of the radish family, originally from Japan. It is not nearly as hot as the American red variety of radish, but is mild, juicy, and with just a tiny bit of hot and sweetness combined. Daikon is full of vitamin C, and is good for digestion. It is delicious as an accompaniment to just about any Japanese meal or as a healthy snack.

If daikon comes with leaves, cut them  off (you can blanch these and fry in a little sesame oil, for a great veggie side dish.) Skin daikon root and save skin for stock. Shred daikon and drain juices in colander, but don’t let daikon dry out. After sampling, I wanted a bit more heat, so I added 1Tblsp. of my pepper mixture from last week “October 20, 2011: Prepping Peppers” to about the 5C. of shredded daikon. Add a sprinkling of sal de mer, mix, put daikon in a jar and cover with rice vinegar.

The result is an interesting and delicious mix of hot, sweet, sour, and with a tiny bit of salt in a perfect balance. Tantalizing and complex to the tastebuds, healthy for the body.

October 20, 2011: Prepping Peppers

As I am watching every penny these days I keep a close watch on the reduced rack of the produce department. My challenge/game is to find the best buy there and make a creative meal of whatever that is. With a little imagination it usually works out pretty well.

About twice a year, I find the produce department has put a lot of hot peppers on the reduced rack. They all have slight blemishes, but they are mostly fine. The other day I picked up about 1/2 pound of assorted hot peppers for only $0.60!

The most important thing about working with these peppers, is that you never know how hot they are going to be, so it’s best to protect yourself! Always wear disposable latex gloves and be careful not to touch any skin with the juice from the peppers. In fact, the best way to think of these hot capsicum beauties is to consider them closer to a pathogen than a foodstuff (they are in the nightshade family!) I once took a deep breath while cutting peppers and ended up choking from the capsicum fumes!

Wash peppers, and with your hands protected by the gloves, slice peppers in half, remove all bruised areas and the stem of the pepper, scrape out the seeds and discard them. Dice the peppers and mix with half olive oil and half white vinegar, so that peppers are covered. Refrigerate. The peppers will keep for a long time as microbes can’t live in such a hot and acidic mixture. I put a small spoonful of the chopped peppers in my morning omelette or in a stir-fry. I usually get through each batch of peppers, just in time for the next lot of peppers to appear on the reduced rack.

August 30, 2011: Speaking at Geese

Lisa's Salad

Yesterday, I had a very enjoyable visit from my good friend Lisa, and her 5 year old son, Harry. Lisa remembered the fantastic candy shop a few miles from my house and she wanted to show it to Harry.

There is a pretty gazebo along the river, near the shop that I wanted to show Lisa. As we pulled into a parking space close to it and before we could exit the car, we were swarmed by a gaggle of geese and a flock of ducks. You could tell these guys were spoiled rotten by visitors and you could almost see them asking “Bread? Bread?” with their squawking, as they streamed towards the car.  With only candy on our mind we had forgotten sufficient bribes for a swarm of hungry aquatic fowl. As I’ve had some experiences with the irritable nature of geese on my runs, I thought I had a good solution: I picked up a phragmite from a field and started brushing it slowly in front of us as we went along. This worked well as the flock calmly scooted ahead of us so that we could reach the gazebo. The view from the gazebo revealed even more geese, ducks and the odd seagull between the gazebo and the river. Never ones to waste a captive audience, we proceeded to present a lecture of utter nonsense:

‘The time has come, to talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax —
Of cabbages — and kings –“

Although the heckling was at a minimum, I got the distinct sense that the audience thought they could skip the circus and go right for the bread.

Then it was on to the candy shop. Now, you’ve all seen candy shops, but not like this one. This place is as if  Willy Wonka and the owners of Honeydukes from Harry Potter got together and designed a shop after an all-night Redbull bender! These guys have everything! I mean: EV-ER-Y THING! All the classics I remember: Pixie-stix, Mary Janes, Wax Lips, Root Beer Barrels, as well my particular (and admittedly odd) fave: the orange sponge-candy peanut. For some reason, I seem to be the only person in the world who likes these things. They also had all the new candies, fudge choices galore, custom bon-bons…the works! As a test, I asked the owner if she had horehound. Now, if you’ve never heard of horehound, don’t fret, most people haven’t heard of it, let alone actually tasted it…and you probably wouldn’t like it anyways. It’s one of those “old” candies that was big in my granddads’ day, and you don’t find much anymore. It’s tastes as if you had crystalized Dr. Pepper into hard candy.  Well, they had horehound! The oddest things were the novelties: giant gummy rats for Halloween and gumballs so big I wondered how it was possible that anyone could eat them! To add a touch of weirdness to the whole experience, their power was still out from Irene, but they gave a lantern to little Harry so he could pick out his M&Ms from every color of the rainbow!

We also tried the colonial shop next door but after two minutes Harry announced that it was “BOOORRRING,” so it was on to soccer on the green down at the mill. Harry, that little rascal (once he got the idea to kick it where I was NOT) scored on me twice while his mom rested on the rock by the cool stream coming from the mill. At lunch, I found out what a little charmer Harry actually is. In no time, he had totally won over our pretty, sloe-eyed waitress with his flirting, and she flirted back as they played Harry’s game of “spy.” I experienced just the slightest twinge of jealousy at Harry’s natural skill and ease, as it brought to mind one of Dickens’ quotes from a “Christmas Carol:”

           “I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. …”

Lisa was then kind enough to take me shopping to fill up my rapidly depleting larder stores. She had also brought with her a huge supply of Asian foodstuffs. It was then on to the beach, and it was here I had found my Achilles heel: floaties. Yes, floaties are my Kryptonite. With all my running, sprinting and kayaking Lisa could blow up a 2′ floaty four times faster than I (and honestly, I eventually had to give up!) But, while Harry splashed and made sand castles, I could find the home for the friendly stray sheepdog that suddenly appeared on the beach, trailing its tow line.

After the beach, I made a salad from the stuff Lisa brought while Lisa and Harry played “Chutes & Ladders” and “Pigmania.” I asked Lisa what she had in mind for a dressing for the salad and she described one that was very similar to something I have made before, so I will just refer you to the dressing from my article  July 16, 2011: Spinach-Noodle Salad For the salad we had Romaine and Arugula salad as a base, topped with sliced pepper, avocado, fried tofu, and fresh tomatoes from Harry’s garden. Lisa brought a topping I’ve never seen before, called wakame chazuke which is a mixture of small pieces of wakame (a Japanese dried seaweed) and miniature riceballs. With this, the dressing, and also topped with toasted sesame, it really made for a unique and tasty salad.

Harry, the finicky eater that he is, would try none of the salad, of course, but as he was leaving I got him to try one of the orange sponge-candy peanuts and he loved it! Ahhh! Maybe candy peanuts will not go the way of horehound, after all!

January 07, 2011 Goma-Dare Dressing

Here’s a variation of a traditional Japanese dressing that is wonderful on fresh (or cooked) vegetables, tofu, meat, fish…the works!

My variation started a couple of weeks ago when my good friend Lisa, on a visit, requested only two things: steamed veggies and a Thai peanut sauce. I blended a number of peanut sauce recipes and then reformed the traditional goma-dare sauce to include what I had learned from the Thai recipe. To get closer to the original, simply substitute tahini instead of peanut butter. I prefer the stronger flavor of peanut butter, but that depends on what you are serving it with.

Goma-Dare Dressing:

• 1/2 Chili Pepper (minced fine)
• 1/2 Clove Elephant Garlic or 1 Clove garlic (minced fine)
• 1/2 Shallot (minced fine)
• 4 Tblsp. Corn Oil
• 2/3C. Peanut Butter (smooth)
• 2 Tblps. Rice Wine Vinegar
• 1 Tblsp. each: mirin; shoyu (soy sauce); concentrated shiitake broth (or Dashi)
• 3/4C. Broth or H2O
• Dash of pepper and salt
• 1 Tsp. Miso

I knew I was going to love this dressing, based on my trials with the Thai sauce, so this recipe makes twice as much. It keeps for about a week and you may find it complements other meals. If not, simply cut the recipe in half. Also, for cold dishes (like my salad) you need to make it ahead of time, so that it cools.

In a small pan, on medium high, heat oil, and add all the minced vegetables with salt and pepper. Sauteé until veggies are soft. Lower heat and add peanut butter, rice vinegar, mirin, shoyu, shiitake broth and veggie broth and wisk. I added my own veggie broth (but H2O will do, if you don’t have any). Continue heating until flavors are blended. Take off heat, let cool for 10 min. and wisk in miso. Serve immediately for hot dishes or cool for salads and cold veggies.

My salad above is matchsticked carrots, cucumber, celery, red onion and, after the sauce was added, sliced scallions. All on a bed of Romaine leaves.

April 22, 2010: Review LifeAlive Restaurant in Lowell, Ma

LifeAlive Natural Food Restaurant-Lowell, Ma. (photos by Y. Saito via IPhone)

To be honest…it’s not the easiest thing to get great taste with the most healthy ingredients.  As much as we all know that raw vegetables are the best thing for us, it takes knowledge, imagination, and skill to make raw vegetables not only palatable but a culinary feast.

So, while visiting Yoshio today, and he knowing I’ve been a vegetarian for many years, he recommneded having lunch at LifeAlive, an organic cafe located at 194 Middle St. in Lowell, Ma. They say first impressions are the most important: LifeAlive has a cozy “New Age” decor with real art on the walls and comfortable furniture that made the place feel like a friend’s house. The staff was cheery and informative: whenever Yoshio goes to a new place he seems to query the staff for their opinions on the best food. The staff person immediately replied that while all the food was very good, his current favorite was “The Adventurer” which is base of short grain brown rice and quinoa topped with pieces of kale, chopped beets, bits of tofu, toasted almonds, and melted cheddar cheese with a sauce of sesame-ginger-nama. “The Adventurer” was delicious combination of tastes with each ingredient having a distinct character of its own, yet combined wonderfully together. Special touches like the warm toasted almonds and especially how the slightly sour of the beets combined with the creaminess of the cheese were wonderful. I asked Yoshio if he knew what “nama” was, and when he said “no” I asked the clerk and she said that it was “raw” shoyu (soy sauce)! When I went back to Yoshio to say that I think “nama” was Japanese, he asked me to spell it. He took a second and had that “AHA” look and said “Oh, yeah “nama” is “fresh” in Japanese”

[Yet another example of how bad my Japanese is. Whenever I cook Japanese meals at Teja’s house and I ask for “mirin” (Japanese sweet-ish vinegar) Teja…every time…and Teja, I love you man, but is every time, he get’s these curly eyebrows and asks “What’s that?” After saying ‘mirin” three times and then spelling it, he looks at me and says “OH! mirin…yeah I’ve got some”]

My “Seductress” wrap was also very good: a slightly toasted wheat tortilla warpped around shredded beet and carrot, kale, broccoli and hard-poached egg. Delicious!

We met the owner, Heidi Feinstein, who it turns out is a nutritionist who clearly loves providing this kind of food that is “closer to the source” with 95% of her food from raw ingredients. Bostonians will be pleased to know that she will be opening a LifeAlive at 765 Massachusetts Ave,  Central Sq. this September. Visit their website: http://www.lifealive.com

LifeAlive: tasty, healthy, fun. Food doesn’t get any better (or better for you) than this.