Week T-4: Seafood stock, Williams Sonoma Vegetarian cookbook


I'm fairly sure we're at T-4 weeks now - though that's just a guess. I'm also sure that I am ready to throw everything in my cupboards out the window. It's time for spring cleaning - I have a really really strange set of things in my spice cabinet, my fridge, and my pantry. I think the overview of my attempt to clean all three out will be the next blog entry.

For now, I'm happy to report success in my latest experiment. I looked through the Vegetarian cookbook and found a cold soba noodle dish that would use up some soba in my pantry, and also reintroduce vegetables to my diet after a long hiatus. I did have to tweak the recipe a little. First, I was at Safeway and was unable to find kelp and some of the baby veggies required - though much to my surprise, they did have baby zucchini and some really fun sunrise squash. They also had sheets of nori, which I thought I'd have to forgo. I added leek instead of green onion - because I had some left over from cooking two weeks ago. See the photo above - I took it next to my computer mouse to get some scale.




The other change I made was a bit of a departure - I wanted to use the seafood stock, and some leftover smoked salmon, which made the dish technically not vegetarian. Not really even vegetarian at all, actually. That said, the salmon was very salty and perfect for the dish. It was also very pretty, and quite good.

Week T-6: Better Than Bullion

In a very weak attempt at finishing this task, I replaced beef broth with that made from Better Than Bullion, Mushroom Flavor while braising short ribs. It worked fine - the ribs were great and I'm not sure that mushroom would be better or different than beef.

The dinner, by the way was wonderful and unphotographed. With the short ribs (and a sauce of reduced braising liquid), we served a leek and potato gratin and an arugula salad. The leeks, sourced from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, were about two pounds each - and seriously the size of my forearm (if my forearm had a very large fan-shaped palmlike end to it). The arugula was mixed with fresh strawberries - both from the Farmer's Market as well - and some pine nuts, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. It's unrealistic to think I could dump my life and go live on a farm, but when eating fresh food, it's tempting!