July Daring Cooks Challenge: Cooking with Nut Butters

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

You really can't go wrong with nut butters and I've definitely wanted to explore a bit beyond my usual peanut butter, so this challenge was very exciting.  Exciting until I remembered that my food processor isn't being cooperative.  Luckily, our fearless hosts allowed some flexibility and so I got to play with peanut butter and will definitely make the rest of the recipes offered up in this challenge in coming months to try them all out. 

The upside to being a little less adventurous with this challenge is that I found a recipe that actually was really easy to prep the night before and will make an interesting, tasty and fairly healthy lunch for work.  I don't usually get that out of these challenges. 

The recipe I went with was the Asian Noodles with Cashew Dressing.  I hoped upon hope that Trader Joe's would have cashew butter for me to test out, but as they didn't, I went for peanut butter with flax seeds.  Still a bit of an experiment, if not a challenge. 

Food processing the old fashioned way!I made the dressing the night before with peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic and ginger (and, of course, sriracha for heat).  The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of sugar and while I decided to go with 2 instead, I completely forgot about substituting with another sweetener - definitely go for it. Of course the recipe also called for a food processor here, but I used some elbow grease and a whisk since bits of garlic and ginger never worried anyone around here. 

Next, I sliced up some cucumbers, carrots and fresh green beans and mixed them together with cashew pieces and chopped Thai basil (from the garden!) and let that hang out in the fridge.  Then...I rested. 

Before work I quickly cooked up some rice noodles to finish off the salad and assembled in the morning.  Success! A light, crunchy, nutty salad that is easy to assemble in the morning and bring on the road - think work, picnics, car travel...

Stay tuned for further installments of my nut butter adventures wherein I actually make my own and play with things like cashews and pecans. 

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew (or Peanut) Dressing (adapted from Daring Cooks Challenge)
Yield: 4 servings

Recipe notes: Customize the salad by adding or substituting your favorite vegetables. Shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, and slivered carrots would make nice additions. Obviously, you can omit the shrimp, or substitute chicken or tofu or the protein of your choice. The dressing is equally as good with peanut butter rather than cashew butter. We tested the dressing with nut butters made from salted cashews & peanuts with good results.

Ingredients:

Cashew Butter:
1 cup (240 ml) cashews*

Cashew Dressing:
½ inch (1 cm) slice of fresh ginger, chopped
8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped
½ cup (120 ml) cashew butter
¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) sugar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) vinegar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) toasted sesame oil
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon (75 ml) water
Hot sauce to taste (optional)

Noodle Salad:
1/2 pound (225 g) linguine or thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
1/2 pound (225 g) small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced
1/4 cup (60 ml) sliced green onions
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) chopped cashews (optional garnish)
Lime wedges (optional)

Directions:

1. Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. (*Or start with ½ cup (120 ml) prepared cashew butter.)
2. Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups (360 ml) dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
3. Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes or until opaque throughout. Alternately, cook shrimp in boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes or until done.
5. Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl. Add about ½ cup (120 ml) cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Scatter shrimp on top. Squeeze fresh lime juice over salad or serve with lime wedges. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.

Vermont Special: Earl's Eggs with Chinese Chives

Occasionally I've posted about our trips up to Vermont.  Aside from the fact that anyone could find a bounty of local food stuff in that region, I've also mentioned that we are lucky to have (currently) Vermont-local family who also greatly appreciate great local products.  That family also happens to be the source of my most authentic Chinese recipes. Again, this combination has served me well.  

We arrived home from our last Vermont trip laden with a multitude of greens picked right from the family garden and a carton of the oddest shaped (and tastiest!) eggs I've ever seen courtesy of Earl.  I've cooked with spinach and arugula a million times, and so these were slotted into familiar recipes.  What, however, would I do with the great abundance of Chinese chives? 

Chinese chives are also known as garlic chives which should give you a pretty decent sense of their flavor profile.  When I took a nibble of the uncooked chives, they tasted like ramps on crack with a heavy dose of garlic.  Yes, please! Once cooked, the flavor does become more subtle, but not much.  

In the past, I've pretty much exclusively had these lovely greens chopped up in pork dumplings (and maybe once sauteed on their own).  Life has been busy and while dumplings are on the list for future adventures, this was not happening in the middle of the week without planning. 

Action shot: A shoots while I whisk.Once accompanied by Earl's eggs, the chives pretty much cook themselves.  In a traditional family interpretation, I scrambled four of the largest, most golden yolks you have ever laid eyes on with a mountain of chives.  Usually a side dish, we ate it as a main course served over rice with a spicy cucumber and radish salad.  

It would have been satisfying even without the esteemed provenance of our eggs and chives, but the flavors were elevated to fabulous by keeping it close to home.  If you don't have access to my particular purveyors, good farmers' market eggs will do and I have seen the Chinese chives at the Union Square Greenmarket.  Give it a try! 

Earl's Eggs with Chinese Chives

• 1 large bunch of Chinese chives, chopped in roughly 2 inch lengths 
• 3-4 farm-freshest eggs you can find, beaten
• 1-2 tbsp light tasting oil (olive oil is fine, but something light is preferred), divided. 
• pinch of sea salt

1. Heat half of oil in large pan. Pour beaten eggs into oil and cook about halfway.  Remove eggs from pan and set aside. 
2. Heat remaining oil in same pan.  Add chives and stir fry over high heat.  When almost cooked and still bright green, add eggs to chives.  Sprinkle with salt and cook until just formed, but still moist. 
3. Enjoy over rice. 

Ginger Scallion Noodles with a Twist

I love Momofuku anything.  Needless to say, then, when I saw this recipe written up here and here, I knew it would be a matter of time before I made it myself.  

My favorite noodles at Momofuku noodle are the Cold Spicy Noodles for which I have yet to find a recipe (blogsphere - is it out there?).  Since I can't make those, these were a decent substitute for my ramen noodle craving. 

In order to make this a more complete meal, I marinated some shrimp in soy sauce, sriracha, garlic and lime juice briefly and stir-fried them with shredded carrots.  As has been suggested in other interpretations of this dish, you would do well to try the noodles topped with stir-fried chicken, tofu, bok choy or even a gooey poached egg.  

(Side note re: shrimp - I didn't write down my recipe before some useless fact replaced it, but the marinade was good enough to try again.  Look for a recipe in the future.)

The dish also gave me a chance to showcase our very own homegrown scallions! I did use some from the market since I wanted to get some whites in there, but it was nice to have the local touch from the garden.

The taste of these noodles is undeniably good.  My chief complaint is the effort involved in mincing massive quantities of ginger and the hefty kick of eating all the minced ginger left in the bottom of an otherwise empty bowl.  I may experiment with larger slivers of ginger to minimize chopping time and ginger exposure.  Otherwise, with David Chang, how can it not be wonderful? 

Ginger Scallion Noodles
adapted from Momofuku

• 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites; from 1 to 2 large bunches)
• 1/2 cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
• 1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
• 3/4 tsp sherry vinegar (try with Shaoxing rice wine!)
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt, or more to taste
• 1 pound ramen noodles

1. Combine scallions, ginger, oil, soy, vinegar, and salt in a bowl. Taste and check for salt, adding more if needed. If possible, let sauce sit for 15-20 minutes before dressing noodles.
2.  While sauce sits, prepare the noodles according to package directions. Drain and toss with Ginger Scallion Sauce.  Enjoy!

Pork Banh Mi Meatball Sandwiches

Bon Appetit says that 2010 is the year of the meatball.  I say, what year isn't? But I do appreciate the number of twists on the traditional Italian meatball or the Chinese lion's head meatball that I generally think of when I hear the word. 

One take on the meatball that they offered up recently was the Pork Banh Mi Meatball.  Before you say that Banh Mi is so 2009, just remember that now we're talking meatballs.  A refreshing twist, then, on both the meatball and Banh Mi. 

This recipe caught my eye even before the Tigress Can Jam started, but it immediately popped into my head the other day when I wanted to come up with more uses for my Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickles.  Let's face it, this dish is what my pickles were meant for in the first place!

The complete recipe in the link above shows you a quick way to achieve a similar result in case you don't have jars of Vietnamese pickled vegetables crying out for a spicy meatball sandwich.  I haven't given it a try, but I'm sure they will do. 

I made a double batch of these meatballs and they kept very well in the fridge, feeding us for at least 6 meals.  Next time around I'll try freezing them.  I meant to do that this time, but they were so good that we just kept eating them! I ran out of bread part way through, but these were equally excellent in a bowl of rice with pickled vegetables, cilantro and sriracha. 

Also, I skipped the mayo mentioned in the original recipe because I am a no mayo sort of lady.  That may be banh mi blasphemy.  I just used extra sriracha since that can never be wrong, but you may want to check out the original recipe if you're into that whole mayo thing.

Pork Banh Mi Meatball Sandwiches (adapted from Bon Appetit)

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sriracha
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp fresly cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt or coarse kosher salt

• 4 individual baguettes or sections of baguette
• Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickles
• Fresh jalapeno or other chili slices
• Fresh cilantro sprigs

1. Gently mix all ingredients before baguettes in a large bowl.  Roll tablespoon-sized amounts of meat mixture into meatballs.  (Can be made 1 day ahead.  If so, place on large baking sheet, cover and chill.)
2. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add half of meatballs.  Saute gently until brown and cooked through, turning frequently.  Be careful not to over-brown.
3. Cut each baguette or baguette section horizontally in half.  If using hot chili mayo, spread over shell.  If not, add as much sriracha as you might be able to stand - a good drizzle will do. Arrange jalapenos, then cilantro on the bottom of the bread. 
4. Add 1/4 of the meatballs to each baguette.  Top with carrot and daikon pickles.  Enjoy!

Red Curry Beef Stew

Spring may be peeking demurely around the corner in Brooklyn, but not too long ago, we seemed to be getting the Blizzard of the Year weekly.  To prepare for the most recent of those storms, I turned to the crockpot to keep us warm and fed during the blizzard days and the cold ones that followed.  Particularly, beef stew.  I have loved beef stew since I was a little girl, especially my grandmother's which I used to request as a birthday dish, even in May (the rest of my family fired up the grill....I guess I wasn't so seasonal then!).

This time around, I thought I would try to create a new twist, yet another attempt to bring one of my more simply flavored family dishes into my husband's stomach which, as is by now well documented here, craves Asian flavors.  In the cold weather, I also like some extra spice and so the Red Curry Beef Stew was born. 

With some lovely local red creamer potatoes, frozen green beans, and a zucchini just screaming for use, the dish came together in the crockpot quickly and allowed me to stare at the snow for the afternoon.  I've always got at least one or two cans of coconut milk and various jars of curry paste or bean paste around to make a quick basic coconut curry.  With all of the vegetables, it really is a one dish meal, but a green salad could lend some crunch and freshness to the meal if you so desire.  Feel free to experiment with the vegetables as well - the onions are really the only must here because they really add a lot of nice flavor. 

Red Curry Beef Stew

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2.5 lbs cubed sirloin tips (or any stew meat)
• 3 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 lb. red creamer potatoes, cut into chunks or left whole if small enough
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2-4 tbsp. red curry paste (I like 4, but 2 gives good flavor without too much kick)
• 2 hot chilis, sliced (optional, remove seeds for lighter spice and omit entirely if desired)
• 3 tbps fish sauce
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 1-2 cups green beans, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost if frozen)
• 1 zucchini, cut into half moon slices

1. Heat olive oil in saute pan.  Add beef cubes and brown on at least two sides. 
2. Layer onions, beef, chilis and potatoes in crockpot (mine is about 3 quarts).
3. Mix coconut milk, curry paste, sugar and fish sauce well in a bowl.  Pour mixture over crockpot ingredients.
4. Turn on low for 7-8 hours.
5. Add beans and zucchini in last 30 minutes of cooking.
6. Serve with rice or noodles.