Several months ago, I had lunch with a friend at a relatively new local restaurant called Nettletown.  It has been getting a lot of buzz lately and I took precious babysitting time to go check it out.  I am not a restaurant reviewer but I can tell you that within a very modest space, very exciting über-local and sustainable food is happening.  If you want more information, Tea wrote a great post about Nettletown here.

From the specials list, I chose a dish that turned out to be one of the most interesting and delicious dishes I have eaten in a long time.  I don’t remember everything exactly but I know for sure that my shallow but well-filled bowl contained fresh rice noodles, very firm and perfectly flavored tofu, sea beans, mizuna, and shiitake mushrooms.  There may or may not have been other delicacies in there.  I was pretty hungry that day and I still only made it through about half of my dish.  I dislike leftovers but I loved my noodles so much that I took my unfinished portion home with me and ate them later that night.

Since then, the dish has haunted me.  I have been back to Nettletown twice and have been dismayed to find it absent from the specials menu.  So, I have attempted to re-create the dish.  Three times.  The first two times I was so hungry and distracted by the time the dish was done that I didn’t have the energy or patience to take a photo.  (Fellow food bloggers, can I get an amen?)  I just figured I would make it again.  These are flavors and ingredients I love so why not use “no photo” as an excuse to repeat?  Each time I refined the dish a little more.  Some things stayed constant, others changed.  All three times I hoped to use fresh rice noodles and was never able to make that happen in spite of looking for them at my local Asian market.

So what is going on here?  First I made a marinade/sauce.  I cut the tofu into pieces, put them in a small baking pan, and poured about half the marinade over top.  I sautéed up some shiitake mushrooms until they started to brown and added just a touch of soy sauce at the end.  I rinsed sea beans, pre-cooked and then rinsed the rice noodles, and I allowed the tofu to bake long enough to absorb the marinade and develop a bit of a crust.  I assembled the whole dish together, poured the remaining sauce over top, and quickly seared bok choy halves to put on top.

This is not exactly the dish I had at Nettletown.  I’m still going to keep tweaking it and I am going on a fresh rice noodle quest.  But I’m getting close.

One Year Ago:  Zesty Tofu Wraps

Rice Noodles with Marinated Tofu and Shiitake Mushrooms
Dana Treat Original
Serves 4

I tried both the angel hair thickness rice noodles and the more fettucine thickness and preferred the latter.

For the marinade:
2 inch pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 garlic clove, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves removed, minced
6 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1½ tbsp. mirin
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tbsp. canola oil
2 tbsp. water
½-1 tsp. red pepper flakes

12 ounces extra-firm tofu, blotted dry and cut into 1-inch cubes
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut into thick slices
4 baby bok choy, sliced in half
Large handful of sea beans, rinsed and drained
Mizuna leaves (you can substitute spinach)
1 pound rice noodles

To make the marinade/sauce, mix together all the ingredients in a medium size bowl.  Taste for flavor balance and add more soy, honey, or lime juice to taste.  Put the tofu in a shallow baking dish (an 8×8-inch pan is perfect) and pour about 1/3 of the marinade over top.  Allow the tofu to sit for at least half an hour, turning the pieces periodically.  You can also refrigerate the pan, covered, for up to one day.  Reserve the rest of the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Place the baking pan in the oven and bake until the marinade is absorbed and the tofu is developing a bit of outer crunch, 30 to 40 minutes.  Turn the tofu once during baking.  Set aside.

Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add just a bit of canola oil and then the mushrooms.  Allow to cook with out turning too much so that they get a bit browned.  Once they are soft and have released all of their liquid, add about a tablespoon of soy sauce.  Stir until the soy sauce is absorbed and set the mushrooms aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add the rice noodles and cook until just tender.  Check the package for how long they need to cook and be sure to taste them to make sure they are done.  Drain and immediately rinse them with cold water until they are cool.

Heat a bit more oil in the same skillet in which you cooked the mushrooms.  Add the bok choy halves and cook just until softened a bit, about 3 minutes.

To assemble the bowls, place a small handful of mizuna at the bottom of a wide shallow bowl.  Top with ¼ of the noodles.  Pour ¼ of the marinade/sauce over the noodles.  Top with some tofu, sea  beans, mushrooms, and a couple bok choy halves.

Lately, I have been doing a fair amount of catering.  Some of it has been real official catering and some of it has been making food for lots of people on behalf of friends.  Either way, I am always faced with the challenge of how much food to make.  Working as a personal chef for three years and also catering lunches, dinners, and parties – not to mention all the entertaining we do ourselves – has made me a pretty good judge of portions.  I have no formula, I just kind of guess.  (Very scientific, I know.)  If I’m not sure, I err on the side of too much food because leftovers are nice but being hungry because the hostess/chef/caterer didn’t make enough food is not.  Once in a while I am off but thankfully not very often.

My parents came over for dinner last night along with my brother Michael.  Both of my brothers have incredible appetites and if they like something, you had probably better duck for cover.  My brother Alex once went to a wedding where he ate 99 skewers of shrimp with each skewer holding three shrimp.  I do know he did not get sick.  I do not know if anyone else got any shrimp that night.

Anyway, Michael, the baby in the family, also loves food and I always like to send him home with leftovers.  Keeping that in mind, and knowing I was cooking for five last night, I decided to one and half the recipe for these Spicy Peanut Noodles.  Just a pound and a half of noodles.  That should be right for five hungry people with a few leftovers, right?  If I were making this pasta or this one, I wouldn’t hesitate to use a pound and a half of pasta.

I’m not sure what happened to my nice Barilla whole grain spaghetti, but I could have fed about ten people with this dish.  As I said, better too much food than not enough.  Especially if it is a savory dish like this one.  I love Asian noodles of all kinds and these are no exception.  Peanut-y and smooth with terrific bite from the lightly pickled vegetables.  After we all ate our portions, I sent both my brother and parents home with some, and the boys and Randy ate the rest of them tonight.  That is a lot of noodles.  (By the way, my boys – the little ones – inhaled this dish.  Both of them had two huge plates-ful and Graham even had a second helping of tofu.)

I usually scoff at using spaghetti in Asian dishes, but I had some on hand and I like that the Barilla noodles have quite a bit of protein in them.  Their nutty flavor was most welcome in this dish, I just cooked them past al dente so their texture would be right.  No tofu was in the recipe originally, but I liked it here.  I held back a bit of the peanut sauce, brushed both sides of the tofu with it, and baked it in a 375º oven for about 25 minutes.  I also added the slightly pickled carrots because I thought the dish could use an extra bite and a bit of color.

One Year Ago: Greek Pasta Casserole

Spicy Peanut Noodles
Adapted from Food & Wine
Serves 6

1 pound spaghetti
¾ cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup + 2 tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
3 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. sugar
6 tbsp. soy sauce
½ cup water
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
2 tsp. crushed red pepper
One 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove
12 oz. extra-firm tofu, cut into ½-inch thick wedges
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
2 carrots, peeled and grated

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

In a blender, puree the peanut butter with 6 tablespoons of the vinegar, 3 tbsp of the sugar, the soy sauce, water, sesame oil, crushed red pepper, ginger and garlic.  Remove about ½ a cup of the dressing and place in a pie dish.  Put the tofu slices in the dish and turn them to coat with the dressing.  Place dish in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Remove and turn the slices over.  Bake for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the spaghetti until tender.  Place the remaining dressing in a large bowl.  Using tongs, scoop the spaghetti out of the water and into the bowl.  Toss to coat the noodles with dressing.  Ladle in some of the cooking water if the noodles seem too dry.

In another bowl, toss the celery with the cilantro and 2 tbsp. of vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Do the same in another bowl with the carrots and remaining vinegar and sugar.  Drain if they seem too wet, but allow them each to sit in their liquid for at least 10 minutes.

Serve the noodles in bowls and top them with the celery and carrots.

Some days I have a story and some days I just need to tell you about a dish that is super yummy and maybe a little unusual.  This is one of those days.

I am no expert but from what I can gather, fideo is the Spanish word for noodle.  In this dish, very thin noodles are sautéed in oil until they brown, then a smoky tomato sauce is poured over top.  The noodles then cook in the sauce until soft and until they brown on the bottom.  Throw some pasilla chiles in the mix and top the whole thing with sour cream, avocado, and pickled onions and you will probably just want to call it “yum”.

The recipe suggests making this in a cast iron skillet or a non-stick pan.  My cast iron skillet was too big for this job and my non-stick pan was too small.  I made it in a Le Crueset dutch oven, but I had to mix it more than I wanted to so that it wouldn’t stick until the end of time.  Next time, I am going to double it and just make it in my cast iron skillet (and improvise some kind of lid) because my husband could probably eat ¾ of the dish by himself and I want me some of that crust.  And leftovers would certainly be nice.

One Year Ago:  Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable Salad

Fideos with Pasilla Chiles, Avocado, and Crema
Adapted from Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen
Serves 3-4

The chiles will make this dish delightfully spicy – just a warning.  The original recipe calls for parsley instead of cilantro so feel free to use that if you don’t like cilantro.

3 dried pasilla, New Mexican, or guajillo chiles
4 plump garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tbsp. canola oil
1 15-oz. can Muir Glen Fire Roasted tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large shallot, coarsely chopped
½ pound short, skinny egg noodles (like spaghetti or noodle nests)
3 cilantro sprigs, plus ½ a cup chopped cilantro leaves
½ cup Mexican crema, crème fraîche, or sour cream
3 ounces feta cheese or queso fresco
1 avocado, peeled and sliced, for garnish
Pickled onions for garnish (recipe follows)

1.  Cover the dried chiles with hot water and set them aside to soften while you make the tomato sauce.  When soft, tear or cut the flesh into strips.  Discard the seeds.

2.  Moisten the unpeeled garlic cloves with a little of the oil, then cook them in a small skillet over medium-low heat, occasionally sliding the cloves around the pan, until the skins are toasted and the cloves are soft, 10 to 15 minutes.  Allow to cool, then squeeze the garlic from the skins into a blender and add the canned tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of salt, the shallot and ½ cup of water.  Purée.

3.  Heat the remaining oil in a cast iron skillet or non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  Break the noodles into pieces about 1½ inches in length.  Add the noodles to the oil and stir them around until they’re lightly browned, then add the tomato sauce and cilantro sprigs.  Add all but a few of the torn chiles, then even out the contents, and adjust the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pan and cook until the noodles are soft, 15 minutes or so.  Season with pepper.

4.  Loosen the cream with a fork, then drizzle it over the surface of the finished dish.  Crumble the cheese over the cream, scatter on the remaining chile pieces, and slice the avocado all over.  Add a little chopped cilantro and some pickled onions and serve, being sure to scrap up all that delectable crust that lurks on the bottom of the pan.

Pickled Onions

1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rounds
Sea salt
1 tsp. sugar
Apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar

Toss the onion rounds with a pinch of salt and the sugar.  Put them in a bow with vinegar to cover; they’ll turn bright pink in about 15 minutes.  They will keep for about 5 days in the refrigerator.

When people ask me what kind of food I cook, the first thing I say is “vegetarian”.  Then I usually say something like, “I make healthy food but not spa food.”  What does that mean exactly?  I think I mean that yes, the food I cook is healthy in that I use a lot of vegetables, whole grains and plant-based proteins.  I cook with a minimum of oil.  I make a salad almost every night.  But my food can also be hearty (see: lasagne) and have more cheese than anything you would ever see in a spa.  If I’m going to make enchiladas, I do soften the tortillas in oil – I just don’t make them very often.

I think this dish kind of sums it up.  If you are a meat and potatoes person, this soba noodle dish might look like spa food to you – there is tofu in there after all.  But the fact that you brown the tofu in oil and that you add sesame oil as a flavor enhancer might get you kicked out of a spa.  I don’t know for sure – I don’t frequent spas, although I would like to.  So in a nutshell, “healthy food with lots of flavor and mostly good for you”.  How does that sound?

Soba Noodles Previously on Dana Treat: Soba Noodles with Bok Choy, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Ginger
One Year Ago: Lemon Bars

Soba Noodles with Vegetables, Crispy Tofu, and Toasted Sesame Seeds
Adapted from Gourmet
Serves 4

8 oz. package soba noodles
1 Asian or Bosc pear
Vegetable oil
12 oz. package extra firm tofu, patted dry, cut into ½-inch cubes
4 carrots, cut into 1½-by ¼ inch sticks
1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps sliced thin
4 scallions, sliced thin
2 tbsp. finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp. Tamari or soy sauce
2 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted lightly

In a large pot, bring salted water to boil for noodles.

Peel and cut pear into matchstick pieces.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat about 1 tablespoon of oil over moderately high heat.  Brown tofu on all sides, working in batches if necessary.  Transfer tofu to paper towels to drain and season with salt and pepper.

Add carrots to skillet and sauté, stirring, until just tender and start to brown.  Transfer carrots to a bowl.  Add another tablespoon of oil to the skillet and then add mushrooms, scallions, ginger, and pear and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender.  Remove skillet from heat and add carrots.

Cook noodles in water until al dente.  Drain noodles in colander and immediately rinse with cold water.  Leaving them in the colander, toss the noodles with 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil.

Return skillet to moderate heat and add ¼ cup water, tamari or soy sauce, vinegar, and remaining teaspoon sesame oil.  Bring mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring, until hot.  Add noodles, tossing to combine and adding more water if necessary, and cook until heated through.  Season noodles with salt and pepper and serve warm topped with tofu and sesame seeds.

Sometime in my past, early childhood, I fell in love with noodle soup.  It was Campbell’s of course because that’s what noodle soup was in the suburbs in the 1970’s.  My mom would make me a bowl and I would eat it very carefully: broth first, then chicken, then the beloved noodles.  I thought it was the most delicious thing in the world.

Then I discovered Top Ramen.  More noodles and none of that pesky chicken!  (I never liked meat, even as a child.)  It was the first thing I ever made for myself and I would make it as often as my mom would let me.  I ate Top Ramen and Cup of Noodles into my early 20’s when I realized how unhealthy and fattening those two products are.  There was a noodle soup lull in my life until I met Randy who introduced me to pho.

Pho is a Vietnamese soup that uses rice noodles and various cuts of meat.  In the Northwest, most places will have vegetarian option made with tofu and often various vegetables.  Pho is the only food that Randy introduced me to rather than vice versa and I am eternally grateful.  A bowl of pho comes to your table relatively plain.  It is up to you to flavor it up with lime, chiles, cilantro, Thai basil, bean sprouts, Sriacha, and other types of hot sauce which are usually provided for you.

I have tried without success to make my own pho at home – I just can’t get the flavor of the broth right.  I have a terrible sneaking suspicion that the broth at my local joint isn’t actually vegetarian in which case {plugs ears with fingers} la la la!  I can’t hear you!

Ahem.  Anyway, just because I can’t master pho doesn’t mean I don’t make noodle soups.  I make lots of them actually and this is a favorite.  Sweet potato may seem like an unlikely ingredient in an Asian soup but it’s sweetness and texture is most welcome here.  The original recipe calls for a whole head of Napa cabbage which is just too much for me.  I just put in a bit and add tofu to make the soup even more filling and healthy.

One Year Ago:  Some talk about weight and Fruit and Spice Granola

Asian Coconut-Cabbage Soup with Lemongrass
Adapted from Food and Wine
4 Servings

Ingredient notes:  Napa cabbage is the elongated one with the ruffle-y leaves.  For this soup you will want thin rice-stick noodles, the ones that are about angel hair width, not the Pad Thai noodles.  5 tablespoons does sound like a lot of soy sauce, but you will want at least that much and possibly more.

About 14 cups water
6 oz. dried rice-stick noodles
1 tbsp. peanut or canola oil
1 tbsp. finely grated fresh ginger
2 stalks lemongrass – top third discarded, tough outer leaves trimmed, minced
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
10 oz. extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch dice
5 tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
Salt
6 leaves Napa cabbage, thinly sliced cross-wise
1 -14oz. can “lite” coconut milk
Juice of one lime, plus lime wedges for serving
1 large bunch cilantro, tough stems discarded, tender stems and leaves chopped

1.  Bring 8 cups of water to a boil.  Remove from the heat, add the rice noodles and let soak until the noodles are softened, about 4 minutes.  Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

2.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Add the ginger and lemongrass and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add the remaining 6 cups of water, cover and bring to a boil over high heat.  Add the sweet potatoes, tofu, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper and season with salt.  Lower the heat, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 7-10 minutes.

3.  Add the cabbage and coconut milk and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.  Stir in the lime juice and cilantro.  Add the noodles and stir until heated through.  Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with lime wedges.

I’ve just returned from the most fun weekend.  Friday evening I flew down to San Francisco for BlogHer which was a food blogging conference.  There were interesting panels and highly successful panel participants but most fun for me were the terrific people.  You see people write frequently that food bloggers are the nicest group of people and, having spent the weekend with a bunch of them, I have to agree.  Open, warm, funny, generous, and interesting.  I met a few people who I hope will become true friends.  And any of them are welcome to come visit me in Seattle.

(On a side note, if you follow anyone on Twitter who was there, or you read the blog of someone who was there – yes, the food was THAT bad.  Here is a terrific account of how things went wrong and where they should have gone right.)

Speaking of friends, I cooked for a good one last week.  I have mentioned Deb here before several times.  She used to be my neighbor and now lives just a few short blocks away.  We try to get our kids together once a week at least to play since they are similar ages and they love each other.  We also love to have our happy hour wine and catch up.  Usually dinner is something really casual.  It’s a break for her because she loves to eat vegetarian but is married to a meat and potatoes guy, and it’s a break for me because I get to not cook a big meal.  Our standby is baked potatoes with toppings and a big salad but last week my mom was joining us and I had a full box of vegetables from our CSA.

I decided to make this soba noodle dish because, well, it just called to me.  I was scrolling through the index of my much beloved Fields of Greens looking for recipes starring bok choy (yes, I got more bok choy) and of course this jumped out at me.  Asian noodle dish?  Yes please.  The three of us loved this and with a little advance prep chopping, it came together incredibly quickly.  I added tofu because I almost always do so to Asian food for the added protein.

Buckwheat Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms, Bok Choy, Ginger and Scallions
Adapted from Fields of Greens
Serves 4

1/2 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms
1/2 large or 2 small heads of bok choy
Salt
12 oz. soba noodles
2 tbsp. light vegetable or peanut oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. freshly grated ginger
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
3 tbsp. mirin (sweet cooking sake)
3 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. sesame seeds

Set a large pot of water on the stove to boil.  Remove the mushroom stems and cut the caps into 1/2 inch thick slices.  For small heads of bok choy, slice the stem lengthwise, leaving leaf and stem together.  For a large head, slice the stems diagonally, 3/4 inch thick, and slice the leaves into 2-inch -wide ribbons.

When the water boils, add 1 tsp. salt.  Add the noodles and cook as directed on the package, about 8-10 minutes.  While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large saute pan; add the shiitake mushrooms and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Sauté over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, chiles, and bok choy and sauté for 2 minutes.

Drain the noodles in a colander when they are just tender.  Reduce the heat under the sauté pan and add the scallion, sesame oil, mirin, and soy sauce.  Quickly add the noodles, taking care not to overcook the bok choy.  Remove from the heat, toss the noodles with the vegetables and cilantro, and season with salt to taste.   Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I joke sometimes that if I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, that it would be french fries.  I do so love french fries but I think a lifetime of them, even the very best ones with lots of ketchup, would get old.  But some kind of Asian noodles in some kind of Asian curry sauce with tofu with some kind of green vegetable?  That could sustain (and not bore) me.

I make a lot of dishes like this.  I have never met a Southeast Asian noodle dish I haven’t liked.  I love rice noodles, bean thread noodles, soba, somen, and Chinese egg noodles.  I love green, red, and yellow curry.  I love the combo of coconut milk, soy sauce, and curry.  I love mixing shallots, garlic, and ginger into a kind of holy trinity.  I love any excuse to eat tofu and to have it taste like something other than a sponge.

For tonight’s dinner, I had planned to make Burmese Noodles from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  As I was preparing to make the curry paste, I remembered I still had some homemade red curry paste in my refrigerator, and suddenly Burmese Noodles didn’t appeal to me.  On the facing page, was a recipe for Noodles in Thai Curry Sauce which sounded good but plain.  I decided to mix the two recipes and throw in some changes of my own.  Almost every time I make an Asian curry, whether I am using noodles or rice, I throw in some tofu.  I don’t obsess about my protein intake but when given the chance to eat tofu, in a dish where it plays so nicely with others, I take it.

One of the beautiful things about this recipe is that you can change it your heart’s delight.  Use a different kind of noodle, use a different green vegetable, omit the tofu, substitute Thai basil for the cilantro if you are a cilantro hater.  By all means, use a commercial curry paste – there are some good ones out there.  Below you will find how I adapted it.  Although I make dishes like this often, these noodles were one of my better creations.

Here are 2 low fat notes.  This kind of dish can actually be kind of unhealthy.  Two ways that I try to combat that are by using low-fat coconut milk, and by not deep frying the tofu.  Last night I sprayed a hot non-stick skillet with non-stick spray and fried the tofu that way.  You want a bit of a crust on it.  You can also get that by shallow-frying it in bit of flavorless oil (like canola).

Noodles in Thai Curry Sauce with Tofu
Inspired by Deborah Madison
Serves 3-4

Since I was using my own curry paste (which is less spicy than store-bought), I added the full 3 tablespoons.  If you are worried about spice, add just 1 to begin and more to taste if necessary.

8 ounces dried Chinese egg noodles (linguine can do in a pinch)
8 ounces extra-firm tofu, pressed dry and cut into 1 inch pieces
Canola oil
2 large shallots, thinly sliced into rings
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 15-oz. can unsweetened lowfat coconut milk
1-3 tbsp. Thai red curry paste
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 handful snow peas, strings removed
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 scallions, thinly sliced into rounds
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro

Cook noodles in pletny of boiling water until tender, about 4 minutes for the Chinese egg noodles and slightly longer for linguine.  Drain and rinse well to stop the cooking and to keep them from sticking together.  Set aside.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray and add the tofu.  Cook on each side, flipping as the tofu turns slightly brown.  Pour out onto a paper lined plate and set aside.

Heat a wok or a skillet over medium-high heat.  Pour in just enough canola oil to coat the bottom and add the shallots.  Cook until starting to brown, about 4 minutes.  Add the ginger and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until very fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add the coconut milk, curry paste, and soy sauce and stir to break up the paste.  Add the snow peas and green peas.  Lower heat to medium-low and cook until the snow peas start to become tender, 3-4 minutes.  Add the noodles and tofu and stir well.  Add the scallions and cilantro and give it another good stir.  Allow to cook for 2 minutes to blend flavors.

My brother Alex, who eats just about everything, does not like mushrooms or artichoke hearts. But that list used to include olives and about 10 years ago, he had a Eureka! moment and discovered that he loved olives. So there is hope for mushrooms and artichoke hearts. And beets for Randy.

My client Mark told me he doesn’t like Asian food. Now, this is a little trickier than beets because it encompasses an entire continent. When asked to clarify, he said he doesn’t like stir-fries. What does that mean exactly? I will need to do some further investigation. I have been steering away from Asian food since his confession but the truth is, I really miss it. Put me on a desert island and my first choice would be french fries. My second choice would be rice noodles with lots of tofu with, perhaps, a Thai curry sauce.

So, last night I decided enough was enough and made something I thought would be perhaps pass muster with him. I made Baked Spring Rolls with a Soy Dipping Sauce, Spinach Salad with Asian Pears and a Peanut Dressing and Soba Noodles with Tofu and Bok Choy. Nothing was stir-fried. No wok was used in the cooking of this food.

The noodle dish is the kind of thing I crave, nice and savory with lots of interesting flavors going on – lots of ginger and spice. The balance of starch (from the soba) protein, and green vegetable is very satisfying. Even so, as I was eating it last night I said to Randy, “Mark is going to hate this.”

Notes on ingredients: You should be able to find everything you don’t already have easily in the Asian section of your grocery store. Rice vinegar is sometimes kept in the aisle with the other oils and vinegars. Soba Noodles always surprise me with how much you get out of them. They usually come in 8.8 ounce packages. Buy two for this recipe and just know that you will probably have some noodles left over. Trader Joe’s has great extra-firm tofu in 1 lb. packages. And lastly, I almost always use tamari soy sauce but in this recipe, because there is so much used, I chose the low-sodium and that was the right decision.

Soba Noodles with Tofu and Bok Choy
Serves 4

I very very loosely adapted this recipe from Cooking Light.

1 lb. soba noodles
1 lb. extra firm tofu
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp. grated ginger
2 tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
2 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
4 heads baby bok choy, cut in half lengthwise

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add salt and soba noodles and cook until just al dente, 4-6 minutes. Drain and rinse well with cold water. Set aside.

Mix the mirin, soy sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, red pepper flakes, and garlic together in a bowl with a whisk.

Cut the tofu crosswise into four pieces. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add tofu and just enough soy mixture to come half-wat up the sides of the tofu (dont’ use all of it). Bring to a gentle boil and cook 4 minutes. Turn the tofu over and cook another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Place the bok choy halves in the same pan and pour in some more of the soy mixture. Cook for 2-3 minutes and remove from heat. (You may have to do this in batches.)

To serve: Place a tangle of soba noodles on a plate and top with tofu and bok choy. If you have leftover sauce, you can pour this over the noodles. If not, just give them a little shake of soy sauce.