Cold Soba Noodle Salad

Those who know me, know I've an indiscriminate gluttonous streak that needs little coaxing.

Those who don't know me, but hear of my surprise office treats automatically assume everything that passes my lips is artisinal this, heirloom that, slaved over the hob for hours before being perfectly plated. To them "Jasmine" and "potluck" never mix.

Bah.

The fact is I love communal eating. It goes beyond snagging a long table in the caf or going around the corner to the roadhouse for a 15-minute-or-free lunch deal. To me it's all about sharing food made for friends and friends-to-be.

If I'm in an office potluck, without the luxury of proper refridgeration or a stove, I try and pull together nibbles or something that doesn't need heating. I prefer to not bring desserts and my fear of slow cookers pretty much means that I won't be bringing in a hot main.

For our last potluck I wanted something that I could make the night before, be meatless and could be kept in a cooler until serving. I also didn't want to bring in a pasta salad in its usual state--mine simply get glooshy and stodgy and would probably be best as some sort of biodegradable stucco. My decision: soba noodles--they're nuttier in flavour and sturdier, able to soak up dressing without falling apart as easily as regular wheat pasta.

The flavours are "pan-Asian" and can easily be tweaked to make it a little more Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese or Japanese, I suppose. It's up to you. I wanted to ensure there was some protein, so I doubled the dressing quantity, using half to marinate firm tofu before grilling it, which, apparently, was what was needed to convince the non-tofu eaters that bean curds are, in fact, edible.


Cold Soba Noodle Salad

Dressing:
1 tsp sesame oil
4 dspn rice wine vinegar
4 dspn soy sauce
juice from half a lime
1 Tbsp brown sugar
half a thumb ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, minced

Salad
200g uncooked soba noodles
1 julienned carrot
2 spring onions, sliced
half a bell pepper, julienned
half a jalepeno pepper, minced
1Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp toasted nigella seeds

Optional:
100g grilled tofu or chicken, marinated in the equal amount of dressing as above, cut into bite-sized pieces.

Mix the dressing ingredients together.

Break the noodles in half and cook according to packet instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water.

Combine noodles, carrots, bell pepper and spring onions and optional tofu or chicken with the dressing. Cover and set in the fridge from one hour to overnight.

Before serving, sprinkle with jalepeno and toasted seeds.

(1dspn = 2tsp = 10ml)

cheers!
jasmine

RIP, Martin Streek

I'm a quill for hire!

For Annemarie: I made a cherry grunt for you

I returned to blogging a year and a half ago, not sure what to expect after a six month absence. My bloggy friends were waiting for me with open arms, as did new readers, as warm and comforting as a mug of steaming hot chocolate on a cold winter's day.


One of those new readers soon became one of my dear friends.


In Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar I found a kindred spirit--someone with a love of (and a respect for) words, another patient sighing life observer and someone who's not afraid to tackle pretty much anything in the kitchen

I have no idea how many emails have passed between the two of us. We laugh. We moan. We snark. She was there for me on the first anniversary and held my hand (and patiently read my accounts) as I returned to the dating world.Truth be told, I sometimes feel sorry for her...after I've hit "send" and have unleashed a 2000+ word torrent detailing the minutiae of my existence, railing against whatever has caught my attention.

After all that, I was more than a tad surprised when she agreed to be my co-hostess for last month's Daring Bakers Challenge. Really...you'd think that someone who's heard that much of my life would run screaming at the prospect of running an online event with me that could have 1000 participants. That poor brave girl agreed. I think it was sleep deprivation from being a new mum.


A better partner I couldn't have asked for. We were of the same mind when it came to challenge and quickly agreed upon the tarts. Every once in a while I'd toss a recipe her way to test and she'd toss back her comments and suggestions. She's gifted with words and came up with great additions to the tome of a challenge post. She pretty much looked after monitoring the DB Challenge forum; she answered questions and offered words of encouragement and advice to everyone who posted questions, concerns and comments.


Now that we're on to the next challenge and back to our regular blogging and regular lives, I was left with one question. How do I thank her?


Well...with a post and a treat...how else?

Ever since Rodney MacDonald, Nova Scotia's former premier, tried to lure David Letterman to the maritime province, with (among other things) a blueberry grunt in his Top Ten a year and a half ago, I've had grunts on the brain.


For those of you who haven't had one, a grunt is essentially cooked or stewed fruit, with a baked dumpling-ish topping. The name is probably from the grunting sound the fruit makes as it releases its last gasps of air and collapses into a warm, softened state, underneath its cakey, dumplingy or biscuitty blanket.

Since I've been anticipating our local cherries (soon, I hope), I've had cherries on the brain. The road side fruit barker has set up his wares and although he's selling American cherries, they are much cheaper and in much better condition than what I can find at the bigscarymegamart. Luckily enough, our dear Annemarie loves cherries.


Ideally I'd make a cherry grunt with sour cherries, but they are elusive creatures and won't be around for a few weeks. Instead of using canned sour cherries, I decided to use the barker's sweet fare and mimicked some of the sourness by using a combination of wine and balsamic vinegar in the stewing liquid. If you don't want to use wine, I'd either use sour cherry juice or use water or apple juice and increase the balsamic vinegar to a dessertspoon or possibly a tablespoon. I'm also fresh off a cobbler run so I was more than heavy handed when adding the milk (150mls) to the dumpling batter, making it much looser than it should be. So my grunt looks more like a cobbler...no matter, I think Annemarie would forgive me.



Cherry Grunt

550-600g pitted cherries
60g brown sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
100ml wine
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
140g ap flour
50g sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
salt
60g softened butter
75ml milk
slivered or chopped almonds (optional)

Combine cherries, brown sugar, cornstarch, wine, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the honey. Turn off the hob and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

Combine flour, sugar baking powder, a couple of pinches of salt and butter until you have a breadcrumb-like consistency. Add the milk and mix until combined.

Pour the cherries into a 2L baking dish. Spoon the batter over top, letting gaps appear so the cherries will ooze through and allow their last gasps of breath. Strew with nuts.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden.

Umm...Annemarie...I did want to send you some, but umm...this is all that's left...

You can tell whenever I've made a cherry dessert with real cherries...there's always at least one pit found...I call it "the lucky pit."

cheers!
jasmine

What I'm reading: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad


I'm a quill for hire!

Happy Canada Day! Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

I dithered over what today's post should be--last year Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess and I co-hosted Mmm...Canada: she took care of the sweet and I, the savoury. I truly wanted to host it again this year, but I realised that hosting the June Daring Bakers' challenge would be pretty much all the online eventing I could handle right now. I'll do my best to bring it back next year.

I wanted celebrate our nations 142nd birthday with something fun and touched upon a national favourite. Last week's warm spell pretty much sealed the deal on it: ice cream.

There's something about this luscious, creamy and slightly drippy treat that coaxes smiles out of the most sour of faces. Limitless flavours single notes, others mix a couple of different ice creams, fruit-embued, candy-studded, ripples and ribbons and of course some are rather nutty...quite the analogy to Canadian society, n'est-ce pas?

So, to celebrate our national day, I offer you a seat in the back yard, a long cool drink and of course some home made chocolate mint ice cream. Happy Canada Day!

For a list of Canadian food and drink bloggers please visit my Canadiana page at SensualGourmet.ca.



Chocolate Mint Ice cream
Roughly 1.5 litres
625ml milk
250ml heavy cream
40g mint leaves
250g sugar
5 egg yolks
pinch of salt
100g milk chocolate, chopped
100g semisweet chocolate, chopped

Scald the milk with the mint leaves. Remove from heat and let stand, off the hob for about 20 minutes.

Combine the sugar, yolks and salt until ribbonny.

Carefully temper the egg mixture with the hot milk by slowly adding a ladelful of milk to the sweetened eggs, beating constantly, to avoid scrambling. Repeat a few more times, eventually just pouring in the remaining milk and mint. Beat well.

Pour the custard mixture back into the pot and cook until it has thickened and passes the back of the spoon test by running your impeccably clean finger down the back of the spoon's bowl while it has been covered with a layer of custard. If you draw a clear track that does not fill back in, then you're fine.

Pour the hot custard brine over the chocolate bits, letting them melt and mix well.

Cool the brine, overnight in the fridge.

The next morning seive out the mint leaves and whatever scrambled eggs have formed.

Whip the heavy cream until medium-stiff. Fold, one third at a time, into the cool chocolate mint custard. Keep it as light as possible, but try and ensure there aren't any white streaks.

Decant into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.


cheers!
jasmine

What I'm reading: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

I'm a quill for hire!