A Good Dish

making food simpler

Riffing on Soba

 

Tossed Soba plate by Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish
Tossed Soba
plate by Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish

 

Traditional soba can be very simple – just cooked noodles, cold or warm, served with a dipping sauce. It is found all over Japan in soup, as a salad or with a thick sauce. In New York, we are just learning its culinary range as soba follows ramen as the new, trendy star in soba-centric restaurants and as making your own soba noodles outmodes preparing homemade pasta. A soba dipping sauce or soup base is often dashi, a broth made from seaweed and sometimes bonito (fish) flakes with soy sauce and may be fortified with vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, mushrooms or daikon.

noodlesI rarely have the patience to prepare dashi properly so I have a shorthand method for making soba. My sauce recipe (below) is similar to a savory salad dressing, in which you toss the cooked noodles. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat (which is gluten-free as it is actually a seed and not a grain) often with added wheat flour (because it contains gluten) to make the pasta less fragile. I prefer 100% buckwheat or buckwheat combined bottleswith sweet potato or wild yam (King Soba and Eden are two reliable brands). Why not exclude some wheat when it is easy and tasty? If you don’t care about gluten, any soba noodle will do. The noodles cook very quickly so please pay attention to cooking time and to rinsing with cold water, which is essential to stop the cooking process. You want to retain a firm texture rather than letting them turn to mush, which can happen quickly, so watch and test before you think they might be done.

Because this recipe is delicious cold or at room temperature, it may be prepared in the morning or the night before and refrigerated until dinner, especially helpful when you don’t want to cook in the heat of a summer day. It is good as a side dish to fish, served with a green vegetable like watercress or broccoli or holds its own as a main course with added tofu or tempeh (easy enough to make but if you are strapped for time, use a package of marinated – Nu Tofu makes a good one) plus a green vegetable. Leftovers hold up very well in a lunchbox and work well for a picnic.

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TOSSED SOBA

  • One 8 oz package of soba noodles
  • One strip of kombu/kelp

Bring a large pot of water (3-4 quarts) to a boil. Add the dry kombu (seaweed) and boil 3-4 minutes. Add the unwrapped soba and stir to break the starch bonds, as when preparing any pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes, checking to see when the noodles are done. Please don’t overcook them. Drain, discard the kombu (if you like it, you can cut up the cooked kombu and add it back in at the end) and rinse the noodles immediately in a colander under cold running water until they are cooled. Do this for 2 reasons – to keep them from sticking and to keep them from drinking up all of the marinade too quickly (hot noodles are hungry noodles – they soak up too much liquid and get bloated).

Soba sauce or dressing:

Mix together in a medium glass or stainless steel bowl:

  • 1/3 cup tamari (I use San-j reduced sodium, gluten-free)
  • 2/3 cup 100% apple juice (I keep a few small juice boxes around for this purpose so I don’t have to keep a whole bottle open in the fridge for only occasional use)
  • 1 TBs mirin (Japanese rice wine) or seasoned rice vinegar
  • 2 TBs toasted sesame oil
  • 2 TBs finely grated fresh ginger root (about a 2-3 inch knob or more if you like a lot of ginger)
  • Pinch of cayenne

Add cooled soba and mix well.  (You could serve the noodles by themselves with the sauce on the side for dipping)

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure all the noodles are coated.

Garnish with finely sliced scallions, finely sliced cucumber(skin and seeds removed) and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

To serve as a main course salad, add slices of sautéed or baked tofu or tempeh.

Serves 4-5 as a side dish and 3 as a main course. The recipe is easily doubled or tripled if you are serving a larger group.

A Lighter Cocktail

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Porcelain tumbler by James Makins

Scotch. Bourbon, Rye. All delicious. But sometimes you want a lighter drink with lower alcohol content. There are days when even a glass of wine or a beer seems too heavy. In those moments, I reach for the sweet vermouth. Yes, sweet vermouth. What is usually thought of as an ingredient in a Manhattan or Negroni, makes a delightful drink on its own. I find it refreshing as the weather starts to warm up and a stiff drink would make me too woozy.

Vermouth, a fortified (added spirits) wine with botanicals, is made in many countries. It is thought to have originated in Turin, Italy. There are more and more brands of sweet red vermouth (as opposed to the dry vermouth used in a martini or the blanco I just read about which is white and sweet) marketed in the U.S. and the taste runs from syrupy sweet to medicinal. We bought several bottles to try since our local liquor stores have started carrying a wide variety of vermouths in a range of sizes and prices.

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The more aromatic varieties, like Carpano, which makes Antica Formula, and Punt E Mes (both Italian), are preferred in upscale bars and restaurants. My palette finds them somewhat bitter on their own but they are the most complex of the vermouths we sampled. Cinzano and Martini & Rossi (Italian) are more old-school and a bit sweeter and heavier. Dolin and Noilly Prat (both French) lie somewhere in the middle and are a little more sherry-like. The best tasting solution, for me, is to mix one of the traditional Italian sweet vermouths with any of the others. It’s fun to experiment and see which brand or combination you prefer. Let me know what you choose. My current favorite blend is Cinzano with Dolin.

In Italy, a sweet vermouth on the rocks is a classic aperitif. It is a lovely drink on a warm afternoon but I think it is made even better with a splash of seltzer and a squeeze of an orange. If you prefer your drink less sweet, squeeze in lime or grapefruit instead of orange juice and add a slice of lime or grapefruit rather than an orange. If you want to get adventurous, you can try adding a dash of sherry (it’s been sitting in your cupboard anyway, right?) or a few drops of bitters. My husband prefers it with both sherry and bitters (we used Angostura). A piece of mint in summer could be refreshing. Try naming your concoction – that is always a fun diversion. Hmm. Perhaps a  vermouth tasting would make a festive spring or summer get-together? Salute!

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CONTINENTAL DRIFT (or make up your own name!

  • 1/4 cup sweet vermouth
  • 2 Tbs orange juice or a squeeze of half a small orange
  • Splash (or 2) of seltzer or sparkling mineral water
  • Piece of an orange (I cut a medium orange in 6 pieces)

Stir together in a glass and add ice.

A Simple Green Salad

Any Season Salad Plate by Mary Briggs
Any Season Salad
Plate by Mary Briggs

I eat salad in some form almost every day. Eating salad helps me get in the daily minimum requirement of vegetables, fills me up and satisfies my desire for something crunchy, hopefully better than reaching for chips or crackers. Sometimes I make a generic tossed salad with whatever I happen to have in the crisper. Other times, I follow a recipe for a shredded cabbage, beet or carrot slaw (I will share these in future posts) or put together a composed salad from leftover cooked vegetables. What kind of salad I make depends on what is in season or available to buy.

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The following recipe is not extraordinary, just a simple, reliable salad based on ingredients that are almost always in stock at my local market (Mani Market on 94th and Columbus in New York) or at nearby chain stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and will most likely be available at any good supermarket near you. I prefer to buy vegetables in season but in the northeast, that isn’t always possible. In summer and early fall, salad ingredients are abundant at our farmers’ markets but in other seasons, I depend on my local grocers. Bagged romaine (the 12 oz bag with 3 small heads), hothouse cukes, celery and fresh dill, all organic, are on their shelves year round. I think it is the dill that gives this particular salad its fresh taste while the rest of the vegetables provide crunch and textural variety.

This salad recipe is my go-to when I don’t have the energy to be creative. It comes together quickly so you can rely on making it in a pinch. It is a very basic recipe. Please vary it according to your preferences and the contents of your refrigerator. If you don’t like dill, use cilantro, chives or parsley. If you don’t have cucumbers, use green peppers or a leftover cooked vegetable such as asparagus or peas. And if you don’t have celery, use sliced daikon or jicama – something for crunch. If you don’t like sunflower seeds, use pumpkin or sesame or omit them completely. Finally, if you want to make this more of a main course salad, add a cup or so of crumbled feta cheese, cooked chicken or shrimp or cooked beans like kidney or cannellini. Fruit is a nice addition, especially orange or grapefruit sections. You can enrich the dressing, if you like it heavier, with a little yogurt or cream.

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ANY SEASON SALAD

Place in a large salad bowl:

  • 1 12 oz bag or 1 large head romaine lettuce, torn in bite sized pieces
  • 1 long hothouse cucumber (or 4-5 mini cukes), sliced in half moons
  • 4-5 stalks celery, thinly sliced
  • 1 generous cup chopped dill without the heavier stems (probably a whole small or half of a large bunch)
  • 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds (toasted adds flavor but raw is fine) – optional

For the dressing, mix together:

  • 2 TBs rice or apple cider vinegar
  • 3 TBs olive oil
  • Generous pinch each of salt, black pepper and garlic powder

Toss and serve. Feeds 4-6 as a side salad or, in our case, 2 with generous lunch leftovers. (Because the lettuce is romaine, this salad holds up well for the next day’s lunch).

 

Searching for a Good New York Bagel

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Maybe it’s just me, but have you noticed that bagels have basically become doughy rolls with holes? The iconic bagel in my memory, and the one for which I am always searching, is moist (not dry) and takes a bit of effort to chew. The flavor is slightly sour but also sweet and the texture is DENSE. My mind’s eye bagel is smaller than the bagel boats out there now, perhaps 3-4 inches in diameter not the 4-5 you get now and certainly not 2 inches high. Growing up, we mostly had water (plain) bagels and they were enormously satisfying and toothsome. As I got older, my preference shifted to a pumpernickel or multi-grain for the full flavor, texture and density. Looking back, perhaps it was a self-deception; I assumed the whole grains made it a healthy (read not fattening) munch.

As a kid, I was introduced to bagels when visitors from New York would bring us a dozen. The grocery store in the north end of Hartford where my mother shopped occasionally sold bagels, but they were nothing special. When we heard about an actual bagel bakery opening in a neighboring suburb, my adventurous mother drove us over the mountain to a strip mall in Avon to buy a dozen. There we first experienced the warm-from- the-oven bagel – glorious! Eventually our town got its own branch of a bagel chain and we had to settle for convenient over delicious.

Over the years, bagels started to get bigger and airier. I credit (or blame) H & H, the NYC institution whose outpost on the upper west side was where generations of kids grabbed breakfast or an afternoon snack and upper west siders stocked up for Sunday brunch. But, like the growth of restaurant portions and fast food drink servings, their bagels grew larger and larger until they were the size of a kaiser roll. And with size we lost density and chew.

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Bagels used to be a bargain bite. My father-in-law loved West Side Market’s frugal 5 for a dollar (most recently 3 for $2) and just a few years ago, we could to buy a dozen with 3 free for $8 at Lenny’s on 98th street. Now bagels are $1 a piece and you get the classic baker’s dozen – one free when you buy 12. Lenny’s was home to our favorite variety, the “New Horizon”, a rye and whole grain mix with flax seeds and raisins. It was scrumptious, especially toasted. But nothing lasts forever: Their wonderfully dense, hand rolled original gave way to an airy, machine-made version when they got new equipment a year or two ago. It still has a pleasant, even if milder, flavor but no more chewy texture. So, so sad for us. People seem to love Absolute Bagels, up near Columbia: there is often a line out the door on weekends. Their bagels are fairly tasty with a decent chew, especially the whole wheat sesame, but they are still quite rotund. They do make a few varieties, including plain, in a mini size, perfect for kids and the less voracious among us. Zabar’s offers one of the best tasting and moistest bagels in the city for 95 cents but it is pretty zaftig, as well.

On a recent trip to Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, we sampled bagels from the 2 famously competing bagel bakeries – Fairmount and St Viateur. Both still hand roll their bagels and bake in wood fired ovens. Montreal bagels have shiny, sweetish crusts from being boiled in water with honey but are drier than the chewier New York style and, for my taste, need a little more salt.

hand rolling at St. Viateur
hand rolling at St. Viateur

But there is good news in New York. A hand rolling revival is underway! Bagels are rolled in many corners of Brooklyn and Queens, even in downtown Manhattan. Last week, I collected a variety of samples from highly rated bagel sellers all over the city and my husband, a friend and I conducted an unscientific tasting of plain bagels. Prices ranged from 67 cents to $2 apiece, thin to thick, small to huge. I am sorry to report that most were disappointingly dry, cardboardy and tasteless.

The runner up in the plain bagel category is from Zabar’s. It has good flavor, moist bite and a decent price. If you like a big bagel, this might be your favorite.

varieties at Zabar's
varieties at Zabar’s
Baking at Black Seed on Elizabeth Street
Baking at Black Seed on Elizabeth Street

Our unanimous winner is from Black Seed Bagels, a lower east side bagelry (Elizabeth Street between Broome and Grand), where they hand roll and wood fire small, dense, delicious bagels, quite similar to Montreal style but moister and even tastier, even if $1.50 each.  Their web page describes their product as a cross between Montreal and New York styles, a “love bagel” of sorts.  They make good tasting plain and seeded varieties. My favorite is the flavorful rye – a killer toasted with butter.

Wood fired oven and bagel bath at Black Seed on First Avenue
Wood fired oven and bagel bath
at Black Seed on First Avenue

Black Seed recently opened another location in the former home of DeRobertis (a charming old Italian bakery where you could get wonderful pignoli and sfogliatelle but which recently went out of business) and is churning out terrific bagels, which they also sell at a kiosk in Hudson Eats at the World Financial Center.

And more good news – bagels left out over night in a paper bag were still soft enough to cut the next morning. We will happily make the trek downtown to stock up. Lets just hope they don’t lose their chew!

bagel by Black Seed plate by Margaret Bohls
bagel by Black Seed
plate by Margaret Bohls

(Note – if you go to the Black Seed on 1st Avenue, remember to stop at 2 venerable New York institutions around the corner on 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues – Russo’s Mozzarella and Pasta (est.1908) – wonderful cheese, taralli and sausage – and Veniero’s Bakery (est. 1894) – amazing Italian cheesecake).

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Rethinking Watercress

I never paid much attention to watercress. For most of my life, it appeared only as an occasional garnish or in a salad in an upscale restaurant. Then one day, wanting something other than broccoli or bok choy, I ordered it as a cooked vegetable at our local Chinese restaurant. I was hooked! Bright green, garlicky, good texture (not mushy) and none of the bitterness of raw watercress – how could I resist? It was so flavorful that I was certain there had to be drawbacks: Surely it must contain MSG to make it taste so good? When I tried to replicate the dish in my kitchen, I was surprised when it was so easy to make. Just some chopped garlic sautéed in oil, a sprinkle of salt, a splash of broth or water and a lot more watercress than you might imagine – it shrinks almost as much as spinach. If you like a hearty helping of greens, plan at least one bunch per person. Leftovers are always welcome in our home – another vegetable for tomorrow that is already prepared.

Watercress is high in vitamins A, C and K among other nutrients and very low in calories (Let me Google that for you). More importantly to a cook, it is one of those green vegetables available at all times of year, especially valuable in winter and early spring when you are tired of kale and cauliflower. This simple recipe is especially delicious with mashed or boiled potatoes.

bowl by Mary Barringer
bowl by Mary Barringer

SAUTÉED WATERCRESS

  • 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 Tablespoon olive, avocado or grapeseed oil
  • 1 big pinch of kosher or sea salt
  • 2 bunches of watercress, washed and cut in half (or smaller if you prefer more delicate bites)
  • 1/4 cup stock or water

Heat a large sauté pan and then add oil.

Add garlic and salt, turn heat to medium and cook about one minute – do not brown.

Add watercress and stir until beginning to change color and wilt.

Add the broth or water and stir occasionally until most of the water has evaporated and the watercress has softened, about 3-4 minutes. Some like it still crisp while others prefer it limp. Try it at various points in cooking the first time you make it until you figure out how you like it prepared. Taste for salt and add more if you feel it needs it.

Feeds 2 (in our home) -4 people as a side dish.