Watermelon Lassi

Oh, Aarti Party, why must I think about your Hot Dog a la Rose so often? I haven't even made them (yet). OK, OK, it's just because I really love hot dogs. And I don't care what anyone else thinks! However, another one of Aarti Party's recipes from the same hot dog episode that I have made (sort of) was a strawberry lassi, or "Strawberry-Basil Yogurt Cooler" (hahaha) as the site says. Way to anglocize.

Anyway, from the same barbecue that the excess mushrooms came from for my Arugula Pesto Pasta post, also came a whole seedless watermelon. So I figured, why not a watermelon lassi?

I left out the water, as I figured the watermelon would have a crap ton. Also missing from the picture are the salt and sugar.

Result: I should have definitely cut down on the amount of watermelon. But at least the texture made the lassi easy to pass through a straw. Also: shout out to the basil leaves. I went to a nearby open market to actually buy a frickin' basil plant for this. Only $2! Sadly, this is the second attempt at tending to a sweet basil plant. I'm not sure how long my little bugger will last. Hard to get direct sunlight from my 29th floor apartment. Leaving a small plant outside on the lanai leads to death by trade winds.

Anyway, very nice mix of sweet and savory. But because I made this for breakfast, I probably should have cut down on the pepper and basil. For a dinner drink, the original proportions would be a good to complement to a savory dinner.

Tofu Salad with Miso Dressing

Raw tofu: isn't that only what white people eat?

That's what I always thought. Especially about raw tofu in a freaking salad. No wonder why so many non-Asians say tofu tastes like nothing — it will if you don't know how to prepare it properly! Ma po tofu, do fu fa, kimchi jigae, agedashi tofu — the list of delicious cooked tofu dishes is endless.

This salad, which was inspired by a salad I had at Nordstrom Cafe (serioulsly) and tofu poke (I'll have a post about that in the future) are two dishes that changed my mind about eating raw tofu. So...here ya go:

Tofu Salad

Lettuce

Tomato

Cucumber

Cilantro (as Lisa has said before, cilantro is SO key for flavor in Asian-ish salads)

Green onion (love this stuff. It's probably the fresh herb I use the most often...f*ckyeahcgreenonion! ... see also: cilantro)

Firm tofu

Miso dressing (see recipe below)

Sesame seeds (optional)

Uh, I assume you know how to assemble a salad. If you're not familiar with tofu, working with it sometimes requires you to press a lot of moisture out of it. Wrap it in paper towels and press it by hand (if you feel eco-guilt, wrap one layer of paper towels around the tofu and a dish towel around that to absorb the rest of the moisture). Or for a more thorough pressing, put a weight on it for a few minutes — up to 20 minutes. For this salad, I don't find the need to do more than a quick pressing. How many times can I use the word "pressing" in this paragraph?

Miso Dressing (makes enough for one entree salad)

1 heaping teaspoon of miso paste (you're probably better off using a milder miso paste, like white. "Regular" miso paste will yield a stronger-tasting dressing, which some people may not like)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Dash fresh minced ginger or few shakes of ginger powder

Water (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together. Add water if you like a thinner consistency. Drizzle over salad, garnish with sesame seeds.

This salad has enough flavor and texture to be a healthy, satisfying meal. For me, that's kind of rare. So TRUST when I say this is a good one.

SARDEEEENZ

yeaaaaah that's right. SARDEENZ!

this is my comfort food dish du jour (for the past 100 jours). SARDINES! who knew?!

i am FILIPINO but my dad doesn't eat meat so i love a little salty fish (see tilapia and bangus aka milkfish). when my sister and i went to paris in college, pops told us that if we always kept a pack of sardines in our backpacks, we'd have an instant meal anywhere, well-accompanied with a baguette and a bottle of wine. i've never forgotten that lesson and expect to pass it on to my own brats someday.

mais ouis, this recipe is from the minimalist. he has a fine article and even a video on how to make this, and i direct you to them both.



the key is to get good sardines in olive oil - i have used trader joes' sardines in olive oil and bucatini from the corner store, and it works beautifully. this time, however, i used a pack of sardines i brought back from greece in may especially for this dish.

throw some bread into your food processor and then fry the crumbs in a bit of olive oil. then sautee some chopped onion, then throw in the sardines, capers, and lemon zest.



throw in some pasta (here i used trader joe's brown rice spaghetti, which warrants a whole other post someday - that's sticky al-dente-ness! try it!) and some parsley. so delicious. and you're ready to go in ten minutes.

Arugula Pesto Pasta

(I finally am putting my photos on Flickr, so I reposted the pics in my posts to appear larger. Huzzah! However, I must note that for some of my posts, including this one, photos were taken with my iPhone. Eek.)

Three things to love: arugula, pesto and pasta. In one glorious dish. I've never had the drive to make pesto myself before. For one, I've never owned a food processor. Now I have one of those hand blenders/processors, which is useful most of the time. But there are still things I don't think I can make. At least not without some crazy splatter factor. I also have never owned a mortar and pestle. And three, I have this thing about nuts.

My thing about nuts: I don't have a hatred of nuts. On the contrary, I love creamy peanut butter, marzipan, satay sauce and the like. I just never crave nuts as snacks and hate nut chunks in my food (nuts on ice cream sundaes: sooo gross). Nut chunks throw off the balance of the food bite. When I'm chewing and there are nut chunks involved, the nuts remain the last thing to swallow. Not cool.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to get some Nalo Farms arugula in my CSA delivery last week. The company I subscribe to distributes a grab bag of produce each week, so it's kind of like Christmas (Hanukkah, whatever) when I receive the goodies. I always shout a big "YES!" when I get arugula. Same reaction goes for getting avocados, lychees, apple bananas and sweet basil. A big "NOooo...ooo!" when it's eggplant or sweet potatoes.

One thing I've discovered is that I'm a much bigger fan of baby arugula rather than mature arugula. Sometimes the spiciness is just too much. So here I was with this bag of mature arugula. After one spicy salad, I decided I needed to do something else with it. Arugula pesto! Without nuts! I looked at this recipe and this recipe as springboards. And of course I left the nuts out. All the ingredient proportions are up to you.

Arugula Pesto

2 cups packed arugula leaves (if you use mature arugula, blanch the bunch for about 15 seconds, dip in ice water and wring dry. If using baby arugula, no blanching necessary)

1/2 cup fresh parmesan cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon minced garlic

Salt and pepper

Roughly chop the arugula, then blend it up with the garlic, salt and pepper. Drizzle in the olive oil as you blend. Same with the parm — you can pulse this in on a lower speed.

For the pasta, I used some thin whole wheat spaghetti. Cook it just under al dente, as it will cook further when you combine the ingredients.

I also had some leftover buttery-garlic-white wine mushrooms from a barbecue (note: I don't like mushrooms. But these were prepared by a former fine-dining chef. No complaints here). And I threw in some Ho Farms grape tomatoes I had. I'm thinking that I could have used the mushrooms with the pasta alone. But what's done is done. Sigh!

My conclusions about separating the mushrooms and pesto were right. But the dish wasn't too bad, nonetheless.

a satisfying, quicky dinner

this is my FAVORITE go-to dish when i'm hungry and don't have much time - perfect for weekday nights. source: the minimalist

Put a few slices of chopped prosciutto in a skillet with olive oil, a couple of cloves of crushed garlic and a bit of butter; a minute later, toss in about half a cup bread crumbs and red chili flakes to taste. Serve over pasta with chopped parsley.

i try to keep a pack of trader joe's prosciutto in the fridge at all times for this recipe.




the prosciutto crisping up with the garlic, oil, and butter. this part drives me crazy! smells wonderful.

i throw some old bread (the end slices!) in the food processor to make the bread crumbs. trader joe's garlic and basil linguine is my pasta of choice (i used the lemon pappardelle here, though).


the fresh parsley is a great contrast to the salty prosciutto. hearty, satisfying - voila. delicious in ten minutes.