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Yum Woon Sen, Mousaka, Bread Salad
Jul. 25th, 2020 03:56 pmI just posted a bunch of recipes on my friend Cindy's page, so I'm going to re-post them here. (The first and last are summer favorites, they're all garden themed, and bread salad is a great thing for folks who have been baking and done make it all the way through their bread.) I'm being super undisciplined about amounts but if you have questions, ask?
Yum Woon Sen
(from memory, used to make this all the time...)
- Soak your glass noodles
- Cook your protein of choice (finely cut chicken or beef is most common (I used to use lentils and quinoa when vegetarian) with onions and garlic, and some minced lemon grass and galangal if you have it handy.
- Add noodles, and soy sauce and/or fish sauce to taste (and a little extra water or broth if the noodles need it) cook until tender, adding chopped green onion partly through
- Remove from heat, and add handfuls of coarsely chopped basil, cilantro, mint and lime juice.
- Correct seasonings, and then dress with a bit of toasted rice powder and a sprig of fresh herbs on top
Can be served warm, or cold.
Mousaka (okay, a bit more of a winter thing, maybe?)
- Chop and cook an onion. Saute ground lamb (or beef...) in the same pan.
- Add garlic, paprika (a minced red pepper won't be amiss, either), oregan, a touch of cinnamon, a bunch of chopped tomatoes, and a few glugs of red wine. Let it simmer to make a nice sauce.
- Now, you basically build a lasagne with the above sauce and long strips of veggies. Eggplants are a must, and if you're being a purist, just use eggplants. But you can work some layers of summer squash, jerusalem artichokes, potatoes - whatevs. It's super flexible. A little sauce on the bottom (just so things don't stick, a layer of eggplant, a layer of sauce, rinse, repeat.
- (Often, if I'm not using any starchy veggies, I'll mix a bunch of rice into the sauce.)
- Top with bechamel, stick it in the oven. (45 minutes at 375, maybe? It depends on how much you make. I often made this in my brick oven...)
...and, not only is it dinner with just a salad, but it makes great leftovers.
- Do not undercook the eggplant. If in doubt, cook it some more. Millions of the children of hippies were traumatized by undercooked eggplant, which is an abomination against nature!
Bread salad
Have you been baking? Do you not always finish your bread? This is one of the classic ways of coping. Look, the idea of bread salad is pretty much like a pasta salad, in that it's really about theme and variations, rather than specific ingredients.
Except, I almost don't want to say that because there are so many really gross pasta salads in the world. So, here's a basic one.
-Take some chunks of dried out bread. Not only dried out bread, but a good sturdy peasant bread, dried out. (A nice dense sourdough works great. Keep in mind that traditionally there's a whole cuisine around stale bread.) Soak it in water. Then wring it out to get most of the water out. (This is why you need it to be bread of substance. Light puffy white bread will just fall apart.) Pull apart into bite sized chunks.
- Meanwhile chop up a bunch of pepperoncinis. Grab some marinated artichoke hearts (slice them finer if needed). Throw some capers in there. Chop up an onion. If you the sharpness of fresh onion isn't your thing, put it with the other sour things, and add some balsamic vinegar - it will tame the onion. (If you like your onions fresh and sharp, keep them to the side.) Be generous!
- Mix the above stuff together with the bread chunks. Keep mixing, while drizzling with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt (if you haven't already added it.) Throw in a big handful of coarsely chopped basil and fresh ground black pepper. Sample as you do this - It should be flavorful, but not a sodden mess.
For a cold lunch, this mixes very well with canned tuna or salmon. (Though if I'm making a bunch, I never add the fish until right before I eat it.)
...sun dried tomatoes are also great. Or grilled red peppers. Or... well, you get the idea. And you can take this is so many directions - I had an autumnal bread salad with winter squash and green olives, years back, that was particularly memorable.
Yum Woon Sen
(from memory, used to make this all the time...)
- Soak your glass noodles
- Cook your protein of choice (finely cut chicken or beef is most common (I used to use lentils and quinoa when vegetarian) with onions and garlic, and some minced lemon grass and galangal if you have it handy.
- Add noodles, and soy sauce and/or fish sauce to taste (and a little extra water or broth if the noodles need it) cook until tender, adding chopped green onion partly through
- Remove from heat, and add handfuls of coarsely chopped basil, cilantro, mint and lime juice.
- Correct seasonings, and then dress with a bit of toasted rice powder and a sprig of fresh herbs on top
Can be served warm, or cold.
Mousaka (okay, a bit more of a winter thing, maybe?)
- Chop and cook an onion. Saute ground lamb (or beef...) in the same pan.
- Add garlic, paprika (a minced red pepper won't be amiss, either), oregan, a touch of cinnamon, a bunch of chopped tomatoes, and a few glugs of red wine. Let it simmer to make a nice sauce.
- Now, you basically build a lasagne with the above sauce and long strips of veggies. Eggplants are a must, and if you're being a purist, just use eggplants. But you can work some layers of summer squash, jerusalem artichokes, potatoes - whatevs. It's super flexible. A little sauce on the bottom (just so things don't stick, a layer of eggplant, a layer of sauce, rinse, repeat.
- (Often, if I'm not using any starchy veggies, I'll mix a bunch of rice into the sauce.)
- Top with bechamel, stick it in the oven. (45 minutes at 375, maybe? It depends on how much you make. I often made this in my brick oven...)
...and, not only is it dinner with just a salad, but it makes great leftovers.
- Do not undercook the eggplant. If in doubt, cook it some more. Millions of the children of hippies were traumatized by undercooked eggplant, which is an abomination against nature!
Bread salad
Have you been baking? Do you not always finish your bread? This is one of the classic ways of coping. Look, the idea of bread salad is pretty much like a pasta salad, in that it's really about theme and variations, rather than specific ingredients.
Except, I almost don't want to say that because there are so many really gross pasta salads in the world. So, here's a basic one.
-Take some chunks of dried out bread. Not only dried out bread, but a good sturdy peasant bread, dried out. (A nice dense sourdough works great. Keep in mind that traditionally there's a whole cuisine around stale bread.) Soak it in water. Then wring it out to get most of the water out. (This is why you need it to be bread of substance. Light puffy white bread will just fall apart.) Pull apart into bite sized chunks.
- Meanwhile chop up a bunch of pepperoncinis. Grab some marinated artichoke hearts (slice them finer if needed). Throw some capers in there. Chop up an onion. If you the sharpness of fresh onion isn't your thing, put it with the other sour things, and add some balsamic vinegar - it will tame the onion. (If you like your onions fresh and sharp, keep them to the side.) Be generous!
- Mix the above stuff together with the bread chunks. Keep mixing, while drizzling with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt (if you haven't already added it.) Throw in a big handful of coarsely chopped basil and fresh ground black pepper. Sample as you do this - It should be flavorful, but not a sodden mess.
For a cold lunch, this mixes very well with canned tuna or salmon. (Though if I'm making a bunch, I never add the fish until right before I eat it.)
...sun dried tomatoes are also great. Or grilled red peppers. Or... well, you get the idea. And you can take this is so many directions - I had an autumnal bread salad with winter squash and green olives, years back, that was particularly memorable.
