Miso Ramen with Poached Egg and Spinach

Unlike many students who were forced - out of poverty - to subsist on a diet of dehydrated ramen noodles throughout their university years, I was lucky enough to live at home and, you know, eat healthily. That's not to say that I didn't have the occasional msg and sodium laden convenience product. My brother and I would regularly split a package when we watched WWE Raw that we would stir fry with veggies instead of turning it into soup.

Yes, I said WWE. I love Shakespeare, Jane Austen and the WWE. I also play video games. It weirds my students out to no end, but I like to say that my interests don't fit into nice, neat boxes.

The first time I went out and ate ramen noodles outside of my house was in my husband's town in Japan. There was a great shop in Toki-shi along Route 19 that served the most gloriously gigantic bowls of noodles. The first time we ate there, it was a painfully chilly, rainy Sunday night in November. The rain was pounding umbrellas with icy fury and we were both exhausted. We'd come back from Nagoya and with a long line at our regular Sunday night sushi joint, we decided to brave the vicious weather and try somewhere new.

Let me tell you, ramen is the perfect antidote to combat the bone chilling rain of an autumn storm. When your monster sized bowl arrives, you're immediately bathed in steam from the broth. On first bite, the noodles are so hot you almost burn your tongue, but you slurp them down anyway. And then, as you begin spooning the salty broth into your mouth, a warmth uncurls itself in your belly and begins to radiate throughout your limbs.

Frankenstein's monster could have been brought to life with ramen. If he had been, he probably would have been in a much better mood.

That first night, I had miso-butter ramen with corn, an egg, and bamboo shoots. And though I tried many other different varieties in my time there, I always returned to the comfort of miso ramen to warm myself.

I don't make ramen much for myself these days - only a handful of times for those chilly days in autumn and winter. The dehydrated stuff just doesn't do it for me. Luckily, there's a company in the GTA (Marufumi Foods) that makes fantastic fresh ramen and freezes it. Their stock base is a miso based paste, not a powder. If you can get hold of fresh or frozen ramen, you're working in a whole new ballpark of awesome.


Miso Ramen with Poached Egg and Spinach

(serves 1)

Ingredients

1 package ramen with seasoning mix (preferably miso)
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 egg
1 handful baby spinach leaves
shichimi, or chili-garlic paste to taste


Directions

1. Cook ramen according to package directions. Meanwhile, bring a pot with 1" water in it to a boil. Add vinegar and reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Crack egg into a small dish and slide into simmering water. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until your desired doneness.

2. Add spinach leaves to ramen and broth. Cook for 30 seconds, just until wilted. Ladle into a large bowl. Remove egg from poaching water with a slotted spoon and place on top of noodles. Sprinkle with shichimi to taste.

Cooking Light's Spinach & Chickpea Soup

All the credit for this recipe has to go to my husband, who whipped this up the other day while I was running late from work (workshop on IEP writing, if you must know). It's a really beautiful, easy dinner that I think will go into rotation as my comfort food on dreary, rainy days.

The lemon juice and zest keep the soup light and fresh, while the spinach adds colour and the pasta brings substance.

Plus, you've got to love anything that's ready in about 20 minutes!

Cooking Light's Spinach & Chickpea Soup

(source) serves 4


Ingredients

2 tsp canola oil
2 green onions, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup pasta of your choice
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
5 oz baby spinach
½ tsp ground black pepper
shaved Parmesan


Directions

1. Heat canola oil in a large saucepan. Sauté onions and oregano for two minutes. Add in stock and water and bring to a boil. Add in zest, chickpeas and pasta, cover and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Test pasta for doneness. Stir in lemon juice, spinach and black pepper. Serve with Parmesan shaved on top.

White Pizza topped with Spinach Salad and Prosciutto

Things that keep me up at night:

1. Lesson planning for math class
2. University students who are living in apartments - on their own for the first time - drunkenly singing songs from the Lion King
3. The realization that we eat pizza in some form multiple times a week.

Okay, maybe the last one doesn't keep me awake at night, but I was struck by that realization of just how much pizza we eat each week. It's not usually a cheese and meat laden extravaganza - in fact, I think variations of the vegan Thrive Diet pizza are probably the kinds that we eat most frequently.

But, there is something about having pizza that makes the weekend feel like the weekend. And, if you make an extra large batch of dough one day and store the remainder of the dough in the freezer, it feels like you've barely put any work into a homemade pizza dinner.

And personally, I like that feeling.

I tried something I haven't done before with pizza the other night - forgo the sauce and the cooked toppings.

Instead, the base was baked with a brush of truffle oil and a mixture of mozzarella and blue cheeses. Once pulled from the oven, I topped it with a dressed spinach salad with prosciutto.

So, it's more salad than pizza... right?


White Pizza with Spinach and Prosciutto

(serves 4)

Ingredients

pizza dough (I used the half I'd set aside from this recipe)
1 tbsp truffle oil (you could use any flavoured oil in its place - garlic oil would be particularly delicious)
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
4 cups baby spinach greens
2 oz thick cut prosciutto, chopped
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pizza stone in a cold oven. Turn oven on to its highest setting (500º-550º) and preheat stone for an hour. Half an hour into the preheating process, turn pizza dough out onto a floured surface (a pizza peel would be perfect here. Otherwise, use a piece of parchment paper. This will allow you to transfer the dough to the hot stone with minimal fuss. Please note that using the paper will prevent the same kind of crisp browning you would usually get) and shape into the size you want it to be. Cover with a tea towel and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

2. Brush dough with truffle oil and sprinkle cheese over surface. Bake in oven for 12 - 17 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden. Remove from oven.

3. While crust is baking, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper. I like to throw dressing ingredients into a small mason jar and shake them up. I find it emulsifies much better that way. Place spinach and prosciutto into a bowl and toss with dressing. Place spinach salad on top of pizza and serve immediately.

The spinach closest to the crust will start to wilt slightly in the heat. Can you say yum?

Chickpea and Swiss Chard with Wheat Berries and Tahini-Lemon Dressing

A couple of weeks ago, I read a post from Cooking Light's facebook page that asked if people did a meatless Monday and, if they did, why they chosen to do it. After reading a lot of the responses (good for the environment, want to cut costs, have been vegetarian for years, their family will only allow them on meal a week that's meatless), I realized that our transition (and by our, I mean my husband and I) into more meatless meals has been less about making a conscious choice. Whenever we make vegetarian or vegan meals, I don't think "I'm going to have a vegetarian or vegan meal", I think "this looks good for dinner, I think I'll go with that".

We've just kind of naturally bent into it. When I think about it, I think this attitude (at least on my part) can be attributed to the parents of an ex of mine who were very much flexitarians. His mother was the first person to introduce me to the joys of eggplant, tomato and black olive stew (a recipe I've since lost, so if you ever read this Penny, I'd love to have it again!) about a decade ago. In their house, it wasn't about the fact that meat was missing from the table, it was about celebrating whatever was there.

And that's where the idea of Meatless Mondays doesn't work for me. There's this implication that some integral part of the meal is missing. I'd say, for us, there is no integral part of the meal. As long as there's protein in there, I don't care if it's black beans or flank steak. If it's prepared right and tastes good, I'm a happy camper. I just don't think we appreciate non-animal forms of protein enough, you know?

You're probably tired of hearing me ramble. Let's get to the point.

This recipe, like yesterday's, was born out of a need to empty out the cupboard and the laziness of avoiding the grocery store.

Chickpea and Swiss Chard with Wheat Berries and Tahini-Lemon Dressing

(adapted from Oh She Glows)

Ingredients

1 cup wheat berries
1 15oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 cups sliced washed swiss chard, stems separated from leaves
1 cup washed, stemed spinach leaves
Lemon-Tahini Dressing (recipe below)


Directions

1. Cook wheat berries in 4 cups water (the ratio for cooking wheat berries is 1:4) for 60-70 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil over medium heat and sauté onion and garlic for 6-7 minutes, or until onion is tender and beginning to colour slightly.

3. Add cherry tomatoes and Swiss chard stems. Sauté for another 5-7 minutes, or until tomatoes begin to burst. Add Swiss chard and spinach leaves. Let cook for about 1 minute. Add in Lemon-Tahini Dressing and stir to coat. Mix in cooked, drained wheat berries and chickpeas.

Serves 5-6.


Lemon-Tahini Dressing

Ingredients

¼ cup tahini
2 cloves garlic, bitter stem removed
juice of one lemon (about 1/3 cup)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water
optional: grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste.

That was easy, wasn't it?

Chicken Simmer with Spinach, Capers and Onions

Cleaning out the fridge is almost always an exercise in experimentation. This recipe was born out of the need to do something with some bone-in chicken thighs and some leftover pizza sauce (really just whole tomatoes and garlic simmered together).

A sort through the fridge revealed half a bag of spinach, half a sweet onion, a little leftover pesto and some capers. I opted to save the pesto for another day and came up with this little number.

Chicken Simmered with Spinach, Capers and Onions

Ingredients

Rub for Chicken

1 tsp ground fennel seeds
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 lb bone-in, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
1 tbsp olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
1 cup pasta/pizza sauce
½ cup full bodied red wine
2 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
4 cups fresh spinach, washed and torn into bite size pieces
3 oz spaghetti
¼ cup fresh basil
freshly grated Parmesan for serving

Directions

1. Combine all rub ingredients together in a small bowl. Rub all over chicken thighs.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown chicken thighs, 2-3 minutes on each side. Don't worry about cooking all the way through, you just want to get a good colour going. Remove chicken from pan. Add in onion and sauté until translucent.

3. Pour in wine and deglaze the pan for about 30 seconds. You don't want it to all evaporate though. Stir in pasta sauce and capers. Return chicken to pan. Bring sauce to a simmer, reduce heat, cover and cook, turning chicken once, for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked and tender.

4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a full boil and cook pasta, about 12 minutes. Drain and set aside.

5. Remove chicken from pan and pull meat from bones, discarding fat and bones. Add spinach to skillet, cover and let cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Return chicken meat to pan. Toss to incorporate. Add in pasta and toss again.

Serve with basil and Parmesan and the rest of the bottle of wine. Makes enough for 2 for a rainy weekend dinner.

Missing One Recipe

Earlier this week, I mentioned to my husband that I really wanted to make "that basmati rice, chickpea salad with sundried tomatoes... you know... I used to make it all the time a couple of years ago".

His eyes glazed over, and I was convinced for a moment that I'd lost him. But he nodded and said, "Oh yeah, that was really good. Why did you stop making that?"

I wish I knew the answer. It's a damn fine rice salad.

So I trooped off to the kitchen and started going through my cookbooks. Thirty minutes and about 20 cookbooks on the floor later, I had no idea where I'd gotten the recipe from.

Frowning, I went to the computer, checked epicurious, martha, cooking light... all with zero success.

I emailed my mother.

And my brother.

Neither of them knew what I was talking about. So I guess it's safe to say I've never made it for them.

One of my friends on facebook messaged me saying "Chickpeas, rice and tomatoes? Isn't that the salad recipe right there?"

And he's 90% right, except there was a dressing. A delicious dressing that pulled the whole thing together. I have NO recollection of what went into the dressing.

But, I had the rice and chickpeas ready to go, so I was going to make a salad if not the salad one way or another.

Basmati Rice Salad with Chickpeas, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Spinach and Basil

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
1 cup water
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup baby spinach, chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup olives (I used salt cured black olives)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (if you don't care about the colour of your salad, you can use regular balsamic)

Directions

1. In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add rice and simmer until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Fluff with rice.

2. Toss chickpeas through olives together in a large bowl.

3. Dump the basmati rice on top of the spinach-chickpea mixture and let sit for a few minutes, until spinach begins to wilt under the heat. Then toss the whole thing up together again with the olive oil and vinegar. You can add salt and pepper to taste.

This is totally a main course salad, but we opted to have it with some pork brochettes. I ate the same thing for lunch the next day, and it was just as delicious. If you have any feta at hand, that would be delicious tossed into the salad.

I do love me a good chickpea-rice combination.

But there's still the question of the salad. I have to be honest, this isn't what I remember the other salad tasting like. I think, perhaps, I used the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes in that one.

So, while it's back to the drawing board on the dressing, I totally think this recipe is a great weeknight/brown bag meal.

And any dressing suggestions are totally welcome!

Mushroom & Bacon Risotto with Spinach

Risotto was not something I got enthusiastic about until shortly after my wedding. Phil and I had a dinner out at Roy's in Kahana. I believe I had some kind of fish... but whatever it was, it was totally overshadowed by the lobster and Kula corn risotto. About 6 months later, I tried making it for the first time.

Let me tell you this: if you haven't tried it, making risotto is easy. EASY.

The only challenging part is standing over the pot stirring for the better part of 25-30 minutes. But, I figure, if you have a glass of wine or two to keep you company, that time just flies by!

Bacon and Mushroom Risotto with Spinach

(from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

4  cups chicken stock (homemade if possible)
6  bacon slices, chopped
1  cup  chopped shallots
1  tablespoon  extra-virgin olive oil
1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
4  garlic cloves, minced
4  ounces  cremini mushrooms, sliced*
4  ounces  shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced*
4  ounces  oyster mushrooms, sliced*
1  cup  uncooked Carnaroli or Arborio rice or other medium-grain rice
1/3  cup  Madeira wine or dry sherry
4  cups  baby spinach
1/2  cup  (2 ounces) grated fresh Asiago cheese
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

*For the record, I just used cremini. It was all I had on hand.

Preparation


1. Bring chicken stock to a simmer in a small saucepan (do not boil); keep warm over low heat.

2. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon to pan; cook 8 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally.

Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon. Add shallots, oil, thyme, and garlic to drippings in pan; cook 6 minutes or until shallots are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in mushrooms; cook 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mind the dark bits

3. Add rice, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in Madeira; cook 1 minute or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup stock; cook 4 minutes or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly.

Add remaining stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of stock is absorbed before adding the next (about 25 minutes total). Stir in spinach; cook 1 minute.

Remove from heat; stir in cheese, salt, and pepper.

Sprinkle with bacon.

Serve with a side of AWESOME.

Spinach Salad with Raspberries and Candied Almonds with Poppy Seed Dressing

Yesterday, I threw this picture up, and I wish I'd waited until today, because now I have the recipe to go with it!

This is one of my all time favourite salads... a HUGE Canadian Living winner from the late '90s (at least I think it was Canadian Living - there are no online traces of this recipe anywhere). It's my Mum's go to potluck salad contribution, but she reminded me this morning that I was the first one to try this recipe out about 10 years ago.

If I remember correctly, I made it for a Canada Day do in which I totally overestimated my own abilities and passed out instead of going downtown for festivities.

Now, the funny thing with this recipe is we lost it for a few years - until Mum remembered that she'd given it to a friend. So, Mum got the recipe sent back to her and we're back in business! This friend serves the salad as part of her family's French Canadian traditional Christmas Eve feast, so it seems only appropriate to include it in this week's collection of recipes.

Baby Spinach Salad with Raspberries and Candied Almonds 

1/2 cup    slivered almonds
1 tbsp.     corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar
Pinch      each salt and cayenne pepper

12 cups   baby spinach
1 cup      fresh raspberries

Dressing:
1/4 cup  vegetable oil
2 tbsp    granulated sugar
2 tbsp    raspberry vinegar 
1 tbsp    sesame seeds, toasted, or poppy seeds 

Directions

In a small bowl toss together almonds, corn syrup, sugar, salt and cayenne until coated. Spread in single layer on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake in 325 degree oven, stirring occasionally to break up clumps, for about 12 minutes or until golden and sugar is bubbly. Let cool completely on pan on rack. Break into pieces. 

Dressing: In small bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, vinegar, sesame seeds, salt and pepper.

In bowl, toss spinach with dressing. Sprinkle with candied almonds and raspberries.  Make 8 (large) servings.

Spinach & Artichoke Quiche

I love spinach and artichoke dip. You know, with bacon. And oodles of cheese. Mmm. I'm in heaven just thinking about it.

So, why not enjoy the fun in quiche form?

Bacon & eggs? Check.

Spinach? Check.

Artichokes? Check.

Let's rock and roll.