House Spouse

Oh, wow. What’s it been, like 18 years since I last posted? Between picking up some extra hours at work for the summer and doing an independent study in reading French, I’m not so much busy as I am drained from having to employ so much self discipline for three months in order to accomplish anything. (I hope that sentence wasn’t so long and full of prepositional clauses that it was impossible to understand. Edit: I just went back and read that sentence and it wasn’t so bad after all. See, all this memorizing of the different ways to translate “celui, celle, ceux, celles” and all of the other relative, interrogative, disjunctive and demonstrative French pronouns has me thinking only in terms of grammar these days.) I did accomplish this lovely recipe some months ago, though, and never got around to posting. It’s simple, pleasant and refreshing.

Lemon Sesame Green Beans

Ingredients
(note: The amounts are approximations. In all honesty, I just added things until it tasted right.)
1 pint of green beans
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 T olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 T honey
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Blanch the green beans in a pot of boiling water for about 1 to 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with very cold water or place in an ice bath. The beans should remain tender-crisp. While they are cooling, prepare the dressing: Whisk together the oils, lemon juice and honey. Add the salt to taste (the dressing should be just slightly bracing). Toss with the beans and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

Although my fall semester begins in just a week, I do have a list of things to cook and post about. Here’s a preview: preparing dry beans (for Louisa), lemon layer cake (for me!), and Mexican salsas.

Note: My in-laws are visiting this week, and have promised to take us out to eat most nights, so I am taking a break from cooking (except of course when we initiate Mom and Dad into the pizza grilling revolution). In the mean time, I’ll be moving some of the older House Spouse archives onto this site. The post the follows, I think, is especially appropriate now that I’ve started to see zucchini at the farmers markets. Enjoy!

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(From January 2008)

Andrew and I returned yesterday to icy sidewalks and brisk air after a week of sunshine and sixties in Los Angeles. My Vitamin D levels are up, and I’m certain this elevated mood will last for at least a few days.

Just before we left, I got to open two Christmas gifts (so as to avoid lugging gifts to and from California): a stand up Kitchen Aid mixer and Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Opening gifts was bittersweet because while I was thrilled with these two new kitchen additions, I knew I’d have to wait an entire week to use them. Last night, after a full day of travel (and a loss of two hours), exhausted we ordered Thai from our fave neighborhood spot and planned for the morning a re-stocking grocery run.

Zucchini and Chickpea Filo Pie
From How To Be a Domestic Goddess
(My notes are in italics.)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/4 tsp ground cumin)
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, finely diced
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander (or 2 T fresh cilantro, finely chopped)
3 plump zucchini
generous 1/2 c basmati rice (I used brown basmati and cooked it about half way before starting)
2 1/4 c vegetable stock
2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained
scant 1/2 c melted butter
7 ounces filo pastry dough

Preheat the oven to 400 F and put in a baking sheet.
Gently fry the cumin seeds and onion in the olive oil until soft (or, if using the ground cumin, wait to add it with the rest of the spices). Add the tumeric and coriander (if using cilantro, add it at the very end, with the chickpeas). Dice the zucchini (unpeeled), add them to the onions and cook on a fairly high heat to prevent the zucchini becoming watery. When they are soft but still holding their shape, add the rice and stir well, letting the rice become well coated in the oil. Add the stock 1/2 cup at a time, stirring while you do so. When all the liquid has been absorbed the rice should be cooked, so take it off the heat, stir in the chickpeas, and check the seasoning.

Brush the insides of an 8-inch spring form pan (unfortunately, mine is a 10-inch pan, meaning my pie turned out shallower, next time I’ll make more filling) with some of the melted butter. Line the bottom and sides of the pan with 3/4 of the filo, buttering each piece as you layer. Leave a little filo overlapping the sides, and keep 3 to 4 layers for the top. Carefully put in the slightly cooled filling, and then fold in the overlaps. Butter the last layers of filo and scrunch on top of the pie as a covering. Brush with a final coat of butter, and put in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the filo is golden and the middle hot.

I served the pie for dinner with orange slices and a salad with yogurt dill dressing. I’m looking forward to a room temperature slice for a savory breakfast.

Who doesn’t love noodles dressed with peanut sauce? (I mean, other than the very unfortunate who suffer from peanut allergies…) Imagine such noodles accompanied by grilled fruit, greens and really really tasty tofu. This is one of those dishes that makes you crazy glad that you’re not opposed to meatless (or even vegan) dinners because those suckers who think you need an animal protein to complete a meal are so wrong.

After returning from the farmers market with a bag of baby bok choy, I did a little research for some inspiration and discovered this fun recipe on Epicurious, but I wanted to make something vegetarian and more substantial. Still, the idea of a peanut sauce sweetened with peach nectar was intriguing so I began collecting ingredients to re-fashion the recipe to my liking. I followed the instructions for the peanut sauce almost exactly, omitting the butter entirely. I substituted the shrimp with marinated tofu and pared down the rest of the ingredients to make enough for two (although, there were plenty of noodles for leftovers).
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