born in the 70's: braised green cabbage / brown rice with mushrooms

I curse the Vancouver winters for the short amount of daylight. Many days, we don't even get to see the sun...just grey, grey, grey. The lack of natural light (along with our apartment's low-energy bulbs) makes my photos brown and looking at them right now makes me feel like I'm back in the 70's. Throw on the corduroy, cozy up in an afgan and settle into an evening of orange and brown. The seventies weren't so bad, really. My mom took yoga and made her own yogurt and even took a self defense class where she could bust up a 2x4 with a swift kick and a power yell.

I made this brown meal after our trip to Portland. Too much good IPA and a stop (or two) for a Reggie Deluxe and we were glad to be back to the healthy drizzle of Vancouver. Portland was all about excess and this meal is about scaling back while still meeting the oh-so-important comfort quotiant. I've made Orangette's braised cabbage a few times and it's delicious. Sweet and soft and a meal in it's own right. And even if you are a bit ho-hum on cabbage, the braised carrots alongside are so rich and yielding that you can't believe that you just got all excited for a carrot.

But I didn't think the husband would be all that happy with a hunk of cabbage on his plate, no matter how bejewelled the carrots were, so I made some brown rice. After a quick look on the computer to see what I could add to make the rice a tad more appealing, I stumbled upon this recipe. Kalyn uses farro, but subbing in the brown rice was a perfect choice. The balsamic added a nice sweetness and tang to the dish and the brown mushrooms just multiplied the earthiness factor to the max. I threw in some barely steamed broccoli for crunch and colour and put on a little Jackson C Frank on the hi-fi. If a meal could make you feel healthy, wealthy and wise, this could be it. Ahhh, much better.

brown rice with balsamic, thyme and mushrooms
(recipe adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen)
1.5 c brown rice
3 c vegetable broth
1 T olive oil
1/4 c diced red onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 c sliced brown or button mushrooms
1 T fresh thyme, chopped (stems removed)
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

1. In a medium sized pot, bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add brown rice, cover and turn heat down to medium. When all the broth has been absorbed, rice will be ready.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive in a large skillet. Saute onion, garlic and mushrooms and add in the thyme. When the mushrooms are soft and have released their juices, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the brown rice into the mushroom mixture and mix until all the rice has been coated with the mushroom balsamic sauce. Serve.

braised green cabbage with onion, carrot and hot peppers
(adapted from Orangette)
1/2 green cabbage, cut into quarters with most of the woody core removed
1 onion, quartered
4 carrots, cut into 3 inch chunks
1 hot pepper, seeds removed and diced
1/4 c vegetable stock
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven at 325F. In a large oven proof dish, place vegetables into an even layer and cover with stock and olive oil. Give everything a good sprinkle of salt and pepper and cover tightly with a lid or foil. Bake for 1 hour and turn vegetables over if necessary, adding water if dry. Bake for another hour and then serve.

stank you very much: spicy tofu with shiitake mushrooms

Sorry for all of this quiet on the blog front, but this past weekend my little brother got all married up in a small and beautiful ceremony. This was also the weekend that a crazy snow storm hit Southwestern Ontario. Luckily we flew in Thursday afternoon when the weather was still clear and while our Friday drive from Toronto to London, Ontario took 4 hours instead of the normal 2 hours, we arrived safe and sound. Our flight heading back to Vancouver was delayed for a little bit on Sunday night, but we made it back to balmy Vancouver temperatures no worse for wear.

A little jet-lag aside, I'm posting a recipe I made a couple of weeks ago. This year, I've decided to to try new things. My eggplant recipe from last month is one such example...I tried it and hey, I liked it! This meal is another kick in the pants for me: dried mushrooms. Normally, I'm not a fan but I came across this recipe on Epicurious and decided to take another look. I played with the ingredients to suit what I had on hand and lucky me, this meal was amazing served over brown rice.

Now if you think that conquering this fear was a breeze, I assure you it was not. Cutting up the rehydrated mushrooms was a painful process because no one told me that dried mushrooms have a very earthy nasty stank. It was so pungent that I almost didn't go through with it....but like any trooper, I forged ahead. When the meal was ready to eat, I made Cornelius (also a mushroom hater) try the first bite. He liked it...so I cautiously dug in too. Thankfully, this was amazingly yummy! It was spicy, vegan and delicious and it tasted like a great meal from my favorite Chinese restaurant. While the recipe list looks long, it's actually pretty quick to whip up once the mushrooms have soaked. Stank or no stank, I'm making this recipe again!

spicy tofu with shiitake mushrooms
20 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 c boiling water

1 c vegetable broth
2 T soy sauce
1 T white wine vinegar
2 t agave nectar (or honey)
1 T cornstarch
a few grinds of freshly ground pepper

2 T canola oil
1 package of extra-firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 leek (white and pale green parts only), cut into slices
2 T black bean sauce
2 T minced fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 t chili-garlic sauce

1. Place mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for 2 hours, drain and remove stems. Slice caps and set aside.

2. Prepare sauce by mixing the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and honey together. Whisk in the cornstarch until blended.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a large skillet or wok and stir fry the tofu until golden brown. Remove from the pan. Heat the remaining oil in pan and stir fry the mushrooms for a couple of minutes until brown. Add in leeks, ginger, garlic and black bean sauce and stir to coat mushrooms. Add back in tofu and pour in sauce. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Serve over brown rice.