Kale Salad with Cilantro Lemon Dressing

Dressing:

1 bunch cilantro

juice of 2 lemons

raw garlic, to taste (1-2 cloves)

chilli powder, to taste (1/2 tsp)

salt, to taste

grape seed oil, by feel

Greens:

½ bunch red kale

green cabbage, to taste

Optional toppings:

orange or tangerine slices

dried cranberries

boiled egg slices

Directions:

Put all the dressing ingredients except the oil in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. With the blender on low, slowly add oil until the dressing becomes creamy. Don’t add too much or it will dilute the flavor.

Shred the kale into strips about ½ inch thick, by 2 inches long (or so). Put the kale in a bowl knead it until it is tender. Knead it more or less as you would knead dough, with lots of squeezing and crushing. This softens the raw kale and makes it delicious. Should only take a couple of minutes to soften it. Shred the cabbage. Mix everything together and add optional toppings as you like.

 

It has been hard to get into cooking since the morning sickness struck. This is one of the first things I have made in a few weeks and I had forgotten how satisfying and creative cooking is. It is a nice healthy, yummy and wintery salad.

I learned the Kale kneading technique from my dear friends Matt and Gabe when we all lived together in Eureka. Made up the dressing a couple of months ago because I love cilantro, but Jesse only seems to like it blended. The optional toppings are very indicative of our household here in Portland where we have a pregnant girl with food allergies and constant nausea, a picky eater, and a vegan. Flexible meals! Jesse actually had his salad on rice, which is a nice way to make a salad into a meal.

Crowther Sisters’ Granola

marcia edgar’s handwriting circa 1972

While visiting my mom Marcia this holiday season I found the recipe box.  It’s one that she’s had since she was a girl herself and is a strong memory in my mom’s kitchen.  This is the first in a series of some of the recipes and stories I found there about her food, our family and friend’s favorites and even my own highschool recipes.

This one is the granola recipe that Marcia and her sister Kathy made and cooked together since they were hippie girls on the ranch.  Made especially sweet because I had just seen Kathy and have a bag of this very granola in my cupboard here in Hong Kong.

Mix together:
7 cups oats
1 cup wheatgerm
1 cup wholewheat flour
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 T salt
1 t lemon rind
(nuts such as almonds optional)

Finally mix well in:
1 cup honey
1 cup water
1 t vanilla
1 cup vegetable oil

Spread onto shallow baking sheets at and bake at 200F (95C) for 2 hours.

Steamed Chinese Pork Tofu Pockets

Mince pork is so handy for a quick bite!  Here’s something else you can make with it that is really fast and super tasty.  This is a recipe for one so makes about 10 pockets.

handful of minced pork
1 T oyster sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1 sprig minced green onion
1 handful minced cilantro
1 minced green/red chilli if desired
10 fried tofu squares (you could put these in anything really)

Mix all ingredients except tofu together with hands until good stuffing consistency.  Cut each tofu square top part of the way off and stuff with pork mixture.  Steam for about 10 minutes.

Larb Moo (Thai Mince Pork)

OK first post!  I have a whole stash of things I want to post but this is first up because I made it last night:)

I’m always trying to figure out what I can make quickly and in small quantities that will taste like it’s full of MSG but isn’t.  That’s why I keep mince pork around:)  Here’s my impromtu take on a Thai favorite.

1/4 lb ground pork
handful of blanched green beans (baby western ones or those long bumpy Thai ones)
1 finely chopped small green or red chilli pepper (larger size pepper for less heat)
1 large clove chopped garlic
1 lime juiced
handful of chopped cilantro
handful of chopped mint (if preferred)
2 T vegetable oil
2 T soy sauce
1 T fish sauce
smidgen of cornstarch as desired

Blanch green beans and set aside.  Saute garlic in oil then add ground pork.  Cook with chillis on high heat for several minutes until pork is still a little pink and the juices are starting to come out.  Simmer and add soy and fish sauce and lime juice and stir.  For thicker sauce, let the juice come over to one side of the pan and mix in a little cornstarch.  Add in beans and heat all together.  Just before serving (on rice if you like), add cilantro and mint.

Yum!

The Bee’s Knees

My new’s years resolution, as Amy jokingly told Maya and Manose, was to drink more. This might sound like I have a drinking problem, but my reasoning was that even though I love cooking, I’ve never done any experimenting with cocktails. Spurred by my desire to save money, I thought that it would be great to try making more cocktails at home.

After buying a bottle of gin, I was in search of new gin cocktail and found different version of this one, “the bee’s knees” on many sites. As you might have guessed from the name, “the bee’s knees” is a prohibition-era cocktail from the days when liquor was often not the best quality and needed sweetness to offset the taste. The taste is similar to lemonade.

Ingredients
Gin
Honey
Hot Water
Lemon Juice

Method
1) Mix equal parts honey and hot water to form a simple syrup. Allow to cool
2) Juice lemons
3) Combine gin, honey syrup and lemon. Play with ratio, but you might want to make it 1/2 gin, 1/4 lemon juice, and 1/4 honey syrup. Depends on how sweet you want it!
4) Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice
5) Enjoy 🙂