Mexican Pasta

A lot of the same ingredients as the Minestrone Soup but in different amounts and with some spiciness.

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 cup of tomato sauce
• 2 cups of pasta, mostly cooked (it will finish cooking in the sauce)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
•  Parmesan cheese (or Cotija cheese if you can get it)

Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pot.
2) Add the onion and cook until it is translucent, about 3 minutes.
3) Add the leeks and carrots until they soften a bit, about 3 minutes.  Add the salt and pepper.





4) Add the jalapeno, pasta, and tomato sauce and bring to a boil.
5) Allow to cook until the pasta is cooked and carrots soften.
6) Serve with cilantro and Parmesan.

3-types-of-cooking stir fry

I had left over vegetables so what else to do other than make a stir fry. For this I braised the tofu just like here, fried eggplant and cooked the rest of the veggies in a pan.

Ingredients:

• braised tofu
• vegetable oil
• 1 eggplant, sliced thin
• salt and pepper
• paper towels
• 1 carrot, sliced thin
• 1 cucumber, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• rice

1) Cook the tofu as directed.









2) Heat vegetable oil in a pan, with enough oil to cover the bottom and go up about 1 cm.
3) Once the oil is hot but not smoking, add the eggplant. Depending on the size of your pan you may need to do this 2 or 3 times as you do not want to crowed the pan.





4) Flip the eggplant when it is brown on one side.
5) Remove the eggplant when it is brown on both sides and place on a paper towel.
6) Remove from the paper towel and add salt and pepper





7) Heat 3 TBSP oil in a pan.
8) Add the carrot for about 3-5 minutes.
9) Add the cucumber for 2-3 minutes.
10) Add the jalapeno and red onion for 2-3 minutes.
11) Add the tomatoes for 1-5 minutes, depending on how you like them cooked.
12) Serve the tofu and vegetables on top of rice with the eggplant on top to add crunch.

Homemade Mayo and Two Sandwiches to go with it

I've been told that mayo in Korea is really terrible, even by websites in Korea, so I decided to make my own--with a recipe from an English language Korean website!

Ingredients for the mayo:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1 clove of garlic, diced
• 1/2 cup + 1 TBSP olive oil
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Mix the egg yolk, mustard and garlic together.









2) Add the 1/2 cup of olive oil, a few drops at a time at first, and then once it seems more incorporated you can add it in a steady stream.
3) Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4) Add the extra TBSP of olive oil if necessary





5) Store in an air-tight container.











2 good sandwich ideas:

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of bread
• cucumber, sliced
• tomato, sliced
• red onion, diced
• mayo
• lemon juice

OR

• 1 slice of bread
• 1 sunny side up egg

I liked the second one far better.

Leftover veggie fried rice

Have vegetables left over from making the stock here? You should, unless you used veggies that were going to go bad in a day anyway. Make more fried rice!

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 cup cooked vegetables, leftover from stock (carrots, mushrooms, onion, leeks, tomatoes)
• 2 cups of cooked rice
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:
1) Heat the oil in a pan.
2) Add the garlic and ginger for 2 minutes or so.
3) Add the vegetables and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4) Add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
5) Add salt and pepper if necessary.

See photos of the fried rice if you need to!

Baigan Choka (Eggplant finished with hot oil)

Baigan is another word for Eggplant and Choka is a Hindi word meaning to finish a dish with hot flavored oil. The recipe was taken from here and cut in 1/3 as I only had 1 eggplant left. The other recipe says to grill everything, but I don't have that option so everything was put into a pan until it was charred slightly and heated through.

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant, charred and cooled
• 8 plum tomatoes, charred and cooled
• 1/4 onion, charred and cooled
• 3 cloves of garlic, charred and cooled
• 1 jalapeno
• 4 TBSP olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic

Directions:

1)Trim the stems off the eggplant and chop it.
2) Mash the eggplant and the tomatoes together.








3) Add the garlic, onion and, jalapeno and mix.
4) Heat the olive oil in a pan.








5) Add the fresh garlic and let it simmer for 15 seconds.









6) Serve with naan or other bread.

Grilled Cheese with Tomatoes and Garlic Mushroom Kale

 I wanted to try kale again, since I didn't get much of it in the Spanish Tortilla with Kale and had never had it at another time. I also saw grilled cheese with tomato in a store earlier so I made that as well to go with it.

Ingredients:

• Grilled Cheese
• butter
• 2 pieces of bread
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese, such as cheddar jack
• 2 slices of tomato
• Garlic Mushroom Kale
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup kale, stems removed and chopped

Directions:

1) Place a pan on medium heat and add some butter.
2) Assemble the grilled cheese and place it in the pan.
3) Heat the oil in another pan and add the garlic.
4) Once it starts simmering, add the mushrooms and saute for 5 minutes.
5) Turn over the grilled cheese.





6) Add the kale to the mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes, or until wilted.
7) Both should be done.

Roasted Vegetable Tostada

Using the green pepper, red onion and some lettuce from the Boston Organics box. Recipe taken from here.

Ingredients:

• 8 corn tortillas
• 4 cups cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
• 2 cups green peppers, chopped
• 2 cups red onion, chopped
• spray olive oil
• garlic powder
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 2 cups Cheddar jack cheese (and more for toppings)
• 2 cups black beans
• lettuce
• sour cream
• salsa
• whatever else you want to put on top!

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 425F/220C.
2) Spray oil on a baking tray, place the tomatoes, peppers and onion on it and spray again. Salt and pepper.







3) Roast for 30 minutes.











4) Remove from the oven and toss with the beans and cilantro.
5) Decrease oven temperature to 375C/190F.
6) Spray each tortilla once with olive oil and dash garlic powder on it and then brush the oil and powder all over.





7) Spoon mixture evenly over tortillas and add the cheese on top.











8) Bake for 10 minutes.
9) Add the lettuce, sour cream and whatever else you like!

 Don't do this and try and make tacos. Corn tortillas are too fragile for this and they will break (as you can see the front left one is trying to do)

Tomato, Zucchini, and Eggplant Tian

 As other posts will tell you, we get a box of fruit and vegetables once a week from Boston Organics. This box contained eggplant, thus this recipe was followed and altered a bit.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds round tomatoes, about 4, sliced thin
• 1 red onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 pounds zucchini, about 2, sliced thin
• 1 eggplant, sliced thin
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp dill
• 1/2 oregano

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
2) Arrange the vegetables in rows in the baking dish in the order of: tomato, eggplant, tomato, zucchini, onion, repeat. If there is extra place it in the middle or around the edges.
3) Season with salt and pepper






4) Mix the herbs and additional salt and pepper into the olive oil.
5) Poor the olive oil over the vegetables in the dish.







6) Place tinfoil over the vegetables and bake for 1 hour.








7) Remove the tinfoil and bake for another 1/2 hour.