Forbidden Rice Salad with Blistered Broccoli and Miso Dressing

Sometimes when I first open a new cookbook, there’s something that quickens my pulse, makes me hungry, and makes me want to cook. With my review copy of East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing by Meera Sodha, it was the chapter devoted to tofu. A whole chapter, just for tofu! That’s not so surprising given that this is a plant-focused cookbook based on Sodha’s vegan column for the Guardian. But, I like tofu, and it was exciting to see it used in several dishes here. The book is vegetarian rather than strictly vegan since it expands on what she has written for the column, and the dishes are inspired by flavors from South, East, and Southeast Asia. It’s intended to be a practical cookbook for getting meals on the table in a reasonable amount of time. The tofu chapter grabbed my attention first, but to be honest I want to make just about everything in every chapter. The Snacks and Small Things chapter has Celery and Peanut Wontons with Chile Soy Sauce that are simply boiled before being topped with sauce, and the Potato Dosa with Pea and Coconut Chutney looks crispy and delicious. Among the noodles, the Mouth-Numbing Noodles with Chile Oil and Red Cabbage and Food Court Singapore Noodles are on my short list. There are curries for every season, and the summery Thai Green Curry with Eggplant, Zucchini, and Snow Peas will be in my warm weather plans. From the rice dishes, I tried the Brussels Sprouts Nasi Goreng right away and loved the marinated, sliced Brussels sprouts on top. One of the other first things I made from the book was, of course, a tofu dish. The Honey, Soy, and Ginger Braised Tofu was sweet and spicy. Some others I’ll try soon are the colorful Chile Tofu with sweet peppers and chiles and the Spring Vegetable Bun Cha with pickled cabbage. There are also chapters for legumes, sides, condiments, and sweets, but I want to tell you more about a dish from Salads. 

The Forbidden Rice Salad with Blistered Broccoli and Miso Dressing looked fresh, crunchy, and full of flavor, and it was. In the book, it’s made with broccolini, but I had just received regular broccoli from my CSA and used that. First, the rice was cooked, drained, and left covered with a towel in a sieve. The dressing was a puree of cashews, fresh ginger, white miso, oil, and lemon juice. The broccoli was blistered in a frying pan as were the snap peas that I used in place of snow peas. To put it all together, the rice was spread on a platter, shredded red cabbage was layered with sliced watermelon radish in my case, thawed edamame, avocado wedges, and the blistered broccoli and snap peas. Last, dressing was drizzled on top. 

The magic of pureed cashews made the dressing thick and rich, and the lemon, ginger, and miso flavors would work well with a variety of salad ingredients. That combination worked especially well here with the chewy rice, crisp radishes, and blistered vegetables. Like all the recipes in this book, the mix of tastes and textures brings a lot of fun to the plate.

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Zucchini Noodle Bowl with Green Onion and Miso

Cooking with lots of different types of seasonal produce is exactly what interests me. So, when a book comes along that’s all about encouraging home cooking with healthful whole foods, there’s a very good chance I’ll like it. The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes, of which I received a review copy, inspires nutritious cooking with unprocessed plant foods. The recipes here are created in collaboration with Chad and Derek Sarno who also wrote The Wicked Healthy Cookbook. There are tips for cooking big batches of beans and grains, suggestions for creating layers of flavor without added oils or too much additional salt, and overviews for steaming, sauteeing without oil, and grilling. The book gives you all the information you need for a fresh approach to cooking and stocking your pantry. For instance, I’m looking forward to trying the risotto. There are two different recipes in the book, one for spring and one with butternut squash for fall and winter. But, the approach for both is the same, and other variations are suggested. For these risottos rather than sauteeing rice and aromatics in butter or oil, the steps have been altered to result in a processed-oil free dish. Here, leeks or onion or other aromatics are sauteed in a dry pan, and vegetable broth is added to deglaze when the vegetables begin to brown and stick. Cooked rice is added and mixed with the vegetables, and the richness comes from a pureed cashew cream. Other interesting recipes include whole, roasted vegetables that look delicious like the Whole Roasted Spiced Cauliflower with a pureed tomato and red pepper coating and the Classic Celeriac Pot Roast that’s slow-cooked with potatoes and herbs. The guide to bowls includes options like a Citrus-Sesame-Glazed Tofu Bun Cha and a Chickpea-Nut and Broccoli Satay. There are also soups, sauces, salad dressings, dips, and sweets. I have some pears in my refrigerator that are now destined to become Riesling and Orange Poached Pears sweetened with orange juice and apricot paste instead of refined sugar. But first, I set out to make the Zucchini Noodle Bowl with Green Onion and Miso. My first instinct would normally have been to begin by adding oil to a pan to cook the vegetables, but here everything was cooked in vegetable broth with no added oil. 

To start, the big flavor of dried mushrooms was included to boost this dish. Dried shitakes were soaked in hot water while everything else was prepped. Grated fresh ginger was warmed in vegetable broth in a Dutch oven, and then miso, soy sauce, and rice vinegar were added and kept at a bare simmer. Chopped summer squash and zucchini were added to the simmering broth. Meanwhile, zucchini noodles were made with a spiralizer, green onions were chopped, and I had a pretty orange sweet pepper that I decided to add. The zucchini noodles were divided among the bowls, the rehydrated and drained shitakes were placed next to the noodles, and I added the sliced sweet pepper. The cooked squash was spooned into the bowls, and the broth was ladled over everything. Green onion, sesame seeds, and sliced hot chile garnished each serving. 

I’m delighted to report I didn’t miss the oil in this dish at all. The fresh flavors of the vegetables, the mushrooms, and the miso broth were fantastic just as they were. There are a lot of great ideas in this book that can be applied to other dishes. I love learning these little things to change up recipes I’ve been cooking the same way for years especially when the changes bring about a more healthful result.

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Tomato Salad with Crisped Farro, Purslane, and Roasted Tomato-Miso Vinaigrette

Do you know what’s happened? Including this one, I’ve just given you five posts in a row about salads. Apparently, I don’t call it salad season for nothing. I promise to bring something else to the blog soon and maybe even bake something. But for today, here’s another really great salad for beautiful tomatoes. I received a review copy of The Broad Fork by Hugh Acheson and immediately appreciated the book’s intent. Acheson was inspired to offer ideas for cooking with several common types of produce from farmers’ markets and CSA’s, and of course his humor is injected throughout the book. There are about four recipes each for 50 different seasonal items, and they’re the kind of interesting recipes that get you thinking of new ways to use these ingredients. I’m wishing our local season for artichokes wasn’t over yet now that I see the Pickled Shrimp, Crisp Artichokes, and Butter Lettuce dish and Shaved Artichokes, Bay Scallops, and Preserved Lemon. For summer corn, there’s Perfect Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Creamed Corn, Lemongrass, and Crisp Shallots. And, since this year’s first appearance of purple hull peas just arrived from our CSA, I can’t wait to try the Gratin of Field Peas and Roasted Tomatoes or Fried Black-Eyed Peas. I grabbed one of the first local melons I found and tried the Sauteed Catfish with Cantaloupe, Lime, and Cilantro Salsa. I love the flavors of sweet fruit with spicy chiles in a salsa for seafood, and this was a delicious example of that combination. Next, I found myself stuck in the Tomato section on this salad with crispy farro and that lovely-sounding Roasted Tomato-Miso Vinaigrette. Those two components make this much more than a simple act of layering sliced tomatoes and salad greens. 

To begin, you need to cook, drain, and dry the farro. Once tender, I strained off the cooking water and spread the grains on a towel-lined baking sheet to let them cool and dry. The dried, cooked grains were then fried in small batches in a saucepan of oil. I can tell you the grains want to stick to a spoon both when lowering them into the oil and when removing them from the oil. It helps to have two spoons handy so one can be used for scooping up the grains and the other can be used for scraping grains from the first spoon. After frying, the grains were left to drain on paper towels and sprinkled with salt. This step can be done in advance, and the crisped farro can be left at room temperature. But I did find them a bit addictive and kept reaching back for tastes risking not having enough for the salad. The vinaigrette needs to be started in advance as well since tomato slices need to roast for 30 minutes. Once roasted and cooled, the slices were added to a blender with thyme, white miso, soy sauce, and rice vinegar to be pureed until smooth while olive oil was added. The recipe calls for purslane and arugula, and I was lucky enough to be at the Boggy Creek Farmstand on a day when they had purslane. There was no arugula though, so I used baby mustard greens instead. But, any sturdy, flavorful salad greens would work here. The salad was built by placing tomato slices on a platter and drizzling them with some vinaigrette. Next, the salad greens were tossed with vinaigrette, and they were placed on top of the tomatoes. Last, the crisped farro was sprinkled on top. 

This vinaigrette made me wonder why I’m not putting miso into every salad dressing I make. With the roasted tomato, the big flavors were a great match for salad greens with character. Thankfully, I didn’t snack on every last bit of crisped farro before finishing the salad because the grains added a tasty contrast in texture. This book is for everyone who needs fresh new ideas for all those farmers’ market vegetables. It even has me looking forward to turnip season, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that before. 

Tomato Salad with Crisped Farro, Purslane, Arugula, and Roasted Tomato-Miso Vinaigrette 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from The Broad Fork by Hugh Acheson, published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers. 

Great tomatoes sprinkled with kosher salt are enough to make me giddy, but when you add an awesome vinaigrette, some wonderfully fresh greens, and the crisp texture of fried farro, then I am over the moon. This is summer. Bring on the front-porch dinners. 

Serves 4 

Kosher salt 
1⁄2 cup farro 
2 cups peanut oil 
2 pounds heirloom tomatoes, cored, halved, and sliced into half-moons 
1⁄3 cup Roasted Tomato–Miso Vinaigrette (recipe follows) 
2 cups fresh purslane 
2 cups arugula leaves 
Freshly ground black pepper 

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan, and add 1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt and the farro. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook the farro until it is tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Strain the farro. Spread it out on a large platter lined with paper towels to steam off and drain off as much of the water as possible. 
2. In a large saucepan, heat the peanut oil to 350°F. Add the farro, in batches, and fry until crisp, 1 to 11⁄2 minutes. You want the grains to be crisp but not like little rocks. Remove from the oil and drain on the platter, lined with fresh paper towels. Season with kosher salt to taste. 
3. Arrange the sliced tomatoes on a large platter and season them with kosher salt. Drizzle half of the vinaigrette over the tomatoes. In a large bowl, combine the purslane and the arugula. Dress the greens with the remaining vinaigrette and toss well. Place the greens in the center of the platter. Garnish with the crisp farro and season with freshly ground black pepper to taste. Eat, and eat well. 

Roasted Tomato-Miso Vinaigrette 
Makes about 1 1⁄2 cups 

1 large heirloom tomato 
1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt 
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves 
1 tablespoon white miso paste 
1 teaspoon Japanese soy sauce 
2 tablespoons rice vinegar 
1⁄3 cup olive oil 

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. 
2. Core the tomato and cut it into thick rounds. Season the tomato slices with the kosher salt and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes, until the tomato slices are concentrated and very soft. 
3. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let them cool to room temperature. When they have cooled, place them in a blender and add the thyme, miso, soy sauce, and vinegar. Puree until smooth, and then, with the motor still running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. The dressing will keep for a week in a jar in the fridge. 

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Sesame-Crusted Miso Salmon with Cilantro Sauce

This year’s wild salmon season is coming to an end, but you can still get freshly caught Coho salmon through September. I just received some from the Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association. Coho, sometimes called Silver salmon, is slightly lighter in color than Sockeye, and its flavor is milder as well. I had an idea about using the Coho for an hors d’oeuvre, and combined two different recipes. First, I remembered a crusted salmon dish from Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook. In that recipe, salmon was cut into small chunks, and each piece was pressed into a mix of spices and then seared. The flavors were Moroccan, and there was a citrus dipping sauce made with yogurt. That sounded lovely, but I also had my eye on a salmon recipe from Power Foods. That one is a recipe for a main dish, but I was interested in the miso marinade and used it for small chunks of salmon rather than full servings. It's served with a cilantro, lime, ginger, and chile sauce. So for my version, I marinated chunks of salmon in a miso sauce and then pressed each chunk into a mix of black and white sesame seeds. The chunks were seared and then served with little picks for dipping into the cilantro sauce. They looked a lot like Martha’s spice-crusted hors d’oeuvre but had different flavors.

Step one was to make the marinade. A cup of white miso, a third of a cup of rice vinegar, a quarter cup of brown sugar, and a third cup of water were cooked in a saucepan just to dissolve the miso and brown sugar. Miso should not be brought to a boil. The mixture was left to cool to room temperature, and the salmon was skinned and cut into bite-size chunks. The salmon chunks were covered with the cooled marinade and then refrigerated for an hour. Next, the cilantro sauce was by pureeing cilantro, lime juice, shallot, jalapeno, garlic, fresh ginger, and vegetable oil. After an hour, the salmon chunks were removed from the marinade, excess marinade was shaken off each piece, and the pieces were pressed into a mix of black and white sesame seeds. I seared the pieces, seed side down, in a saute pan with a little oil, and then briefly flipped each piece to brown the miso marinade lingering on the top side. I served the salmon with a cocktail pick in each piece and the cilantro sauce on the side.

The cilantro sauce was a bright-tasting and lively match to the miso and sesame on the salmon. And, the miso marinade coated the salmon well to give each bite sweet-savory flavor and color from being caramelized in the pan. The little salmon chunks were hard to resist, but the marinated and seed-crusted idea would be just as good with full-sized fillets.

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Blackened-Redfish Sandwich with Miso Mayonnaise

Before I even begin to tell you about this sandwich, I’m going to suggest you stop what you’re doing, go directly to the nearest kitchen, and whip up a bowl of homemade miso mayonnaise. I wish someone would have given me this advice whenever this recipe was first invented because when I made it last weekend, I immediately felt all those years spent eating other mayonnaises had been squandered. If you’re someone who likes mayonnaise, then you probably already know the wonders of a homemade version. Now, imagine how good that homemade mayonnaise is, and then imagine it even better as if it’s been given a flavor boost. That’s miso mayo. This mayonnaise and the sandwich were in the second issue of Lucky Peach. In the magazine, the sandwich was made with bluefish, but I used Texas redfish. Really, there’s so much going on with flavors from the aforementioned, amazing mayonnaise and the blackening spice, just about any fish or tofu or even blackened bread would make a terrific sandwich here. I cheated in a couple ways in making this. I skipped the recipe for the homemade bread-and-butter pickles for the sandwich. It didn’t seem worth doing since cucumbers aren’t in season right now, and I have a preference for sour dill pickles with no sign of sweetness anyway. So, I used dill pickles from a jar. Next, I cheated with the blackening spice mix. I somehow blanked on the ground konbu in the ingredient list and didn’t even know I should have looked for it at the grocery store. Also, I miscalculated how little mustard seed I had on hand and failed to buy more for this. Oddly enough, I did, however, have the grains of paradise, whole allspice, and tomato powder, along with all the other ingredients, in my spice cabinet. Next time I make this, I will try to get the konbu for the umami it would have added to the mix. In general though, with so many different spices involved, if you add more of one item, less of another, or need to skip something, you’ll still have a great spice mix.

The full list of everything in the blackening spice is: three tablespoons grains of paradise, and I’ve gone on about grains of paradise once before, two teaspoons black peppercorns, one teaspoon coriander seed, four tablespoons mustard seed, one teaspoon cumin seed, one teaspoon whole allspice, one quarter cup ground konbu, three tablespoons onion powder, two tablespoons cayenne powder, one quarter cup tomato powder, and one half cup sweet smoked paprika. Note: in the magazine, the quantity for cayenne powder is six tablespoons, and I think that must have been a typo. I like things spicy, but that seemed like an extraordinary amount of cayenne. I used two tablespoons and tasted to see if I wanted it spicier. Two tablespoons gave it a good amount of heat even to my palate. The whole spices were toasted in a dry skillet, and then ground and mixed with the powdered spices. Fish fillets were seasoned with salt, dredged with the blackening spice, and seared in a hot pan with a little oil. The blackening spice was also used on some oven fries. Again, I cheated. In the magazine, the blackened potato chips were to have been fried. Now, for that amazing mayonnaise, you make a typical homemade mayonnaise and add one tablespoon of champagne vinegar and two tablespoons of white miso. I don’t seem to have the gene that allows one to make a mayonnaise with one egg yolk. Mine always breaks when I start with just one yolk, and I always start over with another yolk and mix the broken oil mixture into the second yolk. I also seem to have better luck with a hand mixer than with a food processor or blender. I’ve used a whisk as well, but a hand mixer is easier. The sandwich was built with toasted and buttered bread, shredded lettuce, sliced pickles, the blackened fish, and the wonder that is miso mayo.

The spice mix does exactly what it’s intended to do once it hits the hot oil in the pan. It blackens as quickly as the fish cooks, and that deepens the flavors of the spices. It was just as delicious on the oven fries, and the extra miso mayo makes a great dipping sauce for them. My mind is already swirling with thoughts of other ways to use that mayonnaise.

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