Moroccan Food Cures Blahness

I was feeling pretty crappy and stressed yesterday, so I decided that the only way to get myself out of my own head was to make something. Something new and delicious like a carrot chickpea cilantro tagine.

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I broke in my fancy Le Creuset tagine pot given to me by my sister Christina! She completely spoiled me last year and got me a cookbook to go along with it, and now I’ve finally had the opportunity to try my hand at making a Moroccan meal.

I knew I was on the right track for the night when I started the actual cooking. If you think sautéeing onions and garlic smells freaking awesome, try adding cinnamon, tumeric, cumin seeds, and cayenne pepper!

New things learned:

1.The cookbook I used also had a different way of making the buttery couscous. Instead of boiling water and adding the couscous, they suggested pouring warm water and waiting for the grain to absorb it completely, and then placing it into a preheated oven for about 15 minutes.

2. The recipe also called for rose water, which was cool because I’d never used it before and it didn’t really detract from the flavor of the stew.

I love this cuisine so much, I’m wondering how I can fuse Vietnamese food with it. Spring rolls with chickpeas? Cumin noodles? Yeah…it’s a stretch all right. Anybody have any ideas? I think experimenting would be interesting, if not disastrous…

Egyptian Red Lentil Soup

I tried my hand at cooking lentils for the first time with this recipe.

Lessons learned: don’t rinse red lentils and set aside. They will harden extremely quickly and you’re going to have to use your hands to pry them loose. Add salt generously, and don’t be shy with the chile! Since I’m a saltaholic, I added gourmet blackened salt with the yogurt and lemon.

Verdict: This healthy soup is delicious and great for leftovers!

Green Onion, Ginger & Seitan Wonton Soup – Attempt #1

Ever since Brandon and I ate at Dao Palate in New York on our last visit, I have been in love with the idea of doing a vegetarian or vegan wonton soup. The veggie ham they used was amazing – it wasn’t bland and had a really quality texture that was akin to the pork that I would normally use.

Wonton soup, the way my mom makes it, is one of my favorite comfort foods. There’s something about the sesame oil and soft wontons with the green onions that makes me happy (and hungry). I wanted to give this same feeling to Brandon, so we set out to make it. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find the correct veggie ham, so we settled for ground seitan:

PLEASE NOTE: the ground seitan was flavored with oregano, and the buillon cube had a pretty heavy “thanksgiving” taste…but we were desperate for soup and wanted to try it anyway! If this sounds disgusting to you, you may want to stop here. But the good news is that it actually turned out really well. Like an East meets West kind of thing. I’m still trying to perfect it, but Brandon found it so delicious that I am encouraged to share it, regardless!

Also, because this was an experiment, I didn’t really record measurements as accurately as I would’ve liked.

Last but not least – lessons learned: I will make my own broth next time – no cubes, and I will hunt for the right veggie ham…this is what happens when you’re really hungry.

So without further ado, here is the basic recipe:

Serving size: 2 bowls, 10 wontons per bowl. Total time including preparation: 45 minutes.

Broth ingredients:

• lots of ginger
• 1 white onion
• 3 Carrots
• sesame oil (4-5 tbsp)
• soy sauce
• vegetarian fish sauce
• 1/2 Vegan broth buillon cube
• fresh cilantro

Wonton ingredients:

• wonton wrappers – thawed, if frozen
• 1 farm fresh egg to seal the wontons
• green onion
• ginger
• garlic
• salt & pepper

Step 1: Prepare the broth.

1. Cut onion in half, place both halves in pot with about 10 cups of water. Place heat on high.
2. As the water is brought to a boil, cut the carrots into long sections and slice ginger according to taste. I recommend the more the better.  Place both into broth.

Step 2: Prepare wontons

1. Mince two cloves of garlic
2. Mince ginger
3. Use wooden spoon to divide ground seitan (approximately a fourth of a package)
4. Chop 1-2 green onions – it depends on how much you like!
5. Mix garlic, ginger, seitan, and onions in a bowl; add salt and pepper to taste

Step 3: Complete the broth.

By now the broth is probably boiling. Add the half of vegan buillon cube. Add the sesame oil. Dash in soy sauce to taste and for color. If you like a saltier broth, add some dashes of the vegetarian fish sauce. Lower heat to a low setting and let simmer for at least 15 minutes.

Step 4: Make the wontons.

1. Whisk the egg in a separate little bowl so it’s nice and scrambled.
2. On a large plate, take one wonton wrapper and position it so it looks like a diamond
3. Place a tiny amount of the seitan mixture in the center. Using your finger, place a tiny amount of egg at the top corner of the diamond.
4. Bring the bottom corner of the diamond up to the top. Press into the egg.
5. You should have a triangle formed. Place some egg with your finger again on the top corner. Bring the right corner of the triangle up to the top corner and press. Repeat for the remaining left corner.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you make as many wontons as you want.

Step 5: Check on the broth.

Taste to see if it needs any additional sesame oil or salt.

Step 6: Cook wontons.

Wontons don’t need to be cooked very long. Otherwise the wrapper will become too soft and fall apart. In a shallow but wide saucepan, bring 3/4 of the volume to a boil. Using either a steamer strainer or a hand-held noodle strainer, place about 9-10 wontons and let it sit in the boiling water for no more than 3 minutes. remove and strain, but do not run cold water over it. Place into bowl, pour plenty of broth over it, and garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and green onions. Add siracha sauce!