Saturday Lunch

This past Saturday, after blowing all of my cash on take-out, I had to make myself lunch. I've been so spoiled over the past week...my parents made me three meals a day! Whenever I come back from a trip home, I get really lazy about cooking and don't make myself anything for 3 or 4 days. Anyway, I looked in my mostly bare cupboard and fridge and this is what I found: 1 old lemon, 1 can of chickpeas, 1/2 a bag of red lentils, 2 cans of tuna, a couple of tomatoes. Not all that much I could do with this stuff, so I went on a quick trip to the grocery store to supplement what I had to make a decent soup and sandwich combo. I ended making an italian-style tuna sandwich and a lentil, tomato and chickpea soup (an adaptation of a Rachael Ray recipe.) Turned out surprisingly well given I was just trying to eat whatever I could find in my house. Recipes below (serves 2 with some left over):

Italian-Style Tuna:
2 cans of tuna packed in water, drained
a handful of pitted kalamata olives, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped (try to get rid of as much juice and seeds as you can)
a handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt & pepper
Combine all of the ingredients, spread on a roll and add a few large basil leaves.

Lentil, Chickpea and Tomato Soup:
1 can of chickpeas
1/3 cup of red lentils
1 can (28 oz) of fire roasted tomatoes (or just regular whole tomatoes)
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin

Puree the chickpeas and onions in a food processor
Cook the garlic in olive oil at medium heat
Add the chickpea and onion puree, combine with the turmeric, cumin and salt(liberally)
Stir for about 5 minutes
Add the can of tomatoes (juice included), chicken stock and lentils, stir and combine
Simmer the soup at medium heat for about 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils are mushy
Stir occasionally, use your stirrer/spatula to break up the tomatoes if necessary
Taste and add salt if needed.

Easy Sorbet

I just made a sorbet (recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman/NY Times) that was ridiculously easy and really tasty. It only requires 3 ingredients and takes less than 5 minutes to make. Also! It tastes any overpriced sorbet that you would buy at a place like Ciao Bella. Now that I've made my own home-made version, i don't think I'll be going out to buy sorbet anymore.

Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen fruit (I used strawberries)
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1/4 cup of sugar
A few tablespoons of water

Instructions:
1. Combine ingredients in a food processor
2. Blend until the fruit is broken down and the ingredients form a smooth consistency
3. Serve

Eldo Cake House

My favorite bakery in Boston's Chinatown. These cakes are made of
fluffy vanilla sponge cake with a layer of light cream and fresh
strawberries in the middle.

Breakfast at home

Rice porridge
Pickled vegetables
Hard-boiled egg
Steamed bun with red bean filling
Mmmm

Hibino

I finally made it to Hibino last night, a Japanese restaurant on a residential stretch of Cobble Hill. Located at the corner of Henry and Pacific streets, the restaurant serves the usual Japanese fare, as well as daily "Obanzai" specials, or home-style Japanese version of tapas. The food is very good - simple, unfussy and satisfying. The sushi was also the best I've had in a long time. The service was also great, our waitress was attentive but not obstrusive, appearing at all of the right times.

To start, we ordered one of the obanzai specials: the curry croquette, which came with a thick ponzu dipping sauce and the Hirousu, which are tofu cakes served with a mild soy broth. The curry croquette looked like a McDonald's hash brown and tasted sort of like a samosa. That description doesn't sound appetizing, but it was actually my favorite dish.

Our bill for two obanzai (obanzais?), two rolls of sushi, a glass of wine and a glass of beer came out to about $35. That's a pretty good deal.

http://www.hibino-brooklyn.com/

Tablespoon

The cute and delicious new cafe, Tablespoon, on 20th between 5th and 6th aves. The lemon meringue pie is very good, the coffee will make you jittery for the rest of the day. They also serve breakfast (egg dishes and pastries) and lunch (salads, sandwiches and a daily entree.)

Vegetable Soba Noodle Soup

I love this dish because it's healthy, versatile and super quick and easy to make. It's the perfect meal on a cold winter night...it's guaranteed to warm you up! You can use whatever vegetables you want....spinach, bok choy, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage...my favorite is a combination of carrots, tofu and enoki mushrooms. The following recipe serves one with a little bit extra.

Ingredients:
Half of a brick of firm tofu, cubed
1 scallion, chopped loosely
1 carrot, sliced into thin pieces
1/3 package of enoki mushrooms (the weird looking ones with the long white stalk and a very small head)
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of hon-dashi (seafood flavoring, you can find this in any japanese grocery store, M2M in Manhattan sells it, it comes in a small round jar with a red cap. you can find it in the spices aisle)
1 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of miso (available in many regular grocery stores and all japanese grocery stores)
1 small fistful of dried soba noodles

Directions:
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil
stir in the hon-dashi and soy sauce
Add the carrots and bring down to medium heat
After a few minutes, add the tofu
After another 5-7 minutes add the mushrooms
In a small dish, mix a spoonful of the broth with the miso, until it turns in to the consistency of a thick paste
Add the miso paste to the broth and stir
While you're working on the broth, bring another pot of water to boil
Add the soba noodles and cook according to the instructions on the package (probably will instruct you to cook the noodles for 6 minutes)
Drain the noodles, place in your serving bowl
By now, your soup will be done. Ladle the soup into the bowl with the soba noodles
Garnish with scallions
Sesame seeds would also be a nice finishing touch.