Cook the Books 2013: Soup weather = Tom Yum Goong

March was filled with more work travel, lots of family occasions and visitors, and now a cold...so it didn't allow me much time in the kitchen to try out this month's Cook the Books selection, Good Fish by Becky Selengut. But, my Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Shrimp and Lemongrass) soup was just what the doctor ordered, and I've got the ingredients on-hand to make the Wild Salmon Chowder with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes and Quinoa Cakes with Smoked Trout and Chive Sour Cream in the next few days. I also have BIG love for sardines, so always have them in the pantry and will try not just her version of Pasta con la Sarde for sure, but the fresh Skillet Sardines too.

Anyhow, on to what I did make...

Cooking shallots and lemongrass is up there in terms of kitchen smells, but it's the kaffir lime leaves that are the magic ingredient here and will transport you right into the heart of Thailand as you cook this deliciously, evocatively, fragrant broth. Or at least that's what happened to me.

Though this isn't an overly complex recipe, making the stock takes some time, so once again I broke it down over two days. Be sure to brown the shrimp shells over high heat in order to impart their distinctive flavor to the broth.

Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Shrimp & Lemongrass Soup)
Adapted from Good Fish by Becky Selengut
Serves 4

2 tablespoons high-heat vegetable oil (I used safflower)
1 medium onion, diced
1 small carrot, diced
2 ribs of celery, diced
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (shells reserved)
5 to 6 cups of water
3 tomatoes, medium dice, or one 14-oz can of diced tomatoes with their juice
6 Kaffir lime leaves, or zest of 1 lime
6-8 thin slices of fresh, peeled galangal or ginger
2 jalapeños, halved (remove the seeds and membranes if you want to decrease the heat of your soup)
1/2 cup sliced shallots
3 stalks of lemongrass, cut into 1-inch pieces, woody top half discarded
1 cup cremini or button mushrooms, thickly sliced
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3-6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (2-3 limes)
Salt
Whole cilantro leaves, for garnish

Making the soup stock

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a stockpot over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrot, and celery and saute for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned.

Turn the heat up to high and add the reserved shrimp shells. They will turn their recognizable pink almost immediately, but saute about 3-4 minutes until they are lightly browned.

Add the water to the pot. If you are using canned tomatoes, drain the juice into a measuring cup and add enough water to total 6 cups.

Stir in the sliced galangal, jalapeños, and kaffir lime leaves and bring to a boil.

Scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any browned bits and simmer gently for approximately 30 minutes. (This is when the fragrance magic happens)

Strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve and set aside. If you make the night before, store the stock in the fridge overnight.

Making the soup

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat, and add the shallots and lemongrass. Saute about 8-10 minutes until  lightly browned.

Add the mushrooms, tomatoes and reserved stock and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the fish sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes, then add the shrimp and turn off the heat (the residual heat will do the cooking for you).

Add the juice of 2 limes and season to taste with salt. Add more fish sauce if necessary, as well as lime juice which will brighten the flavors. A little sugar or honey can help if your soup is tart or bitter.

Be sure to taste the soup at this stage and balance the flavors according to your palate.

Serve garnished with cilantro leaves, and remember you can lightly chew on the lemongrass stalks to release some of their flavor, but do not try to eat them!

Cooking notes:
While deveining shrimp is not the sexiest job in the kitchen, it was actually a first for me and I kind of enjoyed it. This takes about 10 minutes, so plan your prep and cooking time accordingly. Selengut's website includes a number of how-to videos, including one on deveining shrimp.

I had exactly, to the drop, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce left in the bottle. I love it when that happens!

Here's an in-depth, Spring-filled post reviewing this cookbook by Oh, Briggsy, with the monthly round-up post coming soon from Grow & Resist!

Swapper Profiles: Angela Mc and J.K. Kaufman + Beer Bread Recipe

I am extremely pleased to introduce the dynamic swap duo of Angela and J.K.. Though in fact they haven't been coming to the swap for all that long of a time, it feels like they have (in the best of ways). They always come supremely well-stocked, which is evidence of the hard work and love they put into their cooking. Their packaging is always playful, and matches their fun spirits and smiles every time. Between them they've busted out Tea Cookies in assorted flavors, Marshmallows, Chocolate Covered Caramels, Rustic Chocolate Choffy Ball Truffles, Mini Pies (Blood Orange & Blueberry, Savory Goose, Persimmon, and Apple Sugar + Spice), and Orange-Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies. They also co-write a blog, Tea Time Adventures. Read on to see what else gets them excited in the kitchen, plus nab a tasty looking recipe for Beer Bread. Cheers to that!

Angela and J.K. with their Death by Caramel Brownies

Name: Angela Mc

Home (+ hometown swap): SF/sf food swappers

Angela's savory goose mini pie was delicious

How did you first get involved in food swapping? How long ago?
I think I first saw it in an email, I just know that it was instant attraction to the idea and we swore we would go to the next one! Since last year? Perhaps in June? It was the swap at the old venue in the Mission.

What did you make for the last food swap and what inspired your choice?
Mini-pies. A friend had given me a booklet called "Bike Basket Pies" and we thought they'd be perfect to swap. We made four kinds. 3 fruit and one savory.

What’s your favorite thing about swapping?
Getting ideas from other swappers! It always seems like someone has made something that is such a brilliant idea that I must steal it. Last swap it was the tea-infused simple syrup.

Who or what most influences your cooking?
I just pick it up as I go, but one famous chef I Love is Jacques Pepin. He has had such an varied career, and his autobiography is awesome.

What’s your favorite kitchen tool?
Toaster oven. For real. It's so much easier and tastier to toast than microwave food. A close second is ye olde immersion blender.

Your current flavor or ingredient obsession?
Salt. I love salt. Always.

Biggest food surprise? 
When people say they "can't" cook. Or is that Pet Peeve? Hmmm.

If the Rapture came tomorrow, what would your last meal on earth be?
Brunch! A fried chicken, waffle kind of combo with Lots of fresh fruit. Bacon.

When I'm not in the kitchen I'm... eating out and then blogging about it!

Favorite local food experience:
Annual Street Food Festival!!


Name: J.K. Kaufman

Home (+ hometown swap): San Francisco

Profession: Retired

How did you first get involved in food swapping? How long ago?

Angela found out about it and we decided to participate. I think our first swap was in October.

What did you make for the last food swap and what inspired your choice?

Judy Rosenberg's (Rosie's Bakery in Boston) orange pecan chocolate-chip cookies from her All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book (page 101). They're my current favorite of the things I bake and definitely my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie.

What’s your favorite thing about swapping?

Meeting other people who enjoy creating good things in the kitchen and coming home with a bag full of new things to try.

Who or what most influences your cooking?

Whatever I feel like eating. But I rarely cook, unless you count my morning oatmeal. I'm a baker. Friends invite me to dinner and asks me to bring bread and/or dessert.

Death By Caramel Brownies in the making

What’s your favorite kitchen tool?

The silicone paddle for my stand mixer. It scrapes the side of the bowl as it beats. My chocolate tempering machine is a close second. I have a serious weakness for gadgets and small appliances.

Your current flavor or ingredient obsession?

Chocolate

Biggest food surprise?

Discovering that the taste of charcoal-grilled food that I didn't like was really the excess lighter fluid my father used.

If the Rapture came tomorrow, what would your last meal on earth be?

Abalone

When I'm not in the kitchen… I'm reading, either dead tree or online. Or out eating with Angela or other friends.

Favorite local food experience:

Tasting the creations of the best artisan chocolatiers at Fog City News on Market Street.

Beer Bread Recipe by Angela

Preheat oven to 375°
Grease a bread pan with olive oil, nonstick spray, or butter.
3 c flour3 T sugar1 T Baking Powder1 tsp. salt1 c cheddar cheese (shredded)1 T chives

Whisk these dry ingredients together
Add 1 beer and stir. Mixture will be sticky.
Put mixture in prepared pan. Bake 55 minutes.
Remove from oven, rub a little butter over the top, and return it to the oven for 2-3 minutes.
Eat!

See original post with more pictures here.

Cook the Books 2013: Spiced Pineapple-Filled Pastries for the Chinese Lunar New Year

I tend to balk at too many choices. At restaurants when confronted multiple dishes I cannot decide upon, I often ask the waiter to pick for me. Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings had a similar effect in that so many of the recipes appealed to my senses (stomach, eyes, and taste buds!), I didn't know where to start.

This book is especially exciting with its liberal interpretation of the term dumpling, and its Pan-Asian offerings. After much page turning and salivating, my top contenders list narrowed down to Curried Chicken Baked Bao, Shrimp Rice Noodle Rolls, Sticky Rice and Spiced Chicken in Banana Leaf, Kimchi Dumplings, Spiced Pineapple-Filled Pastries, Milk Dumplings in Cardamom and Saffron Syrup, Sticky Rice and Mung Bean Dumplings in Ginger Broth, but in the end I only made one dish from this book. It was that kind of month.

And it ultimately came down to ingredient availability amid my crazy schedule. I had a big fresh pineapple on the kitchen counter calling my name, and after perusing the book had grabbed ground annatto recently at one of the markets in my neighborhood. Thus the decision was made.

I made the filling one evening after work, but quickly realized the entire project was too ambitious to finish in one fell swoop. I put the jam in the fridge and then made the dough and dumplings on the weekend when I was in a more leisurely state of mind.

My delay was fortuitous as I ended up making the Spiced Pineapple-Filled Pastries on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. When I realized that, I had a niggling feeling I'd actually seen these on offer around this time of year in the past. And, as a little research confirmed, these appealing fruit-laced packages are in fact traditional for the new year celebrations and signify prosperity! The stars had aligned for my cooking project, which has got to bode well for Year of the Snake overall. I brought the extras in to work the next day and delivered them to co-workers with a cheeful Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Spiced Pineapple-Filled Pastries

Kuih Tart

Adapted from Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen
Makes approximately 32 pastries

FILLING
1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple in natural juice, drained with juice reserved OR 1 whole fresh pineapple, chopped plus water
10 tablespoons sugar
1/2 whole star anise (4 robust points)
1 cinnamon stick or cassia bark (approximately 3 inches long)
2 whole cloves
1 pinch of sea salt

DOUGH
10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground annatto (optional)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large whole egg plus 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten and strained
32 whole cloves

To make the filling: Pulse drained pineapple in a food processor 10-15 times until it has a finely chopped, uniform texture. Scrape pineapple paste into a saucepan and add the reserved juice (or an equivalent amount of water if using fresh pineapple), star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick, sugar and salt. Stir frequently over medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Carefully taste without burning your mouth and adjust sugar accordingly. Decrease the heat to medium low and let simmer for about 1 3/4 hours or until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. The mixture will have thickened to a jam-like texture and darkened to a deeper amber yellow color. Be more vigilant and stir more often during the last 30 minutes to prevent scorching. It is done when it holds its shape and has just a little bit of bubbling liquid left on the bottom.

Remove all of the whole spices, and transfer jam to a bowl to cool for approximately 2 hours. Once cool (and more firm), you may cover and refrigerate for up to a week. It can be used while still chilled and makes about 1 cup.

To make the dough: Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, salt, and annatto) and set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the dry ingredients one-third at a time, until a slightly sticky dough has been formed. It will seem dry at first, but will moisten as you continue to stir and fold. Once similar to a mass of marzipan, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Form into a ball and then press out into a 1-inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour in order to firm up the dough. It can be refrigerated for up to 2 days, but let it sit at room temperature for about an hour afterwards to become workable.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Cut the dough in half, re-wrapping the other half while you work to keep it from drying out. Gently squeeze dough into an elongated cylinder and then roll into a 1-inch thick log. Cut into 16 equal pieces (quarter the log first and cut the tapered ends a little longer than the rest), and shape into squat cylinder pieces.

I will provide abbreviated instructions here for forming and rolling out the wrappers, but the author has a video tutorial on her site (as well as great illustrated step-by-step instructions in the cookbook).

Cut two squares of plastic wrap approximately 5 inches in diameter. Placing one piece of dough at a time inside the plastic pieces, use a tortilla press if you have one, or some heavy flat object such as a frying pan, to flatten each piece of dough into a thin circle.

Place each wrapper on your work surface. Flouring only as needed to keep the dough from sticking, use an Asian dowel-style rolling pin (or a regular one, which worked fine for me using it an an angle) to roll each piece out into a 3 to 3 1/2 inch circle. Apply more pressure on the outer rim as the wrappers should be thicker in the middle and thinner on the edges for dumplings.

To assemble, hold a wrapper in the palm of your hand and place a scant 1 1/2 teaspoons of jam in the center. Fold your hand in slightly to center the jam, keeping 1/2 to 3/4 inch clear on all sides. Chose a spot on the wrapper rim, such as 3 o'clock, and fold the rim towards the center. Repeat as you work your way around the the wrapper, gently pinching and pressing the dough together to create small pleats. Once all the dough has been folded inward, if you jam is not completely sealed up, use your fingers to pinch the dough together to close.

Cup the pastry in your hands to gently shape into a round ball. If any holes appear, patch them up with your fingers or a tiny bit of dough. Place pleated side down on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart.

Preheat the oven to 350° and position the rack in the middle of the oven. Chill the pastries for about 15 minutes before baking. 

After brushing with egg yolk, stick a clove with the ball end down in the center of each one.

Bake for 24-26 minutes until golden. Cool on a rack, and don't be alarmed at any leaking jam or appearing cracks.

Repeat with the second half of the dough and filling.

Whew, that was a long one! Have some virtual pastries why don't you?

All I can say is the length and detail of the recipe is deceptive. These were easier to make than I thought they would be and also extremely satisfying. Unless you have super stamina cooking powers though, I would recommend breaking the different stages up by a day or two. I also froze half of the dough and plan to make more of these down the road using some of my homemade jam stash lining the pantry shelves. 

Guest Blog Post: Distilling Your Own Gin

Who doesn't dream of making their own moonshine in the basement? Luckily, my pal Henry does it already, so I can just sit back and sip the end product.

I sampled his homemade gin at a holiday party a couple months ago and was blown away. First of all, it was so good you drink it straight, though importantly it must be very chilled. Straight gin sounds alarming, I know, but it was so deserving. You could taste all kinds of layers of flavor and freshness and juniper and I'm sure of it, the essence of the Pacific Northwest where he lives.

I immediately asked if he wanted to do a guest post on the how-to. Selfish reasons? Perhaps, but also I just found it so awesome I had to share.

Along with St. George's Terroir Gin (inspired by the mountain I grew up on), Henry's concoction is the root of my newfound love of gin. So thanks Henry!

Henry was apologetic about the quality of his photos, but I kind of fell for their Unabomber-makes-moonshine quality.

So here you go, Henry's Guide to Home Distillation:

This here is an absolutely bare-bones method of home distillation that is reliable, costs about ten dollars, and is likely the simplest and easiest way you’ll find to make high-quality gin at home. Moonshining is a very old art with a long history in America, but seeing how it remains illegal to operate an unlicensed still (mainly because the guv’ment makes boatloads in liquor taxes), I’ll stick to the premise that you readers are just curious intellectuals.

Before we get our hands dirty though, I’d like to lay to rest a couple of misconceptions regarding moonshine that might be gnawing at you.

1. You don’t need any fancy equipment. The setup I describe here is simple, cheap and workable. Without a little patience though, you’d do better to run to the corner for a fifth of Gordon’s and go back to daydreaming.

2. Properly made moonshine isn’t poisonous, and won’t make you blind. This type of rumor probably stems from unscrupulous moonshiners during prohibition who would stretch their liquor with toxic methylated spirits, or ignorant ones who would use lead-based solder in their stills. A quart of the gin I describe here will have less methanol in it than a glass of orange juice.

Now, to work:

Fermentation

The first thing to do is start fermenting. Might as well start now, as the process will take 10-21 days. One glossarial note: the mixture you’re about to make of sugar, water and yeast is called “must.” When it’s done fermenting it’s called “wine.” This recipe for moonshine must comes straight from Dolly Freed’s incredible book Possum Living, which I highly recommend you read if this sort of thing is interesting to you. 

Now, assemble:

1. A five gallon paint bucket or similar (one of those big blue Alhambras would work too).

2. Five pounds regular granulated sugar.

3. A big soup pot.

4. One packet ordinary active dry baker’s yeast.

Put a gallon and a half of water in the pot and put it over a burner, then mix in the sugar until it’s all dissolved and turn the heat off.

Pour the sugar-water you just made into the bucket, then pour another gallon and a half of cold water in after. If it’s about room temperature, add the yeast. Yeast like a steady temperature between 65 and 90 degrees. Much hotter and they’ll die, much colder and they’ll go dormant. Cover the bucket with an old t-shirt, something so air can get in and out but flies and dust are excluded. Within 24 hours, the yeast will start eating the sugar and producing ethyl alcohol and CO2. You’ll hear them bubbling; it’s a glorious sound. Leave your must alone until they stop bubbling, and go set up your still.

Distillation

This still is made of a teakettle and costs about four dollars (assuming you already have a teakettle). Besides that, you’ll need a rubber stopper the size of your kettle’s spout, and a 4-5 foot length of 5/8ths inch copper tubing, both of which you can get at the hardware store. Don’t use any metal in your still besides aluminum, copper or stainless steel. Hammer a nail through the rubber stopper, then thread the tubing through the hole the nail made. This tubing is your still-pipe, and it needs a specific shape in order to work properly. Taking care not to crimp the tube, jam the stopper in the kettle and bend your still-pipe to create a short rising section, then a dip to run the pipe through a cold water bath, then a sort of shepherd’s crook to bring the end of the pipe closer. Take a look at the picture to see how it’s done. When you’ve finished, blow through one end and hold your finger over the other to make sure air flows easily. That’s it: now you have a still.

When your must has stopped bubbling and turned to wine, pour it into your still no more than two-thirds full. With a three-quart kettle you’ll do “runs” of two quarts at a time. If you’ve done everything right, the wine is 10% alcohol (the natural limit of baker’s yeast), and there’s pretty much no unfermented sugar left in the solution. You can taste a little to see if it’s still sweet.

Assemble your still and turn the heat on medium while you fill a tub with cold water and place it under the dip in your still-pipe so a length of pipe is submerged. Ready a large jar and a shotglass.

When liquid begins to come out the end of the still-pipe, turn the heat down low and collect the first third of an ounce of so. These are the “heads,” and should be discarded. After that start collecting the drops in the large jar and take a taste of twenty drops or so every once in a while to check how it’s coming along. The first few ounces will be very near pure liquor, and after that more and more water will come up the pipe too. When it doesn’t taste of alcohol any more your run is over. You should have about half a quart of 25-30% liquor. 

Congratulations! You’ve made moonshine.

Two or three more runs like that and you’ll have enough liquor for a fifth of gin. Combine the product of all 3-4 runs in a jar and add a big handful of juniper berries.

Press them a little first, but don’t crush them. You can find juniper fresh by the side of the road in winter, or at your favorite food co-op. When they’ve sat for two hours, put everything (berries too) in the still pot and distill. Keep the heat low to go a little slower than usual so the juniper berries have a lot of time to soak in the hot moonshine. When this run is over, your finished product will be very strong, very tasty gin that you can water down to a more standard proof if you’d like.

Henry, maker of excellent spirits

Cook the Books 2013: Salty Sweet Seaweed Butter Cookies and more from Around My French Table

After doing both Cook It! 2012 and a Cooking The Breakfast Book collaboration last year, I was thrilled to see a new communal cooking project emerge for 2013. Dreamed up by Grow and Resist and Oh, Briggsy..., Cook the Books! A Cookbook Challenge is a creative and fun way to get people to use the cookbooks they own, or try out new ones, together.

First up for January was Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. This is a delightful and inspiring cookbook. I was immediately struck by her clear, no-nonsense tone, making French cooking feel very accessible. My first pass through the book also left me feeling like I wanted to make a good 20 or so dishes immediately. A lot appeals, and I also like her approach of including dishes that may not be French in origin, but that have become part of the culinary and cultural fabric of the country.

While I did make a number of recipes from the book (more on that below), I decided to highlight the magical butter cookies known as sablés here, because they are both fun to make and fun to eat. After you've tasted these flavor grenades it'll come as no surprise to hear they are très populaire in France.

Instead of the toasted nori suggested in the book, I happened to be at Trader Joe's and thought a package of their Roasted Seaweed would be perfect. Lo and behold, they have a new seaweed snack on their shelves that was destined for these cookies. Their Sweet Sesame Seaweed doesn't come in sheets, but instead in a mass of crispy, crinkly blades (yup, that's what the leaves of seaweed are called...don't ask me how I know or recall that bit of trivia...), that at first proved themselves difficult to chop, but excellent for making a mess. After a couple tries resulting in flying seaweed bits, I turned to a technique I use for grinding whole allspice, and happily it was very effective. Place ingredient (in this case seaweed bunches) between two sheets of parchment paper and using a rolling pin, run it over the contents until broken down to desired grain/consistency.

Don't kid yourself. These are called butter cookies, because that's their main ingredient. Get over it and get creative with how you flavor them.

I made three different flavors, and brought them as slice-and-bake logs to our most recent food swap—where they were hit!

The Cheez-it-ish Crackers Greenspan features are basically like more delicious Cheez-its, with more butter. I used a raw Emmenthal and it was perfect. The lemon ones (not included in this book, but a variation suggested in her master sablé recipe) were made with fruit from my mom's tree. This made them just that much more special. And the seaweed ones were all that I imagined.

  

Salty Sweet Seaweed Butter Cookies
Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick), unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons finely chopped toasted nori, or other seaweed of choice (see above)
2 teaspoons fleur de sel or 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Optional: flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling

This dough is easy to make by hand using a rubber spatula if your butter is really soft. In a large bowl, mix the butter, salt and chopped seaweed together until smooth and creamy in texture. 

Stir in the remaining ingredients following this sequence, but avoid overmixing or overworking the dough: sugar, egg yolk, olive oil, and flour. 

When it is smooth, divide into half (or thirds) and roll each piece into a slender log based on the size you want your finished cookies.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour, and up to 5 days. You may also keep in the freezer for 2 months.

When you are ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Slice each log into cookies "on the scant side of 1/4 inch" (description courtesy of David Lebovitz, who gave Greenspan this recipe). Place them on your baking sheet, cooking only one batch at a time on a rack centered in your oven.

Sprinkle the optional sea salt on top of each cookie at this stage if using.

Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes. They are done when they are slightly firm but not colored.

Transfer to a rack to cool, and cook remaining batches as and when needed.

Cooking Note: The flavor of the Sweet Sesame Seaweed was perfectly suited to use in this recipe. That said, I definitely plan to experiment a bit and will try the toasted nori method to compare. I also wonder if furikake might be a transformative addition?

Other dishes I cooked from this book include:

Orange-Scented Lentil Soup - I love lentils so am always looking out for new ways to prepare them. This recipe immediately tempted my taste buds, and being citrus season, how could I refuse them? My favorite way to pimp this soup out? Top it with a dollop of yogurt, some fresh dill, smoked sea salt, and a bit of hot sauce. (PS It is very hard to make a pureed lentil soup look good).

Lime and Honey Beet Salad - Nice, bright and simple. They way beets should be served in my humble opinion. I added a bit more lime juice than the recipe called for, and used some lime, cilantro and gingergrass flavored salt I had on hand.

Dilled Gravlax with Mustard Sauce - I left this to cure for 72 hours, which concluded this evening...but I didn't tackle the job until after dinner, and was too full to try it. I'm betting it won't disappoint.