No longer updating, but hope you enjoy the recipes!
Unfortunately, I got too busy to go back to blogging, after I was forced to take a break from it in 2015 because of tendonitis.
But you can still follow my cooking, eating, and travels on instagram: (@spontaneoustomato)
Asparagus Risotto with Shrimp, Lemon, and Goat Cheese
I’ve decided to make more of an effort to cook things from my cookbooks instead of from the internet.
Of course this takes advance planning– not my specialty in the kitchen. And even if I can make it to the grocery store with a specific menu plan intact, it often all falls apart, as I sway between bouts of indecision. Should I try that new recipe after all? But what about that ____ in the fridge? I don’t want it to go bad; maybe I should spontaneously change my plans to cook something that includes that ingredient! Or even more often: ____ are on sale/in season!? Maybe I should buy those instead of what’s on my list and come up with a recipe around that…
That’s when the internet comes in handy: tailored recipes including every possible combination of your farmer’s market finds along with whatever ingredients you might have cluttering up your cabinets or poised to fall out of your freezer.
But there’s something nice about a plan and a cookbook. You can purchase fresh ingredients, your cookbook will undoubtedly tolerate some chaotic mid-cooking sauce spillage better than your laptop would, and just think of the anticipation! (I’ve written before about how I think anticipation is sometimes half the seasoning.)
Steamed Artichoke with Spicy Mayonnaise Dipping Sauce
I love the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market (second only in my heart to the best farmer’s market ever in Madison, WI), but sometimes I have trouble waking up on Saturday mornings. (Or when I do wake up early on the weekends, I want to stay in and make a fancy breakfast.)
That’s why it was a little bit life-changing to have a local farmer’s market store open in my neighborhood. Now I’ve found a new place for organic kale (although because it’s organic, my girlfriend feels the need to be extra vigilant about checking the leaves for tiny insects), and for the occasional impulse-buy of an artichoke.
Onigiri (Rice Balls) with Pickled Plum
Ever make too much rice and wonder what to do with the leftovers? I often have this problem, and not just with rice. Sometimes (= Thanksgiving) leftovers are awesome, but plain old rice as a leftover is particularly sad.* Refrigerated rice tends to dry out and harden, its nutty flavor growing blander as it’s chilled.
The way I see it, when your main course is the limiting reagent that runs out first, leaving you with half a pot of rice, your only good options are:
1) Stick it in the fridge, and use it to make fried rice the next night.
2) Stick it in the fridge, and later top it with furikake flavorings (or make Ochazuke).
3) If it’s short-grained (sticky) Japanese rice, you can make onigiri!
Lentil Green Bean Salad with Vinaigrette
I have been craving this kind of salad recently.
Maybe it’s the transitioning of the seasons, as hearty winter meals are supplanted by fresh spring salads. Maybe it’s the tang of vinegar and the crunch of al dente green beans. Or maybe it’s just the eternal tastiness of lentils and the convenience of getting your protein and your salad all mixed into one.
Pumpkin Pancakes
It’s “winter” in Santa Barbara. If you could even call this winter. Today I wore flip flops outside and ate a popsicle to cool down. This week it may be hovering between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but two days ago it was 78. Not that I’m complaining…
When I say I miss seasons, I mean I miss fall colors, crunchy leaves underfoot, and the first chill of the autumn air after a hot and humid summer. I mean I miss the relative warmth of a 40-degree spring day as the snow starts to melt and flood the basements of half the houses in Wisconsin. I don’t miss the winters or the summers themselves. In my mind, those have always been the greediest and least pleasant of the seasons, taking up far longer than their fair share of the year, especially in the Midwest.
Travel Photos: Bento Boxes and Rice Dishes in Japan
This beautiful bento box illustrates one of the reasons why I love train rides in Japan (clearly a country where even meals-on-the-go are done right). It doesn’t take long to zoom all over the country on the smooth-as-an-airplane bullet trains that travel up to 280 km/hour (170 mph). In fact, I have traveled from Kyoto to Osaka in less than the time it took me to pick out a bento lunch in Kyoto station. But back to bentos in a bit…
This is more of a post about rice. Japanese rice-based dishes, specifically. Nearly everyone knows about “sushi rice,” the short-grained sticky staple of the Japanese diet. But its use in sushi is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a myriad of delicious dishes that you might never have encountered in Japanese restaurants overseas.
First, there are many types of donburi, a giant bowl of rice covered in toppings ranging from soy sauce-simmered beef (gyu-don)– which you may know from the restaurant chains Matsuya or Yoshinoya– to deep-fried breaded pork cutlet (katsu-don), or slices of raw tuna (tekka-don). My personal favorite is oyako-don.
Continue Reading: Travel Photos: Bento Boxes and Rice Dishes in Japan…
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