Sesame Spring Salad with Tofu

Spring is in the air. The temperature is rising, sunglasses and ice cream on every street corner.  Time to say goodbye to the heart warming meals, hello fresh and light meals!

When I visited my aunt and uncle in the south sea province of Holland, I looked through the many cookbooks they have. My uncle made this great green bean salad, with lemonzest and sesame seeds, inspired by Ottolenghi. Guess it's a family thing, never really adopting recipes from cookbooks. So this 'Spring Salad' as Ottolenghi calls it, was once the starting point. But is now long gone!

Sesame Spring Salad with Tofu
source: Ottolenghi's Spring Salad
1 recipe of Mai's secret to tofu success
scroll down to see the recipe or click here for the post about tofu.
1lbs/500 grams of fresh green beans
2-3 tablespoons of (black/white) sesame seeds
2-3 tablespoons of sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons of soysauce
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
seasoning
Optional: Other fresh greens, like asparagus, peas, carrot, rocket, watercress or other leafy salads. 

Start with the tofu. 
Mai secret to tofu success
1 block of firm tofu
Paper towels
Soysauce
Optional: ketjap manis
Sunflower or canola oil

Get the tofu out and dab it dry. Slice in 1 cm thick slices. Place them next to each other on a paper towel, now placing another paper towel over it and press down carefully. Place the tofu in a deep plate or tin. Now you can use only the soysauce or you can go 50 / 50 on the soy and ketjap. The ketjap will make it a bit sweeter. Poor over the sauce until it at least is half covered. Let is marinade for a minimum of 15-30 minutes. The longer it can marinade, the more flavor it gets. Now turn around and let it marinade for 15-30 minutes again. Get the tofu out, placing it next to each other on a paper towel, placing another paper towel over it and press down carefully. This is just to get the excess sauce of and to fry it more easily.

Get a non-stick frying pan and pour in 1 cm of oil. Now fry of the slices of tofu, turn around when it's browning. When golden brown on both sides, take it out. Place them on a cooling rack lined with some paper towels, to adsorb the excess oil. For the best result, let the tofu cool down. It will stiffen up a little bit and is easier to get clean cuts.

Clean and wash the green beans (and other vegetables). Blanch the beans and other veggies for 5 minutes. Try if the beans are cooked but still a little crispy and bright green. Drain and set aside to cool down. Heat a skillet and toast the sesame seeds. Keep a close eye, you don't want the seeds to burn.

When the tofu is cooled down you can slice it and assemble the salad. Mix the beans (with the other vegetables), add the vinegar, soysauce and sesame oil. Season well and add the sesame seeds, mix well and taste. Add more to taste. Mix in the tofu and your spring salad is finished!

note: It's also a great side dish! Enjoy!

Grilled Napa Cabbage

Napa cabbage, or in Holland better known as Chinese cabbage. As a kid we would eat it a lot at home, as the main ingredient for a chinese stew 'Lion's head'. It was more like a stew kinda soup form napa cabbage with meatballs. I always figured that the meatballs are probably the lion heads. The name of the dish is a direct translation from the Chinese name for the dish.

Normally if we had napa cabbage at home, we would eat Lion's head. After the many and many years of eating this dish, I got bored with the flavor and texture of the cabbage. I always thought it was such a shame. Because the cabbage is easy to get by, cheap and versatile. In the last months I've tried many different ways of using and preparing these huge white chinese cabbage.

My cousin in LA made it with rehydrated dried shrimps and fish sauce. I tried slicing it thinly and adding it to soups and salads. A few days ago I came across an article about Chinese vegetables. They we're talking about Bok Choy and the versatility. There was this great picture of grilled Bok Choy. It never occured to me to grill a cabbage! So I figured giving the napa cabbage a try. It surprised me! The smokiness the grilling gives the cabbage is the best addition.

Grilled Napa Cabbage
inspiration (in Dutch)
2 tablespoons of soysauce
2-3 tablespoons of sesameoil
seasoning
1/2-1 napa cabbage, this depends on size and mouths to feed.
For our family of 5 I use 1/2 of a large napa cabbage.

Cut the cabbage lengthwise. Make sure the bottom is clean. Now cut it into 3 or 4 wedges, trying to keep the stem intact. This will keep all the leaves together and makes it easier to handle. If necessary rinse the leaves and dry off. Heat a grillpan on the stove, on high heat until it starts to smoke lightly. Sprinkle the sesame oil on the cabbage and put the cabbage in the pan. After a minute or 4 turn, keep repeating until all the sides are grilled. The cabbage will turn from white and solid to glassy and soft. Then you know the cabbage is done. Sprinkle over the soysauce and season well. Mix together and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Now you can leave it like this, let everybody cut their own piece. Or just chop it up into bit size pieces. Your cabbage, your choice! This napa cabbage recipe is a great vegetable dish, enjoy with rice and other yumminess!

Vegetarian lalalalalasagna

I always loved lasagna! The preps, the layering and the half hour relaxing while its doing it's thing in the oven. Some years ago most of my friends became vegetarians. One followed the other en before I knew it, I was left all alone in the omnivore world.

One of my friends once made me a veggie lasagna and I loved it. Since then I've been making the same lasagna. Even my mom makes it now. Somehow by grilling the vegetables, the lasagna gets a 'meaty' texture, that you forget you're eating vegetarian. 

Vegetable Lasagna
source
1 zuchinni
1 eggplant
Olive oil
2 teaspoons of dried Italian herbs (or something like it)
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 Onions, chopped
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
Around 300 grams of spinach
Lasagna sheets
Seasoning
2 bulbs of Mozzarella
Around 200 grams of grated cheese
note: If you would like to have a vegan lasagna, just replace the cheese for vegan cheese or leave it out.

Friends coming over for dinner. Lasagna and summer salads in the garden, Houten, Holland, summer 2013

Preheat the over to 190C. Cut the zuchinni and eggplant lengthwise in thin slices. Make a marinade for the vegetables. Use around 5 tablespoons of oil, mix with the garlic and herbs. Now grill the vegetables, brushing them with the marinade you just made and season well.
You can grill by using a grill pan or the oven. Depends on what you prefer, I always use the pan, but most people think the oven is easier. In the oven it should take around 6-8 minutes.

Now sweat the onions, add the tomatoes and the juice, season well. Let it simmer for around 10 minutes. Heat a skillet with oil and cook the spinach. Set aside in a colander to get rid of the excess water and moisture coming from the spinach.

Cover the bottom of the oven tray with the tomato sauce. Cover with lasagna sheets. Layer the spinach, zucchini and eggplant and top with mozzarella. Now repeat until done. Make sure that your last layer is tomato sauce and cheese. Put in the oven for 30 minutes.

When done let it rest for around 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!