Crispy Brussels Sprouts with a Celery Root-Ginger Dressing

Indie Plate promised me big, beautiful Brussels sprouts from Fekete Farms when I placed my order this week ... and they delivered. Right to my front porch in Baton Rouge, where I sat snapping pictures of my full haul until my fiancé got home and snapped me back into reality.

I served these divinely crispy nuggets up as an appetizer while the main course (pork and quinoa soup, blog to come) simmered away.

Honestly, I could have eaten these all night. Good thing I set a limit. Fresh ginger and minced celery root tossed in a sesame-soy mixture and finished with a squeeze of lemon juice. Drizzle of sriracha and sprinkled sesame seeds and chives. Et voilà! Start poppin' away.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts with a Celery Root-Ginger Dressing
Serves 2 as appetizer.

Ingredients:
8–10 brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
2 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
salt
pepper

For the dressing:
1 1/2 oz. soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup minced celery root
2 in. fresh ginger, minced
Juice from one lemon

For garnish:
Sriracha
Black sesame seeds
Minced chives

Method:
1. Make the dressing: Whisk together sesame oil and soy sauce in a medium mixing bowl. Add celery root and ginger and toss to combine. Stir in lemon juice. Set aside.
2. In a medium skillet, heat up olive oil over medium heat. Add brussels sprouts, cut side down, and cook for 7–8 minutes, turning sprouts occasionally to brown both sides.
3. Add sprouts to dressing and toss to coat. Serve on plate and garnish with a drizzle of sriracha and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and chives.

Pot o' Neck Bones: Make Your Own Ramen

It wasn't that long ago that I was a college kid, subsisting mainly off of Hot Pockets, Easy Mac, and heaping late-night bowls of cereal. What's a skillet? Is that the one you put the bacon in?

And now here I find myself making ramen again. But stay with me! This is a good one.

Let's start with the ingredients. The style of ramen I made has a tonkotsu (pork bone) broth. I actually arrived at this recipe by way of pork bone. I recently subscribed to a new delivery service in Baton Rouge, and I'll be partnering with them regularly to whip up some seasonal and delicious things. Indie Plate is a pipeline to all that's fresh, seasonal, and delicious. Not just vegetables either! The site traffics in meat, fish, pantry goods, and more, all from local farms and artisans, for a small flat delivery fee too.

Ordering online, I'm at a much lower risk of loading up my cart with things I don't need or won't use in time. And I won't shop just for one recipe, which I am sadly prone to do. If you're in the area, I surely recommend it. And if you're not a Baton Rouge reader, fingers crossed that you've got something similar in the area—otherwise, start clamoring!

Back to pork neck bones: I found them on Indie Plate's site and, since I'd never made my own pork broth before, I was intrigued. And the recipe grew from there. Onions and carrots, summer vegetables for a stir-fry, leaf lard for the vegetables and frying the egg I set on top of the ramen. All from Indie Plate. I rounded up the rest from the neighborhood grocery once I had firmed up my ingredient list.

Most pork neck broth recipes I found involved simmering for about twelve hours. While I definitely wanted the punch of slow-roasted flavor, I was concerned with leaving the burners on, and I haven't yet used the crockpot I have in my closet. So when I found this alternative take from Seattle Magazine, I was relieved.

Let me take you through my adaptation—as well as the stir-fry I served on the side.

Pork bones from Iverstine Farms

A little more of my bounty from Indie Plate

Loveably ugly heirloom carrots

Roasted pork bones

Tonkotsu Ramen and Summer Vegetable Stir-Fry

Yield: 2 servings ramen and stir-fry; 2 cups of broth left-over

Ingredients:
For pork broth:
4 small meaty pork neck bones (I used a 1.26 oz. package, but ideally would have used more)
3/4 cup water and 4 cups water, divided
1/3 of a white onion, not chopped or sliced, just segmented
2 medium carrots, stemmed and chopped
Kosher salt
Soy sauce

For ramen:
2 cups Pork Broth
1 package Top Ramen noodles (seasoning packet discarded)
1 egg
2 inches leaf lard, diced
Sliced scallions (for garnish)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Pulled pork from roasting pork bones

For summer stir-fry:4 inches leaf lard, chopped
1 medium zucchini, sliced
3 grape tomatoes, halved and chopped
One fourth an onion, sliced
Sesame oil


Method:
For the broth:
1. Preheat the oven to 400. Place the pork bones in a large, high-sided roasting pan. Roast for 70–90 minutes, turning the bones over halfway through, until bones are browned all over.
2. Immediately after removing the pan, pour 3/4 cup water inside and use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits. Transfer bones and liquid to a large stockpot.
3. Add four cups water, onion, and carrots. Bring to a boil and then simmer for two hours. Then cool to room temperature (about an hour).
4. Strain out the solids and set aside. Refrigerate the liquid overnight (I placed it in two mason jars.) Pick the meat out of the bones and refrigerate it in a separate container with carrots and onion. Discard the bones.
5. The next day, as you prepare to make your ramen, bring two cups of the broth to a simmer and season with kosher salt and soy sauce to taste.

For the ramen:
1. Add noodles to simmering broth and cook for 3–4 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up chopped leaf lard in a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, rendering fat. Fry egg—seasoning with salt and pepper—until white is set but yolk is still runny.
2. To serve, ladle noodles into each bowl, draining excess broth. Top with fried egg, scallions, reserved pork from neck bones, and a drizzle of sesame oil. Serve!

For the summer stir-fry:
1. Heat up a large skillet to medium-high. Add chopped leaf lard and cook for five minutes, pushing down on lard to render fat. Set aside lard.
2. Add zucchini, tomatoes, and onions to skillet, drizzle with sesame seed oil, and cook, stirring, until golden brown.
3. Serve alongside ramen.

Sesame Noodles and Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Another foray into Asian cuisine, rife with crunchy vegetables and spicy sauces and ginger. Get behind me, sinuses.

I don't often go to Whole Foods for recipes, because it's so easy to rack up expenses, but I didn't need much for the recipe and wanted to take advantage of the wider offerings. Plus, the lady in front of me appeared to be feeding a village with fig bars and spent close to a thousand dollars! Good grief. I stood bolstered.

Anyway, I installed my mise en place (French term referring to the prepping of all ingredients before you start cooking. A definite necessity when you're julienning, peeling, and mincing a myriad of vegetables.)

For the spring roll mixture, I included julienne carrots, thin strips of cabbage (I suppose you might call her "Julienne"), julienne sweet red peppers, julienne scallions, and minced cilantro. I tossed all these in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and let the mixture rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I poured boiling water into a bowl of vermicelli and let it soak for 6 - 8 minutes while the noodles softened.

Andy took over at this point. Once the vermicelli was soft, he snipped it into two inch pieces. He then took another bowl of warm water and soaked each rice paper round for ten seconds before draining it on paper towels. To compose the rolls, he topped the rounds about an inch from the bottom with the vegetable mixture. a tablespoon of noodles, and finally a few slivers of fresh mint leaves.

For rolling, Andy first lifted the bottom of the round over the filling, then he tucked in the sides and rolled it all up tightly.

We made three rolls apiece for just the two of us.

After all the rolls were...rolled, he put them in the fridge for ten minutes to set.

I made a dipping sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, a Thai peanut sauce, chile paste, and rice vinegar. Exact amounts may vary, as I just added bit by bit until the flavor was perfect, but I'll put an estimate in the ingredients list!

The sesame noodles were a cinch. I simply boiled the noodles al dente, then tossed them in three tablespoons of sesame oil, julienne carrots, and julienne cucumber.

The sauce here was similar to the dipping sauce for the spring rolls. This time I used soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, scallions, garlic, ginger, tahini, rice vinegar, sriracha, peanut sauce, and chile paste.

And here we have a nice vegetarian weeknight dinner! Hope you enjoy :)

Sesame Noodles and Vegetarian Spring Rolls
Serves 2 - 3.

Sesame Noodles
1 16-oz package egg noodles
1 small cucumber, peeled and julienned
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
3 tablespoons sesame oil

Sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce,
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
2 scallions, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger, peeled and minced
1/2 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 tablespoon chile paste
1 tablespoon Thai peanut sauce
1 tablespoon sriracha

Vegetarian spring rolls
6 rice paper rounds, each softened in warm water for 10 seconds (right before use)
2 carrots, julienned
1/3 cup Napa cabbage, sliced into thin strips
2 scallions, julienned
2 tablespoons cilantro, minced
3 oz vermicelli, soaked in boiling water, then snipped into 2-inch strips
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, slivered

Dipping sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sriracha
1 tablespoon peanut sauce
1 teaspoon chile paste
2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Asian Salmon Salad

Man, 2012 has not been a fruitful year for my blog so far. Work is time-consuming, and I got so many lovely cooking things for Christmas that I've barely been able to break in. But here we are! I've got a refreshing day off and I knew I had to write up last night's dinner.

I haven't ventured far into Asian cuisine in my kitchen. In fact, I'd say this is the farthest I've gone--but I can't wait to try more. I'm a big fan of making sauces and dressings from scratch, and these dishes offer plenty opportunities to flex my love.

Onto the recipe! I began by whisking together ketchup, brown sugar, lime juice, teriyaki sauce, and sesame oil into an aromatically nutty concoction.

I set the dressing aside and went to work on prepping my salmon. First I patted the filets dry and rubbed them with brown sugar. In a small bowl, I combined tahini sauce, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and rice vinegar. Then I brushed the mixture all over the salmon.

I heated my grill pan to medium-high and drizzled it with oil. Once the oil was hot but not smoking, I slapped on the fish. I cooked it for five minutes on each side, rotating the salmon halfway through to achieve aesthetically pleasing cross-hatches.

Meanwhile, Andy chopped the cucumber and cilantro, because he is a much more methodical chopper than I am. How I loathe to finely dice ingredients. I think I'm going to invent shatterable onions, where you can slam them down on the counter and they explode like ice. Voila! There's your mince.

Anyway! Andy combined the mixed greens, carrots, and cucumbers in a large salad bowl. I tore the salmon into chunks. Then we each constructed our salads on the plate. First pulling from the large salad bowl, then sprinkling on the slivered almonds and raw noodles, then topping the salad with salmon chunks and drizzled dressing. Very flavorful and somewhat healthy!

Asian Salmon Salad
Serves 2-3

For the salmon:
2 6-oz salmon fillets
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar

For the dressing (adapted from AllRecipes):
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar

For the salad:
5 cups mixed greens
1 cup raw chow mein noodles
1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded
1 cup cucumber, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped