Beancurd with Mushrooms

As the weather gets colder, we’re turning away from our old standby, Chilled Beancurd with Soy Sauce, and thinking of warmer dishes. This is a quick tofu dish that exactly suits that purpose and can easily be made vegan. If fresh mushrooms are not available, you can use 6-8 dried shiitakes, rehydrated in hot water [...]

Stirfried Bok Choy

We’ve been mourning the fact that we can’t seem to find decent Asian produce in Ann Arbor (this may finally commit me to a garden next summer!), but this past Thursday’s CSA share included some gorgeous, delicious purple bok choy. For more information on the vegetable, visit Kitazawa Seed Company. It was almost too fresh [...]

Oyster Sauce Beef with Broccoli

We’ve been enjoying the grassfed beef from Natural Local Food Express, particularly the flank steaks, which at approximately 1.5 lbs are plenty for 2 meals when used in a stirfry. If you can’t find flank steak or it’s too pricy, you can use another fairly large-grained cut of beef – because you cut it across [...]

Summer Squash, the 101st Way

My children are starting to look suspiciously at any new dish that appears on the table: would that contain zucchini by any chance? We have purchased CSA shares from Two Creeks Organics and are drowning in killer summer squash (frittata, muffins, sauteed, grilled, …) among other delicious veggies and the most amazing pastured eggs I [...]

Chili Peppers with Pressed Beancurd

I was thrilled to see chili peppers at the Westside Farmers’ Market last Thursday and to find a bell pepper in my CSA box as well. For this dish, choose your favorite chilies from among the larger, spicier varieties such as poblano, anaheim, etc. -or use a mix of green and red varieties. Can’t take [...]

Chinese Chives with Pressed Beancurd

Garlic chives, jiucai in Mandarin, are available in Asian markets and at farmers’ markets that have vendors of Asian produce. The look like a long, flattened version of our chives. When fully grown they are not hollow at the center and sometimes have buds at the tips. If you can’t find them, you can substitute the more [...]

Stirfried Cucumbers

Sounds odd, I know – how often do we eat cucumbers hot? But I discovered that stirfrying is a great way to use cucumbers that are just a bit too big, a bit too tough-skinned for those cool summer salads. (As a woman told me at the farmers’ market, as I carefully chose the perfect [...]

Menu: Spring Stirfry Supper

Amaranth is back at the farmers’ market – certainly a sign of spring when the leafy greens start reappearing! And “Colleen the Tomato Lady” is back up to her elbows in gorgeous beefsteak tomatoes. I added those ingredients to the fact that I’m starting to clean out my pantry in preparation for our move and [...]

Stirfried Squid with Sugar Snap Peas

Squid seems to be a fairly ocean-friendly choice as far as seafood goes (see Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch), and wonder of wonders, my 5-year-old seems to like it! I found some wild-caught squid at the farmers’ market, but you could also look for it at your favorite fish vendor, either fresh or frozen. Snap [...]

Spinach with Fermented Beancurd

This recipe may fall under the “I’ll try anything once, twice if I like it” category – it calls for an odd ingredient called fermented beancurd (furu), which comes in spicy and bland varieties. Before you read on and say, “Ewww,” just remember how bleu cheese is made. Fuchsia Dunlop writes that it is
…an essential [...]