Lions and Tigers and Beards -- OH MY!

It’s been a busy week, but I was able to type up part two! Today, we get to deal with the kitchen. Other than the bathroom(s), I believe that the kitchen is the most important room to thoroughly clean. Sometimes, it can be the toughest.

A disgusting kitchen can be the difference between:

1. a homeowner making a sale or not
2. a tenant deciding to rent a space or not
3. a landlord deciding to charge extra money or hold on to a deposit or not

I’ve met so many homeowners/landlords who were furious because they thought they would have to replace an oven or a refrigerator. If you don’t take care of your appliances, they will get gross and look absolutely unsalvageable. However, even though these things can look like a lost cause, with a little time and effort you can make a gross old fridge look brand new… or at least clean enough to want to put your food in.

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I’ve been pretty absent from the internet! I had a little time recently and started writing down recipes and taking photos, but then I got sidetracked. An out of state friend of mine who’s moving out of a rental home called me and said, “Oh my God, Enola. I thought the house was clean, but when we got everything out, I realized how bad it is. If I don’t get it clean, I’ll lose my deposit and have to pay an extra $500. I don’t have the money right now for that or to hire a cleaning company. What do I have to do to pass the inspection?”

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I made miso soup today! Well… it was miso and noodles. It was very quick and easy to make.

Here’s sort of what I did. Noodles are adjusted because I made too much of them and some of the veggies are adjusted because I could have used more… and I am sort of eyeballing those in the first place! My best advice is to use what you think is good enough for you! 

INGREDIENTS:

[This is good for 5 servings. Maybe 4 servings if you like tons of soup.]

• 1/2 package of rice noodles 
• 2 tsp dashi stock (it’s a stock made from fish and kelp, so beware, vegetarians & vegans!)
• 4 cups of water [seperate 1/2 from the other 3 1/2 and set aside]
• 3 tbs miso (soy bean) paste (in this recipe, i used white, which is creamier and less saltier than red miso paste…)
• about 5oz of tofu, cubed (I used 1/4th of a 19oz pack… it was a good amount for me, but feel free to use more or less! Smaller packs are usually about 8oz, so you might even want to use all of that. If you’re skipping the mushrooms, I’d put more tofu. Note about firm vs soft: Some people think firm is easier to work with as far as draining and cutting… really, you just have to be gentler when using softer tofu. My brother likes firm tofu better in his miso, but I like the texture of the soft tofu. Use what you like. If you’re not used to cooking with tofu, you might wanna go with the firm.) 
• 1/4 cup of sliced mushrooms 
• 2 green onions, sliced diagonally 
• 5 spinach leaves, sliced 
• 2 slices of ginger, minced

1. Before you begin cooking your miso, or meanwhile, boil your noodles! If you’re grown up enough to use the internet, you should be grown up enough to know how to cook noodles.

2. Drain the noodles, run cold water over them to cool, and set aside.

3. In a saucepan, combine dashi and 3 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil.

4. Pour the other 1/2 cup of water into a bowl, add the miso paste, and whisk until smoothly blended. I usually just do this in the measuring cup. Set the miso mixture aside for now. 

5. Add the spinach, mushrooms, and ginger to the dashi. Simmer for about four minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

6. Stir in the miso mixture, tofu and green onions. Let it simmer (be careful to avoid a rolling boil) for about three more minutes and then remove from heat.

7. While your soup is simmering (or after, whatever), set out everyone’s bowl. Scoop out a serving of your cooked rice noodles into each bowl. Rice noodles get super sticky when they’re drained, cooled and dried, so I used my (TOTALLY CLEAN, I SWEAR!) hands to do this.

8. Use a ladle stir (the miso likes to settle at the bottom) and scoop out servings of the soup to pour on top of the noodles. 

If I were fancy or not ready to eat right that second, I would have garnished it with something nice. This photo is actually a little older than the two photos above, hence the super chunky mushrooms. 

Tastes best while HOT, so serve as soon as it’s done or heat it up in the pan before serving.

どうぞめしあがれ!

Okay, so, maybe I like making weird-looking things. Deal with it. 

This is one of my favorite foods ever. It’s a Caribbean dish called callaloo.  

Traditionally, it would be made from callaloo leaves (which it is in the photo below, thanks to a family friend who just came in for a visit), but I learned to make it with spinach (being ‘merican, and all), so that’s how it’s written here. Tastes amazing either way.

Callaloo is one of those Caribbean dishes that varies by the cook. People from different islands and different races make it different ways. That’s just how it is and it’s something that I love. My mother, an Indian/Portuguese/French mix from Trinidad & Tobago, learned it from her Indian mother (also born and raised in Trinidad).

This is best eaten over rice! I’ve read recipes where it’s decribed as a soup… which kind of weirds me out. The okra gives it a kind of goopy texture. It feels fine on rice, but I don’t think I’d eat it alone. 

What you need:

• 1 package of chopped okra
• 1 bunch of spinach 
• 1 bell pepper (color of your choice), cored & sliced
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• dash of basil
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cup or 6 sprigs of parsley
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt to taste
• 1 can of coconut milk (unsweetened! don’t get that dessert stuff!)
• 1 can of water (I say can, because after I pour in the coconut milk, I use the same can to pour in water)
• 1 whole green pepper (w/ stem, must not burst!)
• 1 tbs butter
• pumpkin, fresh handful (optional… but delicious and great for texture!)
• green onions, chopped (optional)
• crab, shrimp, or chicken (optional)

What to do:

1. Boil all ingredients except the butter in a large stock pot until soft or until okra is mushy. Cover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

2. Now, your callaloo should be soft, but, uh, it’s kinda chunky, right? Pour it in your blender and ‘pulse’ it for a few minutes until it’s blended. 

3. Smooth as it’s gonna get? Pour it back into your pot and stir in the butter.

Serve over rice! 

Since you’ve made this in a stock pot, you might have a lot of left overs. Callaloo can be frozen for a little while and thawed out later. 

Enjoy!