Pak Choy & Mushrooms with Spicy Noodles

Thanks to Robert's green thumb and regular tending, we have a beautiful crop of pak choy this year--bok choy's miniature cousin. This is a wonderful vegetable for stir frying or sauteing.  The petioles (the stalks of the plant) are white and crunchy like celery while the top leaves are nearly like spinach. It is a member of the cabbage family, though it has a very mild flavor that lends itself well to spicy sauces.  For this recipe, I've sauteed it with mushrooms and garlic and used the veggies to top of a bowl of spicy peanut noodles.  You can eat this dish hot or cool (like a salad).  Sauteed or fried tofu would be a nice addition.

Pak choy needs to be carefully cleaned as the stalks tend to harbor a lot of dirt while the plant grows (like leeks).  For that reason, I usually cut the pak choy stalks into the size I want for the recipe and then place them in a large bowl of water, swishing them a bit to dislodge the dirt.  I then scoop up the floating stalk pieces and drain (the dirt will fall to the bottom of the bowl).

Pak Choy & Mushrooms with Spicy Noodles
Serves 2 generously as a main dish and 4 as a side dish

6-8 pak choy plants
8 oz. button (or any other kind, truthfully) mushrooms, cleaned and sliced into 1/4 in slices
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil or canola oil (to coat bottom of pan)
1-2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lb long, flat rice pasta  or use regular spaghetti or linguine

For the sauce:
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha (or other chili sauce, or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes)

Cut the stalks from the leaves of the pak choy plants.  Slice the stalks into 1/2 inch slices and place in a large bowl of water to get rid of the dirt, and drain. (See directions above.)  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions.  Wash leaves in a bowl of water and drain.  Chop leaves and keep separate.

While pasta cooks, heat a large skillet and coat bottom with oil.  Add the garlic to the pan, stirring to prevent browning and saute for a few minutes until the garlic becomes fragrant.  Add the pak choy stalks to the pan and stir, cooking for about 3 to 4 minutes until the stalks soften a bit and stirring occasionally.  Add the mushrooms and stir, cooking for 3 to 4 minutes or so until mushrooms (and pak choy) begin to give up their juices.  Add leaves to the pan--no need to stir--and cover so that the leaves, stalks and mushrooms steam a bit.  This should take no more than 3 or 4 minutes.  Remove cover, stir around and check that the vegetables are done to your liking.  Add salt and pepper to taste and drizzle the sesame oil over the veggies.

In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and set aside.  Drain the pasta (if using rice pasta, rinse with cold water and drain well again).  Return pasta to pot and stir in sauce, being sure to coat all of the noodles.  Divide the noodles among individual bowls and top each with a portion of the vegetables.  Serve with more sriracha sauce, soy sauce and/or a drizzle of sesame oil.

Spicy Black Bean, Corn and Peach Salad (and Whole Wheat Flatbread!)

Ah, the peaches are in at McConnell's Family Farm! They truly (truly!) need no embellishment and never disappoint. These are the peaches that convinced me once and for all that it's worth waiting for local fruit to ripen:  I'll never buy another mealy grocery store peach as long as I live!  

While the best way to enjoy these peaches is simply on their own, they will ripen quickly.  We bought a box  about four days ago and a few are showing signs of heading south.  McConnell's corn on the cob is also in, so I decided to put together a kind of southwestern bean salad adding a few peaches to the melange. It's a bit spicy, which Robert likes, but you can play around with the ingredients and turn the heat up or down as you like. (Skip the ground chipotle pepper, for example, or only add half of the jalapeno).

I needed something to go with the salad and tried out Alice Waters's flat bread recipe posted on Carol Stabile's blog, Can't Handle the Heat?  Carol's a friend, colleague and mentor (in the academy and the kitchen).  I used the flatbreads to make a kind of black bean salad fajita (and tinkered with them only minimally--adding a tablespoon of honey; what can I say?).  Read on!

Spicy Black Bean, Corn & Peach Salad

2 cups cooked black beans (or 1 15 oz can, drained)

3 ears of corn, cooked and cut from the cob (or about 1 1/2 cups)

1 stalk celery, minced

1 jalapeno pepper,seeded and minced

1/4 cup red onion, minced

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon honey

2 peaches, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks

salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, add the beans, corn, celery, jalapeno pepper and onion and gently toss to mix. Sprinkle the oil, ground chipotle pepper, salt and cayenne pepper over the mixture and gently toss again.

In a small to medium bowl, combine the juices and honey, stirring well to be sure the honey dissolves.  Add the cut, peeled peaches to the juice and honey mixture (the hope is that this will keep the peaches from turning brown too quickly).

Add the peaches/juices/honey mixture to the beans n'at (as we say Pittsburgh) in the large bowl and gently toss.  Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.  You can serve this salad right away or cover and refrigerate for up to four hours.  Serves 8 (easily).  Try them with flatbread!




Alice Waters's Whole Wheat Flatbread
(via Carol Stabile's Can't Stand the Heat? blog)

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey (optional!)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

In a bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.  Stir in the water, olive oil and honey and knead to form a moist dough.  Cover with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes.

Heat a cast iron skillet.  Divide dough into 16 balls. (They will seem quite small, but this is a lovely, pliable dough that will roll out to a thin bread.) Roll each ball into a 6 by 3 inch oval. (Mine were more like raggedy circles.)   I lightly oiled the skillet and cooked one flatbread at a time, about two minutes on each side.  Carol notes they're "great with hummus or other bean dips.  Good with peanut butter and jam.  Better still with Nutella."  They're lovely with a bit of honey and cinnamon, too!