Zucchini & Chickpea (Quick) Curry

The Internet has significantly, and irreversibly, changed the way we communicate, share information, and ultimately, the way we live. It has also, seemingly, changed the way we cook. 

In Tweet Me Right: The Joy of Cooking in a Digital World, Fran Brennan writes about the changing nature of recipe exchange and food community. The Internet has stimulated the growth of a large and passionate food community. It allows us to connect to people, places and even ideas that we wouldn't otherwise encounter.  

Opening a browser can open a world of culinary possibilities. So, how do you navigate this new world? 

Thankfully, there are a number of sites that stimulate food community and make navigation of the online food space a bit easier. Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubs created  Food52.com  to "bring together people who care about food." If Food52 stimulates conversation and creation in the online food community, it's offspring gojee.com provides users with a way to navigate that conversation.

Gojee.com allows users to enter an ingredient they have on hand (or that they're craving), and ingredients they'd like to avoid. After that information is entered, the site suggests recipes that fit your previous specifications. Did I mention it does that with food-porn images of the finished recipe? (Warning: You will walk away from gojee.com with your stomach growling). When you are tempted by a recipe, you click through and end up on the food blog that originally posted the recipe. From what I've seen, there aren't links to allrecipes.com, or more generic cooking sites. Rather, gojee.com directs users to further explore to food community. 

This is why technology inspires me. This type of site helps to foster community engagement and new discoveries online. Between complete strangers. Tell me you're not amazed by that. The most interesting part of gojee.com, though, is not the new discoveries it provides. The most interesting thing about the site is that it makes my life in the kitchen a lot more like my grandmother's. 

See, as a Gen Y'er and daughter of an enthusiastic cook, I was raised in a world where the cooking process went like this: find a recipe, buy ingredients for that recipe, cook that recipe. 

My grandmother, though, and her mother before her, followed this cooking process: look at ingredients you have, find a recipe that utilizes those ingredients, cook that recipe. 

Gojee.com allows, and encourages, cooks to use what they already have. This isn't surprising, considering the concept of using what you have is back in style (we're calling it sustainability now). Think of sustainability in the kitchen as your grandmothers old broach, suddenly appearing--a bit re purposed--in the September issue of Vogue. 

Why am I serenading you about my love of technology while showing you pictures of zucchini, you ask? Well, I had zucchini on hand a few weeks ago--a lot of zucchini. And, I discovered gojee.com, which led me to the 15 minute curried zucchini recipe from fresh 365. Find it adapted below, courtesy new technology. 

Zucchini & Chickpea (Quick) Curry

By Alexandra Rogers, adapted from fresh 365

Ingredients

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 large (white) onion, chopped

4 large garlic cloves, minced or crushed

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

3 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2" semi circles

8 oz. garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

handful of chopped cilantro

Recipe

In a small bowl, mix ground cumin, curry powder, turmeric, ground ginger and cinnamon together. Set aside. 

Heat oil in a large saute pan, over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and cumin seeds and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions become translucent and start to brown*. Add Zucchini, and spices. Stir to combine. Cook for approximately 6 minutes (until zucchini is tender when stabbed with a fork and begins to brown a bit). Add garbanzo beans and stir to coat with spice mixture. Add salt to taste, and cook for another 5 -6 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve with brown rice. Serves 4-5.

*To get vegetables to brown when sauteing, don't stir too often. Extended contact between the hot pan and the surface of the vegetable is needed for vegetables to caramelize (brown). Many cooks struggle with this concept, feeling the must stir continuously so everything cooks evenly and doesn't burn. But, if your goal is caramelization, you need to step back and let the vegetables hang out with the hot pan without stirring for a few minutes.

Tofu & Glass Noodle Stir Fry

I was nine years old when my family moved to Verona, WI (near Madison, WI). On our first visit to my elementary school we met another family who had just moved to the area from England. My mother became close friends with the mother from the other family, Harwinder, in mere moments. Ever since, they've been more than family friends. To me, they are simply family.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with the mung bean noodles pictured above, right? I'm getting to it. Harwinder grew up in Malaysia and she makes, without exception, the best Indian, Malaysian, and Chinese food I have ever eaten. In my entire life. This woman is a talented, talented cook.

Since I walked home from school with her kids and hung out at their house "doing homework" after school (read: giggling about boys with their middle daughter, listening to English pop music and making a life-long friend), I often invited myself got invited to stay for dinner. I'm no fool. I knew even then that I was in the presence of culinary talent. I was also a vegetarian. Which (finally) brings me to my main point. This dish is based off of something Harwinder made for me a lot. It's vegetarian--vegan, in fact--and, to boot it can be made gluten free if you use La Choy brand soy sauce (I picked up this weird little factoid from working at a sushi restaurant in NYC). Plus, most importantly, it tastes really good. 

Tofu & Glass Noodle Stir Fry
By Alexandra Rogers, Inspired by Harwinder Dowd


Ingredients
Marinade + Tofu
1 (10 oz) block of high protein tofu, super firm
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup water
4 teaspoons chili garlic sauce
Stir Fry
4 bundles of cellophane noodles (you can find them in the Asian food aisle of most large grocery stores)
3 Tablespoons oil (I used sunflower oil, but you can use whatever you like)
4-5 medium cloves of garlic, minced
1 (8 oz) bag of snow peas
3/4 cup bean sprouts
1 Bok Choy


Recipe
Marinade + Tofu
1.Chop tofu into squares that are 1/4" thick and 1" wide and long.
2. In a tupperware container combine soy sauce, water and chili garlic sauce. Add tofu and shake to coat evenly. 
3. Marinate for at least 20 minutes. Overnight in the fridge is fine as well.


*BEFORE YOU BEGIN-I own a very large saute pan and I still had to make this recipe in two batches. This means you might want to prep everything you have but only make a 1/2 recipe at a time, so as not to overcrowd the pan and stop it from cooking properly. Please let me know if you have any questions about this.*


Stir Fry
1. wash and dry the bok choy. Separate the leaves from each other. Then, with a knife, separate the leafy, green part of the bok choy from the firm, white part. Chop the bok choy leaves into approximately 1" pieces and slice the stems into 1/2" pieces (like you would slice a carrot). Set aside.
2. Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil. When water is boiling rapidly (in other words, the bubbles are large and popping up fiercely) add the mung bean noodles. You might have to use a wooden spoon to shove them in as they are rather stiff and oddly shaped. Once the noodles are in, cook for only three minutes, then drain and set aside. The noodles should be white and semi-translucent.
3. Coat the largest pan you have with the oil of your choice and bring to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add garlic--you should hear it sizzle. Let garlic cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add bok choy stems and cook for two minutes. 
5. Add snow peas and marinated tofu, reserving the marinade.
6. Add bean sprouts and cook for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add mung bean noodles and pour the marinade over the mixture in the pan. 
8. Continue to cook over medium-high heat using two wooden spoons to stir the mixture and break up the noodles.
9. Once the noodles have absorbed the sauce and just as things begin to get a little sticky in the pan, pull the pan off of the heat and serve. Makes approximately 10 servings.

Bell Pepper & Basil "Stir Fry"

For many people, Mondays are insane. When you finally head home, after a barrage of emails and voice mails and meetings, nothing sounds better than a warm meal. And, for a lot of people (even people like me, who love to cook), making dinner seems like a lot more energy than it is worth. This stir fry, however, is easy. Seriously, really easy. 

 

And, in honor of national nutrition month, it is a colorful and healthy meal as well. Bell peppers, basil and a (reasonable size portion of) brown rice. To prepare myself for Monday nights, I usually do the prep work on Saturday or Sunday so all that is left to do is throw things in a pan and eat the delicious results. And, you know what happens to be a great thing to munch on while you're waiting for this to cook? Sweet potato wedges, of course.

Pepper & Basil "Stir Fry"

By Alexandra Rogers


Ingredients
1 cup brown rice, cooked
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2-3 red, yellow or orange bell peppers, julienne
1/2 large Red onion, sliced into half rounds
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce


Recipe
In a large pan, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add onions, separating into separate pieces, and stir once to coat with oil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until onions have begin to caramelize and become tender. Do not stir often, as this interrupts the caramelization process.


Add peppers and cook for 3-5 minutes, until peppers are slightly tender and browned in spots. 


Add garlic and ginger to the pan, stir thoroughly, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and cook for 2 minutes. 


Lastly, add the fresh, torn basil leaves and cook for about 3-4 minutes, until basil is wilted and sticking to peppers and onions. 


Serves 3. Serve warm, accompanied by 1/3 cup rice.