Black Sesame Otsu from Heidi Swanson's newest book, Super natural every day.
When I ordered Heidi Swanson's book, Super natural every day, I had no idea how many great books I would have sitting at my feet each evening awaiting my time to browse them. I had first encountered Heidi's award winning food blog, 101 cookbooks several months ago when I first started looking at the myriad food blogs. So many choices and only 24 hours in a day!
Heidi Swanson has taken whole food cooking to a new level by giving whole food a sexy look and putting it right into vogue. Today was a day for the history books with temps reaching 103 and heat indexes of 115 or more. We both had spent our day outside at a field day so when we returned home we wanted something simple and cooling. I read Heidi's February post on a unique soba recipe that uses black sesame seeds. Having been intrigued ever since, today seemed like the day to try it out.
I stopped at the store to pick up some green onions, cilantro, and sugar snap peas for the recipe. The cilantro and sugar snaps are not called for in her recipe but I just felt like adding them..I had some organic tofu that I had opened the other night and just happened to have some black sesame seeds too.
Soba noodles are made from buckwheat which makes them gluten free too. They are easy to use and cook just like other pasta only more quickly. I fellt like adding a few more vegetables to my noodle dish so added some sugar snap peas that I cut on the bias and diced red pepper in addition to the organic tofu and green onions.
Soba noodles next to bowl of black sesame paste.
Take time to find black sesame seeds. You can easily find them in any grocery store that caters to asian cultures. They come in a bag or jar and keep well. This was a recipe that gave me a chance to use this new ingredient. I am such a spice and herb hog anyway so it was fun to play with a new ingredient.
I am anxious to read Heidi's first cookbook, Super Natural Cooking where she goes into great detail on the kind of pantry you need to have to cook with whole foods. When I started to read her blog in the natural foods section, I realized that my own pantry has taken on these qualities. Once you build it (meaning a natural foods pantry) then cooking is going to be more fun and you won't have to go out and buy eptensive ingredients to make simple recipes.
Black Sesame Otsu
adapted from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day
1 teaspoon pinenuts
1 teaspoon sunflower seeds
1/2 cup black sesame seeds *
1 1/2 tablespoons natural cane sugar (I used Turbinado)
1 1/2 tablespoons shoyu, tamari, or soy sauce (Bragg's aminos would work too)
1 1/2 teaspoons mirin*
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (recipe calls for brown rice vinegar)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Sea salt, fine grained
12 oz buckwheat soba noodles*
Extra virgin olive oil
12 oz extra firm tofu, cubed (try organic tofu if you can find it...vastly better)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 red pepper, seeded and diced
handful of sugar snap peas, cut on the bias
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1. Toast pine nuts and sunflower seeds in a cast iron skillet over medium heat until lightly browned. Add black sesame seeds and toast until they smell fragrant being careful not to let burn as this will happen quickly. Transfer to a mortar & pestle or coffee/spice grinder and pulverize until the mixture looks like black sand. Put mixture into a small bowl and add sugar, soy, mirin, vinegar, cayenne & sesame oil. Mix into a paste and set aside.
2. Boil water with generous sea salt in a large saucepan. Add soba noodles and cook according to the package. When done, drain, saving some of the water for lossening the paste. Cool the noodles in cold water once they have been drained.
3. Drain tofu and cut into pieces and saute in oil in a pan until golden. Season pieces with sea salt.
Set aside while assembling dish.
4. Set aside a tablesoon of the sesame paste and thin the rest with about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Amount of water depends on how much sauce you want in your noodles. Pour mixture into the noodles in a large bowl and toss to combine. Add the remaing vegetables and sauteed tofu and toss again. Serve with a dollop of black sesame paste and enjoy. Great cold the next day.
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NOTES:
Black sesame seeds can be found in asian grocery stores on online in many spice shops. Nutritionally sesame seeds are a high source of both copper and manganese. They have a propensity to lower cholesterol and can combat rheumatoid arthritis.
Mirin is swetened japanese rice wine. Try to find organic mirin if you can. Eden Foods make the organic variety that is not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Mirin is a product you will return to often in your whole foods cooking.
Buckwheat soba noodles contain 8 essential amino acids including lysine. Keep several packages in your natural foods pantry.
Heidi has another otsu soba version on her blog that you should also check out. The sauce is similar only it adds fresh ginger, more cayenne pepper and lemon. I cannot wait to try this also. During these dog days of summer, a cold noodle dish seems the right kind of supper for me.
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No respecting book review would be complete without reviewing a dessert recipe. I decided to pick up some blackberries today at the farmer's market with the idea of making Heidi's Macaroon Tart (p. 192) and Summer Squash Soup (p. 62). Both are for our dinner tonight. You might say that this week is dedicated to Heidi Swanson and her natural food way of life. I am completely inspired after making these three flavorful recipes and, oh, I forgot to say I also made the last recipe in the book: oven roasted cherry tomatoes. Last weekend at the campsite we enjoyed her multi-grain pancakes with hickory syrup and blueberries. Now what is it going to be for Sunday...maybe some yogurt muffins, homemade muesli, or Heidi's bran muffins.
Summer squash soup: This lovely summer soup is flavored with thai red curry paste, garlic and coconut milk. I had some mushrooms to use and also some very small okra that I threw into the mix.
My message to my readers is to explore the world of whole and natural foods cooking for it is a new way for many cooks these days. To enjoy this way of life you must build the kind of pantry that supports healthy and the tastiest of cooking. We just have to learn some old ways with new eyes and savor the best there is.
This is fresh pita bread made from homemade dough (European Peasant Bread dough from Zoe Francois's book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day).
And last, but not least, the delectible but not too sweet Macaroon Tart made with fresh farmer's market blackberries, organic egg whites, unsweetened dessicated coconut and pistachios. I have purposely not put these recipes into this post so as to inspire readers to find Heidi's blog, 101 Cookbooks and her books and try something new. You will not be disappointed!
Heidi, thank you for a wonderful week of food inspiration. I love your book and hope to inspire others through this review.
Cook naturally my friends, every day.
Bonnie
Saturday summer supper: Summer squash soup with tofu croutons, topped with roasted cherry tomatoes, served with a side of homemade pita bread.
It doesn't gett better than this, unless you add dessert..
Cook from your favorite cookbooks daily.
