Pasta alla Norma

Many years ago I traveled with my family to our homeland of Sicily to see where the family was from.  We toured around the island, tracking down birth certificates and marriage licenses.  It was an amazing trip, punctuated with unforgettable meals.

Sicilian food isn't the same heavy cuisine as the northern parts of the country; instead, the food of the island represents a melting pot of influences and a culture that has thrived on meager existences.  This classical dish, pasta alla norma, took us by surprise at how much flavor was packed into such few ingredients, cooked just barely enough to bring out the essence of each one.  I think that this dish could represent the humble beginnings of tomato use in Italy, coming over from the Americas and passed by the Spaniards to the Italian islanders.  In the beginning, tomatoes were often barely cooked rather than being pureed into sauces, and were often tossed with some form of grain and maybe a couple of other vegetables.  So this dish is essentially a trip backwards in time through the history of the Italy's "golden apple".

I present a very classical recipe, not unlike ones I found by Mark Bittman and Mario Batali.  You can plate this however you like, but I relish the crudeness of the ingredients and prefer to serve this as large bites of everything, an homage to the basic vegetables that would go on to form the much more eloquent language of an entire cuisine over the centuries.

Curried Cauliflower with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

Every week I got to my local farmer's market, and pick up food for the week.  Greens, eggs, bread, apples, whatever.  But there are plenty of things I stroll on past, like the homemade dips, mini pies, and piles of cauliflower.

You know how if you see the same thing hundreds of times, even if you don't really like it, you start to think about it?  Well, that must have been what happened, because last week I suddenly thought "we need to buy one of these heads of cauliflower and see if we can make something with it."  Naturally, I didn't go for the white cauliflower, I had to get the purple kind (which is apparently high in anthocyanins and their cancer-fighting powers) because it looked more weird.  I found an old recipe I have kept in reserve until I found myself with a head of the stuff for whatever reason, and filled in the rest of the ingredients.

This dish was delicious, and had us coming back for more.  I think it was from one of Tyler Florence's cookbooks since I found the identical recipe on one of his pages, but I couldn't identify the scanned page.  Slightly spicy, filling, nice mixture of texture, and velvety from the reduced tomato sauce melding with the ghee - an Indian clarified butter.

Once again, I implore you to use dried chickpeas with this dish as opposed to canned.  Cheaper, better, and more healthy, these are far superior and only require minimal extra effort and probably an extra hour (or 13 if you pre-soak) of prep time.

The dish comes together quickly, and only requires a single pot - I reused the one from boiling the soaked chickpeas.  We are new converts to cauliflower, so expect more recipes using it soon.

Saffron Chard Potato Omelette

Another winner from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty, we made this at a cooking class and then were able to reliably duplicate it at home.  A delicious herbed omelette loaded with a filling of potatoes and swiss chard cooked in saffron, which is so good that you could eat it for just about any meal, and you could even eat the filling on its own.  Make sure you have a good non-stick pan to make your life easier, and don't skimp on the herbs or the saffron, both of which are essential to the dish.

Lemon and Eggplant Risotto

Another hit from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty, this risotto dish makes me realize how much variety there is to cooking eggplant.  And this was a first for me - cooking the eggplant two ways in same the dish.  The resulting flavor was a bit of smokiness and a bit of sweetness between the eggplant cooking styles, balanced by the tang of lemon and the peppery snap of fresh basil.  Add in the richness of the creamy risotto, butter, Parmesan cheese, and about 4 cups of reduced stock, and it's hard to find something wrong with this one.  At least, so long as you're the diner, not the chef.  That's another story, and I suggest keeping extra wine on hand.

Pay no attention to the fact that we took a perfectly good vegetarian entree and served it with a chicken leg - that was an emergency plan that we didn't end up needing, as this dish stood up incredibly well on its own.  Definitely worth making, although you will have a few steps and need to be careful on quite a number of things to not screw up the finished product.

Lemon and Eggplant Risotto
by Yotam Ottolenghi, from Plenty

• 2 medium eggplants
• 1/3 cup extra light olive oil
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• coarse sea salt
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 7 oz risotto rice (carnaroli or arborio)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3.25 - 3.5 cups hot vegetable stock
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (about 2 oz), or other mature, hard cheese
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup torn basil leaves

Start by prepping the eggplants - char the heck out of one of them over an open flame, turning just before you burn the house down.  Remove from the heat, cut down the center lengthwise, and scrape out the fleshy goodness inside, discarding the skin.  Coarsely chop this flesh and set aside.  If you were to basically mix in a few spices at this point, as if you were making hummus but ran out of chickpeas and only had a delicious eggplant, you'd have baba ghanoush, FYI.  But that's another recipe, for another time.

Dice the remaining eggplant into 1/2" pieces.  Heat up a heavy (I recommend cast iron) pan, and once hot add the 1/3 cup of light olive oil - light so that it has a higher smoke point and won't scorch during this operation.  Pan-fry the diced raw eggplant in 2 batches, turning a few times to get some good browning going.  Remove to a colander and sprinkle with salt.

In a large risotto-sized pot or pan, heat up the 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, then saute the onion for a few minutes until translucent.  If it's browning, you're getting too carried away.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes.  Then increase heat to high and add the rice, stirring to toss with oil, for 2-3 more minutes.  Add the wine to deglaze, and cook over high flame for yet another 2-3 minutes until nearly evaporated.  Now the fun begins.

Lower the heat to medium, and add a ladle (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup) of the hot vegetable broth to the rice mixture.  Now stir, you fool - stir for all you're worth.  Never stop stirring.  Stir even until there's almost no broth, and add some more, a ladle at a time.  And then when you think you're done stirring, stir some more.  Because this dish only achieves creamy perfection when you dislodge all of the starchy, gooey deliciousness that is the outer layer of a grain of cooked rice, and knock it into the resulting "sauce" that forms from this disembodied starch.  Keep tasting as you stir, and when the rice is cooked through, stop adding broth.  You may need more than 3.25 cups, you may need less.  This is mostly a factor of how old your rice is, and what temperature you're cooking at.

Coat the rice in oil to get heat to all of the grains evenly

Stir constantly to knock surface starch into the mixture and promote creaminess.  Same ideas as with avgolemono soup.  This is almost done, but only tasting it will tell you if it's finished or not.

To finish the dish, remove the pot from the heat, and stir in the chopped eggplant flesh, lemon zest, lemon juice, and most of the cheese.  I recommend zesting the lemon right into the pot, or else the essential oils from the skin will go flying everywhere but into your food, and it just won't be as good.  Crack in 3/4 tsp salt (if using homemade stock, or maybe skip if using store-bought) and some fresh black pepper to taste.  Sprinkle with the diced eggplant, remaining Parmesan, and the torn basil, and grate some additional lemon zest on if you have any remaining.

Shakshuka (North African Eggs Poached in Peppers and Tomatoes)

Shakshuka apparently means "mixture" in Arabic slang, and that's exactly what you get with this delicious and unique vegetarian dish.  Served for lunch more than it is for breakfast, this poached egg dish boasts an incredible amount of healthy flavor and a pleasing array of silky textures achieved by slowly cooking the eggs in a bed of unbelievable flavors.  It's a common dish in Morocco and Tunisia among other places.  Think of it as a much more delicious, much more Middle Eastern version of huevos rancheros, if you've ever had that.

We found this worldly delight at a vegetarian cooking class based on Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty.  Yotam was recently on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, so he's a credible source now that he's been on TV, for as John Cleese once said at a talk of his I attended, "I don't have to be an expert, but I am a celebrity".  If you have the patience in the morning to simmer this dish while you wait for epic mealtime, I highly recommend you give this a shot.  He's a very passionate chef with a great approach to his vegetarian dishes, and I definitely encourage you to not only try this, but have a look at his book.


Shakshuka
from Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi

• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 3/4 cup light olive oil
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 2 red bell peppers, cut into 3/4" strips
• 2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 3/4" strips
• 4 tsp raw sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 thyme sprigs
• 2 tbsp parsley
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
• 6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• pinch cayenne pepper
• salt and black pepper
• 8 eggs

In a large heavy pan, toast the cumin seeds on high heat for 2 minutes.  Add the oil and the onions, and saute for 5 minutes.  Add the peppers, sugar, and herbs, and continue cooking on high heat for 5-10 minutes further.

Add the tomatoes, saffron, cayenne, and some salt an pepper.  Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Make sure not to overcook; add water as necessary to maintain a thick sauce consistency with minimal evaporation.  This should be incredibly potent and thick at the end of this process.

If placing into individual serving pans, divide mixture into 4 deep frying pans.  Remove the bay leaves, then make small wells in the mixture.  Crack the eggs into a small dish one at a time, and pour the eggs gently into the wells in the mixture in 8 spots.  Sprinkle with salt and cover the pan(s) with lids.  Cook on very low heat for 10-12 minutes, until the eggs are just set.  Don't cook this too fast, or the eggs will be tough.

Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve.

Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

If you're one of the lucky few who's got an abundance of tomatoes coming from your garden, you may consider making gazpacho - a chilled Spanish tomato soup.  I found this on a quick search after coming upon 3 delicious, overripe yellow tomatoes, which I found slightly less bitter than red tomatoes.  However, I later made this recipe exactly the same way with normal tomatoes, and it came out just fine.  I have since made this dish a number of times with yellow tomatoes, which seem to have slightly less acidic flavor, and which really make for an impressive dish.

This dish travels incredibly well - I have served it out of a tupperware pitcher into disposable cups at least twice in my life, most notably when I was about ten, but more recently a couple of weeks ago.  It confused everyone the first time, but both times it was delicious.

Orecchiette with Rapini and Goat Cheese

I finally got around to making this pasta dish with broccoli rabe and goat cheese, showcasing the unique shape of orecchiette pasta.  You may not have heard of orecchiette before, but it's heard of you.  That's a joke, because orecchiette translates as 'little ears' based on their crazy shape.  Only Italians might get that joke, and they're usually not very impressed with it.  Let's move on.

This is orecchiette, pronounced "ORE-EH-KIET-EY":

Dried orecchiette, or 'little ears'

And this is broccoli rabe:

Broccoli rabe, known also as rapini

Broccoli rabe, aka rapini, aka broccoletti, is another less common ingredient, incredibly bitter when raw, but delicious when cooked properly.  From the brassica family, it is similar to broccoli in that it has tightly bunched clusters of green buds, but it is not at all the same plant.  It is much more closely related to a turnip oddly enough, but also related to one of my favorite plants, rapeseed.  You may know rapeseed by another name given by the food industry to stop scaring off potential consumers: canola (actually, it's an acronym for a modified rapeseed breed - CANada Oil, Low Acid).  Anyway, in Italian cuisine, broccoli rabe is often slowly sauteed with garlic over low heat, though in this recipe we're going to do the more universally accepted blanch and quick saute method.  Read on to figure all of that out.

I have concluded that this recipe is inspired by the Puglia region of Italy, as based on the overlap in ingredients presented in this dish being used there.  If anyone knows otherwise, please correct me.  I found the dish to be simple to prepare, bursting with the almost nutty flavor of the browned garlic and a mild sweetness from the blanched and quickly sauteed rapini.  The tang of the lemon zest and the earthy creaminess of the goat cheese really rounded out the dish nicely, and I thought it did a great job of smacking all of my taste buds around.

It's worth noting that finding orecchiette was somewhat of a challenge, and required going to a couple of specialty stores.  This actually held me up for multiple months, as I kept checking the pasta section of my standard megalomart hoping to find them with zero success.  It was a similar story for rapini - it's hard to find out of season, which I guess would be late summer in most parts.  Check Italian stores for dried orecchiette, and Asian markets for rapini.


Orecchiette with Rapini and Goat Cheese 
Modified from Saveur

• Kosher salt, to taste
• 1 bunch rapini (about 1 lb.), roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• ¾ tsp. crushed red chile flakes
• 12 oz. orecchiette 
• 2 tbsp. lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
• 4 oz. goat cheese, softened

The setup - a short list, but all very interesting ingredients

Bring an 8-qt. pot of salted water to a boil.  Add rapini and boil until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes.  Why not just saute and call it a day?  Because if you don't break down the bitter compounds in there first and leach them out into the cooking water, you'll end up with something that's thoroughly inedible.  Blanching (quickly boiling to partially cook the vegetables) first will mellow out the flavors quite a lot.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer rapini to a large bowl of ice water to shock (immediately stop cooking process and preserve bright green color).  Reserve boiling water for cooking pasta.  Drain rapini, pat dry, and set aside.

You have to shock the rapini after boiling, or they will keep cooking and turn grey, as well as become lifeless.

Once that step is done, heat the olive oil in a 12" skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 3 minutes.  I cooked my garlic a bit more than usual, adding a bit of a nuttiness and subtle bitterness that I thought played off of the now mellowed rapini quite well.  Add the chile flakes and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds.  Add the rapini, toss, and remove all contents from the pan to a plate.

Saute the garlic until starting to brown

Toss the rapini in your chile infused garlic-oil mixture

Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water used for the rapini and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes.  Drain pasta, reserving about a cup of the boiling water for the next step.

Reheat the skillet to medium-high heat, and transfer in the rapini mixture, pasta, and lemon zest.  Toss quickly to combine, and season with salt.  If the pasta is too dry for your taste, add a tiny amount of the boiling water to the dish and quickly stir, to give body to the dish.  I didn't do this, and loved it more on the sauceless side.

Quickly zest the lemon over the pasta

Divide pasta between bowls and add a dollop of goat cheese to each.  Serves 4 as a main dish.  Add shredded roasted chicken if you absolutely have to, but I don't think this dish requires any meat to be stellar.

Fettuccine with Pesto and Summer Squash

Okay all, here's a quick and easy recipe I think I came up with a while back, trying to find a use for some zucchini.  If you're like me, every summer you end up with too much of the stuff, and you're desperately trying to find a way to use it.  And you can only grill so much of it before you want to gag, so you start looking for new and creative ways to give it different flavors.  This one uses a pesto and ricotta cheese to give it both a sweet creamy texture as well as that pungent herb taste, and it comes together incredibly fast.  If you got really crazy you could make your own pasta or pesto, but for this one I'm using store bought ingredients (although they were both fresh, not dried or canned).  This dish is arguably similar to this one which I posted last year, but with a lot more flavor going on, and a few more ingredients.  It is also distinctly non-vegan, for those of you who live by that code, whereas the other one might have been.

Always on the lookout for good uses of squash - this one hit the mark

Fettuccine with Pesto and Summer Squash

• 1 pint (2 cups) fresh zucchini or other summer squash
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 pound fettuccine, dried, one 1/2 pound container of fresh fettuccine from the refrigerated section, or equivalent volume homemade pasta
• 4 ounces pesto
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Peel your tomatoes by blanching in a large pot of hot water (check here for detailed instructions).  Reserve the hot water for boiling your pasta - you can use that water again, making this more time efficient.  After shocking in ice water, coarsely chop tomatoes and set aside.  Chop the zucchini into bite-sized pieces, no larger than 3/4" to a side.  If using dried pasta, begin to boil now and follow package instructions to cook until just shy of al dente - maybe 30 seconds short of done.  If using fresh, read on.

Prep your ingredients - I used local mini squash, which have less bitter seeds

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the zucchini and cook until starting to brown, then shake / flip and cook other side.  When you flip the zucchini, add the onion, and stir around to saute lightly.  Saute the garlic for just a few seconds.  If using fresh pasta, add to pot of boiling water now, and cook for the 60-90 seconds recommended by the package, or whatever you feel comfortable with for homemade.  

Back in the skillet, lower heat to medium low, add the tomatoes with any juice that may have accumulated, and cook for 30 seconds.  Add the pesto and stir to combine, and keep warm.  Drain cooked pasta, reserving up to 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and add pasta to the sauce.  Stir to combine, adding water a little at a time as needed to reach the consistency you like.  The starchy water will help partially thicken the dish while creating more of a sauce, as well as help finish the pasta (which you cooked to NOT QUITE al dente, right?) by cooking it in this sauce.

Toss the sauteed vegetables with the pesto and partially cooked tomatoes.  Don't keep the heat on too high at this point or you'll lose some of the subtlety

To serve, plate pasta into 2-3 servings, and garnish each with 2 tbsp of ricotta cheese.  If you want to get crazy, add a chiffonade of basil threads (see Wikipedia for a nice picture of this).  Eat it, love it, feel good about yourself for eating healthy.

Szechwan Eggplant and Peppers (Vegetarian)

My housemate delivered a bag of vegetables from a friend's farm, and I had to act quickly before they became one with the earth again.  So I laid them all out on the table and tried to figure out what I could make with them - eggplants, bell peppers, some other chile peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  While I'm relatively sure that not much can combine all of those except maybe some kind of curry or an eggplant dip with raw vegetables, I decided to leave out the salad ingredients and use just the eggplant and peppers.  And just as I was about to make a pasta dish, I revectored to a stir-fry, armed with new recipes from my friend (see here).  Thanks, Julia.

This recipe is completely homespun, borrowing some ingredients from this and some techniques from that.  I think the final product came out restaurant-quality - a little spicy, velvety, pungent from the ginger and Szechwan peppercorns, and filling.  Highly recommended if you find yourself with a couple of eggplants about to go bad, and you're sick of simply grilling them.

Don't forget your passport, because your taste buds are going on vacation

Szechwan Eggplant (with Peppers)

• 2 Japanese eggplants, cut into 1” pieces
• 2 small or 1 large bell pepper, cut into 1” pieces
• 1 hot pepper, cut into ½” rings
• 1 tbsp ginger, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp Szechwan stir-fry sauce (see this recipe for more detail)
• 1 tsp Szechwan peppercorns, ground (optional)
• 3 tbsp canola or peanut oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sesame seeds, for garnish

The setup.  Notice what's missing?  That's right - meat!

Chop and gather all ingredients.  Heat wok until smoking over high heat, and add 1 tbsp canola and ½ tsp sesame oil to the pan.  Stir-fry half of the eggplant, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until sticky, about 3 minutes.  While eggplant is cooking, add Szechwan peppercorns, if using.  Remove to a plate, and repeat with remaining half, also removing to plate.

Make sure to have everything at the ready, or this will get screwed up

Cook the eggplant until almost sticky, and set aside.  The eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so don't get crazy.  Just add what's in the recipe and keep stirring

Reheat wok until smoking.  Add remaining 1 tbsp canola oil to pan, and add garlic, ginger, and Szechwan stir-fry sauce.  Be sure to have the exhaust fan on high, and try not to breathe.  Stir for 10-15 seconds, then add all peppers and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Return eggplant to wok, and deglaze with Shaoxing wine.

Stir-fry the peppers after infusing the oil with the aromatics and stir-fry sauce.  This will basically create a mustard gas-like sinus nightmare, so get the fans going, and try as hard as possible NOT TO COUGH!

Stir in cornstarch and water mixture, and toss to combine.  Cook for another 30 seconds and plate immediately.  Garnish with sesame seeds, if desired.

Deglaze with wine and add some cornstarch (or tapioca starch) and water to thicken it up and provide a bit of a sauce

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

In a bizarre fit of vegetarianism, I decided to make a chickpea stew the other day.  I had something similar at a French bistro, and it was so good that I decided to try it at home.  The beauty was that I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already, so I just had to buy some yogurt (which makes the dish, so don't skip it).

Moroccan cooking is heavily influenced by the French, so that's why I've added thyme to my recipe.  You won't see it in the original pictures, but I added it to the leftovers the next day and reheated on the stove, and it really brought a sweet, perfumed flavor to the dish that elevated it from a somewhat bland stew to something that seemed more, well, global.  If you really want to get crazy, the advice I got yesterday was to add za'atar, an Arab spice blend containing sesame seeds, sumac, thyme, salt, and other spices.  You can also cook this in a tagine if you're lucky enough to have one.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew, served over rice and garnished with greek yogurt

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup diced yellow onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 cup diced carrot (about 1 large)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, minced, seeds mostly removed
• 1 1/2 cups cubed waxy potato such as Yukon gold, peeled, about 1 large
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, minced, or 1/2 tsp za'atar seasoning (optional)
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained, or 4-5 fresh tomatoes, peeled
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
• 3 cups hot cooked rice or couscous
• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt, preferably greek

The setup.  You can use either canned chickpeas or the dried kind, but you'll need to cook them extra if you choose the latter.  FYI, I used a russet and was careful with the cooking time, but Yukon gold is preferred.

I should have used canned tomatoes, but I liked using my heirlooms from my garden.  If you're using whole though, peeling them would be preferable.  See my guide on that here and here.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion, carrot, garlic, and jalapeño to pan; sauté 6 minutes or until tender.  You can brown these slightly, but make sure not to burn anything.

Saute the more hearty vegetables first

Stir in the potato and next 8 ingredients (through broth).  Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender.  If you use waxy potatoes like Yukon golds, you have some safety margin on overcooking.  If you use russets though, the starch will dissolve and your potato will turn to mush if you go too long.  Just something to be aware of.

Once you've sauteed the stronger vegetables, add the quick cooking potato, tomato, and chickpeas, along with the broth and spices.

The finished stew.  Everything cooks down quickly, so it's a very fast dish.

To serve, plate over rice or couscous.  A nice presentation I had once was to serve in a roasted eggplant half, which is then placed on a bed of couscous.  Top with yogurt and perhaps minced cilantro.

Buddha's Delight (Jai)

Today I made Jai, also called Buddha's Delight.  It's amazing that a dish with such a short name has such a long list of ingredients, ranging from the poisonous to the floral.  I wish I had a great backstory on why I made this dish, but the real answer is that I associated the name of this dish with 'vegetables and tofu', and told my vegetarian friends that I would make it figuring it would be easy.  But on closer inspection, I learned that this is actually a very complex dish served at Chinese New Years and celebrating longevity, prosperity, and good health and fortune, with each of those things being represented by multiple [obscure] ingredients.  It sounded so unique, though, that I forged ahead anyway.

I spent over an hour wandering aimlessly through the most Asian of all the Asian grocery stores in my area, where I was by far the most confused looking person in there, repeatedly asking for insane things like 'lily blossoms' and 'gingko nuts'.  But after hard searching, I was able to find everything I needed to make this dish, if not a bit exhausted.  Good thing this came together quickly... oh wait, it was the most involved stir-fry I've ever made.  I will state outright that this was one of the more extensive Chinese dishes I've made, but that it was also one of the most interesting.  There were flavors in here I've never had before, and they were nicely balanced - rich, bitter, floral, fragrant, crunchy, chewy, and very colorful.

I do not recommend this dish for beginners: I would rank this at 4 ice cream cones out of a maximum 5 in terms of difficulty, just because of the sheer prep work and item hunting.  But if you're feeling daring, give this a shot.  The recipe I present here is an amalgamation of multiple recipes I found online and fused into something I thought would be a fair representation of the average tastes and components of this dish, so I will not list a citation but rather tip my hat to those who have bravely attempted this before me.

I will try my best to explain some of the crazy ingredients you're about to see, hopefully complemented by the annotated picture below.  This is probably a good primer on some basic Asian ingredients anyway.

Check out this ridiculous ingredient set!

A. Soy sauce.  This is often confusingly referred to as 'light' soy sauce, not to be mistaken for 'low sodium' soy sauce, because 'dark' soy sauce contains sugar, and is thicker.  I didn't have the dark (even though it is called for in the recipe), so I used all light and extra sugar.

B. Oyster sauce.  Made from oyster bits, not for those with shellfish allergies.

C. Chinese rice wine.  I have no idea where to get good Shaoxing wine, but if you know please share!  This stuff here is basically the same as the Marsala wine you find in the grocery store by the salad dressings, the Sunny Delight of orange juice, the Cool Whip of clotted cream - it's a terrible approximation of the real thing, but it's all I know.

D. Sesame oil.  Nothing to add here.

E. Ginger.  The recipe calls for "one knuckle", which we defined as "about 1 inch long piece".

F. Napa cabbage.  Not to be confused with standard Savoy cabbage, this is longer and more delicate.

G. Water chestnuts.  Yes, you can buy these canned, but I wanted to try fresh.  To use, just cut off the top and bottom, then peel around the sides with a sharp knife.  It's nothing like normal chestnuts (and I don't think they're even related botanically), so not nearly as much of a pain in the ass to deal with.

H. Carrots.  Duh.

I. Snow peas.  These are the thin peapods, not the same as English peas or sugar snap peas, both of which are fatter.  Very common in stir-fries.

J. Gingko nuts.  NOW we're in weird territory.  These were eventually located in the refrigerated section by the tofu, and have thankfully been processed out of their shells.  Raw, they look like pistachios, but it turns out these are mildly toxic in large doses, and fairly bitter when eaten fresh out of the pack.  Relax, they're no less toxic after cooking, so I didn't compromise my endocrine system any more than you will.  Apparently the layer between the nut and shell causes allergic dermatitis, so use gloves if you get them unprocessed.  The nuts have a slightly bitter aftertaste out of the pack, which mellows after stir-frying.  They have a consistently between a semi-firm cheese and a hard-boiled egg yolk.  Bet you can't wait to try them after that description, right?  And no, I don't believe these make you smarter - that's the leaves of the plant, not the nuts.  Clearly the guy eating the poisonous nuts instead of the leave missed the boat by inches on this [almost] brain food.

K. Fried tofu.  Pretty much the same product as you would end up with at home if you took tofu, wrung it out, and went to the trouble of frying it, but much more convenient.

L. Bamboo shoots.  I usually buy the finely sliced stuff, but went for large pieces this time.  I could have gone for the raw stuff out of a sketchy looking tub at the store, but didn't feel quite that daring.

M. Lily buds.  I had no idea what this meant as I wandered the aisles, and was literally looking for dried flowers in a bag until someone pointed out that these come shredded.  They smell like tea, and taste floral and delicious.  A nice counterpoint to the gingko nuts.

N. Bean curd sheets. This was another one that took forever to find, since I didn't know what I was looking for.  Think of this product like you would pudding skin - it's the film that forms on top of the tofu whey as it's being made, which they skim off.  It's very rich, and almost tastes buttery.  A little goes a long way; we broke off 4" pieces and cut them in half to serve, but should have chopped finer.

O. Dried Shiitake mushrooms.  These are pretty common in Asian grocers.

So, you ready?  Let's have a go at...

Buddha’s Delight (Jai)
by: Me!

• 4 dried Shiitake or Chinese black mushrooms
• 1/2 cup dried lily buds
• 4 dried bean curd sticks
• 8 ounces fried tofu (store bought or homemade)
• 8 ounces bamboo shoots
• 6 fresh water chestnuts
• 2 large carrots
• 1 cup shredded Napa cabbage
• 4 ounces snow peas
• 1/4 cup canned gingko nuts
• 1 knuckle of ginger, crushed
• Cellophane noodles
• Vegetable or peanut oil for stir-frying, as needed
• 1/4 cup mushroom soaking liquid
• 1.5 tbsp Shaoxing wine or Chinese rice wine
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch

In separate bowls, soak the mushrooms, dried lily buds, and dried bean curd sticks in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes to soften.  Squeeze out any excess liquid.  Reserve the mushroom soaking liquid, straining it if necessary to remove any grit.  Remove the stems and cut the mushroom tops in half if desired.  Soak cellophane noodles just before using.

The soaked and drained bean curd is far left, lily buds far right.  Cellophane noodles are soaking in the bottom left corner.  Note the large pieces on the bamboo, bottom right.  I really liked the consistency of the bigger pieces.

Slice the bamboo shoots into large pieces.  Peel and finely chop the water chestnuts.  Peel the carrots, cut in half, and cut lengthwise into thin strips.  Shred the Napa cabbage.  String the snow peas and cut in half.  Drain the gingko nuts.  Crush the ginger.

Combine the reserved mushroom soaking liquid with the Chinese rice wine or sherry, 1 tsp ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauces, sugar, sesame oil, and cornstarch.  Set aside.

Heat the wok over medium-high to high heat.  Add 1 tablespoon oil to the heated wok.  When the oil is hot, add tofu and bean curd with a little salt and sugar, and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.  Remove, then follow same process for the gingko nuts and remove.

Stir-fry the proteins with a bit of salt and sugar, and set aside

Follow the same process for these crazy gingko nuts

Add more oil, then stir-fry the carrots.  Stir-fry for 1 minute, and add the dried mushrooms and lily buds.  Stir-fry for 1 minute, and add the water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, snow peas and ginger.

The recipe calls for adding almost everything individually and cooking in layers, to preserve the individual flavors of each component as much as possible without overcooking anything.  I chose the order strategically.

This is everything before the cabbage and noodles

Stir in the shredded cabbage and return all other cooked ingredients back to the wok, and then add noodles after cabbage has wilted slightly.

The soaked cellophane noodles.  Don't let them sit in hot water too long, or they will turn mushy.

Add the sauce and fold in, allowing to come to a boil to thicken up the cornstarch mixture

Add the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil.  Cover, turn down the heat and let the vegetables simmer for 5 minutes.  Taste and add salt or other seasonings as desired.  Serve hot.