Avi

Mushroom Noodle Soup

Cooking time: ~5 minutes, plus 20 minutes beforehand to let the stock develop

Ingredients:

• ~6 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 dried noodle cake
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cooking rice wine or mirin
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• optional: a few drops (to taste) hot sauce
• optional: ~4 wantons

Instructions:

1. Place the shiitake in a bowl, cover with hot water. Since they float, you can use a second bowl to push them down under the water level. Let them stand for at least 20 minutes.
2. Separate the shiitake from the stock. Put the stock in a soup bowl, and top up with water until the bowl is about half full.
3. Optional: prepare wantons.
4. Put stock, soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil and hot sauce in a small pot. Heat to boiling, add noodles.
5. While the noodles are cooking, slice the shiitake into thin strips. Add the shiitake (and wontons if you're using them) to the pot.
6. Cook until the noodles are soft.
7. Serve! Serves 1 as a meal, or 2 as entrees.

So for this recipe, I have fixed it! If making the maccha variety:

• replace the apple sauce with coconut cream
• replace the olive oil with sunflower seed oil

And it comes out much more tea-like :D

This is just about the simplest pasta sauce I will ever be seen to use. It's also good as a dipping sauce, sandwich spread, barbeque sauce... you name it :D Now I just need to figure out if my virus-ridden throat is up to trying pasta, yet   x_x

Tomato Tachina Wondersauce

Cooking time: ~2 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp organic tachina/tahini (pure sesame seed paste; non-organice can be used but it just doesn't taste the same)
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce (American: ketchup)
• a few drops of lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• optional: zaatar

Instructions:

1. Mix the tachina with about an equal amount of water, preferably near-boiling. Cold water will work, but you'll be stirring for a while and cursing as you do.  It should come to the consistency of a creamy sauce. Too thin? Add more tachina. Too thick? Add more water! Remember to increase the other ingredients to match the rough final amount of tachina.
2. Add the tomato sauce, lemon juice, and garlic. Mix vigorously.
3. Optional: If you're feeling zesty, throw in a few pinches of zaatar, or just use it as a dusting over the top.

And that's it! Done! I tend to mix mine in with freshly cooked pasta for a simple meal when I can't be bothered with any elaborate cooking procedures. Boil pasta, mix tachina, eat ^_^

Leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge in a sealed container for a few days.

Okay so. I posted this up quiiiiiiiiiiite a while ago on the vegancooking community on lj. The recipe has evolved a bit since then, but I thought I'd put it up here anyway so I can keep track of it. I've also come up with a more Thai-style variation of the sauce, so I'll post that up soon :D

( Satay stir-fry )