the pillow book

As I am a lazy bum and still haven't finished resizing all my photos from New Orleans, have some food instead!

The Boy and I found a little ramen place in a neighboring city. It's...not great. But we don't really have very good restaurants, as a rule, in the East Bay. But, shortly thereafter, my mother found an article in the Food section of the Chronicle about ramen, listing off a few local recipes, including a vegetarian version.

So I made it. It took all freaking day, and I bought and used celery root for the first time.


Celery Root-Miso Ramen
by Chef Richie Nakano of Hapa Ramen

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 oz dried kombu
1.5 gallons water
2 med celery roots, peeled and diced
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 med carrots, roughly chopped
2 yellow onions, medium diced
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
1 cup white miso
5 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Store-bought fresh ramen noodles, cooked

Toppings as desired (I used grated radish, blanched pea sprouts and baby bok choy, nori, scallions, and some seaweed strips I forget the name of)

Instructions

Wipe the kombu with a wet cloth, then combine it with the water in a large stock pot. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat and let steep 1 hour. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350. Toss celery root in 2 Tbsp of the oil, then spread onto a roasting pan. Toss carrots and onions in remaining oil and spread them onto another roasting pan. Place both pans in the oven and bake until the vegetables are tender and slightly browned. (It took about 30-40 minutes for me.)

In batches, pour the kombu broth into a blender and blend with the roasted celery root. Return the pureed broth to the stockpot; add the roasted carrots and onions, the garlic and the ginger. Bring to a simmer, and simmer until broth is reduced by about one-third.

In a mixing bowl, whisk about 1 cup of the broth with the miso; add to the stockpot along with the minced garlic. Simmer a few minutes to blend, then strain the broth into another pot and season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, pour about 2 cups of broth over prepared noodles; top as desired.

Cooking for Fathers' Day tomorrow, and I made this ahead of time. It was pronounced "awesome" (by, granted, my mother), and it occurred to me it might be a good idea to remember how the hell I made it.

Awesome Vegan Potato Salad
Makes: a buttload of servings

You will need:

• 20 boiling potatoes, halved (I think this is about 4-5 pounds?)
  
• 1/2 red onion, diced
  
• 3 stalks celery, diced
  
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
  
• 3 large dill pickles, roughly chopped (or 10 sweet gherkins, if you're into that kind of thing)
  
• 1 can black olives, roughly chopped
  
• 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
  
• 1.5 - 2 cups Vegenaise
  
• 4 Tablespoons dijon mustard
  
• 1 Tablespoon Chinese hot mustard
  
• 2 Tablespoons smoked paprika
  
• kosher salt, to taste (probably a lot)
  
• black pepper, to taste

Boil the potatoes until they can be easily pierced. Mash half of them and roughly chop the other half, then dump them in a bowl and let them cool.

Then dump everything else in and mix it up. Taste, adjust seasoning, mix, etc, until it is perfect.

Then serve it to your unreasonably large family.