Shifting toward spring.  It’s been warm and cold, windy, sunny, rainy, occasionally snowy.   For me, there’s been lots of happy and there have been days where anxiety is hard to shake.  Contributing to the latter are all sorts of stresses, both big and small picture.  There’s personal stuff, like the fact that our (very elderly) landlady just passed away about the same time that our lease [to an affordable apartment in an extremely unaffordable neighborhood city] expired.  And there are things like this country’s frightening current political atmosphere, which, while amusing, is getting more and more unnerving every day.  Laughter helps, as does qi gong, music (latest obsessions: Courtney Barnett, the new Animal Collective, and this dreamy version of The Chemical Brothers’ “Wide Open”), dates with my friends and my man, and good food (bet you knew that one was coming).

*Precooking the tempeh helps to tame its bitterness as well as prep it for soaking up all that good marinade.
*Feel free to substitute bok choy if you can’t find yu choy.

For the tempeh & marinade:
1 8oz package tempeh, sliced crosswise into ¼” strips
1 tbsp mustard (I like stoneground)
2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
1½ tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp agave
couple grinds of black pepper

For the rest:
vegetable oil (I used safflower)
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 bunch of yu choy, trimmed and chopped
½ cup vegetable broth, plus a bit more if necessary
½ tsp tamari

Rice for serving, optional

• Place tempeh slices in a saucepan and cover with water. Cook over high heat until boiling, then cover with lid, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and place in a shallow bowl.
• Whisk together or shake in closed jar all of the marinade ingredients. Pour over tempeh and toss gently to coat. Let sit for one hour.
• Heat ½ tsp of oil in a large pan over medium high heat. When hot, add tempeh. I strongly recommend using a splatter guard here. Let tempeh cook, untouched, for about 3-4 minutes, or until crispy. Flip over all the pieces (turn down heat while you do this) and let cook for another 3-4 minutes. Set aside. Let the pan cool a bit and give a quick wipe.
• Heat ½ tbsp oil in the pan over medium heat. Heat the garlic and red pepper flakes for a minute or two, until fragrant.
• Stir in the yu choy. Add the vegetable broth, cover, and turn up the heat some. Let cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the yu choy, starts to dry out, add a bit more broth. Remove lid, stir in tamari, and let cook for another minute, then add the tempeh. Break some of the tempeh pieces a little as you stir.  Serve over rice if desired.

Yield: 3-4 servings

Some time off from work recently meant more time to play in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, most of my experimentation yielded disappointing results.  First, there was the smoothie that just wasn’t good (it involved cocoa butter).  Then there was the kuri dip that never came to be.  The recipe sounded so great in my head and I was eager to finally roast the beautiful red squash that had been sitting around in my kitchen for the last few weeks or months.  But apparently winter squash does not actually last forever.  After I cut it up and roasted in in olive oil and tasted it, I realized that no amount of spices would mask the bitterness.  So into the compost bin it went.  Then the next day, Saturday, I screwed up toffee cinnamon oatmeal cookie bars.  I still want to try them again, but next time I’ll use almond flour like the recipe calls for and not ground almonds (too coarse).  I should also probably get an oven thermometer.  Anyway, that night, after a mini adventure of climbing over snow banks and trudging through blizzard winds to check on the car, I decided to keep dinner simple.  And it was just right.
*To toast the pine nuts, heat in a dry skillet over medium heat for a couple of minutes, watching closely, just until lightly browned and fragrant.

12 oz pasta
olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
pinch of red pepper flakes
5 oz spinach, thawed if frozen
1/3 cup chopped marinated roasted red peppers, drained
1 cup cooked/14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
handful of toasted pine nuts, optional
sea salt and black pepper
squeeze of lemon

• Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.
• Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil into a large pan and cook garlic and red pepper flakes over medium low heat for a few minutes, watching closely and agitating frequently, until fragrant.
• Stir in roasted red peppers and spinach, turn up the heat.  Cover and cook for about a minute or two to let spinach wilt.
• Remove lid, lower heat, and stir in chickpeas.  Cook for another couple of minutes.  Season with salt and black pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
• Combine with pasta, drizzle with a bit more olive oil, and top with pine nuts (if using).

Yield: About 4 servings

I first tried sunchokes at a restaurant.  They were in a salad: raw, sliced thin, with escarole and lots of lemon and salt and pepper.  I don’t remember much else about the salad– I think it was pretty straightforward– other than that it was delicious, and that I was bummed when it was taken off the menu.  I sort of forgot about sunchokes until recently, when I tried them again at the farmers’ market.  A seller was offering samples of the vegetable– small chunks sautéed with fresh turmeric and some kind of herb which I forget (sage maybe?).  I decided to buy a bag and bring it home to the fridge, where it sat and sat.  And sat.  Weeks later–after the holiday madness– I pulled out the bag and hesitantly inspected the tubers, which, to my surprise and delight, looked exactly the same as when I had bought them.  Which is to say, like funky little ginger potato hybrids.  I wasn’t entirely sure as to how to prep them and while I remembered that the sunchoke I had sampled at the market was unpeeled, I decided I should probably do a little research.  I’m glad I did.  Yes, the skin is indeed technically edible, however, when I learned that the sunchoke, or Jerusalem artichoke, is also known as the “fartichoke,” I figured it best to err on the side of caution.  After scrubbing the sunchokes, I peeled off the skin, rinsed them again (to remove even more excess starch– or at least that was the idea), then patted them dry.  I roasted them until they were browned and a little crispy yet also meltingly tender.  Served over pasta with lemon and parsley, they made for a very tasty, very gratifying dinner.

1 lb sunchokes, peeled, rinsed, and dried, cut into ¼” slices
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed with a chef’s knife handle
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling
salt and pepper, to taste
½ lemon, the juice and zest
½ cup parsley, chopped
12 oz pasta (fusili, bowties, and gemelli are all good choices)

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a bowl, toss sunchoke slices with 1 tbsp olive oil, some salt and pepper, and garlic. Spread evenly on prepared baking sheet.
• Let sunchokes roast for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until lightly browned. Then remove from oven and drizzle with the lemon juice.
• While sunchokes are roasting, cook pasta in salted water according to package directions.
• Combine the pasta and sunchokes, drizzle with a bit more olive oil, and sprinkle on the parsley and lemon zest.  Taste for seasonings.

Yield: About 4 servings