another czech recipe: kuba

Kuba is a czech barley and mushroom casserole--a peasant dish that's traditionally served on Christmas Eve. In fact, when Julie and I went to the Unitarian Congregation in Prague on Christmas Eve, they served kuba and beer! The ingredients are barley, dried or fresh mushrooms, onion, garlic, marjoram, butter, salt, and pepper.

I thought the wheat berries in our pantry were barley, so the photo is actually wheat berry kuba...oops! Still tastes good!

komatsuna mushroom noodle soup

We've had a string of rainy days in Boulder that made us want some soup. I made this using komatsuna and mushrooms from the farmers market.

Ingredients:
1 T. canola oil
2 small spring shallots (or onion)
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 T. ginger, minced (frozen or fresh)
6 c. water
3-4 t. bouillon/reduced stock
1 c. small dried mushrooms
2 T. mirin
2 T. rice vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
1 lb. Komatsuna
8 oz. rice noodles (fettucine width)
1/4 c. almonds, ground
4 T. miso paste
1 T. sesame oil

In a large soup pot, saute shallots in canola oil for a minute or two. Add the garlic and ginger. When they start to stick to the bottom, add water and stock. Add mushrooms, mirin, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Chop and add the komatsuna stems, then chop the komatsuna leaves and add. This will give the stems a little bit more time to cook. Wait until the komatsuna looks fully cooked, then add the rice noodles and cook until they are soft. Then, remove from heat and add the ground almonds, miso paste, and sesame oil. The ground almonds add some creaminess to the soup. Dissolving the miso paste can be difficult. It may help to remove a cup or two of the soup liquid to mix with the miso. The sesame oil gives the soup nice sparkling orange oil bubbles floating on top. Top notch!

Side Note:
I used homemade vegetable stock. I saved up onion, garlic, green onion, and maybe a few radish scraps in the freezer. When it came time to make the stock, I fried the scraps in some oil until browned and then added some water. I cooked it down and added a few dashes of soy sauce. The reduced stock doesn't freeze solid, so cubes won't work. I froze it in a small tub so I could scoop out a tablespoon whenever I needed it. And I ended up using it all in this soup! The strength of the stock depends on what you put in it and how much you boil the water down. I estimated this was equivalent to 3-4 boullion cubes or teaspoons of boullion paste. You could use a dashi stock for a more authentically Japanese soup.

asparagus pasta with buttery mushroom sauce

Someday when we have a small patch of land, we will create a dense permaculture garden that features perennial fruits and vegetables, one of which will be asparagus. Until then, we will do our best with container gardening.

Asparagus takes three years to establish itself. Once it is established you can harvest spears in the spring until the weather gets warm. Last week, a friend of ours shared baby asparagus spears with us while we were touring his garden. They were so tender and delicious!

This week, asparagus made its debut at the farmers' market. We decided to make a pasta with asparagus and mushrooms. We really wanted the asparagus and mushrooms to stand out, so we just made a simple buttery sauce. We actually still have dried mushrooms left from our winter stockpile, but because it is a fresh new season we decided to use fresh mushrooms from Hazel Dell Mushrooms.

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:
1/2 lb rigatoni pasta, dry
1/2 lb asparagus
1/2 lb tiny cute as a button mushrooms, whole
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c. (3.5 oz) yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 c. "earth balance" margarine
1/4 c. mirin or white wine
1/4 c. water
2 T. rice vinegar
2 T. all purpose flour
1 T. tarragon (dried or fresh)
1 T. canola oil
1/8 t. black pepper
salt to taste

Start the onions sauteing in canola oil and add a pinch of salt. Add 3 of the 4 garlic cloves, mushrooms, 2 T. margarine, black pepper, and another pinch of salt. Cook on low/medium heat.

In the mean time, bring water to a boil in a medium pot. You can boil the pasta and steam the asparagus at the same time (deliciously efficient). Boil the pasta for about 10 minutes or until cooked. Steam the asparagus spears over the boiling pasta water for 5 minutes or until they are bright green. Rinse the asparagus spears in cold water so they stop cooking themselves and cut 1 inch segments.

When the mushrooms are soft and golden, add the tarragon and the remainder of the margarine. When the margarine is all melted, mix the mirin/wine, water, flour, the last garlic clove, and another pinch of salt. I like adding garlic at different stages to get different flavors from it. Add rice vinegar and remove the pan from the heat. The vinegar helps to release all of the butter from the pan and adds some zing to the sauce.

Top the pasta with the mushroom sauce and asparagus. Grind black and cayenne pepper on top to taste!

Side note:
If you can't find any tarragon, you can substitute anise or fennel. Here's a nice quote about tarragon:

"I believe that if ever I had to practice cannibalism, I might manage if there were enough tarragon around." --James Beard