Sweet Potato and Shiitake Mushroom Wontons

The labbits are still enjoying having special Guest Chef Jimmy with them in the warren. Tonight, Chef Jimmy wanted to make some steamed wontons, and he decided he would stuff them with sweet potato and...oh, how about shiitake mushrooms? Pipkin assisted in the kitchen and loved making these tasty wontons. Where does Jimmy come up with these flavor combinations? (Mostly by picking blindly in the refrigerator.) Print out the recipe for these wontons here.

Little wontons all in a row - ready for the steam basket!

Sweet Potato and Shiitake Mushroom Wontons

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
1/2 cup Shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 or 3 stalks scallions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic (Jimmy forgot to photograph the garlic, whoops)
White pepper
Salt
Wonton wrappers

Preparation:
Chef Jimmy doesn't think it's all that practical to heat up an oven just for one potato, so he's going to microwave his potato. In less time than it takes to pre-heat the oven, you can cook a potato in the microwave. So grab your sweet potato, poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork, and throw it in the microwave for 6 or 7 minutes, until you can pierce it through with a fork and it is soft.

Meanwhile, chop your shiitake mushrooms, and finely chop the scallions and garlic. Saute the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and saute until they soften and release their juices. Set aside in a medium bowl.

Let your potato cool a little, then peel the skin and discard. Toss your potato into a bowl and mash. (Jimmy calls it the Monster Mash *groan*) Add the mushrooms, garlic and scallions and stir to mix. Add in a little salt and white pepper and give it a final good mix.

Scoop a ball of the potato mixture into the center of a wonton wrapper. If you like wonton triangles, fold the wrapper in half, wet a finger with some water, and seal the edges. Jimmy want his to look kind of like shumai, so he's going make a soft fist and wrap the edges up around the filling. Easy, quick, and looks kinda cool!

Fill a large pot with an inch of water and fit in your steamer basket. Once the water's near boiling, turn the heat on low-medium. You want steam, but you don't need the water at a hard boil. Steam the wontons in the steamer basket in batches, if necessary, making sure the wontons don't touch eachother in the basket. Steam 15 minutes or until the wrappers are soft and translucent.

Remove wontons from steamer basket and enjoy as an appetizer, as part of a dim sum spread, or in a soup with noodles (for wonton noodle soup you will want to make folded and sealed triangle wontons so the wonton don't fall apart in the soup).

Yield: About 16 wontons

Bao, Wow! Vegetarian Dim Sum Bao

The labbits are pleased to present to you their special guest Chef Jimmy. He comes to the Green Mountain Warren from Toronto's Monster Factory and will be sharing a few dishes this week. Here's a little bit about Jimmy, courtesy of Monster Factory:

The labbits have faith that Chef Jimmy will come up with something delicious. For his first day at the warren, he made vegetarian dim sum bao, which is a steamed dumpling shaped bread, stuffed with a variety of fillings. One of the most popular bao is char siu bao, a bun filled with BBQ pork. Jimmy often ducks out of the Toronto Monster Factory headquarters and up Spadina Ave for a quick nibble of char siu bao. Knowing the labbits are vegetarian, he decided to raid the labbit pantry and put together a labbit version. He ended up using bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and Lightlife Gimme Lean vegetable protein. It pan fries and crumbles just like ground meat. Then he threw in some soy sauce, hoisin sauce, white pepper, salt, and ginger, and stuffed the bao.

You can add make vegetarian filling with tempeh, diced carrot, scallions, BBQ sauce, Sriracha sauce, cabbage, bok choy...there are lots of savoury options! Embrace Jimmy's free spirit and use what's in your fridge. No amounts for the filling are provided below, just be sure you have at least a full cup and a half to 2 cups of filling for 8 bao.

And, you know what? Steamed bao without any filling is pretty tasty, too! Just ball up the dough and steam. You can print out the recipe below by clicking here.

Vegetarian Dim Sum Bao
Bao Ingredients:
1 package dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp warm water (about 120°F - 130°F)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sesame oil

Filling Ingredients:
Vegetable protein, such as Lightlife Gimme Lean Sausage
Water chestnuts
Bean sprouts
Shiitake mushroom
Ground ginger or fresh ginger, finely chopped
White pepper
Salt
Low sodium soy sauce
Sesame oil
Hoisin sauce

Note: No exact amounts for the filling were provided, but you can choose whatever savoury fillings you'd like. Just be sure that everything is finely chopped, and that you have about 1.5 to 2 cups of filling "stuff" for your 8 bao. 

You'll need:
Wax paper, cut into 3"x3" squares
Steamer basket

Preparation:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Add the flour and sesame oil. With clean hands, knead the dough until smooth, about 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky! Add up to 4 more tablespoons of flour if needed.

Cover bowl with a cloth and set in a warm spot in the kitchen. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your filling. Wash and finely chop the vegetables. In a small skillet over medium heat, heat a small amount of sesame oil - just enough to coat the skillet. Pan fry the vegetable protein. Add the vegetables and cook until the mushrooms soften. Remove from heat. Add salt, pepper, soy sauce and other desired condiments to taste. (You don't need much!) Set aside.

 




Remove the cloth from the bowl. Roll your dough into a long cylinder and divide the dough into 8. With your hands, flatten the divided dough into round disks. Spoon 2 heaping Tbsp of filling into the center of the bao - yes, it will look very full! Bring up the sides, squish together at the top and give it a little twist to seal.

Top: before steaming Bottom: apres steam!

Place bao on a square of wax paper and set in a steamer basket, making sure you leave room for these bad bao to expand, because expand they will!

Cover your pot/steamer basket and steam for 10 - 15 minutes. Carefully remove bao from steamer, and enjoy, remembering to remove wax paper before nomming away!

Yields: 8 very big bao!!

Labbits Like: Stuffed Acorn Squash

Tri fever hasn't cooled off in the warren. With the addition of Masher's new friend Doddy Blue, the warren continues growing. To feed all these labbits, it's an initiation rite to get the new labbit cooking in the kitchen. Enter Doddy Blue!

Inspired by Xterra triathlete, mountain biker, and fooding and fueling pro Jessica Cerra, Masher and Blue whipped up her stuffed acorn squash recipe, featured recently on Triathlete magazine's website. Below is their adaptation to her recipe. It was incredibly autumnal and tasty, and it made lots of extra stuffing for the warren to have leftovers. Yum! Print the recipe here.

Labbits love kale!

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Spiced Wild Rice, Kale, Apple and Pine Nuts

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
1 bunch of kale, chopped
2 cups cooked wild rice
1 small onion, chopped
1 large apple, diced
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey (maple syrup might be a nice alternative)
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp stone ground mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice

Preparation:

Careful with that knife tip, Masher...

Note: Wild rice takes a lot longer to cook and requires more water than white rice. Plan ahead! Start the rice NOW so it will be ready to add to the stuffing when the time comes.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking oil. Wash the acorn squash, then carefully halve. Raw acorn squash are hard to cut. Sometimes you need the help of a friend.

Scoop out the seeds and discard.

Drizzle 1 Tbsp of olive oil onto the flesh of the squash. Rub the oil into the flesh (or, to keep your paws clean, use a handy kitchen tool to spread the oil). Grind up 1/2 tsp of sea salt and sprinkle onto the squash.

Turn the squash halves over (get help if you need it, they can be heavy for little labbits) and bake, flesh side down, for 15 - 20 minutes, or until the flesh has a golden crust. It won't be fully cooked, but will complete cooking when stuffed with stuffing.

You can toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet on low heat, if you like. Keep them moving in the skillet until they are lightly toasted. Don't forget they're still going in the oven!

Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil. Saute the onion for 2 - 3 minutes until softened. Add the kale, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, cinnamon and allspice and saute another 5 minutes.

When you add the kale to the skillet it'll look totally insane, but don't worry! That will cook down, promise. Add the honey (or maple syrup. Mmmmm...) and saute another 2 minutes.

See? The kale cooked down. Mmm does that stuffing look good. Now, in a small bowl whisk together the last Tbsp of olive oil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar and mustard. Stir in the chopped apple, pine nuts and cooked wild rice, and add it to the kale mixture. Mix to distribute evenly.

Turn the oven heat down to 375°F. Flip the squash over and stuff with stuffing! There will be lots of stuffing, so mound it up high! Any leftover stuffing can be eaten as leftovers or served alongside this dish. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until the squash is soft and the rice mixture is warmed through.

Yields: 4 hearty dinner sized servings.

Sometimes Uncle Warren has to sit down with the labbits to go over important self care information.

A word of warning: As good as this stuff smells, make sure you don't stay in the oven while the squash is cooking. In fact, here's some helpful advice on how to care for your plush labbits, from labbit creator Frank Kozik:

Masher and Doddy Blue could take the heat...at least for 20 minutes. They must have figured they could bake and give their hardworking muscles a dry sauna session. Please, keep your labbits out of the oven. Their fur is enough to keep them warm!

Labbits Like: Farm Fresh Tomato Soup

What to do with a mountain of fresh tomatoes from the farm? You could climb on top and proclaim yourself king! 

You could build yourself a tomato fort.

The best thing to do with fresh tomatoes, is to make tomato soup. If that's too boring for you, you can make it fun by adding in some alphabet pasta. This soup is tasty because of the quality of the tomatoes. Treat yourself to some heirloom tomatoes, or a variety of fresh, ripe tomatoes from your own garden or the local farmer's market. Grocery store tomatoes that had been picked weeks before ripening and shipped across the country just won't taste as good. Print the recipe here.

Fresh Tomato Soup (with alphabet pasta)

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped, fresh tomatoes 

1 small onion, chopped

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

2 cups low sodium vegetable broth

1 fresh bay leaf

2 Tbsp butter 

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup Alphabet pasta (optional)

Alphabet pasta makes soup more fun to eat!

Preparation: 

Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, veggie broth and bay leaf in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to boil gently for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and discard the bay leaf.

Using an immersion blender or food processor, blend the entire soup until nice and smooth.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring some salted water to a boil and cook the alphabet pasta according to the instructions on the package. The pasta will be added to the soup, so don't overcook it, or it will be too mushy. Allow to drain in a colander.

Using the now empty small saucepan from the pasta, melt the butter and whisk in flour to form a roux. Cook until the roux is a light brown color, then whisk in some soup until the roux is smooth and not lumpy. Mix the roux in with the rest of the soup and add the pasta.

Add enough sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes but not enough to make the soup sweet. Then, add salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve while hot with some crackers on the side. Enjoy!

Serves: 4 labbits

Labbits Like: Summer Squash Tacos

Pipkin hasn't folded this taco so you can see all the yummy goodness inside.

MMMmmmm veggies fresh from the garden. With summer in full swing, the Year of the Labbit blog was crying out for a seasonal dinner option, and what better way to celebrate Meatless Monday than with a taco filled with fresh from the garden veggies? Summer squash, zucchini and cilantro fill up this taco, and some black beans add protein, the rice provides a base, and of course you need cheese to goo it all together! If Pipkin had thought this through a little more carefully he would have added roasted corn (but corn isn't ready yet here in Vermont) and he would have gotten bigger wraps to make burritos, which are neater to eat. But these tacos are just as tasty as burritos, and sometimes messy food is more fun! Print the recipe here.

Summer Squash Tacos

Ingredients:
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 summer squash, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 14 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 fresh mango, diced
Fresh cilantro, chopped - as much as you like!
2 cups cooked brown rice
Tortilla shells - Pipkin used 10" for big tacos, but they're not big enough for burritos. Get 12" shells for burritos

Toppings:
Shredded cheese - Pipkin had Cabot Racer's Edge sharp cheddar, but Monterey Jack, Jalapeno Jack, and cheddar are all great!
Salsa - Pipkin went with Newman's Own Mango salsa
Sour Cream - optional, Pipkin didn't have any today
Lime juice - optional, yum yum!

Preparation:
Cook 1 cup of brown rice using either a stovetop method or a rice cooker. (Pipkin's got a rice cooker.) While the rice is cooking, rinse and drain the beans. Dice the two squash and the mango.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the summer squash, zucchini and beans and cook until the veggies are tender. Turn off heat and stir in the diced mango.

Heat tortilla shells according to directions on the package. Top with a little brown rice, the veggie and mango mixture, and any toppings, like shredded cheese and salsa. Fold the tortilla shell to create your soft taco. Turn your head sideways and enjoy! :)

Yields: Enough tacos for four hungry labbits.

Labbits Like: Eggplant Thai Curry

When the labbits get a nice, big, gorgeous eggplant, they tend to make eggplant lasagna - basically a lasagna where the noodles are replaced by slices of eggplant. When they got their CSA order from Deep Meadow Farm this week, they wound up with these cute little wee eggplants. From their appearance they look like Sicilian, or "zebra" eggplant, but the labbits wonder, are these mini zebra eggplants? Or, are they always this small?

Too small to slice up into lasagna "noodles", Pipkin decided to go for a red Thai Curry dish that he found in an old issue of Vegetarian Times. He exchanged the frozen peas for sugar snap peas, and decided that the "eggplant" called for in the recipe never specified variety, so he's going with these wee zebras.

The labbits suggest serving this with a bed of hot, fragrant basmati rice. It helps cut down on the spiciness, but the labbits still got quite a sweat going. Print out the recipe here.

Eggplant Thai Red Curry

Not pictured: curry paste!

Ingredients:
14 oz eggplant, cut into 1" pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
8 oz sugar snap peas
14 oz package of firm or very firm tofu
2 14 oz cans of lite coconut milk
2 Tbsp red curry paste
2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 Tbsp Tamari or soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp salt

Preparation:
Wrap tofu in paper towels and set in a colander with a bowl or plate on top, and a heavy can for weight (such as a can of tomatoes). Allow to drain for at least 20 minutes.

There's the red curry paste!

Shake the cans of coconut milk well. Pour half a can into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk in curry paste until well blended.

Add eggplant, onion, bell pepper and snap peas and stir gently.

Add remaining coconut milk, sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Slice the tofu into bite sized cubes and add to curry mixture. Heat thoroughly, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot on its own or poured over top basmati rice.

Serves: 6 - 8 labbits

Labbits Like: Black Bean Burgers

Ted wanted cheezburgers, so Clover put together this black bean veggie burger. There's a couple of slices of Cabot Racer's Edge Cheese on the side along with some baked potato wedges from Deep Meadow Farm. This recipe is quick and easy, and you can easily add things to this basic recipe to change it up: corn kernals, finely chopped mushroom, wild rice...

It's not just cats who can has cheezburger. You can too, by printing the recipe here. :)

Basic Black Bean Burger

Ingredients:
1 15 oz can of black bean, rinsed and drained
1 small or half a large bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 small onion, cut into wedges
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped in half
1 egg
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
S+P to taste
1/2 - 3/4 cup bread crumbs

Preparation:
In a mixing bowl, mash beans until the texture is a thick paste. Stir in chili powder, cumin and worcestershire sauce.

Finely chop the peppers, onion and garlic in a food processor. Drain any excess liquid by pressing the chopped peppers, onion and garlic through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Add mixture to beans and mix well.

In a small bowl, whisk egg and pour into bean mixture. Add the bread crumbs a little at a time and mix together, adding more bread crumbs until the mixture holds together but is still moist.

Divide mixture into 4 parts and pat into burger patty shape.

Grill till browned on both sides or bake on a baking sheet in an oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes each side.

Serve on a bun with greens, tomato, onions, and your other favorite fixin's. And don't forget the cheese!

Yields: 4 burger patties

Labbits Like: Summer Chili/Summer Veggie Salsa

The labbits are thrilled to be getting summer squash, onions, tomatoes, scallions and zucchini from Deep Meadow Farm, their local CSA, and a regular booth at the Bellows Falls Friday Farmer's Market.

It's too bad that corn isn't in season yet, but Clover cheated a little and threw in some cooked up frozen corn into the pot, along with some chickpeas (from a can), and then served it up with chopped scallions, diced avocado and a dollop of sour cream. The only problem is, Clover has no idea what to call this dish. Is it a chili? It seems not soupy enough to be chili. Is it a goulash (which, according to Clover's friend Maggie Whalebutt, has onions and paprika) or is it not "stewey" enough? Is it a salsa? Served cold with some Red Hot Blues it's a fantastic salsa. It could also be served cold as a leafless salad, thinking along the lines of other leafless salads like bean salad or potato salad.  Whatever you decide to call it, it's a delicious way to celebrate the harvest of seasonal summer veggies. Print the recipe here.

Summer Chili/Summer Salsa

Ingredients:
1/2 Tbsp EVOO
1 cup diced red onion
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 zucchini, diced
1 summer squash, diced
1 cup frozen corn kernels (or fresh, if you are so lucky!)
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp hot paprika
S+P to taste

Garnish:
Sour cream
Freshly chopped scallions
1 avocado, diced
Garden of Eatin's Red Hot Blues or other tortilla chips

Preparation:
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for a minute, stirring constantly.

Add the zucchini, summer squash, corn, chickpeas, tomatoes, and spices and cook, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes have softened but the summer squash is still crisp, about 3 or 4 minutes.

Serve hot with a spoonful of sour cream, a sprinkling of chopped scallions and a generous helping of diced avocado, with tortilla chips on the side. You can also serve this cold like a salsa.

Serves: 4 labbits as a main; several labbits as a salsa.

Labbits Like: Beet Risotto

Clover was psyched to get the first beets and beet greens of the CSA season from Deep Meadow Farm. Beets are wonderfully sweet and have fantastic color, and the best part is you can eat the greens, which have a pretty purplish red veining. This beet risotto recipe, courtesy of Eating Well magazine, is a sweet and sour mix of beets and balsamic vinegar. Served up on a single leaf and sprinkled with some shredded cheese, it's also very elegant to look at.

Making risotto is a labor of love. You have to attend to it carefully, adding broth little by little and stirring constantly. When you bite into perfectly al dente but creamy risotto, you know it's worth the time you've spent hovering by the stovetop! Print out the recipe here.

Beet Risotto With Beet Greens
Ingredients:
1 bunch of beets with greens
6 cups of low sodium vegetable broth
5 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, coarsely diced
2 cups Arborio rice
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
grated cheese (Clover used Gruyere)

Preparation:
Remove the greens from the beets then cut off and discard the stems. Cut the greens into ½ inch strips crosswise and set aside. Scrub the beets and place in a saucepan with the broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until beets are tender, about 30 minutes.

Remove beets from the broth and allow them to cool. Meanwhile, strain the cooking liquid by pouring the broth through a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel into a bowl and set aside the broth. With the beets now cool, rub them to remove the skins. Finely dice the beets, place in a bowl with 2 Tbsp of the balsamic vinegar and set aside. With the beets, beet greens and broth ready and standing by, you can now begin to assemble the risotto.

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Next add the remaining 3 Tbsp of vinegar and 1 cup of the broth. Stir until nearly all the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding the broth one cup at a time as the liquid is absorbed, adjusting the heat to maintain a simmer. Stir frequently throughout the process.

Add the beet greens along with the last cup of broth and stir until the greens are wilted.

Then stir in the reserved beets and vinegar.

Cook another 3 to 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. The risotto should be thick and creamy and the rice should be al dente. If after all the liquid is absorbed, the rice is still too firm on the inside, add about ¼ cup of water and continue to cook for a few additional minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with grated Gruyere cheese.

Serves: 6 labbits
Recipe: Adapted from Eating Well, March 2006