Wilted Arugula Salad, Harukei Turnip Puree, and Pickled Shunkyo Radish on a Wonton Crisp

This is really 3 easy little recipes that all complement each other well but can also be used separately. I made this for the Toast to the Culture in Agriculture fundraiser at Bamboo Creek Farm. 

Pickled Shunkyo Radish

Ingredients:

makes about 1 quart of pickled radishes

• 3 bunches shunkyo radish (you can use another kind of radish, but the long, skinny shape of these radishes makes them great for easily cutting into rounds)

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar

• 2 cups water

• 1 medium red beet

• 1 garlic bulb

• 1 bunch green onions

• 3 whole cloves

• 1 tbs whole allspice

• 2 tbs kosher salt

• 2 tbs brown sugar

• 1 tbs whole black pepper

• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

1. Slice the beet, onions, and garlic and combine with vinegar, water, spices, salt, and sugar. Everything in the recipe except for the radishes.

2. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile wash and slice the radishes into thin rounds. A Japanese mandoline makes this fast and easy, or at least faster, easier, and much more consistent than using a knife.

4. Put all of the sliced radish into a large mixing bowl and strain the hot pickle brine over them. You want to remove all of the solids so that just the liquid mixes with the sliced radishes.

5. Walk away for a couple hours.

6. Pack the pickled radishes into a jar or some sort of container and pour in enough bring to cover. Chill completely before covering. These should keep for a good long time in the fridge. Save any excess pickle liquid to make salad dressing.

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Harukei Turnip Puree

Ingredients:

makes about 8 sides

• 2-3 pounds Hakurei turnips

• 3-4 cloves garlic

• some kosher salt

• 4 tbs butter

• 1/2 cup sour cream

1. Clean and trim the turnips. Put in a large pot and cover with water.

2. Bring to a boil, add the salt and garlic.

3. Reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes, until turnips are completely tender.

4. Drain and discard the cooking liquid.

5. Add the butter and sour cream and mix together.

6. Puree with a blender until completely smooth.

7. Taste and add salt as needed.

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Wilted Arugula Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 large bunches of arugula, washed and long stems removed

• 1/2 cup pickle liquid (I used the liquid from the pickled radishes above, but you could use any pickle liquid to make a salad dressing)

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• pinch of kosher salt

1. Combine the pickle liquid and the oil in a small saucepan and add a pinch of salt.

2. Bring the dressing to a boil.

3. Whisk carefully and vigorously then pour over the arugula.

4. Toss quickly to coat and allow the greens to wilt.

 

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Making Some Hors D'oeuvres

Ingredients:

• pickled radishes

• turnip puree

• wilted arugula salad

• dumpling wrappers

1. Heat your oven to 425.

2. Lightly brush a baking sheet with oil and then lay out the dumpling wrappers. Brush the tops with oil.

3. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until lightly browned and crisp.

4. Place a small dollop of turnip puree in the center of each crisp. Lay some of the arugula salad against the puree and top with 2-3 pieces of pickled radish. Serve immediately.

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Enjoy!
-Matt

Grilled Peach & Dandelion Salad

Dandelion greens, like a lot of other "wild" greens, are super nutritious, somewhat bitter, and lots of fun to eat. You need some strong flavors to balance the greens, so this salad calls for a strong sweet and sour vinaigrette and grilled Georgia peaches.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2 bunches Italian dandelion greens

• 2 ripe freestone peaches

• 2 Hakurei turnips, sliced thinly

• 2 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled

• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tbs red wine vinegar

• 1 tbs whole grain mustard

• 1 tbs honey

• pinch of kosher salt

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1. Cut off the stemmy part of the greens and chop the leafy parts into manageable chunks. Wash and spin dry in a salad spinner if you've got one. Shake them in a colander if you don't.

2. Quarter the peaches, rub the flesh parts with a little bit of oil. Cook on a very hot grill until you think you've gone too far, a bit of char is perfectly alright here. If it's too hot to grill or you don't want to build a fire you can also do this in a cast iron pan on your stove. Same method, let the peaches get good and dark. You need to have the heat up very high to get the color quickly without turning the peaches to mush. After they are done slice the peaches in half so you have 16 pieces.

3. Measure the oil, honey, mustard, and vinegar into a little jar (if you do it in that order the honey won't stick to the measuring spoon). Shake the jar vigorously for a minute to combine.

4. Toss the greens, sliced turnips, crumbled cheese, peaches, and dressing together and arrange lovingly in a bowl or on a plate.

Enjoy
-Matt

Honey Braised Beets with Red Onions and Feta

I love to eat beets, but I don't love to cook them. I have a bad habit of buying a bunch of beets and letting them sit in the fridge until the greens are wilted and the roots are squishy. This way of cooking beets is so fast and easy that I actually want to do it. 

Ingredients

serves 4 beet lovers, or 8 other people

• 2 bunches of beets, green removed and reserved for another purpose

• 1 tbs vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup water

• 1 tbs honey

• 2 tbs red wine vinegar

• pinch of kosher salt

• 1/2 red onion, julienned

• 2 tbs feta, crumbled

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1. Peel the beets with a vegetable peeler. If you do this under a thin stream of running water you won't stain your hands.

2. Slice the beets in half through their equator.

3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat with the oil.

4. Place the beets in the pan cut-side down. Add the water, salt, honey, and vinegar.

5. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pan.

6. Cook the beets for 20-25 minutes, until a paring knife slides right in with no resistance.

7. Take the beets out of the pan and cut them up.

8. Add the sliced onions and reduce the liquid in the pan until it's slightly thickened and syrupy.

9. Toss the beets with the onions and cooking liquid and pour out into a serving dish.

10. Sprinkle feta on top.

Enjoy
-Matt

Roasted Turnips, Apples, and Onions

This makes a great side dish that can go with almost anything. It's easy to throw together for a holiday potluck or to round out your Thanksgiving table. The roasted turnips are juicy and savory which is a great contrast to the sweetness of roasted apples.

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Ingredients

serves 4-6

• 2 smallish tart baking apples, cut into chunks

• slightly more turnips than apples, this is a difficult measure because turnips come in so many sizes, cut into chunks

• 1 medium red onion, cut into chunks

• cooking oil

• kosher salt

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1. Heat the oven to 350F.

2. Heat the oil in an oven-safe, stainless steel pan or enameled dutch oven.

3. When the oil is nice and hot add the onions, give it a sprinkle of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, for a little over a minute.

4. Add the turnips, another little sprinkle of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, for a couple more minutes.

5. Add the apples, another little sprinkle of salt, and stir together, then put in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes.

6. Check with a fork to make sure the turnips and apples are cooked through.

7. That's it.

Enjoy!
-Matt

Honey Glazed Carrots

This is a simple side when you have beautiful young carrots. Honestly, it's still good even if the carrots aren't beautiful but it looks better on the plate if they are.

Ingredients

Serves 2-4

• a dozen or so young carrots, peeled, tops removed

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 1 tsp honey

• 3/4 cup water

• 1 tbs butter

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1. Put the carrots in a single layer in a small saute pan. Add the water, honey, and salt.

2. Bring the water to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the carrots are cooked all the way through.

3. Don't let the pan boil all the way dry, add a small amount of water if needed.

4. When the carrots are completely cooked and the liquid is almost entirely gone, remove the pan from the heat, drop in the butter and swirl it around. As it melts it will coat the carrots and mix with the honey.

5. Serve, making sure to get all of the sauce onto the carrots.

Enjoy
-Matt

Chili Smothered Roasted Sweet Potatoes

This spicy chili is the perfect compliment to roasted sweet potatoes. It's kind of like mashed potatoes and gravy but so much more flavorful and complex.

Ingredients

serves 6-8

• 6-8 medium sweet potatoes

• 1 pound ground beef

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1 medium onion, diced

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 large carrot, diced

• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

• 1-2 tbs chili powder

• 1 tbs ground cumin

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1 tbs olive oil

• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

• 1 cup chicken stock (unsalted)

• 2 tbs fish sauce

• 1 tbs white miso

• 3 tbs tomato paste

• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

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You could totally use fresh tomatoes and dry beans here, if you want to do that. 

1. Heat a dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium high heat with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle the salt on the beef. When the pan is hot add the ground beef and don't mess with it while it browns. Then stir it around and leave it alone for awhile longer. You'll get better browning the less you stir at this point and more browning equals more flavor.

2. Remove the meat and leave the fat in the pan. Saute the onion and carrot together until they soften a bit. Add the garlic, cumin, and chili powder, saute together for another 30 seconds or so.

3. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Don't worry too much if things are browning and sticking a bit, but turn down the heat if you see burning.

4. Add the canned tomatoes, stir around and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.

5. Return the meat to the pot along with the oregano, fish sauce, miso, vinegar, chicken stock, and cocoa powder. Stir, cover, and simmer until the sweet potatoes are done.

6. Heat the oven to 375F. Cut the potatoes in half and place cut-side down on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for one hour until cooked through and soft.

7. Serve the chili on top of the roasted sweet potatoes. Feel free to top with your favorite chili toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, fritos, chile peppers, guacamole, etc.

Enjoy
-Matt

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

I'm not too proud to admit that I have failed many times at making crispy sweet potato fries. French fries, in general, are tricky to get right in a home kitchen (or in a professional kitchen, for that matter; there is a reason most restaurants use a frozen, ready-to-fry product). Sweet potatoes have a different makeup of starch, sugar, and water than your standard frying potato does, too, just to make it harder for you. By combining blanching, a quick cornstarch batter, and a lower oil temperature this recipe gets you all the way to crispy town.

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Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 pound sweet potatoes
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• 1 tbs water
• vegetable oil for frying
• several pinches Ladybug Picnic sea salt blend from Beautiful Briny Sea

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1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/4" sticks.
2. Slowly heat the oil in a medium sized pot with high sides. The oil shouldn't go more than 1/3 of the way to the top of the pan. I highly recommend using a thermometer to get the temperature right. You want to drop the potatoes in at 350F. I like to heat the oil up slowly so I don't overshoot the mark and let it get too hot.
3. Put the potatoes on a paper towel on a microwave safe plate and microwave for four minutes. This will cook the potatoes through so they can spend less time in the oil.
4. Let the potatoes cool and air dry while the oil continues to heat up.
5. When the thermometer is almost to 350F mix together the cornstarch and water. Drop 1/3 of the potatoes into this batter and toss to coat. 
6. Turn the heat to high and then lower the battered potatoes into the oil. Stir so that they don't stick together. 
7. Watch the thermometer while the potatoes cook and turn the heat back down when it has come back up to 325F. Fry for 2-4 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
8. Scoop the fries out and allow the oil to drain away. As soon as possible toss in a mixing bowl with a generous amount of Ladybug Picnic sea salt.
9. Serve with sweet bbq sauce (or ketchup, ranch, mayo, whatever you like).

Enjoy
-Matt

Bok Choy with Breakfast Sausage and a Soft-Boiled Egg

Breakfast is my favorite meal, but just because this has sausage and egg in it doesn't mean that it has to be breakfast. It's delicious any time of day. Serve with our recipe for roasted turnips and apples, or with steamed rice.

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Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 pound of breakfast sausage

• 3-4 large heads of bok choy

• 1 medium sweet yellow onion

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 tbs cooking oil

• 1 tbs soy sauce

• toasted sesame seeds

• 6 eggs

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Bok choy is a dirty vegetable. I did some research and found out that it grows in the ground, surrounded by dirt, so that's probably why. Which just means that you have to be extra vigilant when you wash it. For this recipe the best way is to chop off the bottom and then cut the bok choy into one inch sections. Put it in large mixing bowl or salad spinner and fill it up with water. You need a bowl large enough the the bok choy will float up off the bottom. This way the dirt can settle down to the bottom. Agitate the greens and search around for the dirty bits, usually the bottoms of the stems and rub them clean. Lift the greens out allowing the water to drain into the bowl (this is why I like to use my salad spinner for this). You don't want to dump them out because then you are just pouring the dirty water back on top of the vegetables you are trying to clean. I recommend doing this with at least two changes of clean water, until you don't see dirt in the water. How much you wash really depends on your tolerance for eating sand vs. using up lots of water. Drain, but don't worry about drying the bok choy, the small amount of water will help them to steam.

1. Fill a medium pot with water and bring to a boil. Put a strainer or steamer basket large enough to hold six eggs in the water. This will keep the eggs off the bottom of the pot so they don't overcook.

2. Heat a large frying pan with the oil over medium high heat. Brown the sausage thoroughly, breaking it up and stirring it around.

3. Take the sausage out of the pan and add a little more oil if needed.

4. Saute the onion, using the liquid that comes out to scrape up any brown bits stuck to the pan. If it's not enough to clear up the pan you can add a small amount of water to deglaze.

5. When the onions have started to brown add the garlic and all of the cleaned bok choy.

6. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid for a couple of minutes. More water will drop out of the bok choy and start to steam it.

7. Take the lid off, stir in the cooked sausage and soy sauce. Turn the heat up and stir occasionally until the bok choy is soft.

8. When the water comes to a boil put the eggs in the strainer. Boil for 5:30 only and remove to a bowl of cold water to stop them from cooking further. Peel as you would hardboiled eggs, but be gentle so that you don't break them open.

9. Serve the vegetables and sausage with the soft-boiled egg on top. Sprinkle the egg with toasted sesame seeds and freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy
-Matt

Golden Beet Salad with Arugula, Walnuts, and Blue Cheese Ranch

Golden beets are great because they don't turn everything pink and they are just as delicious. I always want beets with blue cheese, it's so earthy and sweet and savory all together. The recipe says it serves 4, but I ate it all.

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Ingredients

Serves 4

• a large bunch of arugula

• 6 medium golden beets

• 1/2 cup walnuts

• 1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

• 2 tbs red wine vinegar

• 1 packet of ranch dressing seasoning

• 1 tsp olive oil

• pinch of kosher salt

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1. Trim the beets and put them in a pot of water. Bring to a boil and cook for 20-25 minutes until they are soft all of the way through. Drain and cool.

2. Wash and dry the arugula.

3. Toast the walnuts in a 350F oven for 6 minutes.

4. Make the dressing by stirring together the yogurt, half of the blue cheese, the vinegar, and ranch seasoning. This will make a little more than you need for the salad, you can eat the rest with some veggies, or chicken wings, or on a turkey and bacon sandwich.

5. Rub the skins off of the beets and dice into small pieces.

6. Toss the arugula with 2 tbs of the blue cheese ranch dressing.

7. Toss the beets with the olive oil, walnuts, a pinch of salt, and the remaining blue cheese.

8. Pile the beets on top of the dressed arugula and serve.

Enjoy
-Matt

Orange Ginger Sugar Snap Peas

Sugar snap peas just mean spring-and-almost-summer to me somewhere deep down. They transport me to my grandmother's garden when I was a kid, eating them right off the vine. That's still my favorite way to eat them, but that's not much of a recipe, so I made this for you.

Ingredients

serves 2-3

• 2 cups sugar snap peas
• 1 tbs candied ginger, minced
• 1 tsp white miso
• 3 tbs orange juice
• 3 tbs vegetable stock
• 1 tbs unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

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1. Snap the ends and peel out the strings of the pea pods. This can be a pain, but don't skip it, eating those things is worth than taking them out ahead of time.
2. Heat up a small frying pan over medium high heat, add the oil to the pan.
3. Put the ginger in the pan and stir it around.
4. Add the miso and stir it in with the ginger. Let the sugar melt off and even caramelize a little bit.
5. Add the peas, orange juice, and vegetable stock.
6. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often to coat the peas. You want to cook the peas through and have some liquid remaining for a bit of sauce, so adjust your heat accordingly.
7. When the peas are done and there's just a bit of liquid remaining remove the pan from the heat and add the cold butter. Stir constantly while the butter melts.
8. Serve immediately.

Enjoy
-Matt

Kohlrabi & Turnip Salad

I get really excited about salads that don't include leafy green things. Leafy greens have their place in the spectrum of things that are wonderful about salad, but they are not everything. So often we get stuck thinking a salad starts with lettuce. This salad can also double as a cole slaw, or kohl slaw, if you are looking for an alternative that doesn't involve mayo. Either way it would be great with barbecue or anything off the grill.

Ingredients

• 2 medium sized kohlrabi with greens
• 4-5 medium turnips
• 1 medium red beet
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 Doux South sweet pepper relish
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

There are a couple of different ways to prep the vegetables for this salad. My favorite by a mile is the Benriner Japanese Mandolin. It's cheap and easy to use, though it can be a little scary. Those blades are sharp and I would always recommend using the provided tool to grip the food and protect your fingers. You could use a knife, a julienne peeler, or a grater (either box or food processor) to achieve similar results with more work.

1. Wash and peel the vegetables (peeling is optional for the kohlrabi and turnips, it depends on where they fall on the tender to tough spectrum). We will use the kohlrabi greens for this recipe, save the turnip and beet greens for something else, they are delicious.
2. Julienne the vegetables, being careful of your fingertips.
3. Toss with 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes to draw out some of the excess moisture. This is a crucial step in any slaw recipe you could make, it will prevent your slaw from being too drippy and wet.
4. Remove the stems from the kohlrabi greens. Stack the greens together and roll them up like you're rolling a cigar. Slice thinly across the roll to shred the greens. Add them to the julienned vegetables and toss toss toss.
5. Make the dressing by combining the red pepper relish, oil, and apple cider vinegar in a bowl.
6. After 30-45 minutes drain off the liquid that has come out of the vegetables, squeeze them a bit to get everything out.
7. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss everything together. Taste and add more salt or more vinegar depending on how salty and sour you like things to be.

This would be great with anything fried or grilled. We ate it with some pan-fried smoked milkfish. Enjoy!
-Matt

Black Eyed Peas and Braised Kale

This was my all-day Sunday project. It doesn't have to take all day, but it can, and it will taste better if you let it. Most of the time it's just cooking slow and low on the stove while you do other things. And you can tell people you spent the whole day cooking if you know the kind of person who is impressed by that.

Ingredients

serves 6-8 people

• 1 bunch of kale, cleaned and chopped small
• 2 carrots, small dice
• 1 medium yellow onion, small dice
• 2 stalks of celery, small dice
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 pound smoked meat (pork hocks or turkey necks or turkey legs or other)

• 1 quart of water or stock (stock will add more flavor but don't go to the store if you don't already have some, I didn't and it was still delicious)
• 3 cups black eyed peas, fresh or frozen (you can use dried, you'll just have to add them sooner and cook them a lot longer)
• some fresh herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (yeah I know) will enhance this if you have them handy, it's fine without so don't feel like you have to go out of your way, you can add a little bit towards the end.
• some kosher salt and/or fish sauce

Serve with steamed rice or crusty bread with butter

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Note about the meat you choose: What you want is a muscle that worked, a leg, a neck, a tail, a cheek, something like that. These parts have a lot of flavor and a lot of connective tissue that will break down and add body and richness to your braise. The smoke is a natural friend to greens and peas. I used turkey legs because that's what I happened to have in the freezer.

Note about the liquid you choose: There are enough flavor components in the recipe that you can cook all of this in water. If you have stock you can use that and it will boost the flavor. I recommend avoiding anything that says broth, these always have too much salt. You can use them or bouillon sparingly. Smoked meat already is pretty salty so you don't want to add too much.

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1. Cut up all the vegetables. Your goal is to have everything roughly the same size as a black eyed pea.
2. Heat a dutch oven over medium high heat and add the oil to the pan.
3. You're going to sweat all the vegetables first. This means to saute without browning to cook out a little bit of the liquid and concentrate the flavors of the vegetables. Cook the onion first, adding a pinch of salt and stirring often.
4. Add the carrots when the onions are translucent and before they start to brown. Add another pinch of salt and stir it up.
5. Add the celery and garlic when the carrots begin to soften a little. Don't burn the garlic.
6. Add your smoked meat and cooking liquid. Turn the heat up a bit and let the liquid come to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, put the lid on and walk away for a couple of hours. How long depends on what meat you are using, you'll know it's done when the meat falls off the bone.
7. Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside to let it cool.
8. Add all of the kale, or add as much as will fit, put the lid on and let it cook, then add the rest when the first batch has wilted down. Stir it in to the cooking liquid, put the lid back on, leave the heat down low.
9. When the meat has cooled enough to touch pull it apart, discard the bones and skin (they've given away all the flavor they have to give at this point) and return the shredded meat to the pot. This is a good time to stop and taste the cooking liquid for salt. Add some kosher salt and/or fish sauce (I like fish sauce here because it adds salt and a punch of umami).
10. Cook for at least 90 minutes more. You want the kale stems to be soft and the leafy parts to be really soft.
11. Add the black eyed peas and chopped fresh herbs if you're using them, mix them in, and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the peas are soft. Taste again and add more salt if you feel it's needed. (You shouldn't taste salt, but if there isn't a lot of flavor, if it just sort of feels flat on your tongue then you may need to add another bit.)
12. This is great over rice with your favorite hot sauce, or with some buttery crusty bread.

Enjoy!
-Matt

Sauteed Gai Lan With Ground Beef

This is as much a recipe for a dish as it is a method for a fast and easy meal. You can substitute pretty much any meat and vegetable in this combination and get delicious results. If you want to make it vegetarian you can use delicious mushrooms instead of meat.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch gai lan, chopped into 2" sections
• 1 pound ground beef 
• 5 cloves of garlic, chopped roughly
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 2 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• generous pinch of kosher salt
• freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil

serves 4-6 

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1. Heat a large cast iron skillet or a wok on high heat. Add the oil.
2. When the oil starts to smoke put the meat in the pan and break it up into small pieces. It's important that the heat is really high when the meat goes in because you want the meat to brown, not steam.
3. Sprinkle with some salt and allow the meat to brown, stirring minimally. It's best to leave it alone so that it can brown thoroughly, then stir a little so that more pieces can brown.
4. Add the garlic and green onion and stir into the beef. After one minute add the stems of the gai lan, stir in and cook for one more minute.
5. Add the greens of the gai lan and stir into the beef mixture. The greens will give off some moisture that will help you to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Add the chicken stock to help with this.
6. After two more minutes or so of cooking, turn off the heat, add the oyster sauce and sesame oil. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Serve with rice. Enjoy.
-Matt

Whole Wheat Crepes and Spring Vegetable Moo Shu

Moo Shu

• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced thinly
• 4-5 leaves of chard with stems, sliced thinly
• 2 heads pac choy, sliced thinly
• 1 bulb and stem green garlic, sliced thinly
• 1" chunk ginger, sliced thinly
• 1 cup arugula
• 8-10 small carrots, sliced thinly
• 1 tbs Guilin style chili sauce (This might be too spicy for some people, it's not super hot but if you are especially sensitive you can reduce or omit this. Some fermented black bean sauce would be a nice substitution.)
• 1 tbs mirin
• 1 tbs fish sauce (Red Boat is my favorite if you can find it)
• Some hoisin sauce

Crepes

• 1 cup Back to the Basics pancake mix
• 1 cup water (or stock)
• 4 eggs

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1. Mix the ingredients for the crepes. You can use water or some other flavorful liquid like chicken stock or mushroom stock. Water is really fine though if those aren't handy. Do this first so that the batter can rest a little bit before cooking.

2. Wash and shake dry all of the vegetables. A little water clinging to the leaves will help them cook faster so don't worry about getting them super dry. Your goal is to cut all of the vegetables small so they cook fast and in the same amount of time.

3. This will work best in a wok but you can use a cast iron pan or heavy frying pan too. The important thing is to get the pan very hot and then keep the food moving around. Have everything ready to go and at hand because it will cook very fast. When the pan is hot add the onion first and begin to stir. When the onion begins to soften and turn translucent add the garlic and ginger. Turn the heat down a bit if the vegetables are burning or there is too much smoke. As you add new vegetables the liquid that cooks out of them will steam the vegetables and cool down the pan a little bit. Next add the carrots and let them cook for a few minutes. Then add the Guilin chili paste and stir it in. Add the mirin and fish sauce at this point too. Then the chard and pac choy. Turn the heat all the way up if you turned it down and stir a lot. The greens will give off a ton of liquid when they wilt and you want to cook that off quickly or your final dish will be too wet. After a couple minutes you should be done. Take the pan off the heat and store in the arugula. Set aside while you make some crepes.

4. If you are super into multitasking or in a hurry you can make the crepes and stir fry at the same time but you don't have to if you would rather focus on one thing at a time. Get a small nonstick pan on the stove over medium heat. Spray it a little bit with some cooking spray or wipe a little bit of oil on it with a paper towel. Pour a small amount of crepe batter in the pan and tilt the pan to spread it around in a thin layer. Expect that you will throw away your first one or two crepes as you get the temperature and technique dialed in. Adjust the heat so the crepe browns on one side in about a minute. The edges should begin to curl up and dry out when it's ready to flip. You can use a spoon to help you pick it up and turn it over. It should release easily. If it doesn't then try cooking a little bit longer until it does. Cook on the other side for 30-60 seconds and then remove from the pan. Repeat until you've cooked all of the batter.

5. If your greens are now swimming in liquid after sitting while you made the crepes here's what you can do. Drain off the liquid into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix a cornstarch slurry (something like 1 tsp of cornstarch and 1 tbs of water) and drizzle it slowly into your excess liquid to thicken it into a sauce. Then you can stir it back into your vegetables.

6. You can assemble before serving or build your own as you eat. Spread some hoisin sauce on a crepe and wrap some of the vegetables inside.

Strawberry Arugula Salad with Hakurei Turnips and Carrot Leaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups arugula
• 1 pint of strawberries
• 5 Hakuri turnips
• Some carrot tops
• 1 recipe green garlic aioli
• 1 TB rice wine vinegar

1. Wash the vegetables and fruit, especially the carrot tops they are really dirty.
2. Chop up the strawberries and turnips to pieces roughly the same size. Pull the carrot leaves off the stems, the stems are tough to chew.
3. The green aioli from one of my previous recipe turns into a salad dressing when you whisk in another tablespoon of vinegar. Toss everything together and give it a pinch of salt and some fresh cracked pepper if it's nearby. Toss it again.
4. Make sure that you can see the strawberries and turnips when you put it on a plate.