Envy-of-the-co-op salad

There are musicians who can play any song by ear. I don't have an ear for music, but I do have a palate for spices and an average ability to read ingredient lists. I also don't really like to pay for prepared food unless it's really good, but occasionally I treat myself and I try to use these opportunities as inspiration for new recipes. A few weeks ago I tried a great tofu-and-quinoa salad (sans spinach) from Albany's Honest Weight Food Co-op; that salad provided the inspiration for tomorrow's lunch (and tonight's late night snack).

Spinach, quinoa, and tofu salad:

• ~1/3 block firm tofu
• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, prepared in a rice cooker
• raw spinach
• 1 carrot
• scallions (few)
• cilantro (handful)
• suggested seasoning for tofu, to taste, using just a drop or a pinch each: canola oil, sesame oil, soy sauce or black vinegar, five spice powder, spoonful of sesame paste or peanut butter (alternate tofu seasoning with fresh spices suggested here)
• dressing: dash of sesame oil and soy sauce

You can either press and marinate the tofu as I do here or, more simply, cube the tofu and toss it in your sauces and spices directly in a pan before baking at 400 degrees. Bake about 10-15 minutes, or longer for crispier cubes. Meanwhile, wash and chop your spinach, peel and grate the carrot, and chop the scallions and cilantro. Once the tofu is done to your liking, toss all ingredients together and dress sparingly with sesame oil and soy sauce, being wary of overdressing the salad. Makes two "side" salads or one large salad.

Winter salad to beat those mid-February blues

I can't even talk about renal. Renal is very difficult to understand because all of the processes happening within the kidney, within the nephron, are interrelated, and so content overlaps and is not presented clearly because it cannot be presented all at once. I'll get there. On the other hand, every morning we go through cases that demonstrate how a hospitalized patient can rapidly deteriorate from a relatively healthy state if someone orders the wrong hydration or diuretic treatment. Never before have I felt the extreme importance of a subject as someone who, in two and a half years, will be writing orders for hospitalized patients. That daunting impending responsibility!

My preferred coping mechanism is avoidance -- I can get so much done! Mostly I have spent time in the woods moving quickly so not as to die of hypothermia and breathing so heavily that renal is the last thing on my mind (aka blowing off CO2 to prevent acidemia). 

Monday I went grocery shopping with a friend, who told me that she planned to make roasted tofu over spinach for dinner. I was intrigued; a quick glance at the recipe she sent me yielded this inspiration. I don't usually make new things, but making something new that tastes great is always a fun surprise. 

I wasn't sure how to dress this salad: I didn't want to mess with the strong flavors of the tofu marinade. I almost didn't dress it at all, but I ended up going with a simple sesame paste and lemon that I liked very much.

Roasted sweet potato and tofu over spinach:

• 2 small sweet potatoes (or carrots), cubed
• ~1/2 block firm tofu, cubed
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled

Marinade:

• fresh ginger, about 1 tablespoon, grated
• soy sauce
• canola, sesame, and/or olive oil
• white vinegar
• sugar or honey
• cayenne powder and/or chili flakes
• garlic powder optional
• black pepper

Salad:

• cilantro and/or scallion
• fresh spinach
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon tahini

This can be a one-pot dish. In a large square baking dish, toss together your cubed sweet potato, tofu, and peeled whole garlic cloves. Grate ginger over the top, then add your marinade over the top: about one tablespoon each of soy sauce, oil and white vinegar, then a sprinkling of sugar and spices. Marinate in the fridge for a few hours or bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes, tossing every 5-10 minutes to prevent burning.

Serve over chopped spinach with a cilantro or scallion garnish, and a simple dressing of lemon juice and tahini. Toss to coat. Could also serve over quinoa or brown rice for a heartier dish, but I found this plenty hearty as it was.

Healthy fried rice

I am not one of those people who can walk in the door and instantly get back to work. Rather than pretending, I've started relaxing for a few minutes when I get home instead of opening my laptop. Lying down, reading my book--or tonight, chopping vegetables. Since receiving a second lesson from my friend Xin, I decided to try fried rice again. I noticed that last time I started by frying the rice first, which I don't think makes sense.

This version of fried rice is heavy on the vegetables, with stir-fry "stuff" dominating over the rice. Plenty of brown rice though, still, to lend a heartiness to this dish on a cold day like today. This is also a good dish for when you're raiding the pantry, in those busy weeks just before an exam (I usually have carrots, celery, and onions in the fridge).

Brown rice vegetable fried rice (~2 servings):

• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 1 celery stalk, sliced crosswise on a diagonal
• 1 onion, sliced
• 4-6 mushrooms, sliced
• handful of spinach
• 1" piece of ginger, washed with the skin on, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 egg
• tofu, in 1-cm cubes
• 1 cup brown rice, cooked
• canola oil
• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• white pepper

In a wok or large frying pan, scramble the egg in about 1 tsp of oil. Set aside. Add more oil to the pan and then the garlic, ginger, and onion; after a minute or two (when fragrant and just gaining color), add the tofu and rest of the vegetables (add the vegetables in the order in which you want them to cook, saving those barely-cooked vegetables for last). After another few minutes, when the vegetables are just softer but not mushy (add spoonfuls of water as needed to keep from burning), add your rice and the scrambled egg. Continue frying until parts of the rice and tofu crisp up a bit, seasoning with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and white pepper to your taste. Garnish with scallion before serving.

I feel better. 

Possibilities

This morning I volunteered at a flu clinic targeting Albany's refugee community, families from Bhutan and Nepal, Thailand, Iraq, and Africa, among others. The clinic came about a joint effort between Koinonia Primary Care, Albany's Refugee Health Round Table, and SUNY's School of Public Health. Koinonia is a family medicine clinic and federally qualified community health center serving the Arbor Hill community; most of their patients are African American and religious Christians, although they are open to all and serve some refugees as well. For this event, there was a specific drive to reach a different community, including Muslim families.

Accordingly, the student groups who volunteered for the flu clinic came from three campus clubs: Care from the Start, where students see patients at Koinonia; IMANA, which runs clinics at a mosque; and AMCRI, which works with the refugee families directly. We learned to fill syringes with vaccine and give shots, while downstairs, interpreters welcomed families and explained paperwork. Dr. Bob of Koinonia supervised but once we got running, we ran entirely independently, even training the next group on our own.

So what if we had a student-run clinic every Saturday, built out of the three clubs whose efforts currently run in parallel? Imagine the possibilities...

Then I came home to a quick lunch of cold sesame noodles, all components made ahead of time and just in need of assembly. A lunch produced through cultural exchange:

I am reblogging* this recipe from here, which was adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbook Land of Plenty, which translates Chinese recipes for American home cooks. Think of it as a recipe that has traveled a long way to your computer screen.

(*I used the condiments that I happened to have at home, and thinly sliced cucumbers instead of the other veggies.)