mulberryshoots

We have a relative who has been in the hospital for almost 3 months and just beginning to eat again. G. and I thought that some homemade vegetable broth might be palatable and at the same time help to boost her immune system. There’s no oil whatsoever in the broth – no cooking oil, no chicken broth, no beef broth. No animal oils. I used a large stockpot and put in these ingredients:

1 gallon of spring water

Cleaned and chopped:

6 large carrots

1 head of celery hearts

2 onions

cousa squash, patty pan squash and zucchini (small)

1 small white potato, 1 medium Japanese sweet potato

1 bag of baby kale

I put on the lid, brought it to a boil and then simmered it for a couple of hours WITHOUT the  lid. Cooking the broth without the lid on it is what a) reduces the stock so that is enriched and tastes really good; and b) makes the room you’re cooking in hot and humid even if you have the exhaust fan on. In my very large stockpot, I managed to reduce the liquid by about an inch from where it was before.

When cool, I removed the vegetables from the pot. Then, I poured the stock through a fine mesh sieve. I returned the vegetables bit by bit to squeeze out all the stock and discarded the remains.  I then poured the clear broth into 1 quart plastic containers, filling them a little over half way. This batch yielded about 8 cups of vegetable broth.

Vegetable broth has also been a large part of a macrobiotic diet and is sweet tasting from the vegetables alone:  a heartwarming soup to sip slowly either warm or at room temperature. It can also be used as a base for other homemade soups.

Now that I’ve made the vegetable broth at this large a scale, I’m excited about making beef bone broth and chicken stock but not until the Fall when there’s a chill in the air.

Yes, it’s hot at the end of July in New England. The humidity is terrible. Maybe we’ll get some relief over the weekend – that’s what the weather forecast is saying. Today, I had seven large shrimp that I took out of the freezer to prepare for dinner. I wasn’t sure what I would do with them, but as the dinner hour neared, I decided to make shrimp tempura. It wasn’t a big deal because I’ve made it many times and it’s one of our favorite dishes.

The reason I’m writing about it tonight is that I learned how to “stretch” the shrimp! Hah! At first, I thought the term “stretch” had to do with slicing the shrimps in half lengthwise, thus “doubling” how many pieces that are served. But nope, that wasn’t it. I watched a Youtube clip by a Japanese chef demonstrating how to “stretch” shrimp.

Well, much to my astonishment, he did just that. To summarize what the method is, after making small perpendicular slices in the underside of the shrimp, the chef then turned the shrimp on one side and made small diagonal cuts, then turned it over and did the same on the other side. When you lay the shrimp on its back and pat it gently, the shrimp will elongate because of all the small bias cuts made to the sides of the shrimp. For example, a shrimp which was about 3 inches was “stretched” to 4-5 inches long!

I had always wondered where restaurants would get shrimps that were that long. For the first time now, I understood the preparation techniques that results in thinner, longer shrimp. It also cooks more quickly and is more tender to the bite because the shrimp is less dense without a thick center.

Because I enjoy cooking so much, learning a new technique like this for a favorite dish is something worth celebrating. Here are some other things I do when I make shrimp tempura that might be different from other recipes:

1. Tempura batter consists of a coating for the dry prepared shrimp that is put together right before frying. It includes a half cup of flour (loosely measured,)  a little cornstarch, an egg yolk and ice water. I use a flat whisk and mix the ingredients until it is light and airy but still lumpy. I look at it to make sure there’s enough batter for the number of shrimp I’m going to cook. Otherwise, I’ll add a little more flour and ice water and mix it in.
2. Heat a small frying pan with vegetable oil.
3. Pour some panko breadcrumbs into a separate dish.
4. When the oil is hot (dip a chopstick into the batter and insert in the oil – it should start sizzling if the oil is hot enough); pick up one of the shrimp with both hands, dab it into the batter so it’s covered and then roll it in the panko crumbs. Lift it with both hands and gently lay it in the hot oil.
5. Let the shrimp cook briefly until it is golden brown on one side and turn it over with chopsticks. I usually cook 2 at a time because that allows enough room in the pan and also helps me to pace the frying so it doesn’t get too hectic.
6. Remove the cooked shrimp and place on paper towel to drain.
7. Continue until you’ve cooked all the shrimp. You’ll notice that because the shrimp has been stretched, it is not only longer, but cooks faster and tastes more tender to the bite.

Well, I’m not sure that many people will be interested in making shrimp tempura on a hot muggy night (we do have the pleasure of a cooler so the temp inside wasn’t too bad) but I can heartily recommend this method of elongating the shrimp so that the final shrimp tempura is a dazzling success – both visually and taste-wise.

I’ve never made a banana cream pie before. But whenever I have bananas that need a new life, I usually make a banana nut bread from my trusty McCall’s cookbook that I bought fifty years ago. Last night, I was reading online for some alternative recipes like a zucchini-banana bread, which sounded good and then a recipe for banana cream pie popped up. Hah! I thought to myself, what a cool idea – literally, creamy and cool!

So, here’s the recipe I used, adding another layer of bananas on top of the custard after it cooled. The store-bought pie crust shrank so much when I pre-baked it that I decided to bake another one and piece them together to make a larger pie crust. After all, it doesn’t really matter if the pie crust is crumbly – it’s supposed to be, right? Since the egg yolks looked rather small, I added a fourth one to the custard.

I covered the pie with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. I’ll wait to whip up just enough fresh cream for the individual slices when  we’re ready to have them tonight. This way, the whipped cream topping doesn’t soften prematurely and will taste fresh each time we partake a slice of pie. Sound good? I had to taste the custard filling and while it was a little sweet, it tasted divine! Since the whipped cream will be natural without any sweetening, I think the combo will be just right.

Can’t wait to have it tonight for dessert! YUM!