Hey all,

I know it's been a little while since we posted (well, only a day: but before that..)

I (Zach) have a new post that will BLOW YOUR MIND!

Soba Noodle Salad


First of all, soba noodles aren't necessarily straightforward to find: so we just used linguine. Soba noodles are Japanese buckwheat noodles, and I imagine that you can find them at most Asian grocery stores: but we didn't go to them. This recipe is straightforward and made a ton of leftovers!

For fresh vegetables, we used Chinese pea pods (~3 cups), 1 red bell pepper, a half of a red onion, and about 7 baby carrots (see below).



The best part of this recipe, I think, was the yummy sauce that we made with it. We used ~3 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tsp brown sugar, 2 tsp vegetable oil, 2/3 tsp curry powder, 3 tbsp peanut butter, 3 tbsp water, and 2 tbsp lime juice. We mixed the sauce up till it was smooth(ish) and tossed it with 1lb of cooked linguine and all of the vegetables that we showed above. Below is a picture of the finished product



This recipe used a lot of fresh vegetables and tasted very good. We also served it with some boiled bok choy.



Personally, I love eating greens with meals. It's easy to dress it up with a little salt and pepper (and a little olive oil), and it adds a lot of bulk to a meal without a lot of calories!



Chicken Green Chili Soft Tacos


It's been a while since we've posted a Mexican recipe, but here you go. I think Gina was kind of Mexican fooded out after all of the posts we did a while ago, but now we're back! After going to one too many restaurants who just couldn't deliver the authentic Mexican flavors (without dressing it up w/ a bunch of cheese and sour cream), we decided to give Rick Bayless a much needed 911 call. For reference, if you'd like a website with the full recipe: look to http://www.chow.com/recipes/27992-green-chile-chicken-soft-tacos-tacos-de-pollo-al-poblano.

The first main step in this recipe is to hand roast (or oven roast near a broiler) the poblano peppers. See below the blistered, brown/black skin of the pepper. We want to cook it pretty well in this step, don't be afraid to burn it!

Next, we cooked some white onion until golden brown in a little bit of oil

Gina has been wanting to make a visit over to Color Me Mine for a while. It's a store where they give you ceramic dishes to paint your own designs on. Below is the salsa bowl that Gina made on its maiden voyage with Rick Bayless' roasted tomatillo salsa (our favorite!).

Here is a picture of the tomatillos roasting in the pan with a couple of garlic cloves (no oil, of course)

We then transfered the tomatillos into the food processor where 2 chopped serrano peppers and a quarter cup of cilantro awaited their fated meeting.

Here is a close-up of the front of our little food processor. They're not too expensive, and do a great job for those smaller recipes! (and for the bigger ones, just do 2 batches)

Here is the finished salsa in the newly painted bowl. Sooooo good.

We like to heat our corn tortillas in a wet paper towel in the microwave with a plastic bag around them (keeps the steam in). They come out moist and pliable (kind of like Chipotle's!).

Here is an ultra-closeup of the finished chicken green chili tacos topped with the salsa and some avocado slices. You can't see the tortilla, but it is there! Basically, the recipe was simple to finish: just pan fry some chicken, then add some garlic and lime juice to make a nice glaze. Slice up the chicken and toss it with the green chili slices and the cooked onion. Overall, it wasn't particularly difficult: but it did take a while to finish. This was definitely as good as most of the other tacos we've tried from Rick's book, and we'd highly recommend it!