Dreaming in color | daikon soup variations | crochet

Daikon, shiitake and buckwheat soup

I always dream in color. Sometimes my dreams are so vivid I wake up not knowing where I am and what is real. I used to remember more of my dreams, and at one time kept a dream journal to document the weirdness. Now I hardly ever remember my dreams, but recently I woke up disturbed after a particularly vivid one, and recounted it to my husband who suggested I write it down. Here it is, open for interpretation.

I was in Australia with my husband and youngest son, and we were headed off to tour a scenic area. We were in an underground train station, and I became separated from them — couldn't see them anywhere, and was feeling a little panicky. The station was packed with people trying to board the train, and the doors closed before I could enter the car. Suddenly the doors opened again and I rushed in, convinced they had boarded and would be inside. They weren't there but I hoped to find them when I got off at our destination.

The inside of the car looked exactly like the worn-out buses I used to ride to high school, with cracking leather upholstery and a bench seat stretching across the back. It was packed with people but there was one space open on the rear seat, so I went to sit down. A young woman who seemed to know the other people on the seat came and squeezed in beside me. She and her friends were all laughing and talking in a language I didn't understand but somehow I knew that the seat had been hers — she had just left it for a few minutes to talk to friends. The seating was ridiculously tight and uncomfortable so I got up and worked my way to the front of the car. I was worried about missing my stop (15th and 45th Street!) so asked the conductor for help. I got off at my stop but my family wasn't in the station. I tried to use my cell phone to call my husband but I couldn't seem to press the right numbers. I kept messing up. Suddenly I was accosted by a man who tried to steal my phone. I told him I really needed it but he demanded I turn it over, and I asked if I could make one last call. While the thief was distracted I ran out of the station with my phone, into the city.

I wandered around and discovered a craft fair where a woman was selling small sculptures, each with a thin, reddish twig attached. I was thinking that the sculptures weren't too great, when someone approached me and whispered that there existed a certain worm that had four stages of life, and one of the stages was a reddish twig. I asked the sculptor if the twigs would turn into live worms but she didn't answer — just murmured something and smiled enigmatically. I walked away.

I needed to find a bank to change U.S. dollars into Australian dollars so I could take the train back to where we were staying. After I got directions and headed towards the bank, I tried to call my husband again and reached an operator. I learned that because we were using U.S. cell phones, an operator had to place the call. The operator knew us (though I wasn't exactly sure who she was) and was very friendly and helpful, and she placed the call for me but my husband still didn't answer. I tried calling my son but he didn't answer either.

A traveler's aide representative came out of a building and offered to help me. (I was kind of surprised to see she was someone we know from Wisconsin.) I told her I needed to find a bank and she gave me Australian dollars. Then she walked me to the train station and told me which train to catch. I was very worried because I only had one bar of power left on the phone, and wasn't sure how to get home from the train. I woke up suddenly, and after several moments of disorientation, realized with relief I was in my bed, and wouldn't need to find my way home after all.

Well, I suppose some parts of the dream are about my feeling separated from my home, and stranded in this new city, and my difficulty navigating the streets. But the worms? What are they? Too bad the dream wasn't about daikon or dashi, and didn't take place in Japan — it would have been a better segue into the soup I prepared and would like to share with you. The soup was influenced by the Japanese cooking class we recently took, and the recipe for cooking the daikon comes directly from that class. It's very easy to make and incredibly delicious but may take a little advance planning to make the richest tasting dashi. It's worth it.



Daikon, shiitake and buckwheat soup
To make the dashi:
Soak 8-10 dried shiitake mushrooms (rinsed) and 1-1/2 pieces dried kombu seaweed (wiped off with damp cloth) in 6 cups of water overnight in the refrigerator. When you're ready to prepare the soup, remove the kombu. Gently squeeze out the mushrooms into the stock and remove the stems. Slice the mushrooms into 1/4" strips and set aside.

To prepare the daikon:
• 1 medium daikon radish, peeled
• 1 cup dashi
• 3 tablespoons sake (or brown rice vinegar) (you can buy a cheaper sake for cooking)
• 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 1 teaspoon salt (or less to taste)

1. Cut daikon into 2" pieces. Trim off the edges of each cut end so the pieces are slightly rounded.


2. Put the daikon in a pot with just enough water to float the daikon, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and cook, covered, for 30 minutes, until the daikon is mostly cooked.

3. Drain the daikon and add 1 cup of dashi to the pot. Add sake and mirin. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil.

4. Turn heat to low and add tamari and salt. Cook until daikon is tender. (easily pierced with a toothpick) Turn off heat and let sit while you prepare the soup.

To prepare the soup
• dashi
• 2 to 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick on diagonal
• 8 to 10 shiitake mushrooms (from the dashi), stems removed and sliced into 1/4" strips
• 1 to 2 cups 1/2" firm tofu cubes
• 1/2 cup buckwheat groats, lightly toasted in a pan
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 ounces fresh baby spinach, washed
• scallions, thinly chopped

1. In a large soup pot, sauté the mushrooms, carrots and buckwheat for a few minutes in the oil.

2. Add the tofu and remaining dashi and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to simmer and cover. Cook until buckwheat is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Add daikon and its cooking liquid.

4. Just before serving, add spinach and stir in to wilt. Check and adjust seasonings.

5. Place in bowls and garnish with scallion. Serves four as first course or two to three as a main course.



The soup was so delicious we had variations of it two more times. My husband made it with buckwheat noodles instead of groats, and cauliflower instead of spinach but it wasn't as good.



We purchased a set of small white serving bowls that make perfect large eating bowls so I've been a little obsessed with making dinners in a bowl. Here's a lovely stir-fry with rice noodles and mushroom broth that I made for myself on a night when I was dining alone.



Now, I know this doesn't look good — it looked the same way in person — but it WAS good. It was really good. Maybe it just needs a little parsley or something. I was the lucky winner of a copy of "Vegan Fire and Spice" from Robin Robertson's blog, and this was the first recipe my husband tried. It's red beans and rice casserole made with pinto beans instead of kidney beans. I think it needs the deep color of the kidney beans rather than the bland-looking pintos.



Last but not least, this is me, modeling the hat and scarf I crocheted. It's made from Lion Brand Homespun yarn which is one crazy yarn to work with. I bought this yarn because Bethany from Spotted Devil Cat and His Vegan Assistant made a fabulous scarf with it, and I wanted to make one too. (Of course, mine isn't half as cool as hers.) It does make beautiful stuff but it takes some getting used to working with its crimped texture, and items made with it seem to grow. Seriously, the photo was snapped just before the hat grew past my eyes. :D I wet it and put it in the drier, and now it seems to have stopped growing, but consider yourself warned!

Spicy chipotle squash soup

I know what you're thinking. Soup again? Is that all she eats? I really don't like to repeat myself and post variations of past recipes, but this was the best winter squash soup I've ever made. It just wouldn't be fair not to share the recipe, even if it is related to a recent post.

I was having a "don't want to cook" night, and nothing seemed easy enough. My daughter-in-law e-mailed me a recipe for a butternut squash lasagna that she had just made but she couldn't convince me that it "wasn't any trouble at all." Yeah right. When non-vegans make lasagna they just have to scoop the ricotta out of a container. Vegans have to make the "ricotta." And there was the part about baking the squash and making the sauce. On and on. I thought lasagna was trouble BEFORE I was vegan, which is why it's usually served on special occasions and at potlucks when you're trying to show off.

But the squash part reminded me that I could make a pressure-cooked soup without much effort. I hadn't planned to post about it since I had recently done that, but a few changes in the seasonings produced a result that surprised us with its fabulous flavor. I have to warn you that it was really spicy. Maybe even a little too spicy for me. I think I had smoke coming out of my ears, but my fire-eating son pronounced it the best soup he'd ever had.

I used two delicata and one acorn squash but you can use any dry-fleshed squash like butternut or buttercup.

Spicy winter soup

• Winter squash equivalent to one large butternut squash
• 1 large onion, chopped
• one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• two or three pieces crystallized ginger
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 1 teaspoon truffle oil or virgin olive oil

1. Sauté the chopped onion in the pressure cooker until it softens and starts to brown. Remove to a small bowl.
2. Cut the ends off the squash, split in half, remove seeds and cut into large pieces. Place in the pressure cooker with six (approximately) cups of water. Cook at pressure for five minutes. Bring pressure down quickly. Lift the squash out with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl to cool a little. When the squash is cool nough to handle, scrape the flesh out with a spoon and put the skin in the compost.
3. Put the squash back into the pot with onion, garlic, ginger, chipotlé, oil and salt to taste. (I used a scant half teaspoon of salt.)
4. Use an immersible blender to purée the soup to creamy perfection. (Or use an actual blender.)

And this is????


Okay. My husband has many visiting scholars and foreign students visiting him on campus (he's a professor). Many of them are from Asia and they often bring him tea. We have this little can of tightly wound bundles of something that when placed in a tea infuser and steeped in a mug of hot water, look like this picture. Any tea experts out there who know what it is? It's very flowery and delicious.

Easy, creamy butternut squash soup with truffle oil

Recently, while my son was visiting from Seattle, we went to a shop I've been meaning to explore ever since it first opened. Vom Fass is a shop originating in Germany•, that sells bulk artisan oils and vinegars which are decanted from kegs. For some reason, our little city has the first, and so far only, U.S. store.

Confronted with a large room full of kegs of exotic sounding products, we just stood there and stared until the very friendly and extremely knowledgeable shopkeeper handed us small spoons and invited us to taste anything we wanted. Even that was daunting, but we gave it a shot. I tried to limit my tasting so as not to get too confused, but Aaron tasted widely. In the end, I chose a truffle oil made with extra virgin olive oil and a balsam cherry vinegar that can be used to made fizzy-water drinks as well as for more traditional recipes. There are bottles in sizes starting at 50 milliliters that you purchase with the idea of bringing them back to refill. I got 100-milliliter (a little more than three ounces) bottles.

I'm still thinking about the avocado oil I tasted. Did you know that avocado oil, in addition to being good for skin and hair, has a very high smoke point and is good for cooking? And it tastes exactly like avocado. Next time.

Now for the butternut squash soup. I made dinner the way I'm most comfortable cooking, and the way I cook most often—no recipes. The plan was to use the pressure cooker to create a fast and easy soup. (I've been making simple soups in my pressure cooker for 20 years so the basics are pretty much cemented in my mind. But you could also bake or steam the squash.) And to try out my Cuisinart Smart Stick immersible blender. I've had the blender for quite a while but never tried it! I mostly make soup in an enameled cast iron pot, and you're not supposed to use an immersion blender in that 'cause it might scratch, so using the pressure cooker was incentive to try the blender. We have winter squash from the CSA piling up so I picked the largest butternut squash. It was huge, but I wanted a lot of soup left over for lunches. I won't give an exact recipe but just general guidelines for using the pressure cooker. (I have a six-quart stainless steel Aeternum pressure cooker.) I cut the squash into large (two inch?) chunks and peeled them. Butternut has an edible skin, but I wasn't sure how the blender would deal with the skin, so I peeled off the thinest possible layer.

I sliced a medium onion and sautéed it in the pot with a little extra virgin olive oil. When the onion was translucent, I added the cut squash. I added water just below the top of the squash, and brought the pot up to pressure. I turned down the flame a bit and cooked it for 10 minutes at pressure. I brought the pressure down by running cold water over the lid.

I added a blob of sweet white miso to the pot and went at it with the immersion blender. In no time at all and with virtually no effort, I had a pot of ultra creamy squash soup. I couldn't believe it—no messy blender to wash; no multiple filling and emptying into an extra pot. As I've said before, pressure cooked vegetables are so flavorful that not much is needed to season them, so I took a minimalist approach. I added a scant teaspoon of truffle oil, a few grinds of black pepper, the juice of one lime and some minced parsley.

A co-worker groaned when I told him about the oil and said it was way too much. What do I know? It was a large pot of soup, and it tasted sublime. There was a faint earthy mushroom flavor that was not at all pronounced or overwhelming.



To go with the soup, I put brown basmati rice into the rice cooker with chopped up red Hungarian peppers and a teaspoon of dried chipotlé powder. When it was cooked I added a large handful of baby arugula and a small amount of grated Teese.

On the side we also had some steamed broccoli Romanesco; just about the weirdest looking vegetable I've ever seen, but the CSA grows it. It looks like it was created in a math lab. (Yes. MATH lab.) It was sweet and delicious and served unseasoned. Unfortunately, the photo didn't turn out.

•note #1: For terrific Wisconsin-made vinegars, I recommend Colleen's Tough Times.

note #2: Don't have an immersion blender? No Problem. I used to make this soup using my regular blender. Just blend it in batches and pour it into a second pot.

note #3: Usually when I make this soup, I don't cook the onion in with the squash. Instead, I sauté three or four onions in a separate pan and then blend them with the squash once it is cooked. You get a rich onion-flavored soup this way. Or use the pressure cooker for the onions and then remove them to cook the squash.