Nom, nom, nom

Sesame Noodles...mmmm....

We love Sesame Noodles. On the List of Things to Eat, they are one step below pizza.

Plain: they can be eaten, by the light of an open refrigerator door, with fingers, after getting home way too late with beer on one’s breath.

By degrees they can be made fancy, even healthy. They play well with any mild protein, from poached chicken breast to tofu (marinate extra-firm tofu, sliced in thin strips, in an equal mix of soy sauce and sesame oil for 30 minutes, pat dry, and sauté until golden brown on all sides).

While we would like you to think we are the happy-go-lucky types who are always stumbling in at the little hours, faces flushed from booze and romantic advances, shoveling down some soothing starch before falling – insensate – on the eiderdown, truth is: this makes a great pack-it-to work lunch. Tossing some veg into the pasta for the last minute (we’re partial to frozen bell peppers and spinach, but go crazy with your bad self) makes it feel like more of a meal. Topping it off with some thinly-sliced green onions adds a zowie-fresh kick.

If you are sensitive to heat: leave out the hot bits (hot sauce and pepper flakes). If you recoil in horror at the thought of fish sauce: free your mind. Yes: you do need it in your pantry. And yes: you do need to grow up. A pantry without fish sauce is like a living room with a stained futon from college. Adults have proper sofas. And fish sauce in their pantries.

You may be pondering: Martini, have you gone loco? Dehydrated onion and garlic? Like drinking on an empty stomach at a party with boring people, this is a dirty little secret. Tossing these in with the still-steaming, drained pasta does everything you could do by finely-mincing these ingredients. Consider this getting your pre-func on.

And finally: whole-wheat pasta? Yes. If you don’t have it: good on you. We’re trying – desperately – to be as healthy as we can, within reason.

Sesame Noodles with…whatever you please

1T Honey
2T Peanut Butter
1T Sesame Oil
1T Rice Vinegar
1t Louisiana Crystal Hot Sauce
1t Soy Sauce
½ Fish Sauce

2-4 oz. Whole Wheat Spaghetti
1 T Kosher Salt

½ t Garlic Granules
½ t Onion Granules
½ t Hot Pepper Flakes

2 C Veg of Choice

Protein of Choice

Garnish: Finely-Sliced Green Onions

- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the honey, peanut butter, sesame oil, rice vinegar, hot sauce, soy sauce, and fish sauce.

When you first start to mix this, it will seem gloppy and horrifying. Do not fear: in under a minute it will be smooth and painless.

- Boil water, add salt and pasta. Pasta should take about 10 minutes.
- Toss in veg, if necessary, and boil for another minute
- Drain pasta, add onion, garlic, and hot pepper flakes, toss the whole mess into the medium bowl, on top of peanut butter-sesame mixture
- Add chicken, tofu, ball-bearings (your choice) to noodles. Toss.
- Before serving: garnish with thinly-sliced green onions

To serve? Warm. Cold. Can be refrigerated for up to three days.

You know you want it

A few months ago, we were wandering aimlessly around the Internet and found a recipe for the Best Baked Potato, Ever. Well, to be specific: it was a picture and we clicked on it. Recipe was vague and all the comments were in Spanish. But the idea was so brilliant, and simple. We've been dreaming about it ever since.

1 Yukon Gold potato
2 slices bacon

Cut the potato in 1/4-inch slices, taking care not to cut all the way through (we laid the potato on a cutting board, and placed two wood spoons on either side). Cut the bacon into enough slices to fit into the cuts in the potato. Bake in a 400-degree oven for an hour to an hour and a half, until done. Next time we try this - and there will be a next time - we will base it with the bacon drippings halfway through. Cheddar cheese on top? Lips say no, but eyes say yes. Come to Butthead.

Cheezy Orzo with Veg

Oh my: another flu? We're tired of getting sick here at Martini Central. We threw this together using some stuff in the pantry and found it rather soothing.

1/2 cup Orzo pasta
Salt
Water

1 cup frozen, chopped Spinach
1/2 cup frozen Mixed Vegetables (we used a Bell Pepper Medley)

1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Dash of Cayenne Pepper
Dash of Granulated Garlic
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground Pepper

3/4 cup Milk (we had 1% on hand)
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

3/4 cup grated Cheese (we used Pepper Jack)

- Make the pasta: bring water to a boil, add salt, boil until it is done (when you bite it, it should be slightly firm in the center)
- When pasta is done: add Spinach and Vegetables and wait until water comes back to a boil. Drain.
- While pasta and veg are draining: wipe out the pot and, over medium-high heat, add butter - when it melts and has finished foaming, add flour, salt, ground pepper, and garlic. Stir until the flour becomes a very pale brown.
- Add Mustard and Milk - continue cooking until it thickens.
- Take pot off heat. Stir in grated cheese, mixture should be smooth and dreamy. Add salt and pepper, if needed.
- Mix in drained pasta and veg.

- BONUS: put everything into a small, oven-safe dish, sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top, and bake in a 350-degree oven until the top is brown.

- Best enjoyed on the sofa, watching TV.

It's that time of year again...

Some cold beverages need to be sweetened, like iced tea. But we are loath to spend hours trying to dissolve a spoonful of sugar into a cold beverage. What is the point? And it would only drive us to seek solace in a sympathetic gin and tonic.

How to sweeten the bev in an elegant and efficient way? So simple: simple syrup.

The ratio is 1 part granulated sugar to one part water, bring the water to a boil until the sugar has dissolved. Keep refrigerated in a sterilized, airtight glass jar.

We do like to fancy this up a bit, though. To one cup of water and one cup of sugar, we add the zest of two large lemons - a vegetable peeler works quite well at just removing the yellow part. We let this cool off, strain it into the aforementioned glass jar. We throw in a couple of the strips of zest to make it look good.

Now you have some lemon simple syrup to sweeten and flavor your summer iced tea.

The King of All Cookies!

When we - at Martini Central - find ourselves when we need to provide something for a gathering, and that thing does not involve liquor (yes: "gasp!!"), we usually whip up a batch of sour cream chocolate chip cookies.

The King of all Cookies, as it were.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
"An old-fashioned treat!"

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening

1 egg, room temperature
1 cup low-fat sour cream

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream the sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add the egg and mix until fluffy, add sour cream, mix thouroughly.

Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix to incorporate everything - no lumps of baking powder is the goal. Add the flour mixture to the wet items and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop rounded teaspoonsfull onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Like Faith, Like Love - Full of Contradictions?

We're nothing if not fancy here at Martini Central. You've guessed that already, haven't you, dear reader? And yet: we are full of apparent contradictions. A current issue of The Star next to this week's New Yorker? Beer in cans offered with the same enthusiasm as a Bombay Sapphire martini? We mix the high with the low. We love it. Love. It. When you, dear reader stop by and want some distraction, some cocktails, we're here for you.

You see: we have saffron in our cupboard.

You only need a few threads to add to a dish...like rice. Does it really do anything? It's like faith, or love: it colors the whole dish - and, like faith, or love, it perfumes but has an unusual, faint metallic edge - like blood from a bit cheek.

We digress.

We don't serve brown rice to our guests, but we like to make some at the beginning of the week to accompany our lunches. Brown rice is a whole grain and that, along with fresh veg and lean meats - in addition to daily constitutionals, are what keep us trim and fit. After a while, we have come to enjoy it: it's nutty and firm and filling. Brown rice also spoils easily. We keep ours in the freezer.

The saffron makes things special - when we take the lid off the rice and look down at it, it has a warm orangy glow. It smells wonderful. Eating brown rice shouldn't make one feel dreary, like an unshaven follower of some macrobiotic cult. It should be just as rewarding as opening up a fresh issue of a gossip magazine and getting updated on news that counts.

We've done well keeping to the directions on the package - brown rice takes a long time to cook. About 45 minutes to the 20 minutes that white rice takes. We've also noticed the domestic long-grain brown rice we get from the supermarket takes less water - we're assuming this is because it is fresher.

Our method? We saute the rice in butter, add salt and the saffron, then the water. Sauteing covers each grain with enough fat to keep the rice separate - it also removes the chill from the freezer and gives it a nice, toasted flavor.

Another thing we've learned? Using boiling water from our electric kettle makes the whole process go a little quicker.


Brown Rice with Saffron

1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 or 4 threads saffron

1 cup brown rice
1 3/4 cups water

In a 1 1/2 -quart saucepan, melt a pat of butter over high heat. When the butter stops bubbling, add 1 cup of brown rice and saute until it loses its chill and becomes translucent. Add the salt and saffron, stir well.

Add the water. If your water is boiling hot, give it a stir, reduce the heat to low, and clamp on a tight-fitting lid. If not, wait until the water comes to a boil before the stir and lid.

Set a timer for 50 minutes and amuse yourself. After the time is up, remove the pot from the heat, and let things rest for another 10 minutes. Now you can remove the lid and - gently - fluff with a fork.

All done! Now...we did mention a martini, didn't we?