Spinach Gomae

I always order these at sushi restaurants, and then think to myself why am I ordering this when it has to be so easy to make! Well, it is. Almost too easy - especially if you take a couple of shortcuts like frozen spinach and tahini.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 bunches of fresh spinach or 1 large bag of frozen whole leaf spinach
  
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• water
• sesame seeds
  

How to:

1. Either blanch the fresh spinach and immediately cool in an ice bath or defrost the frozen spinach. In both cases, the spinach should be cold.
   
2. Press all of the water out of the spinach. Using a ring mold (or biscuit cutter) form the spinach.
   
3. Mix the tahini, soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar in a bowl. If the mixture is still too thick and not sauce like, slowly add water until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.
4. Pour the sauce over the spinach and garnish with sesame seeds.

Notes: I think the sushi restaurant I order these at the most uses brown rice syrup instead of sugar because the sauce has a more syrupy consistency. The taste was definitely right on, but I might swap out the sugar next time and use brown rice syrup to see if that makes a difference in terms of texture.

Pistachio Vinaigrette

This recipe comes from Bon Apetit magazine. I saved the recipe from an issue earlier this fall. It's definitely a keeper. The vinaigrette is a little on the sweet side, so pairing it with salads containing fruit or goat cheese would be nice.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup ground, roasted, unsalted pistachios

How to:

1. Whisk together oil, maple syrup, vinegar, and dijon mustard
2. Slowly add the ground pistachios

Note: I used this vinaigrette on a arugula, fennel, and endive salad with chopped dried figs.

Leek and Fennel Flatbread with Arugula and Pecorino di Truffe

I was roaming the cheese aisle at Lunds over the weekend and came across Pecorino di Truffe. It immediately sent me back to the last time I had truffles. I had ordered a pizza with truffles and arugula at the Morges Tennis Club in Morges, Switzerland for my going away lunch. So using the pecorino on flatbread was a natural step at recreating some of the flavors of that lunch.

Ingredients:

• 2 Leeks
• 1 Fennel bulb
• 1 Bunch of arugula
  
• Olive oil
• Apx. 1/4 cup of white wine
• 1 TB of white wine vinegar
• Pecorino di truffe (or another hard Italian cheese)
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 1lb pizza dough
  

How to:

1. Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.
   
2. Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Add sliced leeks and fennel. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté until soft. Add the wine and sauté until the majority of the liquid has evaporated.
   
3. Roll out pizza dough on a bit of cornmeal. Drizzle the dough with olive oil. Add the leek and fennel mixture. Bake for about 10 minutes.
4. While the flatbread is baking mix arugula with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. When the flatbread is out of the oven add arugula and slices of the pecorino.

Taste: It turned out really good! It make enough for 3 generous servings.

Notes: I have been on a bread baking kick since receiving Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for Christmas. For this recipe I used the boule dough. Be sure bake for only 10 minutes - any longer and I think the leeks and fennel would have become a bit charred.