Quick Meal Friday: Miso Gyoza Soup

My kids love miso soup. I occasionally use a mix to whip some up, but I hear complaints that it's too salty (and to save yourself a missed heartbeat, just don't look at the sodium count on the label). I use a not-authentic-miso recipe from an old standby collection: Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day.

Instead of making a special trip to the Japanese grocer for kombu to prepare dashi, I use dried shiitake mushrooms, which you usually can find in any grocery store. Steeping the mushrooms in very hot water adds an earthy flavor to the broth that later gets rounded out by a swirl of miso paste. (By the way, you can buy miso paste at nearly any old grocery store. Unless you eat it regularly, you won't notice much difference among brands.)

I round out the whole soup with more veggies, whatever I have in the fridge (could this be my mantra?). I particularly love carrots and baby bok choy, which is always available at my Trader Joe's and has a far less bitter taste than full grown bok choy, as long as you avoid the very white parts of the stalk. I also add a bag of cooked vegetable gyoza from Trader Joe's, from the freezer section. The Thai shrimp gyoza are great too, but I have a little one with a seafood phobia. I empathize; I didn't eat a piece of seafood until I was 21, a memorable seafood linguine dish at the Legal Seafoods chain in Boston.

When you do your final ladling to serve this dinner, it's easy to leave out any offending ingredients your kids won't eat, as long as you chop things largely enough. And don't you find that those offending ingredients are never the same for each kid anyway?

Miso Gyoza Soup
Serves 4 to 6.

4 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 quarts vegetable broth
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
one package frozen vegetable gyoza, prepared according to package directions (if you use Trader Joe's pan instructions, however, I recommend that you lower the heat!)
2 to 3 heads baby bok choy, sliced
3 tablespoons white or red miso paste
one block extra-firm tofu, pressed between paper towels to absorb excess water and cubed

In a glass measuring cup, pour boiling water over mushrooms and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile bring broth to boil in a soup pot. Add carrots and lower heat to simmer; cook for about 10 minutes. Remove mushrooms from cup and pour steeping water into the pot. When cool enough to touch, trim off stems and slice mushroom caps. Add mushrooms to the pot with the bok choy. Cook about 5 minutes.

With a glass measuring cup, scoop about 1/2 cup of broth from the pot, without vegetables if possible. Stir in miso paste and mix until well combined. Turn off heat, and pour in miso mixture. Ladle broth and veggies into bowls, then add tofu cubes and gyoza.

FYI, if you store the tofu cubes and gyoza separately, you can save the leftovers for the next day's lunch. Otherwise both will turn into a lacy mush within a couple hours.

{Follow-up: Here's a link to another mom's similar adventure in miso soup!}

Quick Meal Friday: Fish Pita Pockets

This is a refreshing take on the old make-your-own taco night than I'm sure many of us had as kids. Remember opening the box of El Paso hard corn tortillas? The sheer delight of choosing your own fillings? Hmm... were yours like the ones I recall? Ground beef sauteed in a seasoning packet? Shredded cheddar or American cheese? Shredded iceberg lettuce? Jarred salsa? Possibly tomatoes?

{BTW, Trader Joes attempted a little comeback on this classic family dinner, selling its own boxed pre-formed tortilla shells and a meat seasoning packet (incidentally we found the seasoning to be far too spicy for our wimpy taste buds). Just in case you need to revisit your past...}

Here we made our own lightly battered, fried fish fillet slices, and served these with baby spinach, sliced purple cabbage, and a yogurt sauce in homemade pita pockets. I'll get to those in a future post. Go ahead, buy your own pita and you could get this on the table in under 30 minutes.

Fish Pita Pockets
Serves 4.

one pound whitefish fillets (we used frozen tilapia)
1/2 cup panko crumbs
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and ground pepper
2 eggs
1/4 head of purple cabbage
4 ounces baby spinach leaves
8 ounces nonfat Greek yogurt
zest and juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley or cilantro or dill
1/4 cup canola oil, plus extra as needed for frying

Pat dry fish fillets with paper towels and slice crosswise into one-inch-wide strips. Combine panko, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a shallow dish, such as a pie plate. In a second shallow dish, whisk eggs gently. Slice the cabbage and place in serving dish. Rinse spinach and place in serving dish. Gently whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, herbs and salt and pepper in a third dish.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Check temperature by flicking water from your hands into the pan; when the bubbles jump, the pan is ready. Dip fish strips into egg dish and then into panko mixture, shaking off extra. Turn heat down to medium, and gently lay fish into pan ensuring that each piece has space surrounding it. Fry gently until underside is browned, about 2 minutes per side, turning down heat if needed to prevent browning too quickly. Flip and brown other side, about 2 minutes. Place fish in another dish and serve with vegetables, yogurt sauce, and pita pockets.

Quick Meal Friday: Spinach and Mushroom Salad

I owe you readers a good one here, having missed a few Fridays now. Seems our smallest munchkin (slight view in back of photo) may have one of those communicable diseases we aren't supposed to get anymore...

But this is a goodie. And very quick. Kudos to you if you could get your kids to eat it too. Not so in my house.

Spinach and Mushroom Salad
Serves 2.

2 teaspoons plus 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces cremini mushrooms
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
splash of white wine
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 ounces baby spinach
one sweet apple, such as gala or honeycrisp, chopped
1/2 ounce goat cheese

Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Halve or quarter mushrooms, depending on size. Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add mushrooms, with salt and pepper to taste, and saute, stirring occasionally, about 4 to 5 minutes, until mushrooms shrink and have a strong, earthy aroma. Turn heat to medium-high; add a splash of white wine to skillet, stirring constantly, until wine has evaporated. Lower heat to medium; add pecans and stir to lightly toast, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

Meanwhile, combine vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste in a small lidded jar. Shake to combine. Add 5 tablespoons olive oil and shake vigorously. Set aside.

Divide spinach between two bowls. Top each with half of warm mushroom-pecan mixture. Divide apple and goat cheese among bowls and drizzle with dressing after giving the jar a quick shake.

Quick Meal Friday: Spring Green Risotto

Someone will be irritated with me for selecting a risotto as a quick meal.

But here's the deal: When I can get so many vegetables into my kiddos with absolutely no complaint (including baby!), this is a busy 30 minutes well spent. I do have one strong suggestion. If you spend much time in the kitchen, you've undoubtedly heard this one before: The secret is mise en place. Take the time to chop and zest and blanch and measure ahead of time, and this delicious dinner will be a cinch.

Quick Meal Friday: Herbes de Provence Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Veggies

Those herbes de Provence finally got some use in my kitchen. I couldn't wait for fall! The nights are still cool so roasting isn't completely off the wall for another month or so. (I'm in the San Diego desert, where all seasons are short except for the one called "meltingly hot.")

For this simple meal, I roasted some potatoes, turnips, and carrots seasoned with herbes de Provence while I did a little easy work on a small pork tenderloin on the stove, finishing that with a simple *hold your breath* herbes de Provence-scented pan sauce. This magical herb mix really tastes like spring in a jar, with the sweet fennel seed and fragrant lavender shining through. (I'm very glad I went easy on the lavender though, just something to keep in mind if you mix up a batch yourself.)

Quick Meal Friday :: Sweet Potato Hash

Here's a new idea I'm trying for Friday posts: A meal that pulls together quickly. This sweet potato hash was inspired by a recipe in the recent issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. But it had to get a little twist. The my-kids-need-to-eat-this-too twist.

Sweet Potato Hash
Serves 4.

one large sweet potato
3 tsp olive oil, divided
one small onion, chopped
one red pepper, chopped
one clove of garlic, diced
one 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
4 eggs

Peel sweet potato and cut into large chunks. Microwave on high, loosely covered, for 5 min or until softened. Meanwhile, warm 1 1/2 tsp oil in skillet over medium heat. (I like to use a nonstick pan because eggs will soon be involved). Saute onion and red pepper until softened, about 3-5 min. When sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, chop them and add to pan with garlic. Stir occasionally, letting the vegetables brown and crisp slightly. Divide among 4 plates.

Add remaining oil to pan and heat to medium-high. Crack the eggs into the hot pan, two at a time, and fry for 1-2 min. With a spatula, gently break the jelly-like sac around the yolk to release the remaining egg white. Swirl the pan gently to spread the white, and fry for 1-2 min more until the bottoms begin to crisp and turn golden brown on the eggs. Top each plate's hash with a fried egg. Serve with toast.