Jan 19: Asian Theme for Chinese New Year!

Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by ispudas in Blog, Local Food, Recipes, Weekly Box Content

For this week’s bag, we’re doing an Asian Theme! We’ve included traditional ingredients, like Savoy Cabbage, tofu, and frozen edamame. But it wouldn’t be OAS if we didn’t include more exotic items–like Tatsoi and Mizuna lettuces, daikon radish, and two pantry items this week, including Sake Kasu–an ingredient you have likely never tried before. We hope you enjoy it!

On the Menu this Week:

Veggies:

Frozen Edamame! (Pristine Gourmet)–Fresh, frozen soybeans…a delicious and healthy snack! Boil edamame in salted water for about 3-4 minutes. Serve sprinkled with sea salt.

Firm Tofu (Ying Ying Soy Food)–see feature below

Shallots (August Harvest)

Sprouts (Greenbelt Farms)

Multi-colour Carrots (Hillside Farms)

Kennebec Potatoes (Rose Farm)–These are thin-skinned potatoes that hold their shape well during cooking. They are known for being used for french fries, but they are also good when baked, mashed, roasted and in soup.

Savoy Cabbage (Top Tomato)

Tatsoi Lettuce (Sleger’s)

Mizuna Lettuce (Sleger’s)

Daikon Radish (Zephyr Organics)

Turnips (Zephyr Organics)

Fruit:

Mutsu/Fuji Apples (Warner’s Farms)

Pantry:

Sake Kasu (Ontario Spring Water Sake Company)–this is not sake you drink!– see feature below

Sesame Kasu Dressing (Ontario Spring Water Sake Company)

Cheese:

Smoked Gouda from Thornloe cheese.

Meat:

Stir Fry Berkshire Pork from Perth Pork Products. This pork is fresh, not frozen.

Meet the Maker: Ying Ying Soy Food

Ying Ying Soy food uses traditional, artisanal methods to make their delicious tofu. And it’s for this reason that it recently celebrated it’s 10 year anniversary!

Ying Ying Soy Food is a small family-owned and operated artisan tofu producer. Their tofu finds its roots in its 2000-year-old tradition and processing technique. They use a traditional coagulant, Nigari (magnesium chloride from sea-water), and hand-coagulate and hand-make their tofu in small batches in the traditional way. Nigari has been used in tofu making since 200 BC. (compared to most tofu made today uses Calcium Sulphate).

Their products are all hand-cut and wok-cooked to perfection without using any additives.

They use only locally-grown Ontario certified Organic soybeans, grown by Klondike Farms in Dashwood Ontario.

Besides the plain tofu you’ll find in your bags this week, Ying Ying also makes flavoured tofu (which we included in one of our OAS bags this summer), smoked tofu, miso paste, tofu burgers and more.

Visit them at the St. Lawrence Market (downstairs, near the Stonemill Bakery), or look for their products at stores throughout Toronto.

To read more, go to their website at http://yingyingsoyfood.ca/index.html

Featured Ingredient: Sake Kasu!

Unless you’ve been down to the Distillery District, or noticed it at the LCBO, you may not know that we make Sake in Ontario. Since we legally cannot include alcohol in your OAS bags, we have decided to provide you with Sake Kasu from the Ontario Spring Water Sake Company.

Sake Kasu is a highly valued food ingredient for adding non-fatty lucsiousness to food. Is is the rice lees (residual yeast) left over from the production of sake. It has a sweet, strong fruity taste (like sake) with umami notes. It can be used as a cooking paste, as a marinade and as a pickling agent, as well as in sweet desserts. Ontario Spring Water Sake Company has provided some recipes for you to try. I have also found some basic recipes below.

Sake Kasu can also be used as a skin-care ingredient– sake kasu soap is available at the store, and you can make your own face mask with it by simply mixing it with warm water, as described here. This type of mask is also used at Iyashi Bedrock Spa on Yonge Street.

Storage: Keep Sake Kasu in the refrigerator. It has a 6-month shelf life, so you have plenty of time to try it!