Pasta with Mushrooms, Fennel Salad and Arame Salad

Mike and I have plans to visit the local YWCA on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Most Friday afternoons, however, we usually wind up celebrating the fact that the week is over before we get a chance to squeeze in a work out. On Mondays and Wednesdays, however, we honestly try to make it to the gym by 4pm. Usually we wind up dilly-dallying a bit before we actually get suited up and ready to join the usual crew in the basement of the YW so, like the rest of the world, we are imperfect and good intentioned.
On Monday we didn’t get to the gym until 5. Now that might not seem like a big deal to most working people, but for us teacher types, it means that I haven’t eaten since my lunch at 11am. So by the time we finished lifting up and then putting back down a bunch of weights it was 6pm and we still needed to hit the local grocery store for fresh veg before fueling up at dinner. I buy grains, beans and noodles in bulk, but I try to hit the grocery store two to three times a week for fresh veg. This isn’t actually a very time consuming task because I only go to one section of the grocery store and as soon as I’ve perused what looks good in the produce department I’m off to the express check out and on my way. On Monday, however, I was about delirious with hunger by the time I placed some hot water on the stove to boil at 6:30pm. When it’s time for a quick dinner, it’s time for pasta. Enter my new favorite wheat free pasta: Soy pasta! It’s really excellent. Doesn’t fall apart and it is nice and chewy. I was also excited because although the grocery stores here have lots of produce, the selection tends to be fairly limited. When we lived in Sunset Park Brooklyn we were four avenue blocks away from Brooklyn China town. The bounty of tasty, interesting veg. was wonderful. Again, I only bring up this background in order to convey how happy I was on Monday to see some good looking fennel at the grocery store. Good fennel only shows up once and a while up here in Bangor.
So with some water on to boil I began to imagine the meal.
Pasta with garlicky mushrooms, tempeh and green beans.
Fennel and lemon salad.
An arame see vegetable salad with cucumbers and carrots.
Because we were having hearty pasta I thought two salads, with different textures and tastes, would be nice to round out our plates. The fennel salad is simple and completely stolen from my friend Jennifer who lives in Brooklyn. I sliced the fennel bulb thinly and dressed the slices with a pinch of salt and the juice of one lemon. I then took some of the greenery from the stalk of the fennel, the stuff that looks like dill, and cit up so that the dark green garnish looked nice against the pale green stalk. The arame salad is also pretty simple. The arame has to be soaked for about five minutes and then cooked in water for another 5 minutes. Once I drained the cooked sea vegetable I could set it aside until I was ready to dress it. I shredded two carrots (from the lovely European market!) and cut a peeled, seeded cucumber into julienne slices.. The dressing was a generous tablespoon of rice syrup, about three parts rice vinegar to 1 part toasted sesame oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. I then added the carrots, cucumber and wakame in a bowl, dressed the salad and let it sit to marinate. I started my pasta sauce with some tempeh which is crumbly and can be a little dry, but has a nice nutty flavor when sautéed in some nice olive oil. Then into the pan went a lot of sliced mushrooms and some more olive oil. I’m a big fan of using a lot of olive oil when so much of my meal is grain, bean and vegetables. The oil is rich and gives the food a wonderful texture in the mouth. I wouldn’t want all of my food to be this rich, but one dish out of three is nice. The salads add a nice tangy and slightly sweet compliment to the rich pasta. Next into the pan I added a lot of minced garlic and one little green hot pepper finely chopped. During this process the pasta was added to the boiling water and cooked for about 10 minutes. When the pasta is al dente I place it in a strainer and run cold water of it so that the noodles don’t stick together. The final step to making the pasta “sauce” was to add some green beans that have been cut in half lengthwise. This is a time consuming pain in the butt. I must say, however, that I really enjoy green beans sliced this way so as long as Mike is in the kitchen to keep me company, I’ll labor over the beans. I added some water to the pan, mixed in the green beans and then covered for less than a minute so that the beans remained bright green and crispy. And that’s that.
The sauce probably would have been better if it had been a little “soupier”. Mike and I were both thinking how nice the hearty tempeh and mushrooms mixture would have been with some blended cooked carrot or squash so that there was smooth consistency that would have coated the pasta. Mike also mentioned that it would have been nice to have the arame salad not at room temperature, but slightly chilled.
RECIPE

Fennel and Lemon Salad
Thinly slice the bulb from one fennel plant
Dress with the juice of one lemon and a generous pinch of sea salt
a teaspoon of olive oil could be added if desired
Garnish with the sprigs from the fennel plant

Mushroom, Tempeh, green bean “sauce”
Sautee tempeh in generous amount of olive oil.
Add sliced mushrooms (the more the better)
add several cloves of minced garlic
add one minced hot green pepper
Once mushrooms are cooked add some water and green beans to pan, cover and let steam for 1-2 minutes

Arame, carrot and cucumber salad
Soak for 5 minutes then cook for 5-10 minutes on high 1-2 cups of arame
drain and set aside
grate 2-4 carrots
peel, and remove seeds from one cucumber
julienne cucumber
add cucumber, carrot and arame
Dressing:
1-2 tablespoons rice syrum
¼ to 1/3 cup rice vinegar
1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
pinch of sea salt