Today I had to battle my demons, and stop obsessing about some terrible thing that happened recently, so I decided to try anything I could, and went for a long run. It did help somehow. After a few hours of running in circles, I went home and had no idea what I would make for lunch. I had no appetite and and no inspiration either. I found among my million items in my pantry those edamame fettucine I bought along with the black bean spaghetti a while ago.

So basically, edamame and mung bean fettucine are simply a type of pasta made with edamame and mung bean flour, that’s why they have this beautiful light green color. In the picture they could be blending with the cabbage color, but if you look closely, you can distinguish the fettucine.

This type of pasta is filled with fibers and proteins, so you will not feel bloated or stuffed as you would when eating regular white flour pasta. They are easily digestible, nutritious and very delicious. They remain a bit chewy and al dente, and personally I love chewy textures.

The combination of the sweetness of the cabbage and peas, complement the nuttiness of the noodles, so we have a very balance dish as far as textures and flavors. I ate two whole plates so this portion is enough for three people, or two if one of them is very hungry.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/3 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cabbage, finely sliced
• 1 tbs mirin
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 handful of shrimps, peeled and deveined
• about 3.5 oz (or 120 grams) edamame fettucine
• salt and pepper

 Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan, add onion and let soften about 5 minutes at medium temperature. Add cabbage and mirin. Cook and cover until cabbage softens but still a bit firm and mirin evaporates. Add peas, shrimps and garlic. Cook until peas and shrimps are cooked. Adjust with salt and pepper. In the meantime, cook fettucine in hot salted boiling water until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain and serve with cabbage, peas, shrimps mixture. Drizzle some extra unrefined extra virgin oil on top and serve hot.

A little alternative to salmon…stuffed in cabbage leaves, a perfect light dish if you want to have fun eating while keeping a thin waste line. As much as I love eating, I really enjoy keeping my weight down and stay in shape. Even though I don’t have a scale, I know when I gain or lose weight on how my jeans fit.

I think the best food is the one you truly enjoy eating and that is healthy, light and flavorful. And yes, it is possible to have it all…

I was at the doctor’s office and of course what best to read when you are in the waiting room, than a five page special on the damages of Mercury in fishes on humans.  As much as I love fish, I think I will slow down on its consumption since it seems that it’s no longer very safe to eat many species such as mackerel, tuna, swordfish, etc… I think we are just polluting the whole planet and we are getting the consequences right back. I have seen that they even sell grey salmon at the supermarket, probably because some people prefer to eat it that way than eat artificial coloring. Grey salmon looks really strange.

I love to stuff cabbage leaves with all kinds of things, and salmon goes perfectly inside those leaves. You could add one egg and some breadcrumbs to the salmon but I wanted to keep it light, so it’s just mixed with herbs. I didn’t make fish fumet since I didn’t have fish bones, so I used a dehydrated one I brought from France, that works fine when you need a quick alternative to home made fish fumet.

For those who don’t have any idea on what chou means, it can have different meanings, could mean “cute”, qu’il est chou ce garçon! this boy is so cute, or cabbage. Ce chou est chou, is quite redundant, isn’t it? After scrutinizing the cabbage for a while, I realized that this big yellow ball can be cute after all.

Ingredients for 6 pieces

• 2 salmon fillets, skinless and cut in cubes
• 12 large cabbage leaves, blanched
• 1 tbs tarragon chopped
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 tsp fish fumet or fish stock
• 3 tbs dry white wine
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Detach cabbage leaves carefully from cabbage head. Bring water to a boil in a large pot, add salt and blanch the leaves for about 3-4 minutes. When cooked drain, pat dry and lay flat on a smooth surface or wooden board. Remove carefully the hard part of the leaves in the middle that sticks out by trimming it, so it will be easier to wrap the leaves around salmon.

In a mixer, add salmon, shallots, garlic, tarragon, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix to obtain a smooth mixture but not too thin.

Place about 2 tbs of salmon mixture in the middle of one cabbage leave, then wrap with another one. Using a kitchen thread, tie the salmon package and set aside. Proceed with the rest of the leaves and fish.

Dissolve fish fumet in 1/3 cup of tbs water, add wine.

Place cabbage packets in a dish sprinkle with olive oil and add 2 tbs fish fumet. Preheat oven at 380F and cook fish for about 30 minutes, turning them and pouring fumet regularly. When the top has become golden, remove from oven, remove thread, add lemon juice and serve. Sprinkle with tarragon leaves and serve with its juice.

I have been wanting to make polenta for months now, I had this bag of polenta in my pantry, but did not have the other ingredients I needed to make what I had in mind, so I kept waiting.

Polenta has been a big part of my life, my mom used to make a huge quantity of polenta, spread it on a large wooden surface and served it with a rabbit and tomato sauce. Everyone would take a spoon and eat it from the wooden board.

Polenta prepared in Northern Italy like Lombardia or Friuli is white, it’s served sliced with prosciutto and radicchio. Basically, it replaces the bread in some households. Actually, In Milano, they cook it with milk, and top it with a mushroom sauce, more like a gravy. That is the way I ate it at my childhood friend whose parents were from Milano. I was used to the yellow polenta served with a mushroom, or rabbit tomato sauce. Two different way to prepare it.

Anyway, I found the most interesting mushrooms at the Berkeley Bowl yesterday, and I was so curious about those tiny but still chunky-legged mushrooms, that I just had to buy them. Trying new ingredients gives me some adrenaline rush, and for the particular purpose, that store is perfect.

To be really honest, I am unable to tell you the exact name of those mushrooms, the hand-written sign was unreadable, and I did some research on the web to try to find out their names and I am uncertain of what they’re called. I believe they’re shimeji. Some kind of Japanese mushroom, that has the shape of porcini mushroom but a smaller size. A Heavy stem and a small cap. It has a great flavor and I really liked the mixed flavors of those three different mushrooms.

Going back to polenta, you can buy the pre-cooked or the regular polenta that needs to cook slowly for an hour on medium or even slow heat, so if your wrist is not trained, since you have to stir for the entire hour, you will get a sore wrist and arm. If you are new to polenta and don’t have too much time for preparation and cooking, the pre-cooked kind would work fine. Unfortunately, I only had the regular one, so I had no choice than go the traditional way.

Big polenta eaters like in Friuli, have a special pot with a mechanical arm that stirs the polenta, so you just have to sit and wait.

You might not see it on the picture, but those crostoni have been carved in the middle so you can stuff them with the mushroom sauce.

Ingredients for 4

For the polenta

• about 4 oz. pre cooked or regular polenta
• 1 tbs rosemary, chopped
• 1 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 3 cups broth
• salt

For the mushroom sauce

• 4 slices pancetta, chopped + 4 slices whole (for decoration)
• 5 well riped tomatoes, chopped seedless
• 1 cup small shitakee, some sliced, some whole
• 1 cup oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup shimeji mushrooms
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs parsley
• chili flakes to your taste
• 2 tbs olive oil

For the cabbage

• 1/2 cabbage, shredded
• 1/4 yellow onion chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

First start preparing the polenta. Bring broth to a boil, add salt. Add rosemary, then pour polenta. Stir non stop and cook at very low heat, add water if necessary. If using regular polenta, it needs to cook for at least 40 minutes, always stirring. If using pre-cooked polenta, cook for about 7-10 minutes, and keep stirring. Add Parmesan.

When the polenta is cooked pour in a small deep dish so that the polenta has a thickness of about 1.5 inch. Let it cool. When cooled, with cut circles of about 2.5 inches in diameter. With a teaspoon, remove some of the center of each polenta circle. Drizzle with some olive oil, and brown under broiler for about 5 minutes or until the top of the polenta is golden brown. This broiling part needs to be done at the end, when the tomato sauce and cabbage are almost cooked, or the polenta will get cold.

For the mushroom sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan, add mushrooms. Cook at medium heat, until the water has evaporated, add salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, add olive oil, add shallot, let it brown. Add chopped pancetta, and brown the mixture. Add garlic and parsley, stir well to get the flavors out, add tomatoes and chili flakes. Cook until the sauce has reduced but do not reduce too much, there needs to be some tomato juice left. Add mushrooms and adjust with salt and pepper.

For the cabbage

Heat olive oil in a deep pot, add onion, and brown it, add cabbage, stir and add wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat until the cabbage is cooked.

Grill whole pancetta slices in a non stick pan.

Serve in a plate with 2 tbs of cabbage on bottom, add polenta crostoni on top. Fill the center of polenta with mushroom sauce. Add 1 grilled pancetta slice on top. Decorate with whole shitakee around the plate.