Aquaphiliac

I am currently training to be a lifeguard. It was about time really. I was in swimming lessons or on a swim team almost every summer for the first 13 years of my life. I currently swim laps 3 times a week, sometimes as much as 2.5 miles a day. I love the water. Under it, through it, laying out next to it; I don't think I could be happy if I didn't live near some kind of large body of water.

So when I came home from my first lifeguarding class Saturday night, hungry and tired from a 12 hour day of first-aid/CPR training and rescuing passive victims from the bottom of the deep end, I appropriately chose a seafood-based dish to veganize.

The original dish was sauteed octopus served with fermented black bean sauce and miso vinaigrette. Even if I wasn't a vegan I don't think I'd keep octopus on hand, nor do I live near enough to the creepy Chinese groceries with the skinned rabbits in the windows to acquire fermented black bean paste on a whim. But the flavor combinations in this recipe were just too good not to experiment with. And so, despite the fact it was 10 o'clock at night and I was covered in chlorine and bruised from being backboarded, I fired up the burners and whipped up this delicious meal.

Mocktopus Wild Rice Salad with Black Bean Pear Sauce and Miso Vinaigrette

from Food&Wine, January 2010

for the rice (note: cook each type of rice separately)

1 cup wild rice, cooked according to package directions

1 cup jasmine rice, cooked according to package directions

for the Black Bean Pear Sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 shallots, chopped fine

1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/2 a jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 cup pears, peeled and chopped

the juice from 1 lemon

2 green onions, green parts only, minced

for the miso vinaigrette

1 tablespoon miso (I had mild red in the fridge; the original calls for white)

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons room temperature water

sea salt & fresh ground pepper (1/8 teaspoon-ish or to taste)

to prepare

In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the beans and cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, and shallot and cook for another 5 minutes or until the shallots are soft and translucent. You may want to add a little water and/or oil here if the beans are starting to stick too much to the bottom of the pan.

Add the bell pepper and jalapeno and cook until just starting to soften.

Stir in the pear and give the whole thing a few really good, mashing stirs to break up the pears and the beans a bit. The sauce is going to be a bit pink-ish and about the consistency of guacamole.

Turn off the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice. Stir in the green onions and cover. Let sit while you make the vinaigrette.

to make the miso vinaigrette

In a small bowl combine all the ingredients except the salt and pepper and whisk with vigor. Taste and season appropriately. This could be made up to 3 days or so ahead of time; just be sure to bring it back to room temp before serving.

***

To serve this, I chopped fresh spinach into ribbons, mandolined a large carrot into discs, and striped them on a large dinner plate. Using an ice cream scoop, I placed the rice (two wild scoops, one jasmine) on the carrot stripe. I spooned the black bean sauce over the rice, then perpendicularly drizzled the miso over the spinach and rice.

The above recipe made about enough to plate like this 4 times (depending on the size of your scoop). Since I was only feeding myself (yes, I plate this extensively when I'm eating all alone in my apartment. It's better than 30 cats and stacks of newspapers), I had plenty of leftovers for the next week. Suggestion? Cut up a few plum tomatoes, mix with the cold, leftover bean sauce and serve with tortilla chips and a cold one.

The perfect short-cut dinner for that night when, even though Sex Week went so well and you were sure you'd turned a corner and connected with your students, even the usually-participatory students are sitting there with their arms crossed over their chests refusing to talk, and the others are practically glaring while theatrically checking the time on their ubiquitous cell phones.

Week 5 here I come.