Tigger has barely budged from the wok box. Even when I need to make room on the kitchen island and move the box to the dining room table, he just remains in the box as I carry it. He also purrs loudly while in the box and seems particularly happy and peaceful.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but Tigger hates Brachtune. After 14 years of living together, you’d think he’d have learned to tolerate her, but he still hates her. I don’t know how anyone can possibly hate Brachtune because she’s the sweetest, most good-natured cat on the planet, but Tigger’s a bit of an egomaniac and only likes himself. Brachtune, on the other hand, looks up to Tigger and often mimics his behavior. So when Tigger took a short break from the box this afternoon, I was only half-surprised to see this:

When Tigger then hopped up on the table and caught her, I was pretty sure he was going to smack her around.

Fortunately, Tigger got distracted by something else and Brachtune then decided that sitting in a box was overrated and got out of her own accord.

I started hearing about the use of young green jackfruit as a meat substitute a few months ago, mostly in reference to veggie-friendly Mexican restaurants on the West Coast, I believe, and when The Urban Housewife posted a recipe for Jackfruit Carnitas Tacos back in February, I took note and started looking for jackfruit at my local Asian markets. Either I was too blind to see it during umpteen previous trips, or Super H JUST starting carrying it, but I finally scored some last week, and while I didn’t brag about it last night, in addition to making minestrone and seasoning my wok, I also prepared the taco ingredients for easy insertion into the crockpot this morning. Not because I have a fixed time I have to be into work that necessitates me rushing around in the mornings, but because I don’t always function well enough in the mornings to handle questions and decisions, even questions as seemingly innocuous as just how much smoked paprika is a good idea?

So this post is even less innovative than the last since I’m not using my own recipe or even putting my own spin on things. But I have been really curious about jackfruit, so I figured I’d share my first taste of it with you. Plus I’m getting better about remembering to take pictures! Maybe I’ll even get better at taking pictures!

Melisser’s recipe is great because it’s extraordinarily simple and can really be done in five minutes before you leave for work. Only someone as completely dysfunctional as I am in the morning needs to worry about this the night before. And I wouldn’t even have bothered if I hadn’t been so tired I was worried I was going to sleep so late I’d be late for my 11:30 conference call. (Yes, I realize how pathetic that is.)

So last night, I lined up the ingredients:

Eep! I put the Turkish oregano used in the minestrone in the photo instead of the Mexican oregano that went with the carnitas! Faux pas!

Then I removed the jackfruit from its can and rinsed it off:

So THAT’s what jackfruit looks like!

I tasted a tiny bit. It was pretty tasteless. Then I cut up an onion, pressed a bunch of cloves of garlic, and measured out the spices, all of which I threw in a container and stuck in the refrigerator.

When I got up this morning, Tigger was still enjoying his box.

He has a little mohawk because his head gets wet when he showers with us. He’s weird.

I put the jackfruit in the crockpot as directed by Melisser.

Yes, my crockpot is blue and ancient. I prefer “retro”, thank you. I then added the spices. My pre-planning had not been perfect because I’d just dumped the spices onto the onions last night, so I sort of scooped out the top layer of onions and just stirred everything together. I wasn’t up for massaging fruit at this stage – it sounds like a task I can’t handle until at least noon – so I didn’t rub each piece individually.

Then I added the remainder of the onions.

And the salsa.

Meanwhile, Tigger fell asleep in the box.

I wished I could curl up on some wadded-up paper in a box and take a nap, but instead I went to work and got on that conference call, my favorite thing. Eight hours later, I arrived home and anxiously checked the crockpot. The jackfruit, sort of pinkish, reminded me of ham.

Tigger got back in the box.

Then I messaged Mark and baffled him by announcing dinner was ready and he should come home. I’m sure his thought process was, “Huh? What? Dinner? At 7 p.m.? How is this possible?” I mean, it’s not unusual for me to spend two to three hours making dinner and we routinely eat at 10 p.m. or later. BUT NOT TONIGHT! So he came home and I set up a few dishes of toppings for the tacos. Then we ate them.

Here’s the bowl of jackfruit “carnitas”:

Here is Mark enjoying a taco:

Here is Brachtune thinking maybe she’d enjoy a taco (she didn’t):

Here is my taco:

And here is Brachtune being pretty while we ate:

As for the jackfruit as a meat substitute, it was pretty good. Mark said it tasted a bit like potatoes, but I didn’t think it had much of a taste of its own at all, rather that it absorbs the flavors its cooked in, like tofu. I like how healthy it is, particularly in comparison to most meat substitutes. It had a nice texture, sort of like very tender meat, I guess. I barely remember meat, if you want to know the truth, but it is sort of like what I imagine very tender meat is like. I have another can of it that I intend to be more creative with. Not that Melisser’s recipe wasn’t good, because it was quite good, and so, so easy, but I’d like to come up with something of my own.

As for Tigger, he’s STILL in the box:

How long can I drag out this Tigger-in-the-box thing? I don’t know; I really did intend this to be a food blog, not a Tigger blog, and certainly not a Tigger-in-a-box blog. Those cats, though. They have any number of specially-bought, comfy cat beds, a cat tree taller than I am, an antique velvet scratching post – no, wait, that WAS an antique velvet SOFA and was NOT intended for the cats, a fact with which neither one of them has come to terms – and a million toys, but all they really want is a free box.

Well, Tigger’s other favorite napping spot wasn’t free.

I got home at a (relatively) decent hour today so I had a bit more time to devote to dinner, although recent poor eating habits and lack of exercise, both due to being extremely busy, made me want to focus on a salad for dinner, which in my exhaustion I obtained from Wegmans’ salad bar. But because this busy-ness caught me by surprise, I realized I had a lot of veggies purchased last week that I was running out of time to use, so I decided to also use a bunch of stuff up by making minestrone. Soup and salad is always a healthy and light, but filling, meal in my opinion. It does not make for very innovative blog posts, but I was knackered today and not at my creative best.

Minestrone

(That’s a rather Albuquerque-skyline kind of ingredients photo, isn’t it?)

1 leek or onion, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
6 cups veggie stock or vegan “chicken” broth (if using a high-sodium bouillon, make it half-strength)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 red potatoes, chopped
1 handful green beans, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 tsp oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup small pasta, such as macaroni, orzo, letters, etc.
1 handful fresh spinach
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 drops stevia or 1 tsp sugar, optional

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Add the chopped leek or onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 5 minutes or until soft.

If necessary, deglaze the pot with white wine, stock, or water. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.

Add the stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, potatoes, green beans, and zucchini.

Cover and cook for half an hour. Add the pasta and oregano and cook for 15 minutes or until pasta is thoroughly cooked.

Add spinach, salt, and pepper. Add the optional stevia or sugar if it needs a tiny hint of sweetness. Cook for 3 minutes.

Serve with a salad. I made the creamy Italian dressing from How it All Vegan.

The items balanced on my soup bowl are bread sticks. Mark thought they were chopsticks. Then he thought they were meant for spearing the annellini (rings) pasta I used. Then he figured out they were edible and ate ten of them. I actually bought them for you, dear readers, not to confuse Mark. I thought they’d add interest to what I knew was going to be a boring picture of soup. They did end up looking like chopsticks. (And it WAS fun to spear the annellini.)

Despite my fatigue, while making the soup, I seasoned my new wok, which arrived today. Tigger was very excited about the box. He sure loves boxes.

The first few times I captured the cats in mid-yawn, I thought it was an amazing stroke of luck. Then I realized that the cats are always yawning, and I am always taking their picture.

How does such a ridiculous cat sitting in a box end up looking so regal? Must be my fine photography skills.

In other news, Mark pointed out last night that I’ve left you hanging in regards to this post, but the fact of the matter is it’s not ready yet! Should be ready on Friday. Maybe tomorrow.

Ugh, I’ve been so busy this week, particularly this weekend. I’ve barely been in the kitchen at all. Late tonight I did start making something I’ll be sharing with you later this week, but it takes several days to make. It involves this:

More later.

It’s nearly 100 degrees here today and I decided to make something a little more weather-appropriate than a creamy soup in a bread bowl. It may not technically be summer quite yet, but it sure feels like it, so I made summer rolls. I just used ingredients I had around the house; in addition to the rice vermicelli, you can really use any veggie that you can julienne or shred. If I’d had any, I’d also have included shredded daikon. The essential part is the rice paper wrappers. I seem to always throw at least one esoteric ingredient at you, don’t I? They are easily available in Asian groceries. They are clear, brittle, and about the size of a small dinner or a dessert plate. The quantities called for below made 8 rolls.

Summer Rolls

4 oz rice vermicelli
1 large carrot, shredded or julienned
1/2 red pepper, julienned
1/4 cucumber, peeled and julienned
2 leaves Savoy or Napa cabbage, shredded
fresh herbs such as basil, cilantro, and mint (I used Thai basil, Vietnamese cilantro, and mint, because that’s what I haven’t yet killed in my herb garden)
rice paper wrappers
peanut sauce for dipping (recipe follows)

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the rice vermicelli for about 3 minutes or until soft. Drain and run under cold water. Using kitchen shears, snip into smaller lengths. Prepare all other ingredients by shredding or julienning. Create an assembly line of sorts by arranging a large bowl of warm water, all of the ingredients in individual bowls, and a plate on which to place finished rolls.

Remove one rice paper wrapper from the package and place in the bowl of warm water. It will soften after about a minute, at which time you should remove it and place it on your work surface. Place a second wrapper in the bowl of water so it will be soft after you’ve finished rolling the first roll. Mound some rice vermicelli in a pile on the lower third of the wrapper, as shown in the photo. Because the wrappers are clear, they are kind of hard to see in the picture, but it should be visible in the photo above.

Add each of the other ingredients, except the herbs, one by one. Try to lay julienned pieces in the direction of the “mound”, otherwise they will try to poke through the wrapper, which is a bit fragile, when rolling.

Rolling the summer roll is a bit like preparing a burrito. Fold the bottom edge up over the mound of ingredients:

Then fold each of the sides inwards:

Then start rolling upwards, trying to push the ingredients in tightly as you go along. After rolling the roll over on itself once, tuck some of the herbs in:

Then continue rolling up until finished. The idea is for the herbs to show through like this:

Here is the other side:

Serve with peanut sauce:

Peanut Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 – 1 tsp sriracha sauce (to taste)
10 drops stevia or 1 Tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 1″ piece ginger, grated or minced

Whisk everything together.

If you’ve been trying unsuccessfully to access I Eat Food the last couple of days, it’s because my server hosting company experienced an explosion and a fire this weekend that brought down three walls of one of their data centers. I’m sure they are consequently dealing with a huge mess. According to their most recent update, some customers may experience further downtime this coming weekend as they install new equipment, and I’m not yet sure whether or not I am one of those affected. The good news is I’m told no one was injured in the fire, and for now, at least, we’re back in business.

The other good news is that the server being down didn’t prevent me from writing up a couple of new posts this weekend, which I will have up later tonight. In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for pictures of the cats.

Tigger plays with a toy sent to him by his grandmother (my mother).

Brachtune is ethereally beautiful, as always.

I just noticed that The Wok Shop has the Thai sticky rice steaming basket and pot available for just $10.

And I also noticed that Bryanna Clark Grogan has two links to sites selling wooden tofu presses on her tofu page: the SoyaJoy soy milk maker ordering page, which has a whole kit for $24.99 – not bad! – and Simply Natural, with a kit for $33.95.

No recipes tonight, just a photo of Tigger inspecting my haul of produce:

And my homemade kaiser rolls, from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (of course):

I’ve made the kaiser rolls several times before. They’re so much better than store-bought. Yesterday I made the regular version; tonight I made half whole-wheat. They just came out of the oven though so I’m not sure how they turned out.