Spicy Peanut Noodle

  In the past month here in Norway, I have learned that Norwegians have a rather peculiar interest in Asian cuisine.  I'm not sure where this interest stems from, as every Norwegian I have asked seems to agree that there are not many Asian immigrants to Norway, but it is still very present - I was assured, on one of my first days here, that every Norwegian town, even one as small as Bø, has at least one place you can get Asian food.  I may have mentioned before, but Bø is a pretty small town - around 5,000 people.  Yet somehow, despite its small size, Bø not only has a Chinese restaurant, but an Asian grocery store (called, in very creative form, Asiamat - Asian Food).  

The Chinese Restaurant of Bø

The Asian grocery store is great, if unexpected, and has been a source of cheapish (for Norway) vegetables, rice, and - most surprisingly - tofu.  However, despite the fact that it is amazing that I have been able to find tofu at all, Asiamat has apparently been shocked at the addition of one vegan to Bø's population; today when I stopped by to grab some tofu for my peanut noodles, they were completely out.  And apparently I'm memorable enough that the woman behind the counter looked up and explained apologetically that the tofu was "finished" and that I should "come back tomorrow maybe" when they got a new delivery.  

Asiamat

 I don't know why, but it makes me slightly proud that the good people of Asiamat know me as the crazy tofu girl.  Anyways, that is why this recipe does not include any tofu, but I would recommend adding some - just toss it in the pan to crisp up a little right before adding the vegetables.

 Spicy Peanut Noodle

8 oz rice noodles

2 tbsp canola oil

1 red bell pepper, slivered

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

1/2 cup shredded cabbage

1 recipe Spicy Peanut Sauce (below)

1.  Boil a pot of water and cook rice noodles according to package instructions.  Drain the noodles and set aside.

2.  Heat canola oil in a large skillet (or wok if you're that fancy) and add the vegetables.  Saute until the vegetables are tender and the cabbage is slightly wilted.

3.  Add noodles and peanut sauce to the pan and stir to coat.  Serve immediately.  

Spicy Peanut Sauce

2 tbsp peanut butter - any kind
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
up to 2 tsp sriracha*

1.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth.  Yep, that's it.

*Sriracha is a hot chili sauce, and when I say hot I mean hot.  You can substitute hot sauce if you want, but it should be fairly easy to find.  If you like it spicy, add more than 2 tsp, but if you're not a big fan of spice, add less.  Drizzle some on top if you're feeling bold.    

Roasted Butternut Squash Pizza

     In case you weren't already aware, I think about food a lot on a normal basis.  Some people like going running or reading books - I like thinking about food systems and why we choose to eat the food we eat and what we should be eating, and what I'm going to be eating next.  And recently, Norway has given me a lot of food for thought.  Surprisingly, the grocery stores here have a really wide selection of fruits and vegetables - hell, I definitely didn't expect to find mangoes or pineapples in Norway of all places.  Cabbage and rutabaga, sure.  But mangoes?  Not so much.  However, here they are, along with avocados and bananas and chili peppers and ginger and tomatoes - all things that are definitely not grown anywhere near Scandinavia, and if they are certainly aren't in season.  And even more interesting is the fact that most of the vegetables here and a good portion of the fruits come individually packaged in plastic.  What?
  

Now, I'm not complaining.  I love fruits and vegetables as much as anyone and I'm pleased that they certainly aren't hard to come by, but having just spent a summer eating mostly local, in-season produce, avocados and bananas can be somewhat baffling.  It seems strange to be surrounded by miles and miles of farmland in an extremely rural area of Norway and still have to pick up shrink-wrapped, perfectly shaped, waxy red peppers from the grocery store.  Maybe this is my snobby hippie American coming out, but where are the farmers markets?  Where are the oddly shaped vegetables covered in dirt?  What if I don't want an avocado - what if I want a rutabaga?  

     

Luckily, all is not totally lost.  I did manage to find some non-plastic-wrapped vegetables at the Asian grocery story here, Asiamat (more on Asian food in Norway later!), where they actually had zucchini and eggplant and - wonder of all wonders - a butternut squash!  All of which are currently in season, and all of which looked lumpy and wonderful.  Yay!  

So, with the weather cooling down, I thought that a rich, sweet, intensely orange squash would be the perfect herald for fall.  And I wanted it on a pizza.    

Okay, I admit it - the butternut squash was mostly to make me feel better about ever buying a vegetable that came in plastic wrap.  But I really was craving pizza.    

And this pizza is nothing to scoff at.  I used my mom's pizza dough recipe, which she has used since I was a child, and a thick, creamy butternut squash sauce that was incredibly satisfying without any cheese.  In fact, I wholeheartedly recommend spreading the sauce on as thickly as possible - maybe even make a double recipe.  

 

Butternut Squash Sauce

1 butternut squash

up to1/4 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

4 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional - parmesan cheese would also work here)

2 tsp oregano

generous pinch salt

1.  First of all, you have to roast the butternut squash, so preheat the oven to 400º F, or 200º C.  Cut off the stem-y ends and slice the entire squash in half lengthwise.  Scoop out stringy guts and seeds with a spoon, then place in a greased baking dish, drizzle with 2 tbsp olive oil and a little salt, and roast in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes, poking with a fork occasionally to check progress.  Make sure the squash is tender all the way through, as this will allow the skin to simply fall off.  

2.  While the butternut squash is roasting, finely chop the garlic and onion and set aside (unless you have a food processor for the finished sauce, I recommend chopping the garlic and onion as small as possible).  

3.  When the squash has cooled, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and mash until smooth, adding up to 1/4 cup soy milk until the mixture is thick and creamy.  

4.  Heat remaining olive oil in a large skillet and saute the garlic and onion.  Add the butternut squash mixture, oregano, salt, and nutritional yeast and stir until combined.  Taste and adjust seasonings!    

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough*

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/4 cup warm water

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 plus 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1.  Combine the sugar, warm water, and yeast in a bowl and let sit five minutes, or until the surface is bubbly.

2.  Add 1 cup all purpose flour (save the 1/4 cup), whole wheat flour, salt, and olive oil and combine.

3.  Knead the dough for fifteen minutes on a floured surface, adding the 1/4 cup as necessary until the dough is only slightly sticky.  

4.  Place in a large bowl, cover with a towel, and let sit for 45 minutes to an hour and a half, or until the dough doubles in size.

5.  Punch the dough down - it is now ready to roll out!  A rolling pin is nice, but I just used my hands to mold it in the pan (I don't have a rolling pin!).  

*this recipe comes from an ancient pizza cookbook of my mother's and is absolutely delicious!

Assembly of the pizza:

Once the dough is rolled out and on whatever pan you are using, generously spread the butternut squash sauce over the crust and then add toppings of your choice - I used mushrooms, onions, and kalamata olives. Then drizzle with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes at 350º F or until the crust is browned.  

Tilstede Mat og Mer

    I initially came to Norway under the impression that I was going to STUDY abroad.  However, three weeks in and I have had approximately four classes, two of which were 45 minutes long and one of which was an all-day hike and thus went in my books under "fun" and not "studious."  While I had been warned previously that Norwegians take a much more hands-off approach when it comes to school and expect you to do most of the work on your own, I was somehow still envisioning having classes.  Looking ahead, my schedule does fill up a bit more as the weeks go on, but for the past few weeks the lack of actual class time has felt surprisingly odd - and has simultaneously afforded me and my fellow students time to be a little, well, adventurous.  This week, as the only class I had was on Friday, I ended up going on a four-day trip with two of my friends to Kristiansand, during which time I did two things I had never expected to do in Norway, one of which I had never expected to do ever.      

Yes, this is me.  Hitchhiking.

Firstly, when I say "we went to Kristiansand," what I mean was "we hitchhiked to Kristiansand."  Now, normally I'm the type of person who likes to have things planned out in advance and not leave my fate in the hands of total strangers, but somehow I was convinced that this was a good idea.  And it honestly turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip.  Who knew standing on the side of the road with your thumb out could be so much fun!?

But we had no trouble getting picked up and making it all the way to Kristiansand on the coast (it probably didn't hurt that we had friendly hand-made signs and blew bubbles at passing cars).  And in Kristiansand, aside from visiting a fortress, a cathedral, swimming in the ocean, and walking around both downtown and the "old town," we found something else I had never expected to see in Norway - a restaurant serving vegan food!!  

For any vegan traveling around Norway (or any person, for that matter), I can now wholeheartedly recommend Tilstede Mat og Mer, the incredibly charming raw food restaurant in Kristiansand that has a full menu of labelled vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous food options.  

The restaurant itself, right on the main drag Markensgate, is not only incredibly cute, but had some very friendly servers who were happy to explain the all-Norwegian menu to us.  We even ate on the rooftop garden overlooking downtown Kristiansand.  So, you know, it was tolerable.

I had a filling (and huge!) chickpea burger with lots of raw veggies, focaccia bread, and some delicious spicy chili sauce.  And the price wasn't too bad either - 130 kroner ($20ish), which for Norway is practically free!

Focaccia bred, brie cheese, and veggies for Katie!

The food was also presented beautifully, and you know I love some good food porn.
 

And see - shrimp open-face sanwich

To really finish off a great experience, though, they had zucchini growing on the roof.  Yeah.  How cool is this restaurant??  

I was very strongly considering stealing a zucchini, but I figured when the universe presents you with a cute, yummy, vegan-friendly restaurant you probably shouldn't spit on it.  Getting a zucchini out of the deal would have just been too much.

Overall, we liked Tilstede Mat og Mer so much that we came back again two days later for lunch before we headed back to Bø.  I had a nori wrap and a soy milkshake.  Mmmhmmm.  

So, if you're ever in Kristiansand and looking for some delicious, healthful food, Tilstede Mat og Mer is definitely your place.  They have a website: http://www.tilstedematogmer.no/ and a link to their blog, which just appears to be a forum for them to talk a lot about vegetables (guess who'll be following that blog!!)

Super Soup

    So far, there have been very few instances in Norway where I have felt truly, unavoidably American.  They've been there: Grocery store clerks will switch to English if I don't give a quick enough "Nei" when they ask if I want a bag, sometimes I end up at a social event in jeans and a sweatshirt when everyone else is dressed to the nines, and, of course, I still eat an ungodly amount of peanut butter.  Honestly, though, I feel like I haven't been doing too badly - when you're in a foreign country you sometimes just have to accept that you will make social gaffes and move on.  But there is one thing that I was initially unprepared to deal with:  No microwave.  I mean, I'm a college student.  The microwave is my best friend.  I just don't understand how no one in Norway seems to feel that a microwave is a necessary kitchen appliance, and then I feel bad for not understanding because I look a whiny American who needs a pizza pocket or something.  All I want to do is heat up my leftover rice and beans.  I promise.          

This is apparently what people used to heat up food in

But because I'm cheap and I'm only going to be here for four months, there is no way I'm shelling out the cash for a microwave of my own.  Luckily, my mother knows a thing or two about cooking in the dark ages and when I explained to her my microwave-less situation, she gave me some advice.  Apparently, before the microwave oven was invented, there was this thing called the oven.  And if you happened to have leftover food that needed heating, you put it in this so-called oven.  So, taking my mother's word that this was the way to go, I invested in a sturdy-looking glass 9 x 13 Pyrex baking dish.  And it works pretty well.  The only problem with this solution is that I've already been spoiled - microwaves are just so damn convenient.  You can have re-heated food in one minute without having to dirty several other dishes in the process.  

  

So, while I do really love my Pyrex baking dish, my other (slightly more creative) solution has been soup.  If I make soup and store it in a sauce pan with the lid on, then I can just stick the pan right back on the stove and heat it up whenever I want.  Voila, soup!  Okay, so at this point you're probably thinking that I should get over myself and get my lazy American butt over to the oven and heat up my rice and beans, but there are several other wonderful benefits to soup that I have not yet mentioned.  There is a reason this post is entitled "Super Soup" and that is because this lentil soup is not only SUPER easy (both to make and reheat), but SUPER good and SUPER cheap.  And it involves very few ingredients.   

Let's face it.  There's nothing better than having a homemade soup ready and waiting to be heated up for lunch, and this soup is particularly satisfying because it has tender chunks of potato and carrot, lentils, and a warm cumin flavor - it goes really well with a hearty slice of whole wheat bread.  And, best of all, reheating it doesn't require dirtying every dish I own.  

Lentil Soup

2 tbsp olive oil

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

2-3 medium-sized potatoes, cubed

2-3 medium-sized carrots, sliced widthwise

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup lentils

2 1/2 cups water

2-3 teaspoons cumin (depending on how much you like cumin)

generous pinch of salt

pepper to taste

1.  Chop all the veggies and set aside.  Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan, add the garlic and onion, and sauté until translucent.

2.  Add the remaining ingredient and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 25 - 30 minutes or until the potatoes, carrots, and lentils are all cooked through.  

3.  Taste, and adjust the salt, pepper, and cumin to your preferences!