Dipping noodles in sauce is the most marvelous idea.

If you, like me, are what Alex calls a “butter,” (short for butterfingers, but meaning generally spastic) sauce dribbles down your chin and splatters across your shirt and a solidly good mess ensues.  Nothing makes me feel two again like struggling to get a mound of wet noodles into my mouth.

Fortunately, the preparation of soba with dipping sauce is not as challenging as the consumption, but it is just as much fun.  This was our first attempt at home-cooked soba, though we’ve had some delicious versions at great places around the city.  To repeat myself, that’s home-cooked, not homemade, for we are not yet that skilled nor unoccupied.  Cooking soba noodles at home basically involves boiling water, throwing in noodles, and concocting a dressing. It’s easier than making just about anything, other than plain boiled pasta.  We fixed up some toppings, but you can go as minimalist as you desire.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)
8 oz. soba noodles
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 daikon radish, shredded
1 cup shitaki mushrooms, steamed in a bit of water and soy sauce

Instructions:
Boil water and salt it for soba noodles.  Combine stock, mirin and soy sauce, divide into bowls for dipping.  Cook soba noodles according to package instructions, and rinse with cold water.  Assemble soba noodles on plates, and top with scallion, radish and mushrooms.

After not having tortellini for maybe 10 years, I have them on the brain.  It’s kind of like when you learn a word, and then see it everywhere.  I rediscovered tortellini, and now I see and crave them constantly.  (Me:  What?  Has our local grocery store been selling tortellini all this time and I never noticed?!  Alex:  Yes.)

Alex is currently studying the brain for his Brain and Behavior class, yet he has been usless in helping me to determine why I cannot get enough tortellini.  Perhaps it is because his primary study tool is this video?

In any case, it seems as though the only cure for tortellini brain is more tortellini.  We conjured up this soup recently, and it has served as a sufficient antidote for about a week (though I can feel the urges kicking in again: flashes of tortellini, visions of pasta, etc.).  The recipe is adapted from one in Eating Well magazine.  The original recipe uses ravioli and suggests tortellini as an alternative.  I don’t just suggest it; I strongly urge it.   We made some other tweaks, and our version is posted below.

Enjoy, and don’t blame us if you catch the tortellini brain.  I hear it’s contagious.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 28-ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp dried basil
1 9 oz. package fresh tortellini
2 cups zucchini, dices
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Heat oil over medium-high heat large soup pot.  Add onions, and cook for about two minutes until glistening.  Add peppers and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes until onions and peppers are soft.  Stir in crushed red pepper, then add tomatoes, broth and basil and bring to a simmer.  Let simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add tortellini and cook for 3 to 5 minutes less than package instructions.  Add zucchini and cook until it is tender, about 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, then serve.

We have some secret news: We are publishing a cookbook! The Frugal Foodie Cookbook by Alex and Alanna our very own selves!

Insane, right?!  It’s been exactly 1 year and 4 days since our literary agent first contacted us about putting together a proposal based on the blog, and since we signed a contract with Adams Media in August, it’s been a non-stop cookbook frenzy!  We even kind of lied about our reasons for not posting too much this year — in addition to being swamped with school work, we were also creating, compiling and testing recipes for the book (which, by the way, features 200 dishes!)

Our most darling and precious baby, The Frugal Foodie Cookbook is coming out September 18, 2009, and you can already buy it online at Amazon or  Borders!  Also, we are headed to the Book Expo of America on Saturday, May 30 at the Javits Center in New York — so stop by to say hi and grab a Big Apple Muffin if you are in the area.

The book features deliciously frugal recipes for cooks at all levels.  While some of the recipes are from the blog, a number of them are brand new and wonderfully tasty!  (Think: Classic Colombian Arroz con Pollo, Frugal Bouillabaisse, Gorgonzola Pizza with Radicchio and Asian Pears, Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes and more…) We really hope that everyone will check it out, especially since its super cheap — just $14.95! (That’s like 3 Starbucks lattes, or a fancy sandwich at an overpriced NY deli — practically nothing!)

Whew!  That was a lot of exclamation marks.  And that’s not even all, because we also want to share a delicious recipe for tangy, savory fish soft tacos.  My exams are finally over (woot for being a rising 2L — I am cool now), so we’ve been getting back to cooking a little.

We’ve been thinking about fish tacos ever since watching Paul Rudd and Jason Segel devour them in I Love You, Man.  Our version includes a mango salsa and an hot and crunchy cabbage salad that we’ll definitely make over and over again to eat even on its own.

Enough for now, but we’ll try to keep everyone posted on all book developments, and, of course, all of those delicious summer recipes we’ve promised ourselves we’ll be making…

Ingredients (serves 4):
(mango salsa)
2 mangoes, cut into very small pieces
2 vine tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1 tbsp jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste

(cabbage salad)
1 head green cabbage, sliced very thinly
2 carrots, grated
2 tbsp cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

(fish)
1 1/2 lb. tilapia fillets
juice of 3 lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp hot sauce
12 small corn tortillas

Instructions:
To make mango salsa, stir all ingredients together gently in a large bowl, and let rest for at least 30 minutes.  To make cabbage salad, combine cabbage, carrots and cilantro in a large bowl.  Whisk together remaining ingredients, then toss with dressing until vegetables are coated.  Let rest for at least 30 minutes.  For fish, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, cumin and hot sauce.  Place fish in a shallow pan, and pour lemon marinade over it.  Let marinate for 10-15 minutes.  Heat a large pan, and add fish to pan.  Cook fish fillets for about 4 minutes on each side, until fish is cooked through.  Remove from heat, and separate into large chunks.  Serve fish, mango salsa, and cabbage salad on warm corn tortillas.

It’s among our lifelong cooking goals to bake tofu as delicious as the tofu at the Whole Food’s salad bar (that, growing a gigantic vegetable garden, and mastering the knack of cake decoration, for starters).

This last attempt marked a definitive step forward in our attempt to capture the illusory texture that makes the Whole Foods tofu so divine.  We shifted our focus from flavor to texture, and attribute our progress to a last-minute decision to bake the tofu on a roasting pan, which caused the extra marinade to drip off and allowed the tofu to become extra chewy and crisp.

We loved the combination of tofu and rice during our last tofu bake, but decided to step it this time with rice AND lettuce and carrots.  Surely, we’ve grown too daring for our own oven mitts.

Ingredients:
2 blocks extra firm tofu, sliced into 1/3-inch pieces
1 head Butter lettuce
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup bean sprouts
1 carrot, cut into very thin slices

(marinade)
1/4 cup tamari soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp grated ginger

Instructions:
Cover a baking sheet with three to four layers of paper towels.  Place tofu slices on the paper towels, and cover with an additional three to four layers of paper towels.  Place a second baking sheet on top of the tofu, and weigh it down with water-filled pots, law/medical school books, or other heavy items.  Let tofu press for 30 minutes, then change paper towels and repeat for another 30 minutes.  Remove paper towels, and place tofu back on the baking sheet.  Whisk together marinade ingredients, and pour marinade over tofu.  Preheat the oven broiler. Let tofu marinate for 20-30 minutes, and then place tofu on a roasting pan, reserving any extra marinade for dipping (if you don’t have a roasting pan, just keep them on the baking sheet).  Broil tofu for about 7 minutes on each side, until golden brown.  Assemble lettuce wraps with tofu, carrots, bean sprouts, rice and leftover marinade dipping sauce.

Tofu has historically been a problem food for us. While we love eating it when other people prepare it, it has been a culprit in some of our hugest cooking disasters to date.

Until today, we had never really been able to make our tofu taste like anything except plain tofu, and we definitely had never succeeded in changing its texture from soft and mushy to firm and gummy. This meal marked concrete progress on both fronts. This orange tofu has taste — it’s sweet, orangey, savory, and delicious, and it’s even a bit crunchy around the edges!

We attribute the success to a first attempt at this “pressing and draining” technique we’ve been hearing so much about around the blogs. Lesson learned: if everyone else is doing it, there’s probably a reason for it.

This tofu went wonderfully over a healthy version of coconut rice (no milk, just toasted coconut, ginger, and lemongrass stirred in). It’s definitely a recipe to add into the weeknight rotation.

Ingredients:
two block firm tofu
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup sherry
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp lemon zest

Instructions:
Drain and press tofu by placing blocks in between two thick layers of paper towels (about 3 sheets per layer). Place a heavy item, like a baking dish with water, on top of the tofu. Press tofu for two hours, changing the paper towels after one hour. Whisk together orange juice, sherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, ground ginger, and lemon zest. Place tofu in a baking dish, and pour marinade over it, turning tofu over to make sure there’s marinade on both sides. Let marinate for 30 minutes, and then preheat the oven to 375. Bake tofu covered with aluminum foil for 20 minutes, then without foil for an additional 15 minutes. Drain marinade, and reserve for pouring over tofu later. Turn on the broiler, and broil tofu for an additional 5-7 minutes until browned. Serve over coconut rice with extra marinade.

Hello again, blogosphere. Miss us?

Samesies. We miss your wry humor and dramatic flair, the way you held us tight and promised to never let us go (not even to pee, and only occasionally for diet coke break). Let’s not lie: we were addicted to each other.

And now? Grad school. Anatomy and Contracts are no Chem and Early American Lit. These classes have work. But we’re trying so hard to come back to you. We’ll make it happen.

We even created this delicious dinner for you to remind you that we’re still around. Fresh figs are in season, and they make the sauce in this dish so aromatic and just slightly sweet. It only took about 30 minutes total, but the chicken was as moist as anything we could have marinated. The flavors are ideal for a quick early fall dinner — your favorite. And ours.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
20 fresh figs, halved
1 tsp sweet paprika, divided
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
1 ½ cups red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Sprinkle chicken with ½ tsp paprika, salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large pan. Add chicken breasts and brown both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add wine and figs, and sprinkle rosemary and remaining ½ tsp paprika on top. Turn heat to medium, cover, and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 12-15 minutes. Move chicken from pan to a plate, and let it rest covered. Let the wine and fig sauce reduce without a cover for an additional 5 minutes, until thickened. Divide chicken breasts among plates, and pour sauce on top.