Miso Zucchini Salad

Sundays are my day to get chores done and boy howdy, was yesterday packed full!  I started off the day by taking Duncan to play in the park with his friend Cat, a rather excited catahoula leopard dog, and by the time we got home we were pooped and hungry!  Sometimes I'm a little decision-challenged, but I'm guessing that I shouldn't have been trying out a new pressure-cooker egg recipe while starving.  Michael Ruhlman has been publishing a series of pressure-cooking blogs written by Laura Pazzaglia, and ever since he posted on pressure-cooking eggs, I've been dying to try the recipe for Eggs en Cocoette.  I happened to be missing most of the logical ingredients, so I settled on putting a little pesto in the bottom of the ramekin and goat cheese on top.  I tried to cook the eggs covered in foil for a soft yolk, but I somehow messed up the timing; first they were raw, then they were overdone, but they still tasted delicious.  I look forward to trying again next weekend.  Hopefully I'll get it right.

With the pressure-cooker out and very few groceries in the house, I decided to make chili for dinner.  My dried kidney beans were at least a year old, but I soldiered ahead with high hopes.  After an hour-long soak, I pressure-cooked them; they still weren't done, so I pulled them off the stove and left them in the hot water while we went to tea with Ben's parents.  When I  came home, they were mostly soft and that was enough for me.  I made my chili and darn it if my beans weren't mostly OK!

Admittedly, I hadn't set the bar very high.

Eggs and beans and chili bring me to my Asian-inspired zucchini salad.  As I mentioned, we hadn't gone grocery shopping in a week and were rather low on just about everything.  Fortunately, we overbought last week, and still had some nice, viable produce in the fridge, including a bag of zucchini.  I've been bored out of my mind with veggies lately, and with the crocuses starting to bloom and spring peeping around the corner, I'm into salads.  So what can I do with zucchini that doesn't involve roasting or steaming or sautéing?  I started Googling and voila, a lovely recipe for miso zucchini salad.  With a few modifications, I served Asian zucchini salad with chili for dinner.  Not my most well-thought out meal, I'll admit, but theres something to be said for just using what's in the fridge and making tasty food.

Miso Zucchini Salad

2 large zucchinis, cut into large matchsticks
1 1/2 T white miso paste
1 T GF tamari
1/2 T seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 T lime juice
1/2 tsp hot pepper sesame oil
1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Place chopped zucchini in large mixing bowl.
2. In a small bowl, combine miso paste, tamari, seasoned rice vinegar, lime juice, hot pepper sesame oil and maple syrup.  Mix well and pour over zucchini.
3. Add cilantro and sesame seeds.  Serve cold.

Adapted from all recipes.com http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zucchini-miso/detail.aspx

Enjoy!