Thai Mushroom Ginger Coconut Curry

I first ate this dish when I was living in Prague.  My Danish friend and schoolmate Nicolai had me over for dinner, and was trying to explain to me how to make the dish since I thought it was so delicious.  Unfortunately, he didn't know the words for some of the mushroom types, but I eventually deciphered his recipe, which is actually quite simple once you know what mushrooms you're looking for.

Very rarely will you dumpster ALL the mushrooms that are in this soup, so don't feel horrible if you're missing some.  I just lucked out and happened to dumpster most of the ingredients prior to making it.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 pkg white mushrooms
- 1 pkg shitake mushrooms
- 1/2 pkg baby bella mushrooms
- 1 pkg oyster mushrooms
- 1 yellow onion
- As much ginger as your puny mouth can handle
- 1-3 cloves garlic (you can do more if you want)
- A handful of 3-minute noodles (rice noodles or ramen are ideal, but I've used spaghetti and it's worked out fine - spaghetti is pictured above since I was saving my rice noodles for a batch of pho)
- 1 can sweetened coconut milk (If it's unsweetened, just add a teaspoon or two of sugar) (coconut milk is a rare but exciting dumpster find in my experience)
- Water
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Fresh basil
- Fresh cilantro (optional)
- Green or red curry paste (optional)

Cut up the ginger into very small chunks (but don't grate it or mince it).  Throw pieces into about 2-3 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes (you don't want it all to evaporate, though or else you'll lose the gingery flavor the water takes on).
ADD SALT.  This step is important.  If you don't, your mushrooms and pasta won't be as flavorful.
Add your onion, garlic, and mushrooms to the water and let it reduce a little bit - until there's about 1 cup left.
Next, add coconut milk and bring to a low simmer again.  If you're using real noodles vs. quickly cooking ones, you'll need to bring the liquid to a bit more of a boil.
Add your noodles.  If you're using real noodles, cook until the noodles are tender.  Otherwise, just drop your ramen or rice noodles in for about a minute, then take it off the heat.
Add to taste - go overboard on the basil and add maybe just a teaspoon of green curry for the best results.

Ingredients not dumpstered or donated: Ginger, salt & pepper

Vegan Banana Coconut Milk "Ice Cream"

My friend Gerry served this at a dinner party. I was so jealous I didn't get any (it went fast) that I decided to try my hand at making a batch of my own! This is a great way to use up bananas that went straight into the freezer when you dumpstered them. Also, it's a healthy dessert since there's no added sugar and potassium galore! Now that the weather is getting warmer, I don't feel quite so bad about posting an "ice cream" recipe...there's a few more sorbets coming up in the future too...

Ingredients:
- 6 bananas, pre-frozen
- 1 can coconut milk (I hardly ever dumpster this stuff, but I got a few dented cans/boxes recently, which got me really excited!)

Stick it all in a blender until it's smooth-ish (no more banana chunks). Stick it in a container. Stick it in the freezer in an air-tight container. THE END. Makes roughly 1 pint.

When I went through my pint, I would drizzle a little honey and made a blackberry reduction (literally just sticking blackberries on the stove and cooking off the liquid until it's a sauce. You can easily do this with pretty much any berry) to put on top of it with some mint since I was eating this stuff for a long time and wanted to spice it up, but it's really nice plain too, or with a little nutmeg.

A warning about not eating the "ice cream" right when you make it: this stuff hardens up like a rock in the freezer since there's no added sugar or liqueur (the stuff that makes sorbets easily scoop-able), so you'll probably want to leave it out to thaw at the beginning of dinner so it's scoop-able by the time dessert hits. I also had some luck with putting it in the microwave to thaw it out, but that method was less reliable.

Items not dumpstered or donated: ZERO!