LOX, STOCK, AND BARREL

Gougères (Cheese Puffs)

2012-02-12T21:42:00.003-08:00

Recipe from 101 Cookbooks. I like how the formed dough balls are freezable and can be put directly from the freezer into the oven so that you can have cheese puffs anytime, and don't have to cook the whole batch all at once.

If you lightly coat them with water, then the dough balls won't stick to your hands, and you can actually roll the balls between your palms to make them round. This helps them to stay rounder in the oven. You should smooth any peaks in the dough balls, since they might burn.

Tomato Sauce

2012-02-09T17:12:00.005-08:00

Recipe very roughly based off of "Tomato Sauce" in "The Silver Spoon".

1 can whole peeled San Marzano tomato from Italy (28 oz)
olive oil
a few cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled whole
salt

Heat a saute pan on medium with some olive oil. Empty entire contents of the tomato can into the saute pan. Add garlic cloves and a pinch of salt. Once the sauce is boiling, reduce heat to a simmer. Break up whole tomatoes into pieces. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes, stirring every so often.

You can also add basil if you like, and puree the sauce to make it smoother. Extra sauce can be frozen.

Here I added a dash of half and half and tossed some just cooked ravoli into the sauce.

Gingery Split Pea Soup with Toasted Coriander

2012-02-07T22:45:00.008-08:00

Recipe from Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now". Her split pea soup has Indian inspired spices, sort of similar to a dal.

I made a few modifications. The first split pea soup that I ever liked was a spit pea and jalapeno--what can i say? I like spicy foods! This split pea soup also had a runny consistency, and it made me reconsider split pea soup since all the previous versions I had had were a grossly thick solid mass. I added a chopped serrano pepper to mine because "Super Natural Every Day" Heidi Swanson mentioned that Jalapenos are like a donkey kick, all fire, but serranos are fire and flavor. I also added some left over charcuterie, since I'm trying to use it up. I left out the celery and lemon since I don't have any around. And I left out the rosemary, since I didn't think it went with Indian Spices.

Can you believe that there is one pound of split peas in this soup? And from my quick search of the internet, using 1 pound of split peas appears to not be unusual.

Sunchoke Soup

2012-02-05T21:28:00.007-08:00

My education in sunchokes continues--this time with sunchoke soup because Nigel Slater said that when sunchokes are blitzed into a soup, the soup ends up being creamy without the addition of cream. I was intrigued, so I tried it. He also says that bay leaves are a must in artichoke soup.

The recipe that follows was recreated from the following description in Slater's book "I have long made a simple artichoke soup by adding the scrubbed tubers to softened onions, pouring over stock, and then simmering until the artichokes fall apart. I often add a little lemon juice, bay leaves, and sometimes a thumb of ginger. I blitz it in the blender, then stir in lots of chopped parsley. Some might introduce cream at this point but I honestly don't think it's necessary. The soup is velvety enough."

This is a soup that tastes good and different from the norm, but you find yourself only wanting to eat small portions of it. Next time I would use a leek to cut down on the sweetness (which is suggested in a different sunchoke soup in Slater's book) because my soup came out fairly sweet. In this picture, the soup is served with croutons, since I had some slate bread around that needed to be used up.

1 yellow onion, minced
about 1 pound sunchokes, scrubbed and coarsely chopped
1 pint good quality chicken stock
butter
1 or 2 bay leaves
salt
walnut oil for garnishing (optional)

Melt a pat of butter in a large pot on medium. When the butter foams, add the minced onion. Cook slowly until the onion becomes golden brown and just slightly caramelized (about 20 minutes).

Add sunchokes to the pot and saute for about 2 minutes. Add stock and bay leaves; if the stock does not full cover the sunchokes, then add water until the sunchokes are covered. Bring to a boil. Partially cover the soup, and simmer until the sunchokes soften (this should take 15-20 minutes, though mine took about 30).

Let cool slightly or add a small amount of cold water to cool the soup a little bit. Blitz the soup in a blender in batches. Return to the pot, and bring to a boil. Taste and add water (and rebring the soup to a boil) if the soup is too thick. Taste and salt, as necessary to the soup. Serve hot, garnished with walnut oil.

Double Coconut Granola

2012-02-01T19:33:00.003-08:00

This time, I mostly followed Melissa Clark's recipe for "Double Coconut Granola" from "Cook This Now", except:

I made a half batch. (Only because my oven is small.)
Instead of just pecans, I use a mixture of pecans and almonds. Half the nuts are whole, and half chopped. If you use a rolling pin or kitchen hammer to crush the nuts, then the pecans and the almonds must be crushed separately, because the almonds are much harder then the pecans.
I used twice the suggested amount of cinnamon.
I used golden raisins, instead of dried cherries. And I bake the golden raisins with the rest of the granola, instead of adding the dried fruit after baking, as Clark suggests. I accidentally did this the first time I made this recipe, and found out that I prefer the raisins this way, since it condenses and caramelizes their sugars.
Last time I made this recipe I used olive oil. This time I used virgin coconut oil, and added dried coconut, which is why it is a "double coconut" granola.

Melissa Clark's Stupendous Hummus

2012-01-31T22:16:00.005-08:00

Usually I use canned chickpeas for my hummus, especially since I think I read somewhere that using freshly cooked hummus results in less creamy hummus. However, I was wrong! Melissa Clark's recipe for Stupendous Hummus in "Cook This Now", uses freshly cooked chickpeas to obtain a satiny smooth texture. Cooking chickpeas is actually very simple and cheap to do. It only requires preplanning the night before to soak the beans.

She says that the chickpea skins should be removed and discarded (all if you want the smoothest hummus, but it is okay to just do as many as you have attention span for). For some reason my chickpeas didn't have any skins.

I made 1/2 of the recipe (1/2 cup dried chickpeas). The hummus appears to have become sightly more flavorful after being in the fridge for a few hours.

One hint that she gives, is that the spices and salt need to be mixed with the liquid so that the salt dissolves and the spices are distributed evenly. So when you make the hummus, you should add the water, lemon juice, spices, and salt and then blend. Then add the tahini and blend (this is so that the tahini gets dissolved. And finally, only after everything else has been blended, then add the chickpeas and blend one more time.

Chard with Roasted Sunchokes and Roasted Garlic

2012-01-30T22:47:00.003-08:00

This dish was made to use up the left over chard from the soup I made this weekend. Even though the motivation was using up leftovers, the dish came out surprisingly nice--nice enough that I may actually buy these ingredients specifically to make this dish sometime in the future.

1/2 bunch shard
a few sunchokes
a few cloves of garlic, skins intact
olive oil
salt

Roast sunchokes and garlic as described here. Peel the skin from the roasted garlic; discard skin.

Wash chard, and cut stems away from the leaves. Cut leaves into strips about 1/2 inch wide. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Blanch the leaves and stems separately. The leaves probably only need a few seconds--only just enough time to stir the leaves in and drain them. The stems need no more then 3-4 minutes. Taste the vegetables as they cook to help you determine when they are done. Drain the cooked vegetables, and rinse thoroughly with cold water to stop the cooking.

Heat a saute pan on medium to medium-high. Add some olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the shard, sunchokes, and garlic. Saute briefly, just until the vegetables get hot. Add a pinch of salt, and taste; adjust salt as necessary. Remove from heat, and mix in a splash of good quality olive oil if you like.

Roasted Sunchokes

2012-01-30T17:41:00.002-08:00

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub any dirt off the sunchokes. Slice in half and place in a cast iron pan. Add a few cloves of unpeeled garlic if you like. Toss with melted butter, rosemary leaves, and salt. Roast for 30-35 minutes or until soft and the edges have browned, turning every once in a while. (These took 45 minutes). Serve hot or at room temperature.

Winter Salad with Fennel, Radicchio, Walnuts and Manchego

2012-01-30T17:32:00.005-08:00

"Winter Salad with Fennel, Radicchio, Walnuts and Manchego" from Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now". The fennel must be shaved paper thin, using a mandolin. Since the salad has roasted walnuts in it (half were crushed, and half were whole), I used walnut oil, instead of olive oil, in the dressing.

Italian Butter Beans (White Beans) and Chard Soup

2012-01-30T16:57:00.005-08:00

After having a white bean and kale soup at work, I was inspired to make my own version. I was surprised at how much I lied the combination of beans and kale. I searched out the exact same type of beans that they used.

1/2 cup Italian Butter Beans (I used beans from Iacopi Farm)
1 bay leaf
1 stick rosemary
1/2 bunch of chard
1 medium yellow onion
chicken stock
2 carrots, thinly sliced
salt
white pepper

Cook the beans: Soak beans in cold water for several hours or overnight. The skin of the beans will shrivel and look like your hands when they have been in water for too long. Drain. Place beans in a pot and cover with 2-3 times their volume of water. Add 1 bay leaf and 1 stick rosemary. Bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer. Simmer until the beans are nearly cooked through (about 1 hour for this type of beans), and then add 1/2 tsp salt and cook for 10-15 more minutes. Do not add salt until nearly the end of cooking, otherwise the beans will break down too much.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Wash the chard, and then cut the stems away from the chard leaves. Slice the chard leaves into 1/2 inch wide strips. Blanch stems and leaves separately. The leaves should only need a few seconds; the leaves should not need more then 3-4 minutes. Rinse with cold water to set the color and stop the cooking. Drain and set aside. (I didn't add salt to the blanching water, but next time I make this recipe I might blanch the chard in salted water, so that hopefully it will absorb some of the salt).

Mince one medium onion, and saute it in a pan with some olive oil until the onion becomes golden. Add the beans, chicken stock, carrot slices, and a pinch of white pepper in a soup pot. Taste the bean water; if it tastes okay, then add it to the pot. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.

This soup needs to have some of its contents blended and added back into the soup in order for the flavors to meld. Either use a hand blender to blend only part of the soup, or let the soup cool slightly (be extremely careful with hot liquids in a blender), and add 1/4 of it (including some beans) into a blender. Blend, and then return the blended ingredients back into the pot. Taste and adjust the salt content. Bring to a boil, and add the chard into the soup just before service.

Dinner for William

2012-01-30T10:31:00.006-08:00

Things I learned this week:

How to cook beans and that I love Iacopi farm's white butter beans. The beans were in a white bean and kale soup last week and I inquired about the specific bean variety since I loved them so much. The beans are grown in Half Moon Bay beside the airport, and sold at the Ferry Building Farmer's market on Saturdays.
I cooked my first ever dish from sunchokes, which was roasted sunchokes. I'm not reading Tender by Nigel Slater; which features growing notes, a description, and recipes for a particular vegetable. Sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes, was one of the vegetables that I became really excited about. I had never tried them before, but luckily I spotted some roasted sunchokes at lunch this past week, and gobbled them up, and also bought some to replicate the same dish at home.
How to shave fennel into paper thin slices using a mandolin. Two weeks ago, I tried to make a fennel salad, but somehow forgot how to adjust the thinness of the slices on my Japanese mandolin, so the slices came out too big, and I didn't have the right ingredients to go with the salad--white cheddar and whole roasted cashews do not go with sliced fennel. This week, I reattempted a fennel salad with manchego, walnuts, walnuts, walnut oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and it came out great!

Sauteed Baby Carrots with Cumin Seeds and Mustard Seeds

2012-01-16T21:22:00.001-08:00

Curry Roasted Cauliflower

2012-01-16T21:17:00.003-08:00

Preheat oven to 450. Toss cauliflower with olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes, and curry powder. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once in a while, or until soft and some edges have caramelized.

An idea that I haven't tried yet is to toss the cauliflower with just lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper before roasting. I didn't do this, because I wanted to roast in my cast iron pan, and acids such a lemon juice aren't good in cast iron.

This would be nice with a yogurt sauce, tahini, or a bit of fresh olive oil drizzled on before serving.

Shrimp Scampi with Fennel Fonds and Israeli Couscous

2012-01-16T21:04:00.003-08:00

I love Israeli couscous because of its bouncy chewiness. In this recipe it is mixed with a buttery garlicky sauce.

Shrimp Scampi recipe from Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now". (Pernod was replaced with a bit extra white wine), and I mixed the scampi with cooked Israeli couscous. I used only 1/2 tsp sea salt because my butter was salted and I heavily salted the couscous water.

3 Tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp sea salt
pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 pound shrimp, shelled
2 Tbsp fresh minced fennel fronds
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
1 cup couscous

To make couscous: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 1 cup couscous to boiling water. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes until the couscous is cooking. Drain. If the couscous isn't immediately being mixed with the sauce, then toss it with some olive oil to prevent sticking.

While the couscous is cooking, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook about 1 minute, until fragrant, but not browned. Add the wine, salt, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer, and let it reduce by half (about 2 minutes).

Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until they just turn pink and a cooked through (2-4 minutes, depending on size). Stir in minced fennel fronds and lemon juice. Toss with cooked couscous. Taste and adjust seasonings and salt.

Here is a picture from the second time I made this recipe:

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Herbed Brown Butter, Toasted Pine Nuts, and Anchovy Bread Crumbs

2012-01-16T20:59:00.003-08:00

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Brown Butter, Toasted Pine Nuts, and Anchovy Bread Crumbs. The ravioli were tossed with brown butter, some Italian herbs, dried chili powder, and toasted pine nuts. I was trying to use up the anchovy bread crumbs because they were left over from another (unsuccessful recipe from Melissa Clark's "Cook This Now"; they surprisingly tied everything together. Ravioli was bought (not homemade).

Wild Rice Soup

2012-01-13T20:46:00.003-08:00

The soup made from the first blotched Wild Rice Salad attempt. This is a vegetable broth with some cooked wild rice and white rice, with a minced roasted serrano chili, and a spoonful of half and half. It makes a fairly pleasing soup, though next time I would cook the white rice separately, and only add it to the bowl before serving so that the white rice grains stay intact. If you leave the white rice in the soup for an extended period of time, it tends to break down and get softer. This is okay and it makes a thicker soup, but I prefer distinct grains.

Rice Cakes

2012-01-13T20:38:00.002-08:00

Rice cakes are a form of noodle that I learned about a year ago. Their thickness makes a particularly pleasing chewiness, so if you like chewy noodles, these are for you. Here, I'm just playing around with some rice cakes in my freezer that needed to be used up. Rice cakes can be bought fresh; if you don't use them up, then they store for months in the freezer. Stir fried rice cakes need to be soaked in cold water for about 45 minutes before cooking--its okay to soak them right out of the freezer. These rice cakes in Chinese "brown sauce", should have been stir fried with some sort of vegetable and perhaps some mushrooms. The sauce doesn't seem to need any corn starch for thickening (and it would make them more gluey) because the starch from the rice cakes helps to thicken the sauce.

Indian Paneer in Spicy Tomato Sauce (Tamatar Paneer)

2012-01-13T20:31:00.003-08:00

I choose to make this recipe because I had some paneer in my fridge that was about to expire; I decided to make a tomato based paneer sauce; this recipe appealed to me in particular, because I had all the ingredients at home already. This is a super quick and easy paneer with spicy tomato sauce. I was going to suggest doubling the quantity of sauce next time, but upon checking the recipe, it looks like I accidently used twice as much paneer as I was supposed to. I only used 1/4 cup half and half, instead of the 1 cup suggested (I didn't want to eat a cup of half-and-half by myself!). I also omitted the fresh cilantro since I'm one of those people that don't like cilantro (parsley could be substituted, though I didn't have any on hand). Recipe for "Sanjita's Coorh-Style Cheese in a Sweet Tart Tomato Sauce (Tamatar Paneer)" from "660 Curries" by Raghavan Iyer.

Roasted Winter Squash Stuffed with Wild Rice

2012-01-08T17:56:00.004-08:00

When I saw this colorful little squash at the farmer's market yesterday, I immediately thought of stuffing it with some sort of rice or quinoa, similar to how red peppers are sometimes stuffed with tomato-y rice. I was hoping for a one pot meal, where the rice was cooked as the squash roasts, however, when I searched the Internet all recipes seemed to roast the squash separately, presumably to caramelize the edges of the squash. Since I love the caramelized bits of the squash (and don't like mushy squash), I conceded, and prepared roasted squash and a rice salad separately, and then spooned the rice into the cavity. I ended up deciding on a wild rice salad, with a oil and vinegar dressing, tossed with things that I already had in my cupboard. To make it easier, I roasted the shallots, garlic, and chili pepper for the rice salad with the squash.

Prepare the roasted winter squash and the wild rice salad. Spoon the wild rice into the cavity of the squash. You can either serve this at room temperature (delicious!) or roast it in the oven for a few minutes until everything is heated through.

The inspirations for this recipe came from: here and here.

Wild Rice Salad

2012-01-08T17:53:00.006-08:00

Note: For my first attempt making this rice salad, I used a mix of wild rice and Japanese white rice. This was a disaster! The wild rice was nice, crunchy, and the individual grains were separated, however the white rice disintegrated and became starchy, indistinct grains, gluey, similar to congee. Fail! The cooked rice grains for this salad should be distinct and separated; there shouldn't be any liquid left. Asian white rice does not work in this recipe; maybe brown rice would, though I don't have any in my kitchen at the moment. So, I used that instead to make a soup, and then restarted with just wild rice.

I wanted the wild rice to be dressed with olive oil and vinegar, and to have some sort of roasted nuts, and some focused flavorings (i.e. just roasted veggies, and nuts, but no herbs, paprika, or other spices that I usually add to everything). Once I tossed the salad, I decided it needed some color and sweetness, so I added the sun dried tomatoes (mine are actually dehydrated early girl tomatoes from the farmer's market).

1/3 cup wild rice
1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1 roasted shallot
1 roasted serrano pepper
a few cloves of roasted garlic
1 few sun dried tomatoes, soaked in a very small amount of water for about 5 minutes to soften
toasted cashews
(roasted veggies were made with this recipe)

Add 1/3 cup wild rice and 1 cup water to pan (approximate a rice to water ratio of 1:3). Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low, cover, and keep at a simmer for about 50 minutes or until the wild rice is cooked. The rice is cooked when the grains start to split. If there is too much water left, then you can either strain the water out or turn up the heat to evaporate it. Let the wild rice cool to room temperature.

Chop the roasted shallots into quarters, and separate some of the layers. Lightly chop the roasted garlic and the sun dried tomatoes. Mince the roasted serrano pepper.
Add 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar, roasted shallots, roasted serrano pepper, roasted garlic, roasted cashews, water that the sun-dried tomatoes were soaked in, and salt to the cooked rice. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Serve at room temperature.

Roasted Winter Squash

2012-01-08T17:51:00.004-08:00

1 small squash
1 shallow
1 garlic head
1 serrano pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Slice a small winter squash in half. Peel the shallots, leaving root ends intact; if they are large separate into lobs. Leave the skin on the garlic, and leave it whole (if possible); you can use skin covered garlic cloves but you'll need to watch them since they will cook faster (about 20-25 minutes).

Place the squash, shallots, garlic, and serrano pepper in a cast iron skillet( or heavy baking pan) with some olive oil, curry powder, and the leaves from 1 branch rosemary, and some salt. Toss, making sure to either rub or sprinkle olive oil and spices on to the squash halves. Place the squash cut side up. Put the pan in the oven.

If you are using separated garlic cloves watch them carefully; they should become soft, spreadable, and caramelized but not become burnt, black, dried out, and crispy. Remove the pan from the oven when the serrano pepper, garlic and shallots are caramelized (about 30 minutes), remove the serrano pepper, garlic and shallots from the pan and set aside.

Turn the cut side of the squash down, onto the pan; the most browning on the cut sides will occur when it is touching the pan. Return the squash to the oven and continue roasting until the squash is soft, and the cut sides are browned (about 25 minutes).

Remove from oven. The squash may need an additional little sprinkle of salt. Serve hot, room temperature, or cold.

Ginger tea

2012-01-08T17:39:00.002-08:00

Grate about 1 tsp of fresh ginger for each cup of water (1 very large mug is approximately 2 cups). Add grated ginger and water to a pan, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes. This type of tea needs sweetness to bring out the flavor. Serve with honey.

Yellow Mung Beans Laces with Herbs (Moong Dal)

2012-01-08T16:28:00.002-08:00

I was surprised how the simple addition of ghee perfumed with cumin seeds and ginger made these lentils suddenly taste like Indian food.

Recipe from "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" by Julie Sahni.

Mark Bittman's No-knead bread

2012-01-08T16:23:00.003-08:00

Somebody made me bread!

Prime Beef

2011-12-27T22:27:00.004-08:00

The roaster is a wedding gift my parents received in the 70s.

Rose City

2011-12-27T17:43:00.004-08:00

Black Sticky Gingerbread

2011-12-27T17:32:00.003-08:00

Recipe from 101 Cookbooks. Since the recipe said that this was hard to remove from the pan, I baked it into cupcakes instead; this made serving it very easy! Plus, there is no need to butter the cupcake wrappers. The cupcakes only needed to bake for 30 minutes. It isn't the prettiest baked good, but it is very tasty.

Lettuce Wraps

2011-12-27T17:20:00.004-08:00

Saute one skinless chicken breast in a pan with a little bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside.

Finely mince 1 carrot, pressed tofu, mushrooms, 1 shallot, and water chestnuts; keep the minced vegetables in separate containers since you will add them to the saute pan at different times. When the chicken is cool, cut it into small pieces about the same size as the vegetables.

Add some olive oil to a pan on medium hot. Add tofu and cook until it starts to brown; when most of the tofu has color remove it from the saute pan and set aside. Add a bit more olive oil, and shallots and cook for about 30 seconds to one minute until it starts to brown. Add carrots. After 1 minute, add the mushrooms and water chestnuts. Dilute a small amount of corn starch in cold water. Cook for one minute more and add chicken. Add 1 or 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp of vinegar, and a bit of the diluted corn starch, and some Chinese cooking wine if you like. Cook very briefly, until the corn starch starts to thicken. Serve with lettuce leaves.

Chinese Steamed Fish

2011-12-27T16:50:00.004-08:00

My sister made this, using a technique similar to this. We steamed for somewhere between 8-12 minutes.

Christmas Day

2011-12-27T16:31:00.002-08:00

Chinese Hot Pot

The two dipping sauces are:

Put many Tbsp of the solid part of Chinese BBQ Sauce (Bull head brand by Haw-Di-I Foods) into a medium-hot saute pan (try to get as little oil as possible). Heat until fragrant (this should take only a minute or two). Turn off heat, and add enough soy sauce to make a slightly drippy mixture (should be much less then BBQ sauce, maybe only a Tbsp or two, depending on how much BBQ sauce you used).

Shake one can of coconut milk (regular or light is okay), and remove the top. Place several Tbsp of curry powder in a medium-hot small saute pan. Heat until fragrant (30 seconds or so). Pour the coconut milk into the pan. Bring the sauce to a low boil. Mix a few tsp of corn starch in a little bit of cold water, and add a few spoonfuls to the hot sauce. Let the mixture boil for a minute and check the texture; keep adding the diluted corn starch and boiling until the sauce has thickened. The sauce should be a little thicker then curry usually is, since soup water from the cooked ingredients will dilute the sauce. Add salt or soy sauce to taste.

Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine with Polenta and Brussels Sprout Salad

2011-12-21T20:26:00.002-08:00

Recipes from:
"Yellow Grits" and "Not Your Mama's Brussel Sprouts" in "A New Turn in the South" by Hugh Acheson.
"Wine Braised Short Ribs" in "Cook This Now" by Melissa Clark" (omitted port, parsley stems, thyme, and celery)

Lentil and Rice Soup with a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

2011-12-17T19:00:00.006-08:00

Rice and Lentil Soup:
1 onion finely chopped
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp Garam Masala
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 bay leaf
1 branch of curry leaves
4 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 tsp salt, more to taste
1/3 cup brown rice
1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp turmeric

Heat a dab of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until softened and the edges are browned and caramelized (10-15 minutes). Add the cinnamon, allspice, bay leaf, curry leaves, (also ginger and garlic too, if you are using this). Cook until mixture is fragrant, about 1 minute, but don't burn the spices. Stir in the stock, 3 cups of water, the rice, and the salt. Bring the mixture to boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the red lentils, and cook until the rice is tender and the lentils have mostly dissolved, about 30 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of cooking stir in 1 tsp garam masala, paprika, and turmeric. Taste and adjust salt; if the soup tastes flat it needs more salt (mine needed 1/2 tsp).

--> I didn't have ginger and garlic around when I made this, but it would have been nice to add this.
--> I think this would also be nice with some finely minced carrots and celery (minced about the size of the plumped up rice).

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Ingredients:
* 2 slices of bread
* mild white cheddar (such as Point Reyes white cheddar)
* pepper jelly (such as Rose City Pepperheads)
* good quality butter

Put a few slices of white cheddar on a slice of bread, and smear some pepper jelly on top. Heat a heavy cast iron pan, when hot, add a dab of butter. Place the sandwich in the pan when the butter foams. Put a second dab of butter on top of the sandwich. After 5 minutes flip the sandwich. Cook for a few minutes more and serve.

Salad

2011-12-06T21:02:00.001-08:00

Salad with Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese crumbles, hard boiled egg confetti, and freshly roasted almonds with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Chinese Style Dinner

2011-11-26T22:46:00.002-08:00

Pressed tofu with celery, carrots and daikon radish pickled in rice wine vinegar (bought), sautéed spinach, clams in black bean sauce, regular tofu with rock shrimp and mushrooms, long beans, and eggplant.

Clams and Black Bean Sauce

2011-11-26T22:39:00.001-08:00

Recipe from Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook

Moo Shu Turkey

2011-11-26T10:10:00.004-08:00

We ate the turkey leftovers as Moo Shu Turkey, using green onion pancakes that my sister made (recipe previously posted on this blog), spinach, and plum sauce.

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T22:49:00.007-08:00

My sister did most of the cooking this year (especially all the pies, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and decorating the ginger bread house). I cut up a bunch of stuff, and cooked the vegetables (I had four burnings going in order to cook all the vegetables at the same time). My mother decided to use Alton Brown's recipe for turkey this year with the tin foil triangle that he talks about in the accompanying video; we really liked it.

Thanksgiving Eve

2011-11-24T00:37:00.003-08:00

Pictures from the little party that my family had the night before Thanksgiving. The holly is from my mother's garden.

Granola

2011-11-24T00:26:00.003-08:00

This is based on Melissa Clark's recipe for granola in "Cook This Now", though I changed nearly all of the fruits and nuts. It has 4 cups rolled oats, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/3 cup dark brown sugar, 3/4 cup almonds (some coarsely chopped, some not), 3/4 cup pecans (some coarsely chopped, some not), 1 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup yellow raisons, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 of a whole nutmeg (grated), a little bit of vanilla extract, a few pinches of candied ginger, and 1 tsp salt. Preheat oven to 300 F. Mix all ingredients together, and then back for about 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Olive oil was used instead of coconut oil. I was supposed to add the dried fruit after the granola had cooked, but I accidently added them before. It turned out fine; the yellow raisons turned into brown raisins but they have a nice concentrated flavor and are very sweet.

The second time I made this, I used an extra 1/2 tsp of cinnamon; this made a really nice, tasty, slightly more cinnamon-y granola!

Hummus with Pine Nuts

2011-11-24T00:17:00.002-08:00

I just eyeballed the measurements for this hummus. It contains chickpeas, tahini sauce, juice from 1/2 lemon, some of the liquid from the chickpea can, olive oil, salt. The secret to creamy hummus is to mix all of the wet ingredients together first (everything except the chickpeas), so that the tahini loosens up. If you try to mix all the ingredients at the same time, the tahini won't get evenly mixed in, especially if the tahini is solid or highly viscous. It is okay to not mix all the liquid into the tahini (especially if you don't know how much water you'll need to add); the important part is that you mix enough liquid into the tahini so that it becomes fluid.

Brussels Sprouts

2011-11-24T00:07:00.004-08:00

This recipe was inspired by a dish that I recently had at a restaurant with my sister. They served strips of fillet minion over a warm brussels sprout salad. The sprouts were cut lengthwise into slices only a few millimeters thick; this allowed them to char the outside leaves but not over cook them since the thinner slices cook quicker then the entire sprout.

Instructions:
Cut the brussels sprouts so that they are only a few millimeters thick so that they won't get over cooked. Melted a bit of butter on a grill pan and drizzled some oil over it, and then grill slices of brussels sprouts until they had brown spots, turning once. Sauté some minced shallots and mushroom stems in another pan until they are cooked through, and then add the grilled brussels sprouts, along with any extra oil and butter from the grill pan. Add a good sized squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Saute for one minute more.

Tostones (Fried Plantains) with Guacamole

2011-11-24T00:00:00.004-08:00

My sister made me tostones with guacamole and I loved them! She fries 2 inch pieces of green plantains in about 2 inches of vegetable oil until they are cooked and crispy. When she removes them from the oil, she places them on paper towels and smashes them with a cooking hammer or the back of a spoon, and then sprinkles lots of salt on them. She doesn't double fry them. She served them with guacamole; she also said these would probably be great with black bean sauce. These are best eaten hot, immediately after they are made.

A similar recipe is here: http://icuban.com/food/tostones.html.

Buttery, Garlicky, Spicy Calamari with Israeli Couscous

2011-11-20T17:49:00.002-08:00

When Melissa Clark mentioned this recipe for "Buttery, Garlicky, Spicy Calamari with Israeli Couscous" in "Cook this Now", she said that this dish is one of her cheapest and fastest satisfying dishes. I was intrigued because the dish cooks in 10 minutes, but worried whether it would be too plain. I shouldn't have been--it was great! I loved the garlicky, buttery flavors which are similar to clams with linguine. We replaced the basil with basil pesto since that's what we had on hand. I will definitely make this again.

Eggs in Purgatory

2011-11-07T21:00:00.011-08:00

This was inspired by a dish at Huckleberry. They actually call it baked eggs in tomato sauce with creamy white beans, even though eggs in purgatory is a well known name for eggs baked in tomato sauce.

Prepare some creamy small white beans: wash 1/2 cup dried white creamy beans. Cover with cold water and let soak overnight. Rinse, and cover with fresh cold water (should be about double or triple the quantity of the beans). If you want you can add some aromatics to the liquid (e.g. half an onion, or mirepoix) or a few cloves of garlic. Simmer until the beans are nearly cooked (this can take anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours). In the last 10-15 minutes of cooking, salt the water so that the beans can absorb some salt. Don't salt earlier since this will make the beans hard.

Prepare tomato sauce. I don't know whether Huckleberry's sauce is from canned or fresh tomatoes, but it sweet and intensely tomato-y, so I knew I wanted a simple sweet tomato sauce with not much else in it besides tomatoes or tomato paste. I used this recipe for naked tomato sauce from smitten kitchen. I was unconvinced about whether this recipe would be good until I saw a very similar recipe for "quick tomato sauce" in "The Silver Spoon" (it's the "Joy of Cooking" of Italy), which uses only tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, parsley, and salt. The sauce turned out great! I used 3 pounds of heirloom early girl tomatoes (since they were misshapen and extremely ripe they were only $2 per pound), instead of the plum tomatoes which were suggested in the recipe (this makes the sauce extra sweet). Just like the recipe suggests, I blanched the tomatoes for about 30 seconds. I peeled the skin over a colander set over a bowl to catch juices, and also squeezed the seeds out into the colander. This made surprisingly more juice then I expected. Then I threw the tomato flesh and the strained juices into a pot, and let it simmer for 40 minutes. Towards the end of cooking, I pureed about half the sauce so that the sauce would be thicker and fuller, though I left some chunks in.

To prepare eggs in purgatory: Preheat oven to 375. Heat up tomato sauce. Find a small casserole dish, and cover the bottom with the hot tomato sauce. Mix a scoop of drained beans into the sauce. Crack a few eggs into the sauce. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the egg whites are set. Watch carefully; if you want runny yolks the eggs are done just after the whites set. Remove from oven. Sprinkle a bit of salt on top. You can garnish with a few pats of butter scattered about (as suggested in the smitten kitchen tomato sauce recipe), or instead you can drizzle some nice olive oil over the top. Optionally garnish with Parmesan cheese or even basil chiffonade. I used a pat of butter and a few small pieces of fresco goat cheese.

Single Egg Omlet

2011-11-06T00:57:00.003-07:00

For this omelet, I minced half a jalapeno. I heated a crepe pan, and sautéd the jalapeno in some ghee until it just barely started to brown. Then I mixed the jalapeno with a single egg and a pinch of salt, onion powder, and a Tbsp of water. I cooked the omelet mixer in the crepe pan, and filled it with some goat cheese fresco.

Though I prefer my omelets to be baby yellow since they are more delicate that way. Browning makes the eggs tougher and indicates that the outside is overcooked. Unfortunately, I'm not used to adjusting the heat on my stove, and single egg omelets happen really quickly, so I wasn't able to cook this correctly, but I really liked the combination of ingredients!

Dia de Los Muertos

2011-11-02T23:33:00.001-07:00

Julie Sahni's Method of Cracking a Coconut

2011-10-27T13:39:00.003-07:00

I've always been scared of attempting to crack a coconut, but I recently stumbled upon Julie Sahni's method of Cracking a Coconut, in "Classic Indian Cooking" and decided to try it. I'm not very strong, but this method was easy for me! But with that said, once the coconut was cracked, it was really hard to separate the meat from the shell. It is much easier to just buy prepared coconut.

You simply preheat an oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is heating, pierce the "eyes" of the coconut; I used a hammer and a pointed screwdriver to make two holes (one for draining the liquid and the other so that air can get in). Then drain the coconut liquid and save in a bowl; my liquid had a few pieces of coconut hair in it, so I strained it with cheesecloth into a clean bowl. The liquid should taste sweet. If the liquid is sour or oily the coconut is rotten.

Then you bake the coconut in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the shell cracks (this took only 15 minutes for me; you should hear a pop in the oven when it cracks). Let cool, and then tap it all around with a kitchen mallet or hammer to release the meat from the shell.

Tea Eggs

2011-10-24T08:47:00.002-07:00

When I was a kid, I would only eat the yellow yolks of hard boiled eggs. This worked out fine because my sister would only eat the egg whites. However, when my mother made tea eggs, I would eat the whole egg, because the tea flavors the whites.

Tea Eggs recipe from "The Key to Chinese Cooking" by Irene Kuo. The recipe was for 2 dozen eggs, but I only made 10 eggs using the same broth. Next time I would reduce the salt a bit.

Spices!

2011-10-23T20:41:00.003-07:00

My spice cabinet is a little out of control.

Masala Dahi (Herb-and-Spice-Laced Creamy Yogurt Salad)

2011-10-23T20:16:00.010-07:00

Recipe from Juile Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking". I reduced this recipe to 1/3, omitted the fresh cilantro (since I hate cilantro), increased the mint/cayenne pepper/black pepper/salt, skipped the sour cream, and used low fat yogurt (since the yogurt isn't being cooked). I wanted a simple dinner tonight, so I ate this with some paratha (flatbread) which was pan fried with some ghee for a minute. I also sprinkled some garam marsala sprinkled on top of the paratha. David Lebovitz also made a really pretty post on raita recently.

1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 Tbsp minced fresh mint leaves
1/4 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 heaping tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (a pinch)
1/4 cup minced cucumber
paprika or cayenne pepper for garnish

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Cover, and chill thoroughly until needed. Serve sprinkled with paprika or cayenne pepper. don't mix the paprika into the yogurt, because this will make the yogurt turn pink!

Saag Paneer

2011-10-19T19:36:00.002-07:00

Recipe for Saag Paneer from "The Gateway to Indian Cooking: 660 Curries" by Raghavan Iyer

The recipe originally suggested 8 oz spinach and 8 oz mustard greens, but I replaced this with 16 oz prewashed baby spinach (it is a huge container of spinach). I really like how this recipe cooks the raw greens into the sauce; no blanching and squeezing spinach leaves! The end result was almost perfect, except that it needed a bit of cayenne pepper to make it hotter, and a bit more garam marsala.

Soup from left over Sabzi Korma

2011-10-18T19:27:00.002-07:00

After the Sabzi Korma was reheated several times, the vegetables became really soggy and were falling apart. So I pureed it, and added vegetable stock to thin it into a soup. To refresh it, I added a few pinches of garam marasala, cayenne pepper, salt, 1 curry leaf branch, and two ice cubed sized scoops of tomato paste (had some leftover tomato paste from another recipe that I froze into ice cubes so it would be easy to use). And then I stirred two spoonfuls of whipping cream to give it body.

Baked Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Chenna Bhorji (Eggless Scrambled Eggs)

2011-10-16T15:03:00.010-07:00

This dish was inspired by a combination of many things. I love squash blossoms, so when I saw them at the farmer's market this weekend, I had to buy some. I've been reading a lot about Indian cooking recently, and there are a bunch of recipes for vegetables stuffed with spiced paneer. For example, eggplant can be stuffed when it is split in two, and so can a hollowed out zucchini or bitter melon. So when I was choosing how to cook the squash blossoms, I decided to stuff them with Chenna Bhorji (Eggless Scrambled Eggs), since I've enjoyed Indian flat bread stuffed with this. After looking around the internet, I found a story on NPR, which suggest baking and poaching in vegetable stock as other ways of cooking squash blossoms besides frying them. I love fried zucchini blossoms, but I was feeling lazy and wanted to make something healthier; the baked option seemed the best for my dish. A lot of Julie Sahni's dishes also request sprinkling some spiced ghee with toasted mustard seeds, so that's where my spiced ghee came from; since the Chenna Bhorji is mild, I wanted to add the spiced ghee to liven up the dish with more spices.

I'm really happy with how this dish turned out! The tips of the blossoms are slightly crunchy. The cheese is firm and chewy, and there is a warm spiciness that doesn't overpower the delicate blossom flavor.

I cleaned out the pistil from the blossoms and rinsed them well to remove any bugs. I dried them well, and then stuffed them with Chenna Bhorji (Eggless Scrambled Eggs), and then gave the tops a twist to close the top of the blossoms. I heated up a cast iron pan, and melted some ghee in the bottom, and then arranged the stuffed blossoms on the pan. These were baked at 425 for 15 minutes (uncovered).

I made a spiced ghee, by melting some ghee in a small sauce pan and adding some minced ginger and brown mustard seeds (next time I would cook the mustard seeds first, and then throw in the ginger because the ginger burns very easily). The mustard seeds can splatter so keep a lid handy. After 30 seconds or after splattering subsides, I added a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. I drizzled the melted ghee and spices on the zucchini, and sprinkled a bit more garam marsala on them.

(Chenna Bhorji) Eggless Scrambled Eggs

2011-10-16T14:56:00.003-07:00

Inspired by Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking"

I actually didn't have any chenna, which is unpressed paneer, so I crumbled some paneer and mixed in some 1/4 tsp tumeric mixed with 2 tsp water. I sauted a minced onion until softened and brown, and then I threw in 1 chili pepper and some curry leaves. In the last few minutes of cooking, I added the cheese, some some garam marsala, salt and pepper. (I removed the curry leaves at the end of cooking)

Sabzi Korma (Cauliflower, Eggplant, and Potato in Herb Sauce)

2011-10-15T15:29:00.003-07:00

Recipe from Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian And Grain Cooking". I thought Korma was a cream based sauce, but I was wrong! Korma is actually a nut based sauce. This recipe uses ground blanched almonds to make a luxurious sauce.

Blanched Almonds

2011-10-14T23:36:00.005-07:00

Actually making blanched almonds is a lot easier then I imagined--it is equivalent to removing the skin on tomatoes.

Recipe:
Cover with boiling water for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Rinse with cold water to cool the almonds. The skin should be wrinkle. Peel off skins.

Garam Masala

2011-10-14T23:00:00.004-07:00

Recipe from Julie Sahni's Punjabi Garam Masala

Garam marsala, translates loosely to "warm/hot spice blend". In Julie Sahni's cook books, this blend is added in the last five minutes of cooking nearly every north indian dish to add additional flavor and fresh spices. When dishes are reheated, Julie Sahni often recommends a bit more garam marsala to "perk up the flavors".

Celebrity Chef

2011-10-12T12:20:00.002-07:00

Indian Whole Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce (Ande ki Kari)

2011-09-25T11:10:00.004-07:00

This recipe is from "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni

If you are eating this over multiple days, it is better to cook up new hard boiled eggs each time you serve this, rather then cooking them all at once and leaving them in the sauce, because the eggs take on an unappealing brown-yellow color when the marinate in the sauce overnight.

Homemade Pesto

2011-09-24T18:23:00.006-07:00

I finally got around to trying to make my own homemade pesto. I've never attempted it before because I don't have a food processor, but I finally decided to try making it using my blender.

1/4 lb basil
4 to 6 cloves garlic
4 to 6 Tbsp Pine nuts
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of salt (1 tsp)

Chop pine nuts (I used a spice grinder for this). Chop garlic (I used a mortar and pestle for this).

Add olive oil to blender. Slowly add the basil, a few handfuls at a time to the blender, and puree using the "stir" and "chop" functions of the blender. Keep a coarse texture.

Combine pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and basil mixture, and cheese in a large bowl.

For a creamy pesto, you can add yogurt, cream, or sour cream to whatever amount of pesto you would like to use.

Avocados and Mustard Seeds (Indian Guacamole)

2011-09-24T18:20:00.002-07:00

This is another recipe from "Super Natural Every Day" by Heidi Swanson. The recipe is available as a pdf download here from Heidi Swanson's website. She says in the comments that this was Inspired by a recipe in Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking"

Millet Muffins

2011-09-24T14:43:00.009-07:00

There was a multigrain bread with seeds and millet made by Whole Foods that I used buy when I lived in New Mexico. I used to love this bread. Oddly, I've never seen it in any of their other stores, even though it was made by the Whole Foods store. My favorite thing about this bread was the crunchy little kernels of millet. Actually I didn't even know what the name of the grain was for years until I saw a package of dried millet in the grocery store last week. At the beginning of this weekend, I stumbled upon this recipe for millet muffins, and I knew I had to try them!

These are a little bit lemony, a little bit sweet, and a little bit savory similar to corn muffins. They are from "Super Natural Every Day" by Heidi Swanson. The recipe is available as a pdf download here from Heidi Swanson's website.

I bought a silicon coated muffin pan. This was much easier to deal with then the regular ones; the muffins slipped right out!

Next time I make this, I'd like to try only using half the suggested amount of butter.

Zucchini Fritters

2011-09-21T19:51:00.005-07:00

I followed this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Zucchini Fritters. It was super fast and easy, and tasty! You should grate the zucchini lengthwise, so that the strands are long. I also modified the recipe. I used 3 zucchini, and only 1/3 cup flour, and I added some crushed red chilis since I like spicy. I also cooked with ghee since I like my zucchini cooked with butter-based fats, since I find that it gives it a fuller more luscious flavor.

An interesting aspect of this recipe is that she points out that a little bit of baking powder can help keep fritters or potato pancakes fluffier.

Quinoa Patties

2011-09-06T21:21:00.005-07:00

For this, I used Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Every Day" recipe for "Little Quinoa Patties" as inspiration, but I ended up changing the recipe significantly. That's okay because this recipe is very flexible, and it was pretty fun to make. As Swanson mentions, it would also be a good way to use up left over cooked quinoa. This is good as is, but I also imagine it being dressed up as a veggie burger. Swanson also says that the uncooked batter can be kept in the fridge up to 4 days, so that fresh patties can be cooked as needed.

Here they are with melted cheese, a fried egg, chives, chipotle powder and hot sauce on top.

340g quinoa (1 box), cooked
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp sea salt
seasonings of your choice
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
olive oil
water if needed

For spiced I ended up using smoked paprika, crushed pepper, chipotle pepper, and cayenne pepper (I'm going through a spicy phase). I also added minced chives, dried Italian herbs, and smoked Gruyere cheese. My bread crumbs were a mix of ground red corn flour, and tempura batter mix (I meant to buy bread crumbs, but not mix, but bought the wrong thing). I also added dried early girl tomatoes to the quinoa when it was cooking, but I think that these tomatoes aren't really noticeable in the final cakes. For comparison, Swanson's recipe suggested gruyere or parmesan cheese, garlic, chives and a chopped onion.

Mix all spices, salt, cooked quinoa, 4 eggs, cheese, bread crumbs. Err on the wet side, otherwise the patties will be overly dry. If necessary you can add some water to the mixture. Spoon patties on to a skillet and pan fry flipping once until brown on both sides. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Matar Paneer

2011-08-28T16:13:00.005-07:00

Recipe from "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni

Paneer made from scratch. Making paneer was actually less work then finding an Indian grocery to buy premade paneer at.

Pimientos estilo de Padrón

2011-08-28T16:08:00.002-07:00

Pimientos estilo de Padrón
Olive oil
salt

Add a olive oil to frying pan, and head. When the pan is hot, throw the peppers in. When the peppers start to have small white blisters they are ready. Place on plate and sprinkle with sea salt

Fried Zucchini Blossoms

2011-08-27T19:06:00.002-07:00

Fried Eggplant

2011-08-07T19:34:00.003-07:00

I tried out this indian fried eggplant recipe. I didn't put enough spices on it, since it wasn't spicy and I couldn't taste them at all. However, I finally was able to salt them enough and wait long enough for the bitterness and hardness to leach out, so they ended up meltingly soft! I tried out a mix of corn flour & cornmeal for the breading, and fried in peanut oil.

Chicken Under a Brick

2011-08-02T13:31:00.002-07:00

Recipe from Mark Bittman The Minimalist: Chicken Under a Brick

Someone made me chicken... and vanilla ice cream too!

Dulce de Leche from Condensed Milk

2011-08-02T12:51:00.003-07:00

boil can method (can explode if you don't poke holes in the top):
http://purplefoodie.com/dulce-de-leche-holy-yum/
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/382487

oven method:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/11/dulce-de-lechec/

other safe methods:
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32293/Caramelized-Milk-Dulce-de-Leche/detail.aspx
http://www.chow.com/digest/3353/homemade-dulce-de-leche/

We decided to make this with the boiling-it-in-unopened-can method, and we're carefully to always keep the can covered with water, and not open it until it is cool. The recipe actually works! One comment I got on this, is that it would be better with some sea salt (David Lebovitz's recipe suggests this too), so it would be similar to a salted caramel. Next time, I'm thinking of using my new Maldon Sea Salt Flakes from England, which is my favorite salt right now since it has large pyramid shaped flakes which are crunchy.

Apple Galette

2011-07-10T22:56:00.002-07:00

Someone made me apple galette! Recipe from Alice Waters’s Apple Tart. Served with Cardamon ice cream.

Pernil (Roast Pork Shoulder)

2011-07-10T13:50:00.005-07:00

Someone made me Mark Bittman's Pernil (roast pork shoulder). Served with brown rice, black beans, and hot sauce, and then re-served with dirty rice (left over brown rice fried with left over pork fat, black beans, garlic, and a bit of tomato).

Loco Moco

2011-07-05T10:30:00.001-07:00

Loco Moco is a Hawaiian dirty spoon type of dish. Recipe from Big Island Grinds. I cooked the hamburger patties similar to one of the Umami burger recipes in Food & Wine

Sichuan pepper & salted nuts

2011-06-14T18:25:00.002-07:00

If you have raw nuts, you can roast them first but if you need to, you can use already roasted nuts. Take any non-salted nuts, and toss with roasted Sichuan pepper that has been ground with salt, and red pepper flakes. If your nuts are already roasted, you might need to sprinkle a bit of water on them to get the salt to stick

Baby Corn and Baby Carrots

2011-05-21T06:06:00.004-07:00

This is the first time I've seen fresh baby corn at a super market! To make this, I put the baby carrots and corn with about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water, a dab of butter, and red pepper flakes in a saute pan on medium high. I covered the pan and steamed the vegetables for about 5 minutes. Then I uncovered them, added some salt, and boiled off the remaining water, and mixed in a squeeze of honey.

Zucchini with Mushrooms

2011-05-21T06:04:00.003-07:00

This is zucchini sautéed with some mushrooms. I cooked this on medium high heat with the mushrooms first to brown them a bit, and added a pat of butter and olive oil. Next I added the sliced zucchini with some salt and some white pepper, and cooked until they were just barely done.

Mimosa

2011-05-21T05:49:00.003-07:00

I squeezed the orange juice myself. I tried making juice from two types of oranges--regular oranges and tangerines. I strongly preferred the regular oranges that are normally used as juicers.

Red curry soup with Tofu

2011-05-05T17:42:00.002-07:00

This is a quick soup that I made to eat for dinner after working from home.

I cooked some somen noodles first and then rinse them in cold water.

I decided to fry my tofu for this soup. I think tofu is normally coated in corn starch before frying, but I didn't have any, so I used rice flour instead, and fried in ghee. This worked really well. I then really briefly sauteed the red pepper strips in the remaining ghee (1 min).

Next I simmered chicken broth, light coconut milk, and 1 Tbsp of red curry paste. I meant to saute the curry paste before adding the soup ingredients, but forgot; it turned out okay. I wish I had fish sauce in my fridge; I would have liked to add a few drops to this.

To assemble, place some noodles in the bottom of a bowl. Top with some fried tofu, and then some red pepper strips. Pour in soup, and then rip up some fresh basil on to the top of the soup.

Goat Cheese Souffle

2011-04-10T09:55:00.003-07:00

Recipe from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. We also added sauted mushrooms when we were filling the egg mixture into the ramkins. Basically this recipe makes a bechamel with some spices, adds 4 egg yolks and 4oz mild goat cheese, and then its folded into 4 egg whites whipped into firm peaks.

When we made this recipe, we didn't have an electric mixer, so the egg whites were actually whipped by hand. I was worried that this would be too much work to do, and though it was a lot of work, it was possible to do. And the benefit of whipping by hand was that it was a lot easier to tell when the egg whites got to the firm peak stage. It is really easy to over whip using a machine, and really difficult for me to tell what the stages are with a machine, so doing this by hand actually made it easier to get the right consistency.

Pork Shoulder Stew

2011-04-04T14:34:00.004-07:00

The above pork shoulder and mirepoix stew was made in using a typical sort of stew recipe: sear the meat, then remove meat from pot and seat aside. Caramelizing onions, add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds, add minced carrots, minced celery, and two minced tomatoes until their colors are vibrant. Add meat to pot, and top off with cold chicken stock, a bit of wine and some cold water. Bring to a light boil, and partially cover pot, and leave a light simmer for an hour or more.

Also someone else made bread using the No-Knead Bread recipe adapted bu Mark Bittman from Jim Lahey

Homemade Lasagna

2011-03-29T21:03:00.003-07:00

Made with homemade spinach noodles, homemade ricotta, left over homemade Bolognese sauce (though there wasn't enough sauce, so we also had to use a can of tomato sauce), mozzarella, and some sautéed ground pork.

Crab Cakes with Arugla Salad and Curried Quinoa

2011-01-01T20:34:00.002-08:00

My sister made the crab cakes. We didn't have much seasoning for the quinoa, so I ended up making curried quinoa with salami and apple.

Almond Cake

2011-01-01T20:23:00.002-08:00

Recipe for almond cake is from David Lebovitz's website. We frosted this with nutella.

David Lebovit's Chocolate Idiot Cake

2011-01-01T20:16:00.002-08:00

David Lebovit's Chocolate Idiot Cake. We warmed up some raspberry jam to make it spreadable, and iced the top of the cake with the jam, and decorated it with raspberries. This cake was extremely easy to make. It is a very rich flourless chocolate cake.

Elderflower Champagne Cocktail

2010-12-27T23:06:00.002-08:00

Add 1/2 Tbsp St. Germain Elderflower liqueur to each champagne flute, and 1 lemon twist (optionally also garnish with 1 raspberry). Fill glass with champagne.

Blow torch

2010-11-25T22:23:00.004-08:00

My mother wanted to buy a blow torch. So we made creme brulee using Alton Brown's recipe. It was a really simple recipe, and easy to do ahead of time--actually it needs to be chilled for at least 2 hours, so it has to be done ahead of time. The only problem was what to do with the leftover 6 egg whites....

We also made banana brulee for dessert.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T22:15:00.005-08:00

This year, I made the stuffing, cranberry relish, mushrooms, gravy, creme brulee, banana brulee. My sister made the roasted potatoes and yams, the mashed potatoes, and the zucchini. Mom made the rest!

Crab Cakes with Brocollini and Quinoa

2010-11-24T19:33:00.002-08:00

My sister made the crab cakes and brocollini. The quinoa was cooked with chicken stock and golden raisins, and then after the quinoa was made, I mixed in caramelized onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, toasted pine nuts, and some fresh minced parsley and oregano.

Things that I have been making recently

2010-11-24T16:27:00.008-08:00

bacon wrapped scallops (slightly precook bacon first before wrapping, then either bake or pan fry)
cauliflower soup with bacon bits sprinkled on top
fried rice with shrimp, minced chinese roast pork, egg, and fresh shelled english peas
cornbread muffins
beef stew with noodles
date shakes
green onion pancakes
hot apple cider

Almond Macaroons

2010-11-21T13:42:00.003-08:00

Recipe from package of Odense Almond Paste

1 7-os box Odense Almond Paste, grated
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (scant) egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in center. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Add grated almond paste and sugar to mixing bowl. Beat until the texture of crumbs. With mixer on low, slowly add egg whites and beat until mixed. Beat on high for 3 minutes, until a creamy paste if formed, scraping down bowl 2-3 times. Drop teaspoon sized dollops of batter onto paper, 2 inches apart. Bake 15 minutes until lightly golden. Cool completely on baking sheet. Store in an airtight container between layers of wax paper for up to 5 days. Yield twenty cookies (2 1/2 inches each).

Miso glazed fish

2010-11-20T20:47:00.001-08:00

Miso glazed fish

Revised Hummus Recipe

2010-09-20T21:49:00.003-07:00

I used Mark Bittman's proportions, along with the method of blending the tahini and wet ingredients first to make them creamy, and then adding the chickpeas after the wet ingredients were well mixed. I started out only adding 1/2 tsp salt and the juice of half a lemon, but after taste testing it, I decided that 1 tsp salt was the right amount, and the Bittman is right about using the juice from an entire lemon.

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup tahini (mine was closer to 3/4 cup since I used up everything in the can)
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon

Dry Ingredients:
1 tsp sea salt
a pinch of black pepper
1 can chickpeas, drained. liquid reserved to dilute hummus if necessary

Mix tahini thoroughly, and add to blender. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and blen until smooth, so that the tahini dilutes and and hummus will be creamy. Add dry ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings. Garnish with smoked paprika and high quality olive oil.

Deviled Quail Eggs

2010-09-20T21:36:00.004-07:00

I didn't have any mayonnaise at home, so instead I used Mark Bittman's suggestion that plain yogurt can be used as a substitute. I used 2% Fage Greek yogurt; this added a nice tang to the yolks.

To fill the yolks back into the whites, you can use a pipping bag; I used too small of a tip. Next time I recommend using a rather large pipping tip.

A humming bird likes to visit my lemon tree!

2010-08-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Schezuan Grilled Eggplant

2010-08-23T20:57:00.003-07:00

4 small eggplants
oil
salt
1 tsp Schezuan pepper
black pepper
Schezuan chili sauce
black bean sauce
sesame oil

Cut eggplants into slices. Mix with oil and salt, and let sit for 10 minutes. This step is important because the salt draws out the water from the eggplant, and this helps them to soften when cooked and also to cook faster.

Lay eggplant slices on grill. Grill each side until there are char marks and the eggplant is soft.

Crush black peppercorns and Schezuan pepper in mortar and pestle. Heat a saute pan on medium high. When hot, add the spices into the pan and cook for 30 seconds until the spices are fragrant. Add 1 tsp Schezuan chili sauce and 1 tsp black bean sauce, and saute for 30 seconds until fragrant. Mix in 1/4 cup water, and the eggplant slices. For for a minute or two, until the sauce sticks to the eggplant. Since the eggplant already have salt on them, the dish shouldn't need much extra salt, but taste salt as necessary. Mix in a dash of sesame oil, remove from heat and serve.

Breakfast Burrito

2010-08-22T13:35:00.003-07:00

Another new plate! And New Mexican Hatch green chilies are in season. So I made some breakfast burritos.

1 tortilla (or two if they are small)
3 eggs
3 tsp minced hatch chili
a pat of butter
a few slices of tomato, cut into cubes
salt
pepper
grated cheese
hot sauce
avocado slices (about 1/4 avocado per person)

Briefly warm each side of the tortilla in a large flat pan on medium to medium high. Set aside.

Crack 3 eggs into a bowl, and lightly beat. Add a pat of butter to saute pan on medium. Cook minced hatch chili for 30 seconds. Add beaten eggs to pan, and scramble. When the scrambled eggs are cooked, add cubed tomatoes, salt and pepper.

Divide eggs onto tortillas. Top with grated cheese. Fold into burrito. Drizzle some hot sauce onto plates. Put burrito on the plate, and then top with avocado, and a light sprinkle of sea salt.

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Black Sesame

2010-08-15T20:47:00.004-07:00

This porcelain plate is actually hand painted platinum (not silver!). I got it for 75% off retail at the Barney's Warehouse sale, and it was still quite expensive!!! Even on sale it was too expensive, and I probably shouldn't have bought it, but how often do you get to eat off platinum? Anyways, it is one of my new acquisitions for my mismatched plates collection.

Gratin of Eggplant, Tomato, and Zucchini

2010-07-19T21:22:00.002-07:00

Gratin of Eggplant, Tomato, and Zucchini from Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin.

I made this recipe a bunch of times before I started this blog, and I really liked it, but for some reason, I haven't made it since. In any case, I remembered how good this dish is, and made again. In the notes about the dish, Julia says that "it is a simple version of ratatouille".

Zucchini Blossoms

2010-07-10T21:14:00.003-07:00

Ricotta & Garlic-stuffed Zucchini Blossom Recipe

Fried Zucchini Blossoms

Grilled Shrimp and Peaches

2010-07-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

6 large shrimp
1 ripe yellow peach
tahini sauce, made with no garlic
1 dried red chili
black peppercorns
Schezuan peppercorns
sea salt
olive oil
lemon juice
several basil leaves

Clean and deshell the shrimp. Grind up the black peppercorns and the Schezuan peppercorns. Mix both types of peppercorns, salt, crushed red chili, and a little bit of olive oil with the shrimp.

It's best to use a stove top grill for this dish because ripe peaches are very juicy and soft. Lightly oil the stove top grill by pouring some olive oil on it, and then spreading it with a paper towel. Heat a stove top grill until a drop of water will bounce and sizzle on it. The grill should hot, but not so hot that the olive oil is smoking, since this will burn the olive oil.

Cut peach into slices. Place peach slices on grill. Grill each side for a few minutes until grill marks appear. Place on plate and set aside.

Arrange shrimp on grill; there should be spaces between the shrimp on the grill. Grill until they are cooked through (they will be pink and feel firm when you press on them if they are cooked), turning once halfway through the cooking process. Place on plate and set aside.

Arrange shrimp with peaches on a plate. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over the dish. Lightly salt with sea salt. Drizzle with tahini sauce (it's easiest to drizzle if the sauce is in a ketchup-style bottle); the tahini sauce should not be made with garlic, since garlic doesn't go with this dish. Garnish with basil.