Category Archives: Inspired by Others

Garden Gazpacho

Posted on by
Reply

Yeah, I’m not sure anyone will read this with the inconsistency and long gaps between posts as of late.  But hey, at least my mom will!  Hi mom, you’re awesome!

Anyway, I woke up this morning and it was already hot.  San Jose gets a little toasty in the summer for a Northern girl like me.  I’m happy up to about 80, then above that I start perspiring considerably.  Our garden, however, loves the heat.   This is evidenced by the giant squash that seem to grow overnight:

We also have lemon cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, and heirloom tomatoes that are going along quite well right now (the only unsuccessful thing we planted was strawberries. :( ).  Our apricot tree recently fruited intensively for 3 weeks then was done.

So when I woke up this morning, Imembered how much I like gazpacho when it’s hot and that we had an awful lot of cucumbers that needed to be used in the garden.  A blender or a food processor makes gazpacho a breeze, really, so I threw some together and had it for breakfast with a cafe au lait (made with a Bialetti Moka Express generously gifted by a certain Mr. & Mrs. J/G from New York, New York, which makes some mighty fine caffeinated beverage!).  Gazpacho and espresso is not a bad combo.

So rest assured, all…I am alive and not yet reduced to subsisting off interesting reconstructions of instant ramen.

Honestly, I’m not much of a recipe follower…if you’re that way as well, I’d recommend you check out the Food and Wine Tips for making excellent gazpacho.  And go ahead, eat it for breakfast.  It’s pretty darn good!

 

Artsychokes

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I found myself with an overabundance of artichokes.  I forgot I’d ordered some with my CSA delivery and also picked up a nice big one at the grocery store the weekend before.  Luckily artichokes keep for a bit, because it took me a while to come up with ideas of what to do with them.

I actually polled my fellow Yelpers for ideas and they had some really great ones! Two suggestions that stuck were paella and artichokes with a tzatziki dipping sauce.  Instead of paella I ended up doing more of an “Arroz con Pollo” type dish without the pollo and plus artichokes instead, simmering trimmed artichoke hearts in broth with rice and tomatoes and things until the rice was cooked and the artichokes were done.

That came out pretty good, but you really have to trim the artichokes down to where there’s almost nothing left. Trimming that much really left me thinking “aww, this is kind of a waste”.  But otherwise you’re spitting out bits of tough artichoke leaves…which, while it kills some time if you need to, is pretty tedious.  And honestly, you don’t end up eating that much of an actual artichoke normally anyway.

Tonight I decided I’d do the artichokes with tzatziki, but also some baba ghanoush.  Ironically, while both of Middle Eastern origin, they do not seem like they generally coexist in the same place.  My tzatziki was more along the lines of the Turkish kind, cacik apparently (according to Wikipedia) because it was thinner and I put some mint in it, rather than the more famous Greek kind.  Baba ghanoush is generally from Lebanon/Egypt. Well, they go very well together, so I’m glad I was able to unite these distantly separated friends.

With artichokes, of course, which are apparently said to have originated in Egypt.  So they’re all totally meant to be friends!

Anyway, to make this, just make some tzatziki or cacik and some baba ghanoush (which are both pretty easy to make– I used sesame seeds in place of tahini and it came out fine) and dip the leaves of the boiled artichokes in each of the dips.  I like them both on one leaf together best, actually. You could probably even fill de-leaved artichoke hearts with the sauces like a little dish, set some of the leaves on the side for dipping, and then serve it like that.  That would look pretty darn impressive!

Plottin’ au Gratin

Posted on by
Reply

My mom has been hearing me talk about my plans for a gratin for almost a week now.  The idea came up when a coworker who has gone gluten free due to health reasons graciously paid for my dinner one night, and I offered to repay with something delicious and gluten free.  I got to thinking, of course.

…Who doesn’t like anything with cheese on it?

So I decided on a riff on scalloped potatoes, adding in butternut squash into the mix because I had both lying around and needing to be used.  With plenty of cheese.

The other day on my way to grab ramen with my friend Janette, I stopped at The Milk Pail, a family owned business in Mountain View, CA and home of my greatest weakness: an abundance of amazing and reasonably-priced cheese.   I hadn’t quite decided on which type of cheese I was going to use for said gratin. Needless to say I walked away with 5 different types, including: Wisconsin gruyere (almost holds up to the authentic stuff), English sharp cheddar, Wisconsin gouda, laughing cow light swiss, pecorino romano (for a separate dish), and a french soft ripened chevre (for general munching).  I decided eventually on the gouda for the gratin, with a bit of the gruyere on top.

Gouda gruyere gratin.  Oh Gee!

Anyway, so after gaining like 15 lbs in the past week from eating all the other cheese (kidding), I finally got around to making the gratin.  The (pretty successful) recipe is below.  I did try to make it a little lower-fat by using fat free milk and laughing cow wedges for some of the cheese sauce, but you could go Paula Deen style and use cream and all full-fat cheese if you want.

Butternut Squash and Potato Gratin with Caramelized Onions


Ingredients

  • 1 medium butternut squash (peeled, seeds removed, cut into thin 1/4″ thick slices)
  • 4 medium gold potatoes (skins on, cut into 1/4″ slices)
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 3 cups cold fat-free milk (2 c for sauce, 1 c for finishing)
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 red onion, minced
  • 2 cups grated gouda cheese
  • 4 laughing cow light swiss wedges  (or substitute another soft cheese like brie if not calorie-conscious)
  • salt to taste
  • pepper to taste
  • cayenne pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese (or more gouda)

(Bake in a 9×9″ pan.)

1.  If you haven’t already, prep your potatoes and squash. Preheat the oven to 350.

2.  Place them on a large plate as shown above.  Dampen two large paper towels and cover the plate.  Place in microwave and microwave on high for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly soft.  (This cuts down on the baking time.)

3.  If you haven’t prepped the cheese yet, do that while the squash/potatoes are microwaving. Also mince the onion and slice a tablespoon of butter.

4.  Whisk the tablespoon of cornstarch into 2 cups of the cold milk.

5.  If your potatoes/squash are done, you should probably take them out of the microwave to let them cool for a bit.  Next, add 1 tbsp butter and the onion to a pot.

6.  Stirring frequently, caramelize the onions in the butter on a medium high heat until nicely golden brown and translucent.  Reduce the heat to medium-low.

6.  Add the cornstarch/milk mixture to the caramelized onions.  Stir well and bring it to slightly bubbling.

7.  Add the cheese (gouda, laughing cow).  Mix well, breaking up the laughing cow wedges.  Keep mixing until gouda is melted.  Make sure it stays just below a simmer, not bubbling in the pot too much.

8.  Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.  At this point, you may want to use a whisk to break up any chunks of the laughing cow cheese.

9.  Turn off the heat to the pot and let the sauce cool and thicken for a minute or two.  Then ladle a bit of the sauce into the baking pan, spreading it in a thin layer on the bottom.

10.  Layer the thinly sliced potatoes and squash in the pan.  I did a layer of potatoes, a layer of squash, then a layer of cheese sauce, then a layer of potatoes, then another layer of cheese sauce, but you can probably do it however you want.  Just watch the amount of cheese sauce you have left, because there’s not much extra to spare.

11.  The last layer should be cheese sauce, and then sprinkle the gruyere (or more gouda) over the top.

12.  Bake in 350 F oven for 20-30 minutes.  Then raise the heat and broil it for a couple of minutes, until the top is crispy golden brown cheesy goodness.

13.   Let it cool 10 minutes before digging in, otherwise you might burn your face on the molten cheese.  And everyone knows a burnt tongue is a major party pooper.

So after writing all this, I was thinking about how this isn’t only great as a main dish or side, it’d probably also be awesome as a contribution to a potluck brunch!  Mmm..

Gratuitous Garlic

Posted on by

I’m not one who typically just reblogs things that I find interesting….but I really have to share this with you all.  I’m a huge garlic fan (luckily I don’t care much about going on dates and impressing people nowadays), but I’ve always been frustrated by those pesky peels.  I’ve tried smashing, peeling underwater, and using the microwave but all those methods were time consuming and irritating.

If you’ve been buying that pre-peeled garlic, you’re going to feel pretty silly but pretty glad you can save money after watching this.  If you’ve been cursing the universe (like me) while pulling tiny shreds of peel off your garlic, you’re going to be pretty glad after watching this too.  I think one of my friends reposted this online and it may have come from Saveur’s Facebook page originally, but holy monkey babies is this the most useful thing ever for a garlic lover:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/video-How-to-Peel-a-Head-of-Garlic-in-Less-Than-10-Seconds

All it requires is two bowls.  I was wondering if it needed to be metal bowls like in the video, but I got decent results even just using two soup bowl size ceramic ones (and a free tricep workout while I was at it):

Saveur, you’re such an enabler.  I plan to peel a head like this every week or so and keep it in the fridge in a ziploc.  Just in time to ward off any vampires for Halloween!

Dueling Kung Pao Chickens

Posted on by

Those with some knowledge of Chinese culture or world travel experience know that the Chinese food you get in American Chinese restaurants and the Chinese food Chinese people eat at home or in restaurants are two different beasts entirely.  Chinese people seem to be big fans of meat having some resistance to it, a la tripe, chicken feet, tendon, stewed pork belly with the skin on, and a whole lot of other offal.  They’re also not as removed from the fact that their meat was an animal before, tending to prefer bone-in meats like oxtail.

Chinese people, though, being the amazingly resourceful people that they often are, figured out a long time ago out that Americans probably don’t like this whole chewy texture thing as much.  We like fried things.  Crispy things.  A lot.  And stuff with sauces and familiar flavors and vegetables.  This is my best guess as to how Americanized Chinese food was born: Chinese people figured out what Americans like, and tailored their cuisine to be addictive to Americans.  I think they did a darn good job.

However, I like both Americanized Chinese food and more authentic Chinese food, each on their own separate incomparable planes of existence.  One such dish that crosses the boundaries in name and concept is Kung Pao Chicken, or 宫保鸡丁(gōng bǎo jī dīng).  The Americanized version has battered boneless chicken bits fried until crispy and covered with a spicy somewhat sour sauce, with whole peanuts added and maybe some other vegetables. The Chinese version kind of omits the whole crispy factor and keeps in the bones and skin, doesn’t add any unnecessary vegetables, uses more local varieties of vinegar, and adds some spices more unfamiliar to the American palette (namely, Sichuan Peppercorns or 花椒).

Oddly, I like the Chinese version a lot better.  Normally I’m not a huge fan of peanuts in food, but it works somehow.  Tonight, inspired by my friend Jiaxu’s peanutless recipe that was very similar to this, I attempted cooking my own gōng bǎo jī dīng.  The results were tasty, but need some perfection.  You can see my recipe below with suggestions as to how to make it better.  I suspect my recipe is somewhere in between the lands of Americanized and Chinese Chinese cuisine.

—

Gong Bao Chicken

(serves 2 with rice)

  • ~1 pound of bone in, skin on chicken thighs (3 thighs)
  • 1/2 c rice wine (I just used sake, because it’s what I had.)
  • 1 c black vinegar
  • pinch salt
  • 10 dried red “chiles de arbol”, basically dried red thai chilis, or something similar
  • 2 tsp powdered Sichuan peppercorn (“flower pepper”, or sometimes, “red pepper”, 花椒)
  • 1 tbsp peanut oil
  • 1/3 cup raw peanuts, smashed with a cleaver or other wide knife (plain roasted peanuts will suffice, just don’t fry them as long.)
  • 2 green onions, roughly chopped, ends removed
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced into thin coins
  • additional black vinegar

(If you can’t use black vinegar, my best suggestion would be to use cider vinegar plus a tiny bit of Worcestershire sauce mixed in with it to mimic the flavor.)

Cut chicken thighs into 2-3″ pieces using a cleaver.  Marinate in a bowl with rice wine, vinegar, salt, powdered sichuan peppercorn, chili peppers, for about 1-2 hours (or overnight if you want).  Drain off extra marinade before using.

Add the oil to a wok (or large skillet of the cast iron or stainless steel variety) and bring it up to smoking hot.  Add additional whole sichuan peppercorns if you have them and like them and the smashed raw peanuts.  Fry it up until the peanuts are slightly crispy and browned.  Add chicken, keep moving around the pan, browning the meat a bit.  Should take no more than 2 minutes.

Add the green onions and garlic, stir.  Add additional vinegar, probably about 2/3 cup or so.  Keep the chicken moving around, coating it with the vinegar.  It should get considerably darker in color. Keep cooking until vinegar is absorbed into chicken and/or evaporated– no liquid should remain on the bottom of the pan.

Serve hot.  Avoid the chilis and the bones in the chicken.

—

A lot of Americans are not fans of having to avoid things in their food.  When they go to authentic Chinese restaurants, they complain about not knowing that they’re not supposed to eat whole seed pods in the hot pot broth and the like.  You just have to learn or ask. If it’s not chewable or burns your face off, don’t eat it.  If this bothers you, stick to Americanized Chinese food.

Having things you aren’t necessarily supposed to eat (that are just there for flavor or seasoning) makes you more aware of what you’re eating. It makes for a more mindful and appreciative slwo experience, which honestly is one of the reasons I think we have to blame for obesity in America.  If things weren’t designed to be consumed quickly without having to avoid things, we’d have to take a little more time and our “fullness” instinct would kick in sooner.   It’s worth a shot if you cook at home to stop designing your food for efficiency and increase the attentiveness requirement of your meals.  It might also save you some money, too.

Riso Carbonara

Posted on by

If you can make fettucini carbonara, spaghetti carbonara…why not rice? The essence of carbonara is the pancetta/bacon, cheese, salt & pepper, and raw egg thrown in at the last minute to cook ever so briefly, not the pasta itself.

I felt like spaghetti was not a good substitute for fettucini when it comes to carbonara, so I decided to do rice.  Wehani rice (whole grain, red/brown rice, how fiberful).  Wehani rice is nice because it has a chewy texture, reddish color, and a moist, flavorful center.

The end result was a slightly sophisticated dish, like an elevated version of what my mom ingloriously used to call “Tuna Glop” (rice/cheese/milk/tuna/mushrooms/onions or something like that).  I know, that sounds awful, but don’t let it turn you off.  Some of the ingredients I used are a little rare, but you could substitute as you see fit.  In the honor of the romance of Italy, I’d say this is probably the love child of risotto and carbonara.

To be honest, I was a little wary of cooking with squash blossoms because of my parents’ reports that they “taste funky” and are best “battered with egg and deep fried”.  With the ham and onions and everything in a creamy sauce, though, they taste awesome.  Thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Rome for spiking my curiosity on this one, because it’s really awesome.  The squash blossoms are super tender with a slight but not overpowering squashy flavor and an absolutely gorgeous color to add to any dish!  Fettucini alfredo with squash blossoms?  Yes pleaseeeee.  I intend to eat many squash blossoms now before their season runs out!

Slightly Healthy Riso Carbonara

  • 1 cup wehani brown rice, cooked according to package directions (1 cup rice, 2 cups water, bring to a boil, simmer for 40 minutes or so)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 12 slices Canadian bacon or other salty pork product (pancetta, bacon, ham), cut into strips
  • 1 bunch maitake mushrooms, chopped roughly (flavor is somewhere in between standard US store mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms in terms of pungency, you could substitute crimini)
  • Salt, red pepper (I used Korean red pepper), and a dash of garlic powder to taste
  • 1/3 red onion, finely diced
  • 12 leaves fresh basil
  • a few sprigs fresh parsley (minced up with the basil)
  • 10 squash blossoms, sliced up into rings
  • 1 cup fresh shelled green peas
  • 1/3 cup skim milk
  • 3 wedges Laughing Cow cheese (swiss or french onion flavor), or 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan if you’ve got it.  Just some cheese, preferably of a white zingy variety.
  • 1 whole raw egg

Cook the rice, as stated above.  Set it aside and let it cool.

Melt the butter in a big frying pan.  On high heat, add the mushrooms, onions, and ham along with the salt, red pepper, and garlic powder.  Stir frequently until browned.  Turn down the heat to medium low. (I use the Korean red pepper because it’s slightly but not too spicy and comes in nice big flakes which add good color to dishes. For salt, I usually pick kosher or sea salt.)

Add the squash blossoms, basil, and parsley and stir in.

Add the peas.  Stir them in well and let them cook a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the sauteed mixture to the rice and mix it all up.  Bring the heat up to low and mix it throughly so it gets a little warmed.

Add the milk, egg, and cheese and mix it all in quite well.

Serve with fresh ground pepper on top.

 

Sunday Bento #4

Posted on by

Salad with lettuce, green onions, farmer’s market carrots, splendido cherry tomatoes (the bomb diggity, TJ’s has them, check them out if you can), fresh boiled beets, and a homemade tea egg (here’s what to do with broken hard boiled eggs not fit for easter egg coloring) with a couple of wedges of lemon.


My coworker, Jen, of Blue Wave Studios (an awesome photographer, jet setter, foodie, and girl geek), brought me back an omiyage of a perfect little desk sized set of olive oil & vinegar from her recent trip to Spain.  She said “I thought you’d like this because you eat so much salad!”  Hm, I haven’t been lately, but it is true that I love salad and I do love Spanish olive oil (sorry, Italian heritage).  Thus, this appetizing salad bento for lunch tomorrow.  Thanks for inspiring me, Jen! :)

Ooh La La Bhindi Masala

Posted on by

Bhindi masala with a cup of peach kefir

I can’t eat Indian food every day, and despite my recent part-time vegetarian kick (made it 4 days this week!), I was not able to force myself to finish the massive amount of dal I made.  Somehow, though, I was inspired to make bhindi masala.

I’m not sure why (especially given my previous vehement dislike of okra) , but bhindi masala has always been one of my favorite Indian dishes.  The meaty, curryish dishes are good, but I will always find myself wanting to order this dish of deliciously sauteed okra, tomatoes, and spices.  Reading the Indian cookbook I bought, I thought to myself: cooking this really cannot be that hard.

So today I Googled it, and after a few times of being corrected on the spelling by monsieur Goog, I found a nicely illustrated and well-written recipe over at “Honey, what’s cooking?”.  Being a little impatient, I didn’t let it cook long enough, and didn’t exactly follow the recipe to a T.  I also omitted the nigella seeds (which the author seems to indicate aren’t really necessary anyway) and the mango powder (still haven’t found a source nearby) and used less oil.  It came out pretty much fantastic and very close to what I’ve had while eating out, albeit a little crunchy (required some microwaving). It made my tummy very happy.  A nice big bowl was less than 300 calories.

Now that I know how to make this for myself, I think I’ll make it more often!  Thanks, “Honey”!

Eating okra in Indian food makes me wonder if folks in Southern areas of the US would like Indian food and vice versa– both have peppers, onions, heat, okra, legumes…who knows!

Chashu Pork and Tea Egg Salad

Posted on by

I discovered this weekend that I have an amazing tendency to cook things just for fun that are ridiculously complicated, but when it comes to meal times I often wind up submitting to the instant gratification of lazy-people food (instant ramen, frozen sausages, etc.).

Yesterday my breakfast consisted of toast with butter, and lunch of instant ramen with an egg.  But somewhere in there, I went shopping and decided to go on a culinary adventure.  I decided to make chashu pork and tea eggs, and also to make some onigiri for my friends’ going away party. Nowhere in there, though, did I plan to eat any of that fancy food as a meal.  Just instant ramen and toast.  Oh, self, I am ashamed of you.  At least the end result tends to be that I wind up having fancy lunches at work during the week (as such, I invested in a bento box today).

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure how I got on the chashu kick, but sure enough I was tromping off to the Chinese grocery in search of the perfect cut of pork.  For those out of the know, chashu is the Japanese interpretation of the Chinese charsiu.  Unlike charsiu, chashu is actually braised pork in a soy sauce, mirin, etc. mixture, not barbecued.  Marc Matsumoto, in his sexily illustrated chashu recipe, advises that pork cheek is the best for ultimate chashu amazingness, I wasn’t so fortunate.  There was, indeed, some pork head meat…but it was just that, pork head.  Complete with ears.  While I’m an adventurous cook at times (known for thwacking off the head of a [dead] duck with a cleaver in an illustrious birthday potluck episode), I didn’t quite feel up to chopping off ears that day.  So, I settled for pork belly.

The tea egg kick is a little more understandable; my Chinese friend made some tasty tea eggs for a hike/picnic we had a couple of weeks ago and I was hooked (despite my typical dislike of hard boiled eggs).  So while at the Chinese grocery, I also picked up some cheap looseleaf black tea in a tin.  I couldn’t quite remember which type of tea was required and was too timid to ask the Chinese clerk in my workable Mandarin, but it seems I chose correctly.  Hooray!  After searching the internet for tea egg recipes, I settled on this one from Allrecipes because it seemed to have a sufficient mixture of spice (I omitted the licorice root and substituted a little brown sugar for rock sugar).

The end result of this was me making use of all four gas burners at once: rice in a pot on the back left, chashu in a le cruset on the front left, tea eggs simmering away in their sauce on the back right, and some steelhead trout cooking away in miso and onion on the front right.

And so, my tiny little apartment smelled like a Sino-Japanese wonderland, filled with the scent of pork, fish, rice, and tea eggs simmering away while I watched some terrible Korean dramas.  The chashu took considerably longer than an hour to get tender enough, but had a great flavor (I have to admit I added extra garlic and a bit of MSG though); the tea eggs were decent right away, but I’m not particularly fond of yolks with green on eggs, so I’ll probably soft boil them and then do the simmering next time.

I contemplated how I could use all this damn food, since I hadn’t really thought of that beforehand (bright, I know).  I decided to combine my strange cooking urges into a decent lunch for the week, and settled on an offshoot of a salad I whipped up last week involving belgian endive, egg, and other stuff (then, it was sweet potato).  This, I think, was when I realized that I really do have some sort of diet identity crisis, and that maybe I should blog about it.  My friends, also, are to blame for their suggestions that I seem to have a lot to say and perhaps blabbering on the internet would be a good outlet.

So, this morning, after eating wheetabix and milk (virtually ignored in the U.S., but delicious) and a tea egg for breakfast, I started installing wordpress.  After returning from the gym, I combined my rich and flavorful tea eggs (rich, spicy), chashu pork (rich, salty, sort of sweet), and belgian endive (crunchy, bitter) with some green onion (zingy), shaved parmesan (salty, sort of crunchy) and pickled garlic (tangy-sweet) my mom made.  In order to balance out the rampant salty-rich flavor of this, I’ll be bringing along a couple of mandarins for dessert.

And thus, I present to you my humble bento that actually wound up taking about 6 hours to prepare:

Have I convinced you that I’m insane enough to have a blog yet? :)

P.S. I apologize that the steelhead trout onigiri were neglected in this post, but they were taken to the party and eaten rather quickly.  I’ll do another post someday.  Also, future posts should hopefully have more sexy food pictures.

Recipes used for inspiration in this post:

http://norecipes.com/2009/10/05/japanese-chashu-recipe/

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/oriental-tea-leaf-eggs/Detail.aspx